Altruistic World Online Library

Missionary Man
by James Verini
June 28, 2005


Tom Cruise speaks during the September 2004 opening of a new Scientology church in Madrid

In the course of just a few months, Tom Cruise has made an astounding public leap: He has transformed himself from one of the world's biggest movie stars into one of the oddest. It's not just his sudden romance with and engagement to actress Katie Holmes, which has not yet managed to shake the air of improbability. There is also the matter of Cruise's sudden outspokenness about, and even proselytizing for, the controversial Church of Scientology, to which he's belonged for roughly 20 years.

Regarding the romance -- who can explain love? It's a mystery, particularly in Hollywood, and we're unlikely to ever get the particulars about Cruise and Holmes. But the buzz in some Scientology circles is that Cruise may have reached one of the highest echelons of the Church of Scientology. While not a lot is known about this level, known cryptically as OT-VII, Scientology observers say that attaining it could explain Cruise's behavior in recent months.

And that behavior has been mesmerizing: from putting up Scientology tents on movie sets to blasting Brooke Shields for using antidepressants, to promoting the church's drug-treatment programs and, generally, to hectoring anyone who challenges him. On Friday's "Today" show, after gentle prodding from Matt Lauer, he scolded, "You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do." Even his romance with Holmes has had a public Scientology veneer; Holmes has announced that she is taking Scientology courses and has added a new member to her entourage: a Scientology advisor who reportedly tells everyone she's Holmes' best friend.

According to experts and the church's own literature, OT-VII ("OT" stands for Operating Thetan, "thetan" being the Scientology term for soul) is the penultimate tier in the church's spiritual hierarchy -- the exact details of which are fiercely guarded and forbidden to be discussed even among top members. It is where a Scientologist learns how to become free of the mortal confines of the body and is let into the last of the mysteries of the cosmology developed by the church's longtime leader, science fiction novelist and "Dianetics" author L. Ron Hubbard. This cosmology also famously holds that humans bear the noxious traces of an annihilated alien civilization that was brought to Earth by an intergalactic warlord millions of years ago.

Lee Anne De Vette, Cruise's publicist and sister, refused requests to comment for this article. And when asked about Cruise, Ed Parkin, vice president of cultural affairs for the Church of Scientology, said only, "We do not discuss the personal religious experiences of our members with the press." Parkin also would not confirm or deny details of the OT teachings. Responding to questions about them, he wrote: "Scientology, which means 'knowing how to know,' is a religion based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986). Scientology addresses people as immortal spiritual beings. It gives them tools they can apply to their lives to improve conditions."

But one Scientologist who left the church in 2003 after 30 years -- and who had reached the OT-VII level and become a member of the church's governing Sea Org -- said it was his understanding that Cruise was very near completing, if he had not already completed, the OT-VII level. The former Scientologist would speak to Salon only on the condition of anonymity.

A current Scientologist who has reached the level OT-V, and who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that considering the amount of time Cruise has been in the church, an OT-VII status seems probable. And Stephen Kent, a professor of sociology at the University of Alberta who has published articles on Scientology and Hollywood, also said that Cruise's behavior strongly suggests OT-VII.

Cruise is acting as though he "feels he's more in control over his environment and can convince more people to look into the organization," Kent said. "In the high OT levels one supposedly gains the skills to master one's universe. One is removing countless entities that have been holding people back. Cruise feels that he has freed himself from thousands of errant thetans, and he seems to be in a kind of euphoria he hasn't experienced before."

J. Gordon Melton, the author of "The Church of Scientology" and director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, Calif., confirmed the details of the OT teachings. "It's basically a variation of the Gnostic myth about souls falling into matter and the encumbrances that come with that," Melton said. "In the OTs, you're finding out that you're a thetan, that you've come into bodies before. Part of what you're trying to learn is exteriorization -- how to get out of your body. You also learn that you carry a lot of encumbrances from past lives."

Melton, however, said that he did not believe public outspokenness about the church necessarily indicates a particular rank. The eight OT levels form the last and highest order in the intricate hierarchy Hubbard developed beginning in 1950, when his "Dianetics" was published. He named the hierarchy "the Bridge to Total Freedom." Scientologists can only enter OT once they've gone "Clear," meaning they have passed through the lower orders of the church and been shown that their personal inhibitions and flaws are the result of innumerable traumatic experiences built up over trillions of years of reincarnation.

A Scientologist becomes "Clear" by taking multiple courses and through copious "auditing," a process in which they are counseled and encouraged by a more advanced church member to relive past traumas, with the help of an E-Meter, a device that Scientologists claim monitors brain activity. Before they're allowed to continue on to OT, a rigorous screening process and background check are conducted, according to Melton and others. Reaching the highest OT levels usually takes from a decade to three decades, the current and former Scientologists say. Lower estimates for the total cost of this are around $30,000, but some people claim to have spent several hundred thousand dollars. The current Scientology member tells Salon he pays several thousand dollars a year for the services.

That's a small investment if you're Tom Cruise, who now demands $20 million per movie, or some of the other marquee names affiliated with the church, including actors John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley and Jason Lee, musicians Beck, Lisa Marie Presley and Chick Corea, and Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren. Celebrity Scientologists, like other Scientologists, do not publicly reveal their rank. But despite their vagueness on the subject, celebrities play a crucial role in the church's image and its marketing of itself. According to Kent, beginning in the 1960s L. Ron Hubbard issued explicit directives for the church to recruit celebrities.

"There was a whole series of policies that talked about celebrities as opinion-makers," Kent said. "He suggested to get celebrities on their way up or their way down. To get them on the way up meant, if they became famous, they might attribute their success to Scientology. On the way down meant if their careers get saved they could do the same."

Also, said S. Scott Bartchy, director of the Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA, "They're looking for high-profile people to say positive things about them, because they are so eager to be considered a legitimate religion, and because of all the problems they're having abroad." Germany, for example. And academics apparently have their own appeal: Bartchy said that high-ranking Scientologists had approached him and sent him materials in an attempt to "woo" him. (When asked about this, Parkin wrote Salon: "Professor Bartchy has told us that he gets many questions from students about Scientology and that he was happy to receive the information we have provided to help him answer them. I think you are mischaracterizing what, if anything, he may have told you to put your own spin on it. Professor Bartchy has always been very cordial with the people from the Church with whom he has spoken.")

Cruise, who is 42, has been a member of the church since around the time of Hubbard's death in 1986. (His first marriage, from 1987 to 1990, was to actress Mimi Rogers, also a Scientologist. His second marriage, from 1990 to 2001, was to Nicole Kidman, who is not a Scientologist.) Until recently, however, he almost never discussed his membership publicly.

That started to change a few years ago, when Cruise co-sponsored a Scientology detoxification center near ground zero in Manhattan. Last year, he had a Scientology tent set up on the set of "War of the Worlds." He began openly boosting Narconon, the church's drug rehabilitation program. And then last December, he was presented with the Freedom Medal of Honor by David Miscavige, chairman of the board of the Religious Technology Center, one of the church's elite committees and, according to Melton and others, Hubbard's hand-chosen successor.

This spring, Cruise kicked things into high gear. He Zorba-ed Oprah's couch, and then he worried about his "Endless Love" costar Brooke Shields' mental health, criticizing her publicized use of antidepressants to battle postpartum depression and implying they might have caused her career to decline (Scientologists strongly oppose the use of antidepressants and other behavior-modifying drugs). He plopped a Details reporter on the back of his futuristic new motorcycle and sped her to three different Scientology facilities, where he extolled the faith -- for six hours. In an interview he and Steven Spielberg gave to the German paper Der Spiegel in April, Cruise defended Scientology, saying: "I'm a helper. For instance, I myself have helped hundreds of people get off drugs. In Scientology, we have the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world."

Then he burst into full Tom Joad mode: "If someone wants to get off drugs, I can help them," he declared to the interviewer. "If someone wants to learn how to read, I can help them. If someone doesn't want to be a criminal anymore, I can give them tools that can better their life. You have no idea how many people want to know what Scientology is."

When he was asked by Entertainment Weekly this month why he'd suddenly become so vocal, he insisted: "What choice do I have?" Then he declared: "People are being electric-shocked. Kids are being drugged. People are dying." In the same interview he supported the Scientology claim that psychiatry is a "Nazi science" and advanced several erroneous myths, which the E.W. editors helpfully pointed out in brackets:

"Jung was an editor for the Nazi papers during World War II. [According to Aryeh Maidenbaum, the director of the New York Center for Jungian Studies, this is not true.] Look at the experimentation the Nazis did with electric shock and drugging. Look at the drug methadone. That was originally called Adolophine. It was named after Adolf Hitler. [According to the Dictionary of Drugs and Medications, among other sources, this is an urban legend.]"

Cruise may now feel free to counsel others with a rare degree of authority. But sadly, Holmes may not be able to benefit much: The church forbids its OTs, even celebrities like Cruise, to discuss what they're learning with lower members. Indeed, OTs are not allowed to discuss their secret knowledge even with each other.

Asked why he couldn't discuss the details of OT teachings with anyone, including his peers, the current Scientologist said: "It's confidential. And that's the way that Mr. Hubbard wanted it. They're not ready for it."

The church claims that it has as many as 10 million members worldwide, but critics have suggested the actual number is far less. Melton said that the number of OT-VIIs and OT-VIIIs is in the hundreds. After years of study and introspection, achieving OT is supposed to create the kind of euphoria Kent referred to.

"The OT levels improve a person's life," said the current OT-V Scientologist, who did not want to be named. "All I know is I went through it and it changed my life dramatically. There is so much 'case'" -- a Scientology term meaning, essentially, mental blockage -- "a person has. Reactivity, aberration, things that are not you. The Bridge gets rid of all that stuff. I have the ability to show love to anyone -- from presidents down to bums. I can show love for anyone because I admire that being."

OTs are also warned that any vacillation from the courses and auditing can be dangerous. "Beginning with OT-III, you're taught that if you don't follow the prescribed steps precisely, you could become very sick," said the former OT-VII member. He stressed that he was not a critic of the church but had left because of personal differences.

Adding to all that stress is a series of very heavy theological revelations that begin with OT-III. The central creation story, according to Melton, Bartchy, Kent and the former member, is this: About 75 million years ago, a nefarious intergalactic warlord called Xenu rounded up the inhabitants of numerous planets, killed them, and brought them to Earth, then set off a chain reaction of cataclysmic volcanoes (the volcano pictured on the "Dianetics" cover was Hubbard's favorite symbol for the notion of breakthrough and self-actualization), which dispersed their thetans into the atmosphere. These thetans now fester inside the bodies of all humans. They are to be located in specific body parts and summoned out.


Scientology Official Symbols

"Part of the problem is how literally that is to be understood," Melton said. "There are those who take it quite literally and those who don't take it literally at all." Then there is the problem of the church's alleged treatment of OTs who have attempted to abandon the faith. Celebrity or not, an apostate Cruise might run into trouble.

"I doubt that Travolta or the other celebrities know what I know from people of how they're treated when they try to leave," Bartchy said. "What is probably told to the celebrities is that these are just very disgruntled people who aren't to be taken seriously."

Melton said only, "If you were a high-ranking member and simply said, 'I'm quitting, bye,' they look on you with a certain amount of animosity."

How does the church respond to such criticism? "I am aware that a small cadre of anti-religious extremists are trying to generate hostility against Scientology by disseminating lies about it," Parkin wrote in response to questions about the OT teachings and church policy. "This little group of insignificant people are the only ones in the world who are obsessed with extracting and altering out of context bits of esoteric data about Scientology and using it to create prejudice against Scientology through reporters such as yourself who buy into their agenda."

If all of this is not too much to bear for Holmes or others contemplating Scientology as a religious choice -- as it seems not to have been for Cruise -- the process, at his level anyway, may prove quite enjoyable. According to "What Is Scientology?" a book put out by Bridge Publications, the church's lucrative publishing arm, part or all of OT-VII and OT-VIII must be performed in the church's headquarters in Clearwater, Fla., or aboard the Freewinds, a ship that houses parts of the church's upper management. Happily, the weather makes up for the deprivations of sea life: The Freewinds is usually docked off the Caribbean island of Curaçao.

But should either of them decide to leave Scientology one day, Cruise and Holmes may also find themselves in a contractual bind. Scientologists are strongly encouraged to sign covenants of faith. And these aren't contracts for the uncommitted; according to Melton, Kent and the current Scientologist, the most fervent covenant -- which is common -- has a duration of 1 billion years.

Olof Palme Assassination
by Wikipedia


The killing of Palme left Sweden in a state of shock. A couple of days after the assassination, the thousands of flowers left by passers-by at the site of the murder formed a huge pile.

The assassination of Olof Palme (Swedish: Palmemordet, the Palme murder), the Prime Minister of Sweden, took place on Friday, 28 February, 1986, in Stockholm, Sweden, at 23:21 hours Central European Time (22:21 UTC). Palme was fatally wounded by gunshots while walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbet Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen. The couple did not have bodyguards at the time.

The case is still unsolved and a number of theories as to who carried out the murder have been proposed. Christer Pettersson, a substance abuser who previously had been convicted of manslaughter, was convicted of the murder in 1988 after having been identified as the killer by Palme's wife. However, on appeal to Svea Court of Appeal he was acquitted. Pettersson died in 2004, legally declared not guilty of the Palme assassination.


Prime Minister Olof Palme in the early 1970s.

Night of the Assassination

Despite Olof Palme's position as prime minister, he sought to live as ordinary a life as possible. He would often go out without any bodyguard protection, and the night of his murder was one such occasion. Walking home from the Grand Cinema with his wife Lisbet Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen, close to midnight on February 28, 1986, the couple were attacked by a lone gunman. Palme was fatally shot in the back at close range at 23:21 CET. A second shot wounded Mrs Palme.

Police said that a taxi-driver used his mobile radio to raise the alarm. Two girls sitting in a car close to the scene of the shooting tried to help the prime minister. He was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival at 00:06 CET on March 1, 1986.

The attacker escaped eastwards on the Tunnelgatan and disappeared.

Deputy prime minister Ingvar Carlsson immediately assumed the duties of prime minister and as new leader of the Social Democratic Party.

Sequence of events

Cinema decision

Palme's decision to visit the Grand Cinema was made at very short notice. Mrs Lisbet Palme had discussed seeing a film when she was at work during the afternoon, and called her son, Mårten Palme, at 5 pm to talk about the film at the Grand Cinema. Olof Palme did not hear about the plans until at home, at 6:30 pm, when he met with his wife. By which time, Palme had already declined any further personal body guard protection from the security service. He talked to his son about the plans on the phone, and they eventually decided to join Mårten and his spouse, who had already purchased tickets for themselves. This decision was made about 8 pm. The police later searched Palme's apartment, as well as Lisbet's and Mårten's work places, for wire-bugging devices or traces of such equipment, but did not find any.[1]


Grand Cinema


Crossing of Sveavägen–Tunnelgatan where Palme was shot.


Tunnelgatan. The assassin's immediate escape route.

Grand Cinema

At 8.30 pm the Palme couple left their apartment, unescorted, heading for the Gamla stan subway station. Several people witnessed their short walk to the station and, according to the later police investigation, commented on the lack of body guards. The couple took the subway train to the Rådmansgatan station, from where they walked to the Grand Cinema. They met with their son and his spouse just outside the theatre around 9 pm. Olof Palme had not yet purchased tickets which were by then almost sold out. Recognizing the prime minister, the ticket clerk wanted him to have the best seats, and therefore sold Palme the theatre director's seats.[2]

The murder

After the screening, the Palme family stayed outside the theatre for a while but separated about 11.15 pm. Olof and Lisbet Palme headed south on the west side of Sveavägen street, towards the Rådmansgatan subway station. When they reached the Adolf Fredrik's Church, they crossed Sveavägen and continued on the street's east side. They stopped a moment to look at something in a shop window, continued past the Dekorima shop (now renamed Kreatima) and headed for the subway station entrance. At 11:21:30 pm, half the distance across the Tunnelgatan street and only a short distance from the station entrance, a man appeared from behind, shot Palme at point-blank range and fired a second shot at Mrs Palme. The perpetrator then jogged down Tunnelgatan street, up the steps to Malmskillnadsgatan and continued down David Bagares gata [street], where he was last seen.[3]

Time line

Thanks to time stamps on records for radio and tele communication, many events have been determined with a very high precision.[4]

• 11.21:30 pm — The Palme couple are shot.
• 11.22:20 pm — The 90000 SOS emergency line receives a phone call. An eye witness says there is 'murder on Sveavägen', and is immediately redirected to the police. However the phone call is not redirected properly and the caller is not put through to the police.
• 11.23:40 pm — A Järfälla Taxi switchboard operator calls directly to the police dispatch center on behalf of one of its drivers on the scene. He can, however, not give any more details than that someone has been shot at the corner Sveavägen/Tunnelgatan.
• 11:24 pm (ca) — The first police patrol arrives at the scene. Stationed on Kungsgatan, a few hundred feet from the scene, the patrol is alerted by a second taxi driver who heard the emergency call via the taxi radio.
• 11.24:40 pm — The police dispatch center is contacted by the SOS alarm central concerning the shooting on Sveavägen. The dispatch center operator denies knowledge about any such events.
• 11.24 – 11.25.30 pm (ca) — A second police patrol, a patrol wagon, arrives at the crime scene. The patrol was stationed at Malmskillnadsgatan at the time of murder, not far from the perpetrator's escape route. They are ordered by the commanding officer at the scene, Superintendent Söderström, to immediately take up the hunt for the perpetrator.
• 11.25 pm (ca) — A patrolling ambulance is stopped at the scene and gives immediate assistance to the victims.
• 11.26:00 pm — The police dispatch center calls the SOS emergency center to assure them they are informed about the events on the Sveavägen/Tunnelgatan intersection.
• A third police patrol wagon arrives at the scene, the patrol was refueling at a gas station when they got called out to the scene.
• A second ambulance arrives at the scene to assist their colleagues from the first ambulance.
• 11.28:00 pm — The first ambulance leaves the scene, rushing for the Sabbatsberg hospital with prime minister Olof Palme and his wife. Mrs Palme, not being severely wounded, refuses to leave her husband.
• 11.30 pm — Superintendent Söderström, contacts the police dispatch center to inform them that it is the prime minister who has been shot.
• 11.31:40 pm — The SOS central is informed that the ambulance has arrived to the hospital.
• 00.06 am — Prime Minister Olof Palme is pronounced dead at the Sabbatsberg hospital.
• 00.45 am — Vice prime minister Ingvar Carlsson arrives at Rosenbad.
• 01.10 am — First radio broadcast about the murder.
• 04.00 am — First TV broadcast about the events.
• 05.15 am — The government holds a press conference.

Murder theories

Palme's assassination remains unsolved, with a number of alternative theories surrounding the murder.

"The 33-year old"

A Swedish extremist, Victor Gunnarsson (labeled in the media 33-åringen, "the 33-year old"), was soon arrested for the murder but quickly released, after a dispute between the police and prosecuting attorneys. Gunnarsson had connections to various extremist groups, among these the European Workers Party, the Swedish branch of the LaRouche Movement.[5] Pamphlets hostile to Palme from the party were found in his home outside Stockholm.

Gunnarsson later moved to the United States of America, where he was murdered. Acquaintances stated he had admitted murdering Palme.[6]

Victor Gunnarsson died somewhere between the 3 and 7 of January of 1994. Victor was the individual acquitted in the assassination in Sweden of Olav Palme, the high ranking Swedish politician. They are tracking Gunnarson's connection to Scientology. Detectives found a number of Scientology books at his place of residence. A reporter mentioned something about a $2 million offer to assassinate Palme being found or implied somewhere in his records.

-- THE FABLE -- HOLLYWOOD, SATANISM, SCIENTOLOGY & SUICIDE, by F.A.C.T.Net, Inc.

PKK

Hans Holmér, the Stockholm police commissioner, followed up an intelligence lead passed to him (supposedly by Bertil Wedin) and arrested a number of Kurds living in Sweden, after allegations that one of their organisations, the PKK, was responsible for the murder. The lead proved inconclusive however and ultimately led to Holmér's removal from the Palme murder investigation. Fifteen years later, in April 2001, a team of Swedish police officers went to interview Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan in a Turkish prison about Öcalan's allegations that a dissident Kurdish group, led by his ex-wife, murdered Palme.[7] The police team's visit proved futile.

In 2007, renewed allegations of PKK complicity in Palme's assassination surfaced during the Ergenekon investigation, which is ongoing as of October 2008.[8]

Christer Pettersson


Mugshot of Christer Pettersson.

In December 1988, almost three years after Palme's death, Christer Pettersson, a brain-damaged petty criminal, drug user and alcoholic, who had previously been imprisoned for manslaughter, was arrested for the murder of Palme. Picked out by Mrs Palme at a lineup as the killer, Pettersson was tried and convicted of the murder, but was later acquitted on appeal to the High Court. Pettersson's appeal succeeded for three main reasons:

• The murder weapon had not been found;
• He had no clear motive for the killing;
• Doubts about the reliability of Mrs Palme's testimony.

Additional evidence against Pettersson surfaced in the late 1990s, mostly coming from various petty criminals who altered their stories but also from a confession made by Pettersson. The chief prosecutor, Agneta Blidberg, considered re-opening the case. But she acknowledged that a confession alone would not be sufficient, saying:

He must say something about the weapon because the appeals court set that condition in its ruling. That is the only technical evidence that could be cited as a reason to re-open the case.

While the legal case against Pettersson therefore remains closed, the police file on the investigation cannot be closed until both murder weapon and murderer are found. Christer Pettersson died on September 29, 2004, of cerebral hemorrhage after injuring his head.

Apartheid South Africa


A 1986 poster by Cuban artist Rafael Enriquez, with Palme quote that apartheid must be eliminated.

On February 21, 1986 — a week before he was murdered — Palme made the keynote address to the Swedish People's Parliament Against Apartheid held in Stockholm, attended by hundreds of anti-apartheid sympathizers as well as leaders and officials from the ANC and the Anti-Apartheid Movement such as Oliver Tambo. In the address, Palme said, "Apartheid cannot be reformed, it has to be eliminated."

Ten years later, towards the end of September 1996, Colonel Eugene de Kock, a former South African police officer, gave evidence to the Supreme Court in Pretoria, alleging that Palme had been shot and killed in 1986 because he "strongly opposed the apartheid regime and Sweden made substantial contributions to the ANC".[9][10] De Kock went on to claim he knew the person responsible for Palme's murder. He alleged it was Craig Williamson, a former police colleague and a South African superspy. A few days later, Brigadier Johannes Coetzee, who used to be Williamson's boss, identified Anthony White, a former Rhodesian Selous Scout with links to the South African security services, as Palme's actual murderer. Then a third person, Swedish mercenary Bertil Wedin, living in Northern Cyprus since 1985, was named as the killer by Peter Caselton, a member of Coetzee's assassination squad known as Operation Longreach. The following month, in October 1996, Swedish police investigators visited South Africa, but were unable to uncover evidence to substantiate de Kock's claims.

A book that was published in 2007 suggested that a high-ranking Civil Cooperation Bureau operative, Athol Visser (or 'Ivan the Terrible'), was responsible for planning and carrying out Olof Palme's assassination.[11]

Bofors and Indian connection

In his 2005 book Blood on the Snow: The Killing of Olof Palme historian Jan Bondeson advanced a theory that Palme's murder was linked with arms trades to India. Bondeson's book meticulously recreated the assassination and its aftermath, and suggested that Palme had used his friendship with Rajiv Gandhi to secure a SEK 8.4 billion deal for the Swedish armaments company Bofors to supply the Indian Army with howitzers. However, Palme did not know that behind his back Bofors had used a shady company called AE Services — nominally based in Guildford, Surrey, England — to bribe Indian government officials to conclude the deal.

Bondeson alleged that on the morning he was assassinated, Palme had met with the Iraqi ambassador to Sweden, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf (the man who would later go on to become notorious as Saddam Hussein's Information Minister during the 2003 Iraq War). The two discussed Bofors, which al-Sahhaf knew well because of its arms sales during the Iran–Iraq War. Bondeson suggested that the ambassador told Palme about Bofors' activities, infuriating Palme. Bondeson theorised that Palme's murder might have been inadvertently triggered by his conversation with the ambassador, if either the Bofors arms dealers or the middlemen working through AE Services had a prearranged plan to silence the Prime Minister should he discover the truth and the deal with India become threatened. According to Bondeson, Swedish police suppressed vital MI6 intelligence about a Bofors/AE Services deal with India.

The Red Army Faction

The Red Army Faction (RAF) better known as the Baader-Meinhof Group of Germany claimed responsibility for the assassination of Palme via an anonymous phone call to a London news agency. They supposedly assassinated him because he was the Prime Minister of Sweden during the West German embassy siege in Stockholm in 1975 which ended in failure for the RAF. They claimed the assassination was carried out by the 'Holger Meins Commando.'

Roberto Thieme

The Swedish journalist Anders Leopold, in his 2008 book Det svenska trädet skall fällas, makes the case that the Chilean fascist Roberto Thieme killed Olof Palme. Thieme was head of the most militant wing of Patria y Libertad, a far-right political organization, financed by the U.S. CIA. According to Leopold, Palme was killed because he had freely given asylum to so many leftist Chileans following the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende in 1973.[12]

New evidence?

According to a documentary programme broadcast on the Swedish television channel SVT in February 2006, associates of Pettersson claimed that he had confessed to them his role in the murder, but with the explanation that it was a case of mistaken identity. Apparently, Pettersson had intended to kill a drug dealer who customarily walked, in similar clothing, along the same street at night.

The programme also suggested there was greater police awareness than previously acknowledged because of surveillance of drug activity in the area. The police had several officers in apartments and cars along those few blocks of Sveavägen but, 45 minutes before the murder, the police monitoring ceased.

In the light of these latest revelations, Swedish police undertook to review Palme's case and Pettersson's role. However, the newspaper Dagens Nyheter of February 28, 2006 carried articles ridiculing the TV documentary, and alleging that the filmmaker had fabricated a number of statements while omitting other contradictory evidence.[13]

Mockfjärd Gun


Memorial plaque at the place of the assassination, reading: "Here, Sweden's prime minister Olof Palme was murdered, on February 28, 1986."

Memorial plaque at the place of the assassination, reading: "Here, Sweden's prime minister Olof Palme was murdered, on February 28, 1986."Swedish police, acting on tip communicated to the Expressen newspaper, retrieved a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver from a lake in Dalarna, in autumn 2006. The gun was earlier used in a post office robbery in Mockfjärd, in 1983, confirmed by the gun's serial number. The Swedish police over the years have test fired hundreds of guns of this kind, seeing if the trace on the bullets would match those found on scene of Palme's murder. The gun was transferred to the National Laboratory of Forensic Science in Linköping for further analysis. However, the laboratory concluded in May 2007 that tests on the gun could not confirm that it was used in the Palme assassination, for it was too rusty.[14][15]

Other theories

John Ausonius, "the Laser Man", also known as John Stannerman, was initially one of the suspects but it turned out that Ausonius had a solid alibi, as he was imprisoned on the night Palme was shot.

Costs

• The cost of the investigation stands at SEK 350 million, EUR 38 million or US$45 million as of February 25, 2006.[16]
• The total number of pages accumulated during the investigation is around 700,000.[17]
• The reward for solving the murder is SEK 50 million.[17]

Film portrayals

In the 1998 Swedish fictional thriller film The Last Contract (Sista kontraktet), Palme's assassination was portrayed as having been planned by the CIA. A Special Branch detective, Roger Nyman (Mikael Persbrandt), is on the trail of the international hitman (Ray Lambert, played by Michael Kitchen) but finds his line of inquiry is blocked by senior police officers and the Swedish establishment. The reason suggested for the murder is the firm stance taken by Palme in rejecting deployment of nuclear weapons in Scandinavia. The assassin himself is then killed, to cover any trace back to the CIA.

The Last Contract has been favourably compared to two other thriller films featuring political assassinations: The Day of the Jackal and Oliver Stone's JFK.[18][19]

References

1. The investigation committee report (1999:88), p. 161. (PDF) (Swedish)
2. The investigation committee report (1999:88), p. 162. (PDF) (Swedish)
3. The investigation committee report (1999:88), p. 159 (PDF) (Swedish)
4. The investigation committee report (1999:88), p. 173 (PDF) (Swedish)
5. SOU 2002:87 Rikets säkerhet och den personliga integriteten, Swedish Government Official Report, p. 239
6. Lindqvist, Stefan (2006-02-25). "Palmemordet — konspirationsteorier". Hd.se. http://hd.se/inrikes/2006/02/25/palmemo ... nsteorier/. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
7. Ocalan questioned over Swedish murder, BBC News.
8. Dolmaci, Emine (2008-09-07). "Apo, Ergenekon'un Truva Ati" (in Turkish). Zaman Pazar (Feza Gazetecilik A.S.) 93. http://pazar.zaman.com.tr/?bl=5&hn=2690. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
9. http://www.kurdistan.org/Washington/southafrica.html
10. Daley, Suzanne (September 29, 1996). "Did Apartheid's Police Murder Sweden's Prime Minister?". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A960958260. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
11. Devil Incarnate: A Depraved Mercenary's Lifelong Swathe of Destruction by Wayne Thallon
12. New book: Chilean fascist leader killed Olaf Palme Politiken February 29, 2008 (in Danish)
13. "Filmen om mordet på Palme ett moraliskt haveri av SVT". Dn.se. http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp? ... nderType=2. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
14. Nordstrom, Louise (2006-11-21). "Swedish Police Recover Revolver Linked to Palme Murder Investigation". Associated Press. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/su ... 934046_ITM.
15. "Swedish Police Unable to Confirm Link Between Recovered Gun and Palme Murder Investigation". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. 2007-05-27. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/ ... Weapon.php.
16. Dagens Nyheter, March 12, 2006.
17. a b Swedish Police official site
18. Cleveland Film Society
19. Variety

Literature

Blood on the snow: The killing of Olof Palme, Jan Bondeson, Cornell University Press, 2005.
Inuti labyrinten (Within the labyrinth), Kari and Pertti Poutiainen, Grimur, 1994.
Olof Palme är skjuten! Writer Hans Holmer, ISBN 9146161538 ISBN 9789146161530 Publisher Wahlström & Widstrand 1988.

Operation Snow White
by Wikipedia

Operation Snow White was the Church of Scientology's name for a conspiracy during the 1970s to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard. This project included a series of infiltrations and thefts from 136 government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates, as well as private organizations critical of Scientology, carried out by Church members, in more than 30 countries;[1] the single largest infiltration of the United States government in history[2] with up to 5,000 covert agents.[3] This was also the operation that exposed 'Operation Freakout', because this was the case that brought the US government into investigation on the Church.[3]

Under this program, Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, and theft of documents in government offices, most notably those of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Eleven highly-placed Church executives, including Mary Sue Hubbard (wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard and second-in-command of the organisation), pleaded guilty or were convicted in federal court of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property. The case was United States vs. Mary Sue Hubbard et al., 493 F. Supp. 209 (D.D.C. 1979).[4][5][6][7]


Grand Jury Charges, Introduction, "United States of America v. Mary Sue Hubbard", United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 1979

Background

As early as 1960, L. Ron Hubbard had proposed that Scientologists should infiltrate government departments by taking secretarial, bodyguard or other jobs.[8] In the early 1970s, the Church of Scientology was increasingly scrutinized by US federal agencies, having already been raided by the Food and Drug Administration in 1963. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claimed it owed millions of dollars in taxes and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent agents into the organization.[8] The Church's response involved a publicity campaign, extensive litigation against the IRS and a program of infiltration of agency offices.[8]

The specific branch of Scientology responsible for Operation Snow White was the Guardian's Office. Created in 1966 by L. Ron Hubbard himself, the Guardian's Office's purpose was to protect the interests of Scientology.[9] At the time of Operation Snow White, the Guardian's Office had worldwide headquarters (Guardian’s Office WW) located at Saint Hill Manor in England. Headquarters in the United States (Guardian’s Office US) were in Los Angeles, California. A smaller office also existed in Washington, D.C. (Guardian’s Office DC) and other cities throughout the United States. Each of the Guardian Offices had five bureaus including the Information Bureau which oversaw the infiltration of the government. L. Ron Hubbard oversaw the Guardian's Office, though it was Mary Sue Hubbard, his wife, who held the title Commodore Staff Guardian.[10]

Several years later, in 1973, the Guardian's Office began a massive infiltration of governments around the world, though the primary target of the operation was the United States. Worried about Scientology’s long term reputation, the Guardian’s Office decided to infiltrate Interpol in order to obtain documents relating to Scientology, as well as those connecting L. Ron Hubbard to criminal activity. This duty was handed by Jane Kember to Hening Heldt and his staff.[11]

Around this time L. Ron Hubbard himself wrote Guardian Order 732, which called for the removal and correction of “erroneous” Scientology files. It is here that Operation Snow White has its origins. Though the order called for this to be achieved by legal means, this would quickly change. [12] Hubbard himself would later be named by federal prosecutors as an "unindicted co-conspirator" for his part in the operation. Though extensive records of his involvement exist, many Scientologists claim his directives were misinterpreted by his followers. [13][14]

Operation Snow White would further be refined to Guardian Order 1361. Addressed from Jane Kember to Heldt, Duke Snider, and Richard Weigand, GO 1361 called for, amongst other things, an infiltration of the Los Angeles and London offices of the IRS, and the Department of Justice.[15]

While the order was specific to the IRS, the Guardian’s Office was soon recruiting their own field agents to infiltrate other governmental offices, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S. Coast Guard intelligence service,[16] and the National Institute of Mental Health, among others, as well as the American Medical Association.[17] The program called for rewards to be given for successful missions carried out by Scientologists. [18]

Other planned elements of the operation included petitioning governments and the United Nations to charge government critics of Scientology with genocide, on the theory that official criticism of the group constituted "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction". One of the sentencing memoranda in the case also noted that, contrary to what the defendants claimed, the programs planned by the Guardian's Office were not restricted to trying to remove "false reports" but included plans to plant false information—for instance, planting false records about "a cat with a pedigree name" into US security agency computers so that later "the creature holds a press conference and photographic story results." The purpose of this plan was "to hold up the American security to ridicule, as outlined in the GO by LRH."[19]

The start of 1974 saw a Michael Meisner appointed Assistant Guardian for Information in the District of Columbia (AG I DC). Meisner’s responsibilities now included the implementation of all Information Bureau orders, programs, and projects within the DC area. Meisner’s supervisor at this time was Duke Snider, the Assistant Guardian for DC, or AG DC. This was the highest position in Washington’s GO office.[20]

In July 1974 Meisner was ordered by Duke Snider to implement the previously written plan to obtain Interpol documents, which were then located in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Meisner had more to do than just this, though, as by August he was also taking directions from a Cindy Raymond, the GO's Collections Officer for the US, who ordered Meisner to assist her in finding a loyal Scientologist agent to gain employment at the IRS headquarters in Washington DC. This employee was to steal all documents dealing with Scientology, especially those involving current litigation by Scientology against the government. Meisner discussed this with Raymond for a period of a month before interviewing various Scientologists with no luck. A month after the order had been given, Raymond informed Meisner that she had selected Gerald Wolfe. [21]

Implementation

The GO's actual infiltration of the government likely began when Gerald Wolfe and Michael Meisner were able to gain employment at the IRS as clerk-typists. Under direction of the Guardian Office, Wolfe monitored files on tax-exempt organizations and, when requested, illegally made copies for Scientology.[16] Meisner supervised both Wolfe and the Information Bureau section in DC, and reported to the GO's Deputy Guardian for Information in the US.[22]

In November 1974, Operation Snow White took an unexpected turn for the GO when they received word that the IRS would be conducting a meeting on Scientology’s tax-exempt status. In response, the church sent a spy to bug the room.[23] On the morning of November 1, the day before the meeting, a GO agent, Hermann, broke into the conference room and plugged the device into an electrical outlet. This device, in turn, then transmitted a signal to an FM frequency, which was picked up and recorded by Scientologists sitting in a car in the parking lot of the Smithsonian, which faced the office. After the meeting Hermann removed the device, and the taped recording of the meeting was sent to LA.[24]

By December, Wolfe, Herman, and Meisner had sent a shipment of stolen documents 20 inches thick to Duke Snider. Snider, in turn, sent notification to Mo Budlong in LA. By the end of December, Wolfe was stealing documents from the IRS’s Chief Counsel’s office. Just days after Christmas, Wolfe broke into the office of Barbar ird, an attorney in the IRS’ Refund Litigation Service. Bird had been present at the November 1st meeting. Instead of stealing files, Wolfe took them to a copier and made photocopies using government paper. [25]

Later Wolfe met Meisner at a Lums Restaurant, where he reported on his most recent theft. Meisner took the documents and underlined selections that he believed his superiors would find interesting or relevant and wrote a summary of the important points. This was then routed through the Assistant Guardian for DC and on to the Deputy Guardian for the US, the Deputy Guardian for Information in the US, the Branch I Director of the Information Bureau, and the Collections Officer, all of which were in LA. A copy was also sent to Mary Sue Hubbard. This was typically standard procedure for Meisner.[25]

In early 1975 Operation Snow White expanded again as Sharon Thomas obtained employment in the U.S. Coast Guard Intelligence Agency and Nancy Douglass began work at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Douglass stole documents and made photocopies of others. These were transmitted to Hermann.[26]

By Spring, attention had been called back to the IRS case as Mary Sue Hubbard had instructed Kember and Heldt to “use any method at our disposal to win the battle and gain our non-profit (tax) status.[27]" Heldt wrote back telling that her request had been sent to the Information Bureau, who had been ordered to complete the collection of documents from the IRS and the Department of Justice’s tax files within three months.[28]

In April, Meisner procured a directory of the Department of Justice and located the offices that would have files pertaining to Scientology litigation. When he found what he wanted he sent in Wolfe, who broke into the offices of two attorneys on three successive Saturdays. Wolfe copied twelve files and met up with Meisner, as before, at Lums restaurant. These files were especially useful to Scientology, as it detailed the government’s strategy in various court cases.

In May, Willardson directed Meisner to implement “Project Horn,” which called for Meisner to “provide a cover for PR and legal for the way they obtained IRS docs.” The idea would be for the GO’s Public Relations Bureau to view the documents without worrying about being connected to the theft. Willardson’s idea called for Meisner to steal documents dealing with organizations other than Scientology. Willardson also called for the theft of IRS stationary, in order to forge letters from a (fictional) disgruntled IRS employee. The files on various organizations (including Scientology, of course) would then be sent out attached to the fake letter. The idea was that it would appear that an upset IRS agent had himself sent the files to numerous organizations. There would be nothing to tie it to Scientology. Wolfe stole both the stationary and, without permission, files on the Unification Church and Bob Jones University.[29]

During the Summer and Fall months of 1975 the GO launched an additional plan. In July, Meisner was told by Cindy Raymond that the Church of Scientology had initiated a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the IRS. Meisner was directed to add the office of Charles Zuravin to his list of offices to monitor. Zuravin was representing the government in the case. Meisner immediately passed this duty on to Wolfe, who broke into Zuravin‘s office multiple times between July and November. Wolfe revealed to his superiors that Zuravin was preparing an index of Scientology files relevant to the FOIA case. IRS offices from all over the country were sending files to Zuravin. This index file, required by the courts in all FOIA cases, is a total list of the documents requested, and reasons for their exemption from the public, if any.[30]

By October, Zuravin had finished the index, numbering each document in order to simplify location, and had provided a copy to Scientology attorneys. These attorneys, in turn, gave the index to Raymond, who passed it along to Meisner, who passed it to Wolfe. Wolfe then entered Zuravin’s office and then began copying the documents listed on the index. Zuravin had essentially done the GO’s job for them.[30]

On December 5 1975 Jane Kember issued Guardian Program Order 158, which intended to give L. Ron Hubbard early warning of impending legal action. The plan called for the infiltration of the government agencies that had either the power to issue, or the knowledge of, impending subpoenas.[31] Specific agencies include the US Attorney’s Office in DC and LA, the IRS Office of International Operations, the DEA, and the Coast Guard and Immigration and Naturalization. After reviewing the letter, Meisner concluded it would be etter idea to infiltrate the Department of Justice than the US Attorney’s Office.[32]

In January 1976 Hermann, the Southeast US Secretary for the Information Bureau, informed Meisner that Heldt and Weigand approved a plan to send Alverzo to Washington. Alverzo arrived on the 17th, and on the 18th he picked the locks on the doors belonging to the office of Lewis Hubbard (no relation to L. Ron Hubbard) and the file room housing Zuravin’s files. Wolfe stood guard at the end of the hallway while Alverzo worked on Hubbard’s door. A few doors down Meisner worked on Zuravin’s door. After an hour and a half with no success, Meisner was getting upset. In frustration, Meisner hit the top of Zuravin’s door, which popped right open. The three Scientologists entered the office and took the remaining Scientology related documents. They then traveled to another floor where they made photocopies. Wolfe continued to make copies while Alverzo and Meisner tried again to open Hubbard’s office. The trio then worked well into the night photocopying files from Hubbard’s office. When they left, sometime around 2 AM, they left with a foot tall stack of documents.[33] Less than a month later Richard Weigand wrote to Jane Kember, telling her that the IRS documents that had been ordered to be obtained in Guardian Order 1361, over two years earlier, had been obtained.[34]

Gerald Wolfe, along with Meisner, were later able to break into a room and make false IRS identification cards, which allowed them access to the federal courthouse in Washington. Wolfe and Meisner then used these cards to gain access to restricted areas and steal more documents.[16]

While Wolfe and Meisner continued their work at the IRS, Mary Sue Hubbard, along with other Guardian Office members, were coming up with further plans. Guardian Program Order 302, written by Cindy Raymond and approved by Hubbard, amongst others, directed the infiltration of all government agencies that had withheld files from Scientology’s various FOIA requests.[35]

On the night of April 14, Meisner and Wolfe were on the tenth floor of the IRS building housing the Office of International Operations. Trying to enter an office, the pair found it locked. A passing cleaning lady noted Meisner and Wolfe’s suspicious behavior, and notified a security guard. The guard confronted the pair and was presented with Wolfe’s genuine IRS card and Meisner’s fabricated one. Satisfied, the guard had the cleaning lady open the door. Inside, the pair grabbed a hefty load of files. Unable to find a photocopier, the pair then took the files to the main IRS building, where the pair again used their identification to gain access. After copying the files they returned them to Crate’s office. The entire process took some four hours. [36]

In May, Wolfe broke into the United States Courthouse and stole keys to the office of Assistant United States Attorney Nathan Dodell. Wolfe then took these keys to have them duplicated, and returned them unnoticed. Almost three weeks later Wolfe and Meisner broke into Dodell’s office, stealing documents and, as usual, forwarding them to Guardian headquarters in Los Angeles. [16] The GO’s interest in Nathan Dodell stemmed from a Scientology FOIA case. In April, Judge George L Hart asked Dodell whether the US had considered taking a deposition of L Ron Hubbard. Dodell responded that it was an “interesting thought.” Furthermore, he promised to discuss it with the Department of Justice. [37]

In May, Meisner and Wolfe entered the US Courthouse for the District of Columbia around four in the afternoon. They went to the third floor, which was the home of both the US Attorney‘s Office and the Bar Association Library. They planned to locate Nathan Dodell’s office, which was in the back of the Civil Division area, near an elevator. They then searched for the building’s photocopiers. After mapping out these locations, they left. Later, Wolfe and Meisner made a copy of Dodell's keys.[38]

On May 21, Meisner and Wolfe entered the Courthouse, signing in to do research in the library and were issued an elevator key. After riding the elevator to the floor of the library, the pair entered the library and removed several books from shelves and sat at a table. After a few minutes they exited through ackdoor and emerged in a hallway. In this hallway was Dodell’s office, which they entered using their keys. The duo stole a number of documents related to Scientology and walked through the hallway to the two copy machines they had previously located. The pair photocopied some six inches of documents before returning the originals to Dodell’s office. [38]

One week later Wolfe and Meisner again met outside the IRS building. The duo then walked to the US Courthouse, and signed in under fake names. They repeated their actions from the previous week, copying another foot of documents from the District of Columbia Police Department as well as the Food and Drug Administration. Returning to Dodell’s office through the library, they were stopped by the night librarian, who asked if they had signed in. While they had signed in at the front desk, they had failed to do the same at the front desk of the library. When they announced that they had not, Johnson, the night librarian, told the pair not to come back unless they had specific authorization from the day librarian. The pair promptly left. Three days later Johnson notified the US Attorney’s Office that two individuals had been seen using the photocopying machines of the Attorney’s Office. Johnson and the night guard were told to immediately contact the FBI if the individuals returned.[37]

Less than two weeks later Hermann phoned Meisner, and ordered him to return to Dodell’s office and steal his personal files. The goal was to formulate a plan that would result in Dodell being removed from his position as an Assistant US Attorney for the District of Columbia.[37]

Meisner and Wolfe entered the United States Courthouse on June 11 around 7 in the evening. They signed in as they did before, and headed to the library. Johnson, the night librarian, recognized the pair and immediately stopped them. Meisner was prepared for this, and showed the man a letter from the head librarian. Wolfe and Meisner continued to the back of the library where they exited into the hallway. Outside Dodell’s office the two saw that cleaning ladies were still at work.[37]

While Meisner and Wolfe waited for the cleaning crew to vacate the office, Johnson called the FBI, which sent two agents over immediately. The two agents confronted the Scientologists and demanded to see their identification. Wolfe used his real identification. Meisner presented his fake card, and told the agents that he had recently resigned from the IRS. Meisner told Hansen that the pair was in the library to do legal research, and that they had used the photocopiers to copy books and cases. Neither mentioned Scientology. After roughly twenty minutes of questioning, the FBI agents allowed them to leave. Meisner then phoned Hermann to inform him of the news and was told to immediately fly to LA. [37]

Aftermath and trial

Meisner and Wolfe were given cover stories by the Guardian's Office. [39] On the last day of June, Gerald Wolfe was arrested. Wolfe was charged with “the use and possession of a forged official pass of the United States."[40] The day after Wolfe’s arrest, Mary Sue Hubbard wrote a letter to Weigand ordering him to keep her abreast of the situation. Hubbard also conversed with Mo Budlong, and Richard Weigand about Wolfe’s arrest, cover story, and subsequent plan to destroy evidence linking Wolfe and Meisner to Scientology.[39]

At the end of July a judge decided that the case against Wolfe warranted an investigation by a Grand Jury. A week later the judge issued an arrest warrant for Meisner, who, at the time, was being hidden in LA. The FBI was able to connect him to Scientology.[41] By January 1977 it was becoming increasingly likely that Scientology would be unable to escape Operation Snow White without serious penalty. Though Meisner was still in hiding, he was growing increasingly anxious about the situation.[42] By April, Meisner wanted to surrender to the authorities. Meisner was quickly put under the control of several guards. [39]

On May 13, Gerald Wolfe entered a guilty plea.[43] Later in the month, Meisner escaped his captors, only to be convinced to rejoin the GO the following day.[44]


From 1964 to 1995, the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C.. The building was raided by the FBI in July 1977.

In June, Wolfe, after being sentenced to probation and community service, testified before the Grand Jury. Instead of the truth, Wolfe told the latest incarnation of his cover story.[39] Several days later Meisner would again escape his captors, though this time he would contact the FBI. Meisner was eventually taken to Washington, where he agreed to plead guilty to a five-year conspiracy felony and cooperate with the Grand Jury.[45]

On July 4 the FBI raided Church of Scientology locations in Los Angeles, Hollywood and Washington, DC.[8] The Los Angeles raid involved 156 FBI agents: the most that had ever been used in a single raid. It lasted 21 hours and filled a sixteen ton truck with documents and other items.[8]

The raids not only turned up documentation of the group's illegal activities against the United States government,[46] but also illegal activities carried out against other perceived enemies of Scientology. These included "Operation Freakout", a conspiracy to frame author Paulette Cooper on false bomb-threat charges, and conspiracies to frame Gabe Cazares, mayor of Clearwater, Florida, on false hit-and-run charges.[47][48] The papers also revealed that Sir John Foster (author of the official UK Government inquiry into Scientology) and Lord Balniel (who had requested the report) were targets, along with the National Association for Mental Health (NAMH) and World Federation for Mental Health.[49]

Comparing the FBI to the Gestapo, the Church declared that all the files seized from the Church were taken illegally,[50] though the FBI produced a 40-plus page affidavit detailing 160 specific items they were looking for.[51]

By July 20, some 13 days after the raid, a Washington judge ruled that the documents should be returned, at least temporarily, to the Church, and that none of the documents could be shared with branches of the government, unless that specific branch was investigating Scientology. Scientology's lawyers had successfully argued that in order to prepare for an August 8 hearing on the legality of the raid, they must be able to see the documents.[52] By July 27 a judge in Washington had ruled the warrant authorizing the raid was too broad, and as such, violated the Church's 4th Amendment rights.[53] In August this ruling would be overturned, with Scientology promising to take the case to the Supreme Court,[54] which would, early in the next year, refuse to hear the case.[55]

In August 1978 11 high ranking members of Scientology were indicted on 28 charges. One of the indicted was Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of Scientology’s creator L. Ron Hubbard. The other ten were Gerald Wolfe, Cindy Raymond, Henning Heldt, Duke Snider, Gregory Willardson, Richard Weigand, Mitchell Herman, Sharon Thomas, Jane Kember, and Mo Budlong. Kendrick Moxon and L. Ron Hubbard were named unindicted co-conspirators.[56]

Over the course of the investigation the Church of Scientology would attempt to have a judge removed,[56] and would subpoena almost 150 federal agents in what appeared to be a large stalling scheme.[57] The Church would also offer several shifting explanations for their actions.[58][59] Ultimately, these tactics failed and the defendants agreed to a plea deal.

The Scientologists would be found guilty and their attorneys would be allowed to argue for the suppression of the government’s evidence. 7 of the 11 members of the Guardian’s Office pled guilty to just a single count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.One more pled guilty to a similar charge and a ninth pled guilty to a misdemeanor. The remaining two Scientologists were in England, awaiting extradition. [60]

On December 6, 1979, some five years after Operation Snow White began, it officially came to an end. Five of the Scientologists were sentenced to four years in jail, with four of the convicted being taken immediately. Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of L Ron Hubbard, was sentenced to five years. Each of the six faced a fine of 10,000 dollars.[61] The next day the four remaining Scientologists were sentenced. Three of the four faced a fine of $10,000 and five years in jail. The fourth was fined $1,000 and sent to jail for six months. Upon release she was given five years of probation and community service. All of the Scientologists immediately began to appeal.[62] Their appeal was rejected.[63]

In November 1980, the two remaining Scientologists, Jane Kember and Mo Budlong, were finally convicted on nine counts of aiding and abetting burglary in connection with break-ins at government offices,[64] and were sentenced to two to six years.[65]

Involved parties

Mary Sue Hubbard, Cindy Raymond, Gerald Bennett Wolfe, Henning Heldt, Duke Snider (not to be confused with Duke Snider, aseball player of the same name), Gregory Willardson, Richard Weigand, Mitchell Herman, Sharon Thomas, Jane Kember, and Mo Budlong, all high-ranking Scientologists, were convicted and sent to prison for five years.

Kendrick Moxon was listed as an "unindicted co-conspirator" for providing false handwriting samples to the FBI.[2] Moxon continued to act as an attorney for the Church of Scientology until at least 2000, representing the Church in the Lisa McPherson case.[66][67] L. Ron Hubbard was named by federal prosecutors as an "unindicted co-conspirator" and went into hiding for the rest of his life.[8][14]

After leaving prison Mary Sue Hubbard was no longer involved with the Church and passed away from breast cancer in 2002, unacknowledged by the Church.[68]

Effect of the scandal

The Church has been notably reluctant to discuss the operation's details; typical statements by members and operatives are often vague comments saying that the Guardian's Office (GO) had been "infiltrated" and "set up" to fail in its mission to protect the Church, that those involved were "purged" from the Church, without detailing what actually happened (although it has been suggested many of those involved and "purged" remained in important positions of power within the church).[69] Church spokespersons on the Internet and elsewhere have been known to claim that the operatives "had done nothing more serious than steal photocopier paper."[70]

Operation Snow White extended to Canada and resulted in legal proceedings against the Church.

References

1. Labaton, Stephen (1993-10-14). "Scientologists Granted Tax Exemption by the U.S.". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... wanted=all. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
2. Ortega, Tony (1999-12-23). "Double Crossed". Phoenix New Times (New Times Media). http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1999-12- ... e-crossed/. Retrieved 2006-06-12.
3. "Mystery of the Vanished Ruler". TIME. 1983-01-31. http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,951938,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
4. United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia against Mary Sue Hubbard, Henning Heldt, Jane Kember et al.
5. Mary Sue Hubbard et al. Sentencing Memorandum - corrected
6. Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS
7. wikisource:U.S. v. Hubbard 650 F.2d 293 (1981)
8. Urban, Hugh B. (June 2006). "Fair Game: Secrecy, Security and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America". Journal of the American Academy of Religion (Oxford University Press) 74 (2): 356-389.
9. Miller, Russell (1987). Bare-Faced Messiah. Henry Holt & Co. p. 170. ISBN 0-8050-0654-0A.
10. 1977 Grand Jury Criminal Indictment. Criminal Case No. 78-00401. Viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/77Granjurypart1
11. 1977 Grand Jury Criminal Indictment. Criminal Case No. 78-00401. Viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/77Granjurypart1.htm Page 6.
12. GO Order 732 WW. 4-20-1973. http://www.freezone.org/timetrack/1973.htm
13. Marshall, John (1980-01-24). "Hubbard still gave orders, records show". The Globe and Mail.
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15. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 21.
16. “Federal Agents Raid Scientology Church; Offices in Two Cities Are Searched for Allegedly Stolen IRS Files, Federal Agents Raid Offices of Scientology Church.” New York Times. July 8th 1977.
17. “Dianetic Sect Said to Spy on AMA; Criticized Over Dianetics.” New York Times. November 2nd, 1979.
18. “More Break-Ins Revealed In Scientology Spy Case.” The Washington Post. October 26th, 1979.
19. Sentencing Memorandum in Criminal No. 78-401(2)&(3): UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. JANE KEMBER; MORRIS BUDLONG a/k/a MO BUDLONG
20. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al.http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt page 1-7
21. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 17-19
22. 1977 Grand Jury Criminal Indictment. Criminal Case No. 78-00401. Viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/77Granjurypart1.htm Page 4
23. “Documents Made Public in Case of Infiltration by Scientologists; Documents Give First Details 8 Plead to Conspiracy.” New York Times October 26th 1979.
24. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 24-25
25. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 38-39
26. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 46
27. 1977 Grand Jury Criminal Indictment. Criminal Case No. 78-00401. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/77Granjurypart1.htm Page 7
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33. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 101-110
34. 1977 Grand Jury Criminal Indictment. Criminal Case No. 78-00401. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/77Granjurypart1.htm Page 9
35. 1977 Grand Jury Criminal Indictment. Criminal Case No. 78-00401. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/77Granjurypart1.htm Page 10
36. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 134-138
37. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 156-177
38. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 156-177
39. 1977 Grand Jury Criminal Indictment. Criminal Case No. 78-00401. Viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/77Granjurypart1.htm
40. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 190
41. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 196-206
42. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 230-232
43. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 246-247
44. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 246-247
45. Stipulation of Evidence. Criminal No. 78-401. US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al. viewable http://www.lermanet.com/reference/stipu ... SvsMSH.txt Page 268-274
46. "Scientology: Parry and Thrust". Time Magazine. 1977-07-25. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 30,00.html. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
47. Charles L. Stafford; Bette Orsini (1980-01-09). "Scientology: An in-depth profile of a new force in Clearwater" (PDF, 905K). St. Petersburg Times. http://www.antisectes.net/sp-times-scie ... -price.pdf. Original (18M)
48. Beresford, David (1980-02-09). "Sect framed journalist over "bomb threats"". The Guardian.
49. Beresford, David (1980-02-07). "Snow White's dirty tricks". The Guardian.
50. “Stolen Documents Reported Found in FBI Raids on Scientologists; Infiltration of Agencies $750 Million Suit” New York Times. July 10th 1977.
51. “Scientology Search Troubles Judge.” Washington Post. July 23rd, 1977.
52. “Church of Scientology to Get Documents Back.” New York Times. July 21st 1977.
53. “FBI Raids on Church are Ruled Improper; Judge Calls Warrants Too Broad to Justify Seizure of Papers.” July 28th 1977.
54. “FBI is Upheld on Search Warrant for Church Offices.” New York Times. December 2nd, 1977.
55. “Court Refuses to Act in Church of Scientology Appeal; IRS Agents’ Liability Other Rulings Stand.” New York Times March 21st, 1978.
56. “Ex-Agent Alleges Fraud in FBI; Says Many Informers are Bogus.” New York Times January 6th, 1979.
57. “Scientology Case Shifted to Coast; 11 Officials Indicted.” New York Times June 30th, 1979.
58. “Church of Scientology Announces it is Investigating Government.” Washington Post. May 2nd, 1978.
59. “Germ Warfare Report.” The Washington Post. October 29th, 1979.
60. “Judge Backs Guilty Ple argain by Scientology Church Leaders; Assurances Asked.” New York Times October 9th 1979.
61. “5 Scientologists Get Jail Terms in Plot on Files; Leaders Fined $10,000 in Data Theft Conspiracy ’What is the Example?” New York Times December 7th, 1979.
62. “Four More Scientologists Sentenced.” The Washington Post. December 8th, 1979.
63. “Convictions of 9 Scientologists in Plotting Thefts Are Upheld.” The Washington Post. October 3rd, 1981.
64. “Two Scientologists Are Convicted Of Aiding in U.S. Office Break-ins.” The Washington Post. November 27th, 1980.
65. “2 Scientologists Sentenced to Prison.” The Washington Post. December 20th, 1980.
66. Tobin, Thomas C. (March 9, 2000). "Scientologists decry toll of criminal case". St. Petersburg Times. http://www.sptimes.com/News/030900/Tamp ... cry_.shtml. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
67. Morgan, Lucy (January 28. 1998). "Hardball: When Scientology goes to court, it likes to play rough -- very rough.". St. Petersburg Times. http://www.sptimes.com/News/32899/Tampa ... dball.html. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
68. SSN: 456-48-5525 http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
69. The President answers your questions: What is the Guardian’s Office and does it still exist?
70. Ortega, Tony (Sept. 9, 2001). "Sympathy for the Devil". New Times Los Angeles.

Further reading

Jon Atack (1990) A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed. Lyle Stuart/Carol Publishing Group ISBN 0-8184-0499-X pages 226-241. Online at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/ , retrieved 2008-03-19

Oscar-Winner Paul Haggis Publicly Resigns From Church of Scientology Over Gay Rights
by Foster Kamer
10/25/09



When it rains, it pours on the Church of Scientology. First, spokescreature Tommy Davis publicly flamed out on his prime time interview. Now, Oscar-winning Crash director Paul Haggis' public resignation from Scientology has leaked. And it's incredibly damning to them.

The entire letter to—of all people—creepy Church spokescreature Tommy Davis is below, but here are the highlights: Haggis has been asking the church to resign their support of Proposition 8. He registered his distaste for the church's stances on homosexuality via phone calls and letters. Davis told Haggis that "heads would roll" over this about ten months ago. Davis apparently drew up a press release he showed to Haggis, which eventually got canned. Haggis views the church's actions as "cowardly," and thus, after thirty-five years of membership, is resigning.

Furthermore, Haggis saw Davis' interview on CNN, when Davis denied the existence of a "disconnection" policy in which the church orders members to cut non-members out of their lives, as they pose some kind of negative threat towards the work of the church in members' lives.

It's a policy that's been well documented in the press, but especially by the reporting done by the St. Petersburg Times, who've chronicled many members who were once forced to "disconnect" people from their lives. Then comes another bomb: Haggis' wife cut off contact with her parents when they defected from the church. And then another: Haggis cites the aforementioned reporting by the St. Petersburg Times, which including some of Scientology's most high-profile defectors in its history, as accurate and astonishing, considering the level of the defectors. "Say what you will about them now," writes Haggis, "[but] these were staunch defenders of the church, including Mike Rinder, the church's official spokesman for 20 years!" Scientology has claimed that their high-profile defectors hold personal grudges against them for demotions and other bureaucratic failings.

Haggis' final bomb, which is going to ring true to many, many Scientologists on every level, is about that same St. Petersburg Times report, in which the Church dredged up old documents and audits on their members to expose salacious, damning details about their personal lives to paint their defection as a cover for their personal indiscretions. Haggis found this, apparently, to be the first in a series of straws that broke a 35 year-old camel's back.

The bottom line is this: this is bad, bad news for the Church. Besides the fact that so many of the church's most high-profile members have long been subject to gossipy speculation of being gay—to name a few: Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Will Smith—the Church is now going to have to (A) take a stance on homosexuality, (B) come out against Haggis, one of the most revered, successful writer-directors of the last decade, or (C) stay quiet and look even sketchier than they already did after Tommy Davis blew up on national television earlier this weekend.

And it also doesn't help them that Church defector Marty Rathburn has apparently confirmed the letter's legitimacy as definitely coming from Haggis.

So: this ought to be interesting to watch play out, no?

Tommy,

As you know, for ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego. Their public sponsorship of Proposition 8, a hate-filled legislation that succeeded in taking away the civil rights of gay and lesbian citizens of California – rights that were granted them by the Supreme Court of our state – shames us.

I called and wrote and implored you, as the official spokesman of the church, to condemn their actions. I told you I could not, in good conscience, be a member of an organization where gay-bashing was tolerated.

In that first conversation, back at the end of October of last year, you told me you were horrified, that you would get to the bottom of it and “heads would roll.” You promised action. Ten months passed. No action was forthcoming. The best you offered was a weak and carefully worded press release, which praised the church’s human rights record and took no responsibility. Even that, you decided not to publish.

The church’s refusal to denounce the actions of these bigots, hypocrites and homophobes is cowardly. I can think of no other word. Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.

I joined the Church of Scientology thirty-five years ago. During my twenties and early thirties I studied and received a great deal of counseling. While I have not been an active member for many years, I found much of what I learned to be very helpful, and I still apply it in my daily life. I have never pretended to be the best Scientologist, but I openly and vigorously defended the church whenever it was criticized, as I railed against the kind of intolerance that I believed was directed against it. I had my disagreements, but I dealt with them internally. I saw the organization – with all its warts, growing pains and problems – as an underdog. And I have always had a thing for underdogs.

But I reached a point several weeks ago where I no longer knew what to think. You had allowed our name to be allied with the worst elements of the Christian Right. In order to contain a potential “PR flap” you allowed our sponsorship of Proposition 8 to stand. Despite all the church’s words about promoting freedom and human rights, its name is now in the public record alongside those who promote bigotry and intolerance, homophobia and fear.

The fact that the Mormon Church drew all the fire, that no one noticed, doesn’t matter. I noticed. And I felt sick. I wondered how the church could, in good conscience, through the action of a few and then the inaction of its leadership, support a bill that strips a group of its civil rights.

This was my state of mind when I was online doing research and chanced upon an interview clip with you on CNN. The interview lasted maybe ten minutes – it was just you and the newscaster. And in it I saw you deny the church’s policy of disconnection. You said straight-out there was no such policy, that it did not exist.

I was shocked. We all know this policy exists. I didn’t have to search for verification – I didn’t have to look any further than my own home.

You might recall that my wife was ordered to disconnect from her parents because of something absolutely trivial they supposedly did twenty-five years ago when they resigned from the church. This is a lovely retired couple, never said a negative word about Scientology to me or anyone else I know – hardly raving maniacs or enemies of the church. In fact it was they who introduced my wife to Scientology.

Although it caused her terrible personal pain, my wife broke off all contact with them. I refused to do so. I’ve never been good at following orders, especially when I find them morally reprehensible.

For a year and a half, despite her protestations, my wife did not speak to her parents and they had limited access to their grandchild. It was a terrible time.

That’s not ancient history, Tommy. It was a year ago.

And you could laugh at the question as if it was a joke? You could publicly state that it doesn’t exist?

"A 'potential trouble source' is anyone outside Scientology who is opposed to the Cult or anyone inside it who has been declared a suppressive person. A Scientologist who is connected with a potential trouble source -- spouse, fiancé, relative, friend or business associate -- is ordered to disconnect from that person and, if that is not done, the Scientologist will himself or herself be declared a suppressive person."

-- Mr. Justice Latey Judgment, Royal Courts of Justice

To see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: what else are you lying about?

And that is when I read the recent articles in the St. Petersburg Times. They left me dumbstruck and horrified.

These were not the claims made by “outsiders” looking to dig up dirt against us. These accusations were made by top international executives who had devoted most of their lives to the church. Say what you will about them now, these were staunch defenders of the church, including Mike Rinder, the church’s official spokesman for 20 years!

Tommy, if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil rights violations. It is still hard for me to believe. But given how many former top-level executives have said these things are true, it is hard to believe it is all lies.

And when I pictured you assuring me that it is all lies, that this is nothing but an unfounded and vicious attack by a group of disgruntled employees, I am afraid that I saw the same face that looked in the camera and denied the policy of disconnection. I heard the same voice that professed outrage at our support of Proposition 8, who promised to correct it, and did nothing.

I carefully read all of your rebuttals, I watched every video where you presented the church’s position, I listened to all your arguments – ever word. I wish I could tell you that they rang true. But they didn’t.

I was left feeling outraged, and frankly, more than a little stupid.

And though it may seem small by comparison, I was truly disturbed to see you provide private details from confessionals to the press in an attempt to embarrass and discredit the executives who spoke out. A priest would go to jail before revealing secrets from the confessional, no matter what the cost to himself or his church. That’s the kind of integrity I thought we had, but obviously the standard in this church is far lower – the public relations representative can reveal secrets to the press if the management feels justified. You even felt free to publish secrets from the confessional in Freedom Magazine – you just stopped short of labeling them as such, probably because you knew Scientologists would be horrified, knowing you so easily broke a sacred vow of trust with your parishioners.

How dare you use private information in order to label someone an “adulteress?” You took Amy Scobee’s most intimate admissions about her sexual life and passed them onto the press and then smeared them all over the pages your newsletter! I do not know the woman, but no matter what she said or did, this is the woman who joined the Sea Org at 16! She ran the entire celebrity center network, and was a loyal senior executive of the church for what, 20 years? You want to rebut her accusations, do it, and do it in the strongest terms possible – but that kind of character assassination is unconscionable.

"The practice of reviewing confidential auditing files and extracting private and intimate details of an individual's life is a common Scientology practice. The data gleaned from an unsuspecting individual's files are transmitted to California headquarters for extortion and blackmail. This practice occurs regularly."

-- Affidavit of Carole Garrity, City of Clearwater Commission Hearings Re: The Church of Scientology

So, I am now painfully aware that you might see this an attack and just as easily use things I have confessed over the years to smear my name. Well, luckily I have never held myself up to be anyone’s role model.

The great majority of Scientologists I know are good people who are genuinely interested in improving conditions on this planet and helping others. I have to believe that if they knew what I now know, they too would be horrified. But I know how easy it was for me to defend our organization and dismiss our critics, without ever truly looking at what was being said; I did it for thirty-five years. And so, after writing this letter, I am fully aware that some of my friends may choose to no longer associate with me, or in some cases work with me. I will always take their calls, as I always took yours. However, I have finally come to the conclusion that I can no longer be a part of this group. Frankly, I had to look no further than your refusal to denounce the church’s anti-gay stance, and the indefensible actions, and inactions, of those who condone this behavior within the organization. I am only ashamed that I waited this many months to act. I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology.

Sincerely,

Paul Haggis

Ps. I’ve attached our email correspondence. At some point it became evident that you did not value my concerns about the church’s tacit support of an amendment that violated the civil rights of so many of our citizens. Perhaps if you had done a little more research on me, the church’s senior management wouldn’t have dismissed those concerns quite so cavalierly. While I am no great believer in resumes and awards, this is what you would have discovered:

* Founder, Artists For Peace and Justice,
- sponsoring schools, an orphanage and a children’s hospital in the slums of Haiti
* Co-Founder, BrandAid Foundation and BrandAid Project
- marketing the work of artisans from the poorest countries in the world,
* Board Member, Office of The Americas
- supporting peace and justice initiatives around the world
* Board Member, Center For The Advancement of Non-Violence
* Member and active supporter, Amnesty International
* Member, President’s Council, Defenders of Wildlife
* Member and fundraiser, Environment California and CalPirg
* Member and Award Recipient, American Civil Liberties Union
* Member and supporter, Death Penalty Focus
* Member and supporter, Equality For All
* Fundraiser, NPH (Our Little Brothers) – for the children of the slums of Haiti
* Member, Citizens Commission on Human Rights
* Patron with Honors, IAS
And formerly:
* Trustee, Religious Freedom Trust
* Board Member and fundraiser, Hollywood Education and Literacy Project
* Board Member and fundraiser, For The Arts, For Every Child
– supporting art and music in public schools
* Board Member and fundraiser, The Christic Institute
- supporting Human Rights in Central America
* Founding Board Member, Earth Communication Office
* Working Board Member, Environmental Media Association
* Fundraiser, El Rescate – Human Rights for El Salvador
* Fundraiser, PAVA – Aid and Human Rights in Guatemala

Awards for outspoken support of Civil and Human Rights:

* Valentine Davies Award – Writers Guild of America
“for bringing honor and dignity to writers everywhere”
*Bill of Rights Award – American Civil Liberties Union
*Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award – Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
*Peace & Justice Award – Office of the Americas, presented by Daniel Ellsberg
*Signis Award, Venezia, World Catholic Association
*ALMA Award – National Council of Latino Civil Rights
*Ethel Levitt Award for Humanitarian Service – Levitt & Quinn
*Prism Award – Entertainment Industries Council
*Humanitas Prize (2) – Humanitas
*Legacy Award, for Artistic and Humanitarian Achievement
*Environmental Media Award – EMA
*EMA Green Seal Award – EMA
*Image Award – NAACP
*Creative Integrity Award – Multicultural Motion Picture Association
*EDGE Awards (2) – Entertainment Industries Council
*Artistic Freedom Award – City of West Hollywood
*Catholics in Media Award – Catholics in Media Associates

And many dozens of fundraisers and salons at our home on behalf of Human and Civil Rights, the Environment, the Peace Movement, Education, Justice and Equality.

Part 1 of 2

Operating Thetan Materials
by Church of Scientology

Table of Contents:

• OT I Description
• OT II Course summary. (by Karin Spaink; ruled legal by a Dutch court)
• OT III Course summary (by Karin Spaink; ruled legal by a Dutch court)
• OT IV Rundown
• OT V
• OT VI
• OT VII Rundown
• OT VIII Part 1: Why Thetans Mock Up
• OT VIII Part 2: OT VIII Series I Confidential Student Briefing

OT I Description
(From Steven A. Fishman Declaration)

OT I
L. Ron Hubbard

There have been three different OT. Its put out by Hubbard. Here they all are.

Earliest OT T

1. On an E-Meter, find the last 3,000 years of lifetimes. Plot out the entire 3,000 year chart as follows:

(a) Find an overt lifetime. Get the identity and the approximate dates of birth and death. Find the overt and pull all the justifications to it.

(b) Find the following motivator lifetime, and follow procedure as above. (Identity and dates.)

(c) Find the postulate from each lifetime and the basic postulate in each group of lifetimes.

(d) Continue the first three steps until the entire 3,000 years is charted and the individuals kharma, i.e. (over motivator sequence) becomes apparent.

(e) In some cases additional benefit could be obtained by locating the basic misunderstood which proceeded the basic overt on this chain.

Second OT I

(a) Route I ... The entire 15 steps as listed in "Creation of Human Ability".

(b) With an E-Meter, scan out entire present lifetime to a floating needle.

(c) Mock-up heat until body feels warm.

(d) Postulating mass: With the use of the E-Meter and the command "I have Mass", create a reactive mind. Put sufficient significance on to it to cause the T.A to rise. Then spot it until the T.A. falls and the mass erases. Run to an FIN. Then mock it up again and erase it each time to a floating needle. This procedure is repeated until the pre-OT is certain he can create and dissipate a reactive mind.

Third OT I

The current OT I is done outdoors and consists solely of one command run until cognition.

"Spot a person"

concludes OT I

OT II Course, summary and comments

In OT 2,

OT COURSE - SECTION TWO - INSTRUCTIONS

Hubbard gives instructions for the 'whole track tables', that is: the timeline of trillions of years of memory Scientologists claim to have. There are supposedly ten of them. In the following I will try to summarize it, because my lawyer, after having finally having seen evidence handed over to him on behalf of RTC, has advised me that including the full text is at this time against my interests. So be it. I therefore will give you this summary, taken from Michael Robinson's article Oparating Thetan Summary and Analysis. Your comments are kindly invited. Please correct any errors and tell me about any information that I may have missed.

According to Hubbard, there are ten of these 'whole track' tables or time lines. Each time line contains only one GPM or 'Goals Problems Mass' (according to Martin Hunt's dictionary: "a supposed mass which develops when one is thwarted from reaching a Goal by a Problem or stop.") Each set should be run separately:

he GPM found in each set are as follows: ELECTRICAL, TOCKY, BIG BEING, HOUSE, PSYCHO, BANKY, FORERUNNER, BASIC-BASIC, BASIC, THE COMMAND, LOWER LP, LP, and BODY GPM. In addition to these GPM, there are a number of Implant Incidents which have no line plot, as follows: THE ARROW, DOUBLE ROD, WOMAN, WHITE BLACK SPHERE, HOT COLD, LAUGHTER CALM, and DANCE MOB.

The GPM in these "whole track tables" are supposedly the residual mass of incidents that happened untold numbers of lifetimes ago to the individual's immortal "thetan". Approximate dates for each of the incidents are provided, although some, such as "about trillions 214th Power years ago" for the BASIC BASIC GPM, challenge credulity regardless.

The version of Level Two reproduced in the Fishman Declaration is incomplete. A summary of the available GPM follows:

The GPM in these "whole track tables" are supposedly the residual mass of incidents that happened untold numbers of lifetimes ago to the individual's immortal "thetan". Approximate dates for each of the incidents are provided, although some, such as "about trillions 214th Power years ago" for the BASIC BASIC GPM, challenge credulity regardless.
The version of Level Two reproduced in the Fishman Declaration is incomplete. A summary of the available GPM follows:

1. ELECTRICAL

The purpose of the ELECTRICAL GPM was to "CONVINCE a thetan he should think of himself as an electrical being". Thus, the end word of the permutation is not a word, but a shock. The permutation for the ELECTRICAL GPM is as follows:

Create / (shock)
Destroy / no (shock)
Love / --
Hate / --
Be / --
Disown / --
Use / --
Condemn / --
Seize / --
Escape / --

2. TOCKY

In the TOCKY GPM, there is a swing of "Sun" from left to right which gives a read after each item. The permutation for the TOCKY GPM is as follows:

Create / Sun Swing
Abide / no Sun Swing
Enjoy / --
Welcome / --
Share / --
Keep / --
Hold / --
Exploit / --
Deplore / --
Skip / --
Continue / --
Forget / --

Also included are the following two cryptic commands:

"That's what you get for making this Universe."
"Get Out --"

No explanation is given for what is "that", who exactly is "you", which universe is "this Universe", nor exactly "out" of what or where one is to get. Either it is expected that all these ambiguities will be clarified at the time one runs this GPM, or that the ambiguities are irrelevant, and it is sufficient simply to run the GPM without this information.

3. BIG BEING

The BIG BEING GPM is associated with the image of an explosion and the subsequent appearance of a BIG BEING (thus the name) in the sky.

The permutation for the BIG BEING GPM is as follows:

You / Must / Survive
He / Mustn't / --
They / Should / --
We / Shouldn't / --
All / Can / --
Can't / -- / --

This is followed by another explosion.

4. THE HOUSE

The only identification of this GPM is the possible appearance of a house or internal room.

5. THE ARROW

In the space of 1/10th of a second, an image appears of two back-to-back targets, the front white, and the back black, with an arrow centered on each of the targets (the two arrows thus aimed at each other).

6. WOMAN

The figure of a woman appears for a few hours. Nothing else.

7. WHITE BLACK SPHERE

An image of a sphere and a pole, black in front, white in back.

8. HOT COLD

For 1 1/8 seconds an image appears of a split pole, cold in front, hot in back.

9. LAUGHTER CALM

For 7 1/8ths of a second, in a cave, screams of very wild laughter come from the rear (then front) of a split pole, while calm ("a frozen numbness") comes from the front (then rear), giving a sensation of total disagreement.

"The trick is to conceive of both at the same time."

10. DANCE MOB

In the incident proper, one is stuck on a pole and trying to get off it. After this, a chanting mob dances around. The Pre-OT is supposed to get the phrases the mob chants while running this incident.

However, the duration is only 7/8ths of a second, so it is not clear how much of the chanting the Pre-OT will be able to "get".

11. DOUBLE ROD

A long shiny black rod moves from left to right, develops a split in the middle, becoming a white rod revolving forward and a black rod revolving backward. Both rods then disappear forward and up.

According to L. Ron Hubbard:

"There is a tremendous feeling of EXCITEMENT attached to this incident. It has a sort of feeling attached to it as if it was being squashed between the two revolving rods."

12. BASIC BASIC

This is actually a series of 5 GPM's consisting of explosions inside ones head, "where the Thetan is."

13. THE LOWER BANK

Contained in the lower bank are 48 pairs (of which 8 are found in the Fishman Declaration). All 48 affirmative items are first run, then the negative items, than each pair together. The pair schematic is as follows:

Affirmative: To build a _______ingness machine.
Negative: Not to _______ yourself.

The eight listed items are: postulate, think, ideanize (ideafyingness), reason, solve, order, space, and time.

OT III Course, summary and comments

In OT 3,

OPERATING THETAN
Section Three

Hubbard explains his cosmology and the ins & outs of 'body thetans'. I will try to summarize it, because my lawyer, after having finally having seen evidence handed over to him on behalf of RTC, has advised me that including the full text is at this time against my interests. So be it. I therefore will give you this summary, interspersed with comments. Your comments are kindly invited. Please correct any errors and tell me about any information that I may have missed. Page numbers refer to the version of OT 3 as given in the Fishman Affidavit.

The following portion of OT 3 is quoted in full in Margery Wakefield's book The Road to Xenu, chapter 13, and I believe all of it has been quoted in other books and articles as well. It provides a nice context for my summary and comments:

The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet, 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H-Bomb on the principal volcanos (Incident II) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged".

His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.

When through with his crime loyal officers (to the people) captured him after six years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confederation) has since been a desert. The length and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been dispensed with by my tech development.

One can freewheel through the implant and die unless it is approached as precisely outlined. The "freewheel" (auto-running on and on) lasts too long, denies sleep etc and one dies. So be careful to do only Incidents I and II as given and not plow around and fail to complete one thetan at a time.

In December 1967 I knew someone had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out, but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now, but only that given here is needful.

One's body is a mass of individual thetans stuck to oneself or to the body.

One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I. It is a long job, requiring care, patience and good auditing. You are running beings. They respond like any preclear. Some large, some small.

Thetans believed they were one. This is the primary error. Good luck.

(p. 76-77) Well, lots of things to dissect and discuss here, and perhaps even more things that need some elucidation before we can even begin to understand what Hubbard says in this rather strange and condensed tidbit.

But before we start, I believe it may be useful to first explain some more about Scientology's basic beliefs; otherwise it's difficult to make head or tails of the quote.

Jon Atack, who once was a member of Scientology and who has in fact completed OT 3 before he became a very effective critic of the cult, has provided us with a very useful analysis, OT 3 rewritten for beginners. Here's what Jon says:

Scientologists believe that they have reincarnated from before the beginning of time. They believe that many interplanetary civilizations have existed. Hubbard restyled the spirit the "thetan". Before the beginning of time, thetans existed, separate from one another (thetans were not created; they have existed for all time and indeed precede the creation of time). With the creation of energy and matter, thetans have gradually become trapped. The principal method of entrapment is through "implanting", where the thetan is hypnotised and given positive suggestions which limit its powers. This process, according to Hubbard, has been going on in this universe for four quadrillion years (4,000,000,000,000,000, rather than the mere 8-20,000,000 held by astrophysicists). However, this is just one universe in a series of several.

Scientology seeks to return the thetan's power by stripping away implants and using drills to heighten extrasensory perception and ability. The goal of these procedures is an "operating thetan" -- a being who can act independently of his physical body, and can cause physical events to occur through sheer force of will. The "operating thetan" would be capable of dismissing illness and psychological disorder in others at will.

Now that we know that, let's go through it again. Here's how the story start:

The head of the Galactic Federation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet, 178 billion on average) by mass implanting. He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H-Bomb on the principal volcanos (Incident II) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged".

(p. 77) Hubbard believes in various universes, an idea that has been explored in sci-fi under the name of 'parallel universes'. Hubbard postulates that 95 million years ago, in our particular universe, a Galactic Federation was founded. There are, according to him, seventy-six planets that have gained membership to it. Sure bigger than the United Nations, and very space-opera indeed.

According to Hubbard, earth was once part of this Federation. It suffered from severe overpopulation; an average 178 billion people per planet is indeed rather crowded. The head of the Federation, whose name is later on to be revealed as 'Xenu', although some people think it's 'Xemu' (Hubbard's handwriting is spidery, and thus easy to misread) took draconian measures to reduce the number of inhabitants. Xenu transported the lot of them to earth, then referred to as 'Teegeeack'. After transportation, Xenu used hydrogen bombs on various volcanos and thereby wiped out all these people. Very effective indeed. He then proceeded to carry off their souls/spirits or 'thetans' and 'implanted' those. This episode -- the transport, the bombing, the implanting -- was labelled 'Incident II' by Hubbard.

In the other universes, other things happened. All thetans on this planet and on twenty-one nearby stars have Incident II and 'R6' in common. Hubbard refers to these twenty-two planets as 'the Confederation'.

It might be worth mentioning here that the Sea Org's insigna carries twenty-two stars. The number of stars is surely not chosen haphazardly: the insigna is obviously intended to be a symbol of this confederation that had to 'suffer' Incident II.

The other planets within the Galactic Federation -- there were seventy-six of them, Hubbard says -- supposedly have their own version of Incident II. And other universes -- remember, Hubbard believed in parallel universes -- would probably have other versions of Incident II as well. But what all universes have in common, according to Hubbard, is Incident I. He describes it in just a few lines and obviously didn't give the matter much thought, or perhaps he didn't dare 'to take the plunge' into this one. Hubbard doesn't say how much time this incident took, nor does he locate it. He's also notably silent upon what happened inbetween Incident I and II, if I may say so.

Incident I
Occurs at start of track (4 quadrillion years ago).
LOUD SNAP
WAVES OF LIGHT
CHARIOT COMES OUT, TURNS RIGHT AND LEFT
CHERUB COMES OUT
BLOWS HORN, COMES CLOSE
SHATTERING SERIES OF SNAPS
CHERUB FADES BACK (RETREATS)
BLACKNESS DUMPED ON THETAN

(p. 99-100) Judging by this, I don't think Hubbard supported either the Bing Bang or the Expanding Universe theory in his private cosmology, although both make much more sense than his. Let's label this one the Snap Story. We have here an indecisive cherub, who doesn't know whether to turn left or right and who comes out twice without ever retreating; and we have horns. A bit angelic for somebody who, as we shall see later, believed that Christ was an implant.

Let's turn to Incident II, which allegedly happened 75 million years ago and occurred on earth:

Incident II is over 36 days long. Capture on other planets was weeks or months before the implant. Those on Teegeeack (Earth) were just blown up except for Loyal officers who were (shortly before the explosion on Earth) rounded up.

(p. 79) So Xenu captured everybody who did not live on earth, held them imprisoned for a few weeks or sometimes even months, and then transported them to earth and mixed them with the rest, that is, the people who did live there. He then proceeded to nuke the lot. Just a few loyal officers escaped this major hydrogen bombing. Judging from this excerpt, it would seem that Hubbard conjures that loyal officers were only to be found on earth. That's exobiotist, I think... I also wonder where they went?

Incident II is described in greater detail. Here's the 'sequence':

H-BOMB DROPPED ON VOLCANO
EXPLOSION
TERRIFIC WINDS
THETAN CARRIED OVER PEAK
ELECTRONIC RIBBON CAME UP
HE STUCK TO IT
IT WAS THEN PULLED DOWN AND HE WAS (AS PART OF A GROUP)
IMPLANTED WITH R6
PICTURE OF PILOT SAYING HE IS MOCKING IT UP

(p. 99) Every bit as cryptic, but at least he elaborates on it throughout OT 3. The bit about the thetan, the soul or spirit of a nuked-out guy, getting stuck to an electric ribbon surely reflects Margery Wakefield's comparison of them to insects: upon hearing for the first time about body thetans, she said they sounded like flees. Based on this description, I'd vote for flies.

Another nicety is the pilot mentioned in the last part of the sequence. Sounds like the ending of a bad horror movie: 'Twas all a dream ... But although 'mocking something up' usually means 'imagining it', in Scieno-lingo it means more than a mental picture; it is supposedly a self-created object; it is a thing which one can be. Operating Thetans are, again, supposedly able to 'mock up' a picture that has dimensions and location in space and time.

After the bombing, the thetans were 'implanted'. Hubbard describes the 'sequence' of the 'implant' thus:

(1) capture (being shot)
(2) freezing
(3) transport to Teegeeack (sometimes via a relay point)
(4) being placed near a volcano
(5) beginning implant up to "the pilot"
(6) various picture sequences
(7) the 7s and C.C. and OT II materials
(8) 36 days of picture implants which give a vast array of materials and three explanations for the bombing
(9) transport to Hawaii or Las Palmas for packaging up into clusters.

The pictures contain God, the Devil, angels, space opera, theaters, helicopters, a constant spinning, a spinning dancer, trains and various scenes very like modern England. You name it, it's in this implant we call in its entirely "R6".

(p. 80). Jon Atack gives some more details than I've been able to find in the Fishman version of OT 3. For instance, he explains how the thetans were transported, according to Hubbard:

The people were killed and the thetans (or spirits) gathered, frozen in a mixture of glycol and alcohol, and brought to Earth where they were placed near volcanoes which were exploded with hydrogen bombs. The thetans were gathered on "electronic ribbons," packaged together as clusters and given 36 days of implanting, to render them servile and incapable of decision.

So what happens is that they're caught, transported, nuked, get implanted up to a certain point (the pilot saying it was all mocked up) and then get fed pictures. They're also given the '7s' (a set of supposed implants, and for the life of me, I don't know which; I don't know if Hubbard does, either. He does not further describe it in OT 3). 'C.C.' is the clearing course, the courses Scientologists have to finish before they are allowed to do the OT's. It strikes me as rather funny that Hubbard says they were fed OT 2 as well: something is coming full circle here. I think it helps Scientologists to relate to these poor imprisoned inoperate thetans; after all, it means they're at the same point in their studies. After they're fed OT 2, it's movie-time again. Thirty six days, no less! Then they're transported again and delivered at the volcanos.

What strikes me as odd is that in the description of Incident II itself, the thetans get to be implanted before they encounter this pilot who says it's all mocked up; but during this implant, they are "implanted up to 'the pilot.'" Mirrors in mirrors here ... The gist of the implanting, as per Hubbard, are pictures of theaters, trains, helicopters, and modern British life. Pictures of God and the devil are part of it, Hubbard says here. This of course is a statement highly objectionable to those who adhere to Christianity. Elsewhere, Hubbard happens to mention that Christ was part of the implant too.

'R6' is short for the 'reactive mind', i.e. the whole of the implant during OT 3. The 'reactive mind' is also being referred to as 'bank' (short for memory bank).

Hubbard repeatedly states that this is all 'fact.' Fact, not fiction. But he obviously chose to ignore a few harder facts, and his story is in flagrant contradiction with, for instance, geology. In Jon Atack's words:

OT 3 is of course in substantial disagreement with conventional geology. Geologists hold that almost all of the volcanoes listed by Hubbard and both Hawaii and Los Palmas came into being far more recently than 75 million years ago. On a simple point of logic, it seems strange that none of these volcanoes was damaged by the explosion of the hydrogen bombs.

One of these scientific refutations may be found on my homepage: Peter Fordes Scientific Scrutiny of OT 3. Hubbard's 'facts' flunk on astrophysics: our universe is much younger that he believes it to be. So be well advised and take Hubbard's story as fiction rather than fact.

There's another confusing paragraph:

His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants.

(p. 76) Ahhh, here we have the first occurrence of the name of the Beast, sometimes also referred to as 'the Dark Prince': Xenu. The name 'Xenu' is shunned by most Scientologists: they will not speak it, and try to prevent others from reading it. (There's this one guy on a.r.s. who carefully edits 'Xenu' out of the name of Steven Fishman's account any time he replies to Fishman: he changes it into zenu@ix.netcom.com instead. Rather funny, in fact.) Or Scientologists will pretend they've never heard of Xenu, in adherence with their belief that OT 3 is very secret and must not be revealed to or be discussed with anybody whatsoever.

So Xenu availed himself of renegades to carry out his devilish plot. But renegades of what? Xenu was the leader of the Galactic Federation, according to Ron, wasn't he? So if they were renegades, you would hardly expect them to plot with Xenu, but rather against, wouldn't you? It doesn't make sense. Even fiction needs a coherent plot and should not mess up details.

The next sentence deals with the content of the 'implants'. According to Hubbard, implants are 'false memories', a kind of post-hypnotic suggestion. Here he describes them as 'misleading data'. Hubbard explains that Xenu and his renegades used 'circuits' to place this misleading data in the populace. It's a shame he doesn't give more details. He was a sci-fi writer, wasn't he? So surely he should have been able to come up with something. Now I can't help but think of this movie of Johnnie Mnemonic and his memory bank...

When through with his crime loyal officers (to the people) captured him after six years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confederation) has since been a desert. The length and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc) anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been dispensed with by my tech development.

(p. 76) Loyal officers -- that is, loyal to the people, but I think that from Xenu's point of view we would have the real renegades here, considering what's up next -- some officers captured Xenu after his frightful misdeeds. It was not an easy catch: it took six years of battle. These officers then proceeded by caging Xenu in and trapping him in a mountain on one of the Federation's planets. Hubbard believes that Xenu is still there, supposedly alive. According to Hubbard, the place where all this happened has suffered severely and is still bare.

Hubbard turns to the implant now. It is allegedly deadly 'calculated to kill (by pneumonia etc)', but he quickly ensures his readers that he himself has developed the tech to deal with that, and render the implant harmless.

One can freewheel through the implant and die unless it is approached as precisely outlined. The "freewheel" (auto- running on and on) lasts too long, denies sleep etc., and one dies. So be careful to do only Incidents I and II as given and not plow around and fail to complete one thetan at a time.

(p. 76-77) Now it's becoming complicated. Until now, this was just a nice sci-fi story starring evil princes, but now we'll get entangled in Scieno-speak: lots of lingo to come. Hubbard here explains to his followers how to deal with the implants placed in us in Incident I and II. Remember, Scientologists 'run' things. They 'run' a routine, for instance, or a procedure. 'Running' means going over a memory or following an auditing procedure. You can also 'overrun' something, meaning that you take a routine or procedure beyond the end of an auditing process. To put it simply, when you 'overrun' something, you didn't stop in time. I take it that 'auto-running' is meant to denote that a procedure or routine takes off by itself, and just goes 'on and on'. 'Freewheeling' must be akin to running in circles in perpetuum. Hubbard believes that it will kill a person.

But what about this: 'fail to complete one thetan at a time.' I take it that that's a body thetan. But how do you 'take' them? I think I need help on this. Jon?

On OT 3, the individual finds "body thetans" by locating any sensation of pressure or mass in his or her body. This is addressed "telepathically" as a cluster, and taken through the cluster-making incident of 75 million years ago. Once this is done, the individual body thetans should be available to be taken through either the same incident or through incident one. (...) According to OT 3, everyone on Earth is in fact a collection of such clusters (Hubbard says that each person doing OT 3 will find "hundreds" of body thetans -- many victims of this course believe that they find millions).

Thanks, Jon. So one needs to take all one's body thetans through one of these Incidents, one by one. Sounds like a lot of work indeed.

In December 1967 I knew someone had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out, but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now, but only that given here is needful.

(p. 77) Oh-wee! Hubbard dived straight into the implant! The first one to do so in 75 million years! Such a shame that he does not give 'all the data' but holds back on us. Now he's dead and we'll never know all the details of his space soap opera. Oh well. Star Wars is still being televised. At least Hubbard had the grace to explain about these body thetans of his:

One's body is a mass of individual thetans stuck to oneself or to the body.

(p. 77) So we are made up of this 'mass of individual thetans' that are stuck to us. Yuk. And they can form clusters too! "A cluster is a group of body thetans crushed or held together by some mutual bad experience" -- that's what I read somewhere. I bet the mutual bad experience is either Incident I or Incident II.

One has to clean them off by running incident II and Incident I. It is a long job, requiring care, patience and good auditing. You are running beings. They respond like any preclear. Some large, some small.

(p. 77) See? I was right. But 'running beings'? I guess it's following processes not unlike those the pre-clear use when they're 'running an engram', the difference being that they now 'run body thetans'. And the body thetans behave like pre-clears. Hmm, do they have to hand in stats too?

Thetans believed they were one. This is the primary error. Good luck.

(p. 77). 'Primary error' sounds like 'primary sin'. And these Scientologist believe all that? Wow. And gee, thanks for the good wishes. I think that the Scientologist who has just started on OT 3, and has just read all this, could use them. Quite a few of them took a real fright, I've gathered. And what exactly happens to the body thetan when you get rid of it? Does it jump on somebody else? No, they don't, Hubbbard says. It's explained a bit further in the text.

Body Thetans are just Thetans. When you get rid of one he goes off, and possibly squares around, picks up a body or admires daisies. He is in fact a sort of cleared Being. He cannot fail to eventually, if not at once, regain many abilities. Many have been asleep for the last 75,000,000 years. A Body Thetan responds to any process any Thetan responds to.

(p. 78) Many body thetans have been asleep for the last 75 million years'? They sure outdo Sleeping Beauty! And when the Scientologist has rid himself of one of these body thetans, the little thingies may pick up a body of their own. They even like daisies! Where's all the sci-fi gone, I wonder, and the horror?

So what the Scientologist needs to do, is audit all these body thetans, that is, lead them through Incident II, and perhaps I. Then they'll be off. Every body thetan has to be processed individually. I couldn't find a reference as to their numbers. There might be hundreds; could be more, could be less. If you find none, Hubbard says, one needs to go back to some basic courses and perhaps file for a 'Review', that is, a serious talk with one's supervisor, because finding no body thetans is out of the question.

In a chapter called 'The Basic on BT's', Hubbard goes on to explain that body thetans tend to stick together. They form 'clusters' by collision; they keep a picture of this collision, and, in turn, this picture attracts yet other body thetans. (I remember this fairy tale in which a boy with a swan starred; everybody wanted to touch the swan, but once they had, they couldn't get loose. After the first person got stuck, someone tried to pull him loose. He in turn got stuck as well. And the next. And the next. Hubbard's story reminds me of this tale.) Hubbard then goes in a complicated spin, explaining how the collision and the picture of the collision conflate:

Thus we get the concept of a "black theta body". This would be actual BT's stuck to a thetan plus pictures of BT's stuck to a thetan.

(p. 81) The solution to this tangled web of stuck body thetans and pictures of stuck body thetans stuck to thetans, is to try and trace the first incident or 'picture' of such a collision or contact, and work from there.

What one has to do is break up the cluster. Clusters are usually derived from Incident II (one is never sure though; they might date back to Incident I). In the real big clusters that are formed in Incident II, these clusters even have hierarchies within the partaking body thetans:

Incident II sometimes forms gigantic clusters. In such there is a leader, an alternate leader and several (eight to eighteen) more.

(p. 83) There is alas no reference to the function of this leadership and alternate leadership. Perhaps it's just for the heck of it; after al, they're nasty implanted little bastards. It is even quite common to find that there are clusters made up out of clusters:

In doing a cluster one is likely to find it is made up of other earlier clusters.

(p. 90) So how does one break up a cluster? Take 'em through Incident II and then they'll loosen up, so that you can address the individual body thetans. As I said before, a lot of work to do here.

Another complication is that it will sometimes only appear as if a body thetan isn't gone, but he fooled ya. He is gone indeed. He just left a trace of himself, and what you are trying to audit away is not the thingie itself:

Thetans in the body may obsessively copy the pictures of other thetans. Therefore you can find it seems that the thetan who just left is still there because there is a picture left.

(p. 85) While this may be a nasty trick, there's worse that you may encounter:

Some Body Thetans are suppressive. A suppressive is out of valence in R6. He is in valence in Incident I almost always.

(p. 78) Suppressive body thetans! Wouldn't you know. Hubbard sees suppressives everywhere. What do you want to do with them? Send them to Ethics? Expel them from Scientology? Fair game them?

But what is a suppressive body thetan? In Scieno-speak, 'valence' is an adopted personality; 'being out of valence' therefore means behaving as if you're someone else; imposturing, so to say. So when Hubbard says that a body thetan is 'out of valence' in 'R6' -- R6 being the Incident II implant -- I guess what he means is that these particular body thetans pretend to be linked with the bombing, while in fact they're linked with the cherubs and the Snap Story. The little pranksters!

According to Hubbard, when one manages to rid oneself of all body thetans, one will be able to "accomplish full stable exteriorization" with full perception, that is: get out of your body and move at will through the universe. As L. Ron Hubbard puts it:

"OT III is a vital grade. One fronts up to it and does it. When he is really done, the rewards of OT III and IV exceed his wildest dreams."

(p. 93). For me, I think it's not wild at all. Wildly mad, at best.

Copyright for this version: Karin Spaink, February 1996.
Quotes taken from L. Ron Hubbard, OT III, as included in the Fishman Affidavit (US District Court, Central District of California, CV 91-6426 HLH (Tx)
Feel free to distribute this, as long as you don't sue one another or ask money for it.

For completion's sake, and because my grasp of such an ephemeral subject as that of body thetans is quite flimsy (and I intend to keep it that way) I further include an excerpt from a book written by Geoffrey Filbert, Excalibur Revisited that deals with OT 3 as well. Filbert goes on at length about the body thetans and the procedures one should apply on them.

Excalibur Revisited was published in electronic form, and Mr. Filbert has given it to the public domain in the fall of 1994. It is, amongst others, available via America Online and has been since December 1994. The material is in fact copyrighted by Filbert; he received his copyright registration on April 25, 1982. Scientology received their first copyright filings for their OT 3 material on May 12, 1982... So I guess Filbert predates them. These are pages 266 - 268.

OT III

1. Check for any BTs (E-meter, theta perceptics, intention, pressure areas, telepathy is HOW) on and in:

a. Body surface (WHERE)
b. Body inside
c. In thetan's space (Approx. 40' X 60')
d. On thetan

2. Run Incident 2, then Incident 1, until BT(s) have gone and are released. Then, check for additional Incidents 1's and 2's until dry (on the meter).

3. Return to Step 2, to find new ones to run. Use ruds while running if necessary. There is an effort to stop and hurry on Incident 1.

4. When complete, exact date and run both of the incidents on self.

5. If a bog, do Millazo Pack. Write down some 'mutual associations'. Re each one on this list, FIND THE INCIDENT THAT MADE THEM ONE, and run that. Then, run OT III, Incident 2 and 1 after that cluster is broken up. Occasionally, BTs will have an incident that made them one other then Incident 2, thus this action.

INCIDENT 2: Dates approx. 75 million years ago, earth years, location, Earth, named TEEGEEACK at that time (meaning planet of sorrow), involved 33 planets of this sector, each with populations of 80 - 200 BILLION PER PLANET. XENU, the ruler, and 'Renegades' decided to solve overpopulation as follows, but was halted, and XENU placed in a mountain trap after over 5 years of war.

Incident 2 Patter: DETERMINE IF A LOYAL OFFICER, RESIDENT OF EARTH, or FROM ANOTHER PLANET. If the latter two, start at their being picked up and shot and if from another planet, frozen in an ice cube, transported (flying saucer), taken to mountain, a volcano always, H BOMB EXPLOSION, TERRIFIC WINDS, EFFORT TO ORIENT, MAGNETIC STRIP UP FROM CENTER OF VOLCANO OR DOWN FROM AN AIRPLANE, EFFORT TO GET OFF AND FIND REST OF SELF, PROTEST, BEING PULLED ON STRIP, VISUAL DISPLAY OF INSTRUCTION BY A 'GO TO THE PILOT', WHO SAYS 'HE'S MOCKING IT UP'. There are 26 - 29 days of implanting (the CC and OT II, God and Devil material, reasons for this being done, helicopters, etc.) that need not be run. SOME WERE PACKAGED INTO CLUSTERS in the HAWAII and LOS PALMAS ISLANDS (8 to a cluster). If a loyal officer, the sequence is SURPRISE at being shot, placed at the volcano. Use meter to determine and determine volcano. Watch for earlier beginning (pulled in for a tax audit), run only up to the 'HE'S MOCKING IT UP' as BTs can go into 'free fall', spin and get sick from the 29 days implanting, with pneumonia and death the implanted phenomena of free fall in addition to insomnia. Coltus, the Reigning planet, Hubbard a part of the 'rescuing force that put an end to it'. Don't force or push them off, and answer the BTs questions. There were probably not any good or bad guys in this incident, although Hubbard insists the sector to have been a cultural desert since. Very SP BTs can usually be brought around with adept 2WC, Charm, Ruds, but if not use Power Processing on the rare hard core.

Incident 1: Dates 4 QUADRILLION YEARS AGO (which is 15 zeros or 4,000 trillion years ago).

Incident 1 Patter: LOUD SNAP, WAVES OF LIGHT, HORSES DRAWING CHARIOT RIGHT TO LEFT, CHERUB COMES OUT, BLOWS HORN, COMES CLOSE, SHATTERING SERIES OF SNAPS, CHERUB FADES, RETREATS, BLACK MASS IS DUMPED ON THE THETAN.

Volcano List

HAWAII Pacific Ocean
MT HOOD Pacific NW
MT BAYER Pacific NW
MT RAINIER Washington
MT ETNA Mediterranean
MT ST. HELENS Washington
MT EREBUS Antarctica
MT FUJI Japan
MT EVEREST Himalayas - Nepal & Tibet
MT KILIMANJARO Northeastern Africa
LAS PALMAS Canary Islands off NE
Africa MT SHASTA California
MT VESUVIUS Italy
MT KRAKATOA Indonesia
MT PELEE Martinique
MT MCKINLEY Alaska
Volcanoes existed New Zealand
at these locations Philippines
then, but no Mexico
longer South America
North Dakota
Vermont
Scotland
Iceland

Note: These were the most common locations. 600 other volcanoes did and do exist, which I did not list.

You clear up that a BT is a body thetan, The instructions are self explanatory, Basically, the reason they are doing this is to where they won't be confused with hundreds of different thoughts so that they can have some peace and quiet, and so they won't be other-determined. After they have run all these remnants of folks out by telepathic auditing on them, they attain the state of freedom from overwhelm and a return of full self determinism. One cleans off those 4 areas in the order listed. It is generally underrun, it is rarely overrun, What you have been doing all the way up the Bridge is breaking these clusters apart. With Expanded Dianetics, Grades and all the previous auditing, you have been taking these off. About 1/2 of the BTs come off and leave and go live their own lives by doing the lower Bridge right, and the other 1/2 come off here by doing OT III correctly. So, if you don't do the lower Bridge correctly on someone and they do a real good job on OT III, they will get about 1/2 of it done. It is pretty wild material to run and the gains of it are beyond description. It is not a crazy idea at all. The irony of it is that it happened a lot more than once. It is listed as an event that happened 75 million years ago. It probably happened to the preclear dozens of times. So, watch out for your dates.

After that you do not do OT VII, and then put them on OT III again, like the churches do. You do OT IV which is included here. After they have done that they have attained the state of certainty of self as a being and freedom from uncertainty of self.

On OT V they attain the state of freedom from fixated introversion into MEST and gain the ability to refamiliarize as a thetan exterior with the physical universe.

(end excerpt)

OT IV RUNDOWN

(From Steven A. Fishman Declaration)

Non-Solo

OT IV Rundown

Symptoms

Has completed OT III

OT IV Warning.

This is in fact a grade. Therefore to run it without setting the case up fully is to waste it.

Often the case has to:

(1) Be discharged with a lot of corrective actions and

(2) OT III must be run on the PC by the auditor or at least cleaned up. It might not be uncommon to have to do half or more of the C/Ses in the book before doing the OT IV Rundown.

If one holds off and really flies the case, then the person winds up at OT Exterior very nicely when one does OT IV.

If you do OT IV and he's still in his head, all is not lost, you have other actions you can take. Clusters, Prep-Checks, failed to exteriorise directions.

OT V and VI are designed for someone already exterior. If a person doesn't go exterior after OT IV Rundown, you set him up for V by then seeing he jolly well does go exterior before going on to V.

OT IV Rundown

Done only by an Auditor on a Case fully set up by various Directions.

2 April 1978

OT IV SOLO

The end phenomenon of OT IV is "Certainty of Self as a Being". The thing that would make a Being uncertain is the possibility of future implants. OT IV Solo is designed to "proof up a Being" against any possibility of being re-implanted now that he/she has finished running implants with the completion of OT.

The main idea on OT IV Solo is to mock-up (create) each line of the Clearing Course (7's, The Basic End Words, The Confusion GPM, Objects-Hollow, Objects-Solid) with all the perceptics, force, impact, and unconsciousness of the original implant (as much as you are able). When the line is mocked up (created or recreated), then unmock it, cease creating it, and blow the charge you have recreated or mocked up. Do this repetitively with each line of the Clearing Course (including lights) to a floating needle on each line. Continue until you feel totally free with and at cause over this implant sequence; (you may or may not need to complete all 5 parts). Do it until you can freely and easily mock-up and blow this implant and can confront implants.

Lastly, scan out all of your auditing early to late adding up all the hours in session as you go along.

Come up with a total number of auditing hours for yourself.

Find and run a havingness process.

Attest to OT IV

(1) Rudiments or GF (Green Form) to FIN.
(2) Rehab Drugs.
(3) Valence Shifter. "What valence would be safe?"
(4) Rehab ARC Straight Wire to Grade IV.
(5) Rehab R6EW - OT II.
(6) Prepcheck OT Ill.
(7) Rehab OT V &.VI.
(8) Run "What has been Overrun?"
(9) Run "What can you confront?"

(IF THE PRE OT DOES NOT EXTERIORIZE, WE WILL DO 7 CASES NEXT

SESSION AND HANDLE UNTIL HE DOES GO EXTERIOR which is really the end phenomena of OT IV Audited only by a Class VIII.)

Part 2 of 2

OT V

(From Steven A. Fishman Declaration)

CAUSE OVER MEST

Gain Freedom from Fixated

Introversion into MEST

For eons, man has speculated and guessed about the nature of the Physical Universe. There have been many opinions and much discussion. Even the modern physicist, with his many names and labels, is still in the dark when it comes to how it got here and why. Before Scientology, the exact truth about the MEST Universe was lost, and the way out of the trap unknown. Lies and misinformation had taken the place of the truth.

In 1967, L. Ron Hubbard released Section V of the Operating Thetan Course, the most powerful level released up to that time. On OT V you learn the truth about the Physical Universe, not the laws of physical scientists, but the basic considerations about Matter, Energy, Space and Time.

The tremendous power that this universe seems to have over thetans resulting in entrapment, degradation and death, is traced to its source. As you exteriorize from the Physical Universe at Section V. you discover exactly what MEST is, and become free of its laws.

At OT V, a Being is re-familiarized as a thetan exterior with the Physical Universe. OT drills are done to remarkably increase a Being's ability to communicate with his environment. He is now able to do so, totally free of the mind and body, and free from a fixated introversion into MEST.

Solo auditing on this level serves as an introduction to the rehabilitation of his total abilities as a thetan. He learns to use his new abilities Is a thetan with wisdom and judgment.

OT V

Pre OT is to lie down in a comfortable position with eyes shut.

(1) Spot a spot in the room.

(2) Spot a spot in your body.

Alternate 1 and 2 until commands are flat then,

(3) Spot two spots in your body.

(4) Spot two spots outside.

Alternate 3 and 4 until flat then,

(5) Spot a spot outside.

(6) Spot a spot on the sun.

(Notice the distance between.)

(7) Spot two spots outside.

(8) Spot two spots on the sun.

(Notice what happens.)

The pre OT may exteriorize during these drills but doesn't necessarily have to.

While still inside with eyes shut in a comfortable position the pre-OT is to follow the following commands and write down any major cognitions.

(9) Spot an object in the-room.

(10) Spot an object outside.

(11) Locate a moving object.

(12) Locate a spot in your body.

(13) Spot a motion.

(14) Locate a space.

(15) Spot a Thetan.

Continue the above steps until major cognition, very good indicators or exteriorization occurs.

The following steps are done outside. The pre OT takes a paper and pencil with him to take notes.

1. The pre-OT is to put his attention on an object that is ahead of him like a parked car, lamp post, etc. and walk towards it noticing the distance between him and it. He is to continue to do this until cognition.

2. Next the pre-OT is to again pick out an object ahead of him and wrap in energy beam around it and himself and pull himself toward the object with shortening of the beam.

Notice what happens.

3. Locate an object, draw energy from it into you. Repeat at least ten times.

Note any cognitions.

4. Locate an object as above and walk toward it. Notice what is holding you to it.

5. Notice a cloud and notice the space between you and it.

6. Notice your body.

7. Notice the motion of the earth and your relationship to it.

8. Notice something about 10 people.

Do all the above steps to a cognition.

Note: Originally it was not necessary to be exteriorized in order to do OT V or VI 6. Recently however, it has been changed and the state of exteriorization is supposed to be achieved by OT 4, thereby leaving OT V and VI to be done while exterior.

END OF OT V
(0109)

OT VI

(From Steven A. Fishman Declaration)

Each of the following processes are run to a

(1) Floating needle

(2) Major cognition

(3) Regained ability.

(Preferably all three together as the ideal end. End Phenomena.)

Be three feet in back of your head. Whatever you are looking at, copy it a dozen times, put it into you. Find the two back corners of the room and hold onto them without thinking for two minutes.

Find two corners of the planet Earth, hold onto them for two minutes.

Find a place where you are not.

Spot three spots in your body.

Spot three spots in the room.

Be in the following places: The room, the sky, the moon, the sun.

Locate an animal .. postulate him moving from one spot to another. Observe him doing this.

Find a walking man ... postulate his walking faster. Do this with 20 people.

Find a walking person .. postulate that he will stop, then continue walking. Do this 20 times.

Find a person in a distant land. Notice the time of day. Notice the terrain. Notice the general environment. Smell the air. Locate a thought that is his. Locate a thought that is yours. Continue until flat.

Notice differences between you and your body.

Create in your body a feeling of calmness; create in your body sexual desire and turn it off. Continue that step until you feel you have control over the sexual drives. Create in the body a feeling of pain. Create in the body a feeling of serenity. Do the above until flat. Create in the body a feeling of hunger and turn it off. Continue this step until you are in control of hunger drives.

The end result of these particular drills is the regained ability to control the body and its sensations.

Now: Postulate Anger, boredom, grief, cheerfulness and serenity -- in that order. This is continued until you are sure that you can create any emotion.

Finally, exteriorized visit a friend who lives in another state.

Greet him and flow affinity to him. Ask him to communicate to you by letter.

End of OT VI

OT VII Rundown

(From Steven A. Fishman Declaration)

OT VII RUNDOWN

June 1979 Revision

1. Basic Processes Set-up.

OT7-1

What are you willing to cause?

What are you willing to be the effect of?

OT7-2

Decide something.

OT7-3

Clear intention. (Very thoroughly.) Have client use word in at least six sentences. (If needed.)

*CDP/MCP "Intention"

OT7-4

1. What is a clear intention.

2. Give me an example.

3. What isn't a clear intention.

4. Give me an example.

OT7-5

2 W/C .. the subject of intention.

OT7-6

Recall an intention.

OT7-7

invent (mock-up) some intentions.

CDP - Creative Definition Procedure

MCP - Meaning Control Procedure

These are both Eductivism procedures for clearing words.

OT7-8

F-2. Tell me a thought/intention you would be willing to receive from another.. (Whichever reads.)

F-2. Tell me a thought/intention another would be willing to receive from you.

F-3. Tell me a thought/intention others would be willing to receive from others.

F-0. Tell me a thought/intention you'd be willing to receive from yourself.

0T7-9

F-1. What intention of yours has another helped? What intention of yours has another not helped?

F-2. What intention of another's have you helped? What intention of another's have you not helped?

F-3. What intention of another's have others helped? What intention of another's have others not helped?

F-0. What intention of yours have you helped? What intention of yours have you not helped?

OT7-10

F-1. What intention of another's could you confront? What intention of another's would you rather not confront?

F-2. What intention of yours could another confront? What intention of yours would another rather not confront?

F-3. What intention of another's could others confront? What intention of another's would others rather not confront?

F-0. What intention of yours could you confront? What intention of yours would you rather not confront?

OT7-11

F-1. What intention of yours could another be responsible for?

F-2. What intention of another's could you be responsible for?

F-3. What intention of another's could others be responsible for?

F-0. What intention of yours could you be responsible for?

OT7-13

Give me an unknown datum.

OT7-14 (PAB 69)

Tell me some orders you wouldn't mind receiving.

Tell me something that would obey you.

OT7-15

Get the idea I can place an intention.

Get the idea I cannot place an intention.

II. L & N Intention Process

OT7-16

Has an intention been....

Suppressed / Forgotten
Invalidated / Hidden
Blunted / Avoided
Abandoned / Altered
Denied / Twisted
Enforced / Changed
Desired / Completed
Decided / Made Wrong

on biggest reading item L & N ...

What intention has been?

R3R Quad if evil intention.

III. Placing thoughts and intentions (inside Auditing room).

OT7-17

A. Spot an object.

B. Locate an object from which you are separate.

Locate an object which is separate from you.

OT7-18

Think a thought.

Creatively place that thought in/on that. (Indicated object.)

Row creatively get that (indicated object) thinking that thought.

Creatively have that (indicated object) continue thinking that thought.

Creatively have that (indicated object) cease thinking that thought.

OT7-19

Clear intention.

Mock up (invent) an intention.

Get the idea of placing (or place) that intention in that (indicated object).

OT7-20

From (indicated point) make a choice between (indicated positions or objects).

OT7-21

Putting the decision on (in) that (indicted object) make a decision about it.

OT7-22

Decide something.

IV. Outside Processes with an Auditor (objects).

OT7-23

Spot an object.

OT7-24

Locate an object from which you are separate.

Locate an object which is separate from you.

OT7-25

Think a thought in (on) that (object or position)

or

Do you see that (object)?

Think a thought in (on) it.

Did the thought appear where it is?

OT7-26

From (indicated point) make a choice between (indicated positions or objects).

OT7-27

Putting the decision on (in) that (indicated object) make a decision about it.

V. Outside Processes with an Auditor (people).

OT7-28

Spot an acceptable energy source.

OT7-29

Spot a person.

OT7-30

Locate a person from whom you are separate.

Locate a person who is separate from you.

OT7-31

Point out a difference between that person's body and yours.

OT7-32

Tell me something you really know about that person.

What would you permit that person to know about you?

OT7-33

Postulate perfection into that person.

Now postulate perfection into that one.

OT7-34

Tell me something you wouldn't mind knowing about that person.

Tell me something you wouldn't mind that person not-knowing about you.

OT7-35

Think a Thought in (on) that person

or

Do you see that person?

Think a thought in (on) him/her?

Did the thought appear where it is?

OT7-36

From that person make a choice between (indicated positions or objects).

OT7-37

Putting the decision on (in) that person, make a decision about him/her.

OT7-38

Decide something.

OT VII SOLO SECTION

VI Inside Processes Solo
(On the Meter)

OT7-39

Spot an object.

OT7-40

Mock-up a confusion.

Unmock it;

or

What confusion could you create?

OT7-41

Mock-up a communication terminal.

Mock-up another communication terminal.

Dispose of these mock-ups.

OT7-42

What wouldn't you mind communicating with.

OT7-43

Mock-up your (father, wife, mother, husband).

Mock him (her) up again.

Dispose of these mock-ups.

OT7-44

How could you appreciate another as a human Being.

How could another appreciate you as a human Being.

How could you appreciate yourself as a human Being.

How could another appreciate themselves as a human Being.

How could another appreciate another as a human Being.

OT7-45

Find and run a havingness process on yourself.

VIII Outside Processes Solo
(Off the Meter)

OT7-46

Spot a person

or

Spot a Thetan.

OT7-47

1. Go to a place with lots of people.

2. Spot them one at a time.

3. As you spot each person, do the following:

A. Perceive the individual as a Life Source (Thetan).

B. Know something about that person.

C. Be willing to not-know something about that person.

D. Grant beingness to that person (by cognizing the way they are).

E. Having that person grant beingness to you.

OT7-48

1. Find some plants, trees, etc., and communicate to them individually until you know they received your communication.

2. Go to a zoo or a place with many types of life, and communicate with each of them until you know the communication is received and, if possible, returned.

OT7-49

Go out to a park, train station or other busy area. Practice placing an intention into individuals until you can successfully and easily place an intention into or on a Being and/or a body.

Attest to OT7

OT VIII, Part 1

(From Steven A. Fishman Declaration)

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex

OT VIII

HCO BULLETIN OF 1 OCTOBER 1969

SECRET

WHY THETANS MOCK-UP

This question has been the most plaguing one in Dianetics and Scientology.

The ONLY way a thetan ever gets in trouble, the ONLY way he can get trapped or become part of a cluster is by mocking-up and making pictures of bad experiences.

And why record all bad experiences? This too is not good sense.

One can explain it by a yearning for events, by havingness and other ways, but these do not factually lead to a total solution.

The real reason stems from a characteristic of a thetan. He never totally gives up.

There is, seemingly, a streak of resistance or resentment that makes a thetan wish to persist in the same place. If he cannot, he will do so covertly.

All power comes from the ability to occupy a point. The base that separates two terminals must be firm or there will be no exchange of energy.

The effort to weaken a thetan is to make him relinquish his point in space. Covertly or overtly a thetan seeks to assert his position in space.

If he cannot do so overtly he does so covertly.

When a thetan is moved unwillingly from a point or position, he even then refuses to give up that point, but MOCKS IT UP. He also mocks up the events of his departure as a part of the action of mocking up the point he is leaving. This, unwittingly, gives him a picture, an engram.

Now let us see if this theory holds true in practice.

A. Just ahead of any engram there must be an effort to retain a position, and there must be a point or location being mocked up.

This is true. You can blow an engram without running it by spotting its first point in space and time. In a secondary, "Where did you first hear of the loss" is a vital question.

B. In a Contact Assist getting a person to touch again the point where he was hurt with what was hurt will blow the engram.

C. Getting a person to locate areas (locations) that are not safe produces blows of engrams without running them.

D. Exact and accurate dating sometimes blows an engram. Those times when it does not, it should blow when the location is exactly spotted.

E. Implants and traps were done mainly to keep thetans out of an area. The thetan, resenting and resisting mocks up the place anyway and so implants himself.

A thetan too easily substitutes a mock-up for a point in the real universe.

One could also say that a thetan, by mocking up, warns himself against certain points in space or areas in the Physical Universe.

Anxiety is solely not being able to be in certain places and not where one is either.

Making people leave is the most unpopular action, unless one also frees them to be anywhere.

Transferring people is a degrading thing to do to them.

Jail denies a thetan all spaces except where he has been placed and note that thetans are made very miserable in jail. Jailing is a sure way to confirm criminals and also to make them crazy as well.

Any thetan, stuck in an engram, is asserting the effort to be at the point where he was hit at the beginning of that engram.

An engram therefore is a refusal to leave a place at which force was exerted to drive one away.

Reversely, one can refuse to be held at a place where one does not wish to be, but this is a negation of a place, a not-is of it and its time.

Power of choice over where one is and where one is not is thus a key to engrams.

Finally -- a thetan mocks up because he covertly refuses to abandon a location under duress and not-ises the place where he does not wish to be but must.

Using these facts one can blow engrams without running them.

Some sample questions:

What point (location) is unsafe?

What location could you have held absolutely?

Where did you first get an intimation of danger?

What place would you rather not be in?

What effort would it take to hold (that) (a) location?

Working with this you will see a door open to a higher level than Dianetic R3R. But realize that it is only for a high level thetan.

This is the road to returned personal power in the Physical Universe.

L. RON HUBBARD
Founder

LRH:rs
Copyright (c) 1969
By L. Ron Hubbard
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

OT VIII, Part 2

(From Steven A. Fishman Declaration)

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor. East Grinstead, Sussex

HCO BULLETIN OF 5 MAY 1980

LIMITED DISTRIBUTION ISSUE I

OT VIII Course Students
OT OT VIII Auditors
OT VIII CIS*s
AO Review Auditors
AO C/Ses
OT VIII Series I

C O N F I D E N T I A L

STUDENT BRIEFING

By the time you read this I will no longer be occupying the body and identity that you have known as Ron. That identity continues to live in the hearts and minds of many as well as in on-Source tech and admin centers around the planet, and will inspire for years to come Scientologists and lovers of truth every-where.

What follows is a story that has been withheld, for reasons which will soon be obvious, until such time as there were enough OTs that something could be done about it. That time Is now. It is not a nice or a pretty story. but I trust that having arrived on the OT VIII Course you are ready to hear it. You have undoubtedly heard pieces of data over the years that hinted at the greater untold reality of my mission here on Earth. but the story was never written, nor spoken in its entirety due to security problems that have unfortunately always plagued the organization. It is only now that I feel it safe to release the information, although the time is rapidly approaching when I will have no choice in the matter, the hour draws that near.

I an not going to delve too deeply into specifics as people have a tendency to bog themselves down in significance which would only serve to delay the immediacy of the task at hand. Therefore I will be brief.

Some eighty-odd million years ago Earth time (it actually dates at 78,395,042 but dates are a bit superfluous with this material) plans were drawn by a group outside the MEST universe for the eventual takeover of a good portion of this universe. Not a particularly large nor Imaginative crew, their exterior perspective, however, gives them considerable advantage over the time- bound beings of the MEST universe. Borrowing from earlier operations such as Helotrobus. they conceived an ongoing implant, some portions of which have been fairly faithfully rendered in parts of the Bible. This implant, laid in by carefully controlled genetic mutation at Incident Two of OT Ill, and periodically reinforced by controlled historic events since then, makes it effectively impossible for beings on the more heavily affected planets such as Earth to become free. It causes progressive genetic "evolution" that gives the subject population greater and greater susceptibility to the telepathic impingement and direction of the controllers. In its final stage the progression becomes almost geometric, and it is this final stage that we are rapidly approaching.

Another aspect of this GE-line implant is that the body becomes in effect a sort of thetan trap that kicks in heavily on the being should he attempt to expand his horizons beyond that of pure physical universe reality. There can be temporary key-outs which we have all experienced in varying degrees, but until this area is handled it can honestly be said that there is no hope for continued expansion. The good news is that once this is run out. expansion becomes rather effortless and almost automatic.

No doubt you are familiar with the Revelations section of the Bible, where various events are predicted. Also mentioned Is a brief period of time in which an arch-enemy of Christ, referred to as the anti-Christ, will reign and his opinions will have sway. All this makes for very fantastic, entertaining reading, but there is truth in it. This anti-Christ represents the forces of Lucifer (literally, the "light bearers" or "light bringer"), Lucifer being a mythical representation of the forces of enlightenment, the Galactic Confederacy. My mission could be said to fulfill the Biblical promise represented by this brief anti-Christ period. During this period there is a fleeting opportunity for the whole scenario to be effectively derailed, which would make it impossible for the mass Marcabian landing (Second Coming) to take place. The Second Coming is designed, among other things, to trigger a rapid series of destructive events.

With the exception of the original Buddhism, virtually all religions of any consequence on this planet, mono- and pantheistic alike, have been instruments to speed the progress of this "evolution of consciousness," and bring about the eventual enslavement of mankind. As you know, Siddhartha Gautama never claimed to be anything more than a man. Having caught on to this operation, he postulated his own return as Maitreya, part of which prophecy will have been fulfilled upon the passing of L. Ron Hubbard.

For those of you whose Christian toes I may have stepped on, let me take the opportunity to disabuse you of some lovely myths. For instance, the historic Jesus was not nearly the sainted figure has been made out to be. In addition to being a lover of young boys and men, he was given to uncontrollable bursts of temper and hatred that belied the general message of love, understanding and other typical Marcab PR. You have only to look at the history his teachings inspired to see where it all inevitably leads. It Is historic fact and yet man still clings to the ideal, so deep and insidious is the biologic implanting.

It Is a good joke that the Galactic Confederacy is associated with the Serpent in the Garden, the beast and other emissaries of the "Prince of Darkness." Yet in certain passages and esoteric interpretations of the Bible (much of which has been taken out and effectively suppressed for centuries) as well as the Cabbalah, the truth reveals itself quite nicely for the clever and the ungullible.

So it really is a race against time, and one that we happen to be losing at the moment, as the implant drama inexorably plays itself out in spite of the breakneck pace I've managed to keep up these last thirty-five years.

I had an inkling, but only that, of the insidiousness of this material as far back as 1945. Later. in characteristic over-optimism, I thought that R6 would be the end of it. But that was followed by NOTs and the Purification Rundown, and still the string continued to unwind with the ball at the end of it just out of sight. It makes one wonder about such things as fate and destiny, such was the resolve with which I managed to cling to that string, not often knowing how close I was to falling into the abyss myself, but destiny is merely the rationalization of feeble minds. Things don't just happen, they are caused. And causative beings can undo the plans of madmen and would-be enslavers, no matter how long those plans may have been in the making.

I will soon leave this world only to return and complete my mission with another Identity. Although I long to stretch my arms back in repose on some distant star in some distant galaxy, it appears that is one dream that will have to wait. But my return depends on people like you doing these materials thoroughly and completely, so that there will be a genetically uncontaminated body for me to pick up and resume where I left off. A body free of religious mania, right/wrong dichotomy and synthetic karma. The job ahead is far too tough to even contemplate doing with your standard -- courtesy of certain other-dimensional players and their Marcab pieces, many of whom are right here In the general populace -- genetically altered body.

Without the biogenetic meddling of those who stand outside time (who cannot yet directly influence our world and must work through others), the dwindling spiral is not nearly as automatic and self-perpetuating as it appears. There are regions, even in isolated parts of the Milky Way, where poets are free to poet, and magicians can paint reality with their magic wands, and exteriorize without body kickback. But these areas, unfortunately, are fewer and fewer.

I will return not as a religious leader, but a political one. That happens to be the requisite beingness for the task at hand. I will not be known to most of you, my activities misunderstood by many, yet along with your constant effort in the theta band, I will effectively postpone and then halt a series of events designed to make happy slaves of us all.

So there you have it. The secret that I have kept close to my chest all these years. Now you too are part of this secret, and I no longer have to shoulder the burden alone, or live with the possibility of body death before all the data could be released. And with this briefing, I entrust to each of you the responsibility for this material until such time as I am able to return. For we have no help from any other quarter in this matter. The handful of secret societies throughout history that have caught on to this game have long since fallen by the wayside or been taken over and become instruments of the very menace they were set up to combat.

The rundown is long and can be arduous, but it must be done thoroughly if there is to be any effect not only on the body of the pre-OT, but the body of his or her progeny as well. There is some danger, but with OT VII thoroughly complete, It is not nearly so great as the danger witnessed by assorted unfortunates who happened to stumble into this area in their sleep, or in moments of reverie or anaten, experiencing an hitherto mysterious phenomenon known as "spontaneous combustion".

CAUTION: DO NOT BE PTS WHILE TRAVERSING THIS THIRD AND FINAL WALL OF FIRE

But the area is well charted, the rundown many years in secret development, and by the time you read this, undoubtedly completed on myself. The wins awaiting you are like none that you have ever experienced, not just for you. but for your children, your children's children, and the whole of mankind if we succeed. And we will. If we had time, we should pity the many poor souls, from 1950 to PT, who chose such an exactly inopportune moment to drop off the road to truth, and disconnect from reality, the full burst and glory of OT practically within their grasp. But we haven't the time to "wax philosophic" or ponder might have beens.

The rundown follows. Again I say, do it thoroughly and completely, for it is your ticket to the stars. And beyond!

L. RON HUBBARD
FOUNDER

LRH:lrh
Copyright (c) 1980
by L. Ron Hubbard
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

OT 3 Rewritten for Beginners
by Jonathan Caven-Atack
© Jonathan Caven-Atack
1996

OT III - Scientology's "secret" course rewritten for beginners

According to Scientology theory, we are all multiple personalities made up of hundreds of compacted extraterrestrial entities. We have reincarnated for 75 million years since this happened to us all. Scientology has claimed that this is a business trade secret.

There has been great controversy, and massive litigation, concerning the Scientology cult's once secret "Operating Thetan Section Three Course". To save the brain strain of reading this purportedly lethal material in the original Ronspeak, and to save any danger of litigation for violation of copyright, this version is humbly tendered as a gift to mankind.

Scientologists believe that they have reincarnated from before the beginning of time. They believe that many interplanetary civilizations have existed. Hubbard restyled the spirit the "thetan". Before the beginning of time, thetans existed, separate from one another (thetans were not created they have existed for all time and indeed precede the creation of time). With the creation of energy and matter, thetans have gradually become trapped. The principal method of entrapment is through "implanting", where the thetan is hypnotised and given positive suggestions which limit its powers. This process, according to Hubbard has been going on in this universe for four quadrillion Years (4,000,000,000,000,000, rather than the mere 8-20,000,000 held by astrophysicists). However, this is just one universe in a series of several.

Scientology seeks to return the thetan's power by stripping away implants and using drills to heighten extrasensory perception and ability. The goal of these procedures is an "operating thetan" -- a being who can act independently of his physical body, and can cause physical events to occur through sheer force of will. The "operating thetan" would be capable of dismissing illness and psychological disorder in others at will.

The Scientologist generally undertakes hundreds of hours of preparation prior to taking the first section of the Operating Thetan level courses -- OT 1 (a version of which is available on Karin Spaink's homepage). OT 2 consists of over a hundred pages of handwritten lists of opposites, such as "create - create no". These are supposedly the basic positive suggestions from implants administered 75 million years ago. These implants were part of the so-called OT 3 incident.

According to Hubbard, 75 million years ago, there was a confederation of 76 planets, including Earth. The "Galactic Confederation" (the title comes from the science fiction of E.E. 'Doc' Smith), was ruled by Xenu (also called "Xemu" by Hubbard). Overpopulation had become a serious problem, which Xenu resolved by murdering many of the inhabitants of the Confederation. Hubbard estimated that the 76 planets averaged 178 billion people each. The people were killed and the thetans (or spirits) gathered, frozen in a mixture of glycol and alcohol, and brought to Earth where they were placed near volcanoes which were exploded with hydrogen bombs. The thetans were gathered on "electronic ribbons", packaged together as clusters and given 36 days of implanting, to render them servile and incapable of decision. A cluster is a collection of body thetans containing a leader and an "alternate" leader. The cluster conceives itself to be an individual. According to OT 3, everyone on Earth is in fact a collection of such clusters (Hubbard says that each person doing OT 3 will find "hundreds" of body thetans -- many victims of this course believe that they find millions).

On OT 3, the individual finds "body thetans" by locating any sensation of pressure or mass in his or her body. This is addressed "telepathically" as a cluster, and taken through the cluster-making incident of 75 million years ago. Once this is done, the individual body thetans should be available to be taken through either the same incident or the incident of entry into this universe. This is called "incident one", and supposedly occurred four quadrillion years ago. This incident is described in the materials as: "Loud snap -- waves of light -- chariot comes out, turns left and right -- cherub comes out -- blows horn, comes close -- shattering series of snaps -- cherub fades back (retreats) -- blackness dumped on thetan." Most scientologists are unaware of the true definition of "cherub".

The Scientologist spends days or years dealing with "body thetans" (I have known two people who "audited" this procedure almost every day for eleven years). Scientology materials of different dates assert that at the end of OT 3 the individual will be "stably exterior" (from his body - out of his head, it might be rephrased), free from "overwhelm" (i.e., nothing will ever overwhelm him emotionally again), and have total recall of his entire round of incarnations from four quadrillion years ago to the present. Secret materials seen only by those selling the course give the "end phenomenon" as a "big win" urging that the person be put onto the next course - where they pay by the hour - quickly.

Anyone who encounters this material without having undertaken Scientology courses up to OT 2 will supposedly die from pneumonia.

OT 3 is of course in substantial disagreement with conventional geology. Geologists hold that almost all of the volcanoes listed by Hubbard and both Hawaii and Los Palmas came into being far more recently than 75 million years ago. On a simple point of logic, it seems strange that none of these volcanoes was damaged by the explosion of the hydrogen bombs. Hubbard was taking barbiturates and drinking heavily when he wrote this material, according to letters he wrote at the time which are kept from scientologists by the management of Scientology.

OT III glossary for those who have the original materials but cannot make head nor tail of them:

7s - a set of supposed "implants", part of the OT 3 incident.
ARC - Affinity, Reality and Communication.
ARC break - upset.
auditing - Dianetic or Scientology "counselling".
basic basic - the earliest traumatic incident.
blow - leave.
blowdown - a sudden change in electrical resistance, shown by downward movement of the Tone Arm on the E-meter. Held to mean release of emotional "charge".
body thetan - "a thetan who is stuck to another thetan or body but is not in control".
BPC - bypassed charge, q.v.
BT - body thetan.
bypassed charge - upset stirred up during auditing but unhandled.
case - personal difficulties, the "reactive mind" and the "implants" and "body thetans" of OT levels.
C.C. - Clearing Course.
chain - a string of similar traumata arranged according to time.
charge - harmful energy stored in the reactive mind.
circuit - post hypnotic suggestion.
clear - an individual without a "reactive mind".
cluster - a group of fused body thetans.
cognite - realize.
comm laggy - (comm - communication) hesitant.
C/Sing - case supervising, overseeing auditing sessions.
earlier similar - earlier similar incident or trauma.
exterior - out of the body.
exterior with full perception - out of the body and able to perceive fully (this is the goal of Scientology).
flat - finished.
F/N - floating needle, an E-meter reaction supposed to show that "charge" has been released from the topic being addressed.
GF 40 - "Green Form 40", an auditing repair list.
grades - preparatory auditing.
grades IV & V - preparatory auditing.
grind - keep on going over a traumatic incident without change.
HDG - "Hubbard Dianetic Graduate", Dianetic auditor.
implant - implantation of post-hypnotic suggestion.
Interiorization processes - designed to return an "exterior" being into his body.
item - something that bothers the individual psychologically.
itsa earlier itsa - itsa "it is a", to find earlier realizations.
LIC - "list one 0", an auditing repair list.
low TA - unable to face life.
meter - E-meter (Hubbard Electropsychometer). The psychogalvonometer adopted by Hubbard. A simple lie detector.
milazzo - an auditing technique used on OT 3.
none on OT 3 - no body thetans found.
one-hand electrode - soup can used as an electrode. The "solo auditor" uses two soup can divided by a piece of plastic connected to an E-meter.
O/R - overrun, q.v.
OT - "Operating Thetan", a being who can operate independently of his physical body; who can supposedly cause events through intention (or will-power).
out of valence - behaving as if he were someone else (see "valence").
overrun - taken beyond the end of an auditing process.
PC - preclear, person receiving auditing.
picture - mental image picture.
process - auditing procedure.
R3R - "routine 3 revised", the procedure of Dianetic auditing.
R6 - the "reactive mind", supposedly created by the "OT 3 implant" or "incident 2".
Review - review auditing which seeks to "repair" earlier auditing errors.
rudiments - upsets, problems or "withholds" that prevent the individual from being attentive to an auditing procedure.
ruds - see "rudiments".
running - going over a memory or following an auditing procedure.
S & D - "Search and Discovery", procedure for finding who is supposedly suppressing the individual receiving auditing.
soaring TA - increased electrical resistance, supposed to indicate an inability to face a memory.
solo auditing - on OT 3 the subject audits himself.
SP - Suppressive Person. A critic of Scientology. Anyone who thinks that OT 3 is nonsense.
space opera - science fiction.
TA - Tone Arm action - change of electrical resistance, supposed to show relief of emotional "charge".
Teegeeack - Earth.
theta bop - E-meter reaction, supposed to indicate that the thetan or spirit is going in and out of the body.
thetan - "an individual being ... not a body".
TR - training routine. Role play drill (which can be practiced to hypnotic excess, leading hallucination, euphoria, heightening of colour and sound and a feeling of floating). The most famous of these is TR 8 where scientologists shout "stand up" and "sit down" at an ashtray.
TR 1 - a drill to make sure you can be heard (and induce obedience, but that isn't the point here).
TR 4 - getting questions answered (in the role-play drill the scientologist repeats either the question "do fish swim" or "do birds fly" sometimes for hours on end).
rim knob - an E-meter control.
triple flows - what was done to the individual, what was done by the individual and what the individual saw others doing.
unflat - not finished.
valence - an adopted personality.
withhold - an undisclosed moral transgression.

Political Action Committee -- A Briefing: How Scientologists Can Take Responsibility for And Be at Cause Over the Fourth Dynamic
by John Coale

We have been advised by legislative consultants, by allies who are experienced with the government and Congress and even by congressmen themselves that the only viable way to get the attention, assistance or support of politicians is to be in a position to deliver to them either (or both) of their most sought after needs -- MONEY and VOTES.

One congressman quite bluntly told us that if we (i.e. adherents to the Scientology religion) were serious about creating any kind of substantive power base in D.C. we would have to plug into this formula. He said that no matter how unfortunate, most politicians simply do not respond or take action on an issue because it is "right" or for altruistic reasons. Per this congressman (and as has been repeated by many in D.C. who are politically experienced) most politicians respond to the hand that feeds them -- and their food is MONEY and VOTES.

It is not possible for the Church to get directly involved in political campaigns. The Church must conform to the mandates of current non-profit tax law which prohibits it from getting directly involved in this MONEY and VOTES game. Even the newly established Washington, D.C. based Office of Public Affairs is limited in its lobby activities to the "no substantial part of its (Church of Scientology International corporation) activities" language of the tax exemption law.

The point is that the Church doesn't need any more headaches from the IRS, but at the same time it is important for Scientology to plug into this MONEY and VOTES formula in order to secure safepoints in this key political power arena for the long haul and also to create positive effects on this society.

Scientologists themselves, however, as individual citizens and voters, can take a role in this game and create a power base for the goals and purposes of Scientology. One of the most successful ways to play this game is via what is called a Political Action Committee, or PAC.

WHAT IS A PAC?

A PAC is a group organized under federal election and registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). It is usually not a corporation and in fact until recent years were not allowed to incorporate. (Note that corporations are forbidden to make political contributions.)

Due to the abuses and financial irregularities of the late 60's and early 70's, and in order to try and knock out massive donations from single sources (especially large corporations), the current federal election laws were enacted. There are various kinds of PACs, e.g. all candidates for federal office are required to have one to act as receipt point for all campaign contributions. A PAC is created by filing a simple one page "Statement of Organization".

What a PAC does is solicit funds and then distribute them by making contributions to candidates for elected office and/or to political parties. A PAC can also support a candidate by assisting in fund raising activities, This normally entails purchase of tickets to fundraisers (where one gets to mix with candidates and their staff and get to know people).

One thing which makes PACs valuable is that individuals are limited, by law, to a contribution of $1,000 per candidate per year. Thus the ultra-rich cannot bankroll (at least legally) political campaigns as was possible in the past. A PAC, however, can give a candidate up to $5,000 in a year (and an individual can give a PAC $5,000 which the PAC can pass along to his favorite candidate allowing him to contribute more than he would have been able to by making a direct donation to the candidate.)

The point is that $5,000 to a political campaign is a MAJOR dono and puts you at the top of the candidates hospitality list.

A PAC must record in detail each donation it receives 1nc1uding the amount of the donation, the name and address, occupation and name of business of the donor, Likewise, the PAC must record the details for each contribution made and for any other operating expenditures. This information is filed with the FEC and ALL of the data is public information and available for inspection at the FEC. A copy of the relevant portions of the FEC guide on the kind of PAC we will be setting up is available.

As you can see this activity is conducted in a fishbowl.

WHAT IS OUR PLAN?

A group of Scientologists, centered in Washington D.C., have been working on setting up a PAC for many months. The purpose is to create a group which forwards the aims of Scientology and which can create power based on the principles outlined in the Aims of Scientology and the Creed. The PAC can be used to get Scientologists credible access to important political figures. This should allow us to create relationships, to make friends, handle entheta on Scientology and create safepoints for scientology which can be used to help in handling present and any future attacks on our Church, as well as making successful Scientologists known on these important lines.

One of the main objectives which we have been working towards is to create a group which could be easily identified by Scientologists without involving any blatantly Scientology terms (such as "dianetics"), and which is general enough to allow for participation by non Scientologists as well.

A local Washington, D.C. attorney who has had much experience on setting up and running PACs has drafted a set of governing "By-Laws", which will operate as the policy for the PAC organization. These By-Laws will govern the operation of the PAC much the same way that they do for corporations. A copy of the proposed draft By-Laws is attached. The name of the PAC is:

FLAGG PAC

Freedom, Liberty And Good Government Political Action Committee

The draft By-Laws outline the following pattern of organization:

1.) specific criteria are listed which cover guidelines as to what kind of candidates can receive contributions. The language is taken directly from the Aims of Scientology (subpara. a) and the Creed (subpara. b - 1). This will enable nearly all Scientologists to instantly see that the PAC aligns with the goals of the Scientology religion, but is general enough to allow non-Scners to align with. these goals as well.

Secondly, we included provisions to specifically eliminate from consideration for funds any candidates who have supported destructive psychiatric practices or anti-religious groups or activities.

2.) We have limited the PAC to funding of campaigns for federal elected office, which allows us to focus on our most immediately important public, the U.S. Congress. This can always be expanded in the future if need be.

3.) A Board of Directors. consisting of no less than 3 and no more than 5 Directors, controls the PAC and elects from its ranks the Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary. These posts administer the funds. The Board interprets the criteria (noted in 1 above) when deciding which candidates to give contributions.

4.) We will establish a "steering Committee" made up of the key contributors for input and assistance on PAC actions. This group will also take a leadership role around the US.

5.) The By-Laws provide for setting up an "advisory committee" upon which we would like to place celebs, businessmen and others who want to be there. We plan to use the "advisory committee" to assist with PAC fundraising activities and we want celebs and others who are willing to be on tap as resources for fundraisers, which gives us even more to offer to candidates we are supporting.

6.) Directors serve until they resign or are removed. The Board of Directors can remove another Director "for cause" by a majority vote.

And that is the simplicity of it.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

The current members of the Board of Directors for this undertaking are as follows:

John Coale

John has been a Scientologist since the 1970's. He is currently a public on Flag lines and has completed all his "L's". His case level is Clear.

John is a well known Washington, D.C. lawyer with experience in political campaigns and activities. Currently, John is a lead attorney on the case involving the thousands of victims of the poison gas leaks in Bhopal, India.

John has agreed to be a Board Member of the PAC and use his D.C. law offices as the business offices for the PAC.

Rev. John D. Stanard II

John has been a Church staff member since 1975, most of these years on the front lines in D.C. He headed up the D.C. Legal Bureau for the Church which handled all litigation involving the federal government in the late 70's and early 80's.

Currently, John is the Director of the newly established Church of Scientology International, Office of Public Affairs which has plush new offices in Washington, D.C., within 3 blocks of the Congress. Due to this position John is able to lend his insight to the Committee into the issues confronting the Church today.

***

It was our desire to centralize the main Board in Washington, so that decisions could be made easily and quickly and so that we could avoid telephone conferences. We plan to have the PAC issue a Newsletter which outlines what it is doing and where the funds are going so that all donor's and supportors are kept up to date and can give their input.

Since the exact details of where each dollar goes must be filed as a public record with the Federal Election Commission, it Is easy to let people know which candidates are being supported or campaigned against. The newsletter will explain why.

WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?

Right now we need confirmed supporters. We must, by law, register the PAC within 10 days of accumulating $1,000 in contributions. Since there are a number of administrative set up and overhead costs involved (such as letterhead, mailings and all that, not to mention the fantastic amount of paperwork required by the FEC) we don't want to receive any funds yet. We want to have at least $50,000 pledges in contributions before we start to receive actual donations.

What we need from you is as follows:

1., Read this briefing carefully and also the accompanying draft By-Laws.

2.) Decide to support the formation and activities of the PAC and agree to pledge a contribution. Some of you who receive this may have already pledged.

3.) Show this briefing to as many Scientologists as you can and get them all to do #1 and 2 above. Get them to send in the enclosed pledge form.

4.) Set up a briefing and fundraiser for the PAC in your area. We are happy to come and fill people in on this and answer their questions. Get in touch with us.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

WRITE US AT: John Coale
FLAGG PAC
1019 19th St. N.W. Suite 1040
Washington, D.C. 20036
(202) 783-6600

FLAGG PAC

Freedom, Liberty And Good Government Political Action Committee

Constitution and By-Laws

I
NAME

The name of the organization shall be FLAGG PAC, an acronym for Freedom, Liberty and Good Government Action Committee.

II
PURPOSE

The purpose of the committee shall be to give financial assistance to candidates for federal elective office e.g., President, Vice President, U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, subject to the limitations set forth herein.

The Committee shall have the further purpose to propose, support, oppose or otherwise effect federal legislation; to issue ratings of federal legislators; to give other such assistance to candidates for federal elective office as appropriate, all such action being consistent with the criteria outlined herein.

III
CRITERIA

Candidates may receive contributions only after the Board of Directors. as herein provided, believes that said candidates substantially support the majority of the following principles:

a.) That man needs a civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights.

b.) That all men of whatever race, color or creed were created with equal rights.

c.) That all men have inalienable rights to their own religious practices and their performance.

d.) That all men have inalienable rights to the creation of their own kind.

e.) That the souls of men have the rights of men.

f.) That the study of the mind and the healing of mentally caused ills should not be alienated from religion or condoned in nonreligious fields.

g.) And that no agency less than God has the power to suspend or set aside these rights, overtly or covertly.

Further, financial assistance, or any other support, may not be given to candidates which the Board of Directors believe:

a.) Support destructive psychiatric practices such as electro-shock, chemical shock, psycho-surgery, behavior modification, and any other applications of the basic psychiatric belief that "Man is a soulless animal."

b.) Support groups or individuals who are attacking religions or churches or who advocate suppression of religious and spiritual thought.

IV
ELECTIONS - MULTI CANDIDATE COMMITTEES

Contributions may be made only to candidates in federal elections. Nothing herein shall prohibit this Committee from making contributions to multicandidate Committees such as the Republican and Democratic House and Senate Committees.

V
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Board of Directors shall be composed of no less than three or more than five persons and members thereof shall serve until their successors are appointed by a majority of the remaining Directors. Directors may be removed for cause by a majority of the Directors at any time. Vacancies on the Board of Directors shall be filled by a majority of the Directors with or without a meeting.

The initial Board of Directors shall be John Coale, John Stanard and

VI
DUTIES OF DIRECTORS

The principle function of the Directors is to determine which candidates shall receive contributions from the Committee and in what amounts. Additional functions shall include passing on rating criteria, determining other support to be given including use of Committee members to support campaign actions, use of celebrities as fundraisers and all such related activity. In execution of all these duties the Directors shall be responsible for interpreting and applying the criteria set forth in paragraph III.

The Directors shall elect from their ranks a Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer.

The Directors may appoint an "advisory committee" who shall support the Board and Committee when called upon.

The Directors shall be responsible for overall management of the committee's activities including the solicitation of funds from donors and the compliance with all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations.

The Directors may retain or otherwise hire staff, both professional and clerical, to assist them in the performance of their duties and responsibilities. Expenditure of solicited funds may be made for this purpose.

VII
DUTIES OF OFFICERS

A. Chairman -- The Chairman shall preside over all Committee Board Meetings. In his absence the Treasurer shall so preside. The Chairman shall be the person directly responsible for implementing the contribution solicitation program and shall serve as the committee's principle spokesman.

B. Secretary -- The secretary shall maintain in proper order all requests for contributions from candidates for federal office. The Secretary shall keep minutes of all Board meetings and maintain same for inspection by other Board members.

C. Treasurer -- The Treasurer shall be responsible for the receipt and disbursement of all funds including the preparation of all contribution checks approved by the Board.

The Treasurer shall prepare, file and maintain all reports required by the Federal Election Commission, appropriate State agencies and the Internal Revenue Service.

The Treasurer shall file a "Statement of Organization" with the Federal Election Commission within the time limits prescribed by law.

VIII
STEERING COMMITTEE

The Committee shall form a Steering Committee composed of those contributors, having given at least $2500 per calender year, who wish to contribute to Committee actions, functions and activities directly.

Steering Committee members may attend Board Meetings and shall be given an opportunity to give their input into all matters relating to the functions and activities of the Committee. Steering Committee members may be designated as Regional or State representatives of the Committee and may organize and operate groups affiliated with the Committee, under the direction and guidance of the Board which remains the senior authority for all financial and policy matters.

No limit shall be placed on the number of Steering Committee members.

IX
AMENDMENTS

These By-Laws may be amended by a majority vote of the Board or Directors.

FLAGG PAC

January 15, 1986

Dear Chuck:

As promised I have enclosed the briefing on the PAC including the By Laws as currently constituted.

I have also enclosed some pledge forms to use when briefing others -- we need all the pledges we can get.

We hope to officially establish the PAC in February and will be back in touch with you when this is accomplished. Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

John Coale
John Stanard

PS: Thanks a lot for your support. I really appreciate it.

FLAGG PAC

Production Targets:

1.) Name the group. DONE

2.) $50,000 pledged. ______ Jan. 31

3.) Organizing and briefing meeting held in LA to Scientologists there and get them involved. ______ Feb. 16

4.) Lobby book re-written, IA gotten and book printed. ______ Feb. 28

5.) Organizational meeting held in D.C. to finalize Admin Scale, strategy and draft initial programs. ______ Feb. 28

6.) 2 congressmen allied and closed to support anti-IRS bill. ______ Mar. 13

POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

Survey and Pledge of Support

NAME: ______

ADDRESS: ______

EMPLOYER: ______

OCCUPATION: ______

PHONE (Work) ______

(Home) ______

(Note: The above information is required by Federal Election laws to be recorded and filed periodically with the FEC for each donor.)

**********

1 pledge the following amount to the PAC. which I can contribute within 30 days of the actual formation of the PAC. (We hope to form the PAC in February.)

GOVERNMENTAL AWARENESS SEMINAR

Event purpose

To increase the awareness of Scientologists on the general subject of the structure and function of American government with an emphasis on the positive effects which each individual can create by knowing and wearing their CITIZEN HAT.

Speakers

Mr. John Coale, Attorney, Washington, D.C. / Political Action Committee: What it is and why Scientologists Scientologists need to get involved.

Mr. Dennis Dubin, Luxe Enterprises . Field activities as a public Scientologist.

Mr. Kevin O'Donnel, President, Co-owner Technology Services Inc., Alexandria, VA / The goals and purposes of the present day democratic party.

Ms. Betsy Roush, MAC IC FLAG / Flag and US legal scene. The need for action.

Rev. John D. Stanard III, Director Church of Scientology, Int, Office of public Affairs, Washington, D.C. / Current legislative items and events of interest. The impact Scientologists can make on the political process.

Mr. Willie B. Wilson, Owner, William B. Wilson Companies, Midland. TX / The aims and actions of the Republican party and his personal experience as a party supporter.

Materials

Seminar pack containing:

Name tag
Pen and note pad
Booklet: The Citizens Hat
Various key PLs

Draft booklet available for viewing and purchase from the Political Action Committee:

Making Your Government Work for You
A Manual for political Action

Confidential LRH PLs: (Will be individually numbered and handed out during the event. Copies will be collected after use.)

HCOPL TARGETS, DEFENSE
HCOPL BATTLE TACTICS

Identification of Participants

Seminar participants will be issued color-coded name tags at the time of registration. The tags are coded as follows:

WHITE: Seminar participant.
YELLOW: Seminar speaker.
RED: Seminar staff. The staff can answer any questions or help out with any problems as needed.

PROGRAM AND AGENDA

(All events to be in the Crystal Ballroom)

Saturday, January 11

11:00 am - all day / Registration. Fort Harrison lobby.
1:00 pm / Seminar starts. Opening comments by John Stanard.
2:00 pm / Ms. Betsy Roush, MAC IC FLAG. gives an overview of the current legal scene at Flag. Highlights need for 4D action.
3:00 pm / Study confidential HCOPLs
4:00 pm / Dennis Dubin. Application of source data from confidential references to public action. Questions to panel.
5:00 pm / Break for the day.
7:00 pm / IAS banquet.

Sunday. January 12

9:30 am / Re-start.
10:00 am / Kevin O'Donnell. Talk on democratic party. Questions.
11:00 am / Wille B. Wilson. Talk on republican party. Questions.
12 NOON / Lunch, buffet in Lemon Tree.
1:00 pm / Re-start. Study The Citizen Hat booklet. Panel to take questions on material covered in booklet.
2:30 pm / John Coale. Talk on the Political Action Action Committee. Questions to Coale and attorney Larry Boffheimer, from Washington, D.C., an expert on Political Action Committees.
4:00 pm / John Stanard. Wrap up. Group discussion of of plans for action. Questions to panel of speakers.
4:30 pm / Conclusion of seminar.

*****

THANKS FOR COMING!

PLEASE FILL OUT AND TURN IN SURVEYS BEFORE LEAVING.

*****

POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

Survey and Pledge of Support

NAME: ______

ADDRESS: ______

EMPLOYER: ______

OCCUPATION: ______

PHONE (Work) ______

(Home) ______

(Note: The above information is required by Federal Election laws to be recorded and filed periodically with the FEC for each donor.)

**********

1 pledge the following amount to the PAC. which I can contribute within 30 days of the actual formation of the PAC. (We hope to form the PAC in February.)

*****

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY
Flag Service Organization, 503 Cleveland, Clearwater, FL 33515 (727) 461-1282

Office of Special Affairs

Dear Scientologist,

Office of Special Affairs, International is doing a special project to collect up the comm lines of Scientologists in the world so that we can better coordinate our activities, and do the best job possible on all our endeavors.

It is understood the following information is personal in nature. You can be guaranteed that this information will only be used by authorized senior Church management personnel for handling situations vital to the survival of the Church.

This is the data we need:

1. Who you have comm lines to: This would name specific terminals, (i.e.: Judge Jones, Senator Smith etc.)

2. What your influence with this person is: Here you would elaborate on the quality of the comm line with the terminal and how you influence the terminal (i .e.: his close and trusted friend, respected business associate, OL for him. know his mother, etc.)

3; Why the terminal is considered influential; This may be evident as in the case of a very prominent politician or this may not be evident as in the case of someone in financial circles. Do not assume, though, that because the terminal is prominent that the information need not be listed. There should also be the terminals' position or profession or connections etc. are, is he/she an OL or VIP in some vital or important area? Is this terminal a key or otherwise a member on some congressional committee or corporate executive board, or is the terminal his or herself influentially connected by virtue of position or family ties or whatever. You get the point.

4. What are the terminals connections: Be as complete as possible.

So you can see by the above that full and complete data is what is needed and wanted here. We greatly appreciate. your help on this!

Thanks. Please turn these in to an Office of Public Affairs staff member. or PR Flag, Ludwig Alpers.

*****

It is understood the following information is personal in nature. You can be guaranteed that this information will only be used by authorized senior Church management personnel for handling situations vital to the survival of the Church.

NAME: _____ SCN?/CASE LEVEL _____

BUSINESS ADDRESS: _____

HOME ADDRESS: _____

BUSINESS PHONE: _____ HOME PHONE: _____

OCCUPATION/PROFESSION: _____

PAST ASSISTANCE TO THE CHURCH: _____

LINES OF INFLUENCE

POLITICAL LINES:

This would be any political figures on a state or US level, local or national level. Such as senators, congressmen, local city officials, mayors, governors, members of parliaments and councillors etc. It would also include government officials, civil servants, tax and immigration officials etc.

1) _____

2) _____

3) _____

4) _____

5) _____

MEDIA LINES:

This would be any media terminals such as owners or members of the board of magazines and newspapers or publishing houses, TV networks or stations, radio and wire services etc. Also publishers, general managers, editors, newscasters, reporters etc.

1) _____

2) _____

3) _____

4) _____

5) _____

JUDICIAL/LEGAL LINES:

This would be any justice oept officials, judges, senior legal officials, senior partners in large or prestigious law firms, lawyers, barristers etc.,

1) _____

2) _____

3) _____

4) _____

5) _____

FINANCIAL/CORPORATE LINES:

This would be any members of the board or presidents, vice presidents or other senior officials/executives within banks or other financial institutions (such as savings and loans, credit unions etc.). Also financiers (this could be govt. or private industry) stockbrokers, financial advisors, commodities brokers, very wealthy individuals, etc.

1) _____

2) _____

3) _____

4) _____

5) _____

ENTERTAINMENT/CELEBRITY LINES:

This would be any producers, directors etc in stage, motion pictures or television. Actors, artists, writers and any opinion leaders in these areas.

1) _____

2) _____

3) _____

4) _____

5) _____

Sarah Palin Adviser's Secret Scientology Plot to Take Over Washington
by John Cook
March 26, 2009



John Coale, currently advising Sarah Palin on running for president in 2012, is a Scientologist. And according to a memo obtained by Gawker, Coale once plotted to use friendly politicians to advance the power-hungry cult's agenda.

Coale is a prominent Washington power broker and husband to Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. According to the Washington Post, he is running Palin's political action committee behind the scenes and "guiding [her] political image in Washington."

The Protecters of the Palin Brand
by Chris Cillizza
Washington Post
March 17, 2009; 12:25 PM ET


Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has put together a group of "brand managers" as she prepares for 2012. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)

There is no brand in Republican politics as powerful -- or as tenuous -- as that of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

She is simultaneously the hottest commodity on the Republican fundraising circuit and a figure of ridicule among Democrats (and even many Independents) who believe that her status as a national figure is entirely undeserved.

Even Palin and her political team seem to be struggling somewhat with how much or little to expose her at the national level.

Witness the odd back and forth over the past 24 hours regarding her involvement in the annual Republican House-Senate fundraising dinner in June.

Yesterday afternoon the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a joint press release touting Palin as the keynote speaker at their fundraising dinner on June 8 in Washington. Then the governor's spokesman told the Anchorage Daily News that the NRSC and NRCC were mistaken in announcing Palin as the keynoter, insisting that she had agreed to no such thing.

The misunderstanding appeared to be the result of a miscommunication (or lack of communication) between Palin's office in Alaska and her still-forming political team running Sarah PAC. (The dinner, as we understand it, is on.)

"A lot of people may be able to overlook the campaign, because the McCain team was calling the shots," said one D.C.-based source familiar with Palin's political operation. "But even since the election she has not been served well by her inner circle. Going forward, there needs to be a seamless operation if they want to position her as a serious contender for 2012."

So, who are the figures charged with guiding Palin's political image in Washington? Here's the lineup based on our conversations with informed strategists.

John Coale: Coale, a well-known Washington lawyer and the husband of Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren, drew national media attention when he endorsed Sen. John McCain's presidential bid in protest of the way in which Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who he backed in the primary, was treated. Coale, in an interview with the Fix, described himself simply as a "friend" of the Alaska governor but acknowledged that he suggested she start a leadership PAC and helped her navigate through some of the questions surrounding her family that lingered after the campaign. Others familiar with Palin's political team insist that Coale has far more power than he is letting on -- essentially helping to run Sarah PAC. Coale demurred on that front, noting only that he talks to Palin regularly and that she is a "fascinating person" who is "definitely not what the right thinks or the left thinks."

Meg Stapleton: Stapleton serves as the Alaska spokeswoman for Sarah PAC after having played a similar role for the governor during the vice presidential campaign and in the governor's office. Stapleton has been the lead defender of Palin from barbs thrown at her -- often from those allied with McCain -- in the aftermath of the 2008 campaign and, generally, wins positive reviews from Washington insiders not directly allied with the governor.

Pam Pryor: Pryor is the Washington spokesperson for Sarah PAC after serving as a senior adviser to the Republican National Committee during last year's general election campaign. Pryor has previously served in a variety of political jobs in Washington including as press secretary and chief of staff to former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts.

Becki Donatelli: Donatelli, as we reported a few weeks ago, is officially running Sarah PAC. She is the chairman of Campaign Solutions, a fundraising and Internet strategy firm based in Virginia.

In 1986, he masterminded a plan—which was never executed—for Scientology to get into the "MONEY and VOTES game" in order to "create power" for Scientology and win influence Washington, D.C.

[You can read Coale's complete memo and other documents outlining his scheme here.]

Reached this morning, Coale confirmed that he had launched the plan for what he called the FLAGG PAC. "I thought it was a brilliant idea," Coale said, "but no one else did, so it never went anywhere. I was looking at ways to move a new religion forward. I looked at the history of Mormons, who had a lot of people in office, and I looked at the Jews, who were very successful and influential. But the church didn't want to be part of it. They didn't want to be misconstrued. There was one small meeting with parishioners in DC. Maybe 9 or 10 people showed up."

Coale denies playing any role in Palin's political career aside from that of a friend who e-mails her once a week or so. And he insists that he has never used his political influence—in addition to Palin, his friends include the Clintons and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among many others in Washington—to advance the aims of Scientology. "I don't think I have ever said, to the Clintons or Nancy Pelosi, or anyone else, a word about Scientology. Not a word."

The idea was to launch a political action committee that would attract donations from Scientologists but could be plausibly distanced from the cult, which claims to be a church and therefore barred from engaging directly in political activities.

The PAC was to be called FLAGG PAC, which stood for "Freedom, Liberty, and Good Government Political Action Committee," but would act as a sort of dog whistle for Scientologists, who would hear an echo of "Flag Land Base," the group's international headquarters in Clearwater, Florida.

Its goal would have been to advance the Scientology creed, which calls for an end to "insanity" (good idea!) and the abolition of psychiatry.

But Scientology also had a more concrete problem that a PAC could address. In the mid-1980s, it was in the midst of a 26-year battle with the Internal Revenue Service, which involved bugging IRS offices, infiltrating the Department of Justice, and breaking into federal buildings, to secure tax-exempt status as a church. According to a document outlining FLAGG PAC's "Production Targets," Coale hoped that the IRS could be brought to heel.

In January 1986, Coale spoke at a Scientology "government awareness seminar" in Washington, D.C., to pitch parishioners on the idea and begin raising money. Attendees were given detailed surveys from the church's Office of Special Affairs—the arm that handles public affairs and conducts covert operations—asking for personal data on any powerful political, media, or financial figures they may know so that the OSA could "better coordinate our activities."

The documents identify Coale as the force behind the PAC idea, and as the point man for people interested in contributing.

Scientologists Convicted of Fraud in France
by Dorothee Moisan
October 27, 2009



PARIS — French judges fined the Church of Scientology almost a million dollars on Tuesday for fleecing vulnerable followers but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France.

Scientology's Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, were ordered to pay 600,000 euros (900,000 dollars) in fines for preying financially on several followers in the 1990s.

Alain Rosenberg, the French leader of a movement best known for its Hollywood followers Tom Cruise and John Travolta, was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence and fined 30,000 euros on the same charge of fraud.

Five more Scientologists were give fines ranging from 1,000 to 20,000 euros for fraud or the illegal practice of pharmacy.

France regards Scientology as a cult, not a religion, and has prosecuted individual Scientologists before, but this case marks the first time the organisation as a whole has been convicted.

"Religious freedom is in danger in this country," declared Celebrity Centre spokesman Eric Roux after the verdict, urging France to recognise a movement that claims 45,000 followers in the country.

The Church of Scientology said it was the victim of a politically-motivated "witchhunt" and its lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve announced he would appeal.

But a statement from the group also said the court, by stopping short of an outright ban, had acknowledged that "there is a large community of Scientologists who are happy to practice their religion".

The Paris case followed a complaint by two women, one of whom says she was manipulated into handing over 20,000 euros in 1998 for Scientology products including an "electrometer" to measure mental energy.

A second claims she was forced by her Scientologist employer to undergo testing and enroll in courses, also in 1998. When she refused she was fired.

The Scientologists were ordered to publish the Paris court's ruling in half a dozen newspapers and magazines in France and abroad.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Olivier Morice, welcomed "a historic decision" that would help "future victims to be warned about the methods of Scientology".

Prosecutors initially asked the court to order a ban on the movement's French operations.

But last month the court was alerted to a little-noticed legal change voted in by parliament in May, the month the trial began, which barred judges from dissolving an organisation convicted of fraud.

Although this rule change has since been dropped, it forced the court to downgrade its sentence in the Scientology case.

Critics of Scientology had accused it of "infiltrating" the National Assembly to lobby for the legal change -- a charge they angrily denied.

The head of France's interministerial body on cults, Georges Fenech, said the ruling was an important milestone, but said he was sorry that judges were prevented from tougher action.

"I strongly regret that the law was changed discreetly during the trial, just before the trial, without anyone knowing," he told France 24 television.

But Judge Sophie-Helene Chateau argued "a very heavy fine" would be more effective than a ban that would risk driving the group underground.

Catherine Picard, of the anti-cult pressure group UNADFI called it "a fairly subtle and intelligent judgment that will undermine the organisation and allow greater control over it".

Founded in 1954 by US science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology is recognised as a religion in the United States and claims a worldwide membership of 12 million.

But officials in France, Germany, Greece, Russia and elsewhere accuse it of tricking vulnerable members out of large sums.

The French ruling marks a new chapter in a global battle over the group's image, one that forced Wikipedia to block known Scientologists from editing entries at the communally-crafted online encyclopedia earlier this year.

"We will not give up," the movement said in a statement after the verdict. "We believe that no one has the right to tell the French people what to think and what to believe on matters of religion."

Copyright © 2009 AFP.