About The Memory Hole
“Russ Kick is good at saving stuff that the government wants hidden.”
–Rachel Maddow [video link]
The Memory Hole 2 – run by writer and anthologist Russ Kick – saves important documents from oblivion. Its predecessor, The Memory Hole (2002-2009), posted hundreds of documents, many of which will be reposted on the new site. Some of the highlights:
* Most famously, obtaining and posting Pentagon-banned photos of flag-draped coffins of the fallen coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. This led to worldwide front-page coverage, heavy rotation on the 24-hour news channels, and a statement from the Pentagon that the release had been “a mistake” and would never happen again.
* Removing the redactions from an embarrassing Justice Department report on diversity among its legal workforce, then posting it with the previously censored portions highlighted in yellow. This led to a front-page story in the New York Times.
* Obtaining and posting the full, uncut footage of President George W. Bush in that Florida classroom during the 9/11 attacks. We posted it for the first time, exactly one year before Michael Moore used it in Fahrenheit 9/11, claiming that his was the first public airing of the full footage. At that point, it had been viewed well over 100,000 times on The Memory Hole.
* Scanning and posting asset-forfeiture manuals that the Justice Department ordered libraries to destroy, saying they had been mistakenly released. Most libraries complied.
* The entire release of the 9/11 firefighter, EMT, and Port Authority radio dispatches, which had appeared only in fragments online.
* The FBI’s entire file on Martin Luther King, Jr. (all 16,000+ pages of it).
* The hopelessly rare Kerry hearing transcripts on government cooperation in the global drug trade.
* All the images from Tommy Chong’s “Chong Glass” website, which was pulled down by the Drug Enforcement Administration after they arrested him for selling drug paraphernalia.
* Lots of previously unposted documents on the US biological and chemical warfare program.
* 1,200 pages of previously unavailable reports from the State Department’s “Future of Iraq” project.
* Deleted websites of the notorious Information Awareness Office, the Air Intelligence Agency, and the Justice Department’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training, as well as deleted portions of the websites of the Department of Education, the Texas Department of Corrections, and the FDA.
* The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Lost Workday Injury and Illness Database, which identified tens of thousands of companies by name. OSHA fought in court for two years to keep this database secret.
* Dozens of on-the-ground photos of the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in Iran. These photos had previously not been seen outside of Iran.
* Dozens of previously unseen internal forms used by the NSA and the IRS.
* Unreleased FBI maps of the Columbine massacre.
* Sensitive documents from tobacco, pharmaceutical, and chemical corporations.
