This week I interviewed Shane Rybacki. He is a former Scientologist who had a short stint on the EPF, worked for the Office of Special Affairs in Orange County and was eventually kicked out of the Church and disconnected from his family because he dared to disparage Scientology in a public forum. He reached out [...]]]>

 
This week I interviewed Shane Rybacki. He is a former Scientologist who had a short stint on the EPF, worked for the Office of Special Affairs in Orange County and was eventually kicked out of the Church and disconnected from his family because he dared to disparage Scientology in a public forum. He reached out to Tony and me to start telling his story and he had a lot to say.

This interview is a bit more “raw” than my usual interviews; we just get right into it and we don’t follow a chronological order or even get his whole story. Instead, we focused mainly on his experience in the OSA office, including how he had to cover up a sexual crime involving his own minor girlfriend and an adult staff member; and how he was sent around to spy on people, destroy property and other nonsense to try to maintain a good public image for Scientology. For legal reasons, I bleeped out the name of the offending staff member but listeners will definitely get the idea of what went on.

— Chris Shelton

 
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Source Code

“Be the space of your body. The space of this room. The space of your body. The space of this room. Be the space of your body. The space of this room. The space of your body. The space of the building. The space of your body. The space of the building. The space of your body. The space of the building. The space of your body. The space of this building. The space of your body. The space of this building. The space of your body. The space of Camden. The space of your body. The space of Camden. The space of your body. The space of Camden. The space of your body. The space of Philadelphia. The space of your body. The space of Philadelphia. The space of your body. Space of Philadelphia. Space of your body. Space of Philadelphia. Space of New York. Space of your body.” — L. Ron Hubbard, November 28, 1953

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“MISUNDERSTOODS: I wrote a piece in the OOD yesterday about Nixon’s misunderstoods. I hope no one accumulated any misunderstood words reading it. I found ‘hilarity’ in the first sentence wasn’t known. It means ‘high amusement,’ or ‘boisterous merriment’.” — The Commodore, November 28, 1971

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“OMG there’s talk now of No Jab-No Flight rules and an electronic way of checking at airports if people have gotten the jab. Just today they mentioned this in the mainstream media. Of course, we knew this was coming. When you get good at spotting conspiracies you can predict this sort of disgusting rubbish. The communist world order wants you vaccinated, and they are going to force you to do it. Well I ain’t touching their untrustworthy drugs/medicines/vaccines/advice/science just everything really. Over my dead body, baby!”

Past is Prologue

2001: The Riverside Press-Enterprise reported that Scientology is shooting a movie at Gold Base, near Hemet, California. “A booming cannon shoots toward a row of cottonwood trees on the lush, grassy fields of 17th-century France. Fifteen minutes later, the fire lands among a cluster of charging soldiers wearing goatees, creamy white cravats and feathers in their hats. Three of them drop. Then they get up and try it again. When it’s finished, Golden Era Productions will have an educational video showing how war never solves mankind’s real problems. Golden Era Productions, located in Gilman Hot Springs northwest of San Jacinto, makes educational and training films for the Church of Scientology. Staff members who work on the 520-acre site do everything from sewing costumes to acting and filming. The film will be used for educational purposes in Scientology churches all over the world.”

 
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Random Howdy

“Third party law was specifically created by Hubbard to handle mothers-in-law.”

 
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Masterson’s demurrer denied Oct 19, arraignment delayed to Jan 6.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing delayed for ‘Fatico’ hearing on Jan 19.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court filed Oct 30.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 18, re-hearing on motions to compel arbitration; Jan 29, Masterson’s request to stay discovery pending the criminal case
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Nov 18: Feshbachs indicated they will enter into consent judgment to pay the debt.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.

Concluded litigation:
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs.
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.

 
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks

The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.

SCIENTOLOGY: FAIR GAME

After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.

LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH

An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and coming November 1 to Netflix.

SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

 
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] On this Thanksgiving, we’re thankful again for people we will never forget
[TWO years ago] Scientology responds to Leah Remini’s season premiere with smeariest smear video ever
[THREE years ago] Ugh. We just found a troubling L. Ron Hubbard Scientology lecture about little boys and sex.
[FOUR years ago] How Liz Gale came to disconnect from her own mother, Scientology style
[FIVE years ago] Scientology’s apocalyptic ‘expansion’: A hint at the real story in a Brighton shiny moment
[SIX years ago] The richest Scientologists in the world get a new trophy for donating another pile of cash!
[SEVEN years ago] Jefferson Hawkins Explains the Ethics of Scientology’s “Suppressive Person”
[EIGHT years ago] More McPherson Cover-Up Corroboration: “I Watched Them Drain $20 Million In Reserves”
[NINE years ago] Scientology Held Woman Aboard the Freewinds for 12 Years Against Her Will: Aussie TV

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on November 28, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

 This is Cierra Westerman. She sent us this photo of herself with her then boyfriend, Dwayne Powell.

She first reached out to us last month saying that she wanted to come forward about the time she spent working for Powell and the Church of Scientology, spying on its former members.

Since then, she’s been sending us photos [...]]]>

 
This is Cierra Westerman. She sent us this photo of herself with her then boyfriend, Dwayne Powell.

She first reached out to us last month saying that she wanted to come forward about the time she spent working for Powell and the Church of Scientology, spying on its former members.

Since then, she’s been sending us photos and documents to prove she is who she says she is.

And then Dwayne Powell confirmed it for us.

In 2010, when Cierra was working full time to watch Mike Rinder and Christie Collbran for Scientology, she estimates that the operation in the Clearwater area alone used five rental homes, a dozen rental cars, and five full-time investigators at any one time. At the same time, similar operations were working in Colorado and Texas and Los Angeles.

The expense must have been incredible.

“You have no idea,” Dwayne Powell says.

Cierra is from the Orlando area. In 2007 her father had a heart attack, and she was hoping to earn more money to help take care of him. So in January 2008 she entered a local trade school, City College of Casselberry, and its Private Investigation Services program.

In the second week of classes, she met a fellow student, Dwayne Powell. A week after that, he passed her a note in class. It just said, “Lunch?”

Although they were both involved with other people at the time, before long they were dating. And then, by the early spring of 2008, they were presented with jobs by the City College faculty.

Records show that from 1998 to 2013, the Private Investigation Services department at City College (which moved from Casselberry to Altamonte Springs in 2010) was run by a licensed PI by the name of Michelle Morton. Cierra says that Morton was very close friends with another Florida private investigator named Terry Roffler, who was using the school as a recruiting ground for a huge amount of work he needed bodies for.

Morton and Roffler, Cierra says, used the college as a recruiting center for private investigation work for the Church of Scientology.

And in 2008, Scientology had a major need for security and intelligence work as it was overwhelmed with protests by the new Anonymous movement and its “Project Chanology.” Growing out of a dispute over a Tom Cruise video the church had tried to censor from the Internet, Anonymous targeted Scientology with online attacks that then turned into real-life demonstrations beginning that February.

Cierra says that she and five other City College students were dispatched to Clearwater that April, recruited by Morton and Roffler. She and Dwayne Powell were among them, but as the only woman, she was chosen for a special assignment: infiltrate Anonymous.

“I went on raids with the Anons,” she says. “I would go to the protests. At one point I was filming them with one of their own cameras.”

When Anonymous held its pirate-themed “Sea Arrrrgh” rally in Clearwater in June 2008, Cierra was in the crowd, chanting along with the other protesters.

She says the footage she took that day was given to Terry Roffler, like everything she obtained in her work.

“I even rode around with one of the top Anons in Clearwater in their car, holding a sign out the window.”

After several months gathering intel on Anons, Cierra then took most of 2009 off as she and Dwayne prepared for their first child, a son. She went back to the Orlando area, while Dwayne stayed in Clearwater, busy with the PI work for the church. They didn’t see each other again until the middle of 2010, when their child was already six months old.

With a baby boy, Cierra now became an asset of another kind. She was assigned to move into a house across the street from outspoken former church members Mike Rinder and Christie Collbran, and to monitor who came to visit them.

“When someone came over, I’d take my son for a walk in his stroller, and then take photos of the cars and their license plates,” she says.

Her young son was also involved in her other task: Getting Mike Rinder’s trash.

“I’d take him to the small park and let him play until I saw the trash guys,” she says. She paid trash workers to turn over bags from Rinder’s house, as well as another church member, Haydn James.

“We had to pay the trash people to keep Mike’s trash off to the side. And I had to go through it. My job was to save any receipts, any alcohol bottles, any paperwork. Anything that would tell us something about them. What they were doing, and what they were buying,” she says. “When I was doing the trash, I had to endure the worst job that PIs do. I dealt with maggots and all. And I did it because I wanted a family with Dwayne.”

She says they also did the mind-numbing work of trying to put back together shredded documents. “We worked on it for two months straight, trying to piece them together. We actually got a few clues out of it,” she says.

For six months, she lived in the house and watched Rinder and recorded the license plates on visitors to his house. She was then replaced by another woman, Heather McAdoo, who was assigned to befriend Christie Collbran.

Christie recently published a lengthy account about that at Rinder’s blog, and it’s a fascinating look at what the operation was like from the perspective of the people who were targeted by it. Christie says Heather eventually expressed regret about taking part in the elaborate operation against her.

While Cierra was living at the house watching Mike and Christie, she says Powell was running a large operation that was centered out of a warehouse strategically placed so they could watch the man who at that time was Rinder’s employer, an inventor named Robert Almblad.

At the Village Voice, we wrote extensively about Almblad, a former Scientology member who was trying to bring to market a machine that made sterile ice. Infections in hospitals are a huge problem, and traditional ice machines are filthy, so Almblad was working on something that potentially was a billion-dollar market.

In our two-part series about Almblad, he told us what it was like to try and sell his invention to large institutions while Scientology’s operatives were constantly trying to sabotage him. At one point, they actually burst into a conference room in the middle of a meeting between Almblad and potential investors, claiming to be an investigative team reporting a story.

That activity was run from a warehouse Powell rented where they could watch Almblad’s business (after cutting down some trees to have an unrestricted view.)

But Cierra tells us the warehouse was used for more than simply watching Almblad. It was where the Scientology spying operation had its control room while multiple operations were being run in the area.

“It was a room inside the warehouse, and it was small and cramped. It had two big screen TVs, a computer, and a phone that was for contacting Terry Roffler. The TVs were used for monitoring all the cameras watching the ex-members’ houses,” she says.

“And it was also for watching the cars that all had tracking devices, which was illegal in Florida,” she says. But she claims that the operation had tracking devices on all of the cars of the ex-members they were watching.

 
Besides watching Mike Rinder’s house, Cierra was also assigned the job of befriending an ex-church member who was a friend to Christie Collbran. Cierra spent several months getting involved in this woman’s life, helping her with personal problems she had, and generally hoping to get information about what she was talking about with other exes.

“The reason they wanted me to get close to her was that she had a lot of paperwork on the church in her apartment,” Cierra says. But despite her success gaining the woman’s confidence, she never got access to that paperwork.

Because we have not been able to make contact with that ex-member who was targeted by Cierra, we’re not going to name her at this time.

However, a person we are going to name is someone who was working with Cierra and Powell to spy on Tom DeVocht.

Cierra says she helped Val Graeve get around, but always had to stop far enough away so that Val could walk to DeVocht’s apartment and not see that Cierra was driving her.

“How did she get involved? Dwayne met her, just like everybody else. He’d meet waitresses or women who worked at Walmart or at bars. And they’d end up doing as he asked,” Cierra says.

In this case, Graeve’s assignment had her working her way into the circle around Rinder and DeVocht until she was able to convince DeVocht to take her in.

Tom says that he was very careful at the time about not letting strangers into his life. Like Rinder, he knew he was under an aggressive form of surveillance. But he was hiring — he operated kiosks selling “Silly Bandz” at local malls — and Val was someone who another ex-member introduced him to.

“I hired her. I don’t know how long it was, month or two she got sick. She was a heavy pot smoker, she always reeked of pot smoke and coughed constantly. I’ve never seen anyone smoke pot like she did,” Tom says. “She gave me this sob story that she had got sick with the flu. I paid for her to go to the doctor.”

DeVocht was living with a girlfriend at the time in a large Palm Harbor apartment, and when Val asked if she could rent one of the rooms, DeVocht said yes.

“About three to four weeks into it, I wondered if she was a plant,” he says. “For one, she had the oddest schedule. And she supposedly had no money, but all of a sudden she bought a new Mercedes. My girlfriend and I couldn’t understand it, and where was she coming up with all of the money for the pot? And she had beautiful purses and jewelry.

“She had full access to my place, but I didn’t have anything to hide. And at that time, you could not leave the house without PIs on you. You couldn’t drive down the street without three or four of them following you. It was insane.”

Rinder tells us he isn’t surprised to hear that Val was working for Powell. “I told Tom and Robert [Almblad] she was a spy,” he says.

We called Val’s Tampa business and left a message, we also sent her a detailed email about why we were trying to reach her. She hasn’t responded.

Naturally, we are reminded of the time, in the summer of 1973, when the church got a spy into the apartment of Paulette Cooper. The author of the scathing 1971 book The Scandal of Scientology, Paulette had been framed by the church in an elaborate scheme in late 1972, and by May 1973 she had been indicted and was facing 15 years in federal prison for something she didn’t do. She was distraught and sick, and at that low moment she took in a boarder to help her pay the rent. He said his name was Jerry Levin, and from May to September he lived with her in her East 40th Street apartment in Manhattan, helping to take care of her dog and doing other things she was finding difficult to do for herself. Only years later did she learn that he was a Scientology operative who was sending back daily reports to the church. To Scientology, he was known as “Don Alverzo,” but his real name turned out to be Jeff Marino, and he lives in Long Island today. He claimed not to be Don Alverzo when we called him when we were researching our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.

Scientology has used the excuse that it was a “rogue outfit,” the Guardian’s Office, that ran operations on Paulette Cooper in the 1970s, and that it doesn’t do that kind of thing today.

But Cierra Westerman has now come forward to say that the church was doing the exact same thing in 2010-2011, getting a Scientology operative into the apartment of a church “enemy” in order to spy on him.

By late 2011, Cierra tells us, she’d soured on her work for the church.

“I hated every minute of it. I knew the church was a disgrace to the world. Everything I learned about them made me hate the job more and more,” she says

She stopped working for Powell and tried to make it on her own. “I was cleaning houses. I tried to go back to school, but it was hard.” In 2012, she spent some time with Dwayne in Virginia, but otherwise she rarely saw him. He was usually on assignment for the church.

And then, in 2013, he was arrested. We’ve told the story numerous times before. Dwayne and his oldest son, Daniel Powell, were assigned by David Miscavige to watch his own father, Ron Sr., who had escaped from Scientology’s “Int Base” in March 2012. After spending some time in Virginia, Ron had moved to the Wisconsin town of West Allis, and the Powells watched him day after day from a distance, reporting back to Terry Roffler in Florida, who relayed their reports, eventually to Scientology and David Miscavige. But the Powells had looked suspicious to some neighbors, and when police searched their car, they found an arsenal of rifles and handguns and ammunition. But what got them into real trouble was a homemade silencer made from PVC pipe. Dwayne was told he was facing ten years in prison for it, and so he and Daniel sang to the West Allis police. Dwayne managed to work out a deal that deferred prosecution, but news of their confessions broke in 2015. (You can hear their police interviews at our website.)

Despite running Scientology operations from Wisconsin to Miami, after his arrest Dwayne Powell retreated to Tennessee, where he owns and runs a roadside restaurant just over the Alabama state line. We called him there and told him we were speaking to Cierra.

In 2014, Cierra moved to Tennessee to be near Dwayne and so her son could see him. They then had another son who was born in 2016. But Cierra and Dwayne are separated today.

Dwayne was reluctant to talk when we called him, but he did say that he regretted getting involved with Scientology.

“I wish I’d never been affiliated with them. I took the job as a favor to Terry Roffler,” he says.

Cierra says she never felt right working for Scientology. “Seeing how unethical the work was that we had to do for them never set right with me,” she says. “They had this bad aura about them. You could see it in their eyes.”

Today, Cierra is raising her two sons on her own in Tennessee, and she has recently gone back to school, where she says she plans to study journalism. She tells us that part of her inspiration is this website, which she has been reading since finding our 2015 stories about Dwayne’s arrest in Wisconsin.

“My degree in private investigations actually comes in very handy for journalism. I’m very excited to start back at school,” she says.

And we’re very happy that she decided to drop us a line.

 
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Make your plans now!

Head over to our HowdyCon 2018 website to start making your travel plans!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 30, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Yesterday, former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder posted a chilling account by his wife Christie Collbran about a Scientology spy who worked to become a part of their lives.

Christie wrote that beginning in January 2012, a woman named Heather living on their street in Tarpon Springs, Florida began approaching her about spending [...]]]>

Yesterday, former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder posted a chilling account by his wife Christie Collbran about a Scientology spy who worked to become a part of their lives.

Christie wrote that beginning in January 2012, a woman named Heather living on their street in Tarpon Springs, Florida began approaching her about spending time together. When Mike and Christie moved the next month to another nearby town, Heather, an unemployed single mom, somehow had the money to move into an expensive home not far from their new place.

Heather was so persistent about wanting to become a part of their lives, Mike and Christie eventually figured out that she was working to gather intelligence on them for the Church of Scientology. The woman, who identified herself as Heather McAdoo, ended up apologizing to Mike and Christie, and admitted that she had been working for her then boyfriend, Scientology spy Dwayne Powell.

It’s a great tale, and Christie tells it in all its creepy detail. And we’re very well acquainted with Dwayne Powell here in the Bunker. It was Dwayne and his son Daniel Powell who were arrested and questioned by the West Allis, Wisconsin police and admitted to following Scientology leader David Miscavige’s father, Ron Miscavige, in a spying operation. (You can hear tapes of those interviews here.)

And now, we wanted to let you in on another interesting development that’s been going on for a little while. Several weeks ago, we were approached by another woman who was recruited by Dwayne Powell to work as a Scientology spy, and who kept an eye on Mike Rinder and Christie Collbran, off and on, for three full years.

This woman — for now we’re going to refer to her as Jane — has been working with us to spill a lot of secrets about the work of Dwayne Powell and the Church of Scientology, and we expect that she may be going on the record soon.

But because of Christie Collbran’s remarkable account that was put online yesterday, we thought we would give you a small preview of what Jane has been telling us, since it is so closely related to Christie’s story.

Jane preceded Heather as Dwayne Powell’s operative to keep tabs on Mike and Christie. Like Heather, she was Dwayne’s girlfriend, and she even had a child with him. But unlike Heather, she wasn’t tasked with becoming friends with Mike and Christie. Instead, Jane’s job was to gather their trash and identify people who visited their home.

“We had to pay the trash people to keep Mike’s trash off to the side. And I had to go through it. My job was to save any receipts, any alcohol bottles, any paperwork. Anything that would tell us something about them. What they were doing, and what they were buying,” Jane says.

She also gathered the trash for another former Scientologist who lived in the area, Haydn James, but she says what the church wanted most of all was information on Rinder.

“Mike was the number one that they always wanted. And the trash people got fired because they weren’t supposed to do that,” she says.

Jane ended her surveillance of Mike and Christie in August 2011, a few months before Heather took over and then reached out to Christie in January 2012. And later in 2012, Rinder actually filmed his trash being taken away by Scientology operatives — but by then Jane had moved away.

She tells us she met Dwayne Powell at a Florida community college that was a recruiting site for Scientology operatives — even the faculty was involved, she says — and we’ll be going into more detail about that later.

She came out of school in 2008 and began her work for the church, and besides keeping tabs on Rinder, she was also assigned to infiltrate the Anonymous movement, which was holding large rallies and protests that year.

“I went on raids with the Anons,” she says. “I would go to the protests. At one point I was filming them with one of their own cameras.”

When Anonymous held its pirate-themed “Sea Arrrrgh” rally in Clearwater in June 2008, Jane was in the crowd, chanting along with the other protesters.

“I even rode around with one of the top Anons in Clearwater in their car, holding a sign out the window.”

Like Heather McAdoo, Jane became disillusioned about her work with Dwayne Powell on behalf of the church. We are working with her to bring you some really interesting details about the Clearwater operations being run against Anonymous and former church members.

For example, during that period, 2008-2011, Jane says that the Scientology private eye operation just in Clearwater involved five rented houses, a dozen rented cars, and five full-time agents working at any one time.

It must have cost a fortune.

“The most amazing thing about this is that all of this bullshit is paid for with tax-exempt money,” Mike Rinder said when we told him about what Jane had told us. “Not only the immorality of it, but tax payers are supporting this. They’re subsidizing it.”

 
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Make your plans now!

 
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——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on January 9, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

We have some follow-up information for you in the case of Clay Irwin and the camera he found facing his house in Clearwater, Florida.

On Saturday, we told you that Irwin, owner of the Lucky Anchor Irish Pub on Cleveland Street, had sent us some photos of a time-lapse Brinno camera he [...]]]>

We have some follow-up information for you in the case of Clay Irwin and the camera he found facing his house in Clearwater, Florida.

On Saturday, we told you that Irwin, owner of the Lucky Anchor Irish Pub on Cleveland Street, had sent us some photos of a time-lapse Brinno camera he found on the property next door.

Irwin opened his pub at the beginning of the year, and at the time he expressed an eagerness to get along with the Church of Scientology, whose “Flag Land Base” surrounds his bar. But since then, he’s had some run-ins with the church, which began in February after he made an impromptu visit to the unfinished penthouse being prepared for Scientology celebrity Tom Cruise just down the street.

Irwin was subsequently not invited to a presentation made by church leader David Miscavige for Cleveland Street business owners, and he says that he’s been feeling that he was being watched since then.

On Friday, his Miniature Pinscher, Bruno, was barking at something on the neighbor’s property, and Clay went to take a closer look.

 
That’s when Clay spotted something next to what looks like a round water-meter box. As you can see, the camera, with some duct tape on its all-weather plastic housing, tended to blend in with the metal behind it.

 
Clay tells us that the camera was aimed at his driveway, and we told him that it suggested that someone was recording license plate numbers of visitors to his house, which we’ve seen in previous Scientology spying operations.

Yesterday, he managed to catch his neighbor and asked her about the camera. He says that the woman, a Scientologist, told him that she didn’t know anything about it.

Clay tells us that his attorney will be contacting the church to ask why it might be recording Irwin’s property. We sent a request for a statement to church spokeswoman Karin Pouw, and we’ll let you know if we hear anything back from her.

Clay removed a memory card from the camera and has been attempting to find out what it had recorded. He’s been unable to open its files, but he wanted us to see how enormous they are. The first two are dated the middle of February, right around the time Clay made his visit to Cruise’s condo.

 
While we were messaging Clay about what he’d found in the camera, he sent us additional news as well.

Taking advantage of a new city initiative which is handing out grants to encourage new business, Irwin is opening a second bar, with pool hall and 2-lane bowling alley, across the street from the Lucky Anchor.

 
And, he tells us, he’s being more wary of his surroundings.

“I’m taking my dog out on another camera hunt,” he told us, with a laugh.

 
——————–

HowdyCon 2017

 
HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25 at the Residence Inn Denver City Center. Go here for details.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on June 19, 2017 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

Perhaps no one has experienced more suspicious activity recently than Tom DeVocht, a former church executive who was close [...]]]>

We’ve been reporting that some of the ex-Scientologists who took part in Alex Gibney’s film Going Clear have been experiencing a sharp increase in the amount of surveillance and harassment they normally have to put up with.

Perhaps no one has experienced more suspicious activity recently than Tom DeVocht, a former church executive who was close to Scientology leader David Miscavige and who revealed that Miscavige took pleasure in mocking Tom Cruise behind his back. DeVocht says in Going Clear that Miscavige had the actor’s auditing session notes sent to him daily, which contained intimate details of Cruise’s sex life, and Miscavige would share those secrets with others, including DeVocht, while drinking Scotch and laughing at Cruise.

Perhaps it’s those embarrassing disclosures which explain why DeVocht regularly experiences so much interference by private investigators. But then yesterday, things moved into new territory. DeVocht was visited by narcotics division police officers with the Burbank Police Department who said they had been tipped that DeVocht was dealing drugs in the area.

There are very good reasons to suspect that the Burbank police are being pranked, and DeVocht is livid — he’s sure Scientology is behind a classic operation, and he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop in coming days.

Here’s what happened. DeVocht lives in a rented house in a quiet Burbank neighborhood. Nearby there’s a park, and he has spotted private investigators staked out there watching him, which he reported to the Burbank police.

Yesterday afternoon around 3:30 pm, two men arrived at his house. They said they were police officers with the narcotics division of the Burbank Police Department. Officer Adam Baumgarten flashed his badge, handed Tom his business card, and asked if they could come in and talk.

DeVocht let them in, and Baumgarten pulled out a letter-sized manila envelope and took two photographs from it. They appeared to have been taken from a distance with a long lens, and they showed DeVocht sitting in his white Kia Sorento with the door open, and he could be seen holding a quart-sized plastic bag with something white inside. Scrawled on one of the photos was DeVocht’s name and address.

DeVocht says Baumgarten told him, “Somebody dropped this off on my desk. I don’t know why it was on my desk. But we were tipped off that you might be dealing drugs, and the photos show you supposedly with drugs in your car.”

At that point, Tom tells us, he thought he might be the victim of a prank. He said he wanted to get verification of Baumgarten’s identity, so he called the number on the business card the officer had given him. When it reached the Burbank Police Department, Tom accepted that the officers were who they said they were.

Tom then explained what they were seeing in the photographs. He and his girlfriend often go on hikes and like to carry snacks with them in his car. The quart bag he was holding, he pointed out, was filled with popcorn.

“It’s not a big deal. We’re not here to arrest you,” Baumgarten told him.

“It’s so strange to me, Tony, that a police outfit would go knocking on someone’s door to check out a drug lead, and then they would say, ‘Please don’t do that in Burbank.’ And he seemed a little nervous, which was weird to me,” Tom told us.

DeVocht says he explained to Baumgarten and his partner that he was featured in a movie, Going Clear, which, in part, portrays how the Church of Scientology employs private investigators to run dirty tricks on people the church considers enemies. Tom explained that he was a former church official who had become a whistle-blower, and that he regularly experienced a lot of surveillance and harassment. He was sure the photographs had been taken by private eyes in the employ of the church, and that the anonymous tip was Scientology’s attempt to get him into trouble with the police.

Tom says he asked to get copies of the photos, but the officers refused. They also turned him down when he asked if he could take a photograph of them.

“At that point, he really seemed like he wanted to leave,” Tom says.

DeVocht posted a short writeup of the encounter to his Facebook page, and called and left us a message. We got back to him and then called Officer Baumgarten. After we explained why we were calling, Baumgarten told us he couldn’t answer our questions, which is not unusual. We asked him for the name of the department’s public information officer, and he gave us two names.

We left a phone message for one, and sent a lengthy, detailed email to the other.

We then talked to DeVocht again, and explained that not only did it seem obvious that Scientology’s private eyes were up to their old tricks, but that the operation might still have more steps to come. DeVocht asked us what we meant, and we told him we were aware of a similar operation that resulted in a police report being leaked to the media in an attempt to smear the target of the scheme.

Tom then wrote an email to Baumgarten, which he shared with us.

“I told you that I was recently one of the eight people featured in Going Clear, a documentary about Scientology. I am an ex-Scientologist. Scientology is trying to ruin me with websites, on Twitter etc. They have had PIs following me, and I have reported this to the Burbank Police department — it should be on file. Please take a look online for my name and you will see this for yourself. Also, please watch Going Clear or at least find out about it.”

DeVocht wrote that he was concerned Scientology would try to get a copy of any report that Baumgarten wrote and leak it to a friendly press organization, resulting in a story about DeVocht being investigated as a drug dealer.

“I would appreciate you looking into this matter a little — like who might have dropped the note off? There are cameras in your office, I am sure,” he wrote. “I’m no drug dealer. I am an ex-Scientologist who has spoken out against them, and they will do anything to try to stop me, so I am concerned and wanted to make you aware of this.”

In an email, we asked Sergeant Adam Cornils, the department’s spokesman, if Burbank PD would begin an investigation of who dropped off the photos on Baumgarten’s desk.

We’ll let you know if we get an answer back.

 
UPDATE: Tom DeVocht has posted a couple of photographs on Facebook, and here’s his caption: “Just thought to go to my car and pull out of the center console the remainder of the drugs Scientology took pictures of and sent to the police to warn them I am a dealer… I polished off the popcorn I guess. This is all I had left… pistachios, dried fruit, almonds, walnuts and some dog treats… Crap… I’m running low!”

 
——————–

‘West Wing’ set for Camp David scenes trying to become a Narconon center

Narconon may be struggling in some parts of the country, under siege in dozens of lawsuits resulting from patient deaths and allegations of credit card fraud, but heck, how about a new Scientology drug rehab in the wilds of Maryland?

The Frederick News-Post reported yesterday that owners of the Trout Run resort — which at one time served as a getaway for President Herbert Hoover and was used as a backdrop when West Wing wanted to film scenes portraying Camp David — are seeking historic designation, which would allow it to be turned into a 12-bed rehab center.

Just three days ago, we told you that a new class-action lawsuit had been filed in California which accuses all Narconon centers of operating deceitfully. While they advertise themselves as a secular program that gives patients individualized drug counseling, in fact the program delivers only Scientology training.

But hey, Maryland, if you want to get in on the action of baking addicts in a sauna and having them yell at ashtrays on their way up L. Ron Hubbard’s Bridge to Total Freedom, go for it!

 
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Bonus photos from our tipsters

Hey, this is in New York. What are the chances they’d let us attend?

 
Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

 
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Saturday Night Live spoofs Scientology

This is so good, we’re hoping Lorne Michaels doesn’t have any pets…

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 4, 2015 at 07:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

We’ve [...]]]>

Tonight is the night we move into a new era: for the first time, a television network is putting on not just a story about some of Scientology’s worst abuses — spying on perceived enemies, degrading treatment of workers, splitting up families — but it’s being dramatized in a 1-hour show that pulls no punches.

We’ve seen the whole thing and can attest to the high production values and the respect with which the Investigation Discovery network and its new series “Dangerous Persuasions” is treating Nancy Many, who had one of the most remarkable careers in Scientology.

Let the live blogging begin!

 

UPDATE 9:05 PM — LESS THAN AN HOUR TO GO … and it looks like we have quite a few people in the comments already as we wait for the show to start.

Here in New York it’s a frigid night and we’re happy to be indoors. We have the ID network fired up on the big screen — it’s in HD on channel 723 on our Time Warner Cable system.

If you’re in Canada (where it’s airing on the History Channel on Friday night) or somewhere else in the world, you may be able to watch at ID’s website, as some of our commenters have pointed out. We’ll try to get more info on that soon.

And here’s a tip: set your Discus (under “discussion”) to “Newest” in order to see the latest comments about what we’re seeing on television.

9:30 PM — HALF HOUR TO GO … Answering some questions: Sorry, Tory, you can’t see the show here on the blog. We’re just “live-blogging” as folks watch the show on their televisions.

Has anyone definitely found a live feed online for those who can’t watch on television?

Oh, this is exciting.

9:40 PM — TWENTY MINUTES TO GO … And Nancy Many got this statement out of the church about tonight’s show…

You contacted us today concerning Nancy Many’s upcoming fictional film. My apologies for not getting back to you earlier.

Nancy Many is attempting to promote her self-published book in which she gives a fictional account of her time in the Church. Ms. Many was removed from her staff position in the Church in 1979. In 1995, after having been off Church staff for 13 years, she suffered a mental breakdown. She admitted that she wrote her book as part of her psychiatric treatment. As far as we know she is still getting this psychiatric treatment.

She has been acting as a source of misinformation ever since. Ms. Many has no current information on the Scientology religion, its parishioners and humanitarian programs.

Anyone wanting to know about the Scientology religion should visit scientology.org.

That’s from Karin Pouw, perhaps the most quotable church spokeswoman of all time. We do love her work.

9:50 PM — TEN MINUTES TO GO … Hey, this ID network is kind of spooky.

 
HERE WE GO!!

VIEWER ADVISORY: This is Nancy Many’s Story — In her own words

Wow, this looks good on the big screen. Brighter and sharper than the version I was sent for my laptop.

FIRST PART Boston 1971 — Nancy gets sucked in.

Doesn’t Nancy look great?

Don’t do it, Nancy! Run! Run!

“All the books were by one author.” THAT WAS YOUR FIRST CLUE, NANCY!

THE E-METER! Hey, that’s a great old model, isn’t it?

ROCK SLAM!

“I loved it.” Yes, the hook was sunk deep, like in so many cases.

“Hubbard didn’t have a college degree and look how he’s doing.” Quick quiz for the oldtimers — in 1971, did Scientologists know that LRH didn’t have a college degree?

THE SEA ORG IS ON THE SCENE!

Hey, that guy doesn’t look like he’s been living on only rice and beans.

Nancy sells, sells, sells, or stays up all night cleaning floors. “You worked from morning till night, seven days a week. That was my life.”

HERE COMES THE GUARDIAN’S OFFICE!

Spy for us, Nancy!

FIRST BREAK! Whew. This is going fast.

Did we tell you this thing was well done? OK, here comes Part 2

“She is now a spy for them.”

This is seriously the scariest segment, for me. She was taking home the personnel files of psychiatrists for the GO to copy. Amazing.

“You can do anything as long as it destroys an enemy of Scientology.”

P A U L E T T E C O O P E R !!!

Paulette: “They turned out so much worse than I thought.”

Uh-oh, Nancy lost Paulette!

Paulette, you look so good! She’s such a great interview.

NANCY GOES TO FLAG … This was in 1976, just a year after Hubbard and the Sea Org came ashore.

Sea Org love!

Nancy and Chris Many marry at Flag in 1976. And Nancy got pregnant that night!

The RPF! L. Ron Hubbard had started the RPF just a couple of years earlier while the armada was still at sea.

Uh-oh, a Messenger arrives! This is a great scene.

Nancy’s smirks at the thought of LRH as the next Messiah. How many other Sea Org members were let in on that aborted idea?

CHRIS AND NANCY GO TO THE RPF!

END OF PART TWO

NANCY’S ON THE RPF AT FIVE MONTHS PREGNANT … 40 people living in that space. Yikes.

Life in the RPF. Muster. Rules. Call everyone “sir.” Never alone.

What a striking psychological effect — scrounging for food from leftovers of others. Now that is control.

Another form of disconnection — the way Sea Org members are cut off from other family, even when they’re still in good standing.

Nancy waddles through the parking garage, ashamed of her condition — pregnant, wearing a boiler suit. She was only 25 years old and had been in Scientology for 5 years. “This is the bottom of the bottom of the bottom.”

And yet, she still thinks Scientology is going to make the world a better place.

GETTING OUT OF THE RPF … Nancy waddles around 9 months pregnant, getting signatures. So she only spent about four months on the RPF. Today, people spend years on it.

Back to work at about $20 a week! And now on to… the CELEBRITY CENTRE!

Yvonne Gillham had started the Hollywood Celebrity Centre in the late 1960s. Now, Nancy was running it.

When I asked her for the name of a celebrity she worked with at the time, she mentioned … Jerry Seinfeld! (He took just the comm course.)

END OF PART THREE!

Here we go: Chris and Nancy facing another stint in the RPF. For no reason, Nancy says.

“For me, it was game over.”

Chris says, let’s go. Chills!

The mustard! Remember that, RPF victims! The mustard!

They take their son to a movie theater. Chris: “I had nothing outside the world of Scientology.”

ROUTING OUT? No, Nancy! Run!

Wow, they got off easy. Sinar Parman had to escape FIVE TIMES before he finally told them to forget their “routing out.”

Sounds like Nancy was working as a WISE consultant. A move up from the Sea Org, apparently.

CHRIS, WAKE UP, DUDE!

NANCY FACES HER INTERROGATOR … I’ve talked to one other person who was sec-checked by this woman. But I forget her name now. Anyone know?

Six to 10 hours a day, for 10 days. Amazing.

“My mind had cracked.”

END OF PART FOUR

Nancy’s losing it after 10 days of intense sec-checking.

“She really was broken.” — Great statements from Chris. Together, their testimony is so powerful.

She’s going Type III! Throw her in the chain locker!

A group of Scientologists who considered that the leadership of SCientology had been taken over by the Marcabians with invisible machines — is she talking about Marty?

That was a little joke.

Nancy and her boy make a run for it!

Nancy getting strapped down on a gurney. This is DM’s favorite part.

“They broke her,” Chris says. Devastating.

Chris is ready to go! “I”m not alone anymore,” Nancy says.

“That was the beginning of our way out into the real world.”

“Scientology is all about money. It’s about power. It’s about control.”

Hey, those credits are too fast! Anyone catch the name of the woman who played Nancy?

WOW. WHAT A SHOW.

Whew. I gotta get off that channel. Those other shows give me the willies. What’s Robert Osborne doing? Ah, TCM. All is right with the world.

Steven Hassan has been making some interesting observations. What’s your overall impression of the show, Steve?

Here in the bunker, we wondered if Nancy tended to blame herself too much for things that really were beyond her control.

Any other general assessments, gang?

We’re told that Janet Porter played Nancy. She did a good job!

AS FOR TOMORROW NIGHT — I have been fortunate enough to be invited to a local event celebrating the publication of a certain book here in NYC tomorrow night. So I may not be able to live-blog the NBC Rock Center show. But I will check my schedule on that. New story in the morning.

Thanks all for a great night!

————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on January 16, 2013 at 10:35

By Tony Ortega

[Paul Marrick reunites with his old boss, Marty Rathbun]

 This week, we learned that a lawsuit filed against the Church of Scientology by two of its former private investigators was [...]]]>

For 24 years, they followed one man for the Church of Scientology. Then, for just over a single day, they came in from the cold.

By Tony Ortega

[Paul Marrick reunites with his old boss, Marty Rathbun]

 
This week, we learned that a lawsuit filed against the Church of Scientology by two of its former private investigators was quietly settled, and no terms were made public. In September, before settlement negotiations began, the two detectives spent just more than 24 hours giving the only interviews to reporters they ever will. Here now is one account of that brief period that provided a rare window into the shadowy world of Scientology surveillance.

Junior was in the front passenger seat. Junior’s Brother, in the back. The car was speeding down I-37 to Corpus Christi for a reunion with Three, who hadn’t seen Junior and Junior’s Brother in about twenty years.

The Duke was no doubt aware of the meeting, and was probably in a high state of agitation over it.

The passenger van had left San Antonio at about 11 in the morning on Tuesday, September 25. It carried two attorneys, a reporter, and two men who had spent most of their adult lives trying to be invisible. They’re ex-cops from California who, in 1988, went to work for the Church of Scientology, and for the past 24 years were paid to spy on one man without revealing their presence.

They are Paul Marrick (“Junior”) and Greg Arnold (“Junior’s Brother”), and they were hired in 1988 by a church executive named Marty Rathbun (“Three”) on behalf of his boss, Scientology leader David Miscavige (“The Duke”), and spent more than two decades tailing Pat Broeker (“The Gardener”), whom Miscavige considered a rival to his leadership.

Code names were only part of the layers of secrecy Marrick and Arnold had to live with to remain human ciphers until just a few months ago. It was still difficult, they said, to talk freely about what they had gone through.

On September 20, they filed a detailed, amended complaint in a lawsuit against Miscavige and Scientology, saying that they had been promised employment for life by the church, which stopped paying them in June.

The lawsuit claimed that in spying on one man for so long, Marrick and Arnold gave up other opportunities in law enforcement and made themselves difficult to hire. The church, they said, made assurances that they would keep them on, even if The Broeker Operation ended. Then, suddenly, they were let go.

But more than an employment dispute, the lawsuit was remarkable for several reasons. Scientology is known for using private investigators to keep tabs on former members and journalists. But this assignment was special — only a handful of church executives knew anything about Marrick and Arnold and their work, Rathbun said. The sums were stunning: between $10 and 12 million, much of it paid in cash, to watch only one man. Investigators don’t usually sue the church, and Miscavige is rarely named as a defendant. And the venue — a small county on the Texas Coastal Bend — was an unlikely place for a court fight that threatened to ensnare two men rarely or never seen in public: Miscavige, and the man he wrested control of the church from, Pat Broeker. The unusual case was garnering national and international attention.

Multiple attempts have been made to elicit a comment from the church, which has not responded. Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw told the Tampa Bay Times that Marrick and Arnold’s lawsuit was a “shakedown attempt.” She said the two detectives were contract workers for the church, but didn’t provide specifics after saying their accounts were full of untruths.

After nearly two months of negotiations, the two sides reached a settlement and the lawsuit is over, it was learned this week. Terms are not being announced.

But on that day in September, Marrick and Arnold were preparing with their attorneys for a court battle, and their star witness was the man who first hired them in 1988, former high-ranking church official Marty Rathbun, who lives in little Ingleside on the Bay, near Corpus Christi.

Rathbun defected from Scientology in 2004. In 2009, he resurfaced by starting a blog that is highly critical of his former employer.

As a result, Marrick and Arnold were sent to San Patricio County that year to case Rathbun’s house and produce a surveillance plan.

“Here I am, surveilling the guy who hired me,” Marrick said, remembering that job three years ago.

Now, the two men were pulling up to the driveway of Rathbun’s home.

And they were being watched.

 
2.

Greg Arnold was working for the Desert Hot Springs Police Department in California’s Coachella Valley when he says he was approached by another cop named J.J. Gaw about part time work in 1988.

“He said, ‘I’ve never told anyone this, but I’ve done work for the Church of Scientology.’ He asked if I was interested,” Arnold says.

Arnold agreed, and his first job for the church was to serve as a bodyguard for Gaw and a woman as they went to a federal penitentiary to interview a prisoner.

Arnold said he waited around as Gaw and the woman talked to Andrew Daulton Lee, the man convicted of espionage and drug dealing who was played by Sean Penn in the movie The Falcon and the Snowman.

“They wanted information on Robert Lindsey, who had written the book, and who was now looking into Scientology,” Arnold says. (An archive search shows that in the 1980s, Lindsey was indeed writing about Scientology for the New York Times — he wrote the Times obituary for L. Ron Hubbard when the Scientology founder died in 1986.)

“I don’t know what happened in the interview. I just went along as protection. It was easy money,” he says.

Gaw then asked Arnold if he wanted to ditch his police job and start to work full time for the church. Arnold, who had spent more than seven years on the force, says he was ready for a change.

Before he could be hired full time, however, he had to be interrogated. “They did an e-meter test on me,” he says, referring to the electronic device that Scientologists believe can detect negative thoughts by holding onto its metal sensors. Arnold was asked if he was secretly working for the government, or if there were other things he was hiding. He passed the examination.

Meanwhile, another of his Coachella Valley colleagues, Paul Marrick, was also recruited to join him.

The two young men — Arnold was 29, Marrick, 28 — were taken to Scientology’s secretive international headquarters near Hemet, California, where they met Marty Rathbun, who was then 31.

Rathbun was part of a youth movement in the leadership of Scientology, which had been raided by the FBI in 1977, resulting in the prosecution and imprisonment of eleven of its top officials, including Hubbard’s wife, Mary Sue. Fearing that he would be sucked into the prosecutions, Hubbard went into hiding in 1980. Only a handful of people knew where he was, and they included a young married couple who were his caretakers, Pat and Annie Broeker. Hubbard appeared to have named the Broekers his successors, but when he died in 1986, they were pushed aside by Miscavige.

Rathbun was part of Miscavige’s new cohort that had taken over the organization. Brash and competent, Rathbun had quickly risen in the church, and was serving as Miscavige’s trusted enforcer. What Miscavige needed done, Rathbun made happen.

“Marty gave us a briefing on the guy they wanted us to follow. He made it clear that this job was for David Miscavige,” Arnold says. “The target was Pat Broeker. They called him ‘Hubbard’s errand boy,’ and said he was an alcoholic. They said there was $1.8 million that was unaccounted for. So he was a thief and a drunk and they wanted him watched.” (They were also told Broeker may have stashed away highly secretive, unpublished Scientology writings by Hubbard, but Marrick and Arnold say they never found evidence of this.)

Today, Marrick and Arnold say little of what they were told was true. Broeker was not a drunk, he didn’t live like he had millions stashed away, and he was in fact a modest man who craved learning and lived quietly.

Now, they realize, they were put on Broeker simply because of the threat he represented to Miscavige’s leadership of the church. Having taken over Scientology in a power struggle, Miscavige worried that Broeker could speak out and undermine his claim to lead the church, they say.

But on August 8, 1988, they only knew that they were part of a team of investigators watching Broeker, who at that time was living at one of Scientology’s properties, a ranch near Creston, California, where Hubbard had died two years earlier.

“We were told it would be a three week assignment,” remembers Marrick.

 
[Continued on page two]

Today, we can barely contain ourselves as we present to you more evidence that David Miscavige is leading Scientology into a golden age.

We present to you this photograph, which appeared [...]]]>

Sometimes, we are simply in awe of Scientology’s effectiveness and power as it marches onward, turning this prison planet into the sanest place in the galaxy.

Today, we can barely contain ourselves as we present to you more evidence that David Miscavige is leading Scientology into a golden age.

We present to you this photograph, which appeared recently at a website the church maintains in order to get out the truth that the media tries to suppress. Ladies and gentlemen, gaze upon a church’s good works…

Now, you may be wondering, is this evidence that, like the Amish or some other faith-loving group, Scientologists like to pitch in and help out a family in need? Is that what we’re seeing in this photograph?

Well, no. What you’re actually seeing are some workers repairing the roof on the house owned by Marc and Claire Headley. You see, back on July 30, there was a hellacious hailstorm in their Colorado neighborhood that ruined just about every roof around. Like their neighbors, the Headleys had to turn to their insurance company for repairs, since the damage to their roof was covered under their homeowner’s policy. Marc tells us that most of the other houses already had their roofs repaired, and in September, when this photo was taken, their place was one of the last group in the neighborhood getting patched up.

Now, isn’t it heartwarming that the Church of Scientology would care enough about the Headleys and their well-being that it would monitor the work being done to their house, and post photographs of it on a website that the church maintains just for that purpose?

Although the church is too modest to put its name on the site, we’ve written in the past about the hard work (and great expense!) it takes for the church to maintain such a website.

Normally, the church uses the site to update its members on what’s happening with one of its favorite former members, Marty Rathbun. But in this case, it knew that Scientologists would be curious about how the Headleys are doing since they left their jobs at the church’s International Base in 2005.

Isn’t it nice to know that Scientology cares about its former members like that? Hey, maybe it’s time for a big reunion!

For those who aren’t familiar with the Headleys, they were a young couple who met at the Int Base but ultimately left because they had some differences of opinion with church management. Like, for example, Claire wasn’t really thrilled with being forced to have a couple of abortions by a Scientology policy that insisted they work 100 hours a week for little pay, and shouldn’t have time for kids.

After leaving the church, the Headleys decided to sue the church over their treatment. They lost on appeal, but the appeal decision is fascinating not only for how seriously it took the complaints made by the Headleys, but it also hinted that if they’d sued under a different law, they might have won.

After that loss, Scientology presented the Headleys with a bill for $42,000 in court costs — but the church agreed to waive those costs if the Headleys would only agree to spy for the church.

The Headleys decided instead to pay the entire bill, and had to empty their savings, sell a van and other things, and borrow several thousand in order to come up with the entire amount. Jason Beghe, another former Scientologist, encouraged the Headleys to create a fund so people could donate money and help them recover what they paid the church.

We wrote about it, and the response was amazing. We love a happy ending. The church got its money. The Headleys were restored. And our readers proved to be Big Beings.

As a testament to how much the church still cares about the Headleys, they now have private investigators watching their house to see that the roof got fixed properly.

How’s that for compassion! (And a note to Miscavige: Your concern is touching, but not to worry — the roof was covered by insurance, and none of the money our readers raised for them was spent on it.)

All of us can feel some pride in seeing this work go forward — after all, if it weren’t for your tax dollars, how could Mr. Miscavige afford to make such efforts to ensure that he can keep an eye on the welfare not only of his fellow church members, but even his former colleagues. What a heart that guy has!

And just to reassure Scientology’s leader that the Headleys are, in fact, doing fine, we thought we’d finish with a photograph of the family enjoying themselves on a recent trip to the home of Marty and Monique Rathbun. (In the photo, that’s Monique with the Headley boys fishing out back of the Rathbun house in Texas.) As you can see, Mr. Miscavige, your former employees are having the times of their lives!