Update on the Passport Project
ALBA’s passport project is currently in the third of four planned phases. The first two phases concentrated on volunteers whose name appears on the “Scope of Soviet Activity” list that includes passport numbers.[1] The first phase of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filings focused on volunteers killed in Spain. In the second phase, the majority of filings were for volunteers who returned. Most volunteers in Phase III are volunteers who do not appear on the Scope of Soviet Activities list. The third phase is a more systematic sweep and includes volunteers who have a birth or date of death listed. This also allows us to capture any volunteers who appear on the Scope of Soviet Activity list missed in the first two phases. Phase IV will include those volunteers who lack date of birth and date of death. It will also include resubmission of volunteers with “Not Found” returns.
To date ALBA filed 2,148 FOIA requests. The State Department returned 508 responses. These include-
- 443 passport applications with photographs
- 28 Master Index (indicating the passport application was destroyed in the 1980s)
- 36 Not Found
The entire project should wrap up within the next two years. Below are some of the most recent FOIA returns.
[1] Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States, Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the committee of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate, Eighty-Fifth Congress, First Session on Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States, February 20, 1957, Appendix I, Part 23A, Washington, DC, United States Government Printing Office, 1957.
