Western Goals Foundation

The Logo of Western Goals

The Western Goals Foundation was a private intelligence dissemination network active on the right-wing in the United States. It was wound up in 1986 when the Tower Commission revealed it had been part of Oliver North's Iran-Contra funding network.

In Broken Seals (published 1980), the group's first book, Western Goals contended that such groups as the Campaign for Political Rights, National Lawyers Guild, American Friends Service Committee, and the Center for National Security Studies were part of a Moscow-backed effort 'to destroy the foreign and domestic intelligence capabilities of the United States.'

After the Watergate and COINTELPRO scandals of the early 1970s, several laws were passed to restrict police intelligence gathering within political organizations. The laws 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 most trusted, dedicated operatives.

Many of these people, like John Rees and Congressman Larry McDonald, were members of the World Anti-Communist League, the John Birch Society, and similar organizations. These two men joined forces with Major General John K. Singlaub to form the Western Goals Foundation in 1979. One of its principal sponsors was the Texan billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt.

It also founded an offshoot, Western Goals (UK), (later the Western Goals Institute), which was briefly influential in British Conservative politics.

Turner B. Shelton and Francisco Urcuyo Maliaño, Ally Betrayed .... Nicaragua: Keystone of Latin America, with a Foreword by Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith, Western Goals Foundation, 1980.

John Rees was a leading figure in Western goals. Described as running the 'most influential private domestic spying operation during the 1980's'.

Rees spent the early years of the Reagan administration as the spymaster for the right-wing Western Goals Foundation. The Foundation was the brainchild of the late Rep. Larry McDonald, former leader of the John Birch Society. Western Goals published several small books warning of the growing domestic red menace, and solicited funds to create a computer database on American subversives.

Western Goals Foundation was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) when it was caught attempting to computerize references to "subversive" files pilfered from the disbanded Los Angeles Police Department "Red Squad."

Western Goals esentially collapsed after the death of Larry McDonald in September of 1983. John Rees left shortly after McDonald's death. Western Goals discontinued its domestic dossier and intelligence operation shortly after the departure of Rees. A contentious battle over control of Western Goals and the alienation of key funders left the foundation essentially a shell which was taken over by a conservative fundraiser Carl Russell "Spitz" Channell who turned it into a conduit for contra fundraising efforts linked to North and Iran-Contragate. Rees returned to his freelance spy-master status while former Western Goals director Linda Guell went to Singlaub's Freedom Foundation.

Publications, External Resources

Publications

This list is derived from a number of sources.

Red Locusts, a 1981 book by Western Goals with a Foreword by Jesse Helms and a Postscript by Marion Smoak

1980

• Broken seals : a Western Goals Foundation report on the attempts to destroy the foreign and domestic intelligence capabilities of the United States Publisher: Alexandria, Va. : Western Goals, 1980.
• Turner B. Shelton and Francisco Urcuyo Maliaño, Ally Betrayed .... Nicaragua: Keystone of Latin America, with a Foreword by Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith, Western Goals Foundation, 1980.
• Red tide rising in the Carolinas. Publisher: [Alexandria, Va. : Western Goals, 1980]

1981

• Council on Economic Priorities Publisher: Alexandria, Va. : Western Goals, 1981.
• Anti-nuclear terrorism : Europe and America. Publisher: Alexandria, Va. : Western Goals, [©1981]
• Red locusts : Soviet support for terrorism in South Africa. by Western Goals (Organization); Publisher: Alexandria, Va. : Western Goals, 1981.
• FALN : threat to America. by Western Goals (Organization); Publisher: Alexandria, Va. : Western Goals, 1981.

1982

• No place to hide : the strategy and tactics of terrorism : a transcript. by Western Goals (Organization); Publisher: Alexandria, Va. : Western Goals, 1982.
• No place to hide : the strategy and tactics of terrorism. by Western Goals (Organization); Publisher: Alexandria, VA : Western Goals Foundation, 1982.
• The War Called Peace: The Soviet Peace Offensive, book, Western Goals, 1982.

1983

• The Subversion Factor: Moles in High Places, Western Goals Foundation, 1983.
• The Subversion factor : a transcript.by Western Goals (Organization); Book Publisher: Alexandria, Va. : Western Goals, ©1983.
• Viewpoint--Nicaragua : a personal interview with Adolfo Calero by Adolfo Calero Portocarrero; Western Goals (Organization);

Films

• No place to hide : The strategy & tactics of terrorism Author:G Edward Griffin; WBTV (Television station : Charlotte, N.C.); Publisher: Alexandria, VA. : Western Goals Foundation, 1982. Watch on Google videos
• The Subversion Factor A Western Goals Presentation hosted by G. Edward Griffin, 1983. Watch on Youtube

External links

• Rightweb, Profile: Western Goals Foundation, 2 January 1989.
• Western Goals Trademark details http://www.trademarkia.com/western-goals-73467982.html Trademark serial number of 73467982
• Western Goals Trademark details http://www.trademarkia.com/western-goals-73467979.html Trademark serial number of 73467979
• Western Goals Endowment Fund Trademark details http://www.trademarkia.com/western-goals-endowment-fund-73467975.html