‘Only the ruthless can own it’: behind the scenes of Scientology’s dirty tricks operations

This is the first of a three-part series by historian Chris Owen taking a deep dive into the mechanisms and structures by which Scientology carries out harassment, surveillance, litigation and influence operations to suppress its perceived enemies and gain influence worldwide. In this first part, we’ll take a look at the two Scientology entities that are principally involved: the Office of Special Affairs and the Religious Technology Center.

Leah Remini’s recent lawsuit does an excellent job of describing the policies set out by L. Ron Hubbard for the harassment of Scientology’s perceived enemies, and the effect that this has had on her life. But how does Scientology’s harassment system work behind the scenes?

Hubbard’s willingness to harass people who had crossed him began even before the creation of Scientology. In 1952, he wrote:

This universe is a rough universe. It is a terrible and deadly universe. Only the strong survive it, only the ruthless can own it. Given one weak spot a being cannot long endure, for this universe will search it out and enlarge it and probe it until that weak spot is a festering wound so large that the being is engulfed by his own sores.

Fighting this battle for survival, and fight it he must, a being in the [physical] universe cannot seem to afford decency or charity or ethics; he cannot afford any weakness, any mercy. The moment he does he is lost.

This philosophy has underwritten Scientology’s approach to its perceived enemies ever since.

Scientology’s organisational structure mandates the existence of a department to deal with intelligence, internal security, public relations, and litigation. That slot was occupied by the notorious Guardian’s Office (GO) before 1983 and by the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) since then. The Religious Technology Center (RTC) plays an important but less well-known part as well, outside of Scientology’s regular departmental structure.

OSA’s mission, like that of the GO, is to create “handled situations which result in the total acceptance of Scientology and its Founder throughout the area” and to “take responsibility for cleaning up the rotten spots of society in order to create a safer and saner environment for Scientology expansion and for all mankind.” Anyone who criticises Scientology is deemed to be part of a “rotten spot.”

Formally, OSA answers to the Church of Scientology International (CSI). However, RTC’s former Inspector General Marty Rathbun said this corporate relationship was a sham and that it was micromanaged by Scientology’s leader David Miscavige, exercising his control through Rathbun.

OSA’s Investigations Officers have a mission that is identical to their GO predecessors: “TO HELP LRH INVESTIGATE PUBLIC MATTERS AND INDIVIDUALS WHICH SEEM TO IMPEDE HUMAN LIBERTY SO THAT SUCH MATTERS MAY BE EXPOSED AND TO FURNISH INTELLIGENCE REQUIRED IN GUIDING THE PROGRESS OF SCIENTOLOGY.” They are trained to “successfully investigate those impeding the forward progress of Scientology and furnish intelligence (prediction) data to management.”

Much of OSA’s work takes place at lower levels, managed by local Directors of Special Affairs who are responsible for overseeing OSA activities in their own countries. Judging from records seized by Greek police in the 1990s, their activities tend to focus on public relations, lobbying politicians and monitoring the activities of ‘enemies’ viewed by Scientology’s management as local rather than international threats.

Threats such as Leah Remini, whose public criticism of Scientology has undoubtedly had a huge impact, are dealt with at the very top. “The highest priority OSA matters that I had to monitor and report on several times a day to Mr. Miscavige were ones that involved his name,” Rathbun said.

“If a staff member left unannounced from the Scientology corporate headquarters, and the person had any personal knowledge of Mr. Miscavige by way of regular contact with him, I was required to personally direct a massive dragnet utilising Sea Org staff from RTC and CSI, and private investigators, to hunt down that staff member. This occurred on average a couple of times per year. I was micromanaged on such manhunts by Mr. Miscavige personally. I would make sure the person was contacted, and put under control and sometimes order ongoing surveillance through OSA that could last up to several years.”

Similarly, if Miscavige was implicated in any litigation, Rathbun “oversaw every aspect of that litigation until Miscavige was no longer subject to inquiry.”

According to Mike Rinder, who headed OSA between 1987 and 2007, “Miscavige received a daily report concerning every legal case, every media action and every investigation ongoing in the world.” The OSA Daily Report was compiled by Rinder, passed to Rathbun and finally hand-delivered to Miscavige in an unmarked, sealed envelope without any indication of who it was written by or addressed to. Rinder explains that this was to ensure that there was no paper trail to link Miscavige to OSA’s activities. A separate Investigations Report, describing all ongoing intelligence activities, was also compiled and sent with a very limited distribution including Miscavige and Rathbun.

Rathbun commented that the briefing “was usually several pages [long] summarising reports from private investigators and Scientologists serving as undercover spies watching and interacting with Scientology critics. The written briefing, contrary to established corporate policy, had no routing information on it. That is, the daily briefing had no indication who wrote the report or who it was directed to. If a report ever got out of the Church, it could not, on its face, be used to incriminate any of its author or recipients.”

After Miscavige had read the intelligence reports, according to Rathbun, they would routinely be shredded as “there could be no trace of it”.

As well as delivering the written report, Rathbun was required “to brief Miscavige verbally on any major developments on matters handled by the OSA network around the world or matters concerning security. My briefing to him would begin with major problems which he insisted he know about. My briefing included reports about handling the media stories, investigations, legal cases, security breaches, and potential security situations. That briefing would last anywhere from a few minutes on a quiet day with no major developments, to all day when something was afoot that riveted Miscavige’s attention.”

Miscavige frequently micro-managed the activities of OSA, calling at least daily to discuss the Daily Report and summoning Rinder and Rathbun to his office several times a day to discuss OSA’s affairs. Rathbun recalled that often, Miscavige “would instruct me to order OSA to direct an operative or private investigator to find out something to do concerning the target of infiltration or investigation. On other occasions, Mr. Miscavige would joke about what was reported about a particular target, or rant about the target’s activity.”

Orders were issued verbally by Miscavige to Rathbun, and Rathbun to Rinder. ”Most often”, Rathbun later recalled, “I would call Mike Rinder into my office and I would brief him verbally on Miscavige’s directives. Mr. Rinder would then return to his own office and type up the orders as written directives to OSA. Those directives would be worded as if the orders were originated by him, with no reference to me or RTC, and especially not to Mr. Miscavige.” Rathbun was responsible for supervising Rinder to ensure that Miscavige’s orders were only issued under Rinder’s name.

Rinder was closely managed by Miscavige when he was sent to ‘handle’ the BBC journalist John Sweeney in 2007 while the latter was making a documentary on Scientology. As Rinder followed Sweeney around the US, he was bombarded with often viciously abusive text messages demanding updates and berating him for supposed failures. The messages ostensibly came from Miscavige’s ‘Communicator’ (secretary), Laurisse Stuckenbrock, but were clearly relaying Miscavige’s own thoughts.

While OSA is responsible for most of Scientology’s intelligence activities, the Religious Technology Center (RTC) also plays a key role. Its remit is narrower than that of OSA – protecting Scientology’s trademarks and copyrights, rather than the whole of Scientology. It also does not have a worldwide network like that of OSA. However, its position in the Scientology hierarchy as the church’s senior management organisation means that it has an outsize role in managing Scientology’s intelligence activities.

For many years, Miscavige and Rathbun oversaw OSA’s work together. Rathbun described his role as having been “a go-between for Miscavige and OSA.” RTC has also, for many years, carried out its own intelligence activities. As early as 1984, when Scientology was being challenged by breakaway groups – and before Miscavige had taken over RTC – an intelligence unit was set up within RTC with the task of putting Scientology defectors in jail.

In the next part, we’ll look at how RTC/OSA use private investigators and Scientologist volunteers for intelligence-gathering and harassment.

— Chris Owen

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

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