Buffalo Org



The Buffalo News reported on August 29th that the Buffalo, New York org is

being outfitted for business by volunteers from around the world and

prisoners from a nearby prison.



"Volunteers from around the globe have been hard at work in the Church of

Scientology's new three-story, two-mezzanine home at 836 Main St., on the

southwest corner of Main and Virginia streets. Members have come from as

far as Hungary, Lithuania, South Africa and Italy to work on the

23,232-square-foot building's restoration, scheduled for completion in

mid-September.



"This week marks the fifth month that Benac, owner of a specialty painting

company in Chicago, has spent painting and plastering the 19th century

building. His skillful hands have built up the bases of the building's

pillars by applying as many as eight coats of plaster of Paris, and

restoring the decorative egg and dart molding at the top of the columns.

'This is in the traditional manner of how church buildings were done,'

said Teresa Reger of East Aurora, president of the church's Buffalo

chapter. Reger said the Church of Scientology regularly updates its

worldwide chapters about new events through video or satellite, and that

spurred the interest of some members to help.



"Not all of the labor has been volunteer. Hired contractors have done some

of the work. So did a crew of six inmates from the Erie County

Correctional Facility in Alden. They were removed after Sheriff Patrick M.

Gallivan was questioned by The Buffalo News about the propriety of a

government agency providing free labor to a church.



"The Scientologists then paid $300,000 for the Main Street building,

constructed in 1893 by the Buffalo Catholic Institute, a group of

German-American Catholics who used it for religious research and lectures.

The building has been vacant in recent years. The center will be the home

to scientologists in Western and Central New York, Pennsylvania, and some

parts of Ohio and Canada. The staff will increase to 75 to 100, from about

25 six months ago, Reger said. She said she couldn't say how many members

the Buffalo church had because of the broad area from which it draws.



"The space, with cathedral ceilings as high as 19 feet, includes an

intimate, horseshoe-shaped sanctuary on the third floor and

'detoxification rooms,' including saunas, that Scientologists use to rid

the body of impurities. State-of-the-art flat screens, beaming videos

about Scientology and its founder, the late science fiction writer L. Ron

Hubbard, are found in the visitors entrance and third-floor lounge."



Message-ID: nhmukvg6rjoquv61p9gltib28m5su1c2t7@4ax.com





Legal Agreement



Fox News published a story on September 3rd on the legal agreement

Scientologists sign in order to take courses.



"The contract - called the 'Agreement and General Release Regarding

Spiritual Assistance' - makes it clear that the signee does not believe in

psychiatry and does not want to be treated for any kind of psychiatric

ailment should one befall him. Instead, once the paper is signed, the

agreement calls for the Church of Scientology to step in if there's ever a

problem. The result would be total isolation and constant surveillance.



"The question is: Will the stars upon whom Scientology has depended to

carry its message - including Cruise, John Travolta and Kelly Preston,

Lisa Marie Presley and her mother, Priscilla - sign a new agreement that

could potentially hand over their rights and personal freedom to the

church?



"The wording of the agreement is shocking, to say the least. If a member

of the church becomes what we might call 'mentally incompetent,' he

automatically agrees to be placed in the care of Scientology counselors,

potentially barring family, friends or anyone else from interceding,

including doctors and psychiatrists.



"The new agreement seems to stem from a long-simmering wrongful-death

lawsuit brought by the estate of Lisa McPherson against the Church of

Scientology. By having members sign the contact agreeing to be isolated

from family and medical professionals, the church apparently believes it

would be immune to such lawsuits. The lawsuit, which has suffered several

postponements, may come to trial in 2004.



"Outspoken critics of Scientology - such as Carnegie Mellon professor Dave

Touretzky, who uncovered the new agreement - claim the form is designed to

protect the church from further litigation.



"The Spiritual Assistance agreement reads in part: 'I understand that the

Introspection Rundown is an intensive, rigorous Religious Service that

includes being isolated from all sources of potential spiritual upset,

including but not limited to family members, friends or others with whom I

might normally interact.  As part of the Introspection Rundown, I

specifically consent to Church members being with me 24 hours a day at the

direction of my Case Supervisor, in accordance with the tenets and custom

of the Scientology religion. The Case Supervisor will determine the time

period in which I will remain isolated, according to the beliefs and

practices of the Scientology religion.'"



From the New York Post on September 4th:



"Rick Ross, a well-known cult watcher, writes on his Web site,

rickross.com: 'It seems that Scientologist superstars may be signing away

rights most citizens within free countries take for granted.' The 'church'

has a document titled 'Agreement and General Release Regarding Spiritual

Assistance' which states, 'Others may think that I need psychiatric

treatment. I instead desire to receive Scientology spiritual assistance.'

The same agreement prohibits 'any psychiatrist, medical person, designated

member of the state or family member' from placing the Scientologist into

a hospital or facility for psychiatric treatment.



"Instead, the Scientologists are subjected to the 'Introspection Rundown,'

an 'intensive, rigorous Religious Service that includes being isolated

from all sources of potential spiritual upset, including but not limited

to family members, friends or others.' The subject is supervised by

'church members 24 hours a day at the direction of [a] Case Supervisor

[who will] determine the time period [the subject] will remain isolated.'"



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ABLE



The Lovelock Review-Miner reported on August 28th that a Nevada school

district will no longer be conducting a test program involving Scientology

study methods.



"The Pershing County School Board has ordered the discontinuation of a

study program currently being used at Pershing County Middle School until

further research could be done by the school board members.  The chief

concerns include the fact that the books being used in the program are

authored by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology and

that the terms used in the books may be the fundamental basis for the

Church of Scientology.



"This study method is called LEAP, Literacy and Education Awareness

Project and comes from a non-profit company called Applied Scholastics.

While the program has been used within the school district for over a

year, the concerns were just recently raised when Pershing County High

School teacher Valdine McLean learned of the program's connection to

Hubbard and the Church of Scientology. She said that L. Ron Hubbard is as

revered in the Church of Scientology as the pope is in Catholicism and

Joseph Smith is with the Church of Latter Day Saints. She said, the fact

that he authored the books concerns her. 'My question is, if the pope's

name was on any public books,' McLean said, 'would it be appropriate for

school?' She said that she would think that it was not.



"McLean said that while the books say nothing directly about Scientology,

the terms used in the books are the fundamental basis for the Church of

Scientology. McLean provided information to the board that showed that the

three principles of the study method are also fundamentals in the Church

of Scientology.



"Special Programs Coordinator Anita Fisk, who was instrumental in bringing

the project to Lovelock, and Debra Scilacci, PCMS teacher, spoke about the

program. Fisk urged the board to talk to the teachers before making a

decision about whether or not to use the program.  She also said that

there was nothing underhanded on her part to hide anything about the

program. Scilacci has been using the program in her classes and presented

the board with information on how the program helped in her summer school

classes.



"During the special board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 26, the room was packed

by more than 100 people. Dave Noonan from the University of Nevada

facilitated the meeting so that the board members could concentrate on the

information and testimony being given. Fisk said that the study is used

across the United States in private and public schools. She said that the

books used in the program do not proselytize for any religion. She

explained that if any funding were being diverted from Applied Scholastics

to any religion, it would not be non-profit. She said that 28 teachers

that had initial training with the program moved forward with additional

training.



"PCMS Principal Charles Safford said that he has looked through the books

and has determined that they are secular. He said that several PCMS

teachers said that they would like to add the study method to their

curriculum. He said that district staff members who are in favor of the

program asked him not to use their names because they were concerned of

people's reaction. Several people from out of town spoke positively about

the program. The people included LEAP staff members and Ed Fila, a

representative from a Utah-based company called Innovations in Education.

Fila said that several schools in Utah use this program including the best

academic school in Utah.



"McLean, Quint Hughes, Richard Wagner, Tom Moura, Walter and Coni Jo

Brinkerhoff were amongst those that were opposed to the program. McLean

said that it is her faith as a Catholic that has prompted her to do what

she has done. She said that it was interesting that people from Las Vegas,

Utah and California had to be brought in to testify for the program. She

said that she doesn't care how good the program is and if it does raise

test scores if it undermines people's faith.



"McLean said that she wasn't there to make accusations against school

district staff, she was there to demonstrate her concern that the program

violated the separation of church and state. She said that a strong

connection between the study method and Scientology is that the same

publisher published both the program materials and Scientology books.

McLean also said that on the Church of Scientology's website, the Church

claims the books as their own.



"Wagner said that he was there to speak as an individual. He said that he

didn't care if the program was good or bad, he cared if it was

constitutional. He said that there could be a violation of constitutional

rights if the board decided to use the program despite the concerns of the

citizen. He stated that he had a problem with the usage of the program. He

showed a copy of the booklet being used with the instruction of teachers.

He asked that if the name L. Ron Hubbard was replaced with the name Jesus

Christ, a cross placed on the cover and a synopsis of Hubbard's life

inside the book was replaced with a synopsis of Christ's life, would it be

allowed in schools? 'That's what this is about,' he said.



"Lovelock Elementary Literacy Specialists Sandy Condie and Shea Murphy

said that the Applied Scholastics is drastically different than the

reading methods they are teaching in elementary school. They were both

concerned about the differences between the two programs and the different

teaching methods that students would receive.



"Another special board meeting was set up for Tuesday, September 2 at

5:15.  The location is yet to be determined, but Fox said that he would

try to find a location to better suit the number of people. Tacker said

that the next special meeting won't be for testimony, but to give the

school board an opportunity to discuss the issue amongst themselves and

make a final decision. An audience member asked why it seemed that the

program was brought in the back door. Board member Clingan said that it

wasn't brought in the back door. Both the initial presentation and the

approval of the program were on the school board agenda.



"In an interview McLean said that much of her research was based on an

essay on Scientology's Study Technology and compares the terms used in the

Applied Scholastics program to the terms used in the Church of

Scientology. She said that website can be found at

studytech.org/study_tech.php McLean said that all the information on the

website can be validated. It offers weblinks to where the information was

obtained from and all the words are used in the same way."



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Netherlands



Karin Spaink reported on September 4th a court has found that portions of

the OT materials on her web site were are within Dutch law.



"While the court of appeals considers OT2 and OT3 to have not been legally

published, the freedom of expression prevails and my website containing

quotes form OT2 and OT3 is completely ok with them: Scientology needs to

pay all costs.



"The courts damned Scientology for the secrecy surrounding OT2 and OT3 and

says that Scientology - which they call an 'organisation', not a 'church'

- uses that secrecy to wield power over its members, and furthermore

states that Scientology is attempting to overthrow democratic values."



Message-ID: 3f573e17$0$49107$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl





Reed Slatkin



Former Scientology minister Reed Slatkin was sentence to 14 years in jail

for his role in a Ponzi investment scheme that took millions of dollars

from Scientologists and other investors. From Reuters on September 2nd:



"Financier Reed Slatkin, a key player in the creation of Internet service

provider EarthLink Inc., was sentenced on Tuesday to 14 years in prison

after pleading guilty to bilking investors out of hundreds of millions of

dollars. A federal court in Los Angeles also ordered Slatkin to pay more

than $240 million in restitution to clients of his fund management

business.



"The government had asked that he be sentenced to the minimum in a range

from 11 years and three months to 14 years after defrauding investors of

nearly $600 million, but Judge Margaret Morrow chose the more severe

option. 'The havoc that the defendant has wreaked is immense, the loss is

immeasurable,' she told a courtroom packed with attorneys and victims of

Slatkin.



"Referring to the 500 or so days he has already spent in federal custody,

Slatkin said, 'Not one of these days has gone by without (my) feeling the

overwhelming responsibility for the harms I caused these people.' Slatkin

pleaded guilty in 2002 to 15 counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud,

money laundering and conspiracy to obstruct justice.



"His attorneys blamed much of his behavior on the influence of the Church

of Scientology, of which he was a member and from where many of his

victims came. 'There is no question that the hold the Church had on Mr.

Slatkin was significant,' lawyer Brian Sun told the court. 'It took us a

while to de-program Mr. Slatkin.'



"But an attorney for the Church told Reuters that Slatkin's claims, and

those of his lawyers, were all a ruse designed to draw attention away from

his crimes. 'We were pleased the judge saw through it,' said David

Schindler, an attorney from the firm of Latham & Watkins who represents

the Church. 'It was shameful of (Slatkin). He sold the psychiatrists a

bill of goods.'



From the Los Angeles Times on September 2nd and 3rd:



"During more than 15 years of fraud that cost his investors $240 million,

Reed E. Slatkin seemed as much trusted friend as money manager. He

schmoozed clients with tips on how to landscape their estates, attended

funerals of their family members and all the while offered assurances that

he would protect their college and retirement funds.



"Slatkin, 54, has admitted he fabricated account statements that showed

clients beating the stock market's heady returns of the late 1990s, while

using their funds to pay for airplanes, luxury cars, real estate, artwork

and gold for himself. The long-running scam ended in his bankruptcy in

2001, followed by his guilty pleas last year to 15 counts of fraud,

conspiracy and money laundering.



"'If the sentence is 11 years, you can wrap a fish in it,' said John

Poitras of Santa Ynez, Calif., a former venture capitalist who lost $15

million with Slatkin. 'We're just going to walk away from it, because it

stinks.' Slatkin took millions from Poitras toward the end of his criminal

career, at a time when Slatkin was stalling an SEC attempt to investigate

him.



"At about the same time, the family of cellular telephone entrepreneur

Michael Azeez entrusted about $17 million to Slatkin, bringing their total

investment with him to nearly $44 million. 'He's some type of psychopath,'

Azeez said in a telephone interview from his home in New Jersey. 'I don't

know how you go into people's parties, religious functions, like he did.

He even went to my dad's funeral.'



"Slatkin had a number of high-profile clients, including actors Peter

Coyote and Joe Pantoliano, model Cheryl Tiegs and legal commentator Greta

Van Susteren. Those notables were among the relatively few Slatkin clients

who were repaid more than they invested. Their profits were bogus,

however, as Slatkin admitted in his plea agreement: The payouts were part

of a long-running Ponzi scheme that plundered some investors to pay

others.



"Attorneys for the trustee and the creditors have sued to recover funds

from Slatkin's bankers and from his clients who came out ahead. They also

are negotiating with groups affiliated with the Church of Scientology that

allegedly wound up with tens of millions of dollars in donations from

Slatkin clients. Many of the clients who came out winners already have

settled the cases, but Alexander Pilmer, an attorney for the creditors and

the trustee, estimated there still may be $100 million in such 'bogus

profits' to pursue for investors whose accounts were drained.



"Slatkin's plea agreement acknowledged that his financial career had been

a fraud since 1986, when he was managing funds for fellow Scientologists.

As years passed, he acquired many clients who did not belong to the group,

whose belief system is based on the works of science fiction writer L. Ron

Hubbard."



"Citing 'the tremendous harm he has done,' U.S. District Judge Margaret

Morrow rejected the former Santa Barbara money manager's claim that he had

acted under 'duress and diminished capacity' because of threats from

fellow Scientologists who allegedly urged him to continue his scam so they

could profit. Morrow credited Slatkin with helping authorities unravel the

financial fiasco, as Slatkin had pledged to do in his plea bargain last

year, but raised questions about the timeliness and degree of his

assistance.  'The cooperation has been, shall we say, somewhat checkered,'

the judge said.



"A lawyer for the Church of Scientology praised the judge, saying she 'saw

right through' Slatkin's claims about Scientologists. 'The church had

nothing to do with the fact that he lied, cheated and stole,' the lawyer,

David Schindler, said after the hearing. Slatkin's fraudulent financial

empire lasted 15 years, dissolving into bankruptcy proceedings in May

2001, leaving investors with a loss prosecutors set at $240 million. Taken

into custody in April 2002, he pleaded guilty to 15 counts of fraud,

conspiracy and money laundering.



"Summarizing their lengthy filings with the court, including reports on

Slatkin by two psychologists and a criminologist, the defense argued that

Slatkin feared Scientologists would harm him and his family if he shut

down his scheme. His lawyers contended that Slatkin paid millions of

dollars in purported profits to Scientologists who then made large

donations to the Scientology organization, which knew of his long history

of falsifying financial statements.



"'The hold the church had on Mr. Slatkin was significant even up to the

points of his surrender into custody,' Sun told the judge. Morrow said she

found 'very little evidence of direct pressure on the defendant' to keep

the scam going so donations would continue flowing to Scientologists. She

said she tended to believe the story of Daniel W. Jacobs, a Scientologist

who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy for helping Slatkin stall a

Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of his operation for more

than a year.  Jacobs testified briefly Wednesday about a conversation in

which Slatkin allegedly suggested he would try to blame the organization

for his crimes.  He told how Slatkin, saying he was facing more than 10

years in prison, 'was going to say that the church was a significant

negative influence on him in his state of mind.' Asked if Slatkin

mentioned worrying about Scientologists harming him, Jacobs replied, 'No.'



"Federal prisoners are eligible for release after serving 85% of their

sentences. With that allowance and deducting time already served, Slatkin

could be released in 10 1/2 years, when he is 64. He will remain for an

undetermined time at Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A., to

more easily assist the bankruptcy trustee, and later will be transferred

to a federal prison somewhere in Southern California, Morrow ruled."



From the Santa Barbara News-Press on September 3rd:



"Imposing a harsher punishment than even prosecutors sought, a federal

judge Tuesday sentenced former Hope Ranch resident and Earthlink

co-founder Reed Slatkin to 14 years in prison for bilking hundreds of

investors out of about $240 million. Before the sentencing, three of Mr.

Slatkin's many victims were allowed to voice their wrath, and each urged

the maximum sentence possible.



"'There's something inherently evil in the way he carried out this

scheme,' said investor Michael Azeez, whose family lost $42 million. 'He

befriended us, he visited our homes, he met our families,' but then ended

up swindling money from investors' retirement funds, college accounts and

even life-insurance proceeds. 'Each and every time, he stole everything he

could,' asserted another investor, John Poitras of Santa Ynez, who lost

$15 million. 'He is enormously cruel. Punish him harshly.'



"Since entering his guilty pleas, Mr. Slatkin has extensively shared

information with criminal investigators on how the Ponzi scheme operated

and who assisted him. He has also cooperated with a bankruptcy trustee

seeking to identify any remaining assets that could be used to partially

repay his victims. But his cooperation has been less than complete, a key

factor cited by Judge Morrow in imposing a 14-year sentence after

prosecutors had recommended 11 years. 'His cooperation has been, shall we

say, somewhat checkered,' she said.



"Defense lawyers suggested that was mostly due to his reluctance to

implicate people who were members of the Church of Scientology. 'It took

us awhile to deprogram Mr. Slatkin,' attorney Brian Sun told the judge. It

took several months, he said, 'for us to wean him off the influences of

this group. There is no question that the hold the church had on Mr.

Slatkin was significant, even up to the time of his surrender.'"



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Saint Hill



This is Kent reported on August 22nd that a Scientology exhibition is

being held in East Grinstead, with a goal of recruiting more volunteer

ministers.



"The Church of Scientology's travelling volunteer minister exhibition was

opened by the Lord McNair on Tuesday in West Street, East Grinstead,

aiming to bring simple solutions to everyday problems, such as with drugs,

crime, conflict and illiteracy. The exhibition is housed in the

Scientology Centre.



"The exhibition includes demonstrations of simple practical methods to

help deal with the daily problems in life, and also shows the work done by

the volunteer ministers in disaster areas, such as in the immediate

aftermath of the September 11 disaster. Scientology volunteer ministers

worked alongside the fire brigade, Red Cross and the police at Ground

Zero, New York.



"Opening the exhibition, Lord McNair said: 'We have the answers to many

common problems, such as problems with study, how to understand others,

how to be happy, how to communicate, how to help someone recover from

illness or injury, problems with drugs, how to resolve conflicts, problems

with stress, marriage problems and how to be more organised.'



"The church plans to train thousands of volunteer ministers

internationally by the year end and wants to train hundreds in West

Sussex. The exhibition runs until August 25."



Message-ID: d539d572.0308270849.1bc4a5a@posting.google.com