NCJ Number
99134
Journal
Cornell Law Review Volume: 69 Issue: 4 Dated: (April 1984) Pages: 883-894
Date Published
1984
Length
12 pages
Annotation
A review of documents released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act to the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) demonstrate that although the FBI may have reduced its surveillance activities in recent years, the underlying criterion governing earlier investigations -- the political belief of a group or individual -- continues to shape surveillance policy.
Abstract
FBI documents concerning investigations of the RCP suggest that the FBI conducted more warrantless break-ins during the 1970's than its officials publicly admitted. They show that Acting Director Gray as well as Acting Associate Director Felt were very interested in the RCP and contemplated illegal break-ins to help the investigation. This interest did not abate after 1972, but later investigations were conducted more circumspectly because of the changed political climate brought on by the Watergate scandal. For example, filing procedures were devised to preclude public discovery of the FBI's most sensitive operations. These attempts to minimize public awarness of its interest in the RCP were motivated partly by Attorney General Levi's restrictive guidelines governing the FBI's domestic security operations and his secret guidelines governing foreign counterintelligence investigations. The more permissive guidelines issued by Attorney General Smith in 1983 did not reinstitute FBI surveillance. Instead, electronic surveillance practices suggest that radical organizations were already under investigation. The RCP documents demonstrate the need for a tightly worded FBI legislative charter. The article includes 63 footnotes.