Subject: Kim Baker's 3rd declaration (12/1/95) -- full text
Kim Baker sent me a copy of her December 1st declarations, accompanying
a personal letter dated 21 December 1995. (There is no postmark on
the envelope; the nice South African stamps were not cancelled.) Her
letter arrived in my U.S. Snailbox on Friday, January 5th. She asks
that I post these declarations to the net, and states that
"The signed originals are with FACTNet's lawyers, & Scn has a copy
of the unsigned one, together with a letter stating I want no further
communication from them."
One of the declarations was laser-printed, the other handwritten.
First, the laser-printed one:
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DECLARATION OF KIM BAKER
I, KIM BAKER, do hereby declare as follows:
1. I make this declaration at the offices of GELB SIMON SHAPIRO &
PARTNERS, 10th Floor, 2 Long Street, Cape Town. Besides myself there
are present Mr John I Simon, Attorney; Miss Tessa van Deventer, Candidate
Attorney, and Miss Anita Katcher, Secretary/Stenographer. This meeting
is taking place at my request. I have been invited to bring my own
Attorney with me but have declined to do so.
2. Before arriving at Mr Simon's office I have prepared in my own
handwriting a declaration which contains all that I wish to say on
this subject. I annex hereto marked "Kim Baker 1" the original of
this declaration of mine consisting of 4 foolscap pages, 3 of which
contain writing on both sides and the 4th page of which contains writing
on approximately half the side. The declaration contains 13 paragraphs.
It was prepared by me on my own and without anyone else being present.
It contains my own voluntary statements. The amendments which appear
at various points were made by me and I have initialled each page
of the writing as well as the amendments themselves.
3. I have been furnished with a copy of this declaration and of the
accompanying declaration marked "Kim Baker 1" which is in my own handwriting.
4. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United
States of America that the aforegoing [sic] is true and correct.
Executed at CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, on this the 1st day of December
1995.
KIM BAKER
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The signature blank was empty in the copy she sent me.
All of the following is handwritten -- actually, hand-printed; she
does not use cursive writing at all.
The declaration contains numerous strike-outs and insertions; I feel
it is important to include these in this transcription as well. I've
surrounded all struck-out text by the tags ..., and all
apparent insertions (text that is above a caret, or in the margins,
or in small print) by the tags .... Any spelling or other
errors of form below are my own, except where I have indicated their
presence in the original text as "[sic]".
The words "KIM BAKER 1" are typed, in double-quotes, at the top of
the first page.
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DECLARATION OF KIM BAKER
I Kim Baker do hereby declare as follows:
1. I am over the age of 18 and am a resident of Cape Town, South Africa.
I have personal knowledge of the facts stated in this declaration.
2. I have had some time and distance from the conflict between the
Church of Scientology and FACTNet to reflect on the contents of my
declarations dated 25th October 1995 and 4th November 1995.
3. In the weeks prior to resigning from the Board of Directors of
FACTNet, I was under severe pressure and stress, resulting both from
participation in the conflict on the Internet (specifically, the Usenet
newsgroup alt.religion.scientology), and due to personal circumstances.
This stress was exacerbated by the irresponsible and hate-filled invective
on the part of the majority of posters to the newsgroup. The reasoned
and more mature critics were a minority. My sense of alienation
and isolation from all these people, whom I have never met,
remains.
4. The factors stated in point 3, in addition to the bomb threat
made against the Church of Scientology, prompted me to resign
from FACTNet. With the exception of Malcolm Nothling, I have never
met any of the people named in my Declaration of 25th October 1995,
which increased my uncertainty on [sic] the correctness of what I
was doing, along with the fact that I perceived that the conflict
was primarily a United States-based one, and that I in fact had no
first-hand knowledge of the actual events transpiring.
5. When the news of my Declarations became known to the participants
of the newsgroup, I watched in amazement as speculation and opinion
were stated as facts, and I personally became a target for the
hatred of the majority of the posters. The reasoned posters
were again, a minority. If anything, this increased my sympathy for
the position of the Church of Scientology on the Internet. After a
week few days of this , I ceased reading
the newsgroup, and have not read it since. My motivation for making
this, my third and final statement, is certainly not prompted by a
desire to redeem myself in the eyes of the critics of Scientology
-- I have nothing but contempt for the majority of them.
, with a few
6. Having stated this, I nethetheless [sic] wish to address the Declarations
made on 25th October 1995 and 4th November 1995. When I withdrew from
FACTNet and the conflict, I had no intention of supplying the Church
of Scientology with Declarations which could be used against my former
collegues [sic] in FACTNet. Having had some time to reflect on those
statements and opinions, I have concluded that many of them are not,
in fact, my own. Both Declarations were compiled by representatives
of the Office of Special Affairs division of the Church of Scientology,
after lengthy interviews with them .
7. In the Declaration of 25th October, the specific points of concern
are:
8. I do not believe that "FACTNet's only real purpose is to destroy
Scientology." In fact, I believe that it was formed to provide support
and help to people suffering emotional distress as a result of participation
in New Religious Movements.
11. Malcolm Nothling is indeed a litigant against the Church of Scientology,
but what is not mentioned is the vital work he does in assisting the
police combat the very high crime rate in South Africa.
15. What is omitted from this paragraph is that Malcolm Nothling specifically
stated that he distanced himself from the bomb threat, and from any
violence toward the Church of Scientology.
17. FACTNet's concentration of the conflict on Scientology occurred
only after the raid, out of necessity.
18. I was a member of the Board of Directors of FACTNet for under
two months, and therefore am not qualified to comment on FACTNet's
activities since inception.
19. Vaugh [sic] Young is not a FACTNet volunteer insider -- he provided
assistance with media relations when requested to do so, and acts
as a consultant to FACTNet from time to time, but has no status as
an "insider."
21. Taneli Huuskonsen posted publically [sic] that she intended $2000
to be transferred to Dennis Erlich for use in his case -- it was clear
that this money was not intended for his personal use. In addition,
I never personally saw any postings from Dennis Erlich of the "upper
level" copyrighted materials -- I only saw commentary on them by him.
25. The primary purpose of the forming of the United Free Zone Fellowship
(UFZF) by Joe Harrington was to provide spiritual counselling
to people experiencing distress as a result of leaving the Church
of Scientology.
26. The ministers of the UFZF, of which Arnie Lerma and Dennis Erlich
were only two, actively provide support and spiritual counseling to
distressed former Scientologists. I have first-hand knowledge of this,
since I was ordained as a minister myself. I have since left the UFZF.
Many people, upon being expelled from the Church of Scientology, are
then denied access to the means with which to practice their religion,
which places them in a position of either having to abandon practice
of their religion, or be forced to return to the Church under the
conditions enforced by the Church, known as "Steps A - E." This situation
leads to the extreme distress and upset experienced
expressed by many members expelled from the Church of Scientology.
I personally remain am a declared "Suppressive
Person" expelled from the Church, and can personally testify
to the distress this causes . 35. Without any reference to the
Upper Level materials, there exists a definition i the Scientology
Technical Dictionary of the "R6" Bank, which clearly rega
states that Christ, and the crucifiction [sic] are "implants" --
fa images forced into the memories of spiritual beings.
There are other points with which I disagree as well.
8. On the basis of the points mentioned in paragraph 7 above, I wish
to repudiate the Declaration signed by me on October 25th, 1995, in
its entirety. I signed At the time I signed this document,
I believed all the statements to be true. I did not have sufficient
time to reflect on them, and due to my extreme emotional
instability at the time, I had not considered the implications of
signing them.
9. I have no wish to comment on any aspect of my interviews with the
representatives of the Office of Special Affairs, since I agreed that
those discussions would remain confidential. I do wish to re-state
that I was not paid any money to sign the Declaration, nor was I at
any stage working for them the OSA as an
"operative" or "agent" of any kind. I have, as a result of those discussions,
terminated my conflict with the Church of Scientology, and remain
satisfied with that decision as the correct one for me, personally
.
10. I nethetheless [sic] wish to apologize to my former collegues
[sic] in FACTNet, and to the other individuals named in the Declaration,
for the distress that these this documents
have caused them.
11. With regard to the second Declaration dated 4 November 1995: I
repudiate this Declaration in its entirety, since a series of misunderstandings
occurred, and in fact, I had no wish to make an issue of the misunderstandings
which occurred at a time of intense stress to all parties concerned.
I apologize to both Mr. Simon and Ms. Deventer for this and
state that I mis-interpreted the mis-interpretation of
their motives.
12. I have compiled this, my third and final declaration, myself,
of my own volition and in my own time and have merely
formalised it through an attorney.
13. I have personally incurred severe emotional and psychological
damage as a result of the events of the past few months. For this
reason, I have no wish to communicate further to any of the parties
involved in this conflict , or be used by any of them to further
their own agendas -- not the Church of Scientology, nor its
critics. This is my final statement on the subject.
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States
of America, that the foregoing is true and correct.
Executed this ______ day of November 1995 at Cape Town, South Africa.
KIM BAKER
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[Note: the date above is blank, and the document unsigned, in the
copy she sent me.]