Anonymous

The Church of Scientology has been claiming that its been under attack by the group known as Anonymous. Yet there’s been virtually no news coverage, limited press releases or “no comment” made by the Church, in the mainstream media. We found an video posted on Youtube and on an anonymous website. Is this an instance of the Church hiding behind an “anonymous video” in order to throw out accusations of cyber-terrorism and threats without proof?

The bulk of the accusations originate from an “anonymous” website where a video claims that back in January the Church was bombarded by harassing phone calls, faxes, and emails containing death and bomb threats. The anonymous video also claims that the group Anonymous sent them a “white powder” in envelopes that resembled anthrax and were responsible for gunshots fired at churches. The video goes on to claim that Anonymous “hacked” into Church of Scientology websites.

DBKP decided to take a closer look at a video, “Anonymous Exposed – Religious Hate Crimes and Terrorism” which has its own web page and is also posted on Youtube.

The video is posted on this website: Anonymous-Exposed.org

We decided to take a look at the claims made within the video and whether they had any validity. Here is the transcript from the video:

January 2008 a message from Anonymous is sent to the Church of Scientology:

“Leaders of Scientology, we are Anonymous. Anonymous is therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed… for our own enjoyment. We shall proceed to expel you from the internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in it’s present form.”

To justify inciting others to commit hate crimes against the church Anonymous claims the right to free speech contained in the First Amendment while showing contempt for the first part of that same Amendment that guarantees the freedom of religion.

Their “attacks” begin on January 17 – Anonymous illegally brings down a Church of Scientology public information website– attacks continue for 5 days

-a barrage of harassing phone calls begins:

Jan. 18th – 241 harassing phone calls, obscene faxes, death threats

Jan. 19th – 356 harassing phone calls, death threats

Jan. 21st – 139 harassing phone calls, threats of physical violence, email threats

Jan. 22nd – 142 harassing phone calls, bomb threats

Jan. 23rd – 272 harassing phone calls, more bomb threats to three churches, 50,000 obscene emails, threats of violence

Jan. 24th – 663 harassing phone calls

Then on Jan. 25th, Anonymous reiterates its message of hate:

“You shall be smitten down time and time again as we intend absolute annihilation of the Scientology cult”

But later that same day Anonymous attempts to change their message:

“I’d like to clarify our objectives to the press and the public. Allegations that Anonymous wishes to physically harm any human being as a part of our campaign against the cult of Scientology are patently untrue.

Yet they immediately escalate their assault: arson threat.

January 28th, another bomb threat

January 30th – envelopes containing an unknown white powder resembling anthrax are delivered by mail to 24 churches.

January 31th – gunshots fired at church property, more obscene faxes

Feb. 2nd – vandalism

Feb 4th – website attack

And on Feb 13th Anonymous issues to the “Church” of Scientology their “ultimate” threat:

“One 5 kilogram pack of nitroglycerin will detonate in the Churches of Scientology. These explosives will be in the most logical, however hidden, location in each church. This will be the world’s biggest terrorist attack on a religion. Lives will be lost.”

While claiming they are peaceful, in less than 3 weeks, Anonymous members made or encouraged 8,139 harassing or threatening phone calls, 3.6 million malicious emails, 141 million hits against church websites, 10 acts of vandalism, 22 bombs threats, and 8 death threats against members and officials of the Church of Scientology.

These are the facts.

And yet, are these truly the “facts”, or the “facts” according to this anonymous video posted on its own website and on youtube?

The website itself is “anonymous”. There’s no link to the Church of Scientology. No “home page” or “About US” to refer to. At the top of the page is “The Documentary”. There is no reference to who made this documentary.

The page “informs” those who visit it that its purpose is 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 site then states the video “reveals “Anonymous” repeated incitements to hate and violence” and yet the website fails to reveal who’s behind its inception. The site goes on to state that the “Church has not interacted with these “Anonymous” individuals nor does it desire to.”

It goes on to state: “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”.

The only thing remaining on the site is the video and the blurb above it:

Anonymous – Religious Hate Crimes and Terrorism directed at the Church of Scientology

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.”

The irony behind this blurb is double edged, you have an anonymous website that has no author, no link to an official Scientology website, chastising another group, Anonymous, for being “anonymous”. It’s also an anonymous website that is doing exactly what Scientology has itself cried foul, of accusations without proof.

We wondered why the makers of this video made the decision to remain “anonymous” in putting out this video “documentary” about the alleged cyber-terrorist group Anonymous?

Could a partial explanation be that an “anonymous” website allows the persons who made it to make accusations without supplying proof? For example, the “envelopes of white powder” that were sent through the mail to various Scientology churches.

“Mailings of a suspicious white powder to 10 Church of Scientology addresses prompted the evacuation of dozens of people and the closure of a major thoroughfare Wednesday as hazmat teams were called to examine the packages.

The letters were sent via the Postal Service to Scientology properties in Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica, Glendale and Tustin. Police shut part of Glendale’s busy Brand Boulevard for two hours before sounding the all-clear, while 60 people were cleared from buildings in Tustin, authorities said. Source - LA Times

At this juncture no arrests have been made, in fact, there haven’t been any “persons of interest” and the authorities have yet to name Anonymous as a suspect yet this video points the finger of blame squarely at Anonymous as the culprits behind the white powder incident.

“Initial field testing by LAPD indicates the powder is harmless,” said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. “However, further testing will be conducted. We will also work to assess what threat, if any, was associated with the mailings and determine whether any federal statutes were violated.”

The Church of Scientology had no comment about the incidents. The mailings come after a cyber attack last week on the Church’s website. Authorities said there was no evidence that Wednesday’s mailings were connected to the hacking. Source - LA Times

Notice that in the LA Times piece the Church had “no comment”. We’ve detected a trend with the Church of Scientology. They’re notorious for not making any “comments” in regards to any of these supposed incidents. Why the need to hide behind the “cloak of secrecy” in regards to purported death and bombs threats? But then again, cloaks of secrecy seem to be the modus operandi of the Church of Scientology.

They also claim that Anonymous was behind a “gunshots” fired. We were unable to find any reference to “gunshots” being fired at Scientology churches.

The video, which btw, the person or persons behind it, which remain anonymous, claim the church of Scientology received millions of hate emails, harassing phone calls, death and bomb threats. How is the public supposed to take these claims at face value when there’s no “face” behind the claims?

Another interesting note about this video is the claim that Anonymous is a hate group against a religion? has links to the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, to how the Church of Scientology began, who Anonymous is, how they protest Scientology, and to the reason they wear masks at their peaceful protests staged at various Scientology headquarters throughout the world.

Scientology has only itself to blame for the public’s perception that the Church is overly secretive. That perception was reinforced when a video of its most infamous member, mega-movie star Tom Cruise, was posted on Youtube and the Church immediately threatened litigation to have it removed.

The “documentary” video that purportedly exposes Anonymous ends on this note:

“These are the facts.”

Facts according to whom? Substantiated facts or alleged facts? Where is the evidence which proves these facts? How can we even begin to build a case against Anonymous if facts that have been entered as evidence are nothing more than allegations made without proof from an anonymous source?

Scientology claims it’s a religion and thus should be “protected” under the First Amendment. In our next part, we’re going to take a look at Scientology’s claim that it’s a religion.

By LBG