Larouche and Duggan

Some time ago I wrote about the death of Jeremiah Duggan, and the inexplicable refusal of the Schiller Institute to straightforwardly address his unfortunate death. In March 2004 Lyndon Larouche, self proclaimed candidate for the Democratic nomination, latched on to the death of this student as yet another example of a conspiracy to impede his participation in the electoral process by Dick Cheney and Tony Blair. In the Children of Satan III pamphlet, the death of Jeremiah Duggan is covered again in a timeline that purports to address Duggan’s death along with other activities by the British. I have yet to discover the connection, aside from the Baroness Symons of the British Foreign Office. In regards to Baroness Symons, the pamphlet includes an article allegedly focused on said Baroness and including a narrative about Duggan’s death and the circumstances leading up to it.

I read through the timeline and the narrative. At the end of the day the essential facts remain unchallenged:

- Duggan died on a highway, how he got there is unknown

- There was no autopsy

- Interviews with Schiller Institute participants produced contradictory information

- Allegations that Duggan was psychologically disturbed are unsupported

- Allegations that his family underwent counseling at the Tavistock Clinic are unsupported

- Allegations that Mrs. Duggan was improperly influenced by the American Family Foundation are unsupported

Was Duggan a suicide? I don’t think we will know for sure. The Germans take great offense to the British claims that Duggan may not have been a suicide, but their own investigation did not produce the requisite detail to support their conclusion. No autopsy and the contradictory statements by the Schiller Institute participants ought to raise questions.

More importantly; a presidential candidate that focuses so much energy on alleged conspiracies is a candidate without a program or policies that s/he can put before the American people. Larouche spends far too much time looking for enemies, and not nearly enough focusing on policies and programs that would benefit the very population whose support he seeks. His focus is on his alleged victimization, not on his skills and abilities as a leader for America.

The timeline below, redacted from the original article, is focused solely on the Duggan events. My comments are in italics.

Early March, 2003: Jeremiah Duggan, a 22-year-old British student, meets LaRouche Youth Movement organizers in Paris at a book table, engages in a discussion, and takes some literature. Duggan is told about an international conference in Germany at the end of the month. He is particularly interested in LaRouche's strong opposition to the Cheney-Blair Iraq war and the imperial policies underlying that unjust invasion. Over the next several weeks, Duggan exchanges several email messages with LYM organizers, and arranges to travel to Germany for the conference.

March 27, 2003: Jeremiah Duggan, attending the Schiller Institute international conference and youth cadre school near Wiesbaden, Germany, is killed when he jumps in front of speeding cars on an autobahn. Wiesbaden police and prosecutors investigate the death, and conclude that Duggan committed suicide. Duggan had confided to his conference roommates, in his last days, that he was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, an illness that can induce schizophrenic behavior, including paranoia. He had begun to show signs of emotional stress during the day before his suicide, March 26, and had fled the apartment where he was staying, March 27, at approximately 3:30 in the morning. When LYM organizer called Jeremiah's girlfriend Maya Villanueva in Paris, shortly after Duggan left the apartment, to see whether she had heard from him, she cynically asked, "Is there a river nearby?" Subsequently, both Erica Duggan and Maya Villanueva have failed, notably, to mention Jeremiah's diagnosed illness, fuelling the media fraud about the role of the Schiller Institute in his death. Erica Duggan has acknowledged to reporters that she, her divorced husband, and Jeremiah, had undergone group counselling at the Tavistock Clinic when Jeremiah was approximately 7 years old.

From The Guardian Article of July 2003 - Mrs Duggan and her husband, Hugo, travelled to Wiesbaden the next day, but felt the case was already closed. "They said he had psychological problems, because that is what Sebastian told them.”

March 28, 2003: Jeremiah Duggan's parents meet in Wiesbaden with representatives of the Schiller Institute. Although they make no mention of Jeremiah's OCD diagnosis, the meeting is very cordial, given the tragic circumstances.

July 11, 2003: Erica Duggan meets with the London Metropolitan Police, to discuss the circumstances surrounding Jeremiah's death. By this time, she has been contacted by individuals and groups affiliated with American Family Foundation (AFF).

July 12, 2003: The London-based Guardian newspaper publishes the first smear story linking Lyndon LaRouche and the Schiller Institute to the suicide-death of Jeremiah Duggan. The author of the story, Hugh Muir, has, in the past, written stories based on information provided by so-called "anti-cult" groups affiliated with the AFF.

July 21, 2003: BBC airs a slander on LaRouche and the Duggan suicide by Tim Samuels, under the headline, "Mother calls for inquiry into son's death."

Nov. 5, 2003: Coroner's inquest into Jeremiah's death occurs at Hornsey Coroner's Court. Dr. William Dolman, HM Coroner for North London, presides over the inquest. The British media claims that Dr. Dolman has "rejected" the German authorities' view that the death was a suicide. Statements attributed to Dr. Dolman suggest that evidence was presented at the inquest by AFF circles, making wild charges that the LaRouche organization is a dangerous cult, etc. British media coverage of the inquest includes interviews with Dennis King and with Chip Berlet. (Berlet, former Washington, D.C. bureau chief of High Times magazine, the semi-official publication of the drug legalization lobby in the U.S.A., was a leader of the National Student Association during the late 1960s, when it was exposed for having received CIA financing, in a Ramparts magazine exposé.)

Nov. 11, 2003: Wiesbadener Kurier publishes an article challenging the coverage in the British media, and defending the assessment of the Wiesbaden Prosecutor's Office that Duggan's death was the result of suicide. Chief Prosecutor Dieter Arlet complains that it is "completely inexplicable how such a characterization could get into the media." A spokesman for the Prosecutor's office reports that the German Federal Police (BKA) had found that the British coroner's inquest had been closed, and that the British media coverage had misrepresented the findings of Dr. Dolman. Arlet says that, based on the BKA inquiry, there are "no grounds for us to reopen the investigation."

From the Daily Telegraph in September 2003: German police files have exposed flaws in their own investigation into the mysterious death of a British student. Jeremiah Duggan, from Golders Green in north London, died last March in Wiesbaden after allegedly running into the path of two vehicles

The Telegraph has obtained a copy of the German police's report into Mr Duggan's death. It reveals a number of errors, assumptions and contradictions that suggest an inadequate investigation into a suspicious death.

It also shows that the police took no official signed statements from witnesses, failed to carry out an autopsy and decided within hours that Mr Duggan had committed suicide by throwing himself in front of the vehicles.

The report gives only a cursory account of the version of events given to the police - one which conflicts with that given by Mr Duggan's family. Evidence from witnesses is recorded as brief, sometimes contradictory, notes.

Feb. 12, 2004: BBC News airs further slanderous coverage of the Duggan affair by Tim Samuels.

Feb. 25, 2004: A meeting takes place at the British Foreign Office between Erica Duggan and officials, who set up a followup meeting with Baroness Symons. News of the planned Duggan-Symons meeting is leaked to the British press.

April 1, 2004: Erica Duggan, Rudy Vis, Lord Janner meet with Baroness Symons at the Foreign Office. Symons announces she will appoint a pro bono international human rights lawyer to work with the Duggan family, to pressure German authorities to reverse their assessment of the case.

April 21, 2004: BBC "Live at Five," the show that had twice interviewed Lyndon LaRouche a year earlier, runs an interview with Erica Duggan and Rudy Vis.

May 20, 2004: Corriere della Sera Sunday magazine publishes a lengthy, vicious slander against LaRouche, centered around interviews with Erica and Hugo Duggan, by writer Agostino Gramigna.