Once again, Jonny Jacobsen is our man on the scene in Europe, where news of Scientology’s infiltration of a Swiss national organization broke in the local press. Give us the details, Jonny…
A Scientology anti-drugs group is using a Swiss umbrella association presided over by a politician as cover for its own activities, the German-language daily Tages Anzeiger reported Monday.
Sag Nein Zu Drogen, the Swiss branch of Scientology’s “The Truth About Drugs” campaign, is part of a Swiss anti-drugs alliance, the DDS, the paper reported. (DDS stands for Dachverband Drogenabstinenz Schweiz: which translates roughly as the Swiss Association for Abstinence from Drugs.)
But while its members were out on the streets of Bern recently handing out leaflets for a DDS event, they were also distributing their own literature, Tages Anzeiger noted.
The DDS, an umbrella group for a number of anti-drugs organisations, is presided over by 39-year-old Andrea Geissbühler, a parliamentary deputy in the canton of Bern for the right-wing Swiss People’s Party.
Asked about Scientology group’s presence, Geissbühler told the paper that so long as they were anti-drugs, they were welcome. She had never noticed any Scientologists inside the association do any proselytising, and if she had she would not tolerate it, she added.
She had a similar message for the French-language daily Les Temps, one of several Swiss papers to follow up the story. In an interview, she conceded that she had not known about Scientology’s involvement in the association when she took over as president. “Nevertheless,” she added, “that does not pose a problem insofar as this group’s representative’s have never tried to influence us.
“We remain neutral on the religious and political front and we have always concentrated on questions linked to drugs. It would become a problem if they tried to recruit members via our organisation.”
As for the leafleting incident, she said she had not been aware that they had been handing out their own literature. But she added: “We have a discussion since then during the course of which I told the people concerned that it should not happen again. But as president of the umbrella organization, I can’t control what the members do.”
This may strike some Underground Bunker regulars as complacent. It is perhaps even more remarkable when you consider that Geissbühler, when she is not fulfilling her parliamentary duties or overseeing the DDS, serves in the Swiss police force.
Bunker regulars will be familiar with the links between “The Truth About Drugs” and Scientology. They will know too that Scientology’s anti-drugs campaigns are inextricably linked with the junk science “cure” devised by Hubbard himself and used at the movement’s Narconon drug rehab centers, often to disastrous effect.
Follow the links at the Swiss site, and sure enough, it’s a short trip to the website of a Swiss Narconon center and the local branch of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, another of the Scientology’s satellites.
Given the rising body count at Scientology’s Narconon centers, exhaustively covered here at the Bunker, that ought to be a cause for concern to Geissbühler.
The DDS anti-drugs alliance boasts 66 political personalities on a committee of patrons: it will be interesting to see if, in the coming days, any of them have anything to say about the cuckoo in the nest.
— Jonny Jacobsen
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Karen de la Carriere on Heber Jentzsch, Part 3
Karen continues her series about her former husband Heber Jentzsch, who is still the president of the Church of Scientology International. Karen discusses how they met and more…
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BOOK NOTES
We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.
Tony Ortega’s upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…
August 24: Boston, Boston Skeptics in the Pub, 7 pm (with Gregg Housh)
Sept 15: Barrett the Honors College, Arizona State University, ASU in Downtown Phoenix campus
Sept 23: Cleveland, Parma Heights Library, 7pm sponsored by Center for Inquiry – Northeast Ohio
Sept 24: Minneapolis
Sept 27: Portland
Sept 28: Seattle, Razzi’s Pizzeria, 7 pm, with Seattle Skeptics and Seattle Atheists
Sept 29: Vancouver, BC, Seven Dining Lounge, 7 pm
Oct 23: Sydney, Giant Dwarf Theatre (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)
Oct 25: Melbourne
Oct 28: Adelaide (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)
Oct 30: Perth
Past dates: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4)
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 11, 2015 at 07:00
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Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
