Documents stolen from room in parliament
published 1996-12-01
Documents for a "sensitive" parliamentary motion were stolen in May from Barbro Westerholm's office of the Liberal Party in the parliament, report TV 4's The News.
The bill was about what Barbro Westerholm calls "destructive movements", such as the Church of Scientology.
Among the stolen documents were letters from defectors from Scientology.
- I look very seriously at what happened. There is someone who is very afraid of what I might have in my room, says Westerholm.
Parliamentary Security does not exclude the possibility of an insider crime.
http://www.dn.se/arkiv/politik/handlingar-stals-ur-riksdagsrum/
Scientology Bible public - again
published 1998-06-19
Niclas Lindstrand
The Supreme Administrative Court rebuffs the government when it comes to the so-called Scientologist Bible. It is a public document and should be made public. The principle of freedom of information precedes copyright and Secrecy Act does not apply to, concludes the Administrative Court.
- We are extremely disappointed, says Tarja Wulto, Director of Communications for the Church of Scientology in Stockholm. There are international agreements on copyright for unpublished works and our writings fall under the agreements. But we should not leave the case without taking it to the European Court in Strasbourg or Geneva, whatever, so that we get our rights.
The texts OT (Operating Thetan) and NOT (?) belong to Scientology's most secret writings. They were written by founder L. Ron Hubbard, and to read them requires many expensive courses should be studied first.
US authorities had put pressure on Sweden when the Scientologist Bible was submitted to parliament and became widely available there to the public. Among other things, the United States threatened to report Sweden to the World Trade Organisation.
The government declassified thereafter the scriptures and several other agencies followed suit. The government referred to the rules of confidentiality for information concerning Sweden's relations with other states.
- The allegations that we violated international commitments calmed down after that, says Justice Minister Laila Freivalds. What happens now I do not know, it has not been sufficient time. We have left the basic problem but hope that the inquiry was appointed in April to be able to solve it.
For an act to classified with regard to relations with another country requires it to be the actual content of the act that may damage relations. And it is not the content of the Scientologist Bible that is the problem, according to government law, but that Swedish law makes it public.
The US government equates the Church of Scientology with other commercial companies.
- A US legal entity, in this case a church, get their legitimate copyright violated daily by the Swedish Government, says Tony Holm at the US Embassy in Stockholm to SVT's News.
- It is Sweden's obligation to solve the problem. We are prepared to show patience, and we have also shown in 2.5 years, but at some point we must find a solution. We thought we had one but the court has brought us back to square one again. We wonder how the Swedish government now thinking processes.
Asked whether Sweden risks blacklisting of trade relations between the countries responding Tony Holm:
- Blacklisting is not the right term. But Sweden has landed on the US trade authority's list of those who violated US intellectual property worldwide. And it's not flattering.
Facts / Scientologist Bible
+ Scriptures was submitted by the parliament and the government by a private person, so that they could be read by anyone. Scientologists protested. The government Unclassified criticized hard and notified to the Constitutional Committee. Both KU and parliament, however, has ruled that the government made the right, albeit with a dissenting opinion from the Left and Green parties.
+ The Attorney General and Administrative Court of Appeal has previously said no to that document would be released. It was the decision that was appealed and led to the Supreme Court's ruling in the case.
http://www.dn.se/arkiv/inrikes/scientologbibeln-offentlig-igen/
Here are two newspaper articles from a Swedish paper showing what happened when a man sent the 'Scientology Bible' to the Swedish parliament. I am not exactly sure what that refers to in English. I translated the articles with Google Translate and made some refinements of my own.
All documents sent to governmental agencies and produced by governmental agencies in Sweden are made public and not classified. Only documents that are to do with defence or containing private information of citizens are classified. So the Scientology Bible was available for anyone to read in the Swedish parliament.
The Church of Scientology sent its own gorillas to read the Bible. Most in parliament slots were filled by them to make access difficult. Pages were ripped out. One politician had a burglary in her office in parliament.
Diplomatic relations with Uncle Sam broke down because of this affair. The Church of Scientology is a commercial company, so the Bible is a commercial secret. Commercial secrets must remain secret, in their view.
The guy who sent the bible was tried in court. He won the first trial but then in a higher court he lost the case.
These religious maniacs - if Scientology is a religion at all - are willing to do anything to make people's lives a hell. And rip them off money. That is what psychopathic religion is all about.
