Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 22, 1995 TAG: 9507240069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Hatch said the charges were made in affidavits filed with the committee, but he refused to identify the source.
``These individuals ... did not want their names associated publicly with the allegations,'' Hatch said. ``We have not been able to assess fully their credibility or verify their serious allegations. We don't know whether they are true.''
The committee heard testimony from ATF Director John Magaw; FBI Director Louis Freeh; Thomas Constantine, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration; and several other officials about the controversial annual gatherings in Tennessee, which law enforcement officials have attended since 1980.
Condemned as racist by political leaders, including President Clinton, the ``Good Ol' Boys Roundups'' would not have continued for 15 years if ATF agents had not promoted them, Magaw told the Senate panel.
ATF agents were instrumental in organizing the roundups, said Magaw, who said he had no knowledge of the activities until he read newspaper reports last week. He became ATF director in 1993.
Hatch decried the blatant racism that occurred at the outings and described a videotape of one roundup as ``appalling.''
There are reports of the sale of T-shirts with racist themes, a poster at the entrance to the 1990 roundup containing the words, ``Nigger Check Point,'' and a skit in which one participant dressed as a Klu Klux Klan member pretended to sodomize another participant in black face.
``It's absolutely apparent that something inherently wrong went on down there,'' said the DEA's Constantine.
An estimated 300 to 350 federal, state and local law enforcement officials attend the gatherings each year in the hills of southeastern Tennessee.
by CNB