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Toronto Globe and Mail
January 1, 1980
Two leaders in Britain still to face U.S. court in conspiracy case
by John Marshall
Testimony before a U.S. District Court in Washington said FBI raids on
offices of the Church of Scientology in 1977 were specifically in
search
of evidence of conspiracies to steal government documents and obstruct
justice.
The FBI agents found it, the court was told.
As reported yesterday in the first of this series of accounts of the
subsequent court proceedings, much of the evidence was in the reports
of
the cult's spies planted in jobs in strategic offices, and in the
files
that they stole.
Thousands of seized documents that helped convict nine U.S.
Scientologists
named as conspirators also gave the court evidence of other crimes and
clandestine activities. They also pointed outside the United
States -- to
the United Kingdom and to Canada.
From Canada there were, among other things, confidential documents
from
ministerial levels of the Ontario Government.
From the cult's world headquarters in England were communications and
orders from Jane Kember and Mo Budlong. They now are appealing
extradition orders won by U.S. federal prosecutors about a month ago.
The two are charged with conspiracy to illegally obtain government
documents, to obstruct justice and to perform illegal electronic
surveillance. (A vital meeting of tax investigators discussing the
legal
affairs of the wealthy cult was tapped.)
Documentary evidence -- some of which, including Canadian material,
was
filed with the trial court when Scientologists fought to have the 1977
FBI
raids in Los Angeles and Washington declared illegal -- showed the two
Britons were participants in, or privy to, orders for a number of
criminal
conspiracy programs of the international church.
One program was called "Safe U.S." and a copy of it, marked with FBI
number 3298 and initialled on every page by agent W.R.S., contributed
to
the prosecutors' 282-page stipulation of evidence that led to the plea
-
bargained conviction of the nine U.S. Scientology leaders. (One more
who
turned informer has yet to be tried.)
The 25-point Safe U.S. program, signed by two of the U.S. conspirators
"for Jane," directed Guardians in California, the District of
Columbia,
Florida and New York to plant agents in federal and state attorneys'
offices. It was dated Nov. 18, 1975.
The goal, the four-page document said, was to "obtain data on their
intended actions toward Scientology, LRH/MSH (the Hubbards)."
Point 5 ordered: "Place a separate agent into the IRS Office of
International Operations (OIO) as this office has a case in
preparation or
investigation action going on LRH personally for income-tax evasion or
something similar."
Guardians were told: "Determine what agency near LRH would serve any
federal governmental subpoena ... work out a project to receive
immediate
intelligence from the office ... and get it done."
They were also told, the court learned, to get or keep spies working
on
various individuals, including writers, who had been critical of
Scientology or who might plan attacks on it.
One Guardian directorate was told to "place a very secure agent into
the
AMA Chicago headquarters in the best position to obtain data on their
intended actions towards us."
(Other documents filed with the court indicated agents had been
planted
with the American Medical Association, in a number of Government
offices
and in other private agencies.)
One item in the massive documentation filed by prosecutors was
numbered
354 in a 525-page inventory given to U.S. District Judge Charles
Richey.
Dated Oct. 12, 1973, it was a letter with Mr. Budlong's name on it to
a
U.S. Guardian.
It was about an operation against the American Cancer Society code
named
"Smoke". (The prosecutors also filed a number of the church's codes
with
the courts.) The operation was "to see how much ACS has been doing
against Sc ... indications fairly active ...
"At this time we have operatives in their national headquarters (N.Y.)
and
in the following states: Massachusetts, Nevada, Cal. -- which should
provide ample information."
A message to Mr. Budlong in April, 1973, was about the need "to
infiltrate
more agents into target organization," the central bureau of the
Better
Business Bureau, and also said the Guardians should "begin program of
infiltration into major drug concerns" and "sue ... as many groups as
possible."
In evidence Box C8 (the court documents were kept in large cardboard
cartons) was an April, 1973, letter from Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. She has been sentenced to a
maximum
five years in prison for her role in the conspiracy. Mr. Hubbard was
one
of 23 named as unindicted co-conspirators.
The rambling communication suggested the Scientologists might get the
drug
industry on their side if they could help somehow in getting drugs
made
more available in the United States, as they have been elsewhere in
the
world.
Mr. Budlong was told by another U.S. Guardian that an agent had been
planted on the staff of a member of the Co-Ordinating Conference on
Health
Organizations. Many binders of CCHO documents were found in the
Scientologists' possession, the court heard.
The Kember and Budlong names were included with those of four
convicted
U.S. conspirators on a key piece of the federal evidence. It
consisted of
four single-spaced foolscap sheets outlining "Program Snow White".
The document was dated March 27, 1976, and said the program was aimed
at
making Mr. Hubbard free to visit "all western nations ... without
threat."
This was to be done, all top Guardian offices and those in local
organizations were told, by locating and obtaining "all false and
secret
files on Scientology, LRH, Dianetics (and other Scn names) that cannot
be
obtained" by legal means.
In a message of Nov. 1, 1974 (FBI number 6131 in the court files) the
British leaders were told: "Today we gained access to the top-level
IRS
planning conference on what to do about Scientology. This was done
electronically."
The resulting tapes, the U.S. Guardians reported to their superiors,
were
poor, but they were able to send along a summary of the U.S. tax
agency's
plans for litigation against the cult.
In addition to documentation on codes, chains of commands and
operations,
the U.S. attorneys filed documents specifying the duties of
Scientology
officials.
Miss Kember, working at the cult's world headquarters in England, is
Guardian World Wide. Mr. Budlong is Deputy Guardian Intelligence
World
Wide.
Evidence before the U.S. court indicated the two British citizens were
the
highest-ranking Guardians after Mrs. Hubbard, who holds the titles of
Controller of the church and Commodore Staff Guardian. Her husband is
called Commodore.
One document was a log of orders sent around the world from Mr.
Budlong on
World Guardian Kember's behalf on Feb. 18, 1977.
Sandwiched between orders to the Deputy Assistant Guardian Australia
and
the Deputy Guardian Intelligence United Kingdom was one to Deputy
Guardian
Information Canada.
Entitled "Shell Game", it ordered the Canadian officials to locate
whoever
inherited the papers of Dr. Brock Chisholm, the controversial
psychiatrist
who had directed the World Health Organization and who died in
Victoria in
1971.
"Using a suitable guise," someone was to go through the papers and
copy
anything related to Scientology or Mr. Hubbard.
Current members of the World Federation of Mental Health were to be
checked "in any way suitable" to see whether they might have any such
documents. "If files are discovered, obtain them," the order said.
The Canadian references were either in inquiries and reports by U.S.
Guardians, in some cases to Mr. Hubbard, or in communications from
Canadian Guardians reporting and sending documents to their
next-in-line
superiors, then in the United States.
There were reports of Canadian Guardians harassing the McLean family
of
Sutton, Ont. (Eric and Nan McLean, their two sons and a
daughter-in-law
had all defected from Scientology.)
A U.S. Deputy Guardian with the name or code name Flavian referred in
a
March 24, 1975, directive to an "outstanding order" against the
McLeans
dated Feb. 2, 1973, not long after the defection.
He said that the Canadian Guardian unit, called B4, "is trying to
discredit McLean to his next-door neighbors but the only possible
beneficial result of that action that would help us is if McLean is
ridden
out of town on a rail, and 'the public' are notoriously apathetic
about
doing this even when the 'proof' (sic) is exposed, much less what B4
Canada are doing."
The court document showed Flavian to be critical of the
ineffectiveness of
the handling of the McLeans' case and called for a survey of the whole
operation.
Another document, an entry dated May 5, 1973, in a log seized by the
FBI,
noted that an agent had been planted in the McLean household and that
he
should look for weaknesses in family relationships and see whether he
could take action so that "this crowd ... would start to break up."
Part of the prosecution submissions to the grand jury that indicted
the
U.S. Scientology leaders and the subsequent trial were weekly reports
seized from Scientology files. Any one report covered many items, and
along with those directly related to the U.S. conspiracy charges were
others, including a number of references to the McLeans, particularly
in
relation to visits by Mrs. McLean and her son, John, to Florida.
Guardian agents reported at various dates in 1976 how the two
Canadians
were covertly followed from one city to another and how their hotel
was
"staked out". According to the evidence, some cult agents found in
advance who the McLeans were going to visit who might be influenced by
them against Scientology. Other agents, Guardian leaders were told,
went
ahead of the McLeans and took action to reduce their effectiveness.
Mrs. McLean was also referred to in the prosecuting attorneys'
sentencing
brief to Judge Richey last November. It involved what church
documents
called the "bono letter op."
The state's brief quoted an "eyes only" Scientology report: "This was
a
letter incriminating Canadian entheta (meaning critical) reporter
(Mark)
Bonokoski (Toronto Sun) that was taken off the CW (Clearwater) Sun
comm
lines by June.
"This letter pinpoints June as an operative ... it was sent to Canada
for
use where Canada made it public, thus pinpointing June as the area and
most probably the one who would have taken the letter. June was
pulled
out of the (Clearwater) Sun and sent to LA because it was thought that
there was an ongoing postal investigation on the letter, i.e.,
tampering
with the U.S. mails."
The letter had been sent to a reporter at the Clearwater paper. It
referred to Mrs. McLean. The Toronto Scientologists used it in a
lawsuit
against her and Mr. Bonokoski.
The court files also included reports from the agent in the Clearwater
Sun
and her superiors' weekly summaries reporting on the activities of
reporter John Marshall in Clearwater, on assignment for The Globe and
Mail.
One, dated April 1, 1976, noted the information had been Telexed to
world
headquarters and to Canada.
There were also reports on exchanges of information between the Globe
reporter and Clearwater Sun reporters, including, a daily report said,
"info on the Canadian B & E episode."
(The California journalists had received information about the
conviction
in October, 1975, in Toronto of two men, Michael Chornopesky and Allen
Coulson, on a charge of possession of burglary tools. They were
Guardians
in the Toronto church.)
A separate document in the court file contains a notation,
"Chornopesky at
WW."
One 13-page document seized by the FBI and submitted to the trial
judge
was a 1970 year-end report to the Hubbards with a copy to Miss Kember
in
England. It was from "Bob, D/G US" and headed: "U.S. Guardian Office
Wins
in 1970."
A number of the wins were in Canada. They included:
"Penetrated Toronto mental health hospital and established an agent as
director of volunteers."
And: "Successfully maintained clandestine operation against Canadian
MHA
(Mental Health Association) involving clandestine monitoring of files.
Maintained continuous third-party actions between Canadian MHA and the
Canadian Government."
(Prosecuting attorneys said that to "third party" someone is
Scientology
jargon for covert action not implicating the cult that will confuse
and
disrupt some individual or agency and that sometimes will damage their
relations with some other person or agency.)
There also was a letter from a Toronto intelligence office,
"Tinkerbell",
to a superior in the Eastern U.S. Guardian office called
"Twinkletoes".
It commented: "Re third-party letters (groovy!!!) what a way to shake
them
up." Tinkerbell's letter accompanied a pack of materials from files
kept
by someone in Canada in the mental health field.
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