Sometimes I ’m more surprised by who does n’t have an FBI file than who does . Yesterday I got a letter from the FBI in reply to my Freedom of Information Act request for any records they might have on Ray Tomlinson , one of theinventors of email . They insist that he does n’t have a file .
I ’m not saying that Tomlinson ever did anything haywire or illegal that should ’ve attracted the attention of the FBI . But typically multitude who run on gamy - point , government - finance technology — as Tomlinson did while working atBBNas a DARPA contractor — get at least a brief once - over from the FBI .
Below , I ’ve compiled a short leaning of people about whom I ’ve submit FOIA postulation to the FBI , and have turned up nothing .
James Edward Baker , furor leader of The Source Family , better known asFather Yod ? No file .
Paul Baran , internet pioneerfrom RAND ? No file .
Paul F. Bennewitz , UFO detective andconspiracy theorist ? No file .
David Bowie , music legend?No file .
Gary Chapman , first executive director ofComputer Professionals for Social Responsibility ? No file .
Nicholas Constantine Christofilos , nuclear artillery physicist who worked onOperation Argus ? No filing cabinet .
Ray Eames , artist and co - designer of the Eames chair who work on various United States Information Agencypropaganda films ? No filing cabinet .
Henry Way Kendall , MIT physicist and member ofthe Jasons ? No single file .
Joseph Carl Robnett “ JCR ” Licklider , net pioneer ? Records destruct July 26 , 1988 .
Theodore H. Maiman , one of theinventors of the laser ? No file .
Roy Orbison , musician noted for the song “ Pretty Woman , ” and rumored white supremacist ? No file .
Eero Saarinen , Finnish - American architect and designer who turn on various US embassy around the world ? No data file .
W. Clement Stone , businessman and writer withstrong tiesto the Nixon White House ? No file .
David Wolper , TV and moving picture producer whose credits let in the 1964 infotainment “ Four Days in November ” about the JFK blackwash ? No file .
Now , of course of study , some of these are n’t so surprising . But others are a bit untrusting .
Many of the FBI files that I ’ve received over the years have little more than clearances for military project . And the fact that a man like Paul Baran , one of the most important and visionary inventors of the internet , does n’t have an FBI Indian file seems strange to me .
I judge the FBI ca n’t keep tabs on everybody .
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