Informants have been part of the intelligence operations of the Bureau from its earliest days. The first document in the administrative control file on informants is a June 1, 1922, document from El Paso, Texas, requesting permission to pay "Y Four Hundred" $4 per day to report on "new revolutionary activities [in] Mexico." In 1929 J. Edgar Hoover instructed the Headquarters file room to "maintain a separate and distinct file for the purpose of placing therein the names of confidential informants who furnish the "Bureau with information.... The names of confidential informants must not be placed in the regular investigative files." Apparently the intial response was to establish a confidential informant file for each Field Office where the names of the informants of the office were filed. In 1934 Hoover instructed the Bureau to prepare a "detailed memorandum" on each individual informant, "setting forth not only the case in which the informant has been employed and the amount paid." This information was to be kept in one place for ready reference. Out of these increasing needs for controls grew the Headquarters files on informants, both the master administrative file in classification 66, the individual files in 62 and in other classifications (informant files were often filed in the classification on which the informant was providiing information, such as Espionage or Sabotage), and in the ledgers and "blue slips" recording payment. In addition there were a few Headquarters informants, for whom the Bureau had full control and whose records were maintained by Headquarters. The identification of such sources was to be sent to the Bureau by separate letter, with inner envelope marked "June" and outer envlope marked "Personal and Confidential" for the Director. The Bureau and the filed copies were both to be maintained under lock and key in separate confidential files. Such informants were under no circumstances to be identified on the administrative page of a report, but the page was to say that the source of the information would be "identified in a separate letter. Even these strengthened procedures did not meet the Bureau's need for control over informant files. On August 25, 1952, the Bureau instructed the field to use new category 134 for all files on security informants. All informal correspondence from an individual on whom a "main subversive file" in 100 or a similar classification existed was to continue to be filed there; however, any new informants were to be given 134 case numbers. Each informant would have an administrative file and a sub-file. The administrative file would contain the results to the background investigation of the informant, records of contacts, records of payments (if any), copies of status reports from the agent maintaining contact with the informant, and the identity of the source. The sub-file was to contain the information furnished by the informant, either in written form or orally to an agent who reduced it to writing. In Headquarters, may informant files were reclassified for control purposes into classification 66 during the 1950-52 period. The inauguration of classification 134 in the field caused Headquarters to reconsider this policy, and in March 1953 Headuqarters also began to use 134. At Headquarters only an administrative file was opened (the payroll office maintains a ledger on payments to each informant). Information contained in the sub-file in the field came to Headquarters in 2 ways: (1) the periodic reports from the Field Office that summarized the production of the informant during the period (beginning in 1955); (2) reports from agents on particular cases that included information obtained from the informant. Headquarters continued to be the control office for some informants, particularly thos "Bureau Sources" that are government agencies, either domestic or foreign. When the classification was established, it included the informants who provided information on extremist matters and subverisve organizations. In 1959 all security informants who furnished information exclusively about racist hate groups were redesignated as criminal informants in class 137. When classification 170 was established in 1960 the primary file location for extremists informants shifted there; however, numerous informants on radical matters whose files were open at the time 170 was established continued to have their information placed in 134. In the late 1960's and early 1970's informants on student activity formed a noticeable portion of the Bureau's interest, but by the mid to late 1970's the emphasis turns back to foreign counterintelligence. By 1969 the Bureau began to limit the use of the 134 classification. The field was instructed to open general files on persons contacted a security sources in 105, Internal Security - (Country). If there was an indication that espionage might be involved in the informant's information, the files should be opened in 65, Espionage - (Country). Files on all potential informants or double agents remained in 134. Following the 1971 break-in at the Media, Pa., Resident Agency, the Bureau tightened controls over the use of symbols in reporting on informants and the distribution and retention of information to resident agencies. This did not change the general pattern of handling informant files, but in 1974 the Bureau began to refocus the 134 class toward foreign counterintelligence. At that time all references to informants in the foreign counterintelligence area were discontinued and replaced with references to operational assets (OA) or informative assets (IA). In 1976 the Bureau discontinued the use of estremist and PROSAB informants and panel and confidential sources, all of which were filed in 134; if information continued to be received from any of these sources, a "66 (Dead)" file could be established. In addition, with the increasinly narrow focus on foreign counterintelligence, a number of informant files were reclassified into 137, Criminal Informants. The late 1970's was a time of reassessment and revision on the use of informants by the Bureau. In September 1978 Headquarters decided to revert completely to the use of logical categories for filing informant file (65, 100, 105, and so forth) rather than to concentrate the files in 134 and 137. The field continued to use 134 and 137 and both Field Offices and Headquarters were instructed to maintain all pending informant files in a confidential files area.
