Operation Clambake present:
OC News 2007
This is an archive of news related to Operation Clambake and/or it's author(s). Other news about the controversial fight against the atrocities done by the Cult of Scientology can be found on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology or Operation Clambake Message Board.
| November 17 2007 |
The author of Operation Clambake attended a debate on Scientology at the University College Dublin as part of 153rd Session of The College Debating Union arranged by The Literary and Historical Society. Other attendees was:
Recordings from the debate available here.
| August 12 2007 |
The AP article with links to Operation Clambake is starting to get picked up by many media, today it was printed in The Daytone Beach News-Journal and possibly many more. Click image to see scan of full article.
It's also online several places:
| August 8 2007 |
Author of Operation Clambake interviewed in an article by Associated Press titled "Scientologists find unlikely allies in other faiths":
Quote:
Those who doubt the Church of Scientology - and there are many - see something more sinister at play. One of the loudest such voices is a man in Tananger, Norway - Andreas Heldal-Lund - whose anti-Scientology Xenu.net Web site airs all sorts of claims about the church.Heldal-Lund says most faith leaders see Scientology as incompatible with their beliefs and voicing acceptance for their programs as bad. He said most Scientologists are good people with good intentions, but its leaders simply want to expand their reach and buy credibility.
"People need to understand that this is used deliberately by the management of Scientology to get a foothold," he said. "They are good at infiltrating. They are good at luring people."
| August 7 2007 |
Operation Clambake is number one on Google!
| August 6 2007 |
The author of Operation Clambake was interviewed by Mina on NRK P2 today. Listen here (from Norwegian national radio). Watch this space, more might come...
| May 20 2007 |
Scotland on Sunday mentiones Operation Clambake in the article "Cult or cure?":
Quote:
Even in the 1950s, the American magazine New Republic described Dianetics, a key part of the Scientology creed, as a "bold and immodest mixture of complete nonsense and perfectly reasonable common sense, taken from long acknowledged findings and disguised and distorted by a crazy, newly invented terminology".Today, the anti-sect website Operation Clambake labels Scientology "a vicious and dangerous cult that masquerades as a religion". There have been persistent claims that members have been subject to psychological manipulation and that strong steps are taken against those who criticise or disown Scientology.
Ian Howarth, founder of the Cult Information Centre, has been a longstanding critic. "Scientology is a multimillion-dollar empire and operates all over the world," he said. "I often quote Judge Latey of the High Court of Justice who in 1984 characterised the Church of Scientology as 'corrupt, immoral sinister and dangerous'."
| May 16 2007 |
Article in SpiegelOnline titled "Scientology stellt BBC-Reporter im Internet bloß" includes an interview with the creator of Operation Clambake:
Quote 1:
Die neue Strategie: AngriffScientology nutzt das Internet geschickt, um die eigene Sicht der Dinge zu transportieren. Reporter Sweeney hat das am eigenen Leib erfahren: "Das Schlachtfeld ist YouTube, Scientologys Waffe ist der Clip, wo ich die Fassung verliere", schreibt er in seinem Blog und fährt fort: "Scientology hat schon viele Schlachten ausgetragen, um ihre Geheimnisse aus dem Netz zu tilgen. Jetzt nutzen sie es, um meine Recherche anzugreifen."
Diese neue Strategie beobachtet auch der norwegische Scientology-Kritiker Andreas Heldal-Lund. Er veröffentlicht seit Jahren interne Scientology-Dokumente im Internet. Vor vier Jahren ließ die Organisation Heldal-Lunds Seiten aus dem Google-Index entfernen. Vorwurf: Urheberrechtsverletzung.
Statt Zensur versucht Scientology heute eher, die eigene Botschaft lauter klingen zu lassen als die der Gegner. Heldal-Lund zu SPIEGEL ONLINE: "Sie suchen Schwachpunkte bei Gegnern. Haben sie etwas, greifen sie an." Die Kampagne gegen die BBC und ihren Reporter John Sweeney ist ein Paradebeispiel dieser Taktik.
Quote 2:
Da rastet Sweeney aus, brüllt, Davis würde nicht das ganze Interview kennen, Davis würde nur die zweite Hälfte zitieren, Davis sei nicht dort gewesen. Kurz hält er inne, fragt scheinbar ruhig, ob Davis alles verstehe, brüllt dann weiter. Davis bleibt gelassen, wiederholt immer wieder seine Frage, warum Sweeney denn seiner Organisation Gehirnwäsche vorwerfe. Scientology-Experte Heldal-Lund kennt diese Taktik: "Scientologen werden für solche Gespräche trainiert." Zum Standard-Repertoire gehört laut Heldal-Lund: keine Gefühle zeigen, nicht auf die Fragen und Argumente anderer eingehen, allein mit Angriffen und Fragen reagieren, wieder und wieder den eigenen Standpunkt erzählen. "Dabei sollen Scientology-Vertreter immer Augenkontakt suchen, dem Gesprächspartner körperlich unangenehm nah kommen, um zu provozieren." Das kann man in den Aufnahmen auf YouTube erkennen.
| May 14 2007 |
Article in The Register "Scientology tries to discredit BBC documentary" links to Operation Clambake:
Quote:
Scientology has a history of using the internet to further its agenda against psychiatry and in favour of believing in aliens. It has waged a long-running battle against anti-scientology site Operation Clambake, and other sites that reveal its top secret Xenu story. There's a history of Scientology's online battles at Wikipedia, or check out our related stories below.
| May 2007 |
 |
The Polish magazine Sekty i Fakty nr 30 (1/2007) use an image I manipulated many years ago - and even credits me properly. :) Click on image to see full article.
| April 20 2007 |
Daily News mentions Operation Clambake in an article today (click to see scan of full page):
Quote:
SIDE DISHA church of Scientology rep told us on Wednesday that their ministers were "forbidden" from proselytizing to students during "grief counselling" at Virginia Tech. But Xenu.net, an anti-Scientology site, has posted what's said to be an "emergency bulletin" disseminated by church leaders asking the faithful "to help us get [church founder L. Ron Hubbard's] 'The Way to Happiness' books to the students [and] faculty." The book offers advice like, "do not murder" and "don't be promiscuous."
| April 1 2007 |
The <meta> Ball mentiones Operation Clambake in an article today titled "No Xenus Is Good Xenus":
Quote:
First Contact"Can you tell me... what's your connection to Scientology?" The phone line crackled. I assumed I was being recorded. I leaned over and adjusted my recording levels to clearly capture the faint voice while I considered the question. He clarified, "You are not doing this or contacting me for Scientology or any representative of Scientology?"
Is this raging paranoia? I had originally been put in contact with ex-Scientologist Gerry Armstrong by Andreas Heldal-Lund, webmaster of the Operation Clambake site. Heldal-Lund's site recounts attempts by Scientology and its agents to paint him as a terrorist, sexual deviant and to contact his employers in an attempt to get him fired.
If these are, in fact, the tactics used against someone who was never even a member of Scientology, how much more aggressive must the actions be against someone who betrayed the church? That's what I called Gerry Armstrong, who spent twelve and a half years as a Scientologist, to find out.
| March 31 2007 |
Article in ABCNyheter today titled "- Ein trussel mot europeisk demokrati" ("A threat against European democracy") interviewing both the author of Operation Clambake and the intelligence officer of Scientology in Norway, Matthias Fosse.
Translated quote:
- A threat against European democracy, claims the Norwegian Andreas Heldal-Lund, who since the mid-nineties have actively criticised the Church of Scientology, firstly by spreading critical information about the organisation on the net.- Scientology is not likely to reach the big masses, but they are often underestimated and are therefore given a chance to inflict some local damage, he claims.
- Similar to fascism
- The Church of Scientology has a set of internal policies and it is the duty of a Scientologist to infiltrate public offices and influence key figures in society. In this sense the organisation is a threat against democracy, since they are trying to introduce other rules than society is governed by, says Heldal-Lund.
| February 17 2007 |
Quote:
WHEN BOB Keenan was young he joined the Royal Marines and served his country. In 1991 he was living in Bristol, his back damaged during the decade he had spent as a fireman after leaving the army. "I was an inquisitive bugger," he tells me over lunch, "always trying to find out how I could be better at what I did. In some instances, I would be scared or apprehensive, or have some physical reaction that would stop me from doing something. In the fire brigade a split-second decision can be the difference between someone living and dying. And I wanted to be able to handle that. It was primarily philosophy I was looking at. Then one day someone put a leaflet through my door."The leaflet was promoting Dianetics by pulp novelist-turned-self-help-guru, L Ron Hubbard. Published in 1950, the book outlines Hubbard's thesis for self-improvement and self-awareness and introduces some of the central planks of what would become Scientology: that hidden in our subconscious or "reactive" mind are traumatic memories ("engrams"); that these must be removed by a process called "auditing" if we are to achieve the state known as "Clear"; that only when we become "Clear" can we fully realise our potential as human beings.
"Ironically, I'd never seen all the crap that was written about Scientology," says Keenan. "I read the book and thought That makes sense'". His conversion to Scientology had begun.
That "crap", as Keenan calls it, is a handy catch-all for every biography, exposé, newspaper article, website and South Park episode that has ever attacked the Church of Scientology, its founder, its practices and its adherents - people such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and, at least according to some recent US press reports, David and Victoria Beckham. These attacks started on August 15, 1950, with a review of Dianetics in American magazine New Republic which called it a "bold and immodest mixture of complete nonsense and perfectly reasonable common sense, taken from long acknowledged findings and disguised and distorted by a crazy, newly invented terminology". And it continues today, with websites such as Operation Clambake, which calls Scientology "a vicious and dangerous cult that masquerades as a religion".
| DATE |
Quote:
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that judges in New Mexico are sending an increasing number of convicted drug abusers to the Scientology program "Second Chance," a series of unorthodox "treatments" including the purif and their perfected method of roping in new members.According to ex-members, church documents and workbooks reproduced online at the leading Web site critical of the church, Operation Clambake, the purif is a "combination of exercise, vitamins, nutrition and sauna use." The treatment is based on the half-century old notion that narcotics and other illicit substances are stored indefinitely in human fat cells.
| January 7 2007 |
Quote:
Andreas Heldal-Lund, who has researched Scientology and runs Operation Clambake, a website critical of the organisation, said: "Most people might see them as a bit of a joke because of their beliefs and teachings. But they are in fact the most controversial and dangerous cult in the western world today, and pose a real threat to free speech."
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