Sentencing Memorandum in US v. Kember and Budlong

[S. E. Nahj]

Transcribers remarks:

A scathing document; a must-read because of its condensed
summary of Scientology's abuse of the legal system and long
history of criminality.

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To the best of my knowledge, this Memorandum
has never before appeared on a.r.s

It's cited extensively by Atack and Miller -- and in following
those leads, at one time or another I searched for it on Dejanews,
on the Web, and in my own archives, all to no avail. I posted
on a.r.s a "research" request for a copy, and sent around a little
enquiring email, but could never find it.

And then, _mirabile_dictu_, LMT legal put up PDF scans
of the originals on the LMT legal page.

[Transcribing this into flat ASCII for a.r.s has been my own
little amends project, because I don't picket, and don't have
a Web page, and likely won't.

And if it turns out that it was on Maureen's web page all along,
or somewhere in the Webbed Factnet archives, and I just didn't
look in the right place -- well, seeing it again can't hurt,
and a close reading in the course of transcription has been
a sobering and motivating experience for me, personally --
and so worth it. ]

Typos and errors are my own. Please send email to sen...@my-deja.com
pointing them out, and I'll fix them.

I ask that the text not be Webbed in this form until I've had a
chance to find and fix what I can.
I'll repost when that has happened, and
email it to some likely Web page owners.

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In this document, the Sentencing Memorandum in US v Kember/Budlong,
four US Justice Department attorneys summarize for the court the many
reasons that Scientology's Guardian Jane Kember and Assistant Guardian
Mo Budlong should be sentenced to lengthy terms in prison, and
should be denied bail pending appeal.

In it, they remind the court that broad circumstances may legally
be considered when imposing sentence -- that evidence from other
trials,
evidence presented in support of charges that were dropped or were never
brought or that resulted in acquittal, facts never admitted as
evidence,
media accounts, historical patterns of criminality, even hearsay --
can and should be considered in setting sentence.

They ask the court to consider these broad circumstances in the
present case, and not to limit its attention to the specific
crimes for which Kember and Budlong stood convicted.

Then, having argued that it may be considered, they summarize
the evidence presented at trial against Kember and Budlong in a
broad context -- the evidence and convictions in the other GO trials,
the enormous evidence that Guardian's Office agents had committed
numerous crimes for which they were never charged, and Scientology's
long and well-documented history of criminality and incorrigible
abuse of the courts.

In closing, they argue that stiff sentences are required,
not just to punish Kember and Budlong, but to send a message
to Hubbard (then still alive, though in hiding) and to the remaining
Guardian's Office agents, that Scientology's egregious attacks on the
institutions of civil society will not be tolerated by that society.

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I read this memorandum several times in the process of transcription.
Some thoughts:

* This was the high-water mark in US judicial recognition
of Scientology's pervasive criminality. Scientology has
changed nothing but the names of its organizations and
its enemies: it continues today in the exact pattern of
harassment, abuse, intimidation, infiltration, perjury,
libel, and barratry so well presented in this court document
of two decades past.

In recent years, the US government and the courts have become,
not *more* effective in dealing with Scientology, but rather
much *less* effective. This is discouraging.

There must be _some_ mechanism by which the US judiciary
can recognize and respond to the pattern of lawlessness
which has characterized Scientology since its origin.
Until that happens, Scientology will continue to flout the
law and every standard of civil conduct with impunity.

* Scientology as an organization is apparently incabable of reform.

Reform, while an admirable goal, is a very unlikely outcome.

* It sickens me to read "much love" as a closing remark
in a message in which these "Guardians" viciously plot the
personal destruction of Paulette Cooper, or the
bound-and-gagged imprisonment of their own agent, Michael
Meisner. The meaning here of the word "love" must be one
with which I am, thank God, unacquainted.

The facial expression that I think best characterizes these
missives is a snarl.

* I think that Scientology is evil, root and branch and twig,
pervasively and irremedially evil throughout, and I think that
this Orwellian abuse of language is one of the reasons,
maybe *the* reason. As in the distopia _1984_, the purposeful
semantic corruption that gives to words like "love" and
"ethics" and "truth" and "sanity" and "freedom" the exact
opposite of their general meaning is not just a symptom of evil:
it is the means, the substance,
and ultimately the cause of evil.

In Scientology, as in the world of Big Brother, love is hate,
war is peace, and ignorance is strength.

The "Bridge to Total Freedom" is in fact a path
to madness, enslavement, bankruptcy, and isolation.

Every banal self-deception required by the "tech" produces evil,
is the product of evil. Every lie. Every "acceptable truth".
Every "shore story". Every "dead-agent handling".
Every "disconnection". Every "ethics action".
Every "reg cycle".

Every attest. The phenomena posited by Hubbard don't exist.
There are no engrams, no clears, no OT powers, no thetans.

Thus, every "win", every statement that the PC has achieved some
degree of "case gain" is another lie,
is another act of self-deception,
is evil.

The evil is not lessened by the frequent circumstance
that the attesting person has high ideals and good
intentions, is seeking spiritual improvement, is perhaps
a wonderful person doing their best to deal with their lives.

In _1984_, it is the culminating evil when Winston-Smith
realizes, "attests", that he loves Big Brother.

In Scientology, it is evil when someone, anyone,
"attests" to the madness that is part and parcel
of Hubbard's "whole track".

This is why I cannot wish the Freezone well. Hubbard's
thought and writings are pervaded with this semantic
pollution, and none of the so-called "tech" is free from it.

It is my oservation that perversion of meaning is in fact
the substance of the "tech", the thing itself, and that all
the procedures and rundowns and levels and programs and
training and auditing are simply means by which Scientologists
are slowly steeped in Hubbard's insanity
until it becomes their own.

Captain Bill was insane. Koos is obviously insane.
Poor Lisa McPherson died insane. Hubbard died insane.
"Psychotic breaks", episodes of insanity, are endemic
among those trying to attain the "Advanced Technology"
levels. The bizarre behaviors of David Miscavige,
Heber Jenztsch, Joe Neal, Warren McShane, Mike Rinder,
Al Buttnor, et. al. are best understood as those of
persons suffering from delusions -- the symbols and
concepts which motivate their actions have no referents
in the real world of phenomena, are delusional, are insane.

S. E. Nahj

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[Extract from "Information Disease: Have Cults created a New Mental
Illness?" by Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman.
Science Digest January 1982 pp86-92]
<originally posted by Martin Poulter>

"A very effective thought control technique could also be worked out
from
Scientology, which could be used to make individuals into willing
slaves."
-L Ron Hubbard

[description of the authors' research into the long term effects of
involvement with various cults]
Two groups in particular showed signs of inflicting the most
severe physical, mental and emotional harm on their members: the Hare
Krishna and the Church of Scientology. Among all groups, Krishna and
Scientology tied with the Unification Church in reports of physical
deprivation. Their members reported getting the least sleep per night
and
having the most deficient daily diet.
...
The rituals of the Church of Scientology bear little resemblance
to those of any other cult. With its extensive program of "training
regimens" and expensive "auditing" counseling, Scientology operates
successfully as both religion and mass-marketed therapy. According to
those who responded to our survey, however, Scientology's may be the
most
debilitating set of rituals of any cult in America. Onetime
Scientologists
who answered our questionnaire reported that it took them, on the
average,
more than two years (26 months) before they felt fully rehabilitated-
more
than *twice* the time of those from other major cults [Hare Krishna:
11.1
months, Divine Light Mission: 12.3 months].
Moreover, former Scientologists surpassed all others in reported
incidents of physical punishment while in the group (35 percent) and,
upon
departure, they claimed the highest rates of sexual dysfunction (22
percent), violent outbursts (28 percent) [average is 14 percent],
hallucinations and delusions (28 percent) [average is also 14 percent]
and
suicidal or self-destructive tendencies (44 percent) [average is 21%].
On
average, former Scientologists surveyed reported more than *twice* the
combined negative effects of all the other cult groups.
Ironically, although claiming the most severe long-term effects,
former Scientologists surveyed reported the *lowest* total of hours
per week spent in ritual and indoctrination. This apparent discrepancy
seems to support opinions we have expressed earlier that, in
combination,
Scientology's training regimens and "auditing" counseling sessions
(conducted on an E-meter, a kind of crude lie detector) may have an
intensifying and compounding effect on the nervous system that goes
beyond
that of simpler cult rituals. And that, *hour for hour, Scientology's
techniques may be more than twice as damaging as those of any other
major
cult in America!* In our view, this could be a vital direction for
further
research by scientists working in the field of neurophysiology.
"The overall impact? Devastating!" wrote one ex-member. "I still
tend to view the world in Scientological terms: 'Truth is only an
illusion.'
'People are robots.' 'People are basically insane and dangerous.'"
Another was even more bitter: "The only thing I got out of this scam
was
deep suicidal depression coinciding with the fear of death within five
years after separation. We were told that ninety percent of all 'refund
cases' eventually commit suicide."

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