[A GOOD ARTICLE FOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TO READ!]

SCIENTOLOGY USES DECEPTION WHEN SEARCHING FOR A HOME BASE

“In 1975, L. Ron Hubbard, the flamboyant founder of the Church of
Scientology, was intent on finding a home base for his religion, which
had come under criticism in several countries.  The result was Operation
Goldmine.

“Later that year, a dummy corporation paid $2.3 million in cash to buy
the Fort Harrison Hotel, a historic building that was the symbolic heart
of downtown Clearwater.  The buyer was identified as the United Churches
of Florida, an unknown organization.

“A reporter for The St. Petersburg Times discovered that the true owner
was Scientology and the disclosure started a battle that echoes today in
the suspicion surrounding the death of Lisa McPherson while she stayed
at the Fort Harrison.

It turned out that Scientology had come to Clearwater with a written
plan to take control of the city.  Government and community
organizations infiltrated by Scientology members.  Plans were
undertaken to discredit and silence critics.  A fake hit-and-run
accident was staged in 1976 to try to ruin the political career of the
Mayor, Gabriel Cazares.  A Scientologist infiltrated the local
newspaper and reported on the paper’s plans to her handlers.

The full scope of Scientology’s deceit in Clearwater was not revealed
until the late 1970’s, when records seized in an F.B.I. raid on church
offices in Los Angeles were released by a Federal judge. ...”

[“Religion’s Search for a Home Base,” New York Times, December 1, 1997,
National Desk section.]