An international group calling itself Anonymous declared war on Scientology on January 21st. On Feb. 10th Church of Scientology "Orgs" were protested by 7000 people in 93 countries. Scientology's web servers also suffered from Distributed Denial of Service attacks. Scientology (which has an extensive history of targetting its critics with legal and illegal measures) has obviously been fighting back. The "Church" petitioned twice for an injunction against members of Anonymous protesting near CoS buildings, and both times have been turned down.

Now Scientology is trying to strike back using the weapon Anonymous has used very effectively: Youtube. Boingboing.net has a story about Scientology members posting personal information about Anonymous members in a video entitled "Anonymous—Hate Crimes & Terrorism Directed at Scientology". The video has been removed from Youtube.

Anonymous plans for another round of protests today, to mark the birthday of L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer to created the religion/pyramid scheme. There is probably one in Toronto.

Below is most of Wikinews' coverage of the denial of the injunction:

The Church of Scientology's second petition for an injunction against online protest group Anonymous was denied by Judge Douglas Baird of Pinellas County, Florida.
The first petition, filed Tuesday, against Anonymous was denied
yesterday by Judge Linda Allan. The injunction sought to prevent
members of Anonymous from coming within 500 feet of Church of
Scientology buildings. At time of publishing, the Church has not
responded to a request for comment.

The ruling reads:

"This Petition has been filed against twenty-six individuals alleged to
be associating as a group referred to as 'Anonymous'. The Petition
contained no specific allegations of wrongdoing against the individuals
named as Respondents, nor is it alleged that any of the said named
Respondents are responsible for any threats, phone-calls, or specific
wrongful acts sought to be enjoined. The Petition fails to allege that
any of the Respondents have interfered with or have attempted to
deprive the Petitioners of any cognizable right. Further, the Court
finds that the Petitioner's certification of notice is insufficient to
justify the issuance of an injunction without notice to the Respondents."

Wikinews' page for this article also includes an interview with someone who claims to be a member of Anonymous.

According to Wikipedia, Anonymous also takes credit for turning an online child sex predator over to the police in Toronto. They are a decentralized internet vigilante group it seems, and certainly have their work cut out for them with the Church of Scientology. I have to admit I'm somewhat fascinated by them. The anonymous motto is "We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget."

More information about Scientology:

• Operation Clambake
• Wikipedia article on Scientology and free speach on the internet
• "Trapped in a Closet" Southpark episode about Scientology.