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:1299600122:000:11333
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cberlet    Dec 11 18:28:00 1992


/* Written  9:10 pm  Dec  8, 1992 by cberlet in igc:publiceye */
/* Written  8:30 pm  Dec  6, 1992 by cberlet in igc:p.news */
/* Written  7:10 pm  Mar  4, 1990 by nlgclc in igc:publiceye */
Bellant: Old Nazis/Am. Sec. Council 5
	     
PART TWO - SECTION 5
	
	
        - The ASC and Congress -
	
      The ASC's close relationship to the executive branch 
continued after the 1984 elections. A "Salute to Ambassador Jeane 
J. Kirkpatrick" dinner was arranged by the ASC in 1985, with a 
host committee studded with administration officials. [f-179] 
Having solidified its relationship with the Reagan 
Administration, ASC targeted Congress to receive more attention. -
	
      "Our increasing emphasis is going to be on Congress," said 
Fisher. [f-180] He was mindful of the Congressional resistance 
that still exists on a variety of foreign and military policy 
issues. The two ASC vehicles for influencing Congress are the 
U.S. Congressional Advisory Board (USCAB), a part of the ASC 
Foundation, and the Congressional Division of the Coalition for 
Peace Through Strength.
	
      USCAB gives citizens the opportunity to become "advisors" 
to Congress by paying money to the ASC, although an occasional 
postage stamp is cheaper and perhaps just as effective. As a 
member of USCAB you also get invited to ASC fundraisers called 
"annual meetings" of USCAB. The meeting held in July, 1986 cost 
$150 a head to attend.
	
      Administration officials aid these fundraisers by providing 
speakers and even the White House for events. Caspar Weinberger 
has addressed the 1985 [f-181] and 1986 meetings; SDI director 
Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson and George Keyworth, former Science 
Advisor to the President, have also addressed USCAB. [f-182] In 
December of 1985 a "Post Geneva Summit Briefing" was sponsored by 
USCAB that featured speeches from Lt. Col. Oliver North, John 
Lenczowski, Director of European and Soviet Affairs for the 
National Security Council, and William Martin, Executive 
Secretary of the NSC. [f-183]
	
      The Congressional Division of the Coalition for Peace 
Through Strength is the ASC's fig leaf of bipartisanship. With 
252 congressmen and senators as members in 1986, the ASC claims 
their Congressional Division to be the largest caucus in 
Congress. Nearly forty percent are Democrats, according to the 
ASC. As a Division member, elected representatives are expected 
to support a "Peace Through Strength Resolution" and maintain a 
seventy percent positive rating on the ASC index of key 
congressional votes. This entitles congressional representativs 
to certain rewards. The main reward is financial.
	
      The ASC has a Political Action Committee that doles out 
money--if you are a member of the Coalition's Congressional 
Division. In 1985, <Common Cause Magazine> reported that 
conservative Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia was 
denied a campaign donation unless he joined. Warner, who says he 
refuses donations with strings attached, said no. He also told 
the magazine that he believed they wanted his name for 
fundraising purposes. "I was not about to become part of their 
fundraising operations," Warner was quoted as saying. [f-184]
	
      ASC-PAC donations are a small part of the money available 
to influence Congress. While ASC reported that in 1982 its PAC 
distributed $82,000 to Congressional candidates, Fisher's annual 
ASC report noted that the Council also "played a senior role in 
the raising of over $2 million" in the campaign. [f-185] In 1984 
ASC-PAC spent $225,000 while raising another $4.5 million in 
campaign money, [f-186] possibly from defense contractors.
	
      Select congressmen receive other benefits. Florida 
Democratic Congressman Bill Chappell, chair of the Defense 
Appropriation Subcommittee and a co-chair of the Congressional 
Division of the ASC, says that in 1984 the ASC was responsible 
for the "most successful Washington fundraiser ever held during 
my 18 years in Congress." [f-187] He recently praised the ASC by 
writing "I am pleased and honored that you will once again be 
coordinating my Steering Committee efforts." [f-188]
	
      Another direct means of rewarding congressional favorites 
is by paying honoraria to members of Congress who participate in 
ASC activities. Congressman Bill Dickinson of Alabama, the 
ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee and an 
endorser of the anti-Semitic and quasi-Nazi Liberty Lobby, 
[f-189] received $7,000 in honoraria from the ASC in 1984 [f-190] 
and $6,500 in 1985. [f-191] One $2,000 payment came specifically 
for aiding the In Defense of America fundraising project. [f-192] 
ASC raised $500,000 from defense contractors over three years. 
[f-193] The project funds were used to produce films and organize 
political activity on behalf of increased military spending and 
aid to the Contras, and to bolster the 1984 re-election efforts 
of Ronald Reagan. 
	
      The ASC regularly organizes meetings between defense 
contractors and key members of Congress. For instance, in the 
summer of 1987, then Senator Dan Quayle, a member of the Senate 
Armed Services Committee, addressed such a meeting to "discuss 
the vital importance of the Strategic Defense Initiative," 
according to the ASC newsletter <National Security Report>. The 
newsletter reported Quayle told the meeting that "the Soviets 
have outspent the United States on strategic defense during the 
past decade by a margin of 15 to 1." [f-194]
	
      After the July, 1986 USCAB annual meeting, as is the yearly 
practice, the ASC gave awards to members of Congress who were 
members in good standing. With martial music blasting out of the 
Cannon Office Building Caucus Room, representatives and senators 
queued up to receive bald eagle statues with their names engraved 
on brass plates.
	
      The ASC also attempts to punish its opposition. It ran a 
full-page ad in the <St. Louis Globe Democrat>, [f-195] a 
newspaper long associated with the ASC, [f-196] demanding that 
Congressman Richard Gephart support Contra funding.
	
      The ASC's biased voter index is sent to a targeted 
congressperson's hometown press pointing out the low ratings, 
hoping to elicit negative stories and editorials. The <Wall 
Street Journal> and newspapers from around the country use the 
>ASC index as if it comes from a responsible, nonpartisan 
organization. [f-197] The votes upon which ratings are 
made require the most hard-line positions in order to gain ASC approval.
	
      Congressmen Bill Chappell and Sam Stratton and Senators 
Dennis DeConcini, the late Ed Zorinsky and Bennett Johnson were 
the Democrats most often associated with ASC political and 
fundraising activities in recent years. [Zorinsky switched to the 
Republican Party shortly before his death]. Often their presence 
is highlighted to suggest what is termed the bipartisan character 
of the event or the bipartisan character of the Coalition. In 
effect, however, the ASC acts as if it were a GOP operation.
	
      All of the partisan groups in the Coalition for Peace 
Through Strength are Republican, including 15 units of the GOP 
itself. The "Private Sector Co-Chairmen," as distinct from the 
Congressional Division of the Coalition for Peace Through 
Strength, are Republican. The so-called private sector in the 
Coalition refers to the 171 groups that are supposed to be the 
"grass-roots" complement which interacts with the Congressional 
Division. Among the 171 are the Nazi-linked groups previously described.
	
      The ASC Political Action Committee also reflects a GOP 
bias. Eighty percent of the $138,560 disbursed between February, 
1985 and June, 1986 went to Republicans, with Steve Symms the big 
winner with $6,738. [f-198] Reps. Guy Molinari and Jack Kemp 
followed with $5,250 and $5,000 respectively.
	
      In presidential elections,the ASC can be counted on to 
support the Republican candidate. Among the first to use heavy 
negative advertising as a partisan tool, ASC campaign material 
continues to exaggerate and misrepresent the views of Democratic 
opponents in order to defeat them. Campaign crisis-mongering 
statements by Singlaub and Graham, used by the ASC in the 1980 
elections, have become a Council trademark. As early as 1970, the 
ASC campaign warned "the 1970 elections may be [your]{last 
chance}to vote for Peace Through Strength." [f-199]
	
      Admiral La Rocque noted that "They have always used the 
rhetoric of fear and panic to make their case." He cited a 1980 
ASC appeal: "No generation of Americans has ever before been so 
recklessly placed at the mercy of so pitiless and powerful an 
enemy. . .our nation stands paralyzed in blind obedience. . .so 
utterly unprepared is America. . .the crisis is approaching the 
point of no return. . . ." [f-200]
	
      In 1984 the ASC mailed a list of Russian-English language 
translations of words and phrases it would be necessary for 
Americans to learn if Mondale won. Fisher says it was "one of the 
politest" ways of saying what they thought would happen if Reagan 
lost in 1984. [f-201]
	
      One of the sources of ASC funding is the Communication 
Corporation of America and its subsidiaries, Preferred Lists and 
Direct Marketing, all owned by Fisher and his family. [f-202] CCA 
is a direct mail firm that employs 250 people on three shifts. 
Located on the ASC's 850-acre Virginia estate, CCA does work for 
private businesses, New Rightists such as Tim LaHaye, and for 11 
years has had a contract with the Republican National Committee. 
"If we didn't have the CCA, the ASC would have gone out of 
business on three occasions," says Fisher. [f-203] The firm also 
works for GOP campaigns and local GOP units.
	
      It is easy to see the partisan and pecuniary motives of the 
ASC, its corporate friends and Republican allies. But the ASC 
also represents a world view with the influence to spread that 
world view. Fisher himself summed it up in four words--"I believe 
in Rollback." [f-204] The ASC network, including its Nazi 
friends, has not given up the idea of the U.S. military 
destruction of the USSR. The purpose of the massive weapons 
buildups they advocate is toward that end.
	
      Jay Winek, a former executive director of the 
neo-conservative Coalition for a Democratic Majority, said that 
the ASC "uses the word `peace' to justify strength. They really 
don't see peace as the purpose of strength." [f-205]
	
      Forge together elements from the New Right, the Republican 
Party, certain hawkish Congressional Democrats, military and 
intelligence agency connections and powerful business interests, 
and you have the essence of the ASC, a lobby for weapons and war.
	
      Toward its goal the ASC has also pulled into its coalition 
racialists, American sympathizers of Hitler's war aims, 
representatives of post-war Italian fascism, and even 
collaborators with Hitler's Waffen SS.
	
      This is consistent with the end goal of the ASC and its 
allies, who would finish the job originally started by German 
National Socialism--militarily eliminating the USSR. Given the 
nature and past of the coalition pushing this aggresssive 
militarist option, it might well serve the American people to 
consider a wider range of options in foreign policy matters. 
	
Xref: sparky alt.conspiracy:13198 alt.politics.clinton:18643