Pointing the Finger at Critics Ironically, one of Vivien’s favorite targets is the U.S. State Department, a hotbed of communist infiltration according to Senator McCarthy. Although he never produced any evidence that communists had infiltrated the State Department, he repeatedly made the charge, telling U.S. News and World Report on January 2, 1953: “In the State Department we have gotten rid of a few who have been Communists and Communist thinkers and fellow travelers, but there has been no change in the course of thinking—they’re still following the same line of thought—so obviously it hasn’t been cleaned up.” In MILS’ annual report for 2001, Vivien wrote that because the State Department’s Annual Human Rights Reports are critical of religious intolerance in France, “sect members” must have infiltrated the Department and were writing the report. Some other French politicians have taken over the McCarthyist modus operandi. Senator Dinah Derycke, responding to American criticisms of the About-Picard “Law to Reinforce Prevention and Repression of Sectarian Groups” remarked in a December 16, 1999 Senate debate that “the American Department of State counts among its members adepts of Scientology.” On the floor of the National Assembly, MP Philippe Vuilque claimed that it is “known” that the “high American administration is partly influenced” by the Scientology religion. In April 1999, Vivien refused to meet with Karen Lord, a member of a U.S. delegation sponsored by the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom. He claimed she must be a member of a sect. The late Ms. Lord, a Christian, was on the Religious Freedom Counsel for the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe and had criticized Vivien’s treatment of minority religions. After the U.S. Embassy intervened, Vivien agreed to meet with the delegation, but refused to be introduced to Lord, remarking that he “already knew” who she was. He refused to respond to a question she asked during the meeting. In MILS’ annual report for 1999, published in February 2000, Vivien again pointed the finger. He dismissed the testimony of experts at a conference on religious freedom held by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna on March 22, 1999, claiming that “France was criticized by certain sects who were imprudently admitted to participate in the proceedings....” Those “sects” were Dr. Massimo Introvigne, a Catholic scholar, Canon Michael Bordeaux, an Anglican, and Master Alain Garay, a distinguished French lawyer. Vivien has not been foolish enough to accuse the Pope—who has criticized the anti-religious climate in France—of being a member of a sect. But he did suggest that the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), a respected human rights organization, had “passed into the hands” of members of a minority religion, because “that explains the [IHF’s] virulent criticism of France, accused of religious discrimination.” IHF Executive Director Aaron Rhodes responded in an open letter to Vivien that he was “embarrassed for you and your fellow French citizens by your recourse to methods of denunications and insinuations that remind us of those sometimes used by totalitarian and backward regimes.” MILS’ 1999 report also described a British member of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly who had spoken out for non-discrimination as “reportedly an adept” of a minority religion. The report alleged that sects “repeatedly attempt, with some success, to infiltrate democratic institutions and international organizations, official or nongovernmental.” Vivien further claimed that an unnamed member of that religion had infiltrated the cabinet of an unnamed former president of the Republic and that another unnamed member had “attempted to infiltrate” the judicial police. Indeed, one could almost switch the dates and names and be unable to tell which of the following exchanges took place in the United States in January 1953 or in France in October 1999. Here is McCarthy’s colleague Velde, chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee, being interviewed by U.S. News and World Report: Interviewer: “Will the search for subversive influences in the Government go on in the new Administration, Mr. Velde?” Velde: “Of course. I’m satisfied that every attempt will be made to infiltrate the new Administration, just as the Communist party attempted, and successfully, to infiltrate the retiring administration.” And here is Vivien being interviewed by France 3 TV: Interviewer: “Do you think that certain French government departments have perhaps been infiltrated by cults, by sectarian associations?” Vivien: “Yes, I believe any institution and any organization can be infiltrated at one time or another, but they can also protect themselves.” When challenged about his claim that the new Eisenhower administration was already a target for communist infiltration, McCarthy replied that he did not know of any instances, but “it’s the logical thing for them to do. They must do it. They can’t admit defeat. They will try extremely hard.” Vivien, too, has not provided a single piece of evidence supporting his allegations. One “anti-sect” organization that MILs works closely with declares on its website that “to this day important European and world organizations such as the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, UNO, OSCE are often infiltrated by cults.” Again, no evidence is provided in support of this statement.