I. Introduction
For some years the Scientology Organization (SO) has been carrying out an unprecedented defamation campaign against the Federal Republic of Germany as well as against known Scientology critics in an attempt to disparage Germany as an unjust state which persecutes religious minorities and to intimidate critics into silence. These systematic and ideologically motivated attacks have been initiated and legitimized by the highest ranks of management in the SO. Scientology sees itself as a party waging war in which any expedient is allowed in a battle against "suppression." These actions are organized and coordinated against individual critics, groups and governments by an intelligence organization called the "Office of Special Affairs" (OSA) from within the overall structure of Scientology. By 1986 the Munich District Attorney's Office had officially confirmed that Scientology had been employing intelligence methods in its defense against opponents from both inside and outside of its ranks, was operating in the gray areas of illegality and would not shrink from criminal actions when the need arose. This hindsight opened up a scope of observation in the work of the Constitutional Security Agency which has been of the greatest significance in its assessment and evaluation of the SO.
It must be mentioned that Scientology has, as has just about any other pseudo-religious or similar group, intelligently, systematically integrated opposing criticism and rejection - anticipatorily and exploitatively - and they have built into the conflict with the non-Scientologist outside world a stabilizing moment of their own ideology. However, it would be premature to say that the "war" being conducted by Scientology, the "war chest," the intelligence directives and not least of all the contemporary internationally waged campaign are being directed not so much outside the organization as they are internally. The conflict being instigated is not just a conscious means of ensuring strict obedience - to be sure, this is a by-product -, but it is a component part of a strategy resulting from directed theory and operating instructions whose purpose it is to remove all obstacles which stand in the way of Scientology expansion.
Describing itself as an "applied religious philosophy," Scientology's claim to absolutism shows through in the interpretation of its name: "knowing how one knows." According to HUBBARD's description, Scientology, which he "discovered," is a "science of knowledge" and of life itself, an axiomatic teaching so to speak, for which no criticism is valid because it describes mental natural laws which can only be accepted, but never ignored or broken, unpunished. The members of the SO are therefore not "believers" in the religious sense, but see themselves as people who "know" and who are re-arranging their knowledge.
As concerns the public, the SO needs - in contrast to its internal vocabulary - a religious terminology for the purpose of obtaining the protection of the constitutional guarantees pertaining to religious congregations and to obtain other advantages, such as tax exemption. Although Scientology has, by rights, been denied the character of a religion, despite its struggle for money, power and influence, it must not be overlooked that this is not driven by materialistic motives, but is raised by their business philosophy to an intellectual plane. The SO strives for "worldly" power as a basis for carrying out its postulated universal liberation of the human spirit - called a "Thetan" - by means of its spiritual "technology" - called "auditing." For Scientologists, this goes further than "just" power and influence: it is a matter of their eternal destiny and that of the planet. Scientology has been, from its inception and being, an "intellectual magic", teachings of "survival" fringed with social Darwinistic concepts, sprinkled with elements from gnosticism, occultism, psychology and psychotherapy as well as science fiction literature, and directed at the domination and control over and by the human intellect. Their loftiest, if also unrealistically remote, goal is spiritual world domination, along with worldwide acknowledgment as an individual salvation philosophy, including that of a generally valid state doctrine by whose principles all state and social dealings should be guided. To this end, the SO wants to program individual people, and especially those in top leadership positions, in the Scientology way of thinking so that all social institutions are under their influence, and finally, under their control. The goal is the "liberation" of the planet ("Clear Planet") and the establishment of a "new civilization without mental illness, without criminals and without war." The SO justifies its endeavors with the assertion that it owns the only "technology" - "ideology" in plain language - with which the survival of humanity could be assured. Scientology says that it enables, for the first time, the formation of "a real democracy." This will arise "when we have freed every individual from his immoral reactive impulses." Scientology takes these goals absolutely seriously:
"We're not playing some minor game in Scientology. . . . The whole agonized future of this planet, . . . and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology. This is a deadly serious activity."
HCOPL of 7 February 1965
"Keeping Scientology Working"The three decisive elements in the Scientology strategy of conversion are 1. "ethics," 2. "technology," and 3. "administration." "Ethics," as a Scientologist understands it, is "rationality toward the highest level of survival" for the individual and for all of humankind; also expressed in the language of Scientology as: the greatest possible good for the greatest number of "dynamics" (the driving forces of life). Since it is taken for granted that Scientology is absolutely true and rational, everything which benefits the SO and its goals is seen as ethical, while anything which harms them is seen as "unethical." The purpose of "ethics" is to "remove counter intentions from the environment and having accomplished that, the purpose becomes to remove other-intentionedness from the environment . . . "
The coordinated functions of the three named areas and their importance as a three-stage total concept for obtaining influence and expansion was expressed by HUBBARD as follows:
< "If one can get in Ethics, then one can get in Scientology Technology. When one can get in Scientology Technology, then one can get in Administration. When one can bring all three areas up to full capacity, then one has an Org and expansion. . . . In that we handle small areas, starting with Scientology groups and organizations themselves, we can repeat the three cycles - Ethics, Tech and Administration. We will gradually increase and expand our sphere of Ethics-Tech-Admin. And one day we'll have Ethics in on this planet, Tech in on this planet and Admin in on this planet. Our sole obstacle is the SP (Suppressive Person)." >
Scientology assumes that their increasing expansion can be hindered or stopped only by relatively small groups, including very rich and influential people, institutions or governments. The solving of this elementary problem, i.e. to get "ethics" in on this planet and to stop the "suppression" of Scientology, is the primary mission of the Scientology intelligence service and propaganda apparatus. It is of existential importance for the survival capability and expansion of Scientology.
This booklet is meant to call attention to the intelligence activities and their importance to the organization. The rise and development of the Scientology intelligence organizations are outlined and minutely examined in chronological order. In doing so, retrospective consideration of recognized individual cases of intelligence activity is taken less into account than is the exposure of the theoretical and ideological background of the "war" being waged by Scientology. The insight resulting from this facilitates an easier assessment of the actual activities and campaigns of the SO as well as a more exact prediction of future conduct.
In order to properly understand the systematic method of procedure used by Scientology and to be able to correctly assess this method, the following aspects are - not only in regards to their intelligence operations - of decisive significance:
Inside the SO the principle still holds true that all verbal or written teachings and instructions by HUBBARD in regard to the "third dynamic" technology, organization technology or administrative technology are "permanently valid." They may be modified editorially, but never in content. These special directives <"form, without prejudice to date or age, the know-how of how one leads an organization, group or company."> In other words, these documents can be submitted without restriction as material evidence for the current assessment and evaluation of the SO and its endeavors to attain political, commercial and social power, since they are perceived to have the status and character of quasi-holy scriptures. They are a kind of original source out of which appropriate concepts of conduct can still be developed and interpreted today.
Another, more important, aspect for the evaluation of the SO is the recognition that HUBBARD consciously veiled the intentions and goals of his organization from the public. This public deception which is still being carried out by his followers today is evident not only in: his repeatedly beautified biography, the - exorbitantly exaggerated - claimed membership figures, feigned religious character, as well as many other specific examples; but also appears to reflect the general nature of the organization. In view of the following admission by HUBBARD, it would not be overstated to speak of a consciously managed system of lies:
"THE ONLY WAY TO CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM" (E.i.O.). In order to define this revealing statement in intelligence terminology, one could also say that Scientology runs a continuous disinformation operation. For the SO, the fundamental principle prevails that much is not what it appears to be. The majority of its success has resulted, though, in its success in maintaining these legends and half-truths and selling them to the public as reality. Probably the greatest and most successful Scientology disinformation campaign is its claim that it is a religion and a church. In addressing his followers, HUBBARD continually stressed the importance of this point:
" Remember. CHURCHES ARE LOOKED UPON AS REFORM GROUPS.
Therefore we must act like a reform group. [. . .]
We MUST convert from an attacked group to a reform group that attacks rotten spots in the society. . . We should look for zones to investigate and blow the lid off and become known as a mighty reform group. We object to slavery, oppression, torture, murder, perversion, crime, political sin and anything that makes Man unfree. . . .
Remember - the only reason we are in trouble with the press or governments is that we are not searching out and exposing rotten spots in the society. We must practice on the whole group called society. If we do not it will attack us . . . "
HCOPL OF 25 February 1966
"Attacks on Scientology"The SO has always held to this principle: under the protective cloak of the "church" operates an extremely effective intelligence service and propaganda apparatus.
Part II, about the intelligence work of the SO, deals with the forerunner organizations from 1959 to 1966. That covers the interval up until the founding of the notorious "Guardian Office" (GO) intelligence agency in March 1966, which is covered in Part III. Part IV is concerned, finally, with the the successor organization, "Office of Special Affairs" (OSA), which was called to life in 1983.
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