Nelson Mandela. (photo: Getty)
The MIT
Historian Suing the CIA for Transparency on Nelson Mandela
18 May 16
This weekend, The Sunday Times reported that a former CIA agent confessed to having been responsible for the arrest of Nelson Mandela in 1962. The arrest led to Mandela spending 27 years in prison. The CIA agent, Donald Rickard, issued the confession in an interview conducted just two weeks before his death.
Though embarrassing
for the CIA, Rickard’s admission may prove a boon for historian Ryan Shapiro’s lawsuit against the Agency, which seeks to
liberate CIA records pertaining to Mandela via the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA).
Shapiro, a PhD
candidate and national security historian at MIT, is no stranger to FOIA: he
currently has thousands of FOIA requests in motion with the FBI alone and
additional requests with other federal agencies including the NSA, DIA, DOJ,
DOD and, of course, the CIA. In fact, Shapiro recently managed to pry documentary evidence from
the FBI that it aggressively targeted not only Mandela but also the US and
African anti-apartheid movements. As Shapiro’s documents revealed, the FBI
believed Mandela and the anti-apartheid struggle to be sinister Communist
forces threatening American security.
Shapiro doesn’t
mince words about the target of his FOIA salvos. He told RSN:
The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have a long and sad track record of policing political dissent, especially when that dissent involves efforts for racial justice. Just as the CIA worked to counter Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the FBI actively surveilled and suppressed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement at home.
The U.S. intelligence agencies are deeply allergic to transparency in general, and to the Freedom of Information Act in particular. Indeed, since the Freedom of Information Act was first applied to their activities in 1974, the American intelligence community has viewed the Freedom of Information Act itself as threat to national security.
The FBI would seem
to be no fan of Shapiro’s either, judging from its treatment of him. The Bureau
recently took the controversial step of refusing to even decide whether or not to respond to his FOIA
requests, on grounds that it would threaten national security. As Shapiro told
RSN, “The FBI is arguing that compliance with my dissertation FOIA research
would ‘significantly and irreparably damage national security.’ Keep in mind,
the FBI isn’t arguing that giving me the documents I’ve requested would damage
national security, although they clearly believe this to be the case. Rather,
the FBI is asserting in court that simply deciding whether or not to give me
the requested documents would irreparably damage national security.”
Shapiro regards
Rickard’s admission as support for his lawsuit. He told RSN: “With CIA agent
Rickard’s unrepentant admission, the CIA’s self-serving justifications for
withholding these critically important documents regarding the Agency’s role in
Mandela’s arrest grows weaker by the day. The CIA’s continued efforts to avoid compliance with my Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit for
these records is a testament to the strength of the CIA’s hostility to social
justice struggles and transparency.”
In his case against
the CIA, Shapiro is represented by DC-based FOIA specialist attorney Jeffrey
Light. Asked about the significance of a Rickard’s admitted involvement in
Mandela’s arrest, Light told RSN, “It will likely allow us to make more
informed and persuasive arguments.”
Though the CIA is
notoriously resistant to transparency, this doesn’t seem to deter Shapiro from
what some might call a quixotic struggle. To quote Mandela, “It always seems
impossible until it’s done.”
Ken Klippenstein
is an American journalist who can be reached via email:kenneth.klippenstein@gmail.com
Ryan Shapiro can
be reached on twitter @_rshapiro
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The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
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