Hoover's 1950s Mass Jailing Plan Draws Comparisons with President Bush

By:  Lindsey Brady
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON - United States - The website for the Federal Bureau of Investigation has profiles on all of its previous directors.  Between 1924 to 1972 John Edgar Hoover was the Director of the FBI during some of its most high profile times.  Among his many accomplishments during his title as director was the change that he brought to the FBI.  His profile describes the changes he instituted during the Cold War as consisting of adding "responsibility of investigating the backgrounds of government employees to ensure that foreign agents did not infiltrate the government."

Recently, however, the New York Times is reporting that newly declassified documents show Hoover had greater plans that would have directly impacted thousands of American citizens.  Hoover sent a letter on July 7, 1950 to President Truman's Special Consultant, Sidney Souers, who had also been the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  The letter contained a plan drawn by Hoover that would seek to suspend habeas corpus so that those listed on an index of individuals thought to be dangerous to national security could be carried out under a blanket warrant in order to protect against "treason, espionage and sabotage."  Habeas corpus is the right to seek relief from illegal detention and has been a central legal principle in the American legal system.

The U.S. Constitution says that habeas corpus may only be suspended under such sever situations as cases of "rebellion or invasion, [where] the public safety may require it."  Hoover's plan sought to stretch this suspension to include situations of "threatened invasion or attack upon U.S. troops."  Once detained, Hoover's plan would lead to over flowing jails and use of military facilities.  Although the prisoners would have eventually been guaranteed the right to a hearing the plan noted they would "not be bound by the rules of evidence."  Authority to create the index of names was granted by Attorney General, Tom Clark in 1948.  This list appears to have consisted of nearly 12,000 names, nearly 97% of which were American citizens.  In 1950, Congress actually passed and Truman endorsed the law to detain "dangerous radicals" where the president declares a national emergency.  Truman did declare such in 1950 but there isn't evidence that Hoover's plan was ever fully approved by Truman or any president thereafter.

After the recent declassification of Hoover's plan there have been comparisons made between Hoover and Bush in their dealings with those suspected of endangering national security.  The New York Times drew such a comparison and stated that after the terrorist attacks in 2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Presiden Bush issued an order that essentially gave the U.S. a blank right to indefinitely detain suspects without access to a lawyer, without a hearing or formal charges.  Then, five years later, Congress passed a law officially suspending habeas corpus for anyone the U.S. government deems "an unlawful combatant."  Issues of habeas corpus have been especially heated recently in connection with those detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The Supreme Court has since reaffirmed the right that American citizens have the right of habeas corpus and in the near future the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the rights of foreign citizens being detained at Guantanamo Bay.

For more information, please see:

Federal Bureau of Investigation - Directors, Then and Now:  John Edgar Hoover - Accessed 23 December 2007

New York Times - Hoover Planned Mass Jailing in 1950 - 23 December 2007

New York Times - Hoover's Letter to Truman's Special Consultant - 22 December 2007