Fair game (Scientology)
[1][2][3]: 217–219 In 1968, Hubbard officially canceled use of the term "fair game" because of negative public relations it caused, although the Church's aggressive response to criticism continued.
[7] Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, said all opposition came from what he called "suppressive persons" (SPs) – which Scientologists claim are "anti-social people who want to destroy anything that benefits humanity.
The original 1965 "Fair Game Law" is listed as a reference for GO staff in its confidential Intelligence Course,[22] which was later entered into evidence in a U.S. federal court case in 1979.
In two subsequent court cases the Church defended "fair game" as a "core practice of Scientology", and claimed that it was therefore protected as "religious expression".
In 1994, Vicki Aznaran, who had been the chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (the Church's central management body), claimed in an affidavit that: Because of my position and the reports which regularly crossed my desk, I know that during my entire presidency of RTC "fair game" actions against enemies were daily routine.
Apart from the legal tactics described below, the "fair game" activities included break-ins, libel, upsetting the companies of the enemy, espionage, harassment, misuse of confidential communications in the folders of community members and so forth.Janie Peterson, a former Scientologist, testified in a Clearwater City hearing in 1982 that while working in the Guardians Office she had conducted smear campaigns against Church opponents, sometimes using information from confidential confessional files.
In the UK, targets of fair game and related harassment over the years have included ex-members, authors, journalists, broadcasters, the mental health profession, cult-monitoring groups, government and law enforcement.
An article in The Auditor, a Scientology publication, was produced to the court, stating outright that Johnson was "fair game" and describing him as "an enemy of mankind, the planets and all life".
[33][34] Jon Atack, an ex-Scientologist who left in 1983, wrote the book A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed, and the pamphlet "The Total Freedom Trap" as well as providing research for Bare-Faced Messiah.
He recounted the case of a Scientologist who had been accused of stealing documents from Saint Hill Manor, and was told in writing that he was a suppressive person and fair game.
"[40] Sandy Smith, the editor of the 2007 BBC television programme Panorama, alleged that his team had been subjected to fair game tactics from the Church while filming the documentary Scientology and Me.
"[45] When the crew returned to London, Church of Scientology executive Mike Rinder was sent from the United States to lobby the BBC, even camping out at their offices.
He was concerned that the documents would be used "not for legitimate purposes of the action but for harassment of individual patients, informants and renegades named in them, not only by proceedings for defamation against them but by threats and blackmail.
Garrison abandoned the project, and a disillusioned Armstrong and his wife left the Church, retaining copies of the embarrassing materials as insurance against the expected harassment to come.
He believed, reasonably, that he was subject to "fair game".A child custody case in London's High Court examined the culture of Scientology to investigate the risks to children being raised within it.
[9]: 335–343 [53] Despite the alleged cancellation of "Fair game", he reported that, "Deprival of property, injury by any means, trickery, suing, lying or destruction have been pursued throughout and to this day with the fullest possible vigour.
[9]: 335–343 In 2009, the Tampa Bay Times reported that after Pat Broeker left the Church of Scientology in 1989 and moved to Colorado, David Miscavige hired private detectives for $32,000 a month.
[55] In 2012, Paul Marrick and Greg Arnold, the two private detectives who followed Broeker for 25 years, sued the Church of Scientology for breach of contract when the organization stopped paying them for their investigations.
[60] This included a smear campaign conducted against Lerma by "Judit" and "Greg" and a private detective and former National Police inspector, José Manuel Villarejo Pérez.
On May 8, 1984, Borrallo appeared at a Madrid police station, admitting to two robberies that he had actually committed (to give credibility to the matter) and of a theft of several E-Meters at the Dianetics headquarters, saying that he was induced to steal them by Pedro Lerma.
[60] During proceedings, however, the presiding judge, José María Vázquez Honrubia, discovered the smear plot[60] and Lerma was acquitted by the Sixteenth Section of the Madrid Court in 1990.
The sham company that received it, "Educational Funding Services" of Los Angeles, gave as its address a mail drop a few blocks from Scientology's headquarters.
The owner of the mail drop is a private eye named Fred Wolfson, who admits that an Ingram associate retained him to retrieve credit reports on several individuals.
A close friend in Los Angeles received a disturbing telephone call from a Scientology staff member seeking data about me – an indication that the cult may have illegally obtained my personal phone records.
Some of my conversations with them were taped, transcribed and presented by the church in affidavits to Time's lawyers as "proof" of my bias against Scientology.Actress and photographer Carmen Llywelyn was introduced to Scientology through her partner (and future husband) professional skateboarder and actor Jason Lee.
According to her account, when she revealed to her talent manager that she had read A Piece of Blue Sky, a book critical of the Church, she was labeled a suppressive person and shunned (or "disconnected") by her Scientologist friends.
Writes Llywelyn: "Scientology has a sophisticated intelligence agency known as the Office of Special Affairs, which is essentially a complex system dedicated to ruining the lives of those it sees as enemies in any way possible.
"[63] Journalist John Sweeney said of fair gaming: "While making our BBC Panorama film Scientology and Me I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a 'bigot' by star Scientologists and been chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers."
[68] In October 2014, Rathbun filmed an encounter which he claimed showed three members of the Church's top management as they "ambushed" him at Los Angeles International Airport.
"[78] In March 2015, private investigator Eric Saldarriaga pleaded guilty to the federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer hacking after he illegally gained access to at least 60 email accounts.
