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Scientology Charged With Slavery, Human Trafficking
eldavojohn writes "A formal complaint was filed in California (caged PDF) last week by John Lindstein naming David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology International as defendants. Lindstein claims that for sixteen years (from age 8) he was forced to work as a slave at Gold Base, a secret CoS site run by Golden Era Productions with 'razor wire, security guard patrols, surveillance posts, and three roll calls each day.' The pay was $50 a week. The allegations include 'Violations of wage and hour laws as well as unfair/illegal business practices actionable under California B&P 17200 Et. Seq.' and a complaint under the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution, which abolished slavery. Members of the group Anonymous praised the summons."
Was this a surprise to anyone?
Now if we can see a slashdot article saying that they were found guilty and someone went to prison for it... the fat lady ain't sang yet, boys.
Free Martian Whores!
First the Catholics with child rape, now the Scientologists with slavery and human trafficking.
Any wagers on which one true religion will be busted next?
Blar.
Since they are classified as a religion (thanks to infiltration of CoS into the IRS) wouldn't his service be considered 'worship' and 'volunteering'. However it wouldn't surprise me if they actually were actually doing much worse than just killing people.
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Historically, American slaves were fed and clothed, and occasionally paid. A few saved up to buy their freedom (less of the agricultural variety, more of the city-dwellers who could collect tips.)
Silly fool, working for $50 a week. Lord Xenu pays *his* slaves $100 a week.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It looks like it's just a civil complaint, though. I'd love to see these guys brought up on criminal charges. If this suit makes any headway, I wonder if criminal charges will eventually follow? I can't imagine the DA would refuse to prosecute for slavery. It will be interesting to see what Scientology goodies come to light in the discovery process.
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
Slavery actually connotes a position of involuntary servitude rather than one where payment is withheld. That is, it is the lack of freedom that is the main attribute of slavery, not the lack of compensation.
Of course it belongs. Didn't you notice the reference to "science" in "scientology"? BTW, Scientology liberally uses lawyers and law suits to intimidate and silence its critics - including the on-line critics.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
Scientology has become relevant to Slashdot and its readership ever since CoS removed content from Slashdot under DMCA. It's quote obviously News for Nerds now, and, noting the DMCA reference (and the fact that it's common CoS practice, not a single isolated case), definitely related to Your Rights Online. If it's still not clear, try posting OT-III materials in a /. comments and see how that goes.
Pay as meager as $50 is similar to the allowance given to indentured servants back in old times. He was also forced into labor, he couldn't leave. That $50 had to be spent on the compound at the canteen. It was slavery.
I think the headline is wrong...they usually charge people for services, not vice versa! wtf?
There is no law against working in a compound which has barbed wire. So that sounds like some crap to feed the media.
The $50/week pay could be grounds for him to sue them for back wages, supposing he has proof that he worked more than 10 hours per week and that they only paid him $50 during such weeks.
For the slavery charge, he would need to prove that he tried to quit/leave but was forcibly prevented from doing so. Did he call the police on such occasions?
I'm thinking he may have a hard time proving his case. Accusations alone won't do it; he'll need evidence.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
For those of you who are interested, you can read the original court complaint filing here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23175190/Complaint-filed112509
I'm not fan of scientology, or any cult really - but a mainstream organization with illegal work camps? I just never expected that, at all. You'd think the lid would have come off something that extreme some time ago. And what are they even having them do in these camps, build the theta monitors?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Hmmm ...
You don't think a story about a religion that was founded by a science fiction writer, teaches that we are from some other planet and uses something called an "E-meter" to locate and eliminate "engrams" in its followers belongs on Slashdot?
I must be new here.
I don't care why you're posting AC
As a Californian I wonder how much interest this is going to garner in my home state regarding the abuses of Scientology. On the one hand, my state is populated with pipe dreamers, smoked out idealists, flower children, hippy nutjobs, and all sorts of other forms of extreme liberalism. On the other hand, we have very rich communities like Hollywood, the OC, and Roseville. We also, apparently, have enough orthodox, classic right wingers that we voted down legalizing gay marriage recently. We have farmers. We have students. We have programmers. We have ranchers. We have movie stars. We have one of the most diverse culture mixtures in the world I bet. That's part of why I love it here...
Of course, along with that diversity is an unfathomable tolerance for some particularly poignant cases of stupidity...like our state budget. There is no doubt that the strong and vocal religious groups here in California would raise exception and a helluva kerfuffle over their church being towed to court for slavery. But I wonder if any of those groups see a case regarding Scientology as a threat. After all sometimes the most belligerent opposition to one religion comes from another religion. I have seen folks in Fawkes masks walking around my local famer's market protesting Scientology. However, I have also had Scientologists try to recruit me both in my home town and when I wander the rest of the state. So this will certainly be an interesting case to watch. I hope it garners some attention and noise in this state and, perhaps, even in our country. Exposing Scientology for the cult and crime syndicate it is certainly is, in my opinion, a righteous cause....
Well if there's one thing we Californians know how to do, its garner attention and make some noise. I'm gonna go pop some popcorn...
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
The war between Scientology vs. The Internet has been going on pretty much since there was an Internet.
The Co$ practically invented the Hipcrime sporgery attack technique that still plagues USENET to this day. It was directly responsible for taking down the world's first anonymous remailer (anon.penet.fi) in 1996, and compromised every user of that service. Its shill legislator got his name stamped onto the Mickey Mouse Protection Act in 1998.
It has been a consistent and implacable foe of the free exchange of information on the Internet for the better part of 20 years, and it will not stop until it - either the Cult or the Internet - ceases to exist in its current form. Anything that could deplete the cult's financial reserves is a priori a good thing for Your Rights Online, and anything that the cult wants is a priori a threat to Your Rights Online.
Asking "What does the Co$ have to do with YRO?" is like asking "What does NSA have to do with surveillance?" Both are threats to your ability to speak freely. NSA may break the law from time to time, but for all we bitch about it, at least it acknowledges the existence of legal restrictions on its ability to carry out its mission. Co$ doesn't even recognize the concept of law, except as a means of filing strategic lawsuits against public participation, or as a means to otherwise harass its critics.
link 1
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link 3
"If you want to control your child, simply break him into complete apathy and he'll be as obedient as any hypnotized half-wit. If you want to know how to control him, get a book on dog training, name the child Rex and teach him first to "fetch" and then to "sit up" and then to bark for his food. You can train a child that way. Sure you can. But it's your hard luck if he turns out to be a blood-letter. Only don't be half-hearted about it. Simply TRAIN him. "Speak, Roger!" "Lie down!" "Roll over!" Of course, you'll have a hard time of it. This - a slight oversight - is a human being. You'd better charge right in and do what you can to break him into apathy quickly. A club is best. Tying him in a closet without food for a few days is fairly successful. The best recommended tactic, however, is simply to use a straight jacket and muffs on him until he is docile and imbecilic. I'm warning you that it's going to be tough; it will be tough because Man became king of the beasts only because he couldn't as a species be licked. He doesn't easily go into an obedient apathy like dogs do. Men own dogs because men are self-determined and dogs aren't. --Official church documents
I got nothing better going on.
That's really hard, because the benefits of most religions are often highly subjective. The only defense I can think of is that they could be a lot worse (ie. Jonestown, Heaven's Gate), and they certainly aren't worse than the TV evangelist types who also rake in obscene amounts of money from the True Believers.
I remember one article I read on them stated that their biggest problem is their intense paranoia of the outside world. A lot of the reasons they've done some of the nasty things they've done (like infiltrating Ontario government offices in the 1970s) are ill-informed and misjudged attempts at security.
L. Ron Hubbard was most certainly a con artist, but he was also a bit of a paranoid type, not to mention the self-aggrandizing that he got out of a lot of the cloak-and-dagger bullshit. The problem for $cientologists after him is that I think a lot of them didn't get the joke. In short, their inheritors of L. Ron's madness, but in a more pure and fanatical form.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Slavery actually connotes a position of involuntary servitude rather than one where payment is withheld. That is, it is the lack of freedom that is the main attribute of slavery, not the lack of compensation.
Slavery actually connotes a position of involuntary servitude rather than one where payment is withheld. That is, it is the lack of freedom that is the main attribute of slavery, not the lack of compensation.
The barbed wire at Gold Base is on the inside of the fence not on the outside.
You don't count being held in a compound surrounded by razor wire and forced to work 16-24 hours a day at age 8 as "involuntary servitude"? Wow, you must have had a much rougher childhood than me.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I live near this facility (map/image) and it looks more like a gated-resort community than anything. I haven't seen any razor wire, but there are high fences and access is controlled through a gate, and there are cameras on the road and on the fence. For the interested, there is a wiki page that strikes me as being pretty accurate and NPOV.
Forgive my spelling from time to time. I'm often posting during short breaks.
My parents forced me to go to church every week, then sunday school, and during the week I would be forced to work as an altar boy for no pay. All the time I was brainwashed with repetitive prayers and actions. A cult is a cult is a cult. It doesn't matter that here in North America we tend to be fond of a particular one.
You don't count being held in a compound surrounded by razor wire and forced to work 16-24 hours a day at age 8 as "involuntary servitude"?
No, obviously they do count that as involuntary, since the point was to contradict a post claiming this wasn't slavery due to him being paid. In other words, they are saying he was a slave.
This post has been brought to you by the Center For Explaining the Obvious to the Reading Comprehension Impaired, a tax-exempt religious charity organization that you can join and learn more about for the low low cost of $5000.
The enemies of Democracy are
Was this a surprise to anyone?
As the submitter, yeah I have to admit it kind of was. This is a really unique opportunity for a case against CoS because normally the cases come from outsiders.
Lindstein was eight years old and says he was forced to work for 16 years. He was removed from school at age 12. Now, if you were removed from school at age 12, you probably aren't very well suited for a high paying job. So you have someone who's lost much of their youth to Scientology and has the motivation to see this suit through to the end.
You see, when you sue or slander Scientology, you might not realize what you're getting yourself into. People end up doing jail for posting verbal attacks on Scientology online. To quote the late L. Ron Hubbard on his policy:
This is the correct procedure: Spot who is attacking us. Start investigating them promptly for felonies or worse using our own professionals, not outside agencies. Double curve our reply by saying we welcome an investigation of them. Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press. Don't ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way. * "Attacks on Scientology" (25 February 1966)
That's what you're dealing with. That's what Lindstein has in his future. He probably knows it, his lawyer probably knows it. But he will soon be subjected to character assassination, harassment of just barely legal amounts, indirect threats and the same for any family he may have.
So yeah, I'm a pleasantly surprised that such an opportune individual has stepped forward to speak and let us know what Scientology is. Because in so many other cases, the individual has been silenced one way or another. And scientology has refined it's processes to force its members quiet and they have the resources and legal representation to make magic happen in the courts.
I hope Lindstein is telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I wish him the best of luck in the courtroom and for justice to be brought against those who forced him into labor and stripped him of his right to knowledge.
My work here is dung.
Look around for COS stories on the internet, and read the comments. You'll find some derivation of that exact comment over and over in every single one of them.
If you know anyone who is trapped -- physically or mentally -- inside a cult like the Church of Scientology, then please contact Rick Ross. The life of the victim may depend on your getting Ross' help as soon as possible.
It sounds like Lindstein was caught in the Rehabilitation Project Force program, which is where Scientology dissidents are placed until they get better, where 'better' is defined by the people who put them there. Gold Base is by no means the only such place people are kept: the first RPF people were on ships, cleaning out the sewage systems by hand. Sort of hard to call the police when you're being held on a ship in international waters...
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Dude - there are (and were) cults out in the US today that do much, much worse.
Yes there are, but nothing on the scale of Scientology. The bigger the group the bigger the target, the harder to keep secrets.
That's what I mean by being surprised. A local compound in one city? Zero information coming out of that would surprise me. But again, for something as large and well known as scientology... it is odd to me that this has not come forward before and is being practiced at all. They don't need to do this after all, they are making money hand over fist as it is.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The Religion of Anthropogenic Global Warming...! :)
Right, because you never hear criticism of that!
"You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don'tcha call me 'cause I can't go,
I owe my soul to the company store."
That song reflected the reality of tens of thousands of people in Appalachia.
...you are now officially a religion.
Great new book on Evolution: The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
I think most nerds are interested in a lot of topics beyond computers, sci-fi and anime. Thats the only reason needed. News for Nerds, stuff that matters... thats potentially everything, but with a nerd bias.
In other words, intelligent news.
If you want news about a cute doggy that's adopted a litter of kitty cats, then watch TV. If you want news about a study of inter-species social interactions, read slashdot.
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I once had the opportunity to read part of the diary of a teenage girl who had been at a Scientology "Base" in Colorado. I don't recall the name of it, or even whether she mentioned it by name (this was 20 years ago). The disruptive, corruptive effects her involvement with this Base and the CoS had on her state of mind were obvious from what she wrote. While I don't recall whether she described any physical enslavement, the mental enslavement was apparent.
Why they're still getting away with it mystifies me; pretty much everyone now knows what they're doing and how they're doing it.
Contrary to popular culture, most slaves in the US where fairly well taken care of. It was an enormous investment to purchase and maintain slaves, and the owner wouldn't risk that lightly.
Of course, there were horrific exceptions to this.
Learn about Photography Basics.
Principia Discordia.
Disorganized religion. There you go. Read it now, thank me later fnord.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
And in fact, this is even more enlightening - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Scott_case
Yeah, I wouldn't be going anywhere NEAR this fellow.
Have you ever put a square mustache on El Ron? It'll shock the thetans right out of you.
So if the defendant is trying to get back pay, then aren't they just going to pull the "freeloader's debt" thing, and sue him for unpaid auditing?
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So the government decided that only the government can own slaves. Quel surprise
Fraiser (to Niles): "Remember Niles, that which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."
Nile: "Yes, but what about the people that don't make it into that second group?"
Contrary to popular culture, most slaves in the US where fairly well taken care of.
Considerably better than Irish day laborers. There are many stories of Irishmen being given tasks to do that were too dangerous to risk losing a slave.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Geez, Tom, no need to take it personally.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
Here here. I know Rick (personally). While I don't agree with him on all matters, he is a good man and has helped countless people. While he was unable to help my friend (Dawn Ward...she's referred to on his site), I stand by my statements.
Well... it's better than vista.
Actually, your link is amazingly enlightening.
In the trial, Jason Scott was represented by Kendrick Moxon, a prominent Scientologist attorney.
In November 1996, the CAN name, logo and telephone number were bought in Bankruptcy Court by another Scientologist attorney, Steven Hayes, whose partner Timothy Bowles had at one time been partners with Moxon.
The Jason Scott case brought about the demise of the "Old CAN", marking the end of the cult wars in North America.[1][2] Controversies surrounding new religious movements have continued, but the debate has mostly moved to other arenas than the courts.[1][38] With the Scott decision, deprogramming came to an almost complete halt in North America,[38][39] and the practice was largely given up in favor of voluntary exit counseling.[40] Following the acquisition of the CAN name and number by Scientologists, a "New CAN" was established with their backing, which serves as an information and networking center on nontraditional religions;[41] it is managed by former opponents of the "Old CAN".
Sounds like if you're trying to escape Scientology, this guy is exactly the person you need to talk to.
I actually read the first half of Dianetics during a stint in a county jail, and quite a bit of it made sense.
Engrams, IIRC, are things that have happened to people during their childhood and are repressed to the point that they are damaging. A lot of what goes on in the "auditing" (again, IIRC) is equivalent to regressive hypno-therapy. Breaking down those walls could possibly open people up to entirely new aspects of life, and worlds of possibility.
Of course once the walls are broken down, they lay on the sci-fi-churchy-brainwashing-crapola. That is where I stopped reading.
When wikileaks first got famous in relation to Scientology, I grabbed copies of every available piece of CoS literature that I could download. Upon skimming through it I found there are some methods that seem quite useful as tools for training salespeople.
There are protocols where people train one another, for example one shouts obscenities at the other person nonstop for hours on end, and then the roles reverse and the training continues. Imagine how valuable this could be to salespeople, to make them immune to criticism and unafraid of verbal confrontation.
There are some good bits in the CoS materials, don't dismiss it out of hand.
The cult part of it is crap though. :)
And here is one for you, CoS - L. Ron Hubbard was a drunken pedophile who wishes he could lick the sweat out of my asscrack. Your religion is a cult, and your cult is worthless. Get a life, losers.
Word.
I don't think you can really give a group "cult" status when there's no penalty for leaving and they're still nice to you afterward.
Except that they often aren't nice to those who do not share their religion. Think about how many wars have been started over religion. There have been polls that clearly show that the most hated "religion" in the US is atheism - much more so than islam. I've seen with my own eyes discrimination and even brutality against those who are of a different religion. There are copious recent examples of muslims being assaulted and castigated even though they have no association besides their faith with a group of terrorists.
Your mom is nice but don't be lulled into thinking that everyone feels the same way. There are places in this world I would be killed if I said I did not believe in a god at the wrong time. The only difference between a religion and a cult is how accepted it is in society.
Allow me to re-phrase that for you:
The problem wasn't the conditions in which slaves were kept; the problem is that human beings were indistinguishable from livestock in the minds of their owners.
You ought to learn about what the loss of liberty does to a human being before you trot out this useless tripe again.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
I had no idea Rick Ross went after the CoS when not rapping.
Photos.
They're recognized as a religion by the IRS, so they couldn't use charitable tax breaks, because they get the best tax break there is.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Do you have a pop psychology book and a secret black box with some electrodes I could tape to my skin?
I'm normally not supposed to answer questions like this until you pay the initial $5000 fee, but the answers respectively are "no, psychology is a mole-men conspiracy" and "yes, but the electrodes don't go on your skin, and you need lube not tape".
The enemies of Democracy are
Really? It took Wage and Hour to bring down these guys?
WTF?
Al Capone got caught over taxes.
You can't take the sky from me...
The etymology of the word "crusade" arises from the word "cross", so on that basis alone I don't know if the term "Muslim crusade" makes much sense. Perhaps there's a different term you'd like to use?
(NB: Some reference material for those so inclined -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam#History)
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Oh and don't go to the Cult Awareness Network. It was bought by Scientology after they and Landmark Education sued them into bankruptcy and bought their name and records of people seeking to leave a cult, including Scientology.
I'm not going to post a source. Anyone who rose an eyebrow at the headline, you failed.
Its not like no-one knew about Scientology work camps - some german documentary team went out to go visit it and got stopped by a bunch of armed men (this was in the early 90's) - wish I could remember the title.
Missing in Happy Valley
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2742505831051424517
Thank you Mr Coward, we'll be in contact should we have further questions.
Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
Monasteries typically don't have:
* Sniper nests
* Double bladed razor fences
* Motion sensors facing inside
* Armed security guard preventing people from leaving
* A full arsenal of guns
* People are allowed to leave
* Phone calls & mail are not monitored & prefiltered
* Phone calls from concerned relatives are not coached
* People inside are not punished when someone leaves
* Nunneries don't coerce females to have abortions to keep up productivity
* Emergency calls to the police actually go to the police & not internal security
* Don't make 'bad' monks clean septic tanks with their hands (no tools, JUST their hands).
* Don't throw members into a shit pond for not behaving by their standards.
* Get to see their family
* Are not physically beat, kicked or strangled by their leader David Miscavige.
* Are not asked by their leader David Miscavige to beat/attack other members who are not living up to the leader's standards.
* Are permitted time for personal hygiene when being punished for information leaks.
* Do not go into lock down when information leaks