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AFFIDAVIT OF GERALD ARMSTRONG
Nevada, USA. I am an adult and could competently testify concerning the facts herein if called upon to do so. I am making this affidavit to support an opposition to the Scientology organization's pending application for charity status in Canada.
1969 at the organization's franchise in Vancouver, B.C., and worked on staff at that franchise in 1970. In February, 1971 I joined the Sea Organization ("Sea Org" or "SO") in Los Angeles, California. The Sea Org is Scientology's "elite" pseudo- military corps, then one of the two administration and power arms which controlled Scientology around the world. Members of the Sea Org sign contracts of servitude for one billion years. Throughout my Scientology experience I gained a knowledge of organization structure, function, control, finances, personnel, policies and operations.
Morocco, Portugal, Spain and the Caribbean. L. Ron Hubbard (also "LRH") Scientology's founder, and at that time its ruler and the Sea Org's "Commodore," was on board and operated Scientology internationally through the "crew" which numbered, during my stay on board of four and a half years, around four hundred. The other power arm of Scientology that Hubbard then used to maintain control of Scientology was the Guardian's Office ("GO"), headed by his wife Mary Sue Hubbard. Following the conviction and imprisonment of eleven GO personnel including Mrs. Hubbard for federal offenses in the United States, the GO was renamed the Office of Special Affairs ("OSA").
personal contact with Hubbard, his wife, administrative organization staff, and people in the ports and countries the ship visited. My positions included legal officer, public relations officer, and intelligence officer. Hubbard patterned his organization's intelligence apparatus on the system of Nazi spy master Reinhard Gehlen. Scientology operates as a global intelligence organization collecting overt and covert information on individuals, other organizations and governments and running covert operations against its "enemies."
ashore in Florida, I was posted in the GO Intelligence Bureau connected to Hubbard's Personal Office. From December, 1975 through June, 1976 I held the post of Deputy LRH External Communications Aide, handling Hubbard's dispatch and telex traffic to and from Scientology operations. From July 1976 to December 1977 I was assigned, on Hubbard's order, to the Rehabilitation Project Force ("RPF"), the SO prison system. In 1978 I worked in Hubbard's cinematography crew in La Quinta, California making movies under his direction until the fall of that year when he again assigned me to the RPF, this time for eight months first in La Quinta, then at a base in Gilman Hotsprings near Hemet, California.
Hubbard to punish anyone he felt crossed his will, or he even just disliked. People were assigned arbitrarily, for something as slight as a needle movement on the "E-meter," the " electro- psychometer" Scientology calls for "legal" reasons a "religious artifact," but which in reality is, and is used as, a lie detector. I was assigned by Hubbard the first time for "insubordination," and the second time because he considered I was "joking." During much of my RPF sentence I was the " Bosun," the highest RPF member and in charge of the unit. I became intimately familiar with RPF policies and practices. On information and belief, RPF camps still exist in Scientology bases in California, Florida, Great Britain and Denmark.
experience to break the will of the person assigned. RPF members were segregated, did physical or menial labor for little or no pay, were required to run everywhere, and ate whatever was left after the regular non-RPF staff members finished eating. Telephone calls from RPF members to their family were only by specific permission and were monitored. All mail from RPF members was first read by security personnel. Anyone who took the punishment of RPF assignment lightly was assigned to the RPF's RPF, an even more degrading experience. People assigned were not free to leave, and anyone who did wish to leave was guarded and held until he had, among other things, signed a list of his "crimes" extracted from his "auditing" files.
processing, which the organization advertises as producing increased IQ, abilities and awareness. In my experience, this advertising is false; auditing does not increase IQ, abilities or awareness. In my experience, auditing is used by Scientology for the mind control, or "brainwashing" of its adherents. Scientology denies that it engages in brainwashing, but Hubbard himself stated in a bulletin about auditing: "We can brainwash faster than the Russians (20 secs to total amnesia against three years to slightly confused loyalty)." (parens are Hubbard's)
by an "auditor." These statements, which include the person's innermost thoughts, embarrassing incidents from his past, his sexual history, acts which might be legally prosecutable, etc. are available to and used by the intelligence personnel and leaders of the organization for non-therapeutic purposes, such as domination, intelligence operations or blackmail. Scientology promotes to the public that statements made in auditing are confidential, but they are not.
until the beginning of 1980 I worked in Hubbard's "Household Unit" (HU) at Gilman Hotsprings, the SO unit which took care of Hubbard's house, personal effects, transport, meals and so forth. My positions included "Purchaser," "LRH Renovations In- Charge" and "Deputy Commanding Officer HU."
an archive of Hubbard's personal documents and providing research assistance to a non-Scientologist author Omar Garrison who had been contracted to write Hubbard's biography. In the course of my research I uncovered and documented pervasive fraud concerning representations made by Hubbard and Scientology about his past, credentials, accomplishments, intentions and the claims and efficacy of his psychotherapeutic "mental technology." I attempted to get Scientology's leaders to correct the fraud, and as a result I was ordered to a "security check," an interrogation employing the E-meter.
Scientology had been betrayed from the very beginning, that the organization's leaders were ill-intentioned, and that the fraud I sought to correct would continue. As a result, my wife and I fled from the organization in December, 1981. We were fortunate in being able to escape from Scientology, because if we had announced our intention to leave we would have been separated and locked up. I had seen many people locked up and guarded inside, and I had been locked up and kept under guard myself.
"Suppressive Person Declares" on me, falsely accusing me of "crimes" and "high crimes," including promulgating false information about Hubbard and Scientology. The organization's declaring someone a "suppressive person," or "SP," targets him as an "enemy," and subjects him to Scientology's infamous and judicially condemned "Fair Game Doctrine." One version of this doctrine, written by Hubbard, a true and correct copy of which is appended hereto as Exhibit A, states: "ENEMY - SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist...May be tricked, sued, or lied to or destroyed." Scientology claims that the fair game policy was cancelled, but this is false. Hubbard merely ordered that the term "fair game" not be used as it caused bad public relations. Being " declared" by Scientology can be a terrifying experience. On information and belief, the practice of "declaring" people " suppressives" or "enemies" continues to this day. The fair game doctrine continues unabated.
organization I learned of an intelligence operation being conducted against me and observed that I was being spied on. Scientology personnel also stole photographs I possessed. Knowing that my wife's and my life were in danger, I obtained from Garrison, with his permission, certain documents I believed I would need to defend us. I sent these to attorneys who had agreed to represent me, one of whom was Michael Flynn, then Scientology's most prominent lawyer enemy.
I have been the target of fair game. Acts against me by Scientology agents pursuant to this basic Scientology policy include:
to Scientology's policy and practice of destroying a designated "target's" reputation and credibility or public belief in him by the manufacture and spreading of falsehoods about him. Over the years Scientology has published and disseminated a small mountain of black PR on me, falsely accusing me of perversities and crimes, including crimes against humanity, in an ongoing effort to assassinate my character.
trial before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul G. Breckenridge, Jr. in 1984, resulting in a decision in my favor. A true and correct copy of that decision is appended hereto as Exhibit B. Judge Breckenridge stated:
abuse of its participants' auditing or psychotherapy records: "culling supposedly confidential "P.C. folders or files" to obtain information for purposes of intimidation and/or harassment is repugnant and outrageous." (Ex. B, pp 11,12)
incident of Scientology's destruction of evidence: "In January of 1980 there was an announcement of a possible raid to be made by the FBI or other law enforcement agencies of the property. Everyone on the property was required by Hubbard's representatives, the Commodore's Messengers, to go through all documents located on the property and "vet" or destroy anything which showed that Hubbard controlled Scientology organizations, retained financial control, or was issuing orders to people at Gilman Hot Springs.
On several occasions, and pursuant to organization orders, I participated in destroying evidence, including during this incident identified by Judge Breckenridge. In my opinion, Scientology's practice and policy of destruction of evidence makes the organization's representations in any legal context untrustworthy.
appeal in its entirety in 1991. A true and correct copy of the opinion of the California Court of Appeal, Scientology v. Armstrong, 232 Cal.App. 3d 1060, 283 Cal. Rptr. 917, is appended hereto as Exhibit C.
many years of fair game attacks, which included infiltrating his office, threatening his family, paying known criminals to testify falsely against him, suing him and his office some fifteen times, framing him with the forgery of a $2,000,000 check, and targeting him with an international black PR campaign. (See, e.g., U.S. v. Kattar, 840 F.2d. 118). Flynn became desperate to have the attacks and threats end, and ultimately, due to that desperation, compromised his ethical responsibilities to me and his other clients litigating against Scientology.
agreement to settle all his some twenty clients' claims against the organization, plus Flynn's own lawsuit seeking damages for the years of fair game. I was to settle my claim for the years of abuse inside Scientology and the years of fair game after I left. Scientology and Flynn positioned me as a deal breaker, only showing me the "settlement agreement" they wanted me to sign after my arrival in Los Angeles from Boston, where I had been working in Flynn's office.
required that I be absolutely silent about my then seventeen years of experiences with Scientology, and which contained a $50,000.00 liquidated damages penalty for any utterance I might make to anyone. In response, Flynn stated that the conditions were "not worth the paper they're printed on." He told me, "You can't contract away your Constitutional rights;" "the conditions are unenforceable." When I argued that the settlement document opened me up to future problems with Scientology Flynn said, "I'll be there for you."
threats to him and his family and wanted out. He said that Scientology had ruined his marriage, his wife's health and his life. He said that as a part of the settlement he and all co- counsels had agreed to not become involved in organization- related litigation in the future. He expressed a deep concern that the courts in the US cannot deal with Scientology and its lawyers and their contemptuous abuse of the justice system. He told me that if I didn't sign I could look forward to more years of fair game harassment and misery.
give Scientology the opportunity it sought to change its combative attitude and behavior by removing the threat he and his clients represented to it. He said Scientology had promised to cease fair game and that he and all his clients depended on my signing to have fair game against them cease. Because of Flynn's representations that the offensive conditions were not worth the paper they were printed on, and to have fair game end for Flynn, his family, his other clients and myself, I did sign Scientology's document.
Scientology, the organization had no intention of ending fair game attacks on me or anyone else. Immediately following the settlement Scientology delivered black PR documents about me to the Los Angeles Times. Over the next three years, and before I responded in any way, Scientology's attacks included:
subpoena on me, I received a series of telephone calls from a Scientology attorney threatening that I would be sued if I testified about my experiences, even though I had been subpoenaed. This attorney stated that I should refuse to answer the deposition questions. As a result of his threats and Scientology's other post-settlement fair game I concluded that the "settlement agreement" and the organization's efforts to enforce it were acting to obstruct justice, and that if I allowed myself to be intimidated by the threats I would be abetting that obstruction. I concluded that I could not avoid a confrontation with Scientology, and subsequently responded to defend myself and to try to correct the injustices created by the "settlement agreement" and its misuse.
consider themselves victims of Scientology's abuse have contacted me to request my assistance in their efforts to obtain redress or defend themselves. I have come to believe that all people have a God-given right to assist their fellows, which cannot be taken away by human "contract." I have also come to see that a person's right to participate in a public controversy, certainly a controversy involving himself, should not and cannot be taken away by "contract."
organization sued me in 1992 to enforce the "settlement agreement." In the case of Scientology v. Armstrong, Marin County (California) Superior Court Case No. 157680, the organization was awarded by summary judgment $300,000 in liquidated damages, $334,000 in costs and a permanent injunction prohibiting me from discussing Scientology or Scientologists, or assisting in any way Scientology's victims or fair game targets. This judgment is suspect because, among other things, the judge ignored and refused to address the US Constitution First Amendment religious and due process issues and defenses. The judge ruled that Scientology may say whatever it wants about me, no matter how false, obnoxious or defamatory, and that I may not respond in any way to defend myself. I believe that this ruling is so illogical, so antisocial and so violative of basic human rights in a civilized society that it cannot be legal.
compromising judges presiding over its legal proceedings is well known. An article in the December 1980 American Lawyer entitled "Scientology's War Against Judges," which focused on the criminal trial of the eleven Scientology intelligence personnel in connection with their burglarizing of US Federal offices and theft of government documents, stated that Scientology's
involved in a scheme to set up and compromise US District Court Judge Charles Richey with a prostitute. Another widely known operation was reported in 1984 in the Clearwater Sun (Florida).
Ideman stated about Scientology and its lawyers in a declaration executed June 17, 1993, a true and correct copy of which is appended hereto as Exhibit D:
intelligence operations against Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald Swearinger during the litigation of the case Wollersheim v. Scientology, LA SC No. C332027, which resulted in a 1986 $30,000,000 damages judgment against the organization. After Judge Breckenridge rendered his decision following my trial in 1984, Scientology carried out a black PR campaign against him. Organization "president" Heber Jentzsch took this black PR campaign on radio and even on CBS Television's "60 Minutes" to falsely accuse Judge Breckenridge of being under the influence of German Nazis.
with Scientology to be the organization's defenseless punching bag. I believe that a judgment in a US court which orders that someone submit to being a punching bag, especially to a known abusive and dangerous organization like Scientology, is itself abusive and dangerous, and illegal. That Scientology should use the courts to obtain such an order and unfair advantage is indicative of its antisocial goals and disregard for civil rights and basic equity.
US justice system, can be attacked by Scientology with relative impunity, and caused to recuse themselves from presiding over Scientology cases, certainly an individual litigant against Scientology has little chance of survival in court. Scientology uses its immense wealth to maintain a litigation machine of dozens of lawyers and law firms to attack and ruin its perceived opponents or critics. In my opinion, until such time as Scientology ceases its use of the legal system to attack people and deny them their civil rights the organization should not be granted charity status. Scientology does not act charitably, is not charitable, and its present overreaching policies and practices towards critics and legitimate criticism make the organization incompatible with charity.
legitimate criticism, but to attack the critic, with its litigation machine, with covert intelligence operations, and with terrible black propganda smear campaigns. Hubbard stated in his policy entitled "Attacks on Scientology:"
learned from Michael Flynn that he had signed a "contract" with Scientology which prevents him from assisting me in my defense. His promise to "be there" for me was merely an inducement to get me to sign so that fair game toward him would hopefully end. Throughout the post-settlement litigation, Flynn, while admitting that his contract with Scientology is illegal and unenforceable, has refused my requests to come forward and assist in my defense, stating that he fears again having his life ruined by more fair game. This too is indicative of the organization's continuing antisocial goals and rights abuses.
served with a subpoena for production of documents by Grady Ward in the case of Scientology v. Ward, USDC Northern District of California, case no. C-96-20207 RMW. Ward is accused of posting some of Scientology's "secret scriptures" to the internet. After receipt of the subpoena I received a letter from a Scientology attorney threatening me with prosecution if I produced the requested documents. I therefore advised the presiding judge in the Ward case of the threat. For my communicating to the federal judge Scientology was able to then obtain an order of contempt against me sending me to jail and fining me. I believe that this order is illegal and illegally obtained. I also believe that it is indicative of Scientology's disregard for due process and its abuse of the legal system to forward its anti-civil rights goals. One of Scientology basic policies, as stated by Hubbard, is to use the law to harass its opponents. This remains a basic policy and practice of Scientology to this day.
Form 1023 submission, pursuant to which Scientology obtained its tax exemption, the organization included a four page section about me containing the same sort of black PR the organization spreads to the media and public. What Scientology wrote about me, in response to the IRS's questions concerning my Scientology- related litigation is factually and in conclusion false. It is also disgusting, asserting that my state of mind was "proved conclusively to be one sordid, sado-masochistic nightmare." Scientology submitted this and other false statements about me to the IRS during a time when the organization believed it had me silenced by its gag contract, and thus unable to respond to correct the lies. I have asked Scientology to correct the lies submitted to the IRS and it has refused.
just about me, but about other individuals, and about the organization's practices and intentions. In my opinion, the IRS was derelict in its duty to investigate the truth or falsity of Scientology's submissions. In my opinion, the US was derelict in its duty in granting Scientology's tax exempt status, protecting it, and supporting it in its global goals. In my opinion, by granting the Scientology organization IRS tax exempt status, the US turned its back on its citizens who have been and continue to be victimized by the organization, and who are really the people the US should protect and support. When I realized that Scientology's leaders consider that their tax exempt billions depend on silencing me, and that the US courts and government had formed an unholy alliance with the organization, I left California for Canada. I went to Canada where I would be free to some degree to be able to correct Scientology's lies about me, especially to the IRS, without the fear that Scientology could manipulate a court into jailing me for doing so. I pray that Canada will not now be derelict in its duty, and will not turn its back on its citizens whom the country owes protection, but will deny Scientology's application for charity status.
claims all the extraordinary benefits conferred by the US Constitution and Courts on religions. Scientology claims that it is organized solely for religious purposes and that its policies and bulletins, even its intelligence training instructions and its "fair game" policy, are "scriptures." Scientology claims that people and countries opposing its antisocial goals and practices and civil rights abuses are engaging in "religious persecution."
of religion where there is no freedom to criticize, oppose or reform religion. The US was founded in great part by people fleeing "religious persecution" for opposing, criticizing or seeking to reform a religion, which had the power, often provided by the State, to persecute them. The US recognized the need for its citizens to be free from religious persecution in the Religious Expression and Religious Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
contracts, and aggressive litigation, is attempting to suppress and eliminate criticism, as well as opposition and reformation efforts. The Courts' enforcement of the organization's gag contracts necessarily assists this one "religion's" suppression and elimination of criticism. Judicial enforcement also results in the promotion and establishment of Scientology by the removal of opposition to its promotion and establishment. Unless the Courts are also willing to become involved in and support every other religion's suppression or elimination of criticism, its judicial assistance to Scientology in its campaign is favoritism, and impermissible. It is a tragedy for all that the US favors the most abusive and irreligious of its "religions."
would prosecute someone who under any circumstances signed a "contract" which required that he not discuss God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Bible, or the person's experiences in the Christian religion; or for that matter Allah, Islam, Mohammed, the Koran, the Vedas or Krishna. It is inconceivable that a Christian church in the US or Canada would do what Scientology has done to silence its critics.
thousands, of Scientologists and ex-Scientologists in the US and Canada who are bound by this organization's contracts of silence. For this reason alone the statements of Scientology's spokespeople cannot and should not be believed. And for this reason alone charity status should not be granted. Those who would speak the truth have been shuddered by "contract" and by threat into silence. I just happen to be one of the few who have chosen, despite Scientology's threats and attacks using the power of the justice system, to speak up.
Religion has come to mean freedom for the religious corporation and its leaders to persecute the practitioners, as well as the critics, of the "religion." This is a perversion of Freedom, worked by clever lawyers being paid by the corporate persecutors. It must be changed, and true Freedom of Religion reinstituted. The US is the only western country in which people can be jailed for mentioning a religion - Scientology. I pray that Canada not allow Scientology to get the legal foothold it seeks in this country through its application for charity status. If it is granted such status Scientology will be able to more easily persecute its critics and followers and more easily pursue its antisocial and irreligious goals.
a psychotherapy cult with a totalitarian nature and destructive organizational goals. It is dangerous, and its leaders are cynical. Hubbard's cynicism when deciding to turn his psychotherapy "clinic" into a religion in the early 1950's is reflected in his comments in a letter Dated April 10, 1953 that he wrote to Helen O'Brien, then his second in command in the US. I had possession of the original of this letter while inside Scientology. Hubbard wrote:
is also shown in two of Hubbard's bulletins "Routine 3 - Heaven" dated May 11, 1963 and "Resistive Cases - Former Therapy" dated September 23, 1968, true and correct copies of which are appended hereto as Exhibit E and F respectively. In "Routine 3 - Heaven," Hubbard writes:
the organization professes to be compatible with Christianity. It states in its "catechism," published in 1992 in its promotional book What is Scientology?,
Christ are not real, but the content of "implants" from trillions of years ago, is based on thousands of hours of "research."
organization and working close with Hubbard, did I ever observe that he considered Scientology a religion. At no time during those years did I consider Scientology a religion. Religious status was sought for tax advantages and as a means for getting away with Hubbard's and his organization's abuses and dangerous practices. We in Scientology adopted religious terms and trappings in a very cynical way to forward the organization's irreligious goals. At no time since I left Scientology have organization agents acted in relation to me in a religious manner, nor in a charitable manner. In my opinion, religions should not be officially permitted to get away with a lower standard of conduct and human interaction than non-religions simply because they are "religions." I pray that Scientology be denied charity status in Canada so that its abusive lower standards are not given official sanction, and so that hopefully the organization gets the message that it must cease its abuses.
British Columbia.
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