Religion: Scientology: Parry and Thrust

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Armed with search warrants, dozens of FBI agents used chain saws, sledgehammers and bolt cutters to break into three Scientology offices. They wore rubber gloves to avoid new fingerprints. The raids lasted up to 23 hours, and at the end the FBI needed 550 pages to index some 20,000 documents they had seized in the process. The captured material included files on "bugging devices," a "locksmith course," material on "the correct use of codes" and a folder marked "CIA agents' directory."

Scientology Spokesman Vaughn Young denounced the raids as the work of "little Hitlers" and a "Gestapo police state." Scientology lawyers went to court to demand the return of the seized material and a gag order forbidding the authorities to reveal what they had found. Although the matter quickly bogged down in legal technicalities, most observers predicted eventual court approval for continuation of the probe.