Here's more details. For quite some time the Church of Scientology has been pestered by an anonymous poster "Scamizdat" who regularly has been spilling cult secrets onto the net. These include directions on how to harrass critics. Scamizdat (whoever he is or they are) appears to have been using anonymous chained remailers. Grady Ward, a critic of the cult, has been taunting the cult with "Have you stopped Scamizdat yet?" I believe that Grady is almost certainly NOT Scamizdat. The church appears to have concluded that Grady is Scamizdat, has sued him, applied for a writ of seizure to raid his house (denied), and asked for a deposition (granted). It appears that Scientology is interesting in getting into the records of American anon remailers. They are also interested in anon.penet.fi. Once before, they raided anon.penet.fi when some of their internal information leaked out onto the net, and that poster has never been heard from again. Someone asked if this wouldn't violate the ECPA. In the past the cult has seized whole computers, complete with email, and ignored court orders to return them. The whole story may be found on http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/scientology/home.html Here is a file I got from Ron Newman's web page: --------------- Article 78833 of alt.religion.scientology: Path: news.cybercom.net!dial2-30.cybercom.net!user From: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman) Newsgroups: alt.privacy.anon-server,alt.religion.scientology,comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Warning - Scientology attacking remailers again! Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 11:15:40 -0500 Organization: Cyber Access Internet Services (617) 396-0491 Lines: 138 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <rnewman-1004961115400001@dial2-30.cybercom.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: dial2-30.cybercom.net Keywords: Scientology remailers anon penet anonymous Grady Ward Xref: news.cybercom.net alt.privacy.anon-server:3524 alt.religion.scientology:78833 comp.org.eff.talk:25569 The following are a series of messages from Grady Ward, which he has authorized me to distribute to the Net at large. Grady is being sued by the Church of Scientology for alleged copyright violation (they claim he is the mysterious "Scamizdat", which he denies.) For more details, see http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/scientology/grady/home.html http://www.northcoast.com/~grady/ According to Grady, the CoS has once again demanded access to anon.penet.fi, and may soon subpoena other remailers as well: ------- Date: Thu, 04 Apr 1996 08:52:38 -0800 To: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman) From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com> I've just received e-mail from: kaj.malmberg@mallu.pp.fi (Kaj Malmberg) The Poilice CID in Helsinki who is being pushed by the criminal cult yet again to get a search warrant for Julf's anonymous remailer, claiming I have been violating my injunction to post cult crap. I told him that as usual the criminal cult is lying and that I gave him and Julf explicit permission to investigate any or all of my posts I have ever made through the remailer. The criminal cult is trying to use the fact of my injunction to further their own conspiracy theories. South Africa, Finland, where does it end? Grady ------------- Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 07:41:25 -0800 To: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman) From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com> Subject: Re: Kaj Malmberg, Finland At 10:11 AM 4/5/96 -0500, you wrote:
Why did you give them this permission? I think it sets a VERY bad precedent. [deleted] was upset when I mentioned this yesterday afternoon -- he thinks you're being too nice, polite, and cooperative for your own good.
I like to err on the side of openness. Each to their own I suppose. Basically I trust Kaj to sense who is the criminal perpetrator in this case. I also sent him the set of trial stipulations in the Snow White case that ought to give him very interesting background on the criminal cult.
In my opinion, Julf and the Finnish cop should Just Say No to the CoS.
He is still free to do as he wishes. ------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 14:16:32 -0700 To: Ron Newman <rnewman@cybercom.net> From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com> Subject: Re: a few more questions At 04:56 PM 4/9/96 -0400, you wrote:
Was anyone with you (on YOUR side) at either day's deposition?
How many hours total did you go each day?
No one was with me. Total hours day one: 7.5 Total hours day two: 3.25 hours, as per order of Judge Infante. Also I believe all american anonymous remailers will be subpoenaed for their records as will all my ISPs, and contents of safety deposit box held as evidence. -------- Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 19:37:57 -0700 To: Ron Newman <rnewman@cybercom.net> From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com> Subject: Re: what is the latest regarding penet? I don't know what's up today, but Julf wrote yesterday to tell me that my id grady@northcoast.com had NOT been used to go through his remailer. No word on what the police are doing to subpoena his system, if they are. Grady -------------- Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 22:57:26 -0700 To: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman) From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com> Subject: Re: what is the latest regarding penet? At 01:52 AM 4/10/96 -0500, you wrote:
Was something else used to go through his remailer?
Has he said anything in public about this?
Should I post your message about it on my web site?
That is all he told me: that he could verify to authorities that grady@northcoast.com had not used his remailer. He didn;t mention anyone else or how he was helping the CID with their inquiries. Yes, you can put this datum on the web. -------------- Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 07:17:01 -0700 To: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman) From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com> Subject: Re: what is the latest regarding penet? Ron, Yes do please distribute my messages as you deem necessary. Some people ought to be aware of what is coming down. My feeling is that they will be doing anything they can to attempt to produce "hard evidence" that I am part of the Grand Conspiracy. I would say it is virtually certain that U.S. anon remailers will be subpoenaed as well as any foreign ones in which they can handle the authorities. Grady Ward | | http://www.northcoast.com/~grady +1 707 826 7715 | | (voice/24hr FAX) | 34877c8566839cb7 | grady@northcoast.com | aeab8ec5e5ee97fe | -- Ron Newman rnewman@cybercom.net Web: http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/home.html