Unofficial translation of a Russian language article in ANN March 2, 2007.
http://www.annews.ru/news/detail.php?ID=81312

The article, written by Protopriest Alexander Novopashin for ANN, includes information from a paper I presented at a conference on "Totalitarian Cults and the Democratic State" in Novosibirsk in November 2004.

This article in German

Gerald Armstrong: Scientology is the cult of total espionage

March 2, 2007, Moscow (ANN). Scientology expends millions of dollars to hide behind a cover as a humanitarian or human rights organization. The cult spends even more money on its destructive activities in flagrant violation of human rights, Gerald Armstrong, former associate of cult founder Ron Hubbard, told ANN in an exclusive interview.

Gerald, what did you do in Scientology and why are you living in Canada today instead of the USA?

I was in Scientology and worked with Hubbard for 12 and a half years: I was in the legal department, in the public affairs department and intelligence. During my last two years in the organization I conducted research to write a new version of Hubbard's biography. While assembling the archive from his personal documents I had a revelation that literally staggered me. Hubbard lied about virtually every aspect of his life: about his education, family, military accomplishments and about allegedly curing himself with the aid of Dianetics.

For me it became increasingly clear that after all this time in Scientology I had not attained anything that Scientology had promised. I never became more capable or more powerful, never became more intelligent. I had at least enough intelligence to get out of Scientology. I had to flee even to say that I wanted to leave. Otherwise I would have just been locked up and subjected to endless checks because I knew too much. They weren't letting me out of there alive. Right after my escape a private detective hired by Scientology attacked me: I was hit with a car, terrorized on the highway, my wife and I were spied on, my family and neighbors were intimidated. Life has been like this for 23 years. During that time I've been brought to court six times. Now I am in a seventh court case with the organization.

Scientology has dumped literally mountains of "black propaganda" on the public about me. They want me to pay them $10 million. By manipulating the court system in the USA they have obtained a judgment that prohibits me from even saying the word "Scientology." Every time I publicly say the word "Scientology" I am supposed to pay them $50,000. Since Scientology calls itself a religion, this would be akin to a person having to pay $50,000 every time he says the word "God" or "Christ" or "Christianity."

What is the essence of Scientology activities?

It is necessary to understand the Scientology view of the world. This worldview is formulated and put into practice by using the extreme methods of Scientology founder Ron Hubbard.

The ideal form of organization for Scientologists is a dictatorship under full control of the leader. As with all totalitarian organizations or systems the Scientological worldview is the sole hope for humanity's survival. Scientology says that all other teachings, ideas, religions and health systems throughout the history of mankind were failures. Scientology states that only its system can raise adherents up to superhuman levels of ability and power, can raise their IQ to superhuman levels, and even raise the dead. According to the Scientology worldview, mankind is in a trap, and Hubbard revealed the only way to get out of it.

How does Scientology relate to people outside the organization?

The Scientology worldview divides people into two groups: Scientologists and wogs ("wog" is an English invective for an Oriental man and is near in meaning to the English "nigger" or Russian "churka.") Scientologists are taught that their progress in Scientology is possible only because they are superior in all aspects.

Hubbard and Scientology teach that in the wog world there are only two types of people, good and bad. According to the Scientology worldview, the bad people who are really dangerous are 2.5% of the planet's population. Scientology calls this 2.5% "suppressive persons" or SPs. All the people who are connected to SPs are called "potential trouble sources," or PTS. They are also bad and destructive because they are connected with SPs.

The "Suppressive Persons" doctrine is central to the Scientology worldview. SPs allegedly are the cause of all disease, all accidents and all the bad conditions that exist in the world, and they should be deprived of human rights.

"Suppressive persons" are people who Scientology considers its enemies. Hubbard called this hostile relationship with SPs "fair game." He issued a special directive regarding SPs in which he determined that such "fair game:" "Any Scientologist, without fear of discipline (from Scientology) may deprive SPs of property and harm them by any means. They can be deceived, sued, lied to and physically destroyed."

For decades "fair game" has been condemned by courts and government bodies, and severely criticized in the media. Scientology says it did away with "fair game" nearly 30 years ago, but, nevertheless "fair game" remains a Scientology policy and practice that they apply to SPs until this day.

The totalitarian sect does not use "fair game" on murderers, rapists, mobsters, terrorists or dictators. The people whom the leaders of Scientology declare SPs are simply critics of the practices of the Scientology organization: lies and fraud, antisocial and criminal activities. The people Scientologists uses "fair game" against are doctors, psychologists, priests, teachers, journalists and many others.

Doesn't Scientology make its adepts better, smarter, more able, stronger or more moral?

What Scientology says and promises, its whole technology, is a fraud. Scientology squeezes vast sums of money from people through fraud or extortion. In fact, Hubbard was not a scientist nor did he conduct any scientific research. He was a charlatan who claimed he had academic titles that he had never received.

Because the SP doctrine is misanthropic and even criminal (since it directs Scientologists to enter into criminal conspiracy against SPs) the Scientologists must implement this doctrine secretly, using legal cover. Scientology's war against SPs is, to a large extent, a secret war.

Scientology does everything possible to conceal its aggressive intentions and actions against good people, but a study of Scientology's own documents and the history of its aggression makes its dark business obvious. The way Hubbard chose to most effectively conduct a campaign against opponents is much more serious than a simple war of words. This war was and continues to be a war of espionage and special operations.

An intelligence service that understands the business attempts to mask its activities. Scientology, for example, at this time is trying to disguise itself as a humanitarian or human rights organization. The cult has already spent millions of dollars to create this cover. This is a tragicomic masquerade, however, a type of black humor, because Scientology quite shamelessly and ruthlessly violates human rights. While the organization has spent millions to create this humanitarian-rights cover, it has spent even more money on its destructive activities, in flagrant violation of the same human rights it constantly says it is protecting.

The Scientology anti-drug program Narconon program, Criminon, the Scientology education program, and the Scientology "volunteer ministers" (the ones who were in Beslan) are all nothing more than front organizations whose main function is providing cover and creating additional opportunities in Scientology's secret war against "suppressive persons."

Why do you say that Scientology is a cult of total espionage?

The term "total espionage" comes from the title of a book by Curt Reiss Total Espionage, which was published in 1941. This is a book Hubbard had Scientologists study when training in intelligence procedures. Intelligence activity is pervasive and dominant within the Scientology organization as well as in its relations to the external world. Because of this it is correct to call Scientology a cult or "religion" of total espionage.

Scientology has its own spy network, and also hires external private detectives and other professionals. The cult uses the standard means of intelligence services for obtaining information from the public domain and acquiring it from legitimate sources, and unlawful methods, such as illegal infiltration, burglary, theft and extortion. Scientology has departments for security and counter-intelligence, as well as departments for public affairs and a network of covert agents. The cult also tries to collect information on people from all levels of society, from the highest political leaders, industrialists, the entertainment industry, doctors, and down to the most ordinary people.

In 1977, 150 FBI agents raided the offices of Scientology's intelligence service in Los Angeles and Washington. They obtained overwhelming evidence that Scientology agents had infiltrated more than a hundred American government agencies and federal offices and stole documents. Eleven Scientologists, including Hubbard's wife, were arrested in the case and sentenced to prison terms.

In 1991, the head of the FBI in Los Angeles, who took part in the 1977 raid, said in an interview with Time Magazine: "In my opinion, Scientology has one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the U.S.A, and could even compete with the FBI."

After the events of 1977, Scientology only expanded its spy network and espionage activities.

At its core, Scientology has all the attributes of a national intelligence service. However, what makes it the cult of total espionage is the participation of all Scientologists in the common report system. The amount of information that Scientology collects through its informants and through dozens of other intelligence channels is simply staggering.

One of the most important components of Scientology is "auditing," which is its special psychotherapy. Organization members are connected to the so-called electrometer, which is used as a type of lie detector. During auditing Scientologists give up all their innermost secrets about themselves and about their past, and all this is recorded on paper, as well as audio and videotapes. Scientologists tell everything about their sexual history, everything illegal they've done and anything they're ashamed of, all their own secrets and the secrets of their family as well as of everyone they know.

All the collected material goes to Scientology management and the Scientology intelligence service for use in their work, including the control of the Scientologists who divulged their secrets. The brutal irony is that the Scientologists pay huge sums of money to give the organization their secrets, which will then be used to further repress them and extort even more money from them.

Scientologists are also routinely subjected to even more violent and dangerous interrogations called "security checks" or "sec checks." These also are electronically monitored and supervised. The Scientologists may be kept in the room for long hours, during which time they must be connected to the electrometer. They are not even allowed to go to the bathroom, and many interrogators may shout at them and demand they answer questions.

Who is now leading the Scientologists?

David Miscavige leads Scientology. He is completely and legally responsible for what it does in the capacity of a hate group and criminal society that violates human rights. Miscavige heads the total espionage network and conducts the covert war against SPs. He controls Scientology and manages it through a web of corporations, associations, organizations, and officers extremely dedicated to Scientology. The corporate structure is the product of a conspiracy of dark and greedy Scientology leaders and some smart but intelligent but corrupt lawyers.

Miscavige, in setting up the corporate connections, calls himself the chairman of the board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC). To avoid legal responsibility for Scientology's many failures, for the numerous violations of law, and for Scientologists' crimes in their war against SPs, RTC has declared itself autonomous. In fact, RTC manages the entire church empire and the spy network.

Is there actually a "concentration camp" inside the sect?

It is called the "Rehabilitation Project Force," or RPF for short. It is the Scientology prison system. People are held there for an indefinite amount of time. I myself was in this psychological gulag twice, 25 months altogether, both times on Hubbard's personal order. The first time was because I had a disagreement with his wife's secretary. The second time was because Hubbard thought I had joked about the movies he made.

The purpose of the RPF is to break the human will. Up to this point, as long as the organization believes that the person has his own will, you will be ruthlessly crushed. People who are put in the RPF are not allowed to walk, they are supposed to run, they are not allowed to talk to others, just speaking to answer questions, and they have to perform the dirtiest, arduous, exhausting work. The work day is at least 12 hours, followed by endless auditing. This amounts to slave labor within the Scientology organization. Those confined in the RPF are fed scraps from the dining room (and Scientologists are not fed too well) and sleep in the most unfit conditions. There is a reduced number of hours of sleep.

If a person objected to being in the RPF, and tries to escape, he is put into the so-called RPF's RPF (i.e., a gulag within a gulag) where there is even more work, more humiliation, more violence, and where people are under guard around the clock. A sociologist of religion from Canada, Professor Steven Kent, wrote a paper on the Rehabilitation Project Force. He says that this is an undeniable violation of the most basic of human rights, yet this is an organization with its own gulag that the United States protects and promotes worldwide.

What do you say about the activities of Scientologists in Russia?

Scientology is a 100% American cancer, because in Russia the orders come from the USA, and the information collected by the Scientologist spies moves from Russia to the USA. If a Russian group was officially created to study the Scientology organization, it would, I expect, be able to engage in a dialog about Scientology with the United States at the highest level. And when people at the highest level begin to criticize Scientology, then its war against "suppressive persons" will finally be over.

Interview by Protopriest Alexander Novopashin, Director of the Cathedral of his Holiness Prince Alexander Nevsky in Novosibirsk, Head of the Novosibirsk Center of Religious Studies, ANN expert analyst.

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As always happens, something is lost or altered in a translation, and even more is lost or altered in a back translation to the original language. The article that appeared in Russian in ANNews March 2, 2007, for example, attributes to me a statement concerning the Rehabilitation Project Force or RPF that people confined in the RPF "are fed scraps from the dining room." The actual policy concerning meals set by Scientology cult founder L. Ron Hubbard that was enforced in the RPF was that members eat after the regular Sea Org crew members had eaten whatever was left over. The following two excerpts from sworn declarations I wrote and executed provide accurate information concerning my RPF knowledge and experiences.