The Scientologists have many reasons to be mad at me. I have helped to expose not only their mentally abusive "advanced spiritual technology" (see the OT III Scholarship Page and NOTs Scholars Home Page), but also their role in the gruesome deaths of two of their members (LisaClause.org and PerkinsTragedy.org), their attempts to infiltrate the public school system and the healthcare system (StudyTech.org, Stop-Narconon.org, Narconon-Exposed.org), their involvement in financial fraud (SlatkinFraud.com, DIGL-Watch.info), and their overall sleaziness (ScientologyWatch.org).
For several years now Scientology has mounted a smear campaign against me, claiming, among other things, that I advocate terrorism because of my web site exploring the Sherman Austin case. One of their tricks is to distribute pages from the Reclaim Guide with my warning and disclaimer deleted, but my URL added at the bottom. Anyone who takes on Scientology should expect dirty tricks like this, so I wasn't surprised by it.
But since the personal attacks on me have not worked, the cult has begun attacking Carnegie Mellon itself. Any thinking person who looks at my site can see that I don't advocate the use of violence against anyone, and moreover, the amateurish bomb making information that Austin was imprisoned for publishing is worthless garbage. Much better information is freely available at your local library or from Amazon.com. Unfortunately, a lot of people panic when they hear words like "bomb" or "terrorist". They have a knee-jerk reaction, and write angry complaint letters demanding that "something be done". I don't see these letters; they're handled by our administration. But this is how Scientology is trying to make it painful for Carnegie Mellon to continue to support me.
I've decided to take this weapon away from them. By moving the Reclaim Guide off of the CMU server, I have given the university an easy response to these knee jerk complaints: "Those files aren't hosted at Carnegie Mellon." If someone is unhappy about the files, let them complain to me. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are both familiar with my web site, but they've never said one word to me about it. They understand that this is a First Amendment issue. They "get it". Carnegie Mellon gets it. Anyone who can read at a high school level gets it, whether they agree with my position or not. The fools who swallow Scientology's bait and dash off complaint letters without bothering to read the web site for themselves will never get it. But they are no longer Carnegie Mellon's concern.
Of all the groups who have tried to censor my speech, Scientology is by far the most tenacious. I realize that as long as I continue to expose their criminal behavior, Scientology won't give up attacking my university. They're just going to have to work a little harder at it now.
David S. Touretzky June, 2004 (updated August, 2007)
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Last modified: Wed Aug 22 04:21:23 EDT 2007