The truth about Scientology and private investigators

One of the most frequent accusations leveled against David Miscavige by Marty Rathbun and other Independents is the hiring of private investigators. The whole concept of a church employing private investigators is pretty darn ridiculous, and Marty is right to condemn it – but he’s not right to blame this practice on David Miscavige. Good ol’ Slappy is simply following orders from the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard. Proof can be found in Hubbard’s Manual of Justice, published in 1959, about a year before DM was born:

Overt investigation of someone or something attacking us by an outside detective agency should be done more often and hang the expense. It’s very effective. — LRH

Okay, so LRH hired private investigators – but surely he was just using them to gather intelligence, and not to intimidate, as DM seems to do, right?

Wrong.

Often investigation by a private detective has alone closed up an entheta* source or a squirrel** organisation. In fact at this writing I can’t remember a time when it hasn’t! The reason for this is simple…The smell of police or private detectives caused them to fly, to close down, to confess. — LRH

* Entheta: "Enturbulated theta." Scientologese for bad news or anti-Scientology sentiment.

** Squirrel: Altered Scientology practices, or one who uses such altered practices.

Okay… but surely LRH wouldn’t condone such massive spending on PIs, as David Miscavige is doing? After all, their invoices are being paid by parishioners’ fees… sorry, donations.

Hire them and damn the cost when you need to. –LRH

Hmmmm.

In my opinion, Marty is right to condemn David Miscavige for using private investigators to harass ex-Scientologists, members of the media, and other perceived enemies of the Church. But he’s wrong to give the impression that these crimes originated with David Miscavige. That’s a lie, and as a former member of Scientology management, no one should know that better than Marty Rathbun.

ML,
Caliwog

P.S.: If you haven’t read the Manual of Justice, you should – it’s a quick read and it shows a side of LRH that the Independents don’t want you to see. Cof$ acknowledged the MoJ as a legitimate Scientology document in a 1995 court case, Religious Technology Center vs. Netcom. You can read it online at Xenu.net or download scans of the original from Wikileaks.