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>> Statement: [Page 122]

Wright claims, “On April 20, 1973, Hubbard wrote a secret order, ‘Snow White Program,’ in which he noted a dangerous trend in the gradual reduction since 1967 of countries available to Scientology.

>> True Information: Not only is this is a false characterization of the program, Wright also has the wrong date. The program was written on April 28, 1973.

Moreover, Mr. Hubbard never made a statement concerning “a dangerous trend in the gradual reduction since 1967 of countries available to Scientology.” The true information is covered in the purpose of the program, which was to legally correct and expunge through strictly legal means, a large amount of false reports about Scientology, its leaders and members. Mr. Hubbard wrote the Snow White Program because several countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea had denied entry to their ports to the Apollo (not Scientology Churches) based on false reports primarily being distributed by certain government officials in the United States, England and Germany. Mr. Hubbard summarized the program as follows:

“To engage in various litigation in all countries affected so as to expose to view all such derogatory and false reports, to engage in further litigation in the countries originating such reports, to exhaust recourse in these countries and then finally to take the matter to the United Nations (that now being possible for an individual and a group) and to the European Commission on Human Rights, meanwhile uprooting and canceling all such files and reports wherever found.”

Contrary to the statements of those who have mislabeled the program as “Operation Snow White” and mischaracterized the Snow White Program to suit their own ends (as Mr. Wright has done), this program created by Mr. Hubbard did not remotely contemplate anything illegal. In fact, Mr. Hubbard expressly stated the “Ideal Scene” he intended to achieve: “All false and secret files of the nations of operating areas brought to view and legally expunged.”

In furtherance of the Snow White Program, the Church of Scientology availed itself of information-access laws to pursue its records, creating substantial legal precedent that has benefited the entire public. Although the Snow White Program is no longer executed, the Church continues to heed Mr. Hubbard’s prescient call for use of access laws to uncover secret government programs violating civil and human rights. The rich legacy of the Snow White Program led the Church of Scientology to become a champion of freedom of information laws and other citizen records-access statutes to ensure transparency in government.