Volume 0, Issue 32 vom 02. 12. 1995
Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review
Volume 0, Issue 32
02/12/95
by Rod Keller [rkeller@netaxs.com]
copyright 1995
Contents
- R2-45
- AOL Folder Wars
- Lerma/Washington Post Order
- Lerma Trial
- Gold Base
- GO Still Active
- Sealed or Not?
- Charles Manson
- Netcom
- Linda Woolard
- Credit Card Fraud
- Stipulations of Evidence
- Free Zone Web Site
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://www.amazing.com/scientology/ars-summary.html
http://users.aimnet.com/~jdiver/scieno.htm
http://www.thur.de/religio/publik/arsfaq.html
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/ars-summary.html
#####
R2-45
An anonymous story was posted this week concerning the 'joke' of R2-45,
the procedure described by Hubbard to shoot an enemy of the HCG in the
head with a .45 pistol.
"He once told us how he and Otto Roos had been sent on an 'R2-45 mission'
by the Commodore, against Chuck Berner and his Abilitism splinter group.
They were quite willing to carry it out if necessary, but when they
assessed Abilitism as not much of a threat, they suggested to LRH that he
downgrade the mission. He agreed. Instead, they recruited LA Org students
for a 'third-rate burglary' (my phrase), in which they broke into the
Abilitism center, stole the E-meters, and trashed the rest."
Message-ID: <49bgia$2ud@camelot.ccs.neu.edu>
#####
AOL Folder Wars
The anonymous poster Xenu reported on the state of AOL's folders this
week.
"After a period of quiescence, the 'Scientology and Copyright' folder on
AOL is again under concerted, coordinated attack. It's been deleted
repeatedly over the last few days, with no public acknowledgment from AOL
of what is going on. RonArtistR in particular has been foaming at the
mouth with posts demanding the deletion of the copyright folder.
Apparently AOL has chosen the path of least resistance. Free speech is
apparently too much trouble to allow."
Other folders have also disappeared. Alan Morris reported the deletion of
the 'Scientologie' folder, and Woodsie found his post containing the
recently released report by Jon Atack deleted.
"Apparently AOL finds this material threatening... I posted the first
part, in 8 pages to the 'religion & ethics?' bds...only to find it all
removed the following morning."
Again, from Xenu.
"And the censorship wars continue. Newly created folders to discuss
Scientology and copyright (suggested by the sysop, Jerry White) are
mysteriously deleted almost as soon as they are established, with no
explanations. What is happening?
"Also, folders for Scientologie and the Free Zone are deleted, with no
explanation. Given that these are folders for discussing religious issues,
I'm surprised that the Free Zone is somehow treated as the Scientologists
dictate, rather than being considered an autonomous religion, analogous to
the Protestants and Catholics."
Message-ID: <498m9v$d37@newsbf02.news.aol.com> Message-ID:
<morrisaDIoBoq.EBu@netcom.com> Message-ID: <49b5h8$fr8_001@ppp7.erie.net>
Message-ID: <49itoe$ov1@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
#####
Lerma/Washington Post Order
(Full text you can find at http://www.thur.de/religio/publik/wash.html
On November 29th, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema issued an order in the cases
against Arnie Lerma and the Washington Post. It rejects the major
arguments made by the cult lawyers.
"RTC asserts that maintenance of the secrecy and confidentiality of the
documents in question ('AT documents') represents a fundamental and
inviolate tenet of the Scientology religion. Withholding these documents
from unprepared or uninitiated observers was of primary importance to
founder L. Ron Hubbard and is a belief woven throughout his original
writings. Thus, for Scientologists publication of these materials
threatens 'irreversible alteration of religious beliefs, including
compelled annihilation of a core belief -- confidentiality of the [AT
documents].'
"Were they arguing to a religious council placed within a theocratic
government, RTC's arguments might prevail. But this Court is a secular
branch of a secular democratic government. Our traditional separation of
church from the state, combined with the heterogeneity of religious
practices in this country compel us to reject the RTC's arguments. In the
same vein, RTC may not employ the machinery of this Court to enforce its
religious prescriptions against The Post by enjoining otherwise
permissible activity.
"A second related argument regards the alleged spiritual harm that will
befall Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike from reading the AT
documents. The RTC claims that premature exposure of the documents to
non-Scientologists (and even to Scientologists who have not reached the
requisite OT level) will result in 'devastating, cataclysmic spiritual
harm.' According to the church's dogma, founder L. Ron Hubbard taught that
disclosure of these documents to anyone who had not progressed through the
necessary spiritual prerequisites could cause profound spiritual harm to
the person prematurely exposed.' Non-Scientologists will also be harmed
because premature exposure will interfere with their 'personal spiritual
progress.'
"This argument has no merit. We reside in a country which allows
individuals and organizations to confront the risk of harm, spiritual or
otherwise, in the face of protected speech. The First Amendment represents
a conscious and explicit trade-off which the Founding Fathers made between
paternalistic protection from 'harmful' thoughts and free access to
information. Where statutorily and constitutionally protected speech is
concerned, our system permits an individual's fate to be sealed by the
individual's choices rather than governmental monitoring.
"In addition to spiritual harm, RTC's Emergency Motion reargues their
position about economic harm from publications of the AT documents. RTC
bases its economic claims upon two types of harm: 1) Competition from
rival churches or 'splinter groups' which will draw away future
parishioners and potential donations; and 2) The 'potential loss of new
parishioners through ridicule, by taking portions of the materials out of
context.'
"As to the first claim, no reasonable person could find that The Post's
brief quotations from the AT documents could provide sufficient material
upon which a rival church could establish a competing organization. As The
Post has argued, there is no evidence that it intends any more extensive
quotations, and indeed they are under court order to confine their use of
the documents to that permitted by fair use. Moreover, The Post is
clearly not in the business of setting up religions and is not a
competitor of Scientology.
"Regarding the RTC's concern about potential loss of new parishioners,
this is the price paid in a free society which encourages an open
marketplace for ideas. Free speech protections and the fair use exemption
to the copyright statute exist to permit open and educated debate on
matters of public importance. The RTC must accept the fact that frank
criticism of Scientology religious tenets may deter some potential
parishioners. Harm from legitimate criticism is not actionable under
either the First Amendment or copyright laws.
"We therefore conclude that this problem of unclean hands on the part of
RTC mandates denial of the equitable relief they presently seek against
Lerma and DGS. Even without unclean hands, however, the RTC would lose
under the Blackwelder test. The RTC is currently undertaking virtually
identical litigation in the United States District Court for the District
of Colorado involving FACTNet, Lerma's organizational counterpart. Judge
John L. Kane, Jr. denied RTC's Motion for Preliminary Injunction, granted
the defendants' motion to Vacate the Seizure Order, and ordered immediate
return of all materials."
Message-Id: <Pine.SOL.3.91.951130204445.27270D-100000@DGS>
#####
Lerma Trial
Shelley Thomson provided a summary of the next steps in Arnie Lerma's
trial in her Biased Journalism newsletter.
"The lawsuit brought by Religious Technology Corporation, an arm of the
Church of Scientology, against Arnaldo P. Lerma (critic), Digital Gateway
Systems (his service provider), the Washington Post, Richard Leiby and
Marc Fisher (reporters) will go to trial on January 29, 1996. David
Miscavige, head of the church of scientology, will be deposed in this
lawsuit. Last-ditch efforts by the church to quash his deposition have
failed."
Message-ID: <sthomsonDIKp7x.1Eo@netcom.com>
#####
Gold Base
Also from Biased Journalism, a report from Gold Base, the cult's prison
camp in Hemet, California.
"On Monday, November 13 there was a security flap at the Scientology base
at Hemet, which is coincidentally called Gold Base. Concern was raised
about a possible high-level defector. Security procedures entailed
checking on a quantity of gold bullion which had been stored in a secure
vault. When they went to check on it, they found that 7/8 of the gold was
missing. There was no paper trail. Security personnel almost had a
shootout over this, but discipline prevailed. There was (they decided)
probably no connection between the missing gold and the alleged defector.
The gold had to have been removed beforehand, possibly one or two months
ago. The deer mouse thought it happened on the night shift, and that a
high-ranked person in the church gave the order to make no records of the
transfer. A *very* high ranked person, the deer mouse said significantly.
"Security sent a message to higher management asking for instructions (it
went on). Was this to be considered a theft, or an authorized action? If
the latter, why were they not informed? They heard back, after a delay,
but the response was ambiguous. They were essentially told to hold their
position. A colleague of the deer mouse scanned the message and told us,
reading between the lines, that the author had no idea what had happened
to the gold and did not want to commit himself."
Message-ID: <sthomsonDIKp7x.1Eo@netcom.com>
#####
GO Still Active
Another anonymous story of former Guardian Office cult members still at
their posts was released this week.
"My source contends that an ex-GO of the name of Maureen Brigatti is
now/was recently in charge of all scientology reserves world-wide.Maureen
Brigatti was allegedly the Deputy Guardian Finance for the UK. He claims
that the GO was divided into several areas - Information, PR, Finance, and
Social Coordination (Narconon etc.). At the top of the pyramid was a
Guardian World Wide - Jane Kember - with a number of Deputy Guardians (DG
PR was David Gaiman, DG Fiance was Herbie Parkhouse).
"As of 1991 Maureen Brigatti was (according to my source) in charge of the
Sea Org Reserves and the IAS accounts. Both of these accounts are
apparently held in a Kredit Bank in Luxembourg. My source estimates that
the money in these reserves is roughly $500,000,000.
"My source goes on to explain that the IAS administration is actually in
Cyprus. This is apparently because the banking regs are looser than a lot
of either places, and banking secrecy. There is also no official
scientology activity there either - so they are less likely to be hassled
by the local officials. And, as the IAS has never applied for any tax
exempt status in the states (according to my source), the IAS doesn't have
to make it's books open to anybody. The name of the office in Cyprus is
apparently Theta-Management-Liason (TML)."
Message-ID: <49baib$1vr@camelot.ccs.neu.edu>
#####
Sealed or Not?
Last issue of WiR contained the story of Andrew Milne posting excerpts
from a sealed deposition. The excerpt quoted Arnie Lerma as saying that
Larry Wollersheim isn't an easy person to deal with. A devastating Dead
Agent attack. Andy Milne now claims the portion quoted is not sealed after
all. He addresses Arnie:
"You are not only a copyright violator but you also don't bother to check
your facts before posting. This is a good indicator of the veracity of
your other claims.
"Only the first day of your deposition was marked confidential. The second
day's was not so marked and may be quoted. The excerpt I posted came from
the second day."
Message-ID: <495ijq$60r@crl14.crl.com>
#####
Charles Manson
Evidence of imprisoned murderer Charles Manson's involvement in the cult
was posted this week. The evidence is a portion of a letter to Mary Sue
Hubbard. It is dated June 22nd, 1970, author unknown.
"Report of interview with Raul Morales, Re: Charles Manson. According to
Raul: Raul arrived in prison on McNeil Island, Washington in 1962 and
became a cell mate of Lafayette Raimer allegedly a trained Scientology
auditor (about Level I in Rauls's estimation) and was introduced to
Scientology at that time. Raimer was auditing in prison at that time and
in one 10 man cell had managed to gather a group of about 7, all in
Scientology. Charles Manson entered later and studied, did TR0 etc. along
with his cell-mates and received approximately 150 hours of auditing from
Raimer. Processes used were CCH's, Help processes (Who have you helped-Who
have you not helped) and other Dichotomy processes (Rauls terms, such as
What can you confront, what would you rather not confront), Havingness
(Such as 'What can you have?' 'Look around and find something you can
have. Look around and find something you're not in.' Raimer kept records
of his auditing. Manson got super-energetic & flipped out when he'd been
audited and would, for a time, talk about nothing but Scientology to the
extent that people avoided his company. After a while, however, Manson was
screaming to get away from his auditor (in Raul's opinion, he'd been
severely over-run or something). He eventually managed to get put in
solitary confinement to get away from his auditor. Eventually prison
officials got suspicious of the groups strange activities and broke up the
group."
Message-ID: <199511250407.UAA23777@infinity.c2.org>
#####
Netcom
Judge Whyte issued a ruling on November 21st in the case of the cult against Netcom, Internet provider for Tom Klemesrud, and in turn, to Dennis Erlich. Netcom claimed victory, saying in a November 28th press release:
"The Court vindicated NETCOM's position, ruling in favor of the Company on
two of the three critical points under review. Judge Whyte ruled that
NETCOM is not liable for direct copyright infringement or for vicarious
liability. On the central issue of direct copyright infringement, the
Court held that NETCOM is not liable for direct infringement when an
individual uses its system to post copyrighted material onto the Internet
without its knowledge. Rejecting the plaintiffs' position in this regard
as 'unreasonable,' the Court noted that holding an access provider liable
for direct infringement under those circumstances 'would ... result in
liability for every single Usenet server in the worldwide link of
computers transmitting [the infringing] message to every other computer.'"
Cult spokesman Andrew Milne also claimed victory, posting a press release
from the RTC. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Andy to find "Big
Wins" from recent court decisions.
"On November 21, 1995, Judge Ronald Whyte of the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of California denied Netcom's and Klemesrud's
motions for summary judgment in a copyright infringement suit filed by two
Church of Scientology organizations, Religious Technology Center and
Bridge Publications, Inc.
"This later, 32-page ruling is a major blow to Netcom and Klemesrud. They
had hoped they could evade liability for their part in Erlich's copyright
infringements, however, they now have to face trial on the issue.
"It is a decisive victory for the Church of Scientology which has
maintained all along that access providers and BBS operators have a
responsibility to take action to halt infringements once these are brought
to their attention. The court clearly rejected Netcom's claim that it
merely provides a passive channel of communication like a common carrier
and is thus comparable to a phone company. The judge stated that '...
Netcom does more than just 'provide the wire and conduits.' Further,
Internet providers are not national monopolies that are bound to carry all
the traffic that one wishes to pass through them, as with the usual common
carrier.'"
Message-ID: <9511290241.03S0R06@support.com>
Message-ID: <499b1r$ih9@crl9.crl.com>
#####
Linda Woolard
Linda Woolard (aka Miss Bloodybutt) filed for and received a restraining
order against Tom Klemesrud on November 21st. It contains language that
prevents Tom from posting to the Internet any message about the case. It
states in part:
"Defendant: Tom Theo Klemesrud, shall not alarm, annoy, or harass
plaintiff, an SPECIFICALLY IT IS ORDERED THAT DEFENDANT
a. not threaten, strike, or make physical contact with plaintiff and
b. not keep plaintiff under surveillance
c. not follow plaintiff
d. not telephone plaintiff
e. not block plaintiff's movements in public places or thoroughfares
"Other orders: The defendant shall not have anyone else, specifically
Pierre Merkl surveil, follow, telephone, threaten or make physical contact
with the plaintiff. The defendant shall not make any Internet postings
about the plaintiff or the 1-14-95 incident involving the plaintiff.
"Defendant continues to harass plaintiff by willfully posting defaming,
demeaning and untrue derogatory comments about the plaintiff on the
Internet. He continues to direct Pierre Merkl to surveil, follow,
telephone and harass the plaintiff, plaintiff's roommate and members of
the plaintiff's family.
"Defendant shall not post on the Internet or publicize in any way the
plaintiff's name, address, phone number or the name, address & phone
numbers of Barry Rohrbach or any members of the plaintiff's family. The
defendant shall not post on the Internet or publicize in any way anything
about the plaintiff or about Barry Rohrbach or any member of the
plaintiff's family."
The order also contains Linda's account of the incident, and explains away
the "blood" that Linda spread on Tom's bathroom walls.
"The Plaintiff had a preexisting medical condition which causes her
hemorrhoids to bleed when under stress or when drinking heavily. She
started hemorrhaging from her rectum and tried to calm the Defendant. She
explained her medical condition to him. She went into the bathroom and
removed her denim pants which were soaked with blood. She wrapped herself
in a towel.
"The Defendant kept threatening her and shoving her around. This caused
the Plaintiff to suffer more emotional distress which caused more bleeding
from her rectum and caused blood to be spread around the room."
Tom Klemesrud responded to the order.
"This language is clearly an unconstitutional restrain of 1st Amendment
Free Speech rights.
"In a declaration, that is not signed, or show what the last page is,
Woolard says that on November 27th, 1995 I was stalking her at a bar in
Burbank. In fact I was 1,500 miles away in Thompson, Iowa--for this was
the day of my Dad's funeral.
"She said after seeing me at the bar in Burbank watching her, she 'became
terrified and ran into the women's bathroom to get away from him. She
immediately began hemorrhaging from her rectum because of the emotional
distress she was once again experiencing by being in the vicinity [1,500
miles] of the defendant. When her friends went into the bathroom to see
what was wrong they found her bleeding profusely. They phoned for an
ambulance. She was transported and treated in the emergency room at
Thompson Memorial Medical Center in Burbank. Later at about 6:00 am on May
28th, 1995 she was transferred by ambulance to Olive View - UCLA Medical
Center in Sylmar for further treatment. She was released later that
afternoon.'"
Tom also posted a response to the order, presumably filed with the court.
"The temporary restraining order in place acts as a prior restraint of
speech on my part: 'defendant shall not make any Internet postings about
the plaintiff or the 1/14/95 incident involving the plaintiff' and is a
violation of my First Amendment rights. The TRO also potentially acts to
block my attorneys in the RTC v. Netcom case from performing legitimate
reasonable investigation through licensed investigators to adequately
defend me in the unmeritorious lawsuit. It is my opinion that the
application for TRO re harassment is a second 'set up' by Ms. Woolard
similar to the way I was set up on January 14, 1995. I would request that
the Court consider the facts within this declaration and the attached
pleadings filed on my behalf and rescind the unconstitutional and over
broad orders herein."
Message-ID: <49lbci$8j5@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <9511301409.0JW9V02@support.com>
Message-ID: <9511302037.0SZ6704@support.com>
#####
Credit Card Fraud
Tom Klemesrud also posted information on credit card fraud, carried out by
the cult as part of its harassment campaign. It is possible that some of
the information was collected when his mailbox lock was broken, and mail
stolen several months ago.
"So far, my Discover card, First Card, Montgomery Ward card, and J.C.
Penney cards have been compromised. I personally have a hard time
believing all these cards, or statements we in my mail box July 26th. It
could be a TRW job. In each case the theft changed the address to some
mail drop in Sherman Oaks then re-applied, or reported the cards stolen.
In the Ward Card case, I was informed that the theft showed a phony ID of
me at a local store. The United States Postal Service says there are
really over-worked, and that the Attorney General's guidelines are such
that they will not prosecute unless $20,000 is stolen in the fraud."
Message-ID: <tomklemDIq5JL.9zF@netcom.com>
#####
Stipulations of Evidence
Rogue Agent posted portions of the Stipulations of Evidence from the trial
of the Guardian Office 11 in 1978. The case is Criminal No. 78-401. The
stipulation describes the portions of the evidence that were agreed to as
accurate by both the prosecution a nd the defense. It describes some of
the spying techniques that were used against the IRS.
"In a clinical setting, Mr. Meisner also learned to conduct covert
investigations, surveillances 'suitable guise' investigations, the
recruiting and supervising of covert agents, the placing of these agents
in organizations that were to he infiltrated, the theft of documents, and
other overt and covert intelligence gathering techniques.
"A few days before November 1, 1974, Don Alverzo, who held the position or
Deputy Information Branch I Director US telephoned Mr. Meisner from Los
Angeles, California, to inform him that he was coming to the District of
Columbia to place an electronic bugging device in the Chief Counsel's
conference room at the Internal Revenue Service where a major meeting
concerning Scientology was to be held. On October 30, 1974, Mr. Meisner
met Mr. Alverzo at the Guardian's Office located at 2125 S Street,
Northwest, in the District of Columbia. Also present at this meeting were
the defendants Mitchell Hermann and Bruce Ullman who held the position of
Information Branch II Director in the District of Columbia. Alverzo showed
Meisner the bugging device which he had brought with him from Los Angeles.
One of the items Alverzo had was a multiple electric outlet containing a
transmitting device. In the late afternoon of October 30 Mr. Meisner and
the defendant Mitchell Hermann entered the main IRS building located at
1111 Constitution Avenue, northwest, for the purpose of locating the
conference room of the Chief Counsel's office where the meeting was to be
held on November 1, 1974
"The defendant Hermann told Mr. Meisner that he had entered the main IRS
building on the morning of November 1, 1974, gone to the conference room,
where the meeting was to be held and placed the bugging device in a wall
socket in that room. The room was located on the fourth floor of the
Internal Revenue Service main building in Washington D.C. and faced the
driveway of the Smithsonian Institution Museum of History and Technology
on Constitution Avenue Northwest. Thereafter, Hermann left the building
and waited in a car in the driveway of the museum with Don Alverzo and
Carla Moxon (the Assistant Guardian Communicator (Secretary) in the
District of Columbia) and overheard and taped the entire meeting over the
FM radio of the car. Following the conclusion of the meeting, the
defendant Hermann reentered the IRS building, removed the bugging
equipment from the conference room and took various papers, including the
agenda for the meeting, which had been left by the participants. He showed
these items to Mr. Meisner. Soon afterwards Alverzo returned to Los
Angeles. He took with him the bugging device, and the tape recording of
the meeting."
Message-ID: <49e40j$i1u@camelot.ccs.neu.edu>
Message-ID: <49e42q$i23@camelot.ccs.neu.edu>
Message-ID: <49e44s$i2d@camelot.ccs.neu.edu>
#####
Free Zone Web Site
The Free Zone Association, a group of former cult members who still
believe in the teachings of Hubbard, announced a web site this week. They
have acquired the rights to Scientologie by Dr. A. Nordenholz, written in
1934, before any of Hubbard's writings. The site is http://www.freezone.org
"The Free Zone Association obtained the rights for the book from Dr.
Nordenholz's heirs and has republished the book both in English and
German. You will find background data in the English and German
'literature' section of the Web pages.
"Our general opinion is that Scientology as it is represented by the
Church of Scientology has departed far from its original philosophy and
technology. But discover this for yourself by reading our pages."
Message-ID: <497l1k$a74@news3.cts.com>
Ku