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FAIRGAMED Tony Ortega's June 2013 Article on Michelle Sterling

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
The Fair-Gaming of ESMB’s Michelle “Emma” Sterling

By Tony Ortega | June 14, 2013

Karen de la Carriere has a new video, and this one is about the woman behind the Ex-Scientologist Message Board, Melbourne’s Michelle Sterling.

Otherwise known by her nom de guerre, “Emma,” Michelle started up ESMB in 2007, and it’s still a hive of activity for people who have left the church.

But in November 2010, Sterling found herself being put into handcuffs after five police detectives interrupted her while taking her daughter to school.

“They wouldn’t let me leave, so the cops took her to school,” she says.

Scientology had complained to Victoria police detectives that Sterling was involved in DDOS attacks on Scientology websites by Anonymous two years earlier. They based those complaints on chat transcripts — but Sterling says many people were talking about what Anonymous was up to in 2008.

She was held in custody for a few hours. And seven months after her arrest, in June 2011, she found out that the police had dropped the matter.

“When Anonymous first showed up, they landed on ESMB and I did have a bit to do with educating them. So I was in their chat rooms,” she says. “But seven months later it was all over.”
We wondered if the police or prosecutors ever got around to admitting that they’d been duped by Scientology.

“No, never.”

It wasn’t the only hassle she’s been through because of her outspoken criticism of the church.
“When I first got out they tried to get my husband to leave me and take my daughter. I’ve caught them going through my mail and taking pictures of my house. I had my tires let down and can only assume it was them. The local DSA calls my ex every week to get an update on my activities,” she says.

But six years after starting ESMB, Sterling says she’s more determined than ever to keep it going. Here’s Karen’s tribute to her…

 

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
Doesn't anyone remember this?

Is this how Emma herself would describe it?

Doesn't the lack of energetic reporting by Tony Ortega, and the exact same messaging by Karen De La <deleted> look exactly the same?

Why is this reporting so lacking in energy when it is one of the most significant things to happen to this board - which was the center of Scientology exposure at the time?

Do any of the people on this board have an opinion on this?
 

Aerial

Patron with Honors
I’m not getting the point of this The OP shows that Karen and Tony Ortega were very supportive of Emma.
Recent posts regarding Emma’s arrest lead me to think that she and the Alanzo have come to believe that somehow Karen was responsible for what happened. Then this is posted?

The twisting and turning of Alanzo’s arguments do not show any consistent thought process. I haven’t the faintest idea what he actually believes in, other than shit stirring and smearing people.

The OP did prompt me to find out what Emma’s arrest was actually about and I have to say, if the chat logs are to be believed, they’re pretty damning of Emma actually.

Why open this can of worms? Isn’t Emma supposed to be your friend, Alanzo?

You are an absolute <bleep>
 

Emma

Con te partirò
Administrator
The OP did prompt me to find out what Emma’s arrest was actually about and I have to say, if the chat logs are to be believed, they’re pretty damning of Emma actually.
You do realise that those chat logs were first posted to Religious Freedom Watch right? And that IRC chat logs are/were a text file? Completely editable.

The screenshot Karen used in her video was a screenshot I'd taken as a defense in my own case. They'd taken down my RFW page a few months before the arrest and I managed to get this from the Wayback machine. I gave it to Karen to use. No one unless they took actual screen shots of the actual IRC chat at the actual time, can produce those accurate logs. What you are seeing is from an OSA website.

What are you saying? Do you want me arrested again or something?
 

JustSheila

Crusader
I’m not getting the point of this The OP shows that Karen and Tony Ortega were very supportive of Emma.
Recent posts regarding Emma’s arrest lead me to think that she and the Alanzo have come to believe that somehow Karen was responsible for what happened. Then this is posted?

The twisting and turning of Alanzo’s arguments do not show any consistent thought process. I haven’t the faintest idea what he actually believes in, other than shit stirring and smearing people.

The OP did prompt me to find out what Emma’s arrest was actually about and I have to say, if the chat logs are to be believed, they’re pretty damning of Emma actually.

Why open this can of worms? Isn’t Emma supposed to be your friend, Alanzo?

You are an absolute <bleep>
Yeh. Alanzo is into conspiracy theories and has been trying to tie Karen into this. A few Anons (and to this day, I don't know which ones) were involved in the DDOS attacks. AFAIK, none were exes. Some of the anons were just sort of renegade. The anons were never controlled by anyone, it was/is a very mixed group without a whole lot of exes. Much, much looser than exscn.net. WWP mods actively discouraged illegal activity, but they could not control what people did on their own. Some of the Anons were/are kids and most were completely unknown to us. There were something like 50,000 or more Anons at WWP at one point and many were highly computer savvy and some were likely not that mentally stable, judging from some of the wild posts there at that time.

Most ex-scns don't have the level of computer knowledge to do anything remotely close to this, and that includes Emma and Karen.

@Emma

When Anonymous was at its peak, Karen was still an Indie and would have been a newb to the group. WWP was not fond of Indies back then, maybe still isn't. It isn't even rational that she would have been involved, and of course, she wasn't. Just as you weren't.

The comment the officer made about Arnie Lerma was interesting, but Arnie was involved with lots of conspiracy groups and some of them might have been listed with the US government as anarchist or even possible terrorist groups for all we know. Arnie wasn't a terrorist, of course, but conspiracy theorists join a lot of questionable groups sometimes. So he might have been a known name by association there or somewhere else.

Alanzo, btw, has also always been a conspiracy theorist. Please don't get caught up in that maze of tenuous connections. It sure didn't do Arnie any good. :no:
 

Emma

Con te partirò
Administrator
Is this where you are getting the chat logs from Aerial?

QvWcPdC.png


That is another OSA site.

You realise the cops had my computers for 7 months while they did a 7 month investigation right?
 

The_Fixer

Class Clown
When are you going to answer the question of why you keep doing this? What is the end game?
Well I see it as an eventual attempt as a takedown of Emma. Whether he succeeds or not is another question....

I see the rhetoric as leading in that direction.

Just my take on it. Others may see it differently. Alanzo is in for the long game. Emma and ESMB are the targets.

Sorry Emma, just my viewpoint.
 

Emma

Con te partirò
Administrator
Well I see it as an eventual attempt as a takedown of Emma. Whether he succeeds or not is another question....

I see the rhetoric as leading in that direction.

Just my take on it. Others may see it differently. Alanzo is in for the long game. Emma and ESMB are the targets.

Sorry Emma, just my viewpoint.
Hey, you’re allowed your viewpoint. It’s fine. Do you think he had any input to my decision to close ESMB?
 
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