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| Mike Rinder Engaged in Illegal Videotaping of Gerry Armstrong as Part of Fair Game |
Hi Alanzo:
Thanks for tackling the Scientology v. Armstrong saga, and for your supportive and helpful comments over some time.
My history really is complex and the facts endless. But I sense too that you appreciate facts and like to have yours right. So I have tried here to provide what facts I knew about a few of the things you wrote about, or add some thoughts or documents to create a clearer picture. I make an effort to keep the record as accurate as reasonable.From the original post:
After leaving Scientology, Gerry Armstrong was declared a Suppressive Person and marked Fair Game by the Church of Scientology for releasing Hubbard's true biographical information which proved much of what Hubbard wrote about himself in his "About The Author" sections of his books, and told about himself in his lectures, were lies.
Gerry Armstrong's comments:
"I was actually declared a Suppressive Person before I released any Hubbard biographical information. I didn’t even really possess the materials that would be released until after I was declared.'
"I possessed these materials while working on the Hubbard biography inside the cult. I delivered these materials, or copies usually, to Omar Garrison as a hat function and contractual duty from October 1980 until I left the Sea Org and Scientology in December 1981. The Scientologists declared me in February 1982, although I didn’t learn about it until a couple of months later, around the time they published a second, scarier declare. Sometime after that, being declared and knowing what that meant, I asked Omar for documents to send to my attorneys for my defense, and he gave them to me. These included the documents that were released in the Scientology v. Armstrong trial in LA Superior Court in 1984.
From the judgment, which was affirmed on appeal:'
"While defendant has asserted various theories of defense, the basic thrust of his testimony is that he did what he did, because he believed that his life, physical and mental well being, as well as that of his wife were threatened because the organization was aware of what he knew about the life of LRH, the secret machinations and financial activities of the Church, and his dedication to the truth. He believed that the only way he could defend himself, physically as well as from harassing lawsuits, was to take from Omar Garrison those materials which would support and corroborate everything that he had been saying within the Church about LRH and the Church, or refute the allegations made against him in the April 22 Suppressive Person Declare. He believed that the only way he could be sure that the documents would remain secure for his future use was to send them to his attorneys, and that to protect himself, he had to go public so as to minimize the risk that LRH, the Church, or any of their agents would do him physical harm."
"This conduct if reasonably believed by the defendant and engaged in by him in good faith, finds support as a defense to the plaintiff’s charges in the Restatements of Agency, Torts, and case law."
[…]
"On February 18, 1982, the Church of Scientology International issued a “Suppressive Person Declare Gerry Armstrong,” which is an official Scientology document issued against individuals who are considered as enemies of the Organization. Said Suppressive Person Declare charged that Defendant Armstrong had taken an unauthorized leave and that he was spreading destructive rumors about Senior Scientologists.
"Defendant Armstrong was unaware of said Suppressive Person Declare until April of 1982. At that time a revised Declare Was issued on April 22, 1982. Said Declare charged Defendant Armstrong with 18 different “Crimes and High Crimes and Suppressive Acts Against the Church.” The charges included theft, juggling accounts, obtaining loans on money under false pretenses, promulgating false information about the Church, its founder, and members, and other untruthful allegations designed to make Defendant Armstrong an appropriate subject of the Scientology “Fair Game Doctrine.” Said Doctrine allows any suppressive person to be “tricked, cheated, lied to, sued, or destroyed.”
"The second declare was issued shortly after Defendant Armstrong attempted to sell photographs of his wedding on board Hubbard’s ship (in which Hubbard appears), and photographs belonging to some of his friends, which also included photos of L.R. Hubbard while in seclusion. Although Defendant Armstrong delivered the photographs to a Virgil Wilhite for sale, he never received payment or return of his friend’s photographs. When he became aware that the Church had these photographs, he went to the Organization to request their return. A loud and boisterous argument ensued, and he eventually was told to leave the premises and get an attorney.
"From his extensive knowledge of the covert and intelligence operations carried out by the Church of Scientology of California against its enemies (suppressive persons), Defendant Armstrong became terrified and feared that his life and the life of his wife were in danger, and he also feared he would be the target of costly and harassing lawsuits."
"In addition, Mr. Garrison became afraid for the security of the documents and believed that the intelligence network of the Church of Scientology would break and enter his home to retrieve them. Thus, Defendant Armstrong made copies of certain documents for Mr. Garrison and maintained them in a separate location."
"It was thereafter, in the summer of 1982, that Defendant Armstrong asked Mr. Garrison for copies of documents to use in his defense and sent the documents to his attorneys, Michael Flynn and Contos & Bunch."http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50k/legal/a1/283.php
After the Church of Scientology supposedly settled with Gerry in court, Gerry was followed, photographed, videotaped and harassed. Attempts were made to run his car off the freeway.
"These incidents happened before the supposed settlement, which was in December 1986. Although a similar set of incidents happened after the settlement, I believe you are referring here to incidents that happened before the “settlement.”
"Some of these incidents were mentioned in the 1984 judgment.
"After the within suit was filed on August 2, 1982, Defendant Armstrong was the subject of harassment, including being followed and surveilled by individuals who admitted employment by Plaintiff; being assaulted by one of these individuals; being struck bodily by a car driven by one of these individuals; having two attempts made by said individuals apparently to involve Defendant Armstrong in a freeway automobile accident; having said individuals come onto Defendant Armstrong’s property, spy in his windows, create disturbances, and upset his neighbors. During trial when it appeared that Howard Schomer (a former Scientologist) might be called as a defense witness, the Church engaged in a somewhat sophisticated effort to suppress his testimony. It is not clear how the Church became aware of defense intentions to call Mr. Schomer as a witness, but it is abundantly clear they sought to entice him back into the fold and prevent his testimony."
On top of all that, the Church of Scientology, including Mike Rinder, set him up in a sting operation involving a mysterious group of Scientologists called "The Loyalists." in 1984.
"I wrote a couple of declarations on this operation:
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/legal/decl-1994-02-20.html
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/legal/decl-1994-02-22.html
The "Loyalists" were supposedly a group of high ranking members of the church who were dissatisfied with how David Miscavige was running Scientology after Hubbard had gone into hiding. Hubbard eluded the law after the govermnent raided the church and sent ten top officials to prison. Hubbard remained in hiding the rest of his life.
The "Loyalists" turned to Gerry for "help" in planning a coup from which they would gain control of the church. Gerry met with two representatives of The Loyalists to discuss possible scenarios.
The first person Gerry met was a man named David Kluge who met with Gerry on November 7th and 9th of 1984.
Next, Gerry met another member of The Loyalists...Mike Rinder. Rinder is the head of the Office of Special Affairs which is the "dirty tricks" branch of the church. Rinder met with Gerry twice. First on November 11th and then again on November 30, 1984.
"The person who set up my meetings with the “Loyalists,” or rather set me up in meetings with the “Loyalists,” was Dan Sherman, the current Hubbard biographer and Miscavige speech writer. The Scientologists started operating him to get close to me right after I left.
"See the “Armstrong Project,” which is dated February 17, 1982.
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/gerry-armstrong-project.html
"Sherman was the GAS, or Guardian Activities Scientologist, identified in step 15 as a writer I respected, that the Scientologists used to get close to me and ultimately set me up in their videotape operation.
Step 15) Persue the potential existing line that might be available to us via a trusted GAS who is a writer and who is respected by Gerry. This would require some reach from Gerry, though, as he might be suspicious if this GAS made a big reach for him.
"The Scientologists published their first declare on me the next day, February 18.
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/ga-sp-declare.html
Gerry didn't know that these meetings in the park were being videotaped by a Scientology hired P.I. and that both Kluge and Rinder were wired.
"The videotaping was unlawful. That’s why Miscavige, Rathbun, Rinder, et al. paid a corrupt LAPD Officer to sign an “authorization” to do the videotaping, and commit other crimes against me, my attorney and others. LAPD Chief Daryl Gates denounced the operation and the officer was suspended from the force."
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/legal/police/gates-announcement.html
These tapes were used by Scientology in the court trial involving Julie Titchbourne in Portland, Oregon in 1986. Julie sued the church for fraud and Gerry was called as a witness. To try to discredit Gerry as a witness in that trial, the church played these tapes.
After the trial, the jury was polled and it was very clear that the church's plan backfired. Most jurists agreed that the tapes made the church look terrible. Furthermore, Gerry appeared to be a good man trying to help clean up the corruption in the church.
This same jury found Scientology guilty of defrauding Titchbourne and awarded her a massive $39,000,000 victory.
Next the church took these tapes and had them edited into a 20 minute video which they sent to media outlets to discredit Armstrong. This truncated version was narrated by Heber Jentzsch and edited by a woman who would one day be another thorn in Scientology's side, Stacy Brooks.
______________________________
When I was first getting involved in Scientology, in 1984, I was shown the Church's tape to convince me that "evil SPs were out to destroy the Church".
"It was doubtlessly 1985, because the Scientologists only “broke” the news that they had videos in April 1985, which was the Julie Titchbourne trial, although a year earlier than what you have. Scientologists, both staff and public, were then brought into viewing rooms in the orgs, shown the Heber version, and recruited and/or regged to support the war against those evil SPs they told you about.
"I heard somewhere that the cult targeted $150 million to be regged with their unlawfully obtained, and perverted video of me. The Scientologists used the video to get other Scientologists to write, meet and pressure Federal officials.
http://sp.gerryarmstrong.ca/wordpress/archives/tag/fbi
"The Scientologists have used their videos in court cases and in black PR efforts against me around the world for 27 years.
"This past December I found this same black PR being spread around the world by one of Scientology’s covert agents in the religious freedom field, Joseph K. Grieboski.
"Gerald Armstrong is a former clerk in a Scientology organization. Armstrong intended to seize assets of the Church of Scientology. When attorneys of the Church discovered the plan, they obtained permission from the Los Angeles police to conduct an investigation into Armstrong’s plans. The investigation caught Armstrong on videotape stating that he intended to forge and then plant incriminating documents on Church premises, to be discovered in a subsequent raid. When challenged on how he would obtain proof of the allegations he intended to make, he responded that: “We don’t have to prove a god dam thing. We don’t have to prove shit. We just have to allege it.”
http://www.gerryarmstrong.ca/archives/147Mike Rinder had posed as a "loyalist" to LRH who only wanted to rid the Church of David Miscavige in order to restore "true Scientology" once again.
Sound familiar?
"Loyalist Redux. Any more of them and you’d have to get your reduxes in a row. From Caroline in 2012 on OCMB:
"My short answer is that Rathbun and his Free Radicals have not left Scientology, despite all their usual smoke, mirrors, button tech and "PR." I don't know that they have looked, observed or reasoned anything, or that they've taken off the same blinders. The possibility that Rathbun et al.'s actions are a Loyalist Redux op cannnot be dismissed. Their steadfast refusal to look further than Miscavige, or their implying that this is their mo, is evidence of standard Scientology, KSW, on-Source, etc., and shows that their Scientology operating system is still intact. "
http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=31906&start=59Some text above excerpted from this site. For more videos on this False Flag Operation by Mike Rinder and the Church of Scientology, see this link.
And remember,
those who do not learn
the history of Scientology
are doomed to be manipulated by it.
