[raybbr]

So what?

[Hemingway's Ghost]

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?

[steve-b]

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.

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.

[Gay State Conservative]

Saw a piece on Lennon's struggle with the INS recently.Lennon claimed repeatedly that they wanted to stay in the US so that they could look for Yoko's daughter who,it was claimed,had been "kidnapped" by her father.

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.

[unixfox]

We have so many "important" issues to take care of dontcha know.

[atomicpossum]

So he really WAS just a washed-up dopehead hippie?

[Thane_Banquo]

But is Paul dead or isn't he?

[sgtbono2002]

Just a Dork married to one of the ugliest women in the world.

[escapefromboston]

This is the best use of my taxes, to annoy a celebrity I mildly dislike.

[jimtorr]

I'd say the FBI did a good job stringing the case along until nobody cares. 25 years is the right length of time to declassify secrets, anyway.

The Brits were most likely the source of the information. Their Official Secrets Act is a bit different from ours. Something like the life of everyone concerned, plus 20 years. One of the people indirectly concerned, Yoko Ono, is still alive.

[EricT.]

Yoko Ono was a CIA plot to neutralize the Marxist threat that Lennon posed. < /tinfoil >

[Tribune7]

Imagine you're a limo lib.
married to a battle ax
And you hate the country to which you immigrated
So you wouldn't have to pay a tax.

You may say he's a schemer
Well, you're not the only one.

[subterfuge]

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.

"But if you want money for people with pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone, anyhow."---John Lennon on Revolution.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Another page states that there was "no certain proof" that Lennon had provided money "for subversive purposes."

Imagine there's no substance. It's easy if you spy.

[Hatteras]

Imagine that...

[the OlLine Rebel]

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.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Other than Bob Dylan, has anyone in history parlayed tone deafness into more musical fame than John Lennon?

[oldironsides]

I would rather know about John Kerry and his FBI file from that era.

[knarf]

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.

[caver]

"nothing indicating government officials considered the former Beatle a serious threat"

Smoking dope don't make you much of threat.