Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review Volume 0, Issue 42 02/11/96 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://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 http://www.eecs.nwu.edu/~mallen/scn/arswr/ars-summary.html
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Tilman Hausherr posted portions of the court opinion in Larry Wollersheim's latest victory in the Court of Appeals, an anti-SLAPP suit. The court found the delay tactics of the cult "oppressive". The full opinion is available at http://www.callaw.com/b084686.html
"[A]n examination of the history of the underlying litigation reveals that the instant action is consistent with a pattern of conduct by the Church to employ every means, regardless of merit, to frustrate or undermine Wollersheim's petition activity. When a party to a lawsuit engages in a course of oppressive litigation conduct designed to discourage the opponents' right to utilize the courts to seek legal redress, the trial court may properly apply section 425.16. We hold that in making that determination, the trial court may properly consider the litigation history between the parties. The legislative rationale in enacting the statute is consistent with such an analysis because acts which are designed to discourage the bringing of a lawsuit are no more oppressive than acts which seek to prolong the litigation to a point where it is economically impracticable to maintain and pursue it to a final conclusion. When one party to a lawsuit continuously and unsuccessfully uses the litigation process to bludgeon the opponent into submission, those actions must be closely scrutinized for constitutional implications."
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Dennis Erlich, sued by the cult for copyright infringement and by his ex-wife for child support, posted some court filings this week.
"Here is my most current filing. It is a motion to quash production of my bank records back to 1985 and my personnel records from my previous employer.
"I have already opposed the subpoena for documents from my former employer by a previous motion to quash filed June 13, 1995. Despite the earlier motion to quash, the Respondent acquiesced and allowed the contents of his personnel file, along with payroll records to be forwarded to the Petitioner. The Respondent's former employer also was subjected to a deposition regarding these same records by the Petitioner. The Petitioner has now filed another invasive subpoena for the same irrelevant records.
"Since the April 1995 filing contained the Petitioner's current address, and despite being unemployed, I have forwarded every required child support payment to Petitioner.
"In October the Petitioner forwarded to me un- itemized bills for dental work ostensibly done on HOLLY. I was not employed, nor did I have the income to pay the bills, even if they had been properly itemized.
"I am currently unemployed. My unemployment insurance runs out in 2.5 weeks. From then on until I find other employment, I will have to borrow to live. My ability to pay child support will cease.
"I have forwarded all this information to the Petitioner, asking her to desist from these unwarranted and burdensome motions. In spite of these compelling defenses, the Petitioner has gone forward with these wasteful motions. I believe these motions have been put before the court simply and only for the purpose of harassing me, invading my privacy and consuming my precious time."
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Steve Fishman reported this week that the cult has declared his deposition moot, following the decision against Arnie Lerma in Virginia. Steve also described the status of his case.
"What I said all along, and what I told Judge Ferguson at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida was that the cult's request for my deposition was moot all along - it had nothing to do with Arnie Lerma's case, and 90% of the questions which cult lawyer Kendrick Shmendrick Moxon was asking me were totally off-topic for the Lerma case, and the remaining 10% were at best arguable.
"What Moxon tried to do was to use the Lerma case as an excuse to go on a Fishman Fishing Expedition in the Fishman / Geertz case proceeding in Los Angeles Superior Court against the cult, David Miscavige, Eugene Ingram, et. al.
"On February 23rd, there will be a status conference in my case at the Superior Court of Los Angeles, to determine, among many other things, Scientology's SLAPP suit motion, their motion to Strike my complaint, a motion by Miscavige to quash service of process, as well as their notoriously frivolous motion for Dr. Geertz and I to post an undertaking which is a promise to pay a bond; and then my own request for a jury trial will be heard, and my opposition motions to their frivolous motions."
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Keith Henson posted a message from Bruce Hammond in reaction to the latest court victory for Larry Wollersheim. Some excerpts:
"Dear Suppressive Persons Scientology bashers and and their minions of ankle biting midgets;
"You can't sue LRH because you can't really collect from a DEAD PHILOSOPHER whose estate has NO MONEY, you can't sue USIMT because they don't ever do anything that could jeopardize themselves, you can't sue RTC because you will lose, AND THEY DON'T HAVE THE MONEY! THE REST OF US DO and we can spend it ANY WAY THAT makes us HAPPY.
"If you think we are on the ropes you are delusional. As Scientologists WE HAVE NEAR INFINITE RESOURCES; If we need 10 Megabucks for a project then we can raise it in a heart-beat.
"Stupid attacks like SCAMIZDAT postings or postings of the horrors of THE RPF's RPF and silly paranoid fantasies about CoS designed to restimulate others and scare newbies from the Greatest Opportunity for Freedom in the Universe, will only earn you a small bit of attention from a sub-unit of RTC and/or OSA. I doubt it will dissuade a single Scientologist worthy of the name from full participation in their religion.
"Scientologists will no-doubt continue to commit the TERRIBLE CRIME of BEING THERE and COMMUNICATING. If you are one of the ankle-biters duped into playing for the wrong team in this game you may find that we will be where you are, observing it, and communicating it to others who might be interested regardless of your best efforts otherwise."
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Keith Spurgeon posted a liability write-up from an Internet reading cult member. It included a description from the subject of the ethics order.
"I was assigned a 'condition of confusion' in spring 1995 for reading material critical of Scientology. [keith's note: including posts from this newsgroup] I worked my way up through 'doubt' and then to 'liability.'
"You then atone for the damage caused by your wavering or previous doubt by demonstrating renewed and strong commitment to the group. Since in my case I had been looking at the Internet and had met with apostates, it was suggested by my E/D [Executive Director] that I write letters to newspapers on behalf of the Task Force for Freedom and Responsibility on the Internet in order to deliver an effective blow against the enemies of the group. This 'amends project' was completed by the time the document below was written. The liability write-up (below) is essentially an application for readmission into the group of Scientologists, to be read by the persons you request to sign it.
"My friends are those Scientologists who act to help themselves and others progress toward the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics. My friends are members of the group of Scientologists.
"By doing a Doubt condition, I decided that I was a member of this group, and to deliver an effective blow to the enemies of the group I [w]rote 14 letters to newspaper editors in [names of cities deleted]. The letter was written for publication in the editorial sections, and covered the issue of copyright violations occurring on the Internet. I was writing on behalf of the Task Force for Responsibility and Freedom on the Internet, a Scientology organization. These were mailed 13 August.
"I did the following to make up the damage done to the group by my actions: -Mocked up the space for the Sea Org Missionaires. -Steam cleaned the carpet and both rugs in the 2nd Reg Office. -Paid $111.70 from mine and my wife's account to cover for the catering at the [city deleted] workshop. -Held 'host' hat at the [city deleted] workshop. Sold Dianetics Extension Course to [name deleted]. -Passed out 2000 pieces of promo. -Wrote 125 letters. -Washed windows upstairs, all the way around the org. (did not wash the reg office's windows, because they'd been done recently) -Folded 350 promotional letters for the 19 August Dianetics Workshop."
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Karin Spaink posted an article from the Het Parool newspaper. Two political parties in the Netherlands will ask the government to investigate Scientology.
"One of those parties is D66, a liberal party and one of the three parties partaking in the government now; the other one is the CDA, the Christian Democrats, currently in the opposition and for years the major political party here.
"D66 wants the Ministry of Health to examine the Church of Scientology. When the results of such an investigation would prove that the cult violates basic human rights, the cult may need to be banned. The CDA is also concerned about Scientology's influence. CDA member of parliament Soutendijk has stated that there is reason to believe that the cult participates in a govenment-established platform for youth care.
"D66 member of parliament Bakker thinks that the option to prohibit Scientology should be considered. This morning he stated: 'Scientology is mentioned more and more often as the originator of many problems. That is why I want to know what has become of the conclusions that were drawn in a 1984 governmental report on cults. I think they have not been followed up.'
"People who join Scientology, the 1984 report states, are virtually unable to get out if they want to. The Church also collects files about its members containing personal information; members cannot retrieve that information. The report goes on to say that if Scientology refuses to government should consider declaring Scientology unlawful."
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#####Anonymous poster Rogue Agent sent his final posts to a.r.s this week. He is leaving for personal reasons. His last posts contained the complaint made against him to Northeastern University by Annette Ross, Legal Officer of the cult in Boston.
"I am the Legal Officer for the Church of Scientology in Boston, and I am requesting help from you in trying to locate a person at Northeastern University. This person I have been investigating has been engaged in harassment of staff and executives of my church via the Internet from Northeastern University computer system. He may also have sent a virus to another computer system.
"What I know about him is that for several months he has been sending harassing messages via e-mail to top executives of my church. This could be characterized as a hate crime.
"I have reports that he has been bothering some of my staff in Boston, with upsetting communication and derogatory remarks about their church. To one of them he gave the name of Mark Huber. 'Mark' has been known to frequently stop and give harassing comments to church staff over the past 6-7 months.
"He helped organize a protest in front of my church at 448 Beacon St. He did this via the Internet, from his e-mail address at Northeastern. He was encouraging people to come to the church on September 9th, when the church was planning an event. About 10 to 15 people did show up. I know that there is nothing illegal in staging a protest, but what is of interest is that he was most likely planning and organizing this from the Computer Science Center computer systems.
"'Rogue' has also communicated via e-mail to one of my parishioners, and sent a harassing message to the computer system. The comment was 'Rich is a butthead', which appeared on the computer print menu. We suspect that some sort of virus was sent also as there have been problems with one of his computer programs, and another message appeared this week stating 'Your scratch disk is full butthead'. A complaint was filed yesterday with the Assistant Attorney General's Office by the parishioner, as there may be state and federal laws that are being violated by 'rogue's' actions on the Internet.
"We have traced him to Northeastern University, and recently obtained a photograph of him that he had posted on the Internet. I also have a photograph of him that was taken the day of the event. Using the photographs we were then able to locate him at the Unix lab at the Computer Science Center in Cullinane Hall. We have shown the photos to other students, and most of them did recognize his photo, but did not know his name."
The cult also provided a series of allegedly harassing postings from Rogue, dating as far back as December, 1994. One of the offending posts:
"Ken Long <lenlong@netcom.com> wrote: >There seems to be a little confusion on what is. >Regarding just causes, the Optimum Solution pretty much covers that. In >order for someone to consider something was a just cause, they would have >to be 100% certain they had all the facts, brushing aside all bias and rumor.
"Ken - you think maybe Hubbie was remiss in not making this more clear?
">LRH also said 'On the day when we can fully trust each other, there will >be peace on Earth.'
"I say, 'On the day when L Ron Hubbard can fully be trusted, there will be a skating rink in Hades.'"
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The Free Zone added another site to the World Wide Web this week, with information on the 1934 book Scientology: Science of constitution and usefulness of knowledge, by Dr. A. Nordenholz. The URL is http://www.scientologie.org
"The Free Zone Association obtained the rights for the book from Dr. Nordenholz's heirs.
"Because of the name similarity and the parallels in content to the philosophy of L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology, the Free Zone Association (Freie Zone e.V.) decided to preserve this book by republishing it in its original context.
"The first two chapters of Dr. Nordenholz book have been placed at the above mentioned homepage."
Message-ID: <4f69ol$r1a@news3.cts.com>
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Hubbard Revisionism
Andrew McPherson posted an article this week about revisions made to Hubbard's lectures in recent editions. The new Research & Discovery series reprints lectures from the '50s, with some significant changes.
"These blue volumes essentially are supposed to contain transcripts of all the lectures ElRon ever held (except of course the confidential ones about Xenu & Co, or some of his political lectures from the mid 50s in Washington DC where he was working on the formation of a new liberal party). When the series is completed there will be about 100 books.
"I stumbled across some of ElRon's writings which were carefully edited in the new releases and which are being sold to the public under the false claim that RTC has 'carefully gone through all ElRon writings and compared them to the original to ensure that only what he actually wrote would be published'. I am now convinced that the true reason for the re-release of old stuff in new form (aside from commercial interest) serves to eliminate sections which show the true ElRon.
"The same holds true for ElRon taped lectures. I know someone who has done some research on the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course lectures. He sent me examples of what these tapes say today and what they contained before Golden Era Productions started to work with their 'Clearsound Technology'. They actually took out full sentences, erased names of scientologists (some of which are no longer with scn.) etc."
Message-ID: <211302Z07021996@anon.penet.fi>
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Cult member Vera Wallace "reported" that Tom Klemesrud, co-defendant with Dennis Erlich, lost a case involving Linda Woolard, who spread blood around Tom's apartment in an attempt to remove Dennis' Internet account.
"Is it true that Tom got his day in court, just him against her, and that he lost and she was awarded $5000 in damages?"
Tom's reply:
"If she won, the award, it is based on untruths told in court that day: 1) I was in a Burbank bar May 27th; 2) I was outside her apartment the evening of November 16th; 3) Her original Superior Court order was upheld in her favor in the hearing December 6th. These statements are demonstrably false, and I would have proved that if the judge would have given me the chance. Furthermore, they were demonstrated to her to be untruth in the Superior Court hearing earlier on December 6th, 1995.
"After handing about 15 ARS messages to the judge, she went on to say she has never heard of 'Seismotology,' and doesn't know anything about it.
"I had material that would have disproved all of this, but the judge would not look at my material, or give me the time to mention these discrepancies.
"If Plaintiff is awarded money from my insurance company, it will be from a case in which incorrect statements where made. This will come out in the federal case."
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