April 24, 2006 Clarke wants Life of a Terrorist: Seeking, and Finding, His Jihad - by Richard Serrano, Times Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON -- Zacarias Moussaoui was an easy mark...
...And the story of how a disaffected, down-and-almost-out young Muslim became a self-described member of the 9/11 plot offers chilling insights into the way Al Qaeda trolls for recruits and trains them to become suicidal zealots, willing to kill themselves to kill others...
...He was smart; he earned a master's degree in business...
...Last year, he pleaded guilty to being involved with the Sept. 11, 2001, plot. This week, a federal jury in Alexandria, Va., will begin deliberating on what the legal consequences of his involvement with Al Qaeda should be - a death row cell or life in prison without the possibility of parole...
...Paul R. Martin, an expert on cults, said Moussaoui represented the classic case of a vulnerable young man brainwashed by Islamic radicals in London during the mid-1990s. "They swept him away," Martin told the jury last week...
2005
October 2, 2005 Clarke wants terrorists treated like victims of cult brainwashing, Telegraph, United Kingdom
Charles Clarke is studying proposals to combat Islamic terrorist groups by treating them as religious cults...
July 26, 2005Terrorism and Cults, Here and Now, Boston, Massachusetts
We talk with Steven Hassan, a cult expert, about his theory that Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations resemble cults..
2003
December 13, 2003Bravest taking the Cruise cure, by GREG GITTRICH, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER, New York Daily News (But Scientology-run clinic under fire
Special Report
Not many medical clinics frame and display a filthy gym towel.
But then, not many medical clinics are bankrolled by Tom Cruise, target ailing firefighters who worked at Ground Zero and follow the teachings of the Church of Scientology.
"We're helping people," Jim Woodworth, director of Downtown Medical, said the other day as several firefighters sat in the clinic's 168-degree sauna...
This month, the city's largest firefighters union yanked its support of Downtown Medical.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association initially praised the clinic for its "unique" work. But sources said the union reconsidered after some firefighters questioned the clinic's methods and connections to Scientology - a movement described as both a persecuted religion and a dangerous cult...)
October 4, 2003Scientologist's Treatments Lure Firefighters, by MICHELLE O'DONNELL, The New York Times (For the past year, more than 140 New York City firefighters, some ailing from their work in the ruins of the World Trade Center, have walked into a seventh-floor medical clinic just two blocks from the former disaster site. Once inside, some have abandoned the medical care and emotional counseling provided to them by their own department's doctors, and all have taken up a treatment regimen devised by L. Ron Hubbard, the late science fiction writer and founder of the Church of Scientology.
The firefighters take saunas, engage in physical workouts and swallow pills - all of which together constitute what for years has been known, amid considerable dispute, as Mr. Hubbard's detoxification program, one meant to wash the body of poisons or toxins. The firefighters are not charged for their trips to the clinic, called Downtown Medical...
...People inside and outside the department said they regarded the use of the clinic to be yet more evidence of the degree of the distress experienced by members of the force, which lost 343 men on Sept. 11...)
July 17, 2003Scientology to 'detox' 9-11 workers, MSNBC (First Tom Cruise tells People magazine how Scientology cured his dyslexia. Now those amazing Scientology healing powers are being directed at the 9/11 rescue workers. A center has been set up in Lower Manhattan to "detoxify" Ground Zero workers with techniques developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard...)
2002
September 11, 2002Amid heightened terrorism concerns, Japan wrestles with doomsday cult remnants - Associated Press via SFGate.com (...They are watching Aum Shinri Kyo, or what is left of it. And though the doomsday cult that shocked the world with its nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways is much diminished, no one expects the round-the-clock vigil to end soon.
On March 20, 1995, Aum unleashed sarin nerve gas on Tokyo commuters, killing 12 people and sickening thousands in one of the worst acts of urban terrorism until the Sept. 11 attacks...)
September 11, 2002Japan Wrestles With Resilient Cult, Associated Press via ABCNEWS.com (...They are watching Aum Shinri Kyo, or what is left of it. And though the doomsday cult that shocked the world with its nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways is much diminished, no one expects the round-the-clock vigil to end soon.
On March 20, 1995, Aum unleashed sarin nerve gas on Tokyo commuters, killing 12 people and sickening thousands in one of the worst acts of urban terrorism until the Sept. 11 attacks...)
September 11, 2002
July 30, 2002 Method Without Madness?, Los Angeles Times (...Their emerging understanding contradicts the notion that suicide bombers are deranged fanatics. The evidence is just the opposite: They tend to be free of obvious mental illness. Many are competent, successful, even loving and loved...
...In 1978, more than 900 American followers of People's Temple leader Jim Jones...
...Five years ago, Marshall Applewhite and 38 of his followers in the Heaven's Gate cult killed themselves in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif...
...After Sept. 11, investigators found letters in Arabic believed to have been written by Atta, the presumed ringleader. The letters emphasize the importance of "obeying 100%"; instruct the attackers to be courageous, "as our predecessors [were] when they came to the battle"; and promise that "paradise has been decorated for you with the best of its decorations and ornaments."...)
January 25, 2002Lindh: a Young Man Caught in Evil's Net, Paul Morantz, Los Angeles Times via the Wayback Machine (Paul Morantz is a lawyer in Pacific Palisades who has specialized in cult and brainwashing cases for 20 years...In a 1988 case involving the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, in which I was appellate counsel, the California Supreme Court recognized that thought reform, brainwashing or coercive persuasion constituted outrageous conduct and said that victims could sue for both compensatory and punitive damages...)
2001
December 19, 2001Saving the 'American Taliban' - By Steven Hassan, Boston Globe (...I have worked with thousands of people impacted by destructive mind control. I have assisted former cult members in reclaiming their minds and their lives...)
December 18, 2001Hassan on Cults, Here and Now (Audio 13:50-22:00) (John Walker is being called a traitor after he was discovered fighting for the Taliban. Steve Hassan, an expert on mind control and religious cults, discusses whether or not there's something else at play.)
December 18, 2001Professor Robert Jay Lifton, Fresh Air (Audio) (Professor Robert Jay Lifton specializes in the study of extremist religions and cults. He'll talk with us about John Walker, the American captured in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban.)
December 5, 2001Young captive called a zealous convert or 'brainwashed' youth, Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle (What was John Walker's state of mind -- a sincere convert to radical Islam, or a Marin County teenager "brainwashed" by an Afghan cult?...)
November 16, 2001Cults, Terrorists Share Chilling Similarities, Experts Say by James Long, Newhouse News Service (The Rajneeshees who ran a commune in Central Oregon in the 1980s did not fit the popular image of would-be terrorists.
Most followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh were not wild-eyed fanatics, but members of the middle class -- lawyers, doctors, accountants, teachers and other well-educated people who seemed normal enough...
...seemingly normal, well-educated people can be persuaded to commit unthinkable crimes, including flying airliners into skyscrapers...)
November 9, 2001Cults, terrorist groups share chilling similarities, experts say - The Oregonian via the Wayback Machine (..."There are many similarities between the way people are programmed in cults and in terror groups that can result in an act of suicide bombing," says Steve Hassan, a former member of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church...)
November 5, 2001Apocalyptic cult methods explain bin Laden, USA TODAY (...American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton wrote a book about cults called Destroying the World to Save It...)
November 2, 2001U.S. freezes assets of AUM Shinrikyo cult, 21 other groups - Kyodo News (The U.S. administration on Friday added 22 groups, including Japan's AUM Shinrikyo cult, to a list of foreign terrorist organizations subject to an asset freeze in the United States...)
October 28, 2001 Bin Laden fits the definition of a cult leader, experts say - by Michael Sangiacomo, The Plain Dealer (...The Ryan group normally focuses on domestic religious cults. Its members teach parents and others how to keep loved ones away from cults, loosely defined as groups that use psychological and physical manipulation to isolate people from their families and keep them slavishly loyal...)
October 26, 2001 Conference on cults adds terrorism focus, by Michael Sangiacomo, The Plain Dealer (...David Clark, a court-certified cult expert, will speak on "Understanding the Making of a Terrorist," an attempt to explain what goes through the mind of terrorists and suicide bombers. Clark will also be part of a panel discussion Friday dealing with the question of how and when religious belief turns violent...)
October 24, 2001 Experts explain terrorist training, by Thrity Umrigar, The Akron Beacon Journal (...a conference titled "Cults and Terrorism: Abuse of the Vulnerable," being held Friday through Sunday at the Hilton Cleveland South Hotel in Independence...)
October 15, 2001Rumours revive Tokyo's subway attack fears, The Financial Times (The events of September 11 have revived residents' fears that the secretive organisation remains a threat to their safety, despite attempts to atone for its crimes by changing its name to Aleph, meaning New Beginning, compensating the victims of the 1995 attack and adopting a softer religious face.)
October 15, 2001A Japanese Writer Analyzes Terrorists and Their Victims, By HOWARD W. FRENCH, The New York Times (For Haruki Murakami, Japan's most popular living fiction writer, the current struggle against terrorism is no clash of civilizations, much less a crusade.) (registration required)
October 14, 2001An unheeded warning?, St. Petersburg Times (...Aum Shinrikyo would become known for a deadly nerve gas attack on five Toyko subway trains in 1995, but for eight years before that they left footprints and fingerprints all over the U.S...
...some say, they also left a wake-up call that U.S. intelligence agencies dozed through right up to Sept. 11 of this year...)
October 12, 2001Interpreter of Organized Evil, Los Angeles Times (Robert Jay Lifton...as the man to launch its lecture series Terror and Aftermath: Perspectives on the World Trade Center Tragedy...)
October 11, 2001Religious freedom does not supersede human rights, Sun Herald (These cults utilize the veil of religion to further their own anti-human rights goals of power and subjugation to their will. It is incumbent upon all of us, especially those of us in the media, to not let this happen.)
October 10, 2001 Students' tributes heading to New York City, by Nicole S. Colson, Shakopee Valley News (Through the Internet and the International Churches of Christ, of which she is a member, Smith was able to connect with Tony Paige, a fellow church member and firefighter from a devastated Manhattan fire company...during a conference of area church-goers and representatives from Helping Other People Everywhere, or HOPE International.)
(Most of the news that CultsOnCampus.com is currently aware of has not made the connection between the International Church of Christ, HOPE worldwide and the controversy about whether or not the International Church of Christ is a cult.)
October 8, 2001America's First Bioterrorism Attack, Time.com (In the fall of 1984, members of the Rajneeshee, a Buddhist cult devoted to beauty, love and guiltless sex, brewed a "salsa" of salmonella and sprinkled it on fruits and veggies in the salad bar at Shakey's Pizza in The Dalles, Ore...)
October 5, 2001A Lesson in Biology, ABCNEWS.com (...despite trying for years to launch a biological attack, Aum Shinrikyo never managed to kill or apparently even injure one person using biological agents...)
October 3, 2001 Expert says hijackers were brainwashed, News Channel 10, WJAR Providence - New Bedford, (Steven Hassan says that if we want to curb terrorism, we need to understand mind control...)
October 2, 2001 Years before World Trade Center, Tokyo nerve gas attack showed urban vulnerability - The Associated Press via San Francisco Chronicle (Within days, investigators had publicly identified as their prime suspect Aum Shinri Kyo, a neo-Buddhist doomsday cult known for its militant, Armageddon-laced rhetoric...)
September 30, 2001Chilling parallels to the Rev. Jim Jones
Hijacker's letter had similar message about suicide, San Francisco Chronicle (...As more details emerge about the hijackers responsible for this month's World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, one way to understand the cult of bin Laden is to look back at the horrors of Jonestown...)
September 20, 2001Religious Leader Takes His Calling to Ground Zero The New York Times (...Dissidents have accused Scientology of having cultlike overtones, and of preying on members financially...) (registration required)
September 18, 2001 Japan's 1995 Sarin Attack May Foreshadow Future, Reuters (Aum Supreme Truth and Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda in the news.)
September 17, 2001Beware Scientologists Claiming To Be Mental Health Professionals, NMHA News, The National Mental Health Association (ALEXANDRIA, VA (September 17, 2001) - The National Mental Health Association (NMHA) today is warning the public and media to beware of representatives of the Church of Scientology who are claiming to be mental health professionals assisting individuals in New York City...)
September 17, 2001 Local expert comments on bin Laden, terrorist attacks, WJAR - NBC 10 via MSNBC (...Rev. Nichols says bin Laden's followers twist interpretations of the Koran, the Muslin Bible, to justify terrorism, and killing non-believers as a service to their god, Allah...)
September 15, 2001'Mental health' hotline a blind lead, St. Petersburg Times (The televised blurb offered mental health assistance dealing with the attacks. Callers reached Scientologists.)
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