Scientology Lies About Harassment of LA D/A

 

See the recent LA Times article Scientology tried to ‘derail’ star’s rape trial by harassing prosecutor, suit says; church calls claim ‘false’ 

This is some excellent reporting by James Queally.

I only want to comment on one thing: Karin (David Miscavige) Pouw’s response to quotes taken from my declaration filed in Leah[s case.

Here is what the article says with regard to me and Dave’s response:

Mike Rinder, a member of the Aftermath Foundation’s board, once served as head of the Office of Special Affairs and described it as “Scientology’s CIA” in a recent declaration in Remini’s lawsuit.

Rinder, a former Scientology spokesperson, said the church’s tactics include hiring “private investigators to surveill and intimidate targets,” harassing “targets’ family, friends, and employers in order to intimidate them” and enlisting “homeless and mentally ill people to harass and intimidate targets,” according to the declaration.

Pouw dismissed Rinder as a bitter, excommunicated member of the church, describing him as an “inveterate liar.”

“He has made a career of attacking his former religion,” she said. “Rinder knows for a fact there is no way on God’s green earth the Church would ever harass, nor have we ever harassed, any law enforcement in any way, shape or form. The accusations are false, defamatory and outrageous.”

This is a provably false statement that was absolutely not written by Karin Pouw who would never, ever say “now way on God’s green earth.”  But it’s the second part of the sentence that is so patently false “the Church would ever harass, nor have we ever harassed, any law enforcement in any way, shape or form.”

Ever? Dave seems to have forgotten the prosecution of 11 top scientology officials for doing JUST THAT.

They think they can get away with saying these things because nobody will fact check them.

Here are just a few excerpts from the DOJ Sentencing Memorandum in that case (boldface is mine):

… brazen, systematic and persistent burglaries of United States Government offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, California, over an extended period of at least some two years.

… the defendants and their unindicted co-conspirators, as well as their organizations, considered themselves above the law. They believed that they had carte blanche to violate the rights of others, frame critics in order to destroy them, burglarize private and public offices and steal documents outlining the strategy of individuals and organizations that the Church had sued.

The defendants and their cohorts launched vicious smear campaigns, spreading falsehoods against those they perceived to be enemies of Scientology in order to discredit them and, in some instances, cause them to lose their employment.

Scientology initiated law suits often for the sole purpose of harrassment, private citizens who attempted to exercise their First Amendment right to criticize an organization which they considered suspect, and public officials who sought to carry out the duties for which they were elected or appointed in a fair and even-handed manner. To these defendants and their associates, however, anyone who did not agree with them was considered to be an enemy against whom the so-called “fair game doctrine” could be invoked.

…these defendants were willing to frame their critics to the point of giving false testimony under oath against them, and having them arrested and indicted speaks legion for their disdain for the rule of law. Indeed, they arrogantly placed themselves above the law meting out their personal brand of punishment to those “guilty” of opposing their selfish alms.

The crimes committed by these defendants is of a breadth and scope previously unheard of.  No building, office, desk, or file was safe from their snooping and prying.’ No individual or organization was free from their despicable conspiratorial minds.

Numerous state and local Government agencies through the United States were targeted for infiltration by defendants and their Guardian’s Office.

On March 4, 1974, fugitive defendant Jane Kember issued GO 1080, an umbrella program ordering for the infiltration of the California Attorney General’s Office and all local district attorney’s offices in California. 

Deac Finn, the Assistant Guardian for Information in New England (AGI NE) , wrote to defendant Weigand on June 8, 1976, requesting Weigand’s approval for Finn’s project to infiltrate the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office…

In March 1976, a smear campaign entitled “Operation Snapper 1” was devised within the Information Bureau to have Lawrence Tapper, a perceived enemy, removed from his post in the California Attorney General’s Office. The project included, among other things, having a pregnant female covert operative (“FSM”) publicly confront Tapper in his office and blame him for her becoming pregnant. A second part of the plan called for a “Male FSM” to call Tapper’s office and pretend to be the father of the pregnant woman, and for letters to be written making it appear that Tapper was getting payoffs.

In March and April 1976 a series of orders and projects, copies of which were sent to and approved by defendant Weigand, directed the infiltration of the California Department of Health, Board of Medical Examiners, Mental Health Association, Department of Social Services, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles offices of the United States Customs Service and United States Postal Service, the office of Representative, and then Lieutenant-Governor, Melvin Dymally, and the burglary of the home of James Estabrook, an official of the California Department of Health. 

Yeah, no way on God’s green earth the Church would ever harass, nor have we ever harassed, any law enforcement in any way, shape or form.

Of course, Dave will say “But we got rid of the Guardian’s Office and nothing like this has happened since.” So, why did you say “nor have we ever”?

But even that doesn’t hold water. How about the War on Judges and the efforts to frame and intimidate judges in 1984 AFTER the GO disband?

And how about the campaigns run against individual IRS agents that you boasted about in the “War is Over” event and was covered in the New York Times and Tampa Bay Times headlined “Intimidating the IRS” in 1997. Here are two paras from that story:

The New York Times report reveals new details about the church’s tactics. Private investigators hired by the church looked for code violations at a building owned by three IRS officials. They created a phony news bureau in Washington to collect information on church critics. The managing editor of the church’s Freedom magazine helped create an IRS whistle-blowers group that was financed by the church. All of these pressure tactics raise questions about whether the IRS was improperly influenced in making its decision to grant the church tax-exempt status.

The Church of Scientology still uses harassment and intimidation to fight its critics. Freedom magazine is looking for evidence of racial problems within the Clearwater Police Department. The department just happens to be investigating the death of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died in 1995 after spending 17 days at the church’s Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater. A lawyer for the church also contacted several of the pathologists who told the Times that lab results show McPherson was severely dehydrated when she died, findings that mirror the conclusions reached by Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood. And more than two dozen Scientology critics who protested in Clearwater Saturday were surrounded by more than 200 church members.

The final sentence of the scientology response is just as laughable: “The accusations are false, defamatory and outrageous.”

If this is the case, why has scientology never sued me? They have a massive budget and literally hundreds of lawyers at their beck and call…