Volume 0, Issue 18 vom 19. 08. 1995
Alt.religion.scientology Week in Review
Volume 0, Issue 18
08/19/95
by Rod Keller [rkeller@netaxs.com]
copyright 1995
Contents
- Raid on Arnie
- Milne's Distortions
- Fishman Sealed
- Earl Cooley
- FACTnet Press Release
- Fishman Availability
- PI Watch
- Kobrin Correspondence
- Andy Milne
- The Way to Happiness
- Russian Brainwashing
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 the articles.
Many include an excerpt, and all include message IDs for the articles I
cover. This may or may not be useful to you, 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@netaxs.com
It is archived at:
http://amazing.cinenet.net/scientology.html
http://users.aimnet.com/~jdiver
http://www.thur.de/religio/publik/arsfaq.html
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/ars-summary.html
#####
Raid on Arnie
Details emerged this week about the raid on Arnie Lerma.
"Writ of Seizure was issued by Judge Lennie M. Brinkema of the Eastern
District of Virginia. Civil action No. 95-1107A issued August 11, 1995.
"The raid took place from 9:30 am to 12:15 pm EDT. Lerma told the Federal
Marshals that they had to wait until Lerma's attorney arrived. The
Marshals, one of which was N. David Williams, said they did not have to
wait for Lerma's attorney.
"Warren McShane was present with Earl C. Cooley and Helena Kobrin. They
had two men from INET (Interprise Network Solutions of Bethesda, MD.):
James C. Settle, Director of Information Security, and Ronald D. Tencati.
Also present was attorney Chad Dunn of Williams and Brinks of Arlington,
VA."
An inventory of materials seized:
"Box: programs 40 disk found in the basement.
Box: Microsoft Visual Basic 3 disks
Wordstar 5 disks
Utilities and drivers 42 disks
Bag: 61 5 & 3 1/4 disks in a box.
Microsoft Visual Basic 3 two floppies
1 bag 43 disks
1 bag 22 disks
1 bag 57 disks
1 bag 1 data cartridge
They took his whole computer, scanner, and a hard disk he had for
resale."
About the writ:
"The judge did not allow the scientologists to go 'elsewhere where
defendant Lerma or any such agents and persons may be found in the
territory in which you may serve this Writ, including any building, annex
or other structure adjacent to or on the premises identified above.' The
judge scratched that part off.
"The final paragraph in the Writ of Seizure was also scribbled out and
initialed by Judge Brinkema: 'YOU ARE FURTHER DIRECTED to make repeated
seizures or attempted seizures of the above described articles upon being
advised by counsel for plaintiff that new or additional infringing
articles have been located or placed in the possession or under the
control of the defendant Lerma, or of any agent of or persons acting in
concert with the defendant.'"
Remus Shepherd described the scene when he arrived to offer support.
"His office was in a shambles. They took his computers, his backups, even
game disks...in Arnie's words, 'they took disks I didn't know I had'. A
group of friends was reviewing the videotaped footage of the raid."
Message-ID: <tomklemDD7F5B.JpL@netcom.com>
<9508121020.0EIOK01@support.com>
<9508121124.0G0LY01@support.com>
<tomklemDD7sIJ.8BC@netcom.com>
<sthomsonDD7Jvo.5DF@netcom.com>
<remusDD7x7G.8L5@netcom.com>
#####
Milne's Distortions
Andy Milne, PR hack for the cos, provided extensive analysis of the raid
and lawsuit. Some excerpts:
"Lerma's service provider, Digital Gateway Systems (DGS), is also named in
the suit brought by Religious Technology Center. DGS has refused to heed
the Church's requests to cease and desist from providing an avenue onto
the Internet for Lerma's infringements and from storing the infringing
materials. In fact, Lerma exposed DGS to legal liability by sending
copyrighted materials to Netcom's server, particularly after he and DGS
were put on notice that these materials are copyrighted."
"I have seen posts on this newsgroup stating that Arnaldo Lerma obtained
the Fishman document from a court. That wasn't where he got it from. And
even if he had, that in no way mitigates the fact of his copyright
violation."
"Lerma had signed agreements promising to maintain and preserve the purity
of these religious materials and his unlawful postings, in addition to
being copyright infringements and trade secret violations, were knowingly
and maliciously done in violation of those agreements he signed."
Message-ID: <40j5p0$spd@crl4.crl.com>
<40jmqp$sl2@crl3.crl.com>
<40mo3f$6rv@crl11.crl.com>
#####
Fishman Sealed
Helena Kobrin announced this week that the OT portion of the Fishman
materials have been sealed by Judge Harry Hupp.
"This order blocks access to the Advanced Technology filed by the
defendants in that case, thus foreclosing unauthorized persons from
mistakenly claiming any entitlement to copy and distribute any of those
materials without the permission of Religious Technology Center (RTC), the
exclusive copyright licensee and trade secret owner."
This statement was verified by several a.r.s skeptics.
Dick Cleek:
"I just talked to 'Valerie' in the Federal Courthouse for the Central
District of California. She said Judge Hupp ordered the Fishman case
sealed yesterday afternoon. She said they had to gather up copies out of
about 10 people's hands. She was good enough to read part of the order to
me, 'sealed pending the court's final decision'."
Keith Cochran:
"Order: Scientology's motion to seal specified documents was remanded to
this Court by Order of the Ninth Circuit. This Court has taken the matter
under submission.
"Pending a final order by this Court regarding Scientology's
aforementioned motion to seal, all the files in this action are hereby
ordered to be sealed."
Helena's remaining statements remain unsubstantiated.
"These materials are not now and never were 'public record documents' and
now, even the excuse that there has never been a formal order sealing the
Fishman case file is unavailable. Copying or other distribution or
publication or use of any such documents or copies of them without the
consent of RTC violates copyright and trade secret law and will subject
the infringer or misappropriator to an enforcement action which could
expose the transgressor to restraining orders, writs of seizure and
impoundment, injunctions, and in the case of copyright infringement,
damages of up to $100,000 per infringement.
"If you have copies of materials purporting to be copies of any of the
Advanced Technology materials, you are instructed to turn them in to the
undersigned forthwith."
Message-ID: <hkkDDFqvq.85K@netcom.com>
<40t4l5$2me@uwm.edu>
<jandaDDIrs8.6n1@netcom.com>
#####
Earl Cooley
In the wake of the raid on Arnie, skeptics are investigating the role of
Earl Cooley, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Boston University.
"I called BU today and explained the situation. Got the secretary at the
President's office. Please, Boston people, call them and try to verify
that Earl Cooley, the attorney chairman of the Board of Boston University,
is indeed the same Earl Cooley illegally harassing $cientology critics all
over the country (it's called 'barratry', basically blackmail by ludicrous
lawsuits)."
Message-ID: <RAOUL.95Aug15024131@cacciatore.mit.edu>
#####
FACTnet Press Release
FACTnet this week announced that Arnie Lerma has been a member of their
Board of Directors for a month. Some highlights:
"When Scientology raided Arnie Lerma's location and seized his records,
Scientology also illegally obtained confidential FACTNet records that were
in his possession and appropriate to his position as a voting board
member. (These records did not include our mailing lists or compromise any
victim who has contacted FACTNet for information.)
"In distributing the Fishman affidavit, Arnie Lerma was acting within his
powers as a member of FACTNet's Board of Directors.
"The full Board of Directors of FACTNet stands behind its fellow Board
member, Arnie Lerma, who acted in accordance with our organizational
purposes in distributing the legally obtained court record called the
Fishman affidavit."
Message-ID: <sthomsonDDJ91z.GyH@netcom.com>
###
Fishman Availability
The Fishman materials appear to be still available on the net, despite
their removal from the China and Carnegie Mellon sites. Reports were made
to a.r.s this week of the materials at the following locations:
ftp://204.181.193.34/fishman.txt
http://www.c2.org/~gleonard
ftp: //ftp.demos.su/incoming.fishmann.zip
Message-ID: <222321Z10081995@anon.penet.fi>
<40mg0r$69r@utopia.hacktic.nl>
<Pine.SUN.3.91.950811141754.16920A-100000@infinity.c2.org>
#####
PI Watch
Tom Klemesrud reported on the activities of J.J. Gaw, a cos private
investigator.
"I heard today from that Scientology's private investigator John J. Gaw
was investigating my Attorney in the RTC V Netcom et al, Dan Leipold.
Wasn't John Gaw's last assignment investigating Netcom and polling for
dissatified customers of Netcom? Why would a Federal Judge allow this sort
of harassment of an officer of the Court. I guess I just don't understand
Federal Law."
Message-ID: <ebohlmanDDFE69.F9A@netcom.com>
#####
Kobrin Correspondence
New recipients of legal threats from Helena Kobrin this week: Ray Russ and
David Gerard. David's letter was unique, as he describes:
"Helena has been mailing my postmaster. A copy of the standard letter (re:
OT7-48) and an 'aggrieved user' letter because I allegedly reposted the 'I
am the very model of a modern legal criminal' song, which she claims is
libelous. (Hint: every allusion in it is true! It's a work of art!)"
Message-ID: <40pflk$goh@cougar.vut.edu.au>
<rruss-1008951909090001@lanrover1-1.slac.stanford.edu>
#####
Andy Milne
Dennis Erlich this week posted the following directive from 1994, signed
by our own Andy Milne, Director of Disinformation.
"Dear DSAs/PRs,
"You were recently sent a revised DA of Jon Atack. That DA has now been
further updated with information from a deposition of Atack conducted in
England. Attached are the updated sections of a revised write-up.
"This data punches up the DA on Atack considerably. Let me know the
results of your using it.
Message-ID: <9508111255.0I5R801@support.com>
#####
The Way to Happiness
Long-time a.r.s participant Gisle Hannemyr posted his review of Elron's
book, "The Way to Happiness -- a common sense way to better living".
"'The Way to Happiness -- a common sense way to better living' contains 21
'commandment-style' pieces of moral advice, heavily annotated with
footnotes containing dictionary style definitions of the words used in the
text.
"On the surface, this book is just silly. The author emerges as a pompous
ass that say the obvious in a very convoluted way. On the subject of
murder, for instance, he has the following sound advice to part with: 'The
way to happiness does not include murdering your friends, your family, or
yourself being murdered'.
"But don't be fooled by the pompousness and self-importance that shines
from every page. Hubbard is also up to more sinister tricks. He is subtly
rewriting the moral code of man into something that is seemingly more
suitable to the the maze of lies, violence and intimidation that is known
as Scientology 'ethics'."
Message-ID: <40kou9$1b5@torshov.oslonett.no>
#####
Russian Brainwashing
An anonymous poster contributed the complete text of an alleged Russian
brainwashing manual, actually written by L. Ron Hubbard. Some key excerpts
from "Brain-Washing; A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on
Psychopolitics".
"Mental Health organizations must carefully delete from their ranks anyone
actually proficient in the handling or treatment of mental health. Thus
must be excluded priests, ministers, actually trained psychoanalysts, good
hypnotists, or trained Ministers of the Church of Scientology. These, with
some cognizance on the subject of mental aberration and its treatment, and
with some experience in observing the mentally deranged, if allowed
frequency within institutions, and if permitted to receive literature,
would, sooner or later, become suspicious of the activities engaged upon
by the psychopolitical operative. These must be defamed and excluded as
'untrained,' 'unskillful,' 'quacks,' or 'perpetrators of hoaxes.'
"When an hostile group dedicated to mental health is discovered, the
psychopolitician should have recourse to the mechanisms of peyote,
mescaline, and later drugs which cause temporary insanity. He should send
persons, preferably those well under his control, into the mental health
group, and invite the group, whether Christian Science or Church of
Scientology or other practice, to demonstrate its abilities upon this new
person. These, in demonstrating their abilities, will usually act with
enthusiasm. Midway in the course of their treatment, a quiet injection of
peyote, mescaline, or other drug, or an electric shock, will produce the
symptoms of insanity in the patient which has been sent to the target
group. The patient thus demonstrating momentary insanity should
immediately be reported to the police and taken away to some area of
incarceration managed by psychopolitical operatives, and so placed out of
sight. Officialdom will thus come into a belief that this group drives
individuals insane by their practices, and the practices of the group will
then be despised and prohibited by law.
"The psychopolitical operative should also spare no expense in smashing
out of existence, by whatever means, any actual healing group, such as
that of acupuncture, in China; such as Christian Science and Church of
Scientology, in the United States; such as Catholicism in Italy and Spain;
and the practical psychology groups of England."
Message-ID: <233338Z12081995@anon.penet.fi>
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