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Bush Says John Lennon Is Still a Security Threat
(Jon Wiener, Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2006)
The case of John Lennon's FBI files illustrates the federal government's obsession with secrecy, which it justifies with appeals to national security. . . . Lennon's story, told in the documentary "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," opening this week in Los Angeles, revolves around his plans to help register young people to vote in the 1972 presidential election, when President Nixon was running for reelection and the war in Vietnam was the issue of the day. Lennon wanted to organize a national concert tour that would combine rock music with antiwar protests and voter registration. Nixon found out about the plan, and the White House began deportation proceedings against Lennon. . . . It worked: Lennon never did the tour, and Nixon was reelected. . . . Along the way, the FBI spied on and harassed Lennon — and kept detailed files of its work. The bulk of them were released in 1997 under the Freedom of Information Act after 15 years of litigation. I was the plaintiff. . . . But the agency continues to withhold 10 documents in Lennon's FBI file on grounds that they contain "national security information provided by a foreign government." The name of the foreign government remains classified, though it's probably not Afghanistan. The FBI has argued that "disclosure of this information could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the national security, as it would reveal a foreign government and information provided in confidence by that government." . . . The Freedom of Information Act is necessary because Democrats and Republicans alike have secrets they want to keep — secrets about corruption and the abuse of power. But now the White House wants to shield information from with a new rationale for secrecy — protecting the homeland from terrorists. . . . The administration acknowledges that it has dramatically increased the number of documents classified "confidential," "secret" or "top secret." Between the time Bush took office in 2001 and 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available, that number has nearly doubled. In 2004 alone, 80 federal agencies deemed 15.6 million documents off-limits. And that figure doesn't include documents withheld by Vice President Dick Cheney, who refuses to report to the National Archives the number of documents his office classifies even though Bush's executive order requires him to do so. Cheney claims his office is exempt. . . . The administration's frenzy on secrets has led to documents being reclassified after having been in the public domain for decades — for example, the number of bombers and missiles the U.S. had in 1971. The same year that the FBI began its surveillance of Lennon, Nixon's secretary of Defense testified before Congress and displayed a chart showing the U.S. had 30 strategic bomber squadrons and 54 Titan and 1,000 Minuteman nuclear missiles. . . . Thirty-five years later, Bush officials blacked out that information in the public version of the secretary of Defense's 1971 report, claiming it is now a national security secret. About 55,000 pages of previously declassified material in the National Archives were edited this way, mostly by the Air Force and CIA.

posted by Lorenzo 6:10 AM