From http://www.offlines.org/entheta.html The Cult Awareness Network, or CAN, had been one of the most respected sources for information on cults and new religions in the U.S. It operated a telephone hotline for concerned family and friends of cultists, held conferences, and existed as a volunteer, grassroots group, with staffers committed to the cause of cult awareness, many being relatives of members or former members of cults, or ex-members themselves. CAN operated from a small office in Chicago, and worked as a clearinghouse for information on all sorts of groups. One of those groups was none other than the Church of Scientology. CAN never hesitated to speak out against Scientology--in fact, its executive director, Cynthia Kisser, stated that "Scientology is quite likely the most ruthless, the most classically terroristic, the most litigious and the most lucrative cult this country has ever seen. No cult extracts more money from its members."

CAN spoke out without fear, and Scientology responded, its money machine producing a concerted effort to destroy CAN. Scientology's "Fair Game" policy was exposed on the show--anyone or any group considered an enemy of Scientology was to be "sued, tricked, lied to or destroyed." And in Scientology's eyes, anyone who dared criticize them was an "enemy," and was indeed "fair game."

"60 Minutes" revealed the concerted Scientology effort to destroy CAN, emanating from Scientology's Office of Special Affairs (OSA--Scientology's intelligence agency), which included a special "CAN Unit" set up with one purpose--to destroy CAN. OSA and its CAN Unit orchestrated a massive scheme to tear the organization down, through hate literature, protests outside CAN conferences, private investigators and infiltration. Soon, Scientologists from across the country began submitting identical applications to become CAN members--one even accidentally enclosing an original with the notation "Model Letter" at its head. CAN recognized it as an attempt to seize control of the organization and denied the Scientologists membership.

In what had certainly been Scientology's intent all along, CAN was sued in approximately 40 separate cases nationwide for "religious discrimination." Although CAN won the great majority of these lawsuits, its finances were severely strained by the sudden need for legal defense teams to go up against Scientology's large stable of lawyers. CAN leaders were singled out for "noisy investigations" and accusations--Cynthia Kisser was accused of being a topless dancer, for example. Scientology lawyer Kendrick Moxon admitted on the program that this was unlikely, yet proceeded to make the same allegation later in the segment. Ex-Scientologists and private investigators hired by Scientology detailed the concerted effort to destroy CAN, and yet Moxon continued to deny there was any conspiracy--he attempted to convince the audience that everything that had happened was merely coincidental.

Scientology's death blow against CAN was struck in the person of Jason Scott, a young member of a church his mother considered a cult. His mother had hired a team of exit counselors and deprogrammers to talk to Jason to convince him to leave the group, of which she herself was a former member. Jason refused and left in a taxi from the restaurant where he met his mother and the deprogrammers. Moxon offered legal representation to Jason to go after CAN, which they claimed referred the mother to deprogrammers. While CAN made referrals to exit counselors, who sit down with cult members in a voluntary environment, it had a policy against referring people to "forcible deprogrammers,"

who would kidnap a cult member and take him to a location such as a motel room to discuss the cult with him, in the interest of getting him to leave. One CAN staffer may have referred Jason's mother to a deprogrammer, yet the Scott case was backed up by perjured testimony from the likes of Mark Blocksom, a former deprogrammer who has admitted lying when he claimed to receive referrals from CAN.

Blocksom, at the time addicted to drugs, lied for Scientology in return for a promise of money, money which never materialized. And indeed the Scott case was Scientology's case, with Jason's lawsuit backed up by Scientology's formidable finances and legal team. Jason Scott won a judgment against CAN--a judgment CAN could never pay. CAN was forced into bankruptcy court, where its name, logo and trademarks were purchased by a Scientologist for $20,000.

The report further detailed how, when concerned parents called the so-called "New CAN" today, they would be told to accept their child's membership in whichever "new religious movement" their child had joined despite cult groups' reputation for anything from mind control to extortion to prostitution. And the voice on the other end of the line would be that of a Scientologist--when "60 Minutes" visited the New CAN offices, despite its claims of being unaffilliated with Scientology, every staff member was also a member of the Church of Scientology.

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