Why is it after 7 months of protests it’s always the Scientologists getting in trouble with the law and never those evil evil terrorists from the psychiatric hacker group Anonymous?

At the August 17th protest, former OSA enforcer Tommy Gorman was assaulted by a Scientologist.  A cop arrived and arrested the troublesome Scientologist.

If the video is tl;dw for you, skip ahead to 7:15 to hear the officer’s assessment of the situation.  He also mentions an Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco is a Scientologist and was suggesting ways to use the law against Tommy.

Jeff Hawkins, former Int base staffer, tells his tale in print last week.

As he worked his way around the world, doing stints at the church’s Edinburgh and Copenhagen branches, Hawkins was exposed to more and more weirdness. In 1971 he was invited aboard L. Ron Hubbard’s ship, Apollo, where he met the Scientology leader and was given the mission of marketing and disseminating the church to the masses, Hawkins says.

At the time, Hubbard had established his own “photography organization” to promote the church—which Hawkins claims consisted of Hubbard dressing up in a khaki suit, pith helmet, and ascot scarf, and staging bizarre photo shoots on beaches around the world whenever Apollo would dock. Hawkins also alleges that Hubbard was always accompanied by what he called his “messengers”: stunning, provocatively dressed young women.

“He’d establish these sets, somebody would write a script, and L. Ron Hubbard would take these photographs,” says Hawkins. “The whole thing would look terrible. But of course you could never say anything negative about Hubbard’s work.”

Interesting article is interesting, and would not be in print today if Anonymous was failing.  Downstat OSA is downstat.

Jason Beghe, actor and former Scientologist who left the cult earlier this year, speaks to Idol Chatter about his experience.

Beghe was no less outspoken with Idol Chatter: “In my humble opinion, Scientology is not a religion. It’s a dangerous religious cult: a cruel, sadistic business practice. Just because the IRS gave it tax exempt status does not make it a religion. Ninety percent of ex-Scientologists–and there are millions out there–do not consider it a religion.”

This is the front page:

And here is the article.

Anonymous’s initial activities were silly - playing tricks or hijacking forums. Some were borderline legal. They would bring down websites by bombarding them with data (“distributed denial of service”). “Frankly, it wasn’t very noble. But it was fun,” explained one Anonymous, who called himself Halfdark. They have a word to describe such activities - lulz (see panel). Early this year, a video was posted online of Tom Cruise discussing Scientology. Unintentionally funny in its sincerity, it spread across the internet. Scientology called in the lawyers, and began forcing sites to remove it. Anonymous had a target.

“They had started screwing with the internet,” said Marc Abian, named afterthe Scientologists’ belief in an evil race of aliens called the Marcabians. “Initially we harassed them for lulz, but then we realised that they ruin lives. What we do is fun, but with a real cause.”

Moar here and digg here. This was three full pages in a big-time London newspaper.  The seal has been broken; time for other media to take note.

Late last month, I posted about a student in Vancouver who posted on his blog about the Orwellian-named Youth For Human Rights, a Scientology front group, being allowed to give a presentation at his school. This attempt at infiltration has now turned into an epic PR flap. From The Vancouver Sun:

A Vancouver principal said his school was uninformed when it invited a group affiliated with the Church of Scientology to speak to a student assembly last month about human rights.

John Bevacqua, of St. Patrick regional secondary school, said he hadn’t been aware that Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) is part of the Scientology movement until it was brought to his attention by a staff member shortly after the group finished its presentation.

“It was very unfortunate that they were not as forthcoming as they needed to be,” he said of YHRI. “It was a lesson learned.” The group was invited into the school on the recommendation of students who had heard representatives speak at a conference and were impressed with the message. The students gained the support of teacher sponsors, who vouched for the group and extended the invitation, Bevacqua said….

Susan Kerr, a Scientologist and Vancouver spokeswoman for YHRI, said the group was formed several years ago to educate young people about human rights, and its connection to the Church of Scientology is irrelevant.

“This has nothing to do with the church proselytizing,” Kerr said in an interview.”It’s just about human rights.”

Gerry Armstrong, former Scientologist who knew L. Ron Hubbard personally, commented on this story on alt.religion.scientology:

Susan Kerr is the cult’s “Human Rights Director” in Vancouver. As the Scientology v. Armstrong case shows, she is *contracted* in fact to suppress and destroy basic human rights. And not just mine, but the human rights of anyone who would act in concert with me, which is anyone who would associate with me….

During the first protest at the Vancouver org this year, February 10, the Scientologists brought out and held up a Youth for Human Rights International banner as a response to the protesters and to promote themselves as human rights supporters to the public.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23656780@N03/2255858623/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23656780@N03/2255854357/in/photostream/

Using the YHRI banner for that purpose was probably a screwup because YHRI tries to separate itself from the “church,” as the Vancouver Sun article, and Ms. Kerr demonstrate. Scientology has not used the banner in the 3 subsequent protests.

EDIT: The reporter of this event has a blog.  In after Terryeo!

A poster on EpicAnon has a lengthy post worth reading that helps make Scientologists blow their orgs and leave the cult.  It’s a primer on how to speak with a Scilon and get them listening to you by using the tech against them.

In order to communicate properly with an individual you must first find something you can agree upon. Once you agree upon something, you should then begin to find something about that person you desire, admire or just generally like. Raising your ’state of affinity’ about another person is what enables a communication to be well-received and continuously established [doesn’t this shit sound like a manual on how to make friends if you were a robot?]

So basically, find something about a Scientologist you both can agree on [drugging of children is a good start] once you state this, they may realize you have a similar reality [if they don’t point it out] and then begin to search for something you admire/like/respect about that person [and state it for the hell of it]. I generally tell them that I admire anyone who is willing to dedicate their lives to a cause that is worthwhile [whether I agree with it or not] and that usually gets me in the door with them. From there, you can really begin to discuss things with them.

tl;dr: it’s worth the read.

Via Enturbulation:

In this three-part interview, Antony Brinkman, number 1 at the Org in Manchester, UK, talks with Tony and Sue Thurston, parents of Rebecca Thurston, a 22-year-old student who has been attempting to leave Scientology for the past 18 months. He really put his neck on the line to come out and talk to us - for the full story, please watch these three videos.

(more…)

Actor and prominent ex-Scientologist Jason Beghe commented to The Village Voice’s Tony Ortega about Scientology Spokespoodle Tommy Davis‘ appearance on CNN.  Jason talks about the man he knew from his Scientology days:

Beghe says that he’s heard the reports that after the Sweeney matter, Davis was put on “RPF”—Rehabilitation Project Force—a notorious program of manual labor that Hubbard created to “redeem” wayward Scientologists.

“The RPF is there to suppress you, to make you toe the line. They pull all your hidden data [make people confess to wrongdoings in intense therapy sessions], they make you do menial, repetitive labor. And there’s sleep deprivation. This is bad shit,” Beghe says.

After watching last week, Beghe says Davis looks like he’d been through that kind of program.

“When I saw him on CNN, I thought, ‘Oh my God, what have they done to this guy.’”

Prominent ex-Scientologist and actor Jason Beghe showed up at the San Francisco raid.

He didn’t make a speech or anything, but just popped on by to check everything out. Moar pix on Disconnected Son’s blog and on Enturbulation.