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FBI Ordered to Turn Over Lennon Files

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the helter-skelter dept.

CatDogLordOfTheRoot writes "CNN is reporting that a U.S. District Judge rejected the governments arguements to keep the secret records of John Lennon sealed. The FBI argued that releasing the last ten pages would pose a risk to national security as a foreign government (not identified) secretly gave information to the US Government. Looks like another big step in the Freedom of Information Act."

14 of 396 comments (clear)

  1. Good news by PrvtBurrito · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There should be a law making all records public after a certain period of time (like copyright expiration). (fp?)

    --
    Laboratree - Scientific collaboration based on OpenSocial.
    1. Re:Good news by PrvtBurrito · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not true. Piles of secret information is buried constantly. Of course, there is public info, but there is very little civil war, mexican-american war or wwi info that is available.

      --
      Laboratree - Scientific collaboration based on OpenSocial.
    2. Re:Good news by bob+beta · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I posted some strong opinions once on a Slashdot account where I had my email address exposed.

      That email account is pretty much worthless now. Nothing of the kind has EVER happened due to all the USENET posts I have made with a public email address.

      There are some some really nasty and hostile elements involved in the threads on this site. It's a serious mistake to reveal an email address if you have any strongly held opinions.

      --
      "What's the frequency Kenneth?"
    3. Re:Good news by slashjames · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The Manhattan Project is not a very good example. Given the information currently available on the internet, it's relatively easy to design a 1st generation nuclear bomb (such as Fat Man or Little Boy). Even the information on how to refine Uranium and Plutonium isn't hard to find. The difficulty for anyone wanting to make a nuke is in getting ahold of the Uranium or Plutonium in the first place. After that, in under a year they'll have a bomb ready for use.

  2. Won't Be Long by geomon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And you will have to fight for the information that US security and intelligence agencies have accumulated on you.

    The problem with the USA Patriot Act is that it has an unintended consequence: While working under the guise of gathering information on terrorists (a good thing) a great deal more information is gathered on innocent individuals (a bad thing).

    Now before people start waving their arms around with "You've got nothing to worry about unless you've got something to hide", keep in mind that information can always be used for purposes other than stopping terrorism. Information can be used for political reasons as well.

    That is the problem with the USA Patriot Act. You will never know what information has been gathered on you, and you will never know if some *legal* activity, such as belonging to a political organization, will become a problem for you or your family in the future.

    Lennon may not have been right, he may have created political problems for the Nixon Administration, but he did everything in the open and legally.

    Look where it got him.

    --
    "Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
    1. Re: Won't Be Long by Black+Parrot · · Score: 3, Interesting


      > and why the United States has the strong tradition of limiting the power of the executive and subjecting everything to the possibility of judicial review.

      And unfortunately, we also have a strong tradition of spying on people who don't do what the powers that be want them to do. A few years back news came out that that the FBI had a 70 page file on a former president of the University of California, simply because he wouldn't fire a couple of professors that certain people thought were too liberal.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    2. Re:Won't Be Long by nightfire-unique · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Now before people start waving their arms around with "You've got nothing to worry about unless you've got something to hide", keep in mind that information can always be used for purposes other than stopping terrorism. Information can be used for political reasons as well.

      Forget political reasons. What if you do have something to hide?

      No, I'm serious. You're a criminal. I'm a criminal. We're all criminals. You've downloaded copyrighted movies/mp3s, he's smoked some drugs, she sat at the front of the bus, and I've driven 19mph over the speed limit.

      There are so many laws in America, it's simply a matter of whether someone gets caught.

      I for one am not interested in giving the "powers that be" any more control/surveillance capacity than they already have.

      --
      A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  3. What I wanna know is... by NeuroManson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why oh WHY are records sealed regarding, in essense, a celebrity civilian who's been dead for almost 24 years now?

    I mean I had my own conspiracy theory that it was due to the Reagan administration taking office, or a Manchurian Candidate situation, but hasn't the FBI figured out that hiding documents on cold cases long out of date only adds to the suspicion?

    --
    Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
  4. Lots of Data Collected by BisonHoof · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It is certainly true that the FBI were *very* interested in Lennon, especially during his "Marxist" phase, circa "Some Time in New York City". According to John Wiener ("Lennon vs the FBI" in Thomson and Gutman's "Lennon Companion") there is a 288 page file on Lennon in the FBIs "domestic security" section, of which 199 pages are still classfied "in the interests of defence of foregin policy", and thousands of pages in the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

  5. Re:Say What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This had nothing to do with his death. The FBI followed John Lennon because he had his own opinion of the war in Vietnam. So President Nixon had the FBI treat him like a national security risk.

    Sounds just like the current Administration.

  6. Maybe, just maybe.... STASI by Siriaan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The US government may be nervous about these documents due to the early Beatles stint in Germany. Could it be possible that the East German secret police, who almost certainly had informers throughout West Germany, may have passed on information at the request of the United States? Just imagine how embarrassing it would be for people to know that the US government were in cahoots at one time with possibly the most notorious policing force ever created.

  7. Re:Good news? Bad news by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What slashdotters don't get is that the government isn't out to get us.

    It's not that the government is out to get "us" per se, especially if by us you mean everyone in the U.S. The government is out to get anyone who interferes with its nefarious fucking schemes to grow into this cthulhuesque horror which consumes the whole nation. The federal government is the ultimate bureaucracy because you're not even allowed to sue it without permission! The government is not a single entity either but it is united in certain pursuits.

    What are those pursuits? For one, the poverty industry. Different parts of the government are more or less involved in different parts of the stratification of society for the purpose of employing more people in the government - which costs us all money. First there's the welfare system, which penalizes success by taking away help from the people who need it most - if you can't make the jump from poor to not poor in one step, the government will cut back your aid so that you stay poor. Next there's the War on Drugs - it employs thousands in law enforcement, corrections, and the judicial system, but ultimately it's harming the populace. It's modern-day prohibition, but the masses are happy enough with their alcohol and cigarettes that they won't (for the most part) do anything about it, so the system continues in its lovely little circles, helped along by our own Cocaine Import Agency.

    If you're one of the people who does anything the goverment doesn't like you to do, then it's not unreasonable to be paranoid.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  8. Re:Gee, I wonder WHICH country...? by Yaztromo · · Score: 4, Interesting
    maybe FUCKING ENGLAND? You losers... if there's one country besides the U.S. that had any information on John Lennon it's god damned brits. How sensitive is that really?

    Or possibly Canada. John Lennon spent a good deal of time in Canada doing things he wouldn't so in the US, like his and Yoko's North American bed-in (in Montreal), John and Yoko's "Live Peace in Toronto" concert, and the fact that he stayed with Ronnie Hawkins (IIRC) at a farm here in Ontario for some time.

    During those days the RCMP and Canadian police forces were keeping their eyes on rock stars (or at least so it seems to me). In 1977 Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) was arrested for Heroin possession.

    I wouldn't be too suprised if the RCMP collected some data on Lennon during his time here. What would suprise me is if the FBI would think that anyone here would care if such information were to be made public 24 years later.

    (To be honest though, England does seem to be the more probable source).

    Yaz.

  9. I quote thus by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

    Commissioner Pravin Lal
    "U.N. Declaration of Rights"

    --
    "I only speak the truth"
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