:===Begin Quote=== [harassment has become so commonplace that it is no longer newsworthy] The Skeptical Inquirer, Mar. 1, 2001 http://beta.yellowbrix.com/ [Story no longer online? Read this] (...) Just because not much has been written lately about the ongoing war on the part of Scientology against its critics does not mean that they have suddenly reverted to civilized norms (see this column, September/October 1995). If anything, it means that such harassment has become so commonplace that it is no longer newsworthy. In Clearwater, Florida, the location of one of Scientology's major headquarters, an ongoing battle rages against anti-Scientology protesters and pickets, most of whom are from the Lisa McPherson Trust (named for a young woman who died of neglect and/or mistreatment while in ''isolation'' in a Scientology ''prison'' for persons who have broken the rules-see www.xenu.net/archive/events/lisa_mcpherson/the_trust). This frequently involves shoving and other physical interference against critics that somehow the Clearwater police are unable to ''see.'' Many of the Clearwater police officers during their off-duty hours are paid $21 per hour by Scientology to serve as a private security force, and critics charge that this makes it impossible for the police to be fair and neutral in the \ongoing battle of ideologies. Critics have filmed Scientologist strong-arm agents physically interfering with protesters and sticking gum on their camera lenses, but Clearwater police are singularly uninterested in the indisputable video evidence of these crimes. (...) Engineer Keith Henson of Palo Alto, California, a free speech advocate and one of Scientology's most persistent critics, has been driven into personal bankruptcy by the group. He posted on the Internet a letter he wrote to a judge, containing an excerpt from one of Scientology's secret scriptures about how the group's ''E-meters'' (crude devices that are nothing more than simple galvanometers) could be used to diagnose and treat diseases. Henson argued that Scientology was practicing medicine without a license as well as promoting dangerous and unproven medical practices, and hence his revelation and discussion of this act constituted protected free speech on a subject of public interest. But after a series of bizarre rulings against Henson by the judge, Scientology obtained a judgment of $75,000 against him for ''copyright infringement.'' The amount of money that the organization has spent to crush Henson using top-- dollar legal talent dwarfs the amount they could ever hope to collect from him by at least a factor of ten, and probably much more that that. Such persecution is clearly intended not to protect Scientology's legitimate interests but to serve as a warning to other would-be activists of the fate awaiting them should they follow Henson's example. Now the Scientologists are attempting to have Henson put in jail for allegedly threatening to attack their main headquarters with nuclear cruise missiles (see www.xenu.net/archive/WIR/wir5-25.html). According to the police report on the incident, ''some threats [were] being made against the Church on the Internet newsgroup, alt.Religion.scientology. In the documents, it shows Keith discussing how an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missiles) could be accurate enough to hit the Church of Scientology. [G] also showed me documents that have pictures of the Church in San Jacinto, with satellite coordinates, so that a missile could be accurately launched at the Church.'' As far as is known, Henson possesses no nuclear weapons, nor any cruise missiles to deliver them. Nonetheless the case is going to trial in Riverside County, California, charging Henson with making ''misdemeanor terrorist threats.'' - http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/news1/an010320b.html#6 :===End Quote===
Scientology's growing record of hate and harassment: http://www.apologeticsindex.org/s04f.html Anton (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
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