'Hypocrite' Jehovah's Witnesses abandon secret link with UN Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent Mon 15 Oct 2001. The Jehovah's Witnesses have hurriedly disaffiliated from the United Nations within days of a Guardian story in which members accused the sect of hypocrisy for supporting an organisation it has repeatedly denounced privately. Guardian Today: the headlines, the analysis, the debate - sent direct to you Read more After the article last Monday, the organisation's New York based hierarchy pre-empted a UN inquiry by agreeing to dissociate the Witnesses from an organisation which it holds to be the scarlet beast named in the Book of Revelation. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, as the sect is formally known, has 6m members worldwide and 130,000 in Britain. It had been secretly affiliated to the UN as a non-governmental organisation for 10 years. Recognised organisations are supposed to demonstrate that they share the UN's objec...