File talk:Scientology INCOMM Security Breach 1995 part 1 of 3.ogv

 

Transcript

[1]

Aaron: Yes, so uh, I was asked to give information regarding the uh, INCOMM Mission of 1995 to the, uhm, PAC Base. What happened is that, uh, on St. Valentines day in 1995 the, uhm, CMO International and RTC moved into INCOMM to shut it down. Uh, what had been discovered was a fairly substantial security breach where a member of INCOMM had put information regarding, uh, very particular documents out on the Internet. The reason why I'm talking about this: this is possibly the, in my opinion, the greatest violation of basic fundamental human rights, uh, ever in the history of the Sea Org that I witnessed personally.

What happened is on that day, uh, Liz Ingber, one of the more senior, long-term Sea Org members, uh, took a team into INCOMM and without warning locked all the doors, uh, to the entire INCOMM location in the Pacific Base in Los Angeles. None of the staff knew what was going on, uh, and they were all kept in the dark. Over at CMO IXU [Int Extension Unit], over at the other location of 6331 Hollywood Boulevard we knew what was about to happen. Uh, the reason why we knew is that we were told there would be a large number of replacements probably needed for the INCOMM staff after the mission had been through with them. We knew that there was probably going to be only one or two security breaches but the uh, the fact of the matter was that the process of discovery of those security breaches was probably going to result in a couple of the staff members wanting to leave, or being required to leave.

Anyway, so the staff were all hoarded into an office and in another, uh, office all the missioners were waiting for them. And what they did is, the staff were one by one put through the office, told to empty out their pockets, take off their shoes and so forth, and then they were each separately interrogated. Uh, what happened was is that the, they knew that a modem over at INCOMM had been used to transfer information out, and now they wanted to know which INCOMM operator had done it, and also whether any of the other INCOMM staff were in on it.

None of the INCOMM staff were allowed to make any phonecalls to family, none of the INCOMM staff were permitted to see any of their family members in the Sea Org or even their children. At that point all communication was barred, even between INCOMM staff themselves. Over the next several weeks, all of them were made to sleep there in INCOMM, and there were guards posted on all the doors and they were not permitted to leave. The food was brought to the location and they were given meals, and made to sleep there in INCOMM, totally against their rights. They, all of them asked to leave, all of them were refused to leave. Uhm, they made repeated requests to leave, it just wasn't going to happen, not until we found out what that security breach was.

It was strange for other members of the uhm, of AOLA and other Sea Org members at that base because they knew that all of a sudden all of the INCOMM staff had just disappeared and they knew that there were guards posted at the doors. And even the Estates Project Force, which was the basic training for the Sea Org, knew about this because they were asked to take food to the door, where the food was then taken through, and all the trash was taken out.

The, eventually personal hygiene became a problem because they weren't showering, so what happened is we had guards take, uh, all the INCOMM staff one by one up to receive a shower, and they were only permitted three minutes for personal hygiene, and then they were brought back down to INCOMM and locked up again. Uhm, what then followed was, uh, later on, uhm, some of the people just lost their minds and they were just, they weren't just security checked or interrogated by one person, they were security checked and interrogated by another and another and another and then another, uhm, on this. And most of them didn't make it through this.

I remember seeing some of them, uh, later on afterwards that we had to replace, cause my job was to provide the, the resources, the personnel resources, uh, to replace other staff in the Sea Org that could then go and fill the spots that had now been lost in INCOMM, because... they just lost their minds. Y'know, or lost their families? It was, it was horrible. And some of them were from international locations, they didn't have any means or resources to survive, so they took the option of going on to the RPF. I mean, it was disgusting and then they were committed to never discuss it, ever again with anybody.

That was my involvement in it, and then it got worse for me, because all the computer systems around the world were considered, uh, to be defunct, and susceptible to attack. And there were three missionaires selected to go around the world. One was Eric Profittlich, he was to do Europe. The other one was.. uhm, a Mexican fellow... he was the Qualifications Director at CMO and he was asked to go to do the South American front, to re-encrypt the computers there. And the final mission was to go to the Flag Land Base and the Freewinds ship in the Caribbean, and I was selected for that. Very unusual mission, uh, no-one was to know about it. No-one was to know who I was seeing, no-one was to know I was a Sea Org member, I was to go as a civilian, undercover, uhm, I was to take the encryption tapes in briefcase handcuffed to my hand, and I was to travel to the Flag Land Base, provide those to... I believe it was Greg Johnson, at Flag Land Base, to re-encrypt the computers there, then I was to go to the ship.

But early on, troubles started to surface. First one is, there were no written Mission orders. The only people that knew about my mission was Luca Saccomanno, Fleur Thomas, W. D. C. [WatchDog Committe] so-and-so, Amy Mortland, uh, and the RTC reports officer who I never knew the name, I just spoke to him over a phone. No Mission orders were in writing, uh, the mission was never to be revealed to another human being, the mission was never to be discussed. What happened is, the mission's fired out, in my briefing I was told that there was a, a high risk potential of being intercepted, to have the tapes, uh, removed from my person, and I was told that in that event I was to, I was to place my life on the line to protect those tapes, because those tapes represented the, the very security of the Sea Org.

Uhm, I was due to fire out at midnight, and this was around about, uh, early March. Uh, I was due to fire out around midnight, and I did not fire out because I lost my passport (laughs). Uh, that was entirely my fault, it was no Sea Org paranoia involved there at all, I, I misplaced it and I, eventually I found it. Uhm, but they said security had been breached because I had fired late. And as a result I was to take a number of plane trips through, uh, down to Houston, Dallas, Pensacola, uh, New Orleans and all these other locations in order to get down to Miami, and then from uh, but before Miami go to Florida. Uhm, it was a highly paranoid state of affairs.

Uhm, I violated my Mission orders and for some reason, I don't know why to this day, but uh I packed up my mission uniform anyways and took it along as luggage. I just wanted to have it with me. I think it ended up saving my life, having that, uhm, uniform with me and I'll get to that later. I arrived at the Flag Land Base around about 4am and went to the uh, to the Clearwater building where I met Greg Johnson. He took the tapes from me, went into the computer room and then he came back out about a minute later. And this seemed strange to me because I knew myself with the INCOMM computers that the, the encryption time would have to be within the five to ten minute margin, he couldn't possibly have encrypted the systems with the new information so fast. And that was the first alarm bell that rang off in my head.

But he gave me the tape back and said "Now this is for the Flag Land Ba- uh, for the ship." So I went out to a berthing and I crashed there, uh, in a berthing there for a few hours, and then I was taken out to the airport where I flew to Miami, and then from Miami I took Aruba Airlines and flew to Aruba.

This was where I was first intercepted. Uh, the gentleman on board the flight made it a point to come and sit next to me, uh, he was asking me a lot of questions and it became quite clear to me that he knew exactly what I was doing on the, uhm, airline with the, the suitcase being strapped to my hand. I told him to, to get lost, I told him I didn't want to speak to him, blah blah blah. When I landed in Aruba, I went through the gates of clearance and an unusual thing happened, uh...