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Clearwater
Sun
March ?, 1979
Scientologists find few sympathizers after latest revelations
By Alan Gutwein-Guenther
Sun Staff Writer
CLEARWATER - Residents Friday denounced the Church of Scientology
after documents released by a federal judge a day earlier showed the cult
wanted to "take control" of Clearwater.
Many of the residents interviewed were not familiar with details of
the case, but most expressed a strong hostility toward church members.
"I only know that I don't believe a darn thing they say," said W.B.
McFalls, asked his opinion as he shopped at a local supermarket. "If
you want to know the truth, I think they're a bunch of damn communists."
"If they weren't here, it'd be a lot better, I can tell you that,"
said Jim Blankenship. "They're crooks. They're using people to make
money. They're just a bunch of kids walking around the streets with books in
their hands."
"I know that they own property on Ft. Harrison," said Jimmy Chason.
"It's considered a church, and churches are tax free, so it gets a little
more serious when they start owning a lot of property."
The Scientologists have purchased the Plasma Products Clearwater Inc.
building at 109 N. Ft. Harrison. The building was purchased in May,
along
with the West Coast Building, 118 N. Ft. Harrison.
The former Ft. Harrison hotel, purchased four years ago for $2.3
million,
the former Bank of Clearwater building on Cleveland Street and the
former
Quality Inn at 2056 U.S. 19 all belong to the cult.
"They're too secretive," said Mrs. Marty Baker. "When they bought the
Fort Harrison, we went to a public meeting they held there, where they
were going to explain why they're here in Clearwater."
"They had a room for the public, but you couldn't go into any other
rooms.
If you're invited to a place, you ought to be able to look around,"
Mrs.
Baker said.
"We need enough people to put their foot down, to say, 'No, you're not
going to take over,' but people will never get together to do that,"
Mrs.
Baker said.
"It'd be a helluva lot better if they would just move right on out of
the
state," she added.
Some of the residents interviewed said they didn't feel they were
threatened by Scientology. Many said they didn't know much about the
extent of the group's activities.
"I'm not concerned because I don't know anything about them," said
John Arena.
And Bill Halberson, a Scientologist, said the charges against the
group were inflated. "They're not trying to control the downtown by buying
it out," said Halberson. "You ought to check into the facts by
contacting the church. These sort of rumors are ridiculous."
According to documents now being studied in federal court, the
Scientologists have used various tactics to discover information of
interest to the organization. One of the tactics included a fake
hit-and-run accident designed to compromise former Clearwater mayor
Gabriel Cazares, an outspoken critic of Scientology.
Scientologist documents made public more than a year ago show the
group attempted to infiltrate at least three federal agencies: the Justice
Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal
Revenue Service.
Scientologists wanted to "proof up ourselves against any potential
threat by taking control of the key points in the Clearwater area," including
government agencies and the media, documents released Thursday in
Washington revealed.
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