Founded in 1979 by Major General John K. Singlaub, publisher John H. Rees, and Congressman Larry McDonald, Western Goals Foundation operated as a private domestic-intelligence organization after post-Watergate and COINTELPRO restrictions limited official political surveillance. Rees built a computer database on alleged radicals, while the group solicited intelligence from law-enforcement contacts and circulated reports accusing pacifist and other political organizations of communist or Soviet ties. Some of those reports were unverified; McDonald entered claims into the Congressional Record, allowing Western Goals to cite congressional statements while benefiting from legislative speech protections.
The foundation’s activities included receiving or republishing material from police and federal agencies. In 1983, an LAPD investigation found that Detective Jay Paul stored files from the department’s disbanded Public Disorder Intelligence Division at his home and had leaked intelligence to Western Goals; he was suspended, then reinstated with back pay after supervisors were found to have sanctioned his actions. The ACLU also sued after police information from the former LAPD Red Squad was added to a related Western Goals computer bulletin board. Beginning in 1983, the group raised money for Nicaraguan Contra forces despite congressional restrictions on U.S. support. Singlaub was questioned during the 1986 Iran–Contra hearings, and the Tower Commission identified Western Goals as part of Oliver North’s covert Contra funding network. The foundation became defunct in 1986.
