While the jury is still out on
Minton's involvement in a dubious buy-back scheme, a journalist from
"Nigeria Today Online" has written an article that has all the
appearances of a complete hack job. ARS "critics" have, as
usual, accepted it unquestionably, even though it is loaded with
unsubstantiated allegations.
In April of 2000 Bob Minton has been
accused by John Fashanu, a former football star who has become a
successful businessman, of arranging a secret debt buy-back scheme that
ran for years and laundering not less than $6 billions of dollars through
United State and foreign banks. The accusations have been the subject of
long articles published in several newspaper, among which Africa
Confidential and the London-based Sunday Times.
On August 27,2000, the "Nigeria
Today Online" published a long article in Minton's defense that has
all the appearance of an hack job, consisting of loads of allegations
devoid of any evidence to substantiate them and parroting Minton's version
of events - mostly "it's all a set up of Scientology in order to get
me".
Among countless unsubstantiated
allegations is to be found:
That the setup has been
orchestrated by one "David Lee"
That David Lee also goes by the
name of Robert Clarke and Ron Christopher and his real name is David
Lebeau. (This is asserted as a fact, yet, later in the article, the
author admits that at least one of these links is a supposition:
"There is reason to believe that Ron Christopher is a pseudonym
for David Lee.")
That David Lee is a private
investigator who has worked for "the Scientology"
That Fashanu is on Lee's payroll
That Chief Rilwanu Lukman is also
a Scientologist
That Fashanu has "cerebral
deficiencies"
That Lee controls Fashanu through
blackmail
That Fashanu has tried to extort
money from the Abachas
That the Fashanu report is the
outcome of a break in
That the base of operations of
Lee has been in Scientology-owned offices
That Lee was in charge of a
surveillance team that was set up under the control of Scientology
intelligence officer Ben Shaw
That Lee had the Youngs' dog
kidnapped and beaten but the dog was able to escape
That Lee was the case officer for
a deep undercover agent
That Lee was the person who
deposed the dead cat on Minton's doorstep
Etc, etc, etc...
The article also makes great effort
to try to innocent Bob Minton in the transaction, always without providing
any shred of evidence:
"It is believed the
government is reconsidering its move"
"Independent lawyers have
counselled that Minton has no case to answer"
"One source said several
lawyers had rummaged through the ''Fashanu Report'' and thought the
country could end up with eggs on its face if the case was taken any
further."
"Another inside source said
the government was advised that the ''Fashanu Report'' did not prove
Minton had committed any offence"
"They also proffered the
following advise; that the Nigerian Senate had claimed in its report
that the debt buy back deal in question was transparently executed and
that the companies Lee and his group claimed was owned by Minton in
defrauding Nigeria was actually owned 100 per cent by the Central Bank
of Nigeria; that Minton's debt buy back scheme had saved Nigeria about
$5 billion;and that Nigeria had demonstrated financial engineering in
reducing its debt at the expense of the nation's creditors."
"The ''Fashanu Report'' is
about 150 pages thick. On the face of it, it looks impressive but the
document on its own does not prove any criminal act perpetrated by
Minton."
On top of the content strickly
following the Minton's line and having a clear agenda in trying to disculp
him and place all the blame on the CoS, the real source of this article
transpires through certain expression and concepts that are typical of
those used by Minton's entourage:
"The private
investigator/cum Scientology agent"
"David Lee's team targeted
these animals for destruction"
"CAN was sued out of
existence by Scientology in 1997."
"Lee's campaign against
Minton has been the most pervasive anyone familiar with Scientology's
methods has ever seen."
More proficient English speakers
than Yours Truly have also pointed out how the article seems to have been
written by at least two persons, as the style changes significantly in the
middle, from the paragraph that starts with "In 1998, Lee and his
agents broke into the London West End offices of Minton's business partner".
The sentences structures are more complex, grammar errors are gone, and
idiomatic expression typical of a native English speaker are used, which
wasn't the case in the first part.
All in all, such an article, were it
to be written as part of a Scientology-owned Freedom magazine, would have
been dismissed as unsubstantiated dead agenting by critics. In this case,
however, messages of unquestioned acceptance, outrages at Scientology and
certitude that the CoS has been exposed once more are typical of the
follow ups that have been made to date.
Random Quote :
Disclaimer :
This web site is
NOT created by a Scientologist. It is created by a Scientology EX-MEMBER
who is critical of Scientology. However, this ex-member is ALSO critical
of the anti-Scientology movement. This does not make him a
Scientologist, nor a defender of Scientology.
