In the nearly three decades since the New Right movement began, the main objective has been for the Right Wing Elite to extend their influence throughout the higher levels of our society. These leaders of the New Right include (notorious Clinton hater) Richard Mellon Scaife, Paul Weyrich and the Coors, DeVos (Amway), Hunt (Oil), Koch (Oil), Krieble (Loctite), Noble, Olin & Van Andel (Amway) families. In fact, oilman George Bush Sr. comes from this very same class of people. His tenure as CIA Director is but a small part of a long history with the Intelligence community, which has included Richard Mellon Scaife, and the other New Right leaders. It is highly unlikely that Bush would have been appointed CIA Director, without some prior experience within the Agency. Indeed, there have been reports that Bush was possibly a CIA operative since at least 1960.

What's more, the Bush Family's CIA affiliation appears to originate with the OSS, the WWII Agency that preceded the CIA. Robert Lovett, the business partner of Bush's father Prescott, was an OSS Officer, along with Mellon Scaife's father Alan and their Mellon relatives. In fact, Paul Mellon was the OSS Station Chief in London. Prescott could not (officially at least) be involved in the OSS, since he was a Director of Union Banking. It was a major embarrassment for the Bush Family, when in 1942 Union Banking's assets were seized under the Trading With the Enemy Act, for collaborating with Nazi industrialists. [1] . (A few weeks later, another Bush venture had its assets seized as well).

After the war, Prescott's partner Lovett headed a Committee bearing his name that recommended the creation of the CIA as the descendant of the OSS. Averell Harriman, another of Prescott's partners at "Brown Brothers Harriman", was likewise directly involved with the CIA. Given that many of Prescott Bush's cronies enjoyed a long association with the Agency, it is likely that Prescott was involved with the CIA as well. (Those interested in looking more deeply into the elite roots of the OSS and the CIA should read about Yale's "Skull and Bones" society -- a.k.a "the Bonesmen" [2] ).

In the seventies, while George Bush Sr. was in the wings for the CIA Directorship, Richard Mellon Scaife ran Forum World Features, a CIA front for a European propaganda operation. There are also reports that Scaife was likely involved in the Heritage Foundation's funding of Iran-Contra, along with Heritage President Edwin Feulner. Contrary to what he still declares to this day, then-Vice President Bush Sr. was clearly "in the loop" of Iran-Contra, as Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger's notes demonstrated. Furthermore, Admiral John Poindexter claimed that he conferred directly with Bush about the Iran-Contra scheme. Also, Bush and his assistant Donald Gregg communicated regularly with Felix Rodriguez, the notorious ex-CIA agent at the heart of the Contra Supply operation [See Lawrence Walsh's "Firewall", W.W. Norton & Co., 1997; pp. 271-272]. In recent years, the CIA Inspector General's Report confirmed that the Contras were trafficking in cocaine, under the watch of Oliver North and the CIA [3] . There is strong evidence that the Contras used North's planes (financed in part by Joe Coors) for their drug-running. Although a Congressional investigation into Contra-Cocaine was recently concluded, there remain lingering questions about the role North's team and the CIA played in this enterprise. [Click here to go beyond the headlines -- What the recent Congressional Investigations actually revealed].

During this period, both Presidents Reagan and Bush appointed Mellon Scaife to the US Advisory Committee for Public Diplomacy, which oversaw the US Information Agency. A key component of the White House Spin Machine, the USIA worked hand in hand with Walter Raymond's interagency propaganda operation. The mission of Raymond's outfit (code-named "Project Truth") was to manipulate US public opinion in favor of the Reagan-Bush foreign policies. [See Robert Parry's "Lost History" for details [4] ]. In 1983, the USIA's director, Charles Z. Wick, held a fundraiser in support of the Iran-Contra activities. With the help of Scaife's lieutenants, Wick collected over $400,000 in private funds from the likes of the Smith Richardson and Olin Foundations [5] . [Also, see the National Security Archive's "Iran-Contra Collection", May 1983]. Later, Frank Shakespeare, yet another Heritage board member, served as the USIA's Director.

Ultimately, President George Bush dealt the final blow to Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh's prosecution of the Iran-Contra affair. Less than a month before leaving office, Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger and the other defendants awaiting trial. Bush also issued sweeping pardons to those previously convicted ["Firewall", p. 493]. In so doing, Bush clearly abused his Presidential power to avoid further exposure of his Iran-Contra role, which had been definitely established by Weinberger's notes.

The truth of the matter is that the CIA does not exist to serve the American people, the American Government or even the President. The real mission of the CIA is to serve the interests of American Big Business. In particular, the CIA obeys the dictates of its inner circle -- the Bushes, Dulles, Harrimans, Lovetts, Rockefellers and Mellon Scaifes [6] -- who have always been front row center. Indeed, the CIA has been consumed in serving this Client -- with decades of supporting military coups, backing Right Wing Dictators amenable to US business interests and waging propaganda wars [See Mark Zepezauer's "The CIA's Greatest Hits"; Odonian Press, 1994]. As a consequence, the Agency has woefully neglected its stated mission of collecting and analyzing intelligence information. This was most embarrassingly obvious when the CIA failed to predict (or disclose--as the case may be) the demise of the Soviet Union.

While the CIA has greatly influenced the affairs of other countries, it has been constrained by federal law from doing the same within our borders. In order to skirt these restrictions, Walter Raymond left his CIA post in 1983 to run an interagency taskforce to manipulate the US Media [See "Lost History", Robert Parry; The Media Consortium, 1999; pg. 60-61]. Likewise, Scaife, Coors and the other New Right Leaders used their tax-exempt foundations to fund a network of private organizations, in large part to perform CIA-type operations in America. In fact, it was Richard Nixon who first called for the building of such an "establishment" to counter the rise of Liberalism -- especially the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements [7] . Paving the way was Paul Weyrich, who, armed with Coors and Scaife seed money, founded the Heritage Foundation in 1973. Later Weyrich would found and continue to head its sister, the Free Congress Foundation. It is thought that Free Congress' role is complementary to that of Heritage, and that together they head the Right Wing Network. Weyrich's proxy on the Heritage Board appears to be Frederic Rench, who also sits on the Free Congress Board under Weyrich.

After Nixon's resignation, it was his former Treasury Secretary, William Simon, who led the charge towards building Nixon's "establishment". Simon was certainly the right man for the job, partly due to his considerable acumen, but mostly because he was the "treasurer" for the Olin Foundation. Olin is another Right Wing cash cow like the Scaife and Coors foundations. Recently deceased, Wm. Simon was a long-time member of the Heritage Board.

Today, Heritage (with Free Congress) sits at the head of this array of organizations. The Right Wing Network has been called a "Shadow Government" by several investigative journalists [8] , including John Saloma in his "Ominous Politics". During his George Magazine interview by JFK Jr., Scaife himself dubbed Larry Klayman's Judicial Watch "almost a Shadow Justice Dept." [9] . This is the Scaife-backed organization that has filed several lawsuits against the Clintons.

The Heritage Foundation is considered the most influential organization in the Republican Party. Most notably, the Heritage team drafted the massive policy paper in 1981, "The Mandate For Leadership", that provided "the blueprint" for the Reagan Administration. Years later, this team likewise would make a major contribution towards Gingrich's "Contract With America."

Heritage Board members include: President Edwin Feulner (who has spooky ties to the Korean CIA and Reverend Moon); Vice Chairman Richard Mellon Scaife; Holland Coors; the Amway's Jay and Barb Van Andel; and former Secretary of the Navy J. William Middendorf II. Most of the members on the Heritage board head "charitable" foundations that form the financial backbone of Heritage and the New Right. For example, Chairman David Brown manages the Noble Foundation, which has been a prime cash cow for Heritage and other right wing organizations. In addition, many of the trustees have extensive backgrounds in the intelligence community -- particularly propaganda operations. This is especially true for Feulner, Scaife, Frank Shakespeare, Midge Decter and William "Jerry" Hume. For more details, please visit the Heritage web-page to read about the Board of Trustees. Especially worth noting is that a former board member and still close associate is Jeb Bush.

What then is the hierarchy under Heritage that orders the roles of these different New Right Think Tanks? Are all major strategies decided by the Heritage Board, with members such as Scaife, Coors, Feulner and Van Andel at the helm? Do these plans then get passed to the rest of the Network, through a chain of command? Does the Washington Legal Foundation, whose members include Barr, DeLay, Helms and other Radical Right Congressman, follow the dictates of the Heritage board in targeting the activities of Congress? Similarly, does the Federalist Society, the exclusive legal club with members such as Ken Starr, Orrin Hatch, Robert Bork and Judge Silberman, ultimately serve the Heritage board in targeting the Courts?

What roles do the other Scaife/Coors organizations play in this plan? How do Weyrich's Free Congress Foundation and the Council for National Policy serve to integrate the agenda of the Religious Right with the rest of the Right Wing Network? As a co-founder of the Council for National Policy and other organizations, Sen. Jesse Helms has played an integral role in building and managing the Right Wing Network [See Hedrick Smith's "The Power Game"; Ballantine Books, 1989; pp. 64-66].

There are literally dozens of these Think Tanks, societies and publications, whose functions probably extend well beyond their purported mission statements. This was greatly facilitated when President Reagan signed an Executive Order permitting private funding of US Intelligence operations. And -- just like certain US Intelligence Agencies -- the Think Tanks work to expand the domestic and international interests of their Corporate contributors. In fact, many Think Tank board members are the CEO's of these Corporate clients.

The idea that the Right Wing Think Tanks are organized into a "Shadow Government" is further indicated by their interlocking directorates and fellowships. For example, Richard Mellon Scaife is on both the Heritage and Hoover Institution boards; Fredric Rench is a Director of both Heritage and Free Congress; Midge Decter is on the Heritage and Jamestown Foundation boards; Ed Meese, Reagan's former Attorney General, is a senior Heritage fellow and a Federalist Society Director, etc. (Please go here for a suggested "Anatomy of the New Right".)

In the past, the Right Wing penetrated the Media through such CIA programs as Operation Mockingbird, which had placed most of the US Media leaders on the CIA payroll. In the 70's, the Church and Pike Reports to Congress exposed this and other illegal domestic CIA operations. Then, in a Rolling Stone expose (10/20/77), Carl Bernstein reported that there had been over 400 US journalists on the CIA's books. He also named such high-level Mockingbird operatives as Katherine Graham (Washington Post), Henry Luce (Time), William Paley (CBS), the Sulzbergers (New York Times) and "publishing magnate" Richard Mellon Scaife.

After this embarrassment, it was necessary for the Right to use its own private network to replace Mockingbird. As a result, there is now the Cato Institute, with Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch (Fox, NY Post, TV Guide) on the Board with ATT/TCI's Malone [10] . Another big contributor to Cato is Viacom, which recently acquired CBS. Consequently, CBS/Viacom is now headed by Sumner Redstone, who is yet another powerful right wing figure with a WWII intelligence background [11] and apparent ties to OSS/CIA figures [12] . Cato serves the purpose of infusing the Media with Right Wing Propaganda, along with such organizations as Accuracy in Media(AIM), the Independent Women's Forum, the Western Journalism Center and -- of course -- the Heritage Foundation (See Main Page for Details).

The difference between the days of Operation Mockingbird and the present situation is that, instead of actually placing network executives, publishers, editors, reporters and pundits on the CIA payroll, their contemporary counterparts are now members of the Right Wing Think Tanks*. In addition to Cato's Murdoch, some high profile examples are MSNBC's Laura Ingraham (a notorious "Scaifette" from the Independent Women's Forum [13] ) and ABC's John Stossel [14] . CNN's Kate O'Beirne is a Heritage fellow (and previous VP) who is a regular columnist for the National Review. Also, old Bonesman/CIA hand William F. Buckley Jr. is the Editor of the arch-conservative Review. The National Review's President and Chairman is none other than Thomas Rhodes, who was recently a Heritage Board member. Other right wing journals financed by these sugar-daddies (and mommies) include the American Spectator, Human Events and Murdoch's Weekly Standard.
*[If an investigation like Church's were conducted today, would it reveal a Mockingbird-type penetration of right wing operatives in other areas of the Media--not just the news departments? Did the Think Tanks replace Mockingbird completely, or are some Media personnel still on the Agency's payroll?].

Of course, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News is packed with Right Wing spokesmodels, including the Free Republic icon and Hate Radio DJ Sean Hannity, and Tony Snow, previously a Bush speechwriter and journalist from Reverend Moon's "Washington Times" [15]. The lone "token" liberal, Alan Colmes, has to share a show with the overbearing and bombastic Hannity -- some "fair and balanced" programming!

It goes without saying that Rush Limbaugh is in deep with the Right Wing, especially through the Heritage Foundation and the "Town Hall" program. Furthermore, Rush's show is broadcast by ABC, which was acquired in the eighties by Capital Cities--a suspected CIA front. Check out this history of Cap. Cities.

...the CIA has bought many domestic media companies. A prime example is Capital Cities, created in 1954 by CIA businessman William Casey (who would later become Reagan’s CIA director). Another founder was Lowell Thomas, a close friend and business contact with CIA Director Allen Dulles. Another founder was CIA businessman Thomas Dewey. By 1985, Capital Cities had grown so powerful that it was able to buy an entire TV network: ABC.[16]

The above information is drawn from Dennis W. Mazzocco's "Networks of Power: Corporate TV's Threat to Democracy" [Boston: South End Press, 1994], as is this excerpt:

Moreover, the type of elite control which occurs with economic concentration in the media industry can directly affect the news itself. For example, William Casey, Director of the CIA, was a major stockholder in Capital Cities which originally took over ABC. As a result of his influence and that of other officials, certain stories that were sensitive to the CIA were not covered and the way other news stories were covered was sometimes affected. In addition, with TCI[now ATT] controlling the cable TV systems in many markets, it has the ability to limit the type of information that is available in many people's homes. It has been suggested that TCI[ATT] is now contemplating offering three conservative-leaning channels in some markets, and eliminating the only liberal-leaning one it carries. [The author cites "Networks of Power", pp. 96-98] [17] .

Even though ABC/Capital Cities was acquired by Disney in the nineties, it's a safe bet that the CIA has not been cut out of the picture. In fact--bizarre as it sounds--the CIA was actually lending a helping hand to Disney at the time that the ABC/Cap Cities deal was going down, as Jim Hightower reported in 1995.

The CIA's former station-chief in Paris, plus four of his undercover officers, were summarily expelled from France. Seems they were caught trying to bribe French trade officials...the CIA is now reduced to "commercial espionage" against our allies --on behalf of American corporations...They were trying to get the French to let more Walt Disney movies into their country.

This is Jim Hightower saying . . . If Congress is serious about cutting the budget, how about starting with the $13 billion the CIA is frittering-away on spy games for Walt Disney?[18] .

(This may seem almost laughable, but keep in mind that Uncle Walt has been gone a long time. Disney is now just another huge entertainment conglomerate run by Michael Eisner--a CEO as shrewd as they come.)

No doubt, articles like these did not keep Hightower from being axed by ABC radio later that year [19] . In fact, while ABC/Disney has been aggressively pushing right wingers like Rush and Dr. Laura, they have been firing many of their counterparts from the left. Just this March, both Stephanie Miller in LA [20] and Mike Malloy in Chicago [21] were cancelled by ABC radio.

Meanwhile, the Right Wing has also been attacking progressive voices from the Independent Media Sector. The highest profile example is the Bay Area's Pacifica Radio (KPFA), which was targeted early on by professional scapegoater David Horowitz [22] . Horowitz heads the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, which plays a key role in the New Right's campaign to dominate the Media. As yet another arm of the Heritage network, CSPC has received millions of dollars from the Bradley, Olin and Scaife Foundations.

With the New Right leaders exerting such a pervasive influence over the Media, it is now absurd to call it "liberal". [23] .

(Note: This is such a huge topic, that it will likely be expanded onto its own web-page, so please check back for updates. In the meantime, please go here for more articles on the Media).

On a parallel course, the New Right movement has been pushing its agenda on the nation's colleges. This has been accomplished not only by establishing campus societies & publications, but also by sponsoring professors and students with right wing views. As stated in a People For the American Way article, "To this end, Bradley, Olin, Scaife, Smith Richardson and others funnel millions of dollars into conservative university programs, university chairs, lecture circuits and right-wing student publications, and promote conservative research in the media to legitimize their positions. They have created and continue to support networks of conservative professors, such as the National Association of Scholars and the Madison Center for Educational Affairs, whose 'Collegiate Network' links 70 conservative student papers." [24]. The Madison Center for Educational Affairs was created by a merger of the Institute for Educational Affairs(IEA), founded by Irving Kristol and William Simon, and the Madison Center, founded by Bill Bennett and Allan Bloom("The Closing of the American Mind").

In addition to building this network, the New Right leaders have been gradually packing the Judiciary with judges that are in-line with their political philosophies. Virtually all of the Reagan-Bush appointments were drawn from the Federalist Society, the elite legal organization founded in 1982 by Antonin Scalia. A major figure on the conservative landscape, Scalia now anchors the far right position on the Supreme Court. [25] .

Of course, packing the courts is but one of the many prongs of the Federalists' campaign to impose a Right Wing system of Justice. Other strategies involve propaganda dispersal, as well as pushing for right wing rulings in the lower courts.

A major undertaking of the Fed. Society's all-out attack on the Judiciary is the "Takings Project", which is funded by the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife(Gulf Oil), the Koch(Oil) brothers, the Olin Foundation, BP Amoco and Shell Oil. This project involves a legal re-interpretation of the "takings clause" of the fifth amendment in favor of only the most property rich of landowners, especially large corporations. As a result, this war of judicial activism erodes away Federal, State and local regulations--especially environmental protections. [26]

The example of the Takings Project illustrates the blatant hypocrisy of the Federalist Society and the right wing legal community. The Federalists attack the courts for being activist in "making law", while at the same time that Society has engaged in some of the most egregious judicial activism. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch has been most brazen in using this rhetorical camouflage. While he was still in the Presidential race, Hatch proclaimed that deterring judicial activism would be his top priority as President. Disingenuous words to be sure coming from the co-Chairman of the Federalist Society--the "Takings" activists!

In an effort to sell judges on this legal perspective, Scaife, Olin and others sponsor the FREE (Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment) judicial seminars in Montana. Aptly named, since the seminars are indeed FREE--for the judges that is! Doing the most "Takings" is Bush buddy and Federalist Society big-wig C. Boyden Gray. Like the Bushes and others in their circle, Gray has significant investments in the Energy sector. As major contributors to the Federalist Society, the Oil and Utility Corporations obviously benefit from the "Takings Project" and other Federalist activities.

During a "Meet the Press" appearance in the midst of the Lewinsky scandal, Washington reporter Elizabeth Drew disclosed what GOP insiders had told her about then-Speaker Gingrich's plans after a Clinton impeachment. Drew discussed this at length in a subsequent (4/29/98) Salon Magazine interview .

Gingrich believes that the report will be so tough that Clinton will be impeached. The thinking then goes that Gore, as his successor, will pardon Clinton. This, of course, leaves Gore in place as the incumbent president, which is not something the Republicans wish to have happen. So once Gore has pardoned Clinton, Gingrich's thinking goes, the Congress will impeach Gore for having pardoned Clinton. As one of these close associates of Gingrich said to me, "You can't have a Clinton strategy without a Gore strategy."

But in Gingrich's thinking, after Clinton has left office, the Congress would install a new vice president, just as they installed Gerald Ford when Vice President Spiro Agnew had to resign. Therefore there would be another figure in front of the House Speaker. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that we get to that point. That person would not likely be anyone with his own presidential ambitions since so many other people, including Gingrich himself, have their own. In this imagined scenario, it would probably be someone who is a unifying figure to get the country to the year 2000.

But there was one big hitch to this plan -- Newt and the GOP fully expected to gain up to 40 more seats in the House, as well as more Senate seats. Instead, the 1998 Election losses foiled Newt's -- and most everyone's -- expectations. In a stroke of supreme irony, Gingrich himself was the ultimate loser, after being pressured by his own party to resign from Congress for this debacle.

As this web-site has outlined, there have been concerted efforts by Richard Mellon Scaife and his associates to bring down President Clinton (See Main Page for Details). Some of these smear campaigns were co-opted from those of early Arkansan enemies of then-Governor Clinton [28] , and some were born directly from the Bush Administration [29] . The latter was especially true in the investigation of Clinton's passport files, and also Savings and Loan investigator L. Jean Lewis' promotion of the early Whitewater investigation. What's more, Linda Tripp has been accused, not unreasonably it seems, of being a Bush operative. It is suspected that Tripp was left in the Clinton White House by the previous Administration, for the purpose of digging up dirt on the Clintons.

It is clear that the same group of Right Wing Leaders that tried to oust Clinton have been behind the "coronation" of George W. Bush as the next President of the United States. The Federal Elections Commission's filings show that the Heritage Board members have been supporting Governor Bush's candidacy all along. Those members listed by the FEC include Chairman David R. Brown, Preston A. Wells and William "Jerry" Hume [30] .

What's more, it was reported in a "Roll Call" article early this year that virtually the entire Heritage staff had united in support of Bush. This was told to the reporter by a Senior Heritage Fellow -- a lone McCain supporter. He went on to describe how he had been pressured and even intimidated by his co-workers into switching his support to Bush. To his credit, he refused to give in.

This is not surprising, since Jeb Bush is a former Heritage Board Member, who has maintained close ties with the board. In fact, Jeb is a major player in the Right Wing Network, who even established his own think tank. Before he left for the governorship, his "Foundation for Florida's Future" was financed by such prominent right-wing Floridians as Wayne Huizenga and George Wackenhut (also early George W. Bush supporters).

Wackenhut is, of course, the ex-FBI agent (and close friend of Bush Sr.) who founded the security and privatized prisons corporation that bears his name. Wackenhut Industries [31] has been called a "Shadow CIA" [32] , while the ring of Right Wing organizations is considered to be a "non-profit" extension of the Agency [33] . It is thought that the Right Wing Network was created in part to enable private funding of covert activities--key examples being Iran-Contra and the anti-Clinton campaigns.

Other Right Wing kingpins are backing George W. Bush, including the Hunt Oil family, the Coors family, the DeVos and Van Andel (Amway) families, Loctite heiress Nancy Krieble (a big-time backer of Heritage and GOPAC) and the JM Family PAC. In addition, David and Julia Koch have made substantial donations both individually and through their Koch (Oil) Family PAC.

"Author links Bush Family to Nazis" -- Sarasota Herald Tribune, Staff Report, 11/11/00.
The president of the Florida Holocaust Museum said Saturday that George W. Bush's grandfather derived a portion of his personal fortune through his affiliation with a Nazi-controlled bank.