Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

he became an even more prominent critic of his father and his father's 'church'. When the church
was locked in litigation with the Internal Revenue Service, Nibs testified on behalf of the IRS.
In September 1972, Mary Sue orchestrated a campaign to 'handle' Nibs, instituting a search
through all the Sea Org files and instructing the Guardian's office to do the same. She told an aide
that Nibs' 'big button' was money and that it was time to start hunting through the old files to dig up
former complaints about him.[16]
The church never revealed what it found out about the Founder's son, but on 7 November Nibs
recorded a video-taped interview with a church official retracting his IRS testimony and all
allegations he had previously made against father. They were made 'vengefully', he explained, at a
time when he was undergoing a great deal of personal and emotional stress: 'What I have been
doing is a whole lot of lying, a whole lot of damage to a lot of people that I value highly.
'I happen to love my father, blood is thicker than water, and basically it may sound silly to some
people but it means a great deal to me that blood is thicker than water and another thing, as a
matter of interest too, would be I made some pretty awful statements about the Sea Org and none
of these are true. I've no personal knowledge of any wrong doing or illegal acts or brutality or
anything else against people by the Sea Org or any member of the Scientology organization.'
At the Villa Laura in Tangier, Hubbard had little time to reflect on this filial declaration of love.
Indeed, it was more likely he was reflecting on the curious inevitability with which his plans were
ending in tears. The OTC training course for Moroccan secret policeman was breaking up in
disarray under the stress of internecine intrigue between pro-monarchy and anti-monarchy factions
and the fear of what the E-meter would reveal. 'It was a crazy set up,' said Jessup, 'you couldn't tell
who was on which side.'
It was possible that the Sea Org might have staved to try and unravel this complication, had not
word arrived from Paris that the Church of Scientology in France was about to be indicted for fraud.
There was a suggestion that French lawyers would be seeking Hubbard's extradition from Morocco
to face charges in Paris.
The Commodore decided it was time to go. There was a ferry leaving Tangier for Lisbon in fortyeight
hours: Hubbard ordered everyone to be on it, with all the OTC's movable property and every
scrap of paper that could not be shredded. For the next two days, convoys of cars, trucks and motorcycles
could be observed, day and night, scurrying back and forth from OTC 'land bases' in Morocco
to the port in Tangier.
When the Lisbon-bound ferry sailed from Tangier on 3 December 1972, nothing remained of the
Church of Scientology in Morocco. Hubbard left behind only a pile of shredded paper, a flurry of wild
rumours and a scattering of befuddled US consular officials.
1. Interview with Urquhart
2. Los Angeles Times, 29 August 1970
3. The Guardian, 12 February 1980
4. Guardian Order, 16 December 1969
5. Flag Order no. 1890, 26 March 1969