This Sunday there will be an amazing protest of Scientology by the Anonymous group. If anyone in the US can make it out to capture some footage in your own locale and would be willing to sync up, please email me off-list.
Thanks! Map of Protests around the country http://harbl.wetfish.net/cosplay/ Anonymous makes it on to NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18764756 The anti-Scientology group "Anonymous" told NBC11 Monday it expected more than 300,000 people to join protests worldwide on Feb. 10th at 11am. "The campaign is going amazingly -- swimmingly at the moment. We are in the organizational stages," a woman who would not give her name told NBC11. "We are having members of Anonymous from all over the world join the protest at their local church of Scientology at 11 a.m. local time." Other people claiming to be members of Anonymous told NBC11 that the actual number of Scientology protesters worldwide will not reach 300,000. The actual number of people who show up for the rallies could be much less, they said. The group members said out of the 24 time zones, there are 17 that have Churches of Scientology. "Of the 24 time zones there are 17 that have a church located in them and we believe our protesting is happening in 15 of those 17," said the group member. "We have a map that people can log in to and say what protest they're going to at the current moment. At last count we expect 300,000 at all the protests. Everyone in the world is invited. We're trying to get support from local organizations." Anonymous claims the Church of Scientology forces members to have abortions as well as sign over their bank accounts. "We think it's wrong that they have tax exempt status," the member told NBC11. "We want to to see if we can get that looked into by the IRS -- who ever we can gain the ear of. Are they really a religious organization or a business?" The member of Anonymous said her organization is attempting to change its approach because it first gained attention as a group of "hackers" and "pranksters." The group said it now plans to engage in activities that fight against Scientology, but are not considered illegal by the U.S. government. The member told NBC11 that she is not an actual hacker herself, but rather someone providing other means of support to Anonymous. The member said Anonymous is planning to hold large monthly protests against Scientology at its churches each month until May. She said the group is drawing up plans for more protests after that. The group member said Anonymous would hold another large protest two days after church founder L. Ron Hubbard's birthday on March 15. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
