Glenn Spencer to the Des Moines Register
Note: As of the date of this posting on the AmericanPatrol.com site the above had not been published in the publication to which it was addressed.

Re: The Southern Poverty Law Center

Email to the Des Moines Register

May 20, 2001

Editor:

As the issue of immigration surfaces in Iowa, it is not surprising that so does the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). My organization, Voice of Citizens Together (VCT - d.b.a. American Patrol), has been labeled a "hate group" by SPLC.

A few words on my background. For ten years I struggled with American Indians to help them secure the rights and abilities to develop their own energy resources. I was V.P., General Manager of Arrowstar, Inc., an Indian-owned seismic exploration company that successfully trained hundreds of American Indians in seismic data acquisition, while at the same time discovering oil on reservations. During this time I revealed a disturbing pattern of discrimination against Indians at ARCO, which they quickly corrected. (A check with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Billings, Montana will confirm my statement.)

I co-founded VCT with Shirley Lertzman, a Jewish woman who was just completing her final term on the Los Angeles County Grand Jury, after serving seventeen years in that position. She and her husband, Dr. Lertzman, are now retired in Las Vegas, and we are still friends. Does it seem reasonable that a high-profile Jewish woman would get tied up with a Nazi? Hardly.

We have so many Jewish supporters some said we were a Jewish front organization. But with so many Black and Hispanic Christians in our midst, such a claim doesn't stick. Would it seem possible that leading Jewish leaders such as Irv Rubin, head of the Jewish Defense League (of which I am a member), support a hate group for so many years? Hardly.

SPLC's Web site say we are hate group in part because our video, Immigration: Threatening the Bonds of Our Union, points to the role of Mexican gangs in bringing methamphetamines to Iowa.

On May 13, the New York Times reported: "It's been growing tremendously in the last five or six years," said Joe Keefe, chief of operations at the drug agency. 'In 1996, we looked at methamphetamine trafficking by the Mexican nationals and had 60 investigations. In the last couple of months, we had over 800.' The organizations have also expanded their marketing all over the country, he said, such that methamphetamine produced in California can be bought on the street in Portland, Me." Our video shows Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) accusing Mexican gangs of being behind the methamphetamine curse in America.

In my judgment the only hate group involved in this dispute is the SPLC - they hate the truth.

America needs the truth today as never before. Caving in to to name callers like the SPLC will deprive us of the kind of open debate that is vital to our future as a nation.

Glenn Spencer
President
AmericanPatrol.com