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eye WEEKLY                                            February 23 1995
Toronto's arts newspaper                      .....free every Thursday
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EYE.NET                                                        EYE.NET

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY BATTLES THE NET
Hostilities escalate in alt.religion.scientology

by
K.K. CAMPBELL

As eyeNET has oft pointed out, "cyberspace" is so nebulous, so undefined, there are endless opportunities to laugh derisively at powerful social institutions blundering around, issuing huff-'n'-puff edicts to the masses. Snicker at the Fourth Estate, the cops, the government -- and, yes, lawyers. Awesome entertainment.

Example: alt.religion.scientology, which Church of Scientology lawyers have been trying for months to destroy.

[photo here] I've scanned the group on and off for years. It's always been a flame-fuelled environment, ex- and active Scientologists ranting endlessly. All cultish conflicts/splits are extremely venomous. No diff here.

But matters escalated drastically at the end of '94, culminating two weeks ago in a CoS-sponsored police raid against a former Scientologist minister. All directly because of that stupid newsgroup.

Last September, former CoS member and Virginia resident Arnaldo Lerma supposedly began posting English court documents to a.r.s . The documents detailed alleged CoS wrongdoings: brainwashing, defrauding members, revenge against critics, etc. Lerma, 44, joined the CoS in '63. He says he was forced out in '78 "after pursuing a romance with one of Hubbard's daughters." The CoS says these court documents supposedly contained "copyright secrets" and couldn't be transmitted. "Sacred texts," if you will.

The Associated Press reported Lerma was visited by CoS officials last November, demanding he "recant" his NetNews criticisms. They wanted him to sign a three-page document stating he admitted he was a "failure" as a Scientologist. He refused.

So "someone" dubbed the CancelPoodle started cancelling messages from anti-Scientologists, through a Netcom account (Netcom is an Internet provider in California -- just like Interlog, Passport and Inforamp are providers in Toronto). CancelPoodle ain't to be confused with Cancelmoose(TM), the anti-spam bot; the CancelPoodle is specifically censoring opinion of ex-members and critical discussion of the church.

This mysterious person (using a netcom.com account) started censoring another vociferous critic -- Dennis Erlich (dennis.l.erlich@support.com), 48, a minister of Scientology from '68-'82 until excommunicated. The CoS simultaneously claimed Erlich was posting "copyrighted secrets." Church lawyers demanded he remove all CoS documents from his home computer. Erlich said he would, if they proved copyright. The CoS didn't respond.

Netcom soon put a stop to the censoring. So, on Jan. 11, CoS lawyer Helena K. Kobrin (hkk@netcom.com) sent a "control" message to netnews -- demanding all computers/sysadmins on the net remove alt.religion.scientology . (It's a fucking howler! You'll find it stored in our Web pages.) "We request that you remove the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup from your site... Please confirm that you have removed this newsgroup from your system," Kobrin writes, with a straight face. I don't think it was honored anywhere.

CoS lawyers started directly threatening some Internet service providers with lawsuits if they carried a.r.s . Stanton McCandlish (mech@eff.org) of the cyber-rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) issued a release condemning the bullying and offering to help threatened administrators.

(The idea of "shutting down newsgroups" is stupid. People'll just use another newsgroup to disseminate the Forbidden Fruit. If Canada "bans" alt.sex.bondage, guess what happens? BDSM material will simply transmit through other, even more widely propagated groups. To truly censor the net, you have to shut it down. Since that isn't feasible, instead expect to see authority "make examples" of select individuals to frighten others so they curb their "naughty" behavior. It's going to happen...)

On Feb. 13 at 7:30 a.m., a group of Scientologists, their attorney, some private security officers and one local cop entered Erlich's Glendale, Calif., home with a civil writ of seizure. The posse deleted thousands of pages worth of material from Erlich's home computer, seized 365 floppies and even took dozens of Scientology books, according to the Glendale News-Press. Erlich claims they got copies of all his private correspondence and financial records.

(This may be a serious mistake, stepping well beyond the intent of the warrant; that's exactly what proved to be the case in the infamous Secret Service raids against Steve Jackson's games in Texas, where the SS just took anything remotely digital.)

The same day as the raid, Lee Holzinger (leeh@rain.org) posted a CoS press release suggesting Erlich is (*yawn*) a wife-beater and that he (*yawn*) killed his children's pets execution-style. If the pattern of standard defamation holds, Erlich will soon be labelled a (*yawn*) child molester. Read a.r.s and alt.current-events.net-abuse for updates. There's also a Scientology mailing list. Write owner-lrh-l@cornell.edu for subscription details.

You can check out a comprehensive chronology of events maintained by Ron Newman at http://rnewman.www.media.mit.edu/people/rnewman/scientology/.

SHRILL THRILLS

Toronto's "Worm" has set up a Shrill Metal home page at http://www.io.org/~worm -- come watch him dance in glee and gush over Iron Maiden. Or is it a Shrine to Jerry Springer this week...?

SATURDAY NIGHT WIRED

So Mark McKinney's landed at Saturday Night Live -- or, as I know it, Sunday Morning Pre-Recorded, so I can fast forward through not only commercials but the expected allotment of poorly-rehearsed, no-timing sketches featuring talentless dickwads like Adam Sandler and Chris "HOW LOUD CAN I SHOUT? LET ME TELL YOU!" Farley.

McKinney stands out like a fucking genius amongst these standups trying to do sketch comedy. Read alt.tv.snl to sing McKinney's praises. (Oh ya -- McKinney and Chris Elliot did a cute sketch about IRC-weenies a coupla weeks ago -- McKinney as Captain Nerd and Elliot as Mr One-Handed-Typer pretending he's a female while online: "I'm a very naughty cheerleader...").

-30-


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