"No Joke" -WP Magizine, LaRouche cult gets more sinister

[Rose Siding]

Eight-time presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche may be a punchline on 'The Simpsons,' but his organization -- and the effect it has on young recruits -- is dead serious....

It was March 27, 2003, the eighth day of the war in Iraq. Antiwar sentiment was high across Europe. Erica's idealistic son had gone to Germany to attend an antiwar protest and conference with a group called Nouvelle Solidarité. All Jeremiah told his mother about the group before he left was that its views were "extreme" and that it was affiliated with an American presidential candidate she'd never heard of, a man named Lyndon LaRouche. Now her son's phone call made it clear that something had gone wrong.

"This involves Solidarity," Erica recalls her son saying before he added: "I can't do this. I want out. It is not something I can do.''

Alarmed, she tried to assure her son that he didn't have to do anything with this group that he didn't want to. Then the line went dead.
..........
Jeremiah's death has propelled his parents into the political orbit of Lyndon LaRouche, a realm of plots, counterplots and apocalyptic prophesies that they hadn't known existed. Their campaign to learn the circumstances of their son's death has brought rare scrutiny to an American politician whose eight presidential campaigns have netted him two precious commodities: millions in federal matching funds and a cadre of fresh-faced recruits who, like Jeremiah Duggan, want to help save the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46883-2004Oct20.html

[Liberal Veteran]

1. The LaRouchies are cultists.

Pure and simple.

The only thing separating them from the Moonies and Hare Krisnas handing out flowers in the airport is the flowers.

[prodigal_green]

7. well, the only thing separating them from the Moonies

is access to high-level Republican politicians.

[madrchsod]

2. several of these people got

prosecuted and found guilty of ripping off a older lady for ten`s of thousands of dollars in a county near here. if i remember correctly they took several weeks to bleed her bank account of the money,these people are scum.

[Wright Patman]

3. So are the followers

of Falwell and Robertson. But I am sure * is not turning them away from the polls.

Be careful whom you dis here. The Democrats need every vote they can get. Are you going to take each voter and ask him "Are you now or have you ever been associated with Lyndon LaRouche?" If you are, you don't really want to win all that much.

[aquart]

4. They vote for LaRouche.

That's the point.

[Rose Siding]

5. What gives you the idea that that this group would give Kerry votes?

And if they ever answered yes to the question you devise (which I wouldn't ask, so it's moot), I'd say Thank goodness you made it through!

[Wright Patman]

9. Because LaRouche

has told them to. Look it up. Just like Falwell and Robertson have told their followers to vote *.

Now if Kerry poll watchers want to ask every voter at the polls whether they have any association with LaRouche and that he will not accept their vote, the Kerry campaign must not want to win that much.

[Rose Siding]

10. That's a ludicrous extreme.

"Now if Kerry poll watchers want to ask every voter at the polls whether they have any association with LaRouche and that he will not accept their vote, the Kerry campaign must not want to win that much."

Who implied anything like this?

And, if you want to support your dubious assertion that LaRouche is out garnering votes for Kerry, provide a link. It isn't up to me to make your argument.

[Wright Patman]

11. Link

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/3131bsn_dem_news.html

"Obviously, we have a situation in which the nominee, Kerry, must occupy the White House by election in November," LaRouche began. "There are many problems involved, so far, with the Kerry team, which is not actually ready to deal with the many of the problems which are going to hit the United States during this period. But ... we've got to get him elected. Because the alternative is unthinkable."

[Kellanved]

6. this cult is downright scary

I see the guys every day at the university, and their behavior has nothing to do with normal political activity. At least the local Rouche party is ignored by the voters.

To the Jeremiah Duggan story: I dimly remember reading about it last year; I don't really know what to think about it. It sounds as if he ran on the street fleeing from something and I think it is very strange that the LaRouchies had his passport. The worst is the explanation offered by the cult: "a hoax ".

[RainDog]

8. how sad for that mother.

Sadly, some of the ranting of LaRouche sound like some of the worst takes on Bush from DUers, too. Someone like LaRouche makes it harder to get to truth.

John Gorenfeld has done some excellent work reporting on the likes of LaRouche and the Rev. Moon.

http://www.gorenfeld.net/blog/2004/04/larouche-failed-version-of-sun-myung.html