Belgian newspaper De Morgen On Legal Choices To Hit Scientology

Thank you to Anonymous member TrevAnon for posting about the following article Belgian newspaper De Morgen on legal choices to hit Scientology. I have posted the original via BlogThis and have provided an English translation summary posted by another anonymous member because the Google translation did not translate the title accurately.

De Morgen De Gedachte -
Tref scientology in het hart (1022367) Belgium

Anonymous Summary:

Be firm with Scientology
Luc Willems is a lawyer who is the former reporter of the parliamentary inquiry into the cults and former senator for Open VLD, a liberal Belgian political party. Den Morgen is a reputable somewhat Leftist newspaper.

Belgian law, like French law but unlike English law, is Napoleonic and so depends on the application of general categories such as abuse of trust, extortion, illegal practice of medicine, or theft.

In France this week Scientology was convicted of organized fraud and in the U.S. is under attack by several legal suits brought by former members. In Belgium also several lawsuits against the cult are pending. Luc Willems has been occupied with the problem of cults for years: "Police and public prosecutors still do not have the right weapons to fight cults.”

The power that these organizations want to exercise conflict with basic rights and freedoms. To what extent should the government intervene?

Opinions are divided. Some say people should think for themselves; others feel that when people in distress are being manipulated, there should be more government intervention.

In the field of consumer protection the government in the seventies already set rules and enforcement to protect consumers from deception and misleading sales practices. A clear choice was made in favor of protecting the individual over the unbridled freedom of contract. And with success.

In Scientology the same question arises. Scientology followers are recruited through personal contacts or cover organizations. The potential victim is put through a profound personality test. The outcome of these tests is always similar: there are problems, but they can be cured by Scientology. The potential cult-member then gets a communication course offered at almost no cost or even free. Then a new course follows that costs more and before the cult-member knows he or she is immersed in the Church of Scientology and they pay expensive courses with questionable content and without results.

As long as this is done freely, there still is no problem. Gradually, however, the organization takes control over the cult member's personal life. Then it gets dangerous. Is the member able to get out at any time he wants? Does Scientology respect that choice? Does Scientology allow the ex-member to quietly build up his life again? There are many testimonies of victims against Scientology in this respect. Victims quickly lose 50,000 euros and their lives with it. They go further into debt to be able to take courses.

People in the throes of a personal crisis are particularly vulnerable: a broken relationship, job loss or loneliness makes them vulnerable to the feel-good-courses. The effects in relational and financial terms are dramatic. The same problems occur with therapeutic and other religious cults.

Rain in Paris

The parliamentary inquiry into cults in 1997 identified a series of failures in legislation and administration. Despite fierce criticism from cults, the majority of the recommendations from the inquiry were implemented into guidelines and legislation, and made operational. The most important part was the independent IACSSO, the advisory centre that informs the general public about cults in our country. Addressing the harmful cults was efficient and there followed a number of convictions. One recommendation which would criminalise the core business of cults has so far remained a dead letter: this is the mental destabilization of individuals and the abuse of vulnerable people. Since 2001 France has the About-Picard law which addresses these questions.

This law allows for prosecution to investigate proactively and for the courts to condemn serious violations. In Belgium, the prosecution must rely on more general crimes such as forgery, abuse of trust, extortion, receiving stolen goods, theft, slander, defamation or unlawful practice of medicine. The core of the activity, the abuse of the mental weakness of certain groups of people, remains out of reach. A thoughtful and effective legislation is essential to address certain issues. Police and public prosecutors have to date no appropriate legislative means to fight the dubious and reprehensible practices of certain cults.

Drizzle in Brussels

The support for legislation designed to prosecute such cases has significantly increased over the years. The opinions of the parliamentary monitoring committee in 2005 and the IACSSO indicated that there is wide cross-party support. However no parliamentary debate took place. Now it's raining in Paris, is perhaps the time to let it drizzle in Brussels.



Here is the original via Blog This

Tref scientology in het hart

'Anonymous, Nono Le Clown, Karen Pouw, the French gov't and why Rev. John Wetzel says US politicians won't talk about Scientology on the record.'

'Anonymous, Nono Le Clown, Karen Pouw, the French gov't and why Rev. John Wetzel says US politicians won't talk about Scientology on the record.'

French Scientologist and PR / 'black PR ' cult spokesperson, Karen Pouw, is working very hard lobbying the french gov't to get it's cult status whitewashed. Certainly keeping the press away from the Anonymous movement and the Martine Boublil kidnapping story is a priority.

More on Martine Boublil : " freed from Scientology; The Italian police recovered the sister of Dr. Scientologist"

There was a flap at one point when Miss Emmanuelle Mignon, the new Office Director of the presidency at l'Elysée, made mention in a speech that some groups labeled cults like Scientology were really not cults. This caused an uproar in France, and as Roger tells it, she wasn't informed correctly and is now corrected on the matter.

Pouw thought she had a win on that one but ss former church of scientology of Lyon France executive now critic Roger Gonnet stated:

"The story about Emmanuelle Mignon, the Office Director of Sarkozy, whom I visited for more than an hour some weeks ago after her declaration, as Pouw said, is now totally false indeed, here is the story that I know very well. Miss Mignon was'nt informed correctly 'from under', and did ignore a lot of facts about cults when she pronounced the sentences. Just after her unchecked speech about scientology and cults (two very short sentences where she said "Cults are a no-problem, that she denied having said, and "regarding Scientology, I don't know them, but one can wonder"), three TVs, four radios and some newspapers interviewed me about what she said. I thought what was the best solution, being certain that she could'nt have pronounced these sentences if she had known, I decided to say that I'll ask her a rendez-vous. I did two days later and got an answer very fast; I met her more than an hour along on a friday evening, with not the least interruption, announcing her that on saturday, she would find a great article also in the media - that was the Boublil affair. I let her my book 'La Secte' " for further information.

Pouw is very wrong saying that the climate changed, since as soon as Miss Mignon had said this erroneous utterance, medias exploded of articles insisting on her wrongness and on the cults problems. The president was immediately alerted and said that the cults WERE a real problem, and the Prime Minister announced that the MIVILUDES ways would be reinforced."

I agree and am grateful for the work Roger and Anonymous is doing there. One can read more on Roger Gonnet's visit with the French officials on this matter here

So, Scientology is widely considered a cult in France. The people there have access to their representatives so a protest is not necessarily a need to gain their attention, as it is here in the US where reporter Emmanuelle Richard was unable to get a quote about Anonymous' concerns about the cult of Scientology from ANY politician in the US for her article which came out yesterday on the Anonymous v
Scientology issue in the USA in the mainstream french publication Liberation:

Guerrilla hidden against Scientology
or you can read the article in French


So, while the Anonymous movement in France appears to be small, the viewpoint among
the french people is that Scientology a cult is widespread.

Here are some quotes from Ms. Richard's blog piece, which includes parts of her article that did not make it into Liberation piece. This gives a good picture of the situation here in the USA vs France in the need for people to protest loudly and anonymously:

April 13, 2008 Anonymous: 9,000 on Operation Reconnect?(updated)by french journalist and Washington DC correspondent, Emmanuelle Richard says:

[..]Today's French daily Libération ran my story about the fascinating Anonymous movement critical of Scientology (click here for a Google Translation), as seen from the U.S. The paper version has a gallery of photos of masked "Anons" taken during the Paris demonstration on Saturday, complete with their somewhat inspirational leader Nono Le Clown (read Renaud Lecadre's account of the very small demonstration
here.) This third edition of Anonymous' global protest was called "Operation Reconnect" and I wish I could have attended the Washington demo but I'm on vacation outside of the U.S. Anonymous forums seem to say that between 200 and 300 people showed up in the U.S. capital,roughly as many as on March 15, when I came across their previous demonstration by accident:.[..]

[..]
Due to the lack of space, the paper didn't end up running a sidebar on the surprisingly low participaion in France: "I don't think that [Anonymous] really exists in France," said Karin Pouw, a Church of Scientology International spokeswoman, before mentioning with satisfaction that "the situation has changed" (in February, French president Nicolas Sarkozy's Head of Cabinet, Emmanuelle Mignon,
questioned the use of the word "cult" to describe Scientology.)
Here's how French Anons explain the lack of involvement in the usually demonstration-happy France: this is due to the English-only (until very recently) content on Anonymous' main websites and forums and the fact that "Scientology is just not visible in France," according to a young computer guy and key French Anon.

When a cult is recognized as such in a country, "people don't have the same motivation [as in the U.S.] to fight for the cause." A point worth mentioning: CoS opponents such as Nono Le Clown seem to be able to line up meetings with elected officials "of different parties" to express their concerns about Scientology.

Getting to talk to your representative about Scientology is another story in the United States, and I wish this aspect could have been mentioned in more detail in the Liberation article. I contacted several lobbyists, politicians who have a reputation for being weary of cults, and the American Psychiatric Association (Scientology is actively fighting against psychiatry) and they either all declined or ignored my requests for comments for this article. "Many elected officials and religious leaders are afraid to say publicly what they tell me privately: some of them tell me that they've already been intimidated by the Church of Scientology," said Rev. John Wetzel, a critic who acts as a de facto unpaid "representative" for Scientology detractors in Washington. Arnie Lerma, a former CoS member turned
opponent is more blunt: "We’re fighting in guerilla warfare style because there is no courage in Washington.” [..]
http://www.emmanuelle.net/2008/04/anonymous_12_000_on_operation.html

Indeed it's a war and we are winning it by perseverence and getting the facts out to the public.

However, there is work to be done to dispell the image David Miscavige and Karen Pouw are trying to fix in the minds of those they try to influence on behalf of Scientology. Let the people of France know how important Anonymous is in helping unmask the business practices of the cult of Scientology by reading Emmanuelle Richard's blog and article in Liberation and commenting your postition. As well, let the US government representatives know you want them to take a stand against and investigate the dangers of The Church of Scientology and it's the exempt status. You can find out more on this here:

Read the 'ACTION ALERT FROM REV. JOHN WETZEL' over at Lermanet

Mary
http://tinyurl.com/576j4n