Effort to Silence Critics Seen0 Data 1278, The Wash ):51cgtt Co. • Scientologists obtained the personal sta- By Ron Shaffer tionery of a woman, typed a bomb threat on it, Washington Post Staff Writer mailed it to a Scientology office and reported docunients seized by the threat to police. The woman, who had writ- the FBI indicate that the church has been waging ten a book critical of Scientology, was arrested, ' an extensive, sophisticated campaign to iden- charged with making a bomb threat, and then tify, attack and discredit its "enemies," includ- charged with perjury when she denied doing it. ing Internal Revenue Service and Justice De- She suffered a nervous breakdown before the partment investigators, other public officials case eventually was diSmissed. and inquiring journalists. • Scientology agents staged a fake hit-and The "attack and destroy" campaign carried run accident designed to compromise the mayor out by the Church of Scientology's "Guardian's of Clearwater, Fla., who had criticized the Sci- Office" to silence critics has involved illegal entologists' purchase of a Clearwater hotel. A surveillance, burglaries, forgeries and many woman Scientology agent driving a car in which forms of harassment, according to sources close the Clearwater mayor was riding here ran into to an intensive federal investigation of the another Scientology agent posing as a pedes- Scientologists' activities. trian in Rock Creek Park, sped away from the Sources said the "covert operations" docu- scene, and urged the mayor not to report the mented In the Scientologists' own internal mem- "accident." The Scientologists then tried to use oranda and directives, which were seized by the the against the Clearwater mayor in FBI under court subpoena last July, include the his campaign for reelection. — following incidents: See SCIENTOLOGY, A4, CoL 1

SCIENTOLOGY, From Al tion to refute the existence of the in- cidents described in this story. • The Scientologists attempted to discredit a Clearwater reporter by The Scientologists have contended forging the rough draft of a news- in court documents, in press releases paper story under his name, purport- and in interviews that they are the edly linking Florida politicians to the victims of extensive harassment by Mafia. They then passed the faked the federal government, which is at- story to state legislators whom the tempting to suppress their religion. reporter was covering. Earlier, the They have filed complainsts against reporter had written stories critical federal investigators working on the of the Scientologists. case, repeatedly accused the FBI of • Scientology Church members "Gestapo" tactics in carrying out were placed in at least three govern- raids, and sued virtually every federal ment agencies, the Justice Department, official they have identified as being Internal Revenue Service, and Drug involved with the case. Enforcement Administration, to gath- The Scientologists' broadest suit er intelligence and steal documents pending in federal court here accuses dealing with agency actions relating numerous government agencies of to the Scientology Church. conducting a 20-year campaign to in- • A campaign was mounted to filtrate and harass the religious group harass prosecutors who have been in violation of the First Amendment. handling Scientology cases, includ- Tbey say the current federal investi- ing calls and background investiga- gation into alleged illegal 'break-ins tions ranging from grades in school and buggings by the Scientologiata is to personal habits. only the latest and most visible act by Asked last night about these al- the government against them. leged operations, Gregory Layton, a The Church of Scientology was be- spokesman for the Church of Scien- gun by L. Ron Hubbard, a former tology, said the government evidence science fiction, writer whose book is a compilation of "false reports" ", The Modern Science of put out by the government as part of Mental Health," has become a best- "20 years of harrassment." Layton said seller. The church asserts that man the church has extensive documents- is essentially a free spirit, and In order to achieve his true nature, an Scientology documents in simultan- eous raids on church headquarters here and in Los Angeles last July 8. The warrant was based on informa- tion provided by a former church offi- cial who claimed the church had heav- ily Infiltrated the government and that he himself had broken into gov- ernment offices here and copied docu- ments, and had seen copies of a trans- cript of an IRS meeting that the Scientologists had bugged. The church immediately began a legal assault on the warrant's validity here and in Los Angeles that immed- iately prevented prosecutors and FBI officials from using the documents in their investigation. U.S. District Chief Judge William B. Bryant ruled that the warrant was too broad and the search was there- fore illegal. He was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals, and that appel- late ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Scientologists then began a new legal assault on the manner in which the searches here and in Los Angeles were executed. A Los Angeles Judge ruled about a month ago, in favor of individual must rid himself of emo- the government concerning the Los tional constraints through counseling Angeles raid and investigators began reviewing the California documents in conducted by members of..the church. detail The fees for this and other services sustain the church, Which is fighting A similar suit against the manner a continuous battle against the federal in which the Scientologist headquar- and local governments to preserve its ters here near Dupont Circle was tax-exempt status. The church's raided is being heard by Judge Bry- wealth is such that it paid cash for a ant. The latest hearing in that pro- $2.3 million headquarters building in ceeding is scheduled for today. Clearwater. The documents in government pos- FBI agents seized truckloads of session include internal memoran- dums allegedly taken from IRS, Jus- tice Department and Drug Enforce- ment Administration files and details of covert actions in Scientology memos and orders, according to in- formed sources. In one document, Scientologists had reportedly done their own legal re- search concerning the definitions of "break-in" and "burglary" under Cali- fornia law and had determined that one was a felony and the other a misdemeanor. The document then concluded that the church's moat suc- cessful "actions" had been felonies instead of misdemeanors, one source said. According to the testimony of a former Scientologist, the church has a "fair " doctrine that requires the church to attack and destroy its enemies. The government's principal inform- ant, who sought to leave the church, believed that he too, bad become fair game, according to government sources. The Sclentologists' confidential pa- pers, according to sources, are filled with the words "Identify," "attack," "destroy" and "enemies," and projects against government agencies were given code names like "Snow White," "Hunter," and 'Witch."