Article 28865 of alt.religion.scientology: Path: news.cybercom.net!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.cac.psu.edu!news.tc.cornell.edu!travelers.mail.cornell.edu!news.kei.com!world!indra.com!news.coop.net!boulder.earthnet.net!usenet From: Brian Andreja Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,co.general,co.politics,boulder.general Subject: OT-VIII ON DENVER NEWS (Ch.9 KUSA) Thetan frenzied Scientologists threaten Wollersheim with handcuffs Date: 9 Sep 1995 02:54:35 GMT Organization: Pastel Hell Underground Lines: 70 Message-ID: <42qvlb$2cg@boulder.earthnet.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: slip4.earthnet.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) To: boulder-picket@tali.UCHSC.edu Xref: news.cybercom.net alt.religion.scientology:28865 co.general:1954 co.politics:321 boulder.general:3340 Ch.9 KUSA (ABC) in Denver 9.8.95 6PM News, 3rd story Ward Lucas Handcuffs, verbal fisticuffs, secret scriptures, top-secret encryption, this story has everything. It's the beginning of a clash in federal court between Scientology and critics who say its a dangerous mind-control cult, that uses hypnosis and brain-washing on its members. "Why should their actions not be scrutinized in public debate?" (Larry Wollersheim speaking outside of U.S. District Court in Denver, CO) The center of the controversy is Lawrence Wollersheim of Boulder. He's been using the Internet to distribute information about Scientology. But top Scientology officials say some of the documents Wollersheim is spreading are secret, copyrighted scriptures, stolen from them. (Scene showing Sloth's Suppressive Person's Page - http://www.sky.net/~sloth/sci/sci_index.html#help) "Well, I think that, uhh, Larry Wollersheim and these people are a... (pause) band of white-collar thieves." (Scientology Director Kurt Weyland speaking) Scientologists have staged a series of raids in 3 states and two foreign countries in an effort to seize computers and files used by their critics. Today for the first time in open court, and over Scientology's objections, the Judge allowed Wollersheim's attorney to outline Scientology's core beliefs. They believe that 75 million years ago a great galactic confederation became over-populated. The excess people were flown to earth. They were chained to volcanoes, which were then bombed with hydrogen bombs, and all these beings were vaporized into spirits called "Thetans". Today those Thetans infest all of mankind. L. Ron Hubbard, according to today's arguments, discovered secret processes by which humans could rid themselves of these Thetans. Attorneys for the church told Judge John Kane, they don't want their beliefs spoken about because it could hold the church up to ridicule. They believe that it's psychologically dangerous for church members to hear this kind of information before they've completed all the lower levels of Scientology instruction. Outside the courthouse, Scientology Director Kurt Weyland held up a pair of handcuffs which he said symbolized what the church intended to do to Wollersheim. "Like I told you this morning, I brought these handcuffs here to show what it is that we are driving for, which is to bring this man to uhhh, bruhh, to justice." Another issue has arisen. Some of the computer files the Scientologists seized from Wollersheim's home are encrypted. Scientology has asked Judge Kane to hold Wollersheim in contempt. Wollersheim says the encrypted files are lists of people he says are victims of Scientology and he says he'll go to jail before turning over his passwords, which unlock his secret files END