This is a rough translation of a 9 page letter in German from OSA's Kurt Weiland, another of Miscavige's criminal cronies. This letter is a scientology classic in that it is a dead agent letter based on Hubbard's Policy Letter called "How to handle black propaganda" which enumerates steps on how to compile a DA pack. Needless to say, this letter is full of lies and is symptomatic of Miscavige's panic level. - Bob Minton
[Following Kurt Weiland's dead agent letter is a short account by Stacy Brooks of the trip to Germany that triggered Scientology's attack.]
Los Angeles, CA
April 18, 2000
Kurt Weiland, Scientology Office of Special AffairsAdvance copy by fax
To the
Agency of the Interior
attn: Senator of the Interior
Johanniswall 4
20095 Hamburg
April 18, 2000
Subj: Robert Minton
Dear Mr. Senator,
Ladies and Gentlemen,On April 6 your agency called a press conference with the American citizen, Robert Minton, at which Minton was present with his lifetime companion for the time being, Stacy Brooks.
As you know, as a consequence of its predilection for dubious "sources" - including and above all in matters of Scientology - the Berlin State Office for the Protection of the Constitution lost not only its good reputation, but ended up losing the justification for its own existence.
With that background I implore you not to take the following information lightly. Because it will clearly and distinctly show that Robert Minton and Stacy Brooks are anything but trustworthy.
Shortly before your agency put Robert Minton on display before the Hamburg press, the well-known London Sunday Times revealed an international money-laundering scandal dealing with the [illegible] sum of 12 billion marks [approx $8 billion] out of Nigeria and in which Minton is apparently a key figure.
6331 Hollywood Blvd, Suite 1200, Los Angeles, CA 90028-6329 Phone: (323) 960-3500 Fax: (323) 960-3508/09
---
Page 2
April 18, 2000Under the regime of the former military dictatorship in Nigeria, he personally mismanaged several tens of millions of dollars into his own pocket past a starving population that is among the poorest in the world. Minton's role in this unprecedented case of organized criminality is currently under investigation by the newly elected democratic government of Nigeria.
The Time also reported that in the course of uncovering the scandal, foreign bank accounts had already been frozen. (enclosure 1)
Stacy Brooks, who accompanied Minton to Germany, discredited herself before the eyes of the American public in her characteristic crying. While she feigned tears and held hands with the man who was her husband at the time and made accusations about the Scientology Church on American television that it was "interfering" in their marriage, at the same time she was already the secret and well paid lover of Robert Minton.
[illegible], Brooks and Minton lied to the American media repeatedly about their connections until the U.S. TV program "Dateline [illegible]" finally brought the truth to light nationwide in December 1999.
The deciding factor here is not the extramarital relations as such, on which basis Minton's family was finally destroyed. It is more the unscrupulous lies which both told the media in their attempt to slander the Scientology Church - until they had no other choice but to admit to the truth.
This behavior is symptomatic [for them] and is part of a long list of exposed and documented lies. Minton's fairy tale stories for the Hamburg press were effortlessly [illegible] there. It is simple to construct lies. A new one can be invented every day. If journalists [illegible] and employees of the civil service do not challenge or even fundamentally check the accuracy of such statements, then they will rapidly turn into willing mouthpieces for slanderers.
Robert Minton, moreover, comes up with another reason for his activities against Scientology, depending upon the country in which he happens to be. Such [illegible] contradictions are not as directly relevant as are their roots.
When he was only 17 years old, Minton found himself in the padded cell of a psychiatric institution. Since then he has left his noteworthy and [illegible] track of violence throughout his life and the lives of other people. To this day he finds himself in psychiatric [illegible].
This tendency towards violence has been impressively documented, a tendency which did not pause even for his two ex-wives. Endeavors in the scope of a sort of "anger-
---
Page 3
April 18, 2000Therapy" brought no change in his behavior. Relevant to the preceding case is certainly the fact that he has twice been arrested for physical attacks upon Scientologists. His last violent attack led to a charge being placed by the presiding state attorney's office. On this account, Minton must answer before a court in the United States at the end of May.
He has constantly been threatening Scientologists with violence, not only over the internet, but all over other public [illegible], and in one case he even fired a shotgun over the heads of members of the Scientology Church.
Minton leaves nothing untried in [illegible] this [illegible]. In Hamburg, where he could feel certain that lines of his slanderous statements would be questioned, he made the bizarre claim that the Scientology Church was hoarding weapons and was issuing rocket launchers to its members. But the only person who has made an appearance with weapons is Minton himself.
Naturally he also does not mention that he has never been a member of the Church and has never encountered the church policies which he pretends to know about.
The church institution which he was referring to lies directly adjacent to a public golf course and is visited every Sunday for "open house" by numerous people from the area and, additionally, is used [illegible] and regularly by the local residents. This use ranges from a sports event for the seniors club to Christmas festivities for the local police station. Numerous representatives of executive agencies at the local as well as the national level have visited this church institution and gotten a look at it. Not one of them went without praising the Scientology Church for its contribution to and its inspiring role in the formation of community life
All the Scientology Churches which Minton's imputations refer to are established members of the community whose social involvement has been recognized by agencies including the California police. High police officials have had repeated words of praise for the work of Scientologists in the areas of education and in drug rehabilitation, and also for the fact that the Church has collected thousands of dollars for charitable purposes.
One example: on the occasion of his retirement after 28 years of service, Captain Glenn Ackerman of the Los Angeles Police Department wrote to the Scientology Church and thanked them for "the enduring role which you have played in realizing security concepts in Hollywood. Perhaps the most significant was the continuing leading position of the Church in the support of our various projects with the goal of improving community life ... Your participation in our Neighborhood Watch Programs and your untiring efforts to make us aware of relevant problem areas for our activity have contributed substantially to making Hollywood safer." (enclosure 2)
---
Page 4
April 18, 2000Minton's claims are not only absurd when one takes the facts into account of the long-term [illegible] of the Scientology Church for the interests of executive agencies, they fall into the grotesque when one takes into account the professed teachings of the Church as to the aspects of criminality and prosecution and considers the consequent worldwide support of the Scientology Church for Criminon, one of the most successful rehabilitation programs for convicted felons, which is based upon the works of Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard.
If you believe you have to use "sources" like Robert Minton and Stacy Brooks, then you should also know what the price for all that would be. The Berlin State Office for the Protection of the Constitution has already shamelessly disgraced itself and is in the process of self-dissolution. The Baden-Wuerttemberg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV) has even made international headlines with its use of "reliable sources" in Switzerland and, even if not deliberately, has shown the entire world that, for LfV Stuttgart, the boundary between Constitutional protection and Constitutional transgression is just as flexible as the one between Germany and Switzerland.
The one responsible for bringing these "witnesses" to the Hamburg Interior Agency is Mrs. Ursula Caberta of the so-called "Work Group on Scientology." Due to a lack of "witnesses" from Germany, she thinks she can justify the existence of her office by importing the Mintons and Brooks of this world at taxpayer expense.
This is not the first time that foreigners pretending to be informants have sought refuge in Mrs. Caberta, including one whose evident untrustworthiness and criminal antecedents were deliberately withheld from the German public.
By way of example, in October 1997, she used taxpayers' money to fly in a "source" who had fled to Canada to escape an arrest warrant in the United States. The arrest warrant has been and still is valid; the person to whom the warrant applies had simply "slipped out the back door." He was and is under a restraining order for violating a court order regarding his anti-Scientology activities and is under summons for contempt of court. As a result he is confronted with a court order to pay more than one million marks to the Scientology Church. As soon as he sets foot on California soil, he will be arrested.
Without a second thought, Caberta introduced this man to the German media as a "reliable source" regarding Scientology - just like she is allegedly trying again with Minton and Brooks.
Mrs. Caberta, of course, does not mention such facts, presumably not within the agency, either. It is only proper if I, in this regard, am less reserved and communicate to you yet several more more details about Minton and Brooks as follows:
---
Page 5
April 18, 2000Violence and Threats of Violence by Bob Minton
As already mentioned, extensive proof exists of Minton's mental instability and tendency towards violence.
In September 1998, for example, he attacked a Scientologist in Boston. The police arrested him for using a dangerous weapon to commit bodily harm. (enclosure 3)
In October 1999, he attacked a Scientologist in front of our Church in Clearwater, Florida. The authorities charged him with bodily injury and issued an instruction to forcefully suggest to Minton that he cease his persecution and attacks in the future against Scientologists. (enclosure 4)
Minton had already fired a shotgun over the heads of members of the Scientology Church. (He justified this act to the media by saying that he had shot because he "had not been himself." He said he had "wrongly" been accused of having an affair with Stacy Brooks. As was later revealed in a national television broadcast, Minton and Brooks were lying the whole time and were very probably having a secret affair. (enclosure 5)
Minton has repeatedly threatened Scientologists with force. In one internet post in August 1998, he threatened to murder any Scientologist who should happen by his property. In cynical contemptuousness for human life, he encouraged members of the Church to make such a visit, because he, as he wrote "was getting a lot of target practice ... with various weapons." (enclosure 6)
On another occasion he threatened Scientologists with an axe and threw stones at a car which he presumed were Scientologists.
He physically assaulted a female Scientologist who had demonstrated against his attacks.
On his own web site on the internet upon which he proudly presents himself is a picture of him swinging a Samurai sword dipped in blood-red paint. The photograph is under the words, "Bob Minton's Plan for all Scientologists." (enclosure 7)
It is a matter of record that fits of anger and psychiatric treatment is a dangerous combination as the rising trend of senseless violent crimes in the USA during and after psychiatric treatment extensively proves. This connection has also been observed by the courts. They have instructed Minton that he may no longer approach Scientologists or Scientology Churches.
---
Page 6
April 18, 2000Financing Copyright Violations
Robert Minton's explanations about his motivation for financing people who are "against" the Scientology Church do not correspond to reality. It is more of a matter that he deliberately finances people who have been charged and convicted of commercial crimes who have lost before the courts.
This [illegible] conduct of subsidizing illegal and, in any respect, suspicious activity clearly shows his concept of the law and what really matters to him.
For example, he financed a certain Arnaldo Lerma, who was legally prohibited in April 1997 by an American district court from violating the copyrights of the Scientology Church. Minton gave Lerma $60,000 AFTER he had lost in court. Acceptance would suggest that Lerma, with this money, would be in the position to [illegible] his illegal violations and to [illegible] the court judgement.
Minton also gave copyright violator Grady Ward over $40,000. His violations against copyright were so serious that a federal court set a punitive settlement of $3 million. Ward is under a legally valid restraining order and is making monthly payments to the Church for the rest of his life. (enclosure 9). He is now working for Minton, for which he receives a sum of $2,500 per month.
Minton also transferred $750,000 to an association by the name of FACTNet, which was taken to court for copyright violations of Scientology materials. Only when FACTNet could no longer escape conviction and confronted by heavy sanctions by the court did the accused agree to cease further violations of the Church's copyrights and to pay a million dollars in damages should there be a repeat occurrence.
Minton also financed the paid witness, Jesse Prince, whose untrustworthiness I have already described for you and the other Offices for Constitutional Protection on November 12, 1999.
A particularly significant example of Minton's dealing with the truth is, moreover, the "McPherson Case" which he sold to the media at the Hamburg press conference. Minton suppressed what is surely the most important detail of this court proceeding: namely, that the presiding court doctor recently changed her findings on the case, based on a subsequent review of the scientific, medical evidence by renowned experts and came to the conclusion that the death of Mrs. McPherson could be traced back to an embolism which had been loosened by an accident and which had lodged in one of her lungs, as a result. (enclosure 10)
---
Page 7
April 18, 2000Minton was well aware of this complete alteration of the basis of the process when he spoke about it in Hamburg.
He would not have mentioned it because he has, in the meantime, invested $850,000 in a civil suit against the Church in the McPherson matter, and the now contradictory [illegible] the basis - financed with this money in any case - of a campaign of libel [illegible] the Church.
Stacy Brooks
At the press conference of April 6, Stacy Brooks also introduced her equally fantastic claims regarding her Church membership and how she said she had been treated during that time.
Indeed, she has already admitted that the statements circulated by her are untrue, but she refuses to stop spreading them as long as the church does not pay "for her silence." (enclosure 11)
Brooks also receives money for "witness testimony" against Scientology in court - until she finally was convicted in a cross-examination of being a perjurer. Since that time she can no longer be found on the witness stand, for that she uses press conferences. But then only when she can be sure that her imputations will not be questioned. A condition which she made [illegible] in Hamburg.
A completely characteristic event: in Stacy Brooks' testimony before an American court the former California Superior Court Judge David Eagleton noticed her total lack of competency in the area of organized church structure and commented that "she did not know the difference between a 'director' and an 'executive officer'." In fact, that is right, but that does not stop her from bringing up untrue accusations before an uncritical press in Hamburg.
The inability of Stacy Brooks to grasp basic corporate duties in her own position followed her during the entire period she was on the official staff of the Church.
She had to give up her office as minister of the Church because she violated fundamental ethical obligations associated with it, as she did later in her work with "Freedom," the human rights magazine of the Scientology Church. There she secretly attempted to [illegible] the publication for purposes of profit and to "mask out [?]" the/her connection to the Church.
Brooks claims to possess "knowledge" about David Miscavige, the Chairman of the Board of the so-called Religious Technology Center. The fact is that for a few months in the early 80s
---
Page 8
April 18, 2000she was employed in the same organization as he. However, she was dismissed for incompetence.
Brooks continues to assert that she had participated in the efforts of the Church to obtain tax exemption for the Scientology Churches in the United States. Actually, she left the Church in 1989, two years before the extensive review of the American IRS tax agency had even begun, and four years before it had been consummated. This review, and not the fantastic [illegible] of a Stacy Brooks, at the end of 1993 finally led to the granting of tax exemption for all American Scientology Churches and associated organizations.
So much for Stacy Brooks.
The close ranks between [illegible, "husband"?] Minton and representatives of German ministries makes a mockery of all democratic values. Minton has earned his money in unscrupulous business which can hardly be outdone in its racist and humanly contemptuous dimensions. What kind of person does it take to make a fortune from the poverty and suffering of a country like Nigeria? Anyone who sells such people as "credible" no longer knows what he is doing. In that way or similarly have the presiding representatives of government agencies and ministries lost any appearance of international human rights and fundamental [illegible] state neutrality in religious issues.
I would like to bid you, in all urgency, to not simply ignore the facts detailed in my letter. You will understand that a continued alliance of your or other German authorities with Robert Minton and Stacy Brooks will be regarded by the Scientology Church to the degree that it would be if if it were an [illegible] campaign motivated only by evil against the German Scientology Church.
You can be assured that the Church will take the steps necessary in the scope of legal and publishing limits in order to maintain the rights of its congregation members in the Federal Republic [of Germany].
In closing, I would like to shortly address the anti-constitutional "Work Group on Scientology" in your agency and its director, Ursula Caberta - a "human rights violator," as the Scientology Church Hamburg may say based on the judgment of the Hamburg Superior Court.
In the past we have more than once pointed out the situation that Mrs. Caberta and your office waste more than a million marks a year of the taxpayers' money.
---
Page 9
April 18, 2000I am asking you: for what? In order to violate basic rights of the Constitution and in order to bring harm to German citizens and their families?
The day will come when the activities of Mrs. Caberta will be seen for what they are: an extension of the Inquisition which hunts down people and destroys their existence and has brought shame not only to Hamburg, but to all of Germany.
When one additionally takes into consideration that she issues con men like Robert Minton the [illegible] seal of the Hamburg Interior Agency, and not just one time, that shows all the much more that Ursula Caberta is not needed.
Therefore we ask that Mrs. Caberta be immediately relieved of her duties.
Cordially,
/signature/
Kurt Weiland
Member of the Board of Directors
Church of Scientology InternationalDistribution:
State Offices for the Protection of the Constitution
State Interior Ministers and Senators
Federal Minister of the Interior
Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
[Here is Stacy Brooks' account of their trip, which she wrote on April 22, 2000:
Bob Minton and I just spent ten days in Europe. We went to Cologne, Hamburg and Paris. This was the first time representatives of the Lisa McPherson Trust have had a chance to meet our counterparts in other countries. We discussed how we are dealing with the Church of Scientology and how we can coordinate our actions. We discovered that we are all very much in agreement with how the situation must be approached. Bob and I were both disturbed at reports from both Germany and France about actions that have been taken by the United States against those countries for their position on Scientology. We could only conclude from these reports that the Clinton administration has been manipulated into forwarding Scientology's global agenda. Clearly Scientology's strategic plan is to position themselves as the victims of "religious discrimination" wherever they are having trouble and then get the United States to condemn the country involved. Although our visits to Germany and France were brief, it gave us a chance to broaden our perspective beyond the United States and see how our country is being used.
First we had a brief stay in Cologne during which Bob participated in a live television program. The host of the show was Hans Meiser, a well-known television personality in Northern Germany. The others on the show were Dr. Norbert Blum, former minister of labor and a long-term critic of Scientology, and Tanya Neujahr, a former Sea Org member at St. Hill who, at the age of 17, was put in charge of security for several isolation watches (known as "baby watches" in England). Tanya's boss for these isolation watches was a thirteen-year-old girl. Later Tanya tried to escape from St. Hill and was dragged, kicking and screaming, into a room where she was locked up and kept in isolation herself for several days, until she agreed to write up her overts and withholds (O/Ws) and remain at St. Hill.
Also on the show were Sabine Weber, head of OSA in Munich, and two other German Scientologists. Bob had to speak through a translator so he was able to answer Hans Meiser's question about harassment, but he wasn't able to participate in the heated argument that took up most of the show. Dr. Blum was very good at responding to the Scientologists' attempts to portray themselves as victims of religious discrimination. He made it clear that religion has nothing to do with the concerns the German government has about Scientology.
After the television program was over, we took a train with Tanya to Hamburg, where we were met at the station by Ursula Caberta, head of the Scientology task force for the state of Hamburg. It was the first time either of us had met her and it was truly a pleasure. She is a delightful, charming person, extremely perceptive and well-educated about Scientology, and she was a gracious hostess for the duration of our visit to Hamburg. She arranged a press conference so that the German media could have a chance to hear a U.S. perspective on Scientology. Ursula, Bob and I all spoke to a room filled with German media. Several newspaper articles resulted, as well as television spots on the major stations.
The next day we attended a court hearing with Mrs. Caberta, the purpose of which was to determine if Scientology had the right to sue Mrs. Caberta for responding to a number of businesses that had asked her to provide them with a method of protecting themselves from being used by Scientology as a recruitment pool. There are WISE groups in Germany that operate the same way Sterling Management, Hollander Consultants and other so-called business consulting groups do in the United States. They pretend to be offering business consulting to companies - such as dentists, veterinarians or chiropractors - when in fact they are nothing more than front groups for the Church of Scientology to get people to buy Scientology auditing and courses. Mrs. Caberta's task force provided a form for business consulting firms to fill out which discloses to the prospective company whether or not the consulting firm plans to introduce the business technology of L. Ron Hubbard to the prospective company.
Scientology wanted the case dismissed and argued at length about religious discrimination, repeatedly comparing the Scientologists to the Jews under Hitler. However the judge ruled that their suit against Mrs. Caberta should be dismissed because there was no evidence of religious discrimination. A number of newspaper articles were published about this ruling.
After several extremely informative days in Hamburg, we flew to Paris for a meeting arranged by Roger Gonnet with Denis Barthelemy, secretary general of the Mission Interministerielle de Lutte Contre les Sectes, or (forgive my rough translation, Roger!) the interministerial task force against cults. Our meeting with Monsieur Barthelemy went very well and was also extremely informative. Roger also arranged many media interviews for us in Paris. It was a pleasure to have a chance to spend time with Roger, and he was a wonderful host to us while we were in Paris.
Perhaps the most important thing I want to communicate to everyone on a.r.s. is how exciting it is to find out that our counterparts in Germany and France share our perspective about the dangers of Scientology and about what needs to be done about it. We discussed with Ursula Caberta and Denis Barthelemy the importance of separating the belief system from the practices of Scientology. We found that they are in complete agreement that Scientologists are perfectly free to believe in the efficacy of the tech and any other aspect of Scientology they wish to embrace. But they feel strongly, as we do, that no one, including a Scientologist, has the right to violate anyone's civil or human rights or to abuse or deceive anyone for the sake of achieving their own agenda. I think it is also accurate to say that we are all in accord that Scientology is a political movement, and that its current strategy of parading itself as a victim of religious discrimination is nothing more than a transparent ploy. The fact that the United States government is currently forwarding this particular strategy -- whether wittingly or unwittingly -- does not make it true.
The United States government has harshly criticized both the German and the French governments, and it became obvious during our discussions that the criticisms have been extremely unfair. One can only assume that the erroneous information upon which these criticisms have been based has come from either Scientologists or Scientology-paid lobbyists, attorneys or private investigators. Whoever the particular source, it seems clear that the U.S. government is being manipulated and used by Scientology. Bob and I both left Europe with a determination to educate our own government officials about the nature of the cult that is manipulating them. Scientology has no more respect for the U.S. government than they do for any other "wog" government in the world. The only difference is that U.S. government is allowing Scientology to manipulate them while the German and French governments, among others, are not. What our U.S. officials, from President Clinton to the State Department to the legislature, do not realize is that they are nothing but fools as far as David Miscavige and his puppets are concerned. They are only useful to the degree that they are willing to further the Scientology agenda of world domination.
Although Scientology is crying "religious discrimination" in both Germany and France -- just as they are doing in both the criminal and civil cases concerning Lisa McPherson's death in the U.S. -- neither Germany nor France are in any way targeting Scientology for its belief system, any more than the state of Florida is doing so in the criminal case or Lisa's family is doing in the civil case. This cry of "religious discrimination" is simply Scientology's strategy for manipulating the governments and the courts of all three countries.
But "religious discrimination" has nothing to do with what is happening. It is Scientology's abuse and deception, its criminal conduct, harassment and intimidation of its own members and of its critics that is of concern to the German government and the French government, just as these are the concerns of the state of Florida, Lisa McPherson's family, and the Lisa McPherson Trust. What is most disturbing of all is that the U.S. government is not only not doing anything to stop these practices; it is actually protecting Scientology and allowing it to continue its abuse and deception with the government's blessing.
We arrived back in the United States with a determination to change our government's perspective about Scientology, not only for the sake of our own country but also for the sake of the rest of the world. It is imperative that an education campaign be launched to inform all three branches of our government about the true nature of Scientology. We must also educate the United Nations. We must find other organizations whose concerns for civil and human rights will cause them to be interested in learning the truth about Scientology's actual agenda.
We at the Lisa McPherson Trust have been profoundly disturbed at the degree to which Scientology -- through intimidation, threats, harassment and other forms of pressure -- have been able to gain such a large amount of control over the government, police force, the local businesses, and the citizens of Clearwater. This is indeed a frightening level of political corruption in what we are proud to call a free country.
The LMT is determined to halt the acquisition of further corrupt political power by this dangerously abusive and deceptive organization.
Stacy Brooks