John Lennon's final FBI files released

The FBI has released the final documents pertaining to its early '70s surveillance of John Lennon. The Associated Press reported that the last ten pages of documents include a surveillance report which states that two "British leftists" were hoping to secure financing from Lennon to start a "a left-wing bookshop and reading room in London," but that the bureau had "no certain proof" that Lennon had supplied the leftists with any money.

The final ten pages of files caps the efforts of law professor and Lennon author Jon Weiner, who first requested to see the FBI's file on Lennon in 1981 for research. In 1983, after only receiving a small portion of the voluminous file, Weiner sued the government for the release of most of Lenon's FBI files under the Freedom of Information Act. The case, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, was finally settled in 1997 when Weiner received 248 pages of FBI files.

Weiner spoke about the files release to The Los Angeles Times, joking that, "I doubt that Tony Blair's government will launch a military strike on the U.S. in retaliation for the release of these documents. Today, we can see that the national security claims that the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning."

Weiner's research in his books on Lennon's immigration battle, 1984's Come Together: John Lennon In His Time and 1997's Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files, served as the basis for the recent documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon.

John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were under constant surveillance after moving to the U.S. in the fall of 1971. Although the government at the time used Lennon's 1968 conviction for marijuana possession and an expired work visa as the basis for his deportation case, Weiner's 1984 book proved that the moves taken to get rid of Lennon were entirely politically motivated.

Lennon's deportation fight began in early March 1972, due to the couple's outspoken comments on the Vietnam war and the Nixon administration, as well as their involvement with such radical counter-culture spokesmen Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Huey Newton.

Lennon fought successfully to remain in the U.S., and on July 27th, 1976 he was finally awarded his "green card."
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