The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa is investigating a suspected 1982 extortion plot by the Church of Scientology to entrap and compromise a Tampa federal judge who presided over a suit against the Clearwater-based sect, a Clearwater Sun investigation has revealed. The purported plot, which involved an attempt to lure U.S. District Judge Ben Krentzman aboard a boat off the Pinellas Suncoast where prostitutes and drugs were to be used to put the judge in a compromising position, was authorized personally ...

Defections by older members and publicity given a legal battle over control of hundreds of millions of dollars are believed to be cutting into the membership of the Church of Scientology. The church, which has a headquarters in Clearwater, is described by its leaders as a religion and by its critics as a highly profitable business with cult-like overtones. The church claims a worldwide membership of 6-million, although former officials say the number of adherents is probably fewer than 700,000. According ...

Clearwater city commissioners received a warning and some advice Saturday as witnesses gave final testimony against the Church of Scientology during public hearings on the sect's activities. Scientologists' four-day time slot to present their side in the controversy begins Monday. Church spokesman Hugh Wilhere said Saturday night it has not been decided whether the sect will take advantage of its rebuttal time. The warning came near the end of the hearings as consultant Michael Flynn, the Boston attorney hired by the ...

Eighteen months ago, the U.S.-based Church of Scientology launched a global—and unsuccessful—campaign to prevent publication of a Reader's Digest report called "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult." The church engaged a detective agency to investigate the author, Digest Senior Editor Eugene H. Methvin. Digest offices in a half-dozen nations were picketed or bombarded with nuisance phone calls. In Denmark, South Africa and Australia, the church sued unsuccessfully to prevent publication. In the months since the article appeared, in May 1980, a ...

The woman would be "very tough," "obviously pregnant" and a "good actress." She would storm into the Sacramento office of the state attorney general, the boss of Deputy Atty. Gen. Lawrence Tapper of Los Angeles. "I told Larry I wouldn't do this but he gave me no choise (sic)," she would shout, following the "Operation Snapper" scenario written for her by someone connected with the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles. "I don't care about his career anymore! I mean look ...

The faithful inner core serve as thieves, decoys and spies. The shocking story behind one of the most dangerous “religious cults” operating today IN THE late 1940s, pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard declared, “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million, the best way would be to start his own religion.” Hubbard did start his own religion, calling it the “Church of Scientology,” and it has grown into an enterprise today grossing ...

The Church of Scientology first moved into Riverside County when it opened a mission in Riverside in 1972. Later, it was revealed that the Church had a secret operation at La Quinta, near Indio. Now, from court records, it has been learned the church has established its worldwide command center at Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet. Here is the second of a two parts on the Gilman operation. ''[I do not have the first part of this special Gilman coverage. Of ...

How a Portland jury got a crash course in one of the oddest "religions" ever created and awarded the plaintiff more than $2. million Note: This summer, a jury in Portland spent a month listening to testimony in a $4 million lawsuit over the practices of the Church of Scientology there. The plaintiff: Julie Christofferson, a young Portland woman who was a follower of Scientology in 1975 and 1976. The defendants: three local Scientology organizations and one of their leaders. ''Richard ...

Scientology courses are designed to make students dependent on their instructors so it is "easier to brainwash them," a disaffected Church of Scientology communications supervisor testified Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. One particular "drill" called "bull baiting" involved verbal and physical abuse and sometimes overt sexual contact, Diana Morgan testified. She appeared as a witness for Julie Christofferson Titchbourne, 21, in the trial of a $2 million-plus damage suit Mrs. Titchbourne brought against three Scientology organizations and adherents. She is ...

"The DEFENSE of anything is untenable. The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK, and if you ever forget that, then you will lose every battle you are engaged in, whether it is in terms of personal conversations, public debate, or a court of law." — L. Ron Hubbard For more than a decade, the worldwide Church of Scientology, one of the burgeoning new religions of the 1960s and '70s, has conducted sophisticated intelligence and propaganda operations on an international ...

A long-time member of the Church of Scientology says she was driven out of her job with the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) because of membership in the controversial church. Emylee Lynne Miller in an affidavit prepared for the church, said U.S. Attorney Paul Figley and DCA counsel Richard Whalen "intimidated" her and Interrogated her "under considerable pressure . . ." The Miller case arose after the DCA denied the church access to information in its files The Church of Scientology has ...

The Church of Scientology attempts to reform individuals through its counseling and teaching techniques. It also has a large operation dedicated to reforming society. This comes under the heading of traditional religious activism, Scientologists say, but various government agencies say it goes far beyond. In this, the fourth and final segment of a series on Scientology, the Valley News explores the legal and political entanglements of the church. By BRIAN ALEXANDER The "applied religious philosophy" of Scientology has political as ...

The Church of Scientology offers a free personality evaluation to persons interested in its counseling services. Valley News staff writer Brian Alexander took the test at the Sherman Oaks Scientology center, posing as a college student and using an assumed name. As the second segment of a four-part series on the church, he tells what happened. —– The Church of Scientology's free personality test is like a warm handshake, but the grip is too tight. The counselor who evaluates ...

The two-story brick building at N. Ballenger Hwy. and Sloan St. looks as if it should house an insurance agency or doctor's office. It is a well-built, well-kept structure. Inside, quality furniture and a quiet, professional greeting welcome the visitor. But this building houses a center related to a church that is under fire from federal agencies. Early this month, the FBI used crowbars and sledgehammers to enter offices of the Church of Scientology in Hollywood and Washington, D.C. Agents were ...

A Congressional Subcommittee has been given the names of South American Interpol officials who are using their position to traffic in cocaine and been asked to curtail U.S. relations with the private, French-based police association. The information that Interpol officials have been Involved in drug trafficking came as the result of a 7 month, 7 nation investigation by Vaughn Young, Research Director of the Church of Scientology's National Commission on Law Enforcement and Social Justice (NCLE). Young stated in his letter ...

TALLAHASSEE—Some call it the Scientology Bill, although its subject is Interpol, the international police organization. Rep. Eric Smith, D-Jacksonville, the bill's sponsor, calls it privacy insurance for all Florida residents—including Scientologists. A separately developed but mutual interest has brought the Church of Scientology, headquartered in Clearwater, and a group of law enforcement activists together supporting the bill that would forbid law enforcement agencies in Florida to cooperate with Interpol, Smith said Monday. "I don't care if a person is a Scientologist, ...

Telling it briefly Interpol, which claims to be merely a clearing-house for information passed among police agencies in various countries, has been accused of releasing false information about Americans to foreign governments. A bill has been introduced in the state legislature to ban police cooperation with Interpol. AUSTIN - Interpol, that international police force whose crime-fighting exploits usually happen only in detective novels, has been getting a black eye. Although self-described as a private agency only to channel information among ...