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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 11/11/2009 : 07:04:47
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I am not posting this in Religion because Scientology is not one. It is a criminal enterprise. I'll be happy to argue the topic of all religions being cut from that same, soiled cloth another day.
What follows is the best run-down on Scientology that I have read in quite some time.
"For years, the Church of Scientology chased down and brought back staff members who tried to leave.
Ex-staffers describe being pursued by their church and detained, cut off from family and friends and subjected to months of interrogation, humiliation and manual labor.
One said he was locked in a room and guarded around the clock.
Some who did leave said the church spied on them for years.
Others said that, as a condition for leaving, the church cowed them into signing embellished affidavits that could be used to discredit them if they ever spoke out.
The St. Petersburg Times has interviewed former high-ranking Scientology officials who coordinated the intelligence gathering and supervised the retrieval of staff who left, or "blew."
They say the church, led by David Miscavige, wanted to contain the threat that those who left might reveal secrets of life inside Scientology.
Marty Rathbun, a former church official and confidant of Miscavige, said the leader especially targeted those he had edged aside during his rise to the top or anyone he feared might threaten his position or the church if left alone on the outside.
When the church founder L. Ron Hubbard was in charge, "there were no fences," Rathbun said. "If somebody blew, they blew. It wasn't until these purges started with Miscavige — where he was creating enemies and people … became a threat to him — that we went into this overdrive scenario."
Church spokesman Tommy Davis "categorically denied'' Miscavige knew about or was involved in the pursuit of runaways or spying on former members. He said Rathbun and other former staff are liars, taking their own misdeeds and blaming them on Miscavige and the religion they have forsaken. He said they are trying to undermine Miscavige's leadership even as he presides over unprecedented church growth.
Miscavige "redefines the term 'religious leader,' " Davis said, while some of the Times sources are on the "lunatic fringe'' of anti-Scientology. He said they are the real villains, who Miscavige dismissed for "suborning perjury, obstruction of justice and wasting millions of dollars of parishioner funds.''
He accused the Times of "naked bias" and engaging in tabloid journalism.
"You have a few petty allegations,'' Davis said.
"In fact, all you have is a few people who left a religion after committing destructive acts and are now complaining about what they did while in the church.''
The story of how the church commands and controls its staff is told by the pursuers and the pursued, by those who sent spies and those spied upon, by those who interrogated and those who rode the hot seat. In addition to Rathbun, they include:
• Mike Rinder, who for 25 years oversaw the church's Office of Special Affairs, which handled intelligence, legal and public affairs matters. Rinder and Rathbun said they had private investigators spy on perceived or potential enemies.
They say they had an operative infiltrate a group of five former Scientology staffers that included the Gillham sisters, Terri and Janis, two of the original four "messengers" who delivered Hubbard's communications. They and other disaffected Scientologists said they were spied on for almost a decade.
• Gary Morehead, the security chief for seven years at the church's international base in the desert east of Los Angeles. He said he helped develop the procedure the church followed to chase and return those who ran, and he brought back at least 75 of them. "I lost count there for awhile.''
Staffers signed a waiver when they came to work at the base that allowed their mail to be opened, Morehead said. His department opened all of it, including credit card statements and other information that was used to help track runaways.
• Don Jason, for seven years the second-ranking officer at Scientology's spiritual mecca in Clearwater, supervised a staff of 350. He said that after he ran, he turned himself in and ended up locked in his cabin on the church cruise ship, the Freewinds. He said he was held against his will.
And then there's the story of the cook, his wife and the movie stars."
And an interesting and tragic story it is.
The Nazis, thank you Mr. Godwin, were/are worse than the Scientologists, but only by degree. Miscavige, et al., would have done quite well in Hitler's Germany, as like the Nazis, the Scientologists routinely harass their own peoples. And who is to say that some defectors have not been murdered?
I strongly believe that this bloody gaggle of scumbags should be declared as what they are, and lose any tax-exempt status they might have. Then we can start the criminal prosecutions. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
 Posted - 11/13/2009 : 18:12:05 [Permalink]
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Well in late October '09 the Church of Scientology was convicted of fraud in France and fined. I was hoping they'd get banded in France but no luck there.
Church of Scientology convicted of fraud in France
By NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY, Associated Press Writer Nicolas Vaux-montagny, Associated Press Writer – Tue Oct 27, 12:58 pm ET
PARIS – A Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than euro600,000 ($900,000) on Tuesday, but stopped short of banning the group's activities.
The group's French branch said it would appeal the verdict.
The court convicted the Church of Scientology's French office, its library and six of its leaders of organized fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used "commercial harassment" against recruits.
The group was fined euro400,000 ($600,000) and the library euro200,000. Four of the leaders were given suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of euro1,000 and euro2,000.
Prosecutors had urged that the group be disbanded in France and fined euro2 million. A law that was briefly on the books this year prevented the court from going so far as to disband the French branch of Scientology in Tuesday's verdict — though it could have taken the lesser step of shutting down its operations.
However, the court did not do so, ruling that French Scientologists would have continued their activities anyway "outside any legal framework."
A spokeswoman for the French branch of Scientology, Agnes Bron, said the verdict was "an Inquisition of modern times," a reference to efforts to rout out heretics of the Roman Catholic Church in centuries past.
"It's really all bark and no bite," said the spokesman of the Church of Scientology International, Tommy Davis. "The church will emerge victorious on appeal."
Speaking by telephone from New York, Davis said the Church of Scientology was prepared to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The head of a French association that helps victims of sects called the verdict "intelligent."
"Scientology can no longer hide behind freedom of conscience," Catherine Picard said.
The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, has been active for decades in Europe, but has struggled to gain status as a religion. It is considered a sect in France and has faced prosecution and difficulties in registering its activities in many countries.
Defense lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said during the trial that neither the Church of Scientology nor the six leaders on trial had gained financially from the group's practices.
The original complaint in the case dates back more than a decade, when a young woman said she took out loans and spent the equivalent of euro21,000 on books, courses and "purification packages" after being recruited in 1998. When she sought reimbursement and to leave the group, its leadership refused. She was among three eventual plaintiffs.
Olivier Morice, lawyer for civil parties in the case, said the verdict was "historic" because it was the first time in France that the Church of Scientology has been convicted of organized fraud.
Investigating Judge Jean-Christophe Hullin spent years examining the group's activities, and in his indictment criticized what he called the Scientologists' "obsession" with financial gain and practices he said were aimed at plunging members into a "state of subjection."
The Church of Scientology teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems. It claims 10 million members around the world, including celebrity devotees Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
Belgium, Germany and other European countries have been criticized by the U.S. State Department for labeling Scientology as a cult or sect and enacting laws to restrict its operations.
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Associated Press writer Elaine Ganley contributed to this report.
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There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/18/2009 : 08:11:44 [Permalink]
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The Ozzies get hip.
Church of Scientology accused of torture and forced abortions Sophie Tedmanson in Sydney 41 Comments
Recommend? (13) Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister, has voiced “concerns” over the Church of Scientology after a senator detailed explosive allegations about the organisation, accusing it of torture, embezzlement and coerced abortions.
Nick Xenophon tabled letters to the Australian parliament from several former Scientologists, and alleged that the secretive church was an “abusive … violent and criminal organisation” which is hiding behind religion.
Mr Xenophon was questioning the church's tax-free status as a religion when he made the claims, which have been denied by the organisation.
The letters, which the senator has passed onto police, contained allegations of a range of crimes, including forced imprisonment, coerced abortions, embezzlement of church funds, physical violence, intimidation and blackmail.
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A little farther along we find:
A spokesperson for the Church of Scientology said he did not believe the allegations were true, but the organisation would be willing to co-operate with police over the accusations of criminal activity.
In a statement the church said Mr Xenophon's claims were an "outrageous abuse of parliamentary privilege", referring to his protection from libel laws.
"Senator Xenophon is obviously being pressured by disgruntled former members who use hate speech and distorted accounts of their experiences in the Church," the statement said.
"They are about as reliable as former spouses are when talking about their ex-partner."
Related Links
In full: senator's speech on Scientology
Church of Scientology convicted of fraud
Secret mission to expose Hubbard as a fake
The church's Australian vice-president, Cyrus Brooks, said that Mr Xenophon had refused to respond to repeated requests for a meeting.
"He didn't answer a single letter, he didn't talk to us, he didn't meet with us, so he's suddenly brought up these things,'' Mr Brooks said.
"It's a bit disingenuous of him to do so without even meeting us.''
But a spokesman from the senator's office said only one letter had been sent, in July, which a staff member had unfortunately not relayed.
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Whether anything comes of this remains to be seen, The Scientologists are very adept at weaseling out of legal tangles.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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The Scumbags: a portrait
