Volume 0, Issue 21 vom 10. 09. 1995

Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review
Volume 0, Issue 21
09/10/95
by Rod Keller [rkeller@netaxs.com]
copyright 1995

Contents

  1. Worldwide Protests
  2. From a description of the London demonstration.
  3. Larry Update
  4. Arnie's Mom
  5. New Poodle
  6. Xs4all Raid
  7. AOL
  8. Brinkema Ruling
  9. List of suppressive persons
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@netaxs.com
It is archived at:
        http://remarkable.amazing.com/scientology
        http://users.aimnet.com/~jdiver
        http://www.thur.de/religio/publik/arsfaq.html
        http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/ars-summary.html

#####

Worldwide Protests

Protests were held at cos org buildings around the world on Saturday to protest their opposition to free speech, and their treatment of critics, Arnie Lerma, Larry Wollersheim, Bob Penny and Dennis Erlich. I don't have descriptions of the protests, but I've pieced together a list of how many people attended each protest. Even this list is incomplete, but it's the best I have. Adelaide - 2; Boston - 25; Boulder - 30; Brisbane - 2; Chicago - 4; DC - 11; Helsinki - 1; Houston - 7; Las Vegas - 1; London - 20; Melbourne - 13; NY - 5; Ottawa - 3; Scottsdale - 9; Sydney - 7; San Francisco - 12 "Sunny Pearl Street Mall was the scene of the picketing against CoS, whose Dianetics Foundation is thematically across the lawn from the Boulder County Courthouse. About 15 - 20 demonstrators picketed in front of the center against about 10 pro-Scientology counter-picketers including Deb Danos, the OSA director for the Denver Org and Robert Anderson, the director of the Dianetics Foundation. "The demonstration seemed to achieve its desired results: numerous citizens began questioning Danos on the church and its beliefs and handouts containing various web sites and FTP locations were distributed to an altogether interested crowd of passers-by. KUSA-TV Denver, who has covered the breaking story in Boulder from the start had a camera present and there were several representatives of the print and radio media, as well. Taneli Huuskonen picketed alone in Helsinki. "I ended up standing alone in front of the Dianetic Centre with my signs. They said: "'The Bridge to Debt Slavery', 'Why is the reputation of Scientology bad?' (literally 'black'; that's not English, is it?), 'Is the Church of Scientology suppressing you?', and 'War on the Internet'. The first three were mainly aimed at Scientologists, the last was there to arouse the interest of the general public. I'd also written hurriedly a pamphlet highlighting some incidents of Fair Gaming, and included an account of the OT levels I-III I'd written earlier. "One person, apparently a Scientologist, came and looked at my signs quite closely before disappearing into the building. A bit later I noticed a window open and someone lean out and look at me. I looked and smiled at him; I don't think he smiled back. Anyway, nobody came to handle me, and it surely didn't look like a busy day in the Org.

From a description of the London demonstration.

"Protesters picketed outside the Cult of Scientology's shopfront just along Tottenham Court Road from Goodge St underground station at lunchtime today, Saturday, as part of a worldwide protest by users of the Internet against the Cult's activities time to co-incide with the 'auditors day' activities in the Cult. "The picket lasted from 1 to 4pm. Most people with a high-street shopfront would regard such a one-day picket as beneath their dignity and likely to be forgotten on the morrow. Not $cientology, which believe in aggressive fight-back against any criticism. Once protesters arrived, and absurd scene ensued with 15 to 20 protesters on the roadway side of the pavement, facing 15 to 20 cult members with their own placards on the inner side, each group handing out their rival leaflets. Public sympathy seemed more with the protesters, though. One passer, handed a Cult leaflet to go with the antiCult one he was reading, tore it up and called them 'bastards'." One of the London protesters returned home to find her children had been victims of cos harassment. "Bonnie returned home tonight after the London demo to discover that a gang of Scientologists had been demonstrating outside her HOME, causing her 11 and 17 year old children considerable distress as they had to pass by the picketers to get into their house." And an excerpt from the report on Australia: "Sydney a) Seven people arrived at 10am and departed at 1pm. b) Approximately 600 leaflets were distributed. c) Say 80% of the public were very supportive, 19% nonchalant and 1% negative towards us. d) About 1.5 Scienos were allocated to shadow each demonstrator and to distribute Scientology leaflets. e) We repeated the mistake from the last demonstration and used the word Scientology in large type at the top of our body boards A number of supporters thought we were Scientologists. We found it useful to use the word 'against' or 'anti' Scientology and the people supported us immediately. f) I was embarrassed for the Scienos when a number of occasions a member of the public made extremely unkind remarks about the CofS. g) The tone was pleasant nearly all the time, and a pleasant attitude was encouraged by both sides. "Brisbane Two people demonstrated outside the ORG in Brisbane. Similar result to Sydney except the 2 demonstrators had 4 Scieno shadows. "Adelaide. Two demonstrators handed leaflets at a location some distance from the ORG." And from San Francisco: "About a dozen people were there at any one time during my stint (~12:00 to ~1:45 pm). Same number of clams, who were videotaping us like mad. They handed out their usual badly-worded propaganda, and we handed out ours. "A couple of passers-by joined in on the fun. Took them an hour and a half to come up with a sign to join our protest. About 200 or so leaflets were passed out to interested parties." Message-ID: <42suig$64p@meg.tesser.com> Message-ID: <42st44$3at@myntti.helsinki.fi> Message-ID: <740073073wnr@xemu.demon.co.uk> Message-ID: <42t1ig$5po@castlsys.demon.co.uk> Message-ID: <42r79b$gu3@inferno.mpx.com.au> Message-ID: <icdea1.810632401@giaeb> Message-ID: <jerod23DEnt4v.D8F@netcom.com> #####

Larry Update

Larry Wollersheim reported more dirty tricks by the cos this week. "Lawrence Wollersheim has just learned that the security of his Rocky Mountain Internet email account has been breached by parties unknown. "Within hours of the seizure of his computer by US Marshals and the Church of Scientology on August 22nd, an unknown party broke into two email accounts -- lawrence@rmii.com and lawrence@factnet.org -- changed the passwords, read, and then deleted the email." The cos also has been pressuring the judge to force Larry to disclose his PGP passphrase, which would let them read more sensitive documents from his hard disk. "Tonight's local news included an interesting blurb about this case. The judge refused to order Wollersheim to disclose his passphrase, since the encrypted material comprised names of Co$ critics who could then be targeted by the Church." And a disturbing portion from a report by the Denver TV station KUSA. "Outside the courthouse, Scientology Director Kurt Weyland held up a pair of handcuffs which he said symbolized what the church intended to do to Wollersheim. "Like I told you this morning, I brought these handcuffs here to show what it is that we are driving for, which is to bring this man to uhhh, bruhh, to justice. "Another issue has arisen. Some of the computer files the Scientologists seized from Wollersheim's home are encrypted. Scientology has asked Judge Kane to hold Wollersheim in contempt. Wollersheim says the encrypted files are lists of people he says are victims of Scientology and he says he'll go to jail before turning over his passwords, which unlock his secret files." And Dick Cleek reports on his experience testifying at a hearing in Denver. "The CoS is archiving everything on ars. I know because they quoted back to me statements I'd made months ago. Most of the scamizdats were entered into evidence. Ms.Kobrin's rmgroup notice was entered into evidence. The CoS masterplan for 'handling' ars was entered into evidence. The Robert Marcus 'death threat' was entered into evidence. R245 was discussed in open court. The cancelbunny was a topic of testimony. "During Mr.McShane's testimony Mr. Weiland (in the audience) would nod yes or no depending on how the question should be answered and Mr. McShane seemed to answer according to those nods. I'm confused as to the dog and the tail." Message-ID: <428hgv$fpo@light.lightlink.com> Message-ID: <42qu89$305@camelot.ccs.neu.edu> Message-ID: <42qvlb$2cg@boulder.earthnet.net> Message-ID: <42t7gd$qnv@uwm.edu> #####

Arnie's Mom

Arnie Lerma reported this week that the cos has started harassment of his mother. "My mother called me, complaining that she is getting a couple of hang-up calls each day. "This is a typical cult action to intimidate." Message-ID: <424e25$em6@news.dgsys.com> #####

New Poodle

A new CancelPoodle posted illegal cancels this week, Robert Adams. The cancel was meant to imitate a post from Penet, but he was caught in the act by Netcom's Sender: header. Here's one of the cancels. "Control: <173432Z01091995@anon.penet.fi> Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Path: sundog.tiac.net!news.kei.com!world!uunet!in1.uu.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland. .reston..ans..net!ix..netcom..com!netcom..com!niner1 From: an355175@anon.penet.fi Subject: Re: Fishman depo containg the OT material (Part-3) Message-ID: <niner1DEKvs0.2u4@netcom.com> Sender: niner1@netcom20.netcom.com Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) References: <174308Z01091995@anon.penet.fi> Date: Fri, 8 Sep 1995 08:33:35 GMT Lines: 1" "This was cancelled due to copyright infringement." Margaret, apparently from Netcom administration reported the status of the account. "This user's account has been suspended." Message-ID: <richchen-0809951342280001@wash-b-003.charm.net> Message-ID: <nc0022DELtB1.Bpr@netcom.com> #####

Xs4all Raid

The offices of xs4all.nl were raided this week, to record the serial numbers of their computers. This is apparently a common preparation for a lawsuit. "Our offices were invaded by police, a bailiff and members of the Scientology cult yesterday. (If this is the first time you've heard about this: see http://www.xs4all.nl/~felipe/cos/pers.eng.html for more information. "24 hours later, we have received over a hundred e-mails of people that support us in this matter. We've had messages from old friends asking what, if anything, they can do. Also organisations all over the Internet have shown their support and sometimes offered to put substantial manpower and facilities at our disposal, should the need ever arise. Most mails however came from total strangers. They showed disgust over what happened, as well as anger towards Scientology. Some expressed the fear Scientology would eventually win, silencing the voices of their many critics." Message-ID: <42k3ti$m6o@assurancetourix.xs4all.nl> #####

AOL

A message from an America Online sysop was posted this week. In it, he complains about what a chore it would be to delete enough messages to bring the Scientology folder back to containing all positive messages. He also communicated a threat to skeptics to remove their accounts. "Once again, this folder has taken a turn toward "debate". This is a Scientologists fellowship folder. It is not a folder to discuss the similarities or differences between Scientology and Christianity, not a folder to discuss copyright law etc. I believe it was adherents to Scientology that started both of these subjects, so I left the thread hoping it would be short lived. "Scientologists; I MUST ask you to STOP replying to off topic antagonistic or harassing posts. It is easy for me to come in and delete one bad post. Deleting a 15 post thread (in this folder that can happen within a day) consumes way too much of my time and is usually put on the back burner until I have the time. For those who are complaining that I'm not monitoring the folder, most of the problem is YOUR fault. DON'T REPLY. Simply forward a copy of the post to TOS and cc: me. This is THE MOST EFFECTIVE way to eliminate the problem. For those of you who are NOT OF LIKE MIND with the Church of Scientology, you are in violation of the Terms of Service. (harassing the members of the Church of Scientology) and if continue and you will jeopardize your account standing with AOL. If you cannot discuss the Scn in a positive manner without your sarcastic remarks/questions, then either take it to the debate board or give it up. A copy of this note has been forwarded to TOS with the names of the most constant offenders." Message-ID: <42aaa4$5mo@newsbf02.news.aol.com> #####

Brinkema Ruling

Judge Leonie Brinkema ruling against the request by the cos for a Temporary Restraining Order against the Washington Post was posted this week. Some excerpts: "With regard to the amount of the work used, defendants' Article quoted only a minute portion of the AT documents. The August 14, 1995 copying of the California court files involved a considerably larger amount of the subject works: allegedly 103 pages were copied. However, although a large number of pages were copied, only a few lines of the documents were quoted in the Article. This Court therefore finds that the sheer quantity of the documents copied does no defeat the Post defendants' claim of fair use. "Finally, the plaintiff argues that the Post defendants cannot enjoy the shelter of the fair use doctrine because their acquisition of the subject documents was unlawful. Plaintiff's argument stems from its assertion that, as a result of stringent security measures, any copy of the AT documents existing outside the Church was necessarily at one time stolen. Plaintiff further argues that the unlawful acquisition of copyrighted materials precludes any fair use defense. However, unlike the facts in the cases relied on by plaintiff, the facts in this case are that the Post defendants obtained the documents from a legitimate source. When the Post defendants obtained the copies at issue, the AT documents were contained within the unsealed files of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. As such, they were available to the general public at the office of the Clerk of the Court. "Plaintiff argues that the Post defendants had no right of access to the AT documents in the California court file because those documents were never relevant to that litigation and had been dumped into the record merely for the purpose of improperly making them available to the public. Plaintiff's argument neglects the fact that at the time that the Post obtained copies of those documents from the public court records, no sealing order was in place. In fact, the plaintiff had moved the district court to seal the file and the court had denied that request. "Having performed the analysis required under Blackwelder, this Court concludes that the plaintiff's Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and a Preliminary Injunction; for Impoundment of Infringing Articles; and for Expedited Discovery against the Post defendants must be denied. The balance of harms is heavily tilted towards the defendants, and the plaintiff's likelihood of success on the merits is insufficient to right the scale. Finally, the public interest and the constitutional presumption against prior restraining weigh heavily against the plaintiff. For these reasons, plaintiff's motion is DENIED." Message-ID: <rnewman-0109950825440001@dial1-8.cybercom.net> #####

List of suppressive persons

Kim Baker this week posted a list of suppressive persons and organizations from 1992. I picked out some interesting organizations, and the individuals I recognized without any research. "THIS ISSUE IS THE LIST OF DECLARED SUPPRESSIVE PERSONS AND SUPPRESSIVE GROUPS. IT IS FOR YOUR USE TO SAFEGUARD THE LINES OF YOUR ORG OR MISSION AND TO ENSURE THAT THESE INDIVIDUALS OR MEMBERS OF THESE GROUPS ARE NOT CONNECTED TO OR ON LINES AT YOUR ORG OR MISSION IN ANY WAY. REFERENCE: HCOPL 23 DECEMBER 1965RB, SUPPRESSIVE ACTS, SUPPRESSION OF SCIENTOLOGY AND SCIENTOLOGISTS. "EST (ERHARD SEMINAR TRAINING) EST PHOENIX AREA CENTER EST LOS ANGELES AREA CENTER EST NEWPORT BEACH AREA CENTER EST SACRAMENTO AREA CENTER EST SAN DIEGO AREA CENTER EST SAN FRANCISCO AREA CENTER EST SAN JOSE AREA CENTER EST DENVER AREA CENTER EST CONNECTICUT AREA CENTER EST WASHINGTON DC AREA CENTER EST MIAMI AREA CENTER EST SARASOTA AREA CENTER EST TAMPA AREA CENTER EST ATLANTA AREA CENTER EST HAWAII AREA CENTER EST CHICAGO AREA CENTER EST NEW ORLEANS AREA CENTER EST BOSTON AREA CENTER EST DETROIT AREA CENTER EST MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL AREA CENTER EST NEW JERSEY AREA CENTER EST ALBUQUERQUE AREA CENTER EST NEW YORK AREA CENTER EST CHARLOTTE AREA CENTER EST CINCINNATI AREA CENTER EST CLEVELAND AREA CENTER EST PORTLAND AREA CENTER EST PHILADELPHIA AREA CENTER EST PITTSBURGH AREA CENTER EST DALLAS AREA CENTER EST HOUSTON AREA CENTER EST SEATTLE AREA CENTER EST WEST COAST SITE (SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA) FORUM, THE GALACTIC PATROL LIFESPRING WERNER ERHART AND ASSOCIATES And the individuals: "ARMSTRONG, GERRY ATACK, JON AZNARAN, RICK AZNARAN, VICKI BURDEN, TONYA CORYDON, BENT ERHARD, WERNER ERLICH, DENNIS KEMBER, JANE LUVALLE, JOHN MAYO, DAVID PENNY, BOB SWANN, INGO TRENITE, KOOS NOLST VEIN, ENID VOSPER, CYRIL WHITFIELD, HANNA (ELTRINGHAM) WHITFIELD, JERRY WOLLERSHEIM, LARRY" Message-ID: <m0soQco-00091fC@uctmail.uct.ac.za> Message-ID: <m0soQiA-00092cC@uctmail.uct.ac.za> Message-ID: <m0soQkf-0008ueC@uctmail.uct.ac.za>