SCIENTOLOGY FILES SEIZED IN FBI RAID INCLUDE CIA DATA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400410044-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: July 12, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

R. TICLE ppjnl For Release 2005/01/13: CIA-RDP88-01315R0004004106440 e
GiV PAGE Q THE WASHINGTON STAR (GREEN LINE)
1077 1', rP/f, f C"
17 Jul
y
h C d
zed
By David Pik'
.
The FBI ticked them off, one by one:
"Folder marked U.S. Central Intelligence Ag
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency- Employment of".
dated 1 April 1974:
"One folder titled'Locksmith-Course" containing-?
numerous manuals and data concerning locks"
and "Folder entitled Bugging Devices. containing:
data with cover sheet entitled Excerpeions re:. De-.,
-"One legal size piece of paper depicting Justice,:
Department (and another with an Internal Revs-.
"Compliance report dated 5.12-77 per (U.S. Dis-
.trict Court) Judges Aubrey E; Robinson and
Charles R. Richey."
The files were among the hundreds seized
Friday by FBI agents who raided the Washington
office of the Founding Church of Scientology, ac-
cording to a 31-page document filed yesterday in
U.S. District Court.
For the raid here and a simultaneous search of'
.the church's national headquarters in Los Angeles,
dozens of FBI agents used search warrants issued
THE WARRANTS resulted from an affidavit
:signed by an FBI agent and based on two weeks of
"extensive interrogations" of, a former top church
official. -w stating that the church over the. last
"
l ys h ifldh Ju
severaearasnitrate testice Depart-
ment and the_.IRS, has copied confidential. govern-
ment documents through break-ins and other
means and,. in one case, bugged a high-level IRS'
Church aificials`?late yesterday-- declined. . corn
ment on- the. document listing the seized church.
files. "I haven't seen the list and I'm not in a posi-
tion to comment," said the Rev.. Hugh. Wilhere.
."And our lawyers told us not to comment, as these
"
.-
matters will be coming up in court.
Lawyers' for 'the church tried ~ unsuccessfully
Friday, afternoon to persuade U.S. District. Chief"
Judge William B. Bryant to issue an order halting
the search. The attorneys contended that the war-..
rant was too- broad and violated such rights - as
-freedom of religion and the attorney-client privi
.asking the court-to impound the seized documents,
,and to keep them under seal pending a final deter-
mination. as- to. whether the . search was legal.
Bryant was scheduled to hear. that plea late this..
afternoon..
Earlier yesterday church spokesmen contended
"some, of the documents that were the subject of
their search were obtained un th F eeda
Information-Act .(F81 fives 1Qr qet l
were legally obtained and yet made the target of
the FBI's police-stater raid makes one easily 'clues
tin?i tha frill a"d' }r"fv ntinti,ma fn,. tl,-,em .,c ....
THE STATEMENT, charging that " the FBI has
clearly sought to try- their case in the press by the
staging of this event," also contended that it was
the government that has infiltrated and harassed.
.the church for perhaps as long as 20 years. -_ .
The statement contended, for example, that an
"undercover agent" of the Food and Drug Admin-
istration in the late 1950s had infiltrated the church
here, posing as a member, in order to obtain infor-
mation on the E-meter a device resembling a lie
,. detector. The FDA was investigating Whether the
church was making fraudulent medical claims for
the E-meter, which the church argued was a legiti-
mate device that helped members identify past
traumas and achieve self-fulfillment. ~ ..,.
In a related development yesterday, five church
members responding to subpoenas from the U.S.
.Attorney's Office here appeared briefly before'a
federal grand jury. According' to various sources,
the five were to be fingerprinted in a move related
to the seizure of the documents, which reportedly
,were removed by FBI agents wearing gloves.
'The grand jury investigation is seen as the sec-
ond phase of the government's probe; following
what one source said - was a "very satisfactory"
search for copies of stolen government documents
on Friday.
The FBI document' listing items seized in the
search contains no comments and only the most
terse description of most of the files involved. It
lists numerous internal church memos, letters and
directives dealing mainly with government agen-
cies that have been-investigating the church for a
THE DOCUMENT lists "reports" and - "data
estimates" of 10 of the 15 federal judges here --
Bryant, Robinson, Richie and John J:: Sirica,
George L. Hart Jr., Howard F. Corcoran, John H.
Pratt, June L. Green, John Lewis Smith'Jr. and
Oliver Gasch -- and D.C. Superior Court=Judge.
Court sources said they thought all thee . judges.
have at one time or another handled cases involy
ing the Church, mainly FOIA cases against the
church over Its tax-exempt status-and other mat,
ters.
Oliver'. containing (a. One letter with enclosure
dated 28, October '72 re: Oliver Gasch -=John J..
Herman Gasch, 1905 through January 1967."In its.
search warrant,- the FBI had said it was seeking
copied, stolen letters to; and from. Gasch- dating I
Also listed is.a folder on. Nathan Dodell, the as--
sistant U.S. attorney who is handling the church's
FOIA cases here for the government. The:FBI affi-
davit had contended that Dodell's office in-the
federal courthouse here had been broken into-four
times last year by two men - Gerald B.: Wolfe, a
former church member-and IRS, clerk-typist who
pleaded guilty last month in the break-in case. and
Michael Meisner, the top. church official who, said
he recently escaped "house arrest" by the church
and now is cooperating with the government.. -,
.. The Dodell file, according to the FBI list, In-
cludes a report beginning "'a time track on Nathan
/01 / I8 drill AQR9R 8ktb1815M 0,17i4>61 G%W0dl4g and
biographical data on him," several letters about.or
from Dodell,. and ."one investigative- report re
Possible Attack -- rumor from Solicitor General
41 , dto