Archive/File: people/b/bellant.russ bellant.a03 From oneb!cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!caen!uunet!olivea!sgigate!sgi!cdp!cberlet Mon Dec 14 13:13:43 PST 1992 Article: 8147 of alt.conspiracy Path: oneb!cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!caen!uunet!olivea!sgigate!sgi!cdp!cberlet From: cberlet@igc.apc.org (NLG Civil Liberties Committee) Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy Subject: Re: Bellant: Old Nazi Networks in US Message-ID: <1299600136@igc.apc.org> Date: 12 Dec 92 02:28:00 GMT References: <1299600110@igc.apc.org> Sender: Notesfile to Usenet GatewayLines: 243 Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1299600110:cdp:1299600136:000:10941 Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cberlet Dec 11 18:28:00 1992 /* Written 9:11 pm Dec 8, 1992 by cberlet in igc:publiceye */ /* Written 8:30 pm Dec 6, 1992 by cberlet in igc:p.news */ /* Written 7:40 pm Mar 7, 1990 by nlgclc in igc:publiceye */ Bellant: Old Nazis/Appendix 3 Chronology of 1988 Bush Campaign Controversy Coalition of American Nationalities Republican and Bush Campaign responses to charges (with selected other responses) by Chip Berlet {Adapted from an article in the } When the Bush campaign was revealed as having recruited an ethnic support coalition which included racists, fascists, anti-Semites, Nazi apologists and even aging Nazi collaborators, it responded with a number of conflicting statements. At various points during the controversy the Bush campaign announced: *** It would investigate the charges. *** It would not investigate the charges. *** It was shocked by the charges. *** It could not be held responsible for screening everyone. *** It was unable to substantiate the charges. *** The unsubstantiated charges were reckless political attacks. *** No one would resign until the charges were substantiated. *** The persons resigning admitted no wrongdoing. *** The anti-Semites had resigned from the campaign. *** The issue was closed. Clearly there are some mutually exclusive positions in the above list. The charges primarily came from three sources: a report by Detroit-based freelancer Russ Bellant (published by Political Research Associates in Cambridge); a series of articles by reporter Larry Cohler and Walter Ruby appearing in and articles by David Lee Preston in the . Both press sources focused on the Bush campaign's recruitment of Eastern European nationalists who had emigrated to the U.S. after World War II, having fled countries such as Latvia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and the Croation section of Yugoslavia. As the Bellant report revealed, these ethnic activists had gravitated towards the Republican Party due to a shared emphasis on rolling back communism and gaining independence for the nations near the Baltic coast and the Balkans which now are under Soviet domination. Some of these ethnic emigres, who champion "liberation" for these "Captive Nations," had fled their homelands due to their allegiance to Nazi Germany. Their continued support for fascism and their anti-Semitic views were aspects of their political work kept hidden while toiling on behalf of George Bush and the Republican Party. A chronological look at the controversy shows how artfully the Bush campaign sidestepped the charges while simultaneously placating its Jewish and emigre constituencies. 8/2/88--A Bush campaign news conference announces the formation of Coalition of American Nationalities to coordinate the campaign activities of various ethnic groups. 9/01/88--Political Research Associates (PRA) mails galley copies of the report by Bellant to 20 reporters and news outlets. Press embargo is listed as 9/9/88 in the A.M. 9/08/88--The story offically surfaces in the press when charges several Bush ethnic advisory committee members are well-known anti-Semites and pro- fascists, including persons who opposed the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation (OSI) and its probe into emigre Nazi collaborators in the U.S. The article focuses on Bush ethnic advisors Jerome Brentar and Ignatius Billinsky and includes material on the Republican Heritage Groups Council, Florian Galdau and Philip Guarino and Laszlo Pasztor from the Bellant report. [Bellant also "faxed" supporting documentation on Galdau to prior to publication of the article. Bellant was not identified as the author of the PRA report until the third article in the series.] *** Brentar has suggested the OSI search for Nazi war criminals is a communist plot, and worked with groups claiming the Holocaust is a Jewish hoax. *** Billinsky, a long-time critic of OSI, is president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America which Bellant desribes as "heavily influenced but not totally controlled by" anti-Semites, collaborators with Hitler, and apologists for Nazism. *** Galdau is described by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal as the leader of the Romanian pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic movement in New York City. *** Guarino is linked in published accounts to the fascist- oriented P-2 masonic lodge in Italy, and has made racist statements about non-white ethnic minorities. Mark Goodin, spokesperson for Bush campaign, announces "The Reagan-Bush Administration supports OSI and George Bush will support OSI as president," and pledges the campaign will look into the allegations. "If there is anything to them, we'll take action," said Goodin. James Baker, Bush campaign chairman, adds, "There is no place in this campaign for anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry or people who espouse those views. Any individuals who espouse those views will not be welcome in this campaign." Response in the Jewish community is quick. Henry Siegman, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, says the charges are a shocking revelation: "It suggests a high degree of either insensitivity or incompetence on the part of George Bush's staff. I'm sure George Bush is personally unaware of the sordid personal history of these people. But now that he has been made aware of them we have every right to expect him not only to remove these people but to repudiate what they stand for." Albert Vorspan, senior vice president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations calls the composition of the Coalition "outrageous and frightening. The inclusion of notorious extremists in a committee with such close ties to the vice president violates the principles that George Bush has publicly espoused." Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, urges "an immediate investigation by the Bush campaign of the backgrounds of members of the Bush campaign ethnic coalition who are known anti-Semites and have been linked to Holocaust revisionist and anti-OSI (Office of Special Investiations) activities." Foxman adds, "There is no place in any political campaign for anti-Semites. The League urges that these persons be summarily removed." 9/9/88--Bush spokesperson Mark Goodin announces Jerome Brentar has resigned, saying Brentar's "association with [convicted Nazi war criminal] John Demjanjuk put him at odds with Vice President Bush." No mention is made of the more substantial charges regarding Brentar. As for Galdau and Guarino, Goodin says, "We have absolutely no substantiation at this point of any of these charges." Michael S. Miller, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, however, says his group has information supporting the descriptions of Jerome Brentar, Florian Galdau and Philip Guarino. "There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that these three individuals have expressed sympathies with Nazism, with fascism," Miller tells the . The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles is also cited by the as having corroborating background material. 9/10/88--The runs an article by David Lee Preston which corroborates much of the material in . Preston cites the forthcoming Bellant report. 9/11/88 The first section of the Bellant report is officially released to the press. The report describes how the Republican Party has been recruiting ethnic facists, racists and anti-Semites for over 20 years, through its Heritage Groups Council. 9/11/88--The carries a story on Bush advisor Fred Malek, who resigns from the Bush campaign almost immediately. *** Malek, according to the , while serving as an aide to President Nixon, had compiled lists of employees with "Jewish-sounding" names--names of persons Nixon suspected were part of a "Jewish Cabal" at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 9/11/88--The carries a summary of the charges made in the Bellant report concerning the Republican Heritage Groups Council. 9/12/88--The Bush campaign announces five more resignations in addition to Brentar, in a stated effort to prevent Bush from being hurt by what are called "politically motivated attacks." The statement of resignation issued on behalf of the five panel members says in part: "We have been attacked unfairly by George Bush's political opponents. These...attacks are aimed at neutralizing the support George Bush has and will continue to have in the ethnic community. " In addition to Brentar, who previously had resigned, the five new resignees include Galdau and Guarino as well as Ignatius Billinsky, Laszlo Pasztor, and Bohdan Fedorak. *** Pasztor, who recruited many of the ethnic leaders with questionable backgrounds for the Republican Heritage Groups Council, himself briefly served during World War II as an official in a Nazi-collaborationist Hungarian government controlled by an anti-Semitic organization, the Arrow Cross. *** Fedorak, also a leading critic of OSI, hosted the July 1988 campaign appearance by George Bush co-sponsored by a pro-Nazi group. Mark Goodin, spokesperson for Bush, dismisses these charges as "little more than politically-inspired garbage...the campaign looked into the allegations against these individuals and was unable to substantiate them." Bush responds to reporters questions by saying: "Nobody's giving in. These people left of their own volition. We're not accusing anybody of anything... .We're getting into a very peculiar deal where some people are accusing people...I don't like it a bit." A few days later, Radi Slavoff, national co-chairman of Bulgarians for Bush, becomes the seventh ethnic panel member to resign. *** Slavoff is charged with working in a national front which was aligned with Nazis, and heading up the Heritage Groups Council which has become a safe harbor for anti-Semites and pro-Nazis emigres. 9/15/88--The entire Bellant report is officially released. The report includes a photo of George Bush on the campaign trail at a July 1988 event co-sponsored by a pro-Nazi group, the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. Also reproduced is a 1984 Republican ethnic pride calendar which urges the celebration of "Croation Independence Day." The Croation state was run by a Nazi-puppet government which oversaw the slaughter of over 500,000 Serbians and Jews.
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