Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review Volume 0, Issue 49 04/14/96 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
http://www.northcoast.com/~grady/Welcome.html
Shelley Thomson posted quotes from Grady before the deposition. He had conversations with cult attorneys concerning the examination of his scanners and shredders. They also discussed the answers Grady provided to the requests for documents, "None".
"They decided at the last minute not to fly up when they realized most of the responses were 'none' and the only material I have is indices from free_agent newsreader and other rather random stuff.
"I think they were wetting their pants hoping to get even a single admission of copyright or trade secret violation in order to drop all the other allegations and ask the judge for summary judgment."
"Hogan wouldn't take the answers as I had written them.
"He would say questions that assumed facts not in evidence such as 'Are you saying that you got rid of the OT documents so that you don't have them now?' or 'What exactly was your response after you posted the OTIII documents?'
"My answers were insistent that the answers were correct as they stood. He would repeat the 'admission built into the question' over and over, again and again. I would repeat over and over again and again. 'Do you understand, 'none'?"
Grady's comments following the deposition were also posted.
"Brutal, but interesting. Boy I was beginning to believe *their* case after eight hours of solid question and answer. but I came through all right. Now they want to do a full day tomorrow, but I only agreed to nine hours, so it may have to be brought before Magistrate Infante tomorrow after an hour and a half."
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As a result of the suit against Grady Ward, the cult is preparing to subpoena the records of anonymous remailers. From several Grady emails:
"The Police CID in Helsinki who is being pushed by the criminal cult yet again to get a search warrant for Julf's anonymous remailer, claiming I have been violating my injunction to post cult crap.
"I told him that as usual the criminal cult is lying and that I gave him and Julf explicit permission to investigate any or all of my posts I have ever made through the remailer."
"The criminal cult is trying to use the fact of my injunction to further their own conspiracy theories. South Africa, Finland, where does it end?
"I don't know what's up today, but Julf wrote yesterday to tell me that my id grady@northcoast.com had NOT been used to go through his remailer."
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Shelley Thomson's Biased Journalism newsletter also included details of the suit against Keith Henson for posting his open letter to Judge Whyte, in which he included the entire NOTS 34 document.
"On Friday night, April 5, Good Friday and the third night of Passover, Keith Henson answered the door and received the following documents: Ex Parte Application For Leave To File Expanded Request for Temporary Restraining Order, Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order, Order To Show Cause Re: Preliminary Injunction, and Order for Expedited Discovery; Verified Complaint For Injunctive Relief and Damages; and a bundle of supporting material. He was being sued.
"The documents consist in large part of boilerplate recycled from the Erlich, Ward and Lerma cases. There are signs that it was prepared in haste. The new paperwork, specific to Henson, apparently takes up some 50 pages."
An excerpt from the complaint:
"Mr. Henson told Mrs. Kobrin that he was 'going to put it a little nicer than Grady [Ward] would, but you can take your demand, fold it till it is all corners, and stick it where 'the Sun don't shine.''
"He then said he was *again* asking for NOTs or any other Scientology 'AT' [Advanced Technology] materials, acquired by legal, or *illegal* means, further announcing his intention to 'post this material in the public interest.'"
"Henson also suggested that he was not acting in concert or participation with Ward. His protestation rings hollow, however, in light of his involvement with Ward in other activities, such as a trip to the Church of Scientology in San Francisco to harass the Church and its members."
Keith replied to Judge Whyte in a hand delivered letter, dated April 8, 1996
"I request that you recuse yourself from this case.
"It is *not* for improper behavior or prejudice, but because (as stated in several places in the RTC's filing) you and your clerk have been involved, at least as witnesses, in the events which led up to this lawsuit.
"I am not well versed in the law, but I am nearly certain that it is improper for a Judge or his clerk to be called as a witness at a trial over which he is presiding.
"I am willing for the TRO hearing to be held at the time set if that is convenient for another Judge, or the TRO hearing may pushed back up to one week, and I will consider myself to be bound by the TRO until the hearing."
Keith also posted his reply to the cult's opposition to his request. An excerpt from the letter to Judge Whyte on April 12th:
"Per the claim by plaintiffs that 'the court itself apparently did not speak with Henson,' defendant concurs. However, the court's clerk did indicate before witnesses that Judge Whyte had read defendant's letter of March 26, and accepted the letter from Arnie Lerma which was promised in the next to last paragraph of the 'Open Letter' as if it were expected.
"The clerk took the Lerma letter to Judge Whyte, and returned after five to ten minutes.
"Defendant understands the reluctance of the Court to provide guidance to those who seek it, since Courts would be overwhelmed with such requests. This is, however, an unusual case, as the Court must know by now, and in that letter, defendant raised serious constitutional issues.
"Defendant, and thousands of others on the Internet, would have been very interested in either a 'Yes copyright or trade secret law can be used' or 'No such laws cannot be used,' answer to the question implied at the end of the second paragraph after defendant's fair use quoting of NOTs 34: 'Forbidding discussion of this particular document, including quoting it entirely, is clearly against the public interest, as well a violation of my First Amendment rights. Unless, of course, copyright law can be used to prevent disclosure of instructions for criminal activity.'
"However, the clerk of the court answered to defendant's satisfaction by declaring that defendant (at that time) was emphatically *not* a defendant, and therefore not covered by the TRO issued against Grady Ward. Defendant therefore made the assumption that defendant could post NOTs 34 which amounts to criminal instructions, *and* is a clear violation of Judge Gesell's order from 1971, and seek similar material, if any exists, as an exercise of defendant's rights under the First Amendment.
"It was, therefore, a considerable surprise for defendant to be served by plaintiffs for activities which were sincerely believe by defendant to be protected under the provisions of the First Amendment."
In anticipation of Dead Agent posts from cult officials, Keith also posted his own Dead Agent summary.
"Jeeze, Milne, I am a *really* unsavory guy. Surely you can dig up one of my former wives (not literally) or get the dirt from a nasty divorce? How about child abuse? I *was* investigated. What about the police reports on the Eco-Raiders? (Tucson, circa 1972)
"I would be really enturbulated to see those posted to the net. The bombs and other fun stuff are in 'Great Mambo Chicken,' but that did not begin to cover the grave robbing, or the black mass celebrations at the Druid Student center. And, surely you can get someone to talk about the orgies and the excessive number of women? Speeding tickets? EPA violations? Oh, and if you look through the LaRouchan Fusion Magazine, you will find out about Vooag (they missed an 'o') and LSD. Not to mention the 'guns buried in the desert.' And, if you go back to my high school you can can find out about the time I was called to the principals office and found it full of cops.
"That's far from all of it, but it should give Gene and Co. some starting points. Side bet, can they find out about the cannibalism charges? Or the Worm Story?"
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The Bakersfield Californian published an article about a bomb suspect involved in the cult.
"[David Lee] Enteman, the ex-Marine police believe blew up his van Feb. 9 - setting himself afire and flinging metal shards over two city blocks - was represented by two Southern California attorneys retained by his father.
"He and his father, Don Enteman, consulted earnestly with defense attorney Richard S. Plotin, who argued there was insufficient evidence to prove Enteman shot at officers or intended to blow anything up.
"Detectives believe Enteman was a disgruntled Church of Scientology member who was driving to Southern California [with] the intent to harm church officials.
"A woman who once dated the defendant told detectives that Enteman 'felt (church members) were involved in the programming and deprogramming of his mind,' Tunnicliffe testified."
In an unrelated story, the Washington Post reported that an attorney in the Unabomber case has represented the cult.
"The man who served as a critical intermediary for the FBI in the Unabomber case is Anthony P. Bisceglie, a little-known Washington lawyer who has represented the Church of Scientology.
"Bisceglie, 43, is an associate of David Kaczynski, the brother of Theodore J. Kaczynski, the man who federal authorities suspect is the serial bomber. When David Kaczynski discovered writings that led him to suspect his brother was the Unabomber, he began a delicate, almost month-long talks with the FBI, using Bisceglie as the go-between.
"Bisceglie and his partner, William C. Walsh, have represented the Church of Scientology on a number of matters over the years, such as Freedom of Information Act lawsuits against the Internal Revenue Service."
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Rosemary Jordan posted a personal story of her family and involvement in the cult. Some excerpts:
"Three of our four grown kids have gotten into CO$ for the last three years. One of our daughters, her husband and son could not even come to our home for Easter dinner because of some meeting they had to attend. They each have grown distant in their own ways. Our grandson 'goes to the org and sits and does nothing' according to our son, who has been in for about two years.
"Our oldest daughter first got into this in 1980 when she met a CO$er and then married him. They went off to LA and she severed her relations with us. She later was disciplined, spent over 7 months doing menial labor (concrete work) from 5am to late at night.
"She escaped by telling them she was sick and had to go to a doctor. She had enough money to get a bus to San Jose area and go to her sister's. She was in terrible health; I was very worried. She did manage to live a fairly normal life, though met another CO$er, and married him when the local mission said 'the people are gone that did that to you, and that can't happen again'. She's separated from that man now and is again living with us. She's had all kinds of problems: hasn't worked for almost a year, seems to have low self esteem (she's very beautiful) and I just wonder if CO$ is at the root of her problems."
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Dennis Erlich posted a report that confirmed rumors of Michael Jackson's recent collapse in New York being a result of the Purification Rundown of vitamin overdoses and dangerously long saunas.
"[O]n the April 9th broadcast of 'The Gossip Show' on the 'E!' cable network, the columnist from Esquire magazine reported that Michael Jackson's collapse had actually been because he was on the Purif.
"She went on to give a concise and unflattering description of the Purif, mentioning it as a service taken by people new to scientology. She closed with a line to the effect, 'If this is health, who needs sickness?'"
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Johan Wevers announced that he would place the available NOTS levels on his web page this week. He received the usual response from cult lawyer Helena Kobrin.
"The more the scientology sect tries to get control over Usenet, the more people they will find to oppose them. Their latest actions are aimed at the NOTs (New era dianetics OT levels). They've canceled some articles, but that's not gonna help them now: my homepage contains a collection of all the NOTs published by SCAMIZDAT. These can be found at http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/nots.html."
>From Kobrin:
"I found out today that you have placed on your web page (http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/nots.html) the following works:
They are identified as follows on your Web page:
1. NOTs Series 1, 6 pp
HCOB 15 Sep 78 Issue 1 NED for OTs RD: Theory of
2. NOTs Series 31, 2 pp
HCOB 16 Sep 78 Issue 3 The Thetan Hand Technique
3. NOTs Series 34, 3 pp
HCOB 14 Nov 78 The Sequence for Handling a Physical Condition
4. NOTs Series 35, 2 pp
HCOB 29 Oct 78 Issue 3 Notes on PTS
5. NOTs Series 36, 2 pp
HCOB 22 Sep 78 Issue 1 Rockslams
6. NOTs Series 38, 1 pp
HCOB 7 Nov 78 Basic Fear
7. NOTs Series 42, 5 pp
HCOB 11 Dec 78 Issue 2 Repair List for Errors in OT III
"The court in Holland has recognized that similar materials are copyrighted, and the defendants in the Dutch case have taken off their postings of the copyrighted materials in question in that case."
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Martin Hunt posted the text of The Mind Benders, a book by Cyril Vosper. >From the Introduction:
"The Committee of Evidence consisted of Allan Ferguson, Chairman, Brian Day, member, Lucy Duncan, Secretary, and a tape-recorder. By regulation there should have been four or preferably five human members and a tape-recorder. But the accused are held guilty whatever they say in a Scientology trial, so who worries about how many people are there to see your final degradation?
"'This is a recording of the proceedings of Committee of Evidence convened under Ethics Order 727 World Wide, on 1st September, 1969. The time is 11:20 p.m.,' said Allan Ferguson, self-consciously to the microphone. 'Cyril Vosper; on Tuesday, the 27th August, 1968, did you receive orders to plan an Ethics Mission to New Zealand and Australia?'
"'Yes,' I replied. I lit a cigarette. My hand was trembling ever so slightly. I didn't offer them around. Sometimes coolness can go too far.
"'When did you start to plan the Ethics Mission?'
"'Right away.' I'd won that one.
"'Did you fail to immediately draw up the plans for the Ethics Mission to New Zealand and Australia?'
"I looked at him for a moment. What sort of a loaded question was that?
"'Well, it's actually impossible to immediately draw up plans for anything. Planning takes time. You have to get facts, find out who is going and all sorts of things. It takes time.'
"'Answer the question, Yes or No?' Allan Ferguson would have made a good village idiot. He lacked the panache for anything more demanding.
"'All right, if you want me to admit that I failed to do something impossible, I failed.' I had lost that one.
"'Did you pass completed orders to the Executive Council and Alert Council before copying or duplicating those orders?'
"'I circulated the orders I had written to as many members of the Exec. Council and Alert Council as were available but due to the fact that most of the members were not around, I went ahead and copied them in order to speed the thing up.'
"'You consider yourself senior to the Exec. Council and Alert Council, then?'
"'Not at all. I worked on the basis that ANY orders given to the Mission were better than none, since I was unable to get a decision from either of the Councils.'
"'You took it upon yourself to act over the heads of the Exec. Council and Alert Council. That's what you're saying, isn't it?'
"'Policy says that I must submit plans and orders to the Exec. and Alert Councils for approval before copying. It does not say what you do when you cannot find the members of these Councils.'
"'You went over their heads.'
"I shrugged. The whole thing was pointless. I should have stayed home and had a good night's sleep.
"And so it went on. I didn't know what they were talking about most of the time. I certainly didn't care. Just get it over with.
"I went out and walked the two miles home, crying. Not because of the Comm. Ev. Not because I wasn't as good a Scientologist as Peter Warren, Allan Ferguson, and all the others. But because it was the end of that special thing that existed between Lindy Lou, Sean and Ashley and me. I didn't think of Ros. She was part of Scientology. Part of all the nonsense.
"The next day I was declared a Suppressive Person. Per Gardstrom, International Ethics Officer, World Wide, found me in the Lower Hall working and handed me HCO Ethics Order 729 WW (World Wide), 388 SH (Saint Hill), 9 EU (Europe), 1 SH FND (Saint Hill Foundation). He did not give me time to read it.
"'Get off the premises right away,' he said.
"'But my children are here somewhere. I must see them and say goodbye.'
"'Get off the premises right away.'
"'One day you'll have children, Per. I hope you will then remember what you have just said. I hope you will feel very proud of yourself,' I said.
"He escorted me to the main gate and told me to get out. He was doing his job by the book. He was being the International Ethics Officer, World Wide. A great title for a wretched job.
"I went to London, booked into a hotel and slept and slept."
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The Tampa Tribune published an article concerning a drive by the cult to seal Clearwater Police records of child abuse and neglect.
"The agreement would require a judge's order to see certain files. Public files are usually required to be open under the state Government in the Sunshine Law. The article quotes the city mayor saying they believe the agreement to be legal and not to erode the public's right to open government.
"The suit apparently began when the city sued the church after Scientologists protested release of police files to the media. The church counterclaimed and removed the case to federal court.
"The file boxes date back to 1979 and include allegations of child abuse and neglect at the church as well as identities and personal financial information of church members, according to Church lawyer Paul Johnson."
Jeff Lee added some details of the case:
"Civil Case #91-18290-CI is probably one of the newly-sealed cases. [J]udging from the (formerly) unsealed parts, they contain one or more reports from the HRS (Health and Rehabilitative Services) concerning child abuse and/or neglect at the Scientology Cadet School. There was an HRS inspection in October 1991, based on information from the observations of seven Deputy Sheriffs who had been at the school earlier to perform a puppet show.
"At least two reports were produced from the HRS inspection, and on 16 October 1991, Scientology lawyers from the firm of Johnson and Johnson moved that the documents be sealed because, among other things, they contained the names of minor children. Prior to their motion, however, the Sheriff's Department had shown those reports to at least one newspaper (either the St. Pete Times or the Tampa Tribune, I can't recall which)."
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The "toocool" group has been receiving unwanted attention since they awarded the Dianetics site their design award. The controversy surrounds the recall of the award, and a phony page being created by the cult to create the appearance that the award remained in place. The webmaster of toocool posted to a.r.s this week.
"I will be contacting someone at Scientology today regarding the copyright violation. Not sure if this was purposely to make it seem like they are behind my organization or if they just wanted to mirror out site on the day it was awarded. Never the less, they were never authorized to duplicate our site like they did at http://www.dianetics.org/toocool/ and we will be contacting them today regarding this.
Ron Newman posted to clarify the situation.
"On March 23, TooCool gave their daily award to the Dianetics site, because they liked the volcano and other graphics and animation. The TooCool folks somehow were not aware of the controversy between Scientology and the Net, or else did not realize that Dianetics was part of Scientology.
"I wrote to webmaster@TooCool.com and joined the #tooCool IRC channel, where the TooCool.com folks hang out. I told them about the controversy, and suggested that they link to one or more of the anti-Scientology pages as well, to provide some balance to their readers.
"As a result of the controversy, TooCool then decided to withdraw the award altogether, and a blank space temporarily replaced their March 23 selection. Two days later, TooCool started getting telephone calls from Scientology headquarters in Los Angeles, asking why they had withdrawn the award and just about demanding that they reinstate it.
"So TooCool *did* reinstate the award -- but made it clear that they had evaluated the site ONLY for graphics and animation, and NOT for content. They added a link to a page called '3 days of controversy', which contained a link to my web page.
"The next day, TooCool got *another* phone call from Scientology, imploring them to remove the '3days.html' page or the link to my CoS-critical web site. This time TooCool stood firm and said 'No way'.
"So what does Scientology do? They don't want to link to the *real* TooCool web site, complete with the '3 days of controversy' text. So instead, Scientology makes *their own copy* of TooCool's original 3/23 page, from *before all the controversy*. They then make the TooCool logo on their main web page a link to THEIR COPY instead of to the actual TooCool.com web site.
"In other words, Scientology is now VIOLATING THE COPYRIGHT of TooCool.com by serving their own copy of an old TooCool page, without TooCool's permission."
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Chris Owen posted a summary of cult activities in South Africa this week, entitled Making Things Go Right? Scientology's involvement in South African social affairs.
"[T]he Church of Scientology obviously takes a good deal of pride in its activities in South Africa. According to Scientology President Heber Jentzsch, the Church was helping underprivileged black South Africans 'well before the walls of apartheid came down or the world had even noticed.'
"It was seemingly on the back of this claim that the 'Reverend' Jentzsch took pride of place in the 1995 opening of the Nelson R. Mandela Multicultural Center, Los Angeles, California. The Center is a body supported by the ANC, the South African Government, the Methodist Church and members of the US Congress.
"As in other countries around the world, the involvement of the Church of Scientology in broad society has two thrusts. The first and perhaps most obvious is carried out by the Church itself. The spearhead of such work appears to be a body called the Volunteer Ministers Corps. Although the Church has in the past claimed that the Corps is not just the Church by another name, it is patently obvious that it is an explicitly Scientological organisation, 'armed with the spiritual technology of Mr. Hubbard'. Indeed, its members have posed for photographs while wearing T-shirts emblazoned with 'Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps'.
"Since the 1950s, scores of apparently unrelated corporate identities have been created by Hubbard and by the Church. One would not immediately associate the Church of Scientology with organisations such as the Concerned Businessmen's Association, Allied Scientists of the World, the Gerus Society or Operations and Transport Services Limited. Nonetheless, all are or were established by Hubbard or by the Church for purposes directly related to the primary concerns of the Church.
"The Church still has a bewildering array of corporate identities and affiliates - some of which have even sued in attempts to conceal their Scientology links - but in recent years, a slightly clearer corporate structure has emerged. In South Africa, five principal Scientology-related organisations are listed in the 1992 edition of What Is Scientology? as being present in the country."
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Scientology News magazine, issue 1 contains an article describing the Arnie Lerma trial, entitled RTC's Historic Victory.
"The case began with a squirrel from Virginia, who actually hoped to 'compete' with the Church. His plan was to track down stolen copies of Church materials, ones which were already impounded and the thieves sent to jail - and then set up his own 'church.' He knew the materials were protected by copyright and legal precedent, but as LRH says, squirrels tend to be a bit 'nutty' and this one, like those who have failed before him, thought he knew best.
"When he illegally put some of our materials onto his computer and sent them to others on the Internet, he was promptly visited by federal marshals who confiscated his computer equipment, took his files and served him with an order which forced him to immediately cease and desist his unlawful activities.
"That was step one. RTC persisted in bringing him to justice, and on January 19, 1996, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the United States District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, handed down an historic victory for RTC. She found the evidence presented to her had been so convincing, that there was no need for a trial - the case had been proven and won by RTC.
"In addition to monetary damages for each violation, the judge also ordered the squirrel to pay RTC's attorney's fees."
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