The Hunt for Red Menace: - 6
Previous | TOC | Next
Church League of America
Research West
Combat
On Target
Private Counter-subversion Groups of the
1960's
Church League of America
The Church League of America claimed to have the largest collection
of files on "subversives" outside of the government channels,
and admited using infiltrators to collect information. The League boasted
of its skill in using miniature cameras and tape recorders. For many
years the League offered to check four names using their computerized
files for any private citizen who made a donation of $150 and passed
a background check. The file check included a year's subscription to
the Church League's two newletters, News and Views and National
Laymen's Digest.
Some of the Church League files were inherited from Karl Baarslag, a
former research director for Senator Joe McCarthy's investigative subcommittee.
Baarslag's "subversive" files were sold to Wackenhut Corporation,
a private security firm. The remaining 700,000 pages of files were turned
over to the Church League.
Research West
California's Research West formed the foundation of its files on political
activists when in 1969 it obtained the subversive files of the Western
Research Foundation. For many years the Foundation years supplied information
to anti-union corporate customers such as Pacific Gas and Electric, the
Hearst newspapers, and Standard Oil of California.
One Research West contractor, Georgia Power, collected files on anti-nuclear
activists. Georgia Power, incidently, contracted with the ubiquitous
John Rees. Both Pacific Gas and Electric and Georgia Power hired Research
West for "security investigations" which critics charge included
supplying information about the activities of anti-nuclear groups.
One Research West snoop boasted to a friend over dinner that while he
worked at Research West, the group was infiltrating and spying on anti-nuclear
groups all over the country. The researcher's affiliation with Research
West was later verified by phone. (Research West nonetheless denied the
charge). The researcher probably felt safe in boasting about his counter-subversive
activities because at the time his claims were overhead he was dining
in a restaurant in northern Wisconsin where local businesses still proudly
display their autographed photographs of Joseph McCarthy.
Research West no longer is in operation and no information on the disposition
of its files could be found.
Combat
A brief flash in the pan was Combat<M>, which first appeared
in the Spring of 1968. Published by National Review<M>, it
was edited by Theodore Lit and Ruth I. Matthews and sported Eugene
Lyons of Reader's Digest<M> fame as editorial advisor. The
editorial credo was succinct: "Combat intends to make clear to
its readers the intricate plans and action programs of the radical
forces now at work undermining the American way of life."
On Target
On Target<M> was the "Intelligence Newsletter of the Minutemen
Organization," and sports a rifle cross-hairs inside the Letter "O" on
the newsletter's flag. Issued sporadically, one typical issue listed
the "active members, recruiters and chapter leaders" of Science
for the People, a group that attempts to de-mystify technology. The same
issue also included a list of "pro-communist and ultra-liberal meetings
and programs held at the University of Kansas" in Lawrence.
According to On Target,<M> "Most parents who send their
kids to college have no idea how much pro-communist activity exists
on most college campuses today." Among the "pro- communist. . .ultra-liberal" events
at the University of Kansas, according to On Target<M> were
speech on "organized Crime in America" sponsored by the Ecumenical
Christian Missionaries; and a dance sponsored by Gay and Lesbian Services
of Kansas.
Private Counter-subversion
Networks in the 1970'
Previous | TOC | Next
|
Magazine
