BONN, June 6 — The German authorities decided today to place the Scientology movement under nationwide surveillance for one year, their sharpest action yet in a long battle against a group they say is bent on undermining their democratic society. The decision, which critics called authoritarian and impractical, means that Scientologists' mail may be intercepted, their phones tapped and their offices infiltrated by undercover agents posing as adherents. The organization said it would contest the decision in court. By making public ...

When the end finally came for the old Cult Awareness Network, it happened fast. Cynthia Kisser, CAN's executive director, struggled to stay calm as she sat in federal bankruptcy court in Chicago late last October waiting for the auction to begin. Kisser, who had spent the past nine years leading CAN's efforts to inform the public about dangerous cults, had hoped that she wouldn't have to pay much for her group's assets that day. Nor did she want much, she claims ...

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl ignored protesters wearing Nazi SS uniforms as he boarded a boat for a Sydney Harbour cruise yesterday afternoon. A group of 30 Church of Scientology members, some wearing Nazi SS uniforms and carrying placards reading "Hands Off Our Religion" and "Is Germany Really A Free Country?", heckled Dr Kohl before his cruise. Protester Liz Reeve said the German Government was orchestrating a campaign against Scientologists, even taking their children from schools. "That shouldn't be happening to children ...

SYDNEY, May 6 AAP — German Chancellor Helmut Kohl ignored protesters wearing Nazi SS uniforms as he boarded a boat for a Sydney Harbour cruise this afternoon. A group of 30 noisy demonstrators, members of the Australian branch of the US-based Church of Scientology, some wearing Nazi SS uniforms and carrying placards reading 'Hands Off Our Religion' and 'Is Germany Really A Free Country?', heckled Dr Kohl before his cruise. One protester, Liz Reeve, said the German government was orchestrating a ...

Can anyone stand up to the Church of Scientology? Such was the plaintive question asked by The St. Petersburg Times in an editorial last week, and with good reason. The great American religious saga of the 1990's may be the rise to power of a church that has successfully brought the Internal Revenue Service, the State Department and much of the American press to heel even as it did an end-run around the courts. As Douglas Frantz reported in The New ...

On Oct. 8, 1993, 10,000 cheering Scientologists thronged the Los Angeles Sports Arena to celebrate the most important milestone in the church's recent history: victory in its all-out war against the Internal Revenue Service. For 25 years, I.R.S. agents had branded Scientology a commercial enterprise and refused to give it the tax exemption granted to churches. The refusals had been upheld in every court. But that night the crowd learned of an astonishing turnaround. The I.R.S. had granted tax exemptions to ...

BERLIN — “Historically inaccurate and totally distasteful." Strong words from Madeleine Albright, who had good reason to apply them. America's new secretary of State was referring to the widely publicized statement by Oliver Stone, Dustin Hoffman and other Hollywood celebrities equating Germany's current treatment of the Church of Scientology with the Holocaust. When she met with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl last week, Albright was committed to bringing up U.S. "concerns" about Germany's treatment of Scientologists. At the same time, she clearly ...

WASHINGTON — The State Department's annual survey of human rights conditions around the world will contain expanded, toughened language criticizing Germany for restrictions on the Church of Scientology and its members, administration officials say. The report, to be issued Wednesday, will chastise Germany for what a senior administration official called "a campaign of harassment and intimidation" against the controversial church. He said the United States, seeking to protect religious freedom, has urged Germany through diplomatic channels "not to prosecute people for ...

Regarding "An Open Letter to Helmut Kohl" (Advertisement, Jan. 9) and letters (Jan. 16) critical of the advertisement: As the author of the open letter to Chancellor Kohl, I feel entitled to a brief reply to some of the letters you received on that subject. First, our letter never compared modern Germany, as a whole, to the Nazi regime, and we certainly never compared the treatment of Scientologists to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. What we compared was the ...

Movies: The success of the film, targeted by conservatives because it stars Scientologist Tom Cruise, eases studio fears about releasing other films featuring members of the movement. Despite the much-publicized boycott in Germany of "Mission: Impossible" because its star, Tom Cruise, is a Scientologist, the film grossed about $24 million, considered a huge success for the important German market by Hollywood studios, and ranked eighth in Germany for 1996. The results could help assuage the Hollywood studios that are preparing for ...

Europe: Open letter to Kohl draws analogy to treatment of Jews before World War II. Politicians respond angrily. BERLIN — A running battle between German government officials and the Church of Scientology escalated this week, with 34 prominent Americans from the entertainment industry denouncing Germany for allegedly treating Scientologists as it treated the Jews in 1936, and the German foreign minister accusing the celebrities of "falsifying history." "It's out of the question that there's persecution of Scientology in Germany," Foreign Minister ...