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Byrd Files Show CIA Leak

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- The late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd obtained secret FBI documents about the civil rights movement that were leaked by the CIA, triggering an angry confrontation between the two agencies in the 1960s.

That's according to FBI records released in response to a Freedom of Information Act from The Associated Press.

Byrd died in June 2010 at age 92. In the mid-1960s, he was a vocal critic of some civil rights legislation. The records show Byrd sought the FBI intelligence while suspecting that communists and subversives were guiding the civil rights cause.

An internal CIA probe blamed two agency employees for the leak. The episode damaged Byrd's standing with FBI, but only briefly. Numerous documents depict Byrd as an outspoken champion of the FBI and then-Director J. Edgar Hoover.

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