From: Jim Byrd <byrd@ACM.ORG>
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 11:09:55 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: CoS and anon remailers
Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960410184928.00688328@tiac.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Here's more details.  For quite some time the Church of Scientology has been
pestered by an anonymous poster "Scamizdat" who regularly has been spilling
cult secrets onto the net.  These include directions on how to harrass
critics. Scamizdat (whoever he is or they are) appears to have been using
anonymous chained remailers.

Grady Ward, a critic of the cult, has been taunting the cult with "Have you
stopped Scamizdat yet?"  I believe that Grady is almost certainly NOT Scamizdat.

The church appears to have concluded that Grady is Scamizdat, has sued him,
applied for a writ of seizure to raid his house (denied), and asked for a
deposition (granted).

It appears that Scientology is interesting in getting into the records of
American anon remailers.  They are also interested in anon.penet.fi.  Once
before, they raided anon.penet.fi when some of their internal information
leaked out onto the net, and that poster has never been heard from again.

Someone asked if this wouldn't violate the ECPA.  In the past the cult has
seized whole computers, complete with email, and ignored court orders to
return them.

The whole story may be found on
http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/scientology/home.html

Here is a file I got from Ron Newman's web page:

---------------


Article 78833 of alt.religion.scientology:
Path: news.cybercom.net!dial2-30.cybercom.net!user
From: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman)
Newsgroups: alt.privacy.anon-server,alt.religion.scientology,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Warning - Scientology attacking remailers again!
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 11:15:40 -0500
Organization: Cyber Access Internet Services (617) 396-0491
Lines: 138
Distribution: inet
Message-ID: <rnewman-1004961115400001@dial2-30.cybercom.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dial2-30.cybercom.net
Keywords: Scientology remailers anon penet anonymous Grady Ward
Xref: news.cybercom.net alt.privacy.anon-server:3524
alt.religion.scientology:78833 comp.org.eff.talk:25569

The following are a series of messages from Grady Ward, which he
has authorized me to distribute to the Net at large.   Grady is
being sued by the Church of Scientology for alleged copyright
violation (they claim he is the mysterious "Scamizdat", which he
denies.)  For more details, see 

   http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/scientology/grady/home.html
   http://www.northcoast.com/~grady/

According to Grady, the CoS has once again demanded access to
anon.penet.fi, and may soon subpoena other remailers as well:

-------
Date: Thu, 04 Apr 1996 08:52:38 -0800
To: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman)
From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com>

I've just received e-mail from:

kaj.malmberg@mallu.pp.fi (Kaj Malmberg)

The Poilice CID in Helsinki who is being pushed by the criminal
cult yet again to get a search warrant for Julf's anonymous remailer,
claiming I have been violating my injunction to post cult crap.

I told him that as usual the criminal cult is lying and that I gave him
and Julf explicit permission to investigate any or all of my posts I
have ever made through the remailer.

The criminal cult is trying to use the fact of my injunction to further
their own conspiracy theories.  South Africa, Finland, where does
it end?

Grady

-------------
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 07:41:25 -0800
To: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman)
From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com>
Subject: Re: Kaj Malmberg, Finland

At 10:11 AM 4/5/96 -0500, you wrote:

>Why did you give them this permission?  I think it sets a VERY bad
>precedent.  [deleted] was upset when I mentioned this
>yesterday afternoon -- he thinks you're being
>too nice, polite, and cooperative for your own good.

I like to err on the side of openness. Each to their own I suppose.
Basically I trust Kaj to sense who is the criminal perpetrator in this case.
I also sent him the set of trial stipulations in the Snow White case that
ought to give him very interesting background on the criminal cult.

>In my opinion, Julf and the Finnish cop should Just Say No
>to the CoS.

He is still free to do as he wishes.

------------
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 14:16:32 -0700
To: Ron Newman <rnewman@cybercom.net>
From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com>
Subject: Re: a few more questions

At 04:56 PM 4/9/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Was anyone with you (on YOUR side) at either day's deposition?
>
>How many hours total did you go each day?

No one was with me.

Total hours day one: 7.5
Total hours day two: 3.25 hours, as per order of Judge Infante.
Also I believe all american anonymous remailers will be subpoenaed
for their records as will all my ISPs, and contents of safety
deposit box held as evidence.


--------
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 19:37:57 -0700
To: Ron Newman <rnewman@cybercom.net>
From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com>
Subject: Re: what is the latest regarding penet?

I don't know what's up today, but Julf wrote yesterday
to tell me that my id grady@northcoast.com had NOT
been used to go through his remailer.

No word on what the police are doing to subpoena his system,
if they are.

Grady

--------------
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 22:57:26 -0700
To: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman)
From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com>
Subject: Re: what is the latest regarding penet?

At 01:52 AM 4/10/96 -0500, you wrote:

>Was something else used to go through his remailer?
>
>Has he said anything in public about this?
>
>Should I post your message about it on my web site?

That is all he told me: that he could verify to authorities
that grady@northcoast.com had not used his remailer.

He didn;t mention anyone else or how he was helping the CID
with their inquiries.  Yes, you can put this datum on the web.

--------------
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 07:17:01 -0700
To: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman)
From: Grady Ward <grady@northcoast.com>
Subject: Re: what is the latest regarding penet?

Ron,

Yes do please distribute my messages as you deem
necessary.  Some people ought to be aware of what is
coming down.

My feeling is that they will be doing anything they can
to attempt to produce "hard evidence" that I am part of
the Grand Conspiracy. I would say it is virtually certain
that U.S. anon remailers will be subpoenaed as well as any
foreign ones in which they can handle the authorities.

Grady Ward           |                   | http://www.northcoast.com/~grady
+1 707 826 7715      |                   |
(voice/24hr FAX)     | 34877c8566839cb7  |
grady@northcoast.com | aeab8ec5e5ee97fe  |
-- 
Ron Newman             rnewman@cybercom.net
Web: http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/home.html