The recently posted US IAS Patrons list has been a revelation. This list designates and 'honors' people who have contributed to the Church of Scientology's 'War Chest.' The War Chest money is used to fund a network of covert operations and agents whose function is to silence critics and former members, Some of these actions are criminal in nature and many are border-line criminal in nature. And many are legal harassments which are costly and the enemies who are targeted for this harassment usually do not have the funds to defend themselves...witness, Tom Padgett, Graham Berry and Keith Henson.
Greg Bashaw was one of the scientologists who was heavily involved an an array of harassments against CAN (Cult Awareness Network). Bashaw is listed as a Patron which means that he kicked in somewhere between #40,000 and $100,000 to the 'War Chest.' Bashaw demonstrates that he is a true fanatic scientologist as he is not only devoting a lot of his time to harassing CAN and enemies of the cult but he is contributing a lot of money as well.
Greg Bashaw lived conveniently just a few miles from the CAN office in Barrington, Illinois. His address is actually 353 Sutton Rd., Barrington Hills, Il 60010.
Barrington Hills is a ritzy, pastoral subdivision and Bashaw's home is a beauty. Bashaw's wife, Laura Arndt, is also a scientologist but she is not on the Patrons List.
Bashaw was known quite well to the CAN staff as he spent a lot of time in assorted harassments against CAN staff and some close CAN supporters. Hope HInde was a founding Member of CAN and lived in a northern Chicago suburb where she received surprise nocturnal visits from Bashaw. The whole idea was intimidation and following L. Ron Hubbard's Policy to 'shudder enemies of scientology into silence." Hope recently passed away at the age of 86, a fearless and dedicated anti-cult activist.
I went to work as a staff member at CAN in 1994 right in the middle of a tremendous seige of harassment from members and agents for the scientology cult.
It was, frankly, eerie and frightening at times. As the Church of Scientology stepped up its campaign to destroy CAN, Greg Bashaw's harassment activies increased and he tried to gain unlawful entrance into the CAN office a number of times. He showed up at and would attempt to disrupt CAN Conferences. Bashaw was not alone as others such as Glen Barton, Andrew Bagley, Alan Brooks, Ian Mann, Jean Hornnes, Mary Anne Ahmad, Randy Kretchmar, Kendrick Moxon and others were heavily involved with harassing and disrupting CAN. As CAN was forced into Bankrupcy proceedings Bashaw and Mary Anne Ahmad of the Chicago Church of Scientology made a brazen attempt to steal CAN mail at the Mail drop that received CAN mail. Fortunately , the alert Mail drop owner rebuffed this effort.
At this point CAN did not have the resources to follow through with charges on this.
Greg Bashaw operates out of his home a clandestine scientology operation called the Anti-Deprogramming League. About the time CAN was being forced to close Bashaw sent around a DA Pack on myself ( for non-scientologists, a DA Pack is a part of L. Ron Hubbard's Tech where you target an enemy, gather as much negative information as you can or just make it up and send it around to friends, associates, clients etc., of the enemy.)
He sent this to confidential names that were in the CAN Files...names of people who called CAN for info on scientology. We were greatly puzzled as to how he got these names. At the time we were still believing that the CAN office was bugged but that wouldn't explain getting the names from the Files. In the DA pack on myself were some things that I said in the CAN office to our trusted CAN vulnteer, Jolie Steckart, aka Laura.
We didn't know until much later that our trusted volunteer was all along a spy for scientology. The bug was a human bug.
On the day that CAN closed, Greg Bashaw had left taunting messages on the CAN phone recorder before we opened the office, "Hi, this is Greg Bashaw, I understand that you will have things for sale, I would like to come by to see what you have." Later in the day when we were given an hour to get our things together and get out I went to grab that recorder tape for future evidence and it was gone. We know now that Jolie took it. We also know now that many times when Jolie was leading us to believe that after work she was returning to her home in MAdison, Wis, she was, in fact, staying at nearby Greg Bashaw's house and that he was one of her scientology contacts that she was passing CAN information on to.
You might be wondering how could Greg Bashaw be spending so much time harassing and stalking CAN. Was he an OSA operative? We really didn't know anything about him except where he lived. After he sent the DA Pack around on myself and CAN closed I was concerned as I didn't know what he looked like. The other staff did but I was a more recent staffer. A private investigator discovered for me that Greg Bashaw was a VP and Asst.
Producer in the Creative division of the prestigious Leo Burnett Co., an advertising giant. Bashaw worked on commercials for Hallmark, Disney etc. This was astounding news and had CAN known this his harassing activities would have been stopped early on. How could he be spending so much company and client time stalking scientology enemies?
The answer came in the person of Cheryl Berman. Berman was his boss at Leo Burnett and is a scientologist.
Her husband, Randy Kretchmar, was named in a Declaration as an accomplice in a bizarre plot to murder Cynthia Kisser, the ED of CAN. Someone connected the dots from Kretchmar to Berman through some unusual circumstances.
Through the revelation of the posting of the IAS Patrons List we find that Cheryl Berman contributed an estimated $400,000 to the War Chest and Greg Bashaw kicked in and estimated $100,000. That adds up to $500,000 from just two people. CAN never had a chance against this kind of money. No one has a chance against this kind of money and fanaticism. With this kind of money rolling in the scientology cult could finance spies like Jolie Steckart and Kendrick Moxon's legal harassments for a long, long time. Do you suppose that the hierarchy of Hallmark and Disney know that some of the people working on their advertising are fanatic members of a destructive and subversive cult? Does the CEO and Board of Leo Burnett know that the head of their Creative Division funds a covert cult operation which targets 'enemies' for harassment and destruction? Where does the IRS come in on this? Shouldn't the IRS know of these enormous contributions and what they are being used for?
Greg Bashaw left Leo Burnett and until recently was in the Creative Division of the Foote, Cone & Belding Advertising Agency in Chicago. Ordinarily, I give most scientologists a pass on some of their activities as I was one once myself and I understand why they do some of the things that they do. But this rat crossed the line when he attacked me, my family and the worthy organization that I worked for.
Jim Beebe