The Electronic Frontier Foundation takes note:

Over a period of twelve hours, between this Thursday night and Friday morning, American Rights Counsel LLC sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology. Clips included footage of Australian and German news reports about Scientology, A Message to Anonymous/Scientology , and footage from a Clearwater City Commission meeting. Many accounts were suspended by YouTube in response to multiple allegations of copyright infringement.

Asbestos.com, run by the Mesothelioma Cancer Center, gives us this article summarizing the Freewinds asbestos story for its wide audience of medical pracitioners and personal injury lawyers.  Read it with that last group in mind and you’ll see why this is bad news for David Miscavige.

One news report from International.org claims Scientologist representatives lied to Nordica Engineering about the amount of asbestos on board, and that Nordica workers who occupied the ship are now in danger of developing asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma.

In addition, the Scientology organization has failed to pay Nordica the $3.5 million it owes for the work that was completed.

From MSNBC:

When Katie Holmes’ Broadway show “All My Sons” opens Oct. 16, ticket holders won’t be the only ones in attendance. The anti-Scientology group Anonymous will be on hand for Holmes’ Broadway debut as well.

The group confirms that a protest will take place opening night. “We aren’t looking to shut it (“All My Sons”) down, we don’t have the power to do that, we just want to prove a point,” one spokesperson (who remains anonymous, natch) confirmed via phone.

Also covered in The Sun (UK), San Francisco Gate, Variety and Metro.

San Francisco Weekly provides two offerings: Anonymous 101 and Scientology’s Antagonists.

“They are really no different from the Ku Klux Klan in terms of their masks and hatred and their jollies of riding horses around and harassing Scientologists,” church leader Jeff Quiros says.

Police don’t see Anonymous as a threat: “I think they’re really cool,” Sergeant Carl Tennenbaum says. “They’re really cooperative. They have a right to be here.”

Keep postulatin’, Jeffy.

Roger Friedman, Fox News columnist and a friend of Isaac Hayes, writes an article on the late artist that paints a sympathetic picture of a man struggling with personal matters:

In March 2006, news came that Hayes was resigning from “South Park.” On March 20, 2006, I wrote a column called “Chef’s Quitting Controversy,” explaining that Hayes was in no position to have quit anything due to his stroke. But Scientology issued the statement to the press saying Hayes had resigned, and the press just ate it up. No one spoke to Isaac directly, because he couldn’t literally speak. “Chef” was written out of the show.

Isaac’s income stream was severely impaired as a result. Suddenly there were announcements of his touring, and performing. It didn’t seem possible, but word went out that he’d be at BB King’s in New York in January 2007. I went to see him and reported on it here.

The show was abomination. Isaac was plunked down at a keyboard, where he pretended to front his band. He spoke-sang, and his words were halting. He was not the Isaac Hayes of the past.

What was worse was that he barely knew me. He had appeared in my documentary, “Only the Strong Survive,” released in 2003. We knew each other very well. I was actually surprised that his Scientology minder, Christina Kumi Kimball, with whom I had difficult encounters in the past, let me see him backstage at BB King’s. Our meeting was brief, and Isaac said quietly that he did know me. But the light was out in his eyes, and the situation was worrisome.

Roger also asks some interesting questions:

Why, for example, was a stroke survivor on a treadmill by himself? What was his condition? What kind of treatment had he had since the stroke? Members of Scientology are required to sign a form promising they will never seek psychiatric or mental assistance. But stroke rehabilitation involves the help of neurologists and often psychiatrists, not to mention psychotropic drugs — exactly the kind Scientology proselytizes against.

Has Scientology added another name to its ever-expanding list of people pushed into death through psychological manipulation and fraudulent medicine?

A Scientologist caller, Richard, calls into Pat Thurston’s show on KGO radio when Scientology critic Ford Greene.  The Scientologist comes off as the sort of person he intended to not come off as: a cult member who spouts off the party line and rejecting all attempts at answering any questions.

HOST: “There are people who have reached the upper OT levels, who then have left the church of Scientology, and who have exposed the material that they were taught, at least at OT7.  Is that true?”

CALLER: “They’re lies.”

HOST: “Why would they lie?”

CALLER: “Well, they hate Scientology.  You’re promoting hatred.  This is a hate program. If you were talking about Jews, the Nazis–” (you get the point)

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.

I’m going to let this statement by Paul Barresi speak for itself:

The freedoms we enjoy in the United States are both a wonderful and a dangerous thing. Scientology represents the latter.

In 1987, Tom Cruise found himself caught up in an eerie citadel, spun around him by one of Scientology’s most loyal member’s [sic], Mimi Rogers, and in my view, he has been nothing more than a puppet on a string ever since.

Contrary to what most think, Cruise does not make a move without the approval of his handler. He can’t wipe his own rear end without first getting permission from those who have control over him. Even his attorney Burt Fields has his hands tied.

Rest assured, the Scientology [organization] makes all decision having to do with Cruise’s personal and professional life.

Short of kidnapping him and deprogramming him, like an addict riddled with cocaine, there is no hope.

Sadly, unless there is some divine intervention, in my opinion, Cruise will be los t in shallow and in misery for the rest of his life.

With regard to my handing the lawsuit documents over to the New York Daily News, I merely wanted to point out that Cruise’s name tacked on to a law suit, gets peoples attention. Fact is, he is not one of the ring leaders. He is nothing more than a “yes man” who does what he is told — period.

The Atlantic region version of Frank Magazine publishes an Anon in its collage of pictures from the Halifax Pride Parade.  Click for a biggie:

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.”