Mark "Marty" Rathbun

MARK “MARTY” RATHBUN IN HIS OWN WORDS

You may be aware of recent statements to the press from Mark Rathbun regarding his former religion and his tenure within Scientology’s religious order known as The Sea Organization. Religious Freedom Watch presents the following information in rebuttal.

One fact Rathbun has not been able to escape is his clear statement to the St. Petersburg Times in 1998 that totally refutes his present allegations. The statement also shows that Rathbun is merely echoing old, stale allegations he himself refuted more than a decade ago. Readers will likely recall this exchange from the October 25, 1998 St. Petersburg Times:

In sworn declarations used in several anti-Scientology lawsuits, Miscavige also has been accused of ordering the shredding of documents sought by the IRS and the courts, ordering attacks of church enemies, and striking subordinates.

Miscavige’s top lieutenant, Marty Rathbun, said the courts and the IRS got every document they requested. He also said he has never known Miscavige in 20 years to hit anyone. “That’s not his temperament,” Rathbun said. “He’s got enough personal horsepower that he doesn’t need to resort to things like that.”

Rathbun’s response when challenged on this statement was that he lied. Religious Freedom Watch accepts his admission he is a liar. We question, though, what he is lying about and submit he is lying now, that his previous statement was true, and that his current outlandish allegations are fiction.

Religious Freedom Watch has obtained material from public statements made by Marty Rathbun to illustrate this point. These include public apologies and statements he made concerning actions he had taken while in the Church — statements he made when he was not trying to garner sensational headlines attacking his former religion. To address a predicted false accusation about this material, Religious Freedom Watch is assured (and it is obvious from the content to any knowledgeable person) that nothing contained here came from any confidential confessional material. All of it consists of words Rathbun wanted his peers at the time he was still in the Church to know about what he had done.

“I am writing this public announcement to inform executives and staff that I have come to my senses and I am no longer committing present time overts and have ceased all attacks and suppressions on Scientology. I am applying Steps A-E of HCO PL Suppressive Acts Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists because my continuous actions over the past two decades have suppressed Scientology dissemination and the purposes of this base. It has been carefully masked by a facade of being important or working on important things. It is all the more insidious because that “importance” has been by association with COB.

“I instigated a pattern of operation that is 180 degrees opposite to the purpose of orgs, this base, and ethics and justice. By enforcing parts of this pattern on others by order or example, I have driven in the following pattern:

1. Hear of a bugged production area. Bypass all seniors and base HCOs, and find a target. Interrogate the individual for personal out ethics and bad intentions.
2. Write up a report that contains lurid details, making the target out to be an incorrigible threat. Write it in such a way that some senior or HCO terminal feels compelled to take the target off post or tell the person myself he is busted.
3. Write the report in such a way to justify my existence by proving the base is dangerous and requires my “services.”
4. Do nothing to get the target replaced. Do nothing to get out the product that the target was not getting produced.

“The end result is unmocked org form, overworked and enturbulated executives and staff, bad news about the intentions and activities of staff members, lowering production and morale; and the creation of “threats” to justify my own existence and suppressive operating basis.

“This suppressive operating basis was employed to try to maintain the false impression that I have some other production record externally that warrants me maintaining a high position. In fact, this is a fraud I have perpetrated. On external lines my operation is the same – it is consists of the S.P. characteristic of only restimulating and never destimulating. That is, when there is a threatening situation or suit, I get the OSA staff and attorneys wound up toward “destroying the threat.” This has resulted in some very expensive situations becoming much bigger than they were and winding up on COB’s plate to terminatedly handle. Each and every time on major situations, COB has had to intervene to clean up wars I had exacerbated. For example, left to my own devices in handling IRS litigation, the end result would undoubtedly have been no exemption, a billion dollar tax bill, and possible shutting down of the Church. I have developed a slick false PR technique of positioning myself as having been integral in handling threats during and after the fact, when they are actually terminatedly handled by COB. By calculation I have lost the Church 43 million dollars on losses and expenses that could have been avoided.

“By perpetuating these operations internally and externally, the worst suppression has been visited upon COB RTC. It is the worst suppression because COB RTC is the person who has single-handedly salvaged Scientology from potential external ruin, and single-handedly salvaged Scientology itself by holding the line technically, administratively, and on dissemination. Had he not been here and done what he has, Scientology would have been lost. There is no slightest doubt about that. The cumulative amount of COB’s time I have cost in terms of dropping balls, creating situations internally and externally, is on the order of eight years. If that time were recouped, there is no doubt we would have at least double to triple the amount of orgs, we’d have thousands of missions and we would be very well on the way to a clear planet.

“The motivations for these acts are a psychotic computation for self-preservation: keep enough chaos and threat stirred up in the environment, make myself appear to be a solution to it instead of the instigator of it, and lots of people go down and remain in turmoil while I go unrecognized as the source of it and survive.

“I recognize my actions have been unfounded and ignorant and destructive in the extreme. There is no conspiracy connected with this pattern of suppression, except a portion of it. That is Mike Rinder who has gone into tacit agreement with me on making nothing of situations, false reporting on them, and allowing them to expand until they explode on COB’s plate to handle. The rest of the operation described in this announcement is an individuated and psychotic activity. I know of no one who agrees with it or condones it, or who participated in some part of it except by having been sufficiently electrified or intimidated by me to act reactively or to think it was somehow pro-survival for the group.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“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, by attacking and having removed personnel, placing legal and PR flaps on his [COB’s] plate. This suppresses Int Scn expansion.  This conduct is suppressive and insane.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I am admitting [my] actions were squirrel and you won’t find any justification for them in Standard Tech. This involves the following out-tech practices:
A) Doing a metered interview or an RB, and calling it an Ethics Investigation. Ignoring statistics and production record, and instead focusing on conduct or behavior. The purposes and methods of Ethics investigations are well covered in HCO PL 1 September, 1965 Iss VII Ethics Protection, HCO PL 11 May, 1965 Iss I Ethics Officer Hat, and HCO PL 15 November 1970R HCO And Confessionals (and its references to Data Series 16 and 17).
B) Not getting an exam after a metered action. This is a violation of HCO PL 13 October 1968RA PC EXAMINER

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“Those who I mishandled:
[name] withhold pulling interview no EP took outside and whacked.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I abused [name] on 20 occasions. I severely laid into [name] in an abusive fashion, cursing and invalidating him very loudly in front of others. … 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.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I abused [name] and lessened her confidence and drove her frantic. Between February and July 2001 I called [name] such names as “bitch”, “fucking criminal”, called her acts “suppressive”, told her [name] was “1.1” and will go to calculating lengths to fuck me over.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I abused and invalidated [name of woman] to the point of harming [name’s] confidence. I did invalidative upbraidings on [name] on 5 occasions. On those occasions I went beyond simply pointing out what was wrong with her actions and invalidated her personally with insults to her intelligence, and questioning her intentions.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I roughed up [name] on three occasions. In November 2000 I threw him up against a wall. I then grabbed him and forcibly led him outside into private for a tongue lashing. In January 2001 I chased him and tackled him down the stairs and shoved his head into the corner holding his jaw for several seconds. In May 2001 I grabbed [name] by the shirt and lifted him into a wall.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I roughed up [name]. In April or May 2001, I threw him across a table.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I abused and degraded [name – woman]. On about 25 occasions I severely ripped into [name].”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I created an operating climate of fear on the base. 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.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I abused, denigrated [name – woman]. I have tortured her with a schedule that puts her going home after I leave and arriving before I get up. I blame her for things that she didn’t do including my own fuck ups sign of an SP continually wrong targets.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“In January 2001 I interrogated [name] with Rinder and 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.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

“I became an enemy of the group in Dec 2000 through April 2001 when my efforts to stop others from destructive acts became generalized and started stopping generally. I instituted instant punishment and made an unsafe and destabilized environment on the base. I was being some kind of a whole track prison warden actually the most detestable beingness to me.”

– Mark “Marty” Rathbun

Mark Rathbun’s Testimony Under Penalty of Perjury

Contrary to what Rathbun is now telling the media, he testified under penalty of perjury to facts completely contrary to his current statements.

For example Rathbun submitted the following to the court on March 10, 2000:

“David Miscavige, through his long history of actions taken to protect the Scientology religion from any and all threats to its survival and growth, has earned a reputation among Scientologists as the one person who can be absolutely counted upon not to be corrupted, and not to act out of any other motivation than maintaining the purity and integrity of the religion. Mr. Miscavige’s actions have created great comfort and security for Scientologists in good standing around the world. At the same time, by virtue of those same actions, Mr. Miscavige has greatly upset those who have plans for self-aggrandizement at the expense of the religion and those who seek to alter it in any way from the written and recorded words of its Founder, L. Ron Hubbard.”

…

“Over the years, I have witnessed innumerable personal attacks upon Mr. Miscavige, his family, his character, his integrity and his leadership by apostates and other opponents. Frequently vicious, uniformly offensive, such attacks are a reflection of Mr. Miscavige’s success in safeguarding the religion against attack. Until recently, I have considered the individuals who have attacked Mr. Miscavige as merely embittered, spite-driving anti-Scientologists. However, as described in more detail below, it has recently become clear to me that these individuals are seeking more than merely the removal of Mr. Miscavige or any purported “reform”of the Church. Their ultimate goal is to take over the Church of Scientology, and they are attempting to use this court and the instant motion to accomplish this. They violently disagree with Scientology as practiced by millions across the world, and seek to alter its beliefs and practices to suit their own ends. It is because Mr. Miscavige stands in their way that he has been targeted by them.”

…

“While Mr. Hubbard was alive, he saw Mr. Miscavige attacked by those antipathetic to the religion for the reason that Mr. Miscavige had a close relationship to him. In fact, Mr. Hubbard himself spoke out publicly in responding to one such attack which alleged that Mr. Miscavige was harming Mr. Hubbard and mismanaging his estate. He stated:

“‘Since there apparently have been specific allegations of wrongdoing by David Miscavige, I wish to take this opportunity to communicate my unequivocal confidence in David Miscavige, who is a long time devoted Scientologist, a trusted associate and a good friend to me. Any activities which he may have engaged in at any time concerning my personal or business affairs have been done with my knowledge and authorization and for my benefit.'”

“More than anyone else, Mr. Miscavige has preserved and carried out the legacy of his good friend and Founder of his religion.”

…

“In fact, all Scientologists are eternally grateful to Mr. Miscavige for ridding the religion of those who sought to undermine and destroy it from within the very individuals who today testify as paid anti-Scientology witnesses.”

“The Scientology community and the individual Scientologists who comprise it also recognize that what Mr. Miscavige’s attackers’ are attempting to accomplish is profoundly inimical to the well-being of their religion and that it is Mr. Miscavige’s personal fortitude and strength of character that has prevented the apostates from accomplishing from without the Church what they could not accomplish from within.”

“I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct. “