» Continued from Part 1

=== Hate Groups
13. Yahoo! To Ban Nazi Artifacts
14. Revival of Anti-Semitism Feared in Europe

=== Other News
15. Archbishop eludes handcuffs during St. Patrick's Mass
16. Archbishop Attacked
17. Dad tells of 'poor soul' who needs some help
18. Psychologist Faces Hearing On Charges Of Misconduct
19. Charity's recycling claims mislead public (Tvind)
20. Rev. Moon, the Bushes & Donald Rumsfeld
21. Government snatched my brilliant daughter (Sufiah Yusof)
22. Omens bad for fortune-hunter
23. Obituary of Randolph Hearst : Media magnate whose daughter was kidnapped

» Part 3

=== Death Penalty & Other Human Rights Violations
24. Should killers have spiritual advisers up to execution time?

=== Noted
25. Prophet Motive (Sylvia Browne)
26. Exorcism and suggestibility study: False memories of possession can
be created

=== Books
27. Guidance Counseling
28. JK Rowling is far ahead of the Spice Girls in personal wealth

=== The Butt Of Jokes Around The Corner
29. 'A bottom is a lot like a crystal ball'
30. Bigfoot's Buttocks

=== Hate Groups

13. Yahoo! To Ban Nazi Artifacts
The Associated Press, Jan. 3, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
PARIS -- Advocacy groups that sued to block French Web surfers from accessing Nazi artifacts cheered Yahoo's decision to stop carrying online auctions of hate-related materials worldwide.
(...)

Yahoo! Inc. announced late Tuesday that starting Jan. 10 it will stop carrying online auctions featuring hate-related material such as medals, weapons, uniforms, official documents and other items carrying swastikas or other symbols associated with hate groups.
(...)

Two French anti-racism groups sued Yahoo in April, accusing the company of violating French law barring the display or sale of racist material.
(...)

In May, the French judge ruled that Yahoo had offended the nation's ''collective memory'' and ordered the Internet company to pay $1,000 to each group. A judge confirmed the ruling in November, ordering Yahoo to find ways to block French users from its sites selling Nazi paraphernalia or face $13,000 a day in fines.

Yahoo said the court rulings played no role in the new policy.

''We decided we don't necessarily want to profit from items that promote hatred or glorify hatred and violence,'' senior auction producer Brian Fitzgerald said Tuesday.

On the Net:

http://auctions.yahoo.com

http://www.cdt.org
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


14. Revival of Anti-Semitism Feared in Europe
San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 2, 2001 (Opinion)
http://www.sfgate.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Vice President Al Gore's selection of an Orthodox Jew as his running mate and the popular vote success of the ticket -- along with a series of setbacks for neo-Nazi and right-wing fanatics -- show that anti-Semitism is on the decline in the United States. The same is not true in Europe.

After the rash of attacks on synagogues in France and Germany in recent months, there is a growing fear of a major revival of anti-Semitism in Europe for the first time since World War II. Unlike the situation before World War II, when there was a strong current of fascism in both western and eastern Europe, the causes of anti-Semitism today differ from country to country.

If there is a leitmotif, it is that contemporary European anti-Semitism is part of the larger phenomenon of anti-foreignism. This is particularly the case in France and Germany.

In France, over the last decade, there has been a strong surge of anti- foreignism, led by the leader of France's radical-right National Front Party, Jean Marie Le Pen. Le Pen espouses opposition to foreigners (primarily North African Muslim immigrants), as well as anti-Americanism and opposition to French participation in the European Union.
(...)

Curiously, it appears that members of another group despised by Le Pen -- young North African Muslim immigrants -- were responsible for the recent attacks on French synagogues. Possibly sparked by radical Islamic agitators to show solidarity with the Palestinians, the attacks also expressed the Arab immigrants' frustrations at their high rate of unemployment and difficulties in assimilating into French society.

In Germany, anti-Semitism takes a somewhat different form than in France. German anti-Semitism is spearheaded by youthful right-wing groups in the former East Germany. Unlike their counterparts in West Germany, they were never educated against anti-Semitism. They also face job competition from the influx of foreign asylum seekers, many from sub-Saharan Africa, attracted by Germany's liberal asylum laws.

Unlike France, the German government has actively confronted anti-Semitism. France has often been hostile to Israel and is accused by some French Jews of encouraging an anti-Jewish political atmosphere. Germany, on the other hand, is Israel's best friend in the European Union.
(...)

Unlike France, which has a Jewish community of about 500,000, or Germany, with a reviving Jewish community nearing 80,000 (many from the former Soviet Union), Poland has been almost completely ''ethnically cleansed'' of Jews -- first by the Nazis and then by Polish Communist leader Wladyslaw Gomulka in 1968.
(...)

Nonetheless, in August, the Polish bishops joined in a letter apologizing for the church's toleration of anti-Semitism. The letter described anti- Semitism as a ''sin just like anti-Christianity,'' and the government authorized the construction of a synagogue at Auschwitz.

In the Baltic states, anti-Semitism takes another form.
(...)

Having once again freed themselves from Moscow's grip in 1991, the three states are rewriting their histories, giving pride of place to their struggle against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. The fact that many of those who fought the Soviet Union killed Jews in the process has been glossed over. Failure to prosecute Nazi war criminals greatly concerns the few Jews left in the Baltic countries, who fear it is the precursor to a revival of anti- Semitism.

In Russia, long known for its anti-Semitism, Jews are seen as a ''foreign'' element. Following the collapse of the Russian economy in 1998, there was an upsurge of anti-Semitism.
(...)

In sum, anti-Semitism in Europe today is a multifaceted phenomenon, albeit still a dangerous one.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

15. Archbishop eludes handcuffs during St. Patrick's Mass
AP, Jan. 2, 2001
http://www.newsday.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEW YORK (AP) - A 38-year-old former altar boy lunged at Archbishop Edward Egan and tried to handcuff him during a St. Patrick's Cathedral Mass, police said.

''I have to arrest the bishop!'' Timothy Byrne yelled while church ushers and police tackled him to the ground Monday morning, according to authorities.
(...)

Byrne, an unemployed architect from Hoboken, N.J., was restrained by his own handcuffs, police said. He was charged with attempted unlawful imprisonment, resisting arrest, disrupting a religious service and criminal possession of a weapon, pepper spray, which was found in his knapsack, police said.
(...)

Byrne, a Catholic, has been suing the Catholic Church unsuccessfully for more than a year, claiming it fraudulently collects money from parishioners and promotes a belief in Jesus Christ, ''at best, a legend,'' according to one of his lawsuits.

He was arrested and sent to a mental hospital after threatening to cut off President Clinton's head in 1999, authorities said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


16. Archbishop Attacked
Newsday, Jan. 2, 20001
http://www.newsday.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
With a phonebook-sized lawsuit accusing the Catholic Church of fraud in his backpack, a man carrying handcuffs tried to ''arrest'' Archbishop Edward Egan during communion at St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday morning, police said.
(...)

In the lawsuit filed against ''all organizations teaching the New Testament of the Bible as true fact and accepting money for that deception,'' Byrne claimed that the church's contention that Jesus ''did live is at best a legend,'' that the resurrection was ''a mistaken diagnosis'' and that Catholicism is a ''lie and fraud.'' He furthered alleged that the church was aware of the fraud but continued to perpetuate it to make money.

Byrne was seeking the seizure of all the property owned by the church and wanted a court ruling rendering the teaching of Christianity for money illegal.

The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in Manhattan on Oct. 3.

Byrne filed a similar claim in New Jersey on Dec. 18. That claim is still pending, according to court records.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


17. Dad tells of 'poor soul' who needs some help
New York Post, Jan. 2, 2001
http://www.nypostonline.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Church-rage suspect Timothy Byrne was a bright, caring New Jersey architect before mental illness reduced him to ''a poor soul who needs some help,'' his worried father told The Post last night.

''Tim is bipolar and, as far as I know, he hasn't taken his prescription since August,'' said Patrick Byrne, an IBM executive who lives in North Carolina.
(...)

Patrick Byrne said Timothy, the youngest of four children, is a sweet, talented man whose manic-depressive disorder can only be controlled by his lithium medication.
(...)

Officials say Byrne has filed numerous suits against Christian churches in the past two years, arguing that they have committed fraud by collecting donations based on fraudulent claims that Jesus Christ lived.
(...)

During his confession, he told cops that he tried to arrest Egan because ''Christian judges'' kept throwing his cases out of court - and he felt he had to make a ''citizen's arrest'' to keep his lawsuits alive.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


18. Psychologist Faces Hearing On Charges Of Misconduct
The Commercial Appeal, Dec. 31, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A Memphis psychologist faces more than two dozen conduct charges that include allegations she fondled one of her patients, alienated patients from their families and doled out drugs from a tackle box.

Terry B. Davis, who runs the Guardian Foundation, a Singleton Parkway counseling center, could face $33,000 in fines and the loss of her license when the state's Board of Examiners in Psychology hears the case.
(...)

Davis, 54, specializes in treating dissociative identity disorders, what mental health experts once called multiple personalities.
(...)

State officials say Davis kept patients' prescription drugs in a communal tackle box and then gave them to patients they weren't prescribed for. Unlike medical doctors, psychologists cannot prescribe drugs.

Regulators also allege Davis fondled one patient, and unduly influenced patients' life decisions.

Those life decisions include telling one patient to drop out of college and discouraging another's religious beliefs.

In one case, state officials say, Davis wrongly convinced a longtime patient her father molested her as a child - ruining the woman's relationship with her father, who died before the woman realized she'd been misled.
(...)

The state standards for licensed psychologists say that because patients are vulnerable, psychologists must guard against unduly influencing them.

The standards say psychologists must respect the rights of patients to hold values or opinions different from theirs.

But former patients describe an atmosphere in which Davis had near- total control over patients, influencing decisions such as whether they should even speak to family members.
(...)

Mathis, a patient for seven years when Davis's office was in Clark Tower on Poplar, said patients were encouraged to ''act out'' their personalities.

The power of suggestion seemed to fuel patients' ability to behave strangely, said Mathis, who said she could never find the memories Davis insisted she had repressed.
(...)

Claims that patients were satanically possessed weren't unusual, Mathis said.

''She would do an exorcism to release the demons, and would have people praying with her,'' Mathis said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. Charity's recycling claims mislead public
Independent (England), Dec. 17, 2000
http://www.independent.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Outside the Asda store in the West Midlands suburb of Great Barr there is a green metal container. Last week shoppers dumped nearly half a ton of old clothes and shoes into it. They believed they were helping the environment.

There are 200 such bins throughout the West Midlands, West Country, south Wales and southern England placed by Green World Recycling.

On the side of the bin a notice lists an ambitious programme of 18 objectives, saying that with the money raised by selling the clothes: ''We hire rangers, install trails for eco-tourism, arrange nature study camps for schools, conduct scientific studies ...'
(...)

Yet although Green World Recycling has been in business for three years, it has not given a penny to charity, nor is there evidence that any of the projects advertised by The Gaia-movement Trust Living Earth Green World Action exist, except on paper.

And another company, called Planet Aid UK, is also collecting in the Midlands and the north in aid of the Third World. Their bins have surfaced in car parks and pub forecourts from Kettering to Sheffield.

Both companies are run by Torben and Birgit Soe, a married couple from Denmark. Mr Soe, 6ft 6ins, runs Green World Recycling from a tatty office on the Wolverhampton industrial estate, drives an old Renault van and lives in a modest semi-detached in Tamworth, Staffordshire.

The couple belong to an organisation called The Teachers Group, sometimes known as Tvind. The Teachers Group has a long and colourful history. It is run on the principles of a common economy: its members pool their incomes and wealth. They also submit to iron discipline.

Hardly a penny of the millions raised by the Teachers Group goes to the world outside - the money is invariably spent on its own charities. And because the cash crosses national boundaries and ends in offshore accounts, it is seldom accountable.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The unedited text of this item can be found at the author's web site

20. Rev. Moon, the Bushes & Donald Rumsfeld
Consortium News, Jan. 3, 2000
http://www.consortiumnews.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
George W. Bush's choice of Donald Rumsfeld to be U.S. defense secretary could put an unintended spotlight on the role of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon - a Bush family benefactor - in funneling millions of dollars to communist North Korea in the 1990s as it was developing a missile and nuclear weapons program.

In 1998, Rumsfeld headed a special commission, appointed by the Republican-controlled Congress, that warned that North Korea had made substantial progress during the decade in building missiles that could pose a potential nuclear threat to Japan and parts of the United States.
(...)

Rumsfeld's alarming assessment of North Korea's war-making capabilities now is being cited by Republicans as a justification for investing billions of taxpayer dollars in an anti-missile defense system favored by Bush and Rumsfeld.

Yet, during the early-to-mid 1990s, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was monitoring a series of clandestine payments from Sun Myung Moon's organization to the North Korean communist leaders who were overseeing the country's military strategies.

According to DIA documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Moon's payments to North Korean leaders included a $3 million ''birthday present'' to current communist leader Kim Jong Il and offshore payments amounting to ''several tens of million dollars'' to the previous communist dictator, Kim Il Sung.

The alleged payments - and broader Moon-North Korean business deals reported by the DIA - came at a time of a strict U.S. government ban on financial transactions between North Korea and any U.S. person or entity, to keep hard currency out of North Korea's hands.

Legal experts say that ban would have applied to Moon given his status as a permanent U.S. resident, even though he maintains South Korean citizenship.

While negotiating those business deals with North Korea in the 1990s, Moon's organization also hired former President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush to give speeches at Moon-sponsored events.

During one Moon-sponsored speech in Argentina in November 1996, former President Bush declared, ''I want to salute Reverend Moon,'' whom Bush praised as ''the man with the vision.''

The father of the incoming U.S. president has refused to divulge how much Moon's organization paid for these speeches which were delivered in the United States, Asia and South America.
(...)

Ex-President Bush's pro-Moon speeches came at a time, too, when Moon - now 80 - was expressing intensely anti-American views. In the mid-1990s, Moon denounced the United States as ''Satan's harvest'' and condemned American women as having descended from a ''line of prostitutes.''
(...)

For more background on the Moon Organization, see our Archives for ''Dark Side of Rev. Moon'' or former Moon follower Steve Hassan's Web site.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. Government snatched my brilliant daughter
Sunday Mercury (England), Dec. 24, 2000
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The father of runaway Midland maths genius Sufiah Yusof is writing a book claiming that his daughter was abducted after a 'governmental- level conspiracy'.

Farooq Yusof says he has 'hard facts' which will prove his family was targeted because of the success of his 'unique accelerated teaching methods'.
(...)

Earlier this year, he told the Sunday Mercury he feared Sufiah, who started her degree at the age of just 13, had been brainwashed by the International Church of Christ (ICOC).

Now Mr Yusof, a college lecturer from Coventry, claims the religious cult was just one of many organisations used to drive his family apart and discredit his work.

And he said he is close to finalising a deal with publishers for an explosive new book containing letters and e-mails from Sufiah which back his suspicions.

Mr Yusof, 44, said: 'My daughter has been manipulated by outside influences, including the ICOC, in an effort to stop, or at least effectively copy my accelerated teaching methods.
(...)

Sufiah, who was educated at home along with her gifted siblings, is currently under the care of Bournemouth social services.

She was tracked down to the seaside resort after she sent her family a disturbing e-mail in which she refused to return home describing life there as a 'living hell.'

The teenager later contacted Oxford University to inform her tutors she was taking a year out and would return to her degree studies in 2002.

A Thames Valley police spokesman said they would investigate Mr Yusof's claims if he provided them with evidence.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


22. Omens bad for fortune-hunter
The Guardian (England), Jan. 2, 2001
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Most of Japan's 126m people ushered in the new year with visits to shrines and temples yesterday, but for at least one man this traditional quest for good luck resulted in an inauspicious start to 2001.

A thief stole 7m yen (£41,000) in cash from the car of a doctor, Shinobu Ogura, while he prayed for good fortune at the Kita-in Buddhist temple in Kawagoe, Saitama prefecture.
(...)

Only 53% of Japanese people profess any strong religious convictions, but most people honour the customs of the shogatsu - New Year - festival, which is a time to wipe away the bad luck of the old year and start afresh.
(...)

Dr Ogura was among the 93m people expected to seek the favour of the gods in a traditional and spiritual fashion with a hatsumode, or first religious visit of the year.

At temples or shinto shrines, this is considered a lucky time of the year to buy road-safety charms, bats for slapping away bad luck, and omikuji - fortune slips that claim to spell out the buyer's prospects for love, business, travel and health in the year ahead.

If Dr Ogura's omikuji was at all accurate, it would have read '' dai-kyo '' (miserable fortune) - the worst of six possible fates - and he would have followed tradition in tying the slip to a temple tree in the hope that the bad luck would never leave the grounds.

But the misfortune appeared to be continuing yesterday afternoon as police reported that they had found no witnesses to the crime.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. Obituary of Randolph Hearst : Media magnate whose daughter was kidnapped
The Daily Telegraph, Jan. 1, 2001
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate who has died aged 85, paid a high price for fame and riches when his 19-year-old daughter, Patricia, was kidnapped by an obscure radical group in 1974.
(...)

Patty Hearst was abducted on February 4 1974 on the eve of her marriage, by a group calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army. During her 57 days in captivity, she was imprisoned in a wardrobe, ill-treated and subjected to brainwashing.

Throughout her ordeal, her father kept his nerve, patiently facing the television cameras to give regular interviews about the SLA's latest demands, and calmly pleading for his daughter's return.

When the group demanded that Hearst should donate millions of dollars in free food to help California's poor, he organised a $2 million People In Need programme which distributed more than 90,000 food parcels in Los Angeles and San Francisco - a gesture dismissed by the terrorists as a ''mockery''. Patty Hearst's captivity came to an end only after she had sworn allegiance to her captors, denounced her parents as ''fascist pigs'' and agreed to take part in a series of robberies.

After she was captured by the police, and convicted for her part in a bank robbery, Hearst visited her every day in prison. He refused to believe she had willingly joined her captors.

Patty Hearst served a total of 21 months in prison, but was eventually released into the custody of her parents, who had mounted a campaign for her release. She later married a former San Francisco police officer who had become her bodyguard, and adopted the conservative views of her parents. But the strain of the kidnapping proved too much for her parents' marriage, which ended in divorce.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


» Part 3