List of Americans under surveillance

This is a list of some of the prominent U.S. citizens who are known to have been put under surveillance by the federal government of the United States.

Activists

• Helen Keller^[1]
• Martin Luther King, Jr^[2][3]

Businesspersons

• Bernard Baruch^[4]

Journalists

• Art Buchwald, a columnist for The Washington Post^[5]

• David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and historian^[6]

• Ernest Hemingway, winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature^[7]

• Norman Mailer, novelist, columnist and The Village Voice co-founder^[8]

• Tom Wicker, a columnist for The New York Times^[5]

Politicians

Congress

• Sen. Barry Goldwater^[4]

• Sen. Frank Church^[5]

• Sen. Howard Baker^[5]

• Sen. Strom Thurmond^[9]

Supreme Court

• Associate Justice William O. Douglas^[4]

White House

• First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt^[10][11]

Science and philosophy

• Albert Einstein^[12][13][14]
• Howard Zinn^[15]
• Noam Chomsky^[16][17]

Sports and entertainment

Actors and actresses

• Jean Seberg^[18]
• Marilyn Monroe^[19]
• Marlene Dietrich^[20]

Athletes

• Muhammad Ali^[5]

Composers

• Aaron Copland^[21]

Jazz musicians

• Duke Ellington^[22]
• Frank Sinatra^[23][24]
• Louis Armstrong^[25]
• Nat King Cole^[25]

Other

• Robert Hanssen^[26][27]

See also

• Mass surveillance in the United States

References

1. Peter Dreier (27 June 2013). "Helen Keller's Radical Vision". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 27 September 2013. The FBI kept Keller under surveillance for most of her adult life for her radical views.
2. Jen Christensen (29 December 2008). "FBI tracked King's every move". CNN. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
3. David Usborne (15 September 2010). "The FBI mole at Dr Martin Luther King's right hand". London: The Independent. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
4. Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities ("Church Committee"). Book II, Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans (PDF) (Final Report, S. Rep. No. 94-755 (1976) ed.). United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
5. MATTHEW M. AID. "Secret Cold War Documents Reveal NSA Spied on Senators". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 25 September 2013. The names of the NSA's targets are eye-popping. Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Whitney Young were on the watch list, as were the boxer Muhammad Ali, New York Times journalist Tom Wicker, and veteran Washington Post humor columnist Art Buchwald. But perhaps the most startling fact in the declassified document is that the NSA was tasked with monitoring the overseas telephone calls and cable traffic of two prominent members of Congress, Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.)
6. "FBI tracked journalist Halberstam". The Los Angeles Times. 8 November 2008. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
7. A. E. HOTCHNER (1 July 2011). "Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
8. Stephens, Joe (2008-11-11), The FBI's 15-Year Campaign To Ferret Out Norman Mailer, Washington Post, Shearer said the book would allege that FBI agents had gone to the telephone company in Santa Monica, Calif., and removed a "paper tape" of Monroe's calls.
9. Toward Freedom, 48-49, Toward Freedom, 1999, p. 67, I asked the translator, who told me that it was Republican Senator Strom Thurmond. 'Oh my gosh!' I thought. 'We're not only spying on other countries, but also on our own citizens.'
10. "Question: Why is Eleanor Roosevelt's FBI file so large?". George Washington University. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
11. "Eleanor Roosevelt". History (U.S. TV channel). Retrieved 18 September 2013. J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, considered Eleanor Roosevelt’s liberal views dangerous and believed she might be involved in communist activities. He ordered his agents to monitor Roosevelt and keep what became an extensive file on her.
12. Overbye, Dennis (7 May 2002). "New Details Emerge From the Einstein Files; How the F.B.I. Tracked His Phone Calls and His Trash". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
13. "FBI campaign against Einstein revealed". BBC. 8 June 2002. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
14. "Albert Einstein: Fact or Fiction?". History (U.S. TV channel). Retrieved 17 September 2013. Because of his controversial political beliefs-his support for socialism, civil rights, and nuclear disarmament, for example-many anti-Communist crusaders believed that Einstein was a dangerous subversive. Some, like FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, even thought he was a spy. For 22 years, Hoover's agents tapped Einstein's phones, opened his mail, rifled through his trash and even bugged his secretary's nephew's house, all to prove that he was more radical (as his 1,500-page FBI dossier noted) than "even Stalin himself."
15. The FBI’s File on Howard Zinn by Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, July 31, 2010
16. John Hudson. "Exclusive: After Multiple Denials, CIA Admits to Snooping on Noam Chomsky". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
17. Nikhil Kumar (13 August 2013). "Memo shows CIA ‘did keep file on Noam Chomsky’". London: The Independent. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
18. ALLAN M. JALON. "The Jean Seberg Affair Revisited". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 September 2013. Hoover oversaw the Seberg smear, ordering agents in Los Angeles to wait until Seberg's pregnancy grew more visible. He didn't want the wiretap--which agents apparently misinterpreted--to be suspected.
19. "FBI removes many redactions in Marilyn Monroe file". Associated Press. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
20. Kate Connolly. "FBI files reveal attempt to prove Dietrich was spy". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2013. Dietrich entertained US troops during the war, saying it was her most effective way of fighting Hitler. She was a favourite with the GIs, but US officials - particularly the then boss of the FBI, J Edgar Hoover - largely mistrusted her. For years Hoover ordered that the Hollywood star's every move be trailed and her mail opened, in an effort to prove their suspicions that she was a Nazi spy involved in "anti-American activities".
21. Darlene Superville (May 20, 2003). "Thick file details FBI's surveillance of Copland". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
22. "Why the Insane Clown Posse Should Embrace Their FBI Rap Sheet". The Atlantic Wire. Retrieved 27 September 2013. The FBI kept tabs on Ellington into the '70s, just a few years before his death.
23. RONALD J. OSTROW and LISA GETTER (9 December 1998). "FBI Files on Sinatra Detail Links to JFK, Mob Figures". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
24. MOLOTSKY, IRVIN (9 December 1998). "F.B.I. Releases Its Sinatra File, With Tidbits Old and New". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
25. Andrew W. Lehren. "Jazz and the FBI: Guilty Until Proven Innocent". JazzTimes. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
26. "FBI: Hanssen suspected he was under surveillance". CNN. 2001-02-28. Pluta said FBI agents on surveillance saw Hanssen on the day of his arrest take a black plastic trash bag from the trunk of his car.
27. "Robert Philip Hanssen Espionage Case" (Press release). Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2001-02-20. As alleged in the complaint, computer forensic analysis, substantial covert surveillance, court authorized searches and other sensitive techniques revealed that Hanssen has routinely accessed FBI records and clandestinely provided those records and other classified information to Russian intelligence officers.