A letter from John Steele Re: Menlo Park KH Law Suit

Good luck to all who are involved in exposing the WT for what it is, this case, and the one in Australia are building a history of the WT's methods and mendacity.

When I was in Bethel, I had an experience that sort of supports John Steele's allegation of a JW “spy” network.

One day in 1991, I was in Don Adams Executive Floor office discussing something related to my research work on the Proclaimers book. At the time, I was research assistant to Karl Adams, a senior writer in the Writing Department. (Karl was a fleshly brother of Don. His other brother, Joel, was also at Bethel. He was, and probably still is, a member of the Service Department’s Committee then working directly under GB member, Ted Jaracz.)

During our conversation, Don's phone rang and he excused himself and answered the call. He made no effort to lower his voice so I could clearly hear what he said, which wasn’t that much because he was writing down information she supplied him. Afterwards, Don explained to me that the call was from a “sister” who worked in the US State Department. He said she worked in a job where, if she wanted to, she could easily access any reports that came into the State Department about situations that involved the activities of the Watch Tower Society and Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world.

And what did this JW do with the intelligence information she gathered?  She called Don Adams. “She was invaluable to the work of the Society,” he told me. That was all that was said on the matter, but I thought it was great that loyal JWs, like me at that time, were very willing to do what they could to further “Kingdom Interests” in any way they could, even if it meant perhaps breaking rules, and in some cases, breaking the law by providing confidential information to the Society that they were privy to. 

Barbara

         Thanks Barb..

This story could get interesting..

                                   ..................;-)...OUTLAW

Sheesh Barbara that's disturbing. I imagine these delusional JWs breaking the law see themselves as Esthers and Mordacais, or Joshua and Caleb. REally they're just brainwashed scumbags. The nature of my work involves people's medical claims and on a few occasions I come across material related to JWs that I personally know. There's no way in the world I'd ever break HIPPA or any other law for the sake of furthering the interests of a corrupt publishing cult. Fuckin snake religion.

I think it's illegal and unethical for any Clerk in a Court to give legal advice.  

I always wanted to be a lawyer.  Sounds like she jw lawyers make good money.  Would it be unethical to go to law school and work for the watchtower.  

What would be needed for the State Department to do an internal investigation? Wouldn't this be a breech of national security?

Londo111: In that my experience as related took place twenty years ago and I haven't any proof of my allegations, I doubt anybody in high places would be interested in doing an investigation. I don't even know the name of the JW Don Adams was speaking to on the phone; nor do I have any idea what was discussed. So it would be a matter of my word against his. I mentioned this event to substantiate John Steele's claim that he discovered that JWs will do whatever it takes to protect or further the interests of the Watch Tower Society no matter if it's illegal. The hatred that many JWs have for anybody standing up to the WT is, in my experience, almost incomprehensible.

And if asked by the WTS to do something illegal, in my experience, some would do it. One time when Joe and I were in Bethel, we traveled to Turkey with another Bethelite couple. We didn't know that they were smuggling into Turkey a laptop computer for the Turkish branch at the request of Don Adams. After we were stopped by Turkish military police and almost arrested because of that laptop, later we were informed of the real reason they were carrying that machine. And to top it all, we were given an envelope to carry to the Turkish Branch Servant and did not know what was in it. If it had been opened by the police, who knows where we would be today because it had religious material in it that was banned by the Turkish government. We were entirely ignorant, but the other couple had full knowledge that what they were doing was illegal. Later, when we asked them why they didn’t tell us about the laptop, the response was surprising but true: “We didn’t think you would go along with it.”

Barbara

This is exactly the kind of crap I had to deal with in my own company. some of the dubsthat worked for me had a preferance for one of my business partners, he was an elder so they just kissed his ass. But I often found my conversations repeated to him for confirmation that I wasn't doing anything devious. Yes they will spy and do anything, legal or not, for the greater good. Whatever that is.

Wow, Barbara, amazing stories. Thanks for sharing! 

Your unique experiences confirm what many of us suspect about the leadership of the WTBTS. 

00DAD

PS - You have a PM

I'm sorry to sound unmerciful but these people need to be exposed and their careers terminated.  This stuff is illegal or a violation of legitimate company confidentiality.

If anyone has knowledge of these people and the information they transmit, by all means, expose it.  This stuff is wrong and benefits a cold-hearted, selfish cult that destroys families. Mercy to those that show mercy - and these thugs don't.

metatron

Oh, and by the way, Bethel Monitors........ 

Since you are reading this, let me offer a suggestion.  You need personal leverage, just in case, so save all this kind of information!

You never know when it might come in handy!  There might come a day in which you need to fend off some fanatic judicial committee that is investigating some 'sin' they say you committed. 

J. Edgar Hoover survived for decade after decade - even though many people disliked him and wanted him gone. This was because he 'had stuff' on everybody!

Think about it!

metatron 

While reading some of the comments above, I remembered two remarkable incidents that occurred when I was still a JW back in the 1960s. Both of these cases happened in southern California, but in two different congregations.

One brother who was an active pioneer in the Riverside Congregation was arrested for DUI. After spending a few hours in the local jail, he was released with no bail. A sister who worked as a records clerk for the police department (she was given a pass on this by the elders since she was not a "gun-toting police officer") saw the arrest report and called the congregation servant. At the next meeting at the Kingdom Hall, the accused brother did not show up, but the gossip about him and his arrest was all over the Kingdom Hall and, of course, he was assumed to be guilty. 

When the brother did not show up for the next service meeting, there was an announcement made that anyone having contact with the accused should call the CongServ. Everyone figured that the accused brother was guilty and was destined to be tried and DF'd forthwith. The only information the elders had was that reported by the sister working at the police station.

A couple of weeks later my father told me that the accused brother had been cleared and WOULD NOT be reproved, placed on probation, or DFd for drunkeness and for bringing shame on the congregation. It turned out that the brother had a blackout while driving due to diabetes. Yes, he had been drinking, but was well under the legal limit (which at that time was 1.0, not the 0.8 that it is now in most states). While the alcohol may have contributed to the event, it was not the cause. The reason that he had not been to meetings was that he had himself hospitalized for treatment - and it was only then that he discovered the cause of his blackout. He was shocked and embarrassed that everyone thought he had been guilty of a crime. After that he was on insulin as long as I knew him and he eventually left the Kingdom Hall and never returned.

The point is, of course, that the sister should never have shared that confidential information. She had no right and broke police department rules. She obviously knew that, but did it anyway. And, of course, the elders took no action against her. 

The second case involved the West Hollywood KH in the late 1960s. One of the sisters in the congregation had to have a cesaerean delivery and during the operation she began to hemmorhage. Apparenty everything happened so fast, the the medical team just started giving her blood to stabilize her condition and to save the baby. Her husband was not a JW. A JW sister was working in the hospital at the time, but was not directly involved as part of the medical team. I'm not sure, but my guess is that she was working on the same floor, or at the desk, and learned of the case after the fact. The first call she made was to the congregation servant. The sister was subsequently brought before a committee and charged with voluntarily taking a blood transfusion. She pleaded that she was under anethesia and did not have a believing husband or other JW relative with her at the time. So the doctors treated it as an emergency and took the action they felt was necessary. Although I was not a JW at the time, my wife (who was) told me that they decided to DF the sister anyway, since she had not made it clear before going into surgery that she was a JW and did not want blood. This was in spite of the fact that the doctor and the hospital administrator wrote a letter in her defense saying that in order to save her life (and also to avoid a costly lawsuit) they arbitrarily made the decision to give her blood. She survived and so did her baby, so obviously they made the right decision. They even mentioned in the letter that it had as much to do with their consciences as hers, and they could not just let her and her baby die without taking action. 

But again, no one would have known except for that JW nurse who took it upon herself to report this case to the elders. Even then, in the late 1960s, I'm sure that patients had some privacy rights. According to my then JW wife, the sister just told the elders where they could stick their DF and went off and enjoyed the free and wild Hollywood scene with her unbelieving husband. 

So I know personally that JWs in critical jobs are willing to break confidentiality and privacy rules in order to report errant JWs - guilty or not. 

JV

I'm sure in the literature they give an example of working as a secretary for a doctor and they say this may be a conflict if you are a JW.  They give an E.g. if another JW, a patient was to ask for an abortion etc then you have to break the law to inform the eldres due to confidentiality agreements.

They sew the seed of loyalty with no care for the PERSON and no regard for law, no regard for confidentiality. Where are the scriptures that promote this terrible behaviour ?