Graham Berry

Scientology lies and corruption at the Xanadu of xenophobia

Thursday, January 8, 2009, was a hot midwinter’s day. I drove on Highway 79 along Lambs Canyon Road, the winding mountain canyon separating the town of Beaumont beside Interstate Freeway 10 and the high desert city of Hemet. I was on my way to join two of my clients and fellow anti-scientology abuse activists in a picket of the Scientology base at Gilman Hot Springs which is the public front is Golden Era Productions, but that is only part of its story.

As I made my way toward Hemet, the canyons of the California desert seemed almost barren but for sporadic Sage bush, Chaparral, Juniper and other desert scrub, quite unlike the mountainside vegetation of my native New Zealand, from which I had recently returned. Despite that, the arid landscape still had a harsh beauty. Huge boulders and exposed rock faces pocked the canyons. In the ever-changing desert light and shadow these granite sentries assumed their own beauty. Another five minutes and I was on the edge of the San Jacinto Valley turning left from North Sanderson Avenue onto Gilman Springs Road, which winds along the base of the San Jacinto Mountains. The early afternoon air was putrid with the smell of cow manure from the many dairy farms.

Hemet is an agricultural and bedroom community with a large Latino population and a huge retirement community living in the many sprawling mobile home parks. The city stands in dramatic contrast to the affluent Palm Springs resorts on the other side of the Mt. San Jacinto State Park.

I had been checking my rear view mirror regularly, but I could see no sign of any vehicle following me. I pulled down the sun visor to shield my face from the Church of Scientology roadside cameras that photograph the faces and license plates of every vehicle that travels Highway 79 into Hemet. A little further on I saw a white truck parked almost out of sight, hidden by the roadside scrub. It resembled one of the Church of Scientology’s security vehicles, but I had not noticed any driver.

I round the next corner and I was passing the faux Scottish castle at the southern end of the Church of Scientology properties at Gilman Hot Springs. I maintained the speed limit of 45 m.ph. to avoid attention and I was soon passing Scientology’s Golden Era golf course at the northern of Scientology’s Gilman Hot Springs compound. Another few minutes and I was pulling into a fast food restaurant just off State Street. Three members of Anonymous were meeting me there: Angry Gay Pope or AGP; Happy Smurf and Anon Orange. They were inside eating when I joined them. At 12:50 P.M., AGP, Smurf and I got into one vehicle and took State Street back to the Church of Scientology properties at nearby Gilman Hot Springs. I’d picketed there on many occasions and Scientology had tried to intimidate me from doing so. They had even tried to stop me with an unconstitutional court order. No More Pickets/Photos At Gilman Hot Springs?

Gilman Hot Springs was named after landowners William E. and Josephine Gilman. In 1979, 19625 Gilman Springs Road, Gilman Hot Springs, CA 92583 was a 550 acre drying golf course with a collection of disintegrating desert resort buildings. That year, the owner sold the property to Scientology front groups in a $2.7 million cash deal. (Miller, Bare Faced Messiah, page 359, Atak, A Piece of Blue Sky, page 256.) Data Source

Once acquired, it then became the secret international headquarters of the corporations and Churches of Scientology. Its location is still a secret to most Scientologists.
Scientology management calls the property “Int Base” or “Gold Base.” Gold Base is staffed by trusted senior members of Scientology’s elite para-military group called the Sea Organization or “Sea Org.” The Sea Org uses U.S. naval-style ranks and uniforms. The senior Sea Org officers, such as Scientology leader “Captain” David Miscavige, wear loads of gold braid and gold ring. According to Wikipedia, Gold Base “…is home to all the highest level management units of the Church of Scientology … Among the organizations there are the Religious Technology Center, The Commodore’s Messenger Organization International and Golden Era Productions. Golden Era Productions manufactures the E-Meter and produces and distributes all church audio-visual materials, both internal and promotional.” Gilman Hot Springs

Golden Era sells these E-Meters and materials to the various Churches of Scientology.
The E-Meter costs less than $50 to produce. The Church charges different prices for different E-meter models. The prices range from a few thousand dollars to nearly thirty thousand dollars, and most Scientologists are required to own at least one. The bulk of this slave labor produced tax-free money is transferred into secret numbered Merrill Lynch bank accounts in offshore havens. The accounts are subject to the sole authority of “Captain” David Miscavige who neither accounts to nor reports to anyone, not even the United States Internal Revenue Service. Meanwhile, the United States government has obligated itself to promoting Scientology around the world as a result of the secret 1993 agreement between Captain Miscavige and then I.R.S. Commissioner, Fred Goldberg. See Graham Berry letter to Riverside Supers. pdf Angry Gay Pope Home Page

Gold Base is also one of the two United States locations of Scientology’s gulag-style facilities known as the Scientology Rehabilitation Project Force or RPF. The dozens of accounts by people once on the RPF demonstrates that it is effectively an involuntary program involving physical abuse and coercive indoctrination. Scientology’s Rehabilitation Project Force at Colorado Anonymous and Brainwashing in Scientology's Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF)

Gold Base is a very high security facility with the objective of keeping outsiders out and Scientologists in. There is razor wire facing out as well as in. There are all manner of hidden electronic devices and security teams whose armaments have hair triggers just as their touchy as their temperaments. They even have an armed sniper above the property looking out over the Scientology and adjacent properties. Affidavit of Andre Tabayoyon, March 5, 1994. Affidavit of Andre Tabayoyon - 5 Mar 1994 Also see Graham Berry supplemental Riverside pdf at Angry Gay Pope Home Page
I first picketed Gold Base in early 1998, after successfully defeating Scientology’s first attempts to enjoin Keith Henson from picketing outside the facility. At that time, there were over 1,200 Scientology staffers working at the base and living at two apartment complexes in Hemet. They were bused back and forth daily. Scientology’s rapidly increasing implosion has reduced that number to about 400. Most are now living in newly completed staff “berthing” at the north east end of the property. This reduces the risk of contact with the outside world and negative media causing a staffer to “snap” or wake-up from the Scientology coercive indoctrination and then to leave or escape. Not all escapees are successfully hunted down and recovered by the brutal security guards, such as Danny Dunagan.

Danny Dunagan was on duty in the Golden Era guardhouse as we arrived this day. Smurf stopped opposite the guard house. AGP got out to take the Base by surprise with this picket. He was wearing his usual party mask and Bishops Mitre hat. I continued with Smurf to park his vehicle on the roadside near the faux Scottish castle housing the Golden Era film studios. On one side of highway 79, 16 year old Ashley Shaner had died after a night time collision with unlit Scientology-hired equipment. Scientology quickly paid out on the lawsuit brought by her family. On the other side of Highway 79, Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon’s young daughter, Stacy Moxon Meyer, was fatally electrocuted in a high voltage electrical bunker on Scientology property. After parking the car, we walked up the side of Highway 79 and joined AGP picketing outside the Gold Base guardhouse. I was wearing a Scientology Kills T shirt and a baseball hat emblazoned the term WOG, a gift from the great Ursula Caberta.

For the next forty-five minutes, Happy Smurf videotaped AGP and I peacefully picketing Gold Base. AGP was outside the now-shuttered guardhouse. One side of his picket sign read, “WARNING! Scientology cult keeps slaves here.” The other side of his picket sign read, “WARNING! Scientology cult noise zone.” I picketed on the opposite side of the roadway and in the specific location Scientology’s own land use attorney had identified to the Riverside Board of Supervisors as being a proper place for continuing First Amendment activity. I had two signs. A small sign read, “Scientology: Cult of Blackmail, Bribery and Fraud. www.xenu.net.” On the larger sign one side read “FREEDOM? FIND OUT THE TRUTH: XENU.NET” and the other side read “HUBBARD DIED ON PYSCH DRUGS.” From time to time AGP would shout “tax the cult.” Behind me was a replica of a clipper ship, the Star of California, in which Scientology’s “Captain Miscavige and Hollywood’s Tom Cruise often relaxed together. (See Andre Tabayoyon Declaration, para.118, Affidavit of Andre Tabayoyon - 5 Mar 1994 (See notes above) and John Atak, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 287.) Scientology’s large audio speakers were still positioned at regular intervals along their fence line. AGP and Happy Smurf had picketed Gold Base after the County Supervisors passed Ordinances 884 and 888 on January 6, 2009. Scientology had quickly switched on the neighborhood-deafening organ music dirge. This day they were covered with plastic and strangely silent.

Outside Scientology’s sailing ship perpetually moored in the desert sands, cackled a parrot. I thought to myself, if that parrot starts imitating AGP and squawking, “Tax the cult,” it would very soon be a dead parrot. It quickly became evident to me that the entire Gold Base was on lock down. All of the blinds and shutters were drawn. The only people visible were the silhouettes of the two security officers in the guard house and the public relations in-charge, Muriel Dufresne, the woman who had become so well acquainted with Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone and his family. I have been told that Muriel Dufresne has had store accounts for purchasing gifts for public officials that Gold Base needs to co-opt and corrupt. Apparently, Muriel has also been observed surreptiously recording Hemet City Council meetings. Additionally, she has sat on the Hemet library committee (as a sort of de facto Scientology censor).

Muriel Dufresne was literally running back and forth between a nearby building and the guardhouse. Meanwhile two more people arrived to observe us. One was a reporter and the other a photographer from the Los Angeles Times. The reporter had been at the Riverside County Board of Supervisors meeting on January 6, 2009. His report would appear in the LA Times.com blogs section on Friday January 9, 2009.

At about 1:45 P.M., five Riverside County Sheriff’s vehicles responded to multiple calls from Scientology to deal with two picketers and a photographer. The Sergeant in charge was polite and adamant that they were not looking to interfere with our First Amendment rights. However, for most of the next hour all five Sheriff’s deputies were huddled inside the Scientology compound with Muriel and her assistant. We were excluded and just kept going on about our picketing. From time to time, various deputies would come out and engage us. First, they demanded and then took all of our driver’s licenses, recording the details for a cult anxious to obtain all such information for its own highly questionable purposes. Although this is unlawful, it is constantly done by Los Angeles and Riverside Police when called to pickets outside Scientology locations. It was the first time in twenty years of journalism that the Los Angeles Times reporter had been asked for identification by the police.

At one point, the Sheriff’s Deputies emerged and their Sergeant informed us that Scientology and the Riverside County’s Legal Counsel had worked out an interpretation of Ordinances 884 and 888. Provided we did not use the name of any living Scientologist specifically, and only protested Scientology generally, we could protest up and down both sides of Highway 79. And so, AGP and I continued to do that while Scientology’s representatives, the five Sheriff’s deputies and the Los Angeles Times reporter went inside the Scientology compound.

This was not the first occasion on which the Church of Scientology had called out a large police response to silence AGP’s protests against Scientology abuse, crime and fraud. On August 11, 2008, AGP and I had been one of about twelve Anonymous picketers outside the Church of Scientology International and Office of Special Affairs building at 6331 Hollywood Boulevard at the corner of Ivar Avenue in Los Angeles, CA. In a subsequent declaration, as part of a successful Anti-SLAPP motion, AGP described what had happened:

“The other Anon, two lawyers and I continued our peaceful protest, moving around the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Avenue. About half an hour after [Scientology attorney] Moxon arrived, about eight black and white L.A.P.D. squad cars arrived at high speed, sirens blaring, lights flashing, and with about 12 L.A.P.D. officers of different ranks! After much talking among themselves, and with Mr. Moxon and Ava Paquette, I was served [with an anti-harassment civil restraining order] by the grubby homeless looking man, in the presence of all of the L.A.P.D. officers and politely asked by the cops to leave. All this time I had been sitting politely on the ground surrounded by other picketers and two attorneys. I had been peaceful, co-operative and polite. Despite that, it apparently required about twelve police to stand around for about thirty minutes and then watch while a grubby homeless looking private investigator hands me the Temporary Restraining Order in this case. Here I am, a guy with no criminal record, or previous anti-harassment order ever applied for? Yet Moxon, a living legal mess, can get twelve cops out there against me. I was stunned and disgusted with the L.A.P.D.’s over reaction while real victims often find it difficult to get any police assistance! I walked 100 yards away and began reading the documents to see who the patsies were that attorney Moxon got to sign the T.R.O. after personally threatening to sue me himself. …”
http://www.angrygaypope.com/docs/gra...its.102308.pdf and SLAPP Motion at: Angry Gay Pope Restraining Order Trial Documents (see prior notes)

And so, on this hot mid-winter afternoon in the California High Desert I proceeded up and down both sides of Highway 79, to check the accuracy of the assurances from the Sheriff’s sergeant. After all, one reason I was there that day was to protest the newly enacted picketing ordinance. I had decided I was willing to be arrested in order to test the constitutionality of the new Riverside County “anti targeted residential picketing ordinance.” Even the compromise interpretation of the Riverside County legal counsel was outrageous and in violation of the First Amendment. Just because Scientology says it’s so doesn’t make it so.

Walking north of the guardhouse and passed the new berthing, I took time out to photograph the portal of the sniper’s nest, code named “Eagle,” and posted above David Miscavige’s office and the guest accommodation used by Tom Cruise and him when they are staying over at Gold Base. I was incredulous that the Riverside County Supervisors and the Riverside Sheriffs were not interested in investigating the numerous reports of a sniper, with a high powered automatic weapon with a military grade sniper’s scope, looking down over Gilman Hot Springs, San Jacinto High School and the western borders of the City of Hemet. This was occurring most days, particularly when Tom Cruise or David Miscavige are present at Gold Base. I was amazed that the Riverside County Supervisors would just ignore information about serious human rights violations and weapons occurring within their jurisdiction.

For example, the conduct alleged Marc Headley labor complaint TinyURL.com - shorten that long URL into a Tiny URL and Marc Headley Files Bombshell Lawsuit THE WOG BLOG from XENU TV Then, there are the forced abortions at public expense that the Mary Tabayoyon and other former scientologists have revealed. Affidavit of Mary Tabayoyon (5 March 1994) (see above notes)

Instead, County Supervisor Jeff Stone had casually dismissed such allegations as religious hate mongering that should be presented to the County Sheriff or the grand jury. Surely one of the lessons from the Germany of 1933 and 1934 is that the public and its politicians cannot, like the three monkeys, “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.”

Later, we would learn that Scientologist Muriel Dufresne then provided the Sheriff’s deputies with Scientology “Dead Agent” packs on the “crimes,” as alleged and manufactured by Scientology, of AGP, Happy Smurf and I. Outrageously, Scientology had obtained and distributed personal medical information from the private health records of AGP and Happy Smurf. Deceptively, they also used the recanted Cipriano declaration to try and discredit and slime me. Apparently, Muriel Dufresne had gloated over their success in having me declared a vexatious litigant. However, that provides some of the factual basis for my picket sign and statement, “Scientology: Cult of Blackmail, Bribery and Fraud. www.xenu.net.” Of course, the Riverside Sheriff’s Deputies do not know that this is part of Scientology’s “Fair Game” policies for the “handling of Suppressive Persons.” They have not seen the Scientology scripture that reads, “The only way to control someone is to lie to them.”

The presence of the Riverside County Deputies with their five black and white police cruisers flashing their emergency lights actually enhanced the success of our picket. The end product of calling out five sheriff’s cruisers was to cause all traffic on Highway 79 to slow and strain to read our picket signs. AGP and I positioned ourselves at each end of a Deputy’s road side cruiser with its flashing lights. The rubber-neckers were even more interested in our picket signs and Operation Clambake - The Inner Secrets Of Scientology would soon have an increase in site traffic. The five sheriff’s deputies spent over an hour dealing with Scientology’s demands regarding two peaceful and lawful protestors accompanied by a supporting videographer and a Los Angeles Times reporter and photographer reporting on Scientology’s attempt to block further First Amendment activity outside Gold Base. What was happening to crime and its prevention in the rest of the area while Scientology, the Deputy Sheriffs, the Riverside County Counsel’s Office and Supervisor Stone’s office all tried to find a way to chill or smother our lawful First Amendment protests that had been occurring for over a decade. The Los Angeles Times reporter and photographer left, but the Riverside Sheriff’s deputies stayed on with the Scientologists inside the Gold Base gates. They seemed to all be settling in for as long as we two protestors were willing to walk up and down the edge of Highway 79 with our picket signs.

At about 3:15 P.M. AGP, Smurf and I decided to call it a day and prepared to leave. We had learned that Muriel Dufresne was on the telephone with County Supervisor Stone’s office and the Legal Counsel to the Riverside Board of Supervisors. Scientology was now demanding that we be prevented from picketing outside their property anywhere along Highway 79. Instead the cult was demanding we be forced to relocate to the empty area beside the faux Scottish castle where the Scientologists, aided by the Riverside Sheriffs, had entrapped AnonOrange (Francois Choquette) into going before he had been swarmed, downed, hogtied and arrested on October 26, 2009. The County has since charged him with trespass and assault (while he was biting the dust and being suffocated by Danny Dunagan and his fellow goons). Subsequent research has revealed all manner of zoning and land use violations involving Gold Base and particularly that portion of the property. It is going to make the spring trial very interesting. Meanwhile, as we drove back passed the Gold Base guard house the Riverside County Sheriff’s cruisers and deputies were still parked and chatting with the Scientologists. Gold Base was still on full lock down. The regular Thursday 2 P.M. submission of weekly production statistics had likely been delayed. Three hours of manufacturing production would have been interrupted while the Gold Base staff were prevented from hearing or seeing any anti-Scientology information from the outside or “Wog” world.

We pulled into our restaurant rendezvous to find a very anxious and soon-to-be-relieved Anon Orange. He had been off conducting his own research. It wasn’t long before I continued on to an early dinner with 86 year old Mrs. Ida Camburn. Ida was one of the very first people to start exposing the Scientology cult in the mid 1970s after she had lost one of her sons to the Church of Scientology. During the summer of 2001, Keith Henson had stayed with Ida while he picketed Gold Base continuously for nearly ninety days. MEMORANDUM Ida took me out to a wonderful meal in Hemet.

By 7:15 P.M., I was on my way back to Los Angeles and driving past Gold Base. It was dark and the property was ablaze with lights, but everyone was inside. They would not finish their “watch” or shift until sometime after 11 P.M. (and sometimes not at all). The so-called “residential neighborhood,” the newly completed “berthing,” was in complete darkness except for a few building security lights. The shutters were now open in the guard house and few of the vehicles appeared to have been moved. It would have been a chilly evening for the sniper sitting up at the Eagle’s Nest. The snow was down to low levels on Mt. Baldy and the other nearby mountains while a cool breeze drifted through the canyons. I had made good progress down into San Bernardino when at about 7:50 P.M. the car swayed and drifted. A magnitude 4.5 earthquake centered nearby was shaking the region for nearly a minute. We Three Musketeers against Scientology abuse and crime had shaken Gold Base for over two hours. Try as they might, Scientology, its shills and its stooges will not prevent the real world from eventually reaching the souls of those confined within Scientology’s very own composite version of “The Truman Show” and Orwell’s 1984, if only in their own brain-washed minds.

“… ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

On Saturday January 10, 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported on our picket under the caption of “Scientology foes blast new Riverside County law.”
Scientology foes blast new Riverside County law - Los Angeles Times At the same time, the Riverside County Supervisors, Sheriffs and the Church of Scientology were receiving world wide condemnation in the s for their separate actions against the First Amendment civil rights of the protestors against Scientology abuse, crime and fraud. In the Los Angles Times report AGP described Gold Base as “the Xanadu of xenophobia. … Supervisor Wilson expressed concern. ‘The church assured is that [the picketers] could protest outside the main gate. We have not prohibited that,’ he said. ‘If they start restricting locations and start applying this ordinance to mean you can’t protest Scientology at all, then we will have to revisit it.’ ”

Dedicated to Lisa McPherson, Ashley Shaner, Stacy Moxon Meyer, Noah Lottick, Jett Travolta and the countless other victims of Scientology corruption, crime, fraud and abuse.

Graham Berry
grahamberry@ca.rr.com