CHURCH CHARGES CIA WITH SPYING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400410068-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 68
• Publication Date: January 5, 1975
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON STAR NEWS 1 i
Ap oved. For Release.. 2005/01/ 3 . CIA-RIP8 -01315R000400410068-2 Y
G1fir `-I,ol -rn- e.S C
By William Willoughby
star-News Stan Writer
spy!n
The Church of ScientoI-
ogy, claiming it has docu-
mented evidence that the
Central Intelligence Agency
planted spies in its
churches and on its staff,
has won a restraining order
prohibiting the CIA and
other federal agencies from
destroying records and files
they have on the church and
its members.
An order, signed by
Judge Martin Pense of the
U.S. District Court in Fla-
waif, named the Internal
Revenue Service, the Na-
tional Security Agency and
the U.S. Information Agen-
cy as well as the CIA.
The Church of Scientol-
ogy was one of 99 groups
named on the IRS list of
"enemies" of the Nixon.
Administration ' and also
was one of the churches
named in the FBI's "Coin-
teipro" (counter- intelli-
gence program) operations
disclosed recently.
THE REV.. LAWRENCE
Wilber of the church's Los
Angeles headquarters said.
"The restraining order will
preserve the files so we can
gain access to them through
legal action. Our goal is to
discover the source and ex-
tent of the dirty tricks and
accomplish reform in this
area."
Wilber said the church
served papers on the CIA
first because "they are
presently under heavy fire'
for domestic. intelligence
activities and we want to
make sure they don't de-
stroy incriminating evi-
dence relating to their ac-
tivities against our church
or parishoners."
Wilber said church offi-
cials don't know why they
have been singled out since
they were not anti-war
demonstrators and did not
advocate or practice any-
thing that could be consid-
ered subversive.
The spokesman said the)
CIA, through agents acting;
as members of American
embassy staffs, "have writ-
ten reports containing false i.
and misleading information;
WILBER ALSO said a
woman who enrolled in the
church's program in Octo-
ber in a California city
volunteered that in 1969 She,
had worked for the CIA and
was involved in spy activi-
ties against the church.
In another instance in-
volving a California church
last September, Wilber
said, a church staff member
was a CIA agent who had
joined the church staff
under an alias.
Another person who had
worked) for the CIA only
briefly last winter became
interested in the Founding
Church of Scientology -at
2125 S St. NW, but was told
by his CIA superior that his
continued participation in
the church would result in
his classification as a "se-
curity risk," Wilber said.
"We feel the full scope of
illegal governmental intelli-
gence activities fostered by
the Nixon administration
has yet to come to light,"
the church official said.
"With the help of this
court order we intend to
make additional data on
these abuses public."
Other churches, religious
organizations and persons.
on the FBI and IRS lists in-
cluded the National Council
of Churches, radio evan-
gelist Carl McIntire, Protes-
tants-and other Americans.
United For Separation of
Church and State, and the.
Unitarian Universalist Asso-
ciation. -
OS~~ C ~.vc es
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