Is the Church of Scientology's Website Battle a Sign of Broader Internet Wars?

[Moridin]

Their Mission Statement:

Church of Scientology website being attacked by hackers

"The attack was launched on Wednesday by a user calling himself "Anonymous", on the website "Project Chanology". The "History" section of the site explains, in a satirical fashion, that the incident was prompted by the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove a promotional video featuring Scientologist Tom Cruise from YouTube. Though YouTube is complying with the Church of Scientology's requests to take down the video, other sites such as Gawker.com have stated that they will keep hosting the video.

Writing in a blog post, Matthew Ingram of The Globe and Mail dubbed the ongoing conflict involving the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove the Cruise video from the Internet: "Scientology vs. the Internet, part XVII". He characterized the conflict between the Church of Scientology and anonymous posters of the Cruise video as "another small skirmish in a war that Scientology has been waging for almost 15 years, since the early days of newsgroups such as alt.religion.scientology, which posted internal church documents in 1994. Lawsuits have been filed, mailing lists have been shut down, homes of discussion group participants have been raided and their computers seized -- an all-out war."

Web vigilantes attack Scientology website

"A shadowy internet group has succeeded in taking down a Scientology website after effectively declaring war on the Church and calling for it to be destroyed.

The group, which goes by the name of Anonymous, is a disparate collection of hackers and activists. It called for a wave of attacks against Scientology after accusing the Church of "campaigns of misinformation" and "suppression of dissent." At least one Scientology website was still down this morning.

The group also claims to have stolen a number of "secret documents" from the Church's database, which it says are now circulating on file-sharing networks."

Project Chanology

A large DDoS assault has begun on websites owned by the Church of Scientology. The organization called Anonymous has decided to try to destroy the church.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnEqXMMCDEc&NR=1

The project is available online.

 

[Evo]

The Scientologists made Google remove links to websites that they claimed disparaged them a few years ago. They claimed the material was protected under copyright.

Google pulls anti-Scientology links

http://www.news.com/2100-1023-865936.html

 

[Moridin]

Several Scientology websites are currently completely down or very slow. Anonymous are also trying to Google Bomb Scientology by making xenu.net, a highly critical website of Scientology, the first hit on Google for the key word "scientology".

CoS has gotten the scientology.org website up-and-running after it being down for almost a week. However, I cannot currently access the website, so it looks like they are making another round of DDoS attacks on it.

 

[Cyrus]

All I can say is Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. I don't care for fake cult religions anyways. Wow Tom, your an idiot. Talk about an egomaniac.

http://gawker.com/5002269/the-cruise-indoctrination-video-scientology-tried-to-suppress

 

[Evo]

All I can say is Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. I don't care for fake cult religions anyways.

Not even alien ones?

Xenu (also Xemu), pronounced /ˈziːnuː/, according to Scientology founder (and science fiction writer) L. Ron Hubbard, was the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions[1] of his people to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft , stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Scientology holds that their essences remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm.[2][3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu

 

[Cyrus]

I can't top that. It speaks for itself.

 

[Cyrus]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-126281853779690652&q=scientology&total=4510&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

 

[neutrino]

You guys should watch this.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/3f716ffebe

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

http://sciencefictionology.com/"
Take this simple quiz and win a car.

 

[Poop-Loops]

You people have no real idea of what is going on.

This is 4chan. These are about 10,000 nerds who have unlimited time on their hands and 1 goal: to generate the lulz.

Want to know just who 4chan is? Watch the Fox News fear mongering report on them:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UxWgRY1I_SI

These are just nerds who have a lot of time on their hands, but through sheer force they can work miracles. Make no mistake, this IS a tipping point in history.

 

[SticksandStones]

Anonymous is a group of computer hackers that knows what they're doing. They're very good at taking down the people they want to take down.

The Church of Scientology has a lot of money, but that's useless against people who openly admit to doing this partially for their own amusement.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Anonymous is a group of computer hackers that knows what they're doing. They're very good at taking down the people they want to take down.

No, they're not hackers. Only some of them are. The rest are regular people who just want to contribute.

From message boards like 4chan, 711chan, whatever else, you have like 15,000 people total posting there. Of those there are a handful of good hackers. The rest are just regular people with a lot of time on their hands.

This doesn't really matter, because their strength comes from numbers. They have "raids" in real life, i.e. protests outside of various church locations (with major ones planned). And not just in the US, either.

It's also misleading to call them a "group", as if they were some sort of coherent organization. They are not. They don't even know each other, really. They just have the same goal. That's why it's so hard to try and take them down. You don't know who the leaders are, since even they don't know who they really are.

This is also why you can rest knowing they won't be "taken over" by some other group, because there is nobody to follow or give orders in the first place. You're better off making them bored with you than trying to beat them.

 

[Mk]

Oh jeez. Scientology is a lot crazier than I thought.

I mean. We know how religious fundamentalists are, I won't list all the things. But Scientologists are not just crazy. They freak me out.


WHAT ARE YOUR CRIMES?
WHAT ARE YOUR CRIMES?
What are your crimes man?
You beat your wife don't you?
How many people have you killed?
You're a child molester.

And they of course, reject modern medicine because...
psychiatrists were responsible for 9/11

 

[Cyrus]

Goooooooooooo Anonymous!

 

[Moridin]

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=921E96377C0AC053

The Tom Cruise 40 min leaked video.

Their mission statement (link in OP is broke):

 

[Poop-Loops]

Big thing happened on Monday: Anon stole $300,000 worth of documents from them.

That means that Scientologists each paid $300k for those things. Includes everything, the OT levels, books, you name it. Also includes some disturbing material on getting kids into Dianetics (Training them like dogs. Literally.)

Their plan is to simply give the info to anybody for free. Any other religion gives you literature and information for free. Scientology makes you pay HUGE amounts of money for it.

 

[Art]

Operation Clambake http://www.xenu.net/archive/secret.html has a lot of material on Scientology including many of their so-called secret documents. Apparently Scientology charges the gullible $1000 an hour for this rubbish.

 

[Huckleberry]

Oh jeez. Scientology is a lot crazier than I thought.

I mean. We know how religious fundamentalists are, I won't list all the things. But Scientologists are not just crazy. They freak me out.


WHAT ARE YOUR CRIMES?
WHAT ARE YOUR CRIMES?
What are your crimes man?
You beat your wife don't you?
How many people have you killed?
You're a child molester.

And they of course, reject modern medicine because...
psychiatrists were responsible for 9/11

That's all just meaningless banter designed to antagonize and threaten the cameraman. The most telling part of that video is this...

"Why don't you just give it up? We are so much bigger than you. Look at you. You're one little wimp here. You're one little gnat. You're a little gnat, and look at the size of this church. And you know why this church is so big? Cause they're clean and ethical, that's why, Mark. And you know why you're so small? Cause you're a little, dirty gnat with some secrets. Tha'ts all. And we are wasting so much God damn time with you. We could be having a good time at the event, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to go over there. You have a good night, Mark."

If this is the popular viewpoint held by Scientologists then I don't see how anything good can come from Scientology besides the realization of it's principles and the pleasure of rejecting them. It appears to be another bully philosophy, completely lacking any sense of humility.

As far as news reporters go, this guy was kind of mild-mannered. I've seen reporters use antagonization as a method of getting a reaction out of someone to create something newsworthy. Apparently, one of the men he was filming distributed flyers around the cameraman's neighborhood, assaulting his character. So there is some history between this cameraman and members of Scientology. All I know about the cameraman is that, besides some silly jokes, he did nothing in the video to antagonize the three Scientologists that were brow-beating him. So I don't know if this is just some convenient editing, or a fair representation of Scientology. Whatever it is, it's kind of scary to watch.

Those Scientologists sure were http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Enturbulation" .

 

[Tsu]

What is with this thread?? I thought PF didn't allow put-downs of specific religious groups - no matter who or what they believe.

 

[Cyrus]

Its not a religion. Its a cult of loonies.

 

[Poop-Loops]

What is with this thread?? I thought PF didn't allow put-downs of specific religious groups - no matter who or what they believe.

1) Why not? Irrational beliefs should be ridiculed, not cuddled.

2) Like Cyrus pointed out, they are a cult. In several countries (UK and Germany at least) they have been denied the status of "religion", so they use their Narcanon as a front, instead.

 

[SticksandStones]

What is with this thread?? I thought PF didn't allow put-downs of specific religious groups - no matter who or what they believe.

This thread isn't attacking Scientology, it's attacking the Church of Scientology. The CoS is nothing less than a corrupt business that tries to scam people out of their hard earned money in the name of "happiness".

Don't offend legitimate churches by grouping the Church of Scientology with them.

I don't think anyone has any problem with Scientology (except those that have a problem with religion in general). The so called "church" however, uses practices just short of reminiscent of the medieval Christian church.

 

[Tsu]

Church, Temple, Mosque, Potato, Potahto. A 'church' is an association of people with a common belief system. A religion is a set of common beliefs and practices generally held by an association of people. This thread appears to be saying many negative things about both. Sorry. I just thought this kind of hypocracy was below most of the people here. Silly me...



Religious Discussion Guidelines:
Discussions that assert the a priori truth or falsity of religious dogmas and belief systems, or value judgments stemming from such religious belief systems, will not be tolerated. As a rule of thumb, some topics pertaining to religion might be permissible if they are discussed in such a way so as to remain neutral on the truth of, or value judgments stemming from, religious belief systems. However, it is essential to use good judgment whenever discussing religious matters to ensure that the discussion does not degenerate into a messy dispute. If in doubt, err on the side of caution.

Because of the complexity and ambiguity of this subject matter, there are no hard and fast moderation rules that apply over all possible cases. Ultimately, it is up to the administrators and mentors to decide what is appropriate and what it not on a case-by-case basis. Discuss religious matters at your own risk: Administrators and mentors retain the right to lock or delete any religious thread or post at any time without warning or explanation. All administrator and mentor action taken with regard to religious discussions will be final and will not be up for dispute.

Religious proselytizing is strictly prohibited! PF is not the place to promote or discuss particular religious dogma.

 

[binzing]

I'm tired of all the radical Christians. Like those shows on the Health or Discovery channels about these people that have 12+ kids. They're getting praise for overpopulating the world! Seriously, everyone of the families I've seen in these shows have dropped the G, J, or L bombs within the first few minutes of the show. And these people talk about "radical Muslims", there only mirroring what's coming from the US.

 

[Cyrus]

Church, Temple, Mosque, Potato, Potahto. A 'church' is an association of people with a common belief system. A religion is a set of common beliefs and practices generally held by an association of people. This thread appears to be saying many negative things about both. Sorry. I just thought this kind of hypocracy was below most of the people here. Silly me...



Religious Discussion Guidelines:
Discussions that assert the a priori truth or falsity of religious dogmas and belief systems, or value judgments stemming from such religious belief systems, will not be tolerated. As a rule of thumb, some topics pertaining to religion might be permissible if they are discussed in such a way so as to remain neutral on the truth of, or value judgments stemming from, religious belief systems. However, it is essential to use good judgment whenever discussing religious matters to ensure that the discussion does not degenerate into a messy dispute. If in doubt, err on the side of caution.

Because of the complexity and ambiguity of this subject matter, there are no hard and fast moderation rules that apply over all possible cases. Ultimately, it is up to the administrators and mentors to decide what is appropriate and what it not on a case-by-case basis. Discuss religious matters at your own risk: Administrators and mentors retain the right to lock or delete any religious thread or post at any time without warning or explanation. All administrator and mentor action taken with regard to religious discussions will be final and will not be up for dispute.

Religious proselytizing is strictly prohibited! PF is not the place to promote or discuss particular religious dogma.

Nope not below me!

http://www.payallin.com/media/tomchrist.jpg

Cuuuuuuuuu CUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Cu Cuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Did you watch the video I posted?


http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/fishman1.html

Watch part I of this video.

 

[Poop-Loops]

The difference in this case is that Scientology is not being discussed as a religion, but as a corporation. They charge ridiculous amounts of money for information on their very own religion. WTF? Go to any other religion and you'll get all that for free, even if you don't want it.

Everybody here knows that these guys are insane. But what they don't know is that these guys have done some VERY nasty things in the past and continue to do so.

This isn't about destroying the notion of Scientology, but destroying the empire that it has become. That's been Anon's stated goal from the start.

Things like "disconnects", threatening violence, and manipulating the legal system to get their way.

Watch this Panorama special on them:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-126281853779690652&q=panorama+scientology&total=168&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

This goes beyond a simple religion.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080128/en_afp/entertainmentusbooksfilmpeoplescientologycruise_080128204613
http://www.paulettecooper.com/scandal.htm

 

[D H]

I agree, Tsu.

Another rule that has been tossed in this thread:

Illegal/Dangerous Activities:
Explicit "how to" discussions of illegal and/or dangerous activities, or posts advocating such activities, are prohibited; such as: how to make explosives, manufacture crack, steal software, hack into the CIA, ...


To those cheering on the perveyors of the attacks:

Societal laws and rules exist to protect not only the people we like but also the people we don't particularly like. The First Amendment applies not only to people who think just like you do, but also to communists, nazis, atheists, and creationists -- and Scientologists. Laws against computer sabotage apply to those who would hack the PF server, the servers at your schools, the schools at your businesses -- and the servers maintained by Scientologists. What these hackers are doing is illegal, immoral, and childish.

 

[binzing]

They weren't advocating or explaining how to hack these websites. People were simply stating that they thought it wasn't a really bad thing to do.

 

[binzing]

BTW, read the "Hacker's Manifesto", that'll put anyone's view of hackers into perspective.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Furthermore, there have been plenty of protests (peaceful) already done and a major one planned on February 10th. THAT certainly is legal.

Besides, nobody explained how to hack or anything, just reporting that it IS going on.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Tsu has a very good point. But where do you draw the line? The "church" of Scientology seems to adopt an unusual stance in that members of all "religions" are welcomed to join their church without giving up their religions. (e.g., one can be a Scientologist, but also a Baptist, or also a Muslim, or whatever.) Does this make it a "meta-religion", a "meta-belief system"? Or is the "all faiths are welcome" stance just a smoke-screen to entice the newbies?

 

[Tsu]

I'm tired of all of the radicals - Christians, Muslims, Jews, Physicists, Philosophers...and the Atheists. They all think it's OK to be rude to others because they don't have the same belief systems.

Poop - you say "Everybody here knows that these guys are insane". I know no such thing and neither do you - unless you are holding a legal document stating that fact. And, my guess is that you are not. So you don't want to be a member. Fine. I don't want to be member, either. No one is forcing you to join up. But you ARE making moral judgements on people that you do not even know. That is my objection with the tone of this thread. It's just more 'hate' propaganda. We have enough of that kind of cr*p in this world. We don't need more.

 

[Poop-Loops]

I'm tired of all of the radicals - Christians, Muslims, Jews, Physicists, Philosophers...and the Atheists. They all think it's OK to be rude to others because they don't have the same belief systems.

Why should I be nice to someone who tells me I am going to be eternally tortured for not obeying their imaginary friend?

Poop - you say "Everybody here knows that these guys are insane". I know no such thing and neither do you - unless you are holding a legal document stating that fact. And, my guess is that you are not. So you don't want to be a member. Fine. I don't want to be member, either. No one is forcing you to join up. But you ARE making moral judgements on people that you do not even know. That is my objection with the tone of this thread. It's just more 'hate' propaganda. We have enough of that kind of cr*p in this world. We don't need more.

So you don't judge Nazi's then? Or do you agree that they were/are bad people, based on what they did?

It's okay to be open-minded, just don't be so open-minded that all your brains fall out. Some ideas and cultures are objectively better than others. It's okay to admit that.

By the way, did you read the links I gave you? Did you watch the video?

 

[Cyrus]

But I do hate them. They 'invented' their own religion. Its a joke.

Cant they all just drink the special kool-aid and go away already?

you say "Everybody here knows that these guys are insane". I know no such thing and neither do you - unless you are holding a legal document stating that fact. And, my guess is that you are not.

Havent you heard? They don't believe in that kind of stuff. Its not real medical science.

 

[Math Is Hard]

But I do hate them. They 'invented' their own religion. Its a joke.

Cant they all just drink the special kool-aid and go away already?

There's a lot of Kool-Aid for sale these days: Scientology, Fundamentalist (insert brand here), Dawkins.. they're all delicious flavors!