NSA Spied On Martin Luther King Jr., Declassfied Documents Reveal

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Written by Chris Gentilviso Chris Gentilviso
Published: 26 September 2013 26 September 2013
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Newly-declassified documents reveal that the National Security Agency targeted one of America's most revered civil rights icons.

The National Security Archive at George Washington University released the information Wednesday, showing that Martin Luther King Jr. was on the agency's watch list during the 1960s. Also mentioned as targets in the report were fellow civil rights leader Whitney Young, boxer Muhammad Ali, and two prominent members of Congress, Sens. Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Howard Baker (R-Tennessee). The program was also viewed by some officials as "disreputable if not outright illegal," the report adds.

According to the report, knowledge of King as an NSA target first emerged in the 1970s, but Wednesday's release marks the first time that the documents were classified. The FBI had him as a wiretap target shortly after the 1963 March on Washington, thanks to worries over his connections to chief adviser and former Communist Party member Stanley Levison.

[Read more on Huffington Post]

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