Since some of the materials which describe the $cientology cult could be
considered to be copywritten materials, I have censored myself and The
Skeptic Tank by deleting any and all possible text files which describes
the cult's hidden mythologies. I have elected to quote just a bit of the
questionable text according to the "Fair Use" legal findings afforded to
those who report. - Fredric L. Rice, The Skeptic Tank, 09/Sep/95
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From: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Eugene Ingram in Oklahoma, 1992
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 12:38:36 -0500
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Here's something I haven't posted in a while. It is from
the book _Countercultures: A Sociological Analysis_, by
William W. Zellner, a professor of sociology at East Central University
in Ada, Oklahoma. The book was published in 1995 by St. Martin's Press.
The following excerpt is from pages 125-27.
------------------------
Church Detectives
In recent years, in place of church members the Office of Special
Affairs has hired private detectives to harass and intimidate
perceived enemies. The detectives provide the church with plausible
deniability when odious activities are brought to the public's attention.
Working from the premise that everyone has something to hide, detectives
hired by the Church of Scientology plot to intimidate adversaries. A
U.S. District judge in Washington, D.C. had his sex life investigated.
In running down a "squirrel" (Hubbard's term for former members who
teach Dianetics, usually at a lower price than the church charges), one
of the detectives passed out business cards that read "Special Agent,
Task Force on White Collar Crime. [50] In talking to the squirrel's
neighbors and banker, the detective suggested that the subject of
his inquiry was implicated in drug smuggling and terrorism, which were
totally false accusations. On another occasion, detectives told the
neighbors of an antagonistic former Scientologist that she had pinworms.
[50] Sappell and Welkos, "On the Offensive against an Array of Suspected
Foes", Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1990.
Such abuses are not isolated incidents, but not enough pages are
available in this chapter to recount all the excesses of the Church
of Scientology's detectives. Nevertheless, church efforts to discredit
civic leaders in Newkirk, Oklahoma, to pave the way for Narconon must be
retold, if only to add humor to what has been to this point a rather bleak
narrative.
After Bob Lobsinger exposed Narconon in his paper [the _Newkirk
Herald Journal_] as a Scientology front, Scientologists spread the
rumor that anyone who opposed the drug treatment center at Chilocco
must be an advocate for drugs. The same accusation was leveled at
Newkirk pastors who spoke from the pulpit against Scientology. This kind
of attack might work in a big city where people don't know their
neighbors, but it did not work in Newkirk where everybody knows everyone
else and everthing about the -- including whether they have pinworms. The
effort only served to further alienate the community from the
Scientologists.
I asked Lobsinger if he was afraid that the Church of Scientology
would sue him. "Look around you," he said. "All I've got is this old
building and a couple of old computers that half the time don't work. And
apart from that, I head that they are way behind on paying their attorneys'
bills. Let them sue! I haven't written anything that isn't true."
Lobsinger also said that the church's attorneys had sent an open letter
to many of Newkirk's citizens advising them that "a few local individuals
have sought to create intolerance by broadsiding the Churches of
Scientology in stridently uncomplimentary terms." The letter further
informed readers that Eugene Ingram, a private detective, had been hired
to investigate the matter.
Ingram's first contact in Newkirk was with Mayor Garry Bilger's
twelve-year-old son, whom he found browsing in the local public library.
He handed the youngster a business card and told him to have his father
call him. Lobsinger called it a bit of "subtle intimidation. It really
unnerved his mother."
Also according to Lobsinger, "Investigators ... camped out at the
local courthouse, where they searched public records for `dirt' on
prominent local citizens. They were checking on the banker, the
president of the school board, the president of the Chamber of
Commerce, and, of course, the mayor and his family, and me."
Rambo tactics do not work in Newkirk. The more the detectives dug,
the angrier the citizens' response became. Finally, Kirstie Alley
came to Oklahoma in an attempt to defuse the negative response to
the Church of Scientology. Lobsinger reported in the _Herald Journal_:
Scientology is not an organization we need in our midst,
no matter how many TV barmaids they parade before the governor.
It was just another desperation dog and pony show to generate
a little free publicity and impress folks who don't know any
better yet.
Hollywood, long the neurotic center of the universe, and
its equally strange population of overpaid shiny people,
fails to impress most Oklahomans, who tend to laugh at them
instead of with them. There's a big difference; it just
doesn't show up in the Nielsen ratings. [51]
[51] Newkirk Herald Journal, October 12, 1992
--
Ron Newman rnewman@cybercom.net
Web: http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/home.html