From: cberlet@igc.apc.org (NLG Civil Liberties Committee)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: Bellant: Old Nazi Networks in US
Date: 12 Dec 92 02:28:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1299600110:cdp:1299600134:000:10690
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  7:35 pm  Mar  7, 1990 by nlgclc in igc:publiceye */
Bellant: Old Nazis/Appendix 1
	
The Chicago Controversy: Part One - WMAQ TV (NBC) Chicago -
     
Evening News - Unit 5 Report - Broadcast Date: May 10, 1987
	
Peter Karl, Reporter
Marsha Bartel, Producer
Copyright 1987, WMAQ TV News
All Rights Reserved
Transcript prepared by Political Research Associates
	
     PETER KARL: There are many private citizens who are working 
hard to support the Contras. We have found some of them have ties 
to Nazi Germany. Working through groups who wave the banner of 
anti-communism, some have the ear of foreign policy makers, and 
some don't like to talk openly about their past.
	
      The Nicaraguan Contras needed money. So national security 
advisor Lt. Col. Oliver North made it his job to get it. And, 
according to the Tower Commission report, North turned to this 
man, retired General John Singlaub, for help.
	
     [Screen: 1985]
	
     JOHN SINGLAUB: I represent hundreds of thousands of 
Americans who are sympathetic to your cause, and want to help.
	
     PETER KARL: In 1985, Singlaub promised the Nicaraguan 
Contras the backing of the Americans. He turned to a private 
network of anti-communist organizations for help--some right here 
in Chicago.
	
     [Screen: DR. ALEXANDER RONNETT, CONTRA FUNDRAISER]
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: I consider myself a freedom fighter.
	
     PETER KARL: Dr. Alexander Ronnett is a Chicago area doctor. 
He is actively involved in a number of anti-communist groups 
working for the Contras.
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: If they do want to struggle for liberty, 
they deserve the help of anybody that understands the situation politically.
	
     PETER KARL: Ronnett provided both moral and financial 
support to the Contras. He travelled overseas to raise money. His 
journey brought him into the offices of Chilean dictator Augusto 
Pinochet, and into the White House.
	
     PETER KARL: Have you ever been invited to the White House?
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: Many times, yes.
	
     PETER KARL: For briefings?
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: Yes, almost every month...twice...
	
     PETER KARL: On national security and all that sort of stuff?
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: Yes.
	
     PETER KARL: You've been invited?
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: Yes.
	
     PETER KARL: For what purpose?
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: To attend, to be briefed on certain 
situations...
	
     (fade under)
	
     PETER KARL: But who is Dr. Alexander Ronnett? A Unit 5 
investigation reveals that he belongs to a controversial 
organization that dates back to the days before World War II. It 
was called the Legion of the Archangel Michael. According to 
these counterintelligence reports, it was an extreme right, shock 
organization that used criminal means to achieve its goals. It 
was labeled as anti-Semitic and fascist.
	
      The Legion was also known as the Iron Guard. It began in 
Romania in the 1930's. Its members swore blood oaths in support 
of its leaders. The goal of the Iron Guard was to purify the 
Romanian race; and to that end, the Guard supported the 
Nazis--and worked to rid Romania of communists and Jews.
	
      Efraim Zuroff is with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel.
	
     EFRAIM ZUROFF: They were very xenophobic, very anti-Semitic. 
Their agenda was the exclusion of Jews, from Romanian politics, 
from Romanian life...they viewed the Jews as an enemy.
	
     PETER KARL: According to this document from the Simon 
Wiesenthal Center, Dr. Alexander Ronnett's name is on the list of 
Iron Guard members who were active during World War II. The list 
was turned over to the Justice Department. The Justice Department 
says it could not comment specifically on the report.
	
     [Screen shows list of names): Dr. Alexandru Ronette-Rahmistriuc]
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: You can put a lot of things on paper, you 
can make a lot of accusations--and it is how you resolve them, 
that is the essence. And as it stands today, in my opinion the 
Justice Department of the United States is the injustice department.
	
     PETER KARL: Ronnett says he never was a member of the 
Legionnaires in Romania, but admits to being a strong supporter 
of the Legionnaires today. His office is lined with symbols 
representing the Legion. Ronnett says he's rewriting history to 
favor his point of view. His books talk about the Jewish menace 
in Romania in the 1930's and 40's. Quote:
	
     
 "Because their exclusive and hoarding mentality had 
broken the financial and commercial equilibrium of the country 
and because by means of corruption and hidden pressures, the 
Jewish community had become a veritable state within a state."
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: Economy and politics go hand in hand, you 
cannot separate them. So who has the money, who has the 
economical power, will control the political arena, too.
	
     PETER KARL: So you wanted to limit the number of Jews who 
were in power?
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: That's right...or...not eliminate 
them. It's just curtail their influence...economical influence.
	
     PETER KARL: You should know that Dr. Ronnett was very active 
in the Reagan/Bush campaign in 1984, but he has taken an 
autographed picture of President Reagan off his wall because he 
disagrees now with the President's handling of the Iran-Contra 
affair. Those involved in the Chicago Controversy are small in 
number, and we don't mean or intend to paint ethnic groups with 
the broad brush of anti-Semitism or fascism. Tomorrow at ten, 
more on the Chicago Controversy, and the Nazi connection.
     
The Chicago Controversy: Part Two
	
Broadcast Date: May 11, 1987
	
(Transition from report on Iran-Contra hearings)
	
     RON MAGERS: ...what Robert McFarlane and others did was 
try to find some private money to aid the Contra cause, and some 
of the private money, and support, came from Chicago.
	
     CAROL MARIN: Peter Karl and Unit 5 have learned the Contra 
connection goes from Chicago all the way back to the Nazis of 
World War II. Peter...
	
     PETER KARL: Carol and Ron, the Reagan Administration may be 
surprised to learn about the background of some of the people 
they did business with to deliver aid to the Contras.
	
      Go back in time 40 years to World War II. Many Eastern 
European countries had a common goal: stop Russia and communism, 
no matter what the cost. And for at least some period, many 
turned to the Nazis for support. Now forty years later, it's a 
similar story in Nicaragua. They call themselves freedom 
fighters, and they are vowing to stop communism, no matter what 
the cost.
	
      A Unit 5 investigation has found that some people with ties 
to Nazi Germany forty years ago are members of groups actively 
providing support to the Nicaraguan Contras today. Even more 
surprising, some of those groups are right here.
	
     [Screen: John Loftus, Former Investigator]
	
     JOHN LOFTUS: Well, the Nazis didn't go away. They are in 
Chicago. They are working on another covert operation... .(fade under)
	
     PETER KARL: John Loftus is a former investigator for the 
Justice Department. For two years he tracked down alleged Nazis 
living in America.
	
     JOHN LOFTUS: If we had known who John Kosiak was, he would 
never have set foot in America.
	
     PETER KARL: In the early years of the war, John Kosiak was 
an engineer in Byelorussia, an area bordered by Russia on the 
east and Poland on the west. When the Nazis took over, a puppet 
government was established. And according to this roster, John 
Kosiak was promoted to a leadership role in that puppet government.
	
     JOHN LOFTUS: It's the politicians like Kosiak that helped 
run the Nazi empire.
	
     PETER KARL: Kosiak wrote this book on the history of 
Byelorussia. He describes the ongoing relationship between the 
puppet government and the Nazis. He even shows this telegram sent 
to Adolph Hitler in June of 1944:
	
 "Fuehrer: ...The Byelorussian people will unbendingly 
fight together with the German soldiers against our common 
enemy--Bolshevism. We hope and believe in the final victory which 
under your direction will bring a happy future."
	
     It was approved by the members of the Byelorussian Congress...
Kosiak among them. John Kosiak is now living in the Chicago area.
	
     JOHN LOFTUS: John Kosiak helps propagandize for the support 
of the Contras.
	
     PETER KARL: Kosiak refused to do an on-camera interview. But 
reports show he is active in several anti-communist organizations 
currently working to support the Nicaraguan Contras. One group is 
the ABN, the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. It's a worldwide 
organization, and its news magazine pictures ABN leaders with 
some powerful politicians, such as Vice-President George Bush, 
and even President Ronald Reagan.
	
     JOHN LOFTUS: Backing the ABN is like hiring the Ku Klux Klan 
to be your consultant for school desegregation. Anyone who allows 
their name to be affiliated with the ABN...is going to be 
terribly embarrassed.
	
     PETER KARL: Why embarassed? Because according to this book, 
<Inside the League>, in 1980 seven of the eleven leaders of the 
ABN, and several of the organizations they represent, are listed 
as having close ties to the Nazis. Example: the Romanian 
Legionnaires. US Army counterintelligence reports describe the 
Legion's role as Nazi collaborators during World War II. It is 
listed as being anti-Semitic and fascist.
	
      Dr. Alexander Ronnett, the Chicago leader of the Legion 
today, vehemently denies those charges, and he also says the ABN 
does not have any ties to the Nazis.
	
     PETER KARL: (TO RONNETT) What do you say to the people who 
say  ABN is a collection of neo-Nazis...
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: Neo-Nazis...
	
     PETER KARL: ...fascists...
	
     ALEXANDER RONNETT: ...fascists, and criminals, and 
everything like that. I would tell them, even the [unclear] "kiss 
my butt," because you are an idiot, even to believe that, and 
mimic some other [unclear] that told you that.
	
     PETER KARL: The Chicago ABN is only a small part of the 
private network working to fund the Contras, and there is nothing 
illegal about what they are doing. But what worries John Loftus 
is that they are speaking for Americans.
	
     JOHN LOFTUS: There are a lot of good people in the world who 
are anti-communists. We don't have to resort to the dregs of humanity.
	
     PETER KARL: In fairness, we want to make it clear that the 
vast majority of Eastern Europeans had nothing to do 
with these organizations.