Rick Ross | Religious Freedom Watch

Ah, yes, the fun of dead-agenting... :3

And yes, I am referring to "dead agenting" in its classic definition. For those unaware, Religious Freedom Watch is a very well documented Scientology frontgroup; practically all exit counselors are listed as "uncredentialed" or as "religious extremists", and there is considerable info to suggest that the entire site was set up explicitly as a Scientology frontgroup for character assassination of legitimate exit counselors and notable critics.

(Rick Ross, for the record, is considered a sufficient expert in the subject manner of coercive religious groups that he is on occasion called upon as an expert witness in lawsuits regarding coercive groups; as at least some of them *have* involved lawsuits against Scientology by ex-members for damages, Ross is pretty much regarded as a Major Enemy by Scientologists. In many ways, he is a "subject matter expert" in much the same way as many researchers--as one who has been targeted by coercive religious groups and who has had relatives targeted for recruitment; in his own case, it was attempts by the neopente-dominionist "Jews for Jesus" to recruit his grandmother that led his own interest in coercive religious groups, and he is still one of the leading experts in the subject of coercive "Bible-based" orgs.)

Of note, a major sign we are dealing with a Scientology front is via promotion of the steeplejacked "Cult Awareness Network"; CAN was formerly a legitimate exit counseling organisation, until they were literally sued (via SLAPP lawsuits) into bankruptcy by Scientology and their name bought in the assets auction that followed. (Not only did they steal the name, but also records pointing to ex-Scientologists who had provided CAN with info re abusive activities in the group.) No legitimate exit-counseling organisation recommends the present "Cult Awareness Network", because the present CAN is a Scientology recruitment front falsely portraying itself as a legit exit counseling organisation (and Scientology is pretty well documented as being abusive, occasionally to the point of fatality).

I'm afraid I wouldn't exactly trust *that* site, either--among other things, the source is a site calling itself "Signs Of The Times" which promotes a generally strange mix of all manner of bizarre conspiracy theory (and I'm not talking about the 11 September "truthers", either--stuff like how John F. Kennedy was part of some right-wing conspiracy and whatnot), "Newage" apocalyptism, and some of the old classic chestnuts of conspiratorialism (such as "OMG THE FREEMASONS ARE GOING TO CONTROL THE WORLD" and such). This is also including, of note, the usual UFO conspiracy stuff, too.

Some of the stuff on that site, quite frankly, makes Alex Jones's "Prison Planet" look like a veritable model of sanity in comparison. Much of what is published on that site--even the stuff that's not pure conspiracy theory bunk--is, to put it very delicately, *not* well sourced nor within the "reality based" community. (One example is a transcript SOTT has online of the founder's interview with BBC Wales, in which she claims that the planet Earth is basically an experiment by hyperdimensional aliens; another example are the claims that the planet is about to be wiped out by a meteor and that the Great Flood was apparently the result of a comet strike.)

What you may not be aware of is that the author of the article in question--much like the Scientologists--has a real issue in wanting to "dead-agent" Rick Ross. Specifically, Laura Knight-Jadczyk is the author of some *truly* bizarre material, including a book claiming that pretty much all human mythologies are essentially the result of multidimensional aliens including the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant (and also goes into subtly-racist "No, those Injuns in Central and South America couldn't have thought of things like development of their own languages or building all those monuments *themselves*, it had to be Atlanteans who received the blueprints from *aliens*" garbage to boot); she also claims to been in ongoing contact with Casseiopian aliens. SOTT happens to be her own publication where she expounds on her rather bizarre theories (including claims that aliens are trying to warn us that we are about to be killed by an imminent meteoric strike)--it's about as objective, I'm afraid, as the magazine "The Truth" is about the writings of Herbert W. Armstrong (the now-dead leader of a Bible-based cult).

For that matter, much of her writing has a definite anti-Semitic strain; pretty much any active critic or perceived enemy of Jewish descent is seen as a "Mossad operative" (one of her "truther claims" is that supposedly the Mossad blew up the World Trade Center--anti-Semitic claims of 11 September being a "false flag" operation by the Israeli government are quite common in racist communities, and another claims that the Israeli government is planning massive "false flag" ops all over the place in verbiage that resembles the "Jewish conspiracy" claims out of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (which, if you are unaware, is a known forgery published by the Russian Tsarist government back in the late 1800s to justify progroms against the Jewish population)--and Ross is probably lumped in as a "Mossad operative" due to the fact he is of Jewish descent (and has been especially outspoken against coercive religious groups promoting themselves as "Messianic Jews").

In fact, in what is a damning sign she is attacking Ross (and probably other exit counselors too) because of exposures of coercive tactics, there seems to be an entire walkaway community of ex-"Casseiopian" members who have extensively documented abuses. (That is, in general, pretty much a uniformly damning sign that there *is* fire where there is smoke.) In fact, the Casseiopians are well documented as using almost identical tactics of coercion (and a similar policy of "targeted character assassination" of critics) as the Scientologists--both are essentially UFO cults with well-documented abusive behaviours and well-documented policies of going after *anyone*, and especially exit counselors, who criticize the abusive tactics used in the group (even an ex-member who found some extensive irregularities in Knight-Jadczyk's claims (and eventually walked away from the Casseiopians) was himself subjected to "dead-agenting" by the group, and apparently the incident is far from isolated). Other persons who have witnessed Knight-Jadczyk's antics have expressed grave concern about coercive activity as well.

In fact, Knight-Jadczyk is considered *such* a looney-toon that even some of the more extreme branches of the "9/11 truth movement" see her as a flaming nutter (and there's indications that much of Knight-Jadczyk's own "9/11 truth" stuff may be plagarised from another writer). Some of her more decidedly bizarre antics are noted here.

Now, I will of course not accuse you of astroturfing (it is entirely possible that you could well have been suckered in by sites run by coercive groups with an agenda--it happens, and in particular with Scientology, they tend to be quite slick about this). I *would*, however, note the importance of checking sources for reliability. Both sources posted so far about Rick Ross being supposedly dastardly are from decidedly *unreliable* sources--and in fact, both sources operated by known coercive religious groups with a decided agenda against exit counselors, and exit counseling, in general (in no small part because if people knew what went on in these groups and knew in general how coercive religious groups operate, they'd pretty much lose all of their business).