THE DARK SIDE OF SCIENTOLOGY
... a film from the German television magazine, "Gesucht wird ...", broadcast in the first program by ARD on April 2, 1997, filmed by Botros and Koch, TV reporters from Bremen:
(translater's note: Egmont Koch sounds like Jacques Costeau. Whenever you see these brackets, read in a slow, deliberate voice with a French accent.)(in italics--Sue)
February 1997, Los Angeles. We have called the police for assistance. Our chief witness, Garry Scarff, former Scientology agent, is suffering a nervous breakdown.
Garry Scarff: They're going to kill me and they know where my parents live.
5 days earlier, Clearwater, Florida. Shooting some scenes in front of the Fort Harrison Hotel, the spiritual headquarters of Scientology. We are immediately photographed by one of the organization's security men. Garry Scarff knows the game. Until 1992, Scarff was on the other side, a Scientology agent. Then he defected and became an embittered opponent. Weeks before he had told us of penal camps, mysterious deaths, and even of, in 1991, a planned murder. We wished to pursue these serious accusations against the organization. Scarff, shown here on the right, wanted to help us. We are also accompanied by Martin Ottman from Stuttgart, on the left. He worked until 1992 as a member of the paramilitary Sea Org, the elite unit of Scientology here in Florida.
The presence of Scarff and Ottman makes the Scientology staff members very nervous. Never before have former members of the sect who possess such an intimate knowledge appeared on television with such serious accusations.
Scientologist #1: How much are you getting paid for this?
Scientologist #2: What's happening here is a joke.
Garry Scarff: I was on staff of the Office of Special Affairs, OSA. That is like the intelligence service of Scientology. That is where the nerve center, the "war room" is, in the headquarters in Los Angeles. The organization has a special computer and communications network which they use to collect and evaluate information on the activities of Scientology critics worldwide around the clock.
Scarff has given extensive testimony under oath as to his activities for the Office of Special Affairs.
Reporter: Did you participate in any criminal activities?
Garry Scarff: One time there was an assignment to which I was supposed to later testify under oath. At the time I claimed my right to remain silent, and will do so again today. Otherwise I would go to prison for a very long time. The take [loot] from that assignment went directly to the OSA intelligence service.
Meeting to plan the footage for the next day. We want to try to track down alleged inmates of the organization. The so-called "Rehabilitation Project" (RPF) is, in reality, a labor camp of the Sea Org, says Garry, for members who have failed in their assigned duties on post. Also somebody who has not brought in enough income must go into the labor camp. Martin Ottman has regularly observed black-clothed inmates in a Scientology living quarters, the so-called 'hacienda.'
Early the next morning on the way to the "hacienda." Once again we recall the directives of the organization for the so-called 'Rehabilitation Project':
(Personal restrictions and punishments:
may only speak when spoken to,
sleeps and eats in an area separate from others,
has no liberty.)
Garry Scarff: There is a inmate. They are having a meeting. They are sitting in a circle together. There he is, there he is. He is making a security check. He is running. Look, he's running.
Martin Ottman says that the prisoners must always be in motion. Occasionally, as punishment, they must run around a tree for days at a time.
Reporter: What is hidden behind the concept of "Rehabilitation Project"?
Ottman: It is a type of punishment camp, about the same way I would picture a gulag from Stalinistic Russia to be.
Reporter: How could a lay person envision a labor camp such as this?
Ottmann: First of all you receive black clothes which you have to wear everyday. You have to work at least 16 hours a day. You have to explain your own case for five hours a day. And you have no contact of any sort with the outside world.
Reporter: But the people don't leave. They can leave but they don't do it.
Ottman: Yes, but they are dependent upon it. They have been made dependent and they have made themselves dependent upon Scientology. From their perspective, their lives depend completely upon Scientology and they would rather be humiliated that way than turn away from Scientology.
On the way to Cape Corell. Martin has recommended that we speak with Hanna Whitfield. We read again what she has stated under oath: "Sea Org members were often locked up in a dark, dirty and smelly hole in which rats lived." Garry and Hanna Whitfield were members of the elite unit, the Sea Org, for years. Hanna even made it to Deputy Commodore, representative of Scientology's Founder, Hubbard.
Hanna Whitfield: These pictures were taken in the early 1970's. That's me in the middle. That is Diana, the oldest daughter of Ron Hubbard and his third wife, Mary Sue. Here I am again. That is Hubbard's daughter and his son, Quentin. My loyalty to Scientology knew no bounds, nevertheless I was accused of having bad thoughts about Hubbard. That was my alleged crime. I was dragged by two powerful men to an area in Fort Harrison which was next to the garage. The punishment camp was on the second and third levels. I was locked for two days in a room without windows, all by myself. I didn't have a bed, nothing at all. Just a mattress on the floor. The lights were sometimes on, sometimes off. We had to perform a lot of repair work. We did the dirty work. Cleaned the bathrooms and the rest rooms. And when they did construction work in Fort Harrison, we had to carry away the refuse in buckets from the highest floors, then carry mortar back up. We were not allowed to use the elevators.
Here is the three level garage at Fort Harrison, and a black-clothed Scientologist, apparently an inmate. A co-inmate of Hanna's was even chained in the basement.
Hanna Whitfield: She worked for the Guardian's Office. Today it is called the Office of Special Affairs, OSA, and it's like the CIA of Scientology. The undercover espionage department of the organization. Linn had the assignment of conducting certain inquiries in Washington. She found irregularities and wanted to have the case investigated. Her employer had decided against that, however, and wanted to cover up everything. As a result, Linn was sent to the punishment camp at Fort Harrison. They chained her to a pipe there. She was locked in the basement for 2-3 weeks. She slept down there. She ate down there. She was forced to clean the pipes. Sometimes I thought of calling the police for assistance. As soon as I'd think of doing that, it would occur to me that that would be the greatest crime against Hubbard and the organization. I could not have done that in any case.
We made an appointment to speak with Sergeant Greg Tita, the Sheriff of Pinellas Country, where the Scientology enclave of Clearwater is located. We have learned that there is even a penal camp for children in the organization. An internal report talks about cadets who tried to flee [from it].
Tita: I've had run-away cadets here that must have gone into the children's prison camp. Pinellas County has also had experiences with Scientology children. In a visit to the cadet school, my colleagues have determined that there were signs of child neglect and abuse. They wrote up a report and the case was forwarded to the juvenile office. However, Scientology lodged a complaint against the publication of the report in the press and won. It is still sealed today. I don't think that it has to do with a dispute over the investigation, they just wanted to make sure no information got to the public.
Ariane Jackson can assess what happens with Scientology children. She was forced to separate from three of her four children.
Ariane Jackson: At the time they were two, four and six years old. Scientology put them in a children's establishment, later they made cadets out of them. That was 10 years ago.
Later she had only sporadic contact with them. Since Ariane has left Scientology, she may no longer see her children.
Reporter: Can you still remember leaving them?
Ariane Jackson: I hate to think about it. They climbed into a special bus. An older man from the Sea Org tore me away and pushed me into the car. I could still wave to them and then we drove to the airport.
Reporter: Does it often happen that children are separated from their parents?
Ariane Jackson: Yes.
Reporter: Do you know of other cases?
Ariane Jackson: Yes, if the partners separate in a divorce and one of them is in the Sea Org, then that is the better person. The children are awarded by the organization. Then what could be better for their children than Scientology training, Scientology schools, just Scientology everything.
The Clearwater police station is within line-of-sight distance of the Fort Harrison Hotel, the headquarters of Scientology in Florida. We again meet Ariane Jackson there the next day. Martin Ottmann has talked her into giving testimony in an investigation which the police are in the process of investigating. It has to do with the mysterious death of a young Scientologist who was last seen alive in Fort Harrison. Garry Scarff also wants to support the investigation, and has offered his assistance to the investigating officials.
Lisa McPherson, shown here with her mother, died in December, 1995 under mysterious circumstances a short time after she had successfully graduated a Scientology course. Lisa had wanted to leave the sect, said the family's attorney. After a nervous breakdown, 17 days before her death, the organization completely isolated her inside Fort Harrison.
Kennen G. Dandar (attorney): Our research has determined that she was unconscious. She received no nourishment, no water. She was extremely dehydrated. Before she lost consciousness, she was beating against the walls.
Reporter: How do you know that?
Attorney: The Scientologists themselves have admitted that she beat against the walls.
According to the autopsy report, Lisa must have received strong medication before her death.
Reporter: In order to sedate her?
Anwalt: Whether she fell into the coma because of the sedative, or whether she had a psychological breakdown that led to the coma, in any case they were very late in deciding to bring her to the clinic. And instead of driving her to the nearest hospital which was only a few blocks away, she was brought 20 miles away to the Columbia New Port Ritchie Hospital. A Scientology doctor worked there. They had called him up in advance. He said, yes, bring her to me.
Was Lisa already dead when she arrived at the hospital? According to the Scientology doctor in the clinic, Lisa died in the emergency room as a result of a bacterial infection. Was the report falsified? In any case, it contains a false birth date. Besides that, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Lisa McPherson said that no sign of an infection was found. It was much more likely that she had died from severe dehydration. Scientology has complained before a court in Clearwater about the release of test results from the autopsy. The case has raised considerable apprehension. Did Lisa McPherson die because she was locked up and because she was denied any medical care? This was the question Sergeant Wayne Andrews was trying to answer as he led the police investigation in the McPherson case. He was not ready to appear in an interview. However, he let us research other cases in the police archives. We came across a series of peculiar deaths among the Fort Harrison guests in the past 20 years. These also included German Scientologists.
South of Clearwater. This is where Sergeant Greg Tita, who was working for the harbor patrol at the time, found a man's corpse in the water. It was later determined to be that of Andreas O., a 38 year old German, Chief of the Stuttgart Scientology Mission. He had apparently been in Florida for months. Scientology was unhappy with him and his sales. They had prescribed special courses for him. Despite the no-swimming zone and although a storm was fast approaching, the German had gone into the water two days prior. He believed, we later learned, that as a Scientologist he had supernatural powers. According to the police report, the Scientologists had given a false name for the missing German before the body was found. In order to mislead the police? Tita found that somewhat remarkable.
There are still other unexplained deaths among the guests of the Fort Harrison Scientology Hotel on record:
-- 1980 Suicide: The woman suffered from depression, but was not permitted to take any medication for it.
-- 1980 A puzzling death in a bathtub full of boiling hot water. Probable drowning.
-- 1988 Death by drowning. Unexplained circumstances, accident, murder or suicide.
-- 1989 Death in the basement near the boilers, carbon monoxide poisoning.
-- 1988 Death in room 758. The victim: a 31 year old German man.
According to investigation documents, Heribert P. died the night of August 28, 1988 while suffering a severe epileptic seizure, during which time he hit his head on the nightstand. Until early 1988, he had been treated by Dr. Klaus Ballin, a doctor from Munich. He, also a Scientology adherent, was coincidentally also in Fort Harrison at the time. A swimming pool is in the rear of the hotel, so that people can relax between their expensive courses. Heribert P., son of a well-to-do construction contractor, also apparently enjoyed his life in the Scientology refuge up until his death.
Back in Germany, in Friedrichshafen am Bodensee. Here is where the German lived. We wanted to look into the case because the police report has made us curious. It said that despite regular seizures, the Scientology doctor had prescribed vitamins for his patient instead of medication which would prevented the seizures. Those would not have been discovered in his blood at the autopsy. His mother said that the Scientologists had promised to cure her son without medication by giving him expensive courses in Florida. Immediately following his marriage, at the recommendation of his wife, Heribert was treated by Ballin, the Scientologist doctor. The mother is still very upset.
Mother: A human life is not a factor for this organization. You don't just cavalierly make promises that you can't keep.
Reporter: Do you believe that the death of your son, Heribert, could have been prevented if he would have been taking his medication?
Mother: Unconditionally.
The mother thinks that Heribert had wanted to give huge amounts of money to Scientology.
Mother: It wasn't until after his death that we learned that he had called from a bank in Florida requesting a loan of a half million. The reason he gave was that he would like to procure real estate in Florida.
Reporter: And what do you think the money was really for?
Mother: It would have gone straight to Scientology.
End of part 1
(This transcript can be found at http://cisar.org/vidmenu.htm. It's after Bob Minton's Sat1 show and Larry Wollersheim's TAF show. Part 2 will probably be ready for Sunday.)
Joe Cisar
German Scientology News - http://cisar.org
Two Lies: Billion Year Contract, "Freeloader's Debt"
Continue to Part 2
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