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Chapter 45 - Foreign Relations Sec. 953 - Private correspondence with foreign governments "Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both." Count 1: The covert intelligence operations that were initiated during the early 1990s through the "France Investigations Handling Program," which was directed and executed by the "Office of Special Affairs International" and which included the infiltration and manipulation of the French Judicial system and the employment of an agent of the French DST. May 1990: Acting on a criminal complaint for fraud, medical quackery and constraint French Metropolitan police of Nice and Marseille raided the offices of the local Scientology missions [Exh. No. 285]. Computers and documents were seized. 26 persons were questioned, 11 of them were temporarily placed in police custody. June, July 1990: After a criminal complaint for fraud and medical quackery has been filed against officials of the Scientology mission in Lyon, French police arrests its director Jean-Jacques Mazier and secretary Corinne Medallin. Thereafter, on July 6th, the investigating judge George Fenech decides to expand his investigation and orders the arrest of three leading French Scientology Officials, the OSA-members Danielle Gounord, Jean-Paul Chappelet and Yves Veau [Exh. No. 286]. The cause for the arrests was a criminal complaint by Nelly Vick, the widow of Patrice Vick, a Scientologist who had committed suicide in 1988 after having spent thousands of Francs for courses at the Scientology center in Lyon. What followed to these governmental measures was an extraordinary attempt by senior officials of the "Church of Scientology International," namely the "Commanding Officer of the "Office of Special Affairs International" Kurt Weiland and his subordinates, to infiltrate and manipulate the investigation of judge Fenech for the benefit of the Scientology defendants. The OSA operation included the hiring of an agent of the French intelligence service "Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire" (DST) and the involvement of a personal aide of the French President François Mitterand. Apparently, immediately after the arrests in Paris, two officials of OSA International, the Germans couple Edith and Klaus Büchele, flew to France to initiate counter operations to revert the unfavorable situation for Scientology in that country. On July 8th Edith Büchele reported to the United States OSA-headquarters about the initial procedures and operations of the missionaries from Los Angeles which included the use of a secret agent ("F 10") who had access to then President Mitterand [Exh. No. 287]: "The handling for all of this is covered in OT 11 [OT = ‘Operating Target' of a program] and the details of that thing are covered in the debrief of Klaus (Büchele) so I don't think I need to repeat it. This is the area of F 10. Will meet him early tomorrow as well. As I reported in yesterdays DR [DR = Daily Report] the summary report has been delivered to President. F 10 will now go on the lines personally on Monday and get it 8ced [8c = to control something] through. Meeting held. Instructions gotten back down the lines to the Ministry of Justice level via the head of the Crim Division in the Ministry of Justice to revert those directives issued on the parquets and instruct them to lay off and cool it. This is the main action that has been done. Legally there is not much we can do as we do not have copy of it and thus no chance to attack it legally – Working on getting the written copy but until such time key actions are those laid out in OT 11 by F 10 as the way to get them to cool it on those lines. Chances look very good as laid out in the debrief of Klaus due to the comm lines that do exist. Also MoJ [MoJ = Ministry of Justice] is currently under bypass by President so order would go direct to head of crim div which is over all parquets. It's a straight line that works for us." Two days later Büchele reported about the evidently positive outcome of F 10's meeting with Mitterand and about certain instructions that were issued to revert the judicial process and to bypass the Ministry of Justice [Exh. No. 288]: "OT 11 personal letter was received by terminal [terminal = person assigned to a specific task]. Answer will be back tomorrow 10.00 am with direct assistant of M [M = Mitterand] and F 10 has meeting with the assistant at 10.00 am to go over the instructions she will have received by then and their implementation he is very confident on this cycle. He is going to debrief tomorrow where we are at." Apparently Büchele had also received internal information about on-goings within the French justice system through these contacts, as she wrote on the same day in a message to CO OSA Int. Weiland [Exh. No. 289]: "Also got information today that JoI [JoI = Judge of Investigation] Morachini prior to the Marseille raid sent a memo to Min of Justice suggesting overall action and suggested that the only way to get at Scn is via the money flows and accounting and concentrate on that. … I don't know more then [sic] this and need to track this down in Min of Justice/ …" On July 20th Büchele was finally informed by her agent that Mitterand had approved the proposed intervention [Exh. No. 290]: "F 10 is back and talked to Dayan [,] personal aide for justice matters to Mitterand. Message is that is going ok and green light given. Did not want to say more over phone. Meeting with him tomorrow at 10.30 am to fully prep him. He wants to be more prepped as has meeting on Monday 10:30 am in Elysee on our cycle. I will attend tomorrow meeting. Said has caught up with all details read all the media and wants to go over media actions as well." After having received such high-powered back-up, Büchele formulated a "France Investigations Handling Program" with a series of legal follow-up steps "to revert the situation by launching a full legal offensive [Exh. No. 291]." Specifically the program stated about its purposes: "MAJOR TARGETS "1. To get the Marseille, Lyon and Paris Scientologists freed. "2. To get the Marseille and Lyon cases turned to other impartial judges of instruction." On this day the Scientologists began their media campaign against the government proceedings with demonstrations and press conferences in Paris and Lyon, claiming that Scientology was persecuted for its religious beliefs. Three years later Scientology's intelligence operations became public through journalist Serge Faubert, who published first articles in a periodical and then finally a book about the Lyon investigation and its background [Exh. No. 292]. In his first major article of the affair he revealed the name of one mole, who had spied for Scientology in the French government at that time: Alain Brunet, then a technical aide in the Ministry for Cultural Affairs, who reported to Eva Lefèvre, a PR Officer at the French Office of Special Affairs [Exh. No. 293]. Another three years later, during the eve of the Lyon-trial in 1996, Faubert revealed another name of Scientology's agents within the French government [Exh. No. 294]. Pierre-Yves Gilleron, during the early 1990s an officer of the French intelligence service DST, had been approached by OSA-member Pascal Parizot and was paid 150,000 Francs for initiating an investigation on judge Fenech. Indeed the judge and the police confirmed to the media that Fenech had been followed and investigated by the Scientologists and Gilleron. Nevertheless judge tampering of the Scientologists did not help the defendants at the trial, as Jean-Jacques Mazier and 15 other defendants were found guilty for having committed fraud and sentenced to prison terms and fines on November 22nd, 1996 [Exh. No. 295, Excerpt]. The prison terms were later suspended by an appeals court in 1997, and the highest Criminal Court upheld the earlier convictions on June 30th 1999 [Exh. No. 296]. The Marseille investigation ended for the French Scientologists finally as well with a guilty verdict [Exh. No. 297]. Xavier Delamare, the former director of the Marseille mission, and four other defendants were found guilty for fraud and given prison sentences. In its disregard for the French justice system, which had been already proven through its intelligence operations in 1990, the Church of Scientology condemned the verdicts as "politically motivated" and "religious McCarthyism." Count 2: The covert intelligence operations that were initiated in 1994 through the "Greek Handling Program" by the "Office of Special Affairs International," directed by "Office of Special Affairs International" and which included operations against Greek Orthodox priest Father Alevizopoulos and other critics of Scientology in Greece, and infiltration of Greek government agencies. Contrary to the course of events in France, where police investigations triggered more intelligence operations by the Scientologists, three police raids on June 9th, September 27th and November 6th of 1995 at a Scientology mission in Athens, Greece put at least a legal end to such activities. At the beginning of the investigation by the police were several complaints, filed by members of the "Pan Hellenic Parents Association" (PEG). The PEG, a union of parents and relatives of cult members, had complained, among other things, that their children had disconnected from them due to the influence of the Scientology organization. After a negative television documentary on Scientology by the "Teletora" television channel had been aired on May 5th, an investigating judge from the District Court in Athens ordered prosecutor Ioannis Angelis to start an investigation into the activities of Scientology's "Center of Applied Philosophy of Greece" (KEPHE). Three raids were conducted during the next six months and the police seized about a truck load of material, consisting of Scientology "E-meters," "pc-folders," but also carbon files, computers and floppy discs with encrypted documents from the local "Office of Special Affairs." Two types of OSA documents were of special interest for the prosecutor: 1. Internal reports that were exchanged between the European and U. S. headquarters of the Office of Special Affairs and the local mission in Athens. 2. Internal dossiers with private and sensible information on Scientology's perceived enemies within Greece. On top of Scientology's enemies list at that time was Father Anthony Alevizopoulos, an Orthodox priest who was the head of the Synodic Commission on Cults and Para religions. As he was a public critic of Scientology and had contact with ex-Scientologists and parents of current Scientologists, he became a primary target of intelligence operations. On April 13th, 1994 the so-called "Continents/Sectors Investigations Officer" of the "Office of Special Affairs International" in Los Angeles issued an overall "Greece ARM Handling Program" (ARM = Anti-religious movement) [Exh. No. 298], whose purpose was to investigate any Scientology critic in Greece, primarily Alevizopoulos, and to infiltrate and to intimidate the Greek government by exposing confidential documents to back off from observing Scientology's activities in that country: "CONFIDENTIAL "GREECE HANDLING PROGRAM "PROGRAM INFORMATION: "In the last year the Greek Orthodox ARM activity in Greece has escalated to a level which warrants immediate attention. … "This coordinated multi-bureau program is now written so as to handle this situation. "PROGRAM PURPOSE: "To get the ARM situation in Greece under control while PR activities are being created, allies are being made and legal is working out on getting the Church recognized as a religious group. "MAJOR TARGETS: "1. Alevizopoulos and Seraphim [the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church] investigated with crimes exposed. … "3. Government comm lines created so as to be able to predict future government attack on religions. … "VITAL TARGETS: "… 2. During the execution of this program, keep coordination in at all times with your DSA PR and with the different Invest, PR and legal terminals at OSA EU. … "OPERATING TARGETS: "…18. Get Public Record Research done on Seraphim and Alevizopoulos. Get this fully researched, including listing the friends and opponents with their names and functions, from newspaper articles, brochures, debrief of visits etc. … "19. Get a criminal mind analysis done on Alevizopoulos. "20. Get a PI to investigate Seraphim and Alevizopoulos as to their personal activities to find out any crimes they are involved in. Ensure that any connection with ARM terminals in Germany are well documented. "… 23. Utilize the data gotten on invest lines to expose the criminal activities of Alevizopoulos and Seraphim. "… 27. Set up lines in Greece into the ARM group so that we can identify those involved and work out individual handlings. "28. In coordination with the Invest and Pred Chf OSA EU, get the Greek Intelligence (KYP) Report translated so it can be exposed and used internationally to embarrass the Greek government and those in the Orthodox Church who are behind this. …" A separate program to investigate Alevizopoulos was drawn up on December 20th, 1994 by the European headquarters of OSA in Copenhagen, Denmark [Exh. No. 299]: "HANDLING PGM: L [Scientology's codename for Alevizopoulos] "SITUATION: Currently there is a situation here in Athens where priest L was located as the key source to entheta ["entheta" = bad news] on Scn here in Greece. … "MAJOR TARGETS: "1. To effectively stop the flow of entheta to the Greek media. "2. To stop the actions of L to a point where he does not longer create an effect on the Greek field. … "VITAL TARGETS: "… 4. Weekly reports and progres [sic] reports as needed to be written and given to the ED as well [as] OSA EU and OSA INT. … "INVEST TARGETS: "… 4. Immediately get at least one or two guys into the L group and make them attend regularly his meetings. They are there only to observe and report in detail what was said, who was there, etc. Take exact notes. … "… 7. Find an investigative reporter who can go around and collect data about L. for a special news item, could be positioned in a way that he seems to do an invest on Scn and wants all pertinent data, while in truth he actually searches for other data …! "8. Do a full ODC ["Overt Data Collection"] on L. in a new unit of time. Find out everything from public records, i. e. about marriages, convictions, hospital attendance, connections to known criminals, ARM groups etc. be sure to stay legal with this. DO NOT BREAK ANY LAWS. "9. This could include to observe him for a time period, scan through his garbage etc. be creative here but keep in mind that we must not give him anything that might enable him to attack us. … "LEGAL TARGETS "22. Immediately get with Atty and file as many criminal suits as possible on already known crimes. i. e. slander of the Mission, LRH, Scn …" As it was written in the program, the operation was actually a renewed investigation into Alevizopoulos' life. Already in 1993 the Office of Special Affairs had compiled medical data about him and had constructed a "Psychiatric History" for future exploitation [Exh. No. 300]. Infiltrating the "Parents Association" and hiring private investigators in order to gather intelligence about Alevizopoulos had also been done before, as an internal report from December 7th, 1993 to Copenhagen shows [Exh. No. 301]: "… THE INVEST HELPER ATTENED [sic] THE FIRST ARM MEETING OF L. THERE WERE MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE ATTENDING. L. ATTACKED SCIENTOLOGY AND MADE CLEAR THAT THIS IS HIS FIRST TARGET. HE SAID THAT THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE ATTENDED BY FEW PEOPLE WHICH HE WILL CHOOSE AMONG THE UNIVERSITY GRADUATES. HE SAID THAT NO RECORDING OF THE MEETINGS IS ALLOWED AND THE PRINTING MATERIAL OF THE SEMINAR WILL BE GIVEN OUT ONLY TO THE FEW SELECTED. HE ALSO MADE CLEAR THAT HE COOPERATES WITH SOME GERMAN TERMINALS AND BRAGGED THAT HE IS KNOWN TO THE WHOLE WORLD ABOUT HIS ARM ACTIVITY. "ON THE OTHER HAND TODAY I MADE A TWO PAGES REPORT ABOUT L FOR THE ATTY AND THE WOULD-BE-RECRUITED P. I. TO READ. I AM LOOKING FOR THE ATTY AS I WANT TO GO OVER THE INVEST FILE WITH HIM BUT I COULD NOT REACH HIM. I ALSO WANT TO CHECK WHETHER P. I. COLLECTED DATA WOULD BE ACCEPTED BY ANY COURT. …" |
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