Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review Volume 0, Issue 4 05/13/95 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
A.r.s Protests
A.r.s contributors held protests outside cos org buildings in Houston,
Boston, Mesa, AZ and Denver. They were protesting attacks by the church on
the newsgroup and individuals such as Dennis Erlich.
Highlights from Houston:
"We were explaining our purposes when some 50ish guy in a shirt and tie comes out and tells us we have to leave. We kind of ignore him and I run through the reasons for our being there once again. He demands to know who our organization is. "The internet community" we answer. He did not understand this and repeated this question several times. There is a certain amount of misunderstanding here. He and the others simply could not understand the concept of spontaneously organized action not organized by a hierarchal organization with leaders to give orders. But they had fun using their ridiculous tone 40 voices of command."
From Boston:
"Another CoS member we enjoyed meeting was a very attractive, dark-haired woman named Mary, who confessed that she knew little about computers or the Internet but was quite interested in learning more. One of us protesters was wearing a button reading "Have You Hugged A Marcabian Today?"; Mary immediately gave her a warm hug, which endeared Mary to all of us."
From Mesa:
"A few Scientologists stood in the doorway of the center and watched us for a while. They then decided to put a boombox in front of the door and play us a few Scientology songs by the Golden Musicians. ... I believe one of the songs may have featured some singing by Hubbard himself. They later told us this was to let us know they weren't angry with us.
"A blue car with two passengers pulled into the parking lot across the street and drove slowly past our cars, then shortly thereafter turned around and parked. The passenger, who Jeff recognized as one of the PIs who had been near his house earlier this week, videotaped the rest of the protest (probably the last 1.5-2 hours of it)."
From Denver:
"Darlene wrote down both sides of my sign (being relatively friendly about it) and went back inside to report to the higher ups. She came back out and was walking up and down with me (making it look like there were *two* of us) asking me questions about what the heck motivates net.people to come out into the real world. About 20 minutes after I started, a local print reporter who just happened to be out that morning spotted me and sign and came to a rapid stop, grabbed his camera and came back. This induced Darlene to give up and go back inside. He was amazed to come across a story like this, and sopped up a tape and a half of a recorder about what has been going on in a.r.s and other places with respect to CoS."
Message-IDs:
<3ohh65$a0k@decaxp.harvard.edu>:
<3ogtpb$ji8@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM>:
<3ohhtg$kms@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>:
<RAOUL.95May7013817@vongole.mit.edu>:
<3ohql6$g6@news.primenet.com>:
<hkhensonD88v4C.1AG@netcom.com>:
<3ohjdi$e0h@news4.primenet.com>:
"I refer to the numerous threatening phone calls that have occurred over the past 6 months and which have been reported to Telecom and the police to trace. In the last few weeks, I have had one of your associates tell me that my Church is under surveillance from neighbouring buildings and that he has taken secret photos of members leaving the Church, that a female executive of the Church is being monitored and that he is keeping tabs on the location of other executives. This person also warned me that he intends to see the Church destroyed (note he always says 'we' indicating a group of persons); that he wants to see us in court; that he is writing a book on the Church and we had better watch out."
Message-ID:
<3ol59q$eos@inferno.mpx.com.au>:
"You asked for a chart of enemy lines used up to this point for CW [Clearwater, Florida] attack after research of the files was done. Attached is this chart. It looks complete to me. From this I see the areas of priority to infiltrate are:
1. SPT [St. Petersburg Times]
2. Mayor
3. Channel 13 TV
4. Snyder [TV commentator?]
5. Florida Attorney General
6. Florida State Attorney (Russell)"
Message-ID:
<3outss$ft7@news.primenet.com>:
Gauntlet, Inc.,
Dept. SUB9A,
309 Powell Rd.
Springfield, PA 19064
Message-ID:
<3ol1vs$c84@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>:
"He spoke for ten minutes, did not identify his employer (duh!), and made statements like: 'Grady is the president of ACW, isn't he?' [No] 'Did you know the FBI investigated Grady for his involvement with the NuPrometheus League [a group claiming responsibility for stealing and distributing Apple Computer Macintosh ROM code in June, 1989].' 'The FBI knew he did it because Grady was the only one fired [a provable lie!] from Apple in 1989.'
"Ingram then begin to pump for financial information, such as 'Does he make more than $10,000 in royalties [per annum, presumably] from MobyCrypto? Moby Lexicons? No? How about $5,000?'"
Message-ID:
<gradyD8A7r5.JIp@netcom.com>:
"What appellant did to him during and after his years in Scientology aggravated Wollersheim's mental condition, driving him into deep depressive episodes and causing him severe mental anguish. Furthermore, Scientology engaged in a practice of retribution and threatened retribution -- often called "fair game" -- against members who left or otherwise posed a threat to the organization. This practice coerced Wollersheim into continued participation in the other practices of Scientology which were harming him emotionally.
"Wollersheim attempted to escape from the ship because he felt he 'was dying and losing [his] mind.' His escape was thwarted by Scientology members who seized Wollersheim and held him captive until he agreed to remain and continue with the auditing and other religious practices taking place on the vessel.
"Evidence was introduced that, at least during the time relevant to Wollersheim's case, 'fair game' was a practice of retribution Scientology threatened to inflict on 'suppressives,' which included people who left the organization or anyone who could pose a threat to the organization. Once someone was identified as a 'suppressive,' all Scientologists were authorized to do anything to 'neutralize' that individual -- economically, politically, and psychologically."
Message-ID:
<199505090728.AA25280@xs1.xs4all.nl>:
"In June of 1980 Lauri Wood Shirrel, Doran's daughter, died as a result of suppression from the Mission Office. She was under attack, her Mission was under attack and we raised a considerable fuss about this and were declared PTS type C persons who threatened, sued, or embarrassed or attacked the Church.
"I would at this point say that one of the reasons for the concern of the part old time Scientologists, on the part of the Mission Holders at the meeting was because of some statistics given to us by Gordon Cook by the people in SMI and by Bill Franks. The statistics that were stated and confirmed by Alan Starkey and the CMO when they came to the meeting, was that the Church was spending 3/4 million a month, $750 - $800,000 a month in Lawyer's fees.
"We were told that there were 180 lawsuits against the Church, 180 and 800,000 a month being spent on defending them or prosecuting them. We were given a list of some of the Scientologists who were engaged in factions and lawsuits and asked to get in touch with them and let them know about the Board of Appeals or the Board of Review and there was at that time a limited amnesty for litigants against the Church inviting them to come in and take advantage of the reform, the renaissance and the new mood of justice.
Message-ID:
<3p08ps$56u@netaxs.com>:
"Thereafter in a locked room he was forcibly subjected to the CCH process referred to in paragraph 12.14 (above) for a period of five and a quarter hours. A command 'Give me your hand' is given by the auditor. The subject is then expected to lift his hand to the auditor who takes the hand saying, 'Thank you.' The process continues. Michael stated that, during part of the time, he resisted. Eventually a fight supervened, Mr. Bester received bodily injury. Michael's resistance was overcome and the process was resumed. Notwithstaning complaints by neighbours and threats to call the Police the treatment did not cease. That, in the words of Michael happened only 'when I was on the point of collaspe.'
"Mr. Van Niekirk during his Scientology days was a qualified auditor and eventually became director of training. Mr. Tannenbaum desired to solve the problem relating to the disappearance of drugs in his pharmaceutical business and called upon Mr. Van Niekirk who was then conducting business under the style of 'Industrial Security Agency'. By the use of a machine which resembled the E-Meter and a Security Check Form he singled out the alleged thieves -- one of them committing suicide as a result."
Message-IDs:
<3oms2d$3vs@news.acns.nwu.edu>:
<3omvc1$3vs@news.acns.nwu.edu>:
"Interestingly, he prominently states that banning them is not the answer: 'this would only create martyrs'. He states, 'against the ideology of its founder, Hubbard, 'business, business, business', helps only one strategy: 'information, information, information'.' He implores all interested parties to use all means they have in order to de-camouflage scientologists, and notes that what is to be protected is the central point of an affluent society: a relaxed an open life, without conflicts (by extension, without having to anxiously watch your back). He especially implores the media not to shy away from pressure: 'there must be a defense chain'."
Tilman Hausherr summarizes another section of the article.
"The 'LRH-Tech' does not help to set up a qualified management. Goldner: 'Scientologists are rather over-evaluating themselves and think only on a short-term basis'. The result: 'They don't work customer-oriented, but like this: how get we pull the people over the table as fast as possible?' To measure success, 'absurd criteria are used', like the number of phone calls of the employees.
"This doesn't work very long. On the one side, companies lose their customers, on the other side, more and more monies are pumped into the cult, which results in bankruptcy of the company."
Message-IDs:
<3p2922$op3@unlisys.unlisys.net>:
<3p28t0$op3@unlisys.unlisys.net>:
<3p2fp4$4uo@unlisys.unlisys.net>:
<3p2fqm$4uo@unlisys.unlisys.net>:
<3p0am5$nok@sat.ipp-garching.mpg.de>: