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From: lazyboy@ix.netcom.com (Stephen Jones )
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Media Update: 9News Report "War of the Words" Cos vs the Net
Date: 8 Oct 1995 03:18:27 GMT
Organization: Netcom
Lines: 270
Message-ID: <457fu3$429@ixnews7.ix.netcom.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ix-den7-13.ix.netcom.com
X-NETCOM-Date: Sat Oct 07 8:18:27 PM PDT 1995
9News (Denver, Colorado) aired this special news-magazine style report
on Oct 4, 1995. Created without permission, this is a transcript of
that report. All spelling, punctuation, and whatever other errors a
transcriber can make are all mine. Mine! 9News had no part in the the
making of this transcript nor did they consent to its creation (no, i
didn't ask because well...I'm a supressive person, what can you
expect.) I strove for accuracy and I believe it to be an accurate
report. I've included some additional text concerning some highlights
that may be of interest to ars readers (specific www pages and
posts..that type of thing). Hopefully this will be of some interest. I
KISS WARD LUCAS! *KISS* *KISS*, though I'm sure he would not be fond of
such behavior. Anyway, it was a very informative and gutsy report.
Thank you, 9News.
AA=Adele Arakawa (9News anchor)
ES=Ed Sardella (9News anchor)
WL=WARD LUCAS (9News anchor)
HJ=Heber Jentzsch (Presidnt of Church of Sci. International)
DD=Deb Danos (Bigwig of the Denver Org.)
LW=Larry Wollersheim (raided by the CoS. Part of FACTNET)
BP=Bob Penny (raided by the CoS. Factnet person as well.)
MR=Michael Rinder (CoS guy)
RY= Robert Vaughan Young (ex-Cos member.)
====================================================================
AA: It's the hottest action on the Internet. Tens of thousands
of people around the world are dialing in to witness a
battle involving the controversial Church of Scientology
and some of its biggest critics.
ES: But it's more than just nasty e-mail on the Information
Super-Highway, it's a struggle involving some fundamental
issues of free-speech and religion. Ward Lucas and our
I-Team report.
-cut to graphic: War of the Words
produced by Ward Lucas/John Fosholt edited by Robin
Truesdale.
-sound of phone dialing and modem connecting. Open
to what looks to be a Netscape newsreader with
Alt.Religion.Scientology highlighted.
-cut to Mr. Wollersheim standing next to a Federal
Marshall-
Fed: (to camera) You're not gonna come in. (Fed closes door)
-cut to Mr.Wollersheim-
LW: The marshalls came in, handed me a paper and said,
"We're gonna take it. Get out of our way."
-cut to Heber Jentzsch-
HJ: The church has a right to stage a raid on anyone who
has stolen information or has taken copyright.
-cut to Bob Penny-
BP: They will do anything to win.
-cut to scenes from the Boulder protest-(hiya, Mom!)-
-Deb Danos voice-over-
DD: We don't have a problem with criticism, we have a problem
with people breaking the law.
-cut to Ward Lucas sitting in front of a computer-
WL: Almost sounds like a script from one of those T.V. cop
shows, doesn't it. But sometimes real life stories are
more intriguing than fiction and this is one of them.
A real-life war of words taking place right now over
the Internet.
-cut to close-up of computer screen. Someone types
"alt.religion.scientology"-
WL: What I have just typed on my computer is an electronic
address in cyberspace, a discussion forum on the
information super-highway. The Church of Scientology
and a growing army of critics have decided to use this
discussion forum to wage war on each other.
-cut to a montage of A.R.S. screenshots (some post
headers that are shown:PUBLIC LIBRARY RAIDED!, Picket
Muster: United Kingdom, Wollersheim raided, Copyright
and Trade Secrets.) .
Cut to Ron Newmans WWW page "Scientology vs. the Net".-
WL: Scientology is trying to protect what it claims are secret
copyrighted scriptures, documents supposedly stolen by
their critics.
-cut to more scenes from the Boulder protest-
WL: The critics, many of them former church members, say
Scientology is a dangerous mind control cult and they
intend to use the unrestricted freedom of the Internet
to spread those documents all over the world. The
controversy has erupted in the police raids on internet
users in Finland and Ampsterdam
-cut to Deb Danos at the Boulder protest-
DD: The Internet cannot be lawless.
WL: In Boulder, Scientology members confront pickets who
claim the church is trying to shut down free-speech.
-cut to Deb Danos speaking to the crowd who has gathered
around to listen-
DD: 'kay, is there anybody else here wanna beat me up while
we're standing around?
-cut to a.r.s highlighted post: Federal Marshalls
Storm Arnie Lerma. Scenes from the Lerma raid.-
WL: In Arlington Virginia, Scientologists raid the home
of church critic Arnie Lerma. Bouler County, armed
Federal Marshalls stand-by as Scientologists search
through the homes of Lawrence Wollersheim and Bob Penny,
two of Scientology's biggest critics. The raids
prompted a blizzard of questions over the Internet.
Private homes? Federal Marshalls? It was done legally
through a civil writ of seizure. Church President, Heber
Jentzsch, said Wollersheim and others posted stolen church
documents on the Internet. A claim Wollersheim denies.
-cut to Mr. Wollersheim-
LW: We never stole any of their material. We legally obtained
it. It was public court record. It was part of my case.
-cut to Heber Jentzsch-
HJ: It's illegal and it's criminal and that has to be dealt
with.
-cut to a computer with the words Fishman highlighted-
WL: This is what the church wants so badly to squelch. It's
an affidavidit filed in a California court by former
church member Steven Fishman. It contains Scientology's
most secret beliefs, something called the OT papers.
-cut to picture of LRH-
WL: They were written by science-fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard,
the church's guru. He wrote that 75 million years ago, in
the great Galactic Federation, the evil ruler, Xenu, ordered
the deaths of hundreds of billions of people.They were all
flown to a planet called Teegeeack, later known as Earth.
The people were chained to volcanos and blown-up with
H-bombs. The remains of those victims are called Thetans,
spirit entities which now infest all humans. Converts to
Scientology use this [picture of an e-meter] electronic
device and confess all their sins to rid themselves
of these evil Thetans. As they advance in Scientology,
converts pay increasing sums money, up to a quarter million
dollars apiece, to learn the higher OT secrets. Alot of
famous people have gone through it: John Travolta, Tom Cruise
and Kirsti Allie. Scientologists argued, in Federal Court in
Denver, that if their secrets are published on the Internet
it might hold the church up to ridicule.
-cut to Heber Jentzsch-
HJ: Our materials are copyrighted there's no question about that.
He is trying to steal something which does not belong to him.
WL: But Jentzsch's church is having a tough time in the courts.
Wollersheim keeps winning.
LW: We beat them in RTC, the case where they filed the RICO suit
against me, I beat them in a case called Wollersheim vs.
Scientology. These people are so oppressive with their legal
tactics.
WL: Several years ago, Wollersheim won a multi-million dollar
judgement against Scientology, a judgement the church still
refuses to pay. And the anger in both directions is evident.
HJ: The man has a history, a psychotic history going back into the
sixties.
LW: If i'm psychotic how could I take on the whole Church of
Scientology for 15 years and beat them in case after case
after case.
WL: After Scientology's most recent raid in Boulder County,
Federal Judge, John Kane, came down hard on the church. He
ordered the Scientologists to return all Wollersheim's and
Penny's computers undamaged, unaltered. The church appealed
repeatedly, lost each time. Just a week ago it finally
returned the computers, but there was a hitch. Wollersheim,
Penny and their attorney discovered the church had switched
out the hard drives, in violation of a federal court order.
-cut to Bob Penny sitting in front of the returned computers-
BP: What i'm seeing today is certainly confusing because I don't
recognize anything because it's not the way I left stuff.
-cut to Ward Lucas interview with Robert Vaughan Young-
WL: Wollersheim has gained a fascinating ally in his struggle
against the church, Robert Vaughan Young, a Scientologist
for 22 years, who was part of the inner-circle until he
quit the church in 1989. He says Scientology has interesting
ways of getting even with its enemies.
RY: There is alot of the doctrine that is written in there that is
things like: attack the attacker and find his sex-crimes and
investigate him. It's got a viciousness that just shouldn't
be there.
WL: (voice-over old news footage) An FBI raid on Scientology in the
late 70's confirmed some of that. It turned up documents on
how to burglarize, sue and discredit your opponent. 11 top
officials even went to prison for burglarizing and wire-tapping
church enemies. Scientology officials deny they threaten or
harass anybody, yet in the most recent court hearing church
director, Kurt Weiland, dangled a prop [a pair of handcuffs]
which he said was meant for Wollersheim. Young and Wollersheim
say the church frequently hires private investigators to keep
track of enemies of Scientology. In the Boulder raids, we
spotted this private-eye secretly taking pictures of us from
a nearby car. Critics of the church went back to the Internet
and used it in a novel way to fight back. They posted candid
photos of Scientology's P.I.'s [web page with PI photos shown].
Vaughn Young says that if the threats don't work the church
sometimes tries to buy the silence of its critics. He says they
tried that with him.
RY: What they wanted me to do was was they wanted me to sign a
paper that I had perjured myself and they would give me
some money to go off and find another lifestyle and go away
and leave them alone.
WL: How much money?
RY: Uh, well actually I was offered about a quarter million
dollars.
WL: The church admits it did offer to find Young a job but not
money.
-cut to Michael Rinder-
MR: They're lying. Outright lying.
-cut to RVY-
RY: When they were trying all of this I actually got to look
into the face of evil. And I got to realize, "my god. this
is how far, what I used to call my church has gotten down
to that they want to pay me to perjur myself and walk away.
AA: And there is much more to come in Scientology's struggle
against its critics. The church would like to supress
those who reveal its innermost secrets.
EL: But that is becoming harder and harder all the time in the
wide open world of the Internet.
____________________________________________________________________
END
Stephen Jones
ÿ