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Addition of Files to the Freedom of Information Act's
Electronic Reading Room

For Immediate Release
February 25, 2000

Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office

The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced today that it has added several new
subject matters to the Historical Interest, Famous Persons, Espionage, and
Gangster Era categories of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Electronic Reading
Room. The subjects listed below have been available in paper format for several years
and now can be accessed electronically:

HISTORICAL INTEREST

American POWs/MIAs in Southeast Asia -- 4,888 pages
In 1970 - 1973 the FBI investigated the Committee of Liaison with Families of
Servicemen Detained in North Vietnam (COLIFAM) - a U.S. antiwar group acting as
"liaison" between POWs and their families. The group was alleged to be a vehicle of
North Vietnamese propaganda whose activities were believed to be detrimental to the
health and welfare of the prisoners held in North Vietnam. No information was developed
warranting prosecution of COLIFAM for solicitation under the Foreign Agents
Registration Act. In 1982, the FBI compiled information concerning American prisoners
of war or American citizens in Viet Nam. In 1992, the FBI provided assistance to the
Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs by furnishing information and/or
performing investigations on behalf of the Committee on all facets of POW issues.

Moorish Science Temple of America -- 3,117 pages

The Moorish Science Temple of America was organized in 1913 in Newark,
New Jersey. The Temple was investigated in 1953 for violation of the Selective Service
Act of 1948 and sedition. Some members of the organization claimed to be
conscientious objectors but professed they were not pacifists. In September of 1953,
the Department of Justice concluded that prosecution for violation of the Selective
Service Act was not warranted as the group's conscientious objectors did not evade
service other than by a right granted under provisions in the Act. No sedition statutes
were violated because subjects' actions were not directed toward members of the
armed forces of the U.S. A 1940 investigation was conducted to determine if the
Moorish Science Temple of America was committing subversive activities by adhering
to and spreading Japanese propaganda. The investigation failed to substantiate that
members were pro-Japanese in their attitude.

Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee -- 2,887 pages

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was created in 1960 as a nonviolent
civil rights movement primarily devoted to direct-action, voter-registration campaigns in
the South. Investigation was opened in 1964 to establish the extent of communist
infiltration in the SNCC. Several leaders and members of SNCC had been identified as
communists in public hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
SNCC was determined to be extensively communist dominated. In 1966, Stokely
Carmichael emerged as SNCC national chairman. In 1968, SNCC merged with the
Black Panther Party and, in 1969, the name was changed to Student National
Coordinating Committee. Not long thereafter the organization ceased to exist.

Ernst Franz Sedwick (Putzi) Hanfstangl -- 122 pages aka Ernest Sedgwick

Ernst Franz Sedwick Hanfstangl, was an author and intimate friend of Adolph Hitler who
served as Hitler's Nazi Press Chief. Hanfstangl fled Germany for England in 1937 and
was interned by the British as a German alien enemy and sent to Canada for
confinement. In 1938, the FBI noted that Hanfstangl possibly had been connected with
the Black Tom and Kingsland explosions. In 1942 he was paroled to the President of
the U.S. and placed under the care of Presidential Assistant J. Franklin Carter.
Hanfstangl was to make his knowledge of Nazi Germany available to the Office of
Strategic Services and other branches of the Government. The FBI never interviewed
Hanfstangl or knew of his exact whereabouts in the U.S.

Carlo Tresca -- 1,358 pages

Carlo Tresca, Italian political refugee, agitator, author, and editor, organized labor
strikes across the U.S. through the International Workers of the World beginning in
1912. Tresca published an Italian American newspaper "Il Martillo" (The Hammer) in
which he criticized both communists and fascists. In 1922, an investigation of Tresca
was initiated to determine the status of his U.S. citizenship, as well as his publication
of an alleged obscene article in his newspaper. A security investigation was initiated in
1941 for violation of the Neutrality and Registration Acts. Tresca was murdered upon
leaving his office on January 11, 1943. The murder remains unsolved by the New York
Police Department.

FAMOUS PERSONS

Hugo Black -- 156 pages

Hugo Black was a U.S. Senator from 1927 to 1937 and was appointed Associate
Supreme Court Justice in 1937 by President Roosevelt. He resigned from the Supreme
Court in 1971 shortly before his death. In 1949 information was developed alleging
Black's membership in the Ku Klux Klan of Clay County, Alabama. Records contain
several threats against the life of Black, cordial correspondence with the FBI and
numerous newspaper articles critical of Black's liberal actions/decisions as Senator and
later as Supreme Court Justice.

Abbie (Abbott) Hoffman -- 4,101 pages

Abbie Hoffman, 1960s and 70s activist, anarchist, was co-founder of the Youth
International Party (YIP a.k.a. Yippies) and one of the "Chicago Seven". He was the
subject of a security investigation in 1968 in view of his anarchist actions, as well as an
anti-riot law investigation as a result of his leadership in disturbances at the 1968
Democratic National Convention (DEMCON) in Chicago. The cases were closed in 1973
upon the final judgment of the "Chicago Seven" trial. The trial case was dismissed at
the request of the Government in January, 1973, after the U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th
Circuit, Chicago, Illinois, reversed the convictions and remanded the case back to the
U.S. District Court, Chicago, for a new trial if the Government so desired . The "Chicago
Seven" was the term used for the seven leaders tried for violations of anti-riot laws
stemming from the DEMCON demonstrations.

Thomas Mann -- 95 pages

Thomas Mann, German author, Nobel prize winner in literature and naturalized
American citizen, was investigated from 1927 through 1955. The security investigation
gathered information showing Mann's affiliation with communist causes and associates.
Mann wrote magazine articles for an anti-Nazi magazine which was published by
German communists.

Nelson Rockefeller -- 1,592 pages

Nelson Rockefeller, Medal of Freedom winner, 1977; Vice-President to President Gerald
Ford, 1974 - 1977; and Governor of New York State 1959 -1973, was investigated in
1950 and 1969 for suitability to fill presidential appointments and again in 1974 to
perform the duties of Vice-President. The FBI investigated numerous threats against the
life of Rockefeller as Governor, Presidential Candidate, and Vice-President. Records
also include personal correspondence between Rockefeller and the FBI demonstrating
his affable relationship with the FBI, newspaper articles chronicling various aspects of
Rockefeller's life, and documents in which his name was merely mentioned.

Dr. Wilhelm Reich -- 789 pages

This German immigrant described himself as the Associate Professor of Medical
Psychology, Director of the Orgone Institute, President and research physician of the
Wilhelm Reich Foundation and discoverer of the biological or life energy. A 1940
security investigation was begun to determine the extent of Reich's communist
commitments. A board of Alien Enemy Hearing judged that Dr. Reich was not a threat
to the security of the U.S. In 1947, a security investigation concluded that neither the
Orgone Project nor any of its staff were engaged in subversive activities or were in
violation of any statute within the jurisdiction of the FBI. The Orgone Institute, founded
by Dr. Reich, claimed that "orgone energy" would prevent and cure a
variety of serious diseases, including cancer. In 1954 the U.S. Attorney General filed a
complaint seeking permanent injunction to prevent interstate shipment of devices and
literature put out by Dr. Reich's group. That same year Dr. Reich was arrested for
contempt of court for violation of the Attorney General's injunction. Dr. Reich died in a
Federal Prison in 1957 while serving a 2 year sentence for contempt of court.

Muriel Rukeyser -- 118 pages

Muriel Rukeyser, author, poet and editorial free lance writer, came to the attention of
the FBI when a background investigation for suitability was initiated in 1943 in
conjunction with her government employment as copywriter with the Office for
Emergency Management. The investigation terminated when she resigned from the
position a few months later. A security investigation into Rukeyser's communist
activities started as the suitability investigation ended. Investigation determined that
Rukeyser sponsored or was a member of numerous organizations which were cited by
the Attorney General or House Committee on Un-American Activities as communist
front organizations. Louis F. Budenz testified in 1951 that Rukeyser was a concealed
Communist Party member.

ESPIONAGE

Nathan Silvermaster Group -- 1,951 pages

Nathan Silvermaster was a leader of a Soviet espionage ring. This espionage
investigation from 1945 to 1959 uncovered Soviet placed agents working within the U.S.
Government. The case - titled Gregory, using the middle name of Silvermaster -
exposed 27 individuals in the Silvermaster ring who gathered information from at least
six Federal agencies to turn over to the Soviets. No indictments for espionage were
returned against any subjects in the Gregory case by any Grand Jury; however, a
Grand Jury did return an indictment against Alger Hiss for perjury.

GANGSTER ERA

Al (Alphonse) Capone -- 2,397 pages

Al Capone was a notorious gangster who conducted his illegal enterprises in Chicago,
Illinois during the 1920s. Many of the activities ascribed to the "Capone Gang" were not
violations of Federal law within the FBI's investigative jurisdiction. In 1929, the FBI was
ordered by the Attorney General to investigate the legitimacy of an affidavit that
petitioned for a postponement of Capone's appearance in response to a Federal Grand
Jury subpoena. The investigation established that facts within the affidavit were indeed
false. Capone was tried and convicted of contempt of court on February 25, 1931. When
Capone was convicted for income tax evasion, the Judge ruled that the sentence for
contempt of court should be served concurrently with the tax evasion sentence. Capone
served his prison sentence from 1931 to 1939. Capone was in poor health following his
release from prison and died in 1947 at home in Florida.





These documents have been converted to an electronic format from paper copies
housed in the FOIA Reading Room located at FBI Headquarters. Portions have been
blacked out to protect personal privacy, confidential sources, national security, etc., in
accordance with the exemption provisions of the FOIA. The index to the paper format
documents in the FOIA Reading Room is now available at the FBI's website and, as
additional documents are converted to an electronic format, they will be added to the
Electronic Reading Room.

Viewers may select records from the categories of historical interest, famous persons,
espionage, violent crime, gangster era, or unusual phenomena at http://www.fbi.gov.

Operation Sudden Stop

For Immediate Release
February 2, 2000

Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh today announced the continued success of "Operation
Sudden Stop", a nationwide FBI initiative to combat motor vehicle and cargo theft.
Today, 93 persons were indicted based on an investigation codenamed "Operation
Multiport" initiated by the FBI's New York field office's Joint Auto Larceny Task Force
(JALTF). The JALTF is jointly staffed by the FBI and the New York City Police
Department.

Today, 66 individuals were arrested by the FBI's New York, Newark, Charlotte and New
Orleans field offices in connection with this major interstate vehicle theft/chop
shop/fraud investigation. Over 150 stolen vehicles (valued at over $2.9 million) were
recovered during this investigation. The subjects are facing charges which include
interstate transportation of stolen motor vehicles, sale of motor vehicle with altered
vehicle identification numbers (VINs), VIN alteration, attempting to export stolen
vehicles, conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud, counterfeiting state securities, possession
of firearm(s) by a convicted felon and sale of firearms which have had the serial number
obliterated.

"Operation Sudden Stop" is an FBI strategic investigative initiative announced
nationwide on April 27, 1999, to identify, disrupt, dismantle and prosecute existing and
emerging organized criminal enterprises whose vehicle and cargo theft activities take
place in several states throughout the United States.

Since April 1999, the "Operation Sudden Stop" initiative has resulted in nearly 500
indictments and arrests, both at the federal and local level. Currently, 36 task forces in
29 FBI field offices (consisting of FBI and other federal, state and local law enforcement)
and a large number of United States Attorneys and local prosecutors are actively
participating in this national initiative.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports indicate the vehicle theft rate for 1998 decreased 9.3
percent from 1997. However, the recovery rate for stolen vehicles has fallen from a high
in 1996 of 68 percent recovered to a 65 percent recovery rate in 1998. In addition, the
value of vehicles stolen in the U.S. has continued to rise to a high of $7.5 billion in
1998. Freeh also stated that recent FBI estimates indicate cargo theft costs American
citizens $6 billion a year nationwide.

"Operation Sudden Stop" is a four-phase, multi-year operation intended to generate
multiple arrests of vehicle and cargo theft subjects; exploit the intelligence base
developed as a result of the arrests; initiate proactive investigations and utilize
sophisticated investigative techniques to target the most active criminal organizations.
Ultimately, the purpose of these Federal prosecutions and asset forfeitures will result in
the dismantling of these criminal organizations. The first and second phases of this
operation continue in full force with numerous additional arrests expected in the coming
months.

Within the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, "Operation Sudden Stop" is coordinated
by the Violent Crimes and Major Offenders Section, Major Theft/Transportation Crimes
Unit.