Post Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:45 am

Interesting Discussion on IMDB

I posted this discussion on IMDB recently, starting on the Tom Cruise board and later in other places. Y'all might be interested. I think we can file much of the activism actions related herein under "What Not To Do". Not pleading guilty, obviously; the offenders were guilty. Other stuff. I will let the discussion explain.

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I wanted to make sure everyone here got the chance to see this. I have visited this board off and on for the past four years and while I have observed it is an excellent source for Scientology-related news, articles that may reflect poorly on the anti-Scientology cause sometimes do not get much press or discussion. Indeed, I am the first person I noticed posting this article here. I believe reading these articles and discussing them are of benefit to anyone intrested in the Scientology issue, whatever their experiences or opinions.

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The initial article from TechCrunch.com: http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/23/we-are ... ion-we-ple ad-guilty-in-court/

We Are Anonymous. We Are Legion. We Plead Guilty In Court.

On Thursday 8 January 2009, then 18-year old Mahoud Samed Almahadin (aka Matt Connor aka Agent Pubeit) took off his shirt, proceeded to rub vaseline all over his upper body and subsequently used it to hold toenail clippings and pubic hair. He then ran into the New York Scientology building, tossed some books around and smeared the mixture on objects.

After his greasy raid, Mahoud Samed Almahadin was charged with burglary, criminal mischief, and aggravated harassment as hate crimes. Weeks later, 21 year-old film student and Anonymous member Jacob Speregen was charged with the same crimes, bar burglary, because he had filmed Almahadin carrying out his prank.

This morning, the Church of Scientology put out a press release, rejoicing the fact that Almahadin apparently pled guilty in the New York City Criminal Court.

Savvy surfers will correctly assume Almahadin is a ‘member’ of the Anonymous collective, a loosely organized movement of sorts among Internet users often associated with message boards 4chan and Futaba. Anonymous often triggers actions against the Church of Scientology, among other organizations or individuals, both in real life and on the Web.

Here’s the Church of Scientology’s take on the guilty plea:

According to court documents, Anonymous is an underground hate group that, in addition to the cyber attack, targeted Churches of Scientology and members with death threats, bomb threats and fake anthrax mail. In addition to Scientology Churches and the Prime Minister of Australia, Anonymous has also targeted The Epilepsy Foundation, hip-hop music websites and others.

Now that he has plead guilty, Almahadin will be forced to stand on the digital sidelines in Anonymous’ actions against the Church of Scientology: as part of his plea, he is required to stay away from the organization for the next five years.

Somehow, I don’t think he’ll mind that.

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Many comments and videos related to the article are available on TechCrunch, I will ask people to follow the link if they want to see them. It's too much for me to post here personally. Here is the CoS's press release on the matter:

Member of Hate Group Anonymous Pleads Guilty to Attack on New York Church of Scientology

Hate group Anonymous member, Mahoud Samed Almahadin, pled guilty to Criminal Mischief today in the New York City Criminal Court in connection with a January 8, 2009 attack on the Church of Scientology of New York.

NEW YORK, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- A member of the hate group Anonymous, Mahoud Samed Almahadin, aka Matt Connor, pled guilty to Criminal Mischief today in the New York City Criminal Court in connection with a January 8, 2009, attack on the Church of Scientology of New York. (People vs. Almahadin, Mahoud; Criminal Docket 2009NY00410)

Almahadin smeared himself with a mixture of petroleum jelly, nail clippings and pubic hairs donated by other members of the Anonymous hate group, ran into the New York Church just off Times Square and desecrated the Church, including causing damage to Scriptural materials. As part of his guilty plea, he is required to stay away from the Church of Scientology for the next five years. His sentencing will take place in April.

Church of Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon said of the result, "The action against Almahadin is a victory for everyone's right to peaceably practice their religion. It is a warning to others who find pleasure in desecrating houses of worship and committing hate crimes. It is also the latest blow against the hate group Anonymous."

Another member of Anonymous, Jacob Speregen, also charged in the same incident, will stand trial in April.

The conviction follows the November 18, 2009, sentencing of a New Jersey man to one year and one day in federal prison on a felony conviction for his part in a cyber attack against Church of Scientology websites in January 2008. (Case No. CR 09-87-01)

The attack was carried out with others calling themselves "Anonymous," a hate group targeting Scientology and others individuals and organizations, including the website of the Prime Minister of Australia.

Dmitriy Guzner, 19, of Verona, New Jersey, who in May 2009 pled guilty to one count of computer hacking, was sentenced for his role in the distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack against Scientology websites. A DDOS attack occurs when a large amount of malicious Internet traffic is directed at websites, overloading their capacity and making them unavailable to legitimate users.

Church websites were made unavailable to valid users for 24 hours, with the attacks continuing for 12 days, requiring the Church to hire a computer security company to protect against the attacks and to reroute traffic. Due to the severity of the crime, Judge Joseph Greenaway in U.S. District Court in Newark sentenced Guzner to the 366-day prison term, plus two years probation following his prison term, and ordered Guzner to pay $37,500 restitution to the Church.

On October 31, another Anonymous follower, Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, 20, was indicted by a Grand Jury in the US District Court for Central California for the same attack on Scientology websites, for conspiracy and "transmission of a code, information, program, or command to a protected computer." The indictment states that he obtained a computer program from an Anonymous website and executed a DDOS attack from his dormitory at Iowa State University against the Church computers in Los Angeles. He is awaiting sentencing.

According to court documents, Anonymous is an underground hate group that, in addition to the cyber attack, targeted Churches of Scientology and members with death threats, bomb threats and fake anthrax mail. In addition to Scientology Churches and the Prime Minister of Australia, Anonymous has also targeted The Epilepsy Foundation, hip-hop music websites and others.

Scientology is a worldwide religious movement with more than 8,000 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups in 165 countries. The Church and its members dedicate their time and resources to numerous humanitarian programs that Scientology has become known for around the world, including combating drug abuse, immorality, illiteracy, and human rights violations.

For more information about Scientology, visit http://www.scientology.org.

CONTACT:

Karin Pouw
Church of Scientology International

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases ... -anonymous -pleads-guilty-to-attack-on-new-york-church-of-scientology-85023332.ht ml

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I am not going to go too much into my own take on these articles, save to say the following. I agree with Techcrunch's take on the situation as written and support the current status of the case, including the offenders' guilty pleas. I acknowledge the CoS's take on the matter, although I am not in full agreement with their opinions I do agree that the way in which Anons expressed their opinions in this incident was not in the best form or taste. Their conduct definitely violates rules of common decency, whatever your feelings regarding Scientology, and in my opinion it clearly makes the CoS the victims in the case. I think any action directed at discouraging Scientology membership should avoid that, for reasons that should be obvious. We don't want to put Anons in a bad light from any perspective, particularly if they wish to prove true their statements about peaceful protesting and support of religious freedom along with Scientology's victims. Nor do we want to create any potential victims of Anon, whether from health issues an incident of this nature would definitely create, or the possible emotional traumas shock tactics like this can always foster like it or not. I also disagree with the action which barred access to Scientology websites, not allowing your opponent the chance to state their side is never a profitable tactic in public or private debate. I hope all here will agree with me. I won't say more, my years here have taught me not to get too emotionally involved in discussions regarding these matters.

I also will not go into the anti-Scientology take on these matters. If observed behavior patterns hold true, many people should be doing that shortly. I can already guess what many of you will say.

Good luck to all who read this thread, especially those who participate in the discussion. May the information you receive open your eyes to the drawbacks of your perspective. God bless. -DRE

Re: Anti-Sci Anon Pleads Guilty in Hate Crime

by flash3-21 2 hours ago (Thu Feb 25 2010 19:29:33) Ignore this User | Report Abuse


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A true Anon does his own thing Dre. And since there is no organized group of Anons he is not an Anon. And now we know their names so that automatically make them Non Anons. Dre, you are as much of an Anon as those who plead guilty. You use a user name here right? I take it is not your real name right? As such that makes you an Anon.



MORE COWBELL!
we are legion


Re: Anti-Sci Anon Pleads Guilty in Hate Crime

by IamDRE 29 seconds ago (Thu Feb 25 2010 21:36:05)


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I do not consider myself an Anon. I do not entirely agree with their stated perspectives, goals, practices, and opinions. Others may have different criteria, I honestly don't care. DRE are my real initials.

These offenders were Anons when they committed their crimes, they affiliated themselves with the organization and used it to their advantage in their deeds. The fact that you as an Anon are now denying their membership in your movement along with association with them, and disavowing their actions says a lot about you and your movement, Flash. Not much of it is good. It's natural to not want to be part of stuff like this, but one should own up to one's own mistakes and the errors of one's peers. Even if they weren't your peers specifically, they can be considered soldiers in common cause to the rest of the anti-Sci movement, especially by the misinformed. I have been trying to warn people about this for years, it does not surprise me but continues to sadden me that you are not listening.

In other news, my post regarding this on the John Travolta board was deleted. It shall be re-posted of course.

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I'm sure this will get some discussion here, I'll leave you to it. Good day.