Simonetta Po

Simonetta Po

Researcher

 

Scientology: Front Groups, an Occult System of Recruiting and Infiltration Attempts

 

Since its inception in the 1950s the Church of Scientology has used different forms of recruitment, both open and covert. However, what seems obvious as a result of my 10 years of activity in this field, of the dozens of people I have interviewed so far and from my personal experience as a former member, just a few people joined the movement because of a drive to look for a new religious belief. I personally learnt I had joined a “religious group” a couple of years after I had left it, when the media started to cover the wide police investigation involving the group in Italy in the mid 1980s. As a matter of fact Scientology spokespersons were trying to defend their operations claiming it was a religion. I was really puzzled: I had joined a self-improvement group selling a sort of psychotherapy, not a religion. I won’t discuss here if Scientology is a religion or not, what I want to highlight are its recruiting forms, especially the covert ones which are the most insidious and are mostly unknown both to the public and to the institutions.

 

About the history of the movement, The Church of Scientology derives from the original creation of L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics. Launched in 1950, Dianetics was presented as a secular “Modern Science of Mental Health” devoted to clear the human mind of “aberrations”, those unconscious mechanisms responsible of our irrational behaviour and of “all” psychosomatic illnesses. The Church of Scientology as such was founded only in 1954, after many vicissitudes experimented by Hubbard and hisDianetic Research Foundations in the previous years. Among their problems:

 

–          The internal criticism; a number of the original supporters, among which medical doctors and other personalities initially attracted by the “new mental science”, started to criticise the lack of a scientific nature of the methods implied and the growing totalitarian attitude of Hubbard [1];

–          The external mockery; the scientific community and the media ridiculed Hubbard’s “discoveries” [2];

–          the investigation of the Medical Association of New Jersey into the Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, NJ, for teaching medicine without a licence in 1951 [3],

–          and on top of that the temporary loss of Hubbard’s foundation rights in favour of Don Purcell in 1952 [2].

 

Once having regained the rights on Dianetics and founded the Hubbard Association of Scientologist International first, and the Church of Scientology later, Hubbard did not abandon Dianetics. It actually became the first source of open recruitment into Scientology. The book “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” is still sold both in bookshops and news-stands, while friendly young people display it in book and local fairs, or on stalls at the local market square, often accompanied by the offer of a “free personality” or “stress” test. What those friendly youngsters do not tell you is that they are offering you a ticket towards a self proclaimed religious group.

 

We could say that Dianetics is in fact the first and most powerful front group used by the Church of Scientology as a recruitment tool. And maybe the most open. What most people do not know however is that throughout its history the Church ofScientology has used tens, if not hundreds, of front groups to approach and confuse both the public and the institutions. Let’s just try to name some of them: Jewish Coalition for Religious Freedom, Alliance for the Preservation of Religious Liberty, Committee on Public Health and Safety, American Citizens for Honesty in Government, Committee for a Safe Environment, National Commission on Law Enforcement and Social Justice, Concerned Businessmen’s Association of America, Religious Research Foundation, Social Coordination International, Citizens’ Press Association, Association for Health Development and Aid [4]. «One of the first fronts was The Freudian Foundation of America, set up in early 1954 […] [its] story is pretty much the model for many Scientology operations since the early days […] This is the corporate survival strategy at work since the early 1950s. Over the past fifty years, hundreds of front organisations were started and mostly dropped. Only a few have survived for long, and those have proven some usefulness» [5].

 

Among those which “have proven some usefulness” are: the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) and its “by-products” Narconon and Applied Scholastics International, and the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE). I will then focus on their recruitment aims and infiltrating potentialities, starting not with a front but with an open group of the Church of Scientology: the Volunteer Ministers.

 

The Volunteer Ministers of the Church of Scientology

 

The figure of the “volunteer minister” exists almost from the early days. The group is not a real front as it almost always declares its links, what it doesn’t declare are its recruitment purposes, disguising them as a form of humanitarian help. The “Handbook of the Volunteer Minister” was first marketed in 1976, and it «makes the help widely accessible, giving the basic aspects of Scientology’s technology available to anyone, scientologist or not» [6]. However, the first great disclosure of their big potentialities seems to have been the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11. Since then, the yellow jacket of the VMs has been seen on the locations of the greatest tragedies that hit the planet and catalysed the attention of the media. The issue number 1 of the Scientology magazine “la Voce del Ministro Volontario” [The voice of the Volunteer Minister] was published in Italy at the end of 2001, and on its front page it reads: «Volunteer Ministers essential at Ground Zero», «We Replied to the Call». Inside, the usual quotations from L. Ron Hubbard (who presumably predicted the event in 1973!) and a marketing campaign of handbooks, courses, different gadgets, membership sold by the Church of Scientology.

 

As we have seen, according to the Church of Scientology the presence of its VMs at Ground Zero was “essential”. According to other sources however it was not only non essential, but disturbing and troublesome. «The[ir] efforts were particularly concentrated in the cities which had become, or were near, disaster areas: New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh. Scientologists mobilised under the banner of the “Volunteer Ministers” to provide assistance to the rescue effort at Ground Zero and, more broadly, to the population of the cities as a whole. New York’s Scientology office […] was the focus of the Church’s efforts in the city. A prominent sign was placed on the building proclaiming it a “Disaster Relief Headquarters,” notwithstanding the fact that it had no official role whatsoever in the city’s relief effort. A New York Scientologist informed fellow Scientologists that “New York Org is just body routing [recruiting] people off the street and giving them assists [a form of faith healing] or sending them straight into group processing”. Scientologist Peter McCuen reported: “Within hours of the bombing, the New York Org had delivered the first group processing sessions as well as assists” […] This effort was clearly directed from high levels in the Church. Scientologists were told to “do your part in applying LRH ED ‘BOOM POSTULATE'”.[…] Disturbingly, one of the goals appears from the outset to have been the deliberate and systematic disruption of mental health service delivery. An e-mail to Volunteer Ministers sent on September 12th advised: “When arriving at a hospital, VM’s should say who they are [and] say they are there to give spiritual aid. This is needed before the psychs get their ruddy hands on people”» [7].

 

But this was just the beginning. Some days after the bombings, while Fox News was broadcasting the religious service for the victims, a message was scrolling across the bottom of the screen: «National Mental Health Assistance: [call] 800-FOR-TRUTH». The phone number connected to a Church of Scientology centre in Los Angeles, where Scientologists were manning the phones [8].

 

The American National Mental Health Association accused the Church of Scientology of recruitment and misleading information [9], and its’ President Mr. Faenza «called the hotline number “outrageous” and said Scientology “is the last organisation” emotionally vulnerable people should call» [8].

 

Scientology VMs were also present in Beslan, North Ossetia, after the terrorist attack at the local elementary school. In October 2004, the police banned the scientologist from the region, giving them 24 hours to leave the area [10]. According to the Minister of Health of North Ossetia, the activities of religious cults – Church of Scientology included – were a serious threat to the victims of the attack in Beslan [11]. In the words of journalist German Petelin of New Isvetzia, «mass recruitment actions by the Church of Scientology began on September 20^th, 2004». They offered “spiritual assistance” and “psychotherapy sessions” to more than 700 people, most of them children and teenagers, and “touch assists”, a sort of massage intended to relieve the pain. The VMs of Scientology settled their headquarters in the local Cultural Centre and told the people that «Scientology has been recognised all over the world as a science. It helps to solve problems in 19 areas of life» [11]. The Pravda reported that when the scientologists arrived from Moscow, «they told the authorities that they were psychologists» and «soon after that they inundated the republic with their massive books and launched a commercial on a local TV channel, calling upon people to come to the “centre of spiritual assistance”» [12].

 

Again the Volunteer Ministers replied to the “call” of South East Asia after the tsunami of December 2004. And again they triggered controversies. Scientology opened an office in Banda Aceh. International aid organisations feared that the descent of scientologists and other cults could easily provoke clashes with local authorities and a subsequent crackdown on humanitarian groups [13].

 

Ministers from the Church of Scientology, many with only a few hours of training and often confused with medics or the Red Cross, offered counselling and an introduction to the basics of their philosophy. Despite the fact that the spokesperson of the Australian scientologist team declared that they had no recruitment intentions, a website connected to the group appealed for donations to pay for printing and distributing a million copies of a booklet written by L. Ron Hubbard [14].

 

And the real aim of the operation seems very clear in the pages of Impact, the magazine of the International Association of Scientologists. Praising their efforts in South East Asia, they do not list the number of houses, schools, boats they helped to rebuild, or agricultural fields brought back to productivity, but the number of “touch assists” administered, the number of people trained to deliver “Book One Sessions” [Dianetics auditing sessions] among which Buddhist monks and so on. «Regarding the effective help, the different waves of VMs in South East Asia trained 51.376 men, women and children to deliver Ron’s tech» [15]. Oddly enough, the following pages of the magazine are devoted to the presentation of the new “ideal org” ofTaiwan, the «perfect launching pad for Scientology’s expansion in South East Asia» [16]. As a marginal note I should add the offended protests against the Italian VMs in South Sri Lanka. Marco Agnoloni, chief co-ordinator of the Italian Civil Protection, said: «That of Scientology was a total incorrectness. They tried to misappropriate the rescue work that the Department of the Presidency of the Council [government] is doing in the area». As a matter of fact, the Italian scientologists were boasting with local authorities that the tents paid for, brought there and placed by the Italian Civil Protection were actually theirs [17]. In 2002 the Italian VMs ran to S. Giuliano di Puglia (Southern Italy) after an earthquake that caused the collapse of the local school and the death of nearly 30 kids, almost all the juvenile population of the small village. They were promptly asked to leave by an annoyed high officer of the Department of the National Civil Protection who checked their papers and established they were not authorised to operate from the Piedmont region [18].

 

What I’d like to underline here is that the single, individual scientologist is generally a well meaning person full of enthusiasm and good intentions, but he/she doesn’t maybe realise that he/she can not impose on other people, particularly grieving people, his/her vision of the world, much less his/her purportedly religious practices under the guise of “help”, and without having first clarified what he’s going to do or teach.

 

Narconon

 

Narconon is perhaps one of the best known Scientology entities, so I’ll make it brief. It is part of ABLE, the “Association of Better Living and Education”, supposedly independent from the “mother church”. They sell their purportedly detoxifying services without stating their connections with the Church of Scientology, and when they’re compelled to do so, they tend to minimise by claiming their programme is totally secular. A quick check of their study materials, however, reveals that what they actually sell is a series of basic Scientology courses such as the Basic Manual Study Course, the Personal Integrity Course and so on, plus what inside Scientology is known as “Purification Rundown”, a regimen of physical exercise, sauna and mega doses of vitamins that is supposed to clear the body from each and every drug or poison you can think of (psychiatric drugs excluded). Under a medical and scientific profile the Narconon program has been strongly criticised and rejected [19], but what I think is interesting here is the fact that the customer/patient is then induced to join Scientology or Scientology staff, as it is common knowledge among followers that an addict is not really detoxified unless he moves on “the Bridge”. A great number of Scientology staffers are actually coming from Narconon lines. Another actual risk is the attempt of Narconon to enter public schools and communities offering free conferences about drugs. Such attempts seems to have been blocked by the San Francisco public schools [20] as well as Boston’s [21], but an Italian official Website informs that «Narconon centres offer educational preventive services, lectures and seminars to private and public schools, cultural associations, Armed Forces and Police Forces» [22]. I don’t know how many schools or law enforcement agencies actually opened their doors to Narconon in Italy, but their intentions are real, they have financial resources to advertise and school and public officers are generally unaware of what Narconon is. As recently as January 2007, The Sunday Times of London reported of several British public and private schools opening their doors to Narconon conferences. When contacted by the newspaper, their principals said they were not aware of the links between Narconon and the Church of Scientology, or they didn’t return the call [23].

 

As a marginal note I must cite a decision of the Attorney General of Modena, Italy, confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1993, that decided that the “Purification Rundown” sold by the local church of Scientology constituted fraud and practising medicine without a licence [25].

 

Applied Scholastics

 

As Narconon, also Applied Scholastics is part of ABLE, the Scientology entity formally independent from the “mother church” that promotes different aspects of the Scientology doctrine in the secular world. As for Narconon, a quick check of Applied Scholastics material reveals that what they sell is in fact the “Hubbard study technology”, a basic and integral part of the Scientology “religious doctrine” [25]. Talking of public officers and institutions in Italy, I must say that they also seem totally unaware of what Applied Scholastics is and sells. For example, I made the disturbing discovery that the national chapter of this Scientology entity [26] got the authorisation of our Ministry of Education to form and train teachers of public schools [27], to teach foreign languages and to help parents, children and schools to overcome communication problems [28]. Perhaps even more disturbing is to discover that a company named “Giovani in Divisa” [Youngsters in Uniform], apparently sponsored by the national union of the Police Forces [29] and devoted to help young people grappling with public examinations to enter law enforcement agencies and the army, bases its courses on Applied Scholastics/Scientology, materials [30]. I don’t know how successful this operation of attempted infiltration was, but I’ve been told they formed part of the city police of Forlì, the city where the company has its headquarters.

 

Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) [31]

 

Founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology, CCHR claims to fight the abuses perpetrated by psychiatry and to protect Human Rights. It also claims to be independent from the “mother church” and open to everyone who shares its goals. Actually, its membership is made up mostly of scientologists, who are warmly advised to join. Its activities are funded by the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) [32], whose membership is mandatory for every follower with a minimum fee of 450 US dollars a year. Despite its proclaimed independence, CCHR itself is listed in the official Organisational Board of the Church of Scientology , Executive Division, Department 20, Office of Special Affairs (OSA) [33], whose stated aim and “final product” is: “Acceptance of Scientology”.

 

Scientology maintains as a doctrinal value that psychiatry, its practitioners and its practices are the real and only cause of human misery, this means that psychiatry itself has to be considered an abuse and a violation of human rights and, according to the founder’s teachings, must be “eradicated” and replaced with Scientology practices. In fact, according to the movement’s beliefs Scientology is the sole mental healing system, the only one that has “clean hands” in this “rotten field” [34]. However this inner doctrine is not formally stated by CCHR and by its different national chapters, that simply depict themselves as human rights advocates.

 

The main world-wide activity of CCHR is to expose what they call “the industry of death” and this is done through exhibits, brochures, street posters, ads in local press, public conferences, all of them presenting indiscriminately this medical profession as a sort of butchery that decent people must be kept away from. Moreover, scientologists of CCHR organise campaigns against psychiatric drugs, mostly antidepressants like Prozac or Ritalin, a drug used for the treatment of a condition known as ADHD. These campaigns are deeply scaring and sensationalist and create confusion and moral panic both in the public eye and in media reports, and in some instances they manage to gain the support of institutions or different agencies. For example, recently in Italy such a campaign named “Perché non accada” [35], devoted to the demonisation of Ritalin and launched by the local CCHR chapter with the support of three non-scientologist organisations, gained the patronage of RAI – the public broadcasting company -, of CODACONS, a prominent organisation for the defence of consumers, of the Rotary Club and so on. Armed with this magniloquent legitimisation, CCHR scientologist staffers are offering their conferences about psychiatry and drugs to public schools, communities and so on. A few years ago “Report”, an investigative programme broadcasted by RAI, made a whole episode on Ritalin based mainly on CCHR material.

 

I’m not saying that everything CCHR is stating is intrinsically wrong, but it is surely often lacking of objectivity and scientific bases, it can be deeply misleading and it’s basically driven by ideology. And this poses a serious threat to schools and communities unaware of CCHR closed ties with Scientology and its deviant beliefs on the subject. Moreover, opening their doors to CCHR exposes it’s public to the factual risk of being recruited into it’s ranks. What is somehow disturbing is that Italian Institutions and media do not seem interested in researching CCHR background and curriculum, granting them patronage and self-written pages [36]. And what is even more disturbing is that at least one important federation of hospital volunteers opened their doors to this Scientology entity, allowing its staffers to approach patients and their families [37]. CCHR operates with different local names wherever the Church of Scientology operates, so please check its international Web site to know your local denomination.

 

On the wave of the “defence” of Human Rights, a quite new brand of Scientology’s activities is “Youth for Human Rights”, a programme headquartered in Los Angeles [38] that also have national chapters. The Italian one [39] says to have organised a charity concert for Africa and awarded a number of Italian artists and local politicians for their «Special Merits» [40]. According to its Web site, the first edition of the Award had the patronage of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of External Affairs, the European Parliament.

 

WISE (World Institute of Scientology Enterprises) [41]

 

WISE is a fellowship of scientologist businessmen and is the entity that brings Scientology tenets into the business community. It claims to be an autonomous corporation separate and apart from churches of Scientology, but its top executives are members of the Sea Organisation, or what is called the ecclesiastical “middle management” of the Church of Scientology. Its purpose is to make Hubbard’s “Administrative Technology”, or Admin Tech, «used by every company, organisation and government on the planet» [42]. While spreading the so called Admin Tech – a mix of management advice and Scientology principles – WISE members «address their customers to Scientology services» [43]. WISE operates through two different branches: the Hubbard Colleges of Administration (HCAs) and WISE membership itself.

 

HCAs are registered as no profit associations with a set up similar to that of Scientology Class IV orgs, they respond to HCA International that in turn responds to WISE International. They sell management courses, seminars, gives out “diplomas” and mainly form what should become a WISE consultant that is a professional who sells Scientology management tenets to private businesses. They had a big start up in Eastern Europe soon after the fall of the Wall, mainly in Russia and Hungary. A number of local businessmen and even government officials, police and hospital staffers are reported to have attended these sort of colleges by internal magazines. Their boom was in the 1990s when former communist countries were eager to learn business management. Scientology was quick to meet this kind of demand as well as the demand for self improvement techniques and spirituality. By now, Scientology internal magazines list a great number of Russian and Hungarian names, as well as Chinese, among the church followers who completed this or that course or service. I could say that Eastern Europe and Chinese names have almost exceeded the Western countries’ ones.

 

WISE members, on the other hand, are business owners or professionals who wish to use Hubbard’s “tech” in their private, for profit operations. They can be businessmen who run their own companies according to Hubbard, or WISE consultants who sell their services, based on Scientology tenets, to other private or public companies and agencies. They sign a licence contract with WISE against the payment of a fee, or a fee plus a royalty varying from 9% to 15% – on all their income derived by Hubbard’s “tech”. For example, WISE member Alexander Kulikov from Moscow is reported to have implemented Admin Tech into his company of 1.000 workers, while WISE consultant Istvan Holbok has held seminars at Hungarian Chambers of Commerce [44].

 

One of the most known WISE consultant companies at international level is U-MAN International, a WISE member company with its headquarters in Sweden. It has franchises all over the world, but the most active one seems to be U-MAN Belgium, reportedly responsible for the diffusion of Hubbard’s Tech in Russia by the internal magazine Prosperity [45]. Not all U-MAN offices are WISE members, while it appears that all U-MAN local franchisers are or have been scientologists.

 

Other big WISE consultant companies are the Californian Sterling Management Systems and Hollander Consultants, but they don’t appear to be active in Europe as they are in the States. They target mainly chiropractors and dentists and they are staffed mainly by fellow scientologists.

 

WISE activities seem to be the real new frontier for recruitment into Scientology, as the old techniques that appeal to the religious, spiritual and self improvement realms have been rather spoiled by the bad reputation Scientology gained all over the world. It is through HCAs that Scientology tries to penetrate the immense Far East markets as China and India, as well as Brazil. HCAs forms Hubbard’s consultants who in turn sell Scientology “tech” to private and public companies and agencies, attempting to recruit their bosses and employees into the ranks of the movement.

 

As the main purpose of WISE members seems to be the spreading of Scientology and to address people to Scientology orgs, it’s easy to understand that a conflict of interest is not unusual. For a great number of WISE consultants what counts the most is the expansion of Scientology rather than the expansion of who hired their services. And this can trigger the collapse of the company once the owner becomes a fully fledged scientologist and starts to neglect his business in favour of “the Bridge to Total Freedom”, or start to pressure and harass employees into becoming scientologists or attending courses and orgs.

 

As far as Italy is concerned, we had quite a large WISE consultant company which I’m not naming as it severed its ties with Scientology a couple of years ago. What is important to see here is how they worked, how far they reached and the sort of complaints they generated, both by customers and by their employees. Founded by a former Sea Org member formed at U-MAN Belgium, it started its operations in the early 1990s with the help of a number of fellow scientologists. It researches and selects personnel, trains employees and teaches management techniques. Until 2002 its internal literature, that I had the chance to study, was totally based on Scientology tenets rewritten for a secular market, that means it had been purged of the most recognisable Scientology terms. They used a “lay” version of the Scientology OCA test to select people. The company didn’t declare its ties nor its WISE membership, although internal magazines listed it as awarded more than once for the delivery of 100% standard tech. A couple of years before severing its ties with Scientology, a company spin off signed a contract with the Italian Ministry of Defence in order to form its personnel. After I published a long article about their activities on my Web site in year 2000, I started to receive a great number of complaints both from customers and from employees. What they mainly lamented was the lack of professionalism of their consultants – most of which were scientologists – the continuous pressure to attend courses and “services” at local orgs, the intrusion in their employees personal life as well as theirs, the suggestion to fire employees who didn’t agree with its teachings or were openly opposed to Scientology and so on. A number of employees told me that once their boss was turned into a scientologist their life in the workplace became a sort of nightmare. They were forced to keep incomprehensible “production statistics” and even personal ones and if they got the cold or the flu they had to write up a list of “overt and withholds” (misdeeds, both personal and professional) according to the Scientology principle that each and every physical condition derives from a bad “ethics” condition.

 

The company severed its ties with WISE and Scientology a couple of years ago, after a long struggle with WISE executives, who are Sea Org members. The company leadership realised that Hubbard’s tech was not enough to really service a customer and it started to integrate it with other authors and their own experience in the field. WISE high ranks didn’t appreciate and all its top executives where expelled both from WISE and the church, and declared “suppressive”, that in Scientology lingo means “criminal”. As per Hubbard’s policy, a scientologist in good standing with the church must severe his ties with “suppressive persons” or he himself is expelled and “declared”. Many of its scientologist consultants and employees immediately resigned and a number of scientologist customers didn’t renew their contracts. The company suffered a deep setback and had to rearrange both their ranks and practice, as well as their services.

 

Another Italian who is very active in spreading Scientology through WISE is the music producer and Grammy Award winner Emanuele Ruffinengo, who says he is very proud to introduce to Hubbard’s tenets his customers and musicians through his well known recording studio Altavox [46]. A quick web surf made me locate more than a dozen young Italian artists who thank him for having been introduced to Scientology.

 

Two smaller offspring of WISE are PCA – Professional Consultants Association, and Business Expansion Clubs, but I don’t know yet how they operate exactly and how much they are expanding.

 

WISE membership fee varies from 500$ a year for a general membership to 6.000$ a year for a corporate membership, to which must be added the cost of materials that can be up to 400$ a single volume, and a royalty up to 15% in the case of a WISE licensed consultant. All scientologists are awarded a 10% commission on all the courses and services purchased by people they introduce to the Church of Scientology.

 

Life Improvement Centres

 

This seems to be a brand new activity of the Church of Scientology that seems to target also foreign residents in need to learn or enhance the local language. Life Improvement Centres are being opened throughout the world and they mainly sell “Study Tech” and Scientology “ethics”, then directing people to local orgs. They seem to serve as a substitute of the old Dianetics Centres, the reputation of which, as well as that of the Church of Scientology, has become rather spoiled. More news about them at the next Conference.

 

Thank you.

 

Notes:

 

1. Joseph A. Winter, A Doctor’s Report on Dianetics Theory and Therapy, 1951; Helen O’Brien, Dianetics in a Limbo, 1966.

 

2. Russell Miller, Bare Faced Messiah, 1988.

 

3. Jon Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, 1990.

 

4. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Scientology: Religion or racket?, 2003, see  http://web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/beit.html

 

5. Ibid.

 

6. CSI, Che Cos’è Scientology, 1992.

 

7. Chris Owen, Scientology at Ground Zero, 2003  http://www.solitarytrees.net/cowen/misc/ground0.htm

 

8. “’Mental Health’ hotline a blind lead”, Saint Petersburg Times, Sept. 15^th, 2001.

 

9. Associated Press, Sept. 19^th, 2001.

 

10. From http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/10/22/scientologists.shtml – downloaded Jan. 2005.

 

11. “I Ministri Volontari di Scientology cacciati da Beslan”, press survey,  http://xenu.com-it.net/txt/beslan.htm

 

12. “Sectarians inundate grieving Beslan, seek new members”, Pravda, Oct. 18^th, 2004, downloaded Jan. 2005 at http://www.wwrn.org/article.php?idd=7012&sec=45&cont=7

 

13. “Religious groups are exploiting Aceh chaos”, The Telegraph, Jan. 15^th, 2005

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/14/wtsun14.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/01/14/ixworld.html

 

14. “In Indonesia, some groups mix relief, religion”, The Boston Globe, Jan. 16^th, 2005,

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/01/16/in_indonesia_some_groups_mix_relief_religion/

 

15. Impact, Italian edition N. 111, no date, © 2005 IASA, pp. 16-25.

 

16. Ibid, pp. 26-30.

 

17. “Sri Lanka, Scientology si attribuisce il merito dei soccorsi italiani”, Corriere della Sera, Jan 18^th, 2005, p. 16.

 

18. Luca Poma, Un saggio critico – non antagonista sulla Chiesa di Scientology, unpublished work, Jan. 2006.

 

19. Critical Evaluations about Narconon, source “Narconon exposed”, http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/sources/critical.htm –

 

20. “Schools urged to drop antidrug program – Scientology-linked teachings inaccurate, superintendent  says”, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 23th, 2005

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/23/MNGQJBFKV81.DTL

 

21. “Narconon Banned From Boston Public Schools”, source

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Stop-Narconon/Documents/boston-sup7.html

 

22. Narconon Il Falco, onlus (onlus= no profit)http://www.narcononfalco.org/attivita.htm

 

23. “Revealed: how Scientologists infiltrated Britain’s schools – Insight: Drugs charity is front for ‘dangerous’ organisation”, Jan. 7^th, 2007

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2535187,00.html

 

24. “Rundown di Purificazione: truffa e abuso delle professioni medica”, source

http://xenu.com-it.net/txt/modena01.htm

 

25. “Applied Scholastics and theChurchof Scientology”, Dave Touretzky,

http://www.studytech.org/asi.php2

 

26. A.N.C.I.M. onlus or tecnologiacs,http://www.tecnologiacs.it/formazione.aspand http://www.tecnologiacs.it/giulianamodonesi.asp

 

27. See the official website of Applied Scholastics http://www.appliedscholastics.org/Italian_Accreditation/engaccred.php and the official website of the Ministry of Public Education, Italy

http://www.pubblica.istruzione.it/enti_formazione/sett_dic_05/AppliedScholasticsItaliaMediterraneo.pdf

 

28. Ibid., http://www.pubblica.istruzione.it/docenti/documenti/iniziative/120906/Applied%20Scholastics%20Italia%20e%20Mediterraneo_06_I.pdf . See also http://www.appliedscholastics.org/Italian_Accreditation/apsitlsched.PDF and  http://www.effective-education.org/pdf/italian.pdf

 

29. Giovani in Divisa website: http://www.giovaniindivisa.it/

 

30. Ibid., http://www.giovaniindivisa.it/materialididattici.html

 

31. See the different national headquarters: http://cchr.org/index.cfm/7303

CCHR is     Buergerkommission für Menschenrechte Oesterreich in Austria,

Belgisch comite voor de rechten van de mens in Belgium,

Obcanská komise za lidská práva in the Czech Republic,

Commission des Citoyens pour les Droits de L’Homme – CCDH in France,

Kommission für Verstöße der Psychiatrie gegen Menschenrechte e.V. – KVPM in Germany,

Nederlands Comite voor de Rechten van de Mens in Holland,

Allampolgari Bizottsag as Emberi Jogokert Alapitvany in Hungary,

Comision Ciudadana De Derechos Humanos De Espana (CCDH) in Spain,

Kommittén för Mänskliga Rättigheter – KMR in Sweden,

Commission des Citoyens pour les roits de L’Homme – CCDH in Switzerland

Comitato dei Cittadini per i Diritti Umani – CCDU in Italy

 

32. http://www.iasmembership.org/ – its aim is to foster and disseminate «the religion of Scientology» and the «teachings of Mr. Hubbard».

 

33. http://alessiaguidi.provocation.net/ccdu/organigramma.gif

 

34. L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 3 Feb. 1969, “Public Image”.

 

35. http://www.perchenonaccada.org

 

36. http://www.perchenonaccada.org/HTML-FILES/MEDIA-NEWS/2006/art-07-sole24ore.pdf – “Il Sole 24 Ore” is a prominent and much respected Italian newspaper, printed by the National Association of Industry (Confindustria). The author of the article is Mr. Cestari, president of the Italian chapter of CCHR.

 

37. Tuttinsieme, Federazione Europea di Volontariato, http://www.molinette.piemonte.it/Molinette/volontariato/pdf_files/-990874495.pdf –

See also here the entry C.C.D.U. http://www.molinette.piemonte.it/index_volontariato

 

38. See http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/

 

39. http://www.dirittiumanietolleranza.org/

 

40. http://www.dirittiumanietolleranza.org/event/dono.html

 

41. http://www.wise.org/en_US/membership/about/index.html

 

42. WISE Int Ethics Order No. 1526, Jan 24^th, 2006, “Pubblicazione di non-associato e cancellazione di licenza – P.R.”

 

43. Guida al Socio, © 1990, WISE international, pag. 1.

 

44. Prosperity Issue 51, no date, © 2001 WISE International, pp. 18-19

 

45. Prosperity issue 28, no date, © 1992 WISE International, “Cover Story: Admin tech goes to Russia – WISE members and execs open new pioneer frontier”.

 

46. Prosperity issue 63, no date, © 2004 WISE International, pp. 10-13.