Scientology: A nine-hour raid
by Massimo Numa
May 20, 2010
Investigators of the Turin mobile squad arrived at 8:15 yesterday morning at the gate of the Church of Scientology, equipped with a search warrant from the prosecutor's office. One of the suspected offenses is a violation of Article 100 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which concerns the protection and treatment of sensitive data, such as sexual, political, and health-related information. The focus is the way in which data from "students" or followers is acquired and, in particular, preserved in three archives located on the first floor and in the basement of the former recording studio. When the raid ended late in the afternoon, mum was the word. The special police unit leader of the mobile squad remained silent while his men calmly loaded the seized materials into small cars. Two trunks were completely filled. They took computers, some personal files, a mountain of documents, all still top secret.
Former members of Scientology's "secret police", Dep20 (Department 20), told police what they know and had described the location of the office used by the "investigators" in the basement, which is always protected by a locked door. Their accounts proved to be accurate and reliable. Inside, scattered on desks and shelves, were files dedicated to the "enemies of Scientology", so-called suppressive persons. Magistrates, policemen, journalists, relatives of former supporters who fought to extricate their loved ones (and their money) from the Church founded by L. Ron Hubbard.
It is not known what is in the documents and files filled with sensitive data which, in theory, is highly confidential and therefore can not be distributed outside for any reason. But this is only in theory, because "ministers", many more than one, have free access to the folders that are kept in the archive and divided into dossiers. The files contain hand-written A4 sheets full of mysterious-looking acronyms. In particular, the documents record results of sessions with an e-meter, a tool which, in theory, through an electrical circuit connected to two metallic conductors, reveals the spiritual state of "patients" subjected to the so-called auditing. The operator, who has no medical qualifications, interprets the movements of the needle and decides whether or not true answers were given to questions that are often very probing and mostly concentrated on sex. The sheets are filled with acronyms such as DN, Dirty Needle, which means that the needle trembles imperceptibly, though it is almost motionless. FN, Floating Needle, means that the needle moves freely and is clearly a sign that the examination is running smoothly. If the needle does not move, this means that the subject is not cooperating, is resisting, or that there are environmental factors hampering the process, for example cold temperature. The e-meter costs over 4,000 euros for the public, but for the staff there is a small discount. The definition of this machine, whose components cost a few tens of euros individually, is one of the arguments cited by Scientology. They say that the Court of Cassation, in a series of rulings, called it a "religious instrument" and not a machine of a medical nature. Another acronym describes a person's attempt to give the examiner useless, misleading answers with respect to the subject of the test. Each file can contain anywhere from a few pages to dozens of pages. The files on the "enemies" are of the most interest. They may contain legal papers that have been obtained illegally, newspaper articles, observations obtained by stalking, or reports of interrogations. Journalists are among the targets. Men and women.
Before proceeding with this very long raid, the investigators waited for the Scientology officials, who were rather nervous, to summon a trusted lawyer. Everything unfolded in an atmosphere that was generally calm.
