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Comments: 802 +- Your Rights Online: Scientology Charged With Slavery, Human Trafficking on Tuesday December 01, @04:29PM
Posted
by
kdawson
on Tuesday December 01, @04:29PM
from the to-name-but-a-few dept.
from the to-name-but-a-few dept.
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topiccensorship.gif); width:44px; height:55px;
censorship
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicdoj.gif); width:50px; height:79px;
court
eldavojohn writes "A formal complaint was filed in California (caged PDF) last week by John Lindstein naming David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology International as defendants. Lindstein claims that for sixteen years (from age 8) he was forced to work as a slave at Gold Base, a secret CoS site run by Golden Era Productions with 'razor wire, security guard patrols, surveillance posts, and three roll calls each day.' The pay was $50 a week. The allegations include 'Violations of wage and hour laws as well as unfair/illegal business practices actionable under California B&P 17200 Et. Seq.' and a complaint under the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution, which abolished slavery. Members of the group Anonymous praised the summons."
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I love it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Now if we can see a slashdot article saying that they were found guilty and someone went to prison for it... the fat lady ain't sang yet, boys.
Classified as a religion? (Score:5, Insightful)
Since they are classified as a religion (thanks to infiltration of CoS into the IRS) wouldn't his service be considered 'worship' and 'volunteering'. However it wouldn't surprise me if they actually were actually doing much worse than just killing people.
Re:Classified as a religion? (Score:5, Informative)
Since they are classified as a religion (thanks to infiltration of CoS into the IRS) wouldn't his service be considered 'worship' and 'volunteering'. However it wouldn't surprise me if they actually were actually doing much worse than just killing people.
It wasn't infiltration, though I'm not saying they didn't try that too. They basically said "give us religious status for tax purposes or we'll all misfile out forms and delay payments as long as possible, good luck finding the resources to pursue even a fraction of our members", and the IRS conceded that it would cost less to let them have their way than to try force them to behave.
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Re:Classified as a religion? (Score:5, Funny)
Its called audit method R2-45. Two .45 cal slugs to the chest will release the thetans inhabiting even the most infected person.
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Re:Classified as a religion? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Classified as a religion? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hubbard himself gave the order on 6 March 1968, referring to *specific people* in an HCO Ethics order that was seized during an FBI raid. Referring to these once valued Scientologists, LRH said, and I quote, "They are declared Enemies of mankind, the planet and all life." ... " They are fair game." ... and "Any Sea Org member contacting any of them is to use Auditing Process R2-45."
Would you consider that a joke? If so, it's a pretty bad one.
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Ah My Homeland (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, along with that diversity is an unfathomable tolerance for some particularly poignant cases of stupidity...like our state budget. There is no doubt that the strong and vocal religious groups here in California would raise exception and a helluva kerfuffle over their church being towed to court for slavery. But I wonder if any of those groups see a case regarding Scientology as a threat. After all sometimes the most belligerent opposition to one religion comes from another religion. I have seen folks in Fawkes masks walking around my local famer's market protesting Scientology. However, I have also had Scientologists try to recruit me both in my home town and when I wander the rest of the state. So this will certainly be an interesting case to watch. I hope it garners some attention and noise in this state and, perhaps, even in our country. Exposing Scientology for the cult and crime syndicate it is certainly is, in my opinion, a righteous cause....
Well if there's one thing we Californians know how to do, its garner attention and make some noise. I'm gonna go pop some popcorn...
Gold Base (Gilman Springs, CA) (Score:5, Informative)
No difference than the Christian cult (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:No difference than the Christian cult (Score:5, Insightful)
My parents forced me to go to church every week, then sunday school, and during the week I would be forced to work as an altar boy for no pay. All the time I was brainwashed with repetitive prayers and actions. A cult is a cult is a cult. It doesn't matter that here in North America we tend to be fond of a particular one.
That's a very poor argument. You can swap out "church" for almost any other childhood activity. For example, soccer:
My parents forced me to go to soccer every week and play a game on saturday, and during the week I would be forced to go to soccer practice for no pay. All the time I was brainwashed with repetitive stretches and drills.
In other words, equating Sunday school and being an altar boy to doing film editing production is silly. The former are childhood activities, not jobs. But I suppose most Slashdotters take any opportunity to bash Christianity (note: I am not a Christian).
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Re:No difference than the Christian cult (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, my parents had me in church a lot as a kid. As an adult, I pretty much stopped going. Know what? My mom still likes me and I still have plenty of friends who go to church, and as far as I know none of them have shunned me as a pariah. I don't think you can really give a group "cult" status when there's no penalty for leaving and they're still nice to you afterward.
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CoS "base" in Colorado (Score:5, Interesting)
I once had the opportunity to read part of the diary of a teenage girl who had been at a Scientology "Base" in Colorado. I don't recall the name of it, or even whether she mentioned it by name (this was 20 years ago). The disruptive, corruptive effects her involvement with this Base and the CoS had on her state of mind were obvious from what she wrote. While I don't recall whether she described any physical enslavement, the mental enslavement was apparent.
Why they're still getting away with it mystifies me; pretty much everyone now knows what they're doing and how they're doing it.
Re:If he was paid $50, he wasn't a "slave" (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:If he was paid $50, he wasn't a "slave" (Score:5, Informative)
Slavery actually connotes a position of involuntary servitude rather than one where payment is withheld. That is, it is the lack of freedom that is the main attribute of slavery, not the lack of compensation.
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Re:If he was paid $50, he wasn't a "slave" (Score:5, Insightful)
Slavery actually connotes a position of involuntary servitude rather than one where payment is withheld. That is, it is the lack of freedom that is the main attribute of slavery, not the lack of compensation.
Slavery actually connotes a position of involuntary servitude rather than one where payment is withheld. That is, it is the lack of freedom that is the main attribute of slavery, not the lack of compensation.
The barbed wire at Gold Base is on the inside of the fence not on the outside.
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Re:If he was paid $50, he wasn't a "slave" (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:If he was paid $50, he wasn't a "slave" (Score:5, Funny)
You don't count being held in a compound surrounded by razor wire and forced to work 16-24 hours a day at age 8 as "involuntary servitude"?
No, obviously they do count that as involuntary, since the point was to contradict a post claiming this wasn't slavery due to him being paid. In other words, they are saying he was a slave.
This post has been brought to you by the Center For Explaining the Obvious to the Reading Comprehension Impaired, a tax-exempt religious charity organization that you can join and learn more about for the low low cost of $5000.
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Re:If he was paid $50, he wasn't a "slave" (Score:5, Insightful)
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how is that different from old mining towns? (Score:5, Insightful)
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don'tcha call me 'cause I can't go,
I owe my soul to the company store."
That song reflected the reality of tens of thousands of people in Appalachia.
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they purport to deal in moral and divine matters, those who have power within the organization generally(either as an official point of doctrine, or in lay understanding) tend to be imbued with greater "goodness" or "holiness" or access to divine command, or whatever. Priests and CEOs are both potentially dangerous, and quite likely to cover for their buddies; but you don't generally tell children that CEOs are trusted authority figures who deserve their respect and obedience.
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Funny)
> but you don't generally tell children that CEOs are trusted authority figures who deserve their respect and obedience.
Well, unless their name is Steve Jobs.
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmm, how come every Scientology story must have some post diverting attention to Catholicism, trying to lend legitimacy to Scientology as a religion?
Let's stick to the topic at hand, shall we? And that topic is that Scientology apparently enslaved this person.
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe you have it backwards. I think the post you reference is trying to point out that there is really no reason not to treat catholicism with the same utter contempt that we treat scientology.
I personally think it should be taken one step further than that. All organized religion should be treated with utter contempt.
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Insightful)
Q: What is the difference between a religion and a cult?
A: Time.
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The form? It's right here: (Score:5, Informative)
Principia Discordia. [principiadiscordia.com]
Disorganized religion. There you go. Read it now, thank me later fnord.
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Insightful)
I personally think you took one step too far when you afforded the CoS the respect of referring to them as an organized religion. They're not, catholicism is, there's a huge difference.
Yep, about two thousand years and a few million followers.
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:That's pretty evil. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sticky subject that is likely to insult somebody, no matter how you approach it.
I can say that I have met some Jewish people with questionable business morals, but then again I've met people with NO religious beliefs that are far worse.
As far as slavery and forced labor goes, the long-running genocide in Darfur is essentially Muslim controlled militias attacking indigenous tribes-people, people that have been a source of slaves for Muslim slavers for hundreds of years.
The rallying cry for some of the Janjaweed (means "devil on horseback") militia forces has been "Kill the slaves, kill the slaves!"
But then again, the region where the Janjaweed are killing defenseless, unarmed villagers also happens to center around a government-held oil pipeline that sends 80% of the regions oil to China.
So maybe religion has nothing to do with it? Maybe some people are just assholes?
And to complicate matters, some people seem to feel compelled to put Scientology in the same group as Christianity and Islam when we ALL know Scientology is just a big SCAM. It is NOT a religion just because they say it is. It is a scam disguised as a religion.
Oranges and Apples, my friends...Don't give them the credit they so desire.
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Re:How Is This Nerd News??!! (Score:5, Informative)
Scientology has become relevant to Slashdot and its readership ever since CoS removed content from Slashdot under DMCA [slashdot.org]. It's quote obviously News for Nerds now, and, noting the DMCA reference (and the fact that it's common CoS practice, not a single isolated case), definitely related to Your Rights Online. If it's still not clear, try posting OT-III materials in a /. comments and see how that goes.
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ok (Score:5, Informative)
link 2 [wikileaks.fi]
link 3 [wikileaks.eu]
"If you want to control your child, simply break him into complete apathy and he'll be as obedient as any hypnotized half-wit. If you want to know how to control him, get a book on dog training, name the child Rex and teach him first to "fetch" and then to "sit up" and then to bark for his food. You can train a child that way. Sure you can. But it's your hard luck if he turns out to be a blood-letter. Only don't be half-hearted about it. Simply TRAIN him. "Speak, Roger!" "Lie down!" "Roll over!" Of course, you'll have a hard time of it. This - a slight oversight - is a human being. You'd better charge right in and do what you can to break him into apathy quickly. A club is best. Tying him in a closet without food for a few days is fairly successful. The best recommended tactic, however, is simply to use a straight jacket and muffs on him until he is docile and imbecilic. I'm warning you that it's going to be tough; it will be tough because Man became king of the beasts only because he couldn't as a species be licked. He doesn't easily go into an obedient apathy like dogs do. Men own dogs because men are self-determined and dogs aren't. --Official church documents
I got nothing better going on.
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Re:How Is This Nerd News??!! (Score:5, Interesting)
The war between Scientology vs. The Internet [wikipedia.org] has been going on pretty much since there was an Internet.
The Co$ practically invented the Hipcrime sporgery [wikipedia.org] attack technique that still plagues USENET to this day. It was directly responsible for taking down the world's first anonymous remailer [wikipedia.org] (anon.penet.fi) in 1996, and compromised every user of that service. Its shill legislator got his name stamped onto the Mickey Mouse Protection Act [wikipedia.org] in 1998.
It has been a consistent and implacable foe of the free exchange of information on the Internet for the better part of 20 years, and it will not stop until it - either the Cult or the Internet - ceases to exist in its current form. Anything that could deplete the cult's financial reserves is a priori a good thing for Your Rights Online, and anything that the cult wants is a priori a threat to Your Rights Online.
Asking "What does the Co$ have to do with YRO?" is like asking "What does NSA have to do with surveillance?" Both are threats to your ability to speak freely. NSA may break the law from time to time, but for all we bitch about it, at least it acknowledges the existence of legal restrictions on its ability to carry out its mission. Co$ doesn't even recognize the concept of law, except as a means of filing strategic lawsuits against public participation, or as a means to otherwise harass its critics.
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Re:How Is This Nerd News??!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Look around for COS stories on the internet, and read the comments. You'll find some derivation of that exact comment over and over in every single one of them.
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Yes... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not fan of scientology, or any cult really - but a mainstream organization with illegal work camps? I just never expected that, at all. You'd think the lid would have come off something that extreme some time ago. And what are they even having them do in these camps, build the theta monitors?
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Re:Yes... (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Yes... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude - there are (and were) cults out in the US today that do much, much worse. Past examples? Branch Davidians (Waco), the SunYungMoon group during the 1980's ("Moonies"), and the recent polygamy compound in Colorado City, Arizona. They all stand out as some rather egregious examples, and I don't doubt there are more of 'em out there today.
They don't have barbed wire and guards per se, but I'm willing to wager that their denizens are brainwashed enough that none of the fencing and such is necessary.
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Those are not mainstream (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude - there are (and were) cults out in the US today that do much, much worse.
Yes there are, but nothing on the scale of Scientology. The bigger the group the bigger the target, the harder to keep secrets.
That's what I mean by being surprised. A local compound in one city? Zero information coming out of that would surprise me. But again, for something as large and well known as scientology... it is odd to me that this has not come forward before and is being practiced at all. They don't need to do this after all, they are making money hand over fist as it is.
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Re:Those are not mainstream (Score:5, Interesting)
People have known about the forced servitude of scientology for a long time. Its just that this is perhaps the first time anyone has had the combination of resources and bravery to stand up against it. And this is an example of bravery, some people that speak out against scientology have found themselves mysteriously dead.
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Re:Yes... (Score:5, Insightful)
Quite right. GP also referred to the CoS as 'mainstream'. There is nothing mainstream about them. Most other countries don't even recognize them as a religion. They are a money making / power grabbing scheme dreamed up by a second rate megalomaniac science fiction author that has now taken on a life of its own.
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Re:Yes... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Yes... (Score:5, Informative)
And what are they even having them do in these camps, build the theta monitors?
From the Infinite Complacency Link:
At 12, he was “deemed finished with schooling” and Golden Era Productions, an unincorporated division of Church of Scientology International (CSI) hired him as a messenger and errand boy.
But in 1997, at the age of 15, he was demoted to the post of dishwasher. “He worked 16-hour days cleaning pots, pans and the dining facilities,” says the lawsuit.
And soon afterwards, he was assigned to do construction at the base near Hemet, California.
So the answer to your question is messenger, dish washer then construction worker. I mean, why use all the money you take from your followers to hire people to do this work when you can force the followers to do it for less or even free? L Ron Hubbard's Get Rich Quick Scam is yet another valid title for Scientology.
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Re:Yes... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, for example church-run (ie, most of them) orphanages in Ireland [wikipedia.org]. All of physical abuse, sexual abuse and forced labor.
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Re:Yes... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, please, define "mainstream". Just because an organization makes the news frequently doesn't make them "mainstream". Take a hard look at the people who claim to be Scientologists. Fringe freaking element, all around. Huh? You point to some celebrity or other? Your point being what, exactly? Whoa, dude, you need to look at those celebrities again. We make celebrities out of people like Roman Polanski, who likes little girls. We make celebrities out of the likes of Michael Jackson, who liked - uhhh - sleepovers with little boys. We make celebrities out of rap singers who "sing" about killing cops. We make celebrities of other "singers" who celebrate gang raping little girls. Just because Tom Cruise happens to be in movies, people like his movies, does NOT make CoS "mainstream".
America worships freaks, but that worship doesn't make them "mainstream".
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Re:really? (Score:5, Informative)
In the words of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, 'THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE!!'
As quoted from L. Ron Hubbard:
The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet, 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H-Bomb on the principal volcanos (Incident II) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged".
His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.
When through with his crime loyal officers (to the people) captured him after six years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confederation) has since been a desert. The length and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been dispensed with by my tech development.
One can freewheel through the implant and die unless it is approached as precisely outlined. The "freewheel" (auto-running on and on) lasts too long, denies sleep etc and one dies. So be careful to do only Incidents I and II as given and not plow around and fail to complete one thetan at a time.
In December 1967 I knew someone had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out, but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now, but only that given here is needful.
One's body is a mass of individual thetans stuck to oneself or to the body.
One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I. It is a long job, requiring care, patience and good auditing. You are running beings. They respond like any preclear. Some large, some small.
Thetans believed they were one. This is the primary error. Good luck.
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I Was Surprised (Score:5, Informative)
Was this a surprise to anyone?
As the submitter, yeah I have to admit it kind of was. This is a really unique opportunity for a case against CoS because normally the cases come from outsiders.
Lindstein was eight years old and says he was forced to work for 16 years. He was removed from school at age 12. Now, if you were removed from school at age 12, you probably aren't very well suited for a high paying job. So you have someone who's lost much of their youth to Scientology and has the motivation to see this suit through to the end.
You see, when you sue or slander Scientology, you might not realize what you're getting yourself into. People end up doing jail for posting verbal attacks on Scientology online. To quote the late L. Ron Hubbard [wikiquote.org] on his policy:
This is the correct procedure: Spot who is attacking us. Start investigating them promptly for felonies or worse using our own professionals, not outside agencies. Double curve our reply by saying we welcome an investigation of them. Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press. Don't ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way. * "Attacks on Scientology" (25 February 1966)
That's what you're dealing with. That's what Lindstein has in his future. He probably knows it, his lawyer probably knows it. But he will soon be subjected to character assassination, harassment of just barely legal amounts, indirect threats and the same for any family he may have.
So yeah, I'm a pleasantly surprised that such an opportune individual has stepped forward to speak and let us know what Scientology is. Because in so many other cases, the individual has been silenced one way or another. And scientology has refined it's processes to force its members quiet and they have the resources and legal representation to make magic happen in the courts.
I hope Lindstein is telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I wish him the best of luck in the courtroom and for justice to be brought against those who forced him into labor and stripped him of his right to knowledge.
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Re:I Was Surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
They're really that terrible. Sorry.
The very first thing that happens when you're brought into Scientology is that they convince you that all that money you're spending on doctors is wasted, that Scientology will fix everything. Some people with actual life-threatening problems don't survive this phase. Doesn't bother Scientology a bit, though.
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Fighting Cults: Rick Ross (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Scientology as a force for good? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's really hard, because the benefits of most religions are often highly subjective. The only defense I can think of is that they could be a lot worse (ie. Jonestown, Heaven's Gate), and they certainly aren't worse than the TV evangelist types who also rake in obscene amounts of money from the True Believers.
I remember one article I read on them stated that their biggest problem is their intense paranoia of the outside world. A lot of the reasons they've done some of the nasty things they've done (like infiltrating Ontario government offices in the 1970s) are ill-informed and misjudged attempts at security.
L. Ron Hubbard was most certainly a con artist, but he was also a bit of a paranoid type, not to mention the self-aggrandizing that he got out of a lot of the cloak-and-dagger bullshit. The problem for $cientologists after him is that I think a lot of them didn't get the joke. In short, their inheritors of L. Ron's madness, but in a more pure and fanatical form.
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Re:FLSA (Score:5, Informative)
There needs to be sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was kidnapped, and not staying voluntarily.
Did you miss the point that he was eight years old at the time?
Well, if there's no evidence that he was forcibly detained, there will be no successful prosecution.
Yep. you missed the point that he was eight years old at the time!
Eight-year-olds do not have free will under California law. They have the legally recognized ability to tattle, and that's about it. On the other hand, there *are* strict child-labor laws in effect.
I have no sympathies for any particular religious group. I just hope the law is upheld and no prosecution based solely on unsupported claims is successful.
First is the question: are they actually a regligious group? See France's recent rulings for more information. There's certainly reasonable doubt on the question!
Second: The claims are very, VERY widely supported. Literally hundreds of people (and I mean literally, not figuratively) have come forth with their stories of harrassment, false imprisonment / kidnapping, extortion, and plenty more.
Just take a look for yourself... [scientology-lies.com]
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