FBI Ordered to Turn Over Lennon Files

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."

Yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like another big step in the Freedom of Information Act

Imagine!

I, for one, am intrigued by the information

[Chairboy]

I look forward to reading the released documents. I believe a 'Sargeant Pepper' may be the foreign national in question, and I think it's high time he produce answers.

Re:Good news

[BlackEyedSceva]

Most of the time information becomes public anyway. There is no need for a LAW to do this.

One of many revelations in the FBI files....

[Anonymous Coward]

the walrus was Paul.

Beatles?

[BenSpinSpace]

Hey Judge Don't let me down Take a security threat And make it better Remember, for all the harm that you do Screw the FBI, and be a trendsetter

I can see it now.

[Artie_Effim]

Yoko, instead of being a super-royal-bitch who is single handedly responsiable for breaking up the greatest band of that era, was in fact a defected spy master, living in annomity amounget the illuminati.

Re:Good news

[DAldredge]

Yes there is. Our goverment should not keep secrets from the public any longer than necessary. Except for the case of REAL national security matters, and the penalty for classifying something too high should be 1-5 years in prison per page.

Confidential:

[Sophrosyne]

Yoko Ono is really an alien... do not look her directly in the eyes.

You're right,

[empaler]

I'm reading up on the FBI files on the JFK assassination atm... oh, wait.

Re:Confidential:

[DAldredge]

Screw that! Do NOT under any circumstance listen to the Audio Weapon she calls 'singings'.

Death, or worse a love of techno, may result.

He he

[Basehart]

All I know is that you cannot lead if you send mexxed missages.

someone post a link to the files and receive

[Savatte]

Instant Karma

Re:Say What?

[Anonymous Coward]

And all along I thought Mark David Chapman was a guy. I guess it explains a lot if he was really just an ugly chick with a guys name.

Here's the top secret...

[simetra]

The Walrus Was Paul.

I've already seen them...

[jcostantino]

Saw them already, Greedo shot first.

Re:I can see it now.

[Pfhorrest]

1) Greatest band ever. Sadly, White Zombie didn't make the final cut.
2) responsible.
3) anonymity.
3) amongst
Sorry to be such a pedant. One or two errors, I could overlook. Four became too egregious to ignore. After that, I kinda stopped counting...

Were you trying to be funny there, or it it just the irony?

Well...

[iamdrscience]

a U.S. District Judge rejected the governments arguements to keep the secret records of John Lennon sealed.

Well, I for one, am looking forward to hearing a new John Lennon album because honestly, Imagine and the Wedding Album are getting a little stale. Still though, I understand the FBI wanting to keep it sealed, I mean, imagine the resale value of something like that, it has to be like 5 times a butcher cover of Yesterday and Today.

Re: Say What?

[Black Parrot]

> I never got into them more then listening to thier music a couple of times.

I presume that disclaimer was for the FBI's benefit...

Found it

[Sloppy]

Turns out FBI was using an old version of wu-ftp server. I got in and found what this is all about. It is indeed a threat to national security. Here's an exerpt:

Imagine there's no countries,

It isn't hard to do

If there are no countries, there's no USA. There is also some evidence of a communist plot that Lennon was involved with, which would have us all with no possessions, "sharing" all the world. Defeating the Soviets came at a prodigious price. We can't afford to let this plot reactivate or we'll have to fight it all over again.

Imagine there's no country.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's easy if you try.

Re:I, for one, am intrigued by the information

[ConceptJunkie]

ObSimpsons reference:

Well we all know that the Beatles were subliminally recruiting for the U.S. military.

Re:Good news

[Anonymous Coward]

So what? 435 years is NOT unreasonable.

What is my incentive to create if my great-great-great-great-great grand children can't sit on their asses living off my royalties? That's the new lazy american dream!

Re:Beatles?

[robbyjo]

It's more like "Let It Be"

When I find myself in times of trouble
The FBI comes to me
Speaking terrorism, let it be...

Re:Won't Be Long

[xs650]

"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)."

If you believe that was a fully unintended consequence, I own a long suspension bridge north of San Francisco to sell you.

Lost Lennon/Cat Stevens collaboration

[ic0wb0y]

This is linked to the recent Cat Stevens deportation. What nobody picked up on is that he came to the US to meet with an RIAA attorney. According to insiders, FBI agents stole the Cat Stevens-John Lennon tapes in 1980 from Lennons apartment. When the unsuspecting Lennon showed up, he had to be distracted by drugged stoolie Mark Chapman as evasive action. Chapman went 'roidal and agents left out the back door with the material. If these secret documents are released, the RIAA will sue the FBI for millions for illegally obtaining and withholding copyrighted material and easily win. I can see why the Government is being this protective.

Delaying tactic

[M. Silver]

They're just stalling while they reprint them without the proportional font and superscripts.

I got the files!

[benjonson]

Good news folks: the files were released under the Freedom of Information Act. I just got them. Here they are:

The ambassador from [blacked out] assured [blacked out] that Mr. Lennon gave [blacked out] to [blacked out].

Thank God that's all out in the open now.

Re:Good news

[anthony_dipierro]

Good 'n old Security by Obscurity, aka "National Security". It leaves us all with that warm feeling that nothing is going to happen. Unfortunately, it rarely works, as malfeasants usually have other means of gaining access to the information.

I notice you don't have your email address listed. Is there a reason for that?

Re:the reason?

[BLAG-blast]

John Lennon had some potential political influence and that made him a target, especially because he was a scumbag hippie type.

That's not why he has a file, it was because John Lennon was a seceret agent for MI6, feeding very unhelpful/false information to American Intellegence departments. This was part of an attempt to stem US world domination by keeping it locked in the cold war and keeping econimy suppressed....

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Nothing to see here...

[cliveholloway]

These "secret records" were kept hidden to protect the public. Apparently they were titled, "Yoko Ono - unplugged (Vo1. 1 to 10)".

Imagine the Aural pain that would ensue if these were ever "released".

cLive ;-)

Re:Exemptions

[Oddly_Drac]

"There are nine exemptions to the FOI Act in which an agency can refuse to disclose information."

Are any 'embarrassment'?