Scientology Freedom Magazine Investigative Story Wins Award
Exposé documents psychiatric role in making of terrorists

The Church of Scientology International’s Freedom investigative journal has received an award of excellence from the nation’s largest religious communications group. Freedom senior editor Thomas G. Whittle accepted the DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award of Excellence in periodical writing from the Religion Communicators Council (RCC), which held its annual conference in Indianapolis April 24-26. Honored was Whittle’s “Behind the Terror” exposé, co-authored with Freedom staffer Linda Amato.

The summer 2002 Freedom cover story probed the role of drugs and coercive psychiatric techniques in al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. It exposed how drugs, hypnosis and other psychiatric means serve to manipulate human behavior and create programmed killers. One source interviewed for the article, Colin Ross, M.D., author of Bluebird: Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists, charged that “terrorist organizations and governments around the world are using these techniques, right up to the present.”

“Psychiatric drugging and coercive techniques are capable of thoroughly altering a person’s behavior or altering his sanity,” said Whittle. “The degree to which such methods have permeated and shaped terrorist networks is only now beginning to come to light — along with the extent to which political and ethnic agendas have motivated so-called ‘religious’ conflicts.”

The RCC’s “Crossroads of Faith” convention drew attendees from diverse faith groups across the country. Keynote speaker Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, opened the general sessions by encouraging religious groups to seize the reins of environmental stewardship, noting that “our care for the Earth is a part of who we are as religious people.”

In a second keynote address, Dr. Sayyid Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, challenged RCC members to “create an environment where there is respect of religion and where each religion is called upon to contribute to the spirituality” of the people. Calling the United States a country that can be proud of its religious legacies, Syeed encouraged his audience “to live in coexistence, to live in a pluralistic democracy and to live together and practice freely our religion and our faith.”

Freedom Magazine is published by Church of Scientology International, the mother church of the Scientology religion, based in Los Angeles. Founded by author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard, the religion has grown from one church in 1954 to more than 3,000 churches, missions and groups in 154 countries today. In addition to the flagship U.S. edition, Freedom is published in 22 editions in 20 countries and nine languages and has won numerous journalism awards.

The magazine is available online at Freedom Magazine


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