Paulette Cooper
| Paulette Cooper | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Paulette Cooper
|
|
| Born |
July 26, 1942 Oświęcim, Poland |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Author and journalist |
| Spouse(s) | Paul Noble |
| Website | www |
Paulette Marcia Cooper (born July 26, 1942) is an American author who is best known for her activism against the Church of Scientology and the subsequent harassment she suffered from Scientologists. Cooper's books have sold close to a half a million copies.
Cooper was born in Belgium to parents who died at Auschwitz concentration camp. After the war, she spent years in various orphanages in Belgium, until she was adopted by the Cooper family and moved to the United States at age 6. She became an American citizen when she was 8.
She began her freelance writing career in 1968, after completing a master's degree in psychology. As a result of her earlier study of comparative religion at Harvard University for a summer, she became interested in new religious movements and began studying the Church of Scientology in 1968 in order to write about it.
Cooper has written a total of 20 books on a variety of subjects.
Cooper's conflict with Scientology began in 1970 when the Church of Scientology filed suit against her in a British court for a critical article she wrote that was published in London's Queen magazine. Her 1971 book, The Scandal of Scientology, was an expansion of the work she had begun with the article.
The book earned her more negative attention from members of Scientology, and that same year the Church filed a second lawsuit against her in Los Angeles Superior Court. In the years to come, Scientology instituted a total of nineteen lawsuits against Cooper from all over the world; she counter-sued them three times.
As she continued to investigate Scientology over the years, Cooper became the target of several harassment campaigns, including a Scientology campaign known as Operation Freakout, the goal of which was to deter Cooper from criticizing Scientology by having her "incarcerated in a mental institution or jail or at least to hit her so hard that she drops her attacks." In another campaign titled "Operation Dynamite," the Church of Scientology sent itself forged bomb threats, purportedly from Cooper, using her stationery with her fingerprints on it; it also planned to send bomb threats to Henry Kissinger, among others. The campaign was discovered when the FBI raided Scientology offices in 1977 and recovered documents relating to the operation. Sometime in 1977, Cooper's assassination was possibly planned, along with another murder, but it is unknown whether or not it was attempted.
...
Wikipedia