Volume 0, Issue 33 vom 10. 12. 1995

Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review
Volume 0, Issue 33
12/10/95
by Rod Keller [rkeller@netaxs.com]
copyright 1995

Contents

  1. Rogue Agent
  2. Arnie Lerma Trial
  3. Post Case Dismisse
  4. Scientology and Cancer
  5. Cory Lies Again
  6. Dead Agent on Diane
  7. David Gerard
  8. Greek Disconnection
  9. Robert Clark Update
  10. Netherlands Update
  11. Kim Baker Retracts
  12. OT 8
  13. Tom Klemesrud Update
  14. Colombia

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

#####

Rogue Agent

Acting on complaints from the cult, Northeastern University this week suspended the account of anonymous critic Rogue Agent. "I've just been told by the Dean of the College of Computer Science that my account has been frozen because of complaints from the church of Scientology. "Until further notice I'll be posting from an alternate account, agent@redbox.newhackcity.net. Mail to this account will still work, I've got a .forward set up. "Note: to anyone who's sent me confidential messages, everything is safe." Message-ID: <4a9ou2$9mp@camelot.ccs.neu.edu> #####

Arnie Lerma Trial

A date has been set for the trial in RTC vs. Arnie Lerma, and Joe Harrington posted other details of the case. "21 Jan 96 has been set as the date for the commencement of the trial of RTC v Lerma. The trial will be held in the U.S. Federal Court in Alexandria, Virginia. This will be a high-profile case and extensive media coverage is anticipated. "Already Scientology has lost all of their claims of trade secrets and former members who signed agreements to never discuss the advanced course materials are now free to openly talk about it. This will greatly assist the FACTnet investigation of psychosis, suicides, and premature deaths on the OT levels. "David Miscavige has managed to evade the Wollersheim process servers, but rest assured he will not evade the officers of Judge Brinkema's court, or being sworn in as a witness. "The outrageous conduct of the Scientology lawyers has struck a raw nerve in a small but elite group of reform-minded lawyers and the ground work is beyond laid for a class action suit after the RTC v Lerma case is finished. "The cause of action has not been laid out yet, but the defendants will probably include Scientology's top lawyers, Kobrin, Cooley, Moxon, and others lawyers involved in their barratry, Eugene Ingram and other private investigators, and Scientology's legal support staff. Scientology accounting firms may also be included. The playing field will be leveled and Scientology will have to find mainstream lawyers to defend their legal dream team, minus all of Hubbard's abusive legal tactics." Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.951207015502.3498B-100000@server.nlbbs.com> #####

Post Case Dismissed

Judge Leonie M. Brinkema dismissed the case of the RTC against the Washington Post on November 29th. The Washington Post story was posted to a.r.s. "A lawsuit against The Washington Post by the Church of Scientology has been dismissed by a federal judge, who ordered the church to pay all attorney fees in the suit. "US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said that the church had no grounds to prohibit The Post from printing brief excerpts from religious texts that the church has tried to conceal from the public. The excerpts were published in a Style section story on litigation between the church and former members who have put the disputed texts on the Internet. "In her ruling, filed yesterday, Brinkema said The Post's quotations from copyrighted church texts were brief and fell within fair use doctrine, which allows publications to quote some copyrighted materials in covering matters of public interest. "'The court finds the motivation of plaintiff in filing this lawsuit against The Post is reprehensible,' Brinkema wrote. 'Although the [Religious Technology Center, an arm of the Scientology Church] brought the complaint under traditional secular concepts of copyright and trade secret law, it has become clear that a much broader motivation prevailed--the stifling of criticism and dissent of the religious practice of Scientology and the destruction of its opponents.'" "Brinkema said that although people can be sued for putting business secrets on the internet, trade secrecy laws do not prevent Internet users from downloading such material. 'Once a trade secret is posted on the Internet, it is effectively part of the public domain.' she wrote." Message-ID: <30c181c1.3176903@news.sound.net> #####

Scientology and Cancer

Diane Richardson posted a report from the American Cancer Society documenting Hubbard's offer to research auditing as a cure for cancer. "The earliest reference in the American Cancer Society files is a letter dated February 6, 1951, from Donald H. Rogers, Director of Research for the [Hubbard Dianetic Research] Foundation, offering the Society the opportunity of doing research in the field of Dianetics, since 'engrams have been discovered which might account for the physical symptoms of cancer.' In New Jersey, the Foundation was charged with violation of the medical-practice act. It moved to Wichita, Kansas, where its name became the Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc. In 1953, this Foundation wrote the Committee on Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy of the National Research Council offering them a chance to cooperate in research on Dianetics and reporting that 'we h ave seen enough evidence of a significant nature to indicate that cancer may well be psychogenic in character.'" Message-ID: <49r4lb$2c3e@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net> #####

Cory Lies Again

The story of Cory Brennan and Diane Richardson added another chapter this week, when Diane posted to show how Cory had misrepresented a research study concerning psychiatrists and religious belief. >(from The American Journal of Psychiatry, April 92, p 557(3), Associations >between dimensions of religious commitment and mental health reported in >the 'American Journal of Psychiatry' and 'Archives of General Psychiatry': >1978-1989) Cory, NONE of the excerpts you quote come from the paper you cite (Larson DB, et al., Associations between dimension of religion and mental health reported in the _American Journal of Psychiatry_ and _Archives of General Psychiatry_: 1978-1989, American Journal of Psychiatry, volume 149(4): 557-559 Apr 92). >Larson's study covers this too. He examined 2,348 studies over a five-year >period which included quantitative data. No it doesn't. The study you cited covers 12 years, not 5 years. Read the title of the article you're supposedly describing, Cory. Did you find the clue yet? Additionally, the paper does not specify the total number of articles published in the journals during this time. Either someone has made up this data from whole cloth or else someone has confused the study you've cited with another study. >Of these, he found that only 59 (2.5 percent) included any religious >measures. of these, 17 used religious commitment as a variable >and 5 used this combined with something else, or fewer than 1 percent >of the total studies He finds no such thing, Cory. Larson identified 139 quantified religious commitment measures. Nowhere in the paper does Larson compare the number of articles including religious measures with those that do not. >Larson's study also includes data showing that psychiatrists and other >mental health professionals are less religious than the general >population, with 29% of them having given up religious faith of some kind >(this study doesn't give information about how many never had faith in >the first place). No it doesn't Cory. Nowhere in the paper you have cited do the authors say anything about the religious beliefs of psychiatrists. That topic is not addressed in this paper. >Here is only one example of a factor which is clearly demonstrated >to have a positive effect on preventing suicides, as well as mental >illness, which is not only ignored by psychiatrists (with less than 1% of >studies acknowledging it even exists), but is actively ridiculed by the >psychiatric community. The study you have cited says nothing of the sort. You are lying. Message-ID: <49on5h$35bq@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net> #####

Dead Agent on Diane

Possibly as a result of Diane Richardson's effectiveness in exposing the lies of the cult, cult posters to America Online have been making dead agent attacks of the sort usually reserved for Cynthia Kisser, Director of the Cult Awareness Network. "Subj: Re:Friendly posts Date: 95-12-07 18:46:41 EST From: DimeLine "I hears that Diane Richards used to be or still is a porn queen doing films (and men, women and children sexually) as well as being completely funded by CAN (Cult Awareness Network) as she apparently, in between times of making sex films, posts hate stuff on AOL, USENET and anywhere else they pay her to post. According to what I heard, she is very ugly, too." Message-ID: <4a8ak5$j2@utopia.hacktic.nl> #####

David Gerard

David Gerard posted a summary of events surrounding a complaint by the cult against him, resulting in removal of his Internet account. "I read it [a.r.s] more and started posting ... the Church then sent spurious lawsuit threats to me (and about fifty others) over quoting six lines of Church 'secret' scriptures, falsely claiming trade secret status for the lines and that the excerpt was a copyright violation (six lines is *well* within fair use). "[They] then complained to my postmaster and managed to get my access cut off for about twelve hours. I met with the postmaster and explained my case and what had actually been happening (with about a hundred pages of documentation), and my access was restored immediately. "On November 8th, CoS-Aust make a formal complaint to HS [Haddon Storey, Minister for Education in the State of Victoria] -- claiming that the posts are not academic usage and hence should be disallowed, and that it is his job to do so. They also claim that certain posts are libelous and that they will sue everyone they can if the poster (me) is not shut up about this matter. "HS decided to have a Little Word with VUT [Victoria University of Technology]. The Ministry *suggested* to VUT that the SRC [The Student Representative Council of VUT Footscraybe] be asked to tone it down. "On Thursday 23rd November, I received a letter from Information Technology at VUT stating that my account has been locked until further notice, at the direction of Professor Ian Rae, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (second in command at VUT). "Basically, the University wants me to stop using an account to talk about Scientology on the Internet, because they are afraid of (a) the liability issue and (b) possibly offending the Ministry of Education. Mr Halls also alluded to veiled threats of disciplinary 'hearings' (with predetermined outcome) under University statutes, basically for having dared to trouble them. "I stated that we wished the account to reappear and I would cease and desist using it for any non-squeaky-clean purpose; and that if it were not returned, I would shout from the rooftops and call as absolutely much attention towards the issue and towards VUT as possible. "I wrote a letter to Ian Rae, politely requesting the return of my account and promising that no non-SRC use would be made of the account; and that to this end, I had obtained a private account for personal use. I am presently awaiting a response." Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.951204143325.11771A-100000@suburbia.net> #####

Greek Disconnection

Communications were posted this week, directing Theodora Apostolopoulou, Sea Org member in Greece, on how she is to disconnect from her parents. The comm is dated May 23rd, 1995. They are becoming vocal critics of the cult. Sorry about all the uppercase. The level of manipulation is incredible. "1. (A) PER ALERT FROM THE DSA DORA'S FATHER IS IN HOSPITAL. IF THIS IS THE CASE, GET THE FOLLOWING DONE: (B) GO TO SEE HIM (C) IF HE EXPRESSES THAT YOU ARE THE CAUSE OF HIS CONDITION, OR IF THE MOTHER SAYS SIMILAR, JUST STATE THAT YOU ARE NO LONGER ON CHURCH LINES AND ARE NOW LIVING IN GREECE. THERE IS NO MORE TO TALK ABOUT THAN THAT. DO NOT GO INTO ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION, OTHER THAN TR3'ING THAT YOU ARE NOW IN GREECE AND ALL YOU WANT IS FOR HIM TO GET BETTER. IF HE WANTS TO TARGET SOMEONE FOR HIS BODY TROUBLE. THEN TELL HIM THAT SINCE ALEV CAME INTO CONTACT WITH THE FAMILY THERE HAVE BEEN TROUBLES AND THAT THE FAMILY WILL NEVER BE THE SAME UNTIL THE FAMILY LEAVE THIS FANATIC. (D) ASSIST YOUR FATHER TO GET BETTER IN ANY WAY YOU CAN. GIVE HIM THETA COMM, TELL HIM HOW MUCH YOU LOVE HIM ETC AND WANT HIM TO GET BETTER AND JUST GET BACK TO LIVING A NORMAL LIFE AGAIN. (E) IF HE REMAINS IN HOSPITAL, GO SEE HIM REGULARLY. TAKE FRUIT OR WHATEVER IS APPLICABLE, BUILD UP COMM ON A GOOD ROADS FAIR WHETHER COMM LEVEL WITH HIM. (F) IF THE OPPORTUNITY ARISES TELL YOUR FATHER THAT YOU LOVE HIM DESPITE HIS VICIOUS ATTACKS AGAINST YOUR BELIEFS. MAKE HIM SEE THAT YOUR LOVE FOR HIM IS SUPERIOR AND STRONGER. MAKE HIM RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS ACTIONS AND TO SEE THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THE FAMILY. "2. ON AN IMMEDIATE BASIS DORA SHOULD WRITE A LETTER TO HER MOTHER WHICH SHOULD INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING POINTS: SHE WOULD FOLLOW UP FROM THE MEETING WITH HER MOTHER AND COVER THE FOLLOWING POINTS: - IT WAS GOOD TO JUST SEE THE MOTHER AND BE ABLE TO SPEAK WITH HER AND SEE HER. - DORA SHOULD SAY THAT THE MOTHER LOOKED STRESSED. SHE SHOULD SAY THAT SHE WAS NEVER THAT WAY BEFORE. AND THAT SHE DOES NOT WANT ALEV ON THEIR LINES. TROUBLING THEM AND GIVING THEM FALSE DATA. DORA SHOULD STATE THAT IT IS NOT OK THAT HE IS DOING THAT AND FEEDING YOU HORROR STORIES. DORA SHOULD STATE 'I HAVE BEEN IN SCIENTOLOGY AND I KNOW IT BEST AS I HAVE STUDIED DATA IN IT. I KNOW THE PERSONS WORKING IN IT.I KNOW THE PROGRESS I HAVE MADE (GIVE EXAMPLES: BETTER AT STUDYING, UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF HONESTY AND TRUTH. YOU SHOULD NOTE ANY PERSONAL RUIN YOU HANDLED). TELL YOUR MOTHER, THAT YOU ARE UPSET AT HER ORIGINATIONS STATING THAT YOU ARE BRAINWASHED. TELL THEM YOU MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS IN LIFE AND TELL THEM THAT ALL YOU WANT IS THAT THEY CAN RESPECT THAT. -DORA MUST STRESS THAT SHE FEELS UPSET AT HOW A WHOLE FAMILY COULD BE BROKEN UP AND TURN AGAINST EACH OTHER. JUST BASED ON UNFACTUAL AND FALSE DATA FROM ALEVIZOPLOUS. -ALEV IS CRIMINAL IN WHAT HE IS DOING. HE USES PARENTS TO FIGHT HIS OWN PERSONAL BATTLE. DORA SHOULD STATE THAT AS LONG AS HER PARENTS MAINTAIN THEIR CONNECTION TO HIM SHE WILL NOT EVEN CONSIDER TO COME BACK TO THE HOME. -DORA SHOULD TELL HER MOTHER, THAT AS SHE THREATENS TO DESTROY KEFE AS STATED IN THEIR MEETING), SHE HAS DECIDED TO NOT REMAIN IN CONNECTION WITH THE MISSION AND WILL INSTEAD START TO LOOK FOR AN APARTMENT IN GREECE AND GET A JOB. DORA MUST MAKE IT CLEAR THAT SHE HAS DECIDED TO DO THIS HERSELF AS SHE DOES NOT WANT HER FRIENDS HURT OR FRIGHTENED, DUE TO THE CURRENT THREATS THE FAMILY HAVE MADE. DORA SHOULD STATE THAT SHE WILL NOT RETURN TO COPENHAGEN AS SHE FEELS THAT IT WOULD NOT BE RIGHT THAT SHE CONTINUES DOING THAT, WHILE MEANWHILE HER PARENTS ATTACK THE VERY CORE OF WHAT SHE BELIEVES IN. IT WOULD UPSET HER TOO MUCH. THUS FOR NOW SHE HAS DECIDED TO STAY IN GREECE. -DORA SHOULD INCLUDE THE POINT THAT SHE WILL NOT LIVE AT THE HOME OF THE MOTHER AS SHE WANTS TO BE ON HER OWN AND CREATE HER OWN LIFE WITHOUT THE PARENTS INTERFERING AND JUDGING EVERY ACTION SHE DOES. SHE SHOULD SAY THAT THE DAY I WOULD CONSIDER COMING HOME WILL BE WHEN YOU SIMPLY ACCEPT ME FOR BEING DORA YOUR DAUGHTER AND NOT ATTACK WHAT I DO IN LIFE. -DORA SHOULD STATE THAT IF THE MOTHER DOES REALLY LOVE HER, THEN SHE KNOWS THAT SOME DAY THEY WILL BE ABLE TO BE TOGETHER AND FRIENDS LIKE BEFORE. AS AT SOME POINT THE MOTHER WILL SEE THAT DORA HAS NOT CHANGED. DORA IS THE SAME DAUGHTER SHE HAS LOVED AND BROUGHT UP FROM BEFORE SCIENTOLOGY." Message-ID: <233302Z02121995@anon.penet.fi> #####

Robert Clark Update

A report was posted this week from an unemployment compensation hearing for henry (real name Robert Clark). "Some of his posts to usenet were filed as evidence against him. Many were posted from home, many allegedled to contain threatening comments, did not. They were forced to withdraw these all from testimony. Only a few remained alleged done at work. "The policeman refused to answer any questions and was dismissed. Henry had an amicable talk with him before the hearing. Which was apparently raucous and loud. Many objections from all sides to almost everything said. It will be a week to get a decision. "The 'investigation' is still sitting on hold in the office of DA Tony De Booth. Still apparently very low priority. Apparently this policeman was present when Ingram, and a cult paralegal, met with the president of Accuweather, Dr. Joel Myers and Barry Lee Myers to libel Henry. "Ingram claimed he had been hired to investigate this. Hmm. Yeah? Now, who would that be? Moxon? One odd charge thrown at Henry at the hearing was 'religious discrimination!'" Message-ID: <4a0b19$iga@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> #####

Netherlands Update

Karin Spaink posted an update this week on media coverage of legal proceedings in the Netherlands against the maintainers of prominent Fishman web sites. "On Saturday, November 25, the newspaper 'Het Parool' devoted a full page to the case. Journalist Addie Schulte interviewed both CoS-spokeswoman Julia Rijnvis and me, and wrote a thorough article on the upcoming court case. Julia Rijnvis was not pleased. "Last Sunday (December 3), I was a guest in RUR, a very popular weekly semi-live talk show. All in all, I got to talk about 15 minutes - not all about Scientology, but enough. One of the other guest, writer Tim Krabbe, publicly applauded the courage of anybody who dared oppose CoS; the other guest, news anchorwoman Loretta Schrijver, later phoned me to tell they would probably cover the court session in their news program. "Next week a big magazine (devoted to a combination of human interest, sports and politics) will publish a huge article on Scientology; and Holland's biggest news magazine will publish a part of my defense. Various television programs have also expressed their interest in the court case. "On Monday, December 11, just three days before the court session, there is a big meeting in Amsterdam, entitled 'Never Defend, Always Attack' (yeah, we borrowed that one for the occasion). Various people involved will speak out: Oussama Cherribi, the member of parliament who had a Fishman-homepage will talk about the importance of the protest; Felipe Rodriquez, director of XS4ALL, will explain about the research he did into CoS; I will read parts of my defense. "The main guest of the evening will be... STEVEN FISHMAN himself. Felipe and I have invited him to talk about his experiences in Scientology and his reasons for submitting part of the OT's in his court case. He will spend several days in Amsterdam and already various journalists have stated that they'd love to interview him. He will be attending the court session as well. "The court session will be on Thursday, December 14th. It is mainly paperwork. Both sides have already presented the main parts of their argument to the judge in written form. At the court session, both sides will attempt to summarize their main points; the judge may want to ask some of those involved to answer a few questions, but that seldom occurs." Message-ID: <4a1pul$jk@news.xs4all.nl> #####

Kim Baker Retracts

Ron Newman reported this week that Kim Baker, author of statements accusing FACTnet members of various improprieties, has retracted her statements. "Kim Baker has told me that on Friday morning, December 1, at the office of a South African lawyer, she swore out a handwritten statement repudiating her previous declarations. "I have not seen this statement and do not know exactly what is in it, but Lawrence Wollersheim has a copy and will, I hope, post it in the next few days." Message-ID: <4a23st$5ru@kalypso.cybercom.net> #####

OT 8

New material purporting to be the _real_ OT 8 was posted by Grady Ward this week. It resembles some of the OT materials, and discusses the idea of a Supreme Being, the thetan himself. "The whole secret involves what truly is the relationship of the Supreme Being to each individual thetan. To simply say it's 'me' is oversimplified to tears but has some truth to it. The real key is the perception and ability to have full certainty and, therefore, perception on all confusions and distortions of MEST and form and life units as well as the ability to perceive exact identity and its full relationship to its true source and history from its origin as the theta body, the true 8th Dynamic In order to truly view this as a present time beingness one has to Clean up, once and for all, his own confusions regarding these points. The key is being flat on all earlier levels and being honest with self as to the truth on each step of the rundown." One of the many procedures listed in this level mentions the 8th dynamic. "Spot a person or object in this L/T [lifetime] or on the backtrack you have identified as or who represented the 8th Dynamic to you. Valence split to EP and then recheck to an F/Ning question on call or thought. End the session for the day and recheck to ensure it's F/Ning the next day before continuing." Message-ID: <gradyDJ0ps8.726@netcom.com> #####

Tom Klemesrud Update

Tom posted an update of the situation with Linda Woolard, who spread blood on Tom's walls in an effort to make him remove Dennis Erlich's Internet account. "Linda Lee Woolard has sued me for $5,000 in small claims court. She filed it 11-27-95 with an appearance date of 01-05-96 1:30 pm Division 5 room 541, 110 N. Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90012 F.K. Ohlrich, Clerk. "It says: 'On 01-14-95 defendant physically assaulted me and threatened me with a loaded shotgun. He was arrested. Since then and to the present he has harassed me and had posted false statements about me on the Internet. All of this intentional infliction of emotional distress has cause me to seek emergency treatment for bleeding hemorrhoids caused by resultant stress.' "Woolard was served with an ex parte notice that the gag order was lifted on 12-01-95. I assume after this she learned that I was not in the Burbank bar when she claimed, but at my Dad's funeral. She filed this small claims suit before she had knowledge of my being out of town May 27th, 1995." Tom's statement to the court states: "At no time on the evening of January 14, 1995, OR AT ANY OTHER TIME, did I assault Ms. Woolard or threaten her with violence. On January 14, 1995, I was in fact threatened by her. Ms. Woolard began spreading blood around my apartment and informed me that she was there on behalf of the Church of Scientology and I would have to do what the Scientology attorneys demanded of me; i.e., remove Dennis Erlich from access to my bulletin board system." Tom also posted a new, detailed description of the incident. "The first thing she said when I found her sitting on the toilet in the bathroom with about a pint of blood on the floor in front of her was: 'Tom, we have got to stop having rough sex like this.' "I was shocked, and went to call for help. She came out of the bathroom and came to me saying this: 'I am a representative of the Church of Scientology, and I think you should do as attorney Thomas Small has said you should do--disconnect Dennis Erlich from the Internet.' "She immediately returned to the bathroom. "Then she came out undressed, saying: 'I have been sent on a mission, and I have been instructed to put some blood in your bed.' She said this courteously, with a smile. As she turned to lay down on the bed, I saw the sausage of blood nestled in her crotch. She wiggled her butt in the bed, got up, looked at the stain on the sheets to see if she liked the stain, and returned to the bathroom. She did this with no interference from me." Message-ID: <9512042349.0XH2B03@support.com> Message-ID: <tomklemDJ19yE.1AD@netcom.com> #####

Colombia

A summary of issue #286 of The Auditor was posted this week. It confirms some details of the cult operation to control Colombia through the military and schools. In a message posted earlier this year, it was revealed that Dick Weigand, convicted in the Gu ardian Office trial, is I/C (in-charge) of the effort. "Mike Edwards is an elite FSM who operates a consulting group in Colombia ... Through his work as an FSM he has disseminated to thousands of people including the staff of the Colombian Ministry of Education, the military and major leaders of commerce. As a result of his work he was recently decorated by the Colombian military for teaching them LRH technology." Message-ID: <022307Z08121995@anon.penet.fi>