| The Underground Bunker

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]

Scientology’s sneaky front groups keep doing their thing — and some are succeeding

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: No matter how challenging things have been for Scientology, it never gives up. You can always count on its sneaky front groups, for instance, to insinuate themselves no matter how many times they’ve been […]

Why Scientology’s reclusive leader would risk re-emerging in England for the IAS gala

Several weeks ago, we told you that we were hearing from some of our sources in England that the IAS gala was going to be held there after an absence of four […]

Prosecution plans to call 1996 victim in Danny Masterson trial

At a courtroom in Los Angeles yesterday, the two sides preparing for Danny Masterson’s rape trial that is scheduled to begin next week spent the day fighting over what evidence will be allowed […]

Judge in labor trafficking lawsuit refuses relief for ex-Scientology trio: Bad omen?

[Judge Thomas Barber. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM]

Is it nailbiting time in the Baxter v Scientology […]

Is this a list of all of Scientology’s active subsidiary corporations that a tipster fed us?

[Scientology’s Nashville Celebrity Centre]

Now that we’re plunging into our tenth year together, dear readers, we appreciate more than ever what our longtime regulars bring to the […]

Scientology once again confirms our estimates for its tiny size

Oh, Dave, you did it again.

We want to thank the tipster who sent us the most recent issue of International Scientology News. In recent years, ISN has emerged as the biggest, glossiest snoozefest put out by the church as David Miscavige has turned it into the print version of his interminable event […]

SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Episode 2 spiked by Aussie network, ‘Witness X,’ is leaked online

‘Witness X,’ the second episode of ‘Scientology Black Ops,’ a special 7NEWS Australia investigation that was cancelled by the network in July, has been leaked to the […]

Trump to pay $2 million in charity scam that is a lot like what he’s facing impeachment for

Attorney Scott Pilutik wrestles with the news of the day, from a lawyerly perspective…

[Regarding this story: Trump ordered to pay $2 million to charities over misuse of foundation, court documents say]

Trump agreed to a $2 million settlement, essentially conceding that his charity was a scam, and then, hours later, delivered an all-caps “STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT […]

For $100, Scientologist sorcerer will share secret of living to 150 (and we have the secret!)

[Rey Robles on CNN’s Believer]

You might remember that we were not very impressed with Reza Aslan’s short-lived Believer series that aired in 2017 on CNN, in particular its dishonest episode about Scientology. Admitting that he had “a soft spot” for Scientology, Aslan pretended that the teeny tiny “indie” movement of Scientologists was so potent, it […]

Scientology loses a whale: Major donor Michael Baybak dead at 77

[Michael Baybak in 2014]

The Church of Scientology has lost one of its all-time biggest donors, businessman Michael Baybak, who died last week at […]

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