List of Americans under surveillance explained

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

• Howard Hughes

Journalists

• Art Buchwald, a columnist for The Washington Post
• David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and historian^[4]
• Ernest Hemingway, winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature^[5]
• Norman Mailer, novelist, columnist and The Village Voice co-founder
• Tom Wicker, a columnist for The New York Times

Politicians

Congress

• Sen. Barry Goldwater^[6]
• Sen. Frank Church
• Sen. Howard Baker
• Sen. Strom Thurmond

Supreme Court

• Associate Justice William O. Douglas^[6]

White House

• First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt^{[7] [8]}

Science and philosophy

• Albert Einstein^{[9] [10] [11]}
• Howard Zinn^[12]
• Noam Chomsky^{[13] [14]}
• Edward Said

Sports and entertainment

Actors and actresses

• Jean Seberg^[15]
• Marilyn Monroe^[16]
• Marlene Dietrich^[17]

Athletes

• Muhammad Ali^[18]

Composers

• Aaron Copland^[19]

Jazz musicians

• Duke Ellington^[20]
• Frank Sinatra^{[21] [22]}
• Louis Armstrong^[23]
• Nat King Cole^[23]

Other

• Robert Hanssen^{[24] [25]}

See also

• Mass surveillance in the United States

Notes and References

1. News: Peter Dreier. Helen Keller's Radical Vision. The Huffington Post. September 27, 2013. The FBI kept Keller under surveillance for most of her adult life for her radical views.. June 27, 2013.
2. News: Jen Christensen. FBI tracked King's every move. CNN. September 27, 2013. December 29, 2008.
3. News: David Usborne. The FBI mole at Dr Martin Luther King's right hand. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-fbi-mole-at-dr-martin-luther-kings-right-hand-2079488.html . 2022-06-14 . subscription . live. The Independent. September 27, 2013. London. September 15, 2010.
4. News: FBI tracked journalist Halberstam. The Los Angeles Times. September 26, 2013. November 8, 2008.
5. News: A. E. HOTCHNER. Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds. The New York Times. September 26, 2013. July 1, 2011.
6. Book: Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities ("Church Committee") . Book II, Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans . . Final Report, S. Rep. No. 94-755 (1976) . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130521200703/https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs94th/94755_II.pdf . 2013-05-21 .
7. Web site: Question: Why is Eleanor Roosevelt's FBI file so large?. George Washington University. September 18, 2013.
8. Web site: Eleanor Roosevelt. History (U.S. TV channel). September 18, 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..
9. News: New Details Emerge From the Einstein Files; How the F.B.I. Tracked His Phone Calls and His Trash. The New York Times. September 17, 2013. Dennis. Overbye. May 7, 2002.
10. News: FBI campaign against Einstein revealed. BBC. September 17, 2013. June 8, 2002.
11. Web site: Albert Einstein: Fact or Fiction?. History (U.S. TV channel). September 17, 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.".
12. http://progressive.org/node/146176/14010 The FBI’s File on Howard Zinn
13. John Hudson. Exclusive: After Multiple Denials, CIA Admits to Snooping on Noam Chomsky. Foreign Policy. September 27, 2013.
14. News: Nikhil Kumar. Memo shows CIA 'did keep file on Noam Chomsky'. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220614/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/memo-shows-cia-did-keep-file-on-noam-chomsky-8760093.html . 2022-06-14 . subscription . live. The Independent. September 27, 2013. London. August 13, 2013.
15. News: ALLAN M. JALON. The Jean Seberg Affair Revisited. The Los Angeles Times. September 26, 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..
16. Web site: FBI removes many redactions in Marilyn Monroe file. Associated Press. September 18, 2013.
17. News: Kate Connolly. FBI files reveal attempt to prove Dietrich was spy. The Guardian. September 26, 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"..
18. MATTHEW M. AID. Secret Cold War Documents Reveal NSA Spied on Senators. Foreign Policy. The names of the NSA's targets are eye-popping. Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. 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.). September 25, 2013.
19. News: Darlene Superville. Thick file details FBI's surveillance of Copland. The Los Angeles Times. October 28, 2013. May 20, 2003.
20. Web site: Why the Insane Clown Posse Should Embrace Their FBI Rap Sheet. The Atlantic Wire. September 27, 2013. The FBI kept tabs on Ellington into the '70s, just a few years before his death..
21. News: RONALD J. OSTROW and LISA GETTER. FBI Files on Sinatra Detail Links to JFK, Mob Figures. Los Angeles Times. September 18, 2013. December 9, 1998.
22. News: MOLOTSKY. IRVIN. F.B.I. Releases Its Sinatra File, With Tidbits Old and New. The New York Times. September 18, 2013. December 9, 1998.
23. Andrew W. Lehren. Jazz and the FBI: Guilty Until Proven Innocent. JazzTimes. September 27, 2013.
24. News: FBI: Hanssen suspected he was under surveillance. February 28, 2001. CNN. 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..
25. Robert Philip Hanssen Espionage Case . February 20, 2001 . Federal Bureau of Investigation . https://web.archive.org/web/20140201205547/https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/robert-hanssen . 2014-02-01 . 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. . dead .