I've often been puzzled by the international and well-attended protests against the Church of Scientology, led by the leaderless internet group known as Anonymous since early 2008. Why target this specific religion? Why engage in protests without public spokespeople? And why wear those silly Guy Fawkes masks? Now I have an answer, at least to that last question. On Saturday, September 19, around 12:30pm AST, a small group met for a routine Scientology protest in Halifax in a vacant lot across ...

[Reproduced here with express permission of author Paul Krassner. Thank you!] What I really wanted to do was publish something that would top “The Parts Left Out of the Kennedy Book.” I had observed a disturbing element being imposed upon the counterculture — various groups all trying to rip off the search for consciousness — and I felt challenged to write a satirical piece about this phenomenon. Scientology was one of the scariest of these organizations, if only because its ...

Free the lovebirds! And then, let them kill each other. Karla Giraldo is a bona fide spitfire – 115 pounds of piss, vinegar and endless devotion to her tempestuous honey, state Sen. Hiram Monserrate. Frowning, pouting and drinking water from a – thankfully – plastic cup, the shapely lady who took 30 stitches in the head from Hiram's drinking glass in the wee hours of Dec. 19 testified in his assault trial yesterday. She opened her mouth publicly for the first ...

It was a twisted scheme playing on a broken dad's unbearable grief. A blackmailing medic and his brazen lawyer threatened to tell the world John Travolta "intentionally killed" his son unless they got $25 million in hush money, the star's lawyer testified Thursday. Paramedic Tarino Lightbourne planned to make public a routine waiver Travolta signed initially refusing local medical treatment after his autistic son, Jett, 16, suffered a massive seizure in the family's Bahamas resort villa. The actor had considered flying ...

STRASBOURG, France — Russia's ban on the Church of Scientology is illegal, the European Court of Human Rights said Thursday in a binding ruling. The court said Russia cannot ban the Church of Scientology just because it has not been in the country for long and awarded each of the groups euro5,000 ($7,270) in damages. The groups together also received euro10,000 ($14,500) for costs, which they shared. The case was brought to the Strasbourg-based court by two Russian Scientology branches that ...

Hollywood A-Lister John Travolta testified in a Bahamian extortion trial yesterday that he was told unless he paid $25 million, stories would be sold to the news media implying he was to blame for his is son’s death. Travolta said his longtime friend and employee Ronald Zupancic first told him of the alleged threat Jan. 16 - two weeks after Travolta’s son, Jett, 16, died of a seizure during a family vacation in the Bahamas. Former paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and former ...

PLP SENATOR Allyson Maynard-Gibson testified yesterday that she consented to police tapping her office telephone to record any conversation she had with former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater. Mrs Maynard-Gibson, managing partner in the law firm Gibson and Co, Shirley Street, which represents Hollywood celebrity John Travolta, 55, said yesterday that she went to Freeport, Grand Bahama on January 14 to speak with Bridgewater. According to Mrs Maynard-Gibson during a meeting in Bridgewater's law office, Bridgewater told her that her client Tarino Lightbourne ...

En abril del 2008, el suntuoso buque de pasajeros 'Freewinds' estaba siendo sometido a refacciones en Curazao cuando se descubrió que contenía en su estructura asbesto azul, un peligrosísimo material, vetado en los países del mundo civilizado por ser causante de cáncer. De inmediato, las autoridades portuarias de la isla ordenaron detener las obras, ante el riesgo inminente que existía para 240 trabajadores polacos. Ya existían voces de alerta respecto al peligro que representaba el buque, utilizado como escuela itinerante por ...

On Jan. 19, Pleasant Bridgewater, who had been a Bahamian senator and well-respected member of the Progressive Liberal Party at the time, met with John Travolta's attorney to iron out payment for a document regarding medical treatment for the actor's son on the day he died. Three days later, Bridgewater was under arrest for extortion and, according to a police report, admitted to the Bahamian authorities that she had destroyed a copy of the document in question – a "Refusal of ...

Several students held an anonymous protest at noon Saturday in Dede Plaza. Equipped with bandannas and Guy Fawkes masks to conceal their identities, the students pushed to get their message heard. "We are protesting against the organizational policies of the Church of Scientology," said one protester, who wished to be called Mr. Pink. Statements such as "Disconnection destroys families" and "Salvation shouldn't cost $34,000" were written across their protest signs. He and another student, referred to as Anon, were the main ...

London socialite alleges a secret royal marriage, hush money and dodgy defence contracts A Saudi prince is being sued in London for allegedly breaching a contract to pay £12m to the "secret wife" of his father for retracting damaging allegations about the late King Fahd. Lawyers acting for British creditors of Janan Harb are bringing the High Court action after the socialite went bankrupt last year owing £3m. Allegations about King Fahd in Mrs Harb's sworn witness statement, written to support ...

The actor’s public acknowledgement that his son, who died in January, was autistic has former Scientologists convinced that he will leave the church—which they say has little tolerance for chronic conditions. When John Travolta took the witness stand last week and testified that his late son, Jett, was autistic, it came as a grim relief to some former Scientologists. “Wasn’t that amazing?” said a fallen-away church member after Travolta appeared in an extortion case that followed the death of his 16-year-old ...

RESIDENTS objecting to an entertainment licence for Saint Hill Manor during a consultation period were shocked to discover it had already been granted. Saint Hill Green homeowners were told Mid Sussex District Council had already given permission for up to 10 late night events a year to be held at the Church of Scientology's East Grinstead base, despite public notices saying the consultation was still open. "A neighbour gave me a copy of the public notice which said you had until ...

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - It's a religion with some high- profile believers and ridiculed by others for it's unique ideas. But some in the Wabash Valley say "Scientology" is much more dangerous. Seven gathered on the Indiana State campus hoping to inform all who come by Saturday afternoon about Scientology. "It's not really a personal thing," said protest co-organzier "Anon Indy." "It's something that I'm passionate about. I think the public needs to be aware of it because it's extremely ...

This week, CP got a call from a Northern Liberties resident with an unusual story. He, and about 50 other NoLibs residents, had attended a police town hall meeting on September 8. On his way out, he happened to pick up some literature that had been placed on a table by the door – in particular, three pamphlets entitled, "The Truth about Marijuana," "The Truth About Pain Killers," and "The Truth About Drugs." The pamphlets, he says, seemed ordinary enough at ...

Lawyer for actor seen negotiating with two defendants in Bahamas trial Is it the smoking gun? The trial of two defendants accused of trying to extort $25 million from John Travolta in return for handing over a document relating to the death of the star's 16-year-old son, Jett, continued in the Bahamas Friday. Meanwhile, PEOPLE has watched videotape of conversations recorded by the Royal Bahamas Police between Travolta's attorney and the two defendants — paramedic Tarino Lightbourn and his lawyer, Pleasant ...

John Travolta told yesterday of his desperate attempts to save his dying son after he suffered a seizure at their holiday home in the Bahamas — and acknowledged publicly for the first time that the boy had suffered from autism. Accompanied by his actress wife, Kelly Preston, the Grease star appeared in a court in Nassau to recall the horrifying moment that a male nanny, Eli Wheaton, came pounding on their bedroom door to rouse them from their sleep on January ...

(CBS/ AP) John Travolta has admitted for the first time his son Jett had autism. Travolta made the admission about his son in the Bahamas as he testified against two men accused of trying to blackmail him with private information about his son's rescue effort. Jett died in January from a seizure. CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella said Travolta testified in a Nassau courtroom that Jett suffered a seizure every five to ten days – each lasting from 45 seconds to ...

NASSAU, Bahamas – A jury was selected Monday for a trial that could see John Travolta take the stand against two people accused of trying to extort $25 million from the movie star following his son's death in the Bahamas. Travolta is on a list of 14 witnesses against the defendants — a former Bahamas senator and an ambulance driver — who allegedly threatened to release a document related to the treatment of his chronically ill son Jett. His testimony would ...

The Church of Scientology was founded in the early 1950s by pulp science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, and it's been run by his successor, David Miscavige, since 1987. But for the past year or so the public face of Scientology has been a man named Tommy Davis. Son of Hollywood actress (and longtime Scientologist) Anne Archer, Davis has a stylish mop coif and boyish (not to say Tom Cruise-ish) good looks that have been put before the media's cameras every time ...

TMZ has confirmed John Travolta will testify next week at the extortion trial involving the death of his son, Jett. Travolta will travel to the Bahamas to testify on behalf of the prosecution. Paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and former politician Pleasant Bridgewater allegedly demanded $25 million in return for not going public with a document which authorized paramedics to take 16-year-old Jett to a hospital via ambulance after suffering a massive seizure. We're told Travolta and wife Kelly Preston are outraged by ...