Harrah’s given naming rights — See STORY, Pg. A6
WNC man died saving others, lauded as hero Riley Howell
See EDITORIAL, Pg. A10
Peter Noone
Herman’s Hermits star still shining — See INTERVIEW, Pg. B1
LLE I V HE AS ASHEVILLEʼS GREATEST NEWSPAPER
June 2019
Vol. 15, No. 07
An Independent Newspaper Serving Greater Asheville www.ashevilledailyplanet.com FREE
BCGOP ‘coup’ alleged; issue sent to panel for final verdict
Bernie Sanders brings campaign to AVL
By JOHN NORTH
john@AshevilleDailyPlanet.com
REYNOLDS — An impassioned dispute over whether the Buncombe County Republican Party must follow the stricter North Carolina GOP Plan or Organization versus the freer Buncombe County GOP Plan of Organization — afer much verbal wrangling — was addressed May 20 by a narrow 18-16 vote of those in attendance on a motion by Ken Hawkins, sending the issue to the NCGOP’s Arbitration Committee, with an agreement among those present that whatever that panel decides on the matter is final. The action followed two hours of angry or emotional outbursts by those accusing BCGOP Chair Jerry Green and the BCGOP Executive Board of executing a silent, nonviolent coup d’etat by unfairly imposing the NCGOP Plan of Organization on the BCGOP, stripping other party leaders and members of a vote on anything other than proposed expenditures exceeding $250. Green and the executive board remained calm and expressed conciliatory sentiments, but as the discussion heated up, apparently to no avail at one point, several attendees walked out en masse in apparent disgust. The issue was addressed during a meeting that drew about 50 people to the conference room at Reynolds Volunteer Fire Department. See BCGOP “COUP,” Page A9
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders became the first Democratic candidate for president to visit the Western North Carolina mountains during this campaign cycle when he spoke before a crowd of more than 2,000 people May 17 at Salvage Station in Asheville. A story about Sanders’ visit to Asheville appears on Page A3.
Special photo by T.J AMOS
Special photo by DYLAN MORRIS
Muslim-Marxist ‘axis’ could wreck U.S., speaker says The first in a series of two stories
HENDERSONVILLE — A national threat is posed by Muslim jihadis working with Marxists, Chris Gaubatz told a gathering of about 50 members of the Asheville Tea Party and their guests on the afternoon of May 17 in Hendersonville’s City Operations Center. The address marked Gaubatz’s return to Western North Carolina after addressing similar topics in the area on Feb. 12 and 13, in Skyland and Hendersonville, respectively. His talk in Skyland, which the Daily Planet covered, prompted profuse criticism of Chris Gaubatz the newspaper for covering what Ibrahim Hooper dismissed as an “Islamaphobe.” Hooper is national communications director and spokesman for the Council of American-Islamic Relations. Originally, Gaubatz also was scheduled to
speak May 16 at Skyland Fire Department in Buncombe County, and the next day in Hendersonville, but Jane Bilello, chair of the ATP and ATPAC, said she decided to cancel the Skyland appearance and consolidate to just one talk — for those in Buncombe and Henderson counties — in Hendersonville. Gaubatz spoke in Haywood and Transylvia counties the next day and night. In his Hendersonville address, Gaubatz spoke on “Experiences Undercover in the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas” and “Red-Green Axis: Exposing the Left Working With Jihadis to Undermine Our Nation” — and other topics. Besides speaking, before and after his talks he sold and signed copies of “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America,” a book written by U.S. investigations special agent Paul David Gaubatz, (Chris’ father) and investigative journalist and Hoover Institute fellow Paul Sperry. The book tells of Paul Gaubatz’s training of his son (Chris) to work undercover, posing as a Muslim convert, and tells of the evidence that Chris Gaubatz uncovered. See MUSLIM-MARXIST AXIS, Page A8
‘Islamaphobe’ spouting ‘lies,’ top Muslim spokesman counters From Staff Reports
Once again, former U.S. undercover agent Chris Gaubatz, who returned to speak in the area in mid-May, was branded an “Islamaphobe” and “a hater” by Ibrahim Hooper, who is national communications director and spokesman for the Council of American-Islamic Relations, better known as CAIR. Asked for his response to some of Gaubatz’s assertions during his May 17 speech in Hendersonville, Hooper said in a March 26 telephone interview with the Daily Planet, “This is the guy who said, ‘Islam is evil.’ He has the right to be a bigot.” Hooper, who is an American convert to Islam, noted that “there have been Muslimmajority nations for centuries,” where, he said, the religious minorities have lived in peace “for
centuries,” just as there have been non-Muslimmajority countries, where Muslims have been allowed to live in peace “for centuries.” He also contended that, in the Koran (the Islamic sacred book), “there is no compulsion for Muslims to re-establish the caliphIbrahim Hooper ate,” a political-religious state under the dominion of Muslims, contrary to Gaubatz’s assertions. Regarding Gaubatz’s claims that there is a real threat of jihad against the United States (radical Muslims waging a holy war in the name of Islam), Hooper said, “It’s just making things up out of whole cloth.” See CAIR RESPONSE, Page A3