Secret CIA documents on the late Nelson Mandela are being aggressively sought by a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On Wednesday, Ph.D. student Ryan Noah Shapiro filed suit against the CIA in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Shapiro is studying in the university's Program in History, Anthropology, & Science, Technology, and Society, and is a prolific FOIA filer.
Shapiro, according to his filing that popped up on PACER Wednesday morning, filed multiple FOIA requests with federal agencies within days of Mandela's death last December.
"Though the U.S. intelligence community is long believed to have been involved in Mandela's (1962) arrest, little specific public information exists regarding this involvement," Shapiro wrote. "Similarly, though the U.S. intelligence community is long understood to have routinely provided information to the South African regime regarding the anti-apartheid movement more broadly, little specific public information exists about these activities either."
Represented by Jeffrey L. Light, Shapiro is seeking whatever relevant documents exist, as well has expedited handling of his request.