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Good Luck Keith Henson
By Chuck | March 10, 2007
After reading Rob’s last entry I was buzzing around the net looking to see if there was any recent developments surrounding the Church of Scientology. As you may or may not know Rob and I did a piece on them a while back for a local newspaper when they opened a new church in our area so we have dealt with them before. In my browsing I find a headline on Operation Clambake that just pissed me the fuck off.
Keith Henson arrested in U.S (Link leads to a small blurb on slashdot.org)
During my research on Scientology I became aware of Mr. Henson’s story.
The quick version of the story is that in 1996 some of Scientology’s “secret” documents, New Era Dianetics A.K.A. NOTS, were leaked onto the internet, Henson read them and came to the conclusion that Scientology was committing medical fraud.
From the Wikipedia article on Mr. Henson:
The NOTS documents, he said, contained detailed instructions for the treatment of physical ailments and illnesses through the use of Scientology practices. However, a Supreme Court decision in 1971 had declared that Scientology’s writings were meant for “purely spiritual” purposes, and all Scientology books published since then have included disclaimers stating that Scientology’s E-meter device “does nothing” and does not cure any physical ailments (United States v. Founding Church of Scientology et al., US District Court, District of Columbia 333 F. Supp. 357, July 30, 1971 [1]). The NOTS procedures, Henson claimed, were a violation of this decision. To prove his claim, Henson posted two pages from the NOTS documents onto the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology.
Eventually a part of the church called the Religious Technology Center hit him with a lawsuit. He lost and was ordered to pay $75,000, it is estimated that the organization spent a total of about $2 million in litigation against Henson. The judge would not allow him to argue that posting the documents in order to discredit them was covered by Fair Use. Henson filed bankruptcy and continued his protest of the church while the church continued to harass him.
While protesting outside of the Gold Base Scientology film studio he was arrested and hit with criminal charges. The church claimed he was a dangerous stalker with a background in explosives. They said he was a terrorist and likened him to Timothy McVeigh. They claimed he said in a post to alt.scientology that he was going to blow up the studio.
Henson was charged with making terrorist threats, attempting to make terrorist threats, and making threats to interfere with freedom to enjoy a constitutional privilege, all misdemeanors under California Law.
During the trial the church filed several motions to exclude a good amount of Henson’s defense including the testimony of the lead investigator, Sheriff’s Detective Tony Greer. Greer had previously said “In reviewing all of the Internet postings I did not see any direct threat of violence towards the church or any personnel of the church.”
Ready for the kicker?
The judge allowed this. How in the hell was this even close to a fair trail?
He was eventually convicted on only one of the three counts, making threats to interfere with freedom. Instead of serving jail time, where he feared that his life would be in danger, he fled to Canada and applied for asylum. He stayed in Canada for three years until his plea for asylum was denied. He then fled again, this time back into the U.S. and remained for two years until his recent arrest in Arizona.He His hearing is set for May 8th.
One more quote from Wikipedia before I go:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as Henson’s supporters on the USENET newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, claim his trial was biased, unfair and a mockery of justice.
I would like my name added to that list.
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