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us 12
---
title: "Understanding Scientology — us-12"
source: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/wakefield/us-12.html
retrieved: 2026-06-28
---
Understanding Scientology, by Margery
Wakefield
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Chapter 12
## OSA (Office of Special Affairs) -- The Secret CIA of
Scientology
Remember one thing, we are not running a business, we are
running a government. We are in direct control of people's lives.
-- L. Ron Hubbard, Policy letter of 5 August 1959
By the mid-1960s, Scientology was a religion under siege. In the
U.S., the Church had been raided by the F.D.A. In England, Scientology
was being investigated by Parliament and St. Hill students lived in
danger of being deported. The Australian Inquiry was underway and there
were tremors from South Africa. Hubbard had been deported from Rhodesia
and was under constant F.B.I. surveillance at St. Hill.
Predisposed to paranoia, Hubbard was not one to remain on the
defensive for long. "Don't ever defend, always attack," he wrote. "If
attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any
organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to
cause them to sue for peace...." (1)
Evidence of the war mentality promoted by Hubbard and highly
contagious within Scientology is a policy written by Hubbard called
The War, in which he announced:
You may not realize it ... but there is only one small group that
has hammered Dianetics and Scientology for eighteen years. The press
attacks, the public upsets you receive ... were generated by this one
group. Last year we isolated a dozen men at the top. This year we found
the organization these used and all its connections over the world....
(2)
Hubbard claimed that a group of twelve men associated with the World
Bank had set up psychiatry and the mental health movement as a vehicle
to undermine and destroy the West. And this twelve-man conspiracy was
the real source of all opposition to Scientology.
In February of 1966, Lord Balniel of the English House of Commons
called for an investigation into Scientology. Hubbard responded by
setting up the Public Investigation Section at St. Hill for the purposes
of "helping LRH (Hubbard) investigate public matters and individuals
which seem to impede human liberty," and to "furnish intelligence." (3)
By the late 60s, the Public Investigation Section had evolved into
the "Guardian's Office," a separate and unique agency within Scientology
which became Hubbard's private intelligence bureau, a private CIA within
the "Church."
Hubbard appointed his wife, Mary Sue, as "Comptroller" or head of
the newly formed Guardian's Office, which was headquartered at St. Hill.
The Guardian's Office had six bureaus:
- Legal, which handled litigation involving Scientology;
- Public Relations, and media relations;
- Information, including the controversial Overt and Covert Data
Collection and Operations Sections;
- Social Coordination, establishing the many Scientology "front
organizations";
- Service, for training G.O. staff members; and
- Finance.
Branch One of the Information Bureau, called "B-1," was the real
nerve center of the G.O., where files were maintained on all
Scientologists, as well as on every perceived "enemy" of the
organization.
Illegal as well as legal means of obtaining information were
sanctioned. In a Scientology policy called Re: Intelligence, the
following are given as possibilities for collecting data:
- INFILTRATION
- BRIBERY
- BUYING INFORMATION
- ROBBERY
- BLACKMAIL
In discussing the criminal policies of the Guardian's Office, it is
important to remember the frame of reference from which Scientologists
operate and from which these policies were conceived.
From a Scientology perspective, the world is in great danger of
nuclear extinction, and Scientology exists as the only deterrent to this
terrible inevitability.
To a Scientologist, Scientology is the elite organization on this
planet, superior to all other earth organizations. The Scientology
system of ethics, based on the "greatest good for the greatest number of
dynamics," is therefore superior to any system of "wog" law.
Transgressions of "wog" law necessary to further the ends of
Scientology are sanctioned on the basis of the "greatest good." In this
way, lying, stealing, burgling and a host of other crimes become
justified as means to the end of saving mankind.
Shielded by this philosophy, Scientologists have, over the years,
been involved in a staggering array of crimes most unbecoming to members
of a church.
It is a fact that Scientologists, particularly members of the G.O.,
are trained to lie. In a policy called Intelligence Specialist
Training Routine -- TR-L (which stands for Training Routine Lie),
the student is trained "to outflow false data effectively."
In the drill, the student has to tell a lie, which is then
challenged by a coach, who works with the student until the student
becomes able to "lie facily."
The ability to lie convincingly is used by the Scientologist in a