Scientology Lies

November 10, 1987: In a blow to the Church of Scientology, a unanimous Supreme Court today made it easier for the Internal Revenue Service to withhold material sought by individuals or organizations under the Freedom of Information Act, a law aimed at curtailing government secrecy. In a case brought by the Scientologists, the court ruled 6 to 0 (with two justices not participating) that the IRS legally may refuse to disclose certain records even if the tax agency could delete anything linking those records to individual taxpayers.

November 9, 1998: French justice will face accusations today that it has been manipulated by the Church of Scientology as the Paris Appeal Court rules on whether to continue a 15-year investigation into the organisation. The disappearance of some of the investigating magistrate's files has fuelled the suspicions of anti-sect campaigners before the hearing. They believe Scientologists have infiltrated the upper echelons of the legal system, using their influence to put pressure on judges and block inquiries.

November 8, 2005: Tom Cruise has replaced his sister as his publicist after a string of PR disasters. Lee Anne DeVette has been axed following criticism of the Hollywood star's relationship with Katie Holmes, his feud with actress Brooke Shields and his support for Scientology. Cruise will be represented by veteran movie PR Paul Bloch, whose clients include Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Anthony Hopkins.

November 8, 1997: A Federal immigration court judge has granted asylum to a German member of the Church of Scientology who claimed that she would be subjected to religious persecution had she been required to return to her homeland, the woman's lawyer and a Scientology official said today. While few details of the case were available, it is believed to be the first time the United States has given asylum protection to a Scientologist.

November 8, 1984: The Church of Scientology of Toronto pressed contempt of court charges against two Ontario Government lawyers in an attempt to interfere with criminal proceedings involving the church, the Supreme Court of Ontario was told yesterday. David Doherty, the lawyer for the two Government officials, alleged that church lawyer Clayton Ruby deliberately provoked a confrontation after he discovered that an official at the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations had been granted access to documents a Supreme Court judge had earlier ordered sealed.

November 7, 1994: It would take something like an invasion of space aliens - maybe something out of an L. Ron Hubbard science fiction novel - to match the climate of fear and mutual suspicion that prevails between the Church of Scientology that Mr. Hubbard created and its frightened opponents in Germany. "Fear is part of their system - it's a totalitarian organization that seeks to control everybody else, a dictatorship," said Ursula Caberta y Diaz, who heads the four-member working group that was set up four years ago by the Hamburg government to combat the Scientology movement and that has tried to get the courts to declare it a criminal conspiracy.

November 14, 1998: The Fort Harrison has no provision for intravenous feedings. So, when McPherson refused to take nutrition, staffers tried to force it down her throat. Had McPherson been taken to a psychiatric facility, she probably would have received medication to calm her, psychiatrists say. She also might have been restrained, if necessary, and given intravenous feedings. Hubbard died in 1986, but his anti-psychiatry zeal has been passed on to his followers, who recently began a campaign to "take over the field of mental health by the year 2000."

November 6, 1986: The attorney who won a $30-million judgment against the Church of Scientology sued church members Wednesday, claiming that they concocted a scheme to assault him in the courthouse cafeteria and blame the confrontation on him. In the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, attorney Charles B. O'Reilly alleges that church leaders coaxed a young woman into "assaulting and battering" him in order to file a false criminal complaint against him.

November 5, 1997: Producers of the 20th Century Fox TV series "Millennium" have been fielding calls from people in and around the Church of Scientology over an upcoming episode of the Fox drama series.