He is correct. Pic 'Tanya N'

Anonymous, the masked protesters that have spent the last two years protesting the Church of Scientology, have responded to a creepy Today Show report on the aid-work being conducted by the Church in Haiti.

Anonymous, best known for their masked street-protests, have responded by issuing the following statement (sourced from Gawker):

Hello [audience]. We are Anonymous.

We wish it it were under more favorable circumstances that we have chosen to address the world. However, after the demonstrably inaccurate interpretation handling of the victims of the Haiti earthquake as per the work of the Scientology ‘Volunteer’ Ministers, Anonymous could not remain silent.

The Volunteer Ministers are volunteers only in name. Their self-proclaimed humanitarian efforts have been shown to be harmful and self-serving time and time again. In the wake of the September Eleventh attacks at the World Trade Center, they impeded the work of the New York City Fire Department, and falsely claimed to have been given a reward for their efforts. These efforts involved little more than handing out pamphlets for the works of L. Ron Hubbard, while intentionally hindering the work of mental health professionals aiding the victims.

This same pattern of self-promotion at the expense of victims of disasters does not end there. Following the tsunami at Sri Lanka, the Volunteer Ministers attempted to convert the vulnerable and suffering victims into their cult, promising them aid and salvation at the expense of their livelihood***. These actions were repeated following the terrorist attack at the Ramada Inn in India*** and the Subway bombings in London, England.

In short: Scientology does not see a disaster as a tragedy, but rather, as a business opportunity.

First-hand accounts [[LINK TO GAWKER ARTICLE]], condemnations from legitimate aid groups [[SCREENSHOTS OF ARTICLES]], and even leaked documents from Scientology’s corporate heirarchy itself [[SCREENSHOTS OF DOX]] all confirm the cowardly and parasitic nature of the self-proclaimed Volunteer Ministers.

The very same self-serving, opportunistic proselytizing has been taking place in Haiti. Scientology has taken every opportunity to release their own manufactured press releases, taking credit for the work of legitimate relief groups. They arrived completely unprepared [[SCREENSHOTS OF THE COWBOY BOOTS REPORT HERE]], and were told to leave by the United States military [[SCREENSHOT HERE]].

An untrained Scientologist was alleged to be assisting a surgeon, using tools that had not been sterilized. This is blatant medical malpractice. John Travolta has also left several trained medical professionals behind at an airport, instead making it his priority to bring untrained Scientologists into the country with the sole intent of disseminating L. Ron Hubbard materials to an already vulnerable and suffering population.

Know this, Scientology: We are watching you. With every move you make, every victim you exploit, and every piece of choreographed propaganda you release into the mainstream media, the public already knows the truth about your organization. You are not fooling anyone, and no amount of proselytizing will change this. You have already been convicted in the court of public opinion. It is now only a matter of time before you are convicted in a court of law.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.

Anonymous begun their campaign in Feburary 2008, after a spat with the Church over the now infamous ‘Tom Cruise Address’ internal promotion video being posted onine.

Ken Eakins

Ken Eakins

rotinhell1

Even Cats got in on the action!

It’s ‘game, set and match’ for the sick bastards responsible for a recent spate of cat abuse, and once again, the main-stream media totally ignores the true heroes in this whole case…4Chan

Earlier this week, two young American boys, Kenny and Weston Glenn,  decided it would be a great laugh to abuse their cat ‘Dusty’ and then post videos of the abuse on YouTube.  The video showed really quite horrific footage of the boys smashing the cat against the wall of their bathroom, which the boys oddly reffered to as their ‘lab’. 

However the Dynamically-retarded duo were unaware that cats, much the like the Ancient Eygptians, are sacred to those that lurk the image-boards of the ‘Mos Eisley Canteena-esque’ 4Chan. it was 4Chan that inadvertantly started the whole ‘lolcats’ fad online, with their original (and funnier) ‘Caturday’. 

bvengers

/b/ back in the 60's

So, as you can imagine, once the Dusty-abuse tapes reached the attention of the ‘Internet Hate Machine‘, all hell broke loose! From the amazing Encyclopedia Dramatica page on the incident: “ An IRC channel -#catraid- was established in short order and the raids signal lit up the sky as Anonymous called for their crack Internet Vigilante Group to mount up and ride. These 1337 h4x0rs quickly found a link to a bargain video website -haitiwow- and a link on haitiwow led to a Lawton, Oklahoma zip code. Using painstaking methods of e-Detection, it was not long before the suspect’s Facebook was located.”

The brave channers, who then linked artifacts in the video to pictures on the Facebook profile,  then called in all this information to the local sherrifs department. The boys were shortly arrested and charged, and local, national and later international news agencies began to take notice:

At first I was angry that no credit was given to the trolls  and camwhores over at 4Chan for their e-detective work, but in a way it’s kind of cool that 4Chan and it’s many offshoots, remain underground and off the radar of the news-media. I mean, could you imagine a website so in the spotlight being able to pull of hacking Sarah Palin’s email account, tricking Oprah Winfrey into reciting one of their memes (“we do not forgive, we do not forget”) in the ’9000 Penises’ incident and helping to trap and convict pedophiles? I think not…

Ken Eakins

This week we mark the end of our holiday break by discussing some of our ‘favorite bits’ of 2008. Topics covered in this show include Anonymous, The end of Neo-Paganism as we know it?, Patriots and the Georgia Guidestones and of course Obama (or in this case OBAWWWWMA).

Joining me for this episodes banter is Sir Raymond Wiley and Lord Austin Gandy from ye olde Out There Radio and the all new Disinformation The Podcast.

Of course Lady Claire Lumiere delivers us the latest Weekly Weird News and the Nobleman that is Daddytank serves up another great MySpace Heroes in the shape of:

District Of Evolution - New Paper Crusader
Magnetic Stripper – set 5a
Zabutom – Leningrad Vodka Rush
A Boy And His Recorder – Ice Cream Chuck

The episode of Out There Radio that Raymond plugs with no shame throughout the show can be found at www.outthereradio.net

Join us weekly again from now, as we examine counterculture, the Occult, underground and all the usual good stuff…so you don’t have to.

Enjoy

Well, just as Operation Chanology seems to be gasping its last breath, a symptom of internal civil war (old vs. new, vs. moral), Anonymous have risen once again to show us all that the Internet Hate Machine is still active and processing ‘lulz’ for us all to laugh at! A week or so ago, Anonymous managed to use the ‘forgot password’ option on Yahoo! Mail to gain access to hockey-mum-republican Sarah Palin’s email account. The ensuing reposting of private information (Dox), caused an unusually high level of coverage from the likes of Fox News buffoon Bill O’Reilly and his minions.

Watching Bill attempt to justify his obvious rage-management issues is always a source of great amusement:

Challenging the Internets? BAD IDEA!

Sure enough, a few days later O’Reillys website was hacked and it’s ‘premium‘ members personal details were smeared all over the internets like a peadophile ‘named and shamed’ campaign! It was later revealed that O’Reillys web people contacted the afflicted few, informing them of the breach.

That’s all? … nope!

Oprah Winfrey, lover of Magick for middle-class housewifes … no, really, it is! …anyway, where was I? Oh yeah; Oprah Winfrey who’s recent adoration of the ‘The Secret’, had led people to belive that she may be going the way of fellow nut-ball Tom Cruise, was midway through one of her latest campaigns, defending a senate bill against peadophiles when she uttered this:

‘Over 9000′? Now where have I heard that before?

Anonymous strikes again, this time with very little effort, they managed to penetrate one of the most viewed celebrities in the US, making a total fool out of her.

So, I once again make this plea to online ‘experts’, technology pundits and most of all Oprah’s web people. Take a look around you once in a while, notice what the Internet is breeding, and you won’t make such ridiculous errors. It really does amaze me that people whose jobs rely on their constant monitoring of online happenings so rarely notice the seemingly obvious links between these events…or maybe that’s the point?

Anyway, until then Oprah, enjoy your ‘raep’

Ken Eakins

“Encyclopaedia Dramatica is being attacked, has lost ads and has no money. Please help us by making a donation to the site. You can donate using your credit card.”

You may remember last week we got in all sorts of weird conversations with people pretending to be my mother and Mark Bunker, well…i’m pleased to present this news just in from The Guardian!

 

A teenager who was facing legal action for calling the Church of Scientology a “cult” has today been told he will not be taken to court.

 

 

The Crown Prosecution Service ruled the word was neither “abusive or insulting” to the church and no further action would be taken against the boy.

The unnamed 16-year-old was handed a court summons by City of London police for refusing to put down a placard saying “Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult” during a peaceful protest outside the church’s headquarters near St Paul’s Cathedral earlier this month.

 

This is great news for EpicNoseGuy (the 15 year old school boy in question) and for fans of free speech, which was the point of Project Chanology in the first place. Epic Win Anonymous!

This Saturday the Internet based ‘activist group’ Anonymous, of whom I wrote about recently, are taking to the streets once again to protest the Church of Scientology. This, the 4th International protest, is entitled Battletoad Earth: Operation Fair Game Stop, a cunning play on the L. Ron Hubbard authored movie Battlefield Earth, and the alleged ‘Fair Game’ policy adopted by the COS to attack its detractors:

“ENEMY — 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

Sinister words indeed, but what puzzles me is the churches lack of retaliation. One would think that if your church was being protested by thousands of masked protestors, you would make a big deal of it?

Anyway, the protest is set to begin worldwide at 11am and, in London, will take place initially at the Queen Victoria Street Scientology Centre and the later at the Tottenham Court Road property. Whatever happens, these events are normally well natured (on the part of Anonymous at least) and actually quite good fun. 

on a side note, has anyone ever considered the amount of money the manufacturers of the V for Vendetta masks must have made from these events? just a thought.

Hackers on Steroids?

Never going to give you up”, Its Saturday morning in London, and I’m surrounded by people wearing Guy Fawkes masks. “Never going to Let you down”, on the road across from where I’m standing, a huge advertising trailer depicting headless suited men and a web address (www.xenu.net) continually drives past. “Never going to run around, and desert you”, most oddly however all the masked people around me are handing out cake, happiness stickers and hugs, whilst singing along and dancing to Rick Astley…this is ‘Project Chanology’… this is not an average Saturday!

It all started earlier this year, when a video of Scientologist, and Hollywood-money-machine, Tom Cruise was leaked onto YouTube. In the video, Cruise addresses his fellow Scientologist’s on the privileges of being a member of the New Religious Movement, and how he dreams of a day when SP’s (Suppressive People – anyone that opposes the church) are “something we read about in the history books.” Now this is nothing new, over the last twelve months we have seen how bat-shit-crazy Mr Cruise can be, especially on the subject of his religious belief; but what was different in this case, was the way that the Church itself responded. Claiming the video was an infringement of copyrighted material; Scientology began legal proceedings against the Google-owned video site, as well as threatening other sites such as Gawker.com who were also showing the video. YouTube buckled under the church’s legal threats and removed the offending video, as did a slew of smaller independent sites that had also hosted the video. Meanwhile, trouble was brewing on the Internet. Days after the Scientology/Cruise video escapade, another kind of video appeared on YouTube entitled “Message to Scientology”, and with it the birth of the first grass roots Internet activist group. The video, with its Steven Hawkins-esque computer generated voice, and random spooky cityscapes, managed to both attract mainstream media attention, and amass a protest army of over 9000 people worldwide. The video stated that ‘(Anonymous) has decided that your organisation should be destroyed, for the good of your followers, for the good of mankind and for our own enjoyment. We shall proceed to expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form”. Later in the video the creepy voice issues the groups mantra, “Knowledge is free. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us”.

Weirdo on Steroids?

‘Anonymous’ have been alive and kicking online for a while now. In the old days you would find them terrorising online MMORPGs (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games) such as the horrible, reality-avoiding, Second Life, or the sickeningly cartoony Habbo Hotel. They even made a name for themselves via Fox News 11 in the US, who reported that they were an Internet Hate Machine and hackers on Steroids, much to the amusement of all involved. But it was Scientology’s Big Brother-esque behavior that really tipped the balance from online to real life action. The group decided to attack the religion in the only way they knew how, by hacking and defacing their websites. This seemed to work for a while, as well as amuse the participants, but overall it just seemed to blacken the ideal that Anonymous was trying to project. After a group discussion (Anonymous has no leader), they decided the only course of action was to take to the streets…and on February 10th 2008, under the guise of ‘Project Chanology’, that’s exactly what they did!

To protect their real-life identities from the now-infamous Scientology policy of harassing its detractors, over 300 masked people of all ages and gender gathered outside the new Church of Scientology building in Queen Victoria Street, London, as well as in 92 other key cities worldwide. They yelled their message, they handed out information to passersby, they offered free ‘delicious cake’ to Scientologists, they blasted Rick Astley from megaphones, and they had a lot of fun doing it. The Church responded by branding the protestors as ‘Cyber Terrorists’, and of conducting ‘Religious hate crimes’ and, unsurprisingly, decided to open a legal case against Anonymous. The only problem with this course of action is whom do you charge? Anonymous has no leader; they take particular care in protecting both their online, and real-life identity and there are thousands of them.

Epic Win

Considering the first protest a success, with a reported 6000-8000 global turnout, Anonymous launched its second attempt on March 13th, the birthday of Scientology’s creator L. Ron Hubbard. More cake, more flyering and more Rick Astley was blasted at the Scientologists and passersby, from a reported 9000 person global turnout. That brings us to today, from where I am standing, and from later online and mainstream media reports worldwide, Aprils attendance is even larger. Anonymous show no signs of quitting either, the next protest is scheduled worldwide for May 10th, and June’s is already in the pipeline.

But I still haven’t really answered my question, who the hell are Anonymous? Are they ‘Cyber Terrorists’, ‘Hackers on Steroids’ an ‘Internet Hate Machine’? Well, from the members I’ve spoken to, both unmasked and online, no. They are normal people, like you and me, they are office workers, they are lawyers, they are college and University students, Policemen and women, and thanks to the stayed-actions of early members and a non-criminal approach to Project Chanology, they are steadily growing in number. I’m left feeling not just informed by their message, but astounded by what they have achieved. 9000 people worldwide may be a very small percentage of the global population, but it’s incredibly large considering its roots. What’s truly impressive here, is the fact that it happened at all, the considerable organisational power of normal people with a cause, and the commitment to that cause. Even though it’s still a small-scale operation, it really highlights the power and potential of the Internet when used in this way. I think we may be witnessing the new people-power, just imagine what will happen if Anonymous turns it sights on, for example, a government…we’ll just have to wait and see.

Further Reading:

Anonymous page at Wikipedia

Anonymous London Page