Gerry Armstrong--Declaration of William C. Walsh 02-08-1994

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Timothy Bowles
Kendrick L. Moxon
BOWLES & MOXON
6255 Sunset Blvd., Suite 2000
Hollywood, CA 90028
(213) 953-3360

Jonathan W. Lubell
MORRISON COHEN SINGER & WEINSTEIN
750 Lexington Avenue
New York, New York 10022
(212) 735-8600

Attorneys for Plaintiff
CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY
INTERNATIONAL, a California Non-
Profit Religious Organization,

Plaintiff,

vs.

STEVEN FISHMAN and UWE GEERTZ,

Defendants.

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CASE NO.
CV 91-6426 HLH (Tx)

DECLARATION OF WILLIAM C.
WALSH

I, WILLIAM C. WALSH, declare and say:

1. I am over the age of eighteen and a citizen of the

District of Columbia. I have personal knowledge of the matters

set forth herein and, if called upon to do so, could and would

competently testify thereto.

2. I have been an attorney admitted to practice law in the

District of Columbia since 1976. I am admitted to practice law

in the Supreme Court of the United States, the District of

Columbia Court of Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals

for the D.C. Circuit.

3. I have represented several Churches of Scientology and

various members of the Scientology religion since 1978, primarily

in matters concerning the federal government, including access to

government records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

and the Privacy Act, and expungement and correction of inaccurate

and derogatory information in records regarding or relating to

Scientology, its members or leaders maintained in government

files. I have extensive experience in federal records access and

correction issues and I am a recognized expert in this field. I

have been consulted by clients around the world and have been

sought out by the media and other access professionals as an

authoritative spokesperson on access issues. I also am very

familiar with the actions taken by the Church and Scientology

parishioners to assert and protect their rights under the FOIA

and Privacy Act record retention statutes and the United States

Constitution.

4. I am familiar with a program written by L. Ron Hubbard

called the Snow White Program. In this declaration I will

describe this program and its history, and demonstrate that the

characterization of this program by Robert Vaughn Young as having

an "intelligence arm" which was directed at the " enemies"

of Mr. Hubbard is a mischaracterization which is contrary to judicial

opinions on the purpose of the Snow White Program as written by

Mr. Hubbard. Young also claims that the Snow White Program was

based on what he calls the "Fair Game doctrines," and attempts to

portray this as a personal vendetta by Mr. Hubbard against his

opponents. As will be shown in more detail below, this

description is completely inaccurate.

5. While others in the past have also mischaracterized the

Snow White Program to suit their own ends, the term "Snow White"

in reality only refers to the program written by Mr. Hubbard

in 1973 for the purpose of correcting and expunging the plethora of

false governmental reports about the Church of Scientology, its

leaders and members through strictly legal means. Moreover,

contrary to Young's statement that this program was aimed at Mr.

Hubbard's enemies, it was actually directed only at obtaining

legal access to false information which was disseminated

internationally, and which in turn led to adverse action against

Mr. Hubbard and other Scientologists.

6. Mr. Hubbard wrote the Snow White Program because several

countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea had denied entry to

their ports to the ship Apollo, which at that time housed the

Church's senior ecclesiastical management bodies, as a result of

false and derogatory reports concerning Scientology which were

being distributed by certain government agencies and officials in

England, the United States and other countries. Mr. Hubbard

wanted to clear these files to ensure that accurate and unbiased

information on Scientology was maintained and disseminated. This

program did not remotely deal with or involve anything illegal

whatsoever. Indeed, Mr. Hubbard expressly stated that the "Ideal

Scene" he wished to achieve was: "All false and secret files of

the nations of operating areas brought to view and legally

expunged ...." (Emphasis added.)

7. In the course of my representation of the Church, I have I

viewed hundreds of thousands of pages of records from the files

of government agencies concerning the Scientology religion, the

Church, Mr. Hubbard and Scientology leaders and members. These

records contain overwhelming and unequivocal evidence that the

concerns which led Mr. Hubbard to write the Snow White Program

were completely justified. Indeed, subsequent Congressional

Oversight Hearings confirmed that both Mr. Hubbard and the Church

were targeted for discriminatory treatment and for illegal and

politically motivated information gathering designed to

stigmatize and set a group apart as somehow inherently suspect

under the law.

8. For example, between 1969 and the first half of 1974,

the Apollo frequently docked at ports in Portugal with no

problems and good relations with the people and local

governments. In July 1973 a rumor was first heard in the port of

Oporto that the Apollo was a "CIA ship." Although the rumor

continued to surface in 1973 and 1974 in Portugal, the Apollo

nonetheless continued to be welcome in Portuguese ports without

major incident. On October 3, 1974, when the Apollo was docked

at the port of Funchal on the island of Madeira, Portugal, it was

attacked by a large crowd throwing rocks and shouting "CIA ship."

The local police and army stood by and watched, doing nothing to

hold the crowd back. As a result some Church staff aboard the

ship were injured and property was damaged or destroyed. Cars

and motorcycles belonging to the Church and Church staff were thrown

off the dock into the bay. The ship crew had to fight off

the attackers with fire hoses while the ship made an emergency

departure to escape the violence, without being able to take on

food, fuel or water. The Apollo and her crew were forced towait

offshore for over a day while order was restored so she could

return to load fuel, food and water and sail to a safe country.

9. Documents obtained from the U.S. State Department

through the Freedom of Information act pursuant to the Snow White

Program traced the "CIA ship" rumor to a State Department telex

in April of 1972 sent to various European countries. Following

the Snow White Program procedure of locating and expunging false

reports and seeking redress for religious persecution, a suit was

filed in Lisbon by the company that owned the Apollo, Operation

Transport Corporation ("OTC"), against the government of Portugal

seeking damages as a result of this riot. In June of 1985, the

Administrative Court of Lisbon awarded damages to OTC finding

that the riot in October of 1974 had been sparked by the CIA ship

rumor, and that this rumor was false.

10. There have been countless other instances over the

years where extremely damaging and completely false information

has been circulated from one agency to another. This information

inevitably impairs and impedes the religion's growth because it

bears another agency's imprimatur and is relied upon to take

adverse action against the Church. It has been through the

application of the principles in the Snow White Program that the

Church has used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover such

information. For example, a letter circulated by Interpol in the

1960s falsely accused Mr. Hubbard of having been charged with

drug smuggling. Other government documents made the false and

absurd claim that the Church and its members used LSD and other

drugs. Although the Church is renowned internationally for its

strong anti-drug stance and its widespread efforts to overcome

the effects of drug abuse, this information was disseminated by

the Department of Labor as well as other agencies and relied upon

by foreign governments to take adverse action against members of

the religion.

11. Not only have government agencies disseminated false

information concerning the Church, they have also engaged in

other actions to impair and impede the religion. In some cases,

these actions were conducted in collusion with or in reliance

upon information supplied by civil litigants and their attorneys.

In a few instances this involved infiltration of the Church. For

example, in 1959, a captain of the Washington, D.C. Police

Department induced his own daughter to infiltrate the Church,

pretending to be pregnant. She was supposed to procure the

assistance of the Church in obtaining an abortion, but was, of

course, unsuccessful as the Church refused to condone this (at

the time illegal) act.

12. Civil litigants and their attorneys have often worked

closely with government agents to achieve their mutual ends to

the detriment of the Church. For example in the early 1980s a

Boston personal injury lawyer, Michael Flynn, formed a

corporation to promote his business of suing the Church. Flynn

Associates Management Corporation ("FAMCO") was formed, in the

words of a FAMCO document, to promote four basic goals: "1.

Closing Scientology organizations (Churches) 2. Adverse media 3.

Adverse public reaction 4. Federal and state attacks." Documents

later released to the Church pursuant to the FOIA and other

access statutes demonstrate that Flynn and certain government

officials cooperated in their "attacks," sharing tactics,

documents and witnesses.

13. Flynn was also involved in assisting Gerry Armstrong, a

Flynn client and government informant, who plotted a take-over of

the Church. Armstrong's plan included planting phony documents

that would then be seized in a raid by federal agents.

14. In numerous instances, false and derogatory information

maintained in government files regarding the Church, Mr. Hubbard

or Church leaders has been provided by disaffected Scientologists

engaged in civil litigation with the Church who have a

substantial monetary stake in convincing the government to rely

on their false allegations to take adverse action against the

Church. A recent example of this tactic is the false and

derogatory allegations contained in a mailing by an organization

calling itself "Factnet" which include unsupported accusations of

murder and suicide. This mailing appears to be the same "mail

survey" referred to by Graham Berry in his declaration dated

January 3, 1994, filed in the Fishman case. Among other highly

inflammatory and absurd and baseless allegations, the mailing

states that the recognition as a bona fide nonprofit religious

organization the Church of Scientology recently received after

unprecedented IRS scrutiny of every aspect of its operations is

being "challenged" by a coalition of "ex-members" who are

undoubtedly attempting to convince the government to once again

rely upon false information. Interestingly, this tactic may have

run its course as recently evidenced by an order issued by Judge

Manuel L. Real in Spurlock v. FBI, Case No. CV 91-5602-R (C.D.

Cal.) dated January 31, 1994. In that order, Judge Real ordered

the FBI to meet and communicate with plaintiff's counsel to

"determine what information in the records at issue in this case

may constitute evidence that false statements were made by Joseph

Yanny, Richard Aznaran and/or Vicki Aznaran" to the FBI.

15. The Church's goal of correcting government files was

not a matter of stopping "international criticism" by the Church,

as is alleged by Robert Vaughn Young. On the contrary, I have

personal knowledge based on my review of the records that the

false information in government files on the Church resulted in

substantial harm to the Church and its members and in severe

violations of their rights. Indeed, there was a pattern and

practice of maintaining and disseminating such information to the

Church's detriment.

16. Although the legal correction of this false information

was the heart of the Snow White Program and its sole purpose as

conceived by Mr. Hubbard, during the 1970s a handful of misguided

individuals in the now defunct Guardian's Office of the Church

improperly applied the term "Snow White" to various illegal

activities for which they were convicted. Moreover, the

individuals who committed these crimes were subsequently removed

from their positions on Church staff and the Guardian's Office

was disbanded by the current leadership of the Church because

this unit was not following Church ethical and legal policies and

was misusing and misinterpreting these policies. The true and

only purpose of Snow White was the corrective purpose put forward

by Mr. Hubbard as the Supreme Court of Ontario noted in a well-

reasoned decision.

17. Justice Osler of the Supreme Court of Ontario, Canada,

reviewed the Snow White Program in 1985 to determine whether an

Ontario Provincial Police officer should be cross-examined

regarding an affidavit he had filed, which characterized the Snow

White Program as calling for illegal actions. In an opinion

dated January 23, 1985, after reviewing the Snow White Program

document and other related evidence, Justice Osler noted that:

"[I]t is not without significance that the affidavit of

Fletcher Prouty, appearing in Volume 8A of the record

at tab KK, makes it appear that he formed the

conclusion, as a highly placed official of the Central

Intelligence Agency of the United States that since

1950 there has been a.definite campaign of harassment

against this organization (Scientology) for nearly

thirty years primarily by means of the dissemination of

false and derogatory information around the world to

create a climate in which adverse action would be

taken against the Church and its members. Defense

against this type of activity was, of course, the

stated objective of the SNOW WHITE program."

Decision of Supreme Court of Ontario, Osler, J., pp. 33-34.

(Attached as Exhibit 1.)

18. Concluding that the document on its face called for

actions to "legally" expunge files and that the word " legally"

appeared to have been purposely left out of the officer's

affidavit, Justice Osler ordered that the cross-examination of

the officer go forward. Following the cross-examination, on

February 7, 1985, Justice Osler issued a second opinion stating

that while he did not believe that the officer's

mischaracterization of the Snow White Program rose to the level

of a fraudulent misrepresentation, he did find that the officer

had made "errors in judgment" in characterizing the program as

calling for "illegal actions."

19. The activities of the Church under the Snow White

Program have consisted of filing Freedom of Information Act

requests with Federal governmental agencies and public record

requests at the state and local level, filing record inspection

requests in foreign countries that provide citizen access to

records, pursuing litigation to compel disclosure of significant

records withheld by an agency, and the filing and prosecution of

lawsuits such as a class action lawsuit in 1978 in the United

States against a number of federal agencies for the purpose of

expunging false reports on the Church, Mr. Hubbard, Scientology

leaders and parishioners. Indeed, the Church's requests have

resulted in disclosing substantial numbers of records regarding

activities specifically found to be improper by Congress.

20. Through its actions connected with the Snow White

Program, the Church has become an acknowledged leader in the

field of rights to access of information from government

agencies. I have personal knowledge of most of these actions.

The Church has obtained numerous precedents under the FOIA,

paving the way for others who want to hold the government

accountable for its actions through public record access. Some

of these precedents include Church of Scientology of California

v. Department of Army, 611 F.2d 738 (9th Cir.1979), Founding

Church v. National Security Agency, 610 F.2d 824 (D.C.Cir. 1979),

and, more recently, Church of Scientology of San Francisco v.

IRS, 911 F.2d 560 (9th Cir.1993). Scientologists have also

strengthened the rights of individuals to correct improper

information in the files of agencies, where it is needed to

protect their Constitutional rights. Smith v. Brady, 972 F.2d

1095 (9th Cir. 1992).

21. Indeed, the Church has been in the forefront of the

FOIA since its passage in 1966 and has developed landmark

decisions that benefit all who use the FOIA. The FOIA is the

linchpin of the free flow of government information and one of

the most important tools we have to ensure "an informed citizenry

vital to the functioning of a democratic state." NCRB v. Robbins,

437 U.S. 214 (1978). It is not something sinister but an

essential tool of an informed citizenry and a precious right.

The Church's efforts as a result of the Snow White Program to

support that right and to educate the public on the FOIA should

be commended, not condemned, as they serve the public interest.

22. The Snow White Program concerned a series of legal

actions to locate and correct false information in the files of

government agencies. In that regard, the Church's legal bureau,

working with Church counsel, have successfully utilized the

Freedom of Information Act and similar statutes around the world.

If false and derogatory information is contained in such records,

the Church seeks the cooperation of the agencies involved in

expunging and/or correcting such reports. Litigation to obtain

relief has become necessary only as a last resort. That is the

totality of the Snow White Program as conceived by Mr. Hubbard

///

and that is all that it has ever been -- a proper and legal

mechanism for the Church to protect its First Amendment rights.

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the

United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed this 8th day of February, 1994 at Los Angeles,

California.

See Armstrong Declarations:
02-20-1994
02-22-1994

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