[Babelfished by cep from an German translation >;>] http://www.taz.de/pt/2001/05/11/a0002.nf/text.name,askP6ga9C.n,0 Le Monde diplomatique - 11 mei 2001- Von BRUNO FOUCHEREAU USA AND SCIENTOLOGY - In the Name of Freedom :

A controversy over the freedom of religion poisons the diplomatic relations between Washington and Europe. In the name of the individual rights the United States lodge a complaint for exemption from punishment for groups, which output themselves as minority religious communities, whose activities were complained of however repeatedly by the courts. This cults, which developed from a brew of "new right", Neoconservativism and anticommunism, try to hammer the ultraliberal ideology and its values into the headings of humans and announce it as a generally obligatory basis for all societies.

Some time ago the question of cults was considered only as a "disturbing society phenomenon ", but in the last years it developed to a "urgent problem of public security ". Cause for this re-valuation were above all some spectacular events: the mass suicides of the Temple of the Sun in 1994 and 1995, the poisonous gas impact of the Aum cult in the underground of Tokyo in March 1995 and the collective suicide of the cult Heaven's Gate in Los Angeles 1999. Thereupon France, Belgium, Spain and Germany tightened their prosecution regulations. In most of these cases the decision of the legislator supported itself by a parliamentary investigation report over the danger of certain groups and the methods of the brain laundry, to which its followers are exposed.

France and Germany played the role of the pioneer with the harder national pace opposite these cults.

But almost everywhere in the European countries government-official working groups were installed, in order to hold the cult scene under observation. France discharged 1996 a set of laws to the intensified protection of psychologically susceptible persons. The government under Prime Minister Lionel Jospin used a " inter-gouvernemental mission for the fight of the cults " (MILS) under the direction of Alain Vivien. In Germany the measures were directed primarily against the Scientology cult organization. Following a report of the federation-states working group Scientology cult of the offices for Protection of the constitution the Federal Government warned the population seriously before these cults. Bavaria discharged even a 15-Scores measures catalog, which designates among other things the examination of coworkers of the public offices, that maintain relations with Scientology cult. (1) In view of this harder pace in Europe all observers of the scene counted on a counter-offensive by the cult cult-multinationals, which possess alone in France net assets at a value of several hundred million francs.

The attack came from the United States.(2 ) On 27 January 1997 the government in Washington condemned high-officially the measures of Germany against the Scientology cult organization. A fews days later the US State Department related "Office for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor " (BDHRL)(3) published its annual report for the situation of the human rights in the world. Therein Germany is violently attacked and classified in the list of the countries, which ignore the freedom of religion, directly behind China.

The report was timed in such a way that it supported the public campaign of the Scientology cult organization, which organized for example in different countries demonstrations, it protested to the international press with advertisements and called upon the European Union human right commission.

To " calm down the spirits", the US State Department mentioned in March 1997: " we criticized the Germans, but we do not support the Scientology cult campaign against Germany. " This expression was the least, which one could expect from the US Government.

When the congress passed 1998 a new law to the freedom of religion in the world, the BDHRL created a new department: the " Office Of International Religious Freedom ". With an authorized Ambassador in front, five officials of the State Department are assigned to who, the new committee possesses in all US embassies a representative. The first boss of the authority Robert A. Seiple was appointed, ex navy, whose favourite message reads: " the individual liberty rights are generally valid, because they are a gift ofGod sind."(4 ) Seiple explained to the Naples DAILY News (5) how his faith had helped very much with all personal challenges , in particular with his 300 combat missions in the Viet Nam war, in which he had served the marine infantry as an officer.

Seiple received his office however not because of his war experience.

Eleven years long he stood at the front of the ultra-conservative World Vision Inc., a financialstrong Christian welfare organization with millions of members in all world, that finances development assistance projects in Latin America and Asia. (6) In September 1998 the first report of the new "Office for international Religious Freedom" appeared (7). Therein France, Germany, Austria and Belgium are accused of heavily weighing offences against the freedom of religion.

The report of the French parliamentary commission of Inquiry of 1995 is moved even into the proximity of blind pursuit rage. The delegates are accused, they pursued a policy of the religious social excliusion, if the organizations specified in the report were not pursued because of illegal activities, but alone because of their faith.

On invitation of the organization for economic co-operation and development (OECD) the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europa subsidiary organization " office for democratic institutions and human rights " (ODIHR)(8) organized on 22 March 1999 in Vienna a seminar, on which the French cult policy was violently attacked. In continuation and taper of the criticism of the US State Department the American diplomats and senators swung into the role of the prosecutor up. That would have led almost to a diplomatic clash. The same scenario was the basis for a hearing of the "Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe", an independent US federal authority with seat in Washington. Here three witnesses were loaded, who terrible revealed:

France is on the way to a new Vichy state, a French Prime Minister is under the influence of religion-hostile organizations, and children were taken away from their parents. In June 1999 published hearing report shows the great concerns the US-American senators had over the fundamental rights in Europe .(9) For instance they the French government,that it used tax law as instrument of a new Inquisition.

The French cult fight authority MILS and the Paris State Department stated on the basis of an analysis of the financial structure and the financial stream of the Scientology cult organization that it concerns uniquely an private-economical enterprise, which is to be subjected colossal gains and therefore completely rightfully of the tax liability. The parliamentary investigation report, in which lawyers, cult specialist of the police, participated with non-profit associations and professors, lists 180 allegedly religious organizations, which are to be estimated after detailed investigation as totalitarian, because they keep their followers with psychological terror. Against most of these organizations valid judgements are present. Beyond that the French government strove to clear a set of misunderstandings and untruths. Thus France is accused, it refuses to some minoritaeren groups the acknowledgment as religion. In reality is it like that that the French state recognizes no religion due to the law of 1905, which fixed the separation from church and state at all.

But despite all these efforts the dialog remained fruitless. On 9 September 1999 published annual report of the US office for international freedom of religion accessed the European countries more sharply on than ever before. On 8 December the French minister of foreign affairs Hubert Védrine wrote its American office colleague Madeleine Albright: " that your government questions the way of acting of the French authorities groundlessly, while high officials of your and my government continue the dialog, throws a shadow on the much promising beginnings of these discussions. " Shortly thereafter the diplomatic dialog was aborted and was not again taken up to the today's day. The last report of the US State Department, which was published on 2 March of this year, accounts for the French laws of 1901 and 1905 and tacitly clears the appropriate mistakes, however still raises the sharpest accusations.

Central Figures and concentrated actions Just with the history and the condition of the United States it cannot be explained why the US Government supports so persistently various cults. As previously mentioned, the "office for international freedom of religion" is settled, a subcultion of the " office for democracy, human rights and work ", with the US State Department. Besides there is a "Commission for Religious Freedom ", which was created in Washington by members of congress of US. In addition thirdly, the "United States Commission for Religious Freedom " is subordinate directly to the White House . Acooriding to information of her director Steven T. McFarland this organization understands itself as a " guard dog ", in so much that it monitors " the work of the other commissions, so these don't get off the right path."

The question, whether he read the report of the French national assembly, Steve T. McFarland must answer in the negative , since he does not comprehend the French language, as he adds excusingly. Also the reports of the French cult fight authority MILS, the information of the French State Department and the notes of the French message in Washington do not find readers with the competent authorities .

All attainable officials of the three US commissions mentioned had to admit that they know the original nor translated versions from these texts either.McFarland excuses this with the insurance, he holds the information, which it the American intelligence services, which transmit Paris message, academic experts and the France-critical NGO's, for sufficiently reliable. If one confronts him with a set of telegrams of the American Emabbasy in Madrid(10), from which clearly it follows that the "Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor" in intervened in Spain, in order to delay the preliminary investigation of an examining magistrate against the Scientology cult organization, McFarland refuses any comment The names of the secret service members, from whom the US commissions get their information, cannot be determined for onvious reasons. A view of the Internet page of the US embassy in Paris is the more informative . There for example the services are recommended of attorney Kay Gaejens, which is even a well-known member of the Scientology cult organization. And as the national assembly in February 2001 held a public hearing for the problems of psychological manipulation techniques, the US embassy , although not at all invited, sent two of its coworkers in company of a prominent member of the French Scientology cult organization. Also the testimonies, upon which the US commissions are based, raise questions. The director of the Viennese of seminar from March 1999 was not anybody other than the Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, one the founder of the fundamental-catholic "Center Studi sulle Nuove Religioni"(11), () that maintains close relations with neofascist cults " Travail Famille Propriété " in France. Massimo Introvigne expressed itself in numerous publications of the Scientology cult organization and appeared in a process against the organization in Lyon as their witness.

A further central figure is Willy Fautré, to his own testimony chairmen of the Belgian organization " Droit de lHomme sans Frontière "[Human Rights without Borders], whose name may not tempt to the acceptance by the " international federation of the human right unions ". Fautré was long time correspondent of the " News Network International ", an US-American press agency, wellknown for its opposition against abortion and for their militant anticommunism. Beyond that Fautré is member of the " Helsinki Federation is human for Rights " (HFHR), whose publications in the reports of the US commissions are quoted in detail As a last principal witness for the offences against the freedom of religion, allegedly orchastrated by the French government, refverend Louis Démeo is mentioned, of the " Iinstitute Théologique de Nîmes ".

This institute belongs to the cults " Greater Grace ", which has its seat in Baltimore in the US Federal State Maryland. Greater Grace orders over 3,000 mission branches in Latin America, some hundreds in Africa and a handful in Eastern Europe.

The institute of Nîmes functions as a cadre shop for the Eastern European countries. Greater Grace, whose methods encounter also in the United States violent protests, can be quite described as a " road companion " to the Scientology cult organization.

Stacy Brooks, chairman of the " Lisa McPherson Trust"(12), the most important US-American relief organization for Scientology cult victims, was even 15 years long a member of the organization. She operated as a secretary of David Miscavidge, who inherited Ron Hubbards and present Scientology cult. She remembers exactly the leader of Greater Grace, George Robertson : " he is in close contact with the leaders of the Scientology cult. When the cult cannot intervene herself with certain questions for image reasons , she asks Robertson for assistance. He is their most important contact man for Evangelic movement. " Under his leadership Greater Grace and Scientology cult succeeded to the ruin by courtcases - and afterwards buying, the most important relief organization for cult victims, the 1970 created " Cult Awareness network" .(13) The influence, which the Scientology cult movement and its Adepts in the USA can exert, explains itself also from a quite different circumstance.

Since 1993 the cult is recognized by the income tax department of the US Treasury as religious community and thus freed from the tax liability. 25 years long the treasury had rejected all appropriate requests , which was recognized by all US courts, including the supreme Court as a rightfully one . The change of mind of 1993 gave the Scientology cult organization access to savings at millions height and gave her a outstanding PR instrument in hand, and provided an acces to the US Government.

In 1997 the New York Times revealed the details of this turnaround.

According to them the Scientology cult organization opened a proper war against the revenue office, on legal level, by exerting over fifty judicial procedures . But that was not enough. It hired also detectives, who sniffled the private life of high civil servants of the revenue office. One of these private investigatots told the New York Times in March 1997 that he had operated between 1990 and 1992 eighteen months long for Scientology cult. From its office in Maryland out he collected information about officials, who missed dates, excessively drank and maintained extra-matrimonial contacts . The tax exemption took place on express arrangement of the director of the income tax department, under evasion of the normal decision-making bodies.

Annual gains at height of 300 million dollar, sophisticated infiltration and intimidation techniques and finally the according to tax law acknowledgment as religious community provide influence on the highest decision makers of the US-American state for the Scientology cult organization. Steven A. Kent of the sociological institute of the UNiversity of Alberta (Canada) examined the lobby strategies of various religious groups and cults in Washington. His detailed analysis shows, with which means the Scientology cult - as before them already the Mun cults - exerts influence on members of the congress, the senate and the White House . For this purpose the Scientology cult organization took the services of a PR company specialized in lobbying, which received for its services in the years 1997 and 1998 in each year Dmark 725,000 or 420,000 dollar.

A set of actors, without exception Scientology cult members, spent on Hillary Clinton for her senatorial election fight over 70,000 dollar, Tom Cruise presented Albert Gore 5,000 dollar, and John Travolta organized together with other Scientologists a Gala Diner in favor of the Democratic Party - admission fee: 25,000 dollar. An attorney of Scientology finally donated 20,000 dollar to the democratic election campaign. The influence of the Mun cult increased also remarkably. Since shortly the Democrate Hillary Clinton may write a weekly column in the very conservative Washington Times, which belongs the Mun cult.

To all appearances the Mun cults and the Scientology cult organization arranged themselves for a long time. Anyhow both organizations coordinate their application for freedom of religion in the USA and in Europe since middle of the nineties. Their common procedure in Eastern Europe is documented by one in the Internet of published exchanges of letters between the guidance of the Mun cults and the Scientology cult organization. To this partnership other cults followed more or less formally, and also with the fundamentalist protestanten of the USA Mun and Scientology cult find spport since some time. Thus, besides some ultra-conservative senators also a set of Mun head figures as well as Guru Sri Chinmoy of the cult of the same name, engage themselves in the from the US State Department warmly recommended Institute on Religion and Public Policy"(14). The institute, whose headoffice is situated in Washington next to the White House, confesses after its own stating a "integralistic " catholicism and engages itselve for the attention of the rights of the Scientology cult organization, the Mun cult and other socalled minority religions in Europe Finally still the ultra-conservative, gay- and abortion-hostile "Institute on Religion and Democracy"()(ird)(15), has to be mentioned which fights for a fundamentalist-Protestant reform of the democratic institutions in all world for over twenty years. Therefore it does not surprise that IRD president Diane L Knippers joins the choir of the France slanderers: " France is a model for the other European democracies. It must absolutely give up its religion-hostile policy and re-establish the warranty for the liberty of the faith practice. " But in the next record it already admits involuntarily, what connects these so differnet groups and cults at first sight: " we exert ourselves today for the same reason for the freedom of religion as at that time against communism. A human society cannot unfold, if it lives in the lie.

Atheismus and communism can bring out only lies. Spirituality is a guarantor of the civilization, because Spirituality and faith bring honest humans out. Without honesty no trade, and without trade no civilization. "

The fight for a " Spiritualisatzion of the world " serves the same purpose as those groups of lobbies, which try to enhance the American values for world-wide validity, on the way of the globalization.(16) According to "Institute on Religion and Democracy" the globalization of the markets and the American values is laid on the United States of the Bible. All fundamentalist groups in the USA share this mystic imperial world view ; they are the ideological framework of all those forces, which feel destined as advocates of the freedom of religion. In order to call only two examples: John R. Bolton, member of the US commission for freedom of religion, was before vice-president of the ultra-liberal "American Enterprise Institute for Policy Research ". In the old Bush government Bolton served in the predient's office as an advisor for international commercial matters. Nina Shea, likewise member of this commission, announces: "our principal purpose exists in the world-wide penetration of the new liberal order. "

This logic of rulers, whose start goes back to the beginning of the Reagan Administration at the beginning of the eighties and which one could call almost interactive, is driven to the point by the present attempts to implement universally valid legal rules. With it the globalization of the markets is to be brought to its ending. But against it resistance still agitates itself. That applies among other things to the education market, where a common enemy advances toward the cults and communication companies: the ideological basic position wide-spread in Europe, which has their historical roots in France - the principle of the 'Laizitaet'. The attacks on the French cult policy direct thus at somewhat much more principal: on the laizistischen character of the French republic.

What cults want to achieve with this fight, is obvious. If they succeed in getting a foothold in the European training system when they attain the right to operate their own schools as in the United States which are extracted from each national check, they would have secured for itself a more global and more stable recruiting base . Because these institutions then would be take part directly at the cultural and psychological coinage of the individual.

Against the background of this politico-cultural targets one cannot speak of a united front with the Communications Industry, but still far going entwinements can be proven with the equipment manufacturers or the producers of contents and programs, computer or the film industry.

The fact that ABC, CNN and consorts maintain close relations with the fundamentalist groups of lobbies is well-known.

Finally may be reffered to some remarkable coincidences: Bill Gates' first bio count David Ichbia is Scientologist, the same applies to Guy Jensen, one of his closest coworkers, and " Executive software ", a core enterprise of the Microsort Imperium, calls itself openly as scientology oriented. Who knows: Perhaps shortly Big Brother comes per display into the house .

Footnotes:

(1) see www.innenministerium.bayern.de/scientology /.

(2) this is in as much not amazing as 90 percent cults originate from the USA originate and there its head office have.

(3) the 1990 created authority, which co-operates with all US secret services, have the function to evaluate the position of the liberty rights and the democracy in all countries in the world. She created to topics and countries arranged reports to the government and operates beyond that the congress and the senate too.

(4) in the discussion with the author.

(5) Naples DAILY News from 28 January 1999 (Naples, Florida), quotes a US Policy Issue"after Stephen A. Kent, " Consultation on Religious Persecutions as, Trinity college, Hartford/Connecticut.

(6) to it the publications of the " Interhemispheric resources center and the December output of the magazine World vision of 1991. See also http://www.pir.org/gw/wv.txt.

(7) the reports of the " Commission OF internationally Religious Freedom" are on page www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/drl_reports.html (8) the " Office for Democratic institution and human Rights " was created 1990 in use of the " Charter of Paris for new Europe " as a subsidiary organization of the OSZE, in order to monitor the elections in Europe. On the Budapester summit 1994 was taken up additionally the target of preventing of conflicts to its function catalog. Under the influence of the former US senators Dennis DeConcini and Alfonse dAmato the ODIHR concerns itself now also with questions of the freedom of religion (http://www.osce.org/odihr/index.php3).

(9) Hearing about " Religious Freedom in Western Europe: Religious Minorities and Growing Government Intolerance ", Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, June 8, 1999, http://www.csce.gov/hearings_briefings.cfm.

(10) the author from an Internet page, which received the US telegrams by anonymous Mails, has these telex copies; see http://parishioner.org/spain.html.

11) see http://www.cesnur.org/.

(12) See http://www.lisatrust.net/.

(13) See Los Angeles Times, 9. September 1999 (http://www.latimes.com/).

(14) See http://www.religionandpolicy.org/.

(15) See http://www.ird-renew.org/.

(16)Stephen A. Kent, " The French and German versus American Debate more over, new religions ', Scientology cult, and human Rights ", Marburg Journal OF religion 6 (1), January 2001, http://www.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/kent2.html

These cults, which have developed from a brew of the "new right,"

neoconservatism and anti-communism, seek to hammer the ultraliberal ideology and its values into the heads of the people and proclaim themselves to be the common binding foundation for all societies.

by Bruno Fouchereau, Journalist Some time back the cult issue was regarded solely as a "unsettling social phenomenon," but in recent years it has grown into an "urgent problem of public safety." The primary cause of this re-evaluation lay in several spectacular events: the mass suicides of the Solar Templists in 1994 and 1995, the poison gas attack by the Aum sect in the Tokyo subway of March 1995, and the collective suicide of the Heaven's Gate cult in Los Angeles in 1999. France, Belgium, Spain and Germany subsequently tightened up their prosecution arrangements. In the majority of these cases the legislators' decision was based on parliamentary committees of inquiry into the risk from certain groups and into the methods of brainwashing which their members were subjected to. The leading roles in stepping up state procedure against these cults were played by France and Germany.

Yet practically everywhere in the European countries, official government offices were installed in order to observe the cult scene. In 1996, France passed a series of laws for stronger protection of psychically dependent people. The administration under Minister President Lionel Jospin set up an Interministerial Mission to Combat Cult Presence (MILS) under the leadership of Alain Vivien. In Germany a number of measures were taken, mainly against the Scientology Organization. In connection with a report of the Federal-States work group on Scientology, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution explicitly warned the federal government and the people about this cult.

Bavaria even decided on a 15-point list of measures which included monitoring contact with Scientology by civil service applicants. (1) In view of these stepped-up procedures in Europe, all observers of the scene reckoned on a counter-offensive from the cult-multi[national]s, who in France alone possess an estimated fortune of several hundred million franks.

The attack came from the United States. (2) On January 27, 1997 the administration in Washington solemnly condemned Germany's measures against the Scientology organization. Several days later the U.S. State Department published its "Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor" (BDHRL)(3) annual report on the world human rights situation. In it Germany was vigorously attacked and put on the list of countries which abused human rights, right behind China. The report was timed so as to support the Scientology Organization's publicity campaign, which included organizing demonstrations in various countries, putting protest advertisements into the international press and calling upon the EU Human Rights Commission. In order to "calm tempers," the U.S. State Department issued a statement in March 1997 which said, "We did criticize the Germans, but we do not support the Scientology campaign against Germany." This statement was the least that could have been expected from the U.S. administration.

When Congress passed a new law on religious freedom in the world, the BDHRL established a new department, the "Office of International Religious Freedom." With a fully empowered ambassador at the top who had five state department officials under him, the new group has a representative in each U.S. embassy. The first chief of the agency was named Robert A. Seiple, an ex-Marine whose favorite saying was, "The individual rights of freedom apply everywhere because they are a gift from God." (4) Seiple told the Naples Daily News (5) how very much his faith had helped him in all his personal tribulations, namely in his 300 combat missions in Vietnam where he served as an officer in the Marine infantry.

However Seiple did not obtain his office on account of his war experiences. For eleven years he sat at the head of ultraconservative World Vision Inc., a heavily financed Christian welfare association with millions of members all over the world, which finances development projects in Latin America and Asia. (6) In September 1998, the first report of the "Office of International Religious Freedom" appeared (7).

In it France, Germany, Austria and Belgium were accused of serious violations against religious freedom. Even the report of the French parliamentary committee of inquiry of 1995 was regarded as persecution in blind rage. The representatives were accused of pursuing a politic of religious alienation insofar as the organizations named in the report were said to be prosecuted not for any illegal activity, but solely because of their beliefs.

At the invitation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the sub-organization of the OSCE "Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights" (ODIHR) arranged a seminar in Vienna on March 22, 1999 in which the French sect politic was vehemently attacked. In a natural progression of the U.S. State Department's criticism, the American diplomats and senators took on the role of accuser. The situation almost led to a diplomatic debacle. A similar scenario was staged in a hearing by the "Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe," an independent U.S. federal agency with its headquarters in Washington. Three witnesses were invited who revealed terrible things: they said that France was on its way to becoming a new Vichy-state, that the French Minister President was under the influence of anti-religious organizations, and that children were being taken from their parents.

The report of the hearing, published in June 1999, demonstrated what a powerful concern the U.S. American Senators had for basic rights in Europe. (9) For instance, they accused the French government of misapplying the tax law as an instrument of a new Inquisition.

The French anti-cult agency MILS and the Parisian Foreign Ministry, based on an analysis of the financial structure and the money flows of the Scientology Organization, reported that they were clearly dealing with a private commercial corporation which raked in huge profits and which was therefore properly subject to the tax law. The parliamentary report of inquiry, on which lawyers, sect specialists and the police had cooperated, listed 180 allegedly religious organizations which, after thorough investigation, could be classified as totalitarian because they used psychological terrorism to keep their adherents in line. Court judgments were in effect against most of these organizations.

Furthermore, the French administration took the effort to clear away untruths and misunderstandings. For instance France had been accused of refusing to acknowledge some minority groups as religion. The reality of the situation, based on a 1905 law which mandates the separation of church and state, is that France does not acknowledge religion for any group at all.

But despite all those efforts, the dialogue remained pointless. The annual report, published September 9, 1999 by the U.S. Office for International Religious Freedom, attacked the European countries more vehemently than ever before. On December 8, Hubert Védrine, the French Foreign Minister, wrote to his American colleague Madeleine Albright, "The act of your government baselessly making an issue out of the methods of operation of French government agencies while high officials of your and my administrations have dialogue in process throws a shadow on the very promising outcome of those discussions." Shortly thereafter the diplomatic dialogue on the issue was broken off and, to date, has never again been taken up. The last U.S. State Department report, published March 2 of this year, indeed took into account the French laws of 1901 and 1905, silently clearing away their past mistakes, but again made accusations as caustic as any before.

Key figures and concerted actions Taken by themselves, the history and the Constitution of the United States do not explain why the U.S. government so persistently supports various cults. As previously mentioned, the "Office for International Religious Freedom," a part of the "Office for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor," resides in the U.S. State Department. In addition to that there is a "Commission for Religious Freedom" which was founded in Washington by members of the U.S. Congress. On top of that comes thirdly the "United States Commission for Religious Freedom," which reports directly to the White House. According to information from its director, Steven T. McFarland, his organization perceives itself as a "watchdog"

insofar as it "monitors the work of the other commissions so that they do not stray from the right path."

To the question of whether he had read the report of the French National Assembly, Steve T. McFarland had to say no, and this was because the French language was not a strong point with him, as he added apologetically. Neither did the report from the MILS French anti-cult agency, nor the information from the French Foreign Ministry nor the notes from the French Embassy in Washington find a readership in the government offices responsible. All officials who could be reached in these three agencies had to admit that they had not read these texts, neither the originals nor the translations. McFarland excused this with the reassurance that he regarded as absolutely credible the information which had been forwarded to him from the American intelligence service, the embassy in Paris, academic experts and the non-governmental organizations critical of France.

When he was confronted with a series of despatches from the American Embassy in Madrid (10) from which it could be clearly seen that the "Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor" had intervened in Spain for the purpose of delaying a magistrate's investigative proceeding against the Scientology organization, McFarland refused to make any comment.

The names of the intelligence service agents from whom the U.S.

commission culled its information could not be discovered for obvious reasons. A glance at the internet page of the U.S. Embassy in Paris was therefore all the more informative. There, for one example, the services of lawyer Kay Gaejens were recommended, who is himself a professed member of the Scientology Organization. And when the National Assembly conducted a public hearing in February 2001 about the problems of psychological manipulation techniques, the U.S. Embassy, although not invited, sent two of its staff in the company of a leading member of the French Scientology Organization. Also questions are posed about the witnesses who appeared in support of the U.S. commission. The leader of the Vienna seminar of March 1999 was none other than Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, one of the founders of the Catholic fundamentalist "Centro Studi sulle Nuove Religioni"(11), which maintains close contact with the neo-fascist "Travail Famille Propriété" cult in France.

Massimo Introvigne's words are to be found in numerous publications of the Scientology Organization, and he appeared as a witness for them at a trial in Lyon.

Another key figure is Willy Fautré, who wears the badge of chairman of the Belgian "Droit de lHomme sans Frontière" organization, a name which should not be mistakenly assumed to be acknowledged by the International Federal of Human Rights Associations. For a long time Fautré was a correspondent for the "News Network International," a U.S. American press agency which is known for its militant anti-communism and its opposition to abortion. In addition to that Fautré is a member of the Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (HFHR), whose publications are cited in detail in the U.S. commissions' reports.

The last crown witness mentioned in the alleged violations against religious freedom by the French government is Pastor Louis Démeo of the "Institut Théologique de Nîmes." This institute is part of the "Greater Grace" cult, whose headquarters in in Baltimore, Maryland. Greater Grace commands over 3,000 mission branches in Latin America, several hundred in Africa and a handful in eastern Europe.

The Institute of Nîmes functions as a staging platform for the eastern European countries. Greater Grace, whose methods have been met with vehement protest even in the United States, can effortlessly be described as a "traveling companion" of the Scientology Organization.

Stacy Brooks, chairman of the Lisa McPherson Trust (12), the most important U.S. American aid organization for Scientology victims, was herself a member of the organization for 15 years. She worked as an official for David Miscavige, Hubbard's heir and currently the Scientology guru.

She remembers the director of Greater Grace, George Robertson, very well, "He is in close contact with the managers in Scientology. When the cult cannot itself intervene in certain matters because of image problems, it asks Robertson for help. He is their most important liaison with the Evangelical movement." It was under his management that Greater Grace and Scientology were able to sue and ruin the Cult Awareness Network, founded in 1970 -and then buy it up. (13) The influence which the Scientology movement and its adepts are able to exert in the USA is also demonstrated under an entirely different circumstance. Since 1993, the cult has been acknowledged by the U.S.

Internal Revenue Service as a religious community, thereby giving it tax exemption. For 25 years that office had rejected all applications from Scientology, and this had been legally validated by all the U.S. courts, including the Supreme Court. The change of mood in 1993 gave the Scientology organization access to millions in savings and provided it with a PR instrument to the extent that it gained access to the U.S.

government.

The New York Times revealed the details of this turn-about in 1997.

According to that paper Scientology had waged a regular war against the tax agency, including on the legal level by bogging down the agency with over fifty law suits. But that was not enough. They also hired detectives to spy on the private lives of high officials in the tax agency. One of these private investigators told the New York Times in March 1997 that he worked for Scientology for 18 months between 1990 and 1992. From his office in Maryland he gathered information on officers who missed appointments, who drank too much, or who maintained extra-marital affairs. Tax exemption occurred at the explicit instruction of the director of the income tax department, circumventing the normal decision-making channels.

Annual profits of 300 million dollars, sophisticated techniques of intimidation and infiltration and finally the IRS acknowledgment as a religions community brought the Scientology Organization influence at the highest decision levels of the U.S. American state.

Stephen A. Kent of the sociological institute of the University of Alberta, Canada investigated the lobbying strategies of various cults and religious groups in Washington. His detailed analysis showed the degree to which the Scientologists - as did the Moon cult before them - exerted influence upon members of the House, the Senate and the White House. To that end the Scientology Organization hired a public relations corporation which specialized in lobby work for which it received 725,000 and 420,000 dollars in 1997 and 1998 respectively.

A number of actors and actresses, invariable Scientology members, donated over 70,000 dollars to Hillary Clinton for her senatorial election campaign; Tom Cruise handed over 5,000 dollars to Albert Gore, and John Travolta together with other Scientologists, arranged a banquet the proceeds of which went to the Democratic Party - admission:

25,000 dollars. Finally, an attorney for the Scientologists donated 20,000 dollars to the democratic election. The influence of the Moon cult has also grown remarkably. Since just recently Democrat Hillary Clinton's sneering comments have been permitted to appear weekly in the conservative and widely-distributed Washington Time, which belongs to the Moon cult.

To all appearances the Moon cult and the Scientology Organization have been making arrangements together for a long time. In any case, since the mid-1990s both organizations have coordinated their efforts at religious freedom in the USA and in Europe. Their joint operation in eastern Europe is documented, published on the internet, by an exchange of letters between the managements of the Moon cult and the Scientology Organization. This partnership has also more or less officially included other cults, and Moon and Scientology have also found support for some time in the fundamentalist Protestants in the USA. For instance several ultra-conservative senators and the U.S. State Department have warmly received a number of Moon greats as well as guru Sri Chinmoy of a cult by the same name. The Institute, whose headquarters in Washington is located right next to the White House, announces that it embraces an "integralistic" Catholicism and is involved in promoting regard for the rights of the Scientology Organization, the Moon cult, and other so-called "minority religions" in Europe.

Finally the ultra-conservative, anti-gay and anti-abortion "Institute on Religion and Democracy"(IRD)(15) is also mentioned, which for twenty years has been making appearances for fundamentalist-Protestant reform of democratic institutions all over the world. Therefore it is not surprising that IRD President Diane L. Knippers sits in the choir of France-slanderers, "France is a model for the other European democracies. It absolutely has to give up its anti-religion politics and reinstate the guarantee to practice belief." In the very next sentence she then involuntarily reveals what binds together these, at first glance, very diverse groups and cults, "Today we are working for religious freedom for the same reason as people once did against communism. A human society cannot develop if it lives in a lie. Atheism and communism can only produce lies. Spirituality is a guarantee of civilization because spirituality and faith produce honest people.

Without honesty there is no trade, and without trade no civilization."

[Note: all quotes in this article are non-literal quotes. They have been translated from English to French to German back to English.] The fight for "spiritualization of the world" serves the same purpose as those of the lobby groups which are attempting to put American values into effect on the path to globalization. (16) In globalizing markets and American values, according to the "Institute on Religion and Democracy," the United States uses the Bible. This mystic-imperialistic worldview is shared by all fundamentalist groups in the USA: they feel they make up the ideological framework of all forces which have the urge to champion religious freedom.

Just to name two examples: John R. Bolton, member of the U.S. Commission for Religious Freedom, was previously the vice president of the ultraliberal "American Enterprise Institute for Policy Research."

In the old Bush administration, Bolton served in the President's office as an advisor for international trade issues. Nina Shea, also a member of this commission, reported, "Our primary goal consists of worldwide implementation of the new liberal order."

This logic of domination, whose beginnings go back to the Reagan administration in the early 1980s and which one could almost describe as "interactive," is being emphasized in a concurrent attempt to implement universally valid standards of law. By this, market globalization is to be brought to closure. But there is still resistance against it. Among other places, that goes for the market of education where the cults and communications groups oppose a common enemy: a basic ideological position which has its historical roots in France - the principle of laicism.

The attacks on French cult politics is therefore directed at something much more basic: the laic character of the French Republic.

What the cults intend to gain in this battle is obvious. If they succeed in getting their foot inside the door of European education, when they gain the right to operate their own schools, as they have in the United States, without any state control, then they will have assured themselves of a stable and comprehensive base of recruitment. These institutions would then be directly involved in the coining of the culture and the psychology of the individual.

With the background of this cultural-political goal one can indeed not think of a standard united front made up of corporations from the communications industry, but clearly far-reaching connections are evident with the producers of the programs and their content in the film and computer industry. It is known that ABC, CNN and associates maintain close contact with the fundamentalist lobby groups.

In closing, several remarkable coincidences are pointed out: Bill Gates' first biographer, David Ichbia, is a Scientologist; the same goes for Guy Jensen, one of his closest staff members, and "Executive Software," a key corporation of the Microsoft empire, openly describes itself as oriented to Scientology. Who knows: maybe next Big Brother will come to us in our homes via the video screen.

Footnotes (1) See www.innenministerium.bayern.de/scientology/.

(2) This is not particularly surprising, as 90 percent of cults come from the USA and have their headquarters there.

(3) The agency, founded in 1990, works with all U.S. intelligence agencies and has the mission of assessing the situation of democracy and rights of freedom in all the countries of the world. It produces reports by subject and country for the administrat ion and also does work for the House and the Senate.

(4) Interview with the author.

(5) Naples Daily News of January 1999 (Naples, Florida), quoted from Stephen A. Kent, "Consultation on Religious Persecutions as a US Policy Issue", Trinity College, Hartford/Connecticut.

(6) Also the publications of the "Interhemispheric Ressource Center" and the December issue of the World Vission magazine of 1991. See also http://www.pir.org/gw/wv.txt.

(7) The report of the "Commission of International Religious Freedom" is found onwww.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/drl_reports.html.

(8) The "Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights" was founded in 1990, an application "Charta von Paris fuer ein neues Europa," as a sub-organization of the OSCE in order to monitor the elections in Europe. In addition, it also took on the goal of preventing conflicts in its list of missions at the Budapest summit of 1994. Influenced by former U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini and Alfonse dAmato, the ODIHR is also involved in issues of religious freedom (http://www.osce.org/odihr/index.php3).

(9) Hearing on the subject of "Religious Freedom in Western Europe:

Religious Minorities and Growing Government Intolerance", Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, June 8, 1999, http://www.csce.gov/hearings_briefings.cfm.

(10) The author obtained copies of this telex from an internet page which received the U.S. despatches by anonymous mail, see http://parishioner.org/spain.html.

(11) See http://www.cesnur.org/.

(12) See http://www.lisatrust.net/.

(13) See the Los Angeles Times, September 9, 1999 (http://www.latimes.com/).

(14) See http://www.religionandpolicy.org/.

(15) See http://www.ird-renew.org/.

(16) Stephen A. Kent, "The French and German versus American Debate over, New Religions', Scientology, and Human Rights", Marburg Journal of Religion 6 (1), Januar 2001, http://www.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/kent2.html.

Le Monde diplomatique Nr. 6443 vom 11.5.2001, Seite 1,20-21, 90 Documentation, Bruno Fouchereau http://www.taz.de German Scientology News Unofficial translation/critical interpretation of German media, For non-commercial use only. Recent events - http://cisar.org/trnmenu.htm Informational publications http://members.tripod.com/German_Scn_News Thousands of articles sorted by date http://cisar.org/sortdate.htm

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