The Complex: An Insider Exposes The Covert World of The Church of Scientology - Response By Church of Scientology

Response By Church of Scientology

Scientology spokesman Gerard Ryan spoke with Irish Mail on Sunday prior to the book's publication, and commented on the claims made in the book: "It's absolute baloney. It's all just rubbish. These are just the same old accusations that have been made on the internet and it's all lies." Ryan said he thought Duignan was "associating with fundamentalist Christians and he knows full well that these claims are not true". However, Gerard stated that Scientologists "believe in free speech" and according to the Irish Mail on Sunday Gerard "denied the church would take legal action if false claims were made in the book".

The Complex was available for sale on Amazon.com's United Kingdom branch, Amazon.co.uk, as of October 23, 2008. The Sunday Tribune reported in mid-November that Amazon.co.uk, removed The Complex from its website after the Church of Scientology sent a legal letter to the retailer. In the letter, the Church of Scientology claimed that the book contained libelous statements about a member of the organization. Merlin Publishing has stated that it stands by Duignan and the book. The publishing company "emphatically denied" the allegations made by the Church of Scientology, and Merlin Publishing editorial director Aoife Barrett called Scientology's claim about the book "vexatious". A source at Merlin Publishing told The Sunday Mirror: "It's crazy. These are bully-boy tactics. Their case is weak, and we are going to fight them." Chenile Keogh, a representative for Merlin Publishing, stated in TribuneNews: "We are standing by the book and the author. The book is on sale in Ireland and there is no problem with us publishing in Ireland".

Customers that had previously placed orders for The Complex with Amazon.co.uk were informed that the book is no longer available. Individuals that already ordered the book were sent an email from Amazon.co.uk that The Complex had been "removed from sale for legal reasons". By November 12, 2008 there was no trace of the book's listing on Amazon.co.uk, though the prior entry was visible in a cache of the page on Google. According to The Bookseller, Amazon.co.uk stated: "Unfortunately, we have had to withdraw The Complex by John Duignan in the UK because we received a specific allegation that a passage in the book is defamatory regarding an individual named in the book. In circumstances such as these, UK law gives us no choice but to remove the title from our catalogue." The Church of Scientology also sent the legal letter to other booksellers including Waterstone's and W H Smith. The Bookseller reported that Waterstone's, W H Smith and Borders Books may have been "warned off" selling the book.

The United States branch of Amazon.com responded to a request for comment about the situation from The Register, and stated: "we're awaiting arrival of the inventory into our fulfillment networks. As soon as we get the books in our fulfillment centers, we'll start shipping them out to customers". On November 18, 2008 a query on the German site for Amazon.com for the book resulted in the message "not available". Days prior to the report on the incident by The Register, Tom Cruise attended an Amazon.com employee meeting, and treated the employees to a special screening of his movie Valkyrie, set to be released in December 2008. According to the Swedish news site Realtid.se, John Duignan did not think Cruise was responsible for the legal threats to Amazon.com. Amazon.com spokeswoman Patty Smith commented on the status of the book in a November 16, 2008 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "We're awaiting shipments of the book into our fulfillment network. Once it arrives, we'll send it out to customers who've ordered it. ... Since the libel laws are different in the U.K., they are not able to sell the book."