Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review Volume 1, Issue 19 09/01/96 by Rod Keller [rkeller@voicenet.com] copyright 1996
Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review summarizes the most significant
postings from the Usenet group Alt.religion.scientology for the preceding
week for the benefit of those who can't follow the group as closely as
they'd like. Out of thousands of postings, I attempt to include news of
significant events, new affidavits, court rulings, new contributors,
whatever. I hope you find it useful. Like many readers of a.r.s, I have a
kill file. So please take into consideration that I may not have seen some
of the most significant postings.
The articles in A.r.s Week in Review are brief summaries of the articles.
Many include an excerpt, and all include message IDs for the articles I
cover. This may or may not be useful to you, depending on how long your
site stores articles in the newsgroup before expiring them.
Free A.r.s Week in Review subscriptions are available, just email me at
rkeller@voicenet.com
It is archived at:
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/ars-summary.html
http://user1.i1.net/~mallen/scn/arswr/ars-summary.html
http://www.amazing.com/scientology/ars-summary.html
http://users.aimnet.com/~jdiver/scieno.htm
http://www.thur.de/religio/publik/arsfaq.html
#####
"As the vacationing Dole made his way down Santa Barbara's main drag, heading for dinner Monday at Joe's Cafe, he and a crush of autograph seekers drew near a building prominently labeled 'Dianetics -- Church of Scientology Center.'
"Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a top policy adviser to the Dole campaign, eyed the surrounding horde of news photographers and tugged at press secretary Nelson Warfield, pointing out the Scientology center. Its storefront sign would likely land in the photographers' frames if Dole headed in a straight line down the sidewalk.
"'You don't want him in front of there. Cross him over there, then cross him back,' Rumsfeld instructed while gesturing across the street."
Message-ID: <4vvh05$b9v@basement.replay.com>
#####
NOTs Scholars Page
Dave Touretzky received a letter from Roger Milgrim, an expert
Intellectual Property lawyer, concerning the NOTs Scholars Page on CMU's
web site. The page can be found at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/NOTs
"Although Judge Brinkema denied RTC's motion for a preliminary injunction on trade secret grounds, reasoning that Internet posting of certain, defined issues had ended their trade secret status, that ruling did not involve any of the NOTs issues which you are now threatening to acquire or post. Moreover, Judge Whyte (in Erlich) has, as of now, declined to rule that the trade secrets in various NOTs issues were impaired as a result of Internet postings and has undertaken further hearings on this very point. Even more recently, Judge Whyte declined to modify the trade secret injunctions against Ward and Henson, based on the latters' claim that the Internet posting of these issues vitiated their trade secret status. Judge Whyte indicated that he would soon be ruling on the impact of Internet postings on the trade secret status of these works. That ruling has not yet been issued.
"We write to you because of your recent opening of a Web-site at Carnegie Mellon soliciting RTC's NOTs materials and expressing the seeming intention to post them. Your past history, as the first person to post the so-called Fishman declaration to a Web-site (like conduct has been unequivocally determined to be a copyright violation, as to which the poster and a provider on notice would have liability), gave impetus to others to make echo postings that, at the very least, infringe RTC's copyrights.
"RTC does not desire to engage in litigation with you. Nor does it wish to impinge on your legitimate First Amendment rights. It does, however, insist that you respect its intellectual property rights. Toward that end, on its behalf we request that you now:
"1. Cease soliciting copies of the NOTs materials and retract your solicitations (as to which there are two judicial actions, both of which enjoined individuals from soliciting or acquiring NOTs materials).
"2. Turn over to this firm for safekeeping any and all copies of NOTs or portions of it that you have or control.
"3. Make no disclosure, in whole or in part, of the NOTs materials in any media.
"4. Remove the summaries of the NOTs works from your Web page and turn over to this firm for safekeeping all copies of those summaries that you have or control.
"5. Cease posting, or accepting for posting on your Web page, any further materials that reproduce, in whole or in part, any of the contents of the NOTs materials."
Message-ID: <500k03$qfa@casaba.srv.cs.cmu.edu>
#####
Channel 4 Documentary
Lance Buckley posted a transcript of a recent documentary on East
Grinstead, including a section on Scientology. Britain's Channel 4
broadcast the documentary. A few highlights:
"LRH voice over: 'Now scientology ... has something ... that is different .. than any other .. Earth organisation .. of information .. or knowledge to date. There is a difference. The word science .. as you know .. is .. a .. simple.. word meaning merely truth. Scientology .. means ... knowing ... still ...'
"Cut to side view of desk. Woman on left holding cans faces a man in a suit on the right. His left hand on a meter knob, his right hand holds a pen.
"Auditor: 'Alright. Squeeze the cans please ... okay. and once more, squeeze the cans please ... thank you. Take a deep breath and hold it for a second and then let it out ... okay. Is there any reason we shouldn't start this session?'
"Auditor: 'Okay great. Needle's floating. So the question is what can you tell me about your difficulties? What does that command mean to you?'
"Woman: 'It basically asks me, ummm .. if I've got some trouble with doing something or umm ... getting something done or if I find something hard to do or if I have to put a lot of effort in doing something.'
"We see the needle swing for a second or so then a cut to ... Medium shot of Klebb and another woman, facing the students in the course room.
"Klebb: 'That's it! Elizabeth just completed level I of the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course.'
"Various shots of students as they politely applaud.
"Woman: 'What impressed me so much on this level, was to see the courage, persistence, and care for the human being of Ron. Despite all the difficulties that he met, he never gave up, and this is a great lesson for me.'
"Caption appears: 'Peter Zimmatore: International Field Auditor. Church of Scientology' 'Scientology drug procedures are phenomenally successful. Whenever you've got something that runs against a very vested interest such as drugs, let's face it, you go into your local supermarket how many drugs do you see on the counter? It's big business. What are we doing? We're undoing big business. We're saying that people don't need drugs, and you can actually be free of the effect of them. You don't even need to take 'em. So of course we do have a bit of a problem there with the drug companies themselves. [Smirking] It's a problem we're handling.'"
Message-ID: <841214447snz@avalon.demon.co.uk>
#####
Grady Ward
Grady Ward posted a call for submission to him of the L-levels,
confidential processing levels of Scientology.
"Because the criminal cult has shown no interest in justly settling the RTC v Ward litigation, they force me to learn more about their ridiculous scriptures and criminal techniques in order to combat them.
"I am no longer interested in the NOTs pack; my strongest current interest is in the 'L Rundowns' described (by scientologists) as follows:
"[Please note that while I am under a Preliminary Injunction at this time the subject matter of the Injunction ONLY pertains to certain of the NOTs issues. It does not apply to ANY other criminal cult material.]
"L10 Rundown 'A series of 23 different actions which address the reasons one withholds oneself or restrains oneself from action.' $12,500.00
"L11 Rundown 'Addresses the main block or area of irrationality upon which a being introverts and which diminishes one's power.' $12,500.00
"L12 'Can bring about tremendously increased personal stability, certainty and control of beingness.' $12,500.00
"Of course, only lawfully obtained copies wanted."
Grady also asked a.r.s posters to contribute to defray the expense of deposing various cult leaders.
"Likely first-round candidates include: Helena K. Kobrin, Warren McShane, Mike Sutter, David Miscavige
"Of course I need to do this as cheaply as possible: an inexpensive meeting room, a notary perhaps rather than a court reporter -- perhaps amateur video makers.
"I would like suggestions of who might be able to assist me in these depositions. Assistance might include providing a room, donating time as a notary public or other person able to administer the oath, videographers and tape recording specialists, or other donations earmarked for these events.
"In no event will any of this assistance be used for a) attorneys (I am a pro se so I really don't count :-)) b) payments to scientologists or ex-scientologists d) did I mention attorneys?
"Any assistance may very well be used for: * rent for a deposition site (probably on the order of $100-200) * help with defense parties transportation (e.g., Grady Ward or Keith Henson) (It costs me about $40 for gas two ways) * help with defense parties lodging (Motel 6 standard...) * a notary or court reporter fee (several hundred dollars) * a transcription or media copy fee (several hundred dollars) * lunch for defense parties and their friends (Original Joes?)
"And let me make it clear what my goal in litigation is: to guarantee the net stays a safe and effective place to make fun of nut cults."
Message-ID: <gradyDws19t.FF9@netcom.com>
Message-ID: <gradyDwvM6y.6J1@netcom.com>
#####
Vorlon/Johan
Johan Wevers revealed himself to be the formerly anonymous poster Vorlon,
who posted the NOTs series of materials last week.
"After a lot of pressure from the sect xs4all has decided to give them the name and address of the user who posted them. I was that user. As many other users, I obtained a copy of these documents in May 1996 on the net.
"I've had previous disagreements with scientology about the NOTs: I had the parts of them which had appeared in Scamizdat on my homepage for a while, and after complains I had them replaced by NOT34, one of the most despicable of them. After being persuaded by my provider to remove them, and growing more and more irritated by the behaviour of the sect on Internet (the flooding of ars with other copyrighted scieno stuff, their illegal cancels, the legal threats against critics), I decided to repay them the favor by reposting the NOTs, hoping this would teach them a more civil behaviour on Internet. Judging the reactions of their lawyers, at least I've got them rather angry."
Message-ID: <3223b30d.56554c43414e@vulcan.xs4all.nl>
#####
Kim's Story
Kim Baker released a continuation of "My Story" this week, describing the
continuation of her involvement with Scientology, including her dealings
with FACTNet, the OSA and her declarations. Some excerpts:
"Bob invited me onto the Board of Directors, and I was voted on by the Board. The idea was that I would come on, and just take my time, getting the feel of things, what it was all about, and define my own role after a while. I knew that Bob has Multiple Sclerosis, and that he needed help with editing, and various other things, so, as agreed, I came on board on a low profile. Bob and I were in the middle of a conversation when suddenly mail just stopped coming. I had a chill down my spine, and then the word came through, he and Lawrence had been raided. I posted a press release that Lawrence and Bob and I had been working on, ahead of schedule - because I didn't know when I'd hear from them again.
"This catapulted me into a public leadership role I most certainly was *not* ready for. But I was the only one left who could speak, and so I just shut my eyes, and plunged in, and hoped for the best.
"I mostly enjoyed it, talking to people, helping others, etc., but I wasn't in a position to answer important queries on finance, the legal situation, etc. I was unaware of the fact that I had, by becoming a Director of FACTNet, just placed a target on myself, and invited OSA to shoot.
"On 17th October, 1995, I had just started my study leave, and at 5.25 pm or so, there was a pounding knock on the door of my apartment. I knew. I said : - 'don't answer' - and then I saw David, going to the other flats, asking the neighbours where I was...oh God, it *is* him. What was he *doing* here? I had thought that my location in Cape Town, literally on the edge of the world, would protect me, since OSA Africa is based in Johannesburg.
"I had to protect them from the OSA goons. So I opened the door when David pounded again, and stood outside with him.
"I asked him what he wanted, and he said just to talk a bit, and that he had come down from Johannesburg for a mission, and that he thought he'd say hello to me while he was here. I was wary, and so I stalled him, and said that I was in the middle of something, and would he come back in an hour. He was very reluctant, but then said, OK, well maybe we can grab some supper, or so.
"So, I went with him. I wanted to take my car, but he insisted we go in his. I wasn't terribly comfortable about that, but I went anyway. Already, even at this stage, like an IDIOT, I am responding to his 'control', giving him a power over me which he is not entitled to. The conditioning has already kicked in. A simple thing like that. 'My car'. 'No, MY car.' 'Oh, OK.'
"While we were in the car, he said he'd rather go back to his hotel (the Woodstock Holiday Inn) for supper, since it was easier, and there was someone he wanted me to meet. I went cold. I said 'Who?' He laughed and said not to worry, it would be fine.
"We went up to the hotel room, and there was one other person there. David introduced her to me as Anne, from OSA Int in LA. I never got her surname. I was cautious.
"They asked me why I had resigned FACTNet, and I said that I just needed some space and time. They said no, it was because I was basically a good person, I had decency, and I KNEW that I was attacking something that gave spiritual freedom. Oh my God. There it was again. I felt immediate guilt. I managed to stammer that I did not believe that Scientology gave spiritual freedom, but that I could concede that they believed it gave spiritual freedom to them.
"They portrayed themselves as very hurt at the attack on their spirituality, and I felt sick - I had always had the most intense belief in religious freedom, and the right to hold whatever religious beliefs one wanted. They pushed on this one, HARD. They appealed to my decency, my belief in God, belief in religious freedom, desire to heal, my love of people, my compassion.
"It went on and on and on. My head was spinning and spinning, and they kept evoking that guilt over 'attacking their spiritual freedom'. This was quite simply the thing that did it. I felt *so* guilty at my 'evilness' in 'attacking their spiritual freedom', that I blanked out the logical distinction of what 'attacking' meant.
"They wanted me to write a confession of how I had received the Fishman documents from Arnie, and passed them on to Malcolm. I refused, saying I wasn't going to betray my friends, that I was prepared to take whatever they would do to me, since I admitted that I felt wrong in receiving and passing on their materials, which they held sacred, even if I didn't feel they were sacred - I actually thought they were evil, but they *considered* them sacred - so they could punish me, but I was not going to hurt my friends.
"It got so late, about 3.00 in the morning, and I was tired, and I just wanted to get out of there, and they said: 'You would protect Wollersheim in attacking our right to practice the religion the way we want to? Wollersheim is attacking OUR religious freedom, and you would protect him?' I couldn't think straight, I asked for more time to think about it, but they just kept on and on. At that point, something happened to me. I still don't understand it. If you've never been in a cult, there's no WAY you'll understand it. But I 'snapped'.
"I saw it their way, and scrawled down a short hand-written confession to the effect that I'd received the Fishman documents from Arnie, and passed them onto Malcolm. I wrote that I didn't know if Malcolm had ever received them.
"David said how much respect he had for my 'courage and confront', and they essentially rewarded me with affection. I was so tired, I wanted to be sick, I just wanted to get home, so they took me home. It was about 4.00 in the morning when I arrived home. I vomited, and then I fell into an exhausted kind of sleep. That session had been from about 7.00pm till about 3.30 am, non-stop.
"I awoke the next day, at about 6.00 am, and my whole state of consciousness was different ... I kept thinking that I had to study, and I knew they were going to come back for more, but I felt that I had lost all control after writing the confession - I felt completely under their control now, it didn't even occur to me to try and contact anyone for help.
"This time, they had been in touch with the people in the States, and they had a whole lot of questions which they fired at me, interrogation style. Who was 'nobody@replay.com, SCAMIZDAT, Old Timer, Rogue Agent', and what did I know about 'Grady Ward - was he the one doing SCAMIZDAT, who was behind Wollersheim, and anything incriminating I could tell them about Steven Fishman, Lawrence, David Mayo, Homer Wilson Smith, Arnie, RVY, Erlich, Malcolm, Joe Harrington, Jon Atack, and others. Hours and hours. I wasn't very helpful, but I did give them minimal answers.
"They had some prepared statements, based on the previous interrogation, that they wanted me to sign. I said: 'No, I don't want to betray my friends'. They said: 'You already have! HOW can you be covert about it, you should at least be overt - you already have'.
"And I thought about the thing I had scrawled last night and felt that that act had been the act of betrayal, and I *had* already betrayed everyone. I felt dead, numb, I was tired from no sleep, and again, it was about 2.30 am, and so I signed the three documents.
"My last bit of resistance, I said: 'What happens if I don't sign them' - and Anne replied: 'There is no loaded magnum in the room.' I'll never forget those words. Or stay in a Holiday Inn, for that matter. 'But you KNOW you have already betrayed your friends.' And I signed. These three documents never came to anything, they were later shredded. But there *was* no loaded magnum in the room. Some of my friends said to me: 'HOW could you have signed if there was no physical threat to you?' All I know is that these things now looked like the truth to me, and I thought I was signing something that was true.I would not have signed something I did not believe to be true, and I had come to believe that they were true.
"I was numb, dead, in agony, and suicidal. I couldn't sleep much, and when I did, I had such horrific nightmares that I'd wake up screaming my head off. I just wanted to die. But I couldn't let myself die yet, I still had something I had to do. I contacted the attorney, and got the Refutation done. I faxed a copy of it to OSA so they knew, and the lawyer got it to FACTNet in the States.
"And OSA called me, and screamed and threatened, and wanted to know who had put me up to it, and did 'Wollersheim get to you', and I just wanted to laugh, because I hadn't had any contact with those people, and I didn't want to, ever again. I just told them to leave me alone, and never come near me again, or I'd get a restraining order. After a couple of attempts, they got the message, and left me alone. Which, to this day, they have continued to do. They don't have to worry about me anymore, anyway, I'm no longer effective against them, so in the end, one of their problems *was* solved, and a nuisance was eliminated."
Message-ID: <501gsl$99f@shell1.cybercom.net>
Message-ID: <501gvl$9bh@shell1.cybercom.net>
Message-ID: <501h4s$9ds@shell1.cybercom.net>
#####
Penet Closes
Johan Helsingius closed the Penet pseudoanonymous remailer this week.
Johan was once forced to give up the email address of the anonymous
Scientologist AB, and was recently ordered to reveal the address of one of
the Scamizdat posters.
"I will close down the remailer for the time being because the legal issues governing the whole Internet in Finland are yet undefined. The legal protection of the users needs to be clarified. At the moment the privacy of Internet messages is judicially unclear.
"I have developed and maintained the remailer in my free time for over three years now. It has taken up a lot of time and energy. Internet has changed a lot in these three years - now there are dozens of remailers in the world, which offer similar services.
"I have also personally been a target because of the remailer for three years. Unjustified accusations affect both my job and my private life
"Last Sunday's issue of the English newspaper Observer claimed that the remailer has been used for transmitting child pornography pictures. The claims have been investigated by the Finnish police. Observer's claims have been found groundless."
Message-ID: <507634$kj8@Networking.Stanford.EDU>
#####
Tilden, Nebraska
Dean Benjamin reported that Tilden, Nebraska, birthplace of L. Ron
Hubbard, is gearing up to resist Scientology's efforts to dedicate a park
in his memory.
"On Tuesday, August 6, was the first City Council meeting since the controversy started, and the park issue was placed on the agenda. So many people showed up (about 200 -- figure one-fifth of the entire town's population) that the meeting had to be moved to the city auditorium. About a dozen people spoke against Scientology's involvement with the park, but each person was limited to just a few minutes, and the city council did not allow questions or comments from anyone else.
"The people learned at this meeting that the Park Foundation had already spent $10,000 in clam money ... $6,000 for surveying and plans, and $4,000 for 2 oil paintings (one was a picture of the future park, and the other was a portrait of L. Ron Hubbard.) These paintings were slated to be sent to L.A. to help raise the remaining $200,000 that is needed to finish the park.
"In the few days before the meeting, many of the townspeople, including my contact person, watched in stunned amazement as mysterious pieces of anti-Scientology literature suddenly started appearing in the small town. A store that had been out of business for almost ten years received a strange computer disk in the mail, and as curious townspeople passed it around they realized it had files containing some powerful anti-Scieno info!!! Packets of newspaper articles, and videotapes, began circulating around as well. Because only a small amount of Tilden citizens had been concerned about this issue at the time, and because there was virtually no knowledge of the Scientology problem in other towns, and hardly any mention of it in the press, the people couldn't imagine where all this stuff was coming from.
"In the days following the August 6 meeting, some other info came out. The Park Foundation had received $59,000 from about 15 individual Scientologist contributors. Members of the Park Foundation had been invited out to L.A. for a special meeting with church officials, and while they were there the church had 'passed around a hat' so to speak, and got these 15 or so people to donate a few thousand dollars each. This event had been reported in the Tilden newspaper at the time. But then some new stuff came out, when someone in Tilden came across a *SCIENTOLOGY* publication which not only reported that the Park Foundation members had been to L.A. and received donations, but that the Park people had *RECEIVED SCIENTOLOGY SERVICES* while visiting the church.
"On Tuesday, August 13, the good guys held a meeting. They are now called the 'Concerned Citizens Coalition,' or something along those lines. The good news was that the mayor showed up at this meeting to say that he had changed his mind and was now opposed to Scientology. The bad news is that the mayor is the guy who doesn't have a vote.
"Last night, Thursday, August 22, there was another Concerned Citizens meeting scheduled, but I have not yet heard what happened there. The plan was to circulate a petition among the townspeople. Over the next 30 days, attorneys representing the City Council will meet with the attorney representing the Concerned Citizens. The citizens are thinking about getting an injunction to prevent any further clam money from being raised and spent. They would like to return the remaining $49,000 to the 15 or so clams who donated it, and they want to raise the $10,000 that has already been spent so they can reimburse the Scienos completely. They have a list of each of the clams who donated."
Message-ID: <DRB.96Aug27054049@cs.cmu.edu>
#####
Tilman Hausherr
Tilman Hausherr posted email from Ernie, a Scientologist, to his employer.
"It has been brought to my attention that Mr. Tilman Hausherr has been harassing Scientologist over the Internet since April 1995. One document has turned up coming from your companies files dated 4/18/95. Apparently, Mr. Hausherr is doing this harassment on your company's time. According to the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany, Section 130: He who attacks the human rights of others in a way which disturbs the public peace, by: 1). Inciting hatred against segments of the population; 2) Calling upon people to take part in violent or arbitrary measures against them; or 3) Insulting, intentionally libeling or slandering them, ... is to be sentenced to imprisonment of three months to five years. Now, the consequences of his actions could possibly hold your company responsible for his documented actions. I suggest immediate action be taken to prevent Mr. Hausherr from continuing his harassment postings."
And this email:
"Mr. Tilman has in his homepage anti-Scientology propaganda. His homepage is link with your system as he is also an employee of you company.
"Among his intentionally libeling and slandering misinformation about Scientology has has Scientology Cartoons of one I take great offense to. It shows a character similar looking like the founder of my church L. Ron Hubbard fondling a small child under the guise of searching for body thetans. Under which is the caption: Kiddy Porn.
"I impeach upon on you to take a stand on human rights a prevent further viewing of Mr. Hausherr's Homepage.
"Section 130 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany states: Inciting hatred against segments of the population: Calling upon people to take part in violent or arbitrary measures against them; or insulting, intentionally libeling or slandering them, ... is to be sentenced to imprisonment of three months to five years.
"If you support his motives then you are in violations of this Criminal Code"
Message-ID: <3220c524.50358315@news.snafu.de>
Message-ID: <3220c532.50372156@news.snafu.de>
#####
Zenon Panoussis
Zenon Panoussis continues to post and distribute the NOTs materials. He
has created another web page for them, and will email them upon request.
"I'll be reposting the NOTs. If they are canceled again I'll repost them again. I will also send them by e-mail to everyone that asks for them. I will print them. And I will even go out in the street and read them aloud. So much for canceling. And so much for spamming too."
"I promised to repost the NOTs every time they get canceled, but realize that constant canceling would very soon turn me into a spammer; after all, that's what constant reposting of the same article is called. Therefore I decided to abstain from that *for the time being*. Instead I would like to remind everybody that will e-mail the NOTs to anybody that asks for them.
"I posted a message earlier, saying that I wouldn't repost the NOTs although they were canceled, in order to avoid spamming the group. I offered them by e-mail, but in the meanwhile I found (or rather installed) a better solution. If you're quick, you'll find the NOTs at
"http://130.244.97.141/not/index.htm and the classical full Fishman Affidavit at http://130.244.97.141/ot/cos.htm"
Message-ID: <32204617.7927@dodo.pp.se>
Message-ID: <3226FAB7.65DA@dodo.pp.se>
Message-ID: <32279AC8.6C90@dodo.pp.se>