News coverage thus far on this post:
Village Voice: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/05/scientology_ope.php#more
Gawker:
http://gawker.com/5800927/%7CcommentLink%7C
Poynter.org:
Probably the only man who hates the Washington Post more than Richard Nixon did is David Miscavige, leader of the Corporate Scientology Cult.
In 2006 Washington Post Senior Editor Richard Leiby was working on a story concerning the corporation that according to its founding documents (as directed by L Ron Hubbard) had the power to prevent David Miscavige from creating a dictatorship of Corporate Scientology, the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST).
Leiby was no stranger to Scientology stories. He had been targetted by the Scientology’s Guardian’s Office in the 1970’s for his investigative reporting for the Clearwater Sun newspaper.
Accordingly, in 2006 Miscavige called for OSA (Office of Special Affairs, the Guardian’s Office successor) to hit Leiby with all slick ops in order to silence the Washington Post and try to prevent disclosures about CST.
The first op included sending “a source” in on Leiby to elicit personal information from him, searching the trash of Leiby and of his wife with whom he was separated, and launching investigations to use the Leibys’ ongoing divorce proceeding as a club against Mr. Leiby. Recent investigations indicate Leiby’s wife – who was blanketed by OSA initially – ultimately caved and accepted Corporate Scientology assistance in using her divorce proceedings as a boot to Mr. Leiby’s throat. That is the way it goes with Corporate Scientology, it is all about leverage. And it is all about crushing the “opposition” by any means imaginable.
The following is an Office of Special Affairs Investigation (Intelligence) Division report of March 27, 2006 detailing the initial Leiby offensive.
CONFIDENTIAL
ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGED
EYES ONLY
March 27, 2006
RICHARD LEIBY
In approximately March of 2005 Leiby was living with Arnie Lerma as he was having marriage trouble and was kicked out of the house by his wife. He had planned to stay there for a month or two while he got things together.
At the end of January we found the new apartment that Leiby moved to in Rockville, Maryland, about 2 miles away from his wife (Theresa) and their three children.
Although they have been separated for a year no divorce papers have been filed as yet, as he and his wife are fighting over the equity in the home and are working out property settlements with their attorneys before filing anything in court.
The wife, Theresa Defino, is the Executive Editor of the Physician’s Practice magazine – a magazine for doctors that covers the business side of the medical field such as insurance contracts, billing etc. She has been a medical writer her entire career. She works from home and the children are with her – a 16 year old girl and 12-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.
Special collections [Ed note: euphemism for stealing the garbage] could not be done at Leiby’s apartment but this was checked regularly at the wife’s home [her garbage WAS collected]. Thus far nothing of interest has turned up.
Leiby has been very stressed out about the divorce and per a source, he gave up his gossip column “Reliable Source” with the Post, as he could not handle it. He also has a situation with his personal finances as he has to pay for the divorce and the attorney fees, plus the house and his apartment.
Leiby made two calls to CST on March 24th each time leaving just his name and his Washington phone number. DSA DC made a call on the 27th Leiby’s senior at the Washington Post, Deborah Heard. She was informed that as Leiby was so completely biased, we were not going to be calling him back but we would talk to anyone else at the Post. Deborah responded that she hoped that someone would call him back as she had 65 juniors and she did not know what they were all working on. It was reiterated that Leiby was extremely biased and had recently been a roommate with someone who is a major attacker of the Church, who has threatened the Church and has been involved with extremist right wing groups. Deborah was taken aback but was still repeating that we should call Leiby back. She was told that this was not going to happen, as while we have had other reporters that were biased, at least they gave us an opportunity to respond and quoted what was said. However with Leiby it was felt that he would not fairly represent what was said.
Deborah responded that she was sorry we felt that way, but in her 15 years of working with Leiby at the Post, she has found him to be a “serious, dedicated, meticulous reporter.” She said that with any complaint, there are three avenues – Legal and go to the Legal Dept (she was informed that it was not a Legal issue), that the ombudsman, Deborah Howell is the readers advocate and we could write to her. Lastly, the Department Head can hear complaints and she wants to hear complaints about her staff. She was informed this was a complaint and she then suggested that a letter be sent to her with the complaint.
A letter will be sent to Deborah Heard that details the past relationship with Leiby and what the upsets are that make us feel he is not qualified to report on the Church.
We are currently workout out a new meeting with Leiby with the resource to get more information to find out what the current scene is with his wife, any specific data as to why she kicked him out, what he is planning on doing, etc.
oOo
STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO
Moving On Up a Little Higher 