Posted on 12/20/2006 5:52:03 AM PST by ShadowDancer
Secret John Lennon Files Released By FBI
Documents Conclude Former Beatle Wasn't Serious Threat
POSTED: 7:35 am EST December 20, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- The FBI has released its final surveillance documents on John Lennon to a university historian who has waged a 25-year legal battle to obtain the secret files.
The 10 pages contain new details about Lennon's ties to leftist and anti-war groups in London in the early 1970s, but nothing indicating government officials considered the former Beatle a serious threat, historian Jon Wiener told the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday's editions.
The FBI had unsuccessfully argued that an unnamed foreign government secretly provided the information, and releasing the documents could lead to diplomatic, political or economic retaliation against the United States.
The newly released documents include a surveillance report stating that two prominent British leftists had courted Lennon in hopes that he would finance "a left-wing bookshop and reading room in London" but that Lennon gave them no money.
Another page states that there was "no certain proof" that Lennon had provided money "for subversive purposes."
"I doubt that Tony Blair's government will launch a military strike on the U.S. in retaliation for the release of these documents," Wiener told the newspaper. "Today, we can see that the national security claims that the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning."
Wiener first requested the documents in 1981, several months after he decided to write a book about Lennon following the singer's murder.
He initially obtained some documents, but the FBI withheld numerous files, saying they contained national security information and were exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
Wiener sued the government and received a number of files in 1997 as part of a settlement with the FBI. Justice Department lawyers continued to withhold the final 10 pages until a federal judge in 2004 ordered their release.
The previously released files showed that the FBI closely monitored Lennon from 1971 to 1972.
So what?
How very profound. Thank you.
I don't understand why the government insisted on keeping this secret for so long. If the Lennon surveillance didn't amount to much, why not just give the author the files when he first asked for them?
Geez, why not just say "the dog ate the files"? It wouldn't be any more absurd, and at least they'd get points for having a sense of humor about the whole embarassment.
But they got caught at least once admitting that they wanted to stay because New York was *the* place to be for creative people like themselves.
If Lennon had abided by the INS's decisions,he'd still be alive today.
And might I add who cares?
No. Really. Who cares? This is meaningless in the scheme of things. I certainly don't. Why do you?
We have so many "important" issues to take care of dontcha know.
So he really WAS just a washed-up dopehead hippie?
Just to piss him off.
That's what it is, I'm afraid. I wonder how much this cost the petitioner and the government in legal fees, or just plain "time"?
But is Paul dead or isn't he?
Just a Dork married to one of the ugliest women in the world.
Take that back!...hippies have nothing to do with washing...
Here's another clue for you all:
The walrus was Paul.
At a minimum its an example of what government-including ours-is all about and thats power.If they do this with something so ridiculously insignificant, what are they doing with the important stuff?
So are you and yet, here you still are.
The FBI doesn't want us to forget who's in charge.
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