[Re. Scientology's Operation Funny Bone, or the "fair gaming" of cartoonist Jim Berry.]

After absorbing withering criticism for its decision to stop selling a book critical of Scientology, Amazon.com has reversed itself. The move to withdraw the book, "A Piece of Blue Sky," comes a day after a report published in Wired News triggered a rash of postings on Internet newsgroups. The book, a critical examination of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, was pulled by Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN) in February after an injunction against its distribution in the United Kingdom. The courts had ...

A personal aide to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard for eight of her nearly 20 years with the group says that fluoxetine (Prozac) and therapy have finally stopped the depression and suicidal ideation she had suffered since 1976. "I have to speak out." Hana (Eltringham) Whitfield told The Psychiatric Times. "The Scientologists choose the most prominent psychiatrists and the most successful drugs to attack. That's why they attacked Ritalin, and that's why they are now attacking Prozac." Although ...

A 17-year veteran of the Church of Scientology told Clearwater city commissioners Thursday she lived through "horror" while staying at the former Fort Harrison Hotel three years ago. Lori Taverna, who said she broke with the sect two months ago, was asked by Mayor Charles LeCher to describe a "normal day" while she worked as a Scientology trainer. "Most of it was horror, so I don't know," said Mrs. Taverna, 39. But in about three hours of testimony during the second ...

Edward Walters was fidgety and nervous as he embarked on five hours of testimony Wednesday during the city of Clearwater's first day of public hearings into alleged criminal activities by the Church of Scientology. "Excuse my nervousness," began the 44-year-old former high-ranking Scientologist. "I've never been in public like this before." "We're all a little a tensed-up, I suppose," Mayor Charles LeCher replied. So began testimony in the much-awaited and much-publicized hearings that city officials said could result in two ordinances ...

On September 5, 1980, as U.S. District Court Judge Charles Richey was recuperating from two pulmonary embolisms and exhaustion, lawyers for the Church of Scientology and the Justice Department gathered before Judge Aubrey Robinson, Richey's successor in the two-year-old conspiracy case against 11 members of the Church of Scientology. Judge Richey had already convicted and sentenced nine of the original 11 defendants, but the remaining two, recently extradited from England, were about to go on trial. "Particularly from the standpoint of ...

Toronto ON — L. Ron Hubbard, the former science fiction writer who publicly resigned in 1966 from leadership of the Church of Scientology, continued to give orders to its leaders into 1977, a Washington court has been told. Evidence obtained in 1977 in raids on U. S. offices of the cult by the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed there was a detailed program to cover up Mr. Hubbard's involvement in the leadership of Scientology. Called Operation Bulldozer Leak, it was part ...

About 100 agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation learned on July 6, 1977, that they would be participating two days later in an operation unprecedented in the United States. The notification, described two years later in a Washington court room, said the agents would be raiding offices of an organization that some governments, in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, officially classified as a religion — the Church of Scientology.

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors said Monday the Church of Scientology's campaign against its enemies included infiltrating law firms and newspapers, including the Washington Post. Federal prosecutors disclosed a number of the church's activities in a 70-page memorandum in which they urged a judge to give eight Scientologists the maximum sentence for their roles in a conspiracy to steal government documents. U.S. District Judge Charles Richey is scheduled to impose sentences Thursday on nine leading church members whom he found guilty last month ...

Secret letters and memos from the personal files of St. Petersburg Times editors and its attorneys were obtained and analyzed by members of the Church of Scientology shortly after the church moved to Clearwater four years ago. The letters and memos were used by the church in calculating its response to news media reports revealing its purchase through a front organization of the Fort Harrison Hotel. How the Church of Scientology or its agents got access to the locked filing cabinets ...

WASHINGTON — Six boxes of documents make it clear: People in Pinellas County — a newspaper editor, a reporter, a mayor, a state attorney — were targets three years ago of the "fair game" policy of members of the Church of Scientology. The documents were among thousands seized by the FBI in 1977 raids on church headquarters in Washington and Los Angeles. They were the basis for indictments against nine church leaders on charges of conspiring to steal government documents and ...

WASHINGTON — Nine Church of Scientology leaders were convicted Friday on charges stemming from a four-year church program to burglarize, bug and infiltrate various federal agencies with which Scientology has battled for two decades. On two occasions during the four-hour court proceeding, a fragile plea-bargaining agreement between the defendants and federal prosecutors almost collapsed. But finally all the legal obstacles presented by defense attorneys were overcome and U.S. Dist. Judge Charles R. Richey pronounced all nine defendants guilty of one count ...

WASHINGTON — A plan by the Church of Scientology to infiltrate federal agencies with "covert agents" and steal thousands of government documents over a period of nearly four years was outlined Thursday in an unusual document filed in federal court by prosecution and the defense. The 284-page "stipulation of evidence" against nine Scientology leaders was filed with U.S. Dist Judge Charles R. Richey, who is expected to render a verdict today. The defendants have said they expect to be found guilty ...

WASHINGTON (UPI) — Nine scientologists, who faced a 28-count indictment on charges of stealing government documents, each would plead guilty to only one count of conspiracy under an agreement upheld by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Charles Richey ruled Monday that the disputed plea arrangement between defense and prosecution attorneys is valid. Chief prosecutor Raymond Banoun promptly said the U.S. attorney's office would file a notice of appeal. Richey had held closed hearings for nearly two weeks on the defense ...

WASHINGTON — Nine leaders of the Church of Scientology, in a rare legal maneuver, have agreed to be found guilty by a federal judge on reduced charges of conspiracy and theft as an outgrowth of their long battle with the federal government over allegedly stolen U.S. documents. Under a procedure called a "stipulated record," the defendants agreed to be found guilty after the government presented its case in a written court record without challenge or a trial, which could have lasted ...