Standing up to legal noises by Scientology hasn’t hurt Gawker media.

The professional blog network posted a Tom Cruise video and then the letter from Scientology telling them to take it down. (YouTube removed the video)

Scientology’s take down got the attention of a small group of hackers, ticked off that YouTube had bowed to pressure. Calling themselves Anonymous, they released a video, urged anarchy on a website,  (Project Chanology) and claimed responsibility when a main Scientology site went down.
CNet looks at the technical aspects of the supposed DDos (denial of service attacks).

The Tom Cruise video getting attention is 9 minutes out of a 38 minute video of Cruise talking to insiders. Scientology PR responded. However, whether Gawker and other internet outlets posting it will be sued is not known. 

Religion News Blog has a post with  definitions of Cruise’s cult language.

I’m inclined to agree with Operation Clambake regarding the behavior of the hackers, and skepticism is in order as to whether the website was successfully hacked or whether Scientology techs didn’t handle the server load.
Mark Bunker a documentary film maker and Scientology critic talks to Anonymous.
Like many he sees script-kiddies getting themselves into a heap of hurt. Anonymous seems to know something about Scientology, most of the discussion around the hacker group has been juvenile.

So many people have been harmed by Scientology, and telling their stories openly goes a lot further than than the tactics hackers advocate. The hacker(s) have urged a world wide peaceful protest February 10th at all Scientology headquarters.  Much of the hacker website is code-monkey hacker speak and difficult to understand, as is any group sub-language.
What I cannot dispute however is the awareness that with any closed group, there are innocent ‘believers’, who, when they attempt to leave, go through everything anyone involved in a cult goes through.
The internet has been invaluable in educating people about the dangers of Scientology, giving people who have left the group an open forum and  opportunities to warn and educate those who cross any of it’s front groups.

Now an top level insider is speaking out.
David Miscavige’s niece responded to Scientology PR’s 14 page rebuttal against the Morton book with an open letter. Jenna Miscavige Hill strongly decries Scientology claims.
This young woman’s life has been hell, and her family has been ripped apart.
She speaks about shunning, what Scientologists call disconnect. 

As you well know, my parents officially left the Church when I was 16 in 2000. I, having been separated from them at the age of 12 and thoroughly engulfed in the beliefs of the Church since birth decided not to go with them.

Not only was I not allowed to speak to them, I was not allowed to answer a phone for well over a year, in case it was them calling me.

To give exact specifics, this “law” was enforced ruthlessly by one Tracye Danilovoch - the local representative for the Religious Technology Center - who intercepted all letters from my parents (and my friends). She would then pass them on to Marc Rathbun (the then 2nd in command of the Church) and Mike Rinder - who happens to be the former head of YOUR office - “The Office of Special Affairs” (you can thank me later for not elaborating on this one).  Only after they had seen the letters and decided it was ok for me to see them would I receive some of them while sitting in a board room while they watched me read them and asked me to comment on them.

I was allowed to visit my parents from the age of 16-22, once a year for a maximum of 3-4 days, but that was only after they (my parents) threatened legal action if the Church got in the way of this and even then only after I underwent a “Security Check Confessional” before I saw them and immediately after I came back. A security check is interrogation (usually about if I intend on leaving the Church, or finding out if my parents have said anything bad about the Church, etc.) while being attached to an electrophsychometer which is similar to a lie detector. This happened every single time I saw then (which was never more than 3 or 4 days a year).

Jenna Miscavige Hill letter on YouTube
Jenna Miscavige Hill on Inside Edition