Report: FBI kept file on author David Halberstam

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC/AP

The FBI tracked the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam for more than two decades, newly released documents show.

Students at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism obtained the FBI documents by filing a Freedom of Information Act request. The university posted the documents on its Web site Thursday.

The FBI monitored Halberstam's reporting, and at times his personal life, from at least the mid-1960s until at least the late '80s, the documents show. The agency released only 62 pages of a 98-page dossier on the writer, citing security, privacy and other reasons.

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It's unclear when the FBI began monitoring Halberstam, though the first documents made public date from 1965, when he was a Times correspondent in Poland during the Cold War.

The agency kept tabs on Halberstam's reporting there and his first marriage, to Polish actress Elzbieta Czyzewska, the documents show.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27606760/

---

Makes you wonder who they are keeping files on now, though most of us could probably come up with an accurate list.

[ret5hd]

1. I wish they'd keep a file on me...

It would be a complete waste of their time and maybe they could help me find the damn remote.

[Demeter]

3. I Could Get a Geneology Done for Free at Taxpayer Expense!

[Dem2theMax]

5. Good idea. Make sure my name is in your file, OK?

That way, I'll get my tree done for free as well. LOL. ;)

Could you have them work on my brick wall? Maternal GG-Grandfather. His line is driving me NUTS!

[Maat]

9. HeeHee. I agree!

Seriously, though, it really pisses me off that I pay for spies! Feed the poor with my money, you government asshats!

[LiberalFighter]

10. Look underneath your seat cushion.

[ret5hd]

27. I'd have to get up.

[elleng]

2. When did hoover leave us?

.

[madaboutharry]

4. Do think they were keeping files on

all of us here on DU?

They had files on people who wrote nasty letters to Nixon during the Vietnam War.

[4lbs]

6. You can be pretty sure that anyone who was protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s had a FBI file

on them.

[kestrel91316]

7. They need to lay off the writers and START A FILE ON SARAH PALIN.

[bertman]

8. Rest assured that frequent DU posters are on their watch list. With the expanded capabilities

provided by computer monitoring and the recently-approved domestic wire-tapping, they're filling up folders on all of us subversives. Count on it.

[Maat]

11. Well, I hope they're more clear on what I'm doing ...

than I am. HeeHee.

[bertman]

12. They're clear on it. They have you figured as a subversive who doesn't believe in America.

Otherwise, you wouldn't be participating on a website that espouses so many anti-American ideas. Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann's words not mine.

I was in a military intelligence unit during the late 60's when people were organizing against the Vietnam war and in favor of civil rights. One part of my unit was charged with keeping tabs (photos, logs on movement and associates, etc., meetings and rallies attended) on people who were involved in "anti-American" activities. These military folks BELIEVED IN what they were doing. They had NO DOUBT that those Americans who were demonstrating against the government and who were trying to get other Americans to vote for a Peace Candidate and a Candidate who was for Civil Rights for all Americans, were subversives. The certainty was 100%. Us versus them.

Unfortunately, after 911 and all of the subsequent bullshit that has followed that horrific event and morphed into a police-state mentality, the folks in the agencies that monitor us are no less sure that they are protecting America from enemies within.

This is one reason the Telecom Immunity bill's passage was such a blow. Instead of our government standing up for our right to dissent, now we must assume that our government's agents are treating us as potential threats to homeland security--whatever that means.

[Maat]

23. Oh, dear! Hey, Agent Mike (or whatever your name is) ..

(this isn't addressed to any DUer) ..

Let me clarify what is really American ... what the United States of America is all about ...

we are about guaranteeing certain fundamental rights, and protecting the minority from the tyranny of the majority.

That is what is American.

So, join me in my efforts to guarantee human rights; then, you will be the consumate patriotic American!

[EFerrari]

13. Cool. Too bad they don't even have a computer network that works.

LOL

The FBI is a corrupt joke. They don't even know what they know.

[bertman]

24. Sometimes it seems like they are a corrupt joke, sfexpat2000. Unfortunately, when those

jokers latch onto someone it is not a joke to the victim. The FBI has the full weight of our government behind them and they do not hesitate to use it. Witness the government scientist, Bruce Ivins, they actively and knowingly hounded to death over the anthrax scare. I'll bet he didn't think they were a joke.

Edited to correct a typo.

[EFerrari]

25. That's very true. It looks like a group of people are fixing to sue them

over that, too. They can't keep the science community at Ft. Detrick gagged forever. And they are PISSED over the harrassment they've suffered and over the death of their friend.

[bertman]

26. I read about that. It's good news for America. The FBI and the CIA go virtually unchallenged

these days. In the name of homeland security, of course.

[MountainLaurel]

28. Wish they could tell me what my login to my 401K is

I consistently forget that *$#@ing thing.

[gauguin57]

14. I've been to Russia four times (going back to 1978), plus other Communist countries back in the day.

And I volunteer for the Democratic party.

They've totally got a file on me somewhere.

And they can also put in that file a photo of themselves kissing my patootie!

[jus_the_facts]

15. THE POWERS THAT BE......

....should be required readin'...in my humble opinion. :)

[OneBlueSky]

16. the FBI keeps files on everyone . . .

at least everyone who's ever expressed a progressive opinion or been linked to a "left wing" organization or cause . . . hell, I'm sure I've had a file since the 60s when I worked for an ultraliberal Member of Congress AND a "communist" folksinger . . . some of us on the Congressional staff would occasionally say something like "are you ready, J. Edgar?" before dialing a call from the office . . . :)

[FlaGranny]

17. I KNOW the FBI has a file on me.

Back in the late 50s I worked at NORAD and had to get a "secret" clearance. When you are a civilian and apply for a secret clearance, they really DO check up on you. They personally contacted everyone I listed as a reference. They may have dusted the file off since I joined DU, but there couldn't be much of interest in it for them, although I did once write an e-mail of disapproval to the Bush White House. :-)

[Ian David]

19. I wonder if the FBI file on me mentions that I once teased an FBI recruiter at a job fair...

... about J. Edgar Hoover being a closeted gay cross-dresser.

And if so, did they not link that to me until I disclosed it in this message post.

[Ian David]

18. You can file a FOIA request to receive the FBI and CIA files on yourself.

I know for a fact that I have one, because I was once bonded, and also because I've provided the FBI with a tip once.

I believe (but I'm not sure) that you can also request the file on a dead relative.

[llmart]

20. Really?

I guess I never thought of that. I'll bet my grandfather, an active member of the Socialist Labor Party, had a nice file. He protested the Viet Nam War and he was in his 70's.

I'd be honored if they kept a file on me. I'm proud of being a thorn in their butts!

[The Animator]

21. If frequent postings on DU forums is their only requirement to earn a file...

..I wonder how many FBI files are filled to the brim with LOL kitties, on account of the Lounge?

I wonder how many freeper trolls inadvertently piqued the FBI's interest during the primaries? Or if they were, in fact, undercover agents.

Do they just throw those files away when they find out they're not 'real' threats?

Which agency does Mike work for again?

[leftstreet]

29. LOL files "filled to the brim with LOL kitties"

[fascisthunter]

22. Makes You Wonder What The FBI's Priorities Are

They are acting like the fucking Gustapo...

on edit: look what they do to their own when their own try to do their jobs (Sibel Edmonds)