Germany
A Scientology press release on October 25th announced a German tax court ruling that two Scientology organizations will be granted tax exempt status. "The German Federal Tax Court in Cologne has ruled that two Church of Scientology corporations headquartered in Los Angeles are exempt from tax in Germany. T he court overturned the German federal tax office's May 1996 denial of their exemption applications. The Court found in favor of Scientology Missions International and the International Hubbard Ecclesiastical League of Pastors, both of which had filed a 1996 lawsuit against the Bundesamt Fuer Finanzen (Federal Finance Office) in Cologne. "The Court held that SMI and IHELP are eligible for relief under the Treaty because in 1993 the U.S. Internal Revenue Service had recognized them as tax-exempt, religious and charitable organizations. The Court specifically ruled that, under the Treaty, it was inappropriate for the Federal Finance Office to ignore or seek to contradict the IRS exemption rulings." Agence France Press reported on November 1st that a German labor court has ruled against former Scientologists attempting to get back pay for their work on staff. "The Erfurt Federal Labor Court dismissed the claim of a former Scientology volunteer staff member for back pay. Because he had had other options with which to influence the destiny of the organization, a labor relationship did not exist, according to the decision that has just been released. The complainant had worked in Scientology from 1984 to 1997, and his career ranged from a simple street missionary to a department head of the organization. He earned the money he needed to live by augmenting his 75-100 euro/month Scientology pay with a real job. After a difference of opinion with Scientology management in 1997, he left and demanded back pay and damages for a total of 335,000 Euros. "According to the court, the complainant could not be categorized as a regular employee. He did his work for free, besides which he had a voting right in the membership body and even influenced the destiny of the association by having a management position. While doing all this he pursued his own goals as a member of the organization. It did the complainant no good to say that he had been exploited. The court explained that it was not the court's job 'to solve all cases of real or imagined exploitation.'" Message-ID: 20021028174649.21479.00001053@mb-ck.aol.com Message-ID: Pine.LNX.3.96.1021102091605.113C-100000@darkstar.zippy
IAS
"Cerridwen" reported events from the 18th annual event of the International Association of Scientologists. "The event was held last weekend in the Great Hall at Saint Hill, in the UK. The local orgs all had the IAS event this week and it was shown in a video format. The event started with a video showing an empty wooded area, and the IAS theme music playing. Nine guys dress like knights from King Arthur's Court all on horseback come riding through the wooded area. The lead knight is on a white horse and is carrying the IAS torch. The others are riding behind him 4 abreast and are carrying flags. "David Miscavige, as always, is the host and is first on stage. He tells us that this is a continuation of the mission briefing that was given to us at the last IAS event because The Wake Up Call was so very effective, and they are going to keep at it. "There is a Scientology actress, Erika Christensen, that played the drug-addicted daughter of the head of the DEA in a movie called Traffic. Erika was brought up in Scientology, and to study for her role as a drug addict she spent time at Narconon. She is obviously now an expert in that area and was invited to speak at some event in Washington DC. After the DC event she met with the Head of the DEA and he thought she was so great that he put her on his advisory board to advise him on handling the drug problem in this country. "DM announced that Bennetta Slaughter OT 8, former boss of Lisa McPherson is now the ED of Applied Scholastics International. Bennetta then recruited six OT 7's and they are now in St. Louis at the New ASI Int Headquarters at Spanish Lake. They are working on the renovations of their new world headquarters where teachers from all over the world will come and study LRH study tech. The US government provided an all expenses paid trip to Bennetta and her staff to go to Washington DC to meet with US Dept. of Education officials. The US Dept. of Education was so impressed with the LRH solutions to education that Bennetta was put on the Advisory Board for handling education in the US. "The next speaker was Heber Jentzsch. He spoke about the evil Psychs. And it appears that Psyches are no longer just evil Psychs. Nope, they are now PSYCH TERRORISTS! He reported on some Highest Ever stats such as highest ever psych hospitals closed and Highest Ever psychs sent to jail. There will be the new traveling CCHR Exhibit called 'PSYCHIATRY KILLS!' This new exhibit is a replica of the one at CCHR Int and per Heber it is quite effective in educating people about the psych terrorists. "Next up was Mike Rinder. He talked all about Human Rights and the new Office of Human Rights International that is being set up right now in Brussels They did a video walk through of what it was going to look like and how they would be spearheading Human Rights in Europe. Rinder also talked about the Human Rights marathon that goes on it Europe and how effective it is. He also said the US State Department released their reports a few weeks ago on Human Rights in each country and they took France and Germany to task for the way they treated Scientology. There is a new Scientology web site and one is supposed to be able to go there and download their new Human Rights booklets. "Next was ED Int, Guillome Lesevre. There are now 20,000 VM's. Now he can't be talking about the VM's that completed the entire VM course and are now listed on the VM web site, cause there is not anywhere near 20,000 of them. The new campaign has purchased 6 big trucks that look like 20-foot tractor-trailers. These 6 trunks, their staff and content comprise the new Volunteer Minister Cavalcade! The trucks go to major cities in Europe and they set up these 3 huge tents that comprise an area of 3000 square feet. They cavalcade will be staffed with the local Volunteer Ministers who will give assists, seminars, tests and reg the public that enter them. The plan is that the visitor buys one of the VM booklets designed to handle a specific ruin and then gets instant hatted on how to use this piece of tech and then LEAVES A NEW VOLUNTEER MINISTER!" Message-ID: T5SCB6IY37556.7112962963@anonymous.poster
Narconon
The Battle Creek Enquirer reported on October 30th on the progress of a new Narconon center in Michigan. "A drug rehabilitation center is nearing completion and should be ready for patients before the end of the year. More than $400,000 has been spent to to renovate the Narconon Stone Hawk Rehabilitation Center on St. Mary's Lake. Renovations should be completed in time to begin accepting patients in December and a grand opening tentatively is planned for June, said Wickstrom, whose husband, Per, is the center's president. "While making the lobby more aesthetically pleasing was clearly a labor of love for Wickstrom, many other projects simply were labor intensive. The building, which has been vacant for about three years, never was winterized and a number of pipes cracked when the water inside froze, Kate Wickstrom said. Work is progressing at a good clip despite the plumbing problems and has not been too difficult, said Rick Phelps, the construction foreman for the Stone Hawk renovations with Battle Creek's Ganka's Construction Co. "Nearly every inch of the 58,000-square-foot building is being renovated in one way or another, including the dorm areas for patients, the dining room, an activities room and the basement is being completely updated to house saunas and showers. The Stone Hawk center will follow a strict regiment of classes, proper eating habits and the use of saunas as laid out by author L. Ron Hubbard in his book 'Clear Body, Clear Mind.' It will be one of about a dozen Narconon centers in the United States. "Wickstrom plans to get involved in community groups focusing on drug abuse and prevention when the facility opens, she said. 'A whole lot is starting to happen out here,' Wickstrom said. 'I just want to see how we can work together. I mean, we're all in it for the same thing - to get people off drugs.'" Message-ID: f758becc.0211011723.30c2e14f@posting.google.com
Russia
EuroCult Report reported on October 28th on the Scientology plan to send Volunteer Ministers to the site of the Moscow theater where militant Chechens had held hundreds of prisoners. "The day prior to the hostages' rescue, Scientologists went to the emergency relief center at the scene of the hostage-taking in Moscow, and made an attempt to blend in with relief efforts. To their credit, they did mention the word 'Dianetics' in their attempt to join the center. This and their eerie behavior alerted the personnel in charge, who were circumspect enough to make inquiries before the self-proclaimed do-gooders were accepted. As a result of the inquiries, they were found out to be Scientologists, and accommodations for them were refused." Message-ID: Pine.LNX.3.96.1021028130133.114A-100000@darkstar.zippy
Vivien Lutz
Bild magazine reported that former Scientologist Vivien Lutz has received a settlement with her parents for 35,000 Euros. Vivien was sent to Scientology's Sea Org in Saint Hill as a minor. "Vivien Krogmann Lutz, a 23 year old German girl, sued her parents for, amongst other things, sending her to Saint Hill and ruining her health. The parents, accompanied by Scientology lawyers, agreed to pay Vivien 35,000 Euros. This decision to settle came after the judge ruled against Scientology requests for gag orders on both Vivien and Ursula Caberta, whom Vivien escaped to when finally fleeing her parents. "When Vivien was 13 years old, her parents delivered the girl in London, one of the European centers of Scientology sect, and drove back to Germany. 'I cried the first 14 days long only. Worst for me was that people spoke nearly everything in English. Like all the other children, I had to perform heavy manual labor.' "Medical appraisals certified lasting orthopedic damage to the young woman. 'If I had not implemented correctly work in the opinion of the Aufpasser, I was punished,' reports Vivien. 'I was separated from the other children, and had to eat remainders.' Vivien was not allowed to go to the school at Saint Hill. Instead the girl had to study the books of Scientology sect founder Ron Hubbard." Message-ID: GMXQGJO637560.6832175926@Gilgamesh-frog.org
A.r.s. Week in Review is put together by Rod Keller ©
This collection is organised for WWW by Andreas Heldal-Lund.
Only edits done by me is replacing word encapsuled in * or _ with bold and underscore, and made links into HTML.
