December 22, 2011
Joseph K. Grieboski
Institute on Religion and Public Policy
1620 I Street, NW, Suite LL10
Washington, DC 20006
USA
By e-mail: jgrieboski@religionandpolicy.org
And by Canada Post
Dear Mr. Grieboski:
As you know, what purports to be an OSA Program for operating you has just been leaked. I have been contacted by the Village Voice, which obviously is pursuing this matter.
In the data being assembled on Scientology-related forums, someone posted a link to a letter you wrote to the Northeast PA Media blog on February 29, 2008. This is the first time I have seen this letter.
I am writing you about the following three paragraphs from your letter, which defame me:
http://nepamedia.blogspot.com/2008/02/scientologists-are-coming-maybe.html
Because we protect the rights of all people, we are continually under scrutiny by those who do not. I make this point because of the source you referenced who is striving to give credence to the belief that we are a front for Scientologists. We have repeatedly dealt with bad press from this person and I leave it to you good readers to determine whether or not his views are based on fact.
Gerald Armstrong is a former clerk in a Scientology organization. Armstrong intended to seize assets of the Church of Scientology. When attorneys of the Church discovered the plan, they obtained permission from the Los Angeles police to conduct an investigation into Armstrong’s plans. The investigation caught Armstrong on videotape stating that he intended to forge and then plant incriminating documents on Church premises, to be discovered in a subsequent raid. When challenged on how he would obtain proof of the allegations he intended to make, he responded that: “We don’t have to prove a god dam thing. We don’t have to prove shit. We just have to allege it.”
If that is not enough, Armstrong once posted a message on the Internet concerning a letter he sent to Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War. In the letter, he offered himself to Hussein as a hostage in the Iraqi war. “If either side failed to perform any part of the agreement, the other side could execute me,” he concluded. Armstrong makes clear in his posting that he did not think the letter to Hussein was a joke, but was deadly serious. He quite proudly republishes it and other similar writings from time to time. There is much more I could say on the subject, but will leave it to the readers to research for themselves if they wish to discover the more sordid background of this “gentleman,” who currently has several outstanding warrants for his arrest.
As we both know, this is the Scientologists’ black propaganda on me, that you had to have known was black propaganda. You indicate in your letter that you, “have repeatedly dealt with bad press from” me, so you have undoubtedly used this black PR, and perhaps other black PR on me from the Scientologists, in your repeated dealings with people.
Because I had written you as early as 2004, because I had made my contact information publicly available, and because you had, over time, been dealing with my statements repeatedly, there was no reason but malice that you did not contact me to check the veracity of what you were stating. You knew what you were stating was false.
You were, of course, on the Scientologists’ payroll, and were their agent, as well as being an agent for your institute.
The damage you and your institute caused is horrible and ongoing. You intended to harm me with your black PR and lies. What you have done around the world as a Scientology agent, using your religious and government connections, with the collaboration of the US Federal Government, while falsely claiming that you were not a “front for Scientologists,” is chilling.
I demand that without delay you and your institute correct the quoted black PR and lies you have published about me publicly. I demand that without delay you do whatever you and your institute can do to repair and make up for the damage you have done to me.
I intend to advertise publicly in the Washington, DC area, and, of course, across the US, for an attorney to prosecute a claim for defamation against you and your institute. Because of the nature of the defamation, your relationship with Scientology, and the duration and global scope of your actions against me, there very well could be other torts or civil rights claims. But that would be for my attorney to decide, or develop through discovery. For now, I am demanding that you and your institute correct the quoted defamatory statement and compensate me for the damage done.
If you or your institute desire to reasonably discuss my demands before I begin the necessary process of advertising my claim in order to obtain an attorney, please contact me or have your legal representative contact me by this weekend, 5:00 PM EST tomorrow, Friday, December 23.
Sincerely,
Gerry Armstrong
#2-46298 Yale Road
Chilliwack, BC V2P 2P6
Canada
604-703-1373