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Andreas Heldal-Lund

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Norwegian anti-Scientology activist (1964–2024)

Andreas Heldal-Lund
Heldal-Lund in 2005
Born(1964-12-10)10 December 1964
Oslo, Norway
Died2 January 2024(2024-01-02) (aged 59)
OccupationWebmaster
Known forInternet activism against the Church of Scientology
Websitexenu.net

Andreas Heldal-Lund (10 December 1964 – 2 January 2024) was a Norwegian anti-Scientology activist best known for operating the website Operation Clambake.

Personal life

Andreas Heldal-Lund was born in Oslo, Norway on 10 December 1964. He moved to Stavanger, Norway in 1985.

In May 2022, Heldal-Lund was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour, known as Glioblastoma. He died on 2 January 2024 at the age of 59, in the arms of his living partner and a few close friends.

Activism

Heldal-Lund served on multiple boards for the national secular humanist organization Human-Etisk Forbund. He was also a member of the Norwegian Society of Heathens.

Heldal-Lund first became interested in the Church of Scientology in 1996 when he read about Magne Berge, an ex-member in Norway, who sued the organization in court and won. Heldal-Lund started gathering information about Scientology and eventually began hosting the materials himself as part of a project he called Operation Clambake.

Heldal-Lund was also a contributor to the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup. On 14 July 2000, he sent an email to a user calling themselves "Magoo" with advice for making their posts more readable. This started a conversation between the two. Of the experience, Magoo would later say to Heldal-Lund, "I honestly thought you were the devil...I was amazed at how kind you were. I thought for sure you would be the meanest and worst of all the critics. So when you were you, it really cracked the shell." Magoo made an announcement on 20 July 2000 on alt.religion.scientology that she was Tory Bezazian and she was no longer a Scientologist.

In 2003, Heldal-Lund received the Leipzig Human Rights Award from the European-American Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the US, an organization which states it is composed of "Scientology opponents from all over the world."

He received an honorary award in 2022 from Human-Etisk Forbund.

Operation Clambake

Main article: Operation Clambake
Actor Jason Beghe, Tory Christman, Mark Bunker, and Andreas Heldal-Lund (2008)

Andreas Heldal-Lund originally created a website that was a list of links to articles and information about Scientology and the Church of Scientology. When he noticed that the links kept disappearing because of legal maneuvering by the church, he decided to host the information himself.

Most of the information presented by Operation Clambake is critical of the Church of Scientology and its leadership, although dissenters are given prominent space to air their differences.

Even though the Church of Scientology had threatened legal action, Heldal-Lund said he'd never been sued. Norway has more liberal copyright laws which provide more freedom of speech protections. However, Mike Rinder, a former executive director of the Office of Special Affairs for the Church of Scientology, and Leah Remini, a former Scientologist, put forth another theory in a conversation with Heldal-Lund in their Fair Game Podcast. It as Heldal-Lund's chosen domain name of xenu.net that may be responsible. Xenu is a central character in Scientology's creation myth which can only be accessed in higher levels of the church. Scientologists are required to sign a confidentiality agreement that contains a clause stating they understand they will be fined each time they speak about the materials with anyone else. According to Remini, this fine can go as high as $100,000 for each infraction. Filing a lawsuit and referencing the name xenu.net in court documents could breach this agreement.

Instead Heldal-Lund said the Church sent harassing letters to his job and investigated his friends and former partners. Every time he'd think about stepping away, the church would do something else to keep him invested. In an interview with Dawn Olsen, Heldal-Lund said, "They created me; if they had left me alone and ignored me, I probably would have been doing this for a couple of months."

The church also targeted his ISP, network service providers and filed Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices with both Google and the Wayback Machine to remove links to xenu.net.. Under the law, if the site owner feels the removed links are fair use, they can file a counter notice under the DMCA to have the links restored. Heldal-Lund declined to take this step because he felt that filing the counter notice would subject him to US copyright law. Public outcry from free speech advocates made Google restore some of the links to xenu.net. For a time, this also resulted in Operation Clambake rising to the number two position on Google search results for "Scientology;" just under the church's official website.

When actor Jason Beghe decided to leave Scientology in 2008, he contacted Heldal-Lund, who convinced him to meet with Mark Bunker, a critic of Scientology known to the Anonymous group as "Wise Beard Man". Heldal-Lund and Bunker went to Beghe's house, where Beghe participated in an interview about his experiences as a Scientologist. Bunker published a two-hour portion of the three-hour interview to YouTube on 4 June 2008.

In the aftermath of online acts taken against Scientology by the group Anonymous as part of the protest movement Project Chanology, Heldal-Lund released a statement criticizing the digital assault against Scientology. "People should be able to have easy access to both sides and make up their own opinions. Freedom of speech means we need to allow all to speak – including those we strongly disagree with."

Awards

References

  1. ^ "About Me". Archived from the original on 20 September 2022.
  2. ^ Tony Ortega (26 August 2022). "Andreas Heldal-Lund, who stared down Scientology, now faces his own mortality". The Underground Bunker. Archived from the original on 30 September 2022.
  3. Augustine, Jeffrey (2 January 2024). "Andreas Heldal-Lund, 1964-2024". The Scientology Money Project. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  4. "Åse Kleveland gjenvalgt". Finnmarken (in Norwegian). ANB-NTB. 14 June 2009. Retrieved 14 June 2009.
  5. "Tom Cruise er et dårlig valg". 21 October 2004. Archived from the original on 30 September 2022.
  6. "About Heldal-Lund". Archived from the original on 16 April 2007.
  7. Andreas Heldal-Lund. "Press Release". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.
  8. Rosh Usher (27 January 1997). "Cult Control". Vol. 149, no. 4. Time Magazine.
  9. ^ Ortega, Tony (9 September 2001). "Sympathy for the Devil: Tory Bezazian was a veteran Scientologist who loved going after church critics. Until she met the darkest detractor of all". Los Angeles New Times.
  10. Jesse Hicks (21 July 2021). "How the Church of Scientology fought the Internet -- and why it lost". Medium. Archived from the original on 16 October 2022.
  11. ^ Leah Remini; Mike Rinder (1 November 2022). "Tory "Magoo" Christman". fairgamepodcast.com/ (Podcast). Scientology: Fair Game Podcast. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  12. ^ Bowman, Lisa M. (1 May 2003). "Anti-Scientology site spurs award". Archived from the original on 2 October 2022.
  13. "Frenchman honored with 2002 Leipzig Human Rights Award for his work against cults". Associated Press. 5 November 2002. Archived from the original on 5 September 2022.
  14. ^ "Hederspris til Andreas Heldal-Lund" [Honorary Award to Andreas Heldal-Lund]. Norwegian Humanist Association (in Norwegian). 24 October 2022. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  15. ^ Dawn Olsen (24 April 2008). "Interview with Andreas Heldal Lund" (Podcast). Glosslip Radio. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  16. ^ Leah Remini; Mike Rinder (17 June 2022). "Episode 73: Operation Clambake Founder Andreas Heldal-Lund". fairgamepodcast.com (Podcast). Scientology: Fair Game Podcast. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  17. ^ Dave Lee (17 July 2013). "How Scientology changed the Internet". BBC. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022.
  18. Andreas Heldal-Lund. "Operation Clambake, Undressing the Church of Scientology since 1996".
  19. Ryan, Nick (23 March 2003). "The gospel of the web". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022.
  20. Andreas Heldal-Lund. "Award Winner's Speech". Archived from the original on 5 September 2022.
  21. Andreas Heldal-Lund. "Comments from Scientologists". Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  22. "Mike Rinder Biography". Church of Scientology International. Archived from the original on 28 January 2008.
  23. Michael Shermer (1 November 2011). "The Real Science behind Scientology". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022.
  24. ^ Alison Frankel (March 1996). "Making Law, Making Enemies". The American Lawyer.
  25. ^ Chris Jancelewicz (6 September 2017). "Leah Remini reveals what happens when you reach the top of Scientology". Global News. Archived from the original on 16 October 2022.
  26. Ahsan, Sadaf. "What we learned from the seventh episode of Leah Remini's Scientology series". The National Post. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  27. ^ Bunker, Mark (30 December 2006). "Scientology: Andreas in Hollywood - Part 1" (video). youtube.com. Mark Bunker.
  28. ^ Lisa M. Bowman (25 September 2002). "Net archive silences Scientology critic". CNET. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022.
  29. "DMCA Counter-Notice Process". Copyright Alliance. 2022. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022.
  30. ^ David. F. Gallagher (22 April 2002). "New Economy; A copyright dispute with the Church of Scientology is forcing Google to do some creative linking". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 April 2022.
  31. ^ Ortega, Tony (8 April 2008). "Scientology's First Celebrity Defector Reveals Church Secrets: 'I was Miscavige's favorite boy,' says veteran TV actor Jason Beghe". Village Voice. www.villagevoice.com. Archived from the original on 20 April 2008. Retrieved 16 April 2008.
  32. Bunker, Mark (4 June 2008). "Scientology: Jason Beghe interview" (video). youtube.com. Mark Bunker.
  33. George-Cosh, David (25 January 2008). "Online group declares war on Scientology". National Post. Canwest Publishing Inc. Archived from the original on 28 January 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2008.
  34. McMillan, Robert; IDG News Service (25 January 2008). "Hackers Hit Scientology With Online Attack: Hacker group claims to have knocked the Church of Scientology's Web site offline with a distributed denial-of-service attack". PC World. IDG. Archived from the original on 29 January 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2008.
  35. Heldal-Lund, Andreas (22 January 2008). "OC Press Release 22 January 2008: DDoS attacks on Scientology". Press Release. Operation Clambake. Retrieved 25 January 2008.

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