There is an aspect to all of this that the various government agencies need to look at.

The historical example is the ship of Jewish refugees that left Nazi Germany and that was turned back at every port so all the people aboard it had to go back to Germany. That leaves all the nations involved with that turning back in a state of shame that will never go away.

Scientology has been involved in human rights abuses and criminal activity since L. Ron Hubbard founded it and they continue to this day, and this will likely continue to be the case. The various government agencies that are supposedly there to protect people from this kind of thing are very likely to find that if they do not do due diligence on what is happening in scientology then they will soon find themselves in a state of shame that will never go away.

Maybe. Remember, the Moonies survived Moon going to prison for a few years. I don't have the stats, but I imagine that this was a pretty severe pruning, but nevertheless they survived it. There are numerous possible scenarios. It will be interesting to watch.

Pete

In case people forgot, in 2005 a new human trafficking law was passed in California. Here is the definition of HT from the report:



Here's the report:

http://www.homeland.ca.gov/pdf/Human_Tr ... t-2007.pdf

And a thread on OCMB discussing the topic:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29678&hilit=trafficking

Here's the California Law:

Holy sh*t! Makes Alcatraz look downright cozy![/quote]
The food's better at Gold Base, if it's any consolation.

At least Alcatraz had hot showers. They made it that much harder for inmates to tolerate the frigid waters should they try to swim away.

I don't see how in Heck they get away with treating the Golden Era people like slaves for $30 a week, or the way they work school age kids.

Co$ is into prostitution now??? What next, drug trafficking? They must really be hurting for money.

No, prostitution is just one type of human trafficking.

Slave labor is another, and that's the type of human trafficking the church engages in.

In my opinion every person recruited to be a scientology staff member is a count of human trafficking. It doesn't matter what the level of the organization is or where it is.

I can foresee a high level inquiry with regard to scientology's human trafficking at some point in the near future where executive level FBI people are on the stand being asked things like, "What did you know about this?" and "When did you know it?"

The truth will out. Justice will be done. Justice will be seen to be done. I think all of that will happen. I'd just like to see it sooner than later.

I'm no legal expert, but between the statements made about conditions at Gold by people who have been slave labor there (who I'm sure would be happy to provide sworn affidavits), plus their over-the-top fortifications, plus the church's history of legally actionable and violent persecution of critics and bald-face lies, why can't the feds just get a warrant and execute a full-scale raid? Catch them red-handed?

See the SP Times article. viewtopic.php?p=390482#p390482
It has a quite a bit of original reporting on the FBI issue.

Thanks, Sponge. Unfortunately article didn't answer my question. The point is possibly moot now anyway. If Miscavige didn't know the FBI was investigating before he does now, and may be sanitizing Gold and shipping the RPFers elsewhere. Unless, of course, the pint-sized megalomaniac is so convinced of his invincibility against MEST that he doesn't do anything. As satisfying as it's been to hear about all this, I really hope it didn't blow the investigation.

I just thank the gods I didn't end up in a cult cuz apparently there is little that anyone can do for you once you're in there. You are pretty much screwed unless you can somehow wake up on your own.

BTW, I heard them talking about this investigation on Stern just a little while ago...Howard stepped on the story a bit but I still was thrilled to hear them talking about it at all.

I'll back up what Wieber writes with this summary for new people: Every person in scientology, once they get "onto the bridge" experiences the real scientology bridge that I call the "you cannot leave" bridge. It is a graduated "bridge" from light to heavy, depending on your position in scientology. At the lower levels of scientology's "you cannot leave" bridge, public scientologists experience this at fundraisers. They post guards at the door to prevent you from leaving until you have donated. The only way to get out is to make a donation. By 2 am, after being pummeled for hours about why you need to donate, you make a donation so you can go home. The next level of the "you cannot leave" bridge is staff. Even though you are already working 90 hours a week for $30 a week, when you want to go home at closing time (11 pm), they post HCO guards at the door and tell you "you cannot leave" until you make your quota or someone else's quota. Sleep deprivation is the order of the day. If you decide you want to quit staff, the next level of the "you cannot leave" bridge kicks in. You have to do a routing form, or you will be declared a suppressive person and disconnected from your spouse, children, family, friends, and sometimes employers. The leaving staff routing form involves "confessionals" and can take a full year, then comes the freeloader debt, aka debt bondage. The next level of the "you cannot leave" bridge is Sea Org, for those who are "qualified". Sea Org is regular staff on steroids, is considered scientology's "elite" and they are inaccessible from the outside world, carefully guarded behind guard houses and tall fenced-in compounds. The "You cannot leave" bridge is at its highest level in the Sea Org. The Sea Org has the RPF (gulag) for its dissidents. There you are completely cut off from the world, even your family. You do hard labor and confessionals 24/7. Read the dramatic escape stories of people who wanted to leave the RPF but were physically prevented from doing so. These stories are absolutely true, no exaggeration. You are mentally and physically worn down until you can no longer fight back. Only the strongest escape. Those left are the weakest, who need the most help.

Then there's Lisa McPherson. She was a public scientologist who, while getting scientology "counseling", had a nervous breakdown, became delusional and then tried to escape captivity from a guarded hotel room at the Flag Land Base where she was held against her will for weeks. Marty Rathbun (or Rinder, I forget which) admits that he helped to destroy the evidence that proves what really happened to this poor woman, who was finally taken to the hospital by Sea Org members after she was already dead.

They get you used to this "you cannot leave" command early on in scientology at their little fundraisers. Then the fundraisers get more heavy. Then the recruitment for staff. It starts out light and gets heavier and heavier. They get you used to accepting more and more extreme applications of "you cannot leave". Unsuspecting people get sucked in deeper and deeper. It is insidious and something needs to be done about it. The FBI has the power to make scientology stop their abusive practices that do, at the highest levels, equate to human trafficking. The FBI's failure to act with all the evidence that is out there is scandalous.