Can somebody explain a bit more about Anonymous and the Church of Scientology?

Question

Can somebody explain a bit more about Anonymous and the Church of Scientology?

Answer 1

Hi there. Please take the time to visit some of the links posted above. This will answer your questions regarding the issue that Anonymous (and so many other people before them) have with the Church of Scientology.



Also, please take the time to look at the responses from members of the Church of Scientology who have posted above me. They compare Anonymous to Nazis. They refer to members of Anonymous as "a bunch of kids whose parents don't listen to them, and who don't know how to talk to girls."



While this may be true in some cases - trust me, I have met members of Anonymous who are socially inept and whose parents didn't pay enough attention to them as kids - it is certainly not true for all. After all, socially inept people are everywhere in the general population! It's a fact of life. :) janeinla also neglects to mention that many members of Anonymous, and indeed many of the protesters, are adult females. Sure, lots of them come from the teenaged and college-aged population, but many more are adults working full-time and raising families.



Please visit internationalfreezone.net if you would like more information about the philosophies of L. Ron Hubbard.



Anonymous's problem lies not with scientology itself (again, "Free Zone" scientology is a good resource for finding out about Mr. Hubbard's work) but with the organization calling itself the "Church of Scientology."



The "Church" has many human-rights violations to its name. Its "Fair Game" policy states that anyone who speaks out against the Church is fair game for slander, libel, harrassment, judicial action, etc. Why do you think that Anonymous remains anonymous? David Miscavige, head of the Church, would probably just love to hunt down each and every protestor and sue them for pointing out the atrocities that have been committed and covered up by his organization.



Now that you have heard from both Scientologists and members of Anonymous, please use the information provided to draw your own conclusions about the issue.

Answer 2

The idea of "electronic armies" has been around at least since the Cult of the Dead Cow in the 80's. About every year, when tv airs some hacker movie, we see skiddies trying to start one up. Their targets are something they can all agree on (usually something with tons of "facts" on the net about it), something that seems well known but not well protected, and something they feel they will be thanked for.



The results are usually little more than free advertising for the target altho I must admit that this groups first effort on Feb 10 did result in more than usual display which got recognized by many news services.



Here is some reading on it.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/%22Anonymous%22_releases_statements_outlining_%22War_on_Scientology%22

Answer 3

If you want more information on Anonymous, and Project Chanology, visit the official site at Enturbulation.org



Theres is a lot of good information there on the truth about Scientology as told by former members of the cult



The people there will be more than happy to answer any of your questions on the forums.

Answer 4

I'd love to try and help! Anonymous is a collection of individuals from all races, all religions, all ages, all political affiliations, all countries, and all backgrounds who have come together to shed light on what we consider to be a very dangerous organization. I see you have some OSA black propaganda on this page, so please let me try and address some of the concerns they've raised!



Anonymous is not attacking the religious beliefs of anyone. In fact, we support the first amendment and the right for anyone to assemble and practice anything they choose. What we're concerned about are the abuses and fraud committed by the Church of Scientology as an institution. It's like what happened when the abuses of the Catholic Church were exposed. People protested how the Church handled the issue and wanted the problems addressed, but it had nothing to do with the faith of the people! :)



Anonymous is completely non-violent and has not advocated, encouraged, or supported illegal activities. In fact, during the 2/10 peaceful protests where over 7,600 people from 109 cities across the world protested, the only arrest made was a Scientologist who assaulted a protester. The Church of Scientology has tried to paint us as "cyberterrorists" or "religious bigots," but that's pretty much standard for the course. It's the same thing they say about anyone who speaks out against them, including former members who talk about abuses they suffered in the Church. We're just concerned and peaceful citizens from all walks of life who have heard about these problems, did some digging, and were so horrified that we felt the need to speak out.



There was an incident where cornstarch was mailed to some Scientology churches in California, but Anonymous AND the FBI have both stated Anonymous was not involved. The movement was started because we saw how the Church of Scientology has hurt people. We oppose hurting people, that's pretty much the point. :) In fact, we've called upon the aide of the FBI and other law enforcement to look into the illegal abuses of the Church, including it's RPF camps at "Happy Valley."



Scientologists always say we're also some kind of communist-facist-nazi thing that's being paid by the German government AND psychatrists and organized by some rich person somewhere. Hahaha, I wish. I definitely could use the money. We don't have a leader or an organization or getting paid or anything. Each person's voice and opinions are just as valid and important as anyone else's, we're all just individuals driven by our own moral compass.



Why are the anti-scientologists mad? I think the stories of rape, sexual and child abuse, the RPF (rehabilitation project force) labor camps that "reeducate" misbehaving Scientologists, the fraud, the disconnection policy, and the restrictions of free speech have a lot to do with it. Best course of action is to talk to someone who left the church and ask about their experiences. There are several who have spoken out, like Arnie Lerma (lermanet.com), Tory Christman (torymagoo.org), or the message boards at Operation Clambake (xenu.net).



Theta Works states that "They continue to refuse to post the legal data that proves what they are alleging is completely false, putting in only the negative opinions directly quoted from hate sites, intentionally." Actually, there are quite a few legal documents on the web. Xenu.net and xenutv.com have many including the legal documents, including documents seized by the FBI raids on the Church centers after the Church broke into the IRS and stole documents under "Operation Snow White." It is still the largest infiltration of a goverment agency in the history of the US. The FBI found documents about "Operation Freakout" where the Church purposely framed journalist Paulette Cooper for a bomb threat to silence her after she wrote a critical book about Scientology.



lermanet.com has legal depositions from ex-members taken while under oath about their work with OSA, the Office of Special Affairs. Pretty much the only Scientologists really allowed on the internet. These people post favorable comments about Scientology to boost their "stats" and are rewarded for them. They use "Fair Game" policy to hunt down, stalk, intimidate, harass, threaten, sue, or destroy anyone who speaks out against them. They'll say the :"Fair Game" policy was revoked, but the order still stands for anyone considered a "Supressive Person" meaning anyone who criticises Scientology.



I'd suggest doing some internet research. Definitely take a look at what the Church of Scientology claims, but make sure you also look at the sites of critics, ex-members, and those who expose the "darker side" of the Church of Scientology. It's fine that Scientologists don't understand, we know that they're really not allowed to look at critical information, are banned from reading certain books, and are punished for questioning. Most are very nice people who aren't told about all the abuses, crimes, or fraud that occurs within the Church.



Religious freedom is paramount, but it's never okay to use a religious institution as an excuse to harm people. If you'd like to join us, we will be having another peaceful protest on March 15th at your local Church of Scientology.

Answer 5

"One member of Anonymous told me that Anonymous is composed of a bunch of kids whose parents don't listen to them, and who don't know how to talk to girls."



Anyone claiming to represent Anonymous isn't Anonymous, by default.



Yes, "The FBI are investigating" - however, they're not investigating Anonymous, if you follow.



As for JaneinLA and Theta Works, they're obviously scientologists and therefore more than a touch biased. The sole arrest in ALL of the worldwide 2/10 protests was a scientologist woman who cursed at, kicked and spat upon the protesters as she walked by. Youtube has plenty of proof in video of the lack of violence by protestors. It also has plenty of videos put up by the scientology Office of Special Affairs (OSA), which are fairly blatantly obvious.





You'll notice frequent attempts by scientologists to spam message boards, wiki pages, and (imagine that) Yahoo Answers with pro-scientology propaganda. (for a treat, google(or yahoo) "I'm not a scientologist, but" with the quotes) When they get their weekly "stat checks", any time they can draw scientology critics into arguments with them, they become "upstat", and when a critic mentions Xenu (who you will not hear the truth about about until you've paid roughly $30,000 to become OTIII), Lafayette Ronald Hubbard or David Miscavige by name, points out flaws in their arguments, or remains calm and levelheaded despite the scientologists "bullbaiting", they become "downstat", and if they become "downstat" enough, they'll be assigned to the Rehabilitation Project Force, which is essentially Scientology Prison camp.



You'll find it's pointless to argue with scientologists as well, as they are trained to "always attack, never defend", and once you've managed to get a word in edgewise, you'll be dealing with a barrage of insults and asked "What are your crimes?" repeatedly. One of the beliefs is that skeptics (they call them SPs, for Suppressive Persons) are only skeptics because they're hiding their crimes.



Anyway, from what I gather, Anonymous has no issue with what anyone believes. If you'd like to believe in God, Jesus, Buddha, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Zeus, you're welcome to. The major difference, as I follow it, is that if you walk into a temple, church or mosque and ask for a holy book and an explanation of the basic tenets of the religion, they'll hand you one and discuss it at length with you. However, if you walk into a scientology bookstore, they're happy to SELL you a copy of any of their books, and you need to "pay to praise", so to speak - you don't get information about their beliefs until you've paid for it.



Another one of the talking points is that scientology receives preferred treatment from the IRS - if you want to send your kids to catholic or jewish school, there's no special tax break - why does scientology get one for their training?



You can find plenty of information at xenutv.com, xenu.net, or if you're in for a good long read, at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/ - happy reading!

Answer 6

Anonymous is a loose, leaderless collection of random people from all over the web. They decided to target the church of Scientology after they demanded Youtube remove the clip of Tom Cruise taken from an internal church video. This wasn't the main cause though... the internet has been at war with them since the early 90's. It all started on Usenet when church trolls did everything they could to silence critics at alt.religion.scientology. Cruise was simply the last straw.

Anon DID start out as /b/tards DDoSing and pranking with black faxes, prank calls, etc but knocked that off at the request of Mark "Wise Beard Man" Bunker, a long time critic of the church. All anti CoS actions are now peaceful and 100% legal.



They wear masks at the protests to protect themselves from the Fair Game policy :



"SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." - L. Ron Hubbard



Hard to terrorize, kill, slander, or sue what you can't identify.



Anon does not HATE anyone or seek to destroy any religion. Anon's problems are not the beliefs but the actions of the higher ups in the church such as:



Fair Game

Mysterious deaths and 'suicides'

Government infiltration

Bogus tax exempt status

Blackmail

Extortion

Forced abortions

Slavery

Breaking up families (Disconnection policy)

Molesting Wikipedia articles (hi Terryeo!)

Driving to bankruptcy sites they don't like and then taking over

Trolling comments sections all over the web (yay Terryeo!)

Fooling Coke into spreading church propaganda

Possibly also fooling 711, Dell, and Philips



This is the tip of the iceberg. Go dig around on Wikipedia and xenu.net - the horrifying crap they've gotten away with is just incredible.



For a first row seat to this fight visit http://www.enturbulation.org.

Answer 7

I have to say what janeinla and Gandalf say is pretty good,

and I would like to add something of my own, and that is despite legal evidence that shows that the Church of Scientology has committed no crimes, anti-religion hate sites, ex-Scientologists and those with vested interests to want Scientology to fail (Psychiatry is #1 on that list since we've been exposing abuses in the mental health field by them), it is pretty clear that these are behind Anonymous. They continue to refuse to post the legal data that proves what they are alleging is completely false, putting in only the negative opinions directly quoted from hate sites, intentionally. It would ruin their War Games to have the truth exposed.



Why are the anti-scientologists mad? We stopped them from posting stolen copyrighted works to the internet. They whine that we are stopping their freedom of speech. We have rules in place that will forever deny some of these (depending on the extent of their involvement) will never attain the spiritual freedom that is offered and available at legally recognized Churchs of Scientology International. So they have devoted their lives to harming Scientology. We have exposed their crimes against humanity. This is the crowd that Anonymous has bought into.



Anonymous will take on the fanaticism of Hitler and the Nazis if you let them.



Understand that this is my view and evaluation after looking at both sides in this deal. As janeinla said. The FBI are investigating. Do you really want to be affiliated with anonymous?



Scientology has done nothing wrong to propitiate for. If you choose to believe we are what the hate sites claim (and those who quote them) that's alway been your right. We have the right to do what we do, too and that's help mankind. Let's just say that in a unified effort with other religions, that we were able to get spiritual healing back into the Churches where it belongs and morals back there too, what do you think our chances are of fixing some of the problems of Earth?



Added 2-23-08

To paraphrase Janeinla, believing hate sites are telling the truth about Scientology is like saying that Nazis tell the truth about Jews, or the KKK about blacks. Anonymouse can rant all they like about Scientology and tell their lies. Besides some kiddies here on the Internet, no one seems to be believing them, since Scientology is doing incredibly well now. Incredibly well - Thanks!!

Answer 8

One member of Anonymous told me that Anonymous is composed of a bunch of kids whose parents don't listen to them, and who don't know how to talk to girls.



Considering that a couple of these guys tried to flirt with my teenaged daughter and one of these guys actually asked her for her phone number - as she was entering her CHURCH which they were protesting - I'm thinking the whole "don't know how to talk to girls" thing is pretty much on target.



Picketing a girl's church and then trying to flirt with her is not really the best way to get a girl's phone number. I don't know -- maybe I'm old fashioned. But I'm thinking respect and tolerance is a quicker way to a girl's heart.



Anonymous, as far as I can tell, is a group of young people who are mad for one reason or another. They seem to disagree about what, precisely, they are mad about, or what, exactly, they want to have happen.



They have engaged in denial of service attacks on church websites, and a handful of childish prank phone calls to churches. And apparently some threatening activities that aren't so childish, and which the FBI is now investigating.



As for the Church of Scientology, it's been around now for half a century, and there are millions of Scientologists around the world who practice this religion.



Religious scholars from all over the world have studied Scientology and have written very interesting articles about it. It's closer to Eastern religions than Western religions in many ways, and this does seem to confuse some people who are only familiar with Judeo-Christian thought.



Scientologists around the world engage in human rights activities and social betterment activities. We tutor kids. We help criminals in prison with a program designed to give them a moral code and to regain their self respect. We help the neighborhood police with anti-drug activities and graffiti paint-outs. We do food drives. We work with other religions to bring about a more tolerant community.



Scientologists are working to create a better world for everyone.

Answer 9

when you start a religion based upon making money, it's bound to be a complete farce and a failure. it's no help that the first articles on dianetics were published in the science fiction rag "Astounding." when those were published, there was no religion in site aside from Hubbards visions of making money. this is published information that anyone can find. it needs not be posted. the intelligent will find it on their own.

Answer 10

Anonymous is a group which formed over the internet. Anonymous opposes the harmful and deceptive tactics of the cult of Scientology. Anonymous has been protesting outside of Scientology centers worldwide, the next protest taking place on March 15th. I can provide several examples of the type of Scientology activities that Anonymous opposes. For example, there are multitudes of people who have suffered tragic experiences during their involvement with Scientology. Read about them here:

http://www.lermanet.com/persecution/

http://www.whyaretheydead.net/krasel/

http://xenu.net/archive/personal_story/cheryl_s

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/xenu/xenu.pdf



Here are more "bad experiences" with the cult including an illegal plot to infiltrate the government, brainwashing techniques, mind control camps, attacks on critics, and DEATHS caused by Scientology doctrine and members:



● Operation Snow White – Under this official program, Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, & theft of documents in government offices. This program constituted the single largest infiltration of the United States government in history. Among the 11 prominent Scientologists convicted of this conspiracy was Mary Sue Hubbard, the wife of Scientology’s “prophet”.

http://lisatrust.freewinds.cx/scientology/snow-white/index.html

http://en.allexperts.com/e/o/op/operation_snow_white.htm

http://www.lermanet.com/reference/77Granjurypart1.htm



● Operation Freakout - Their campaign of sabotage & violence against Paulette Cooper, the writer who published her research & findings on several cults, including Scientology. Scientology’s official plan: to frame Paulette, ruin her career & reputation & get her either incarcerated or locked up in psychiatric confinement.

The official plan: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Krasel/cooper/frk1.html

Her book: http://holysmoke.org/cos/books/scandal-of-scientology-cooper.pdf

More info: http://www.holysmoke.org/pc/pc.htm



● Fair Game - the Scientology policy detailing how the organization may confront & handle critics & perceived enemies. Here is a direct quote: "Enemies may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”

http://www.xenu.net/archive/disk/fairgame.htm

http://www.planetkc.com/sloth/sci/Fair_game_ord.html

http://www.fairgamed.org/



● Physical & psychological punishment: Scientologists who "break the rules" while members of the "Sea Org" must subject themselves to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), which includes regimes of harsh physical punishment, forced self-confessions, social isolation, hard labor and intensive ideological indoctrination.

http://www.xenu-directory.net/practices/rpf.html

http://www.lermanet2.com/scientology/gulags/BrainwashinginScientology'sRehabilitationProjectForce.htm

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rpf/escape_2.htm



● Brainwashing & mind control: Scientology exerts control over its members by means of typical cult tactics, including but not limited to controlling information about internal doctrine & criticism of the organization, severely restricting social contact outside the cult (including the practice of “disconnecting” with any family who question the credibility & trustworthiness of the cult), creating an “us against them” mentality by villainizing a specific out-group (for Scientology, it’s psychiatrists), & claiming all those outside the cult are unenlightened.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml

http://www.factnet.org/Books/SocialControl/scs.html#toc http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/s/scientology/pignotti/

http://xenu.net/archive/personal_story/funkydonny.html



● Violent Kidnapping - Lisa McPherson was a Scientologist, was involved in a car accident & resultantly became mentally unstable. She was kidnapped from the hospital by agents of Scientology, held against her will, refused proper psychiatric treatment & allowed to STARVE TO DEATH.

Video: http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/

News Coverage: http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/Lisa_McPherson_Scientology_Deaths.html

Websites: http://www.lisamcpherson.org/

http://www.whyaretheydead.net/room174.html

http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/lisa.htm



● Tragic Murder - A CBS “48 Hours” special on Jeremy Perkins, the mentally disturbed son of Scientologist parents who, because of the Scientology doctrine of opposing psychiatry, refused to put him on the anti-psychotic drugs that would have stabilized him & prevented him from killing his own mother.

Video: http://www.scientomogy.com/jeremy_perkins.php

CBS article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/25/48hours/main2124568.shtml

Website: http://perkinstragedy.org