This paper is not for publication or distribution in England or Wales because certain of the points raised are aspects of current litigation.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.
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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.