by Mike Rinder. As everyone who reads the glossy C of M promotional hype knows, the Freewinds is “a luxury retreat off the crossroads of the world.” An “island of sanity in a world gone mad.” Yet, like much else in Miscavige’s perverted kingdom, there is a thin veneer of truth in the picture presented to the world and then there is what REALLY goes on out of the public eye.
The Freewinds IS a luxury vessel. Made even more so over the last few years following a multi-million dollar refit and renovation. This of course includes luxurious facilities for Dear Leader himself — not just berthing, but his personal dining room and office spaces beyond the offices already allocated to RTC.
The Freewinds is a favorite haunt for Miscavige for three reasons:
a) it is outside the control of any government (except when she was boarded by French authorities while at anchor in St. Bart’s, hence no more visits to French ports),
b) he likes to scuba dive and do underwater photography (the entire Gold base was made to watch one of his underwater slide shows like they were watching a Source briefing on LRH as a photographer with surveys done on the staff afterwards to detect any “BI’s”). The Caribbean is unsurpassed
on that front.
And, c) Freewinds is remote from any other Scientology organization. So, Miscavige can goof off, have movies flown in each night, scuba dive during the day, eat out at expensive restaurants on shore and still call or write the poor fools at the Int Base and berate them about his long schedule and all the hard work he has to do due to their incompetence. They don’t know any different and the crew on board the Freewinds think “COB” is taking a “well-deserved” vacation and are honored to have him on board!
Dear Leader stories from the Freewinds are many. His lavish parties for Tom Cruise have been covered numerous times. His delight in assigning individuals to clean the bilges – sometimes for weeks on end, is also well known. (And I know this from personal experience on several occasions, along with Heber, Marc Yager and Guillaume Lesevre — though of course they will deny the Freewinds even has an engine room to protect Dear Leader).
But recently debriefed former Freewinds staff have given a fuller picture of Dear Leader’s madness and the level of effort that is employed to cover up to keep it a “safe space” for DM to luxuriate.
First an illustrative vignette. One of the stewards who was serving DM had a cold sore. For that, she was taken off post and confined to a room alone for a week until all evidence of the cold sore was gone. At that point she was sec checked to find out what evil purpose she had towards COB that she would have a cold sore in his presence! She was eventually busted from post altogether.
Of course, the Freewinds is also home to Miscavige’s personal bankers – the IAS. The IAS paid for the $1500 per day scuba boat charters that routinely sat on standby for weeks on end so he wouldn’t have to plan ahead but could take off whenever he felt the urge. They also paid for lavish meals at the most expensive restaurants on the islands, as well as showering Dear Leader with gifts.
It should come as no surprise that the financial largesse spread through the upper echelons of the IAS. President IASA and her entourage were well known for their shopping sprees in London, Paris, LA and NY and in any port of call that had name brand stores. And when it came time for gifts to be bought for the head honchos – the already healthy paychecks of IAS staff would be increased and they would each “donate” the difference into the gift pot. And while everyone else on the Freewinds operated on a normal SO schedule, the IAS routinely took a day off every week to “increase their havingness.” And when their regges were discovered to be severely out ethics, little if anything would be done. Of course, when you present Dave with trinkets of tribute and keep him supplied with unlimited fine food, wine and scuba diving opportunities, you are pretty much above the law (until Janet McLaughlin became mutinous towards Miscavige and was rounded up in late 2006 and put in the Hole – where she remains to this day, while her husband was sent to the Freewinds where he remains, refusing still to divorce her – a bizarre story which will be told here as the final chapter of DM’s final purges).
There is one other person on the Freewinds exempt from standard ethics and justice. Dear Leader’s diving companion and on board hit-man, Captain Mike Napier. When DM wants to threaten someone, or keep them locked up, Napier is his go-to guy and on board enforcer. After Janet McLaughlin was busted, Dear Leader called Napier personally and told him to round up all IAS crew on board into the Starlight Cabaret, lock the doors, take their phones, pagers and computers and keep them from communicating with anyone in the world.
So, it is no surprise that when Napier had sex with a local island restaurant waitress he went untouched. Even worse, somehow the blame was shifted to the Port Captain Freewinds (Ludwig Alpers – a truly likable and decent man) by the CO CMO Ship, Sue Price. Captain Love Boat Napier is hated by the staff on the Freewinds – and the vast majority of them don’t even know he had out 2D. In fact, his “ethics” handling consisted of him giving a base briefing where he handed out flimsy copies of TWTH signed by him and the CO FSSO (Sharon Webber). The crew had no idea why they were getting them and Sharon Webber aided in the cover-up.
As an aside, Sue Price spent many years at Int. She has imported Dear Leader’s habits and routines into ship life even when he isn’t there. Wrong targeting. Constant Executive C/Sing though she isn’t tech trained. Heavy invalidation and evaluation. Precisely because the Freewinds is a remote world unto itself, it serves another purpose: Prison ship.
Many of you have read the story of Don Jason. Because he was a “security risk” he was incarcerated on the Freewinds. His passport was taken away. His movements were restricted. He was under guard (it is a confined environment, easy to monitor). He made a heroic escape which resulted in the Security Guard who was on watch being removed and posted as a plumber, the Security Chief being demoted and the ship’s plumber being made the Security Chief!
Others haven’t been so lucky. One of the Ship Engineers was severely disaffected with Captain Love Boat after several run-ins with him. He became increasingly enturbulated and was not sleeping. He was put under 24 hour watch with full time guards and video cameras in his room. He was not handled with standard tech and ended up committing suicide by hanging himself in the shower with a sheet. The entire incident was covered up so as not to create a “flap.” False information was given to the authorities.
Carol Miles, the Public Officer and public face of the Freewinds has disappeared. I guess, like Heber, nobody dares ask where she is. In fact, she was being “handled” under the brilliant guidance of CO CMO Ship (Sue Price) with her special style of “executive C/Sing”. Carol’s “handlings” didn’t go well. She made threats and became a security risk. And what happens to inmates on the prison ship when they are too hot to handle? They get shipped off to the prison colony – the RPF in CLO ANZO, in Sydney.
Quite a number of “problem” staff have been routed to the ANZO RPF. It is thought to be so remote that anyone sent there has effectively been “disappeared”. Like the 3 Gold staff who were banished to the ANZO RPF after they pissed off Dear Leader. Those 3 (Karl Whitcher, Kip Engen and Nicolai Ciferrelli) were assigned to do the RPF twice through. They have been there since 2004. One of them completed the first time through last year – imagine 6 years of sec checking, FPRD and TRD and now having to do it all over again!
So, this is where Carol Miles is. She joined other “security risks” banished to the prison colony – including the former IG MAA Chris Guider who had fallen from grace when he refused to comply with an order from Miscavige to hit a Gold staff member with his swagger stick and the ex-RTC Rep FSO who knew all about Miscavige’s involvement in the McPherson matter.
Does any of this sound like standard Scientology? Unfortunately, it is merely the tip of the iceberg. At the whim of Dear Leader, people’s lives are destroyed. Like the 11 Int base staff banished to NY to work in Estates, then blamed for “overspends” on the Idle Org and offloaded (except Chris Beeny, who was sent to the prison colony never to be posted anywhere other than Estates – only because his parents were prominent OTs in LA), or Eric and Margit Ottman, declared and banished to Alaska because Eric accidentally ran over one of Dear Leader’s dogs. Or, or, or… The list goes on.
Yet, Miscavige has a lot of people believing that he, and he alone, is keeping the flame of LRH’s legacy burning. In truth, he is systematically destroying the subject and in so doing, undermining everything that LRH stood for. His continuous present time overts must be stopped – but he is incapable of restraining himself, so enough pressure must be brought to bear from the outside to force him to cease and desist.
It will be done.
Dear Leader’s sinking ship of fools may still buy his bullshit — or be too scared to call it for what it is. But there are a lot of people these days who aren’t cowed by his bombast, bluster and bs. His crimes will be exposed until he is no longer in a position to wreak havoc on LRH’s life’s work.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 