Two things came up recently that I feel are significant.

One, a champion boxer/cocaine addict, one Johnny Tapia, had to leave Scientology front group Second Chance due to "health issues."

The second was a letter of complaint from Scientology lawyers to Google, seeking the removal of devastating "confidential information" about their Purification Rundown.

That information is now on the web, whether Google pulls it in accordance to Scientology's request or not. We have it. It's fair use. Now you have it too. [...]

Last Friday, Scientology critic, engineer and writer Keith Henson was arrested in Prescott Arizona, after fleeing California following a one year sentence for picketing Scientology's secret armed compound north of Hemet, California.

The sentence wasn't just, it wasn't fair, and the court wasn't honest.

Now, it appears he will be extradited back to corrupt Riverside County, where a jail sentence might well be a death sentence for him, if threats made to him by Scientologists are genuine. [...]

[...] Last week, CCHR made the mistake of sending a brochure to the Kingman Miner, the local paper for Kingman, Arizona. The reporter decided to take the time and research some of CCHR's outrageous statements.

A psychiatrist who was shown the brochure described the Scientologist mindset accurately and succinctly. "First of all, you have to recognize where (CCHR) is coming from," Dr. Earnest Harman said. "They're a mouthpiece for the Church of Scientology, which is big on anti-psychiatry drugs.

"They look at all kids in what we call primary process thinking, which does not adhere to logic. For example, if you have someone in a yellow shirt kill someone wearing a yellow shirt, a primary process thinker believes anyone in a yellow shirt will kill someone else in a yellow shirt."

Thus, we can see strangely incomprehensible leaps of Scientology logic made clear. If you're against Scientology, for example, you support the drugging of schoolchildren. If you criticize Scientology's drug rehab facility Narconon, you're in favor of illegal drugs. [...]

I now could see what started all this. I had posted a message on an internet newsgroup that I planned to attend the San Diego County Board of Supervisor’s meeting the next week and speak out against a proposed Narconon facility in Warner Springs.

Narconon—not to be confused with Narcotics Anonymous, or NA—is a front group of Scientology that purports to be a drug rehabilitation program. In reality, the organization is little more than a recruitment tool. When you break down the data that Narconon provides, claiming anywhere from a 70-80% success rate, the numbers come out to about 2%, which isn’t much of a success rate. Roughly 10% of people who quit drugs do so on their own, without any help.

Narconon’s drug education outreach was recently expelled from California public schools. Following a review from a panel of qualified medical experts in the field of substance abuse recovery, the organization was found to have provided children with information that was misleading, unscientific, and inaccurate.

Rather than defend Narconon before the panel, Scientologists instead came after me. Someone likely from the “church” of Scientology reported a bogus threat, which mandated a response from the Domestic Terrorism squad. The unit, of course, wasted time and money following up on the nonsensical accusation.

The "New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project," another version of the Purification Rundown, is a program that casts actor Tom Cruise as the lead salesman for Scientology. Unfortunately, this is where rational evaluation is overcome by an actor's persona whose promotion of a dangerous detox has included financing the program personally. Backed by the Scientology "scientific" doctors' group FASE, this program began in New York, targeting firefighters after the 9-11 tragedy. Funding for the first Scientology backed "clinic" known as Downtown Medical was cut by the Firefighter's Union when they heard that this dangerous treatment was being promoted to their force, and bore no scientific data. However, this hasn't stopped the promotion of the detox by "true believer" Tom Cruise, who has gone on to court legislator Margarita Lopez, Council Member of New York City, and chairperson of the City Committee on Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse and Disability Services.

Scientology: Tory and Barb in San Diego 1/5 from Mark Bunker on Vimeo.

When challenged, Narconon representatives claim it is a protected “religious” ritual. However, when selling the program to communities, they claim it is a secular program. This secularity surely makes them vulnerable to FDA scrutiny. Yet, for some reason, they manage to gain support at high levels of government. Politicians who support this program have been shown to benefit from campaign contributions from individual Scientologists. They also have failed to do any research on their own, preferring to depend upon the glossy promotional brochures put out by Narconon itself.

Anyone considering Narconon as a treatment option would do well to research it himself. Narconon treatment at best is fraudulent fantasy created by a science fiction writer and college dropout. At worst, it is a dangerous quack remedy for a very real societal problem.

If you stay in, Scientology will use you up. There is no retirement home for elderly Scientologists. There is no pension plan. When you quit producing, that's it! You will find yourself on a street corner, clutching a garbage bag of possessions, with nowhere to go, no Social Security (such as it is) and few options. You know this is true! An old person with few skills is doomed to taking crappy jobs for minimum wage, living in a crappy little apartment somewhere. But, think about it. They've got their own place, which they don't have to share. Nobody is going to drink the last milk in their fridge, or eat the last Ho-Ho out of the cupboard. They can have a television if they wish. They can call their friends whenever they want. They don't need permission to go out of town.

Twenty-six years after the Jonestown massacre, it is vital to remember that there are still destructive, predatory cults out there seeking the vulnerable, innocent and gullible. It is especially important for elected officials to realize that when you lie down with the wealthy Scientology organization, you get up covered in imaginary space cooties. There is a saying amongst critics of Scientology, "It really is worse than you can imagine." This is quite true, as a little online research will reveal.

In the past week following the World Trade Center tragedy, we have heard amazing stories of heroism and acts of selfless courage and generosity. Sadly, it has become necessary to warn people of the small number of hucksters, jackals, and scam artists attempting to profit from this terrible event. Recently, one such scam came to light, perpetrated by the Church of Scientology.

By presenting itself as "National Mental Health Assistance," they managed to deceive Fox News into running their number across the screen on their broadcasts for five hours. People calling for help wound up speaking to representatives for Scientology, a group well-known for opposing the real mental health industry.

Intercepted emails from Scientologists in New York City are revealing, it shows that this group is intentionally using deceit to gain access to the vulnerable people still suffering from shock and grief. Moreover, it has deliberately interfered with legitimate mental health practitioners sent there to assist. Below are a few excerpts from these emails, sent out to Scientologists to promote this parasitic behavior by "Lt." Simon Hare, CO, I HELP Canada (in NY).

My bike sure the heck wasn't in the parking lot when we got back. I asked the manager if anyone had moved it. He said no, and seemed very unhappy that it had gone missing from his parking lot. I assured him that I didn't think it his fault, and thanked him for graciously allowing me to park it there. While I was calling LAPD, a second silver SUV pulled into the parking lot, and a pair of yahoos apparently invited us out to dinner. One of them sidled too close to me while I was on the line, and I snarled at him to get back. I finished my phone call from inside the car, and the officer told me the bike had been impounded. The notice on the wall around the parking lot had the tow lot's information, so I called them next. All I needed to get Hootie out of hock was a drivers license and $220.00 in cash money. I went in to the Sizzler and spoke to the manager. He was shocked that my bike had been towed, and wondered why the tow truck driver hadn't come in and informed him about it.