Date:  12-03-89  20:11
From:  Brad Hicks
To:    All
Subj:  Update on the OTO Raid

Here's the update that I received on the raid on the California chapters of
the OTO.  The update (like the original) was written by Bill Heidrick. 
Mostly good news, but it looks like legal funds are still needed.
After much thought, I decided to leave Bill's spelling errors in place. --
JBH
-----------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE ON THE GREAT RAID DEBACLE
   Owing to the intervention of a 7 point earth quake and delays in getting
attorneys, the criminal charges against our brothers and sisters have dragged
on a bit.  Of the twelve charged, four have had all charges dismissed,
including all felony charges.  The urine tests have indeed returned negative.
The fireworks materials were ruled to be "insufficient evidence" on the
brothers accused.  That leaves eight people with misdemeanors or infractions
still pending.  The pre-trial dates have been moved for these folks twice
now, but an informed source at the district attorney's office has stated that
all remaining charges are expected to be dropped later this month. 
   Now that matters have quieted down somewhat, a few details need to be
corrected from last month's article.  The couple described as being taken
naked from Merkabah house were in fact taken from Thelema Lodge, and their
genitals were covered even if nothing else was.  The baby photograph did not
in fact show car seat straps, but a decorative T-shirt.  There are
conflicting accounts on how many were not taken in from each address, ranging
from two to four.  Other than those minor corrections, the account stands
substantially correct.  Other details have surfaced.  Several people were
battered by the officers, variously kicked in the head and ribs.  Arm, wrist
and other injuries were also reported.  Medical attention proved necessary in
at least one instance for a back injury.  Details of verbal assaults and
intimidations will be held for a civil case. 
   The officer leading the raid displayed some confusion about the syringes
he alleged to have found at Merkabah house.  After our people expressed
surprise over seeing these objects for the first time, the officer remarked
that he had found them in a drawer in the bathroom.  On being told that there
were no drawers in the bathroom, the officer is reported to have changed to
"in a drawer in the sink".  On discovering that there were also no drawers in
the sink, the officer finally settled on having found these mysterious
objects IN the sink.  These several drafts of his story having been worked
out, the officer wrote up his "find" as having been in the sink, and that
report is the source I used for my account last month. 
   There is an inconfirmed account of officer R. (who lead the raid) calling
S.G. (of cult awareness notoriety) in SF prior to the raid.  An informed
source describes the conversation to have included remarks roughly
reconstructed as follows: "This isn't a religious thing is it?" "No, ah,
there's drugs too..." 
   Well, there weren't drugs one, let alone "too".  Where does that leave us?
   Here's some superficially unrelated news.
   The October 22nd issue of the Jehovah's Witness _Awake!_ magazine has
published a bogus account about Crowley and O.T.O.  I quote from page 6: "In
1905, in Los Angeles, California, Crowley organized a Satanism group named
'Ordo Templi Orientis.'"  Of course, in 1905 e.v., Crowley had never heard of
O.T.O.  O.T.O. was et up in Southern California by W.T.Smith in 1935 e.v.
That's off by 30 years and one human being.  Aside from that, Crowley didn't
start O.T.O.  O.T.O. has never been Satanist and neither was Crowley a "devil
worshipper."  There's more of course. 
   The Linden LaRouche organization has a major front in Livermore
California, called the Schiller Institute.  The organization newsletter, _The
New Federalist_ has been running a campaign against O.T.O., the unrelated
Temple of Set and other new age groups for several issues now.  Apparently
LaRouche has come to the conclusion that O.T.O. got him busted through our
well known "front organization", the F.B.I.  This obscure belief has led to
quite remarkable statements, and may get worse.  D. Core is a spokes person
for this organization, mainly in  England but also in the USA.  Harmless
information provided to the Schiller Institute has surfaced in a newspaper
attack against the O.T.O. in England, thus establishing the existence of the
pipeline.  That information was a city name in Marin, provided to the front
organization for tracing purposes.  We have therefore identified a tie
between the LaRouche group at Livermore and the publicity campaign in England
against Satanism (so-called).  During a year of bogus attack publicity in the
British press, a substantial independent occult shop in Leeds was subjected
to riots and disruptions of operations.  Report has just been received that
that shop, the Sorceror's Apprentice, has been fire bombed by Christian
radicals.  It has been a cry of Samhain for many years: "Never again the
burning".  I regret to say that the burning times have come again.
   I suggest that certain Wicca organizations would better serve themselves
and the rest of the combustible occult community by reevaluating their
approach to occult crime publicity.  There is a faction in Wicca, by no means
the majority, which has sought to identify non-Wicca as potential or actual
"criminal Satanists".  A recent publication titled _Witchcraft, Satanism and
Ritual Crime: Who's Who and What's What_ has been offered for sale by the
highly respected _Green Egg_ magazine out of Ukiah.  By and large, this is a
noble and worthwhile effort.  Unfortunately, the publication contains a
glossary of occult symbols that bears all the signs of becoming a new age
_Malleus Malificarum_ or handbook of approved persecution.  Rank on rank of
symbols are displayed and briefly discussed as being ok or evil.  That dead
horse the inverted Calvary Cross is there as a devil worshipper device, with
no note to the effect that it's known as the "Cross of Peter" in the Roman
Catholic Church (a symbol of the martyrdom of the Apostle).  The inverted
pentagram, especially if circled, is a devilish emblem of evil -- something
of a shock to the Co-masonic Eastern Star organization which uses it as their
chief symbol.  The eye in the triangle is gently identified as coming from
the Illuminati, but no mention is made of over a thousand years of Christian
usage of that  very symbol for the Divine Trinity.  And so on ...  Let's not
allow ourselves to be tamed into dogs to tear down the innocent.  Remember
indeed the lesson of Quisling's accommodation with that fellow who perverted
the swastika into a shadow across Norway in WWII.  It's time to knock off
volunteering other people's virgins for the dragon.  Once used to such fare
he will turn and rend all the children of the Lady.
   With apology for bent feelings and mixed metaphor,
                         --- Bill Heidrick, (aka TSG)
--- Sirius 0.50
--- ConfMail V4.00
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