Category Archives: office of special affairs

I have been criticized by Scientology haters for not laying blame for the abuses and demise of the church of Scientology on L Ron Hubbard.  Some have pointed to my refusal to credit the Fair Game Policy (SPs may be tricked, cheated, lied to, sued or destroyed without any recourse to Scientology justice) as being the chief motivating policy behind the evil and criminal deeds Miscavige’s Office of Special Affairs (OSA) and RTC routinely commit against those who refuse to comply with the dictator’s reign.  My response was, and is, that 99% of staff, including the Sea Org, have not even heard of the Fair Game policy, so of course they do not apply it.

What then does justify the criminality demanded by Miscavige in the minds of those who feel they must comply? Certainly he lacks the charisma personally to make people want to  harm others to protect him and his regime.  While providing some assistance to Daniel’s defense preparation, I was asked by some people involved, “what makes these people (OSA) think what they are doing is ok”?  It prompted me to do a little soul searching on the subject. I knew that I’d do something similar, perhaps not as over-the-top and vicious,  if I were confronted with similar circumstances back in the day. What motivated me to comply?  What justified my actions in working to destroy other human beings when I set up OSA and worked through it for so many years?

The answer was HCO PL 12 February 1967 The Responsibilites of Leaders. 

Please note that LRH wrote the Policy Letter for the Org Executive Course, and issued it as Admin (Administration) Know How Series 13.  He did not make it confidential.  He did not issue it to the Guardian’s Office (predecessor of OSA). 

The Responsibilities of Leaders is one of the more widely recognized and revered policy letters of the thousands LRH wrote.

While the policy letter sets forth some interesting  and insightful principles concerning the subject of power, it has been abused by executives on many occasions throughout the years.

Miscavige used such an abuse as part of his own push toward power in the early eighties.  A couple of Mission Holders, most notably one Kingsley Wimbush, used Responsibilities of Leaders as an integral part of a process called “De-dinging.”   Wimbush would gather staff and public at the end of the evening in the course room of his mission. He would have them read The Responsibilities of Leaders.  He would then insist that properly interpretted the policy required all of those who depended upon his “power” (all staff and public) to flow “power” to Wimbush.   He told them that the power flow he desired was money, and he’d pressure the staff and public to fill his hat with bills, the larger the denominations the better.

With this information Miscavige grotesquely violated this provision of The Responsibilities of Leaders: So to live at all in the shadow or employ of a power, you must yourself gather and USE enough power to hold your own – without just nattering to the power to “kill Pete”, in straightforward or more suppressive veiled ways to him, as these wreck the power that supports yours.

Miscavige did so by writing the most exaggerated, alarming and vicious reports about Mission Holders.  In fact, he used the Wimbush abuse of The Responsibilities of Leaders to unjustly paint dozens of Mission Holders with the same color.  His reports were so “Kill Pete” in nature that he led LRH to believe the Mission Holders were in fact government operatives out to kill LRH.

Ironically, or perhaps predictably, once Miscavige rose to power through such shifts, he eschewed virtually all LRH policy, but for one: The Reponsibilities of Leaders.  Apparently, Miscavige recognized how one (Wimbush for example) could get people to do the most irrational and off policy things by fixating their attention on this one policy.

Ironically, or perhaps predictably, Miscavige was obsessed with the very paragraph I quoted above. But, not the line I quoted. The rest of the parapraph, from point 6 of the 7 points about power:

He (the Power) doesn’t have to know all the bad news, and if he’s a power really, he won’t ask all the time, “What are all of those dead bodies doing at the door?”  And if you are clever, you never let it be thought HE killed them — that weakens you and also hurts the power source. “Well, boss, about all those dead bodies, nobody at all will suppose you did it. She over there, those pink legs sticking out didn’t like me.”  “Well,” he’ll say if he really is a power, “why are you bothering me with it if it’s done and you did it.  Where’s my blue ink?”  Or “Skipper, three shore patrolmen will be along soon with your cook, Dober, and they’ll want to tell you he beat up Simson.”  “Who’s Simson?”  “He’s a clerk in the enemy office downtown.”  “Good. When they’ve done it, take Dober down to the dispensary for any treatment he needs. Oh yes. Raise his pay.”  Or “Sir, could I have the power to sign divisional orders?”  “Sure.”

Miscavige crammed me and ordered me to cram others on The Responsibilities of Leaders many times; all in the context of emphasizing the brutal, blind loyalty requirement aspect of it as outlined in the text cited above. 

Miscavige and his wife Shelly required RTC executives to read several books on Simon Bolivar (the subject of The Reponsibilities of Leaders policy letter) to drive the point home.

Did anyone notice that one of the first Miscavige “re-issued” LRH books that was released in the late eighties after LRH’s death was the Ethics book, and that suddenly it had 12 pages of The Responsbilities of Leaders added?  From thenceforth, DM’s control manual was required reading and a part of one’s hat, not only for staff but for public.

You don’t think it has become part of every corporate church Scientologist’s hat?  Well, Miscavige also slipped it into Volume 0 of the OEC, the Basic Staff Hat.

I assure you it was David Miscavige who personally ordered The Responsibilities of Leaders into Vol 0 and into the Scientology Ethics book.

Now, recognize that while this policy was being crammed into the skulls of all Scientology executives, with particular emphasis on the segment that would suggest to some that committing crimes including murder is quite expected of anyone “on board”, Miscavige was busy turning the entire church PR and Marketing apparatus onto positioning David Miscavige as being the ultimate “Power” of Scientology.  The guy who should have bodies slayed and disposed of quietly on his behalf by anyone who is “on board.” 

As interpretted and applied by Corporate Scientology Responsibilities of Leaders in some ways is more nefarious than Fair Game. At least there were some boundaries with Fair Game.  It was couched in the passive. That is “may be” lied to, cheated, sued…..”without recource” to Scientology justice.  You also had to be declared SP to receive that treatment, and back in the day you could always get a comm ev to challenge the SP declare.  Now, Miscavige only has to look at someone sideways, or express his displeasure about someone, or finger someone for execution – and the bots are expected to rally into action, by whatever means necessary, in order to protect the power they depend upon.  Miscavige has slaughtered all Justice lines in the church and for going on twenty years there has not been a straight comm ev available for anything. 

By any means necessary, towards anybody regardless of their status and worth, with no recourse possible.

I am not at this stage passing judgment on the wisdom of the inclusion of point Six of the seven points of power in the original policy letter. That may or may not be a debate at some time in the future.  Fact of the matter is, to focus one’s attention on that passage exclusively, to make the policy (originally an Admin Know How policy) part of the Ethic of a Scientologist, to make it part of the Basic Staff Hat, while continuously berating all high level executives of the organization to apply it unquestioningly on behalf of the only recognized “Power” of Scientology, resulted in a lot of otherwise decent people doing a lot of ugly things to other people who didn’t deserve that treatement.