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Whatcha Gonna Do When They...

...come for us. Without the appropriate authorization, this author may show up at the bottom of the Mill Race in a few days.

The Church of Scientology has declared war on the Internet. The media is billing it as the greatest threat to the vast network of computers yet. However, it is just another example of the Church's paranoia over secrecy; only this time, on a whole new communications medium.

At issue are a number of postings to the Newsgroups alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.), alt.slack and alt.clearing.technology (a.c.t.), which, according to the Church of Scientology (CoS), contained scriptures that are trade secrets and copyrighted material.

The CoS' scriptures are the works of pulp science-fiction novelist L. Ron Hubbard. Through Bridge Publications, CoS owns the copyright to these works.

Around Christmas 1994, a number of postings critical of the Church began to disappear. A number of hackers went looking for and believe they tracked down the person responsible for the cancellations of the Newsgroup posts. He is a Scientologist who frequents a.r.s.

The beginning of 1995 brought a whirlwind of activity. Johan Helsingius, the system administrator of the most popular anonymous remailer located in Finland, anon.penet.fi, received a letter from Church lawyer Helena Kobrin demanding that he shut down access t a.r.s. and a.c.t. He responded by saying that shutting down access to Newsgroups was inappropriate.

The Church tried to plug a leak later, reporting a burglary to the L.A. police from their closed computer system. They claimed that a person using the Finnish remailer posted the material and demanded identification of that person. Helsingius refused. The Finnish police showed up a little later demanding the entire database of users. Helsingius managed to turn over only the one ID number.

On that same day, CoS filed a restraining order against Dennis Erlich, Tom Klemesrud and Netcom On-Line Communications, Inc., ordering them to stop Erlich's posting. Erlich is a former Scientologist and outspoken critic of the Church. Klemesrud runs the Bulletin Board Service that Erlich uses, and Netcom provides the service for Klemesrud.

Three days later, a team of lawyers, federal marshals, and computer techs raided Erlich's home. They raided his hard drive, removed books, took disks, confiscated papers and erased files. He received no invoice of what was taken and deleted. His home was photographed and searched. He claims his civil rights were violated and is countersuing.

On August 12, Arnie Lerma's home was raided. At issue were a number of postings regarding transcripts of Cos International v. Fishman and Geertz. The transcripts describe several of the Operating Thetans [OT] that the Church uses. Though the transcripts are public record, the Church claims that they are copyrighted trade secrets. There are no legal precedents to support this claim.

On August 22, two raids took place against Larry Wollersheim and Bob Penny, directors of FactNet, and anti-cult network. However, they had expected a raid for quite some time and encouraged Web Surfers to download and republish all the material they offered. Within a few weeks, there were sites all over the world.

In mid-September, Colorado and Virginia judges agreed that religions are not entitled to trade secrets or copyrights and ordered all material seized from Wollersheim and Penny returned, but also said that they could not make any more copies of CoS material.

So it seems as though the good guys won. Don't be fooled.

The Church of Scientology claims to be religion in most countries, though a number of European and North American governments are prosecuting the CoS, including the US, Canada, Spain, France and Germany. Charges include fraud, complicity to practice illegal medicine, falsification of records, capital flight and coercion. Al Capone would be proud.

The CoS parallels the Mafia when dealing with Suppressive Persons (SP's). (SP's are basically persona non grata, as Erlich described himself.)

According to Time, journalist Paulette Cooper published a book critical of the CoS in 1971. Two years later, Cooper was indicted by a grand jury of plotting to bomb the CoS, along with 19 other offenses. In 1977, the FBI raided the Los Angeles branch and discovered documents about operation "Freak Out," designed "to get P.C. incarcerated in a mental institution or jail" by impersonating her. Cooper was eventually exonerated, yet no Scientologist was ever tried for the plot to discredit her.

Perhaps this is due to the teachings by Hubbard that demand all-out war on SP's. They "may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. [They] may be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed," Hubbard wrote. This is called the "Fair Game" doctrine.

The CoS views the legal system as a tool to harass people. Winning the case is not necessarily the objective. Lawsuits are expensive and time-consuming, and therefore a good diversion to keep SP's from criticizing the Church.

"The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease," Hubbard wrote.

Russell Miller, a British journalist, wrote a book critical of Hubbard in 1988. A short while after that, Scotland Yard received an anonymous phone call implicating Miller in an axe murder in South London. The Yard later called the investigation a "complete waste of time." The London Times later found the private detective hired to smear Miller's name. He was hired by the CoS.

According to Quill magazine, when Robert Lobsinger, the publisher of Newkirk Herald Journal in Oklahoma began running editorials alerting citizens that Scientologists were building a drug rehabilitation site on a nearby Indian Reservation, CoS sent private investigators after him.

One "went to the sheriff's office poking around wanting all the terrible bad criminal history on me, my wife, and kids," Lobsinger recalled. "Of course, there isn't any. He wandered around town talking to everybody else trying to get the goods or me. They sent him down with a full-page ad to run in my paper and a handful of hundred dollar bills to buy this ad. Of course, the ad was a condemnation of me for exposing Scientology and insinuating that I was obviously a drug dealer and was a terrible guy... So they took it to the daily paper 15 miles north of us and they ran it up there," Lobsinger said.

Hubbard also wrote, "We do not want Scientology to be reported in the press, anywhere else than on the religious pages of newspapers... Therefore, we should be very alert to sue for slander at the slightest chance so as to discourage the public presses from mentioning Scientology."

It is ironic that such a statement would be made, considering the climate of today's news shows and papers, with the Weekly World News and Hard Copy doing so well. Sensationalism and scandal gets reporters hotter than the mid-afternoon sun in Texas.

Finally, knowing all this about how CoS likes to deal with critics, came two posts from a person calling him/herself Capricorn. They looked at the raids and lawsuits against Erlich, Helsingius and Lerma not as fights over copyrighted material, but as diversions and reconnaissance.

According to Capricorn, "Wollersheim's list of donors is much more valuable than any copyrighted material found in his computer. The list of people who send him information and to whom he corresponds is more valuable than OT 3 on his hard drive."

Capricorn suggests that CoS is planning a massive R.I.C.O. lawsuit. R.I.C.O. stands for Racketeering-Influenced Corrupt Organization and was created to get at the Mafia who crossed interstate lines.

"Scientology is building a R.I.C.O. suit to file against dozens of people and organizations across the U.S. that they will say are a conspiracy to destroy the Scientology religion. The words 'religious genocide' will be used. At the center of the conspiracy will be the Cult Awareness Network and it will extend out to include some psychiatrists, some attorneys, some media and a number of critics and former members. The Net will be cited as the nervous system/nexus for the conspiracy. The suit will be used to sue people that Scientology executives feel they cannot reach or sue in any other way," Capricorn posted.

The amount of paranoia exuded by this group and the peoples associated with it or against it boggles the mind. Even if the R.I.C.O. suit was true, what would be gained by the CoS? Harassing people with lawsuits must be getting costly, considering they haven't won in a number of years.

Capricorn suggests CoS will be gathering information with subpoenas and discovery processes. He also suggests that "they [CoS] believe that people are critical of them because of this conspiracy. Thus they must face that criticism to find the conspiracy, for when it is exposed, the criticism will stop.

"If the criticism increases, it means that they are getting closer to the truth. (In other words, the more you berate them, the more they feel they are right. It is like beating a masochist to get him to stop being a masochist. It doesn't work.")

There is a more technical reason for this that is explained in the Church scriptures, but Capricorn didn't go into it.

Maybe Scientologists are just misunderstood. Maybe their religion really does make sense and we're just persecuting them for their beliefs.

Maybe not.

According to Spy, "75 million years ago, an evil ruler named Xenu implanted 'thetans' or spirits, in volcanoes on the planet Teegaack (known more recently as Earth). All humans are made up of these thetans, which are basically good, but terribly misunderstood little buggers.

"Engrams, caused by traumas in our early life, cause us grief and pain later in life. This is why Scientology is so popular.

"By making every pain in our life not our fault, Scientology alleviates any guilt. They use a device called an E-meter to cure people of the Engrams. Imagine a lie detector crossed with a compass and that's what it looks like.

"The curing technique is called auditing. Essentially, you confess all the bad stuff you've ever done in your life. They record it and use it against you when you try to leave.

"This doesn't really cure you, but it is an incentive not to leave. The curing process consists of repeating all the terrible stuff you've done over and over again. Try saying the word 'ball' 50 times aloud, over and over, until it doesn't mean anything to you anymore," Mark Ebner wrote for Spy.

Maybe Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, the founder, was just misunderstood. Well, probably not that, either.

CoS paints Hubbard as a decorated war hero from the Navy. In actuality, he accidentally fired on another ship and was placed on shore duty, according to the "axe-murdering" Miller.

It has been suggested that the Internet will be to Scientologists what Vietnam was to America. It has been suggested that the very essence of the Internet is at stake over copyrighted material and censorship.

It will eventually be up to Congress and the courts to decide what the Internet is to be. In the meantime, fringe groups like the Church of Scientology will continue to push the envelope and the Internet will continue to push back. First Amendment victories are important in the early stages, as court rulings continue to pile up.

Thomas Schoenborn, a junior majoring in Journalism, is Utility Infielder for the Oregon Commentator