Free at Last: John Lennon’s Secret FBI File is Finally Open
Perhaps his spirit will be freed now that he is no longer classified as “secret”.
The US government’s classification system is out of control and has been for some time now. Of course there are any number of files that need to be kept secret, but in a free society that number should be as small as possible.
It takes but a few seconds to mark a document ‘Secret”. Yet, as we see from this LA Times article, it took 25 years for that stamp to be removed from FBI files concerning John Lennon. Now that they have seen the light of day, it is a real head scratcher to understand the delay.
But it is not difficult to understand this propensity to over classify. In the moment it is the safest way for a government official to go. All too often now, documents are classified to hide embarrassment, and possibly official misconduct, or at least conduct that would raise an eyebrow or two, and possibly a congressional hearing or two.
While much of this over classification process is the result of huge bureaucratic inertia, it serves another purpose as well – it hinders and at times squelches civic engagement. It works like this: In a secretive culture, where those in power are also those in the know, it is all too easy for an official to say, “If only you knew all the facts…” Implicit in this argument is a “Trust me, I’m from the government” proposition. Also, unspoken in this assertion is the fact that the reason I may not have all the facts is because that very same official may well be the one preventing me from having all the facts.
The more secrets a government holds on to, the more difficult it is to have meaningful civil conversations, and civic engagements. As meaningful dialogue diminishes in the political culture, there is a tendency for people to become more positioned, and then more defensive.
The over classification f public documents, while not he cause of this coarsening of public discourse, is certainly a contributor to its erosion.
Complete description and images of the newly released files are here.
Update: One positive note on the declassification front (from the POR) reminds us of the witching hour that is coming for many bureaucrats. At midnight on December 31st millions of classified documents 25 years old or more (except those specifically retained by federal agencies) will be automatically declassified. Here is that article.