Background
Cooper, a freelance journalist and author, had begun researching Scientology in 1968 and wrote a critical article on the Church for the British magazine Queen (now Harpers Bazaar) in 1969. The Church promptly sued for libel, adding Queen to the dozens of British publications that it had already sued.
Undeterred, Cooper expanded her article into a full-length book, The Scandal of Scientology (subtitled “A chilling examination of the nature, beliefs and practices of the ‘now religion.’”). It was published by Tower Publications, Inc. of New York in the summer of 1971. The Church responded by suing her in December 1971, demanding $300,000 for “untrue, libelous and defamatory statements about the Church.”
Read more about this topic: Operation Freakout
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