Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review Volume 1, Issue 21 09/15/96 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://user1.i1.net/~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
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Modemac from Boston:
"Evidently Scientology has been looking at my Web page and seeing my promotion for soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi...and from this, they obviously assumed I'm gay. This same fellow also said as he passed by, 'Got AIDS yet?'
"They brought out a video camera and tripod, and kept trying to focus on pertinent parts of the protest. Not that it mattered much. Everyone was polite, and many leaflets were handed out. The threat of bad weather kept some people away from the protest, so that during the high point of the afternoon there were between 10-15 people present from both sides of the controversy.
"One tall middle-aged guy came out to shadow me, trying to engage me in conversation, though I think I managed to avoid it. He was determined to pinhole me as being an 'anti-religious bigot,' and he thought he had me when I stated that I feel that *all* religions are in it for the money. He tried repeating what I said to a passerby as a way to dead-agent me, but I said it first and confirmed it, and that was all he said about that. He also asked questions like, 'Do you consider yourself an atheist?' 'Nope.' 'Have you ever been to a psychiatrist?' 'Nope.'"
Ron Newman, also from Boston, reported "we know where you live" harassment from Scientology.
"Some time on Friday, September 6, the day before the Boston picket, someone dropped about 30 'Citizens Commission for Human Rights' leaflets in the lobby of my apartment building, as well as on the windshields of about 10 cars parked on the street immediately outside. No leaflets were dropped in any other buildings on the street, nor on any cars that were further away (such as my own, which happened to be parked on the next block).
"I understand that this happened to at least one other Boston picketer."
Dean O'Donnell, again from Boston:
"The Scienos had thought ahead. Last year about halfway through the picket they parked a big van in front of the org so the passing cars couldn't see the signs. This year the big van was there from the beginning, so we were at the corner.
"It wasn't long before I had a clam on the opposite corner giving me the OT Death Stare(tm). An amazing thing happened though. I had the theme song to the Tonight Show running through my head all day (you know how that happens...) and the music just drowned out all his nasty intentions. (Helpful tip: Humming a tune to yourself is much more socially acceptable than wearing a tinfoil hat.) Needless to say, my Fabulous Music Wall(tm) blocked his OT Death Stare(tm) quite handily, and I did not drop dead.
"His Death Stare foiled, the clam went into conference with on of the other clams, and soon we had a companion on our side of the street, handing out Freedom magazine. He seemed a bit morose, and kept saying, 'here's the other side of the story that he won't tell you.' While I would say, 'Hey, nice shirt!' I was feeling silly, what can I say?"
Neil Muspratt from Brisbane, Australia:
"I had decided to base my protest on Scientology's attempts to silence those trying to spill the beans. To that end, I carried a sign which read: THIS IS FREE SPEECH SCIENTOLOGY STYLE, and wore a couple of pieces of masking tape over my mouth. I thought this would help get the message across. As an added bonus, it meant I didn't have to talk to the three people detailed to handle me, just endure the abuse.
"The three of them handed out leaflets, one of which was the anti-CultAware spiel David Gerard described in his Sydney picket report. I read through it afterwards - funny how some of the accusations reminded me of Scientology. There were no copies of Freedom this time and I don't know what the other leaflets contained.
"I handed out what I could, (a flyer listing references for people to look up) but they won on overall numbers. Well, there's only so much one person can do."
Michael Reuss, from Denver:
"There were 10 picketers and three Scientologists. Among the picketers were the 'late' Janda, who looked quite natural and managed to operate a camcorder in spite of his handicap of being deceased, Chris the connected one, another Chris, Lon, Adrian, David, Charles (not the sub-genius Pope of Houston), Ray, who works for a large fortune 100 computer company which shall remain nameless, Ray's significant other (who seemed to be merely testing the waters, and so shall remain nameless), and yours truly.
"Signs read 'Hands off the Internet', 'The Hubbard[tm] is Bare.' Flyers told of Hubbard's SP policy instructions (find out who's attacking us...) and Lon had small 'Free Bob Penny' handouts that he had made of paper with a penny taped to each one.
"[B]oth the speaking Scientologists claimed to be unaware of all day-to-day goings on on a.r.s (just as they did last year) but Mr. Anderson admitted to surfing the web and I'm sure knows a lot more than he is letting on. They claimed to be ignorant of the spamming, and asked for details about it, which were readily provided."
Lance Buckley, London
"Immediately the clam band 'Jive Aces' (Who oddly enough are all Sea Org members, not CC) started playing. They wouldn't stop for the rest of our visit there. Constantly pounding out ragtime to drown out the voices of picketers and hardly a 5 second break between numbers. It was exactly the same stuff as they played last time, but at least it was in a different order today. This was in conjunction with the usual 'Say No To Drugs' campaign they trot out to make us look pro-drug whenever we turn up. What they fail to realise is that their reputation is so bad that few people were falling for it. I'm happy to report that Scientology's reputation is now so bad, and so well known, that the drug campaign has little effect on the public perception of our protest.
"Our banner consisted of photocopied headlines of the recent suicide of Richard Collins, UK scientologist, Nora Lottick, who also died recently under similar circumstances. A colour printout of the infamous 'Cult of Greed' Time cover, and things of that nature.
"Ralph was proving that he really knew his stuff. At one point he was telling some poor guy about how long and how expensive OT3 will be. The guy was really enturbulated and tried to get away,, but Ralph had his TRs in and wasn't giving up that easily! It's hard for a scieno to ignore the opinion of someone who has audited people up to OT8. It's not like they can say 'You don't know what you're talking about'. I could see the guy visibly caving in as Ralph went for the jugular. T'was cool to watch and I learned a lot.
Dave Bird, London:
"I wore a picture of LRon auditing the tomato round my chest. One scieno said 'Oh,no, it's a fake' etc. Then I looked in Freedumb magazine, where they had some nice collected magazines 'his tomatoes grow 6ft high' etc. And there it was, overlaid by another cutting but you could just see the top of Elron's balding head and some of the plant, Rotundo and the Tomato."
Jens Tingleff, London:
"I was mainly on the far side of the street, which was great for being able to engage passer-bys in conversation (the near side being way too noisy). I only got positive responses from the general public. One gent looked at my leaflet and asked 'so, are you an anti?' - 'Yeah' I grinned. 'Good for you -- there's too few of you.' I had to agree with that. Another passer-by had been in the hospital close to East Grinstead. He said that the bulk of their suicide attempts were from Saint Hill. Spooky stuff.
"Jacques, rumoured by Lance to be European head of OSA Invest, had borrowed a much more snazzy camera than last time. He took particular care to photograph protesters actually *handing over* leaflets. When one thins about how far the clams are able to sue people, based on handing out leaflets, this was somewhat sobering (see ya in court, if we must, Jacques). One older male clam (the one reported to be OT5 or OT7 depending on whom you ask) looked at my picket sign and yelled 'that's bullshit, you know!' The sign said '$cientology is bad for your Wealth.'"
Steve, from San Francisco:
"About 9 of us picketed the San Francisco org at McAllister and Market from approximately 10:00 AM until 12:30 PM. I carried a large sign that conveyed my heartfelt sentiments: SCIENTOLOGY IS BAD.
"As soon as we started picketing, the scienos got their signs together, which said stuff like 'scientology saves lives' and 'scientology fighting internet criminals.' One particularly unpleasant and aggressive scieno seemed to assigned to me (at first). He walked with me everywhere I went, repeated really lame insults, and generally tried really hard to be obnoxious and rude.
"Scienos try to control everything. So, when my assigned BT asked questions, and those questions did not get answers, he just went into TR3 (repeat the question). So, when he did that, I would just say 'Do fish swim?' The questions 'Do fish swim' and 'Do birds fly' are the questions scienos use in the TR3 drill. (In the drill, they just keep asking it until they get an answer.)
Elvis, from San Francisco:
"I managed to catch the wind down of the picket. There were 6 people as I hove into sight, and 4 when I managed to get close enough to introduce myself. this quickly dwindled to cultxpt who very nicely rested where he could see the happenings as I did a solo picket for maybe 45 minutes.
"I had a short discussion with a passerby when my OT got called inside for a bit. He was a bit disparaging about my sign. 'Everybody with a brain knows scientology's a scam,' he said. This was an interesting opening, since I've come to the conclusion that my target audience are the scientologists. I tried to explain this to him, but he went into a spiel about how only stupid people would fall for a cult and I noticed Jeff making faces like he wanted to jump in, so I kind of wrapped up the conversation quickly since I didn't want to end up arguing such a tricky topic in front of the ORg."
Jeff Jacobsen, about the SF protest:
"10am Saturday I arrived wearing my 'SP' t-shirt, hauling 2 signs, and carrying a bag of flyers and a camera. Wayne Whitney and Steve Whitlatch were picketing, and some other anti-Scientologists were lurking around with cameras and such. There is a lot of traffic going by so we stuck near the street edge of the sidewalk. Most of the foot traffic seemed to be homeless people to me, although most seemed well aware that Scientology is a scam.
"Throughout the day Scientologists came out and picketed *their own church* with us (go figure). They had signs like 'Scientology saves lives' and 'Scientology fights criminals on the internet'. Usually there were 3 or 4 of them to 4 or 5 of us actually picketing, although there were 10 anti-CoS picketers total for the day.
"Suddenly, out of nowhere, Xenu appeared!! He had a huge sash that said 'Xenu' and a sign that said 'I'm Xenu' for those who didn't know what Xenu looks like. Xenu was a great hit amongst the anti-CoS picketers, but the Scientologists seemed totally baffled as to why someone in a space alien costume would be picketing the church (the OTVIII kept her mouth shut). Xenu had a little ray gun that made funny noises as well. He hung around all morning, and I hear he is planning to show up at another function soon.
"Grady Ward showed up and instantly the CoS photographer started videotaping Grady's nose, and continued to do so for most of the day. Why the church wants tapes of Grady's nose I have no idea. It was fun to watch Grady work his magic as the day wore on. He kept a monologue going with the photographer until finally he and the photographer got into a conversation that lasted quite a while and seemed amiable enough.
Sionach Ruadh, San Francisco:
"I changed my phone number after I showed up at an SF protest and made signs for people. Guess they really didn't like 'Church of the Holy Lawsuit' and 'Scientology is BAD.' They pulled my real name, address, and phone number out of the amateur radio callsign database. I *dared* talk to Grady on the radio during the protest.
"It took the $cienos til the next Monday to start calling me. Some idiot with a Sharper Image voice scrambler and just enough knowledge to mess with my cheapo PhoneMate answering machine kept calling for me."
David Gerard, from Sydney
"Today was bloody tiring. Four hours, from 10am till 2pm. And they've earnt themselves a free extra day's picket some time soon because of the dorkstick trying to rip Tony's sign off yesterday.
"Went on up to our favourite corner, Pitt and Castlereagh as usual. A few people with sandwich boards out there already. Uh-oh - 'ELVIS IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN CHATSWOOD'; 'DON'T RAISE THE TITANIC'; 'RIGHTS FOR WORMS'; 'THE WORLD ENDS AT 9:45 A.M. TUESDAY'
"The Church gets a major point for today's demo: successful confusion of the issue. To any passer-by, it would have been obvious that something was going on, but exactly what would have been quite hard to work out.
"The clams were frantically handing out their new leaflet, Beware CultAware: Serpent of Hate’ a glossy A4 sheet (folded into thirds) printed in black and green. Text is derived from the article CultAware: Serpent of Hate’ from the Australian issue of Freedom’. They have probably printed tens of thousands of this leaflet and have been doing suburban letterbox drops in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne; they've really been working hard to get this one out there.
"A slimy clam git sidled up to me early on: 'Got a special surprise for you today, David' It turns out to be something I've been wanting for a while: my own personal counter-demo sign! Just a small hand-held one: 'HOW MANY PATIENTS IN PSYCH HOSPITALS HAS GERARD HAD _SEX_ WITH?'"
"[T]he clams finally got the clue and did some signs on poles themselves. Their first sign: 'SCIENTOLOGY IS FREEDOOM.' Oh boy. We'd agree with that one. We were kind enough to point it out to them and they went and redid it spelt right. They came out with several 'SCIENTOLOGY IS FREEDOM' signs and a few decrying CultAware as an evil psychiatrist front."
Ted Mayett, Las Vegas:
"For me it was just another day at the office. I did an hour at the big org and then 5 minutes at the little one so they would not feel ignored. 30 minutes into it at the big org and two male monkeys came out on the porch and started laughing at me. A third male joined them for a bit. I had three of them laughing at me rather loudly at the same time. All the time I'm doing TR-Sing-a-Song.
"After about 15 minutes of laughing the boys got bolder, they now walked back and forth past me, close to me, smiling all the time. And I'm thinking about the clams in Sydney, and that these boys are wimps compared to them."
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California Proclamation
An August 3rd proclamation from California Governor Pete Wilson was posted
to a.r.s this week. In part, it reads:
"TO: THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY CELEBRITY CENTRE INTERNATIONAL
"I am delighted to extend my warm regards and congratulations to everyone who has gathered this evening to celebrate your 27th Anniversary
"The future of California depends on the involvement of organizations like yours, who donate their time, talent, and resources to helping others. The Celebrity Centre's dedication to improving the quality of life for its fellow citizends (sic) represents the kind of civic and humanitarian spirit upon which our society is built."
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CAN Protected
The assets of the Cult Awareness Network were protected by Illinois Judge
Michael Hogan to protect them from forced sale to Scientology, it was
reported this week.
"On September 4 Judge Michael J. Hogan issued a protective order concerning files and records of the Cult Awareness Network which prevent the files and records from being sold or destroyed while CAN remains a defendant in a civil case before Judge Hogan's court.
"Kendrick Moxon filed a motion recently asking the court to sell all of CAN's files. Moxon, a member of the Church of Scientology, claims to represent an unidentified purchaser willing to pay thousands of dollars for the records and files.
"Judge Hogan's order concerning these files states, 'Furthermore, any and all documents, including but not limited to, all papers, electronic media, computer hardware and software, in the possession or control of Defendant Cult Awareness Network, Inc., its attorneys, agents and successors, which have been the subject of discovery requests in this case or may otherwise become the subject of a future discovery request in this case, shall not be transferred, sold or destroyed without prior order of this court.'
"It is likely that the sale or disposal of CAN's files could become an issue of controversy in the Bankruptcy Court should Moxon or other parties continue to press to acquire CAN files despite restrictions placed on such a sale because of Judge Hogan's order."
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Canada Jury
Scientology is appealing a verdict in Canada resulting from placement of
spies in law enforcement offices in the 1970's. From Southam Newspapers:
"The Church of Scientology of Toronto and one of its members are appealing their 1992 convictions for breach of trust for planting spies in the Ontario Provincial Police and Attorney-General's ministry in the 1970's. 'The church, which has already spent more than $7 million on its defence, argues the exclusion of non-citizens makes the jury less representative of the community and exclusion of minority groups means 'there's a greater opportunity for prejudice to affect what goes on in the jury room ... of particular importance when the accused itself is a minority religion with a greater acceptance in other countries than it has in this one' said its written brief."
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Clear Baby
Heidrun Beer (clear baby) reported this week that her local OSA has asked
her to stop posting to a.r.s
"[H]e asked me to stop read/writing a.r.s., which caused a bit of a discussion. I asked him for a written order which he didn't want to give me.
"Still friendly, he indicated that I'm not really with the group, while I said that I found it necessary to disprove lies and give the truth per PR Series 18. He said he would have to ask for a justice action if I didn't comply, because I stay in Comm with declared SP's.
"I am convinced that I can explain to a Comm-Ev what my motives are and that it is necessary to speak out for the group here. So I will get a Comm-Ev for which I have more or less asked myself."
The anonymous poster Capricorn had a different analysis of clear baby.
"I've seen the comments of some who suspect that she might be or work for OSA. She is RTC. It was natural to suspect her as OSA but if you know OSA and RTC, no one in OSA would have the authority and perspective to do what she has been doing. (As when she suggested the Mayos could come back and write about the wonders of LRH! What a howler!) She is RTC. This is also more than an identification. It is part of a large tactical shift.
"CB as RTC might explain her technique of disassociating 'true Scientology' from all the accusations. It is a very clever tactic. To every accusation about abuse, she will say, well, that's not Scientology! It's a clever, disarming move for it does several things. First, it talks to the Freezoners and those who 'like the tech but don't like management.' Second, it gives her an opportunity to talk about Scientology, the KSW Scientology, which she does easily. Third, it makes her seem sensible and reasonable. After all, the Freezoner says, here's a Scieno saying what WE are saying.
"[A]s several have pointed out, she's in contact with SPs, which makes her PTS, which makes her ineligible for any further courses, OT sections, anything. Yet she says the last course she did a few months ago was the SP-PTS course. In Scieno-land, she'd be hauled in for some fast handling and her course supervisor and some others would be doing some lower conditions. After all, a person does the SP-PTS course and then jumps into ARS? Hardly. But she plays it with this little naive smile that is OH so coy!"
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Chick Corea
The Los Angeles Times reported that Chick Corea left the group Return to
Forever because of Scientology.
"Fourteen years after the breakup of Return to Forever, guitarist Al DiMeola still misses being a member of the seminal electric jazz band led by Chick Corea. DiMeola, in fact, still harbors hopes of a reunion with former band mates Corea, the piano and keyboard player, drummer Lenny White and bassist Stanley Clarke.
"'It was the most ridiculous thing for Chick to ever break up the group,' said DiMeola, who plays the Bacchanal at 8:30 Monday. 'I have expressed this to Chick, and I know Stanley and Lenny feel strongly, too. I've met with Chick, and Stanley's met with him. We've tried to talk sense into him, but I think we have a Scientology problem to deal with, possibly due to Stanley leaving Scientology. That doesn't sit very well with Chick.'
"Corea is an acknowledged devotee of the self-improvement movement founded by the late L. Ron Hubbard. When Clarke gave up Scientology, Corea broke up the group after the 'Romantic Warrior' album. 'We had signed a multimillion-dollar deal with CBS, but Chick decided to go in a different direction,' DiMeola said."
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Daniel Davidson
Daniel Davidson, a long time poster to a.r.s, has died after a lengthy
battle with heart disease. I almost always laughed at his postings. Thank
you Dan.
"Readers of this group might know who Daniel Davidson is. He died last weekend at his home in San Francisco. There is a memorial service for him tomorrow, Sat., Sept. 14, at 5:30 p.m. at The Lab, 2948 16th St. near Capp. Bring food, thoughts or objects regarding Dan."
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FACTNet
Boulder Weekly published an article this week on FACTNet.
"Wollersheim is being severely flamed due to critical internal shakeups at FACTNet in a forum he used to call home: the anti-Scientology Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology. Former Wollersheim supporters-turned-critics blame him for creating the tension that threatens to cause the organization to self-destruct - and with it FACTNet's precedent- setting efforts to fight censorship on the Internet.
"Last month Wollersheim and Arnie Lerma, another FACTNet director, fired both their legal team and their long-time partner Bob Penny, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. The move has observers questioning the wisdom, and the intentions, of FACTNet's leadership.
"According to Penny, Wollersheim and Lerma cut him loose because he disagreed with the course of defense they wished to pursue against the copyright and trade secrets lawsuit filed by the church in response to FACTNet's posting of Scientology teachings to the Internet. Worse, Penny claims that should an Internet campaign to have him removed from liability in the lawsuit due to his health prove successful, FACTNet itself will sue him and attempt to shift the blame for its legal woes onto his shoulders. Wollersheim and Lerma have actively denied the threat to anyone who will listen.
"Wollersheim agreed that he and Penny differed in their defense approaches, but insisted that it was Penny's flagging health that led to his removal from the board, not their legal disagreements.
"'What's happened is his memory is so bad he has the potential to make errors not because he would do this consciously but because the MS has caused such nerve and memory deterioration that he can't think,' he says. 'With the greatest reluctance, upon numerous warnings from our attorneys about his condition and what it means on the board of directors, we finally had to take him off the board.'"
Larry Wollersheim had a separate denial posted to a.r.s:
"I am restricted by confidentiality agreements from telling you the all the information but I can tell you this:
"Bob Penny is fully covered by Factnet's insurance.
"The statements that claim I said I would sue Bob Penny are false and so out of context that when I am able to tell you the whole story you will understand what was really said and why.
"I am committed to defending Factnet and the interests of the victims it serves. I know that this is what Bob wants too. By focusing all my energy and attention on the most powerful and ultra aggressive defense of Factnet Bob will be protected too. This is because if Factnet wins (as it will) there are no problems for any of Factnet's Directors.
"I hope those of you who understand Scientology's effort to destroy us and our organization will be patient until we are not restricted by confidentiality agreements from defending ourselves against misleading and false statements."
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Miscellaneous Harassment
Several a.r.s posters were the subject of minor acts of harassment this
week. Steve Fishman reported an anonymous photographer.
"An OSA agent with white hair wearing a light blue Hawaiian shirt driving a beige Nissan Altima was parked in front of my house all afternoon today. The license plates were TSC 87T, from Osceola County, Florida (Central part of the state near Orlando).
"When he started taking pictures of the house, I went outside and confronted him, asking him what he was doing here. 'I'm taking pictures for the real estate book', he answered. My house is not for sale (it belongs to my children from my late wife Jaime's estate) nor is it listed with any real estate agent.
"At 5:02 PM, when I got out MY camera, he jumped in his car like his ass was on fire and sped off. Apparently, he did not want his picture taken (that would have been a downstat for him)."
Grady Ward reported a fraudulent call to his wife's bank.
"[M]y wife just got a frantic call from the Manager of Humboldt Bank up here in Arcata, someone posing as the Manager of the Weaverville Bank used my wife's Social Security number to obtain the details of her private IRA account.
"Of course this is a federal crime to lie to a Federally Insured bank in this way, but to the criminal cult of scientology a felony is just a wog idea."
TarlaStar reported:
"My former employer called me to tell me that a woman called the place that I used to work and asked if 'Tarla' worked there. He told her there was no such person there. Then she asked if there was an employee that wrote on the Internet and was an artist. He replied, 'Oh, you must mean, Caroll (my real name).' She said, ' Oh, Yes, what was her last name again?' He then remembered what I'd told him about the Scientos and told her that they don't give out that sort of info on employees. Then he called me."
And Zenon Panoussis reported unusual checking of associates:
"I just received a call from an acquaintance of mine. He said that a journalist had called him, who refused to say what newspaper he was working for, but wanted information about me. Evidently the CoS is at work.
"My acquaintance didn't give any information, but managed to get some instead. The 'journalist' knew for instance that I have represented that acquaintance as a lawyer, that I have been a member of the board of his taxi company that recently went bankrupt, that I used to drive taxi in the same company during my studies, and that I am involved in a criminal case, resulting out of a taxi customer punching me through the closed side-window in the eye three years ago, and me answering by hitting him with the car (without injury to him I should add)."
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Scn Movies
Germany continues to discourage US films starring Scientologists. Agence
France Presse reported that a government spokesman is calling for a review
of Phenomenon before release in Germany/
"The US film 'Phenomenon' dealing with the life of Church of Scientology founder Ron Hubbard should be very carefully scrutinized before being cleared for viewing in Germany, Hans-Otto Wilhelm, spokesman for the parliamentary group of the ruling Christian Union parties, said Tuesday.
"Wilhelm said that in view of the film's message, the ministry for family affairs should ask the federal office for film control to pay special attention to it. The film, which stars Scientologist John Travolta, is due to be released in Germany October 3.
"German politicians this month stepped up a long-running campaign against the Church of Scientology, decrying it as a money-making sect driven by totalitarian ideology. Some have called for it to be stripped of its religious status or even banned."
Inter Press Services reported that US representatives are protesting the statements.
"Representative Carlos Moorhead of California this week protested statements by several German politicians calling for boycotts of the recent U.S. films 'Phenomenon' and 'Mission: Impossible,' both of which star actors who are prominent members of the church.
"'Serious questions continue to be raised about the German government, as it remains silent during a discriminatory attack against two American movies,' Moorhead said. 'The boycott effort against 'Mission: Impossible' and 'Phenomenon'...is misled and twisted.'
"Last week, Renate Renebach, a Socialist politician, told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag that 'Phenomenon' should be banned because of Travolta's involvement. A spokesman for Chancellor Helmut Kohl's CDU added that such a ban 'should be considered.'
"'This kind of bigoted remark, which receives the apparent implicit approval of Kohl's government, suggests that in Germany a systematic glitch exists that tolerates intolerance,' Moorhead said."
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German Court
Der Spiegel reported that the Munich org of Scientology has been ordered
to return DM 30,000 to a former member. A posting paraphrasing of the
article was posted this week.
"Just recently, a lower court in Munich sentenced the local Munich org of Co$ to return DM 30000 to an ex-member who sued the church for non-fulfillment of contract.
"The ex-member, an elderly engineer, had purchased DM 170000 worth of Scientology courses, materials and the like. He was promised an enhancement of bodily and mental faculties, awesome psychic powers, as well as the removal of psychological hang-ups.
"The lower court ruled that since some of the courses had been 'sold' under fraudulent claims, and had been purchased expressly under the impression of said claims, the defrauded was to be recompensed in part under better-business regulations. Claims of Co$ that the monies received constituted church-donations to the Cult were turned down.
"The Co$ made motions to appeal to a higher court, but shied away from that since it seemed _very_ unlikely that said higher court would overturn the judgment on appeal and that such an appeal would gain wide publicity. Therefore Co$ settled with the victim, giving him the full sum granted by the verdict, but requiring him to silence in public about trial and settlement.
"However, the verdict did leak out and is now available in writing on request from a Bonn-based anti-totalitarian sect organisation."
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Grady Ward
Several developments in the Grady Ward case this week. Grady reported that
Scientology wants the names and addresses of everybody Grady has
communicated to in the past two years.
"In an interrogatory served on me two days ago, September 7, 1996, the criminal cult demands that I present to them the (1) full name; (2) present and last known business and home address (3) present or last known business position and, if different, business position at the time to which this interrogatory has reference ALL persons with whom I have communicated since August, 1994 about (a) the Advanced Technology; (b) the Church of Scientology or the Scientology religion; (c) this lawsuit.
"THIS MEANS ALL YOU, FOLKS. IN EVERY NEWSGROUP THAT I HAVE EVER POSTED TO ABOUT THESE ISSUES. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT hundreds OF THOUSANDS OF NAMES. These names will be used by their OSA and their criminal like Eugene Martin Ingram stealing photographs of my children from my mother.
"You could all file a petition with Judge Ronald M. Whyte through the District Clerk to file an amicus curiae brief if you think this is inappropriate."
More subpoenas were issued this week to Keith Henson, Grady's former employer, Apple Computer, and Grady's wife.
"The criminal cult issued a Rule 45 subpoena today for Keith Henson to appear for yet *another* deposition and bring with him all letter, e-mail, notes, diary entries, telephone bills and other documents concerning communication with Grady Ward.
"All letters, e-mails, notes, diary entries, telephone bills and other documents evidencing or relating to communications with anyone concerning Grady Ward, Mr. Ward's dispute with Religious Technology Center and/or the Church of Scientology, and/or the lawsuit entitled Religious Technology Center v Ward No. c 96 20207 RMW, United States District Court Northern District of California."
"The deposition will be held at Hogan's San Jose Office on September 20, 1996 starting at 9 am."
"My litigation c 96 20207 RMW EAI the criminal cult has issued a subpoena for Apple Computer Inc to turn over my employee records.
"I guess they hope to discover to see if I was ever fired or if I was ever disciplined."
"Her most recent harassment is to issues a Rule 45 Subpoena for my *wife* to somehow inquire into my affairs. Again this shows the sluttish depths to which the criminal cult will try to harass and intimidate its opponents."
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Johan Wevers
Johan Wevers, aka Vorlon, one of the poster of NOTS materials to a.r.s,
received a copy of a letter asking why his Internet account has not been
deactivated.
"To: felipe@xs4all.nl
"A few weeks back, you had blocked the account of Johan Wevers in light of his posting of copyrighted works to the Internet. Apparently, you have now unblocked his account, as he has once again made a posting under the name 'Vorlon.' This time, he has posted the message set forth below, offering to send copies of the NOTs works to anyone who requests them by e-mail.
"We do not know why you re-opened his account. However, in light of his continuing violations and offers to violate the copyrights of my client, I request that you stop permitting your system to be used as an instrumentality for his infringements, and that you suspend his account.
"We will repeat this request to your attorney in Holland, but have made it directly by e-mail in light of this being a weekend.
"Sincerely, Helena Kobrin
[quoted posting from Johan] "In response to this latest $cientology outrage - the harassment of Zenon Panoussis - I'll email the complete NOTs to everyone who requests by email for them. Please put 'Sendme NOTs - Xenu' in the subject line. The Xenu is required to prevent scientologists from responding."
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L-levels
Christopher Lewis posted a threatening letter from Helena Kobrin this week
"Your solicitation of copies of OT levels and L's is a violation of the rights of my client. None of the works which are part of the Advanced Technology has ever left the premises of an Advanced Church of Scientology with authorization of my client. The only way that these materials have ever left the custody of any of those churches which are licensed to have them is through theft.
"You are hereby put on notice that because these materials have been protected not only under copyright, but also trade secret law, solicitation of these materials violates the legal rights of their owner, as would be your disclosure of them to others by whatever means. By your solicitation, you are also inducing violation of the law by others."
Chris responds:
"Not true-I am training myself, and next summer plan to take a course from Steve Hassan, on how to be an exit counselor, which allows me to have and print excerpts from any religious or private group as long as it involves my profession. I do want to mention, too, that although the company you represent does have a copyright for the material involves, this in no way restricts me from publishing or commenting on these materials in any way, so long as I pay you the royalties. I do not have to be a member of the company of scientology in order to do this, nor do I have to pay money for it.
"If you do choose to make good on your threat, I will go to the papers with my case, and as I am a Manic Depressive under psychiatric care and also have obsessive compulsive personality disorder, as well as type I diabetes, and since your company seems to take offense at that, I will be able to make a pretty compelling case that that I am wrongfully being discriminated against because of my medical disorders, and am being harassed by you because of that. Despite your hatred of me and my disabilities, I am protected from corporations such as your by the 1963, 1972 civil rights acts regarding disabilities, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the several recently passed anti-hate crime laws of California. I am disgusted that you are treating me this way, and if I do not receive an answer giving a full apology, I will report you for ethics and propriety violations to the California bar. Enough of my people have been killed during World War II and unethical doctors, and I will not stand for your like treatment at this time and for any reason."
Message-ID: <32334DE6.526F@unm.edu>
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Penet Server
The New York Times reported that Scientology is the cause of the closure
of the anonymous Penet server in Finland.
"Pressure from the Church of Scientology International was at least partly responsible for the recent shutdown of a well-known Internet messaging service based in Helsinki, according to the Finnish operator of the service.
"Although previous news accounts had reported that the service was shut down because of accusations that it was was a primary conduit for child pornography images transmitted on the Internet, police investigators in Helsinki dismissed those accusations as groundless.
"The real reason for terminating the service, according to its founder and operator, Johan Helsingius, was a recent Helsinki court ruling that ordered him to reveal the name of one of his system's users to the Church of Scientology. The judge held that under Finland's current telecommunications laws, Internet electronic mail does not carry the same privacy protections enjoyed by postal mail or telephone calls."
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Petrolia
Jeff Jacobsen posted a report of his trip to Petrolia, California, where
the cult has a large base.
"Between the Rockefeller Redwood Preserve on the east and the mighty Pacific Ocean on the west is a sleepy tiny town called Petrolia. It's south of Eureka off Highway 101 in California. The loop road that goes through Honeydew, Petrolia and Ferndale before linking back up with 101 is now a favorite road trip for me.
"A few miles west out of Petrolia is the Old Mattole Road that veers uphill. You can go maybe a mile or so before coming across a 'No Trespassing: Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law' sign. If you look up you can see a large 8,100 square foot split level 'home' higher up on the mountain, and maybe even the 'bunkhouse.' These buildings on the 3,000 acres owned by Church of Spiritual Technology are assessed at $2,024,570. Farther down the hill is an atomic-bomb proof 374 foot underground vault that is assessed at $8,429,259. This is used to store Hubbard's writings on golden CDs and etched on metal plates and put in titanium capsules in case of- what?- a catastrophe of some huge proportions I guess. I hope it's earthquake proof too because Petrolia has had up to 6.9 earthquakes in the past few years and is on a 'triple junction' of fault lines."
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Spam FAQ
Tom Betz posted the first Spam FAQ for system operators whose systems and
news servers are used by Scientology to inject thousands of repeated
articles into a.r.s. Some excerpts:
"Do you run an Internet Service Provider or Internet-connected Bulletin Board Service in the metro Los Angeles area?
"Has a woman (or two women) come to your office recently to open a temporary SLIP or PPP account 'for my son' or 'for my brother who will be staying with me for a month on vacation' -- happy, maybe even insisting, on paying for the month in cash, or paying for the account using a credit card with a name on it other than the name they give for the account holder?
"The odds are extremely good that this account is about to be abused by the 'What Is Scientology?' Spam Team, as part of an ongoing theft-of-service and denial-of-service attack on a Usenet Newsgroup.
"Put simply, the 'What Is Scientology?' (WIS) Spam Attack is an apparent attempt by someone -- either the Church of Scientology, its employees or its sympathizers -- to stifle the speech of people who discuss, on the Usenet Newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, the past and present wrongful practices and criminal acts of the Scientology organization, its leadership, its corporate entities, and its employees.
"This attack has been in progress since May 19, 1996, and more than 80,000 posts have been flooded into alt.religion.scientology to date, in an apparent effort to 'harass and discourage' the regular participants in the ongoing discussions there.
"The WIS Spam Team appears to consist of at least three people; a man of undetermined age, a young woman, and an older woman. Investigators have yet to make a complete identification, though certain names seem to keep coming up in the investigation.
"The WIS Spam Team's _modus_operandi_ (M.O.) is fairly invariant. As described in the opening paragraphs of this FAQ, they open a temporary SLIP/PPP account on an ISP, paying for a month in advance. The account may remain idle for weeks, while the WIS Spam Team abuses other system's accounts in the following manner:
"They find several open NNTP servers they can abuse. Once they begin to abuse an NNTP server, they will continue to post through it (using multiple forged From: addresses) between a dozen and 2000 articles a night, repeating sets of about 700 different articles (usually excerpts from the book 'What Is Scientology?', or old Scientology press releases, always advertising several official Scientology Web sites), at a rate of up to ten per minute. They have been known to post 10,000 articles non-stop over a single weekend, sometimes using more than one account simultaneously."
"I think the 'What Is Scientology?' Spam Team may have opened an account on my system. What should I do?
"The FBI is also investigating this ongoing attack. If you think you may have innocently opened an account for the 'What Is Scientology' Spam Team, give a call to one of the following FBI agents, each of whom has been briefed on this case:
"Agent Hugh McLean
"And in the meantime, if you haven't already done what I suggested earlier, save yourself a whole lot of wasted time and trouble. Lock the account now."
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UK TV
Martin Poulter was on a TV talk show in the UK with two OSA from
Scientology's Saint Hill compound.
"A tv chat show on tonight features about 7 minutes of banter between myself (Hooray!) and Scientology's Director of Special Affairs at Saint Hill and his wife (booo!). It's showing tonight (small hours of Thursday morning), repeated Monday night (small hours of Tuesday morning). Check the TV papers for the times.
Lance Buckley gave his review.
"1 extremely nervous critic versus 2 experienced scieno PR droidz? Don't feel too bad, you made the best of a bad job. That Whingam Rowan asshole should stick to whatever he did before he got into the interview game. He let those two ride all over you. Shit, he even introduced you as the author of 'Vicious Attacks on Scientology' and it went downhill from there.
"I know from previous experience that you are a nervous public speaker. So am I. At the end of my speech to the NCCL AGM my knees were shaking and I know yours were too. But watching that interview, I know we got off lightly. You can be proud of your performance.
"It may help a little to know that the rest of the production team were ROYALLY pissed off at Rowan's handling of that interview. If I'm any judge, they had to edit creatively just to make it vaguely resemble a fair fight."
Message-ID: <DxKuI3.E3r@fsa.bris.ac.uk>
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Zenon
Zenon Panoussis posted extensively this week on the developments in his
case in Sweden. He has been posting daily updates, which are excerpted
below.
"As for the court case, the entire file is public. Copies can be easily requested from the court. A simple informal letter to the court and a way to pay the cost is all what's needed.
"The constitutional right to copies of public documents covers only Swedish citizens (irrespective of residence). Through law and treaties it is also applicable to foreign citizens in Sweden, EU citizens of any residence and EU residents of any citizenship. Denying the same right to others would constitute discrimination, so you should be able to count solidly on the court honouring your request no matter where it comes from."
"I also learned that the scienos filed a new motion with the bailiff, demanding a new search and seizure in order to take 'the material' still or again in my possession and that I should be called to be questioned under oath about the names of the people to which I gave 'the material' before last Wednesday's search and that I, if I did not appear, would be fetched by the police. That all sounds very threatening, but it is very hollow. It is also very American, and lacks real grounds in Swedish law."
"I spent the whole day at the bailiff's, while a computer technician was going through my hard disks at a rate of appr $ 130 per hour (scieno cost). It proved that at some point I made a major mistake. The files that should not be and were not there, i e the OTs and NOTs were actually there. This fact has no legal or practical consequences whatsoever, except that it makes me lose face, which I don't like. The lesson is that when dead tired I should go to bed instead of doing things that demand the presence of my brain. The files were copied to a diskette and wiped from my disk.
"At 3 pm I had the great honour of meeting McShame. He and one of the Swedish lawyers came to see the bailiff, not me. McShame kept a high but hollow profile and during the whole meeting he wouldn't meet my eye.
"I also learned that the scienos decided to make a penal case out of this, parallel to the civil case. I suppose that they will be demanding my arrest, pointing at the fact that I am a proven and admitted recidivist.
"At 5 pm I had an appointment at the studio of the local Stockholm TV station. This story was the first and one of the main news. I was interviewed together with a representative of the national organization for the protection of copyright on the Internet. I said things as 'Copyright is not intended to be used in this way. If a Nazi party writes into its program that it intends to burn the Jews, I am entitled to expose that, even if the party program is copyrighted. Well, this is similar'. and 'The scienos are trying to censor the net by attacking ISPs. Whenever there is a named and identifiable user behind published information, the ISPs should have no responsibility. Any other approach would kill the freedom of speech'."
"This morning's edition of Dagens Nyheter, the leading Swedish daily, carries an article on my case. Under the heading 'Secret bible on the Internet' it reports that this is the first time a Swede has been sued by the church of scientology. It gives a correct summary of the case and mentions that the scienos were in my apartment. It further mentions Kobrin, who 'with varying success has been trying to stop the spreading of the church's documents', the fact that she failed to stop a.r.s. with the argument that word 'scientology' is copyrighted her failure in the Dutch case and the Dutch protest action. The article goes on saying that it isn't hard to find the Fishman papers on the net (put counters in your FA-pages) and it explains that they are part of the course material that the church provides for big money, and in which 'one can learn about the space emperor Xenu and the thetans that plague us since some 80 million years back'.
"I learned today that after the primary court's decision on Friday to deny the CoS' motion for secrecy on the NOTs, the CoS filed still another motion on Monday, about the same thing. The new motion was denied too, in a decision yesterday. At the same time two more CoS motions were denied: 1) that the court 'order measures aimed at preventing infringement to the rights of the plaintiff' and 2) that the court in the future consist of three judges instead of only one.
"As for publicity, it's still growing. Today I had the opportunity to call the CoS 'a criminal organization' in national radio at the best of sending hours. The CoS' lawyers were invited to participate in the program, but didn't. And the interest for this case is growing, as is the interest for the CoS. I don't think the 'ho has ever caused her clients so much harm as this time.
"Just a few minutes ago the court of appeals in Stockholm dismissed the RTC's motion of secrecy of the OTs and NOTs. The motion was not denied; it was just dismissed.
"In its motives the court states that according to the law on secrecy, the authority that receives a request for copies of a public document has to judge whether the request can be met or not from a secrecy viewpoint. If the authority decides that no secrecy applies, the copy is delivered and that decision cannot be appealed against.
"I went to the bailiff's today and fetched my hard disks. Not the diskettes, they haven't been searched yet and they may never be searched if the court of appeals reverses the original preliminary seizure order. But I have my hard disks back and as from now I'll be able to communicate with you from my own computer.
"As for the encrypted part, well, it is encrypted. Nothing doing; they just had to accept the fact and hand it back.
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