L5's Keith Henson Arrested over Scientology On-line Feud
FYI,
"'Scientology Fugitive' Arrested"
http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/02/04/scientology-fugitive-arrested
On Friday, Arizona police arrested a 64-year-old man — a fugitive since
2001 in a bizarre war that mixes free speech, copyright law, and the
Church of Scientology.
Keith Henson’s journey began seven years ago while innocuously watching
another critic mock the group on an internet newsgroup. In a gonzo
discussion about procuring a “Tom Cruise missile,” they’d joked about
working with “Secret Agent 99, wearing a stunning black leather biker
outfit.” Other posters joined in the internet discussion, asking whether
Tom Cruise missiles are affected by wind.”No way,” Keith joked. “Modern
weapons are accurate to a matter of a few tens of yards.”
The police were informed of his “threatening” posts, and Henson was
arrested.
The police tipsters were the Scientologists themselves, who had already
been the targets of an annoying picketing campaign by Henson over the
death of a woman near their complex. Besides Henson’s inability to
acquire long-range missiles, his wife notes bitterly that it would be
impossible for any church members in the complex to feel threatened by
the internet posts, since they aren’t even allowed to access the
internet. Scientology officials have also claimed Henson followed their
employees home — though Henson counters that “the same people who
claimed to have been ‘terrorized’ by the picketers offered to take them
to lunch on June 25, 2000, evidently to distract them from the death
scene being cleaned up.”
Though Henson was found innocent of long-range missile terrorism, for
his activities he was convicted of interfering with a church — a
California hate crime for which he received a six-month misdemeanor
prison sentence. But Henson said he feared his life would be in danger
from Scientologists if he were imprisoned - and he fled to Canada in 2001.
He was already bankrupt from an earlier ruling that he’d infringed on
Scientology copyrights. But Henson continued picketing Scientologists in
Toronto, and they apparently retaliated by informing Canadian police of
his presence. (Henson believes the Scientologists told police he was a
terrorist and bomb maker.) L.A. Weekly reported two unmarked vans pulled
up and “a handful of emergency-services task-force officers — Canada’s
version of a police SWAT team — spilled out, wearing body armor and
carrying submachine guns.” Describing the event, the EFF reported Henson
was “arrested in a shopping mall parking lot, by a heavily armed
paramilitary unit.”
EFF Executive Director Shari Steele argued that Free speech was at stake
in his case: “This trial seems intended to punish Mr. Henson for his
opposition to a powerful organization using the barest thread of legal
justification to do so.”
His wife added in an interview with a Canadian newsweekly that “It’s
horrifying to me and to his friends how they’ve managed to twist his
words.”
Henson was ultimately released from a Canadian jail after filing an
application for political asylum — reportedly the first ever accepted
for review by the Canadian government, and for the next three years he
lived as an expatriate in Canada, awaiting their decision.
When asked to describe life in Canada, he replied “colder.” As the years
rolled by, Henson explained his picketing strategy evolved out of a
desire to have a real impact. In a 2005 interview he argued that
heavy-handed legal tactics intimidated police from acting against the
organization, and “Starving Scientology of new members is perhaps the
best we can do.”
But when Canadian officials reached a decision in 2005, Henson was
suddenly filled with concern. The hearing could result in his
deportation back to the prison where he feared for his life. He
reportedly said, “I’m not going to be shoved across the border into the
hands of Scientologists,” Henson slipped out of Canada, returning to
fugitive status, and joked that he was hiding in the Mortmain Mountains
— the treachorous range in Lemony Snicket books.
For 17 months he lived on the lam. Yesterday, in the small town of
Prescott, Arizona — the law finally caught up with him. Henson had been
driving his wife’s car, and when stopped by police, was soon informed of
the outstanding warrant for his arrest. He was taken into custody, and
faces extradition back to the California prison he’s feared for the last
six years. Saturday morning Henson’s wife, identifying herself as a
“soon to be widow,” issued a plea asking the public for legal help,
publicity — “anything but the usual Scientology private eyes who have
harassed her for years.”
Henson has a long history of activity within tech culture. He was one of
the founders and leaders of the L5 Space Colony movement in the 1970s.
(California’s new Attorney General, Jerry Brown, was also in the L5
orbit when he was Governor of that state.) He was a close associate of
K. Eric Drexler while Drexler was conceiving nanotechnology. He has also
been active in the digital encryption movement, and has been associated
with the Transhumanist movement — particularly Extropy Institute.
Former Extropy Institute members and other well wishers have already
created a legal defense fund. There is also now a “Free Keith Henson”
blog where people can keep track of new developments. Henson has many
friends and late Friday night one supporter even called the jail,
according to a Usenet post, and spoke to a prison staffer.
“I asked if he’d tell Keith that Tory sent her love. And I asked him to
please watch after Keith.”
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And you thought I was sending you this article, like everyone else is. :)
"Space Shuttle Astronaut Arrested at OIA on Attempted Kidnapping,
Battery Charges"
Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/orl-bk-nasaastronaut0507feb05,0,6104316.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
: A NASA astronaut is being held without bail after police say she
: attacked her rival for another astronaut's attention at Orlando
: International Airport Monday.
: Lisa Marie Nowak drove more than 12 hours from Texas to meet the
: 1 a.m. flight of a younger woman who had also been seeing the
: astronaut Nowak pined for, according to Orlando police.
: Nowak -- who was a mission specialist on a Discovery launch last
: summer -- was wearing a trench coat and wig and had a knife, BB
: pistol, and latex gloves in her car, reports show. They also found
: diapers, which Nowak said she used so she wouldn't have to stop on the
: 1,000-mile drive. Reports show that after U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen
: Shipman's flight arrived, Nowak followed her to the airport's Blue Lot
: for long-term parking, tried to get into Shipman's car and then doused
: her with pepper spray.
: Nowak, 43, is charged with attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted
: vehicle burglary with battery and destruction of evidence. Police
: considered her such a danger that they requested she be held without
: bail in the Orange County Jail, reports show.
: A married mother of three, Nowak told police that she was "involved in
: a relationship with," Bill Oefelein, another NASA astronaut, which she
: categorized as "more than a working relationship but less than a
: romantic relationship," according to the charging affidavit.
: Oefelein, who piloted the most recent shuttle Discovery flight in
: December, could not be reached Monday night at home in Houston.
: She found out Oefelein was involved with Shipman and planned a trip to
: Orlando to talk to Shipman about their relationships with Oefelein,
: reports show. She also told police the BB gun "was going to be used to
: entice Ms. Shipman to talk with her."
: Shipman, an engineer assigned to the 45th Launch Support Squadron at
: Patrick Air Force base near the Kennedy Space Center, told police she
: was flying home from Houston. She could not be reached for comment
: Monday night at her home near Port Canaveral.
: Shipman told police that after waiting two hours to get her luggage,
: she noticed a woman in a trench coat waiting near the airport taxi
: stand. When Shipman boarded a shuttle bus to long-term parking, the
: woman followed, according to police.
: When Shipman got into her car in the Blue lot on Cargo Road, reports
: show, she heard "running footsteps" coming toward her. Nowak tried to
: open the car door, then claimed she needed a ride, or use of a cell :
phone.
: "Ms. Shipman rolled her window down about 2 inches, so Mrs. Nowak
: could hear her... Mrs. Nowak sprayed some type of chemical spray into
: the vehicle, at Ms. Shipman's face," a detective wrote.
: Shipman sped away to the parking lot's toll booth, where she asked a
: parking employee to call police.
: The first officer to reach the Blue lot, saw the suspect drop
: something black into a trash can at one of the parking shuttle stops.
: Within minutes, Shipman identified Nowak as her attacker.
: A steel mallet, several feet of rubber tubing and hand-written
: directions to Shipman's home were recovered from Nowak's car, which
: was parked at a nearby LaQuinta Inn, reports show.
: Picked up shortly before 4 a.m., Nowak was questioned until about
: 5 p.m. when police took her to the county jail.
: Her arrest may be the first-ever felony charges filed on an
: active-duty astronaut, according to the space agency.
--
Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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