Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (43 page)

I am actually acting on all Scn. [Scientology] lines
in one way or another ... I am actually operating also as AG [Assistant Guardian]
office USB [US Bureau of the GO?] almost totally single hand ... there will be
an LRH private office at the FH [Fort Harrison] (that is easy as I just drive
in the garage and enter the third floor-garage elevator hall door and go on up.
There will possibly be a personal office at the bank bldg. if they get it
clean. This is rougher as one has to step out of a car and walk to the door).

Probably my best layout is to get very well known in
the CW area with a camera in my hand and my Universal News press card taking
pictures of “beautiful CW” which is the local button (they
hate
tourists
and also retired people). My photo-shoot people will continue, as I have a
whole org for that sort of thing ... So I think the exact plan will be that I
play operations above security, slide in on personal PR as that well known
photographer very visible with a whole crew camera in hand and living in a
nearby town. Not push it. Just let it seep in. My portrait of the mayor will
hang in city hall never fear...

And we count on your B1 [Intelligence Department] to
very quickly pre-alert any trouble so I can go fishing until you handle.

AND WE COUNT ON YOU GUYS TO MOW IRS DOWN AND WIN
ACROSS THE BOARDS.

That is the way it will have to be played within the
realities of the scene ... So the program is attached.

GO Program Order 158, “Early Warning System,” issued on December
5th, 1975, instituted Hubbard’s orders regarding his personal security.
Distribution of the Order was highly restricted. Security was to be maintained
by placing agents in the Offices of the United States Attorney in Washington
and Los Angeles, the International Operations department of the IRS, the
American Medical Association in Chicago, and several government agencies in
Florida. Agents were already in place in the Coast Guard, the Drug Enforcement
Administration, and the IRS in both Washington and Los Angeles. This was not a
matter of a small persecuted religion infiltrating government agencies to
expose immoral actions committed by those agencies. In reality, it was a matter
of protecting Hubbard from any inconvenience, let alone any litigation.

The Guardian’s Office was in full swing especially its
Intelligence section, B1. On December 5, “Project Power” was issued. Its
purpose was to make United Churches indispensable to the Clearwater community.
The Guardian’s Office was to investigate the opponents of community leaders,
using a
minimum
of illegally obtained information. United Churches would
give this information to the community leader in question, and offer to make
further investigations on his or her behalf. GO Operations would be mounted
against such opponents. The example given in the Guardian’s Order concerned a
fictitious child molester called Mr. Schultz. Having obtained the mayor’s
permission to see what might be done to enhance the local park, outraged
officials of United Churches would catch Mr. Schultz in the act. A GO Operation
would then ruin Schultz completely. Its purpose was to “establish the indispensability
of United Churches” to the Clearwater community:

The overall plan is to locate opinion leaders – then,
their enemies, the dirt, scandal, vested interest, crime of the enemies (with
overt data as much as possible) [i.e. using a minimum of
covert
or
illegally collected data] Then turn this over to UC [United Churches] who will
approach the opinion leader and get his agreement to look into a specific
subject (which will lead to the enemies’ crimes). UC then “discovers” the scandal,
etc., and turns it over to the opinion leader for his use. Ops [operations] can
be done as a follow up if needed to remove or restrain the enemy.

Example: B1 finds the Clearwater Mayor as an opinion
leader and Mr. Shultz as his enemy. Overt (and suitable guise) investigation of
Shultz shows him to like little girls and that he walks in the park every
Sunday when he attempts to drag little girls into the bushes. B1 turns this
data over to UC. UC goes to the Mayor and gets his OK to look into “what can be
done to beautify Clearwater City Park.” Shortly after the Mayor gives his OK to
look over the park, UC discovers that there are undesirables in the park and
turns the data over to the Mayor. Several days later UC “discovers” that Mr.
Shultz molests little girls in the park and turns that over to the Mayor
managing to get press on the whole park campaign and to make a friend of the
Mayor. Now if Shultz is also a potential enemy of ours (which he might be after
the above is done) [sic] and the Mayor or newspaper hasn’t removed him from a
position of power then Ops does.

There was also an instruction to do a complete survey of the
county to determine who was hostile to Scientology. There was also an instruction
to “fully investigate the Clearwater city and county area so we can distinguish
our friends from our enemies and handle as needed.” There were to be dossiers
on medical societies, clinics, hospitals, police departments, public relations
agencies, drug firms, Federal, state and local government agencies, the city
council, banks, investment houses, Congressional Representatives and Florida’s
two Senators.

The directive called for the protection of Scientology
“against any potential threat by taking control of the key points in the
Clearwater area.”

As part of his new image, Hubbard directed a radio show for
United Churches. Amazingly, no-one seemed to realize that United Churches was a
front for Scientology. Hubbard bustled around wearing a tam-o-shanter and a
khaki uniform. Reverend Wicker, of the Calvary Temple of God, later said, “They
introduced him to me as Mr. Hubbard, but that didn’t mean anything to me - they
said he was an engineer ... When I saw his picture in the paper, I felt like an
idiot.”
⁹

The plans to win favor with the mayor of Clearwater did not
materialize. Before Mr. Shultz could be caught molesting little girls in the
park, Mayor Gabriel Cazares started asking questions. He made a public
statement: “I am discomfited by the increasing visibility of security
personnel, armed with billy clubs and Mace, employed by the United Churches of
Florida ... I am unable to understand why this degree of security is required
by a religious organization.”
¹⁰

Cazares was added to the Enemies list. He was followed onto
it by a journalist at the
Clearwater Sun
,
¹¹
who ran a story
saying that the check paying for the Fort Harrison Hotel had been drawn on a
Luxembourg bank. A day later the Guardian’s Office put into effect a plan to remove
journalist Bette Orsini from The
St Petersburg Times
.”
¹²
She
was closing in on the truth about the United Churches of Florida.

The Scientologists actually managed to pre-empt Orsini’s
story by a matter of hours. On January 28, 1976, a spokesman announced that the
purchasers of the Fort Harrison Hotel and the Bank of Clearwater building were
none other than the Church of Scientology of California. He reassured local
people that although half of the mysterious new occupants of the buildings were
Scientologists, United Churches would not be used to convert people to
Scientology.
¹³
On the same day, June Phillips (aka Byrne), joined
the staff of the
Clearwater Sun
. Although the
Sun
paid her
salary, she filed daily reports with the Guardian’s Office.
¹⁴

The next day, the Scientology spokesman said that if United
Churches was not successful in its mission to bring harmony to the religious
community (!), then the Fort Harrison would become a center for advanced
Scientology studies. Then he made a series of allegations about the mayor,
saying his “attack” was motivated by personal profit.
¹⁵

Clearwater was the site for the new “Flag,” the “Flag Land
Base.” Even before the buildings had been occupied, a new American Land Base
had been promoted to Scientologists throughout the world.
¹⁶
United
Churches was just another shore story. Suddenly the town was swamped with
youths in sailor suits, and a new kind of tourist with a fixed stare.

The Hubbards and their retinue had moved into a block of
apartments called King Arthur’s Court, in Dunedin, about five miles north of
Clearwater.
¹⁷

Hubbard decided to outfit himself with some new clothes. He
did not follow his usual procedure, ordering the clothes from England via his
personal secretary at Saint Hill. Instead he saw a local tailor, who turned out
to be a great fan of his science-fiction, and promptly boasted about his
meeting with the famous author. The newspapers soon followed the tailor’s lead.
¹⁸

Hubbard was very shy of publicity by this time, perhaps
because of his increasingly poor health and appearance. The superman revered by
Scientologists could not be seen to be a grossly overweight chain-smoker with a
pointed lump on his forehead. Worse yet, Hubbard was afraid he would be
subpoenaed to appear in one of the many court cases involving Scientology.
Taking only three devoted Sea Org members with him, Hubbard fled Dunedin. His
photo-portrait of the Mayor of Clearwater never did hang in City Hall.

Hubbard had continued to direct the Guardian’s Office,
including the attack on Gabe Cazares. He personally ordered that Cazares’
school records be obtained, perhaps believing that everyone lies about their
academic qualifications.
¹⁹

In February 1976, the Guardian’s Office in Clearwater was a
hive of activity. The
St Petersburg Times
was threatened with a libel
suit. Cazares was more than threatened: A million dollar suit was filed against
him for libel, slander and violation of civil rights.
²⁰
As Hubbard
had said in the 1950s, “The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage
rather than to win ... The law can be used very easily to harass.”
²¹
Scientologists went to Alpine, Texas and pored over records concerning the
Cazares family at the county clerk’s office, the police department, the office
of the Border Patrol, and the local Roman Catholic church. They talked with
doctors, long-term residents, even the midwife who had delivered Gabe Cazares.
The Cazares’ headstones in the graveyard were checked.
²²
The GO
decided that the Gabriel Cazares who had been born in Alpine, Texas could not
possibly be their man. Obviously the accounts did not accord with their image
of a Suppressive enemy of Scientology.

A GO official assured his seniors that a “handling” of the
Clearwater Chamber of Commerce was also underway (a Scientology agent had
already joined).
²³
A Scientologist had applied for a job at The
St
Petersburg Times
.
²⁴
A dossier had been prepared on the
Clearwater City Attorney
²⁵
and “data collections” had been made on
three reporters perceived to be enemies.
²⁶

A radio announcer who had been making broadcasts unfavorable
to Scientology was fired after threat of legal action. He was rehired only
after promising not to discuss Scientology on his program.
²⁷

These actions were bound to provoke some response. The Guardian’s
Office probably did not realize that their “enemies” would fight fire with
fire. The
St Petersburg Times
filed suit, charging that Hubbard and the
Scientologists had conspired to “harass, intimidate, frighten, prosecute,
slander, defame” Times employees. They sought an injunction against further
harassment.
²⁸

Gabe Cazares filed an $8 million suit. He alleged that the
Scientologists were attempting to intimidate him and prevent him from doing his
job.
²⁹
February had been a very busy month.

Later that year, Hubbard suffered a tragic blow. Back in
1959 his son Nibs had left Scientology. From that time, Hubbard had pinned his
dynastic dream upon Quentin, his oldest son by Mary Sue. He had frequently
announced that Quentin would succeed him as the leader of Scientology. At the
end of October 1976, Quentin was found, comatose, in a parked car in Las Vegas
with the engine still running. Quentin was rushed to a hospital where he died
two weeks later, without regaining consciousness. He was not identified until
several days after his death. Although no precise cause of death was
determined, Quentin had certainly suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning. He
was 22 years old.
³⁰

Quentin had tried to measure up to his father’s expectations
- he was one of the few top-grade Class 12 Auditors - but he did not share his
father’s temperament. By all accounts he was far too gentle to govern
Scientology, or indeed to govern anything. All he wanted was to fly airplanes,
and he often pleaded with his father to allow him to leave the Sea Org and do
just that. He had disappeared several times in an attempt to escape. There was
also an aspect of his nature which could never be reconciled with his father’s
philosophy: Quentin was a homosexual. There is little doubt that his death was
self-inflicted, as he had attempted suicide before.
³¹

Mary Sue broke down and keened, when she heard the news. She
later tried to persuade friends that her son had died from encephalitis.
Quentin’s father’s response was cold-blooded, he was furious that his son had
let him down.
³²
There was an immediate cover-up. Documents were
stolen from the coroner’s office and taken to Hubbard. In accordance with
Hubbard’s policy regarding bad news, Scientologists were not told about
Quentin’s death. Some who found out were told he had been murdered.

In hiding in Washington, Hubbard busied himself trying to
discover the secrets of the Soldiers of Light and the Soldiers of Darkness.
³³
He thoroughly agreed with the old gnostic belief that we are all born belonging
firmly to one band or the other.