Henson TIME LINE webbed
This is a 200 K (LONG and Detailed ) timeline of the history of Keith Henson's involvement as an Activist in the Expose-the-true-nature-of-Scientology effort.
Thank you to Lawyer Graham Berry for this long writing effort:
http://www.lermanet.com/persecution/kei ... meline.htm
MEMORANDUM
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
(Privileged publication under California Civil Code section 47)
RE: THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY v. KEITH HENSON
This memorandum seeks to provide an accurate relatively succinct summary and guide through over eleven years of litigation involving Keith Henson, the Church of Scientology and several of its corporations and staff members. It is a tortuous and convoluted saga. Many of the events are either intertwined or interrelated. A comprehensive summary would require many dozens of pages and the contents of over 100 banker’s boxes of documents and files.
A. THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY IS AN AMERICAN TOTALITARIAN GROUP ENGAGED IN INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO-TERRORISM
“The [Commission] repeatedly pointed out that Scientology was classified in Germany as a corporate group with a
totalitarian orientation. For historical reasons, Germany was vigilant towards violations of personal liberties. It was particularly sensitive to all forms of
totalitarianism. Furthermore, the Scientology Organization was considered in the Federal Republic of Germany to be an extremist political movement, and that there was hard evidence to back that claim. … [t]he Scientology Organization is double-faced, especially in the United States: the light side, a socially adapted façade of Hollywood celebrities, glamour and wealth; and the dark side, a totalitarian structure internally, with exploitation of members and massive threats, persecution and intimidation of dissenters. … Scientology was exploiting the American legal system in an endeavour to overwhelm its critics with an avalanche of deliberately engineered law suits to silence them with the threat of financial ruin; for in the United States, all litigants have to meet their own costs even if they win. There are not many lawyers in the United States who are prepared to work against the organization for fear of the possible consequences. There was no government aid for the victims.” Final Report of the Enquete Commission on “So-called Sects and Psycho groups,” New Religious and ideological Communities and Psycho-Groups in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1998 [ISBN 3-930343-43-3] (the “Enquete Commission Report”), pages 230-232.
Scientology’s campaigns to
“utterly destroy” those who criticize or oppose it are funded by the International Association of Scientologists (the “IAS”). The contributions to these Scientology campaigns to use the legal system to sue and destroy all that oppose it are exempt from income tax in the United States. The actor Tom Cruise is the biggest single contributor to these campaigns of personal destruction. He has donated many millions of dollars to the IAS. [See generally, the Enquete Commission Report, p.243.] “The Scientology Organization uses an internationally operating secret service that is well versed in the art of psychological warfare [
or psycho-terror].” The Enquete Commission Report, p. 246, fn.298.
B. SCIENTOLOGY’S INTERNATIONAL PYSCHO-TERRORISM IS A TRANSNATIONAL PROBLEM
Some of the numerous examples of Scientology’s psycho-terrorism and abuse of the legal system have been litigated in the United States. For example, the Church of Scientology cases involving Mary Sue Hubbard, Jane Kember, Julie Christofferson, Michael Flynn, Gerald Armstrong, Lawrence Wollersheim and Lisa McPherson. Others have been litigated in Canada, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
The
psycho-terror activities of the Scientology Organization frequently and concurrently target individual critics in different countries. These litigation and extra-litigation weapons often improperly strain and subvert the judicial and legal systems of a number of nations without any of them being aware, or willing to admit, that a tax-exempt American church is misusing the public courts and law enforcement for anti-social and totalitarian purposes.
The Scientology church’s ‘War against the Internet’ is a good example of how Church of Scientology criminality, copyright fraud and frauds upon the courts can have simultaneous expensive and destructive trans-border impact. Keith Henson, the subject of this memorandum, is a victim of Scientology’s ‘War against the Internet.’ Keith Henson is now a high security inmate at the County jail in Riverside California. He is serving time after a jury trial for ‘interfering with a religion’ and misdemeanor terrorism. His crime: standing outside the armed Scientology international headquarters compound (on Highway 79 near Hemet, California) while carrying a picket sign with words on it. For example, “Cult Victims: Stacy Moxon Meyer, Ashlee Shaner, Lisa McPherson. The cult doesn’t care about lives.
www.xenu.net”
[Note: When reading references to Highway 79, it is now Gilman Springs Road. The Church of Scientology had Highway 79 re-designated and changed to Sanderson Road, as part of a plan with Riverside County to close down public access to the public highway that bifurcate the Scientology base.
C. SCIENTOLOGY v. THE NET
Scientologists pay many hundreds of thousands of dollars to move up the Scientology ‘Bridge to Total Freedom’ which include ‘Operating Thetan’ or OT Levels I-VIII (the ‘OT levels’). The OT levels are copyrighted and secret within the church, until the requisite monies have been paid for their study. For example, to reach the level of OT III costs approx. $300,000.00. Until 1993 Scientology’s lawyers had been largely successful in stamping out any publication of the OT levels by claiming they were not only copyrighted but were also trade secrets.
On May 6, 1991 Time magazine published a cover story called
‘Scientology, Thriving Cult of Greed and Power.’ Included in the cover story was the allegation of former Scientologist Steven Fishman and his German born psychologist Dr. Uwe Geertz that Scientology had been involved in a fraudulent securities class action scam with Steven Fishman. Fishman was arrested after returning from Spain where he had delivered false Scientology corporate records. After he was arrested, Mr. Fishman claimed that Scientology then ordered him to murder Dr. Geertz and then commit suicide. In four separate cases, Scientology unsuccessfully sued Time Magazine, Dr. Geertz and Steven Fishman for defamation. During the Fishman/Geertz litigation, Steven Fishman and attorney Graham Berry filed a complete set of the OT levels in the United States Federal Court in Los Angeles and successfully resisted Scientology’s attempts to have the OT levels either sealed or removed from the record. The OT levels I-VIII were part of ‘the Fishman Declaration.’
Despite the best efforts of Scientology, the contents and attachments to the Fishman Declaration found their way onto the pages of the Washington Post. Scientology unsuccessfully sued the Washington Post for publishing the story of Xenu; the evil intergalactic overlord and antagonist of all Scientologists, whether they know it or not.
“Scientologists believe that most human problems can be traced to lingering spirits of an extraterrestrial people massacred by their ruler, Xenu, over 75 million years ago. These spirits attach themselves by “clusters” to individuals in the contemporary world, causing spiritual harm and negatively influencing the lives of their hosts.” Judge Leonie Brinkema, RTC. Lerma, Memorandum Opinion, October 4, 1996. RTC, or the Religious Technology Center, is the second most senior Church of Scientology corporation and it is responsible for protecting Scientology’s intellectual properties such as copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets.
In late 1994 excerpts from the Fishman Declaration, and the attached OT I-VIII levels, were posted to the Internet and discussed on the Internet Usenet discussion group ‘alt. religion. scientology’ (the ‘ARS’ newsgroup). These included the OT III story of Xenu and the purported OT VIII references to Christianity being an evil mental implant and Jesus Christ being a pederast and “lover of young boys.” Scientology
considered this to be bad for business and public relations. Apparently, the influential ARS newsgroup is regularly read by over 100,000 people from around the world.
On January 11, 1995 Scientology in-house attorney Helena Kobrin tried to totally eliminate the ARS newsgroup with an attempted ‘rmgroup’ control message [remove group] alleging that the group only served to condone illegal copyright and trade secret violations. Although the Scientology attempt to remove the internet ARS newsgroup was unsuccessful it was effective in sparking an outraged backlash of public criticism against Scientology by free speech advocates.
Scientology then viciously retaliated against these free-speech advocates with platoons of expensive lawyers from across the United States and Europe. Scientology obtained court orders permitting them to raid the homes of certain critics and to seize their computers, computer records and documents. Accompanied by armed U.S. marshals, Scientology executives raided the homes of Dennis Erlich and Tom Klemensrud in Los Angeles, Arnaldo Lerma in Virginia, and Lawrence Wollersheim and Robert Penny in Colorado. Raids also took place in The Netherlands against Karin Spaink and in Sweden against Zenon Panoussis. The most popular anonymous remailer in the world was shut down in Finland. The U.S. internet providers Netcom and Digital Gateway, and the Dutch internet provider XS4ALL, were also sued. All of the cases were eventually settled, some in favor of the persons raided by Scientology and the U.S. marshals. It appeared that Scientology was not willing to litigate the defendant’s allegations of copyright fraud, L. Ron Hubbard Probate fraud and fraud upon the courts that were raised by several of the defense teams. Indeed, in the RTC v. Lerma case, U.S. Federal District Court Judge Hon. Leonie Brinkema opined that: “the court is now convinced that the primary motivation of RTC in suing Lerma, DGS and the Post is to stifle criticism of Scientology in general and to harass its critics.” Memorandum opinion, November 29, 1995.
Keith Henson was one of the free speech advocates who were sued in the Scientology v. The Net cases. Keith Henson had posted NOTS 34, an unpublished Scientology copyrighted document to the Internet. As we shall see, Keith Henson believed that the NOTS 34 document was evidence of the illegal and dangerous practice of medicine by the Church of Scientology, especially in association with NOTS 22 and NOTS 50. Several European courts have agreed. Initially, the Henson case was tried along with breach of copyright cases against Grady Ward and Dennis Erlich (a former Scientology minister who the Church ultimately paid approx. $5 million to avoid a trial and potential rulings as to Scientology copyright and probate fraud, and fraud upon the courts).
Other persons had posted NOTS 34 to the Internet before Henson and, like most of the Scientology copyrighted trade secret OT levels, the NOTS 34 document remains on the Internet to this day along with comment and opinion. Despite this, Scientology sued Henson because, as Scientology’s founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “[t]he purpose of the [law] suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway … will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, ruin him utterly.” The Scientologist: A Manual on the Dissemination of Material (1955).
“Keith Henson, a 5’9” tall, gray grandfather, [was] a Silicon Valley computer engineer. He [was] engaged in the research and development of computer hardware and software. As such, he is also a Netizen. On November 1, 1995, he saw wrong and has been since trying to right it. He observed the awesome might of the Scientology litigation juggernaught, engaged in its abhorrent anti-social Blitzkriegs and totalitarian objectives. He read of the frightening force of the cruel Scientology litigation monster, using perjury and deception, to persuade three federal judges to issue ex parte orders to raid and ransack the homes of its critics, to seize and strip their computers and to improperly take the computers, and the contents of those computers, into their own custody for review, analysis and, as it turned out, substantial destruction and damage. … Along with millions of people who had been outraged at such blatant abuse of the American legal system, Mr. Henson examined this so-called Church of Scientology which had previously been of no interest to him. He discovered a mafia-like international commercial enterprise maintaining the post-founding
pretense of religiosity in order to operate tax-free in countries where it was convenient to do so.” Hoden v. Henson, Riverside County Superior Court RIC 306884, Trial Brief, February 20, 1998.
D. RTC v. HENSON (“Henson 1”)
“One of the alleged [Church of Scientology] trade secret documents Mr. Henson discovered was NOTS Series 34 (“The Sequence For Handling A Physical Condition”). NOTS 34 is a Scientology ‘process’ involving the use of the Church of Scientology’s E-meter to cure bodily illnesses.” Mr. Henson considered NOTS 34 to be yet another example of the Church of Scientology being involved in the unlawful practice of medicine and he posted it to the Internet ‘in order to aid the public interest by warning the public against an unobvious danger of harm established by a previous order. This order is an order issued by Judge Gesell in United States v. An Article or Device (Hubbard Electrometer, et al., 333 F. Supp. 357 (D.D.C. 1971) which “forbids the Church of Scientology and all related organizations from claiming to heal using an ‘E-Meter.’” Hoden v. Henson, Riverside County Superior Court RIC 306884, Trial Brief, February 20, 1998.
“a. Auditing and Scientology: In his book ‘Dianetics,’ L. Ron Hubbard speaks of his method as a therapy. He starts with a description of ‘Dianetics’ from which he derives the Scientology therapy (called ‘auditing’); a therapy which he claims attenuates physical ailments. This creates the impression in the mind of the uninitiated that reader and potential customer that through Dianetics the Scientology Organization is able to cure such ailments and health disorders, whether real or subjective. ‘Auditing’ can therefore be considered as the core method of treatment for the Scientology Organization. … the use of ‘auditing’-a type of conditioning process when its purpose is to provide a cure-does involve an act of medical healing within the meaning of the Act on Non-medical Practitioners if one accepts the “impression theory” of the Federal Court of Justice. As auditors do not as a general rule have a license under the terms of the Act on Non-Medical Practitioners, the organization could be deemed to be in permanent breach of the law (cf. Chapter 5.5.5.4). In addition, it should be borne in mind that the use of auditing in the case of individuals
unable to cope with psychological pressure may lead to health disorders, serious illnesses, and there may even be a risk of suicide.” and Psycho-Groups in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1998 [ISBN 3-930343-43-3].
The Enquete Commission Report, pages 256-257.
Continues here
http://www.lermanet.com/persecution/kei ... meline.htm