Keep off Mom’s Front Porch

By Arnie Lerma

Sunday, February 23, 2002

On Saturday, there was picket of Tom Cruise's old romping grounds, Scientology's Golden Era facility in Hemet . In an effort to intimidate participants into not picketing, an elaborate ruse was concocted by Scientology's dirty-tricks production team, OSA, The Office of Special Affairs, the same department of Scientology that brought you OPERATION FREAK OUT; the 1970's set-up of author Paulette Cooper, whose parents died in Auschwitz.

Paulette had published a book, The Scandal of Scientology.. and Scientology was going to "MAKE IT GO RIGHT" ( The supreme test of a Scientologist per Hubbard) to make sure you and I never read it. They framed her so well for a bomb threat that the Federal Government spent a great deal of money successfully prosecuting her, and doing for Scientology what Scientology could not do for itself through 16 or more prior lawsuits: Silence and discredit a little girl with the heart of lion, who saw in Scientology that same sort of evil that had killed her own parents.

It was not until 1977, years later, that the FBI and IRS raided Scientology, carting off loads of documents. One day a document was discovered. It was an actual copy of ONE of the plans used to frame Ms. Cooper, which in part caused the government to pursue its conviction with such enthusiasm. The operation was called OPERATION FREAK OUT. Which was also an apt description of the induced mental state of Ms. Cooper after years of civil and criminal harassment.

On Saturday, an infamous agent, employee and dirty tricks private investigator named Edwin Richardson appeared on 79 year old Ida Camburn's doorstep, feigning to want to make peace, so that Ms. Camburn would not make a "cake bomb". Scientology's Richardson was accompanied by a member of the Hemet Sheriff's office, who was not quite sure what to make of all of this or exactly why he was there.

Well let me try to connect the dots for you in this confusing saga of what may be multiple nested deceptions.

This elaborate frame job was based upon a February 19^th posting by a nick "Ava@newsguy.com", who replied to an unremarkable posting about possible pickets of upcoming L Ron Hubbard birthday events with this corker: "Any[o]ne know how to safely plant a pipe bomb in a sheet cake?"

This posting was then replied to by a nick called "Miscreant critic"" on Friday the 22nd, using an anonymous remailer service called xganon. I am convinced that Miscreant critic is a highly placed official in Scientology’s office to handle the Internet. His previous targets have been those people who have survived many prior attempts to silence them, including litigation, refused offers of a gag for money, and in general the folks Scientology considers their biggest enemies, myself included. "Miscreant critic" attempts to concoct an elaborate conspiracy to physically attack Scientology using a 79 year old grandmother in Hemet California as a base of operations. The Miscreant posting is piece of fiction which is quite comparable to the story of Xenu as a science fiction thriller.

The Hemet sheriff’s deputy told Ms. Camburn that he just "happened" to be at Scientology’s base in Hemet on other business when this was brought to his attention. The posting by "Miscreant" vanished from many news server’s right after it was posted making it difficult to locate, but not so difficult it wasn’t available for Edwin Richardson to print out and conveniently show to the Sheriff, who just "happened" to be there "on other business."

The picket, although short, did go off without incident. So what was accomplished? At best, an elderly lady was harrassed, and the Hemet sheriffs dept was unwittingly used by Scientology to harrass her in hopes of quashing a few American Citizen’s constitutionally guaranteed civil rights to demonstrate their outrage in front of a criminally convicted cult of madmen that a french prosecutor asked, just last week, be thrown out of Paris.

Will anyone care that Ms Camburn herself was deposed as a hostile witness in one of Paulette Cooper’s cases by Scientology using the excuse that she possessed a few copies of The Scandal of Scientology? Will Scientology’s latest real life science fiction thriller become a Federal case? Or will Scientology settle for possibly just a memorable keynote speaker’s contribution to Riverside DA Grover Trask’s re-election campaign fund. Grover Trask has already proven himself to be Riverside county’s resident authority on Tom Cruise Missiles in his recent theatrical starring Keith Henson, who used to picket Scientology in Hemet.

Or do we just have another Scientology self-inflicted foot bullet of truly epic proportions.. you see, the infamous "There's more to Ida than meets the eye" Camburn never bakes CAKES, however she is famous throughout the valley for her snickerdoodles... Now.. *if* their allegations included something about a plot to launch dozens of Tom Cruise Snickerdoodle Missiles.. Scientology might be onto something, but like most of the efforts of the mastermind of this caper, David Miscavige, even this nefarious plot might be easily mistaken for no more than bird droppings.