=== The Body / Attleboro Cult
1. Grand jury indicts three sect members

=== Waco / Branch Davidians
2. Former Waco prosecutor pleads innocent on obstruction charges

=== Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments
3. China meet discusses Kanungu massacres

=== China and Cults
4. Chinese, foreign scholars discuss ''evil cult'' problem at Beijing symposium
5. China establishes Anti-Cult Association in Beijing

=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo
6. Japanese cult must foot bill for mass swindle
7. Japanese Cult Ordered To Pay $926K

=== Scientology
8. State hospital restraint policy probe ends

=== Unification Church
9. Rev. Sun Myung Moon Makes Inroads in North Korea
10. Moon sect may sue against immigration ban

=== Mungiki
11. Kenya's Outlawed Sect Members Arrested After Battling Police
12. Kenya: Mungiki sect leader, wanted by police, says he is not on the run

=== Islam
13. Islamic Body Threatens Visiting German Preacher
14. Koran victory for Morocco's Islamists

=== Jehovah's Witnesses
15. Body-parts ruling likely Monday

=== Witchcraft
16. Legalisation of witchcraft could encourage it: Australian church

=== Hate Groups
17. Local man arrested on suspicion of hate crimes
18. Racist critic of Aryan Nations faces federal charges

» Continued in Part 2

=== Other News
19. Death sentence for cult leader reduced
20. Vampire-cult killer gets life sentence Why? Age
21. Wenatchee abuse-case trial to be held in King County
22. Cult leader charged with rape
23. Nuwaubians win appeals court decision
24. Self-proclaimed Mexican faith healer denies raping patients
25. Rwandan Police Dismantle Network Of Cannibals
26. Healers warned against sacrifice
27. Scandal engulfs guru's empire
28. Divine downfall
29. When this cult took over my husband, it was like losing him to another woman
30. Baha'is gather to celebrate birth of prophet, founder

=== The Psychic's Friend Around The Corner
31. Man busted for making calls to psychic hotline friend from work


=== The Body / Attleboro Cult

1. Grand jury indicts three sect members
Boston.com/AP, Nov. 13, 2000
http://www.boston.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEW BEDFORD - Three members of an Attleboro religious sect were indicted Monday in the death of the group leader's infant son, whom authorities believe was starved to death.

The indictment accuses Jacques Robidoux of ''directing the systematic withholding of nourishment'' for his 10-month-old son.

Karen Robidoux, the baby's mother, was indicted on a charge of second-degree murder, and Jacques Robidoux's sister, Michelle Mingo, was charged as an accessory before the fact to assault and battery on a child for coming up with the idea of not feeding the child.

''As the child is starving, with his ribs sticking out and his eyes rolling in opposite directions, they walked past the child on the way to the dinner table,'' said District Attorney Paul Walsh.

Karen Robidoux was arrested Monday and joined her husband and Mingo, who have been held in jail for several months for refusing to cooperate with the grand jury investigation into the death.
(...)

When asked about the religious aspect of the case Monday, Walsh did not equivocate: ''This is a clear case of murder. This ain't religion.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Waco / Branch Davidians

2. Former Waco prosecutor pleads innocent on obstruction charges
San Antonio Express-News/AP, Nov. 13, 2000
http://www.express-news.net/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A former government prosecutor pleaded innocent Monday to charges of obstructing the investigation into the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

Former assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and three counts of lying to investigators and a federal grand jury.

The indictment was returned Wednesday as Waco special counsel John C. Danforth released his final report absolving the government of wrongdoing in the siege. The case was filed in St. Louis because Danforth, a former U.S. senator from Missouri, based his investigation out of his law office here.

At the hearing Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Ann Medler set a trial date of Jan. 2. Johnston is free on personal recognizance bond.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments

3. China meet discusses Kanungu massacres
The Monitor (Uganda), Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.monitor.co.ug/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The infamous mass killing at Kanungu in Uganda was a subject of debate at a Nov. 09 meeting in Beijing China.

The meeting whose theme was `Destructive Cults' was attended by more than 100 experts from eight countries plagued by quasi-religious organizations.

''The meeting was to focus on promoting international cooperation and academic studies for the prevention and control of destructive cults that claim human lives,'' said an organizer with the China Association for the Advancement of International Friendship (CAAIF). Participants were from the United States, France, Japan, Republic of Korea, Uganda, Canada, Russia and China.

In March this year, over 1,000 members of a cult, The Movement for The Restoration of Ten Commandments of God, in Kanungu, Rukungiri district were burnt to death by their leaders.
(...)

The meeting, the first of its kind in Asia, called for more attention from various governments, the general public and civil organizations to the issue of destructive cults.

It is also sought to promote international cooperation in combating such evil forces and safeguarding human rights.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== China and Cults

4. Chinese, foreign scholars discuss ''evil cult'' problem at Beijing symposium
BBC Monitoring, Nov. 13, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Resolute measures must be adopted to solve the problem of evil cults was the conclusion of an International Symposium on Evil Cults in Beijing, China's official news agency has said. It added that religious freedom and human rights should not get in the way of combating these organizations. It said that although differences in historical and cultural backgrounds lead to differences in understanding of the cults, the common characteristics of evil cults are that they are ''anti-humane, anti-society, in violation of human rights, and hazardous to individuals' legitimate rights and interests''. The news agency added that dealing ''with evil cults according to law is an important measure to respect the international norm of human rights, protect human rights, and protect people from the harms of evil cults''and that those who are under the influence of these cults should be educated and cared for and not discriminated against.

Text of report by Ni Siyi and Wu Liming, carried by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Beijing, 10th November: In view of internationalization of the evil cults and their exploitation of legal loopholes in some countries to carry out transnational propaganda and commit transnational crimes, Chinese and foreign experts on evil cults appeal here: The strength of one country alone is not enough to stop the rampancy of evil cults. In combating them, it is imperative to strengthen international cooperation.

A two-day International Symposium on Evil Cults ended [here] today [10th November]. More than 60 experts and scholars from France, the United States, Canada, Russia, Uganda, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and China's Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and mainland proposed that relevant countries should increase exchange of information and cult control experience and cooperate in action to prevent and combat the evil cult activities.
(...)

They generally believe: Although the evil cults in various countries are disguised in various forms, their essence is invariably anti-humane, anti-society, in violation of human rights, and hazardous to individuals' legitimate rights and interests and to the overall interests of the general public. The most notorious ones of them are China's ''Falun Gong'', the ''Davidians'' of the West, and Japan's Aum Supreme Truth sect. To deal with such evil organizations, we must adopt resolute measures to solve the problem once for all; and we must not sit by idly letting them become rampant in hurting people in the name of ''religious freedom'' and ''human rights.''
(...)

It is reported that after two days of discussion and exchange of experience, Chinese and foreign scholars have basically reached the following consensus on the evil cult problem:

1. Because of different historical and cultural background, different countries have different understanding of the cults. For this reason, in defining whether a cult is evil or not, we should not excessively debate whether it is a genuine religion or not. We should mainly view it from the angle of whether it is harmful to the society.

2. The harms of evil cults are many-sided and evil cults are harmful to various groups, various regions and various trades and professions.

3. In view of the serious threat and great danger caused by evil cults to the human society, we must not ignore the evil cult problem and let it spread. We should take an attitude of being responsible to mankind and actively adopt measures to prevent and deal with the evil cult problem, and we must not let evil cults harm the society.

4. Evil cults should be dealt with according to law. To deal with evil cults according to law is an important measure to respect the international norm of human rights, protect human rights, and protect people from the harms of evil cults. For this reason, we should act according to our law and our actual situation and also learn from the good practices of other countries in doing a good job of solving the evil cult problem, so as to protect the citizen's legitimate rights and interests and the overall interests of the general public. Whoever commits crime in violation of the law must be punished according to law.

5. To deal with the large number of victims who have joined the evil cults by mistake, we should educate and guide them, care for them, and help them restore their normal mentality, learn necessary job skills, completely free themselves from the influence and fetters of evil cults, and return to the society. We must not discriminate against, reject, or attack them. Otherwise, they will sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of error, become the sacrificial objects of evil cults, and become anti-social.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. China establishes Anti-Cult Association in Beijing
BBC Monitoring, Nov. 13, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Beijing, 13th November: The China Anti-Cult Association was established in Beijing Monday [13th November], grouping renowned personnel from various circles of the country, including scientists, doctors, lawyers, religious leaders and journalists.

Cults that have run rampant in the world in recent years have become obstacles to social progress and brought tragic disaster for numerous families and individuals, according to a written proposal launching the association, which was read at the founding ceremony.
(...)

To safeguard social stability and maintain order, the Chinese government has banned the Falun Gong cult. The move has received popular support from the people and most former Falun Gong practitioners have realized the evil nature of the cult.

However, there are still a handful of staunch Falun Gong members who wish to stage a desperate fight against the people and the government, the proposal says, adding that the purpose of setting up the association is to mobilize social forces to fight against Falun Gong and other cults.

At Monday's meeting, the chapter for the association was passed and leaders of the association were elected, with Zhuang Fenggan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the president.

It was decided at the meeting that a seminar on anti-cult efforts will be held in Beijing in December this year.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo

6. Japanese cult must foot bill for mass swindle
Independent/Sapa/DPA (South Africa), Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.iol.co.za/=
Tokyo - Japan's northern Akita District Court on Friday ordered the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo foot-reading cult and its founder to pay 5.5 million yen (about R395 780) in damages to an Akita woman who claimed she was swindled out of millions of yen in 1994.

The presiding judge, Masaki Sugimoto, said the founder Hogen Fukunaga, 55, pressured the woman in her 50s into paying a total of about 1.3 million yen to have her foot read in June 1994, telling her, ''You will have a serious disease in your 60s if you do not pay.''
(...)

The cult systematically targeted hospital patients and their families in a scam to sell them expensive alternative treatments.

About 22 000 people reportedly participated in the cult's training sessions. The group was said to have defrauded each person of several million yen by selling them hanging scrolls, ornaments and other goods.

Born Teruyoshi Fukunaga, the cult's founder started preaching in 1980, claiming to be the world's final savior following Jesus and Buddha. He based his claim on what he called a ''voice of heaven''.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. Japanese Cult Ordered To Pay $926K
AP, Nov. 13, 2000
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese court on Monday ordered a cult and its founder to pay $926,000 to 16 people who said they were told they would get cancer unless they joined the group.

The ruling by the Osaka District Court is the second against the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo group and founder Hogen Fukunaga, who claimed to cure diseases by inspecting the soles of people's feet.
(...)

The 16 plaintiffs said that they were forced to pay $759,000 and that Fukunaga said they would get cancer unless they joined him.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Scientology

8. State hospital restraint policy probe ends
Telegram & Gazette, Nov. 9, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WESTBORO -- A federal agency investigating allegations that Westboro State Hospital improperly restrained juvenile patients cleared the hospital early last month.

The federal Health Care Financing Administration investigated a complaint that the staff at Westboro State Hospital used a dangerous restraint technique to excessively disciplined juvenile inmates for seemingly minor infractions.

The Massachusetts Commission on Human Rights, an organization affiliated with the Church of Scientology, filed the complaint with HCFA earlier this year.

HCFA said the allegations in the human rights' commission report were not substantiated. In a letter dated Oct. 30 addressed to Steve Scheibel, chief operating officer of the hospital, HCFA informed the hospital that the allegations of inappropriate restraint use resulting in injuries were unfounded. Mr. Scheibel could not be reached for comment.

Kevin M. Hall, New England director of the Commission on Human Rights, said HCFA investigators did not properly look into his complaint.

''If they can't see scrapes on people's faces or interview the people who I named, then they didn't really try,'' Mr. Hall said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* On Scientology's own approach to ''health care,'' see

Lisa McPherson Memorial Page

Scientology's Medical Fraud

A listing of other Scientology front groups

=== Unification Church

9. Rev. Sun Myung Moon Makes Inroads in North Korea
Washington Post, Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
SEOUL -- As the closed gate to North Korea creaks slowly open to outside business people, one of the first to have slipped inside is an unlikely figure: the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, leader of a church banned in the North and a controversial figure with a long history of communist-bashing.

A company owned by Moon's Unification Church plans to open the first heavy manufacturing plant in North Korea in decades. Moon is one of a diverse cast of competitors willing to seize on the cautious opening and play in a business netherworld of shadowy contacts, broken deals and obscure motives.

''It's sometimes hard to tell who are friends and who are enemies,'' said Yoon Dae Gyu, a business analyst in Seoul watching North Korea's blossoming contact with the outside.

That cast includes a geriatric South Korean tycoon who some say is hoping to salvage his family's control of a huge conglomerate, eager American businessmen pushing for the final end of U.S. sanctions, and disgruntled veterans of a shadowy trade who see the loss of their privileged connections to North Korea through China.

And it includes Moon, once jailed in North Korea, who plans, quixotically, to start producing automobiles in country with an acute power shortage and where it would take 10 years of an average worker's annual income to buy a car.

''We're different than other companies. They are only thinking of money. We have other goals,'' said a longtime Moon associate, Park Sang Kwon, who as president of Pyeonghwa (Peace) Motors is overseeing construction of two factories in North Korea.

But many of the businessmen seeking entry into North Korea, which is beginning to emerge from its isolationist shell, have motives other than just profit. The two biggest rivals, Moon's group and the giant South Korean Hyundai Group, both say they are spurred by a patriotic desire to mend the rift that split North and South Korea 55 years ago.

''That's what makes our company different--the ideology,'' Park said.
(...)

But Moon's presence in North Korea has raised eyebrows among those who wonder if his effort is for politics, business, or to try to gain a toehold for his church. ''They have broad interests, maybe including religious,'' said Yoon.

''Mr. Moon wanted to make a church in North Korea,'' acknowledged Lee Tak, chief of the planning department for Pyeonghwa Motors. ''But we want a separation between religion and business. Making a church [in North Korea] is not our business.''
(...)

In North Korea, the biggest deals hinge on the okay from one man--the ''chairman'' of the country. In 1991, Moon thought he had that okay, from Kim Il Sung, the country's founder and longtime ruler.

They were an odd business couple. Moon was born in the North, declared himself a messiah to finish the work of Jesus Christ and was briefly imprisoned by North Korea before he was freed by U.N. and U.S. troops in the Korean War. He had checkered relations with a variety of governments; he was imprisoned in the United States for tax evasion and accused of secret ties with right-wing governments in Seoul. But his most strident political activity was thumping anti-communism and criticism of the North Korean regime.

While building his Unification Church, his organization has engaged in a bewildering array of hundreds of business ventures around the world--from gun manufacturing to ownership of the Washington Times to the Nostalgia Channel to projects offered to local schools in Japan to teach students a love for humankind.

In 1991 Moon surfaced in Pyongyang in a meeting with Kim Il Sung, emerging with a joint pronouncement lauding Korean unity and a 30-year monopoly for Moon to develop tourism at Mount Kumgang, a sacred mountain for Koreans on North Korea's eastern shore.
(...)

Hyundai and Moon's company had a brief and fierce competition for the project; the church-backed organizers tried to start a high-speed ferry to get tourists to the mountain first. But then Moon bowed to Hyundai's deeper pockets.

''North Korea sees Hyundai as a cash cow,'' said Yoon, a specialist with Kyungnam University. Pyongyang ''needs U.S. dollars, and Hyundai pays a lot.''

In North Korea, no court can tell the country's totalitarian leader he breached a contract. Kim Jong Il awarded the Mount Kumgang project to Hyundai.

''Mr. Moon was like a brother with Kim Il Sung. They had an agreement,'' acknowledged Jang, of Hyundai. ''But Kim Il Sung died. And Kim Jong Il has an agreement with us.''

Moon's group relates a slightly different version of events. ''When Hyundai offered a big amount of money for Kumgang, we thought that was best for North Korea. We have true love,'' said Park, the company president. ''So we made a deal. They got Kumgang and we got Nampo.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


10. Moon sect may sue against immigration ban
Frankfurter Rundschau (Germany), Nov. 10, 2000
Translation: CISAR
http://cisar.org/001110a.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Schmitten / Coblenz. The so-called Unification Church (Moon sect), with its headquarters in Schmitten (Hochtaunuskreis), is permitted to file a suit against an immigration order prohibiting entrance by its chief into the country. That was decided by the Rheinland-Pfalz Superior Court (OVG) in Coblenz in a precedential judgment published on Thursday.

In the judges' opinion, if a religious community's foreign spiritual chief is refused entry into Germany, violations of its right to free practice of religion is not automatically excluded in advance (case: 11 A 10349/99 OVG).

The OVG declared in its decision that the Unification Church's law suit was permissible, but at the same time left open appeal to the Federal Administrative Court in Berlin because of the precedential significance of the matter.

The Unification Church is a registered association by which German members are unified with the worldwide religious community. When its chief Sun Myung Mun and his wife were refused entrance into Germany in 1995, the association filed suit in Coblenz Administrative Court. The Coblenz judges, however, dismissed the suit as impermissible. Refused entry into the country had no influence of the sect members' right, the court thought at the time.

The Rheinland-Pfalz Superior Administrative Court has now come to a different conclusion. The judges found that refused entrance into the country is at the discretion of the border patrol protection agencies. So the sect members would have a claim to know that this discretion was practiced by the agencies without technical errors. If needed, this could also be reviewed in court.

The OVG has not yet decided whether entrance into the country was actually legitimately refused in the current case, by which would be known whether the suit was founded. That would require further clarification, said the decision. dpa
[...entire item...]


=== Mungiki

11. Kenya's Outlawed Sect Members Arrested After Battling Police
Panafrican News Agency, Nov. 13, 2000
http://www.allafrica.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Eight members of Kenya's outlawed Mungiki religious sect were arrested in Nairobi Sunday on suspicion of taking advantage of an hour-long battle with police to violently rob members of the public, according to press reports Monday.

The arrest is part of a government crackdown on the sect as ordered by President Daniel arap Moi two weeks ago after its members whipped and stripped naked six women in the southern suburbs of the capital city for wearing long trousers.

The Mungiki action elicited condemnation from the public, especially from human rights groups, goading the president into ordering the crackdown.
(...)

Ibrahim Waruinge, the Mungiki leader, has escaped the police dragnet and is still at large.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. Kenya: Mungiki sect leader, wanted by police, says he is not on the run
BBC Monitoring, Nov. 13, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/pages/newsreal/Story.nsp?story_id=15723278&ID=newsreal&scategory=AP+Top+Headlines
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Text of report by Kenyan KTN TV on 13th November
[Newsreader] Mungiki sect leaders claim that another group masquerading as Mungiki is being used to tarnish the name of the original sect. The leaders claim that none of their members have been involved in the spate of lawlessness lately, associated with Mungiki.

The national coordinator, Ibrahim Ndura Waruingi, said that he has never gone underground in a bid to escape police arrest.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Islam

13. Islamic Body Threatens Visiting German Preacher
Panafrican News Agency, Nov. 13, 2000
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200011130017.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
An Islamic body in northern Nigeria, Council of Ulamas, has warned visiting German preacher Reinhard Bonnke to stay away from the area country or face its wrath.

Council chairman Ibrahim Kabo said any attempt by the preacher to visit the predominantly Moslem north would have far-reaching consequences.

''We cannot in a hurry forget the calamities experienced in 1991 in Kano...when he visited Nigeria to preach his doctrine. We are not going to fold our arms and watch this enemy of Sharia directly or indirectly re-enact the 1991 disturbance,'' he told journalists in the northern city of Kano at the weekend.
(...)

Bonnke's last attempt to hold a crusade in Moslem-dominated Kano triggered a religious riot in which many were killed and several properties destroyed.

Aware of the controversy his visit was likely to generate in Nigeria, which is divided almost equally between Christians and Moslems, Bonnke hinted on arrival in Nigeria last weekend that he could no longer go to the north to preach.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


14. Koran victory for Morocco's Islamists
BBC, Nov. 10, 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
After successfully scuppering the government's plan for women's rights, and clamouring for the closure of the Israeli liaison office in Rabat, Morocco's Islamists are now claiming another victory - the lifting of the ban on the sale of the Muslim scriptures at this year's International Book Fair in Casablanca.
(...)

The minister of information and culture, Mohammed Achaari, lifted the 17-year-old ban on the Naked Bread, a book by Mohammed Shukri about the seedy side of Morocco's seediest city, Tangiers.

And in the name of modernisation, Mr Achaari - a member of the governing socialist party, the USFP, stopped the sale of imported Korans.

Censors were positioned at the book fair gates - in the shadow of Casablanca's landmark Hassan II mosque - to frisk the public for books and pamphlets of an Islamic hue.
(...)

But Mr Achaari had overlooked the wrath of Morocco's religious lobby.

MPs from the Islamist Party of Justice and Development took to the parliament floor to accuse Morocco's leftist-led government of encouraging the profane and banning the holy.
(...)

In the face of such inquisition, Minister Achaari protested his innocence.

He said he merely wanted to protect Moroccan publishers of religious literature against a deluge of cheap Beirut editions, and to uphold the Moroccan edition of the Koran - the Warash - which differs from the Hafas rendition of the Middle East.

He also suggested Morocco's Islamist movement were trading in Korans for fund-raising.
(...)

In the Koran row, the authorities are again backing down.

The censors remain at the gates, but the exhibition hall is awash with Middle Eastern editions of the scriptures.

Book fair organiser Rachid Jebbouj said he had ordered that each stall be allowed to display 50 copies of each imported edition of the Koran.

As on Morocco's streets, so at the book fair: the peddlers of politicised Islamic interpretations from further East are increasingly stealing the show.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Jehovah's Witnesses

15. Body-parts ruling likely Monday
The Orange County Register, Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.ocregister.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A Superior Court judge is expected to decide Monday if the parents of a 17-year-old homicide victim can move forward with a case that alleges their son's lung was harvested without their consent.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office took the left lung of Justin Hartt within hours of his death in 1996 and gave it to a researcher at the University of Southern California.

The boy's parents, Merlin and Catherine Hartt of Monterey Park, first learned about the organ removal more than three years later, on Dec. 2, 1999, when they were contacted by an Orange County Register reporter.
(...)

The Hartts, devout Jehovah's Witnesses, say they oppose organ and tissue donation on religious grounds and say they were never asked for consent.

Their claim against Los Angeles County was rejected initially on the grounds it was filed after a one-year statute of limitations had expired. Justin Hartt was fatally shot in East Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 1996.
(...)

The story of what happened to Justin Hartt was published in April as part of a Register investigative series detailing how human body parts are used to make products or to conduct research experiments - often without the knowledge of donor families.
(...)

As a result of the Register findings, however, the Legislature passed a law banning the practice. Signed by Gov. Gray Davis, it takes effect Jan. 1.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The Orange County Register's Investigative Report: The Body Brokers


=== Witchcraft

16. Legalisation of witchcraft could encourage it: Australian church
AFP, Nov. 12, 2000
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Australia's Anglican Church warned Sunday that a decision by the Queensland state government to legalise witchcraft, sorcery and fortune telling could encourage the practice of serious witchcraft.

Brisbane's Anglican Archbishop Peter Hollingworth also said he believed the casting of spells and the conducting of magical practices could have ''serious psychological effects'' on people and lead to infiltration of Christian churches by witches.

His warning followed the decision by Queensland's Labor government to amend several statutes to correct, repeal or modernise provisions under Queensland law which were thought to have become confusing or obsolete.

State Parliament approved the amendments Friday after Attorney-General Matt Foley described the provision on witchcraft in the Criminal Code as ''archaic and anachronistic'' and urged its abolition.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups

17. Local man arrested on suspicion of hate crimes
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 10, 2000
http://www.uniontrib.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
White supremacist Alex Curtis was arrested at his Lemon Grove home yesterday on suspicion of federal hate crimes after a yearlong investigation.

Critics label the 25-year-old as ''a rising star'' in the racist movement on a national level.
(...)

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog group based in Montgomery, Ala., has named Curtis one of the six most prominent young hate leaders in the country.

The Anti-Defamation League considers him ''a rising star among bigots.'' Local spokesman Morris Casuto said increased police attention to hate crimes reflects the potential threat by such individuals to the community.

In his zeal to create an all-white nation, Curtis encourages individuals to violence.

''I attack my enemies, such as the U.S. government and Jews, without compromise,'' Curtis recently told a San Diego Union-Tribune reporter through e-mail letters.

He also staunchly advocates terrorism by single attackers.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. Racist critic of Aryan Nations faces federal charges
The Spokesman-Review, Nov. 11, 2000
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A racist who criticized the Aryan Nations and used the Internet to promote hate faces federal charges in San Diego for allegedly threatening a congressman and three others.
(...)

From his home in Lemon Grove, Calif., Curtis operates the ''Nationalist Observer,'' a daily Internet newsletter and forum dedicated to activities of white supremacists.

The Aryan Nations and the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger -- two North Idaho hate groups -- are frequent topics on the site.

Curtis is charged with conspiracy to violate the civil rights of U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif.; La Mesa, Calif., Mayor Art Madrid; Morris Casuto, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, and Clara Harris, director of Heartland Human Relations and Fair Housing Association.
(...)

DaSilva also is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly threatening to kill a neo-Nazi skinhead who he suspected of cooperating with federal investigators.

Curtis, a frequent critic of high-profile groups like the Aryan Nations, operated a small group or ''cell'' of ''self-avowed white supremacists,'' the indictment alleges.

''Curtis and his cell members targeted various prominent public figures, who spoke out against hate crimes or were members of an ethnic or racial minority,'' the FBI said in a prepared statement.

Curtis and his followers placed Nazi stickers and spray-painted graffiti on two San Diego synagogues to promote their racist agenda and infringe on the civil rights of others, the indictment alleges.
(...)

The investigation was dubbed ''Operation Lone Wolf'' by the FBI because Curtis urged other white supremacists to follow ''lone wolf'' activism.

''He preached hate through his computer Web site and racist telephone messages urging white supremacists to commit criminal acts in small groups or cells to avoid penetration by law enforcement,'' the FBI said in the statement.

Curtis encouraged ''lone wolf activists'' to fight for white supremacy goals ''by any means necessary.''

His Web site was linked to the Aryan Nations, but Curtis frequently criticized the approach taken by Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler.

Curtis said it was foolish to have a compound or to march through Coeur d'Alene as Butler has done.

''No one should belong to groups such as the Aryan Nations or attend meetings or parades, which have been a hallmark method of the hate movement to garner attention and money,'' Curtis said on Sept. 15.

He urged white supremacists to ''go underground'' -- a trend that seems to be taking place since a $6.3 million judgment was rendered in September against the Aryan Nations.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


» Continued in Part 2