INQUIRY ON LENNON DISCLOSED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100150005-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 26, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 :CIA-RDP90-012
ARTICLE_A~~~AR~ NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE 26 June 198+
Inquiry on_ Lennon _ Disclose~c
~ LOS ANGELES, June 25 (UPI) -
' The Central Intelligence Agency joined
the Federal Bureau of Investigation in
~ gathering intelligence on John Lennon
because the agencies feared he would
disrupt the 1972 Republican National
Convention, according to a historian
,who has written about Mr. Lennon.
The intelligence agency asked the
bureau for information about Mr. Len-
non's ties to a group that was planning
demonstrations at the convention, the
historian, Jon Wiener, said Friday. He
cited previously classified documents
he obtained under the Freedom of In-
forasation Ad. '
Mr. Wiener said that in one of five
heavily censored documents released
by the intelligence. agecy, J. Edgar
Hoover, the F.B.I Director, wrote that
the investigation of Mr. Cannon's anti-
war activities "must be handled on an
expedite basis and by mature, experi-
enced agents."
Mr. Wiener requested the documents
as Fart of his research for a recently
'. pub'ished book on Mr. Lennon, the for-
,.mer BesUe who was slain in 1980. Mr.
;Wiener said he received 26 pounds of
F.B.I. and Immigration and Naturali-
zation Service documents last year.
But Mr. Wiener said the bureau with-
held some documents in the Lennon file
for national security reasons. He sued
the agency in 1983 for release of materi-
als. At a hearing in March, Federal
District Judge Robert M. Takasugi or-
dered the bureau to justify why it was
withholding any Lennon material.
"This is the first acknowledgement
by the C.I.A. that the agency also par-
ticipated in the Nixon era campaign to
neutralize Lennon's antiwar activi-
ties, said Mr. Wiener, a professor at
the University of California, Irvine.
~~ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/22 :CIA-RDP90-012088000100150005-2