Ummm, Tony did not "out" Michael Meisner . . . MM actually did that himself when he came out by reverting to his true name . . . see:
Fascinated that Mike Meisner felt so secure that he had gone back to his original name, we hoped he would talk to us about his amazing second life. But he’s not interested.
Tony simply did his journalistic job, and wrote about it.
Having dealt with Tony, face to face, I can vouch for his decency.
Yes, it is true Meisner got in over his head, believing he was doing "the greatest good for the greatest number" and other Hubbardarian such shit . . . it is also true that the choich mishandled and abused him to the extent that he turned to save himself.
Instead of working with Meisner to help him protect himself, he was, in essence thrown to the wolves to defend himself while at the same time he was being told what a bad boy to have been to caught, yip yap and what a risk to the choich he was with sec-checking to death, etc., etc.
Had they been smart, he could have been shipped off to some other country benefiting from "ministerial exemption" regarding immigration to work in the choich there . . . . but NO!
The choich idiots were so stupid as to abuse the guy . . . at one time they had him handcuffed to a bed in a motel!!! This to keep him away from the "Feds."
Eventually, he was able to escape, and having gotten royally screwed by the choich and pissed off at them . . . well, he started to look after
himself!
As told to me by the FBI guy who led (supervised) the FBI raid on the cult in LA, MM had given them the exact info they needed to have to know exactly where to find what they needed to know, exactly in which building, which room, which filing cabinets.
As the FBI guy said to me, "We had to move with discretion as we knew we were "raiding" a church."
As to having been in a "witness protection program" for a period of time may have had nothing to do with "protection of his life" . . . it may have simply been to put him out of the way of any harassment and to avoid the risk of the cult reconverting MM back to serving the choich while the FBI pursued its case.
I can understand MM simply wanting to leave all that shit behind him.
He may well feel that having it opened up could bring discredit to his good standing in society he has developed since those days . . . let's face it, having been called to do the presentation noted in Tony's article is a rather prestigious status to have earned.
On the other hand, having been through this kind of ringer myself, I can say there is nothing more freeing than to get it all off one's chest and getting rid of it.
What he did in the IRS/government offices is almost at the level of a joke . . . and besides, who in America is more hated and more criminal than the IRS??
My word to Michael Meisner is: hey, come and be honored for the truth and light you brought to the whole criminal scene of the cult of Scientology.
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