Western Goals Foundation

Last updated

Western Goals Foundation
Formation1979
Founders Larry McDonald
John H. Rees
John K. Singlaub
Dissolved1986
51-024-1925
Legal status tax exempt
Purposeprivate intelligence agency
Headquarters 309A Cameron St.
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
United States

Western Goals Foundation was a private domestic intelligence agency active in the United States. [1] It was founded in 1979 by Major General John K. Singlaub, the publisher and spy John H. Rees, and Congressman Larry McDonald. [2] It went defunct in 1986 when the Tower Commission revealed it had been part of Oliver North's Iran–Contra funding network. [1]

Contents

History

After the Watergate and COINTELPRO scandals of the early 1970s, several laws were passed to restrict police intelligence gathering within political organizations and tried to make it necessary to demonstrate that a criminal act was likely to be uncovered by any intelligence gathering proposed. Many files on radicals, collected for decades, were ordered destroyed. The unintended effect of the laws was to privatize the files in the hands of 'retired' intelligence officers and their operatives. [1]

As a private foundation, Western Goals collected information about alleged subversives and passed the information to law enforcement officials, akin to a "mini-deep state". [2] According to former employees, agencies receiving information from Western Goals included the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, and police departments. [2]

John Rees and Larry McDonald joined with Major General Singlaub to form Western Goals in 1979. Each founder was also a member of the World Anti-Communist League, the John Birch Society, and similar organizations. One of its principal sponsors was the Texan billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt. [3]

The organization was based in a townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia. It also said it had offices in West Germany and Austria. [2] A former employee told Politico in 2018 that more of its funding came from West Germany than the United States. [2]

Rees set up a computer database to track suspected radicals, and wrote many of Western Goals' published reports about domestic subversives, terrorism and communist threats. [2] People in law enforcement sometimes leaked derogatory intelligence to Western Goals, which Rees then published in newsletters, which in turn were entered into the Congressional Record by McDonald, which shielded him from libel. Western Goals would then cite McDonald's statements in its own public reports. [2] Unverified reports by Western Goals accusing American pacifist groups of ties to communism and the Soviet Union were also publicized in Reader's Digest and by the Reagan administration. [2] [4]

Western Goals was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after a police officer was caught adding information from the disbanded Los Angeles Police Department "Red Squad" to a related computer bulletin board system. [5] [6]

Western Goals raised funds for the Nicaraguan Contras starting in 1983, after Congress banned the Reagan administration from providing U.S. support. [2] A Contra brigade of 2,000 was named the Larry McDonald Task Force to honor the Western Goals co-founder, who had been killed in the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007. [2] Singlaub was an intermediary in Oliver North’s illegal weapons network for the Contras. [2] Officials of the foundation were questioned in the Iran-Contra hearings of 1986. [2]

The organization founded an offshoot, Western Goals (UK), later the Western Goals Institute, which was briefly influential in British Conservative politics. [1]

Advisory board and directors

Bibliography

Books

Films

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contras</span> 1979–1990 U.S.-supported anti-Marxist rebels of Nicaragua

The Contras were the various U.S.-backed-and-funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua, which had come to power in 1979 following the Nicaraguan Revolution. Among the separate contra groups, the Nicaraguan Democratic Force (FDN) emerged as the largest by far. In 1987, virtually all Contra organizations were united, at least nominally, into the Nicaraguan Resistance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iran–Contra affair</span> 1985–1987 political scandal in the U.S.

The Iran–Contra affair, often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan administration. Between 1981 and 1986, senior administration officials secretly facilitated the illegal sale of arms to Iran, which was subject to an arms embargo at the time. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras, an anti-Sandinista rebel group in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by legislative appropriations was prohibited by Congress, but the Reagan administration figured out a loophole by secretively using non-appropriated funds instead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reagan Doctrine</span> Doctrine proposed by the Reagan administration

The Reagan Doctrine was stated by United States President Ronald Reagan in his State of the Union address on February 6, 1985: "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives—on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua—to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth." It was a strategy implemented by the Reagan Administration to overwhelm the global influence of the Soviet Union in the late Cold War. The doctrine was a centerpiece of United States foreign policy from the early 1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991.

The Boland Amendment is a term describing two U.S. legislative amendments between 1982 and 1984, both aimed at limiting U.S. government assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua. The first Boland Amendment was part of the House Appropriations Bill of 1982, which was attached as a rider to the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983, named for the Massachusetts Democrat, Representative Edward Boland, who authored it. The House of Representatives passed the Defense Appropriations Act 411–0 on December 8, 1982, and it was signed by President Ronald Reagan on December 21, 1982. The amendment outlawed U.S. assistance to the Contras for the purpose of overthrowing the communist Nicaraguan government, while allowing assistance for other purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William J. Casey</span> American politician (1913-1987)

William Joseph Casey was an American lawyer who was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1981 to 1987. In this capacity he oversaw the entire United States Intelligence Community and personally directed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Negroponte</span> American diplomat

John Dimitri Negroponte is an American diplomat. In 2018, he was a James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He is a former J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of International Affairs at the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. Prior to this appointment, he served as a research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, United States Deputy Secretary of State (2007–2009), and the first ever Director of National Intelligence (2005–2007).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry McDonald</span> American politician (1935–1983)

Lawrence Patton McDonald was an American physician, politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Democrat from 1975 until he was killed while a passenger on board Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by Soviet interceptors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Félix Rodríguez (soldier)</span> Cuban-American CIA officer

Félix Ismael Rodríguez Mendigutia is a Cuban American former Central Intelligence Agency Paramilitary Operations Officer in the Special Activities Division, known for his involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the execution of communist revolutionary Che Guevara as well as his close ties to George H. W. Bush during the Iran–Contra affair.

John Herbert Rees is a British right-wing journalist and government informant resident in the United States. He was active in the Western Goals Foundation and the John Birch Society.

Blowback is the unintended consequences and unwanted side-effects of a covert operation. To the civilians suffering the blowback of covert operations, the effect typically manifests itself as "random" acts of political violence without a discernible, direct cause; because the public—in whose name the intelligence agency acted—are unaware of the effected secret attacks that provoked revenge (counter-attack) against them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John K. Singlaub</span> American major general in United States Army (1921–2022)

Major General John Kirk Singlaub was a major general in the United States Army, founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and a highly decorated officer in the former Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Clair Elroy George was a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) clandestine service who oversaw all global espionage activities for the agency in the mid-1980s. According to The New York Times, George was "a consummate spymaster who moved the chess pieces in the CIA's clandestine games of intrigue".

Donald R. Fortier was a member of the United States Intelligence Community.

David Charles MacMichael was a contract employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who served two years as an analyst. A ten-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, he was a counter-insurgency expert in South-East Asia for four years. He also served as an analyst for the National Intelligence Council from 1981-1983.

Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare was a manual written by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the Nicaraguan Contras, who were involved in a civil war with the Nicaraguan government. It was revealed by the Associated Press on October 15, 1984. The ninety-page book of instructions focused mainly on how "Armed Propaganda Teams" could build political support in Nicaragua for the Contra cause through deceit, intimidation, and violence. The manual also discussed assassinations. The International Court of Justice case Nicaragua v. United States found that the publication of this manual had "encouraged acts ... contrary to general principles of humanitarian law." However, the CIA claimed that the purpose of the manual was to "moderate" the extreme violence already being used by the Contras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelson Bunker Hunt</span> American businessman (1926–2014)

Nelson Bunker Hunt was an American oil company executive. He was a billionaire whose fortune collapsed after he and his brothers William Herbert and Lamar tried to corner the world market in silver but were prevented by government intervention. He was also a thoroughbred horse breeder and a major sponsor of the John Birch Society.

Operation Charly, was allegedly the code-name given to a program during the 1970s and 1980s undertaken by the junta in Argentina with the objective of providing military and counterinsurgency assistance to right-wing dictatorships and insurgents in Central America. According to Noam Chomsky, the operation was either headed by the Argentine military with the agreement of the United States Department of Defense, or was led by the US and used the Argentinians as a proxy.

Vincent Cannistraro was Director of Intelligence Programs for the United States National Security Council (NSC) from 1984 to 1987; Special assistant for Intelligence in the Office of the Secretary of Defense until 1988; and Chief of Operations and Analysis at the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Counterterrorist Center until 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CIA activities in Nicaragua</span> Overview of the CIA activities in Nicaragua

CIA activities in Nicaragua were frequent in the late 20th century. The increasing influence gained by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, a left-wing and anti-imperialist political party in Nicaragua, led to a sharp decrease in Nicaragua–United States relations, particularly after the Nicaraguan Revolution. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to support the Contras, a right-wing Nicaraguan political group to combat the influence held by the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan government. Various anti-government rebels in Nicaragua were organized into the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the first Contra group, at the behest of the CIA. The CIA also supplied the Contras with training and equipment, including materials related to torture and assassination. There have also been allegations that the CIA engaged in drug trafficking in Nicaragua.

<i>The Secret Man</i> (book) 1996 book by Frank Dux

The Secret Man: An American Warrior's Uncensored Story is a memoir by martial artist Frank Dux, published in 1996 by ReganBooks. In the book, Dux asserts he was recruited by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William J. Casey in a public toilet to work on covert missions, including destroying a fuel depot in Nicaragua and a chemical weapons plant in Iraq. Dux's claims in the book have been contested by several notable figures, including CIA director Robert Gates, General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., Major General John K. Singlaub, as well as Soldier of Fortune magazine.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Staff writer (Jan. 2, 1989). "Western Goals Foundation." Interhemispheric Resource Center/International Relations Center. Archived from the original.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dorfman, Zach (December 2, 2018). "The Congressman Who Created His Own Deep State. Really". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  3. ↑ Jasper, William F. (Dec. 1, 2014). "Nelson Bunker Hunt and the Scheme 'to Corner The Silver Market'." The New American , vol. 30, no. 23.
  4. ↑ Rosenfeld, Seth (August 16, 1983). "Rees, Reagan, and the Digest Smear: The Spy Who Came Down on the Freeze". The Village Voice. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  5. ↑ Berlet, Chip (Sep. 8, 2000). "The Maldon Institute." Political Research Associates . Archived from the original.
  6. ↑ Bayse, William A., and Dorothy Denning (Mar. 27, 1991). "Security Capabilities, Privacy & Integrity." IEEE Computer Society Press. Reprinted from The First Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, Mar. 26-28, 1991, in Burlingame, California. Archived from the original.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 The Subversion Factor: A History of Treason in Modern America (1983). Written and hosted by G. Edward Griffin. 120 min. OCLC   36968013. Transcript OCLC   34702813. Part 1: Moles in High Places. Part 2: The Open Gates of Troy.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.