SCIENTOLOGIST CULT FACILITIES RAIDED

     Cannon County Tennessee Sheriff Darrell Young announced this morning that all Scientologist-run rehabilitation facilities within his jurisdiction have been seized by police and permanently closed. Three of the directors have been arrested, and two pled guilty this morning to False Imprisonment charges. The third is being held on two counts of Felony Kidnapping: a federal offense.

     Authorities say that a male 'patient' at the facility stole a cellphone from a guard and called 911. When deputies arrived, he called to them from a small plexiglass window in an outbuilding for help. Police forced their way in after scuffling with outraged Scientologists and found the man trapped in a tiny, unsanitary room with no means of escape. The police also discovered the man had been forcibly administered unknown narcotics.

       Sheriff Young immediately smelled a rat and ordered immediate investigations on the Scientologists' other rehab facility. They captured one of the suspects destroying evidence and preparing to flee and unidentified female 'patient' who was taken to the local hospital. (Most likely, the woman was a legal minor given the sheriff's language in the statement).

      Authorities contacted the victims' families. In an interview with The Cannon Courier, FBI investigator Brandon Gullett said that the man's mother was in disbelief when she saw photos of the facility. A resident of Beverly Hills, California she stated that the Scientologists forbade familial visits during rehab and that she had been given pictures of the facility by the cult; "which were presented in an entirely different manner than the actual living conditions," Inspector Gullett noted drily.

     Tony Ortega, who runs a website devoted to exposing the Scientology Cult, has written that the Tennessee facilities have been under suspicion for some time. Marc Vallieres, one of the three jailed suspects in Cannon County, has been implicated in at least two other incidents, according to Ortega.

     Scientology is one of the most dangerous religious cults in operation. During the 1980s, the Reagan Administration jailed several top Scientologists. The cult's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, died during the investigation---allegedly of natural causes. In the 1970s, the cult was caught infiltrating members into Federal agencies for the purpose of scrubbing files collected on Scientologists and their crimes. In the kinder, gentler America which followed Reagan, pressure was removed from the cult; largely owing to its highly-placed members in the Corporate Media. The vulgarity of Scientologist doctrines; their pretentions to hidden knowledge; their ruthless authoritarianism; and their hatred for the existing social order makes the Cult naturally attractive to the Whacko Left-Wing. Russia recently banned the cult as a subversive organization and subsequent raids in Russia led to many indictments of criminal activities.

       Hopefully, the Tennessee case will come to the attention of Attorney General Sessions and the Trump Administration will resume investigations into Scientologist activities.