Portrait dated 10 January 1951 in Washington of J. Edgar Hoover head of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Hoover proposed imprisoning 12,000 Americans in 1950 and suspending their right to habeas corpus because they were AP - Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a plan to suspend the rules against illegal detention and arrest up to 12,000 Americans he suspected of being disloyal, according to a newly declassified document.