Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Kim Baker's 3rd declaration (12/1/95) -- full text
From: rnewman@cybercom.net (Ron Newman)
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 1996 09:48:27 -0500
Kim Baker sent me a copy of her December 1st declarations, accompanying
a personal letter dated 21 December 1995. (There is no postmark
on the envelope; the nice South African stamps were not cancelled.)
Her letter arrived in my U.S. Snailbox on Friday, January 5th.
She asks that I post these declarations to the net, and states that
"The signed originals are with FACTNet's lawyers, & Scn has a copy of
the unsigned one, together with a letter stating I want no further
communication from them."
One of the declarations was laser-printed, the other handwritten.
First, the laser-printed one:
DECLARATION OF KIM BAKER
____________________________
I, KIM BAKER, do hereby declare as follows:
1. I make this declaration at the offices of GELB SIMON SHAPIRO
& PARTNERS, 10th Floor, 2 Long Street, Cape Town. Besides myself
there are present Mr John I Simon, Attorney; Miss Tessa van
Deventer, Candidate Attorney, and Miss Anita Katcher,
Secretary/Stenographer. This meeting is taking place at
my request. I have been invited to bring my own Attorney
with me but have declined to do so.
2. Before arriving at Mr Simon's office I have prepared in my
own handwriting a declaration which contains all that I wish
to say on this subject. I annex hereto marked "Kim Baker 1"
the original of this declaration of mine consisting of
4 foolscap pages, 3 of which contain writing on both sides
and the 4th page of which contains writing on approximately
half the side. The declaration contains 13 paragraphs.
It was prepared by me on my own and without anyone else
being present. It contains my own voluntary statements.
The amendments which appear at various points were made
by me and I have initialled each page of the writing
as well as the amendments themselves.
3. I have been furnished with a copy of this declaration
and of the accompanying declaration marked "Kim Baker 1"
which is in my own handwriting.
4. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the
United States of America that the aforegoing [sic]
is true and correct.
Executed at CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, on this the 1st day of
December 1995.
_________________________
KIM BAKER
The signature blank was empty in the copy she sent me.
All of the following is handwritten -- actually, hand-printed;
she does not use cursive writing at all.
The declaration contains numerous strike-outs and insertions; I feel it is
important to include these in this transcription as well. I've surrounded
all struck-out text by the tags ..., and all apparent insertions
(text that is above a caret, or in the margins, or in small print)
by the tags .... Any spelling or other errors of form
below are my own, except where I have indicated their presence
in the original text as "[sic]".
The words "KIM BAKER 1" are typed, in double-quotes,
at the top of the first page.
DECLARATION OF KIM BAKER
I Kim Baker do hereby declare as follows:
1. I am over the age of 18 and am a resident of Cape Town,
South Africa. I have personal knowledge of the facts stated
in this declaration.
2. I have had some time and distance from the conflict between
the Church of Scientology and FACTNet to reflect on the contents
of my declarations dated 25th October 1995 and 4th November 1995.
3. In the weeks prior to resigning from the Board of Directors
of FACTNet, I was under severe pressure and stress, resulting both
from participation in the conflict on the Internet (specifically,
the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology), and due to
personal circumstances. This stress was exacerbated by the
irresponsible and hate-filled invective on the part of the
majority of posters to the newsgroup. The reasoned and
more mature critics were a minority. My sense of alienation
and isolation from all these people, whom I have
never met, remains.
4. The factors stated in point 3, in addition to the bomb threat
made against the Church of Scientology, prompted me
to resign from FACTNet. With the exception of Malcolm Nothling,
I have never met any of the people named in my Declaration of
25th October 1995, which increased my uncertainty on [sic] the
correctness of what I was doing, along with the fact that I perceived
that the conflict was primarily a United States-based one,
and that I in fact had no first-hand knowledge of the
actual events transpiring.
5. When the news of my Declarations became known to the participants
of the newsgroup, I watched in amazement as speculation and
opinion were stated as facts, and I personally became a target
for the hatred of the majority of the posters.
The reasoned posters were again, a minority. If anything, this
increased my sympathy for the position of the Church of Scientology
on the Internet. After a week few days of this ,
I ceased reading the newsgroup, and have not read it since.
My motivation for making this, my third and final statement, is
certainly not prompted by a desire to redeem myself in the
eyes of the critics of Scientology -- I have nothing but
contempt for the majority of them. , with a few
6. Having stated this, I nethetheless [sic] wish to address the
Declarations made on 25th October 1995 and 4th November 1995.
When I withdrew from FACTNet and the conflict, I had no intention
of supplying the Church of Scientology with Declarations
which could be used against my former collegues [sic] in FACTNet.
Having had some time to reflect on those statements and opinions,
I have concluded that many of them are not, in fact, my own.
Both Declarations were compiled by representatives of the
Office of Special Affairs division of the Church of Scientology,
after lengthy interviews with them .
7. In the Declaration of 25th October, the specific points of
concern are:
8. I do not believe that "FACTNet's only real purpose is
to destroy Scientology." In fact, I believe that it was
formed to provide support and help to people suffering
emotional distress as a result of participation in
New Religious Movements.
11. Malcolm Nothling is indeed a litigant against the
Church of Scientology, but what is not mentioned is the
vital work he does in assisting the police combat the
very high crime rate in South Africa.
15. What is omitted from this paragraph is that
Malcolm Nothling specifically stated that he distanced
himself from the bomb threat, and from any violence
toward the Church of Scientology.
17. FACTNet's concentration of the conflict on Scientology
occurred only after the raid, out of necessity.
18. I was a member of the Board of Directors of
FACTNet for under two months, and therefore am not qualified
to comment on FACTNet's activities since inception.
19. Vaugh [sic] Young is not a FACTNet volunteer insider --
he provided assistance with media relations when requested
to do so, and acts as a consultant to FACTNet from
time to time, but has no status as an "insider."
21. Taneli Huuskonsen posted publically [sic] that she
intended $2000 to be transferred to Dennis Erlich for
use in his case -- it was clear that this money was
not intended for his personal use. In addition, I never
personally saw any postings from Dennis Erlich of the
"upper level" copyrighted materials -- I only saw
commentary on them by him.
25. The primary purpose of the forming of the United Free
Zone Fellowship (UFZF) by Joe Harrington was
to provide spiritual counselling to people experiencing
distress as a result of leaving the Church of Scientology.
26. The ministers of the UFZF, of which Arnie Lerma and
Dennis Erlich were only two, actively provide support and
spiritual counseling to distressed former Scientologists.
I have first-hand knowledge of this, since I was ordained
as a minister myself. I have since left the UFZF. Many
people, upon being expelled from the Church of Scientology,
are then denied access to the means with which to practice
their religion, which places them in a position of either
having to abandon practice of their religion, or be forced
to return to the Church under the conditions enforced by
the Church, known as "Steps A - E." This situation leads
to the extreme distress and upset experienced
expressed by many members expelled from the
Church of Scientology. I personally remain
am a declared "Suppressive Person"
expelled from the Church, and can personally
testify to the distress this causes .
35. Without any reference to the Upper Level materials,
there exists a definition i the Scientology Technical
Dictionary of the "R6" Bank, which clearly rega
states that Christ, and the crucifiction [sic]
are "implants" -- fa images forced into
the memories of spiritual beings. There are other
points with which I disagree as well.
8. On the basis of the points mentioned in paragraph 7
above, I wish to repudiate the Declaration signed by me on
October 25th, 1995, in its entirety. I signed
At the time I signed this document, I believed all the statements
to be true. I did not have sufficient time to reflect on them, and
due to my extreme emotional instability at the time, I had
not considered the implications of signing them.
9. I have no wish to comment on any aspect of my interviews
with the representatives of the Office of Special Affairs,
since I agreed that those discussions would remain
confidential. I do wish to re-state that I was not
paid any money to sign the Declaration, nor was I at
any stage working for them the OSA
as an "operative" or "agent" of any kind. I have, as a result
of those discussions, terminated my conflict with the
Church of Scientology, and remain satisfied with that
decision as the correct one for me, personally .
10. I nethetheless [sic] wish to apologize to my former
collegues [sic] in FACTNet, and to the other individuals
named in the Declaration, for the distress that these
this documents have caused them.
11. With regard to the second Declaration dated 4 November 1995:
I repudiate this Declaration in its entirety, since a series of
misunderstandings occurred, and in fact, I had no wish to make
an issue of the misunderstandings which occurred at a time of
intense stress to all parties concerned. I apologize to
both Mr. Simon and Ms. Deventer for this and state that I
mis-interpreted the mis-interpretation of
their motives.
12. I have compiled this, my third and final declaration, myself, of
my own volition and in my own time and have merely formalised
it through an attorney.
13. I have personally incurred severe emotional and psychological
damage as a result of the events of the past few months. For this
reason, I have no wish to communicate further to any of the
parties involved in this conflict , or be used by any of
them to further their own agendas -- not the Church of
Scientology, nor its critics. This is my final statement
on the subject.
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United
States of America, that the foregoing is true and correct.
Executed this ______ day of November 1995 at Cape Town, South Africa.
_____________
KIM BAKER
[Note: the date above is blank, and the document unsigned, in the copy
she sent me.]
--
Ron Newman rnewman@cybercom.net
Web: http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/home.html