The raid on Scientology you probably haven’t heard about — and how the church beat the rap

 
Historian Chris Owen is back with a stunning and detailed look at how Scientology beat the rap in a government crackdown you probably haven’t heard of. Today, he dives into the spying and sabotage that Scientology is so well known for, and tomorrow, the lessons learned in this experience which help explain why governments have a hard time tackling the Scientology problem.

October’s news that the Hungarian police are investigating Scientology for ‘espionage’ is a strong indication that – as I had predicted earlier – the Hungarian authorities’ ongoing investigation into Scientology’s data protection practices would collide with the work of Scientology’s secret police, the Office of Special Affairs (OSA).

Greece’s experiences with Scientology 20 years ago illustrate what the Hungarian police might have found during their raids on the Budapest Scientology org. During a series of raids in 1995 against the Athens org, Greek police found and seized numerous internal documents which provided an unprecedented insight into OSA’s activities.

OSA is a department of the Church of Scientology responsible for managing the church’s external affairs. These include public relations, legal administration, coordination with Scientology-supported ‘social reform’ organisations and carrying out investigations against perceived enemies of Scientology. It is organised as a hierarchical network. Local Directors of Special Affairs (DSAs) in each country report to ‘continental’ OSA units, who in turn report to OSA International (OSA Int) in Los Angeles.

Scientology has a surprisingly long history in Greece. It was established there as early as the 1950s, when a physiotherapist named Chronis met L. Ron Hubbard in the United States, embraced his ideas and brought them back to Greece, where Scientology was practiced informally in homes and private spaces. In 1968, Hubbard took his Sea Org fleet to Corfu where he established a “Philosophy School” as a front for Scientology. Unfortunately for Hubbard, his Greek venture ended badly when the Sea Org was accused of being a CIA front and was expelled by Greece’s military dictatorship, an episode described in the late Major John Forte’s book “The Commodore and the Colonels.”

It was another decade before Scientology established a permanent presence in Greece. In 1979, it created the Foundation of Dianetics and Philosophy of Greece, renamed in 1983 as the Center of Applied Philosophy of Greece (KEFE). It had a single branch located at 200 Patision Street in Athens, organised under license from Scientology Missions International. Although there was just one org in Greece it had an outsized reach, as half of the country’s population lives in Athens. From its foundation in 1983 to 1995, KEFE did not call Scientology a church or a religion. Indeed, in a 1995 letter to the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church, KEFE’s President Maria Gimisi-Paretzoglou wrote that Scientology was not a religion and that its members identified religiously as Greek Orthodox Christians.

Scientology’s reluctance to claim a separate religious identity was due to the difficulty that non-Christian faith groups have had in establishing themselves in Greece, which is the only country in eastern Europe with a state religion – Greek Orthodox Christianity. Judaism and Islam are also officially recognized. Other faiths are characterized under Greek law as “known religions” if they meet the criteria of being “a religion or a dogma whose doctrine is open and not secret, is taught publicly and its rites of worship are also open to the public, irrespective of whether its adherents have religious authorities; such a religion or dogma needs not to be recognized or approved by an act of the State or Church.” Scientology did not meet these criteria.

By the start of the 1990s, KEFE had run into opposition from elements in Greek society. Parents and relatives of Greek Scientology members formed a campaigning group called the Pan-Hellenic Parents Union of Parents for the Protection of Greek-Orthodox Culture, the Family and the Individual (PEG). They complained, among other things, that Scientology had pressured their children to disconnect from them.

PEG’s activities were supported by the Greek Orthodox Church and its Synodic Commission on Cults and Para-religions. Father Antonios Alevizopoulos, an Orthodox priest who headed the Commission, was a high-profile and outspoken critic of Scientology. His work was publicly supported by the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Seraphim of Athens, and several other Greek Orthodox bishops and archbishops. In 1993, a conference organised by Alevizopoulos led to Scientology and other groups being labelled incompatible with the Greek Orthodox faith – a conclusion endorsed the following year by the Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod.

 
Greek officialdom was also suspicious of non-Orthodox faith groups. In 1991-92 the Greek National Intelligence Service, KYP, compiled a report which concluded that the country’s non-Greek Orthodox citizens were “non-genuine, impure, corruptible Greeks” and presented a national security threat. It proposed restrictive measures and listed various organizations as “enemies of the state.” This was likely directed principally towards Greece’s Muslims and Slavs, who were seen by some as possible threats to Greece’s territorial integrity, rather than at Scientologists. The report’s recommendations do not appear to have been implemented and it was disowned by the Greek government after its contents were leaked to the left-wing newspaper Elefterotypia in August 1993.

PEG was loosely connected with other European anti-cult groups and hosted a Europe-wide anti-cult conference in Athens in late 1993, at which Alevizopoulos spoke. By this time OSA had designated Alevizopoulos as a key enemy and gave him the code name ‘L’ in its reports. It viewed PEG as being part of an international “Anti-Religious Movement” (ARM) and sent a Scientologist volunteer (or “Invest[igations] Helper”) to infiltrate the conference. In a report sent in December 1993 to the continental OSA EU unit in Copenhagen, Ilias Gratsias, the Director of Special Affairs at KEFE, wrote:

… the invest helper attened [sic] the first ARM meeting of L. There were more than 100 people attending. L. attacked Scientology and made clear that this is his first target. He said that the next meeting will be attended by few people which he will choose among the university graduates. He said that no recording of the meetings is allowed and the printing material of the seminar will be given out only to the few selected. He also made clear that he cooperates with some German terminals [contacts] and bragged that he is known to the whole world about his ARM activity.

On the other hand today I made a two pages report about L. for the atty [attorney] and the would-be-recruited P. I. [private investigator] to read. I am looking for the atty as I want to go over the invest file with him but I could not reach him. I also want to check whether P. I. collected data would be accepted by any court…

Gratsias was instructed by his superiors to carry out an appraisal of which individuals posed the greatest threat to Scientology in Greece. As with everything else in Scientology, this was done on the basis of statistics, or in this case, arbitrarily assigned numerical scores for different types of threat. (The scoring tables used by OSA can be seen here.)

OSA identified a dozen people as key targets, listing Alevizopoulos, Archbishop Seraphim, and the Public Order Minister as the three biggest threats. Two other Greek Orthodox bishops and another archbishop were also among the top twelve enemies. In a sign of OSA’s concern about the situation in Greece, the matter was escalated to the top of the organization for operational planning.

On 13 April 1994, OSA Int in Los Angeles issued a confidential order for a “Greece Handling Program.” It stated that “the Greek Orthodox ARM [Anti-Religious Movement] activity in Greece has escalated to a level which warrants immediate attention…. This coordinated multi-bureau program is now written so as to handle this situation.” Its goal was “To get the ARM situation in Greece under control while PR activities are being created, allies are being made and legal is working out on getting the Church recognized as a religious group.”

The program was to be carried out principally by KEFE’s Gratsias with the close involvement of OSA Int and OSA EU, as well as the local OSA section in Germany. Its major targets included “Alevizopoulos and Seraphim investigated with crimes exposed,” which would be done using the following steps:

…18. Get Public Record Research done on Seraphim and Alevizopoulos. Get this fully researched, including listing the friends and opponents with their names and functions, from newspaper articles, brochures, debrief of visits etc….
19. Get a criminal mind analysis done on Alevizopoulos.
20. Get a PI to investigate Seraphim and Alevizopoulos as to their personal activities to find out any crimes they are involved in. Ensure that any connection with ARM terminals [contacts] in Germany are well documented.
…23. Utilize the data gotten on invest [intelligence] lines to expose the criminal activities of Alevizopoulos and Seraphim.

There is no indication from anywhere in the Greece Handling Program that OSA recognised any risks, or even moral issues, with targeting the head of the Greek Orthodox Church for exposure as a supposed “criminal.” Seraphim was a revered figure for many of the ninety percent of Greeks who follow the Orthodox Church. By that time, he was the longest-serving head of the Greek Orthodox Church in the 20th century. He was also a genuine war hero, having fought with the Greek Resistance against the Nazis.

OSA’s strategy was comparable to trying to persuade Poles that Pope John Paul II was a criminal. It was never likely to succeed, and as events showed, the exposure of a campaign against such a revered individual was highly damaging for Scientology’s reputation. However, OSA’s response was dictated by its own rigid policies and L. Ron Hubbard’s insistence that critics of Scientology invariably have criminal pasts. Thanks to these ideological dictates, Scientology effectively chose to declare war on the Greek Orthodox Church.

Alevizopoulos was the subject of a separate handling program issued by OSA EU on 20 December 1994. It identified him as “the key source to entheta [bad news] on Scn here in Greece” and set out its goals as being to “effectively stop the flow of entheta to the Greek media” and to “stop the actions of L to a point where he does not longer create an effect on the Greek field.” The plan called for “at least one or two guys” to be infiltrated into Alevizopoulos’s meetings to observe and report on what was said and who attended.

An investigative reporter was to be hired to “collect data” on the priest, while a separate “Overt Data Collection” was to be carried out to find as much information from public sources as possible. OSA EU instructed KEFE to “stay legal with this. DO NOT BREAK ANY LAWS … This could include to observe him for a time period, scan through his garbage etc. be creative here but keep in mind that we must not give him anything that might enable him to attack us. …” Additionally, KEFE was to “file as many criminal suits as possible on already known crimes. i. e. slander of the Mission, LRH, Scn …” against key critics of Scientology in Greece. OSA’s strategy also called for infiltration of “the ARM group” (presumably PEG) “so that we can identify those involved and work out individual handlings.”

One such handling related to two parents who were now members of PEG and collaborated with Alevizopoulos in his campaign against Scientology. Their daughter, Dora Apostolopoulou, had been declared a “Potential Trouble Source Type C” and excluded from participating in Scientology until her situation was resolved. OSA EU’s “Invest[igations] Handling Chief” instructed Apostolopolou that “as long as [her parents] remain connected to L you will not be able to have a normal relationship with them. This is your reason for not living with them. The disconnection from L is to be stressed, as they will disconnect once they see that there is no product to remain connected to him, as the cost of continuing this connection is they loose [sic] their daughter.”

Other national OSA directors were also brought into the operation to help KEFE. As Alevizopoulos had lived in Germany for part of his life, OSA decided, apparently arbitrarily, that he must have Nazi connections. The Director of Special Affairs in Germany was instructed to carry out an investigation into the priest’s past. The DSA in Switzerland was also mobilized to obtain the support of Metropolitan Damaskinos, the Greek Orthodox Church’s senior representative there: “I have alerted DSA Swz on the Greece scene and asked him to contact the Metropolis [sic] of Switzerland, Mr. Damaskinos, and ally him through a WIS? [What is Scientology?] book visit for example.”

KEFE also undertook an extensive campaign of “safepointing” – in Scientology jargon, finding influential allies and cultivating other faith groups to deal with common threats. Dealing with the Greek government was a key part of the strategy. KEFE was to create “Government comm lines … so as to be able to predict future government attack on religions.”

One of the allies KEFE sought out was Stylianos Pattakos, formerly a leading member of the 1967-75 military junta. Pattakos’ role is unclear but he was evidently seen as influential, despite having recently been paroled from a life sentence for high treason. As he was on the far right, he may have been seen as having influence with the right-wing media and politicians who were among KEFE’s fiercest critics, and may possibly have provided OSA with intelligence insights into the Greek right.

Another important ally was Professor Konidaris, the government’s Religious Affairs Secretary, who promised he would “let us know if he hears any of the [Orthodox] church plans to attack us”. Members of the Greek Parliament who were seen as hostile to the Orthodox Church were also targeted for recruitment as possible allies. With Greek politics polarized between an anti-clerical left and a religious-conservative right, OSA was able to find allies, many on the left, in both politics and the media.

An OSA document produced in June 1995 shows the extent of the “safepointing” campaign. Titled “OSA PRO [Public Relations Officer] Comm Lines and Allies,” it lists numerous public figures as allies of Scientology, including journalists, broadcasters, politicians, human rights activists and artists. It also lists a number of other journalists as “enemies.”

Conventional public relations played an important role in KEFE’s campaign. KEFE recorded programs for local TV stations in which it promoted L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings. Friendly journalists were also encouraged to write pro-Scientology articles for their newspapers.

KEFE used a contact at the newspaper Elefterotypia to obtain a copy of the Greek intelligence service’s controversial leaked report on sects. OSA Int’s program included an order to “get the Greek Intelligence (KYP) Report translated so it can be exposed and used internationally to embarrass the Greek government and those in the Orthodox Church who are behind this.” A year later, the KYP unit that had authored the report was closed down. The circumstances of the closure are murky; a subsequent OSA report said that “with the intervention of CIA the Greek intell dept regarding [new religious movements] is closed down and the employees fired!!” It is not clear whether this referred to the US Central Intelligence Agency or a different organisation or individual, and it is not known whether the OSA report was accurate. A further OSA report said that the unit had been closed down but “we do not know where these people [members of the unit] went and where the files went.”

The Greek authorities did not appear to have been particularly keen to confront Scientology. As a later official report put it, public bodies took the view that “the foolishness of those involved in this Association is not a criminal act to justify State intervention.” However, their hands were eventually forced by activist parents and the media. In the early months of 1995, the parents of Dora Apostolopoulou, who had by now been “disconnected” from their Scientologist daughter, staged a noisy demonstration inside KEFE’s offices in Athens. They were accompanied by a film crew from Teletora TV. The right-wing Elefteri Ora newspaper also publicized their protest. KEFE and two Scientology officials retaliated by filing three duplicate lawsuits against the parents and Teletora TV.

KEFE also pursued Alevizopolous, accusing him of having “Nazi” connections. An OSA report of 7 May on a meeting with a Greek Orthodox Church official stated that the official “agreed that L should be removed from post provided they will have data about his Nazi connection. He also said that L’s wife is dying from cancer one of these days and L himself is in a pretty bad condition and will soon dye [sic] himself. This explains the forcefull [sic] attacks by L these days. He has nothing to loose anymore. He operates like a Kamikazi. He doesn’t care about the consequences. … He has lost the battle and he knows when he will be gone in a few weeks or months we will still be there. …”

Scientology’s position rapidly worsened as Teletora and other media outlets ran more critical coverage and called for an investigation. Athens’ Public Prosecutor, Ioannis Angelis, was ordered by the Supervisor of the Athens First Instance Court to look into the matter. On 9 June, he carried out what was to be the first of three police raids against KEFE.

Ilias Gratsias, KEFE’s Director of Special Affairs, was in the building at the time and wrote a detailed account to his superiors of what happened. The police seized finance records, the KYP report, files on Alevizopoulos, records of telex communications with Scientology’s continental unit in Copenhagen and various floppy disks and hard drives. In all, over 20,000 pages of documents were said to have been taken. Bottles of vitamins and files on student Scientologists (preclears) were also seized. OSA’s records attracted particular interest from the prosecutor, who according to Gratsias said: “These [sic] guy is collecting data about the national security and sends them abroad. This is spying. This is [a] national threat.”

Many of the seized disks and drives were encrypted. Gratsias recorded his relief that the police had overlooked the encryption key that had been locked in his desk, but his relief was probably short-lived as police computer technicians were able to decrypt and print out secret OSA records and correspondence. Almost 2,500 pages of OSA records were exposed, representing probably the biggest haul of secret internal Scientology documents seized by a law enforcement agency since the FBI’s 1977 raids in Washington DC and Los Angeles.

The files included a stack of dossiers a metre thick on some 2,500 people – politicians, captains of industry, celebrities, press people, and other public figures. They revealed that OSA had carried out undercover and intelligence surveillance of targets, including 24-hour surveillance of some politicians. One of the most startling items discovered was a top-secret map of a Greek Air Force base, showing in detail the military installations on the site. This led to an investigation by the Greek Air Force’s military intelligence unit into how this document had found its way to KEFE. The results of the investigation are unknown.

On 26 August, OSA Int responded to the raid by issuing an executive directive titled “Greek Raid Handling Pjt [Project]: 558 Pgm [Program]”. The title indicates that OSA Int likely despatched a Sea Org mission to Greece to deal with the situation. A 558 Program is a series of actions put in place by Sea Org “missionaires” once they have dealt with whatever the issue/problem. The 558 actions are meant to carry on the mission’s successful actions.

The missionaires were likely responsible for carrying out a review of KEFE’s status following the raid. OSA’s directive noted that KEFE’s corporate and tax compliance management had been neglected, as well as a failure to resolve problems with the parents of KEFE staff members. The directive ordered once again that “Priest Alevizopoulis [sic]” was to be “investigated with his crimes exposed.” The Greek Orthodox Church was also targeted: “Through finding comm lines amongst the Greek clergy, find out his exact relations with the Holy Synodus members, who support him, who dislike him.” Archbishop Seraphim’s likely successor was to be identified, “cultivated” and “fed with the right data” on Scientology.

KEFE was instructed to abandon its previous position that it was non-religious and to redouble its efforts to establish Scientology on a religious footing in Greece, so that it could benefit from religious protections under Greek and EU law. A PR campaign was also ordered, including: “one “Cleaning the Parks” event done each week. Take good pictures of it and make this action known. … Get events organized in which Scientologists go and plant new trees on the hills that have been recently burned down. Get media coverage … [G]et the [The Way To Happiness] booklet translated into Greek and printed.” A Greek edition of Scientology’s Freedom magazine was also to be established.

In conjunction with the 558 Program and the earlier ARM Handling Program, KEFE reported to OSA EU in September 1995 that its lawyer had met with a former member of KYP, the Greek Intelligence Service. DSA Gratsias wrote that the ex-KYP officer had provided a copy of the agency’s file on Alevizopoulos and asked “for an exchange … (about 70,000 drachmas)”, or around $300. The file revealed no evidence of any crimes or wrongdoing by Alevizopoulos. Nonetheless, Gratsias instructed the lawyer to “get the guy to give us the curriculum vitae of the priest as … it could reveal something which is not of interest for the secret services but would be for us and could give us some more leads.”

Unfortunately for Scientology, the 558 Program and KEFE’s infiltration of KYP became public when the Public Prosecutor carried out further raids on 27 September and 6 November 1995. OSA sought to dissuade Angelis from pursuing the case any further. Two operatives visited him, claiming to be former US Drug Enforcement Agency officials, but were unable to influence the prosecutor. The US Government was also enlisted as an ally. US Ambassador Thomas Nails told Greek Supreme Court judges at a social gathering that the Greek justice system should respect Scientology’s freedom of religion. The State Department’s annual report on human rights later included a line on the Greek case, describing the documents seized by the police as being merely “a file of press clippings on Greek opposition to Scientology.”

Angelis compiled a hundred-page report that was published the following June. He focused particularly on OSA’s activities and concluded that KEFE “not only has purposes different than those determined in its statutes, but also its actions, purpose, and operation have become illegal and immoral and are against public order.” In December 1996 the Athens District Court ordered that KEFE was to be dissolved for misrepresenting its activities. It ruled:

The Association is exercising financial/for-profit business and depending on its interests, keeping a cover of either a philosophical association or as a religious identity.

It is not an independent organization, but it is under a strict hierarchical structure of international level, under the control and supervision of foreign organizations and centers, something that contradicts the country’s public order (Civil Code Article 33).

The verdict was upheld by the Appeals Court in January 1997 and a further appeal to the Supreme Court was withdrawn in May 1998. By that time, however, it was moot. As soon as the Appeals Court verdict came in, KEFE simply reincorporated itself as the Dianetics and Scientology Center of Greece (which renamed itself as the Greek Church of Scientology in 1999) and transferred its assets to the new organization. It still continues in business today.

Fifteen KEFE staff members were charged with the criminal offense of “factual insult” for their intelligence activities against Greece public figures. In May 1999, the Appeal Court issued a ruling which was strongly critical of the defendants’ actions:

[The defendants] were involved in a coordinated and systematic monitoring and collection of information, related to the private, social, professional and public activities, to the philosophical, religious and political views… of public figures, of political and judicial authorities, of journalists… By such insulting practice they were involved through a common will and through a joined decision, all of them being aware about the common perception by the general public on such insulting acts, about the moral and social standing of the above mentioned persons, a fact, that definitely violates their credibility, honor and privacy.

Although the judgment effectively found that the defendants had committed the acts described in the criminal complaint, it did not impose a sentence as the prosecution had made no motion for a punishment to be imposed. The individual victims had not submitted a suit against the defendants within the provided three-month deadline, which started from when they became aware of the acts committed. Without such a suit, Greek law deemed that there was no punishable act. This outcome could perhaps be described as a moral victory for Angelis, who had proved his case, but in practice it had no lasting effect.

After the dissolution of KEFE and the inconclusive end of the criminal case against its senior staff, pressure on Scientology in Greece dissipated. The organization quickly regrouped, though its application for recognition and a house-of-prayer permit was rejected in 2000 on the grounds that Scientology was not considered a “known religion.” Scientology is currently constituted as a nonprofit organization in Greece. Alevizopoulos died shortly before KEFE was dissolved and Archbishop Seraphim died the following year. Angelis moved on to another prosecution role. PEG continues to operate, campaigning on behalf of the parents of Greeks involved in Scientology and other sects. In the end, although the Greek raids disrupted Scientology for a while, they seem to have amounted to little more than a temporary inconvenience for the organization.

In the next part, I’ll look at what the Greek case tells us about why Scientology is so tough for governments and state agencies to deal with.

With many thanks to Anthony Bosnakoudis and Martin Ottmann, whose work was essential in writing this account.

 
— Chris Owen

 
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Lisa McPherson, 22 years later

Two years ago, we marked the 20th anniversary of Lisa McPherson’s death by recounting, in real time, her final few weeks on this planet.

Even today, her shocking treatment by the Church of Scientology is an indictment of L. Ron Hubbard’s ideas about mental health, and about Scientology’s slavish commitment to his crackpot notions.

Lisa McPherson deserved better.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 5, 2017 at 07:00

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Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield