From: Mark Keesee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Monday, January 26, 1998 Papers link Huckabee to U.S. league BILL SIMMONS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE In 1994, 1995 and 1996, while he was Arkansas' lieutenant governor and was being paid $61,500 on the side by Action America Inc. for making speeches, Mike Huckabee had a little-known involvement in another organization. It was the United States League for Freedom and Democracy, incorporated in New Jersey and headquartered at East Orange, N.J., as one of 140 chapters around the world of the World League for Freedom and Democracy, billing itself as a pro-democracy Communist-fighting organization. The world league is the successor organization to the Asian Pacific Anti-Communist League founded in 1954 and which grew in 1967 to become an intercontinental organization, according to papers provided by the U.S. league's secretary-general, W. Bruce Potter of East Orange, N.J. The U.S. league had been known earlier under several names, dating to the 1960s. Potter became Huckabee's original link with the league in 1993 after Huckabee became lieutenant governor. A friend of Huckabee and Potter told Huckabee about Potter and suggested they get acquainted, Huckabee spokesman Rex Nelson said last week. They met, became friends, and Huckabee became a member of the U.S. league. All league "members" serve on a voluntary basis, without pay. They participate in league activities as speakers and present their thoughts as lecturers to college programs and to meetings conducted by the national and world leagues. After getting to know Potter, Huckabee became a trustee of the U.S. league and chairman of the league in both 1995 and 1996, according to papers supplied by Potter. Huckabee was honorary chairman of a league conference at the United Nations in 1995, was speaker at a world league conference in Moscow in the Russian Federation in 1996 and attended a world league conference in 1995 in Taipei, Taiwan. Huckabee's expenses and accommodations for those trips were financed by one or more of the leagues, Potter and Nelson said. Neither Nelson nor Potter would say last week how much was spent on the trips. Several other questions were not answered after being submitted by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. After becoming governor in July 1996, Huckabee gave up his role in the league because he no longer had time for it, Nelson said. Though little-known, Huckabee's involvement in the league was not utterly unknown in Arkansas. On Jan. 21, 1995, the Democrat-Gazette reported that Huckabee, then lieutenant governor, was leaving for the world league meeting in Taiwan. Because then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker was in Texas on a quail hunt, Huckabee's departure for Taiwan allowed state Sen. Stanley Russ, D-Conway, to become acting governor during the two top state officials' absences. His connection with the organization was briefly cited in 1996 in a weekly newspaper, Arkansas Times. As lieutenant governor, Huckabee's office also had contact with Potter and the U.S. league by way of the taxpayer-financed telephones in the lieutenant governor's office in 1994, 1995 and 1996. Telephone records show about 30 calls from Huckabee's office to Potter and the league. The calls usually were brief and the costs slight -- for example, 16 calls in 1995 totaled $5.21, and $1.67 eight calls in 1996. Most of the calls were to a number that connects with the league's fax machine, though a few were to Potter's line at the East Orange welfare office. Huckabee spokesman Nelson said that since the two men were friends, there might have been any number of topics discussed, or articles faxed, during their communications. The U.S. league is a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service code, Potter said. In the U.S. league's informational tax reform, Form 990, for Dec. 20-31, 1993, Huckabee -- address State Capitol, Little Rock, Arkansas -- is listed as one of 17 trustees of the league. Potter is another. The organization reported total revenues of $4,897 and expenses of $5,117. The organization's Form 990 for 1994 listed Huckabee and the other 16 again as trustees. Total revenues were reported as $5,158. Expenses were reported at $4,534. But in years when the U.S. league has more substantial activities, it also has more resources. In 1995, it was host to a world league conference at the United Nations and reported $164,189 in revenue and expenses of $30 under revenue total. Almost all of the U.S. league's revenue that year came from the world league. Potter signs the Form 990 returns. The league has little public presence in New Jersey. A half-dozen reporters and editors at newspapers in the state recently told the Democrat-Gazette they hadn't heard of either the organization or Potter. The U.S. and world leagues have received official commendation from a number of public officials, including favorable remarks from U.S. Rep. Donald Payne of New Jersey in the Congressional Record, a commendation by legislative resolution from the New Jersey General Assembly, and a welcoming letter to the 1995 world league conference at the United Nations from Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York. When Huckabee spoke at the world league's conference in Moscow, his topic was "What Price Freedom," and his remarks have appeared several times in the U.S. league's newsletter, including an article also titled "What Price Freedom" in the spring-summer 1996 newsletter. In that article, Huckabee, then league chairman, dealt with issues that related to policies of his fellow-Arkansan, President Bill Clinton, including China's "saber-rattling" during elections in Taiwan. "The United States takes issue against the display or use of force by other nations, but one wonders if the resolve to follow through genuinely exists," Huckabee wrote. "The current administration seems bent on further weakening the ability of our military to rapidly respond to a developing crisis and to adequately prepare for an escalation of a crisis. "During the [Ronald] Reagan and [George] Bush years, recognition of the importance of a strong military first crippled and then collapsed the Soviet Union and other Eastern Block countries. It can be hoped that these important lessons of peace through strength have not been completely lost." In the U.S. league's November 1995 newsletter, an article by Huckabee, a Baptist minister, touched on several points, including the thought that "Freedom depends on faith in a being beyond humanity," in which he wrote: "Government must have moral authority, and there must be an understood set of fixed principles or moral absolutes for freedom to function. If men are free to change the rules in the middle of the game, there will be constant adjustment of the rules in order to insure that the outcome is successful, even if the goal is artificially achieved. "While the application of religious thought must be left open to the individual culture, it is clear that a void of any accountability to the Creator of the universe results in a spiritual and moral vacuum in which anything goes according to the ever changing standards of the 'culture of the day.' While the religious expression itself must not assume a dogmatic tone and become a tool for government to dictate specific doctrine, a government which does not foster the idea of our ultimate values rather than our immediate values will face the logical consequence of such a world view, namely, that we are willing to sacrifice the river tomorrow for a fish today." Prominent people from different sides of the political spectrum have at times been associated with league activities, and a Nobel Prize laureate, Dr. William Teller, was a keynote speaker at the world league conference at the United Nations in 1995. The Associated Press reported Monday in an article based on a copyrighted Donrey Media Group story that one of the predecessor organizations of the U.S. League was headed by former Army Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, who worked with former Lt. Col. Oliver North to raise funds from private sources to finance a war in the 1980s by rebels against the government that ruled Nicaragua at the time. That was before Huckabee was involved with the U.S. league. Copyright 1998, Little Rock Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved. --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- GRAB THE GATOR! FREE SOFTWARE DOES ALL THE TYPING FOR YOU! Tired of filling out forms and remembering passwords? Gator fills in forms and passwords with just one click! Comes with $50 in free coupons! <a href=" http://clickme.onelist.com/ad/gator4 ">Click Here</a> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
