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The St. Petersburg Times has published the first of three block-busting articles on the regime of Scientology leader David Miscavige.based on interviews with Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, the highest-ranking executives ever to defect from The Church of Scientology (CoS). They are speaking out for the first-time.
Democratic and Republican politicians everywhere and at every level with the slightest connection to Scientology should tremble.
Scientology is now complete political poison.
A legion of Scientology critics and survivors of Scientology abuses have long been waiting for high level defectors from the Miscavige regime to speak out.
Four of them have now begin to expose Miscavige in the St. Petersburg Times in today's The Truth Rundown by Times staff writers Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin.
The Associated Press has picked up The Truth Rundown story, and it is spreading widely throughout the media.
The Times has established a special Truth Rundown section on its site which is full of articles and videos relating to the scandalous new revelations, like this one.
In addition to Rinder and Rathbun. The Times also interviewed two other Scientology executives, Tom De Vocht who supervised the church's Flag Land Base headquarters in Clearwater, Florda; and Amy Scobee who helped create Scientology's celebrity recruitment program that successfully snared Tom Cruise and John Travolta. The three men all report being beaten numerous times by Miscavige along with other Sea Org executives and managers. .
All of them confirm the abuse and violence of David Miscavige and his regime reported so eloquently by journalist Jonny Jacobsen at Infinite Complaceny.
Political significance of the Rinder-Rathbun revelations
The abusive totalitarian regime of David Miscavige is run by the Sea Org. Sea Org is a para-military fraternal association of fanatic Scientologists who form the mid-level and executive management of Scientology. They run everything in Scientology the world over.
Sea Org is rife with human rights abuses of human trafficking slavery, coerced abortion, and hard-labor punishment camps. Sea Org members, including teenagers work 100-hour weeks, seven days a week. They are paid thirty-nine cents an hour.
Three lawsuits have been filed by attorney Barry Van Sickle alleging human trafficking slavery, coerced abortion, fraud, and interrogation by lie detector.
The plaintiffs are all second-generation Scientologists and former Sea Org members who worked for David Miscavige.
These suits expose severe human rights abuses and are a potential trouble source for politicians associating with Scientology.
Impact on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Secretary Hillary Clinton is going to be called to account for her Scientology connections. She and President Clinton have long been entangled with Scientology through Scientology celebrity agents John Travolta and John Coale. Coale and his wife Greta Van Sustereren are Scientology's two most prominent celebrity lawyers and are well-known among Washington DC law firms..
Coale boasted of his easy access to the White House during the Clinton administration. He was on Hillary Clinton's campaign finance committee last year. He endorsed McCain and Sarah Palin alleging misogyny in the Democratic Party. Interviewed on the day of President Obama's inauguration Coale declared, "I am still a Democrat."
Scientology is on trial in France for corporate fraud. Arguments have been concluded, and the prosecutor has asked for the dissolution of Scientology.The court will deliver its judgment in October.
Belgium is preparing a similar case. Mrs. Clinton and her European ambassadors are going to be assaulted by Scientology to intervene not only in these cases. Amnesty International is studying human trafficking enslavement in the Sea Org, and moves are being made by several groups to present complaints to the UN Human Rights Commission.
Scientology is already laying siege to the European Union and the UN Human Rights Commission in Brussels.
Greta Van Susteren will soon be gone from Fox News
Greta Van Susteren is going to lose her job at Fox News. The critical Van Sickle lawsuits have exposed Sea Org's human trafficking slavery of Sea Org members and its policy of coerced abortion.
Moreover, Dr. Nada Stotland of the American Psychiatric Association effectively called Scientology an anti-psychiatry hate group in a video interview in May at the APA's convention in San Francisco. John Coale has been a leading figure in Scientology's lawfare wars on psychatric drug manufacturers.
As high-profile celebrity Scientologists, the Coales are committed to David Miscavige's War on Psychiatry and Global Obliteration of Psychiatry campaign.
Millions of conservative Fox News viewers are not going to be happy with Greta's membership in the Scientology anti-psychiatry hate group and Church of Human Trafficking and Coerced Abortion. Nor are her pro-life colleagues Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck.
Attorney Barry Van Sickle over the last several months has filed lawsuits on behalf of Marc Headley, his wife Claire Headley, and Laura DeCrescenzo.
The Headleys are in their mid-thirties with two children. Laura is 29. All of them are second-generation Scientologists who worked at Gold Base. Claire was forced to abort twice. Laura was inducted into the Sea Org at 12, was married at 16, and coerced into abortion as a minor at age 17.
The Six Stooges of Congress
The Six Stooges of Congress, as Gawker and Anonymous have dubbed them, are in the hot seat to explain to their constituents their entanglement with the Miscavige regime and its intelligence agency, OSA, the Office of Special Affairs.
The Scientology fellow-travelers signed a letter to French Ambassador Pierre Vincent complaining about a recent revision of the list of dangerous cults in France by governmental cult watchdog group, MIVILUDES. Michael Cosgrove at DigitalAge reports its reaction to the congressmen's letter.
The letter was written on the official stationery of Congressman Trent Franks, R - Arizona, co-chairman of the Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus.
Anonymous is a world-wide alliance of members of the millenial generation joined by ex-Scientologists and human rights activists of all ages. They have been relentlessly exposing Scientology's suppression of free speech and human rights abuses since January of 2008.
Anonymous has done the research on connections with Scientology of the Six Stooges. They are:
Gus M. Bilirakis - 9th District of Florida, Republican and Greek Orthodox member of St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs
Dan Burton - 5th District of Indiana, Republican and member of East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis
Bob Inglis - 4th District of South Carolina, Republican who attends Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Travelers Rest, SC.
Trent Franks - 2nd District of Arizona, Republican and member of North Phoenix Baptist Church.
Diane Watson - 33rd district of California, Democrat and Catholic
Frank R. Wolf - 10th District of Virginia, Republican and Presbyterian. He sits on the House Appropriations Committee and is co-chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.
Long-time Scientology critic and activist Barbara Graham writing at Daily Kos has summarized the congressmen's' Scientology connections.
Watson, Burton, and Inglis sit on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The significance of the religious affiliations of politicians
Publicly Scientology proclaims it is compatible with all religions, that one can be a Catholic or Baptist and a Scientologist at the same time. Internally, Scientology members are forced to give up such alternative practices under threat of punishment.
Scientology is utterly inimical to the beliefs and practices of all authentic religions of the great faith traditions. No church believes that Scientology is an authentic religion.
- German Lutheran Presiding Bishop of Bavaria Johannes Friendrich toured schools warning of Scientology's dangers, denouncing its claim to be a church as "a pack of lies".
- Papal Nuncio to Hungary Archbishop Karl-Josef Rauber has called Scientology "a totalitarian business."
- In February the Catholic Primate of Canada, Archbishop Marc Ouellet of Canada spoke twice in criticism of Scientology saying "It is not a church". He also defended Anonymous' right to free speech. The Cardinal's earth-shaking remarks been ignored by the Catholic News Agency and the Catholic blogosphere as well as the secular press outside of Quebec.
- Evangelical Christianity boasts two women who escaped the Sea Org and now have ministries to the abused survivors of Scientology. They are Bonnie Woods in England and Karen Pressley in Atlanta.
Bonnie maintains the Escape Ministry to aid families whose relationships have been destroyed by Scientologists. With Bonnie Woods' support, Susan Talbot journeyed from England to Los Angeles, hoping to see her daughter Amanda in the Sea Org after nine years of not knowing where she was or even if she was alive. OSA made sure Susan was not able to see Amanda.
Bonnie has just published Deceived, a moving and distubing account of her personal experience of Scientology abuses. It is available for download at her site, and may be purchased at Amazon US and Amazon UK.
Karen Pressley established the Wings of Love ministry in Atlanta. She has spoken on Scientology on the wonderful program The Things That Matter Most in Texas hosted by Evangelicals Rick Davis and Lael Arrington. Damian DeWitt of For Great Justice also recently appeared on the show.
- The Orthodox church in Greece has condemned Scientology. It pursued a long campaign to prevent Scientology from establishing a presence as a religious organization. In the process, OSA attempted to defame and destroy Greek Orthodox priest and cult fighter Father Antonios Alevizopoulos.
American Greek Orthodox Bishop Maximos Aghiorgoussis of Pittsburgh. has also pointed to the psychological dangers of Scientology auditing (counseling) and its dealings with the occult.
The handwriting is on the wall for these six members of Congress and other politicians associating with Scientology.
Gus Bilirakis has a big fat Greek Orthodox problem
A poster on the Anonymous activist forum Why We Protest (WWP) posted the comment below addressed to Gus Bilarakis. Scientology's important Flag Land Base in Clearwater lies in his district. (I have corrected spelling and orthography errors):
Well, Representative Gus Bilirakis. Damage has been done.Tarpon Springs is a community of 35,000 and is known for its substantial Greek community. Bilirakis is a member of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
Last night I met with my friend, a Greek, in a wealthy and influential Greek family in the Orthodox church of Tarpon Springs where you are from and a member of the church. My friend was appalled at the info I had about your dealings with the cult. Conversation something like:
Me:"By the way, do you know Gus Bilirakis?"
Greek:"Gus? Oh yea, of course! He's great, my dad knows him really well."
Me:"You know he supports Scientology?" This is where I show my friend dox.
Greek:"WTF. I can't vote for him now. I gotta tell my dad this."
Me:"Will this news not go over well at church this weekend?"
Greek:"No it won't. Greeks hate Scientology."
Pick your friends better, sir. And I'd advise no more letters supporting the cult to other countries if you want to keep office. Have a good one.
In January crowds of people up to 60,000 people are drawn to the church's Epiphany celebration. After the blessing of the waters, the Bishop tosses a cross into Spring Bayou. As many as 60 young Greek men then dive into the water to retrieve the cross for a special blessing.
In 2006, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinope threw the cross into the water, and the Ephiphany celebration was broadcast on the Hallmark Channel.
That is how significant Tarpon Springs is in the Orthodox world in the US and indicates what a disaster associating with Scientology is going to be for Gus Bilirakis.
I have dwelt at length on the religious affiliations of politicians because it is a scandal for them to be associated with Scientology. Furthermore, now that Cardinal Ouellet has spoken other religious leaders will also speak up, particularly those with strong human rights, social justice and anti-human trafficking programs.
The churches cannot ignore Scientology's human rights abuses. All of them are committed to combatting human trafficking. In the Washington Post last week, Mrs. Clinton published an eloquent statement on human trafficking and President Obama's commitment to ending it. .
Rathbun and Rinder are exposing the violence, abuse, and coercion of human trafficking in the Sea Org. The three Van Sickle cases all allege human trafficking slavery in the Sea Org domestically.
It is known from accounts by former Sea Org members that Sea Org human trafficking also takes place in other countries, across international borders, and has involved minors.
Apparently Sarah Palin has gotten the messsage
Sarah Palin will wisely continue to distance herself from John Coale and Greta Van Susteren. It was a scandal that she as a pro-life icon was associated through them with a church whose management coerces every single pregnant woman on its Sea Org staff to abort.
Republican, Catholic, and Evangelical members of Anonymous quietly informed her through back channels that her association with the Coales spelled disaster. She has recently limited her public contact with them and appears to have gotten the message.
Sea Org also staffs Scientology's intelligence and secret service agency, the Office of Special Affairs (OSA). OSA is responsible for developing relationships of political influence and neutralizing opposition from churches by infiltration of inter-faith groups. OSA is also responsible for interrogation of Sea Org members with lie detectors in frequent security checks.
One of the most shocking of the Rinder-Rathbun revelations is confirmation of use of material from Scientology members' purportedly confidential counseling files for these investigations.
This was actually confirmed by the Church of Scientology in its attack on the four courageous defectors. Speaking of Scientology lawyer Monique Yingling and spokesman Tommy Davis, the St. Petersburg times writes:
Yingling and Davis said the church doesn't relish using documents from ethics files. But after the four defectors spoke out against Miscavige, the lawyer and spokesman said they had no choice.
You can watch The Times video of Tommy Davis' response here. It is a vehement rant in which he repeatedly calls Marty Rathbun psychotic.
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Every Republican and Democratic politician associated with Scientology and particularly those associated with it through the National Foundation of Women Legislators (NFWL), which is thoroughly infiltrated by Scientology agents, needs to re-examine her relationship with the organization and its many fronts groups. See here, here, and for Arizona, here.
NFWL's treasurer is Scientologist Bruce Wiseman, President of the anti-psychiatry hate group and Scientology front organization, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). See here for an account of CCHR spreading its potentially lethal psychiatric misinformation among students at Concordia University in Montreal.
Republican Jeff Stone is doomed
The politician most entangled with Scientology at a local level is Republican Jeff Stone, a Supervisor of Riverside County in California. He has just kicked off his campaign for Senator of California Senate District 36 in 2010.
He is doomed by these revelations.
Stone has shown himself to be a complete tool of OSA from Gold Base, the international headquarters of Scientology. Gold Base lies between Hemet and San Jacinto about 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Last October Stone introduced a revision to the county's residential picketing ordinance on behalf of OSA at Gold Base. It was intended to eliminate protests by Anonymous of its human trafficking slavery of members of the Sea Org and forcing Sea Org women to abort when they get pregnant.
Respected UCLA constitutional law scholar Eugene Volokh flatly declared it unconstitutional. To convince the Board of Supervisors to pass an ordinance, Stone passed to his fellow supervisors a scurrilous 53-page booklet defaming Anonymous. He denied he had received it from OSA at Gold Base. His prevarication has been relentlessly exposed by Anonymous in board of supervisors meetings.
In order to win Stone has to build a constituency in heavily Republican, Evangelical, Catholic and Hispanic eastern San Diego where he currently does not have a base of support..
All of these constituencies will be appalled by his association with Scientology. The City of La Mesa has just defeated a Scientology attempt to restrict free speech through the Hate Free San Diego campaign.
The FBI
Another reason politicians should tremble is that it appears inevitable that the FBI will sooner or later publicly announce an investigation. One cannot imagine that the Courageous Four have told everything they know to the St. Petersburg Times.
There are other issues at stake other than David Miscavige's penchant for assaulting his executives. Human trafficking is an important one. Another is perjuries to the IRS by David Miscavige alleged by former high-ranking Sea Org executive Lawrence Brennan. If proven, they threaten the loss of the Church of Scientology's religious tax-exempt status.
It is likewise difficult to believe that the Courageous Four would have spoken to the Times without having told what they know to government officials and been assured of some sort of legal immunity. Over the past year there have been numerous contacts and ongoing conversations between the Bureau and former Scientologists and critics.
Politicians now have every incentive to reinforce the urgency of whatever investigations the FBI is making. Their political future depends on it.
They have absolutely nothing to gain from associating with David Miscavige's version of organized Scientology.
More to come
The St. Petersburg Times has perfomed a great public service in the finest tradition of newspaper investigative reporting. There are more revelations to come in Parts 2 and 3 of Truth Rundown.
Part 1 contains inside information on Scientology's successful hounding of the IRS to get its religious tax-exemption. It also reveals the cover-up of the most scandalous death due to Scientology medical and psychiatric malpractice, that of Sea Org staffer Lisa McPherson. Rinder admits he destroyed incriminating evidence about the medical neglect that led to her death.
Part 2 promises us more details on Scientology's cover-up of the death of Lisa McPherson. She was a Sea Org staffer and is the iconic martyr to Scientology's medical and psychiatric malpractice.
Part 3 is devoted to further detailing of abuses of the Miscavige regime and its internal Sea Org police and punishment systems.
A final note
Attorney Barry Van Sickle and his defendants have shown extraordinary courage in filing their three lawsuits. With the Rinder-Rathbun revelations of the abuses within Sea Org, one can now understand clearly what risk of re-traumatization they have undertaken in courageously speaking out and pursuing justice in the courts.
These cases are an opportunity for socially-conscious law firms to join Van Sickle in what may be precedent-setting cases in Federal Court in the 9th Circuit.
The Rathbun-Rinder revelations now raise the possibility of a flood of heretofore intimidated former Scientologists coming forward to file claims and the possibility of class-action lawsuits.
Barry Van Sickle welcomes inquiries from attorneys interested in finding out more about the cases and supporting them. You may contact him as follows:
Barry Van Sickle
1079 Sunrise Avenue
Suite B-315
Roseville, CA 95661
(916) 549-8784
What you can do to help
Anonymous welcomes members of the public who wish to educate themselves or become engaged in ending human trafficking and other human rights abuses.
Anonymous have compiled a useful booklet called Some Facts about Anonymous and Scientology which you can download, print, and present to congressional representatives and community and church leaders.
Anonymous activists and former Scientologists have established Reaching for the Tipping Point. RFTTP is a forum intended for members of the general public where they can ask questions and dialogue with former Scientologists and human rights advocates. It is particularly geared to local communities concerned about Scientology infiltration of schools and community organizations.
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