Scientology Charged With Slavery, Human Trafficking

"A formal complaint was filed in California (caged PDF) last week by John Lindstein naming David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology International as defendants. Lindstein claims that for sixteen years (from age 8) he was forced to work as a slave at Gold Base, a secret CoS site run by Golden Era Productions with 'razor wire, security guard patrols, surveillance posts, and three roll calls each day.' The pay was $50 a week. The allegations include 'Violations of wage and hour laws as well as unfair/illegal business practices actionable under California B&P 17200 Et. Seq.' and a complaint under the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution, which abolished slavery. Members of the group Anonymous praised the summons."
Slashdot Article

If true, this is absolutely insane.

I knew that Scientologists were not to be trusted, but these claims go above and beyond anything I had imagined. If this turns out to be fact-based, that whole operation needs to be shut down, and prison sentences doled out liberally.


TA

A bit more from an alternate source:

Lindstein's Superior Court complaint alleges human trafficking and violations of hour and wage laws at the church's "Gold Ranch" compound near Hemet, a semirural area east-southeast of Los Angeles.

Lindstein says that from 1990 until 2006, starting when he was just 8 years old, he "performed this work as a virtual slave, working 16 to 24 hours days with no sleep, no time off and no personal freedom" at Gold Base, a mysterious and once-secret headquarters that "resembles a prison camp," with razor wire, security guard patrols, surveillance posts and three roll calls each day.

By age 16, Lindstein says, he was working for Golden Era Productions, Scientology's film production company, restoring Hubbard's films from the 1970s. He says he often worked 24-hour days at the "tedious, frame-by-frame work that would normally cost more than $400,000 per movie to accomplish at industry rates."

Those who tried to escape from Gold Ranch and were caught were assigned to the "Rehabilitation Project Force," in which workers faced "a brutal regime of manual labor, have no freedom of movement and are subjected to almost total deprivations of personal liberties," according to the complaint.

Church of Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw said the church would not comment on the allegations.

"The complaint filed by John Lindstein against the Church of Scientology International and others has not been served," Pouw said. "We do not comment on cases to which we are not a party."
source

Truly frightening stuff. These people need to be brought to justice.


TA

BBcode edit

[edit on 1-12-2009 by TheAssociate]

reply to post by TheAssociate

Lindstein's Superior Court complaint alleges human trafficking and violations of hour and wage laws at the church's "Gold Ranch" compound near Hemet, a semirural area east-southeast of Los Angeles.

All I'm going to say is that I believe it.
I'm originally from Los Angeles and many moons ago in my youth I had a run in with some of these guys in their little sailor suits. From what they told me [Violating hour and wage laws]

Yeah, you better believe it!

reply to post by SLAYER69


Wow!

This just keeps getting creepier.

I've heard rumors most of my life about some of the bizarre (and possibly illegal) things that go on within CoS, but this takes the cake.

Thanks for the reply and the information, SLAYER. I read your posts and threads pretty regularly and believe you to be a reliable source. Post starred

Of course, the standard sequence of events will include the discovery that this individual is mentally unstable and was a crack whore who wrote bad checks.

Or am I being too harsh... isn't part of their MO to smear people who embarrass them (if not worse?)

So when did scientology become a religion and how do you sue a religion? If thats how it works I know some other religions or belief systems that should be sued as well.

I also believe this report/charge. I have had many conversations with people who say the CoS has done many "weird" or "unethical" things, some from as far back as the late 60s early 70s.

My mother was stalked across two states by these people after moving.

I dunno...scary little cult they got there. I hope they get investigated and regulated as soon as humanly possible.

However true the allegations may be...nothing will come of this, nothing.

Just think about the money behind this cult, I'm talking Tom Cruise/John Travolta money. BIG money.

Hope these people have good insurance policies.

Originally posted by Mr Mask
I also believe this report/charge. I have had many conversations with people who say the CoS has done many "weird" or "unethical" things, some from as far back as the late 60s early 70s.

and 80s and 90s and....

Asbestos Sinks Scientology Boat 'Cruise'

The Church of Scientology's 40-year-old cruise ship, Freewinds, has been sealed and docked by officials in Curacao due to the discovery of massive amounts of blue asbestos on board. Blue asbestos is a known human carcinogen and considered "the most lethal form of asbestos." You do not want these molecules wafting through the ventilation over the Lido Deck.

Freewinds is the floating facility in which those Scientologists who have ascended to the church's highest levels—they'e called clears, if you're not in the know—come to learn about their interstellar volcano God futures. It was also the location for Tom Cruise's nightmarish 2004 birthday party in which he proved he should never be allowed to sing or dance in public again. Because he's a tuneless maniac.

reply to post by Maxmars

isn't part of their MO to smear people who embarrass them (if not worse?)

I believe you're right about that one, Max.

And that will lead to:

Originally posted by Signals
However true the allegations may be...nothing will come of this, nothing.

I sincerely hope that some day these people are tried and convicted like the criminals they are, but we're likely going to have to wait a while.

reply to post by SLAYER69

Thanks for the info. I believe these people to be a lot more evil than anyone currently suspects.

And I'd like to add that in addition to being barred from singing and dancing ever again, Tom Cruise should also never be allowed to act again, as well.


TA


[edit on 3-12-2009 by TheAssociate]

Yeah, Scientology should be shut down...

Some info for survivalists who are motivated...

Scientology has created some underground bunkers, stocked with everything....owned by the corporate entity that owns scientology copyrights...whose locations they do NOT want anyone to know about, many of them have been discovered, documented, AND MAPPED and are listed on this page LINK to MAPS of CST Vaults

reply to post by TheAssociate

Thanks for the info. I believe these people to be a lot more evil than anyone currently suspects.

Why is it exactly you think im evil?

reply to post by zaiger


I didn't mean you specifically, but I suspect you knew that. I stand by my statement and my belief that the CoS is a corrupt, nefarious organization. Thank you all for the replies.


TA

Originally posted by TheAssociate
reply to post by zaiger

 

I believe these people to be a lot more evil than anyone currently suspects.

I didn't mean you specifically, but I suspect you knew that. I stand by my statement and my belief that the CoS is a corrupt, nefarious organization. Thank you all for the replies.


TA

So what do you mean by these people? The people in the CoS are evil but I am somehow not reffered to your blanket statement of the people in the CoS are evil?

Originally posted by zaiger

Originally posted by TheAssociate
reply to post by zaiger

 

I believe these people to be a lot more evil than anyone currently suspects.

I didn't mean you specifically, but I suspect you knew that. I stand by my statement and my belief that the CoS is a corrupt, nefarious organization. Thank you all for the replies.


TA

So what do you mean by these people? The people in the CoS are evil but I am somehow not reffered to your blanket statement of the people in the CoS are evil?

I'm not going to be politically correct or nice about this. If you are Cos, know of the type of things that was stated actually going on, and tend to smear people that disagree with you; then yes that statement would apply to you also.

As I said if.... If anyone knows an organization or the church they attend is corrupt and evil, and they stay in that organization or particular church then that makes the person with the knowledge corrupt and evil also. By staying, it affirms that they agree with what is being done.

Everyone in CoS that has mistreated anyone in the manner spoken above is evil. Have you done so? I don't know. If you get offended by this, then that speaks multitudes of where you stand.

reply to post by Mystery_Lady

If you are Cos, know of the type of things that was stated actually going on, and tend to smear people that disagree with you; then yes that statement would apply to you also.

That is kind of a fallacy, tt asserts that all the claims made are facts. And if i "smear" (which is a subjective term) those who disagree with me i am evil.

Originally posted by zaiger
reply to post by Mystery_Lady

 

If you are Cos, know of the type of things that was stated actually going on, and tend to smear people that disagree with you; then yes that statement would apply to you also.

That is kind of a fallacy, tt asserts that all the claims made are facts. And if i "smear" (which is a subjective term) those who disagree with me i am evil.

Of course the claims are intended to be taken as facts. It is a criminal accusation. It would be a fallacy if it were not an accusation, but a declaration.

16 years is a long time. The level of detachment required to restrain a fellow human being that long, lacking the social convention of a mandate, begs one to believe that some members of the CoS are unmistakably 'inhuman' (considering the cruel nature of the alleged treatment). How 'clear' are the keepers, I wonder? Does anyone watch the watchers?

I remember in the early '70's I was about 10 years old and there were a lot of advertisements on TV for Scientology.. The sci-fi author "L. Ron Hubbard wrote the book titled "Scientology". Before this he wrote a lot of other scifi novels, (I'm just going by memory here and may not be totally correct on this info, but the gist of it is that he wrote that book and virtually invented Scientology. At the time it wasnt called a religion, and the book was advertised as being like a self help sort of thing. It had typical questions and answers like hypothetical situations about life and such. I remember seeing these ads and at only 10 years old the commercials made me really annoyed because they seemed incredibly stupid to me at the time. They would say on screen for example, "Do you ever wonder why such and such.... page 342 explains this, and on and on for the 60 second tv spot...
I have always despised this author and the book about scientology, and then when I heard that people made a religion with this book I could hardly believe it...What a complete and total joke for someone to devote their life to a science fiction author's book as their new found religion.. And back in the 70's I remember people talking about this for many years about the scam that it was becoming. We heard that people were signing away all their assets and money to the new "church of scientology"... totally unbelievabloe that people would participate in the Bull s.it (In my opinion of course).... over the years there have been a lot of times where there would be some crazy story related to people that belonged to this cult and some crazy story or scandal happening. I understand that there are always good people out there that have no religion or beliefs and are very lonely or perhaps have an emptiness and looking for something to fill that, and those are the types of people this cult targets for recruitment, at least I think it started out that way. Or someone looking for spiritual answers in all the wrong places and winding up in the cult of scientology.

L. Ron Hubbard made a fortune off of this stuff and he died a while back, can't remember when and totally don't care either.
I will end this post saying I have always despised this guy and this so called church because of the many lives it has destroyed and people that have been left kicked to the curb with all of their money and properties given to this crap. Even if the people were gullable to believe in this junk, I still see the CoS as being predatory like the devil looking for easy targets or prey to feed off of. Total parasites is what this is in my opinion...

reply to post by zaiger

So what do you mean by these people?

Those at the top perpetrating the criminal activities. Those who know of the corruption and do nothing about it. Again, I believe you know exactly what I meant and I find this little game you're trying to play rather annoying, so this will be my final statement to you. Good day, and good luck in life.


TA