CommunicatorIC
@IndieScieNews on Twitter
The Debbie Cook Scientology letter 5 years later - Annotated.
Tony Ortega: Five years later: Debbie Cook’s indictment of Scientology under David Miscavige, annotated
http://tonyortega.org/2017/01/01/fi...-scientology-under-david-miscavige-annotated/
* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *
Five years ago, a little after midnight as 2012 had just begun, we started to get emails.
Later that morning, we realized that what was happening was significant enough to write a story about it. A woman named Debbie Cook had sent her fellow Scientologists a message for the new year, and it was hitting Scientology like a tidal wave.
For 17 years, Debbie had been “Captain FSO,” the Sea Org official who ran the Flag Service Organization, the outfit that oversees Scientology’s spiritual mecca, the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. The Captain FSO has to be a hard-as-nails Sea Org commander who runs a small army of similarly dedicated fanatics, but also serves and interacts with the wealthy “publics” who come to Flag for its high-priced counseling. And to have that position for 17 years made Debbie almost legendary. But by the end of 2011, she had been moved from that position and then had quietly left the Sea Org itself, although she was still a Scientologist in good standing. Other church members may have not seen or heard from Debbie in some time, but her name was still one that carried weight. Here’s how Jefferson Hawkins explained to us what Debbie meant to most people in the church:
And now, in a lengthy message that was forwarded to thousands of Scientologists around the world, Debbie used the words of L. Ron Hubbard to take apart David Miscavige.
Five years later, we can say that Debbie Cook’s email is one of the things new defectors from the Church of Scientology most often cite as the reason they began to take seriously the idea of leaving an organization they might have belonged to for decades, or had even grown up in. There’s just no question that Debbie Cook’s message had a devastating effect on the loyalty of many longtime Scientologists, and helped them decide to walk away.
Debbie was sued by the church for writing it, based on draconian agreements she had signed when she left her position in the Sea Org. Debbie was living in the San Antonio area at the time, and she hired a local attorney name Ray Jeffrey to represent her. We were in the courtroom that February day for a preliminary hearing, and we can tell you it was a nervous moment. According to a strict reading of the contracts Debbie had signed, Scientology could potentially convince a judge that she owed them millions of dollars for criticizing Miscavige. On Debbie’s side, Jeffrey argued that she had signed those contracts under duress after being abused in the Sea Org. And in order to prove that, he wanted to put Debbie on the witness stand. Scientology’s attorneys were against it, but Judge Martha Tanner said she wanted to hear Debbie’s testimony.
What Debbie said in the witness box was devastating. She talked about leaving her FSO post and being sent to California, where she was tasked with overseeing the imprisonment of executives in “The Hole,” Miscavige’s bizarre jail for underlings he suspected of sabotage. Before long, Debbie was thrown into The Hole as a prisoner herself, and was subjected to disturbing abuse, such as being stood up in a trash can with water poured over her while the other inmates chanted insults at her and called her a “lesbian.” After seven weeks, Debbie managed to get away from the Hole, and she was happy to sign anything to get away from the Sea Org altogether. At that point, she said on the witness stand, she would have signed a confession to killing babies if it meant getting away from that sick organization.
The press coverage of that day of testimony went national, and it was brutal. And that’s why the Church of Scientology waived the rest of the hearing and then eventually settled with Debbie for an undisclosed amount — but we’re pretty sure it was in the millions. Millions of dollars, that is, paid by Scientology in order to end the lawsuit that it had filed. We always have to remind people of that who criticize Debbie for accepting the settlement and not somehow pushing on with a lawsuit which she had not filed and which potentially had liabilities in the millions of dollars against her.
We don’t know the terms of the settlement, but they obviously included the stipulation that Debbie and her husband Wayne Baumgarten leave the country for a few years. They’re back now, in Texas, but they still won’t give interviews about their experiences, which it’s not hard to conclude is a condition of the settlement they signed.
And that’s a shame, because we’d still like to talk to Debbie about the effect her 2012 email has had on the Church of Scientology. We have a feeling that she knows what a big effect it’s had, and she could probably tell us some interesting things about what she’s heard from the people who were affected by it.
Instead, to mark this anniversary, we’re posting her lengthy email again, and with the annotations we wrote for it back in 2012, with some slight edits to update things. We hope you enjoy this examination of what Debbie wrote, and that it becomes plain why it was such a challenge to David Miscavige and his leadership of an organization that is now in serious decline.
* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *
Letter quotes and annotations follow in original post.
Tony Ortega: Five years later: Debbie Cook’s indictment of Scientology under David Miscavige, annotated
http://tonyortega.org/2017/01/01/fi...-scientology-under-david-miscavige-annotated/
* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *
Five years ago, a little after midnight as 2012 had just begun, we started to get emails.
Later that morning, we realized that what was happening was significant enough to write a story about it. A woman named Debbie Cook had sent her fellow Scientologists a message for the new year, and it was hitting Scientology like a tidal wave.
For 17 years, Debbie had been “Captain FSO,” the Sea Org official who ran the Flag Service Organization, the outfit that oversees Scientology’s spiritual mecca, the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. The Captain FSO has to be a hard-as-nails Sea Org commander who runs a small army of similarly dedicated fanatics, but also serves and interacts with the wealthy “publics” who come to Flag for its high-priced counseling. And to have that position for 17 years made Debbie almost legendary. But by the end of 2011, she had been moved from that position and then had quietly left the Sea Org itself, although she was still a Scientologist in good standing. Other church members may have not seen or heard from Debbie in some time, but her name was still one that carried weight. Here’s how Jefferson Hawkins explained to us what Debbie meant to most people in the church:
For many, many years, Debbie was used as the spokesperson for the Flag Land Base. Her picture was featured prominently in every issue of “Source” Magazine, with a “Message from the Captain.” She made many, many promotional videos extolling the virtues of coming to the Flag Land Base. The Church deliberately built her up as an “opinion leader” for Scientologists. There was a lot of work that went into establishing her as a high-profile opinion leader for the top Scientologists.
And now, in a lengthy message that was forwarded to thousands of Scientologists around the world, Debbie used the words of L. Ron Hubbard to take apart David Miscavige.
Five years later, we can say that Debbie Cook’s email is one of the things new defectors from the Church of Scientology most often cite as the reason they began to take seriously the idea of leaving an organization they might have belonged to for decades, or had even grown up in. There’s just no question that Debbie Cook’s message had a devastating effect on the loyalty of many longtime Scientologists, and helped them decide to walk away.
Debbie was sued by the church for writing it, based on draconian agreements she had signed when she left her position in the Sea Org. Debbie was living in the San Antonio area at the time, and she hired a local attorney name Ray Jeffrey to represent her. We were in the courtroom that February day for a preliminary hearing, and we can tell you it was a nervous moment. According to a strict reading of the contracts Debbie had signed, Scientology could potentially convince a judge that she owed them millions of dollars for criticizing Miscavige. On Debbie’s side, Jeffrey argued that she had signed those contracts under duress after being abused in the Sea Org. And in order to prove that, he wanted to put Debbie on the witness stand. Scientology’s attorneys were against it, but Judge Martha Tanner said she wanted to hear Debbie’s testimony.
What Debbie said in the witness box was devastating. She talked about leaving her FSO post and being sent to California, where she was tasked with overseeing the imprisonment of executives in “The Hole,” Miscavige’s bizarre jail for underlings he suspected of sabotage. Before long, Debbie was thrown into The Hole as a prisoner herself, and was subjected to disturbing abuse, such as being stood up in a trash can with water poured over her while the other inmates chanted insults at her and called her a “lesbian.” After seven weeks, Debbie managed to get away from the Hole, and she was happy to sign anything to get away from the Sea Org altogether. At that point, she said on the witness stand, she would have signed a confession to killing babies if it meant getting away from that sick organization.
The press coverage of that day of testimony went national, and it was brutal. And that’s why the Church of Scientology waived the rest of the hearing and then eventually settled with Debbie for an undisclosed amount — but we’re pretty sure it was in the millions. Millions of dollars, that is, paid by Scientology in order to end the lawsuit that it had filed. We always have to remind people of that who criticize Debbie for accepting the settlement and not somehow pushing on with a lawsuit which she had not filed and which potentially had liabilities in the millions of dollars against her.
We don’t know the terms of the settlement, but they obviously included the stipulation that Debbie and her husband Wayne Baumgarten leave the country for a few years. They’re back now, in Texas, but they still won’t give interviews about their experiences, which it’s not hard to conclude is a condition of the settlement they signed.
And that’s a shame, because we’d still like to talk to Debbie about the effect her 2012 email has had on the Church of Scientology. We have a feeling that she knows what a big effect it’s had, and she could probably tell us some interesting things about what she’s heard from the people who were affected by it.
Instead, to mark this anniversary, we’re posting her lengthy email again, and with the annotations we wrote for it back in 2012, with some slight edits to update things. We hope you enjoy this examination of what Debbie wrote, and that it becomes plain why it was such a challenge to David Miscavige and his leadership of an organization that is now in serious decline.
* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *
Letter quotes and annotations follow in original post.