Bertram Fields
Greenberg, Glusker, et al
1900 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA
90067-4590
August 26, 2009
re: Yours of August 26
Dear Bert,
I am sorry to interrupt your vacation, but I want to make sure you fully understand a situation you are clearly being lead to misunderstand.
In spite of your protestation to the contrary, it has become quite apparent you and your client are in fact working on a coordinated defense of Miscavige’s conduct. That you spent five of the twelve sentences of your letter extolling Miscavige’s virtues, while saying nothing in defense of your client speaks volumes.
You apparently chose to ignore evidence of Mike Rinder being battered on more than a dozen occasions and instead used Mike’s purported words uttered years ago in defense of Miscavige. I found that rather telling. That you did not bother to ask Mike – a person you have met and worked with on a number of occasions – despite my invitation to do so and my provision of his contact information – is informative of your client’s position. I know that a renowned attorney such as yourself would normally pursue such evidence with due diligence. Only in Miscavige’s world does an intelligent and thoughtful man like Mike become a non-person with the snap of the fingers.
With respect to your own client, by simply repeating the demand set forth in your original letter to me dated August 7 you have shown that you did not understand what I intended to communicate to you or that your client is under the control of Miscavige.
Your August 7 letter expressed the desire that your client’s name not be associated with me. I responded two days later by telling you that in order to prevent the continuing perpetration of severe and widespread violations of criminal laws and fundamental human rights – and to correct publicly spread blatant lies by Miscavige – it was necessary to communicate that relationship in order to accomplish my humanitarian objective. I provided evidence up through the year I left the Church with links to the accounts of fourteen other people who witnessed the same conduct at issue.
Bert, I only decided to make my knowledge public after reviewing a plethora of evidence – contrary to Miscavige’s PR line that I had perpetrated all of the violent and felonious behavior of his – that after I left, Miscavige’s compound made a sharp turn south towards Jonestown. Several former Miscavige insiders have left since I did. Most, if not all of them, have visited me to help recover from the emotional – and sometimes physical scars – that Miscavige inflicted upon them.
I have hard evidence that Miscavige’s response to my having left was to have the doors to the Hole (ref: St Petersburg Times series) barred and welded shut. He created a literal prison where the majority of the international managers of the Church of Scientology remained locked up for months, and in some cases, even years.
The incidents recounted in the St Petersburg Times Truth Rundown series are like a walk in the park compared to what came later. The Hole became a torture chamber. Literally.
I’ll share one incident I have documented that I believe is apropos to your misguided letter.
A couple years ago Miscavige strode into the Hole to make an announcement to the eighty to one hundred Scientology managers then incarcerated. Miscavige berated them for being far too light in their demands for confessions from three of his favorite targets for degradation, humiliation and beatings. They were Marc Yager who was once the highest ranking official in the Church of Scientology International, Guillaume Leserve the Executive Director International and Ray Mithoff the highest technical executive in all of Scientology. Miscavige informed the gathering that Tom Cruise would be coming to the Int base (the 500 acre compound near Hemet) the next day. This, of course, was taken seriously since the several hundred base staff members were busy that day on the Tom Cruise arrival preparation drill (which includes, incidentally, putting all staff through drills orchestrating every action they perform in front of, or speak in the presence of, Cruise).
Miscavige informed all of the members of International management that he had been telling Cruise all about how suppressive Yager, Leserve, and Mithoff had been to Miscavige personally. He told the executives that he had told Cruise how all other members of management were suppressive to Miscavige too because they refused to beat Yager, Leserve and Mithoff to pulps in defense of Miscavige’s honor. Miscavige said that Tom, as his best friend and most trusted confidante, had vowed to come to the Hole and personally “beat the living shit” out of Yager, Leserve, and Mithoff if the managers failed to do so themselves. Miscavige said that if they didn’t show evidence that they had acted, they all would be bypassed the next day by Cruise. The tantrum was accompanied by the usual ill-tempered and sadistic threats to the executives detailing what would become of them if Tom had to do “their job.”
In response, the mob rushed at the three targeted gentlemen. Fists flew and feet kicked into the three. They continued to pound until Miscavige’s deputy on site determined they had created sufficient evidence. That evidence? Fat lips, bloody noses, black eyes (and the deputy would not let the mob relent until each had two black eyes) and contusions over the faces and bodies of Yager, Leserve, and Mithoff.
Bert, if your client still wants to continue having his name uttered by David Miscavige to perpetrate these types of barbarities and at the same time enjoin me from simply stating a fact that I performed a religious service for him at Miscavige’s direction so that I might continue to lend a credible voice to end these atrocities, then save your firm’s letterhead and send me no more letters.
Instead, go ahead and sue me. I would be happy to see this all aired in court. But, I would be even happier to see you investigate this situation and act to help bring these human rights abuses to an end.
Sincerely,
Marty Rathbun
Moving On Up a Little Higher 