Project Normandy was a top secret

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religiou ...

operation wherein the church planned to take over the city of

Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city and the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa, Florida, Tampa and north of St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies T ...

, 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" and later characterized it as a "

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

operation by a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

group".

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 The Fort Harrison Hotel has served as the main building of the Church of Scientology's campus in Clearwater, Florida, called the Flag Land Base, since 1975. It is owned and operated by the Flag Service Organization. The hotel has 11 stories, ...

, for $3 million. The church established their headquarters in the Fort Harrison Hotel, and dubbed it their ''Flag Land Base''. In 1977, an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

raid on Scientology headquarters uncovered internal

documents marked "Top Secret" that referred to their secret operation to take over Clearwater, as "Project Normandy". The document states its purpose as "obtain ngenough 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". On November 3, 1979, the '' Clearwater Sun'' 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. The '' St. Petersburg Times'' won a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

for one of their stories that exposed some of the criminal wrongdoings of the Church of Scientology. 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". The Church of Scientology targeted Cazares, attempting to entrap him in a

sex scandal A sex scandal is a public scandal involving allegations or information about possibly immoral sexual activities, often associated with the sexual affairs of film stars, politicians, famous athletes, or others in the public eye. Sex scandals r ...

. Scientology also staged a phony hit-and-run accident with Cazares in an attempt to discredit him. Cazares and his wife sued the Church of Scientology for $1.5 million. The church settled with Cazares in 1986.

References

{{Scientology Scientology and law Scientology-related controversies 1970s in Florida

History

See also

References