Conservative Group, Rep. Barr Misrepresented by Dershowitz

To the editors:

Professor Alan Dershowitz's Dec. 9 op-ed ("Barr's Real Americans") contains serious factual inaccuracies and damaging accusations about the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) as well as about Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.). While Rep. Barr may speak for himself, it is important that Mr. Dershowitz's irresponsible statements about the CofCC be corrected.

Dershowitz writes: "At a rally to support the Confederate battle flag in Mississippi at which CCC members handed out Confederate flags, white supremacist Richard Barrett said that the Confederate flag 'signifies the real American way of life as it was before James Meredith and Earl Warren, and as it can and will be again.'" He does not tell the reader that Barrett is not and never has been a member of the CofCC or that Barrett was not present at the only demonstration in support of the Confederate flag that the CofCC has helped organize in Mississippi. I do not know whether CofCC members may have been present if and when Barrett made the statement Dershowitz ascribes to him, and I would like to know how he knows they were present.

Dershowitz writes that the CofCC "opposes the immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union who were prevented from practicing their religion by the communists, arguing that they are atheists whose language and culture are alien to that of real Americans." This claim is totally false, and he offers no evidence to support it. That is because there is no such evidence. The CofCC does support reform of our current immigration laws and a reduction in the level of immigration. We do not single out particular groups to exclude from immigrating to the United States.

Dershowitz also claims that the CofCC is a "racist and anti-Semitic organization." The truth is that the CofCC is neither. The Council does indeed defend white European Americans, their civilization, faith and form of government, but it does not support the oppression or exploitation of any racial, ethnic or religious group.

As Dershowitz remarks at the end of his package of falsehoods, "Every American has full and complete freedom of associations and freedom of speech." But that freedom cannot extend to the deliberate spreading of lies and smears calculated to harm an organization and an office-holder Dershowitz opposes politically. The fact that Dershowitz believes he must resort to falsehoods suggests that the truth--about both Rep. Barr and the CofCC--is on our side, not his. GORDON LEE BAUM   Bridgeton, Mo., Dec. 21, 1998

The writer is chief executive officer of the Council of Conservative Citizens.