Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

he had always been enamoured. Out in the Atlantic, cruising on his flagship, the Commodore's
pre-occupation with Communist conspiracies developed into a fixation about something called the
'Tenyaka Memorial' - a name he gave to the mysterious agency he claimed was co-ordinating the
attacks on Scientology. His hunt for the Tenyaka Memorial was the subject of a rambling thirty-onepage
monologue, dated 2 November 1969 and headed 'Covert Operations', in which he said that
he and Mary Sue had 'just discovered' that members of the World Federation of Mental Health were
working for British and US intelligence agencies. 'These bastards who are in charge of security in
these Western countries,' he wrote, 'ought to be simply electric shocked to death. I'm not kidding.
Because these same guys . . . have meetings with the Russians every year.' Later the Commodore
decided that the Tenyaka Memorial was run by a Nazi underground movement intent on world
domination.[3]
Both Hubbard and Mary Sue, who rejoiced in the titles of 'Deputy Commodore', 'Commodore Staff
Guardian' (CSG) and 'Controller', peppered their memoranda with military terminology and
intelligence jargon. Mary Sue ran the powerful Guardian's office, which was Scientology's
intelligence bureau. In a 'Guardian Order' dated 16 December 1969, she warned that the 'enemy'
was infiltrating double agents into the church and urged the use of 'any and all means' to detect
infiltration. One of the 'operating targets' was to assemble full data by investigation for use 'in case
of attack'.[4] 'Smersh' even figured in one of Hubbard's 'flag orders', which defined Scientology's
second zone of action thus: 'To invade the territory of Smersh, run it better, make tons of money in it,
to purify the mental health field.'[5]
The need for security was made very real to those Scientologists who were flown out to join the
ship at its various ports of call. They were briefed and repeatedly drilled on their 'shore stories' - that
they were employees of Operation and Transport Corporation, a business management company.
They were warned not to use Scientology-speak on shore, to deny any link between OTC and
Scientology and, in particular, to feign ignorance of L. Ron Hubbard.
All outgoing private mail had to be left, unsealed, with the master-at-arms and every letter was read
by an ethics officer to check for possible breaches of security. Approved mail was shipped in bulk to
Copenhagen for posting. Lest curiosity prompted enemies ashore to sift through the ship's
garbage for incriminating paperwork, all papers were bundled up and dumped at sea. And on the
rare occasions when 'wogs' were allowed on board, the crew carried out a 'clean ship drill', which
involved hiding any Scientology materials from view and turning all the pictures of L. Ron Hubbard
to the wall.
Hubbard's persistent reiteration that Scientology was beset by dark forces, seeking to destroy
anything that helped mankind, fostered a siege mentality among the crew of the Apollo and
provided spurious justification for the harsh conditions on board. Throughout the Sea Org, the need
for dedication, vigilance and sacrifice was constantly stressed and it generated fierce loyalty which
was blind to logic or literal truth. The 'shore story', which everyone knew was a pack of lies, was a
regrettable necessity if the world was to be saved by Scientology.
It was also a regrettable necessity to prevent anyone from 'blowing the org'. Although all the
passports were locked in a safe, attempts to jump ship were not unknown. Whenever it happened,
Sea Org personnel were rushed ashore to stake out the relevant local consulate, where the fugitive
was likely to try and obtain a new passport. If they were too late, a 'dead agent caper' was activated.
The runaway was accused of being a thief or a trouble-maker in order to discredit whatever story he
was telling in the Consulate; in the parlance of wartime spies, he would be neutralized and
considered a 'dead agent'.[6]