From netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swiss.ans.net!newstf01.cr1.aol.com!search01.news.aol.com!not-for-mail Tue Sep 6 05:02:28 1994 Xref: netcom.com alt.religion.scientology:15465 Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swiss.ans.net!newstf01.cr1.aol.com!search01.news.aol.com!not-for-mail From: mikesmith3@aol.com (MikeSmith3) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: FACTNET-THE FACTS PART 1 Date: 31 Aug 1994 11:41:04 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Lines: 50 Sender: news@search01.news.aol.com Message-ID: <3428ag$5j9@search01.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: search01.news.aol.com Subj: Factnet story Date: 94-08-31 "FACTNET" -- PERVERSIONS, CRIMINALITY and LIES The purpose of this post is to clear the air on some incredible and outrageous lies that have been circulated around about friends of mine. And there are other innocent people whose only fault was that they have stuck their necks out and taken a stand as Scientologists, to improve the world we are living in. I am referring to a flier recently distributed by group calling themselves "FACTNET", which is replete with such outright false data that it defies belief that anyone could come up with such garbage. After reading this flier I decided I had to find out who could do such a thing and why. When I did, and found out about the people who were involved in this, it became more understandable. After all, what can you expect from people who are so low that they can't do anything more worthwhile than to try and destroy other people by twisting truth, lying and then trying to make a living out of it. FACTNET emerged in January 1994 claiming to be a "research and educational public service" group, using a PO Box address in Golden, Colorado. FACTNET's first mailing, rife with rumors and lies, had stirred up scores of individuals across the United States who have filed complaints demanding that the state and federal authorities investigate who and what FACTNET really is. An odd mixture signed on to FACTNET's board of directors: a retired psychologist who is embroiled in bitter litigation with her peers in the psychological community; a 25-year con artist who moves from state to state promoting and ever-changing array of gadgets, fad diets and new-age personality boosters; a clerk and self-proclaimed founder of "renuncians" who says that money should be abolished; a former Dominican priest who abruptly left the priesthood shortly after becoming affiliated with FACTNET; a former dope dealer, ex-convict, mental patient who earns a living as a deprogrammer; a recluse living in Longmont, Colorado who apparently spends his days scanning paper into FACTNET's computer; and a sexual pervert whose literary career spans from community news in a now defunct small weekly newspaper to writing and editing pornographic bulletin boards. Looking over the FACTNET materials that I have been able to collect, it becomes clear that they are nothing more than a holding company for lies and untruths for sale - to money grubbing attorneys, spineless "deprogrammers", senseless reporters and the like. There is more. See why and who is really behind it. The FactNet Story Part 2 31 August 1994 WHY? A close look into the background of FACTNET's founders explains their true motivation. All of the individuals involved in FACTNET are also involved with or members of the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), an anti-religious hate group that has come under close scrutiny by federal authorities in recent years for operating as a deprogramming referral network. CAN, earlier known as "Citizens Freedom Foundation," is most well known as the brainchild of Ted Patrick, a convicted felon who has deprogrammed members of the Catholic Church, Amish religion and lesbians (one was raped by Patrick's cohorts as a means of converting her sexual preferences). Deprogrammers advocate coercive tactics to "dissuade" anyone from anything thought objectionable by the customer holding the purse strings. "Deprogrammers" charge outrageous sums of money -- several thousand dollards for a "days work" -- which they opportunisticly entice from pockets of upset and unsuspecting relatives who have been twisted by the lies fed from groups such as CAN. FACTNET is apparently in the same business, but in their case are selling their lies to the deprogrammers and hired gun attorneys to use in an attempt to poison the courts. CAN's former security Chief, Galen Kelly, is currently serving a 7-year sentence on kidnapping charges related to a deprogramming attempt. Galen Kelly had been put on a $15,000.00 monthly retainer in 1992 by CAN's Executive Director, Cynthia Kisser, but this funding ceases after his arrest by the FBI in September 1992. Deprogramming, although a lucrative business, has its pitfalls. Ted Patrick summed it up well in his 1976 book "....it may be said to involve kidnapping at the very least, quite often assault and battery, almost invariably conspiracy to commit a crime, and illegal restraint." Part 3 to follow- Who is behind FactNet? FactNet Story Part 3 31 August 1994 Who is behind FACTNET? LARRY WOLLERSHEIM, FACTNET's Treasurer, is an opportunist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who successfully dodged the draft in 1969 by convincing a psychiatrist he was unfit for military service. After abusing nearly every elicit drug available on the streets, including 300 hits of LSD, it is not surprising that he became a drifter who has been under the care of a psychologist for nearly 15 years. WOLLERSHEIM is an admitted wife-beater who ran a meat business in Los Angeles in the early 1970s (and was sued by the City for false advertising). He dumped the business on his partners, leaving them with $20,000 in debts, and the company later went bankrupt. In the late 1970s, Larry Wollersheim started up a picture-selling business which he called Beautiful Pictures Beautiful Gifts, which operated out of Denver. Late in 1977, Wollersheim left Denver with 4 months rent owing on the lease of his office space. He then started a branch office of Beautiful Pictures Beautiful Gifts in Houston and left in March 1978, breaking a $2000 lease. He lived briefly in Dallas in 1978 and left two banks accounts overdrawn and broke a two year lease on an apartment. In July of 1978 Wollersheim opened up Beautiful Pictures Beautiful Gifts in Los Angeles. His unethical business practices caused the loss of thousands of dollars to his clients. His businesses owed money to many creditors, some of whom took legal action against Wollersheim to collect - the glass company which provided the glass for the pictures that sued for $4,000 for credit extended; the supplier of the art prints who claimed that Wollersheim defrauded him out of $6,000; and the factoring company which was owed $45,000 from uncollectable accounts receivable. Wollersheim moved to Aspen, Colorado sometime around 1980, where he solicited over $200,000 from investors for speculative fitness products. Two people who contracted with him to produce and market his products, never saw a penny of the $70,000 they invested in Wollersheim. Using the pseudonym of Robert Lawrence, Wollersheim plagiarized material from a local doctor in Aspen which he published in a book he called, "The Aspen Diet." Local press claimed that "Robert Lawrence, through a couple of years research on mind control, behavior and brain laboratory studies, has developed a system for mind control." (It is not surprising that Wollersheim tried out a "mind control" system as a new angle for making a quick buck, considering that his mentor and personal psychologist, Margaret Singer, has harped on her "mind control" theories ad nauseum, despite being rejected by the courts and the APA). Several people invested a total of at least $85,000 in the Aspen Diet - and lost it. Wollersheim later claimed in a Personal Financial Statement filed with the court in February 1990 that bills due from the later collapse of his Aspen business totalled approximately $275,000. In 1983, while in Aspen, Wollersheim harassed his roommate to the point where the police were called to investigate Wollersheim's connection to the roommate's broken windshield. Wollersheim was warned that if he kept on with this behavior, he would be summonsed to court. By September 1984 the Aspen Diet investment deal fell through. Wollersheim fled the area in February 1985, turning over the business and its liabilities to others and leaving the area. In September of 1992, Wollersheim advertised workshops in Milwaukee entitled "EMPOWERMENT NOW." His promotion claimed that he had authored two books and "numerous" motivational training manuals, and that he had "13 years experience conducting inspiring, life-enhancing peak experience workshops." Like the claims now being made by FACTNET, these representations were clearly hype. Wollersheim has used 3 different social security numbers, apparently to hide his identity. Wollersheim is now claiming that FACTNET offers educational and research information... which can be accessed only by "pre-screened" individuals? Wollersheim's sanity might be measured against a letter he mailed out to Scientology attorneys in 1992 in which he claimed that he had discovered that Scientology is "some type of intelligence agency project", a "renegade think tank field experiment" of the NSA or some other government intelligence agency. After communicating his great realization, he concluded, "you know I know, and I know you know, and everybody and both levels of government knows we all know." With this sort of brilliant analysis, no wonder he is now filling a computer in Colorado full of lies to try and make a quick buck from profiteering attorneys and unsuspecting dupes. The FactNet Story Continues in Part 4 FactNet Story Part 4 31 August 1994 WHO ELSE? GERRY ARMSTRONG, according to their Articles of Incorporation, is the President of FACTNET. In December 1981 Armstrong, who worked as a librarian for the Church of Scientology, stole more than 10,000 pages of records belonging to L. Ron Hubbard and the Church. Armstrong loaned and showed the documents to others who were bent on attacking the Church to support their attacks. Armstrong's state of mind is clearly illustrated by various "literary" writings authored by him, none of which more clearly demonstrated it than a document now known as the "pig letter", in which Armstrong described in graphic detail a dream he had where a pig asked him to have sex and he declined despite the fact that he wanted to. Armstrong ws formerly a heavy drug user, and on at least one occasion, he was paid to provide homosexual sex. On November 11, 1992 in the Marin Independant Journal there was an article on Gerald Armstrong title "is Money the Root of Problems." In the article , there is a picture of Armstrong in the nude holding a globe. This article states that Armstrong has an idea for dealing with the national debt - "write it off. Forget it. It doesn't exist." The article goes on to state that Armstrong, the self-proclaimed founder of the Organization of United Renunciants, set the date for people who have taken his "pledge of renunciants" to stop using money. Fellow renunciants will renounce all cash and credit, stop paying with money, forgive all their debts and stop keeping financial records. JON ATACK is another sorrowful character, who is rumored to be taking over the presidency of FACTNET from Gerry Armstrong. Atack is an ex-psychiatric patient, a convict and a drug dealer. He was under-psychiatric counseling from the age of 13 until 18. He then spent time in a psychiatric hospital, and was given an anti-depressant drugs wich "knocked him out for 20 hours." Atack is a troubled individual who continued to take heavy street drugs, including LSD, marijuana and cocaine. Atak was dealing in drugs, and was convicted twice (which was covered in the English press), once for illegal possession of drugs, and a second time for growing marijuana plants. Atack has had a long association with criminal deprogrammers in a "kidnapping for hire" ring called FAIR, which is involved in forcibly attempting to break one's religious faith through the use of violence and kidnapping. One of Atack's cohorts in this group was Neil Dawson, the Dulwich vicar and chairman of FAIR from 1986 to 1988. Dawson stepped down after a barrage of media stories revealed he had regularly conducted and participated in homosexual orgies involving illegal drug use at his vicarage. Another Atack's collaborators is Cyril Vosper. In 1987, a Munich court convicted him of false imprisonment and causing bodily harm to a 32 yearold German woman he had kidnapped. The woman escaped by smashing through a window, but not before badly cutting herself. Martin Faiers, another Atack associate, was convicted of kidnapping a Swiss member of the Hare Krishna movement in 1989. During this violent faithbreaking, the victim was forcibly drugged, tear gassed and handcuffed. Another victim, a 25 year-old-woman in Devon, England, was found hanged to death following a Faiers' deprogramming. These are only a few of Atack's and FAIR's corpses and deaths that they are responsible for. FactNet Story Part 5 31 August 1994 More of who. MARGARET SINGER, who first started treating Larry Wollersheim in the early 1980s, ia a founding board member of FACTNET , and various other anti-religious groups in the United States had earlier relied heavily on the theories of Margaret Singer in attacks upon religions. Singer, however has been completely discredited in the courtroom, as nay sort of "expert" in this field, yet courts have debunked the "scientific" basis of her rantings against new religions. The mounting criticism of her wholly unscientific methods and opinions have finally caught up with her. Her fall from hired gun "expert" status to sham began when Singer and a task force set up within the American Psychological Association (APA) to study methods of "persuasion and control" filed their final report to the Board of Social and Ethics Responsibility for Psychology of the APA. This report was resoundingly rejected by the Board in 1987, which stated, "in general, the report lacks the scientific rigor and even-handed critical approach needed for APA imprimatur." The APA Board even went further and put the task force members on notice that their appointment to the task force was not to be used to imply that the APA in any way supported the positions in their reports (i.e. anti-religious theories). Not to be daunted by this rejection. Singer began a series of "expert" testimonies in various legal cases dealing with new religions. In the Kropinsky v. World Plan Executive Council case, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1988, citing the lack of acceptance of Singer's theory, namely that techniques of thought reform may be effective in the absence of physical threats or coercion, has a significant following in the scientific community, let alone general acceptance." In 1989, Fourt Appellate District Court of Appeal of California dismissed Singer's testimony. The Court stated that the "brainwashing theory of false imprisonment is no more than an attempt to premise tort liability on religious practices that Georges (party in the case) find objectionable. Such a result is simply inconsistent with the First Amendment." In 1990, U.S. District Court Judge D. Lowell Jensen in US v. Fishman barred Singer from testifying because her ideas were not accepted within the scientific community. Jensen said, "The evidence before the court... shows that neither the APA [American Psychological Association] nor the ASA [American Sociological Association] has endorsed the views of Dr. Singer... on thought reform. The APA found that Dr. Singer's report lacked scientific merit and that studies supporting its findings lack methodological rigor." In 1991, the US District Court in DC in the case Patrick Ryan v. Maharishi Yogi, found that Singer's expert testimony had failed to gain substantial acceptance. Judge Oliver Gash refused to allow Singer to testify. Despite her 14-year of history of being thoroughly discredited she to promote her hairbrained "theories". Two more "whos" part 6. Factnet story part 6 31 August 1994 Two more "whos" KENT BURTNER is another founding board member of FACTNET. Burtner has served as the Treasurer of the Cult Awareness Network (CAN) since February 1993. He has served on the Advisory Board of CAN for several years, and has been involved with CAN (and its predecessor Citizens Freedom Foundation) for over 20 years. Up until February 1994, he was a Dominican priest at St. Dominic's Church, in San Francisco. He recently left the priesthood, reasons unknown, and moved to Portland seeking employment. Burtner has admitted to being pro-deprogrammed and having been involved in numerous deprogrammings since the 1970s. News articles in Anchorage, Alaska, where Burtner lived from 1983 until 1987, indicate that Burtner first got interested in cults in 1970, when a daughter of a secretary at his seminary became involved with the Unification Church. In this article, Burtner stated that he deprogrammed 20 members of religious groups and had "rehabilated" about 100 more from 1973 to 1983. An October 1981 article in an Oregon paper, Siskiyou, quoted Kent Burtner as saying "Bruntner (sic) agrees that some self-styled "deprogrammers" have tried violence, screaming, sleep deprivation and sensory overload to shock a cult member out of his present mental state." Another October 1981 article, in the St. Peterburg Times, stated that a psychiatrist from California, a theologian from Canada, the Florida vice president of American Civil Liberties Union and a spokesman for the Florida Catholic Parents Association all denounced the activities of the Citizens Freedom Foundation (CFF), characterizing it as a threat to religious liberty in America. These individuals said that their appearances were prompted only by mutual concern for the civil rights of victims of "deprogramming," which they said is a principal focus of CFF, and other "anti-religious" activities by CFF. Burtner has been closely associated with CFF and also per this article, was listed as one of the speakers at the next CFF convention. In 1977, an article came out in the Oregonian, mentioning that Burtner had assisted in several deprogrammings. One of these involved a deprogramming at the Newman Center on the University of Oregon Campus. Burtner was also mentioned in another 1977 article in Northwest Magazine entitled, "The Deprogrammers." In this article he referred to kidnapping as a "very gentle thing because you can't use fear to deprogram a person." BOB PENNY, a member of the Cult Awareness Network who is living on 100% disability insurance, did the computer design work for FACTNET. According to a former employee who chooses to remain anonymous, Penny has defrauded the insurance company which sends him a monthly check, and he even attempted to defraud Social Security. After a desperate measures to find volunteers who could help feed paper into FACNET's computer, which is kept in Penny's home, Penny found a local homosexual priest who is now working with Penny out of his home. More in Part 7 Factnet Story Part 7t 1 September 1994 FactNet, More About STEVE FISHMAN, ex-convict sentenced in 1988 to 5 and a half years in prison for 11 counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice (he is currently out on parole), is the source of many of FACTNET's claims of "murder" and "psychosis." In the words of his psychiatrist, Fishman is a man who will lie and manipulate others until the day he dies. The Federal prosecutor who investigated Fishman, saw through Fishman's wild claims that individuals have been murdered by Scientology - correctly labelling these allegations as "total poppycock." In fact, it was Fishman's attempt to blame the Church of Scientology for his own crimes which resulted in the obstruction of justice charge against him. Fishman is an admitted compulsive liar, whose entire life is woven with illusions and lies concocted for those he deals with. In federal court in July 1990, while on trial for crimes he was later convicted of, Fishman claimed that he was "Malchoot", the "father of Jesus" in an earlier life. Fishman went on to describe this entity: "Malchoot is Antichrist. He gets certain suggestions with occlusion, of course, that he was the father of Christ and he had - he had taken a bath, which in today's parlance would be analogous to a Jacuzzi. And allegedly he had masterbated in the water and then the sperm had entered Mary and then Jesus was born, and so he was Malchoot the Antichrist and father of Jesus of the illegitmate father of Jesus." His hypnotist/psychologist, testifying in this same trial, described Fishman as "manipulative" and said that he was been insane and schizophrenic since 1968. How can Fishman qualify as a source of information about anyone or anything? If you need more, take a look at the affidavit of FBI Special Agent William Kemp, executed on January 26th, 1989, describing his investigation of Fishman. Kemp had earlier arrested Fishman in July of that year for "devising a scheme and artifice to defraud over 20 Federal Class Actions Lawsuits." "The amount of the fraud is in excess of $800,000." Kemp describes in the affidavit how Fishman then paid $40 to a prostitute to make threatening phone calls to him to make it sound like they were Scientologists, in an attempt to blame his criminal path on Scientoloy. More in part 8. Factnet Story Part 8 2 September 1994 More FacNet Facts Kent Burtner is another founding board member of FACTNET. Burtner has served as the Treasurer of the Cult Awareness Network (CAN) since February 1993. He has served on the Advisory Board of CAN for several years, and has been involved with CAN (and its predecessor Citizens Freedom Foundation) for over 20 years. Up until February 1994, he was a Dominican priest at St. Dominic's Church, in San Francisco. He recently left the priesthood for reasons unknown, and moved to Portland seeking employment. Burtner has admitted to being pro-deprogramming and having been involved in numerous deprogrammings since the 1970s. News articles in Anchorage, Alaska, where Burtner lived from 1983 until 1987, indicate that Burtner first got interested in cults in 1970, when a daughter of a secretary of his seminary became involved with the Unification Church. In this article, Burtner stated that he deprogrammed 20 members of religious groups and had "rehabilated" about 100 more from 1973 to 1983. An October 1981 article in an Oregon paper, Siskiyou, quoted Kent Burtner as saying "Bruntner (sic) agrees that some self-styled "deprogrammers" have tried violence, screaming, sleep deprivation and sensory overload to shock a cult member out of his present mental state." Another October 1981 article, in the St. Peterburg Times, stated that a psychiatrist from California, a theologian from Canada, the Florida vice president of American Civil Liberties Union and a spokesman for the Florida Catholic Parents Association all denounced the activities of the Citizens Freedom Foundation (CFF), characterizing it as a threat to religious liberty in America. These individuals said that their appearances were prompted only by mutual concern for the civil rights of victims of "deprogramming," which they said is a principal focus of CFF, and other "anti-religious" activities by CFF. Burtner has been closely associated with CFF and also per this article, was listed as one of the speakers at the next CFF convention. In 1977, an article came out in the Oregonian, mentioning that Burtner had assisted in several deprogrammings. One of these involved a deprogramming at the Newman Center on the University of Oregon Campus. Burtner was also mentioned in another 1977 article in Northwest Magazine entitled, "The Deprogrammers." In this article he referred to kidnapping as a "very gentle thing because you can't use fear to deprogram a person." BOB PENNY, a member of the Cult Awareness Network who is living on 100% disability insurance, did the computer design work for FACTNET. According to a former employee who chooses to remain anonymous, Penny has defrauded the insurance company which sends him a monthly check, and he even attempted to defraud Social Security. After a desperate attempt to find volunteers who could help feed paper into FACNET's computer, which is kept in Penny's home, Penny found a local homosexual priest who is now working with Penny out of his home. --------------------- A closer look is needed into FACTNET and those behind it. What other perversion, criminality and psychosis lies behind the accusations made by FACTNET? FACTNET's black propaganda and thought reform program has led to numerous innocent individuals being libelled by their issuance of false and misleading information. What is FACNET's real agenda? Please - help bring these matters to light and protect possible future victims. YOUR HELP IS NEEDED: YOUR HELP IS NEEDED TO BRING TO LIGHT THE TRUTH ABOUT FACTNET. IF YOU HAVE BEEN MALIGNED BY FACTNET, IF YOUR FAMILIES HAVE BEEN THREATENEED, OR IF YOUR KNOW OF SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN HARMED, PLEASE REPORT THIS TO YOUR LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT.