legal fair game

September 28, 2003

The Scientology organization has just opened what it calls its “ European Office for Public Affairs and Human Rights” in Brussels, and published on its website its “Proclamation on Religion, Human Rights and Society.”¹

Scientology is a notoriously bad actor in the area of human rights, and its Brussels office is a glitzy gambit in its deceptive, cruel and dangerous “human rights” operation and campaign. Scientology’s campaign calls for a counter-campaign to expose the deceit and the cruelty, and to drum this cult out of the human rights business until it cleans up its own human rights abuses.

Scientology is no promoter or defender of basic individual human rights, but a suppressor and destroyer of these rights. In fact, what Scientology seeks as a human right, and what it has pumped so much money into its “human rights” office and its “human rights” campaign to achieve, is the “ human right” to eliminate individual human rights. The “rights” Scientology seeks, and which its “human rights” crusade cloaks, are “ rights” that no nation or organization, religious or not, should be given.

The clearest and undeniable proof of Scientology’s anti-human rights intentions and actions is what this cult has done for over twenty-one years, and is actively doing right now, to destroy my own basic rights.²

The almost inconceivable, but very dirty truth is that all of Scientology’s corporations and offices, and every affiliated group or company, and all of their directors, officers, employees, volunteers, agents, and even their lawyers, are compelled, by their own contract, to destroy basic human rights. This contract webbed on my site, and what the Scientologists have done to enforce it, are irrefutable proof that the cult’s “human rights” office and crusade are utter frauds.³

In his message announcing the opening of the Brussels “human rights office” Scientology’s figurehead president Heber Jentzsch states:

Scientologists have, over the past five decades, worked tirelessly to defend and uphold human rights and religious freedoms — not only to preserve their own rights, but to guarantee the rights and freedoms of every citizen. The freedoms of speech, choice, thought and belief are sacred, and their violation can always be found at the root of any conflict.⁴

What a rotten lie from Mr. Jentzsch! He is the person who signed the “contract” for the Scientology cult that binds virtually every Scientologist to be a human rights destroyer.⁵; ⁶

Scientology states as the first tenet in its “proclamation,” that:

Every person, regardless of race, colour, sex or ethnicity, is a spiritual being, worthy of respect and deserving of dignity.

Yet Scientology’s actual policy and practice is that anyone the cult’s leaders designate as an “enemy” is a “suppressive person, ” or “SP,” with no rights whatsoever, who is to be subjected to the cult’s notorious “fair game law.” The “SPs” Scientology targets comprise perfectly good people, most of whom have done nothing more evil than leave the cult, or ask for return of money defrauded from them, or simply “grant credence” to a person labeled an “SP.” ⁷

In one of his policy letters, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard detailed how Scientologists were to treat such “SPs,” or “fair game enemies:”

ENEMY — SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.⁸

By the laws of any civilized country, “fair game” is a criminal philosophy, policy and practice, intended to destroy human rights, and human lives.

Scientology states in its “human rights proclamation” that:

Every person has a right to associate with others, to organize with them for religious purposes and to express, practice and publicly promulgate their religious beliefs.

Yet this cult has paid huge sums to terrorize me, bankrupt me, and to obtain court orders in the U.S. to have me hunted down, arrested and jailed, for nothing more than expressing my religious beliefs. In patent contradiction of its “human rights” stance, the cult even boasts on its own Internet hate site of its orders for my arrest.⁹

In truth, the cult’s orders against me are unlawful, and obtained by unlawful means, including by threat and fraud. Since Scientology insists that it is a “religion,” “organized solely for religious purposes,” it is no more lawful to jail and fine me for expressing my religious beliefs about Scientology than it is to jail and fine someone for expressing his Christian or Muslim or Buddhist religious beliefs. The cult’s court orders against me demonstrate, beyond any argument, that it seeks nothing like what it states in its “proclamation,” but in truth seeks the wholesale eradication of individual human rights.

Scientology has threatened scores of people with its “ religious” persecution machinery — by fair game, by using the law to harass, and by “black propaganda” — for nothing more than the “crime” of associating with me. Black propaganda, or “black PR, is the cult’s term for its practice of destroying people’s reputations and lives with the relentless and wide dissemination of lies and defamation. The amount of black propaganda Scientology has published and distributed over the past two decades about me and people who would associate with me is staggering.¹⁰
A June 2002 letter from a Scientology lawyer to Professor Stephen Kent, a prominent sociologist at the University of Alberta, is illustrative of the cult’s execrable efforts to prevent anyone from associating with me.¹¹

Contrary to what Scientology’s lawyer states in his threat letter, Dr. Kent had never been in Europe with me, never appeared with me at any public gathering in Europe or anywhere else, and had never appeared at any gathering at any time with an “anti-religious agenda.” I also have never appeared at any gathering with an anti-religious agenda, and do not have an anti-religious agenda. I am as religious as the next person, and the assertion that Dr. Kent or I have an “anti-religious agenda” is despicable. But it is common, everyday black propaganda from Scientology, manufactured not only for its defamatory effect, but to create an atmosphere to justify further, more violent attacks in execution of the Scientologists’ own agenda, which truly is anti-religious.

Literally dozens of my friends and contacts have been threatened by Scientology for the “suppressive act” of associating with me. Many of my friends have been terrorized by the Scientology cult into not assisting me, not associating with me, and not even granting me credence. Scientology’s rationalization for its inhumane attacks on my associates and me is the cult’s “ religious” dictate I am a “suppressive person,” and therefore have no rights. In truth, Scientology “suppressive person doctrine” makes the cult a hate group, which should be opposed by every human being with a heart and a brain.

Scientology states in its “human rights proclamation” that:

Everyone has the right to hold opinions without interference and the right to freedom of expression, which includes the freedom to discover, receive and disseminate information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally or through any media of his or her choice. No one may be subjected to any sort of restraint, disadvantage or sanction because of his or her expression, opinions or beliefs.

What, however, if, as is the case with Scientology, the expression is the restraint or suppression of expression, opinions or beliefs? Or if the expression, as again the case is with Scientology, is the fair gaming, hunting down and jailing someone for daring to express his opinions or beliefs? Should not the restrainer and suppressor of the expression of beliefs be restrained?

Through threat and through corruption of the California justice system, Scientology has sought and obtained orders which assess me U.S. $50,000, and jail me, for any expression of my experiences, opinions or beliefs in connection with the cult. If I even say the word “Scientology,” the cult claims, I must pay $50,000 and be jailed. Scientology also claims that all of its corporations, groups and affiliates, and all of their directors, officers, employees, volunteers, agents and lawyers may black PR me, may say whatever they want about me, no matter how false, perverse or defamatory, and I cannot respond. If I respond to defend my reputation or person from their attacks, they claim that I must pay them $50, 000 and be jailed. Not only is this an obliteration of my right to freedom of speech and expression, but also it is an annihilation of my right to due process.

What Scientology seeks, with its court orders, threats and fair game, to prevent me from speaking is not false or defamatory statements, but the truth, or my beliefs and opinions about that truth. What the cult seeks to prevent me from speaking and writing is just the kind of information the whole world needs access to in order to be able to make informed decision about this organization. What Scientology is punishing me for saying, with astronomical penalties and jail sentences, is exactly the kind of information the cultists claim in their “human rights proclamation” may not be subjected to any sort of restraint or sanction.

Although what Scientology is doing to silence me, and punish me for not being silenced, must sound unbelievable, its latest lawsuit against me filed last year is inarguable proof of these facts and the cult’s anti-human rights, anti-justice and antisocial agenda. Scientology seeks U.S. $10,050,000 from me for two hundred instances in which I voiced my opinion, ideas or beliefs about the cult. In this lawsuit, Scientology also sues one of my friends Robert Minton for giving me a computer, because, the cult claims, it facilitated my expressing my experiences, opinions and beliefs about that “religion” and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard.¹²

Hubbard was no humanitarian as Scientology portrays him. He was a bully, a liar and a misanthrope. In 1984, a California Superior Court Judge, in the first of six cases in which Scientology has sued me, stated of Hubbard:

In addition to violating and abusing its own members civil rights, the organization over the years with its “Fair Game” doctrine has harassed and abused those persons not in [Scientology] whom it perceives as enemies. The organization clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder LRH. The evidence portrays a man who has been virtually a pathological liar when it comes to his history, background and achievements. The writings and documents in evidence additionally reflect his egoism, greed, avarice, lust for power, and vindictiveness and aggressiveness against persons perceived by him to be disloyal or hostile¹³

Just as Hubbard was no humanitarian, his cult of Scientology, with its “suppressive person doctrine” and “fair game law,” and its threats and lawsuits to silence good people, is no humanitarian organization, and is pursuing no humanitarian or human rights goals. Not only, however, is Scientology a human rights abuser and destroyer, but what the organization and its members are doing with me demonstrates that they comprise a global criminal conspiracy. What they are doing with me is a U.S. Federal crime, specifically a violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Sec. 241, which states:

If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; …
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; ¹⁴

Every Scientology corporation and office, including the cult’s “human rights office” in Brussels, and all affiliates groups or companies, and all of their directors, officers, employees, volunteers, agents and lawyers have conspired, and continue to conspire, to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate me in the free exercise and enjoyment of rights and privileges secured to me by the U.S. Constitution and laws. These rights and privileges include, but are not limited to, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, due process, freedom from slavery, self defense, litigant’s privilege, clergyman-penitent privilege and doctor-patient privilege.

Because of what the Scientology organization and virtually every Scientologist are doing to me, it is accurate to call this cult a criminal enterprise. Because it is a criminal enterprise, of course, and because it is continuously perpetrating criminal acts against me, I cannot lawfully be silenced about that enterprise or those acts. Scientology’s efforts to silence me about its criminal acts, in fact, only confirm the cult as a criminal enterprise. Scientology’s new “human rights office” in Brussels and its entire staff are acting in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy.

The threat, stress and ugliness of being targeted as a “suppressive person” and fair gamed by this vicious, and at the same time unctuous, Scientology organization is devastating. It has ruined any sense or hope of normalcy and peace in my life. The cultists or their hired operatives have assaulted me on multiple occasions, terrorized me on the freeway, manufactured false evidence to file more than a dozen criminal charges against me including with the FBI, framed me with crimes, sued me six times, black PRed me around the world, run continuous intelligence operations to entrap me, and threatened to assassinate me. I believe that the cult’s leaders would commit or order any crime to silence me and destroy me.

I am not the only individual that Scientology is targeting, and seeking to silence by threat or by unlawful “contract” in violation of its own “human rights proclamation.” There are thousands upon thousands of “suppressive persons” who are victimized and whose lives are harmed and threatened by this hateful and criminal doctrine. I just happen to be an average person who by the Grace of God was not shuddered into silence as the Scientologists want, and who along the way documented some of the cult’s antisocial and criminal actions.

I am not attempting to stop Scientology or Scientologists from enjoyment of their basic human rights, and neither is anyone else. It is the cult and its cultists who are attempting to destroy human rights, while proclaiming that they are defending and promoting the rights that they are destroying. At any time over the past seventeen years, Scientology could have cancelled its contract by which its members are compelled to suppress and destroy human rights. But this “ contract” shows that it is more valuable to Scientology and Scientologists to suppress and destroy basic human rights, even if doing so is a U.S. Federal crime, than it is to actually respect human rights. Not one Scientologist, out of all the tens of thousands bound by the cult’s “contract,” has ever objected in all those years to either the destruction of human rights or his or her participation in this global criminal conspiracy.

Scientologists as the defenders and upholders of human rights and religious freedoms is like having the Taliban as defenders and upholders of women’ s rights. Scientology guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of citizens is like the Ku Klux Klan guaranteeing black people’s civil rights. This cult and its members preserving human rights and providing help for those in need is like having the Nazis as the preservers of the rights and dignity of the Jews. The Taliban, the KKK or the Nazis opening up an opulent “human rights office,” along with a nice speech by a director of the Hannah Arendt Institute, would be a sick joke and a terrible threat to women, blacks and Jews. Scientology’s “human rights office” and its “human rights campaign” are just as sick and just as threatening to the cult’s suppressive persons.

Just as governments have a duty to defend and preserve the rights of the classes of citizens who comprise women, blacks and Jews, governments also have a duty to defend and preserve the rights of the class of citizens who comprise “suppressive persons.” Just as governments have a duty to oppose and restrain anti- human rights organizations like the Taliban, the KKK and the Nazis, governments have a duty to oppose and restrain the human rights destroying Scientology cult. And Scientologists have a duty, as human beings, to either stop the suppressive “suppressive person doctrine,” and stop destroying people’s human rights, or stop being Scientologists.

Gerry Armstrong
c/o Dialog Zentrum Berlin
Heimat 27
D-14165 Berlin-Zehlendorf
Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 30-8472-3958
Fax: +49 (0) 1212-5205-27015
E-mail: gerry@gerryarmstrong.org

Notes