Google helps Scientology censor two more of our stories — maybe you can help us figure out why

Well, here we go again. You’ve heard from us in the past that since the Church of Scientology announced that it was such chummy partners with Google, we’ve had numerous stories here at the Underground Bunker de-indexed by the search engine giant.

And for you know-it-alls who send us technical babble about this stuff, yes these stories were previously searchable on Google, and no their removal was not always noted at the Lumen (formerly Chilling Effects) database.

All we know is, Google has tried to make several of our stories disappear, sometimes without the slightest indication to us why it was doing so. For example, the richest Scientologist in the world, Bob Duggan, managed to convince Google to remove our story about him and the unholy deal he made about his kids and the South African orgs. Go ahead, use any search terms you want and you won’t find this exact URL through a Google search, only social media about it. Duggan pulled that off by complaining about the art we used in the story, but it’s still de-indexed even after we replaced all the art with illustrations by our friend Chad Essley.

And just recently, we discovered that another story Google is trying to hide is one we wrote about Meghan Fialkoff, Scientology’s sneaky infiltrator of New York City schools, and gladhander of the New York Police Department. Like the others we’ve found, this story was removed from Google searches without any notification to us or explanation of what Google found offensive. It also isn’t listed on the Lumen database. Why was it de-indexed? We have no idea.

And then, this week we received notification from Google that two of our URLs are being de-indexed in Europe under its “right to be forgotten” data protection law.

Oh really? And what were those two stories? They were our most recent examinations of Scientology’s “whales,” the wealthy donors who are keeping Scientology afloat with their huge donations.

That, naturally, made us very curious. Who, we wondered, is unhappy that we have publicized their hefty donations to the Church of Scientology? After all, if they’re cutting giant checks as Scientology ends war, promotes literacy, and helps people get off drugs, why shouldn’t they be proud to be known for it?

As a service to those generous folks, we thought we’d provide their names and donation amounts again in this piece, just to make sure they get the credit they deserve.

From our August 8 story, “Whale watching update: Your 2016 mid-year guide to who’s propping up Scientology,” which you can no longer find in a Google search in Europe:

Patrons (cumulative giving, $50,000): Vincenzo Aloe, Beatrice Guignard, Elizabeth Doria, Margaret Mercado

Patrons with Honors ($100,000): Marlies Thuermer, Maurizio Polverini, Wendy Patten, Ghledis Carli, Stuart Guy, Connie Saunders

Patrons Meritorious ($250,000): Elizabeth Gonzalez & Frank Suarez, Shun Min Wang, Sheridan Cyrus, Yu Mei Lu, Louisa Chaubert, Leslie Brock, Paul Seymour, Karen & Eric Berg

Silver Meritorious ($500,000): Simone Hafenmayer

This Simone is from Germany — is she our complainer? Could be. Let’s continue.

Another Simone and this one is from Hamburg. We may be getting warmer. Let’s keep going.

 
Gold Meritorious ($1 million): Monika & Gerhard Lidl

Another German couple that gave a cool million.

To round out the richies from this story:

Gold Meritorious ($1 million): Salila Travers, who is from Austin

and

Diamond Meritorious ($5 million): Steve Wu & Lucia Kuo of Taiwan.

OK, so let’s take a look at our February 24 story, “Whale watching, 2017 edition: Who’s keeping Scientology from sinking?” the second story which is now de-indexed in Europe:

The Duggans got their new mega-trophy, this time for reaching “Diamond Invictus,” a status level that had to be invented for them because they donate more than anyone else.

 
But we have our doubts that the Duggans are the source of this complaint. Let’s keep going.

Diamond Laureate ($15 million): Alan and Sheila Atkinson-Baker

The Atkinson-Bakers own the national court reporting firm Atkinson-Baker, and figured prominently in our story about Brian Sheen. But they’re in Los Angeles, so let’s move on.

Patron Laureate with Honors ($11 million): Tom and Victoria Cummins and family (Florida)

Diamond Meritorious ($5 million): Jose Cardona and Heidi Fajardo and daughter Penelope Hernandez (Venezuela)

Diamond Meritorious ($5 million): Jim Bridgeforth (Florida)

Platinum Meritorious ($2.5 million): Venezuelan poet and heartthrob Eduardo Galan

Platinum Meritorious ($2.5 million): Gary and Peggy Patrick (Florida)

Platinum Meritorious ($2.5 million): Jose Llaguno and Rosa De Nobrega (Venezuela)

Gold Meritorious with Honors ($1.5 million): Actress and Tom Cruise friend Ruddy Rodriguez (Venezuela)

Gold Meritorious with Honors ($1.5 million): Kathy Feshbach (Florida)

Gold Meritorious with Honors ($1.5 million): Kourosh and Justin Maddahi (Iran and now in Los Angeles)

 
Gold Meritorious with Honors ($1 million): Hans and Maria Beekmans of the Netherlands, another European couple.

 
Gold Meritorious ($1 million): Cay-Dietrich and Inga Koehn, another wealthy couple from Germany.

Gold Meritorious ($1 million): Marcel Roelofs, a Dutch businessman.

 
Gold Meritorious ($1 million): Georg and Irin Kirsch, also of Germany

Gold Meritorious ($1 million): John Carey and Carol Klugman

Gold Meritorious ($1 million): Julio Marquez and Shigeru Saito

Gold Meritorious ($1 million): Herbert and Susanne Marks

 
Gold Meritorious ($1 million): Dennis Romeiser and Simone Lorenzen

Who’s this? Dennis Romeiser and Simone Lorenzen again, from Hamburg. Hm. Look at that.

And we also listed a lot of lower status folks in that story:

Silver Meritorious With Honors ($750,000): Dmitry Federov and Nina Reznikova, Ada Gentsel, Rudi and Claire Loehwing, Chieko Mabe, Marco and Ingrid Mayer, Wolf and Sabine Mayer, Alt and Emmett Osborn, Hans Ruscheweyh.
Silver Meritorious ($500,000): David Achilli, Richard Eisenboeck and Simone Hafenmayer, Stephen Kearney, William King, Linda Lagemann, Maria Lara, Giacomo Lopiparo, Warren and LeAnn Meyer, Heiko and Diana Paul, Giovanni Rusconi and Patrizia Brambilla, Paul and Amy Seymour, Yafit Toledo, Makob and Billie Wegmann, Fabrizio Zampetti and Sonia Guacci.
Patron Meritorious ($250,000): Andreas and Marianne Altheimer, Martha Ballestros and Javier Ramirez, Bruno and Mary Bergeron, Adrian Hayman, Aaron and Dani Kyro, Thorsten Overgaard and Joy Villa, Veronica Rodriguez Martinez, Rani Ronen and Orit Young, David and Jodi Weissberg, Jeff Wentzell.
Patron With Honors ($100,000): Carlos Alonso and Judith Francas, Marco Antonnuci, Ben, Peter and Helen Asberg, Davide Balconi, Manuel Burkhardt, Jose Cabrera, Henry Dornheim, Trinita Fitzgibbon, Helmuth Grimm and Lynette Barry, Blanca Hernandez, Hitoshi Ikeda, Martin Kanstrup, Mikhail Kulikov, Antonio Lombardi and Grazia Mannea, John and Marianne Marburger, Victor and, Alonso Mendoza, Andre Pierre and Denise-Joelle Devatine, Katharina Laiss Prinz, Francesca Rusconi, Matt and Alexis Salisbury, Diane and Paul Stein, Patrick and Dianne Stojak, Lars Winther.

So, what can we conclude after looking at both of the stories that Google does not want our European readers to see?

We learned that SIMONE HAFENMEYER of Germany has given Scientology at least $500,000 and was celebrated for it twice by the church.

We also learned that DENNIS ROMEISER AND SIMONE LORENZEN of Germany have given Scientology at least $1 million in donations.

Let’s take another look at them again…

 
This is Germany’s Simone Hafenmeyer, who has given the Church of Scientology at least $500,000 in donations.

 
And this is Hamburg’s Dennis Romeiser and Simone Lorenzen, who have given the Church of Scientology at least $1 million in donations.

Which one used European law to get our stories de-indexed there?

If only we knew.

 
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Nation of Islam — On a Bridge to nowhere?

You may remember this photo we posted a few days ago. It’s from a Dianetics Day celebration at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, and it shows Nation of Islam member Nayyirah Muhammad with two of Scientology’s biggest celebrities, Kelly Preston and Kirstie Alley…

 
We’ve noted in the past that in Scientology’s odd interaction with the Nation of Islam, NOI members have for the most part restricted their participation to “Book One” Dianetics, the original stuff L. Ron Hubbard came up with way back in 1950. But a few NOI members, like Ms. Muhammad, have enthusiastically jumped into Scientology itself. She’s supposed to be NOI’s first female “Clear,” according to her own social media pronouncements, which is why Preston and Alley may have posed with her.

And now, one of our tipsters points out that Nayyirah has just posted proof that she’s completed Expanded Grade 1…

 
As our tipster points out, this seems odd. It would be a little like someone who has just finished high school going back to complete middle school rather than moving on to college. You would expect Grade 1 to be completed before going Clear, and after Clear you would expect a Scientologist to immediately move on to the “OT” auditing levels.

Our tipster raises an interesting question — Are the members of the Nation of Islam doing everything in Scientology except the OT levels, because the space opera stuff in the OT levels (Xenu and his galactic genocide 75 million years ago, etc., as well as the trillion-year-old incidents of OT 2) is in too much conflict with the Nation of Islam’s own wacky cosmological stories?

Hm. That is an interesting theory. Does the Church of Scientology have NOI members on a hamster wheel, having them redo lower levels and keeping them from completing the Bridge to keep their heads from exploding? That is a fun question for our technical types. Let us know what you think.

 
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Countdown to Denver!

 
HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25 at the Residence Inn Denver City Center. Go here to start making your plans, and book your room soon!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 22, 2017 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield