Trond Andresen wrote: > So i am now asking you guys out there, especially in the U.S.: Have > individuals on the left in your country been allowed access to files on > themselves with the (secret) police, at least such files that have been > illegally created? It is (or was) possible to obtain one's FBI files collected under the infamous COINTELPRO program, under the Freedom of Information Act. When you receive a copy of your files, much is either blacked-out with a magic marker or there are missing pages -- usually to protect the identity of informers or for that all-inclusive reason: "national security." Still, presumably because of the labor-intensive process of censuring the files, there is usually at least a little information that they forgot to black-out that is of interest. In my case, the files state that my file was opened in 1972 but there are references to FBI reports about me from 1970. Oops. In another instance, its easy enough for me to determine the identity of one of the informers -- either my former High School Principal or possibly the Dean of Men who turned over information about me to the FBI. Oops. The files occasionally are rather funny as well (for instance, it is officially recorded in my FBI files that during one marking period when I as a sophomore in high school I received "1 A, 3 B's, 1 C, and an 'unsatisfactory' in conduct"). It's also flattering to read special memos written by the former FBI director to the Head of Secret Service warning the SS that you are a dangerous "subversive" who is engaged in "un-American activities." Jerry
