Church of Scientology Operation Snow White – From a Guy Who Was There

church of scientology operation snow whiteRemote-Viewed is a frequent poster on the MileStone 2 blog, as well as Mike Rinder’s blog and a few others around the Post-Scientology Internet. He has a view all his own.

He is in the middle of telling his story as a member of the infamous Guardian’s Office in the 1970’s during the Church of Scientology Operation Snow White criminal campaign, for which 11 top Scientologists, including Mary Sue Hubbard, were tried, convicted, and sent to prison.

This is Remote-Viewed’s Part 2 on the Milestone 2 blog. He has provided an earlier segment to this post, and he threatens to provide at least one more post after this one on the subject.

NOTE: MileStone2 blog is heavily censored in the comments area at this time. Only the most KSW (RAH! RAH! Fake 4.0) of Scientology ideas are allowed to be discussed there. This is why I am posting the full post here on my blog, so that the open and free exchange of ideas – as laid out in the Creed of the Church of Scientology – can take place on Remote-Viewed’s post.

Alanzo’s Link-Love can be much more generous when the Creed of the Church of Scientology is allowed to be followed on MileStone2. I’ll be able to link to their post and just send people over there for the discussion.

Until then, the full post is reprinted here for your examination, analysis, and commenting.

Remote-Viewed is specifically invited to come here and to comment, as well as all participants of the MileStone2 blog – including that Big Bear of a Man – Jim Logan!

Even though a few of the posters there may disagree with me on a few things about LRH and Scientology, we probably agree on more than we know.

Here’s Remote-Viewed’s post called “Snow White”:

“by Remote Viewed’

“*This is part two in a series, which will probably continue for some time. You can read part one here.’

“To provide a background, for those not familiar with the history of the C of S relating to the Guardian’s Office (and the alteration of LRH’s “Operation Snow White”), in the early 1970s, the Church of Scientology was increasingly scrutinized by US federal agencies, having already been raided by the Food and Drug Administration in 1963. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claimed the Church owed millions of dollars in taxes and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent agents into the organization. The Church’s response involved a publicity campaign, litigation against the IRS and in 1973, a program of infiltration of government agency offices, based on a Guardian’s Order 1361 (not written by LRH). Around this time L. Ron Hubbard himself wrote Guardian Order 732, which called for the removal and correction of “erroneous” Scientology files. It is here that ‘Operation Snow White’ has its origins. This order called for this to be achieved by legal means, however this was altered by those within the GO, resulting in LRH later being named by federal prosecutors as an “unindicted co-conspirator”.’

“Now, to focus more on the events at that time, in the early 70’s, a CSW was sent up to the Guardian, Jane Kember, by the then-Assistant Guardian for Information for the FCDC, Mike Meisner, (who some, including myself, suspected of being a plant, or in FBI parlance a “Confidential Informant” or CI — which is a serendipitous abbreviation for sure, because it directly resulted in the raids that followed and not “Operation Snow White”).’

“This CSW resulted in the Guardian’s Order 1361, which was to find a Guardian Assisting Scientologist (GAS) also known as “FSM”, to infiltrate the main offices of the IRS in Washington and basically make copies of any files the IRS had on Scientology relating to its ongoing appeal and dispute with the IRS regarding their decision to revoke the Church’s 501Ciii in 1967.’

“Again, serendipitously, they managed to find a GAS or FSM by the name of Gerald Wolfe whom they code named “Silver” (and who some, including myself, suspected was a plant or CI), and who was immediately hired by the IRS as a clerk in their central office.’

“What is somewhat suspicious about Wolfe being hired is the fact that due the recession at the time the US Government had instituted a hiring freeze yet despite this fact Wolfe was “hired” almost immediately upon applying for the job.’

“As Lewis Carroll has Alice saying “Curious and Curiouser”.’

“It seems that Meisner and Wolfe had thrown all trade craft out the window and began photocopying mass quantities of files relating to IRS’ case against Scientology on the IRS’ photocopy machine.’

“Another thing which led to Wolfe’s immediate arrest was that he was carrying a forged ID. One he didn’t need, because as an IRS employee he had his own valid ID, granting him access to the Government Library were he and Meisner (who was also carrying a forged ID) were caught.’

“That and the fact that after they were caught red handed, committing acts of espionage against the US Government, they both received rather light sentences. They were both ordered to do some community service and they were put on probation while their “co-conspirators” (including Mary Sue) ended up spending time in jail.’

“Of course we are assured by Marty Rathbun, in his book, that Meisner was just “disillusioned” about being a Scientology Warrior, and that there was “absolutely no evidence that he was a plant”. This coming from Marty, who himself has a somewhat shady past with definite connections to psychiatry, which he tries to defuse by admitting to in his “limited hang out”.’

“In summary, the GO activities were a rogue operation which totally violated LRH’s Snow White’s objective to obtain the information “by any *legal* (my emphasis) means”, using the Freedom of Information Act, which many GO members worked assiduously on, along with other like minded organizations, so they could do just that, instead of take the easy illegal route that they took in GO 1361.’

“More coming soon…”

To add some context and more information about operation snow white, here’s a Google Search to get you started:

Google Search: “Church of Scientology Operation Snow White”

Is Remote-Viewed giving accurate facts, in addition to his opinions on those facts?

What evidence has he presented for what he writes?

Think about these and comment on them in the comments section below.

10 thoughts on “Church of Scientology Operation Snow White – From a Guy Who Was There”

  1. It´s an incomplete picture. He manages to evade the issue of why C of S was under scrutiny at the time.
    He states that Guardian´s order 1361 was not written by Hubbard, without stating who did write it, and doesn´t offer any
    verification. He states that order 732 called for the ¨removal and correction of erroneous files¨ . Yeah, okay! Go into a variety
    of government offices, under cover, and remove or ¨correct¨ files? C´mon, that´s illegal…Wow, I can´t even say more…It´s just…mis-direction …I mean, you get into the covert ops/domestic espionage/deeply illegal activities side of things and then flip into…uh, we were set up…? Jeez…I´ll leave the cogent, patient analysis of this guy´s statement to someone else…Wow.

    • I understand the need for patience here, Mark.

      One of the things that Scientologists have to better deal with, is the scrutiny of their ideas and behavior by those with whom they share a society.

      It’s a process. And I’m here for them.

      Alanzo

  2. Accurate facts? Evidence? Bah humbug! Who needs that stuff when your worldview is based on, and controlled by, a strict adherence to a subjective truth defined during the WWII era of apocalyptic conspiracy theories crafted for the uneducated masses. Besides, Remote Viewed is hardly trying to prove anything new. This post merely shows an attempt to convince people to **NOT** to go looking for facts and evidence because the acceptable truth the official church as always spewed still works A-OK for those practicing Scientology in the independent field.

    Psssfft! Look, don’t listen. And the truth shall set you free.

    The federal court case dockets that are readily available in the public domain show that assorted list of Scientology’s FOIA court battles reflect a leaning towards them loosing MORE than they were winning. While they did score a short list of significant FOIA case precedents, related to a few document denials, those wins produced documents that were insignificant and never Scientology the imaginary ammo they were seeking to prove LRH’s grand conspiracy theory about the psychs running a government op to suppress his tech.

    This conspiracy theory ran deep as shown by some of the OODs Hubbard wrote while onboard the Apollo that were released during various court cases of yesteryear, and excerpted by Tony Ortega on the Village Voice Runnin’ Scared blog in recent years.

    Therefore, I think RV’s conclusion about “LRH’s Snow White’s objectives” is a fine example of a false equivalency fallacy being used to handle the flap of this historical incident being one of the BIGGEST trigger points for disenchanted Scientologist to toss everything about LRH and his tech out the window.

    The cult’s FOIA-based efforts as a legal means were not panning out in terms of proving Hubbard’s paranoid delusions of persecution. Instead, it was proving the exact opposite, and some of the FOIA documents eventually released to the public domain show that Hubbard’s tendency to be nutter was easily spotted, joked about and even dismissed out of hand by some of the authorities who investigated complaints they received about the organization.

    So the illegal activities the GO ventured into was in complete accordance with policies stating Scientology considers itself above the law and never fears to do anything to attack an enemy – especially their imaginary enemies. The FOIA releases they sought completely failed prove LRH’s false claims of persecution and the desperation to make it go right kicked in causing the GO operatives to resort to illegal methods to find the information they were certain was being suppressed.

    nformation, which was never proven to exist. Not during the thievery of dox, not during the prosecution of FOIA lawsuits that were appealed to the highest courts possible, and not during the massive disclosures that came out after the FDA raids that vindicated similarly illegal GO ops on Paulette Cooper.

    So Remote Viewed can spin the flap handling fallacy and repeat the classic Church of Scientology justification smokescreen about the GO having rogue agents gone wild until the cows come home. And it won’t change the well milked historical facts that the information they were seeking did not exist, and that no one need look any further than RJ67 for proof of LRH’s paranoid delusions that prompted Operation Snow White and RJ68 for him praising the GO’s efforts at pulling off the largest mass infiltration of government agencies in modern history.

    And yes, this history is likely a bitter pill to swallow for those who still think there is something worth hanging onto in the tech after leaving the fold. So the lack of facts and evidence in RV’s acceptable truth version of the operation that brought down Hubbard’s original goon squad of criminal conspirators is no surprise. But fortunately, the real context needed to make sense of the church’s official fallacies surrounding their version of event is easily found! Simply look up the definition of “justification” in the Tech Dictionary and behold the real truth behind the curtain: flagrant wrongness. Lots and lots of flagrant wrongness, all of which happened on LRH’s watch and under his orders.

    Thus, the need to explain it away in such a broad manner that is laden with generalizations, absolutes and little white lies (more Tech Dictionary keywords that explain the factual truth beneath this re-telling of the same-old justifications) is being trotted out and dusted off for M2 crowd. But here’s hoping some who lurk there will be tempted to seek out more documentation and evidence that supports the flap handling narrative now that the can of worms has been kicked. If so, the lack of supporting evidence might just shock them into looking deeper, as it has for so many ex-Scientologists in the past.

  3. I respect and admire what you are doing. It´s a process for me, too, to simply deal with these issues with some degree of patience. I´m learning…

  4. I agree with all of the other comments. Certainly, had this poster provided far more details, my overall impression would have been that he was simply trying to impart some actual history. But, as it is, my overall impression is that this poster was, yet again, attempting to manipulate me with propaganda.

    As already noted by Mark F, the poster claims that LRH did not write Guardian Order 1361, but fails to tell us who did write it. And, by the way, I would have appreciated something more, to back up that assertion. Then he says that LRH did write Guardian Order 732.

    What struck me about this is that these two orders are clearly on the same topic, and appear to have similar objectives. But, if so, *why would a new order have to be written*, if LRH had already written on the subject and had said what he wanted to be done. I can’t help but wonder if this might lend some credibility to the poster’s claim that LRH’s orders were, in fact, altered. But, if so, why?

    Is it possible that the project started out as a legal attempt that failed; and so then more illegal means were adopted? If so, then this might explain the need for a “new order” on the same subject.

    Next, I have heard about this “hiring freeze”; and how Wolfe got hired anyway for a fairly low-level position. And I have to admit that this has always sounded suspicious.

    HOWEVER, whether or not the government was playing the same spy game with the church is hardly the point. The point is that clearly the church was involved in a major spy operation; and, so, if they got counter-espionaged, then, maybe that is just par for the course. You play with fire and you might get burned.

    Indeed, it almost doesn’t matter what the LRH-written Guardian Order exactly states; because, if GO agents [and their volunteers] were, in fact, infiltrating and accessing/copying documents that they had no legitimate authority or reason to access/copy; then it sounds like they were certainly involved in *illegal activity*. And if they were caught, due to a successful counter-espionage effort, then, again, sounds like they may have simply gotten what was coming to them. So I agree that it is ridiculous to suggest that they were somehow “set up”.

    Further, as far as I know, the FOI act only allows access to [often redacted copies of] government documents; but I do not believe that this process allows for the “removal” or “correction” of anything. And, as such, if LRH was ordering people to “remove” and “correct”, this definitely sounds like something well beyond FOI requests!

    Having said that, this whole “Snow White” thing has always been shrouded in mystery, for me, given all of the odd facts, and the things that don’t quite add up. As far as I am concerned, this poster merely rehashed the same old story we’ve already heard, without really offering any new insights or information.

    My BELIEF is that LRH likely did not care about breaking “wog law”. Certainly he would have considered protecting Scn to be the “greatest good…” no matter what action he opted to take. However, it is still possible that there was, in fact, some kind of “conspiracy” involved. But, in my mind, such a “conspiracy” would be far too late on the chain, to be considered to be “cause”. In my mind, such a “conspiracy” would have been the logical “effect” of the government [or someone] discovering what the church was already up to.

    Beyond this, I could use Standard Tech to suggest that there was no actual conspiracy and that the church simply “pulled it in”, due to their own overt acts. Either way, the church comes off looking bad.

    No time to proof; so sorry for any typos or things that may not make sense! 😉

    ZJ

    • Once again, Dr. Jackson, an excellent analysis of the issues.

      May I call you Dr? I mean, if you are not a Dr, you should be.

      Perhaps we will issue you a certificate from one of our diploma mills here at Alanzo’s Blog.

      I hope that Remote Viewed, and others over at the Milestone2 blog give themselves the chance to consider some of the points you raise. It would be interesting to see how they process them.

  5. On the surface, its difficult to know whether Remote-Viewed genuinely believes what he has written here or is attempting to handle those who cite “Operation Snow White” as proof of L Ron Hubbard’s bent for the criminal. Over all, Remote-Viewed’s effort fall well short of the “DOX or GTFO” mandate; suspicions, obfuscations, skating over related by salient points, hints and allegations just don’t cut it when seeking to deliver truth. The fundamental claim that L Ron Hubbard did not know about or did not approve of the criminal activities involved in “Operation Snow White” is plainly false. One need only consider the “Fair Game” doctrine which specifically permits any and all actions to bring down those opposed to Scientology. Couple the “Fair Game” doctrine with L Ron Hubbard’s teachings with regard to wog justice and it becomes apparent that L Ron Hubbard did not have the slightest regard as to whether or not his operatives broke the law. The only sin in such capers was to be caught. Proof positive of L Ron Hubbard’s disregard for the law is widely available from an examination of his own criminal past plus the fact that his own handwriting was all over other documents seized at the time and which detail other criminal activities. Most notable, perhaps, are those documents relating to “Operation Freak Out”.

    The fact that Remote-Viewed treats “Operation Snow White” in isolation of such things as “Fair Game”, the SP/PTS Doctrine, Scientology’s teachings about justice and ethics, along with related activities such as “Operation Freak Out”, indicates that his work amounts to a “handling”. It has long been a part of Scientology’s promotion and defence to treat aspects of its beliefs and practices in isolation to other but related beliefs and practises in order to carry forward the suggestion that what is being focussed on is an aberration or “rogue operation” involving personnel acting beyond their instructions. The approach taken by Remote-Viewed is little more than an implementation of the “plausible deniability” aspect of Scientology’s wider intelligence and public relations actitivities. It is an unforuntate fact that there is a steep learning curve involved when coming to terms with Scientology’s core criminal intent. Happily, some academics have done the grunt work for us and, when it comes to understanding Scientology’s intelligence work, few can go past Hugh Urban’s 2006 Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America. This document provides the necessary back-ground to understand where L Ron Hubbard was coming from and the aparatus he eventually constructed to protect his criminal enterprise.

    What is amusing, from a graveyard humour point of view, is that in attempting to “handle” those with “by-passed-charge” on the Snow White issue is that Remote-Viewed has failed completely to “as-is” the situation so that any “charge” it holds can be “blown”. It is a failure to apply the tech correctly. If anything, Its a bit like when Margaret Lake recently tried to “as-is” the history of L Ron Hubbard’s service during World War Two. All that happened is that those with doubts were driven to inspecting the actual DOX only to discover that they were being lied to outside of the cult just as they had been when inside the cult. Gerry Armstrong describes the work of people like Remote-Viewed and Margaret Lake as an “out-sourcing” of OSA’s internal PR activities. I tend to agree.

    • I agree with Crepuscule: There seems to be so much evidence of LRH’s ideas about “wog law” that I am frankly surprised that anyone could even have the opinion that LRH somehow had respect for “wog law” or would not do anything “illegal”.

      Certainly, there can be no question that the protection of his church would have been of paramount importance to LRH. And I cannot easily imagine LRH deciding against some action, simply because it violated “wog law”.

      I am reminded of that incident on the ship where LRH went out of his way to convince his crew that it was OK for them to defy their sailing orders.

      Note the following, from SECRET LIVES (Channel 4):

      HANA ELTRINGHAM:
      “At one point he turned round and said to us in a very masterful way, in a very, almost ambassadorial sort of way, he said, ‘It’s perfectly all right to step outside the law, because the law itself is aberrated, so in order to achieve our ends, that gives us licence to step outside the law.”

      nuff said!

      And, btw, Alanzo, you might want to lift this LRH gem for the “LRH Quotes” post!

      • Great find!

        If LRH really said this as Hana reports, and there is no reason not to believe it, then this is definitely something that would instill fanaticism and criminality in Scientologists.

        Alanzo

        • I find it an endless source of amusement how such champions of the law as you two base your vitriol on nothing but hearsay that even anyone with a shred of decency would throw out of any court of law. Of course anyone with any integrity would dismiss such fishwife-gossip for exactly what it is.

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