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[edit] Statements made by Co$ on 2008-02-10

[edit] The statements:

The following statements were from Pat Harney, CoS Public Affairs Director in Letters to the Editor, St. Petersburg Times, Feb 9 2008 [1]. A slightly different older version was published in the same paper as an official statement on Feb 7: [2]. Note the extra lines (added in () brackets) that the later Feb 9 repeat didn't include.

1. "Anonymous" is perpetrating religious hate crimes against Churches of Scientology and individual Scientologists for no reason other than religious bigotry."
2. "Anonymous" initially justified its attacks by claiming that the church's requests to some Web sites to remove a stolen video of an internal church event somehow constituted an affront to free speech. In fact, the church, as would any copyright owner, had simply sent notices that the video constituted a copyright violation. (Similar notices are sent daily by the television and recording industries, as well as the media to those who display pirated, copyrighted works.")
3. "Anonymous' alleged "free speech" justification is belied by the fact that the video in question has been seen by millions."
4. "It is Anonymous that has repeatedly attempted to suppress free speech through illegal assaults on church Web sites so as to prevent Internet users from obtaining information from the church."
5. "They have also engaged in other harassment including threats of violence in telephone calls, fax transmissions and e-mails (, not to mention the Anonymous mailing of white powder to dozens of our churches, requiring the services of law enforcement)."
6. ""Anonymous" claims of altruistic purposes are no different than those heard from any terrorist or hate group. We are not the first to be targeted. Using Scientology's prominence, "Anonymous" hopes to garner more attention. ("Anonymous" has publicly proclaimed its guiding materials to be the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. Quite obviously,) (t)his group is not just anti-Scientology, it is anti-freedom of religion, anti-free speech and anti-American."

[edit] The response:

Anonymous would like to ask the secretive groups within the body of the Church of Scientology (CoS)'s followers to cease polemics against Anonymous and to focus on changing its own methods and mode of action.

1. We don't intend to question anyone's religious beliefs. We support the freedom of all individuals to practise their religion, including Scientologists. We take issue with the inhumane and corrupt methods employed by the corporation that calls itself the "Church" of Scientology.
2. The term "initially justified" is correct, and applies to our initial actions. However, this removal of the video brought about the curiosity of more Anonymous concerning the nature and practices of the Church in general, and we have uncovered many, many further reasons to justify our *continued* action. The Church has committed many aggressive and destructive acts, something not generally shared by "television and recording industries" and other typical enforcers of copyright
3. We would also like to point out that it was the efforts of non-CoS parties (including Anonymous), indignant at the removal of the Tom Cruise video, in disseminating it over as many websites as possible that resulted in the video gaining the accessibility it currently enjoys. The Church of Scientology made every effort to suppress this.
4. The assault on websites of the CoS occurred for only a few weeks, after which more attention was driven towards them: xenu.net traffic rankings. Anonymous and others, such as xenu.net, have released a huge collection of materials originating from the Church of Scientology which they have suppressed (even to their followers), thereby increasing the amount of "information from your church available to people" (including Scientologists). We strongly support freedom of speech, and therefore we will make as much information as possible about the "Church" available to the public.
5. It's true that we initially engaged in prank calls, fax transmissions and emails. But this was aimed at giving the "Church" a taste of its own policies, which promote systematic harassment of their critics. The Church of Scientology conducts such activities to a much greater extent than anything we ever did.
   • Also, the February 7 statement from CoS mentioned specifically "the Anonymous mailing of white powder", with emphasis on the capital "A", when we had already denied responsibility for the act, implies a certain active intent to smear everyone who declare themselves Anonymous. That the accusation was removed from the February 9 repeated statement may be a wise decision on their part.
6. Dismissing your opponents as terrorists is a standard method of avoiding having to answer to their (in this case, our) charges. The word itself has been so misused that it has become meaningless. They claim that we have "publicly proclaimed our guiding materials to be the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf". Given that we have stated this nowhere, it would be interesting to know why the Church made this particular comment. On the contrary, as stated elsewhere, the individuals comprising Anonymous have a wide range of views. Each of us is guided by what we individually believe in, which may or may not even include the above materials. The point is that this is irrelevant. The only thing we agree on today is that we stand united against this "Church". And of course, we hope to "garner more attention" - attention towards the Church of Scientology and its corrupt leadership. The purpose of Anonymous is not one of hate, only freedom and justice.

Perhaps the Church of Scientology should be glad, as we have made them even more prominent. They may also bear the proud distinction of being the first to bring about the intervention of Anonymous from the Internet to the real world stage.

[edit] Expand these points:

We do not need to specifically defend ourselves or to maintain an image. We need to expose Co$'s lies and tricks.

• The Corporation of $cientology (Co$) make no attempt to defend themselves against Anonymous' charges.
  • L. Ron Hubbard once directed, "Never defend, always attack."
    • Perhaps this strategy, since this is a winning strategy for them, can be used against them. Should we stop defending and just continue attacking?
      • Not really possible or necessary for our mindset: Because we are legion there will always be defenders and attackers: Our sword and shield are separate.
• Anonymous has made publicly available Scientology documents - which is encouraging free speech, not suppressing it.
  • Unlike other religions, those documents are considered "tech" and material that should only be bought. The dissemination of those materials, while beneficial to the community, violates $cientology's business practices, as they see it.
  • Then their business is harmful towards the community.
• Co$ has engaged in far greater harassment of its critics. It is extremely hypocritical to cry foul on something you so gladly inflict upon other people, when it is inflicted upon you.
  • See, "Operation: Freakout" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Freakout ) as a source, among others.
  • For more cases of harassment, including high-profile names, see:

- Richard Behar, who wrote "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power"
- John Sweeney, BBC reporter, who wrote and presented the BBC Panorama documentary titled "Scientology and Me"
- Gabe Cezares, former mayor of Clearwater, Florida

[edit] Statements made by Co$ on 2008-03-11

[edit] The statements

• Anonymous -- Religious Hate Crimes and Terrorism directed at Church of Scientology.

1. Anonymous: Since January 17, 2008, "Anonymous," a group of cyber-terrorists hiding their identities behind masks and computer anonymity, has targeted the Scientology religion, its Churches, leaders and parishioners with hate speech and hate crimes.
2. To inform "Anonymous" members who may be unaware of the criminal acts committed by their leaders, and to prevent others from being misled by "Anonymous" propaganda, this video has been produced to provide the facts. The video reveals "Anonymous" repeated incitements to hate and violence.
3. The Church has not interacted with these "Anonymous" individuals nor does it desire to. However, death threats and threats to plant nitroglycerin bombs in Churches have made it necessary to take security precautions and identify members of this group responsible for these crimes. (less)

[edit] The responses

1. Here we see the typical tactics of "attack, don't defend". CoS ignored all criticisms we have made against them, instead fabricating outright lies about our actions and motivations. CoS failed to reply to charges made about its behaviour from various sources, such as xenu.net, whyaretheydead.net and march15.org, amongst many others.
2. Anonymous has no leaders. Everyone participates out of his or her own choice. To imply that we have leaders shows a complete lack of (or maybe even refusal to) understanding of what you are dealing with - common people. Trying to group everyone under a single banner is completely narrow-minded.
   • Also, our materials contain only publicly-verifiable information about Scientology. It's both ironic and hypocritical to call our materials misleading when your own Scientology material is verifiably full of lies and distortions. We are interested in facts, not spin.
3. Given your history of lies, and our widespread discouragement of such tactics, this claim is highly suspicious. But even if you have had such threats, they cannot endorsed by "the group", because there is no single entity called "Anonymous" to be able to give endorsements (or condemnations) of anything.
   • Additionally, it's extremely ironic, hypocritical, and insulting to your victims, for you to complain about receiving death threats when you yourselves have actually killed at least 23 people at various times throughout your history.