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From: Stacy Brooks
(stacybrooks@mciworld.com) What an incredible experience it has been this past month with Tory. She first emailed me as "Magoo" on July 17, trying to get in touch with Vaughn. I hadn't been following a.r.s. at the time, so I didn't know anything about Magoo. I had never heard the name. This is what she wrote to me the very first time she made contact on July 17, 2000 (I have Tory's permission to post this email correspondence):
Now, you have to understand that I get lots of emails from anonymous people and I respond to them, but Vaughn doesn't, especially right now. So I wrote back to her:
Magoo wrote me back again on the same day, July 17. This is what she said:
I read this message from Magoo and honestly didn't comprehend that it was really someone in need of talking. What I saw was someone playing games with me, wanting me to put them in touch with Vaughn. I screen this kind of thing for him. So I wrote back to Magoo and said:
That's all I said. I didn't really think anything more about it. I chalked it up to an OSA guy trying to engage me in a conversation. They send me emails like that pretty often. But the next day, July 18, I got this long message from Magoo:
When I read this message from her, I knew she was for real. I was electrified. I knew Tory Bezazian - I'd known her since 1976! I wrote her back immediately. This is what I said to her:
Meanwhile, Magoo had also sent me another message because I had taken too long to respond to her long email in which she identified herself to me. I got this from her:
I responded right away with this to her:
About an hour later, Tory called me at the LMT, and we talked for close to four hours on the phone. She was so happy to talk to me, and I was so happy that she was talking to me! I know a lot of people were concerned that Tory might not really be leaving, that she might be working for OSA somehow or whatever. But I had to make a leap of faith and trust her, and so did Bob and the rest of the staff of the LMT. At the same time, you have to realize what a leap of faith it was for Tory to trust me and the rest of us at the LMT! She had been a Scientologist for thirty years and she had been told horrendous things about all of us. She had been actively fighting against the LMT. Her troubles as a Scientologist had begun in 1990. But to make such a radical break - from Scientologist in good standing to speaking to people like Andreas Heldal-Lund and the Lisa McPherson Trust - that was a tremendous leap for her. There was never any question for Bob or me or Jesse about whether or not we would trust her. As I said, Tory and I talked on the phone for four hours that first afternoon. Bob got on the phone and talked to her for a long time, and so did Jesse. By the end of the conversation, we all said, "Let's do it." We decided to trust her, and she decided to trust us. It was a leap of faith on both sides. That was a month ago, on July 18. Tory didn't know what to do next, so I invited her to come to Clearwater just to chill out and have a chance to think. She was worried that I might want her to do a videotaped interview with Mark but I assured her she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to do. She was worried about not being able to do anything for me in return, but I told her, "Listen, Tory. What I'm doing here is the Golden Rule. I'm doing unto others what I wish someone had done for me when I was in your position." When I told her that, she said OK, she wanted to come. She got to the Los Angeles airport and Janet Weiland of OSA Int showed up to try to talk her out of going to Clearwater to meet with the LMT. I was on the cell phone with Tory and Janet stayed with her until she was nearly on the plane. Tory made it out of LA only to be met by more people in Chicago, also trying to talk her out of going to see us. In Chicago, OSA gave her stacks of material about how terrible Bob and I were. But Tory made it out of Chicago. At two in the morning she arrived at the Tampa airport. Bob, Jesse and I were there to meet her, and so were Scientologists Dennis Clarke and Penny Jones accompanied by two OSA people, Kathy True and Charlie Earls. I alerted airport security that Tory was flying in, that she wanted to leave Scientology and that there were four Scientologists waiting for her at the gate. Two Tampa Police officers were there at the request of airport security. Penny Jones pulled Tory aside as she came off the plane and convinced her to talk "just for five minutes." Penny assured Tory that she was a "good friend" of DM's and that she would get him a message from Tory. She couldn't have said anything worse to Tory, since she is very upset with DM because of the OT 7 scam (and had written to DM directly telling him about it, with no result). After about two minutes Tory left Penny and told the police officers that she wanted to go with us. At that point, the two police officers announced that they were clearing a path for us, and they escorted us all the way out of the airport through secret elevators and hallways to our car. We took Tory to the Hyatt Westshore and booked adjoining rooms. We stayed up all night long that first night talking. By eight in the morning we were all exhausted but very close friends, and there was no question that we had done the right thing. Tory stayed at the hotel for three days but then moved to my house where no one could bother her. (She had had some visitors at the hotel.) Since then, she's been staying in the guest room upstairs, spending her time sending email, posting to a.r.s. and chatting away on irc, when she isn't talking on the phone or talking to us. She's also been over to the LMT quite a few times and has spoken to some of the parents who are asking for help from the LMT. This girl definitely believes in communication! In honor of my very good friend Tory's courageous actions over the past month, and her dramatic transition to a whole new life, I hereby propose that Tory Bezazian be elevated to the status of SP 3. Stacy Brooks
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