J. Edgar Hoover sought mass arrests in 1950, document shows

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by <exile>, Dec 23, 2007.


  1. <exile>

    <exile> Padawan Learner

    A newly declassified document from 1950 shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty.

    Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons.

    Hoover wanted President Harry Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to "protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage." The FBI would "apprehend all individuals potentially dangerous" to national security, Hoover's proposal said. The arrests would be carried out under "a master warrant attached to a list of names" provided by the bureau.
    The names were part of an index that Hoover had been compiling for years. "The index now contains approximately twelve thousand individuals, of which approximately ninety-seven percent are citizens of the United States," he wrote. "In order to make effective these apprehensions, the proclamation suspends the Writ of Habeas Corpus."

    continued: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/23/america/habeas.php
     
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