C HURCHOFS CIENTOLOGYI NTERNATIONAL 29 April 2015 Tom Tobin Tampa Bay Times 490 First Ave. S St. Petersburg, Fl. 33603 Re: Tampa Bay Times request / Joe Childs Dear Mr. Tobin: I am in receipt of your letter of April 8, 2015, containing questions from Joe Childs. Your most recent inquiry is nothing more than a reflection of the Times’ continuing one-sided, biased reporting on the Church of Scientology. Your request confirms the Times will ignore its journalistic responsibilities to forward any story, no matter how ill-founded, from the same small group of discredited sources for whom the Times has been banging the drum for six years. As to your 10 pages of allegations and conjecture, I reject all of it, categorically and completely. Your very questions make evident your preconceived bias. Ecclesiastical matters involving the internal workings of the Church are not an appropriate subject of debate in the pages of your newspaper. Moreover, you and Joe Childs are well aware that the Churches of Scientology have been acknowledged as recognized religious and charitable organizations because they are organized and operated exclusively for this purpose. That said, please bear in mind the following as you continue with your attempts to vilify the Church: Your latest “sources” have had the opportunity to avail themselves of the internal procedures available to them in Scientology Ethics and Justice to resolve any real or imagined difficulties they believed they were having. For reasons of their _______________________________________________________ 6331 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 1200, Los Angeles, CA 90028 USA Telephone: (323) 960-3500 ● Fax: (323) 960-3508/9 own choosing, they forfeited that opportunity. Their road to redemption lies in applying the steps laid out in Scientology Ethics and Justice procedures for those who honestly seek it. • Jim Jackson’s misguided, uninformed and meritless complaints were addressed appropriately by the Church, as well as by the Church’s outside counsel. Church counsel also has addressed Jackson’s actions in violation of his oaths as both an accountant and lawyer, having previously represented the Church. • Jackson well knows his expulsion was in no way the result of his claimed efforts, but rather the result of his participation in squirrel (unauthorized, nonstandard, heterodox) Scientology practices that are harmful to his own and others’ spiritual progress. The Church followed its well-established ecclesiastical procedures in expelling Jackson, and any implication that the Church’s conduct was intended to harm Jackson or his business is false and defamatory. • It is utterly disgraceful for the Times to rely on Merrell Vannier when it well knows his record of criminal conduct for which Vannier lost his license. It is the current Church leadership under Mr. David Miscavige (who the Times spares no effort to falsely vilify) that cleaned out those, like Vannier, involved in such shameful actions. It also bears noting that these events happened over 30 years ago. • It is impossible for the Times to resurrect the reputation of its previous sources used for its 2009 series. The Church has made ample material available on its Freedom magazine website, for anyone to see, regarding the perjury, suborning of perjury and admitted lies of those sources. Relying on sources such as Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder for this or any other story when the Times has overwhelming evidence of their utter lack of credibility and financial motivation to lie about their former Church goes to the heart of the malice of the Times’ reporting methods. The Times cannot pretend now that it does not know the complete unreliability and bias of the primary sources it has used for repeated stories, including this one. Nothing these individuals say can be believed, except perhaps within the confines of the Times’ own echo chamber. • Every religious denomination in America, whether congregational like most Protestant denominations, or hierarchical, like the Roman Catholic Church, the LDS Church, and the Church of Scientology, finds it necessary to balance ecclesiastical governance under church doctrines and procedures with legal governance issues arising from the manner in which church entities are legally formed and operated. The ecclesiastical authority vested in officials of a hierarchical church, for example a Roman Catholic bishop, archbishop or even the Pope himself, operates in parallel with the legal authority rather than at odds with it. But this does not make irrelevant or illusory the separate legal 2 authority and autonomy of subordinate church entities any more than it renders a church’s ecclesiastical head, whether the Pope or otherwise, personally answerable for everything that happens in that hierarchy. • Each individual Church of Scientology is separately incorporated and is legally governed by its own officers and board of directors. The same individuals also form the ecclesiastical management of their church and are fully responsible for providing religious services to their parishioners and their surrounding communities. At the same time, in carrying out these ecclesiastical responsibilities they are answerable to higher ecclesiastical authorities. • Church of Scientology International is responsible for the ecclesiastical management of the Scientology religion and the various Scientology Churches and provides assistance to these Church organizations to disseminate the religion including, but not limited to, the guidance that has successfully seen to the opening of more than 40 Ideal Organizations in recent years. CSI is very fortunate to have the support of Religious Technology Center, which is not part of the management structure and is not involved in its day-to-day affairs, but which grants CSI, as the Mother Church, the right to use and enforce the trademarks of Dianetics and Scientology. Other Church corporations have their unique and vital roles in the propagation of the religion. Jim Jackson demonstrates his ignorance as well as his mendacity when he falsely asserts, for example, that Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) was supposed to be the highest ecclesiastical authority in Scientology. It is a matter of public record that CST was specifically established to be completely separate and apart from the Scientology ecclesiastical hierarchy, which CST has consistently affirmed from its very first exemption application to the IRS in 1983. • This corporate structure is not new. Rather, it is the structure put in place more than 30 years ago at the request of L. Ron Hubbard so the religion would continue on into perpetuity. This structure also redressed organizational and management deficiencies that allowed individuals like Merrell Vannier and his fellow miscreants to engage in harmful actions. The IRS closely examined the operational results of this reorganization in the course of ruling that CSI and all other U.S. Scientology Churches qualified for tax exemption. The IRS was satisfied that all Church organizations adhere to their corporate integrity in accordance with their bylaws, and nothing has changed since then, either in the way Scientology Churches operate or the articles and bylaws under which they operate. Courts have long upheld the Church’s right to administer its internal affairs free from outside interference. If you have any doubt of the inappropriateness of your inquiry, I invite you to consult relevant decisions with which the Times should already be well acquainted: 3 • • The Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization v. City of Clearwater, 2 F.3d. 1514 (1993), and the authorities cited therein, which states in part that parishioners: “…may attempt to reform that policy from within. They may acquiesce in the policy despite their objections or they may leave the church. Civil authority ‘cannot penetrate the veil of the church for the forbidden purpose of vindicating the alleged wrongs of ... members; when they became members they did so upon the condition of continuing or not as they and their churches might determine, and they thereby submit to the ecclesiastical power and cannot now invoke the supervisory power of the civil tribunals.’ Watson, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) at 731, 20 L.Ed. at 677 (quotations omitted).” The Headley case, mentioned by your sources (which raised the same unfounded allegations the Times raised in 2009 and continues to raise today) was decisively dismissed as meritless and unanimously upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That case also addressed the subject of disconnection, a voluntary Church practice described on our website at www.scientology.org/faq/scientology-attitudes-and-practices/whatisdisconnection.html. The Church and its members have the Constitutional right of freedom of association which also includes the right of its members to associate or not with anyone: “A church is entitled to stop associating with someone who abandons it. Paul v. Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc'y of N.Y., Inc., 819 F.2d 875, 883 (9th Cir.1987) (holding that the free exercise clause protects the practice of shunning, explaining that when ‘[t]he members of [a] [c]hurch’ ‘no longer want to associate with’ someone who has ‘abandon[ed]’ them, those members ‘are free’ under the First Amendment ‘to make that choice’). A church may also warn that it will stop associating with members who do not act in accordance with church doctrine. The former is a legitimate consequence, the latter a legitimate warning.” Headley v. Church of Scientology International (9th Cir. 2012) 687 F.3d 1173, 1180. Further, the decision in the Headley case goes to the heart of the complaints Jackson asserts. Of course, never having been in the Sea Organization, Jackson and your other sources are simply echoing the Times’ earlier ill-founded stories. Since Jackson first raised his complaints, the courts have examined and rejected these very same allegations, as summarized in a letter from church counsel you may find at: www.freedommag.org/going-clear/letters/tostephanieabrutyn/february-20-film-by-alex-gibney.html. Contrary to the smoke and mirrors you and your sources pretend exist, there is nothing abnormal or, for that matter, different in the manner in which Churches of Scientology are organized and operated. What is different is that since the antiScientology sources that the Times has embraced were expelled a decade or so ago, the Church has grown at an exponential rate. It is evident that both the Times 4 and your sources are extremely upset at seeing the Church continue to flourish and prosper. But unlike you, Scientologists are thrilled by the growth of their Church, by the renaissance experienced with its restored Scriptural materials, by the spectacular new Church facilities all over the world, by the Church’s continued support of organizations that provide real help for societal ills, and by their advances on their spiritual journey on the road to Total Freedom. For further information, see www.scientology.org. Mr. Miscavige has been successfully leading the Scientology religion for more than a quarter century and our growth in the last 10 years is more than in our previous 50 years combined. That is why Scientologists hold him in the highest esteem. The Church’s growth is manifest, most recently illustrated in Basel, Switzerland. When Joe Childs announced his retirement, the Times had an opportunity to end its 40-year crusade against this religion and focus on reporting the actual news. Instead, the Times persists in manufacturing stories from the ravings of uninformed, expelled members with no firsthand knowledge. This is not investigative reporting; it is bigotry. Should the Times publish an article that carries false and defamatory statements, the Church will explore all of its legal rights and remedies. Karin Pouw 5           CHURCH OF   SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL June 17, 2015 Tom Tobin Tampa Bay Times 490 First Ave. S St. Petersburg, Fl. 33603 tobin@tampabay.com Dear Mr. Tobin: Further to my letter of April 29, 2015, I have recently come upon information that completely undermines your upcoming article. In my letter, I wrote: “It is utterly disgraceful for the Times to rely on Merrell Vannier when it well knows his record of criminal conduct for which Vannier lost his license. It is the current Church leadership under Mr. David Miscavige (who the Times spares no effort to falsely vilify) that cleaned out those, like Vannier, involved in such shameful actions. It also bears noting that these events happened over 30 years ago.” Since then, Mr. Vannier has self-published a memoir in which he admits to conduct that makes it even more unconscionable that the Tampa Bay Times would rely on him. In the book, Vannier admits to his participation in conduct for the disbanded Guardian’s Office that had the specifics been known in the detail from his memoir, he would have been expelled years earlier than he was expelled. I need not detail them here. You can read it for yourself. While I have no way of vouching for the veracity of his claims, the fact that this is what he is claiming he did is enough to more than make the point I made in my earlier letter. Directly to the point of your intended article, Vannier admits that he was the architect, author and driving force behind Jim Jackson’s letters to the Church and church counsel that form the basis of your article. He concedes that he used Jackson, whom he calls “Letterhead,” as a willing sock puppet because Jackson still had a law license and Vannier had long since lost his: ___________________________________________________________  6331 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 1200, Los Angeles, CA, 90028‐6329   Phone: (323) 960‐3500 ● Fax: (323) 960‐3508/09  Tampa Bay Times -2- June 17, 2015   “I offered to write the letter but said it needed to go on an attorney’s letterhead and there were only two people on the line who qualified. We discussed hiring an attorney, but then Letterhead volunteered – and in so doing, earned his alias.” The first letter of February 2010 went on Jim Jackson’s letterhead, thereby revealing his identity as “Letterhead.” Frankly, this makes your story a farce. The Times is being a willing participant to Merrell Vannier’s personal vendetta against a Church that told him in no uncertain terms what the State Bars of three states told him—that his ethical level was unacceptable and we wanted no part of it. Given the claims in Vannier’s book about the details of his activities, it would be beyond an embarrassment for the Times to endorse him through its planned story, or worse, pretend that “Mr. Letterhead” is anything more than a willing participant in a charade. Regards, Karin Pouw cc: George Rahdert grahdert@rahdertlaw.com Gary Soter garysoter@garysoterlaw.com   CHURCH 9F IETERNATIONAL 1 July 2015 Joe Childs Tom Tobin Tampa Bay Times 490 First Avenue South St. Petersburg, Florida, 33701 Re: Your Sources for a Church of Scientology Story Dear Mr. Childs, In a letter to Ms. Pouw, you asked about a meeting I had years ago with Merrell Vannier where he claims I told him petitioning the Supreme Court to review his Florida disbarment would result in his being declared a Suppressive Person by the Church. Vannier?s recollections are wrong. As you and Mr. Tobin are well aware, Vannier was an unethical and dishonest attorney, disbarred by the state of Florida. His appeal to the Florida Supreme Court was resoundingly rejected. The grounds for disbarment were overwhelming by any standard; three different states have disbarred Vannier or initiated proceedings to disbar him. As the Florida Supreme Court stated in its ruling, Vannier?s actions were so serious that ?disbarment is the only remedy which will serve the public interest.? The Church?s leadership does not now and never have condoned the activities of Vannier and the Guardians Office (GO) those activities were not only illegal, but also in contravention of Scientology ethics and justice codes. The Times knows Mr. Miscavige is the one that cleaned out the GO more than 30 years ago. The Church simply does not condone criminal conduct, which is exactly what I conveyed to Vannier. As both a private citizen and a member of the Church, I believe he should have lost his license to practice law. Your reliance on Vannier for another attack story on the Church and its leadership amounts to nothing less than condoning the very activities exposed and condemned by the Church. Had I known of Vannier?s admissions in his recent self- published memoirs, wherein he provides further facts about his criminal conduct, unknown to the Church, at that time, it would have resulted in summary expulsion. I710 Ivar Avenue, Suite 1105, Los Angeles, California 90028 Phone: (323) 769-3073 Fax: (323) 769?3049 Vannier?s reprehensible past conduct should be enough to disqualify anyone as a reliable source. Moving to the present, however, it is clear that a tiger does not change his stripes. In 2011, a Church investigation found Vannier to be acting as a plant or an agent for individuals making up false stories about the Church. Based on this investigation, I saw Vannier in 2012 and offered him a chance to come clean and apply Scientology Ethics to his situation. He refused and he was expelled from the Church at that time in accordance with Church policy, but not before Vannier confirmed to me that he was acting in concert with Mike Rinder. The full extent of Vannier?s illicit activities is not known, however. Was Merrell Vannier also working for you while posing as a loyal member of the Church? Your distortion of the truth and unwarranted reliance on this unrepentant criminal and liar would lead me to believe the answer is yes. You, Tom Tobin and the Times have everything completely backwards and I can only conclude it must be intentional. The Times has no business questioning the Church?s manner of applying ecclesiastical justice to Vannier. The truth is Vannier never reformed, neither when he had the chance 30 years ago, nor any time since. He has repeatedly railed against the Church?s requirement of ethical conduct and has instead engaged in criminal activities, both per Scientology justice codes and per secular legal codes. The Church believes in the rule of law and upholds it; Vannier does not. We do not tolerate unethical attorneys and neither should the Times use them as a source. A cursory look at Merrell Vannier?s history reveals he is disreputable and unscrupulous. His ?participation? in the Church was destructive, similar to the conduct of the small group of disaffected former members you and Tobin continue to use as ?sources?. Your sources too were destructive, incapable of contributing to helping others and for that reason were expelled from the Church. Anyone who truly cares about improving society can see in an instant Scientology?s growth under the leadership of Mr. Miscavige and the good the Church is doing around the world. The fact you support and use someone like Merrell Vannier speaks volumes about your own level of ethics and integrity. The Church does not condone his activities, and never has. Si I nce* 1y, 2% Mike utter cc: Neil Brown Karin Pouw . 888 Seventeenth Street NW Suite 700 ZUCKERT OUTT Washington, DC 20006?3304 RASENBERGER Phone 202.298.8660 Fax 202.342.0683 DIRECT DIAL (202) 973-7928 MONIQUE E. YINGLING meyingling?zsrlaw.com July 2, 2015 VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS AND EMAIL Neil Brown Vice President and Editor Tampa Bay Times 490 First Avenue South Saint Petersburg, FL 33701 nbrown@tampabay.com Re: Jim Jackson Dear Mr. Brown: From the series of questionsJoe Childs and Tom Tobin posed to my client, the Church of Scientology International, it is apparent that the Times regards Jim Jackson as a credible source of information about the Church and its operations. Any such reliance is utterly unfounded and unwarranted, and I urge you to carefully consider the information below before permitting your writers to base a story on Mr. Jackson?s false and unsubstantiated allegations. Whatever his motivations (and the evidence strongly suggests he is acting as a knowing intermediary for disaffected former members and ?squirrels,? those who purposely distort Scientology?s teachings for their own personal reasons), Jim Jackson was never in a position to have knowledge about the Church?s corporate governance he claims to possess. While he did work for a brief period of time in 1992-1993 for the in?house counsel for the Church, he did not prepare by-laws, articles of incorporation or other documents relating to corporate governance. He did not advise the Church on such matters, he did not sit on any Church Board of Directors, and he never participated in any of the meaningful details of the Church?s exemption proceedings. I know this because I was then and remain today the Church?s primary tax and corporate counsel, and I never had any Zuckert, Scoutt 8c Rasenberger, L.L.P. ZUCKERT SCOUTT RASENBERGER Neil Brown, Tampa Bay Times July 2, 2015 Page 2 dealings with him on these questions. Jackson thus has no basis to claim any accurate knowledge of the Church?s corporate and tax affairs even during the brief period of time he worked for CSI, much less its corporate and tax affairs in the more than 20 years since he was dismissed from that post for severe ethical violations. was copied on all ofJackson?s so?called ?whistleblower? letters to the Church, beginning with his first in 2010. Based on my personal knowledge of Church operations and my representation of Church entities on these very legal issues, I found Jackson?s ?charges? to be entirely without merit and so advised the Church. As the Church pointed out to Messrs. Tobin and Childs in earlier correspondence, all religious denominations operating in America find it necessary to balance ecclesiastical governance with secular legal governance. The ecclesiastical authority vested in officials of a hierarchical church, like the Church of Scientology, operates in conjunction with legal authority rather than at odds with it. But this does not make irrelevant or illusory the separate legal authority and autonomy of subordinate church entities, nor does it mean that the separate Church entities do not maintain their corporate integrity. From my own experience representing the Church in its tax exemption proceedings with the IRS, I can personally affirm that corporate integrity was one of a number of significant legal issues the IRS carefully investigated before issuing the 1993 exemption rulings. The IRS would not have and legally could not have issued these rulings had it had any concern about corporate integrity, or had the IRS given any credence to the kinds of claims that Jackson complains about. To the contrary, snortiy'a'fter the exemption rulings were issued, IRS Exempt Organization officials specifically commended the Church for its extraordinary efforts in assuring corporate integrity and tax compliance and remarked that the Church could set the standard for other nonprofits. Again, from my own experience in representing the Church, I can personally affirm that corporate integrity has not weakened in any respect since the 1993 IRS rulings. I can further attest to corporate integrity as it pertains to Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), one of the Church entities about whom Jackson makes ZUCKERT SCOUTT RASENBERG ER Neil Brown, Tampa Bay Times July 2, 2015 Page 3 specious and uniformed allegations. As one of special directors, I am specifically charged with ensuring that CST continues to operate in compliance with all applicable tax exemption laws. Finally, I can confirm that Churches of Scientology continue to satisfy all relevant corporate laws from my regular dealings with the Church?s outside accountants, who annually provide unqualified opinions on the financial records of all major Church entities. The outside accountants undertake their own separate review of financial and management controls, including corporate integrity issues, as a regular part of their audits. I also observe that none of the parade of horribles Jackson predicted in his so-called whistleblower letters has come to pass. The claimants (like the Headleys and Garcia) whose civil lawsuits Jackson said would bankrupt the Church have resoundineg lost their claims in court; the Church continues to prosper and grow, despite Jackson's feigned gloom and doom. I am quite confident that the Church also will survive the Times? latest installment of bigotry as it has survived all the others. Indeed, the Church has not merely survived but has thrived. lam further confident that when the Times closes its doors, whether precipitated by a large defamation judgment as a result of its continuous false reporting or simply as another casualty of the ever changing economics of the newspaper industry, having lost its critical mass of subscribers and advertisers and extracted the last available penny from the tax- exempt Poynter Institute, the Church of Scientology will still be there serving its parishioners and the communities in which they live and work and helping to make this planet a better place for all mankind. Sincerely, Monique E. Yingling CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL July 16, 2015 Tom Tobin Tampa Bay Times 490 First Ave. S. St. Petersburg, Fl. 33603 tobin@tampabav.com Dear Mr. Tobin: I was under the apparently mistaken impression that Joe Childs had retired as part of the downsizing of the Tampa Bay Times. I see now that he continues to represent that he is working for the Times as he searches in vain to ?nd someone, anyone, to support his latest ridiculous story from his unreliable anti-Scientology sources. I note that Childs is engaging in this activity months after I responded to your April inquiry. As I have heard nothing further from you, I can only conclude that the Times is once again ignoring the information I provided pursuant to its philosophy of printing the story it wants to tell rather than anything resembling the truth. I understand you and Joe are relying on Jim Jackson and Merrell Vannier as the primary sources for your latest hatchet job, along with the usual assortment of members of the self-named posse of anti-Scientologists shopped to you by Mike Rinder. That reliance in itself constitutes a willful violation of the Times own journalistic code of ethics. See The New Ethics of Journalism, Kelly McBride and Tom Rosenstiel, CQ Press, 2014 (Poynter Institute) as taught at the Columbia Journalism School: . Seek truth and report it as fully as possible. Be vigorous in your pursuit of Be transparent. Show how the reporting was done and why people should believe it. Explain your sources, evidence and the choices you made. Reveal what you cannot know. Make intellectual honesty your guide and humility (rather than false omniscience) your asset. Acknowledge mistakes and errors, correct them quickly and in a way that encourages people who consumed the faulty information to know the truth. (pgs. 2-3) 6331 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 1200, Los Angeles?,C?A, 90028-6329 Phone: (323) 960-3500 0 Fax: (323) 960?3508/09 Tampa Bay Times 2 July 16, 2015 While it is perfectly clear that the Times steadfastly refuses to acknowledge its mistakes, perhaps you should reconsider in light of these facts regarding your sources: Mr. Jackson has admitted to severe memory issues and to the fact that he forgets names, dates, facts and whole conversations. Those who know him say he suffers from the onset of Dementia or Alzheimer?s. Given this state of affairs, the Times must seriously question the recitations in Jackson?s letters, the letters Mr. Childs appears so infatuated with. As I advised previously, those letters contain numerous gross errors and conclusions which uniformly did not come to fruition. And while Jim Jackson is violating his oath of loyalty as a lawyer who formerly represented the Church (and for which a bar complaint has been lodged), it is you and Childs who are facilitating Jackson?s ethical violations and factual distortions by giving him a forum to air accusations you know to be false. As to Jackson?s accomplice and ghost writer, Merrell Vannier, he is even worse: a disbarred attorney with a mile-long record of bias against the Church who should not be relied upon at all by any respectable journalist. We have information that despite being disbarred Vannier continues to perform legal services and has promoted himself as a practicing attorney. The Times continues to side with discredited and dishonest people in its anti-Scientology zealotry. We advised you in 2009 that the sources you relied on were biased against the Church and were not interested in Scientology?s well-being, despite their statements to the contrary. Their so-called ?Independent movement? crashed and burned and all of your primary sources now publicly declare themselves to be vehemently anti-Scientology and anti?L. Ron Hubbard?the very opposite of their claims believed by and published by the Times in 2009. And while your paper continues chasing false stories, the Church?s growth is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. Surely you know Mr. Miscavige commemorated the opening of the new Scientology Information Center in the Clearwater Bank Building this past Saturday, July 11th, with some 4,000 on hand for the celebration. And surely you know of the Church?s continuing contribution to downtown Clearwater with the opening of new homes for Church-sponsored humanitarian programs to provide valuable community assistance to all citizens of Clearwater and the greater Tampa Bay area. And while your unrelenting bias has kept you away, this is yet ?lrther proof your entire story?indeed the series of stories you have been reporting for more than ?ve years?are wrong-headed in the extreme. The Church is doing exactly what it has always said it would be doing: serving its parishioners and the surrounding communities to accomplish our aims of a world without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights. Tampa Bay Times 3 July 16, 2015 Recent growth just since you have been working on your Jim Jackson story speaks for itself: 0 The new home of the Church?s Volunteer Ministers, part of a global movement of Scientology volunteers active in 120 nations, including the Tampa Bay area The establishment of a new An Industry of Death museum and center for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights iseavinefclcaru-?ater-c A new center for United for Human Rights, the Church-sponsored education initiative working to protect the rights of citizens around the world - A new center for the Foundation for a Drig-Free World Foundation for a Drug- Free World which has reached more than 200 million with its no-drugs message (1m 1) icnlol 051v .ol'ufi'lilv id-m iscm' i acre lenrwaler-rlrug- openinahtml); I A building dedicated to The Way to Happiness, the nonreligious moral code published in more than 100 languages and whose volunteers work to improve communities ravaged by violence or other strife by providing a much needed moral compass hl .uruhlmid-m iscav - I A new Criminon Florida of?ce to address Florida?s recidivism issue by restoring offenders? self-respect through effective character-building mun-center- The Osceola Courtyard, a green space beautifying the corner of Fort Harrison Avenue and Drew Street; 0 The Opening of the ?rst Ideal Church Organization in South America, in Bogota, Colombia with 2,500 Scientologists in attendance, as well as a host of Colombian of?cials; The 27th Anniversary of the maiden voyage of the reewinds religious retreat in the Caribbean, including recognitions from of?cials of the Ministry of Justice in Curacao commending the Church?s work through the Truth About Drugs initiative among many other recognitions; and, The Opening of the ?rst Ideal Church Organization in Basel, Switzerland. All of this information, ignored by the Times, is available at and completely contradicts the wild and false allegations of your sources. Tampa Bay Times 4 July 16, 2015 If the Times really wants to talk about corporate and ?nancial issues, perhaps we should discuss its own circumstances. The Times is ostensibly owned by a non-pro?t entity, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Both the newspaper and Poynter are controlled by Paul Tash and Times executives for years have acknowledged that the real purpose of the institute is not education but to keep control of the newspaper in the hands of one man. Publicly available documents about the Times and its relationship to its non-pro?t owner, Poynter Institute, suggest that Poynter: 0 Made direct, substantial loans to its for-pro?t subsidiary; 0 Guaranteed loans made to its for-pro?t subsidiary; Mortgaged its assets to secure repayment of loans made to its for-pro?t subsidiary; and, 0 Used its assets (including tax-exempt grants and contributions) and services to bene?t the commercial activities of its for-pro?t subsidiaries. How does the Times respond? After 40 years of dogmatic attacks by your paper, I say enough is enough. It is time for Joe Childs to be put out to pasture and for you and the Times to move on. Regards, 1 n/ ?Karin Pouw cc: George Rahdert Neil Brown ` CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATI ONAL July 23, 2015 Joe Childs c/o Tom Tobin Tampa Bay Times tobin@tampabay.com Dear Mr. Childs: I was stunned by your letter of July 20. I do not understand your role with the Times, or the capacity in which you are writing. We understood you had retired and given you are directing me not to the Times but to your personal G-Mail account, I have chosen to respond c/o Tom Tobin, while you clarify why it is you are asking these questions. We see that your retirement has not blunted your obsession with all things antiScientology. I am very surprised you have asked these questions about Jim Jackson’s mental state. As anyone—particularly an “investigative reporter”—could tell by spending just 30 minutes with Mr. Jackson, his mental capacity is beyond questionable. Make an inquiry yourself. And further, have you not noticed in your five-year association with this small group of anti-Scientologists that all they can do is chatter? They do not do anything to help people and they do not work, but they sure talk a lot. Suffice it to say that we are confident that the people who told us about Jim Jackson’s diminished mental capacity are reliable and have no agenda. The complaint against Jim Jackson was filed with the California State Bar. As for filing similar bar complaints in the other jurisdictions you mentioned, thank you for your suggestion. We will consult with counsel. Regards, Karin Pouw cc: Neil Brown, Tampa Bay Times editor and vice president nbrown@tampabay.com ___________________________________________________________ 6331 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 1200, Los Angeles, CA, 90028-6329 Phone: (323) 960-3500 ● Fax: (323) 960-3508/09 888 Seventeenth Street Suite 700 ZUCKERT SCOUTT Washington. DC 20006-3304 RAS ENBERG ER Phone 202.298.8660 Fax 202.342.0683 vvww.zsrla\v.c0m MONIQUE E. YING LING DIRECT DIAL (202) 973-7928 meyingling?zsrlaw.com August 27, 2015 VIA EMAIL and FEDERAL EXPRESS Neil Brown Vice President and Editor Tampa Bay Times 490 First Avenue South St. Petersburg, Florida 33701 Re: Upcoming Tampa Bay Times Article Regarding the Church of Scientology Dear Mr. Brown: I previously wrote to you in early July expressing concern that the Tampa Bay Times would regard Jim Jackson as a credible source of information about the Church of Scientology and its operations. I have yet to have the courtesy of a reply, but HOLD THE I understand now that in a stunning display ofjournalistic acumen, the Times? intrepid team led by Joe Childs and Tom Tobin has made a startling discovery, right up there with water being wet and the sun rising in the east: David Miscavige, the senior ecclesiastical leader of a hierarchical religious denomination, the Church of Scientology, actually leads the Church! In the latest installment of its 40-year effort to bring down the Church and its leaders, the Times appears poised to go to press with the specious assertions ofJim Jackson and Merrell Vannier, invoking the mantra of ?corporate integrity" to claim that David Miscavige controls the Church he leads in violation of applicable corporate laws and contrary to the conditions and expectations of the IRS in recognizing the Church as tax?exempt. Both Zuckert. Scout: 8: L.L.P ZUCKERT SCOUTT RAs ENBERG ER Neil Brown, Tampa Bay Times August 27, 2015 Page 2 the Church and I have previously communicated with the Times about the fundamental unreliability of these so?called informants and the fallacy of their claims. Let me try once more to clarify things for you. Neither Jackson nor Vannier was ever in a position to acquire the knowledge he purports to possess. More than 20 years ago, Jackson was briefly an in-house attorney with Church of Scientology lnternational?s (CSl?s) legal affairs department, Vannier with CSl?s predecessor more than 30 years ago. While Jackson?s work exposed him to client confidences, neither he nor Vannier were involved to the extent Jackson claims with Church corporate or tax affairs. Neither was involved in the 1981 corporate reorganization that resulted in the Church?s current corporate structure. Most importantly, neither was involved to any extent in the long and vigorous examination that led to the 1993 IRS rulings recognizing as tax exempt the various legal entities resulting from that 1981 reorganization and other entities that collectively make up the Church of Scientology. Jackson?s utter ignorance is exemplified by his continuing assertion that Church of Spiritual Technology was supposed to be the highest ecclesiastical body in the Scientology religion. In fact, as made clear by very first submission to the IRS in 1983, in public court pleadings between 1987 and 1993 and in various public statements to Church parishioners, CST was specifically intended to have no part in the Scientology ecclesiastical hierarchy or the day to day management and governance of the Church. To the contrary, CST was specifically intended to stand outside of and apart from Church management to attend to its essential role the preservation of Scientology scripture through various long-term media in secure underground facilities so that the teachings of Scientology remain available to humankind irrespective of what kinds of catastrophes human civilizations might suffer. And it was in order to fund this essential mission that Mr. Hubbard bequeathed the vast majority of his wealth to CST following his death in 1986. Indeed, the Church has recently distributed to its parishioners an updated briefing about CST and the preservation of the religious ZUCKERT SCOUTT RASENBERGER Neil Brown, Tampa Bay Times August 27, 2015 Page 4 In some religious denominations, those that are congregational in character, their own internal rules their constitutions, charters, bylaws, whatever often do provide some aspects of the kind of local review and accountability for which Jackson and Vannier purport to advocate. Scientology, however, is a strictly hierarchical denomination with none of these kinds of internal governance features. Moreover, as individuals who were Church members for a long period of time, Jackson and Vannier know this full well, which only underscores their mendacity and insincerity and further demonstrates why they are not credible informants. Moreover, even in congregational denominations the kinds of procedures for which Jackson and Vannier purport to advocate are purely internal to those churches. Court decisions going back more than 100 years make clear that the First Amendment Religion Clauses remove all matters of church membership and governance from the purview of the civil law. The City of Clearwater learned this lesson the hard way when the court struck down its ill-advised and facially discriminatory ordinances passed shortly after the Church?s arrival. Yes, David Miscavige is the leader of the Church of Scientology, and for many good reasons. At a very young age, Mr. Miscavige, acting on behalf of and at the instruction of Mr. Hubbard, led an internal investigation to root out corruption in Church management centered in the misconduct of the so- called Guardian?s Office, corruption for which Vannier, as part of the Guardian?s Office, bore personal responsibility. Mr. Hubbard then entrusted Mr. Miscavige with the task of designing and implementing a new corporate structure, one that would both remedy and prevent the past problems and be in a position to properly govern the Church after Mr. Hubbard was no longer around to influence the process. And Mr. Miscavige is the one who Mr. Hubbard designated to be the Church?s senior leader. He has proven worthy of that trust, implementing the desired corporate reorganization, securing IRS recognition of tax exemption and presiding over almost 30 years of unprecedented growth and success for the Church, including the explosive '7 ZUCKERT SCOUTT RASENBERGER Neil Brown, Tampa Bay Times August 27, 2015 Page 3 technology, which would be a much more newsworthy and, indeed, much more interesting story, than the Times? upcoming nonsense. More importantly, what Jackson and Vannier purport to regard as proper corporate integrity involves frivolous expectations of independence and autonomy far beyond what the law or the IRS require, expectations that no large corporate organization secular or religious, taxable or tax exempt could possibly meet. In reality, "corporate integrity? simply means that corporations conduct themselves in accordance with applicable corporate laws and with their internal bylaws, which they have properly constituted boards of directors who collectively approve major corporate actions, and that they otherwise act on a day-to-day basis through properly appointed officers. This is what the IRS looked for and all the IRS looked for and what it found when it reviewed the Church?s tax-exemption applications. This is what I, as the Church?s primary outside tax and corporate counsel, have worked to help ensure, beginning well before the 1993 exemption rulings. And this is what the Church?s outside accountants have had to assure themselves of annually for the past two decades in the course of preparing the audited financial statements of the Church. In every religious denomination, congregational as well as hierarchical, local church organizations act through their own officials - clergy, directors, officers, trustees, deacons, vestry or whatever other internal titles their denominations use. These local officials nonetheless are bound by whatever form of ecclesiastical guidance and discipline their respective denominations require. In hierarchical denominations like Scientology these rules and relationships are more strictly defined and more rigorously enforced than in congregational denominations. For example, is there any real doubt what would happen to a Catholic priest or Mormon ward that chose to defy the Pope or the Prophet, Seer and Revelator of the Mormon Church? This kind of ecclesiastical accountability, however, does not mean that local church organizations fail the legal and tax requirements of corporate integrity due to a lack of autonomy or independence. 7 ZUCKERT SCOUTT 1. RASENBERGER Neil Brown, Tampa Bay Times August 27, 2015 Page 5 expansion of the last decade. In the course of leading the Church, Mr. Miscavige works to help communities far and wide through Church sponsored humanitarian programs; he meets with city mayors and heads of charities, religious leaders and scholars. While opening the new Ideal Church in Tokyo earlier this month, he met with Members of Parliament and shortly before that with government officials in Colombia. Yes, it is true, Mr. Miscavige indeed leads the Church of Scientology and in doing so he is fulfilling the trust placed in him by Mr. Hubbard. Yet Jackson, who was never in a position to have any clue about Mr. Hubbard?s desires, and Vannier, who was personally culpable for some of the mess that Mr. Miscavige had to clean up, have the audacity, the temerity, the sheer gall to claim that Mr. Miscavige is acting contrary to Mr. Hubbard?s wishes? And the Times by all accounts remains prepared to give these miscreants a public soapbox. As long as parishioners of any church remain receptive to and satisfied with the spiritual message they receive and the spiritual comfort they find through their membership, those churches will continue to exist and thrive whether the Times likes it or not. Clearly, this describes the Church of Scientology. People like Jackson and Vannier, who lost their membership because they would not abide by the rules of ethics and conduct their faith demanded are the least reliable persons to listen to when claiming that Scientology membership is falling or criticizing the Church for the money it spends on new Church buildings. Every penny that was spent on the new Flag Building in Clearwater and on the more than 40 new Ideal Org Church buildings around the world, for example, has come from voluntary donations from Church parishioners specifically for these projects. Yet, according to the Times, Jim Jackson and Merrell Vannier know better than all of the satisfied and joyous parishioners who continue to support their Church. A common definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing while expecting a different result. Are not more than ten separate editorials ZUCKERT SCOUTT RAS ENBERGER Neil Brown, Tampa Bay Times August 27, 2015 Page 6 advocating that the IRS revoke the Church?s tax-exempt status1 more than just a little obsessive? After 40 years of uncalled for venom and bile, is it not long past time for a different approach? Perhaps a story about the recent opening of the new buildings to house the Church?s social betterment activities in Clearwater or maybe a story about CST's state of the art archival technologies, the ones that archivists from around the world flock to study and emulate? Sincerely, Monique E. 1 ?Scientology Tax Exempt Status Should be Reviewed," 21 Nov. 2011, p. "The Abuse Behind Scientology?s Facade,? 24 June 2009, p. Church Accounting,? 12 Nov. 2007, p. "lRS?s ?chosen people,? 25 March 2004, p. "Sellout to Scientology,? 6 Jan. 1998, p. 8; "No Questions for the 21 Mar. 1997, p. "lntimidating the 11 Mar. 1997, p. "Tax Fairness and Scientology,? 28 Ja. 1994, p. "Exempted, not Vindicated,? 21 Nov. 1993, p. 2; "Scientology's 'charity,?? 15 Oct. 1993, p. 16; "Exemption, redemption,? 14 Oct. 1993, p. 15A.