Forward by Fredric L. Rice, Chairman of The Skeptic Tank:
The information provided below about the Scientology Crime Syndicate's
take-over of the Cult Awareness Network has been corrupted in several
places. I have corrected some of the text where I could discern what the
original text said yet left the rest alone where I couldn't be certain
what it originally said.
The Cult Awareness Network started out as a wholly wonderful organization
providing parents, law enforcement agencies, students, and teachers with
detailed, accurate, timely information on cults; most of note information
about the horribly destructive Scientology cult where murder and suicide
is extremely common and where brainwashing and bilking the gullible out
of every cent they have is an every-day occurrence.
Eventually the Cult Awareness Network was itself subjected to corruption
and adopted cult ideologies as its existing chairperson was replaced by
a fundamentalist Christian who's focus was in opposition to the Cult
Awareness Network's historic focus of getting people out of destructive
cults. Instead, the new chair person focus was in helping parents divert
their children from one destructive cult to the cult she was part of.
Additionally, the Cult Awareness Network started disseminating unevidenced
and obviously false information about life-affirming, non-destructive,
beneficial groups, religions, and cults, throwing all religions not held
by the chairperson into one cardboard box, labeling it all
"dangerous." The information they provided about the Scientology
cult and a broad number of like-minded cults continued to remain wholly
accurate, however, so groups, individuals, and organizations continued to
find the Cult Awareness Network a valuable resource.
Because the Cult Awareness Network spent most of its time providing
parents, law-enforcement agencies, students, and teachers with detailed
information about the Scientology cult, naturally the cult found itself
losing potential and existing followers and thus losing revenues. The
cult decided it had to abuse the United States court system any way it
could to destroy the Cult Awareness Network. This was in keeping with
the history of the cult and is in accord to the written instructions of
the cult's leader, L. Ron Hubbard.
The Scientology crime syndicate employed the tactics which are a trademark
of their cult: So-called "dead agenting" of their victims took
place during the Cult Awareness Network's destruction and, of course, the
unfounded lies and accusations, and appeal to the deceptive lies that the
crime syndicate is some how a religion all combined to convince a jury that
the crime syndicate had been wronged some how. The result was the sought-
after destruction of the Cult Awareness Network.
It came as a surprise to the Scientology crime syndicate that the judge in
the case allowed the Cult Awareness Network's paper archives to be put up
for auction to the highest bidder. Naturally acquiring a huge list
of people who contacted the Cult Awareness Network for information on their
cult was too good an opportunity for the cult to miss at any cost.
They ordered a cult front man to buy the records and, after they successfully
acquired them, decided to create a cult-operated hate group run by loyal
cult followers under the old name "Cult Awareness Network" -- a
deliberate attempt to deceive.
As it stands now, three action items must take place and quickly:
Accomplishing these corrective steps to nullify the effects of the destruction
of the Cult Awareness Network is going to be a long, hard task and yet even
as I type this, a number of cult-watch groups which are acquiring the
one-time quality of the old Cult Awareness Network are in full operation.
And yes, like the original Cult Awareness Network, the Scientology cult
continues to be of primary interest.
WARNING: The Cult Awareness Network owned, run by Scientology Crime Syndicate!
RONT PAGE WASHINGTON POST
As Former Foes Buy Its Assets
BARRINGTON, Ill.--For 20 years, the Cult Awareness Network ran the nation's
best-known hot line for parents who grew distraught when an unconventional
religious group they neither trusted nor understood suddenly won the
allegiance of their children.
From its offices here in a Chicago suburb, the network (known as CAN) answered
more than 350 telephone inquiries a week, counseled rela-tives at conferences
attended by thousands, and gave news interviews to everyone from small-town
daily newspapers to "Nightline." As CAN's influence rose, so did
the ire of its foes, who were furious at being depicted as dan-gerous cults.
In particular, Church of Scientology members fought CAN with a barrage of
lawsuits. One high-stakes suit, handled by a lawyer who has frequently
represented the church, succeeded, and a jury ordered CAN to pay as much as
$1.8 million. The group filed for bankruptcy. Now CAN's assets are up for
sale, and last week its name, logo, Post Office box and telephone number
were finally sold to the highest bidder: a Los Angeles lawyer named Steven
L. Hayes, who is a Scientologist.
Hayes says he is working with a group of people "united in their
distaste for CAN" who plan to reopen the group so it "disseminates
the truth about all religions." "It kind of boggles the mind,"
said David Bardin, an attorney who has represented CAN in Washington.
"People will still pick up the CAN name in a library book and call
saying, 'My daughter has joined the Church of Scientology.' And your friendly
CAN receptionist is someone who works for Scientology." It is a turn of
events applauded by the Church of Scientology, whose literature calls CAN
"a hate group in the tradition of the KKK and the neo-Nazis." The
Rev. Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International,
said in an interview: "I just don't think a hate organization has a
right to operate in america with impunity, and obviously the courts feel the
same way."
Hostile takeovers are nothing new in the corporate world, but this is an
exceptional tale of the hostile take-over of a nonprofit organization. The
anti-cult advocacy group is gradually being dismembered and absorbed by
its adversaries, who attorneys say have deftly outmaneuvered CAN in
the courts.
CAN's fate also highlights the crippled state of what was once a prominent
nationwide movement that for years kept america's unorthodox religious groups
on the defensive. For years CAN's charges of cult mind-control and
brainwashing helped shape the public's impressions of groups like
Scientology, the Unification Church, the Hare Krishnas, Boston Church of
Christ, Transcendental Meditation and others. But with each passing decade,
these religious groups have become increasingly mainstream and even
institutionalized, opening new houses of worship, buying universities and
other properties, attending interfaith events. Now it is the anticult camp
that no longer has an institution of its own.
Next up for auction could be 270 boxes of CAN files that former staffers
say are stuffed with confidential information about current and former cult
members, efforts to extricate them and private testimonies of anguish and
abuse. Kendrick L. Moxon, the lawyer who has frequently represented
Scientologists, is actively pursuing a purchase of these files, says the
trustee handling the bankruptcy.
"The fear [is] that this list of information could be bought by the
highest bidder," said Bob Grosswald, a Long Island dental supply
salesman who contacted CAN when his son joined the Church of Scientology,
And could only be used to harass people, to make people feel uncomfortable,
and to further damage the relationships people have to family members still
inside these cults.
How a court could even consider selling such a thing is beyond me."
The modern anti-cult movement was born in the 1960s when American youth
were experimenting with Eastern religions and alternative spirituality. The
Citizens Freedom Foundation, CAN's predecessor, became a nonprofit group in
1978, the year that [9I. f - corrupted] of fowers of the Rev. Jim Jones
died in a mass suicide at the People's Temple compound in Guyana. In 1986
the group changed its name to CAN. The next year, Cynthia Kisser, who had
turned to CAN when her younger sister joined an obscure Bible-based group,
was named executive director From its suite on the ground floor of a Tudor
style building it shared with a few accountants, CAN took telephone inquiries
from around the world about hundreds of controversial groups. Every request
for help, whether from a relative or reporter, a congressman or police
officer, was logged and filed.
Aside from Satanic groups, more callers asked about Scientology than about
any other group, according to a 1992 telephone log that CAN supplied to
Con gressional Quarterly. But CAN did not just supply information. It also
gave some parents references to self-styled "deprogrammers," whom
CAN maintained were skilled at extricating devotees from cults by
systematically challenging cult teachings and undermining beliefs. But
there were repeated cases of deprogrammers convicted for using force or
other criminal means to wrest their targets away from the cults. The CAN
board articulated a policy advocating only "legal methods" of
deprogramming, but the stigma of associating with criminals left CAN
vulnerable to its detractors.
The Scientology magazine Freedom last year devoted a special issue to CAN,
[Headed]: "The serpent of hatred, intolerance, violence and death."
An inside story called CAN's executive director Kisser "the mother of
the serpent" and purported to expose her past as a topless dancer,
which she has denied. The magazine highlighted alleged deprogramming
excesses and quoted scholars defending new religions such as Scientology.
"The time has come to do something about the Cult Awareness Network and
its anti-religious crusade," Freedom concluded. "This organization
has plagued the American people for too long."
Beginning in 1991, CAN and its local affiliates and staff were hit with a
series of lawsuits filed by several dozen members of the Church of Scientology
and others. In one week in 1992, Scientologists filed 12 suits against CAN,
Kisser said. 'Td open the door, a process server would hand me a suit, I'd
say thank you, close the door, fax it to the attorney," said Kisser, a
thin, intense woman who speaks at a machine-gun clip. "Then another
knock would come on the door. It was ridiculous." Most of the suits
were civil rights claims, according to attorneys on both sides. People who
identified themselves in the lawsuits as Scientologists alleged that the
group denied them membership or participation in CAN conferences. Others
sued because CAN would not allow them to volunteer in its national office
here. Some self-identified Scientologists sued after they attempted
to form local CAN chapters and use the CAN letterhead, and the national
CAN office refused to recognize them. Kisser said many of these were
"cookie-cutter lawsuits," in which only the plaintiff's name was
changed.
Moxon, whose law firm filed many of the suits against CAN, said: "What
would you do if you had a religious belief and somebody was intentionally
trying to destroy your church and destroy your belief and destroy your
family? I'm a lawyer. People hired me to go to court and vindicate their
rights. What could they be expected to do when there's somebody out
there who's bent on destroying them?"
Many of these lawsuits were dismissed, but CAN was cannibalizing its $300,000
annual budget to defend itself, and the five-member staff, only one of whom
worked full time, grew increasingly absorbed by the litigation, Kisser said.
What's more, she said, CAN's insurance carrier refused to renew its policy
because of all the lawsuits, and no other insurer would agree to cover
the group.
CAN struck back in 1994 with a counter-suit against the Church of Scientology,
11 individual Scientologists and the Los Angeles law firm of Bowles and
Moxon. The group's "malicious harassment" suit alleged that the
Church of Scientology orchestrated the filing of 45 unfounded and frivolous
lawsuits in an attempt to drive CAN into bankruptcy.
CAN's suit was dismissed by the Cook County Circuit Court, but an appeal is
pending in the Illinois Supreme Court.
The lawsuit that succeeded in driving CAN into bankruptcy involved an
18-year-old from Bellevue, Wash., named Jason Scott. In 1991, Scott's mother
hired a "cult deprogramruer" and two assistmits in an attempt to
get him to renounce his membership in the Life Tabernacle Church, a
Pentecostal group. Scott alleged in the suit that he was kidnapped for five
days at a beach house, handcuffed, gagged with tape and forced to watch
video tapes about religious cults. Scott feigned conversion, and when his
deprogrammeers took him to a restaurant, he ran off and went to police. In
late 1993, the county prosecutor brought charges against the deprogrammer
who was acquitted.
But the case lived on in civil court. The lawyer who took the case on
Scott's behalf was Moxon, a Scientologist and a frequent attorney for the
church in high-profile cases, who has been sued by CAN for allegedly filing
malicious lawsuits.
This time, Scott sued not only the deprogrammer and his two assistants, but
also CAN. Scott maintained the woman who referred his mother to the
deprogrammer did so as a local CAN volunteer.
The Scott case essentially put the anti-cult movement on trial. Testifying
for the prosecution, Anson Shupe, a sociologist at Indiana-Purdue University,
told the jury that CAN's persecution of Scientology was born of the same
irrational bigotry that .Sanericans earlier directed toward Baptists,
Methodists, Irish Catholics, Jews and Mormons.
"Are you saying the anti-cult movement is a cult?' Moxon asked.
"It has all aspects of it, yes," Shupe replied.
A jury found all the defendants liable and awarded Scott more than $4
million in damages, CAN was ordered to pay as much as $1.8 million; the
group has appealed.
Paul Lawrence, an attorney for CAN, acknowledges that Scott suffered an
"unfortunate" deprogrammng attempt. But CAN "did not deserve
to be swept up" in the case because the volunteer who referred Scott's
mother to the deprogramer did so without CAN's knowledge, he said.
"It is extremely unusual for a nonprofit organization to be hit with
punitive damages based on the actions of a volunteer member," said
Lawrence, who is president of the American Cidill Liberties Union in
Washington state. "This is a dangerous precedent for a wide range of
nonprofit associations .... Most nonprofits have tens or thousands of
members out there acting in a way that the nonprofits can't hope to
illOllitor."
Several nonprofit groups, include Mothers Against Drunk Driving have filed
friend-of-the-court briefs in the case.
In the meantime, CAN filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October
1995, hoping to develop a reorganization plan that would allow it to keep
operating while pursuing the appeal. CAN's main creditor is Jason Scott.
Moxon, Scott's lawyer, contested CAN's plan in bankruptcy court, and the
judge refused to approve it. In an attempt to protect its assets, CAN filed
for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last June, which meant that it transferred control
of its assets to an independent trustee.
The trustee is Philip R. Martino, a plain-speaking Chicago attorney.
"CAN doesn't exist," Martino said in an interview. 'whatever power
CAN had is now mine." The CAN Staffers were last in thier office here
on June 22, when Martino phoned to say he was coming over. He brought a
locksmith who changed the locks. he told the staff to take only their
personal belongings and leave. Kisser took photographs of her son and her
collection of turtle statues given to her over the years by supporters as
a reminder to "go slow and stick your neck out." She was not
allowed to remove her nine appointment diaties; Martino considered them
CAN assets.
Martino sold CAN's name and logo, telephone number and P.O. box -- the
essence of its identity -- along with CAN's office furniture and computers
(stripped of their hard drives) for $20,000. CAN tried to contest the sale,
but dropped the attempt this week after the judge required the group to post
a $30,000 bond first. Martino says he put CAN's name-brand assets on the
auction block only because Kisser herself asked to buy them. Her highest bid
was $19,000.
"I have an asset to sell. It's a name," Martino said. "I sell
it to the highest bidder. What the bidder does with it is not my concern. It
can't be my concern. Congress didn't make it my concern. And if I made it my
concern, I would be rewriting the bankruptcy law."
The attorney who bought CAN's identity, Steven Hayes, said in an interview
that he represents a group of several people he cannot name without
"permission." He said they put up money of their own and money
"from this country and other places." Hayes said he is a
Scientologist, not an employee of the Church of Scientology. Hayes also had
sued CAN in the early 1990s on behalf of several Scientologists who wanted
to attend CAN's national conference, according to CAN attorneys.
Hays said his group intends to revamp CAN so that "religions that have
been attacked in the past would have an opportunity to at least show what
they believe the truth to be." The anti-cult movement has now turned
to the Internet to share information. A small meeting of anti-cult activists
gathered at a Newark hotel earlier this month to discuss how best to []
on the cause, but the meeting was marred when a coterie of Scientologists
showed up uninvited, several participants say. Cynthia Kisser is suing the
Church of Scientolo~' for libel. She says she was never a topless dancer.
Scientologist Jentzsch, for his part, says that Kisser is "in the
business of spreading the bubonic plague, and she feels bad that someone
stopped her." Little remains of CAN now but 600 feet worth of fries.
CAN's trustee, Martino, says that Moxon has already mentioned his interest
in bidding for those. Martino said he won't sell the files until names and
personal information are removed, a process that he estimates will cost
about $50,000, to be paid by the buyer.
People who were heavily involved with CAN could ask to have their names
removed, Martino said. "Scientology. will pay anything to get their
hands on those files," said Robert Vaughan Young, a former Scientologist
who served as a church spokesman for 20 years before he quit and became a
church critic. "We always figured that CAN was the nexus for all the
rest of the problems [Scientology had]," he said. "So the idea of
getting the files is similar to the KGB being able to buy the files of the
CIA."
Further facts
about this criminal empire may be found at
Operation Clambake and FACTNet.
SUNDAY 1 DECEMBER 1996 page A1
Anti-Cult Group Dismembered
Network Forced Into Bankruptcy After Legal Battle
By Laurie Goodstein
Wash Post staff writer
Click here for some additional truth about the Scientology crime syndicate:
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