![Page semi-protected](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Semi-protection-shackle.svg/20px-Semi-protection-shackle.svg.png)
Project Normandy
![]() | This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2015) |
Project Normandy was a top secret Church of Scientology operation wherein the church planned to take over the city of Clearwater, Florida, by infiltrating government offices and media centers. Gabe Cazares, who was the mayor of Clearwater at the time, used the term "the occupation of Clearwater".[1]
History
In the 1970s, the Church of Scientology Corporation used a front group, called the "United Churches of Florida", to purchase the Fort Harrison Hotel, for $3 million. The church established their headquarters in the Fort Harrison Hotel, and dubbed it their Flag Land Base.
In 1977, an FBI raid on Scientology headquarters uncovered internal Church of Scientology documents marked "Top Secret", that referred to their secret operation to take over Clearwater, as "Project Normandy". The document itself states its purpose is "to obtain enough data on the Clearwater area to be able to determine what groups and individuals B1 will need to penetrate and handle in order to establish area control". The document says its "Major Target" is "To fully investigate the Clearwater city and county area so we can distinguish our friends from our enemies and handle as needed".[2]
On November 3, 1979, the ran an article with the headline "Scientologists plot city takeover" and later stories claimed that the Scientologists also had international plans to take over the world.[3] The St. Petersburg Times won a Pulitzer Prize for one of their stories that exposed some of the criminal wrongdoings of the Church of Scientology.[1] Cazares also noted that he found it odd that a religious group would resort to using code names for a project to take control of a town, and called the project a "paramilitary operation by a terrorist group".[4]
See also
References
- ^ a b Charles L. Stafford; Bette Orsini (1980-01-09). "Scientology: An in-depth profile of a new force in Clearwater" (PDF). St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the original (PDF, 905K) on 2016-01-24. Original (huge) Archived 2007-08-09 at the Wayback Machine (PDF, 18M), 1980 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting
- ^ "SECRET POWER PROJECT : 3 NORMANDY Ref. GO Order 261175 LRH "POWER" Target 3". 1975-12-05. Archived from the original on 2003-06-10.
- ^ Leiby, Richard (1979-11-03). "Scientologists plot city takeover" (PDF). Clearwater Sun. Archived from the original (PDF scan, 1.9MB) on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2007-10-09.
- ^ Gabe Cazares video interview for a Clearwater historical society.
- Scientology and law
- Scientology-related controversies
- 1970s in Florida