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Readers are now able to find the latest declassified
operational traffic such as directives, plans, status reports, daily
mission reports, logistics, intelligence, personnel, and operational
summaries on GulfLINK
As of 30 June 1997, GulfLINK contains over 40,000
pages of recently-declassified intelligence, medical, and operational
documents with potential relevance to the possible sources of 1990-1991 Gulf
War illness. In the future, GulfLINK will also contain additional
declassified documents from the medical and operational communities
within the Department of Defense (DoD). Please see the descriptions
below for more information about the intelligence declassified document
collection. |
Intelligence Documents in GulfLINK
By the authority of, and in accordance with the direction
provided by, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Department of
Defense has searched for, identified, and reviewed its intelligence
records for declassification and public release using the following
guidelines:
Intelligence related to possible causes of 1990-1991 Persian
Gulf Veterans' illnesses is defined as that information acquired
by the United States intelligence agencies which may report on the
storage, deployment, or use of chemical, biological, or radiological
weapons during the Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations. Additionally,
this information will include, but is not limited to, any reports
relating to outbreaks of disease, epidemics, or other widespread
illnesses, that may have resulted from infection or environmental
causes (oil well fires, toxic waste, flora, fauna, etc.), among
the military forces or civilian population during the two cited
operations.
Terms used in this guidance may be used as keywords
to locate specific types of records.
The documents released have been reviewed for operational
security, intelligence, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and Privacy
Act concerns and annotated accordingly. Please see the Explanation
of Exemption Codes for more information regarding these annotations.
The records provided in these files are named according
to the following convention:
- 0 prefix on file names = Briefing papers, notes, memoranda created
by offices that research this geographic area.
- 1-6 prefix on file names = Intelligence information reports,
not finally evaluated intelligence. Reports from all types of
sources which have not been assessed for reliability or veracity.
- 7-9 prefix = Intelligence publications, requests for information,
and other miscellaneous reporting.
- #TR###... documents = Translated, captured Iraqi documents.
These records are presented in their original (translated) form
as unevaluated information. The classification markings are Iraqi
not U.S. or Allied.
(NOTE: These documents are in many cases of marginal
interest to the question of illnesses. They do indicate the Iraqi
military's readiness and training for defensive chemical or biological
warfare. They are presented in this collection to provide, as complete
as possible, the intelligence records of the Department of Defense.)
(Note: Enclosures to any of the documents above will
have the same file name as the reference document but will include
an "E" in the suffix.)
Air Force Documents in GulfLINK
On 12 March 1995, the Deputy Secretary of Defense,
under guidance from the White House, initiated a high priority effort
to identify all information pertaining to the health problems experienced
by veterans of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War. The preponderance of Air Force
1990-1991 Gulf War operational records (1.8 million pages) are centrally maintained,
indexed, and microfilmed at the Historical Research Agency at Maxwell
AFB, AL. The Air Force 1990-1991 Gulf War Declassification team is reviewing
this collection to identify and declassify all health related information
for public release. The screening criteria is based upon guidance
from Air Force health professionals and other agencies that are
responding to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Gulf War Illness. |
