Last June, the Los Angeles Times published a damning series on the Church of Scientology. Scientologists responded by extracting a few good things the writers had to say about their organization and putting those quotes in foot-high letters on billboards all over town. On May 6 of this year, Time magazine published a cover story on Scientology. It had even fewer good things to say, and now the church has responded with an even more aggressive counterattack. Scientology's campaign of daily ...

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 ...

The Church of Scientology has launched an unusually large-scale media attack against Time magazine in retribution for an unflattering cover story on the worldwide organization earlier this month. The church, founded by the late L. Ron Hubbard, took out a four-color, full-page ad yesterday in Gannett Co.'s USA Today with the headline "What magazine gets it wrong in 1991. . .the same one that was wrong in 1936. Time magazine." The ad, using quotes from W.A. Swanberg's "Luce and His Empire," ...

Ansewer: What magazine gets it wrong in 1991? The same one that was wrong in 1936 TIME magazine. According to W.A. Swanberg in his book Luce and His Empire, the pages of TIME were used throughout the 1930's to forward Hitler and his Nazi regime by "ridiculing the people and nations arrayed against them." In TIME's coverage of Hitler, Swanberg noted, "he was cleverly handled ... in a manner implying guarded approval. His abilities were stressed.... His barbarities were soft-pedaled.... His ...

ANOTHER interesting connection between the Church of Scientology and the Vancouver Stock Exchange has surfaced on Howe Street, this time involving former B.C. superintendent of brokers Michael C. Ross. Two weeks ago, Time magazine alleged that two Scientologists, Michael Baybak and Kenneth Gerbino of Beverly Hills, Calif., have been raising money for church activities through the Vancouver Stock Exchange. The magazine said Bayback has promoted several controversial VSE issues, including Neti Technologies and Wall Street Ventures, and that both Baybak and ...

One source of funds for the Los Angeles-based church is the notorious, self- regulated stock exchange in Vancouver, British Columbia, often called the scam capital of the world. The exchange's 2,300 penny-stock listings account for $4 billion in annual trading. Local journalists and insiders claim the vast majority range from total washouts to outright frauds. Two Scientologists who operate there are Kenneth Gerbino and Michael Baybak, 20-year church veterans from Beverly Hills who are major donors to the cult. Gerbino, 45, ...

Strange things seem to happen to people who write about Scientology. Journalist Paulette Cooper wrote a critical book on the cult in 1971. This led to a Scientology plot (called Operation Freak-Out) whose goal, according to church documents, was "to get P.C. incarcerated in a mental institution or jail." It almost worked: by impersonating Cooper, Scientologists got her indicted in 1973 for threatening to bomb the church. Cooper, who also endured 19 lawsuits by the church, was finally exonerated in 1977 ...

By all appearances, Noah Lottick of Kingston, Pa., had been a normal, happy 24-year-old who was looking for his place in the world. On the day last June when his parents drove to New York City to claim his body, they were nearly catatonic with grief. The young Russian-studies scholar had jumped from a 10th-floor window of the Milford Plaza Hotel and bounced off the hood of a stretch limousine. When the police arrived, his fingers were still clutching $171 in ...

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 ...

Among its many adversaries, the Church of Scientology's longest-running feud has been with the Internal Revenue Service. So far, neither combatant has blinked. Over the past three decades, the IRS has revoked the tax-exempt status of various Scientology organizations, accusing them of operating in a commercial manner and of financially benefiting private individuals. From the late 1960s through mid-1970s, IRS agents classified Scientology as a "tax resister" and "subversive," a characterization later deemed improper by a judge. In 1984, the IRS's ...

Emerging from years of internal strife and public scandal, the Scientology movement has embarked on a sweeping and sophisticated campaign to gain new influence in America. The goal is to refurbish the tarnished image of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and elevate him to the ranks of history's great humanitarians and thinkers. By so doing, the church hopes to broaden the acceptability of Hubbard's Scientology teachings and attract millions of new members. The campaign relies on official church programs and a ...

Testimonials of the famous are prominent in the church's push for acceptability. John Travolta and Kirstie Alley are the current headliners. The Church of Scientology uses celebrity spokesmen to endorse L. Ron Hubbard's teachings and give Scientology greater acceptability in mainstream America. As far back as 1955, Hubbard recognized the value of famous people to his fledgling, off-beat church when he inaugurated "Project Celebrity." According to Hubbard, Scientologists should target prominent individuals as their "quarry" and bring them back like trophies ...

Deep in hiding, Hubbard kept tight grip on the church. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard often said that man's most basic drive is that of survival. And when it came to his own, he used whatever was necessary — false identities, cover stories, deception. There is no better illustration of this than the way he secretly controlled the Church of Scientology while hiding from a world he viewed as increasingly hostile. Hubbard was last seen publicly in February 1980, in the ...

NEWKIRK, OK – A proposed drug treatment and rehabilitation center which could be in operation on Indian land at the former Chilocco Indian School north of Newkirk by June 15th may be part of a notorious religious cult. Narconon was approved for a 75-bed facility by the State Health Planning Commission in January of this year as part of The Chilocco Development Authority. The projected cost is $400,000 for renovation and the five Indian tribes involved are projected to receive $16,000,000 ...

RICHARD BRANSON's Virgin company has been distributing thousands of newspapers and magazines for the Church of Scientology. The publications, containing propaganda and articles encouraging people to buy the cult's controversial and expensive courses, have been packaged at Virgin's distribution centre at Crawley, West Sussex, and sent to homes in Britain and abroad. Virgin won the contract to distribute the publications, Good News and Source magazine, through an agent in Los Angeles who used Branson's cargo company to fly in thousands of ...

NEW YORK — A new group of leaders has emerged with a plan to purge what it calls deviationists from the ranks of Scientology, a magazine report says. "The 'anything goes' days are over," David Miscavige, 22, told a San Francisco conference of 70 local Scientology leaders, who gathered to hear him and eight other young leaders last October, People magazine said Sunday. The nine new leaders have assumed quasi-military titles and speak a special jargon composed of computerese and ...

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 ...

The Church of Scientology contends that for more than 20 years it has been the target of a systematic campaign by the United States government, together with "vested-interest pressure groups" such as the medical professions, to "suppress the church's spiritual practice and expansion." The church advances this accusation as the fundamental rationale for its aggressive policies of defense-by-attack against individual critics, private groups and government agencies perceived as "harassing" Scientology. Church spokesmen, moreover, expand upon the allegation of systematic persecution to ...

The Church of Scientology, the invention of science fiction writer Ron Hubbard which has caused an unholy uproar around the world in the past, will hold a Canberra inaugural service at Red Hill tomorrow. The Church, established in 1953 by Mr Hubbard after his book 'Dienetics', published in 1950, attracted world-wide interest in the principles of Scientology. More than five million people in 54 countries are understood to have gone through the Scientology processing, a full course of which can cost ...