The CIA has millions of declassified records stashed away in Maryland — something it claimed was accessible to the public. Actual access, however, resembles something out of Terry Gilliam‘s „Brazil,“ rather than what any reasonable person would call „accessible.“

This so-called „publicly accessible“ database — known as CREST — has been the target of MuckRock contributor Mike Best, who kickstarted an effort to liberate records from the vault through the use of manual labor. The records can be accessed by computer, but only certain computers, and only if you know exactly where to find them.