It’s highly unlikely that releasing the files our intelligence agencies have on Nelson Mandela would hurt our national security or our foreign relations, but it would probably make our intelligence agencies look like racists. Considering that the time frame we’re talking about here is the early 1960’s, prior to the passage of our historic civil rights bills, when we were technically no better than the South African apartheid regime, I don’t think anyone would be surprised that our intelligence agencies were racist. Half the country was operating within a Jim Crow framework and J. Edgar Hoover was trying to blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. into committing suicide.
So, what in the hell?
Prolific FOIA requester and MIT researcher Ryan Shapiro has been seeking information about the U.S. intelligence community’s role in the 1962 arrest and placement on the U.S. terror watchlist of Nelson Mandela. Following government agencies’ refusal to comply with his FOIA requests, Shapiro filed suit against the NSA, the FBI and and the Defense Intelligence Agency Tuesday, adding to an ongoing suit of the same nature against the CIA.
I hope Prof. Shapiro wins in court.
