John Lennon

FBI may be forced to reveal all on Lennon

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles

03 October 2004

The last few classified pages of John Lennon's controversial FBI file may soon see the light of day after a court rejected the argument that they could compromise relations with an unnamed foreign power - widely assumed to be Britain.

The ruling, by a federal judge in Los Angeles, marked the latest victory in a 21-year struggle by a southern California history professor to bring out the truth about the former Beatle and the FBI, which was put on his tail by the Nixon administration during the heated 1972 presidential election campaign.

Jon Wiener, who teaches at the University of California in Irvine, believes the missing 10 pages are in fact MI5 files detailing Lennon's political activities in Britain in 1970 and 1971. Their content, he says, is not as important to the US government as the fact that they originated with a foreign intelligence service, which the FBI is keen to protect.

Judge Robert Takasugi ruled that the FBI's arguments in court were too vague. The FBI now has 60 days to appeal, and, if it does, the final release of the documents could still be delayed or denied.

Professor Wiener, however, was optimistic his long campaign is almost over: "My hope is, since the FBI has some very important jobs to do these days, that they would not spend their time and resources protecting the secrecy of 30-year-old documents about a dead rock star."

The FBI has declined all comment.

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