WEBVTT

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In writing a 365-page book targeting
the Church of Scientology,

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Lawrence Wright sought out a tiny
group of disgruntled ex-members

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led by this man:

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expelled from the Church for
financial misconduct, deception,

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ineptitude and violence.

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Nearly all of Wright's sources

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were dismissed from the Church
for similar offenses,

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including: embezzlement, financial
wrongdoing, sexual misconduct,

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physical abuse and severe violations
of Church doctrine.

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Yet these are the individuals
Lawrence Wright uses to impugn the

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character of the Church
and its leader,

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a man responsible
for a worldwide religion

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and its unprecedented expansion…

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…and under whose stewardship,

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the Church’s social betterment
programs have become

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the largest non-governmental
anti-drug and

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human rights campaigns on Earth.

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But in writing his "so called"
expose on Scientology,

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Lawrence Wright’s sources were
far from credible and Wright knew it.

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Their allegations so far-fetched that
a federal judge and an appeals court

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dismissed them as baseless.

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Lawrence Wright ignored that.

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And when the Church provided
thousands of pages of evidence

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documenting the falsehood
of those claims -–

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Lawrence Wright continued to present
the allegations as fact.

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When asked in a journalist forum,

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“Do you believe that journalism
can lead to truth?”,

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Wright had this to say:

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"Truth is one of those
subjective terms

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that are pointless
to get too tied up about."

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Wright's book was
released in January 2013

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but failed to generate reader interest.

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Still, it found itself immediately
steeped in controversy

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about the veracity of its claims.

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So much so that the book’s publisher
would not release it in Britain,

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Ireland, Canada or Australia because
of their libel laws.

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The chances of losing a lawsuit
were simply too great.

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Now, documentary filmmaker Alex
Gibney has taken Lawrence Wright’s

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book at its word
without question or examination:

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“I utterly trusted Larry. I wasn’t
looking for holes in his story.”

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Over the two years Gibney quietly
worked on his documentary,

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he never once contacted the Church,
visited a Church

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or spoke to any of its members.

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His documentary was in the can before
he even mentioned it to them.

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And to this day, Gibney refuses to
reveal his allegations to the Church.

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Let’s take a closer look at Wright
and Gibney's sources:

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Meet Hana Whitfield,
born Hana Strnad…

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a much-used “source”
of Lawrence Wright.

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Lawrence Wright quotes Hana Whitfield
extensively on events

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she claimed happened over 40 years ago.

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However, in presenting her
as a “credible witness,”

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he glosses over a personal history
that is both dark and disturbing.

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Expelled from Scientology in 1982,

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Hana Whitfield has spent the years since,
attacking the Church.

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In December 1986, Whitfield and five other
expelled former members

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concocted a scheme to take control
of the Church and its assets,

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filing a one billion dollar lawsuit.

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That’s one billion – with a “B.”

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But the scheme failed and the case never got
past the first step of court proceedings.

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It didn’t make it any further
the next time she filed it, either.

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Or the next.

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Or the next.

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Or the next.

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In total, Hana Whitfield’s lawsuit against
the Church was dismissed six times

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for failure to even state a legitimate claim…

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… The judge ruling that “there are no facts…
that can be truthfully alleged.”

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But Whitfield and her co-conspirators
weren’t done –

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they then tried to appeal,
and they lost again.

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Although Hana Whitfield is one of
Lawrence Wright’s main sources,

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he makes no mention of her part in this
failed lawsuit in his book, at all.

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After this plot flopped,
Hana Whitfield changed her tactics.

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Now, instead of taking over the
Church of Scientology from within,

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Whitfield would try
to destroy it from without.

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Wright portrays Whitfield’s
new undertaking as

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“counseling people who were considering
getting out of Scientology

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or other new religions.”

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But Whitfield was in fact a paid deprogrammer
in the now-defunct Cult Awareness Network,

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a criminal organization active in the
seizure, forcible detention, imprisonment,

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beatings and traumatization of
thousands of individuals.

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Many of its members were arrested and
convicted of assault, battery and kidnapping.

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Apparently, this is Lawrence Wright’s
idea of “counseling.”

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Wright’s connection to the now-shuttered
Cult Awareness Network was no oversight.

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In addition to Whitfield, he used two more
former CAN members as his “sources.”

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But only after her failed
billion-dollar lawsuit

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and the bankruptcy of her criminal
deprogramming group

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did the Church discover Hana Whitfield’s
darkest secret of all.

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In his book, Lawrence Wright notes
that a young Hana Strnad

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“escaped her 'traumatic family' situation

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to become a nurse in
Johannesburg, South Africa.”

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What he fails to tell readers is that this
so-called “traumatic family situation”

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is her conspiracy, with her mother
and brother, to murder her father.

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She would reveal it all
to her now ex-husband:

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“Hana, after we’d been dating
for a fair number of months

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made pretty specific statements

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and those statements added up to -
she, in conspiracy with her mother,

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planned and arranged to kill
her father, Charles Strnad.

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She folded up on it and didn’t actually
execute it—she almost killed him…

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she was within seconds of doing so
but did not.”

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But even if Hana Strnad got cold feet,
her brother carried through on their plan.

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And while her brother was brought up on
charges and ultimately convicted,

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he stood trial alone.

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As for Hana Strnad, she fled the country
and changed her name.

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“She did not really want to go back
to face the press.

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She changed her name to avoid it
and she was pretty unwilling to go back.”

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She then married an American, to make
certain she would never have to return

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and in the process
changed her name yet again.

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And all of this kept secret
from the Church and only discovered

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after her failed lawsuit
to take over the Church…

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… and line her pockets with a cool billion.

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Years later, Hana
Strnad-Strachan-Eltringham-Whitfield

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finds a sympathetic ear
in blaming the Church for what she calls

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her “shattered mental state.”

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That would be Lawrence Wright,
who sought out this woman…

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… who admitted to plotting a murder, worked
with a criminal deprogramming organization,

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and unsuccessfully tried to sue
the Church no fewer than seven times.

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So, here's what we have:

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Hana Whitfield, a greedy,
deceitful woman with a dark past...

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…HBO’s idea of a “credible source.”

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In future segments,

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we’re going to show you more of
Lawrence Wright’s “sources"...

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Remember this guy – the ringleader of
that tiny group Lawrence Wright

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befriended and used to tell false
stories about his former religion?

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“Shut the fuck up. I’m tellin’ you
something right now…”

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He was dismissed and expelled from
the Church for criminal activities --

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that's criminal, as in felony.

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His résumé also includes episodes of
shoving, kicking,

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punching and extreme violence.

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And a honeymoon night spent in jail.

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But Lawrence Wright
doesn’t reveal any of that,

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or any other sordid
detail about this man.

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You’ll also meet those
this man calls his "posse":

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Such as the guy he nearly killed, who
he now calls his "best good buddy".

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This guy deserted his children and
ruthlessly attacked his estranged wife…

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…the thief who used to ride shotgun with
the ringleader on his punching sprees.

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Admitted accomplices
in a scheme to suborn perjury –

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getting others to lie under oath.

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And another Lawrence Wright source,
the "lady" expelled from the Church

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for having sexual relations with
someone she was ministering to,

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a violation of professional conduct
in any church. You'll meet her, too.

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…the paid tabloid source and his
wife, whose frivolous lawsuits

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were repeatedly thrown
out of Federal Court

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and the couple ordered
to pay the Church $40,000.

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... and the writer who took advantage
of his Scientology connections to

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take $5 million for writing scripts
he never completed.

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Lawrence Wright and Alex Gibney
could have shown you

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the truth about Scientology.

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For this is Scientology today:

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A rapidly expanding religion with new
churches opening, by the month,

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throughout the world...

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But instead of showing you this,

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Wright and Gibney have chosen
to give you this man...

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Shut the fuck up…

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And his tiny group of followers.

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That’s right – this guy is the leader of
all Lawrence Wright's "sources."

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They are interconnected,
each of them corroborating the other’s

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false stories and lies,
some for big bucks.

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All of them handpicked
to populate the story

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Lawrence Wright and
Alex Gibney want to sell.

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Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney

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and executive producer Sheila Nevins
know full well who these people really are.

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But you won’t see that on HBO.

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Shut the fuck up…