Scientology: Holocaust Denial or Just Anti-Semitic?

***

Anonymous Hamburg has just posted an astonishing interview with a German Scientologist in which he speaks of Jews as having "total control of the planet" and denies that Germany has " committed the most gruesome crime in all of the World's history". As the quotations from The German Criminal Code in English and German at the beginning of the interview indicate, Holocaust denial in Germany is a punishable offense:

StGB (German Criminal Code) §130 - Incitement to hatred, Section 3:
(3) Whosoever publicly or in a meeting approves of, denies or downplays an act committed under the rule of National Socialism of the kind indicated in section 6 (1) of the Code of International Criminal Law, in a manner capable of disturbing the public peace shall be liable to imprisonment of not more than five years or a fine.

The video does not mention the name of the Scientologist being interviewed, and it is unclear whether he will be prosecuted for Holocaust Denial. However, the incident points up the conspiracy-theory paranoia of Scientology's Weltanschauung and its susceptibility to anti-Semitism.

Hubbard considered Judaism along with other religions to be false alien implants in human consciousness and aberrations to be removed from human beings by Scientology's process of counseling called auditing.

In contradiction to its humanistic public assertions that one can be a Jew and a Scientologist at the same time, the reality hidden from the public is that Jewish religious beliefs and practices have to be abjured in order to advance up Scientology's Bridge To Total Freedom.

Scientology makes no secret of its plans to destroy psychiatry and replace it everywhere in the world with Scientology in its efforts to Clear the Planet. Psychiatry, of course, is irrevocably associated with the name of Sigmund Freud, the best known Jew in the world after Jesus, Albert Einstein, and Karl Marx.

Scientology pins the blame for the Holocaust on psychiatry. The reasoning is that psychiatry early on condoned eugenics, and that German psychiatrists instituted programs to first destroy the disabled and then the Jews as explained on Scientology's website:

As the stepchildren of the German dictator Bismarck and later Hitler and the Nazis, psychiatry and psychology formed the philosophical basis for the wholesale slaughter of human beings in World Wars I and II. Psychiatry uses electric shock, brain-mutilating psychosurgery and mind-damaging drugs to destroy a person and make him "docile and quiet" in the name of "treatment." ...

Scientology and psychiatry will always be working at cross-purposes. Scientology is a religion and recognizes that man is a spiritual being. Psychiatrists view man as an animal. Psychiatry is strongly opposed to all religions as it does not even recognize that man is a spiritual being.

Scientology also uses Jews and the Holocaust in their propaganda against the German government. The German government decided to take seriously Scientology's stated intent to gain control over the government and social institutions of the nations of the world and replace all psychiatric, religious, academic, and organizational practices with Hubbard Technology. It has placed it under special surveillance by the Office for the Defense of the Constitution (Verfassungschutz). It lists Scientology as one of its six major fields of work on its website alongside radical Islam and right and left wing extremism.

Scientology claims immunity from scrutiny and criticism of its ideology and practice as a matter of freedom of religion. It asserts its practices are religious and therefore beyond questioning. It is relentless in its attacks on its critics and offers no defense to the rising mountain of evidence of its routine human rights abuses such as coerced abortion and human trafficking alleged in former Scientologist Claire Headley's complaint filed recently in Los Angeles and practices of coercion and intimidation revealed in John Duignan's recently published The Complex.

A major tactic in its attack on the German government has been to assert a parallel between itself being scrutinized by the government and the treatment of Jews under Hitler's Nazi regime. The German government is a new Third Reich bent on the destruction of Scientologists and any one who dares criticize it is shouted down as another Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's evil genius Minister of Propaganda.

Cruise's appearance in the recent film Valkyrie was intended to reinforce the equations: Good guys = Scientologists . Bad guys = Nazis and critics and opponents of Scientology. Cruise subsequently let it be known that he would have tried to kill Hitler. German political satirist Klaus said that with this new found courage after the fact "he is now a Hyper-Thetan-Mega-Alpha-Male in Scientology". Comedian Michael Mittermeier quipped "For me the Fuehrer of Scientology would be enough!"

Scientology launched a Never Forget campaign in 1997 against the German government. Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote:

Two weeks ago, 34 show-business heavies, ranging from Goldie Hawn, Dustin Hoffman and Oliver Stone to studio heads, signed a $56,000 full-page ad in The International Herald Tribune scolding Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany for his Government's "shameful pattern of organized persecution" of the Church of Scientology. Drawing parallels between today's Germany and Nazi Germany, the "open letter" ominously added: "In the 1930's, it was the Jews. Today it is the Scientologists."

In a word -- Oy! This proclamation has provoked outrage not only from German officialdom but from Jewish leaders like Ignatz Bubis, president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, who called it "insulting to the memory of the [Holocaust's] victims." Back home, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League also protested Hollywood's missive as "ludicrous" and "an affront" to the six million dead. "Even after 'Schindler's List,' they're totally ignorant," says Mr. Foxman of the ad's participants.

After this footbullet Scientology eventually dropped the campaign, but it continues to routinely invoke Nazi comparisons in smearing its critics, as Jewish TV psychiatrist Dr. Drew Pinksy learned when he advanced some tentative psycho-biographical remarks about Tom Cruise. His lawyer said: "The last time we heard garbage like this was from Joseph Goebbels." So the Jewish psychiatrist has now become a Nazi for speculating on the personality of a man who calls Jewish psychiatrists Nazis.

In his review Is Horrible 'Valkyrie' Tom Cruise's Nazi Apologia? Roger Friedman of Fox News points out that the viewer never sees Cruise giving a head-on Nazi "Heil Hitler!" salute and that the rest of the cast and environment have been de-Nazified as much as possible. "The purpose of all this de-Nazification of course is to trick us into thinking 'These are the good guys' when there weren't any good guys at all." To preserve Tom Cruise's image the film veers off into Holocaust Revisionism.

Except for the fact that Scientology believes that Judaism is false and must be replaced by Scientology, it is not notably anti-Semitic. No anti-Semitic equivalents of Hubbard's racist remarks have come to light. However, Hubbard, like the unknown Scientology anti-Semite of Hamburg, and Scientology as a whole, was given to conspiracy theories. Hubbard believed twelve men controlled the world; the Hamburg anti-Semite believes "Judea" declared war on Germany in 1933; Scientology believes that psychiatrists are engaged in a vast conspiracy against it including bank-rolling noticeably shoe-string Anonymous protest operations.

A cabal of rich men who control the world - sound like any anti-Semitic stereotype you know of? Any organization that believes psychiatrists are out get them and are handing out cash to 18-year old protesters in Guy Fawkes masks is quite capable of believing that Jews control the world and that Nazi Germany was not guilty of committing "the most gruesome crime in all of the World's history." You see, they didn't kill all that many Jews.

What's next? A Scientology - Neo Nazi alliance?




Scientology and anti-Semitism from caekisalie on Vimeo.


Anonymous Israel is preparing has prepared a Hebrew sub-titled version of the Scientology and anti-Semitism video.


סיינטולוג בכיר מכחיש את השואה from Anon Imouse on Vimeo.




Update: Death By 1000 Papercuts have re-published this article in -

Scientology: Anonymous Uncovers Church’s Bizarre Antics Regarding Hitler and the Holocaust

Happy Anniversary Gawker and Anonymous!

***

A year ago today on Tuesday, January 15, Nick Denton, publisher of Gawker, posted at 10:18 am his refusal to remove the now infamous Tom Cruise Scientology indoctrination video from Gawker's website:

Yesterday, for a few hours, the clip of Tom Cruise discussing his beliefs as a Scientologist appeared on Youtube, and was republished by Radar and Defamer. That video is no longer available, most likely after the Church of Scientology sent in a copyright infringement notice. Gawker is now hosting a copy of the video; it's newsworthy; and we will not be removing it.

Later in the day at 5:37 pm a poster on the /b/ or random channel of 4chan, which is the homeland of Anonymous, posted the thread that sparked the Anonymous insurgency which has quite literally changed the face of the Scientology-critical movement:

I think it's time for /b/ to do something big.

People need to understand not to fuck with /b/, and talk about nothing for ten minutes, and expect people to give their money to an organization that makes absolutely no fucking sense.

The first reply to this historic post links to Denton's refusal and says:

inspiration to feed the fire, /b/

Yes, Nick, thanks for feeding the fire.

Scientology's war on the internet has not flagged in the last year. In early September YouTube removed 4,000 videos critical of Scientology for alleged DMCA (Digital Millemium Copyright Act) violations . Yesterday, to the alarm of Anonymous, YouTube responded to another DMCA request and removed the historically important and revered Church0fScientology channel.

Fortunately, Anonymous has learned a lot in the last year. After anons manned the harpoons, YouTube, which had said restoration would take three to four weeks, put the channel back up in less than twenty four hours.

Message to Scientology vid DOWN!! at Why We Protest is a prime example of technology powering Anon's ninja nimbleness in countering suppression of free speech on the internet by organized Scientology, an infra-totalitarian, command-and-control corporate dinosaur from the fifties. For good measure, anons from Munich put up all the channel's videos on a server in Russia where they don't cotton much to The Most Ethical Group on the Planet.

On January 21, 2008, Church0fScientology posted Message to Scientology (viewed 3,423,413 times) in which it declared war on organized Scientology:

Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous.

Over the years, we have been watching you.
Your campaigns of misinformation;
suppression of dissent;
your litigious nature,
all of these things have caught our eye.

With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation,
the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us.

Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed.

For the good of your followers,
for the good of mankind--for the laughs--
we shall expel you from the Internet and
systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form.

Thousands of people young and old, from channer high schoolers to grandmothers around the world from Perth, to Hamburg and San Francisco, were galvanized into action. Seven thousand of them poured off the internet and into the streets on the birthday of Lisa McPherson whose death-by-Scientology-medical-malpractice continues to shock the public.

Gawker named Anonymous vs Scientology among the top five of The Top Ten Feuds of 2008 and linked to its story Anonymous vs Scientology Protest Turns Ugly:

When you protest Scientology, you do it at your own risk. That's what members of the group Anonymous found out last Sunday when they picketed Gold Base, the Church's headquarters in Gilman Hot Springs, Calfornia. The small, peaceful assembly sported signs before one member received a beating from a group of the Church's hired goons.

The Gold Base goons last Thursday attempted to scare the Riverside County police and counsel to the Riverside County Board of Supervisers into revising a protesting ordinance by informing them of the HIV+ status of two of just three protesters at the 500-man "citadel of counterknowledge" (Damian Thompson's phrase), surrounded by barbed wire which points inward. Attorneys Eugene Volokh and Scott Pilutik have recently addressed some of the first amendment freedom of speech and church-state issues involved.

Thank you, Nick Denton. Church of Scientology, the game is over. Anonymous will prevail.

Poster: LadyNonymous, Anonymous Project Chanology Hamburg

***

Scientology, Gay Anonymous Protesters, and the School of the Americas

***

I am reading the Why We Protest thread on today's important meeting of the Riverside Country Board of Supervisors on Scientology's urgent request to address the "threat" of two HIV+ gay protesters from the free speech and human rights protest group Anonymous reported in yesterday's Breaking: Scientology international headquarters seeks ban on HIV+ protesters.

I will write more when I digest all the input from WPP. In the meantime I refer you to LA Times reporter David Kelly's piece on today's meeting: Riverside County ordinance curtailing Scientology protests suspended and the essential thread on WWP: Riverside Ordinance to be Revisited 1/13.

In a nut shell, Scientology has tried to bum rush the supes into constricting Anonymous' ability to protest to a minimum and removing them as far from the 500 Sea org staff members at Gold Base as possible by slandering two HIV+ gay men and creating an atmosphere of anti-gay and anti-Anonymous hysteria and high-alarm drama, raising even more first amendment issues of church-state relations as previously written about by Eugene Volokh and Scott Pilutik.

Supervisor Bob Buster saw right through the stratagems of the Scientology team of attorney Sam Alhadeff, Gold's Office of Special Affairs (OSA) Secret Service Agent-Public Relations person, Catherine Fraser, and Scientology fellow-traveler, Supervisor Jeff Stone. The Board voted unanimously to suspend the ordinance for a month

while county counsel and the Sheriff's Department determined exactly where protesters could assemble and what form their protests could take.

"The county counsel and the sheriff can get together and make it crystal clear what we are doing," he said. "This has gotten broader than we had anticipated." - David Kelly.

From an anon real time transcript at WWP:

Stone: "Supervisor, I've said before this isn't about $cilontology... we've had other cases.. umm Mormons was it I believe.... we're just following suit to protect the tranquility of people who live in private residence."

The arguments of Scientology lawyer Sam Alhadeff and OSA Public Relations person Fraser were essentially to assert a Constitutional Right Not To Be Bothered and a Right To Tranquility

$cilon: It bothers people who go to and from the communal dining hall, which is when these people like to yell at them, and it bothers them ... Because we're trying to protect people who live there walking to a dining hall, who don't appreciate having to listen to what these people are saying.

Gold Base is the international headquarters of Church of Scientology International and its front groups. It can be looked at as a corporate campus, like google; the headquarters of a religion like the Vatican; the headquarters of a totalitarian state like the Kremlin; or as a military war headquarters.

Gold has aspects of all the above. Following sociology of religion Professor Steven A. Kent and former Sea Org executive Lawrence Brennan we can say that:

Organized Scientology is an infra-totalitarian, multi-national corporate empire engaged in an all-out societal war-to-the-death against global medical and mental health professions and of which religion is just one element, which is primarily used to cloak its fundamentally profit-seeking nature.

When it comes to protesting and raiding there is a war going on. Gold Base is the Global Command Headquarters for the War on Psychiatry in which the end justifies any and all means, and Sea Org members in their comic-opera naval uniforms are the anti-psych hate machine soldiers engaged in the urgent task of "Clearing the Planet" and installing Hubbard Technology in every realm of life.

Anonymous knows this. Anonymous knows that Scientology has been at war on and against the internet since 1994 with alt.religion.scientology which resulted in unconstitutional invasion of the homes of Scientology critics and the subversion of their lives by OSA (The Office of Special Affairs).

Anonymous knows of the Xanadu of Xenuphobia's threatened obliteration of YMTD in 2006. Anonymous knows that when it declared war a year ago on /b/ on January 15 and publicly on YouTube on January 21 it was in fact creating an insurgency in a war Scientology had been waging on society since the publication of Dianetics in 1950.

The raiding of Gold reminds me of the raiding of the School for the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. SOA has for years trained South American military including the Salvadoran Army who massacred six Jesuit priests from the Jesuit University of Central America, their housekeeper, and her daughter on November 16, 1989.

Every year in November School of Americas Watch raids Fr. Benning. From Wikipedia:

On Sunday, November 20, 2005 nearly 20,000 protesters attended the Ft. Benning vigil, "remembering those who have been silenced by SOA violence." Forty protesters climbed over or under the fence and were arrested by military police. Columbus police also arrested bystanders, including some who lifted the fence. Since protests against the school began, 183 people have collectively served over 81 years in prison for their civil disobedience.

Sunday, November 19, 2006 marked the following year for the School of the Americas protest. Over 22,000 protesters attended the vigil--a record high since the protests began. Two weeks later on December 3, 2006 Georgia Public Radio broadcasted "The Sounds of Protest at the School of the Americas", an hour-long documentary with audio collected at the 2006 protest. "Sounds of Protest" Audio Documentary

Every year they have a funeral procession and recite the presente litany. The names of people killed by totalitarian regimes are read off one by one. As each is read, the raiders respond: Presente! The presente litany at the funeral of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was the first act of public protest against the Pinochet regime.

I have not yet discovered mention of military lawyers asserting a right not to be bothered for the troops at Fr. Benning. Or of a right to tranquility.

As an intra-totalitarian command headquarters, Gold has its penitentiaries, the RPF (Rehabilitation Project Force) and for hard-core fuckups, like the imprisoned President of all churches of Scientology, poor Heber Jensch, the RPF's RPF.

OSA has been trying to prevent Anonyous protesting slave labor camps and coerced abortions at a slave labor camp that coerces abortions.

Imagine, if not 22,000, at least over 9,000 anons raiding Gold Base on the Thursday nearest the deaths of Lisa McPherson (December 5,), Uwe Stuckenbrock (October 7), or even L. Ron Hubbard (January 24) since he started this whole tragic waste of human lives through his own grandiose self-victimization.

Imagine a presente litany of the names of the victims of Scientology's medical malpractice, psychological abuse, coerced abortions, and disconnected families.

Imagine over 9,000 anons rickrolling, waving their Marcab Confederacy, Headless Guy, White Rose, Mudkip, and "Serious business. I undertake" it flags and eating delicious caek for epic win and great justice.

Speaking of epic win for great justice, this excellent summary is just in from I'mglib who was at the meeting:

Wow wow wow! The meeting today was so awesome in just about every way.

Here are the highlights:

- Two woman who were Riverside County residents who weren't affiliated with either side spoke against the ordinance, and the speeches were really powerful. The 1st one to speak was especially brilliant, and she addressed Bob Buster specifically, saying something to the effect of, "You know this is a bad idea." She also pointed out, What if a business decides to put a shack on their property? Does that mean they can't be picketed? The other woman actually said she wanted to see the supes financial records, implying they were being paid!

- I spoke, liberally using quotes from T. Jefferson, about the importance of being able to protest, even against a Church. (Thanks to Optimisticate).

- Smurf and AGP both spoke and they were great. Smurf was very passionate, and even talked about how Catherine Fraser told the sherriff that he had a medical condition that might make him a danger to the people inside! Also, AGP was great. He had pictures of the razor wire, the speakers, and the eagle's nest. He even played the Gold Tone, right into the microphone.

- Graham was brilliant. He was passionate, yet measured. He got in a lot of digs against COS, and against the ordinance. He had 6 mintues, because Benny's Friend/Resistance gave him her minutes. AO had specified that Graham got his minutes, too, but there was confusion, so Graham was cut off.

- Then the other side spoke, and they failed miserably. Especially Catherine Fraser. I almost feel bad for her, because she was asked why she called the cops as soon as the 3 protesters arrived, and she fumbled that one. When asked whether people could protest in front of the guard gate, all of a sudden she brings up that that is near the CAFETERIA! So she tried to throw this red herring in there, which made it obvious they were going to try to say one thing and do another.

- Bob Buster is the hero, again. He spoke for a long time with Alhadeff about how badly written the ordinance is, because it's so unclear etc. He wanted to know, if people are going to be able to protest just the same as ever, in the same location, then what was the point?

- Then, because of the confusion, AO got to speak, even though he had given Graham his minutes. I will admit I was VERY NERVOUS about this, because the supes clearly don't like him, but he pulled a stunt that was BRILLIANT! He had a sign that said DAVID MISCAVIGE HIT MARK HEADLEY on one side, and a picture of Jeff Hawkins holding a sign saying DAVID MISCAVIGE BEATS UP HIS STAFF on the other. So he waves this thing around the room, and points out that if the ordinance passes, it means he can't carry this sign at the protest.

- Then Graham got to speak AGAIN because BF/Resistance gave him her minutes (after going up and telling the clerk that her minutes hadn't been given to him yet). So that was great. Graham tells the supes that they are letting the foxes into the chicken coop by letting the Scientologists decide where people get to picket. He also got some more digs in about Scientology PIs (because AO brought up that he was followed there) and he even said that Scientologists had picketed AO's house.

The really cool thing that can't be described is the ATMOSPHERE in the room. The place was packed with people who were there to talk about an animal shelter or something, but I would bet that another couple hundred COS critics were born today.

There were laughs (Graham said that the anons eat cupcakes, dance, and that AO shows up in a purple Barney suit) there were gasps (AGP and SMURF were very emotional and dramatic) and there were fireworks (between Bob Buster and Scientology lawyer Sam Alhadeff).

So the result was they put it back into review AGAIN. I don't think Jeff Stone was happy, because it definitely looked bad for him.

As we were leaving we saw the LA Times reporter, the local reporters, and a Channel 7 van parked there.

All in all VERY EXCITING, and in my opinion a huge win.

Indeed.




Propaganda poster: LadyNonymous, Anonymous Project Chanology Hamburg


***

Breaking: Scientology international heaquarters seeks ban on HIV+ gay protesters

***

This is a repost of my post of yesterday which got deleted from Blogger. I do not know why. I am not sanguine about getting a response from Blogger since they do not provide individual email support. I have also reposted this at The Anonymous Revolution.

I would appreciate readers digging this article for great justice since the digg for the old url is now useless.

I have made some revisions in the added a link to an excellent map of Gold Base which Angry Gay Pope calls "the Xanadu of Xenuphobia." It is important to note that Muriel Dufresne who figures so prominently in these events is not just a Public Relations Officer at Gold Base but also a member of the Office of Special Affairs (OSA), organized Scientology's intelligence and spai agency. Deep down,OSA agents are nice people, srsly.

By delicious irony on January 15 last year when brass balls Nick Denton at Gawker refused to take down the infamous Tom Cruise rant video and the brass balls unrelenting anons of /b/ on 4chan went to war with organized Scientology, Ms. Dufresne had something to say:

Muriel Dufresne, another spokeswoman for Golden Era, said she has not been too bothered by Scientology's critics.

"There is such a thing as freedom of speech," Dufresne said. "People can say what they want. But they need to get their facts straight.

LOL.


Ida Camburn, 86, protesting at Gold Base. She took Graham Berry out to dinner after the stat-crashing January 8, 2008 raid. She has not seen her son for 36 years. The Church forced him to disconnect from her. See YouTube: The Lighthouse Letter -- Operation Reconnect - Why We Fight III from the excellent LRonHu88ard.

***

Originally posted on Monday, January 12, on For Great Justice:

For Great Justice - Breaking: Scientology international headquarters seeks ban on HIV+ gay protesters

The Church of Scientology has deceptively obtained the private medical records discovered the HIV+ status of two gay protesters, and raised it as one of many attempts to block protesting by the free speech and human rights protest group Anonymous at at its sprawling 500 acre Gold Base world headquarters at Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California. [Edit.: Initial reports that medical reports were obtained has not been verified. Use of private medical information however obtained remains the key issue.]

The Riverside Country Board of Supervisors meets tomorrow, January 13, to consider the Church's urgent request to revise yet again an ordinance just approved last week.

Last Tuesday, January 6, the Riverside Country Board of Supervisors approved a revised protesting ordinance Scientology had hoped would effectively prevent Anonymous from protesting. However, the revision preserved Anonymous' right to protest in its usual position across from the main gate. Controversy is on going about interpretation of some ordinance provisions. and a six month review is specified.

The first protest under the new ordinance was called for Thursday, January 8. It was attended by LA Times reporter David Kelly and just three protesters from Anonymous, all of whom happen to be gay: Scientology lawfare veteran and attorney Graham Berry, Scientology critic and comedian Angry Gay Pope (AGP), and former Scientology staff member Happy Smurf.

Kelly was astonished that no sooner had the group gathered than five police cruisers descended. Some of the 500 Gold Base staff members had called 911 to complain that their security was being threatened by the three gay protesters. In his important account Graham Berry writes:

Outside Scientology's sailing ship perpetually moored in the desert sands, cackled a parrot. I thought to myself, if that parrot starts imitating AGP and squawking, "Tax the cult," it would very soon be a dead parrot. It quickly became evident to me that the entire Gold Base was on lock down. All of the blinds and shutters were drawn. The only people visible were the silhouettes of the two security officers in the guard house and the public relations in-charge, Muriel Dufresne, the woman who had become so well acquainted with Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone and his family. I have been told that Muriel Dufresne has had store accounts for purchasing gifts for public officials that Gold Base needs to co-opt and corrupt. Apparently, Muriel has also been observed surreptitiously recording Hemet City Council meetings. Additionally, she has sat on the Hemet library committee (as a sort of de facto Scientology censor).

Muriel Dufresne was literally running back and forth between a nearby building and the guardhouse. Meanwhile two more people arrived to observe us. One was a reporter and the other a photographer from the Los Angeles Times. The reporter had been at the Riverside County Board of Supervisors meeting on January 6, 2009. His report would appear in the LA Times.com blogs section on Friday January 9, 2009.

At about 1:45 P.M., five Riverside County Sheriff's vehicles responded to multiple calls from Scientology to deal with two picketers and a photographer. The Sergeant in charge was polite and adamant that they were not looking to interfere with our First Amendment rights. However, for most of the next hour all five Sheriff's deputies were huddled inside the Scientology compound with Muriel and her assistant. We were excluded and just kept going on about our picketing. From time to time, various deputies would come out and engage us. First, they demanded and then took all of our driver's licenses, recording the details for a cult anxious to obtain all such information for its own highly questionable purposes. Although this is unlawful, it is constantly done by Los Angeles and Riverside Police when called to pickets outside Scientology locations. It was the first time in twenty years of journalism that the Los Angeles Times reporter had been asked for identification by the police.

At one point, the Sheriff's Deputies emerged and their Sergeant informed us that Scientology and the Riverside County's Legal Counsel had worked out an interpretation of Ordinances 884 and 888. Provided we did not use the name of any living Scientologist specifically, and only protested Scientology generally, we could protest up and down both sides of Highway 79. And so, AGP and I continued to do that while Scientology's representatives, the five Sheriff's deputies and the Los Angeles Times reporter went inside the Scientology compound.

And now comes the shocking revelation of the protesters' HIV status:

Later, we would learn that Scientologist Muriel Dufresne then provided the Sheriff's deputies with Scientology "Dead Agent" packs on the "crimes," as alleged and manufactured by Scientology, of AGP, Happy Smurf and I. Outrageously, Scientology had obtained and distributed personal medical information from the private health records of AGP and Happy Smurf. Deceptively, they also used the recanted Cipriano declaration to try and discredit and slime me. Apparently, Muriel Dufresne had gloated over their success in having me declared a vexatious litigant. However, that provides some of the factual basis for my picket sign and statement, "$cientology: Cult of Blackmail, Bribery and Fraud. www.xenu.net." Of course, the Riverside Sheriff's Deputies do not know that this is part of Scientology's "Fair Game" policies for the "handling of Suppressive Persons." They have not seen the Scientology scripture that reads, "The only way to control someone is to lie to them."

Happy Smurf and AGP have confirmed they are both HIV+.

This is an utterly outrageous turn in a struggle for peaceful first amendment protest against the unscrupulous power of organized Scientology so aptly described by Time as "The thriving cult of greed and power." Hubbard's Scientology doctrines are homophobic, and it claims its reparative therapy will cure homosexuality. The Church of Scientology San Diego supported anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in November.

The gay community, undoubtedly, will be livid over all of this.

Constitutional free speech and church-state religious issues have caught the attention of the respected UCLA professor Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy and Scientology critic and attorney Scott Pilutik.

The issues are serious and have been heightened by the filing last week of Marc Headley vs Church of Scientology International. Headley was Executive Producer of Golden Era Studios which produces Scientology promotional materials working at Gold from 1990 - 2005. He is directly challenging Scientology's claim that Sea Org staff are members of a religious order and therefore do not need to be paid a minimum wage. He is claiming compensation under California Labor law for the meager 39 cents an hour wages he was paid. The suit is potentially devastating to Scientology and may become important in the interpretation of constitutional law.

Important sources: (Updated January 13, 2009)

Graham Berry's account of the Thursday, Jan 9 protest

Graham Berry's Letter to the Riverside County supervisors regarding the protest ordinance

Angry Gay Pope's website: There is lots of info here

David Kelly LA Times accounts:

January 9, 2009: Scientology opponents bristle at protest limits in Riverside County - Los Angeles Times

January 10, 2009: Scientology foes blast new Riverside County law - Los Angeles Times

January 13, 2009: Riverside County ordinance curtailing Scientology protests suspended

See also LA Times: The Story of Scientology six-part series

The Press-Enterprise:

January 4, 2009: Riverside County supervisors to take up revised picketing proposal

January 6, 2009: County ordinance raises questions about Scientology

January 7, 2009: A Sticky Picket

January 10, 2009: Scientology critics angered over protest law

Eugene Volokh: Unconstitutional Residential Picketing Ban

Scott Pilutik: Scientology's new anti-picketing ordinance in Riverside County

Why We Protest thread disussion of HIPPA and other issues: Breaking: Scientology international headquarters seeks ban on HIV+ gay protesters (130 comments so far)

Excellent map of teh Xanadu of Xenuphobia


Art: OT666

More Scientology Woes: Marc Headley Sues Church of Scientology For Slave Labor

***

In the wake of public requests for re-examination of Scientology's relationship to medicine following the tragic death of 16 year old Jett Travolta, Scientology now faces a potentially devastating lawsuit against it for massive labor exploitation of its staff.

On January 5, 2009 attorney Barry Van Sickle filed a complaint on behalf of former Scientology Sea Org staff member Marc Headley in the Superior Court of the State of California in Los Angeles. In his excellent analysis on his blog reality based community, internet law attorney and Scientology Critic Scott Pilutik sums up the suit this way:

A potentially devastating lawsuit [PDF][downloadable version here ] was filed by Marc Headley in Los Angeles County Court on January 5 against the Church of Scientology International (CSI), alleging that CSI violated California labor law by failing to pay Headley, and others similarly situated, minimum wage or for the overtime he routinely worked as an employee of Golden Era Productions, an unincorporated entity which is chiefly responsible for producing and selling Scientology's promotional videos and materials. Headley estimates that he was paid approximately 39 cents an hour for the time he worked at Golden Era between 1989 to 2005, during which time he sometimes worked 100+ hour, 7 day weeks uncompensated for his overtime.

Headley also alleges that he was forced by Scientology to sign various documents, under duress, acknowledging that he had no rights as an employee, and that he was not given copies of these documents.

Since this is a test case, as was the famous Scopes Trial Evolution case in 1925, it could set powerful precedent and cause chaos for organized Scientology. Scientology claims that its staff members are members of a religious order and therefore exempt from the provision of state and federal labor laws. This is its main defense, and the outcome of the case could significantly alter the discussion about tax exemptions for religious organizations. Scott Pilutik's analysis cites relevant case law. Though this is a California labor law case filed under California's Business & Professional Code (sec. 17203), important First Amendment issues are involved.

Former Scientology executive Lawrence Brennan has detailed in his important affidavit how organized Scientology engaged in a program of religious cloaking precisely to gain exemption not only for both itself as an organization and its members/"parishioners"/customers, but also exemption from minimum wage and working condition laws for its workers.

After having lost its tax exempt status in 1967, it regained it under dubious circumstances in 1993 after all out warfare by the Church. He also alleges perjury on the part of Church head David Miscavige, about which we have written, in representations made to the IRS on which the Church's tax exemption was granted.

The middle and upper management of the Church of Scientology are all members of the Sea Org, including the head of the Church, David Miscavige. This is a para-military organization organized on a strict, hierarchical, command and control model replete with Naval ranks and uniforms. Members sign a billion year contract and in exchange receive food, clothing, shelter, and pitiful "wages" of 39 cents an hour. Most important to the indoctrinated member inducted into Scientology's elite management, however, is free auditing, Scientology's intrusive indoctrination counseling and therapy. Since it costs upwards of $350,000 to complete all the courses and levels alleged to lead to "Total Spiritual Freedom", this is a considerable allure to the, mostly young, people who join the Sea Org.

Part of the religions cloaking program was to call the Sea Org a religious order. The model here is the Catholic church with its extensive network of varied and ancient religious communities. In basic terms, men and women enter into religious life under vows to live in community, observe simplicity of life, and dedicate their lives to prayer, liturgy, and service. Many, if not most, take an explicit vow of poverty. They rely on the community for their material needs, working for free and turning over to the community any money they make outside it.

This suit should set off alarms among the churches because it threatens their privileges by calling into question exemptions for religious orders and religious workers. The vast number of churches are law-abiding and scrupulous in their obligations, but the loss of this case represents a potential threat to their current status through reinterpretation or revision of existing legislation. Most assuredly the Church of Scientology will use all the inter-faith connections it has built up over the years to gain support for their cause. Will the churches in California support Marc Headley or CSI, given situations like this in Sacramento?

This would be a second major religious case concerning Scientology in the last few years, the other being that of the Michael and Maria Sklar, a Jewish couple who sought to deduct part of their children's Jewish religiouis school tuition on their income tax claiming Scientologists get favored tax-exempt treatment since they are allowed to deduct cost of Scientology courses and auditing. Though the Sklars lost, the issue of Scientology's tax-exempt status is still alive and is now being raised again by Headley vs CSI.

Regarding the financial impact of a successful lawsuit, Headley, who posts pseudonymously as Blownforgood on the Scientology-critical site Operation Clambake (OCMB), writes:

The truth is, right now the Scientology enterprise pays out around $250,000 per week in wages. If (when) they lose this lawsuit, they will be paying 4 million per week to existing staff alone, not to mention past staff members that are owed unpaid wages.

The Headley case goes right to the heart of a major item on organized Scientology's Statement of Revenues and Expenses: Labor costs of $200+ million a year. Scientology's response is predictable. First, they will intimidate Headley and others into withdrawing the lawsuit through agents from OSA, (Office of Special Affairs), the Church's intelligence agency. Then they will begin a huge smear campaign against everyone supporting him, including Anonymous. There will be protracted lawfare to grind down his resolve according to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's dictum: The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than win. There will be unending attempts to get Headley to settle and shut up.

Assuming the suit goes forward, it represents a new challenge to Scientology. It will be the first high-profile case to be prosecuted in the Web 2.0 era. There was massive fair gaming against a generation of former Scientologists and critics who were sued to a fare-thee-well in the 1990s when few people got their news from the internet and much of the Church's ugly thuggery could be hidden. Indeed, it was successful in silencing the media as a whole until very recently after it sued and fair gamed Richard Behar, writer of Time's 1991 cover story Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power. Organized Scientology can no longer pick off its critic's one by one.

This is the era of social networking, and above all, Anonymous. The Church of Scientology now has thousands of net-savvy activist eyes focused on its every move. A year ago this coming January 21, Anonymous declared war in their famed video Message to Scientology. That video galvanized thousands of young people, who have since been joined by thousands of older people, to form the first ever social protest movement created solely on the internet.

Anons are relentless on the internet and in the streets. Raids, or demonstrations, occur regularly all over the world. In a remarkable activity summary for 2008,, Anonymous San Francisco reported carrying out 42 demonstrations in 12 months. More importantly, they, along with Anonymous cells in over a hundred cities around the world have created self-sustaining online and IRL (in real life) communities of enormous creativity, inventiveness, and hilarity lulz. Anonymous Germany was formally and officially invited along with United States and other consular officials to the important Hamburg Conference on September 4, 2008, convened by the Hamburg Ministry of Interior's Scientology Working Group. (Negotiations were involved - Anon: Oh hai. Can we come with masks? Ministry: Lol, yes. )

Battle-hardened by a year of combat, unrelenting Anonymous has become the activist vanguard of a world-wide anti-Scientology human rights and free speech protest movement.

The Anonymous website Why We Protest has become a significant center of information for the world. Thousands of new readers flocked to the Jett Travolta Situation Room and some have stayed to join the ranks. If you want to know what is happening with Anonymous and Scientology, WWP is the place to be. (Update: Why We Protest has now established a Marc Headley vs Church of Scientology International Situation Room )


The key to the entire case is Marc Headley's resolve. If Scientology believes they can break this man, they are deluded. Headley left quite recently in March 2005 and has plenty of knowledge of CSI's inner workings. From 1990 - 2005, he worked at Gold Base, the West Coast Kremlin of Scientology, where the executive offices of CSI and Scientology front organizations are located. Over the last few years he has regularly leaked reports about routine human rights abuses in the Sea Org happening right under the nose of Tom Cruise and Kathie Holmes. He has a book deal for his experiences, and is not about to be shut up.

Another new challenge is that there is a class-action character to the suit since Headley has invited other former Scientology staffers to join him in the lawsuit:

If anyone reading this from the sidelines thinks that they too might have had some rights that were violated, you are probably right. You may have rights you did not even know about. Any people seriously interested in this can write to lordxenu@blownforgood.com . You must provide your full name and details regarding your employment history. If it appears that your rights might have been violated, you will be given additional information on what you might do about it.

Headley is opening up a huge can of worms. The suit is focused on wages, but the real horrors in the Sea Org are its human rights violations: its policy of coerced abortions, its labor re-education camps, its medical malpractice, and its deaths and suicides. Headley has astutely left all that out. Anonymous will be sure everything reaches public attention, "for great justice", as anons say.

In a remarkable coincidence of timing, the suit was filed three days after the death of Jett Travolta when public interest in Scientology was, and continues to be, wide-spread. It is now impossible for a Scientology celebrity to do anything without it becoming an occasion for Anonymous to further educate the public about the true harms of Scientology.

A Scientology official has recently stated that dealing with Anonymous is like swatting flies. After a year of relentless Anon internet and IRL raiding, however, Tom Cruise has vowed not to speak publicly about Scientology, and has built a $10 million bunker to defend himself against invasion by space aliens and perhaps hordes of 18-year anons who love raiding and rickrolling the local org. Above all Anonymous loves trolling pranks like the one Headley designed into his law suit:

As Larry Brennan mentioned in a post somewhere, there were a few others that were also part of the initial complaints that were filed. These names were intentionally listed to test what would happen with these people. Within hours of the complaints being filed, these people's families were contacted and eventually some of these people would drop out of the case. The intimidation was swift and effective. This was expected and predicted. It was also illegal. So be it. It just made the case that much stronger. Additional evidence that backs up the case is created by the Scientology enterprise daily. [Emphasis added]

Nearly a year ago Good Lieutenant at the Jawa Report and Mein Blogo Vault wrote of Anonymous "I think we may have finally found the antidote to the idiocy that is Scientology." He also wrote:

There's going to be a lot of collateral damage in this war, but the levels of lulz are going to be well over 9,000. And -

If you don't know what Anonymous is, all you need to know is that Scientology should be afraid. Very afraid.

Scientology should be very afraid of Marc Headley and his Legion of supporters in Anonymous. I will let Headley speak for himself:

Some would say that I have the upper hand. I have spent nearly 20 years studying Scientology and how they operate. They have only just begun to study Blownforgood.

So OSA, while you have been watching my house, following me to the grocery store, bugging my friends, digging through my trash and taking pictures outside my company, I have been doing my homework for the upcoming work at hand.

Indeed.





The Hamburg Conference on September 4, 2008.

Photo: LadyNonymous, Anonymous Hamburg

Unmasked among the anons, from left to right, Lawrence Brennan; conference organizer Ursula Caberta of the State of Hamburg Ministry of Interior Scientology Working Group; Marc Headley; attorney Graham Berry; and actor Jason Beghe.



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Michael Pattinson: What Scientology will probably do about the tragic death of Jett Travolta.

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Former Scientologist Michael Pattinson has written an important post on the death of Jett Travolta entitled What Scientology will probably do about the tragic death of Jett Travolta, which has appeared on the Anonymous forum at Why We Protest.

Pattinson reached Scientology's highest level of training, Operating ThetanVIII, and was interviewed here at For Great Justice in connection with the appointment of Greta Van Susteren's husband and anti-Psychiatry warrior John P.Coale's appointment to, of all things, the University of Maryland Medical Center.

The death of sixteen year old Jet is tragic and has been met with outpourings of sympathy from fans and critics of Scientology alike. Members of the Ex-Scientology Message Board have sent flowers to the funeral home in the Bahamas where arrangements are being made. Anonymous, who has done extraordinary work exposing Scientology throughout 2008, has extended its condolences in several videos one of which also includes a message with important background for the media, internet, and general public. Anonymous are also posting their personal messages of condolence here, several from members of Anonymous who are parents who themselves lost children.

Not surprisingly, criticism has been leveled at critics of Scientology for taking this occasion to bring to public attention medical malpractice stemming directly from Scientology's "tech". For the public unaware of this dimension of Scientology, Jett's death is a tragedy. For critics, it is both a tragedy and an outrage.

We have as yet no firm information on Jett's medical condition. John Travolta and Kelly Preston have only publicly spoken of their son's having had Kawasaki Syndrome, an unlikely source of seizures, for which they treated him with Scientology's vitamin, sauna, and running therapy known as the Purification Rundown. There has also been considerable speculation on whether Jett was autistic or had Asperger's Syndrome. While a confirmed diagnosis has not been made public, reports of Jett's behavior make such a diagnosis more likely than not. At the very least, he suffered some sort of neurological impairment that contributed to his fatal seizure.

The death of a child, for whatever reason, is a pain that for most families lasts a life time. No other human loss is as devastating. What makes this loss even more tragic is that it may well have been preventable. His death is inextricably embedded in the beliefs, practices, and even more, importantly, the organizational practices of the Church of Scientology and it's use of "deployable celebrity agents" as sociologist Roy Wallis calls them.

Scientology wants to eradicate psychiatry, psychology, religious psychological counseling, and all of medicine that touches on mental functioning. This is why the Coale appointment is so disturbing. The boundary between medicine touching or not touching on mental functioning is becoming increasingly blurred as medical, and particularly, neurological research and practice advance.

There are Scientology physicians, but they are forbidden to deal with anything that touches on mental functioning. Undoubtedly, most are people of good will and many quite competent professionals. In her condolence video A Message to John Travolta, former Scientologist Tory Christman, who suffered from epileptic seizures, mentions one who helped her. However, we also have this disturbing report by former Scientologist Nancy Means. writing as "Kathryn" who was under treatment by Scientology doctors following a psychotic break:

My husband showed up pretty soon after my arrival in the hospital. I was so completely out of it, I did not recognize him. Reportedly, my blood levels were crazy and I was dehydrated. My husband brought them the bottle of Chloral Hydrate the Scientology doctor had prescribed. Several of the hospital staff were incredulous at the Chloral Hydrate prescription. "This is what they gave her to get to sleep!!!" a couple of them laughed.

I found out later that as the prescribing physician, the Scientology doctor had been called about my collapse and mental state. She alerted OSA Int. who sent people there to prevent a psychiatric admission. (Emphasis added)

So we have Scientology physicians reporting into the Church's intelligence and secret service agency, OSA (The Office of Special Affairs).

John Travolta and Kelly Preston are celebrity agents of OSA. Travolta used his celebrity with President Bill Clinton at the time of filming of Primary Colors to get the State Department to put pressure on Germany for its investigation and surveillance of Scientology. Kelly Preston has engaged in high profile anti-Psychiatry activism for Scientology's front group, the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights.

What makes this situation so appalling is that the Travoltas not only have to live with a tragic loss, but will now be subject to intense scrutiny by the management of the Church of Scientology whom they represent as celebrity agents.

This is the significance of Pattinson's post. OSA is responsible for the Church's Public Relations. As is its standard practice repeatedly evidenced in its many medical malpractice scandals like the deaths of Lisa McPherson and Uwe Stuckenbrock, OSA will prevent information from reaching the public. All suggestions that Scientology's anti-psychiatric and anti-medical practices may have had something to do with Jett's death will be ridiculed and those seeking information will be smeared.

Most terrible, the Travoltas will be interrogated as to "Jett's death being a possible result of some kind of personal ethics breach or lack of integrity". Pattinson gives an important framework for understanding the situation as it unfolds and deserves to be widely read and noted.

The Travoltas do indeed deserve our sympathy and prayers.


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From Michael Pattinson:

Scientology and the death of Jett Travolta.

The news of the tragic death of Jett Travolta today is a sad event indeed.
My sincere condolences go to the whole family and I hope they can somehow eventually turn this situation into something positive in the medium-long term. Life has ways of bringing the sunshine back after dark clouds have lifted.

For those fans and media who will be trying to come to a real understanding of what will happen with the John Travolta, Kelly Preston and Scientology with regard to this, I can offer some educated guesses based on a very long term (24 years) devoted experience and membership in Scientology. [NOTE: I left Scientology in 1997 after severe "irreconcilable differences" prevented me from wanting to continue, so I am not a proponent of Hubbard or of Scientology now. Indeed, I sued Scientology for fraud and other matters in 1998, but my extensive experiences of how things work in the cult are still intact and I doubt that Scientologists will be very open to providing such information to the media or public].

The vast majority of people will have no idea what this kind of thing will probably entail as far as Scientology style "follow up" is concerned.

Firstly, information about what the family is doing will most likely be curtailed or cut.
Scientology spokespeople will very likely give out generalized "press releases" through lawyers or PR personnel that will give no real substance for informing the public.

Secondly, the questions that have arisen about whether the anti-drug/anti-pharmaceutical tenets of Scientology might possibly have actually prevented Jett from receiving proper medical treatment or preventative assistance will be downplayed, denied, ridiculed and/or harshly criticized to try to get attention off the issue as fast as possible. This aspect, however, may not just "go away". It is a question of life or death, after all...

Thirdly, the family will very likely go to Clearwater, Florida (or maybe have Scientology professionals come to their Florida home, but this is far less likely) to the Oak Cove building and/or Sandcastle Hotel for what Scientology calls "handlings". These handlings will very likely entail the following;

0. Meeting with the staff member who deals with grieving people to cover physical details of a funeral and/or a memorial. Then those arrangements would be planned and carried out. The liaison would probably be done the current celebrity handler who would be a high ranking Sea Organization member.

1.Ethics interviews and associated procedures. (Scientology's "Division 1" services.)

This aspect of services would look into the unfortunate and tragic event of Jett's death being a possible result of some kind of personal ethics breach or lack of integrity by the parents. In particular the individual parents would have separate interviews about their own role in the tragedy or how come they "pulled in" (a Scientology ethics jargon term) such an awful situation by something in their own behavior.

The Scientology celebrity ethics officer would also actively look for one or more people in the Travoltas' circle of friends, acquaintances who might be antagonistic to or even anti-Scientology and who could have had sufficient negative influence to "cause" such a tragedy. That person would then be the target of possible disconnection (shunning), firing or lawsuit/fair game. There would be many steps possible for John and Kelly coming out of the "Ethics" handlings, and these could not be predicted here.

***It is worthy of note that the potential question of NOT giving proper or adequate medication would not be considered a Scientology ethics violation due to L.Ron Hubbard's indoctrination to avoid such medical or psychological types of treatment. In fact, the failure to give doctor-recommended drugs or medications to Jett might factually be considered to be a laudable Scientology ethics matter.***


2.Correction interviews and procedural steps (Scientology's "Division 5" services).

These steps, sometimes called "Review" would be services designed to address any failures of John or Kelly (and/or Jett's caretaker, as I believe he is a Scientologist) to have properly applied relevant Scientology technologies to their son or his living situation within the family. Any strictly Scientology-dictated ways of living that are detected as to having been omitted or misapplied would have to be re-studied and drilled till they become second nature.


3.Technical sessions ("auditing") (Scientology's "Division 4" services.

This would be some very expensive counseling sessions and personal programs designed to remove, if possible, all the negative emotions from this awful tragedy. This can cost up to $1000 an hour. The outcome of this step is varied in its success and can take weeks or months to complete.

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A more cynical prediction: I would also comfortably estimate that Scientology, as an organization, would attempt to get the maximum financial and public relations benefit from this horrible tragedy. It will be interesting to watch how they go about doing this. In any case the organization through its spokespeople will tend to avoid truth, responsibility and facts. It will also use the media without being of any real service to the media. Hubbard hated journalists almost as much as he hated psychologists, doctors and psychiatrists.

Michael Pattinson

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Condolences from Anonymous: We are Anonymous, and we do have a heart.

John P. Coale: The Curious Incident of the Scientologist in the Boardroom

This is a repost of an article I wrote for Counterknowledge, John P. Coale: The Curious Incident of the Scientologist in the Boardroom. It should be read in conjunction with For Great Justice's interview with Michael Pattinson.

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The Washington Times recently reported the curious appointment by Governor Martin O’Malley of John P. Coale to the Board of Directors of UMMS (University of Maryland Medical System). Coale is a high-ranking Scientologist and trial lawyer who got rich from the “tobacco wars” and has particpated in Scientology’s assault on Ritalin, taking on not only its manufacturer, Novartis, but the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and patient advocacy group CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Defict Disorder).

Coale is a member of Scientology’s glitterati, married to Scientologist Greta Van Susteren of Fox News. Along with Tom Cruise and other celebrities, he helps to fund Scientology’s campaign for the “Global Obliteration” of Psychiatry so memorably reported on by head of the Church David Miscavige in 2007:

By way of a recap, the campaign was expressly, maybe even “diabolically,” engineered to ignite both government action and media blizzard. It’s also got an internal kicker: our Mental Health Budget Adjustment Kit, which essentially works like a “smart bomb” in that it “sniffs” out psych fuel lines and blows the funding mechanism. And in that way—to put it bluntly—we booby-trap the whole psychiatric ecosystem.

Miscavige has stated, flat-out, that Scientology’s goals for the millennium are the global obliteration of psychiatry and placing Scientology at the absolute center of society. It looks like Coale is a “twofer”.

L. Ron Hubbard’s worldview demands that not only psychiatry, but also psychology and all forms of medicine and religious counselling using psychology, be utterly extirpated. To save the human race, they must all be replaced - by “Hubbard Tech”. To that end, Hubbard constructed large-scale plans to infiltrate psychiatric and medical organizations in “Scientology’s War on Psychiatry”.

Coale is a man of some social and political influence. A longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, Coale lent Governor O’Malley’s campaign $500,000 to clear its debts. A supporter of Hillary Clinton, Coale also - perhaps strangely - backed John McCain’s presidential bid, and enjoyed palling around with Sarah Palin. Now that Barack Obama is to be president, one wonders where Coale’s largesse will flow next.

Did Governor O’Malley’s vetting team do any research at all on this appointment? Did they investigate what’s wrong with Scientology? Did they know and inform the Catholic governnor that David Miscavige enforces a policy of coerced abortion for female middle and upper managment and that the Church’s Volunteer Ministers blocked health care professionals and clergypeople from ministering to the traumatized at Ground Zero after 9/11? Did it occur to them that Coale’s appointment might be construed as Scientology “booby-trapping the psychiatric eco-system”?

What is O’Malley’s embarassment is psychology’s knife in the back for the professors and staff of the University of Maryland Medical School and the network of hospitals of UMMS, the second largest employer in the state. One of the directors O’Malley replaced to make room for Coale was sailing hero Gary Jobson, who was healed of non-Hodgkins lymphoma by Dr. Aaron Rappaport at the Greenebaum Cancer Center. After being ousted Jobson said:

I wanted to continue,” he said. “I felt that my personal mission at the hospital was long from finished. I wouldn’t have lived if it wasn’t for the work of the doctors at the hospital. … I’m on a mission to make sure that patient quality and care is at an absolute.

Easy to dismiss as merely potty, Scientology’s medical and psycho-therapeutic malpractice has resulted in numerous suicides and deaths. In his new book The Complex, former Scientologist John Duignan writes of twenty people he knew personally who became insane or committed suicide. Scientology is blocking Amazon and other book sellers from distributing the book, perhaps with the aid of deployable celebrity agent Tom Cruise.

Counterknowledge, December 8, 2008