Bangladesh



The Daily Star reported on December 23rd that a representative from

Narconon participated in a seminar on drug abuse in Bangladesh.



"Drug trafficking is accelerating at an alarming pace in the country,

noted the speakers at a seminar yesterday in the city. The seminar on drug

abuse prevention and rehabilitation was organised by the Centre for

Sustainable Development and Research (CSDR).



"The speakers focused on various ways of addressing the drug abusing

problem and stressed the need for proper treatment and rehabilitation of

the addicted population. Medicinal drugs or pain killers can have a long

term damaging effect on the addict, both mentally and physically, noted

Clark R. N. Carr, president, Narconon International. He stressed on pain

free drug withdrawal process utilising specific nutrition and other

assists. The seminar was chaired by Prof. Samir K Saha, advisor, CSDR.

Khondoker Mahbubuddin Ahmed, member of parliament, spoke as the chief

guest in the occasion."



Message-ID: u92e0vcsn5a6trc0013thkqc47cci2u8u1@4ax.com





Buffalo Org



The Buffalo News reported on December 22nd that Scientology has found a

new location for the Buffalo org. The old building is to be demolished to

make room for a parking ramp.



"A historic building in the 800 block of Main Street, which began its life

as a religious gathering place, is about to become the new home of

Buffalo's Church of Scientology. The Scientologists will move into the

former Buffalo Catholic Institute building, at 836 Main St. on the

southwest corner of Main and Virginia streets, early next year when they

move from their current location at 47 W. Huron St.



"Built in 1893, the three-story structure, with two mezzanine levels, is

one of a handful of Beaux Arts-style buildings in Buffalo. The

ivory-colored exterior of the stone and brick building features intricate

medallion brackets, copper projecting cornices, egg and dart moldings, and

highly decorative friezes. Its eye-catching features also include a row of

two-story arched windows that grace its Main Street facade.



"The decision to purchase the turn-of-the-century building ends a more

than yearlong saga involving the church's current home on West Huron. The

city had been trying to gain control of the site for expansion of its Owen

P. Augspurger Parking Ramp, a pursuit that led to heated Common Council

debate, packed public hearings and even a federal court suit by the church

to prevent the city from acquiring the property through eminent domain.



"Earlier this month the city and church came to an agreement under which

the city will pay $740,000 for the West Huron site, a figure that will

cover the appraised value of the four-story building and relocation costs.

The church declined to reveal the purchase price of its new home, but real

estate sources put it at around $400,000."



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Flag Land Base



Source Magazine reported some of the news from Flag Land Base in

Clearwater, Florida.



"Clearwater Volunteer Ministers take responsibility for their community. -

Judy Fagerman, Volunteer Minister I/C for Clearwater and Sandra Deigner,

Deputy I/C, have been delivering LRH tech flat out since they set up a

booth at local outdoor market. 'Last Sunday, we gave stress tests and many

nerve assists,' said Judy. 'During one of them, the person blew a somatic

he'd had for eight months.' That man went right to the Clearwater Mission

to find out more.



"Judy and Sandra are also disseminating over the radio. After one recent

show where they covered LRH Assist Tech, and the cause of suppression, a

woman who had been listening in her care drove straight over to the

station. She's now on The Bridge. The VM's are involved in many other

activities including hatting local groups on LRH Assist Tech, such as the

local Boy Scout troop.



"The Community Learning Center in Clearwater, run by Scientologist Sharon

Hillestad, has joined forces with one of its best pupils in the adult

literacy program, former cruiserweight boxing champion Tyrone Booze.

Utilizing Tyrone's talents as a boxer - and his winning stance as last

year's recipient of the Tampa Bay Reads Adult Student of the Year award -

he and Sharon started the Smart Fighter Program. There, black youth can

get off the streets and go to daily boxing lessons - with the added punch

that they also learn how to read and write. This program is already so

effective that Tyrone was recently honored as the Tutor of the Year for

the Tampa Bay region."



Message-ID: LEBVKYCQ37615.8468518518@anonymous.poster





New Zealand



The New Zealand Press Association reported on December 27th that

Scientology will be recognized as a tax-exempt charity in New Zealand.



"The Church of Scientology will not pay any more income tax after the

Inland Revenue Department declared it a charity, the church said today.

The IRD said the church was a charitable organization dedicated to the

advancement of religion and its income would be tax exempt. The New

Zealand branch of the church, started in the United States by science

fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, was founded in Auckland in 1955."



Message-ID: 797f716c.0212262045.3e74e530@posting.google.com





Leipzig Human Rights Award



The European-American Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious

Freedom in the USA announced this week that the winner of its annual award

will be Andreas Heldal-Lund, creator of the Operation Clambake web site.



"The European-American Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious

Freedom in the USA (EACC) is pleased to announce Andreas Heldal-Lund of

Stavanger, Norway as the recipient of the 2003 Leipzig Human Rights Award.

The award will be presented on May 17 in the Old Stock Market in Leipzig,

the city known as the birth place of the East German civil rights

movement.



"Mr. Heldal-Lund is the fourth recipient of the Leipzig Award, which has

been given each year to individuals who have made outstanding

contributions to the achieving of the human rights reforms that the EEAC

seeks in US-operated totalitarian cults. Mr. Heldal-Lund is an Information

Technology professional and free speech proponent who created and

maintains the most famous Internet site in the world Operation Clambake

http://www.xenu.net/ --that exposes and opposes the fraud and human rights

violations of the US-based Scientology organization.



"Scientology has attacked Mr. Heldal-Lund and his Internet Service

Providers with lawyer threat letters and a black propaganda campaign, and

caused a succession of ISPs to terminate his service. In February this

year, bowing to pressure from Scientology lawyers employing the US law

called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the widely used

Internet search engine Google removed links to Operation Clambake from its

directory. But Mr. Heldal-Lund held his ground, contending that

Scientology withholds important information about its teachings that he

was making available, and that people perhaps would not join the cult if

the full information was accessible. Free speech advocates around the

world rushed to his defense, mounted an Internet and print media campaign,

and forced Google to put Clambake back into its search engine."



Message-ID: 3E0CE02E.1030601@is.in-berlin.de





Russia



Gerry Armstrong reported on a recent trip to Ekaterinburg, Russia, where

he participated in a conference on cults and Scientology.



"We'd been invited to Ekaterinburg by Archbishop Vincent of the

Ekatrinburg Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church to participate in a

three-day conference on dangerous cults sponsored by the Church, with the

blessing of Alexey II, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, and by the

Government of the Urals Federal District.



"There were a few over three hundred attendees at the conference, which

took place in an auditorium of the Urals Academy of State Service, and

perhaps thirty people presented papers on various sociological,

psychological or theological topics relating to cults. I gave a talk in

three parts on Scientology, which was translated into Russian as I spoke

by Professor Alexander Dvorkin.



"A number of TV and print media personnel attended, and at the end of the

first morning session we had a press conference in a separate meeting room

in the Academy with several TV stations participating.  In the afternoon,

a group of twelve of us, including both bishops, had a very positive

meeting with the Presidential Plenipotentiary in the Urals Federal

District Pyotr Latyshev. I had the opportunity to tell him about my

personal experiences and knowledge of Scientology. He seemed genuinely

interested in the cult's intelligence structure and activities, which is

quite understandable because he was, I believe, a general in the Russian

army before being appointed as President Putin's Representative in the

Urals.



"After giving one part of my conference talk, a young woman, who was not

part of the program, walked onto the stage, up to the podium and began to

mouth some promo for Scientology. She was ushered away from the podium and

out into the hallway, where I spoke to her and proposed that we have a

debate, which she accepted. The young woman, who gave her first name as

Maria, but whose family name I didn't get, said that she is an employee of

the cult in Ekaterinburg, and has been a Scientologist for five years. As

it turned out, she really didn't want to debate Scientology, but wanted

only to give her commercial for the cult. Nevertheless, I had the

opportunity to tell her some of my experiences and ask her some questions

to attempt to get her to discuss wogs' concerns about Scientology.



"Over the next two days of the conference, in addition to presenting the

second and third parts of my paper, I participated in a flurry of media

engagements. We had a second press conference in the Ekaterinburg Media

Center building, with nine television channels (or at least cameras)

present and several newspaper representatives. Right after the press

conference I gave two additional interviews to TV journalists. At a

separate TV station, I did an interview for a half-hour show, which will

also include talks with Professor Dvorkin and Novosibirsk Archpriest

Alexander Novopashin.  And I did a talk-format show, with Professor

Dvorkin participating and translating, which will be televised around

Christmas.



"I accepted Maria's invitation and visiting the Ekaterinburg Scientology

office, along with local priests Father Vladimir and Father Nikita,

Professor Dvorkin, Pastor Thomas Gandow, and two television station crews.

I didn't go inside the cult's office, because the large Scientologist

blocking the entrance wouldn't specifically invite me in, but all the

others entered and engaged the Scientologists in dueling videocams, and

even some precious dialogue. The Scientologists were apparently giving

visitors to their center black PR documents on their designated enemies,

including Professor Dvorkin and me, and it was reported that they sent to

Ekaterinburg officials an accompanying letter similar to their 2001 black

PR letter to Nizhny-Novgorod officials.



"At one point, the large Scientologist grabbed Dvorkin in a sort of

Russian bear hug, and someone else called the police. Two officers arrived

and took a number of statements. During our hour or so visit, I engaged

the Scientologist man-handler in a discussion about Hubbard's lies and

Scientology's unworkability, had similar conversations with a number of

people who arrived to do courses or something, and gave interviews to the

two TV crews. That evening, our twenty-first anniversary visit to

Scientology was top news on both channels.



"Pastor Gandow and I also gave a talk to a class of sixty university

theology students, and then had a question and answer period with them. A

number of them had also attended the conference at the Academy of State

Service, so already knew us to some extent, and if time had allowed would

have kept us talking for hours.



"Our final work day in the Urals, we traveled to Asbest, at the invitation

of the Orthodox Church Parish, to give a talk in the city's Cultural

Center to about one hundred fifty people.  A number of the attendees,

which included at least two local government representatives, also asked

excellent questions, and clearly grasped the danger of certain cults. One

of the representatives expressed the observation that the people in his

country had for seventy years been suppressed by a cult which became the

government."



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UK



The Sunday Mirror reported on December 22nd that the British Home

Secretary will propose laws that distinguish Scientology and other cults

from mainstream religions.



"Brainwashing cults which prey on vulnerable youngsters are to be targeted

in a Government crackdown. Home Secretary David Blunkett is drawing up

laws that will create a new legal definition of cults distinguishing them

from mainstream religions. Mr. Blunkett says the law needs to protect

young people who are being exploited financially and sexually.



"Groups deemed to be cults will be unable to apply for charitable status,

which allows them tax perks, and they will face close financial

monitoring. Any signs that recruits are being exploited for their cash

will result in prosecutions. Laws may also be made that relate to

detaining people through psychological manipulation. Organisations that

may be affected include the US-based Church of Scientology and the

Moonies."



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