A file kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the late author and scholar Christopher Hitchens was released this week, revealing that he was, in his earlier years, the target of an FBI foreign counterintelligence investigation.

The documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. They also show that Hitchens was monitored by the FBI in his youth while he toured American universities, and the nation’s top law enforcement bureau even kept notes on his early political leanings.