I received this email recently from a concerned Scientology critic and I'd like to share it with you all. Naturally, his name has been censored.

"Please don't be apathetic before it's too late. The Church of Scientology is the modern day Gestapo. They intimidate everyone who speaks out against their practices through lies, intimidation, thievery, stalking, property destruction, and murder. Shawn Lonsdale, an avid opponent of Scientology, was found dead this Saturday from an apparent suicide in his apartment following the release of his anti-scientology documentary on local cable television in Clearwater, Florida.

Germany has permanently banned the presence of Scientology in any from from its country. The German people know the warning signs of a potential totalitarian dictatorship. They lived it first hand in the early and mid twentieth century. Naturally, this cult must be stopped before it grows into such an entity, and don't think it won't. These people are persuasive, mind washed, willing to do anything to stop "supressive people" from attacking their religion. They want Scientology to spread across the globe.

Please do your part to help stop this Naziesque movement while it still can be stopped.

Thanks for listening,
Your friend [x]."

First of all, I think it is appropriate to take a moment to mourn the loss of Shawn Lawnsdale. A bit of research quickly revealed that he was indeed a prominent critic - frequently posting on anti-Scientology message boards and taking part in every bit of activisim he could.

He was a man who the CoS defamed, harassed, ridiculed and socially destroyed. He was very much a victim of Fair Game, and this probably led to his suicide.

We all need to remember what we are fighting. We are fighting a totalitarian cult with its own military, government structure and an infinite supply of income. The only way we can win is by remembering Shawn Lawnsdale, remembering what they do and why the public needs to know about it.

Now is not the time for apathy.

Now is the time to carry the flag higher than it has ever been carried before.

Remember Shawn Lawnsdale.

Beware the ides of march.

A Scientology Response

The CoS has responded to our actions formally in what is, quite frankly, the most transparent, vapid and startlingly dumbfounding statement I have ever seen. Below is a portion of what they said.

"Hacking is a felony. Sending white powders to harass, spread fear and overwork the authorities is a felony! To undermine freedom of religion is unconstitutional. Taking orders from a foreign secret service to destroy US constitutional laws may be penalized by execution. (Death.)

Who is behind the international anonymous young criminals? Press release and YouTube videos of Anonymous reads and sounds like Nazi propaganda against Jews."

Your initial response to reading this may be that its just downright offensive, and you're right - but on more levels than one.

There is of course, that most of us did not condone or take part in the hacking activity (not to mention the CoS has been aggressively hacking us for weeks, taking our sites offline intermittently...hypocrisy much?), and of course theres the fact that the police found no connection at all between us and the white powder (meaning it was mailed by several proxies and could not be traced...sounds like someone with a good bit of resources did it, eh? Not to mention the CoS has a history of mailing itself bomb threats to discredit critics.) But, aside from these trifles, there is a good bit more to these two paragraphs than meets the eye, delving into the psychology and manipulation behind your average Scientologist announcement.

Scientologists are trained to believe that all opposition to them is centralized. In this case, the CoS has calibrated the Ronbots to focus their attention on Germany. That's right - Germany is now the source of psychiatry and all Scientology opposition, so its natural that they'd tie us to Germany. I'm sure this revelation has absolutely nothing at all to do with the fact that Germany recently announced that they do not recognize Scientology as a religion, and are closely monitoring the transactions of CoS storefronts. There, they are a business, and seem to have no problem operating as such.

Take a look at this statement: "Press release and YouTube videos of Anonymous reads and sounds like Nazi propaganda against Jews." It's interesting that they'd say this. Intriguingly trying to claim our videos are "naziesque propoganda" and German manufactured lies. Scientologists think every opposition to them is centralized. What they don't get, and in fact are fundamentally incapable of understanding is, those are our voices - our words - it comes from no leading person or organization, merely from ourselves.

Scientology at this point truly faces something it is not prepared to oppose. We operate outside of their domain, outside of their control. We operate in numbers, in full force that they have never seen before. Already the largest anti-scientologist movement since Xenu himself deployed his DC8's has hit the streets, and they don't know how to respond to it.

They don't understand it.

They can't comprehend that on an individual level, an intellectual level, we oppose NOT their freedom to believe what they wish, but the organization that possesses them.

We oppose them with reason - with our minds, with our words.

We are doing the world a service. Already countless thousands have marched in dozens of cities thousands of miles apart, individuals all of them, taking their orders from no one, something the CoS just can't grasp. Now, with the media out, with countless local and international outlets reporting, our ranks can only grow.

And so, soldiers of tomorrow, Anonymous individuals in a digital age, an era of free, abundant information, of cyber politics, of lossless distribution and unthinkable potential - where the political arena takes place with zero expense entirely on a virtual plane, where anyones voice can be heard and silence is only where you seek to find it, we will march again. Larger. More prepared. More experienced. More anonymous.

Beware the ides of march.

Expect us.

D-Day 2-10-08 Complete!

I'm making a note here: Huge success. Roughly 70 were present at peak, hundreds upon hundreds of fliers were distributed. Stay tuned for videos and footage. News coverage by CW39. Houston Chronicle and the Houston Press are sure to pick it up as well.

Beware beware the ides of march!

3-15-08

Final Update!

2 days remain until the main event itself! I am sorry I have not updated this sooner to clarify a few things. There have been mixed plans being thrown around and its all gotten a bit disorganized. Some are emailing me and posting about going at 11, some about a different meeting place. Indeed, quite a bit has changed since my first post. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to keep up with all the support and keep things as organized as I'd want them, and it's hard to centralize our efforts with support coming from roughly 6 or 7 different anti-scientology forum communities, not to mention the prime movers themselves, the Anonymous.

It seems that overwhelmingly people would like to specifically synchronize our raid with the rest and do it at 11, meeting at Starbucks at 10:30. To address this first issue, I'd like to say that I have no problem with it. Some spoke about doing a wave sort of thing, so assuming there will be a few lost people who never see this and go at 1 anyway, I don't see an issue with going at 11 and ending up with more supporters coming at 1. That being said, the ruling is this: Go at 11. If you can't, go at 1. As much as I'd like to show strength in numbers by doing it all at once, it's a bit too late in the game to make dramatic changes, so we will just have to try and integrate the stragglers that never see this and come for the 1:00.

And with that adressed, time for the second order of business. Meeting place. It was pretty well accepted by the countless dozens of people emailing me that we would be meeting at Starbucks, however it seems better legally and better for our numbers if we follow the suggestion of a few posters over at enturbulation.org. Not sure where I mean? Look for the Hollywood Video sign. Thats right, we will now be meeting at the abandoned Hollywood Video. Want pictures? Follow this link, the guy went through the trouble of taking tons and we appreciate his contributions to no end. Again, while I regret changing things up, especially last minute, there is too much confusion and I have to set my foot one way or the other. Things have just gotten far too decentralized, and there are too many people that aren't completely sure what's happening.

So, quick recap:

Abandoned Hollywood Video. 10:30 AM. Here we will go over the ground rules and prepare, making sure everyone has an understanding. And then, BAM, the fun begins! Rally at 11 AM.

Clear enough? I hope so. But keep an eye out for stragglers who never caught the update - we don't want to lose people if possible.