The Public Presentation of the Office of Special Affairs

In 1994 CSI distributed a booklet to journalists, which was titled "Reference Guide To The Scientology Religion – Answers To Questions Most Commonly Asked By The Media." Next to other controversial issues, such as Scientology's own penal colony, the "Rehabilitation Project Force," CSI discussed the functions of its intelligence unit, the "Office of Special Affairs." Under the chapter "What is the Office of Special Affairs?" [Exh. No. 90, Excerpt] , CSI stated:

"The Office of Special Affairs (OSA) is the division of Church of Scientology International responsible for interfacing with the society at large, including legal affairs, public relations and community outreach.

"Through a network of Directors of Special Affairs, who serve in local churches, the Office of Special Affairs ensures that every church maintains sound corporate status and complies with all legal and tax requirements.

It also coordinates community affairs and outreach programs participated in by the local churches, and national anti-drug campaigns and interfaith activities."

A more detailed and acurate description of OSA's activities can be found in Scientology's internal management guide, called "The Command Channels of Scientology" where the organization had the following to say [Exh. No. 91, Excerpt]:

"The Office of Special Affairs International (OSA Int) is a network which extends through Continental Liaison Offices to org level Department 20s, the Department of Special Affairs.

"The OSA Network is responsible for handling all external matters of the Church (including legal, defense, government and media relations) to the result of the total acceptance of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. OSA helps create a safe environment for orgs to operate in and expand by their actions. It gets this function done by keeping orgs operating fully in accordance with the laws of the land, by applying LRH Public Relations technology with the officials in the org environment and ensuring the org is free of external enturbulence and distraction so it can go on with the business of clearing its community.

OSA Int is part of the Flag Command Bureaux and is headed by the Commanding Officer OSA Int who is answerable to WDC OSA."

The Actual Activities of OSA

While the above mentioned internal description of OSA's activities is certainly more specific than the one designed for the media, it nevertheless omits one of OSA's principal functions, as it is indeed Scientology's own intelligence service.

Within the last 18 years the OSA-network has conducted through its employees, private investigators, attorneys and agents characteristic intelligence operations. It has spied on critics and perceived opponents of Scientology

- by the use of electronic surveillance methods through private investigators,

- by means of infiltrating their social and professional life through agents and

- by the use of legal discovery in civil cases through attorneys.

The intelligence gathered through the above operations has later been used by OSA against these critics and perceived opponents of Scientology for the purpose of

- discrediting them publicly by exposing details of their private and professional life,

- declaring them as "criminals" for their "exposed" activities,

- finding reasons to start or expand litigation against them and

- using the information to turn third parties against them.

While individual activities of OSA will be described in a later chapter, this sub-chapter details its theoretical and organizational background.

Its Origins and the Basic Doctrines of the Office of Special Affairs

The Office of Special Affairs was officially founded in December 1983, replacing the "Guardian's Office" (GO), Scientology's former intelligence unit, which had been dissolved after eleven members were sentenced to prison terms by federal courts for committing burglary and infiltrating government offices. In its tax-exemption application of 1993 the Church of Scientology submitted their side of the story about the illegalities of the GO and its subsequent takeover by the present Scientology-management under the leadership of David Miscavige [Exh. No. 92]:

"... CMO INT missions and investigations into GO WW in England and the United States Guardian's Office in Los Angeles continued through the end of 1981 and into 1982, weeding out anyone found to have had any part in anything that appeared to have been illegal or who had knowledge of and condoned the GO's illegal acts. Anyone found to be in this category was removed from Church employ. ...

"The illegal acts of the GO and its perversion and abandonment of Church policy were not taken lightly by Church management once they became known. It required many months of investigation and severe measures by dedicated members of CMO INT to finally cleanse the Church of this corruption."

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard laid out the foundation of GO's and OSA's intelligence operations during the 1960s when he wrote several confidential "Hubbard Communication Office Policy Letters" (HCOPLs), "Guardian Orders" or unspecified orders that defined Scientology's interest and methods in conducting such activities. These doctrines are still part of the training material for OSA-personnel and a list of them appeared in a so-called "checksheet" for the position of an "OSA Investigations Officer." This document was issued in 1991 and came to the surface a few years ago [Exh. No. 93].

In one of the documents that cover OSA's basic operating philosophy a former dispatch of Hubbard was used to define the basic purpose of intelligence. The "OSA Network Order No. 9" states [Exh. No. 94]:

"Intelligence is the process of informing one's command area of the plans, characteristics and crimes of all opponents to one's own activities and purposes."

In another document, "Intelligence Actions," Hubbard summarized the fundamental activities that were required for such operations [Exh. No. 95]:

"An Intelligence Officer collects data, files by name and area, writes summaries and forwards the data to the correct terminal. This person should never at any time consider themselves [sic] capable of giving an estimate of the situation. This is done by the head of the division.

"The Standard actions of intelligence are:

"1. Predict the trouble before it occurs by filing, cross indexing, investigation of areas, statistics and other means.

"2. Investigate the for crimes, individual's who are creating trouble.

"3. Prosecute.

"This is standard, 1 2 3 action and should not be deviated from. The maxim is ‘... when under attack ... attack'. The point is ... even if you don't have enough data to win the case ... still attack LOUDLY. Reason is, it is only those people that have crimes that will attack us, and they will soon back off for fear of being found out when attacked back."

A citation from a HCOPL, written in 1961 and titled "Department of Government Affairs," stated the main goal for Scientology's intelligence efforts, which has been deemed so important, that the future Investigations Officer must demonstrate its understanding of it through a "clay demo" [Exh. No. 93, page 6]:

"The goal of the department is to bring the government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology. This is done by high-level ability to control and its absence by low-level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies. Scientology is the only game on earth where everybody wins. There is no overt in bringing good order."

Under the chapter "Investigation Tech" another interesting document can be found on that checksheet [Exh. No. 93, page 9], namely the "OSA Network Order 35, Intelligence Estimations and Predictions" [Exh. No. 96]. While the Church of Scientology today tries to distance itself from the Guardian's Office's activities, its current intelligence service OSA has indeed inherited several of the doctrines, advices and regulations L. Ron Hubbard had originally written for the GO. The Network Order 35 is a prime example for the tactic of Scientology management to let old GO-documents have a face-lift before re-naming them "Network Orders" and using them again as official policy. "Network Order 35" from April 7th, 1988 had actually been published 15 years earlier as "Guardian Order 907," issued on August 22nd, 1973 [Exh. No. 97].

Hubbard claimed that every opponent or critic of Scientology has in fact crimes to hide, and that the task of Scientology's intelligence service is it to uncover them and use them against the critics in order to path the way for a future expansion of Scientology. Such philosophy can be found throughout the writings of Hubbard, and several of them are part of OSA's training material. One of those, called "Enemy Names" [Exh. No. 93, page 14], stresses the importance to fight Scientology's intelligence wars always on "enemy territory" and explains how an interplay between the Intelligence section and the Public Relations department can be used in such a battle [Exh. No. 98]:

"Intelligence data when gained can be fed back to PRO [Public Relations Officer] for more spectacular confrontations.

"Intelligence uses the names for investigation, run back, cross-filing.

"PRO uses the hostile confrontator [a Scientology critic] to guide his own counter attacks.

"The effect at the least is to shut the hostile people up.

"This activity (press counter-attack such speakers) must not be neglected.

"We happen to be fortunate, if you call it that, that persons hostile to Scientology usually have criminal backgrounds even when in public life. One doesn't always find these even when they exist but one at least finds connections, which are useful.

"It is very sound strategy never to fight a battle on your own territory or subject or even on the territory of an ally. Always fight battles in enemy territory."

A big part of the earlier mentioned checksheet consists of various policies that discuss either the tactics to be applied in Scientology's war against its enemies (journalists, western governments, psychiatry and Scientology critics in general) in order to overwhelm them or how to protect the organizations against government measures by safeguarding Scientology's status as a religion.

The organizational structure of OSA

As the major activities of CSI are controlled and supervised by the Religious Technology Center "to guarantee its orthodox use of the religious doctrine," so are the intelligence operations of the Office of Special Affairs. In a 1991-interview held with "Impact," Scientology's official membership-magazine, Mark Rathbun, then "Inspector General for Ethics RTC," openly talked about various OSA-operations against Scientology-enemies like Interpol, the IRS & Psychiatry and presented himself as its official supervisor [Exh. No. 99, Excerpt].

Asked for the purpose of his position within RTC, Rathbun, who had "been working on external affairs for ten years," stated:

"To keep Scientology free from subversion, thus reinforcing the gains of Scientology internationally."

Evidently, the OSA-network and its external affairs were areas that came under the attention and supervision of Rathbun at that time.

The Office of Special Affairs International itself is the highest echelon of the OSA-network. It is led by the "Commanding Officer OSA International" (CO OSA Int.) [Exh. No. 91, Excerpt] and is solely composed of Sea Org-members.

As OSA Int is part of the tactical management branch of CSI, its primary purpose is to supervise and direct the activities of OSA-Offices in the "Continental Liaison Offices" (CLOs) and in the individual service organizations. While it normally doesn't become directly involved in legal matters and intelligence operations on a local level, OSA Int. conducts intelligence operations and litigates in affairs that have national or international relevance for Scientology.

To give an example for such relevance: When I participated in the German television-documentary on Scientology in early February 1997 and the Church of Scientology learned that the producers would film in the United States and interview American ex-Scientologists, mainly public relations personnel from OSA Int. would deal from then on with the television station in Germany and the producers in Florida.

On May 13th, 1996 a senior executive of OSA Int. was deposed during a civil suit in Orange, California [Exh. No. 100, Excerpt]. During the deposition Kurt Weiland, who identified himself as "Deputy Commanding Officer OSA International," described the five main functions of OSA Int.:

"OSA Int. has functions to the public representation of the Church and to deal with the external affairs of the Church, ...

"Over the years, as the activities of the Church grew, and now we're in over 120 countries of the world, the necessity to create a department, that deals with legal and its corporate and tax affairs, and of course, there's also increasing media interest if you grow, so we also have a section that deals with the Public Relations affairs and additionally, the Church has increasingly begun to affect the environment within it exists not just here in the United States but practically everywhere around the world.

"So we have a sizeable social reform function that is housed within OSA Int. And there's some other departments which are purely internal that facilitates the function of the Office of Special Affairs such as personnel, hiring and accounting, things of that sort."

At a later point in the deposition, Weiland specified the individual departments ("Bureaus"), which carry out those functions within OSA International [Exh. No. 101, Excerpt]. Summarizing Weiland's statements about the functions, the individual "bureau" designations and additional information from a Scientology administrative dictionary lead to the following organizational structure of OSA Int:

1 - Personnel Bureau Personnel

2 - Dissemination Bureau Publishing

3 – Treasury Bureau Accounting

4 – Action Bureau PR, Legal, Social Reform & Investigations

5 – Qualifications Bureau Training of Staff

6 – Port Captain Bureau Internal Legal & Social Affairs

7 – Executive Bureau General Supervision

As it can be seen, "Bureau 4" combines the major external matters, in which the Office of Special Affairs International is involved. More specifically they comprise the following "Sections":

Public Relations Section: This involves all matters with media, press, government and the general public. Scientology-staff that represent organizations to the public, and especially media, are normally so-called PR-Officers of the local, national or international OSA-office. These staff are trained in "L. Ron Hubbard's PR-technology" to turn any negative or controversial situation for Scientology into a favorable one, while promoting Scientology's "public work." They are also required to publicly attack Scientology's enemies and destroy thereby their reputation.

Several OSA Int. staff have acted within the last years as official spokes persons for CSI and OSA International: Gail Armstrong, Leisa Goodman, Glenn Barton, the current Commanding Officer OSA Int Michael Rinder, Kurt Weiland and CSI's President Heber Jentzsch, who in fact is "ecclesiastically" a subordinate of Weiland, although he is in fact the CEO of the whole corporation.

Legal Section: This section coordinates the legal & corporate strategies and affairs of Scientology on a worldwide basis. It also hires the attorneys in cases where CSI or one of the major Scientology corporations are involved in. With the law firm "Moxon & Kobrin" from Los Angeles [Exh. No. 11, Excerpt] OSA International has an in-house law firm whose personnel consists of Sea Org and CSI personnel. OSA Int.'s principal in-house litigators are Kendrick L. Moxon, Helena Kobrin, Ava Paquette and Jeanne M. Gavigan, while Lynn Farny heads the Legal Section as its "Section In Charge." The law firm "Moxon & Kobrin" also hires private investigators that conduct surveillance of Scientology's critics on a national or on an international level.

Investigations Section: It supervises and coordinates all the intelligence activities on a worldwide basis. It receives daily surveillance and intelligence reports from its subordinate Offices of Special Affairs, located in the CLOs and in the service organizations. An internal "Executive Directive" from June 26th, 1995 [Exh. No. 102] states that local OSA-offices are obliged to send written reports on all matters of interest to the "Data Branch" of the Investigations Section of OSA Int:

"The Data Branch of OSA Int is responsible for the collection of information, for receiving all types of data and for digesting, sorting, alerting, filing, and analyzing it. By collecting adequate information and by analyzing it, Data can provide prediction to management and other OSA Int staff, and accurate handlings can be worked out.

"The Data Branch collects all reports coming to OSA Int: stats, media reports, situation reports, answers to specific requests, PR debriefs and routine reports such as Daily Reports, Compliance Reports and Weekly Reports. The only reports that do not come directly to nor are copied to Data Branch are specific Invest reports concerning ongoing investigations. Such reports are addressed and sent directly to the concerned Invest Bureau staff members."

Further on the document specifies the information OSA Int wants from its local offices:

"Cont Daily Reports

"1. Situation/Threats

"A. Report any situation or threat which was terminatedly handled and is no longer a situation or threat.

"B. Report any data on significant progress in handling an outstanding situation. Include specifics on any reduction of a Claimed or Assessed Liability.

"C. Report any data on worsening situations. Include specifics on any additional Claimed or Assessed Liability.

"D. Any data on a new situation or threat is to be reported exactly by giving the time, place, form and event of what the situation is, how it came about, the names of the people involved, and how it is going to be handled ...

"2. Any litigation data ...

"3. Debriefs of significant meetings and/or visits ...

"4. Media on Dianetics, Scientology ... "

Social Reform Section: This section is engaged in a private warfare with Scientology's biggest rival, psychiatry. In an internal memorandum from the mid-1990s, which was sent to its local branches, the Office of Special Affairs International defined the functions and the purpose of this section [Exh. No. 103]:

"Social Reform Section VFPs (Valuable Final Products): "1. Rotten spots in society exposed and eradicated making way for the broad introduction of Scientology tech into society.

"2. An established, productive and functioning social reform network."

The document identifies Scientology's proclaimed "rotten spots in society" as the profession of psychiatry. Psychiatry is viewed by OSA as "the opposition" that needs to be eradicated and replaced by "Scientology technology." The success of such activity is measured by certain objectives that are listed as well in that document:

"This statistic reflects that major losses created for the rotten spots (opposition) in society. The points are counted only if Social Reform has been actively involved in these activities. ...

"A. Criminal/Civil Prosecution – 1 Point

"B. License suspended – 2 Points

"C. License revoked – 3 Points

"D. Psych(iatrist) arrested – 4 Points ...

"F. Psych jailed – 8 Points ...

"H. Institution closed down – 15 Points ...

"M. National law passed that restricts the profession/agency – 20 Points ...

"O. National law passed that outlaws a major aspect of the profession/agency ... "

An important part of the Social Reform Section at the international level of OSA is the "Citizens Commission on Human Rights International" (CCHR Int.), a non-profit corporation from Los Angeles, California [Exh. No. 104]. CCHR was originally founded in 1969 and CCHR Int. has officially been incorporated in 1982 [Exh. No. 105]. While CCHR Int. claims to be an independent corporation that tries "to guard against abuses of the fundamental rights of man" and "to encourage and support into the effects of psychiatric and psychological practices and procedures," its real purpose of existence is to execute the above listed targets and eliminate psychiatry as the major competitor for Scientology in the mental field.

CCHR Int.'s headquarters staff is solely composed of Scientologists who work closely under the supervision of OSA International, while its local CCHR chapters work in coordination with local OSA-offices [Exh. No. 106].

The activities of CCHR are often covered by OSA's "Freedom"-magazine and by the Scientology-membership magazine "Impact." CCHR Int.'s current official agent is Ava Paquette who is also a member of "OSA International" and an attorney of CSI's in-house law firm "Moxon & Kobrin" [Exh. No. 11, Excerpt].

At the top of OSA International is the Executive Branch with the "Commanding Officer OSA International." Currently this position is held by Michael Rinder, originally a citizen from New Zealand. He inherited it 1994 from Kurt Weiland, who had been the CO OSA Int from 1987 until that year. In 1987 Weiland had replaced Michael Sutter, the first Commanding Officer, who left during that year OSA Int to work at the Religious Technology Center under Mark Rathbun.

OSA International controls its worldwide OSA network in a similar way the "International Finance Office" controls its Finance network. Each Continental Liaison Office houses its own Office of Special Affairs, which is answerable to OSA Int and directs the individual OSA offices in the individual organizations. For example, the Office of Special Affairs Europe, which is located within the Continental Liaison Office for Europe, controls the Departments of Special Affairs in the Scientology organizations, f. e., in Munich (Germany), Amsterdam (Netherlands) or Athens (Greece), etc. At the same time OSA EU's activities are controlled and supervised by OSA International, including the intelligence reports it receives from the individual OSA-offices. In the attached exhibit, f. e., the "Commanding Officer OSA for Europe" (CO OSA EU) directs the "Director of Special Affairs Greece" (DSA Greece) on "unhandled threats" for Scientology in Greece, while informing his superior, the "European Continent Programs Operations Officer OSA International" (EU PGMS OP OSA INT) about that order [Exh. No. 107].

The local Offices of Special Affairs are formally integrated within the organizational structure of the individual Scientology organizations, f. e., "Class V organizations," which exist in cities like Dallas, Texas or in Paris, France. The "Department of Special Affairs," Department 20, then is part of the so-called "Executive Division" of such an organization [Exh. No. 108].

Each local Office of Special Affairs is similarly structured like the Action Bureau 4 at OSA International and has an additional "Service Section." While the individual "Director of Special Affairs" (DSA) might officially be an employee or a corporate officer of that local organization, he is always and solely answerable to his superiors within the OSA-network.