Rene Descartes
Gold Meritorious Patron
from
http://www.scientology-cult.com/american-coast-title-cyberstalking.html
American Coast Title: Cyberstalking Cease and Desist
Thursday, 22 March 2012 20:03
Joel Phillips, owner of
American Coast Title
Cease and Desist
Re: Illegal content on religiousfreedomwatch.org
Joel Phillips
P.O. Box 50744
Pasadena, CA 91115
Dear Mr. Phillips:
It has come to my attention that you have a picture and my name on the front page of your website under the banner “Exposing Religious Intolerance” and mixed in with the pictures and names of convicted felons and notorious anti-religionists, such as the infamous Ted Patrick who was once found guilty and jailed for kidnaping and “deprogramming” people into giving up their religious beliefs and membership.
This is guilt by association, and also libelous. Nothing in my history remotely qualifies me for this category. Moreover, my name links to a page filled with false and vicious claims about me, basically calling me psychotic and a liar, a clear attack on my character. Not only is the information false and libelous, but it is obviously intended to subject me to ridicule and hatred and harm me financially. I feel physically and financially threatened by it and regard it as a form of extortion designed to silence and harass me for my role in blowing the whistle on the abuses of David Miscavige that I personally witnessed and experienced while a member of the Sea Org at the International Base (“Int Base”) outside Hemet, California.
Recently, yet another former high-ranking Sea Org member has gone public with abuse stories similar to mine. Debbie Cook, a 29-year member of the Sea Org and the Captain of the Flag Service Organization for 17 years, testified under oath in a Texas Court that she witnessed David Miscavige pummel Marc Yager just as I witnessed, one of Scientology’s highest ranking international executives and was herself the brunt of physical abuse by order of Miscavige — as was I. She told of being taken to “the Hole,” a double-wide trailer with bars on the windows and a guard at the door where she was kept for 7 weeks. Dozens of other international executives were also imprisoned there and forced to sleep on an ant-infested floor. She testified that Miscavige beat another staff member and then forced him to lick a bathroom floor for half an hour.
This is the sort of behavior I refuse to tolerate and am working to expose. Such conduct is not religious, it is not Scientology. I am a Scientologist myself and am tolerant of other religions.
You may choose not to believe me, Debbie, and many other whistleblowers — all former high-ranking Sea Org members who are making similar claims, but you weren’t there and I was. You have never contacted me to verify your statements nor obtain my version of the events. Obviously, you were not present and have no first hand information. At best, you are relying on information given you. At worst, you made it up.
An investigation of the facts and circumstances would clear the air and determine the truth of the matter. The convening authority for worldwide matters, the Executive Director International, Guilliame LeServe, however, is not on post. David Miscavige removed him, even though Miscavige lacks the power to do so under LRH policy and corporate bylaws. I know; I saw Guilliame imprisoned in the same gulag that came to be known at “the Hole.” There are no internal mechanisms to handle the current situation. Miscavige has eliminated all the internal checks and balances put in place by LRH.
I chose to go public with my claims rather than remain silent. The choice was clear: either speak up and use the heart of Scientology — communication and confront — to strike a blow to the cancer killing Scientology or remain silent while people were being harmed and abused through the criminal actions of a corrupt dictator who believes himself to be above the law.
I view your actions to be in retaliation for me speaking out. I know the game. Your orders ultimately emanate from OSA Int, which, in turn, is micro-managed by David Miscavige, however the actual channels of communication have been disguised. Clearly, you are acting on orders, not an independent investigation.
Not only do the things said about me by you defame me, but, they harass and subject me to hatred and ridicule that put me in fear for my safety. Because you falsely position me as being anti-Scientology, rather than pro-Scientology/anti-abuses of Miscavige, and because Miscavige has exalted himself as some sort of supreme ruler and savior of Scientology in the eyes of many members who refuse to make independent investigations or think for themselves, I fear that one of your misinformed website visitors may harm me physically as a righteous act.
Perhaps unknown to you, the defamatory and hateful content on your website concerning me — and other whistleblowers against Miscavige’s inhumane treatment of Int Base staff — is just one of many hate websites naming me (and other whistleblowers). Each and every one of them emanate from Miscavige through whatever channels, however disguised. As you are fully aware, no Scientologist in good standing would dare make a public statement concerning Scientology without clearance from OSA.
Additional information that may be unknown to you is that the hate websites are only one component of Miscavige’s retaliatory campaign against me and other whistleblowers. He has directed Scientologists to physically harass whistleblowers in front of their homes. He has directed private investigators to surveil us. He has sent teams of Scientologists to badger us, and to contact us by phone and through email making attempts to coerce our silence. He has tracked the airplane flights of whistleblowers through an in-house travel agency, knowing when we booked a flight and having investigators at the other end waiting for our arrivals. Apparently he has illegally obtained private information, such as phone records and even had email accounts illegally hacked into.
Your actions against me are part of a pattern of conduct which combine to make a credible threat that I will be physically and otherwise harmed unless and until I discontinue my efforts to expose Miscavige’s criminal actions and abuses.
Therefore, your conduct violates state and federal cyberstalking laws, 18 USC Sec. 2261A and California Penal Code Sec. 653, as well as California Code Sec. 646.9. Section 646.9 defines “credible threat” to include a “threat implied by a pattern of conduct or a combination of verbal, written, or electronically communicated statements and conduct. (Emphasis added.)
Your crimes constitute “hate crimes” under both California and federal law. See, e.g., California Penal Code Secs. 422.55 & 422.6 because they are clearly motivated by hatred toward the exercise of my religion. I am an independent Scientologist and am associated with persons who have also left the Church of Scientology to practice their religion independently of the Church.
Please take special note: California law also creates a right of action in Civil Code Sec. 1708.7.
I request that you immediately cease and desist carrying my name or image on your website. Otherwise, I intend to seek legal redress.
Mr. Phillips, we don’t know each other. I have asked around about you and have learned that you are, as I am, a Scientologist, a professional, and a successful businessman. I have been persuaded that your criminal actions against me are atypical of your character and personality.
Let me point out what I believe are applicable LRH references.
You seem to be unaware of my lengthy service in the Sea Org, and my substantial contributions to Scientology. Please see the attached. I encourage you to investigate my record and compare it to the contributions of other Scientologists you know, including your own.
I am in a different category by LRH policy than a person such as Ted Patrick, who was never a Scientologist and even publicly called Scientology a fraud. Unlike me, he was truly religiously intolerant. You cannot honestly compare me to him.
Furthermore, LRH warned us not to treat Scientologists who leave or are let go as though they have evil intentions. See, the lecture entitled “Attitude & Conduct of Scientology,” dated 3 November 1955 from the 4th London ACC. In that lecture he said, among other things, the following:
● “It’s because they are people of good intention. And by saying that these people are not fit to associate with us anymore, we have told a lie of magnitude. This is not true. It’s never true. You got it?”
● “Our inability to understand the actions of other Scientologists has a very fascinating barrier. The limitation on our understanding is simply this: we say they have bad intentions, and that is a lie. Got it?
“So the whole situation is liable to enturbulate around that postulated bad intention. That’s what enturbulates the situation. That makes a lie.
“The situation then becomes unsolvable. Because we’ve entered a changing factor called a lie into it.”
Note: This explains why we have a growing independent movement in Scientology, bad press and Internet, governmental investigations. The situation isn’t resolving and won’t resolve by falsely labeling, attacking, and harassing whistleblowers.
● “This guy says he’s been hurt, he’s screaming to high heaven, let’s try and give him a hand.
“In view of the fact that he’s in Scientology the probability is that he’s – actually has been hurt. See? He probably...that’s the... the probabilities are very in favor of that. And he isn’t just standing there screaming, or she isn’t just standing there screaming and saying, “I’ve been done in,” just to stand there and say, “I’ve been done in,” see?”
Note: Precisely. When I learned the correct legal definitions of words like “assault” and “battery” I understood for the first time that I myself had clearly been assaulted and battered by David Miscavige on multiple occasions in addition to being falsely imprisoned at the Int Base on numerous occasions. So were others. It really happened, and is probably continuing to happen, Mr. Phillips. I witnessed many others being assaulted and battered by David Miscavige. The single instance that you site on your website, although you were not even there, happened not in November 2003 but in the first part of December and the assailant, David Miscavige, was there.
● “Well, I hate to unsettle a very stable datum, if it does unsettle it. But the only way anything ever does resolve is by letting your own kind heart reach through. That’s the only way it ever does solve. And it never solves by being tough.”
● “But we do not, I repeat, do not, separate them from Scientology or Scientology organizations, nor at any moment fail to give them organizational support or cooperation in the starting of any new activity in which they wish to engage for the benefit of Scientology. You got that?
“In other words, the arduous lesson along this line is that no-communication lists, revocation/suspension of certificates, court action of any kind whatsoever within the realm of Scientology and so forth, is not only – not only difficult to do but does not work. That’s just the end of it. It just doesn’t work. It’s for the sea gulls. That might work in Gestetner Limited or Westinghouse, but it does not work in Scientology. Got that?”
As LRH also said in this lecture, people who leave the Church “seldom go off and suck their thumbs dismally.” We are former Sea Org members. We will not rest until the crimes and inhumane treatment by David Miscavige are brought to light for one significant reason: others are still at risk.
Second, I refer you to The Third Party Law, which I contend is at play here. You don’t know me or what I witnessed at Int Base. You have been “told” that I am a bad guy, a liar who falsely claims that Miscavige committed crimes. Today in Scientology, we have a fractured membership, each side pitted against the other.
Consider a third party at work. Consider the possibility that Miscavige is really brutal and, in the words of Debbie Cook, “vicious beyond belief.”
You are a businessman. If you were accused of torturing and assaulting your employees, what would you do? Try to defame, harass and subject your accusers to hatred and ridicule that put them in fear for their safety? If dozens of parties came forward over a period substantiating those same charges, would the co-owners of your business continue to ignore their allegations if you slandered them? What if those charges were being made against one of your employees? Would you not investigate?
I know the answer to those questions. You/they would independently investigate the charges. If the accusers really were liars, lawful action would be taken against them. If there was merit to the charges, you or the employee would be let go. Professionals and responsible people don’t rely on intimidation and slander as defenses to serious charges; they investigate and handle the underlying situations. In your job, you wouldn’t accept your employees using against their critics the same kind of tactics and invective you have used against me.
I suggest that an honest investigation by you or others would reveal a third party at work and lead to a resolution of the overall situation, blowing charge for the group and allowing us to establish ARC (affinity + reality + communication = understanding) and join together to take Scientology’s true message to the world.
Apparently Miscavige is afraid of an honest investigation and would rather hide in the chaos created by engaging in a campaign of libel and other illegal retaliatory actions.
I am not against the Church; I am a loyal Scientologist against criminality, abuse, intolerance and corruption.
A copy of this letter is being directed to your company’s co-owners and its underwriter for their roles and legal responsibility in the website.
A copy of this letter is also being sent to David Miscavige. He bears ultimate responsibility for the overall, multi-pronged retaliatory program against me and others who have blown the whistle on his own criminal actions and inhuman treatment of staff members.
Regardless of what David Miscavige does, I insist that you comply with the law.
I hereby demand that you cease and desist your online attacks against me. Please remove my name and photograph, as well as the offensive, demeaning, degrading, false, scandalous, harassing, threatening statements, from any and all web pages on your site, and links to pages containing them, and notify me that you have done so.
Sincerely,
Steve Hall
March 22, 2012
cc:
West Coast Internet
34700 Pacific Coast Hwy. Ste. 308
Capistrano Beach, CA 92624
Attention: Paul Quaranto
Joel Phillips
American Coast Title
1119 W. Glenoaks Blvd
Glendale, CA 91202
Linda Blood
American Coast Title
1119 W. Glenoaks Blvd
Glendale, CA 91202
Frank Berriz
American Coast Title
1119 W. Glenoaks Blvd
Glendale, CA 91202
Legal Department
Stewart Title Co.
525 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
David Miscavige
c/o Elliot Abelson, Attorney at Law
8491 W. Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California 90069-1911
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachment
http://www.scientology-cult.com/american-coast-title-cyberstalking.html
American Coast Title: Cyberstalking Cease and Desist
Thursday, 22 March 2012 20:03
Joel Phillips, owner of
American Coast Title
Cease and Desist
Re: Illegal content on religiousfreedomwatch.org
Joel Phillips
P.O. Box 50744
Pasadena, CA 91115
Dear Mr. Phillips:
It has come to my attention that you have a picture and my name on the front page of your website under the banner “Exposing Religious Intolerance” and mixed in with the pictures and names of convicted felons and notorious anti-religionists, such as the infamous Ted Patrick who was once found guilty and jailed for kidnaping and “deprogramming” people into giving up their religious beliefs and membership.
This is guilt by association, and also libelous. Nothing in my history remotely qualifies me for this category. Moreover, my name links to a page filled with false and vicious claims about me, basically calling me psychotic and a liar, a clear attack on my character. Not only is the information false and libelous, but it is obviously intended to subject me to ridicule and hatred and harm me financially. I feel physically and financially threatened by it and regard it as a form of extortion designed to silence and harass me for my role in blowing the whistle on the abuses of David Miscavige that I personally witnessed and experienced while a member of the Sea Org at the International Base (“Int Base”) outside Hemet, California.
Recently, yet another former high-ranking Sea Org member has gone public with abuse stories similar to mine. Debbie Cook, a 29-year member of the Sea Org and the Captain of the Flag Service Organization for 17 years, testified under oath in a Texas Court that she witnessed David Miscavige pummel Marc Yager just as I witnessed, one of Scientology’s highest ranking international executives and was herself the brunt of physical abuse by order of Miscavige — as was I. She told of being taken to “the Hole,” a double-wide trailer with bars on the windows and a guard at the door where she was kept for 7 weeks. Dozens of other international executives were also imprisoned there and forced to sleep on an ant-infested floor. She testified that Miscavige beat another staff member and then forced him to lick a bathroom floor for half an hour.
This is the sort of behavior I refuse to tolerate and am working to expose. Such conduct is not religious, it is not Scientology. I am a Scientologist myself and am tolerant of other religions.
You may choose not to believe me, Debbie, and many other whistleblowers — all former high-ranking Sea Org members who are making similar claims, but you weren’t there and I was. You have never contacted me to verify your statements nor obtain my version of the events. Obviously, you were not present and have no first hand information. At best, you are relying on information given you. At worst, you made it up.
An investigation of the facts and circumstances would clear the air and determine the truth of the matter. The convening authority for worldwide matters, the Executive Director International, Guilliame LeServe, however, is not on post. David Miscavige removed him, even though Miscavige lacks the power to do so under LRH policy and corporate bylaws. I know; I saw Guilliame imprisoned in the same gulag that came to be known at “the Hole.” There are no internal mechanisms to handle the current situation. Miscavige has eliminated all the internal checks and balances put in place by LRH.
I chose to go public with my claims rather than remain silent. The choice was clear: either speak up and use the heart of Scientology — communication and confront — to strike a blow to the cancer killing Scientology or remain silent while people were being harmed and abused through the criminal actions of a corrupt dictator who believes himself to be above the law.
I view your actions to be in retaliation for me speaking out. I know the game. Your orders ultimately emanate from OSA Int, which, in turn, is micro-managed by David Miscavige, however the actual channels of communication have been disguised. Clearly, you are acting on orders, not an independent investigation.
Not only do the things said about me by you defame me, but, they harass and subject me to hatred and ridicule that put me in fear for my safety. Because you falsely position me as being anti-Scientology, rather than pro-Scientology/anti-abuses of Miscavige, and because Miscavige has exalted himself as some sort of supreme ruler and savior of Scientology in the eyes of many members who refuse to make independent investigations or think for themselves, I fear that one of your misinformed website visitors may harm me physically as a righteous act.
Perhaps unknown to you, the defamatory and hateful content on your website concerning me — and other whistleblowers against Miscavige’s inhumane treatment of Int Base staff — is just one of many hate websites naming me (and other whistleblowers). Each and every one of them emanate from Miscavige through whatever channels, however disguised. As you are fully aware, no Scientologist in good standing would dare make a public statement concerning Scientology without clearance from OSA.
Additional information that may be unknown to you is that the hate websites are only one component of Miscavige’s retaliatory campaign against me and other whistleblowers. He has directed Scientologists to physically harass whistleblowers in front of their homes. He has directed private investigators to surveil us. He has sent teams of Scientologists to badger us, and to contact us by phone and through email making attempts to coerce our silence. He has tracked the airplane flights of whistleblowers through an in-house travel agency, knowing when we booked a flight and having investigators at the other end waiting for our arrivals. Apparently he has illegally obtained private information, such as phone records and even had email accounts illegally hacked into.
Your actions against me are part of a pattern of conduct which combine to make a credible threat that I will be physically and otherwise harmed unless and until I discontinue my efforts to expose Miscavige’s criminal actions and abuses.
Therefore, your conduct violates state and federal cyberstalking laws, 18 USC Sec. 2261A and California Penal Code Sec. 653, as well as California Code Sec. 646.9. Section 646.9 defines “credible threat” to include a “threat implied by a pattern of conduct or a combination of verbal, written, or electronically communicated statements and conduct. (Emphasis added.)
Your crimes constitute “hate crimes” under both California and federal law. See, e.g., California Penal Code Secs. 422.55 & 422.6 because they are clearly motivated by hatred toward the exercise of my religion. I am an independent Scientologist and am associated with persons who have also left the Church of Scientology to practice their religion independently of the Church.
Please take special note: California law also creates a right of action in Civil Code Sec. 1708.7.
I request that you immediately cease and desist carrying my name or image on your website. Otherwise, I intend to seek legal redress.
Mr. Phillips, we don’t know each other. I have asked around about you and have learned that you are, as I am, a Scientologist, a professional, and a successful businessman. I have been persuaded that your criminal actions against me are atypical of your character and personality.
Let me point out what I believe are applicable LRH references.
You seem to be unaware of my lengthy service in the Sea Org, and my substantial contributions to Scientology. Please see the attached. I encourage you to investigate my record and compare it to the contributions of other Scientologists you know, including your own.
I am in a different category by LRH policy than a person such as Ted Patrick, who was never a Scientologist and even publicly called Scientology a fraud. Unlike me, he was truly religiously intolerant. You cannot honestly compare me to him.
Furthermore, LRH warned us not to treat Scientologists who leave or are let go as though they have evil intentions. See, the lecture entitled “Attitude & Conduct of Scientology,” dated 3 November 1955 from the 4th London ACC. In that lecture he said, among other things, the following:
● “It’s because they are people of good intention. And by saying that these people are not fit to associate with us anymore, we have told a lie of magnitude. This is not true. It’s never true. You got it?”
● “Our inability to understand the actions of other Scientologists has a very fascinating barrier. The limitation on our understanding is simply this: we say they have bad intentions, and that is a lie. Got it?
“So the whole situation is liable to enturbulate around that postulated bad intention. That’s what enturbulates the situation. That makes a lie.
“The situation then becomes unsolvable. Because we’ve entered a changing factor called a lie into it.”
Note: This explains why we have a growing independent movement in Scientology, bad press and Internet, governmental investigations. The situation isn’t resolving and won’t resolve by falsely labeling, attacking, and harassing whistleblowers.
● “This guy says he’s been hurt, he’s screaming to high heaven, let’s try and give him a hand.
“In view of the fact that he’s in Scientology the probability is that he’s – actually has been hurt. See? He probably...that’s the... the probabilities are very in favor of that. And he isn’t just standing there screaming, or she isn’t just standing there screaming and saying, “I’ve been done in,” just to stand there and say, “I’ve been done in,” see?”
Note: Precisely. When I learned the correct legal definitions of words like “assault” and “battery” I understood for the first time that I myself had clearly been assaulted and battered by David Miscavige on multiple occasions in addition to being falsely imprisoned at the Int Base on numerous occasions. So were others. It really happened, and is probably continuing to happen, Mr. Phillips. I witnessed many others being assaulted and battered by David Miscavige. The single instance that you site on your website, although you were not even there, happened not in November 2003 but in the first part of December and the assailant, David Miscavige, was there.
● “Well, I hate to unsettle a very stable datum, if it does unsettle it. But the only way anything ever does resolve is by letting your own kind heart reach through. That’s the only way it ever does solve. And it never solves by being tough.”
● “But we do not, I repeat, do not, separate them from Scientology or Scientology organizations, nor at any moment fail to give them organizational support or cooperation in the starting of any new activity in which they wish to engage for the benefit of Scientology. You got that?
“In other words, the arduous lesson along this line is that no-communication lists, revocation/suspension of certificates, court action of any kind whatsoever within the realm of Scientology and so forth, is not only – not only difficult to do but does not work. That’s just the end of it. It just doesn’t work. It’s for the sea gulls. That might work in Gestetner Limited or Westinghouse, but it does not work in Scientology. Got that?”
As LRH also said in this lecture, people who leave the Church “seldom go off and suck their thumbs dismally.” We are former Sea Org members. We will not rest until the crimes and inhumane treatment by David Miscavige are brought to light for one significant reason: others are still at risk.
Second, I refer you to The Third Party Law, which I contend is at play here. You don’t know me or what I witnessed at Int Base. You have been “told” that I am a bad guy, a liar who falsely claims that Miscavige committed crimes. Today in Scientology, we have a fractured membership, each side pitted against the other.
Consider a third party at work. Consider the possibility that Miscavige is really brutal and, in the words of Debbie Cook, “vicious beyond belief.”
You are a businessman. If you were accused of torturing and assaulting your employees, what would you do? Try to defame, harass and subject your accusers to hatred and ridicule that put them in fear for their safety? If dozens of parties came forward over a period substantiating those same charges, would the co-owners of your business continue to ignore their allegations if you slandered them? What if those charges were being made against one of your employees? Would you not investigate?
I know the answer to those questions. You/they would independently investigate the charges. If the accusers really were liars, lawful action would be taken against them. If there was merit to the charges, you or the employee would be let go. Professionals and responsible people don’t rely on intimidation and slander as defenses to serious charges; they investigate and handle the underlying situations. In your job, you wouldn’t accept your employees using against their critics the same kind of tactics and invective you have used against me.
I suggest that an honest investigation by you or others would reveal a third party at work and lead to a resolution of the overall situation, blowing charge for the group and allowing us to establish ARC (affinity + reality + communication = understanding) and join together to take Scientology’s true message to the world.
Apparently Miscavige is afraid of an honest investigation and would rather hide in the chaos created by engaging in a campaign of libel and other illegal retaliatory actions.
I am not against the Church; I am a loyal Scientologist against criminality, abuse, intolerance and corruption.
A copy of this letter is being directed to your company’s co-owners and its underwriter for their roles and legal responsibility in the website.
A copy of this letter is also being sent to David Miscavige. He bears ultimate responsibility for the overall, multi-pronged retaliatory program against me and others who have blown the whistle on his own criminal actions and inhuman treatment of staff members.
Regardless of what David Miscavige does, I insist that you comply with the law.
I hereby demand that you cease and desist your online attacks against me. Please remove my name and photograph, as well as the offensive, demeaning, degrading, false, scandalous, harassing, threatening statements, from any and all web pages on your site, and links to pages containing them, and notify me that you have done so.
Sincerely,
Steve Hall
March 22, 2012
cc:
West Coast Internet
34700 Pacific Coast Hwy. Ste. 308
Capistrano Beach, CA 92624
Attention: Paul Quaranto
Joel Phillips
American Coast Title
1119 W. Glenoaks Blvd
Glendale, CA 91202
Linda Blood
American Coast Title
1119 W. Glenoaks Blvd
Glendale, CA 91202
Frank Berriz
American Coast Title
1119 W. Glenoaks Blvd
Glendale, CA 91202
Legal Department
Stewart Title Co.
525 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
David Miscavige
c/o Elliot Abelson, Attorney at Law
8491 W. Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California 90069-1911
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachment
