Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review Volume 0, Issue 6 05/28/95 by Rod Keller [rkeller@netaxs.com] copyright 1995
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.
A.r.s Week in Review is available free, by e-mail and is archived at http://amazing.cinenet.net/scientology.html
Blue Sky Ruling
It was reported this week that "A Piece of Blue Sky" was banned in
Britain. This report was quickly followed by the following correction.
"This is not, in fact, the case, and "Piece of Blue Sky" continues to be available [...]. The rumour has arisen out of a court judgement awarded against Atack in a case brought by one Margaret Hodkyn, headmistress of the Greenfield School, the Scientology school in East Grinstead, Sussex, UK, which ordered the removal of a paragraph included in the book: specifically, the court ordered that no copies of the book containing a specific paragraph (first para, page 336 in the US edition) may be distributed in the UK."
The paragraph in question was posted to the group several times this week.
"The head of the Scientology school in East Grinstead was being called as a witness She denied that a twelve-year-old girl had received a "withhold pulling session" at the hand of three of the school's staff To "pull withholds" is Scientologese for making someone confess to their transgressions. Minutes of the school's boards meetings had to be publically available, yet the filed copy made no reference to the "withhold-pulling" session. I obtained an _unedited_ copy of the school's board minutes, which not only proved the headmistress's sworn statement untrue, but showed the school's attempt at concealment."
Message-IDs:
<3q06ng$tv@castlsys.demon.co.uk>
<3q0g9n$loj@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
Dennis Update
It was reported this week that the cos legal team deposed Dennis Erlich
recently. The legal team of Moxon and Kobrin, and recent deposed Warren
McShane were in attendance. Dennis described the action.
"Moxon, The Glib, signed on the case and did some of the last questions. The scienos are big on passing notes amongst themselves during depos. Grinning and groaning, Moxon and McShame spent most of the depo congratulating themselves with nods and smug smiles, and generally behaving like the pompous *sses they are."
The deposition should be posted soon.
Message-ID:
<9505241107.0FMIF01@support.com>
EFF Transfers Fund
The EFF this week reported that responsibility for the Dennis Erlich
Defense Fund has been transferred to Morrison & Foerster. The new address
for donations is:
Morrison & Foerster
345 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94104-2675
USA
"Over the past week, some concern has been raised regarding the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) tax status and our maintenance of the Dennis Erlich Defense Fund. [...] However, in order to avoid further confusion and to ensure the security of the fund, EFF has arranged to transfer its maintenance to Mr. Erlich's attorneys."
This led several a.r.s regulars to conclude that recent postings from Vera Wallace led to the transfer. Stanton McCandlish disagreed with Ms. Steele's explanation, saying:
"EFF transferred the fund to MoFo, because it simply makes sense to do so. We don't have the staff time or facilities to handle things like wire transfer (and there are also legal reasons for not doing so, which I won't go into), foreign-currency checks, etc. All we could take was US checks and money orders. Our handling of the fund also resulted in an unnecessary delay. As the money was going to MoFo anyway, it was simply inefficient. The sole benefit of having EFF do the fund is that people noticed - it was a name recognition thing. You all know we supported Dennis and still do, so that benefit still adheres."
As long as the EFF continues to support Dennis' case, and not just Tom and Netcom, I'll not complain.
Message-IDs:
<199505242259.SAA10705@eff.org>
<199505222046.QAA06365@eff.org>
Eugene Ingram Returns Photos
Grady Ward reported this week that Eugene Ingram returned, by mail, the
photographs stolen from his mother last week. Mrs. Ward apparently will
continue her complaint against Ingram.
"Since the postmark of the envelope (no return address) contains a postmark from *Portland, OR* (last three digits 721), the fraud becomes the *federal* crime of interstate transportation of stolen property, a base offense crime of 4 with a lot of possible sentencing 'enhancements' depending upon value and other coeval acts."
Message-ID:
<gradyD95wo7.AAC@netcom.com>
Assault at Anniversary
An anonymous poster reported being assaulted at the recent 40th
Anniversary being held at the New York Sheraton. He was refused entry to
the event, and told to leave the hotel entirely. The poster described what
happened on the street.
"One of these 'security guards' approached me from behind and asked me to wait a second. Still thinking this was a hotel security guard, and not a Scientologist, I politely stopped and asked if there was a problem. Before I could blink I was surrounded. 'We have to take your picture. You can't leave until we take your picture.'
"'Yeah, right," said I. 'See, ya!' And I turned to walk away, only to find a hand on my wrist. 'Hey,' I yelled. 'You are NOT a police officer! You have no right to hold me!' Suddenly, I am covered with hands- at least five people grabbing at me. And then a big burly guy comes right at me from the front, and grabs me by the collar, yelling, 'Don't try raising your voice to attract attention' or something to that affect, 'we won't let you make a commotion here!'
"Why, naturally, I raised my voice and started making a commotion! Instantly, there is a crowd of bystanders, watching with dropped jaw as I scream, 'Call the police! Somebody call the police!' The crowd never moved. I screamed some more, 'Call the police! I'm being assaulted! Somebody help!' The crowd was frozen, and I start thinking about Kitty Genovese. 'Help! Don't be fooled by their uniforms and badges, these guys are NOT real police officers! I need the New York City Police! Somebody call them! HELLLLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!!'
"Finally, Mr. Big 'n' Burly says, 'If you come back to this hotel I will BUST YOUR HEAD IN!!!'---exact quote! He followed it up with, 'Do you understand?'--repeated several times, as per the Success Through Communications Course. After trying to no-answer him several times, I finally said, 'Yes, I understand.' That was apparently the right answer, and I was set free.
The NYPD later explained that this type of harassment cannot be pursued unless a police officer witnesses the event.
Message-ID:
<3pqto7$3st@linet02.li.net>
KSW Article
KSW, Keep Scientology Working, recently published an article about the
Dennis Erlich case. Photos from the raid were included. As with the
Freedom issue, the name "alt.religion.scientology" was not mentioned, but
the language and spin of the article are very different.
"The infringer in this case was tracked down, and RTC discovered it to be an individual who was declared more than a decade earlier for psychotic and violent behavior, and partaking in a failed power push. Further investigation uncovered his full criminal background which includes physically abusing associates and family, and even failing to provide child support (known as a 'deadbeat dad'). Finally, investigation revealed that this individual is practically devoid of even a single friend and so he joined the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), the only group who would have him. CAN is an anti-religious hate group working to undermine and destroy the very principles on which the United States of America was founded. Many of its most prominent members were arrested and/or went to jail in 1994 for criminal and violent conduct.
"As electronic infringement on the copyrights of thousands of different individuals and companies has become increasingly explosive, the courts are clamping down on abusers. To date many of the foremost experts in this field have joined forces with us to stamp out this abuse and get ethics in on this area. So, through such actions, RTC is in the vanguard of protecting the rights of many. But most importantly, through diligently safeguarding the religious marks and materials, the tech is being kept pure and ethics is going in on the SPs.
Message-ID:
<3q244u$kjk@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
Vera Leaves Earthlink
Vera Wallace is apparently too hot to handle for Sky Dayton. Zane Thomas
reported the following response to his inquiry about outing anonymous
posters, and fabrication of bomb threats.
"From: mts@earthlink.net (Larry Gentry) Subject: Re: Vera and bomb-threats
"Dear Mr. Thomas,
"Thanks for your letter. The user you refer to is no longer a subscriber with EarthLink Network.
"Best,
Larry Gentry
Manager of Technical Services
EarthLink Network, Inc
mts@earthlink.net | 213-644-9500 voice | 213-644-9510 fax"
Message-ID:
<APC&1'0'66607f89'3ea@igc.apc.org>
Cos Web Site
The cos put up its first web site this week,
http://www.theta.com/goodman/index.htm
Ron Newman writes:
"Note that the URL ends in 'htm', not 'html', and that the name is 'index', not 'home'."
I think the unusual file suffix is consistent with the PC-based INCOMM system.
Message-ID:
<3q4q1m$jij@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>