by Tony Ortega
After passing that test, she was assigned to serve directly under Hubbard as one of his “messengers.” Like the other young girls in the job, she was taught to carry Hubbard’s instructions to others on the ship, running as quickly as she could, and deliver his words with the same tone that Hubbard had used.
Messengers also took care of his most immediate needs, including preparing his showers, washing his clothes, lighting his cigarettes, and getting him dressed. And Hubbard was very particular: he hated any scent of soap in his clothes, and wanted his shirts rinsed 13 times to get any smell out of them. If he did smell something, he would explode at the young girls serving him.
Tonja’s duties included running messages from Hubbard to telex operators on the ship that kept the Apollo in contact with the rest of the Scientology world.
In a cabin below Hubbard’s, there was a man whose title was “Snow White” who was busy with a large operation. He had a message board that was covered with papers. Some were pinned with small flags that read “In Progress” or “Done.” Whatever was being directed in that cabin, it was obvious to Tonja that it was just another project being done to Hubbard’s specifications.
More surprising for Tonja was to see that on a bookshelf in the ship’s lounge, there was a copy of a paperback with the name The Scandal of Scientology. And later, she heard Hubbard say something about its author, Paulette Cooper.
The incident happened just outside his cabin, and he sounded angry and frustrated. As a messenger, Tonja was trained to respond to such a situation right away. She went to Hubbard to see if there was anything she could do. She got there in time to see him throw something down on a desk as he exploded, “That bitch, Paulette Cooper!”
By this time, in 1975, Hubbard was preparing to end his years at sea running Scientology from the Apollo. He had first tried to make land in the US in 1974, but he was tipped off that federal agents had been waiting for the ship in Charleston, South Carolina. So the armada had spent another year at sea, wandering the Caribbean, and now, Hubbard was determined to set anchor.
In October, the ship was docked in the Bahamas, and the crew scattered—some to New York, some to Washington D.C., and Hubbard, with Tonja and others in tow, flew to Orlando and then drove to Daytona, Florida as preparations were underway for their real target: taking over much of the gulf coast town of Clearwater.
Tonja and the other messengers were moved to another motel near Clearwater in the town of Dunedin, Florida, and the telexes were set up. She was still carrying messages back and forth from Hubbard to the rest of the Scientology world. And now, early in 1976, Hubbard was beginning to ask increasingly for one file in particular.
It was called Operation Freakout.
12
Operation Freakout
Jane Kember was losing patience with Paulette Cooper. The woman who headed up the worldwide Guardian’s Office for Mary Sue Hubbard was used to getting her way. In one note to her underlings, she told them to make sure that any attacks on Scientology, no matter where they occurred, were “reported and handled properly, or both CSG [the ‘Commodore’s Staff Guardian,’ Mary Sue Hubbard] and I will have your heads for breakfast.” And she signed it, “Love, Jane.”
In the spring of 1976, Kember was getting increasingly impatient that Paulette had not yet been silenced and was continuing to help Scientology’s perceived enemies, especially the press. The church had won a small judgment against Paulette in Toronto when she failed to respond to a lawsuit she hadn’t even realized had been filed against her. Kember wanted the Guardian’s Office to use it as leverage against the author.
“Have her lawyer contacted and also arrange for PC [Paulette Cooper] to get the data that we can slap the writs on her,” Kember wrote to her deputy, Henning Heldt, the GO’s top man in the US on March 31, 1976. “If you want legal docs, from here on we will provide. Then if she declines to come we slap the writs on her before she reaches CW [Clearwater, Florida] as we don’t want to be seen publically being brutal to such a pathetic victim from a concentration camp.”
Kember worried that Paulette would begin to lead criticism of Scientology after its 1975 program to take over Clearwater had been exposed. She wanted Heldt to find a way to leverage the Toronto judgment to handcuff Paulette before she did damage in Florida.
And Jane Kember wasn’t the only one who was fed up with Paulette and the threat she posed, especially now that Scientology’s founder had landed back in the United States for good. The day after Kember wrote her note to Heldt, on April 1, the Guardian’s Office began to spell out the aims and logistics for a complex and audacious plot aimed to destroy Paulette.
Everything they had tried against her had failed to stop her. Having her arrested. Spreading spurious slander about her sexual history. Filing multiple lawsuits against her written works. Posing as close friends to get intimate information about her plans. Breaking into her college psychiatrist’s office to obtain her records. Tapping her phone. Obscene phone calls and pornography mailed to her. Even trying to compromise her father’s business. Nothing had worked. Paulette was still corresponding with people about Scientology, still helping other journalists, still trading information with Nan McLean. Still talking to law enforcement or anyone else who might take on the organization.
L. Ron Hubbard was trying to re-establish himself and his management of Scientology in the United States. And it was in the U.S that he had been unable to neutralize Scientology’s single biggest enemy. It made his blood boil. Hubbard wanted, once and for all, to destroy this petite brunette living in New York by hitting her with a multi-pronged assault that had been dubbed Operation Freakout.
The operation was spelled out in six pages, written by Guardian’s Office national operations chief Bruce Raymond (whose real name was Randy Windment) to the North East Sector chief, Dick Weigand, with the local Assistant Guardian of Information in New York making sure things got done. The plan began with its overall goal: “MAJOT [sic] TARGET: To get P.C. incarcerated in a mental institution or jail, or at least to hit her so hard that she drops her attacks.”
In order to accomplish that result, the highest levels of the Guardian’s Office spy bureau, B-I, would coordinate with other national Scientology officials to pull off several consecutive capers intended to make it look like Paulette was losing her mind and had become a danger to herself and the public.
Raymond wrote that the FBI might buy into the subterfuge because it still had lingering doubts about her from the 1972 letters: “The FBI already think she really did do the bomb threats on the C[hurch] of S[cientology].”
To set up the operation, several things had to be put into place first. Job one was to find a double for Paulette. Several other “field staff members” (FSMs) would also be recruited. Like Len Zinberg or Sylvia Seplowitz in previous years, these were typically local workers at the org who were recruited for a specific task. The Guardian’s Office was careful never to tell an FSM anything beyond what was needed for his or her particular role – the “need to know” basis of all intelligence operations.
In this case, one FSM was needed for a crucial phone call, another couple were needed to befriend Paulette to find out something about the clothes she wore or even to obtain an article of her clothing. The document recommended that a “cheap coat” resembling something Paulette would wear should be acquired.
One of them would attempt to get close to Paulette through Transcendental Meditation. Paulette had gone to only a single meeting of the group, paying $75 so she could obtain her mantra. Although her participation was transitory, the Guardian’s Office seemed to think she was still actively involved, and could be approached through it.
In order to get their double looking as much like the real thing as possible, the planning document asked if Paulette still had streaked hair and if she was still “skinney.” It would be a volunteer’s job to find out.
Another would search Paulette’s neighborhood for a laundry that she didn’t actually patronize—per
haps by staking it out over time and making sure Paulette didn’t go there. Also, the woman posing as Paulette had to be ready to change into her disguise on a moment’s notice, so she had to carry around her Paulette clothes and her Paulette wig.
Operation Freakout was divided into several different “channels,” and each was planned to occur at a set time after the previous one had been achieved. Things would kick off with a telephone call to Paulette on a day during the work week to determine if she was home alone. If she was, then the operation would begin. An FSM who sounded like Paulette would then call two New York consulates for Arabic countries.
“The call should be fast, to the point, and impinge,” the planning document said, using a Scientology word for “have impact.”
The caller would then follow this script: “I just came back from Israel (pronounce the way it is pronounced in Israel). I’ve seen what you fucking bastards do. At least you’re not going to kill my sister. I can get away with anything. I’m going to bomb you bastards.”
Then the FSM was supposed to swear or mumble something in “Jewish.” (Meaning Hebrew, presumably.)
The reference to Paulette’s sister Suzy was deliberate. Suzy had been living in Israel since marrying an Israeli man in Belgium, and Paulette had been to Israel recently on a travel writing assignment.
On its own, this first caper was not designed to produce much of an effect. But Operation Freakout was carefully laying down a pattern for law enforcement agents to piece together and convince them that Paulette was coming undone.
The next day, the second phase of the operation would begin.
At a location away from the Scientology org, an operative codenamed “Max” (whose real name was Charles Batdorf) would construct an anonymous note of the stereotypical sort, with capital letters cut out of magazines and pasted on a sheet of paper.
But not just any magazines. The instructions were quite specific: the letters should be cut out of a copy of Writer’s Digest and an issue of the latest promotional newsletter from Transcendental Meditation. For the sheet itself, Max was supposed to look for a mostly blank page from Writer’s Digest, and cross out in pen any printing on it.
When the letters were pasted into place on the page, they should make the following message:
“ALL OF YOU ARE DESTROYING ISRAEL. YOU’RE JUST LIKE THEM. MY SISTER LIVED, YOU BASTARDS. I WAS THERE – I SAW THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE. NOBODY CAN TOUCH ME. I’M GOING TO KILL YOU BASTARDS. I AM GOING TO BOMB YOU. KISSINGER IS A TRAITOR. I’LL BOMB HIM, TOO. IT MAKES ME VERY SICK. I MUST MEDITATE. YOU ARE SPYING ON ME EVEN IN ISRAEL. YOUR DAY WILL COME SOON. I’LL EXPOSE YOU AND BOMB YOU.”
After deciding which Arab country was most virulently anti-Israel, Max would get the address of its New York consulate from the library, and then use another set of capital letters to address an envelope, being careful not to leave any fingerprints. The note would then be posted from a mailbox closest to Paulette’s Churchill building apartment. If in the process of making the note Max had any suspicion that he had left a fingerprint, he was to throw everything away and start over again. And strict secrecy was crucial: No one but Max could know what he was doing, not even the org’s PR officer or “communicator legal.”
A week would then go by before the third part of the operation would begin. This part required the most coordination by multiple agents. One of them, who had befriended Paulette, would call her and set up a meeting at a time when the targeted laundry was open. The “friend” would try to get Paulette to a restaurant or bar with the purpose of getting her drunk. Another operative, staking out the Churchill, would immediately report what Paulette was wearing as she left the building to attend the meeting. Then, Paulette’s double would rapidly change into similar clothes.
“If Paulette has on blue jeans, change to blue jeans. If she has on her usual coat, put that on...Several different outfits should have been obtained by [Paulette’s double] so that when the caper goes down, she can immediately change into the color or type of outfit that Paulette has on.”
From the time Paulette left her building and was spotted by the stakeout agent, the double was told to change her outfit in only three minutes. With Paulette on her way to have drinks with her “friend,” the double, wearing sunglasses, would go into the laundry that had been chosen, and say that she was Paulette Cooper of 300 E. 40th Street, apartment 3H, waiting for the person behind the counter to write down the information on an invoice.
“Do I have any clothes here?”
When the laundry worker said no, the double would then demand that he check his records. When he said no again, she would then scream: “You’re crazy! My name is Paulette Cooper! Check again!”
After the clerk reacted again, the double then “goes PTS 3,” which was Scientology jargon for a psychotic episode.
“You’re one of them! I’ll kill you! You’re a dirty Arab. You fucking bastards! I’ll bomb you. I’ll bomb the Arabs. I’ll bomb the president! I’ll kill that traitor Kissinger! You’re all against me.”
The double would then leave an item of clothing that had been obtained from Paulette’s apartment, putting it on the counter or dropping it on the floor as she quickly left the laundry to a waiting car outside. In the car, she would immediately take off her wig and change her clothes.
By then, the staff member who had been staking out the laundry—a person not only in some sort of disguise, but also someone who didn’t work at the Scientology org at the Hotel Martinique—should be walking up to the shop counter. He would ask an innocuous question (“Do you do suede cleaning?”) and then say, as casually as possible, “Boy, was she crazy! I think you should call the police, with all these nuts threatening to kill the president.”
Then he would leave, walk about five blocks, and make a call to the FBI from a prearranged location. Disguising his voice, he would quickly describe his reason for calling: “I don’t want to get involved, and I don’t want to give my name, but some nut girl in a laundry just went crazy and threatened to bomb the place and kill the president. With all these nuts running around I thought you should know. The guy in the laundry heard her too.”
Before he could be questioned, he would hang up and leave the area as quickly as possible. He would not be told that the call was being recorded by the Guardian’s Office.
The GO volunteers were routinely kept in the dark about what the others were doing. The agents who had been told to befriend Paulette and possibly obtain an article of clothing, for example, would not be told anything about the laundry scene. But they would be asked for any statements Paulette might make in the days after the caper, “for use in other actions.”
Ten days after the laundry scheme, if nothing had happened to Paulette, it was time for the next step. A female staffer would call “the Arab Consulate”—presumably the New York consulate of the same Arabic country that had been called earlier—and, covering the telephone receiver with a thin piece of paper to disguise her voice, would ask for the “press attaché” and then say the following (while, unknown to her, the call was being recorded by the Guardian’s Office): “I just want to tell you there is someone—a writer—by the name of Paulette Cooper, who recently came back from Israel. She works for Israel Intelligence. She’s also insane. She was in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. She’s been seeing a psychiatrist for years. Her sister is also with Israel Intelligence and lives in Israel. She talks when she is high on drugs or drunk. Lately she’s been talking about bombing your embassy. I hate the damn Jew.”
The staffer would then hang up and get away from her location quickly.
Finally, there was an additional “channel” rounding out Operation Freakout that was aimed to, once again, surreptitiously obtain Paulette’s fingerprint on a piece of paper.
One of the staffers who had befriended her was instructed to take her out to get her drunk. At that point, a male staff member acting drunk would approach them, bearing a joke typed out on a piece of paper and backed with a blank sheet. Th
e operative with Paulette would be careful not to touch the papers, but would laugh at the joke, hoping for Paulette to pick up the papers to read the joke for herself.
Then the “drunk” jokester would pick up the papers, being careful not to touch the blank sheet which now had Paulette’s fingerprint on it. In the bathroom, he would carefully fold the sheets so the blank paper was inside, preserving the fingerprint. Then he’d put the sheets into his wallet.
“Drunk is always acting the fool. Drunk leaves,” the planning document said.
He would then take the sheets to the Assistant Guardian of Information, who would then put the sheet with Paulette’s fingerprint into a typewriter and hammer out the following message...
“You are a traitor to your people YOU BASTERD. I’ve been there and seen what you have done. You’re ONE OF them. I’M GOINg To KILL you I’m going to BOMb YOU. I have a connection. NObody Can touch Me. You arre a German Pig. You Should be in THe Concentration CAMPs. I Feel so Ill Because OF YOu And YOu GodDam PIGs. YoU Die SOOn. It IS a Phalic SYMbol. I ThinK TrAnsFeranCe. EPidus The BOMB Is SET TO gO. MY Sister ISREAL. THey Are Responsible. They Persecute Me I WILL Kill THem AND YOU. YOU are All Against ME. The Arabs”
The letter would be posted from the mail box closest to Paulette’s apartment at the Churchill to Henry Kissinger in Washington.
(Why Kissinger? Perhaps because in 1974 the Secretary of State had sent a negative message about Scientology to American embassies in the Caribbean. At the time, Hubbard and his small armada of ships were there, waiting for an opportunity to return to the US.)
Hubbard wanted Operation Freakout to be launched as quickly as possible. In his own handwriting, he scrawled across the top of the planning document “‘A’ Operation” and the word “Rush” or “Push” and “Hand Route.” He also wrote some words across the top of another page: “Op. Freakout 2” and “No Prints!!!!”
