Following up on yesterday's post from ALIPAC pulling out of June 5th rally in Arizona

Here is the latest from ALIPAC on why they have piulled out of supporting the June 5th rally against Illegal immigration in Arizona. Again, ALIPAC has taken the high road and Tom Tancredo will come out of this tainted and dirty.

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Tom Tancredo Is Making A Huge Mistake

ALIPAC: Friends of ALIPAC,
After yesterday's e-mail notice that we are no longer supporting any rallies on the ground in Arizona in the month of June, we feel it is necessary to clarify some things and simplify things to clear up any confusion.

Item 1:

ALIPAC helped pass Arizona's SB 1070, lobbied Governor Brewer to sign SB 1070, and helped circulate SB 1070 rapidly to 13 other states that will soon consider the legislation. We remain in support of Arizona, SB 1070, and all Americans fighting illegal immigration. Our withdrawal from these rallies will in no way affect our commitment to this cause of secure borders and immigration enforcement.

Item 2:

Congressman Tom Tancredo is making a huge mistake that can have terrible consequences for our candidates, legislation, and citizen activists fighting against illegal immigration in Arizona and across America.

Tom Tancredo has put out a statement claiming he has reviewed our claims and found them to be without merit. He is mistaken.

With the illegal alien supporting La Raza groups throwing the race card at Arizona and all of us speaking out against illegal immigration, it is a big mistake to proceed with a June 5th event in Phoenix, AZ where the ADL, SPLC, National Council of La Raza, and many others have screen shots like this one.

http://www.alipac.us/media/sagaprofiledan.pdf

If you use your mouse wheel to look at page 2 of this screen shot you will see that the June 5th rally organizer supported by Tom Tancredo lists the Swedish Neo Nazi rock group SAGA as his favorite band on the Facebook page being used to organize the June 5th event.

There's lots more evidence than this strong piece if you want to see it.

Tom Tancredo is making a terrible mistake trying to lead people into an event and behind his organizer Dan Smeriglio when Smeriglio has been solidly linked with skinheads and Neo Nazis.

Leading Americans, candidates, groups, and legislators into Phoenix with an organizer with links to Neo Nazis is a disaster in motion and it is very disappointing that Congressman Tom Tancredo would make and even defend such mistakes.

How does Congressman Tancredo explain his June 5th organizer advertising an overt Neo Nazi music group on his Facebook page?

Item 3:

One common misconception we hear is that people feel you can't control skinheads showing up at events and that fringe elements always show up.

This is not a case of radical groups showing up at events. This is a case of the main organizer for the June 5th rally in Phoenix being documented by both sides of this debate with distinct connections to Neo Nazis and being backed up by retired Congressman Tom Tancredo despite conclusive evidence of Neo Nazi associations.

Item 4:

"How did Dan Smeriglio end up running the June 5th event when ALIPAC had foreknowledge of existing credibility and performance problems?"

To that, we would encourage you to ask Congressman Tom Tancredo because we would have never put Smeriglio in that position based off of our recent and extensive experiences with him. We were discussing going to Arizona in a large coalition and several organizations told us they wanted an event in late June or early July.

The next thing we know, Congressman Tom Tancredo and Dan Smeriglio announce the launch of the June 5th rally without consulting any of the other leaders that were discussing such plans. Smeriglio told us that he had permits and Tancredo's full backing for the 5th.

We were asked to attend, speak, and support the June 5 event and initially agreed although we felt the date and organizer were both problematic, but we did not want to split unity in the movement.

Item 5:

"Why couldn't this all have been worked out behind the scenes instead of putting this out in public?"

We tried that and worked hard for over a week to resolve this situation in the best interest of our movement. After we notified other leaders involved, we were told by leaders in AZ that Dan Smeriglio was being fully removed from the June 5th event and that Congressman Tancredo would cease his efforts to undermine our alternate event. We found out that Smeriglio was still running the event and that Tancredo was working against our efforts to get people safely away from the Neo Nazi contamination on the 5th.

Item 6:

"Why is ALIPAC being public about this?"

With all of the false accusations of racism being used to try and stop all Americans opposed to Amnesty, we feel it is important to take swift and decisive action when one person or a few people are actually documented associating with racist groups and causes.

While some advocates think we should overlook or conceal those problems when they rarely arise, we believe they should be addressed. Yes, we can handle things behind the scenes when possible, but when someone like Congressman Tom Tancredo puts our momentum and successes at risk like this and refuses to do the right thing by removing Dan Smeriglio from the Arizona rallies, then we need to do what it takes to protect the integrity of our movement.

We just found out Dan Smeriglio has been busted on another lie as he was claiming Ted Nugent was a confirmed speaker for this event and a local organizer in Phoenix called Nugent's assistant and found out that was not true either.

We need leaders not liars.

We are still hopeful that Congressman Tom Tancredo will take a closer look at the evidence and remove Dan Smeriglio from any dealings with Arizona rallies as such actions would be in the best interests of our movement.

MOVING FORWARD

We are pleased to announce that not one single ALIPAC contributor requested a refund although we offered them in our e-mail to all of our national supporters.

We did lose a few die hard Tancredo fans and got some nasty e-mails from skinheads too. Yet, over 100 new supporters signed up with ALIPAC yesterday.

We appreciate your understanding and continued support during this tough decision.

We certainly want our Arizona supporters to know we are not backing out on you and not abandoning you in this struggle.

If anyone has needs any further clarification on this situation before we move on to getting the illegal aliens out of our nation, please write WilliamG@alipac.us or call our toll free line at (866) 703-0864

Sincerely,

William Gheen and the ALIPAC Team
www.alipac.us

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.