http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=565
Who Killed John Lennon? By John W. Whitehead
12/1/2008
"You gotta remember, *establishment*, it's just a name for evil. The monster
doesn't care whether it kills all the students or whether there's a
revolution. It's not thinking logically, it's out of control." -- John
Lennon (1969)
In recent years, there have been countless stories about the U.S. government
abusing its surveillance powers. They range from government agents listening
in on the telephone calls of American citizens to the FBI harassing innocent
people over their free speech rights for simply criticizing the government.
And once some government bureaucrat decides to focus on a certain person,
the data files are collected and civil liberties are undermined. This type
of behavior, however, has been going on for a long time. Such was the
relentless harassment and government stalking of John Lennon. It is not only
a chilling tale of paranoia and abuse of power, it is also a lesson for our
times.
In December 1971 at a concert in Ann Arbor, Mich., Lennon took to the stage
and in his usual confrontational style belted out "John Sinclair," a song he
had written about a man sentenced to 10 years in prison for possessing two
marijuana cigarettes. Within days of Lennon's call for action, the Michigan
Supreme Court ordered Sinclair released.
What Lennon did not know at the time was that FBI agents were in the
audience, taking notes on everything from the attendance (15,000) to the
artistic merits of his new song. The U.S. government was spying on Lennon.
Supposedly, the goal was to collect enough information to have him deported.
By March 1971, when his "Power to the People" single was released, it was
clear where Lennon stood. Having moved to New York City that same year,
Lennon was ready to participate in political activism against the U. S.
government, the "monster" that was financing the war in Vietnam.
It certainly helped that Lennon was a natural in the spotlight, with one of
the most recognizable faces in the world. And with the Beatles' break-up,
Lennon began doing his own thing, posing for publicity photos, decked out in
Japanese riot gear and singing "Say you want a revolution, We better get it
on right away, Well you get on your feet, And into the street."
Lennon had learned early on that rock music could serve a political end by
proclaiming a radical message. More importantly, he saw that his music could
mobilize the public. For example, on November 15, 1969, during a peace rally
in Washington, DC, Pete Seeger led nearly half a million demonstrators in
singing Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" at the Washington Monument. "The
people started swaying their bodies and banners and flags in time," Seeger
later recalled, "several hundred thousand people, parents with their small
children on their shoulders. It was a tremendously moving thing."
The release of Lennon's *Sometime in New York City* album, which contained a
radical message in every song and depicted Richard Nixon and Chairman Mao
dancing together nude on the cover, only fanned the flames of the conflict
to come.
Government officials had been keeping strict tabs on the ex-Beatle they
referred to as "Mr. Lennon." But the official U.S. war against Lennon began
in earnest in 1972 when he was served with deportation orders. While the
orders were supposedly for a four-year-old marijuana conviction in Great
Britain, what Lennon didn't realize was that Nixon was personally driving
the effort to have him deported.
FBI files, made public after years of lawsuits, reveal the extent of the
Nixon Administration's efforts to "neutralize" Lennon. (However, while
ominous in tone, the term "neutralize"--as used by government agents--was
never really defined.) With FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover at the helm and
reporting to the Nixon White House about the FBI's surveillance of Lennon,
memos and reports had been flying back and forth between senators, the FBI
and the U.S. Immigration Office. Clearly forces were at work to "neutralize"
Lennon.
Nixon's pursuit of Lennon was relentless--and in large part based on the
misperception that Lennon and his comrades were planning to disrupt the 1972
Republican National Convention. The government's paranoia, however, was
misplaced.
Left-wing activists who were on government watch lists and who shared an
interest in bringing down the Nixon Administration had been congregating at
Lennon's New York apartment. But when they revealed that they were planning
to cause a riot, Lennon balked. As he recounted in a 1980 interview, "We
said, We ain't buying this. We're not going to draw children into a
situation to create violence so you can overthrow what? And replace it with
what? . . . It was all based on this illusion, that you can create violence
and overthrow what is, and get communism or get some right-wing lunatic or a
left-wing lunatic. They're all lunatics."
Despite the fact that Lennon was not part of the "lunatic" plot, the
government persisted in its efforts to have him deported. Finally, in 1976,
Lennon won the battle to stay in the country. As he said afterwards, "I have
a love for this country. This is where the action is."
Lennon's time of repose didn't last long, however. By 1980, he had
re-emerged with a new album and plans to become politically active again.
The old radical was back and ready to cause trouble. In his final interview
on Dec. 8, 1980, Lennon mused, "The whole map's changed and we're going into
an unknown future, but we're still all here, and while there's life there's
hope."
That very night, when Lennon returned to his New York apartment building,
Mark David Chapman was waiting in the shadows. As Lennon stepped outside the
car to greet the fans congregating outside, Chapman, in an eerie echo of the
FBI's moniker for Lennon, called out, "Mr. Lennon!" Lennon turned and was
met with a barrage of gunfire as Chapman--dropping into a two-handed combat
stance--emptied his .38-caliber pistol and pumped four bullets into his back
and left arm. Lennon stumbled, staggered forward and, with blood pouring
from his mouth and chest, collapsed to the ground.
John Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. He had finally
been "neutralized."
Who Killed John Lennon?
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