III. The Guardian Office (GO)

"There is probably no limit on what I would do to safeguard Man's only road to freedom against persons who...seek to stop Scientology ..."

L. Ron HUBBARD, August 15, 1967

1. Establishment and Structure

Only two weeks after the establishment of the "Public Investigation Section," another post was installed at the forefront of the intelligence apparatus: the "Guardian." At first, HUBBARD meant this function to be a "trustee" of Scientology. The "Guardian" was supposed to support HUBBARD in completing and distributing policy. It was supposed to protect the individual organizations and help to advance Scientology in the long-term. The first "Guardian" of the organization was Mary Sue HUBBARD, the third wife of the Scientology founder. The post was very rapidly built into its own organization, the "Guardian Office." It integrated all previously existing functions and instructions of the SO intelligence service and propaganda apparatus. At the peak of the organization stood the "Guardian World Wide" (Guardian WW). With a Policy Letter of 21 January 1969, another post, the "Controller," was created which was subordinate to the Guardian WW. This post was given to Mary Sue HUBBARD for her lifetime. Her successor in this post of the Guardian WW was Jane KEMBER.

The GO had its headquarters in Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, in the vicinity of London, where HUBBARD was living at the time. Organizationally, it was incorporated into the "HUBBARD Communications Office" (HCO) and - as part of the the hierarchical plane of the same structure - it was represented in the Scientology "Orgs" in what was Division 7, the "Executive Division" at the time. Management lines ran from the "Assistant Guardian" in each organization, whose post was established directly behind that of the Executive Director (ED) in the upper management, to the Guardian of the respective Continental Organization, which was subordinate to the "Guardian WW." The staff of the GO were not subordinate to the director of the local organization, but had their own chain of command in the GO network. The GO, inside of Scientology, was at first quite openly known as the "Intelligence Bureau." Later, for concealment purposes, this was changed to the somewhat more innocent sounding "Information Bureau." This maneuver, however, was not able to conceal the fact that the GO operated more than its predecessor organization as a classic intelligence service, that it was far better organized and structured and that it exhibited a remarkable professionalism and effectiveness.

Although HUBBARD held no official function personally, the GO worked under his oversight. HUBBARD had himself informed weekly about the most important events and intelligence activities. In the course of the years, the GO gained an ever increasing importance in the system, so that it could be described as the real center of decision and power. In the 1970's, according to testimony from Robert Vaughn YOUNG, who held leading positions in the GO/OSA from 1971 to 1989, the GO had 400 to 500 full time staff world wide. About 200 people worked in the headquarters in Los Angeles; the rest of the staff were distributed world wide among about 25 offices, most of them were in North America and Europe. Ex-Scientologist Jon ATACK, referring to testimony given in court by David MISCAVIGE in 1994, even asserted that a total of 1,100 staff belonged to the GO, along with an unknown number of "Field Staff Members" (FSM, full or part time staff employed as contractors). According to ATACK, HUBBARD, in the GO, had created one of the largest and most effective private intelligence services in the history of man.

2. The Divisions and Mission Areas of the GO

In an official informational letter published by the "Scientology Church Germany" (SCG) on the "Guardian Office Germany," HUBBARD praised the GO effusively and verified its unsurpassed value inside the total organization:

<"There is no organizational network more successful than the OFFICE OF THE GUARDIAN. ... That does not mean only within Scientology or within the organization. It is possible that in the dark expanse of history there was once such an activity which was as successful. If that is so, then I know nothing about it.">

The existential significance of the GO for Scientology was also emphasized in one of the above mentioned informational letters of praise by HUBBARD published on June 23, 1974:

<"Out in front of and far above the others stands the GUARDIAN ORGANIZATION NETWORK. There is no comparable group on this planet. It expands and defends Scientology all over the Earth and has long since surpassed the condition of power.">

In another place HUBBARD states:

<"Everybody, from CS-G (Commodore's Staff Guardian) down, are tip top people, a really extraordinary and incredible group, for whom the impossible is everyday, routine work."
...
"The two most effective arms of Dianetics and Scientology are the Sea Org and the Guardian Office.">

In due regard to this position of power confirmed by HUBBARD, it was impossible even for the high functionaries of the International Management to make a decision without the GO. All activities of the organization first had to be blessed by the GO. Not only the classic intelligence activities fell within the operational realm of the GO, but also all legal, financial and propaganda operations of Scientology were carried out under the oversight and control of the new Scientology intelligence agency. All financial transactions on the level of the "Orgs" - including matters of real estate - were subject to inspection and supervision by the local "Assistant Guardian." For this purpose they were given the right to make withdrawals from any bank account in the "Org."

In 1972, a German GO presence was founded in Munich. With the fast expansion of Scientology, according to the SCG in 1976, the mission of the GO in Germany also grew rapidly. Although the number of staff in 1976 had increased by a factor of six from 5 to 30, the German section of the GO, in comparison to the total number of GO staff, was of insignificant size. In the aforementioned document by the German GO, a detailed purpose of the organization is stated:

< "The Guardian Office is an indispensable component for the expansion of Scientology ... it primarily sees to the following items:

It also stated in more detail how the GO was organized. Since the structure of the Scientology organizations is identical on all levels (local, continental, international), inferences can be drawn about the international structure from the statements concerning the German GO organization. Originally, the GO was separated into five divisions: the Public Relations (PR) Office, the Legal Office, the Finance Office, the Office for Social Activities and the Service Office.

Scientology concludes that in social areas in which "out-ethics" exists, no standard "Scientology technology" would be able to exist so that it could be effectively applied. Therefore, the PR office also plays the role of an "auditor" for society. It is active on the "third dynamic" and sees to it that such immoral areas in society are reformed and cease exerting their bad influence upon the combined well-being of humanity. The Legal Office is responsible for the protection of the legal interests of the Scientology organizations and their members; the Finance Office for the "financial condition" of the establishments. For Scientology, the financial status of a Scientology establishment is the highest indicator for the evaluation of the competence of its current management. The Office for Social Activities has the assignment of bringing the "technology" of HUBBARD into use by society. In the areas of drug rehabilitation, criminal reform, business and management, education and health agencies as well as in many other areas, Scientology wants to take over the "lion's share of the responsibility in community and in world events." By doing this, not only the purpose of the GO would be fulfilled, but also a more important contribution for the attainment of the Scientology goal would be realized: a planet which is "clear" as soon as possible. The Service Office is supposed to see to it that the GO has enough well-trained staff available, i.e. they should be adequately trained.

A short time later the so-called "Information Division" came into being, or at least that was the first time it was mentioned as a separate division. In a GO pamphlet from 1978, the missions of the now six divisions of the GO, including that of the classic intelligence mission of the "Information Division," were precisely defined:

"The Service Office
contributes in that a team of "incomparable people" is made from the GO, which works and is ready to work to create a spiritually sound civilization through the application of technology, Standard Scientology Training, Auditing, Corrections and Ethics.

The Information Division
is indispensable for the mission of the Guardian Office. Fundamental data will be collected there, the evaluation of which will enable the prediction of how things are running so that one can handle situations which could harm the expansion of Scientology.

The Press and Publicity Office
puts its attention on exposing false reports about Scientology and correcting them. Modern technology of L. Ron HUBBARD on Public Relations is applied here to handle the general relationship of Scientology to the public - it works together with television, radio, the press, VIPs and government officials. The result is that the good work of Scientology is widely spread by thousands of advantageous news reports each week all around the world

The Legal Office
is the guardian of the law for everybody and everything which concerns Scientology. It uses every means of justice on those who try to suppress the expansion of Scientology. As a result of this it helps to create a spiritually sound civilization - it protects the copyrights of the standard Scientology technology - handles all legal, government and tax matters.

The Finance Division
is entrusted with the responsibility for securing the goods and the good reputation of the Church - it brings solvency and spiritual health into Scientology organizations in that it ensures that policies regarding finance are followed and that Scientology expands as a result.

The Office for Social Coordination
is a reformer in the area of spiritual health, criminal and drug rehabilitation, education and fundamental human rights - it dynamically creates recognition of the indispensability of Scientology technology within society itself. Consequently it makes the goal of Scientology real, namely, a civilization without mental illness, without crime and without war."

The focal point of this discussion, the "Information Division," - "Information Bureau" in American - which was the real intelligence department of the GO, was further divided into several "branches." The area of responsibility of "Branch I" (B I) included the collection of information from publicly available sources ("Overt Data Collection", ODC), and the hidden data collection using intelligence means ("Covert Data Collection", CO). "Branch II" (B II) was responsible for the "internal security" of the organization.

3. Strategies and program of the GO and their background

In different fields of Scientology operation, HUBBARD developed a so-called "Admin Scale," which defined, in writing, the goal, purpose and pertinent directives needed for the execution of plans, programs and projects. In the "Admin Scale" for the GO, HUBBARD defined its goal as follows:

<"to sweep enough resistance aside to create a vacuum into which Scientology is able to expand.">

The "purpose" of the GO is the establishment of the indispensability of Scientology. The "ideal scene" is reached for Scientology when the

<"person attacking Scientology is isolated and cut off from his position of power and Scientology can attain this. And each threat of attack is restricted so that Scientology has an open field.">

The "Valuable Final Product" (VFP) of GO operations, according to HUBBARD, is <"more subjugated mentalities on the side of all enemies.">

HUBBARD's enormous efforts to approach this goal with an effective and conclusive intelligence service and propaganda apparatus becomes understandable when one realizes that the Scientology founder was seriously considering the takeover of all decisive positions of power in the state and society. He documented these long-term goals ("targets") of Scientology in a Policy Letter of 16 February 1969, which is still effective:

"The vital targets on which we must invest most of our time are:

T1. Depopularizing the enemy to a point of total obliteration.

T2. Taking over the control or allegiance of the heads or proprietors of all news media.

T3. Taking over the control or allegiance of key political figures.

T4. Taking over the control or allegiance of those who monitor international finance and shifting them to a less precarious finance standard.

T5. Generally revitalizing the societies in which we are operating.

T6. Winning overwhelming public support.

T7. Use all other similar groups as allies.

These, of course, are very long range targets. But it is what must be done to continue the longevity of our organizations.

Our only justification for doing these things is that Scientology is the only game where everyone wins.

Nearly everything we are doing is already tending in that direction T1 - T7.

We have the advantage of new vital technology and a monopoly on it. New technologies are the things which made progress.

We do not have a Utopian dream or a planned society. We are trying to survive. Our theory is that if individuals become more honest and less harassed they will be capable of building a better society. ... If we unite all groups into an interplay and use all forces extant and channel them we have a very big chance of winning. ... So we can and must take the lead. And we ourselves must develop many leaders."

In regard to the Scientology reaction to attacks on the organization, HUBBARD listed a few mistakes which would unconditionally have to be avoided in the future:

" The errors we have made have been

  1. Defending only.
  2. Defending on Scn ground.
  3. Being reasonable and assigning mild motives to the enemy.
  4. Failing to attack early and hard.
  5. ...
  6. ...
  7. Not learning enemy tactics and using and bettering them.
  8. Failing to heavily contest for public opinion and public media.
  9. Failing to identify the enemy early and hit him hard. "

HCO PL 16 Feb 69, "Target, Defense"

It is not difficult to recognize from this and other statements that HUBBARD, since at least the end of the 1960's, regarded Scientology as a movement which found itself in a constant state of war and which use methods which included rabid means, if need be, for the welfare of humanity. In another Policy Letter which was published on the same day, HUBBARD outlined the Scientology battle strategy and the function of the intelligence service:

" It is bad warfare to fight battles on your own terrain, in your own subject area. ... Fight battles wherever possible only on enemy terrain ... When all your battles are fought on his terrain, you are winning.

A good general expends the maximum of enemy troops and the minimum of his own. He makes the war costly to the enemy, not to himself.

One cuts off enemy communications, funds, connections. He deprives the enemy of political advantages, connections and power. He takes over enemy territory. He raids and harasses. All on a thought plane - press, public opinion, governments, etc.

Intelligence identifies targets and finds out enemy plans and purposes, enemy connections, dispositions, etc. It is fatal to attack a wrong enemy. ...

Good intelligence pin points who when where what.

Good PRO (comment: Public Relations Officer) plans an action and operations fights the battle.

Legal is a slow if often final battle arena. It eventually comes down to legal in the end. If intelligence and PRO have done well, then legal gets an easy win."

HCO PL 16 Feb 69, "Battle Tactics"

A strategy paper published by the "Commodore's Staff Guardian" (CS-G), Mary Sue Hubbard, on December 2, 1969, gave further insight into the strategy and tactics of the GO. In this the purpose and objectives of overt and covert data collection, covert operations as well as internal security precautions were precisely defined and presented with examples. On the theme of "Covert Operations" against Scientology opponents, it clearly stated:

<"Essentially a covert operation is intended to embarrass, discredit or overthrow or remove an actual or possible opponent. It is a small war carried on without its true source being disclosed. ... It follows all the rules of war, but uses propaganda, psychological surprise and shock tactics to achieve the final goal."

According to another ground rule of conducting Scientology war, a covert operation must always be followed by an overt one. That means that in order to be able to decisively strike the opponent, one has to publicly discredit him after it's over. However, according to Mary Sue HUBBARD,

<"All stages for the takeover of power on a national plane begin with a covert operation.">

Then the GO Chief stated the most important provisions under which even a small group would be in a position to stop a much larger perceived enemy: effective use of intelligence tactics, good "technology," and organization. Scientology had this arsenal at its disposal and therefore would have a good chance of being victorious.

The intensification of Scientology expansion and attack strategy documented by these statements coincided with the apparently increasing hallucinations by HUBBARD of a worldwide conspiracy against Scientology. In a HUBBARD presentation from 1967 still being cited today by the SO, the Scientology founder stated for the first time, on the basis of alleged intelligence results, that Scientology was being targeted by a worldwide conspiracy:

"Our enemies are less than twelve men. They are members of the Bank of England and other higher financial circles. They own and control newspaper chains and they, oddly enough, spin [sic] all the mental health groups in the world that had sprung up. Now these chaps are very interesting fellows, they have fantastically corrupt backgrounds, illegitimate children, government graft ... Being in control of most of the gold supplies on the planet, they entered on a programme of bringing every government to bankruptcy and under their thumb, so that no government would be able to act politically without their permission. The rest of their apparent programme was to use mental health ... to remove from their path any political dissenters ... They have collected rather interesting files on us, our people, and organizations, and their orders concerning what to do about this is part of their files. It all makes very interesting reading. We of course have full copies of their files. ... That is a very cloak-and-dagger activity which is more or less over at this time. We have, however, our own files on them, and a corrupt lot they are. I think we probably have enough to discredit them utterly if we ever published what we knew ..."

One year later, HUBBARD published a Policy Letter with the title of "The War," in which he reported:

<"Last year we filtered out a dozen men at the peak. This year we have found the organizations which they use and all their connections to the world.">

HUBBARD meant, in particular, the "World Federation of Mental Health" (WFMH) with its current national subordinate organizations. Psychiatry and the area of "mental health" were selected as the ones who were held to be responsible for undermining and destroying the West. The influence of this complex upon the formation of society was said to be immense. In areas of education, in the Armed Forces, even in the church, psychiatric ideas had penetrated everywhere. There "technology" was supposed to be the same used by intelligence agencies such as the KGB: electro-shocks and brain operations. Only Scientology stood in the way of these people who had been fighting Scientology since 1950. For HUBBARD it was true that if Scientology should succeed in forcing this opponent, international psychiatry, to its knees, then the greatest hindrance to the expansion of Scientology spiritual technology would be removed. Scientology had so far been prevented from taking total control in the field of spiritual health in the West. This one last step would now have to be undertaken. In light of HUBBARD's psychiatric world conspiracy, the attainment of the goal,

<"to take total control in the field of mental health in all its forms on this planet...",>

became one of the primary missions of the GO. Psychiatry, as the alleged enemy, would first have to be removed from the path to be able to carry out the original purpose of "clearing" the planet:

<"Our victory will come when we lead his organizations (comment: those of the enemy's), carry out his functions and achieve his financial means and allowance.">

HUBBARD showed how deadly serious he took his concept of a psychiatric world conspiracy, and to what degree he was willing to react several years later. In 1973, HUBBARD developed the far-reaching Scientology intelligence program, still in use today, which is known under the code name of "Operation Snow White." Documenting his program in writing on April 28, 1973, HUBBARD pursued the goal of exposing the source of the attacks allegedly being carried out against him since 1950 worldwide and "handling" it with his "humanitarian teachings." In a "Guardian Order" of June 22, 1974, all staff of the GO were once again inculcated with the extreme importance of this program:

<"The 'Snow White' Program has the HIGHEST PRIORITY OF ALL GO ACTIVITIES (E.i.O).">

This program, according to HUBBARD, was supposed to eliminate a specific "engram" on the "fourth dynamic - that means a painful experience which all civilizations in the world had experienced at some point in the past. In other words: HUBBARD believed, that with the annihilation of psychiatry in regards to its influence, and by Scientology appearing with its technology for the domination and control of the human mind in its place, the alleged slavery of humanity could be reversed. The highest priority step of this program was founded on the GO itself dealing with hundreds of smaller situations which appeared to prevent the progress of Scientology, but the "Snow White" program had the more extensive mission to pull the problem of resistance to Scientology out by its roots. It was supposed to uncover and eliminate the source of hindrances so that worldwide acceptance of Scientology would increase. This program was carried out for Scientology to "hold the door wide open to completely clearing the planet."

In the 1970's, the operation encompassed 38 main projects worldwide, including untold sub-projects, everywhere Scientology was active in one form or another. However, only a handful of selected individuals got a view of the complete picture and the true objective of this operation, because HUBBARD feared for the image of Scientology.

In 1995, Robert Vaughn YOUNG, a former high-ranking GO and OSA staff member, described further details of this "Snow White" operation which were not well known before then in an article in the "SPIEGEL" magazine. He also explained the special role that Germany played in the operation. HUBBARD, according to YOUNG, did not only feel threatened by communist agents, psychiatrists, and government officials. He apparently suffered from the delusion that psychiatrists and psychologists wanted to murder him because he had exposed their science as fraud. He finally got the idea that the core of the anti-HUBBARD conspiracy was to be found in Germany. This conspiracy of influential German psychiatrists was supposed to have been the true cause of National Socialistic racial delusion in Germany under HITLER. It was not supposed to have been HITLER who later staged the persecution of Jews, but a secret alliance of German psychiatrists. After this cadre of psychiatrists survived the Second World War, a small clique of psychiatrists and former Nazis were then said to have controlled the world drug market (apparently psycho-pharmaceuticals were meant). All drug companies (producers of psycho-pharmaceuticals) in the world were either "formerly German, or connected with Germany," according to HUBBARD.

Under the direction of Mary Sue HUBBARD, the GO in the USA began to collect more and more information against Germany. Soon thereafter, HUBBARD believed he was in possession of extensive material for another confused theory: he now believed that the federal German Nazi conspiracy was making use of information from Interpol to fight Scientology worldwide. HUBBARD therefore ordered that the conspiracy against him - worldwide, in any case - be destroyed. YOUNG, himself, states that he was named the US Director of the Propaganda Department for Operation "Snow White."

In Germany this job was taken by the Austrian, Kurt WEILAND, later director of the OSA. WEILAND's office was supposed to explore the sources of all attacks on HUBBARD. At the same time it was to damage Interpol through scandals and lawsuits, and find targets for the legal department and the PR section. The Legal Department was to file one suit after the next in order to obtain documents on Scientology opponents who the secret intelligence department would then proceed against. The program ran well in the USA, according to YOUNG. For instance, he succeeded in testifying about the Nazi past of Interpol before a sub-committee of Congress. The Interpol story was heard all over the world. It was only in Germany that "Snow White" did not work as planned.

In the light of events which followed, the operation temporarily disappeared into the vaults in the 1970's. Today, Scientology still cannot keep from asserting that it is persecuted in Germany, that it is not being revived in the reunification of Germany (see Part IV, OSA). In particular with regard to the expansion of Scientology into East Europe, not only the ideological and economical, but also the strategic significance of Germany has grown. That appears to make it all the more urgent for the SO, once and for all, to break through today's political and social resistance against Scientology.

4. Tactics and Methods of the GO

The SO had concluded that the US American government and other organizations were collecting negative data and documents on Scientology and were archiving them. An essential goal of Operation "Snow White" was to learn what these were and and to remove them as much as possible, replacing them with positive information. Events from 1976/77 show that the GO took this assignment literally. The most important findings on these actions by the GO, which was allegedly disbanded in 1983, result from a search and seizure by the FBI in 1977 which uncovered the systematic use of the GO against US government offices.

In 1976 the FBI apprehended an agent of the GO at night, in possession of false identification, in the Justice Department at Washington. The ensuing investigations of other alleged GO agents exposed illegal machinations of the organization. Proceedings were instituted against management personnel at the GO, including Mary Sue HUBBARD and Jane KEMBER. With the help of testimony from an involved GO agent, who had been under arrest by the organization but had then been able to flee and cooperate with the FBI, charges could be pressed. It turned out that Scientology had started its attacks against government positions and offices, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), back in 1974. The IRS is the agency that makes the decision as to the recognition of Scientology as a "bona fide religion," (bona fide = good faith, without fraud or deceit) and as to the resulting tax exemption.

On July 8, 1977, a search and seizure by 134 FBI agents started in the GO offices in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Over 23,000 documents - many of them stolen from government offices - as well as burglary tools and electronic surveillance devices, were confiscated. In the investigation, it was determined that a GO agent had been inserted into the Justice Department which housed highly confidential CIA documents. GO agents had also broken into the office of the Attorney General. In a parallel action, in Canada it was discovered that the GO had infiltrated various police positions at the state and federal level as well as the Office of the State Attorney General. Charges filed against Scientology agents included infiltration and theft of documents from an assortment of government, as well as private, establishments. Especially affected by these operations were Interpol, world organizations (e.g., WFMH), law firms and newspapers. In its investigations, FBI agents came upon a portion of the "Snow White" plans. On October 26, 1979, nine leading management and staff of the GO were sentenced to imprisonment by an American federal court for theft and conspiracy against the government. Mary Sue HUBBARD, who received a prison term of 5 years, was in prison for three years from 1981 to 1984. 24 other Scientologists, among them L. Ron HUBBARD, were designated as unindicted co-conspirators. In subsequent legal proceedings against the "Guardian WW," Jane KEMBER and other management personnel of the GO, the district attorney's office concluded that those charged had wantonly committed crimes with the blessing of their founder, L. Ron HUBBARD, so long as it was in the interest of Scientology:

<"The accused rewarded criminal activities which were successful and faulted those which did not meet with success. The standards of human leadership embodied in such practices represents the absolute perversion of any known moral sense of values. In regard to this it boggles the imagination that the accused have the audacity to defend their actions in the name of "religion" ...".>

Procedural methods and other details of the structure and the work of the GO were first made known - as much as available - from the German translation of the testimony given on February 4, 1980 by former SO member Larry WOLLERSHEIM; it had been published by the "Aktion Bildungsinformation" (ABI) from Stuttgart [a German consumer information agency - translator]. WOLLERSHEIM described the different levels of dedication to the true goals and intentions of the SO using the term "level," from 1 to 3. Knowledge of the GO corresponded to the highest dedication, "Level 3." Those who essentially know nothing of the true background of the organization were ranked as "Level 1." He described "Level 2" as having attained the knowledge of the "technology" for the domination of the human spirit through the so-called "OT" steps. From the records of WOLLERSHEIM's sworn testimony:

"These materials are the cult's area of greatest legal risk. Information in Level 3 is strictly on a "need to know" basis. No cult member on Level 3 knows more than he has to, so if he gets caught and "turns" on the cult (which is almost unheard of), he cannot incriminate other covert programs.

A book called "The Art of War" is the "Bible" of Level 3. The main purpose of Level 3 is to recruit and train the most fanatically loyal and zealous cult members as covert intelligence agents and operatives. They will work in their respective areas in life for the cult's purpose of furthering the cult's propaganda, attacking enemies, and legal defense. The Guardian's Office (lately renamed "Office of Special Affairs") is the command and information center for Level 3 activity. It is the training center for cult agents and operatives. It is the center for the encoding of secret texts and orders. The Guardian's Office is a highly trained and totally fanatical worldwide network of thousands of agents and operatives, similar in function to the C.I.A. or K.G.B. Guardian's Office files contain programs and training manuals that teach new recruits the "tools of the trade." No religion existing today has anything like the Guardian's Office.

The Guardian's Office should not be underestimated. I believe the F.B.I. raids only skimmed the tip of the iceberg in discovering what illegal activities the cult has perpetrated against individuals, organizations, and the government. ...

Level 3 is the cult's area of planning and execution for its international political and economic goal of worldwide influence and dominance. From the best that I can put together, the cult is working toward a form of one-world government with their agents in key positions or influencing key positions."

The findings on the former GO intelligence service gained from the procedures taken against the leadership ranks of the GO, along with the testimony of WOLLERSHEIM and other former members, lead to one conclusion: HUBBARD's instructions and goals were consistently being transformed into action by his followers.

The theoretical foundation of all intelligence activities of the GO in regards to the actual intelligence division, the "Information Bureau" (formerly the "Intelligence Bureau"), was the "Intelligence Course" of September, 1974, in which all instructions, policy letters and other materials important to intelligence work was assembled. This training course, according to former SO member Jon ATACK, encompassed about 800 pages. Much of it - in contrast to official statements - was written by HUBBARD himself. The book list for agents included the one already mentioned by WOLLERSHEIM, "The Art of War" by Sun TSU, as well as other books relevant to espionage and other intelligence tactics. GO agents were enlightened, e.g., in all the technical possibilities of tapping a telephone. The training documents also included an internal document with the title of "The Strike" of October 17, 1971, which gave 12 precisely described steps needed for Scientology agents to break into government buildings and steal documents by copying them locally and taking the copies.

One of the covert operations (CO) most frequently used by the GO, because of its very low risk potential, was the anonymous calls to the police and criminal investigative office for crimes allegedly committed by Scientology opponents, which ranged all the way up to accusations of murder. The subversive fundamentals of the GO also included slander campaigns - called "Black Propaganda" - as well as anonymous murder threats against unfavored journalists, for example.

In the area of "Covert Data Collection" (CDC), the GO also went to work with criminal energy. Cases are known in which the intelligence agency gained illegal access to bank accounts, computer archives, telephone records and government files. CDC also includes direct interaction of agents with target persons or indirect action by middlemen as will as covert recording of sound and pictures. The goal was to find out the person's "sore point" in order to exploit his personal weakness. Behind the so-called "Roll back" technology is the attempt, through intended indiscretion, i.e., publication or distribution of obtained negative information, to sow distrust or hostility between the target person and his friends, co-workers or other people he has a relationship with. Alleged scandals and negative information were to be injected into the press.

The GO also used disinformation in that it falsified written documents. Training objective included getting agents to lie so that their lies would be accepted. Press speakers were also drilled in consciously lying to the press. From the side of the Legal Department, the operations - as proscribed by HUBBARD - were supported by court proceedings which - especially when multiple suits were filed at one time - often served as effective means to wear Scientology opponents down by attrition.

WOLLERSHEIM, in his testimony, also went into the details of the activities by the GO and described the individual tactics on the basis of the intelligence materials confiscated and evaluated by the FBI. In organizations and offices targeted for insertion, GO agents' goals included:

  1. either determine what negative data about Scientology is available so that countermeasures can be taken,
  2. create an early warning system to be able to timely recognize threatening government measures and/or
  3. come into the possession of data which could be used to discredit SO critics.

It was determined from the confiscated documents that Scientology had planned to infiltrate more than 130 government positions. Electronic eavesdropping devices were also used by the GO. The FBI discovered that the GO had used an eavesdropping device to overhear the meetings which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) held on the SO in tax matters.

Documents gave evidence of GO operations which included the following: simulating an automobile accident in which a SO critic was allegedly involved; burglary of an attorney's office who was representing a Scientology opponent, as well as burglary of a journalist's office and a newspaper office in Florida. Scientologists were convicted of intentionally giving false testimony in court. Scientology groundlessly intimated that an unfavored journalist had sexually abused children. A newspaper reporter was brought into association with organized crime in that she was given money for alleged information on a known gangster.

Probably the most spectacular example of persecution of a critic is the case of the American author, Paulette COOPER, who wrote a book by the title of "The Scandal of Scientology," in which she published, for the first time, secret documents of the SO. The GO operation conducted against the author in 1976, designated "Freakout", had the goal of seeing to it that COOPER either land in a mental institution or in prison. Her residence was broken into and letterhead paper with her fingerprints on it was pilfered. Using this paper, GO agents wrote bomb threats against the SO in order to direct suspicion upon her by the FBI. In addition, the GO wanted to place a COOPER look-alike who, in front of witnesses, made threats against the President of the United States in order to be able to later discredit Paulette COOPER through eyewitness testimony. Further measures planned included putting a man in her vicinity who would have a relationship with her and cause her to have thoughts of suicide.

In May, 1980, "Reader's Digest" magazine published an article which informed the American public about the background of this intelligence operation and other activities of the GO. To the publication of its secret material by COOPER, the SO reacted

<"with a campaign, worked out to the last detail, of lawsuits, theft, slander and false accusations. The author received false murder threats. The goal of the campaign was, from documents of the sect which were later discovered, "to get P.C. incarcerated in a mental institution or jail." They almost succeeded. Paulette COOPER and her publisher were sued in several American and foreign courts. In order to escape the paper war with the sect, the publisher withdrew the book. The worst, said Paulette COOPER, was that an agent of Scientology stole letterhead paper from her and falsified bomb threats which were blamed on her. She was charged in federal court. She went through hell for two years until the proceedings were finally suspended.">

COOPER's innocence could not be proven until the documents concerning her were uncovered by the FBI raid on Scientology.

Corresponding to Scientology's prevalent mania for statistics, there are also statistics for all intelligence activities in Branches I and II: the maximum of 250 points is obtained when an actual or potential enemy has been removed from the position of power from which he attacks. or could attack, Scientology. Minus 100 points are given for an unpredicted attack on Scientology. 250 minus point are put on the books if an operation flops and the enemy can prove that this operation had its origin in the "Church of Scientology"! The statistics of the GO reached their historic low point with the sentencing of their management ranks in 1979.

The fact that the Scientology intelligence agency could operate undiscovered for years is not only due to the apparently long-reigning disinterest of the American security officials towards Scientology, but is also surely a result of strict compartmentation and high security standards inside the organization. From the start, for example, a fundamental in effect for the GO was that all written material which made reference to intelligence activities be classified "confidential," "secret," or even "top secret." Familiarity with these documents, as verified by WOLLERSHEIM, is restricted to the minimum number of staff necessary. In all public sources of information which refer to intelligence activities, the word "information" must be substituted for "intelligence." Even HUBBARD was involved with the theme of counter-espionage; apparently he was convinced that Scientology, itself, was and is the subject of intelligence operations. He said that protection against infiltration was "an action vital to survival." Since the primary motivation in almost all cases of infiltration was supposed to be "financial gain," HUBBARD developed the idea of rewarding successful defense in the face of opposing activities:

<"If, upon suspected infiltration / espionage, further investigations result in the identification and apprehension or arrest of a person who intentionally tries to inflict harm upon this organization, a reward of $1,000 will be disbursed by the International Finance Office. ...

If anybody should approach a staff member and ask him to undertake any of the actions (comment: named in the HCO PL), the staff member shall act as if he agrees, he should take the money offered (which he may keep), and he should then quickly and inconspicuously report this matter to the Religious Technology Center, so that the instigator can be tracked down and arrested.">

Watchfulness, for HUBBARD, is that price Scientology has to pay for living in an "aberrated society." Then he self-confidently adds:

<"No other organization and no country has as great a chance as we do, to be free from infiltration.">

Another instruction on "Internal Security" states its "primary goal" to use any means in order to discover any infiltration by double agents or disgruntled staff, Scientologists or their relatives. In order to uncover such people, all folders of the organization should be used and evaluated; besides the personnel and ethics folders, the "processing" folders are explicitly mentioned, those are the files with the notes from the allegedly strictly confidential "auditing" sessions. From the confiscated documents of the GO, it can be concluded that documents which prove illegal activities of the SO are kept outside of the public establishments of Scientology, and are to be maintained in a portable container, which is designated as a "Red Box." "Red Box" data are, by SO definition, all documents which prove that Scientology is engaging in criminal activity and conducting illegal operations. In particular, everything was to disappear which could bother Mary Sue or L. Ron HUBBARD in any form. It was to be ascertained that nothing significant would be found in a police raid. This security precaution, however, apparently came too late.

5. The Collapse of the GO

After the legal proceedings against top management of the GO were over, the SO tried to paint the affair as a faux pas of a few leading members who had strayed "from the right path." All criminal actions were said to have been committed by a handful of people, but not by the "church." However, nobody other than HUBBARD himself ended up taking responsibility for everything. Internally, this process and other criminal processes against L. Ron HUBBARD personally had far-reaching consequences. In 1981, the present leader of Scientology, David MISCAVIGE, together with a few trusted individuals from the "Commodore's Messenger Organization" - (HUBBARD's personal "messenger" organization, CMO), which maintained the personal contact to the Scientology founder who had meanwhile gone underground, - decided to eliminate the GO as an independent establishment of the organization. This coup, led by him and his cohorts, resulted not only in the abdication of Mary Sue HUBBARD and Jane KEMBER, but also of numerous other high-ranking functionaries of the SO - including the highest case supervisor and personal auditor of L. Ron HUBBARD, David MAYO - who went before an internal "church court" and was "ex-communicated." Until its official disbandment, that is, renaming to "Office of Special Affairs" (OSA), in 1983, the GO was under the control of MISCAVIGE. With the coup-like takeover of the GO, along with the founding of a new "Finance Police" to gain access to the money reserves, MISCAVIGE took over de facto management control of all Scientology "Orgs" worldwide. Rumors persist that the collapse of the GO had long been planned, and that the decisive tip which exposed the GO agent came from the ranks of the SO itself. Independent of any truth of this speculation, it can still be determined that none of the goals or strategies of Scientology have been altered under MISCAVIGE, and that the new intelligence service, OSA, carries out the tradition of its precursor in this regard.

Next

Return to Title Page