SCIENTOLOGISTS RANGE FAR ON THEIR MISSIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201000008-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: September 17, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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An unconventional sect -1
DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
17 September 1980
Scientoloqis'ts _
ran
By SUE LINDSAY
Among other things, last year the group offer
ed a $10,000 bounty to whistleblowers who came
The Church of Scientology's Guardian Office
has been described as everything from an admin-
istrative arm-of the- church to an. intelligence
In fact, it's a little of both.
Scientology efforts to improve treatment-of
mental patients and: totreat.-drugaddictsthrough the Narconon program are performed
So are Scientology's efforts- to expose corrup
tion in the Internal Revenue Service andother
But so are Scientology's-undercover investigations that most recently-resulted in the-crimi-
nal conpiracy convictions of nine church mem-
bers in Washington. And so are covert intelligence gathering and
harassment campaigns against foes of Scientol-
The Guardian Office?was established in 1966
to "guard" routine church activities from litiga-
It includes the church's publicrelations,
investigations, legal, finance and service bureaus
and all of the church's reform groups,:
The Citizen's Commission on Human Rights,
for example, worked,-hard two years ago td get
informed-consent .lawspassed in Colorado to
ments and abuse of-mental patients
Other groups.- include the Gerus Society forthe rights of the aged, theTask ForceonMental
Retardation, the Committeeto Reinvolve EiOP
emnha
fendrs, the Comitteeo' Public Healtn
Safety,Narcononand several' educational: pr
Most of the reform groups are involvedin
investigating government agencies orgroups
such as organized medicine that haveattacked
In the early 1970sthe church launched.its se
cret "Snow White"project? whose aim. wasto
purge"false files" about Scientology in govern
In 1978, after . the FBI seized :massive
amounts of church files for the conspiracy-casein Washington which included information about.
the project, "Snow White", went publjc and. be-k
erntngnt.
h
forward to the church wit information of government corruption. No awards have been made.
Last year the group was instrumental in get
ting the Army to order. medical. evaluations of
soldiers who unknowingly had been given theexperimental drug-.BZ" during the 1960s. The
Army was studying the drug as?an enemy, incapacitating agent.
Members of the church's National Commis-
sion on Law Enforcement and Social Justice
began an investigation of the international police
organization Interpol after the church learned
Interpol was circulating documents about Scien-
tology.
In the mid-1970s, they testified before a series
of congressional investigations of Interpol which
came after the group obtained documents show-
ing that former Nazi Secret Service officers have
served as heads of Interpol and that some of its
officials were trafficking in narcotics.
The church pressed for an end to U.S. involve-
ment in the Paris-based police agency and was
making charges that the Justice. Department and
Federal Bureau of Investigation were trying to
cover up Interpol's drug activities at the time of
the 1977 raid. - :Founder L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology
have long talked of a conspiracy by the World
Mental- Health Association and various law en-
forcement arms of government such as the FBhand the Central Intelligence Agency to do away
iththe religion. Some observers reject the conspiracy theorya paranoid fantasy
ug, Administration's suit-.on the use of the Eeter, the number of undercoveragents used to
k
rids anA ,Scientologists :say. oveernment intelligence
,Tz cedence t_to ?w agencies have been behind or involved in most of
In 1974 the church sueda dozen government thechurchsproblems. .
destroy the churchIn 1978 that suit and several this both originate from the Air Force office of otherswere combined, and the action is still special investigations at Lowry Air Force Basepending inWashington One, dated 1951,concerns an investigation of
If the church is being persecuted, the question the short-lived:Allied Scientists of the World
in manyminds is whether the persecution has which Hubbard founded and was headquartered
"Sectarianism" one of the fewworks about ornotthis orgamzahonhas an interest inimical
theorizes that the ongiul-~atwu f Soren :
Scientology that isnt markedlbiased pro or con to those of th
tologg from'conventwaalirtiuspll e ;tame de~art-
ment, National Security Agency, Army, Navy,
and defense departments Office oE_-Sal
Operations, and tfiat the CIA routinely received
16opies of each messae.
"This is a very rare order of distribution for
messages of this type and indicates a very high
classification and security handling of what is
otherwise unclassified information," Prouty
said. "This leads me to believe that the govern-
ment is hiding its activities behind a cloak of
secrecy rather than using secrecy in the normal
context to protect the body of the message."
Prouty told the News in a telephone interview
that he isn't a Scientologist.
Prouty was the Pentagon's chief hriefine offi-
cer assigned to the White House durinthe
Eisenhower administration and worked closely
with CIA Director Allen Dulles in coordinating
military support for the clandestine political
operations undertaken-by the agency. He wrote a
_boq "The Secret Team "about theintelli2ence
community, particularly the interplay between
Allen Dulles and brother John Foster Dulles who
was Secretary of State at the time.
Prouty said he was asked by the Scien-
to give his professional opinion of ;
tologists
the government's files on the church.
"It is quite an astounding thing. I'd,'
never seen anything like this before, this
kind of intense effort without an explana-
tion. It wasn't a casual effort. It was a con-
centrated effort."
Prouty declined to speculate on who is
behind the alleged conspiracy. "But the
CIA and the FBI don't originate things," he i
said. "They're generally an errand boy.
They do somebody else's job. What moti-
vates them is generally an outside motiva-
tion."
In his affidavit, Prouty observed that
the AMA was the prime mover behind the
Food and Drug Administration's legal ac-
tion against Scientology.
Prouty doubts reports of the dark side
of Scientology. "I've gone out of my way
with contacts throughout the world to at-
tempt to find out if allegations against the
church were ever substantiated and I've
not been able to find any case where it's
been proven they harmed anyone," he told
the, News. "I've never run into anybody,
connected with the organization that didn't
seem to me to be a pretty sharp type.;
Whatever it is they do, it seems to be rather
beneficial to them."
As for the recent criminal charges,,'
Prouty said, "The government's big case,
against Scientology amounted to being ac-,
cused of using a Xerox machine without au-
thorization." a' :..? ;, ..
Prouty said he thinks Scientology's
problems aren't much different from those
experienced by Mormons and Christian
Scientists in the past.
But Scientology certainly is more mili
tint in responding to criticism than other
religions. At one time, Scientologists werei
expected to "disconnect" from friends and'
relatives who disapproved of the church.
Such persons are known as "suppressive)
persons" or enemies of the church.
Another controversial policy revolves
around the term "fair game." "Suppressive
persons" could be "deprived of property or,
injured by any means by any Scientologist
without discipline of the Scientologist,"
Hubbard declared. "They may be tricked,
sued or lied to or destroyed."
Both policies were canceled in 1968 by
Hubbard, who said, "It causes bad public
relations." Scientologists claim "fair
game" meant only that Scientologists ex-
pelled by the church for ethical reasons no
longer were protected by an internal sys-
tem of justice.
Most policy letters issued during the
past few years have little to do with han-
dling enemies, instead emphasizing the
sales of Scientology books and services.
This focus on money is why the IRS says
it has challenged Scientology's tax-exempt
status over the years.
Although the church calls its expensivei
fees for auditing (about $200 an hour) and i
other services "donations," the IRS argues
that this amounts to selling a product and
that the organization is primarily a busi-
ness.
Scientology defends its fees by noting
that no one biinks at the huge contributions
or tithes made by Catholics, Mormons or
members of other religions.
Some courts have ruled that Scientology
is a bona fide religion, but the controversy
wages on. All churches except those under
the Los Angeles headquarters, which in-
cludes the complex in Clearwater, Fla.,
have tax-exempt status. Even so, the IRS
periodically challenges the churches' tax
returns, and some members are challenged
by the IRS when they try to deduct church
donations. .
For example, the Denver church has
filed suit in U.S. District Court over the IRS
seizure of a church bank account in a disa-
greement over taxes that appears to have
resulted when the church mistakenly filed
a form for non-exempt organizations.
The IRS refuses to comment on its rela-
tions with the church, saying it can't dis-
cuss taxpayer records with the public.
Meanwhile, the church has issued a
steady stream of news releases attacking
IRS operations.
It's clear from IRS records that the
church was singled out for special scrutiny.
The IRS has'written policies and forms-
specifically for dealing with Scientology ,
organization.. ---
CQI3T y\i3~i'D
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The church's bugging of an IRS meeting
on the church's tax-exempt status in 1974
revealed that the agency was considering
rewriting its regulations on tax-exempt
churches to exclude the Church of Scientol-
ogy.
. The church also made much of the fact
that it was named on an "IRS enemies list"
compiled of 99 groups singled out for spe-
cial investigation by the IRS Special Serv-
ices Staff during the Nixon years.
The list included the National Council of
Churches, the Urban League and various
civil rights groups.
Church officials also speculate that for-
mer President Richard Nixon may be be-
hind some of their broader government
problems and say documents released with
Nixon's presidential papers prove this.
In 1958, Hubbard apparently evoked the
wrath of the then vice president by publicly
referring to Nixon's views on psychothera-
py
Soon after, two Secret Service agents
visited the founding church in Washington
and ordered the church to cease any men-
tion of Nixon's name. According to a bulle-
tin Hubbard wrote in 1960, the agents
stated that they were there under Nixon's
express orders and that "they daily had to
make such calls on 'lots of poeople' to pre-
vent Nixon's name from being used in ways
Nixon disliked."
Citing freedom of speech and other
arguments, Hubbard issued the bulletin to
urge church members not to vote for
Nixon, noting that his own agents told the
church that Nixon believed in nothing the
founding church or Scientology stood for.
We want clean hands in public office in
the U.S.," Hubbard wrote. "Let's begin by
doggedly denying Nixon the presidency no
matter what his Secret Service tries to do
to us now in Washington."
Church spokesman Vaughn Young ob-
serves that the church's problems with the
IRS in particular accelerated after Nixon
finally was elected in 1968. -
The founding church was recognized as
tax exempt in 1956 but had its status re-
voked in 1958.-The New York church's
status was revoked in 1967, a month before
the trial on the status of the founding
church. A month later, California lost its
tax-exempt status, followed by Florida in
1969, Hawaii in 1970 and Michigan in 1971.
The church acknowledges its wealth, al-
though saying that none of the money goes
directly to-Hubbard and that most is spent
in administration of the huge organization
and to carry on lawsuits.
Much of the church's wealth is tied up in
real estate to house the burgeoning "Orgs."
In 1976, the church paid $5.5 million cash i
for the Cedars of Lebanon hospital in Los
Angeles, which is the location of Scientol-
ogy's U.S. headquarters.
In October, the Denver church paid $1.3
million in cash for the Sachs-Lawlor build-
ing at 18th and Lawrence streets, having
outgrown its home at 375 S. Navajo St.
However, Michael Graves, a Denver
spokesman for the church, said this build-
ing required too much renovation, so it has
been sold and the church is looking for
another location for its regional headquar-
ters.
Hubbard writes that people who criti-
cize the cost of Scientology are "suppres-
sive persons" who know "if we don't
charge, we will vanish." .
But if Scientology is the answer to the
ills of mankind and if the goal is, as once
stated, to "clear the planet," one might ask
why the church doesn't offer it freely or at
Hubbard responds that to do so "re-
wards non-producers the same as produc-
ers. A pre-clear who can work and pro-
duces as a member of society deserves
priority. Welfare money degrades because
it is not exchanged for delivered produc-
tion. If you reward nonproduction, you get
it." Elsewhere he states that Scientology
will fail to expand if it fails to expand the
abilities of the able. ..
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