Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,
nl.scientology,
de.soc.weltanschauung.scientology
Alt.religion.scientology
Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review summarizes the most significant
postings from the Usenet group Alt.religion.scientology for the preceding
week for the benefit of those who can't follow the group as closely as
they'd like. Out of thousands of postings, I attempt to include news of
significant events, new affidavits, court rulings, new contributors,
whatever. I hope you find it useful. Like many readers of a.r.s, I have a
kill file. So please take into consideration that I may not have seen some
of the most significant postings.
The articles in A.r.s Week in Review are brief summaries of articles
posted to the newsgroup. They include message IDs for the original
articles, and many have a URL to get more information. You may be able to
find the original article, depending on how long your site stores articles
in the newsgroup before expiring them.
Free A.r.s Week in Review subscriptions are available, just email me at
rkeller@voicenet.com It is archived at:
#####
> France
A case against Scientology in France is set to resume following the
mysterious disappearance of the case files. A rough translation from
Liberation on June 3rd:
"The judge Marie-Paule Morrachini, who started the instruction since 1989,
is yet unable to explain why files disappeared from that affair. On May
24th, it should ask before the accusation chamber the continuation of the
judiciary information against the cult, under counts of fraud and illegal
medicine practice. The Parquet also asked for the instruction judge to be
replaced... as Marie-Paule Morrachini has treated this affair quite
strangely.
"On 20th September 1999, should be open in Marseilles a suit. The counts
are the same than in Paris: fraud and illegal medicine practice."
Message-ID: <7j819n$a2m$1@news3.isdnet.net>
#####
> Germany
Scientology has lost the right to call itself a registered association in
Munich, according to a June 2nd article in Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
"The Scientology Church Celebrity Center Munich, reg. ['registered
association'] has had its legal capabilities as a registered association
revoked by the city administration officials. However, the aggressive
psycho-cult is fighting for the status of an 'idealistic' association and
is suing in the Munich Administrative Court today. It does not want to
give in to the pressure by the codes office and have to become an ordinary
business.
Almost exactly 15 years ago, the city succeeded on the first try in
redesignating a Munich 'Scientology Church' as commercial enterprise. In
the second attempt before the Bavarian Administrative Court, a compromise
had to be agreed upon. In principle, nothing has changed in the city's
accusations. The gist of it is that an association which first subjects
its members to a sort of brainwashing and then commercially exploits them
has forfeited its right to invoke a so-called 'idealistic' purpose. In
reality, Scientology is only concerned about making sales.
"The city is pursuing a specific goal in withdrawing the association's
legal capability: while an 'idealistic association' is less marked by
creditor protection and is restricted by the regulations on the
requirement to apply for bankruptcy by the board and the liquidation of
the association, 'legal entities' are subject to the trade law in the
interest of creditor mandated regulations on minimum capital assets,
requirements for publication and review of balance statements. Besides
that the intention is to avoid the possibility that interested parties
would believe that services could be sold more favorably from a registered
association than from within the competitive structure organized by trade
law."
From Spiegel on June 3rd:
"It is a serious loss for the controversial Scientology organization. The
'Celebrity Center' in Munich must now do business as a commercial
enterprise. Now Scientology must keep balance sheets and is subject to
audit, and must be able to show that it has minimum capital assets. This
is mainly of advantage to creditors who have no assets they can demand in
repayment from groups which have the status of 'association.'
"Scientology Church Germany (registered association) is appealing this
decision. It says the judgment disregards the decision of a federal
administrative court. It alleges that the 'Celebrity Center' and the
Scientology Mission in Munich do not at all compete for customers in
regards to their courses."
From Main Post on June 4th:
"Bavarian Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein (CSU) welcomed the
decision by the Munich Administrative Court on the Scientology
organization. It will help protect customers in the psycho-market from the
machinations of Scientology, related Beckstein yesterday in Munich. The
biggest effect of the decision will be in debt collection. Creditors
enjoy a relatively small amount of protection when dealing with
'registered association.' If there are no assets at hand, their requests
for payment will go unanswered. In contrast, legal entities of the trade
law, of which Scientology is now one, must maintain a minimum capital
investment, keep balance sheets and are subject to audit."
Berliner Zeitung reported on May 27th that Otto Dreksler is asking for
compensation for an investigation into whether he was a Scientologist.
"Police Director Otto Dreksler, who was wrongly suspected of being a
Scientologist by the state office for Constitutional Security in March
1998, and who was suspended from duty for several months because of that,
has filed a complaint for slander, defamation and insult. Besides that,
the police director intends to sue the state of Berlin for damages, said
Dreksler's attorney, Johann Schmid-Drachmann on Wednesday.
"After the Scientology Affair, the state office for Constitutional
Security has not been able to stay out of the headlines. Now an anonymous
letter has appeared which, in the estimation of Constitutional Security
agents, has come straight out of the 'Inner Circle' of the state office as
it reveals intimate details about the staff and their failure in the
critical examination of Dreksler. Besides that an undercover man has
identified himself as having previously worked for the state security
organ of the DDR, and as being the one who had identified Dreksler last
year as a Scientologist. The man, who is currently 76 years old, blames
the agency for the failure and now asserts that he had never seen Dreksler
with the Scientologists.
"Constitutional Security chief Vermander and Interior Senator Eckart
Werthebach (CDU) so far have no comment in response to the accusations.
The letter is said to be 'an outright fake' only in the state office and
in the Senate interior administration. Among the Constitutional Security
staff though, unrest has been growing in the meantime about management,
which has not publicly defended itself against the accusations. 'Everybody
is shaken up here,' said a source in the state office. The agency's reform
which was announce in Spring by the interior senator has not made any
headway. As reported, Werthebach intended to tighten up the departments,
separate the functions of 'Information Acquisition' and 'Evaluation,' and
institute rotation of staff. 'A couple of positions were dropped, but
nothing else has happened,' criticize Constitutional Security agents."
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.990601184819.114A-100000@darkstar.zippy>
#####
> Keith Henson
Keith Henson reported that he lost the appeal of Scientology's judgment
against him. Scientology was awarded $75,000 for copyright violation when
Keith posted the secret NOTS 34 level.
"Just got word from the 9th after almost three months. Flat lost."
Message-ID: <hkhensonFCvAAI.3rJ@netcom.com>
#####
> Protest Summary
Keith Henson protested at the San Jose org this week.
"Memorial day, half hour around 3 pm. 38 cars in the lot, fair degree of
traffic. Two of us, me and 'The Stunning Brunette.' Next to no response
from the staff, though they sure knew we were there. No flyers handed out
because I was completely out of them, having given away close to 200 of
them at a recent function."
Report from Barb who protested in San Diego.
"It was a nice surprise to get email from Xenubat, who was to be in town
for a day or so. She'd gotten with Conner3, and decided to launch a San
Diego picket! It was around 4:00 pm, and rush hour traffic was just
beginning. They were already in action when I arrived; Conner handed me a
sign and a fistful of flyers, off I went. I picked the northeast corner of
the signaled intersection, with two one-way streets; I got all the stopped
traffic south and west.
"Guy comes up to me; pleasant enough, asks for a flyer. I hand him the
story of Xemu. He asks for another one. I hand him the Lisa McPherson
flyer. He asks for another one. I give him 'It's a Kwazy Kult!' He asks
for another one...I suddenly twig. 'You're one of THEM, aren't you?' I
say, whereupon he takes my picture a couple of times and goes back to
hovering damply by the door of the bOrg, watching Conner and Xenubat
spreading that entheta!
"Throughout the course of the 2 1/2 - 3 hour picket, we were routinely
honked at, waved to, and thumbed up. We all got in Conner3's car and
prepared to leave. A red car, following us! Conner3 whips into one of
those parking lots that takes up a whole block, and pulls over to the
attendant. Meantime, the clams have followed us into the lot. Seeing us
speak with the attendant, they race on through and go southbound. We,
however, do a U and head north, around the block, and thence to The Field,
an Irish pub on 5th Ave. where Guinness is on tap."
From Sue M.:
"Conner had some extra signs in his car, so I used one of those; the one I
carried said 'Great lies exposed' on one side and 'www.xenu.net,
www.scientology-kills.net, www.entheta.net' on the other side; Conner had
one that said 'Scientology indicted on two counts in death of Lisa
McPherson' on one side, and I forget what the other side said; he had an
extra sign that Barb used that said something like 'Scientology is a
$360,000 space alien cult' on one side, and I think the other side was
about the OT-8 cognition, 'find out who you really are'. Conner had some
'Lisa', 'Space Alien Scam' and 'Insane Cult' flyers, and I also had a
bunch of 'Scam' and 'Insane Cult' flyers as well as copies of the 'Xemu'
flyer. I was also wearing my 'Who Is Xemu?' T-shirt (with the first page
of OT-3 on the back).
"Reaction from the public was favorable; we got a number of thumbs-ups and
car honks from cars going by, as well as some thumbs up from a number of
passengers on the San Diego Transit buses (one bus driver also honked at
us and gave us a thumbs up). Several other pedestrians said things like 'I
agree with you!' and I know there was one guy walking down the other side
of the street who started applauding! It also looked like some people who
worked at the other businesses across the street were standing outside and
watching us. I think I handed out maybe a dozen flyers; I'm not sure how
many Conner handed out, but I think he ran out of 'Lisa' flyers. I'm not
sure how many flyers Barb handed out, either, but I know she had to come
back twice to get more!"
From "Realpch", who protested in San Francisco:
"It was the regular cast of characters, the people driving by in cars, the
pedestrians, us picketers, and of the people going into the Scientology
Org. We did what we always do, waved, smiled and handed out flyers. There
was a lot of traffic in and out of the Org, and an older blonde woman who
turned up with a little girl hung out in the front. At one point I heard
her telling the child that we were pathological liars! I must say, I do
not approve of giving children incorrect information."
Message-ID: <hkhensonFCorH7.IAv@netcom.com>
#####
> Safe
Scientology is attempting to obtain the identity of "Safe", who has posted
to a.r.s material from Introduction to Scientology Ethics. From
Scientology lawyer Ava Paquette:
"I am counsel with the law offices of Moxon & Kobrin, which, along with
the New York law firm of Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky &
Lieberman, P.C., represents Bridge Publications, Inc. ('BPI') in this
matter.
"I make this declaration pursuant to 17 U.S.C. & 512(h), which is one of
the provisions of the 'Digital Millennium Copyright Act' (the 'Act'). That
section of the Act states that '[a] copyright owner or a person authorized
to act on the owner's behalf may request the clerk of any United States
district court to issue a subpoena to a service provider for
identification of an alleged infringer in accordance with this
subsection.'
"On May 26, 1999, I was informed that someone had made two unauthorized,
verbatim Internet postings of BPI's copyrighted works known as 'PR Series
18', 'Suppressive Acts' and 'Offenses and Penalties', under the email
address and name safe2WC@worldnet.att.net. Therefore, on behalf of BPI, I
immediately notified AT&T, the Internet service provider through which the
infringing postings were made, of this claimed infringement and requested
the identity of the infringer.
"I declare that the purpose of the subpoena requested by BPI is to obtain
the identity of an alleged infringer, specifically, the individual
responsible for the claimed infringements identified in paragraph 4 above.
This information will only be used for the purpose of protecting those
rights provided for under the Act."
Wired News carried a story on the subpoena on June 3rd.
"An anonymous online critic of Scientology is the subject of a legal
complaint targeting newsgroup postings of church doctrines. It is the
latest move by the church to prosecute what it maintains are copyright
abuses online. Attorneys for Scientology-backed Bridge Publications have
served AT&T WorldNet with a subpoena demanding that the Internet service
provider reveal the identity of an online critic. The WorldNet subscriber
said that he wants to remain anonymous, afraid that the Scientologists
will harass him because of his views about the church. 'I am scared of
this church,' he said in a phone interview on Wednesday. 'Can you believe
that? [A] church is supposed to be there for spiritual redemption and I'm
freaking scared of them?'
"The man, who goes by the alias Safe, said that it's a Catch-22 situation:
He can keep AT&T from revealing his identity by arguing against the
subpoena in court. But if he chooses to argue in court, he must identify
himself. If he doesn't argue the subpoena, AT&T will be forced to comply
and will reveal his name to the Scientologists.
"AT&T representative Jonathon Varman said that the ISP had not yet
complied with subpoena, and that its legal team was evaluating how to
proceed. 'We are looking for a way to do the best for our customer and
still comply with the courts,' Varman said. Phillips said that AT&T had
not complied with the subpoena but had asked instead for an extension,
since the original subpoena had a Wednesday deadline.
"Dan Leipold, an attorney who has represented a number of defendants
against suits brought by Scientologists, said that Safe had contacted him
for representation in this case. Leipold said that the Scientologists
have named two of Safe's postings in the subpoena (here and here). One of
the postings contains a list of crimes, according to Scientologists. The
list includes items such as 'Discourtesy and insubordination' and
'committing a problem,' as well as 272 other crimes.
"Safe, ironically, considers himself to be a Scientologist. While he
disagrees with the teachings of current church leaders, he said that he
lives his life by the principles laid out by Scientology's founders."
From CNET News on June 3rd:
"Raising new issues about anonymity on the Net, the Church of Scientology
is invoking a law past last year to force AT&T to disclose the identity of
an Internet service subscriber who allegedly infringed the church's
copyrights online. Invoking a provision in the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act, Bridge Publications filed a subpoena on AT&T that would
require it to turn over the name of the Worldnet subscriber. 'I'm not
aware of anyone who has yet to use the subpoena procedure,' said Eric
Goldman, an attorney representing ISPs at Cooley Godward. Goldman added
that the provision gives copyright holders powerful new ammunition to
learn the identity of alleged infringers. 'If they can make a colorable
claim that someone is infringing those rights then they have the power to
force service providers to hand over disclosure information pretty much at
the owner's request,' Goldman said. 'I'm not sure [the provision] is the
death of anonymity on the Net,' he added. 'It just makes it easier to
squash anonymity if the person was using weak tools to hide their
anonymity.'
"In a telephone interview, the poster, going by the pseudonym 'Safe,' said
AT&T had agreed to delay complying with the subpoena until at least
tomorrow to give his attorney time to figure out how to proceed.
Regardless, Dan Leipold, Safe's counsel and an attorney who has done
battle with Bridge Publications in the past, said he was concerned the law
was being misused against his client. 'This individual has not been shown
to do anything wrong and yet he's going to lose his anonymity,' said
Leipold, who declined to name the author. 'He's worried. He does not want
to give up the anonymity because he knows who's on the other side and he
knows what they'll do to him.'
"According to one of the offending Usenet postings, the church goes so far
as to make it a 'high crime' for followers to 'Organize splinter groups to
diverge from Scientology practices still calling it Scientology or calling
it something else.' In all, the post, which purports to cite the
Introduction to Scientology Ethics, lists 274 'errors, misdemeanors,
crimes, and high crimes' against the Church. Leipold argued that despite
the large amount of text quoted verbatim, the posting fell under so-called
fair use exceptions to the copyright law. Fair use provisions permit
parties to reprint copyrighted work depending on the purpose, the amount
of text quoted, and other factors. 'If you're trying to illustrate the
point that they exert control over their members, you can't do it by
quoting only five or six rules,' Leipold said. 'You've got to look at
what the scope is.'"
Safe's identity may be produced as early as Monday.
"AT&T is going to produce my name unless I can find an attorney to File a
Motion to Quash the subpoena by the close of business, East Coast time,
this coming monday. I'm desperately trying to find a New York attorney to
do this. But I'm having an extremely difficult time getting an attorney to
accept the case especially on such a rush notice. Right now I'm at a loss
and feel helpless. Nobody seems to want to take on the Church of
Scientology. AT&T COULD give me more time to get help, but their attorney
Michael Lamb is adamant about my Monday deadline ... probably because they
know how ruthless the Church of Scientology can be. So they are giving in
to their pressure."
Message-ID: <7j1ici$6kq$1@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net>
-end-
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Subject: A.r.s Week in Review - 6/6/99
From: Rod Keller <rkeller@voicenet.com>
Date: Sun, 06 Jun 1999 23:36:03 GMT
Week in Review Volume 4, Issue 10
6/6/99
by Rod Keller [rkeller@voicenet.com]
copyright 1999
http://www.xenu.net/archive/WIR/
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/ars-summary.html
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Click here for some additional truth about the Scientology crime syndicate:
XENU.NET
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