It was just before midnight, May 28, 1984, when the orders were issued. Confidentially. "Mission information: ... recent reports from contacts made with Homer he is likely to go over to the enemy camp. He is thinking of turning against us completely. "Mission purpose: To prevent Homer from going over to the enemy camp and get him moving back onto The Bridge. "Vital Targets: ... Stay in close comm (communication) with MSN OPS (mission operations). Do not implement any decisions without ...

"Corrupt, sinister and dangerous" were the words used to describe the Church of Scientology in a judgment given by Mr Justice Latey this summer. He also referred to it as "immoral and socially obnoxious". But who controls the Church now? A major Sunday Times Magazine investigation into the activities of the cult in America and Britain has uncovered a disturbing and extraordinary story — the takeover of the organisation by a small band of youthful fanatics following the disappearance of the ...

He may be the most highly visible "invisible" man on earth — Mr. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard. Although not seen publicly since 1980, the reclusive founder of the controversial Clearwater-based Church of Scientology is constantly the subject of newspaper stories, court testimony and television [?] around the world. L. Ron Hubbard, a flamboyant millionaire philosopher, adventurer and explorer, mystic and messiah, has become the Howard Hughes of our time. For no one knows — at least no one is saying — where ...

The young man — by all appearances a teen-ager — crouched on the dark, narrow stairway as he scrubbed the sixth-floor landing in the former Fort Harrison Hotel, the "Flag Land Base" headquarters of the Church of Scientology. "Are you in RPF?" queried a reporter. "Sir?" he asked quietly, peering up from his work. "Are you in RPF?" "Yes sir, I am." RPF is the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), which, depending on who is speaking, is either a businessman's approach to ...

The United States Treasury Department's Criminal Investigations Division has mounted an in-depth investigation into the activities of the Clearwater-based Church of Scientology, the Clearwater Sun has learned. In the past several weeks, Treasury agents have traveled across the United States interviewing a number of former Scientologists—including some who held positions of immense power and influence in the worldwide sect prior to their defection, sources said. Spokesmen for the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service in Tampa and Los Angeles, citing Department ...

A London High Court judge characterized the Clearwater-based Church of Scientology as "corrupt, immoral, sinister (and) dangerous" in delivering a damning indictment of the sect during a civil trial. Mr. Justice Sir John Latey's July 23 comments concluded a six-month court battle over custody of two children whose father is a Scientologist but whose mother has left the sect. In awarding care and control of the children to their mother, the British judge minced no words in his condemnation of Scientology, ...

Is it the beginning of the end for the Church of Scientology? In the past senior church officials have refused to discuss the inner workings of L. Ron Hubbard's empire, but according to a recent story in the New York Times, disillusionment with Hubbard and a power struggle within the organization have prompted several church officials to meet with police investigators and testify against Scientology in a number of court cases. At a trial that just ended in Los Angeles County ...

How much evidence do area law enforcement agencies need before launching a full-scale investigation of the Church of Scientology? Apparently the agencies hereabouts are a lot less responsive than they are in Ontario, Canada. The same sworn statements alleging criminal activity on the part of the locally-headquartered sect given to authorities in the Tampa Bay area have prompted action by the Ontario Provincial Police and resulted in the dismissal in California of a civil suit against former Scientology archivist Gerald Armstrong. ...

Several former high-ranking Church of Scientology officials have provided state, federal and municipal law enforcement investigators with detailed information regarding the Clearwater-based sect's alleged criminal activities in the Tampa Bay area, the Clearwater Sun has learned. Although the same testimony provided to investigators in Clearwater has furthered large-scale criminal investigations in Canada and resulted in court rulings against the sect in California, no similar action has been implemented in the Clearwater area, a seven-month Sun inquiry has determined. And Gerald Armstrong, ...

Charges by church defectors that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard diverted more than $100 million in church funds to foreign bank accounts was described Wednesday as "garbage" by the sect's president. "I call it hyperspace junk writing," said Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International. The former senior church officials, who have testified about the church's inner workings in Los Angeles court, told the New York Times that Hubbard directed them to establish shell corporations to channel much of ...

Former officials of the Church of Scientology say they helped L. Ron Hubbard, the reclusive founder of the cult-like organization, to secretly divert more than $100 million from the church into foreign bank accounts he controlled. The organization, long a subject of investigations in this country, Britain, France, Australia, South Africa, Spain and elsewhere, has maintained that Mr. Hubbard cut his ties to it in the mid-1970's, that he has received only a token consulting fee of $35,000 annually since then ...

A California court state Monday granted an emergency stay and resealed about 500 documents that had been unsealed last week by a Superior Court Judge. The papers, tapes and historical documents were unsealed last week in a case brought by the sect against former Scientology archivist Gerald Armstrong. The sect and its founder's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, sued Armstrong to recover about 10,000 pages of documents he took when he fled the Clearwater-based sect in late 1981. Many of the contested ...

The Church of Scientology faces mounting legal pressure in courts worldwide to explain its actions, policies, beliefs and inner workings. In the United States, Canada and Europe, Scientology is under ever-increasing scrutiny by law enforcement agencies, courts and even governments. And a ruling handed down last week by it Los Angeles Superior Court judge may complicate the legal proceedings involving the Clearwater-based sect. Judge Paul G. Breckenridge stated in an intended ruling Thursday that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is the ...

[...] The Church of Scientology won a stay from the 2nd District Court of Appeal resealing exhibits from the trial of its civil suit against former church archivist Gerald Armstrong pending appeal of the case. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul G. Breckenridge Jr., in absolving Armstrong of any liability for taking documents concerning church founder L. Ron Hubbard, had ruled last week that some 500 of those documents which became exhibits in the five-week trial would be open for public ...

Editor: Judge Breckenridge's decision in Los Angeles was based on psychiatric principles of a godless mankind and is just like the Australian decision of 1967; so biased and filled with animosity, that the High Court of Australia responded by granting full religious recognition to all the Churches of Scientology in Australia and 500 other religions by the year 1983. To have quoted reports disseminated by an agency headed by a former SS officer and have them endorsed by Mr. Armstrong, Mr. ...

"We told you so." That's the first reaction any longstanding anti-Scientologist will probably have when reading the brilliant and thundering decision announced Thursday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul G. Breckenridge. In terms that will surely widen the existing cracks in Scientology's foundations, Judge Breckenridge said, "The organization (Scientology) clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder ...." Breckenridge ruled that a former sect archivist, Gerald Armstrong was justified in taking ...

Editor: Whew! Barbara Georgius asks, "Why wouldn't the Clearwater Sun want both sides of the story?" (She was referring to the Gerald Armstrong vs Scientology trial.) "The public can smell prejudice a mile off," she said in a letter to the Sun, and believe me, it's offensive to many, because they expect 'professionalism' from their local reporter and paper. Now, now, Miss Georgius, you must have been reading another newspaper. It couldn't have been the Clearwater Sun. One-sided reporting? Sensational reporting? ...

Lawyers who for years have engaged the Church of Scientology in legal battles said Friday that a Los Angeles County Superior court decision handed down this week heralds "the beginning of the end of Scientology." "The walls are collapsing and the truth is finally coining out," Boston attorney Michael Flynn said of the "landmark ruling" of Judge Paul G. Breckenridge. The California judge late Thursday exonerated a former sect member charged with stealing thousands of Scientology documents. But a sect attorney ...

A former Church of Scientology archivist was absolved late Thursday of any liability for taking thousands of personal documents belonging to the organization and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and his wife, Mary Sue Hubbard. The church had sought unspecified monetary damages and return of the documents, which have been impounded by the Los Angeles County Superior Court for the last two years, in its civil suit against Gerald Armstrong, 38, a 12-year church veteran who became disillusioned with Hubbard and ...

In a stinging rebuke to the Church of Scientology of California, a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled Thursday that a former sect archivist was justified in taking about 10,000 Scientology documents when he fled the Clearwater-based sect in 1982. Most of the documents in question belonged to the reclusive 73-year-old founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, who has not been seen publicly since 1979. In his 12-page decision, Judge Paul G. Breckenridge said 37-year-old Gerald Armstrong—who was personally authorized by ...

In this matter heretofore taken under submission, the Court announces its intended decision as follows: As to the tort causes of action, plaintiff, and plaintiff in intervention are to take nothing, and the defendant is entitled to Judgment and costs. As to the equitable actions, the court finds that neither plaintiff has clean hands, and that at least as of this time, are not entitled to the immediate return of any document or objects previously retained by the court clerk. All ...

Editor: Regarding Armstrong and his claim against the Church of Scientology: Since when does reponsible journalism only look at one side of the story? He has allegedley stolen documents. This is "theft" in the eyes of the law. A man who steals rarely tells the truth. His justifications for this theft really, are amazing, but more than that; why wouldn't the Clearwater Sun want both sides of the story? Your readers deserve to have all of the facts here, wouldn't you ...

Testimony has ended in the Los Angeles trial of a former Scientologists charged with stealing thousands of documents, letters and pictures when he fled the controversial sect. A Superior Court judge is weighing the evidence before handing down a decision. "The judge (Paul G. Breckenridge) has taken the case under submission, and we don't know how long it will take," Scientology attorney Barrett Litt said Tuesday. "I assume he'll be working on it and we'll hear sometime in the next little ...

Scientology pro and con Editor: I read a copy of the "Way to Happiness," by L. Ron Hubbard, tried it and found happiness. Who can dispute that truth and honesty is the basis of happiness in life? Anyone can try this out and find out for themselves. I read the Clearwater Sun fand felt miserable for hours afterwards. If honesty equals happiness, then I wonder what caused my bad feelings in reading the Sun? DALE CHRISTIANSEN Clearwater —– Editor: The response ...

A former Church of Scientology archivist was a "walking time bomb" at the time he took personal letters and papers of church founder L. Ron Hubbard and his wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, two opposing attorneys agreed Friday at the end of a five-week trial over possession of the documents. The brief and rare point of agreement occurred during closing arguments by Barry S. Litt, attorney for Mrs. Hubbard, and Michael Flynn, attorney for the defendant, archivist Gerald Armstrong, before Los Angeles ...