"Noted"
Zurich, Switzerland
October 1, 2001
Neue Luzerner ZeitungA green flyer handed out in Zug on Saturday was met with a lack of sympathy and back-and-forth shaking of heads. A Citizens Committee on Human Rights in Psychiatry, Zurich section (CCHR), believes that the public mass murderer, Friedrich Leibach, who recently ran amok, had been "put out of commission" by psychopharmaceutic drugs. It demanded an autopsy of the perpetrator with regard to those drugs and demanded an explanation of his past psychiatric treatment.
Of course the conditions would be explained by the forensic medical department, said police commander Urs Huerlimann. Moreover, he said, the contents of the flyer had been noted and referred to a psychologist. No measures would be taken on account of it.
JJA
Letter to the Editor
Neue Zuger Zeitung
October 2, 2001With horror and disgust I read your article "Noted," about the Citizens Committee on Human Rights in Psychiatry, Zurich section (CCHR), which appeared in Zug with its abstruse assertions.
It's important to point out in this regard that CCHR is a front group and cover organization for the Scientology Church, that means it's an organization which recruits members for this money-machine under its veil of religion. The Scientology Church exploiting and taking advantage of the painful events in Zug is loathsome. I believe the residents of Zug have the right to know about this connection.
Peter Widmer
Letter to the Editor
Neue Zuger Zeitung
October 6, 2001No membership recruitment
We could not help but react to the abstruse letter from Mr. Widmer. If he wants to talk about transparence, then he would also have to communicate that for years he has maintained a web site, which contains filthy language about a great number of minority religions. We also read the flyer from CCHR. It simply demanded that there should be an investigation into how many psycho-drugs and how much psychiatric treatment Fritz Leibacher had. A completely legitimate question. Moreover, CCHR was originally founded by the Scientology Church and professor of psychiatry Thomas Szazs - this association operates independently of the church. We know of no case in which the CCHR has ever recruited a member for us.
SCIENTOLOGY-CHURCH ZURICH
An Ugly Grimace
TV criticism
Zurich, Switzerland
January 26, 2000
Tagesanzeiger Zurichby Hugo Stamm
Last Saturday Scientology put on a big festival for the opening of its new center on Albisrieden in Zurich and invited everybody. In a newspaper which the sect strewed through an entire district, it presented itself as a charitable organization which gets socially involved. On the day of the grand opening there was live music and a tombola [tombola: variety of lotto or bingo] for the benefit of the library for the blind. Scientologists - the nice neighbors from next door?
The true face of the American psycho-sect was shown by the two German journalists, Ina Brockmann and Peter Reichelt, in the documentary film "Missing in Happy Valley." The contrast to the unctuous self-presentation in the Zurich script could not have been greater. The exciting television program was an adept example of expose journalism and showed the ugly grimace of Scientology. The show covered Scientology's inhuman control system in all its facets and, for the first time, provided an insight into the notorious penal camp of the RPF, which Scientology pretentiously describes as a "rehabilitation project."
The penal camp is where Scientology staff members go who are no longer true-blue or have landed in hot soup. What goes on in the Scientologists' rehabilitation group was described by a former "prisoner" as enslavement. The inmates of "Happy Valley" near Los Angeles wear a uniform and a black arm band, may not speak unless they are addressed by a non-inmate, must eat the leftovers of the "normal" Scientologists and run around in circles for hours. One such "rehabilitation project" also exists for European Scientologists in Copenhagen. Journalists who put such assertions on the air, as a rule, have to count on dealing with legal measures. But Brockmann and Reichelt have high cards in reserve. Their chief witnesses are Jesse Prince, number two man behind David Miscavige for years, and Gerry Armstrong, former chief in the Scientology "secret service" and confidante of sect founder Ron Hubbard. Armstrong knew what he was talking about. After he fell out of grace, he, too, was an inmate in "Happy Valley."
The film also showed the great discrepancy between the outside and the inside view. A Scientology spokeswoman described the penal camp a a great chance: every place else people get fire, but in Scientology, the misguided Scientology has a chance to voluntarily take part in the project. It may also be that the indoctrinated sect adherents apparently prefer the penal camp to expulsion. Gerry Armstrong summed up the system by saying that it tried to control people for the purpose of putting money in its own pocket.
"Missing in Happy Valley", 3sat, Monday 8:15 p.m.
unofficial English transcript of "Happy Valley": 990225j.htm
Letter to the Editor
February 5, 2000
More sensible than recruit schools
"Missing in Happy Valley?", TA of 1/24, "Ugly Grimace", TA of 1/26
About the TV criticism I would like to take the following view: the film from Germany surely did not have the intention to report objectively. But it is also disturbing that the "Tages-Anzeiger" continued that line. I can make a judgment about it because I am personally familiar with this Rehabilitation Project, I even went through it for several weeks some years ago myself.
It is not true that I could not speak with others, nor did I have to eat leftovers, nor did I have to run around in circles for hours, or even seconds. I did not wear a black arm band, nor is it a camp, nor is there anything there that needs excusing. It was all about intensive study and cooperating in the renovation of the different buildings of the Scientology Church in Copenhagen. For me, it was at least as sensible as, for instance, recruit school. And by far it was not near as demanding as what managers pay thousands of franks for in so-called survival training. Actually, the whole thing was about demanding a greater honesty from oneself. This is not the first time that activities inside of Scientology have been described with negative terms in order to put it in a bad light. When one considers these actions objectively, then they make complete sense and are helpful.
Gianni Zanetti
Jonen
The film as such presents much distortion and shows how one can be manipulated with pictures. The announcement of 1/24 alone revealed that an artificial story was being made up, since the subject person traveled to the USA (not disappeared!) Even in the film itself, it was verified that she is working in Los Angeles today - and is not presumed to be in "Happy Valley" and it is not true that she has not reappeared. Unfortunately once more a "typical story" about Scientology with many half-truths!
Juerg Stettler
Zurich