Psycho-Political News from Scientology Germany

Munich, Germany
approx. November 2000
unauthorized, unofficial interpretation of Scientology's German psycho-political magazine, FREIHEIT

Scientologist Craig Jensen testifies for U.S. Congress

US American Craig Jensen, whose "Executive Software" company developed a component of Microsoft's new "Windows 2000" operating system and who has been employed for years with Microsoft, is one of many who have gotten on the wrong side of the human rights concept contrived by the German guardians of faith. After the archbishop's ordinariat in Munich caught wind of Jensen's religious membership, first the state churches then political "sect experts" openly called for a boycott of "Windows 2000" based on scattered rumors of its "possible risk" - right before the distribution of the software. As a consequence several government agencies and ministries joined in with the incomprehensible and hysterical movement. The process caused the USA in May 2000 to put Germany on the so-called "Watch List" - the warning slip for nations which use discriminatory practices in dealing with US companies.

At a hearing in the American House of Representatives in June of that year (see photo: [sub-text of photo portraying Craig Jensen in a checkered tie: Craig Jensen, Executive Software chief, at a hearing before the American House of Representatives. Jensen is a Scientologist and thus serves as grist for the mill of German guardians of faith - as have thousands others before him.], Jensen gave the background of the - failed - boycott attempt: "You will ask yourselves why? Now, here comes the really repulsive part. The official reason runs that my Executive Software company is managed by a "professing" member of the Scientology Church - namely by me. Yes, I am a member of the Scientology church, and have been for 25 years. I am proud of it and have much of my success to thank from that which I have learned with the help of my church and the writings of its religious founder L. Ron Hubbard. But what does my religion have to do with the sale of software? Obviously nothing. ... The fact is that the German government and agency representatives who have brought [the boycott] into the picture do not see anything perverse about discriminating against people for reasons of religious membership - although this conduct violates German Basic Law as well as Germany's obligations in international agreements."

"Zero Tolerance" for Intolerance

US Government takes more decisive steps against discrimination against minority religions in Germany - Criticism and demands for reform get louder

Clear words about discrimination against Scientologists in Germany were found in the Report on the international situation of religious freedom which the US State Department under Madeleine Albright published in September 2000. For the tenth time (!) in a row the annual status report was concerned with the systematic unequal treatment of minority religions in the Federal Republic.

Even in the first paragraph Washington did not mince words: the federal government, by continued official "observation" of the Scientology Church without having any kind of legal, relevant findings, was said to have produced a climate that "encourages" discrimination against Scientology members." Germany was also counted in the category of countries which brought "stigmatization upon certain religions by wrongfully associating them with dangerous 'sects'."

Absolutely worthy of mention in this connection is the circumstance which sets off the countries named with a conspicuous common trait: they include only European countries which have been colonized around Germany['s line of thought], among them Austria and France.

In fact the vast armies of church and political "sect commissioners" have left no stone unturned in instigating hatred towards non-believers not only in their own country, but also in exporting it to other European countries.

Not only the USA, but also numerous committees dealing with questions of human rights have for years criticized the politics directed by the state churches of German government posts and agencies against minority religions - a politic that not only knocks their own Basic Law, put also presents a flagrant violation of the European Human Rights Convention and the General Declaration of Human Rights.

You can't even get past the introduction of the recent US State Department report without seeing something as sobering as it is relevant: " There are no good reasons for any government to violate religious freedom or to tolerate those within its warrant who do. There are, however, many good reasons to promote religious freedom [...]. To that end, this Executive Summary identifies some of the barriers to religious freedom that exist, provides examples of countries where those barriers are in place ...."

One example from the US State Department for unprecedented discrimination is the so-called "sect filter" which is supposed to filter out Scientologists in Germany from certain areas of the professional world - a practice propagated mainly by employee Caberta of the Hamburg Interior Senate.

In the now published Human Rights Report it says, word for word, "U.S. officials frequently have made the point that the use of such "filters" to prevent persons from practicing their professions, solely based on their beliefs, is an abuse of their rights, as well as a discriminatory business practice. "

Back at a government session in May a US trade commissioner said in her yearly report on "discrimination in awarding of contracts by foreign governments" that the German "sect filter" was clearly classified as discriminatory - a step which got attention in world press. The American House of Representatives also recently got involved with the effects of this cynical procedure in which people have to lie about or deny their religion in order to be allowed to practice certain activities (also see page 3, [Jensen and Seiple articles]).

The President of the Church of Scientology International in the USA, Heber Jentzsch, took the occasion of the report's publication to approach German Federal Chancellor Schroeder with the demand that Kohl's era of tyranny against minority religions finally be banished from the Federal Republic's political program.

This Just In

[image of Robert Seiple. Sub-text: Robert Seiple, US International Religious Freedom Commissioner, before the Committee on International Relations. He told of the efforts being made by the US government to move the German Federal Republic to fulfil human rights points in the area of religious freedom.]

Since these articles have been written, the American displeasure with the legacy of the Inquisition has progressed: in the beginning of October the important [sic] Committee for International Relations in the US House of Representatives decided unanimously across party lines on a resolution directed at President Clinton which pursues an unmistakable line: The American President is supposed to bring about an end to the violations of religious freedom in Germany and its neighboring countries and remind these countries mainly of one thing: that they are treaty states in clear agreements against ALL forms of discrimination.

Also the elimination of unequal treatment and defamation of people based on their religious membership is the object of these treaties. Whether someone discriminates because of skin color or religious belief by treating someone condescendingly, spitting on them or even physically attacking them is, from the view of human rights, one and the same. Primarily in Germany these facts must be made public and not left to political conscience.

Scientology puts pressure on German companies

From: "Schweriner Volkszeitung online, 1998"
Monday February 8, 1999

US attorneys demand "security statement" be done away with

Munich (ADX) The controversial Scientology organization is putting pressure on German companies, apparently with the goal of getting them to do away with so-called "security statements." That was reported in today's edition of the "Focus" news magazine. In the statements, employees must affirm that they are neither Scientology members nor do they operate according to the teachings of Scientology founder Ron Hubbard. A Washington attorney's office has sent out letters of complaint which refer to practices and alleged "religious discrimination" which are "apparently illegal and violate international human rights conventions."

The addressees are American companies with German subsidiaries or German companies with American branches. According to findings by the German Constitutional Security authorities, the letters have gone to a total of 800 companies. According to "Focus" many enterprises have already given in to the pressure exerted upon them. For instance Compunet, which belongs to the US General Electric company, has done away with the security statements. The same goes for SerCon, the German subsidiary of IBM. Ford had already bowed to Scientology pressure by 1996.

Dancing Disciples

The Scientology sect presents itself in an exhibition

Munich, Germany
May 5, 2001
Sueddeutsche Zeitung

Scientology is making a stop on Reichenbachplatz: since yesterday an expensively put-on recruitment presentation can be seen in the local Weiner Auction building. The opening spectacle with Hollywood actress Anne Archer ("A fatal Affair" not sure of English title) and a small opening demonstration over Sonnenstrasse cause a little stir on Friday in the Glockenbach quarter.

The focus of the traveling show which is touring all through Europe this year is supposed to be the fight against drugs according to Scientology concepts. One look at the oversized exhibits on the walls showed, however, that the focus was mainly on the activities of the "Church of Scientology International" and the life if its founder L. Ron Hubbard. It was said that 12,000 visitors visited the show in Stuttgart. Scientology Munich, which says it has about 6,000 members, wants to surpass this number.

About 150 of them went to the opening yesterday. To the should of the "Jive Aces" six-man band which was accompanying the campaign through Europe, they danced on Reichenbachplatz and gave an enthusiastic welcome to actress Anne Archer. She has been a Scientology member herself for 25 years and gave a short opening speech yesterday with sentences like, "People would want to be happy, and the biggest problem is drugs," which the visitors greeted enthusiastically. Then Archer cut a red ribbon at the entrance while 5,000 blue and white balloons were released and floated up to the sky. The actress had already seen the show, she disappeared immediately into a small room in the top floor.

During the ceremony a small group of protestors formed on the other side of the street, including singer Petra Perle. Her little picket sign said, "Caution, chic in- sect!" Sparking much more attention was her acoustic protest: Perle joined in with each frenetic storm of applause by bleating like a sheep. She said she did that because "I don't want them in my quarter, nobody here wants them."

"Oh, we're above that," Scientology spokesman Georg Stoffel assured us, "we won't let it disturb us." On the contrary: numerous events were planned around the exhibition up to May 18th. Stoffel: "In the next two weeks we intend to be very present here."

kast

"Caution: Chic In-Sect"
"In" as opposed to "out", which Petra, as you can tell, is very concerned about, but what are the two red-haired ladies in the background laughing at?

The two women in the above picture were laughing at the other side of Petra's sign, which says:
"Secten wirken wie Drogen"
"Sects work like Drugs"

Notice OSA Sabine Weber has her back to Petra Perle, who is speaking to the local constabularies. Very inconspicuous.

The man in the ball cap on the left might be Waki Zoellner, the longest surviving Scientologist in Germany. The woman on the right with the look and the hand is OSA Sabine Weber.

from the person who took the 4th picture:

well I was there today and posted some pictures on ABS. Since it was not crowded at all by WOG's it was so boring. It seemed Co$ brought a lot of people from allover Europe to give the impression that at least SOME people are interested in the exhibition. Since the visitors looked so Scientology like (you know the woman with long skirts and cardigans?) and the man with suits. Oh yes, it seems I've missed Anne Archer.

From my safe WOG controlled position, I've watched the Scios taping everyone, including some wogs and the two lonely picketers. The music by the "Jive Aces" was EXTRA loud. Since I like to communicate and find out my myself I thought that is stupid. WOG's on this side of the street, Clams on the other side and we alle look at each other and make pictures and videotape. After the music stopped I entered the building and hell, it must've been my CNN cap but a Scio just approached me at the fifth picture! So she ask me: "Do you like some company? Can I show you the exhibition? Of course I'm not a rude person so I agreed. She asks: "Do you know anything about Scientology or the drug program?" "Oh yes" I replied, "nearly everything". This seems to be a powerful sentence since they don't know what to answer to this. Must go like this in their mind: "Heavy critic?" or "OT?" or "Totally crazy?". But since I was still polite she showed me the pictures, total quackery pictures about drugs and how the drugs affect people. The woman was nice but she was unable to handle me, so they send reinforcement. I found out the lady from Prague (with perfect German) was a Clear and as she said "worked for OSA some time". She tried to play the stupid "cat in your mind trick" to convince me of a Thetan or something. I explained he how the pictures are created in your mind, and that nothing is 100% clear in brain research. So I asked her to stick on the facts. I asked her about on specific chart of cocaine, and how it disappears in the body during a 45 day period (seems to be the time your have to do the purif/narconon program). Oh yes, she tried to convince me that Narconon and the Scientology Purif are totally different.... Well.

I had a very good example of Christoph Daum, a famous Germany soccer trainer. He took cocaine, agreed to a blood test (stupid guy, bot other story) and the test was positive. Then he moved to the US, stayed there for about one or two month. Then he shaved his head, till only a few millimeters of hair were left. After his US drug test, he was free of cocaine (Hooray!). So that Narconon chart was completely bogus. I also told her that the 50% success rate are impossible to validate because no external checks are allowed, from government or other trusted sources.

I told her also my deepest concerns about the Lisa McPherson pictures, that I've seen them and how people can do something like that. I also found out that the name "Gerry Armstrong" is really feared. She immediately tried to change subject (which she always tried) when I talked about Gerry. Since there were pictures about "Hubbards great live" I had reason to talk about Gerry :)

Well, I tried NOT to talk about certain programs, Xenu etc. I think this is better, to reach their inner self.

Another strange info: It seemed that none of the three Scientologists I talked to are on the Internet. Even the young guy on the door (seemed younger than me) didn't knew anything about funny Hubbard audio, secret stuff on the net or other information. It was sad to see young people wasting their lives, and very young kids with a Scio-Future with no chance to choose.

bye,
Bodo
Home: http://www.staron.org/ | Now nuked!
Headless Scientologist: http://www.lermanet2.com/PhotoLIES.htm

Stir over Scientology Exhibition

Munich, Germany
May 3, 2001
Sueddeutsche Zeitung
http://www.sueddeutsche.de

The expenses for the campaign are enormous: with its own exhibition entitled "What is Scientology?" the controversial organization is recruiting for its goals and, as a focus point, for its path to combatting drugs. 25 tons of material were trucked in for the show, which Hollywood actress Anne Archer ("A Fateful Affair" - not sure of English title) will open tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. on 800 square meters in an auction building on 11 Reichenbachplatz in Beiseln. Up to May 18 the exhibition will stay in Munich, before then it was in Stuttgart where according to Scientology statements they are said to have had 12,000 visitors.

There was some fuss over the English "Jive Aces" band who accompanied the campaign through Europe and who will also play in the exhibition opening in Munich. For the next two weeks the band has booked seven other appearances - to be sure most of the club operators did not know who they were to have on stage, as "Jazzbar Vogler" host Thomas Vogler complained. While the "Jive Aces" openly advertise for the so-called "Church of Scientology International" on their home page, there was nothing about that on the applications for the club operators. "No Scientology there." Because of that Vogler let his colleagues know via e-mail "because everybody has a right to know that by visiting one is supporting not only the club and the band, but in this case also Scientology."

kast

Caberta Without End

An unauthorized interpretation of Scientology's OSA trade magazine in Germany, "FREIHEIT"

Munich, Germany
approx. January 17, 2001
from Scientology's Covert Hostility (OSA) magazine FREIHEIT

Ursula Caberta, Director of the anti-constitutional "Work Group on Scientology" in the Hamburg Interior Agency, wanders deeper into the briar batch - and so does her boss

As reported an investigative process has been running against the woman employee of the Hamburg Senate since September 2000 for suspicion of accepting favors and bribes. The Scientology Church has proved that Caberta had accepted a secret "loan" from, of all people, the American Scientology trial opponent Robert Minton. To date she has kept just as quiet about the amount of the loan as she has about what she had to do in return.

The bribery scandal, as time progresses, is running second to another scandal: in similarly situated cases officials and employees, in this type of founded suspicion of corruption have at least been suspended. Not so with the Hamburg Interior Agency. As comparison, in the advent of new anti-corruption directives in the State of Rheinland-Pfalz, the City of Landau even prohibited the acceptance of Christmas presents by city personnel. "We did not want," said the current executive mayor, to take a chance in the area of influence and accepting favors."

[...]

Another scandal behind the scenes: Robert Minton, against whom a criminal process for bribery and soliciting for favors is open in the state attorney's office -- the corresponding case to the investigations against Caberta, came himself to meet with Caberta in Hamburg at the end of October. When two people accused in criminal proceedings meet, you would normally hear the click of handcuffs. Instead we get radio silence. An agreement could have been made or more cover-up procedures devised. Moreover there is reason for arrest of the US American because he cannot be regularly reached by the German courts once he's back in the USA. But the things the normal citizen has to put up with don't count, so far, for Minton as long as he is sponsored by the Interior Agency. Undisturbed he comes into the country, has a conversation with Caberta, and leaves once against just as undisturbed.

To be sure things are getting ever hotter for Minton worldwide. In the December edition of English-language commerce magazine BusinessAge it was reported that the Minton Affair would not stop with criminal investigations and and government inquiries. That's what is going on in England, according to the magazine, where it was said that the Interior Ministry has since gotten involved.

In addition, according to the magazine, those suffering loss are filing civil suits, in which Robert Minton and Nigeria's last violent dictator Sani Abacha or his heirs and clan members are mentioned. In England alone it was said that there had "possibly been hundreds of millions of fraud" in dozens of corporations like Unilever and Barclay's Bank.

BusinessAge cited the continued investigative report whereby the means and routes of the fraud money managed by Minton under the regime of dictator Babangida and the later disguised routes of the Abacha Clan, who obtained billions of dollars from the country in the mid-1990s, were factually identical. And one waits in anticipation to see what else the investigators will dig up.

As always, none of that is any reason for the Hamburg Interior Senator to vigorously make his way from this swamp. Caberta may continue to quite officially dance the Tango of corruption with Minton

How long the messy show will go on, nobody knows for sure. That fact is that the Interior Senator, being sued in the Hamburg Administrative Court because of the accusations of big-time bribery of his department head and of tolerance of Mafia-like structures, cannot be brought to say a single word to justify it all. In Interior Agency which leaves such accusations uncontested in view of indisputable facts in court, has arrived at its lowest point.

[note: for details of how Scientology originally planted the lie about Minton in the press.]

From the Unofficial Mouthpiece of Scientology

      From: "Pedram Moghaddam"
   Subject: CABERTAS ANSPRUCH ABGELEHNT
Newsgroups: de.soc.weltanschauung.scientology
      Date: 29 Dec 2000

US COURT DECIDES:
SUIT AGAINST URSULA CABERTA FOR VIOLATING CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE USA ADMISSIBLE

CABERTA'S CLAIM OF "IMMUNITY" AS SENATE EMPLOYEE TURNED DOWN - REFUSING TO TESTIFY WOULD LEAD TO CONVICTION

Under case number 8:00-CV-1528-T-27C the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa has now declared admissible a law suit filed in July 2000 against Ursula Caberta demanding damages of over 75,000 dollars for violation of the civil rights of a Scientologist and discrimination against him based on "religious opposition" [or similar English wording]. Caberta's request for immunity as an employee of the Hamburg Senate was turned down.

Background: The July visit to the USA by Hamburg government employee Caberta was used by a local representative of RTI, an internationally active software corporation, to file a suit against Mrs. Caberta for religious discrimination. Shortly before concluding business with a German company the corporation was confronted with Caberta's "sect filter" and lost the major contract. In accordance with court decision Mrs. Caberta was duly served with the complaint - shortly before fleeing an ongoing hearing in one of the associated court procedures.

In the questioning Caberta had had to admit taking a "loan" in an amount which is not yet known from an opponent of Scientology. That led to investigations, which are not yet closed, against her by the state attorney in Germany on suspicion of soliciting favors and accepting bribes.

The protests of Caberta's attorney against the court hearing in the law suit for damages is therefore hardly surprising, but were turned down by the US court as unfounded. The accused Caberta can be ordered by the court to reveal significant facts and sources for the proceedings. According to US law, refusing to testify leads to judgment of contempt.

The Scientology Church is acknowledged as a charitable religious community in the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa and other countries. Just in October 2000 it was also exempted from sales tax in England, too. In the Federal Republic of Germany the religious character of the Scientology Church has been verified in over 30 court decisions. Just recently a document from the federal government has contradicted the current assertions against Scientology.

For more information:
Georg Stoffel - 089/27817732
The US court decision can be made available upon request.

FREIHEIT - Special Edition

Published by the Scientology Church
Note: This is not an official translation

Munich, Germany
The original German text was downloaded on
September 14, 2000
from http://www.menschenrechtsbuero.de/freiheit.htm

Latest news: March 27, 2001
Bob Minton won a court case against Scientology.
Scientology presented false information about Bob Minton.
Compare this page with a previous article on Nigeria and you can see the difference.

Corruption Scandal in Hamburg's Interior Agency

Ursula Caberta under oath in U.S. Court

Yes, I have taken private money

From Bob Minton

[image of Bob Minton and Ursula Caberta with bottom 1/3 of picket sign]
sub-text: In short sleeves with money falling out of his pockets: Bob Minton (left, loan provider) and the Department Director of the Hamburg Interior Agency Caberta (middle, loan debtor) in Florida.

Ursula Caberta, Director of the Work Group on Scientology, a tenant of the Interior Agency, who had traveled to the USA, tried everything to stop her deposition in a U.S. court. Mighty curious, the summons which had been served upon her came right back to the process server as a paper projectile.

None of her tricks helped her. To avoid a warrant for her arrest, Caberta finally appeared before the Tampa District Court in Florida, accompanied by two lawyers.

[image of Bob Minton and Ursula Caberta sitting at table facing audience]
sub-text: Bob Minton as guest of honor of the Interior Agency in Hamburg in early April of 2000. His deals with the former military dictator in Nigeria had been uncovered shortly before. The Interior Agency was aware of that.

The court had previously ordered her deposed in an oral hearing and had dismissed as unfounded objections which had been brought forward.

Caberta's lawyers tried loquaciousness at the last minute to prevent the hearing. They said their client was a completely normal tourist from Germany and demanded to be treated as such.

But the more they railed against the deposition, the more grew the visible mistrust in Judge Moody. He decided quickly and conclusively that the deposition would take place. Caberta was sworn in, her statements were taken down on video and on tape, was well as word for word by a stenographer. Therefore there was no question as to the documentation of her statements.

The big bang went off in the middle of the deposition: to the question of whether she had obtained money from the U.S. American Bob Minton, with whom she was in official contact in her capacity as an employee of the City of Hamburg, Ursula Caberta was caught short. First she tried to deviate persistently. Finally there was nothing left for her to do but to answer the question, "Bob Minton gave me a loan." No written loan contract existed and Bob Minton had nothing in his hands in writing which would put him in the position to get his money back from her again. She had not informed her employer about this. She said that was her personal business and therefore did not concern her employer at all. To the question of the amount of the load, she persistently refused to answer despite being asked multiple times.

Therefore it has been determined: Ursula Caberta has accepted "private" money from Bob Minton.

[image of a portion of a hotel advertisement showing a picture of a hotel and the words "Tour the Belleview Biltmore and take your..."]
sub-text: Only the finest: Agency representative Caberta resided in luxurious lodged known across America. Minton paid.

From her refusal to answer the question about the amount of the loan, it is not difficult to guess that it must have been a stately sum. But who takes out such a loan without a written loan agreement and with security, and probably without interest? Businessman Minton, who has done business in all types of places, would have in all probability verified the loan in writing if he would have had the intention of ever demanding it back.

The false declaration of a loan would always have the "advantage" of not having gift tax in the amount of approximately 17% levied. If the payment would have been a compensation for services of any sort at all, even though disloyal, it would have to have been reported for income tax.

One way or another: a loan is essentially an even more perfidious instrument of bribery than is a "generous" gift. The provider of the loan always has the official or employee right where he wants them, under control. With any display of a lack of well-being by the state service, the loan can been called in at any time - quite naturally, if no written agreement about the duration of the loan exists. The official cannot conduct a refund process since the fact of bribery would be apparent to the court.

Therefore the provider of the loan has the official in the palm of his hand and can have him dance to his own tune at his leisure.

And Bob Minton did just that, too.

First, however, he let himself be spoiled by Caberta after he had been received officially as a state guest of the Hamburg Interior Senate in early April. In Leipzig he was solemnly bestowed an "Alternative Charlemagne Award" in early June (FREIHEIT reported) because Minton - according to the Award Committee - was more deserving of such an award than U.S. President Clinton. He had just received the real Charlemagne Award of the City of Aachen.

Caberta gave the award winner the Laudatio personally, and she appeared in all the literature of the Award Committee with full official title. It's just not clear whether the granting of the surreptitious loan took place before or after the "Leipzig goings-on," i.e., whether the bestowal of the award influenced the "private" loan or vice versa. Either one would be equally obscene.

The Human Rights Award-Money Connection surely involved obligations - for Ursula Caberta, anyway. Namely, Bob Minton was in a jam while the home-made award was being presented. He had invested over one million dollars in the so-called "Lisa McPherson Trust," which, in turn, used this money to finance a profit-bearing compensation procedure. If this procedure were to miscarry, then Minton's million dollar investment would be down the drain. And things are not going well with this procedure (see box to the right). What better for Minton than for him and the government representative from Hamburg, Caberta, to carry out some "flanking public information work" in the jurisdiction of the U.S. court. Bob Minton called - and Caberta came. As a "tourist" demonstrator in the USA, she did not stray any more from the side of her sponsor.

In spite of the alleged private character of her trip to the USA, she invoked the right associated with her office to not answer questions related to Scientology in the court hearing. She also left the question of which information she had forwarded to Minton unanswered, since that was a part of her official business. The only thing recognizably private about Caberta's trip to Florida was the circumstance in which she let Minton pay for her luxury hotel.

Before Caberta's USA trip, Hamburg's Interior Senator Wrocklage was clearly instructed about the circumstances in matters of Minton in several attorney letters. He was made aware of the original text of the criminal complaint filed against Bob Minton on June 23, 2000 by the Republic of Nigeria with the State Attorney General in Geneva. According to the text of this complaint, Bob Minton was said to have caused Nigeria damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars through fraud, falsification of documents and money-laundering. Nigeria also demanded that Minton's foreign accounts in Switzerland be frozen. Wrocklage was very clearly reminded that it is intolerable when an Interior Agency maintains connection to someone who has been incriminated in the most severe white-collar crimes by a foreign state and several foreign media. All the same, Wrocklage saw no need to handle.

In doing that, he has taken personal responsibility for what he is answering to today. The impression was and is being given that official business is influenced in an unfair way by the payment of money and the appearance that official deals are for sale. Caberta, described by the media as "Scientology Opponent Nr. 1," has accepted money from Bob Minton. That is indisputable. She, who is supposed to exercise "unbiased discretion," thereby is practically on the payroll of one of the two parties.

More than that, though, is the question of what moral scruples a leading staff member of the Interior Agency must have in order to take money which, according to the government of a foreign state, has come from a criminal hand.

[image of Jesse Prince and Ursula Caberta seated at a table. Empty glasses are visible.
sub-text: His hand on her shoulder tells the photo story on the internet: Jesse Prince and Ursula Caberta in Leipzig in early June 2000.
then there's an inset image, a mug shot of Jesse Prince accompanied by "Pinellas County Sheriff's Office" and a star with personal info on a booking record
sub-text: August 11, 2000: Jesse Prince mug shot at a police station]

It's certain that this is a case for the state attorney. Therefore, a criminal complaint has been filed against Minton and Caberta at the Hamburg State Attorney's Office for bribery, soliciting favors and money-laundering.

The Scientology Church demands immediate public explanation of the following items:

  1. How high was the loan given to Caberta by Minton?
  2. When and where was it paid?
  3. In which form or under which accompanying circumstances was it paid?
  4. What securities did the loan giver receive?
  5. When is the loan supposed to be paid back?
  6. Was the loan made with interest?
  7. Why was no written agreement made?
  8. For which purpose was the loan made?
  9. In which agencies decisions has Caberta had an effect since she received the loan?
  10. Have staff of the Interior Agency been instructed to report bequests of money of this type to the agency chief?
  11. Have payments of any other sort been made to other staff of the Work Group on Scientology?
  12. Is Interior Senator Wrocklage aware of the payment of money to Ursula Caberta?

Obviously Caberta must be relieved of all duties, effective immediately, as Director of the Work Group on Scientology, until the criminal complaints have been cleared up. It would be simply unbearable if, out of inner party loyalty or for some such reason or another, crass accusations of corruption were to become the daily routine.

GOOD NEWS

****DSA GOOD NEWS BRIEFING OF THE WEEK: 6-18-2000****

Dear everybody,

We were gone for a long time, but now the renowned, notorious GOOD NEWS is back in business. We will soon expand this service even further and occasionally have some information delivered to you per "Hard Cover" which you can then distribute to your "publics."

The peace and quiet at the OSA office doesn't mean a thing because sometimes things run hot here.

For instance, in the last two months we have produced 4 entire "Freiheit" magazines in order to make it more clear than usual to "our friends" that we are THERE!

Probably the most interesting discovery was that Ursula Caberta, who is entitled "human rights violator" per the decision of the Hamburg Superior State Court, has catapulted herself in a roundabout way and through a newly created front organization of Sect-Reverend Thomas Gandow into a home-made jury for human rights award.

This is the way things came off: Reverend Thomas Gandow was an old friend of the long-term fanatic Friedrich Wilhelm Haack, the Weltanschauungs Commissioner of the Evangelical Church in Bavaria. Thomas Gandow worked in Berlin all the time and soon expanded his contacts into the East and other parts of the world. Similar to his foster father Haack, Gandow always liked to get involved with the founding of some front organizations, in this case the "Eltern- und Betroffenen Initiative Berlin" (EBI) ["Parents and People affected Initiative"]. These type of parents' associations have been around since the 1970s all over Germany, almost all of them were founded and directed by Evangelical ministers. As you know, these parents' initiatives were not particularly effective, so people fell back to citizens' initiatives in the early 1990s. The advantage of citizens' initiatives was that they did not need any people who had been affected [by cults] (which there were hardly any of), just angry citizens. In order to get them worked up, it was necessary to have a "victim," who moved from citizens' initiative to citizens' initiative. An old trick.

Probably to attain ["erhalben" sp.] more subsidies, Reverend Gandow then founded not only EBI's, but also "Berliner Dialog" publishing (really should have been called the Berlin Monologue, but enough said), and two more front associations - all at the same address as Gandow, Evangelical Weltanschauungs Office, EBI's and the Berliner Dialog. Now the efforts of the Scientology Church, particularly in the area

1

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of human rights, were a special thorn in the side of our opponents. Over 25 human rights reports from various international committees have appeared since 1993. As Gandow and Caberta carefully considered - those reports had to be effectively counteracted.

Therefore, sometime after the "Open Letter to Chancellor Kohl," - that was in 1997 - Reverend Gandow brought an association to life special for the occasion, not only that, it was called the "German-American Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the USA." Try saying that one fast a few times.

But it gets even better. Gandow and Caberta are especially upset with Bill Clinton because Scientology achieved fame and honor in the USA during his term in office - according to their logic, naturally. Clinton was said to have met with Travolta and Cruise, with Kidman and Corea. During his term in office, people criticized Germany and so on and so on and so on. Therefore it would be absolutely unbelievable that the President of the United States, who, by the way, also wrote for "Freiheit" magazine in the USA, would receive the "International Charlemagne Award of Aachen" for his services in matters of peace and human rights - so judged Gandow and Caberta. While Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder formulated the Laudatio (commendation speech) for Clinton, our human rights violator was creating the "Alternative Charlemagne Award" for a shady multi-millionaire from the USA, Robert Minton.

Robert Minton made his fortune with the help of fraudulent buy-back deals for the corrupt military dictator of Nigeria. With his help, countless banks were ripped off, and let their promissory notes from the country of Nigeria (who had gotten loans from them) for billions of dollars be sold to Minton for a song, who put one over on them by deliberately lying that Nigeria was without means to pay. In fact, Nigeria is at place number 13 on the list of the poorest countries in the world. But there are about 2.5% of the population of the country who are not starving like the suppressed remainder. There is no plumbing, no electricity and little to eat. Only the government lives in splendor and glory. In reality, though, Nigeria is anything but poor, because it possess rich oil reserves and came into a lot of money in the 1990s. That was not used to pay back their loans, though, but to make some people rich. That was the Minton, who made his fortune of millions from over 100 million starving bodies of the Nigerian population, who should be distinguished - as intended by Gandow and Caberta - with a human rights award - the "Alternate Charlemagne Award"; and at the same time to get one over on Bill Clinton, who received the "International Charlemagne Award" one day prior.

Gandow's motives are particularly transparent. Because his "Parents and People affected Initiative" in Berlin is doing very poorly financially. It could use the help of a rich benefactor with a shot of money. And who keeps a tight hold on his check book when he has just received such a distinction. Swindlers and con-men among themselves.

Nevertheless, the story seems to be exploding more and more. Because the Nigeria Affair is pulling in more international crises. It was recently discussed in the U.S. Congress and Minton rushed back to the USA after the award in order to save what he could. In doing so, however, he now has to admit that his business partner was anything but trustworthy. In any case, things are getting hotter for Gandow and Caberta.

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Otherwise why would they have hooked an alleged major criminal who can pull them all into oblivion rather than deal with little criminals like the Hartwigs and Armstrongs and Jesse Princes, dealers, rip-off artists, con-men and slickers.

What Minton brought to the theme of Scientology, in any case, was money. After the tragic death of a Scientologist woman at Flag, her name was Lisa McPherson, he was brimming with money. With his help, a distant relative of Lisa McPherson filed a lawsuit for damages against the Church in the amount of 80 million dollars. Minton financed her. What percentage he receives or has calculated, we can only guess. But even that dream seems to be crashing. Just last week, the state attorney's office in Clearwater put in for the proceedings to be suspended - in short, the case died. However, our Unimprovables can always try it in a civil suit - and as crazy as they are, that's what they'll do - but the basis of the case has been withdrawn, the prospects of success are zero. "Human rights activist" Minton will have to make a business out of the tragic death of a Scientologist himself.

The whole anti-religion campaign is slowly slipping out of the hands of those who are causing it ....

Because absolutely all the proof for all their assertions and their witness are quite obviously getting more and more dubious and untrustworthy, the Gandows and Cabertas are being left hanging out as time goes by. Even the personal dynamic, to which such a fanatic campaign is suited, is going completely out of control.

Like, for example, in the matter of MICROSOFT.

For about six years the Executive Software company has been working together with the PC giant, Microsoft. The owner of Executive Software is Scientologist Craig Jensen, professed member and generous donor. With the help of the Evangelical and Catholic computer freaks, a rumor is being circulated that the "Diskeeper" program from Executive Software could possibly be in the position to copy data, unnoticed, from the users' hardware. Of course that is sheer fabrication and no tests could cause this suspicion to materialize in any way. But that is all the same to the instigators. What they are primarily concerned about is using Scientology-free computers and software systems. As said though, the shoe is now on the other foot. That is because the Americans are very very very very sensitive to their products being boycotted based on religious membership of any producer or provider. In this regard, Microsoft is even cooler than the U.S. government itself. Specifically, they, represented by the U.S. Trade Representative direct from the White House, have placed Germany on a "Watch List" of countries which take discriminatory measures against American firms. The reason - the Microsoft case, even though that is not openly stated.

So far, so good. At first Germany did not react to the Watch List. Things changed, though, last week. Wednesday, when before the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the U.S. Congress a hearing was held on religious discrimination in west Europe focusing on Germany and France, in which 20 concerned Scientologists from the USA, France and Germany, took part, including Craig Jensen, who gave an impassioned speech in the House of Representatives which did not leave a dry eye in the house. The Berlin "Tagesspiegel"

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was the only newspaper in Germany to make it into a title story, and wrote:

"Last Wednesday, the latest hearing on the theme of the "treatment of religious minorities" in west Europe took place in the U.S. Congress. Once again Germany was put on trial because of its dealing with Scientology. ... 'The federal government is not even trying to keep their embargo from being based on religious discrimination," said Jensen on Wednesday to the foreign affairs committee. 'I am not appearing here today to complain about a commercial boycott or about religious discrimination, but bring to your attention to interplay of both - an embargo which is being justified with official government religious discrimination.' He called upon the U.S. Congress to pass a resolution critical of Germany."

"Old hat? It depends. It is known that one or the other official position in Washington bends to the cleverly launched pressure from Scientology when it comes to Germany's dealing with the alleged Church. What's new is that the scandal moves in wider circles. ..."

"On Wednesday, Juergen Chrobob [sp.], the German Ambassador in Washington, reacted to the Congressional hearing on the Microsoft boycott with an explanation which is typical of how the German government replies to U.S. accusations. While the victims told their stories in the House of Representatives, Chrobog pointed out paragraphs in the Constitution. ..."

Finally it continued in a commentary:
"Hamburg's agencies are on thin ice. Stopping a computer program from being installed because it comes from the company of a high-ranking Scientologist is objectionable. ... The fact that Scientology is the object of justified suspicions is NOT sufficient for official disapproval. It would have to be duly legally explained that it was dealing with a psycho-business with anti-Constitutional objectives. That is exactly what has not happened. Further, the objections to the computer program in question would have to be proved. But there, too, only suspicions are in the air. ...That fact that even computer experts cannot agree on the ranking of the program does not contribute to one's peace of mind. ..."

Waki Zoellner, who took part in the hearing in Washington along with Pablo Roehrig and other Scientologists, was completely overwhelmed by the American's hearty encouragement. His summary: nobody left the hearing early and we won a whole lot of new friends. Those who were against us before are for us now. Many have finally grasped what is really going on in Germany.

Those who make wind will harvest a storm. The Gandows and Caberta should dress warmly while we tell more and more people what Scientology really is.

In this sense ...
Your DSA GERMANY OFFICE

Three articles are presented here about Norbert Bluem, preceded by this commentary. With regard to conflict, compare the first and last articles. The second article was put in as a control article to provide a perspective without conflict.

The first and third articles are both heavily involved in conflict and Norbert Bluem. Both of them adequately demonstrate how two different organizations, Scientology on one side and Spiegel magazine on the other, handle disagreement.

There any similarities begin to fade. The Spiegel article on Bluem actively involves Dr. Bluem himself. Dr. Bluem was invited to an interview. He accepted, knowing what could be in store for him. Dr. Bluem participated in the conflict. He was involved. And that is how he came out of the conflict - as an involved participant. Regardless of what the conflict was about, Bluem answered the not always friendly questions directed at him and was able to make himself understood in a discussion, as were the editors of Spiegel.

Scientology's article on Dr. Bluem, however, dealt with abstracts and tangents. There was a total lack of confront when it came to Norbert Bluem himself. Exactly how responsible is the Labor Minister for the unemployment of a country, one could ask after reading the Scientology article. About as responsible as a ship's captain for the condition of the sea upon which he sails his ship, one could semantically answer.

What we can thank Norbert Bluem for in Scientology's article is the way he brought out the self-defense mechanism of the Scientology ideology. That's not to say that's what he was trying to do. All he really did, while he was in office, was take a position on Scientology. Doesn't sound like much does it? But how many politicians do you know that would say, "Scientology has as much to do with religion as a bicycle has to do with space travel"? Because Norbert Bluem put himself at risk by taking a position on something as controversial as Scientology, we have the description contained in the "Rasputin of Bonn."

*

Introduced with "The Rasputin of Bonn" is a set of mental images which Scientology hopes to bring mind in that Rasputin allegedly:

Identifying Dr. Bluem with the above pre-fabricated personality profile by means of Rasputin, Scientology then continued with its embellishments. Dr. Bluem allegedly:

Roughly speaking, the above two lists were presented by Scientology to defend itself against Norbert Bluem. A casual reader would generally assume that an organization would never rationally accuse someone else of doing exactly what the organization itself was doing. The casual reader would be correct.

The Rasputin* of Bonn

[*Rasputin, Grigori Effimovich, 1871-1916, Siberian peasant monk and a "miracle" worker who was very influential at the court of Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra from 1907 to his murder in 1916.]

Theological Influence in Politics

History Repeats Itself

Los Angeles, California
January, 1997
http://www.freedommag.org/german/rasputin/page02.htm
Commonly known as OSA-FREIHEIT magazine

The original Rasputin - the one from the tiny Siberian village of Pokrovskoya - had peasants for parents and received no sort of education. In mercilessly exploiting the superstition of his time, he managed to exert considerable political influence in the chaotic years before Russia plunged into revolution in 1917.

Although ignorant in political matters, he made his way to the court of the Russian czars - and that by means of his self-made profession as a man of God. His manipulative abilities were characterized in being able to put on an Orthodox air while he actually distorted theological principles so that they fit his intentions. His most important rule was that one "should sin so that one could obtain forgiveness." The sexual and political orgies that resulted are legendary.

At last even Rasputin's political adherents grasped that they had had the wool pulled over their eyes. The crazy monk turned out to be a millstone around the neck of the failing dynasty. Where his theological views had always been important, in politics they came to no avail.

The reason by which one still remembers these historical episodes - besides Rasputin's "miracle cures" - is his self-portrayal in matters of political and economic wisdom, which was actually only a ruse to justify and hide his real motive.

This brings us to our present Rasputin. He comes from Bonn. And exactly like the man whose legacy he appears to assume, we again have one before us who claims to be the best informed about politics and business - while doing so his knowledge and his interests are found in completely different areas.

Going after those who think differently

When Federal Chancellor Kohl recently took back his promise to halve unemployment by the year 2000, he was signalling that he had given up the last flicker of trust in the man responsible for doing that: Labor Minister Norbert Bluem - the Bonn Rasputin who really was supposed to solve the problem.

With four to six million unemployed Germans - depending on which statistics one believes - Mr. Bluem is enjoying the unfortunate record of being the Labor Minister with the worst unemployment catastrophe in Germany since the Second World War. This fact should not just simply be waved away or excused. It cannot be sheer coincidence that in 50 years of peace a Labor Minister has produced more people who are not earning a living than former periods although back then most factories and operations in the country were in useless piles of rubble.

Under these conditions one would really have to expect that the minister with jurisdiction would use all conceivable measures to create work places for those who elected him. But Bluem appears to not even be thinking about that. As did the monk from Pokrovskoya in his time, Bluem apparently understands very little of economic relationships. Instead of this he wastes a not minor portion of his time in engaging in misguided theological discussion.

While Bluem was failing completely in the mission whose management he was in charge of, the Catholic theologian was spending his time, financed by the tax payers, with a crusade he alone had called against imaginary heretics.

In Germany anyone who reads the newspaper is familiar with Bluem's endless columns of insults against minority religions. They are directed primarily, but not exclusively, against the Scientology Church.

It is obvious that this campaign has nothing to do with the problem of unemployment. But this fact has also developed, how blind Bluem has become in regard to his actual area of responsibility and how little connection he has with normal people who actually suffer under the consequences of his failure as labor minister.

Nothing could have made this more clear than the coincidental occurrence of two events on December 2 of last year [1996]. Naturally it was on a work day which Bluem dedicated to his Rasputin-like mission. He preached in front of a little group from the Youth Union, as sparse as it was wretched, which had assembled in front of the Scientology Church Hamburg. While his audience stood in the rain and pitifully looked inside, Bluem repeated his intolerant disparagements through a megaphone, in monotone and unintelligibly.

On the same day the chief district attorney's office in Hamburg confirmed that it had suspended criminal proceedings against the Scientology Church for which Bluem's bigoted comrade-in-arms, Ursula Caberta y Diaz, had toiled so long. This criminal proceeding, which was based on the assertions which Bluem always preached, had already been suspended in 1994. In the 30-page decision it had been explained in detail that intensive investigation had yielded no evidence of misconduct [on the part of the Scientology Church]. Ursula Caberta and her friends had filed an appeal against the suspension. Then, on the very same day that Bluem again took up the same unfounded assertions, the state attorney stressed that the complaint had been dismissed - and again, because after another two-year investigation no proof had been found that would have supported the accusations.

To make the irony complete, during his "demonstration" Bluem was asked why he was wasting his valuable time instead of getting on with the unemployment problem, and above all why had a petition by the CDU [Bluem's party] been refused by a committee to investigate solving the employment problem.

Bluem answered that he did not need an inquiry "because the solutions are clear, they only have to be carried out." In the event this would have been true and Bluem already had all the answers, but was simply sitting there to wait until they were carried out, then it still would have been negligent of him to be wasting his time with something else.

But of course it is not Bluem the preacher who is carrying out the campaign to exterminate minority religions, it is Bluem the theologian who emulates Rasputin who misuses his political power, and does that in what be believes to be the services of his own church.

In one year alone the Catholic and Evangelical Churches have jointly lost more than 400,000 members. Instead of finding out the real reasons for this exodus, the established churches have opted for the path which Bluem and his kind know so well: the art of diverting attention from one's own misconduct by resurrecting the Inquisition and declaring war on "heretics."

The situation takes on embarrassing proportions when Bluem and his comrades-in-arms begin to vehemently protest - then the same people they are persecuting put their fingers in the same wound and draw comparisons with recent German history.

If one actually wants to go there as an intelligent human being, to the core of the "sect problems," then one has to be aware of several facts, and also make objective considerations before one - possibly - dismisses them.

Shadows of the Past

After years of criticism from Bluem and his reinforcements, after many detailed and comprehensive reviews and investigations, the Federal Interior Minister, the State Interior Ministers, the German Criminal Investigative Office and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution all agree that no evidence is present which justifies the measures against the Scientology Church. Even a particularly vociferous and fervid assailant representing the Evangelical State Church and the the Bavarian Interior Ministry, Guenther Beckstein, was recently forced to admit that, in spite of comprehensive investigations, no legal transgressions of any sort by the Scientology Church had been found.

On the other hand there is absolute proof, which is as unequivocal as it is irrefutable: the discriminatory statements repeated by Bluem and the actions he suggests are reminiscent in their methodology, their objectives and often also in text, of fascistoid predecessors.

For those who have direct knowledge about Scientologists and the Scientology Church at their disposal, Bluem's repeated accusations against Scientology are as deluded as they are insulting.

If Bluem moreover now calls to ban Scientologists from civil service, to enact advertising bans, welcomes boycotts and endorses political party exclusion [of Scientologists], then he has adequately classified himself in history. He must let his deeds be measured by their fruits, regardless of whether they were caused by political calculation or only fundamental intolerance, in systematically robbing a minority of its human rights.

Ursula Caberta has also categorized herself historically, as she recently boasted to the Los Angeles Times that it was an "honor" for her to be described as the "new Goebbels" - as the Reich propaganda minister who paved the way with his endless tirades of hate for the annihilation of millions of innocent people. Whatever Ursula Caberta may have meant by this, one can well imagine how that will be taken in foreign countries. Besides that a quick glance at Bluem makes painfully obvious the fact that he has refused to take responsibility for the catastrophic misery of unemployment in his hunt for people who think differently than him.

In fact the opposition party in Bonn public proposed that Bluem resign after an attempt at resolution had apparently not been crowned with success in private. SPD Federal Representative Ostertag stated that a labor minister who did not manage to do something for labor should step down. He was not alone in his demand. Bluem replied with a hastily thrown together justification for his "savings program" in which he claimed that "only 7,000 [more] work places would disappear."

Just recently Bluem himself threatened to step down - in a fierce public discussion with Federal Chancellor Kohl. And why? Because, as Bluem complained, Kohl did not intend to cough up enough money to save social security which he, as is well known, steered into insolvency.

Permanent Failure

The "Die Woche" newspaper baptized Bluem and Kohl as "Jobkillers" because they were destroying existing work places instead of, as promised, making new ones. Even when one includes the effects of reunification and only considers the western German states, Bluem's record is remarkable:

Year / Number of unemployed in the old German states [in millions]:

1980 / 0.822
1982: Bluem takes office
1985 / 2.150
1990 / 1.727
1995 / 2.492
1996 / 2.738

Bluem set the absolute record for unemployment for all of Germany at the end of January 1997 with 4.6 million officially unemployed - with a rising trend. For comparison: Germany has a traditional unemployment rate of 12.2 percent while the USA, for example, has been able to lower its rate to 5.4 percent. The unemployment rate has risen by about a point in only twelve months. With that one can discount entirely any attempt to pawn this problem off as a result of reunification. Our national unemployment has been rising steadily while the average unemployment of the European Union has been declining.

There is a string of other statistics which have led to even the foreign media and politicians publicly announcing their concern:

1.3 million jobs have been lost so far in the manufacturing area in Germany while the bureaucratic system is strangling new operations which could have equalized the loss of business.

The number of failed companies has skyrocketed to new record heights.

In the course of the last three years the German tax payers have subsidized hundreds of thousands of lay-offs.

Since 1990 the cost of employment has risen in Germany by 22 percent; in the same time frame it has fallen in the United States by 10 percent; in many European states the unemployment rate has also fallen or at least stayed at the same level.

In the course of the last five years Germans have invested 80 billion dollars outside of Germany, yet only 25 billion dollars of foreign capital was invested in Germany.

Meanwhile it is no longer a secret that the payments for state retirement have presented the largest drain ever on the national budget. The fact that the retirement contribution rates are climbing from the current 19.2 percent up to the never-before-reached record amount of 20.3 percent speaks volumes on the Minister responsible for that. Never before have Germans had to pay such a large portion of their income into retirement coffers. But Bluem continues to pull the wool over people's eyes in his speeches.

Instead of halving unemployment by 2000, it has now been calculated by German economic institutions that the average number of unemployed will climb from four million to 4.1 million. In view of the January figures they assume it will be a higher average value.

In the attempt to palliate these unemployment statistics - so it has been revealed - Bluem has sent thousands of elderly workers into so-called early retirement. The result of this was that the state retirement coffers had to receive an additional 18 billion marks for those who took early retirement.

The absolute postwar record of 4.66 million unemployed in January 1997 means that 12.2 percent of those capable of earning a salary are without employment, that means almost every eighth person capable of working does not have a job and has to go the humiliating route of the labor office. For comparison: in 1980 the unemployment rate was only 3.2 percent. The SPD administration of the time would have practically labelled a Christian Democrat big-mouth of Norbert Bluem's ilk a criminal for that.

In the middle of this rapidly accelerating failure and in view of this international disgrace Bluem is acting as if the greatest disaster since the Second World War has nothing to do with him. Although he has held the office of Minister for Labor and the Welfare system for 14 years and is responsible for the wrong to each of the millions of unemployed and for the leaks in the state coffers, the professional dazzler is pursuing his favorite pastime: he parries, he covers his trail and talks big. Confronted with his still ever-growing record of failure, the Rasputin of Bonn simply continues to spread his eccentric theological notions into every political circle he is able to infiltrate. The fact remains though: the upset he has brought about with his crusade against those innocent people who think differently than he does completely pales next to the harm he has wrought upon the rest of the nation in the exercise - or non-exercise - of his office.

© 1997-2001 Church of Scientology International. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

http://www.zdf.de/unterhaltung/wettendass/sendung/04789/

Norbert Bluem

"Heart of Jesus Marxist" and "Wandervogel" hiker

He is the man with the most service as a federal government minister in the country: Norbert Bluem has led the Federal Labor Ministry since October 1982. During this time he has been through a few highs and lows - and survived. In "Want to bet that...?", where Bluem was a "betting" guest for the second time since the 16th broadcast in May 1983, none of that played any role in the February '97 broadcast. There only one thing counted: did he get the bet or not?

In spite of his high office Norbert Bluem is close to his roots and is regarded as a politician who is not indifferent to the "little people." Born as the son of a bus and truck driver on July 21, 1935 in Ruesselsheim, Bluem graduated a trade school as a tool maker after finishing public school. Besides working in his profession he took evening classes in Mainz from 1957 to 1961. Besides that he was also a "Wandervogel" hiker: he traveled through half of Europe with the Boy Scouts. He earned his money, for example, building roads in Greece, as an art worker in Turkey, in other places as a construction worker, a truck driver and a waiter.

From 1961 to 1967 Bluem studied philosophy, germanistics, history, theology and sociology in Cologne and Bonn. He attained his doctorate of philosophy in 1967 with a dissertation "Willenslehre und Soziallehre bei Ferdinand Tönnies." By virtue of the fact that he worked as a tool maker from 1949 to 1957 in Adam Opel AG in Ruesselsheim and is active in IG Metal, the Catholic Employee's Movement and the Christian Democratic Union (CDA), he bears the title of "Heart of Jesus Marxist." Besides issues of employment, Bluem the politician is also interested mainly in the field of human rights, for which he traveled to Chile in 1987 and South Africa in 1989.

The favorite pastimes of the Federal Labor Minister, who has been married since 1964 and has three grown children (Katrin, Anette and Christian), are reading and walking.

Norbert Bluem - Interview of 22 February '97
"When we sing Christmas carols I'm only allowed to play the triangle"

ZDF.online:
Mr. Bluem, you are the most senior minister in the federal government in terms of length of service. Before you became a politician you studied and worked in the most diverse professions. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Norbert Bluem:
Yes, the job I dreamed of as a child was ship's captain. I never did that, although politics does have something to do with piloting and stormy seas, and sometimes you need a life boat, too. To that degree I'm not that far off from what I wanted to do as a child.

ZDF.online:
What would you be today if you would not have become a politician?

Norbert Bluem:
I studied to become a tool maker. That is a wonderful profession, and I probably still would have been doing that today.

ZDF.online:
What was your motivation for going into politics?

Norbert Bluem:
In going into politics, I didn't have a particular goal in mind. I went into politics because I noticed that you had to pitch in. You shouldn't just leave things up to the others and let the world and society develop by themselves, even though you can't do everything yourself. I never liked back-seat drivers who let others handle their problems for them.

ZDF.online:
One of the most important themes in your area of responsibility is securing pensions for people. Do you already have plans for when you retire yourself?

Norbert Bluem:
No. I'm not a person who incessantly plans for the future - I take it as it comes. I'm very involved with what my job demands from me. So I have little time to constantly be involved with myself. And to tell you the truth I have no desire at all to be like that anyway, I'm not that enamored with myself. I don't think I'm that important that I should only think about myself.

ZDF.online:
Your son, Christian, plays in a well-known Cologne rock band. Are you musically inclined yourself?

Norbert Bluem:
Unfortunately not. When we sing Christmas carols I'm only allowed to play the triangle. Anything more would be counterproductive.

ZDF:online:
Have you ever been to a "Brings" concert?

Norbert Bluem:
No, I haven't done that yet. And not because I don't want him to be a "son by profession" for the public, either. Christian is doing well and he shouldn't be burdened by being the son of Norbert Bluem, who possibly fewer people like than like his music.

ZDF.online:
One of your hobbies is reading. If you could have only three books, which three would you choose?

Norbert Bluem:
That's hard to say. But I think I'd pick the Bible. That's very exciting, especially the wonderful stories in the Old Testament. As the second I'd pick the "Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and my third choice would be the poems by Goethe.

ZDF.online:
In the next "Want to bet that ...?" broadcast in Vienna, Theo Waigel will be the guest. Which of his traits do you value and which not?

Norbert Bluem:
What I like about him is that he is very consistent in his politics, that he is not like a reed in the wind. But it's not my job to give out grades or name bad traits. There are no perfect people - I'm not one and neither is he.

Interview: Thomas Kirwel

http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,71434,00.html

03. April 2000

GERMANY

CDU

"Don't make yourself sick"

Former CDU Labor Minister Norbert Bluem on his decades with Helmut Kohl, the future of the party with Angela Merkel and transgressions of politicians in politics

SPIEGEL:
Monday of this week is Helmut Kohl's 70th birthday. Will you congratulate him? Are you driving to see him?

Bluem:
No. I was not invited. I'll send him a note.

SPIEGEL:
A long one or a short one?

Bluem:
In any case I won't be writing the letter with SPIEGEL's help. There is a form of disorder which is not without pain. Yes I wandered with him through the area for half my life. That's like two people in the desert. When you get to the oasis, you're happy to be able to drink a glass of water with him. He didn't deserve to leave.

SPIEGEL:
But he did much to leave. Was he aware of that?

Bluem:
I don't know. I don't think this question can be answered with a "yes" or a "no."

SPIEGEL:
He developed not being aware into an art form.

Bluem: It is also a form of survival training.

SPIEGEL:
In the current Kohl biographies the name "Bluem" seldom appears and, when it does, only in functional connections.

Bluem:
I'm obviously an inconspicuous person.

SPIEGEL:
A person readily lets himself be made into the NRW state chairman because that goes against Kurt Biedenkopf. A person lets himself be used as Kohl's pawn. Aren't you concerned that this will appear in the afterworld as a picture of a devoted squire?

Bluem:
After you're in politics long enough, you don't have to worry about questions of image.

SPIEGEL:
We don't think so.

Bluem: "I was the Heart of Jesus Socialist" and the "Capitalist lackey." Which one is it? I can't be both. But perhaps I really was not paying attention closely enough. When you have an image of a squire, then nobody would expect that he would say anything on his own.

SPIEGEL:
Wasn't Kohl constantly manipulating personal relations?

Bluem: I think that is allowed, as long as there are restrictions and it serves a good purpose.

SPIEGEL:
In his last days it appeared as though Kohl was seeking reconciliation. Did you read it that way?

Bluem:
No. Or let's leave it open: that would do Helmut Kohl good, it would do me good and it would do the CDU good. But that also includes visibility of mistakes. Reconciliation does not mean washing it away!

SPIEGEL:
Do you think Kohl had that insight deep down inside?

Bluem:
I don't know. I hope so. His making up for the financial losses I note as something positive. But this is also a matter of immaterial damages, the question of "Are we bound by the law or not, and not just your man on the street, but also Norbert Bluem and Helmut Kohl?" Especially them. How could we tell black market workers otherwise that they should obey the law?

SPIEGEL:
Although you've had a lot of friction with Kohl, you continue to stand behind him. Does that cause inner conflict?

Bluem:
The stronger a mutual trust is between people, the better they can stand objective conflict. When the question of power is posed in every conflict, it cannot be decided objectively. One can refer back to Juergen Habermas, to his utopia of class-free discourse. That would be too much of a demand upon people. But as a utopia, as a regulative, not associating personal decisions with every objective controversy basically has a liberating effect.

SPIEGEL:
When would your doubts in Kohl become too much?

Bluem:
A painful limit was reached in the donations story, whereby I was affected by the old school of thought: when one is under pressure, first close ranks. But that soon reached a point where that maxim could no longer function.

SPIEGEL:
What point was that?

Bluem:
When I found out that cash receipts had been disguised as Jewish bequests. That presumed a cynical energy which surpassed anything in my imagination. In view of our history that is an off-limits transgression. And those who did it knew it was off-limits. That is no longer a question of party financing, but a question of political ethics.

SPIEGEL: But those were the Hessians.

Bluem:
But from that point on one could utter any suspicion about CDU donations, even the most abstruse. And as long as the donor was not named, there was no defense against any suspicion.

SPIEGEL:
That was even a question of the word of honor.

Bluem:
You have to imagine what they would have been saying at their work benches at Opel: there goes the "scab" - as the CDU people were called at work - and they'll give him a hard time tomorrow about did his party get the money from the Mafia or what? There he stands around, helpless. To that degree not revealing the names of the donors is also inconsiderate of the people who have been volunteering for years putting up posters and handing out flyers. They also have their honor even though some of us who use that word certainly have no right to it.

SPIEGEL:
Did you tell Kohl that?

Blüm:
Unfortunately we weren't in contact during his last days in office.

SPIEGEL:
Is that the way politics go, politicians who are friends stop talking when things get serious?

Bluem:
That is a misunderstanding of friendship. When friendship serves only mutual affirmation, then that is companionship. I sadly watched, not without sympathy, this Bremen event on television in which political party friends of the old Helmut Kohl - and I mean that with respect - earned applause which he would have had to exchange for party agreement with the issue of donations.

SPIEGEL:
Why did it make you sad?

Bluem:
Because you don't do that with a friend. That is a form of denial of reality. How can one let someone who's worked his way up in the ranks of the CDU run into such a trap.

SPIEGEL:
But he built it himself.

Bluem: But we were talking about friends. Friends help friends.

SPIEGEL:
Does that sort of friendship exist at all in politics?

Bluem:
Yes, there have been. There has to be something like loyalty.

SPIEGEL:
In what stage is your friendship now? Is it ended or just in a valley?

Bluem:
Friendships don't grow on stage. That which happened is not erased, and I won't say that was wrong. I have great respect for his achievements in life. One doesn't change friendship as easily as one does shirts.

SPIEGEL:
What effects did the donations scandal have on the voters?

Bluem:
It's clear a new page has begun. The CDU had a crisis which offered them the chance to see through habits.

SPIEGEL:
For instance?

Bluem:
That parties over years are generally led by their boards. Angela Merkel has already become the result of another decision.

SPIEGEL:
She is one of the people.

Bluem:
Whereby one also had to spare the people from chaos. But what's clear is that Angela Merkel is not the invention of some sort of board meeting.

SPIEGEL:
What does the designated CDU board members stand for?

Bluem:
What I like about Merkel is a language which is not so politically tuned as mine. Occasionally she brings into this perfect politicoworld a piece of natural awkwardness.

SPIEGEL:
Is that entirely unintentional?

Bluem:
In any case she is pleasantly less into the routine. I, on the other hand, have 50 years of socialization in the German business of politics. Within that time some things have been assimilated and turned into routine without one having noticed it.

SPIEGEL:
Do people sometime accuse you have having been at it for too long?

Bluem: (hesitates a while) I can't answer that question with a "yes" or a "no" because I believe that politics does not exist without personal loyalties. But loyalty is something different than companionship. Loyalty does not mean blind obedience.

SPIEGEL:
Have you ever that that you would really like to stop and do something different?

Bluem:
Yes, now and then. Anything other than that would not be normal.

SPIEGEL:
What held you back?

Bluem:
A combination of satisfaction, awareness of duty and - this is probably the strongest reason - the self-perception of being needed. Breaking away would have been cowardice and escape. I always had a project. I always had a battle going on somewhere.

SPIEGEL:
Power made no difference to you?

Bluem:
My power consisted of going at it head on with certain people. Sometimes I didn't sleep well because I didn't know how things would turn out, whether I was right or not. Most decisions are not somewhere between good and bad, but are a weighing of good. And some decisions have something masochistic about them because one knows in advance that you'll get beat up no matter how things turns out. If I were to give advice to young people, it would be: Don't make yourself sick! You'll never last that way.

SPIEGEL:
What happened at the 1989 party convention in Bremen, when Heiner Geissler, Lothar Spaeth and others wanted to put Kohl out of power?

Bluem:
I was also in a big conflict there, and that maxim about personal loyalty before objective loyalty did not help me there, because I felt like I owed all sides something.

SPIEGEL:
Was it right to support Kohl back then?

Bluem:
I'll stand by that, even if I thought the way Kohl threw Geissler out was tasteless.

SPIEGEL:
Did things change between Kohl and the CDU after Bremen?

Bluem:
I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised if a result of that was that he started to withdraw into himself a little more afterwards. Probably that is a job illness. In that kind of a job you can quickly turn into an autist. One of the biggest autists was Willy Brandt.

SPIEGEL:
That's a contradiction. Aren't politicians constantly among others?

Bluem:
Sometimes you have to withdraw back into your inner life to keep from going overboard. You have to keep yourself from drowning in feelings.

SPIEGEL:
How did Bluem, the emotionalist, arm himself?

Bluem:
I think that I was never doing only politics. One has to appreciate a few other things, too. I've written children stories and more. I've read much, not just records, but finer things.

SPIEGEL:
What are the worst things you remember?

Bluem:
The pharmaceutical industry started a campaign during health reform, which I won't forget til the day I die. They advertised: no new medications against cancer and AIDS to leave Germany. That's where the fun stopped. You had to read that through the eyes of a mother whose child was sick with cancer. Or the Independent Association of Dentists who called the [health reform] law a euthanasia law. They could say that Bluem is an idiot, as far as they were concerned. But euthanasia - after all that was not a theoretical undertaking in Germany.

SPIEGEL:
Who would you want to apologize to?

Bluem:
Maybe to Alfred Dregger. Back during the co-determination discussions I called him "Dreggula."

SPIEGEL:
That was in order.

Bluem:
No, he didn't deserve that. He is a respectable advocate.

SPIEGEL:
Your strong communist Uncle Adolf should have heard that.

Bluem:
He was even a member of the communist operating group against which we CDU people bitterly fought. When I was Labor Minister I drove to see Uncle Adolf at 11 Robert Schumann Street in Ruesselsheim and told him, "come for a ride in the government car." After we had driven a hundred meters I said, "So now I'll tell the work group that you rode in a car of the capitalist government." He shouted, "Stop! I want to get out!"

SPIEGEL:
How did you get along with the family's enemy of the social classes otherwise?

Bluem:
Uncle Adolf was with Opel during the war and walked to work every morning with two "Henkelmen." The one was for him and the other for the charwoman, the foreign worker. The department director saw him make the delivery ["Die Uebergabe}] and turned him in. For that Uncle Adolf went to the concentration camp. After the war he came back as if he had only been assigned somewhere else. The department director was let go, but eight weeks later he was operations manager at VW. Adolf, my communist uncle, was good guy.

SPIEGEL:
For that reason you still sing every year at Uncle Adolf's grave?

Bluem:
Yes, to the horror of my cousin Helga, always on Christmas Eve my brother and I sing the Internationale. He likes that.

SPIEGEL:
Don't you ever regret not having a regular profession like Uncle Adolf had?

Bluem:
I still have one: tool maker. But I've managed to make something in politics. Look once at the fate of people who have worked on the assembly line for 45 years. You and I: we still belong to the privileged of the working class.

SPIEGEL:
At what price?

Bluem:
You're really always on duty. The guy who puts in 5,000 screws on the assembly line has leisure time. I never really have time off - not only because the telephone is always ringing, but because you always have something in your head, because you always have to expect something: which bomb is going to go off now? The price was really much higher for my family. During the health reform my children were made to believe by their teachers what a criminal their father was, as was my wife when she went to go buy bread.

SPIEGEL:
And what did you say?

Bluem:
Don't be afraid!

SPIEGEL:
Mr. Bluem, we thank you for this interview.

The interview was conducted by editors Juergen Leinemann and Hajo Schumacher. 

Attachment 18 to
Munich State Attorney 115 Js 4298/84
Suspension Order of April 24, 1986

[from German which was translated from English]

To:      MAC I/C                       December 13, 1983
Copy to: SU MSN I/C
         GERMANY MSN 0PS SU
         D/MAC FOR LEG
         LIT SEC
         TAX SEC
         PR SEC
From:    INVEST SEC MUN  (Investigation Secretary Munich)

confidential

REPORT ON THE MEETING WITH MR. JENUWEIN, PRIVATE DETECTIVE

Mr. Jenuwein is a private detective who was recommended to us by our Attorney Wunderlich as a trustworthy man who gets his job done. He is about 55 years old, has his office in Munich, has been in the "business" for about 30 years and the chief of the detective agency, as well as the chairman of the Bavarian "Detective Association." He has connections throughout Germany and especially in Bavaria. He is a conservative person who makes a "serious" impression, relates very well and has very quickly understood what we want.

He has already done a small job for us several weeks ago, with the "Farben-Klotz," a shop in the neighborhood which had entheta* about us in the store window. This operation was successful.

[*entheta: information Scientology objects to.]

At today's meeting he got the R-factor, that this time it would be a bigger assignment. I gave him a summary to read which I had written about the situation we have all over Germany as well as where and when it began and who the main men are that should be investigated for us. Heinemann, Kleinmann, ABI, Karbe, Haack, Mucha, in which this Heinemann is the first target, and that we want facts and crimes about him in order to bring him to court and really discredit him. I answered several questions he had asked about Heinemann and gave him the material that I had gathered in the form of a summary about Heinemann, ABI, "Aktion Psychokultgefahren" from Dusseldorf, Karbe, etc., so that he would better be able to get the picture by reading this statement.

Barbara, MAC I/C was then present from this point on and we cleared up the essential question of whether he was obligated to report his investigation to the government and for whom it was being conducted (we had this information from an earlier investigation which BI had carried out, that PIs are obligated to do that). The answer to it was positive for us, PIs (private detectives) do not have to report to the government. Jenuwein said that if that were so, everything could be settled.

Then we talked over finances; he would name us a figure of estimated expenses when he had done the paperwork since he would then be better able to estimate how much time, people, etc. were necessary.

It was also made clear that he was being hired by the offices of attorney Wunderlich, and that that would be coordinated with that firm. He said that this was all but customary, that in almost all cases the attorney of the client hired a private detective. He also knew Dr. Deinlein, attorney in Wunderlich's office, quite well.

Then we gave him a brief rundown on Heinemann and the concerned area and he understood that quite well. After that he was briefly told about Scientology as such by Barbara.

I also told him that of course we had many more documents on Heinemann, ABI and the others in our archives, and that after he had read through the collected statements that he had received from me (about 50 pages of current statements, connections, etc.) he should tell me which other statements he needed for his work, and also that in the future he should check to see what we had so that duplicate work would not result. Through that he knows that we have a lot of background information, but that what is missing are the actual crimes. It was probably clear that there would be close coordination and cooperation with me, legal council and other attorneys.

Then we came to the subject of KVR, since Dr. Deinlein had spoken with him recently and mentioned it. Jenuwein knew Mr. Gauweiler, the I/C of KVR and he knew much about his relations, his life, etc., namely, Gauweiler and the Munich head mayor, Mr. Kiesl, are not generally good friends, Kiesl and Gauweiler seriously disagree with each other. Gauweiler's really good friend and possibly also OL (?) is the chief of a private police, the "black sheriffs," Mr. Wittmann. Gauweiler has protected the "black sheriffs" more than once. The "black sheriffs" are people who dress all in black, mostly very large men and they have the assignment of keeping the peace whenever it is necessary. They patrol, for instance, the subway stations or in front of the large mental clinics and are also hired by private companies.

Gauweiler is about 35 years old, not married, lives together with his girlfriend, is very Catholic and a CSU (conservative party) member. He tries to remove left-oriented people from the KVR.

Jenuwein suggested taking a closer look at Gauweiler to learn more about him, whether he would carry out instructions, etc. However, he would first check with the attorney, Dr. Deinlein, who worked on the KVR, what exactly he should do in order to not have it boomerang back on him.

At this point of the discussion Lit. Sec Helmut got around to whose area the KVR* is and gave him further instructions. Jenuwein was briefly informed - about the KVR, the recent statements of our attorneys and about several other essential documents.

[*"Kreis Verwaltungs Referat" was a type of city administrative group for downtown Munich. One of its members was Herr Gauweiler, who was seriously irritating Scientology at the time, (he may have cancelled their business permit.)]

I agreed that to meet in the attorneys offices, after he had read through this in the next several days, together with Dr. Deinlein and Helmut in order to work out the details of our process against KVR.

Jenuwein will not start an active investigation on Heinemann this year, since it is so close to the Christmas holidays. He will first go to work on the thing with the KVR before Christmas. He can finish that up in Munich and for Heinemann he has to travel to Bonn and Dusseldorf and that requires more time.

Recommendations

  1. The attorneys should be well informed about what Jenuwein has to do, especially in Heinemann's case.
  2. Make an appointment with the attorneys for a get together with Jenuwein, Helmut and me on the KVR.
  3. See to it that Jenuwein gets any more information he needs.
  4. He should start with the KVR (after he gets the finances taken care of).
  5. The project with "dustbin data" on ABI and Heinemann should also be started since there can also be good evidence there.

This is OK.

Simone

December 5, 1983

PLAN FOR INVESTIGATION IN GERMANY

This is a rough plan pursuant to the strategy of the special unit to solve the main problem that we have in Germany in a short time. The investigation should help to solve this problem, that for the most part is legal in nature, namely, the attempt by the Munich organizations to have themselves registered as missions and the effort to be designated as a business. In looking through our information folders it appears that the thickest and those with the most material are:

Checking with other staff who have been concerned with external situations for a long time about who has been most often entering the picture, and are therefore targets, the following resulted:

Heinemann and Kleinmann are, in essence, ABI. Heinemann is also a member of the "Aktion für geistige und psychische Freiheit", member of APG in Dusselfdorf, and naturally a member and founder of ABI. The false reports of the ABI about Scientology are in all the archives of the state and federal administrations. Heinemann, Kleinmann, Karbe and Haack, of course, have good connections with each other.

In any case Heinemann is a target and in the event that he is handled, the others will be easier to handle, either parallel to that or afterwards. What is not known however, is what or who of these is the common denominator. Who is behind them? Who enables them to do what they are doing?

For a few years, up to the end of 81, much was researched and investigated to find this out, but no real known common denominator was found.

Therefore the main job will be to find the source or sources who stand behind these targets.

In order to attain this, my plan appears as follows:

  1. Comb all available documents (our files) for any useful material and for the background information on Heinemann.
  2. Graphically present all connections on a chart.
  3. Write up any further progress which is made.
  4. Get as many PT* statements about him as possible.
  5. Review everything and write a brief summary for a private detective.
  6. Hire a private detective who:
    • discovers some kind of crime on him which we can use;
    • learns all his plans for the future;
    • finds all documents on him which can be used in court;
    • uses everything in order to find out who the person(s) behind him are.
  7. Together with the collected material either
    • bring him before the court, or
    • discredit him, so that one no longer believes his statements.
  8. Steps similar to those above could be taken, along with information on other targets, namely Kleinmann, Haack, Karbe,

[* PT: present time, or current]

This may happen only with complete coordination and cooperation with the attorney and every step must be carefully planned.

This is OK.

Simone