Operation Snow White
From End The Cult
Operation Snow White (or "Snow White Program") is the name for a Guardians Office operation beginning in the 1970s to remove negative documents about Scientology from government records. It was conducted by the intelligence agency Guardian's Office under order of Hubbard. After exposed by FBI raids, it led to multiple convictions, including of Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard. Other known operations by the Guardian's Office were Operation Freakout against author Paulette Cooper, as well as Project Normandy, which was a plan to take over the City of Clearwater and to conduct operations against former Clearwater major Gabriel Cazares such as Operation Italian Fog.
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Policy Aims
According to a document titled GO 732 WW[4], titled "Snow White Program", the plan was inspired by mounting difficulties for Hubbard and Scientology to gain access to different countries, which were due to negative reports about Scientology and it consisted of various litigation "so as to expose to view all such derogatory and false reports", then engaging in further litigation "in the countries originating such reports" and "meanwhile uprooting and cancelling all such files and reports wherever found."
Scope of Snow White/Targets
According to an article by Time Magazine[1], up to 5,000 covert Scientology agents were used with targets being "government offices, foreign embassies and consulates", also "private organizations critical of Scientology". One of the documents seized by the FBI[11], lists 136 US government agencies as a target, with high priority targets being:
1 US Dept. of State
2 US Dept. of Justice
3 US Customs (there's a handwritten remark: "We have most of the files")
4 FBI
5 CIA
6 US Dept. of Treasury
8 USPO
9 NSA
12 HEW
13 US Air Force (also listed as #13: US Dept. of Labor with handwritten remark: "Done")
14 US Army
15 US I&N
16 USIA
17 US Selective Service
18 US Senate
Other targets that are marked as "Done" via handwritten remark are the US Coast Guard and the DEA. Most of the listed targets were US embassies and consulates in other nations.
International Targets
Snow White had a lot of sub-programmes or "projects", some of which had an international dimension or were located in countries other than the United States[3]. These countries included Algeria, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom.
Projects in these countries included:
- Suing any critical Australian psychiatrists, parliamentarians, judges, reporters etc. for genocide;
- Giving the Australian labor party compromising information on the conservative party;
- Bringing Germany, Sweden and the UK before the European Commission of Human Rights for discrimination against Scientology;
- Obtaining and expunging files from French police, French immigration and Interpol;
- Clearing Greek government files of material on the ship Apollo and L. Ron Hubbard;
- Suing a lot of UK based organizations for genocide against Scientology: the UK naval and consular services, Home Office, Foreign Office, the Admiralty, the Department of Health and Social Security, the National Association of Mental Health, the World Federation of Mental Health, British newspapers, the BBC and Interpol. For more details on these projects see [3].
It is unclear how successful or realistic these plans were.
There were also a lot of non-governmental organizations that were targeted.
Methods employed in Snow White
According to the stipulation of evidence from the trial[6], illegal GO actions included:
- Theft of documents (e.g. at IRS and Tax Division of US Department of Justice, Interpol Liaison Office at the Department of Justice, Assistant United States Attorney);
- Placing a bugging device at the IRS Chief Counsel's Conference Room;
- Making Counterfeit Identification Cards
FBI raids and Cover Up Activities by GO
On July 4th 1977, the FBI searched Scientology centers in Washington, Los Angeles and Hollywood. In one such search 156 FBI agents were involved.[8] The built up to these raids began when two men were found repeatedly using photocopy machines in the United States Courthouse. After being confronted by FBI agents who were called by a librarian, they produced IRS identification cards. The FBI agents found out that one of the two people was not the person mentioned on the ID card. The number on the card was that of another IRS employee, Mr. Gerald Bennett Wolfe. (p.10 in [14])
On June 30 1976, Mr. Wolfe was arrested in the main IRS building by an FBI agent and was charged with the use and possession of a forged official pass of tho United States[6]. The FBI began searching for Mr. Meisner, the other person who had been in the library and had produced an IRS ID card, but he was being hidden by the Guardian's Office. He was put under guard and restrained by GO. On June 20th 1977 Mr. Meisner left and surrendered to federal authorities and requested and received protective custody. At this point, like already before, the GO tried to cover up any connection to Scientology:
The defendant Willardson informed the defendant Heldt that Mr. Meisner had last been seen by his guard on Sunday, June 18 at 6:00 p.m. He speculated that Mr. Meisner was hiding somewhere in Los Angeles, probably doing legal research in a library regarding his possible legal defenses in the District of Columbia case. He added that a Guardian's Office official had been to Mr. Meisner's apartment to remove any documents connecting Mr. Meisner to Scientology, and to wipe-out all possible fingerprints.[6]
The documents that were found[15] also indicate that there was complete knowledge and legal research about the illegality of the actions:
When Dick [Weigand] first wrote you on this subject a few of us in the office had been comparing notes and smatterings of legal knowledge on this subjects with the end result of deciding we needed to research the differences between "breaking & entering" and "unlawful entry". Upon searching through legal dictionaries and various legal sources I discovered . . . the technical difference between "b & e" and "unlawful entry" become relatively meaningless when it can be seen that a large portion, if not the majority, of our high priority successful Collections actions fall into the category of second degree burglary, which is a felony.[6]
Another proof of the knowledge of illegality and the systematic attempts to cover up the crimes is the "Red Box Data Program" (quoted on p.7,8 in [14]), which created a special class of documents that were to be treated separately from other documents, such documents included among others:
- Proof that a Scientologist is involved in criminal activities;
- Anything illegal implying L. Ron Hubbard or Mary Sue Hubbard;
- Large Amounts of non FOI docs;
- All operations that contain illegal activities
As to how these documents were to be treated:
3. How is Red Box data, kept on the BI premises, cared for?
a) This data will be picked up and carried out of the building by 'owner' immediately upon notification of a raid, search warrant etc.
b) Persons carrying this data (as few as possible) will leave the premises and only return when they have called in and received an "all clear". (Details of who goes where with what data will be sorted out later - and drilled)
For a very detailled background on the development of the investigation, see the 1981 appeal[14], starting at page 9, also the stipulation of evidence[6].
Court Proceedings
Grand Jury Proceedings took place and finally there were 11 convictions: Mary Sue Hubbard, Cindy Raymond, Gerald Bennett Wolfe, Henning Heldt, Duke Snider, Gregory Willardson, Richard Weigand, Mitchell Herman, Sharon Thomas, Jane Kember, and Mo Budlong.[13,10]
Unindicted co-conspirators were L. Ron Hubbard and Kendrick Moxon.[10]
The Sentencing Memorandum stated: "The crimes committed by these defendants is of a breadth and scope previously unheard of. No building, office, desk, or file was safe from their snooping and prying. No individual or organization was free from their despicable conspiratorial minds.
The tools of their trade were miniature transmitters, lock picks, secret codes, forged credentials, and any other device they found necessary to carry out their conspiratorial schemes."[12]
(In 1981 an appeal took place[14]. Further research of this document is necessary in order to determine the exact outcome. Judging from the tone of the document it appears unlikely that there were any major changes.)
There were also effects on Canada, which led to investigations into the Church of Scientology in Ontario. In 1983 there was a police raid on the organization. One of the results of the resulting trials was a fine of $250,000 the Church of Scientology was ordered to pay. There was also a conviction for breach of the public trust.[10]
Is Snow White over?
In a police raid on a Greek Scientology center (KEPHE), which occured in 1995, a document from 1993[9] was found, which is apparently a telex sent by the European Chief of the Snow White Programs in OSA (Office of Special Affairs, successor to the Guardians Office). This indicates that Snow White related programs may still be in effect.
Links/Sources
- [1] Time Article: Mystery of the Vanished Ruler (1983)
- [2] Wikipedia: Operation Snow White
- [3] xenu.net: Operation Snow White
- [4] xenu.net: Policy Aims of Operation Snow White
- [5] lisatrust.freewinds.cx: Legal Documents
- [6] lisatrust.freewinds.cx: Stipulation of Evidence
- [7] lisatrust.freewinds.cx: List of targets
- [8] Hugh B. Urban: "Fair Game: Secrecy, Security and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America"
- [9] unchain.gr: 1993 Telex signed by "ML SNOW WHITE PGMS CHF OSA"
- [10] Wikipedia article on Snow White
- [11] lisatrust.freewinds.cx: List of seized documents
- [12]lisatrust.freewinds.cx: Sentencing Memorandum
- [13] lisatrust.freewinds.cx: Sentencing order
- [14] lisatrust.freewinds.cx: Appeal
- [15] lisatrust.freewinds.cx: List of seized documents
