December 17, 1998

Mr. Mitsuo Endo, in preparation for the 1999 WAF World armwrestling championships will be visiting several countries in this vast continent. He will be organizing new countries and existing countries with the help of WAF guidance. This will be a super world championship! To help cut costs for both the participating nations and the host country, the request has been made to have the championships over two days as opposed to three days. The request, we believe can be handled efficiently and professionally without loss of quality to the tournament or the athletes. We expect that this will be the format unless we have compelling reasons not to do it.

AFRICAN ARMSPORT FED. GENERAL OSMAN GHANY, PRES.

Another very large and relatively new continent to armsport, General Osman has a huge job ahead of him. It was very unfortunate of the confusion that surrounded the International Championship held in Cairo, Egypt this fall. The former WAF leadership is held responsible for this problem. If they had followed the membership requests, this tournament could have been a super success in the future. The organizing committee should have been spared all of the confusion and should have never been led on the way they were. We apologize to them on behalf of the new WAF leadership. We will work hard to continue the growth of the sport in these countries in a positive and honest fashion.

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND ARMSPORT FED. DR. KARL AJAMI, PRES.

Brand new to the organized version of armwrestling, this continent will not take long to catch up to the others. They have been organizing for a short time now and Mr. Ajami who has a long list of credentials to his accomplishments will probably have his first teams involved at the Worlds in Japan. In correspondence and e-mail contacts it seems these people will be terrific competitors. Best of luck in your future and please keep in contact. We are here with guidance and any information you may require.

SOUTH AMERICAN ARMSPORT FED. HUMBERTO PANZETTI, PRES.

This continent was represented at the first WAF Worlds in 1979 by Brazil. The South American nations have brought with them a reputation of super competitors and very entertaining performances. They didn’t disappoint us at the Worlds this year neither. They have been the leader in the handicap promotion and the longevity of their athletes never ceases to amaze us. Bolivia and Argentina are growing in strength and numbers as well. It’s unfortunate Mr. Oscar Santos from Argentina came into WAF at a time when there was so much confusion. On behalf of the new WAF leadership we would like to extend an apology to you.

Mr. Panzetti continues to promote armwrestling, as it should be. He has requested changes in the weight classes we presently have in WAF. This request has received much resistance, but we will gather information from all the continents and make an educated and informed decision at the 1999 Congress in Japan. There are many pros and cons to this, but we believe changes will have to be made to make our sport more appealing to organizations such as IOC and GASIF. This request also has merit in the fact that smaller countries will be able to fill their teams as easy as the larger countries can. The cost factor to move large teams around the world is sometimes too much for smaller countries. We have to bring things to a manageable size. Give this some thought. You will here from us in the near future on this subject.

NORTH AMERICAN ARMSPORT FED. BILL COX, PRES.

Another large continent with borders from the Panama Canal to the Arctic in the north, we sure have our work cut out for us to. The center of many a conflict of interest we believe that we now have the formula for success. The following account will be the last time I speak to this issue, but it has to be told this last time! In the beginning of WAF, Canada as one of the founding countries and host to the first WAF Worlds in 1979, we always believed in fair representation to everyone. We also believed WAF was meant to represent the nations and athletes and to give guidance, not to try and control by totalitarian rule. Somehow along the way the good intention fell by the wayside and totalitarian rule did come into effect. In tracing the problem back to when it started, the times, dates and occurrences have all been documented. It was quite evident the problem lay in the leadership of Mr. Bob O’Leary. Every problem existing in our WAF organization today can be directly related to his lack of leadership. We give him credit for being one of the organizing members of WAF. To hear him tell the history of WAF (depending on which edition of his versions you are reading) he is the sole responsible person for the creation of WAF. I believe he wasn’t even present at the first Worlds. Nonetheless, we can give him sole responsibility for the problems we face today.

In the United States (U.S.A.) there was the problem of Mr. O’Leary not wanting to allow any other armwrestling organizations to compete in WAF. It had to be his way or no way! His organization, the American Armwrestling Association (AAA) was suppose to be representing armsports in the United States. We all know the U.S.A. is a very large country. There are dozens of organizations in the U.S.A. and all were being neglected by the AAA. These organizations grouped together and formed an umbrella organization known as the United States Armsports (USA).

After exhausting every avenue in trying to have AAA join them and better represent the U.S.A., this organization approached me as President of the North American Armsport Fed. (NAAF). After I spoke to Mr. O’Leary about this problem, he began a campaign to smear the United States ArmSports and I. He wouldn’t pull his head out of the sand and deal properly with this problem. He enlisted Mr. Das in the conspiracy to smear myself, Mr. Akhmedshin and anyone who asked questions about what was going on. It became quite evident that Mr. O’Leary had no intention to accommodate no one but himself.

Every avenue that should have been normally opened to resolve this type of issue in a democratic organization was closed by some conflict of interest. Further investigation discovered that the AAA was a solely owned corporation by Mr. O’Leary and his wife. All monies raised by the AAA go to Mr. O’Leary. It became quite evident again the reasons behind Mr. O'Leary's resistance to unifying anything in the U.S.A. All monies raised by the sale of the Armbender magazine went to Mr. O’Leary. All advertising in the Armbender magazine was for products being sold by Mr. O’Leary or companies owned by him. No advertising revenues were paid to WAF. Instead Mr. O’Leary and Mr. Das schemed a plan for WAF to pay Mr. O’Leary WAF money to further print free advertising for Mr. O’Leary’s products paid for by WAF membership. More conflict of interest! No wonder these two people wanted so desperately to get rid of those of us who asked pointed questions!

Following is a short chronicle of highlights of Bob O’Leary and Barij Baran Das’s leadership history: (The letters "BO" will represent Bob O’Leary and "BBD" will represent Mr. Das)

1989 – Marion Nesmith resigns as WAF General Sec. At the urging of WAF membership, BBD who was Pres. of WAF at the time was asked to find a new General Sec. He suggests asking BO to take the position of Pres of WAF on an interim basis until 1992 elections.

1990 – At the Congress BO accepts the interim position of Pres of WAF. BBD assumes interim position of General Sec.

1991 – BBD releases a list of candidates eligible for the 1992 elections in Switzerland.

1992 – BO and BBD conspire and manipulate to retain their positions. No election is held. As the countries are registering their teams, BO and BBD ask the country leaders to sign a blank page. They are told it is a roster list. Canada was never shown this roster at time of registration. This list shows up at the Congress as a proclamation that the undersigned support BO and BBD to remain in their respective positions of Pres and Gen Sec. They declare themselves into their positions.

1993 – At Congress, BO assures U.S.A. have the Worlds for 1996. It later becomes apparent why he was so insistent as 1996 was another election year.

1994 – BO and BBD ask me to attend the Golden Bear Tournament in Moscow on behalf of WAF. In attendance, there are many non-WAF organizations. Mr. Igor Akhmedshin arranges for us to speak to all these organizations and to a Russian Olympic Committee delegate. Results are very positive and non-WAF organizations join WAF and others want more information as to how to join WAF.

1995 – As a result of the Golden Bear talks and as Pres. of NAAF, I become involved in trying to unify all the armwrestling entities in the U.S.A. Because of the conflict of interests that BO has, he begins accusing me of participating in non-WAF events. This was rather strange because the year before he asked me to attend nonWAF events.

1996 – This was the first time we came close to having a democratic election. Although a few things didn’t go as per the process, it was viewed as progress. BO was not head of a Continental body, nor was he ever elected as one therefore should not have been eligible to stand for election. Then we find out BO and BBD paid General Osman $1000.00 US of WAF money towards his airfare to make sure he attended this election year. This action biased the vote and it should have been nullified. AGAIN, BO and BBD proclaim themselves into their positions. The position of NAAF pres is passed to Mr. Ray Darling. I retain position of Vice Pres. of NAAF.

1997 – After BBD is asked to clarify expenditures, which were significant, and none were authorized by the membership, BBD becomes very defensive. BBD, BO and the AAA conspire with bogus charges to try to remove me from WAF and the NAAF. In the process, they alienate Mr. Darling and he resigns in disgust over the tactics used by BO, AAA and BBD. These people continue their charade and they get Cathy Morrisson to take part in further conspiracy to try to replace me. Ms. Morrisson is tried and found guilty of conspiracy by a panel of her peers from the Canadian armwrestling Fed. She has since been suspended for a two-year period.

1998 – BBD and BO arbitrarily move the Worlds from Canada to Egypt inspite of a unanimous vote by the membership to go to Canada. A majority of WAF membership show up in Canada and the official championship and Congress were held. BO and BBD have been removed from their positions.

It is very unfortunate that everything had to happen the way it did. I t could have been prevented if our former leaders would have had the best interest of WAF in mind instead of their self interest. We now have in place a group of dedicated democratic people. It will make a significant difference as we progress toward our ultimate goal, but first we’ll have to make several adjustments.

Yours in Armwrestling;

FRED ROY, Interim PRES. WAF

Cc: WAF Membership