Operation Snow White

On June 20, 1977 Michael Meisner, a Scientologist, contacted the FBI. He claimed that he had escaped from being held against his will by fellow Scientologists and had evidence of criminal activity.

Meisner had been hiding out from an FBI warrant, but decided the FBI was a better bet than Scientology. Meisner was telling the truth. In court papers later from his case:

On May 1, at approximately 6 p.m., Brian Andrus, Peeter Alvet, Information Bureau official Chuck Reese and two bodyguards visited Mr. Meisner and told him that he was to be moved to another apartment.

Mr. Meisner refused to leave, threatening to cause a commotion if forced to do so.

The two guards handcuffed him behind his back, gagged him and dragged him out of the building.

Outside, they forced him onto the back floor of a waiting car. In the car one of the guards held Mr. Meisner down with his feet.

Mr. Meisner was taken to an apartment which he later learned was located at 3219 Descanso Drive, in Los Angeles, California.

After Messrs. Andrus and Alvet left, three guards remained in the apartment with Mr. Meisner.

- From the Stipulation of Evidence

On July 8, 1977, based on information from Meisner, the FBI raided Church of Scientology properties in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. alleging that Scientology officials from 1974 through 1976 conspired to steal documents belonging to the Federal Government and conspired to obstruct justice by covering up these crimes during a grand jury investigation for a burglary of the office of an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S.Courthouse in Washington, D.C.

About 90,000 pages of documents, burglary tools and eavesdropping equipment were seized in the raid. Scientologists dressed in clerical garb stood around during the raid to be included in press photos in an attempt to portray themselves as a persecuted religion.

The documents seized in this raid exposed an incredible array of cloak and dagger operations undertaken by Scientology’s Guardian’s Office, including bugging the Justice Department, stealing documents from the IRS, setting up author Paulette Cooper on bomb threat charges, and attempting to destroy the reputation of Clearwater Florida’s mayor Gabe Cazares.

An overarching program called Operation Snow White controlled the clandestine operations, and thus this case became known as the Snow White case. The goal of Operation Snow White was to clean out governmental records detrimental to Scientology and to L. Ron Hubbard through overt and covert means.

Several countries were denying port access to Hubbard’s ship the Apollo, where he was headquartered. The Snow White strategy was to: