Dead Agent means to spread malicious lies and rumors about Scientology critics or organization, in an attempt to so thoroughly discredit them that everyone concerned will be disgusted with them, and not listen to the information they have to give about the cult. Many attempts to Dead Agent the recently destroyed CAN, FACTnet and individual critics have been posted to the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology.

Critics of Scientology state that "dead agenting" is commonly used on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology to discredit and slander them. [3] The Scientology-sponsored website religiousfreedomwatch.com features depictions of "anti-religious extremists," virtually all of whom are critics of Scientology. Featuring photos of the critics and claimed evidence of their personal wrongdoing (sometimes rather vague, for example: "Documentation received by Religious Freedom Watch shows that [Kristi] Wachter paid an individual to carry out a specific project for her, and also instructed this individual to lie about what he was doing in case he was caught"). The "Religious Freedom Watch" site is often cited by alt.religion.scientology users as a contemporary example of "dead agenting."

A DA [Dead Agent] pack can include anything from Hubbard's writings to a piece of press to an affidavit obtained by a private investigator. The purpose is to refute the targeted piece, person or group at virtually any cost. If the article presents no clear-cut falsehoods or errors but paints Scientology in an unfavorable light, the DA becomes a general reply (usually an attack on the source) that may be issued as a pamphlet, an ad, or an article.

In Germany, the Scientologists tried to bring an action against Clark under the International Convention for the Prevention of Genocide because he was spreading theories that more than half the members of new religions were mentally ill, and was acting in a similar way to Nazi psychiatrists when they were engaged in annihilating religious minorities. The strong statements contained in their Press release linking Clark to the worst excesses of deprogramming were but one shot in a continuing campaign. Dr Clark alleges that he has received phone threats, false complaints filed about him as a physician and scurrilous rumours about affairs with female patients. There had been private investigators assigned to him, personnel records from a health centre where he worked were stolen and leaflets were handed out at MGH stating falsely that Clark believed in electro-shock therapy and that he had connections with the Nazi party. A reward of $25,000 was offered for information which would lead to a criminal conviction of Dr Clark.

I was part of the Gerry Armstrong Dead Agent Unit — the GA DA Unit for short. Vaughn, myself, Andy Lenarcic, Ann Lenarcic, and a few others worked round the clock to come up with evidence that would prove Armstrong was a "shoddy researcher" and therefore was wrong in saying that the information being published by the church about LRH was false.

14. In another project in this same time frame, I was assigned the task of going through witness Michael Meisner's supposedly confidential preclear files and similarly tabbing any incidences of sexual irregularities, drug use, or criminal conduct to be used against him.

Scientology repeatedly asked the Fishman court to seal all of this damaging evidence and the supporting documents, and to keep them from the public. The courts repeatedly refused. So the Church of Scientology decided to remove the lawyers who were defending the Fishman case. Scientology and its lawyers found a former acquaintance of mine a Robert Cipriano. They discovered that there was an arrest warrant for him in another state. Scientology blackmailed Cipriano into signing a false affidavit stating that I was a child molester with 40-60 victims in one 6-month period. They published this perjury on the Internet and to my professional colleagues and friends all over America and around the world. Then they investigated several senior partners of my law firm. They discovered things that they threatened to publish unless I was stopped from being the defense lawyer in the Fishman-Geertz case. Without my knowledge, my senior partner entered into a secret agreement with the Church of Scientology. My senior law partner and the Church of Scientology stole the client's files. Because there was no longer any defense lawyer, the Scientology lawyers were able to have the court order the Fishman-Geertz court records sealed from public and media access.

"Scientology's OSA department had one or two of its 'agents' work on a DA package including the incident even before Ms. Bloodybutt tried to frame Tom Klemesrud. That DA package was to included the claim that Tom Klemesrud was being questioned by the police about murdering a woman. (An anonymous telephone call to the police by a woman screaming for help was probably planned, but the woman was too drunk to perform the call or remember to call.) The plan was to make Tom Klemesrud appear that he had murdered someone and then successfully hide / dispose of the body, and to have him incarcerated for a crime that had not even been committed."

"I and others were told by (Scientology executive) Marty Rathburn that on orders of David Miscavige, the successor of L. Ron Hubbard as the head of the cult, that the medical records of O'Reilly were to be stolen from the Betty Ford Center, and another location in Santa Barbara, to show that he was using cocaine, discredit him, and possibly blackmail him into easing off on his $30-million verdict now on appeal," Yanny said last summer when questioned by Scientology lawyers.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa is investigating a suspected 1982 extortion plot by the Church of Scientology to entrap and compromise a Tampa federal judge who presided over a suit against the Clearwater-based sect, a Clearwater Sun investigation has revealed.

The purported plot, which involved an attempt to lure U.S. District Judge Ben Krentzman aboard a boat off the Pinellas Suncoast where prostitutes and drugs were to be used to put the judge in a compromising position, was authorized personally by reclusive Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, confidential sources have told the Sun.

This process of "Black P.R," while credited to L. Ron Hubbard, was actually an invention of Nazi Propaganda Minister Dr. Goebbels. Goebbels believed that you could create any kind of lie, and if you spread it amongst enough people, it would become the truth. While Goebbels may have have invented this process, L. Ron Hubbard and his scumbags have brought it to a new low.

MR. WALTERS:

[...] I might mention one thing, only because of my experience in the Guardian’s Office. It looks very real and everything, but be careful for dead agenting, meaning something that is sent to you — and this guy may not even exist. It does look real because I — I mean, this is the standard copy.

But just be careful. You’re dealing with a very clever outfit. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that.

Dead agenting means that they all know you’re doing an investigation. So, they will send one of your Commissioners a letter by a so-called Scientologist. And that Scientologist will meet with you and you’ll bring him to the hearings, and he will turn you around just as that guy from El Salvador just turned the government around. It’s called dead agenting. And then, of course, you will not be believed.

It comes from the — as Ron told us on tapes, it comes from the early days when an agent would tell the king something and, then, they’d find out he was lying and they’d kill the agent. So, if you give a guy false information and you find it false, Mayor, then, you wouldn’t talk to that fellow again, would you? [...]

Other "drills" set in the document include exercises in "spreading rumours" (trainees are "flunked" if they are spotted as "a source of falsity or troublemaking, etc.") and "creating incidents which reflect on others" ("flunk for being spotted as the creator"). [...]

10. It was the policy of Hubbard and the Church of Scientology throughout this time, to use the law to " attack" and "harass" its enemies by bringing frivolous lawsuits against them. Hubbard himself ordered lawsuits to be brought against Flynn and his clients. These lawsuits were brought without any concern as to whether they were meritorious or not, the whole purpose was to "bury" Flynn in these suits. The filing of these suits was to be very highly publicized by our public relations people so that Flynn's reputation in the community would be further harmed.

"192 In this case, there is ample evidence upon which the jury could properly base their finding of aggravated damages. The existence of the file on Casey Hill under the designation 'Enemy Canada' was evidence of the malicious intention of Scientology to 'neutralize' him. The press conference was organized in such a manner as to ensure the widest possible dissemination of the libel. Scientology continued with the contempt proceedings although it knew its allegations were false. In its motion to remove Hill from the search warrant proceedings, it implied that he was not trustworthy and might act in those proceedings in a manner that would benefit him in his libel action. It pleaded justification or truth of its statement when it knew it to be false. It subjected Hill to a demeaning cross-examination and, in its address to the jury, depicted Hill as a manipulative actor."

Commissioners heard also from a former Guardian Office worker who said she used the sect's "confessional files" during several campaigns to discredit defected Scientologists; a man who said he participated in burglaries to obtain confidential legal records to help frame defectors; and two people who said they were targets of these activities.

The most recent development — a strange reverse twist — is anonymous circulation of a Photostat of what purports to be a document outlining a scheme wherein the McLeans pretend to defect so they can give false information to publications that could then be sued for libel.

If accepted, it would destroy the McLean’s credibility. What it doesn’t say is that the documents they have, some duplicated in the Calgary files, are also bogus.

The Church of Scientology agreed yesterday to pay £55,000 libel damages to a former member the church accused of waging a "hate campaign" against it.

The controversial church, founded in the early 1950s by the late science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, apologised at the high court in London for publishing a defamatory leaflet about Bonnie Woods, an American who became a Scientologist in the 1970s but left the church in 1982.

Crampton dug out the scheme against Tapper from documents seized three years ago during FBI raids at Church of Scientology offices in Los Angeles. The documents were obtained under Freedom of Information Act by Paulette Cooper, author of "The Scandal of Scientology" book. [...]

Crampton said she had assumed the FBI would have told Tapper or someone in the attorney general's office about the plot, but that during their phone conversation he appeared "dumbfounded" over the extent of the scheme.

"You mean, you have all that on paper?" Crampton quoted Tapper as saying. I certainly do - right out of the Scientology files," she said she replied.

"You've made my weekend," Tapper exclaimed, according to Crampton. He then asked her to send copies at the documents to him, she added, which she did two days later.

11. Scientology also ran operations against Wollersheim's counsel, Charles O'Reilly, and his law firm. This included bugging O'Reilly's house, placing an agent in the clerical staff in O'Reilly's law firm, and attempting to set him and his bodyguards up with girls. The purpose was to discover attorney-client strategy and secrets and get or manufacture information which could compromise O'Reilly.

The Church of Scientology of California published and circulated in this country what might be called broadsheets styled variously as Freedom Scientology, Freedom and Scientology, Freedom. Some of the broadsheets had international editions. Mr Ginever was the editor of the broadsheets. Mr Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology claimed the copyright in what was published in the broadsheets. [...]

In the campaign extravagant allegations were made against Mr Robinson which were of a gravely defamatory nature. Put shortly, it was alleged that Mr Robinson had instigated or approved of the creation of what were called "death camps", likened to Belsen and Auschwitz, to which persons (including mental patients) could be forcibly abducted and there killed or maimed with impunity. It was further alleged that Mr Robinson had abused his position as a minister in relation to government grants made to the National Association of Mental Health.