http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/29/wbrussels29.xml
Brussels puts squatters over Scientologists
By Justin Stares in Brussels
Home to the institutions of the European Union, Brussels markets itself as an ideal home for any kind of international organisation. But the city has been less than welcoming to its latest foreign guest: the Church of Scientology.
To the annoyance of the church's senior officials, a newly purchased three-storey property earmarked to become their Brussels HQ has been invaded by squatters.
But their anger with the illegal lodgers is nothing compared to their beef with the Brussels authorities, who have declared the church persona non grata and say they will not enforce eviction orders.
Freddy Thielemans, the mayor, claimed that the "only activity" of the church was to raise money from "idle people who can be tempted by their message". He has has vowed to use "all available means" to prevent it setting up its European headquarters in the city.
The church's hostile reception in the city is in marked contrast to the fanfare of publicity it received in London last week, when Tom Cruise, the actor, flew in to open a L23 million headquarters near St Paul's Cathedral.
The Brussels building's owner, property firm BBAI, represented by prominent American Scientologist Neil Levin, applied to have the squatters evicted to allow for renovation work and posted a security guard with a dog at the door.
But the company was told that private individuals have no right to replace the police in upholding the law in Belgium. And last Thursday a court ruled the eviction order invalid.
[...]
Message ID: 9fl9k25r2t1llmc76rlobmi05so0fs0qo1@4ax.com
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2006/11/02/publiceye/entry2144647.shtml
'48 Hours' Questions Role Of Scientology In Murder, Scientologists Question CBS Ethics
On Saturday, "48 Hours" ran a story about the 2003 murder of Elli Perkins, a murder that her 28-year-old son Jeremy confessed to committing. Jeremy had been hallucinating and behaving erratically before his mother's death, but his parents, devout Scientologists, resisted giving him psychiatric treatment. As "48 Hours" notes, "[s]ome pro-Scientology materials declare that psychiatrists are not only useless, but evil – their medications nothing but poisons." The Perkins' opted to medicate their son primarily with vitamins.
The Scientology community was not happy with the story, which raised the possibility that Elli Perkins might not have been murdered had her son been given psychiatric treatment. The group refused to provide "48 Hours" with an official spokesman and began taking action to influence the broadcast. "They hit us with numerous e-mails and there were some people at CBS or at '48 Hours' who they knew personally, and so there were some personal requests made as well," says CBS News Senior Vice President, Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason.
One of the primary complaints from Scientologists was that CBS News has a conflict of interest in covering the story, since the network counts pharmaceutical companies among its advertisers. The argument was that since these companies make anti-depressant and anti-psychotic drugs, CBS News wanted to promote them – and that this story was one way to do that. Mason disputes this argument. "Nothing could be further from the truth," she says. "At CBS the sales department and the news department – there is a Chinese wall between them. And we just don't cross. And we've done numerous stories on the ill effects of drugs of various sponsors that are on CBS." After the broadcast aired, Mason estimates that CBS News received "more than 500 letters from scientologists saying that we had been unfair."
Normally, "48 Hours" posts a long narrative of each week's story on its Web site on Saturday, towards the end of the broadcast. The narrative of the Perkins story did not go online until late afternoon Wednesday. According to Mason, this is because the story "was being edited at the last minute, and the broadcast wanted to make sure that they had an accurate transcript before they put it on the web." "48 Hours" was not able to interview the two defenders of Scientology featured in the piece until shortly before the broadcast, because no one from Scientology was made available until that time. "Usually it isn't that tough to get the other side of the story, or more participants in the story," says Mason.
Mason allows that Scientologists are "known as a litigious group, and they are known to resist the telling of stories about Scientology." I asked if this affected the story in any way, or if it discourages news outlets from doing stories that discuss Scientology. She says that it does not. "CBS has done several and '60 Minutes' has done several stories on Scientology, and I believe NBC did something," she says. "I think all of them do when they find a story they want to do and think is worthwhile in telling."
What about the possibility of litigation? "We do stories that we feel stand on their own grounds in the court of law," says Mason.
--
On October 29, 2006 "Gerry Armstrong" posted:
http://www.carolineletkeman.org/writings/ltr-2006-10-29.html
From: Caroline Letkeman
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 10:12 AM
To: [e-mail address]
Cc: [e-mail address]
Subject: Scientology - A Question of Faith
Dear 48 Hours,
Thank you for covering the tragic Perkins story and for helping to expose Scientology as a social menace.
I spent 24 years of my life inside the organization, including over 4 years in the Sea Org in Los Angeles and in Clearwater. I was a highly trained "auditor" and delivered Scientology's advanced confidential "therapy," or as Scientologists calls it, "mental technology." This "tech" states that every human is infested with, in fact composed of, alien beings, or "body thetans," that plague us, just as they plagued Jeremy Perkins, and the tech claims to eliminate all these body thetans.
Since waking up and leaving the cult in 1999, I have continued to study Scientology, its activities and its "tech," but from a critical perspective, knowing the tech doesn't work and is dangerous. My site: www.carolineletkeman.org. I am married to Gerry Armstrong, who has endured 25 years of legal and extra-legal "fair game" since he escaped. Fair game is Scientology's policy and practice of attacking and destroying the people the organization labels "Suppressive Persons," or "SPs." Gerry's site: www.gerryarmstrong.org. We also maintain a site that exposes the cult's Suppressive Person doctrine, www.suppressiveperson.org. Scientology has stepped up its religious rhetoric and trappings in recent years to capitalize on its ill-gotten tax exemption and "religious status" to obtain faith-based government funding. Organization founder L. Ron Hubbard was, however, very clear that Dianetics and Scientology are not faith-based, but are instead exact science. "Dianetics is a science; as such, it has no opinion about religion, for sciences are based on natural laws, not on opinions." Hubbard, L. R. (1950). The Dianetic Auditor's Bulletin Dianetics and Religion. Los Angeles, Bridge Publications, Inc. Hubbard was also very adamant that his "mental tech" was science. In a footnote to a bulletin about Heaven being an implanted false memory, he stated:
Note: This HCO Bulletin is based on over a thousand hours of research auditing, analyzing the facsimiles of the reactive mind, and with the help of a Mark V Electrometer. It is scientific research and is not in any way based upon the mere opinion of the researcher. This HCO Bulletin is not the result of the belief or beliefs of anyone. Scientology data reflects long, arduous and painstaking research over a period of some thirty years into the nature of Man, the mind, the human spirit and its relationship to the physical universe. The data and phenomena discovered in Scientology is common to all minds and all men and can be demonstrated on anyone. Truth does not require belief to be truth any more than water requires anyone's permission to run down hill. The data is itself and can be duplicated by any honest researcher or practitioner. We in Scientology seek freedom, the betterment of Man, and the happiness of the individual and this comprises our attitude toward the data found. The data, however, is simply himself, and exists whatever the opinion of anyone may be. The contents of this HCO Bulletin discover the apparent underlying impulses of religious zealotism and the source of the religious mania and insanity which terrorized Earth over the ages and has given religion the appearance of insanity. As the paper is written for my friends it has, of course, a semblance of irreverence).
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/hcob-1963-05-11-routine-3-heaven-ex.html
The October 2006 American Journal of Psychiatry published a statement by Dr. Sharfstein, the outgoing President of the American Psychiatric Association, given in Toronto in May 2006:
"As physicians we search for the truth based on science, producing replicable results through research. The Scientologists protesting outside this meeting in Toronto represent the opposite of the search for truth. They are joined in a general movement against science by such groups as the intelligent design advocates, abstinenceonly fanatics, global warming deniers, antivaccination lobbies, gay bashers, and stem cell research rejecters. There is a conflict going on in America today, sometimes called a "culture war," but very much a conflict between those who search for truth based on science to improve the human condition and those who are blinded by dogma and denial."
Scientology can call itself a religion in the US, but it cannot have it both ways. It is not a question of faith. It is a question of hiding behind religion to avoid being called to account for its junk science, for its dangerous and deadly "tech."
Sincerely,
Caroline Letkeman
Gerry Armstrong
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org
--
On October 29, 2006 "Tory Christman" posted:
This is the third e-mail I've gotten from people about Scientology, in the last few days. May each person continue to pass on their knowledge of this insidious cult, and thanks to CBS, once again!
Dearest Tory,
I've been lurking in ARS for a bit. I sometimes take the time to thank those that do what you're doing. It's God's work. You inspired me to write CBS at their website under "feedback" Here's what I wrote: You can post the letter to ARS if you like, just please don't post my e-mail address, etc. I like to keep a low profile from the scientology Gestapo.
God bless you for your work and have a happy and safe long life!
XXX (Name withheld to protect the innocent from
Scientology, the phony church)
Letter to CBS follows:
Your 48hrs mystery show RE Scientology.
Excellent! I never realized just how insidious this 'cough' "religion" is. What a horrible brain washed cult! I feel sorry for them, especially those poor kids born into it. Just awful! This has started me researching the whole topic now, and the stuff I'm finding is mind-blowing. I feel so sorry for those people stuck in that cult. Thank you very much for making us all aware of this evil cancer on our planet. Hopefully it collapses in on itself when no more get trapped in it's nefarious web, thanks partly, due to your show which has risen the level of understanding of this horror! You are doing your duty in the name of decent human beings.
Thank you very, VERY much!
John Smith (again, name withheld for their own protection)
Tory/Magoo Dancing in the moonlight
--
JEREMY PERKINS Interview CBS 48 HOURS Website
Scientology - A Question of Faith
Did A Mother's Faith Contribute To Her Murder?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/25/48hours/main2124568.shtml
TIMELINE & SCIENTOLOGY COVER-UP
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/JeremyPerkins/CoverUp/
Jeremy Perkins' Scientology
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/JeremyPerkins/www.our-home.org/jeremyperkins/myself.htm
www.perkinstragedy.org (The tragedy of The Perkins Family)
--
Video of the Perkins Tragedy on CBS 48 Hours:
http://www.dailymotion.com/XENUTV/video/xkmax_scientology-the-elli-perkins-story
http://www.scientomogy.com/jeremy_perkins.php
Download from BitTorrent:
http://www.scientomogy.com/jeremy_perkins.php
First you need bittorrent client, such as the one you can download from:
www.utorrent.com/
or
get the latest Azureus release here:
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/download.php
[...]
Download this .torrent file:
http://www.torrentportal.com/download/766309/48+Hours+Mystery+%28Oct+28%29+Dvix.avi.torrent
If this link is broken because it is too long for your newsreader, then try:
http://tinyurl.com/yb86ac
If you have a bittorrent client set up it should automatically open the torrent file and start downloading the file.
Message ID: ca2e9$454afe7f$d5f566e0$3736@news.chello.fr
Message ID: n91ak2h21fj6u4b3iga4cisu1hjpk7j09m@4ax.com
Message ID: VXf1h.105$Mp2.103@newsfe02.lga
Message ID: 1162226005.761389.306020@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com
Message ID: 1163162356.389783.186490@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com
Message ID: gEz1h.137637$xA6.12105@fe16.usenetserver.com
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Message ID: 1162344659.584504.231690@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com
[Prof. Eileen Barker's role for the cult lobby in Russia]
ARE THERE OBJECTIVE AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NRM?
OR
THE THEORIES OF PROF. EILEEN BARKER
AND HER ROLE IN PROVIDING IDEOLOGICAL GROUNDS
FOR THE CULT LOBBY IN RUSSIA
Prof. Alexander L. Dvorkin, Moscow, Russia
Today we increasingly encounter various shapes and forms of totalitarian and destructive cults. Naturally, there appear more and more specialists, professionally studying this phenomenon and there arise more and more discussions among them as to how these new cults must be researched, what are the goals of these studies, how they should be treated and even what is the proper name for them (and what they must not be called)?
A disinterested observer might conclude that a confrontation exists between two sides: one of them takes a more or less pro-cult position (the other side calls it "cult-defenders" or "the cult lobby") while another - anti-cult (the other side calls it "the anti-cult movement" and its partisans - "anti-cultists").
[...]
We must state with all possible clarity that a united, coordinated, rich and powerful ACM exists only in the imagination of cultists, their PR workers, and the professionals that provide intellectual support for them. I should add that for this last group the image of two fighting fronts: New religious movements (NRM) and an "Anti-cult movement" (ACM) is very handy. This way the so-called "neutral" and "independent" experts turn out to be in the middle, as the impartial side not directly involved in the confrontation, and thus having a moral right to dismiss the "extremists'" views and arguments.
The widely spread opinion that the sociologists of religion take a pro-cult position while the theologians are anti-cult, is not very accurate as well. Indeed, a number of sociologists of religion familiar with this topic are doing PR work for the cults. However, there are quite a few of their colleagues who consider totalitarian cults a serious danger for both the individual and society. On the other hand there are a number of very liberal and not very liberal theologians who claim the need for dialogue and cooperation with NRM's and proclaim that everything must be guided by tolerance and love.
In my country, the cults have been actively working, developing and spreading for over fifteen years, and the debates on the topic within Russia are very close to those elsewhere. Nonetheless, we have our own specific characteristics. The concerned parents committees, which have appeared spontaneously, are much disorganized and still for the most part have not been able to develop beyond the stage of formation, though there are some very valuable individuals in them who do some very good work.
The role of pro-cult sociologists of religion is taken in Russia by former communist professional anti-religion propagandists. After the fall of communism, they lost their well-paid sinecures. After looking for new jobs a lot of them realized that the newly arriving cults would pay well and offered their services to them. Now they call themselves "ex-perts-religious scholars". During the last few years though, there have begun to appear some young and newly made sociologists of religion actively propagating their "progressive" methodology. Many former professional dissidents human rights activists having also lost their raison d'ętre in the post Soviet period, have now decided that they must defend the rights of small and defenseless "religious minorities" suffering terrible persecution and discrimination at the hands of an aggressive majority. Perhaps, the most well known of them, the Moscow Helsinki group, as it was proven several times, has been subsidized by Scientology.
As for the lawyers specializing in the area of cults, there are very few of them and in fact, the most well known of them are those who represent the cults in various proceedings. Some of them are tightly connected to Scientology, while others are at least partially funded by the State Department of the USA (the best known of these is the Slavic Center of Law and Justice). Of course, both groups do receive income from many sources, both cultic, and pro-cultic.
The majority of psychiatrists still know next to nothing about this problem while those who are knowledgeable are divided into two groups: one that studies the phenomenon of mind control and tries to help its victims, and the other that has incorporated itself into the Independent Psychiatric Association closely connected with the very same former dissidents-human rights activists and being at least partially subsidized by the cults.
As for the theologians, they are divided as well - the liberals tend to defend the cults while conservatives tend to fight against them. But one unifying factor is that all sections of not very numerous but very vocal, Russian cult-defending lobby cites Eileen Barker, now retied Professor of the London School of Economics, while many of its members consider her their teacher.
Prof. Barker is no stranger to Russia. I have seen her at least three times in my country. The first time I encountered her was in 1994 in the Moscow Parliamentary Center at the State Duma hearings dedicated to proposed amendments to the law on religious freedom. She was brought to the gathering by the Moonies, and in fact, as I've learned later, they paid for her trip to Moscow , though answering the direct question of Rev. Thomas Gandow, she blatantly lied, saying that her expenses were met by the Duma .
Her second trip (1996) was most likely paid for by Scientologists, Moonies and Hare Krishnas, which together with several other cults were then in the process of suing me in Moscow under the auspices of a former dissidents' human rights group Mrs Barker has offered a testimony in court on their behalf. That court performance of the greatest NRM specialist in the world became rather famous. When asked directly whether one person can belong at the same time to Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Scientologist, Moonies, Hare Krishnas, Boston Church of Christ, the Family, as well as dozen other cults (that was a claim of one of the human rights dissidents who tried by claiming his belonging to all the cults to remain part of the process) she answered affirmatively.
[...]
So again, we see the same intention: Mrs Barker on one hand tries to divide the anti-cult forces between themselves (and thus to conquer). On the other hand, she is ready to admit that some pro-NRM groups might be unobjective (she calls them cult-defenders), and by doing it, separates them from herself and her colleagues whom she places in the middle, thus once again stressing their impeccable objectivity and impartiality.
[...]
We cannot but mention a glaring inconsistency in Barker's position, who simultaneously presents two completely different views of the current situation. On the one hand, she writes about the powerful anticult movement backed by huge amounts of money and poor and vulnerable sociologists of religion reviled and persecuted by all, ignored by hostile sensationalist media, disregarded by courts, and frowned upon by governments. In other words, there is a powerful world conspiracy against those impeccably honest and crystal-clearly objective sociologists of religion who, though suffering from loneliness and general misunderstandings, continue to fulfill their lofty calling, remaining faithful to their meta-values. On the other hand, she cannot abstain from bragging that her INFORM receives Government grants (and anticultists do not!), that anticultists' witness has not been taken into consideration by various courts, unlike witness offered by her and her colleagues, and that (according to her) the ACM has been increasingly marginalized while the sociologists of religion are on the rise. Then again, she reverts to the former version and complains about government support of ACM and its huge subsidies (naturally without getting too specific) and tactfully keeps silence about the really powerful support offered to the cults and to cult lobby by the State Department of the USA. The representatives of the cult lobby - friends and colleagues of Mrs Barker can often be found at US Congress hearings, while I do not remember any person, holding anticult positions who has been invited to such hearings during let's say the last 15 years.
[...]
Prof. Alexander L. Dvorkin
Center of Religious Studies
Ozernaya st 42, office 428 Moscow 119361 Russia
Tel./Fax: [telephone number]
Message ID: vedck25fmtbueg5rr4t289prk4rl2jmio4@4ax.com
http://cbs2.com/local/local_story_304151027.html
Belgian Man To Pay For Obstructing Federal Probe
(CBS) LOS ANGELES A Los Angeles federal judge has ordered a Belgian man to pay $430,000 in restitution for conspiring to obstruct a federal probe into an investment con run by imprisoned ex-Internet entrepreneur Reed Slatkin.
In pleading guilty Monday, Didier Waroquiers admitted he pretended to be a European investment official in phone calls with Securities and Exchange Commission investigators, during which he claimed that the money Slatkin's victims invested was being held overseas.
U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow found that Waroquiers was paid about $400,000 for helping Slatkin, who pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges stemming from the Ponzi scheme involving his Santa Barbara-based investment firm.
Slatkin, who co-founded the Internet provider Earthlink years before, was sentenced in September 2003 to 14 years in federal prison.
[...]
--
"Roger Gonnet" posted:
here the intervention of that other scientologist defrauder who helped slatkin:
From ars late today... athena gold, the cult and the VSE...these are all hundred million dollar deals. and more names for you to check out... a web with the cult and 'ex' US intelligence agents.
[...]
This article contains interesting info on Robert Duggan.. Slatkin's 'mentor'.
[ http://www.slatkinfraud.com/articles/stockwatch_3_28_02.htm?now=42480&tref=1 ]
Athena Gold ex-backer Slatkin pleads guilty in massive Ponzi scheme
Shares issued 12,690,238 Mar 28 2002 close $.020
Thursday Mar 28 2002 Street Wire
by Brent Mudry
Controversial EarthLink co-founder Reed Slatkin, a prominent Scientologist minister and stock promoter, has pled guilty to 15 felony counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to obstruct justice during an investigation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Slatkin, 53, of Santa Barbara, Calif., is expected to face 12 years to 15 years in jail under federal sentencing guidelines. Mr. Slatkin's $593-million Ponzi scheme, an unregistered investment management operation he ran since 1985, collapsed last spring. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)
In a plea agreement filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Mr. Slatkin agreed to surrender into federal custody at his arraignment next month. In what U.S. officials call one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history, Mr. Slatkin preyed on the rich and famous, luring and conning numerous Hollywood stars and producers, dot-com executives and high-society types.
(Mr. Slatkin got his start in disastrous investing on Howe Street, the centre of dealings on the former Vancouver Stock Exchange. He was a private-placement investor in Athena Gold Corp. in 1991, when the VSE company was being actively boosted by fellow Scientologists Michael Baybak and Kenneth Gerbino. Athena was subsequently acquired by Vancouver promoter Wally Berukoff's Miramar Mining Corp. in 1995.)
(U.S. officials make no allegations regarding Mr. Slatkin's dealings on the VSE; nor is any connection to Mr. Baybak, Mr. Gerbino or Mr. Berukoff suggested. Mr. Baybak filed a libel suit against Time magazine over an unflattering May 6, 1991, eight-page cover feature profiling the Church of Scientology, which included a sidebar story featuring the Athena Gold promotion of Mr. Baybak and Mr. Gerbino.)
Among Mr. Slatkin's 500-plus victims were actor Giovanni Ribisi, who starred as a sleazy broker in the film Boiler Room, and Hollywood producer Armyan Bernstein, who arranged for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kevin Costner to star in a video for the master fraudster's 50th birthday celebration. Others did better. Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren, who recently defected from CNN as a longtime anchor and legal commentator, was paid out $659,000 more than the $2.07-million she and her husband John Coale invested with Mr. Slatkin. Although Mr. Slatkin is the only target to date, court filings name several unindicted co-conspirators, including his long-time bookkeeper Jean Marie Janu, convicted felon, fellow Scientologist and former Grateful Dead manager Ronald Rakow, Dan Jacobs and ---Didier Waroquiers,--- alias Michel Axiall. In his agreed statement of facts, Mr. Slatkin confirms the four helped him deceive initially SEC investigators by papering over and covering up the massive fraud.
Burned investors have blamed the SEC, which began an informal investigation of Mr. Slatkin in 1997 and launched a formal investigation in 1999, for doing too little too late. In 2000, Mr. Slatkin lied to investigators under oath, telling them, "The process of liquidating accounts is now in full swing" and "I am not accepting any new accounts or any new money from existing accounts." In reality, this was his best year ever. Between Jan. 1, 2000, and May 1, 2001, the day he filed for bankruptcy, Mr. Slatkin took in $135-million from investors. Within days of the bankruptcy filing, FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents raided Mr. Slatkin's homes and businesses, and his Ponzi scheme ground to a halt.
The SEC belatedly moved in on May 11, 2001, launching a civil prosecution of Mr. Slatkin and winning a broad freeze on his worldwide assets. Last June, Mr. Slatkin agreed to refrain from future securities violations and in a consent settlement finalized on Jan. 2, he was banned from any association with any investment adviser. The SEC has not yet reached settlements on fines or disgorgement orders against Mr. Slatkin.
Mr. Slatkin's reputation as an investment guru was largely based on his only significant win, after EarthLink founder Kevin O'Donnell convinced him to invest as a major seed shareholder in 1994. Mr. Slatkin resigned from the board of EarthLink, the second largest Internet service provider in the U.S., on April 26, 2001, and the company has dissociated itself from him. The Scientologist's investment empire was little more than a massive Ponzi scheme. By the end of 2000, Mr. Slatkin would have required an estimated $130-million annually to keep his hypothetical investment structure from collapsing.
"Slatkin appears to have conceived and nurtured a perception or aura that he was a financial wunderkind who graciously bestowed his investment wisdom upon an exclusive and dutifully grateful constituency. In actuality, Slatkin conceived, executed and perpetrated a massive multiyear fraud on his investors, using funds from new investors to pay inflated and false returns to other and older investors, while wasting tens of millions of dollars on ill-conceived and disastrous investments and paying staggering sums to certain associates and consultants," states trustee Todd Neilson in a bankruptcy court filing.
Investigators trace Mr. Slatkin's entree into the investment world to about 1979, four years after he was ordained a minister of L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology in 1975.
"In about 1979-1980, Slatkin met Robert F. Duggan, a fellow Scientologist, who Slatkin describes as 'a successful professional investor, primarily in the stock market,'" states Mr. Neilson in a recent trustee's report. Mr. Duggan provided rudimentary investment training to Mr. Slatkin, who had no prior formal training in either investments or money management. "During this period, Duggan began to teach Slatkin about the stock market and the process of analyzing companies as potential investments."
According to Stockwatch records, Mr. Duggan arrived on Howe Street around the same time as fellow Scientologist Mr. Baybak, who remains an active player in the market. Both invested in a private placement financing of immigrant-investor-fund promoter Steven Funk's First Generation Resources Ltd. in August, 1985, along with budding pennystock promoter and former drug peddler Robert Friedland. (Earlier that year, in March, Mr. Baybak invested in Mr. Friedland's then flagship Galactic Resources Ltd., which later left U.S. taxpayers paying most of the tab for the massive cyanide pollution Superfund clean up at its disastrous Summitville mine in Colorado.)
Mr. Duggan and Mr. Baybak also concurrently invested in two other Howe Street promotions in 1986: Trian Equities Ltd. that February and Medallion Books Ltd. that December. Scientologist Mr. Duggan served a stint on Trian's board.
Mr. Friedland participated in the same Medallion financing, along with Vancouver businessman Grant Woodward "Woodie" MacLaren, who also joined the boards of Mr. Funk's First Generation and Medallion. (There is no suggestion that Mr. Funk, Mr. Friedland or Mr. MacLaren, the former chief executive of Woodward's Stores Ltd., the now defunct Western Canadian department store chain, had any dabblings in Scientology.)
After his introduction and training by Mr. Duggan, Mr. Slatkin soon became immersed in the market.
In 1984, Mr. Slatkin made the transition from working as a full-time ordained Scientologist minister to becoming a professional, although unregistered, self-employed investment manager. According to the trustee, Scientology had "permeated almost every aspect" of Mr. Slatkin's life, and his fellow Scientologists provided ripe prey from day one. Mr. Slatkin testified he made investments for these "friends," "to help Scientologists who have their attention away from their money and they're helping the church."
In 1985, in his fledgling year as an investment pro, Mr. Slatkin met Mr. Rakow and Chris Mancuso, who invested money with him. This was a fateful year for the pair. Mr. Rakow and Mr. Mancuso were promoters and key players in Culture Farms, an $80-million yoghurt culture Ponzi scheme, under criminal investigation. Later that year both Mr. Rakow and Mr. Mancuso were convicted and sent to jail. According to one published account from a former Slatkin associate, the Scientologist minister said he cried all the way when he drove Mr. Rakow to jail. (This sounds a bit odd, as corrections officials usually prefer to have men with badges, not friends, drive convicts to jail.)
By Mr. Slatkin's own estimate, he was managing about $7-million or $8-million by late 1986 for his "friends." Red flags were soon apparent.
In February, 1988, Mr. Slatkin and Richard Levine, a Prudential-Bache broker, negotiated to buy a 25-per-cent stake in Statistical Sciences Inc., an investment advisory firm registered with the SEC. SSI's due diligence included an independent auditor's attempt to verify Mr. Slatkin's claims of trading results of 40 to 50 per cent. "The audit ultimately concluded that Slatkin's statements and trading records were not correct and Slatkin admitted to falsifying those records," states a trustee's report.
Mr. Slatkin also had a business relationship from 1986 to 1990 with Patrick Gallagher, a commodities broker licensed with the Chicago Board of Trade. The pair had an ugly falling out and Mr. Gallagher's attorney had ominous comments in legal correspondence. "We are fearful that a comprehensive review of certain trading and account activity may reveal unsavory characteristics of a scabrous nature involving, among other things, irregularities with regards to the exchange rules and conduct, which, under closer scrutiny, may subject one to prosecution by various government agencies."
A year later, in 1991, Mr. Slatkin made his first documented official foray on Howe Street. (He likely was involved in the Vancouver market earlier with Mr. Duggan.)
That year, Mr. Slatkin made a private placement investment in Athena Gold, a Vancouver gold promotion which attracted fellow Scientologists Mr. Baybak and Mr. Gerbino a few years earlier. (Mr. Baybak became a director of Athena in 1987 and Mr. Gerbino joined the board in 1988.) Mr. Slatkin's Athena investment came four months after Time magazine's unflattering cover feature on the Church of Scientology, which highlighted the promotion of Athena by Mr. Baybak and Mr. Gerbino.
Mr. Slatkin subsequently rose to prominence in the Scientology community, boosted by his lucky 1994 investment in EarthLink.
[...]
(c) Copyright 2002 Canjex Publishing Ltd.
http://www.canada-stockwatch.com
Message ID: 3hhfk2t2gme8gnu4t4vps7b3pav38drlk8@4ax.com
Message ID: b9e91$4548597d$d5f566e0$30799@news.chello.fr
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an anti-psychiatry hate group run by the Church of Scientology, will not be allowed to put on its touring exhibit, "Psychiatry: Industry of Death", at Howard University next month. Located in Washington, DC, Howard is one of the nation's leading historically black colleges.
The exhibit had been scheduled for November 20-26 at the Armour J. Blackburn Center on Howard's campus. Although the university was only renting space to CCHR, not co-sponsoring the exhibit as CCHR had falsely claimed(1), university administrators realized that providing a forum for CCHR's outrageous distortions and hateful propaganda would be a disservice to their students. If CCHR is to be believed, the Howard University Medical School Department of Psychiatry -- like all departments of psychiatry -- is a haven for drug pushers in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry, and cruel sadists who torture patients with lobotomies and electric shocks. CCHR's outrageous misrepresentations, which libel medical professionals and discourage students from seeking mental health services, have no place on a university campus.
(1) see http://waterbug.typepad.com/waterbug/2006/10/psychiatry_an_i.ht
Dave Touretzky: "This is your brain on Scientology."
http://PerkinsTragedy.org
--
"Simkatu" wrote:
WOOHOO!
I was one of those people here that immediately sent letters to the Howard University administration and their medical school administration asking them if they knew that CCHR was promoting their exhibit as a joint project with Howard U.
I can't claim credit for the cancellation, but I'm sure all our letters helped bring some interest to this issue to people that matter at Howard. Nobody wants to be associated with the criminal cult of Scientology.
Surprisingly, the administration was not ever informed that is was going to be listed as a sponsor of this event. They were might angry that Scientology misrepresented Howard's role in the show.
Lying is a sacrament in the Church of Scientology.
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"Android Cat" wrote:
[CCHR tries to Memory Hole their mistake! Was: Howard University cancels CCHR hate exhibit]
The link got trimmed. It was
http://waterbug.typepad.com/waterbug/2006/10/psychiatry_an_i.html but that
page seems to have been mysteriously vaporized.
Here's what's left of October's listings:
http://waterbug.typepad.com/waterbug/2006/10/index.html
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"JAFAW" wrote:
A screenshot of the CCHR poster from your google cache link complete with the sponsor footbullet can be accessed here in case anyone needs to use it for an article.....
http://img270.imageshack.us/img270/7262/cchrfootbulletjj9.jpg
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"Simkatu" wrote:
The respected Howard University cancelled the CCHR anti-psychiatry extremist's hate museum.
Now they are covering up their huge lie that Howard U. was a co-sponsor of the event.
Is this what an "ethical" group does when confronted with their dishonest words?
Lying is a sacrament in the Church of Scientology.
Message ID: 4547f37a$1@news2.lightlink.com
Message ID: 1162345401.042540.8060@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com
Message ID: 17c84$454812bd$cf7027ee$15190@PRIMUS.CA
Message ID: leV1h.73820$6C2.61677@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net
Message ID: 1163053119.548266.16220@f16g2000cwb.googlegroups.com
Friday I was called by a resident of my apartment complex. The person got something in the mail about me and wanted me to see it. When I went over and looked at it, it was a 3-page flyer from religiousfreedomwatch.org. It was addressed to "occupant."
http://www.lisamcpherson.org/scans/rfw_libel_sm.pdf
I had the thought to check the trash near the mail boxes for the apartment, and sure enough there were several in there. This suggests to me that RFW mailed a flyer to every apartment in the complex, (except mine) and maybe around the neighborhood for all I know. Some things about the flyer might confuse the recipients. The photos of me are when I was picketing in LA dressed up like a doctor. Also, there is no mention of where I live, so for all my fellow complex dwellers know, I could be living in Clearwater, Florida!
The new information about me from my time working at a mental hospital I haven't seen before. I'm debating how to respond to this libel, so I'm getting advice from Scientology experts and then from legal experts. And this is not the first time Scientology has leafleted a critic's neighborhood...
http://www.lisamcpherson.org/flyers.htm
--
"Arnaldo Lerma" posted:
Watch ex-osa member frank Oliver's description of Hubbard's policy as interpreted by a goofball named David Miscavige as "Shooting ducks in a barrel"
http://www.lermanet.com/persecution/
and here's an archive with pictures of the perpetrator flyering my neighborhood.
http://ocmb.lermanet.us/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=67
Message ID: 1162430488.925506.118420@k70g2000cwa.googlegroups.com
Message ID: d1nik25j7mhb8opocdb0ma1lugmh1m0mlo@4ax.com
As an English magistrate commented after hearing expert testimony on Coercive Persuasion, "Aren't you in essence really just describing the best con game yet to be designed?"
http://www.lermanet.com/exit/confusion-technique.htm
This is essential reading for anyone trying to wake up a Scientologist to see what was done to them.
[...]
Message ID: rlaik291k602irlp98dt0r50pmktrrtluc@4ax.com
[Here is a letter I sent out and the response]
Dear Ms. Schaefer,
I fear that the Church of Scientology may be using you for their purposes.
I participate in a newsgroup that discusses the Church of Scientology (mostly critical) and one of its front groups CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights.) It would appear that both bills SB 430 and SR 128 are very much being watched by them. I know this because posts are being made regarding those two bills by typical scientology spam found here:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/browse_frm/thread/aa3991b5b38c0f08/ce555cebeba4a8e8?lnk=gst&q=430&rnum=1#ce555cebeba4a8e8 [long link]
Why "psychs" are evil according to Church of Scientology, CCHR, Narconon and an assortment of other scientology front groups:
HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex
HCO BULLETIN OF 6 MAY 1982
Remimeo
THE CAUSE OF CRIME
They say poverty makes crime. They say if one improved education there would be less crime. They say if one cured the lot of the underprivileged one would have solved crime. All these "remedies" have proven blatantly false.
In very poor countries there is little crime. The "improving" education, it was tailored to "social reform," not teaching skills. And it is a total failure. The fact that rewarding the underprivileged has simply wrecked schools and neighborhoods and cost billions is missing.
So who is "they"? The psychologist and psychiatrist of course. These were their crackpot remedies for crime. And it's wrecked a civilization. So what IS the cause of crime? The treatment of course! Electric shocks, behavior modification, abuse of the soul. These are the causes of crime. There would be no criminals at all if the psychs had not begun to oppress beings into vengeance against society.
There's only one remedy for crime -- get rid of the psychs! They are causing it!
Ah yes, it's true on cases and cases of research on criminals. And what's it all go back to? The psychs!
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/browse_frm/thread/e2f1eda510c0bcf8/578984f66b711300?lnk=gst&q=cause+of+crime&rnum=1#578984f66b711300 [long link]
To give background additional background, while Tom Cruise states that one can be a Catholic (or any other religion) and a scientologist is simple not true based on this:
["Do not engage in any rite, ceremony, practice, exercise, meditation, diet, food therapy or any similar occult, mystical, religious, naturopathic, homeopathic, chiropractic treatment or any other healing or mental therapy while on course without the express permission of the D of T, Case Supervisor and Ethics Officer." -L. Ron Hubbard, HCOPL 15 Dec. 1976R. Rev 25 July 1987.]
from http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/basics.htm?FACTNet
Now that I have written you, I am subject to the policy of Fair Game by the Church of Scientology if my name were disclosed, so I beg of you my anonymity.
Codified on March 7, 1965, when Hubbard issued titled "Suppressive
Acts: Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists: The Fair Game Law"
Hubbard wrote,
By FAIR GAME is meant, without rights for self, possessions or position, and no Scientologist may be brought before a Committee of Evidence or punished for any action taken against a Suppressive Person or Group during the period that person or group is 'fair game'. A revision of December 23 1965, changed it to read, "By- FAIR GAME is meant, may not be further protected by the codes and disciplines of Scientology or the rights of a Scientologist." As to what was a "suppressive person," Hubbard gave the definition:
A SUPPRESSIVE PERSON or GROUP is one that actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by Suppressive Acts.
SUPPRESSIVE ACTS are acts calculated to impede or destroy Scientology or a Scientologist and which are listed at length in this policy letter. (Caps in original. Some of the suppressive acts listed included "public disavowal of Scientology; public statements against Scientology;" asking for a refund of fees paid; and "writing anti-Scientology letters to the press." Even turning a Scientologist into the proper authorities can gain one the label of a suppressive. The issue also prohibits "1st degree murder, arson, disintegration of persons or belongings not guilty of suppressive acts." (Emphasis added.) In other words, killing suppressive persons or destroying their property promotes Scientology and is therefore ethical within the Scientology belief system.
http://www.ronsorg.nl/scientologychurch/FairGaming.htm#1
Dear Ramona,
Thank you for your email.
I appreciate your warnings.
I am not associated with the Church od Scientology at all.
But I will be more careful.
Thank you,
Nancy Schaefer
Message ID: 1162388897.179349.299370@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com
http://www.carolineletkeman.org/refund/docs/ron-series/ron-the-confidence-man.html
[Quote]
Ron the Sociopath Ron the Confidence Man
I had a dear old lady one time who was perfectly willing to be treated by me up to the moment when she found out I wasn't a chiropractor. And at that moment I was a dog because I had misrepresented myself. Nobody had ever said I was a chiropractor as far as I could find out. So I sold her on the idea that I wasn't a chiropractor, I was a swami, and she bought this okay. She would be treated by a swami. I don't think she had any idea what a swami was, but it was something mysterious.
L. Ron Hubbard
Lecture: Address of Auditor To Preclear - Saturday Evening Course
1 July 1950
See also: Ron the Swami.
http://www.carolineletkeman.org/refund/docs/ron-series/ron-the-swami.html
Google search on www.scientology.org: Confidence
http://tinyurl.com/y26pex
I didn't know anybody in the whole world had a black field. The total innocence with which I engaged upon Dianetic processing. I actually handled a tremendous number of cases, from 47 to 49, lots of cases, cases, cases, cases and nobody ever walked up that had a black field or an invisible field. [1] They all had a field. They could all see pictures. And some of 'em were afraid of their pictures and some pictures were dim and some pictures were sharp; so I simply educated them to have good pictures, audited 'em and found out later on that I simply gave them tremendous confidence with regard to their pictures, the pictures blew [2] and they didn't have pictures anymore and I had Clears!
L. Ron Hubbard
Lecture: The Clear Defined 29 December 1957
[1] In Dianetics, black or invisible fields are mental image pictures of blackness or invisibility.
[...]
[1] R and C stand for Reality and Communication in Hubbard's philosophic ARC triangle. [More on the ARC triangle.]
http://www.carolineletkeman.org/refund/docs/ron-series/ron-the-magus-26.html
[2] Auditors project emotional tones that elicit compliance and control in their subjects.
According to early axioms, the single source of aberration is time. Therefore any system which further confuses or overwhelms the preclear's sense of time will not be beneficial.
Thus the first task of the student of engram running is to master the handling of time on the preclear's time track. It must be handled without question, uncertainty or confusion.
Failing to handle the time in the pc's time track with confidence, certainty and without error will result in grouping or denying the time track to the pc.
L. Ron Hubbard
HCOB 8 June 1963 The Time Track And Engram Running By Chains Bulletin
2 Handling the Time Track
[...]
From Black's Law Dictionary: Confidence;confidence game
[Quote]
Confidence. Trust; reliance; relation of trust. Reliance on discretion of another. In the construction of wills, this word is considered peculiarly appropriate to create a trust.
Confidence game. Obtaining of money or property by means of some trick, device, or swindling operation in which advantage is taken of the confidence which the victim reposes in the swindler. The elements of the crime of "confidence game" are: (1) an intentional false representation to the victim as to some present fact, (2) knowing it to be false, (3) with intent that the victim rely on the representation, (4) the representation being made to obtain the victim's confidence and thereafter his money and property, (5) which confidence is then abused by defendant. U. S. v. Brown, D.C.App., 309 A.2d 256, 257.
[End Quote]
Every Scientology auditor is an active participant in the Scientology confidence game.
Gerry Armstrong
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org
Message ID: 6p7ak29p7k6qhb02kabrk2ipq7ssti5oui@4ax.com
Scientologists have rock group in their sights
The Church of Scientology has moved to silence a Scottish rock group who have helped lift the lid on the secrets of their beliefs. In a song entitled 'Message from Xenu', 'The Truth Rockets' detail the bizarre belief system of the religion based on the writings of L Ron Hubbard. Scientologists believe the 'Xenu' referenced in the title of the song was an ancient intergalactic overlord responsible for the murder of trillions and is still held in a prison on another planet. The Church keeps these beliefs secret from the public, it is thought in an effort not to put off new recruits. Hollywood star Tom Cruise is perhaps the most famous follower of scientology and 'Message from Xenu' takes the form of a fictitious message that Xenu has escaped and is coming to 'get' him and 'all the other scientologists'.
It is thought that The Church of Scientology first became aware of The Truth Rockets after news of their song surfaced in June of this year. It was widely reported across the internet that after hearing 'Message from Xenu' Tom Cruise had hired extra body guards 'just in case'. The Church is famously litigious and in 2002 succeeded in having anti-scientology web sites de-listed from Google. They are demanding that The Truth Rockets remove the song from their album or replace the lyrics with new ones deemed inoffensive to Scientology. A source close to The Truth Rockets said that they were laying low and pondering their next move.
More information can be found at The Truth Rockets' website,
www.thetruthrockets.net and at 'Operation Clambake', www.xenu.net
--
"Hartley Patterson" wrote:
Their blog at MySpace has the whole song.
http://www.myspace.com/thetruthrockets
Message ID: Xns986EA22CF76F3gospel@194.117.143.38
Message ID: MPG.1fb2fabb842be3cd989913@news.thundernews.com
A.r.s. Week in Review is compiled by anonymous critics of CoS for your benefit. This collection is organised for WWW by Andreas Heldal-Lund.
