Archive/File: people/b/bellant.russ bellant.a04

From oneb!cs.ubc.ca!destroyer!caen!uunet!olivea!sgigate!sgi!cdp!cberlet Mon Dec 14 13:13:58 PST 1992
Article: 8148 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: <1299600137@igc.apc.org>
Date: 12 Dec 92 02:29:00 GMT
References: <1299600110@igc.apc.org>
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Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cberlet    Dec 11 18:29:00 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  7:43 pm  Mar  7, 1990 by nlgclc in igc:publiceye */
Bellant: Old Nazis/Appendix 4
     
Chronology of 1988 Bush Campaign Controversy 
by Chip Berlet
	
PART 2 - The Bush Counterattack
		
      9/15/88--With the resignations out of the way, the Bush 
counterattack begins. Bush spokesperson Mark Goodin denounces 
Bush's political enemies for disseminating "reckless allegations" 
Although he claims the Bush campaign has not seen the Bellant 
report, Goodin says "The campaign has been unable to substantiate 
any of the allegations...They are some of the most reckless 
allegations levelled against anybody... .This has the 
unmistakable stink of Boston Harbor." Bush campaign supporters 
begin to refer to the charges as "Sasso-like attacks," and tell 
reporters the Bellant report is part of a Dukakis dirty-tricks 
effort. In fact, Political Research Associates has no ties to the 
Dukakis campaign and had moved to Cambridge from Chicago the 
previous summer, but the smear sticks. Most major media drop the 
story. 
	
      9/15/88--For those newspapers still covering the story, the 
Bush campaign's statements start to unravel.  reports that Florian Galdau says he had never been asked to 
resign and had no intention of doing so. According to the 
newspaper, Galdau "said he had never signed a statement issued by 
the Bush campaign in his name and that of four others whose 
resignations the campaign announced."  Says Galdau, "I did not 
resign. Why should I resign? I don't want to resign. I was 
appointed [to the Bush committee]...and I don't think they have 
the right to ask me to resign." 
	
      Galdau's son, Florin: "[The Bush campaign] called my father 
[on Sept. 12] and denied they had any information whatsoever on 
any of the allegations made [against] him. Neither [the caller] 
or anyone else in the Bush campaign asked my father to 
resign--and he did not resign...If they ask him to resign, he 
will tell them to go to hell." 
	
      Meanwhile on a Cable Network News program Jerome Brentar 
insists he never resigned from the Bush ethnic panel; and he 
denies that the Nazis deliberately gassed Jews during the 
Holocaust. 
	
      Bush spokesperson David Sandor quickly responds: "This is 
obviously in conflict with what we have said. We stand by what we 
have said... .We didn't force them to resign... .George Bush 
is their friend. They will continue to support him. They stand by 
their statement." 
	
      9/16/88--Jerome A. Brentar tells the  he is "definitely still in the campaign, still in the 
coalition... .I was asked to step down. I told them that I'll 
step down if they send me a letter outlining why I have to step 
down, what I did wrong to earn this degradation... .Until I get 
such a letter, I feel I'm still part of the Coalition." 
	
      The Bush campaign finally takes its only stand relating to 
the actual issues involved, and issues the following statement: 
"Jerome Brentar and this campaign disagreed... .We were at 
fundamental odds over some very important beliefs in this 
campaign toward racial and religious tolerance, and he was asked 
to step down... .as far as we're concerned he's no longer part 
of this campaign." 
	
      9/18/88-- reporter David Lee Preston 
reports that since 1969, several dozen alleged Nazis, fascists 
and anti-Semites have held leadership posts in the Heritage 
Groups Council. He quotes Allan A. Ryan, Jr. (now with the legal 
office of Harvard University but formerly director of the Justice 
Department's OSI war criminal probe) as saying he had read 
Bellant's report and found it to be "well documented and 
reliable." 
	
      Preston also reports that in 1972 a convicted Nazi war 
criminal Boleslavs Maikovskis of Minneola, N.Y. served on the 
advisory board of the Latvian-American section of the 
Republican's Heritage Council for the Re-Election of the 
President. 
	
      9/22/88--In  the Republican 
National Committee's Kathryn Murray admits she has not read the 
evidence contained in the Bellant report, but claims the report 
is "filled with ridiculous charges" and "insults all ethnic 
Americans." Murray says the RNC has no intention of examining 
evidence of the extremist background presented against anyone in 
the report. The paper, however, reports ADL has evidence backing 
charges against four of the persons resigning from Bush campaign. 
	
      The  quotes Albert Maruggi, RNC 
press secretary, saying there were no plans to investigate the 
backgrounds of any of the ethnic group members cited in the 
Bellant report. Incredibly, four of the Bush ethnic panel members 
who resigned, Guarino, Slavoff, Galdau, and Pasztor, are still 
active in the RNC's Heritage Group's Council. 
	
      9/27/88--The  carries an Alan Dershowitz 
column where Dershowitz reveals he has independent knowledge of 
some of Bellant's charges. "I first heard about the presence of 
Nazis in the hierarchy of the Republican Party as far back as 
1970"  In the course of working on the New York governor's race, 
Dershowitz says he "learned that several members of a Republican 
`Captive Nations Committee' were Nazi sympathizers who had been 
personally involved in the Holocaust in Europe, as well as with 
racist and neo-Nazi groups in America." 
	
      9/27/88-- columnist Pete Hamill in a column 
titled "George Bush and his fascist fan club" quotes Menachem 
Rosensaft, president of the Labor Zionist Alliance and leader of 
the International Network of Children of the Holocaust: 
	
     "He accepted their resignations. And he said he was against 
anti-Semitism. But when they were gone, an aide said the charges 
against these men were `unsubstantiated and politically 
motivated.' Clearly Bush wanted them out once they were exposed, 
but he still wants the votes of their constituency."
	
      9/29/88--Ron Kauffman, Northeast political director for the 
Bush Campaign tells the  newspaper the Bellant 
report is "totally outrageous." Mark Goodin, Bush Campaign 
spokesman, denounces Bellant's report and says people who 
voluntary resigned from campaign "vigorously defended" themselves 
against the charges. "We were not able to substantiate any of the 
allegations...These individuals maintain fierce opposition to 
the charges. We certainly accept that explanation." [At no time 
during the controversy did the Bush campaign contact Political 
Research Associates or Russ Bellant].
	
      11/1/88 Author Charles R. Allen Jr., an expert on the 
emigre Nazi network, questions the candor of Bush when he 
"professed ignorance of [the] pro-Nazi backgrounds" of the ethnic 
campaign supporters. In a  article, Allen produces 
a 1983 photograph of George Bush shaking hands with Yaroslav 
Stetsko, then leader of the pro-Nazi Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of 
Nations>. The photo was taken at a White House reception. Bush 
signed the photo: "To the Honorable Yaroslav Stetsko with best 
wishes--George Bush."  Allen also produced a 1976 RNC memo in 
which Bush, as RNC Chair, is reported to have reviewed the past 
work of the Republican Heritage Groups Council and set goals for 
the coming year. 
	
      11/4/88 The  reports charges 
concerning the background of Bush ethnic coalition leader Akselis 
Mangulis. Even before the story appears in print, the Bush 
campaign announces Mangulis has resigned, although the woman who 
answers the phone at the Mangulis residence tells reporters Mr. 
Mangulis was not asked to resign and would not resign.
	
     *** Mangulis, a Latvian member of CAN, is accused of 
belonging to the Latvian Legion which during WWII was conected to 
the Nazi SS. 
	
      Prior to the election, the charges in Bellant's report are 
not covered in the , , 
, or . Coverage was 
extensive in the Jewish daily and weekly press, as well as 
alternative weeklies and monthlies, but for most of the country 
the story was never examined outside coverage of the initial 
resignations. 
	
      Following the election, on November 19, 1988. the  ran an Op-Ed page column by Russ Bellant.
	

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