WASHINGTON — Before releasing its files to the public, the FBI reserves the right to edit out select words, sentences or paragraphs.

These would be parts of a file that might compromise national security, expose the FBI’s methods, or delve unnecessarily into a private life.

One policy — blacking out the names of family members — produced some comical redactions in the late Sen. Strom Thurmond’s FBI files, released last week.

A handwritten 1969 thank-you note to then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover on the letterhead of “Mrs. Strom Thurmond” closes with “Sincerely” — and then a BIG BLANK SPACE where Nancy Thurmond’s signature would have been.

In a 1979 note, then-FBI director William Webster thanks Thurmond for stopping by with his family for an FBI tour.

“I hope that on another occasion you and (BIG BLANK SPACE) will bring the children and stay for lunch with me,” he wrote. Once again, it seems “Mrs. Thurmond” gets chopped.

But in all 644 pages of Thurmond’s file released last week, our favorite edit is the picture of the Thurmond family the senator sent to then-FBI director Clarence Kelley for Christmas 1974.

In the FBI’s expurgated version, Nancy and the four children are nowhere to be seen. Neither is the senator’s body.

The censors were good enough to leave his head, though.

Go to http://www.thestate.com/ to read parts of Strom Thurmond’s FBI file for yourself.