Minutemen Money Troubles
Michelle Malkin

Things don't look good down at the southern border where the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps has supposedly been using gobs of citizen donations to build a fence to keep out illegal aliens. The Washington Times, which has supported the project (as have I), editorializes today:

As supporters of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, we were disheartened to read Jerry Seper's front-page article Thursday about questions and criticisms of President Chris Simcox's management of the organization. According to the article, the volunteer group has not made any financial statements or fundraising records public since April 2005 -- circumstances that have strained relations between Mr. Simcox and several of his top employees, some of whom have resigned in protest.

[...]

[Read on.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 25, 2006 at 08:58 AM in Bill Faith, Current Affairs, Remember the Alamo | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Frankly Opinionated

I read this first at Michelle Malkin, and immediately let mr Simcox know that while America has a need for a unit such as his, we need it to be open in all its dealings, especially in its finances. I let Chris know that as of now I am suspending all support for the Minutemen, and further; that if disclosure isn't forthcoming, that on August 1 I will actively write against it. I hope this is all just oversight, that Chris hasn't let this take over. We truly need something on the line of the Minutemen, so long as it is very transparent.
nuf sed

Posted by: Frankly Opinionated | Jul 25, 2006 10:03:06 AM

Posted by: Shannon (N5KOU) McGauley

We had concerns from the 3rd week of the Minuteman Project. There were several volunteers that had complaints. I never met Mr. Simcox, I worked directly under Mr. Gilchrist and was back in Texas when Mr. Simcox agreed to handle the rest of the project so Mr. Gilchrist could make a bid for congress. Mr. Gilchrist did well but didn't have enough time and was short on votes, not by much! In the 2nd week of April 2005 at the direction of Mr. Gilchrist we started Texas Minutemen. In June 2005 I was on my way back from a Laredo fact-finding mission and received an email from Mr. Simcox offering his endorsement and a training - guide. I responded in my email telling him I was already endorsed by Mr. Gilchrist. The nasty emails started coming and they advised that they were sending out a press release that the Texas Minutemen were not endorsed by MCDC. I've received about $3,000 in donations and have put about $35,000 of my own money since April 2005. I don't believe it was right for me to put in so much of my personal money, but it was what I had to do to keep things going. I've been called a renegade because I refuse to join MCDC. They comment about me having long-guns, all to keep the donation coming their way. In 2005 I went to Laredo and they announced they were doing Laredo. I went to El Paso, they announced they were doing El Paso. If you look close you can see that there is a counter measure for everything the Texas Minutemen do by MCDC. We've completed to border watches in the El Paso Sector without any problems, no pictures of guns in the media. Now we are about to start Operation "Sovereignty" in Laredo September 11th through November 7th and El Paso October 1st through October 31st. We are doing all this with little or no donations!!

Posted by: Shannon (N5KOU) McGauley | Jul 25, 2006 12:22:51 PM

Posted by: Linda

Shannon, I fully support Jim Gilchrist and the Minuteman Project. MCDC continues to refer to their organization as, "Minuteman Project." Yet they have always been a completely seperate group. Just another example of how they are trying to claim credit for the work of others. It is a shame how they tried to take credit for the work of your organization while undermining your good name. But, onward ho! We Minutemen are not about to permit the deeds of a few Beltway swindlers from our goals. Operation Sovereignty will be a tremendous success. Thank you for organizing it with Jim Gilchrist and for all you are doing for the Cause. !

Posted by: Linda | Jul 25, 2006 4:53:50 PM

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