CIA declassifies WWI-era secret documents

WASHINGTON—The CIA lifted the lid on one corner of the cloak and dagger world of World War I, declassifying six of the oldest secret documents in the U.S. government archives, the agency said Tuesday.

The documents show top techniques used by spies, generals and diplomats to send secret messages in a diplomatic war that raged long after the guns stopped. The records reveal how invisible ink was used to send word between allies, and spies learned to open letters to read each others’ secrets without leaving a trace.

There is even a document written in French of the German’s secret ink formula, showing the French had cracked the enemy’s code.

“These documents remained classified for nearly a century until recent advancements in technology made it possible to release them,” CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said in a statement Tuesday.

Recent advances in the chemistry of secret ink, and the lighting methods used to detect it have made the secrets revealed Tuesday obsolete, explained CIA spokeswoman Marie E. Harf.

Although the CIA did not exist when most of the documents were created, documents on secret writing fall under the agency’s authority to declassify. The agency declassified more than a million historical documents last year alone, the agency said.

The CIA was not always so eager to share these particular secrets, according to Steve Aftergood, of the Federation for American Scientists. He says the CIA resisted a Freedom of Information Act request in 2002 to release the records.

Nor was he impressed at Panetta’s statement that the documents could be released now because of new technological advances.

“Invisible ink was rendered obsolete by digital encryption long ago, not in the last few years,” Aftergood said.

“Director Panetta is attempting to rationalize the CIA’s irrational information policies, but there is no known basis for his claim.”

The documents are now available to scholars on the agency’s website, CIA.gov.