Buffalo Org



The Buffalo News reported on June 26th that Scientology is threatening the

city of Buffalo, New York that the move to condemn the org there in order

to build a parking ramp may violate U.S. federal law.



"The Council found itself back in the debate over condemnation of a

four-story office building at 43 W. Huron St., now occupied by the Church

of Scientology, to make room for an expansion of the Owen B. Augspurger

parking ramp.



"After failed attempts to negotiate with church leaders to purchase the

building, the Council voted, 10-3, in late April to begin condemnation and

demolition proceedings. However, a procedural error in the vote brought

the matter back before the Council, where opponents got another chance to

sway the vote.



"The Rev. John Carmichael, who presides over the church in New York State,

said for the city to wipe out a place of worship to make room for a

parking ramp not only reflects badly on the city and its leaders, it

'almost certainly violates federal law.' The matter was sent back to

committee for further review, stalling the $13.6 million project for

another two weeks."



Message-ID: jw0T8.932$mp2.591781@newshog.newsread.com





Universities



Dave Touretzky reported this week that Scientology is promoting L. Ron

Hubbard's book Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science to university

professors.



"They're mailing freebies to university faculty. Here's what the package

consists of: One new, hardbound edition of Dianetics: The Evolution of a

Science, updated to include some drawings and an email address

(authoraffairs@authorservicesinc.com). One new, shrinkwrapped, audio

version of the book. The book is read by Lloyd Sherr, 'an accomplished

voiceover artist.' The tape is recorded using ClearSound (tm). A reply

card where one can supply contact info.



"An interesting fact about this book is that it contains not a single

reference anywhere to the Church of Scientology. All the org addresses in

the back are for Hubbard Dianetics Foundations! All the contact and

copyright info mention Author Services or L. Ron Hubbard Library or Bridge

Publications or New Era Publications.  Even the legal disclaimer at the

front of the book refers only to Hubbard's 'observations and research,'

omitting the standard Scientology phraseology about this being a

'religious' work."



Message-ID: 3d17fea6$1@news2.lightlink.com





Germany



Hamburger Abendblatt reported on June 27th that Ursula Caberta, head of

Hamburg's Scientology Task Force, has been fined in connection with a loan

made to her by activist Bob Minton.



"For accepting favors she was fined 7,500 Euro by the Hamburg Office

Court, payable monthly in the amount of 1,250 Euro.  Caberta had been

accused by the Scientology organization of receiving $75,000 from US

businessman Bob Minton. She herself described the sum as a private loan,

but the Scientologists saw it as bribery and accepting favors, because

Caberta dealt with Minton professionally and could no longer be impartial

towards him.



"The decision for a fine is apparently a settlement between prosecution

and defense. The state attorney had originally filed for criminal charges,

but did not want to pass up the fine. In the case at hand Caberta will not

be regarded as a convicted criminal.  Legally the criminal proceedings

will be seen as 'provisionally suspended.' Court spokesperson Sabine

Anette Westphalen said, 'If Mrs. Caberta accepts the fine, the proceedings

will be definitively over.'"



Message-ID: Pine.LNX.3.96.1020628094932.164A-100000@darkstar.zippy





Xenu.net



Corporate Counsel magazine published an article on June 25, 2002 on the

Google search engine, and the legal threats Scientology made to remove

links to Scientology awareness web site Xenu.net.



"Kulpreet Rana, director of legal affairs at Google Inc., received several

letters from the Church of Scientology International alleging copyright

infringement. If Web surfers looked for information about the church using

Google's search tools, the results brought up confidential documents. The

church insisted that Google remove the links. In typical Silicon Valley

fashion, Rana consulted the Mountain View, California-based company's

engineers for a high-tech legal solution. They decided to remove the links

to the confidential material to shield Google from legal trouble.



"But Rana didn't want to leave it at that, and the engineers added another

twist. Now, if a user finds one of the links that bothered the

Scientologists, a message on Google.com encourages him to visit

chillingeffects.org, a pro-First Amendment Web site founded by the

Electronic Frontier Foundation and a handful of law school clinics. Posted

on chillingeffects.org is the Scientologists' cease-and-desist letter to

the search engine.



""The church's letter listed 85 copyrighted works, including secret,

advanced teachings as well as photographs and texts drawn from the

church's official publications. Alongside each entry was the Web address

where the document could be found on www.xenu.net, a site calling itself

'Operation Clambake' that is critical of Scientology.



"At least one rival search engine saw a spike in removal requests after

Google's delisting of the anti-Scientology Web pages. Says Sharon Anolik,

associate general counsel and chief privacy officer at Ask Jeeves Inc.,

based in Emeryville, Calif.: 'We don't like the idea of having to remove

sites from our results. And neither did Google. But the DMCA does require

this.'



"Scientology lawyer Helena Kobrin says her small firm has been trying to

hold online service providers responsible for revealing unpublished

copyrighted works since the mid-1990s. Technology has emboldened

infringers, observes Kobrin: 'It's easy to hide behind a computer.' While

she doesn't object to the church's legal notices being made public on

chillingeffects.org, she does take offense at the site's name. 'It implies

that the First Amendment gives people some special right to infringe

copyrights,' says Kobrin, a Scientologist who has represented the church

for 16 years.



"Robin Gross, a staff attorney for intellectual property at the Electronic

Frontier Foundation, describes such cease-and-desist notices as 'bully

letters' or 'legal torpedoes' unlikely to hold up in court. But few

recipients want to take their fights into the ring, she says, noting that

her organization has been looking for the right case to put digital

copyrights to the test."



Message-ID: rZ1S8.524$mp2.276329@newshog.newsread.com





Keith Henson



Scientology this week filed another action against Keith Henson, arguing

that he is violating the terms of a permanent injunction against him to

not publish Scientology's secret NOTS materials.



"Religious Technology Center moves this Court to issue an Order to Show

Cause directing that defendant H. Keith Henson appear at an evidentiary

hearing before this Court on a date certain and to there and then show

cause why he should not be adjudicated in civil contempt of the Permanent

Injunction entered by this Court on June 16, 1997 in this action.



"The grounds for this motion are that defendant Henson has made postings

to the Internet that contain matters infringing RTC's copyrights in NOTs

56 and in NOTs 34, the same work for which he was previously adjudicated

as liable for copyright infringement in the action in which he was also

previously held in contempt by this Court for posting a sealed transcript

with portions of the work to the Internet. Additional grounds for this

motion are that in violation of the 1997 Injunction, Henson has been

inducing and encouraging others to infringe.



"Apparently believing that because he has fled the United States, and

therefore is no longer constrained by the Permanent Injunction entered in

this action, Henson has openly and arrogantly violated that Injunction.

RTC believes otherwise, and on this motion, asks the Court to issue an

Order setting an evidentiary hearing and directing Henson to appear and

show cause why he should not be adjudicated in civil contempt of the

Permanent Injunction."



Scientology is also attempting to remove the judge from Keith's bankruptcy

case, on the grounds that he is biased against Scientology.



"The grounds for this motion are the bankruptcy court's manifest bias

against RTC and the Scientology religion, his aiding of the debtor's

fugitive status, while permitting him to remain a chapter 13 debtor, and

his continuing unwillingness or inability to conduct an evidentiary

hearing on RTC's Motion to Dismiss, pending for nearly two years in a

bankruptcy proceeding that has been pending for more than four years. In

addition, Henson has committed contempt of the district court's Permanent

Injunction, which is being urged as further evidence of Henson's bad faith

in support of dismissal. As RTC's contempt motion will be heard by the

district court, judicial economy suggests it should also withdraw the

reference and address the related issues.



"In its most extraordinary April 22, 2002 Order, the bankruptcy judge

blatantly violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States

Constitution by prohibiting one of creditor Religious Technology Center's

long-standing counsel of record from access to discovery responses to be

made by debtor, H. Keith Henson, on the sole ground that counsel is an

adherent to the Scientology religion, and also aided and abetted Henson to

maintain his fugitive status in Canada by denying RTC's request that

Henson appear for further deposition in California.



"By his April 22, 2002 Order, the bankruptcy judge has now demonstrated,

beyond any shadow of doubt, that he is so insensitive and so biased

against RTC and the Scientology religion, that he is legally unqualified

to further preside over Henson's chapter 13 bankruptcy case.



"By that same order, the bankruptcy judge has again cast himself as an

alder and abettor of Henson, who has fled the United States and remains a

fugitive from a sentence of incarceration imposed by a California State

Court.



"In his April 22, 2002 order, in plain English, in words that do not admit

of any inoffensive interpretation, the bankruptcy judge held that 'the

identity of Debtor's employer must be disclosed, but only to Creditor's

outside counsel who are not members of the Church of Scientology or

members of Creditor.' It is, pure and simple, nothing less than a ruling

depriving RTC of one of its long-standing counsel, thus trampling upon the

constitutional rights of both RTC and its counsel, Ms. Kobrin."



Message-ID: 3d1e35b5.7723316@news2.lightlink.com

Message-ID: 3d2014b8.64822593@news2.lightlink.com

Message-ID: 3d1d27b3.4136660@news2.lightlink.com





Narconon



A letter to the editor of the Carroll Star News on June 7th objected to

the newspaper's expose on the links between Narconon and Scientology as it

attempts to get a zoning variance in Carrollton, Georgia.



"An article of 5 May and commentary to a letter published on 26 May

expressed considerable hostility towards the Narconon program and inferred

that representatives of Narconon were disavowing any relationship to the

Church of Scientology.  As is made clear in numerous pages of Narconon

International's website, the Narconon program was founded by a man named

William Benitez in Arizona State Prison in 1996 and later incorporated by

him as an independent non profit public benefit corporation. Mr, Benitez

based the Narconon program, which means supply 'no drugs.' on the research

of author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard.  Although corporately separate

and distinct from the Church of Scientology from its beginning, the

Narconon network has long enjoyed a warm friendship with Scientology and

Scientologists."



"Clark Carr

president, Narconon International



"Editor's response: The Carroll Star News reporter, J. Pilkonis accurately

reported that the Narconon representatives who visited Carroll County's

planning and zoning meetings (and the Star News office) denied any

association with the Church of Scientology. Later, in person, I pointedly

stated to Susan Webb (public relations representative of the Church or

Scientology) that I also was told by these two Narconon representatives

they did not have any relationship with them. She had no direct response

for me, and instead continued to speak of how great the organizations was.

Since Mr. Carr is the president of Narconon International and states: 'In

fact, the majority of new Narconon facilities established since that time

have been made possible by be volunteer and financial support given by

Scientologists,' I will assume that Narconon IS directly associated with

the Church of Scientology, and the two representatives were either grossly

misinformed or lying."



The newspaper published a commentary by J. Pilkonis on June 9th on the

Narconon controversy.



"Hello, and welcome to another great JP column - the only column in

Carroll County, incidentally to win six consecutive Pulitzer prizes, a

Grammy for the audio recording of Brando Reads Pilkonis, and an

unprecedented twelve academy awards for the film version of The 'P' Stand

for Prima Donna: The JP Story, staring Nathon Lane as Bill Chappell,

Jackie Chan as Brian Crotty. Pathways' Joan Moore taking the part of,

well, just about anybody and, in a role which will shock you, Dr. Jack

Kevorkian as Sue Horn.



"As I write this in my fabulous 48 room mansion in the South of France

chomping on Beluga caviar and the generic brand of Ritz crackers, I am

busily dictating my next bestseller to my new secretary, Connie Chung, and

insisting to the powers that be that before I agree to let them carve my

face on Rushmore, that Jefferson character has to go.



"Are you impressed yet? I should hope not, because blatant lies should

never be something which benefits the one impairing them. Unfortunately,

one group of people who haven't quite picked up on this seem to be those

in charge of Narconon International, which, as we've finally confirmed, is

indeed tied both spiritually and financially to the Church of Scientology.



"We've now been visited on several occasions by both representatives of

Narconon and the Scientologists. They were caught in lie after lie after

lie, and when confronted with the truth, they opted to lie more.  It got

so hard to take that I forcibly terminated our meeting with Susan Webb.

There was no point in going on. Her purpose - proving herself a liar - had

been fulfilled.



"The targets of Narconon are those cursed with addictions, people who are

intrinsically weak and vulnerable. Is Narconon a vehicle for the Church of

Scientology to recruit new members? I would not say yes or no on the

subject, but consider this: Norseman says 'No.' and their reputation for

honesty, at least in our dealings with them is utterly nil.  The big joke

is that the Narconon/Scientologist camp don't seem to realize that they

wouldn't be under a fraction of the scrutiny they're currently

experiencing if they had just played it clean and honest from the very

beginning. It's true that they would have had a hard row to hoe, being

involved with something as eccentric as L. Ron Hubbard's rantings.



"This to no time for Bowdon residents to be complacent. Folks, now that

you know what kind of people you're dealing with, it's time to take real

action. Let your legislators know how you feel. Remind them that you'll

remember how they voted on the Narconon issue. It's my opinion that we're

dealing with a potentially dangerous situation here. But make your on

decisions, then act, for yourselves, and for the good of your community."



Message-ID: 3d1f05d7.126559035@news2.lightlink.com

Message-ID: 3d201a8a.131859235@news2.lightlink.com





Protest Summary



Keith Henson reported a protest at the Toronto, Canada org on June 22nd.



"There were 4 of us, Arel, the unknown picketer, Gregg and me up the

street. Brian McPherson was taking pictures of Arel. In fact, we

understand from one of the locals Brian is there every Saturday just in

case we show up. We got a huge number of acks, but only gave out about 150

flyers. That area is just saturated.



"When Gregg and Arel first showed up there was this 18 yo with his mother.

They were looking into the testimonials window. The kid had a copy of What

is Scn in his knapsack. The kid was trying to sell her on spending her

retirement money. He was ready to fight Gregg, grabbed a flyer, crushed it

and threw it at Gregg. His mother was mortified and apologized. She went

on in and was put on the cans and everything, but was looking out the

window at the xenu flyer. Came back out and had a huge argument with the

kid. She went on up the street and the kid went back into the org, likely

a disconnect case."



Rod Keller reported a protest at the Washington, DC org on June 29th.



"Arnie Lerma, Duncan Pierce and I decided to protest the Washington, DC

org.  We put in two hours despite the burning sun of the south.  Arnie was

carrying his 'Danger: Greedy Cult Zone' sign, Duncan had the 'Scientology:

the Church with a Body Count sign,' and I had my 'Stop Hurting Families,

Scientology' sign.



"We had a very slow and methodical sidewalk cleaning with a hose for most

of the protest. It didn't stop us from going back and forth as we pleased.

She took an hour and a half to clean 30 feet of sidewalk.  I had my usual

'Why I Protest' flyers, of which I distributed about 300.  A young woman

came running back for another flyer, reporting that a Scientologist was

standing down the block and took her flyer. She said he would walk up to

people and say 'Wow, that looks interesting, can I have that?' After that

I told everybody headed in that direction to 'Make sure the Scientologist

in the yellow shirt doesn't take your flyer. He doesn't want you to read

this.' Arnie was on the triangle across the street, and reported that they

guy didn't get any more flyers after that.



"We had a couple of interesting passers-by. A couple told Arnie that they

knew all about how bad Scientology is. Arnie asked how they came to know

that. 'I grew up in Clearwater, Florida' was the answer. We also had a

young man tell us he worked in the org for three weeks. 'They had me

talking to doll babies, so I quit.' The look on his face was hysterical.

Handler Sylvia Stanard was primarily concerned with the number of

protesters, being three and not a thousand I guess. Duncan had the line of

the day, 'How many does it take to make a statement?'"



Message-ID: 3d192666.57325331@news2.lightlink.com

Message-ID: 9THT8.260$d34.238026@monger.newsread.com





Switzerland



Tages-Anzeiger reported on June 26th that two Scientologists have been

sentenced in Zurich, Switzerland for fraud.



"Two former Scientology adherents were sentenced on Tuesday by the Zurich

Superior Court for millions in fraud. An attorney received 27 months in

prison and his accomplice got punishment suspended.



"The superior court has confirmed the judgment of the Zurich district

court of 1999. The principal convicted party, a formerly high-ranking

Scientology member and long-term magistrate in eastern Switzerland, had

defrauded over 200 investors of about 15 million franks (over 10 million

dollars) in the early 1990s with false promises of returns, according to

the indictment. The attorney was supported in the data processing

department by another Scientologist.



"In December 1999 the primary accused was sentenced to two years nine

months in prison by the Zurich District Court. His accomplice got away

with six months prison suspended for aiding and abetting.  Based on the

defendants' unblemished conduct since then, the superior court reduced the

sentences on appeal by six and three months respectively."



Message-ID: Pine.LNX.3.96.1020626204755.125A-100000@darkstar.zippy





John Travolta



U.K. Newspaper The Independent published a column on June 28th on

Scientology celebrity John Travolta.



"There was a time, probably around 1978, when I'd have envied any woman

married to John Travolta. Now, however, I feel nothing but pity for poor

Kelly Preston. For starters, there's Travolta's Scientology, and the

Scientology-related films. Then there are the films that have nothing to

do with Scientology, but are rubbish anyway. Then there is the passion for

flying Qantas aeroplanes, which he is now about to indulge by taking the

whole family on a trip around the world in his 707 jet.



"Surely Travolta doesn't need the money. Perhaps he just likes dressing up

in costumes and looking skywards with a mad glint in his eye. Possibly

because he thinks that up in the sky he is closer to L Ron Hubbard.  He

couldn't sound like less of a catch if he had knickers on his head and two

pencils up one nostril. My one, fervent prayer? That somewhere up her

sleeve, Kelly has an excellent divorce lawyer."



Message-ID: zz0T8.933$mp2.592010@newshog.newsread.com