Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review Volume 1, Issue 4 05/12/96 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://www.eecs.nwu.edu/~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
#####
A nearly complete set of the NOTS (New Era Dianetics for OTs) processing levels were anonymously posted to a.r.s on May 6th through the hacktic remailer in the Netherlands. They were subsequently reposted in HTML form through hacktic, and following their cancellation by the cult, reposted again through the Zippo system. The reaction across the net has been tremendously fast. Helena Kobrin, or a cultist using her name, mailed a series of requests/legal threats to attempt to remove the documents from several storage locations. The letter to Homer Smith, sysadmin of Lightlink was the most polite.
"Last weekend, someone posted anonymously a number of the works contained in the NOTs Series. From some of the traffic on alt.religion.scientology, it appears possible that you may have those postings on the lightlink system.
"I know in the past you did not permit such postings on your system, so I am contacting you to ask that you verify whether this is true. (The message IDs are at the end of this message.) If it is true, I assume you will want to remove them. Please do so and let me know ASAP."
The messages were subsequently removed from Dejanews and Alta Vista, sites that archive Usenet messages in searchable form. Before their removal, a URL for easily retrieving the articles was made available by Sherilyn (Tony Sidaway) at http://www.icon.fi/~marina/sherilyn/
"The URLs on this page no longer work, presumably because AltaVista and DejaNews have accepted the forged cancels. If anyone finds a public gopher or nntp link to a server that contains the NOTS posts, please email me and I will add it to my page."
The operator of Zippo copied his correspondence to a.r.s. after receiving a standard threat from Kobrin.
"We received several, which I assume were suppose to be threatening, phone calls today from Darlene Bright at 408-441-6661 and someone named Helena Kobrin at 213-960-1933. The substance of the phone call is covered in Helena Kobrin's e-mail message included in this post.
"I am not familiar with the Church of Scientology. If I were to define them by their representatives, I would believe them to be coercive, obnoxious, oppressive, rude and hysterical. Both parties seem to suffer from an overblown sense of self importance. My answer to them is as follows -
"The person posting went through a public news server as in 'open to the public' 'free' as in 'free speech without censorship' and 'Free of Charge' as in 'no cost'. We do not provide Internet access services and, I would think from all of your other attacks on sources of information, you would know what an nntp posting host is. We carry no information on our web site relative to the Church of Scientology as it is of no interest to us. I would not waste the time writing anything that would promote or provide visibility to your organization, as I do not believe in it's oppressive and threatening presence.
"The posts have been removed, as well as all other articles in the news group. The news group is no longer open to posts We have no more information as to who posted the articles than you do."
On May 8th, Alex de Joode released a statement that the hacktic remailer intends to cease operations, presumably because of the NOTS postings.
"Due to recent events the Hacktic Foundation has decided to discontinue its remailing operations, the remailer that is operated by the Hacktic Foundation will cease to exist May 20th."
The message IDs for the initial posts:
Message-ID: <4mjagf$7q4@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mjaji$7su@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mjajo$7st@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mjaab$7p1@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mjaaf$7os@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mjafj$7r2@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mjago$7qp@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mjaga$7qc@utopia.hacktic.nl>
The message IDs for the repost in HTML format:
Message-ID: <4mm82g$ei9@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mm8d6$en0@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mm8da$ems@utopia.hacktic.nl>
Message-ID: <4mm7qo$ea4@utopia.hacktic.nl>
The message IDs for the Zippo reposting:
Message-ID: <4mu431$shl@doc.zippo.com>
Message-ID: <4mu47n$sl9@doc.zippo.com>
Message-ID: <4mu4bo$snv@doc.zippo.com>
Message-ID: <4mu4gf$t02@doc.zippo.com>
Message-ID: <4mu4kt$t3j@doc.zippo.com>
Message-ID: <4mu4qe$t86@doc.zippo.com>
Message-ID: <4mu4v0$5p@doc.zippo.com>
The message IDs for articles quoted in the article above:
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960510124039.18708B-100000@light.lightlink.com>
Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960510180854.00328cf8@zippo.com>
Message-ID: <DxLczlAlVAkxEw$E@sidaway.demon.co.uk>
Message-ID: <PPB95mAJRqjxEwls@sidaway.demon.co.uk>
Message-ID: <4mr34j$qoq@news.xs4all.nl>
#####
Following Keith Henson's deposition by the cult, Dave VanHorn announced Real Audio files available for anybody to listen to the proceedings.
"The grand total as about 22 meg in eight files. I haven't got any descriptions yet as to content in any specific file, but it's there nonetheless.
http://www.cedar.net/users/dvanhorn/grady/grady.html
An amusing transcript of a portion of the deposition was posted, involving an anonymous FTP site. An edited transcript:
"CULT: Do you know who Patrick Volk is? Patrick J Volk, V O L K.
"HENSON: Not at first. At least I can't think.. Did he go by any other name on the Net? To the best of my knowledge I never heard of this person. If you give me a little more background maybe I can...
"CULT: I'll try and do that. <aside> Number 94... ???
"HENSON: <laughs> I'm sorry. This is a great troll.
"CULT: You find this amusing?
"HENSON: Yes. It's an in joke.
"CULT: It's a posting dated April 6th 1995 to ARS from Keith Henson. It quotes a posting by Patrick [?] Volk V O L K which states, among other things 'screw the court' and also says that he has an FTP site for all the OT materials.
"<Henson laughing>
"CULT: Mr. Henson is laughing hysterically about this posting, for reasons that we don't yet understand, and umm, obviously uhh... Let me ask you this, sir.
"CULT: So when he said I have an FTP site for all the OT materials, he is saying he has all the OT materials on an FTP site which people can access, is that right?
"HENSON: That's right!
"CULT: OK. Were you aware of Patrick Volk's FTP site, to the best of your recollection?
"HENSON: Well... You see right after the colon, it says F T P colon one-twenty-seven point zero point zero point one? That's a loop back address.
"CULT: That's a what?
"HENSON: Loop back.
"CULT: What does that mean?
"HENSON: You don't actually go out of your own machine at all, it loops right back into your own machine. This is what's known as a troll, on the Internet.
"CULT: So the idea here was to make the church think that this person had an FTP site, and to take action against him, and in fact he didn't have it, is that the intent?
"HENSON: It's really humorous, and I picked up on it instantly, and added something to extend the troll. Extending the trolls like this is an art form of the highest order.
"CULT: Um Hmm. You find this all kind of amusing, though.
"HENSON: Oh, this is screamingly funny.
"CULT: You find it amusing to make Helena Kobrin and the church go after you or other people, for this sort of thing, whether you had other materials or not, is that right?
"HENSON: It's a great game.
"HENSON: I mean anybody in the computer business instantly would have spotted this. <laugh> In fact, it even says 'troll' in here. In fact this is cross posted from...
"CULT: There's no question pending. Hold your comments. <aside> Let me see number 96.
"HENSON: I'm sorry, this is just too funny."
Keith also posted a document he submitted to Judge Whyte this week:
"I. Defendant respectfully seeks the judgment of the court in two matters, and the issuance of orders on two motions.
"Defendant requests a hearing and a ruling or preliminary ruling on the substance of 'NOTs 34' as quoted within defendant's letter of March 26, 1996 to the Court.
"For purposes of planing defendant's case, defendant needs a judgment by the Court on the substance of the contents of NOTs 34. Defendant contends that the contents of NOTs 34 clearly contains instructions for the illegal practice of medicine, but defendant concedes that the court may read NOTs 34 in some other way.
"Defendant respectfully requests that the Court consider NOTs 34 in the context of *plaintiff's* 1991 policy manual referenced at line 23 on page 2 of defendant's REPLY TO SECOND DECLARATION OF WARREN L. MCSHANE filed May 2, 1996 and fully set forth over the next two pages of that filing.
"II. Defendant seeks a ruling or preliminary ruling on defendant's contention that because of the claims made in NOTs 34, NOTs 34 is a violation of Judge Gesell's order reported at 333 FSup 357.
"Defendant believes that Judge Gesell's order forbids the Church of Scientology and all related organizations from claiming to heal using an 'E-meter.' Defendant is informed and believes that 'healing with an E-meter' is the topic of NOTs 34. But defendant is not well versed in the law, and the Court may read NOTs 34 in the context of Judge Gesell's order to have another meaning. Defendant will be most interested in the Court's reading of NOTs 34.
"III. Defendant seeks a modification of the preliminary injunction to permit defendant to responsibly exercise his First Amendment rights and to better defend himself in the pendant case.
"Defendant proposes that the Preliminary Injunction be modified so that defendant can access (download) and store, but not distribute, publicly available NOTs or other 'AT' material both in the context of preparing defendant's case, and for fair use commentary. It should be brought to the Court's attention that persons unknown to defendant posted to the Internet what purports to be all or most of the NOTs material on, or about, May 6, and that these documents, in spite of RTC's best efforts to get them removed, are widely available with little effort.
"Defendant proposes to use the following procedure before posting fair use commentary on NOTs or 'AT' material.
"1. Defendant will provide the Court and plaintiff's counsel with copies of what defendant considers to be fair use at least 10 days in advance of defendant posting such fair use commentary.
"2. If plaintiff does not respond by the end of that time, defendant will be free to post.
"3. If plaintiff responds, defendant will abide by the opinion expressed by the Court as to defendant's use of plaintiff's materials being 'fair use' or not.
"4. Defendant will submit no more than three postings per calendar month to this process.
"IV. Defendant requests an order for expedited discovery.
"Defendant's case depends to a considerable extent on showing that plaintiff and plaintiff's related organizations are pervasively involved in criminal activity.
"Some of the records defendant will be seeking, particularly certain computer records, may expire and become non-available if defendant is not permitted expedited discovery in advance of the case management conference.
"Dated May 10, 1996 Respectfully submitted, H. Keith Henson pro se"
Message-ID: <3192A375.5FB7@cedar.net>
Message-ID: <3192B3B4.7B40@cedar.net>
Message-ID: <lepton-1005962032380001@lepton.dialup.access.net>
Message-ID: <hkhensonDr7sEK.Aq5@netcom.com>
#####
AOL member "Tashback" posted an update on the new "Former Scientologists" folder on America Online, and the posts of Alphohm, a cult member.
"AlphOhm earlier responded to the creation of the Scientology Survivors folder (the original name of the Former Scientologists folder) by creating a 'Baptist Survivors' folder in an attempt to antagonize Sermoner, a Baptist, into trashing the Former Scn folder. Sermoner, to his credit, didn't fall for it.
Message-ID: <4mpagm$adu@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
#####
A message was posted this week by "craigory", with personal memories of the basement of the Ft. Harrison hotel. This in the wake of cult member Brian Anderson's denial that the building even has a basement.
"I was there as a student in 1976, and several other times in later years. At that time, there were dark, grungy rooms under the Fort Harrison which I had frequent access to. They were used for folder archives, to store pc folders that were not currently needed.
"There were also doors into other rooms under the Ft. Harrison which were constantly guarded, and access to which was closely monitored. Being the curious sort, I asked a couple of staffers what was down there, and they told me that people on the RPF were lodged down there while they did their amends.
"At least some of these basement rooms were later opened up and remodeled. When I was last at the Ft. Harrison around 1983, those rooms were in use as the internship courseroom, but the space used for the courseroom was by no means as large as the entirety of the Ft. Harrison. So there was a lot of space down there which was only partially taken up by the courseroom.
"There were also other places in the Ft. Harrison where people could be kept incommunicado. I have personal knowledge of a small storage room (about 6' X 8' X6') off a stairway leading out of the galley in which a sea-org member who had had a 'psychotic break' was kept for several weeks while they hoped she would become sane enough that they could release her to her family without causing too much of a flap. I was a close friend of the lady who was assigned to bring the captive her food and spend a very few minutes each day with her. She was not allowed ANY company at ALL, except for these brief visits. I wasn't around long enough to know the ultimate outcome of that particular instance of captivity, but from other stories I have read, her period in the 'dungeon' was not so very unusual."
Message-ID: <318d3e04.79676741@news.concentric.net>
#####
Steve Fishman posted several articles concerning the ongoing intimidation campaign agains him, and the behavior of a process server for the cult.
"Two of my neighbors were visited by a tall man claiming to be from Ingram Investigations today.
"He asked my neighbors if they knew if and where I was working, whether they knew what source of income I had, and whether they knew that I had been to federal prison, and if they considered it to be a danger to have a convicted felon living in the neighborhood.
"The man also asked my neighbors for the names of prostitutes that were seen around my house (not if there WERE any, but what their names were!) and the names of known criminals I am associating with!
"My neighbors said it was definitely NOT the same man as in the picture of Eugene Ingram on Jim Lippard's web site, which is the best Ingram site on the Internet, at: http://www.primenet.com/~lippard
"Meanwhile, the man claiming to work for Ingram Investigations (neither of my two neighbors said that he claimed to actually be Ingram, just to make that very clear) left Eugene Ingram's business card!
"This is what it says: EUGENE M. INGRAM Private Investigator Complex Litigation Investigations International Investigations"INGRAM INVESTIGATIONS California License AA9387 Post Office Box 291280 Los Angeles, California 90029-9280
Steve also posted a submission to the Superior Court of Los Angeles describing the behavior of a process server.
"For the past three days I have been harassed by a process server hired by attorney Edward A. Carhart 0f 2151 South LeJeune Road, Suite 202, Coral Gables, Florida 33134 who represents Elliot J. Abelson, a Scientology attorney who represents Jonathan W. Lubell and his firm Morrison, Cohen, Singer and Weinstein, both of whom in turn have been attorneys for the Church of Scientology. Elliot J. Abelson has sued my attorney, Ford Greene, in Marin County, California.
"On the evening of Tuesday, April 30, 1996, I received a call from a process server who told me on the phone that he could not find my house. He asked me for directions. I declined to give him any, and then told him I would confer with my attorney and that he could call back if he so desired.
"That evening at 7:30 P.M., the same process server knocked on my door and asked whose house it is. My daughter, Elysia Nureyev, a minor, stated that it is the Nureyev residence. The process server asked to speak to me, and my daughter told him she had no information to give him.
"He waited outside the house until 9:30 P.M. and then left. He blocked the driveway so that no cars could get in or out of the carport on the side of the house.
"The following morning of Wednesday the 1st of May, the process server returned at approximately 6:45 A.M. He waited outside the house, again blocking the driveway until 8:45 A.M. During that time he banged on the door six times with his fist loudly. He rang the bell constantly. I had my answering machine on and he called twice during that time, saying I'm still here, and Ill be back.
"The next morning, on Thursday, May 2, 1995, the same process server arrived at 6:40 A.M. and once again blocked the driveway to the carport on the side of my house, and started ringing the bell and pounding on the door. He also called the house at 7:10 A.M. and said I'm back on my answering machine. At approximately 7:30 A.M. my father, Jack Fishman, arrived to drive my daughter Elysia to school. The process server was very rude to my father, who is 88 years old, and according to my father was verbally abusive. When my father and daughter left the house together, the process server tried to deny my daughter access to my fathers car and in doing so attempted to serve the subpoena on her. My daughter calmly told him that she was a minor, and asked him to step out of the way.
"At approximately 9:45 A.M., the process server urinated on my front lawn. Apparently he did not want to leave the front of my house to drive six blocks to Wal-Mart where there was a public rest room. The process server had white hair, and was a man about 40, tall, with a full build.
"At 10:37 A.M., the process server began ringing the bell again. He being agitated when I would not answer and began kicking the door with his foot, and cracked the wood on the front door and it now has a small slit in it which is about a foot in length. He went back to his car and kept his hand on the horn for fifteen minutes, until 11:01 A.M.
"The following morning, I arrived at my fathers house at 7:20 A.M. and left at 8:00 A.M. When I walked out of my fathers apartment, at 8851 Sunrise Lakes Boulevard, Apartment 116, Sunrise, two men drove up in a late model white Eagle Talon or Mitsubishi Eclipse. One of the men served me with the subpoena while the other man went around to the right side of my car and took something from under the bottom of my car, which was a small black box. I assumed it was a tracking device but I could not see it because he put it in his pocket. The driver (the man who served me which was NOT the same one who urinated on my lawn, but a different individual, a heavy man with curly hair) refused to move his car, blocking my way out of my fathers parking space, until he made a phone call on his cellular phone. Five minutes later, he moved it and left.
"I am requesting a protective order from the Court to stay discovery in Abelson v. Greene until the Court determines whether this case has any merit and whether the service of process was legal.
"Respectfully Submitted, Dated: May 3, 1996"
Message-ID: <4mjbg8$4em@dfw-ixnews10.ix.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <4min8d$k2i@dfw-ixnews10.ix.netcom.com>
#####
A list of items Grady Ward submitted in his case was posted this week. The statements are things Grady believes to be true, and is asking the cult to confirm or deny. Among them:
"Plaintiff does admit that the investigator known as Eugene Martin Ingram was in fact an agent, servant, employee, partner, privy or attorney, or a person acting or purporting to act under the authority, direction or control, or a person in active concert or participation with the Plaintiff during a portion or all of 1995.
"Plaintiff does admit that Eugene Martin Ingram did obtain photographs from Rubye K. Ward in Tacoma, WA in May, 1995.
"Plaintiff does admit that the poster known as 'Vera Wallace' was in fact an agent, servant, employee, partner, privy or attorney, or a person acting or purporting to act under the authority, direction or control, or persons in active concert or participation with the Plaintiff during a portion or all of 1995."
[also 'Chris Miller', 'Andrew Milne', 'David Talbot', 'Cory Brennan', 'Helena Kobrin', Jeffrey George Quiros]
"Plaintiff does admit that it does not know with a reasonable certainty whether the so-called NOTs in the Plaintiff's verified complaint against Grady Ward have been published generally on the Internet or on portions of it.
"Plaintiff does admit that Helena Kobrin did in fact issue a RMGROUP command to remove the Internet Usenet discussion group called alt.religion.scientology.
"Plaintiff does admit that one or more of the attached cancels were accomplished by the Plaintiff during a portion or all of 1995.
"Plaintiff does admit that it or Eugene Martin Ingram did impersonate Grady Ward to obtain his telephone records during a portion or all of 1995.
"Plaintiff does admit that was working in concert and participation with the Church of Scientology when it signs were made, for example, calling Grady a 'copyright terrorist' on March 9, 1996.
"Plaintiff does admit that it did in fact forge the Usenet posting of the OT3 and other 'Advanced Technology' documents that it has attributed to Grady Ward in 1995.
"April 18, 1996"
An excerpt from another filing with Judge Whyte:
"The plaintiff now is using the unequal discovery schedules to hinder the defendant's own discovery into matters of torts committed by the plaintiff which stem from multiple criminal acts by the plaintiff or those acting in concert or participation with the plaintiff. These acts include trespass, theft, and forgery of Usenet posts as described in my verified Answer and Counterclaims.
"Further, since the plaintiff is proceeding with their own discovery they have no incentive to 'meet and confer' pursuant to FRCivP 26(d) and (f) and Local Rules 16-3, 16-4. Thus while they aggressively and abusively (cf my April 10th letter complaining about counsel Hogan's behavior) pursue discovery on me, they are obstructing my own discovery into potentially more serious criminal acts that I allege they have committed relating to this litigation.
"In fact a letter date April 22, 1996 from the plaintiff, they made it clear that as far as they were concerned, they have 'no obligation to respond and will not respond further' to the defendant's discovery requests until a meet and confer session that may occur as late as June 19, 1996.
"In all likelihood I will not be able to afford such powerful tools for discovery as oral depositions, however I am asking for permission to submit interrogatories, request for production of documents and things, and request for admissions. And as the above citations show, I expect excessive resistance to my lawful discovery requests causing time-delaying appeals and motions to compel.
"Given the vastly unequal positions of wealth and litigation experience of the plaintiff and those working in concert and participation with the plaintiff compared to the defendant, and given the admissible evidence that defendant Grady Ward has provided with his verified Answer and Counterclaims, there is no conceivable injury that the plaintiff will suffer by the grant of expedited discovery.
"To restore the discovery playing field to an even level (even though the plaintiff's team still has a surfeit of members compared to the single inexperienced defendant pro per), defendant's request for expedited discovery should be granted.
"Respectfully submitted, April 25, 1996"
Message-ID: <4mh320$6o5@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>
Message-ID: <4mh3ke$7b5@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>
#####
Lance Buckley posted a report on the lightning picket held several weeks ago outside the London Org on Tottenham Court Road.
"As we descended on the org, we couldn't help but notice that they knew we were coming. In fact they had probably been set up quite a while. I remember wondering at the time if they were getting bored waiting for us to turn up. We had our own pair of police officers to make sure the three of us didn't start a riot or something. It's nice to know someone cares. We said our hellos to anyone who was interested, hoisted our signs high and had at the leaflet distribution with a will.
"As usual we were the centre of attention for 3 or more people with cameras. Why can't they issue decent cameras to these people? All they ever use are the 'point'n'shoot' models.
"Since we like Jaques so much, we decided to tell him that one of the signs the droidz was carrying had a slight typo. I can't remember the context right now, but they had misspelled 'L Ron Hubbard'. This stunning testament to the much vaunted study tech had written on her sign: 'P. Ron Hubbard blah blah'!
"'P'? How the hell can you misspell a single letter? Shit, 'L' doesn't even -sound- like 'P'. We decided it had to be due to those seafood engrams again. 'P Ron' sounds like 'Prawn' so for the rest of our stay our favourite conman was referred to as 'Prawn Hubbard'. I don't think they appreciated the joke.
Message-ID: <831461338snz@avalon.demon.co.uk>
#####
A new booklet is available on Jack Parsons, one of Hubbard's colleagues during his "sex magic" days.
"Paul Rydeen, one of the better researches in the world of fringe occult culture, has written a little 77 page booklet on Parsons. About one third of the work involves our favorite tubbalard, L. Ron Hubbard.
"While Rydeen disputes that Parsons and Hubbard engaged in full-penetration homosexual sex magick rituals, he does have documentation of their engaging in wife swapping (at the time Hubbard had two wives, so the man did like to share at one point in his life), masturbation in front of each other and other practices.
"Published by Wesley Nations. $5.00 on the shelf or $7.00 post paid from:
Crash Collusion
Message-ID: <jerod23Dr79B8.2Ey@netcom.com>
#####
Paulette Cooper, author of "The Scandal of Scientology", and subject of fair game harassment tactics, posted to clarify some impressions prevalent on a.r.s. Some excerpts:
"1. The main reason I was harassed was not because of my book
"Although some harassment was related to that, as well as to my later lawsuits and counter-claims against them, the real reason for the 15 years of harassment was because I was engaged in non-stop anti-Scientology activities throughout that time, trying to expose Scn and help people having problems with them.
"2. Operation Freakout took place over at least 4 years--and part of it lead to my arrest for forged bomb threats threats that they sent themselves.
"Although the book came out in 1971, it was late in 1972 that the harassment became truly unbearable. We found that my phone had been tapped. All the tenants in my building received disgusting anonymous smear letters about me. So did my parents. There was a flower delivery for me with a gun in it. And that's when the actual frame-up occurred, which I believe was the early part of Operation Freakout.
"3. I was never forced to settle--I wanted to.
"The harassment was effecting my health, my emotional state of mind, my social life, and I was upset because the Scientologists were harassing my elderly parents, and had deposed 50 of my friends and editors, asking them personal questions about me, etc. Even so, I continued my anti-Scientology activities until the end of 1984, when I was assured that Scientology had changed and harassment of critics was a thing of the past.
"4. The Scandal of Scientology is weak now but it wasn't then.
"I think I was the first writer to uncover the Foster (Anderson) report, Hubbard's academic background and marital problems and status, potential fears of blackmail, early auditing, Charles Manson, etc. Sure we know much more now, but the material was very startling then. And I am very proud of the investigative research job that I did.
"5. Did I ever retract any part of 'The Scandal of Scientology'?
"I agreed to *clarify* certain sentences in an affidavit that was supposed to make it clear that I had gotten certain information from secondary sources and had no personal evidence of the events. (For example, in my book, I quoted the Anderson or Foster Report as saying something, but it may not have been apparent to readers who couldn't figure out the footnotes that I wasn't there to see it myself.)
"I've never considered my clarification to be a retraction--regardless of what Scientology says--and I believe every word of my book to be correct today. Just too weak.
"6. I am not and never was an anti-Scientology writer.
"My interest in Scientology has always been solely as an investigative journalist, since I was never a former member. Although I got sidetracked after my book came out for many years with my crusade, I have since tried to go on with my life and write about other things. Indeed, I have written a total of 8 books on other subjects, and probably around 1,000 articles.
"7. I have no desire to ever return to writing/speaking against Scientology.
"I know some of you have expected me to do more, and some have written asking me to do more. But I feel that I did more than my share, and I want to continue to enjoy my harassment free life."
Message-ID: <4mtrp4$r48@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
Message-ID: <4mtt3u$rkk@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
#####
Karin Spaink posted an update to the lawsuits filed in The Netherlands concerning the large number of web pages containing the Fishman version of the OT documents. Following the victory in court that allows the pages to remain in place, the cult has continued its efforts.
"Scientology has appealed this judgment, as they are wont to do. Their Motion of Complaints was filed earlier in April. Today, our lawyer has filed his reply.
"The date for the court session has been set: it's June 18, 14.00. The case will be brought before three judges, a so-called 'multiple court' (meervoudige kamer). It is not known how long these three judges will take to study the file and to pronounce judgment.
Message-ID: <318fe3e7.50626020@news.xs4all.nl>
#####
Dow Jones reported on May 8th that Time Warner has settled its lawsuit over legal fees with TIG Insurance. The case in question was the defamation lawsuit by the cult over the Time Magazine article, "Scientology, Cult of Greed and Power".
"Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
"As reported, Time Warner's Time Inc. unit had claimed in the suit that TIG, the company's liability insurer, owed it millions of dollars in reimbursements for legal fees Time incurred in contesting two lawsuits against Time magazine. The suits arose over a 1991 cover story that was critical of the Church of Scientology.
"Time said it had incurred more than $7.3 million in legal fees in
fighting the Scientology suits, but TIG hadn't reimbursed Time for any of
that amount because of a disagreement over how the deductible on Time's
policy should be calculated, according to the suit.
Message-ID: <4mtoof$ihu@basement.replay.com>
#####
Wayne Whitney continues his Saturday pickets of the San Francisco Mission, and continues to post reports to a.r.s.
"This is the second time that a staff member has come outside after I arrived and started to disseminate right in front of me. One of the locals told me that he's never seen any of them disseminating right outside their front door before. This staff member (Tim) stayed out front the whole time I was there, from about 1:00P to 6:00P (when they closed up shop for the day).
"Around 5:30 he was able to lure some guy inside. When the guy came out he had some literature and their personality test in his hand. I walked by and let him read my sign. I could tell by his reaction that he was really affected by what he read. There were perhaps twenty people waiting for the bus -- a captive audience. I walked up to him and just blurted out,' They scammed me for $95,000. I've watched them scam so many other people. If they did it to me they'll do it to you. You've been warned.'
"You should have seen the reaction of the crowd. They were shocked. Many glanced over at the mission with a look that said, 'They do THAT in there?' Tim came rushing up and threatened me with calling the police saying that what I was doing was right on the borderline of being illegal. I just walked away, being thrown a little off guard by this sudden threat. I could tell that I had made a significant impact on that crowd. Once I regained my composure from this new threat I assured myself that I had done nothing wrong. I have just as much right to talk to people on the street as he does.
"Most of the locals know me now. I've become a common sight. All the ones that I've talked to approve of what I'm doing. I've got many allies on the street now. I'm not out there 'alone' anymore. If the clams try anything I've now got friends to back me up."
Wayne also posted a letter he has sent repeatedly to the cult in San Francisco.
"I DEMAND an immediate and complete refund of all the money that you scammed from me PLUS all the interest I lost on my money. Here are some of the reasons why:
"I was promised that $cientology would definitely cure all the pain I was in and yet after hundreds of hours of 'auditing' I was still just as sick.
"I was promised that I would learn to communicate better yet $cientology had exactly the opposite affect on me. It's no wonder, the 'communication' course I was conned into paying for is nothing more than a series of drills designed to train you to lie and disseminate $cientology. The Trs are nothing more than a form of hypnotism designed to program you to retreat from the world and become docile and obedient. None of this has ANYTHING to do with real communication. I did not pay all my money to be turned into a mindless robot like that.
"I was promised that my IQ would dramatically increase and yet after hundreds of hours of 'auditing' my IQ stayed exactly the same.
"Do you realize how many people read my bright green fluorescent sign as I make the long commute to your mission and back? You know the sign, the one that says, 'in my opinion $cientology is a $CAM'. Many just smile and shake their head in agreement. Many say something like, 'Ain't that the truth.' Many even stop me and ask WHY I believe $cientology is a $cam. It gives me the perfect opportunity to tell them what REALLY goes on inside your 'mission.'
"As long as you have MY MONEY I'm going to keep making that long commute. I'm going to keep on proudly displaying my sign for the whole world to see.
"Chris, YOU'RE the one that is forcing me to do all these things. Just remember that! I wasn't doing any of this until you refused to communicate and return my money. I'd say that's down right suppressive of you. You pull in what you can't confront. Remember, you came looking for me, I never went looking for you. If you have a problem with me you only have YOURSELF TO BLAME. Another thing to remember, what you seeing me doing outside your front door is just a tip of the iceberg, I'm doing a hell of a lot more to inform others about the REAL intentions of $cientology.
"YOU WILL BE HEARING AND SEEING ME AGAIN CONCERNING MY REFUND."
Message-ID: <4mjcus$7kr@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
Message-ID: <4mubnt$3q0@newsbf02.news.aol.com>