THE FBI has been ordered to hand over secret files on John Lennon to a professor who has waged a legal battle to get the documents for more than 20 years.
Jonathan Wiener, professor at the University of California, Irvine, sued the US government for the documents in 1983 under the Freedom of Information Act.
In 1997 he received 248 pages as part of a settlement, and later wrote a book: Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files. Yesterday, the US Supreme Court ordered the last ten pages of the files should also be released.
Los Angeles judge Robert Takasugi rejected arguments that releasing the last 10 pages would pose a national security risk.
Lawyers for the US Government argued there was a risk because the information was secretly provided by a foreign government, which was not publicly identified. Wiener, a historian, originally sought the files for his 1984 book, Come Together: John Lennon in His Time.
The previously released files, gathered from 1971 to 1972, include memos detailing Lennon's donations to a group planning to demonstrate at the 1972 Republican National Convention.
They contain no allegations that Lennon was involved in planning or committing illegal acts. Meanwhile, priceless John Lennon memorabilia will be on display in Liverpool.
The collection, which will be unveiled to the public by the former Beatle's half-sister Julia, opens next Tuesday at the Beatles Story at the Albert Dock.
It contains the handwritten lyrics to All You Need Is Love that Lennon used when the Beatles were watched by 400m viewers on the Our World programme in 1967, and the original bedspread from John and Yoko Ono's famous 1969 Montreal-based "Bed-In For Peace". ¦ SIR Paul McCartney has persuaded California governor Arnold Schwarzengger to sign a bill banning the force feeding of ducks and geese to make foi gras paté.
The former Beatle asked the Terminator star to support his campaign to ban the production of the French delicacy by 2012.
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