Thurmond, FBI had cozy ties, records show.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Publication: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service

Publication Date: 02-MAR-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service

Byline: Lauren Markoe and John Monk

WASHINGTON _ For more than 50 years, U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and the FBI _ director J. Edgar Hoover in particular _ mutually benefited from a close, hidden relationship that gave the South Carolina politician access to the FBI's secret files.

The relationship is documented in Thurmond's FBI file, parts of which the bureau released Monday in response to requests by The State newspaper and other media. Such releases are made only after the subject of a file has died or when a living subject gives permission.

Monday's release is about 600 pages, weighs nearly 6 pounds and covers the period from October 1938 _ when as a young judge Thurmond paid a "social visit" to the bureau's Charlotte, N.C., office _ to January 1995, when Thurmond was in his seventh term as a U.S. senator.

The balance of Thurmond's file _ about 1,700 pages _ will be released later.

What has been released of Thurmond's file provides never-before-seen glimpses into the life of an South Carolina political icon who retired in January 2003 after having served an unprecedented 48 years in the Senate. He died, at 100, in June of that year.

The Thurmond file exposes the usually concealed intersection of politics and law enforcement _ a nexus where politicians enjoy access to confidential files on private citizens and groups.

Thurmond and Hoover _ an almost mythic law enforcement figure who was the FBI's longest-serving director and a zealous anti-communist _ corresponded for decades.

Among other favors, the bureau carried out secret investigations for Thurmond.

At the same time, the files show that as Thurmond won election to higher and higher office, the FBI saw him as an increasingly valuable resource.

At other times, though, the FBI was wary of his publicity-seeking.

An agent in Savannah wrote in a memo to FBI headquarters in 1954, the year Thurmond first...

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