‘Dirty Tricks,’ the sixth episode of ‘Scientology Black Ops,’ a special 7NEWS Australia investigation that was cancelled by the network in July, has been leaked to the Internet.
Ten episodes were scheduled to be published to the 7NEWS website on July 14 when the network changed its mind, cancelled the program, and also pulled down a trailer it had made for the series. On August 31, we found that the first episode in the series had been leaked, and we embedded it along with a transcript we prepared. We also did the same for the second episode, ‘Witness X,’ on Sept 4, the third episode, ‘Taken,’ on Sept 11, the fourth episode, ‘The Star,’ on Sept 14, and the fifth episode, ‘Always Attack,’ on Thursday.
We’ve done the same for the sixth episode, in which 7NEWS reporter Bryan Seymour looks at the creepy stalking that Scientology hires private investigators to practice on former members and on journalists. That includes the visit that was made by a PI, caught on tape, when she attempted to “question” Paul Haggis’s daughter Lauren Haggis after she filmed an episode with Leah Remini.
It’s straight out of L. Ron Hubbard’s playbook, and it’s great footage.
Here’s the video, and then the transcript. (For those confused by the length of these short “episodes,” please keep in mind that this was a nightly news investigation and these segments were created to run during a news broadcast, not as longer shows on their own.)
[UPDATE: After a request from attorneys representing Seven News, we have removed the embed links to the leaked ‘Scientology Black Ops’ episodes. See our reasons why in this story.]
Episode title: DIRTY TRICKS
Bryan Seymour: You know who I am?
Scientology videographer: Yeah, you’re Bryan Seymour.
Seymour: So the Church of Scientology has sent young Chris here to document my reporting… If you take on Scientology, they will attack you. I learned that very quickly after my first reports exposing abuse in Scientology in 2007.
News videographer: G’day, mate. Can I ask why you’re filming people going into the conference?
Scientology videographer: Aren’t you?
News videographer: Yes, I am. Yeah, I’m a journalist from Australia.
Seymour: Will the church go after me for an AVO because I’m trying to interview you about the intentions behind this. Can I ask, who sent you here to photograph us here today? And for what reason? You don’t want to tell me your name?
Scientology videographer: I’m not here to be interviewed.
Seymour: No well, I’m not here to be filmed by you either, but that’s OK…. They have followed me, filmed me, bugged me, tried to get me sacked, tried and failed to injunct my stories, published an attack website on me, attack videos, and, appallingly, tried to convince me to commit suicide. One of their favorite ploys, as it turns out. One of them leaned in when he knew we weren’t filming, leaned in and whispered into my ear, we know you grew up in an orphanage, we know they gave you drugs, what’s wrong with you, why don’t you kill yourself? This is what he whispered into my ear. Now, they prepped someone, had the discussion, this is how we can try and unsettle Seymour. And I’ve got to say and I hate to admit it, it did get to me a little bit. Just the awfulness of thinking that you can plan to try and throw someone off by throwing up childhood trauma at them and suggesting they commit suicide. That’s what Scientology is.
Tony Ortega: They never call me up. And they never complain to me about my stories, they never try to influence me directly — they go after my family members. And Mike Rinder and Leah Remini have experienced this as well, is they go after your loved ones, they go after your support system. They do their best to intimidate and frighten people.
Seymour: One famous victim was the pioneering author Paulette Cooper, who wrote ‘The Scandal of Scientology’ in 1971 after infiltrating the cult. A Scientologist moved into her building, and would often buy her wine and try to talk her into jumping off the roof. They also broke into her apartment and typed a bomb threat on her typewriter. Then they lifted her prints from a wine glass and put it on the threat and mailed it to the Church of Scientology. Their goal was to have Cooper imprisoned or committed to a psychiatric hospital. Ortega detailed the unbelievable plan, code-named Operation Dynamite, in his book ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,’ Scientology’s nickname for Cooper.
Ortega: The dirty tricks, the elaborate operations against people did not end in the 1970s. They were exposed in the 1970s, but they continue to do them today. We’re still finding remarkable operations that Scientology is working against people it considers enemies.
Tiziano Lugli: Stop following me, stop it, stop it! You’re never going to get shit from me.
Seymour: This is typical of Scientology’s tactics. It was 2010, Los Angeles. Sick of being stalked by an army of private investigators, former Scientologist Tiziano Lugli decided to turn his camera on them.
Seymour: More recently, Paul Haggis’s daughter Lauren was paid a visit by a private investigator.
Private investigator Olivia Robinson: I’m following up on an interview that she did.
Male resident: Interview with whom?
Robinson: It was the one on TV.
Seymour: Lauren joined her father Paul to appear on Leah Remini’s show ‘Scientology and the Aftermath.’ That sparked this visit. And Scientology hired a lawyer to write this letter, outlining how they wanted to interview Lauren about the claims she made on Leah’s show.
Robinson: I’d like to just talk with Lauren about the interview only because there were some concerns that came about as a result of the interview and so it would be very helpful to talk to her.
Male resident: OK, I’m sorry, so you’re representing who?
Robinson: I’m a private investigator, a licensed private investigator, somewhere here I have my card. Maybe I dropped it. Oh God. I think maybe I dropped it on my way up here.
Seymour: Scientology can afford these armies of proxies to do their bidding. It’s estimated they have more than $3 billion in cash reserves, much of it donated by wealthy members, including celebrities. More on that later. The reason why they have so much is because they don’t pay tax. We’re constantly told by Scientology that an attack on them is an attack on religious freedom because they are, first and foremost, a religion. Was that reinforced to you, as a member, in those early decades?
Paul Haggis: Well, in the 70s, we all sort of winked at it, you know? We knew it was a tax dodge.
Seymour: You winked at it?
Haggis: I didn’t care it was a tax dodge. Who cared, you know?
Seymour: Is that all it was?
Haggis: Well, I don’t know, I didn’t do, I wasn’t around in the 50s when he created it, but I have to assume so. They didn’t have to pay any tax. He was a genius in that way. I mean, why, his thought was, why pay tax if you didn’t have to when all you have to do is call it a church?
Tony Hitchman: It tends to be something of a racket, to make money for those people who are running it.
Seymour: With inexhaustible funds at their disposal, Scientology is collecting real estate at a voracious rate in the United States and here in Australia, holding grand openings for centers which are deserted once the confetti and hired extras leave. The stakes are high, and so are the costs for everyone in this battle, in every way. How much has it cost you, as a result of your determination to, as you say, clear your name?
Haggis: It’s cost me everything I have so far. And I’m selling this place. And so then when that’s done I’ll borrow after that.
Seymour: How much are you willing to give to this enterprise to prove your innocence?
Haggis: Everything. Every penny I have in the world, what do you mean? I have no choice. My name is everything to me. Well, that’s not everything, my children mean everything to me. My family, that’s everything. My name is secondary to that. But, it’s their name too. So, no, I’d, everything, every penny I have.
Leah Remini: That’s exactly what they want. They want Paul Haggis to have to sell his apartment. They want Paul Haggis bankrupt. They don’t want people to want to hire him as a writer, as a director. This is a man with an Oscar. This is a man who was Fair Gamed by Scientology for speaking out against a $3 billion cult. It is simply what they want to have happen, and they don’t care.
Seymour: Did the calls dry up? The calls from Hollywood?
Haggis: I shouldn’t laugh, but you know, yeah, immediately. I lost the feature I was doing immediately. And I haven’t really worked since. Of course, no. I expected that. There are those, I mean, there are a lot of people who know me and support me. Many, many, many. Agents have stood with me, my long time agents, and my manager, and all the people in my life I’ve known for years, men and women, have all stood with me. And I’m so grateful, deeply grateful for that. But, you know, Hollywood’s run by corporations, corporations are run by lawyers.
Seymour: I’ve just finished filming with Paul Haggis. And, the thing is, of course, though that, I’m really not prosecuting the case against him, the civil case and his guilt or innocence, as I said at the start. I’m talking to him about what we’ve uncovered, which is in a sense a much bigger story in terms of, you know, it involving institutions going after people that are, frankly, astonishing and very sinister level. And, you know, if they were engaging in that type of behavior, what else have they done that we don’t know about. Where is the money coming from, that’s a legitimate question. And it’s something I’ll be asking Haleigh Breest’s lawyers, and I’ll be interested to hear their response, just how they’re funding this. Is it some sort of litigation funding? Is it contingency funding, no win no fee? If so how much are they willing to spend in case they don’t win? I mean, these are legitimate questions. Where is the money coming from for this civil suit? And the answer to that question might prove to be one of the most important in this case. In a statement, Ms. Breest’s lawyers told us, “There is absolutely no evidence that Haleigh Breest, or any of Haggis’s other victims, have anything to do with the Church of Scientology. The Church of Scientology is not funding this lawsuit or paying our law firm. And we have never done any work for the Church of Scientology.” You can read their full statement on our website.
Title card: COMING UP
Ortega: People like Tom Cruise believe that this is a prison planet.
Haggis: He should admit the truth. Should at least admit the truth.
Remini: John knows the truth. John said, “I don’t give a shit.”
Additional note: The attorney who hired private investigator Olivia Robinson to pretend that they had legitimate questions to ask Lauren Haggis was Julia Azrael, who has made several appearances now as part of Scientology Fair Game operations.
She represented Marc Headley’s Scientologist disconnected mother in order to write a nastygram to Leah Remini’s A&E show. And she was also involved in the Heber Jentzsch operation, feigning outrage over Tammy Clark’s attempt to see her uncle at Gold Base, as Mike Rinder reported.
As a Scientology hired gun, she’s an up-and-comer.
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“Today we’re processing the present. We’re processing energy flow — live energy flow — in present time. We’re processing ‘right now.’ And ‘right now’ gets affected by ‘then,’ just as you learned in the first book and just as you learned in subsequent publications, and all you’ve been practicing to date. ‘Then’ affects ‘now.’ But all you will have to process, really, to get rid of ‘then,’ is ‘now.’ So you can process ‘now.’” — L. Ron Hubbard, September 21, 1952
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“Note that after the McPherson Affair there was a radical change in the delivery of Scientology known as the Golden Age of Tech. Coincidence? Sure if you believe in such things. Personally I don’t think many Scientologists can confront that much evil so they create a synthetic terminal like ‘Miscavige,’ ‘DM’ or ‘COB’ and fixate on him as the cause of all evil and that anyone who suggests otherwise is a ‘conspiracy theorist’ or an ‘OSA plant’ or whatever. Worse they support such idiocies as signing a petition calling on the *in*justice department and the FBI to ‘investigate’ Scientology. As far as I’m concerned Lisa McPherson and the ‘Trust’ that followed was a planned covert operation allowing former plants like Robert Vaughn Young and others to ‘defect’ and further discredit the subject and make absurd claims that it was the Introspection RD that caused her demise. Interesting fact is that the Introspection Rundown if properly done would eliminate the need for Psychiatry and their monopoly over the ‘insane.’ An existential threat to their existence for sure.”
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“I wish that the OSA or their private dickheads would show up were I live because I live in the toughest building on the toughest street in my city. The cops are afraid to come in here. Also, I am much beloved by the denizens.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Demurrer filed by Masterson, arraignment delayed to October 19.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for October 5 in White Plains, NY. Jeffrey’s is set for October 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Motion for reconsideration denied on August 11
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Sept 29 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 26 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Update required in federal lawsuit on Oct 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, awaiting verdict.
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!
We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.
Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!
Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!
Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] The new ‘Freewinds’: Founder L. Ron Hubbard says Scientology is ‘supermagic’!
[TWO years ago] Is David Miscavige making changes to Scientology to fend off media glare?
[THREE years ago] Federal judge says he has the Scientologists for a justice panel, but Garcias say, ‘not so fast’
[FOUR years ago] DRONE FLYOVER: Scientology’s secret ranch where L. Ron Hubbard departed this Earth
[FIVE years ago] United Kingdom sees Scientology documentary ‘Going Clear’ tonight on Sky Atlantic
[SIX years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: Turning begging for cash into an art form
[SEVEN years ago] FEAR: Jon Atack on Scientology’s Essential Ingredient
[NINE years ago] The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, No. 5: Joe Childs and Tom Tobin
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,067 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,571 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,091 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,111 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,002 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,309 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,177 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,951 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,755 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,071 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,637 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,556 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,724 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,305 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,566 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,604 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,317 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,842 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,372 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,932 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,072 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,392 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,247 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,366 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,722 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,025 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,131 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,533 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,405 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,988 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,483 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,737 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,846 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on September 21, 2020 at 07:00
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