Who are Anonymous?

Anonymous are a masked collective with a strong opposition to Scientology’s practices and tactics recently crystallised on highly trafficked on-line forums, with some outspoken critics of Scientology gathering under the heading of “Anonymous.” We come from many different occupations, faiths and walks of life, this loose conglomeration of grass roots activists has grown exponentially to include ex-Scientologists, long-time cult researchers, and concerned citizens from all walks of life. The movement is now focusing its efforts on off-line activities, including this global wave of protests at Scientology centres around the globe, as well as the lobbying of lawmakers to revoke Scientology’s tax-exempt status around the world.

Where do you get your orders? Who is your leader?

The concept that is most difficult for non-Anonymous to understand is the lack of leadership and the amount of ideological diversity within the ranks of Anonymous. Remember Anonymous is just a label, without requirements, anyone can be Anonymous. Anonymous represents all ages, all faiths, all nationalities, all political stances, all levels of computer literacy. We have no leaders, no managers, no headquarters or centralized meeting place. Imagine Anonymous as this enormous, free-form group of tens of thousands of Anonymous individuals. Each giving support in their own way, be it handing out flyers, making YouTube videos, talking on-line or protesting in the streets.

Every member of Anonymous participates only as much as they wish and is involved based on their ability or will. Anyone can be Anonymous simply by adopting the name for themselves.

What got Anonymous interested in Scientology?

We are not opposed to the beliefs of Scientology but we are strongly opposed to the corrupt, cultish and insidious methods of the Church of Scientology that not only lies to, intimidates and harasses both its members and those that oppose it but also distorts law and the meaning of religion to its own ends while seeking to censor and interrupt our cherished online freedom. As such we have galvanised ourselves to expose the Church of Scientology for the malign influence on society that it truly is.

The Church claims that Anonymous are a group of religious bigots, motivated by hate. Our activities and protests are not directed at the church and its followers but purely at the organisation that runs and operates the church and against the gross human rights violations that have been committed against parishioners and critics during it’s troubled history.

Anonymous are protesting globally against the criminal actions of Scientology – The maltreatment of members, blackmail of ex-members, assault and harassment of critics and mysterious deaths and suicides connected with the church.

Why are we wearing masks?

At the moment, most activists are electing to stay masked and anonymous while protesting in public, as Scientology has a well-documented history of bringing litigation, harassment and slander upon its critics. Physical and verbal assault occurred against members of Anonymous during our last protests.

Scientology policy labels all critics as “fair Game” and actively encourages followers to deceive, lie and injure them without impunity. Anonymous has experienced “Fair Game” retaliation tactics and we’re protecting ourselves in a very public way.

About our protests!

These protests are entirely peaceful and designed to increase public awareness of the various unethical practices of the CoS, while simultaneously demonstrating public support for any members of the Church who are too afraid to leave.

Scientology, like all religions, is a belief system, a way of perceiving and decoding the world around us. Anonymous completely supports for ideals of free speech and freedom of religion – this is precisely the reason why these protests are taking place.

Tell me more about the church of Scientology!

Low-level practitioners of this “religion” are basically using mild hypnosis for self-help. They want to better themselves, and who could blame them? As you move up the ladder, though, each step costs more and more money, and along come more outlandish claims (“Scientology can cure arthritis/polio/cancer” “Aliens enslaved us 75 million years ago”). If you can’t get to the next step on the ladder, it’s your fault and you have to pay more to try again. This pyramid scheme costs over $350,000 to reach the highest point of the Church.

For more information visit

• http://xenu.net, and their forums, the OCMB
• http://xenutv.com
• http://forums.enturbulation.org/
• http://lermanet.com/ or http://www.lermanet.us/
• http://lisamcpherson.org
• http://whyaretheydead.net
• http://torymagoo.org
• http://xenu-directory.net
• http://youfoundthecard.com
• http://www.factnet.org/

Categories: Media
6 Comments »

We here at AnonSA have taken the time to produce a short media release that will be sent to media outlets including radio, television and print media. This document is designed to be short, balanced and concise and is meant to inform he public about what to expect on March 15th. A further media release is being planned as a follow up after March 15th as an answer to the claims that we are “Religious Bigots” and “Cyber Terrorists”.

We invite you to comment regarding anything you think we have left out, any innacuracies or any general edits to the script. It is due to be sent out this Wednesday 12th March 2008, so please get your changes and edits in befor then. A final copy will be reposted in this article once we have knocked it into shape. Now with out further ado, here is the first draft media release:

Second Scientology Protest Scheduled for March 15^th

A second protest directed at the Church of Scientology has been scheduled for this Saturday, March 15^th. Australia’s capital cities, and other major cities around the world, will be greeted by the masked collective known as Anonymous marching the streets.

Adelaide-based Anonymous will be meeting at 2pm in Victoria Square before marching on a loop around the city and finishing up at the Church of Scientology in Waymouth St. Protest Organisers continue to stress that this is to be a peaceful rally and anyone wearing a mask who causes trouble will be separated and pointed out to authorities.

Anonymous are not opposed to the beliefs of Scientologists but are protesting to make people aware of the human rights abuses perpetrated by Scientology and the tax exempt status Scientology holds in Australia. All public and media are invited to attend the rally and are encouraged to wear a mask.

For further information go to www.anonsa.org or direct any queries to media@anonsa.org.

Thankyou.

(This has now been updated and is the final version.)

Tags: anonymous,Awareness,March 15th,Media,Media Release,Release,scientology
Categories: Documents, Human Rights, March 15 Protest, Media, Tax Exempt
13 Comments »

Personally this was my first mini-raid, and I think it was a resounding success. People are starting to recognise “Anonymous” and our message. We were friendly to the public and received lots of smiles and a lot of support. The only hostility experienced was two drunks trying to take a few anon’s masks off (they failed).

There were two small teams of three powering about the Adelaide CBD where many a pole has been flyered. However, your locale is DANGEROUSLY LOW on flyers. Feel free to go to the flyers page and print some for distribution!

All of the flyers we had were distributed to people or on poles, we estimate at a MINIMUM that’s over 850 people who now know about the protest and why we are against the Co$ (now over 1450 in total). A few indicated their support and willingness to come to the protest on the Ides of March (Mar 15th).People stopped and asked for more information, which we gladly provided. To those of you who are new to AnonSA welcome. We invite you to check out some of our other posts to better understand our reasons, our actions and ways that you yourself can get involved.

There was one person who said he was a Scientologist and that Scientology has improved his life so much!.. and then said that he heard I liek mudkips. this man was obviously not a Scientologist (Damn you /b/ fools and your memes!)

A good (if swelteringly hot) time was had by all, and hundreds of people are now a little more informed about our cause. We hope to see you all on March 15th, Victoria Square @ 2pm. Donations are still being taken to organise Public Liability Insurance for the Ides of March.

Tags: anonsa,anonymous,Awareness,Flyers,March 15th,mudkips,Protest,scientology,Tax Exempt,welcome
Categories: March 15 Protest, Mini Raids
6 Comments »

Due to the unbridled success of the Mini-Raid on 1st of March, and the increasing necessity to raise awareness and inspire action amongst the populace, we are holding another Mini-Raid. Donations are being collected to raise funds for public liability insurance and March 15 is less than two weeks away, the time to promote our cause grows short.

So gentlemen, we once again ask you to don your masks and join us in taking to the streets armed with flyers and a perpetual smile. February 10th was just the beginning. We need more people to stand up if we really want to see Scientology’s tax exempt status removed and it’s criminal abuses of human rights brought to light.

Again we meet on a Saturday, March 8th this time, at 14:00 in Hindmarsh Square near the Griffin’s Head. Depending on numbers a few small groups will then embark on a distribution run in and around the CBD. The groups need to be kept small to avoid the need for Public Liability Insurance as well as giving us a better opportunity to cover more ground.

If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to leave a comment or join us in IRC. A petition has been suggested and may be available to sign if we can come up with appropriate wording. If you are interested your assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Tags: Adelaide,anonymous,Awareness,Donate,Donations,Flyers,Human Rights,IRC,March 15th,Mini Raid,Petition,Public Liability,scientology,Tax Exempt,The Ides of March
Categories: March 15 Protest, Mini Raids, Tax Exempt
19 Comments »

Now that we are coming up to the final stretch for the March 15th Protest, we need to make this an even more successful event then last time. The three goals we need all anon to help out with leading up to the event are:

• Donations – Due to council by-laws, we need a permit to protest in the CBD, and we also need a $20 Million public liability insurance policy. Last month the insurance cost us $280.00, and that was raised in a matter of 3 days, this time around we need $255.00. Help us reach this goal by using the PayPal donate button to the right.

• Posters and raising awareness - On Mar 1st we held a mini-raid with 10 people showing up to spread awareness of Scientology and March 15, this was very successful with over 500 flyers handed out and plastered up around the streets of Adelaide. However we need this awareness of the event being raised every day leading up to the event, so do what you can and get some posters up around your area, inform your friends or even organize a small group and start handing out flyers around the city one day.

• IRC - We need people on IRC to help us with organization and ideas for the next protest as well as future protests. If you don’t know what IRC is, then you can use our Java client which will get you connected with a single click here. Otherwise join us with your favorite client. #anonsa @ irc.eskimo.com (port +9999 if you client supports SSL)

Categories: Documents, March 15 Protest
5 Comments »

AnonSA’s first attempt at raising awareness about our cause was met with great success. With a perfect turn out of ten people (one anon catching up with us mid-raid – TBC), allowing us to send out two small groups into the city to distribute flyers. We managed to distribute over five hundred flyers (edited and grammatically correct) by posting or handing them out with over two hundred and fifty making it directly into the hands of a public eager for knowledge about our cause.

The public reception was heartwarming to say the least, with the majority of people being cautious but curious about what we were saying. Many gave thanks and some indicated their interest in joining us on March 15th. To those who are new visitors to AnonSA we welcome you and invite you to read the information and interact with others on this site. Information is free and we wish to share ideas and opinions with anyone who is interested in finding out the truth.

We did have a few people who were disinterested, a couple of smart ass kids and a crazy lady, but all in all we were received well. To the citizen who we spoke to about his Mother’s own personal experience with the cult’s harassment tactics: please post a comment on this site to a false email. We will be in touch as we would like to raise awareness on the devastating effects Scientology has on families at our Rally in April.

Over the next few months Anonymous will continue to raise awareness of this Organisation, bringing into question it’s business practices and tax exempt status, it’s harassment and manipulative recruitment tactics, it’s past criminal activities and it’s current litigious nature, it’s beginnings as a pseudo psychology taken advantage of by a greedy science-fiction writer and many other practices that should not be tolerated from a religious organisation.

Our peaceful attempts to raise awareness will continue and we wish for all people to take part in our quest for truth as we look forward to the 15th of March. Please take the time to check out the Lisa McPherson Trust, Xenu.net, and “The Unfunny Truth…” and post any questions or observations on AnonSA. We are not cyber terrorists or religious bigots, we merely want to see the abuse of Human Rights cease. Thanks again to all those who participated in the awareness campaign, more details will be posted outlining our next actions.

Further information:

• TIME Magazine 1991 – comprehensive article on Scientology
• TIME Magazine 1991 – Scientology harasses reporter
• Melbourne’s Herald Sun 2007 – Scientology’s tax exempt status
• Sydney’s Daily Telegraph 2007 – Scientology’s Dangerous Advice
• The Washington Post 1994 – Scientology, harassment and scripture
• Reader’s Digest 1980 – A profile on Hubbard

Tags: Anoymous,criminal,Disconnect,harassment,Human Rights,Ides of March,L Ron Hubbard,litigious,March 15th,Op. Reconnect,organisation,psychology,science fiction,scientology,Tax Exempt
Categories: March 15 Protest, Media, Mini Raids, Tax Exempt
12 Comments »