JOHN REES: HIS NEWSLETTER SUPPLIED DATA ON ANTIWAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100440005-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 27, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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By Paul W. Valentine
washinston Post Staff Wrt:er
John H. Rees, a shadowy, British-
born figure active in antiwar circles
here in the early 1970s, was a police
informant who surreptitiously gather-
ed data for an elaborate private intelli-
gence newsletter he has circulated to
local police and the FBI, CIA. and
Congress.
Thus, through Rees' newsletter, "In-
formation Digest," the names of thou-
sands of persons associated with the
antiwar movement went into police
files and in some cases formed the
basis for specific political dossiers.
The digest still is published today.
Secretive and eccentric, Rees, 49,
used false names and sometimes mas-
queraded as a Catholic priest. He was
known variously as John O'Connor,
,Tohn Seeley or just "Father John"
among activists in the movement.
He lived in a commune with his
wife Louise, also known as Sheila
O'Connor, and operated a radical
"book stare," financed by police, near
Dupont Circle to attract youthful dis-
sidents and provide cover for himself.
Disrrict of Columbia police also in-
stalled a bugging device at another
location used by the Rees couple and
recorded meetings, planning sessions
and- general- conversation there. 'in
weeks just prior to the massive May-
day demonstrations here in 1971.
Details of Rees' operation were dis-
closed earlier this month by New York
State legislative investigators in a re-
-port on the New York state police in-
telligence apparatus and its utilization
? of Information Digest.
Most details outlined in the report,
published by the New York State Gen-
. eral Assembly office for legislative
oversight and analysis, have been in-
.dependently corroborated by official
and private sources here. Additional
'information about Rees' activities also
.has been collated from these and
other sources.
Pees also is one of several central
figures in a recent investigation by
'the U.S. Attorney's office here into
:allegations of. illegal surveillance tac-
tics by the intelligence division of the
:D.C. police department during the
antiwar years. The investigation ended
inconclusively with no action recom-
mended against those suspected of in-
, volvement.
Pees sold or gave away his biweekly
mimeographed newsletter to as many
~as 43 recipients, most of them law
enforcement agencies such as the D.C.
-police and Maryland and New York
state police.
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The FBI and CIA received Informa-
tion Digest unsolicited from Rees and
deny supporting it financially.
Staff members of the Senate Inter-
nal Security subcommittee and the
now defunct House Internal Security
Committee (HISC) also received the
newsletter.
Rees still maintains a link with Con-
gress through his wife who is on the
staff of Rep. Lawrence P. McDonald,
(D-Ga.), an archconservative and mem-
ber of the national council of the
John Birch Society.
Also on McDonald's staff is Herbert
Roterstein, a veteran HISC investi-
gator who is one of few persons now
maintaining direct contact with the
furtive Rees.
Rees' newsletter, which contains
numerous reports on rightwing, anti-
war and leftist organizations, also has
been sold to several news organs in-
cluding one "major broadcast net-
work," according to Romerstein who
would not elaborate.
Activists in Washington's leftist com-
munity who have seen samples of Rees'
newsletter are alarmed at its detailed
descriptions of internal meetings and
its sophisticated analysis of leftist
politics.
They said. this suggests that Infor-na-
tion Digest is not the product of a
single freelance police informant and
his wife but is part of a much larger
intelligence network involving police
and private individuals.
"It's just the tip of the iceberg,."
said one, veteran movement observer.
"The material in there reflects a so-
phisticated data collection system that
would- take a whole bureaucracy to
run."
In some editions of Information
Digest, Rees refers to a "filing/Index-
ing service" he maintains. He also
provides for recipients a confidential
telephone number and a Baltimore
post office box number through which
he can be contacted.
Leftist activities contended that this
suggests that he not only gives but
receives information from police agenc-
ies and that Information Digest is
some type of central clearing house
for a nationwide intelligence exchange
system.
Romerstein denied this, saying the
"radical left is trying to make some-
thing out of nothing."
He said Rees, a journalist by train-
ing, relies largely on published mat-
erial-radical newspapers, leaflets and
other literature---and on exchanging
Information with fellow journalists.
"He may have informants in .orne
of the radical organizations," Bumer-
stein said, "but they're Private, not
government."
Romerstein would not discuss how
Information Digest is financed except
STAT
to say that Rees "never made any STAT
money on it."
Rees apparently provided the c'igest
free to some law enforcement agencies.
The CIA acknowledpped r e c e i v i n g
"some (unsolicited) copies." according
to a letter last Feb. 2 to New York
state legislative investigators.
"We do not know why we were put
on the mailing list," the letter said."
and can only assume a shot,,un
approach was used in distributing it
to various federal and state agencies."
The FBI said it has no record of
receiving the newsletter, but William
F. iladdad, director of the New York
state legislative oversight office, said
FBI officials told him they received it
on an unsolicitied basis.
Haddad said there is no evidence
that the publication receives federal-
financial support.
In the Nov. 19, 1971 edition of fit-
formation Digest, Rees made a plea
for money, noting that it cost in
supplies and postage for each issue,
plus "the ever increasing overhead of
maintaining a filing-indexing service."
Of the general findings in Hadha d'3
report, Romersten said: "Some are
right and some are wrong, and I'm not
going to say which is which."
He said, "I'm not going to let Had-
dad clean up his act. I'm sneaking for
Rees now, and he doesn't want Haddad
squirming off the hook."
Rees now lives in almost total an-
onymity and refuses to talk with re-
porters.
Last winter, he agreed to meet
briefly in a motel room here :.ith
investigators looking into D.C. police
intelligence activity, but he gave them
little information. He woula not even
tell them where he lives. a source said,
citing fear that his life could be en-
dangered.
Rees' wife, now working as a re-
searcher in Rep. McDonald's office,
also refuses to talk- to reporters.
Several members and employees of
the National Lawyers Guild, a long-
time leftist legal assistance organiza-
tion mentioned prominently in In-
formation Digest, said Louise Rees
worked in the Guild's Washington of-
fice in 1972 and 1973 while her husband
was working as a police informant.
"She was terrific, very efficient," re-
called Sheila O'Donnell, a former Guild
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