The “Snow White” Program and the Church of Scientology: The True Story

The Snow White Program refers to a program written by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard on April 28, 1973, to legally expose and expunge false governmental reports about the Church of Scientology, its leaders and members.

The term “Snow White” was adopted as the name of the program because the government officials responsible for circulating the false reports were spreading a “fairy tale” without factual basis.

Mr. Hubbard wrote the Snow White Program because the government officials, particularly in the United States, England and Germany, by disseminating false information, were seeking to deny the Church of Scientology and Mr. Hubbard access to countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. This resulted in harassment of the ship Apollo, which at that time housed Church of Scientology senior ecclesiastical management. Mr. Hubbard sought to correct the record and to ensure that accurate and unbiased information on the Church of Scientology was maintained in government files and disseminated by government agencies. Accordingly, Mr. Hubbard summarized the program as follows:

To engage in various litigation in all countries affected so as to expose to view all such derogatory and false reports, to engage in further litigation in the countries originating such reports, to exhaust recourse in these countries and then finally to take the matter to the United Nations (that now being possible for an individual and a group) and to the European Commission on Human Rights, meanwhile uprooting and cancelling all such files and reports wherever found.

Mr. Hubbard expressly stated what the program was intended to achieve: “All false and secret files of the nations of operating areas brought to view and legally expunged.”

The Minister of Justice in Portugal officially authorized the registration of the Church of Scientology as a religious organization in Portugal in 1988, accomplishing the Snow White Program’s objective for that country.

In furtherance of the Snow White Program, the Church of Scientology availed itself of records access laws to pursue Scientology-related records. In 1973, when the Snow White Program was written, freedom of information laws were virtually unheard of. This required the Church to work to have laws enacted, and then to work through the courts to give the laws real power. Thus, the Church helped create a substantial body of law that has benefited the entire public. The rich legacy of the Snow White Program has established the Church of Scientology as a champion of freedom of information and other citizen records access statutes to ensure transparency in government.

Portugal “Rock Festival”

Incidents in Portugal in the late 1960s and early 1970s illustrate the use of the Snow White Program and its results. From 1969 to the first half of 1974, the Apollo frequently docked at ports in Portugal, experiencing good relations with the people and local governments. In July 1973, a rumor was heard in the port of Oporto that the Apollo was a “CIA ship.” This same rumor had first surfaced at ports in Spain in 1972 and, as a result of this and other false reports, the ship had been denied entry into some Spanish ports. Although the rumor persisted in 1973 and 1974 in Portugal, the Apollo continued to be welcome in Portuguese ports.

On October 3, 1974, while the Apollo was docked at the port of Funchal on the island of Madeira, Portugal, the ship and its crew and passengers were attacked by a large crowd throwing rocks and shouting, “CIA ship!” The local police and army stood by and watched, doing nothing to restrain the crowd. As a result, Church staff aboard the ship were injured and property was damaged and destroyed. Cars and motorcycles belonging to the Church and Church staff were thrown off the dock into the bay. The ship crew had to fight off the attackers with fire hoses while the ship made an emergency departure to escape the violence.

Documents obtained from the U.S. State Department through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), pursuant to the Snow White Program, traced the “CIA ship” rumor to a State Department telex in April of 1972 sent to various European countries and containing numerous false reports. Following the Snow White Program procedure of exposing and expunging false reports and seeking redress for religious persecution, the company that owned the Apollo, Operation Transport Corporation (OTC), filed suit in Lisbon against the government of Portugal, seeking damages as a result of the attack. In June 1985, the Administrative Court of Lisbon awarded damages to OTC, finding that the riot in October of 1974 had been sparked by the “CIA ship” rumor and that the rumor was false. The damages were upheld on appeal in 1987.

Based on these decisions, and the Church’s efforts to correct the false information in government files originally generated by the U.S. government, the Minister of Justice in Portugal officially authorized the registration of the Church of Scientology as a religious organization in Portugal in 1988, accomplishing the Snow White Program’s objective for that country.

In 2007, the Church of Scientology in Portugal was again recognized as a religion following a change in that country’s religion law. And in 2011, at the very port of Funchal where the riot occurred some 37 years earlier, a plaque was embedded in the seawall overlooking the bay, commemorating L. Ron Hubbard’s centennial birthday and the Apollo’s history of visiting the island of Madeira from 1969 to 1974.

Church of Scientology: Champion of Freedom of Information

The principal activities in the United States under the Snow White Program have consisted of filing Freedom of Information Act requests with all federal governmental agencies; public record requests at the state and local level; pursuing litigation to compel disclosure of records being withheld; and the filing and prosecution of a large lawsuit in 1978 against a number of federal government agencies for the purpose of expunging all false reports on the Church and Mr. Hubbard contained in the agency files.

Under the aegis of Snow White in the 1970s, the Church of Scientology established itself as a leader in the promotion and utilization of the Freedom of Information Act to protect not only the rights of Scientologists, but those of all citizens. The Church of Scientology engaged in an extensive public education campaign to ensure that citizens knew how to use the FOIA to expose wrongdoing and ensure transparency in government. The Church of Scientology also litigated numerous FOIA cases in the early years of the act, establishing fundamental precedents that include shifting the burden to the government to prove documents are exempt from the FOIA and establishing that a government agency has an obligation to specify what documents are being withheld and on what grounds.

In May 1991, in a case against the Internal Revenue Service, a United States federal court credited the Church with helping bring about significant reform.

The Church of Scientology and individual Scientologists have been relentless advocates of freedom of information and have played a key role in helping to enact public access legislation in many parts of the world. Holding governments accountable, the Church of Scientology has used freedom of information laws throughout the world to expose official wrongdoing that injures the rights of everyone. These efforts continue to this day.

As a result of these FOIA requests, the Church of Scientology obtained hundreds of thousands of pages of records from the files of government agencies concerning the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, and Scientology leaders and members. These records were rife with false information and revealed a clear religious animus on the part of certain government officials against Scientology.

For example, records obtained under FOIA documented a 40-year pattern of Internal Revenue Service harassment and discrimination against the Church, its officials and members that included the following violations of fundamental religious liberty and tax law:

• Seeking to redefine religion to exclude the Church of Scientology;
• Infiltration of Scientology Churches to disrupt their activities;
• Surveillance and wiretapping;
• Forging documents falsely implicating Church officials in wrongdoing;
• Using tax laws to selectively discriminate against Scientologists.

Indeed, subsequent Congressional Oversight Hearings in the United States confirmed that the IRS had targeted Mr. Hubbard, the Church of Scientology and Scientology leaders for discriminatory treatment, and for illegal and politically motivated information gathering designed to stigmatize and set the Church apart as inherently suspect under the law.

In May 1991, in a case against the Internal Revenue Service, a United States federal court credited the Church with helping bring about significant reform.

“Furthermore,” the Court stated, “communications between the IRS and the Church indicate that this litigation contributed to the IRS’ decision to review its procedures and that resulting improvements in these procedures will enable better handling of over 1,000 cases involving identical legal issues.” Church of Scientology Western United States v. Internal Revenue Service, May 24, 1991, CV-89-6370-RSWL.

These precedents have safeguarded and ensured the rights of countless groups and individuals.

Ultimately, as a result of continued disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act, the Church was vindicated of all false accusations. In October 1993, following a two-year examination by a special task force of IRS officials, the IRS recognized the Church of Scientology International and all affiliated entities—more than 150 Scientology Churches, Missions and affiliated organizations in the United States—as tax exempt. The IRS also ruled that individual Scientology parishioners were entitled to deduct as contributions their customary fixed donations connected with participation in the vast majority of Scientology religious services. This was the largest review in IRS history. Once exemption was recognized, the conflict with the IRS ended once and for all.

The Church also has used the FOIA to expose covert government programs that targeted unwitting citizens and communities for harmful biological and chemical testing. As reported in The Washington Post on March 11, 1980: “Using documents made public under the Freedom of Information Act, primarily CIA financial records, the Scientologists said receipts for repairs and replacement parts indicated … [a] machine was steadily used for 13 years and may have produced hundreds of pounds of various biological agents and microorganisms…. Citing one invoice from the early 1960s, the Scientologists said there was evidence that at least two disease-causing agents, one that could touch off undulant fever and another that could bring on tularemia, were mass produced.”

Another Church FOIA request, in 1984, resulted in records revealing that the U.S. Army had secretly sprayed potentially harmful bacteria in open-air tests in the Washington, D.C., National Airport and in bus terminals in Washington, Chicago and San Francisco in 1964 and 1965. According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, these covert government actions were undertaken as part of a biological warfare experiment. The germ used to spray hundreds of unsuspecting American citizens has been found to cause symptoms of respiratory infections, blood poisoning and food poisoning.

In acknowledgement of these efforts, Quinlan J. Shea Jr., director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Privacy and Information Appeals under Presidents Ford and Carter, credited the Church of Scientology, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Society of Professional Journalists, with having “endeavored to shine more light on government. They—and others—have issued publications on how to use the FOIA, have litigated in the courts and have testified before numerous congressional hearings calling for more openness.”

The Osler Decision

Dishonest government officials have sought to thwart the Church’s efforts to expose government misconduct by misrepresenting the Snow White Program. In one instance, government officials in Ontario, Canada, described the Snow White Program by omitting the word “legal,” to insinuate that the program directed files be expunged by any means. This resulted in severe persecution of the Church.

When the full program was presented to an unbiased court, Justice John Osler of the Supreme Court of Ontario, Canada, concluded, in an opinion dated January 23, 1985, that on its face the Snow White Program called for actions to “legally expunge” files and that the word legally had in fact been left out of the government’s description.

Justice Osler fully acknowledged the validity of the reasons that the Church undertook the program in the first place. 

Justice Osler indicated it was clear that the program “requires that, in various countries, litigation be engaged in with the object of exposing to view the allegedly false reports, and to take the matter finally to the United Nations,” agreeing with the Church’s argument that it should have been obvious to the government that the objective of Snow White “was to obtain the production and correction of adverse files by all legal means, a perfectly lawful object.”

Justice Osler cited with approval the defendants’ argument that all instructions in the Snow White Program must be construed in light of the admonition that government files be expunged legally. The Court held that:

It should perhaps be further mentioned that the order referred to above, under the heading “Handling” requires that, in various countries, litigation be engaged in with the object of exposing to view the allegedly false reports, and to take the matter finally to the United Nations, “meanwhile uprooting and cancelling all such files and reports wherever found.” In the submission of the applicant, such phrases as “uprooting and cancelling all such files” must also be interpreted in the light of the phrase “legally expunge.”

The Justice further observed that the Freedom of Information Act and similar legislation in other countries now specifically make possible such activities. Finally, Justice Osler fully acknowledged the validity of the reasons that the Church undertook the program in the first place:

It is not without significance that the affidavit of Fletcher Prouty, appearing in Volume 8A of the record at tab KK, makes it appear that he formed the conclusion, as a highly placed official of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, that since 1950 there has been a definite campaign of harassment against this organization [Church of Scientology] for nearly thirty years, primarily by means of the dissemination of false and derogatory information around the world to create a climate in which adverse action would be taken against the Church and its members. Defense against this type of activity was, of course, the stated objective of the Snow White Program.

Justice Osler’s decision makes it unequivocally clear that the Snow White Program served important legal goals to ensure that false information about Scientology was expunged from government files and replaced by accurate and complete information.

Conclusion

Since Mr. Hubbard created the Snow White Program, the Church of Scientology has become a pioneer in the use of the Freedom of Information Act and other citizen records access laws and in educating others on their importance. The Church has used these laws to shine light into the dark recesses of government secrecy and expose many covert government programs that violated the rights of all citizens and undermined open, transparent government—a linchpin of democracy.

The Church of Scientology will continue to be a champion of freedom of information. This is the proud legacy of L. Ron Hubbard’s Snow White Program.