L. RON HUBBARD Messiah or Madman ? Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. a.k.a. Ronald DeWolf
4.
4.
"Mankind's Only Hope"
"Your next endless trillions of years and the whole agonized future of every man,
woman, and child on this planet depend on what you do here and now, with and in
Scientology."
L. RON HUBBARD
The following story, which occurred during the first year of the Apollo's voyage, is one of
adventure and exploited idealism. This is a brief glimpse of the story of Hana
(Eltringham) Whitfield, a young woman who had worked with Hubbard closely and
loyally for many years. Her story is representative of thousands of others, during the
history of Scientology. She became a zealot for Hubbard's cause: a stoic true believer.
Long-time friendships, and even deep love, were discarded when these conflicted with
Command Intention..
____________________
In Rhodesia in the late fifties, Hana (tall, with fair skin, dark hair and soft features) was
in her late teens when she read one of' her mother's books by Madame Blavatsky. The
author, somewhere in its pages, prophesied that in 1950 a fair-complexioned man in the
West would begin a movement that would lead the planet to enlightenment. This story
appealed greatly to Hana's sense of romance. She dreamed of playing a part in making
a world where peace and happiness was a reality. And where awareness of spiritual
phenomena was the rule rather than the exception. When she came across Scientology
in March of 1965, she felt that she had discovered the man of whom Madame Blavatsky
had spoken. After studying to become an auditor in Johannesburg, she decided she
would give this man her full devotion, and travelled to England to attend the Saint Hill
Special Briefing Course, which was then conducted personally by Hubbard.
She was very impressed by Hubbard when she first saw him. He appeared serene,
confident, beneficent, and very, very wise. For many months she studied under him and
his wife Mary Sue; she spent long days immersed in his teachings. She drilled, for
example, the exact series of questions that constituted certain "processes," while facing
a large plastic doll. The doll served as a substitute for an actual person being there to
receive the questions. The questions used were considered very powerful and, if directed
at a live person, would stir up subconscious emotions and "forces" or "charge" that could
cause considerable discomfort, unless "audited" expertly. She aimed her questions right
at the center of the doll's head. Each word was clearly enunciated, and delivered with
just the right amount of intention.
Hana was assisted by a "coach" who would answer for the doll and assist her through
the drill. In this case it was a "problems process." She would soon be running this
process on a real "preclear," having first enquired as to the people, past and present, in
the person's life. She would be looking for "charged terminals," i.e., people the person
was upset about (or had "charge" on); the idea being to free up the person from any
worry, fixation, or compulsive "figure-figure" on any person or thing.
Based on the reaction of the preclear, and the E-meter, she would select the most
"charged" terminal and run the process on it. While drilling the process, fruits instead of
real people are used, however.
Hana: "Invent a problem that is of comparable magnitude to an apple." Coach: "Ah...
having a banana on my desk." Hana: "Good. How could that be a problem to you?"
Coach: "It might be too ripe and attracting a lot of fruit flies." Hana: "O.K. Can you
conceive of yourself figuring on that?" Coach: "Mmmm... yes." Hana: "Fine. Invent a
problem that is of comparable magnitude to an apple...
The same question is asked over and over, usually until the preclear has a "cognition" or
realization regarding the area of address. Hana was fascinated by the hundreds of
processes and impressed by their effectiveness. Listening to Ron's lectures, and reading
his many books, was stimulating. Ron had a great sense of humour and he answered
complex questions on life and human behaviour in a clear, easy-to-understand manner.
She also appreciated the obligatory constant reference to dictionaries, to ensure she
understood the exact meanings of the words used. After graduating from the Saint Hill
Special Briefing Course, Hana joined staff: Then in August of 1967 she was on a mission
to assist the Los Angeles Organization when she received a special confidential
invitation, on behalf of Hubbard, inviting her to join the newly formed Sea Project.
HANA ELTRINGHAM:
I joined the ship in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast
of North Africa. The Avon River was already there up on these stilts, being renovated.
LRH had a villa on the island about six or seven miles from the harbor and he would
come to the ship every afternoon and stay, sometimes until quite late, supervising the
refit and talking to the crew. There was a side to him that, around, this time, I was just
becoming aware of: the furious screaming just an amazing outrage that would pour out
of him at something that was going wrong. There was one time when he came walking
down from outside through the great big wooden fence that blocked off the beach from
the street. It was quite a stretch of beach, maybe a 340 yard stretch down to the water.
And the ship was up on this great big wooden trellis work. Even as he was halfway down
the beach, I was standing with my clipboard up, because I was the Master at Arms at
the time, and I was responsible for making sure everything was going right. And I'd be
in absolute fear by the time he was due to come on board, in case he found something
that I had missed.
So I was there and I was watching him, and halfway down that beach he knew
something was wrong, and I could see his face start to contort and get red. And I'd start
to go, "Oh my God! What have I missed now!" He started bellowing. His face got this
cherry red; all screwed up, and he was just bellowing at the top of his lungs. He was
screaming and shouting at full volume. You could hear that voice everywhere. And he
came marching down towards the gangplank. Still screaming and now pointing up to the
side of the ship where the Spanish workmen were painting the white paint over the red
anti-rust coat.
The top coat was being applied over the entire hull of the ship, from the deck all the way
down to the bottom of the ship. He was screaming and gesticulating and pointing up at
us. I didn't know what was wrong. I mean the painters had been doing it most of the
afternoon before he appeared on the scene. And when I looked down at the side of the
ship I could see nothing wrong. By this time people were stopping their work and
looking; fearful, wondering what all this was about even the workmen.
Then, through his screaming, I heard him say, "Look at the paint! Look at the paint!" I
put my head over the side of the ship and looked along the hull at the paint. And then I
saw it! It looked like the paint was growing hundreds and hundreds of hairs! The white
coat of paint was actually furry. I later discovered that the rollers the workmen were
using were of an inferior quality. As they were rolling, some fibers were coming off the
rollers and sticking to the paint, making the ship look like it was growing hair. Halfway
down the beach he knew something was wrong. Now I have never forgotten that, and I
have never gotten over the fact that from that distance 25 or 30 yards away, he could
see what was going on.
At times he could be extremely perceptive astonishingly she could also be totally
irrational: quite out of it and crazy. The negatives and abuses that seem so outrageous
to me now, were then less than dim shadows. It was just justified away... In these early
days of the Sea Project I felt emotions that you only find in fiction. It was one of those
things: here we are braving the seas with this amazing man, you know. It had a kind of
mystique that you just don't get in everyday life the romance and adventure it was all
unbelievably exciting! John O'Keefe, another dedicated Sea Org member, and Hana
Eltringham were deeply in love and had been so for some time. As she tells it: The
whole thing just built up so much more through all this adventure. We were very close.
Hubbard sent John O'Keefe off to pick up the Avon River (soon to be renamed the
Athena), and to captain her to an appointed destination.
HANA:
Now LRH said that John's orders were to leave Gibraltar and sail due East and join us in
Cagliari, on the Italian island of Sardinia. John swore that those orders were not what he
received from LRH. John said that his orders were to sail northeast and to join the ship
up in Monaco. So John took the ship out of Gibraltar and sailed northeast. Aboard the
Avon River, with John there was only a skeleton crew: a dozen to 15 or so, at most.
They all noticed the huge black clouds on the horizon of a storm building as they were
approaching the Balearic islands. None of the crew, however (having never before been
in the Mediterranean), would have been aware that this area, North of the Balearic
islands, is a storm center in the Med. That's where a lot of the hurricanes in this area are
actually born.
They rode straight into a hurricane. It was one of the worst this area had had for some
15 years. There were something like 17 ships lost. And this little tub called the Avon
River sailed slap bang into it. They were caught in that storm for about three days. They
were barely making headway. There were forty-foot waves and this little ship just
staggering up through all this. They couldn't see through the screaming of the wind and
all the foam and spray that was being thrown by the wind across the tops of the waves.
There is nothing you can see when you are out there in that kind of' storm. I mean you
are blind. All you know is that the ship is going up the next wave and you know its going
down into the trough and you've got to keep the ship headed right into the waves,
otherwise it will turn over. Now, throughout that, at one point the hydraulic steering on
the bridge broke! (meaning essentially that the power steering broke). The wheel on the
bridge was connected with lines down into the motors and the pumps and those lines
were filled with oil so that they could maneuver the rudder. And those were the lines
that broke. There was steering oil all over the place; on the bridge and elsewhere. So
they had to connect up the emergency steering in the aft in order to keep the ship
headed into the waves. They had some people back aft steering and some on the bridge,
connected by walkie-talkies. The crew didn't sleep for two and a half' to three days.
They couldn't eat.
There was no way they could cook in the galley with this motion going on. People were
being sick all over the place. It is absolutely a wonder that that ship came through that!
Now, John saw, at one point, that they must have been getting somehow close to Ibiza.
He happened to see that they were close to an island on the radar. They would come up
the crest of a wave and he could "see" the island by a brief blip on the radar. He would
"see" the blip of it on the radar and as they went down into the trough they would of
course not be able to see anything. Rut John was very very clever. He managed
somehow to get the ship out.
He said the waves had lengthened in distance so they must have been getting out
towards the edge of the storm. And he managed to get the ship close enough between
the waves to the islands so that, at one strategic point, they were able to veer sharply
to starboard and get into the lee of the land, before the next wave hit. So some two to
three days after the Apollo got down to Cagliari we got the message from John that he
was in Ibiza and that the ship was safe: "We're all OK, managed to get to port safely,
the ship is safe, the crew are safe, we have lost two lifeboats and external refrigerator,
the windows up on the bridge are badly damaged, one of the antennas is damaged." He
had, I think, sent a wire to Monaco to ask if the Apollo was there and received a reply
that she had sailed to Cagliari, so he sent his message there to the Port Captain's office.
LRH got the message and went berserk! The ship was not supposed to be anywhere
near Ibiza, according to LRH, it was supposed to be on its way directly to Cagliari. He
sent a communication back, and a few other communications ensued and then John had
orders to sail for Cagliari. About a day and a half later they arrived in Cagliari. And by
this time the Old Man* had post mortem the situation sufficiently to arrive at his own
conclusions.
*At this time Hubbard still allowed the affectionate title "Old Man" to be used.
By the time John arrived with the ship in Cagliari, I had already heard LRH say that John
must have been on drugs when he left the ship in Ibiza to go to Gibraltar because he
"had consistently mis-duplicated the orders." I asked Hana how she felt about the idea
that Hubbard, not John O'Keefe, may have been the one on drugs. She answered, "Now
in retrospect, I think that's a very good possibility."
______________________
The Avon River "limped" into Cagliari. It looked filthy. It looked like it had been through
a storm. LRH had messengers running backwards and forwards between the two ships.
In Cagliari LRH demoted John from captain to third engineer and put somebody else in
charge of the ship. When she arrived in the middle of the day or in the early afternoon,
messenger runs were going back and forth between LRH and John, getting whatever
LRH wanted to know. The Avon River's new captain was given orders to sail immediately
to Valencia, Spain.
LRH was' unwilling to accept somebody's suggestion that they at least be allowed to rest
overnight. He said, "No, they don't deserve it. That ship is in disgrace. They are all
equally responsible." And he ordered them to turn right around and go straight back.
Those people were exhausted and you could see it. They had come through a major
hurricane, sailed all the way to Cagliari. Just arrived, they barely had time to take on a
few provisions and fuel up and here come the orders to sail again, for some three days,
to Valencia! I barely had time to see John. I was very shook up about the whole deal
and about how he looked. Those black rings under his eyes haunted me. He'd lost
weight it looked like some 10 to 15 pounds.
They all looked that way. And then the next day we on the Apollo ended our cycles in
Cagliari and sailed for Valencia. By the time we got there the Avon River was already in
Valencia. That was when LRH convened a Committee of Evidence on John. Without my
being aware of it he appointed me as the chairman. He was aware that we were lovers
and when the messenger. brought him the printed page announcing the Committee of
Evidence I was standing next to him. He turned around with this half smile on his face
and he said, "Poetic justice, isn't it!" And I took a look at the Committee announcement
and saw my name on it as the chairman. It had all the charges there against John:
"Dereliction of duty, non-compliance with orders," etc., one after the other... every
charge in the book. It grabbed me in the gut. I was to sit in judgment on the man I
loved. I would no more have thought of questioning LRH...
I didn't dream of questioning him! He had a way about him. He would get mad and he'd
be furious, and he'd vent that fury in all directions. And as that phase passed it would
take half an hour to an hour and as he started to get "answers" (either his own answers
or answers that were brought to him by messengers or whatever) he would come out of
that anger and get into this enthusiastic vengefulness. He would be smiling and, by God,
he would be out to get someone. He would be so proud of himself for having gotten as
far with this thing as he had gotten. And then, gradually over the next day or so, he
would calm down. I knew I had to find John guilty. Absolutely! There was no way out,
even though he had not taken drugs as LRH had accused him. So since LRH said it was
so, it was true! Also, since this was already in the bill of particulars of the Committee of
Evidence, put there by Ron, it didn't even occur to any of us to question it. LRH was the
guy who had the answers to save Mankind. John was merely the man I loved. I looked
at it from the standpoint of "the greatest good for the greatest number." That's how I
looked.at it, even though I cared for him deeply.
We wrote up our findings saying, "guilty," even though he said he wasn't guilty. Deep
down I knew it was very unfair because I knew the worth of the man. I knew that John
had pulled off something pretty damned fantastic. My God, with 17 ships that went
down in one of the worst hurricanes that they'd had in the area for 15 years. And the
little Avon River had come through it with a little amateur crew on board! And the
captain, the person directing the others in this emergency, and saving the ship, was a
guy on drugs? Can you imagine if those people had all been lost! And since they were so
untrained, what the hell was LRH even doing sending them out to sea? We found John
guilty and upheld his assignment to a condition of' treason. I now firmly believe that I
was selected as chairman of the committee because LRH wanted me to break up with
John.
This fact completely escaped me at that time. John claimed he had received verbal
orders from LRH to sail past Ibiza to Monaco. LRH said that, in effect, this was all a
delusion of John's. After all, "He was on drugs." So John finally left the Sea Org. There
were moments where I wondered if I had made the right decision, to let John go and not
go with him, but they were so brief, even though coming from the heart. Because the
greater glory of the Sea Org and the greater mission that we were on just swept those
little doubts away so quickly so quickly. Almost anything was excusable as far as we
were concerned, because of what we had to achieve. The mission that we were on was
so huge that a bit of violence here, a bit of injustice here and a "crucifiction" or two
there, was taken for granted. The breakup of our relationship was taken for granted.
These things had to happen because we had to move so fast, so rapidly, over such a
great distance that you might have to bend or break someone and something in order to
get there. Above all, we had to get there! Anything else was swept away to make room
for that greater purpose. This was the over-riding consideration.
__________________
Bob Ross, who introduced Dianetics into Israel in 1951, was perhaps very much on the
mark when, after reading this account, he stated: "It reminds me of S.S. Nazi training
where boys are given two dogs to train and live with for a year; at which point they are
ordered to kill their dogs."
5.
The Liability Cruise
and Other Adventures
Throughout the 1950's Hubbard talked a great deal about the "spirit of play," the
importance of having a "light heart," of how punishment did not work. He spoke of how
groups were composed of individuals, and of the importance of individual freedom.
Scientologists to this day read these words and sigh at the wisdom of it all. At the same
time they nod their heads agreeably over sentiments by Hubbard originated mainly from
the mid sixties on which reflect the opposite viewpoint. Making one's peace with blatant
contradictions in the writings of one's beloved Founder is just one small aspect of what it
takes to be a happy, well-adjusted Scientologist.
Hubbard Communications office Bulletin of 7 February 1965, "Keeping Scientology
Working": If they're going to quit let them quit fast. If they're enrolled, they're aboard,
they're here on the same terms as the rest of us win or die in the attempt. Never let
them be half minded about being Scientologists. The finest organizations in history have
been tough, dedicated organizations. Not one namby-pamby bunch of panty-waist
dilettantes have ever made any thing. It's a tough universe. The social veneer makes it
seem mild. But only the tigers survive and even they have a hard time.
This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the trap now, we may
never again have another chance. When Miss Pattycake comes to us to be taught, turn
that wandering doubt in her eye into a fixed, dedicated glare and she'll win and we'll all
win. Humor her and we all die a little. Also in a serious vein, Hubbard claimed to have
isolated the enemy of Scientology in 1967. The enemy, he declared, consisted of one
small group that had "hammered at Scientology since 1950." He claimed to have
isolated a "dozen men at the top," and the organization they used, and all its
connections around the world. "They're as red as paint," he said. "Psychiatry" and
"mental health" was chosen as a vehicle to undermine the West! And we stood in their
way."
________________
In the months that followed the departure of her lover, John O'Keefe, Hana found herself
becoming a favorite of Hubbard's, who promoted her to high positions of responsibility.
And she was falling even more under his spell.
HANA ELTRINGHAM:
We were en route from La Ghoulette (the outer Tunis harbor) back to Valencia, Spain,
having ended the "Mission Into Time" project. R [as Hubbard was sometimes called,
mainly for "security reasons"] called me into his office and told me I was henceforth the
Captain. Joe Van Staden would be vacating that position, as he was being sent on a
mission. I said "O.K." or something, left the office... and freaked !
This lifetime I had not had any sea experience, even with small boats. And my sole
experience was on the Avon River Athena about five months, with none of that in a
command position. I must have sat down at my desk in the 'tween decks, as the next
thing I recall is H beckoning me from the door leading into his office. R had his E-meter
in his hand and with the other hand gave me the two cans and told me to hold them.
With no preamble he set up the meter, the two of us standing in the doorway leading
from the 'tween decks into his office. "When were you last a Captain" he asked me. I
gave him one experience (from a past life) and he acknowledged me. He asked me to go
earlier and find another similar incident. I did so.
I got a pretty major incident and related it to him, while he was nodding his head
enthusiastically and encouraging me on and on. That must have been what he was
looking for, I guess... "Are you a Loyal Officer?"* he then asked me. That question threw
me. I exhilarated on it, and at the same time I felt confused. R let that go and just sent
me on my way. About fifteen minutes later he came out of his cabin to where I was on
the deck. He peered closely at me into my eyes. I smiled at him and told him that all
was O.K. "That last question really indicated," I told him, "although I really haven't put
all the pieces of the puzzle together." He patted me on the back really affectionately.
"That's my girl!" he said, beaming. "You'll be finding out more about that quite soon." At
that,.he turned and walked back into his office.
*Not having done the level of Operating Thetan III yet, Hana would not have been aware of what Hubbard was talking about. The full significance of Hubbard's question will become apparent to the reader in Chapter 13 of the second part of this book, entitled "The Wall of Fire."
THE LIABILITY CRUISE Valencia, on the south coast of Spain, 1968.
ELENA LORREL:
While we were off on the "Mission Into Time" project, the Apollo was left in Port in
Valencia, Spain. Among the officers, who included Mary Sue [Hubbard's wife] there were
none who knew enough navigation to move the ship. Even the person who was the
captain at the time didn't know how to move it, so it had been moored at a single berth
for about two months. One day the Port Captain's office asked them to move it. So the
captain, in order to cover his ass, went ashore and exploded at the Port Captain. He
pulled a real Khrushchev type incident, almost like beating his shoe on the table, and they
ended up getting kicked out. And we "lost Spain"** as a result of that. This entire mess
caused us to have to end our "Mission Into Time" early. We were in the middle of some
digs in Carthage and we were not able to complete them as a result of this situation.
**Hubbard "wanted a country," a place where he was safe and could "pull all the strings." "Taking" a single country was to be the first step to "taking" the planet; thus the talk of "losing" countries.
So we went storming back to Valencia, to salvage the Apollo's crew!
Once we got back, the Old Man [Hubbard] had all of us
from the Athena put in charge of moving the Apollo. (We had by that time been out to
sea for three months and had lived in the hardest of weather. The heavy storm season
in the Mediterranean, during which we had been at sea constantly, between treasure
digs, had made us seasoned sailors.) Just before we moved it, we were moored right
next to the Apollo and the Old Man had this incredible shouting match with Mary Sue in
his office.
You could hear through the wall like it was cardboard. He really blooped her through the
universe saying that he had never really wanted her and the kids to be there, and she
should just pack up, take the kids and ship out! It went on and on: She had let him
down by not moving the ship, letting this big port flap happen. He was just screaming at
her at the top of his lungs. And she begged him to allow her to stay. Then after a time,
responding to her pleas, he said, "Well what are you going to do about this ship of
fools?" She proposed that she be allowed to prove herself. So we moved the ship out to
anchor and the Commodore took away their flag. They only had a gray rag that was
flown at half mast and they went on what was called the liability cruise.
__________________
They were gone for two and a half months and they had a very rigorous schedule. We,
the Athena crew (it was the flagship at the time because the Commodore was on it)
stayed in port for part of this time. The Apollo was on this cruise with the stated reason
to train its crew, with Mary Sue as the captain. You can imagine some 120 crew all
having to do their able-bodied seaman training, and all sorts of other nautical courses
and ethics conditions, in order for the ship to be upgraded from liability.
They had to be radarmen, conning officers, and so on. So it took them two and a half
months, and it was during that period that they violated a couple of major international
conventions and really got us messed up in a couple of countries. First of all, they were
sent off on the liability cruise with no flag. So they couldn't go into any port. They had
no flag to fly (and you can't go into port without flying a flag to identify yourself).
Secondly, the fact that they had a female captain in Spanish waters pretty much
identified them with Soviet or iron curtain country ships. They were sent off with charts
that were old and not up-dated and they did not know the military zones they started
cruising in. And they started cruising in top secret military zones that were categorically
forbidden, such as where there were nuclear submarines training.
They went aground a couple of times, and it was just a comedy of errors. So they were
finally stopped at gun point and the ship was taken over and the Spanish navy came
aboard and arrested them under cover of machine guns. They interviewed Mary Sue and
couldn't believe that it wasn't a spy ship. They were released from arrest but it was after
that that the rumors started about the "spy ship," and it became compared with the
American spy ship Pueblo. Reports went up to the ministry of the interior and they
thought we were connected to the CIA or KGB, and the Apollo was banned from Spain.
_________________
All three vessels (Apollo, Athena and yacht Diana) had joined up in Corfu, Greece,
during the last months of 1968. The ships were berthed in Corfu when people were first
being tossed into the harbor. The Old Man was just really rabid and yelling and
screaming a lot. For some time throwing violators of Hubbard's rules over the side of the
ship ("overboarding" them) became a Sea Org tradition. Usually they were thrown off
the 'tween (second) deck, but there were a couple of occasions when they went off the
promenade deck (some 25 feet above the water).
There were rules written by Hubbard in a "Flag Order" which listed orders of severity of
overboarding, such as: from which deck, should the person be blindfolded, and should
his hands or feet be tied. Every morning a solemn ceremony was performed at dawn,
when offenders of the previous day were listed by the Master at Arms. Then the order
was picked up by two of the MAA's assistants and was heaved out over the sea. There
was "tech" written by Hubbard at the time giving the theory behind this kind of
discipline. He wrote about how the reactive mind (subconscious mind) actually exerts a
"force" against an individual which propels him towards wrongdoing. It is therefore
necessary, he asserted, to apply an even greater force on the individual towards "right
doing. Within a system of due process, that is essentially how penal systems could be
said to work.
Due process was not usually available, however, as the following example illustrates.
Homer Shomer, a businessman who was aboard the Apollo told me:
I remember being on the bridge of the flagship. A 19-year old-girl named Marianne Wicher was the radar plotter. We were on a watch. LRH came up on the bridge and
looked in the radar screen and saw two ships that he considered fairly close. They were
about five miles away. And he just really ripped into her. He called her the foulest
names and instantly assigned her to the Rehabilitation Project Force:* "You mother
fuckin' cock suckin' cunt! You're endangering the ship! You're assigned to the RPF!" and
he kicked her off the bridge.
*Essentially a Scientology slave labor force.
_____________________
While the early Sea Org adventures were occurring, my wife and I were working long
hours at Saint Hill in England. We were studying and auditing for barely enough money
to live on. We had signed contracts for two and a half years, in exchange for cut rates
on courses and auditing. Furnace Woods, which surrounded our little rented cottage,
was very beautiful in the spring and we went for walks on the rare occasion when we
had a little time off. We heard occasional stories of life at sea on the Apollo and Athena.
We were told there was some fairly severe discipline. But generally we knew little of
what was going on. Had I known about the children in the chain locker, for example, I
would have been extremely upset and confused.
After all I planned to have a family, and I dreamed of applying Hubbard's "tech" on
raising children to my own kids. I had read most of Hubbard's writings on "how to live
with children" such as: You want to raise your child in such a way that you don't have to
control him, so that he will be in full possession of himself at all times. Upon that
depends his good behavior, his health, his sanity. Children are not dogs. They can't be
trained as dogs are trained. They are not controllable items. They are, and let's not
overlook the point, men and women. A child is not a special species of animal distinct
from Man. A child is a man or a woman who has not attained full growth. How would you
like to be pulled and hauled and ordered about and restrained from doing whatever you
wanted to do? You'd resent it. The only reason a child "doesn't" resent it is because he's
small. You'd half murder somebody who treated you, an adult, with the orders,
contradiction and disrespect given the average child. The child doesn't strike back
because he isn't big enough. He gets your floor muddy, interrupts your nap, destroys
the peace of your home instead. If he had equality with you in the matter of rights, he'd
not ask this "revenge." This "revenge" is standard child behavior...
The sweetness and love of a child is preserved only so long as he can exert his own self determinism. You interrupt that and, to a degree, you interrupt his life. There are only
two reasons why a child's right to decide for himself has to be interrupted the fragility
and danger of his environment and you, for you work out on him the things that were
done to you, regardless of what you think... The idea of some discipline was not
repugnant to me. After all, rather some discipline for the sailors on a ship, than that
they all should lose their lives when the badly run ship sinks. But wanton punishment?
That wouldn't have made any sense. After all, it was Hubbard who wrote: Blackmail and
punishment are keynotes of all dark operations... punishment doesn't cure anything...
Man is basically good and is damaged by punishment... Harsh discipline may produce
instant compliance but it smothers initiative.
These sentiments very much applied in counseling (auditing). I audited someone with
the datum in mind that the force and punishment and trauma experienced by this
person was part of what was wrong with him, and needed to be gradiently faced up to,
so he or she became free from the negative effects of these things. The other side of
this was the "overt" side. The person also needed to gradiently confront the force,
punishment and trauma he had inflicted on others, as these things were a major source
of his current problems and irresponsibilities. As I saw it, the idea in auditing, was to
increase one's ability to confront and communicate, to become more alive, more oneself.
For me auditing was a wonderfully effective way of un-hypnotizing people.
There was an "Auditor's Code," of which the two most important points were: "Do not
evaluate for the preclear" (this meant that in no way should the auditor tell the
"preclear" what he should or should not think), and "Do not invalidate or correct the
preclears data." Also very important was the rule: "Always remain in good two-way
communication with the preclear during the session." This denotes always letting the
preclear know what procedure is being run, always being alert to anything he wishes to
say and being willing to hear it fully and with interest, and acknowledging that one has
heard what he has said and that one has understood it. Following these rules appeared
to work for me in the most amazing way.
Mary and I quickly gained a reputation as very effective auditors. We became highly
sought after, and we were very proud indeed of the constant flood of praise and stories
of changed lives. The affection showered upon us by those we had helped was a source
of enormous gratification. Auditing was very much the essence of civilized
communication.
For me, and many others at the time, this was what Scientology was all about. One of
the most publicized of all of Hubbard's writings' is a piece called "What is Greatness": ...
The hardest task one can have is to continue to love one's fellows despite all reasons he
should not. And the true sign of sanity and greatness is to so continue. For the one who
can achieve this, there is abundant hope... True greatness merely refuses to change in
the face of bad actions against one and a truly great person loves his fellows because he
understands them... When cruelty in the name of discipline dominates a race, that race
has been taught to hate. And that race is doomed.
The real lesson is to learn to love. It would have been inconceivable that L. Ron
Hubbard, who had "discovered" all this wisdom, would himself act in complete violation
of it. Possibly there were those around him people he had not yet detected who were
violating these truths; but he himself? The thought just did not occur. It would be some
time before I'd realize that the civilized communication and counseling I so valued
served mainly as the "bait on the hook. "
6.
Wogs Versus Operating Thetans
"We're in this for blood."
L. RON HUBBARD
In the fall of 1974 the Apollo sailed to Lisbon in Portugal, following its most recent
sojourn in Tenerife and other Canary islands. (These islands, located off the southern
coast of Morocco in the East Atlantic, had taken turn playing host to the Apollo
throughout most of 1974.) In Portugal she was allowed access to Lisbon's harbor. Here,
prior to their leaving, the crew were witnesses to the leftist coup (dubbed "the flower
revolution" by the press).
They could see the tanks rolling in the streets. There was a quiet tension among the
crew as the ship steamed away from Lisbon, heading for the Portuguese island of
Madeira. Having been repeatedly expelled from ports throughout the Mediterranean and
the Eastern Atlantic, along with observing the hostilities in Lisbon, had given them an
odd feeling of being cut adrift.
They entered the harbor of Funchal, Madeira, and were granted berthing rights by the
harbor authorities. The feeling of relief was palpable. As was their custom, the crew
unloaded their motorcycles and parked them on the dock alongside the Apollo. Hubbard
had always been a motorcycle buff.
At this point in time he owned two, his favorite being a big American-made Harley Davidson. Captain Bill Robertson, a man with a personality perhaps every bit as colorful
as Hubbard's, and whose loyalty to him bordered on the fanatical, saw to it that
Hubbard's personally ensured that his machines were well cared for. They were taken off
the ship first, and given the best location on the dock. Kept in top running condition,
they were washed and polished daily. Following Hubbard's lead, Captain Bill owned his
own motorbike, and so did many others of the higher ranking crew members. Mary Sue
Hubbard owned a small car. None of the crew had much in the way of personal
possessions, and those who owned a motorcycle generally showered the same attention
on their machine as a doting parent would on an only child. Besides the pride of
possession, the bikes gave their owners a precious taste of independence from the
disciplines and confines of the ship.
They could go riding off for an hour or so a day. And on their day off, once every two
weeks, they could actually forget that the ship existed for an entire 12 hours! (This day
off was conditional on their having their "statistics up," meaning that they had produced
adequately, according to rigorous and sometimes ridiculous standards which required
that every week's production be better than the previous.
If this was not so they forfeited their "holiday.") At Funchal, the routine of unloading the
bikes was adhered to in the same manner as at previous ports, and the buying of
supplies and the unloading of trash went on with the normal, high energy, hustle and
bustle. Buyers were sent into the township to get fresh produce at the lowest possible
prices, and the Apollo began its refueling procedure. There were hundreds of locals
crowding around the wharf an unusually large number. "Hey Americanos!" Portuguese
abuses. Something exploded on the main deck.
There was the sound of glass shattering, a melee at the head of the gangplank, and the
quartermaster was screaming for help. Cobblestones (ripped from the pavement of the
wharf) and bottles were landing on the deck. "There's someone injured on the poop
deck!" yelled the bosun, "Get some guys up there to help." "There are soldiers over
there, why the hell don't they fucking give us a hand?" muttered a ship's officer. Louise
Botika (not real name), who was in charge of taking care of the Commodore's safety,
says: I was awakened by someone yelling that the ship was being attacked. I ran up to
his room and he was in a cocky mood. He first of all gave orders that the crew were to
mimic everything the crowd was yelling.
They followed his instruction to no avail. Then, in an attempt to drive back the crowd,
the sea hoses (those used to pump sea water) were pulled to the front line in order to
spray them. There was inadequate pressure, and the result was only to infuriate the
crowd even further. Kima Douglas' jaw had been broken. Another girl was sobbing from
pain and being blinded by the blood flowing into her eyes from a head injury. Louise
continues: LRH grabbed a bullhorn and ran out onto the deck, yelling "Communista!
Communista!" Just why I'll never know. It certainly didn't work. Then he ran back in and
grabbed a camera with a flash and began photographing the mob.
This did have some value later. "Dammit, they're dumping the bikes into the bloody
ocean!" someone yelled. "There's not a thing we can do about it. We'd get bloody killed
down there. Oh shit! there goes the Commodore's bike. Jesus, I just don't believe this!"
There were a couple of attempts to loosen the ship from her moorings by the mob. The
crew of the Apollo fought with bravado, disguising their fear which bordered on terror at
times Some even went down the gangplank in a foolhardy attempt to fight off the
attackers who were loosening the ropes.
MIKE GOLDSTEIN :
I was Captain Bill's yeoman when the thing happened. Initially I was put in charge of
putting together and arming a bunch of guys with steel pipes and grouped them at the
gangplank to repel any boarders. They never managed to make a real attempt at
boarding, however, so we were never tested. The crowd was yelling "CIA! CIA! CIA!" It's
really funny when you come to think about it, here we were with our clever shore story,
that we were Operation Transport Corporation, managing businesses around the world.
The idea was never to tell them that we were Scientologists because it might bring on an
attack. So they didn't know we were Scientologists something we could have proved.
They sure knew that we weren't business management, however. That they were certain
of!
So they decided we were CIA and here we were being stoned. We were in the wrong
place at the wrong time, with the wrong shore story. Pat Broeker had this whole idea,
during the height of the attack, that he was going to pull a dirty dozen caper. He had
some idea of jumping off the side of the ship and sailing a nearby barge ashore and
doing some stunt that would save the ship. It never came off. It's funny that he's the
guy who is now the king of Scientology. He had the nickname "007." He loved spy
capers and his favorite movie was The Dirty Dozen. He would sit for hours telling his
juniors the entire movie from beginning to end.
Louise continues her story:
The riot lasted a couple of hours and we were finally able to get the militia to move in
and help us, partly by offering to give them what they thought was the film from LRH's
camera which had the exposures of the riot on it. Madeira is one of Portugal's prime
tourist spots and they didn't want the bad publicity. So LRH made a great gesture of
exposing the film to the light in front of them. In fact he had previously taken out the
roll containing the shots of the rioters and replaced it with another. The militia had
virtually cleared the wharf and everything had calmed down, when the Commodore
suddenly yelled "Duck!" and everyone jumped for cover. There was no apparent threat
to anyone at the time. "That guy can't be trusted with that gun!" he said, without
indicating who he meant. This apparently paranoid reaction contrasted sharply with his
prior reckless behavior of exposing himself to possible blows by rocks and bottles as he
strutted on the open deck shouting into a bullhorn and taking photographs. The ship was
taken out into the harbor a way, where she dropped anchor. The next day divers were
sent down who dredged up some motorcycles and Mary Sue Hubbard's little mini-car.
Meanwhile other crew members took on supplies while the militia were still there to
protect them.
________________
James Hare, an auditor on the Apollo, had managed to get away from the ship for a time
to ride his bike into the township for a visit to a bar.
He was a little bit drunk as he rode back towards the ship. As he approached the wharf
he saw the riot in progress and sensed that his life was in extreme danger. Realizing
that he would be recognized as "one of them," he swung his bike inland and sped away.
Four locals spotted him, jumped on motorcycles and followed in hot pursuit. The chase
lasted for several minutes until Hare took a bend too fast. "My bike ate it, and I ate it,"
he says. "The lights went out."
Four days later the lights came back on. He was in a hotel. There was dried blood all
over his pillow and "a fair sized hole" in the back of his head. He was relieved to see his
guitar (James is a highly regarded Aamenco musician). It was in good shape and had
apparently been thrown clear when he and his bike had hit the pavement. Someone had
taken mercy on him, delivering him to the hotel and taking money from his pocket to
pay for his keep. His bike was totaled, he discovered, but he caught a taxi to the wharf
only to discover the ship was no longer there.
He returned to the States and his only subsequent contact with Scientology was when
he was visited by Scientology agents warning him to shut up about his experiences. One
of the experiences they had in mind was his being party to a rescue of Quentin Hubbard
(Hubbard's oldest son by his third wife Mary Sue) from a hillside in Madeira. He was
unconscious from an overdose of drugs when they found him. According to James Hare,
it was an apparent attempted suicide.
(Hubbard's response to Quentin's behavior was to have him thrown into the
Rehabilitation Project Force. See Chapter 8, "Crucifying the Evil Out. ")
Quentin was a gentle caring young man in his late teens, who told his close friend Cathy
Cariatakis repeatedly, "I don't want to be a Hubbard!" He wanted go off somewhere and
become an airline pilot. Instead, he was being trained and apprenticed as a Case
Supervisor.
The ship had left Funchal for an offshore location to drop anchor and prepare for a long
voyage. It was ostensibly due to head for Buenos Aires. (Actually, under cover of
darkness the blacked-out ship changed direction towards the southern part of North
America.) After the ship left Portugal, the liaison office in Lisbon was raided by the local
police, but Scientology agents there had shredded and burned all evidence of their
activities.
The events of that day became known among the crew members as the "rock concert."
_________________
WHY WAS THE APOLLO TURNED AWAY FROM ALMOST ALL MEDITERRANEAN AND
EASTERN ATLANTIC PORTS AND THEN ATTACKED IN MADEIRA, PORTUGAL? The official
Scientology story was that there was an international conspiracy by the World
Federation of Mental Health being orchestrated against the ship throughout the area
using such agencies as the CIA, British Intelligence, Interpol and British consulates.
There is, however, a consistent viewpoint expressed by the ex-Sea Org members
interviewed for this book. They share a conviction that the ship's troubles had something
to do with how Hubbard and the crew conducted themselves.
ELENA LORREL:
There are some missing chapters in the story of this period that are completely unknown
even to many veteran Sea Org members. These missing chapters have enabled lots of
myths to develop. They have to do with what the ships were really doing as opposed to
what we proclaimed to Scientologists we were doing. What we were doing was James
Bond stuff in all these different countries.
Some of the missions that we undertook were real intelligence missions: to the U.N.,
and to the World Federation of Mental Health, for example, as well as to almost every
government of the countries we visited.
We were infiltrating these groups... I mean we were finding the people trying to
assassinate a king; we were trying to settle between one tribe fighting another tribe;
trying to covertly back one political candidate versus another. All kinds of political
manipulations like you'd never imagine were going on, and it was all being pulled off by
a very few people.
Most Sea Org members were robotic, rigidly following Scientology think. Put under
pressure and duress, they would just blab everything. So there was only a very small
group of us that had to do it all over a period of 10 or 12 years. We'd been out on
scenes where we had to break into presidential palace grounds, con our way past
guards, and so on.
What really caused the Rock Festival was typical of what got us in trouble in most ports:
The fact is that we just didn't add up ! The Apollo would arrive in their quiet harbor and
suddenly there were 47 motorcycles and three different bands playing! Here we were at
the same time, supposedly, a business management operation... Also a shore unit was
set up in their town by us that was working on a project we had contracted with the
Lisbon government (in an attempt by us to gain influence).
I think the people in Madeira may also have thought we were spying on them (the
locals) for the government in Lisbon. Another reason for our troubles was that we
wouldn't observe customs and regulations because we were so damned arrogant. LRH
was creating the problem, more than not. He was getting so excited. Cathy Cariatakis or
I would go into some country and ally it and he would be so excited. He was like a child
with this whole new playground. He just couldn't contain himself. He would want to get
into everything. What LRH wanted to do would almost invariably involve some violation
of an agreement we had made.
INFILTRATING "THE ENEMY"
Elena continues:
LRH sent off a "SMERSH" mission to Switzerland. We were caught red-handed by the
Swiss Minister of Health and received a summons to a meeting with him and the
Attorney General, surrounded by security police.We were just caught, hung tied and
quartered, until I somehow managed to convince the minister that I truly was a member
of the World Federation of Mental Health. I told him that what we were trying to do
really was the result of an internal squabble within that organization.
He finally bought this line, dropped the idea that we were impostors, and asked the law
enforcement guys to leave. We had been trying to incorporate as the World Federation
of Mental Health. The WFMH had never been incorporated in Switzerland. It was
incorporated and started in the U.S. Margaret Mead and Brock Chisholm and some of the
old-time shrinks were some of the founding members.We were going to incorporate in
Switzerland and were planning, thereafter, to sabotage the entire mental health
movement. In order to register in Switzerland, they had to have been incorporated first.
We discovered they had registered with no prior incorporation, making them illegitimate.
So we seized on this situation and decided to incorporate in their place.
We wanted to get member mental health groups all over the world to join us. We were
planning to achieve that by bad mouthing the existing heads of the WFMH. One of our
key weapons was the fact that we had discovered that the heads of the WFMH were
creaming and skimming a lot of money off the top. We had documents to prove this. We
had gotten these documents from two missions prior to mine, sent to Switzerland to
ransack a couple of offices and loot the files. Among the files they brought back to the
ship were documents which revealed the tracking of money which came in. It showed
how it had been skimmed off the top by some of these WFMH executives. So we went to
incorporate and they said, "You can't do that. There is already a corporation of that
name." And we said, "No, you'd better check your records, and you'll find they aren't
incorporated." And they said, "Well they're registered here," and we said, "Well they're
not incorporated." And they said, "Well, they are in Delaware." And we said, "Yes but
they're only registered there, they're not incorporated there."
So when it came down to the wire (that they weren't properly incorporated), the Swiss
authorities turned it over to the Ministry of Health. This was because, while they knew
we were right, they didn't want to stab the WFMH in the back.
So the referred it to the Minister of Health for a ruling. While we were waiting for the
decision, we prepared a letter-head with WFMH markings on it. We established an office
and put up large posters and plastered the Federation of Mental Health name all over it.
We got the program going. We sent mailings out to all the major drug companies around
the world, saying that we really were in favor of euthanasia (in this case "mercy" killing
on a broad scale, a euphemism for ridding society of"undesirables") and that we wanted
endowments from them to push it through in the United Nations. We figured that if the
drug companies were sleazy enough to back it they would send us money, and if they
were pretty cool they would realize that the WFMH were evil SOBs because they were
pushing euthanasia. Either way we came out O.K. We would either make the WFMH look
like a bunch of sleazebags, or we would end up with a good amount of money for
operating capital. This project was one of several forerunners of the later "Operation
Snow White" conducted by Scientology against agencies in the U.S. and England.
A GREEK TRAGEDY ELENA: ...
In 1968, in Corfu, Greece, LRH moved onto the Royal Scotsman (soon to be named
Apollo), making that the flagship. The ship was in fact getting on very well with the
military junta. Cathy Cariatakis, whose native language is Greek, had helped forge
friendly relations with the head Colonel of the junta. This relationship was so warm that
one of the junta attended the naming service of the Apollo, Athena and Diana. Things
went along splendidly and LRH was having an absolutely marvelous time dreaming up
ideas for creating a base there on the island of Corfu. There were plans to establish a
Saint Hill Organization and an Advanced Organization to be called the University of
Philosophy.
Then LRH had the idea to write an article on Democracy, Greece being the originator of
Western Democracy. He was very proud of the piece and ordered Cathy Cariatakis to
have it translated and published in the major Greek newspapers. She did so. There are
many versions as to why things went sour with the Greek government and resulted in
Hubbard, the ship and its crew, being ordered to leave. One version, which seems the
most credible, was that the military junta (depending for its very survival upon keeping
the sentiments for a return to democracy at bay) did not appreciate the ideas expressed
in Hubbard's article.' Being ordered out of Greece in March of 1969, was the second
formal expulsion, eventually leading up to the "rock concert" in Madeira.
PLOTS TO KILL THE
KING OF MOROCCO ELENA:
The next major country we lost was Morocco... The ship's having been kicked out of
Corfu, Greece was the last straw for the Old Man. He had already been kicked out of Hull
in (*It would appear that Hubbard also, in fact, had little appreciation for the idea of
democracy. He had written in 1965: "And I don't see that popular measures, self abnegation and democracy have done anything for Man but push him further into the
mud... democracy has given us inflation and income tax.") England, and when they tried
to pull into Gibraltar they were denied entry there, and then later there was the Royal
Scotsman mess in Spain. So the Old man decided for us to disconnect from land and go
out and float for as long as our emergency stores would last and just get our scene
together. And we did that for about two months off the coast of Morocco. It was during
this "disconnection cruise" that LRH had a heart attack on the bridge...
On this cruise we did a lot of ship's work and eventually we were forced to call into the
port of Safi, there in Morocco, to get emergency stores. Richard Wrigley was the ship's
PH man and he went ashore in Safi and met the Pasha (the Mayor) of Safi. The Pasha
invited him back and he brought me along as his escort. And I made great friends with
the Pasha and his wife. LRH and MSH had bought a Villa on a beautiful estate in Morocco
near Tangiers. During that following year they lived there relatively peacefully, while the
ship sailed mainly in the East Atlantic between the ports of Morocco and Portugal and
Spain, passing through such ports as Lisbon, Tangiers, Madeira and the ports of the
Canary Islands. In 1972, they were still living in the villa while the ship was in drydock
in Lisbon for repairs.
Sometime after they had established themselves in the villa, LRH received a written
proposal from Richard Wrigley. He suggested that he be given approval to find some
way to get an audience with King Hassan II and win him over, so that LRH and his crew
would have a safe haven in Morocco without further fear of expulsion. It was an offer
LRH couldn't refuse, and Richard and Liz Gablehouse were sent off to carry the day.
Specifically, they were to make contacts within the palace of Hassan II, preferably with
the king himself. In reply to his proposal LRH had written not only his approval, but also
a note stating that Richard would have "unlimited backing" (any amount of money) and
the missionaire of his choice to join him. Liz and Richard spent a lot of time around bars
and meeting people, and did make friends with a French girl named Bidea who had
married into the royal family.
Despite this connection, nothing developed until Richard was withdrawn from that
project to go hob-nob with Black African diplomats on the Ivory Coast, (undoubtedly
another country to win over). Bidea at that point confided in Liz that she had been
uncooperative because she didn't trust Richard. From that time onwards progress began
to be made. Liz was introduced to the king's top people and later invited for dinner by a
palace representative. LRH was very excited and said, "Bidea is the key to Morocco,"
and we formed the Rabat office and recruited Bidea and her husband to work for it.
Subsequently at a party, Colonel Allam, (who was a personal friend of Bidea's) began to
become very friendly with me and another missionaire from the Apollo. Bidea told us not
to pursue anything with him because he was military.
This overture by Colonel Allam was reported to LRH, who was keeping very close tabs on
the project. He directed that they pursue the Allam connection. Liz protested that this
would be violating the guidelines about meddling with the military, but to no avail. LRH
was very excited about the turn of events and would hear of nothing but compliance
with his orders. Colonel Allam was encouraged to invite a few crew members to a party.
At that party he told them about General Oufkir, who was a Berber. He said that the
King kept Oufkir close to him because this was useful in keeping peace between the
Berbers and the Arabs. (The King is an Arab, while a large proportion of the population
is Berber. The Berbers are a group of non-Arab tribes who have their own native
language.)
A later party by Colonel Allam was also attended by Liz and an escort from the ship.
Ceneral Oufkir had come back from America and arrived for the party accompanied by
this dumb blonde who had worked in the consulate's office in New York. They couriered
a baby horse for the king's son, which had been given them by the U.S. government.
Calhoun (my escort) and I played dumb American tourists and this blonde spilled the
beans after she had had a few drinks. The beans were that General Oufkir had been at
Port Holibert, which I knew was a CIA training center because I had lived near there
when I was in my teens, and that he had been there secretly seeing the CIA. This was
kept secret from the king. Basically, I decided that Oufkir must have been taken over by
the CIA to operate for them. Next Liz and some of the crew were personal guests for the
war games, an annual display of all the latest weaponry attended by the chiefs of staff
and heads of government. During the performance a jet plane swooped down and
collapsed some of the tents.
The whole object, it turned out, was to kill the king. The generals, who had been seated
near the Scientologists, were interviewed on TV at gunpoint, where they admitted to
conspiracy against the king. They were then shot and killed right there in front of the
cameras. Later LRH sent Peter Warren and Amos Jessup to Rabat to see if they could get
a proposed security checking* project approved that would aid the loyalists in finding
out who were the leaders of those plotting against him. This was intended by LRH to be
a back-up for the king. LRH decided to use this security checking project as a way to get
close to the king because, of course, by now the king feared for his life and would
presumably be grateful for the help with security.
*Essentially interrogation done on an E-meter.
The proposal was to security check all the officers in the Moroccan Army to find out who
was involved in the coup. Amos Jessup and Peter Warren were actually able to approach
General Oufkir (the king's friend and most trusted adviser and head of the military) with
a project designed by LRH to train the military officers to use the E-meter to security
check. Oufkir said, "Very interesting. I'll get back with you." The King flew off to safe
ground (France) while his loyal staff claimed to be organizing a clean-up operation to
root out the remaining rebel conspirators. Meanwhile the sec checking project did get
approved by the officer below the general.
A team from Hubbard's headquarters were sent to train the selected members of the
military on the techniques of Security checking on the E-meter.
________________
The King was flying back from France a week or two after the sec checking project
started. As the return flight from his visit to Paris was descending to begin the approach
to Rabat airport, three American-made F-5 Freedom Fighters of the Moroccan Air Force
came out to meet Hassan's Boeing 727. Suddenly, the aerial escort opened fire on the
royal plane. After two passes they had damaged the cockpit, cut hydraulic lines,
smashed instruments and blown out the rear door. Hassan ran to the cockpit and held
the pilot at gun-point while he called the attacking pilots on the airliner's radio and,
disguising his voice, told them he was the flight engineer. "Ce Majest est mort. Cesez la
fusillade!" (The king is dead," he said. "Cease fire." He also told them that the airliner's
two pilots were dead.) The plane landed safely. Shortly before the crippled plane had
landed, General Oufkir had been summoned to the telephone at the airport control
tower.
What was said over the phone was not revealed. But shortly after the king, with three of
his four children, had sped away to his summer palace in a small black Renault-16, a
Moroccan Airforce jet made four passes at the field, shooting up cars, scattering the
honor guard, killing eight people and wounding 47. The king got away unscathed. The
next morning it was announced that, eight hours after the attack on the king's plane,
Oufkir had shot himself in the head at the king's palace. The word from the palace was
that Oufkir was the mastermind behind the coup. The king's plane was to have been
shot down over water, thus appearing to be an accident.
The phone call from the tower made by Oufkir was presumably to order the jets to strafe
the king on the ground, after he had realized that he had not been killed in the air.
Subsequent to these events Hubbard pushed the sec checking project even more
heavily. Now, surely, the Moroccan government would realize the high necessity to
utilize any and all methods to root out the remaining plotters against the King. The
students in the course were taught to sec check each other and the work sheets were
turned over to the supervisor of the course. One day, among these worksheets,
evidence turned up that the very people who had approved the security checking were
involved with the coup attempt.
ELENA LORREL:
It's a puzzle as to why they had approved the sec checking project, except to say that
they feared that someone loyal to the king might be approached by us, and decide sec
checking was a good idea. It would then have been out of his [Oufkir's] hands. At least
this way it was under his control. But I don't think he really expected anything to come
of it. He didn't expect the real dirt to be dug up. Boy was he wrong! Well, needless to
say, the sec checking was terminated, and we were given twelve hours to vacate
Morocco. All the people who connected to General Oufkir were later put on a boat that
was sunk, as a result of the fact they "somehow" were in the area during the seven day
war between Israel and Egypt. They all died, including Colonel Allam, whom we had
gotten to know so well.
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