Herndon hotel will not cancel controversial convention

By Gregg MacDonald

gmacdonald@timespapers.com

David Welliver, General Manager of the Crowne Plaza hotel in Herndon, says that despite extreme pressure from a Jewish group, he has no plans to cancel a controversial convention scheduled to take place at his hotel in February.

The biannual New Century Foundation convention is organized by Oakton resident Jared Taylor, who calls himself a "race realist" and publishes American Renaissance magazine, which he has done for nearly 20 years.

The 2008 convention will take place Feb. 22-24 in Herndon.

"Taylor is a Nazi pig," Jeff Adler, spokesman for the Jewish Defense Organization, a militant group not affiliated with the Jewish Defense League, said in a phone interview.

"Taylor has invited David Duke and other neo-Nazis to speak at his convention. They hate Jews and they hate blacks and these are neo-Nazis, there's no doubt about it," Adler said.

"We hold this convention every two years in February at a hotel near the airport, and we have done so since long before immigration ever became an issue in Herndon," Taylor said when asked why he chose Herndon as the 2008 locale. 

"If [the JDO] are looking for Nazis they are barking up the wrong tree. We have two Jewish speakers scheduled to speak this year and we always have Jewish participants. I think that our first year, half the participants were Jewish. There is nothing the slightest bit Nazi about American Renaissance. We simply believe that diversity is not a strength but instead leads to tension and divisiveness."

Taylor also said that rather than inviting David Duke, he has actually asked the former presidential candidate and self-professed white supremacist to stay away.

"Yes, David Duke has attended despite being asked to stay away, but it's like if you have a restaurant and David Duke eats there, does that make you a neo-Nazi?" Taylor said.

Adler's answer is an emphatic "yes." He has begun a campaign, called Operation Nazi-Kicker, to prompt the Crowne Plaza hotel to cancel the "meeting of hate."

"I see no reason to breach our agreement with that client," Welliver said in response to the effort. "We do not discriminate or judge clients and that is not how we go about evaluating pieces of business. That's real life, I am not in the position to give an opinion. Business does not have an opinion. I am just trying to pay the rent. I am just a lowly hotel guy trying to get through the day."

Welliver did say however, that security will be increased during the convention and that local law enforcement has been notified of the situation.

"I am just going to have faith that there are more reasonable honorable, decent people out there than there are kooks," he said.