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The article focuses on the poised threats to the integrity of access to documents and artifacts of national importance following the controversies that have arisen in the scholarly community in the U.S. These controversies are the permission of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration for some federal agencies to withdraw classified documents from public view, the agreement of the Smithsonian Institution with Showtime Networks Inc. to create an on-demand cable-television channel, and the intent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to search the papers of the late investigative journalist Jack Anderson. According to historians these controversies should be a matter of concern to the entire scholarly community and the largest public because if these continue, all threaten the Americans' understanding of the past, and the present.

Reports that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is in communication with a Pentagon official suspected of passing secrets to Israel. How the FBI is seeking to gain the cooperation of analyst Larry Franklin in their espionage investigation, according to government officials; Possibility that Franklin provided classified documents to a pro-Israel lobbying group, which included a sensitive report about U.S. policy toward Iran; Why U.S. policy toward Iran is of critical importance to Israel; Background on the inquiry; Potential political implications of the case.

Reports that Samuel R. Berger resigned as a senior adviser to presidential candidate John Kerry's campaign after the disclosure that he had improperly removed classified material on terrorism from a secure government reading room. Criticism of Berger from Republican leaders who accused him of crossing lines of national security in an effort to improve Kerry's campaign; Acknowledgement that Berger removed copies of classified documents related to a failed 1999 terrorist plot to bomb the Los Angeles airport; How Berger did not want his actions to detract from Kerry's candidacy.