[hide] [menu]
     |
|
|
FOLLOW ME ON     |
First up, BBC journalist John Sweeney, who has a book coming out on January 7, The Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology. We’re working on several interesting new stories that will take some time to complete. In the meantime, we wanted to keep you tided over with this great blast from the past. It’s a 1997 UK Channel 4 documentary about L. Ron Hubbard that resurfaced recently over at the Ex-Scientologist Message Board. Continue reading L. Ron Hubbard’s “Secret Lives” — A Channel 4 Classic
Rathbun is the most visible member of an “independence movement” that is splitting Scientology apart. He has participated in or masterminded several of the biggest legal and media offensives against church leader David Miscavige. And he has also been the target of some of the strangest and most outrageous retaliation in the history of Scientology’s well-earned reputation for vengeance. But, as we’ve pointed out many times, there is an essential contradiction in Rathbun’s current role as the Church of Scientology’s biggest critic: Before he was the target of the church’s legendary retaliation machine, he was the man at its helm. Perhaps no other piece has taken on that paradox like Joel Sappell’s masterful new story — his first on Scientology in some twenty years — which appears this morning in Los Angeles magazine.  Joel Sappell UPDATE: We now have a review of Sappell’s full story, which has gone live at the Los Angeles magazine website. One of our highlights of 2012 was getting to know Joel Sappell, the former Los Angeles Times journalist who, with his partner Robert Welkos, produced a series of blockbuster Scientology investigations in the late 1980s, culminating in their giant 1990 series about the church. We lived in Los Angeles at the time, and can still remember the billboards that the church put up in retaliation. We were reminiscing about that with Joel earlier this year when he told us he had an idea for a new story, and could we put him in touch with former Scientology executive Marty Rathbun? We were happy to help, and boy, does it look like it paid off. Joel told us that Rathbun’s defection made him wonder, all these years after Rathbun was the church’s chief enforcer, if he could now fill in some details about the kind of harassment that Sappell and Welkos went through when their stories were coming out. Advertisement
Chief among those incidents was the apparent poisoning of Sappell’s dog.
Near the end of her report, Whittier wants to give an example of what locals are doing to comfort each other, and she holds up a pamphlet, The Way to Happiness, that “people” were handing out. She was apparently unaware that the pamphlet is a classic come-on from the Church of Scientology, which has quickly descended on Newtown to exploit the mass murder. Continue reading Scientology Quick to Exploit Newtown Tragedy
And this year, the event is coming early! As you’ll see in our weekly collection of Scientology fundraising mailers, an interesting date has been set for the church’s worldwide party welcoming in 2013. So join us as we look at the items our tipsters sent us this week.
But there was something else that made the bile rise in our throat yesterday. Marty Rathbun, at his blog, pointed out that one of the anonymous attack web sites operated by the Church of Scientology has begun putting up slimy allegations about his mother’s mental health. It turns out that it’s regurgitated material from a larger article that appeared in the church’s propaganda magazine, Freedom. (We won’t link to it. You can find it easily enough if you want to, or you can just assume that it’s the usual juvenile smear that Freedom specializes in.) In a previous article, we showed the connections between the anonymous attack sites and the church. And now, Scientology leader David Miscavige appears to be dropping all pretense of holding the attack sites at arm’s length. In fact, he appears to be outright panicking. Advertisement
Continue reading Scientology Leader David Miscavige: Getting Desperate?  Kurt Feshbach: Shhh, he’s a wealthy Scientologist The Narconon center’s landowner has asked federal Judge James D. Whittemore that the facility’s connection to Scientology, and the recent deaths of three Narconon patients in Oklahoma, be kept from a jury if the lawsuit goes to trial. We have copies of two motions that Hernando County filed this week pushing back on that request. And actually, we can think of several other things that a jury should hear if this case gets its day in court. Continue reading DOX: Florida Officials Fight Attempt to Hide Drug Rehab’s Scientology Connections
Since at least the spring, agents with Homeland Security working out of its Tampa office have been interviewing former members of the church who have information about the way children are used as laborers in Scientology’s “Sea Organization” and other matters. We put in a call to the lead investigator of the probe at the Tampa office, Justin Deutsch, who has been questioning former church members. We have not received a reply. But we decided to reveal this news after talking to four different ex-Scientologists who gave us detailed information about being interviewed by Homeland Security, and after learning that the probe has been going on for so long. Continue reading HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATING SCIENTOLOGY FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING That meany Jon Stewart and just about everyone else has made fun of this video from America’s favorite cute movie couple, Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson. But we know that our readers will have special affection for this darling Christmas carol that features so many of the things that make the holidays special. |
|
Copyright © 2025 Tony Ortega | All Rights Reserved | Site Design SP | RSS Feed | Contact Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa . |
|
