Scientologists harrass BBC journalist

[kheegster]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6650545.stm

Sweeney responds to Scientology clip
By John Sweeney
BBC News

The battleground is YouTube and Scientology's weapon is a clip of me losing it in the "Mind Control" section of a gruesome exhibition.

Scientology has fought many battles to keep its secrets off the web, now they are using it to attack my investigation into them.

Scientology has prepared an attack video, and they have shown the Scientology v Sweeney shouting match to anyone who would watch it.

There is talk of 100,000 copies being released.

Family 'disconnects'

Scientology works. That is the message from celebs like John Travolta and Tom Cruise - who is, some say, keen on recruiting new Hollywood arrivals David and Victoria Beckham to what he calls his religion.

Others back the Church in various ways: Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley of the City of London police helped open a new £20 million Scientology centre in London, and the authorities in the City of London have granted it cut-price rates.

But start asking questions and you see a different face of Scientology.

While making our BBC Panorama film "Scientology and Me" I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a "bigot" by star Scientologists, brain-washed - that is how it felt to me - in a mock up of a Nazi-style torture chamber and chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers.

Back in Britain strangers have called on my neighbours, my mother-in-law's house and someone spied on my wedding and fled the moment he was challenged.

I have met mothers who say they have suffered Scientology "disconnects" - meaning that their children have cut them completely out of their life so that they can spend more time with an organisation which a judge in 1984 characterised as "corrupt, sinister and dangerous".

Psychiatry battle

Scientology has two faces - nice and smiley, and sinister and dark. If you do not believe me, go and see their exhibition in Los Angeles, Psychiatry: Industry of Death. You enter through a door that is a mock-up of a torture chamber.

Scientologists want "the global obliteration" of psychiatrists, who they say were to blame for the rise of Nazi Germany.

To prove their point, they showed me hideous images of people having needles stuffed in their eyeballs, of patients undergoing electric shocks and having their brains operated on.

Sickening, nasty and wholly unconvincing - modern psychiatry, for all its faults, is not Nazi and to press the point in the way that Scientology does devalues the horror of the Holocaust.

I felt as though I was being brain-washed - and that if I did not fight it, they would have taken over my mind.

Ironically or not, it was in the "Mind Control" section of the exhibition that I lost it.

'Exploding tomato'

As often in life, I snapped over something completely different and quite trivial.

Top Scientologist Tommy "Don't mention the word cult" Davis had been goading me all week, and on the seventh day I fell into his elephant trap. He shouted at me and I shouted back, louder.

If you are interested in becoming a TV journalist, it is a fine example of how not to do it. I look like an exploding tomato and shout like a jet engine and every time I see it makes me cringe.

I apologised almost immediately, Tommy carried on as if nothing had happened but meanwhile Scientology had rushed off copies of me losing it to my boss, my boss's boss and my boss's boss's boss, the Director-General of the BBC.

I lost my voice, but not my mind.

This is the context Scientology will not tell you about. I have met too many good people who say Scientology was founded by a liar, L Ron Hubbard; that it attacks its critics without mercy; and the celebrities who endorse it have not the foggiest idea what it is really like.

Take "Rosemary", who is an ordinary mum and lives in England. She had two children and one died. Her surviving daughter was also her best friend. Then her daughter joined Scientology and her mother saw less and less of her.

Almost two years ago she received a "disconnect" - a letter cutting her mother out of her life totally.

Rosemary received no Christmas cards, no birthday cards, no Mother's Day cards.

Rosemary said Scientology was a cult. It was one of the most moving and shocking interviews I have ever done.

Out of the blue, three hours after we left, her daughter came round for the first time in almost two years seeking a reconciliation. The next day she begged her mum not to use the interview. So we won't.

Pay as you go

In Florida I met Mike Henderson, who with his wife Donna Shannon, spent $1m over three decades on Scientology's path to superhuman powers. When the couple left, they were disconnected from 20-odd family members left inside Scientology.

Mike's father - also disconnected - is dying, but five out of his six children will not speak to him because they are still inside Scientology.

After a long day with Mike and Donna we went back to our hotel at midnight, only to find Tommy Davis waiting in the lobby with his own black-clad Scientology cameraman.

He harangued me for talking to the heretics. I told him that Scientology had been spying on the BBC and that was creepy.

In LA, the moment our hire car left the airport we realised we were being followed by two cars.

In our hotel a weird stranger spent every breakfast listening to us. In all, we count 13 strangers - private investigators? - who were following us. Scientology denied sending PIs after the BBC.

Scientology is a pay-as-you-go religion - which is one of the reasons why the Charity Commission in Britain does not class it as a religion.

When you have paid as much as £100,000, you get to Operating Thetan Level Three and learn about "The Incident".

L Ron wrote that 75 million years ago an intergalactic space alien lord called Xenu kidnapped Thetans to earth, dumped them in volcanoes and blew them up with atomic bombs.

Ex-Scientologists have insisted to me that Xenu is part of Scientology. If so, it is a religion that requires its followers not to tell others about its core belief, which is very odd.

Critics say that if we all knew about Xenu, then Scientology could not charge people as much as £100,000 to find out about him.

Despite all the pressure - the letters from lawyers, the letters from MPs, the strangers knocking up my family and neighbours - if people from "disconnected" families tell me that Scientology is a cult, that will be reported.

Scientology And Me, Panorama, Monday, 8.30pm, BBC1.

Pretty fucking scary. I know the Scientologists are a bunch of nutters, but to send people to follow and harass a journalist is a completely new level.

[Jadeite]

Pretty fucking scary. I know the Scientologists are a bunch of nutters, but to send people to follow and harass a journalist is a completely new level.

A new level? Apparently you're quite unfamiliar with Scientology. I suggest looking up their suspected murders, if you'd like to find a 'new level'. This is basic level stuff for them.

[wolveraptor]

Indeed, harassment of those deemed a threat to their cause is actually a procedure specified by L. Ron himself, according to http://www.xenu.net.

[Setesh]

Is it any wonder scientology is banned in germany under the anti-fascism laws.

I think Reginald said it best.

Scientologists, You are fucking morons! Thank you.

[Rye]

The episode of Panaroma was on tonight, I unfortunately missed it, but thanks to the BBC being awesome, it can be watched online. I don't know if non UK residents can watch it or not, but it's always good to have someone as powerful as the BBC showing these fuckos up.

[Big Orange]

I missed most of it but I saw enough of it to get the impression that Scientologically is fucking scary and they had the cheek to talk down to or intimidate a BBC journalist; I was lucky enough to catch John Sweeney's gigantic verbal outburst, but even though he was in the right, he should've been much more like Louis Theoroux (who always deals with nutters) and played along with the Scientologists, making them hang themselves with their own words or opinions.

[Big Orange]

Here is the Scientologist's own take on John Sweeny's ranting over on You Tube: why the fuck are the commenters complaining more about Sweeny's “unprofessional” conduct than about the obvious shiftyness of the Scientologist minions? They had their own extensive propaganda division who were disconcertingly filming their BBC rivals and they were also stalking Sweeny for days, why is Scientology relatively more accepted over in the States? Now I know why Cruise is seen as a freak...

[Tatterdemalion]

It gets better. They've apparently decided that simply smearing one reporter isn't big enough, now they want on the whole BBC and the liscensing system.


It's a PDF so I can't really quote it but it's positively Orwellian. I'll try and type some more specific criticisms once I've had the chance to read through all of it, but it really speaks for itself.

[Rye]

"Terryeo" is a name that crops up quite a lot when it comes to scientology on the net. He's been their apologist on youtube, wikipedia and in yahoo chat. Weird how the same people crop up doing the same thing in different places. Even online it's a small world.

[kheegster]

I could watch the Panorama programme in glorious low-fi from the US, so it's worth giving a try...(although I had given my UK postcode to a prompt to the BBC website in the past.

It's a pretty mind-blowing docu.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/panorama

[Big Orange]

"Terryeo" is a name that crops up quite a lot when it comes to scientology on the net. He's been their apologist on youtube, wikipedia and in yahoo chat. Weird how the same people crop up doing the same thing in different places. Even online it's a small world.

Either way it's slightly scary that you're getting tons of Amercans who are either ill informed or Scientology cronies that are spamming up YouTube with comments about Sweeney's supposed lack of sanity and calling for his resignation - are they more concerned about journalists getting rightfully angry instead of being dishonest but polite?

[Dartzap]

Having watched it last night: The Cult of Scientology (Oops, said the C word) They employ men of nigh on MiB creepiness. Wherever the reporter went, within a few minutes they would arrive, in one case with an entire file on the man he was interviewing. They had to resort to having meetings in the bathroom because they were never left alone.

As for his outburst: Its no bloody wonder. The stuff they had in that exhibition... *shudders* Nutters, the lotta 'em. Especially that Spokesmen.

[Covenant]

Yeah, this isn't new. They're creepy as all fuck and have been forever, and act like this nonstop. They're the most aggressive and well-funded cult to ever drop the facade as fast as they have. They're like the Moonies with Tom Cruise instead of newspapers. It's really horrifying how many of these completely ridiculous magical-thinking cults run things, and the stuff they get away with.

[Dartzap]

For those who wish to see it via YouTube:


1
2
3

For some reason, the voices in No2 are buggered.

[wautd]

I wonder what the chances are for a mass suicide

[Ma Deuce]

I wonder what the chances are for a mass suicide

Not much: Scientology is and always has been a giant extortion racket that presents itself as a "legitimate" (for lack of a better word) religion, and was designed that way by L. Ron himself. I doubt many (if any at all) of the higher-ranking members of the Church truly believe the stuff they're preaching.

[Big Orange]

It's pretty weird on YouTube how many posters are condemning Sweeney as a "nutter" and criticising the BBC as the supposed the real villains, even though it's clear the Scientologists are the real monsters (true the BBC are not without their faults, but a pseudo-religious company that is well known for abusing it's members, outsiders and wields significant PR for ill intentious is clearly far more frightening).

It's also obvious that these freaks are trying to hijack YouTube in an attempt to "Fair Game" Mr. Sweeney and the BBC; although Mr. Sweeney edged over the line slightly with that verbal outburst, he was still in the right after all the incessant stalking and subtle intimidation by those Scientologist henchmen. Only complete idiots or cronies would condemn Mr. Sweeney for his anger...

[CaptainChewbacca]

I guarantee you that if someone were to check, you'd discover most of those negative comments on YouTube come from a surprisingly small number of ISPs, or from dedicated scientologists who were asked to comment on it.

[wolveraptor]

I imagine that examining a contemporary Scientologist's behaviour would be an illuminating insight into the mind of early Christians as well. Think about it. At its current stage, Scientology is very much the oppressed, hated minority that Christianity once was (albeit more justifiably).

[CaptainChewbacca]

Except Christianity didn't have the protection of law, financial resources, or celebrity backers. Nobody lights scientologists on fire to use as torches for parties.

[Pelranius]

What would it take to get the Bible Thumpers, the Scientologists and Jihadists to all destroy each other? (at least the number of bad Hollywood films would exponentially decrease once the dust settles)

[Big Orange]

I guarantee you that if someone were to check, you'd discover most of those negative comments on YouTube come from a surprisingly small number of ISPs, or from dedicated scientologists who were asked to comment on it.

And my comments I posted into YouTube to defend Sweeney and the BBC do not show up for some fucking reason, as if the Scientologist mooks are hijacking the website (a British made YouTube video that has pointing that out has also been mysteriously pulled, the last time I checked).

And to think that Lt. Saavik has thrown her lot in with this crew...

[CaptainChewbacca]

Whoever posted the video and owns the account has the right to remove comments from their thread. I delete 'YouTube Chains' from my vids, they piss me off.

[Trajanus]

I guarantee you that if someone were to check, you'd discover most of those negative comments on YouTube come from a surprisingly small number of ISPs, or from dedicated scientologists who were asked to comment on it.

And my comments I posted into YouTube to defend Sweeney and the BBC do not show up for some fucking reason, as if the Scientologist mooks are hijacking the website (a British made YouTube video that has pointing that out has also been mysteriously pulled, the last time I checked).

And to think that Lt. Saavik has thrown her lot in with this crew...

My comments also don't show up for some reason. I thought it was just me.

[Coyote]

A friend of mine was briefly getting paid to hand out their literature on a university campus in Israel... she said it was 'a quick buck' to hand out 'a bunch of stupid pamphlets'. She'd go and put these pamphlets in boxes where people would pick them up if they wanted them, she didn't stand on corners and hustle them to passesrsby...

Still, just that brief contact creeps me out. She's always been hard to get ahold of and the last few years I haven't heard anything at all from her. I wonder if she got 'sucked in'.


As an aside, I have to say that in American slang, this comment from the article:

Despite all the pressure - the letters from lawyers, the letters from MPs, the strangers knocking up my family and neighbours...

...is unintentionally hilarious.