Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review Volume 1, Issue 5 05/19/96 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
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Tony McClelland was detained by police for the second time this month in Sydney, Australia. He announced his intentions and two reports of the event were posted.
"The CofS is holding a function at the State Theatre in Market Street Sydney, at 7.30 on Friday 17 May. One purpose of the function is for recruiting new members.
"I am holding a demonstration to hand out leaflets to advise potential recruits about some CofS facts, so they are able to make an informed decision.
"I was arrested during the previous demonstration 2 weeks ago and while I want any volunteers to be aware, I do hope that you will not allow the arrest to stop your participation. If you want details please contact me."
"Zed" posted one of the picket reports.
"At a bit after 7:35, Tony finally arrived wearing a sandwich-board with 'Confidence trick? ---> Scientology' written on it. We had just enough time to introduce ourselves to each other before the onslaught began.
"I started walking up and down the sidewalk offering leaflets to people, with this Scieno clinging to me like a really stubborn BT. He accused me of peddling lies and propaganda, demanding that I stop. He demanded me to prove the existence of mind control in the Church. I found myself at a loss for words. I rallied as best I could, and decided to _really_ read the TR routines once I got home.
"My next encounter was brief, but it was with one of the most dangerous sharks around - a lawyer. I listened in amazement as she told me that I was handing out leaflets with defamatory statements on them and that if I didn't stop, she would sue me. SP1 to SP4 in a single night! I regarded such threats as empty, but decided to be scarce for a short time.
Excerpts from Tony's reports:
"After approximately 1 hour into the demonstration the NSW Police arrived and asked me to go away. They had received a significant number of complaints from the CofS about me disrupting pedestrian traffic on the footpath and carrying an offensive sign. I declined their invitation pointing out that the claims of obstruction were inaccurate and that I had Police approval for the demonstration.
"The Police asked for my permit. They complained that I only had a photo copy. I advised that I do not carry originals during a demonstration because my pockets are picked, for example 200 leaflets were stolen from my pocket last night.
"I was then put into the back of the Police paddy wagon and taken to the Day Street Station. On arrival the Police noticed that the permit had 3 dates, one of them 1995. I was then accused of forging the permit and that I had to wait until they decided to lock me up for the night or to release me. The Police disappointed me when they suggested that my activity was unfair the CofS, I believe they should be neutral.
"After approximately 1 hours the Police decided to give me 'the benefit of the doubt' and release me and advised I was free to leave.
"Then back to complete the demonstration. In all, I only handed out 200 leaflets and I was interested to see a Scientologist inside the Theatre taking leaflets from members before they had a chance to read the information. This flies in the face of my aim to provide leaflets so an informed decision can be made.
"The evening was less than riveting, I was pushed, abused, pocket picked, threatened and 3 serious attempts were made to destroy or remove my sandwich board. Tempers were extremely frayed and I was disappointed to observe some very irrational behaviour.
"By 11.15pm I decided it was time to depart. I was followed to my car approximately 1 kilometer away.
"I was joined in the demonstration last might by a very courageous individual. He handed out leaflets until I was arrested and I did not see him after that. Thank you sir.
"By the way, when I was arrested he offered to be arrested also but the Police declined his offer."
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Steve Fishman's book Lonesome Squirrel has generated discussion that parts of the book may be inaccurate or fictional. In particular, whether Steve knew Bitty Blythe and Lyman Spurlock. Julie Mayo pointed out several portions that do not match her recolle ction.
"(Lonesome Squirrel) 'Midshipman Bitty Blythe, a very respectable British staff member who had undoubtedly buried her sex life in camphor twenty years before, showed me the Flag Bookstore.'
"Bitty Blythe was not English and in 1979 was the young mother of twin boys -- she was married and in the CMO.
"(Lonesome Squirrel) 'Lieutenant Commander Deputy Guardian Lyman Spurlock came charging in. Tall, thin and with facial features that reminded me of a Dick Tracy cartoon, Deputy Guardian Spurlock began to speak very slowly.'
"Lyman Spurlock was not posted in Clearwater during 1979-1982 and was not in the Guardian's Office. Lyman wasn't thin.
"(Lonesome Squirrel) 'I drove to Flag on Wednesday to meet with Lyman Spurlock and several other executives of the Sea Org Special Combat Information Center of the B1 Intelligence Unit of the Guardian's Office.'
"(In 1981) There was never a Sea Org Special Combat Information Center of the B1 Intelligence Unit of the Guardian's Office. Lyman Spurlock was living at Gilman Hot Springs in 1981 and was not in the Guardian's Office.
Steve responded to the post with a summary of Bitty Blythe's marriages and children not included in his book.
"Bitty was married to Foster Tompkins. Foster Tompkins divorced Bitty and married Barbara Mithoff. Barbara Tompkins was previously married to Ray Mithoff. Bitty and Foster Tompkins had twins.
"When they got divorced, and Foster married Barbara Mithoff, they kept one of the twins whose name was Sterling Tompkins. Bitty kept the other one.
"Ronnie Miscavige was married to Sally Dupont (the rich and famous Duponts). Ronnie and Sally had a son Joshua Miscavige. Sally and Ronnie got a divorce and Sally married a guy named Bob and took Joshua.
"Ronnie then married Bitty Tompkins. And Bitty sure sounded English to me. But if she wasn't, she wasn't."
David Mayo responded to Lonesome Squirrel's charges that Lyman Spurlock was involved in a Guardian Office operation and rape.
"I knew Lyman Spurlock from late 1978 thru 1982. For most (but not all) of that period we were in the same location (La Quinta and Gilman Hot Springs, CA). I got to know him pretty well. In my opinion, it is not in his character to rape. In this world, anything is possible but the probability of him raping anyone is about zero.
"He worked in Qual SU as an auditor, until he went into ASI handling the legal-corporate 'sort out' matters for Hubbard, Miscavige and Starkey in 1982. He told me on one occasion in the middle of 1982, a month or so before I got busted, that he was being required to commit corporate and financial acts that could land him jail.
"He was very definitely never in the G.O. and he did not work in Clearwater. Furthermore, he was always overweight and never thin."
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A number of Grady Ward's filings to Judge Whyte's court were posted this week. Some excerpts from a number of filings:
"Under Rule 11(b) of FRCivP, I demand that plaintiff correct Page 2 lines 15 through 22 of your MOTION FOR FURTHER EXPEDITED DISCOVERY to show that, in fact, Counsel Hogan was well aware as the deposition of Grady Ward began on April 8, 1996 that the defendant confirmed to Hogan that the total time agreed to his deposition was a total of nine hours, divided over two days in any manner desired by plaintiff. Plaintiff's contention to Judge Infante on April 9 that Defendant Ward 'sprung' this objection and that plaintiff's stated belief as as the second days testimony was about to be taken that the defendant was in agreement with any arrangement more than a maximum of nine hours was simply a fabrication of Hogan."
"The plaintiff's motion for expedited discovery of documents held by third parties severely mischaracterizes Grady Ward's deposition testimony since (1) I have totally and unequivocally denied ever posting plaintiff's copyrighted materials in excess of fair use; (2) the plaintiff has failed to demonstrate the need for accelerated discovery especially as the defendant does not enjoy the same privilege; (3) Counsel Hogan has repeatedly acted in bad faith both toward me and the court by abusing his privilege of deposing me in an expedited manner by trying to dupe the defendant and the court as to how long we had agreed to be deposed and by misinforming the court that he has contacted me by e-mail when in fact he had not."
"I categorically deny that I evaded plaintiff's questions propounded during the deposition. I repeatedly said under oath that a. I am not 'scamizdat'; b. I do not know who is 'scamizdat'; c. I am not working in participation or concert with 'scamizdat.' So the allegation that the plaintiff did not 'question me fully' regarding 'scamizdat' is false.
"While the plaintiff alleges in their motion that I was 'evasive', they fail to provide evidence of their assertion which the deposition record shows is false:
"I admit to making many stylized, repetitive taunts, often using vulgarity designed to elicit responses from the plaintiff and those working in concert and participation with the plaintiff. As expert testimony will show at trial thousands upon thousands of readers of the newsgroup had access to the same information I had. I will show that in fact several posters did in fact seemingly 'predict' the postings known as 'scamizdat,' while at the same time several of my taunts and 'predictions' subsequently turned out not to be the case.
"[W]hile they claim that the defendant indulges in ad hominem by directly quoting the Ninth Circuit court record, they do not deny its assertions that RTC has and continues to have a record of abusive and evasive discovery. At the same time the defendant has never been charged or sued before in his life. I leave it to the court to decide considering these fact and the affidavits of my counterclaim who a priori is more likely to proceed with respect to due process of law.
"I object to a Special Master or any other party intruding into my house in order to conduct such a lengthy intrusive search on my computers at home that I, for example, require to prepare my defense to this action. This demand on the plaintiff's part is designed to obstruct and harass me in my effort to act as a pro per since I continue to deny under oath that I have any responsive materials on any of my computers, storage media, or archives whether at home or in my safety deposit box. My children have been terrorized enough with Scientologists perpetrating criminal trespass and police threatening the arrest of my wife at the instigation of RTC process servers unless she accept service of this lawsuit. These kinds of terrorist tactics are considered 'scriptural' admonitions by Scientologists (Exhibit E)
"My home storage capacity is several gigabytes much of which is empty. On line 11 of page 9 that is why I store much less media than my capacity. I do not archive empty space. The regular archives I maintain in my safety deposit box contains usual and customary backup materials only, not materials responsive to the plaintiff's discovery demands.
"[A]t line 8 on page 10 claims examination of my home computers will see whether in fact I possess responsive materials and/or to detect whether such material has been deleted. This is quite illogical given the plaintiff's page 10 footnote 11 where they assert that I have sophistication in eliminating signs of deleted files. The only purpose of this request is to harass."
"Just after midnight Sunday, May 5, the NOTs series was publicly posted to alt.religion.scientology by individual(s) calling themselves 'Vorlon'.
"Even though subsequently canceled after approximately twenty hours, this posting made these works available for viewing, downloading, or re-posting to at least tens of millions of people who are users of the internet.
"Under the California Civil Code, an injunction based upon actual or threatened misappropriation of a trade secret when the trade secret has ceased to exist shall be terminated."
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Tom Klemesrud posted a notice from the cult that it intends to depose the administrators of anonymous remailers and Grady Ward's Internet services.
"PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that as soon as the matter may be heard by the above-entitled Court, located at 280 South First Street, San Jose, California, plaintiff Religious Technology Center ('RTC') will, and it hereby does, move the Court for leave to take expedited discovery of certain third parties who may have additional information regarding the Internet postings at issue in this case.
"The grounds for this motion are that: (1) the testimony of the defendant in his deposition to date has been evasive and contradictory, and it is important to obtain evidence from third parties who may have essential information concerning Internet Posting of Defendant; and (2) it is crucial that this information be obtained rapidly in light of the potential for the massive threatening posting of plaintiff's unpublished, copyrighted works to the Internet which was the basis of this lawsuit, and per prior rulings of this Court, could result in the destruction of RTC's trade secrets in those works.
"Plaintiff Religious Technology Center ('RTC') seeks to take a limited amount of focused, expedited discovery of third parties in this copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation case.
"Plaintiff therefore seeks to take depositions of the custodians of records of Netcom On-line Communications Services, Inc., Northcoast Internet, and Humboldt Internet, Ward's Internet access providers, as well as certain anonymous remailers through which SCAMIZDAT posting were made, in order to obtain records and information concerning Ward's access to and participation on the Internet and its correlation with any of the infringing posting made from his account under his own name of SCAMIZDAT'S."
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Ted Mayett posted an update to his work with members of the Las Vegas branch of the cult.
"Of the 4 staff and 3 public that I've taken out of the cult, I stay in contact with 4 of them. Three of them just don't want to hear it from me anymore. With the remaining 4 I call them every now and then. And they never call me. I call to check up on them. Interested in how they are getting along with their de-programming.
"And they are coming along just fine. I feed them little bits of information every now and then and always remember to not refer to it as a cult.
"I tell them that scieno is a business in Germany, having lost religious status, and let it go at that. Some of them know about Xenu and the Nots and some of them don't. Those that do I tell them when the stuff is on the net. They don't really like me, these people, I tell them things they don't want to hear. And they have no idea of the scope of things I don't tell them.
"Over the months, for all the names I have posted here, I have been very careful. Not knowing just how clever OSA is and just how well the communication lines run. I cannot jeopardize some of these people. (Others I give a damn about) The names I put up are calculated. I have always left about 15 names not mentioned, the 7 are part of the 15. More than 7 have blown over the last year, so OSA does not know which names I'm responsible for. The cult here is down to about 6 competent staff between both orgs. With another 6 competent's that hang around and look mean. There are less than 30 worthwhile clams in the entire city.
"I think my ot3 Holly has blown, but I have to get closer to the building to be sure. I'm also going to aim for c-org, the younger ones are going to be rather easy. I just have to get next to them."
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Wayne Whitney continues his Saturday pickets at the San Francisco Mission. Wayne's relationship with the police is more cordial that Tony McClelland in Australia.
"I told him that I wanted to let them know who I was, why I was out there, and what I was doing. I explained that I was concerned that Scientology would try to get me arrested for harassing them and I wanted to get all my concerns cleared up once and for all. He said, 'Well as long as you keep moving and don't block their doorway that's not harassing them.' I then said that I was concerned that they might lie about me, that they might say anything just to get me taken away. He told me that if they got a complaint they would send someone out and if I wasn't doing anything obviously wrong I wouldn't get arrested. I asked, 'So I don't need to worry about getting arrested?' He said 'No.'
"For the third week in a row a staff member (Tim) has come out to disseminate shortly after I arrived. At one point he came up to me and finally popped the question that I've been expecting. He asked, 'Are you just doing this on your own or did someone put you up to this?' I replied, 'All my little body thetans told me to be here.' He said, 'What's a body thetan? I don't know what that is.' I said, 'You know damn well what a body thetan is, if you don't then go inside and clear it.'
"A short while later Tim was able to lure some guy inside. When the guy came out he walked passed me holding some literature and their personality test. When he did I pointed to my sign and said, 'It's all a scam you know.' The guy said, 'Yeah, I know. I was just going to throw this stuff out anyway.' Tim comes rushing up and says, 'You know that's illegal? You can't harass people who come out of the mission.' I replied, 'That wasn't harassment. You better go inside and clear the word 'harassment'.
"The sign I carry says, 'in my opinion SCIENTOLOGY IS A SCAM'. As the afternoon wore on more and more people started coming up to me asking WHY I thought that. One woman did and after I explained she told me that she had a niece that was involved and that that's why she asked. She walked off quickly saying that she had to hurry up and go home to warn her.
"On this picket I noticed that there's been a very significant change in the mood of staff members towards me. When I first started picketing all the mission staff tried to be very friendly. When they first saw me they'd say things like, 'Hi Wayne, how's it going?' They'd say it in a very cheerful tone of voice pretending that they didn't even notice my sign. Now, however, they all just walk passed, staring at me without saying a word. I can almost see the little wheels turning in their heads and see the (S) (P) symbols in their eyes.
"I still find it amazing to see how many people's lives have been harmed by this organization. When I go there carrying a picket sign they start coming out of the woodwork and come up to me to tell me their stories. One woman told me how on her first reg cycle she was locked in the room and that it wasn't until she actually started trying to kick the door down that they let her out. Even then two staff members followed her almost all the way home before turning around and going back. A doctor told me how one of his patients needed an operation but had been convinced by the clams to spend all his money to 'go clear' instead."
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Mark Ebner, who briefly joined the cult and wrote an article in Spy magazine about his experience, posted a brief description of the response following the article.
"I have saved the threatening letters from Scieno lawyers that arrived prior to the publication of my Spy expose. Claiming to be me, they also called the magazine's printer in Kentucky trying to get advance copies. My credit card was fucked with in a big way."
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A.r.s has been restored to the Zippo site following its use to post secret NOTS materials.
"Date: 12 May 1996 17:07:21 -0700
From: Joe Zip <joe@zippo.com>
"The news group alt.religion.scientology will be reinstated on the Zippo Servers this evening. After careful evaluation of information received, and review of a great deal of published information, we feel very strongly about this decision. I apologize for the time the group was taken out of service, however, we wanted to make sure we were doing the correct thing.
"It is unfortunate that the Church of Scientology would choose to have such a poor public image formed by their representatives, however, I have to assume that this disgusting behavior is consistent with the way the organization operates. While I am tempted to take shots at Scientology, I will not. My problem is with the organization, not with people practicing a religion, and I wish them the freedom to do so.
"We were tracked for 4 - 6 weeks before this recent problem, by a repeat caller who was trying to get information on Zippo ownership and office locations. The voice of the person representing that church, who called our offices this past week, sounded to be the same. With all of the ground work that was apparently done, it would not surprise me if a member of the Church wasn't responsible for the post they were complaining about."
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Steve Fishman posted an article from Woman's Day (Australia) Magazine, April 1996, describing Lisa Marie Presley's treatment by the cult.
"Before dawn each Saturday, an unmarked van arrives at her home to take her to the Scientology Celebrity Centre, where she spends the weekend.
"There she undergoes 'auditing and purification', said to cost $10,000 a month, where she talks intimately about her marriage. A friend who visited during one of the sessions says it was like a torture chamber, and she was shocked to hear Lisa Marie screaming as she spat out her rage.
"According to another close friend, Monica Pastelle, Lisa Marie also regularly endures a traumatic purification cleansing technique, introduced to her by the Church of Scientology. The purging program is called 'Cleanse Thyself' and involves laxatives, colonic treatments and diuretics.
"According to Monica, Lisa Marie starts this part of the program by sitting in a steam room for five minutes. When she comes out she drinks a specially prepared calcium and magnesium health cocktail.
"The aim is to clear waste from the system which is done by swallowing a vile-tasting mixture of 50 herbs, some of which have a severe laxative effect, and then going on a strict fast.
"Finally Lisa Marie is compelled to drink 10 litres of water, filtered of all impurities and containing a mixture of sugar and salts to duplicate the body's electrolytic balance.
"Lisa Marie first dabbled with herbal purification with Michael early last year. Michael said at the time he found the purification a wonderful experience, but Monica was disgusted with the effect on her friends.
"'They were both running to the bathroom every 10 minutes for days', she says. 'They couldn't leave the house. In fact, Lisa Marie got very woozy from it and it caused stomach problems. Her mother was very angry with her, but Lisa Marie couldn't see that it was harming her. She kept sticking out her tongue to show how clean and pink it was and saying that she felt light as a feather. No wonder! She was completely dehydrated.'"
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