Clearwater



The St. Petersburg Times reported on January 13th that Scientology is

building a power plant and parking garage for the new Super Power

building.



"The $4-million plant will match the Mediterranean Revival style of the

massive Flag Building it will service next door. Same colors and stone

accents. Same ornate 'dentals' along the roofline. Same red, terra cotta

roof tiles. It will even have a tower similar to the much taller tower at

the southwest corner of the Flag Building. In April the church plans to

begin construction on a $3-million, three-level parking garage immediately

north of the power plant. The garage, also Mediterranean Revival, will

have spaces for 475 vehicles.



"Called the Flag Central Energy Plant, the facility will help heat and

cool not only the 889-room Flag Building but also an as-yet unbuilt

auditorium and the Fort Harrison Hotel. The 20,000-square-foot power plant

mostly will be a shell that houses a series of chillers and hot water

boilers. The water will be circulated at about 1,800 gallons per minute

through pipes about a foot-and-a-half wide to the three buildings. It will

reach the Fort Harrison Hotel through pipes in the floor of the pedestrian

bridge being built between the Fort Harrison and the Flag Building."



Flag Land Base News' January edition reported news from the Clearwater

Scientology orgs.



"Five hundred people attended the opening of Clearwater's Winter

Wonderland, an annual gift to Clearwater. Guests at the opening ceremony

included State Senator Mike Fassano, who spoke of the dedicated efforts of

Flag's Scientologists who work together to put on this event every year.

The Church of Scientology Flag Organization Boy Scout Troop also took park

in the opening, along with members of the Clearwater Fir Department.

Thousands have visited Winter Wonderland this holiday season, as it has

become one of the highlights for many Clearwater families.



"At this year IAS Christmas Party, hundreds of Scientologists acknowledged

those who have recently achieved Honor Status for contributions beyond

their lifetime IAS membership. Entertainment included singer Shannon

Roberts, and dancing to the rhythm of the Jive Aces.



"In December hundreds of Scientologists gathered in the Auditorium of The

Fort Harrison to celebrate the 27th Anniversary of The Flag Land Base.

There, the Captain Flag Service Organization, Debbie Cook, presented OT

Honor Roll and Senior OT Honor Roll awards to dedicated Flag public who

are changing conditions around the world through the application of LRH

tech and leading the way to a new civilization."



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Co-Auditing



An email being sent to Scientologists in Los Angeles promotes a system of

reciprocal "assists," using coupons to keep track of the balance of

payments.



"The LA Org Auditor Association has a real honest to goodness co-audit.

When you join you pay $2 to cover printing costs. You receive 12 and a

half hours worth of 'scrip.' Scrip looks like monopoly money. Each piece

is worth 15 minutes of session time.



"Let's say you need an assist. You may call another member or post an

email to the group email address, stating the nature of what you need and

where you are located. Whoever is available and wants to deliver the

assist will respond to you. Then you make arrangements to meet and get

your assist. You 'pay' the person in scrip. CSing is available when

needed.



"If you use up all your scrip, the only way to get more scrip is to

deliver sessions to others. These sessions can be auditing, word clearing,

ethics handlings, false data stripping, assists, CSing, anything you are

qualified to deliver. Scrip can also be used to have your family audited.

Even OTs have children or need assists sometimes!"



Message-ID: f01650a8.0301141721.6b4531ed@posting.google.com





Ireland



The Irish Times reported on January 15th and 16th that the case of a

former Scientologist who is suing the org for fraud continues in a Dublin

High Court.



"A woman agreed at the High Court yesterday that she was pursuing a legal

action for damages against the Church of Scientology partly because she

felt it was her Christian duty. She would have taken the case even if she

was a Muslim, Ms. Mary Johnston added. Ms. Johnston is suing the Church of

Scientology mission of Dublin and three of its members - Mr. John Keane,

Mr. Tom Cunningham and Mr. Gerard Ryan. She is seeking damages for alleged

conspiracy, misrepresentation and breach of constitutional rights.



"In continuing cross-examination of Ms. Johnston yesterday, Mr. Michael

Collins SC, for the defendants, suggested to the plaintiff that she

considered it part of her Christian duty to pursue proceedings against the

Church of Scientology. Ms. Johnston replied: 'I suppose I do ultimately.'

She added that she believed in the remit of Christ and, if there was

wrong, to expose it to the light. However, her main reason for taking the

action was because the things perpetrated against her had damaged her."



"A former member of the Church of Scientology claimed in the High Court

yesterday that she had been subjected by the church to hypnosis techniques

without her permission and had been upset by the procedures. Ms. Mary

Johnston said that the procedures involved a countdown and prolonged

staring for hours to induce a trance.



"Yesterday Ms. Johnston agreed with her counsel that she was given no

warning that aspects of mind control would be involved arising from her

participation in the church. Earlier, cross-examined by Mr. Michael

Collins SC, for the church, Ms Johnston denied that she had a close

connection with a trust which attempted to persuade people to leave

Scientology. She said: 'I don't work against Scientology. I simply say

what happened to me. When people come to ask for help, I help them when I

can.' She objected to being described by Mr. Collins as a 'deprogrammer'

and said she was not in a conspiracy with anybody to do anything. Because

of the length of the litigation and the stress involved in the court

action, she said, she hated to see families coming near her.



"The court was told that in May 1994 the plaintiff was persuaded by her

family to leave Scientology. She described this as a major turning point

and 'a fantastic time in her life.' Elaborating on earlier evidence on why

she had not sought medical or psychiatric assistance, Ms. Johnston said

she believed she had been healed through her relationship with God, which

had given her a sense of peace, healing and joy."



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Celebrities



The Advertiser reported on January 18th on the competition for Hollywood

celebrities between Scientology, Kabbalah and other groups.



"Madonna, not content with being a pop superstar, believes she has found

the way to unlock the secrets of the universe. The religious path she

advocates is not entirely conventional (devotional iteMs. for sale include

blessed face cream for $215 and red cotton string bracelets, said to bring

good luck, for $50), but she insists that Kabbalah, a mystical offshoot of

Judaism to which she has now turned in her attempt to have a third child,

holds the key to fulfillment. She's not the only celebrity devotee. Jerry

Hall and Mick Jagger turned to it to try to save their marriage, and

Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Roseanne Barr, Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth

Taylor, Courtney Love and Naomi Campbell are all followers and can be

identified by the bands of red thread worn around the wrist.



"Another recent conversion to off-beat religion is heir to the $7 billion

Packer empire James Packer, who reportedly jetted to New Zealand last

weekend to visit high-profile Scientologist Tom Cruise. Mr. Packer

reportedly turned to the religion after the One.Tel financial disaster and

breakup of his marriage to Jodhi. The pair have been friends for two

years, and in the past year Mr. Packer has taken an interest in his mate's

religion.



"While Madonna is trying to convert Hollywood to Kabbalah, Scientology has

become entrenched, winning over dozens of stars. John Travolta is a

long-time member, Kirstie Alley has joined, as have Catherine Bell, Kate

Ceberano, Priscilla Presley, and even the voice of Bart Simpson, just to

name a few. Other fads have struggled to gain a toehold against

Hollywood's more established religions. Demi Moore has linked herself with

New Age guru Deepak Chopra, basketball player and actor Michael Jordan

uses Zen meditation and Harrison Ford does fundraising for the Dalai Lama.



"And there's more. Followers of Transcendental Meditation (TM) founder

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi included ex-Beatle George Harrison, Elizabeth

Taylor, Laura Dern and Calvin Klein. Madonna has a lot of converting to

do."



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Lisa McPherson



The St. Petersburg Times reported on January 14th that two orders were

announced in the Lisa McPherson case.



"Ending months of speculation, a circuit judge ruled Monday that the

wrongful death lawsuit against the Church of Scientology should continue.

Judge Susan Schaeffer also ruled that Tampa attorney Ken Dandar should

remain the attorney for the estate of Lisa McPherson, which filed the

lawsuit. The rulings came in response to claiMs. by the church that the

lawsuit should be dismissed because of professional misconduct by Dandar.



"In the end, Schaeffer said she had to decide who was lying. Was it Robert

Minton, the millionaire and onetime vocal Scientology critic who gave

Tampa attorney Kenneth Dandar as much as $2-million over a five-year

period to fund the case against the church? Or was it Dandar, who Minton

testified had urged him to lie under oath about the source of funding and

the influence he exercised over the case? 'The answer is Robert Minton,'

Schaeffer concluded. Schaeffer stopped short of endorsing Dandar's claim

that the church found out about Minton's foreign bank account and used

that to extort his testimony.



"In other significant findings, Schaeffer's order stated: There was no

proof to support the estate's earlier allegation that Scientology's

worldwide leader, David Miscavige, decided to let McPherson die. She will

turn over her order to the state attorney to investigate perjury by

Minton. One of the estate's key witnesses, Jesse Prince, has extreme bias

and, in her opinion, lacks credibility. She chastised the church for 'far

too many cases' in which they have tried to disqualify the opposing

attorney.



"In a separate ruling Monday, in a case involving a countersuit by the

church against the estate, Judge W. Douglas Baird filed an order in which

he states that he plans to refer to the Florida Bar allegations that

Dandar inappropriately co-mingled funds Minton gave him. Baird stated that

there appear to have been 'serious violations' of the Florida Rules of

Professional Conduct because some of Minton's funds were deposited into

Dandar's personal accounts or investments."



From Judge Schaeffer's ruling:



"The facts lead to Plaintiffs two alternative theories in two counts of

the complaint: Count I, Wrongful Death, and Count V, Negligent Survival.

This court has denied the motion for summary judgment as to Count II of

the complaint, the Intentional and Reckless Infliction of Emotional

Distress count. There is evidence sufficient to go to the jury that Lisa

McPherson was fed on by insects while she was alive and conscious, and

there may be other allegations in that count of the complaint that the

jury may also be permitted to consider. What the court will not permit to

go to the jury - at least without further proof, is that there were

cockroaches at the Church property where Lisa was being attended, that bit

and fed on her.



"That leaves us with that part of 34 that talks about David Miscavige, the

highest ecclesiastical leader of all of Scientology. Are there any facts

that Mr. Miscavige decided to let Lisa McPherson die? The answer in a word

is 'NO.' There was evidence presented at the Omnibus Hearing, beyond Jesse

Prince's Affidavit and testimony, that Miscavige would or should have

known that Lisa McPherson was at the Church, if she were undergoing an

Introspection Rundown, and that he would or should have been kept

informed. Regardless of whether Mr. Miscavige knew that Lisa McPherson

was at the Church, undergoing an Introspection Rundown, that is a far cry

from his having 'decided to let Lisa McPherson die' and instructing Mr.

Kartuzinski and Ms. Johnson to carry out his decision.



"As to the first issue - the Minton money, and whether it was a loan, or a

donation to the Estate. If the monies received by either the Estate or

Dandar from Minton are irrelevant to the wrongful death case, as

determined by the Second District, there can be no perjury or subornation

of perjury regarding Dandar or Minton's testimony about their ownership or

purpose. That is so because perjury involves something 'material' to a

case.



"As to the second issue, where the $500,000 came from, whether it was from

Mr. Minton or someone else, it is absolutely irrelevant to any issue in

the wrongful death case. The further issue as to whether Mr. Dandar knew

it came from Mr. Minton, and told him to lie about it and not tell the

Church about this particular $500,000 check, is similarly irrelevant, and

thus immaterial to any issues in the wrongful death case.



"Was there an agreement between the Estate and Bob Minton, or between the

Estate and the Lisa McPherson Trust, Inc. that the 'bulk,' or 'substantial

amount,' of the proceeds obtained from the wrongful death case would be

given to him, an anti-cult organization controlled by him, or to the LMT?

In a word, the answer is 'NO.' This court has read every deposition of

Robert Minton, Stacy Brooks, Dell Liebreich, the sisters and brother of

Fannie McPherson, who, along with Dell Liebreich are the potential

beneficiaries of any money received by the Estate from this case. What a

witness says on one page of a deposition, in response to a question by a

lawyer, may be completely different a few pages later. There was no

agreement between the Estate and anyone else Whether or not they had an

agreement among themselves is doubtful, but irrelevant.



"This court has now determined that Mr. Dandar has not committed perjury,

nor has he suborned perjury. He has not violated this and other court's

discovery orders such that would disqualify Plaintiffs chosen counsel from

finishing this case that he started when the first complaint was filed in

1997 - 5 years ago. He did not permit Minton to 'control' or 'interfere'

with this case such that the Code was violated. He did not file a 'sham'

pleading."



From a Howard Troxler column in the St. Petersburg Times on January 15th:



"Our own local version of the O.J. Simpson case - meaning that it is

undignified, nearly out of control and taking way too long - is the civil

lawsuit pending against the Church of Scientology by the estate of Lisa

McPherson. Was Scientology legally at fault? Or was McPherson's death

simply a terribly unfortunate outcome for which the church should not be

blamed? This is why we have juries. Unfortunately, there is not much

immediate prospect of a jury hearing the case, even though we just passed

the seventh anniversary of McPherson's death. Instead, the two sides are

spending their energy accusing each other of lying, both in and out of

court.



"The sideshows of the past year have been well-publicized. Bolstered by

the conversion of its former critic and bankroller of the lawsuit, Robert

Minton, who has now recanted, Scientology has taken the counteroffensive.

Susan Schaeffer, the third judge to hear the case, spent 35 days last year

hearing the church's allegations. The church said either the Tampa

attorney representing McPherson's estate, Ken Dandar, should be removed,

or the case dismissed.



"But just this week, Schaeffer ruled that Minton's allegations against his

old lawyer Dandar are not credible. The trial - which is scheduled to

start next Tuesday - will go on. Scientology almost certainly will appeal,

which will delay the trial again.



"I asked why the church doesn't just agree to get the trial over with.

Given the medical examiner's revised conclusions, and Minton's change of

heart, doesn't the church think it can win? 'Absolutely, of course we can

win,' Shaw replied. But he immediately turned back to the subject of

Dandar, saying that the case is tangled up with various fees and judgments

that Dandar and the McPherson estate owe to the church organization.



"Dandar, for his part, called the church's attacks on him irrelevant to

the central issue. 'They've spent more on trying to get me than the

trial,' he told me, adding: 'The jury is going to decide why Lisa

McPherson died.' There have been more than 200 depositions taken in this

case, thousands of pages of record generated, at least seven or eight

scheduled trial dates and three judges. The parties are locked in a bitter

enmity that has superseded the underlying issue. Dandar said he thinks the

church is trying to wear him down, to see how long he can last. How long

is that, I asked? 'As long as I have breath.'"



The lawsuit is now delayed because Scientology has appealed the ruling

that Ken Dandar should not be disqualified. From the St. Petersburg Times

on January 18th:



"Schaeffer granted the delay so the church could appeal her earlier ruling

that Ken Dandar should not be disqualified as attorney for the estate of

Lisa McPherson, the church member who died in 1995 after 17 days in the

care of Scientologists in Clearwater. The church claiMs. Dandar ought to

be removed because of professional misconduct, including alleged perjury.

In a 67-page order released Monday, Schaeffer disagreed.



"Both sides say their efforts to follow Schaeffer's orders to try to

settle the case have now reached an impasse. But in interviews this week,

both camps shed light on how close they came to settling the bitterly

contested lawsuit. Marty Rathbun, a top church official, said a deal was

reached in a marathon mediation session the day before Thanksgiving, but

Dandar reneged. 'Everything was agreed on,' Rathbun said. 'It was settled

lock, stock and barrel.' Dandar backed out, Rathbun said, because he

personally is motivated to continue the fight. Dandar faces countersuits

by the church accusing him of abusing the legal process. He also has a

stake in the ongoing legal entanglements surrounding more than $2-million

that millionaire and one-time Scientology critic Robert Minton gave Dandar

to help fund the case.



"Dandar scoffs at that and contends that no deal was ever reached. Money

wasn't the hangup in the negotiation, he said. Instead, it was other

demands made by the church, which he refused to discuss. He branded

Rathbun's account as an attempt to drive a wedge between him and the

estate's representative, McPherson's aunt, Dell Liebreich of Texas. Dandar

said he now just wants to bring the case to trial and 'expose the truth

about what they did to Lisa McPherson'.



"Longtime Clearwater attorney Denis deVlaming, who has represented

Scientology's harshest critics, said he would be shocked if the lawsuit

ever came before a jury. 'I thought the church would either get it knocked

out, or they would wear Dandar out, or at the very end they'd settle,'

deVlaming said. 'I don't think the church wants what Dandar is going to do

in that courtroom. I think they desperately want to be legitimized. I

think they desperately want to be accepted in the community.'



"Dandar has said the estate is seeking about what one would expect from an

average nursing home abuse case involving a death. That's about

$5-million, deVlaming said. 'I'm surprised with the wealth of the church

they haven't come up with it,' he said.



"Rathbun and Dandar refused to discuss how much the church offered. Dandar

noted, though, that in two recent cases involving deaths of nursing home

patients resulting from bed sores, juries awarded $15-million and

$150-million. 'It's somewhere in between,' Dandar said of what the

McPherson estate seeks."



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Narconon



The Battle Creek Enquirer reported on January 16th that Scientology is

ready to open a new Narconon facility in Michigan this month.



"A drug and alcohol rehabilitation center is set to open at the end of

January in Pennfield Township. All of the remodeling at the Narconon Stone

Hawk Rehabilitation Center, 216 St. Mary's Lake Road, has been completed

and the center's first 20 patients should begin their stay Jan. 31, said

Kate Wickstrom, executive director of the rehabilitation clinic.



"Despite early probleMs. getting a land-use zoning variance for the former

Neuro-Rehabilitation Center and a few unexpected construction delays,

seeing the finished product is worth all of the time and money Wickstrom

and her husband, Per, put into it, she said. The renovation cost about

$500,000. Nearly every inch of the 58,000-square-foot building has been

renovated in one way or another, including the dorm areas for patients,

the dining room and an activities room. The basement is being completely

updated to house saunas and showers.



"The Stone Hawk center will follow a strict regiment of classes, eating

habits and the use of saunas as laid out by author L. Ron Hubbard in his

book 'Clear Body, Clear Mind.' It will be one of about a dozen Narconon

centers in the United States. Once the center is running at its peak,

Wickstrom said she expects to be able to have about 100 patients in the

facility at a time."



Message-ID: 8fUV9.1470$gU.579897@news2.voicenet.com





Australia



The Daily Telegraph reported on January 14th that Scientology celebrity

Tom Cruise has met with new recruit and billionaire James Packer.



"Media tycoon James Packer flew into the New Zealand town of Taranaki for

a weekend with his Hollywood pal and spiritual mentor, Tom Cruise. Cruise

is Hollywood's highest-paid actor. Mr. Packer is head of PBL and heir to

$7 billion. What has brought the two close in the past year has been

religion. Cruise, a highly-ranked 'Operating Thetan' within the Church of

Scientology, is believed to have introduced Mr. Packer to the teachings of

Ron Hubbard in the painful turmoil following the collapse of OneTel and

split from wife Jodhi in June."



From the New Zealand Herald on January 13th:



"He was seen leaving by helicopter in the direction of the Oakura mansion

Cruise is renting during filming of the Japanese period epic The Last

Samurai. Airport staff and a private pilot confirmed that Mr. Packer had

arrived. Cruise is believed to have introduced Mr. Packer to the Church of

Scientology in the past year. Mr. Packer was seen clambering back on to

the Australian-registered Falcon 200 yesterday, apparently bound for

Sydney. Mr. Packer is one of several rich and famous people expected to

visit Cruise during his time working in New Zealand."



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Reed Slatkin



The Los Angeles Times reported on January 18th that a bankruptcy judge has

ruled that Scientology minister Reed Slatkin's Ponzi scheme was a fraud

from the beginning. This opens up possible recovery of money from early

investors, including several Scientologists, who received more than they

invested.



"A bankruptcy judge in Santa Barbara ruled that Slatkin's written

agreement last year to plead guilty to fraud, conspiracy and money

laundering establishes clearly that his investment empire was a scam from

its beginning in 1986. That will make it easier to reclaim what the

bankruptcy trustee contends were 'bogus profits,' funds paid to some

investors at the expense of others to disguise 15 years of deception.



"Slatkin's scheme took in more than $550 million during the 15 years it

operated. Pilmer said the bogus profits totaled more than $180 million,

with the top 75 investors coming out ahead by $151 million. Trustee R.

Todd Neilson isn't seeking the return of any principal but wants to

reclaim the profits and distribute them to the investors who lost money,

Pilmer said.



"The investors who came out ahead contended that they also had been taken

in by Slatkin and argued that his investments were profitable, at least

early on. It will be many months before losing investors are likely to see

any funds, Pilmer said. Among other things, the court must determine

whether Slatkin was acting as a stockbroker under the narrow definition of

bankruptcy law. If he was, attorneys said, only payments from the last

year of the fraud, instead of the last seven years, must be repaid.



"U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robin Riblet said her ruling is valid only if

Slatkin doesn't try to retract his plea agreement and is sentenced as

anticipated. Sentencing is scheduled for April 21. Slatkin faces up to 15

years in prison.



"Another defendant in the suits seeking repayment is John Coale, an

anti-tobacco litigator who is the husband of CNN legal commentator Greta

Van Susteren. The suit seeks $939,000 from Coale, who said he was

finalizing an agreement to repay the funds over time, adding that others

were working on similar settlements. However, Coale questioned the wisdom

of the judge's ruling Friday, saying it relies on the word of Slatkin."



Message-ID: 5e0371c5.0301181028.315287af@posting.google.com





Anti-War



The Portland Tribune reported on January 17th that Scientology has joined

an anti-war coalition, which protests the possible war between the U.S.

and Iraq.



"'We don't agree on everything, but we are all opposed to a pre-emptive

attack, which is what this war will be,' said Frank Fromherz, head of the

Catholic Archdiocese of Portland's Office of Justice and Peace. 'Everyone

agrees that this is a terribly misguided policy.' The archdiocese is one

of many mainstream religious organizations that are working on the larger

march. So is Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, a statewide association of

17 Christian denominations, including Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian,

Protestant, Lutheran and Orthodox bodies.



"The coalition also includes such fringe religious organizations as the

Church of Scientology and the Magic Activism Cluster, which describes

itself as a network of witches working to reclaim the lost traditions of

witchcraft.



"Participants see it as one of the last chances to express their

opposition to a war that could begin within the next few weeks. Thousands

of troops recently have been dispatched to the Persian Gulf as part of the

military buildup, including 230 U.S. Marine Corps reservists based in

Portland who will head out within the next week or so."



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