med "Bubba One" and "Bubba Two."
April 30, Texas: Texas Rangers arrest seven individuals in two vehicles
at a truck stop in Pecos, Texas, with a supply of fully
automatic assault weapons and some explosive materials. The individuals
were on their way to join Richard McLaren. A few
others are also stopped in following days, but the massive action
predicted by McLaren does not occur. Meanwhile, McLaren
and authorities talk sporadically by fax and phone. McLaren eventually
breaks off negotiations.
April 30, California: Following the arrest of William Goehler (see
above) on explosives charges, two associates of his, Kevin
Quinn and Vernon Weckner, were arrested in Yuba City, California, and
500 pounds of the volatile explosive petrogel were
found. Weckner is one of the central militia organizers in northern
California; he also is a common law activist and a tax
protester.
MAY
Ca. May 1, Oregon: Common law court advocates Dick Lancial and Thor
Lancial are indicted by a grand jury in Multnomah
County, Oregon, on multiple counts of forgery and simulating the legal
process for their common law court activities.
May 1, New York: Bronx-area extremist blows his hand off in his
apartment booby-trapped with homemade bombs. The
man, John Saperstein, an unemployed construction worker, had at least
five bombs in his apartment. Neighbors indicated
that Saperstein talked a lot about the "Patriots of America" and the
militia.
May 1, Colorado: Federal agents arrest Colorado militia leader Ron Cole
(the "Colorado First Light Infantry") and two other
militia members on weapons charges in the Denver suburb of Aurora,
Colorado. Authorities seize weapons and explosives
materials. Ron Cole, who claims to be a militant Branch Davidian, has
been one of the more vocal militia leaders in recent
months. Police find six fully automatic AK-47 rifles, three land mines,
75 pounds of rocket fuel, a pipe bomb, and much
ammunition.
May 1, Florida: Brevard County (FL) militia member Brian Edward Lanier
is arrested after making threats that he would kill
himself on the state seal and blow up an insurance building. He was
held on an outstanding warrant from another county for
a 1989 aggravated assault.
May 1, Texas : Police negotiators send Richard McLaren a "final offer"
and threaten to move in to arrest them. They also cut
off power to his trailer.
May 2, California: Police investigating the Yuba County explosives ring
of Vernon Weckner, Kevin Quinn, and William
Goehler, arrest three more men, Jason Fox, Edward Whitlow and Robert
Scott Deaver, charged with possessing explosives.
The six plead not guilty.
May 2, Texas: Republic of Texas member Robert Scheidt surrenders to
authorities surrounding McLaren's "embassy."
Meanwhile, police units move closer to the compound. Richard McLaren
issues a plea for "reinforcements" and he and four
followers fax their wills to state police.
May 2, Washington: Richard Frank Burton, who pled guilty to possessing
pipe bombs and other charges in connection with
the Washington militia/freemen bombmaking conspiracy, is sentenced to
46 months in prison.
May 3, Colorado: Arsonists destroy IRS offices in a building in
Colorado Springs, spray-painting "AAR" or "ARA" inside the
building. They cause more than $1 million in damage.
May 3, Texas: Most of the remaining Republic of Texas members surrender
to authorities. Richard McLaren, his wife Evelyn,
and three followers (Richard Otto, Greg and Karen Paulson), walk out of
their hideout after signing a "cease-fire" agreement
with Texas Rangers. Two members, Richard Keys and Mike Matson, decided
not to surrender and fled into the Davis
Mountains. Authorities began a search with bloodhounds, helicopters,
and troopers on horseback. Police find more than 60
pipe bombs at the "embassy."
May 5, Texas: One or both of the two Republic of Texas fugitives fire
shots at bloodhounds, wounding two of them, in the
remote Davis Mountains. Later that day, police shoot and kill one of
the two fugitives. The other apparently escapes.
Meanwhile, Richard and Evelyn McLaren are indicted on charges that
could bring up to hundreds of years in prison.
May 8, Texas: Five more Republic of Texas members are arrested as part
of McLaren's scheme to issue $1.8 billion in
bogus warrants: Jasper Edward Baccus, Joe Louis Reece, Steven Craig
Crear, Erwin Leo Brown, and Mark Anthony
Hernandez. Also arrested is Republic of Texas leader Robert Kesterson,
on three counts of contempt of court out of Travis
County, where he filed bogus liens and other documents in violation of
a judge's order. Donald Joe Varnell was another
member arrested on contempt of court charges. State authorities also
filed suit against Carolyn Carney for nonpayment of
taxes. Other leaders, including Archie Lowe and Darrell Franks, are
also charged with contempt.
May 9, California: LA police arrest five militia members, seizing a
grenade launcher, hand grenades, hand grenade
components, automatic assault rifles, body armor, night vision goggles,
and over 100 different types of weapons. Arrested
are Glenn Yee, a reserve police officer, Alvin Ung, Mark Grand, Timothy
Swanson and Raymond Durand. None have any
previous criminal history. Police say more arrests are expected; the
suspects were allegedly planning to attack several
Southern California targets. Durand is later said not to be associated
with the militia suspects, but rather a separate case.
May 10, California: A seventh man, Daniel Sparhawk, is arrested in
connection with the Yuba explosives case, on charges of
possessing two tubes of petrogel. His girlfriend, Tina Lorene Terrell,
is also arrested, bringing the total number to ten.
May 12, New Hampshire: New Hampshire militia leader Brian Chabot pleads
guilty to his role in theft of $100,000 worth of
military equipment (see above). Chabot is the third of three to plead
guilty.
May 16, Wisconsin: Three members of anti-tax group in Wisconsin are
given a 20-count indictment charging them with tax
fraud. These members of Sovereign Citizens for Liberty, Frank A.
Wysocki, Alan Cooper and Robert Iacoe, sold "untax"
packages to gullible people.
May 17, Oregon: Portland, Oregon, area resident James Bell, active in
militia and common law court groups, is arrested by
the IRS for obstructing the IRS. Among other things, Bell devised a
project called "Operation LocatIRS" to learn the home
addresses of IRS employees in order to intimidate them. He is also
suspected of having used a chemical called mercaptan
in a March 16 stink-bombing of an IRS office. Bell is more well known
for his Internet essay "Assassination Politics," which
proposed a system of rewards for people who predict the deaths of
government officials.
May 19, Montana, North Carolina: Russell Dean Landers and Vincent
Wells, two of the Montana Freemen defendants, are
sentenced in Wilmington, NC, on charges of conspiring to commit bank
fraud, intimidate IRS agents and transport stolen
property across state lines.
May 20, Pennsylvania: In federal court in Philadelphia, Michael Brescia
pleads guilty to charges of conspiracy and armed
robbery and agreed to testify against fellow members of the Aryan
Republican Army.
May 21, Oklahoma: Tax protester Wayne Gunwall of Ponca City, Oklahoma,
is sentenced to 15 months in prison for
conspiring with two others to harass IRS agents. The other defendants,
Kenney Moore and Colleen Moore who, like
Gunwall, pled guilty to one of the counts, have not yet been sentenced.
May 22, Connecticut: A Connecticut judge postpones the attempted
kidnapping trial of "patriot" leader James "Bo" Gritz and
his son James R. Gritz until September.
May 23, Oklahoma: Wayne Gunwall and Howard M. Boos are convicted in
federal court on a three-count indictment of
conspiring to file multimillion-dollar liens against IRS agents (see
above, below).
May 27, Florida: In Tampa, Florida, Emilio Ippolito, his daughter, and
six followers, members of the "Constitutional Common
Law Court," go on trial on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of
justice. Ippolito is the leader of one of the most prominent
common law courts in the nation.
May 29, West Virginia: A "colonel" in the West Virginia Mountaineer
Militia pleads guilty to making a bomb for other militia
members who were plotting to bomb an FBI fingerprint facility. Edward
Moore is one of seven defendants in the case; he
faces up to ten years in prison.
May 30, Washington: Gary Kuehnoel, one of the Washington
militia/freemen defenders (see above), is sentenced to 27
months in jail for illegal possession of a machine gun, and ordered to
pay a $6,000 fine. The sentence was part of an
agreement in which all other charges were dropped.
JUNE
June 2, Oklahoma, Colorado: In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh is
convicted for his role in the bombing of the federal
building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. He is later given the death
penalty.
June 4, Florida: A Jacksonville jury acquits Florida "patriot" and
ostrich farmer William Law of 21 counts of defrauding
people by placing bogus liens on people involved with his divorce. The
jury believed the argument of Law's lawyer that Law
did not defraud anyone because no one would believe the liens were
real.
June 5, Arizona: Trial begins for remaining Arizona Viper Militia
defendants, Charles Knight. Viper Christopher Floyd still
awaits trial.
June 5, Oklahoma: A federal judge sentences two Oklahoma common law
activist Dan Meador to 16 months in prison, three
years supervised release and a $2,000 fine for obstructing justice and
illegally communicating with a grand jury. Meador's
case was linked to the case involving Kenney and Colleen Moore and
Wayne Gunwall.
June 12, West Virginia: The second of seven defendants, Jack Phillips,
in the Mountaineer Militia case agrees to plead guilty
to a charge of conspiracy to make bombs.
June 12, West Virginia: FBI affidavits reveal that the Mountaineer
Militia considered killing Jay Rockefeller and Alan
Greenspan, as well as their families, in a "holy war" against the
federal government.
June 16, Washington, Ohio: Cheyne Kehoe, wanted since February for a
shootout with police in Ohio, surrenders in
Washington. He will be extradited to Ohio.
June 16, Utah: John Chaney is sentenced in Provo, Utah, to life in
prison for aiding in the rape of his daughter. When he
appeared for sentencing, he ordered bailiffs to arrest the judge for
treason, but the bailiffs did not respond. Chaney, a
common law court activist and member of an extreme Mormon sect, was
convicted in April on three counts of aiding and
abetting in the rape of his (then 13-year old) daughter at the hands of
one of his followers. He has launched numerous
lawsuits against Utah judges for conspiring against his religious
freedom.
June 17, Utah, Ohio: Chevie Kehoe is arrested in Cedar City, Utah,
after Cheyne Kehoe reveals to authorities where he is.
June 23, Washington, Idaho: The second trial for the accused "Spokane
Bank Bandits" begins. Robert Berry, Charles
Barbee and Verne Jay Merrell are once again defendants. The fourth
defendant will have a separate trial in September.
June 23, Arizona: Arizona Viper Charles Knight is convicted of
conspiracy to make or possess unregistered destructive
devices.
June 24, California: Todd Vanbiber, the Orange County, California, man
who blew himself up while constructing a pipe
bomb (see above), pleads guilty to two federal explosives violations.
Vanbiber was a member of the neo-Nazi National
Alliance.
June 26, Colorado: Barry Taylor is convicted in Adams County, Colorado,
of using bogus "freemen" checks to pay off his
debts. Taylor is one of 12 indicted Coloradans and the first to go to
trial.
June 27, Utah: Former Montana Freeman standoff participant Gloria Ward
is found guilty of four counts of Social Security
fraud. Ward had been claiming Social Security survivor's benefits as
the mother of the man's child, despite having sued
another man whom she claimed was the real father. She faces up to
twenty years in prison.
June 30, California: In Ventura County, Isabel Oxx is evicted from her
home, ending a long ordeal in which she lost title to
her house after using a "freeman" check to pay off her mortgage. She
will go to trial in early July on federal charges of jury
tampering in connection with the case of Elizabeth Broderick (see
above).
3. Dissidents - victims of the Jewish Extremists' global totalitarian
power (Israeli military assault against the Western democracy)
(Thousands or maybe millions of people are persecuted by Jewish
totalitarian machine all over the world. Persecutions include kidnapping,
executions, assassinations, batteries, and administrative, financial and
other terror)
CONTENT:
Jewish Extremists' Global Conspiracy Victims in Ukraine, Canada, and
Other Countries
Ivan Demenyuk's Case
(For GUNINS case go here:
[http://www.total.net/~leog/Rights/LevGunin/intro.htm]
[http://www.total.net/~leog/Rights/LevGunin/Mother.htm])
(For Ivan Demenyuk's case look here: [http://www.ukar.org])
Morley Safer Letter 5 9Apr99 Who blew the hands off Maksym Tsarenko?
The sort of powerful story that neither you nor Rabbi Bleich were able
to find is one of
a Russian summer-camp councillor who had his hands blown off by
Ukrainian
nationalists for using the Russian language within Ukraine; or one of a
Jewish
summer-camp councillor having his hands blown off by Ukrainian
nationalists for using
Hebrew or Yiddish within Ukraine. Such things do not happen within
Ukraine to either
Russians or to Jews - they happen only to Ukrainians.
April 9, 1999
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
Who Blew The Hands Off
Maksym Tsarenko?
The photograph above shows Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma bestowing
the Order of
Yaroslaw the Wise on Maksym Tsarenko. My free translation of the text
which explains
the photograph is as follows:
Among the first recipients of the Order, awarded on the fourth
anniversary of the national independence of Ukraine, were leading
Ukrainian workers in the fields of culture, art, and law: O.
Basystiuk, A. Mokrenko, and F. Burchak.
On this same day, the president of Ukraine also bestowed this mark
of distinction, "for valor" upon twenty-year-old student at the
Vynnytsia Pedagogical Institute, Maksym Tsarenko.
During the summer holidays, Maksym was working as a councillor at a
summer camp for young girls near Yevpatoria, Crimea.
Haters of Ukraine, who rush to propose the view that Crimea is not a
peninsula attached to Ukraine, but rather is an island unconnected
to Ukraine, reacted with hostility to this summer camp, especially
provoked by the Ukrainian language spoken by the Ukrainian children,
which dared to resound even within Ukrainian Crimea. The hatred
mounted to such an irrepressible degree that it provoked the bandits
to the most egregious crime: they constructed an explosive and threw
it into the window of the children's dormitory. Ten or so children
could have been killed by the explosion. But the young Ukrainian
councillor showed no confusion as to his duty. He picked up the
bomb, shielding it with his own body, and jumped out of the
building. Unfortunately, the bomb went off, seriously wounding
Maksym.
The best local surgeons fought for several days to save the boy's
life. Thanks to them, the youth's life was spared. Unfortunately,
it was not possible to save his hands.
No one can accuse the recipient of not having earned his award.
Ukrainian awards, in contrast to Soviet, are fully deserved.
(Ukrainian-language newspaper, Novyi Shliakh (New Pathway) of
7Oct95, based on the earlier report in Ukrains'ke Slovo, (Ukrainian
Word), Kyiv, No. 37, 14Sep95)
The above story of Maksym Tsarenko compels me to ask - not for the
first time - who
is in danger in Ukraine? The Western media urge us to accept that it is
Jews and
Russians who are in danger, threatened by Ukrainian nationalists. That,
for example,
is the conclusion of your infamous 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face
of Freedom of
23Oct94. However, you came back from your brief visit to Ukraine with
no data to
substantiate such a claim. Almost a year ago, the Ukrainian Archive has
requested
both of you and of Rabbi Bleich the evidence backing your report of
violence against
Jews, and neither of you has as yet condescended to reply,
strengthening the
suspicion that your story was fabricated.
The sort of powerful story that neither you nor Rabbi Bleich were able
to find is one
of a Russian summer-camp councillor who had his hands blown off by
Ukrainian
nationalists for using the Russian language within Ukraine; or one of a
Jewish
summer-camp councillor having his hands blown off by Ukrainian
nationalists for using
Hebrew or Yiddish within Ukraine. Such things do not happen within
Ukraine to either
Russians or to Jews - they happen only to Ukrainians. It is the story
of Ukrainians
being persecuted within Ukraine that you could have richly documented
and broadcast
to the world. The story of Maksym Tsarenko can be found multiplied many
times over -
the torture-murders of Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Katelnytsky and his
mother in
their Kyiv apartment providing a recent example. The contrasting story
of Jewish or
Russian victimization within Ukraine is bogus - and yet that is the
story that you
unscrupulously chose to broadcast.
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Rabbi Bleich, Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft,
Andy Rooney,
Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace.
Morley Safer Letter 9 15May99 Who murdered Volodymyr Ivasiuk?
But in the meantime, those who come too near to the truth concerning
what happened to
Volodymyr Ivasiuk have been the victims of an unusual number of
accidents. One man's
wife unexpectedly hangs herself, another man throws himself from a
balcony, still
another drowns, yet another falls under the wheels of a car.... But
remember, butchers,
God's punishment will descend even upon you!
May 15, 1999
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
Who Murdered
Volodymyr Ivasiuk?
Volodymyr Ivasiuk is best known as a composer and poet,
author of the widely popular song Chervona Ruta whose first
two lines appear below as he wrote them in his own hand,
which song more than anything else made him beloved
throughout Ukraine, and even beyond the borders of Ukraine.
On top of that, Volodymyr was a man of many talents, having
earned a degree in medicine, and having demonstrated talent
in art, photography, and cinematography.
However, having reached his prime
showing so much promise, it was not
given Volodymyr Ivasiuk to develop his
talents further. He was dead at the age
of 30. To the right is a photograph of
his funeral procession, attended by
thousands of mourners despite the
suppression by the state of the
publication of information concerning
his burial, despite official warnings to
not attend funeral services, and despite
the calling of Komsomol meetings, which
carried mandatory attendance, on the
same day. The magazine Halas, on whose
information I rely in the present
letter, states that Rostyslaw Bratun who
was the first to step forward and speak
at Volodymyr's funeral lost his job two
months later. Words spoken at the
funeral by the Sichko family landed them
in prison.
To the right is a second photograph
showing the statue that was eventually
erected in Volodymyr Ivasiuk's memory.
And just how did Volodymyr Ivasiuk meet
his end? His death certificate which
appears below states that he died on
24-27 April 1979 from mechanical
asphyxiation caused by hanging in a
noose, and attributes the hanging to
suicide.
The details of Volodymyr Ivasiuk's death, however, do not support the
official view that
he killed himself:
They waited and searched for Volodya for 24 days. Following the
mysterious disappearance of the composer, the search for him was not
disclosed to the public, the explanation being given that such an
announcement would create a disturbance. However, the mass media are
daily used not only to help locate people, but sometimes even their
pets. [...]
It was not until May 18, 1979 that Volodymyr Ivasiuk's body was
accidentally discovered in the heavy forest near the village
Briukhovych near Lviv.
One couldn't bring oneself to believe it. The parents were allowed to
identify their son only on the following day, even though it was only a
five-minute walk from the apartment where Volodya lived to the morgue;
and the identification was conducted with gross violations of law. The
father was allowed to view the body only after he repeatedly telephoned
the Oblast Procurator threatening to send a telegram of complaint to
the General Procurator of Ukraine. The local authorities eventually
gave in with the exasperated reply: "Take your son home, and look at
him there at least a hundred years!" His death certificate reported
that he died 24-27 April 1979 at the age of 30. The cause of death:
mechanical asphyxiation. Hanging from a noose - suicide. The death
certificate was issued on May 21, 1979, and even back then, a mere
three days after the body had been discovered, without any evidence or
investigation it had been written in black and white that Volodymyr
Ivasiuk had committed suicide.
There immediately arises the question that if the composer had indeed
hung himself on 24-27 April, and was not found until 18 May, whether he
could have remained hanging from a tree for 21-24 days. Volodya
weighed 80 kg (176 lb), such that hanging for so long, the noose would
have cut into his neck to the depth of the bones. Also during May the
weather was warm and dry. The body would have decomposed during this
interval, and from it would have emanated an intolerable odour. All
these substantiating signs were missing, and missing too were the
autopsy photographs.
On May 22 of every year let us remember that Volodymyr Ivasiuk became
another innocent victim of a totalitarian regime.
M. Masly, Volodymyr Ivasiuk: Light and Shadow of a Legend, Halas
(Clamor), 3Jun97, pp. 11-12, as translated by Lubomyr Prytulak.
Halas is a Ukrainian-language magazine which reviews popular music and
is published in Kyiv. The section commemorating Volodymyr Ivasiuk in
the 3Jun97 issue was sponsored and supported by Coca Cola Ukraine.
And truly, the administration hated him while he was alive, and feared
him once he was dead. Volodya's mother, Sophia Ivanivna Ivasiuk met
with the first secretary of the Lviv administration, V. Dobryk to plead
with him to permit a monument to be placed on the grave of her son.
"The war took from me my father and three brothers. My sister's
husband did not return from the front," wept the woman, "and now my son
too has been lost. Do I not after all that have the right to
consecrate his memory?" In reply, Dobryk (what evil irony that such a
soulless individual should have a name denoting goodness) pressed a
concealed button and said in Russian to the lackey who entered, "Take
that lady out." Following this visit, Sophia Ivanivna Ivasiuk received
the "insult in the name of Dobryk." She has been in ill health ever
since.
Sooner or later will arrive the day when truth will emerge victorious.
But in the meantime, those who come too near to the truth concerning
what happened to Volodymyr Ivasiuk find themselves the victims of an
unusual number of accidents. One man's wife unexpectedly hangs
herself, another man throws himself from a balcony, still another
drowns, yet another falls under the wheels of a car.... But remember,
butchers, God's punishment will descend even upon you!
M. Masly, Volodymyr Ivasiuk: Light and Shadow of a Legend, Halas
(Clamor), 3Jun97, p. 12, as translated by Lubomyr Prytulak.
Mr. Safer, you went to Ukraine determined to come back with a story of
Ukrainians
persecuting Russians and Jews. You failed to find any substantiation
for such a story.
You failed to find any Russian composer and poet who had been found
hanging in a forest
under mysterious circumstances. You failed to find any Jewish composer
and poet who had
been found hanging in a forest under mysterious circumstances. And you
were not
interested in a Ukrainian composer and poet who had indeed been found
hanging in a
forest under mysterious circumstances. You went to Ukraine determined
to prove that
Ukrainians persecute Russians and Jews, and you reported that story to
tens of millions
of 60 Minutes viewers despite a lack of evidence, and despite plentiful
evidence that it
is Russians and Jews who persecute Ukrainians, as they have done
throughout history.
In your 23Oct94 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom, then,
you sided with the
strong against the weak. You sided with the oppressors against the
oppressed. You
sided with the butchers against the butchered. You sided with those who
hang composers
and poets and against Volodymyr Ivasiuk.
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Yaakov Bleich, Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft,
Andy Rooney,
Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace, Simon Wiesenthal.
Morley Safer Letter 10 17May99 Who murdered Volodymyr Katelnytsky?
It is conceivable that had you not broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom,
Volodymyr
Katelnytsky would be alive today. And it is all the more conceivable
that had you used
the opportunity of your broadcast to defend Ukrainians against their
oppressors,
Volodymyr Katelnytsky would be alive today.
May 17, 1999
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
Who Murdered Volodymyr Katelnytsky?
The death of Volodymyr Katelnytsky
My source is a Ukrainskyi Holos (Ukrainian Voice) article mailed to me
by someone that
knew Volodymyr Katelnytsky. The citation that is hand-written on the
article is "4-20
August, 1997, p. 1."
The Ukrainskyi Holos article reports that Volodymyr Katelnytsky was
tortured to death in
his apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine on the night of 7-8 July 1997. His
mother, Lykeria, who
was 81 years old, was tortured and died before the eyes of her son; her
body was found
with 21 stab wounds. When Katelnytsky's sister tried to enter the
apartment in which
the crime had been committed, she was roughed up by Kyiv police. Some
members of the
Katelnytsky family were arrested. The murders are considered to have
been politically
motivated. Volodymyr Katelnytsky's funeral was attended by some two
thousand mourners.
The life of Volodymyr Katelnytsky
Volodymyr Katelnytsky was a professional journalist. He was active in
the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate, was head of the Brotherhood of St.
Andrej
Pervozvanyi in Kyiv, and supervised the tour of the chief cities of
Ukraine by
Metropolitan Wasyl in May 1993. He was also active politically, serving
as Deputy Head
of the Ukrainian Christian Democratic Party. In Canada and the United
States, he may be
best remembered for the role he played as President of the Committee
for the Defense of
John Demjanjuk.
Also prominent among Volodymyr Katelnytsky's activities was the
dissemination of a
Ukrainian version of what happened at Babyn Yar, similar, I believe, to
the version
advocated on the Ukrainian Archive. One result of Volodymyr
Katelnytsky's Babyn Yar
activities is that he was sued for them by Jewish organizations in
Ukrainian court, that
in his defense he brought forward historical aerial reconnaissance
photographs showing
that none of the activities said to have taken place at Babyn Yar was
visible from the
air - not visible, that is, were signs of the execution and burial of
33,771 Jews, or
the later disinterment and burning of their bodies. As a result of his
convincing
defense, the court acquitted Volodymyr Katelnytsky of the charges
brought against him.
Who murdered Volodymyr Katelnytsky?
As we have no direct evidence of who murdered Volodymyr Katelnytsky, we
can only perform
a Cui bono? analysis which will at least tell us where to start
looking. That is, if it
is the case that the three most prominent events in Volodymyr
Katelnytsky's life were:
(1) that he defended John Demjanjuk, (2) that he contradicted the
Soviet-inspired
Holocaust version of the Babyn Yar story, and (3) that he was tortured
to death along
with his mother, then it would take a mental paralysis with which I
have not as yet been
seized to refuse to consider the first two of these events as possibly
having caused the
third.
I don't accuse you of having failed to cover the Katelnytsky
assassination.
As you broadcast the Ugly Face of Freedom on 23 October 1994 and
Volodymyr Katelnytsky's
assassination did not take place until 7-8 July 1997, I obviously do
not accuse you of
having failed to cover the Katelnytsky assassination in your broadcast.
But I do accuse you of having missed the big story of which
Katelnytsky's
assassination is but one piece.
However, the persecution and assassination of Ukrainians did not begin
in 1997. It
began hundreds of years earlier, carried right up until your broadcast
in 1994, and
continued through 1997 to this day. What I do accuse you of, then, is
ignoring a
centuries-long stream of evidence attesting to the persecution of
Ukrainians, and of
broadcasting instead the story of the persecution of Russians and Jews
even in the
absence of evidence. Your investigations in Ukraine failed to turn up
anything like a
story of a prominent Russian activist being tortured to death in his
apartment, whether
along with his mother or alone. And your investigations in Ukraine
failed to turn up
anything like a story of a prominent Jewish activist being tortured to
death in his
apartment, whether along with his mother or alone. The story that you
would have been
able to document, but that you chose to ignore, is that Ukraine is a
nation which is
ruled by Russians and Jews, and in which Ukrainians are routinely
persecuted and
murdered.
And I do accuse you of having helped cause Katelnytsky's assassination.
But even though you could not have covered Katelnytsky's assassination
in 1994, you
could have in 1994 avoided giving encouragement to assassins who were
at that time
plotting such assassinations. Instead, you did give encouragement to
Katelnytsky's
assassins by demonstrating to them that the world press can be counted
upon to continue
broadcasting anti-Ukrainian calumnies even while Ukrainians were being
victimized in
their own land. It is conceivable that had you not broadcast The Ugly
Face of Freedom,
Volodymyr Katelnytsky would be alive today. And it is all the more
conceivable that had
you used the opportunity of your broadcast to defend Ukrainians against
their
oppressors, Volodymyr Katelnytsky would be alive today.
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Yaakov Bleich, Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft,
Andy Rooney,
Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace, Simon Wiesenthal.
Morley Safer Letter 11 30Jun99 Who murdered Vadim Boyko?
We cannot believe that his death was just pure accident; although it is
reported that
8,000 people a year in the former Soviet Union die due to their
television sets exploding,
we all believe that Vadim would have survived this kind of accident.
June 30, 1999
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
The conclusion that you offered in your 23Oct94 60 Minutes broadcast
The Ugly Face of
Freedom was that Ukraine is a place where Jews and Russians are
oppressed by militant
Ukrainian nationalists, and where they are the targets of Ukrainian
violence. The
closest that you came to substantiating this claim was to broadcast
Rabbi Bleich's
allegation that an elderly Jewish couple had been attacked and robbed
somewhere in
Western Ukraine. However, this allegation was devoid of substantiating
detail, and my
request for specifics (both in my letter to you of 24May98, and in my
letter to Rabbi
Bleich of 23May98) was answered with silence. I repeat that request to
you now - please
inform me of the details of this attack, which minimally would include
the time, the
place, the names of the victims, and the address where a police report
is available. If
you do not have such information, please retract the allegation.
You must be aware that I. M. Levitas, Head of the Jewish Council of
Ukraine as well as
of the Nationalities Associations of Ukraine has questioned whether
such an attack on
the two elderly Jews ever took place. Levitas's doubt was first
expressed in an open
letter to you, and I reminded Rabbi Bleich of it in my letter to him of
23May98, of
which you were mailed a copy. In view of I. M. Levitas's doubt, and in
view of your and
Rabbi Bleich's silence in response to my request for particulars, the
impression grows
daily stronger that you and Rabbi Bleich made the incident up.
The chief purpose of the present letter is to demonstrate to you yet
again that your
conclusion which I summarize in my first sentence at the beginning of
the present letter
is exactly backward. Ukraine is not a place where Ukrainians attack and
murder, it is a
place where Ukrainians are attacked and murdered, as has been the case
for the last
three hundred years, at least. Below is documented one further instance
in support of
this conclusion. It is the story of Vadim Boyko, member of parliament,
and popular
television investigative journalist. I would have expected that the
story of Vadim
Boyko would have appealed to you, and for that reason that you might
have included it in
any broadcast that you prepared about Ukraine, as his life - at least
up to the final
moments - was not unlike your own:
February 23, 1992
Journalist's notebook in Ukraine
by Marta Kolomayets
Kiev Press Bureau
A colleague's tragic death
"He was a man engaged to a young Ukraine," said Volodymyr Yavorivsky,
as
he bid farewell to Vadim Boyko, who died tragically on February 14, at
the age of 29.
Hundreds of mourners crowded into the third floor atrium of the
Ukrainian State Television and Radio headquarters, tearfully passing
each other on the steps Vadim so often bounded, rushing to the studios
where he recorded his popular television programs.
Now, on February 17, the mourners paid their last respects to Vadik (as
he was affectionately known), searching for a reason why such a
promising, talented life was cut short. As slow dirge-like music played
over the loudspeakers, they filed past the closed coffin, sewn up in
black cotton and laden with bunches of carnations of all colors.
At the foot of the coffin stood a black and white photo of the young
journalist and politician. An enlarged copy of the same photo,
decorated with a black mourning band, hung above the coffin. To the
left, the newly adopted Ukrainian national flag, also decorated with
black bunting, kept guard over its native son. Wreaths from the
Ukrainian Parliament, co-workers and friends surrounded the coffin.
Perhaps as a carryover from the Communist-atheist state of the past,
the
wake of devoid of all Christian symbols and rites.
Vadim's father sat at the foot of the coffin, numb to the proceedings.
As a few speakers addressed the crowd, he wiped tears away from his
weary, red eyes. Vadim's mother was too weak to make the trip from the
family's home in Svitlovodsk to Kiev.
Mykola Okhmakevych, the stagnant, Communist head of the State
Television
and Radio, whose removal has been pressed for by both democratic
deputies and workers of the television station, said a few uninspiring
words. Often harshly criticized by Vadim and his colleagues, Mr.
Okhmakevych now spoke of how Vadim had always loved his job. An angry
mourner, who saw this hypocrisy, cried out: "He loved Ukraine above
all. He loved Ukraine, say it."
We all descended the steps with Vadim for the last time. The coffin was
then placed in a vehicle for Vadim's journey home to Svitlovodsk,
Kirovohrad Oblast, his final resting place.
x x x
It has been almost a week now since my phone rang just before midnight,
on Valentine's Day, February 14. It was my friend and colleague Dmytro
Ponamarchuk. Yet his voice sounded different.
"I don't know how to say this, Marta. Vadim Boyko burned to death
tonight." I could not believe what I was hearing: "What is this, a
cruel joke?"
Dmytro, working at the radio station, had been called about a fire at
Vadim's apartment; the fire department reported that his television had
blown up. Dmytro arrived at the scene just an hour or so after the
reported fire, only to find Vadim's body sprawled across the floor,
burned beyond recognition. There was nothing left of his apartment, a
dormitory-type dwelling in a building that housed quite a number of
State television and Radio workers.
News of Vadim's death spread quickly among fellow journalists - many of
whom had attended Kiev State with Vadim, many of whom worked with him
on
numerous projects.
He was an elected democratic deputy from Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast. He
had come from the neighboring town in Kirovohrad oblast, just across
the
Dnipro River, arriving in the capital city of Kiev in the early 1980s
to
obtain a college education.
And from then on, he gained popularity as the founder and host of
"Hart," one of the first serious investigative shows on Ukrainian
television, reporting on everything from Chornobyl to Shcherbytsky.
After he was elected a deputy to the Ukrainian Parliament in March
1990,
he was appointed vice chairman of the standing parliamentary Committee
on Glasnost and the Mass Media, a job he took very seriously, often
going to Moscow to discuss problems of disinformation in Ukraine, a