FBI for mass arrests in Cold War
The plan to arrest over 11,000 US citizens was prepared by former FBI director J Edgar Hoover
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Sunday, 23, Dec 2007 12:26
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US' law enforcement agency, prepared plans in the 1950s for the arrest of over 11,000 US citizens.
The New York Times cites recently-declassified documents as showing that then FBI director J Edgar Hoover had drawn up a list of 12,000 people he deemed were dangerous to the country.
The Cold War era document was written at the time of the outbreak of the Korean War.
Under the plans, Hoover seeks the arrests of US citizens "to protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage".
He also recommends the suspension of habeas corpus, the legal doctrine that prevents illegal detention, so that American citizens could be housed at military bases and other detention facilities in the country.
Details of whether the plan was approved or of the identities of those deemed a threat to their country are yet to be released.
Habeas corpus rights are currently suspended for those detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. The news has caused alarm in the US as it entails the suspension of rights detailed in the nation's constitution.
In 2006 Congress passed a law enabling anyone deemed an "unlawful enemy combatant" to have his habeas corpus rights suspended.
Last week a US military judge ruled that a Yemeni national who worked as Osama Bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, was an "unlawful enemy combatant" meaning that he could be tried by a US military commission.
The ruling means that Mr Hamdan does not possess prisoner of war status and can be tried under US military laws for terrorists held by the US, rather than international law.