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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Scientology is very worried about 75-year-old Efrem Logreira and his allegations

[Kendrick Moxon and Efrem Logreira]

In our last story about Efrem Logreira, we told you that he had turned down the offer of a check for $8,415 from the Church of []

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If Scientology is hurting, have its ‘expansion’ plans slowed down? Here’s our assessment

 We see a lot of signs that Scientology is entering a desperate phase. Mike Rinder does a particularly good job at his site gathering evidence that shortages in staffing and at events is a sign that David Miscavige’s dog and pony show is at a breaking point. But even if membership is tanking, is Miscavige []

Church of Fear: When John Sweeney sat down with Anne Archer and Leah Remini

 This week in our ‘Scientology Lit’ series, we have an excerpt from BBC reporter John Sweeney’s 2013 book, Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology. Sweeney wrote about his experiences making two BBC documentaries about the church, 2007’s “Scientology and Me,” and 2010’s “The Secrets of Scientology.” In this chapter, he’s being handled []

Colombian senator asks defense minister to investigate Scientology over medal scandal

[Sen. Iván Cepeda wants an investigation of Scientology in Colombia]

Our correspondent in Colombia’s capital of Bogotá, who helped us cover the Scientology Ideal Org opening there in 2015, has been keeping an eye on the brewing scandal in that country over Scientology’s relationship with various members of the Colombian national police []

Why Scientology is a haven for sexual abusers — it’s the way L. Ron Hubbard designed it

 After yesterday’s disturbing report about a convicted child molester being a featured performer at Scientology’s exclusive “Maiden Voyage” celebrations, we received this sobering report from former Sea Org member and Scientology “technology” expert Sunny Pereira. We think it pairs pretty well with what we learned in yesterday’s []

Fake medals and kiddie diddlers: Scientology’s cruise ship scandal gets even worse

 Our thanks to the tipster who sent us pages from the newest copy of Impact magazine, the publication of the International Association of Scientologists. []

Proof that the US government has all it needs to act on Scientology — and it has for 50 years

[Mitchell Rogovin]

We’re curious to see how today’s document hits you. You may cheer at the sight of a top US government lawyer putting the word “church” in quote marks when he refers to Scientology, but when we finished reading this letter, we were []

If it’s wrong to love Scientology hip-hop, we don’t want to be right

 Peter Bonyai asked us if we’d seen a three-year-old video put out by Scientology which features one of our favorite performers, Scientology’s in-house hip hop giant, Chill EB. We told him we weren’t sure, but we really didn’t need much excuse to visit it again as long as the Chillmaster was in []

California is on fire, and Scientology naturally sees a golden recruiting opportunity

 Rod Keller has another sobering look at what Scientology’s “Volunteer Ministers” are really up []

Ron Miscavige: ‘When I look back, it reminds me of stories I heard of the Stasi in East Germany’

[Ron Miscavige and Becky Bigelow]

We have another treat for you in our ‘Scientology Lit’ series. Ron Miscavige has generously allowed us to post an entire chapter from his book Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me, which he wrote with Dan Koon. Ron sent us the key chapter when he and his wife, Becky []