From: Joe Harrington Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Standing up to Scientology's abuses Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 23:15:47 -0400 Organization: Holistic Learning Network of Maine Lines: 497 Message-ID: <34346363.2C5A@worldnet.att.net> Reply-To: joeharr@worldnet.att.net NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.69.1.249 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0C-WorldNet (Win95; I) Lawrence Wollersheim writes, Subject: Why Factnet and others "stand against" Scientology. Scientology is one of many organizations accused of using coercive mind control upon which FACTNet collects information. F.A.C.T.Net does not focus solely on Scientology but it has gradually created the world's largest electronic library on Scientology for the following reasons: 1. Scientology is involved on a global level in more current civil and criminal litigation than any other organization using coercive mind control. "Scientology is evil: its techniques are evil, its practice is a serious threat to the community, medically, morally, and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill .... (Scientology is) the world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy." -- Justice Anderson, Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia. "Report of the Board of Inquiry Into Scientology,' presented to both houses of Parliament, Victoria, Australia, 1965. 2. Scientology appears to have been involved in more past civil and criminal litigation than any other organization using coercive mind control. Over the last forty years, total worldwide lawsuits certainly run in the thousands. "The crime committed by these defendants is of a breadth and scope previously unheard of. No building, office, desk, or file was safe from their snooping and prying. No individual or organization was free from their despicable conspiratorial minds. The tools of their trade were miniature transmitters, lock picks, secret codes, forged credentials and any other device they found necessary to carry out their conspiratorial schemes." -- U.S. federal prosecutor's memorandum to the judge urging stiff jail sentences for nine top leaders of Scientology who had pleaded guilty to burglaries, forgeries, infiltration, obstruction of justice, and other crimes against more than 100 U.S. Federal agencies, including the Dept. of Justice, the Dept. of Defense, and the IRS, in U.S. v. Heldt et al. 688 F.2d. 1238. (D.C. Cir 1980) Cert. Den. 456 U.S. 926 (1982). "This is a criminal organization day in and day out. It makes Jim and Tammy (Baker) look like kindergarten." --So says Vicki Aznerand, one of the six top executives in Scientology until her defection in 1987. 3. Scientology is considered by many experts to be the world's most dangerous and destructive organization using coercive mind control. "The government is satisfied that Scientology is socially harmful. It alienates members' families from each other and attributes squalid and disgraceful motives to all who oppose it, its authoritarian principles and practice are a potential menace to the personality and well being of those so deluded as to become followers, above all, its methods can be a serious danger to the health of those who submit to them .... There is no power under existing law to prohibit the practice of Scientology, but the government has concluded that it is so objectionable that it would be right to take all steps within its power to curb its growth." --Kenneth Robinson, British Minister of Health, July 25, 1968 "Inquiry Into the Practice and Effects of Scientology," Great Britain, Report by Sir John Foster, K.B.E. Q.C., M.P., December 21,1971. "During Wollersheim v. Scientology trial which Wollersheim won in a unanimous jury verdict, Wollersheim's expert witnesses testified Scientology's "auditing" and "disconnect" practices constituted "brainwashing" and "thought reform" akin to what the Chinese and North Koreans practiced on American prisoners of war," -- California Appellate Court, 2nd district, 7th division, Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California, Civ. No. B023193 Cal. Super. 1986) "When a person is subjected to coercive persuasion [as in Scientology] without his knowledge or consent ... [he may] develop serious and sometimes irreversible physical and psychiatric disorders, up to and including schizophrenia, self-mutilation, and suicide." --California Supreme Court, in Holy Spirit Association for Unification of World Christianity [the Moonies] v. David Molko. 4. Scientology's fanaticism has probably seriously hurt and alienated more people who were in Scientology or who were not in Scientology than any other global organization using coercive mind control. "You can be merciless whenever your will is crossed and you have the right to be merciless." -- Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's self-hypnosis "affirmations" revealed in a handwritten notebook introduced as evidence in LA superior court in the Gerald Armstrong case, No. C420153 Cal. Sup. Ct. 1984. "In addition to violating and abusing its own members' civil rights, the organization over the years with its "fair game" doctrine has harassed and abused those persons not in the church whom it perceives as enemies." -- Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul Breckenridge, June 1984, in the Gerald Armstrong case, No. C420153 Cal. Sup. CL 1984. 5. Scientology is considered one of the worst harassers and abusers of its victims, ex-members, or critics when they dare to speak against its use of coercive mind control or other abuses. Forty-four lawsuits have been filed against the Cult Awareness Network alone for speaking out against Scientology. "[the court record is] replete with evidence [that Scientology] is nothing in reality but a vast enterprise to extract the maximum amount of money from its adepts by pseudo scientific theories .... and to exercise a kind of blackmail against persons who do not wish to continue with their sect. ... The organization clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard." -- Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul Breckenridge, June 1984, in the Gerald Armstrong case, No. C420153 Cal. Sup. Ct. 1984. 6. Scientology is considered one of most brutal and worst abusers of the legal system and the legal process by filing frivolous and malicious lawsuits or initiating harassing investigations when individuals or organizations dare to speak against its use of coercive mind control or its other abuses. Joe Yanni was a key attorney working for Scientology until 1987. He defected from Scientology's legal team when he says he was asked to help church officials steal medical records to blackmail Charles O'Reilly, the plaintiffs attorney in Wollersheim v. Scientology. >From his previous working experience inside Scientology, Joe Yanni now believes the church "has so subverted the justice and judicial system that it should be barred from seeking equity in any court." Since Yanni quit representing the church he has been the target of death threats, burglaries, lawsuits and other harassment. "On April 17 of this year {1992} Cooley, church [of Scientology] general counsel William Drescher, and Bowles and Moxon partner Kendrick Moxon were among a team of church lawyers soundly rebuked in a federal court ruling for their willingness to `literally flout court orders and defy the authority of the courts.' In his opinion Los Angeles Federal Special master [Judge] James Kolts called the church's tactics a: "cynical and unfair use of the judicial system." 7. Scientology's legal policies are designed to overwhelm its government and nongovernment adversaries in onerous costs, impossible workloads and deliberately created confusion. Scientology litigation and other tactics against adversaries appears designed more to punish and discourage future litigation than to win. "The goal of the department [of governmental affairs] is to bring the government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology. This is done by a high level ability to control and in its absence by a low level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies." -- L. RON HUBBARD, Documentary, evidence in Church of Spiritual Technology vs. U.S.. November 22, 1989 "The purpose of the legal officer is to help LRH handle every legal, government, suit, accounting and tax contact or action .. and to bring the greatest possible confusion and loss to its enemies." -- L. RON HUBBARD, Documentary evidence in Church of Spiritual Technology vs. U.S.. November 22, 1989 "...The past eight years have consisted mainly of a prolonged, and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to persuade or compel the plaintiff (Scientology) to comply with lawful discovery. These efforts have been fiercely resisted by plaintiff. They have utilized every device that we on the District Court have ever heard of to avoid such compliance, and some that are new to us. This noncompliance has consisted of evasions, misrepresentations, broken promises and lies, but ultimately with refusal. As part of this scheme to not comply, the plaintiffs have undertaken a massive campaign of filing every conceivable motion and some inconceivable to disguise the true issue in these pretrial proceedings. Apparently viewing litigation as war, plaintiffs by this tactic have had the effect of massively increasing the costs to the other parties, and, for a while, to the court.... The scope of plaintiff's efforts have to be seen to be believed." --From the declaration of judge James M. Ideman, June 21, 1993. 8. Scientology is at war with the outside world, as concerns "freedom of information" and the rights of a free press. Scientology spends the most money and is probably the most active organization using and defending coercive mind control. It engages in programs to "rewrite history" and suppress all information critical of its practices. By hiding its crimes and continuous abuses, Scientology tries to avoid necessary social awareness, censure, and punishment. It uses repeated frivolous and expensive lawsuits to deter individuals or the media from stating anything hostile to Scientology, whether factual or not. It has tried to use federal trade secret laws designed for business use to try to silence anyone exposing information critical of Scientology. It has tried to establish new interpretations of copyright laws to silence factual information hostile to Scientology (the recent "Hubbard biography" copyright precedent). These interpretations originally hindered the publishing industry's free press rights to present important biographical facts about Hubbard that the public has a right to know and needs for its protection. It has attempted to seal or successfully sealed court cases and records during or after litigation. Church of Scientology v. Gerald Armstrong, No. C. 420153 Cal. Super. CT. (1984) is typical of Scientology's many actions in this area. It has tried to use copyright laws as justification for unreasonable search and seizure, to inhibit its adversaries and suppress archival material on Scientology. It has tried to prevent access to evidence, Scientology lawyers have been temporarily successful in restricting freedom of information requests for access to the thousands of documents seized from church headquarters in an authorized search by the FBI. While Scientology sponsors "freedom of information" attacks on its adversaries, it will not tolerate the same basic freedoms when someone seeks proper legal redress against itself or its members. If Scientology is allowed to continue with these information sealing and suppressing tactics. and its other techniques of intimidation and harassment, no one will be informed enough to make rational decisions about Scientology. 9. Scientology keeps much of the factual information about itself and its true intentions and activities hidden among those highest inner few who have passed extensive security and loyalty tests. The vast majority of lower level Scientologists (not involved in covert operations and not in high level staff positions) know nothing about the "big picture" and the actual facts of the organization that exploits them. Because Scientology insiders use elaborate security codes, coded language, and other intense security procedures to prevent the outside world from discovering or understanding their activities, the compartmentalized pieces of the mosaic can only be assembled by a cooperative effort among high level ex-members who understand the codes and the context of their use. The "Big Picture" perspective is vital to Scientology's victims, who need all possible information and evidence to ensure the highest probability of success and the lowest risk when going against Scientology's intelligence apparatus. "In my opinion the church has one of the most effective intelligence operations in the U.S. rivaling even that of the F.B.I." -- Ted Gunderson, former head of the F.B.I's Los Angeles office, quoted in the Time Magazine cover story of May 6, 1991. 10. Scientology keeps detailed Gestapo-type intelligence files on current and former adversaries. Many former adversaries allege that years after they were involved in disclosing Scientology's wrongdoing, harassment or spying operations are still run on them. Many believe that once you have been declared an enemy of Scientology, you will always be looking over your shoulder and will need to be security conscious for the rest of your life. "The vital targets on which we must invest most of our time are: (T1) Depopularizing the enemy to the point of obliteration. (T2) Taking over the control or allegiance of the heads or proprietors of all news media. (T3) Taking over the control or allegiance of key political figures. (T4) Taking over the control or allegiance of those who monitor international finance ... " -- "Guardian Order 060971 ," seized in FBI authorized search of Scientology headquarters. 1979 11. Scientology uses phobia induction to keep former members silent about their knowledge of Scientology's unethical and illegal activities. "In reality the church is a hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a mafia-like manner." --Time magazine May 6, 1991 12. Because of its excesses, Scientology is an archetypal teaching example on the dangers of the new developments in second generation coercive mind control. 13. F.A.C.T.Net's original founders all had their first experiences with coercive mind control and its dangers while involved with Scientology. Individually they had accumulated huge personal libraries for their personal defense. CONCLUSION F.A.C.T.Net maintains a huge Scientology related archive for many reasons. Access to information through F.A.C.T.Net's data base will empower any person or organization seeking ethical means to combat Scientology's unethical and illegal activities. This information will empower attorneys, governments, corporations (and their public relations and legal divisions), citizen investigators, and individuals or private organizations involved in investigations or litigation involving Scientology. Through F.A.C.T.Net's computer bulletin board (BBS,) thousands of individuals around the world can effectively research and solve the Scientology problem without time or distance limitations. They can multiply their efforts and resources synergisticly and geometrically. The largest electronically searchable archive ever assembled on Scientology will cut legal and research costs and improve the probability of success. It is designed to reflect the total knowledge and experience of everyone who has had to deal with Scientology, right down to Scientology's settlement strategies and their past and current settlements and offers. With this collected knowledge and experience easily accessible, Scientology will no longer be able to force onerous legal and discovery expenses onto those just learning about Scientology's tactics. Tens of millions of dollars in litigation and public relations work will be at each victim's fingertips. This knowledge and experience will empower the PR and legal departments of major corporations involved in litigation with Scientology to ethically contain Scientology in the media and in the courts. Scientology will lose its ability to overwhelm under-financed adversaries by forcing each one separately to "reinvent the wheel" every time a new case is filed against Scientology. Each legal team will be able to learn quickly and inexpensively how Scientology has been defeated or contained in past cases. THE FAILURE OF SCIENTOLOGY'S CURRENT LEGAL STRATEGY Because Scientology spends millions to suppress knowledge about its history and activity, few people have realized just how horribly unsuccessful Scientology has been in the courts. Scientology either settles secretly to settle the cases -- or loses -- or drops the case -- or gets the opposing party to settle or drop the case by forcing onerous expenses on them. Since its inception, Scientology has had no significant legal victories, despite all their confusing reinterpretations of their legal outcomes and their bluff and brazen bravado in the media. Most of Scientology's noise about how good they are is only their own empty PR legend making machine serving mainly to beat a loud enough drum to redirect attention away from their own failures and to keep their own people from realizing how bad it really is. Scientology is hoping that we won't catch on to just how vulnerable they are and would be if we stood together and shared information in ethical collective security. THE WORK TO BE DONE NOW A new tool of unprecedented scope has been created by assembly of all relevant information about Scientology into a searchable electronic database. (The technologies that F.A.C.T.Net uses have only been available for about 18 months.) Given proper use this electronically searchable database should reveal many new patterns of illegal activity and much new information. This will "level the playing field" and remedy the disadvantage and disenfranchisement currently suffered by Scientology's victims and critics in current and future civil and criminal litigation. Imagine searching all of Scientology's filed briefs, testimony, interrogatories, and affidavits with automated text search software and the compare function in new generation word processors. It would not be surprising to find Scientology's multi-country, multi-state, multi-jurisdictional court documents and complaints, and other submissions, to contain not only factual discrepancies and contradictions but also provable perjuries. Evidence may be obtained concerning the frivolous, insincere, and malicious pattern of Scientology's litigation -- and perhaps outright fraud and obstruction of justice. This high-technology data base analysis of all of Scientology's legal and related documents should yield documentation necessary to bring new RICO criminal charges and grand jury investigations against Scientology. When the victims of Scientology are ethically empowered and cooperatively and ethically networked, more of them will come to understand how they were manipulated and become willing to share the information needed to end an ongoing pattern of injustice and exploitation. With Scientology's victims no longer cowed, the cult will continue to lose in the courts and settle at a rate many times faster than now. Only an abundance of judgments, settlements, and punitive damage awards will force Scientology finally to change its behavior for real. It will do this only when the profit is taken out of its coercive psychological manipulation of the hopes and needs of decent people who become victims. It's as simple as that. When we take the profit out of Scientology's unethical and illegal activities through ethical use of the justice system and cooperation for our collective security, Scientology will stop those activities. Success depends only on the courage of Scientology's victims, their willingness to work together and to learn about and face what was done to them rather than rationalize it ("the organization was bad but the tech was good"), and finally to speak up and take action. We hope that corporations which have had trouble with Scientology will look beyond their immediate problem and consider the public safety and future dangers this group presents to society if left unchecked. There is a growing demand at all levels for governments and other global justice systems to ethically demonstrate to Scientology and to society that Scientology is not "above the law." There is a snowballing awareness that only an intense worldwide cooperative effort to apply justice in criminal and civil actions against Scientology will create collective security for all of its victims, its critics, and for future generations. "Scientology critics contend that the U.S. [government] needs to crack down on the church in a major organized way."-- Time Magazine, May 6, 1991 Off the record, a judge who sat on a Scientology case stated his belief that "no individual plaintiff, lawyer, or civil suit alone can handle Scientology." To finally stop the pattern of unethical activity by Scientology all of its victims have to work together and the government also has to act. F.A.C.T.Net believes that various under-financed, under-staffed, backlogged, and low technology government agencies are acting and will act but they need to be helped by the victims of Scientology and organizations like F.A.C.T.Net. The victims need to ethically cooperate and help locate, analyze, interpret, and prepare the information and evidences on which resource-short government agencies depend upon to forward their investigations and our defense. The victims of Scientology need to realize that it is they who must do most of the work when dealing with government agencies. It is they who are responsible because they know first hand the pain Scientology has caused. It is the victims of Scientology who must hand the government an airtight case of solid evidence --- and then F.A.C.T.Net can supply the technological leverage to get this huge amount of evidence and information to the government in a manageable and analyzable form. That is the work to be done and F.A.C.T.Net is the high technology social justice and human rights organization tool to help you do it... In 1982, at the Supreme Court of Victoria, where religious status was denied during its Board of Inquiry into Scientology, Australian Justice Brookings made a telling closing statement that continues to be a harbinger of the ongoing Scientology phenomenon. "... it is nonetheless clear that the teaching of Scientology and the practice of Scientology will result in the commission of many offenses and may well result in the commission of many others .... " -- Church of The New Faith v. Commissioner of Payroll Tax, decided May 5, 1982, Supreme court of Victoria Australia, Board of Inquiry into Scientology. Lawrence Wollersheim IMHO Joe