THE INLAND Revenue is being asked to investigate why British Scientologists are refusing to pay a tax on the grounds they do charitable work — even though the controversial religion has been refused charitable status. Scientology, which came under fierce attack on the BBC last week, was denied the special status by the Charity Commission eight years ago. In a 49-page landmark ruling, commissioners said the church had not demonstrated it was “established for the public benefit as to satisfy the ...

Gays should be wary of ‘church’ that has helped advance the reckless idea that homosexuality can be cured. THE CULT OF Scientology is back in the news this week, after a video of a BBC reporter shouting down a church spokesperson hit YouTube. The BBC’s John Sweeney claims he was followed and harassed while working on a documentary about Scientology. The spokesperson in question is the son of actress Anne Archer. “I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel ...

The Church of Scientology last night launched a fresh attempt to discredit the Panorama reporter John Sweeney, following the broadcast of a prime time BBC1 programme investigating its controversial beliefs and recruiting methods. As Panorama editor Sandy Smith took to the airwaves to defend Sweeney's investigation following the furore around his furious YouTube outburst captured by Scientology cameras, the war of words and online propaganda intensified. Mike Rinder, a director at Church of Scientology International, said it was considering legal action ...

Aired May 14, 2007 - 22:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Tonight, thousands of American troops in Iraq searching for three of their American buddies, searching their hearts out because they know all too well what the people who claim to have them can do and have done to captives in the past. We will have the latest on the ...

The BBC has hit back at accusations that it orchestrated a demonstration against Scientologists during which a "terrorist death threat" was allegedly made. It comes as a bitter row develops between the Corporation and Scientologists over a highly critical Panorama documentary about the religion, in which a veteran reporter lost his temper and screamed for 30 seconds at a Church member. The BBC has seriously reprimanded John Sweeney for the outburst, which the journalist has admitted was "wrong and stupid". The ...

Panorama reporter's outburst at Hollywood star's son is captured on video A Journalist at Panorama, the BBC's flagship current affairs series, has been reprimanded for losing his temper and screaming with rage during the making of an investigation into the Church of Scientology. John Sweeney has apologised for the outburst against a scientologist which was filmed and then put on the video-sharing website YouTube, prompting criticism of the corporation. The BBC held an internal inquiry but said Sweeney had not breached ...

Tom Cruise rolled into Manhattan under extraordinary security last night for a Hollywood-style fund-raiser to benefit his controversial project to help 9/11 responders. The diminutive Scientologist, accompanied by his wife, Katie Holmes, pressed the flesh with supporters inside a $6,250-a-ticket benefit in Chelsea. Reporters were barred from the West 18th Street fund-raiser, which resembled a Hollywood premiere, with scores of security men and paparazzi. "He said how grateful he was to everyone for supporting the project," said Pat Bahnken, a party ...

Movie star Tom Cruise has won the support of hundreds of emergency workers in New York, after he hosted a $6,250-a-ticket benefit in the city Thursday night to raise funds for his controversial Sept. 11 detoxification program. The New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, which was co-founded by Cruise, is based on principals developed by Scientology leader L. Ron Hubbard. The free treatment involves large doses of vitamins, dietary adjustments and stints in a sauna. Among attendees at the high-profile event ...

[Picture]Tom Cruise and his wife Katie Holmes arrive at the Altman Building for his Detox Center Benefit. [Picture]Michael Pena and his girlfriend, Breen Schaefer, were among the attendees at the Detox Center Benefit. Superstar actor and Scientology pusher Tom Cruise headlined a Chelsea soiree with all the excitement of a movie premiere last night to raise money for his controversial effort to "detox" Ground Zero workers. "It is an injustice that after six years people who were down there are still ...

Lafayette Ron Hubbard wrote a book in 1950 that sold 20 million copies in 50 languages and introduced what is arguably the fastest growing religion on Earth: scientology. Scientology translates to "the study of truth." Scientologists can practice other religions and are asked not to believe anything based solely on faith. "The truth" is what each person discovers to be true, said Mike Klagenberg, Northern California director for the Church of Scientology based in Sacramento. Most people don't know what scientology ...

Should media mogul James Packer and fiancee, model Erica Baxter, ever face the strains that occasionally crop up in marriage, their key marital aid may be a device with steel cylinders held in each hand, attached by wires to a screen with dials and meters. It's the electropsychometer, or E-meter, and it's one element of a church with which Packer and Baxter are flirting: Scientology. While he hasn't talked about it much, the man who is inheriting a $7 billion fortune ...

CINCINNATI — It is a church that critics believe is dangerous, but members say it's completely misunderstood. You may not realize it, but during this holiday season, a visit to the mall may come with an invitation to a religion that sparks passion and controversy. Sylvia Stanard/Scientology Spokeswoman: "It's really the religion of religions." To those who believe, it's both a church and a lifestyle. Worker #1: "I know that this works." To critics, it's a money machine and mind-controlling cult. ...

This is KRQE News 13 with Dick Knipfing and Erika Ruiz. DICK KNIPFING: More than half a million dollars in taxpayer money has been allocated for a privately-run drug and alcohol treatment program for offenders. ERIKA RUIZ: But our investigations find the rehab facility is nothing more than a thinly-veiled program based on the teachings of the founder of Scientology. News 13's Michael Hertzenberg is here with the story. MICHAEL HERZENBERG: Erika, when you think of drug and alcohol rehab, you ...

An assistant state attorney says a video of the scuffle shows mutual aggression. CLEARWATER - The State Attorney's Office has decided not to pursue charges against a Scientologist accused of assaulting a church critic who was shooting video of Scientologists downtown next to a sandwich board that read "Cult Watch." Assistant State Attorney Kendall Davidson, after viewing a video of the confrontation captured by a Church of Scientology security camera on a nearby building, determined "it is just not going to ...

[...] COOPER: Oh, the video of Tom Cruise in happier times with Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone. Earlier this week, the actor's production company was dumped by Viacom's Paramont Pictures division. Cruise, who in the past – that's Sumner Redstone on the left. Yes. Cruise, who in the past has enjoyed tremendous popularity with audiences and has been a powerhouse, of course, at the box office, seems to be kind of losing at least some of his appeal. One of the issues, ...

Southern California is seasonally inundated with tour buses plying the streets of Hollywood and the homes of entertainment stars. But a new tour, begun this summer, takes the curious to places far hotter and more significant: the Military Tour of Southern California, sponsored by the L.A. chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). It's a chance for locals to get in touch with the amazing amount of military toxins in our environment, by boarding a bus to military-related sites that ooze ...

The head of Narconon International says Bouquet Canyon is a great place to open a drug rehab center. But some neighbors strongly disagree, citing state records to back up their opposition. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will have a public hearing Tuesday morning in downtown Los Angeles on plans for the Scientology-based drug rehabilitation program in Leona Valley. Narconon Southern California plans to turn an abandoned boarding school on Bouquet Canyon Road into a rehab center for 66 people, ...

A longtime Scientologist has been charged with battery in a sidewalk scuffle over a filmmaker's videocamera. CLEARWATER — A longtime member of the Church of Scientology was arrested Saturday after he scuffled with an amateur filmmaker who was videotaping on a downtown sidewalk next to a sign reading "Cult Watch," police and a witness said. Michael Fitzgerald, 52, a self-employed carpenter, was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on a misdemeanor battery charge and released after posting $250 bail. Fitzgerald said ...

A man filming a documentary outside the Church of Scientology in Clearwater says he was attacked by a man claiming to be a Scientologist. But a Scientology spokeswoman says the photographer, Shawn Lonsdale, has been harassing their staff and members for weeks, and that the fight was not a church incident. Lonsdale said his cameras have been pointed toward the Church of Scientology in Clearwater every day for two weeks. "Basically, I'm filming a pseudo-documentary for one of our free-access Pinellas ...

Isaac Hayes, the wonderfully gifted singer who sang the theme from Shaft, reached No1 with Chocolate Salty Balls in 1999. The song was one of a number that Hayes performed while playing the school Chef in the US cartoon series South Park. Among the other Chef tunes, the Christmas song stands out, with its seductive lyrics, which I believe ran: I’m gonna lay you down by the Yule log I’m gonna love you right Baby, I’m gonna deck your halls And ...

The faded little downtown area of Clearwater, Florida, has a beauty salon, a pizza parlor and one or two run-down bars, as well as a bunch of withered bungalows and some old storefronts that look as if they haven't seen customers in years. There are few cars and almost no pedestrians. There are, however, buses — a fleet of gleaming white and blue ones that slowly crawl through town, stopping at regular intervals to discharge a small army of tightly organized, ...

When a mysterious buyer expressed interest in the old, bankrupt Gilman Hot Springs resort in 1978, Richard J. Hoag thought it might be a group of expatriates from Rhodesia. Others whispered that maybe the Mafia or the Moonies were moving onto the 500-acre property near Hemet. Only much later did anyone learn that the buyer — which paid $2.78 million and went by the names Scottish Highland Quietude Society and Western States Scientific Assn. — was really the Church of Scientology. ...

Tom Cruise studied intensively at the remote compound near Hemet while becoming a passionate messenger for the church. GILMAN HOT SPRINGS, Calif. — Nearly 30 years ago, the Church of Scientology bought a dilapidated and bankrupt resort here and turned the erstwhile haven for Hollywood moguls and starlets into a retreat for L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who founded the religion. Today, the out-of-the-way 500-acre compound near Hemet has quietly grown into one of Scientology's major bases of operation, ...