Tom Cruise’s former auditor, high ranking former Scientologist Marty Rathbun, has come forward with claims that Scientology head David Miscavige not only didn’t hold Cruise’s confessions sacred, he regularly taped them and read out transcripts of the star’s auditing sessions at parties. Rathbun has previously said that Miscavige assigned him in 2001 “to coordinate Tom’s divorce from Nicole and to serve as his auditor,” something that Cruise’s lawyer confirmed with a harshly worded letter warning Rathbun not to disclose any personal information that Cruise revealed in his auditing sessions. (Auditing is a Scientology process of eliciting secrets from members. It serves the dual purpose of indoctrinating them into the cult and collecting personal information to use against them.) Rathbun has promised to hold Cruise’s confessions sacred, but Cruise’s buddy Miscavige hasn’t done the same. According to Rathbun, Miscavige would regularly get drunk at parties and reveal Cruise’s secrets. What’s more is that all of Cruise’s auditing sessions were videotaped by Miscavige’s orders:

I audited a number of intensives of confessionals on Tom Cruise from July through November 2001. By order of Miscavige many of those sessions were secretly recorded by a well-concealed video camera and voice recorder system built into the VIP auditing room at Celebrity Center International. I was r-factored that it was for the purpose of having the CS check up on the quality of my delivery. All I knew at that time was that I forwarded the videos to my CS at Int (RTC). I was also required by Miscavige to write reports on the content of every session I delivered during that period and send them directly to Miscavige. I was told by him that he needed to know because recovering Tom to Scientology was the most important mission possible. I never received a single suggestion from Miscavige during the recovery process. He quite apparently wanted to keep his distance until the messy divorce was over and there was no chance of Scientology becoming an issue.

The only C/S comments I received during that period, besides “VWD”, and during the subsequent 2 1/2 months of full time auditing I delivered in 2002, were out-tech suggestions to re-check things that were confirmed as FLAT by me. They were forwarded from COB Asst Shelly (who had virtually no tech training); all of which I refused to carry out in order to protect the pre-OT. Finally, I unilaterally decided to stop recording sessions in Feb 2002 – despite flak from Shelly for ceasing – on the basis that it was simply unethical to record him for no apparent purpose (the video was certainly of no importance for auditor correction purposes) and without his knowledge.

Well, my suspicions about DM’s real purposes for recording Tom’s confessions have been confirmed as warranted. I have recently learned from a very reliable witness that DM regularly held court with others in his personal lounge in the roadside Villas at the Int base, and while sipping scotch whiskey at the end of the night, Miscavige would read Tom’s overts and withholds from my reports to others, joking and laughing about the content of Tom’s confessions. My witness is unimpeachable in my eyes as his account contains too many accurate details from someone who had zero reason (or ability) for being anywhere near Tom’s folders, videos and reports direct to DM. I also know he was a regular, preferred guest at DM’s scotch night caps during that period.

[From Mark Rathbun’s blog via Gawker]

Not all of that makes sense to non-Scientologists, but I guess Rathbun is saying that there was no reason to record Tom and that it served no purpose for what he was doing. He also was able to verify that Miscavige did reveal the content of Tom’s confessions by the fact that the stories contained details that only people who had seen or read the actual auditing sessions would know.

Of course I’m curious to hear what Cruise confessed to, but more than that I’d love to know how Miscavige is going to explain this to Cruise. Is he going to deny everything and blame it on some kind of anti-Scientology conspiracy? Will Tom buy that excuse or is he starting to get wise to what a criminal organization Scientology is?

We just heard details from ex Scientologist Amy Scobee’s new book about how Miscavige regularly had Tom’s all-Scientology staff spy on the star and his then-wife, Nicole Kidman. It sounds like Miscavige was collecting damning information to use against Tom in the event that he ever wanted to leave the cult. Maybe by using Tom’s personal stories for his own amusement Miscavige has so overstepped his bounds that Tom won’t be intimidated into keeping silent and supportive. This whole sordid plot reminds me of Cruise’s film The Firm. If only he’d get wise and start to fight back like one of the characters he plays.