Bertram Fields
Greenberg, Glusker, et al.
1900 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA
August 12, 2009
re: Your letter of August 7 received August 10 via email
Dear Bert,
It is great to hear from you. I appreciate the civil tone of your letter as well as its appeal to reason.
Because I also appreciate the fact that you have championed fundamental human rights for many, I believe there is information you need to know concerning ongoing abuses that you are unwittingly supporting. Please take the time to consider the information I am providing in response to your expressed concerns. You may find that information raises more serious and far-reaching concerns to your client and you than those you have outlined.
I will quote the entirety of your letter in sections by topic so that I clearly and thoroughly respond to each of the concerns you have expressed.
“Apparently, you have repeatedly announced to the public that you were Tom’s ‘auditor’ at the Church of Scientology, and you have used that announcement, including Tom’s name, on your website to promote your business or profession.”
Unfortunately, you apparently have been misinformed about my public utterances as well as my web blog reference. Nowhere have I used my past relationship with Tom for purposes of promoting either a business or profession. I do not run any business. I have never used Tom’s name in a promotional context. I am a person who helps many people who have been abused by David Miscavige.
That includes someone you know personally, Mike Rinder, whom I witnessed Miscavige savagely beat on at least a dozen occasions. Bert, I am not talking about an isolated incident. I am referring to more than a dozen incidents wherein David Miscavige performed aggravated assault on the same person you and your lovely wife dined with at the Celebrity Center. Three witnesses to this type of activity on Miscavige’s part corroborated me a series of articles published in the St. Petersburg Times 21-23 June. You can view that multi-media presentation at the following link:
http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2009/reports/project/
Since that initial series another eleven eye witnesses to Miscavige’s human rights violations have stepped forward and gone on record. Their accounts can be seen at the following link:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1023717.ece
Each public utterance I have made concerning Tom has been made in his defense. I witnessed Tom’s career and public image plummet following Miscavige orchestrating the firing of Pat Kingsley and replacing her with Tom’s Scientologist sister so that Miscavige could manipulate Tom’s public discourse and censor Tom’s exposure to information concerning Miscavige’s human rights abuses. I have defended Tom – while keeping his confessions sacrosanct – by emphatically emphasizing that Tom’s questionable public behavior in 2004 and 2005 was simply a reflection of Miscavige’s influence; and that prior to Miscavige imposing himself into every aspect of Tom’s life he was a caring, loving family man, dedicated to worthy social causes, and was the nicest person anyone would ever want to meet.
“This is not only a serious invasion of Tom’s privacy and a violation of the priest-penitent relationship, it is the unauthorized use of Tom’s name to promote a business or professional venture, which is a clear violation of Tom’s common law and statutory rights.”
I have not and would never disclose any confidences of Tom’s nor anyone else’s whom I have counseled. If Tom has concerns about that type of activity he should be very concerned about the activities of Miscavige. He has shown he is willing to do precisely what you have mistakenly accused me of doing. Miscavige and his Church sycophants have been roundly criticized for the wholesale public disclosure of coerced confessions in response to the whistleblowing actions of myself, Mike, Tom Devocht and Amy Scobee (reference the St Pete Times Truth Rundown Series).
For more on Miscavige’s proclivity for using confessions for purposes of blackmail, coercion and control please see my video taped interview segment at:
http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2009/reports/project/rathbun.shtml
If Tom is worried about me mentioning his name and the fact of my having audited him, again his concern should more properly be directed at Miscavige. Not only did Miscavige direct the public release of confessions, he suborned the perjury of a number of his underlings, and specifically had them state under oath that I never had a position of authority within the Religious Technology Center and had no training as an auditor. The best evidence of that perjury is that in 2001 through 2003 Miscavige personally assigned me as Inspector General RTC – the second highest ecclessiastical position in the religion – to coordinate Tom’s divorce from Nicole and to serve as his auditor.
Notwithstanding the fact Miscavige has directed his people to publicly call me a “fucking lunatic”, “psychotic”, “thug with an emeter”, “apostate”, “deprogrammer”, and “hit man” you and Tom have enough experience with me to know I can maintain my composure under pressure. I have done just that to protect Tom at every turn.
Dozens of former Church members have turned to me livid about Tom’s continuing public support for Miscavige. I have dissuaded each and every one of them from attacking Tom publicly. I have also counseled people who were abused by Tom personally – in matters that eerily resemble the behavior of Miscavige – to give Tom the time to get educated and do the right thing which I have convinced them he ultimately will do.
“Just imagine a Catholic Priest leaving the Church and then trying to drum up business as a lay-therapist by advertisting that he had been Frank Sinatra’s confessor. Most people would consider that disgusting and reprehensible. Yet, what you are doing is exactly the same”
Bert, I believe your analogy is inapt. Please imagine for a moment that a Catholic Cardinal witnessed the Pope engaging in and condoning on an institutional level the molestation of altar boys. Imagine the Pope blatantly used his relationship with Frank Sinatra to project to Catholics and the general public an image quite contrary and more upstanding and holy than could be expected to engage in the unlawful and reprehensible activity he was in fact engaged in. Imagine the Pope, when confronted with the truth, publicly published the confessions of the whistleblowing Cardinal, claimed he was never a Cardinal to begin with – not even a Priest – and was therefore never in a position to witness what he in fact did witness. And imagine the Pope continued to tout Frank Sinatra’s support of him and while hiding behind that endorsement carried on authorizing the abuse of children across the world.
Put yourself into the shoes of the Cardinal. Would you consider it an unethical decision for that Cardinal to ask publicly, “if I was never a Cardinal, and I was never a priest, how is it that the Pope invested so much trust in me that he personally assigned me to counsel Frank Sinatra”? And would you criticize that Cardinal if he went out of his way to defend Sinatra’s character and sought to distinguish it from the corrupt, pedophile Pope?
Now, to make my analogy even more accurate, assume the Cardinal is approached by former members of the Vatican and Sinatra’s inner circles seeking solace and guidance in dealing with their own experiences at the hands of the Pope and Sinatra. Assume also that they witnessed the Pope continuing to commit the cruelest abuses in the name of Sinatra.
I do not believe it would be your contention that the Cardinal should remain silent while knowing that the corrupt Pope and Sinatra are engaged in violations of civil and human rights on an ongoing basis.
If you believe I am weaving an unreal analogy, you might want to touch base with someone you know better than me — Mike Rinder (******@*****.net). He can tell you that my analogy is both accurate and appropriate. He can also tell you how far beyond the call of duty I have gone to protect Tom in all this.
To better understand my motivations and actions I invite you and your client to study my web blog – and its links – at:
https://markrathbun.wordpress.com/
Finally, I believe that as one of America’s most respected attorneys and human rights advocates you would be remiss if you did not directly hand this letter to your client. That means personally hand it to Tom: not Tommy Davis, Lee Anne nor anybody other than your client. I believe Tom will be doing himself a terrible disservice if he does not carefully read and view the entirety of each link I have provided herein.
Rest assured, I have Tom’s best interests at heart.
Sincerely,
Marty Rathbun
Moving On Up a Little Higher 
Marty, that’s a great letter and I am praying that Bert Fields does the right thing by Tom, and that Tom has the courage and the confront to read the truthrundown and to reflect on it.
H
Transparency is the best weapon you have. Don’t let anyone tell you that you owe anyone anything. Keep doing what you think is right because at the end of the day you have to look at yourself in the mirror.
In my opinion, letting it be known that you are a celebrity’s auditor/priest is not a violation of privacy – especially when Tom made it so public that he was a Scientologist.
Your letter is very good in that regard and I hope Tom gets to read it.
I do, however, worry that in this letter where you rightfully point out the hipocircy of David Miscavige, you start making references to personal information about Tom, such as the divorce and possible misdeeds by Tom against others. I did not like that part of the letter.
On balance, I like this response.
Bert and Tom:
I can personally corroborate what Marty has said here in regards to Miscavige physically abusing staff. I saw Miscavige attack Mike with my own eyes, saw him bash Mike’s head into the wall, and in response, I choose to give up everything, restarting life at nearly 50 with no money, no job, nothing… rather than continue to support a sick impostor who refuses to embody what it means to be a Scientologist. Few people ever face the prospect of giving up everything — family, friends, shelter — and walking out into the unknown.
I was there, Tom, when you toured Cine late one night in — what was it, September 2004? We were all placed there at various stations and made to rehearse our actions by David Miscavige. We weren’t really working… we were acting, for you. In other words, what you saw was a contrived scene.
We were drilled on what to say and do. All David Miscavige has ever shown you of Sea Org activities at the Int Base was preceded by his staff going in advance carefully arranging everything you were to see on your walk through. It’s time you grew up and came to grips with reality, just like the rest of us.
Tom, These are times in which every Scientologist will be measured against LRH’s yardstick of Personal Integrity. You know the words — but do they mean the same thing to you now as they meant when you first read them?
“Personal integrity is knowing what you know – what you know is what you know – and to have the courage to know and say what you have observed. And that is integrity. And there is no other integrity. Of course we can talk about honor, truth, all these things, these esoteric terms. But I think they’d all be covered very well if what we really observed was what we observed. That we took care to observe what we were observing. That we always observed to observe. And not necessarily maintaining a skeptical attitude, a critical attitude, or an open mind. But certainly maintaining sufficient personal integrity and sufficient personal belief and confidence in self and courage that we can observe what we observe and say what we have observed. Nothing in Dianetics and Scientology is true for you unless you have observed it. And it is true according to your observation. That is all.”
What Marty and others are doing is not about criticism. It’s about Personal Integrity: we who have come forward to say what we have observed, measure up. You need to lay aside any bias or fixed ideas, and examine the facts for yourself. See what you see, not what you are told you see.
Thoughtful
Marty that was a well crafted response. My estimation is that it will have some kind of effect.
Stay tuned………
Wonderful reply Marty. I hope that it has a positive effect
Good job, Marty. I would like to see the full text of the incoming letter that prompted your answer, though I’m sure Mr. Fields decreed it was at least as confidential as OT III. I have seen a few of his blustering threats published before, so I can imagine what it said.
I hope it has some effect on Tom Cruise.
Both Mark Rathbun Inspector General Religious Technology Center, and Warren McShane Deputy Inspector General for Legal Affairs Religious Technology Center, is preserved by the way back machine at the Archive org!
http://web.archive.org/web/20050904200333/www.rtc.org/en_US/mark-rathbun.html
“© 1996-2003 Religious Technology Center. All Rights Reserved. For Trademark Information”
Nice catch.
the issue is, was the auditors code violated. If not, and I do not see that it has been, then there is no issue.
Your response was a good one!
Great letter.
I was a public for 14 years and was for a time at Flag on service and was actually working for the Church during the day on the renos project at the Sandcastle. Miscavige and all his cronies were there doing inspections. Mithoff and Lesevre were there and that’s possibly the last time they were seen in public. Anywho, Miscavige being around sent waves of panic and fascintion throught he work crews as it’s very rare to see him in public and by the time he came round he’d been built up to the status of a superhuman god, I kid you not.
As I was working away on a corridor, he and a few of his guys were in a room talking to one of the electric IC’s and a Sea Org project manager. I thought it weird that Miscavige (he’s tiny and this was an amazing revelation) ws listening to what this guy had to say (a public too) BUT Miscavige had his face right in front of this other guy’s face, about 2 inches away and was staring the poor guy down as he spoke. It was totally intimidating and the guy thrown by it, not surprisingly. A fter he’d explained how the job was going and that the deadline had been met early Miscavige and crew, not having anything to moan about, went off somewhere else.
The group as a whole had a real creepy presence when they were with Miscavige. When you were working they would come up behind you and just stand there and watch. I turned around when Mithoff and Lesevre did it (they were alone, without Davey around) and said ‘hi’ and they said ‘hello’ back, politely and even smiled. They didn’t wanna disturb us working I suppose, which is cool. But it was clear that Lesevre was highly nervous about someting. I didn’t know what it was back then but with the benefit of hindsight I now know. I later saw Miscavige giving them all a shouting at in the car park. They must have thought it was out of view but we were working on the windows so we got a grandstand view. Every other word was’f**k’. Wow, kinda spoiled my image of him right there.
Miscavige influenced the SO project managers in the way he acted. These guys are in their early 20’s and easily suggestible, and were working all-nighters. After Miscavige had been around for a few days they started acting like little Hitlers and barking orders. Some of the older guys took exception to this as they weren’t Scientologists, but hired contractors and more than one of these little dictators go told to FO.
It was a great lesson to me in how the organisation (CoS) engineers the Scientology public perception of the management because the fact is when the going gets tough the shouting and balling starts as a way to get jobs done, not quiet determinism. That job totally blew my view of the Church and Scientologists out of the water. AND they never paid on time. It was never on a Friday, always mid-week OR the following week. You thing they could have gotten that right.
Wow! Way to go Marty. Nice analogies!
Let’s hope Tom Cruise has a moment in his busy life to absorb your views and the St. Pete Times’ articles about the other ex Int Base staff members’ experiences.
I hope this inevitably leads to some change in the right direction.
I think 2 simple reforms would completely “handle” the public’s hatred for Scientology: a) International Amnesty, unconditionally undeclare all “SPs” (and simultaneously make it AVC’s job to tightly limit all future SP declares, and b) dismantle the worst of OSA’s black ops intel, legal, PR tactics.
And refund broadly, just dip into Sea Org reserves and pay ex parishioners BACK any money they wish returned.
Those 3 actions would absolutely transform the image of Scientology OVERNIGHT.
I hope any future WDC Members and Exec Strata members, the “Int Coord Council”, someday in the years or sooner, to come, will consider these 3 suggestions.
a) Full Amnesty (and tightly limit future SP declares)
b) Cut out OSA’s black ops/legal crap
c) Refunds to all who ask.
That would absolutely transform Scientology’s image.
Thankyou Marty and the others who have stepped up and spoken up.
I think it is only human to finally speak out against what is wrong in the world.
Scientology’s wrongs should be focused on until Scientology actually changes their wrongs.
Chuck Beatty
ex Sea Org 1975-2003
What about MR’s freedom of speech?
Bert Fields should know that he violates MR’s right for freedom of speech by telling him to no longer mention the name of TC. TC is a public person. Anybody may talk about him.
MR audited and trained TC. It is a thing of his past. He simply should forget about this?
DM is behind this attorney letter.
If TC doesn’t like it, he could put a note at his website: “Don’t go to MR.” But he didn’t do that.
Marion
There’d have to be profound changes in how staff were treated too, Chuck, and recompense to those who were abused.
1st of all, Marty—Great fucking letter.
As far as I can predict, you called his feeble bluff and they are
folding. You’re the legal mind, but I can’t see how they would
gain from responding. They knew there was nothing that you had
done, nor anything they could do (legally) but they gave it a shot
anyway. It seems like a nebulous and poorly planned attempt to
either intimidate you (as if a letter from Bert Fields should make
you quiver in your boots) or, more likely, an attempt to shame you into some sort of introverted posture. I don’t know. To me it feels like Bertie had a pre-mature ejaculation. He pulled the
trigger but the gun wasn’t loaded.
The only other thing I can think of is that perhaps Bert wants to
remind you that he is on Tom’s legal-lines and if you do abuse his
name or reputation in the future, he’ll come after you–sort of a
pre-emptive strike. I think Tom and/or DM’s withholds are being
missed by all the fuss you’ve stirred up and they’re afraid you
might besmirch Tom as DM besmirched you. In a nutshell: you’re
creating big effects; dm is playing dirty and dm is telling Tom you are going to do exactly what Miscavige himself IS doing (criminal mind). Tom is apparently worried (missed w/h). Hopefully he is thinking about all this – which really is the first step onto the rough, rough road to coming to terms with what he has become (which is the 1st step to his salvation).
I don’t think he (Bert) will call you and I don’t think he’ll
respond in any real way (if at all) to your letter. He’s not TC’s
daddy, he’s his lawyer—I think he sees that this is potentially
dangerous for him professionally so he’s going to try to not-is it.
The irony is, he is the one, I suspect, that is intimidated now.
He knows who you are. He has nowhere to go on this—seems like a lose/lose sit for him.
I doubt it was his idea. As i said, it is so ill-planned
and based on misinformation. A good lawyer (and Bert is one of the best) is cut and dry and factual—his letter sounds like a high school cheerleader in a catfight. For Bert Fields to resort to calling you names is only an indication that he doesn’t have a case. I think that DM is third partying you to Tom and Tom is accepting it as gospel and told Bert to handle it-poor Bert knew (after he did his due diligence and fact-checked the accusations) that he didn’t have a leg to stand on but he couldn’t tell his screaming client that Jesus Miscavige gave him false information…
“I guess”
M. Gaye
(inside joke between me and Marty)
I agree Chuck 🙂
What I’d like add is deep six Davy and that post of his “COB”. There is no such post according to Church policy. In other words it’s squirrel admin.
After a Committee of Evidence I’d turn his sorry ass over to criminal and civil authorities just like it says to do in the Ethics and Justice Codes.
Then declare an International Amnesty once Davy’s safely behind bars being traded for a pack of Marlboros (because an amnesty would even absolve his various crimes and high crimes).
After that cancel every arbitrary, especially including that squirrelly bastardization called the “Golden Age of Tech”, that the lil’ twerp put on the lines and use False Data Stripping as need.
Then every case that was screwed up by that crap should be repaired gratis. I’d even be willing to donate a few auditing hours myself to the cause.
Finally I think the Death Winds should be scrapped and a new ship (that doesn’t have asbestos) gotten to deliver OT VIII and the other levels beyond that when there is enough OTs ready for it not when there are enough “Ideal Borgs” or some other arbitrary.
I think that covers it 🙂
To Chuck, Heather, Mr. Bunker and the many others who have made immensely sensible suggestions here as to what should be done to remedy these obvious ills, I say this: not only should all these things be done, for the first time I’m confident they can be done and will be done.
It may take some time but they can be achieved, perhaps against the odds, for the simple reason that they are based on truth and the willingness of people to do the right thing, whereas the resistance to these things is founded on lies and fear of “doing the wrong thing”, as Jack’s story highlighted.
Regardless of our differences, if we all play our parts, even if born out of very different reasons, there will come a tipping point in the balance of power and something tangible will be achieved.
There are many shoulders pushing this thing over. I can see daylight on the edge and it’s just a matter of keeping pushing.
The Amnesty will be nice. New day, new adventures.
Way to go Marty, I too saw Tom and Nicole at GOLD its true that a whole lot was done for him to get a VERY false picture – and all this crap about calling him Mr Cruise really angered me like movie star Tom worked harder than GOLD crew – ha! If anything he should have called us “sir”!
All I got to say is:…….GO MARTY!!!
Brilliant response Marty. And I agree with JB’s assessment of the situation too. What can they do now? Not much.
There you go again, Chuck, putting forth theories about how Scientology might be reformed and turned into a legitimate religion.
Why would that be desirable? Why not just snuff out the fascist organization, and then let the Freezoners adapt and utilize any workable pieces of mental technology Hubbard developed or appropriated during his saner moments?
I for one don’t think Scientology Inc. is worth saving, and I think only a limited amount of useful knowledge will be left after editing by sane individuals.
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““This is not only a serious invasion of Tom’s privacy and a violation of the priest-penitent relationship…”
Yeah Marty. Like there is any friggin priest-penitent relationship within Scientology. I would run with this issue, Marty. Your folders have been culled. I know stuff about you that I absolutely don’t need or want to know. Moreover, I know a lot of it is lies.
However, this “priest penitent” privilege does not exist within Scientology. The dead agenting against you is proof. I am spreading this data at raids, reminding people attending the OT committee meetings that their own PC folders are not sacrosanct, and they are at risk. And I ask them to think, why does Scientology always ask for the down and dirty dirt?
Marty, I have three pages on Religious Freedom Watch dot com. Those three pages consist of one fact, and a whole bunch of flummery.
I personally know people in real life who also have pages with few facts and a lot of content.
“Blood sex crimes,” does that ring a bell? So one never knows if what Scientology is saying is true. However, the fact that they’ve culled YOUR PERSONAL FOLDERS for ammo is telling.
Tommy Davis saying “they are attacking my church so we had no choice” but to cull the folders is telling.
I’m running with this. Just saying you might want to consider it as well.
C’mon Tom – come out of the closet. Its a decade into the new century, no one of any worth hates gays.
It is shocking Heather, that a competent attorney allegedly familiar with Scientology to some degree {or he would not have been retained by Tom Cruise} would make such an insane statement to person that has a web BLOG such as Marty does here.
This is not a commercial enterprise. And even if it were, Tom Cruise would not be able to assist in making money for it.
Bert sounds irrational and patronizing in his remarks that for Marty to mention that he was once Tom Cruises’ auditor is a violation of Tom’s penitent rights?
This is why I do not fear anyone or anything the origin of which is the Church of Scientology. They are like clay pidgeons of sorts waiting to be legally put in their places, by a culture their philosphy defines as WOG.
Ciao Marty,
I believe we are ready to “mutiny”.
Ron Pls are with us and we don’t need “more” to apply OUR motto “We Come Back”.
A “public” Comm-Ev is wanted and needed to formalize the resignation of whom ISN’T “The Source”.
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