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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NXIVM: More cross-examination of a ‘slave’ asking how much they admired Keith Raniere

[Keith Raniere’s attorney Marc Agnifilo, photo by Dianne Lipson]

Dianne Lipson was in court Tuesday afternoon for another gripping session in the Nxivm trial, including the cross-examination of witness “Jaye.” Here’s Dianne’s []

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Scientology’s new strategy for ex-members ignoring its letters: Sending out invoices

It’s one of those things that even the most casual Scientology watcher is well aware of: If you find yourself on Scientology’s mailing list, you may never get yourself off of []

Allison Mack to sex slave on seducing Keith Raniere: ‘I give you permission to enjoy it’

[Allison Mack outside the Brooklyn courtroom earlier this year]

Dianne Lipson is out of the courtroom to give us this report from this morning’s testimony at the Nxivm []

Justin Bieber in the octagon? Why he couldn’t handle Tom Cruise’s Scientology powers

[Newsweek won the competition for best Justin Bieber-Tom Cruise comparison with this shot]

Yesterday, the dumbest news story in our stupid era broke out and naturally the media fell all over itself covering it. In a Sunday night tweet, Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber, 25, challenged Tom Cruise, 56, to a fight “in the octagon,” and []

NXIVM: Keith Raniere’s attorney asks sex slave witness, did you fantasize about rough sex?

[Keith Raniere and his attorney, Marc Agnifilo]

Dianne Lipson was in court again yesterday, and here’s her report on the Monday testimony at the Nxivm []

YouTube runs interference for Scientology and its Nation of Islam bigot problem

[Scientology Freedom Medal Award winner Tony Muhammad]

The Underground Bunker recently received a notice from YouTube that one of our videos has been taken down without recourse. We were informed that this removal will not count against us as a “strike,” but our video did not meet YouTube’s “community standards” and so it has gone poof []

NXIVM: A Keith Raniere sex slave describes the trauma of being branded

[A Nxivm brand]

We’ve been on the road, and so we didn’t have a chance until today to post Dianne Lipson’s gripping account of Nicole’s testimony on Friday afternoon at the Nxivm trial. Nicole, an actress, described what it was like to be branded as one of Keith Raniere’s sex slaves in yet more gripping testimony []

Scientology in Sweden: A telling snapshot of a failed Ideal Org under pressure

 God morgon. Today we take a look at Scientology’s footprint in Sweden — a country with more residents than any other Scandinavian country at nearly 10 million. Scientology opened the Malmö Ideal Org in 2009. It’s really in the municipality of Arlöv, north of the city and an odd choice for the first Swedish Ideal []

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard on nuclear radiation: It’s a state of mind

[Hubbard, circa 1957]

We were really knocked out by HBO’s miniseries, ‘Chernobyl,’ and so we thought it might be appropriate for our ‘Scientology Lit’ series if we take a look at L. Ron Hubbard’s notorious 1957 book, ‘All About Radiation.’ Referring to himself as a ‘nuclear physicist’ (he actually failed a course in ‘molecular and atomic []

NXIVM: Actress describes being subjected to unwanted sex while blindfolded

 Dianne Lipson was in court for the ongoing Nxivm trial, and she has a report on the Friday morning session for us. But first, here are her impressions of Thursday afternoon’s []