informant ernest withers the celebrated civil rights photographer in memphis turned out he was informant he was providing information on king's organization and what we saw is a use of informants that gave the f.b.i. eyes and ears into these organizations and at some times in some ways tried to undermine them and i think you know. it's interesting to know kind of the historical context of informants under hoover you know when hoover was the f.b.i. director the f.b.i. had fifteen hundred informants which are registered informants on the books these are people who have been vetted and are working with the f.b.i. in some capacity when the f.b.i. took on drug crimes in the eighty's that used to be that was exclusively the domain of the d.a. in the eighty's they brought under reagan the f.b.i. was allowed to take on drug crimes and that that caused the f.b.i. ranks to swell to six thousand and what we have today though as a result of a form six thousand and four meant we have today though as a result of a presidential directive under george w. bush in response to nine eleven it's fifteen thou