"It's embarassing that the FBI spent hundreds or thousands of hours around on bugging, tailing him with our tax dollars."
The agents involved probably had a heck of a good time while the were doing the surveillance.
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If you would read the FBI files you would discover that none of this happened.
Lennon was never bugged. In fact, his case was only opened because of the discovery he had given radicals with past convictions for disrupting conventions (the Chicago 7) the money to start a group that promised to do the same thing to the GOP in 1972 as they did to the DNC in 1968.
These people included Jerry Rubin and other luminaries, many of whom were active Communists.
During this time Lennon was fighting deportation and lying about being in this country to try to find Yoko's "kidnapped child."
Maybe Lennon realized that his involvment with this group would guarantee his deportation. But for whatever reason, he soon broke off contact with this group.
And once he stopped his involvement with them the FBI closed their case against him.
In fact, the FBI's interest in Lennon only lasted a very brief time. His file is thick because they continued to stick stuff in it that they were sent by the INS and just regular folks.
But their actual "survellence" of Lennon was very brief.
"But their actual "survellence" of Lennon was very brief."
I meant to add: from at the earliest March 1972 to August 1972.
"During this time Lennon was fighting deportation and lying about being in this country to try to find Yoko's 'kidnapped child.'"
You're right that this was one of Yoko's fairy tales. Yoko felt more accepted as an artist in New York and she wanted to keep John away from his Liverpool family and friends, especially his ex-bandmates. Taxes were also a reason John chose to live in the US. There was a Rolling Stone article during the period John and Yoko separated where John's lawyer, Harold Seider, confirmed that John was a tax exile.