Secret Files Show Scientology Stalked Another Reporter - Defamer Australia12 May 2011, 8:50 pm
Secret Files Show Scientology Stalked Another Reporter - Defamer Australia
It’s like the opening of the Stasi files after the Berlin Wall fell: Yesterday, Scientology defector Marty Rathbun published the cult’s surveillance file on Washington Post reporter Mark Leiby. Today, we’re publishing a glimpse into its spying operation against Mark Ebner, one of Scientology’s most persistent critics.
Ebner, a longtime Gawker pal and freelance reporter who has spent a career exploring (and indulging in) the seedier side of Hollywood, is like the Patti Smith of Scientology-bashing – he was doing it before it was cool and inspired legions. That includes a
memorable 1996 story for Spy documenting his undercover entrance into the cult’s indoctrination machinery; his role three years ago in helping unearth the
legendary video of Tom Cruise video extolling his supernatural Scientology mojo; and his
service as a consultant on the “Trapped in the Closet” episode of South Park depicting the intergalactic travels of the dark Scientology lord Xenu in animated form.
So it’s not surprising that the church would sic its surveillance assets on him. And sure enough, according to a 2006 memo that Ebner obtained from Rathbun and provided to us, Scientology goons staked out his house and watched him walk his dog and get the mail. The memo, which dates to just a few months after the devastating South Park episode aired, calls Ebner as “part of a clique of low class writers/bloggers who hang out in the LA area,” lays out where he was living and what car he was driving, and identifies his sources of freelance income as a “key point of vulnerability”.
Here is the full memo, which we confirmed directly with Rathbun, followed by some commentary from Ebner. The names of three individuals have been redacted at Ebner’s request.
Memo and more found at
http://www.defamer.com.au/2011/05/secret-files-show-scientology-stalked-another-reporter/
