An Open Letter to Representative Jim Davis 3315 Henderson Blvd., Suite 100 Tampa, FL 33609 Dear Sir, I am outraged, and concerned about apparent abuses of people and the law that seem to emanate from a locally-headquartered organization, which has an arm located just down the street from your office. Perhaps you are familiar with Scientology, Inc. I do not refer to the belief system or ³religion² of Scientology, but to the multitentacled corporate shell game of an organization recognized by governments, courts and individuals worldwide as behaving in a consistently libellous, uncharitable, illegal and threatening manner.

Scientology, Inc., perceives itself as being immersed in a constant state of war, with the ³enemy² anyone who points out the myriad fraud and abuse that exists within and is perpetuated by the organization¹s policies and practices. There is no method of self-correction, no checks and balances wtihin the organization to address corruption. The disparity between Scientology, Inc.¹s stated claims and the real world consequences of its behavior is too wide to address in one letter.

Tracing the history of the organization in Clearwater through public documents and newspaper articles indicates a significant number of attempts to silence critics by legal and illegal means, a pattern of barratry and organizational disregard for the community (please see attached ³Brief History of Scientology In Clearwater²), despite attempts to present itself as a boon for the area. Politics and religion -- church and state -- have never been closer than they are in Clearwater.

This is not a matter of religious freedom for Scientologists, but one of freedom of speech for the rest of us. It¹s not about ³religious bigotry² but about abuse of people and the law.

I am outraged that this organization has been allowed to continue to abuse our legal system to harass and intimidate individual critics and whistleblowers to make them ³shudder into silence.² The visible pattern of this organizational attempt to curb free speech is amazingly widespread, with decades of examples. Its willingness to deceive to achieve its own ends, its policies, directives and training drills pertaining to such deception and manipulation, have never been called to task for the problems they continue to create.

Most currently, Scientology, Inc. is persecuting Keith Henson, an American citizen and human rights activist who has applied for political refugee status in Canada as a result of years of policy-driven harassment and intimidation attempts, forcing him into bankruptcy at first, and now pressuring him to leave the United States for fear of his life after a disturbing display of injustice in an American court. I thought after OJ, I couldn¹t be shocked; but I have seen over and over again Scientology, Inc.¹s willingness to use our legal system to harass. According to the written policy of L. Ron Hubbard, the law can be used ³very easily to harass² and should be invoked without concern as to actually winning the suit; it¹s more to wear down the critic: ³...if possible, ruin him utterly.² Briefly, Mr. Henson endured an onslaught of barratry and other forms of harassment aimed at him by various tentacles of the Scientology organization primarily because he wanted to bring to the attention of our government some questionable policies of the organization and they decided to start a jihad against him. Mr. Henson was attacked with a copyright infringement charge for trying to alert the FDA and other federal agencies to the existence of a Scientology manual that appeared to him to be practicing medicine without a license. Mr. Henson had previously picketed legally against Scientology, Inc. and continued to do so to inform the general public, including Scientologists, of alleged neglect of its own adherents that had resulted in several deaths of young women at a compound in his home state of California.

This year, an astounding abuse of justice took place in Riverside County, California when Mr. Henson was actually charged with a state law loosely interpreted as ³interfering with a religion² after the local district attorney worked under advisement by Scientology-hired attorneys to refuse Henson the right to his planned defense, which outlined this pattern of abuse. Henson was acquitted of the accompanying charges of ³terrorism², referring to his picketing of the Hemet, California compound.

Henson remains in Canada, which is considering his application for refugee status. That didn¹t stop Scientology from deceiving Canadian officials into believing Mr. Henson posed some kind of threat, and as a result he was taken into custody by a Canadian SWAT team in a shopping mall parking lot. This is an extremely embarrassing international incident that amounts to an organization playing with governments and law enforcement personnel to further its own goals of intimidation and harassment of an individual with the intent of stifling freedom of speech.

Please refer to http://www.operatingthetan.com for details.

Locally, this pattern of abuse via barratry is clearly visible in the persecution of critics in the Clearwater area, beginning with former Clearwater mayor Gabriel Cazares, and recently against the Lisa McPherson Trust, a watchdog group created and based in Clearwater to expose the myriad of fraudulent and abusive behaviors of the Scientology conglomerate, and to help Scientologists who are having trouble obtaining refunds, etc. The Trust and its employees as individuals have been subject to a horrifying orchestrated campaign of harassment and intimidation, that has most recently culminated in a questionably constitutional permanent injunction.

As demonstrated in recent court cases (such as the one involving Trust employee Jesse Prince), this ³church² maintains extensive intelligence operations, and spends a significant proportion of its ³fixed donations² to hire out private investigators to dig up dirt on critics - or manufacture it with the primary intent to defame individuals. Is this the best use of 501(c)3 funds?

In 1993, the IRS succumbed to Scientology, Inc.¹s demands for nonprofit status, after decades of legal battles. The final agreement between the IRS and Scn, Inc. was kept secret until it was leaked to the Washington Post and the New York Times. Evidently, the agreement was partially based on Scn, Inc.¹s dropping hundreds of lawsuits against the IRS by individual Scientologists.
No one has yet been able to explain why the agreement was kept secret, or why Scientologists still receive tax breaks for sending their kids to ³religious school² when Catholic parents sending their kids to Catholic school cannot receive the same breaks.
Similarly, the City of Clearwater has succumbed to the self-serving wishes of the litigation-happy Scientology, Inc., by not having enough money to continue legal battles. It is my understanding that the City of Clearwater¹s police department has indicated a desire for federal-level investigation into Scientology¹s presence in their city, specifically stating that they don¹t have the funds to do it themselves.

Whenever I talk with local people about Scientology, they seem not merely suspicious of the organization, as if it were a harmless nut cult, but typically express genuine fear of the organization.

Ironically, Scientologists depended on their argument that they were in mortal fear of Keith Henson¹s signs and words to win their case, with the goal of removing Keith Henson from where anyone could hear him.

Given the number of ³religious² fronts concealing financial crimes or multi-level marketing schemes in the Tampa Bay area alone (from Greater Ministry, Deeper Life, Rev. Lyons, to the Daughter of God who had her henchmen out robbing convenience stores], this issue should and can be addressed without bowing to the inevitable freedom of religion distraction argument.

France has recently enacted legislation pertaining to mind manipulation targeting destructive cults; Germany, Belgium, the UK, Italy, Greece, and Spain have indicted Scientology, Inc. for a myriad of abusive and fraudulent practices.

As my elected representative, please do not let this organization continue to abuse its critics and the communities it inhabits, formally unchallenged. It is an organization based in fear, falsely labeling any and all opposing views as examples of hatred, abusing people and the law, and behaving like a rabid fox.

Respectfully, M. C. DiPietra cc: [a bunch of congresscritters]; a.r.s.

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