GUILD EXPOSES RIGHT-WING SPY UNIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100440003-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 11, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100440003-6
A1;; T. CL -"'tSTAT
O1V P.?1GE
THE GUARDIAN (.'+ational
11 January 1978
The intelligence community's "private sector's
Spying, wiretapping, assassinations-the SPYING ON THE LEFT LINKS TO CONGRESS...
.
crimes of U.S. intelligence agencies have t, Another issue records names and phone r-~= BY the early 1970s Rees; now working with
been unearthed and exposed with numbing numbers of celebrities deemed likely to + ,=his wife; Louise- managed to . nf1Itratea
regularity over the past five years. : support left and liberal causes-with entries number ' of. Washington, D.C., . area left
Now evidence is emerging that a parallel as varied as Dustin Hoffman, Sal Mineo and = groups-including- the Institute for Policy
right-wing intelligence network, working Barbara, Dane To protect sources,' ID Studies and. the- NLG-as agents of the
with government agencies .and tied to the warns; "this material should not be used in -Washington and '.Maryland- State Policy.
John Birch . Society. corporate- security this format.. It. Is also noted that' every After a:. year with the -NLG. Louise
services and church groups. is in operation attempt was made to restore this list,. to its ' disappeared, only' to show up in 1974 as i
across the U.S.Extensive investigations by' owner, without success, as it is realized that staff memberforthe HouseInternal Security
the. National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and under certain circumstances the publishing committee'. That-same -year, NLG'.investi-
others have begun to piece together a of stolen.lists is illegal." Obligingly. the gators discovered. the Maryland State Police
picture of the intelligence community's New York State Police stamped every page:- ! -.obtained and paid fora post office box for
private sector.'' The information contained herein is of a ' Information Digest' correspondence:-. Also
classified nature, intended solely for the use .: authorized to pick up the mail was' John
INFORMATION DIGEST of the N.Y. State Police .and any - other Norpf_until 1975. research director for the
s :'?.
.... ~ .Senat e.lnternal Security Committee
At its center is a mysterious right-wing agency authorized by them." t.
figure named John Rees. For the past 10 More recently 1D turned up as the New.] Louise Rees is presently staff assistant to
years Rees has written and distributed - Hampshire State Police's intelligence source E Rep. Larry McDonald (D-Ga.),whoserves as'
Information Digest (ID), a sophisticated.' on the:-antinuclear Clamshell Alliance. ID's .the congressional outpost for -the ' ID
right-wing intelligence newsletter which has material on' the group was passed to the network. A member of the John Birch
supplied police departments throughout the police by the U.S.. Labor Party-itself a 'Society's national council. McDonald regu-
country with derogatory information on the suspected right-wing front group-and used larly inserts hundreds of pages of material
left. Other'. subscribers. to the biweekly by New..Hampshire Gov. Meldrin Thompson on -'subversives" into the congressional
compendium of "left-wing intelligence in a widely publicized speech denouncing record, most of it either -written by. the
have included the CIA, the National Security Clamshell as a "cover for terrorist activity " Reeses or culled from the.file*s of the Church
Agency and the FBI. And:,. last:;, month Rees launched-;- a? League or other right-wing gawps.
ID first came to public attention through a McCarthyite .smear campaign -'against' -Journalists and researchers investigating
1976 investigalion of police abuses by the -Guardian correspondent Wilfred Burchett in McDonald's activities believe.ID's files have
.New ork Office of Legislative Oversight. It ' one of ID's favorite above-ground outlets, been secretly transferred intapthe congress-
was theJohn Birch Society's Review of theNews. ? -man's Capitol Hill office. apparently to avoid
di covered then that the New York State
Police regularly used ID as a "confidential - Whilethe,N.Y. State report characterizes -court stibpenas for the material. Both the
ID as ;the- .'stria that held together -a? Reeses are the targets of lawsuits brought by
informant," g? the Institute for Policy. Studies. the Socialist
??N....uc- ...a.r..:nn.d .. nsa~livoty ?'in ?' ihe?i .-nationwide-network of hidden informants.:
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Z were .used "to c develop ':.dossiers r on explain how the ID network is funded or its r
-.thousands of Americans who had committed information distributed. However, according ` CORPORATE POLICE
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no . crime and were?~ not, - suspected.. of to a recently released investigation. by_the..
committing -a'?'crime.' Over 60'tipolice' National Laywers.Guild. Rees-,has received operation is their connectioq to corporate
.departments-- used 'ID..'- and according to _ample,,support from cooperative police = police forces. John Rees has worked on and.
records released under the Freedom of departments and right-wing organizations off for the Wackenhut Corp.; one of the
Information- Act;.- the CIA regularly in since his arrival here from Britain in 1963 -nation's. largest security' and investigative
tegrated.,111 s rcpot'ts-into' their own, In 1969 Rees, surfaced as the_e*ditor of the
intelligence files. National- Caymans Digest , a blacklisting services as 'including "preemployment
lD : itself" -is.~ A.' mixture- of,.newspaper publication of the ultraright Church' League screening, polygraph examinations; counter
. clippings;:left-wing gossip;. stolen-:docu. `of America;`;. According . to - .the -.Church business espionage. internal intelligence
nicnts ..and . intelligence - gleaned` from Leagues.: publicity. its research library. in ..and general criminal, fraud and- .arson
' activt: in radical so-called revolu. Wheaton,ill: contains the nation's "largest investigations." John Ammarell. the com-
r
"
ces
sou
;?? ?o,?. ?: and most comprehensive files. oil subversive pany's vice president. '=recently admitted
tionary groups. ? .P .
the before a congressional commission that
t
y,
. -Wackenhut has maintained 300.000 files for
NLG contains 'detailed' reports 'on.-the ?FBI_...instantly:.available to every.'.police
.Vietnam Veterans Against the War. an anti- departmen4 and. security -agency in.:the the purpose of keeping industry. informed
about subversive activities. The data was
war planning conference .,together::-with. a -country. 4
list of participants." Puerto Rican 'nation- obtained - from 'the House - Un-American
alist" groups and "brief notes:', frcim cities Activities Committee and the Church League
of America. ' r .
around the country. -.? ~+=i, `?r
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100440003-6