A MOTLEY CREW OF NAZIS VS. JDL THUGS: OH, WHAT A NIGHT! by Chunk Wheeler

See also ARCHIVES: January 1998 and August 18, 1997.

A cartoon produced by someone at the National Review

.    [By 1994, the union old guard’s own Trustee Frogue got into hot water when some of his high school students complained that he was denying the Holocaust and making offensive racial remarks in the classroom, but that storm seemed to pass. Then, three years later, Frogue invited 4 far-out conspiracy nuts to a “Warren Commission” seminar that he organized at Saddleback College. The event required board approval. The morning of the board meeting (such meetings are held in the evening) I read the board agenda, and I thought I recognized the name of one of Frogue’s 4 guests: Michael Collins Piper. I looked him up and found that he was the chief reporter for Spotlight, a notorious anti-Semitic tabloid, owned by Liberty Lobby. I immediately called the Anti-Defamation League and alerted them. That night, an ADL official addressed the board and explained Piper’s relationship with the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby and the wacky theories (about JFK) of the other guests slated for Frogue’s seminar. None of this stopped the Board Majority from approving the seminar, the 4 wacky guests included. The next day—thanks to some well-placed telephone calls—the excrement really hit the fan. Headlines all over the country (and beyond) shouted: college invites conspiracy nuts and anti-Semites to seminar!

[Employee X was a classified staff member who has since retired. I gave her a tape recorder and asked her to ask Piper some questions. (He had already “made” me. I wasn’t going to get anything out of him.)

[Eventually, JDL head Irv Rubin met a bad end. He and Earl Krugel were arrested for conspiring to plant bombs at a mosque in Los Angeles. While awaiting trial, Rubin committed suicide, slitting his throat. (Some insist he was murdered.) Krugel eventually got 20 years in federal prison. Very recently, he started his sentence but was killed by a white supremacist with a cinder block to the head.]


[From the ‘Vine, 6/21/98]

June 15, 1998 BOARD MEETING: Oh, what a night!

I. 6:00; we are waiting in the hallway for the doors to open and the meeting to start

Amid considerable hallway noise, Maryanne Wardlaw of the Irvine World News was interviewing Michael Collins Piper as he awaited the start of the district board meeting. Stealth employee X approached with a tape recorder and preserved the following for posterity:

PIPER: May I see that [one of Roy Bauer’s handouts], please?...I would like to look at it...[Finishing his thought:] --In any case, I thought it would be nice if I would be able to come to the college and say something....

WARDLAW: Why now?

PIPER: Why now? Because it was the first time that was convenient for me to do it, and I just got so tired of hearing all this nonsense, so I thought it would be something that I should do...No particular reason for this date...These things have continued...I thought, ‘Well, I should go out there.’ You know, I get tired of hearing, you know, ...

WARDLAW: Do you live in the area?

PIPER: No, I live in Washington, D.C.

WARDLAW: Did you come out here for this?

PIPER: Yes, I did, yeah.

EMPLOYEE X: Who paid your way?

PIPER: Who paid my way? Uh, it was paid for by my employer.

WARDLAW: Who do you work for?

PIPER: Liberty Lobby.

EMPLOYEE X: What’s Liberty Lobby?

PIPER: Uh, it’s, uh, it was established in 1955. We call it a “populist” institution.

EMPLOYEE X: What’s it about?

PIPER: What’s it about? It publishes a weekly newspaper called the Spotlight. We say it’s for America first, for the Constitution. Obviously—may I ask who you are?

EMPLOYEE X: My name’s (X). I’m an employee of the college.

PIPER: Oh, and what part of the college are you employed by?

EMPLOYEE X: I’m a (...).

PIPER: And, uh, are you here—In what capacity are you in here with the tape recorder—Dare I ask?

EMPLOYEE X: (I’m here because) I’m interested.

PIPER: Oh!

EMPLOYEE X: I’m a citizen. I pay taxes, and I’m interested.

PIPER: OK.

EMPLOYEE X: My day ends at 4:30 at the college and I have a right like everybody else—

PIPER: OK, I’m just curious. I mean, that’s, yeah...I’m surprised you don’t know the details then; you’re not...

EMPLOYEE X: I know everything.

PIPER: You know everything.

EMPLOYEE X: Everything...I’ve been here listening to all this from the start—from when Mr. Frogue started this.

PIPER: Wait a minute. Mr. Frogue didn’t start this. That’s where the problem comes in...My opinion is that I wrote a book. I accepted an invitation to speak at this college. I never heard of Saddleback College in my life, and frankly at this point I wish I never had. But the bottom line of it is I was invited to speak here and I accepted this invitation, and the next thing I know all of a sudden it’s in the newspapers. And did I call these newspapers up? I didn’t call those newspapers up. Who called those newspapers up? Your friend Roy Bauer. Did he call the newspapers?

EMPLOYEE X: I would imagine a lot of people...I don’t know why you’re directing—why Roy Bauer...?

PIPER: There was this—just all of a sudden there was this great commotion on campus. Students came running out of their classrooms saying, ‘We must stop Mike Piper from speaking!’—Is that it?

EMPLOYEE X: I think there were a lot of students. I think there were classified staff, and I believe there were faculty and...administrators that felt that way [namely, that Piper’s participation in the forum was a problem].

PIPER: Do you think there were people like Chancellor Lombardi who thought there was a problem with it?

EMPLOYEE X: I never spoke to Chancellor Lombardi. If he didn’t [think there was a problem], I’m sure he should have.

PIPER: I read that he said that he was concerned about—that it was a matter of free speech.

EMPLOYEE X: You have to speak to Lombardi.

PIPER: That’s what I read in the paper. Now, are you saying that I can’t trust the papers?

EMPLOYEE X: I never said that. You’re putting words in my mouth. I didn’t put words in your mouth.

PIPER: I know, I asked you...

EMPLOYEE X: You know what? She’s [i.e., Maryanne’s] the one that’s interviewing you. I’m gonna let (mixed voices)...I heard you talking and I wanted to—

PIPER: You’re standing here with a tape recorder. Could I take your picture?

EMPLOYEE X: No.

PIPER: Well, then, you can’t tape.

EMPLOYEE X: Fine. (X abruptly shuts off the recorder.)

…..

IV. Public comments (at the start of the meeting)

At about 9:30, public comments commenced. The first speaker was an honor student named Julie Abel, who had recently received some sort of commendation that was signed by members of the board, including the four members of the “board majority.” I was unable to tape the first few seconds of her address:

JULIE ABEL:

...members of this board whose behavior has been an appalling embarrassment to the entire student body at both district campuses. One member, Mr. Steven Frogue, is a high school history teacher who tries to indoctrinate his students against ethnic and religious minorities and who tries to associate my college with the forces of bigotry. Three other members—Mr. Williams, Ms. Lorch, and Ms. Fortune—stand behind this lunatic. Together, they’re willing to swallow any nonsense, [commit] any (infamy?), necessary to preserve this precarious, peculiar, petulant majority—including ambushing a young woman in a restaurant. [This is a reference to Mr. Frogue’s inviting a former student, who swore that teacher Frogue denied the Holocaust in class, to a restaurant. When she arrived, she discovered that Frogue was accompanied by a group from the local Moral Majority.]

…So what do you expect me to do with this thing? Do you expect me to place it on my wall with these signatures (staring?) down at me shouting, “the Holocaust never happened!” and whispering “but we didn’t really say that”? To Williams, Lorch, and Fortune [I ask]: please send me a new certificate without your signatures....

To Mr. Frogue [...] of the conspiracies, denials and lies: to him, I have nothing to say.

ROY BAUER:

Hi. I’m Roy Bauer and I just wanted to alert you to two handouts that I distributed tonight. One of them simply discusses the question of who Mr. Michael Collins Piper is—I understand that he is visiting with us tonight—and I’ve done some research and I’ve provided this handout. I hope that you’ll take some time to look at it and see what sort of character he is.

I wanted to alert you to, in particular—what I did is I had about 4 or 5 random Spotlights—he [Piper] works for [the] Spotlight newspaper, which is the newspaper for Liberty Lobby—and simply scanned some articles and advertisements, editorials. And as you can see, this is an embarrassment.

I hope you do look very carefully at it. You have ads here for [reads:] “the Caucasian race”; “collectors/historians: Ku Klux Klan memorabilia”; “The Truth about the bombs in Oklahoma.”

Also we have an article here by Mr. Michael Collins Piper, which apparently suggests that the Oklahoma City bombing, too, can be attributed to the Israeli Mossad!

So this is the kind of man that Mr. Frogue has wanted to invite to this district. I’m ashamed that I’m a part of a district in which something like this can occur.

Also, I wanted to...point out that I have a letter that was sent to me by this so-called “scholar,” which I’d like to read:

“Dear Roy: I just happened to be going through my files and I found this seventeen year old letter to the editor of the George Washington University student newspaper...Note that I came to the defense of a ‘liberal’ professor who was under fire from ‘right wing’ students who wanted to censor her views.”

Mr. Piper goes on to say:

“Isn’t it ironic that fifteen years later a filthy, anti-free speech mother-fucker like you came on the scene and caused such a big commotion in an effort to silence my views?”

I know a lot of scholars, and they almost never say “motherfucker.” [Laughter.]

“Looks like I’m the good guy, Roy, and you’re the fucking piece of shit that you are. And by the way”—

This is my favorite part of the letter:

“Some of my Black Nationalist supporters in Southern California are watching your activities closely. They believe in Freedom of Speech, motherfucker, but you don’t.”

[Looking directly at Frogue:] This is the “scholar” that Mr. Frogue sought to invite to his idotic JFK Forum.

Thank you very much.


IRV RUBIN:

My name is Irv Rubin. I represent the Jewish Defense League [JDL], and I just wanted to take a moment of your time to shed the spotlight (on) another supporter of Mr. Frogue who recently left, about an hour ago, a fellow by the name of Joe Fields.

How many people in the room know who Joe Fields is? He’s a self-admitted Hitler-lover. He’s also a convicted sexual morals offender—tries to pick up young girls and put them in his dirty little movies.

And (yet) we have nothing but silence from Mr. Frogue.

Mr. Frogue, your silence speaks a great deal. Maybe you ought to look yourself in the mirror and wonder who you’ve associated with.

PHIL TRYON:

My name is Phil Tryon. I’m a retired civil engineer and I want to thank the board again for allowing me to say a few words about free speech versus thought control, since there has been so much hatred spewed out against Mr. Frogue by the criminal ADL [...] for inviting Mr. Piper—the author of Final Judgment, a book on the Kennedy assassination—to take part in a seminar on this tragic event.

I suggest to the board that Mr. Piper...be given some extra time to present the facts as brought out in his book. Then I suggest that some extra time be given to a representative of the ADL to refute these facts. [...] This way it will be out in the open and the people can decide for themselves what is true and what is false.

This is the American way. It is the communist way for us to sit back in fear and wait for the thought police and the anti-American ADL to tell us what we can or cannot read or hear.

I say to you trustees tonight that you who oppose [Piper/Frogue]...are tantamount to being intellectual hypocrites.

Thank you.

BARRY KRUGEL (JDL):

...This is ridiculous—allowing 12 people in and having us wait hours on end to get to speak!

[Mr. Krugel’s address almost immediately deteriorated into a rant.]

[After Mr. Krugel completed his remarks, Trustee Fortune questioned Mr. Rubin about his visit to a Saddleback class. Then, at long last, Michael Collins Piper came up to speak:]

MICHAEL COLLINS PIPER:

I feel like I’m in a really bad John Waters movie here, uh...

KRUGEL: “Your makeup job is pretty bad.”

PIPER: You need some sun, my boy, and get some speech lessons. At any rate, I did write a nasty letter to a—what’s-his-name back here—Roy Bauer—because I was very frustrated. And I do use nasty language in private letters, but I wouldn’t have read that letter out loud to a group of people here like that, so I think that goes to show the kind of caliber this man is.

I’m not the one who started this controversy on this campus, and, in my opinion, neither is Steve Frogue. It was Roy Bauer—this gentleman sitting back there—In collaboration with the Anti-Defamation League. [Someone--Rubin?--laughs.]

When I was invited to speak out here, I just thought I was gonna come out here and I was gonna come before an audience and say a few words about my book along with other people who had other theories on the Kennedy assassination. And what was the result? A major brouhaha that was published in newspapers all over the country. I didn’t contact those newspapers. I didn’t generate that publicity. I didn’t even find out about the conference [being cancelled] until I got a call from the Los Angeles Times, which belies the myth, promulgated by Roy Bauer, that Steve Frogue and I were somehow in collusion.

I noticed that Mrs. Milchiker isn’t here tonight. I don’t know why. Maybe there’s a personal reason. Maybe it’s because she didn’t wanna give me any credibility by appearing here—I don’t know.

But I listened to what she’s had to say about me in—in—in one of your meetings. I saw this on videotape. I heard her talking about a website in Germany that has something to do with the Holocaust, equating things with me that I know absolutely nothing about.

That’s why I came out here. I didn’t come out here to cause a problem. I came out here to show the members of this board and anyone who wanted to listen to me that I am a human being. I’m offended by some of the things that have been said about me. I feel like I’ve been made into a political football by, uh, by people, uh, Mrs. Milchiker for example—Roy Bauer.

—I understand that there’s a lot of conflict out here at this board that I know nothing about. (I have?) nothing to do with them and yet somehow, uh, it’s...my presence in this whole thing—[it] has been made into a major issue.

You know, I could go on, but let me just say this. I think, uh, this gentleman back here [Phil Tryon] expressed it very, very well. If my book is so crazy, why doesn’t the Anti-Defamation League debate me in public about it? Why doesn’t Roy Bauer debate me in public about it?

RUBIN: “Who would give you any credibility? Who would give a nutcase like you any credibility?

PIPER: Ah, I’m gonna ask, could I ask for 10 more seconds—in light of the fact that I’ve been interrupted here several times since I began to speak—so I can conclude?

I’ve been hearing so much about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and all this kinda stuff...

RUBIN: “You’re an expert on it.”

WILLIAMS: “Please, Mr. Rubin.”

[Piper is discomfited. He pauses.]

PIPER: I, I didn’t interrupt when this unpleasant creature was speaking—who is allied with Marcia Milchiker and Roy Bauer—and I would, I would ask that I be allowed to speak without interruption.

UNIDENTIFIED JDL WOMAN: But you’re a nutcase. Nobody should ever...

PIPER: Uh, where’s the police? I’d like I--I--I would like the police brought in here, sir [speaking to policeman]. Sir, I’m being harassed while I’m trying to speak. I didn’t shout out when I was listening to that...(mixed voices are heard)

HARRY PARMER [chief cop]: Ladies and gentlemen, please!

PIPER: I think, I think if this could be broadcast to the general public on cable, they would see the caliber of the people who are allied with Marcia Milchiker and the Anti-Defamation League...

(An indecipherable voice interrupts)...

WILLIAMS: “Please be quiet.”

RUBIN: “We’re not allied with the ADL.”

PIPER: You’re not allied with the ADL. Well, you’re allied—OK. You know, I’ll tell you something. I’m really glad I came out here. I’m glad because it makes me good, it makes me feel good to see—cuz I know, I know that there’s a lot of people in this room, and I know there’s a lot of people in that room down the hall, who do value free speech, who don’t, who don’t, uh, who don’t make personal attacks on people, who don’t try to cause trouble, and, I know who does, and a few of those people are in this room tonight, and, uh--

RUBIN: “Not you, of course.”

[Again, Piper pauses, as though discombobulated.]

PIPER: I’ll tell you what. I’ll conclude by saying: if ever there was an argument in favor of anti-Semitism, it’s this spokesman—self-appointed spokesman—for the Jewish community right here. You’re a most unpleasant man.

RUBIN: “You’re a creep—and you’re a Hitler-lover...

PARMER: “Please, that’s enough.”

[Next, an elementary school teacher speaks on the topic of free speech; then we hear from Mr. Jim Scott, who, during a meeting several months earlier, shouted, “Keep up the good work, Dr. Frogue! There never was a Holocaust!”]

JAMES SCOTT:

Good evening and thank you board members for allowing us to speak like this. This issue has always been free speech, period...

Unfortunately, this thing over here [motions to Rubin], and that thing [motions to Krugel, who says simply, “Screw you”], have tried to distort this whole meeting and turn it into a big long Holocaust shoot-out.

WILLIAMS: “Would the audience please be quiet?”

KRUGEL: “Well, I’m a person [unlike that?] fat pig over there.”

WILLIAMS to Krugel: “Would you please leave? You’re not welcome in here anymore. [To Parmer:] “Would you please remove him?”

SCOTT: Anyway, this whole matter, it’s very important that we get this issue of free speech out where it’s supposed to be in front of everybody....

ANTONIO AGUILAR (STUDENT):

[Mr. Aguilar out-JDLed the JDL. After only a minute, he began to scream at Mr. Frogue with remarkable violence.]

But, all in all, the crowd behaved very well, I think, given the umitigated hatred so many in the audience had for others in the room!]

UPDATE:

Some time later, Matt Coker of the OC Weekly updated the Weekly's readers on Mr. Michael Collins Piper's activities, at least according to a respected anti-racist organization:

[Back in mid-98] Responding to local critics who had called Piper anti-Semitic and a Holocaust denier, he told the Weekly and others that he had nothing against Jews but that he had not paid enough attention to the most horrific event of the 20th century to actually deny that it occurred. But according to the SPLC [the Southern Poverty Law Center], Piper was speaking at a meeting of the CCC's National Capitol Region in Arlington, Virginia, earlier this month when he got "progressively angrier" as he talked about "the Jews he says control Hollywood." He ended his address, the story claims, by saying, "how sick he is of hearing about the Holocaust, and how he just doesn't care how many Jews died."

Here's the url:

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/99/16/clockwork-coker.php

I seem unable to access the OC Weekly's original story of that special night in June. It was a doozy, the story. And the night. --CW

NIGHT OF THE NAZI by Chunk Wheeler [Roy Bauer]

Frogue pal Michael Collins Piper of the anti-Semitic American
Free Press. Piper has cited the "work" of Fields and Kadar

[Piper's ultimate fate: HERE]

[On this night, some pretty unsavory characters descended upon the board in defense of Frogue. Among them:

George Kadar: the founder of “Friends of Steven J. Frogue,” Orange County’s own George Kadar, is an avowed “white separatist”? (San Diego Union Tribune, 8/29/91) --He is also the founder of American Spring, an anti-immigration group that has staged protests at the Mexican border.

Joe Fields: a white separatist and Holocaust “revisionist,” who has said that Jews deserve “everything they get, even extermination”? (See Michael Novick’s White Lies, White Power)

James Scott: What he's quoted as saying below says it all: "there never was a holocaust."]

* * * *

FROM THE VINE: 1/20/98

Originally entitled:

BOARD MEETING, 1/20/98: WILD NIGHT

by Chunk Wheeler

Tuesday’s Board meeting will be remembered.

Public comments:

BUCK COE:

Buck Coe, chairman of the Committee to Recall Steven J. Frogue, read what appeared to be an affidavit by former Frogue student Emily E. Hoffman. According to Hoffman, Frogue taught that the Holocaust did not occur.

Ms. Hoffman also alleged that Mr. Frogue routinely told racially insensitive jokes. One joke, she said, asked why there are “red dots” on the the foreheads of Indian women. The answer had something to do with pointing at such spots and saying how “ugly” the women are.

As Mr. Coe read Ms. Hoffman’s words, Frogue affected bemusement and shook his head.

JOE FIELDS:

A man named Joe Fields spoke next. He seemed to praise what he took to be the board’s willingness to return to “Western civilization and Christianity.” He complained about the influence and “shrill...voice” of “Political Zionism,” and he reminded us that, just a few minutes earlier, we had all pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States, not “the flag of Israel.” In his mind, our Board should be praised for its stand against “ADL-sponsored garbage.” He concluded his remarks by exclaiming that certain people should “Go back to Israel!”

Fields’ remarks were poorly received by most in the audience, though he was applauded by the small group of like-minded individuals who had come, evidently, to defend Mr. Frogue. Most of this group had spoken in defense of Frogue during two earlier Board meetings (in the summer and fall). Among faculty who have witnessed the performances of these odd Frogueophiles, they are known--perhaps in jest--as “the Nazis.”

Oddly, neither Mr. Frogue nor his supporters among the Trustees commented on Fields’ remarks. One might think that they would anxiously distance themselves from people like Fields. Not so.

[What FIELDS actually said:

I have here before me something that appeared in your local paper, college paper. This is your example of free speech. All you politically correct people who want to attack Mr. Frogue here. It's a gentleman urinating into a urinal on top of the newspaper. Examples of things like this all over our society today. Anything that attacks western civilization or Christianity is OK--that is to be tolerated. However, the same people who tolerate that -- and I might add, it’s the shrill, shrieking voice of political Zionism -- is here tonight to attack Mr. Frogue and to push their agenda. It's a narrow agenda, an un-American agenda. We just said the pledge of allegience to the flag of the United States, not to the flag of lsrael. [I’m speaking to] Anyone here who's going to push this ADL sponsored garbage. And the ADL, I might add, is an illegally unregistered agent for the State of Israel. If you're here to push this nonsense and keep attacking this man because of your narrow agenda I might suggest you get off your butts and go back to Israel where you belong.]

PHIL TRYON:

Next, an elderly fellow named “Phil Trion” (?) spoke. He was angry, and he asked whether Frogue’s opponents on the Board had ever actually read Michael Collins “Pepper’s” Final Judgment. The Board responded with silence. (I would imagine they haven’t read Mein Kampf either. Does that mean they are not entitled to condemn the ideas of Adolf Hitler?)

You will recall that Michael Collins Piper--a reporter for Liberty Lobby’s notorious anti-Semitic newspaper, the Spotlight--was among the conspiratistas invited by Frogue to speak at his doomed JFK weekend Forum. In Final Judgment, Piper argues that Israel was directly involved in the assassination of JFK--a view uniformly ridiculed by respected scholars and historians. During the Board Meeting in which the Board Majority (including Frogue) voted to support the request for “JFK Forum” speaker funds, Frogue acknowledged that he had met with Piper during a trip to Washington, D.C. Frogue and Piper appear to be friends.

Mr. Trion(?) likened the Board (or the Board Minority) to Pavlovian dogs who salivate upon hearing the ADL’s ringing bell; these muts are, he added, “brainwashed pimps for the anti-American ADL.” “Who in hell,” asked Trion, “appointed the ADL as the thought police of this college?”

[What Tryon actually said:

My name is Phil Tryon. I'm a retired civil engineer, a citizen and taxpayer. Thank you. I want to say a few words about this ongoing farce here at Saddleback College. It all started when Mr. Frogue proposed to have a seminar on the Kennedy assassination, a very significant event in American history. And Mr. Frogue invited the author of Final Judgment, Mr. Michael Collins Piper, as one of the speakers. This is when it all started. Let me ask you how many of you board members who are trying to silence...Mr. Frogue have ever read this book? ...We have here a classic example of Pavalovian (sic) reflex. The hate mongering ADL rings a bell and the brainwashed Zombies start marching and nipping at Mr. Frogue's heels. It's hard to believe. I want to add: just who in the hell appointed the ADL as the thought police at this college? Are they to tell us what we can read and what we can hear? Are they telling us that we are unable to decide for ourselves on this issue? Or are they afraid that an open discussion on the Kennedy assassination with Mike Piper will prove that the Mossad, Israel's KGB, had a big hand in the assassination? So I say to you board members, have the seminar. Bring out the facts and let people make up their own minds. That is what you are getting paid for. You're not being paid to be brain-washed pimps for the anti-American, anti-free speech, criminal rabble in the ADL. Thank you.]

PAM BUSTAMANTE:

Next, Pam Bustamante, another former student of Frogue’s, read from her own affidavit. According to her statement, when asked why his lectures on World War II described Japanese internment camps but ignored the Holocaust, Frogue answered that the latter event was of questionable validity and significance. Bustamante also described the “atmosphere” of racial insensitivity in Frogue’s classroom.

Frogue shook his head and smiled sardonically.

SHIRLEY RICHARDS:

A woman named Shirley Richards--apparently, an important leader in the OC African-American community--spoke passionately on behalf of Pauline Merry. She implored the Board to retain the services of Vice President Merry, whom she praised.

Prior to public comments, Board president Williams announced that, during the closed session, which had just been held, no actions were taken, and thus no action was taken on the controversial administrative contracts. Apparently, Trustee Hueter, who could not attend, requested a postponement on the contracts vote until her return.

I believe that Williams indicated that a decision on the contracts will be made during a special Feb. 11 meeting.

GEORGE KADAR:

Next, a fellow named George Kador walked up to the mike. He denounced alleged acts of “censorship” against Trustee Frogue. Our district, he seemed to say, is no different from the former Soviet Union with respect to silencing opinions.

[What KADAR actually said:

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak...I view this whole controversial situation around Mr. Frogue as a question of censorship and nothing else. In my opinion, this society as a cornerstone has freedom of speech just as the Bolshevik empire, where I spent my first 20 years, had a cornerstone and that was a lack of freedom of speech. Then ADL and other organizations are permitted to look over on this basic human right in this country and they are given an opportunity and possibility to exercise this censorship of...(unintelligible word) to our lives. At that point I think we are heading into a source of degeneration that is totally unacceptable and undesirable, and I would like you to consider this basic idea. Thank you.]

(At about this point, Williams called for Anthony Garcia to speak. Evidently, Mr. Garcia was not in the room.)

NORMAN DOCTOROW:

Norman Doctorow, a familiar face at Board meetings, brought affidavits from several former students of Frogue’s. He was only able to read two of them before being cut off by time-keeper Mike Runyan. According to one student, Mr. Frogue denied the occurrence of the Holocaust and described Jews as “rude” and “big-nosed.” The Mormon Church, she wrote, was described by Frogue as a devilish cult.

Another student, who evidently took one of Frogue’s classes during the 94-5 school year, wrote of Frogue’s racial bias and discriminatory stance in the classroom.

Once again, Anthony Garcia’s name was called, but, apparently, the fellow was not in the room.

KIT (Kip?) KRUBA(?):

The next speaker was familiar. I recall that, during a Board meeting in August, she spoke in defense of Mr. Frogue. She held up odd books such as Jews for Guns, or some such title, though I seriously doubt that she is a member of that particular group, if it exists.

This night, Ms. Kruba held up and promoted two books that looked as though they had been published in Orange County in the early ‘60s. One was entitled Which Way to World Government? The other: The State of the World Forum. (I observed that she held yet another book; it was entitled Are We Communists?) Eventually, Ms. Kruba alerted us to the specter of a “world income tax” and then displayed a photograph depicting Ted Turner, M. Gorbechev, and “Hanoi Jane.” The significance of this photo seemed to escape many in the audience.

BOB DEEGAN:

Mr. Deegan urged the Board to deal with the issue of the IVC President. President Mathur, he said, became President through an illegal process, for the search committee was prevented from excluding any applicant. This insured that the unqualified Mathur would survive the process to be selected by the Board (Majority). He explained that, owing to the cloud over Mathur’s Presidency--and his reputation on campus--little or no work is getting done at IVC. For instance, he said, our Courses Committee has not passed a single course this year; further, staff development and the “Weekend College”project are stymied, since no faculty member has come forward to organize this work, for “no one will stand behind this President.”

Deegan reminded the Board that, a few years ago, Mathur was censured for lying to the instructional council. (It is rumored that Mathur is a member of the “one thousand inch club” among repeat rhinoplastic patients.)

Perhaps for the third or fourth time, Williams called Tony Garcia’s name. This is odd, for, typically, the Board is disinclined to call the name of a speaker more than once. After his third or fourth call, Mr. Garcia awakened from his dogmatic slumber, and he walked up to the mike.

TONY GARCIA:

Mr. Garcia sought to attack the Board Majority’s opponents by attributing their efforts to a single, allegedly fiendish, individual--retired Trustee Harriett Walther. You will recall that, one or two months ago, the Faculty Association’s Newsletter contained a piece that presented an elaborate and idiotic scenario according to which Harriett Walther is the Professor Moriarty of the SOCCCD, for she brilliantly controls the press and orchestrates all opposition to the Board Majority, to Frogue, and to the faculty union’s leadership.

This scenario is, of course, a fantasy, and one wonders whether anyone is really stupid enough to suppose otherwise. The opposition to Mr. Frogue and his friends--especially in the last 15 months--has virtually nothing to do with Ms. Walther. It has been inspired and fueled by outrageous conduct perceived by various independent parties, some of whom (e.g., me) have no connection to Harriett Walther or her political activities.

Nevertheless, Tuesday night, Mr. Garcia referred to his opponents as the “Walthers [sic] group,” and he attempted to discredit Walther. Evidently, in Garcia’s mind, the illegitimacy of the opposition movement is established, as a matter of logic, by the alleged misconduct of Ms. Walther. (Not so, logic fans.) Apparently resurrecting a gambit from the union’s 1996 campaign playbook, he read a 1994 document, written by state investigators, that asserted that, in 1993, Ms. Walther had violated the “conflict of interest” provisions of the Political Reform Act by voting to support a contract for the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), an organization for which she briefly worked as a telephone consultant within 12 months prior to the vote.

It is worth noting, however, that Mr. Garcia, like many of his equally unprincipled predecessors (Williams, Frogue, et al.), presented this document while suppressing important “mitigating” facts also in his possession. For the state’s investigation ultimately produced a “case closure memorandum” (5/3/95) that asserted

However, we have determined that prosecution for this violation is not warranted based on several mitigating factors which include: 1) the vote to approve the ACCT contract was unanimous and apparently would have been approved without Ms. Walther's vote; 2) it appears that Ms. Walther did not believe that she had a conflict of interest with regard to the ACCT contract, and had she known, it appears she would have abstained from the decision; 3) as a telephone research consultant, she did not stand to gain any commission or bonus as a result of the contract; 4) all other members of the SCCD involved in the ACCT contract were informed by Ms. Walther that she had been employed by ACCT, and 5) Ms. Walther has no prior enforcement history with the Commission.

You will recall that, during the ‘96 Trustees campaign, union leaders stated (in ads, fliers, and letters) that Ms. Walther “took conflict of interest money.” If, however, the California Fair Political Practices Commission’s final report can be believed, she did no such thing. Union leaders (and Trustees hostile to Walther) understood this, for, in their attacks on Ms. Walther, they quoted from the same document (namely, the 5/3/95 Case Closure Memorandum) in which the above passage appears.

Shame.

JULIE BEN-YEOSHUA:

Julie’s statement was undoubtedly the high point of the evening. Here it is in its entirety:

My name is Julie Ben-Yeoshua and I am presently a secretary at Irvine Valley College in the Office of Instruction. Although I have wanted to speak out in the past, I remained quiet out of fear of losing my job. But that is no longer the case since tomorrow is my last day of work and, quite frankly, I am relieved to be leaving. Although my decision to quit was a well thought-out decision, I am here tonight because I believe you, as the Board of Trustees, deserve to understand what motivated my decision to quit working at IVC.

When I was first employed here almost 3 years ago, IVC was a wonderful place to work. With more than 20 years experience in the secretarial field, this has been--by far--my most meaningful and rewarding position. I felt that everyone--whether they were an administrator, faculty member, or classified staff person--was proud of the college and went well beyond the call of duty to make IVC the best that it could be. Why? Because we were made to feel that our contributions were valued and that we--as people--were important to the institution.

But now that feeling is gone. Since you first appointed Raghu Mathur as the interim president, the atmosphere at IVC has changed drastically; morale is in the gutter; and it seems as though very few care to do more than what is absolutely required of them.

He tells everyone that everything is wonderful. It is not! His inability to tell the truth is so natural that I have come to gauge everything he says and writes by believing the complete opposite. One instance is when he wrote in the staff newsletter that his brown-bag luncheon was a complete success even though only two people attended. Yet his article led you to believe that the house was packed. He is not respected in any way and is the buttof considerable joking. We are so glad when he leaves that one day when he was out of town, we celebrated with a luncheon in honor of his absence.

My most wonderful job has turned--almost overnight--to a most miserable position. I have never worked in a more oppressive and hateful environment. Others I have spoken with--including faculty and administrators--are looking for other jobs or considering career changes, following the many who have already left. That is a disgrace since so many of them have spent years developing IVC’s fine reputation, a reputation that is gone since Raghu Mathur became president.

In closing, I would like to say that I am amazed that any one person could be allowed to do so much damage in only nine months. However, you, the Board of Trustees, have the power to do the one thing possible to begin the road to recovery and stop the rapid deterioration that IVC is experiencing: remove Raghu Mathur as president. If you don’t, you will have more people like me, standing before you to say that, regardless of the exceptional people I work with, I can no longer stand to be a part of what is happening and I refuse to spend any more time under his control.

Thank you.

JAMES SCOTT:

Mr. Scott, the last public speaker, began his remarks by explaining to us that, in the course of his education, he discovered that history is written by the winners. In fact, said Scott, there “never was a Holocaust.” He referred to a Holocaust industry or “racket” involving “Communist cockroaches.” He informed us that, in the little time they had, the Nazis could not possibly burn six million bodies (or did he say “cock roaches”?). In the end, he shouted to Frogue: “Keep up the good work, Dr. Frogue! There never was a Holocaust!”

At this point, a Saddleback College (?) student named Antonio, who had been listening quietly to Scott, could take no more. He walked right up to Scott and shouted that he (Antonio) had lost relatives in the Holocaust. Mr. Scott, who was only inches away from the student, turned quite red and shouted back with equal ferocity, using a variety of curse words. (He may have spoken of “cockroaches” again.) The exchange continued for some seconds.

Luckily, campus cop Harry Parmer was standing only inches behind Mr. Scott, and perhaps only this prevented a skirmish or worse. Virtually everyone in the room was amazed or horrified. I fully expected a fight. But the situation was controlled fairly quickly. The student went to one side of the room, and Scott went to the other.

Remarkably, neither Frogue nor any of his friends on the Board immediately responded to this incident or to the ugly things that had been said on Frogue’s behalf by Scott and others.

[What SCOTT, ET AL., ACTUALLY SAID:

SCOTT: Thanks a lot for letting me talk tonight. I'm going to get back to the main event which is the continuing sniping attacks on Mr. Frogue for having the intelligence to have something important to say -- contradict the political line. As a sixteen year victim of the public school system--Tustin High School, Orange Coast College. and Cal State Fullerton -- amazingly enough, in history yet. I found out that history was basically written by the winners. And there never was a holocaust. It's nothing but six milllion lies. It's become a racket. Everywhere you go, every time you pick up the paper, turn on the radio the TV, here's some Jew screaming about this and that and everything else. They're after the Swiss government, all the rest of the governments...

[interruption from a young man in the audience: "You are a sick son of a bitch! Sixty-nine of my ancestors died in the holocaust...!"]

[Shouted obscenities back and forth]

Scott: Get this guy out of my face!

Williams: This is out of order.

Woman from audience: Keep your filthy mouth shut over there with your name calling!

Scott: Aw, go to hell, you communist cockroach! Anyway, I will finish my talk right now. Garbage like this is not the way it's supposed to be here. Mr. Frogue has a right to an opinion. Not everybody's going for this holocaust monkey business. And if you bother talking to a mortician who cremates bodies all the time, look at the facts. Look at the logistics. A little tiny nation of Germany fighting a twelve-front war (end of tape) [could not have killed six million....] ...[beginning of other side of tape:] Thank you very much.

[The above was taken from a transcript of the board meeting apparently provided by D. Martin of the district.]

* * *

MORE ON KADAR/FIELDS:

Evidently, the founder of “American Spring” is GEORGE KADAR. The organization is discussed below in an exerpt from Novick’s White Lies, White Power:

“American Spring at the Mexican Border,” held at the U.S.-Mexico border at San Ysidro in June 1992, and again in 1993, was a recent example in a series of racist mobilizations aimed at stirring up anti-immigrant hysteria and blaming immigrant workers for all the growing problems of our society. It can serve to illuminate several key aspects of the issue.

In front of the ten-foot border wall, the AMERICAN SPRING nazis raised the confederate battle flag and flashed the Hitler salute. The rally united an assortment of right wingers, open nazis, skinheads, and "White Nationalist" Richard Barrett. It resulted in physical attacks on Chicano-Mexican protesters and the stoning of migrant workers by the nazi boneheads. It was the outcome of a continuing unity of purpose between repressive agencies of the government, reactionary and demagogic politicians, and hard-core racist elements which pose as being anti-establishment, but actually work hand in glove with the state to maintain exploitation and oppression.

In 1994, American Spring attempted to attach itself to a border rally planned by Ross Perot's United We Stand America organization (UWSA). UWSA had provided most of the petition circulators for the so-called Save Our State ("S.O.S.") initiative, placed on the November 1994 state ballot. Proposition 187 aimed to deny all education, health, and social service benefits to the undocumented, and require teachers, health care practitioners, and social workers to report "suspicious persons" to the INS, including even the parents of U.S. citizen school-children. END OF QUOTATION

More on Fields from Novick's book:

The head of the L.A. County chapter of the POPULISTS when [Bo] Gritz ran for President, also then a member of its national executive committee, was JOE FIELDS. One Joe Fields in national leadership is more than enough to discredit any political formation, and Fields is typical, not exceptional, in the ranks of the Populists. Fields has been a nazi activist of long standing in the L.A. Harbor area. He also became a national "footnote" to the story of David Duke's campaign for governor of Louisiana, after a tape-recorded interview with Fields and Duke was widely circulated. On the tape, made at a gathering of Carto's revisionist Institute for Historical Review, Fields openly asserted his nazi identity and beliefs, such as that the Jews deserve "everything they get, even extermination," while Duke admonished him to be more discreet.

It's ironic that Fields, who boasts on the tape that he would "never deny" he is a nazi, now is denying it, having taken Duke's advice to heart. Fields specifically opposes democracy on the tape, noting that it allows "anything that can claim to be human to vote." His interview is riddled with references to "kikes" and "niggers." Now Fields professes to be a supporter of the Bill of Rights, but on the tape he declares matter of factly that he would suppress any speech that he deems not in the interest of the white race. He ran for State Assembly in 1992 on the American Independent Party ticket (the group that achieved ballot status running George Wallace for president, and which gave its ballot line to Duke and the Populists in 1988). As this book is being prepared for printing, Fields is the American Independent Party candidate for U.S. Congress from the same vicinity. END OF QUOTATION.