FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI 305
[although the last page of this letter is missing, it appears to be from
Reverend Vaughn Young]
The Founding Church of Scientology
Of Washington D.C.
2125 S Street N.W. Washington D.C. 20008
202-797-1204
Rev. Lynn McNeil
President
Rev. Barbara Reeves
Vice President
Rev. Greg Gloor
Secretary
May 11, 1975
Clarence M. Kelley
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Kelley:
This letter is to confirm two meetings with your representative and to
make a request that has come about as a result of those discussions.
On May 2, 1975, your Deputy Assistant Director for Intelligence, Hunter
Helgeson, called me in response to my letter to you of April 30, 1975. He
informed me that you were unavailable so I accepted his suggestion of
meeting with him as your representative.
On May 5, 1975, accompanied by Rev. Hugh Wilhere of the Founding Church of
Scientology, here in Washington, I met with Mr. Helgeson who was, in turn,
accompanied by Special Agent Preuss, Intelligence. We met in the
conference room across from his office on the 4th floor from about 2:30 -
4:00 p.m.
During that meeting, I explained to Mr. Helgeson that a representative
from our world offices in England, Mr. David Gaiman, had met with Jean
Nepote, Secretary General of Interpol, on March 26, 1975, to discuss
reports circulated by that organization which were false and based upon
conjecture. This meeting of the 26th had come about upon the suggestion
of James B. Clawson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, who knew
Mr. Nepote, had attended Interpol meetings in Paris, and was familiar with
the organization, as well as being an ardent supporter.. He had, in the
process, met with one of our officials while overseas as well as with
myself here in Washington.
The report in question was from the Federal Criminal Office in Wiesbaden,
Germany, to the Federal Minister of the Interior and dated 8 Mar 1973. In
it, two reports from the F.B.I. were cited. The rest of the report was
from other police agencies.
A non profit corporation in the USA registered in the District of Columbia
[page 2]
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As a result of that meeting on the 26th, an exchange of letters occurred
as well as the presentation, by Mr. Gaiman, of documentation to counter
the false reports being circulated by Interpol. (See Attachments A, B and
C for the letters exchanged.)
Mr. Nepote informed Mr. Gaiman that he would accept the documents and ask
the appropriate national authorities (in each country involved since it
was multi-national) to make a check of the contents of the document prior
to making any corrections.
Since Mr. Clawson had helped to bring about the meeting, I met with him to
inform him that I was going to bring these documents to the attention of
the F.B.I. in order to facilitate Mr. Nepote's request. I asked Mr.
Clawson if he would, being a party both sides were willing to deal with,
assist in the matter by transmitting any documents/letters, etc., between
the F.B.I. and Interpol. He agreed to be of whatever assistance within
his capacity.
Thus I approached your office and met with Mr. Helgeson.
Our first meeting, on May 5, 1975, was quite brief as Mr. Helgeson was
able to stay only a few minutes. However, we informed Mr. Preuss fully of
our request, the reason, etc., and he, in turn, informed me of the avenues
open to us by the policies of the F.B.I. He stated that he would brief
Mr. Helgeson. I, in turn, told him that we would seek another meeting
after Mr. Helgeson had been so informed, now that the matter raised in my
letter of April 30, 1975, had been fully explained.
On May 7, 1975, I called Mr. Helgeson and set an appointment for the next
day. The same four parties again met in the same room.
In that meeting, I again laid out the reasons for our request. For the
record, and your own information, I would like to briefly summarize it
here:
We are in possession of a report from the German Police which contains
numerous falsehoods regarding our Church and our Founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
(The report concerns "Scientology" so Mr. Hubbard is being cited as the
Founder.)
We have sought, from the beginning, to have this report corrected and
removed from circulation. Interpol, and the German Police, can certainly
do the latter. However, since it draws from multiple-sources, we are
taking the initiative to correct and update each area which was cited as
reliable.
At the same time, we initiated a campaign regarding such practices. We
seriously doubted that we were the first.
To better understand the systems that produce such practices as found in
Germany, we undertook an extensive study of
[letter ends here; there is handwritten note at the bottom of the page:
"3rd page can not be located 8-7-95 SRD"]