CAMPAIGN '84/LA ROUCHE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000201050003-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 22, 2008
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 30, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/10/22 : CIA-RDP88-01070R000201050003-9
30 January 1984
CAMPAIGN '8Z4/ BROKAW: A different kind of cult is growing strong in
LA ROUCHE America, one centered on a political rather than a
religious ideology. The cult is wrapped around a man named
Lyndon La Rouche. Back in the late '60s, La Rouche went by
the name of Lynn Marcus,-and his politics were extremely .
left-wing; well, now he's on the right, the far right. And
as Bryan Ross tells us in tonight's 'Special Segment,' La
Rouche is using a kind of political nastiness that hasn't
been seen in America in some time.
ROSS: This is Wilmette, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. Late
last year, something very ugly happened on this block.
Someone started a smear campaign against this young woman,
22-year-old Marcie *Permuth. The smear was that Marcie
Permuth was a prostitute, a call girl, operating out of her
parents' home. MARCIE PERMUT: They put fliers on all of
the windshields and all the cars just in this block,. and
then the very next day the same flier was put.in the mail.
ROSS: Marcie Permuth works as a researcher in the news
room at Channel 5, the NBC station in Chicago, and the
smear campaign against her began the day after she started
gathering information about the political activities of
this man, *Lyndon La Rouche. LYNDON LA ROUCHE (TV
Interview): The British are far more evil than Adolf
Hitler.
ROSS: In Baltimore, the same kind of thing. Baltimore Sun
Reporter Mark *Arax started work on a story about Lyndon La
Rouche, and he became the target of smears and threats.
MARK ARAX (Journalist): It was distressing, and it was
particularly frightening to my wife.
ROSS: And when NBC News began to prepare this report on
Lyndon La Rouche, the threatening phone calls at home came
quickly. FEMALE VOICE OF TELEPHONE ANSWERING MACHINE: We
are watching you. We know who you are. We know where you
go. We've been following you for a month.
ROSS: The anonymous phone calls,*the threats, the smear
campaigns are believed to come out of this building in New
York City, where La Rouche and his followers are building a
kind of political cult that seems to be well-organized,
well-financed, and growing in influence. TELEVISION
COMMERCIAL: To support the La Rouche campaigns, call...
ROSS: Just this month La Rouche bought himself a half hour
on CBS to launch what he says is his campaign for
president. LA ROUCHE: If I were president of the United
Approved For Release 2008/10/22 : CIA-RDP88-01070R000201050003-9
 Approved For Release 2008/10/22 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201050003-9
States at this moment, -I would have to crank this thing up
and say, 'I may be fighting a war as of March.'
ROSS: La Rouche campaigns against what he sees as a web of
world conspiracies--British conspiracies, Jewish
conspiracies, Soviet KGB conspiracies--and once La Rouche
lays out a conspiracy, his hundreds of followers (Film
graphic: "La Rouche says, 'Send Kissinger to the Moon.'"),
familiar figures at many airports, spread the word of their
leader. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: The media is KGB, and so is
that liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
ROSS: The latest La Rouche conspiracy is a Walter Mondale
conspiracy, and La Rouche followers have been stalking
Mondale, disrupting his campaign appearances and getting
into fights with Mondale campaign workers. *AVID ROSEN:
They're extremists in three-piece suits.
ROSS: Avid Rosen of the Anti-defamation League says that
among La Rouche's extremist teachings is that a Jewish
conspiracy is responsible for drug smuggling and even the
Holocaust. ROSEN: He, or at least his writers, have gone
so far as to say that Jews in some way or other were
responsible for the Holocaust by cooperating with the
Nazis; he's capable of statements like that.
ROSS: Despite his ugly teachings and tactics, the La
Rouche cult is growing and in some circles gaining a
measure of acceptance. At membership meetings around the
country, like this one in New Jersey, there are good
turnouts. People sit for hours to hear what La Rouche
speakers have to say, and the well written and slickly
printed La Rouche newspapers and magazines sell well,
reportedly bringing in $2 million a year to the cult. Last
year in more than a dozen states, the La Rouche cult ran
some 600 candidates for local office, and a few actually
were elected. In organized labor, members of the La Rouche
cult provided intelligence reports to Teamster President
Jackie Presser in the early 1980s after cult groups spied
on Teamster groups which opposed Presser. And in
Washington at the daily press briefings, along with the
reporters from the networks and the wire services, there's
almost always a La Rouche cult member who says he, too, is
a member of the press. (Film clip: Protest.) VOICE OF
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: The NBC hag. That's 'cause
(Inaudible)...
ROSS: The members of the La Rouche cult seem to be having
a good time playing with the American system, attacking a
big television network, disrupting a major political
campaign, smearing people who ask questions about them,
trying to scare off reporters.. In the year 19814, this man,
Lyndon La Rouche has worked very hard and spent a lot of
money to put together a political cult that specializes in
nastiness and organized hate. Brian Ross, NBC News, New'
York.
Approved For Release 2008/10/22 : CIA-RDP88-0107OR000201050003-9