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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Why a Nxivm witness came forward to testify about her slavery: ‘Justice’

[Attorney Marc Agnifilo completed his cross of Daniela on Friday. Photo: Dianne Lipson]

Three witnesses appeared in Friday’s afternoon session of the Nxivm trial, and here’s Dianne Lipson’s []

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Scientology Lit: The verse stylings of L. Ron Hubbard, commodore of cool

 We mentioned on Thursday that we’d been sent the latest issue of Scientology’s ‘Freewinds’ magazine, and shared some of its highlights with you. But what we didn’t tell you was that we were holding back one special treat from that []

Under tough cross-examination, former Nxivm sex slave gains confidence

 Cross-examination of former Nxivm slave Daniela began on Thursday afternoon and continued through Friday morning. Here’s Dianne Lipson’s eyewitness []

DOX: Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard wanted kids to form his personal military

 We want to thank the tipster who sent us a fascinating document we hadn’t seen before. Dated July 7, 1986, it was produced a few months after the death of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard when, apparently, the Sea Org was having more problems than usual with the children of its members. []

NXIVM: Witness describes Keith Raniere’s gaslighting to keep her enslaved

[Keith Raniere]

Dianne Lipson says the testimony from former Nxivm slave Daniela has turned gut-wrenching. Here’s her latest report, starting with Wednesday’s afternoon session…

Wednesday afternoon’s testimony was the most harrowing I’ve heard yet in this case. But more on that later. []

Scientology’s slick new ‘Freewinds’ magazine surprisingly makes no mention of measles

[Freewinds captain Mike Napier and C/O Sharron Weber]

A big thank you to our tipster for sending us the brand new issue of Freewinds, Scientology’s publication that tries to convince Scientologists to fork out the big bucks to spend time on the church’s floating cathedral of the same []

NXIVM Witness: How Keith Raniere degraded a woman for daring to like another man

 Dianne Lipson is out of the courtroom at the lunch break and called us with her impressions of the morning testimony. Daniela is still on direct testimony, still leading up to the time she became a prisoner in a room for a couple of []

Scientology planning new series of books to rope in children?

Some of our correspondents, especially the tireless Rod Keller, have brought us plenty of examples over the years of Scientology targeting children for its quack ideas about the human mind. []

NXIVM witness: Keith Raniere used spyware on associates and enemies

Here’s Dianne Lipson’s report from Tuesday’s testimony in the Nxivm trial, which featured former sex slave Daniela talking about the years leading up to the time she was kept prisoner in a room for two []

Scientology’s happy promotions can’t hide the cancer eating away at its core

[Scientology’s Mod Squad]

You may have noticed this photo pop up a few days ago. It depicts the Rev. Alfreddie Johnson, Jr., late of Compton, California, on a visit to the London Scientology Ideal Org, flanked by that facility’s “it” duo, Charlie Wakley and Sandrine []