Lennon too stoned to be a real threat, FBI

It was apparently with much relief that the FBI had a sudden revelation about the former Beatle John Lennon, back in 1972.

The agency had been fretting that the singer-turned-activist was preparing to disrupt the Republican National Convention in Miami. Then somebody said it: Lennon was far too stoned to be a real threat.

That conclusion is recorded in one of myriad files on dead celebrities released by the US Government this week. There has never been any secret about its preoccupation with Lennon after he arrived in America with his second wife, Yoko Ono, in 1971.

In one memorandum from 1972 an FBI agent writes that Lennon wanted a visa extension only so he could "engage in disruptive activities" surrounding the Republican convention that renominated Richard Nixon for a second term.

But an informant told the FBI that although Lennon "appears to be radically oriented", he did not give the impression of being seriously committed to any cause, "since he is constantly under the influence of narcotics".

- Independent