A news update about recent Scientology court cases and incidents, as well as a press release campaign.
Scientology's Brian Fesler with Anonymous. Photo by ManifoldRamification.
On the occasion of the Church of Scientology going on trial in France on May 25th 2009, new documents being released in the Diskeeper employee discrimination trial in the United States, amended complaints about labor violations and coerced abortions being filed in cases brought by former Scientology workers in America, and the Sarah Palin camp distancing themselves from the Scientology political operative John Coale, The Church of Scientology is recycling press releases, and in the spirit of solidarity Anonymous joins in by writing its own press releases with high news value, as well as re-posting an old press release which didn't really need to be posted again.
In the discrimination case of two former employees of Diskeeper Corporation, the gossip website Gawker on Thursday posted Diskeeper's employee manual, culled from the court records in the case. The manual shows how Scientology policy letters and the "e-meter" are heavily used in the corporation. More about the case can be found under the diskeeper tag on WhyWeProtest.net. A 2006 list of more companies which use Scientology in their daily operation, can be found in the WISE International Business Directory on Wikileaks.
On Monday, May 25th, a case against Scientology and high ranking Scientologists begins in France. The charges are related to fraud and illegally practicing as pharmacists. Speaking to More4News on the UK Channel 4, a Scientology spokesperson says that the judge is biased before the case has begun, which indicates that the Church of Scientology does not seem optimistic about the outcome. The stakes may be high because Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard previously have been convicted of fraud and privacy violations in France. Repeat convictions might lead to an outright ban against the organization in question. A high ranking Scientology staff member was also convicted in the case of the 1988 death of Patrice Vic. Scientology in France was recently marred by the suicide of the Norwegian student Kaja Bordevich Ballo in Nice in 2008; the young woman's father, a member of the Norwegian parliament and a medical doctor, wrote a book about her, which was released in April 2009 and entered the best seller lists in Norway. The Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services is presently investigating the possibility of prosecuting some of the practices which the Church of Scientology engage in; of particular interest to the ministry is the use of the "Oxford Capacity Analysis" personality test in a hard sell setting, and the illegal practice of medicine.
The cases of former Scientologists Marc Headly and Claire Headly are continuing; they allege various labor abuses. Laura DeCrescenzo does the same, and also alleges that she was coerced into having an abortion. More about the case, as well as links to the original complaints, can be found in the press release 2009: The Year of The Scientology Lawsuit and in the forum situation room about the cases.
In Nashville, Tennessee, all charges were dropped against an "Anonymous" protester who was grabbed by security guards working for the Church of Scientology. The incident, which happened on April 25th, took place outside the area closed in the special event, and it would turn out that the permit for the event also had expired, as reported by Channel 4 News of Nashville (WSMV). The security guards were off duty police officers from a small community outside Nashville, who failed to properly notify the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department of their presence, and may have broken a slew of other rules. It is not known what criminal prosecution or civil litigation will follow. Scientology spokesperson Brian Fesler admitted that the guards had been told to go extra hard on "Anonymous". Fesler said this was due to fears of death threats and bomb threats from "Anonymous", but just a couple of months before saying this, the same Mr. Fesler was photographed horsing around with Anonymous in Minneapolis and even holding one of their signs, calling his motives into question.
Many of the press releases put out by the Church of Scientology concern the Volunteer Ministers. As discovered by the BBC's under-cover reporter Elodie Harper and warned about by the National Mental Health Association, the main purpose of the Volunteer Ministers, along with creating PR and recruitment, is to hinder mental health professionals and real ministers from helping the victims of disasters. Also, due to the Scientology concept of "exchange", charity is considered to be a negative thing in Scientology.
On the weekend of May 16th, Anonymous put a protest against Scientology in a protest by Scientologists protesting against psychiatry at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting in San Francisco. According to the president of the APA, the amount of harm done by Scientology and couch-jumping movie stars has been reduced.
Ron Savelo of Axiom 10 Productions Inc. and Report Master, Inc earlier this week filed fraudulent DMCA compaints to YouTube, Vimeo and other hosting services. As well as objecting to the fair use criticism and parody of his own YouTube videos, Mr. Savelo does not like seeing a video of himself assaulting the now deceased Scientology critic and videographer Shawn Lonsdale (1969-2008). Savelo has thus decided to use the DMCA as a tool for censorship much in the same way that Michael Crook did, by filing DMCA claims against materials to which he holds no rights.
While all the information above is recent news, Anonymous has decided to join Scientology's campaign of press release recycling by re-issuing a press release from May 4th about how Anonymous supports the Blue Heart Campaign. At the press release posting ceremony, Anonymous news editor Ann Hiro dedicated the release with these words: "It is delicious copypasta desu. You must eat it desu."
About Anonymous
Anonymous is a collective of like-minded individuals that are currently protesting the abuses of the Scientology Organization. Anonymous maintains professional standards in audio equipment. More information and news is available at
http://www.whyweprotest.net/
In the discrimination case of two former employees of Diskeeper Corporation, the gossip website Gawker on Thursday posted Diskeeper's employee manual, culled from the court records in the case. The manual shows how Scientology policy letters and the "e-meter" are heavily used in the corporation. More about the case can be found under the diskeeper tag on WhyWeProtest.net. A 2006 list of more companies which use Scientology in their daily operation, can be found in the WISE International Business Directory on Wikileaks.
On Monday, May 25th, a case against Scientology and high ranking Scientologists begins in France. The charges are related to fraud and illegally practicing as pharmacists. Speaking to More4News on the UK Channel 4, a Scientology spokesperson says that the judge is biased before the case has begun, which indicates that the Church of Scientology does not seem optimistic about the outcome. The stakes may be high because Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard previously have been convicted of fraud and privacy violations in France. Repeat convictions might lead to an outright ban against the organization in question. A high ranking Scientology staff member was also convicted in the case of the 1988 death of Patrice Vic. Scientology in France was recently marred by the suicide of the Norwegian student Kaja Bordevich Ballo in Nice in 2008; the young woman's father, a member of the Norwegian parliament and a medical doctor, wrote a book about her, which was released in April 2009 and entered the best seller lists in Norway. The Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services is presently investigating the possibility of prosecuting some of the practices which the Church of Scientology engage in; of particular interest to the ministry is the use of the "Oxford Capacity Analysis" personality test in a hard sell setting, and the illegal practice of medicine.
The cases of former Scientologists Marc Headly and Claire Headly are continuing; they allege various labor abuses. Laura DeCrescenzo does the same, and also alleges that she was coerced into having an abortion. More about the case, as well as links to the original complaints, can be found in the press release 2009: The Year of The Scientology Lawsuit and in the forum situation room about the cases.
In Nashville, Tennessee, all charges were dropped against an "Anonymous" protester who was grabbed by security guards working for the Church of Scientology. The incident, which happened on April 25th, took place outside the area closed in the special event, and it would turn out that the permit for the event also had expired, as reported by Channel 4 News of Nashville (WSMV). The security guards were off duty police officers from a small community outside Nashville, who failed to properly notify the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department of their presence, and may have broken a slew of other rules. It is not known what criminal prosecution or civil litigation will follow. Scientology spokesperson Brian Fesler admitted that the guards had been told to go extra hard on "Anonymous". Fesler said this was due to fears of death threats and bomb threats from "Anonymous", but just a couple of months before saying this, the same Mr. Fesler was photographed horsing around with Anonymous in Minneapolis and even holding one of their signs, calling his motives into question.
Many of the press releases put out by the Church of Scientology concern the Volunteer Ministers. As discovered by the BBC's under-cover reporter Elodie Harper and warned about by the National Mental Health Association, the main purpose of the Volunteer Ministers, along with creating PR and recruitment, is to hinder mental health professionals and real ministers from helping the victims of disasters. Also, due to the Scientology concept of "exchange", charity is considered to be a negative thing in Scientology.
On the weekend of May 16th, Anonymous put a protest against Scientology in a protest by Scientologists protesting against psychiatry at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting in San Francisco. According to the president of the APA, the amount of harm done by Scientology and couch-jumping movie stars has been reduced.
Ron Savelo of Axiom 10 Productions Inc. and Report Master, Inc earlier this week filed fraudulent DMCA compaints to YouTube, Vimeo and other hosting services. As well as objecting to the fair use criticism and parody of his own YouTube videos, Mr. Savelo does not like seeing a video of himself assaulting the now deceased Scientology critic and videographer Shawn Lonsdale (1969-2008). Savelo has thus decided to use the DMCA as a tool for censorship much in the same way that Michael Crook did, by filing DMCA claims against materials to which he holds no rights.
While all the information above is recent news, Anonymous has decided to join Scientology's campaign of press release recycling by re-issuing a press release from May 4th about how Anonymous supports the Blue Heart Campaign. At the press release posting ceremony, Anonymous news editor Ann Hiro dedicated the release with these words: "It is delicious copypasta desu. You must eat it desu."
About Anonymous
Anonymous is a collective of like-minded individuals that are currently protesting the abuses of the Scientology Organization. Anonymous maintains professional standards in audio equipment. More information and news is available at
http://www.whyweprotest.net/
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
More of this please..
23.05.2009 10:51
Although a summary of recent events is great, it would be good if individual news articles could be posted as they happen..
Just a thought...
Anonymous (who is not one of Anonymous)
hmmm
23.05.2009 17:07
Scientology's stink is almost surpassed by the American Psychiatric Association, whose shameful history includes experiments without consent on patients on the request of the CIA (google MK Ultra).
And for the commenter above who wants to know the latest socially progressive, healing action of Anonymous: there were major corporate news reports yesterday about extreme porn being spammed to Youtube disguised as children's entertainment. That's more like the true face of Anonymous.
mudkipz
Howls in favour
24.05.2009 20:33
If anonymous are the new lettrists where are the new situationists?
anon