Students get FBI documents through FOIA

(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Photo of David Halberstam

By: Stephanie Ohol


According to the First Amendment Center, a group of graduate students at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism obtained FBI documents about the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam. Then they published the documents on the school’s website. The students were able to obtain the records by filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

The students discovered that the FBI had been tracking the journalist for more than two decades. The FBI monitored Halberstam’s reporting and his personal life from about 1965-to the late 1980s. The associated press article stated, “the agency released 62 pages of a 98-page report on the writer, citing security, privacy and other reasons.” The articles also said it was unclear when the FBI began watching Halberstam, “though the first documents made public date from 1965, when he was a Times correspondent in Poland during the Cold War.”

The documents showed that the FBI watched his reporting from overseas and his first marriage to a Polish actress. “The files included published reports of Polish officials expelling Halberstam and his wife from the country because of his news stories about Poland's communist leaders. It also included stories written by Halberstam and telephone company records of calls to him.”

The documents also showed that “FBI agents considered interviewing Halberstam, but never state why they wanted to talk to him or whether they ever did. The last document released is dated 1987.” The article said the FBI declined to comment for this story but a spokesman did say, "the FOIA speaks for itself."

Back in the 1950s-1970s the FBI used to monitor groups that were believed to have communist and socialist ties like the Ku Klux Klan and civil rights groups.

In 1964, Halberstam won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the Vietnam War while working as a reporter for The New York Times. He also wrote The Best and the Brightest, a best-selling book critical of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.