Responding to a New York "Post" exposé of New York City Councilwoman Margarita Lopez's receipt of nearly US$100,000 from the sinister Scientology business, the NCHRA urges state and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate the councilwoman for possible criminal and ethical wrong-doing. The issue under contention is the funding of the Scientology Corporation under the guise of "detoxifying" New York City's fire fighters and other emergency response team members.
"Scientology's 'detox' program has long been considered by many to be both dangerous and ineffective [0]," said David Rice, President of the NCHRA. "From Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop who called the treatment 'dangerous' and 'detrimental to [one's] health,' to James J. Kenney, Ph.D., RD, of the National Council Against Health Fraud who said of the program 'Health professionals who subject troubled people (many with psychiatric illnesses and / or severe emotional problems) to this unproven detoxification program are at best unethical and at worst guilty of health fraud.' There was no legitimate excuse for the city of New York to subject its fire fighters, as if they were lab rates and guinea pigs, to this insidious form of medical experimentation: any through investigation would have produced more than enough data for any rational human being to reject the program."
The Scientology business created their "detoxification" program in 1972, under the hands of Scientology's Guardians Office [1]. That same Scientology department was later convicted of the infiltration and theft of documents from a number of prominent private national and world organizations, law firms and newspapers; the execution of smear campaigns and baseless law suits to destroy private individuals who had attempted to exercise their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression; the framing (of crimes) of private citizens who had been critical of Scientology, including the forging of documents which led to the indictment of at least one innocent person; violation of the civil rights of prominent private figures and public officials; the burglary of Government offices; the theft of Government property; the interception of private Governmental communications; the obstruction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Grand Jury investigation into those burglaries; thefts, and electronic "buggings" of government offices and private citizen's residences and business offices; the harboring and concealment of a fugitive from justice; and the making of false declarations to the federal Grand Jury. [2]
"Many of the world's human rights activists consider the Scientology business to be organized crime. Councilwoman Lopez might have been negligent in her duty to the citizens of New York, and the fire fighters who were subjected to Scientology Inc.'s program, if she failed to research that for which she urged funding and which she politically supported."
The Scientology business appears to have ignored all the studies that have shown their "detoxification" program to be both dangerous [3] and ineffective [4]. The business has consistently refused to provide to the NCHRA any data showing their program is both safe and effective.
"All I get from Scientology are assertions that such-and-such study shows their program is safe and that it works: every request to be given copies of those studies has been refused; every request to see raw data about the effectiveness of their program has been met with refusal. In a few cases, studies reported the exact opposite of what the Scientology business claims they reported. [5]"
No peer-reviewed medical journals have published any studies about Scientology's program. When medical authorities have commented of the program, the opinions are nearly unanimously negative.
"When Councilwoman Lopez accepted money from the malignant Scientology business, she should have smelled the offal pit she was stepping into. The NCHRA asks law enforcement to investigate to see if she broke any laws; we also ask the New York City Council to investigate any ethics violations she may have committed during her transactions with Scientology Inc."
[0] Oklahoma State Board of Health; Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop; Michigan Corrections Department psychologist John Hand; Wolfgang Heckmann MD.; James J. Kenney, Ph.D., RD.; Vigilli Venzin, MD.
[1] Flag Bureaux Data Letter 220, August 29, 1972, called in the memo "NarConon"
[2] USA Vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Criminal Case No. 78-401
[3] The Safety Issue: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/safety.htm
[4] The Effective Issue: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/doesitwork.htm
[5] Such as the West Berlin government study; the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare study; and the evaluation by Peter Gerdman at Vårby Gård, near Stockholm. See also http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/studies.htm
