Letter from Barry Pittard to nytimes.com

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Barry Pittard

To: executive-editor@nytimes.com, managing-editor@nytimes.com, foreign@nytimes.com

Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 7:57 AM

Subject: Re Keith Bradsher/Sathya Sai Baba

Dear Senior Staff, NYT.

I am prompted by Keith Bradsher's article just published in NYT to send you: my letter to Baroness Amos, which includes my Open Letter to A.B. Vajpayee.

In connection to some security issues related to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, I have recently sent documentation to your Secretary of State, NSA, CIA and other instrumentalities, as well as to the most senior officials in governments, Interpol and Intelligence agencies in a number of other countries, initially those whose citizens travel in significant number to see Sathya Sai Baba in Puttaparthi - US, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Israel, etc.

The Christmas time is the most dangerous time, as many westerners travel to see Sathya Sai Baba at this time. Furthermore, the vast security panoply which attends the visits of VVIP's such as Indian President, Prime Minister, and countless other dignitaries during various Hindu festivals throughout the year will not be extended at this time. Moreover, even though many Hindus, Sikkhs and other religionists visit Puttaparthi at Christmas time, there are processions in which only westerners celebrating Christmas are permitted to be a part of. This has long been the practice, and it isolates the western visitors, ideally setting them up as a terrorist soft target. I should add that, down the years, an increasing number of Sathya Sai Baba's Jewish devotees visit Sathya Sai Baba, and celebrate Chanukah right at this time.

I have written about Sathya Sai Baba to NYT and to many other US newspapers, who have done nothing, in marked contradistinction to newspapers such as the Times of London, Daily Telegraph, the Age of Melbourne, India Today, Salon.com, and various Canadian, German, Danish, Swedish and other media (and soon a mass circulation daily in a major country which wants to publish my Open Letter to A.B. Vajpayee among other related matters). The UNESCO have posted a particularly trenchant Media Advisory critical of Sathya Sai Baba, which I shall send you when I have a few more minutes to spare, along with some other documentation.

I may add that the Danish Broadcasting Company have made and aired a number of times a powerfully indicting documentary exposing Sathya Sai Baba for serial sexual molestation of boys and young men from many countries, including many in the USA (the FBI and State Department have taken these matters very seriously, and have very considerable documentation, including many sworn affidavits from US citizens, and others. An Argentinean documentary series by leading south American journalist Alejandro Agostinelli has also been made, exposing Sathya Sai Baba.

(Ref. Agent Colleen, FBI Office, Santa Ana, Chicago). Interpol in many countries (including my own, Australia) also have many documentations of serious criminal allegations against Sathya Sai Baba. State Department have investigated Sathya Sai Baba, and found our representations justified - ref. Mr John Nays, Consular Staff, American Embassy, New Delhi. State Department has published a Travel Advisory clearly indicating Sathya Sai Baba but not naming him, November 2001.

With regard to the police killings at Puttaparthi in 1993, which many journalists and researchers are sure that Sathya Sai Baba was deeply implicated in, and which was covered up by the Central, State, local and Puttaparthi authorities: I suggest that, among your other resources, you contact the Journalists Union of Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, south India, which became concerned when Sathya Sai Baba evaded their probings, and even admonished them publicly when they leveled normative, eminently fair and reasonable questions to him over the incident.

Please consult the websites, which contain contributions from victims and the many dissenting voices from an astonishing range of social and cultural backgrounds who were formerly associated closely with Sathya Sai Baba: www.exbaba.com and www.saiguru.net. There is also a Public Petition for Official Investigations of Sathya Sai Baba and His Worldwide Organization at: http://www.petitiononline.com/saibaba/petition.html, which I include in the documentation I submit to you. Many former leaders of Sathya Sai Baba's organisation have resigned, not least those who have, very carefully and properly, investigated the some of the most serious allegations at first hand, particularly the vast serial sexual molestation of boys and young men from many countries round the world.

I am pressed at the moment and can contribute further information when I have time. My phone number is: 61 7 5478 8549, and you are welcome to call me. I am an experienced radio broadcaster, researcher, writer, teacher and social worker. I lectured for two years at Sathya Sai Baba's college at Whitefield, via Bangalore, south India. This was the first of Sathya Sai Baba's vast and exceedingly well endowed educational institutions. I also had a twenty-five year old connection with him, which I severed in 1999, after making extensive worldwide investigations, often at first hand, into the allegations facing Sathya Sai Baba.

Faithfully, Barry Pittard, Australia.