The First Terrorist Group to Threaten the U.S.: The Rajneesh Cult of India

Back in the 1980s, if you called the Rajneesh cult living in Antelope, Oregon (which they renamed Rajneeshpuram) a terrorist group--they'd probably terrorize you for even insinuating such a thing. And so it was with the complex contradictions of the Rajneesh cult who communed for four years in this dot on the map town in Wasco County up in the northern regions of my home state. The cult was started in India via a religious leader named Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh who had developed a strong following, yet started developing serious health problems by the early 1980's. It led him to the United States for better medical care--and hence his personal secretary buying a ranch in Antelope in late 1981 where the cult moved to thrive without any supposed disturbances.

Does a cult leader with a health problem sound a little familiar? Well, the Rajneesh tribe was far from being comparable to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda because they valued their own life. They nevertheless will forever be on record as being a terrorist group, because they managed to impose bioterrorism via food poisoning on unsuspecting citizens in The Dalles (pronounced "The Dahlz") that still gives Oregonians shivers knowing it's the worst bioterrorism attack the U.S. has ever seen so far. It also was the first terrorism attack of its kind on the mainland.

Evidence exists, too, that they were planning larger-scale attacks against influential people in Oregon just so the cult could gain the political purse strings to make things go their way in Antelope. All of this was the still-arguable realization that Bhagwan had nothing to do with it and his henchwoman making all the calls. You see, there's that little thing about Indian spiritual leaders believing in love, peace and understanding.

Well, the FBI would beg to differ even to this day. Even so, who was that henchwoman who was proven to be the instigator of poisoning 751 people and hospitalizing 45 of those people? It was Ma Anand Sheela (American name: Sheela Silverman) who was hired as the Bhagwan's (or known as "Osho" to his followers) personal secretary in India before the cult moved to the United States. As most Indian spiritual leaders do, they frequently go into a self-imposed period of silence. It was no different for Bhagwan who, when he wasn't riding around town in his Rolls-Royce to wave at his adherents, went into a three-year silent period--making Sheela's job all the more important.

What gives so much contradiction to the Rajneesh clan was that they were initially peaceful with the small community of Antelope when first arriving. Things turned bad, though, when the community around them who'd lived in the area for years started complaining about the Rajneeshee way of life. Those views of life were the allowance of free sex among the commune members, conducting fraudulent marriages, as well as an overly adamant attitude about wanting to take control of the political side of things in town.

You may have guessed that this was the instigation for organizing something nefarious.

The horrific plot to poison potential voters in Antelope and more plans for assassinations...

It's when the Rajneesh clan realized that the longtime residents of the community didn't want this cult around when the commune started realizing they'd have to make plans to manipulate things if they were going to get what they wanted. The initial goal was to get more land permits to expand the property they already acquired at Big Muddy Ranch in the town. When they were denied, plans were put into place to usurp the sheriff's office as well as winning several seats in the county's circuit court. Sheela, seemingly having her back up against the wall, was supposed to never fail Bhagwan and probably led her to take overly desperate measures in order to please her spiritual leader.

The mystery still is today: Was Bhagwan one of the conspirators in planning out an elaborate plot to poison the food in myriad fast food restaurants in The Dalles? What is known is that at least twelve people in the clan led by Sheela concocted an elaborate plan to spread salmonella into the salad bars of numerous local restaurants--some of which included a Taco Bell, Skipper's, a local steak restaurant and a Burgerville. This plan was intended to sicken the voting public so they wouldn't be able to vote in the 1984 election and allow the Rajneesh clan to take over the polls.

Yes, it's as moronic as it sounds. But, eerily, their plot succeeded with documented evidence from an FBI investigation that they weren't above killing a lot of people in the process. The clan even went so far as to work with the acquired salmonella clandestinely on their ranch to eventually spread elsewhere. In fact, their first attempt at spreading salmonella was on their ranch itself where they poisoned two county commissioners who came to visit and were trustworthy enough to drink two glasses of water served to them laced with the bacteria. Later, Sheela and her minions spread salmonella all over the Wasco County courthouse as well as on local produce in area grocery stores to name just a couple of places. That plot failed to sicken anybody.

It was the salad bar in the restaurants that ended up almost becoming America's first deadly bioterrorism attack. Fortunately, nobody died from the poisoning, even though we know it can come close as evidenced by the threats of salmonella again recently here in our exported tomatoes. Undoubtedly a lot of people in Oregon have nightmares about salmonella being the result of bioterrorism again in our food, especially for those who remember the original Rajneesh era as I do.

My family connection to the adamant attitudes of the Rajneesh clan...

While I was a teenager when the Rajneesh fiasco was going on, I and my family didn't live anywhere near their ranch. Since we always lived in the valley, my mom worked for the state for decades in an important secretarial job that involved, during the 1980's, having to talk on the phone to Sheela and several other Rajneesh officials frequently who were mad as hell at their treatment by various state institutions for denying their people certain demands--for good reason.

On one particular day in 1984, several Rajneesh officials arrived into the office and demanded to talk to the head boss. After they left with no success, the fear was that the place had been wiretapped, because that was one of the other crimes they were charged for later, or at least conspiracy to do so. FBI was called in to inspect the building for bugging devices and subsequently found nothing. Nonetheless, a lot of people, including myself, were more than a bit freaked out at just what these people were going to do in making sure they got what they wanted. When the bioterrorism attack occurred later in the year, my family was stunned that such a thing could have potentially happened right there in my mother's office had the clan decided to take their plans further.

After that visit, all my mom had to put up with was Sheela's adamant phone calls on a frequent basis, demanding to talk to the head of the department that never were returned. It bordered on phone call harassment. Yeah, and you thought aluminum siding telemarketers were borderline harassment calling every half an hour on your busy line.
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Well, if you're not familiar with the outcome of this attack, then you should know that Sheela and some of her followers were convicted later on myriad criminal charges, yet released early from prison for good behavior. Sheela moved to Switzerland in 1986 and reportedly married and operated nursing homes there. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh showed his all-too-human side when he denounced what his followers had done when some have insinuated he was in on it from the beginning and just turned traitor. He fled the Oregon commune in late 1985 and was arrested in North Carolina just in time before he skipped the country. What some find maddening is that he was given a plea bargain and was allowed to go back home to India where he died from heart failure five years later.

Was Bhagwan the closest to what it might be like to having Osama bin Laden living in our mainland? We likely have much worse heading Al Qaeda cells right in our own backyards as I write this. Nevertheless, the plans the Rajneesh had to do other nefarious acts (including an assassination plot against Charles Turner, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon that Sheela was tried for in Switzerland) was and is downright chilling. Their full intent was to sicken or kill many people so their own beliefs could prosper.

In that regard, the comparisons to Al Qaeda aren't all that wide. Now that Antelope, Oregon is much different now than it was twenty-five years ago and the fact that the Rajneesh attack has probably been forgotten by many people, it still reminds us what kind of terrorism could still be possible in the borders of America.

 http://voices.yahoo.com/the-first-terrorist-group-threaten-us-rajneesh-1705041.html