On this day...

Scientologists hear Hubbard
Date: Monday, 19 August 1968
Publisher: The Times (UK)
Author: Tim Jones
Main source: archive.timesonline.co.uk

The stage at the international scientology congress was bare but for flowers and a bust of Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder, which stood like some Roman God in the corner. His jowled features were spotlit and from hidden amplifiers his tape-recorded voice addressed the people who packed the hall.

Yesterday was the second day of the congress which was held at Croydon, Surrey. As the founder of the movement spoke of truth, understanding and power, there were occasional gasps of acknowledgment from the audience.

To the uniniated, the philosophy expounded by Mr. Hubbard, liberally interspersed with scientological jargon, was difficult to follow and well-nigh impossible to interpret. It was equally difficult to discover from the students what they thought of it.

People kept referring me to the press officials and seemed unwilling to talk. An official who admitted that students had been told not to communicate with the press explained that it was, "in case they fall foul of loaded questions".

One man, when asked if he believed that scientology had benefited him, replied: "I do not have to believe what I know to be true".

A colour film which showed a pretty girl registering for a course on a ship anchored in a Spanish port and then urging others to follow her foosteps was cheered loud and long.

In spite of the Governments immigration ban on delegates to the congress, it was estimated that half of those at yesterday’s meeting were non-British.

Many had come from America, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Canada and the Scandinavian countries.

Mr. Scott Lealand, aged 31, an American at present living in Copenhagen, said: "I just walked through". He flew into Heathrow airport on Friday specially for the congress, and was staying in Britain for the weekend. 

He said that in America he was a teacher of English. In Copenhagen he is engaged full time in scientology.

Mr. David Gaiman, a spokesman of the cult, said the ban had considerably affected attendances at the congress.

The organizers are angry about the action taken by Mr. Robinson, Minister of Health, to exclude visitors.

An official said: "If we are harmful, which we do not accept, then we are certainly no worse than other minority groups, such as Iehovah’s Witnesses or the Plymouth Brethren, who are left to live and practise in peace.

"If the Minister says he has good reasons for banning us then he should tell us what they are and we challenge him to disclose them without using the privilege of the House. At this rate he will turn around tomorrow and without giving any reason ban Roman Catholics."

Another scientologist said he intended to bring a private summons against Mr. Robinson on the grounds that he had, by his action, practised religious discrimination.

Writs served. — Two members of East Grinstead urban council have been served with writs for alleged slander by the Church of Scientology of California. A third, Mr. Ivor Jones, has received a writ for alleged libel. Mr. Jones said today: "I shall strenuously resist the writ."

The other two councillors. Mrs. Eileen Mead, of Windmill Lane, Ashurst Wood, and Mr. Tony Old, of Gorse Cottage, North End, East Grinstead, said: "Individual writs are not unexpected after the council's recent resolution calling on the Health Minister to ban scientology from the country."

Church accused of infiltration of FBI // U.S. claims Scientology members were put in agency to leak data
Date: Friday, 19 August 1977
Publisher: Los Angeles Times (California)
Author: Robert Rawitch
Main source: link (80 KiB) 

The controversial Church of Scientology has planted an unspecified number of its members within the FBI in an effort to leak information to the church, Justice Department attorneys charged in Los Angeles federal court Thursday.

Asst. U.S. Atty. Richard Stilz said the FBI learned of the alleged infiltration by church members while reviewing some of the more than 23,000 documents seized in raids on two church locations in Los Angeles July 8.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that a similar raid there was illegal and the government has been prohibited from using any of the information gathered in all three raids in its investigation into whether the church took part in a wide-ranging conspiracy to steal government documents.

But Stilz Thursday asked U.S. Dist. Judge Malcolm Lucas if an exception could be made in the court's order that would enable the FBI to track down and oust from the agency anyone planted within it by the church.

The judge gave attorneys for the government and the church one week to file legal briefs on whether such an exception should be granted and scheduled a hearing on the matter for Aug. 29.

Church spokesman Vaughn Young strongly denied that the Scientologists had ever planted anyone in the FBI, though he did not deny there might well be among the church's 2 million members employes of the FBI.

Young labeled the government's request for an exception to the court order as the beginning of a "Salem witch hunt aimed at getting out of every government position anyone who is a Scientologist or sounds like a Scientologist."

A reliable source said it is known that there are within, the FBI employes who are members of the Church of
Scientology but Stilz said the government's intent is not to take any action whatsoever against anyone who just happens to be a member of the church.

He emphasized the FBI is only desirous of removing individuals who were "planted" there by the church.

Stilz declined to indicate how many individuals are believed to have infiltrated the FBI or whether they are agents or employes in other positions.

"The bureau believes it is extremely important, imperative, to get such people (the infiltrators) out of the FBI," the prosecutor said.

Earlier, the government disclosed that a former high-level church employe had maintained the church has for several years had operatives within the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

Thirty-six letters have been received or sent by the FBI in Los Angeles to bureaus around the country, Stilz said, probing the background of individuals and whether they have access to sensitive information within the agency.

Church attorney Robert Sarno has argued that since the raids, pending an appeal, have been declared illegal, the government should not have the right to use the information gathered from the documents, even in a civil proceeding such as proposed by Justice Department.

Scientology considers itself an applied religious philosophy that attempts to increase an individual's self-knowledge and self-awareness through counseling of its members.

?Manson?: twisted ambition, manipulation and murder