September 30, 2004

Judge Orders FBI to Release Lennon Files

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 10:39 a.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The FBI must turn over the remaining secret files on Beatle John Lennon to a professor who has waged a more than 20-year legal battle to get the documents, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi rejected government arguments Tuesday that releasing the last 10 pages would pose a national security risk because a foreign government secretly provided the information. The government was not publicly identified.

Jonathan Wiener, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, sued the U.S. government for the documents in 1983 under the Freedom of Information Act. He received 248 pages in 1997 as part of a settlement.

The previously released files, which were gathered from 1971 to 1972, include memos detailing Lennon's donations to a group planning to demonstrate at the 1972 Republican National Convention. But they contain no allegations Lennon was involved in planning or committing illegal acts.

Wiener, a historian, originally sought the files for his 1984 book, ``Come Together: John Lennon in His Time.'' After the 1997 release, he wrote ``Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files.''

His battle with the government went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.