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.
I have no problem with people posting to my threads, that's pretty much the idea behind posting them. Your 'post', as it were, was worthless. It wasn't a disagreement with the article, it was two words that sounded like a playground retort. And once again, I didn't insult you. You stated the article was insignificant in the scheme of things, I said as were you. In a world of 6.5 billion people, I hardly think that point is up for argument with anyone except your mom.
Imagine there's no substance. It's easy if you spy.
If I'm not mistaken, Lennon was fairly ambivalent in his politics. Many of the high-caliber lefties wanted him to be more active, but he saw it more as a farce than anything else.
Imagine that...
| Merry Christmas from Olive, and the rest of the herd ^ |
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| Posted by ShadowDancer to dakine On News/Activism ^ 12/18/2006 8:30:39 AM EST · 75 of 108 ^ Calling someone an idiot or a moron really does not add to the intellect discussion we are striving for. Boy, I can't stand when people do that. Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies |
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The entire reason I posted that to him was sarcasm. I have no problem calling someone an idiot if they deserve it. However, I didn't do that to you because I don't think you deserve it. Yet. Hahahaha. Just kidding.
LOL. Have a Merry Christmas and watch out for the FBI. They just might be watching you.
Thank you. Merry Christmas to you, too.
I'm actually rather glad to see this.
I don't like the guy's politics, but if he wasn't that involved, I can't hate him any more than the liberal down the street.
OTOH, apparently they only investigated for 2 years. Doesn't mean things were not happening earlier or later.
No. Really. Who cares? This is meaningless in the scheme of things. I certainly don't. Why do you?
__________
Clearly you do care. The evidence is incontrovertible. You came onto the thread, read it, and are posting comments. Wouldn't you have passed right over it if you didn't care?
I would rather know about John Kerry and his FBI file from that era.
Almost anyone in the music business today.
I must be a spy ... or a closet socialist ... or a commie or something ... I had the audacity to have been discharged from my three year Army stint in 1967 and entered pschodelia, drugs, mini skirts, sex, sex, drugs and sex and the Beatles and the Stones and ...
enjoyed just about every friggin' minute of it.!
Hell ... every friggin' group back then was some kind of political ... it was the friggin' 60's ferKrisake!
Angst ! You're all pissed off because you missed 'em .... heh heh heh.
And we can't tell you .... ya' had to have been there.
In light of a lot of today's democrats - some who are card-carrying members of the socialists party, some who visiting foreign potentates...well, I wish the FBI would step over their "bounds" a bit more often.
Whatever these documents proved or did not prove about John Lennon, the FBI should investigate known socialists. If they don't..look what we get. Socialists as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Or am I being too simplistic?
What exactly do you think the FBI should have done about Pelosi?
"What kind of country is this where John Lennon gets six bullets in the chest, and Yoko is standing right next to him, and not one single f'ing bullet? Explain that to me." - Dennis Leary
"I quote John Lennon, 'I don't believe in Beatles... I just believe in me.' A good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus, I'd still have to bum rides off of people." - Ferris Bueller
Wow ... so many negative comments about John Lennon.
I must be a spy ... or a closet socialist ... or a commie or something ... I had the audacity to have been discharged from my three year Army stint in 1967 and entered pschodelia, drugs, mini skirts, sex, sex, drugs and sex and the Beatles and the Stones and ...
enjoyed just about every friggin' minute of it.!
Hell ... every friggin' group back then was some kind of political ... it was the friggin' 60's ferKrisake!
Angst ! You're all pissed off because you missed 'em .... heh heh heh.
And we can't tell you .... ya' had to have been there.
Thanks for bringing a little fresh air into this.
By the time of his death he actually flirted with conservatism. Supposedly, he told his agent in 1980 that Reagan would win and would be America's best president in a very long time.
Other interesting info:
http://www.nationalreview.com/rice/rice200512080829.asp
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