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thedrifter
10-28-02, 08:33 AM
From: "P.O.W. Network - Chuck and Mary Schantag" <info@pownetwork.org>
Subject: Re: Vietnam Vets name used and abused again. My apologies on behalf
of an ungrateful nation to them......

Just a question ---

Anyone wonder why the Vietnam Memorial Fund and Jan Skuggs CONTINUE to raise millions for an organization (VVMF) when the WALL is maintained by the Park Service. Kinda like The 3 Fighting men statue on public land, in a public park being PRIVATELY copyrighted by Fred Hart. TRY putting that statue on a Tshirt and see what happens. Skuggs uses a WALL replica for his own pocket and sells cemetery plots with it display. Sure Ted Samply has MUCH MORE on Skruggs and Hart and charging to perform at the WALL seems to be right on target for them. It's that I, ME, MINE disease.

How about Trees America (or Arlington Project or Trees for Arlington) raising money to reforest Arlington Cemetery at $3000 a Tree when that too is Park maintained and trees don't cost 3K. But they do have a real purdy board of directors.

Mary S.

At 10/27/2002 09:01 PM -0500, *Guns* Gunny Di'ane wrote:
Well, we all know and love when Gunny Di has to eat her words and her foot. lol And yes, it isn't so awful when you add salt and maybe some mustard. I must relent on this one and give over to Dane Brown and his words. He describes this injustice better than I, and if all of this is true, which I tend to believe after reading the two articles online which I've included in this email for your reading and viewing un-pleasure too, I'm sure you would have to agree. I love Eric Horner and his music with all my heart and soul. Eric is one very valuable and good man. He doesn't just do gigs for the heck of it, or for just the money involved. I'm quite sure that he will be quite offended by the possibilities of what all of this means to other performers, singers, song writers and veterans. This is just another case of un-justness to our Veteran community. Dane, all I can offer unto you and your son, and any and all other singers, songwriters that are associated with the event at the Wall on Nov. 6 is my apologies. Jan Scruggs needs a rude awakening. I am praying that he's gotten it since these articles were written, but by the sounds of your information, it sure doesn't seem so. My apologies dear friend. In all honesty, I wish I could be at the Wall for this event just so I could storm the stage and have MY VOICE BE HEARD ABOUT THIS SAD SITUATION! IT'S A FURTHER ABUSE, CRIME AND SHAME AGAINST OUR UNITED STATES VETERANS, AND ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS.
I got a lil beef about one of yer items Gunny...the following item is what I am talking about !!
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Just wanted to update you on this - Jan Scruggs - President of the Vietnam Wall in DC called and asked Eric Horner to come and sing on Nov. 6th for the opening ceremonies at the Wall for Veterans Day. They are flying us out there on the 5th and Eric will sing at approximately 4:20 pm on the 6th. It will be Eric's first visit to the wall. He will be singing 3 songs that day - "Welcome Home" "No Greater Love" and "We Will Stand". Updated tour info is on his website - www.erichorner.com
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My son who is a musician and songwritter wrote a song for Vietnam Vets titled
"Freedom Standing Tall".....he was invited to play and sing it at the "Wall" gathering on Nov 6th. Yeah, he was invited, if he wants to pay $ 250.00 to be allowed to get up for 6 minutes and do his song !! He's dedicated a large part of his life to support and aid Vietnam Veterans. So he went out and busted his ass to get the 250.00 and paid it....well, I bet Mr Horner who probably has plenty of moola ain't gotta pay nothing....Its a slap in the face if ya ask me.......if you want to read more about the real "Jan Scruggs", go to this url: http://www.usvetdsp.com/story40.htm

I respect Jan Scruggs for his service in Nam. He is a true Vietnam Vet and bro, but he's lost sight of some of the sacrifices them bro's made....just my opine !!!!



Semper Fidelis,
Dane Brown, USMC, Nam 68
1st Battalion 27th Marines

Jan Scruggs Is Attacking His Fellow Veterans Again


March 7, 1997
By Ted Sampley
U.S. Veteran Dispatch



Chalk up another vintage Jan Scruggs poison pen attack on the Vietnam veteran activists who finance their organizations by selling POW/MIA and veteran related T-shirts near the Lincoln and Vietnam Veterans Memorials in Washington, D.C.

Scruggs, who is president and founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, bitterly complained in a March 2, 1997 Washington Post guest editorial that the activists, whom he described as "vendors" and "hawkers," are destroying the "integrity" and "heritage" of the Vietnam Veteran and Lincoln Memorials. He said the 24-hour POW/MIA vigil sites are "an ugly presence" and that the "courts or Congress must end this travesty" by "evicting" the activists from federal land.

In 1995, the National Park Service joined Scruggs in his crusade to eradicate the POW/MIA activists from the Mall and passed regulations outlawing T-shirt sales in Washington's federal parks. Prior to the new regulations, the Park Service had recognized the constitutional right of groups to sell T-shirts imprinted with advocacy messages. The activists banned together and appealed the regulations and are now awaiting a judge's decision as to whether or not they will be allowed to continue their vigils.

Scruggs' latest attack is one of many that have appeared in the national news media since early 1993 when he declared the POW/MIA issue a "non-issue." He reasoned the time had come for the United States to stop spending money on what he said was "a lost cause" and that continued "unfounded" accusations about Vietnam still holding U.S. servicemen as prisoners of war was hindering the "reconciliation and healing" between the peoples of Vietnam and America.

In 1982, Scruggs became a national figure and American folk hero for pushing his dream of a national Vietnam veterans memorial in Washington until it became a reality. The Wall was dedicated on Veteran's Day of that year. Ironically, Scruggs' dream might never have come true had it not been for the help of Texas billionaire and POW/MIA activist Ross Perot, who provided more than $160,000 in start-up money desperately needed by Scruggs to launch a national memorial campaign.

According to a conveyance agreement signed by President Ronald Reagan, the Memorial Fund should have dissolved in 1984. Scruggs refused to let it happen and instead made the Memorial Fund a permanent organization whose board of directors is exclusive and hand picked by him.

Scruggs' excuse for hanging on to the Memorial Fund is that the Wall is a "holy shrine," of which he is its keeper and that he and his Memorial Fund must continue to raise money to ensure that the "shrine" is properly maintained.

During the last three years, the Memorial Fund has been the subject of national news reports questioning what it does with the millions of dollars raised allegedly for "maintaining the Wall," a responsibility that is taken care of by the taxpayer. When Reagan signed the conveyance agreement, the Department of the Interior took over all responsibilities of maintenance and security of the Wall.

The Memorial Fund has raised an additional $10,000,000 since the original $7,000,000 used to build the memorial. Much of the new money is believed to have come from the corporations who continue to lobby for normalized relations with Vietnam.

In a July 13, 1993 USA Today guest editorial, Scruggs actually compared himself to Jesus Christ and his campaign against the activists to that of the Messiah overturning the tables of moneychangers and chasing them out of the temple. He rationalized that activists should not be allowed to sell T-shirts and POW/MIA bracelets near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial because "moneychangers" do not belong in a "place of worship."

Scruggs appears to actually believe he is a Messiah and that the Wall is a "sacred" place of worship. He is convinced he built a shrine where anyone, whether Vietnam veteran, war protester, draft dodger or politician, can be healed--just come to the Wall and repent before the 58,000 chiseled names of dead and missing American servicemen and be cleansed of the pains of the Vietnam War.

If the Wall has a mystical power to heal, then why was Scruggs' close friend, Lewis Puller, Jr. not able to find peace and acceptance? Why did he give up and commit suicide?

Puller was a Vietnam veteran and the son of Gen. "Chesty" Puller, the most decorated member of the Marine Corps. In Vietnam, young Puller served as a Marine combat leader, losing his legs and part of his hands in 1968 when he tripped a mine while trying to escape from a Viet Cong ambush. His body was riddled with shrapnel, yet somehow he survived after long months in a hospital bed. Puller's book, "Fortunate Son," which chronicled his valiant struggle to survive as an invalid in the aftermath of the war, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

continued.................

thedrifter
10-28-02, 08:36 AM
Personally, I have often wondered where Scruggs and the other Memorial Fund veterans were when Puller needed them the most. Puller was one of the Memorial Fund's strongest supporters. He even went...

thedrifter
10-28-02, 08:38 AM
was bluffing," Scruggs later admitted. "We never had any copyright over the Wall design."

"I'm angered that he would use such a ploy," Bill Corbin, a director of the Vietnam Veterans Wall South Foundation, said. "It would have been no worse than spitting on the grave of a veteran."

CBS Questions The Fundraising Techniques Of The Memorial Fund

On rare occasions, some of the Memorial Fund's jaded activities are exposed. The following is a verbatim transcript of a TV segment titled "Vietnam Veterans Memorial fundraising techniques questioned." The program aired April 20, 1994 on CBS This Morning.

HARRY SMITH, co-host: Our country's national monuments are the markers of our history, so preserving them is important to all of us, including the most visited memorial in the country, Washington's Vietnam Wall. But our consumer correspondent, Hattie Kauffman, found out questions have come up about fundraising to maintain the Wall that could hurt it far more than the cracks in its surface.

Good morning.

HATTIE KAUFFMAN reporting: Good morning, Harry. In 1982, the nonprofit known as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund raised more than $8 million to build the Wall--certainly an honorable feat. But 12 years after it was finished, the Fund is still raising millions of dollars every year.

One fundraising letter among the thousands sent asks for money for the upkeep of the memorial. Another states how proud the donor should be that the Wall is being kept in tip-top condition. But when people donate money, how much of it is going to maintaining the Wall? Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernie Preate is investigating the Fund's activities.

Mr. ERNIE PREATE (Pennsylvania Attorney General): They clearly try to create the impression that they are the sole organization that maintains this wall, and--and that simply is not true. The prime group that maintains this wall is the United States Park Service.

KAUFFMAN: Jan Scruggs, the president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, says the issue is a matter of interpretation.

Mr. JAN SCRUGGS (President, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund): When he is thinking of maintenance of the Wall, he seems to be thinking about mowing the grass and providing park police for security. When we think of maintenance of the Wall, we--we are more geared towards thinking of the special maintenance, things that the government cannot provide.

KAUFFMAN: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund built the Wall with donations, but when it was completed, like all of U.S. monuments, the Wall came under the care of the National Parks Service.

Mr. PREATE: This organization raised $4.6 million over the last three years on the claims that it is going to maintain--use that money to maintain the Wall. In fact, under our conservative estimates, we can see that it--only about $230,000, or only 5 percent, has actually gone into events and maintenance of the--the Wall area.

Mr. SCRUGGS: We have a direct-mail program that raises money to help maintain the memorial and to help with educational programs associated with it.

KAUFFMAN: Attorney General Preate says many of those direct-mail letters are misleading and fraudulent.

Mr. PREATE: People who are receiving direct-mail solicitation are thinking that their money is the sole money that is going to maintain the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

KAUFFMAN: 1992 tax records show that the charity raised over $2 million that year. Only $180,000 was spent on taking care of the Wall, while $630,000 was spent on fundraising. The remaining money went to public education and ceremonies to commemorate the Wall.

In 1984, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund was asked by the federal government to help maintain the Wall in case of catastrophe. They've purchased eight replacement panels of granite just in case. Two years ago, they fixed a portion of the sidewalk. But only three weeks ago, the Fund hired an engineering firm to begin studying the small hairline cracks that first appeared on the Wall in 1984, what the Fund calls maintenance. But do those cracks signify a catastrophe? Recently, Scruggs pointed out the cracks in the Wall to CBS THIS MORNING.

Mr. SCRUGGS: The visible effects are essentially a--a series of cracks which are about the width of three strands of hair together which go through names such as Curters Burnett and Robert Standerwick.

KAUFFMAN: According to the National Park Service, a 1990 report commissioned by the Fund found that the cracks in the Wall were part of the stone.

Mr. ARNOLD GOLDSTEIN: (National Park Service): The cracks were natural geological cracks that formed in the granite and that the cracks were in the granite when the blocks of granite were brought to the United States.

KAUFFMAN: The National Park Service and the American taxpayer are already spending more than $750,000 a year to take care of the Wall. It's a sum the Park Service says adequately covers the needs of the monument.

SMITH: Kind of a sad story.

KAUFFMAN: It is.

SMITH: Thanks, Hattie.

If Scruggs Is A True Believer -- His Neck Hair Should Be Standing

If Scruggs truly believes his teachings about the "mystical" powers of the Wall, then the hair on the back of his neck should be standing straight up.

In trying to justify his case to CBS for the need to raise more money, Scruggs placed his finger on one of the hairline cracks in the granite Wall. When the camera zoomed in Scruggs' finger was touching the name Robert Standerwick. Col. Standerwick has been listed missing in action in Laos since Feb. 3, 1971. The Standerwicks are long time POW/MIA activists. Two of his three daughters were on the board of directors of Homecoming II Project, which Scruggs destroyed with his copyright lawsuit.

Editors Note: Also SeeThe Unrelenting Effort to Silence The Last Firebase

The Unrelenting Effort to Silence The Last Firebase


By Donna Long
U.S. Veteran Dispatch
September/October 1994 issue

Some of the same Washington, D. C. elitist snobs who, in 1981, helped Jan Scruggs, president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, stop the American flag from being permanently flown directly over the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial have now joined his new and unrelenting effort to evict POW/MIA activists from vigils near the memorial.

Scruggs, who does not believe Vietnam held live POWs back after 1973, has made no secret of his contempt for POW activists whom he has publicly categorized as "vendors exploiting the POW/MIA issue for personal gain."

In commenting about POW/MIA families, Scruggs told the Morning News Tribune of Seattle, WA, "I'm kind of sorry for them, that they don't have normal lives."

Since the dedication of the memorial in 1982, Vietnam veterans and POW/MIA family members have maintained POW/MIA vigils adjacent to sidewalks leading to the Wall "to remind politicians of the abandonment of American Vietnam War veterans who were left behind against their will in Southeast Asia."

The activities of the POW/MIA activists who operate the vigils, which are set-up on "demonstration sites" designated by the National Park Service, are supposed to be protected by the First Amendment. Under that free speech amendment, activists demonstrating on federal land can offer for sale to the public printed materials that display messages directly related to their cause and activity.

Last year, the Commission on Fine Arts, a presidentially appointed group of bureaucrats who have a say in what Washington, D.C.'s memorials should look like and represent, jumped in to help Scruggs' rid the area near the Wall of those "disgusting non-artistic" POW/MIA vigils they claim are cluttering up the sidewalks.

Members of that commission are lobbying Congress for new laws which they hope can be used against the POW vigils. The Commission on Fine Arts said publicly in 1982, while opposing the placement of the American flag over the Wall, that there was no need to "adorn the memorial with patriotic claptrap."

The primary target of Scruggs and his federal government bureaucrat friends is The Last Firebase Veteran's Archives Project which has maintained a 24-hour POW/MIA vigil near the Lincoln Memorial since 1986.

The Last Firebase is a non-profit veteran's organization whose leadership is made up of Vietnam veterans and POW/MIA family members. It has the full endorsement of the National Alliance of POW/MIA Families. Outside of the U.S. and Vietnamese governments, The Last Firebase holds the largest database of POW/MIA information in the world.

Activists who man The Last Firebase raise funds by selling printed materials, including POW/MIA related t-shirts, bracelets, and books, which are used to finance national and international campaigns designed to focus public attention on the POW/MIA issue.

Once Washington's elite have cleansed "their monument" of the "embarrassing" Last Firebase vigil, then the "long-haired, booney, hat-wearing, over-the-hill wannabes" won't have any place to "hang around," swapping stories about "a war they lost." Most importantly, they will not be there cluttering up Washington's most visited "tourist attraction" with their unsightly presence.

This type of in house contempt for Vietnam vets who don't wear a "three-piece" suit and eat sushi for lunch is typical among the Washington bureaucrats who view the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as nothing more than military art and a tourist attraction.

continued..................

thedrifter
10-28-02, 08:41 AM
The following is a documented chronology of how upper-crust politically motivated &quot;Beltway Insiders&quot;, a multi-million dollar corporation, and an equally greedy, pompous, self-serving former folk-hero...

thedrifter
10-28-02, 08:47 AM
NOW THAT I'VE GOT YOUR ATTENTION

JUNE 21, 1993 - Scruggs wrote Sandra Alley telling her that demonstrators near the Wall are selling pins, sweatshirts, videos, patches and other items in violation of their permits. In addition, Scruggs said that he learned from an (unnamed) appointee of President Clinton that one of the demonstrators had set a gas can next to a generator. Scruggs called the latter alleged incident "a clear and present danger" to the public and reminded Ms. Alley that the Park Service had the right to immediately revoke permits for both alleged violations.

ENTER SEN. KERRY---THE PRO-HANOI POLITICIAN

JUNE 30, 1993 - A call was logged in at the Park Ranger Kiosk, located at the entrance to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, from the office of Senator John Kerry (D-MA). According to the log book, Kerry's office asked about the "vendors" near the Wall and was told to contact the Park Service Public Affairs office.

Kerry, who was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ), a member of the committee, led the fight on the U.S. Senate floor to lift the trade embargo against Vietnam.

(POW/MIA activists at The Last Firebase have publicly accused both senators of suppressing evidence during the committee's investigation that American POWs were held years after the end of the Vietnam War).

THE SECOND COMING

JULY 13, 1993 - An article written by Scruggs, headlined "Seedy side of the memorial," is published in USA TODAY. In that article, Scruggs compared his crusade against POW activists who demonstrate near the Wall to Jesus chasing the "money-changers" out of the temple. He ended his sanctimonious posturing by declaring that "real" demonstrators should "only be allowed to give away pamphlets and brochures."

(What Scruggs failed to include in his "holier than thou" tirade against "making money at a sacred place" was that his memorial fund has received thousands of dollars in royalties from the sale of t-shirts and other items that bear the image of the copyrighted "Three Servicemen Statue" generated at First Amendment demonstration sites near The Wall).

SORRY I DIDN'T ANSWER SOONER

JULY 16, 1993 - Sandra Alley answered Scruggs' June 21 letter. Ms. Alley told Scruggs the Park Service is doing its best to enforce permit regulations and is considering changing the regulations.

WHAT'S SO HARD ABOUT DENYING FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS?

DECEMBER 17, 1993 - Scruggs sent a memorandum to Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.

"For quite a while I have been unsuccessful in persuading your agency that the vendors at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial are simply that ....they are not demonstrators ...they are vendors selling souvenirs to tourists," Scruggs wrote. Scruggs told Babbitt that the Park Service plans to "eventually somehow get around to issuing regulations" to get rid of the demonstrators and expressed his "utter amazement" at the Park Service's "inability to accomplish this small task." Scruggs ended his letter by offering to give Babbitt's department a tour of the memorial.

OH, MY GOD - EVEN THE WORST WINTER OF THE CENTURY CAN'T SHUT THEM DOWN!

JANUARY 31, 1994 - Brown wrote to National Park Service Director Roger Kennedy telling the director that he had driven by the Lincoln Memorial during the snow, which had shut down the U.S. government, and regretted to report that despite the "severity of the weather," the "vendors" in front of the Lincoln Memorial were still there.

(The Last Firebase, which is located across from the Lincoln Memorial, near the Reflecting Pool, maintained its 24-hour vigil for POW/MIAs that day, as it has every day, 365 days a year, regardless of the weather).

Saying that the commission's lawyers were "very nervous" about taking any steps that might be "construed as an abridgment" of the demonstrator's rights, Brown suggested relocating the demonstration sites to a "less conspicuous spot" as an alternative.

I'LL GET RID OF THEM!

FEBRUARY 27, 1994 - Senator Kerry visited the Park Ranger Kiosk at the Wall and wanted to know what was being done about the POW/MIA demonstration sites. According to the daily log book, after Park Ranger Oates explained the permit process to Kerry, the senator asked, "Aren't the memorial people doing anything about it?" Oates told Kerry that there is a controversy about the POW/MIA vigils. To this Kerry replied, "They are disgusting. We'll do something about it tomorrow."

PITTING "BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER"

MARCH 1994 - BRAVO VETERANS OUTLOOK published a vicious attack by Scruggs on fellow Vietnam veterans who man POW/MIA vigils near the Wall. In that article, Scruggs called upon Vietnam veterans to protect their "sacred" Wall from the greedy "money-changers" by writing a letter to Stanton asking him to change sales regulations on First Amendment demonstration sites.

(Again Scruggs failed to mention the thousands of dollars his organization had received and the money it continues to receive to this date from some of the demonstration sites he so vehemently attacks. The Last Firebase, which refuses to recognize the copyright on the "Three Servicemen Statue," is not among the groups that pays copyright royalties to Scruggs' organization).

"BELTWAY MEDIA" SILENT ON MAIL FRAUD INVESTIGATION OF SCRUGGS's FUND RAISING

APRIL 20, 1994 - CBS THIS MORNING reported that Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernie Preate was investigating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's direct mail fund-raising activities.

"This organization raised over $4.6 million over the last three years on claims that it is going to use that money to maintain the Wall. In fact, under our conservative estimates, we can say that only about $230,000, or only 5 percent, has actually gone into events and maintenance of the wall area," Preate said. Calling Scruggs' direct-mail letters "misleading and fraudulent," Preate added that according to VVMF's tax returns, Scruggs' organization raised over $2 million in 1992.

"Only $180,000 was spent on taking care of the Wall, while $630,000 was spent on fund-raising. The remaining money went to public education and ceremonies to commemorate the Wall," Preate said.

"The National Park Service and the American taxpayers are already spending more than $750,000 a year to take care of the Wall, it's a sum the Park Service says adequately covers the needs of the monument," said CBS THIS MORNING reporter Hattie Kauffman.

(There's something perversely evil about someone who calls upon Vietnam veterans to "protect their sacred Wall" from POW/MIA activists who fund their cause by offering tangible items to the public, while raising millions of dollars in donations under the fraudulent pretext of maintaining the Wall).

SCRUGGS' MEMORIAL FUND TRIED TO COLLECT JUDGEMENT BY ATTEMPTING TO SEIZE SAMPLEY'S PROPERTY

April 27, 1994 - The Kinston Daily Free Press reported that a sheriff's deputy had called Sampley to inform him that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund was ordering his property seized as partial payment of the $359,000 judgment. The date of June 3 was set for the public auctioning of Sampley's property.

THE FIRST AMENDMENT IS COSTING US MONEY

MAY 4, 1994 - S.J. DiMeglio, president and CEO of Guest Services, a multi-million dollar corporation that operates the Park Service marinas, kiosks and vending operations on the Mall, met with Stanton and complained about his company losing money to First Amendment demonstration sites.

TO PROTECT THE PARK VISITOR

MAY 18, 1994 - The Park Service published a proposed regulation change in the Federal Register that would limit sales on First Amendment demonstration sites to books, newspapers and traditional printed material, such as pamphlets and leaflets. Stanton claimed the demonstration sites near the Vietnam Memorial, which are the only ones attacked in the proposed regulation change, "have severely disrupted the quality of the park visitor experience." The public was given a 60-day period to comment on the proposed regulation change.

ACTIVISTS FORCE SCRUGGS TO CANCEL AUCTION

June 3, 1994 - The Kinston Free Press reported that Scruggs had backed down from auctioning Sampley's property.

"The whole idea behind the memorial was to help heal the wounds of the whole Vietnam War and to help the vets recover," Scruggs told The Free Press. Scruggs said that the memorial fund had been told that "The only thing Sampley really wants is for us to foreclose on his property in order to become what he considers a martyr. But, we're not going to make him a martyr. That's not really what we're about anyway."

Although the auction was canceled, the memorial fund can still foreclose on Sampley anytime within the next 10 years.

GEE, THANK YOU FOR ASKING ME TO COMMENT ON YOUR PROPOSED CHANGES

JUNE 9, 1994 - Scruggs wrote a letter to Stanton saying he is "pleased to respond" to Stanton's request for public comments on the proposed regulation change concerning "vendors at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial."

(Scruggs' invitation to comment on a regulation change that he worked over a year to put into motion is so incestuous that it warrants no comment).

JUNE 16, 1994 - Brown wrote Stanton praising him for his "courageous leadership" in taking action against the "vendors."

continued...........

thedrifter
10-28-02, 08:49 AM
TO HELL WITH FREE SPEECH - WE'RE LOSING MONEY

JUNE 30, 1994 - DiMeglio wrote Stanton about the increased number of First Amendment "vendors" on the Mall since their May 4th meeting. Saying Guest Services had lost over $300,000 in sales in June alone and expected to lose about $750,000 in July, he told Stanton that the Park Service must either tighten policy regarding First Amendment demonstrators or grant Guest Services relief by a reduction in its franchise fee.

(The dramatic increase in the number of groups getting permits for First Amendment Demonstration sites on the Mall in June was deliberately created by the Park Service. On Memorial Day weekend, a Park Service employee, sympathetic to the POW/MIA cause, told The Last Firebase that he had overheard his superiors talking about how they were going to "flood the Mall with so many t-shirt vendors that Congress would become involved because that's all they would see when they drove by the Mall."

The employee said his superiors "joked" about how they were going to issue permits to "everyone and everyone's brother." The Park Service "created a forest in order to cut down a tree," by telling people in a June Washington Post article how easy it was to get a "free speech" permit. By September 1, the Park Service had succeeded in "flooding the Mall" with 200 t-shirt vendors.

GET RID OF THEM OR ELSE

JULY 11, 1994 - DiMeglio wrote Stanton and threatened to "indefinitely postpone" scheduled construction on the Mall of four new kiosks by Guest Services unless the Park Service enacted a "speedy adoption" of regulation changes to limit "competing free speech" vendors.

JULY 18, 1994 - The 60-day public comment ended. The Park Service said the response from the public was "about even" in its comments "for and against" the proposed regulation change.

FRAUDULENT LETTERS EXPOSED IN PUBLIC COMMENT

SEPTEMBER 4, 1994 - THE STARS AND STRIPES veteran's newspaper reported that hundreds of form letters supporting the Park Service's proposed regulation change were fakes, raising the "specter of mail fraud." Someone it seemed, signed the computer generated letters with the names and addresses of people without their permission. Most of the names affixed to the approximately 1,300 letters were either those of slip holders at Park Service-owned marinas (operated by Guest Services) or temporary or past employees of Guest Services.

Guest Services at first told STARS AND STRIPES that they had nothing to do with any of the fraudulent letters, but later admitted that their company had printed a form letter with the names of employees of Ameritemps, a company that supplied Guest Services with temporary workers. The company said it contacted "95 percent of the employees" to let them know their names had been used. Guest Services, however, denied that it sent in letters with the names and addresses of people who were slip holders at the Park Service owned marinas that are administrated by their company.

"I believe that we probably did the text (of the fraudulently signed form letter)," Andrew Normandeau, secretary of Guest Services told STARS AND STRIPES in a follow up article, adding that he was going to write a letter to the Park Service with the "findings" of an initial, internal investigation.

The Park Service, which also denied any connection to the fraudulent letters, said the 1,300 form letters would not be considered in their assessment of the public comment.

HO, HUM, YAWNS--THE POSTAL SERVICE

SEPTEMBER 11, 1994 - STARS AND STRIPES. An Inspector General's official told the veterans newspaper, "We're checking it out," but added that the case (of the fraudulent letters) was probably more within the jurisdiction of the Post Office.

"It's not clear that the mail fraud statute has been violated here, but we will look into it," said John Brugger, a Post Office spokesman. A long-time postal inspector, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the STARS AND STRIPES that he doubted mail fraud had been committed because "no money or property was involved."

(EXCUSE ME! Money isn't involved? What about the one million dollars Guest Services complained to the Park Service about losing because of "unconscionable proliferation of these First Amendment vendors." What about Guest Services' threat to delay construction on the Mall unless new regulations are enacted to get rid of the "free speech" vendors? And just what is involved when someone signs the name of someone else to a letter without their permission and mails that letter to a government agency supporting a regulation that would deny POW/MIA activists the right to raise money for their cause?)

PUBLIC COMMENT 4-1 AGAINST REGULATION CHANGE

After removing the 1,300 fraudulent letters from consideration, the "almost even" count of people for and against the proposed new sales regulations on First Amendment demonstration sites dramatically changed to approximately 3,035 against the regulation change and 774 in favor. Of the 774 in favor, 241 were form letters and petitions signed by Guest Services employees. Some 2,500 park visitors to the Wall - the very people the Park Service claimed were having the "quality" of their park visit experience "severely disrupted" by First Amendment demonstrators - signed cards during their visit to the Wall against the regulation change.

In addition, a private poll of visitors at the Wall by Jacobs, Jenner and Kenton, revealed that 55 percent of those polled felt the First Amendment activists had "little or no effect" on their experience, while 24 percent found them to have a "positive effect."

It should also be noted that about 160 million people (20 million a year) have visited the Wall since The Last Firebase began its POW/MIA vigil in 1986. Prior to the May 18, 1994 60-day public comment period, the Park Service had received less than 50 complaints about activists on First Amendment demonstration sites.

(That should be the end of the story, right? Wrong. It appears that the Park Service doesn't give a damn about how the public really feels. The call for public comment was nothing more than a technicality required by law, the results of which Park Service officials said they were not obligated to act upon. The Park Service is going to get rid of the POW/MIA activists, by hook or crook, and the only question left now is when and how).

BELTWAY MEDIA IGNORED FRAUD
Not one news organization, with the exception of the STARS AND STRIPES (which put the story out on the wire service), reported the mail fraud scandal. Instead, the Washington Post and CNN produced one-sided reports on the terrible "T-shirt Pollution" on the Mall, never bothering to look below the surface for the real story of the who, what, when and how behind the regulation change and damage such a change will do to the right of free speech.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Money, politics and greed - that same unholy alliance which caused the abandonment of Vietnam veterans during and after the war in Southeast Asia, is the motivation behind the effort to evict The Last Firebase. If that alliance succeeds, Scruggs will be praised by the pro-Hanoi Kerry crowd for silencing the voice of the POW/MIAs, lauded by the uppity arts commission and the Park Service for making the memorial a "pretty tourist attraction." He will no doubt be thanked by Guest Services (perhaps with a "donation" for his "maintenance" of The Wall charity?) for getting rid of "competing free-speech" demonstrators.

Then, unless he's in jail for fraudulent fund raising, Scruggs will continue to smile all the way to the bank and a Guest Services employee with a foreign accent will be selling Scruggs' copyrighted "Three Servicemen Statue" t-shirts, coffee mugs, statues, pins, patches and other Vietnam "military art" items out of a brand new kiosk located - you guessed it - on The Last Firebase's First Amendment demonstration site.

Editor's Note Also see Jan Scruggs is attacking his fellow Veterans Again

With Much Love and Many Prayers,
Diane M. Weller *guns*
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