LOUDON NEWCOMER PUZZLES NEIGHBORS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100640020-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 18
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 2010
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: January 13, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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WASHINGTON POST
13 January 1985
loudoun Newcomer
Puzzles Neighbors
Controversial Leader Lives
On Heavily Guarded Estate
By John Mintz
Washington Pont Staff Writer
If you look between the trees along Rte. 704 in ru-
ral Loudoun County one weekend day, you might see
the men in camouflage fatigues going through their
drills, local residents say.
Neighbors say they have grown accustomed to the
groups of men with semiautomatic weapons rushing
across the rolling fields of the Woodburn Estate out-
side Leesburg. On a recent Saturday, a resident said,
he heard what he thought was shooting from the old
estate. It sounded like light mortar," the neighbor
said. "A sort of a 'kapook.' "
The people who stay at the Woodburn Estate say
there are no mortar emplacements on the premises.
But they say guards there carry an array of hand-
guns--Colt Combat Commanders, Walther PPKs,
MAC50s-and other armaments. There are sand-
bag-outtrear.ed guard posts near the estate's 13-
room Georgian mansion, cement barriers along the
road any? sharp metal spikes in the driveway.
The heavy security is for Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.
LaRouche, who lives on the estate, is a perennial
right-wing presidential candidate who is convinced he
is in imminent danger of assassination by hit teams
dispatched by the Libyans, the Soviets or narcotics
pushers.
In part because LaRouche says he finds the Lou-
doun countryside safe, he. and his associates are
moving into the area in a big way. LaRouche's as-
sociates have bought three properties in the county
worth a total of more than $1 million, and they
agreed to buy another for $1.3 million until the deal
fell through.
LaRouche, 62, is the leader of a tightiy knit world-
wide organization known for its shifting ideological
stances and apocalyptic rhetoric, according to inter-
views with former associates of LaRouche, numerous
individuals familiar with the group, and government
and law enforcement officials, as well as an exami-
nation of the group's internal documents and publicly
distributed literature.
LaRouche's group blames many of the world's ills
on plots by the Soviet secret police, the queen of
England, "the dope lobby," Jewish organizations and
other groups it considers to be its enemies, the or-
ganization's literature shows. The group has 500 to
1,000 members, former associates of LaRouche say.
The group. which started as a left-wing socialist
sect in the 14"Us but which turned to the right in the
1970s, has espoused an ideology that some
Jewish groups say is anti-Semitic. Its phi-
losophy is a mishmash, but the main thrust
is that LaRouche and his followers are vir-
tually the only force on Earth able to stop
nuclear war and world starvation.
The organization supports itself financially
through a variety of means, including sales of
its literature and intelligence-gathering for
corporations and individuals, said LaRouche
and some associates. He gets public funds as
well-LaRouche's recent presidential cam-
paign received $494,000 in federal matching
funds, federal records said.
So far, in addition to renting the Wood-
burn property, corporations operated by
LaRouche's associates have bought three
properties in Loudoun for $1,048,000. At
this point, about 25 of LaRouche's associ-
ates have joined LaRouche and his wife,
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in the Leesburg
area, sources said.
. The group also has decided to move
many operations of its national headquar-
ters from Manhattan to Loudoun, say peo-
ple familiar with the group. As many as 200
LaRouche followers are expected to move
there to work in a new printing plant and of-
fice complex the group is building in a Lees-
burg industrial park, according to former
members of the group and a Loudoun Coun-
ty official.
In this historic region, where monuments
pay tribute to Gen. Robert E. Lee's Con-
federacy and farms stay in the hands of fam-
ilies for seven generations, residents are
greeting LaRouche with intense curiosity.
They do not know how to react to him, and
some are afraid.
"We feel if we rock the boat, they could get
nasty with us," said one county resident who
has dealt with LaRouche's associates but
who, like most of the dozen or so local people
interviewed, does not want to be identified.
"We have to coexist with them, but we don't
agree with their political beliefs."
To Leesburg Police Chief James Kidwell,
Lyndon LaRouche's entry into Loudoun
County is shaping up as a clash of cultures.
"Out here are more country people," Kid-
well said. "It's a different world they're in.
They'll learn as they go along. The things
they're interested in, the country people
aren't interested in."
. Indeed, LaRouche and his group seem
strikingly out of character in a variety of
ways in slow-paced, neighborly Loudoun.
According to former members of
LaRouche's organization and other individ-'
uals familiar with its operation, group mem-
bers follow LaRouche's dictates almost
without question. Members-of the group-
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'.which is knc,vn as the National Caucus of
Labor Commit'ees but which also operates
through a number of cther groups-gen-
erally are discouraged from maintaining
personal relationships with people outside
the group, said ex-associates and others
knowledgeable about the group.
Members of the organization also have ha-
ressed some of its critics and journalists who
have researched it, the same sources said.
LaRouche denies that he is a cult leader
or that his associates harass anyone. In a
U.S. District Court trial in November in Al-
exandria, he also denied that he plays a
leadership role in any of the organizations
identified with him. In the trial, LaRouche
lost a libel suit against NBC, and the net-
work was awarded a $3 million judgment
against LaRouche for his group's attempt to
sabotage a network interview. He is appeal-
ing the verdict.
Loudoun residents say they know almost
nothing about their new neighbor. Many ex.
press puzzlement over LaRouche's state-
ments in court that he is almost penniless
(despite his extensive world travels and welli
to-do life style at Woodburn), and his asser-
tion that he cannot pay NBC the $3 million.
Several residents said they also were-per-
plexed by LaRouche's half-hour televised
presidential advertisements in the weeks be-
fore the Nov. 6 election. LaRouche said,
among other things, that Democrat Walter F.
Mondale was an "agent of influence" of.the
Soviet secret police, the KGB.
`A Complete Blank'
Most residents acknowledge they have
never seen LaRouche. The only encounter
most residents have had is seeing the se-
curity guard at Woodburn's fortified en-
trance, who calls in reinforcements by
walkie-talkie when motorists pull over for a
look. Others have spotted the group's car-
avan of cars moving down the highway in
tight formation.
Generally, the only people in the area
who have dealt with the "LaRouchians"Tas
they're called by journalists and research-
ers who follow their activities-are Lou-
doun lawyers, real estate agents, contrac-
tors and other professionals.
"They are some of the nicest people I've
ever dealt with," said one Loudoun man who
has met several of them. "They're intelligent,
well educated, pleasant." But most local's try
not to discuss politics with them, the man
said. "People keep their distance from that
.... [LaRouche] is a hot topic up here."
Local officials say LaRouche is present-
ing them with a quandary. They have-tried
for years to attract investment to the coun-
ty, but some say they are not sure this is
the kind they had in mind. One concerned
Leesburg official, who requested anonym-
ity, said the town could not legally. bar
LaRouche even if it wanted to. "I don't
know what a community does in a case like
this," the official said.
LaRouche started his move into Loudoun
in August 1983, when he, his wife and oth-
ers moved into an approximately 25-acre
section of the Woodburn Estate that in-
cludes the large brick manor house and two
other homes. The property, and several
hundred more acres leased by farmers, is
owned by a Swiss-based company.
In the last several months, corporations
associated with the LaRouche group have
bought three other properties in the county.
In June they bought a 9.8-acre tract in a
Leesburg industrial park. The seller, Dud-
ley C. Webb Jr., said he and his family were
paid the full $373,000 at the property clos-
ing. The new owner, Lafayette/Leesburg
Ltd. Partnership, is developing a 60,000-
square-foot printing plant and office com-
plex on the site, said Mark Nelis, Lees-
burg's zoning administrator.
The company's two trustees are Edward
Spannaus and J.S. Morrison, according to a
deed on file at the Loudoun County Court-
house. Spannaus is a top LaRouche aide,
and Morrison is a LaRouche supporter from
New Jersey.
Nelis said that representatives of the
company told him that construction of the
complex is expected to cost $3.1 million.
Nelis said that the company's represent-
atives told town officials that the new plant
would employ about 200 people, many of
whom would be moving from New York. Lou-
"Nobody really knows what his workis or
what his motives are," a Loudoun native
said of LaRouche. "It's a complete blank."
"I feel Mr. LaRouche has long ago fallen
off the deep end," said Frank Raflo, a Lou-
doun supervisor who said he drew his con-
clusion in part from one of LaRouche's tele-
vision advertisements. Raflo said that
LaRouche and Loudoun locals have-;keen
getting along "peaches and cream, nicey
nicey," but that behind the scene, "I think
he's being received with nervous laughter."
Other residents say they fear that tees-
burg is headed for the same fate that befell
rural Antelope, Ore., where hundreds of fol-
lowers of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Raj-
neesh moved in and took over the town; But
LaRouche has only a fraction as many fol-
lowers as the Bhagwan, and LaRouche; and
his associates say they want to live in 1 ar-
mony with Loudoun locals.
But LaRouche acknowledges that', his
presence may cause a stir.
"There's going to be controversy,
'What's this ogre doing in Leesburg?' "'said
LaRouche in a November interview at a
bookstore his associates opened in the
town. "They can find out by coming here
and getting one of my books."
ali;l6l;UA
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down real estate brokers are already receiv-
ing telephone calls from editorial employes of
LaRouche-affiliated publications in New York
asking for housing advice, Nelis said.
'Don't Know What to Think'
Martha Semmes, who as Leesburg's
planning director has the job of attracting
business to the town, said 200 jobs would
help the region, but she added that she has
reservations.
"We really don't know what to think at this
point," Semmes said when asked about the
county's newest corporate neighbor. "I don't
know enough about him to know what his po-
tential impact on our economy might be."
In July, a LaRouche-affiliated company
called Publication Equities Inc. agreed to
pay $400,000 for a 64-acre property in the
county's rural Neersville area, near Harp-
ers Ferry, W.Va. The company's only di-
rector is Spannaus, according to an incor-
poration document filed at the Loudoun
County Courthouse.
In September, Publication Equities
agreed to buy a storefront in downtown
Leesburg for $275,000 and quickly reno-
vated it into an upscale bookstore, Ben
Franklin Booksellers. The owners say they
plan to build a domed room on top for a "cul-
tural center."
In addition, last fall Spannaus signed a
contract to buy a 171-acre estate outside
Leesburg for $1.3 million, according to doc-
uments on file in Loudoun Circuit Court.
The estate includes a 14-room manor house
v:ith eight fireplaces, plus three other
houses and numerous other buildings.
But a legal snag developed. One of the
sellers, an elderly District of Columbia res-
ident, is legally incompetent, and any sale
would have required approval of a judge.
The sellers' lawyer, George Schweitzer,
said in court documents that he was "not to-
tally satisfied" with the buyer's financial
condition. A source said that the reason was
that the LaRouche associates would not
supply the financial statement thought to be
necessary to get court approval.
Charles Ottinger, Publication Equities'
Leesburg lawyer, said Spannaus then told
him that he had agreed to have someone
else take over his right to buy the estate.
The new buyer, multimillionaire Oklahoma
oilman David Nick Anderson, also agreed to
buy the property for $1.3 million, but under
slightly different terms, according to court
documents. /
Anderson donated $1,000 to LaRouche's
presidential campaign last February, ac-
cording to documents on file at the Federal
Election Commission. Despite repeated
telephone messages left for him, Anderson
could not be reached for comment about his
plans for the property.
That is only one of the questions Loudoun
people are asking. Another, more basic
question the locals are posing is: Why is the
LaRouche group moving to Loudoun Coun-
ty in the first place?
LaRouche said in an interview that he is
sick of New York City, which he calls a "sin
bucket." His associates also say law en-
forcement officials there do not adequately
protect him from assassination.
"In Virginia, Mr. LaRouche has been able
to operate in a relatively secure environ-
ment," Jeffrey Steinberg, a top aide to
LaRouche, said in an affidavit. "The terror-
ist organizations which have targeted Mr.
LaRouche do not have bases of operations
in Virginia."
There are additional reasons for the
move to Loudoun.
Frequent Meetings
LaRouche said in an interview that he en-
joys Leesburg because it gives him a shorter
commute to Washington, where he said he
frequently has meetings. LaRouche said he
and his associates have been meetm or sev-
eral years wiofficials h m federal agencies,
including the Central intelligence Agency.
In addition, says a former associate of
LaRouche, a rural setting restricts mem-
bers' contact with the outside world. The
group has been losing members in New
York in part because they come into contact
with old friends and family members, and
because of New York's rich cultural life, the
ex-associate said. Years ago, he added,
many group members moved into the same
apartment buildings in Manhattan's Wash-
ington Heights neighborhood, and as mem-
bers quit the group, they remained in the
buildings.
"His remaining members had been con-
taminated by seeing happy former mem-
bers," said the ex-associate. In Leesburg,
members "would be isolated from ex-
members, and totally creatures of the or-
ganization."
With each property purchase by the
LaRouche group, the curiosity of local res-
idents increases. Rumors circulate around
Leesburg about the group's activities on the
Woodburn estate.
After a neighbor complained that local chil-
dren were scared to see bodyguards armed
with semiautomatic rifles accompanying Hel-
ga Zepp-LaRouche on walks around the es-
tate, county Sheriff John Isom said he visited
Woodburn to talk to the security men there.
Isom said that he was satisfied with their re-
sponse and that there have been no untoward
incidents on the estate.
At least five of LaRouche's bodyguards
have permit applications on file in the Lou-
doun County Courthouse to carry weapons.
Some of the bodyguards are longtime
LaRouche followers, while others are pro-
fessional security employes.
LaRouche said in an interview that his se-
curity is a constant worry.
"Since 1974 I've been under constant as-
sassination threat," he said. "I'm constantly
living under safe-house conditions. I live no
normal life .... I haven't had a place of my
own to live in for 11 or 12 years."
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While he spends much of his time trav-
eling or visiting the group's property in
Wiesbaden, West Germany, LaRouche said
he sometimes pays little attention to where
he is. He said the 185-year-old Woodburn
manor, known by architecture buffs for its
beveled brick cornices and hand-carved
mantels, is "just a safe house."
LaRouche said that he is pampered by his
Woodburn associates, who cook and clean
for him while he works in his office an av-
erage of 15 hours a day. Every morning he
awakens to get intelligence briefings about
world events from his associates, and he
reads a report of up to 400 pages telexed
from the group's worldwide offices, he said.
"I don't do much entertaining in the nor-
mal sense," he said. "What I prefer to do re-
quires a long attention span."
LaRouche testified in federal court that
he has no idea who pays the rent on the es-
tate, the heating or telephone bills, his trav-
el expenses or his lawyers' fees. He said in
a deposition that )is clothes are bought for
him by his security staff.
LaRouche testified that he has almost no
income and has not filed an income tax re-
turn since the early 1970s.
LaRouche said in the deposition that he
has been carrying the same $20 in his wal-
let for years. "I have not made a purchase of
anything greater than a $5 haircut in the
last 10 years," he testified.
Former members of the LaRouche or-
ganization back up his contention that
LaRouche does not pay for anything, but
say that others, including members of his
security staff, pay for everything from res-
taurant tabs to cab fare.
One ex-member said that LaRouche en-
joys a "wonderful life style" befitting a man
making $250,000 a year, according to an
NBC transcript of an interview on file in
U.S. District Court in Alexandria. "Mr.
LaRouche is a master in making sure that
nothing is in his name."
Lawyers for NBC say the source of
LaRouche's money is of intense interest to
them now because of the $3,002,000 judg-
ment the federal court jury ordered
LaRouche to pay NBC. Karl W. Pilger,
LaRouche's lawyer, says that LaRouche
cannot pay NBC the money, and he points
to a sworn affidavit LaRouche filed in the
Loudoun County Courthouse. LaRouche
said in the affidavit that his total assets are
$5,000, including $3,700 in cash, some
books and record albums, and three guns.
"I don't have any money," LaRouche said
in the interview. "It [the judgment] will nev-
er be paid. It's a joke."
NBC attorney Peter K. Stackhouse is not
so sure. Stackhouse said it is likely NBC will
take depositions to determine whether
LaRouche is "penniless or whether or not
he is as wealthy as his life style suggests."
The six-person jury awarded the judg-
ment Nov. 1 after finding that NBC had not
defamed LaRouche and finding in favor of
NBC in its countersuit. NBC had alleged
that LaRouche followers tried to sabotage a
scheduled network interview with Sen.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) by im-
personating an NBC employe and a Senate
aide. The interview was for one of NBC's
broadcasts on LaRouche.
LaRouche's motion to overturn the $3
million verdict is pending before U.S. Dis-
trict Court Judge James C. Cacheris.
LaRouche also has filed a notice of appeal in
the libel suit.
The nine-day trial was virtually the first
time that LaRouche has undergone exten-
sive public questioning in a courtroom. Dur-
ing three days ont the witness stand,
LaRouche frequently responded with de-
scriptions of his philosophy and his standing
in world history.
He compared his writings to the works of
Dante, St. Augustine and Plato, among oth-
ers. He said that anyone who believes the
NBC broadcasts, which were critical of him,
is "crazy," "insane" or "a total illiterate and
mental case."
Several times he lectured the jurors,
shaking a finger at them and pounding a fist
on the table to make a point.
LaRouche became visibly disturbed at
times while being questioned by an NBC
lawyer and occasionally responded angrily.
At times, he swiveled his chair so that his
back faced the lawyers.
On occasion, LaRouche looked over at
the jurors and smiled at them. LaRouche
has said he likes Virginians because he
thinks that he has done well there in pres-
idential elections and that they are recep-
tive to his message. But this group of Vir-
ginians, three men and three women, ap-
parently was not drawn to him.
"He thought he was making points with
us," recalled one juror who asked to remain
anonymous. "He was making us ill. He's so
used to being surrounded by toadies, he
doesn't know his effect on people.
"All of us had sores on the inside of our
cheeks, either from biting them to keep
from laughing, or to keep from screaming,
'You're crazy.' " the juror said. "The man
was uncontrollable."
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WASHINGTON POST
13 January 1985
3c m e Are Out to Kill Ike LaRouche Says
An Interview Can Be a Wild Ride Through, Plots, Allegations
It looked like any other ribbon-cutting
for an upscale bookstore. Horse country
women and men in tweed jackets sipped
the champagne, listened to the classical
uric and thumbed through the attrac-
tive art books that lined the wood-pan-
eled walls at the opening of Ben Franklin
Booksellers on Georgetown-like South
King Street in Leesburg.
In the back room, shaking hands with
well?wishers, was an author whose works
lined a whole shelf near the cash register.
"The Soviets officially declared war on
me," said the author, as several of his
armed security men glanced nervously at
women picking through the Renaissance
prints nearby. "You're talking about a
major assassination target." And, "yes,
absolutely," former secretary of state
Henry Kissinger is behind the assassina-
tion plot against him.
An interview with Lyndon H.
LaRouche Jr. can be a wild ride through
the uncanfirmable and the speculative.
But the 62-year-old frequent presidential
candidate pushes on, answering any ques-
tion matter-of-factly in his New England
accent, swooping across the centuries
with references to obscure mathemati-
cians, 18th century philosophers and
German Nazi thinkers of the 1930s.
jabbing and chopping the air to 'make
his points during a rare two-hour inter-
view Nov. 10, LaRouche showed little
modesty about his station in life.
"I'm probably the best economist in the
world today," he said. "I'm also one of the
best-informed people in the world. We
have influence on governments."
Walter F. Mondale, he said, is an
"agent of influence" of the KGB, the So-
viet secret police. So are Kissinger and
McGeorge Bundy, the former Ford Foun-
dation .president and presidential adviser;
he said, all "totally witting." They are
agents of influence rather than regular
agents, he said, because they are "work-
in with the KGB. not for the KGB."
He said he was angry about the recent
LaRouche-tied group honors German poet
who wrote of liberation from oppression.
federal jury verdict in Alexandria, which
found that NBC television had not libeled
him and awarded the network a $3 mil-
lion judgment against him. U.S. District
Court Judge James C. Cacheris bore
some responsibility, he said.
He rigged the trial .... The judge
was corrupted in some way," said
LaRouche, who is appealing the verdict.
LaRouche said he has tape recordings
of two telephone calls that Mitch Snyder,
an activist for the homeless, made to his
associates' office threatening LaRouche's
life in the last days of the trial. LaRouche'
dismissed the fact that Snyder was im-
mobilized in bed from a hunger strike on
behalf of the homeless during that period.
(Snyder said the allegations are "abso-
lutely ridiculous.")
Soon afterwards, LaRouche's wife,
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, a West German
citizen, joined the conversation. She was
supportive of her husband and protested
what she said was unfair treatment of
them in The Washington Post and other
newspapers. "A total smear job, really vi-
cious," she said. "We've done tremendous
cultural work."
LaRouche's security men, whispering
into walkie-talkies, then hustled him out
the front door and down an alley to a
waiting car.
Outside, in connection with the book-
store opening, a LaRouche-affiliated
group, the Schiller Institute, was holding
a parade to commemorate the 225th an-
niversary of the birth of German poet
Friedrich Schiller. Schiller, whose poetry
dealt in part with people's liberation from
oppression, is Zepp-LaRouche's favorite
poet.
The group's classical music concert
nearby on the lawn next to the court-
house was a fairly highbrow affair, with
sopranos singing such works as "Immer
leise wird" by Brahms and "0 Lucedi,
Quest' anima" by Gaetano Donizetti. But
the celebrants did join in singing "Happy
Birthday' to Schiller.
Why Schiller? Nancy Spannaus, the
head of the company that owns the book-
store and editor of the group's New Sol-
idarity newspaper, said: "We want to re-
vive the ideas of the, American revolution
and the German classical period, which
are the ideas that man's freedom lies in
his reason."
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WASHINGTON POST
13 January 1985
Group Makes Political Inroads Nationwide
LaRouche Candidates Thin in School Board, City Council Races
Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., the right-
wing independent presidential candidate,
aired 14 half-hour nationally broadcast
political advertisements last year, at a
cost of up to $230,000 each.
Sitting beside a fireplace in his rented
Loudoun County mansion, LaRouche told
viewers that the Soviets were planning
nuclear war, that Democratic presiden-
tial candidate Walter F. Mondale and his
running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, are
pro-Soviet and that Mondale is a Soviet
secret police "agent of influence."
While LaRouche was the most visible
of his group's electoral candidates last
year, he was hardly alone.
The LaRouche-affiliated National
Democratic Policy Committee (NDPC)
said it ran 2,000 candidates for various
offices around the country in 1984.
Members of NDPC, who call them-
selves "LaRouche Democrats," have been
elected to local school boards, city coun-
cils and party committees, according to
LaRouche associates and published re-
ports. Although they have never won a
statewide election, they sometimes re-
ceive as much as 30 percent of the vote.
The group says it tries to appeal to
conservatives, and its candidates often
are promilitary, prodevelopment and
strongly anticommunist.
Many NDPC activists have said they
are not members of LaRouche's core
group. Persons familiar with both the
NDPC and the LaRouche group say many
NDPC activists have only passing under-
standing of the workings of the LaRouche
organization.
Ralph Dratman, a New Jersey engi-
neer, said that he was drawn to the
LaRouche campaign when he saw one of
its televised advertisements. He later
subscribed to one of the group's publica-
tions, and he extended loans totaling
$1,000 to LaRouche's presidential cam-
paign, Dratman said.
BY JAMES M. THRESHER-THE WASHINGTON POST
LaRouche at U.S. Labor Party headquarters
here while running for president in 1976.
Dratman said he agreed with some of
the ideas of the LaRouche group but
found others "half-crazed." Dratman said
that the LaRouche campaign is several
months late in repaying his loans, and
that he is "resigned to not being repaid."
Edward Elliott, a retired barber from
Kensington who loaned LaRouche's cam-
paign $925 last year, said he subscribed
to some LaRouche-affiliated publications
and joined the LaRouche-affiliated Schil-
ler Institute after some LaRouche follow-
ers visited him at his home about two
years ago.
"I think he's a very intelligent man,"
Elliott said. "He's trying to do something
for this country."
"He's interested in bringing more cul-
ture, in [bringing) the spirit of the Amer-
ican Revolution back," Elliott said. "I'm a
conservative, I'm a Republican. He sup-
ports Reagan and tries to get him not to
back down on some of his principles."
At the same time, the Democratic Par-
ty has criticized the NDPC for using the
word "Democratic" in its name.
"The LaRouche cult has attempted to
deceive the public into believing that they
are part of the national Democratic Par-
ty," Democratic National Committee
Chairman Charles T. Manatt said in a
statement. "There is, of course, absolute-
ly no connection whatsoever. We strong-
ly condemn the activities of this fanatical
cult."
But despite the criticism of Democrat-
ic leaders, LaRouche has managed to
raise large amounts of money for his
presidential campaigns-more each time
he runs.
In 1976, when LaRouche ran for pres-
ident on the U.S. Labor Party ticket, he
raised $176,000 and received 40,000
votes, Federal Election Commission of-
ficials said.
In 1980, he raised $2.14 million to run II
in the Democratic primary (including
$530,000 in federal matching funds),
commission officials said. He did not run
in the general election.
Last year, running as an independent,
he raised $6.1 million ($494,000 of that
in matching funds) and received 78,000
votes while appearing on the ballot in 18
states and the District of Columbia.
LaRouche was not on the ballot last
year in Maryland. He received just 127
votes in the District, but he fared much
better in Virginia. There he amassed
13,307 votes-his second highest show-
ing, behind Texas, where he received
14,613 votes.
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r, 1~~'~ F !!p'EP ED I
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
It was January 1974, and
Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., the
leader of a left-wing sect, was
telling his followers why they
had to believe his story that one
of them had been brainwashed
by the Soviet secret police.
"Any of you who say this is a
hoax, you're cruds!" LaRouche
told his followers. "You're sub-
human! You're not serious. The
human race is at stake."
It was vintage LaRouche,
filled with invective and dire
warnings about the fate of the
world, a style reflected in his
group's literature and in his
public statements.
Last Nov. 25, 1,500 people
from 40 nations gathered in the
ballroom of a Crystal City hotel
for a conference of the Schiller
Institute, named for 18th cen-
tury German poet Friedrich
Schiller. They heard another,
more toned down address by
LaRouche, by then a three-time
presidential candidate espous-
ing right-wing views.
"Men and women of other
nations have seen proof that the
spirit of 1776 is still alive within
these United States," LaRouche
told the group, while his words
were translated into four lan-
guages and piped into foreign
visitors' earphones. "The-Unit-
ed States of 1776 is not yet fully
awakened, but forces within our
government and among our cit-
izens are sitting up and rubbing
their eyes."
The story of how Lyndon
LaRouche transformed himself I
from Marxist theoretician to
red-white-and-blue conservative
in 10 years is a tale of a political
chameleon.
WASHINGTON POST
14 January 1985
Presidential Candidate's
Ideological -Odyssey
From Old Left to Far Right
LARoucHE
IN LEESBURG
Second of Three Articles -
He has taken with him on his
ideological journey a worldwide
organization that follows his
every instruction and mimics
his every political twist and
turn, according to interviews
with former LaRouche associ-
ates and experts on the group,
as well as the group's internal
documents.
LaRouche 'leads what may
well be one of the strangest po-
litical groups in American his-
tory," the conservative Heritage Founda-
tion said in a report. "LaRouche has man-
aged to attract a small but fanatical follow-
ing to his conspiratorial view of the world."
LaRouche lives on a heavily guarded es-
tate near Leesburg in rural Loudoun Coun-
ty. Loudoun officials and former associates
say the group is planning to move units of
its national headquarters from New York to
the Leesburg area. In the last several
months, corporations tied to the group have
bought three Loudoun properties worth
more than a total of $1 million and agreed
to buy an estate there for $1.3 million be-
fore the deal fell through.
LaRouche has a good deal of control over
the lives of the members of his organization,
known as the National Caucus of Labor
Committees (NCLC), according to inter-
views with former NCLC members, others
familiar with its activities, published reports
and an examination of the group's internal
documents, some of which were filed in a
recent libel suit in Alexandria.
"It's a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day
total immersion," said a recent dropout,
who, like other ex-members interviewed,
did not want to be identified for fear of ret-
ribution. "It's a situation where people
wouldn't have any private lives
anymore .... Everyone's got to march to
the same tune."
"He demands sycophantic obedience," the
former member said. "He repeatedly tells
the members he is in total control of the
organization."
The members are "rank-and-file autom-
atons" devoted to LaRouche, according to
one member's resignation letter several
years ago.
The organization bred "pure psycholog-
ical terror," the ex-member wrote. "The
group was transformed into sniveling in-
formers vying with each other for
[LaRouche's) approval. Even couples were
encouraged to 'inform' on each other's
'progress' . . . . In most cases the mar-
riages were preserved, although the rela-
tionships were totally broken."
The LaRouche organization has "taken on
the characteristics more of a political cult
than a political party," said a March report
by Information Digest, a biweekly publica-
tion written by journalist John Rees.
LaRouche's followers have "afforded him
blind obedience," wrote Rees, a longtime
specialist in LaRouche.
LaRouche said the notion that he is the
head of a cult is "garbage .... I don't have
any control." He denies playing a leadership
role in any of the organizations identified
with him.
A top associate, Nancy Spannaus, agreed
that the NCLC is no cult. "Mr. LaRouche's
function is to encourage people to do as
much independent research as they can,"
she said.
LaRouche associates point to the Schiller
Institute's sometimes large conferences as
evidence that his followers do not constitute
a cult. The Schiller Institute has planned a
march for tomorrow in the District of Co-
lumbia to protest starvation and "genocide"
in Africa. _
Paul Goldstein, a top LaRouche aide, said
descriptions of the group as a cult come
from former members who "have gotten
burned out because of the pressure" of out-
siders' attacks.
Former associates of LaRouche agree
there is an atmosphere of tension in the
group, .but they say it is partly created by
LaRouche and the group's other leaders.
LaRouche-affiliated publications and the
group's internal reports suggest frequently
that members are under attack from out-
siders.
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'v ;embers, many of them well educated
and well spoken, generally work long hours
for little pay for the organization, according
to ex-associates and LaRouche himself.
Former members interviewed had vary-
ing reasons for quitting, including disagree-
ments with the group's ideology and dis-
taste for LaRouche. All the "defectors," as
nomics, associates said. LaRouche was
known as an inspired Marxist theoretician
at a time when other groups in the New
Left were more given to street action. His
group of about 100 believed its ideas alone
could liberate the working class, and they
said it would win state power in a matter of
years, ex-members said.
LaRouche's followers were taken with his
The group's newspaper, New Solidarity,
reported then that "the NCLC has launched
'Operation Mop-up,' which will bury the
Nixon-allied Communist Party in six to
eight weeks." The article said the group
would enter Communist meetings to accom-
plish this. "We destroy the CP," it went on,
"because it is an absolutely necessary step
to ensure that the working class in the USA
and Western Europe is prepared with com-
petent leadership ..
In the following months, there were
about 40 fights at gatherings of Commu-
nists and others, according to former asso-
ciates of LaRouche and published reports.
Many people were injured, and some
LaRouche supporters were arrested, but
there apparently were no convictions.
"Mobile squads of helmeted, club-wield-
ing goons invaded bookstores and offices of
the CPUSA, Socialist Workers Party and'
Peking-line groups, attacking their mem-
bers there and on the street," said the study
by journalist Rees.
Former members said some attacks were
in retaliation for assaults by Communists,
and others were unprovoked. LaRouche
said in an interview that his supporters
fought only when attacked.
At the time, LaRouche berated his fol-
lowers for not being tough enough and crit-.
icized those who tried to avoid participating
in the fights, according to ex-members and
persons knowledgeable about the group.
"People would be called on the carpet to
explain themselves," said one former mem-
ber. "They were told, 'If you thought this
was bad, wait until the revolution, when
people would be carrying guns.' "
"There was a tremendous emphasis on
being psychologically ruthless: 'Can you
guys really take it?' " another said. "Mop-
up" started the organization's move toward
being a "security-conscious, paranoid, 24-
hour-a-day thing .... It changed the or-
ganization psychologically."
LaRouche developed a set of theories he
called "Beyond Psychoanalysis," and he and
other top leaders held grueling sessions
with members, grilling them about their
lack of toughness, their sexual feelings or
other supposed problems, according to ex-
associates and internal documents..
"People were compelled to confess in
front of a group the most personal things
about their sexual lives, personal lives," one
they call themselves, said they are trying to "intellectual brilliance," one ex-member
reconstruct their personal and professional said.'"He had this amazing capacity to syn-
lives. Several said they are embarrassed thesize bodies of knowledge drawn from so
about their years with the group. many areas, from Beethoven and cognitive
The organization's ideology is hard to pin psychology to the philosophy of Descartes."
down. The NCLC started in the late 1960s LaRouche was "eccentric and odd," a
as a left-wing Marxist sect and then shifted "mysterious character" who told a range of
to the far right in the mid-1970s. Its philos- stories about his past and "stayed up for 24
ophy now is a thick stew of political ingre- hours at a stretch, talking nonstop," the ex-
dients. Some people have publicly ex- associate said.
pressed doubts that the shift to the right In 1968, LaRouche's followers briefly
was authentic and believe LaRouche is se- took leadership of a student strike at Co-
cretly still a Marxist. lumbia' University, but they ended up argu-
With the move from left to right, the ing with other leftist groups. LaRouiche's
group's perceived enemies shifted as well. followers later quit a leading New Left or-
But one fear remained constant: that ganization, Students for a Democratic So-
LaRouche is branded for assassination. ciety (SDS), over theoretical disagree-
Supporters think they are acting defen- ments. Around that time they took the
sively and appropriately when they tele- name they would keep, the NCLC.
phone critics of the group and threaten LaRouche was "not domineering" in the
them, or follow them on the street, pub- earliest days, allowing dissent, one ex-mem-
lished reports and former members said. ber said. But by the early 1970s "his behav-
"There is some horrible psychological for changed increasingly and dramatically"
craziness in this group," said one defector. in confronting members' disagreements,
LaRouche was born Sept. 8, 1922, in the ex-member said. Then he became "abu-
Rochester, N.H., and moved with his family sive and insulting" and resorted to "psycho-
to Lynn, Mass., when he was 9, according logical intimidation."
to a 1979 autobiography. His father was a In an interview, LaRouche denied that he
manager of a shoe manufacturing company, had ever been a leftist, but he said that he'
and his mother was a strict Quaker.
LaRouche wrote that his childhood was
"bitterly boring and grey." He was a "semi-
outcast" with almost no friends, he wrote,
and he retreated to the world of ideas by
reading Descartes and Kant.
In World War II, he originally was a con-
scientious objector and worked in a Quaker
camp in New Hampshire, according to a
statement by former representative Paul
McCloskey (R-Calif.) that was placed in the,
Congressional Record in 1981. LaRouche
then enlisted in the Army and served in a
noncombatant role in the Burma theater,
acccording to McCloskey's statement.
A former associate said that years later
LaRouche told his followers that he became
a socialist in India around the time of the
war after witnessin
lefti
t d
t
i
g
s
emons
rat
ons ex-associates and experts on the group. At
against British rule. _..,
He joined the Socialist Workers Party, a his urging, many members learned karate
Trotskyist sect, in the late 1940s and
started using the pen name "Lyn Marcus," and street-fighting techniques, they said.
which he .continued using into the mid- In April 1973, LaRouche ordered mem-
197Gs. LaRouche periodically supported bers to attack members of the Communist
himself by working as a business consultant, Party (CPUSA) and others in a plan called
he said "Operation Mop-up," according to ex-mem-
In the late 1960s, LaRouche attracted a bers and published reports.
small group of followers who attended his
Greenwich Village lectures on Marxist eco-
formrsr associate said. LaRouche's basic ap-
proach was, "Look what a wretch society -
has made of you, an infantile, impotent be-
ing," the ex-member said.
. LaRouche said that only he could help his,
followers, and many begged to have ses-
sions with him, former members said.
Members-were gripped with a "virtual re-
ligious hysteria" when they saw these crit-
icisms as insights, one former associate
said.
#n'unucd
had merely been opposed to senator Joseph
McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican who
led an aggressive campaign against commu-
nists. But this assertion is contradicted by
former associates and by dozens of the
group's publications and internal reports
explaining his beliefs of that time.
Some former members speak fondly of
these days of leftist fervor, because they
said things started changing in mid-1972.
That is when LaRouche split up with his
common-law wife, who then moved to Eng-
land to marry an English follower of
LaRouche's, according to ex-members and
published reports.
LaRouche began to become more stri-
dent in his attacks on perceived foes, said
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3
LaRouche outlined his therapy in a 1973 "It was so exciting, so bizarre," said one
r, emo to members. He wrote that he was ex-member, who called the events "the
"taking your bedrooms away from you until great freakout of 1974." The ex-member
you make the step to being effective remembered working extremely long hours
organizers .... Your pathetic impotence in for the group, and eating very little.
your sexual life" is a political matter, he "I became theirs," the ex-member said.
wrote. "I will take away from you all hope "That's when it turned from being a po-
that you can flee the terrors of politics to _ litical organization to being a cult," said an-
the safety of 'personal life.' " other ex-member. QOnce the members
One man with whom LaRouche and his
group dealt in the mid-1970s was Willis
Carto, the founder of the Liberty Lobby, ac-
cording to LaRouche's deposition in a libel
case last year and one by Carto in another
lawsuit.
The Liberty Lobby, a right-wing group,
has said it was never allied with LaRouche.
.Carto said in his 1980 deposition that the
Liberty Lobby never endorsed the NCLC
mother is "the principle source of ing to accept the aeuicauon of Lanoucac. but that he was "quite impressed" with its
impotence .. Can we imagine anything Members went on a "war footing,".anoth- members and that his organization's news-
much more viciously sadistic than the Black er ex-member said, with many quitting paper, Spotlight, had praised it.
11 ff 1
t
d
Ghetto mother?"
In an interview LaRouche said it was
around 1973 that he began to become con-
cerned about his personal security.
In December of that ear. LaRouche an-
nounced in a dramatic New York speech to
members that Christopher White, the Brit-
ish associate who had married LaRouche's
former common-law wife, had been kid-
naped and then releases' bythe CIA and the
soviet secret po ice, accor mg - to ex-
members, published reports an d the group's
literature.
essent~a Y. cut
their fobs an
ing o re a- Another man LaRouche met in the mid-
tions with nonmembers. 1970s was Roy Frankhouser, LaRouche
"Your parents are immoral," the group's said in a deposition. Frankhouser, then a top
members were told in an internal bulletin
several years later. "The people of the Unit-
ed States are not morally fit to
survive .... Everything your parents say
is evil-they are like lepers, morally and in-
tellectually insane."
The change in the group prompted many i group "intelligence" about a range. of sub-
of LaRouche's early followers to quit. jests, former members said.
"You have made yourself a prisoner of a
cult of infallibility around your person," one LaRouche said in a deposition that his or-
official of Pennsylvania's Ku Klux Klan,
pleaded guilty in 1975 to dealing in stolen
dynamite. He had also been an informant
for 'several federal and local law enforce-
ment agencies, according' to published ac-
counts. Frankhouser has sent the LaRouche
shed White, then 26, with drugs and elec- cedent whereby anyone can be subjected to good on on security" who works to spot
tric shock treatment and by forcing him to , charges of insanity and back-room frame- "nasties" who pose threats. According to a
eat his own excrement. The agents then ups because they choose to disagree with
programmed White to set up LaRouche's you in an honorable and proper way."
murder by a hit squad, LaRouche said-J&' Because of the perceived danger of at-
also told members they were all in danger
of being murdered by the CIA, and that
some o them had also been brainwashed.
"I was terrified like everybody else," said
one ex-associate. The speech created an
atmosphere of hysteria and fear, and a few
members lost control and had to be re-
strained, according to former members and
published reports.
Tapes, released to reporters, of
LaRouche "deprogramming" White show
LaRouche shouting at White, sounds of
weeping and vomiting, and complaints by
White that he is being deprived of sleep,
food and cigarettes, a published report said.
LaRouche said White was not mistreated,
according to the report.
The episode involving White was de-
scribed in documents read to the jury in the
recent libel case in Alexandria.
Dozens of members begged LaRouche to
deprogram them, too, ex-associates said.'A
number of members were interrogated for ,-
a few days at a time by the group's security
squad, according to former members and
published reports. ,' ,.
The group's public and internal publica-
tions around that time were' filled with
graphic references to members' fears and
dependence on LaRouche.,
. These events, more 'than any other,
changed the NCLC into a group under
LaRouche's control, former associates said.
longtime close aide told LaRouche in a 1981 ganization has paid Frankhouser for various
July 9 LaRouche deposition, Frankhouser
had been working for the organization as re-
cently as one week earlier.
tack against the group, LaRouche set up a Despite the group's right-wing allies and
security team within the group to protect conservative rhetoric, some critics say they
himself, said ex-members and others famil- doubt that the LaRouche organization truly
iar with the group. abandoned its leftist principles and believe
Some LaRouche associates were trained it merely faked a conversion to the right-a
in the use of guns, knives and other weap-
ons at a "counterterrorism" school in Pow- point raised by NBC in the libel case.
der Springs, Ga., according to former mem-. The Heritage Foundation said in a July
bers and other sources. The school wa p-. report that despite LaRouche's appearance
erated by Mitchell WerBe= a former as a right-wing anticommunist, he takes po-
guerrilla operative for the ice o trate- litical stands "which in the end advance So-
gic Services (US5) international viet foreign policy goals."
arms dealer with whom LaRouche grew Daniel Graham, former director of the
c ose. Defense Intelligence Agency, the Penta-.
-VerBell, a soldier of fortune with con- gon's intelligence arm, and a longtime
facts around the world, intro used LaRouche critic, said he believes LaRouche
LaRouche and his followers to numerous
is an "unrepentant Marxist-Leninist" who
military and intelligence officials-, according
to ex-associates tes and other sources. faked the move to the right "to suck con-
In the mid-1970s, LaRouche began to servatives .into giving him money." Some
describe intricate plots against t e group by other former high-ranking intelligence -of-
the CI , t e Rockefellers and others, the ficials, mostly, conservatives, said they join
group's publications show. Graham in this belief.
oun that time, a group, by then bet- LaRouche and his' associates deny these
ter described as conspiracy-minded than
left-wing, began making alliances with
groups that shared its concern about sup-
posed secret plots and conspiracies-the
radical right wing. The NCLC's turn to the
political right "happened without [most
members] realizing it," according to one
..former.. member. "It happened through this
j hysteria."
I ntin
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`V .
allegations, and several ex-members inter-
viewed back them up.
LaRouche is also sensitive. to the fre-
quent assertion that he is anti-Semitic. In
the mid-1970s LaRouche publications be-
gan to criticize Jewish leaders and wealthy
Jewish families for their supposed role in
the international narcotics trade and other
conspiracies.
The attacks reached their height around
1978, when the NCLC said in a position pa-`
per that "Israel is ruled from London as a
zombie-nation.". It called the Anti-Defama-
tion League of B'.nai B'rith "a treasonous
conspiracy against the United States" and,
said B'nai B'rith "today resurrects the tra-
dition of the Jews who demanded the "cru-
cifixion of Christ .... "
In October 1980, a New York State Su-
preme Court justice dismissed a defamation
suit the NCLC had filed against the Anti-
Defamation League and ruled that calling
the NCLC anti-Semitic is merely "fair com-
ment" or a matter of opinion.
In an interview, LaRouche said the idea
that he is anti-Semitic is "crazy." He has
said his attacks are on Zionists, not Jews.
Some of LaRouche's associates are Jew-
ish, and they also deny the group is anti-
Semitic. "It's 'totally a fabricated lie de-
signed to smear Mr. LaRouche," said
LaRouche aide Goldstein. .
LaRouche associates said that instead of
focusing on charges of anti-Semitism, out-
siders should focus on LaRouche's econom-
ic ideas.
Many of his writings focus on the need to
increase food production, increase industry.
in the Third World, restructure world debt
and improve fusion energy technologies.
The international narcotics trade is a fre-
quent LaRouche target.
Some of LaRouche's statements are ob-
tuse and hard to follow. For example, in a
deposition, LaRouche described himself as
"a neo-Platonic democratic republican."
cies, one passage reads: "The most relevant
point is my support for the view that a Te-
view of physics from the vantage point of
the Gauss-Dirichlet-Riemann approach to
topology and electrodynamics affords us not
only a more accurate picture than the Max-
well-Boltzmann approach, but a more direct
and easier approach to comprehension' of
fundamentals."
One recurring theme of the LaRouchian,
ideology is that the world faces nuclear war-
or world starvation unless his ideas are im
plemented, according to LaRouche's -writ:
ings.
In the last 10 years, LaRouche has issue`-.
countless warnings that the world was
doomed in the coming months, according1
the group's literature. ?
"There are about 200 predictions abonit'..
the collapse of the world economy, eaclr-of :
which didn't add up," one ex-member. said. '
"Amnesia is one of the necessary qualificia"
tions for membership."
One way the leaders communicate -their:
thinking to members is through a :daily
memo, the "Morning Briefing." The brief-
ing, sent by teletype from New York head:;,
quarters to offices around the country,`has 7
included the group's daily worldwide Intel
ligence gleanings, reports from LaRouche,
and other leaders, and fund-raising tallies.x
Members in the approximately 20 offic`e's
around the country usually review the brfefx:
ing in the morning, ex-members said, a-Ed .
then go to work raising money or selling ft
group's literature in airports.
There is powerful peer pressure to be -
loyal to LaRouche, and leaving the organ-:
ization usually involves an act of tremen-:
dous will, ex-members said. .
"The preponderance [of early membersj-
have left in disgust," said one former mem-
ber. "They realized they've wasted years af'
their lives .... I woke up one day and f g-,
alized I hadn't thought about the cult far
In a letter LaRouche wrote in November . two months. That's when you know you're -
to The New Republic magazine, in response .'back to normal. It took a couple of years."--::
to..anarticle about-his ties to federal ages- .:::::::NEXT.In1dIigencegahering
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WASHINGTON POST
14 January 1985
Critics of LaRoudie Group Hassled,
Ex-Associates Say,
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff'Writer
Jonathan Prestage was a reporter with the Manchester
Union-Leader in 1980 when his editors asked him to
write an article on Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., the right-
wing presidential candidate who was then stumping New
Hampshire for votes in the state's Democratic primary.
There were allegations by New Hampshire residents that
LaRouche workers were harassing voters on the street
and making odd late-night telephone calls to political fig-
ures.
LaRouche showed up at the newspaper's office_with a
group of about 10 people, Prestage recalled, several of
them security men who left their guns downstairs. In a
tense interview with the entire group glaring at him,
Prestage said, he asked LaRouche about his organiza-
tion's intelligence-gathering network.
"He said, 'You can't use that,' " Prestage recalled. "I
said, 'Why not?' ... He said, 'We have ways of making it
very painful for people.' I asked, 'Is that a threat?' They
just kind of chuckled." The next day, the paper ran an
article by Prestage describing the exchange.
Prestage said that the -day-after the story ran, he
awoke in his large old house in rural Barrington to find
one of his cats dead on his back doorstep. In all, three
cats were left dead on his doorstep over three days.
Prestage said he believes that LaRouche's supporters
killed his cats. He is not alone in believing himself to be a
target of their alleged harassment.
Former associates of LaRouche and others familiar
with his organization said its supporters routinely use
threats and questionable tactics to silence critics and for-
mer members and to discourage the media from writing
critically about the group.
Supporters of the group also routinely use pseud-
onyms, or impersonate reporters or others, in their in-
telligence work, said ex-members and people familiar
with the group.
LaRouche and his associates deny they harass anyone.
An associate added that they had nothing to do with Pre-
stage's dead cats.
In a deposition in connection with a libel suit against
the NBC network last year, LaRouche said that at a 1980
New Hampshire news conference he said he was an ex-,
ecutive of a "political intelligence operation" and that
"amateurs" who "play games" with him would "get,
chewed up." He added in the deposition that that meant
he would expose them.
Jeffrey Steinberg, a top LaRouche aide, said that re-
porters who complain of harassment have other motives.
"A lot of journalists don't like us," Steinberg said. "We
have the habit of asking questions that are embarrassing"
to powerful people.
Paul Goldstein, another LaRouche aide, said in an in-
terview that the organization is sometimes a little sharp
in its criticism of people. "Our method is polemical,"
Goldstein said. "We aim to provoke."
One ex-associate put it another way. "To people who
are unfavorable to them, they do whatever they can to
commit character assassination," the ex-member said.
In a 1981 memo to members, LaRouche said the group
should conduct "ruthless political campaigns" against its
enemies. "We measure personal political performance by
the number of enemies of humanity each region of the
organization prodded into apoplectic fits that day."
"Since 1972, obedience to the NCLC [National Caucus
of Labor Committees] leader has included carrying
out ... verbal and propaganda attacks on individuals and
members of other groups LaRouche decided were his
enemies," John Rees, who has been studying LaRouche
for years, wrote in a report on the group in his newslet-
ter. "First a series of vitriolic and obscene attacks [would
be] unleashed in the LaRouche publications. There fol-
lowed personal harassment in the form of midnight tele-
phone . calls, personal and photographic
surveillances ... telephone calls to friends and family
members, picket lines at home and work, vexatious law-
suits and vandalism .... "
One man who says he has borne the wrath of
LaRouche supporters is Dennis King, a Manhattan free-
lance writer who has written extensively about the or-
ganization for six years. King declined to comment on the
record about the alleged harassment, but he pointed to
sworn statements that he has submitted in federal court
cases.
Steinberg denied that the group harassed King but said
King has urged people to harass LaRouche.
According to King's affidavits, the anonymous tele-
phone calls started in 1979, soon after he started writing
about LaRouche. Some threatened his life, he said. He
estimated he has received 500 abusive or hang-up calls at
home.
Leaflets handed out in New York around that time said
the publisher of the newspaper he was then working for,
was a criminal and that its lawyer was a homosexual,'
King said. LaRouche publications accused all three of
being drug pushers, and at least one article contained
King's address and phone number, King said.
On Oct. 14, 1980, King said he received a telephone
call threatening him with homosexual rape and murder.
The caller also described how King was to be tied to a
lamppost and beaten with a baseball bat.
On Feb. 20 1984, a LaRouche publication, New Sol-
idarity, ran an article entitled, "Will Dennis King Come
out of the Closet?" King said. Copies were left throughout
his apartment building, he said..
4ntifll+O~
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The harassment extended to members of his family,
King's affidavit said. In November 1980, the employers
of King's father, then 79, received letters urging that the
father be fired, an affidavit said. His father and other
members of the family received numerous anonymous
telephone calls about him, King said. The callers said
King would be murdered.
In a deposition, LaRouche said King is with.the "dope
lobby" and that LaRouche's supporters have been "mon-
itoring" him since 1979. "We have watched this little'
scoundrel because he is a major security threat to my
life."
Another journalist the group has publicly denounced is'
Pat Lynch, an Emmy-winning NBC television producer
who researched a network broadcast about LaRouche.'
Members of the LaRouche organization have picketed
NBC's New York offices with signs saying such things as
"Lynch Pat Lynch."
In October, on the first day of a libel trial-inU.S. Dis-
trict Court in Alexandria in which LaRouche charged that
Lynch's broadcast had defamed him, the NBC switch-
board said a telephone caller threatened Lynch's life. A
spokesman for the LaRouche group said it knew nothing
about the threat. An FBI spokesman said an in . estigation
is pending but declined to comment further.
The jury found that NBC had not libeled LaRouche but
that his organization had tried to sabotage a network in-.
terview with Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) The,
jury awarded NBC more than $3 million in damages. .
LaRouche is appealing the verdict.
An NBC researcher in Chicago, Marcie Permut, 22,i
said that soon after she started working .on a segment
about LaRouche, someone started placing fliers around
her parents' neighborhood in suburban. Chicago stating
that she was running a call-girl ring out of her parents'
home. LaRouche associates say they have no knowledge
of the matter.
"His outfit smacks of fascism to me," Rep. Parren J.
Mitchell (D-Md.) said in a statement introduced in the
libel case. Mitchell said in an interview that LaRouche
supporters tried to break up his political gatherings in
Baltimore and distributed literature calling him a drug
dealer and a "house nigger." Mitchell said he received
several anonymous telephone calls, including one death
threat.
"I knew it was them because I recognized some of their
voices," Mitchell said. He said the harassment ended
soon after he pulled a gun on a group of LaRouche sup-
ort
th
p
ers ga
ered outside his Baltimore home
LaRouche organization publications have charged that
NBC backs the "drug lobby" and that the Anti-Defama-
tion League of B'nai B'rith, another LaRouche critic,
played a role in the assassination of Indian Prime Min-,
,
ister Indira Gandhi.
In his deposition, LaRouche said that Daniel Graham, _
who cntic5 ouc e m the 1970s w en he was di-
rector o t e e ense me igence en and a ain re=
cently, is "psychiosexually mi potent. ra am s response:
"I't's a s range g to _ _ a pzuy wi seven s.
_ But the name that comes up perhaps more than any.
other in LaRouche's pantheon of enemies is former sec-
retary of state Henry Kissinger. The preoccupation with
Kissinger increased after June 10, 1982, when Kissing- _,
er's wife Nancy was escorting him onto a plane at Ne- ..
wark Airport for a trip to Boston, where he was to un-
dergo triple-bypass surgery.
2
When a LaRouche supporter, Ellen Kaplan, started
yelling abusive comments at him, such as, "Is it true that
you sleep with young boys at the Carlyle Hotel?" Nancy
Kissinger allegedly grabbed the woman by the throat.
She was acquitted in a Newark court of assaulting
Kaplan.
LaRouche publications have said that Kissinger is -a
Nazi and a murderer. In his deposition, LaRouche said
Kissinger is "a faggot." LaRouche's supporters have de-
monstrated against Kissinger and heckled him at his
speeches.
Former associates of LaRouche and critics of the.
group said they believe that LaRouche encourages such
tactics because they engender angry responses, and
make members of his organization feel more alienated
from th
id
"
e outs
e world.
He likes to bait people into
counterattack," said one former member. "It increases .
the sense [within the group] of being under attack."
Ex-members said that the organization brands as trai-
tors those who quit the group. Former members said
they know of several dropouts who have received threat-
ening phone calls from supporters. I
The LaRouche-tied New Solidarity newspaper in 1974
ran an obituary for three associates who it said had been
murdered by federal agents. The three, who were still
alive, had recently quit the group.
The group's internal memos in the 1970s and early
1980s referred to individual dropouts variously as a liar,
-a thief, "psychotic," a KGB pawn, "a scummy dupe," "a
witting agent," "a pathological liar;" "a zombie" and "vir-
tually paranoid."
The organization has used a range of other unorthodox
methods. One tactic is for members to misrepresent
themselves while investigating someone. "It was a reg-
ular modus operandi," said one ex-associate.
Former members said they routinely used pseudonyms
or posed as employes of other organizations, often as
reporters. (That was what the federal court jury found
the group had done in trying to sabotage NBC's inter-
view with Moynihan.)
- S
In 1982 U.S. News & World Report filed a lawsuit in
federal court against LaRouche-affiliated publications'
charging that their representatives had impersonated the
magazine's White House reporter in phone interviews.
The defendants denied the allegations but agreed to a
permanent injunction barring them from impersonating
the magazine's reporters.
Jeffrey Steinberg, one of LaRouche's top aides, said in
a deposition that he has posed as a reporter for nonex-
istent publications and that the group's policy is not to
impersonate employes of existing publications:
LaRouche added in his deposition that his associates
have infiltrated opponents' electoral campaigns to gather
information.
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r. {^e_r W FARED A-/
WASHINGTON POST
14 January 1985
Injunction Against CIA &
NYC Police for Insurrection
Against U.S. Government
NEW YORK, Jan. 3, 5:45 p.m. - L. Marcus, Chairman of the National Caucus
of Labor Committees, has just announced that his organization will seek an
injunction against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the New York City
Police Department from making further arrests of members of the NCLC. The
cause for this injunction is that the CIA and NYPD are in a state of direct. in-
surrection against the U.S. government and the Constitution of the United States,
These two insurgent government agencies ore in the process of
psychologically brainwashing extensive portions of the population with the
ultimate plan being the takeover by the CIA of the United States of America.
This plot by the CIA has been di overed through the de-programming of Chris-
White, a leading member of the International Caucus of Labour Committees.
The initial plan was the assassination of important members of the leadership of
the NCLC.
The NCLC is assembling a team of lawyers to prepare our injunction for a
show-cause hearing on Friday morning.
TONIGHT In Hear the truth!
L. Marcus Exposes CIA-KGB Plot
Marc Ballroom
27..Union Square West 8 PM-
LaRouche, above, in photo taken in 1974, when he used the
pen name Lyn Marcus; flyer, right, from group tied to him.
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ART11V_ APPEARED
WASHINGTON POST
15 January 1985
~on'te Officials d
1, v, 1
VeUvork Useful' LAROUCHE IN LEESBURG
a
r
ter
Ncrman Bailey recalls that soon -after he
joined the National Security Council, he received -
a call from NSC.:officials asking him to talk to. a
group of followers of right-wing presidential can
didate Lyndon H.1aRouche Jr. who were offer=
ng intelligence information to the agency..:
Bailey, then NSC's senior director of-
interna-tional economic. affairs, said he found the ti is-_
itors' intelligence on economics and- foreign :af=
fairs surprisingly on target.
He said he met with LaRouche's followers nu-,,
merous times in 1982 and 1983 in. his Executive
Office Building office, and three times with
LaRouche himself including once for dinner at
LaRouche's rented Loudoun County estate. Bai-
ley said he circulated within NSC awell-re--
searched position paper that two LaRouche fol-
lowers wrote about fusion energy
"Some of them are quite good," Bailey said of
LaRouche's associates. He said that he found
them to be "useful" because of their."excellent"
international contacts.
"They can operate more freely and openly
than official- agencies" such as the CIA, Bailey
said. "They do knowa lot of people around the
world. They do get to talk to prime ministers and
presidents." Bailey also has described
LaRouche's organization as "one of the best pri-
vate intelligence services in the world."
-- It's a view shared by others in powerful places
in Washington: _? _
Through dogged work, the LaRouche organ-
ization has assembled a worldwide network of
contacts in governments and in military agencies
who meet regularly and swap information with
them, officials and former members said.
t.. _.
In Washington, the LaRouche group has spent
the :last several years currying favor with offi=-
cials of the NSC, CIA, Defense Intelligence
.,Agency, Drug Enforcement Administration, the
military and numerous other agencies, as well as _
with defense scientists doing classified research,
'according to federal officials and ex-members of
the LaRouche group. "They've made a very concerted effort to in-
fluence the government," said Richard Morris,
counselor to Interior Secreta ry William Clark
and formerly Clark's assistant when he was NSC
chief. "Their ;influence never went beyond the
By John Mintz
Washington Post St
ff W
i
mid-level. There's no way they could influ
ence the`president " '
"They obviously want to impress, with i,
their knowledge, people who are in the
know in Washington," said Ray 'S, 'Cline,, a
former top State Department and CIA in-
telligence official who said he - was ap-
proached by LaRouche associates in 1980
and, has spoken with them a number of
times since.'" They're terribly eager to find
somebody" in 'government to talk to.
The-LaRouche group stepped up its pres-
ence in' Washington about 1981, when Pres-
ident Reagan took office, and it has publicly
promoted many of his initiatives in its pub-
lications and on Capitol Hill.
Contacts With NSC, CIA ?.'?
An NBC documentary in March disclosed
the,LaRouche group's contacts with NSC
and CIA officials, and in November The
NeW Republic magazine published an article
by- reporters Dennis King and Ronald
Rado'sh that detailed LaRouche's Washing-
ton. connections. King has reported on
LaRouche's group for six years and has bro-
ken many stories about it.
In Reagan's first term, Executive Intel-
ligence Review, a LaRouche-tied magazine,
,.ran interviews with such officials as Agri-
culture Secretary John Block, Defense Un-
dersecretary Richard DeLauer, Associate
;Attorney General Lowell Jensen, Com-
merce Undersecretary Lionel Olmer and
:then-Sen.. John Tower (R-Texas), at the
time chairman of the Senate Armed Ser-
,vices Committee, The New Republic re-
ported.
High-level Reagan administration officials
"have found LaRouche as useful in supply-
ing information and promoting their policies
as LaRouche has found them in legitimizing
'his cause," The New Republic said.
LaRouche associates also have been ac-
tive for years in West Germany, France,
Italy, Mexico, Argentina, India, Thailand
and many other countries, according to,
LaRouche-tied publications, ex-LaRouche
associates and former government officials.
The group has had dealings with a number
of foreign'government and military officials,
according to-these sources.
LaRouche himself has had private meet-
ings with Jose Lopez Portillo when 'he was
Mexico's president, Argentine President
Raul Alfonsin and the late Indian Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi. LaRouche also met
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Iraqi of :vials during a visit to the Mid-
2 in East 1975. Former secretary of state Henry Kiss-
finger, whom LaRouche associates have ac- dinner conversation dinner cony, in a deposition, Wo dh ut in the
Most of the 22 active and retired govern- cused of being a murderer and homosexual,
at the Woodburn Es-
ne,it and military officials interviewed said said in an interview that "there's no excuse tate in March, Bailey asked his opinion on
that they have been wary of speaking with for top CIA and other intelligence officials certain matters. LaRouche declined to he
the LaRouche associates. to meet with what he considers an unsavo cuss the conversation at length because he
It may seem far-fetched that a group that group. "It's a revolting episode .... What said it was a matter ofconfidential national
'says that Walter F. Mondale is a Soviet se- "
cret police "agent of influence" and that the , can they ssibly know we can't find out security."
Bailey recently may have found
queen li England is involved international ourselves?"
Bosma, the military specialist, said he, LaRouche helpful, his dealings with the
dupe-dealing could be "useful" to top federal too, is angry about reports of dealings be- LaRouche group have not always been
government officials. tween LaRouche and the administration: "If' at Queens In College, , Bailey he was a pbel suit
But a number of government officials say at Queens College, Bailey filed a libel suit
this is true, it's almost unforgivable
much of the group's intelligence is accurate. I'm against a group tied to LaRouche after it
LaRouche outfit has had more than, 100 ' -gasted? and a appalled." )led. Reaganite, but I m flabber-
intelligence operatives working for it at described him as a CIA agent and a "fas-
a .. .
The Ttimimes, and copies the government in its in- The conservative Heritage Foundation, a The Bsu cist it ey said.
tnation-g pies the governmetmembers longtime LaRouche critic, expressed worry the LasRuouche sudraggedppon #orterrss years, until
approach held: him m
.. about.,-,possible securityleaks in a report
and other knowledgeable sources said. at NSC, he said In 1983; the two sides set
Sometimes the group's intelligence re- is "A d last July, tied regarding pap
ports reflect the I tied the suit after'.a' news er affiliated
organization's offbeat and
1aRouche network arises from its apparent with LaRouche agreed, to publish a correc
ability to penetrate high lion, and the group.:paid him a "monetary
speculative allegations, but much of the government cir- ?
time they do.not, according to much of ex_membtrs Iles-especially within"the intelligence and settlement, Bailey said:, He declined to
and a reading of some of the reports. Its police communities," the foundation .said. specify th8 amount.. p . r . - i
f epi~rts ea such subjects as the international "While some [of - the LaRouche group's] Bailey said he lls fr ues to receive aide
.debt and the industrialization of Thailand claims may be overstated, and some of the odic telephone calls from a LaRouche aide
often read like government memoranda, contacts may have. been low-level or self- asking his opinion on economic matters. -
of
John ten r Bosk .editor of Military Space generated, the potential for security The LaRouche organization has dealt
magazine, recalled that in 1981, while he breaches and other' problems arising from with other NSC personnel as well, council
worked fora congressman on the House such relationships remains very real." officials said.
waned Services Committee, he was ap- After the NBC broadcast, Democratic One was Morris, William Clark's top aide.
proached by a representative of a magazine National Committee Chairman Charles In an interview, Morris said he met..four
tied he codometer o LaRo G ran esen live o cruise missile Manatt called on President Reagan "to end times with LaRouche hle at NSC in 1982
t
the shocking White House involvement with and 1983, and had other meetings with his
---- associates.
and other classified information, Bosma the bizarre, extremist cult of We discussed matters of national "sec"
said' Lyndon
..: , } H.
"The guy knewwhat he was talking that a it-Ai absolutely incredible city concern," Morris said in October tabout,Bosma said. "It's a very sensitive =-member. [ranking NSC] staff - timonv in a U.S. District Court trial in Al-
" Alwould, .have anything court --- found
subject. I was very surprised the guy, was -,with the LaRouche ea p le " .11 X- NC to do exandha (A federal court jury fothat
asking me- questions at that level of detail. I : When asked al out. NSC `contact 'with d Bed him to pay NBC $3 million, after find-
said it was none of his damn business." LaRouche, White louse :spokesman Larry Gathering intelligence for corporations Speakes said in March that "from time to in erview is
with a U.S. senatoaged a network
and individuals is one of the ways the -time we talk to 'various' people who may Among the topics'- he 8iscussed "with
LaRouche organization supports itself finan- have information 'that might prove helpful LaRouche were international economics
cially, according to LaRouche and former to us."
members. In a hypothetical example, a Marlin Fitzwater, another White House "He had an intelligen a operatorris ion that gfath-
West German company might hire, the spokesman, said last ;month that there's no ered information that 'he thought was im-
group to investigate the Mexican oil indus- official or unofficial [Reagan administration] portant to the national security."
try for, say, $5,000, said ex-members and policy or line in regard to dealing with the - "When they spoke in terms of technology)
persons familiar with the group's operation. LaRouche organization. Any contacts are ? or economics, they made good sense," Mor-
The organization's dealings with federal made at the discrettgn of the . individuals ris said in an interview "They seemed to be
agencies have been made easier by involved."
LaRouche's move to Loudoun County last For his part, Bailey, now 'a private eco- / qu LaRouche their
said that he has had "continu-
year. The group plans to move the bulk of nomics consultant e, said , he .felt he should mg off-and-on contacts" with Morris even
its national headquarters there, according listen to LaRouche,
'to sources.and a Loudoun County official. now that he s at Interior, and said the two
"LaRouche wants to wreak big changes 'Zt was part of mylob [at NSC], gathering. i are "old friends."
on a world scale' ,".2 former LaRouche as ? information from a.nysource-1 could," Bailey Morris' said that the'relationship is much
sociate said. "They're trying to get access. " said. "You use whatever is at hand," he said, more distant, and that he does not support
to the administration. They're trying to get even if the source is "smelly." LaRouche's positions.
inside the system through the old-boy net- Bailey said that he is not a supporter" of Morris testified that ' he :distributed
work so they can manipulate it." LaRouche, and disagrees with him on some among NSC officials some of the informa-
tion
Some Officials Angered things, although he found his group to be atesprovided by LaRouche and his associ-
The depth' of he's entree in offi-. "very supportive of.the administration." at e.
In a letter New Republic editors last
vial Washington has caused anger in some month, LaRouche said that after the NBC
uarters
q
~GRt~r. ??^~
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,.cast critical of government officials
(if-aling with LaRouche, the Reagan ad-
::is`ration "distanced itself sharply from
After the broadcast, some administra-
.o officials made statements "suddenly to.
,ally out of agreement" with earlier friendly
statements, LaRouche wrote.
LaRouche associates also have tried to
gain the confidence of top CIA officials.
LaRouche supporters telephone CIA of-
ficials "a lot" to offer information and try to
get more, one knowledgeable official said.
"They could consider that a two-way ex-
change. To my knowledge it is not a two-
way exchange."
LaRouche said in an interview that he has
visited the CIA's Langley headquarters a
few times, and that his associates have vis-
ited many times.
A CIA spokesman said LaRouche, his
wife and an aide visited the agency in Jan-'
uary, 1983, and met with aides to Deputy
Director John McMahon to talk about a re-
cent LaRouche trip overseas. The CIA
spokesman said LaRouche also visited ear-
lier with Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, who was
the agency's deputy director in 1981 and
1982.
Inman Recalls Visit
In an interview, Inman recalled the visit
at his CIA office by LaRouche and his wife,
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who had just re-
turned from Europe. He said that she gave
enticing information about the West Ger-
man Green Party, an antinuclear group. "At
the time, nobody [in intelligence] was cov-
ering them at all," Inman said of the Greens.
Inman, now head of a Texas-based com-
puter research organization, said the meet-
ing was not extraordinary, because, as a
CIA official, he sometimes met with people
returning from overseas trips. He said he
did not give information, but listened.
Inman and other intelligence officials said
they doubt the stories, widely circulated in-
side the LaRouche group, that the organ-
ization has informants inside the CIA who
provide it with intelligence.
Former associates said the organization
dealt with several."cutouts," or intermedi-
aries, who ciairned they received confiden-
tial reports from the CIA. The code name
for'one.supposed CIA contact was "Mr. Ed,"
said ex-associates, who added they know of
no confirmation that the contact existed. i
The group has worked closely with 'a for-
18th century poet Friedrich Schiller that
says it is committed to the ideals of the
American Revolution-lists on its advisory I
board several high-ranking retired and ac-
tive-duty military officers.
The LaRouche group also tried for years
to, gain favor in the Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA), the Pentagon's intelligence
arm. When DIA officials first met with
LaRouche associates in, the early 1970s,
they were impressed with the group's in-
telligence material, said former DIA direc-
tor Daniel Graham.
Graham recalled that LaRouche associ-
ates came up with what he called good in-'
telligence about the situation in Angola,
Mozambique and elsewhere. Graham , said
that in the mid-1970s, he. and DIA col-
leagues concluded that some of the mfora
imation was so sensitive that they suspected
the LaRouche group was getting some of it
from the Soviets or another government:.
Graham added that he couldn't prove the
contention.
Ordered Contacts Stopped
Graham, a strong anticommunist, said
that in the mid-1970s he ordered the DIA
to stop dealing with the LaRouche group.
LaRouche associates strongly deny the
assertion that the group is a stalking horse
of any foreign government. "It's a weak dis-
information slander put out by the KGB if-
self," said LaRouche aide Paul Goldstein.
The Heritage Foundation said in its July
report that LaRouche takes positions
"which in the end advance Soviet foreigh
policy goals .... In the worst case, [his
group] may well be the strangest asset for
the KGB's disinformation effort."
The charge that the LaRouche-affiliated
National Caucus of Labor Committees has
ties to Soviet officials was first raised in
1979 by the National Review magazine in
an article by a former associate of
LaRouche. (It also has been raised in sub-
sequent publications, such as The New Re-
public article, and in the NBC libel suit.)
Some former intelligence officials say they
back the ex-member's contention that in
the 1970s the LaRouche group maintained
contact with the Soviets through Gennady
Serebreyakov, an official at the Soviets'
United Nations mission.
friars. "We want them there" to know the
kroup's thinking,: he said. He said that
LaRouche associates have visited the Soviet
anion repeatedly; "They run into Soviet of-
ficials all the time;" Steinberg said.
For his part, one retired senior military
official, retired Army major general John K.
Singlaub, has expressed concern about the
group's contacts with him.
: Singlaub recalled in an interview that in,
the late 1970s, when he was stationed at
Fort McPherson, Ga., after a publicized
clash with President Carter over U.S. policy
in Korea, he was approached by LaRouche
associates, who said they.liked his hard-line
style. '
After Singlaub's 1978 retirement, they
attended Singlaub's lectures all over the
country, he said. They showed him their in-
telligence reportsiabout Iran, Western Eu--
rope and other topics, -and Singlaub said , i
some of it was surprisingly good.
"Initially I was convinced they were try-
ing to build up credibility that' they had a
good intelligence network that I could rely
on," Singlaub said.
In 1979, he. continued, the LaRouche
supporters began telling him that the U.S.
military deserved a "major break" and that
Carter had done' a disservice to the -military.
"They said, 'You military people are,go-. ,
ing to be the savior of the country ...: We
want to work closely with you. We have'in-
:telligence that can help you,'" Singlaub re-
Grew Suspicious of Goals
He said he grew suspicious of 'he
aRouche supporters' goals and cut off re-
nations with them,
My Just as Singlaub said the LaRouche sup-,
arters used pro-military rhetoric with him,
former Drug Enforcement Administration
45 ficial said theyhpressed strong opposi-
on. to narcotics ?traffickers when talking
with him.
"They took a basic law enforcement nar-
cotics control position," said John Cusack,
the DEA's former international operations
chief, who added that around 1976 he
` started receiving 'telephone ' calls from.
LaRouche associates researching the nar-
y cotics trade, and had numerous discussions
with them.
- ;
LaRouche associates asked "intelligent"
questions, said Cusack, now a staff member
at the House Select Committee on Narcot-
ics Abuse and Control: "They always
seemed to know what the [law enforce-
ment] agencies were doing. They were
well-informed ..... Sometimes they told
me things I didn't know, but it turned out it
was true." Cusack added that they had "very
LaRouche, in his letter to The New Re-
public, confirmed that Serebreyakov ap-
proached him sometime in the mid-1970s,
and that the two met twice to try to end the
feuding between the LaRouche organization
and East Bloc nations. LaRouche said the
mer CIA operative wh&has helpe8 provide
security and given information about the in- -
ternational narcotics
trade
ex-memb
s
,
er
t r
said effort was unsuccessful.
. t
The organization also had close ties for Jeffrey Steinberg,, ?a top aide to
years with a former Office of Strategic Ser- LaRouche, said group members never
vices guerrilla operative, Mitchell WerBell passed any information to Serebreyakov.
III,, who introduced members to many in- `feinberg also said the National Review ar-
telligence and military figures, sources said. tiicle was largely incorrect. 1
The LaRouche-affiliated Schiller Insti- ' 6 :Steinberg said LaRouche associates fre-
tute-an international ' group named for iently; invite Soviet officials to their sem-
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good contacts" with local police depart-
ments.
The group has cultivated these contacts
for about 10 years, and many law enforce-
ment. officials subscribe to its publications.
In spring of 1977, LaRouche associates
gave New Hampshire law enforcement of-
LaRouche said in an interview that he
represents a "back channel," or confidential
intermediary, for foreign officials who tire
of dealing with the "idiots" in the State De-
partment. "I'll telephone somebody [in the
White House] and say, 'Look, a dear friend
of ours in M
xi
e
co wants to have the pres-
ficials detailed but speculative reports that
the Clamshell Alliance, an antinuclear group ident know something.'
then planning a protest at a nuclear plant, "Incredible Intelligence Files"
was a terrorist group financed by the
Rockefellers. The May 1977 protest was
not violent, although 1,400 people were
arrested.
The group also has sold intelligence re-
' ports to a number of foreign governments,
according to LaRouche and current and for-
But foreign leaders sometimes express
contusion about LaRouche's messages be-
cause of their often rambling nature, former'
associates said.
The LaRouche group has developed "in-
credible intelligence files" on. foreign gov-
mer associates. Steinberg said in adeposi c:z-ernment, business. and labor.union:officials,
Lion that several years ago, LaRouche as- ! *,. as well as their counterparts inthis country,
sociates investigated terrorism for Italian said one ex-member:r
officials. LaRouche said in an interview that" Some of the LaRouche associates who
his associates were hired. to provide -intel- work on intelligence'have university train-
ligence to the South African government. ing in their areas. They keep up by reading
'Ex-members said the intelligence, -reports dozens of newspapers from around the
dealt with the antiapartheid movement. world and interviewing experts, -former
Some current and former U.S. officials members said,
who do not want to be identified, as well as "Many, many times I'd -find I knew more
ex-members, expressed concern that about what was going on than the academ-
LaRouche's overseas activities may lead ics," said one former member who worked
foreign leaders to think that he somehow on intelligence. "People on the- outside
represents the U.S. government, and take would be saying I- Was insane 'tfor being with
his statements as a "trial balloon" -of U.S. LaRoucheJ,.but'here I was talking to [a Eu-
Policy.
At times LaRouche associates, identify-
ing themselves as representatives of 'the
LaRouche-affiliated National Democratic
Policy Committee, arranged meetings with..
foreign leaders, who sometimes mistakenly
thought they represented a faction of the
Democratic Party, former associates of
LaRouche and other sources said.
ropean head of state's] security man."
Graham, the former DIA. director, said
LaRouche's - intelligence operation is no
joke, and has developed contacts in the in-
telligence community.. 4
In my. time -in the'" intelligence commu-
nity, I found too many gullible folk," Graham
said. "I kept warning my people."
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A - WASHINGTON POST
15 January 1985
`Star Wars' Work Is Focus
Intelligence-Gathering
LaRouche- Associates Query- Top Scientists
By John Mintz
Washington Peat Staff Writer
John
Nuckolls,
associate
director
for
physics
at a top
California
weapons . re-
sParch center, said he didn't know what to
make of the Lyndon LaRouche associates
he got to know a few years ago.
Nuckolls, who works oi classified pro-
jects at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory,
recalls that starting in the 1970s, members
of the -LaRouche-affiliated Fusion Energy
Foundation (FEF) doggedly called him and
other scientists at his center and another at
Los Alamos, N.M., to gossip and try to
gather information.
Nuckolls said Livermore scientists
"treated them with extreme caution," es-
pecially when the FEF members tried to
steer conversation toward classified tech-
nology now known as "Star Wars" weap-
ons-the futuristic space-based satellites
that in theory would cripple incoming nu-
clear missiles.
"There was a lot of informal talk at the
labs, saying, 'We don't know who these peo-
ple are, what their sources of funding are,' "
said Nuckolls, an administrator of a team
doing some of the nation's most sensitive
alon
g
with di
agra
m
s, according to published
research on Star Wars, officially called the
reports.
Strategic Defense Initiative. Last year, the Anti-Defamation League of
infAn account
from defense of FEF's attem sp ts to gatand B'nai B'rith received' documents from thl
US. Department of =Energy, under the
government officials first appeared last No- Freedom of Information Act, showing hat
vember in The New Republic magazine. FEF members had frequent contacts with
Nuckolls said that the LaRouche associ- federal officials involving fusion energy,
ates had "very extensive contacts" in the The documents detail phone calls betwee
close-knit field of fusion energy, the science FEF members and federal energy official
on which Star Wars technology is based. ? in which they discussed technical questions
In particular, the FEF members said they ,^such as Soviet breakthroughs in fusion eii
picked up "useful" information from "bar 1? ergyand new research at Los Alamos.
talk" with Soviet fusion scientists who "let
4.P;r ha;r Anam " jlirrr4n11c co ,1 A top Livermore Labs source, who did
seemed to be very 110L wa1
adept at getting this gos-
son a n
sip and spreading it around.
"The question in my mind was, 'Are they
getting any information [about American
research] they shouldn't have?' " Nuckolls
said. He said he determined they were not
receiving classified information.
T~iuckolls was not alone in his concern. Nuckolls said that he stopped taking
A former ranking U .S. intelligence offi phone calls from FEF members a few years
-cial said the LaRouche
g
r
u
p
'
o
s
a
t
tempts to ago when the
rou
i
tensifi
d it
h
to
,
also is concerned because FEF members
"have access to extremely sensitive and
_high-level information." Some FEF mem-
bers, physicists and other scientists, are "top
drawer" in their technical expertise, said
Bosma, formerly an aide to a congressman
on the House Armed Services Committee.
The LaRouche organization strongly sup-
ports President Reagan's plan to undertake
research into Star Wars technology. In fact;
the group has claimed that it played a role
in formulating Reagan's policy.
The LaRouche-affiliated FEF, a nonprofit
organization, for years -has promoted fusion
energy. The media have quoted FEF mem-
hers as experts in' these fields, and top' sci=
entific researchers `have granted interviews
to the FEF magazine, Fusion.. .
In 1980 the magazine published an article
by fusion ' scientist Friedwardt Winterberg
on the technical workings of an H-bomb;
umber of scientists there spoke relt
atively freely with the FEF members. is that
so few policy-makers and scientists are in
volved in fusion energy.
"The tendency to give them the time of
day is pretty strong," the source said. Sci-
entists thought fusion energy was "the
strangest, thing in the world for a group like
that to make an issue out of.".
g
p
e
n
s r
e
ric
learn"ab
ou
c
t
l
as
ifie
s
d Star wars research is
n
c
the"most worrisome aspect of its intelli-
gence-gathering.
John Bosnia, a defense specialist
said he
i
atta
king Henry' Kissinger and others:
--- Some of theFusion-Energy Foundation s
literature is arcane and technical. A book
written by FEF staff members deals with
such subjects as' "K=alpha line ellipsoic:aj
resonance mirrors" add the "MHD''gch'e,;j
ator for pulsed thermonuclear reactions'-
Fusion, the group's magazine, appeals to
scientists because of its pronuclear andiro-
research stance, Bosma said. He added that
several years ago, when he worked at
Boeing Aerospace Co. in Seattle, "I saw
senior managers and engineers waving it
around and saying, ,'This 'is4- -i$'reat
stuff.' . . . Scientists are not street savvy."
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