A place to learn more about the ATL protests against the Cult of Scientology
Scientology's history of framing and fabrications against critics
Since the beginning of the critical movement against Scientology, the organization has done a number of dirty deeds to try and smear its critics. Scientology has fabricated bomb threats against itself, framed critics for crimes that they did not commit, and take statements out of context in order to smear anyone and anything that is critical of their human rights abuses.
1972-1977: Paulette Cooper: Paulette was a journalist who wrote a book critical of Scientology, "The Scandal of Scientology" in 1971. In 1972, Scientology operatives from their Guardian's Office (now called the Office of Special Affairs) stole stationary with Cooper's letterhead on it. That stationary was then used to fabricate a bomb threat against the cult. Cooper was nearly imprisoned for this false bomb threat when the FBI raided Scientology offices in 1977 and uncovered the details of a plan that orchestrated these actions against Cooper.
Read more about the plans and actions that Scientology took against Paulette Cooper:
Paulette Cooper
Wikipedia: Paulette Cooper
Operation Freakout (name of the 1976 operation against Cooper)
the story of what happened in Cooper's own words
Early 2000s: Keith Henson: Keith was a Scientology critic who posted on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology. After replying to a topic on the newsgroup where another poster mentioned "Tom Cruise missiles," Keith was brought to trial for charges of threatening Scientology. Scientology took joking, non-threatening comments from another poster, twisted them out of context, and managed to convince a court that Keith made the "threat," resulting in a six-month prison sentence for the critic.
Read about what happened to Keith:
Keith's web site
Wikipedia: Keith Henson
news article about the case
more links about Keith's case
2007: BBC: In May of 2007, the TV station BBC aired a documentary about Scientology titled "Scientology and Me." In the documentary, reporter John Sweeny is stalked by Scientology PI spokesperson Tommy Davis while he is trying to do segments and interviews for the show. After the show aired, Scientology tried to smear John Sweeny and the BBC by taking show segments out of context, lying about the harassment that Sweeny was subjected to during filming, and launching a smear campaign in an attempt to discredit the BBC and its reporters. Scientology even launched a website, "BBC Panorama Exposed" in an attempt to attack the credibility of the show.
Watch "Scientology and Me:" Click
Read more about this episode of Panorama:
Wikipedia: Scientology and Me
BBC story about the broadcast
Early 2008: Clearwater, FL protester: "One of our organizers was on foot on his way to the protest location. He was dressed for lulz, in a full suit and Guy Fawkes mask, and was carrying his boombox, which was at the time our only source for tunes. In what can only be described as the most facepalm-worthy event in history, he was stopped by a couple of officers who had the inenviable job of having to tell this protester, "Yeah...we got a call about a masked man carrying a large bucket of acid...?"
For more information, ask the protesters at Bucket of Acid
Early 2008: falsified YouTube bomb threat: In March of 2008, Scientology tried to smear a group of protesters by claiming that they posted a bomb threat against the cult onto YouTube. Their evidence for this was a DVD, slickly produced by Scientology, that contains the video. The thing is, the video on the DVD is a DIFFERENT VIDEO QUALITY than the original YouTube video. This implies that Scientology has the "master" copy of the video, otherwise the video on the DVD would be the or lower quality than the version on YouTube.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to take a video from YouTube and INCREASE the video quality of that rip! The best quality you can hope for is to have the same quality as what is on YouTube!
See for yourself: Video comparison
These actions are an attempt to scare critics from continuing to spread awareness about the abuses of the cult.
Personally, Scientology's attempts to stifle free speech are just of the reasons why I protest!
1972-1977: Paulette Cooper: Paulette was a journalist who wrote a book critical of Scientology, "The Scandal of Scientology" in 1971. In 1972, Scientology operatives from their Guardian's Office (now called the Office of Special Affairs) stole stationary with Cooper's letterhead on it. That stationary was then used to fabricate a bomb threat against the cult. Cooper was nearly imprisoned for this false bomb threat when the FBI raided Scientology offices in 1977 and uncovered the details of a plan that orchestrated these actions against Cooper.
Read more about the plans and actions that Scientology took against Paulette Cooper:
Paulette Cooper
Wikipedia: Paulette Cooper
Operation Freakout (name of the 1976 operation against Cooper)
the story of what happened in Cooper's own words
Early 2000s: Keith Henson: Keith was a Scientology critic who posted on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology. After replying to a topic on the newsgroup where another poster mentioned "Tom Cruise missiles," Keith was brought to trial for charges of threatening Scientology. Scientology took joking, non-threatening comments from another poster, twisted them out of context, and managed to convince a court that Keith made the "threat," resulting in a six-month prison sentence for the critic.
Read about what happened to Keith:
Keith's web site
Wikipedia: Keith Henson
news article about the case
more links about Keith's case
2007: BBC: In May of 2007, the TV station BBC aired a documentary about Scientology titled "Scientology and Me." In the documentary, reporter John Sweeny is stalked by Scientology PI spokesperson Tommy Davis while he is trying to do segments and interviews for the show. After the show aired, Scientology tried to smear John Sweeny and the BBC by taking show segments out of context, lying about the harassment that Sweeny was subjected to during filming, and launching a smear campaign in an attempt to discredit the BBC and its reporters. Scientology even launched a website, "BBC Panorama Exposed" in an attempt to attack the credibility of the show.
Watch "Scientology and Me:" Click
Read more about this episode of Panorama:
Wikipedia: Scientology and Me
BBC story about the broadcast
Early 2008: Clearwater, FL protester: "One of our organizers was on foot on his way to the protest location. He was dressed for lulz, in a full suit and Guy Fawkes mask, and was carrying his boombox, which was at the time our only source for tunes. In what can only be described as the most facepalm-worthy event in history, he was stopped by a couple of officers who had the inenviable job of having to tell this protester, "Yeah...we got a call about a masked man carrying a large bucket of acid...?"
For more information, ask the protesters at Bucket of Acid
Early 2008: falsified YouTube bomb threat: In March of 2008, Scientology tried to smear a group of protesters by claiming that they posted a bomb threat against the cult onto YouTube. Their evidence for this was a DVD, slickly produced by Scientology, that contains the video. The thing is, the video on the DVD is a DIFFERENT VIDEO QUALITY than the original YouTube video. This implies that Scientology has the "master" copy of the video, otherwise the video on the DVD would be the or lower quality than the version on YouTube.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to take a video from YouTube and INCREASE the video quality of that rip! The best quality you can hope for is to have the same quality as what is on YouTube!
See for yourself: Video comparison
These actions are an attempt to scare critics from continuing to spread awareness about the abuses of the cult.
Personally, Scientology's attempts to stifle free speech are just of the reasons why I protest!
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