Marty Rathbun – Damned in His Own Words

“Many antisocial persons will freely confess to the most alarming crimes when forced to do so, but will have no faintest sense of responsibility for them.”—L. Ron Hubbard

Throughout the rather revealing new issue of Freedom Magazine, Marty Rathbun, Mike Rinder and Tom DeVocht have been laid bare—their crimes revealed, their malfeasance disclosed and their stories exposed for the lies that they are.

In that regard, the liar’s game is over and all that remains is a shabby little story that begins like this…

Several years ago, Rathbun, Rinder and Tom DeVocht were removed for flagrant criminality, gross misconduct and financial waste. When they were finally caught out, they teamed up and secretly descended on others in violence. And when caught out again, they spun their tales to the merchants of chaos.

Today they are bitter, broke and busted, motivated by only two things: getting paid and getting even.

Although that story has now been chronicled in full, one final word is due—Marty’s own words in his own voice.

Accordingly, what you are about to read might well be described as a last truthful look at themselves before plunging off the cliff into obsession.

Marty on Marty:

“I spread the practice of ‘getting the goods’ being the EP [end phenomena] of ethics investigations. Why: Criminal mind let loose, training in on others to go for nasty evil purposes, to the exclusion of whys, because he [Marty Rathbun] considers everyone as evil and f***ed up as himself.”

“I know my TRs suck in life—that is my continuous missed withhold of committing more overts on post per hour than I can produce to counteract them.”

“My statistics are horrendous, including contributing to several of the largest legal losses in Church history and some of its worst PR flaps.”

“The central out ethics intention has been to attempt to go it alone and prove personal worth to the detriment of the group—disestablishing the group, misdirecting the group, the precise opposite of the purposes of this group.”

“I know I cannot be trusted to have a position of any authority from where I can throw others for a loop as I have been doing… If told to go iron out some line at some org, I would be hesitant and unconfident. The more I try the more harm I do. The biggest source of cross-orders and chaos and counter policy is from me.”

“I’ve come to realize, with no more assert to the contrary, that I am a Suppressive as an administrator. I understand I need to be replaced. Where I went under for good, and never recovered from, was the night everyone read the [Policies on Production and Exchange], they all finished and I was up the entire night and finished around noon the following day… It wasn’t just that incident—all study went the same and that was the breaking point. I knew from that point squarely—I was so far behind everyone else as an administrator, and was involved in so much full time ‘emergencies’ I’d never catch up as an administrator. For whatever reason I spend so much time clearing words, I don’t ever complete the assignments—I am way behind everybody else.”

“I created an operating climate of fear. I put on a tough-guy beingness, unfriendly, suspicious and menacing virtually everywhere I went on the base. I was snappy with people in general. I went around with a scowl like I was ready to knock anybody’s block off who made a wrong move. It created a hate atmosphere.”

“I instituted instant punishment and made an unsafe and destabilized environment.”

“I inverted Ethics technology to the point where it was used to protect SPs and freed them to make a dangerous environment for others. I grooved people in to heavy ethics—which amounted to punishment with no condition application, itself contributing to black PR of ethics, in that having no purpose to it, no one under my direction could get a result with it. Underlying all this was my own suppressive characteristics of using org position to defend self, rather than increase survival across the dynamics.”

“My operating basis has been to bring SPs onto the line of the most productive staff member in Scientology and make the environment unsafe by making each SP or external threat the all-important, consuming matter. I wind up reporting ‘what I am doing.’ Because I don’t apply Ethics, Tech or Policy, ‘what I am doing’ is finding out nasty entheta and putting it directly on staff lines. It is a suppressive activity.”

“I have acted as an avowed enemy over the past several years by continually reporting on how bad people are… while not producing a single product myself… This conduct is suppressive and insane.”

“On 7 occasions I boxed [name] ears or wrestled him to the ground. Once I hurt one of his ears pretty severely where I could tell it hurt him throughout the rest of the day.”

“I roughed up [name] on three occasions. I threw him up against a wall… I then grabbed him and forcibly led him outside into private for a tongue lashing… I chased him and tackled him down the stairs and shoved his head into the corner holding his jaw for several seconds… I grabbed [name] by the shirt and lifted him into a wall.”

“I just got more forceful with [name] to the point where I shoved him against walls and shook him on about 7 occasions.”

“I interrogated [name] with Rinder and [name]. I slammed him against the wall hard, and pinned his head against the wall with a firm grip on his jaw while I cursed at him loudly.”

“Counter policies I have been operating on and have spread:

  • If someone will continually flub and not duplicate orders, then blow them away to knock them out of their dramatization… To the exclusion of all Debug Tech, Cramming Tech, and Ethics Tech.
  • Harass people into compliance.
  • Spend most of my time enforcing prohibitions—and don’t spend any time enforcing those doingnesses that are required to get products out.
  • Whack a guy a few times to get him into present time. If he continues to act not with it, then give up and go find another cycle to handle or hope something changes.”

“I have been operating on pretense. I grooved in my operating basis of not getting involved in any production. In short, covering up and false reporting on a routine basis, and disestablishing command channels by randomly busting people off of them.”

“The intentions and objectives of Chairman of the Board are to Keep Scientology Working in all aspects—100% standard tech and admin through 100% standard high-quality organizations continually expanding at an accelerating rate through upgraded dissemination, tech and management units… The intentions and objectives of the group I have become part of are evil, arrogant intentions… while making the rest of the planet wrong.”

“My actions were squirrel and you won’t find any justification for them in Standard Tech.”

A Letter from someone that knew Marty Rathbun:

2 April 2010

My name is Ron Norton and I was in the Sea Organization in Scientology for 35 years from January 1972 till April of 2007.

I’ve had a few years now to absorb what happened over those 35 years and I feel that as one if its highest trained members, a Professor of Scientology and a graduate of it’s highest level executive courses as well as a highly trained technical personnel (I was also personally trained in Scientology by the Founder L. Ron Hubbard) that I could add some insight, an overview if you will, on the inner workings of the Church. So why not ask me what’s going on in the Church of Scientology?

I’ve worked at all levels of the Church including International Management and have personally worked with pretty much all the detractors I read about on the internet as well as the top church officials currently running the Church as well as the Chairman of the Board RTC, David Miscaviage.

My career started as an personal counselor or auditor, and I moved up from there to an executive at the Flag Service Organization, Scientology’s largest Church where in 1983 I became it’s Executive Director until 1990.

It was after that position that where I became a staff member at the international headquarters and had direct dealings with David Miscaviage, Marty Rathbun, Amy Scobee and literally hundreds of other staff and executives there.

I’ve read with great concern the accusations leveled by Marty Rathbun and in particular his description of the violence at the International Scientology Base and I felt it was necessary to step forward as I have first hand information, my own personal observations, of what went on and if the story is going to be told, then let’s tell the whole story.

I personally witnessed Marty Rathbun assault staff members at least a dozen times, I being one of them, over a period of a few years. By assault, I mean the legal definition and some incidents were extremely brutal beatings. That in itself was bad enough but to make it worse, Marty Rathbun created an atmosphere at the International Base of fear, a type of “Reign of Terror” where if you stepped out of line, said the wrong thing, implied that anything was wrong and needed to be rectified, you could incur his wrath.

Marty Rathbun also created an impression where if you did not do what you were told that aside from threatening your immediate physical well-being, you also ran the risk of being sent away from the International Base and, as in my case, if your wife was there, you ran the risk of never being able to see your spouse again.

I noticed on the internet that Marty seems to be saying he “came clean” on his misdeeds and I read what he had to say about that. That’s like saying Jack the Ripper insulted a girl. I do not think the length and breadth of his terrorism has ever really been understood and in the back of forth of accusations from both sides it may have been lost a bit.

One time Marty forced me to go into a room and he began an interrogation of me for things I hadn’t done and wouldn’t let me leave the room for 2 hours. He repeatedly accused me, a type of mental torture he inflicted on many others as well. I only got to leave because he took a phone call in the middle of all of this and decided to move on to another victim.

I’ve read carefully what Marty and a few others have said about David Miscaviage. I personally worked on several projects ordered by David Miscaviage over the last 20 years. I can honestly say I never observed him assault another staff member and anything I’m reporting in this letter is only first hand information – I’m not distilling other peoples reports and trying to come up with what might have happened – what I’m saying in this letter was personally witnessed by me or not.

There were several occasions when working on projects ordered by David Miscaviage where the project was stalled. L. Ron Hubbard has written a huge body of data on how to run projects and fix them when they were off the rails. David Miscaviage was one of the few people I met who used the right technology to repair situations. One specific time I remember well was when several of us were trying to fix one of the audio duplication facilities that was no longer producing the recorded lectures of L Ron Hubbard at the required standards. We were at it for months trying to get the lectures up to the required specifications and getting nowhere. Dave Miscaviage personally interviewed each of the executives and technicians to find out what difficulty each of us was having and at the end of it, he applied a Scientology remedy and evaluated the information and found the reason for our problem. He then issued instructions to resolve it. We followed the instructions and we had the results we needed in less than 48 hours and were able to bring the recorded lectures up to the required standards.

Its one short story but I feel it is representative of how David Miscaviage works.

At the International Scientology Base, the standards for work and ethical conduct are extremely high. It is not for everyone, not even most Scientologists. The degree of dedication is fairly absolute. The mission of the International Base is the preservation and expansion of Scientology. Those at the top full well know what Scientology can do and how effective it is which is why it is given such importance. Many people in different walks of life dedicate their lives to their careers – clergyman, politicians and athletes to name a few.

After I left the Sea Org I was able to get a bird’s eye view of the rest of the world. I’ve made many friends, non-Scientologists, and have enjoyed a very rich life because of the gains and understandings I’ve accomplished during my career in the Sea Org. I wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m now the CEO of a small but fast growing media company and I use Scientology every day to expand my business and improve my life and I can easily say I am an extremely happy and successful executive and never a day goes by when I don’t recognize the role Scientology plays in my success – because it’s true. I have a great relationship with my wife – we’ve been married for 33 years and have two really great kids (adults now who are themselves enjoying successful careers).

No individual is perfect nor is any organization. Even Jesus had his moment of doubt. I liken the detractors of Scientology to a person looking at a beautiful Porsche and all he can see is a small scratch on the side – he can’t see the car. True it has a scratch but what a look and what a ride!

Ron Norton