Scientology LHR by OT

We have your Scientology ‘Maiden Voyage’ robo-call invitation, Los Angeles!

ortegaunderground — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 11:00:41 +0000

[Partying on L. Ron Hubbard Way]

Starting tomorrow, L. Ron Hubbard Way in Los Angeles will be transformed into the Caribbean Sea as the always naval-minded Church of Scientology celebrates one of holy dates on its space-age calendar.

Over the next four weeks, Scientologists around the world are being called down to their local orgs for a series of videos that were shot recently on the church’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds, which spends its time in Caribbean waters (but as we reported earlier, has fewer places to drop anchor).

In June, Scientology leader David Miscavige invites his most wealthy donors and other bigwigs down to the spiritual barge to preview new initiatives. The fat cats get a special sneak peek, see. But now the rest of the membership gets to see what happened on the ship, watching videos of Miscavige speaking for hours at a time. It’s a gas.

So if you’re a Scientologist in the Los Angeles area, you would have received this robo-call in the last few days. One of our tipsters in the church forwarded it to us. Tell us, would this get you down to L. Ron Hubbard Way for the festivities, which will no doubt include appeals for more donations? Let us know.

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HowdyCon 2017 is all about the Bunker community

Wow, what a great time we had last night, with old friends coming together to meet new friends in Downtown Denver for HowdyCon 2017.

Kim O’Brien really set us up well at the Curtis Club, where we imbibed while watching My Scientology Movie and got some great behind-the-scenes anecdotes from one of the movie’s stars, Marc Headley.

Marc even put a slide show together about it, and so we’ve decided to add his presentation to tomorrow night’s big event, along with his wife Claire, journalist Steve Cannane, and actress Cathy Schenkelberg.

As for today, we’ll be scattering around town to get the genuine Denver experience, and then meeting again for happy hour drinks tonight.

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,790 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,547 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,893 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,387 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,427 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,139 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 665 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,754 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,894 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,214 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,189 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 545 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,847 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 954 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,356 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,229 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 810 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,315 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,559 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,668 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on June 23, 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

HOWDYCON 2017 IS HERE — DENVER IS CLEAR!

ortegaunderground — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 11:00:03 +0000

Our thanks once again to Observer, who has worked tirelessly to help us get the word out about our second annual gathering, HowdyCon 2017. We’ve really enjoyed her 70s-themed images of some of the illustrious folks who will be joining us in our little meetup.

Last year, we met for the first time in Cleveland, Ohio. And what a time we had. Carnegie Mellon University professor Dave Touretzky flew out in his private plane, Pete Griffiths and Johnny Tank came all the way from Europe, and the little Fly larvae honored Steve “Captain Howdy” Cox with a shark costume.

Some of the early arrivals are flying and driving to Denver today. The reliable Kim O’Brien has arranged everything, and she wanted us to give out her email address (kimob924 AT gmail DOT com) and she’ll let you know where this evening’s festivities are.

What we can tell you is that we’ll be at a venue where we can imbibe while watching My Scientology Movie, and one of the stars of the film, Marc Headley, will be on hand to answer your questions about it. The show starts early, at 5:30 pm.

Please come on by and get your ASC membership card, er, we mean your official HowdyCon 2017 pin, provided to us by the generous Colin Henderson. This thing is a beauty and will soon be a collector’s item, we have no doubt…

OK, the quick recap for those who don’t know what in tarnation we’re talking about. Back in 2015, we were on a barnstorming book tour, visiting cities all over the place in support of our book about Paulette Cooper, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely. At some point, one of our commenters asked why we were stopping in so many places, and we quipped that we needed to see them all before choosing one for holding a convention. That joke took on a life of its own, and soon our readers were voting for where they wanted a convention to take place. Cleveland was chosen, and that’s where we got together last year. About 50 regular readers of the Underground Bunker toured the town and talked and laughed, and on Saturday night we had our big catered dinner, and brief addresses from several invited guests.

We named the gathering “HowdyCon” in remembrance of Steve “Captain Howdy” Cox, a beloved commenter who died in 2015. We also dedicated it to Mary “sugarplumfairy” Marinelli, another favorite commenter who had recently passed away.

This year, we’re in Denver, which is a particularly good city for running into prominent ex-Scientology figures. We look forward to seeing them, and posting photos of them for you. For now, here are a few shots from last year. (And thank you to Aegerprimo for archiving them for us.)

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,789 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,546 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,892 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,386 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,426 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,138 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 664 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,753 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,893 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,213 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,188 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 544 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,846 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 953 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,355 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,228 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 809 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,314 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,558 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,667 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on June 22, 2017 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

Source: Scientology ship avoiding Dutch waters after evading surprise government search

ortegaunderground — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 11:00:26 +0000

One of the reasons that L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, invaded the town of Clearwater, Florida in 1975 to make it Scientology’s “spiritual” headquarters, was that he was running out of ports where he was welcome. Hubbard had set sail in 1967 with a ragtag group of young followers who traveled with him on three ships, eventually renamed the Apollo, the Athena, and the Diana. For the next eight years, Hubbard ran the worldwide organization from the Apollo, his flagship, except for several months he spent hiding out in a couple of apartments in Queens, New York in 1972-1973.

One of the reasons why the small armada kept on the move through the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and finally the Caribbean was that it got chased away from numerous ports by governments that eventually figured out what was going on and that the ships were not a floating “school,” as the cover story went. Finally, with very few ports left, in 1975 Hubbard made plans to come back to land, and surreptitiously began buying up properties in Clearwater while hiding out in Daytona.

Today, Scientology carries on its sailing tradition with the Freewinds, a private cruise ship which is the only place where wealthy Scientologists can attain the highest step on the “Bridge to Total Freedom,” the auditing level known as “Operating Thetan Eight.” (For a fun look at OT 8’s wacky early history, see our story about a man named George White.) The Freewinds also hosts other expensive week-long seminars for Scientologists, and it is the site of a very special week of festivities known as “Maiden Voyage,” which takes place in June and commemorates the formal launching of the Freewinds as Scientology’s ultimate destination in 1988.

For many years, the Freewinds for the most part plied a set pattern between three Netherlands-aligned Caribbean islands just off the coast of Venezuela: Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, also known as the ABC Islands. Wealthy Scientologists ready for their OT 8 experience would fly to the islands from Miami by way of Cartagena in Colombia.

But now, we have reason to believe that the Freewinds is beginning to learn what it was like for the Apollo before it, which found fewer and fewer ports it could visit.

From time to time, we hear from a tipster in the Netherlands who works extremely hard to make members of the government there aware of the Church of Scientology and its controversies. And one thing he focused on in particular was making the Dutch government aware that the Freewinds was using the lax oversight of the ABC Islands to its advantage.

If you’re one of our veteran readers, you know about the horror stories of the Freewinds. Valeska Paris, for example, says she was a virtual prisoner on the ship for some eleven years in a plot to keep her from her mother, who had sued the church. And Ramana Dienes-Browning told us about the degrading experiences she went through, also as a young Sea Org official on the ship.

There’s also the harrowing story of Don Jason, told so well by the Tampa Bay Times, and his story of escape from the ship. Shouldn’t the Dutch government be interested that a ship that holds the passports of its crew and regulates their lives so closely is using its ports?

Our tipster claims that his hard work eventually paid off. He tells us that the Dutch government planned to board and inspect the ship in Bonaire early last year. (Bonaire is formally a part of the Netherlands itself; the other two ABC Islands, Aruba and Curaçao, are nominally independent nations in “the Kingdom of the Netherlands.”)

“The Freewinds sailed away the day before the search was planned,” our tipster says, and he adds that the Dutch government admitted to him that the church had found out about the plan and were able to sail away before the ship was boarded. A year later, this past March Scientology lawyers visited Bonaire government offices, trying to quash any further plans for inspections, our source tells us.

As evidence, he shared with us an email from a Dutch government official discussing the planned inspection and the subsequent visit by the Scientology attorneys.

In the email, the official indicated that the Dutch government is still interested in pursuing a criminal investigation of the Church of Scientology. Our source says the Scientology lawyers apparently became aware of this, and now the ship is avoiding Dutch waters entirely.

Records of the ship’s sailing history appear to confirm this. We looked at data from the Freewinds going back to 2015, when the ship visited Bonaire more than 60 times that year. But then in early 2016, when the search was supposed to happen, the Freewinds suddenly stopped visiting Bonaire. It eventually made two more visits to Bonaire in July 2016, but it hasn’t been back since then.

From about July 2016 to early March 2017, the Freewinds spent almost all its time at the two other ABC Islands — Aruba and Curaçao. (One exception was a month in dry dock in Cartagena for repairs in September 2016.)

Then, at some point the Scientology attorneys learned that the Dutch government still plans to pursue criminal charges if more evidence showed up.

On March 10 the ship left Curaçao, and it hasn’t been back in Dutch waters since.

“Since then, the Freewinds has been docked almost permanently in St. Lucia,” our tipster tells us. “It has made the occasional day trip to a neighboring island, but hasn’t returned to the Dutch Antilles in months, which is not its usual pattern.”

St. Lucia is a sovereign nation. Do we have any tipsters who can begin informing its government about Scientology’s controversies?

UPDATE: Although there are no dates on the email from the Dutch government official, our source says that based on the shipping data, he believes the initial surprise search may have been planned for a few months earlier, back to about September 2015, and not January 2016. Also, we don’t have a date for the visit by the Scientology attorneys in Bonaire. But we do know with certainty that on March 10, 2017, the Freewinds left Curaçao, and hasn’t been back in Dutch waters since then.

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Rathbun hits the troika

Yesterday, Marty Rathbun named us as one of the “troika” he’s been hinting about. Rather than make an acceptance speech, we decided to reprint what another member of this exclusive club, Mike Rinder, had to say about it at his website yesterday:

I have declined to comment about Marty Rathbun until now for two reasons:

1. I had no additional information about him than anyone else did, though people assumed otherwise. Therefore, I could only speculate about his actions and why he would do and say the things he did. I try to avoid speculating, I would rather deal in verifiable facts.

2. I considered him a friend and someone who had helped me when I was first leaving Scientology. He was in a unique position as few had similar experiences in the Sea Org and with Miscavige as me, so it was easy for him to understand. I will always be grateful to him for that – he and Jason Beghe dropped everything and flew overnight to Denver when Monique Yingling and Bill Walsh came to try to “handle” me – those sort of acts of friendship I do not forget.

The thing I find most reprehensible is to turn on those who had been friends – from Monique’s lawyers to virtually everyone he had connected with since leaving Scientology. I find this sad and ugly, and I am not inclined to do the same with respect to him.

I said above that I had no additional information – but now that he has made claims about me and Leah and Tony personally he has put me in a position where I DO because I know the details of which he speaks. I will respond simply: Marty is rewriting history (much of which he wrote himself in his earlier versions of events), recounting things that never happened and assigning motives to people that appear to be the fruits of his imagination. And he is laughably trying to create upset between me, Leah and Tony Ortega as if any of us would believe him. Beyond that I am not going to dignify his craziness with specific responses. And I still don’t have any information that sheds light on why he is doing what he is doing.

That being said, I sincerely believe Marty should seek professional help. He has lost touch with reality. He appears delusional and is convinced the spiders he sees all over the walls are real — and that it is his duty to earnestly explain his imaginary spiders to the world. I am saddened to watch it happening, wishing there was something I could do to help him, like he once helped me.

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Bonus items from our tipsters

Says our tipster, who received this mailing at home: “Looks like they’re doing some direct mailing now! Unfortunately, as you can see, their stamp has seen better days and some poor sap has to hand write the rest of their address.”

Having a hard time staffing up that snazzy new joint in San Diego? Shocking.

Hey, Dave, it’s the solstice, the first day of summer. Wasn’t Scientology TV supposed to start by today? What gives?

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HowdyCon 2017

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

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,788 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,545 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,891 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,385 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,425 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,137 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 663 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,752 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,892 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,212 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,187 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 543 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,845 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 952 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,354 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,227 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 808 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,313 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,557 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,666 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on June 21, 2017 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

John Brousseau: Marty Rathbun is putting words in my mouth about the FBI’s Scientology probe

ortegaunderground — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 11:00:53 +0000

[John Brousseau]

We tried to stay away from Mark “Marty” Rathbun’s sad videos, we really did. We got two whole days away from commenting on his bizarre turnaround, which has him trying to rewrite the historical record in order to smear people he once said glowing things about. But once again, he’s really stepped over a line and we felt compelled to say something.

Rathbun was once the second-highest ranking official in Scientology before he left in 2004, and then resurfaced in 2009 with an important website that, for several years, became a rallying point for former church members who were critical of Scientology leader David Miscavige. Rathbun also became personally involved in numerous cases of litigation, and gave innumerable press interviews. We have previously mapped the curious arc that Rathbun’s website traveled between 2009 and the present, including its strange turn last year as Rathbun began attacking other former church members like Ron Miscavige Sr.

And now, he’s been putting out this new set of videos, rolling them out in short segments of a few minutes, and focused mainly on Lawrence Wright’s 2013 history, Going Clear. In the newest segment, Rathbun is challenging the reported accounts of why the 2009-2010 FBI investigation of Scientology ended, criticizing Lawrence Wright’s view of it. (Rathbun lumps us in with Wright, but actually, we’ve been quite open that we disagree with Wright and the Tampa Bay Times about why the FBI probe ended, and our story about it actually relied on Marty Rathbun’s account, confirmed by Mike Rinder and Marc Headley.)

Anyway, Rathbun has now changed his tune and says the FBI probe ended for quite another reason, and that’s because of the testimony of John Brousseau, who defected from Scientology’s secretive International Base near Hemet, California in 2010. Rathbun says that Brousseau contradicted other witnesses who had come out of the church earlier (Tom DeVocht, Mike Rinder, the Headleys, and Rathbun himself), and it proved to the FBI that it had no case…

John Brousseau told the FBI, “I have seen no violence on behalf of David Miscavige or anybody else at the upper levels of Scientology. I have seen no evidence of anything resembling this thing they called the Hole, for several, for the several years that I’d been there since most of these people left.” None of this stuff, that was the advertised crux of the FBI investigation, existed. The only percipient witness, the only person who was in a position to know, and a position to see, who was speaking on behalf of the complainants, said, “there’s no there there.”

Once again, Rathbun is promoting things that completely contradict what he said earlier and what others did as well.

In fact, here’s what John Brousseau told us about The Hole and talking to the FBI for our story at the Village Voice in 2012…

“It was a group seance, a total mindfuck. They were being told to confess their crimes,” Brousseau says.

“They were up there for about three days. Miscavige was trying to figure out what to do with them. Then, all of a sudden I got called by one of his personal secretaries, Ailon Barram, who told me to meet him at the CMO Int trailers,” he says.

Brousseau was told that Miscavige wanted the trailers made secure. “He wants steel bars put on the three doors. He wants it so no one can blow from this place,” he says.

“So I went down to the big garage. I knew where everything was. I rummaged around and found some real heavy chrome-plated steel tubing. Kind of oval. I went and measured every door, cut the pipe, made holes in the end with a drill press, and then put them on with these big ass nasty screws. I put bars on each of the three doors. In the windows, I put in a block with weird screws that no one would have a bit for in their pocket,” he says.

“The next morning, these people all got marched down to the new ‘Hole’ that I’d built. I’d turned it into a prison.”

When Brousseau left the base six years later, in 2010, there were still 80 to 100 executives being held in the place that came to be known as “The Hole.”

“It was Miscavige at his absolute worst. There were a lot of people in there. I was never in it. I just put the bars on the doors. But the people outside, they talked about it like it was a comedy. You had to be in agreement, too. You didn’t know who was going to turn you in. It was just this fear factor.”

As the Tampa Bay Times reported in its landmark 2009 investigation, “The Truth Rundown,” one of the worst mind games in The Hole occurred in 2004, when Miscavige had his disgraced executives play a game of “musical chairs” to the sound of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” promising that he planned to ship the losers that night to Scientology’s most godforsaken, far-flung locations around the planet.

“Miscavige wanted a bunch of U-Haul trucks parked by the door. He told me, rent three 24-foot U-Haul trucks, park them right by the front door. So when the people in The Hole came out for showers in the morning, they’d see them. It was just to make the ‘musical chairs’ thing more dramatic. Those trucks were there for three weeks,” he says.

“I remember telling the FBI this. I told them, there have to be records to prove what I was saying was true. You could find a receipt at the U-Haul in Hemet for three trucks that only had 18 miles each on them, the distance up to the base and back.”

So let’s review. Not only did John Brousseau personally put the bars on the windows and doors at the beginning of The Hole in 2004, but he told the FBI about the sadistic mind games, and even gave the FBI information that he believed they could use to independently confirm the Hole’s brutality.

Gosh, that’s about as completely opposite from what Marty Rathbun is now saying as you can get.

Last night, we heard from John Brousseau himself. He gave us this statement:

I am not sure why Marty says what he does about me. He puts words in my mouth about what I discussed with the FBI that are not true.

I had many discussions with the FBI. Marty was party to less than half of them.

I have already elaborated in the past on everything I saw, experienced and did while in the church. I don’t need to, nor do I have any desire to refute anything or regurgitate things that are easy to locate if anyone wants to. People are not stupid and can decide for themselves the likely truth.

I bear no ill will towards Marty. I have always considered him a good friend and he helped me in the darkest times when I first left the church. It is a free country. People have a right to their opinions and can say pretty much anything they like. They are free to be who they are and live how they want and choose their beliefs, their friends and acquaintances or not.

I have come a long way since 2010. I am happy. What my personal feelings are about Scientology or the various people on either side of things is really irrelevant. I won’t speak ill as to anyone’s character or actions or beliefs. And I am free to have mine as well. The only exception is when they cross that line and harm the livelihood of others. That is wrong and I will forever speak against such things. And if they stop then I will stop.

We know some of you are sick of Marty Rathbun and his train wreck videos. But once again he’s trying to rewrite history, and we wanted to point that out with a couple of memes.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2012 was quite clear: Marc and Claire Headley had been treated appallingly in Scientology’s Sea Org and had plenty of evidence to prove it — but they sued under the wrong law. Somehow, Marty tries to spin that, saying that the Headleys, “factually,” had no case at all…

Our recent Rathbun coverage:

June 17: Paul Haggis: Marty Rathbun is using private info I gave him against Lawrence Wright
June 16: Marty Rathbun’s project becomes clear: Someone’s worried about Scientology & the IRS
June 15: Marty Rathbun, Victoria Britton has a question for you about Scientology and judges
June 14: Marty Rathbun tries to rewrite the record on Scientology spying. But we have the dox.
June 9: Thanks for the slick videos, Marty Rathbun. Here’s a not very slick one for you.

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Aaron Smith-Levin on surveillance in Clearwater

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HowdyCon 2017

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

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,787 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,544 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,890 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,384 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,424 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,136 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 662 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,751 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,891 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,211 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,186 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 542 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,844 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 951 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,353 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,226 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 807 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,312 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,556 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,665 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on June 20, 2017 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

Clearwater bar owner under surveillance has a surprise for Scientology: He’s expanding

ortegaunderground — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 11:00:12 +0000

[Clay Irwin and friend]

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.

[Bruno]

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.

[The Lucky Anchor on Cleveland Street…]

[…and the property across the street where Irwin’s pool and bowling hall is going.]

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.

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,786 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,543 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,889 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,383 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,423 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,135 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 661 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,750 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,890 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,210 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,185 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 541 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,843 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 950 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,352 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,225 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 806 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,311 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,555 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,664 days.

——————–

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

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

Scientology caught red-handed breaking government restrictions — and without penalty

ortegaunderground — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 11:00:22 +0000

Rod Keller continues to watch a strange situation with Scientology in Mexico City for us.

Scientology is still renovating the planned advanced org known as AOSH LATAM at the former Palmas Plaza mall in the Mexico City area. This despite “seals,” which are banners tied to the gates announcing to all that work on the site is prohibited. There are no valid permits to renovate the structure. Scientology’s solution is to work in secret, with only a few workers rather than over 100 as was the case before the site was shut down. In Mexican slang this is known as “trabajo hormiga,” or “ant work,” in which the work is done little at a time to avoid detection.

[Enrique Vargas del Villar]

News web site InfoZona published a statement from the municipal president, or mayor, Enrique Vargas del Villar. “The people the neighbors observed are not workers, they are security personnel, the work has not been resumed or will be resumed outside the context of the law.”

The neighbors of the work site know better than that. Above, dump trucks parked alongside the site idle as they wait to receive a load of refuse. The security guards Vargas del Villar mentions are there, in uniform, but there are others as well. In this remarkable series of photos, a uniformed security guard opens the gate for a worker, who steps over the seal. The guard then replaces the seal across the gate.

The neighbors are opposed to the proposed facility because they fear increased traffic in the area, and many believe the character of the “colonia,” or neighborhood will change with the influx of Scientologists. Some keep an eye on the gates as they pass, photographing workers waiting to be allowed inside. One neighbor this week was confronted at the gate by a non-uniformed worker as he was taking photographs.

The neighborhood association has approved the hiring of attorneys to represent their interests in the matter, but there is nothing for them to do at the moment. Scientology has not applied for new permits, or sued the local government to force them to allow the renovations. Local officials say the site is closed, and are not taking any action against Scientology. For now they are willing to ignore the ant work being done. For Scientology, this method of renovation will extend the project indefinitely. It’s a large building and the interior is being completely replaced to meet the standards of an Ideal Advanced Org and Continental Liaison Office. If they intend to open in the near future they will have to find a solution to the stand-off

— Rod Keller

——————–

HowdyCon 2017

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

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,785 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,542 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,888 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,382 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,422 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,134 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 660 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,749 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,889 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,209 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,184 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 540 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,842 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 949 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,351 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,224 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 805 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,310 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,554 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,663 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on June 18, 2017 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

Paul Haggis: Marty Rathbun is using private info I gave him against Lawrence Wright

ortegaunderground — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 10:00:03 +0000

In the latest video that Mark “Marty” Rathbun posted to his website as part of his general attack on Lawrence Wright and his 2013 book Going Clear, Rathbun calls Wright’s book a “phony narrative,” and accuses Wright of deceiving readers about the way that director Paul Haggis came to investigate and leave the Church of Scientology. Rathbun claims that he deserves credit for putting Haggis on that path, which is left out of the book.

Paul Haggis tells us that Rathbun is right about that, and Rathbun does deserve credit — but that it was Paul’s own decision to keep that from Wright.

Last night, we described to Haggis what Rathbun had said in his latest video (“Going Clear, Part 15”), about Wright omitting Rathbun’s role, and a claim about Haggis asking Rathbun to hold back something about his daughters.

Haggis then sent us this message, his first public statement about Rathbun’s accusations.

I am afraid I have been busy working on a new feature documentary and haven’t watched Marty’s videos, but from what you say, Marty is likely telling a truth. At the time of Larry’s article and book I withheld the fact that Marty had reached out to me by email. I had already started questioning a lot of things about Scientology — had my confrontation with Tommy Davis about Prop 8, the church’s hidden policy of encouraging homophobia, had found Tommy Davis lying online about the policy of disconnection, and was feeling I would have to resign. And at that time I received an anonymous email that directed me to take a look at the St. Petersburg Times article. I did, was horrified by what I read, and responded to the email — which turned out to have been sent by Marty, at the suggestion of Jason Beghe. I did not know Marty at the time, and to the best of my knowledge had never met him, but I knew and liked Jason, having worked with him a few years before. Shortly after that, I had breakfast with Jason and he directed me to someone else he thought I should meet.

I withheld that information from Larry Wright. I had already decided to speak my mind and take what came, but I did not want Marty or Jason to get into even more trouble for helping me. Marty was being followed by private detectives and Jason was already under fire from the Church; they’d sent PI’s to harass and bait him, and he was tied up in a criminal case and struggling to get work, and was worried about losing his house. I appreciated his help, and Marty’s, and did not wish to give Scientology any more fuel to attack them.

I should add that I had a number of really good and helpful conversations with Marty during the months I was researching and writing my 2009 letter of resignation. He was very supportive and I considered him a friend. I always felt that if he wanted his role in my resignation made public, if he wanted to take that heat, he would do it himself.

Since that time I have talked about this, assuming that the secret no longer need be kept, and thanked Marty and Jason for opening my eyes. In fact I sent Marty a note to this effect just a month ago, though did not receive a reply. I will be forever grateful to both of them, and anything Marty says now will not change my mind.

Before Marty published my resignation letter on his blog, I sent him an edited version, deleting about a page, which involved something personal that my daughters would not want to have shared with the world — not about them personally, but about a friend and Scientologist who said some cruel things about them. They wanted to protect their former friend, despite her despicable behavior: that’s my daughters and I’m very proud of them. Marty agreed. And later I called him and asked him not to reveal the deleted portion to Larry Wright, to honor my daughters’ wishes for privacy. Perhaps that’s what he is referring to now; it’s all I can think of.

I similarly did not tell Larry Wright the names of five other people with whom I spoke as I did my research, people who helped me see the cruel truths about this organization and how it functions. These people were all afraid of the Church’s wrath should their role be disclosed. Some would have faced disconnection, one would lose a father, one would have lost a job, and all of them would certainly have been harassed. Three of those people I even kept secret from Marty and Jason. While my request to keep my daughters out of it was certainly personal, to the rest I felt I owed my silence. When threatened by the phalanx of officials from the church who came to my office, I similarly did not reveal Marty and Jason’s name, or any of the names of others who had been so helpful.

I am concerned about Marty. I have no idea why he would seek to discredit people he respected — like Mike Rinder, yourself, or Larry Wright — or in my case, someone he helped. I won’t speculate as to his motives. I wish him well. He has my eternal gratitude.

— Paul

Previously, we had shown that Rathbun has accused Wright of inventing material or lying about facts in his book, when it was easy to find the original source material that Wright was relying on. In this case, Rathbun again accuses Wright of dishonesty, and it turns out that Wright had left something out of his book because Paul Haggis had not told him about it. Lawrence Wright is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and investigative reporter, but he’s not a mind reader.

Thank you, Paul, for speaking up. Like you, we’re puzzled as to why Rathbun is trying so hard (and so ineffectively) to discredit people like you and Lawrence Wright.

UPDATE: Rathbun has posted another video (“Going Clear, Part 16”), and it continues the accusation that Wright, describing Beghe’s involvement, is being deceptive about what Haggis knew of Beghe’s status as a defector. As Haggis pointed out in his statement above, he held back that knowledge from Wright because he feared that Scientology would use it to further harass Beghe. Instead of focusing on that — the very real bullying going on by the church — Rathbun continues to accuse Wright of being deceptive about matters he was unaware of. [End of update.]

Meanwhile, in another video (“Going Clear, Part 14”), Rathbun attempted to smear two more people that we’ve written about in the past, attorney Graham Berry and his one-time client, former Scientologist Michael Pattinson.

We asked Graham Berry if he had any comment about Rathbun’s video, and boy, did he…

I have listened to Marty Rathbun’s “Going Clear, Part 14” with utter bemusement, and some disappointment. Bemusement because Marty mistakes and conflates different events. Disappointment because I had considered Marty to be a good acquaintance. In 2011 I had spent five very enjoyable days in Hamburg, Germany with Marty, his lovely wife Monique, Ursula Caberta, and others. Over one meal I asked Marty to talk about circumstances of the IRS’s sudden U-turn and granting of tax exempt status to Scientology in 1993; only a few years after the IRS had totally defeated the church in Hernandez v. Commissioner (1989), where the US Supreme Court had held that “payments made to the [Churches of Scientology] for auditing and training services are not deductible charitable contributions” for income tax purposes. The subsequent IRS tax settlement agreement with Scientology reversed that holding. Marty declined to discuss the matter at all. He said, “Watch Primary Colors. That answers the question.” Anyone care to explain? [Well, we have a guess, Graham. — Ed.]

Marty has singled out Michael Pattinson’s case for seemingly homophobic ridicule and attack in an OSA-like attack. In fact, the Pattinson v. Scientology case was filed in mid-1998 at a time when OSA’s “Fair Game” activities against me were reaching their zenith. Some of those operations were run through Karen de la Carriere, who has since left the church and become a very kind, generous and dear friend. However, Marty Rathbun has declined to provide me information as to his knowledge of the church’s activities against me even though he was David Miscavige’s deputy. “Ask Mike Rinder,” he wrote most recently. In an article entitled “Double Crossed,” Tony Ortega detailed in 1999 what he described as “one of the most hellacious cases of fair game in recent years, the smearing of attorney Graham Berry.”

Before filing the Pattinson case, I had been litigating against the Church of Scientology in a number of matters. For example, the Joseph A. Yanny cases (against the church’s former lead trial attorney), the Fishman & Geertz case (in connection with the 1991 TIME magazine cover story), the Henson I and II cases, the Factnet case, the Jason Scott case, the motion to reopen the L. Ron Hubbard Probate case, and other matters. I was extremely empathetic to the plight of former Scientologists under attack from their former church and had chosen to resign as a capital partner from Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith, and then Musick, Peeler & Garrett, in order to continue this work after each of those firms were finally spooked by unrelenting harassment and intimidation by OSA. I was under 24/7 surveillance and stalking by OSA operatives wherever I was or went in the world. The church, through its attorneys and other stooges, had filed at least nine unsuccessful state bar complaints against me. “Dead Agent Packs” were being distributed around the world.

In early 1998 I had finally located the most scurrilous defamer, Robert Cipriano, and I filed suit in an effort to obtain a retraction from him, which he ultimately gave me after he finally broke free from the church’s corrupt clutches. Two months later Michael Pattinson came to me with a horrifying story of abuse and betrayal that is detailed in the first and third amended complaints. A number of lawyers had given the thumbs up to this lawsuit being right on the money with its allegations and causes of action.

The church responded by escalating their Fair Game activities against both Pattinson and myself, and bringing in lawyers from two New York law firms, a Washington DC law firm, and a number of Los Angeles law firms. In particular, attorney Moxon (who had also been named as a defendant) located a Scientology Sea Organization member in Copenhagen. Moxon then filed the case of Michel Reveillere v. Michael Pattinson alleging no-payment of a promissory note for a loan made when both were church members in Paris. Pattinson was unable to effectively deny liability and Moxon took a quick judgment against Pattinson which he then proceeded to execute upon. Pattinson was forced to declare bankruptcy in an effort to avoid Reveillere and Moxon, as a judgment creditor, interfering in Pattinson’s case against his former church.

Simultaneously, the church was endeavoring to dismiss the Pattinson case and was seeking sanctions against me for having named Moxon as a defendant (which did not prevent him from serving as an attorney in the case). Eventually the church’s efforts were successful. New York attorney Samuel D. Rosen, Esq. of the giant Paul Hasting’s law firm obtained sanctions against me for Moxon’s attorneys fees (which were paid of course by the church) in the amount of nearly $30,000 (including the cost of his frequent first class airfares and five star hotel accommodations which the court deemed “reasonable”). It was one of the factors that drove me into a bankruptcy.

Marty Rathbun is wrong about the vexatious litigant ruling. The church accomplished this in the Berry v. Cipriano case where the church’s vexatious litigant motion was not only lacking in factual and legal merit (which the judge conceded) but was a proceeding described by a number of observers as a “kangaroo court.” That saga is another tale.

Marty is also wrong about President Clinton being a defendant in the Pattinson case where an injunction was sought to restrain the government from engaging in constitutional and other violations in connection with the Scientology-IRS secret tax settlement agreement (e.g. assisting the church in obtaining tax exempt status in other nations, avoiding Interpol action, and granting tax relief for commercial activities, etc.). The Clinton administration was named solely as a “relief defendant” in connection with the request for an injunction. Curiously, a little later, when engaged in a short conversation with then First Lady Clinton about my work against Scientology, she commented “I’m pleased you are on our side!”

In 2011 and subsequently, I thought Marty was well on the road to recovery from his Scientology experience and abuse. However, in making the attacks and comments in his series of videos on Lawrence Wright and Going Clear, Marty appears to be reverting to the cult’s agenda, talking points, and revisionism. It’s sad but if true he would not be the first person that the cult has managed to flip, sometimes as part of a confidential settlement.

——————–

Smile, Clay Irwin, you’re on creepy camera!

Clearwater, Florida tavernkeeper Clay Irwin messaged us a couple of photos yesterday, asking us if he should be concerned.

He explained that Bruno, his Miniature Pinscher, had been barking at something in the bushes on the property of his neighbor. Clay went over to see what it might be, and found this item, with a short metal rod stuck into the ground. He says it was well hidden, but he could see that it was pointed at his house.

We asked Clay if the lens of the Brinno camera had been aimed at his driveway.

“Yep. Totally,” he said.

A similar camera, you will remember, was mounted on a tree facing the driveway at Marty and Monique Rathbun’s house in Texas when they were under intense surveillance by Church of Scientology operatives. Rathbun, who used to run such operations before he left the church in 2004, said that the purpose of such a camera was to capture images of license plates so private investigators could determine who was visiting the house.

“No flipping way,” Irwin said when we explained this to him.

We’ve written about Irwin several times. He’s the owner of the Lucky Anchor pub on Cleveland Street in Clearwater, which he opened at the beginning of this year, right in the middle of Scientology’s “Flag Land Base” campus. He told us he was determined to get along with his church neighbors when he opened for business, but since then he’s had some run-ins with the organization that have complicated that relationship. A construction worker drinking at his bar took Clay on an impromptu tour of Tom Cruise’s unfinished condo down the street, for example, and seemingly because of that Clay was not invited to a presentation about downtown development that Scientology leader David Miscavige gave local business owners which included John Travolta, Kelly Preston, and Kirstie Alley. Clay later ran into Preston, however, and she seemed friendly.

Most recently, he’s been giving network television interviews about the latest controversies in town regarding Scientology. Since then, he says he’s been feeling like he’s being watched.

“I’ve been feeling like I have been followed,” he says. “I took the camera inside and opened it up. I searched the serial number online, but I didn’t find anything. I took the card out and my laptop is downloading files from it right now. They’re huge files.”

He found that the camera used four AA batteries, which lasted for 80 hours before needing to be changed, according to its specs. The camera looked like it had been there for numerous days, and so the batteries would have been changed several times, he estimates.

We told him we’d be interested to learn what he finds in the images recorded by the camera. He said he’d be happy to share that with us.

[Clay Irwin and Kelly Preston]

——————–

Chris Shelton talks with Natalie Feinblatt

——————–

HowdyCon 2017

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

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,784 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,541 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,887 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,381 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,421 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,133 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 659 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,748 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,888 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,208 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,183 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 539 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,841 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 948 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,350 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,223 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 804 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,309 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,553 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,662 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on June 17, 2017 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

Marty Rathbun’s project becomes clear: Someone’s worried about Scientology & the IRS

ortegaunderground — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 11:00:01 +0000

Well, the project is becoming clear. Someone is apparently worried about losing his precious tax exemption.

In Marty Rathbun’s most recent video segments in his remarkable turnaround from one of the Church of Scientology’s biggest defectors and critics of all time into an apologist who is aping church talking points, Rathbun tries to rewrite history regarding the church and its long battles with the IRS.

But Rathbun is going to have a difficult time refuting an earlier, detailed explanation of how that battle went down: His own.

The Church of Scientology has always maintained that it was entitled to the tax exemption it received from the IRS in 1993, and it was just a matter of passing through a rigorous two-year audit and had nothing to do with decades of harassment and thousands of lawsuits it had filed against the agency. Marty Rathbun was one of the key people who ran that harassment operation and who was involved with the ultimate victory over the IRS. And now, he’s parroting the church’s position, that this was simply a matter of the IRS granting the church what it deserved.

But that’s not what Rathbun said in the past — and under oath.

In 2010, Marty Rathbun provided a detailed court declaration about his involvement in Scientology for a lawsuit brought against the church by Claire Headley. We think it’s probably pretty useful to excerpt some key portions of it to remind everyone what a different tune Rathbun was singing just a few years ago.

As Inspector General Ethics I directed and coordinated a broad-based attack on the Internal Revenue Service. The purpose of the campaign was to put the IRS into a more amenable frame of mind so that they would relent in their own decades long refusal to grant tax exempt status to the churches. In late summer 1991, when sufficient pressure was accomplished, Miscavige and I directly approached then-IRS Commissioner Fred Goldberg to open settlement negotiations. Those negotiations were initiated and conducted over the next two years. Miscavige and I traveled across the country together to meet with the IRS regularly until October 1993 when the IRS granted tax exempt status to all churches of Scientology and related organizations.

Miscavige directed large bonuses be paid to Religious Technology Center executives during the first several years of his reign as COB RTC. He justified it based on policy within the church and the Sea Org by the founder L. Ron Hubbard which stated he wished to see the day when Scientology staff were well paid. Accordingly, the fact was not hidden that CSI and RTC executives were well paid in the late eighties and early nineties. Of course, Miscavige’s pay was consistently higher than anyone’s. In fact, he had to have other executives being paid something in the neighborhood of his own pay until tax exemption was attained as the IRS required detailed reports on the pay of RTC highest executives. The IRS record reflects that during the years 89-91 RTC executives received salaries ranging from the low tens of thousands to mid tens of thousands per years. Miscavige reported salaries from the mid tens of thousands to the high tens of thousands. When that issue seemed to be settled to the IRS’ satisfaction, Miscavige canceled bonuses for all RTC and CSI executives. At one point when the IRS wanted some more current information on executive salaries, Miscavige’s wife and Assistant Shelly severely rebuked me for having refused a bonus as I considered it unearned. Under pressure I relented and went ahead and received the bonus so as to “protect COB.” Once exemption was attained, high bonuses for CSI and RTC executives were virtually wiped out. With one glaring exception, David Miscavige and his wife continued to be paid a combined salary upwards of one hundred thousand dollars for years to come. Other RTC and CSI staff executives were for the most part paid fifty dollars per week.

Shortly after tax exemption was obtained and announced and the record of the negotiated settlement became public, reporters began focusing on David Miscavige’s and Shelly Miscavige’s combined six figure salary. I was fielding calls from the New York Times, LA Times, and St. Petersburg Times on that narrow subject. Miscavige began making insane demands that I spike the stories. He became abusive and violent toward me as if I could make the cold, hard facts go away. Because of that, combined with Miscavige’s increasingly lavish lifestyle, his unnatural obsession with actor Tom Cruise, and his increasingly abusive behavior toward staff and myself, I began to question whether the long, hard fight with the IRS was about protecting the religion or instead about protecting Miscavige’s personal power and lifestyle choices…

Between approximately 1993 when IRS tax exempt status was obtained and the present, David Miscavige has been executing a program of his own design that has transformed the church of Scientology from a recognized religious organization into a commercial operation devoted almost exclusively toward increasing his own wealth, entertainment, comfort, and power.

So, let’s go through the bullet points:

— Scientology battled the IRS until it was softened up enough to consider a settlement.
— Salaries were paid to Scientology executives just long enough to fool the IRS and complete the settlement.
— Scientology is actually a commercial enterprise aimed at benefiting one person, David Miscavige.

This is what Marty Rathbun testified to in 2010, and it’s consistent with decades of reporting on the Church of Scientology and the IRS by journalists, spelled out in documents, and said by other former insiders.

But now, Rathbun wants you to believe that journalists, including Larry Wright, have been inventing stories in order to make the Church of Scientology look bad. And that there’s a conspiracy to create a false impression about the church in order to convince the IRS to review its 1993 decision.

We think it would be just grand if the IRS took a new look at Scientology. Why? Because of what Marty Rathbun and others have said about it, that’s why.

Instead of attacking Wright and others, Rathbun is going to have to deal with the fact that it’s his own previous statements that he is contradicting.

We’ll leave you with a few memes that we hope make it crystal clear just how dishonest his project is. Feel free to disseminate them.

Here’s another example of Rathbun blaming Lawrence Wright for inventing something that was, in fact, pretty conclusively the actual situation…

And here’s Rathbun claiming that it was a conspiracy between Lawrence Wright (book Going Clear, 2013), Alex Gibney (film Going Clear, 2015), Mike Rinder (blog starting 2013), and Tony Ortega (blog starting 2012), to say that Scientology’s tax exempt status was now fraudulent and should be reviewed. Oh, what was it Rathbun said, under oath, in 2010?

And again, it’s not that Rathbun is simply saying he’s changed his mind. He’s accusing Lawrence Wright of dishonesty, when it’s easily shown that Wright was reporting what Rathbun himself had said…

——————–

HOWDYCON ANNOUNCEMENT

Can you believe it? We’re just a week out from the start of HowdyCon 2017 in Denver. If you are planning to join us Saturday night for our main event, we need to have your RSVP and dinner payment as soon as possible. Make sure you have confirmed with Kim O’Brien, our coordinator, and visit our HowdyCon website where she has instructions for how you can pay for the dinner fee that night. You need to do that right away to make sure you’ll be included in the Saturday night festivities, which include:

— London-based Australian journalist Steve Cannane talking about his book Fair Game
— A spoken-word performance from former Sea Org official Claire Headley
— Cathy Schenkelberg performing for us scenes from her one-woman show, “Squeeze My Cans”

You don’t want to miss out, so please visit the convention page and get in contact with Kim.

HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25 at the Residence Inn Denver City Center. Go here to start making your plans.

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,783 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,540 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,886 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,380 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,420 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,132 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 658 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,747 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,887 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,207 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,182 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 538 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,840 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 947 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,349 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,222 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 803 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,308 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,552 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,661 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on June 16, 2017 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

Marty Rathbun, Victoria Britton has a question for you about Scientology and judges

ortegaunderground — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 11:00:26 +0000

We’re traveling again today and we don’t have time for a long story. And we also know that you’re probably sick of reading about Marty Rathbun. But we wanted to give Victoria Britton recognition for raising one of the best questions we’ve seen about Rathbun’s new tune.

Here’s what Victoria said at Facebook after watching Rathbun’s “Going Clear, Part 9” video:

I just finished watching the ninth video in Marty Rathbun’s series and I would appreciate any feedback to my query. In the video Rathbun claims that the harassment of Judge Ronald Swearinger who presided over the Wollersheim case did not occur. According to Marty this is because of the purging of the Guardians Office that occurred five years prior. He continues in saying (not verbatim) “measures were tight-you couldn’t get involved in a lawsuit without an okay from H.Q.-no one would do something as stupid as mess with a judge.” In November of 2012, Marty while “under oath” described in detail how he set up a meeting to influence a Hillsborough County judge in the Lisa McPherson case. If what Marty says in his video is truthful, did he commit perjury in 2012?

That’s an excellent question, Victoria. Let’s go to the tape.

First, here’s the relevant passage from Rathbun’s new video. After denying accusations that Scientology had harassed and tried to influence a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, Rathbun says…

This was five years after the purge of the Guardian’s Office. I mean, the prophylactic measures, and control measures that were put in on external activity were so tight, that you couldn’t cough if you were involved in anything having to do with an external situation like a lawsuit, without HQ OK. OK? The last thing in the world that anybody — I mean, people knew within an inch of their lives that they would be purged and expelled forever if they did something as stupid and corrupt as go mess with a judge.

Seems pretty categorical, and Marty is leaving himself very little wiggle room. He’s saying pretty plainly that after the early 1980s purge of the Guardian’s Office, the agency that replaced it, the Office of Special Affairs, knew that trying to mess with a judge was no longer what Scientology did.

But as Victoria points out, in 2012 Rathbun gave a deposition, under oath, and described things very differently. Rathbun’s deposition was taken by Tampa attorney Ken Dandar, who at that time was fighting some very bizarre litigation from the Church of Scientology. (Eventually, Dandar succeeded in having a million-dollar judgment against him wiped out, and his court fight with the church is over.)

What Dandar wanted to know, and what Rathbun was happy to testify to, was the amount of time and money that was spent by the church fighting against criminal and civil court cases growing out of the 1995 death of church member Lisa McPherson. Specifically, Dandar wanted to know if Scientology had tried to influence the judges handling the various cases.

“Absolutely,” Rathbun testified. Here, we’re going to post the entire exchange from the deposition so you can see it for yourself.

Gosh, that sure sounds like “messing with a judge,” Marty — and it was done at your direction.

So, Victoria Britton’s eagle eye sure has raised a question for Marty Rathbun: Is he lying now, or was he lying then?

And he should be really careful about how he answers that question. Because if he was lying then, he was under oath. And that’s actually a crime.

Meanwhile, as for changing his tune…

Marty, you’re making this too easy. Do you really have such little self-respect?

Oh, and one more question, Marty. Why did you give Dani Lemberger’s private email to the Church of Scientology to use against him in litigation? How about just answering that simple question?

——————–

Chris Shelton on the materials of Scientology

——————–

Bonus items from our tipsters

Come to the local org to watch video of David Miscavige talking for two hours to a bunch of wealthy big beings on a cruise ship somewhere! Isn’t Scientology fun?

——————–

HOWDYCON ANNOUNCEMENT

You don’t want to miss out, so please visit the convention page and get in contact with Kim.

HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25 at the Residence Inn Denver City Center. Go here to start making your plans.

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,782 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,539 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,885 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,379 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,419 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,131 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 657 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,746 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,886 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,206 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,181 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 537 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,839 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 946 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,348 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,221 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 802 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,307 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,551 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,660 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on June 15, 2017 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

Marty Rathbun tries to rewrite the record on Scientology spying. But we have the dox.

ortegaunderground — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 11:00:31 +0000

[Gary Morehead’s Bearcat 3000. In the biz, this is known as “dox.”]

We truly did not want to pay any more attention to Marty Rathbun’s lame swipes at Lawrence Wright’s book Going Clear, but in his latest video (“Going Clear, Part 9”) he is making some claims that are staggeringly dishonest. We felt we had to respond.

Let us tell you about Gary “Jackson” Morehead. He is a gentle giant, and one of the most pleasant and forthright former Scientologists we have ever met. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gary had a remarkable job — head of security at Int Base, Scientology’s secretive 500-acre compound near Hemet, California. Gary has a lot of very fun stories about those days — including a great one that we not only got from Gary but confirmed in all its details with several other former church members.

What we found from that experience is that Gary Morehead is a solid source, even if his stories about Scientology are mindblowing. One of the things Gary was in charge of was the “blow drill.” When a Sea Org member “blew” — escaped — from the base, it was his job to use whatever means at his disposal to bring that person back.

In one memorable episode he told us about (which yes, has been confirmed by other people), a young woman named Jan Simms made a break for freedom in the late 1980s. She did so by getting a doctor’s appointment in town, and then bolting when she got there. Ever after, Gary tells us, this became known as “the Jan Simms method,” and it was one that was also used by Claire Headley to make her break for freedom in 2005.

When Simms ran, Morehead says he got to fly on an airplane for the first time. He went to Tallahassee, where Jan’s parents lived.

“I was set up in a Holiday Inn and provided equipment by Ben Shaw,” Gary told us last night by telephone. “I sat there all day. That’s all I did for a solid week.”

And what was he doing there? “I had scanners provided by OSA. I was listening for Jan Simms talking to her parents.”

And how would you do that, Gary?

“I knew the frequencies for cordless phones and cell phones,” he says. He sat there, listening in on phone conversations, for days and days.

Marty Rathbun, in his latest video, says this never happened. After calling Morehead “goofy,” he quotes from Lawrence Wright’s book about Gary spying on phone calls.

“He says in here that they were using scanners to listen to cell phone calls,” Marty says. “I got news. A scanner will not net you the content of a telephone call. Either Gary is into this embellishment for fame or Wright has invented this.”

“Marty doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Gary tells us. “First of all, OSA had a closet full of equipment for listening in on conversations. That’s where I learned how to do it. I saw the closet and I saw the equipment, and Ben Shaw and I learned how to do it. I was listening to cordless phones and cell phones. Just like we could call an airport and get information on a passenger, the technology had got ahead of the security.”

Gary explains that for a limited number of years, the scanners were more sophisticated than the phones they were eavesdropping on. And he says that Marty knew full well what they were capable of at that time, in the late 1980s.

“I’m surprised he would even say something like that. And he called me goofy? Wow. Well I guess that ain’t too bad, huh?” Gary says with a laugh. (We’ve never heard Gary Morehead sound angry about anything, ever.)

Gary explained that US scanners had restrictions in some frequencies, so as part of his job with Scientology, he purchased a Uniden Bearcat 3000 XLT in Canada, where those frequencies weren’t restricted.

“I still have it!” he said, and then photographed the scanner and sent it to us, as you can see above.

That, in the business, is what we call “dox,” for documented proof. And in his videos, Marty repeatedly proves that he has none.

Let’s take another example. Marty repeatedly says that Lawrence Wright invented things out of whole cloth for his book, which is a scurrilous accusation to make. Here’s one that Marty makes in the video, and let’s please keep in mind that he’s not speaking under oath:

“An undercover campaign was launched to discredit or blackmail Lawrence Wollersheim’s lawyer, Charles O’Reilly.” False. Didn’t happen. I was there. I was in charge of everything that had to do with all that. Did not happen. Wright writes, “His house was bugged and his office was infiltrated by a Scientology operative.” A complete and utter invention of Lawrence Wright.

An invention by Lawrence Wright, really? Why isn’t Rathbun at least acknowledging what is easily found in seconds through a web search, that Wright is working from material that previous journalists had also reported, such as Joel Sappel and Robert Welkos in the epic 1990 series about Scientology in the Los Angeles Times, which is where we found this reference to Joseph Yanny’s court testimony which, we’ll point out, was under oath:

In a recent lawsuit, former Scientology attorney Joseph Yanny alleged that the church and its agents had implemented or plotted a broad array of fair-game measures against him and other critics, including intensive surveillance and dirty tricks.

Earlier this year, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded Yanny $154,000 in legal fees that he said the church had refused to pay.

Among other things, Yanny said in his lawsuit that he attended a 1987 meeting at which top church officials and three private detectives discussed blackmailing Los Angeles attorney Charles O’Reilly, who won the multimillion-dollar jury award for Wollersheim.

According to Yanny, the plan was to steal O’Reilly’s medical records from the Betty Ford Clinic near Palm Springs, then exchange them for a promise from O’Reilly that he would “ease off” during the appeal process.

Yanny, who later had a bitter break with Scientology, said he objected and the idea was dropped. The church denies such a discussion ever took place.

It’s one thing if Marty, who was there and was “in charge of everything that had to do with all that” were to, all these years later, raise questions about Yanny’s testimony. But what gives with the obviously false accusation that Lawrence Wright is making this stuff up?

And it gets worse.

Also in this segment, Rathbun makes this claim:

The paragraph is capped off with a quote: “A former Scientology executive, Vicki Aznaran, later testified that there was an effort to compromise the judge by setting up his son, who they heard was gay, with a minor boy.” It’s a complete invention of Vicki Aznaran. Now, if it is even an invention of Vicki Aznaran. It says she testified. I doubt that she testified. If she did testify, she lied. And she just made this stuff up. But I question whether you’ll find such testimony…He’s just inventing this stuff.

For Xenu’s sake, Marty. Before you accuse Lawrence Wright of inventing things, how hard is it to work the Google? Here, in fact, is what Vicki Aznaran testified to in a 1993 declaration:

During the 1984-87 period, Scientology operated a number of “dirty tricks” operations out of the office of Special Affairs (OSA), including one called MFTC (for “Mission Find The Crimes”) and the “WOLLY” unit (which targeted Lawrence Wollersheim, his attorneys, and his case). The orders for these operations would go directly from OSA to private investigators, although Scientology deceitfully tries to cloak such operations under “attorney-client privilege”.

MFTC and the WOLLY unit each had about 8-10 staff, and engaged in whatever dirty tricks were necessary to attack people and entities which were considered to be “enemies” of Scientology. The dirty tricks they used included destruction of evidence, theft of documents, illegal surveillance or bugging, blackmail, bribery, physical assault and other intimidation, securing perjured testimony. MFTC’s mission was to find or manufacture crimes for “enemies” of Scientology.

Before and during the trial in Wollersheim v Church of Scientology of California, MFTC and WOLLY ran a number of operations directed against Wollersheim, his counsel, and the Court. One of these operations was an attempt to put pressure on Bill Swearinger, the son of the trial judge in the Wollersheim case, based on his alleged homosexuality. The idea was to dig up, or manufacture (perhaps by setting the son up in a compromising sexual position with a minor boy), dirt on the son which could be used to pressure the Judge to rule favorably for Scientology, or else to get the Judge disqualified.

Attached as Exhibit A is a true copy of an internal Scientology memorandum, dated 6/21/86, which discusses this “Swearinger Investigation”. I received a hard copy of this document at about that time, and I believe I also received a copy of this document on my computer. The Linda referred to on the first page is Linda Hamil, who at the time ran the MFTC. The Marty referred to on the first page is Marty Rathbun, a top Scientology “intelligence” official, who ran this operation.

Oh, say what? A document that refers to Marty Rathbun not only knowing about this particular operation but being in on it?

Let’s take a look at it. Here’s that exhibit, dated 1986, which has some missing letters because of a poor scan of a court document. But we can see enough to get the picture…

21-Jun-1986 10:37

To: WOLLY INVEST I/C
From: MFTC I/C

Re: Swearinger Invest

for your info and whatever else you can do with this…

20-Jun-1986 20:56

Dear Linda,
What does JP want to do with Bill Swearinqer? What did Bowles say to him? Why would we want Bill S to have Royce confess? Confess to what? When will the rest of the 13 original targets be done?

ML Marty

20-Jun-1986 20:40

Dear Sir,

Compliance Report.

What was ordered:

I sent over a 18 step invest to revive the Swearinger Invest. In response you merc’d’

“‘Ilk, I’ll expect the results of all of this by Friday.’

(In this same comm you asked for the Mayer invest which is forwarded in a separate Merc.)

What was done:

The results of the Swearinger Invest are in the report below. The original targets are at the very end of this comm.

This is DK.

ML Linda

Swearinger Invest results:

resulted in a) two Swearinger neighbors recalling a White Cherokee by Bill’s house a few times in the last 6 months {that’s what Royce drives} and by Bill Swearinger calling up Tim Bowles wanting to end cycle of it all once and for all. Step by step results follow.

1. Learn[?] was not yet interviewed as she has not yet been located. However we did find out that she has left the employment of Varsity Communications and we found her last name, traced her through her parents and now have her unlisted phone number in Hollywood. She has not been in yet but should be able to be reached either tonight or Saturday. The good news is that she no longer works for the company so will not be under the thumb of Palmieri.

Perry and Embinder have not been at the office or at home over the last days so have not yet been confronted. Ambush interview of Steve Perry (a.k.a. Bubba}. He could confirm the relationship of Bill S. and Walker.

Photos were taken to Royce’s neighbors and none recalled having seen Bill, None of Bill’s distinctive cars in the vicinity.

5. Bill’s neighbors were shown Royce, Bubba and Embinder and did not recognize them. They were also shown the photo of Royce’s white Cherokee and two of his nearest neighbors independently recognized having seen such a car parked adjacent to the stairs leading up to Bill’s house a few times over the last six months. One of these neighbors, Mr. Franklee (a film editor said that Bill frequently had parties where young boys were observed at Bill’ s house but had no distinct memories of any faces.

6. We have not been able to confirm where Casey was 9-10-11 May due to terminals not being accessible.

7. The line to the secretary to get further data from the court reporter ran into a logistics snag and will need to be done Monday.

8. Though Royce has refused to speak at all with Francovich, a line to go in on to reestablish the comm has worked out which can be done early next week (Francovich will take over a check owed to Royce which will be coming in Monday or Tues,.

9. The young mexican we’d seen with Swearingor last month has not been identified. The neighbor checked with (Pranklee) recalled having seen him about a month ago walking away from the house, upset, originating to this neighbor “I can’t go on like this any more, I’m really upset. And this neighbor hasn’t seen him since. Checks were made at a local mexican restaurant the two had stopped at when under surveillance, no data, and a number in Guatemala possibly associated with this kid was checked but the only person at the number with contacts in LA was out of town for a week. So the kid could not be located to interview.

10. The spots where Bill was seen to stop on surveillance were checked for familiarity with Royce or his vehicle or friends and there was no recognition. The vicinity of an address where Royce had been seen dropping off two young men was checked and one neighbor, a foreigner, man (Mr. Behar) recognized having seen a car similar to Bill Swearinger’s in the neighborhood.

11. Stuart and Steve’s office was visited, they were not there but the current office manager related a story consistent with Royce Walker’s description of Swearinger and Walker only casually knowing each other.

12. Royce & friend’s photo was shown to the receptionist and security man at 69~ Hollywood (where Swearinger’s office is located, but ~ot d~a~in~ attention to Swearinger). No recognition. His old office across the street was also checked, no reads.

13. It was found that Caryl Warner does still practice law and works out of 69~ Hollywood – Suite 500 – a full schedule every day. However a check made on Thursday revealed that he was out until Monday so no pretext interview has yet been done.

A definite impingement was made from the actions taken Bill Swearinger phoned Tim Bowles at ~:15 today and said the following:

that Al Bei[?] of Ingram investigations was asking his neighbors ~ his clients questions about the veracity of Royce Walker, was very upsetting and said he wants it to stop immediately. He wants to end cycle on this escapade on his knowledge of the Judge’s prejudice “once and for all”. He said he is not willing to submit to a deposition (because the federal judge ruled that such a depo is irrelevant). However, he said he is willing to meet with us to tell us what he knows. He insists there is no prejudice from his father. He termed our efforts ‘shooting in a barrel with nonexistent fish”, something like that.

He said that if we can’t come to an immediate resolution on [missing words] is he going to take “self-help”. He specifically mentioned buying a gun or drafting and filing a motion for protective order in the federal case. He said he couldn’t wait until Monday, he decided to resolve it now.

It is of interest that Al Bei[?] did not interview any of the neighbors, that was done by Mark Marinc. Al Sr. went to the 6922 Hollywood building (Swearinger’s office and Al Bei Jr. went to Royce’s
office at 7715 Sunset. We don’t know who any of Bill’s clients are (though one of the women interviewed by Marino could have been a client}.

Next

a) Have the confrontation with Swearinger and get him to tell the truth about this matter. If he insists he is being truthful, have him drag in Royce to confess, and Francovich can be there too.

{the following steps to be done but called off if step (a) resolves it as continuing would be pointless.}

b) Interview Leann (per last call her ~o~ate said she’s expected to be there Saturday) who is no longer part of the Varsity office. She’ll be checked out whether the boys went to Palm Springs as well.

c) Ingram to call Casey to ask him Just one more question – the Palm Springs question he neglected to ask him during the interview.

~) P~.l ~ ~u~t reporter string via the secretary resource.

e) interviews of Embinder and Bubba.

f) Francovich to recontact Roy~ with check owed to him and get him in.

f) Pull down Caryl Warner string through pretext interview.

il Ambush interview on Leann, the secretary (she was the one other person mentioned in the depo of Walker as someone he talked to about Son. She will be gotten outside of the office as in the office someone could contact Palmieri and she’ll clam up.)

ambush interview of Steve Perry (aka Bubba). He could confirm ~i~g of Bill S. and Walker.

~q~ ~erv~e~ of Embinder as possible.

Photo of Bill and Ron taken to Royce’s neighbors to see whether ~~ seen them around.

5. Photos of Royce, Bubba, Embinder and Casey shown to Bill Swearinger’s neighbors.

6. Find out where Casey Klinger was the weekend 9 – 10 – 11 May, i.e. whether he was in Palm Springs or not. (pretext has been worked out to get this.) If in Palm Springs, get identity of the two fags they were with.

7. Use secretary resource who has a good line already to the court reporters to find out anything further on the cash payment cycle, i.e. was the Judge irritated, who else may have been there, etc.

8. Francovich to re-establish comm line with Royce over some business dealing, and see what further can be obtained from this line, get him to cop out to what occurred (witness present).

9. Use our Spanish speaking PI (Joe) to suitably interview the young mexican (P. Garcia may be name) guy who was seen with Bill Swearinger at least three mornings, who may live with Swearinger, and get the data on Bill’s relationship with Royce

18. Use the data we have on Bill’s contacts (places he was observed ~oi.nO ~n~en under surveillance and known comm lines he has) to interview the contacts with pictures of Royce and Bill re: their
relationship.

11. Stuart and Steve (Bill’s former employers and Royce’s friend) ~=en w/photos to establish how many times and for what reason Royce visited Bill.

12. Suitably inquire (with photos) at Bill’s current law office about Walker, does he show up there frequently etc.

13. Pull down strings on any possible relationship between Swearinger and Caryl Warner (work in same suite though different offices) – through pretext interview. the above to be done by Friday, then analyzed and retargetted.

Wow. So Marty Rathbun is now saying that Lawrence Wright invented a story of Vicki Aznaran testifying that there was a scummy Scientology operation to target the son of a judge hearing the Wollersheim matter, when it turns out that not only did Aznaran testify to it, but a Scientology document entered as evidence suggests that Rathbun himself was in on the operation.

Marty, did you seriously intend to open this can of worms?

Instead of casting any doubt on Wright’s book, all you’re doing is reminding us that you never came clean in any of your three books about the operations you were involved with as Scientology’s chief enforcer. You ran those scummy operations, Marty. And now you expect us to take your word over Larry Wright’s?

Amazing.

And once again, why did you give Dani Lemberger’s private email to the Church of Scientology to use against him in litigation? How about just answering that simple question?

——————–

Bonus items from our tipsters

Actual caption from an image posted on a public page by the Mace-Kingsley center in Clearwater: “These 2 girls just finished their current auditing program! They start really young these days. Children can do the Purif as early as 9-10 years old at Mace-Kingsley, then Objectives/SRD & then get their Grades (by the age 12) and go on to Clear! This is the usual here at Mace-Kingsley in Clearwater, FL. It is Great to see so many children going up the Bridge on a daily basis!”

Seriously, FBI? What the hell are you waiting for?

——————–

HOWDYCON ANNOUNCEMENT

Wow, we’re getting close to the start of HowdyCon 2017 in Denver. And we had a slight change in logistics from our caterer for our dinner on Saturday night, June 24. If you plan to go, make sure you have confirmed with Kim O’Brien, our coordinator, and visit our HowdyCon website where she has instructions for how you can pay for the dinner fee that night. You need to do that right away to make sure you’ll be included in the Saturday night festivities, which include:

You don’t want to miss out, so please visit the convention page and get in contact with Kim.

HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25 at the Residence Inn Denver City Center. Go here to start making your plans.

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley has not seen his daughter Stephanie in 4,781 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 2,538 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 1,884 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 2,378 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 1,418 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy in 1,130 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 656 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 4,745 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 1,885 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 2,205 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 2,180 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 536 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin in 4,838 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 945 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis for 1,347 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 1,220 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 801 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike in 1,306 days.
Mary Jane Sterne has not seen her daughter Samantha in 1,550 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 12,659 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on June 14, 2017 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…