Tony Ortega | The Underground Bunker

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]

To be fair, we went by a Scientology ‘Ideal Org’ on its biggest day of the week

I wanted to give Scientology the benefit of the doubt. A little while ago I went by the Cambridge, Ontario, Canada Ideal Org to see how things were going. It was during a weekday and was pretty dead at the time. I did a little write up on it and Tony posted it on the […]

David Miscavige misses out on $30 billion building project proposed by Scientologists

[The would-be super city]

Poor David Miscavige. As if he doesn’t already have enough problems with declining membership, horrible press, and all those nagging questions about banishing his wife to a small mountain […]

How Scientology treats a member in real need strains the notion of the word ‘church’

[Flag Land Base, Clearwater]

Today we have the story of a Scientologist in a tough situation. We’ll call her Grace. She’s going through a divorce, she has untreated medical problems, and has come to Clearwater to turn things around for her. Instead they have kicked her out. She’s desperate and asking her friends in Scientology for […]

Scientology’s ‘disconnection’ policy plays out in unbelievable scenes in a Florida hospital

[Brendan Tighe, talking Scientology with Megyn Kelly]

On Thursday, Brendan Tighe posted a remarkable glimpse about the crazy situations Scientology’s ‘disconnection’ policy puts people into. Namely, that because Brendan has left Scientology and its Sea Org and he went public with his experiences on Megyn Kelly’s show, his mother, still a loyal Sea Org member, has […]

Nxivm judge decides not to release juror names to the media: Here’s why

[Judge Nicholas Garaufis, Nxivm leader Keith Raniere]

Citing concerns for their security, Judge Nicholas Garaufis has opted not to release the names of the jurors in the Nxivm trial. The New York Daily News had filed a request with the court that the names be released, and it was joined by other press organizations, including the […]

More rich donors propping up Scientology are revealed in a church magazine

A new issue of Scientology’s ‘Impact’ magazine contains yet another gallery of wealthy donors who were awarded trophies for turning over the big […]

On this day of declaring independence, we want to hear about your own fight for freedom

Here in the United States we are celebrating our independence, and we hope you are too, wherever you are. […]

Sentencing delay for some Nxivm defendants: What does it mean?

[Prosecutors roll in evidence during the Nxivm trial. Photo: Dianne Lipson]

On July 1, Judge Nicholas Garaufis adjourned the sentencing hearings for Nxivm defendants Nancy Salzman (July 10), Clare Bronfman (July 25), and Kathy Russell (July 31). He didn’t give any explanation, and didn’t set any new dates for the […]

Scientology’s answer to Garcias’ appeal sets a new record in cynicism and legal depravity

[Eric Lieberman, Scientology’s legal wrangler]

Every single person who ever worked in the inner circle of Scientology’s highest elevations — the former Sea Organization executives who ran the worldwide movement from one of several secretive locations — every single one of those people will tell you that despite Scientology’s alphabet soup of many entities, it is […]

Introducing ‘The Cult Awareness Podcast,’ recorded at HowdyCon 2019 in Los Angeles

[Underdown, Minor, Ortega]

One surprising thing we learned about Jerry Minor, when we wrote about him after he appeared on Leah Remini’s A&E series, Scientology and the Aftermath, is that he’s actually been a regular reader of the Underground Bunker for a long time and had a great familiarity with our Scientology […]

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