Making Light of Black PR, Part 6, Armstrong Declarations re Miscavige Lies.

DECLARATION OF GERALD ARMSTRONG

I, Gerald Armstrong, declare:

1. I am over 18 years of age and a resident of the State of California. I have personal knowledge of the matters set forth herein and if called upon to testify thereto I competently would.

2. I am making this declaration in response to certain statements, principally those concerning me, made by David Miscavige in his declaration executed February 8, 1994, and filed in the case of Scientology v. Fishman & Geertz, United States District Court for the Central District of California, Case No. CV 91-6425 HLH(Tx).

3. Mr. Miscavige states that I am a proven liar because he has found a discrepancy between a finding of Judge Paul G. Breckenridge Jr. in his decision rendered June 20, 1984 in the case of Scientology v. Armstrong, Los Angeles Superior Court No. C 420153 (Armstrong I), and a statement allegedly made by me and secretly recorded by Mr. Miscavige's covert intelligence operatives in the fall of 1984. (Miscavige dec. p. 31, l. 22 - p. 32, l. 5). Mr. Miscavige is employing one of Scientology's confusion techniques the organization's founder L. Ron Hubbard dubbed "dropped out time." Mr. Miscavige's incidents, which he has linked for purposes of confusion, are years apart.

4. In this civilization fear is generally accepted to be an emotion or state of mind which can either be present or not present, or perhaps present in degrees. It is fairly well accepted that a not abnormal person can be afraid one day, when, for example there are a couple of unidentified men at four a.m. outside the person's bedroom window where no men ought to be at four a.m., and not afraid on another day, when the person is, for example, watching the Dodgers beat the Giants. That the person claimed to be afraid at four a.m Sunday and not afraid at the Wednesday ballgame does not make that person a proven liar. In my case there were more than two years between one time when I was afraid and the next occasion when Mr. Miscavige says I said I was not afraid.

5. In his decision, a true and correct copy of which is appended hereto as Exhibit A, Judge Breckenridge states: "From his extensive knowledge of the covert and intelligence operations carried out by the Church of Scientology of California against its enemies (suppressive persons), Defendant Armstrong became terrified and feared that his life and the life of his wife were in danger, and he also feared he would be the target of costly and harassing lawsuits."

.... "It was thereafter, in the summer of 1982, that Defendant Armstrong asked Mr. Garrison for copies of documents to use in his defense and sent the documents to his attorneys, Michael Flynn and Contos & Bunch.

After the within suit was filed on August 2, 1982, Defendant Armstrong was the subject of harassment, including being followed and surveilled by individuals who admitted employment by [Scientology]; being assaulted by one of these individuals; being struck bodily by a car driven by one of these individuals; having two attempts made by said individuals apparently to involve Defendant Armstrong in a freeway automobile accident; having said individuals come onto Defendant Armstrong's property, spy in his windows, create disturbances, and upset his neighbors." (Ex. A. Appendix p. 14, l. 6 - p. 15, l. 3)

6. It is clear that Judge Breckenridge in his statements about my fear of organization legal and extra-legal attacks is referring to my state of mind in the period between the organization's publication of its "Suppressive Person Declares" on me in early 1982 and its filing of Armstrong I in August, 1982. This fear was not irrational or unfounded as the organization itself proved when it harassed my wife and me as Judge Breckenridge found, and did file harassing and costly lawsuits against me. All of these harassing and criminal acts were carried out during Mr. Miscavige's control of such activities, which he claims to have wrested from the Guardian's Office, which, itself, just as he himself, according to Mr. Miscavige, "used unscrupulous means to deal with people they perceived as enemies of the Church." (Miscavige dec. p. 17, l. 17).

7. Mr. Miscavige's new Guardian's Office, the Office of Special Affairs, did not end its criminal and abusive tactics with the incidents listed by Judge Breckenridge, but has added ten more years of "fair game" attacks since the 1984 decision, including, but not limited to:

a. attempted framing by entrapment and illegal videotaping;

b. filing false criminal charges with the Los Angeles District Attorney;

c. filing false criminal charges with the Boston office of the FBI;

d. filing false declarations;

e. bringing contempt of court proceedings on three occasions based on false charges;

f. making false accusations in internationally published media of crimes, including crimes against humanity;

g. culling and disseminating information from my supposedly confidential auditing (psychotherapy) files;

h. relentlessly attacking my attorney, Michael Flynn of Boston, Massachusetts with some 15 lawsuits, baseless bar complaints, theft of office documents, infiltration of his law practice, framing him with the forgery of a $2,000,000 check, an international black PR campaign, threats to him and his family, and, according to him, attempted assassination; all for the purpose of driving him out of the organization-related litigation in order to leave his clients undefended against the organization's attacks;

i. fraudulently promising to discontinue "fair game" against me if I settled my cross-complaint against the organization, knowing full well that it would continue to attack me in the courts and the marketplace of ideas once I signed its settlement contract, which I did in December, 1986, and once it had contracted with Mr. Flynn to not defend me in future litigation;

j. following the settlement, publishing a false and unfavorable description of me in a "dead agent" pack relating to writer and anti-Scientology litigant Bent Corydon;

k. filing several affidavits in the case of Church of Scientology of California v. Russell Miller and Penguin Books Limited, case no. 6140 in the High Court of Justice in London England which falsely accused me of violations of court orders, and falsely labeled me "an admitted agent provocateur of the U.S. Federal Government";

l. delivering copies of an edited version of an illegally obtained 1984 videotape of me to the international media;

m. threatening me with lawsuits on six occasions if I did not abet its obstruction of justice in the Miller case, in the case of Bent Corydon v. Scientology, Los Angeles Superior Court No. C 694401, wherein Corydon had subpoenaed me as a witness, and in the case of Scientology v. Yanny, Los Angeles Superior Court No. C 690211;

n. threatening to release my confidences, which it had stolen from a friend, and which had been specifically sealed by Judge Breckenridge in Armstrong I if I did not assist it in preventing Corydon from gaining access to the Armstrong I court file;

o. on February 4, 1992, filing a lawsuit, Scientology v. Gerald Armstrong, Marin Superior Court Case No. 152229 ("Armstrong II"), transferred to Los Angeles Superior Court and given Case No. BC 052395, alleging contract breaches, which it itself precipitated, for the purposes of, inter alia, obstructing justice, suppressing evidence, assassinating my reputation, retaliation and intimidation;

p. on July 8, 1993, filing a lawsuit Scientology v. Gerald Armstrong & The Gerald Armstrong Corporation, Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC 084642 ("Armstrong III") for the same purposes as in o. above;

q. on July 23, 1993, filing a lawsuit, Scientology v. Gerald Armstrong, Michael Walton & The Gerald Armstrong Corporation, Marin Superior Court Case No. 157680 ("Armstrong IV") for the same purposes as in o. above;

r. twice more bringing contempt of court charges against me based on false sworn statements.

8. The videotapes from which Mr. Miscavige claims to quote were made in November, 1984. In order to provide a context for how I came to be involved with his operatives who set up the videotaping and to clarify the words of both the operatives and myself which were recorded, and a few of which Mr. Miscavige claims to quote, I am appending hereto as Exhibit B a copy of a declaration/screenplay outline I have just completed and called "Find a Better Basket."

9. When I state on the 1984 videotape that I am not afraid, I am answering one of the operatives' questions or challenges which he has been drilled to state. In responding the way I did I am honestly communicating one of the changes I had perceived in my psyche over the almost three years since I left the organization. Because the organization teaches its members to put their faith in what cannot protect them; e.g., data, wins, attacks, hatred, disconnection, leverage, lawsuits, private investigators, fair game, L. Ron Hubbard or David Miscavige; it leaves them with a seemingly irreducible fear. Those who put their faith in God, Wherein lies perfect protection, give up their fear. There will still be times when fear will arise, but the reestablishing of faith in God will every time cause that fear to disappear into the nothing it is. I was beginning to learn that wisdom by the time of the 1984 videotaping. In fact it was that learning which seemed to move me to associate with the operatives who only sought my destruction. I have stated many times that I have an undeniable concern that before it comes to its senses or saner minds prevail in the organization its power structure headed by Mr. Miscavige will have me assassinated or do something else diabolical and dangerous, and this has produced in me an awareness of threat and is a fact of my present psychological condition. The power structure is quite capable of violent and criminal acts, or of purchasing such acts. The power structure is armed, and its head PI Eugene M. Ingram has threatened to kill me. The power structure makes a religion of terrifying countless vulnerable and innocent people who do not have my certainty and do not have my skills to fight the organization's tyranny. For these reasons I oppose its tyranny and its suppressive doctrines and practices. Mr. Miscavige should not be pointing out imagined inconsistencies in whether one of his victims in one year or another was afraid or not of his vicious organization, but should be eliminating all of its viciousness so that no one ever again is made afraid by it.

10. Mr. Miscavige calls the videotaping of me "a police-sanctioned investigation." (Miscavige Dec. p. 31, l. 28) This is a lie Mr. Miscavige must tell as if his life depends on it. I provided the truth in "Find a Better Basket."

"Organization lawyers, Earle Cooley and John Peterson, claimed (during the 1985 trial of Julie Christofferson v. Scientology, Circuit Court of the State of Oregon, Multnomah County, No. A7704-05184, that) the Armstrong operation had been authorized by the Los Angeles Police Department, and they produced a letter dated November 7, 1984, ..... signed by an officer Phillip Rodriguez, directing organization private investigator Eugene M. Ingram to electronically eavesdrop on me and Michael Flynn.

On April 23, 1985, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates issued a public statement, ..... denying that the Rodriguez letter was a correspondence from the Los Angeles Police Department, denying that the Los Angeles Police Department had cooperated with Ingram, and stating emphatically that all purported authorizations directed to Ingram by any member of the Los Angeles Police Department are invalid and unauthorized. On information and belief, the officer, Phillip Rodriguez, who signed Ingram's letter was paid $10,000.00 for his signature. Also on information and belief, following a Los Angeles Police Department Internal Affairs Division investigation and a Police Department Board of Rights, Officer Rodriguez was suspended from the Los Angeles Police Force." ("Better Basket," p. 13, paras. 22 and 23) A copy of Officer Rodriguez's "authorization" is appended hereto as Exhibit C, and a copy of Chief Gates' public announcement is appended hereto as Exhibit D.

11. Mr. Miscavige claims that his illegal videotapes of me capture me acknowledging my real motives, to overthrow his organization's leadership and gain control of it. (Miscavige Dec. p. 32, l.1 - l.3) This is absurd. His own people, operated by him, came to me with their idea, approved by him, as outlined in "Better Basket," of wresting control of the organization from what they called the "criminals" running it. I have never had a desire control the Scientology organization or Scientology, although I recognize that its leaders should be restrained from further abuse of anyone. My real motive in my day-to-day relationship with its leaders is to get it out of the litigation business and get it to cease its assault on the justice system, its abuse of innocence and its threatening of me, my friends and people of good will everywhere. I know David Miscavige personally. I know him to be a bully, a liar and a perfect replacement for L. Ron Hubbard at the controls of his empire. I also know that God is in him as He is in everyone else and that bullying and lying are just mad and useless efforts to fight that fact.

12. Mr. Miscavige states that I advise one of his covert operatives to accuse the organization of various criminal acts and when I am told that no evidence exists to support those charges I respond to "just allege it." (Miscavige Dec. p. 32, l. 5 - l. 8) "Better Basket" describes something of the context in which I make a statement differentiating between "allegations" and "proof." The operative I'm talking to is Mike Rinder. Before this meeting I had already, on request of the "Loyalists," provided them with a "bare bones" draft of a complaint. Complaints contain allegations. Complaints do not contain proof. Rinder, who had been represented to me as the Loyalists' "best legal mind" couldn't seem to get the distinction between allegations and proof in the complaint, and I was frustrated in our conversation because he seemed so dense. Now, of course, his denseness is fully understandable. He had to appear stupid and had to deny that there was any "proof" of the sort of allegations that would be made in a complaint because he knew he was being recorded on a videotape which was going to be used to attack, and if possible destroy me. Even what the organization has done to me alone (see, e.g., crimes listed by Judge Breckenridge and the list in paragraph 7 above) is enough for actual true-hearted reformers to bring a lawsuit to take control of the organization from the criminals now in charge.

13. During Mr. Miscavige's videotape operation a briefcase containing a book of my original drawings and writings and other documents was stolen from the trunk of my car. My attorney made a demand on the organization for the return of these materials. The organization denied having them. I have recently been advised by Vicki Aznaran, a former organization executive who carried out operations against individuals on Mr. Miscavige's orders, that he told her at the time of their theft that he had them and he described them to her. Knowing that this declaration will be seen by Mr. Miscavige, I herewith renew my demand to him for the return of my materials to me.

14. I will also take the opportunity to advise this Court that Mr. Miscavige's organization considers that it has me under a contract whereby it may sue me for filing this declaration, not because it is untrue or libelous, but because that is what the organization insists its contract permits. This contract was obtained by Mr. Miscavige as the result of his organization's years of attack on my attorney Michael Flynn, as stated in paragraph 7 subparagraph h. above. In order to get the organization to cease its fair game against Mr. Flynn I had to sign its contract, which, according to Mr. Miscavige, allows him and his agents to say whatever they want about me in any court proceeding or in the media and I may not respond. If I do respond I become subject to a $50,000.00 liquidated damages provision for every utterance, and the target in another Miscavige-ordered costly and harassing lawsuit. The three lawsuits, Armstrong II, III and IV described in paragraph 7, subparagraphs o, p and q, and the contempt of court proceedings at subparagraph r, are all pursuant to this contract. The contract is against public policy and illegal. Mr. Miscavige, moreover, entered into a separate illegal contract with Mr. Flynn, which prohibits Mr. Flynn from assisting me in any litigation against the organization. If Mr. Flynn were to assist me he would again be subjected to "fair game." Mr. Miscavige would be wise to rescind all these illegal contracts and discontinue his abuse of the legal process and totally eliminate from his organization the doctrine and practice of fair game, and not merely deny its existence.

15. Mr. Miscavige claims to know a great deal about the IRS dropping me as a witness because of his videotapes. In truth I was not dropped as a witness at all, and my credibility, despite more than twelve years of his organization's attacks on it, is intact. One of the conditions of the 1986 "settlement" with Mr. Miscavige's organization was that in order for the organization to discontinue the "fair game" against Mr. Flynn I had to sign a knowingly false affidavit, essentially stating that Mr. Miscavige's new regime had discontinued the organization's criminal activities. Mr. Flynn claimed that the organization had already tried to murder him and he felt his life and his family were in danger. I fully believed Mr. Flynn because I had myself been the target of fair game for five years by then and had likewise been threatened with murder. I, along with several other of Mr. Flynn's clients, therefore signed these false affidavits which the organization had prepared. The organization then filed the false affidavits in its IRS litigations. Mr. Miscavige makes much of the IRS granting his organization tax exempt status. Our government's turning its back on this organization's thousands of victims and apparently ignoring its obnoxious, irreligious and criminal core nature, however, does not make this victimization and antisocial nature either right or religious.

16. Mr. Miscavige also claims that Scientology's philosophy and practice of opportunistic hatred, called "fair game" by L. Ron Hubbard, its originator, doesn't exist. It does.

I declare under the penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed at San Anselmo, California, on February 22, 1994.

GERALD ARMSTRONG

*****

FIND A BETTER BASKET

A Literary Work Created and Written
by
GERALD ARMSTRONG

FIND A BETTER BASKET
Copyright © 1994 Gerald Armstrong
All Rights Reserved

© 2000 Gerry Armstrong

FIND A BETTER BASKET
I, Gerald Armstrong, declare:

1. I am making this declaration in response to allegations made by Scientology organization leaders, attorneys and agents in court proceedings and public media around the world concerning a 1984 organization intelligence operation targeting me, which has been called the "Armstrong Operation." I am copyrighting this document prior to its use in court because it will, in addition to putting the organization's allegations into a proper context, form an outline for a screenplay I am writing. It is my story.

2. After I left the organization at the end of 1981, the organization intelligence bureau assigned Dan Sherman, a Los Angeles spy story writer and intel operative, to get close to me and become my friend, which he did. I had been the intelligence officer on board the "Apollo" with the organization's founder and supreme leader L. Ron Hubbard, had studied his intelligence policies and Guardian's Office[n.1] intelligence materials, had an appreciation for that literary genre, and I was myself a writer, so Sherman and I had a real basis for a real friendship

[[n.1] The Guardian's Office ("GO"), headed from 1966 to 1981 by Mary Sue Hubbard, who reported to and was controlled by L. Ron Hubbard, consisted of five bureaus: Intelligence, Public Relations, Legal, Finance and Social Coordination (front groups). The GO was responsible for hiding its money and its actual command lines, defending the organization against attacks and for eliminating all opposition to its progress. Hubbard patterned its intelligence bureau, B-1, and the organization's total espionage mentality on the work of Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler's spy master. On Hubbard's orders, after the conviction of 11 top GO intelligence personnel, including Mary Sue, for criminal activities against the US Government, Scientology's second major arm of power, the Sea Organization, in a 1981 putsch took control of the GO's functions and subsequently renamed the GO arm the Office of Special Affairs, "OSA."] .

3. Sherman told me he was no longer involved in Scientology, wanted nothing to do with it, saw it as a personal waste of time, and also saw that its leaders were ruthless and dangerous, and claimed to be afraid of them finding out that he was friends with me. Sometime in 1982 or 1983 he told me that he was still in communication in a limited way with some of his old friends still in the organization. He described these friends as smart, reasonable and not fanatics. They were still Scientologists and worked on staff, but felt that organization leaders were criminals. Having no allegiance to these leaders, Sherman's friends would occasionally tell him about conditions inside and their desire to end the organization's criminal activities. They said the conditions inside were oppressive and chaotic and they were at risk even talking to him because sec checks [n.2] were rampant.

[[n.2] Sec checks are accusatory interrogations using Hubbard's electropsychometer or E-Meter as a lie detector. Sec checks could be brutal, could go on for many hours or days, could involve several people asking questions, threatening and badgering, and could have disastrous results for the interrogee.]

4. During the 1984 trial of the organization's case against me, Church of Scientology of California and Mary Sue Hubbard v. Gerald Armstrong, Los Angles Superior Court no. C 420153 ("Armstrong I"), Sherman told me that one of these friends, whom he called "Joey," had told him that there was an actual group inside the organization who were dedicated to reforming it because management had become suppressive. They called themselves the "Loyalists," claiming to be "loyal" to the preservation of the ideals of Scientology, "what worked." They also recognized that its leaders were criminal, crazy, dangerous, and not dedicated to those ideals but were acting to destroy them. The "Loyalists" wanted to take control in a well-planned, effective and peaceful action before some tragedy happened. They claimed to know of criminal activities and a key part of their plan was the documenting of these activities.

5. Sherman said they were 35 in number, or at least there were 35 who knew they were "Loyalists," all smart, reasonable and not fanatics. Some of them were his old friends from B-1. Such persons tended to be smart, reasonable and often were not fanatics. The people whom I knew to be, including Hubbard, the organization leaders, prided themselves on their recognition of unreasonableness as a virtue, and maintained an abiding fanaticism to justify their abuses and keep their positions of power. Sherman was smart and gave every appearance of being reasonable and unfanatical. He said the Loyalists knew he was in communication with me and wanted to talk with me but were afraid for their lives. This was not surprising to me because I knew from my own experiences that the organization had a brutal side and its leaders were dangerous, armed and desperate. Thus the first communications with the Loyalists were a few messages relayed by Sherman. They said that I had a proven record against the organization, that my integrity had been unshakable and they wanted my help.

6. A few days after the Armstrong I trial ended, Joey, who, I later learned, was actually one David Kluge, made the first direct contact with me, a phone call to my home in Costa Mesa, California. He said the Loyalists knew I wanted my pc folders,[n.3] that my folders were being moved on a certain day and that I could get them if I wanted. I told Kluge that even though the folders were mine the organization would claim, if it was discovered I had them, that I was accepting stolen property, so I had to decline his offer. I was also already booked, on the same day the Loyalists said they would get me my pc folders, to fly to London to testify in a child custody case [n.4] involving Scientology, and I told Kluge that I couldn't change my plans.

[[n.3] Pc folders, also called preclear or auditing files or folders, contain the record of processes run and questions asked by the auditor (psychotherapist), E-Meter reads, and answers given and statements made by the preclear (or patient) during Scientology auditing (or psychotherapy) sessions. It was well known that I had opposed and exposed the organization's misuse of information divulged by the organization's "preclears" (what were essentially psychotherapist-patient confidences) in auditing. I had been attempting to get the organization to deliver to me my pc folders throughout the Armstrong I litigation, and the misuse of auditing information was an issue in the Armstrong I trial. Judge Paul G. Breckenridge, Jr. stated in his decision following the 30-day Armstrong I trial: "[Mary Sue Hubbard] was the head of the Guardian Office for years and among other things, authored the infamous order "GO 121669" which directed culling of supposedly confidential P.C. files/folders for the purposes of internal security." "The practice of culling supposedly confidential "P.C. folders or files" to obtain information for purposes of intimidation and/or harassment is repugnant and outrageous. The Guardian's Office, which plaintiff [Mary Sue Hubbard] headed, was no respector of anyone's civil rights, particularly that of privacy." ]

[[n.4] This Royal Courts of Justice case, known as Re: B and G resulted in a Judgment on July 23, 1984 issued by Justice Latey in favor of the non-Scientologist parent. The Judgment, which was upheld on appeal, contained a scathing condemnation of organization policies and practices.]

7. When I returned from the UK, where, incidentally, I had been harassed by a pack of English private investigators working for the organization, Kluge reestablished contact, and I communicated with him or Sherman several times over the next few months. I was happy to be in communication with them, because I'm happy to be in communication with anyone, and my relationship with the Loyalists, who were admitted Scientologists, seemed a spark of hope in the seemingly hopeless and threatening Scientology situation.

8. I have believed and stated that when Scientologists have the freedom to communicate to the people their leaders label "enemies," Scientology will cease to have enemies. The organization's leaders prohibit their minions from communicating with me, thus I am their enemy. This prohibition is enforced with severe "ethics" punishment, which could easily include "declaring" the person who dared to communicate with me a "suppressive" person, thus making him the target of the organization's philosophy and practice of opportunistic hatred Hubbard called "fair game."

9. I had lost my law office job because of the Armstrong I trial, which really ran from April into June, 1984, and I did not get another job for some months, so had considerable time on my hands in the fall of 1984 to meet with Sherman and the Loyalists and do some of the things they wanted. I had begun to draw and write seriously during this period, and some of my writings concerned the Scientology battle and the Loyalists. My situation with the organization and the Loyalists was bizarre and psychologically traumatic, and this is reflected in my writings of the period. Thanks to, I believe, my growing faith in God, I was given the gift of a healthy sense of humor and that too is a facet of my communications and writings during the period.

10. In late July, 1984 the organization fed to the media the story, and filed papers in various court cases, including Armstrong I, charging, that Michael Flynn, who had fought the organization's fair game tactics for five years, who had been my friend and attorney for two years and had just successfully defended me in the Armstrong I trial, was behind a plot to cash a forged check for $2,000,000.00 on one of Hubbard's accounts at the Bank of New England. Sherman and Kluge communicated that the Loyalists knew Flynn was not involved, and that the organization leaders knew Flynn was uninvolved but were framing him with the forgery. The Loyalists said that they were working inside the organization to acquire the proof of the frame-up, and that when they proved Flynn's innocence they would be in a position to effectuate the reforms they sought. This was fine with me, because I fully believed that Flynn was innocent, and that the organization was framing him just to be able to attack him to eliminate the threat he represented to its antisocial practices and nature.

11. Over the next few months Sherman and Kluge communicated with me regularly about the Loyalists' progress in documenting the truth about the Flynn frame-up. They claimed that all staff were searched before they could leave OSA or management offices, so it was hard to get any documents out. Nevertheless, on a couple of occasions Sherman and Joey gave me a page or two that had been smuggled out. I learned that a US Attorney in Boston had become involved in the investigation of the frame-up, and I passed whatever I got from the Loyalists to him through Flynn.

12. One of the ideas which developed with the Loyalists in the early fall of 1984 was the possible filing of a lawsuit to take control of the organization from the "criminals." I saw this as an idea with merit, and could be the effective action the Loyalists said they were looking for to avert a major organization tragedy. I told Flynn what they wanted and he drafted a "bare bones" complaint which I passed to them. Sherman, Kluge and I discussed the lawsuit concept on several occasions, both of them asking me for my ideas and I helped as I could within the limits of my knowledge, ability and imagination.

13. The Loyalists then began discussing with me finding a financial "backer" for their lawsuit, basing this need on the likelihood that the bringing of the suit would freeze organization accounts, and the Loyalists would need operating capital. They claimed that the leaders had lots of money they had skimmed from the organization and squirreled away in their own bank accounts, and the Loyalists were all staff members and thus broke. I couldn't help them with money, and knew of no one who might finance whatever they did, so they said that, because I understood the situation so well, and had a proven record, they wanted me to talk to and encourage some prospective backers with whom they were in touch. One day I got a call from Kluge, asking me to fly to Las Vegas to meet with such a person, a "rich Scientologist" who had been mistreated by the organization and was aligned with the Loyalists on their goal of reformation. Although on Kluge's instructions I purchased a plane ticket, I called off the trip before leaving because my lawyers warned me that I could be walking into a trap.

14. There were many times during this period when I considered the possibility that I was walking into a trap. The thought arose in all my meetings with Kluge, and later with Mike Rinder, the second Loyalist I would meet. Their communications often didn't jibe with what they or Sherman had said on earlier occasions, and sometimes they said things which were downright stupid. I had no way of originating a communication to them, had no telephone numbers, no locations, no names, and no idea what any of them did. They had my address, phone number, knew exactly what I did, and could call me any time they wanted. They told me almost nothing, and wanted to know everything I knew. They claimed I had to be kept in the dark because of their fear for their lives, and for that reason I went along with their, even to me, strange behavior.

15. Because of their fear for their lives they depended on secrecy, duplicity and intelligence procedures and goals. Although I had been in intelligence in the organization and had the essential quality for the field; i.e., native intelligence, I had, after leaving the organization, come to the conclusion that Scientology's brand of intelligence; i.e., the secret world of data, duplicity, stealth, hidden intentions and hidden identities, was ineffective, unhealthy, unholy, and not my choice for how I would make my way through life and deal with my problems. Even inside the organization, which is an intelligence-based group, I had urged those who were in positions to do something about it to open up, stop lying, disclose its leaders, divulge its secrets; because I felt that its lies, secrets, and secret orders from its secret leaders would only bring upon it more problems. After leaving the organization, a factor in my life which led to my faith in openness and freedom as opposed to secrecy and leverage, was all the testifying I did, in trial in Armstrong I and in B & G Wards, and in many days of depositions in several more Scientology-related cases. Also I knew that the organization's leaders, who had an undeniable determination to harm me, possessed my pc folders which contained every embarrassing incident or thought in my life, and my lives back umpteen impossibillion years. These facts had resulted in a tendency in me at times during this period to not care what happened to me and to act a little wild and silly.

16. Sometime during 1984 it came to me that what I was following, and what was a far superior technology and faith than intelligence, or perhaps perfect intelligence, was guidance. I had been given, before and after my asking, a desire to know my Creator, and I believe I received during this period some of His communications to me. Hubbard in his writings put no faith in his Creator, but put it in something of his own making, an intelligence apparatus in which he was the secret leader with secret bank accounts, secret communication lines, secret codes, secret intentions, and secret lawyers to keep them all secret. I had come to know God a little, and understood that no matter how scary things got I was in hands in which I was in no real danger. I could be shot, my body could be destroyed, I could be defamed and ruined, and I would still be in no real danger. And things did get scary for me in my dealings with Sherman and the Loyalists during this period. I picked up surveillance on a number of occasions, and there was the nagging strangeness of the Loyalists' communications and the movie-like quality of this play in which I was being played with. I still retained my intellect and acted with good sense most of the time, but a shift was occurring in my mind and soul. I began to walk deliberately into danger, but I was also new at this approach to life, and as yet a little foolhardy and undisciplined, and these facts too are reflected in my writings and actions of the period.

17. Sherman's and Kluge's interest was intelligence and they didn't want to hear much of my philosophy of guidance, courage and openness, so I turned my mind to the intelligence game, and as always happens when I turn my mind to any subject, I had ideas. Some of these ideas I communicated to the Loyalists, some I wrote down, some were only funny. Our meetings had a secretive, spy story feel to them, partly because of the danger the Loyalists said they were in and the danger I was in anyone would say, partly because of the subject matter we discussed, and partly because of the settings in which we met. Sherman insisted that I couldn't come to his home, so we met on many occasions in the bird sanctuary in Griffith Park. My first meeting with Kluge was in a cemetery in Glendale. I met him two more times in early November at different locations in Griffith Park, and then met with Rinder two times in late November at two more locations in the park.

18. Sherman told me around October, 1984 that the Loyalists had found a potential backer, a woman named Rene, another "rich Scientologist," who he said had been horribly hurt by the organization. He said he knew her personally and considered her a good and trusted friend. He said that she owned a publishing company which printed calendars, that he had told her about my artwork and writing, and that she wanted to see some of my materials for possible publication. Following our first meeting in Griffith Park Kluge took me to the Sheraton Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to meet her. I took along a file of some of my work and left it with her. In my meeting with her she wanted to know my perspective on the lawsuit idea and my thoughts on removing the organization's criminal leadership.

19. While claiming that the Loyalists wanted to take legal action to bring about a safe transfer of power, both Sherman and Kluge also claimed that they didn't know anything about legal matters, nor any of the organization's litigations, and that there were other people higher up in the Loyalist network who were trained in legal, stayed abreast of the organization's litigation battles, and had an understanding of the Loyalists' legal options and an overview of their plan which Sherman and Kluge didn't have. Coupled with their claimed need to keep me in the dark for fear of their lives, their assertions of ignorance of legal matters caused considerable frustration in me and in our communications. As a result, I requested in a number of communications to speak to their "best legal mind."

20. Finally the Loyalists said that their legal expert would meet me and a rendezvous was set up, again in Griffith Park. The "legal expert" turned out to be Mike Rinder, a person I had known in the organization, who had held various lower level administrative posts. Rinder, it turned out, also professed ignorance of legal concepts, and my meetings and communications with him were even more frustrating.

21. Some time after my last meeting with Rinder, which occurred November 30, 1984, I received a phone call from Kluge, advising me that the Loyalists did not trust me and would not be communicating with me again. I then wrote them my final communication, a copy of which is appended hereto as Exhibit A, and gave it to Sherman to give to them.

22. During my cross-examination in the spring, 1985 trial of Julie Christofferson v. Scientology, Circuit Court of the State of Oregon, Multnomah County, No. A7704-05184, the organization broke the fact that Sherman, Kluge and Rinder had been covert operatives, the Loyalists were invented, and that my meetings with Kluge and Rinder had been videotaped. The organization called the whole more than two year affair the "Armstrong Operation." Organization lawyers, Earle Cooley and John Peterson, claimed the Armstrong operation had been authorized by the Los Angeles Police Department, and they produced a letter dated November 7, 1984, a copy of which is appended hereto as Exhibit B, signed by an officer Phillip Rodriguez, directing organization private investigator Eugene M. Ingram to electronically eavesdrop on me and Michael Flynn.

23. On April 23, 1985, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates issued a public statement, a copy of which is appended hereto as Exhibit C, denying that the Rodriguez letter was a correspondence from the Los Angeles Police Department, denying that the Los Angeles Police Department had cooperated with Ingram, and stating emphatically that all purported authorizations directed to Ingram by any member of the Los Angeles Police Department are invalid and unauthorized. On information and belief, the officer, Phillip Rodriguez, who signed Ingram's letter was paid $10,000.00 for his signature. Also on information and belief, following a Los Angeles Police Department Internal Affairs Division investigation and a Police Department Board of Rights, Officer Rodriguez was suspended from the Los Angeles Police Force. Eugene Ingram had himself some years before been drummed out of the Los Angeles Police Department. He is reputed to have been busted for pandering and taking payoffs from drug dealers. He is a liar and a bully who has been involved in organization intelligence operations against its perceived enemies for many years. During the period I was involved with the Loyalists Ingram called me at my home and threatened to put a bullet between my eyes.

24. Initially the presiding judge in the Christofferson trial Donald F. Londer refused to admit the tapes because they had been obtained illegally. Then he viewed them in chambers and when he returned to the bench stated that "the tapes are devastating, very devastating to the church." Then he admitted them into evidence.

25. Despite Judge Londer's ruling and comments, and despite Chief Gates' repudiation of the Rodriguez "authorization," the organization has continued in press and courts around the world to claim that the videotape operation was "police-sanctioned." The organization has continued to claim that I originated the "plot to overthrow "church" management" and that I initiated the contact with the organization members, who merely played along with my plan while remaining "loyal" to the organization. It also has continued to claim that the videotapes show me plotting to forge documents and seed them in organization files to be found in a raid, show me creating "sham lawsuits," show me urging the Loyalists to not prove anything but "just allege it," and show me seeking to take control of the organization. The videotapes show none of those things. The tapes show that in the fall of 1984, during the reign of the organization's present supreme leader David Miscavige (DM), the fair game doctrine was alive and as unfair as ever. The tapes show a mean-spirited, mendacious and malevolent organization using well-drilled operatives and electronic gadgetry to attempt, unsuccessfully, to set up an unwitting, funny, sometimes silly, clearly helpful, at times foul-mouthed, but otherwise ordinary human male.

26. The organization's refusal to stop telling these lies is not surprising, however, because its leaders have put so many of their eggs in their dirty tricks basket. These leaders are unbalanced and in a very precarious situation. Having lied about the Armstrong Operation in so many courts and publications and to so many people, including their own followers, these leaders risk their positions of power, and in their minds their very lives, if they ever admit the breadth of those lies. Yet it is in the acknowledgement of the truth behind those lies where ultimately their safety will be found.

27. It has not ceased to be embarrassing to me whenever the organization trots out the Armstrong videotapes, because I do say some silly and raunchy things. But the organization has never been able to embarrass me into silence and it won't now.

28. The Scientology legal war has almost run its course. The organization's leaders can never rewrite all history. Scientologists of good will everywhere can be free.

I declare under the penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed at San Anselmo, California, on February 20, 1994.

GERALD ARMSTRONG

© 1994, 2000 Gerry Armstrong