Over the last ten years, thousands of people have walked away from Scientology with the help of former cult members. The vast majority have been on the level, but a few cases, typically extremely highly publicized, have not. As the years go by, the results of these few have been disproportionate in nature. Lermanet has a critical question.
Background: Although the plot was eventually exposed (See The Big Bluff at lermanet.com/cisar/survey/hd.htm#000629c), the Scientologists once actually got asylum status for a German Scientologist in the US. That's not all. The Big Bluff was part of an even bigger plan, in conjunction with an anti-Germany open letter from Hollywood celebrities being published in national newspapers. That's still not all. Although it did not pass, Scientology managed to get an anti-Germany / pro-Scientology Bill into Congress for discussion. (See The Propaganda War at lermanet.com/cisar/survey/gd.htm#971124a). That campaign in the US courts, media and legislature was ten years ago. Since then the Scientologists have gotten more sophisticated.
Given the above situation, there is no need for anyone to feel ashamed in the event things turn out to be a big confidence game. In any case Lermanet promotes sympathy, critical discussion and understanding of all sides of the story, whatever that may be.
August 21, 2007
According to the German SWR news agency, a 36 year old Christian Markert went to German authorities in the USA in June 2007 to seek help in being extracted from Scientology. Ursula Caberta helped Markert get to Germany, where she introduced him to political figures and the mass media. Today she still has him under her care. Markert claimed he had been in the cult for seven years and was an Office of Special Affairs agent.
According to the SWR report, Markert has come to the attention of the authorities over the years for confidence games and fraud. He was actually in prison in the late 1990s, when he had said he had joined Scientology while studying in the US, had been promoted to management because of his skills and had been sent to head the Dublin Mission in Ireland. Irish police have confirmed his presence in their country, where he is wanted for theft.
(Taken from alt.religion.scientology)
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The Spy Who Came in from Dinslaken
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
On June 20, 2007, a press conference was held in the Berlin Parliament House involving speakers Ursula Caberta, Thomas Gandow, and Mr. Schiemann, member of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (German domestic intelligence).
A surprise guest was a man who claimed to be a former long-time Scientologist from the Church of Scientology of Buffalo, New York - Christian Markert. Markert was touted as having information about internal Church matters.
In view of the fact that renowned hate mongers Ursula Caberta and David Touretzky were connected to Markert's sudden appearance on the anti-religious scene, Religious Freedom Watch investigated the matter.
We began with "Who is Christian J. Markert?" since only a handful of people in Buffalo had ever heard of him. Markert claims that he was born in Dinslaken, Germany. He also claims that he attended Robert Kennedy University in Los Angeles, California, from 1989 to 1993 and obtained an MBA degree. No such university exists.
Markert claimed he attended a private Junior High School in Los Angeles from 1980 to 1989, called Abitur. However, he also claimed that he attended Gymnasium Voerde in Germany from 1980 to 1989. How could he possibly attend both schools in the same time period in two different parts of the world? These are only a few of the inconsistencies that appear as one gathers up the countless stories Markert told to various people after he landed on Scientology's doorstep in March of 2007 - stories that smack of a hastily rehearsed background fabricated by someone with something to hide.
Markert had come from overseas and boasted to several people in Buffalo that he was a successful businessman in Ireland, where he managed a company called Creaventure Consulting. To bolster this story, Markert claimed that one of his company's clients had deposited 3 million Euros into their account to secure his company's services, but that the Irish Revenue Service thought it was profit, which triggered, according to Markert, a tax investigation into Creaventure Consulting. Markert claimed that Creaventure Consulting went from 200,000 Euros in income to 22 million Euros in just three years, which also prompted a full audit of his company. Markert explained that there were 25 agents from the Irish Revenue Service doing the audit. But when Religious Freedom Watch had their correspondent in Ireland look into Creaventure Consulting, including official public records, there was no such company in existence or previously operating in Ireland.
The only evidence that could be found of Creaventure Consulting was the domain name, creaventure.com, which was registered on the internet in January of 2007, just a few weeks before Christian Markert began his brief involvement in Scientology which ended in June of 2007.
Does Creaventure Consulting only exist in the mind of Christian Markert? Or was it created for him by a few bungling individuals who hoped to place him as a "plant" within a Church for just a few months in the hope of gaining information that could be later spun into something that appeared incriminating? It certainly wouldn't be the first time such a ploy has been used by would-be extortionists and their like.
Markert made many claims to Buffalo church personnel to try to appear as though he had a history in Scientology. He claimed that he was a member of a Church of Scientology in Ireland but, when inquires were made, not a single record could be found to support Markert's claim. Markert also claimed that he had donated an exorbitant amount of money to the Church in Ireland. That also proved to be a complete fabrication. In fact, no one in Ireland had ever heard his name.
It appears that, in order to gain acceptance by Church members during his brief few months in Buffalo, Markert gave several entirely fabricated versions of having a history in Scientology. He told some people he was a Scientologist for 15 years, others for 10 years, still others for 7 years. The fact of the matter is that Christian Markert was never a Scientologist, he just infiltrated the Church under false pretenses and he was sent in with specific marching orders.
Who are the "handlers" of this wannabe spy?
Consider the timeline: Markert's company name "Creaventure" first appears on the internet as a domain name registered on January 21, 2007. Five weeks later, on March 1st, Markert makes his first contact with Scientology at the Buffalo, New York, church. A mere four months after that, German native Christian Markert appears in Berlin at a press conference conveniently arranged by government official, Ursula Caberta, in support of her long-time campaign of slander against the Church of Scientology.
Concurrent with the end of Markert's "career" as a bookseller in Scientology, a couple of extremists chronicled in the Anti-Religious Extremists section of Religious Freedom Watch began making claims about some dramatic event that was going to occur involving a former Scientology staff member.
Prior to the press conference in Berlin, David Touretzky announced from Carnegie Mellon University, that he was in contact with "an anonymous source" within the Church. Some days later Chuck Beatty, an apostate of Scientology, tried to tell a "dramatic" story of how he helped Christian Markert to "escape" from Buffalo and hid him away at his sister, Linda Kirkhart's house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while arrangements were being made to fly him back to Germany. In fact this was a pre-planned infiltration designed to create a sensational story at that 20th of June 2007 press conference in Berlin - and the perpetrator needed a lift to the airport.
The "imagineers" of this attempted drama are extremists who spend most of their waking hours slandering the Church in the most vicious of terms with a devotion that only paid agent provocateurs can muster. Unfortunately for them, Markert, their wannabe spy, whom they spirited off to Berlin for this dramatic press conference, had nothing to show for his efforts except Scientology news that any staff member in the world could provide, even though Market did his level best to put an anti-religious spin on it.
Chuck Beatty, "Getaway Driver"
"I drove from Pittsburgh to Buffalo, last Wednesday morning, picked up Christian [Markert], who had blown Buffalo staff and I picked him up and we went up to Niagra Falls for a late lunch, saw the American Falls at least, then came back to Pittsburgh, and he stayed here at my sister's place for a couple days, then I got him to JFK, and then he got to Germany and to Ursula's [Caberta] competent hands, etc." - Chuck Beatty
In the attempt to make their amateurish spy operation seem successful, Chuck Beatty also broadcasted the following statement on the Internet, "Christian [Markert] was already a high level successful consultant (making hundreds of thousands of Euros per year)...He [Markert] became a Scientologist, helped the Dublin Mission, joined Mission staff there, donated tons of money for Dublin to get their building, then he volunteered to even help out at higher levels of staff ...".
It seems Beatty really wanted to ensure that people out there believed the prefabricated story about Markert being a successful businessman who became a Scientologist, doing it in such a way as to leave little doubt in our minds that he and other extremists had a hand in its manufacture.
Christian Markert's "hideout" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
But let's go back a couple of months and specifically to April 2007 when Chuck Beatty met with Ursula Caberta in Hamburg, Germany. What was the purpose of the meeting between these extremists and what did Beatty and Caberta plan? It is of interest that Markert infiltrated the Church only a month prior and would soon be in need of someone to help orchestrate his "dramatic" exit from Scientology - or at least give him a ride to the airport just in time for Caberta's press conference in Berlin. The Church of Scientology there is expanding in greater numbers than ever before, an expansion that Germany's OPC (Office for the Protection of the Constitution) has worked hard to thwart for decades. Whatever the plan, it seems Beatty, Caberta and Touretzky didn't think it all the way through. As is usual with a story strung together by lies, eventually it backfires on the perpetrators: David Touretzky, Ursula Caberta and their go-for, Chuck Beatty, used a convicted criminal to infiltrate the Church.
A simple search for Christian Markert on the worldwide web reveals that Markert was convicted in France for fraud and was also extradited to Germany for crimes he committed in that country.
Markert's Criminal History
Here is a glimpse of Christian Markert's fraudulent activities in both France and Germany:
12 June 1997, the Trial Court of Meaux (Paris, France) convicts Christian Markert of fraud and sentences him to 18 months in jail.
February 1997, German authorities issue an arrest warrant against Christian Markert, based on a 9 April and 29 November 1996 warrant issued by the court in Essen, Germany. The first warrant cites five instances of Markert's illegal activities. The second, expanded warrant includes eight counts for various forms of fraud.
18 June 1997, Christian Markert is officially notified of the various outstanding arrest warrants in Germany.
10 July 1997, the German court issues an extradition request against Christian Markert.
June 1998, Christian Markert brings a case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against France. His case was not accepted by the European Court.
13 August 1998, Christian Markert is officially notified of the extradition request.
3 May 1999, Christian Markert is extradited to Germany.
This is just scratching the surface of the documents easily available on the internet that evidence Markert's history of fraud and criminality. If Religious Freedom Watch could find this evidence, so could computer expert David Touretzky and government official, Ursula Caberta. One must assume that they did.
It would be hard to believe that Ursula Caberta, with all her government intelligence contacts, did not know Markert was a criminal. Both Ursula Caberta and the OPC are very well aware that it is illegal to spy on a foreign country or a foreign organization. David Touretzky is employed by Carnegie Mellon University and receives US Government funds to supposedly study and experiment on rat brains. Instead he may have used resources funded by taxpayers to aid and abet a German government official and a convicted criminal in their efforts to spy on a US based Church. Chuck Beatty, is an accessory to all this, although he is motivated by hatred for his former religion. It is not known if Linda Kirkhart, Beatty's sister, played any role in this operation besides innocent host her brother and Markert.
Was Markert promised some sort of a deal by Caberta and/or by the German government in exchange for infiltrating the Church of Scientology in Buffalo, New York, and causing havoc? Is this why Chuck Beatty traveled to Hamburg in the midst of this operation and then had to personally drive Markert from Buffalo to Pittsburgh and hide him away at Linda Kirkhart's house until he flew off to decorate Caberta's press conference?
alt.religion.scientology
Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:03:12 -0700
Re: Christian Markert made it to Religious Freedom Watch, etc...
Am trying to get to Christian to get his response to this.
He seemed absolutely genuine to me. He was a gung ho Class 5 staffer from all appearances. Just after his leaving, the staff at Buffalo were leaving messages on his phone, sympathetic messages asking him to come back and get his auditing squared away, etc.
My sister and I had a laugh about this, and I've sent this on to my boss at the Post Gazette in case they want to interview my sister on all this, and get the other side of the story here.
Scientology has no idea how bad this makes them seem, they take every story, Christian is a typical staff member blowing, and I note they omitted other things I posted, they selectively only post what suits their image.
But Christian should tell the final events leading him to decide to get out, and why he chose to leave abruptly rather than "route out" (which I don't recommend, I think just refusing the dreadful final sec checks and enforced signing of legal docs giving up one's rights to speak about one's employment in Scientology is absolutely NOT worth the staying in good graces with them).
I went to pick him up, because like I posted, if someone had come help me escape, I'd have gladly taken their help.
Staff leaving is problematic, and I sympathize with anyone wanting to get out.
I also feel, like others who DID more smoothly "blow" their staff jobs, that a person in the movement on staff ought to save up their money, and blow a little more pre-meditatedly, that is if they know they don't want to go through the "leaving staff" gauntlet and sign away their free speech rights, etc, etc, which is just ludicrous and unprincipled!
My beefs with Scientology won't go away until the wrongs they do, which all trace to Hubbard's ideas, are retired from use.
Christian chose to get out quick, and actually, Hubbard in Keeping Scientology Working says let those that want to quit, to quit fast.
And the Sea Org orders that Hubbard gave on the Apollo, were to let people get off the ship in 48 hours, I think he specified. While I was on the RPF's RPF, one of the RPF's RPF MAAs (ethics officers) showed me the Hubbard writing that people in the Sea Org on the Apollo should be gotten off the ship in 48 hours.
They cannot accomplish this. Leaving staff continues to force people to chose the abrupt escape method as the only intelligent choice.
If one's faith in Hubbard's ideas is failing, and faith in the leadership in the movement is failing, and one sees how dreadful the staff in an org treat each other, and if staff allow dreadful treatment of each other, then "blowing" is absolutely the intelligent choice.
I entirely understood Christian's Markert's request for my help to get him to Germany, in that context.
I understood the predicament, I myself spend months and months, probably all total, I contemplated blowing, but never chose to do it, for 5 of my 7 years on the decks/RPF, from 1996 until 2003.
Christian was waiting in the Laundromat, a typical choice as an excuse for someone who's blown, and his only saving grace why they hadn't started looking for him, is because he'd been such a cooperative staffer, and was a competent individual.
He was very exacting in his following of Hubbard's staff rules, in fact, so much so that he commented to me that he had difficulties with several of the Buffalo execs, like the ED and Flag Rep, who were trying to get him to follow their orders in conflict with policy writings of Hubbard that Christian was being cross ordered to follow by Bridge Publications personnel.
So Christian was caught between a minor cross orders within the Scientology upper staff bureaucracies, Bridge and his org execs, and Christian was the Bookstore Officer.
On the timeline with me and Hamburg, they have it wrong, possibly intentionally, to draw out of me more info on what went on.
I have to detail my whole experience in Hamburg, so as to fill in those blanks.
In any case, Christian is probably not the reason Buffalo didn't attain Saint Hill size, nor did Berlin.
I think Christian should speak up so details of his staff experiences at Buffalo and Dublin are gotten out.
I took his story as genuine, and he could not have faked being a staffer. He was a gung ho staffer who was smart enough to see the facade and bullshit and see it is NOT like LRH nor the staff say it is.
Life in Buffalo staff is probably somewhat better than a "small and failing org" but it is probably comparable to the delusionally "good times" at Saint Hill when LRH was ED there when old Saint Hill was "old Saint Hill" in its heyday.
Ask me specifically anything about this all, point by point.
I stand by Christian, I think he's legit. I think they are trying to invent skeletons in Christian's past by innuendo, in typical Religious Freedom Watch editorial style, all for the reading education of their faithful who read Religious Freedom Watch.
This article isn't meant to educate outside readers, none of whom I've ever heard say a kind word about Religious Freedom Watch's output.
This article is for the faithful, especially Buffalo public.
I think Christian should make some public statements to the Buffalo public, who know him, and can judge instantly this Religious Freedom Watch crap as crap.
This is Scientology for you!
Chuck Beatty
412-260-1170
Pittsburgh