THE RHETORIC OF LYNDON LAROUCHE AND THE CRIME OF THE LANGUAGE OF HATE AND DESTRUCTION:
Introduction: My son Jeremiah Duggan died in March 2003 in a very violent and sudden way and before his death we like most British people knew very little about Lyndon LaRouche,his international network of Front groups and his Youth Movement. Since this time my son’s friends have established our website www. justiceforjeremiah.com and now there is much more information about the LaRouche Organization than there was before. In addition there are now more websites ( see list at the end) which tell the reader how this Organization is a threat to the individual and a danger to Society.
Background: It was in 2003 and the Iraq War had just begun. Jeremiah was in Paris as a student at the British Institute of London University. He phoned home saying he was invited to attend an anti-war Conference. He felt very strongly he wanted to protest against this impending war and he was full of expectation about how much he would learn from what he was led to believe would be highly acclaimed political speakers. Five days later he phoned home again, but this time it was in the early hours of the morning and things were very different. He said he was in big trouble, he sounded in terror of his life and shouted out to be rescued from danger that minute.
Within the hour he was killed. His dead body found on the Highway very near to the offices of the LaRouche Executive Intelligence Review headquarters and five kilometres outside the town of Wiesbaden. Immediately the police declared this a suicide and despite our pleas for a post mortem and the return of his clothes and shoes the case was closed down and we were excluded from any chance of investigations. The police were of the firm mind this was suicide and there was no necessity to investigate further. They showed no interest at all in the fact that the LaRouche Organization is documented as a dangerous anti-Semitic cult nor were they concerned about the circumstances surrounding this violent sudden death. Nor did the law enforcement officers appear to know anything about how the language and imagery used by this group evokes the central anti- semitic allegation of a powerful and hidden Jewish conspiracy trying to destroy the world. The police in fact set up a meeting and encouraged us to speak to the very people who we now know were involved in the circumstances surrounding his death.
These were the leaders of the LaRouche Schiller group who openly spoke to us about their goals being to “completely change the recruits identity” and to completely change everything the recruits had learnt at University or school. It was explained to us by two top leaders of the LaRouche Organization Ortrum Cramer the Manageress of the Schiller Institute and Jonathan Tannenbaum, a prominent LaRouchite lecturer that the recruits had all the wrong ideas and that they were teaching them to change their assumptions because all that they had learnt was wrong and this could be summed up as “Bush is the new Hitler!” It was only with time, research and further investigations that we found out how the language and terminology of this group amounted to a form of incitement to hatred.
So what happened to Jeremiah? How can our investigations of Language used by this totalitarian Organization throw some light on what happened to Jeremiah? Why is such organized Antisemitism so long been ignored in Germany?
How far is it urgent that we clarify for the police and for the law makers what is the Language of Hate and Destruction so that we can assist them in the identification of crime?
The facts surrounding the death of Jeremiah raise serious questions. Are these questions about a form of torture that was so severe where the incitement to hatred led to a social context where either by physical or mental attack someone life was threatened? Can we see this process whereby the stability of a young person who was unable to withstand methods of subjugation and terrorization an act of criminal harming? Whether it was done to him by others or done to himself as a result of the harmful acts of others terrorizing him we can assume that there almost certainly was the infliction of great pain because we know it led to such a violent death. The question is do we disregard a crime because we decide like the German police not to investigate it. Why is that? Is it because we do not understand or want to understand the nature of Hate crimes? In conclusion how can an understanding of the rhetoric of speaking with forked tongues help us here? Do we need to understand how the language of bigoted conspiracies, of demonization and scape-goating, of irrational beliefs couched in falsifications can have concrete consequences in the real world? I write this paper to show that the consequences of anti-Semitic discourse can be a violence and what we need therefore is more academic research to be done that will provide the tools of analysis for the police and lawmakers so that what happened to Jeremiah may provide a greater understanding of how the rhetoric of speaking with forked tongues can lead to such infliction of pain and hurt. I attempt to provide the means of defining and clarifying what to my view consists of the hate crime that led to my son’s death. I suggest that the evidence is there if we can only recognize what I would like to call
I will now refer to examples to show the following: The Language of Hate: 1. There is a Conspiracy of Evil people taking over the world. In the lectures and Press releases given at the 2003 LaRouche Conference at Bad Schwalbach in Germany there are examples of the Language of Hate. In the Briefings found in my son’s knapsack there are examples of the Language of Hate. It takes the form of demonizing Jewish individuals, vilifying and demeaning them as a group or referring to Israel as a Nazi state or their leaders as Nazis. Euphemisms and codes are used to imply in a sinister and insidious way Jewish complicity. Reference is made to a pernicious group who are trying to spread a kind of universal fascism all over the world and even to destroy the world rather than loose worldwide control. There are notes taken down by Jeremiah recording these conspiracy theories. In the Briefings for Sunday, Monday or Tuesday 22, 23, 24th March 2003 the following can be found: “ There is a pernicious group- the evil oligarchs who are attempting to impose fascist imperialism and world domination through nuclear war. This evil group is fermenting nuclear world war and bringing the world to the brink of destruction.” It is stated in these Briefings in veiled ways that there is a group who are trying to control and thereby destroy the world as we know it. This makes their references even more dangerous because young people like my son are at first unaware of the true meaning behind this language of Hate. The language is full of sinister undertones, innuendos and suggestions such as: There are “forces behind”, “group forces”, “Slime mould” or “the people I told you about before.” All the time reference is made to a group of people , really Jews or Jewish sympathisers and because it is not politically correct to be open about who the group are we get a form of discourse that makes up the language of Hate. Hate figures are the focus with these being Jewish persons who are well known in some way e.g. George Soros, Rohatyn and all become targets for smear mongering, derision and defamation.
On the last page of Jeremiah’s lecture notes also found in his bags it is stated “Jewish leads to Fascism leads to Cheney, Bush.”
Jeremiah heard the key note opening address of Lyndon LaRouche in his talk “Physical Geometry as Strategy” Jeremiah scribbled down notes about how Kennedy was not killed by Oswald but by a special warfare Section of the State apparatus that “does that sort of thing” Again references to a group who are behind the conspiracy of evil people trying to take control of the world.
Jonathan Tennenbaum, a long standing official of the LaRouche Organization said that he remembered how Jeremiah had said: “But I am a Jew” at a time when he heard LaRouche members stating that the Jews were responsible for starting the Iraq War and even being blamed for all the troubles in the world. This shows that Jeremiah felt under attack from the insidious Language of Hate being disseminated around him.
The Language of Deception: From the moment we learnt of our son’s death we have encountered a range of anti-Semitic discourse. It ranges through denial, distortions, total reversals of reality, falsification and ultimately lies and fraud. The deception is even more dangerous because the falsifications can be built upon half truths and of course that makes its camouflage even more sinister.
Examples: For example the use of the poet Schiller and the name of the LaRouche Organization being “The Schiller Institute” as an institute engaging in the Arts hides the political agenda at its base. The study of Plato, mathematics plays its part in the role of deception of a fascist ideology. When we were in the Police station in Wiesbaden the day after our son was killed; The Inspector said: “ Well the Schiller Institute that is a “respectable organization” They go in for Poetry readings and Music. Your son went to an exhibition of Rembrandt paintings the night before he died. “
The Language of Deception works on members and non members. I have evidence of falsifications printed about my person and published worldwide. This consists of interwoven fabrications about how I am working for Baroness Symons, the British Foreign Office Minister – being her pawn only out to “get LaRouche” and of course my being under direction of Mrs Cheney, whom I have never met in my life. The language of Deception is the base of everything that holds the Organization together. My son was surrounded by the language of deception and exposed to falsifications and lies. He was told that he had been lied to all his life. He was repeatedly told he could not believe anyone only their leader Lyndon LaRouche. This use of language to create a controlled environment is the most dangerous aspect and consequence of the language of deception. The dangers of the LaRouche Organization can so easily be overlooked as there is a tendency to not wish to suspect groups that appear to be saying things like “we are not anti-Semitic. We are engaged in cultural activities like poetry, music and mathematics.” However behind this smokescreen there is a background of anti-Semitic and anti-British conspiracies.
When we went to Germany on the day after our son died and were told by the German police that the Schiller Institute organized classes in chanting, poetry and that the youth even attended an exhibition of Rembrandt paintings on the last night of his life we are witnesses to how easily it is for anyone to fall into the trap of being persuaded that any organization that goes in for high Culture and the Arts cannot possibly have any destructive or dangerous intentions.
It is s all about deceiving the youth in order to exercise power, shut down enquiry and control the lives of the recruits. The unsuspecting recruits then devote their lives to working long hours on very little pay and being deceived into imagining that their activities are doing something to make the world a better place. Destroying one life is bad enough but destroying over the years many lives and the lives of families is a hugely serious matter urgently meriting more research in addition to relevant criminal investigations.
The Language of Hurt: There is much evidence of how the language of Hurt was exercised upon Jeremiah. This process of undermining a person’s belief system is based on deliberate falsification of the facts e.g. The British are said to be responsible for bringing Hitler to power. In fact according to LaRouche the British are the most evil people in the world and are responsible for Hitler’s fascism and all that followed. This anti-Semitic discourse inflicted upon Jeremiah was done in addition to the falsifications around how the British Tavistock clinic is part of the British Intelligence and a force of destruction and harm.
Jeremiah was subjected to an onslaught of the language of hurt. According to the Briefings found in his knapsack he was subjected to a lecture by Lyndon LaRouche in which he was told that the young people have no ability for independent critical thinking because they have been lied to and deceived all their lives. Jeremiah was told he had been “brainwashed” and was told that he could not trust what he was told by his parents, his schooling and his University. Everything that represented his identity and everything he believed came under attack. Even if Jeremiah made objections these were not critically examined but turned into a process of attacking him as a person.
How is this done? It is done by a method of undermining the person’s confidence in his own abilities. Instead of arguing the point sophisticated techniques are brought in to make the person question his own courage to be a good person and to give up his life to help the world. The world is said to be on the brink of destruction and a failure to join up to the LaRouche Organization means that the person is turning their back on the destruction of the planet. When Jeremiah said he did not trust LaRouche or that he did not agree he was told that the problem was in his character in what he represented; He was told he had been brainwashed. He had been lied to all his life and now he just wanted to turn his back on the suffering world and was actually bringing world destruction about because of his own weakness. In this way the language of Hurt is coupled with brutal and damaging insults. But these go much deeper than insults because they inflict the severity of pain that merits being seen as criminal incitement against his person. At the LaRouche youth training school the attempt was made to recruit Jeremiah but it was found that he was not willing to be recruited. Then when Jeremiah decided he had to leave it appeared they turned against him and no sooner he was dead he was then seen as the enemy. Why? Was this because he questioned their views? Was it because he was dead and they saw this death as a threat because of what they knew was part of a method of breaking a person down in order to recruit them? Or was it because in trying to recruit him and using the language of hurt this placed upon an idealistic young person such fears and terrors of the world that would come from his not joining forces with their organization that this in itself was so destructive as to destroy people and they knew that? Mention is made in the book “Beyond Psycho Analysis” ( Pen name used but the author is Lyndon LaRouche) about how with his suggested method of breaking a person down in order to recruit them there may be a “mess to clear up” and he refers to cases where it can go wrong.
Within hours of Jeremiah’s death Helga Zepp LaRouche told the youth movement that Jeremiah was British and a Jew and the enemy come over to harm the Organization. There are people even now in the Organization that still say my son was a spy. The language of Hate and Deception appears to continue up to the point where the recruit is subjected to increasing stress, an overload of information, sleep deprivation and then at that point where all the individual’s vulnerabilities are fully exploited the individual nears the breaking point. It is then at that point when it is decided by the leaders of the organization that this process will be continued that we arrive at the Language of Destruction.
The Language of Destruction:
What evidence do I have of how a rhetoric that stirs up hatred against others and continues beyond a point to where the well being of an individual is threatened that we now have examples of the Language of destruction. How does that work? The danger of the language of hate defines itself by the intention to destroy which is knowingly undertaken. The techniques of this process of using interrogation to break a person down is all stated in LaRouche’s book “Beyond Psycho-analysis” This is the Manual given to leaders and mentioned in Jeremiah’s lecture notes he took at the training school that followed the Conference.
This process of peeling away the layers of a person’s identity until the person is a shell of his former self is all documented as a technique to be used in recruiting and organizing . It works as a process whereby one person or a group of persons exercise pressure upon one person – the world is on the brink of destruction – you can trust no one – they have all lied to you – Only by you changing yourself and committing to the truth of our plans and ideas is their hope for Humanity. But you don’t trust us – or believe us – because you have been brainwashed. You have no independent power of thinking. This is stated in the briefing. This is the language of destruction. To take away an individual’s right to determine his future – to determine his own thought. Using lies, deceptions, and ultimately subjugation is part of the Language of Destruction.
Article 2 European Convention of Human Rights defines how it is the severity of the mental attack that establishes what can be legally termed “torture” For Jeremiah to die within such a short time after exposure to this LaRouche organization must raise questions of whether the rhetoric of Hate and Destruction comes under article 3. Is not a sustained mental attack on an individual which ultimately led to a death not a crime?
And back to the question “Why did Jeremiah die?” He was a student of London University doing his language course in Paris so why has all we have talked about today never been exposed in a University before? Why is it that Northampton University leads the way in what is really a new avenue of research? I raise the question to suggest an answer:
Many people ignore their vicious attacks. They do this as it is time consuming and expensive to fight back even though these individuals be they politicians, lawyers, media personnel or researchers think they would surely win against such threats. For years my son Jeremiah has been defamed as a suicide case, as a drug addict and as mentally unstable and I defamed as his mother a pawn manipulated by Mrs Cheney. They have taken it upon themselves to threaten to take legal action against my lawyers, any newspaper or media outlet that writes about my son’s death or any politicians that seek to support me .
They are also capable of threatening University lecturers and authors of books and one wonders whether this is the reason why the academic world until now prefers not to engage in research that could be costly. These forms of intimidation is to my mind worthy of serious criminal investigation as it threatens the democratic and political process and impinges on the need for objective academic research.
Conclusions: Is it not offensive to allow the LaRouche Organization to use the Nazi card against anyone they consider a threat ? Is it not both offensive in that it evokes hatred against Jews as a group?
It is time for us to define our terms and classification so that calling Jews, or Jewish Bankers Nazis or referring in a masked way to conspiracies of Jews is seen as part of the language of Hate and Destruction and this comes under criminal law as it poses a threat to the individual and undermines the democratic process.
Antisemitic discourse must be better understood before it worsens any more. An examination of the circumstances surrounding the death of our son Jeremiah Duggan provide much evidence of how the incitement to hatred and the rhetoric of hatred functions to create consequences of terror and violence.
Why should any mother accept the unnecessary loss of a beloved son without answers to the question: Why did he die?
I know why he died. He died because for too long too many people have preferred to ignore the rhetoric of Modern Day Fascism and failed to use the law that does exist to prosecute crimes of Hate and Destruction.
Written by Erica Duggan. 26th June 2009 Paper presented at Northampton University Seminar: “Speaking with Forked Tongues” In German: Action for Psychological Freedom (Ingo Heinemann) – http://www.AGPF.de/LaRouche.htm Facts on LaRouche’s ties to former German military brass – http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/dokument/dokument.html?id=13521056&top=SPIEGEL In English: Justice for Jeremiah (Duggan family and friends) – http://justiceforjeremiah.org LaRouche Planet (website run by ex-members) – http://laroucheplanet.com Political Research Associates (Chip Berlet) – http://www.publiceye.org/larouche/index.html Lyndon LaRouche Watch (Dennis King) – http://www.lyndonlarouchewatch.com (for massive documentation on LaRouche’s support for death squads and other perpetrators of human rights abuses around the world, go to http://lyndonlarouchewatch.org/larouche-fascism.htm) Political Religions website (Matthew Feldman) – http://www.religion-compass.com Factnet (discussion board for ex-LaRouche followers) – http://www.factnet.org Freedom of Mind archive – http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/larouche-movement Rick Ross’s archive – http://rickross.com/groups/larouche.htm BOOKS WITH INFORMATION ON THE LAROUCHE SECT: In German: Verrit: Mein Leben in einer radikalen Politorganisation, Aglaja Beyes-Corleis, Freiburg: Herder/Spektrum, 1994. Deckname Schiller: die Deutschen Patrioten des Lyndon LaRouche, Helmut Lorscheid and Leo A. Mueller, Rembek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1986. In English: Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, Dennis King, New York: Doubleday, 1989. On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth, Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe Inc., 2000 (see Chap. 5). Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, New York: Guildford Publications, 2000. |
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