Scientologists Try to Explain how Psychiatrists caused 9/11 and the Holocaust from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.
Scientology has opened a bizarre new front in its ongoing war on psychiatry: it causes terrorism.
On two scientology chat shows prominent members of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (a Scientology front group whose overwrought website dedicated to exposing psychiatry as an “Industry of Death” can be seen here) calmly explain that bin Laden was brainwashed into committing acts of terrorism by his “psychiatrist”, Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Chairman of CCHR Florida Dave Figueroa claims that terrorism is inextricably linked to psychiatry. As he puts it: “behind those individual acts of mayhem you find psychiatrists, you find psychologists and their drugs”. In bin Laden’s case it was Zawahiri: “that ideology of terror was coming from bin Laden who was influenced by a psychiatrist and that really is the bottom line.”
Listening to Figueroa you would think that bin Laden had been working for the Salvation Army until he was corrupted by Zawahiri in 1988. Shaking his head at the memory of the sweet Osama we used to know, he laments:
“His whole thought patterns [sic] and his entire viewpoint were changed by Zawahiri and whatever types of drugs that Zawahiri used to make that change in bin Laden we don’t know. But we do know that there was a real change in this guy’s attitude and in his willingness to wreak havoc.”
Apparently this “willingness to wreak havoc” was not suitably demonstrated by bin Laden’s involvement in brutal jihad against the Red Army in Afghanistan throughout the 1980s.
In the second clip President of CCHR International (and surely a star in some sort of Scientology panto, ‘The Psychiatrist Terrorist: He’s Behind You’?) Dennis Clarke confidently describes Zawahiri as “[bin Laden’s] psychiatrist, that’s his doctor, that’s his therapist, that’s… [dramatic pause] the guy who runs him.”
Neither Figueroa nor Clarke seems overly worried about the fact that Zawahiri is in fact an eye-surgeon and not a psychiatrist, that there is absolutely no evidence for what they’re saying, nor that religious violence predates psychiatry by, oh, several thousand years.
Creepily, both men have identically formatted personal websites (available here and here). Is Scientology now encouraging members to show their individuality through one-size-fits all sites? If so they should fire their web designers. Word Press, guys. It works miracles.
The only thing more shocking than the ignorance of the claims made is the mind-numbingly poor quality of their discussion. At 4.28 host Larry Byrne, with eyes screwed tight in concentration as he makes his carefully worded argument, says:
“Y’know that is a very good point because y’know you take a look at these guys and you say ‘who in their right mind would get behind the controls of a plane and fly into a tower knowing that they’re going to die?’ And how does that get brought about? Somebody walking along the street y’know and you’re having a rational conversation with them you wouldn’t expect that kind of behaviour, so in order to modify that behaviour you have to use some sort of technology. You don’t just wake up and say: ‘Hey, I’m going to jump in a plane and fly into a world trade centre.’
At the end of the second clip Byrne invites viewers to call a number on screen to receive a free booklet entitled ‘Chaos and terror manufactured by psychiatry’ which will give them “the data and the facts behind the notorious terrorist attacks like 9/11 that were basically created by psychiatrists operating behind the scenes.”
Counterknowledge.com expects a follow up booklet ‘Terrorists: Nice Guys Until the Psychiatrists Get Them’ to be available soon.
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17 responses
“Neither Figueroa nor Clarke seems overly worried about the fact that Zawahiri is in fact an eye-surgeon and not a psychiatrist, that there is absolutely no evidence for what they’re saying, nor that religious violence predates psychiatry by, oh, several thousand years.”
That’s standard operating procedure for Scientologists. David Miscavige once went on Nightline and told the hosts with a straight face that back in the 1950s, Scientology had been responsible for the defeat of a Bill that (in Miscavige’s confused telling) would have created a “Siberia, USA” on Alaskan soil to which any psychiatrist could have anyone committed, any time. (Needless to say, this bore little resemblance to the actual bill in question.) Miscavige steadfastly insisted that the credit for the defeat of the bill belonged to Scientology.
Someone should have told him that the bill wasn’t defeated. It passed. Somehow “Siberia, USA” failed to materialize as a result, but that never stops Scientologists.
Just because your cult’s founder was an institutionalized bipolar doesn’t mean you should blame everything on the people who tried to cure his “Visions.”
What’s so “counter” about counterknowledge.com?
… nothing really! I can get the same information from my local newspaper, the difference being that my local newspaper is staffed by better writers.
I’m glad I didn’t bookmark counterknowledge.
Give Zawahiri a friggin break!
He’s not an eye surgeon. Zawahiri NEEDS an eye surgeon. Did you see those coke bottles sitting at the edge of his nose?
… And his brand of Islam has no involvement with psychiatry. Zawahiri studied neurology as a graduate student.
If you’re going to attack Scienology, your thesis should be more thoroughly researched. Otherwise, your coverage will backfire. You’re not high-school J-course students.
Rather than piecing together random quotes and poorly-edited videos, why don’t each of your staff start by carefully reading some readily available Scientology books cover-to-cover with a yellow highlighter firmly in hand. THEN start criticizing Scientology. Otherwise your time is best spent elsewhere.
It’s official: Counterknowledge has now devolved into a mainstream commentary website staffed by wannabe hit-piece writers. Do your homework or find another day job.
Petrus Feldspar Schist –
It’s very strange that you should complain about the original post not being “more thoroughly researched” when your complaints fail to distinguish between the original post and that which the original post was criticizing. If “[Zawahiri's] brand of Islam has no involvement with psychiatry” then in what way does that reflect poorly on Counterknowledge.com ?
It’s also very strange that you should employ a user name which is an obvious knock on mine — despite me not having any connection to Counterknowledge besides “read it and occasionally comment” and you not having a thing to say about any facts that I brought to the conversation.
It gives one grounds to suspect that your accusation of “wannabe hit-piece writer” might be projecting a bit.
Interesting. Maybe we will have a steel cage match between Tom Cruise and Bin Laden. I personally put my money on the big man.
Ah, the Scientology defensebots have arrived.
Here are some mirrors of he video:
http://rutube.ru/tracks/1628737.html?v=2d0f023962e00145706e74ca7efccdb0
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=3QGB24P8
http://de.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7118623
if you looking for a bogus claims to debunk - psychiatry should be high on your agenda not scientology. Scientology is a religion that like every other requires blind faith and thats obviously not science but whose pretending it is?
Don’t just shoot the messenger though every longlasting system has soemthing to say - Scientilogy’s best contribution from my way of thinking is its skepticism about the medicalisation of society. In this case they really have a point - any cartel of scientists that only worked out that being gay is not a mental disease in 1972 and for centuries put people in asylums for very little aberrant behavoir is obviously not very scientific. The same shonk science has gone on to create 900+ new mental disorders over the past 30 years to fuel the industry -it is in the main a commercial scam / marketing mindwash. One day psychiatry will be a science but today its probably on par with alchemists and homeopaths.
Now that Vreeland is awaiting…something, and this thread is about psychiatry… what does that imply, if the note (with a chemical signature from the factory, and subsequently its’ radius of distribution, region) says: paint crazy and call me a liar. What does that mean? Ayman is fresh out of a bucket of “crazy paint”? Does anyone really believe that when Gannet News Service screams “U.S. Had Agents Inside Al Qaeda” that OBL planned the trade of nuclear weapons for a ‘Disney-style’ attack with any and all help from an array of agencies.
The Andaman Quake ( I have my quack) did not “build up” to a magnitude, it was at a high magnitude from the start. This is the signature of full-fledged nuclear exchange in the new world. What could make all the warnings submitted go unheeded and entire ribbons of government stand down and thwart inquiry. It make sense, not just dollars.
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