Special Report

Not many medical clinics frame and display a filthy gym towel.

But then, not many medical clinics are bankrolled by Tom Cruise, target ailing firefighters who worked at Ground Zero and follow the teachings of the Church of Scientology.

"We're helping people," Jim Woodworth, director of Downtown Medical, said the other day as several firefighters sat in the clinic's 168-degree sauna...

This month, the city's largest firefighters union yanked its support of Downtown Medical.

The Uniformed Firefighters Association initially praised the clinic for its "unique" work. But sources said the union reconsidered after some firefighters questioned the clinic's methods and connections to Scientology - a movement described as both a persecuted religion and a dangerous cult...)

I have also heard from numerous ex-cult members who had their own not-so-pleasant experiences with the church, the most interesting being Hana Whitfield.

She was a Scientologist from 1965 to 1984 and knew L. Ron personally...

...She and her husband, Jerry, appeared on "60 Minutes," "20/20," "Larry King Live" and a bunch of shows to expose this cult for what it is, a ponzi scheme that specializes in mind control. The Whitfields' efforts helped land them on the church's enemies list of "suppressive persons."...)

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights' exhibit blasts psychiatry as a wicked profession that "spawned the ideology which fired Hitler's mania ... and created the Holocaust."

Officials announced on Monday that they had decided to allow the exhibit to return to the downtown building after discussing the matter with state lawyers...)

In this case, Scientology is accusing publicist Karin Spaink of infringement of copyright because she posted documents on Scientology doctrine on her website. Her aim in posting these documents was to initiate a social discussion on the nature of the sect. On 4 September the Court of Appeal in The Hague rejected all of Scientology's claims. According to the Court, Karin Spaink's right to freedom of speech in exposing the dubious doctrine of Scientology weighs more heavily than the copyright of the 'church'.

The case has been running since 1995, when Karin Spaink first posted the documents - originally used in an American lawsuit - on her website...)

In September 2003, one of these Scientology release forms surfaced on the Internet...

...(The release form can be read in its entirety at LisaClause.org.)...)

• February 2004 Letters From the Edge, RAZOR Magazine (Our December/January issue was responsible for evoking some very passionate letters in response to our Scientology article, "A Church's Lethal Contract," by Dr. David S. Touretzky and Peter Alexander. Here is a compendium of those received on both sides of the debate.)

She wrote me after reading Sunday’s column about celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise and his interview on "Larry King Live."

"I was raised in Scientology my entire life and was able to get out almost six years ago when I was 19," she wrote.

Both her father and mother were Scientologists. So were her grandmother, brother and sister.

Today, she, her father and sister are out. The rest of the family is still in...)

...Back in 1991, Time magazine devoted its cover to Scientology referring to it as a Cult of Greed.

"The Church of Scientology, started by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard to 'clear' people of unhappiness, portrays itself as a religion," wrote Richard Behar. "In reality the church is a hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner. At times during the past decade, prosecutions against Scientology seemed to be curbing its menace...)

The sexy star admits she has benefitted from Scientology -- which has been attacked by religious leaders for alienating followers from their families -- after being introduced to it by her Hollywood beau...)

Neighbors of an oceanfront drug treatment center in Newport Beach are complaining to City Hall that facility operators are violating the occupancy limit in one house while expanding by renting another home nearby...

...Narconon was started in 1966 by William Benitez, an Arizona state prison inmate, based on principles in a book by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard...)

The firefighters take saunas, engage in physical workouts and swallow pills - all of which together constitute what for years has been known, amid considerable dispute, as Mr. Hubbard's detoxification program, one meant to wash the body of poisons or toxins. The firefighters are not charged for their trips to the clinic, called Downtown Medical...

...People inside and outside the department said they regarded the use of the clinic to be yet more evidence of the degree of the distress experienced by members of the force, which lost 343 men on Sept. 11...)

...Scientology has attracted negative publicity in Europe because of several court cases involving members in recent years. Some EU states consider it an unwelcome sect and refuse to register it as a religion...)

On Friday, the Dutch Court of Appeal in The Hague, Netherlands, denied the Scientologists' latest appeal in an online copyright dispute that dates back to 1995. The Church of Scientology has repeatedly pursued legal action in the Netherlands against the writer, Karin Spaink, and her local ISP, Xs4all, over documents first posted in 1995 on the Web site of another customer of the company...)

A judge sentenced EarthLink co-founder Reed Slatkin to 14 years in federal prison for running a nearly $600 million Ponzi scheme that bilked hundreds of investors...

...The scam did not involve EarthLink...

...Slatkin's attorneys claimed he was influenced by the Church of Scientology, from which he has been ousted. His attorneys said investors who were paid donated between $25 million and $50 million to the church, an arrangement Slatkin was afraid to end.

David Schindler, an attorney for the Church of Scientology, was present for the sentencing. He said later the comments were outrageous...)

Instead, once the paper is signed, the agreement calls for the Church of Scientology to step in if there's ever a problem. The result would be total isolation and constant surveillance...

...The new agreement seems to stem from a long-simmering wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the estate of Lisa McPherson against the Church of Scientology...

...The Spiritual Assistance agreement reads in part: "I understand that the Introspection Rundown is an intensive, rigorous Religious Service that includes being isolated from all sources of potential spiritual upset, including but not limited to family members, friends or others with whom I might normally interact."...

...Linda Hight, spokeswoman for Scientology, told me last night that the contract is self-explanatory...)

Citing "the tremendous harm he has done," U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow rejected the former Santa Barbara money manager's claim that he had acted under "duress and diminished capacity" because of threats from fellow Scientologists who allegedly urged him to continue his scam so they could profit...)

...Attorneys for the trustee and the creditors have sued to recover funds from Slatkin's bankers and from his clients who came out ahead. They also are negotiating with groups affiliated with the Church of Scientology that allegedly wound up with tens of millions of dollars in donations from Slatkin clients...

...Slatkin is asking for a lighter sentence than prosecutors' recommendation, citing duress from other Scientologists...)

...Scientology - known to some for a number of Hollywood stars among its ranks, including John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Jenna Elfman, and Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley - has been mired in controversy for years over claims it is a cult.)

CLEARWATER - A tiny smile creased Ken Dandar's face as a clerk read the first count of the jury verdict.

Compensatory damages he owed the Church of Scientology: $4,500...)

CLEARWATER - Large and imposing, Church of Scientology attorney Samuel Rosen stood before a Pinellas County jury Tuesday, arms waving, voice booming.

Pointing at Tampa lawyer Ken Dandar, he growled to jurors that Dandar had taken a "garden variety" wrongful death lawsuit and allowed a church critic to turn it into "a frontal attack on an entire religion."...)

"I wish to announce tonight what may be the successful accomplishment of the knowledge and skills necessary to alter the basic nature of man."...)

CLEARWATER - For the first time in Pinellas County, a jury has been convened to consider a case involving the Church of Scientology...

...The case is an offshoot of the wrongful death lawsuit against the church by the estate of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died in 1995 after 17 days in the care of the church, whose spiritual headquarters is in downtown Clearwater...)

...A jury in 1986 awarded Wollersheim $30 million, an amount reduced on appeal to $2.5 million and upheld by the Supreme Court in 1994. The court award collected 10 percent interest over the following years of litigation and eventually grew to $8,674,843...

...Greene, who has carved out a specialty in lawsuits against religious cults, said he was flattered to be on the same stage "with all these big-boy lawyers" at the TLPJ gala...)

But executives with Applied Scholastics International say the center is completely secular, licensing educators and schools in the learning methods Hubbard developed, known as study technology...

...Use of Applied Scholastics materials raised questions in Los Angeles in 1997 and in Boston in 2001, when some educators expressed concern that the program could have links to Scientology...)

The center uses methods developed by L. Ron Hubbard, the late science fiction writer and founder of Scientology...

...Leaders of Applied Scholastics say their organization is separate from Hubbard's Scientology, that it is based on his educational techniques...

...After 25 years of challenges and investigations by the Internal Revenue Service, the church got tax-exempt status in 1993.

Applied Scholastics was at the center of a debate in California six years ago when some teachers proposed that the state buy the group's books to supplement school textbooks. State officials approved the purchase after a review group found the books did not appear to advance Scientology...)

The program is Hollywood Education Literacy Project, and in the feature story superstar actor Tom Cruise credits it with curing his illiteracy.

But what is barely mentioned is that HELP, as it is known, has been roundly criticized by mainstream educators as a propaganda tool of Scientology...)