It occurred to me that most here really don’t know how OSA operates and have not seen original Ops programs firsthand. So sometimes OSA is given too much credit, too much fear, or typical tactics are not recognized.
I’ll include what I know from my personal experience, and ask that the rest of you who know OSA can add your own info. My info comes from one year as Dir Income USGO (AOLA staff) in 1980 and reading OSA/USGO programs filed by my predecessor in the debtor files, as well as from programs I saw in ethics files from two years as the Dir I&R AOLA. I was fully hatted, as well as OEC and ESTO trained.
The OSA programs Marty Rathbun posted on Tory Christman and Chuck Beatty are typical. Both Tory and Chuck confirm their accuracy and authenticity. These programs haven’t changed since the ones I saw in the 80s except for the fact they demonstrate less intellect or planning and more harassment and defaming. OSA really isn’t all that smart. Read these and you’ll see what I mean.
OSA Ops consist of:
1) Creating and forwarding defamatory statements about those considered enemies. (Black Propaganda) These usually contain a miniscule amount of (innocent) recognizable truth to them, but it is blown up, exaggerated and altered like a funny mirror. Example: John Ex is going through a divorce primarily over financial arguments (truth). OSA accuses John Ex of cheating, being gay, beating his wife, gambling, hiring hookers and abusing his kids (all lies) as the reasons for the divorce.
These lies are then forwarded as gossip through exScn websites, emails and PMs as well as to C of S Scns through Religious Freedom sites and word of mouth.
2) Fear and Intimidation tactics. OSA likes to mess with others’ heads. Inconvenient but obvious “messages” are left for the person to back off, including following a person, obviously taking pictures of you, hints that they have a phone number or address and contacts made to friends and family told to leave a message for you. The majority of these are more annoying than dangerous, but if it gets a person afraid to the point of backing off or getting distracted, then it is mission accomplished.
3) Attempts to cause internal quarrels within a group. (Divide and Conquer) If there is an argument, an OSA Op will add fuel to fire it up and get as many people involved on different sides as possible. The Op will mis-quote, mis-state and intentionally misinterpret what another said in the worst possible way to incite upset. An OSA Op will take it even further, with PMs about being your friend and on your side and having been the victim of the person in the past, while stating they only want peace.
It’s not brilliant, it’s just sneaky and dishonest. We’ve all known people who have done this sort of thing out of jealousy or other motives, both in or out of Scn. It’s easy to beat by privately asking any with a proven reputation as an Ex who know the person personally and have dealt with him/her, or by immediately contacting the person with which one has a disagreement and sorting things out for yourself.
4) Legal tactics to intimidate, defame, harass. Restraint orders based on fabricated evidence, no evidence or limited evidence. False reports to police to harass a person and get them investigated. Cut and pieced statements made on the Internet or bits about the person, all out of context and misleading (Moxon technique).
5) Infiltration of known exScn, Indy or FZ groups.
Some of the flaws in OSA Techniques include:
1) A lack of foresight and overall view of the “big picture”. OSA programs are updated every week for “stats”. OSA programs assume the OSA Op is less intelligent than the one writing the program (that entire hierarchy of who is better in the Cult). OSA Ops are, by their nature, limited exclusively to those involved in the Op, so there is little or no info or coordination from other Ops and they sometimes unknowingly work against each other.
2) The Cult often hires outside agencies to do their dirty work. While these agencies may be good at gathering info and at spying, they are far less likely to actually hurt anyone and they don’t fully understand things from a Scn or Ex viewpoint. The Cult is short of manpower these days, so the majority of Ops are by outside agencies.
3) OSA plans are simple. Devious, destructive, nasty, but simple. Seriously. Because the people writing them really are of limited intelligence. These are people that must think only with Scn, that have little contact with the outside world and worry about stats every week. Long range planning is rare but when it occurs, the plans are simple because the Data Series on which these are based states they must be. Plans can and are updated regularly – usually weekly – but they are only updated from the birdseye view of the OSA Op. Rarely is the one running the Op smart enough to coordinate different Ops and add accurate info or targets.
Here is an example: A long range OSA Op plan may include infiltrating different Scn or Anon groups and disrupting things or gaining info. But setting up their own OSA squirrel group and receiving or delivering auditing? Not going to happen. Too complex, too many variables, too hard, requires too many people, too many risks, too much coordination and the OSA Ops would worry about it messing up their cases. As Terril pointed out on another thread, it’s never happened in the past (if anyone knows of an instance, please correct me). OSA Ops HAVE been in David Mayo’s classroom, though. I knew of one who did this, a woman who was working on her A-E steps from being declared. She infiltrated Mayo’s group for 3 months as her effective blow and amends – I signed her formula. She told me they didn’t have student points and a few other things. She was extremely uncomfortable doing it, though. When the Op was over, she was pretty confused over who the good guys and bad guys were. She left the C of S completely a few years later, btw. No, OSA wouldn’t start their own group to deliver Scn outside the C of S. No way. The risks! The Op could turn without their knowing and grab the most damaging materials from the Cult and give them to the Ex’s. Who could be trusted that far and not to be caught? Never happened before and I can’t see it ever happening.
