Hoover wanted to arrest 12,000 US citizens

FORMER FBI director J Edgar Hoover drew up a list of thousands of US citizens he suspected of being disloyal and put forward a plan to have them arrested, newly declassified papers reveal.

He wanted to suspend the rules against illegal detention and arrest up to 12,000 people, according to the 1950 document.

Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, less than two weeks after the Korean War began.