A Thank You Letter to Anonymous

On February 20, I published an essay entitled "Anonymous, Scientology, and the Story that the Media is Too Afraid to Tell" in which I detailed the vents leading up to a worldwide protest, which, I might add, was largely ignored by the media. The next day, I found twenty new comments from members and supporters of Anonymous, the internet group that organized the said protest and is planning for more in its war against the corporate structure of Scientology. According to the first of these comments, a member of Anonymous had discovered my article, it was being run through their forums and boards, and the unanimous decision was that it deserved praise.

As I read the comments, I was thrilled at the support I was receiving and amused with some of the remarks that had been left. By the time I had read all twenty comments, I had decided to continue covering this story to the best of my abilities as well as the history of Scientology. I extremely grateful not only that Anonymous appreciated my work, but also that they have done something worth writing about in the first place. To any anons who are reading this: thank you for all that you have been doing in the past two months. It is wonderful to see people speaking out about the tyranny and oppression that still remains in a position of power and prestige!

I have also decided that many of the comments left on my article are in and of themselves worthy of recognition that they are unlikely to receive if they remain in the comment box. Therefore, I have decided to provide a list of all comments that contained important or valuable information.

An Anon-Feb 10th had protests in over 100 cities worldwide, and an estimated 7-9 thousand protesters showed up. These protests were all completely legal and peaceful. No Anonymous protesters were arrested, although 3 scientologist members were either arrested or pulled aside by police after attempting to unmask/assault a protester. These protests were organized, planned, and conducted perfectly within 2 weeks of conception. March 15 will be, we hope, twice as large--in numbers of protesters if not cities. The Church of Scientology is run as a pyramid scheme/very for-profit business. It has been said that a good comparison is that its like converting to christianity, but you have to buy each book of the bible separately at several hundred dollars apiece, and not finding out about the crucifixion/resurrection until after you are a few years in and have spent tens of thousands of dollars; also confession (auditing) is required to advance, and can cost up to several thousand dollars per session--and all your "sins" are recorded and used as leverage against you as incentive to stay "in" should you change your mind later. There is also the policy of "Disconnection" where all ties and communication to family and friends not in the church is enforced. The Church of Scientology's list of crimes and oppressive tactics read like a pulp novel, and so have been easy to ignore out of a sense of incredulity. However, after so many ex-scientologists have come out with similar stories, after reading the depositions and govt reports, after witnessing some of this firsthand..they can no longer be dismissed. We are Anonymous. We have awoken. We do not forget. Beware the Ides of March.

Anonymous supporter-While I wasn't sure about the motives of Anonymous at the outset, I did know that the "Church" of scientology destroyed families, sought increasingly to manipulate the system in order to destroy freedom of speech, abused the legal system to as L. Ron Hubbard said "Harass rather than win", and perpetrated an insidious campaign to infiltrate schools,churches, governments, healthcare establishments and destroy those who oppose them. From what I have seen at xenutv.com, enturbulation.org, xenu.net and elsewhere I believe that Anonymous does take this as serious business and is willing to stand up for truth and justice. If February 10th was any indication, Anonymous does indeed deliver. Thank you Brett Davison for such an honest and informative article!

Tom Cruise Thetan-Do Not Fear! The Evil Overlord or his Anonymous Minions! My Super Powers are Near Completion. They cannot defeat my Fully Operational Thetan! Until then, DO NOT GOOGLE "Lisa Mcpherson" DO NOT GOOGLE "TAX EXEMPT CHILD ABUSE" Oh and really, really, really, really DO NOT Google "XENU " Just don't do it! Or your head will explode!!! I give you this warning because I care, so very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very much about you!

Anonymous-A very well informed article, it is heartwarming to see actual journalism at practice and not the standard one-sided regurgitation of slanderous press releases. I owe you 1.6 internets. If you are not aware of our future plans, I will direct you to www.enturbulation.org. Many of us gather there and discuss issues that come up. There is also a section for the media to come and ask us questions. As Anonymous is leaderless, the only responses we can give are by consensus of opinion. You are free to join us there. As for future events, we have another world-wide protest scheduled for March 15th, and Operation Reconnect is scheduled for sometime in April, a firm date has not been set. I'm looking forward to more article of yours, keep up the good work.

Anon10101-FYI Brett, because we have our own routes of information dissemination (and because you mentioned) within 48 hours of the Feb 10 protest 950 protest vids were uploaded to YouTube from all over the world! That the MSM (Main Steam Media) barely touched the story just proves their growing irrelevance and cluelessness. Cyberjournalism has a rising star! Ever hear of Scilon critic Shawn Lonsdale? Love it if you would tear into that story. RIP Shawn.

Anonysmile-Thanks for the interesting article Brett. Enjoyed reading it. Oh and if you need a day job don't apply at Diskeeper. It's a recruitment front that 1) Forces employees to take CoS classes at night after a full shift 2) deducts pay until classes the are completed 3) will only retain CoS-friendly staff past probation period. That would be a crime? Amirite?

another anon-to A Mother: Godspeed to your son in Afghanistan! Brett, a very fair article. I hope you keep following this story. There are some interesting "rumors" that have very recently surfaced in regards to the current internal happenings of the "church". http://forums.enturbulation.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4407

As my regular readers know, my work is comprised mainly of Christian poetry and a few essays that are usually centered around God. There are several such essays that I have been planning and one that I am currently halfway through. I plan to continue with my normal writing, but I have also decided that my main focus will be on the war on Scientology; I have already assembled a list of online sources through which I may investigate the death of Shawn Lonsdale. This is not to say that God is going play any less of a role in writing. A crime against humanity is a crime against God, and in accordance with this, I will turn from the artistic expression of Christ's love to the exposure of those who have become His enemies. I invite any CP reading this to investigate the Anonymous/Scientology conflict themselves and write their own articles on the topic.