Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) doctoral candidate Ryan Shapiro filed a lawsuit in a Washington, D.C. federal court March 25 against several U.S. intelligence agencies for their failure to cough up documents related to world-renowned anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela.

The National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have not complied with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for records about the spy agencies’ alleged involvement in Mandela's 1962 arrest and his placement on the U.S. terror watch list until 2008, among other things, Shapiro said.

“I think it will be explosive if we can get evidence that the CIA was involved in Mandela’s arrest,” the 38-year-old social rights activist said.