Fair game
Jan 31st 2008
From The Economist print edition
An online onslaught against Scientology
A VICIOUS cult run by cynical fraudsters, or a sincerely held religious belief persecuted by zealots? That is the long-standing row about Scientology, founded by the late science-fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard. In some countries, such as Germany, the group is watched by the security services. In others, such as America and Australia, it has won charitable status as a religion.
Until now the fight could mostly be seen as one-sided. Scientology's lawyers are vigorous litigants. The group argues that its internal materials (which claim, among other things, that expensive courses of treatment can help rid people of infestation by alien souls from an extinct civilisation) are commercially confidential and protected by copyright. They react sharply to any perceived libel.
As a result, public critics of what they derisively term “$cientology” risk expensive legal battles. For example, a new unauthorised biography of Tom Cruise by a British author, Andrew Morton, contains detailed and highly critical material about the film star's involvement in Scientology. It is a bestseller in America but has not been published in Britain. The publisher, St Martin's Press, has even asked internet booksellers not to ship it to foreign customers. Though Scientology representatives vehemently deny breaking any laws, critics have claimed that they experience intensive harassment and intimidation.
Now Scientology is under attack from a group of internet activists known only as Anonymous. Organised from a Wikipedia-style website (editable by anyone) and through anonymous internet chat rooms, “Project Chanology”, as the initiative is known, presents no easy target for Scientology's lawyers. It is promoting cyberwarfare techniques normally associated with extortionists, spies and terrorists. Called “distributed denial of service attacks”, these typically involve using networks of infected computers to bombard the target's websites and servers with bogus requests for data, causing them to crash. Even governments find this troublesome.
Anonymous is also hoping to galvanise public opinion with a mass “real-world” protest outside every Scientology office worldwide on February 10th. But its best weapon may be ridicule. The group got going in reaction to efforts to ban an internal Scientology video of Mr Cruise that leaked onto the internet. The star appears to discuss his beliefs with a degree of incoherence and exaggeration that might lead some to question Scientology's effects on its adherents' sanity. A Scientology spokesman says it has been selectively edited. Several internet sites have taken it down after threats of lawsuits. But it keeps popping up.
Original "Message to Scientology" video from Anonymous:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ
This is certainly interesting and somewhat exciting. It piqued my curiosity about these "Anonymous" folks and I decided to do a little digging. From what I've seen, it's a huge, nebulous group of hackers, imageboard users, teenage weirdos, and regular internet folks who use their massive numbers (apparently there are thousands and thousands of these people) as their offense, and their anonymity as their defense (hence the name Anonymous).
Even though these folks seem morally gray at best, with all the phone harassment, DDoS-ing servers, and general immaturity, they're definitely the lesser of two evils. Scientology is, without a doubt, an evil money cult that ruins lives and destroys families. Too many people hear "Scientology" and think "Oh hahaha, that zany Tom Cruise guy. Whatever!" , and that's bad. Even if nothing else comes out of this, I'll be glad to see the misdeeds and true nature of L. Ron Hubbard's little space-cult come to greater public attention.
I'm not one to rip on somebody's personal beliefs, but the Church of Scientology is ruthless, corrupt, and is linked with stalking/harassing naysayers, infiltration of the US government, persecution of people who practice Scientology without the church, and even murder. I'll be glad to see anyone take them down a few notches, even a group of less-than-heroic hackers. Apparently they have peaceful protests planned for Sunday the 10th at Scientology buildings all over the world. I plan to be in full attendance at the St. Louis protest. It should be a great way to bring Scientology's problems into the media spotlight. I just hope the protests don't get out of hand, or we could wind up generating the wrong kind of attention.
If you'd like to know more about why I support the hackers in this cause, and why I think Scientology needs to be brought down, check out the Operation Clambake website at:
http://www.xenu.net
All of that stuff about them is true, and it's why I think everyone should be speaking out against the Church of Scientology's tax exemption and status as a religion, and demanding that they be investigated and prosecuted by the federal government. It's utterly ridiculous for modern-day America to have a criminal organization like this thriving in plain sight.
