A friend of mine just told me that OSA called a mandatory meeting today of all FCCIs (FCCI is how they refer to Flag public pcs -- it stands for Flag Case Completion Intensive) to order them to sign an amicus brief stating that they have had great benefits from their Scientology auditing and that the state of Florida is discriminating against them by putting their "religion" on trial. This is then going to be filed in the McPherson criminal case as a way to put pressure on the judge to dismiss the case.

Guess Miscavige had to go back to the drawing board when Judge Downey refused to bow to C of S pressure to step down.

Reminds me of 1985, when a Portland jury awarded Julie Christoffersen $30 million for the damage she suffered at the hands of the Church of Scientology. About a half hour after the verdict was announced, Miscavige got all of OSA US on the speaker phone in the Legal Bureau and announced that we were responsible for getting every Scientologist in the world to Portland for massive street demonstrations to force the judge to reverse the jury's decision. That was the birth of the Religious Freedom Crusade.

For the next two months no one in OSA did anything else. We chartered private planes to fly Scientologists in from Europe and all over the United States. We spent $2 million to produce a special edition of Freedom "exposing" Gerry Armstrong (who had been a witness for Julie) as a paid informant for the IRS. Of course, Gerry was nothing of the sort. But on Miscavige's direct orders I personally "edited" the videotapes of the failed sting operation Mike Rinder and Dave Kluge ran on Gerry to try to get him to admit on hidden camera that he was. I had to take out all of Rinder's and Kluge's leading questions and entrapment to make it look as if Gerry actually was an agent.

The reason we had to publish this Freedom about Gerry was that Miscavige had showed this supposed videotaped "evidence" in camera to the judge in the Christoffersen case to get Gerry thrown out as a witness, but it backfired. Far from convincing the judge that Gerry was an informant, the tape proved to the judge beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Church of Scientology engaged in exactly the kinds of dirty tricks that he had been warned about. After the judge threw out the bogus "evidence," DM decided we would have to tell the story to every citizen of Portland. As the Freedom editor I had to fly up to Portland and stand by DM's chair in his condo at the "command center" of the Religious Freedom Crusade while he personally read and approved every word of copy for that Freedom. Then we printed enough copies to deliver it to the doorstep of every single house in Portland and DM made sure the judge found out about it.

John Travolta was ordered up to Portland, and he flew up in one of his private planes. Chick Corea was ordered to put on a free concert for the people of Portland. By the time we were done I think about 40,000 Scientologists ended up in Portland. Lo and behold! The judge bowed to the pressure and threw out the $30 million decision.

I've always felt that the Christo reversal was a pivotal moment in the development of DM's way of dealing with the world. He came up with an utterly outrageous idea for how to turn a disastrous decision around and took out all the stops to make it happen, and it worked. It was stunning. None of us could believe it when the judge reversed that jury's verdict. It was totally because of the pressure we put on him. That win went to DM's head. After that, DM knew for sure that with enough pressure he could make anything happen. Sure enough, a few years later he hit the jackpot. Against all odds, he got the IRS to give him tax exemption.

So what DM knows above all else is that pressure works. Whatever kind of pressure it takes.

Now he's trying the same tactic on the McPherson case.

So far it's working pretty well. He's gotten one judge off the case and now he's gotten the medical examiner to change her findings. And he's managed to get the most politically well-connected law firm in Pinellas County on his payroll.

Not bad, DM. Your methods of applying pressure have gotten more sophisticated, not as obvious, a lot quieter. You've gotten a lot smarter about how to spend your money. But you know, DM, a bully only has two options: either terrorize a person or buy them.

What if people stopped being afraid and refused to take the money? What would a bully do then?

For the sake of Lisa and all the others who have been harmed and betrayed by your organization, I'm praying Judge Downey will be able to survive your arsenal of dirty tricks and money.

Stacy