Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Here are emails. These are personal webpages of Scientologists, may not be current. Scientology Parishioners | Scientologists On-line Also, this London anti-scio website lists some membership contact info: FOLLOWERS OF THE DISTURBING SCIENTOLOGY CULT These do not correspond to the IAS list, but it's something. fisherman
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS The link below shows the list of IAS members as of August,2007. The total amount of donations is staggering. I wonder how many other members operate their businesses like OT8 Herb Zerden and these are, of course: The most ethical people on the planet. Just give the money, how it was obtained does not matter, scam money is most welcome at the church that showed you the ropes. Cornerstone Newsletter [circa August 2007] Super Power Project [Archive] - Ex Scientologist Message Board
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS This may be the Burpee seed company that supplies packets to garden centers. If this is correct example: Anons could contact the Public Relations folks at large garden center chains selling Burpee seeds and object to their implicit financial support of Scientology. Anons should include supporting materials, links, etc. This would be a sophisticated 'Boycott' strategy AND THERE'S NOTHING IMPROPER IN IT. Customers have a right to let retailers know their opinions of the products they sell. Many companies would appreciate being alerted. Boycotting -- "Voting with your feet" -- is a time-honored tradition. If Anons could cull the IAS list and identify Scientology Companies -- AND THEN, alert THOSE companies customers of the Cult it could a victory. And here, disrupting IAS -- even a small win is BIG! If Mr. Burpee ONLY cut's back on donations because of public pressure -- that's a substantial hurt for Scientology. Anons like 'harpoons'? Well hunting IAS is 'whale hunting' -- you only need ONE to have major impact. fisherman
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Busted!!! LOL PS: I wonder how many other "patrons" and above on those lists are no longer scientologists or even speak out against organized scientology now?
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS It's unlikely these emails will work any more. First, they were created in the late 1990s (10 years ago). Second, they are filtered THROUGH the scientology.net webmaster et al before being "forwarded" to people. It's likely that "entheta emails" would get caught in their auto- or human-filters.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS These emails may be out of date, but there must be other ways to dig up contact information for IAS members. You don't go whale hunting by throwing out a net. You gotta search for the leviathans and dig 'em up from the deep before you can harpoon 'em! They still yield more MEAT than anything else you can grab outta the ocean! IAS members are THE revenue source that is keeping whatever life is left in Scientology. Chisel away at IAS and you may pull down the keystone and topple the entire edifice of this crummy cult. fisherman
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Dear Larry, I am writing to alert you that Scientology is a scam. They enslave people, break up families, milk their followers for every cent they've got & then milk them into deep debt. And those are their good points. If you have questions or doubts please consider visiting Ex Scientologist - Home or Ex-Scientology Kids. There are people out there who have been where you are at & can support you.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Keep people from joining Scientology. Most direct attacks on IAS donors are simply going to get them riled and since the IAS is basically an "attack fund," they're going to be even more likely to donate if they perceive it as being to stop attacks on themselves. But there are indirect methods as well. Many of the IAS donors are, frankly, plain old crooks running dodgy businesses. Herb Zerden, for example, is an outright thief. He certainly isn't the only one. In this fucked economy, Scientologists who have been plundering their business' coffers to pay the cult are probably heavily leveraged and more vulnerable than ever. But in general, any kind of push against individual donors is unlikely to meet with much success. Where IAS is vulnerable is in demands for refunds from EX-MEMBERS, who may not realize that they can often get back IAS donations they made. I find this somewhat unusual, since in theory, there is no legal obligation to return no-strings-attached donations. But they generally seem to cave in when faced with a credible threat of litigation. Here's one relevant thread: http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=8526 I believe that there is something very wrong and probably illegal going on at IAS with the money involved. Otherwise, I can't see why an organization that is so absolutely ruthless about refusing to cough up a single dime is meek as a church mouse about donations it has no legal obligation to return. I suspect it is that, for whatever reason, they really really don't want anything resembling legal discovery anywhere near IAS. It's a big pile of money and I'm sure they do very naughty stuff with it.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Shit! Are you saying that Larry B is a crook? And if so, we presumably shouldn't send him any more money by Western Union?
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Send all the dedicated Scn BFG's book when it comes out! Start a campaign just like the library ones run in the orgs only send the books to the IAS list of donors! They'll be relieved too I'm sure of it! What IAS reg-ee goes "Yipee!! I am so happy! I just donated a bunch of money to the war chest."
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Failwinds info pack to local/or not so local ambulance chasers with list of scilons who have been or are close to boarding the asbestoship. Let them do some of the work for us/for themselves?
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS I was watching a video last night on ESMB about a chiropractor and his wife who had gotten into scientology via WISE (and got out later). Their IAS donor status ($40K) didn't help them when the church of scientology decided to pillory them. But my point is this... in the video he talks about how the local newspapers kept pointing out that they were involved with The Way to Happiness campaign --- ew, Hubbard shit --- and their business started to suffer because the locals didn't want anything to do with scientology. If you took the IAS member list from the top contributors on down, what about targetting them for local (to them) "exposure" of being a scientologist? Some people and their businesses might not be affected... but some might very well be. If the church of scientology is true to form, they will NOT support the targetted/exposed scientologist and will probably even send them to ethics "for having pulled it in", get them to confess (O/Ws or sec checks), do PTS handlings (what SP are you connected with?), and do lower conditions for pulling in some problem which is a PR black eye for the church of scientology.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Maybe not target the topmost contributors, but the bread-and-butter middle class professionals who have contributed $40-$100K. It would be a big blow for these guys to have heat on them. These are also the thinking guys, the could-be-very-successful-if-they-weren't-scilon guys, the guys who scientology has squeezed the worst already.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Targeting Scientologists rather than the "Church" of Scientology's crimes is utter UTTER FAIL, so please could OP stop bleating on about it. There've been a number of decent arguments as to why it'd be an own goal, so I won't repeat them. Interesting point you make though Muldrake, about why the IAS is just SO ready to give refunds when it has no legal need to do so. Stopping the legal discovery process seems a very plausible reason. Mr Brennan, do you have any thoughts on this? Do you think any of the current litigants would be interested in throwing some action in this direction too (though I imagine their hands are more than full at the minute).
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Not utter fail. What "decent arguments"? What does "it'd be an own goal" mean?
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS There is nothing illegal, immoral, or inappropriate in drawing attention to IAS members corporate alliances. NIKE SHOE: Individuals wrote letters to NIKE, complaining about child labor practices in producing countries. Those letters challenged NIKE to look at those practices and set standards for their suppliers. It did not end ALL abuse, but those letters had MASSIVE impact and ultimately enhanced Nike's reputation. "Disrupt IAS" DOES NOT mean widescale picketing with masks and balloons. That would be inappropriate and ineffective to this kind of 'whale hunting'. For example: If an IAS member is on the board of directors of a regional bank that supports drug outreach programs -- sending an 'info-pack' on Narconon to EACH of the other board members may help the bank protect it's reputation. Or protect it from making a contribution to Narcanon. This kind of work is NOT about PRESSURE. You're suppling information to 'big boys and girls' who are not going to be 'pressured' -- no matter what you do. It's more akin to corporate account management or a lobbying effort. It's honest, direct, and completely above board! Anonymous has the talent to even make it fun, artistic, and funny! Here's another realistic example: I 'googled' - "Toyota charitable giving" - and learned that Toyota Motor Corporation has 10 U.S. regional divisions and EACH one focuses on funding local educational charities. The members of those Toyota charitable committees might appreciate an 'info-pack' on Scientology's ABLE and Applied Scholastics programs. It's another way to get the word out. If an IAS member was supplying a Toyota division with 'vending machines, industrial lubricants...,whatever -- offering that information to Toyota's charitible giving committees may also be appreciated. Company's CAN and DO 'encourage' their suppliers to align themselves with corporate initiatives. Exposing an IAS member company is NO different from individuals encouraging Merrill Lynch to avoid exploitative investments in South Africa. It happens EVERY day. It's not illegal. It IS moral. These are subtle 'rapier' strategies. It SHOULD be obvious that no one is going to disrupt IAS entities with a bludgeon. fisherman
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS I boycotted coke and all coke products over its sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics but the Olympics still happened, and I had to drink Diet Dr. Pepper for 6 months. Diet Dr. Pepper is pretty good, but not 6-months good. Boycotting is not effective unless it actually has a major economic impact; a lot of people boycott a lot of companies every day and nobody notices. Targeting the companies with information packets is a much better strategy.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS I have no great wisdom to share on this. But I can say that I myself am out over $83,000 to the IAS and my attorney has written to the dwarf and their attorney telling them I want my $83,000 back. I hope to be taking legal action against them about this and more. We will see what happens. Barry Van Sickle, the Headleys' and Laura D's attorney, has been my attorney for two to three years. Their main response to me was to threaten me and call me a criminal and demand that I stop all postings about Miscavige's beatings of others, corporate fraud and religious cloaking. I basically called them out for what they were and told them where they could stick their threats. This was the subject of the very first posting I ever did in this forum. I guess we will see what happens on the IAS money back when it gets to court some time. As for the current litigants (Marc, Claire and Laura) I don't think that their labor-related and other such claims really go into this area.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Me??? Why a kinder, more innocent person has never walked this earth. To whoever said that, I say the following in return: Whatever crime I was supposed to have committed my response is that I was not even there that day. But, if I was there, I saw nothing, heard nothing and did nothing as regards the crime. And, if I did it, the devil made me do it! Actually I am taking the "Shultz defense" which is: "I see nothing I was not here I did not even get up this morning": PS: Keep the money coming! Half goes to the Shultz defense and half gets donated to the "Blind Orphans' Mothers" fund
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Yoni wrote: It's not 'boycotting' -- it's 'intelligence work'. It's the same kind of intelligence gathering and dissemination that Anon's are using against Jeff Stone in Riverside. Anyone, (you, me, IAS members) who put themselves in a position of 'public trust' are subject to public scrutiny -- so long as the concern is legitmate and not slanderous. An IAS Doctor, serving on a public health committee can be legitimately questioned about Scientology's influence on their judgement. The committee can be legitimately informed or questioned, due to the IAS member's inclusion An IAS member's position on a corporate Board of Directors can be legitimately questioned by anyone concerned that the company could be harmed by WISE scams. Every Board Director can be legitimately questioned for electing the IAS member. An IAS member serving as a University Trustee can be legitimately questioned because of the cult's educational policies. The Board of Trustees and the President of the University can be questioned for sponsoring the IAS member's participation. It's not boycotting, it intelligence gathering and desemination. 'Alone or with somebody' -- Anons can legitimately 'google' IAS members, look for improper alliances or conflicts of interest, and decide whether to act on them. fisherman
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS I'm all for disrupting IAS. But theres a problem, we have NO contact info thats up to date. Or anything they are connected withs contact info.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Avtomat, It's not that difficult to 'google' the info. I picked a name at random and was able to crosscheck Scientology 'Completions' and the following Business Data in just a few minutes. It's actually fun to see what you come up with! Richard Byrd Jessup owns Atlantis Trading -- immresource.com -- $6 Fashion Outlet Mr. Byrd's companies supply inexpensive ladies clothing to retail outlets. What do buyers at national retail chains such as 'Target' think about Scientology 'Human Trafficing'? Would an email campaign that sent 'info packs' to National Retail Buyers (along with a list of Scientology wholesale companies) have any impact? Would word begin to circulate through National Retail Trade Shows and Associations? Would Mr. Byrd ultimately appreciate a tangible reason to cut-back on IAS donations? Whale hunting! --------------------------- IAS name: Byrd & Hildegard Jessup Patron Meritorious $250,000 From Scientology Completions: Category: Clothing Byrd Jessup Atlantis Trading Corporation 1305 Wycliff Ave., Ste. 102 Dallas, TX 75207-6207 United States Tel. +1 214-634-8444 Fax +1 214-634-8928 E-Mail: rbjessup@[provider].com From 'google' searches on Atlantis Trading, Clothing, Byrd Jessup Atlantic Trading is the same company as: http://www.immresource.com Wholesale Women's Apparel - The Immediate Resource - Quality name brand women's apparel at less than wholesale price! The Immediate Resource at 1305 Wycliff in Dallas, TX, is the nation's largest off price apparel wholesaler. We are conveniently located in the heart of the Dallas apparel district directly across the highway from the world's largest wholesale merchandise complex: the Dallas Market Center. We are open Monday through Friday from 9am to 6pm, and on Saturdays from 10am-4pm. During Dallas Women's Apparel Markets, we are open from 9am to 8pm Thursday through Saturday, and from 9am to 7pm on Sunday and Monday. During markets, we provide complementary shuttle service to and from the Dallas Market Center. Just call us at 214-634-8444, or 1-800-966-5517 to arrange a pick up. Schedule of Women's Apparel and Accessory Markets: January 22-25, 2009 Spring II/Summer March 12-15, 2009 Fall I/Bridal & Special Occasion June 4-7, 2009 Fall II/Holiday August 13-16, 2009 Holiday/Resort/Prom & Special Occasion October 22-25, 2009 Spring I/Bridal & Special Occasion Atlantis Trading Corporation (Immediate Resource, The) 1305 Wycliff Ave Ste 102, Dallas, TX 75207-6212 Contact Phone: (214) 634-8444 URL (web address): Wholesale Women's Apparel - The Immediate Resource - Quality name brand women's apparel at less than wholesale price! Business Category: Whol Women/Child Clothng in Dallas, TX Industry (SIC): Women's, Children's, and Infants' Clothing and Accessories Ads by Google Wholesale Clothing Free Wholesale Directory of Wholesale Clothing Suppliers. Bulk and Wholesale Browse, Bid and Buy Wholesale Items All Auctions start at just $100! Wholesale Get up to 70% OFF Retail Prices on Wholesale Accessory. Buy Direct! Business Information This company profile is for the private company Atlantis Trading Corporation headquarters, located in Dallas, TX. Immediate Resource, The's line of business is whol women/child clothng. Company Name: Atlantis Trading Corporation Is This Your Company? Address: 1305 Wycliff Ave Ste 102, Dallas, TX 75207-6212 (Map) Alt Business Name: Immediate Resource, The Location Type: Headquarters Est. Annual Sales: $26,651,748 Est. # of Employees: 105 Est. Empl. at Loc.: 100 Year Started: 1978 State of Incorp: TX SIC #Code: 5137 Contact's Name: Richard Byrd Jessup Contact's Title: President NAICS: Women's, Children's, and Infants' Clothing and Accessories Merchant Wholesalers Dallas, Texas, June 6, 2007 – $6 Fashion Outlet, a Dallas, Texas company, announces the opening of its fifth store. The new store opens Friday, June 8th and is located in Fort Worth, Texas at 5240 South Hulen St., in the Hulen Fashion Center, next to the Burlington Coat Factory and Chili’s restaurant. It’s the company’s first store in Fort Worth. $6 Fashion Outlet provides apparel for one low price and specializes in plus size clothing. Selection includes women's and misses, skirts, pants, slacks, jeans, blazers, sweaters, sets, scrubs, dresses as well as men’s, children's newborn, infant , toddler apparel, sunglasses and purses. All items are $6.88 each piece. Michael Epps, CEO of $6 Fashion Outlet said, “We are delighted to bring $6 Fashion Outlet to the Fort Worth area for the first time. We have a strong following of customers in Fort Worth that were willing to drive far distances because they understand they get an amazing price on name brand clothing. Now they have one of our stores in their backyard.” Byrd Jessup, President of $6 Fashion Outlet, added, “We decided to open a new store to meet the demands of customers in the Fort Worth area. We’re proud to be a part of the Hulen community. We plan to be here a long time to give our customers the best shopping experience possible.” This is $6 Fashion Outlets fifth store in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. The company has plans to open three more stores by the end of 2007. The new store will be located at 5240 South Hulen St., Fort Worth in the Hulen Fashion Center, next to the Burlington Coat Factory and Chili’s restaurant. Open Mon-Sat 10:00am-9:00pm, Sun 12:00pm-7:00pm. The telephone number to the new Hulen store is (817) 361-0200. About $6 Fashion Outlet The company was founded in 2004 and features top-quality brand-name apparel and purses for one price low price of $6.88. Apparel includes items for women, men and children in all sizes including a large selection of plus-size items. For more information about $6 Fashion Outlet, please visit $6 Fashion Outlet - $6 Dollar Fashion - Six Dollar Fashion Outlet sixdollarfashion or call 1-800-6-OUTLET.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Is there a way to find out how many members on IAS lists have left the cult and might not file on their own but would possibly consider joining a class action suit against Scientology? The grand total would be astronomical i'd bet. http://www.forum.exscn.net/archive/index.php/t-2210.html
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS A Softer Approach Since you can never know what will influence someone, another possible strategy is simply to send IAS members information. It's certainly possible that the Dentists and Chiropractors (members another poster described as "the bread-and-butter middle class professionals") are 'less' aware of the truth about Mr. Hubbard or the inner workings at Gold Base. A well written cover letter attached to a copy of "A Piece of Blue Sky" (or some other well prepared information) might be better received that one would think. Something along the lines of: "Dear Dr. XXXXX, As a physician, patients and their families depend on your assessment of accurate clinical data, every day. I am sending the enclosed information, hoping you will give it the same objective attention you provide your patients." --------------------- Honesty ultimately 'wins the day' whether disseminated broadly or directed to one individual. Disrupting IAS depends on getting the 'truth' out to wherever it can do the most good. That might take the form of supplying information to an 'oversight committee' or 'legislative body'. But it might also be effectively placed in the hands of individual IAS members. The earlier poster who identified IAS "bread-and-butter middle class professionals" is on the right track. These folks are the 'back-bone' that enables IAS to rack up high donation totals. They may be more vulnerable to 'reason' than we might first imagine. 'Google' makes it fairly easy to find contact information for IAS members and their businesses. 'Whale-hunters' who want to operate 'beyond reproach' could even contact an IAS members' administrative staff and ask permission to send "an info-kit for professionals" without entirely revealing what it contains. This is common practice for corporate account execs and industrial sales professionals. fisherman
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS IMNSHO a class action suit is a recipe for epic fail. People should file lawsuits individually. A class action invites Scientology's "divide and conquer" bullshit. Look at Gerry Armstrong's case for an example of how well they do this. Scientology responds to a class action by finding the weakest litigant in the case and viciously attacking. Then they basically use that victim as a "monkey on a stick," threatening that they'll destroy that person unless the other litigants settle out. That's how Gerry Armstrong was forced into his awful settlement. See Stansfield v. Starkey for another example of a horrible class action. I could imagine situations where a class action would be appropriate against Scientology, but anything where arm-twisting a single litigant into surrender could endanger the whole suit is not the way to go. Scientology is at its best dealing with a class action suit. They can concentrate their whole legal team against one piece of litigation. It's better, IMNSHO, to force them to deal with dozens or hundreds of separate lawsuits in different jurisdictions, in different courts, where they have to split up their resources to counter it.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS There's 'targeting' as in showing up the foolery of - and there's 'targeting' as in educating. Big difference. 'no legal need' ay? Anon is obviously a lawyer - who else could be so sure about co$ legal liability?
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS I know from personal experience that working with -- or working on -- major donors can have a huge impact. Even in non-cult settings, big donors are often insulated, or blinded by loyalty, or just don't know what's going on. Just the idea that strangers would take the time to contact them makes a statement to big donors. If, for example, we send IAS members information packets and Miscavige tells them it's all lies they'll be furious when they discover that what we say is true. That fury could lead to all sorts of outcomes that might be helpful for Chanology. Donors who are so far gone they aren't furious wouldn't, in the future, be able to say no one told them. And sure, some donors might get riled and want to donate more. That's definitely a risk--one worth taking. And if they depend on their communities for business, they might find themselves unable to donate more, anyway. IAS members are the primary funders of a group that engages in forced abortions, human trafficking, and slave labor. That's what their money buys, and the way Miscavige spends their money IS their responsibility. If they don't understand that, let's clear it up for them. If they do understand and don't care, well, public exposure or loss of revenue has a way of making people care. Also, I don't think picketing IAS donors is always a bad idea. I think it wouldn't be the best use of our raiding resources right now, but there are times when this approach is both appropriate and useful.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Im trying to find Richard Byrd Jessup's email address but im turning up nothing.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Chrisanon, Thanks for your post! I spent my career soliciting 'heavy-hitters' and agree with everything you wrote, especially this: I'd appreciate your opinion on 'method of contact' -- 'email' vs. 'hard-copy' My sense is that a book or 'info-pack' sent 'snail-mail' would demonstrate care and "the idea that strangers would take the time" -- better than an email message. The cover letter or materials could certainly provide links to internet resources. Maybe email is best used for followup. Of course, maybe these days, an 'emailed' 'info-pak' would be just as effective. I really don't know. Avtomat, Business owners and Professionals are likely to insulate themselves behind corporate websites. They may have staff screen incoming messages. That's another reason 'snail-mail' could be more effective. I didn't find Mr. Jessup's personal email, but his company email addresses are here: http://www.immresource.com/contact.htm DELUGING a business owner or professional with hundreds of emails from 'Anonymous' would be (as another poster so elequently put it) -- "utter, utter, fail". A 'one-shot' mailing of a book or 'info-pack' (or maybe an email) would certainly have impact. Still, like any 'high-level' selling effort -- a plan of scheduled contacts would likely yield the best results. A book or 'info-pack' sent by mail (or email). Followed up with an email "I hope you received the materials I sent". Followed by additional emails or a phone call. Contacting administrative staff sometimes works well, "I just wanted to follow up to see if Mr. XXXX recieved my materials" You'd be surprised how often a staff person will help you out, by putting a package under 'the bosses' nose' ! fisherman
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS While I don't think it matters all that much, some people take hardcopy more seriously, especially older people. And some materials make more of an impression in hardcopy. In an ideal world, I'd say hardcopy with an email follow up; in this world I say we'll probably have to use whatever addresses we can find. Older mailing lists might have IAS member street addresses and no email. I, personally, do not want to call these lunatics, not even to speak with their undoubtedly oppressed assistants.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS All I can see in the OP is Shenanigans and Tomfoolery. Just one opinion. Bubbye now
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Anything that made them feel threatened in the slightest would be more likely to cause them to donate more. Paranoia is how IAS pressures people to donate. "We're being attacked!" "We need money to fight the sinister conspiracies against us!" Anything that creeped them out or made them feel attacked would be exploited by IAS regs, who would go "See, this is exactly the kind of stuff we need to fight. Get out that checkbook and fight for freedom!" Big donors who are current members are hard cases. They're not going to get pried out of the cult by a glancing contact or a letter, when they're surrounded by people who will reinforce their continued cult membership. Big donors who have LEFT, by comparison, are often just realizing how financially fucked they are, may be in desperate need of cash, and if they can shake out an IAS refund, will be thrilled. As much as it would be nice to lower donations to IAS, I just don't see any credible plan for how to do that. Causing actual NEGATIVE income by forcing IAS to cough up lots of money is more likely. It's hard to tell who has quit recently, but if you do contact anyone who is likely to quit, advice on how to go about getting IAS refunds is likely to be useful to them, and harmful to IAS. A Google search on how to IAS refund pulls up some success stories. It seems like they're more intractable on the refunds for high profile SPs, but some of those have also gotten refunds. (Magoo got one for instance.) Also it goes against everything this cult is about to cough up a refund. They absolutely, utterly hate it. An IAS Patron (or better yet a bigger donor) getting them to cough up $40K really sticks it in sideways and breaks it off. There's nothing they hate more. A highly ranked site that would pop up on search terms that recent ex-Scientologists would use, giving basically a "how to" on what has worked to get money back, or a document that could be put on most critical pages, would be guaranteed to be read by at least some people. And whoever wrote that would basically be costing the cult $40K or more any time an IAS Patron successfully used it. Another issue with "following the money" would actually be investigating the IAS, where the money goes, what the "IAS Members Trust(s)" do with the money they get, how it relates to the other Scientology trusts, and what illegal things they're doing with it. Good luck on that one, though.
Re: Follow the Money -- Disrupt IAS Muldrake, Thanks for your very insightful post, touching on several excellent points! In any group (even extremist groups) you typically find individuals with varying levels of commitment. While I generally agree that IAS members are: Still, I don't think anyone can predict what combination of factors will 'pry someone loose'. For that reason, attacking on every available front makes sense. No one can know for certain what incremental impact a campaign like this may have. Anonymous' campaign to send postcards to RPF prisoners was probably a success even if they did 'enturbulate' a few folks along the way and relatively few were actually delivered. I don't think anyone can know in advance how many IAS members might be receptive. We also can't know to what extent stoking the paranoia "among the "hard cases" might cause 'fence sitters' to finally get fed up. So, while I don't disagree with your opinion, I might not 'weight' the argument in quite the same way. You may be right. I just don't know. However, I think your idea to set up an 'information resource' for IAS refunds is brilliant! I really do!! It speaks to a fundamental interest of BOTH 'Ex' and 'Current' IAS members! It might serve as a 'portal' to "Blue Sky" "OCMB" and other resources. That's really a brilliant idea!! And it creates a valid theme for contacting IAS members, to encourage them to visit the portal. "Dear Dr. XXXX There is now an internet resource for IAS members explaining COS refund policies. This website explains how other IAS members have applied for and received refunds. Please take a moment to review the information at...." Agan, I think you've hit on a really superb concept!! fisherman
