All of them, those in power, and those who want the power, would pamper us, if we agreed to overlook their crookedness by wilfully restricting our activities.
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DECLARATION OF KURT WEILAND
1. I, Kurt Weiland, declare under penalty of perjury that the following is true and correct.
2. I have worked for the Church of Scientology International (CSI) since 1987. Since that time, I have primarily worked in executive positions concerned with the direction, management and supervision of the Office of Special Affairs International, the CSI department responsible for the legal, government and other external affairs of the Church. I am therefore personally knowledgeable and competent to put forth the facts and data contained in this declaration, and if called upon as a witness, would be competent, able and willing to testify to what I have set forth herein.
3. I have read the letter Joe Childs and Tom Tobin sent to Tommy Davis, dated 6 October 2009, which includes new false allegations by Marty Rathbun, Mike Rinder and others. Due to my positions in CSI over the last two decades and because I have known and Worked closely with both Rathbun and Rinder during this period, I am addressing these false allegations and distortions of fact that I have personal knowledge of. Over a number of years during this time, Mike Rinder was my superior. Marty Rathbun was also senior in rank to me. Rathbun was responsible for external affairs matters for Religious Technology Center, the senior-most organization in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Scientology religion.
4. Legal privileges cover the professional relationships, work-product and confidences that exist between attorneys and their agents (including investigators) and their clients. The Church is not at liberty to forfeit this privilege by virtue of disclosures of privileged information, but I will address the issues raised in the letter by Messrs. Childs and Tobin to set the record straight by presenting true and correct information, missing context and any pertinent background.
5. What Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder are alleging is clearly intended to cast the activities of the Office of Special Affairs in a false light, both by omitting the context and by failing to convey what experienced legal professionals know to be a routine practice in their field. In this manner, the allegations are made to appear extraordinary to most readers who are not aware that it is a common factor in litigation—pending and anticipated—to retain and utilize the professional services of private investigators. It is integral to being able to prove allegations as false, to locate evidence of illegal collusion between seemingly unrelated parties or to prove intimidation and Witness tampering, to name but a few examples of when private investigators are used as part of the legal process. Attorneys consider it a necessary part of their diligent representation of clients’ interests, because it often makes the difference between winning and losing a case. It is this type of information which, backed by solid evidence, permits the avoidance of false claims and frivolous lawsuits and—especially in the case of large and financially resourceful organizations—means a saving of substantial sums. During my tenure in the Office of Special Affairs, I have personally seen this to be the case on many occasions—to the end of either prevented or rapidly terminated litigation and a saving of considerable amounts of money for the Church.
6. Since before the time when I began to work for CSI and its Office of Special Affairs, and throughout the entire time I have been associated with it, it has been the absolute policy for the Office of Special Affairs International, and any of the comparable departments in Churches of Scientology around the world, that the activities of private investigators be directed by attorneys of the Church and that such was to be done for purposes of preventing, and protecting the Church from, false claims and frivolous litigation and, where such had occurred, to defend against same. It was furthermore iron clad policy that every investigator had to understand and agree that any action he took was to be completely lawful and that the Church did not and would not tolerate anything that violated the letter or spirit of the law. It was even our practice to insist that when investigators were retained by Church attorneys, that they expressly agreed in Writing to always operate lawfully and that they understood that the Church condoned no violations of the law. The attorneys had the means to exert control over the investigators’ activities because they paid them for their work.
7. The dictate that the Church, its staff, and by logical extension any professional active for the Church in any capacity, were to follow and abide by the law of the land at all times and no matter What, has been stated and reiterated by Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, from the early days of Scientology organizations. These same policies have been insisted upon and enforced by Mr. Miscavige since he has been concerned with the leadership of Scientology.
8. Everything I have stated was hilly known by Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder. I have had multiple conversations with both of them about the use of private investigators under the auspices of Church counsel, about the aforementioned policies pertaining to their use as well as their role and benefit as part of the Church’s legal defense process. I know and can therefore state that they were completely aware that it was considered immediate grounds for dismissal from Church staff if any member of the Office of Special Affairs were to engage in any action that violated a criminal statute.
9. I can further state that it was the practice of Church counsel and the concerned Office of Special Affairs staff who interfaced with CSI’s legal representatives, to analyze the need for retaining an investigator and that they were retained only if said analysis confirmed that his or her use was warranted as part of protecting the Church’s and its parishioners’ best interests. It was under those circumstances, on this basis and only within those parameters that I approved the use of private investigators. The pertinent criteria were fully known to all concerned Office of Special Affairs staff and I am aware of no attempt of any of these staff to deviate from this operating principle. The information gathered by private investigators was, without exception, obtained only for lawful purposes and was never used for anything but lawful objectives.
10. I can state the above categorically and that it was this same procedure and premise for every investigation that Messrs. Rathbun and Rinder are now speaking about and that was conducted with my knowledge on the Church’s behalf. I can so declare as the person, who has been the senior executive over all staff of the Office of Special Affairs International for some two decades, a position from which I was aware of the activities of each department and its personnel. The only exception to this is Mike Rinder, as he was my direct superior for a number of years.
11. I was not aware of all the activities Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun engaged in, as they, of course, had no duty to report to me and didn’t, and if they themselves violated the aforementioned policies and practices in any way, then it follows that it would have been on their own determination and contrary to what they knew was firm Church of Scientology policy since the days of Mr. Hubbard and the exact same principles that Mr. Miscavige stood for.
12. This is definitely and notably the case in the particular instance, as the Childs/Tobin letter relates, Where Marty Rathbun said that he personally directed an investigator in Nashville to break into an individual’s car. This blatant violation of U.S. law, premeditated and knowingly unlawful as Rathun now admits to according to the letter by Messrs. Childs and Tobin, would have resulted in the immediate dismissal of any staff member of the Office of Special Affairs International—any Church staff member for that matter—had it become known to myself or Mr. Miscavige, who had made it known countless times that he would not tolerate any such violation.
13. I am 6’2” tall and Weigh 222 pounds. I am stating this to put in context how stupid the allegations being made about me are.
14. Mike Rinder makes one particular allegation according to the letter by Joe Childs and Tom Tobin, which involves me personally: He accuses one of my colleagues, Russ Bellin, of having poured Water on my head to extract a confession in 2006 or 2007. It is simply not true that Russ Bellin ever did this to me. Moreover, this version of the story is different than the version presented to the Church by ABC Nightline. In Nightline’s version, Marty Rathbun is alleged to have witnessed this incident—something he could not have done, since it is alleged to have occurred two years after he left the Church—and the details have been embellished to the point of absurdity. Neither version is true. The incident never happened.
15. It is part of our self-chosen ethos to ensure and demand of each other that we live up to our respective responsibilities. But this has never included something such as described in either version of this incident.
16. Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder were in positions where they became familiar with the same false claims that they are making now. They know that Church detractors routinely learned from each other to propagate the tactic of “Never mind the absence of facts, just allege it!” tc generate adverse media stories about Scientology. I worked with both of them many times, endeavoring to find ways to prove a negative. They are now employing the very tactic they decried in the past, complete with false claims and innuendo, and have created a web of lies and deceit about the Church. Paradoxically, they are the very individuals who directed and controlled the activities they are now saying “the Church” did wrong. If their claims about “the Church” were true, which they are not, as I have made clear in this declaration, they would have to point the finger directly at each other and no one else.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing statements are true and correct.
Executed this [15th] day of October 2009.
[Signed]
Kurt Weiland