Quote from CNet News :

January 24, 2008 11:35 AM PST
Anonymous hackers take on the Church of Scientology
Posted by Robert Vamosi



A group of vigilantes calling themselves Anonymous have posted a video explaining the recent attacks against the Church of Scientology.

A copyright violation claim by the Church of Scientology against the posting of one of its videos to YouTube has prompted a full-on assault by a group calling itself Anonymous.

The video, in which Tom Cruise proclaims, in part, that Scientologists are the only experts on the mind, was pulled by YouTube over the weekend at the request of the Church of Scientology as part of a long-standing effort to keep copyrighted material from appearing on the Internet. Other sites have since posted the Cruise video in full.

In response to the take-down of the Cruise video, a group of vigilantes--calling themselves Anonymous, or Anon--have retaliated against what they consider to be Internet censorship. The group includes computer experts capable of Internet mischief. In recent days, local chapter sites for the Church of Scientology have been defaced, and in some cases denial of service attacks have also prevented access to the same sites. Real-world attacks have included fax-spamming those same offices.

As an explanation for these attacks, Anonymous posted its own video to YouTube. In the video, a computer-generated voice speaks over a rolling cloudscape, effectively putting the Church of Scientology on notice:

"Over the years, we have been watching you, your campaigns of misinformation, your suppression of dissent, your litigious nature. All of these things have caught our eye.

"With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who have come to trust you as leaders has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed, for the good of your followers, for the good of mankind, and for our own enjoyment.

"We shall proceed to expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form."

The video ends, with the following statement:

"We are Anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget.
Expect us."

A Web site called Project Chanology details present actions and those in the works by Anonymous and others.

The Church of Scientology, founded in 1953 by L. Ron Hubbard, is not without previous controversy on the Internet. In 1996, it sued Internet service provider Netcom (now a part of EarthLink) over copyrighted texts posted to the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. In 2003, the Church of Scientology attempted to sue a Dutch woman and her ISP over similar writings but lost. The Dutch case, had it ended differently, could have changed the way ISPs handle third-party links by its customers. In 2007, writer Keith Henson was arrested as a fugitive. Under a California law that criminalizes any threat against someone else's "free exercise" of religion, Henson was convicted in 2001 for making a comment on the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup about sending a "Tom Cruise" missile to destroy the Scientology camp.

Source- http://www.news.com/8301-10789 ... ews&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Now, before you imply that this is not real, I have been keeping close watch of this situation in one of the communities participating and supporting in this "invasion" since it began on the 18th. Numerous people participating in this "war" have been DDoS'ing Scientology websites, causing them to crash, or load very slowly. They have also gotten hold of phone numbers, enabling them to fax spam, send in massive orders of various things (e.g. pizzas, clowns)
I, myself, thought this attack would have only lasted a couple hours, but it has been going on strong since it started.

Some videos-
"The un-funny TRUTH about Scientology
"Message to Scientology"

Feel free to discuss this and post anything else you find related to this situation.

Another video from a local Los Angeles news station-
http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=209215

The Tom Cruise video that started this whole mess-
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0

4chan - Internet Superheroes

Anon ftw

It may not work out the way they hope but hey - I'm just glad someone's sticking it to these shady UFO-cultists. I'm going to keep an eye on this, thanks headbanger :up:

Lets hope they succeed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPol_m8wm8Y

This is a great example of how... STUPID... Scientology followers are.

Quote from Stang70Fastback :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPol_m8wm8Y

This is a great example of how... STUPID... Scientology followers are.

What are my crimes? My crimes would be assault and battery if one or more of those wackos come after me like that.

They're just snooty the Church may be suppressing other tasty sound bites from Tom

If it is OK to bash Scientology then it must also be OK to bash some other religions too, like Christianity, and that new one Environmentalism.

Don't get me wrong I think its a great idea to have a laugh over people taking fiction seriously, its just that I'm sure there's at least one religious nutter on this forum who doesn't realise their religion is just as rediculous as Scientology.

I totally agree Becky.

While I for one have no issue with stating my opinion I feel VERY strongly that other people have exactly the same right.

Free speech after all has to work 2 ways.

In my opinion most religions have highly questionable facts and and any religious/philosophical view which isn't open to discussion and change in light of new facts and relies on 'faith' or blind obedience in the face of fairly simply observed evidence clearly has an issue in my book. ( ie the latest 'popes' statements on Galillao )

But at the same time they are quite at liberty to hold their opinion, after all how many catholics are there ?

The following quote is one that I've always felt sums the subject up,

" I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend unto death your right to say it "

Until the recent death of your constitution thanks to Bush, Americans may have recognised this concept ...........

Heh, I already wondered how long it will take till the first thread about it appears here. Usually the *chan folks are nothing but a group of socially inept retards, but boy I'll be damned if they're not doing the right thing here. In the end, no matter who "wins" this brawl, for everybody else it's a definite win:win situation

Religious prosecution is a very serious issue, I agree, but it has nothing to do with this topic, considering that the Co$ is a dangerous cult, not a harmless religion. I find both religions and cults quite ridiculous, but while I can usually ignore both, common sense tells me that those bastards deserve what they get.

Funny that you mention free speech, wasn't it exactly the lack of it (Co$ censoring everything, suing people who express their opinion against the Co$, ...) that started this "war"?
If you actually read up on what the Co$ is and does you'll quickly understand why so many people feel so strong about it.

And in the good old days the catholic church used to burn heretics - i.e. - anyone who disagreed with them.



in a suitable Monty Python voice.

My point was that their all lunatics on one level or another, and I'm the only sane rational person on the planet.

But I don't expect you all to agree.

I'm not condoning their behaviour on any level and I feel that they rate right up there with Mormans on the believability table, BUT THIS IS JUST MY OPINION, and Scientologists, Mormans, Catholics or whatever are perfectly entitled to their opinions.

And when does censorship work on the web in a free and open society which allows free speech.

The only time censorship works is if you restrict free speech.

I suggest a read of Catch 22.

I think the real reason the COS wanted to pull that video is because they were probably charging people good money to watch it.

Sometimes I reluctanty muse I would probably rather prefer freedom from religion than simply freedom of it, but I can only imagine this latest 'religious war' won't really accomplish much. The fact they're sending in clowns and pizzas means the Anonymous guys probably have a decent sense of humour, but they're also incredibly arrogant if they think they can just get rid of the COS. Any large organisation/movement is simply a big blob of individuals, and as long as there are people out there sympathetic to COS philosophy the church will most likely be around in some form or another for quite some time. There's not much you can really do.

Quote from Becky Rose :

If it is OK to bash Scientology then it must also be OK to bash some other religions too, like Christianity, and that new one Environmentalism.

It's OK to bash Scientology, not because of what they believe, but because of the way they treat their dropouts and try to silence the opposition. If the Catholics were still burning heretics at the stake they'd deserve to be bashed, too.

BTW, I think DDoS'ing them is a childish act. Not heroic, and not effective. Better to publish their dirty tricks, like Karin Spaink (the Dutch woman mentioned in the first post) did.

A lot of why it is considered ok to bash Scientology is because many view it as a cult rather than a religion. And Scientology goes to great lengths to insist it a a religion not a cult.

My issue is that I struggle to see any difference in the two words.

Ive worked with Hindu, Muslim, Christians, and a Scientologist and I find them a bit nuts, ive not knowingly worked with a buddist - are they not allowed out or something?

Quote from Becky Rose :

ive not knowingly worked with a buddist - are they not allowed out or something?

Statistically speaking, all the previous ones mentioned were likely Buddhists in a previous incarnation.

no, because they are wrong.

Some fun I had was working with a jehovah witness. Every once in a while we'd find a leaflet or one of those newspapers/magazines they got just "casually" lying on a desk. She even gave me a boxed set of cassettes with devotional music which I remixed sometime later with the material off of a boxed set of promotional Amway cassettes some other associate had given to me - quite the group now that I think of it. If you want a scary cult I'd say look at Amway - top of the chart on consumer cults/religions/whatever.

Quote from xaotik :

Statistically speaking, all the previous ones mentioned were likely Buddhists in a previous incarnation.

Equally likely, they were Christian, Jew or Muslim in an even earlier incarnation. Therefore, they have never been reincarnated...

Raptor Jesus vs. Xenu...

Quote from wsinda :

Equally likely, they were Christian, Jew or Muslim in an even earlier incarnation. Therefore, they have never been reincarnated...

Now you're getting the hang of it.

Quote from xaotik :

She even gave me a boxed set of cassettes with devotional music which I remixed sometime later with the material off of a boxed set of promotional Amway cassettes some other associate had given to me

Genius!

My girlfriend invited someone from work and his missus over for dinner once, and he was the first Amway goon we ever met (this was 1996-ish). He turned up in a suit, with glossy brochures! The most unnerving thing about the Amway success stories in his brochures was that they'd all been striving for the same "dream lifestyle", which seemed to involve owning having a 50ft-long luxury RV in your driveway.

I suppose when you grow up in a trailer...

Epic war is epic.

Quote from Racer X NZ :

" I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend unto death your right to say it "

erm, who said that?

edit: found it myself
Voltaire, aka François Marie Arouet (1694-1778)

Keith Barrett?

Quote from xaotik :

If you want a scary cult I'd say look at Amway

About ten years ago I began writing an essay about Amway, it was titled "You can make it even if you're an idiot".

I quit when my brother realised he had been an idiot who couldn't make it. He's a local coordinator in Berlusconi's party right now. Some people never learn.