Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]
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The Guardian’s expose of Narconon is great — except for this puzzling issue

[Narconon Ojai and ABLE’s ED]

We want to thank all of the readers who sent us messages about this weekend’s terrific expose of the Narconon drug program in the Guardian*, which involved a nine-month investigation and publication on the newspaper’s front []

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Yes, Narconon IS Scientology, and we have video that settles the matter

 We’re continuing to mine some material that a former Scientology large donor sent our way, including some videos from what we call “peak Scientology,” the era when leader David Miscavige obviously felt pretty []

Irish courts issued 14,000 words on Narconon rehab: Not a single one was ‘Scientology’

 An appellate court in Ireland recently upheld a zoning decision that will allow Scientology’s Narconon network to open a new clinic it has spent millions on, rehabbing an old nursing home in the Meath County village of Ballivor. []

NARCONON SHRINKAGE: Scientology lists only five US locations as ‘Fresh Start’ is removed

[The Warner Springs Narconon Fresh Start, yesterday]

In 2015 we reported that the entire Northern California Narconon rehab network had cut ties with Scientology, and some longtime Narconon critics were skeptical. But then we watched as Per Wickstrom’s Midwest centers also pulled out of Scientology’s []

Scientology rehab: A new Narconon horror story that will remind you of all the others

[Narconon Warner Springs]

In July we posted another nightmare story from yet another family that was duped by Narconon, Scientology’s bogus network of []

PPP small-business coronavirus bailout loans went to Scientology and Narconon centers

[Scientology’s ‘Ideal Org’ off Times Square got a PPP loan]

Yesterday the Trump administration released data about thousands of companies that received loans of $150,000 or more that were intended to help “small businesses” get through the coronavirus health crisis.

Multi-billion-dollar international religious organizations don’t appear to fit that description. But among the recipients of loans []

A family’s Scientology drug rehab nightmare: The Narconon ‘Fresh Start’ scam strikes again

 Twice recently we heard from families going through the now-familiar Narconon nightmare: Desperate to find help for a son or daughter, they are fooled by Scientology’s slick online operation that convinces parents they are talking to a legitimate drug rehab. And only after sending their loved one across the country at great expense do they []

Whoopi Goldberg recommends Scientology’s drug rehab Narconon on ‘The View’

 On Friday, as the hosts of The View were shooting an episode from each of their homes, Whoopi Goldberg tried helpfully to remind the audience that some people getting through the pandemic will also be struggling with addictions to alcohol and []

Scientology provides all the proof you need that Narconon is more than ‘tied’ to it

 We’ve seen enough reactions to know that it irks you as much as it does us when a press outfit reports on another Narconon debacle and says that the drug rehab network is “tied” to Scientology, or “supported by” Scientology, like there’s some arm’s-length distance between the []

Scientology builds tiny new drug rehab, marking Narconon’s dwindling US fortunes

[Narconon Arrowhead, where Dave’s dream died]

In the year 2000, the Church of Scientology paid $1.9 million for a 256-acre resort in Oklahoma from the Choctaw Nation, which had purchased it in a government fire sale fifteen years earlier for about the same price. The resort had been built by the state in 1965, and it []