English: In the early 1970s, the US government conducted surveillance on ex-Beatle John Lennon. This is a letter from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to the Attorney General. After a 25-year Freedom of Information Act Request battle initiated by historian Jon Wiener, the files were released. Here is one page from the file. This first release received by Wiener had some information missing -- it had been blacked out presumably with magic marker -- or what is termed "redacted". A subsequent version was released which showed almost all of the previously blacked-out text.