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A university historian finally forced the FBI to turn in the last 10 documents they had on John Lennon. Jon Weiner, who has waged a 25-year legal battle, immediately posted the documents on his website on Wednesday.

Though some files were released on Weiner's initial request, the FBI held 10 documents back on national security grounds, claiming that they "can reasonably be expected to ... lead to foreign diplomatic, economic and military retaliation against the United States," according to a government brief filed in 1983.

"The content of the files released today is an embarrassment to the US government," said Wiener, 62, who has written two books on the late Beatle, "Come Together: John Lennon in His Time" and "Gimme Some Truth: the John Lennon FBI Files."

"I doubt that Tony Blair's government will launch a military strike on the US in retaliation for the release of these documents. Today, we can see that the national security claims that the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning," said Wiener.

The now-released files reveal that then-FBI Director J Edgar Hoover wrote to HR Haldeman, former president Richard Nixon's chief of staff, that "Lennon had taken an interest in 'extreme left-wing activities in Britain' and is known to be a sympathizer of Trotskyist communists in England."

Another document revealed that Lennon had been courted by British left-wingers but resisted joining any organization and rejected requests for funds to open a book shop "despite a long courtship by Blackburn and Ali." It had been totally blacked out on the grounds of national security when Wiener obtained it more than 20 years ago through litigation.

Lennon "apparently resisted the attempts of any particular group to secure any hold over him," the document said. Another page states that there was "no certain proof" that Lennon had provided money "for subversive purposes." Another describes an interview with Lennon published in 1971 in an underground London newspaper called the Red Mole. "Lennon emphasized his proletarian background and his sympathy with the oppressed and underprivileged people of Britain and the world," the document says.

Wiener first requested the documents in 1981, several months after he decided to write a book about Lennon following the singer's murder. Wiener sued the government and received a number of files in 1997 as part of a settlement with the FBI. Wiener lost the initial court skirmishes, but in 1991 he won a major victory in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that declarations filed by FBI agents provided inadequate grounds for keeping the material secret. From that point forward, the court ruled, the FBI had to file "affidavits containing sufficient detail" to allow Wiener to "intelligently advocate" for their release and for a trial judge "to intelligently judge the contest," reports LA Times.

Justice Department lawyers continued to withhold the final 10 pages until a federal judge in 2004 ordered their release, reports AP. Only one document alludes to Lennon's music, saying he has "encouraged the belief that he holds revolutionary views [...] by the content of some of his songs."

"Give Peace a Chance", recorded in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War, marked Lennon’s transformation from loveable mop-top to anti-war activist, and began a process that culminated in 1972, when the Nixon Administration sought to silence him by ordering him deported from the US.

While his deportation battle was going on, Lennon spoke often against the Vietnam War, appearing at rallies in New York City and on TV shows, including a week hosting the Mike Douglas Show in February 1972, where Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale appeared as his guests. He was tailed by a team of FBI agents, who concluded "Lennon appears to be radically oriented however he does not give the impression he is a true revolutionist since he is constantly under the influence of narcotics," according to Wikipedia.

In the end, Nixon left the White House in the Watergate scandal, and Lennon stayed in the USA, winning his green card in 1975.

The FBI files on John Lennon were published at www.lennonfbifiles.com