HAMBURG, Germany — It would take something like an invasion of space aliens — maybe something out of an L. Ron Hubbard science fiction novel — to match the climate of fear and mutual suspicion that prevails between the Church of Scientology that Mr. Hubbard created and its frightened opponents in Germany. "Fear is part of their system — it's a totalitarian organization that seeks to control everybody else, a dictatorship," said Ursula Caberta y Diaz, who heads the four-member working ...

Is the Church of Scientology a religion, or a multimillion-dollar corporate cult? Some former Scientologists have spoken of spending thousands of dollars or working long hours without food or sleep to pay off debts to the church. The church characterizes itself as misunderstood and persecuted, emphasizing testimonials and community outreach activities, while attempting to discredit critics. "Scientology is a racket," says Bloomfield Hills attorney Constance Cumbey, who has handled four Michigan lawsuits against the church. "That's not to say that everyone ...

TEENAGER David McLaren is in hiding, after breaking free from the Scientology cult. "I'm the one who got away," said the brave 18-year-old, who came forward to help Scots girl Christine Forsyth. "I found freedom, now I want Christine to enjoy that same freedom", he said. Last week we told the shocking story of how 24-year-old Christine, from Kirkcaldy, was "tried" for "treason" by the mind-bending cult. HER CRIME WAS SPEAKING TO AN "OUTSIDER". Christine's distraught dad begged the cult to ...

BRITAIN is home to more than 500 religious cults with an estimated 500,000 believers, many of whose children are subjected to ritual abuse, a conference was told yesterday. The conference at Hull University, organised in response to the Waco siege in Texas last year, was attended by 150 psychologists alarmed at the effects on children of bizarre teachings by the cults. Ritually abused children are subject to prostitution and pornography in the name of religion, it was claimed. The Cults and ...

Police are investigating complaints that private investigators employed by the Church of Scientology, the cult created by L. Ron Hubbard, have intimidated witnesses and plaintiffs in forthcoming court cases. The cult, which claims to have 300,000 members in Britain and 8m worldwide, has attempted to undermine its critics after coming under severe financial pressure in this country. It is anxious to protect its funds which are set to be drained further by a series of expensive civil actions brought by former ...

Special investigation by chief reporter PAUL BRACCHI [A very small picture of Mr. Bracchi is shown.] [A picture of a man in a long military coat with brass buttons is shown. Below the picture is this title: "A Scientologist out on liberty time in a miliary-style greatcoat."] THEY dress like naval officers. But the uniforms, complete with epaulettes and brass buttons, are not what they seem. These men and women do not belong to the armed services...they are Scientologists. Most of ...

They never broke into church buildings or planted electronic bugs, but for the past 13 years, undercover Clearwater police detectives have investigated the Church of Scientology. They never developed a case against the church that was prosecuted. The work ranged from gathering Scientologists' names to seeking refunds for dissatisfied parishioners. Police once stormed Scientology headquarters after hearing anonymous allegations - unfounded, it turned out - that Scientology children were being strapped to gurneys and given electric shocks. The investigation boils down ...

To Mr. Mark DeEulio, Tampa, Florida Obviously, there was a concerted effort on the part of Scientology and Richard Haworth to flood my fax machine with requests on an upcoming legal issue. Also it appears that Dr. David Singer, a local chiropractor and Scientologist, used his offices to process the vast majority of this mail. It appears you were not acting as individuals expressing your own personal concerns, but you were expressing the concerns of a manufactured perspective. With regard to ...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 — The Government said today that it had agreed to grant a tax exemption to the Church of Scientology and more than 150 of its related corporations, ending one of the longest-running tax disputes in American history. "This puts an end to what has been an historic war," said Marty Rathbun, president of a Scientology organization that received a tax exemption. "It's like the Palestinians and the Israelis shaking hands." Officials at the Internal Revenue Service and the ...

Scientology's leaders say the best defense is a good offense. DID THE CHURCH of Scientology kill a judge's dog during a trial? Did the judge, who is now dead, think church members did? Did that lead him to be prejudiced, and bias the jury against the church? These and other issues are part of an intense battle by the church's litigation machine to overturn what remains of a $30 million verdict won in 1986 by former church member Larry Wollersheim. Mr. ...

Some of Cocolat's ex-workers claim that the company's newest ingredient is Scientology by Erin McCormick of the Examiner Staff It was once the sweetheart of the Bay Area business world - a woman-run chocolate company that grew from a single storefront to a national success. Now, two years since an employee's embezzlement forced the sale of Cocolat Chocolate Co., an unlikely mix is brewing at the company's Hayward plant: Scientology and chocolate. The mixture has been volatile. Cocolat is the latest ...

Green Valley: Under the proposal, 250 students would board at the campus. A county spokesman says approval of a permit would be based on land-use issues. The Church of Scientology is seeking permission from Los Angeles County to open a boarding school for 250 students on the site of a former juvenile detention camp near Green Valley. The proposal has worried some of the 1,200 residents in the rural community, who voiced concerns about it at a public meeting Monday night. ...

And now, the next Walt Disney Studios— the Church of Scientology! That is, if entrepreneurs connected with the Hollywood based cult can muscle into the film business with their proposal to homogenize films by tailoring them to the tastes of the unwashed masses. It all began last July, when Future Films, a new, eccentric studio, began running ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter touting its revolutionary ideas. No one knew what to make of it all. The grand concept, to ...

Roy seemed adrift. He was 14 and headed for trouble. But when he entered a Scientology school, the transformation was swift. Within two years, he was working alongside the Church of Scientology's most senior executives. The church reels off dozens of success stories like Roy's. But it doesn't mention a Clearwater boy named Carlo. Carlo, 15, didn't go to school. He worked from 8:30 in the morning until 10 at night for $30 a week. He told police that he couldn't ...

A PIECE OF BLUE SKY. By Jon Atack. Lyle Stuart. 428 Pages. $21.95. It has been 17 years since the Church of Scientology secretly bought the historic Fort Harrison Hotel and established a base for an important arm of the church in the city of Clearwater. And it has been nearly 10 years since critical public hearings — which detailed allegations of a slew of Scientology wrongs — captivated city residents for more than a week. The church professes to have ...

THERE is grave concern in the family of multi-millionaire Adnan Khashoggi. His Italian-born second wife, Lamia, and their 12-year-old son, Ali, have come under the influence of the fraudulent so-called Church of Scientology. Lamia, the former Laura Biancolini, who became a Muslim on her marriage to the Saudi Arabian Mr Fixit, has become a regular visitor to the cult's centres in America. And the Scientologists — described in the High Court in 1984 by Mr Justice Latey as 'obnoxious, corrupt, sinister ...

Church: The lawsuit accuses them of waging a 33-year campaign against the organization and a large number of its members. It seeks $120 million. The Church of Scientology International filed a $120-million federal lawsuit against 17 Washington- and Los Angeles-based Internal Revenue Service officials Monday, accusing them of waging a 33-year campaign of illegal acts against Scientology and a large number of its members. According to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, documents obtained under the Freedom ...

Last week cult expert Jon Caven-Atack set up a meeting in Exmouth and persuaded a member of the Church of Scientology to return to her family. The Echo's Peter Hardy now talks to the man who has dedicated his life to exposing cults which he says brainwash their members. FOR NINE years, former rock drummer Jon Caven-Atack was under the spell of a "religious" sect known as the Church of Scientology. Now, outside the cult, Jon has pledged his life and ...

NEW YORK (AP) — Some subjects of unflattering magazine profiles are content to write a letter to the editor or cancel their subscription. The Church of Scientology, pilloried in Time as "The Cult of Greed," is fighting back with a $3 million ad campaign. After several weeks of taking out full-page color ads in USA Today, the church has released a glossy, 28-page booklet that purports to refute Time's charges and expose its motivation for the May 6 cover story. Titled ...

Petrolia — A few miles outside of this coastal community, a massive 400-foot subterranean vault constructed of steel and concrete lies beneath a peaceful knoll overlooking the Pacific. The breadth and dimension of the vault stagger the imagination: 100 feet longer than a football field and 20 feet in diameter, the two-story sarcophagus is almost complete. It is designed to withstand the ravages of nature as well as man-made destruction. Humboldt County is now home to one of the most impregnable ...

Have you ever been stopped on Dizengoff by a friendly, earnest young person inviting you to take a free personality lest? Did he or she mention the possibility of learning more about yourself at a special "college?" If the answer is yes, you may well have been stopped by one of Israel's Scientologists. "Osnat" and "Yaron" (not their real names) are two youngsters who did decide to take the test. Osnat, the daughter of an observant Jewish family, was 17 when ...

A mother and daughter have slapped the Church of Scientology of Alberta with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. The mother and daughter are each claiming millions of dollars in general and punitive damages as well as unspecified special damages. Also named in the lawsuit, filed Friday in Court of Queen's Bench , are church official Allan Buttnor and another man. The three are being sued jointly and individually. The defendants or through others "coerced and frightened" the girl into writing and publishing statements ...

There is Pepsi-Cola, there is Gillette, there is Eastman Kodak and Fruit Of The Loom. And then there is Dianetics. Wherever there has been Goodwill Games, there has been Dianetics. As one of 12 worldwide sponsors of the international athletic competition, Dianetics has been very visible — on television screens, the sides of buses, banners, even behind the goal of the Tri-Cities hockey rink. In the University District earlier this week, a huge tent at Northeast 50th Street and University Way ...

Doris Braine says the transformation of her Patty Jo was heartbreaking. "It was," she said, "like my darling daughter had died." Before Patty Jo went to work for the Church of Scientology at the age of 20, she had been "fun and pretty and a joy to be with," recalled her 72-year-old mother. "Suddenly, she became a totally different person, shooting fire from her eyes." There were those hateful looks, and the dozens of letters that Patty Jo returned unopened. For ...