1990-1993

Highlights

• "baby-watching"
• newsgroup ars (alt.religion.scientology) established
• ...and alt.clearing.technology...
• Scientologists build crypt for Hubbard's works
• IRS agrees to grant tax exemptions
• Religious Freedom - US Government
• Chick Corea / Germany

1990’s

In the 1990s, Major Ed Dames offers a course in remote viewing to the public for $4,500.00 a person. He is the CIA Officer who was involved in the CIA Remote Viewing Program at SRI in the 1970’s.

This course utilizes Scientology technology and he charges money for it. He has sold this to an estimated 10,000 people and also offers videotapes for $299.00. The Church of Spiritual Technology has brought copyright suits against others for this but oddly, they have done nothing about Major Dames doing it. (Criminal Track)

1990

First groups formed in Nigeria, Czechoslovakia, Taiwan, China, Romania, Algeria, Argentina, Yugoslavia and Russia. (CofS)

Scientologists sue Gabe Cazares for tossing them out of a Democratic Party meeting.

Scientology is in court with the county over $4.5-million in unpaid back taxes, which Scientology refuses to pay. Clearwater's 1990 budget is $113.5-million, $17.1-million of which is raised through property taxes. (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1990, January

January -- Cazares calls for a grand jury investigation of Scientology from the State's Attorney's office. (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1990, February 

Michael Pattinson completes OT VIII. His homosexuality appeared resolved until 2 months later when the urge returned. He had spent $500,000.00 and was broke, therefore he could not buy more auditing to handle the problem.

At this point, priest-penitent privileged information was taken from his confessional folders and made public. The MAA on the Freewinds sent the confessional data to Celebrity Center in Paris. Olivia Pilo also called his business associates to see if they had any "dirt" on him that could be used against him.

The information was used to show his friends and business associates so they would disconnect from him, thus destroying his business. On two occasions, staff members and his friends were told to write KRs on him and given the data to put in the reports. The reports were secret and false and robotically said what they were told to say in them, omitting any reference in the reports that they had been provided with the false data. Over the next several years he spends $120,000.00 just in the effort to clear his name of the false accusations made against him. (Criminal Track)

February -- The IRS brings its long court battle with the Church of Scientology to federal court in Tampa. The IRS contends that the Clearwater organization may be involved in commercial activities that should be taxed. (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1990, 22.2.

Washington Post: Copyright and Suppression.

SOONER OR later--and preferably sooner--the Supreme Court is going to have to resolve the collision between the copyright laws and the First Amendment. One urgent question is whether copyrights can be used to suppress information of public interest. For example, a recent and unflattering biography of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, used many quotations from his unpublished writings. The copyright holder went to court for an injunction, claiming infringement. The trial judge described the biography as "a serious book of responsible historical criticism." How much latitude should that kind of a work and its author be given to quote copyrighted sources?

No doubt the Supreme Court was right not to take this case, at this stage, as an opportunity to answer the question. Both the trial court and the Court of Appeals had denied the injunction on the narrow grounds that the Press copyright holder had delayed too long. But unfortunately the Appeals Court's opinion last summer wandered far from the injunction to offer a wealth of remarkably restrictive views. Since that court is in New York, the center of American book publishing, its decision will now cast a long shadow over writers and writing throughout the country even though it technically applies in only one circuit.

The Church of Scientology case runs more deeply into First Amendment concerns than the other recent copyright decisions. One involved President Ford's memoirs and whether one magazine, the Nation, could print excerpts from a leaked manuscript when publication rights had been sold to another, Time. The memoirs were to be published in any event. In another case, a biography of the author J. D. Salinger was barred from publication until the deletion of quotations and paraphrases from some of his letters. There it could at least be argued that the author's turn of phrase was his livelihood and his property, to the use of which other authors were not entitled.

But the Hubbard biography primarily involves questions of facts, many of which can be best settled by quotation from Mr. Hubbard's own writings. Here a broad application of copyright protection trespasses on a public right to know.

When Congress wrote the copyright law, it did not intend that protection to be absolute. Congress set a series of tests regarding use of copyrighted material.

Those are the criteria that the courts are now in the process of defining. So far the decisions have been, to an unhealthy degree, against publication and in favor of suppression.

1990, 13 March 

The Churches of Scientology Stevens Creek (California), Munich (Germany) and Zurich (Switzerland) were formally acknowledged for achieving the size of old Saint Hill at the annual celebration of L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday. (CofS)

1990, May

May -- The Clearwater Sun, one of the targets in Scientology's initial attack on the city, folds. (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1990, 9 May 

TRs and Objectives Co-audit Course released.

Clear Body, Clear Mind: The Effective Purification Program released.

The Hubbard Key to Life Course, the solution to a world out of communication, released to the public.

The Churches of Scientology Milano (Italy) and Stuttgart (Germany) were formally acknowledged for achieving the size of old Saint Hill.

Church of Scientology of Catania, Italy founded. (CofS)

1990, 24.5.

The Manual of Justice is a public domain document, copyrights ended in the 1980s. See New Era Publications v Carol Publishing Group & Atack, NY, 1990, US District Court Southern District of New York, 89 Civ. 3845, and the same case at the US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, no. 1204-1376, decided 24 May 1990. (Criminal Track)

1990, 6 June 

The Hubbard Life Orientation Course released. (CofS)

1990, 30 June 

The grand (official) opening of the Narconon Chilocco New Life Center at Chilocco, Oklahoma. (CofS)

1990, July

July -- Clearwater Chamber of Commerce president David Stone reacts to the church's announcement that they plan to build a $1-million Scientology museum downtown: "I certainly don't view it as any kind of an asset to the community." 

City Commissioner L. Regulski says, "I think it's a far-out situation for a so-called religious organization to use to promote its product." He said the museum would put "an emphasis on something that the downtown doesn't need emphasis on." (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1990, August

August -- "Affinity Publications" beings to publish a weekly Scientology-oriented community newspaper to "fill the void" left by the departure of the Clearwater Sun. (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

December -- Five local companies sue the CoS for more than $127,000, claiming that the organization has failed to pay its bills for work and construction equipment. Besides these lawsuits, the Scientologists have settled five others in the previous two years from companies that claimed they were owed more than $39,000 for items ranging from travel services to construction materials. 

Companies involved in suit: 

APG Electric, Inc. (claims it is owed $35,391 plus interest for electrical work at the Sandcastle and Coachman buildings) 

J.R. Industrial contractors (construction bills) 

Twincraft, Inc. (specialized toiletry items) 

Sun Services of America (laundry equipment) 

Bill Byington and Associates (remodeling work in Coachman building) 

In one of the above court cases, records showed a 1987 credit statement for the organization that listed "Estimated annual sales" of more than $90-million. This was apparently the first time such information was made public, according to the Times. The 1987 statement also listed estimated annual purchases of $13-million.

The Scientologists had previously said in court filings that their annual operating expenses were about $26-million. 

Each of these figures apply only to the main Clearwater-based Scientology group, called the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, not to the others based in California and abroad. (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1990, 2.8.

Somebody changes LRH HCOB 23 December 1971 C/S Series 73, The No-Interference Area Clarified and Re-Enforced. They issue a non-LRH revision called HCOB 23 December 1973RB. Their revision changes things LRH said in his issue, plus it omits things he said and is seven pages shorter than the LRH HCOB.

Note: This effects the sec checking of people on Solo Nots. It shows that "Source" is changed at will... just as it fits Management. (Virginia McClaughry: "My Story")

1990, 6 October 

IAS Freedom Medal awarded to Scientologists Jane Allen and Julia Migenes at the annual convention in Lausanne, Switzerland. (CofS)

1990, 14.11.

Library of Congress records show that: CSI copyrights their squirrel version of Hubbard False Purpose Rundown Course. (Criminal Track)

1990, 28 December 

Church of Scientology of Salt Lake City, Utah founded. (CofS)

1990, 31 December 

Basic Study Manual published.

Elementary and Executive Data Series Evaluator’s Courses released. (CofS)

1991

First groups formed in Poland, Bulgaria and Malaysia. (CofS)

Hemet California is a small town of about 1000 people. It is where "the Base" is, in other words, International management. One day they received orders to go vote for a certain candidate for Mayor. So, 500 Sea Org members were bused to town to vote and this person was then elected to office.

Note: It is illegal for a religion in the U.S. to involve itself in political lobbying. It cannot endorse candidates, etc. To do so will cost it it’s tax exempt status.(Criminal Track)

1991 (baby-watching)

The Scientologists call it "baby-watching", but it has nothing to do with looking after infants. Tim Kelsey and Mike Ricks investigate the potentially dangerous, and possibly illegal, secret treatment that the world's largest cult uses to deal with difficult members.

The middle-aged German student started screaming. He seemed to have lost control. He was a Scientologist, a member of the world's largest cult, on a course of study that, he had been promised, would bring him closer to the secrets of the universe and, eventually, give him the key to eternal life. According to eyewitnesses, the man, whose name is known to the Independent, was taken to an isolated room in a communal building not far from Saint Hill, a 17th-century manor house in East Grinstead, West Sussex, and the UK headquarters of the cult.

For two weeks, the room was locked. The German had been placed on an "isolation watch" - or what Scientologists more informally refer to as a "baby watch". It is a treatment that was prescribed by the founder of the cult, L Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer, for members showing signs of psychosis or mental ill-health - people who are, literally, plagued by evil spirits. It is the last resort for dealing with difficult Scientologists. It is a treatment that the organization has so far kept secret.
The subject of the watch is observed at all times, and not allowed to talk to anybody. He or she is, in the language of the cult, "muzzled". Our witnesses, who have asked to remain anonymous, remember that the German was sometimes incontinent and that they had to wash him down at the sink in the otherwise bare room. The five people who guarded him were only allowed to communicate with him in writing. Eventually, he was allowed to return to Germany.

...The "baby-watching" incident with the German student occurred in 1991. (Independent, January 31, 1994, The Prisoners of Saint Hill, By Tim Kelsey and Mike Ricks (excerpt))

1991, beg. (IRS-CofS)

Our church staff and attorneys fought this hard in the courts and were able to get hearings before judges across the country to declare these IRS actions illegal. And, that's where we stood at the beginning of 1991. Scientologists were being harassed left, right and center and our hopes were hanging on the judicial system while judges across the country considered our motions to stop this latest and most vicious assault. And then, just when it looked like we may get a fair shake, "Time" magazine hit the newsstands. It was but a few weeks later that we found one of the judges on our case had framed the cover and placed it in his chambers. And that the IRS attorney coordinating this assault against Scientology was playing tennis with this same federal judge. 

...They not only were hitting us on every front - but they had even prejudiced the courts to ensure no objective review would occur. IRS arrogance reached its peak - one IRS agent was told that the volume of documents being requested was so great that it would literally fill several boxcars.

His response? "I've got twelve years till retirement."

And just to ensure the pressure was really on, the tax collection branch of the IRS was set loose. They froze church bank accounts. Issued a warrant to seize church property. Started calculating a trumped-up tax bill that would reach upwards of a billion dollars. And just for good measure, started hitting the top church executives with arbitrary assessments totaling millions of dollars. And freezing what little bank accounts they did have. This was truly the most critical juncture in our history. 

...As grim as this period was, the IRS had once again underestimated us. Because now we had the International Association of Scientologists. And for the first time in history we could level out the playing field when it came to resources and ability to fight this battle on the public front. First we took out ads in "USA Today", to deal with "Time" magazine. It was time for them to face up to their history.

(ad) - How would you like to be known as the magazine that extolled Adolf Hitler as the: "messiah of Germany"?

(ad) - Or the one who promoted Benito Mussolini as a "virtuoso of politics, a wizard with economic and military gadgets, an athlete and a leader of men".

... And the campaign continued. "Time" magazine was going to pay for their sins and once we finished running our ads - we sued them for 416 million dollars to make sure they would make amends.

But where did that leave us with the IRS? As 1991 continued, the IRS had set up whole branches exclusively dedicated to attacking Scientology. The key attacker later admitted under oath that: "literally thousands of agents were working on the Scientology problem." Fighting the IRS is like fighting shadows. We stepped up our efforts to get government documents about us, through the freedom of information act. This would escalate to literally thousands of requests, and when the IRS wouldn't comply we never failed to take them to court. Slowly we were able to start piecing together the picture. And we were also beginning to impinge on government resources. In fact, the attorneys working for the government defending these law suits were to become so inundated that their entire budget would be wiped out handling our cases - so much so that they didn't even have money to attend the annual American Bar Association conference of lawyers - which they were supposed to speak at!

We became known across the country as the one group willing to take on the IRS.

... First we had "Freedom" magazine.

Again - don't underestimate the impingement of this magazine. In fact, the exposes of IRS crimes were so hated that possession of "Freedom" magazine was banned by IRS officials in the IRS building. You know how people respond when they are told they can't see something. They want it more. When we took our next edition down to the IRS building - employees were running to get their copy! 

...And all the while the wars continued to rage in the courts. During this entire period - we desperately tried to meet with IRS officials to resolve these matters. It was a war out of control. And utterly baseless. But meet they wouldn't - they steadfastly refused to communicate with us in any other way than assaults. And only when it seemed hopeless, did we decide to really escalate matters.

First we filed a suit for 128 million dollars on the IRS and the individual IRS agents committing these criminal acts.

We were able to piece their crimes together from the bits of documents we had received. And then the International Association of Scientologists sponsored more ads in "USA Today". You have no idea how much the IRS hates publicity. But to see their own faces? It was more than they could handle. Everyone told us to not place these ads. That it would end any hope of ending this war. That they would never forgive us. But the decision was made to move ahead. As their agenda to destroy the church had already been exposed, what more could the IRS do to us anyway? And if upsetting them was a concern, what were they now - happy? Here you can see some of these ads:

"Don't you kill my daddy"

"What he didn't know about the IRS could affect you too", - showing how the IRS had targeted John Wayne.

And - "All of America loved Lucy - except the IRS."

"How do you spell IRS in Russian? Answer - KGB!"

And here's one: IRS playing God. With a picture of the man running the current assault.

And just so we weren't picking favorites, we even gave an ad to Fred Goldberg - the Commissioner of the IRS.

And, another one for good measure: to get an idea of how heavy this war had gotten, consider this report from another newspaper:

"The IRS vs. the Scientologists! Even God should think twice before picking sides on this one!

A warning frequently laid on me by a nun I once knew was - 'Remember to be good because God is watching.'

And the United States Internal Revenue Service is getting its share of God watching right now. The Church of Scientology has been crucifying the Federal agency for its sins on a regular basis, both in and out of court!" (David Miscavige's IAS speech, 8 October 1993)

1991, Feb.

February -- A Federal judge upholds the City of Clearwater's ordinance requiring nonprofit organizations to report fundraising activity within city limits. Scientology appeals.

A bomb threat evacuates several hundred people from Ft. Harrison Hotel; police report that the threat was phoned in to the Church of Scientology switchboard. After 40 minutes of police and Scn staff searching the building, the occupants return without incident.  (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1991, 19 February 

Twenty-fifth anniversary of Narconon, which has grown from one program started by a prison inmate to a network of centers in twelve countries. (CofS)

1991, 28.2.

Library of Congress records show that: CSI copyrights their squirrel version of the Hubbard Life Orientation Course. (Criminal Track)

1991, March 

The Church of Scientology of Mountain View, California founded. (CofS)

1991, 13 March 

The new Organization Executive Course (OEC) and Management Series volumes were released, containing over 10,000 pages of L. Ron Hubbard’s administrative technology, twice as many as in the OEC volumes issued in the 1970s. Along with the 44 tapes on the OEC, the Flag Executive Briefing Course tapes and the Establishment Officer tapes, also newly released, these materials comprise L. Ron Hubbard’s complete technology of organization. (CofS)

1991, 3.4.

On April 3, 1991, an addition to this Flag Order (Flag Order No. 3905) was issued. Part of that supplement provided that anyone who did get pregnant would be sent to a non-expanding Class IV Org. The Commanding Officer of CMOI, Marc Yager, endorsed application of this supplement to all crew at the base and added to it. It stressed that Sea Org members were the top echelon of the Sea Org. As such Yager admonished us that we had the responsibility on our shoulders for the expansion of Scientology and freeing mankind. Scientology's Senior management determined, we, at this high level, could not afford the time and resources it would take to raise children. Having children was found to undermine our production and our purpose. It became an Ethics matter. (Mary Tabayoyon)

1991, 20 April 

Grand opening celebration of the L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition at the Hollywood Guaranty Building. The ribbon cutting was performed by the president pro tem of the California Senate and the president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The exhibition features more than thirty displays and audiovisual presentations on the life of L. Ron Hubbard. (CofS)

1991, May

May -- TIME magazine prints the issue in which Scientology makes the cover: "The Thriving cult of Greed and Power," and Time-Warner is immediately sued. (In 1995, 90% of Scientology's case is thrown out of court) (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1991, 6 May 

Opening of the newly built 25,000 square foot Sandcastle Technical Delivery Building in Clearwater, Florida, especially for the delivery of advanced levels. (CofS)

An article appears in Time Magazine "Scientology: The Cult of Greed". Steven Fishman is quoted in the article. Former RTC exec, Vicki Aznaran, also says in the article "This is a criminal organization day in and day out." 

The church sues Fishman for defamation in the US District Court for the Central District of California. In the course of that trial, Fishman submitted 69 pages of OT materials to the court in his defense. Thus, as a matter of public record, copies of the OT materials got out, until August 1995 when the church got the files sealed. (Criminal Track)

1991, 9 May 

The Technical Bulletins volumes were released in a new edition of 18 volumes and over 11,000 pages. These contain all of L. Ron Hubbard’s technical articles and bulletins on Dianetics and Scientology. (CofS)

1991, 13.5.

Norman Starkey, Trustee of Author’s Family Trust-B, makes an additional agreement with RTC regarding use of the Advanced Technology. It is called; Addendum to Advanced Technology Covenant(Criminal Track)

1991, 31.5.

Washington Post: Scientology 's March Against Time; Magazine Story Draws Ad Attack by Church.

The Church of Scientology, stung by a Time magazine cover story describing it as a "cult of greed," is fighting back with an advertising campaign featuring images of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

1991, June

June -- Church of Scientology International President Heber Jentzsch, when asked about some of his organization's unpaid bills in the Clearwater area: "Thanks for bringing this to our attention."

During the past year, the Times reports, Scientology settled or obtained voluntary dismissals of at least 10 lawsuits from plaintiffs that sued for more than $300,000. Most of the creditors suing said Scientology simply left them with unpaid bills for construction work, equipment, furniture, and more than $125,000 worth of food supplies. Other suits include those of Michigan resident Mark Lewandowski and Maria Echavarria of California, who both sued the church to get their money back: Mark for $13,300 and Maria for $28,000.  (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

Aaron Rents of Georgia is suing Scientology in Clearwater for $65,512 in unpaid bills. Twincraft Inc, which dropped its suit for promises of further purchases, is suing again for $38,614 when no further purchases happened. Sysco Food Services of Central Florida is suing for $127,104 in unpaid bills (Clearwtaer Times, June 30, '91). (Brief overview of Scientology's interaction with Clearwater Florida)

1991, 4.6.

Memorandum Opinion And Order in RTC v Robin Scott: This motion revives the issue of authorship of certain Scientology scriptures called  NOTs. RTC argues that the "work made for hire" doctrine, as codified by the Copyright Act of 1976, necessarily imputes authorship of NOTs to Hubbard whether he or David Mayo actually created the materials.

The thrust of the defendants opposition is that Mayo was not an employee of Hubbard when Mayo developed the NOTs materials.

The court finds that it is an established fact that Mayo substantially participated in the drafting of NOTs. Ordinarily the creator of a written work is the author. However, the Copyright Act of 1976 treats "works made for hire" differently. If the written work is a work made for hire, "the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author." 17 U.S.C. section 201(a).

RTC submitted documents to the court showing that Mayo was hired by CSC to perform work under the supervision of Hubbard. The court rejects that Hubbard was Mayo’s employer but finds that CSC was his employer. It was established by the court that: 

NOTs is based on Mayo’s auditing of LRH. The Church literally follows everything Hubbard said, therefore, Hubbard’s suggestions and criticism regarding the earlier drafts of NOTs would be adopted verbatim by CSC. 

Moreover, as reflected in the excerpted transcripts of the tapes, Hubbard actually exercised his right to control by making suggestions and criticisms.

The court determined that Mayo was an employee of CSC acting within the scope of his employment when he drafted NOTs, thus his substantial contribution to NOTs constitutes work made for hire under the Copyright Act. (Criminal Track)

1991, 7 June 

Christening of the historic Sea Org vessel, Diana, a 62-foot ketch which played an important role in the early history of the Sea Org as the first Sea Org vessel. Completely restored, she returned to service to provide sea training for Sea Org members. (CofS)

1991, 14.6.

Library of Congress records show that: CSI copyrights their squirrel version of Technical Volume IX. (Criminal Track)

1991, 17.7.

The main forum for discussion of Scientology on the Internet is a Usenet newsgroup known as alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s). This newsgroup was created on July 17, 1991, with a forged "newgroup" message from the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory posted under the name of "David Miscaviage" (the misspelled name of the head of the COS). (Skeptic: Scn vs Internet)

1991, 13.8.

Los Angeles Times, Weinstein, Henry - Scientologists Sue 17 IRS Officials

ChurchThe lawsuit accuses them of waging a 33-year campaign against the organization and a large number of its members. It seeks $120 million.

The Church of *Scientology* International filed a $120-million federal lawsuit against 17 Washington- and Los Angeles-based Internal Revenue Service officials Monday, accusing them of waging a 33-year campaign of illegal acts against *Scientology* and a large number of its members.

According to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and testimony from IRS officials detail a lengthy history and unchanging pattern of improper, harassing and illegal activities against the church by IRS officials.

Among those sued are IRS agents who in the mid-1980s conducted a criminal tax investigation against Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, whose death in 1986 reportedly ended the probe.

The suit alleges that IRS agents in Los Angeles, along with a former church member, schemed to plant forged documents in the Church of Scientology's files, which the IRS could then seize in a raid. At the same time, the suit alleges that there was collusion between the IRS' Exempt Organizations Branch and Criminal Investigation Division, in which phony tax exemption proceedings were conducted to covertly gather information for the IRS criminal probe.

And church lawyers contend that the chief counsel of the IRS attempted to redefine the word church in IRS regulations as "one method to attack Scientology." Monday's suit represents the latest chapter in the lengthy battle between the church and the IRS. In the past, the IRS has revoked the tax-exempt status of various Scientology organizations, accusing them of operating in a commercial manner and of financially benefitting private individuals.

But church officials assert that the IRS has violated their rights to practice their religion as guaranteed by the Constitution. They contend that the agency also has abridged their right to due process of law.

Scientology attorney William T. Drescher said that a victory in the suit would offer all American churches "inviolable protection" from illegal government intrusions into their religious affairs.

The Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International, said that Scientology's long history of exposing IRS' "abuse of power has resulted in prolonged retaliation" by the agency.

IRS spokesman Robert Giannangelli in Los Angeles said the agency would not comment on the suit. "The proper venue for the discussion of the issues will be in the courts," Giannangelli said.

Although the suit accuses the IRS of decades of wrongdoing, a principal focus of the case stems from a criminal tax investigation that the agency launched into Hubbard and the church in 1984 and whether it was connected to Scientology's application for tax exemption a year earlier.

Among the defendants in the case are Philip Xanthos, branch chief of the IRS' Los Angeles Criminal Investigation Division, and Alan Lipkin, a group manager within the division. The suit said the two spearheaded the criminal probe.

The investigation "included the use of mail covers, paid informants, summonses to dozens of financial institutions and church members, and infiltration of Scientology's ecclesiastical hierarchy," the suit alleges.

Furthermore, Scientology contends that a draft copy of a report by Xanthos and Lipkin was improperly given to the Exempt Organizations Branch. The suit alleges that William Connett, then district director of the IRS' Los Angeles office, lied to church officials when he told them that the criminal investigation was separate from the exemption application process. In fact, the suit alleges, Connett, now the IRS representative in Paris, coordinated "collusive actions" between the two IRS branches.

Scientology learned of the alleged collusion through litigation in which it obtained internal IRS documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, according to the suit. Additionally, the suit contends that three IRS agents referred to Scientology religious services as a "dog and pony show" and referred to members of the church as "crazy devotees" while they were interviewing defectors.

In addition to money damages, the suit asks that all 17 defendants be permanently enjoined from "any and all further participation in and responsibility for any matter" involving the IRS and Scientology.

Scientology was founded in the 1950s by Hubbard, a science fiction writer.

Jentzsch said that Scientology is an applied religious philosophy which recognizes that man is composed of three parts--the spirit, the mind and the body. A central part of the religion is a process called "auditing," wherein a minister helps "clear" parishioners of their problems. Scientology claims to have a worldwide membership of 8 million. Jentzsch said it has 1,127 churches and affiliated organizations in 90 countries. Critics of the church have asserted that the actual number of active members is far lower.

Jentzsch said that each church is separately incorporated. However, he said that if the assets of all the churches were combined "we would fit in the Fortune 500."

Scientology's critics claim it is a sham religion which, in reality, operates like a business. Defectors charge that Scientology bilked them out of their life savings and some have recovered damages after suing.

BACKGROUND: Over the years, Scientology has brought numerous lawsuits against the IRS accusing the agency of harassment and illegally withholding public records. From the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, IRS agents classified Scientology as a "tax resister" and "subversive," a characterization later deemed improper by a judge. In the late 1970s, 11 Scientologists went to prison for burglarizing and bugging the IRS and other federal agencies.

1991, 7 September 

Release of the new Saint Hill Special Briefing Course which includes 437 taped lectures reproduced and made available in Clearsound and with written transcripts.

Release of the updated, finalized and totally complete Grade Chart including all new technical releases since its original issuance in 1965. (CofS)

1991, Oct.

October -- Deputy Sheriffs notice deplorable conditions while performing an anti-drug presentation for children at the Scientology Cadet Org school. An HRS investigation ensues, and Scientology successfully has the results legally sealed. (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

Scientology announces plans for a Super Power building and asks it's members for $40 million for the project. (Brief overview of Scientology's interaction with Clearwater Florida)

1991, Oct. (Miscavige-IRS)

In October of 1991, while this war was raging at its apex, Marty Rathbun and I were in Washington DC. to attend one of these court hearings I mentioned. It was to be the next day. We had just finished a lunch meeting and our next appointment wasn't for a couple of hours. In other words - we had some spare time on our hands. That's not something we're accustomed to, so - we thought at last we could create a bit of mischief. We told the lawyers we'd see them in an hour or so and that we would be down at the IRS building. Of course they had a good chuckle as we left the room. Off we proceeded to 1111 Constitution Avenue - which if you didn't know is the address of the national headquarters of the IRS. We presented ourselves to security at the front door, signed the visitors log and informed them we were there to see Fred. They asked - Fred who? We answered, Fred Goldberg of course, the Commissioner of the IRS. "Is he expecting you"" they asked. "No", was our response. "but if you phone him on the intercom and tell him we are from the Church of Scientology, I am sure he'd love to see us." (David Miscavige's IAS speech, 8 October 1993)

Scientology leader David Miscavige and Marty Rathbun, another senior Scientology official, claim to have held an unscheduled meeting with IRS Commissioner, Fred T. Goldberg Jr. Miscavige offers to drop all the suits against the IRS if Scientology is given tax exemption. Goldberg agrees and creates a special five-member working group under Howard M. Schoenfeld to resolve the dispute, bypassing the agency's exempt organizations division, which normally handles those matters - an exceptionally unusual arrangement.Ref: New York Times, 9 March 1997

Miscavige pays an unannounced visit to IRS Commissioner Fred T. Goldberg Jr. Goldberg then created a "special committee" to negotiate a settlement with Scientology outside normal agency procedures! The secret "negotiations committee" was chaired by Howard M. Schoenfeld. As a result of these negotiations:

The Exempt Organizations Technical Division was instructed not to review the exemption applications filed by the Church of Scientology and its affiliates for compliance with IRC 501(c)(3).

According to the New York Times, tax analysts Donna Moore and Terrell M. Berkovsky wrote memoranda specifying that they had been instructed by Shoenfeld not to address issues like whether the church was engaged in too much commercial activity or whether its activities provided undue benefit to its leaders. (Criminal Track)

1991, 26 October 

IAS Freedom Medals awarded to Scientologists Keith Code, Kirstie Alley and Gabriele Segalla at the annual convention in Copenhagen, Denmark. (CofS)

1991, Late

Jesse Prince and wife were ordered to have an abortion in the S.O. It is a traumatic experience for each of them. Any Sea Org members getting pregnant are put in lower conditions and sent to welfare to have a free abortion. 

Note: Another indication of Miscavige bringing the tone level of the organization to 1.1 – no children allowed in the Sea Org and ordering abortions. (Criminal Track)

1991, December 

Church of Scientology Puerto Rico founded. (CofS)

1992

First groups formed in Philippines, Honduras, Brazil and Ivory Coast. (CofS) 

C of S is convicted of criminal conduct in Canada. Stealing documents from government files. (Criminal Track)

1992, early -1994

In early 1992, three additional (non-forged) newgroup messages for the group were posted from the Lockheed Corporation, New York University, and the University of Maine in an attempt to increase the propagation of the newsgroup throughout the Usenet. At first, the newsgroup was mainly a forum used by members of the "Free Zone" (a group founded by ex-Scientologists to promote L. Ron Hubbard's ideas independent of the COS). As time went on, however, critics of both Scientology's doctrines and techniques ("tech") as well as the organization itself came to dominate the discussion on a.r.s, and the Free Zoners formed a separate newsgroup-alt.clearing.technology. 

Although there were the usual Usenet "flame wars" on a.r.s. between Scientologists, Free Zoners, and critics, there was apparently no coordinated action taken by the COS against its electronic critics until 1994. (Skeptic: Scn vs Internet)

1992, January

January - City officials begin inspecting Hacienda Gardens (a Clearwater apartment complex the church purchased to serve as staff berthing) after receiving reports that too many people are living there. Inpsectors find 34 of around 200 apartments to be overcrowded. 

13 members of Church of Scientology in France are charged with fraud and practicing medicine illegally in Paris. (In 1990, the Lyons branch of the CoS was similarly charged and their bank accounts frozen).

Howard Mintz sues the church in Clearwater for failing to refund $68,764. (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1992, 15.1.

Associated Press: CofS France - Raid

PARIS (AP) -- Thirty Church of Scientology followers have been taken into custody in a probe into allegations of fraud leveled by former members, police said. Church leaders accused the authorities of persecution.

Boxes of documents were seized in searches of the church's French headquarters and at a cultural center, the sources said on condition of anonymity. The contents of the documents were not divulged. Under French law, suspects must be charged within 48 hours or be freed.

1992, 19.1.

John E. Burke, the assistant commissioner for exempt organizations, agrees to Scientology's demand that it's the bulk of its financial details should be kept secret. Ref: New York Times, 9 March 1997 (Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS)

1992, 27.1.

Another former RTC member writes an affidavit that says Miscavige conceives, plans and orders the actions of the church against those whom he considers to be against his personal control over Scientology. He has such church members expelled by false denunciations and then uses GO tactics, such as "Fair Game" against them. This included the formation of vigilante groups to physically attack these people. (Criminal Track)

1992, 28.1.

Associated Press: TORONTO -- The Church of Scientology said Tuesday that a judge had ordered the return to the group of more than 2 million documents seized nine years ago in a legal battle.

1992, 11.2.

San Francisco Examiner, ap - Neighbors suspicious of Scientology's Steel Vault

PETROLIA, Humboldt County - Assurances that a huge, concrete-clad steel vault was constructed to store the writings of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard hasn't calmed speculation among neighbors.

The pipe-shaped vault buried on 3,600 acres of grazing land is as wide and high as the cabin of a Boeing 747, but more than 140 feet longer than one of the jumbo jets, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

Nearly completed, the vault was designed to last 1,000 years and withstand any act short of a direct hit by a nuclear bomb. People who have seen it say all that's visible is one exposed end and a ventilation tower poking above the ground like the periscope on a submarine.

At first there was talk that the Scientologists would cryogenically preserve corpses of church members, perhaps even the corpse of Hubbard himself, until they are re-entered by eternal souls - what Scientologists call "thetans." But the people responsible for the vault have said such talk is ridiculous and, anyway, Hubbard's body was cremated following his death in 1986 at age 74.

Beyond the denials, Scientology literature says "thetans" are believed to inhabit the bodies of new born babies, not of dead bodies.

Humboldt County officials said they are fully satisfied the vault will be used exactly as the owners have told them it will be used.

1992, 16.3.

LA Daily News - Crypt for Hubbard's Works - Wildermuth, John

Scientologists build crypt for Hubbard's works A huge underground vault, 25 feet wide and longer than a football field, has been sunk outside this tiny ranching community as an impregnable 1,000- year preserve for the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology.

The secretive $7 million project, which received final approval from county building inspectors earlier this month, took more than 1-1/2 years to complete.

Nearby are a remodeled bunkhouse and a luxurious custom-built home that will house the caretakers for the subterranean archives and the 3,600- acre ranch that surrounds it.

The ranch, bunkhouse and adjoining garage together are valued at more than $4 million, according to Humboldt County assessors' records.

''It's an interesting project,'' said Todd Sobolik, the county's chief building inspector. ''The underground archive is really something.'' Apart from construction workers, Sobolik and other local officials are about the only people in Humboldt County who have seen the vault. The Church of Spiritual Technology, the Scientology offshoot that owns the land, has tried to keep a low profile while construction moved along.

''I've tried to tell (church leaders) that they should be more open and let the press in to look at the archives,'' said county Supervisor Stan Dixon, who represents the Petrolia area. ''But they're not interested.'' There is no easy way to get to Petrolia, which was named in anticipation of a 19th century oil boom that never came. From Ferndale, a few miles west of Highway 101, it is 20 miles over two-lane Mattole Road, which winds over the coastal hills and drops down to within ocean-spray distance of the Pacific before heading back inland.

The Church of Spiritual Technology began buying land near Petrolia in 1980, but most of its property is well off the main highway and can be reached only by private roads blocked by locked gates and ''No Trespassing'' signs. County records show that the vault was built by a New Mexico company that specializes in underground construction. Beginning in September 1990, construction crews ripped the top off a knoll and dug a trench nearly 40 feet deep to house the vault.

The vault itself is a steel cylinder 375 feet long cloaked in layers of concrete and designed to withstand anything from a natural disaster to a nuclear attack. The archive's interior is split into two floors, providing 12,669 square feet.

Much of that space will be filled with racks of sealed titanium time capsules that will hold the books and tapes to be preserved. When construction was completed, the vault was covered with 14 feet of dirt, which was reseeded and landscaped to look like just another part of grassy cattle range. The only evidence of the underground archive is a ventilation tower that pokes above ground and the ground-level entrance at the west end of the vault, where steel bulkhead doors 18 inches thick seal the facility from the outside.

The size of the project and the general air of secrecy that surrounded it has led to all sorts of rumors during the past two years, said Elizabeth McHarry, editor of the weekly Ferndale Enterprise.

''At first people were saying that they were going to put frozen bodies in the vault, but that talk has pretty much died down,'' she said.

The county Planning Department received its share of complaints. One intradepartmental note asks a planner to talk with a woman who ''suspects the facility will be used for 1) cryogenics; 2) arms smuggling; 3) drug smuggling; or 4) all of the above.''

But even some of Scientology's harshest critics believe the Petrolia vault and two others like it in remote areas near the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California and Las Vegas, N.M., probably are exactly what they purport to be.

''The vaults may well be designed to preserve L. Ron Hubbard's writings,'' said Cynthia Kisser of the Cult Awareness Network in Chicago, a group that is locked in a number of legal battles with the Church of Scientology. ''That's what's important to (Scientologists).''

1992, April

April -- Scientology is again cited for overcrowding at Hacienda Gardens. (Brief History of Scientology in Clearwater)

1992, May 

The Children’s Communication Course released.

The release of twenty-three Technical Specialist Courses that train auditors to be able to handle a wide variety of conditions. (CofS)

1992, June 

How to Use Dianetics Video - A Visual Guidebook to the Human Mind released. (CofS)

1992, 29.6.

The US Claims Court upholds the IRS' longstanding denial of a tax exemption for Scientology's Church of Spiritual Technology. The ruling strongly supports the agency's concerns over the commercial nature of Scientology and other matters. It states that the corporate structure of Scientology was "something of a deceptus visus. Real control is exercised less formally, but more tangibly, through an unincorporated association, the Sea Organization..."

Scientology claims that the ruling has ignored the facts and is filled with "gratuitous comments". Ref: New York Times, 9 March 1997 (Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS)

The United States Claims Court upholds the decision of the IRS Commissioner to deny tax exempt status to the Church of Spiritual Technology. The court finds that CST was founded for the primary purpose of gaining tax exempt status to serve the financial goals of other, non-exempt entities, and that CST’s archiving activities are secondary to its obtaining a tax exemption and would not of themselves qualify CST as a tax exempt organization under I.R.C. @ 501 (c)(3).

The court notes that CST, CSI and RTC all applied for tax exemption at the same time. The IRS requested information about the circumstances surrounding the founding of these three organizations. The IRS specifically asked CST who initiated and oversaw the reorganization of the Scientology hierarchy.

The IRS also enumerated the connections it saw among the three applicants and the existing Scientology hierarchy and asked for comment.

Specifically, the IRS asked for an explanation of the option agreements CST held under LRH ’s gift. CST refused to answer these questions, saying the agreements speak for themselves.

CST represented to the IRS Commissioner in 1985 that it understood its rights to include the following: "In the event it is determined that Religious Technology Center is not exempt, this corporation will exercise its options and acquire the marks and materials…" In its 1987 Supplemental Submission, CST attempted to back away from this interpretation but still conceded if the IRS recognizes CST’s exemption, CST would have the power to acquire RTC’s rights in the marks and Advanced Technology if RTC’s exemption were denied. When its exemption is recognized, CST will receive Mr. Hubbard’ s estate and become owner of the limited powers of appointment over the marks and the Advanced Technology that Mr. Hubbard retained. As owner of these interests, CST will have the legal right to designate the section 501(c)(3) transferee of RTC’s rights in the marks and the Advanced Technology in the event RTC cannot obtain exemption. As a section 501 (c)(3) organization, CST itself would qualify to receive these rights.

The religious trademarks and rights to the Advanced Technology constitute most of the income-producing property owned by any of the Scientology organizations. The remainder of LRH’s income-producing property is already designated for CST. Upon its qualification for tax exempt status, CST could, therefore, obtain, by operation of LRH’s will, all of the rights LRH reserved when he made his gift to RTC, as well as the copyrights to Scientology Scriptures, which presumably constitute the very heart of Scientology.

The copyrights to LRH’s science fiction works will also devolve to CST under the will. This intellectual property alone was valued at $25,000,000 by the Trustee appointed by the court to administer LRH’s estate. 

In these circumstances it is at best disingenuous for CST to maintain that it is "independent" of Scientology’s ecclesiastical hierarchy. LRH certainly succeeded in creating an entity that is not nominally subject to the ecclesiastical control of other Scientology organizations. Rather, the potential control runs in the opposite direction. CST stands poised to assume a position at the apex of a pyramid of both ecclesiastical authority and financial control over Scientology.

Finally, the converse of CST’s control in the area of orthodoxy is that until it obtains tax-exempt status, CST will be as it has been, entirely dependent on payments from other Scientology organizations. Indeed, CST’s Articles of Incorporation specifically state that it does not solicit any funds itself, nor does it have any plans to do so. CST states that it alone controls its financial matters. Possibly this is true with respect to how money is spent once held by CST. It is not true, however, with respect to obtaining the money that it spends. All of this has come from other Scientology organizations. The fact that CST does not raise its own funds is itself unusual for a would-be IRC 501(c)(3) organization, and limits its ability to be independent.

In sum, there is a strong link, in fact an identity of purpose, between CST and other Scientology organizations. CST was created to serve LRH as a personal estate-planning device and to support the work of Scientology. 

CST has assiduously developed a record which demonstrates that most, if not all, of its prior activities are directed at preserving Scripture. CST confuses activity with purpose. The law does not. As the Tax Court has held, "the operational test focuses on the purpose and not on the nature of the  activity." The Commissioner and the court, are permitted to consider not just an organizations activities, but also to inquire into its purposes. The fact that an organization’s activities have religious overtones and do not produce profits is no assurance those activities will be tax exempt. 

The assets of the pour-over trust devolve on CST – namely the right to the books, tapes, films and E-meters, along with the accumulated income there from. These are licensed to for-profit entities for distribution, such as BPI. This arrangement simply does not resonate with the image of a tax exempt organization.

The court was asked to find that holding the options and receiving LRH’s estate are merely incidental to its primary archiving purpose. Instead, the court finds that the impetus behind CST was not archiving, charity, or even religious education, but rather was tax planning. Nothing about CST is consistent with its adopted posture as a simple document repository.

First, there is plain linkage between CST and the dissolution of CSC, as well as the difficulties Scientology as a whole was having in 1982 with the IRS. Before the creation of CST, CSC served Scientology as a tax exempt entity. When it became apparent that CSC was likely to lose this status, LRH and the Scientology management restructured both the financial and the ecclesiastical organization of Scientology. CST was created in 1982, during the CSC litigation. It was founded by four non-Scientologist lawyers and Lyman Spurlock, President of CST and former personal employee of LRH, in the wake of CSC’s dissolution.

The court is struck by the centripetal force that will be generated should CST obtain tax exempt status, and should it choose to exercise its option to take over assets from RTC. Armed with the trademarks and publishing rights, and with tax exempt status, CST will be poised in the center of all of Scientology’s financial resources, in position to exert a strong gravitational force on Scientology’s income-producing assets.

CST states that it would never seek to control these assets, or use them in any way inconsistent with the stated religious purposes of Scientology. CST has provided only conclusory statements of its own officers as evidence of CST’s intentions. Moreover, CST has stated on at least one occasion that "it will exercise its options and acquire the marks and materials."

If CST succeeds in its quest for tax exempt status, it will control the trademark and publishing rights to all of LRH’s works. Those rights constitute most of Scientology’s income-producing property. The trademarks and publishing rights are the source of the Advanced Technology from which all income production ultimately flows. Books and tapes must be orthodox. 

Provision of auditing services is impossible without authorized books, tapes and E-Meters. These materials produce money in sufficient quantities to allow CSI to hold millions of surplus dollars in its central reserve account. The potential for abuse of the options and copyrights therefore is considerable. CST would not be obligated to donate the money to other non-profit groups, or even to contribute it to Scientology’s own central reserves. In fact, once CST has built its archiving facilities, its expenses should decline dramatically, but it will still control millions of dollars worth of income-producing assets.

There is a dissonance between the stated, limited purposes of CST on the one hand, with the far reaching implications of the potential financial control over Scientology built into LRH’s tax planning. If the true motivation behind CST were to build an archive, it would have been a simple matter to incorporate an organization and arrange for financing through the central reserves or some other straightforward financing scheme. 

What other possible purpose could there have been for funneling LRH’s estate to an organization with such a nominally limited and innocuous function unless it was the hope that Scientology had achieved the holy grail – an organization with unassailable tax-exempt credentials, yet in control of the income from the myriad sources within Scientology?

This concern is exacerbated by the fact that CST will receive nothing from LRH’s estate if it is not deemed tax exempt. Thus, it appears that despite the stated importance of its archives to the Scientology religion, they were apparently not worth supporting unless they generated a tax exemption. 

Protecting the use of Scientology trademarks and copyrights is also apparently not worth doing if it will not be done by a tax-exempt organization.

The court came to the conclusion that archiving is not CST’s "exclusive" or even chief purpose. The court finds that CST is merely the latest incarnation of the on-going effort of Scientology as a whole to shelter income from taxation.

The court finds the IRS Commissioner’s decision to deny CST tax exempt status was not erroneous and dismisses CST’s complaint. (Criminal Track)

Note: During the IRS investigation it inquired about Sherman Lenske, Stephen Lenske and Lawrence Keller and their role as CST’s "Special Directors."

1992, July 

Jesse Prince is being held at the Int base known as the Old Gilman House. It is used as an isolation house for physically ill SO members. He wants to leave staff.

Jesse Prince and wife escape from Gilman Hot Springs. Under duress, they are brought back until October of this year. (Criminal Track)

1992, 13.7.

Library of Congress records show that: CSI copyrights their squirrel version of LRH State of Man Congress lectures. (Criminal Track)

1992, 25 July 

Celebrity Centre International and the Manor Hotel (formerly the famous Château Elysée, a French Normandie-style hotel in Hollywood) restored and officially opened, now servicing celebrities and professionals from around the world. (CofS)

1992, August 

Sea Org members establish the first church offices in Moscow-OTL Russia. (CofS)

1992, September 

First group formed in Albania. (CofS)

1992, 12 September 

Auditor’s Day-Hubbard British Mark V E-Meter back in production and available for the first time since the late 70s. Manufactured by Golden Era Productions, it resembles the British Mark V exactly. While usable in all auditing up to the state of Clear, its re-release was intended to facilitate the need of student auditors co-auditing up the Bridge and to make such as economical as possible. (CofS)

1992, 10.10.

The Associated Press. Scientologists, long a target of deprogrammers, have gone to court to try to turn the tables, claiming they were illegally barred from joining an anti-cult group. In a flurry of lawsuits filed around the nation, dozens of members of the Church of Scientology said they tried to join the Cult Awareness Network but were rejected because of their church affiliation. Many of the lawsuits were filed last week after a federal grand jury indicted three alleged members of the Cult Awareness Network on charges they conspired to abduct and deprogram an heir to the Du Pont chemical fortune. The Chicago- based network, which has drawn fire from Scientologists, the Unification Church and other groups with its anti-cult efforts, denies any link to the case and said Scientologists are trying to destroy their organization.

1992, 17 October 

Presentation of IAS Freedom Medal to Scientologists John Travolta, Debbie Mace and Jerry Boswell at the annual IAS convention aboard the Freewinds.

The all-new What Is Scientology? (this book) is released at the annual IAS convention aboard the Freewinds. (CofS)

1992, 31.10.

Jesse Prince and wife are allowed to leave the Sea Org after being coerced to sign a release containing untrue statements protecting Scientology from legal liability. The way they forced them to sign was her dad and sister were in Scientology and they were told that they would never see them again unless they signed. Jesse did not even read the papers. He just signed them so they could leave and his wife could still be in communication with her relatives. (Criminal Track)

The Associated Press: Scientologists-Ruling: LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Church of Scientology members must be allowed to attend a convention held by an organization that claims the church is a cult and is accused of kidnapping its members, a judge has ruled.

1992, 16.11.

APn 11/16 1627, Scotus-Scientology: WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Church of Scientology may continue its court battle to force the government to return documents and tape recordings obtained in a tax-fraud investigation of church founder L. Ron Hubbard, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In a unanimous decision, the justices set aside a lower court ruling that had said the issue was moot, because the documents and tapes were already in the possession of the Internal Revenue Service.

1993

Tax fraud is committed in connection with obtaining tax exempt status. Andre Tabayoyan removes 12 ocean-going sea containers of commingled RTC, CSI and other documents from Gilman Hot Springs, prior to the IRS inspection. He buries them. (Criminal Track)

1993 (baby-watching)

The Scientologists call it "baby-watching", but it has nothing to do with looking after infants. Tim Kelsey and Mike Ricks investigate the potentially dangerous, and possibly illegal, secret treatment that the world's largest cult uses to deal with difficult members.

...The "baby-watching" incident with the German student occurred in 1991. But the technique has been used more recently, according to confidential church documents dating from September 1993, which have been leaked to the Independent. These show that the Scientologists mounted an internal investigation after a baby watch conducted on another German, again at Saint Hill, last year. The investigation was instigated because the woman put in isolation was already suffering from an acute mental disorder - in the terminology used by the investigating officer, she was Type III, which translates as "insane". She went insane, according to the document, while she was working for the organization in Europe. In early 1993, she arrived in Saint Hill and was put on a baby watch because she was thought to be a "security risk". Her boyfriend was put in charge of the watch. But something went badly wrong, and the watch was "very extended" because of incompetence by local officials, reports the document. It is not clear whether she was locked in a room throughout or allowed, as is sometimes the case, to walk around during the watch. There seems to be some dispute about whether the local staff were adequately trained to deal with such a case, and permission for her "treatment" finally had to come directly from the American leadership of the cult.

Several of the most senior officers of the British arm of the cult were blamed for allowing this woman to remain a member of the cult - according to the internal memo, she apparently had a history of drug abuse. These senior members were ordered to attend an internal tribunal. If found guilty of failing to ensure the "security" of the member, they will be demoted and sentenced to a period of "rehabilitation" through hard labor. According to the report, it seems that the woman escaped from Saint Hill, was arrested by police and then returned to Germany.

One former senior cult official who worked in the Californian section of the organization was involved in several baby watches. On one occasion, a woman staff member was put in isolation after she started throwing furniture out of the window of her flat, which overlooked Hollywood Boulevard. She was then locked in her room. "We had to take all the furniture out of the room, strip it completely and leave her in there on her own for more than a week," the official said. "She was just crazy, talking to herself and screaming." ...

... It is not just baby-watching that is causing concern. One Zimbabwean man, Noel Matarandirotya, who has now left the organization and has been advised by his legal counsel that he may have grounds to seek compensation from the Scientologists for, among other things, false imprisonment, claims that he collapsed as a result of intensive interrogation. He came to Saint Hill in 1991, on a ticket paid for by the cult, but the following year he was suspected of subverting the interests of the organization. He alleges that he was interrogated for two or three hours every day, often with a lie detector connected by electrodes to his hands....(Independent, January 31, 1994, The Prisoners of Saint Hill, By Tim Kelsey and Mike Ricks (excerpt))

1993, 19.2.

APn 02/19 0000 Religion Briefs, Cult Awareness Network

WHEATON, Ill. (AP) -- The evangelical fortnightly, Christianity Today, reports that members of the Church of Scientology have filed about 35 lawsuits against a consistent critic, the Cult Awareness Network. The suits, filed in courts across the country, mostly allege religious discrimination by the anti-cult group for not allowing Scientologists to join. The network promotes public awareness of what it calls "destructive cults." The network's executive director, Cynthia Kisser, says Scientologists are "trying to bring us to bankruptcy, or to find the right court to rule in their favor and allow them to take over from within."

1993, 20.06.

WP: Jurassic White House; Rise Up and Lead, Ye Political Dinosaurs:

The following White House memo was stamped TOP SECRET and its distribution was highly restricted.

THE MEETING convened in the Oval Office on June 07, 1993, at 0835 GMT. Present were McLarty, Gergen, Thomason, Lindsey, Stephanopoulos, the Vice President, the First Lady, the President and Dr. Reevis Firerim of the Advanced Biogenetics Office.

Chief of Staff McLarty began by explaining that in 1981, shortly after recovering from the failed assassination attempt, President Reagan ordered the initiation of PROJECT DEADWOOD. A top-secret genetics program funded at over $1 billion a year, DEADWOOD was tasked with determining if human DNA could be replicated. In both the Reagan and Bush administrations, only a handful of senior officials were aware of the program; congressional leaders were told that DEADWOOD was a military laser prototype similar to one being developed by the Soviet Union and China. In recent months, DEADWOOD, under Dr. Firerim's direction, has achieved a breakthrough. The following conversation, based on notes taken during the meeting, occurred:

Firerim: After years of research, we believe that we finally are prepared to attempt replication of a dead human. The experiment will consume many resources, and it may be a long time before we can make another attempt. The question before us - and it is a question for you to decide, Mr. President - is who should be our subject?

... Lindsey: But there is a real concern we should think about. A replicated Kennedy would be pretty popular. All glory, no baggage. Bay of Pigs, vacillating on civil rights, advisers to Vietnam - no one will remember that. Only Camelot. And he served less than one term. Under the constitution, he could run again.

(Pause in the conversation.)

Gergen: How about Lee Atwater? A show of bipartisan good will.

Stephanopoulos: John Lennon?

Mrs. Clinton: L. Ron Hubbard?

The President: We need to think about this some more. Mac can organize a working group. Dave, maybe a poll or two can help us focus. George, talk to Boren, Stenholm and Mfume, too - feel them out, but don't let them know what we're up to. This PROJECT DEADWOOD, boy, that Reagan had some good ideas, didn't he.

1993, 13 Aug 

The IRS agrees to grant tax exemptions to every Scientology entity in the United States, plus foreign entities based in the UK and Cyprus. The Church files new applications for exemptions as part of the agreement. (Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS)

1993, 10-14 Sept 

Two IRS tax analysts write internal memoranda saying that they have been instructed to ignore substantive issues in reviewing the new Scientology applications. Ref: New York Times, 9 March 1997 (Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS)

1993, 1.10.

The agreement comes into force. Scientology pays the IRS $12.5m in back taxes and drops all the lawsuits brought by Church entities and individual Scientologists against the IRS. Ref: Closing agreement on final determination covering specific matters, 1 Oct 1993 (Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS)

The Department of Justice tells the IRS to issue a tax exemption. The Community Relations Service of the Department of Justice negotiated a secret Civil settlement with both the Church of Scientology and the Church Universal & Triumphant of Montana. Dow Jones and a Montana newspaper have sued the Dept of Justice to try and find out what is going on. The Dept of Justice has acted illegally – they must reveal Civil settlements to the public.

For the Dept of Justice to tell the IRS what to do, they must do it at the Cabinet level with the President sitting, listening and agreeing to the breach of law. (Criminal Track)

The IRS made a deal with Scientology. They gave them tax exemption without telling why, although they had won against Scientology in Hernandez v Commissioner, 490 U.S. 680 (1989) and in Church of Spiritual Technology v U.S., US Claims Court No. 581-88T, 6/29/92 (1992) 

Note: What is this about the Justice Department ordering the IRS to give Scientology tax exemption, based on a secret settlement agreement? That’s odd. What was the agreement? That Miscavige will squirrel the OT levels and not make any OTs in exchange for tax exemption? We will be doing further investigation into this.

David Miscavige meets with the IRS Commissioner. After 40 years of fighting, the IRS gives Scientology tax exemption. The terms of the agreement are kept secret and not disclosed to other church members. It is a 61 page document.

The Church pays the IRS 12.5 million and agrees to drop thousands of suits against the IRS. It also agrees to stop assisting others in lawsuits against the IRS.

The secret settlement agreement permits Miscavige and certain other Scientologists to monitor, supervise, and compel their own "compliance", and that of all Scientologists, with the tax laws of the US thereby constituting them "state actors" and agents of the IRS.

A copy of the 61 page secret agreement was obtained and it states: 

The parties have entered into this agreement in order to put the past controversy behind them, to extinguish all potential claims and liabilities arising as a result of action or inaction prior to the date of this Agreement and to structure their relationship into the future.

First, under section II of the Agreement the Church will make a single payment that is intended to extinguish any potential tax liability that may be due and unpaid by any Scientology-related entity for all tax years up to and including the tax year ending in 1992.

Second, under section II of the Agreement, the Church and the Service will withdraw from virtually all existing controversy, including on-going examinations of Church entities, ongoing litigation by the Service to enforce summonses for Church records, and all litigation by the Church against the Service and its current or former personnel. Similarly, no Scientology-related entity may initiate or support any legal action against the Service or any Service employee for any claim arising prior to the date of the Agreement.

Notwithstanding the above, in light of, inter alia, the size and complexity of the Church and the Service, certain concerns of the Service and the Church remain. Thus, under section IV, a Church Tax Compliance Committee (CTCC) has been created to undertake certain obligations during the seven-year transition period. The CTCC is to be comprised of the largest United States Church entities, as well as those individuals who are the highest ecclesiastical or corporate authorities within the Church. The Service, through the Assistant Commissioner, has agreed to meet with the CTCC upon their request during the transition period to address any questions arising from the ongoing performance of the parties’ obligations under this Agreement.

In light of the CTCC and its relationship to the whole of Scientology, the CTCC has agreed under section IV to guarantee the collection of taxes (including interest and penalties) from any Scientology-related entity for tax liability arising during the first three years of the seven year transition period. The parties have agreed under section V to keep confidential both this Agreement and all underlying information that is not part of the public record….

At the same time this Agreement is executed, Church of Scientology International is paying by banker’s draft the sum of $12,500,000.00, receipt of which the Service hereby acknowledges, as consideration for the settlement of outstanding issues with the Service as set forth in this Agreement.

The corporate CTCC members are Religious Technology Center (RTC), Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization (CSFSO), Church of Scientology Western United States (CSWUS), Building Management Services (BMS), and Church of Scientology Religious Trust (CSRT).

The individual members of the CTCC are David Miscavige, Norman Starkey, Mark Rathburn and Heber Jentzsch. No individual member of the CTCC shall be permitted to withdraw from service on the CTCC, except by reason of death, being adjudicated an incompetent, or by mutual agreement of the parties of this Agreement.

Specific responsibilities and duties of the CTCC shall include the following:

a. Annual Report.

c. The CTCC and the Assistant Commissioner shall meet no less than once each year.

i. The corporate CTCC members absolutely and unconditionally, jointly and severally, guarantee to the Service the full and prompt payment of all U.S. tax liabilities under the Code (including but not limited to income tax), together with all interest and penalties, accruing or arising during  the first three years of the transition period with respect to all Scientology-related entities.

4. David Miscavige will act as the initial Chairman of the CTCC. He may be removed from this office and replaced by another individual CTCC member by majority vote of the CTCC members.

D. Certifications.

4. In general, by executing this agreement, the Church signatories in their trust or corporate capacities, and their subscribing officers or trustees individually, certify under penalty of perjury the following to the best of their knowledge, information and belief:

a. that all Scientology-related entities are in compliance with the Code, Treasury regulations and other Service pronouncements of general guidance and applicability;

c. that no Scientology-related entity or Scientology-related individual (in his or her capacity as such) has, after 1986, knowingly committed any act of fraud or criminal conduct that might constitute a violation of public policy endangering the tax-exempt status of any Scientology-related entity…

6. Norman F. Starkey, as Trustee of Author’s Family Trust B, shall, no later than December 31, 1993, effectuate the transfer of substantially all of the corpus and income in Author’s Family Trust B, including all the shares of Author Services, Inc. (ASI) as permitted under the will of L. Ron Hubbard to the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) without consideration.

H. Finality. This agreement is final and conclusive except: 

The matter it relates to may be reopened in the event of fraud, malfeasance, or misrepresentation of material fact; (Criminal Track)

Note: So, by this secret agreement, David Miscavige and some other top execs have now become IRS agents. Working to enforce the payment of taxes.

Further note:

This also shows their Achilles heel:

c. “that no Scientology-related entity or Scientology-related individual (in his or her capacity as such) has, after 1986, knowingly committed any act of fraud or criminal conduct that might constitute a violation of public policy endangering the tax-exempt status of any Scientology-related entity…”

Heber already spent 30 days in jail in Spain.

And, this time track is full of fraud and criminal acts.

Particularly easy to prove is their fraud of altering the technology. The evidence is abundant.

LRH never agreed to that. Read RTC’s and CST’s articles of incorporation. They have violated them by altering his issues.

LRH’s last-minute will, giving CST the copyrights, itself smells of fraud. Be that as it may, the will states that RTC and CST do not get his trademarks and copyrights unless they have tax exemption.

So:

1. Proving they have committed fraud or criminal acts means they lose tax exemption.
2. Loss of tax exemption means they no longer own the trademarks and copyrights.
3. This means they go back to the estate of LRH.
4. This means that RTC and CST have lost their suppressive control over the churches and individual Scientologists.
5. It also means that the probate case could be re-opened and the estate of LRH could be passed to his rightful heirs. Who, we trust, would not use their rights suppressively.

Perhaps they would do the humane thing, and put them all in the public domain. So that any being who wished to set himself free, could use them, as LRH intended. And, ensuring that a private clique could not then again establish a monopoly, with attendant abuses, such as we have just witnessed.

Proving fraud:

Miscavige/RTC have made public statements that all the technology has been available in a “pure, unadulterated” form. That is a lie that is easily proven to be a lie.

They have publicly announced that they carried out a project wherein they checked all LRH issues against the handwritten originals. That is another lie that is easily proven to be a lie.

Proving it is the fact that they refuse to place a copy of the handwritten originals in the Qual library for any Scientologist to see for himself if their issues follow the handwritten originals. They know they did not follow his handwritten originals and their changes and their issues are not a duplication of the handwritten originals. So, they can’t allow us to see the handwritten originals because we would find out they are squirrels.

The fact that they keep re-releasing the same issues with new changes - proves they do not follow handwritten originals. Because if you were following handwritten originals, there would never be any changes or new releases of any issue from the first time it was issued, on into eternity.

Also, all issues where they wrote the issue themselves, proves they do not follow handwritten originals.

But, where we really have them is the LRH tapes they altered. They cannot escape that one because the tapes are in LRH’s voice. And a side-by-side comparison of the original LRH tape release, compared to their release of the tape, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that they altered LRH and did not make it available in a “pure, unadulterated form”, as they fraudulently claim.

This all boils down to the truth that they are squirrels.

And, they have committed fraud. And, it can be proven in court.

Giving the devil his due for a moment, and pretending that LRH did knowingly give RTC/CST his estate (which we believe he did not) - take a look at the articles of incorporation for RTC and CST. Look at what LRH was agreeing to. That RTC and CST were to keep him as the sole source of the technology.

He never agreed that they could go off-source and alter his issues, or invent their own.

Therefore, they have broken their legal contract with LRH. Which voids it. (Criminal Track)

1993, 8.10.

David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center - gave a speech to the 9th anniversary event of the International Association of Scientologists. 10,000 members of the International Association of Scientologists had gathered in the Los Angeles Sports Arena to hear Miscavige announce a spectacular victory: After 30 years of conflict with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Church of Scientology (CoS) had won complete tax exemption for all of its 150 US entities. 

Quotes:

• Tonight you are here to get word of what has been promoted as our biggest breakthrough on the fourth dynamic ever! Let me begin by assuring you that is not an overstatement! I feel safe in stating that if you were to take all of our previous external wins - those over the last four decades - and combine them all into one, they wouldn't even approach the magnitude of what I will announce tonight.
• We usually cover many different activities. Tonight will be different. Because what we are going to talk about is the war to end all wars. 
• We did meet with the commissioner, and, as the saying goes - the rest is history.
• There will be no billion dollar tax bill which we can't pay.
• There will be no more discrimination.
• There will be no more 2,500 cases against parishioners across the US.
• The pipeline of IRS false reports won't keep flowing across the planet
• There will be no more nothing - because:
• On October first, 1993, at 8:37 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the IRS issued letters recognizing Scientology and every one of its organizations as fully tax exempt!
• The war is over!

... And what about all those battles and wars still being fought overseas - many of which were brought about originally by IRS false reports. Well, there's good news on that front too. To begin with, we will waste no time carrying news of this new breakthrough to all foreign countries. Those battles have been being held in place by suppressive governments just quoting the IRS.

The line has been:

"You are an American religion. If the IRS doesn't recognize you, why should we?"

The answer is - "They do. And now, you better as well!"

Make no mistake - there is much work to be done on those fronts. But we have already taken the first steps in using this IRS victory to end the rest of the battles. What about all of the false reports I mentioned tonight? We are now in possession of them and will be receiving many more documents out of our files. We will diligently work to clean up all false reports.

But there is another step that will go a long way in cleaning up the false representations the IRS has made about us. The IRS has agreed to send out leaflets to the governments of every nation. These letters will state that they have done a thorough review of all Scientology activities from top to bottom and having found nothing wrong - fully recognize us as a bona-fide and qualified tax exempt organization to the full extent of the law.

Furthermore, they will be attaching to each of these letters a printed fact sheet on Scientology that explains what Scientology really is. Who LRH is, and what all of our organizations are. It is very complete and very accurate. How do I know? We wrote it!

And the IRS will be sending it out to every government in the world! Even Interpol will receive our fact sheet directly from the IRS. That's what it looks like! (visual)

... The real thing I want you to understand is that we didn't just get exemption - we ended a war.

We wanted to end all conflicts, to have a fresh start - to get rid of any potential future conflicts so some SP couldn't start it all up again. It took time. It took a lot of work. It resulted in a peace treaty. I even brought a copy of it to show you. This represents what it took to resolve each and every outstanding conflict with the IRS.

...Here is a photo. It shows the handshake when this was all over: (picture)

Represented in this picture are each and every person from the IRS side and our side. But I have another picture to show you. It is this one. (picture)

You can see how happy Norman, Heber, Marty and myself are. But who is that giving the thumbs up on the left? That's right - the IRS. Let me be clear. These people - once our enemy - now see us as friends. And for my part, the feeling is mutual. 

... But I would like to thank 3 individuals who were there on the front lines helping to fight this battle.

They are Marty Rathbun, Norman Starkey and Heber Jentzsch. 

...But we have many fine people, names that are now famous in Scientology - like Earle Cooley, Bill Drescher, Eric Lieberman, Michael Hertzberg and others. But for fighting this war, we have some professionals who specifically should be acknowledged.

...But I can tell you with absolute certainty there isn't an individual more hated by the Department of Justice or the Internal Revenue Service today. He truly brought them to tears. They are both being presented with a trophy that is inscribed: "Truth knows no impenetrable barrier and only truth pierces the thickest armor. With sincere appreciation to Bill Walsh and Rick Moxon who pierced the armor."

...The final three awards are for some individuals who have been directly involved in the war with the IRS for the last 8 years. Not a few battles. But every one of them.

..."With deepest appreciation to Jerry Feffer, Tom Spring, and Monique Vingling, who paid the price."

... I am declaring a general amnesty for all Scientologists. Except for suppressive acts, any and all offenses committed are forgiven. Full details of this amnesty will be made available to you. Avail yourself of it. (David Miscavige's IAS speech, 8 October 1993)

1993, 13.10.

APn - IRS-Scientology

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service says it has granted tax exempt status to the Church of Scientology, ending a lengthy battle with the organization founded by the late L. Ron Hubbard.

"We're extremely pleased, we're ecstatic, we're thrilled," said Marty Rathbun, president of Religious Technology Center, an arm of the church that holds its trademarks.

The IRS granted the exemptions Oct. 1, IRS spokesman Frank Keith said Tuesday night.

"We were able to make this legal determination because over the last many months the church provided adequate and detailed information to the IRS to enable us to make the legal determination they were entitled to tax exemption -- that they were organizations operated exclusively for religious and charitable purposes," Keith said.

The IRS said it granted tax exempt status to "various entities within the hierarchy" of the church, but Rathbun said essentially the entire church was affected.

"We can now end what was a 40-year war," he said.

The IRS recognized the Church of Scientology of California as a tax-exempt religious organization in 1957, but revoked that exemption in 1967.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the church could continue its battle to regain documents and tape recordings obtained in an IRS investigation of Hubbard.

1993, 15 October 

In Washington DC, the IRS formally announces exemptions for about 150 Scientology entities. Remarkably, this includes at least one body which is an explicitly for-profit commercial organization: the IRS accepts that the publication of Hubbard books by Bridge Publications is a charitable activity. The IRS declares the agreement secret, despite its legal obligation under Internal Revenue Code section 6104 to disclose information submitted to the IRS by tax-exempt organizations. Ref: Closing agreement on final determination covering specific matters, 1 Oct 1993 (Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS)

1993, 27.10.

Library of Congress records show that: CSI copyrights their squirrel version of LRH Clearing Congress lectures. (Criminal Track)

1993, 10 Nov 

The consumer affairs group Tax Analysts submits a Freedom of Information request to obtain the exemption agreement. Ref: Tax Analysts press release, 26 June 1995 (Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS)

1993, 16.11.

APn - Clinton-Religious Freedom

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Reversing a Supreme Court decision he said threatened the nation's "first freedom," President Clinton signed a bill Tuesday making it harder for government to interfere with religious practices.

A broad coalition of civil liberties and religious groups, who foresaw autopsies forced on families and cities meddling in church construction, said the law is the most important for religious freedom since the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

Among the groups on hand for the ceremony were the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Civil Liberties Union, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the American Jewish Committee, the Baptist Joint Committee and the Church of Scientology International.

1993, 29.11.

Norman Starkey, Trustee of Author’s Family Trust-B, transfers ownership of all LRH copyrighted works to CST. This includes the agreements with RTC, allowing RTC use of the Advanced Technology.

The Library of Congress records show that on this date: Norman Starkey, trustee for Author’s Family Trust –B, transfers copyrights for:

"Model of OT ship organization and operation based on 7 division system & 7,730 other titles." Full document range: (In V2927 P238-724) LRH’s Professional Scientologist Newsletter Vol 1 no. 4. B287706 (In V2927 P636 thru 646) to the Church of Spiritual Technology.

Note: This was mandated by the secret agreement that Miscavige made with the IRS. (Criminal Track)

In an EXCLUSIVE 1997 STORY, the PUBLIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION reported that Meade Emory--former Assistant to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and former Legislation Attorney, Joint Committee on Taxation--had been a co-founder of CST, Scientology's most senior corporation. That corporation now controls the copyrights for all of L. Ron Hubbard's intellectual properties, once valued at close to $100 million. CST also enjoys ultimate authority over all Scientology-related trademarks, including even the name "L. Ron Hubbard."

But the discovery of Emory, a non-Scientologist, in such an unusual position raised red flags, since Emory's involvement in setting up the corporation had been hidden for fifteen years.

Then it was learned that Emory had been Assistant to Commissioner of IRS Donald C. Alexander from 1975 through 1977. Strangely, those were the very years that an IRS employee, Gerald Wolfe, was supposedly a Scientology "double agent" guilty of numerous thefts of IRS documents for Mary Sue Hubbard and the Guardian's Office--leading to the arrests and convictions.

Other oddities also surfaced:

According to a U.S. Claims Court ruling, none of the founders of CST but one had any religious connection with Scientology. They were non-Scientologist tax and probate attorneys.

The October 1993 IRS tax-exemption for CST was granted in a then-secret Closing Agreement only after a final round-up of every intellectual property ever produced by L. Ron Hubbard had been completed.

On November 29, 1993, scarcely two months after CST had been granted tax exemption by IRS in a secret Closing Agreement, all 7,730 of L. Ron Hubbard’s copyrights were quietly transferred to CST.

PRF's original press release and supporting documents about Meade Emory's ties to CST were sent to major newspapers--including the Wall Street Journal--and to Senator William V. Roth, Jr., Finance Committee Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation. Within 15 days the secret agreement between IRS and CST, et al. was leaked to WSJ, who never ran the story on Emory. But the IRS Closing Agreement, once released, revealed that it had been the final step in the United States government's 20-year campaign to secretly get L. Ron Hubbard's copyrighted technologies and techniques--being illegally used by federal agencies in strategic intelligence--firmly under secret federal government control. Putting the copyrights in a 501(c)(3) corporation bypassed the separation clause of the Constitution, because CST, despite its name, is not a church.

So certain was the IRS that the secret agreement would never be exposed that it included a "Continued Conspiracy Clause," requiring all signatories to agree in collusion to protect Meade Emory and all other "current or former" employees of IRS and the United States government against any and all claims of their having been involved in a "continued conspiracy." Yet it was just such a "continued conspiracy" that apparently had brought the secret Closing Agreement into being.

The federal government further secured its position by secretly setting up an illegal and unconstitutional "Church Tax Compliance Committee" to enforce Treasury regulations on the structure and function of the various Scientology organizations, including permanent installations of "Tax Compliance Officers" in each organization. (Public Research Foundation: Press Release: 29.8.2000)

1993, 18.12.

APn - People

BONN, Germany (AP) -- Jazz pianist Chick Corea filed a discrimination lawsuit against a state government for canceling a concert because he belongs to the Church of Scientology.

Corea said in the lawsuit filed Thursday that he wants Baden-Wuerttemberg to admit they practiced religious discrimination. He was to perform in Stuttgart during the Track and Field World Championships in August.

Baden-Wuerttemberg officials said Scientology is a cult that brainwashes its members and led them to order a booking agent to cancel Corea's concert.

Corea, 52, isn't seeking money in the lawsuit, said Ulrich Katzschmann, a Scientology official in Frankfurt.

1993, 21.12. (excerpt)

APn - Scientology-Finances

Copyright 1993 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The information contained in this news report may not be republished or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
By KIM I. MILLS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Church of Scientology holds assets of nearly $400 million, including a cruise ship used as a "seagoing religious retreat," according to a detailed portrait of the group's financial network provided to the Internal Revenue Service.
The papers, which fill nine file boxes, were submitted by the church as part of its 39-year effort to gain tax-exempt status. The documents became public after the IRS granted an exemption to more than 20 Scientology organizations on Oct. 1.

The papers offer an unprecedented public view of the huge organization, which includes two publishing houses, a 2,845-acre California ranch used as a school for the children of church staffers and more than 45 buildings on 500 acres in Riverside County, Calif.
Other assets include reinforced vaults designed to preserve the church's teachings in case of earthquake or nuclear attack, the documents said. (see: 1992, 11.2., 1992, 16.3.)

The assets reported in the various documents filed with the IRS totaled $398 million.
The Los Angeles-based church does not keep combined balance sheets but "the combined total, if kept, would be somewhere in the range you list," Scientology spokeswoman Leisa Goodman said in a written response to questions.

...

None of the IRS letters in the files explained the legal reasoning behind granting tax exemption this year. Some noted, however, that the IRS found no evidence of "inurement," or private enrichment, which is barred under the tax law governing religions and charitable organizations.

IRS spokesman Frank Keith said the agency concluded the church "is operated exclusively for religious and charitable purposes."
According to the documents, most church officials receive modest salaries. David Miscavige, director of the Religious Technology Center and holder of the highest ecclesiastical position in Scientology, was listed as being paid $62,684 in 1991 and $34,779 in 1992.
Several Scientologists, however, earned six-figure commissions for raising donations to church entities, including the International Association of Scientologists, according to the filings.

One, identified in the documents as Barry Klein, was paid $217,694 in 1989 and $201,314 in 1990, the records show. Another named in the documents as Ken Pirak made $407,052 in 1991, and a third identified as Steve Grant earned $339,978 that year, the records said.
Goodman called those figures "somewhat inaccurate" because "the amount paid to them represents commissions for themselves and all staff employed by them." She said the commissions could be divided among as many as five or 10 staff members.

The 440-foot cruise ship Freewinds is operated by Scientology's Flag Ship Service Organization as "a safe, distraction-free environment for the ministry of the highest and most confidential Scientology auditing level," FSSO said in its application for tax exemption.

...

Documents valued the ship at $12.5 million for insurance purposes, and said it can accommodate 300 passengers and a crew of 129. The filing described the Freewinds as having "very limited recreational facilities -- only one small pool, used four or five hours sporadically throughout the day; one volleyball court, used one hour a day, if that; one basketball hoop, which might be used a half-hour each day, and no shuffleboard or tennis courts. ... Gambling is not permitted and alcohol is not served to either passengers or crew."

...

One entity, the Church of Spiritual Technology, reported spending nearly $13 million in 1992 to preserve his writings and lectures.
It has designed gas-filled, titanium time capsules to hold Hubbard's teachings, and plans to place 10,500 of the capsules in three vaults, two built to resist earthquakes or nuclear attack, according to the documents.
Hubbard's writings will be preserved on 1.8 million stainless steel plates and his lectures on 187,000 nickel records that could be played back with a stylus as crude as a thorn in the event of some future cataclysm, the documents said.
This division also plans to place large, indestructible obelisks around the world covered with pictographs explaining Scientology "so that even a wandering savage will be able to understand and apply these principles," the documents said. 

1993, Late 

Marty Rathbun blew his post. He was brought back and held captive at the Freewinds. Later he is Inspector General of RTC. (Criminal Track)

Note: That’s funny. Right after the big "IRS win"? What does Marty know about "the win" that we don’t?