Re. the Tanja Burden Affidavit, Marty Rathbun, on 3 November 2010, on his blog, had this to say, "
This is utter crap," while at the same time attributing any actions against Paulette Cooper to "
suppressive squirreling" occurring behind Hubbard's back.
A little more about Paulette Cooper. The first attempt to have her "terminatedly handled" by having her arrested or committed to a mental institution occurred in 1972. This was called, I think, called Operation Dynamite. Two bomb threat letters were sent to a Scientology "Church" and linked to Cooper.
By that time her life had been thoroughly investigated, and "friends" had been planted near her to "help" her. Cooper was aware of the overt harassment, but (understandably) not of the ongoing covert activities.
Hubbard seemed to have a special "thing" with women, and when Hubbard became aware that Cooper was in contact with former ("erased") wife, Sara Northrup, that may have put Paulette Cooper at the top of the enemies list.
Op Dynamite resulted in Cooper being arrested and brought before a Grand Jury. She consented to a sodium pentathol test (truth serum), and the prosecution of her case was called off. Nonetheless, she had not been exonerated, and her life had been deeply affected.
Still, Hubbard wasn't satisfied. After all, Scientology had come *so* close to succeeding. So another attempt was made to "finish the job," and in spring of 1976 the plans/paperwork for this "op" were put together. This new re-started Op against Cooper was called OP Freak out.
It was going to be a pure covert op, in that it would begin and end without seeming to involve Scientology in any way. Hubbard's covert Ops tech was going to be used, complete with multiple channels of attack/influence, stage setting (created incidents), suitable guises, etc. Hubbard, fresh from the covert "taking" of Clearwater, Florida - even though he had recently fled Clearwater by car after his cover was blown, ending up in Washington, DC - appears to have been very confident about the effectiveness of his own covert Intel tech, and certain of his own invincibility.
After all, he had "gotten away with" so much up to that point. And what is known through the Internet is only the tip of the iceberg.
For example, Paulette Cooper had assembled a three binder collection of Scientology documents having only to do with herself. These were the documents that had been seized by the FBI in 1977. (And the revealing of these documents was incidental, or even accidental, as the FBI was not concerned with Cooper - or any other private citizens or with local government officials - but only with their own affairs, and with government offices and files having been illegally accessed and stolen.) The assembled "time track" on Cooper, featuring every minute detail of her life, was four pages long - legal size paper - in small print. Then came the paperwork of the Ops against her. They were many. So far, on the Net, I've seen maybe 1% of these documents.
So, as previously noted, what is broadly known is the tip of the iceberg.
Add to this, Scientology's practice of destroying evidence and silencing witnesses, and it's amazing that we know what we do know. Scientology, after all, is a secretive cult based on (its founder's words) the "tight conspiracy" model (not unlike organized crime).
Schwimmel Puckel, in a 9 February 2011 post, had these observations:
"
I quite sure that Hubbard directed this personally... But I can't prove it. But it was/is well known that even as Mary Sue and Jane Kember held those posts they did, nothing was done without Ron overlooking, approving and/or ordering it.
"
I never met the man in person. I was in the Guardian's Office Europe 1979 to mid '81. Well, we had telexes clattering in from 'Ron' all the time. He was very much into anything the GO did, was my impression.. And we carefully cut the corner that said 'Ron' off of the slips before archiving. No document were to expose Ron as a leader or executive authority of anything anywhere."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF99yYCE8wI