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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Scientologists led away in handcuffs after stunning evidence of fraud heard in L.A. court

 At the conclusion of the first day in their preliminary hearing yesterday afternoon at Los Angeles Superior Court, Scientologists Hanan Islam, 60, and her son Ronnie “Rizza” Islam, 29, were led away in handcuffs to spend the night in jail. []

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Mark ‘Wise Beard Man’ Bunker: His Scientology-protesting past and political future

 When we asked readers for their favorite moment of the third season of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, the overwhelming winner was Mark Bunker’s hilarious and frightening stroll to a Clearwater Park when he, Leah, and Mike Rinder were swarmed by Clearwater []

No, RadarOnline did not discover a new underground bunker at Scientology’s Gold Base

[Circled, the non-scandalous non-story’s location]

We want to start out by saying that we have had a fine relationship with RadarOnline in the past. Sure, it’s the online sister to the National Enquirer and very tabloidy, but it has employed people who were passionate about getting Scientology stories right and who enjoyed working with []

Hey, kids! It’s open mic night at your local Scientology spaceport!

 Scientology TV features so much repetitive and boring content that it has taken to inviting desperate filmmakers to screen their documentaries on its platform. These filmmakers are able to overlook the appalling human rights abuses of Scientology in order to get their documentaries about other appalling human rights abuses broadcast. The mental gymnastics of this []

After 3 years of Hurricane Leah: ‘Scientology today is light years ahead of what it was’

 Yesterday we looked at how Scientology seems to expend enormous resources for initiatives that really get them almost nowhere. And yet, today we have another reminder that for those still hanging on inside David Miscavige’s sinking ship, it’s always a sunny []

Scientology: So much effort and heartache, for such little effect

[Emily Jones and John Goodwin]

Does it ever strike you, the way it does us from time to time, the sheer amount of effort that Scientology puts into its various initiatives that are forever chipping away at the []

Vote for the most startling statement on the ‘Scientology and the Aftermath’ finale

 Wow, did Leah Remini and Mike Rinder finish off their run at A&E with a dynamite special episode last []

Has Scientology’s leader David Miscavige gone underground in the face of a legal onslaught?

[Has anyone seen C.O.B. since Maiden Voyage?]

DISCLAIMER: What you are about to read is your proprietor’s speculation, and nothing more than that. We’re trying to read the tea leaves here, and we reserve the right to be completely and utterly wrong about everything in this post. So, with that said, we beg your patience as []

‘Aftermath’ supporters put Scientology on notice in its own ‘spiritual mecca’

 Now that’s what we call getting up in C.O.B.’s []

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 []