Western Goals Foundation

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.
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.
thumb|right|150px|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.
==Overview==
John Rees was a leading figure in Western Goals. Described as running the 'most influential private domestic spying operation during the 1980's'.Chip Berlet The Hunt for Red Menace: - 11 in The Hunt for Red Menace: How Government Intelligence Agencies and Private Right-wing Counter-subversion Groups Forge Ad Hoc Covert Spy Networks that Target Dissidents as Outlaws Publiceye.org, Current version: 2/2/93 
: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 essentially 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.
==People==
===1982===
====Advisory board====
Congressman John Ashbrook | Walter Brennan | Roy M Cohn | Congressman Philip M Crane | General Raymond G Davis | Henry Hazlitt | Dr. Mildred F Jefferson | Dr. Anthony Kubek | Roger Milliken | Admiral Thomas Moorer | E A Morris | Vice Admiral Lloyd M Mustin | Mrs John C Newington | General George S Patton | Dr. Hans Sennholz | General John Singlaub | Dan Smoot | Robert Stoddard | Congressman Bob Stump | | Dr. Edward Teller | Sherman Unkefer | Genera Lewis Walt | Dr. Eugene WignerThe War Called Peace: The Soviet Peace Offensive, Alexandria, Virginia: Western Goals, 1982.Foreword by John Ashbrook, Afterword by Helmut Sauer, Inside cover
====Executive Staff====
Linda Guell, Director | John Rees, Editor | Julia Ferguson, Research
===1983===
====Advisory board====
Rep John Ashbrook | Mrs Walter Brennan | Taylor Caldwell | Roy M Cohn | Rep Philip M Crane | General Raymond G Davis | Henry Hazlitt | Dr. Mildred F Jefferson | Dr. Anthony Kubek | Roger Milliken | Admiral Thomas Moorer | E A Morris | Mrs John C Newington | General George S Patton | Dr. Hans Sennholz | General John Singlaub | Dan Smoot | Robert Stoddard | Congressman Bob Stump | Helen Marie Taylor | Dr. Edward Teller | Genera Lewis Walt | Dr. Eugene WignerGeneral Lewis W Walt and General George S Patton, The Swiss Report, Alexandria, Virginia: Western goals foundation, March 1983., Inside cover
====Executive Staff====
Linda Guell, Director | John Rees, Editor | Julia Ferguson, Research
==Publications, External Resources, See also, Notes==
===Publications===
This list is derived from a number of sources.Worldcat Search results for 'au:Western Goals (Organization)' Results 1-10 of about 18 Worldcat Search results for 'au:Western Goals (Organization)' Results 11-18 of about 18 
====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.	 	
*John Rees FALN : threat to America. Foreword by Honorable John M. Ashbrook, M.C., 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, Alexandria, Virginia: Western Goals, 1982.Foreword by John Ashbrook, Afterword by Helmut Sauer
====1983==== 
*General Lewis W Walt and General George S Patton, The Swiss Report, Alexandria, Virginia: Western Goals Foundation, March 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);
*Raymond Sleeper (Ed.) A Lexicon of Marxist-Leninist Semantics Alexandria, Virginia: Western Goals, 1983
====1985====
*Frank A. Kadell The KAL 007 Massacre, Alexandria, Virginia: Western Goals, 1985, Foreword by Ambassador Charles M. Lichenstein.
===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.Worldcat No place to hide : the strategy & tactics of terrorism 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
===See also===
Western Goals (UK) | Western Goals Institute | American-European Strategy Research Institute (the German branch, also known as Western Goals Europe E. V.)
===Notes===