The CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) is the Central Intelligence Agency’s archive of documents declassified under the 25-year automatic declassification program and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). It holds 309,708 records spanning the Cold War, covert action, scientific and technical intelligence, and the Agency’s most-requested collections. DeclassDB makes the full text searchable instantly — no trip to the National Archives in College Park.

Browse 309,708 CIA documents by year

Every CREST document is pre-OCR’d and enumerable by year, so you can explore an era without first knowing what to search for. Or run a full-text query across the corpus and the other agencies at once.

Famous declassified CIA collections

• MKULTRA — Search declassified MKULTRA documents — the CIA’s Cold War mind-control and behavioral-research program.
• Project STARGATE — Search declassified Project STARGATE documents — the CIA/DIA remote-viewing and psychic-research program (GRILL FLAME, SUN STREAK).
• JFK Assassination Records — Search the declassified JFK assassination records — CIA, FBI, and National Archives files on the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy.
• The Family Jewels — Search the CIA’s declassified “Family Jewels” — the internal review of Agency activities that violated its charter, from assassination plots to domestic surveillance.
• Project OXCART (A-12) — Search declassified Project OXCART records — the CIA’s A-12 reconnaissance aircraft program and the secret history of Area 51 flight testing.
• Operation Mockingbird — Search declassified records related to Operation Mockingbird — the CIA’s alleged Cold War influence over journalists and the press.