ranging from a Moscow beer brewery to a Kyiv tire plant, a Magnitogorsk steel mill,
an Austrian health spa and even a Uruguayan car dealership, according to various
media reports.
Luchansky's biggest business coup came in 1993, when he engineered a fuel-for-food
deal between Russia and Ukraine.
In 1995, after meeting at a Democratic Party fundraiser with U.S. President Bill
Clinton and sparking a U.S. political scandal, Luchansky fell under increasingly
intense international investigation.
In 1996 a $35 million gold mine deal brokered by Luchansky between the Kazakhstan
government and a Canadian mining company flopped, cutting into Nordex earnings.
Nordex has reportedly suffered in the wake of the emerging-markets economic crisis.
Luchansky maintains a residence in the Israeli seaside town of Netanya, a Mecca for
Soviet-region emigres and scene of intense Russian mob activity, the Jerusalem Post
newspaper reported.
The Post was unable to contact Luchansky for comment and his whereabouts are unknown.
I Expand My Summary Table Once Again
The table which I have been developing in my previous four letters to you can now be
elaborated with the Leonid Wolf entry. As the SBU press release gives no dates for the
Leonid Wolf assassinations, I am assuming that they took place in the last five years:
Date of my letter
Subject of my letter
Date of Attack
Violence that you should have reported in your 23Oct94 The Ugly Face of Freedom
04Jul99
The Wiesenthal-Safer Calumny
Summer 1941
25Jul99
Who did Israel Roitman murder?
1941
15May99
Who murdered Volodymyr Ivasiuk?
April 1979
30Jun99
Who murdered Vadim Boyko?
February 14, 1992
Violence that you might have encouraged by your 23Oct94 The Ugly Face of Freedom
09Apr99
Who blew the hands off Maksym Tsarenko?
Summer 1995
17May99
Who murdered Volodymyr Katelnytsky?
July 7-8, 1997
01Jul99
Who murdered Borys Derevyanko?
August 11, 1997
27Jul99
Who did Leonid Wolf murder?
1994-1999
And I Find My Earlier Conclusions Strengthened
For your 23Oct94 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom, you went to Ukraine
determined to broadcast the story - no matter what the evidence - of Ukrainians
oppressing and murdering Jews. In order to do so, you had to blind yourself to the
plentiful evidence that exactly the opposite was taking place. The reality is that
Ukraine is being plundered and assaulted by a Jewish mafia based in Israel. You can
begin your investigation of this phenomenon with the cases of the following three
Israeli citizens: (1) "the most pernicious unindicted criminal in the world" Grigory
Luchansky, (2) his "key Ukrainian lieutenant" Vadim Rabinovich, and (3) "contract
killer" Leonid Wolf. Please note that in your smearing of Ukraine, you were unable to
come up with evidence of a Ukrainian mafia based in Ukraine and victimizing Israel. The
evidence was the opposite, but you were not interested in evidence.
But since the subject of our discussion is not merely crime, but rather cross-ethnic
violence, I restrict my attention to assassin Leonid Wolf, and with respect to Leonid
Wolf, I ask you to note that you were unable to come up with evidence of a Ukrainian
assassin who roamed Israel murdering as he went, especially one whom Israel, fearing the
vengeance of a powerful Ukraine, neglected to arrest and put on trial, but merely banned
from Israeli soil for a time.
Mr. Safer, Ukraine's plunderers and assassins cannot operate in a vacuum. They need
support. They need Swiss banks to stash their loot. They need Israel to provide them
with sanctuary. They need journalists to smear their victims. And so, although you
have lost all claim to journalistic competence and integrity, at least you can console
yourself with not being alone and unappreciated. Indeed, you are a valued member of a
large and successful team. Grigory Luchansky, Vadim Rabinovich, and Leonid Wolf
undoubtedly know of your work, and they thank you for it.
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney, Lesley Stahl, Mike
Wallace.
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE SAFER 809 hits since 23Oct99
Morley Safer Letter 16 23Oct99 Fifth anniversary commemoration
If, to imagine a comparable case, CBS management jointly owned a chicken-packing
plant that had been cited for sanitation violations, then it would be unethical for 60
Minutes to run a story defending the plant without disclosing its ownership.
October 23, 1999
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
Fifth anniversary of The Ugly Face of Freedom
Now that we have arrived at the fifth anniversary of your 23Oct94 60 Minutes broadcast
The Ugly Face of Freedom, I think that all might agree that five years has given us
sufficient time to reflect on that broadcast, to arrive at a reasonable understanding of
its defects, and to decide what corrective action remains for 60 Minutes to undertake.
It is the purpose of the present letter to propose that the corrective action should be
a 12-minute 60 Minutes story under the title The Ugly Face of 60 Minutes, and
