Scientology Uses DMCA to Delist Critic's Website

touretzky writes: "Scientology has used a DMCA threat to force removal of a large number of pages from xenu.net from the Google search engine. Some of the pages Scientology is objecting to contain no material owned by the cult; other pages are clearly covered under "fair use". Scientology's ongoing abuse of Google is documented here. Of course, the Norwegian owner of xenu.net could write a counternotification letter, but that would require him to agree to the jurisdiction of a US court in a district of Scientology's choosing." The posting by Heldal-Lund agrees with what we can observe at Google - the pages listed in the posting aren't in Google's database, though many others are. Update: 03/21 14:16 GMT by M : Paul Wouters of xtdnet.nl (which hosts xenu.net) submits this page documenting Scientology's attacks against the ISP for continuing to host xenu.net.

Comments

What's with scientology?

[Spazntwich]

Are they convinced the way to expand their membership is to make enemies with... everyone?

Re:What's with scientology?

[SweenyTod]

It's not really all that surprising. They have a long history of threatening anybody who critises them. They drove one critic out of America, sued the creator of this site, to name two of the more well known actions.

They have no choice. Their creater, L Ron Hubbard, said that they were to never defend, always attack. They can't help themselves. I run a small web site, with some critical information on it, and I've had legal threats.

Re:What's with scientology?

[danro]

Well, if you are trying to peddle the kind of bulls**t they do, you don't have much of a choise.
If people heard the whole story about evil space empires and such before they were sucked into the cult, few would join...
..and that would disrupt their cashflow.

As we all know that the DMCAs purpose is to protect the revenues of businesses. At everyone elses expense.

Re:What's with scientology?

[arkanes]

I worked for a bookstore once, and they called us to ask if we'd be interested in carrying thier books. We told them no. They weoman on the line then got very aggressive and argumentative, insisting to know why we wouldn't carry them (hatred of stupid cult + no money), wanting our names and addresses (home address, not just the store one) and lots of other ridiculous stuff before we hung up on her. Was kinda scary, really.

Re:What's with scientology?

[DrXym]

Scientology expands it's membership via various "charities" and frontgroups who's sole purpose is to raise money for the "church" and recruit new members.

One example is Narconon which is little more than a scientology front designed to seperate addicts and their families from their cash while simultaneously indoctrinating them into the Co$. There have been numerous testimonials that the last thing Narconon is interested in is seeing people get better.

And of course they also hawk their ridiculous "self help" Dianetics book in informercials and flyers (never mentioning the Co$ of course) as well as the usual "personality tests" and other sleazy means they con people into visiting their premises. They'll do anything to get vulnerable, troubled and most importantly solvent people caught up into believing their lies. They even stooped so low as to do a recruitment drive for WTC victims, under the guise of offering counselling of course.

Whatever the means, the "raw meat" (the mark) gets a few "free" intensive audits, after which their reasoning faculties are sufficiently suppressed that the Co$ can start milking them for cash by selling self-improvement courses and so on. The higher up this "bridge" they get, the more money the courses cost. The Co$ doesn't like people knowing about their courses because it deprives them of money and exposes them to ridicule.

It is actually worth reading Dianetics (don't buy it though) to see how ludicrous it all is. The author L Ron Hubbard and Co$ was a nut, a criminal, a pathological liar, a sadist, a control freak and a conman. Diananetics and his other works (e.g. A History of Man) are like an attractive lure on the end of a fishing line. Promise the reader the answer to all their problems can be found in the Co$ and then reel 'em in. It's quite tragic to think how many lives this man has ruined.

Re:What's with scientology?

[lermanet]

Thanks for the pointer Sweenytodd,

Well, right now the Keith Henson page mentioned in article at operatingthetan.com is unavailable.. due to load from slashdot hits, we need to spread the load out for folks that are motivated to find out more about the KING of CONs.. L Ron Hubbard,

It doesnt matter which of the many critical pages one hits...we are all hooked to the resources on each other's pages. An index of the critical sites is here: http://www.lermanet.com/links/index.html,

All folks have to do to defeat scientology and send it to the scarp yard of history is to keep on getting the word out,

Ferengi + Borg = Scientology I'd prefer to die speaking my mind than live fearing to speak.
The only thing that always works in scientology are its lawyers
The internet is the liberty tree of the new millennium
Secrets are the mortar binding lies as bricks together into prisons for the mind
http://www.lermanet.com mentioned 4 January 2000 in
The Washington Post's - 'Reliable Source' column re "Scientologist with no HEAD"
You want Bigots? http://members.cox.net/bwarr2/Movie2.html

Re:What's with scientology?

[issachar]

maybe that was the original concept, but it's an idea that's been destroyed over time.

the government can indeed arrest someone on "church" property without the church's consent. (Waco Texas would be the best example of this)

and how does exempting a religious organization from taxes stop them from enforcing religious views? I would think that this comes from the part of the US constitution that says that the government cannot establish an official religion. (not American, so I don't know the exact clause).

Waving the carrot of tax free status gives the government much more control over a religion than simply taxing them.

Whatever the original reasons, tax free status is a liability today and should be abolished.

.

Effectiveness?

[TheGreenLantern]

As I understand it, Google is only required to remove refrences to certain pages on the site, not the whole site entirely?

How effective is this going to be? Even if the pages to "Operation Clambake" or whatever are removed from Google, xenu.net is probably still going to show up (depending on the search criteria used, I suppose). Once you're at the xenu.net home page, it's a trivial matter to find the other pages in question that Scientology has a problem with.

I hate scientology.

[Doctor Fishboy]

A friend's sister converted to Scientology and she promptly dated a 50 year old bloke - she was 22 at the time. Even ignoring the age difference, the sudden and radical change in her whole personality (from friendly and a good laugh to extremely insular and compulsive neurotic) scared me *a lot*.

She left the cult (whoops, I meant "religion") two years ago and with the support of her family is on the road to recovery. I don't know if her family persuaded her to leave or they did a rescue mission for her.

I don't know what she thinks of Scientology nowadays.

Definitely very creepy fuckers. Best avoided, or failing that, best viewed in a strong critical light. Are they working for your spiritual development, or are they fleecing you for all your money?

DMCA notification

[Anonymous Coward]

As bad as the DMCA is, this notification really isn't one of its more onerous sections. The section in question established a standard procedure for removal of (claimed) copyrighted material, which would have been done pre-DMCA with the immediately filing of a lawsuit. This DMCA provision protects ISPs and sites like Google from lawsuit, which probably helps the general public get more information out. If ISPs and Google had to worry about immediate lawsuits without notification and safe harbor, they would likely allow less material on their sites.

Re:lots of techies into scientology?

[JMemmert]

I agree that scientology is more present on the web than other religious communities.
Unfortunately, it is completely in sync with their overall strategy.:-(
One major leg of their operations is to get the managers of companies. Through them, they then infiltrate the rest of the company. For that, they offer "management seminars" and the like, which are not visibly scientology-seminars, if my memory of the news doesn't fault me here...
This top-down approach is, as far as I know, unique to them. No other religious grouping that I am aware of does that.
Of course, their seminars are so hideously expensive that they need financially potent customers, so it is understandable.

What I find dangerous about that presence is not that they're "here" but that they are allowed to bully people into believing that their claims hold some validity...
After all, google did remove the links, so there must be some valid claim behind it.
Of course, there isn't... but the impression is created... and impressions are mightier than fact on the web (and most other places in the world).
The fact that scientology has never filed any infringement suit should make it obvious that there is no validity in their claim.
That is not the case though...
After all, this is a possible way to look at things:
The google lawyers looked at the allegation, found it valid, acted accordingly.
And thus, it was not neccessary to file a suit.
This is the classic "I can turn my weakness into a strength" trick... and again, perception is mightier than the fact.

Google's removal policy

[Oink.NET]

Check out Google's removal policy for a little more perspective (bold text is their doing, not mine):

"Google views the quality of its search results as an extremely important priority. Therefore, Google stops indexing the pages on your site only at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for those pages. This policy is necessary to ensure that pages are not inappropriately removed from our index.

"Since Google is committed to providing thorough and unbiased search results for our users, we cannot participate in the practice of censoring information on the world wide web."

Wow... I'm very surprised. Google is usually very good at practicing what they preach.

Clear this up please?

[1stflight]

I'm at a loss to understand how the US law has any sway in another country. Why didn't Xenu (sp?) just tell them to fsck off?

They make enemies because they need enemies

[Hanno]

Are they convinced the way to expand their membership is to make enemies with... everyone?

Yes, in a way that is a good summary of their world view from _out_ perspective. They, of course, think that it's the other way round...

Scientology is, in a way, similar to a doomsday cult, although they don't believe in a soon-to-come end of the world. They believe that humanity is on a path to immediate self-destruction and that Scientology is the only way to "save" and "free" the world. They believe that they are superiour beings (members claim to have gained superhuman powers by their Sc.-training). We, the non-members, are just stupid "wogs", who can be cheated, lied to, even killed at will. Hubbard actually promised his members the superhuman power of killing such enemies by mere thought.

They also believe to be in a constant state of siege by the outside world, surrounded by enemies trying to enslave them. The outside world is seen as hostile, non-members are a grey goo of stupids and critics are evil enemies who can be attacked with every means possible. Sc.'s favourite weapon is lawyers...

Of course, Sc. sees this as pure self-defense against the hostile outside world. However, someone who dares to say something remotely critical of the cult is instantly labeled an enemy and handled as such, making the small critic an even fiercer critic...

So, yeah, Scientology is making itself is making enemies from people who just expressed doubt. And this helps Scientology, because *having* enemies is proof of their worldview and is what keeps the cult together.

Re:They make enemies because they need enemies

[Hanno]

I can finally understand how so many people who have some modicum of sanity could be part of such a screwed-up organization!

I wonder why you are so surprised.

The "us" (the englightened members of the cult) vs. "them" (the stupid, ignorant, frightning and hostile rest of the population) is a very common theme among cults and Sc. is no exception.

First, members are suckered in by promising them a way to happiness, spiritual growth and self-fulfillment. In case of Sc., another major topic they promise is business success and gaining control over others (the "wogs").

Once you are in the cult, you're slowly taught that "we", the members, are better than the rest, that you cannot trust "them", that "they" want to stop you on your way to happiness, that "they" are bad karma, evil enemies, whatever. More and more, your relations to the rest of the world are taken away and all you have is the cult.

"Why do people join a cult?" is an age-old question. It seems that many cults (and many regimes, such as the one in Nazi Germany) offer happiness to their members by taking away the everyday burden of responsibility, a burden that people give away surprisingly easy.

Most cults strip you from responsibility, decisions and the need for self-control. Others decide for you, you don't have to take responibility for your actions. You are "free" from this hostile world.

You might want to read the book "Underground" by Haruki Murakami about the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The second part includes interviews with active and former members of the Aum sect, a group that turned highly intelligent science graduates into people who believed in an upcoming Armageddon and hence killed innocent bystanders using poison gas.

An interesting read that at least helped me to understand why people join cults and what they want to find there.

Opening a can of censorship worms.

[Anonymous Coward]

Does Google realize that by censoring one site
on the basis of content, they must now monitor
every site they index/cache for compliance with
all local laws in every nation that Google is
accessible from?

If Google does contend that they delisted Xenu.net
for "google-bombing", then I expect Scientology.com
and its sibling sites delisted for the same practice.

On another note: Anybody else notice that Google
hasn't released a press statement yet?

http://www.whitehatresearch.net -- Its what's for dinner.

Re:xenu.net usenet thread about being de-listed

[Oink.NET]

Andreas, xenu.net's owner announced all this on the usenet group alt.religion.scientology.

Check out that thread... it tells about them scheming to get the story onto Slashdot.

> I also posted the story to Slashdot. They love this kind of
> stuff. Keep your eyes on Slashdot and lets see if they print
> it. If they do, prepare to get hit. I referenced your site
> twice, and scientology's site not at all. ;-)

Good luck, I've submitted the story three times already, Two
out of three has been rejected so far. The last one includes
the bit about DMCA though,that should set things off, I hope.. :)

Do something about Scientology's tactics

[Xentax]

Isn't Barratry a crime, at least in some districts?

What we need is a properly-motivated DA in such a district -- they can track down people harassed by Scientology's sharks^H^H^H^H^H^Hlawyers, and bring barratry charges against them.

It might not do much more than "send a message", but I would think if done properly, and with accompanying civil suits (again, the trick is to find sufficient funding to take the Scientology teams on), people could start to put the hurt back on this cult.

Xentax

pro-scientology?

[arakis]

I have seen many horror stories over the years regarding $cientology and I am a complete opponent of their organization. The thing that I haven't really seen come up in all this is any real fact-based (with references) pro-$cientoloy position. Is this because nothing pro-scientology exists? Are the people at the "church" only capable of threats and not responding to some of these criticisms? If so, why? I'm not saying that every religion must justify itself, but when it gets to the point of threats and other manipulations of people... the whole thing seems to just beg the question.

If you need a cult, check out subgenius (I'm not a memeber, just an observer). At least they have a guarantee on your money!

Re:pro-scientology?

[Carnivore24]

I used to read the anti-scientology newsgroups from time to time. Now and then someone claiming they were a scientologist would come in and discuss Xenu or auditing. Not too many were there though. I think the "true" scientologists are told to stay quiet about their religion. Think about it, if someone went on there that was a supporter and started talking about Xenu and OT levels, people inside the religion might start giving them problems....

Help Spread the Links (Co$ doesnt want you to see)

[Anonymous Coward]

I just got a reply from Google (they claim it was difficult to find my contact info. Right...) where they inform me that Operation Clambake is removed from Google because of a DMCA notification from the cult. The complaint mentions a ridiculous list of addresses which successfully removes the whole site from their engine. To get OC back we have to counter the complaint. Since the complaint is making claims of ownership of pages clearly not owned by the cult, this could hurt the cult only. But this means OC will have to follow this up with a US lawyer, which might be difficult and expensive. Here's what I received from Google today: [START QUOTE FROM GOOGLE REPLY] We removed certain specific URLs in response to a notification submitted by the Religious Technology Center and Bridge Publications under section 512(c)(3) of the the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Had we not removed these URLs, we would be subject to a claim for copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. The URLs included in that notification are attached to this email. Pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the DMCA, you have the ability to submit a counter notification, in which event we can reinstate the material. As stated in section 512(g) (3), the contents of this notification must include the following: (A) A physical or electronic signature of the subscriber. (B) Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled. (C) A statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled. (D) The subscriber's name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriber's address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person. Here are the urls mentioned in the complaint that I believe are related to your site:

• www.xenu.net/
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/index.h tml
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop1.h tml
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop2.h tml
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop3.h tml
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop4.h tml
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop5.h tml
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/prop6.h tm
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/clan-images.html
• www.xenu.net/archive/photoalbum/lisas_case_sup.htm l
• www.xenu.net/archive/events/
• www.xenu.net/archive/events/lisa_mcpherson/
• www.xenu.net/archive/disk/
• www.xenu.net/archive/disk/enemy/
• www.xenu.net/archive/disk/enemy/da.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/disk/enemy/targets.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/disk/archive/grd_chrt.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/disk/OTIII/
• www.xenu.net/archive/hubbandcw/
• www.xenu.net/archive/greece/
• www.xenu.net/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630511.html
• www.xenu.net/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630714.html
• www.xenu.net/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-610619.html
• www.xenu.net/archive/enemy_names/
• www.xenu.net/archive/enemy_names/dead_agenting.htm l
• www.xenu.net/archive/enemy_names/targets.html
• www.xenu.net/archive/tonelevel.html
• www.xenu.net/archive/grade_chart.html
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenusw.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenunl.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenufr.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenufi.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuno.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuge.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuaf.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuru-k.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuheb.htm
• www.xenu.net/archive/so/
• www.clambake.org/
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/ind ex.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/pro p1.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/pro p2.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/pro p3.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/pro p4.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/pro p5.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/propaganda/pro p6.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/clan-images.ht ml
• www.clambake.org/archive/photoalbum/lisas_case_sup .html
• www.clambake.org/archive/events/
• www.clambake.org/archive/events/lisa_mcpherson/
• www.clambake.org/archive/disk/
• www.clambake.org/archive/disk/enemy/
• www.clambake.org/archive/disk/enemy/da.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/disk/enemy/targets.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/disk/archive/grd_chrt.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/disk/OTIII/
• www.clambake.org/archive/hubbandcw/
• www.clambake.org/archive/greece/
• www.clambake.org/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630511.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-630714.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/HCOB/FU-HCOB-610619.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/enemy_names/
• www.clambake.org/archive/enemy_names/dead_agenting .html
• www.clambake.org/archive/enemy_names/targets.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/tonelevel.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/grade_chart.html
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenusw.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenunl.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenufr.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenufi.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuno.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuge.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuaf.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuru-k.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/leaflet/xenuheb.htm
• www.clambake.org/archive/so/

Re: Scientology is worse than you think

[Anonymous Coward]

Many years ago I use to hang out in #clambake on efnet irc. I mostly just sat and listened. I dont think the room was very well known because most the people there were the famous critics of the cult. I remember Henson being there alot, and you (arnie lerma) every once in a while.

The ops on the channel basically had a very open policy of who they let come in the room, this included known scientologist who logged everything in the room 24/7. The thought being they would try and use anything you said against you in the future.

You must remember I was not even a critic, as I had no first hand knowledge of the cult. But that did not stop me from getting on the shit list. After a while I noticed even when I was in different rooms and not in #clamnbake I was being followed (and I presume logged). There was not even an attempt to be stealth about it. I would /join another room at random and bam the other people whould join also. Any attempt to talk to these people would result in silence.

I eventually just said f*ck it and changed isps, changed my irc nick, and never went into #clambake again. I felt bad about it, but got sick of having to worry about every word I ever said about anything being used against me.

Scientologists hate musicians too!

[Anonymous Coward]

Scientology has been very aggressive lately in trying to run critics off the 'Net. In fact a musician I met online has been threatened by Scientology lawyers for putting up some songs critical of them on MP3.com. He goes by the name of "El Queso" and has had a site on MP3.com for nearly a year. A cease and desist was sent to MP3.com and they immediately folded, pulling the site and sending all of his personal info to the Scientologists! Now he is just waiting for the inevitable "Fair game" tactics to start. He expects them to pull some shit, because he acutally insulted Scientology's mighty leader, David Miscavige. You can read all about it here and listen to the music here

what Google should do

[danny]

The legal threats may be too bad for Google to defy Scientology. But there's something they could do that would reduce the chances of this happening to them again (or all the time). Google could ALSO remove every official Scientology web site from their index. That would send a clear signal that trying to win an online PR battle by deploying lawyers against Google is not a good idea.

If you want to write to Google about this, comments@google.com is the address to use.

Danny.

Re:lots of techies into scientology?

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually remember the Late Late Show, with Gay Byrne (an irish talk show, on saturdays around 9pm), a long time ago, when they had the Scientoligists invited to a program (on cults and the likes!).

Funniest thing was when I think a prof of one of the uni's in Dublin produced a poster detailing their organisation, the scientologists went completly bonkers demanding the poster, threatening law suits and all sorts of other really scarey stuff ;).

They just did not want anyone telling any of their inner workings to the general public, he said he got the poster in a freely available book, they just wanted to get their hands on him and tear him to shreads!

They did mention that the Scientology had an "office" somewhere in dublin for "stress tests" and the like... The prof went in and did his investigating and then proceeded to show his results on the tv show, the scientologists went even more nutty... Boy, were they pissed! I think the program was the examination of cults, but by the end, it was everyone against the scientologists...

I once ran up against a high ranking member of a company I did some work for long ago, who was a member of the scientologists. He casually mentioned becoming better manager to myself and another network manager, taking some tests for management and the like (a smoke screen for scientology), and we both laughed at him... Kinda ironic that we never worked or were never called to their place of business ever again!

Funny the things that stick in your mind from long ago...

Religion in general

[Frequanaut]

Does anyone else look at religions in general and wonder what good has come out of them?

There seems to be a difference between spirituality and religion, with religion claiming to be the organization of spirituality, but in fact, I would argue that it stifles and kills spirituality.

From the crusades, to the inquisition, to terrorist actions to the suppression of the apple of knowledge throughout the history of man what has religion done for us?

This isn't a rhetorical question, i'd like to read an answer.

Re:I feel sorry for Google...

[Oink.NET]

The more this turns over in my little head, the more I wonder if this wasn't a carefully planned move on Google's part to attract media attention to the ill effects of the DMCA. Obviously hurtful compliance with the DMCA could possibly speed its demise more than ignoring it outright.

There are deeper reasons

[Jade E. 2]

I haven't seen anybody asking the first question that came up when I read all this:

Why remove those specific pages?

The answer I've come up with is simple. Removing the pages listed got rid of all the xenu.net links on the first 3 pages of google results for a search for scientology. Even if they reinstate the links, it will probably take a while for them to resume their former place in the index. This is just like the tons of domain names all run by the Scientologists, it's a ploy to make it harder to find info about them. They know they can't stop it completely, but that's OK, as long as they can make it so that the average person won't see anything bad about them without specifically looking.

Re:lots of techies into scientology?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) is almost completely made up of Scientologists in the upper levels of management.

It regularly hires or promotes Scientologists into positions of management, and in most cases pays them well above normal salary for such positions.

In fact, the head of MHMR is either the first or second highest paid state employee in Texas (I forget.)

As a condition of employment at or above a certain level of management, employees are required to take one or more "ropes courses", which is promoted as a confidence/team-building class, but is in fact one of these screening/indoctrination courses operated by CoS.

This of course is illegal, and since it's being paid for by the state, it is redirecting state taxpayer money to CoS.

So Texas taxpayers have been unwittingly been funding the CoS for several years. Despite volumes of very concrete and damning evidence, the State Attorney General won't even discuss taking up a case.

I wonder how many other states or state agencies are in the same situation?

It's too bad I have to post this anonymously.

Don't miss this post

[Anonymous Coward]

I posted this in the appropriate place, but I want to make sure it's not overlooked being buried.

Texas Government CoS Corruption comment

The only step I can imagine taking now is attempting to build a class action suit against the state of Texas on behalf of Texas residents and companies.

Re:www.google.com's new banner?

[FFFish]

Yah, well, the problem with having Scientology sue you is that the organization has no scruples at all.

If Google didn't toe Scientology's line, the following would happen:
* pickets outside the founders' homes, claiming that they're pedophiles and hate-mongers.
* their pets would be drowned.
* their family and friends would be harassed.
* their telephone, cableco, banking, and other accounts would be subjected to social engineering attempts to shut 'em down.
* the Google HQ would be picketed.
* the US Government would be petitioned to intervene against Google.
* there would be endless court time, made as expensive as possible by Scientology.

There are all tactics they've used in the past against their "enemies," both in court and outside of court, against critics and ex-Scientologists who start revealing the truth about hte organization.

Scientology is an 800-lb gorilla with bad intentions.

Re:www.google.com's new banner?

[daviddennis]

Scientology's public image is already ruined.

Anyone halfway knowledgeable knows what an ugly group of sharks they are.

The danger is that there are still people who don't know about them and can get sucked in.

I can't help but notice that Xenu.net was the only site that was in the first page of results when searching for 'scientology'. Everything else is various Scientology clone sites. So now, there's nothing but clones in the results.

What Google should do is flush the clone sites from their database; that would be a routine cleanup and would cause other anti-CoS sites to appear in their list.

That way, they've behaved in an entirely neutral and impartial manner, since I'm sure Scientology's spamming of Google's results is a blatant violation of Google policy.

D

Re:www.google.com's new banner?

[ImaLamer]

You forget to mention they like to MURDER people.

Time to post as an AC? Sure... but CmdrTaco could be one and then it won't matter.

What scares me is that they are more powerful than the gov't and have better tactics.

Re:Scientology = America's Al Qaida

[bnenning]

This was reported on xenu.net about a week after 9/11. According to the article fox news was scrolling a scientology number across the bottom of the screen as some kind of mental health hotline" for about two hours before they were notified that it was a Scientology number.

Moderate this up.

too true ....

[taniwha]

If you think Scientology wont do this thing again - they picketted my kids on their way home from primary school with signs claiming I'm a religious bigot (because I exercised my 1st amendment rights and publically protested their spamming of news groups and complained about their human rights abuses - check xenu.net for first hand accounts of their US prison labor camps).

Want a simple way to counter scientology? - tell everyone you know about Xenu. He's the space-alien-devil in the scientology religion, most people think they are wierd but they keep the believing in space aliens thing rather quiet (all the better to pull in new recruits). If "scientology" and "space aliens" become synonomous more people will stay away from them - expect of course the real UFO nutters :-)

It's time to fight back

[Anonymous Coward]

Scientology is a highly damaging cult that's fucked a great many people up, and continues to mess about with our free speech rights etc. Surely there couldn't be a more deserving target for crackers, DDoS worms, phreaks, and everyone else here with skills who is angered by this.

Don't just rant about it, do something about it. Look how active they are in attacking us; it's time to retaliate.

(Above views are of course fictional and do not constitute incitement to commit a crime in any way shape or form)

Re:Scientology, the US cult

[frost22]

Heelooo, Americaaaaans, anybody at home ?

Frankly, folks, Scientology is a a product you you guys contuinue unleashing onto the world. It is your legal system that protects them and gives them power and shielding. It is your tax exemption (obtained by blackmaling the IRS into submission) that guarantees their funding, and its your bycantine and imperialist court system that helps them to harass people into submission even abroad.

In most civilized countries Scientology leaders sit in or barely stay out of jail, but in America, he Government even has the audacity to complain to other countries about them prosecuting Scientology crimes, actually claiming human rights violations.

Frankly, face it: Scientology will be there, oppressing and destroying everyone who disagrees with them, as long as you allow your judges and your policemen to act as their willing servants.

Go clean up your act, Americans.