61.
34 FAiiay, January 24, 1986
.1111b•
THE DETROIT 'JEWI6R WEWS
OP-ED
Field Day
Continued from Page 4
A FABULOUS
JANUARY
CLEARANCE SALE
AT
i LTER FURS
LTER
.
INC.
DESIGNERS OF
FINE FURS
OF HARVARD ROW
11 MILE AT LAHSER
21742 W. 11 MILE RD.
SOUTHFIELD
.
PH: 358-0850
meeting of the Populist Party in
March 1985, in Chicago, atten-
tion was again• focused on plans
for specific outreach to farmers.
Liberty Lobby's publication, The
Spotlight, with a circulation of
142,000, is the principal, public-
ity organ for the Populist Party,
devoting a marked increase of
attention to farm issues in re-
cent months.
• The National Agricultural
Press Association (NAPA), an
organization, headed by
Colorado resident Roderick
(Rick) Elliott, which promoted
quasi-legal, self-help responses
to farm foreclosures. NAPA has
published several periodicals
which combine articles on ag-
ricultural matters with others
containing , thinly-veiled anti-
Semitic propaganda. NAPA de-
clared bankruptcy in May 1984,
and Rick Elliott faces criminal
prosecution in Colorado on 20
counts of felony theft involving
some $250,000 in fraudulently-
obtained loans to NAPA by its
members. Barbara Coopersmith,
senior association director of
ADL's
Mountain
States
Regional Office in Denver, is a
witness for the state in the case
against Elliott.
• The Posse Comitatus, a
group of armed vigilantes and
bigots classified as a domestic
terrorist organization by the
FBI. In 1982, ADL documented
a series of visits made to groups
of farmers in Nebraska and
Kansas by William Gale and
James Wickstrom, Posse Corn-
itatus leaders at that time. Gale
was an instructor at a Posse-led
survival school on a Kansas
farm in 1982, where the
attendees, many in camouflage
combat fatigues, listened to lec-
tures with racial and anti-
Semitic overtones and learned
how to use explosives.
In June 1982, KTTL-FM, a
country music station in Dodge
City, Kan. began broadcasting
Posse tape recordings supplied
by Wickstrom and Gale. These
tapes promoted intimidation tac-
tics and violence: "You better
start making dossiers, names,
addresses, phone numbers, car
license numbers, on every damn
Jew rabbi in this land, and
every Anti-Defamation League
leader ... in this land, and you
better start, doing it now. And
know where he is. If you have to
be told any more than that,
you're too damn dumb to bother
with. You get these roadblock
locations, where you can set up
ambushes, and get it all work-
ing now."
Thus began a long legal con-
troversy in which ' ADL
petitioned the FCC to forbid
these broadcasts. The ADL has
argued that the broadcasts con-
stituted "incitement to immi-
nent lawlessness" in violation of
FCC regulations and the First
Amendment's free speech pro-
tections. The legal controversy
continues as ADL recently was-
granted permission by the FCC
to challenge the station's license
renewal application. In a motion
filed at the same time, 'ADL
asked to enlarge the issues for
hearing to include consideration
,
of the anti-Semitic, racist and
violence-inciting content of
many KTTL broadcasts.
• The bizarre'political and
propaganda network of Lyndon
LaRouche, the perennial
Presidential candidate whose
conspiracy theories are laced
with anti-Semitism. In recent
years, LaRouche and his organ-
ization have published wild
charges linking Israel, promi-
nent Jews and Jewish organiza-
tions to underworld conspiracies
involving drug trafficking and
political assassinations.
• There is a clear Consensus
among concerned observers that
it would be wrong to assume
that the extremists will forever
be ignored by America's far-
mers. Farm analysts are almost
There is a clear
consensus that it
would be wrong to
assume that the
extremists will
forever be ignored
by America's
farmers. Conditions
will get worse before
they get better.
unanimous in their belief that
farm economic conditions will
get worse before they get better.
But. several important factors
have impeded the growth of ex-
tremist ideologies among far-
- mere:
Leaders of mainstream farm
organizations recognize the dan-
gers of extremist groups and
have distanced themselves. They
have not shared platforms with
extremist group representatives
at farm rallies and demonstra-
tions and, on occasion, have re-
plidiatee - their simplistic solu-
tions. •
Government and law enforce-
ment officials are also well
aware of the extremist groups'
recruiting activities among far-
mers. There has been a high de-
gree of cooperation among fed-'
eral, state and local officials in
confronting extremists.
In addition, the recent arrest
of a number of extremist group
leaders has seriously hindered
their outreach efforts. ;The sig-
nificant law, enferCement
crackdown on members of The
Order, an underground network
of armed racists and anti-
Semites igho were involved in a
series of criminal activities on
the West Coast, and against
leaders of the Covenant, Sword
and Arm of the Lord, a pro-Nazi
paramilitary survivaliek,group,
which operates' to encampment
on the Missouri-Arkansas bor-
der, sent a strong message to
extremist group 'organiz)rs and
to those who\ would affiliate
with them.
ADL regional offices have
formulated local responses, in-
cluding tightened security at
,