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03-31-2007 01:57 AM ET (US)
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I must pause here to bow to numerous persons who have done so much work to bring this entire matter to the attention of SSB devotees as well as to the authorities and media contacts in many countries, including the late Glen Meloy (d.2005) of Southern California; the indefatigable Barry Pittard of Australia (see his blog at barrypittard.wordpress.com/); British author Robert Priddy, former researcher and lecturer in philosophy and sociology at Norway's University of Oslo (see his site on Sathya Sai at home.no.net/anir/Sai/); Meenakshi Srikanth, Dr. D. Bhatia and Krishna Kumar of India; David & Faye Bailey, Mick Brown and Sanjay Dadlani of the UK (see Sanjay's saibabaexposed.blogspot.com/); Tal Brooke, Al Rahm (and his son Alaya), Mark Roche, Jed Geyerhahn, Afshin Khorramshagol ("Said"), Shirley Pike, Sharon Purcell, Lori Kaplowitz, Ella Evers, Rick Raines, Dennis Hanisch, Dave Lyons, Dave Brandt, Keenan Aletheia Cheney, Hari Sampath and the late Elena Hartgering (d.2006) of the USA; Conny Larsson, Britt Danielsson and Alf Tidemann-Johannessen of Sweden; Holland's Alexandra Nagel, Matthijs van der Meer, Hans de Kraker (now in Australia), and Andries Krugers Dagneaux and Reinier van der Sandt (see their www.exbaba.com site); Artur Wisniewski of Poland; Paul Holbach of Italy; Terry Gallagher, Stephen Carthew and Brian Steel of Australia; Lionel Fernandez of Mexico; Alejandro Agostinelli of Argentina; Jens Sethi and Ullrich Zimmermann of Germany; Marc-Andre St. Jean of Montreal, Canada; and Serguei Badaev of Russia--along with other former devotees unknown to me. Many of these individuals have worked tirelessly and/or courageously in trying to bring Sathya Sai and his accomplices to accountability and justice. In the process, they have often had to endure considerable flak, slander and calumny aimed at them by the SSB movement's self-appointed "attack dogs." Though I disagree strongly with his philosophy and style of approach, the Indian former devotee (1968-74) turned rationalist-skeptic Mr. Basava Premanand, a decades-long critic of Sathya Sai in his periodical Indian Skeptic, also deserves my heartfelt acknowledgment here as one taking a firm and enduring stand for greater accountability and justice.
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