Scientology Lies

April 9, 2000: Lately, doing business with Tom Cruise, one of Hollywood's most bankable actors, means a bow in the direction of his religion, the Church of Scientology. Increasingly public about his long association with Scientology, Cruise a few weeks ago invited film executives involved in distributing his summer movie, War of the Worlds, on a four-hour tour of three different Scientology facilities in Los Angeles.

April 7, 2000: With massive financial support and personnel from the USA, the Scientologists are again increasingly active in Hamburg. It is primarily the organization's intelligence service, the "Office of Special Affairs (OSA)" which has significantly increased its activity in recent times, reports Ursula Caberta. It is reported that organization opponents are being increasingly spied and eavesdropped upon and harassed. After they have been partly squeezed out of the real estate business, the Scientologists in Hamburg currently have their sights set on driving schools, among other things, according to Caberta.

April 7, 2000: Bob Minton was never a Scientologist. He began to get interested in the machinations of the sect when he read about the Lisa McPherson case on the internet. The young woman, who died, had apparently been locked up and starved by U.S. Scientologists. Scientology regards Minton as "Enemy Number One" - its arch-enemy. At his side sat Stacy Brooks, who worked in the "Sea Org" in the sect's headquarters and then left after being held against her will for nine months.

April 6, 2000: Lawyers for the Church of Scientology argued yesterday that criminal charges filed against them in a church member's death were brought by prosecutors determined to negatively brand the church. Prosecutors countered this case is not one of religious freedom, but one of medical neglect. Lisa McPherson had been under the care of Scientology for 17 days following a minor car accident and a mental breakdown. Prosecutors said she was badly dehydrated, malnourished and that the medical care church members gave her was unlicensed and inadequate.

April 6, 1993: Cocolat Inc., the Hayward-based confection company that is struggling to avoid bankruptcy, yesterday shut one of its two San Francisco stores. In addition to its financial woes, Cocolat has been under attack for its management practices. In recent months a number of high-level managers and employees reportedly quit, claiming that they suffered "religious" harassment because their bosses used management techniques based on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology.

April 12, 1983: A federal judge opened the way Monday for four former Scientologists to sue the church for fraud over a variety of claims including promises that it could prevent colds, raise intelligence and solve obesity. The judge ruled that while Scientology is a religion, many of the claims it makes appear to involve non-religious matters, such as statements that it can improve a person's health and career.

April 5, 1998: Twelve-page pamphlets are being handed out on street corners across the U.S., sounding frightening alarms about Ritalin, a prescription drug used for three decades to calm hyperactive children. Researchers and government regulators looking into the legitimate worries about misuse or over-prescription of Ritalin ridicule these "facts" as distortions and exaggerations of their work. Because the claims are constantly recycled without qualification or context, they say, parents are panicking unnecessarily.

April 5, 1985: An attempt to discredit a witness testifying against the Church of Scientology in a fraud trial hit a snag Thursday when a Portland judge called surreptitiously made videotapes an "amateurish performance" and refused to let them be shown to the jury. "I think they are devastating, devastating against the church," Multnomah Circuit Judge Donald H. Londer said out of the presence of the jury after viewing 108 minutes of tape recorded in a Los Angeles park last November.

April 11, 1951: Mrs. Sara-Northrup Hubbard, 25, yesterday charged that her husband, L. Ron Hubbard, 40, inventor of "Dianetics," a new brand of psychology, had conspired to hide her baby from her. In a nine-page petition for a writ of habeas corpus she stated she had not seen the child Alexis Valorie, 13 months old, since February 23rd when the child was taken from her nursery and she herself' was "kidnapped" and taken to Yuma, Arizona.