| # The 558 Program: Page 7 Notes & Jargon
"Establish and cultivate comm lines in the area of Human Rights Groups." (Operating Target #26) | It is a standard tactic of Scientologists to denounce legal or governmental action against the organisation as being an infringement of human rights. Indeed, Scientologists on the Internet have on occasion protested that mere criticism of Scientology is somehow a blow against their freedoms.
"Get at least one "Cleaning the Parks" action done each week. Take good pictures of it and make this action known." (Operating Target #28) "Get events organized in which Scientologists go and plant new trees on the hills that have been recently burned down. Get media coverage." (Operating Target #29) | An revealing insight into the true purpose of a Scientology "charitable" campaign, at least in this instance. Freedom magazine (UK edition, 2nd quarter 1997) states below a headline, "Charitable Efforts Benefit Community," that "Scientologists engage in many community activities because reaching out to help others is an integral part of their beliefs." This example - granting that it may be an exception, though this seems unlikely - shows that the primary purpose of Scientology's good deeds is in fact to "Get media coverage"; Scientology's own interests in this case came before those of the recipients of the supposed charity.
"In liason with the HES ATH get the TWTH booklet translated into Greek and printed." (Operating Target #30) "As part of the Clear Expansion Committee activities close an in-charge who will take care of the distribution of the booklet and will organize TWTH events." (Operating Target #31) | The HES ATH is short for Hubbard [Communications Office] Executive Secretary Athens, the local officer responsible for dissemination of publicity material. TWTH, aka The Way to Happiness, written in 1980 by L. Ron Hubbard, is a booklet of moral precepts ranging from the noble to the utterly banal ("Preserve your teeth. If one brushed one's teeth after every meal, it has been said that one would not suffer tooth decay.") It notably fails to mention Scientology or Dianetics anywhere in the text, and a publishing front (originally Regent House, Los Angeles) was developed so that it would not appear to emanate from the Scientology corporate empire. Crucially, it is touted as a "non-religious moral code based purely on common sense", not as part of Scientology. But these Operating Targets demonstrate that the link between Scientology and TWTH is in fact a very close one. It has been suggested that TWTH's primary goal is to raise the profile of L. Ron Hubbard as a moralist without the poor public image of Scientology getting in the way.
"Get the first Freedom published and distributed." (Operating Target #32) "Get one prepared and distributed every 3 months in which the activities of the Scientologists in Greece will be made known and the rotten spots of the Greek society exposed." (Operating Target #33) | Freedom magazine, as already mentioned, is Scientology's main tool for disseminating "dead agent" material about its critics. The magazine is not published in every country, merely those where Scientology perceives itself as being under threat. Freedom was created in Britain in 1968 within weeks of the Government imposing what was to be a 12-year ban on foreign Scientologists entering the country. Since then, national editions of the magazine have been created in a number of other countries to campaign against local anti-Scientologists. Freiheit in Germany campaigns against the German Government's hostility towards Scientology whilst a special Swedish version of Freedom was created in 1996 to "dead agent" an individual Internet critic of Scientology. This purpose is emphasised in Operating Target #33, which gives the magazine's purpose as being to expose "rotten spots" (i.e. critics of Scientology).
"Work out and file complaints/suits on the papers who had printed entheta and refused to correct." (Operating Target #35) | Scientology has for many years aggressively pursued lawsuits against newspapers and magazines which have published articles uncomplimentary towards the organisation. L. Ron Hubbard set out this policy in The Scientologist: A Manual on The Dissemination of Material, published in Ability Major #1, 1955: "... we do not want Scientology to be reported in the press, anywhere else than on the religious page of newspapers. It is destructive of word of mouth to permit the public presses to express their biased and badly reported sensationalism. Therefore we should be very alert to sue for slander at the slightest chance so as to discourage the public presses from mentioning Scientology."