Citizen Complaint Count 3

(Martin Ottmann)

Count 3: The covert intelligence operations against American citizen Alexander Dvorkin and other critics in Russia, that were initiated in 1994 and supervised by the "Office of Special Affairs International" and "Office of Special Affairs Europe" and that included the infiltration and manipulation of the Russian judicial system and the employment of agents of the Russian FSB.

Scientology did set its foot on Russian soil as early as 1988 with the Soviet Union still in place. A report about his visit to Moscow from the then "Deputy Commanding Officer" Michel Moatty of the Scientology publishing company "New Era Publications International" was printed in the membership magazine "Impact" which claimed Soviet government's interest in some Scientology books on marketing techniques [Exh. No. 310, Excerpt].

Four years later, after the downfall of the Soviet Union, Scientology increased considerably its efforts to open up the country and any of its potential markets for the Dianetics and Scientology "technology." In another article of Impact magazine from November 1992 the overall situation for Scientology was enthusiastically described as a historic challenge for the Scientologists, because of "the tremendous public demand for LRH's technology [Exh. No. 311, Excerpt]." The article contained additionally an interview with an executive from Scientology's marketing entity "Golden Era Productions," Gabrielle Allen, who unwittingly predicted the organization's future way of "doing business" in that country when she emphatically described the esprit de corps of the Scientologists who were busy disseminating their philosophy:

"They definitely have a bit of a pioneering spirit and are ready for some adventure. What happens then is that their viewpoint on dissemination and planetary clearing really expands. It becomes real, that we could really get ethics , tech and admin IN in a WHOLE culture and that it can happen rather quickly. Our postulates in Russia are strong, but we are still a long way away in terms of ability to operate in a secure field and start making Clears unimpeded. We just need to move fast, take the opening now, and get the technology to them. "

Within the next four years, the management of Scientology moved several executives from its headquarters in Copenhagen to a newly established base of the Sea Organization in Moscow, an "Operation, Transportation & Liaison Office" (OTL) which was incorporated as a non-profit association, called "Hubbard Humanitarian Center." The OTL assumed the function of a regional management entity, responsible for all Scientology operations in the confederate states of Russia and its bordering countries.

An Impact-article from June 1995 portrays the first "Commanding Officer" of the OTL, Austrian Walter Kotric and features on the front page a picture of the other executives, including the "Commanding Officer OSA CIS (Confederation of Independent States)" Diethelm Alisch and his Public Relations Officer Birthe Heldt [Exh. No. 312, Excerpt]. All three of them, Kotric, Alisch and Heldt, had been employees of the "Church of Scientology Advanced Organization Saint Hill Europe" in Copenhagen and later returned to Denmark in 1997 and 1998. They were replaced by Sue McLintock, the new "CO OTL CIS" [Exh. No. 313, Excerpt], the Hungarian Lajos Fritzlauf, "CO OSA CIS," and the Russian Aleksey Danchenkov, "PR OSA CIS." While the Scientologists had envisioned an unhindered expansion of their dissemination efforts at the beginning of their operations at the early 1990s, they had to face extensive scrutiny by the public and the Russian government during the upcoming years:

-Several government tax-cases were pending against the Scientology-missions in Moscow, Habarovsk, Omsk, Cheboksary, Voronizh, Ufa and Nizhni-Novgorod.

- The Moscow Mission and the OTL had been raided by the Finance police several times in 1998 due to several illegalities that even were admitted in an internal correspondence [Exh. No. 314].

- On June 19th, 1996 the Ministry for Public Health & Medical Industry issued an order that prohibited the use of Scientology's "purification rundown" or "detoxification program" in public health facilities [Exh. No. 315], after it was found out that Scientologists, among them ex-"Guardian's Office" spokesperson David Gaiman, were involved in a scandal at the medical facilities of the city of Obninsk, where children from the Chernobyl-area were subjected to sauna tours and a vitamin-diet that should cure them from the after-effects of radiation.

- Similar as in Greece, dozens of parents complained about the estrangement of their children, after they had joined Scientology and disconnected from them. The complaints finally caused an investigation by a Moscow prosecutor and a revocation of the license of the "Hubbard Humanitarian Center [Exh. No. 316]."

- After the Russian Orthodox Church began to look into the activities of Scientology and similar groups it established within its Publications department a counseling and information center on cults in 1994. When the Scientologists found out that the head of the center, Alexander Dvorkin, was not necessarily an ally of them [Exh. No. 317], he was treated from then on as an enemy. In 1996 under the guidance of the "Office of Special Affairs" a coalition composed of several "new religious movements" was formed: the "Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Conscience" [Exh. No. 318]. Subsequently the Committee initiated a gigantic, media-supported libel suit against Dvorkin and the Orthodox Church for the publication of a book critical of Scientology and its allies. After a lengthy trial, the suit was dismissed on May 21st, 1997 [Exh. No. 319, Excerpt]. An appeals court later upheld the judgement on February 24th, 1998.

All these activities happened more or less out in the open, but "under the surface" the Church of Scientology was conducting its secret intelligence operations as it had been laid out by the late Hubbard and the management in Los Angeles and as it had been done before in other countries. Nevertheless several OSA documents were later confiscated by the government or ex-Scientologists brought them to light.

At the beginning of the OSA-operations in Russia were strategy programs, written by the Scientology management in Copenhagen and Los Angeles. These programs specified the individual activities of the Russian Offices of Special Affairs, and the execution of such programs was controlled by senior executives at OSA Europe and OSA International.

On March 14th, 1996 the Commanding Officer OSA Europe issued such an order to his counterpart in Russia, Diethelm Alisch, to implement a management-program, execute it and report about its progress regularly to OSA Europe [Exh. No. 320]:

"SAME TIME SUCH AS THE BUILDING CYCLE, STUDEMA, ETC. YOUR CURRENT PRIORITIES ARE SPECIFICALLY THE OTL PREMISES, THE SITUATION WITH STUDEMA, THE OVERALL ARM SCENE AND CONNECTED SITUATIONS I.E. POTENTIAL ANTI-RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION. PREDICTION IS VITALLY NEEDED AS PER OSA NW ORDER 35, ESPECIALLY ON ARM AND THE OVERALL POLITICAL SCENE.

"YOU ALSO NEED TO GET BACK ONTO THE EXECUTION OF LAST YEAR'S OSA CIS MASTER PROGRAM AND YOUR MORE RECENT RECOGNITION PROGRAM. THE CIS MASTER PROGRAM MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED SINCE THE SCENE HAS CHANGED AND IN THIS CASE, PLEASE GET THIS DONE RAPIDLY AND SEND ME A COPY OF THE REVISED PROGRAM. I EXPECT TO SEE REPORTS AGAINST THESE PROGRAMS, REPORTS ON DONES AND CRS, STARTING ASAP.

"AS ONE OF YOUR FIRST ACTIONS, SEND AN OVERALL REPORT, GIVING AN OVERVIEW OF THE EXTERNAL SCENE, ONGOING THREATS, EXISTING PREDICTION AND POINTS OF INTEREST, INCLUDING BUT NOT RESTRICTED TO THE AREAS LISTED ABOVE. THIS IS PER HCO PL WHAT AN EXEC WANTS ON HIS LINES AND OSA NW ORDERS 9 AND 42. PLEASE, LET ME HAVE THIS ASAP.

"MLV, CO OSA EU"

Besides the execution of the "OSA CIS Master Program" Alisch had to pay special attention to the already mentioned OSA Network Order 35, "Intelligence Estimations and Predictions [Exh. No. 96]," a document in which Hubbard outlined the establishment and organization of intelligence files for the Guardian's Office. Hubbard's philosophy in intelligence matters was led by the idea that prediction on the activities of Scientology's enemies could be achieved by compiling information on them en masse and creating so-called "special banks."

How seriously the Russian Office of Special Affairs took the implementation of this program and the Network Order 35 was demonstrated in several internal documents, ranging from the years 1996 until 1998.

On October 1st, 1996 OSA-Agent S. Tkachenko forwarded an internal report to his superior Diethelm Alisch [Exh. No. 321], informing him about an on-going investigation of the Russian counter-intelligence agency FSB into a local Scientology-organization:

"1. The source from KGB [sic] said that they have sent an order from the federal FSB to investigate Scientology via banks, the tax office, the police and the SAS.

"2. One should increase the blockage of any information and not make it possible to get it into the hands of the authorities.

"Tkachenko S.

"P. S. additional: [On] 29.09 [she] informed us that the FSB hadn't recommended to conduct active operations. The list contains 11 religious organizations, besides Scientology. The source said that actions wouldn't be conducted but they would secretly surveil and observe. The federal KGB has information about the connection of [not legible] A. and [not legible] in Moscow."

Besides getting "predictions" from the FSB, the Office of Special Affairs was also eager to be informed about what was going on in the area of law inforcement, i. e. offices of certain District and General Attorneys. In 1997 OSA agent Shilov reported about his contacts in Voronizh [Exh. No. 322]:

"Situation in Voronizh

"I [earlier] have sent a report from Geolina Gromova that the District Attorney from the Voronizh region insisted to continue the investigation of the Dianetics Center of Voronizh and would probably open a criminal investigation because of illegal business.

"The criminal investigation had been closed before, due to lack of evidence.

"I have information that there is indication from the District Attorney General to close down Dianetics, and this information was affirmed by Klueva Elena, who has a relative in the office of the District Attorney of the Voronizh region.

"It is very possible that the actions -- Refusal of registration of the Center, the charge of having an illegal business, black propaganda in Voronizh and Novo-Voronizh newspapers -- have actually been planned.

"We don't know yet who exactly ordered to investigate the Dianetics Center of Voronizh again. I asked Elena Klueva to keep in communication with her uncle who is staff of the District Attorney's office in Voronizh, as she earlier had given him literature and as now new issues have been published, it is necessary to send him new literature.

"Besides that his wife has been interested in Dianetics and it is necessary to keep her in communication with the following method: `I had a meeting with your niece in Moscow. She's well. She's very good and a respectable specialist and she asked to say hello and to give you this booklet. If you want I can explain you something because I studied many courses myself and I had so many successes , now I study , it's fantastic!'

"To reach an agreement to stay in further contact, to provide her with theta information (theta information = good news)."

To have knowledge about any potential intelligence assets within the public membership, the other staff of the Russian Scientology missions were informed about the basic needs of Scientology's secret service. In a dispatch from February 16th, 1997 by OSA executive Vitold Shlopak, a former officer of the Russian Navy wrote [Exh. No. 323]:

"Dear Diana,

"I am interested in two categories of new people:

"1) People which are connected to those levels of population and those organizations, which are important to the spreading of the LRH-tech and which are important for our security. Those are ministries and government agencies, especially Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Health, Federal Security Service, Office of the Attorney General, mass media, tv, politicians, celebrities, VIPs and those who are close to them. "

As earlier mentioned, due to his publications about the organization and his public criticism on Scientology, Alexander Dvorkin had become a major thorn in the side of the Church of Scientology in Russia. In a memorandum from July 11th, 1997, which recapitulated a discussion she had had with a Scientology ally, PR Officer Birthe Heldt anticipated the idea of forcing the American citizen Dvorkin out of the country by the means of an intelligence operation against him within the United States [Exh. No. 324]:

"Besides the above input on the current scene Sivertsev expressed his disagreement on us having given attention to Dvorkin e.g. in the court case against him as such attention equals advertisement for Dvorkin. Further he asked why we did not use the fact that Dvorkin has US citizenship and was in the US for quite some time and then locate his whereabouts and his connections while he was over there? This would be possible he said. The point is there are some vested interests connected with Dvorkin, Sivertsev mentioned that he knew Dvorkin was connected with the American Orthodox Church.

"We do need to invest in research in the US on Dvorkin and get him out of Russia or fully D.A.ed. [D. A.ed = Dead Agented = compromised] "

On August 19th, 1997 Alisch sent a lengthy report to his superiors to Copenhagen and Los Angeles, reporting about the current political situation in Russia in view of an upcoming law that would restrict the activities of controversial religious groups [Exh. No. 325]. In the report Alisch also informed the Scientology management about an investigation on local government officials in the Saint Petersburg area:

"THROUGH THE INVEST PROJECT LAJOS IS DOING IN ST. PETERSBURG THE CONNECTIONS AND PEOPLE BEHIND THE ATTACK ON THE SCN CENTER ST. PETERSBURG ARE BEING UNEARTHED. WHILE THAT PROJECT IS NOT COMPLETE YET, IT HAS STARTED TO SHOW UP CERTAIN `FAT FILES' WHICH CONNECT STRAIGHT TO MOSCOW, AND THERE ARE NAMES THAT APPEAR AGAIN AND AGAIN. AND THEY ARE COMMIE NAMES. IN OTHER WORDS, THE LOWER LEVEL PLAYERS HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED, AND WE NOW NEED TO MOVE UPWARDS TO FIND THE PUSHERS BEHIND THE SCENE.

"OUT OF THE ST. PETERSBURG PROJECT WE GOT TO THE TOP ATTACKER IN THE ST. PETERSBURG AREA. WE NEED TO DO THE SAME IN THE MOSCOW AREA ON FEDERAL LEVEL, AND WE WILL DO THIS THRU A SIMILAR PROJECT AS THE ST. PETE ONE, BUT ALSO THRU INDIVIDUAL POWER COMM LINE CONTACTS, E.G. THE FRIEND OF ANDREJ S. WHO ALREADY INDICATED THAT HE KNOWS WHO IT IS AT PRESIDENTIAL LEVEL THAT IS PUSHING THE LAW PROPOSAL."

In 1997 the Church of Scientology was very concerned about the attention it was creating for the FSB, so it used its allies and spies to follow up any speculation that would fit into OSA's idea of a grand FSB-conspiracy directed against Scientology, as the following report from Nizhni-Novgorod written on September 16th showed [Exh. No. 326]:

"Dear Birthe,

"Yesterday, 15.09.97, Ovzhinikova Tatiana, ED HKC-I, told, that she had spoken with the head of the region parliament, Anatoly Bojtsev. He said that the real source of black propaganda, as he would knew, was the chief of the local FSB, Osin. That man came to Novgorod not long ago. He had communications with the governor M. M. Prusak and he told him black propaganda about Scientology. Tatiana asked me to send this information to you and Diethelm Alisch. This is true. Durova"

At the end of the year, Lajos Fritzlauf became the new Russian "Commanding Officer" of the Office of Special Affairs. Like his predecessor Alisch, he was keeping himself informed about any important incidents within the Attorney General's Office in Moscow. Luckily for Fritzlauf, a public member and contracted agent was working as a prosecutor in the A. G.'s office and had evidently access to sensible information there with regards to Scientology, as it was shown in a report from December 26th, 1997 [Exh. No. 327]:

"Dear Lajos,

"today came a fellow with the name Wladimir Fjodrevich Wassilijew. He is a student of the Moscow Dianetics Center and a pc. He works for the Office of the Attorney General. He works as a prosecutor. I have a contract with him, so he helps me. he says that they are preparing an attack against the Dianetics Center. He was told that a mother told the Attorney General that the Dianetics Center ruined her daughter. He doesn't know any names and I told him to find them out and that I would contact him after New Year again.

"They hide this information from him as they know that he studies at the Moscow Dianetics Center. He also needs answers to questions about Hubbard. For that I will ask Birthe. With respect, Sergey."

While all these intelligence operations were going on, the Church of Scientology was not shy to involve the U. S. States Department in its efforts to intimidate the Russian government by trying to utilize its annual Human Rights reports to brand Russia as a violator of Scientology's freedom of religion, so the government would finally cease to investigate the activities of the organization. On January 3rd, 1998 for example, "Temporary CO OSA CIS" Birthe Heldt informed the senior executive Klaus Büchele from OSA International about difficulties in utilizing American government officials in view of a recent personnel change at the U. S. embassy [Exh. No. 328]:

"Re: Russia/US human rights annual report

"Dear sir,

"I got your comm and contacted the US embassy, found that Mr. Webber has left his post and that the data for the state department's annual human rights report was written and submitted at the end of 97. I spoke to the person, who now cares for the area of human rights, Mr. Paul Marten, who said he will observe the religion law in use and another collegue [sic] will care for human rights issue, but that collegue is on hollydays [sic] currently.

"I asked Mr. Martens if he had to write data on the situation of religion law and human rights and violations etc. in this context I found that the data for the annual report already was completed in December and submitted and that he forthwith is to collect data on how the new religion law is applied and regularly report on this to Washington.

"We agreed to meet after 20th January as he until then will be occupied by visit of congressmen coming to russia to look at how the religion law is put to use. ml Birthe T/CO OSA CIS"

During 1998 OSA continued to skim off intelligence information from its public members and to use their valuable family relations. The message from a PR Officer on March 23rd also reflects OSA's preoccupancy with any investigation by the FSB and its lack of reflection towards its own illegalities [Exh. No. 329]:

"INVEST DATA: ONE STUDENT IN OTL, IRINA BORISENKOVA TOLD TO D/PRO OSA ABOUT INTENTIONS OF MOSCOW GOVERNMENT. HER BROTHER MERKULOV IS A CHAIRMAN FOR RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS IN THE MOSCOW GOVERNMENT. HE INFORMED HER ABOUT THE STRATEGY TO CLOSE DOWN SCIENTOLOGY ORGS, WHICH IS BEING WORKED ON BY THE MOSCOW GOVT.

"HE TOLD HER THAT IT IS A STRATEGY OF MOSCOW GOVT. IN COOPERATION WITH ORTHODOX CHURCH. HE ALSO INFORMED HER THAT THE REASON FOR SUCH MOTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT IS THAT SCIENTOLOGY ORGS ARE NOT GIVING MONEY TO THE TAX BODIES. THE GOVT. DOESN'T CONSIDER IT A RELIGION AS IT DOESN'T HAVE RELIGIOUS RITUALS AND IS NOT REGISTERED AS A COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATION.

"HE ALSO INFORMED HER ABOUT AN ORDER ON THE GOVT. LINE TO NOT GIVE ANY COOPERATION TO SCN ORGS. SHE COULDN'T GET AN ORDER IN HER HANDS, BUT WILL SEE IF SHE CAN IN THE FUTURE. SHE AGREED TO ALERT OTL IN ANY CASE OF PREPARED ATTACK. THERE IS NO WRITTEN CONFIRMATION OF THESE DATA YET.

"HE ALSO SAID TO HER THAT THERE ARE FSB AGENTS INSIDE OUR ORGS WHO GIVE DATA TO FSB. ANOTHER THING HE TOLD HER IS THAT THE MAYOR'S OFFICE & FSB CAN'T CLOSE US DOWN RIGHT AWAY AS THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH COMPROMATING [sic] MATERIALS ON US."

A strategy paper of OSA's Public Relations Division, drawn up in June 1998 [Exh. No. 330], demonstrates the way the Church of Scientology "lobbied" Russian politicians by smearing foreign governments, which were critically of Scientology, through so-called "Dead Agent-Packs":

"HANDLING OF ENTHETA [bad news] IN THE STATE DUMA, COMMERSANT DAILY, KRIVELSKAYA MEDIA

"1. PRODUCE THE DA PACK.

"2. GET IT INTO HANDS OF ILIUKHIN (STATE DUMA DEPUTY) IN PRIVATE MEETING AND MAKE HIM SEE ALL THE POINTS AND SEE WHAT ARE THE REAL FACTS. USE GERMAN NEWS AS A MAIN FACTOR OF INFLUENCE AND SHOW THAT GERMAN ATTACK LINES ARE NOT VALID.

"3. GET A COPY TO THE DUMA CHAIRMAN SELEZNIOV IN THE PRIVATE MEETING.

"4. PLACE A SEPARATE COPY IN THE DUMA RELIGION COMMITEE.

"5. PLACE A COPY IN THE PRESS-SERVICE OF THE DUMA.

"6. PLACE A COPY IN THER [sic] DUMA LIBRARY.

"7. PREPARE A DEAD AGENT PACK FOR COMMERSANT-DAILY AND GIVE TO THE CHIEF EDITOR. SHOW HIM THE EXACT FACTS. DISCREDIT HIS OWN SOURCE OF THE DATA FOR THE ARTICLE.

"9. MAKE A PRESS-RELEASE ON THE GERMAN DATA WHICH IS SHOWING THAT GERMAN GOVERNMENT IS NOT DOING RIGHT, SHOW THE INFILTRATION OF DVORKIN ON THEIR LINES AND USE A DATA FROM THE GERMAN GOVT. OFFICIALS SAYING THAT THIS CYCLE IS NOT VALID. ISSUE THE PRESS-RELEASE ON 12.06.98 BROADLY.

"10. LOOK INTO THE ARTICLE OF KRIVELSKAYA AND PREPARE A SHORT DA PACK FOR HANDLING OF HER ENEMY LINES. USE THE PRESS-PACK AS WELL AS DA PACK ON GERMANY. DELIVER THE DA PACK ON MONDAY, 15.06.98, TO HER PARTY, CHIEF IDEOLOGIST IN LDPR, AND KRIVELSKAYA PERSONALLY.

"11. IN THE SAME TIME ORGANIZE SEVERAL ORTHODOX SCIENTOLOGISTS, WHO COULD WRITE TO HER, GO TO HER AND POINT OUT THAT THEY ARE DISAPPOINTED AND SHOW THAT THEY WILL NOT SUPPORT HER ON THE NEXT DUMA ELECTIONS. "

Despite all of Scientology's secret operations, on February 25th, 1999 the Moscow Mission was finally raided by the Finance Police and several computers and files were seized. In an article, published in November 1999, the "Tatjanin Den" magazine listed the names of dozens of individuals, who had been investigated by OSA and whose files were found during that raid in the offices of OSA. The dossiers were filled with negative and/or private information and had been created in standard fashion for the purpose of future counter operations and possible defamation campaigns [Exh. No. 331]:

"Duma members Victor Tchernorydin, Valeri Borshov, Vitali Savitski, Sergey Kovaljov, Wladimir Schirinowski, Nina Krivilskaya,

"Bishop Jevgeni, Bishop Tikhon, Archbishop Pitirim, Archbishop Arseni, Archbishop Alexander, Priest Michael Ardov,

"Journalists Alexander Dvorkin, Alexander Jegortsov,

"Minister and former minister Sergey Shojgu, Kulikov, Victor Jerin, "

Besides the files on public officials and journalists, the police also found one particular dossiers which showed Scientology's evident interest in finding suitable allies for covert operations: The file was titled "Ex-KGB agents."

The activities of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs in the three countries, France, Greece and Russia prove that the Church of Scientology indeed never abolished criminal conduct as a means to push through its expansion plans, even if it again includes the infiltration of government agencies.

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