Source “PR Newswire”
Author Kenneth Hoden
Date April 23rd, 19851LOS ANGELES, April 23/PRN – Videotapes made of a church “sting” operation
revealed today a bizarre, multigovernment-agency “Cointelpro” plot designed to take
over the control, property and assets of the Church of Scientology, the church reported
today.The operation, which the church said was approved by a Los Angeles police officer,
allegedly involved agents of the Los Angeles Internal Revenue Service criminal
investigation division.Church attorney John Peterson said Cointelpro is an “unconstitutional FBI
counterintelligence program that created a public outcry and was supposedly cancelled in
the 1970s, but is still obviously very much alive and in operation in the United States
today.”The videotapes – already filed in evidence in a Federal court here and shown today at a
Los Angeles news conference – disclosed, according to Peterson, “that special agents of
the IRS criminal investigation division (CID) conspired with a government operative,
Gerry Armstrong, in an illegal and covert-intelligence plot in violation of constitutional
rights and freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.”The church said the conspiracy was brought to light when a private investigator, working
under the supervision of a church attorney, obtained written permission from a Los
Angeles police officer to videotape clandestine meetings between Armstrong and a
church staff member.According to the church, the investigator taped the meetings, which took place in Los
Angeles’ Griffith Park, to document the Cointelpro operation being planned against the
church.Peterson said the government agencies and individual officials identified by Armstrong in
the videotapes include:– Alan P. Lipkin and Alfonse V. Ristuccia, agents of the criminal investigation division of
the Los Angeles IRS office;– Richard Greenberg, assistant U.S. attorney in Washington;
– Thomas Doughty, special assistant U.S. attorney for the FBI in Washington;– Brackett Denniston III, assistant U.S. attorney in Boston;
– the Florida State Attorney General’s office; and
– Al Ciampini, detective sergeant of the Ontario Provincial Police.
Peterson said the intricacies of this “lawless conspiracy” were spelled out in detail by
Armstrong, former church clerk turned federal witness/government informant, during
secret meetings he had with two members of the Church of Scientology – “Joey” and
“Mike” – who pretended to Armstrong that they were dissatisfied with current church
leadership and wished to “improve matters internally.”In the videotapes, Peterson alleged, Armstrong is seen carrying out orders from the
government agencies and his Boston lawyer, Michael Flynn, who were “directing and
supervising him in their carefully orchestrated, covert-intelligence plan to overthrow
current church leadership and seize the church’s sizable property and assets.”Armstrong’s secret meetings with the “Loyalists” – the fictitious group of which Joey and
Mike were supposedly members – which were videotaped without Armstrong’s
knowledge, unfolded what Peterson termed “the government-Flynn plans” to:“- Create and plant forged documents in church files;
– Steal attorney-client privileged information from the church;
– Suborn perjury to cover up the conspiracy; and
– Engineer the filing of a suit written by Flynn, based on false allegations, which was
designed to obtain a receivership of all properties and assets of the church.”Peterson said the existence of such a “shameless and shocking” conspiracy involving
Flynn, Armstrong and government agencies and officials is corroborated and detailed
over and over again in the videotapes.“The evidence in these tapes,” Peterson said, “confirms that the government conspired
with Flynn, secretly protecting and aiding him both to obtain information about the
church and to exert legal pressure against the church through an outrageously abusive and
harassive series of suits that now total more than a billion dollars.”As Armstrong revealed in the videotapes, his goal was “global settlement” of all of the
Flynn-contrived lawsuits against the church. The method for achieving this, he said,
would be through the new church leaders, who would take over after the Flynn-drafted
suit for the Loyalists was successful in ousting the current church executives.
Peterson pointed out that the Flynn-inspired lawsuit, if successful, would have allowed
the government to manipulate the church from the top while seizing its property and
assets. The suit was never filed, Peterson added, and the government scheme to infiltrate
and overturn the management of the church was successfully thwarted.He said the videotapes make it clear that while Armstrong was exchanging information
regularly with his lawyer, Michael Flynn, he was at the same time attempting to cover up
Flynn’s involvement in the conspiracy.In Armstrong’s own words: “By the way, I’ll never admit that anything comes from
Michael (Flynn), including any complaints which I may have drafted … But I’m telling
you, he’s behind it 100 percent, absolutely behind it.Contact – Rev. Ken Hoden of the Church of Scientology, 213-666-3424
Notes
- Retrieved on September 22, 2014 from www.xenufrance.net/osa-so-called-press-releases-year-1985.pdf ↩