Press Releases of The Public Research Foundation

[Ashton Gray]

This thread is a companion piece to several other threads in the Watergate forum, most particularly Usenet Posts of "The Real Deep Throat" and There was no "first break-in" at the Watergate.

This thread consists of the text of a series of press releases that appeared in 1997, issued by an outfit called The Public Research Foundation. For an understanding of how these press releases relate to Watergate, one first should read Usenet Posts of "The Real Deep Throat".

The actual press releases and a brief history of them can be found at The Newsroom page of the site that also hosts the Remote Viewing Timeline, which is also recommended reading for a full understanding of the issues discussed in these press releases and their relationship to Watergate and the CIA's top secret Remote Viewing program.

I have to say that only the sixth of the full series of nine press releases goes directly to the issue of the Remote Viewing (RV) program, and so is the one most germane to the related threads I've provided links to above. But the five press releases leading up to that sixth release provide what I personally find to be a fascinating history of how The Public Research Foundation developed the extremely bizarre links between the government and Scientology, leading to the revelations, in the sixth press release, of CIA theft of Scientology intellectual property for the development of its top-secret RV program that ran for 25 years—starting on 1 October 1972, during the height of the Watergate scandal.

Therefore I'm only posting the first six press releases of the nine that are on the site linked to above. Those who have interest in the remaining three can read them on the site.

The impatient can jump directly to the sixth press release in the series, but I recommend a thorough study of the extraordinary investigative reporting that led up to it.

I post the text of the press releases below with only minor commentary by me, indicated in each press release that I comment on by asterisks, with my comments at the end of the press release. I will answer any questions I can about them from my own further research into the issues addressed in them.

Ashton Gray

Edited October 18, 2007 by Ashton Gray

[Ashton Gray]

This is the first of nine press releases issued by The Public Research Foundation:

N A T I O N A L

(ALSO LOCAL FOR: D.C., LOS ANGELES, SEATTLE, TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG)

ATTN: ASSIGNMENT DESK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HIDDEN TIES BETWEEN IRS AND SCIENTOLOGY REVEALED

Meade Emory, former Assistant to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, co-founded Scientology's most senior organization--Church of Spiritual Technology--according to recently uncovered records of the United States Claims Court. Emory is currently Director of the Washington State University [sic--University of Washington] Law School's Graduate Program in Taxation in Seattle.

The Emory-co-founded Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), doing business as the "L. Ron Hubbard Library," now controls the copyrights for all of L. Ron Hubbard's intellectual properties--once valued at close to $100 million. CST also enjoys ultimate authority over all Scientology-related trademarks, including the name "L. Ron Hubbard."

Emory was Assistant to the Commissioner of the IRS from 1975 through 1977. Strangely, those were the same years in which an IRS employee, Gerald Wolfe, was covertly passing IRS documents to Scientology's Guardian's Office. In 1976, Wolfe even provided forged federal I.D. to a Scientology staff member, Michael Meisner, and together they used the forged credentials to pilfer copies of documents from the IRS and other federal agencies. Wolfe and Meisner's activities ultimately resulted in federal criminal convictions against high-level Scientology executives. Most notable among those was L. Ron Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard.

The fact that she was Hubbard's wife tended to overshadow more important facts: Hubbard himself had disappeared in February of 1980

[*See my note below the press release—A.G.]

under mysterious circumstances still not satisfactorily explained, and Mary Sue Hubbard--with the aid of the Guardian's Office--had been left with the duty and the power to safeguard his copyrights and trademarks.

But in July of 1981, Mary Sue Hubbard was overthrown, losing her long-held control over Scientology's copyrights and trademarks. Soon after, the Guardian's Office was disbanded. Then by May of 1982-- less than a year later--Emory had helped to set up CST, the corporation that eventually assumed control of all rights to L. Ron Hubbard's works.

According to the June 29, 1992 ruling in U.S. Claims Court case No. 581-88T, CHURCH OF SPIRITUAL TECHNOLOGY v. THE UNITED STATES, "CST was founded in 1982 by Lyman Spurlock, Meade Emory, Esq., Leon Misterek, Esq., and Sherman Lenske, Esq. CST..subsequently sought tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code."

That tax-exempt status was granted on October 1, 1993, in a sealed, secret, 4"-thick agreement with IRS. None of the terms of the agreement have ever been made known, either by CST or IRS. The only clue to any of the terms came at the event celebrating the exemptions, when David Miscavige, head of Religious Technology Center (RTC) and Scientology's highest-ranking spokesperson, said, "There will be no billion-dollar tax bill that we cannot pay!" Oddly, while proclaiming the long list of Scientology entities that had received exempt status, Miscavige made no mention of CST's inclusion--even though that is the senior-most corporation of all, and the one that benefitted most from the sudden IRS change of heart.

Other oddities have also surfaced:

1. According to the U.S. Claims Court ruling, "None of the founders of CST, with the exception of Mr. Spurlock, has any stated religious connection with Scientology."

2. The October 1993 IRS tax-exempt blessing on CST was granted just months after Norman F. Starkey, executor of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard, had finally secured control of every intellectual property ever produced by L. Ron Hubbard.

3. On November 29, 1993, scarcely two months after CST had been granted tax exemption, Starkey transferred the rights for all 7,730 of L. Ron Hubbard's intellectual properties to CST.

Many questions remain regarding Meade Emory's possible role in bringing about the tax exemption for CST, but questions also surround Emory's fellow CST co-founder, attorney Sherman Lenske.

According to court records, "Lenske and two other non-Scientologists have the status of Special Directors of CST." The two others are Lenske's brother, attorney Stephen Lenske, and another attorney, Lawrence Heller.

But Sherman Lenske's involvement goes all the way back to 1981. In a sworn declaration, Lenske says he was hired in April 1981 to be attorney "in all aspects of estate planning" for L. Ron Hubbard.

Therein lies another strange coincidence: Lenske appeared on the scene only after Hubbard had disappeared, and only three months before Mary Sue Hubbard was overthrown, then became a key figure in every step that led to CST's take-over of the multi-million-dollar intellectual properties she had previously controlled, and to which she was rightful heir:

1. Lenske drafted all wills and trusts having anything to do with final distribution of Hubbard's assets and intellectual properties.

2. Lenske was a consultant in the corporate restructuring that created CST.

3. Lenske represented Norman F. Starkey, the executor of Hubbard's estate, right up through the point when Starkey transferred the intellectual property rights to CST.

4. In addition to his role as a Special Director of CST, Lenske is its Registered Agent, is Registered Agent for Religious Technology Center (which currently licenses the trademarks under CST's aegis), and is Registered Agent for Author Services, Inc., which represents Hubbard's fiction works.

5. Lenske created the fictitious business name, "L. Ron Hubbard Library," filing it first for Norman F. Starkey's use as executor, then filing it again in 1993 for CST, right after CST received all the intellectual property rights from Starkey.

How did an attorney who does not even subscribe to the religious philosophy of Scientology become its most influential figure, with ultimate authority over the entire body of work?

What role did Meade Emory's inside-the-Beltway connections have on the sudden, secret turn-around by IRS?

Is it possible, as one observer has speculated, that all of Scientology went into receivership to IRS, and is now being run--as a corporation--by the federal government?

Is that why the agreement is such a closely-held secret?

All these questions still wait for answers. But the previously-suppressed connection to IRS may provide a new place to look for them.

- 30 -

* There is now considerable evidence that L. Ron Hubbard did not disappear in 1980, as once was widely believed, but much earlier—over Memorial Day weekend 1972—and that elaborate measures were taken thereafter by a small handful of insiders of certain Scientology organizations to create the illusion that Hubbard was alive and well and in control of Scientology when he was not.

Ashton Gray

Edited October 18, 2007 by Ashton Gray

[Ashton Gray]

This is the second of nine press releases issued by the Public Research Foundation:

N A T I O N A L

(ALSO LOCAL FOR: D.C., LOS ANGELES, SEATTLE)

ATTN: ASSIGNMENT DESK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CO-FOUNDERS TELL CONFLICTING STORIES:

FORMER HIGHLY-PLACED IRS OFFICIAL HEDGES ON INVOLVEMENT

IN SCIENTOLOGY'S TOP CORPORATION

SUB-HEAD:

Meade Emory, former Assistant to IRS Commissioner Donald Alexander, attempts to distant himself from having co-founded Scientology's richest and most powerful corporation, but Emory's former partner and fellow co-founder, Leon Misterek, tells a different story.

BODY:

On the 29th of November 1993--just weeks after being granted tax exemption by IRS--The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), doing business as the "L. Ron Hubbard Library," inherited intellectual property from the estate of L. Ron Hubbard that was valued at $25 million. In an exclusive investigative report ("HIDDEN TIES BETWEEN IRS AND SCIENTOLOGY REVEALED"), PRF uncovered a little-known 1992 ruling by federal Judge Bruggink in the United States Claims Court naming Meade Emory as one of four co-founders of CST:

"CST was founded in 1982 by Lyman Spurlock, Meade Emory, Esq., Leon Misterek, Esq., and Sherman Lenske, Esq. CST...subsequently sought tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code."

Further investigation by PRF revealed that Meade Emory had been Assistant Commissioner of IRS from 1975 through 1978, and, prior to that, Legislation Attorney for the Joint Committee on Taxation, United States Congress, 1970-1972. That raised serious ethical questions surrounding the sudden IRS turnaround that resulted in CST's $25 million windfall, especially in view of Judge Bruggink's finding that neither Meade Emory, Leon Misterek, nor Sherman Lenske were Scientologists.

PRF contacted Emory at his office at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he is Director of the Law School's Graduate Program in Taxation, and asked how he came to be a co-founder of Scientology's top corporation. In the phone interview Emory first said, "I don't know that I am; I'm not a co-founder." But when confronted with the language of the US Claims Court ruling, Emory hedged, saying he "didn't remember" that he "was a co-founder."

When pressed as to the accuracy of the Claims Court ruling, Emory admitted, "Actually, I did some legal work for the Church of Scientology and represented them when I was in practice." But Emory refused to answer further questions and abruptly ended the phone call.

PRF tried to contact all the co-founders listed in the Claims Court ruling regarding their involvement in the founding of CST, and it was Leon Misterek who seemed to confirm the Claims Court and contradict Meade Emory in the process.

Misterek, also in Seattle, reluctantly admitted in a phone conversation that he, too, had done "some legal work" on CST, but went further, saying that he "may have subscribed [sic]" some legal documents "of incorporation" that created CST.

The contradiction came when Misterek was asked how he got involved: Misterek said he had been a "partner at that time with someone recently out of Revenue Service." When asked, "Meade Emory?" Misterek was silent, then said, "Yes."

PRF has since learned that at the time of CST's incorporation, when Misterek and Emory were partners, Meade Emory was a partner at the Seattle, Washington firm of Lesourd & Patten--then called Lesourd, Patten, Flemming, Hartung, & Emory--at 2400 Columbia Center. Misterek had an active corporation at the time, Real Rapid Reproductions, Inc., that was registered at the same address.

When Misterek was asked if they had done the legal work on CST in Washington, Misterek said, "No, I believe that was a California corporation." But when asked if he had been practicing in California, he hesitated before only saying, "No."

Misterek was asked if he felt that Bruggink's Claims Court ruling in any way misrepresented his and Emory's involvement as co-founders. He said he would have to see the document, and agreed to have a copy FAXed to him, which was done.

But then Misterek sent back a terse reply, saying, "I can be of no assistance to you and do not desire to receive further communication from you." Misterek said, "I...am unwilling to invest time in having my memory refreshed."

PRF attempted to contact the other two co-founders of CST--Lyman D. Spurlock, Jr. and Sherman Lenske.

But when calls were made to Sherman Lenske at his California law offices, Lenske did not take PRF's phone calls, and returned none of the messages left for him.

Lyman Spurlock also could not be reached and returned none of PRF's phone calls.

All four co-founders were FAXed copies of PRF's press release, "HIDDEN TIES BETWEEN IRS AND SCIENTOLOGY REVEALED," and given the opportunity to correct any of the facts as stated. None of the four responded.

Since the Wall Street Journal's publication of the IRS's formerly-secret Closing Agreement, new information has surfaced that indicates that Emory and Misterek also might have been instrumental in setting up the "Church of Scientology Religious Trust" (CSRT) when Emory was with LeSourd & Patten. CSRT is yet another Scientology-related entity granted exemption by IRS in the 1 October 1993 agreement.

Evidence so far uncovered indicates that Sherman Lenske, brother Stephen Lenske, and a partner named Lawrence E. Heller have been prominently involved in creating not only CST, but nearly every major Scientology-related entity that was granted IRS exemption. It is uncertain whether Emory's and Misterek's involvement extends as far, and both refused to answer further questions.

-30-

Ashton Gray

Edited October 18, 2007 by Ashton Gray

[Ashton Gray]

This is the third of nine press releases by the Public Research Foundation:

N A T I O N A L

(ALSO LOCAL FOR: D.C., LOS ANGELES, SEATTLE, TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG)

ATTN: ASSIGNMENT DESK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHURCH STAFF AND MINISTERS

BEING USED TO ENFORCE TAX COLLECTION

An official document recently discovered by the Public Research Foundation (PRF) requires all executives, ministers, and staff of every Scientology organization, including churches and missions, to enforce the paying of taxes on parishoners.

The document, a "Scientology Policy Directive" entitled "PERSONAL INCOME TAXES," is written by an unnamed "Tax Compliance Officer" for the Church of Scientology. In part, it says:

"(A) Scientologist who refuses to file a tax return, pay required income taxes, or to comply with other tax laws... will be ineligible for Church services until the matter is rectified."

But the document goes further, and seems to allow the long arm of Scientology tax-enforcement to extend to people other than its followers, when it says:

"ANYONE (emphasis added) promoting to other Scientologists not to pay taxes or file returns or promoting any of the various tax protestor schemes, will be subject to discipline under the Scientology justice codes."

To put teeth into the tax enforcement, the unnamed "Tax Compliance Officer" who wrote the document went so far as to threaten non-compliers with the loss of eternal salvation for not paying taxes. Ordering parishoners to "file your tax returns and to pay your taxes," the document concludes: "Who would want to risk his eternity for any amount of money?"

A highly-placed church official named Lyman Spurlock confirmed that threat when he wrote to one parishoner who had challenged the church/state marriage:

"Were I you I would weigh the price of...the IRS versus your future for eternity. If you insist on your current course you will not ever be eligible for training and processing (Scientology church services) and that is very unfortunate for you."

And unfortunate it was: the parishoner that letter was addressed to was later declared a "suppressive person" and was expelled from the church--Scientology's equivalent to excommunication.

Lyman Spurlock, the author of the letter, is a co-founder of Scientology's most powerful organization, a little-known entity called the "Church of Spiritual Technology" (CST). But it was recently revealed by PRF (Press Release: "HIDDEN TIES BETWEEN IRS AND SCIENTOLOGY REVEALED") that another co-founder of CST is former Assistant to the Commissioner of IRS, Meade Emory. Serious questions are being raised by many into what influence Emory might have had in the super-secret 1993 IRS tax exemption for CST and lesser Scientology entities. Emory is not, himself, a Scientologist.

Meade Emory was Assistant to IRS Commissioner Donald C. Alexander, whose reign began during Nixon's catastrophic last term. Before that, Emory was Legislation Counsel of the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress.

CST, the all-powerful Scientology corporation that Emory helped to set up, operates almost invisibly behind the panoply of church corporations, but exercises absolute final authority and control over every copyright and trademark that has any connection with Scientology. Without CST's blessing, none of the junior corporations could operate at all. Their entire existence derives from the copyrights and trademarks, which can be taken away from any of them at the sole discretion of CST.

That means that CST is a principal party to the Scientology Policy Directive "PERSONAL INCOME TAXES," and that the full force and weight of CST's power over Scientology is also behind the tax enforcement on parishoners.

Said one tax-watcher, "This makes all Scientology organizations 'branch offices' of IRS, and every church leader and staff member an agent of IRS--there to enforce the collection of taxes under the threat of eternal damnation. Why else would a church have a Tax Compliance Enforcement Officer?"

One Scientologist who was expelled on the strength of the church's Tax Directives said, "This is an outrage against our constitutional rights and freedoms like no other since the American Revolution. Now we know that Scientology has been under the control of a vicious government agency. If the IRS can use a Scientologist's hope of salvation to extort taxes, then they can use ANY church to hound and threaten. Who's next? The Baptists? The Catholics? Church and state are one now. My church IS the IRS."

Others are asking why no one in any branch of government has done anything to force open the sealed, secret tax-exemption agreement with Scientology. On March 15, 1996, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, in the case of TAX ANALYSTS v. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, case No.94-CV-00220 (TFH), did order the IRS to release certain documents regarding the Scientology "closing agreement," but so far IRS has not even complied with the court order. In that case, Tax Analysts exposed several disturbing facts about the IRS/Scientology arrangement. Submissions to the court revealed, among other things, that the IRS's Exempt Organizations Technical Division had been "instructed not to review the exemption applications filed by the Church of Scientology and its affiliates for compliance with IRC 501( c )(3)." Who ordered that, and whether Meade Emory had any influence on that decision, is unknown.

Will this new revelation of church Tax Directives bring enough public pressure to bear on the case that someone acts? That remains to be seen. But it is clear that a rising tide of public outrage is swelling over human rights abuses by both the IRS and Scientology.

One internet newsgroup, alt.religion.scientology, has been running as many as 500 messages a day, and some of the recent discussion has been fueled by the revelations of Meade Emory's connection to the church--particularly since Emory and most of the co-founders and directors of CST are not, themselves, Scientologists, but are tax and probate attorneys.

-30-

Ashton Gray

[Ashton Gray]

This is the fourth in a series of nine press releases by The Public Research Foundation:

N A T I O N A L

(ALSO LOCAL FOR: D.C., LOS ANGELES, SEATTLE)

ATTN: ASSIGNMENT DESK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MORE IRS/SCIENTOLOGY SECRETS REVEALED:

THE "TAX COMPLIANCE MANUAL"

(FIRST IN A SERIES)

More revelations are coming to light surrounding the formerly secret

[*See my notes at the end—A.G.]

Closing Agreement between IRS and the current leaders of Scientology. Public Research Foundation (PRF) has recently discovered that Scientology organizations are being governed in accordance with a closely-guarded "Tax Compliance Manual." That manual reveals previously unknown information about the new power structure of the organizations.

The manual was created in 1993, the same year that the Closing Agreement was secretly signed by IRS and church officials. The Tax Compliance Manual is published by sanction of the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST)--the senior corporation which owns all the copyrights.

The manual is significant in many respects, not the least of which is a sweeping relocation of power that was once vested in Scientology's "Sea Organization" (Sea Org).

The Sea Org was originally set up by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to exercise supreme and absolute authority over all of Scientology. But buried in the language of the Tax Compliance Manual is clear evidence that the new corporations are in control now, that Sea Org members are merely employees of the corporations, and that Sea Org members can be summarily dismissed at the sole discretion of the Directors of the corporations.

Although this massive shift of power has been in effect since at least 1993, it apparently has been fully known only by the architects of the corporations, and by the principals in the once-secret IRS/Scientology closing agreement.

So suppressed was the information that Los Angeles Superior Court judge John P. Shook, as recently as October 29, 1997, in "Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California," was led to rule:

"'Sea Org' is the unincorporated association which is the power center--(David) Miscavige is its highest ranking member."

It is likely that if church officials had disclosed the content of their Tax Compliance Manual, such a ruling would have been all but impossible: although Miscavige, Chairman of the IRS-spawned "Church Tax Compliance Committee," may arguably be the highest ranking member of the Sea Org, a careful reading of the Tax Compliance Manual strongly suggests that the position, legally, is meaningless, and that the Sea Org has been effectively negated as any kind of "power center." The manual first establishes that:

"All individuals in the Sea Organization are employees of the local organization (corporation) in which they work. The Sea Org is a religious order within the ecclesiastical structure of Scientology but is not an incorporated organization itself and has no staff or employees. The Sea Org contract is binding ecclesiastically but is not an employment contract. All Sea Org members sign standard employment contracts with the corporation at which they are currently working. If they are transferred to another organization, they will sign a new employment contract with that corporation for their period of employment."

Having established that the Sea Org is a religious order only, and that the "Sea Org Contract" is not binding legally (only 'ecclesiastically'), the manual then provides corporate Bylaws, part of which state:

"Section 3. Religious Orders. The Church may establish and maintain religious orders, the purposes of which shall be the carrying out of the religious and administrative activities of this Church AND CORPORATION." (Emphasis added.)

Then the Tax Compliance Manual spells out where the final power and authority over the Sea Org lies: "Section 6. Discretion of Directors.... (M)embership in a Religious Order, ordination, or affiliation may be denied or revoked for cause deemed to be sufficient by the Directors in their sole discretion."

Given that corporate Directors (which would include "special dirctors," as they are not excluded in the wording) can terminate Sea Org membership at any time "in their sole discretion," and given that the only legally binding contract Sea Org members have is the employment contract with the corporation where they work, then the Sea Org--apart from its function as a religious fellowship--could be considered as little more than costumery for corporate employees. According to the Tax Compliance Manual, the power lies with corporate Directors.

A recent PRF investigation disclosed that there are special Directors in the powerful ruling corporation--Church of Spiritual Technology--who are not even adherents of Scientology, much less members of the Sea Org.

The Tax Compliance Manual will be explored more fully in this series. One issue is the apparent subjugation of church doctrine and scripture to conformity with IRS regulations, particularly those found at 501©(3). The manual bears evidence that at least some of Hubbard's writings--identified as scripture--have been altered to ensure that the religion is in compliance with IRS codes.

PRF's series will also address the creation and establishment of "Tax Compliance Sections" in Scientology organizations.

Another revelation from the Tax Compliance Manual that will be covered in this series is the critical role of the corporate Trustees, who hold power over the election of the Board of Directors in each corporation.

-30-

*The use of "formerly secret" in relation to the IRS Closing Agreement with Scientology organizations has its own interesting story very much related to the first two Public Research Foundation's press releases. As is told in the sixth press release of the series, a presentation of those first two press releases and supporting documents had been submitted to Senator William V. Roth, Jr.—Finance Committee Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation—and to the Wall Street Journal when the Closing Agreement was still secret. Within 15 days of that presentation, someone "leaked" the Closing Agreement to the WSJ, who published it in full.

Ashton Gray

Edited October 18, 2007 by Ashton Gray

[Ashton Gray]

This is the fifth in a series of nine press releases by The Public Research Foundation:

N A T I O N A L

(ALSO LOCAL FOR: D.C., LOS ANGELES, SEATTLE)

ATTN: ASSIGNMENT DESK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

MORE IRS/SCIENTOLOGY SECRETS REVEALED:

TAX COMPLIANCE SECTIONS FROM: THE "TAX COMPLIANCE MANUAL"

(SECOND IN A SERIES)

Public Research Foundation (PRF) has recently disclosed that Scientology organizations are being governed in accordance with a closely-guarded "Tax Compliance Manual" (PRF PRESS RELEASE, "THE 'TAX COMPLIANCE MANUAL'--FIRST IN A SERIES").

The manual was created in 1993, the same year that the Closing Agreement was secretly signed by IRS and church officials. The Tax Compliance Manual is published by sanction of the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST)--the senior corporation which owns all the copyrights.

The manual reveals that IRS has been a knowing party to the establishment of "Tax Compliance Sections" to govern every Scientology church and mission, bringing about an unprecedented closure between church and state.

The Tax Compliance Manual says:

"FORMATION OF THE TAX COMPLIANCE SECTION

"The Tax Compliance Section has been formed in the Corporate and Legal Rudiments Branch of Office of Special Affairs International. It is staffed with veteran OSA INT crew who are extremely knowledgeable and experienced in tax and finance matters. There will also be a Tax Compliance Officer in each Continental OSA Office. A primary function of the Tax Compliance Section is to ensure that all churches and missions comply with all requirements of tax exemption."

Office of Special Affairs International (OSA Int) is merely a part of Church of Scientology International (CSI). And CSI (as represented by its President, Heber Jentzsch) is a signatory to the Closing Agreement, subject to the mandates of that agreement.

The Closing Agreement verifies that IRS is a party in informed consent to the creation and operation of these "Tax Compliance Sections" inside the church. The Closing Agreement requires annual reports be submitted to IRS, and part of the requirements include:

"6. Reporting of any ecclesiastical modification or the restructuring of any entity. The Annual Report shall include any changes...to the ecclesiastical management structure of the Church..."

and

"9. Reporting of any amendment of any directive concerning the treatment of funds. The Annual Report shall disclose the issuance, modification, amendment, or rescission of any written material relating to or involving the handling of funds by Church personnel."

The "Tax Compliance Manual" treats extensively of the handling of funds by Church personnel, and constitutes a definitive modification and restructuring of CSI to include the organizational "Tax Compliance Sections" within OSA International.

If IRS had not been informed of the Tax Compliance Manual and of the addition of the Tax Compliance Sections inside churches of Scientology, then the Church Tax Compliance Committee signatories would have been in violation of terms of the Closing Agreement, and therefore liable to extreme penalties outlined in the agreement.

But the Tax Compliance Manual also says:

"The Tax Compliance Section is concerned with the activities of church organizations throughout the world-- not just those located in the United States. Recognition of tax exemption by the IRS opens the door for similar recognition of local orgs and missions by tax authorities in many other countries."

Having already established that "There will also be a Tax Compliance Officer in each Continental OSA Office," this means that these extensions of IRS, there specifically and only to enforce compliance to IRS codes, are now situated on foreign soil, but camouflaged by their existence inside the churches.

The IRS's new power over the church's activities is perhaps best summed up in one chilling sentence from the Tax Compliance Manual:

"Any question as to whether a post qualifies as a ministerial capacity should be referred to the Tax Compliance Officer, Office of Special Affairs International."

In the next part of our series, PRF will explore the relationships and power of the church's corporate officials.

[*See my note below—A.G.]

-30-

Apparently the discovery of the Scientology connection to CIA's Remote Viewing program preempted any exploration of "the relationships and power of the church's corporate officials," since the next PRF press release explosively exposes evidence of a cover-up at the highest levels of government.

Ashton Gray

Edited October 18, 2007 by Ashton Gray

[Ashton Gray]

This is the sixth in a series of nine press releases issued by The Public Research Foundation. This release goes directly to the CIA's top-secret Remote Viewing program begun in 1972, at the height of the Watergate Scandal, exposing for the first time that I'm aware of CIA theft of Scientology intellectual property in the creation of that program. This is the last of the series that I'm posting in this forum, but I invite anyone interested to read the rest of the fascinating series at this page, The Newsroom, on the web.

N A T I O N A L

(ALSO LOCAL FOR: D.C., LOS ANGELES, SEATTLE)

ATTN: ASSIGNMENT DESK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

STUDY FINDS FEDERAL COVER-UP

OF SCIENTOLOGY IN MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

A chronological investigative analysis of once-classified intelligence reports, corporate papers, copyright and trademark records, court documents, and other public records has exposed a massive and pervasive co-ordination of the Executive and Judicial Branches in order to effect a cover-up, since at least 1972, of copyrighted Scientology technologies being illegally utilized in United States strategic intelligence. The study shows that the cover-up has reached all the way to the Oval Office in both Republican and Democratic administrations, including those of George Bush and Jimmy Carter. Bush's knowledge and involvement dates back at least to his term as Director of Central Intelligence.

The timeline of events documents that an employee of the National Security Agency (NSA), Dr. Harold Puthoff, infiltrated Scientology, completed its confidential upper-level courses, and almost immediately secured a top-secret contract with the Central Intelligence Agency to set up the CIA-initiated "remote-viewing" intelligence program. The evidence is that the program secretly utilized Scientology techniques--intellectual property of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard--without Hubbard's or any Scientology organization's knowledge or permission, and without compensation.

The study also shows that Scientology's Guardian's Office (GO)--headed by Hubbard's wife Mary Sue--had province over the intellectual properties being illegally used by the federal government.

The GO became embroiled in protracted litigation, via the churches, of numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suits against NSA, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Department of Defense, the Secret Service, and other Executive Branch departments and agencies.

The FOIA suits sought the release of documents related to Scientology and to L. Ron Hubbard that were known to exist, but were being withheld by the federal intelligence agencies and the Defense Department, among others, on grounds of NATIONAL SECURITY.

One ruling against the Scientologists even went so far as to justify withholding of documents about Scientology on the grounds that the Director of CIA is "responsible for protecting intelligence sources AND METHODS from unauthorized disclosure...[emphasis added]." Neither Hubbard, his wife, nor the Guardian's Office knew the exact nature of the documents, nor about Hubbard's copyrighted materials being illegally used by the federal intelligence agencies.

Scientology's FOIA suits spanned the very time when the top-secret Scientology-based remote viewing program and budget were not only being expanded, but were being utilized by the Department of Defense, the President's National Security Council (NSC), and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But the documents being sought by the Guardian's Office were never released; the FBI raided the church's offices in July of 1977, and the federal government filed criminal charges accusing Mary Sue Hubbard and the Guardian's Office of "criminal spying"--a strange irony.

The sensational case resulted in Mary Sue Hubbard and 10 Guardian's Office co-defendants being sentenced to jail without a trial by federal Judge Charles R. Richey, which led to the ultimate disbanding of Scientology's Guardian's Office.

This opened the way for a new senior corporation, "Church of Spiritual Technology" (CST), doing business as the "L. Ron Hubbard Library." It was set up in 1982--right after the Supreme Court had upheld Mary Sue Hubbard's conviction--for the express purpose of gaining receivership and control of L. Ron Hubbard's copyrights. But it was in the founding of this corporation that the first hint of the cover-up by the federal government lay buried.

In an EXCLUSIVE 1997 STORY, the PUBLIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION reported that Meade Emory--former Assistant to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and former Legislation Attorney, Joint Committee on Taxation--had been a co-founder of CST, Scientology's most senior coporation. That corporation now controls the copyrights for all of L. Ron Hubbard's intellectual properties, once valued at close to $100 million. CST also enjoys ultimate authority over all Scientology-related trademarks, including even the name "L. Ron Hubbard."

But the discovery of Emory, a non-Scientologist, in such an unusual position raised red flags, since Emory's involvement in setting up the corporation had been hidden for fifteen years.

Then it was learned that Emory had been Assistant to Commissioner of IRS Donald C. Alexander from 1975 through 1977. Strangely, those were the very years that an IRS employee, Gerald Wolfe, was supposedly a Scientology "double agent" guilty of numerous thefts of IRS documents for Mary Sue Hubbard and the Guardian's Office--leading to the arrests and convictions.

Other oddities also surfaced:

1. According to a U.S. Claims Court ruling, none of the founders of CST but one had any religious connection with Scientology. They were non-Scientologist tax and probate attorneys.

2. The October 1993 IRS tax-exemption for CST was granted in a then-secret Closing Agreement only after a final round-up of every intellectual property ever produced by L. Ron Hubbard had been completed.

3. On November 29, 1993, scarcely two months after CST had been granted tax exemption by IRS in a secret Closing Agreement, all 7,730 of L. Ron Hubbard{s copyrights were quietly transferred to CST.

PRF's original press release and supporting documents about Meade Emory's ties to CST were sent to major newspapers--including the Wall Street Journal--and to Senator William V. Roth, Jr., Finance Committee Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation. Within 15 days the secret agreement between IRS and CST, et al. was leaked to WSJ, who never ran the story on Emory.

But the IRS Closing Agreement, once released, revealed that it had been the final step in the United States government's 20-year campaign to secretly get L. Ron Hubbard's copyrighted technologies and techniques--being illegally used by federal agencies in strategic intelligence--firmly under secret federal government control. Putting the copyrights in a 501( c )( 3 ) corporation bypassed the separation clause of the Constitution, because CST, despite its name, is not a church.

So certain was the IRS that the secret agreement would never be exposed that it included a "Continued Conspiracy Clause," requiring all signatories to agree in collusion to protect Meade Emory and all other "current or former" employees of IRS and the United States government against any and all claims of their having been involved in a "continued conspiracy." Yet it was just such a "continued conspiracy" that apparently had brought the secret Closing Agreement into being.

The federal government further secured its position by secretly setting up an illegal and unconstitutional "Church Tax Compliance Committee" to enforce Treasury regulations on the structure and function of the various Scientology organizations, including permanent installations of "Tax Compliance Officers" in each organization.

Senator Roth's inaction on the Executive Summary regarding Meade Emory's involvement with the creation of Scientology's most senior corporation has now raised questions whether the Legislative Branch has been involved in the cover-up as well.

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Ashton Gray

Edited October 18, 2007 by Ashton Gray