Subject: Bo Gritz and Pete Peters

From: [email-masked] (Brad Pierce)
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 02:20:14 GMT

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Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
From: Matthew Lyons <[email-masked]>
Subject:      OPIN/INFO: Bo Gritz, hero of the neo-Nazi movement
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1991 23:33:37 GMT

     In the course of defending the nazi propaganda tabloid,
SPOTLIGHT, as a source of "truth" which is helping to avert
"genocide," John DiNardo (Part IV, 12/11/91) made the following
assertion about Bo Gritz, Populist Party candidate for president:
"It's...disgusting to see Bo Gritz, a great hero, affiliate himself
with the Populist Party.  Bo Gritz, more than anyone, should know
that many thousands of American warriors and millions of human
beings, covering an array of nationalities and ethnicities, were
slaughtered by the fascist ideologies courted by the Liberty
Lobby."

     For those who would like to check this imaginative assessment
of Gritz against the man's actual statements and actions, below are
two articles on Gritz from the December 1991 issue of THE MONITOR,
a publication of the Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR).  CDR is
a leading center for anti-Nazi/Klan education and organizing in the
United States.  For more information contact CDR, P.O. Box 50469,
Atlanta, GA 30302-0469; (404) 221-0025.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Claims he's not a racist --
RAMBO HEADS POPULIST TICKET
(from THE MONITOR, December 1991)

     Despite a series of internal disputes which have left it badly
divided, all the factions of the Populist Party appear to be
supporting a 1992 Presidential campaign by Col. Bo Gritz.  A
popular speaker at Identity Bible camps, "survivalist" expositions
and other far right meetings, Gritz bills himself as the "most
decorated Green Beret Commander" and the model for the Rambo movie
character.
     His resume reads like a hero out of a Robert Ludlum novel:
"Intelligence Officer & Reconnaissance Chief for Delta Force;
Principal Agent for National Security Council Intelligence Support
Activity; Karate 6th degree black belt; and fluent in Swahili and
Chinese Mandarin."  Gritz reportedly resigned from the military in
1979.  The Populist Party's newsletter claimed that Gritz had
killed "over 400 communists in his illustrious career."
     Gritz told the Liberty Lobby's SPOTLIGHT tabloid that he
supported George Wallace's segregationist Presidential bid in 1968.
Gritz went on to garner publicity with four "secret" trips to
Southeast Asia, ostensibly searching for P.O.W.s still held in
Vietnam.
     In 1988 Gritz briefly accepted the Populist Party's Vice
Presidential nomination to run along with Presidential candidate
David Duke.  He stepped down shortly into the campaign however, to
run as a Republican for office in his home state of Nevada.
     Gritz now claims that the Populist Party's racist reputation
is due to David Duke bringing racist elements into the party when
Duke was the Party's presidential candidate in 1988.  But from the
moment of its formation in 1984 until today, the top leadership of
the Populist Party has always been filled with well-known white
supremacists.
     For example, former Mississippi Klansman Robert Weems was the
party's fist chairman.  When Gritz accepted the nomination to run
with Duke, the vice-chair was Jerry Pope, a former National States
Rights Party executive committee member along with convicted church
bomber J.B. Stoner.  Today, Californian Joe Fields is a prominent
member of the executive committee after a long career of open
adulation of Hitler.
     There is, in fact, significant evidence that Gritz is quite
at home among white supremacists.  Despite his Mormon heritage,
Gritz has been a frequent speaker at Christian Identity
conferences.  Identity is the quasi-religious movement which claims
that people of color are less than human; that Jews are children
of the devil; and that white people of northern Europe are the
Biblical people of Israel who shall fight a race war in the United
States to gain redemption.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BO GRITZ IN HIS OWN WORDS
(from THE MONITOR, December 1991)

     The following are excerpts from a 1991 speech at an Identity
Bible Camp run by Pete Peters in western Colorado.
     * "The enemy you face today is a satanic overthrow where he
would change the United States of America, a nation under God, into
USA Incorporated with King George as chairman of the board.  And
a Zionist group that would rule over us as long as satan might be
upon this earth, that is your enemy."
     * "Do you think you're lucky to be an American today?  Do you
think you're lucky to be an Identity Christian today?  ...I believe
that the Identity Christian movement will continue to grow in this
nation until it is able to stand self-sufficient in spite of the
government."
     * "Basically the Zionists are taking over and we Christians
are being formed into small pockets that have to go to camps twice
a year to learn what's going on."
     * "I didn't ask how or why, I just figured if it was meant to
happen, (publication of Gritz' book CALLED TO SERVE - ed.) there
would be somebody there.  And Pete Peters just happened to send me
a check and say, here Bo, we thought you might be needing this.
It just happened on the very day that we had to pay the final bill
on the book.  So, the very first copies of the book will arrive
here (at the Bible camp in Colorado - ed.) by Air Express from
Michigan.  Pete Peters will get the very first copy."
     * "I am telling you that he (God) has given us all that we
need.  He's given us the likes of Pete Peters, he's given us the
likes of the Identity Christian movement."

     In his book CALLED TO SERVE, Gritz promotes anti-Semitic myths
about "international Jewish bankers."
     "Eight Jewish families virtually control the entire FED
(Federal Reserve System - ed) -- only three are American jews
(sic)...Rotschilds of London and Berlin, Lazard Bros.-Paris,
Israel, Mossesschiff-Italy, Kuhn-Loeb--Germany, Warburg-Hamburg,
Lechman Bros-NY, Goldman and Sachs-NY and Rockefellers-NY." p. 609.

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From: [email-masked] (Ted Frank)
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 05:53:18 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Brad Pierce) writes:
>Bible Camp run by Pete Peters in western Colorado.  [...]

I think this statement of Gritz's basically refutes the notion that
he is distinguishing between "Zionists" and "Jews," as some other 
posters claimed.
-- 
ted frank                     | [email-masked] 
standard disclaimers          | void where prohibited
the university of chicago law school, chicago, illinois 60637