Media clips regarding FACTNet and the Nature of Scientology

"Ruined lives. Lost fortunes. Federal crimes. Scientology poses as a religion but really is a ruthless global scam -- and aiming for the mainstream."
--Richard Behar, "Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power," Time, 5/6/91

"Attention gravitated towards stories of brain-washing, stolen church papers, ongoing harassment, X Files-level security, FBI investigations, psychosis, and even suicide. It underscored the complexity and drama within the world of this 20th-century religion, and ex-Scientologists say those stories are just the tip of the iceberg.
--"Scientology's Secrets," Internet World, 12/95

"Among the materials confiscated are reports of hundreds of suicides and attempted suicides of kids going psychotic during secret cult initiations that have been described on the Internet."
--Denver Post, 8/23/95

"It is a story of kidnapping and mysterious suicides of defecting members, 'Mafia-like' intimidation against critics, Scientology's covert war against its sworn enemy: psychiatry, and the organization's use of celebrity out-reach programs and high-priced public relations firms to maintain a favorable image. In court decisions, judges have even characterized Scientology as 'schizophrenic and paranoid' and 'corrupt, sinister, and dangerous'...From the very first stages, defectors and psychiatrists claim that members are hypnotized and brainwashed into a dependency...an induced mind-control that can be as powerful as any drug addiction."
--The American Jurist, student magazine of the Washington College of Law, 11/95

"Scientology is quite likely the most ruthless, the most classically terroristic, the most litigious and the most lucrative cult the country has ever seen. No cult extracts more money from its members."
--Cynthia Kisser, the network's Chicago-based executive director, as quoted in Time, 5/6/91

"This is a criminal organization, day in and day out. It makes Jim and Tammy [Bakker] look like kindergarten."
--Vicki Aznaran, one of Scientology's six key leaders until 1987, as quoted in Time, 5/6/91

"An Internal Revenue Service ruling in 1967 stripped Scientology's mother church of its tax-exempt status. A federal court ruled in 1971 that Hubbard's medical claims were bogus and that E-meter auditing could no longer be called a scientific treatment. Hubbard responded by going fully religious, seeking First Amendment protection for Scientology's strange rites. His counselors started sporting clerical collars. Chapels were built, franchises became "missions," fees became "fixed donations," and Hubbard's comic-book cosmology became "sacred scriptures... "During the early 1970s, the IRS conducted its own auditing sessions and proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts... "Pending charges against more than 100 of its overseas church members include fraud, extortion, capital flight, coercion, illegally practicing medicine and taking advantage of mentally incapacitated people... "As long as the organization's opponents and victims are successfully squelched, Scientology's managers and lawyers will keep pocketing millions of dollars by helping it achieve its ends."
--Richard Behar, "Scientology: Cult of Greed and Power," Time, 5/6/91

"It is here that [Scientologists in training] learn that they may not interpret, analyse, or discuss any of the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. They must simply study them, and then apply them. NO DISCUSSION of them is permitted at all. Discussion...is called 'Verbal tech', and the penalties for this are outlined..."
---Kim Baker, "Basic Coercive Tactics," 8/28/95

"People who attack Scientology are criminals."
--L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, author of Dianetics

"In my opinion the church has one of the most effective intelligence operations in the U.S. rivaling even that of the FBI."
--Ted Gunderson, former head of the FBI's Los Angeles office, quoted in Time May 6, 1991

"Free speech advocates say the Scientology lawsuits are designed to censor discussion on the Internet, opening up 'netizens' to costly lawsuits over content, and taking away much of its unfettered appeal."
--Thomas Maier, "The Net: Copyright or 'Free Press'?" Newsday, 10/10/95

"If the church's lawsuits prevail...future providers of bulletin boards and newsgroups on the World Wide Web, as well as the companies running such subscriber services as Prodigy, Compuserve, and America Online might be forced to monitor or restrict information simply because they fear being sued...If system operators are liable for the content of the postings, it will lead to censorship...It would change the whole idea of how the Internet develops -- it's that important."
--Shari Steele, attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as quoted in "The Net: Copyright or 'Free Press'?" Newsday, 10/10/95

"The Church of Scientology is suing cybernauts, the Washington Post, and individual reporters. Is the Church trying to squelch speech through lawsuits?"
--"A Religious Belief in Lawsuits," Washington City Paper, 9/29/95

"The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win."
--L. Ron Hubbard

"Besides the technological curtailment of free speech, a skirmish like this one has the potential to completely disrupt the online operation not only of individual users, but also of entire networks overloaded by traffic their circuits were never designed to handle." --Colman Jones, "Freedom Flames Out on the 'Net: Who Launched the largest-ever Sabotage of the Internet?" www.now.com/issues/15/44/News/feature.html

"Other groups could adopt the Scientology strategy to stifle the unfettered, no-holds-barred talk that has characterized the Internet."
--Kevin Coughlin, "Scientology Posts Lead Net Activists to Mull Limiting Cherished Free Speech," New Jersey Star-Ledger, 5/31/96

"Other [internet] users have reported mysterious incidents: investigators visiting their neighbors, strangers attempting to get into their telephone records, e-mail sent to their sysadmins asking that their accounts be closed down. How did we get to this, in a free country?... "It turns out that a belief in free speech and an interest in Scientology may involve you in the bitterest battle fought across the Internet to date. A fight that has burst the banks of the Net and into the real world of police, lawyers, and armed search and seizure. Ultimately, however, the drama doesn't matter: the real issues here are the boundaries of free speech and the future of copyright and intellectual property in the face of a technology that can scatter copies across the world in seconds... "Whatever the motives, when computers are seized because they contain allegedly purloined intellectual property, messages are intercepted as they traverse the network, or the security of anonymous remailers is pierced by police, the days of the Internet as a cozy, private, intellectual cocktail party are over. Welcome to real politics."
--Wendy M. Grossman, "alt.scientology.war," Wired, 8/95