Video is HERE

Protest at Scientology's International Headquarters 19 Jan 2009
by Doug Owens
http://vimeo.com/2907540
Transcript by Wieber

Interviewer
Why are you protesting today?

Man
Well I got a (noise). I left about 1989, early 1990s so I'm out here to just hopefully make an effect because you know I know what it's like to be kept here and now it's like ten times worse that when I was here. When I was here you could pretty much get in and out of the gates with a security pass you could use to open the gates and lock the gates and now they did away with all that. And you know at least we had a little free time. We lived off the base and could go shopping and on the weekend you know we had a little time off in the morning we could do cleaning and stuff. Now everybody's stuck here on the site of the property. You can't get out. You gotta go through a security gate to get out. It's just like being in prison basically and it's not right. I mean, I don't know. In the days I was here I thought it was the worst it could ever get and I've just seen now that it's only gotten ten times worse, so that's why I'm here today.

Interviewer
What does your sign say?

Man
Well it says, "End Family Disconnection." And I happen to know since having been out for the last eighteen years that there's some (noise) basically have children been in the sea org that they now have lost, they can't find them. I met someone named Aaron who was at a protest in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago who hasn't seen his son in eighteen years. You know I think that's bad, I think, giving up a family like that. When I got out I went back to my family in New York. I spent as much time as I could with my Dad and I'll never forget those days. That's the support, my family, connections. Your family will look after you. These people will not. Unfortunately what happens here is when you become no longer useful to them they will either kick you out on the streets with five-hundred dollars in your pocket or you will just get sent off to die somewhere. The last poor chap in here when I was here before (name obscured by noise) was here was (name obscured by noise). His wife had terminal cancer. He was ordered to take her to her grandmother's house where she died sitting in front of a radiator. These are some of the reasons why I would come out here and want to make my voice heard. Things like that shouldn't be allowed to happen in this country. It's beyond unbelievable yet it is happening so that's kind of why I want to do it. CUT

Interviewer
Whay are you protesting today?

Twin A
I'm protesting because these guys only pay their staff something like thirty cents, fifty cents an hour and they also have no gates anywhere that a staff member could just walk out of. If they need to go to a (noise - ends in "ist") or get medical care or to see their parents they have to go through a security guard and that security guard can decide whether they leave this property or not. It took me three years to get out of here; three years being chased, tackled by guys trying to stop me leaving and it was just ridiculous and I think if someone wants to leave they get intimidated actually and they can't just walk out. It's not fair.

Interviewer
Do you know anybody on this property right now?

Twin A
Yeah. My twin sister lives here, she works here and she refuses to speak to me or anybody in the family. And I don't even know if she's alive. I don't know what she's doing. I don't know if she's happy. She won't tell me anything. She hasn't personally told me why she's not speaking to me. I think they jsut don't give her my letters.

Twin A
Well, like I said, I think they won't let her have my letters because I've been declared an SP. (She points at a sign that says, "End Family Disconnection" and a passing car drowns out what she said.) Oh, you're videoing me, too. OK. Well, with disconnection (traffic noise) a suppressive person declare, so I've been declared a suppressive person, which means that nobody here on this property is allowed to speak to me any more even though we worked together for like, seventeen years. So I'm protesting. CUT

Interviewer
Why are you here today?

NY Woman
(With sign saying "Scientology Slave Labor 50¢ / hr 100 hr / wk")
I'm protesting the labor abuses of scientology. The first time - after the first week when I was working for scientology for a sixteen to twenty hour day at the end of seven days of that my first pay day was sixty cents.

Interviewer
Sixty cents?

NY Woman
Sixty cents.

Interviewer
Was that here at Int Base?

NY Woman
No. That was in Washington DC.

Interviewer
When was that?

NY Woman
This was back in 1971

Interviewer
What's the other side of your sign say?

NY Woman
It says, "Stop scientology labor abuses."

Doug
(With sign that says, "End SP Declares")
I'm here today to protest that the church of scientology international and the religious technology center. Two issues that I want to talk about is I want them to end suppressive person declares. Suppressive persons are the church's enemies. I don't think a church needs to have an enemies list. I don't think that they should use suppressive person declares to cut people off from their families. On this side of this sign ("End Family Disconnection") I talk about that policy. I want them to end disconnection, the disconnection policy that breaks up families. Disconection can break up mariages. It can separate children from their parents. It can separate friends from other friends. Obviously people have a right to talk to whoever they want but the church doesn't need to have a policy to encourage people from cutting off contact with their family members.

Twin A
This is basically the gate to the "G Units."

Interviewer
What are the "G Units?"

Twin A
They are basically celebrity houses where celebrities stay and celebrity guests. And they're really nice apartments. And this is the gate that goes there. There's tennis courts. I've seen tennis courts and a nice walking path. There's a little walking path that goes back there. It's pretty nice.

Interviewer
Down here, so like John Travolta, Tom Cruise might stay in these units?

Twin A
Tom Cruise definitely. He used to have an apartment here. I don't know if he still does. It's probably still there. They put a lot of money into it for him so he would have the nicest apartment whenever he came to stay here. I don't know if John Travolta stays here or not. I actually never personally witnessed that.

Interviewer
Like is it that building there?

Twin A
Oh they're called B units and there's more than one unit so there's like I think three of them. There's one unit there, there's one unit there. There's another unit over there. And they basically have the same layout as apartments; some nicer than others. On the other side is where the tennis court is and the little walk in the park. But as you can see there are no gates here that can be manually operated from the inside to get out.

Interviewer
So you wrote on the internet that you planted a field of wild flowers?

Twin A
Right, yeah. There was a field out here in this general area that was basically all grass and we pulled up all the sod so we could plant wildflowers so that Tom Cruise could run through it with Nicole. And the press wouldn't like that story so I told the press about it. I think you can see this area has already, it's been changed for a bunch of other things. There's no open field there any more. There's some flowers over there but that's about it.

Interviewer
The purpose of the wildflowers that you planted were for what?

Twin A
Tom Cruise said that he would like to run through a field of wildflowers with Nicole. This was way back in the early nineties. And so a bunch of staff stayed up all night and we pulled up a bunch of sod and then the next day we sprayed it with seeds, wildflower seeds and they were supposed to come up in the spring and have this beautiful wildflower field so that when Tom Cruise showed up with Nicole they could walk through or run through this wildflower field. And I was like, why are sea org members working on this? Why do we have to make like this Fantasy Island moment for Tom Cruise on our, on like religious property you know? So - flowers. They never ended up using the field 'cause when it came up it just looked like a bunch of weeds 'cause they don't flower instantly. They just shoot up all these green stalks. And David Miscavige said, "Oh, it looks like a bunch of weeds. Make it grass again." So it's just a bunch of wasted work.

Twin A
This flood channel was all done by sea org labor. Track here says a bunch have been by here. In here we brought rocks by hand for this flood channel. A lot of my blood, sweat and tears went in that, so this property doesn't flood in a strong rain.

Interviewer
And it goes down to?

Twin A
Yeah, it just goes all the way down to the levee down there. And that was all put in by sea org labor. Some hired maybe probably for the original trackage and stuff but we planted trees and shrubs in there and we brought rocks in there and stuff and made it what it is. And we paid for it. Supposedly it's like our home so we were renovating our own home. It's not really, it isn't a home.

Twin A
He just was never available, so if it was something I really wanted to do; I really needed to call my mom or something I'd wait for Matt Butler to call me to help me make a phone call and he just wasn't around; wasn't available. He wasn't very . . . I don't know. He was just doing his job, you know. I'll give him that but I don't . . . he didn't (horn noise) in a while. Also, when I tried to leave he followed me and so did Danny Dunnigan. I mean they literally like chased me on foot and convinced me to come back.

Interviewer
What did they say when they tried to convince you to come back?

Twin A
Basically they basically said, "You know, running away is not the solution. You're doing the wrong thing." They tried to say, "Well, you know, oh yeah, we messed up something in your counselling. You gotta come back and get more. I mean you're running away because we did something wrong in your counselling and we know what it is so come back and we'll fix it." And just a lot of really smooth talking. Danny actually did try to grab my hand at one point but I would't let him 'cause I knew he was just trying some tactic so he could get his hands on me but I didn't let him grab my hand. Then when I finally made it to the Seven-Eleven way down there Matt and Danny were with me and they had called in Ken Hoden to come and see me, and they said, "Look you know if you want to go you can go but we want you to talk to Ken Hoden first so just wait here." And then while I was there they said, "Well, look we'll change, we'll change what's going on. You can talk to your sister. You can talk to your husband. We'll talk to your counselling. We'll get it fixed. You know everything will be wonderful if you come back, you know and don't run away." And I thought, 'OK.' By that time I was just exhausted and I thought, 'OK. I'll go back' and I didn't know what to do at the Seven-Eleven, so I went back. And I ended up getting stuck there for another couple of months and I'd been there for three years.

Interviewer
Did you ever live at Happy Valley?

Twin A
I was at the ranch for about a year, yeah. When I tried to get out of there . . . when I was on the R. P. F. program, that's when I was tackled. I got tackled by Chris Guider who's like an ex professional rugby player. Like I'm supposed to be able to defend myself against that.

Interviewer
Why did he tackle you?

Twin A
'Cause I was trying to walk out. I said, "Look. I don't want to do this program. I want to walk out. I want to see my family. I want to talk to somebody who's, you know, going to listen to what I have to say." And he wouldn't let me walk out. He just grabbed me and stuck me in a car with another guy.

Interviewer
You wanted to leave the property?

Twin A
Yeah, I wanted to leave the property. I was trying to get away. I was trying to just walk off. I mean they say you can just leave any time but for me when I tried to leave I was tackled. I was tackled by two very large men and I couldn't leave and I was brought back. And when I tried to leave again I was again tackled, physically tackled.

Interviewer
Were you hurt or did you sustain any damages - physical damage, you know?

Twin A
You know, I think first of all getting tackled was pretty traumatic. There was one time when I got my hand broken and I got some, a lot of bruises on my back, and that was one of the times that I tried to run away and I was stopped by another guy who was an ex, he was like an ex bouncer before he got in scientology or something so I guess he knew how to deal with people and that was to break their hand and shove them into book cases. I don't know why he did that. So yeah, I was physically, you know, stopped on several occasions from leaving.

Interviewer
When you tried to leave you said they tried to talk you into returning. Did they ever talk about family members or your sister?

Twin A
Oh, well, the times that I actually did manage to get off of the property, that's when they . . . and I was you know in amongst the real world, that's when they used smooth talking tactics and were telling me that if I came back that they would let me speak to my husband and they would let me speak to my sister and they would let me speak to my friends and we could sort everything out. But when I did return with those promises I was not allowed to speak to my sister and I was not allowed to speak to my husband in fact I was handed divorce papers, that he wanted to divorce me and he never spoke to me after that. I think he wrote me one letter saying that he never got any of my letters.

Interviewer
When was the last time you talked to your twin sister?

Twin A
The last time I talked to my sister was in 1997.

Interviewer
So, eleven years ago - twelve years ago.

Twin A
Yes. The last time I saw her. Yeah. And I miss her a lot. I'm surprised at that kind of time but they don't exactly have a mail box here that you could put anything into so if she did want to talk to me she wouldn't really be able to. So that's why I want to get a gate. You could just walk up to the gate and put something in the mail box and the security guard won't stop you. Because then I would know. Yeah, does she want to leave I could come by and pick her up. But if she's here and she wants to leave she doesn't have any way to get a message to me or her family, then she's stuck here. It's not like she had a bunch of money and she could just call a taxi, you know. There's no public phone here. There's no public phone here, like if someone says, "I want out. I'm just going to call a taxi. I'm just going to go." They can't do it 'cause all of the phone lines here go through the main control switch board. So if you want to make a call out you have to go through somebody. And sometimes there are people that get cell phones but if they get in trouble or they express some doubts at all in one of their counselling sessions that cell phone is gone. It's like out of their hands instantly. In fact computer access is also taken away from you if you say express doubts or say that maybe that you want to leave. You lose your computer access. You lose your cell phone. You lose your right to drive on and off the property with your own vehicle. You lose the right to go anywhere without someone else present with you.

Interviewer
Does the internet have filters here? Can you visit anyplace on the internet?

Twin A
I don't know. The internet wasn't connected when I was here, well that I was aware of.

Other Interviewer
(garbled question)

Twin A
No, well you see the scientology computer system was not hooked into the internet when I was here. If it is they would definitely have filters.

Interviewer
Can you write a letter that's not reviewed by a staff member in authority and mail the letter without having it read or censored?

Twin A
Most of the staff here have agreed to have all of their incoming and outging mail checked. Now if a staff member has their . . . you know some staff members do have the freedom to drive on and off the property. They could probably mail a letter from somewhere else, if they wanted to, but most of the staff here cannot mail a letter without sending it through a security guard. They're not allowed to do that.

Interviewer
Did you ever try to leave while you were here?

Twin A
Yeah, I tried to run away about four times. I jumped the fence over there and the security guys came running after me and I jumped the fence over there. Actually how I got over there is a whole other story. I pretended to be my sister you know.

Roan
Now when you tried to leave you said the security guards stopped you, so they physically stopped you and dragged you back, is that how it worked?

Twin A
There were three times. Actually I think I tried to run away five times cause there were three times where yeah where I was actually physically tackled. I had my hands grabbed. I was pushed down on the ground by two guys. I actually got slammed into some bookcases once. It bruised up my rib cage. I had my hand slammed on a table and broke my hand. So yeah, there was violence; violence and force used on three occasions when I tried to leave. And other times they weren't violent but they were intimidating and they actually made a lot of promises to me, like, "OK. Yeah I'm sorry we hurt you. I'm sorry we abused you but come back and we'll be nicer to you," and I think that's just sort of any; what happens in any abuse situation where an abuser is like, "Oh we're sorry," but then it doesn't change. You go back and it doesn't change.

Interviewer
The people that live here now, that live and work here, are they free to leave at any time?

Twin A
That depends. There's a thing here called the restricted list. And so let's say a member is like doing their job and they seem to be happy at their job and they know they don't want to leave OK they're not on the restricted list. But if they make a mistake or they say maybe in one of their counselling sessions that they're having thoughts about leaving. That's when they get put on the restricted list and then they're not free to go. So that's what I was saying. They should have gates where if someone wants to leave; they feel like leaving they could just walk out if they wanted, but right now they can't. They get put on the restricted list and then these security guards are basically obligated to make sure they stay on the property until they finish you know whatever brain washing, counselling, whatever they want to do to them before they leave or before . . . They try to recover them and get them to stay and if you want to avoid that . . . If you want to avoid getting stuck here for three years like I did and going completely insane then you just run out the door and that's not that easy as you can see. You'd have to hop a fence. You'd have to walk quite a ways to get away from the security guards.

Interviewer
Would the security guards chase you if you jumped the fence?

Twin A
Yeah, they chase you and try to get you back with lies or coercion. Marc Headly literally got chased by a truck, a security guard truck that tried to run him off the road when he was on his motorcycle. Yeah they ran him off the road they almost totally injured him.

Interviewer
Do you think policies can be changed within the church of scientology?

NY Woman
(Laughs)
You can write things up and make reports and things like that and that's supposed to be the way to change things.

Interviewer
From the inside if you're a member of scientology that's the way to change?

NY Woman
Yes, from the inside and certain people are required to write it up if they find something that's not right. I was one of those and I used to stay up until two o'clock in the morning writing up required reports and nothing ever happened. It never changed.

Interviewer
If you could just change one policy in scientology what would it be?

NY Woman
I think it would probably be disconnection.

How does disconnection affect families?

NY Woman
Family members can't talk to each other. I've had people, since I'm in that area, they have gotten in touch with me to see if they could reach some of their family members and I haven't been able to but, you know, they're not allowed to talk to their family members and they're still members of the church working with the church they are told that they have to disconnect from their family member in order to stay in good standing with the church so they have to choose between the church and their family.

end