Front Page Tuesday, June 29, 1999 Published at 10:42 GMT 11:42 UK

World
World: Americas
UK
UK Politics Timothy Leary was FBI
Business Africa | Americas | Asia-
informer Pacific | Europe | Middle
Sci/Tech East | South Asia
Health
Education Internet Links
Sport The Smoking Gun
Entertainment FBI
Talking Point
The BBC is not responsible for
In Depth the content of external internet
sites.
On Air
Black out: sensitive passages are made illegible before release
Archive
Timothy Leary, the counter-culture guru of the Sixties,
In this section
who urged his generation to "tune in, turn on, drop out"
informed on friends and helpers in order to get out of jail From Business
Feedback Microsoft trial mediator
Low Graphics
early.
appointed
Help
That is the picture that emerges from Federal Bureau of Safety chief deplores
Investigation documents now published on the Internet. crash speculation
From Entertainment
Taxman scoops a million
When Timothy Leary died
Violence greets Clinton
from prostate cancer in 1996
visit
at the age of 76, obituary
writers focused on his Bush outlines foreign
experimentation with drugs, policy
his counter-culture history, Boy held after US school
and how Mr Leary chronicled shooting
his slow death via the
Internet. Memorial for bonfire dead
Senate passes US
The former Harvard professor budget
of psychology had preached
Timothy Leary advocated drugs New constitution for
anti-establishment slogans
all his life Venezuela
all his adult life.
North Korea expels US
But after he was jailed on narcotics charges in 1974, Mr 'spy'
Leary began cooperating with FBI agents investigating Hurricane Lenny abates
his 1971 escape from a California prison.
UN welcomes US paying
dues
He had been helped by members of the radical Weather
Underground group to escape from the jail and, after Chavez praises 'advanced'
hiding in a series of safe houses, he was smuggled out constitution
of the country with the help of a false passport and other In pictures: Castro strikes
fake documents provided by the Weathermen. out Chavez
WTO: arbitration in EU-
Change of heart
Ecuador banana dispute

After being extradited from Switzerland and returned to a Colombian army chief
US jail, Mr Leary decided to cooperate. He told FBI says rebels defeated
agents this was not only because he wanted to be Colombian president
released, but also because he had developed a desire for lambasts rebels
a collaborative and honourable relationship with law
enforcement officers.

"I want get out of prison as quickly as I can," he told the

investigators. "And I believe that telling the total truth is
the best way to get out of prison."

"I prefer to work, I'm never going at it illegally ever again,"

Mr Leary continued in his statement, " but I would prefer
to work constructively and collaboratively with
intelligence and law enforcement people who are willing
to forget the past."

Mr Leary justified his decision by saying he wanted to

continue contributing to public debates.

"I still have a lot to say ... it's part of a longer range plan
of mine," he said according to the documents.

His evidence does not

appear to have led to any
arrests or convictions,
although at the time the
 investigators were convinced
it would contribute to the US
government's fight against
the so-called New Left.

"All parties are agreed that

the interview provides the
basis for some federal action
Government support for a
against culpable principals
reduction of the jail term
and conspirators in this and
other matters," concludes the FBI report.

Much of it involved naming members of the Weathermen

and detailing their role in his escape.

The names are blacked out in the files, made public on a

Website called 'The Smoking Gun', which is dedicated to
digging out old government documents.

Search
Advanced options | Search tips

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage | ©