An American professor has scored a legal victory in an LA court that could force the FBI to hand over their files on John Lennon. Professor Jonathan Wiener has being trying to secure the release of intelligence papers on the former Beatle since shortly after his death in 1980. The papers were mainly gathered in the seventies when Lennon was vocal in his opposition to the Vietnam War.
Wiener, working with the American Civil Liberties Union, previously secured the release of 200 pages of the Lennon file, and they provided the source to his 2000 book 'Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI File'. The agency held back on the rest of the file on the basis that it included intelligence shared with the US by another country in confidence. That is likely to be information passed to the FBI by MI5 in the UK. But the courts this week rejected that excuse and demanded the full file be released. The US government now has 60 days to appeal.
Commenting on the case Weiner told reporters this week: "The issue has become government secrecy and the absurdity that, today, when the FBI should have better things to do they are still trying to keep secret 34-year-old documents about the anti-war activities of a dead rock star."
Among the revelations in the previously released FBI files on Lennon were President Nixon's attempts to have the singer deported because of his anti-war activities. Weiner says: "Lennon was planning a national concert tour through the United States to urge young people to vote. Nixon got wind of this and ordered Lennon to be deported so he couldn't do this concert tour."
Of course, if the FBI is still building files on anti-war pop stars who are urging young people to vote out the current president - well, they must be very busy.