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FACTNET/March 30, 1998

Scientology has launched a new censorship attack on the Internet, one designed to clog search mechanisms. By spamming Internet search mechanisms, Scientology will render them slower and much less useful, all in an effort to censor Internet free speech. Scientology hopes flooding search mechanisms with over 100,000 newly created Scientology-based sites, Netizens will be unable to find the two or three hundred sites critical of Scientology. Join the outcry against this action.Scientology’s War on the Internet

To understand the danger of Scientology’s most recent censorship attack, it is necessary to know about its previous attacks. Scientology’s war on the Internet began in 1994 and has been a well-documented scandal. Scientology has tried to censor critics by shutting down web sites, raiding critics’ homes, hiring private investigators, and bringing lawsuits against web hosts, Internet service providers, and cult awareness organizations. The newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.) has been a target of attack through mass cancellations of valid postings followed by mass postings of unwanted spam, and through attempts to remove it from Usenet altogether. Here is a brief history of Scientology Internet abuse:

1.Operation Cancelbunny: Scientology censors alt.religion.scientology

Alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.) has been one of the most active newsgroups on the Internet, a place where pro- and anti-Scientology netizens hotly debate each other. Beginning in 1994, Scientology operatives began tampering with a.r.s. by surreptitiously canceling postings critical of itself. The source of unauthorized cancellations came to be known as the Cancelbunny, although the Cancelbunny project really involved a number of cancelers. The Cancelbunny (or Cancelbunnies) deleted hundreds of messages using their email accounts at a variety of service providers, including Netcom, Deltanet, University College in Dublin, Ireland, Directnet, Kaiwan, and NetVoyage. All providers responded swiftly to determine the identities of the unauthorized cancelers and terminate their accounts. A group of netizens even joined forces to track down the Cancelbunny; they called themselves the Rabbit Hunters.

While the efforts of the Rabbit Hunters and Internet service providers slowed the Cancelbunny and forced it to jump around quite a bit, the bunny was still going actively in April 1995, 17 months after beginning its cancellations, and still appears from time to time now three years later.

2.Operation Delete a.r.s.: Scientology attempts to off the newsgroup

In January 1995 Scientology attorney Helena Kobrin unilaterally instructed Usenet servers to delete the whole a.r.s. newsgroup. Kobrin sent emails to the servers with the “remove” instruction usually used to delete newsgroups. Fortunately, her instruction was not followed, and three years later a.r.s is still very active.

3. Operation Raid: Scientology raids Internet users’ homes

Scientology’s 1995 raids of Internet users’ homes comprise one of the most atrocious chapters in the history of Scientology’s censorship war on the Internet. A great deal of information surrounds the raids. Briefly:

*February: Scientology raided the home of former Scientologist Dennis Erlich, seizing numerous items including computers and disks. Erlich ” along with Tom Klemesrud, the operator of his bulletin board system (BBS) and Netcom, his Internet service provider ” was subsequently sued by Scientology for “copyright infringements.”

*Early August: Scientology raided the home of former Scientologist Arnie Lerma for posting to the Internet a widely-available federal court document known as the Fishman Papers. The papers included excerpts of Scientology’s “secret scripture.” Scientology then sued Lerma, his service provider Digital Gateway Systems, and even the Washington Post for including 46 words from the Fishman Papers in an article on the incident.

*Late August: Again claiming copyright infringement, Scientology raided the home of Lawrence Wollersheim and Bob Penny, the then-directors of FACTNet, a nonprofit BBS (now a web site). With federal marshals standing by, Scientology seized computers, disks, files, and more. Naturally, Scientology then sued FACTNet.

*September: “Scientology agents, accompanied by a locksmith, local police, and two U.S. `computer experts’, entered the premises of XS4ALL (xs4all.nl), an Internet service provider in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Scientology demanded that XS4ALL remove a copy of the Fishman Papers from a customer’s web page. (XS4ALL refused to do so.) Dutch Internet users protested Scientology’s action by putting over 100 copies of the Fishman Papers on web sites all over the country. Scientology responded to this cyber-civil-disobedience campaign by suing four Dutch Internet service providers (including XS4ALL) as well as well-known Dutch writer Karin Spaink, who helped initiate the campaign. They withdrew this lawsuit on December 12, but filed a much larger suit, against 23 separate parties, on January 31. A court hearing was held on February 26, and a verdict was rendered on March 12, giving a total victory to the defendants.” [Written by Scientology critic Ron Newman].

4.Operation Anonymous Remailer: Scientology sues and squashes

Starting in January 1995 Scientology launched an attack against anonymous remailers and posters. In January a letter was sent to anonymous remailers demanding they not allow anonymous postings to a.r.s. or alt.clearing.technology. At this point, such prominent entities such as Electronic Freedom Foundation, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post reported Scientology’s Internet abuses.

Later, in the Spring of 1996, in an attempt to attack anonymous postings by “Scamizdat,” Scientology filed suit against a.r.s. poster Grady Ward and then Keith Henson. In connection with the suit, the Finnish anonymous remailer anon.penet.fi was ordered to reveal the identities of two of its users. The remailer’s administrator, Julf Helsingius, refused to disclose the names. Instead, on August 22, 1996, he closed anon.penet.fi, an action that shocked the Internet and was widely reported in the media.

5.Operation Spam Attack: Scientology clogs a.r.s.

Scientology’s abuse of a.r.s continued via a new method from May to December 1996. During this time, Scientology bombarded a.r.s. with thousands of spam messages taken verbatim from the Scientology web site. This action paralyzed the purpose and effective use of the newsgroup.

6. Operation Netizen: Scientology threatens netizens at large

Scientology has sent numerous emails to Netizens threatening litigation for posting even short excerpts of Scientology’s copyrighted material, despite the fact that copyright law allows such excerpting. Netizens and their families have received threats by email and fax, visits by Scientologists and private investigators, and slanderous phone calls.

Most recently, early in 1998 web hosts Tilman Hausherr and Ray Randolph were threatened with litigation. Scientology considers Hausherr’s parody of “$cientology” and Randolph’s domain name www.scientology-kills.net infringements of the Scientology trademark. To most observers, it seems that both uses are legal, since Hausherr’s parody and Randolph’s domain name constitute satire and commentary on Scientology rather than attempts to be mistaken for Scientology. The latter would be trademark infringement; but it would be difficult for anyone to mistake “$cientology” or “scientology-kills” for Scientology. Randolph has received the support of the ACLU and EFF, both of which will handle his litigation if Scientology follows through on its threat.

Negative reaction to Scientology’s war on the Internet has been loudly expressed by a large and varied group of individuals and organizations. Netizens, Internet service providers, and other net-dependent corporations such as search mechanisms should be outraged that Scientology has hampered the smooth operation of the Internet through false cancellations and spam. People and organizations concerned with censorship such as EFF are concerned that Scientology so blatantly and automatically attempts to censor those who criticize it. Internet critics whose homes were raided and their property confiscated question what free speech means in supposedly free nations.

Despite vocal and powerful opposition to Scientology’s Internet abuses, and the fact that each censorship attempt resulted in even more widespread flaming anti-Scientology postings, Scientology has continued its Mafia-like tactics. One might hope Scientology had learned its lesson by now. Not so. As of this month, it has launched its newest censorship attack.

Scientology’s Newest Attack

Scientology’s next escapade has just begun and might turn out to be the most abusive ever. The City of Night reports that Scientology’s new plan is to send Internet web site templates to 116,000 Scientologists, so that the Scientologists can set up pages that appear to be their personal home pages. City of Night says, “Church officials hope that by creating many, many web sites that link to Scientology’s home page, Scientology can clog search engines and prevent information critical of the Church from reaching those interested in learning all about Scientology.” [City of Night, March 19 - 25].

A number of these new templates are already on the web. Here are a few:

Benet Ekhammer http://members.aol.com/solovii/ Jason D. Peterson http://members.aol.com/jasondrp/ Teri Milch http://home.mci2000.com/~tmilch@mci2000.com/index.htm Michael Lewis http://www.relaypoint.net/~lewisgroup/index.htm Grahame Scott-Douglas http://www.relaypoint.net/~grahamesd/ Kathy Weigand http://www.relaypoint.net/~kweigand/index.htm Denise Palm http://home1.gte.net/cedarlan/new/index.htm Kevin Brown http://members.aol.com/actinup2/ Tom Humphrey http://members.aol.com/humphreytr/index.htm

The sites are almost identical, and if Scientology is not stopped, there will soon be 115,000 more of them. The web pages provide little information on the Scientologists themselves (other than their feelings toward Scientology), and link directly (and only) to the Scientology web site. It is also significant that they do not include any email addresses with which to contact the web host. So while censoring the entire Internet by jamming search mechanisms, Scientology is simultaneously censoring its members.

Scientology will perhaps say it is simply expressing its religious freedom, but this claim rings hollow. Why would an expression of religious freedom use a technique intentionally designed to clog search mechanisms? And the proportionality is way off: Scientology is posting 116,000 new pages in response to two or three hundred anti-Scientology sites, which makes the size of the attack 400 times the totality of what opposes it. It might also be significant that Scientology officials announced this new censorship attack at a celebration of Scientology’s founder’s birthday.

The message Scientology is sending to the Internet is the same as always: we don’t care about your rules or the reaction you’ve shown us. If Scientology is allowed to continue its censorship war on the Internet, other totalitarian corporate, government, or cult groups will follow. Any issue people care dearly about can be drowned out by one side or the other using this techno-censorship technique. Continued efforts such as this latest ploy will jam search mechanisms, make searches fruitless, and slow down the Internet. It is extremely important that the Internet send Scientology a clear, strong message to stop this Internet abuse.

It is FACTNet’s hope that Scientology’s executives and its $20 million-per-year legal team will realize that change needs to be made. Specifically, Scientology needs to stop its Internet censorship tactics completely. If they do, it will take quite some time to show good faith and for Internet users to re-establish respect for the organization.

If Scientology does not stop, how does it expect to keep going in the 1990s in a world becoming increasingly Internet-based, when it is rapidly becoming the pariah of the Internet and the archetypal example of what not to do in terms of Internet marketing.

What you can do

One does not have to disagree with Scientology to agree that its actions on the Internet are reprehensible. Help us take action against this new censorship attack:

1.Forward this email following net etiquette to all interested Internet users, Internet service providers, and search mechanisms. 2.Forward this email to Scientology’s celebrities urging them to stop promoting an organization that takes such reprehensible censoring action against the Internet. Here are some Scientology celebrity email addresses: John Travolta: info@johntravolta.org Nancy Cartright (voice of Bart Simpson): nancy@kidsister.com Chick Corea: chickcorea@n2k.com Jenna Elfman: 8730 Sunset Blvd, #220W, Los Angeles, CA 90069 or to “Dharma & Greg”, 20th Century Fox, 10201 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, Ca 90034

Other Scientology celebrities include Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Kirstie Alley, Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley, and Kelly Preston. Write to them if you can locate their addresses!

2.Email Scientology at info@scientology.net and let them know you will not stand for their censoring free speech on the Internet.

Links & notations: further information on Scientology’s war on the Internet

In general

Scientology and the Internet
http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/scinternet.htm

Ron Newman’s The Church of Scientology vs. the Net http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/home.html#NON-NET

Marina’s Manor, for many of the hundreds of anti-Scientology pages http://www.best.com/~mchong/index.shtml

For details” For details on Operation Cancelbunny, see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/usenet/cancel.html

For details on Operation Delete a.r.s., see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/usenet/rmgroup.html

For details on Operation Raid concerning Dennis Erlich, see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/erlich/home.html

For details on Operation Raid concerning Arnie Lerma, see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/lerma/home.html

For details on Operation Raid concerning FACTNet, see http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/raid.html

For details on Operation Raid concerning XS4ALL and Karin Spaink, see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/dutch/home.html

For details on Operation Anonymous Remailer, see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/anon/home.html

For details on Operation Anonymous Remailer and anon.penet.fi, see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/anon/penet.html

For details on Operation Anonymous Remailer and Grady Ward, see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/grady/home.html

For details on Operation Spam Attack, see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/home.html#SPAM

For details on Operation Netizen, see http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/scientology/harass/home.html

The City of Night article [March 19 - 25, 1998] is at http://www.newtimesla.com/1998/current/cityofnight1.html

By the way: Why the Internet is a threat to Scientology

Scientology ” like all cults ” operates as a closed, totalitarian organization. To gain members’ allegiance, cults systematically exert more and more control over members’ social environment, time, and social support. One key aspect of this process is the manipulation of information members are allowed to come into contact with. Information must be controlled, distorted, and severely limited, in order for the group to suspend members’ belief in otherwise outlandish things. Information which questions or contradicts the group’s assertions are not permitted. Criticism of all kinds is not permitted. Rules exist governing permissible topics to discuss with outsiders. And within the group, communication is highly controlled, giving rise to the construction of “in-group” jargon.

Just as the effectiveness of mind control depends upon regulating the information members are exposed to, providing full information is the key to helping cult members leave the destructive organizations they feel tied to. According to cult expert Paul Martin, “Understanding what happened to the [cult victim] is the first step in recovery.” And knowing the truth about cultic organizations and how mind control works prevents others from joining. It is for this reason, by the way, that education and referrals comprise the core of FACTNet’s work: education helps people break cult ties, and referrals to cult-help professionals help ex-members heal and reduce the ongoing harms of cults.

So if information in itself threatens the control that cults — particularly Scientology — hold over members, the Internet is their nightmare. The Internet has provided an easy outlet for the millions of ex-cult members worldwide to tell their horror stories. Internet technology makes access to unimaginably huge amounts of information easy, fast, discrete, and inexpensive. FACTNet’s site alone has transferred over a billion bytes of data so far this month. And FACTNet’s web site is only one of hundreds that provide information on cults, and only one of millions of sites worldwide.

Scientology is right to be threatened by the Internet in so far as the cult depends upon censoring the information its members are exposed to. It is estimated that since Scientology started its Internet battles in 1992, its income has dropped by up to 80% worldwide. One would assume this reflects a decrease in Scientology’s hold over its members. Doubtless this is a tribute to the power of the Internet and an example of the Internet’s ability to be a useful tool for educating society.

In the face of the criticisms leveled against Scientology on the Internet, Scientology has responded in its standard manner: not by reforming, but by attacking. Specifically, by attacking individual Internet users, Internet Service Providers, and the Internet itself as an effectively operating information network. Because of the threat the Internet poses to Scientology, Scientology likely considers the Internet itself an enemy. It is important for the Internet community to remember Scientology’s policy on enemies, written by leader L. Ron Hubbard in 1967: “[Enemies] may be deprived of property or injured by any means … May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” [L. Ron Hubbard, HCO P/L 18 October 1967].


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The view from the lion’s den.

This paper is not for publication or distribution in England or Wales because certain of the points raised are aspects of current litigation. This paper is copyright, 1995, to Jonathan Caven-Atack. Copies may be made for private study without profit. All other rights are reserved.

A paper by Jon Atack, delivered at the Dialog Centre International conference in Berlin, October 1995.HTML and links by Tilman Hausherr


I was a member of the Scientology cult for nine years. During that time I undertook many courses and by the time I left was in the middle of the 24th of the 27 available “levels” of Scientology - the fifth section of the Operating Thetan course. I left when I began to find out about the hidden agenda and activities of Scientology which I describe in this paper. Along with most scientologists, I had no idea of these disgraceful, immoral and criminal activities. I believed that I was a member of a vital, world-saving group which would lead to a world without “criminals, insanity or war”, as Scientology leader Ron Hubbard claimed. (1) I resigned from the Church of Scientology in 1983, and began to interview other former members and collect court documents and testimony relating to Scientology. Seven years later, my book A Piece of Blue Sky was published, after a court battle in New York. Former Hubbard aide, Robert Vaughn Young whose excellent article was published in a recent Spiegel magazine has called my book the definitive work on Scientology. I have spoken with literally hundreds of former members, and read tens of thousands of pages of records and court documents, ranging from Hubbard’s college and navy records through to the revelations of high-ranking defectors as recorded in sworn testimony. I have endeavoured to make this information a matter for urgent public debate.

My quest to understand and to help the many people damaged by Scientology has led me to public humiliation and bankruptcy. I have been the target of a massive campaign of harassment and vilification. Because I would not give up my right to free speech and open public debate, scientologists have set out to destroy me. I have been a tiny David oppressed by a Goliath of dreadful proportions. Scientology has tens of thousands of followers and hundreds of millions of dollars. I have only my desire for the truth and my belief in humanity.

In England, Scientology has cynically used the establishment, making it an unwitting collaborator in my devastation. It is no exaggeration to say that justice and freedom are at stake in this battle. In Britain, the media seem afraid to tell my story. Thankfully, Germany has learned the terrible danger of totalitarian cults and currently leads the world in exposing their evils. This year, German courts have stripped Scientology of its religious status and its tax exemption. They have ordered Scientology to reregister as a business and to pay its staff a proper wage. Both politicians and the press have been outspoken in their criticism of this malicious sect. The French too have withdrawn tax exemption and religious status. The Danes have withdrawn missionary status. A major prosecution is about to occur in Spain, following another in Italy. In Canada, Scientology has recently been forced to pay $3 million in the largest libel award in the history of that country. But let me start by relating some of my own experiences, before moving on to the hidden policies which motivate Scientology’s hysterical attack upon democracy.

At the end of 1992, scientologists started to arrive uninvited on my doorstep. They always came in pairs, a new pair each time. The visits happened about once a week, but not on the same night. The timing of the visits varied, with the latest being after 11 o’clock. The first couple accused me of “persecuting” their religion. When I asked for details, one of them said that I had told a newspaper that Scientology “brainwashed” its members. I explained that the journalist had given his own opinion. I tend to avoid the emotive term “brainwashing” and speak instead of “coercive psychology”. Having failed in the particular, they moved on to the general. I was accused of being a liar. Unable to give any example of a lie I had told, one began chanting hysterically “you tell lies”.

In Scientology, this phrase would be called a “button”.(2) After careful analysis, the member of Scientology’s Investigation bureau who drilled these scientologists, had decided that I would be upset by this particular accusation. “Buttons” used on subsequent visits included the accusation that I am a “failure” and a practitioner of “deprograming”. All of the meetings started with my attempt at reasoned dialogue and finished with screaming scientologists parroting drilled phrases.

Such behaviour is always alarming. Although the “buttons” may not create the desired psychological collapse, the fanatical intolerance and incapacity to enter dialogue evidenced in such meetings is disturbing. But then, the creator of Scientology gave as an aspect of “religious scripture” the dictum “Don’t ever defend. Always attack.”

It is very important to understand that all of Hubbard’s spoken and written words are considered unalterable(3) and scriptural.(4) Further, they must be complied with absolutely, to do otherwise is given the highly derogatory label “squirreling”.(5) Another tenet of Hubbard’s “scripture” is that all opponents of Scientology are criminals with undisclosed crimes. It should be a matter of some amazement to scientologists given this prediction that I have managed to criticise Scientology for twelve years without spending any time in prison or being charged with any crime. In that time, however, scientologists have been convicted in several countries.

The phobic attitude towards critics and the refusal of dialogue characterize totalist groups or destructive cults. Scientologists are taught that anyone who seeks to dissuade them from Scientology is “suppressive”.(6) If the criticism cannot be silenced, then the scientologist should cease all communication with the critic, or “disconnect”(7). Any criticism of Scientology is held to stem from undisclosed “overts” or moral transgressions. The critic is asked “what are your crimes?” This can be upsetting to the mystified parent of a raging scientologist.

If a scientologist hears any criticism of Scientology or its creator, that criticism must be relayed to Scientology’s “Ethics” department in a written “knowledge report”. Further, Scientologists are forbidden discussion of the techniques of Scientology (called “verbal technology”(8)), the penalty for which is being “declared” a “Suppressive Person”, and being ostracised by other scientologists, under the policy of “disconnection”. Scientologists are also enjoined not to talk about any of their problems except to their appointed Scientology “auditor”. They pay up to $1,000 per hour to discuss such problems.(9) While Hubbard insisted that Scientology’s main focus is enhancing communication, he actually spent a great deal of time restricting it.

The most controversial doctrine of Scientology is undoubtedly the Fair Game law. Hubbard was well aware that this expression refers to the medaieval practice of labelling an individual “a legitimate object of pursuit and attack”, with the word “game” meaning “quarry”.(10) Hubbard actually used the expression in its correct sense in a 1940s science-fiction story before his first excursions into psychotherapy and religion.(11) Fair Game highlights the essential contradiction which dwells at the very heart of Scientology. Scientology is supposedly a system which increases its adherents ability to communicate and thereby raises their “affinity” for others. Scientology is meant to make people more friendly.(12) But in the Fair Game doctrine, Hubbard said that opponents “may be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”(13) The Hubbard Policy Letter which introduced Fair Game asserted that individuals considered Suppressive Persons could be the subject of “1st degree murder, arson, disintegration of persons or belongings”.(14) Although this Policy Letter was withdrawn from public view within days of its publication, it continued to appear on Intelligence training courses,(15) and in 1980 governing officials of Scientology admitted during court proceedings that it had never been “abrogated”.(16) Further, the 1980 Policy Letter(17) which did abrogate it was itself withdrawn in 1983.(18) Consequently, Fair Game remains a binding “scripture” of Scientology.(19)

Hubbard’s vindictive nature had found outlets long before he published the Fair Game law. For example, in 1952, Don Purcell, who had earlier rescued Hubbard from financial collapse, was accused of having taken $500,000 from the American Medical Association to destroy Dianetics. Hubbard churned out hate letters using a mailing list stolen from Purcell.(20)

In a bizarre 1955 article, Hubbard wrote “The DEFENSE of anything is UNTENABLE. The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK”. This article also ordered Scientology organizations to use the law to “harass”.(21)

By 1959, Hubbard had created an intelligence system for monitoring friends and enemies alike, and instituted new procedures for harassing perceived opponents. This came with the internal publication of his secret Hubbard Communications Office Manual of Justice.(22) The Hubbard Communications Office was an early attempt at creating an intelligence agency.(23) Copyright lapsed in the booklet in the 1980s,(24) so it can now be freely reprinted and quoted from.

In the Manual of Justice, Hubbard wrote “People attack Scientology; I never forget it, always even the score.” He went on to describe one of the functions of his Communications Office, “Intelligence is mostly the collection of data … It is basically a listening and filing action. It is done all the time about everything and everybody.”

On June 10, 1960, Hubbard issued a seemingly innocent Bulletin saying that not all scientologists need be professional “auditors”, or counsellors. He encouraged his followers to bring Scientology to the society through their jobs. He praised those who had already exerted influence: “These people … drove a wedge for themselves into companies, societies, with Scientology and then took over control of the area.”(25) On 23 June, Hubbard extended his design with the Special Zone Plan: “a nation or state runs on the ability of its department heads, its governors, or any other leaders. It is easy to get posts in such areas … Don’t bother to get elected. Get a job on the secretarial staff or the bodyguard … don’t seek the co-operation of groups. Don’t ask for permission”.(26) Hubbard went on to give the example of a police officer quietly intruding Scientology into his workplace. In the 1970s, a San Diego police lieutenant was disciplined for using police computers on behalf of Scientology.(27) In the 1990s, the president of Finland dismissed his scientologist bodyguard.

Back in 1960, Hubbard proceeded to establish Special Zone Departments in all Scientology organizations to co-ordinate the efforts of Scientologists to infiltrate the society. Only two months later, this Department was incorporated into the Department of Government Affairs.F28 Hubbard wrote, “The object of the Department is to broaden the impact of Scientology upon governments and other organizations … defensive tactics are frowned upon in the department … Only attacks resolve threats … If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone … always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace”. Hubbard then repeated one of the central tenets of his “religious scripture”: “Don’t ever defend. Always attack”.

Hubbard had rallied his followers to surreptitiously spread his influence. Now they were to be part of an organization with a dangerous agenda: “The goal of the Department is to bring the government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology. This is done by high level ability to control and in its absence by low level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies.”

The Department of Government Affairs was superseded by the Department of Official Affairs on 13 March 1961.(29) The memoranda relating to infiltration and control of governments remained in force, as they do to this day. The new Department was charged with maintaining files “relating to Scientology and anti-Scientology groups, persons and activities”. Hubbard blithely continued “we have here in actuality the equivalent of a Ministry of Propaganda and Security”. Elsewhere, Hubbard candidly defined propaganda as “putting out slanted information”.(30) This Ministry of Propaganda and Security was to bring hostile groups into line by “finding and releasing the truth about the leader of that group”. The policy of infiltration was repeated “The action of bringing about a pro-Scientology group consists of making a friend of the most highly placed government person one can reach, even placing Scientologists in domestic and clerical posts close to him”. Hubbard continued the theme of the June 1960 memoranda: “Get volunteer Scientologists interested in this game and helping.” As professor of sociology Roy Wallis said in his study of Scientology, members readily become “deployable agents of the cult”.(31)

In February 1966, Lord Balniel asked a question in the British parliament concerning Scientology. Hubbard was outraged: “The ‘news’ that some lord is ‘going to ask a question in the House…’ gives us this planning … Get a detective on that lord’s past to unearth the tid-bits … Stress sex and blood in psychiatry and collect data and mount an all out attack in the press.”(32)

A few days later, Hubbard added, “Don’t ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on the attackers all the way.” Having investigated critics for “FELONIES or worse using own professionals, not outside agencies”, scientologists should “Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press [punctuation sic].” Hubbard added “I speak from 15 years experience in this. There has never yet been an attacker who was not reeking of crime. All we had to do was look for it and murder would come out.”(33)

Hubbard brought the Public Investigation Section into being on 17 February, 1966. Its stated purpose was “TO HELP LRH [Hubbard] INVESTIGATE PUBLIC MATTERS WHICH SEEM TO IMPEDE HUMAN LIBERTY SO THAT SUCH MATTERS MAY BE EXPOSED AND TO FURNISH INTELLIGENCE REQUIRED IN GUIDING THE PROGRESS OF SCIENTOLOGY [emphasis in original]”.(34) The new department was to be “wholly composed of professional investigators”. Hubbard asserted “the section has all the useful functions of an intelligence and propaganda agency.” Targets were easy to find, as Hubbard explained “what agency or group is attacking Scientology? As Scientology stands for freedom, those who don’t want freedom tend to attack it. The Section investigates the attacking group’s individual members and sees that the results of the investigation get adequate legal action and publicity.” Hubbard added, ominously, “Standard intelligence procedures are used.”

The first private detective Hubbard tried to hire was so horrified by Hubbard’s intentions that he immediately gave the story to the newspapers(35). So two weeks after its inaugeration, the Public Investigation Section was transformed into the infamous Guardian’s Office of the Church of Scientology.(36) Under Hubbard’s direction, the Guardian’s Office came to control all of Scientology’s legal, public relations and intelligence activities.(37) It also controlled all finances, with an Assistant Guardian posted to every organization. Hubbard’s wife was made the full-time Controller of the Guardian’s Office, a position which she held from 1966 to 1981, shortly before she was imprisoned in the U.S.(38)

The Guardian’s Office - or GO - inherited the intelligence files of its predecessors. It also inherited several Hubbard techniques, including “noisy investigation”. This method of harassment was mentioned in the 1959 Manual of Justice, “When we need somebody haunted we investigate … When we investigate we do so noisily always. And usually mere investigation damps out the trouble even when we discover no really pertinent facts … intelligence we get with a whisper. Investigation we do with a yell.” This policy was reiterated in February 1966 as an action which had been “positive in stopping attacks”.(39) Later that year, Hubbard approved a memorandum which explained “How to do a NOISY investigation”.(40) Having selected the target for harassment “You find out where he or she works or worked, doctor, dentist, friends, neighbours, anyone, and ‘phone ‘em up and say ‘I am investigating Mr/Mrs …….. for criminal activities as he/she has been trying to prevent Man’s freedom and is restricting my religious freedom … You say now and then, ‘I have already got some astounding facts …’ (Use a generality)”.

Within weeks of my departure from Scientology, in 1983, two friends reported conversations in which a scientologist had told them, without any basis in reality, that I had received electric shock treatment.

The Guardian’s Office was far better organized than any of the earlier Scientology Ministries of Propaganda and Security. Under Hubbard’s direction, it ruled Scientology from 1966 until 1983.When current Scientology leader David Miscavige took the GO over, he claims that it controlled the directorships of every Church of Scientology.(41) It also had 1,100 full-time staff and numerous voluntary “Field Staff Members” by that time.

In the late 1960s, Hubbard’s determination that a psychiatric conspiracy was ruling the world grew. Using the Guardian’s Office, he set about taking over psychiatry. The abortive attempt by Deputy Guardian David Gaiman to gain control of the British National Association of Mental Health came during this period.(42) Hubbard blamed the Bank of England,(43) the Communists and the Fascists in turn for this supposed conspiracy. Among the secret objectives of Scientology were to “contact and make friends with and organize all minority groups until we have the biggest group on the planet. By … making friends with even the biggest enemies of the West, we will avert Fascism now taking over in the West.”(44) Shortly before, he had outlined the “vital targets” of Scientology: “T[arget] 1. Depopularising the enemy to a point of total obliteration. T[arget] 2. Taking over the control or allegiance of the heads or proprietors of all news media. T[arget] 3. Taking over the control or allegiance of key political figures. T[arget] 4. Taking over the control or allegiance of those who monitor international finance”.(45) With reference to minority groups, Scientology has allied itself with other totalist groups (”cults”) including the Unification Church, or Moonies and the Children of God (Family of Love). Scientology officials deny the registration in Strassbourg in December 1992 of FIREPHIM. This was allegedly a pact between the Moonies, COG, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Raelians and even the Bahá’í (see note).

In 1973, Hubbard created the most far reaching of his intelligence operations, Snow White. Under the Snow White directive, negative material about Scientology was to be expunged from government files and replaced with positive material. Robert Vaughn Young, who directed the propaganda aspects of Snow White, has recently told his story in Der Spiegel.(46) Operation Snow White was to discover the source of the supposed global attack upon Hubbard and his “humanitarian” teachings. To do so, a massive intelligence agency was brought into being. Snow White was given the “highest priority of all GO activity”.(47)

The Guardian’s Office had reached its peak by July 1977, when the FBI launched the largest raid in its history on GO offices. Eleven Scientology officials, including Hubbard’s wife, Mary Sue, were convicted and sent to prison as a consequence of this raid.

The sentencing memorandum in USA v. Mary Sue Hubbard et al makes clear the scale of the offences committed by Hubbard’s agents: “The United States initiated the investigation which resulted in the instant indictment in view of the brazen, systematic and persistent burglaries of United States Government offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, California, over an extended period of at least some two years. Additionally, the United States was confronted with the pervasive conduct of the defendants in this case in thwarting a federal Grand Jury investigation by harboring a fugitive, in effect forcefully kidnapping a witness who had decided to surrender to the federal authorities, submitting false evidence to the Grand Jury, destroying other evidence which might have been of valuable aid to its investigation, preparing a cover-up story, and encouraging and drilling a crucial witness to give false testimony under oath to that Grand Jury … a review of the documents seized in the … searches … show the incredible and sweeping nature of the criminal conduct of the defendants and of the organization which they led. These crimes include infiltration and theft of documents from a number of prominent private national and world organizations, law firms and newspapers; the execution of smear campaigns and baseless law suits to destroy private individuals who had attempted to exercise their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression; the framing of private citizens who had been critical of Scientology, including the forging of documents which led to the indictment of at least one innocent person; violation of the civil rights of prominent private figures and public officials. These are but a few of the criminal acts not covered in the ‘uncontested’ stipulation of evidence … defendant Heldt’s assertion that ‘the policy of the Church prohibits any illegality on the part of its members or staff…’ is totally unfounded and incorrect. The evidence in this case … establish[es] beyond peradventure that the Church and its leadership had, over the years, approved, condoned and engaged in gross and widespread illegality. One, indeed, wonders how it can even be suggested that the defendants and their organization did not make illegal activities part and parcel of their daily work.”(48)

A similar prosecution convicted both scientologists and the Church of Scientology in Canada, in 1992. Scientologists had infiltrated the Attorney General’s Ministry and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the 1970s. Justice James Southey complained that rather than accepting responsibility for its wrongdoing, the Church of Scientology continued to blame those ordered to carry out the espionage work by Church leadership. The judge also said that he was satisfied that the Guardian’s Office was “subject to the control of founder L. Ron Hubbard”.(49)

Scientologists have been particularly eager to try and distance Hubbard from the activities of his Guardian’s Office. However, almost ten years before the raid on the GO, Hubbard recorded a lecture which is still sold by Scientology organizations.(50) Having complained that a huge international conspiracy existed against him, Hubbard said, “With all of this action being taken against us in the last 17 years … it was vitally necessary that I isolate who it was on this planet who was attacking us … The Organization, under the direction of Mary Sue [Hubbard], … employed several professional intelligence agents who had long and successful professional backgrounds and they looked into this matter for us and the results of their activities - although still in progress - have told us all we needed to know with regard to any enemy we had on this planet. Our enemies on this planet are less than 12 men. They are members of the Bank of England, and other higher financial circles. They own and control newspaper chains and they are oddly enough directors in all the Mental Health groups in the world … Wilson … the current premier of England [sic, should be Britain] is totally involved with these fellows … They have collected rather interesting files on us … and their orders concerning what to do about this as part of their files all makes very interesting reading. We of course have full copies of their files. It was, of course, their bad luck to tangle with someone who had been trained in the field of intelligence by the allied governments, which is myself, and they had insufficient security and insufficient loyalty amongst their own people to keep out the intelligence agents which we sent against them.”(51)

In short, ten years before the FBI raids, Hubbard openly admitted knowledge that “professional intelligence agents” - not private detectives, but “professional intelligence agents” - had been used to steal files. He also clearly stated the major target for Scientology: psychiatry. In a secret 1969 memorandum, Hubbard said “Our war has been forced to become ‘To take over absolutely the field of mental healing on this planet in all forms.’”(52) Following Hubbard’s orders, the GO infiltrated psychiatric associations and hospitals, tried to take over the British National Association of Mental Health and launched an all out war upon psychiatrists.

During the Second World War, Hubbard had spent a week in training as an “intelligence officer”. Although, he saw no action in intelligence, he created a mystique around the notion.(53) With the Guardian’s Office he created the largest personal intelligence agency in the history of mankind. In fact, few countries can boast intelligence agencies as large or as effective. Like a child with a new and very dangerous toy, Hubbard set about training his spies. The secret document in which Hubbard stated his aim to take over “mental healing” was concerned with explaining the intelligence functions of the GO.

The Guardian’s Office Bureau which spearheaded the assault upon Hubbard’s critics, was first known as the Intelligence Bureau. This was later changed to the more innocent sounding Information Bureau. The Bureau consisted of two departments. Branch Two dealt with “overt data collection”, meaning material in the public record such as media reports and credit ratings. Branch One, or B-1, dealth with “covert data collection” and “covert operations”. Hubbard’s abrupt start to the memorandum, shows an understanding of fundamental espionage technique: “A Case Officer runs agents who essentially are not known to the executive who is running the Case Officer.” He continued, “The Case Officer is also known as an ‘Operator’ or an Intelligence Officer. It is up to him to find agents and come to agreement with them. He himself knows and pays them. The agent is told what is wanted, gets it or finds how it can be gotten or doesn’t exist [sic]. He is paid for what he gets or documents or data. The Case Officer may ‘run’ several agents … In using such data or documents as are furnished, there is a danger of exposing the source of them or the agent so one usually falsifies the source(54) … This is essentially covert data collection.”

Covert data collection means illegally entering bank accounts, computer records, phone records and government records and the theft of medical or psychiatric records or psychotherapy notes.(55) It has also meant searching through critics’ garbage and tampering with their mail. In 1993, Lawrence Wollersheim managed to grab an envelope from a Scientology private investigator which demonstrated conclusively that his mail had been tampered with. There have been many reports of garbagee raids in the 1990s. It is sensible to shred or burn copies of bills and personal papers. Sensitive communication is best done through encrypted e-mail.

Hackers have shown that virtually no data held in a computer database is truly private. Scientologists have demonstrated great technical proficiency in their attempts to close down the computer Internet alt.religion.scientology newsgroup. With former scientologists, documentary evidence and testimony demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hubbard and his wife both ordered the use of scientologists’ supposedly confidential confessional folders. During a Scientology session, the “auditor” keeps a written record of the subject’s utterances. Anything scandalous should be reported to the Ethics Section and from there it would find its way to the Intelligence section. Nowadays, prospective employees are asked to fill in a 110 question “Life history”. This is not held to be confidential by Scientology management. It includes the demand: “Make a chronological list of the names of all persons with whom you have had sexual relationships and what you engaged in. Approximate the number of times you carried on any kind of activity, and note any perversions you engaged in. Be as complete as you can.”(56) It is understandable that very few former members dare to speak out.

Active covert data collection is done by putting spies next to an opponent. I have lost count of those employed against me over the years. In 1993, the former head of Investigation in the UK told me that four agents were active against me with another in training. Usually I am approached by someone with a touching story, who claims to be a confused former scientologist. I’ve spent probably hundreds of hours trying to help such people, who turn out to be reporting back to Scientology. For spying purposes, telephones have been preferred because it is easy to tape record a conversation without the target’s knowledge. Where it has proved impossible to put somebody next to a target, then a “listening post” might be put next to one of the target’s friends, carefully picking up and reporting every crumb of information. By creating a web of contacts and monitoring phone records, bank accounts and computer records, it is easy to maintain a picture of the target’s life, so that weaknesses can be exploited.

A major aspect of data collection is the so called “roll-back technology” whereby connections between individuals are noted.(57) Scientology delights in publishing far-fetched conspiracy accounts, but this information has another purpose: to create division between friends and co-workers. Rumour campaigns - “third partying” or “black propaganda” - are basic techniques. A common smear has been the assertion that an individual is a child molester. In 1994, a scientologist confidently asserted to a clergyman that I was a rapist and attempted murderer. Author Russell Miller was twice investigated for false accusations of murder in the 1980s.

Data, whether obtained “overtly” or “covertly”, would be fed onto a “time-track” or chronology of the individual. Copies of documents which might compromise Scientology would be kept away from public offices. The “time-track” was kept short and fronted a file of publically available material so that if there should be a police raid, nothing of significance would be found.

In the secret 1969 memorandum, Hubbard went on to describe the other function of B-1: “A covert operation can be arranged by a Case Officer, using agents but is normally on another set of lines so as to expose nothing of covert data collection by engaging on a covert operation. Essentially a covert operation is intended to embarass, discredit or overthrow or remove an actual or possible opponent. It is a small war carried on without its true source being disclosed … It follows all the rules of war but uses propaganda psychological effect surprise shock, etc. to achieve its ends … To fight a covert operation or to do one needs channels, contacts, direct planned campaigns with known objectives … Covert operations are weak in that they fade out on exposure. Thus a covert operation has to lead to an overt operation to succeed. One sees this in guerilla actions. They begin with propaganda, get stronger by covert political persons found ‘in place’ or planted in the government … and then move into terrorism, bombings, etc., and then into active guerilla warfare and then into formal war.”(58)

The most usual form of covert operation in Scientology has been the anonymous tip-off. Because such tip-offs are anonymous, it is hard to prove that they emanate from Scientology. However, tax authorities have confirmed that they received such a report about me from a scientologist. Another scientologist reported me to the police, asserting that I am a kidnapper. Others reported me to the Data Protection Agency. I have also been the subject of anonymous reports to various government agencies and authorities.

Scientology spies were trained using a role play drill called “Training Routine Lying”, in accordance with Hubbard’s Fair Game Law. This document, called “TR-L” was read into the record by Mr Justice Latey in a child custody case in London in 1984. It was also exhibited during the trial of the Guardian’s Office staff in the United States.

Steven Fishman, who claims to have been a Scientology agent prior to his conviction for stock fraud, has alleged that he introduced a practice called “bingoing the psychs”. He would go to a public library and tear the order forms for information from magazines. Then he would check every item and send the form off, but with a psychiatrist’s name on. The psychiatrist would receive a flood of junk mail.(59)

More severe covert operations have included framing journalist Paulette Cooper for a bomb threat, spiking opponents with LSD, death threats, and a fake hit-and-run accident in an attempt to discredit a Florida mayor. Former agent Garry Scarff has alleged in sworn testimony that he was ordered to murder two opponents of Scientology.(60) Steven Fishman has alleged that he blew up an opponent’s car.(61)

The GO Intelligence Training Course runs to about 800 pages and included sections on burglary, phone-tapping and breaking and entering. Contrary to public statements, much of the material in the course was written by Hubbard himself. On the reading list for intelligence agents are many books including Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which a 1990s head of the UK Investigation Bureau told me is the current key text, and books about the Nazi spymaster Reinhard Gehlen.(62)

David Miscavige has asserted that he closed down the Guardian’s Office in 1983. Eight hundred of the 1,100 staff were supposedly dismissed,(63) but a surprising number of B-1 trainees continued to work for Scientology after the supposed closure. For example, Brian Andrus, an unindicted co-conspirator in the conviction of the eleven GO staff in the U.S., and labelled as a kidnapper and accused of false imprisonment in court documents, moved to Scientology’s governing organization, the Religious Technology Center after leaving the GO. No less than six UK B-1 agents have continued in employment, one of them even heading the UK “Church” for a period in the 1990s. The former head of B-1 Europe moved to head a Scientology Way to Happiness Campaign. Three of those imprisoned in the U.S. are now Patrons - the highest ranking membership - of the International Association of Scientologists.(64)

Some of the functions of the GO Information Bureau were taken up by the new Office of Special Affairs Investigation Department (”Invest”), others were given to Private Investigators working under the direction of Scientology lawyers. Only the Washington, D.C., and Toronto cells of the GO were prosecuted. Court records and the testimony of former agents shows that cells were active in London, Boston, Clearwater and Las Vegas. A former B-1 operative has alleged that every Scientology organization throughout the world had a B-1 cell. If this is true, then tens of national espionage networks remained undetected. In the 1990s, information has come to light which suggests that Hubbard’s “scriptures” regarding infiltration and subversion are still being followed. In Denmark, Scientology spies were convicted for theft of documents. In Finland, the president dismissed his scientologist bodyguard. In Germany, political parties have banned scientologists from membership, because of the infiltration policy. In France, a journalist has asserted that at least one presidential aide has colluded with Scientology in an attempt to close down an Inquiry.(65) In Albania, scientologists were ousted in 1993, after what appeared to be a take-over plan.

In the Manual of Justice, circulated internally since 1959, Hubbard wrote: “Overt investigation of someone or something attacking us by an outside detective agency should be done more often and hang the expense. It’s very effective … Detectives cost dozens of dollars or pounds. They save thousands.” Since 1983, the use of private detectives has increased considerably. Scientology employs several firms. The best known private detective is Eugene Ingram.(66) Ingram is a former Los Angeles policeman, who is wanted in Oklahoma for carrying a gun without a permit and in Florida for impersonating a police officer. Ingram is employed by Scientology’s in-house law firm, Bowles and Moxon. He has been doing investigation “with a yell” for a dozen years. I have been followed in the U.S. by Ingram and by other Scientology hired private investigators. Ingram visited England to use his own special brand of investigation in 1994. He called on several members of my family, unannounced, and set about doing “noisy investigation”. He accused my 77-year-old mother of growing marijuana plants, and told her that I would soon go to prison. He threatened one of my brothers, saying that Scientology would not only close me down, but would also deal with anyone who supported me. He asserted that Scientology would spend whatever was necessary to silence me. Denying any personal affiliation to Scientology, he claimed to be a Christian by religion. It has been alleged that Ingram also privately boasts that his employment by Scientology has proved so lucrative that it has enabled him to buy a resort village in Mexico.

After Ingram left England, some of the weird stories he had dredged up appeared in anonymous scandal sheets. I have been the subject of at least 15 such publications, and have grown weary at the presumption on the part of those who’ve read this nonsense that I will answer each detail of this elaborate character assassination. As Hubbard put it, “Anyone proposing an investigation … must receive this reply … ‘We welcome an investigation into … whoever is attacking us … as we have begun one ourselves and find shocking evidence.’”(67) This simple trick can be surprisingly effective at deflecting criticism of Scientology rather than responding to it. I am currently sueing Scientology and several of its members for malicious falsehood.

The best known organs of Scientology are its Freedom newsletter and Membership News, supposedly the journal of a “reformed” Cult Awareness Network. The attempt is to use the printed word to implant suggestions about opponents in the minds of the public. The phrases used have been carefully surveyed for maximum impact,(68) and headquarters issues lists of phrases to be used in print and in interviews. Scientology has programmed phrases to describe Hubbard, his teachings and its critics. So, for several years opponents have been accused of spouting “Goebbels like propaganda”. Opponents are routinely called “hate campaigners”. Two English clergymen were extremely surprised to be labelled “Nazis” in letters to the press. These simplistic propaganda techniques can be remarkably effective. Scientologists assert that they are being “persecuted” in the same way that the Jews were during the holocaust. They obviously view open public debate as “persecution” and have no comprehension of the nature of the holocaust. As a professor of German history and Judaic studies pointed out in a letter to the New York Times it “insults the memory of Holocaust victims to be so used by Scientology propagandists … Nazi persecution meant torture and death for victims.”(69)

Having investigated and published inflated, inaccurate and even invented stories about a critic as broadly as possible, Scientology may then resort to civil litigation. It may also attempt to initiate criminal proceedings. In a recent English case, magistrates found the Church of Scientology guilty of “abuse of process” in just such an attempt.(70) I was the subject of a spurious copyright raid by the police in 1994. The raid was initiated by head of Scientology in the UK Sheila Chaleff. No charges were brought. More recently, Scientology has failed to prevent the distribution of its once secret “upper level” or “Operating Thetan” material through the Internet. The raids on U.S. critics have nonetheless been deeply upsetting to those attacked.

In 1990, the attempt to prevent publication of my book, A Piece of Blue Sky, in the U.S. failed. Scientology made no complaint about the accuracy of the book, indeed no such complaint has ever been made to me, but wanted to ban it for use of Hubbard quotations.

In 1993, discovering that life history letters that I had been requested to write by Guardian’s Office officials in confidence had been circulated, I brought a Breach of Confidence suit in England. This was the beginning of a series of disasters. My lawyers did not tell me that I was eligible for state legal aid. Before seeing the documents, a barrister approved an affirmation in which I said that I had hundreds of client letters which might be relevant to the issue of damages. The barrister then looked at the documents and decided that only about 40 were relevant. Scientology managed to get a ruling that I had withheld evidence. My case was dismissed without trial, and Scientology began to claim that I had lied in an affirmation, because I had said I had disclosed all relevant documents. This led to Scientology publishing an edition of Freedom labelling me a “chronic liar”. Because I had not known I could receive legal aid, costs of over 16,000 pounds were awarded against me.

Meanwhile, suits were brought against me by the headmistress of a Scientology school and by Scientology’s Narconon. Both of these suits were for libel, which cannot be state aided in England. I borrowed an enormous amount of money, confident that the English legal system would vindicate me. The headmistress asserted that I had libelled her in a paragraph of my book, A Piece of Blue Sky. She asserted that I had failed to produce notes of an interview. There were no such notes. The easiest course would have been to claim that they had existed but had been destroyed. Instead, I told the truth. The judge ruled that I had failed to disclose documents, and my defense was struck.(71) There was no trial, no evidence was considered, but a ruling was entered in the scientologist’s favour. As a consequence, I was bankrupted, which means that all of my assets have been seized, and that for the next three years, I will probably be in the hands of the Scientology appointed Trustee in Bankruptcy. As Hubbard said, “the law can be used very easily to harass”.(72) Lord Wolfe, heading an Inquiry into the English justice system, has said that in reality whoever has the most money wins.

Scientology relies upon concerted attacks. Strategies usually include at least three attacks placed close together. This is to cause maximum stress. I came to the point where it was hard to keep up with the scandal sheets, the overlapping legal actions and the Scientology picketers marching up and down outside my house waving placards.(73) In the midst of this, I was subjected to a police raid and a tax investigation.

Shortly before my bankruptcy in May, two more suits were brought against me, which seek to prevent me from distributing Scientology documents. These suits are pending, as is my own countersuit for malicious falsehood. In the U.S., individual scientologists and Sterling Management brought 54 suits against the Cult Awareness Network and its members. To date, 53 of these suits have been withdrawn or dismissed, but the stress of litigation is difficult to deal with.(74) Thankfully, most european litigation has gone against Scientology this year, and significant rulings have been obtained in the U.S. in the last two months.(75) In Canada, the Supreme Court upheld previous rulings in lawyer Casey Hill’s libel suit against Scientology. The Court ruled “every aspect of this case demonstrates the very real and persistent malice of Scientology … Scientology’s behaviour throughout can only be characterized as recklessly high-handed, supremely arrogant and contumacious. There seems to have been a continuing conscious effort on Scientology’s part to intensify and perpetuate its attack on Casey Hill without any regard for the truth of its allegations.” Scientology was forced to pay $3 million to Hill at the beginning of September.

Hubbard led his followers to believe that his teachings were the focus of a conspiracy of more than global proportions. The conspiracy is the work of aliens, according to secret teachings.(76) Scientologists are the “soldiers of light” reincarnated over the quadrillenia to fight the menace of the “priests and psychs”, the Suppressive Persons who control the world. Scientologists have to infiltrate themselves into positions of power, report what they discover and use their influence for the benefit of Scientology. Scientology is still engaged in a Hubbard plot to take over “mental healing”, because this is the centre of the conspiracy. In the 1950s, Hubbard wrote reports to the communist activities branch of the FBI.(77) By the 1960s, he was talking privately about a fascist conspiracy.(78)

An example of the use of non-staff scientologists to perform operations came with the creation, post Guardian’s Office, of the Minutemen in Los Angeles. Minutemen were used to harass former members who were trying to practise Scientology without a license from Hubbard. Meetings were raided and participants subjected to loud verbal abuse. One former member had her windows pelted with eggs and her doorstep covered with maggots.(79)

In the 1980s, a document was issued for scientologists to fill in called the Power Comm[unication] Lines Survey. In this scientologists were asked to name anyone of influence within their circle of acquaintances. Such contacts included “opinion leaders” in the fields of media, legal, financial, entertainment and politics. The current life history questionnaire asks similar questions, including information relating to government agencies and national secrets. Scientology has a high powered computer network - called INCOMM - which is quite capable of performing state of the art data analysis and comparison.

In summary, according to his “religious scripture” all critics of Scientology are criminal, and under the Fair Game law have no human rights. Over the years, the Hubbard intelligence strategy has used scientologists or private investigators for:

1. Overt data collection - material in the public record.

2 Covert data collection, by theft of material and the use of spies.

3. Noisy investigation.

The foregoing would be used to create a life history or “time-track” which would be used to assess weakpoints.

4. Vehement publication of scandals whether real or imagined, and street demonstrations.

5. Covert operations - anonymous tip-offs and smear campaigns.

6. Litigation.

Very few people can stand up to such an assault. My own life has been savaged by Scientology. I am bankrupt. My wife and I separated after 19 years together last year. I have had to leave my home, and have lost daily contact with my two young children. My health has suffered. A few months ago, I reluctantly responded to the latest in a long line of Scientology offers of settlement, willing for the first time to offer my silence in return for a cessation of hostilities and the payment of compensation. The offer by return was that they would leave me alone if I would give them the rights to my published work, my unique collection of Scientology papers and my permanent silence.(81) So the fight continues. We are none of us powerless in this struggle. Anyone who is concerned that such an organization can act in such a way can complain to the authorities and inform others of the true nature of Scientology. Only through a grass roots campaign will Scientology’s injustices be ended. I entreat anyone who is concerned to join in the debate on the Internet, where Scientology has become one of the busiest newsgroups, because of its perceived disdain for free speech. Through the battle on the Internet, in the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup, this perfidious organization will continue to be exposed. Hopefully, its members will be freed from the black enchantment of their indoctrination. Hopefully, the immoral and disgraceful tactics of Scientology will be exposed for what they are, an attempt to stifle free speech and to destroy critics, and ultimately an insane plot to take-over the world. And, hopefully, through the support and encouragement of good people, my own arduous struggle will come to a happy conclusion.

Thank-you.


Footnotes

  1. Hubbard, The Aims of Scientology.
  2. Guardian’s Office document numbered 8591, Operations Definitions, used in evidence in USA v Mary Sue Hubbard: “BUTTON SURVEY: A comprehensive examination, inspection, researching or investigation of persons which [sic] have control or influence over an attacker’s position of power to discover what they hate and love. Also the same activity in relation to the attacker to discover what he considers valuable or what he is protecting.”
  3. The Watchdog Committee, Scientology Policy Directive 19, The Integrity of Source, 7 July 1982: “No one except LRH [Hubbard] may cancel his issues.”
  4. The Corporations of Scientology, Church of Scientology International, 1989, p.24: “In the Scientology religion, the scriptures are all the spoken and written words of L. Ron Hubbard. The scriptures include millions of written words contained in books, films, various forms of issues and writings and several thousand tape recorded lectures.”
  5. Scientologists have to practise “Standard Technology” - following exactly the rules laid down for “auditing” or counselling by Hubbard, see definition in The Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary. Scientologists are also expected to practise “Standard Administration”, see HCOPL Standard Admin, 9 November 1968, Organization Executive Course, 1st edition, vol. 0, p.6.
  6. Hubbard, HCOB, The Anti-Social Personality, the Anti-Scientologist, 27 September 1966, Technical Bulletins, 1st edition, vol. 6, p.177.
  7. The Watchdog Committee, Scientology Policy Directive 28, Suppressive Act - Dealing with a Declared Suppressive Person, 13 August 1982.
  8. Hubbard, HCOB, Technical Queries, 23 October 1975, Technical Bulletins, 1st edition, vol. 8, p.424, and HCOB, Verbal Tech:Penalties, 15 February 1979, Technical Bulletins, 1st edition, vol. 12, p.318.
  9. The price for “list” or “Ls” auditing given only at the Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, Florida, Source, issue 97.
  10. Onions, Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, volume one, 1977, Clarendon Press, Oxford, under “game”, definition 10.
  11. Hubbard, Ole Doc Methusaleh, reprinted 1970, Daw Books, NY, p.66 “We are superior to them in culture and weapons and that makes them inferior to us. Fair game!”
  12. The whole stated purpose of Dianetics and Scientology is to raise the recipient’s “emotional tone level”, e.g. The Hubbard Chart of Human Evaluationi, published as part of Hubbard, Science of Survival, 1951
  13. Hubbard, HCOPL, Penalties for Lower Conditions, 18 October 1967, issue IV.
  14. Hubbard, HCOPL, HCO (Division 1) - Ethics, Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists, The Fair Game Law, 1 March 1965, reprinted in The Basic Staff Hat volume 1, East Grinstead, 1968. The claim that this Policy was superseded on 7 March is proved to be cosmetic by its publication in this 1968 internal publication. See also Justice Megaw in Hubbard v. Vosper, Court of Appeal, London, 1971, case no. 7360: “[the Policy Letter] went on to include among ’suppressive acts’: ‘1st degree murder, arson, disintegration of persons or belongings not guilty of suppressive acts.’ There can be no doubt that the last five words relate to the preceding word ‘persons’. What does that mean? That it was, in the eyes of the organization in 1965, ‘a suppressive act’ to be guilty of ‘first degree murder,’ provided that the person you murdered had not been guilty of suppressive acts. The implication is obvious.”
  15. Guardian Order, Confidential - Intelligence Course, 9 September 1974, p.18.
  16. USA v Jane Kember & Morris Budlong, US District Court for the District of Columbia, criminal no. 78 401 (2) & (3), Sentencing Memorandum of the United States of America, footnote, p.16: “Defendants … have stated that the fair game policy continued in effect well after the indictment in this case and the conviction of the first nine co-defendants. Defendants claim that the policy was abrogated by the Church’s Board of Directors in late July or early August, 1980.”
  17. HCOPL Ethics - Cancellation of Fair Game, More About, 22 July 1980.
  18. HCOPL, Cancellation of Issues on Suppressive Acts and PTSes, 8 September 1983.
  19. See for example the ruling in Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California, State of California Second Appellate District Division Seven, civ. no. B023193 (LASC no. C332827), p.A-4. Also “in re: wards B & G”, Royal Courts of Justice, London, justice Latey decision, 23 July 1984, and the opinion in Church of Scientology of California v Armstrong, June 1984; and Casey Hill v Church of Scientology Toronto, file no. 24216.
  20. Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p.126.
  21. Hubbard, The Scientologist - A Manual on the Dissemination of Material, March 1955, Ability 1, reprinted in the Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, first edition, volume 2, p.157.
  22. Hubbard, HCO Manual of Justice, HCO London, 1959. Extracts can be found in Atack A Piece of Blue Sky, Lyle Stuart Books, New Jersey, 1990, pp. 143-145.
  23. It subsequently became the internal police force of Scientology, housing the Ethics section.
  24. See New Era Publications v Carol Publishing Group & Atack, NY, 1990, US District Court Southern District of New York, 89 Civ. 3845, and the same case at the US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, no. 1204-1376, decided 24 May 1990.
  25. Hubbard, HCOB, What We Expect of a Scientologist, 10 June 1960.
  26. Hubbard, HCOB, Special Zone Plan - The Scientologist’s Role in Life, 23 June 1960.
  27. Lt. Warren Young, see Stipulation of Evidence in USA v Mary Sue Hubbard et al, US District Court for the District of Columbia, criminal case no. 78-401, p.205.
  28. Hubbard, HCOPL, Dept of Govt Affairs, 15 August 1960. See also Hubbard, HCOPL, Dept of Government Relations, 22 August 1960 (Hubbard seems to have been unsure about the name of the Department) and Hubbard, HCOPL, Special Zone Dept, 30 August 1960.
  29. Hubbard, HCOPL, Department of Offical Affairs, 13 March 1961.
  30. Hubbard, HCOPL, Black PR, 11 May 1971, PR series 7.
  31. Wallis, The Road to Total Freedom, Heinmann, London, Columbia University, NY, 1976. In the chapter “The Scientological Career: From Casual Client to Deployable Agent”. This remains the only major sociological study of the cult.
  32. Hubbard, Sec ED, Enquiry Rumour UK, 9 February 1966, reprinted in the Foster report.
  33. Hubbard, HCOPL, Attacks on Scientology (Additional Pol Ltr), 25 February 1966, reprinted in the Foster report which dates it at 15 February. There are several Policy Letters entitled Attacks on Scientology.
  34. Hubbard, HCOPL, Public Investigation Section, 17 February 1966, reprinted in the Foster report. Emphasis in original.
  35. Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, pp.160-161.
  36. Hubbard, HCOPL, The Guardian, 1 March 1966.
  37. Ibid, where Hubbard describes these functions including the “Planetary Intelligence Unit”.
  38. Mary Sue Hubbard was originally the Guardian, then the position of Controller was created for her. She was shown as her husband’s immediate deputy on all organizational charts or “Org Boards”.
  39. Hubbard, HCOPL, Attacks on Scientology (Continued), 18 February 1966.
  40. Hubbard, HCO Executive Letter, How to do a Noisy Investigation, 5 September 1966. Reprinted in the Foster report.
  41. Declaraion of David Miscavige, in US District Court for the Central District of California, in Church of Scientology International v Fishman and Geertz, case no. CV 91-6426 HLH (Tx), 8 (?) February 1994, see especially p.17: “During the 1970s the GO operated as an entirely autonomous organization unchecked and unsupervised by the ecclesiastical management of the Church. The power of the GO was absolute … They held all corporate directorships … GO staff carried out illegal programs, such as the infiltration of government offices for which eleven members of the GO were prosecuted and convicted. There were also instances in which GO staff used unscrupulous means to deal with people they perceived as enemies of the Church — means that were completely against Scientology tenets and policy, not to mention the law.”
  42. See Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, pp.219-221. For a fuller description see C.H. Rolph, Believe What You Like, Andre Deutsch, London, 1973.
  43. Hubbard, Ron’s Journal 1967 (RJ67), tape recorded lecture, September 1967.
  44. Hubbard, Flag Order 1890, Zones of Action, 26 March 1969.
  45. Hubbard, HCOPL, Targets, Defense, 16 February 1969, issue IV.
  46. Der Spiegel, 25 September 1995.
  47. Fred Hare, Guardian Order 1206, The Snow White Programme, 22 June 1974.
  48. Sentencing Memorandum in USA v MSH et al, US District Court for the District of Columbia, criminal case no. 78-401, pp.1-4 & 14.
  49. Reported in the Toronto Globe and Mail, 12 September 1992.
  50. Hubbard, Ron’s Journal 1967 (RJ67). See also Hubbard, Concerning Intelligence, lecture transcript of 10 March 1970 which orders the theft of material from a Public Relations firm, once that firm has been isolated.
  51. See also Guardian Order 802, Weekly Reports, 20 June 1973, which explains that Hubbard must receive a weekly report of all intelligence activity. For hubbard’s knowledge of illegal activities see also A Piece of Blue Sky, p.227.
  52. Hubbard, Confidential, Intelligence Actions, Covert Intelligence Data Collection, 2 December 1969. The passage continues “That was not the original purpose. The original purpose was to clear Earth.”
  53. See also Hubbard Science of Survival, 1951. Scientology hired Fletcher Prouty to substantiate Hubbard’s allusions. Prouty claimed that files had been tampered with. His most significant evidence was the use of the code number “16″ on Hubbard’s orders. In fact, the code indicated that Hubbard was a member of the Naval Reserve as documents within his navy file, and comparison with other Navy Reserve officers files readily demonstrates..
  54. This policy was followed during the Washington breakins with the leak of the DeFeo report, where the Scientology agent pretended to be a Justice Department employee. See A Piece of Blue Sky, p.233.
  55. Hermann Brendel, To: Info Branch 1 Directors, 10 June 1974: “Covert data collection … i.e. penetration, plants, covert interviews using covers etc. etc. For example if an agent had obtained a document in the Fuhrer’s bunker in Berlin in 1945 by shooting it out with the SS, blowing up a bridge and escaping in a helicopter he would have been on a Collections cycle. He got data. The method is irrelevant.” My emphasis.
  56. Question 96, Life History Questions - revision, Church of Scientology International, 1994.
  57. Guardian Order 1150, Re: Information Bureau Statistic, 7 May 1974. “Connections” is a major statistic of the Information Bureau.
  58. Hubbard, Confidential, Intelligence Actions, Covert Intelligence Data Collection, op cit.
  59. Fishmann, Lonesome Squirrel, unpublished manuscript.
  60. In Church of Scientology v. Geertz and Fishman, US Central District of California, CV-91 6426 HLH(Tx), deposition testimony.
  61. Lonesome Squirrel, op cit.
  62. Hubbard, Flag Order 2191, Intelligence Book List, 15 November 1969 lists the following: Col. B.V. Nikitine The Fatal Years, Hodge, London 1938; Curt Reiss Total Espionage, Putnam, US, 1941; Eric D. Butler Dialectics, Communist Instrument for World Conquest, Australian League of Rights, Melbourne; Eric D. Butler Red Pattern of World Conquest, New Times, Canada; Christopher Felix The Spy and his Masters, Secker & Warburg, London, 1963. Sefton Delmar’s Black Boomerang was also recommended reading.
  63. Miscavige Declaration, p.24.
  64. Mary Sue Hubbard, Henning Heldt & Duke Snider, Impact 53, pp.38-39.
  65. Serge Faubert, Une Secte au couer de la Republique, L’Evenement du Jeudi, 25 February - 3 March 1993. See also Faubert’s book of the same title, Calmann-Levy, 1993.
  66. Numerous others have included J.J. Gaw, Donald William Cooper, Douglas Brian Reynolds, Tin Goose and John Ingram.
  67. Hubbard, HCOPL, Attacks on Scientology (Additional Pol Ltr), 25 February 1966.
  68. Hubbard called the technique “positioning”.
  69. Professor Elliot Neaman, University of San Francisco, NY Times, 26 December 1994.
  70. In a case brought against 20/20 television and heard by City of London magistrates. Reported in the UK Press Gazette, 25 September 1995.
  71. The judge also accepted the argument that I should have exhibited two advertisements under the heading of “distribution” of the book, even though neither named headmistress Margaret Hodkin.
  72. Hubbard, The Scientologist - A Manual on the Dissemination of Material, March 1955, Ability 1, reprinted in the Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, first edition, volume 2, quotation from p.157.
  73. See Sunday Times, London, 6 April 1994 and Evening Argus, Brighton, 12 April 1994 for more detail.
  74. CAN has also had at least one countersuit dismissed, see CAN news, May 1995.
  75. Rulings in cases involving F.A.C.T.NET inc, the Washington Post and Arnie Lerma.
  76. e.g., Hubbard, The Role of Earth, which describes the Fourth and Fifth Invader forces, supposedly resident on Venus and Mars, or the Section III Operating Thetan course. Hubbard also spoke of the “Markabians” prompting defector William Robertson (”Captain Bill”) to create an enormous volume of material asserting that aliens had landed in Switzerland and were liaising with Transcendental Meditation to take over the world. Robertson’s followers call themselves the Free Zone.
  77. A Piece of Blue Sky, pp.117-118, Hubbard letter to the FBI, 3 March 1951. Hubbard, HCO Information Letter, Communism & Scientology, 8 May 1961. Hubbard, LRHED 55 INT, The War, 29 November 1968, reprinted in Wallis, op cit.
  78. Hubbard, Zones of Action, op cit. Hubbard’s obsession with conspiracy is worthy of a book in its own right. He called the plot the Tenyaka Memorial after the 19th century Japanese plan for world conquest, see Concering Intelligence, op cit.
  79. Thea Greenburg, reported in BBC Panorama The Road to Total Freedom?, 1987.
  80. Heber Jentzsch, Power Comm Lines Survey, Church of Scientology International, 1988. Also Jentzsch, Communication Lines to the World Survey, CSI, 1988.
  81. In November 1994, I met with representatives of the Church of Scientology International and the Religious Technology Center along with Peter Hodkin, the scientologist lawyer who has represented all of the scientologists litigants. The representatives of CSI and RTC has authority to settle on behalf of all litigants, including headmistress Margaret Hodkin and Narconon. Curiously, Narconon is sueing me for asserting that it is a front group for Scientology.

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Scientologist’s death differs in two tellings

By THOMAS C. TOBIN

©St. Petersburg Times, published September 4, 1997


The Church of Scientology’s original portrayal of how a 36-year-old woman died under its care bears little resemblance to the sobering tale unfolding this summer with the release of the church’s own internal records.

The records are a collection of detailed, handwritten logs kept by the low- and mid-level Scientology staffers who cared for Lisa McPherson at the church’s Fort Harrison Hotel in November and December 1995.

Their contents — page after page of frank and vivid daily reports — contrast starkly with the official version of McPherson’s death put out last December by the church and its Los Angeles lawyer Elliot Abelson.

When the media began to report on McPherson’s death in December 1996, Abelson arrived in Clearwater to, in his words, “settle things down.”

Eight months later, as authorities continue a criminal investigation into McPherson’s death, Abelson’s initial story seems sanitized, incomplete and, in parts, implausible and inaccurate.

Was Scientology trying to mask what really happened to Lisa McPherson?

No, say the church’s lawyers.

If the story sounds different today, it’s because the church itself has been learning more about the case as the investigation progresses, said Tampa lawyer Laura Vaughan, who is part of the local legal team recruited to represent the church in the McPherson case.

“There was no evil motive or intent” to hide anything, Vaughan said. “We know a lot more about what went on.”

When the case became public in December, Abelson described McPherson’s 17-day stay at the Fort Harrison as a vacation-like experience amid four-star accommodations.

He said that she checked herself in to rest and relax and that she was visited by friends. He said she could order from room service and was free to come and go.

He said that she suddenly became fatally ill on the final day of her stay and that she received no medical care before that. There was no need for it, he said at the time. “She just wanted to rest and think and get her strength back.”

Indeed, the church’s four-page, 1,200-word news release devoted a scant 41 words to explaining what happened to McPherson. It said: “Lisa McPherson had been staying at the Fort Harrison Hotel after a traumatic car accident. During her stay, she suddenly took ill. After her initial reluctance was overcome, she was driven to see a physician of her choice, but died en route.”

Absent were the many details contained in Scientology’s internal notes. They tell the far different story of a young woman so mentally unstable she acted like a robot and thought she was L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology’s founder. She fought with her caregivers and often spit out her food or refused to eat. She cried and babbled and broke things. She soiled herself, lost substantial weight and eventually grew too weak to stand.

And, contrary to Abelson’s statement that McPherson received no medical care at the Fort Harrison, the records say Scientology staffers with medical training monitored her condition, gave her a prescription sedative and administered injections of magnesium.

On her 17th day at the hotel, McPherson died while being driven in a van to a hospital 24 miles away so she could be seen by an emergency room doctor who also is a Scientologist.

Although Abelson was saying several months ago he had “taken a hard look” at the case, he now says he didn’t know then that the staff notes existed. He also says he knew almost nothing about McPherson’s death until it appeared in a newspaper story on Dec. 16, 1996.

“There were lots of details in the (staff) records that I had no idea about,” Abelson said. “What I knew was what our people told us happened.”

Though armed with only partial information, Abelson accused Clearwater police of unfairly targeting Scientology, he blasted the media for its reporting of McPherson’s death, and he publicly called Medical Examiner Joan Wood a “hateful liar” for making statements about the case.

Such actions are consistent with the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard who instructed his church to fight back, hit hard and regain the advantage when it believes it is under attack.

“I knew their facts were wrong,” Abelson said, referring to the police and medical examiner. “Did I have the empirical data that I have now? No. Did anyone? No.”

Asked why church officials didn’t come forth earlier with the care records, Abelson said the records were scattered in various church offices from Clearwater to Los Angeles.

Abelson and Vaughan, whom church officials designated to comment for this story, said they believe many of the details that have emerged in the records support, rather than contradict, the church’s original account.

For example, they cite the church’s contention that McPherson received fluids at the Fort Harrison and was conscious during her final hours. Wood, the medical examiner, had told reporters that she concluded from the autopsy that McPherson had been unconscious for up to 48 hours before her death and had been without fluids for five to 10 days.

The church’s records conflict with those finding.

“I think the truth is not as awful as what was reported initially,” Vaughan said. “It’s amazing what a little bit of knowledge can do.”

Indeed, what’s known today about McPherson’s stay at the Fort Harrison goes well beyond the spare description church officials initially gave the public. A review of the church’s early statements shows many key areas where the original version fell short:

Doctor in the house?

Abelson said in an interview on Dec. 16, 1996, that McPherson received no medication or professional medical help at the hotel. “There was no need for it,” he said

But the church’s own records show that McPherson received doses of chloral hydrate, a prescription sedative, and that she was given injections of magnesium. In addition, they say a staff dentist “got . . . aspirin down her throat.”

The records also say McPherson was monitored by Janis Johnson, a medical doctor who is not licensed in Florida but worked in the church medical liaison office. Johnson visited McPherson, checked her body temperature, gauged her respiration, administered medication, diagnosed her as septic, determined she needed antibiotics and drove her to the hospital. Another medical officer monitored her respiration and pulse and suggested an intravenous tube, the notes reveal.

Church officials insist Johnson was not functioning as a doctor. But Scientology staffers referred to her in their notes as “doctor” Johnson.

In addition, the church held Johnson out as a doctor in a 1996 television infomercial advertising a set of Scientology books and tapes. Johnson gave a testimonial wearing a white lab coat and stethoscope. She stood in a doctor’s office and talked about “my 12 years of medical practice.” According to records in Arizona, where Johnson let her license lapse, the 12 years include her time as a church staffer.

A nice hotel room

In December and January, Abelson painted a benign picture of McPherson’s stay in a “very nice hotel room” at the Fort Harrison

He told a national audience on the television show Inside Edition: “She rested, she slept a lot. Nothing unusual, really, until the end of her stay.”

At the time, McPherson had been dead over a year and Abelson said he had “really taken a hard look at what happened.”

Many details were missing from his account.

Abelson later revealed McPherson had turned violent and began banging on walls around the midpoint of her 17-day stay.

Now, it’s known from records, that McPherson first became violent on the fourth day of her stay and that she was doing much more than banging walls.

Scientology lawyer Sandy Weinberg said this summer that McPherson was “severely mentally disturbed and was scratching herself, biting herself, punching objects, kicking, hitting walls and generally flailing about.”

Her choice of physician

Abelson said several times that the decision to take McPherson to a remote hospital was based on her wishes. He said McPherson didn’t trust doctors but was persuaded to see a Scientologist who is a doctor on staff at a New Port Richey hospital

But notes by church staffers raise questions about whether McPherson was mentally capable of participating in such a decision.

For more than two weeks, the notes say, McPherson was babbling and incoherent, scooting across the floor, jumping off her bed, breaking things, hitting people, banging walls, refusing food, vomiting and soiling herself.

Her caregivers gave her baths; helped her to the restroom; fed her, sometimes by force; and prevented her from leaving the room. They decided what she ate and drank, and what vitamins and medications she received.

If the church’s account is true, McPherson’s caregivers suddenly stopped making decisions for her, and she summoned the sanity on the night of her death to select “the physician of her choice.”

Although the church made detailed notes about the events just before the hospital trip, none mention McPherson choosing her doctor.

The notes say two church staffers telephoned Dr. David Minkoff, a Scientologist on staff in the emergency room at Columbia New Port Richey Hospital, who agreed to see McPherson. They say McPherson was “told” they were taking her to Minkoff.

Free to come and go

In December and January Abelson said on several occasions McPherson was “free to come and go” at the Fort Harrison. Later, he would say she was isolated but that it “was Lisa’s wish.

But eight months later, church lawyer Laura Vaughan acknowledges there were times when McPherson was kept from leaving. In addition, the church says in court documents she was “occasionally held by fellow parishioners when she attempted to do harm to herself or others.”

Also, one church staffer wrote that McPherson “tried to go out of the door” on her first day at the hotel, which suggests she was stopped. The records make references to “guards” being close at hand.

But Vaughan, a church lawyer, makes a distinction: “I would not characterize it as being held against her will. It’s unfair to characterize it that way.”

She said church staffers acted to prevent McPherson from hurting herself. “They were trying to help her,” she said. “People weren’t trying to hold her captive.”

The last day

Last December, Abelson said McPherson suddenly fell ill on her last day at the hotel. He said church staffers got help as soon as they could but didn’t consider it an emergency

But the staffers’ notes indicate McPherson was suffering significant physical problems well before the ride to the hospital.

Three days before her death she was too weak to stand by herself, the notes say. And on the day she died, staffers wrote she was soiled in diarrhea, that her weight had dropped dramatically in 24 hours and that she “looked very sick and was breathing heavily.”

Still, they went ahead with a plan to take her to a hospital in the next county. It took 45 minutes to drive McPherson there, the notes say.

Vaughan said while McPherson may have been weak, it “wasn’t to the point where anyone thought she was in physical danger.”

Another doctor, Dr. David Niles, now says he was sitting next to Minkoff, the Scientologist doctor, when a call came to the hospital about McPherson. He said he heard Minkoff say “he thought that person should go to the closest facility.”

The church’s own records say Minkoff immediately saw McPherson was dead and asked why she wasn’t brought in sooner.

Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater is two minutes away from the Fort Harrison Hotel.

©Copyright 1997 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.


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Steven Fishman
12980 Southwest 48th Street 
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33330-2339
April 28, 1994, Time 10:45  AM
 
 
 
             PRESS RELEASE: SCIENTOLOGY UPPER LEVEL
               REFERENCES (OT MATERIALS) AFFIRMED
              UNSEALED AND IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN BY 
                 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
 
On April 26, 1994, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit in San Francisco denied Church of Scientology International’s
appeal to seal the upper level materials and ruled in favor of myself,
defendant Steven Fishman, a former Scientologist, and my psychologist, Dr.
Uwe Geertz.

Judge Beezer of the Court of Appeals further denied the Church’s motion to
return the previously confidential materials to the defendants, and by
doing so, ruled that they must remain unsealed and open to the public.

The controversy began in November of 1991, when the Church of Scientology
International sued Dr. Geertz and myself for defamation arising out of
statement which the defendants made to TIME MAGAZINE reporter Richard
Behar.  The statements related to financial crimes which were committed by
me, Steven Fishman, after I was trained to participate in a securities
class action fraud scheme by Scientology staff members at the Church of
Scientology Mimi Org and the Church of Scientology Mission of Fort
Lauderdale.  I spent the money obtained from the fraud on auditing,
training, and for purchasing the third largest library of L. Ron Hubbard
books, tapes, cassettes and E-Meters in the world.

After my arrest by the FBI in July of 1988, Church officials, church
officials ordered me to murder my psychologist, Dr. Geertz, because I had
confided in my psychologist about the details of my crime.

I was thrown into “Treason” a low ethics condition, and was told by my
Ethics Officer Frank Thompson that I could work my way up from “Treason”
by protecting the Church from the FBI investigation.  I followed the
orders of my Ethics Officer which resulted in my being charged with
Obstruction of Justice.  At the same time, Church attorney Timothy Bowles
worked closely with the United States District Attorney in Los Angeles in
order to secure my conviction and eliminate any exposure to the Church.

April 29, 1994 Page 2 Time 11:45 AM

In an effort to suppress the Church’s involvement in the fraud, Church
officials ordered me to commit suicide, which was avoided due to a
successful exit-counseling intervention by former members Margery
Wakefield, Eddie Da Rocha, Richard Padilla, and through swift and
effective therapy by Dr. Geertz.

I suffered a psychotic break, and I was institutionalized at the Hollywood
Pavillion, a mental institution in South Florida.

The FBI limited its investigation of the Church’s involvement in the fraud
to only one interview of former Mission Staff Peter and Barbara Letterese,
the very couple who trained me to commit the stock fraud in the first
place.

My expert witnesses on cults, Dr. Margaret Singer and Dr. Richard Ofshe,
were not permitted to testify at my trial as to how to the Church of
Scientology influenced my thinking through mind control techniques, after
the Church of Scientology paid their own experts to convince the trial
judge that the theories of Drs. Singer and Ofshe were not “mainstream” and
should not be accepted by the court, facts which were overturned on appeal
in a separate case two years later.

With all possibilities of a fair trial derailed by the Church of
Scientology, I entered an Alford Plea (innocent of the charges but
responsible for the acts alleged), and was sentenced to five years in
prison.  I was released early on December 29, 1992, and I remained on
probation until the end of my sentence.

While at the Federal Correctional Institution of Tallahassee, prison
officials uncovered an attempt to assassinate me by another inmate, Luis
Martinez, a Scientologist from Miami who was facing deportation to Cuba
and was promised legal help by the Church if I were killed.  Luis Martinez
had a screwdriver fashioned into a dagger in his locker, as well as
pictures of me, and a stack of Scientology Technical Bulletins and Policy
Letters.

While in prison, I began to turn my life around by becoming a cooperating
witness for the Internal Revenue Service, during their criminal
investigation into the Church of Scientology.  I also ran the computer
room for the prison’s education department, working 11 hours a day to pass
the time and keep my sanity.  Shortly afterward, I was visited by a Mr.
Peter Comras, who claimed to be an agent of the Israeli government
investigating Scientology.  Mr. Comras gained access to the visiting room
at the prison under false pretenses, which is a crime.  It turned out that
Mr. Comras was a private investigator hired by the Office of Special
Affairs of the Church of Scientology to investigate me as part of the
Church’s “Fair Game Law,” in which the critics of the Church can be
deceived, lied to, intimidated, harassed and sued.

In November 1991, I was in fact sued, along with my psychologist, Dr.
Geertz.  Alone and in prison, without benefit of counsel, I was forced to
defend a million dollar lawsuit brought by the in-house Scientology law
firm of Bowles and Moxon.

April 29, 1994 Page 3 Time  11:45 AM

In the course of defending my civil suit, I had to prove something that I
was unable to prove during the course of my criminal trial — that
Scientology had influenced my thinking in order to get me to commit
financial crimes for them.  In order to defend my lawsuit, I also had to
prove that I was driven psychotic by the Church, a condition known in
Church jargon as “PTS (Potential Trouble Source) Type III.”

In order to do this, I introduced into the court record OT Levels I
through VII, which I obtained not through discovery in any legal
proceeding but which I had purchased in 1987 from fellow Scientologist
Ellie Bolger of Clearwater.  I also introduced OT VIII, which i had
received from my former criminal attorney, who had obtained the materials
from expert witness Richard Ofshe.

The OT materials remained unsealed for eighteen months.  Despite the
Church’s attempts to suppress these references, I argued that it would
have violated my constitutional rights to seal any documents that were not
obtained through discovery.

Dr. Geertz’ attorney, Graham Berry of the law firm of Lewis, D’Amato,
Brisbois & Bisgaard of Los Angeles, showed a great deal of courage by
fighting back against the Church of Scientology and the attorneys at
Bowles and Moxon.  With the help of F.A.C.T., which stands for Fight
Against Coercive Tactics (a bulletin board service for ex-cult members
operated by former Scientologists Lawrence Wollersheim and Bob Penny),
together with evidence provided by members of the Cult Awareness Network,
Dr. Geertz and I uncovered information about David Miscavige, the managing
agent of the Church of Scientology and commanding officer of the Religious
Technology Center.

David Miscavige’s mother-in-law, Mary Florence “Flo” Barnett, died from
four rifle shots, three to the chest and one to the head.  Originally
classified as a “suicide,” upon closer inspection it was determined from
the ballistics and the height of Ms. Barnett that the wounds could not
have been self-inflicted. Evidence was collected that just one week prior
to her death, Ms. Barnett had threatened to sue the Church, and was in
contact with David Mayo, a former member who was an avowed enemy of David
Miscavige.

Furthermore, one of David Miscavige’s sisters had committed suicide after
completing OT VII.  Another sister left the church and became a prostitute
after starting the OT levels.  David Miscavige’s own father was once
arrested for rape.

Knowing through policy letters on the subject that the Church maintains a
double standard — on one hand catering to celebrities like Scientology
royalty while on the other hand maintaining forced labor camps for
Scientologists in ethics trouble (known as the Rehabilitation Project
Force) and for children and other innocent victims who just happen to be
the unwanted offspring of Sea Org (Scientology staff who have signed a
billion year contract) parents (the Estates Project Force), Dr. Geertz and
Mr. Fishman served various celebrities with deposition subpoenas.  The
celebrity witnesses included Isaac Hayes, Maxine Nightingale, Kelly
Preston (the wife of John Travolta) and others.  Actor Tom Cruise avoided
service of his subpoena by hiding in the men’s toilet of the Scientology
Celebrity Center.

April 29, 1994 Page 4 Time  11:45 AM

Not willing to confront the interrogation of the celebrities or David
Miscavige, Church of Scientology in an unprecedented move made a motion to
the court to dismiss their own case against myself and Dr. Uwe Geertz with
prejudice, which means that they could never bring the same suit again in
another court.

The court agreed to dismiss the suit, which was a victory for the
defendants. However, the court also left the OT Levels unsealed and in the
public domain. Furious with this decision, the Church appealed this
decision to the Court of Appeals and lost.  For the first time in the
United States of America, these secret documents are now open and
available to the public.  Separately, a recent case also made these levels
also available in England.

Why are these “secrets” so important to the Church of Scientology?

Why has the cult gone through such lengths and spent so much money to seal
these documents?

To understand this, one must first grasp exactly what the upper levels are
and where they came from.

During 1981, while I was an agent in the old Guardian’s Office of
Scientology, I participated in a mission to recover a set of documents
containing confessional write-ups of L. Ron Hubbard, some of which were
written in 1949, and others in 1954.  These materials, called O/W
(Overt/Withhold) Write-Ups, were part of materials used for an authorized
biography of L. Ron Hubbard to be written by author Omar Garrison, but
which was never written.  The materials were stolen by Lavenda Van
Schaick, an ex-member, from Gerry Armstrong, an ex-member, who was Omar
Garrison’s research assistant at the time.  I recovered these materials
from an air conditioning duct in Lavenda Van Schaick’s sister Lisa’s
apartment, during a raid in which Lisa Van Schaick was raped as a
diversionary tactic by two Sea Org staff members.  I had occasion to read
these documents before turning them over to my senior (supervisor), ADG
(Action Deputy Guardian) Fred Hare of the Guardian’s Office, who had
ordered the mission.

The following is a brief summary of what was written by L. Ron Hubbard in
his confessional:

In 1947, L. Ron Hubbard was a psychiatric patient at the Oak Knoll Naval
Hospital under the care of Dr. Irving Kutzman.

At one point Hubbard was placed in a six-man ward where there was a
patient named McClellan.  McClellan was “clearly schizophrenic”, according
to Hubbard, and “screamed by day and by night” that he was being attacked
by “germs.”

Hubbard wrote that he “experimented on the man”, and noticed that the man
became worse whenever he told McClellan that the germs were attacking him,
and conversely improved when he directed the man to “send the germs away.”

This little vignette from Hubbard’s past is starkly familiar to processes
run on OT Levels III through VII.

April 29, 1994 Page 5 Time 11:45 AM

Central to Scientology dogma is the concept of the thetan, or spiritual
entity, which supposedly or at least according to Hubbard, occupies one
body at a time, and after death, discards the body and then goes through
various between lives area implants (also called the heaven implants) and
picks up a new body at the moment of conception.

Next is where the control mechanism comes in on the upper levels R