The following letter I plan to send out to a local newspaper tomorrow. Any input from fellow critics would be appreciated.

---- Dear Editor, This letter is in response to Elizabeth Cameron's letter of March 12, titled "Movie won't benefit Scientology church":

If you reread my original letter, you will see that I said the Church of Scientology will profit through its front groups.

Specifically, through Author Services Inc., the company which owns the rights for Battlefield Earth. ASI is staffed almost entirely by members of the Church of Scientology, and almost all profits made by ASI are funneled to the Church of Scientology as "Charitable donations". A cynical man might suggest that this was nothing more than tax-exempt money laundering.

On to the rest of Ms Cameron's letter: L. Ron Hubbard was indeed active outside Scientology. He claimed to have been a "Nuclear Physicist", and a "Highly Decorated War Hero" who was "Blinded and Crippled" before healing himself through Dianetics. Which is a good story, but the facts don't back it up. He never graduated any college, and his writing style suggests he had only the most basic grasp of any sort of science. A quick glance at the web site http://ronthewarhero.org/ shows that Hubbard never engaged in combat during his stint in the Navy, and was relieved of ship command for gross incompetence. The Church of Scientology claims that Hubbard was awarded 29 awards during his tour of duty, but the Navy's official records show him as receiving 4 medals, all of which were routinely awarded for simply being in the Navy and stationed in a combat zone. The only health problems he had were a duodenal ulcer and a possible case of VD. After he left the navy, he suffered from depression and other psychological problems, which he begged the Department of the Navy for help with. Sadly, he never got that help, which may have set the stage for his later life.

Don't just take my word for it. His service records are available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act. You can read them yourself if you doubt me. Also available is the Court's findings in the 1984 case of "the Church of Scientology of California vs. Gerald Armstrong", where the presiding judge stated that Hubbard was a "pathological liar". This opinion was backed by Hubbard's own son, L Ron Hubbard Jr., who stated: "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false."

That case was not the only time Hubbard came before the law. In 1978, in France, Hubbard was found guilty and sentenced to four years for fraud. A sentence that he never served, going into hiding for the last eight years of his life to avoid the law.

In 1980, several high ranking members of the Church of Scientology's "Guardian Office" (among them Hubbard's own wife), were found guilty of burglary, forgery, infiltration, and obstruction of justice after attempting to infiltrate the US Federal Government. The Judge referred to Hubbard as the "Unindicted co-conspirator" and said: "At all times material to the indictment, L. Ron Hubbard was, by virtue of his role as the founder and leader or Scientology, overall supervisor of the Guardian's Office."

Ms Cameron also stated in her letter that Hubbard "Worked in the fields of education and drug rehabilitation" and "He has received proclamations from hundreds of cities --- in honor of his many and varied achievements". To which I reply that Hubbard's education and drug rehabilitation methods have been roundly criticized by authorities in those fields, and that the numerous lies that Hubbard had been caught in during and after his life more than counteract any complimentary commendations he received, in my opinion.

I do agree with one thing Ms Cameron wrote: We still have free speech in this country. Travolta has the right to make this movie, and she has the right to defend him. But the Church of Scientology and its members do not have the right to lie about the Church profiting from that movie. And I do have the right to warn the good people of Champaign and Urbana about the Church of Scientology profiting from it, and about the lies of its members, as exemplified in Elizabeth Cameron's letter of March 12. And I reiterate: If you don't want your hard-earned money going to the Church of Scientology, don't see Battlefield Earth, or buy any merchandise associated with it. Thank you for your time.

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