The latest fundraising campaign ends tonight and we are very close to reaching our target of $7000.  We have about $800 to go.  If we reach our goal then the percentage taken out by IndieGoGo drops from 9% to 3%.  A big thanks to everyone who responded to the matching challenge offered by an anonymous donor a couple weeks back.  You came though with flying colors.   I appreciate everyone who has helped make this film possible.  Spread the link around.  You can make a donation over at IndieGoGo.com/KnowledgeReport.

I’ll be flying off shortly for some major interviews for the film.  Recently, I spent time in L.A. and Hemet shooting some footage for the film.  While at Gold I hand delivered a letter for David Miscavige, inviting him once again to do an interview for the film.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s a copy of the letter:

I spoke with Tory about my adventures a few hours after the visit to Gold.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tony Ortega has an amazing article at the Village Voice in which he details how the FBI’s investigation of human trafficking in Scientology went off the rails.  It’s very discouraging but not surprising to see the government shy away from taking on Scientology.  That cloak of religiosity Hubbard sought so eagerly back in the 50′s still is their strongest defense.  When the going gets tough, the weak can just say, “It’s a religion” and let them off the hook.  In effect, Scientology has a God given right to abuse.  It’s up to us to stop it when the officials won’t.

Last week, I was in Clearwater, Florida for a couple of days interviewing Mike Rinder, who until 2007 was the top spokesman in the church and also was the executive director of Scientology’s intelligence wing, the Office of Special Affairs.

Over those two days, Rinder and I talked about a lot of subjects for several future stories. Near the end of those sessions, I asked Rinder what many of our readers have asked over the past year — what happened with the FBI?

What he said inspired me to call up several other former high-ranking Scientologists who had all been interviewed by the FBI in 2009 and 2010. Piecing together what they told me, I’ve been able to come up with an outline which describes how seriously the US government considered raiding the International Base — and how long ago the FBI suddenly changed its mind.

“I saw them in November 2009. I had to give them a history lesson. They had no clue,” Marty Rathbun tells me, describing his first meeting with FBI agents. “I told them they were no match for the Church of Scientology.”

Until 2004, Rathbun was the second-highest ranking official in the church, answering only to Miscavige in his role as Inspector General-Ethics of the Religious Technology Center, Scientology’s controlling entity. After he left, Rathbun laid low for several years until, in 2009, he started up a blog and began harshly criticizing Miscavige and the way the church is being run. And it was also that year that he began talking to the FBI, whose investigation was being led by Tricia Whitehill and later Valerie Venegas, agents who each specialize in human trafficking cases, which can include allegations of slave labor.

​”I told them everything. Everything I’ve said publicly and then some,” he tells me. But Rathbun, who helped oversee Scientology’s “fair game” campaigns against enemies that used complex methods of surveillance and control, was disappointed by how little the federal agents seemed to know of that history.
“They were goodhearted, but so unsophisticated,” he says. “They told me the church didn’t know about the investigation. Are you kidding me? I said. I already know all of the people you’ve talked to. You think the church doesn’t know that too?”

I asked Rathbun what the agents seemed to be interested in, and what he told them over days of talks.

“How Miscavige lords over Scientology from the minute he gets up in the morning and until he goes to bed at night. That his number one priority is, ‘Who’s blown?’ And he had his inspector general — that was me — on it. It’s his number one priority. He micromanages every security measure. And every unlawful measure to track people and get them back to the reservation and keep them quiet,” he says, using Scientology jargon — “blown” — for escape. “I went through it chapter and verse, and had it corroborated by Mike Rinder and other people.”

More than a dozen ex-Scientologists participated in the investigation; each was given a confidential informant number and a code name. They were told that under no circumstances could they tell anyone that they were cooperating with the agents. For months, Whitehill and Venegas gathered information, and learned the ropes of Scientology’s complex ways.

By June 22, 2010, when Tiziano Lugli met with them at the federal building in Los Angeles, the agents seemed to have learned a great deal.

“They knew Miscavige, Int Base, auditing, all the lingo. They were at the same level as Larry Wright or Janet Reitman, someone who had really done their homework,” says Lugli, an Italian musician and music producer who was excommunicated — declared a “suppressive person” — by Scientology two years ago.

“I had to drop my PIs before I went there,” he says, laughing about how at the time, up to ten private investigators hired by the church were trailing him, and he had to shake them before meeting with the FBI.

“I was there for three hours. They couldn’t tell me anything about what would happen, but they said trust us, justice will be done,” he says.

By that time, June 2010, the investigation seemed to have benefited from a key break. Rathbun and Rinder and others had given detailed information about church executives being held against their will at the Int Base, which is about 90 miles east of Los Angeles, near the town of Hemet. The executives were held in a place Miscavige called “the Hole” — an office-prison made up of two double-wide trailers where fallen officials were kept day and night, sleeping on the floor and being forced to take part in mass confessions. But there was a problem — it had been two or more years since Rathbun and Rinder had left the base. Without fresher information, it would be difficult for the FBI to act, they were told. But then, in April 2010, a worker named John Brousseau escaped from the base, and he managed to bring with him damning evidence of Sea Org members toiling for the benefit of Miscavige and Tom Cruise.

With Brousseau’s fresh information, the FBI seemed to have what it needed, and the investigation reached a fever pitch.

To find out how the investigation unraveled, read Tony’s full article.

Yesterday I appeared along with Jeff Hawkins on a Portland radio show called Mad as Hell in America.  Producer Jesse Singer hosted the show and he invited us on for a full two hours to talk about Scientology.  I was on the phone and Jeff was in studio.  We covered a lot of ground.  There’s never enough time but between us we talked about such things as the Scientology mindset, recruitment and progress up the Bridge, the use of celebrities, control mechanisms in the group and the abusive nature of David Miscavige.  In case you missed it, here it is in two parts:

A few days earlier, another radio host had the chance to talk with Marty Rathbun.  Rather than shedding light onto some of the problems in the Church of Scientology, the host (Peter Boyles) decided to let the conversation degenerate into mockery of Rathbun, derailing whatever conversation they might have had.  I know I will take some flack for this but I’m siding with Marty on this one. While I agree Marty wasn’t being forthright about the upper level materials, there were greater points which could have been made without just mocking him and driving him off the show.  Anons have been taking delight over at Why We Protest but I think it’s better to keep talking and shed light than just get the heat of a confrontation.  That said, I would welcome the chance to debate any Scientologist on any show and point out when they are less than open or blatantly lying.  It seldom happens but when I get the chance it is fun.

Over the past couple of weeks, the Tampa Bay Times has exposed the takeover of a Dunedin charter school by the combined efforts of Church of Scientology and the Nation of Islam.  In a series of terrific articles, the paper has shown how the Life Force Arts and Technology Academy has shifted gears since the executive director of Scientology’s World Literacy Crusade (Hanan Islam) has put Hubbard’s Study Tech into the school and funneled some of the taxpayer’s $800,000 into Scientology’s coffers.  The first article detailed the takeover.

Islam told the Times in July that she wanted to “save the school” using the World Literacy Crusade’s experience in setting up “programs in churches and schools” worldwide. “There are no intentions of taking over,” she said.

But as the 2011-2012 school year began for about 95 students in August, Islam and other Life Force administrators began insisting on the use of Hubbard’s “study tech” in the classroom, former teachers said.

Every teacher was given Learning How to Learn, an illustrated children’s book and starter’s guide to study tech that includes a biography of Hubbard. Teachers also were trained in Smart Way, a phonics program designed by Scientologists.

One teacher took photos of white boxes stacked in the principal’s office labeled “L. Ron Hubbard Books.”

Teachers were required to attend training sessions at Scientology’s flagship resort in downtown Clearwater, the Fort Harrison Hotel.

Islam posted pictures online with a caption saying teachers were “trained on the barriers to study,” a Hubbard study tech fundamental. Teachers were taught extensively about one study tech solution, “word clearing,” in which fatigued or frustrated students must trace back their problem to a “misunderstood word.”

Though teachers believed their students’ struggles often stemmed from broken homes or social problems in their neighborhood, they were taught to point troubled students to a dictionary.

“The only reason a person gives up a study or becomes confused,” Learning How to Learn states, “is because he has gone past a word that was not understood.”

Teachers who questioned study tech were told they had no choice but to implement it. Fifth-grade teacher Jason Lowe, who was fired in January, said Life Force director of operations Vikki Williams told him, ” ‘We are a study tech school,’ and that if any of us had a problem with it, we had to get over it.”

Three teachers said they were terminated last month without explanation. Lowe said he was fired because school leaders suspected he spoke with the Times. Several parents and teachers who talked with the Times were reluctant to be quoted because they feared retribution.

Study tech combines common educational concepts like hands-on learning and word comprehension with what Hubbard defined as “barriers of study” and their manifested responses. “The real things or the objects that you study about are called mass,” explains Learning How to Learn. Studying something without having the “mass” of it could make a student “feel squashed” or “sort of spinny,” the book states. To get past that barrier, the student might be instructed to craft the idea with clay.

Supporters of study tech say the methodology is effective with struggling students. Academic critics say, however, that it hasn’t withstood enough peer review.

Representatives from Applied Scholastics, a nonprofit founded by Scientologists to promote study tech, defend the methodology as secular and appropriate for public education. According to online writings, their interest is not in Hubbard as Scientology’s founder but as “one of the most prolific and successful wordsmiths of all time.”

But study tech’s controversial links to Scientology have generally kept the program out of public schools. The Florida Department of Education has approved Applied Scholastics as a supplemental educational services provider, but schools and school districts in Georgia; San Antonio, Texas; St. Louis; Nevada and Toronto have backed away from study tech after complaints from teachers and parents.

Greg Blunt, whose 11-year-old daughter, Ta’Shannia, was one of Life Force’s first students in 2009, removed her from the school last month because of what he called Scientology’s “takeover” of the school — something the church denies.

School administrators, Blunt said, have long lied to parents about the church’s involvement. When Ta’Shannia returned home from the Ybor Christmas party with The Carnival of Death, one of Hubbard’s pulp-fiction books, he burned it.

“Everyone knows the easiest way is through a child,” said Blunt, who has some convictions for nonviolent crimes. “Here, little girl, have some candy. Here, little boy, have some books to read. … Kids are kids. They’re impressionable. If you can get through to the kids, trust me, you can rule the world.”

Pinellas County School Superintendent  John Stewart called for the school’s charter to be pulled and the school closed within 90 days.

The school’s curriculum, Stewart notes, was changed “without permission” from district officials. He adds that the school also has been operating under an unauthorized new name, the SMART Academy, since last month.

In an evaluation of Life Force, district officials questioned the school’s treatment of its faculty. Teachers there are paid $85 a day — the same rate paid to substitute teachers in Pinellas public schools — and are not given benefits or contracts.

One teacher said he was fired because administrators believed he had spoken with the Times. Two other teachers who were fired recently said they were given no explanation.

District officials also expressed doubt that the Life Force board of directors, which has had frequent turnover, is really in charge of the school. Board members tasked with overseeing Islam’s management rarely responded to district requests for information. Most communication came from Islam.

“Their evasiveness and deception has made them very difficult to work with,” Clark said. “Very disappointing, very sad.”

The Times followed up with an editorial about the dangers of charter schools in this Scientology case.

Since Islam came to Life Force some parents and former teachers charge that the school’s children have been targets for recruitment by the Church of Scientology. The student body of about 95 students was taught using the “study technology” of Scientology’s late founder, L. Ron Hubbard, according to former teachers. The school’s children attended a Christmas party at a Scientology church in Tampa’s Ybor Square, where they were given Scientology books and DVDs. And another endeavor of Islam’s was as executive director of the World Literacy Crusade, a California organization that promotes Scientology education methods.

All of this exposure to Scientology-related material violates prohibitions in the U.S. and Florida constitutions on religion in public schools. The school may claim that the material is secular in nature, but since Scientology insists it is a religion, anything produced by it or by Hubbard should be considered religious. The church may freely open its own private schools, but it cannot infiltrate public schools like charter schools or have its teachings influence the curriculum. Life Force receives about $800,000 in taxpayer support per year.

Today the school board voted to give the school their 90 days notice to close.

Superintendent John Stewart accused the school of changing its curriculum “without permission” from the district, among a host of other concerns. Board member Linda Lerner said there was “overwhelming evidence to terminate.”

Acting on Stewart’s recommendation, the board also voted to deny a proposed amendment that would have extended the school’s charter for another three years and granted sweeping changes to its budget, curriculum and leadership structure.

School leaders still have the right to request a public hearing to defend the charter.

The School Board will need to vote again to finalize the termination within 90 days. School Board attorneys will also need permission from a bankruptcy judge to close the school, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July and was granted court protection during its reorganization.

In 15 years of Pinellas charter school operations, the School Board has never terminated a school’s charter. Charter schools receive tax funding but are operated by their own independent boards of directors.

Tampa’s FOX13 ran a report of the charter school without mentioning Scientology’s involvement.

Pinellas charter school ordered to close: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

 As always, Tony Ortega is all over this story at the Village Voice.

You couldn’t meet a nicer person than Susan Elliott who posts as “I’m Glib” at various forums and regularly protests at Scientology Orgs around Southern California.  The Orange County Weekly has an article about how those protests have led to attacks against her by the Church of Scientology which (of course) portrays her as a dangerous individual, acting in cahoots with a terrorist organization.

Laguna Beach resident Susan Elliott said she’s among those whose efforts to combat alleged abuses in the Church of Scientology have been met with spy tactics and harassment at her doorstep.

“I’ve been followed a million times,” said Elliott, 56, who is a computer programmer by trade but was wary to state where her business is located, out of fear that Scientologists would conduct operations there.

Elliott confirmed that she was spied on by Paulien Lombard, a former Scientologist featured in a recent OC Weekly cover story. In fact, she first confirmed the spying in a comment posted on in the online version of the story, where readers may recall how Lombard described sitting outside of Elliott’s home for hours.

Lombard later apologized to Elliott.

“We invited her in and had tea, and sat in the living room and talked for an hour or so, and I was just amazed that she would do that — that she would come to us,” Elliott said.

Read the full article and see Susan’s Cease and Desist letter from Scientology.

Susan talks about the use of the Gold Tone in this video clip:

Click here to view the embedded video.

UPDATE: 3/08/2012

There has been so much going on in the Debbie Cook story and it is pretty amazing to watch unfold.  Debbie is taking on Scientology with a frontal attack that adds David Miscavige as a defendant, attempting to shift the prime focus to DM’s management of Scientology and his shocking abuse of staff members’ human rights.   She’s demanding deposition answers to some pretty startling questions about the Hole, physical and mental abuse of staff and Scientologists’ ability to leave the Sea Org at will.  You can read all of the court documents at the Village Voice, where Tony Ortega keeps people up to date with all the latest info on the case.

Debbie Cook was also featured on Good Morning America and ABC’s Nightline.

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KABC in Los Angeles ran a piece on Debbie Cook’s Texas court testimony:

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Her story also made it over the Australian press.

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UPDATE: 2/11/2012

Scientol0gy sought to get a temporary restraining order slapped on former high level executive Debbie Cook to punish her for speaking out and to prevent her from sharing any more information about the abuses occurring inside the Church of Scientology.  What they got was such a devastating exposure of those abuses in a Texas courtroom, that they folded and fled.   They dropped their request for the restraining order which allowed Debbie Cook to hold a press conference with her attorney.  These videos come from the Tampa Bay Times and from Tony Ortega at the Village Voice.

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We’ll see if they decide to go after her legally again.  It would be foolhardy to do so but that may not stop Miscavige.

UPDATE: 1/30/2012

Debbie Cook has been slapped with a lawsuit by the Church of Scientology in what could become a major test of the legality of Scientology’s use of gag orders.  This may have been the plan all along.   Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder had indicated when the email leaked that it would be an important test case if a suit got filed.  I imagine they will be happy to testify on her behalf, and perhaps it will benefit another person who they have been reluctant to assist: Gerry Armstrong.  This trial may peel back some more layers of Scientology’s operations…or they may just ruin Cook utterly as Hubbard so ordered.

The Tampa Bay Times has copies of the lawsuit as well as the gag orders she and her husband signed.

ORIGINAL STORY POSTED 1/1/12

12,000 current Scientologists awoke to find an email from former Captain Flag Service Organization Debbie Cook in which she talks about conditions that should concern them about Scientology’s management.  This letter is written expressly to them and not to those of us on the outside.   Using Hubbard policy quotes, she urges them to take action to right the ship.  This is not an angry screed.  It is a modulated message that seeks to speak to those who know something isn’t right but are afraid to talk about it.  I think it will make some waves.  It’s already shown that 2012 is going to be a rocky year for David Miscavige.

Message from Debbie Cook

Dear friend,

I am emailing you as a friend and fellow Scientologist. As we enter a new year, it is hoped that 2012 can be a year of great dissemination and a year of real progress up The Bridge for all Scientologists.

Although I am not in the Sea Org right now, I served in the Sea Org at Flag for 29 years. 17 of those years were as Captain FSO. I am a trained auditor and C/S as well as an OEC, FEBC and DSEC.

I am completely dedicated to the technology of Dianetics and Scientology and the works of LRH. I have seen some of the most stunning and miraculous results in the application of LRH technology and I absolutely know it is worth fighting to keep it pure and unadulterated.

My husband and I are in good standing and we are not connected with anyone who is not in good standing. We have steadfastly refused to speak to any media, even though many have contacted us.

But I do have some very serious concerns about out-KSW that I see permeating the Scientology religion.

I have the utmost respect for the thousands of dedicated Scientologists and Sea Org members. Together, we have come through everything this world could throw at us and have some real impingement on the world around us. I am proud of our accomplishments and I know you are too. However there is no question that this new age of continuous fundraising is not our finest moment.

LRH says in HCO PL 9 Jan 51, An Essay on Management, “drop no curtains between the organization and the public about anything.” -LRH

Based on this policy I am communicating to you about some situations that we need to do something about within our religion, within our group.

Actions that are either not covered in policy or directly violate LRH policy and tech include:

The extreme over-regging and fund-raising activities that have become so much a part of nearly every Sea Org org and Class V org as well as every “OT Committee” is not covered anywhere in LRH policy.

Hardworking Sea Org members and the dedicated staff of orgs around the world aren’t choosing to do these actions. Nor are the OTs. I am sure they would be more than happy if they could just get on with direct dissemination of Scientology as they have done for so many years.

But the truth is that this is being driven from the very highest echelons within the Scientology structure and clearly there is a lot of pressure to make targets that are being set.

The IAS: The IAS was created unbeknownst to LRH in 1984 by Marc Yager and David Miscavige. This was supposed to be based on LRH policies on the subject of membership and the HASI, however the IAS is nothing like the membership system described by LRH which only has two memberships and is covered in HCO PL 22 March 1965 “Current Promotion and Org Program Summary, Membership Rundown” and states:

“There are two memberships…”- LRH

LRH lists there the INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP and gives its cost at 10 pounds sterling or $30 US. He also lists a LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP which is priced at $75 US. There are no other memberships or statuses approved or known to LRH. Furthermore, membership monies are supposed to go directly to the org where the membership is signed up, and the money used for dissemination by that org, in that area. This is covered in HCOPL 1 Sept 1965R Membership Policies.

“It all goes into the HCO Book Account in the area where the membership is brought and is not part of the organization’s weekly gross income. Membership monies go to dissemination”.- LRH

Currently membership monies are held as Int reserves and have grown to well in excess of a billion dollars. Only a tiny fraction has ever been spent, in violation of the policy above. Only the interest earned from the holdings have been used very sparingly to fund projects through grants. In fact many of the activities you see at IAS events are not actually funded by the IAS, but rather by the Scientologists involved.

Think about it, how many ads disseminating Scientology, Dianetics or any Scn affiliated programs have you seen on TV? Heard on the radio? Seen in newspapers? I haven’t seen one in the 4 years I have lived in San Antonio, Texas, the 7th largest city in the US. How many have you seen?

Donating anything more than a lifetime membership to the IAS is not based on LRH policy. The article “What Your Donations Buy” (The Auditor, The Monthly Journal of Scientology No. 51, 1970) is clearly talking about how the church uses your donations for Dianetics and Scientology services. Next time you are asked to donate outside of services, realize that you are engaged in fundraising and ask to see something in writing from L. Ron Hubbard that this is something he expects from you as a Scientologist.

New Org Buildings: LRH also never directed the purchase of opulent buildings or the posh renovations or furnishings for every org.In fact, if you read HCO PL 12 March 75 Issue II, “The Ideal Org”, which is what this program has been called, and nowhere in it will you find 20 million dollar buildings or even any reference to the poshness of org premises at all as part of LRH’s description of an “Ideal Org”. Instead, an Ideal Org was one that delivered and moved people up The Bridge – something that is not part of this “Ideal Org” program.

LRH says in the PL that an Ideal Org: “would be clean and attractive enough not to repel its public” – LRH. This is all it says about the state of the building.

As a result of this off-policy alteration of the Ideal Org PL, we have the majority of top OTs, now deemed “OT Ambassadors”, heavily engaged in fund-raising activities that include “bingo”, “pirate dinners”, “knitting classes”, “hay rides”, and many other activities strictly revolving around raising funds for the required multi-millions of dollars to fund their “Ideal Org”. As part of this, people around every org are now asked to donate to their local “Ideal Org” instead of their own services or their own Bridge.

LRH says in HCO PL Org Ethics and Tech: “GET RID OF DISTRACTIONS FROM SCIENTOLOGY in your org. Baby-sitting or raffle tickets and such nonsense.”

Yet these distractions are rampant as they are being used as fund-raisers to get money for the huge quotas being issued to fund the “Ideal Org”.

“If the org slumps… don’t engage in ‘fund-raising’ or ‘selling postcards’ or borrowing money.
Just make more income with Scientology.

It’s a sign of very poor management to seek extraordinary solutions for finance outside Scientology. It has always failed.”

“For orgs as for pcs, ‘Solve It With Scientology’.

“Every time I myself have sought to solve financial or personnel in other ways than Scientology I have lost out. So I can tell you from experience that org solvency lies in more Scientology, not patented combs or fund-raising barbeques.”

HCO PL 24 February 1964, Issue II, Org Programming, (OEC Vol. 7, p. 930)

The point is that Scientologists and OT’s need to be training, auditing and disseminating to raw public- not regging each other or holding internal fundraisers.

Out Tech: Over the last few years we have seen literally hundreds and hundreds of people who were validated as clear using the CCRD as developed by LRH now being told they are not Clear. This included hundreds of OTs who were then put onto NED as a “handling”. LRH clearly forbid any Dianetics to be run on OTs in HCOB “Dianetics Forbidden on OTs”. This is out tech. This entire technical “handling” was directed personally by COB RTC and was done on thousands of OTs. But it was based not on an LRH HCO Bulletin, but rather based on a single C/S instruction where LRH C/Sed one pre-OT who had not achieved the state of clear but was mid OT III and not making it. LRH directed a solo handling that the pre-OT was to do to get himself to achieve the state of Clear. This LRH C/S taken out of context was then used to implement a technical handling that was in direct violation of an LRH HCOB.

This and other “technical handlings” done on Solo NOTs auditors created great expense and hardship on Solo NOTs auditors around the world as they were made to do these handlings to continue on the level.

Then there are the “fast grades at Flag” that no other org has. How can it be that Flag has been delivering grades differently to the rest of the world for the last 3 years? Whatever the problem is, the fact is that having “fast Grades” at Flag creates a hidden data line and is a HIGH CRIME and the subject of an entire policy letter called “TECH DEGRADES” which LRH has placed at the start of every Scientology course.

More recently the fad seems to be that nearly everyone needs to “re-do their Purif and do a long objectives program”, including many OTs mid Solo NOTs.

There is nothing wrong with doing objectives, but it is a clear violation of HCOB ‘MIXING RUNDOWNS AND REPAIRS” to have a person mid a rundown or OT level be taken off it and placed on an objectives program.

Solo NOTs auditors are also being made to get their objectives from a Class IX auditor at great expense as they are not being allowed to co-audit.

Flag has made many millions of dollars on the above listed out tech handlings because OTs mid Solo NOTs are forced to get these out-tech actions to be able to get back onto and stay on the level and complete it. Not to mention the spiritual effects of the out tech that this has on each OT.

I myself was subject to these out tech “handlings”, including extensive FPRD mid Solo NOTs. It took its toll in many ways, including physical situations I am still dealing with today. So I have some reality of the hardship caused.

LRH Command Structure: LRH left us with a complex and balanced command structure, with our orgs led by the Office of ED International. This office was considered so important that LRH created a special management group called the Watch Dog Committee whose only purpose was to see that this office and the other needed layers of management existed. LRH ED 339R speaks of this extensively as the protection for our Church. But these people are missing. And not just some. As of just a few years ago there were no members of the office of ED Int on post, not to mention top execs throughout the International Management structure.

You may have also wondered… where is Heber, the President of the Church? What about Ray Mitthoff, Senior C/S International, the one that LRH personally turned over the upper OT Levels to? How about Norman Starkey, LRH’s Trustee? What happened to Guillaume – Executive Director International? And Marc Yeager, the WDC Chairman? What happened to the other International Management executives that you have seen at events over the years?

The truth is that I spent weeks working in the empty International Management building at Int. Empty because everyone had been removed from post. When I first went up lines I was briefed extensively by David Miscavige about how bad all of them were and how they had done many things that were all very discreditable. This seemed to “explain” the fact that the entirety of the Watchdog Committee no longer existed.

The entirety of the Executive Strata, which consisted of ED International and 11 other top International executives that were the top executives in their particular fields, no longer existed. That the Commodore’s Messenger Org International no longer existed. All of these key command structures of Scientology International, put there by LRH, had been removed.There were hundreds and hundreds of unanswered letters and requests for help from org staff, written based on LRH ED 339R where LRH says that staff can write to these top executives in the Exec Strata for help. But this is not possible if all these execs have been removed and no one is there to help them or to get evaluations and programming done to expand Scientology.

Well, after that I got to spend some quality time with Heber, Ray Mithoff, Norman Starkey, Guillaume, as well as the entirety of International Management at the time, who were all off post and doing very long and harsh ethics programs. These have gone on for years and to the only result of that they are still off post. There is no denying that these top executives have all gradually disappeared from the scene. You don’t see them at the big events anymore or on the ship at Maiden Voyage.
David Miscavige has now become the “leader” of the Scientology religion. Yet what LRH left behind was a huge structure to properly manage all aspects of the Scientology religion. He put a complete and brilliant organizational structure there, not one individual. There never was supposed to be a “leader” other than LRH himself as the goal maker for our group.

There is a situation here and even if you have not been to the International Management Base you should be able to see that over regging and frequent tech changes are not OK and you have a responsibility to do something to Keep Scientology Working. You should be able to find and read the references on membership in OEC Volume 6. Find and read the HCO PL entitled “The Ideal Org” (Data Series 40). Find and read the references on org buildings, including HCO PL 24 Aug 65 II, Cleanliness of Quarters and Staff, Improve our Image. Also, HCO PL 17 June 69, The Org Image.

If you don’t want to make waves or put yourself in danger of being taken off the level or denied eligibility, then there are some simple things you can do. First and foremost, withdraw your support from off policy actions. Stop donating to anything other than your own services and actual Bridge progress. Simply demand to see an LRH reference that says you are required to make other such donations. No one will be able to produce any references because there aren’t any.
Stop supporting any of the activities that are being done to forward off-policy fund-raising in your area.

LRH says what he expects of a Scientologist – that is what he expects you to do. In fact he put it in HCOB 10 June 1960 Issue I, Keeping Scientology Working Series 33, WHAT WE EXPECT OF A SCIENTOLOGIST. Read it and follow it.

The other thing you can do is to send this email to as many others as you can, even if you do it anonymously.
Please keep this email among us, the Scientologists. The media have no place in this. You may wonder why I have not written a KR and gone about my business. The answer is, I have. But there is no longer anyone to send that KR to.

But you can and should write reports and bring off-policy to the attention of local org executives and local Sea org members.
We are a strong and powerful group and we can affect a change. We have weathered many storms. I am sorry that I am the one telling you, but a new storm is upon us. Its waves are already in the media and the world around us.

The truth is that as a Scientologist you are more able, more perceptive and have a higher integrity. Scientology is supposed to make you “think for yourself” and never compromise your own integrity. And most certainly LRH held every Scientologist responsible to KEEP SCIENTOLOGY WORKING.

I am not trying to do anything other than affect a change in serious off policy actions occurring. My husband and I have most of our family and many many good friends who are Scientologists. I have not been real interested in sticking my neck out like this. However, I also know that I dedicated my entire adult life to supporting LRH and the application of LRH technology and if I ever had to look LRH in the eye I wouldn’t be able to say I did everything I could to Keep Scientology Working if I didn’t do something about it now.

We all have a stake in this. It is simply not possible to read the LRH references and not see the alterations and violations that are currently occurring. You have a very simple obligation to LRH. Don’t participate in anything off policy, and let others know they should not either. If every person who reads this email does nothing more than step back from off-policy actions we would have changed direction. If we took all that energy and directed it into auditing, training and raw public dissemination, we would be winning.
And that is what I wish for you and all of us as we ring in this new year.

ARC,

Debbie Cook

Marty Rathbun has background about Debbie’s story over at his blog.  Tony Ortega just posted an article about the letter at the Village Voice.

The St. Pete Times released another stunning series of articles on Scientology.  This time they looked at the hard core regging of parishioners and the pressure put on staff to sell courses, auditing and books.  David Miscavige has added a stark element of desperation to Hubbard’s orders to “make money, make money, make more money…make others make money for you.”  Scientology’s dwindling number of parishioners are being bled dry by a leader who can’t offer anything new but can only repackage what Hubbard left behind.

I haven’t updated the site in awhile. A lot of important stories popped up while I’ve been working on my documentary, Knowledge Report. It’s time I catch up with some of the amazing coverage, starting with this Lateline report from Australia about Valeska Paris Guider who says she was held against her will on the Scientology cruise ship Freewinds for 6 years and made to do hard labour.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tony Ortega followed up with a lengthy interview with Valeska.

Valeska alleges that church leader David Miscavige, in order to keep her away from her mother, had Valeska kept in isolation away from her mother at Flag Land Base, in Clearwater, Florida while she was only 17 years old. The next year, in September 1996, after she had turned 18, she was then moved to the Freewinds, the cruise ship that sails the Caribbean and caters to wealthy Scientologists paying for the highest level of spiritual training, Operating Thetan level eight, or “OT VIII.” Valeska joined the Sea Org that works on the ship. She says she was told her stay would only be two weeks. Instead, she spent the next twelve years there, unable to leave. For several months, she alleges, she was punished with an assignment in the ship’s engine room, where at one point she passed out from the noise and heat.

For the first six years of her imprisonment, she had an escort assigned to her whenever she left the ship. But even after that, she says, she was conditioned to believe there was no escaping the Freewinds.

“When I first went there, I hated being there, and I wanted to leave,” she says. “I knew that wasn’t going to happen, so I began to accept that that was the way it was going to be,” she says.

She compares it to the experience of Jaycee Lee Dugard, the girl who was held for 18 years in a California backyard and despite the ability to escape, felt completely resigned to being held captive.

“You’re so resigned to it,” she says. “I had grown up in Sea Org. I never had a bank account. You get 50 dollars a week. You don’t have a passport. If you want to leave the ship, you have to go down the gangway, and there’s a security guard there 24 hours a day.” (Valeska’s passport had been taken from her when she boarded the ship; the church says that was just maritime procedure.)

“You were taught that Scientology was the only answer. You think you’re doing the right thing,” she says, adding that Sea Org members are constantly made to feel that they haven’t done enough to “clear the planet” for Scientology’s advancement. “They make you feel that you could always do more. I never really took any days off. That’s your whole life, basically.”

Valeska was put aboard the Freewinds in 1996. For her first six years, she worked as a waitress in one of the ship’s restaurants. In 2002, she spent a short time as a “word clearer,” a technical position that had her helping Scientologists understand the arcane terms of L. Ron Hubbard’s “technology.” She then supervised cases, and then became an auditor and an instructor of courses.

I had to ask her: some people might not find that so bad, working in a restaurant and then giving classes while sailing around the Caribbean.

“Well, the schedule in the Sea Org is very different than in the real world. You’d get up at 6 and go to work, and you’d work until midnight. In 1997 and 1998, after our regular jobs we were up every night until 4 am cleaning up asbestos,” she says. “There was rubble on the deck. We’d have to go behind the guys doing renovations, vacuuming up dirt until 4 in the morning.”

Read Tony’s full interview with Valeska. which lead to legal threats against her from Scientology.  Tony also conducted a corroborating interview with Ramana Dienes-Browning.  All are well worth reading.  After this followup story from A Current Affair, you’ll find Scientology’s feeble response.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Statement from the Church of Scientology

UPDATE:

The Anti-Marty team has posted a lengthier attack on me which you are welcome to peruse at your leisure.  That’s one of the key differences between us.  I will actually link to their attacks on me and let you look at both sides.  No where on their attack page will you you find a link back to me or my movie, Knowledge Report.   This is one of my favorite sections:

Like most suppressives and bullies, Bunker can dish it out but can’t take it. If people attempt to exercise their free speech rights by speaking out against Bunker, he quickly acts the innocent victim, whining “look what they are doing to me.” But of course he never bothered to look at the hatred he has been spreading against Scientologists. Like most bullies, he wants his victims’ hands tied behind their backs while he punches them.

I find it amusing that an organization led by David Miscavige is accusing someone else of being a slap-happy bully.

ORIGINAL POST:

Hooray!  It has been years since I last had a Dead Agent page about me on Religious Freedom Watch but tonight I discovered that an Anti-Marty blog has a very amusing write up about me.  I’ve stopped the chuckling long enough to share the page with you.

Mark Bunker has spent decades trying to make a living out of the destroy-Scientology business. Unable to make a living otherwise, he has taken money from anyone who would patronize his camera and slander for the purposes of mocking LRH and Scientology. Bunker is, and always has been, for sale — literally – he’s been paid for years to attack the Church. He has specialized in attacking LRH and ridiculing the Scientology scriptures, going so far as to publish any copies of upper level materials he could get on the Internet. His personal attacks on LRH and attempts to degrade him in any way possible have been his trademark.

When Anonymous began committing criminal acts against Scientology and Scientologists (Bunker and his cohorts were involved in a theft of Scientology property which, was posted on the Internet to solicit Anonymous attacks against Scientology), Bunker immediately befriended those he could locate and persuaded many of them to donate money to him to help him in his quest to destroy Scientology.

A few months ago Bunker started asking Marty Rathbun’s cult following to donate money to him so that he could help “save” Scientology. Why the about-face? Suddenly, because it seemed to make financial sense, he had “no disagreements with Scientology scriptures at all,” and only wanted to see them “properly” applied. Bunker has negotiable morality, and guarantees to service the highest bidder. The clue to this man is in his name – Bunk. Scratch his back and he’ll scratch yours, but for money.

I’m especially amused that they used a picture I took of myself looking extra goofy.  I have tons of those, boys.   You’ve inspired me to put together a fake teaser poster for Knowledge Report.

I just returned from a West Coast trip in which I interviewed a number of people for my film Knowledge Report.  Lori Hodgson was one of those who spoke to me on camera about the pain of losing her two children to Scientology’s policy of Disconnection.  This morning the Village Voice has a story about how Lori’s son was injured in a motorcycle crash and she was barred from seeing him in the hospital where he had been rushed to the ER.

While Hodgson was driving to the hospital, her phone received a voice mail, which she played back for the Voice. It was a frantic-sounding Jenn Maynard:

“Lori, please don’t go to the hospital. They are freaking out on me right now. I told them, I did not contact you, but they are freaking out. They said they know that you’re on the way, I guess? I don’t know why you’re not answering right now.”

Hodgson says that Maynard told her that Jessica later texted her that her father, Jim Leake, was “furious” that Maynard had made the Facebook post so that Lori was able to find out that her son had sustained life-threatening injuries.

Maynard declined to speak with the Voice.

When Hodgson arrived at the hospital, she was told that she would not be able to see her son, and would not even be able to get any information on his condition.

When she asked if a nurse would ask Jeremy personally if he would see her, she was told “Your son does not want to see you.”

“Can you at least give me his status?” Hodgson says she asked. “I was told, ‘No, your son is 18, and by the privacy laws we’re not allowed to give out any information.’

Be sure to read Tony Ortega’s full story.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’re halfway to the finish of this latest fundraising campaign for Knowledge Report.  One month to go to raise another $5000 to put toward travel expenses to capture more stories like Lori’s.  Please donate what you can and spread the word.