CIA Crest

CREST refers to an electronic full-text searchable system named the CIA Records Search Tool. It is maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and is located at the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. CREST serves as a repository for a subset of CIA records that have been reviewed under the 25-year program for automatic declassification.

The 25-year program is based on the provisions of Executive Order 13526 (formerly EO 12958, as amended). This order requires the declassification of nonexempt historically valuable records that are 25 years or older. The program sets deadlines for the review and declassification of documents, and it rolls forward one year at a time. The CIA's deadline for the 25-year program in 2006 covered documents from the establishment of the CIA after World War II through 1981.

To make the CREST records more accessible to researchers, the CIA published the records of the CREST collection online in January 2017. Previously, researchers had to physically visit the National Archives at College Park to access the CREST system.