If you are completely uninterested in Old Guard history and drama then skip to the bottom for the tl:dr. I’m writing this account of the leak of The Tom Cruise Video to set the historical record straight. I’ve leaked lots of stuff but this one needs to be accurately reported on because this leak was a huge turning point in the anti Scientology community and our efforts to expose the cult. THAT WACKY TOM CRUISE VIDEO OR SCIENTOMOLOGY. Back in 2007 I received a copy of Scientology’s 2004 IAS (International Association of Scientologists) Event DVD featuring that now famous Tom Cruise video clip of him receiving the Medal of Valor from the Scientology dictator and tyrant, David Miscavige. The video that basically set Anonymous into action after Scientology tried to take the video down I had originally reported on the 2004 IAS event back in November of 2004. You can see my anonymous post on the event here: http://www.xenu-directory.net/accounts/cerridwen20051114.html For 5 years I posted anonymously as Cerridwen on a.r.s (alt.religion.scientology). At that time I was still a trusted Scientologist in good standing and the cult did not know I was attending their events and reporting on them. I used to love to attend Scientology events and make my reports and had fun making OSA nuts that there was a “spai” in their ranks. I was the ultimate troll at that time. They finally outed me but that’s for another story. There are actually two videos for the 2004 IAS event, I was only sent part II which is pretty much the Tom Cruise Part of the event. Part I was never sent to me but if you read my report above you can get some of the highlights of this event. Part II of the event is approximately an hour and a half long and I believe there are copies of the entire 1:30 somewhere on the net. If you haven’t seen the full 1:30 video of this event it’s worth the watch, because there’s closer to a half an hour of the Tom Cruise/DM lovefest, not just the 9 minute video you see on the net. When I originally watched the leaked 2004 IAS event video I was like, “meh”. Been there, done that. I had no idea of the importance of this at that time. It was just another Scientology event full of bullshit and lies. The anonymous Scientologist that originally sent me this video, told me they were pissed off that DM had ordered all Scientologists to watch it 3 times. The anonymous Scientologist thought it was a huge insult to Scientology staff and Sea Org members to make Tom Cruise the # 1 Scientologist because he was rich and famous. Many others had dedicated their life to Scientology and it was a slap in the face to them from both DM and Tom Cruise. And for the record, I do not know who this anonymous person is. I deliberately do not ask for names or locations or any information from people who send me stuff as I don’t want to know. I delete all my emails and don’t keep copies. I make sure that whoever sends me stuff has no “data trail” back to them. Having spent 5 years being anonymous and criticizing the cult makes me fully aware of the absolute “terror” that they inflict on people who want to speak out. Also I was concerned that if I am ever involved in a Scientology deposition, I didn’t want to know the names of the people who leak things to me, and over the years people have anonymously sent me quite few emails, magazine and videos from the cult in hopes that I would leak them. I’ve done a lot of work and there’s still more that needs to be done if for no other reason than to just have info available and searchable. One other thing, before I talk about the Tom Cruise Video. I was really lucky in that I fell in with a bunch of really loving, wonderful, diverse and sane wogs on my journey out of Scientology, including Kady O’Malley, Tikk, PTSC (muldrake), and Dave Touretzky. These 4 never been cultists were very helpful in getting me out from under the Scientology mindfuck and back into the real world. Except for a few, I pretty much avoided the exes, because there’s always so much drama with them. OK back to the TC video. So in Aug of 2007 I have the 2nd SP Party. See pix here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/11433596@N02/sets/72157601440177280/with/1119235824/ All of the SP’s at the 2007 Party gather in my living room and I play the Tom Cruise video (after swearing everyone to secrecy). It gets huge LOLs but still none of us really are aware of the potential of this video until I send it to my good friend and accused evil gypsy queen by the moonbat fringe, that friend is Patricia Greenway. Patricia had been working closely with Andrew Morton on the Tom Cruise biography “Tom Cruise—An Unauthorized Biography”. She was basically his lead research assistant and whip cracker. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/books/10masl.html I sent the entire Part II video to Patricia thinking she’d love it based her work with Andrew Morton and his gathering of info on Tom Cruise for the Bio. Patricia and I discussed it and we decided it would be great to release this video at the same time Andrew’s biography on Tom Cruise was released. That way, we could do a slam dunk and get the book promoted and show the video to back up Andrew’s assertions on Tom Cruise’s relationship with the cult. Andrew Morton’s book was scheduled for release on January 15th of 2008. The idea was to have someone from Andrew’s staff hand over the Tom Cruise/IAS event DVD to Dateline NBC or the Today Show so that when Andrew went on his PR Book Tour, NBC would have the Tom Cruise Event DVD to show. The DVD was handed over to NBC a few days before Andrew’s scheduled interview and they (NBC) freaked out a bit and said they could not show this DVD due to copyright laws, however, if the DVD was on the internet, they could download it and use it, as it was then public information and a news story. So I’m like, WTF!!! I had no idea how to get this done. While I knew how to post anonymously I had no idea how to upload a file to the internet. Anywayz, I decide to have a pow wow on irc with a few hard core critics includingXenubarb and Dr. Dave Touretzky, on what to do about getting this video up on the net for NBC to download. It was decided that I would contact Mark Bunker of Xenu TV and ask him to get this up on a Megauploader or Mediafire type site and then have NBC and other media download the videos for use. I Fedex’d Bunker a copy of the entire Tom Cruise DVD and emailed my request as above. Bunker agreed to do it. Mark Bunker and I really didn’t have any kind of working relationship as he and Patricia Greenway have massive drama between them and I’m a friend of Patricia’s. So things have always been tense between Bunker and I. He basically never trusted me as he thought I was one of Patricia’s evil clones, or something like that. Patricia’s face twists up at the mention of Bunker’s name. But I digress, in an attempt to explain some of the personal dynamics of this situation. Instead of doing what I asked, Bunker uploaded the TC video clips to his Youtube account and sent out a message to his various media contacts, and pointed them to his Youtube account. This was not what I wanted. I didn’t want them posted on Youtube, I wanted them posted to a place where others could just download the file, but Bunker for some reason decided to put them on his Youtube account. What happened after that was sort of a blur for me. Within hours of Bunker putting the links up, he took them right back down. Bunker wrote to me that he took down the links as he was scared of what the cult would do to him for posting the links. I was like WTF! Why did he post it to youtube, why not just upload it quietly and let the media grab it. Why was he backing off after saying he’d do it? This put me in a really tight spot because time was running out and I need the video to get on the net so NBC could grab it, before the scheduled Andrew Morton interviews. Timing was everything. You have to understand that no one in this little circle of SP’s knew anything about uploading videos or files to the internet. The one person who did know was my friend Emma of ESMB, who at the time was royally pissed off at me because I acted like a hard core asshole toward her, so I couldn’t ask her There were a trusted handful of critics with a copy of the DVD and Emma was one of them. Even though she was beyond pissed off at me, I wrote to her and asked for her help. I needed the TC videos clips uploaded and anonymously mailed to media outlets. She did it. Emma’s always been like a sister to me. We have fought a few battles and our love and friendship has been stronger each time. So she gets to work on it while continuing to chew me out for my retardedness. I also contact xenubarb who also had a copy of Tom Cruise DVD gifted to her, and asked her to help me get the TC video clips up on the net. Xenubarb is a woman of action, and she jumped on her motorcycle and drove it to LA so that Mark Ebner could upload them to his site and direct Gawker, Radar, NBC etc. to go get them. In fact, Barbz and Ebner stayed up all night and edited a few 9 minute clips with paragraphs of written info and marking time codes. Despite Bunker, I now had a few different people uploading it and getting the word out. At that time, I honestly didn’t give a rat’s ass WHO got it on the web for NBC to grab, I just wanted it done. It’s pretty sure, after looking at all the details that xenubarb and Mark Ebner are the ones that finally made it happen, not that it matters because Emma, Patricia and a few others were all working to make it happen as a team effort all while dealing with massive OG drama in the mix. It was crazy wild, but we got it done. Once it hit the net. All hell broke loose! Continued below due to word count issue.
The result was that within a few days, Anonymous decided that they were going to take Scientology on for trying to censor the internet and stop the free flow of information. Within a month there were over 9000 anonymous protesters outside the different Scientology buildings and bringing world wide attention to the our favorite crazy cult. And hilarity ensued. I don’t take credit for anything other than having the DVD anonymously sent to me and then working with a small group of not retarded and dedicated OG so we could get the information to the web. What happened after that was not my doing. I just sat and watched and smiled and laughed a whole lot more. The real hero is the anonymous Scientologist that sent me the video. Hugs to you all for being part of the dismantling of this dangerous cult. Patty TL;DR It was a group effort. or TL;DR I am the Evil Queen and Anonymous is my Spawn. ;-)
Excellent history lesson! Thanks, Pooks! You're an Evil Queen I can pledge allegiance to! <3 <3 <3 !!!
It's a good thing that you actually can post this nowadays. It shows that the cult has lost its power.
Wonderful post. It does not contradict any info I had heard before, and added a lot. I can see why you did not foresee the reaction from the internets...things like that cannot be predicted. But seeing it happen must have been so awesome.
i bear a grudge with scn dating back to the 90's i had watched the 2007 panorama with glee but then, one BORING day, i had the lunchtime news on, BBC 1. "a mysterious group on the internet has commenced attacks on the church of scientology, and released this scary video" OMG OMG OMG i just *had* to get the internet working...
LOL! What an interesting time that was. It was unbelievable to watch what happened as a result. Within days of that video going up (and being taken down by the cult) I had 9000 anons arrive on ESMB introducing Chanology and how they were gunna take down the cult. I was like WTF is going on!!! I was scared & elated & freaked out and didn't know how to deal with these strange people with their strange language. It was funny that when the cops were going through my stuff at the time of the search & arrest, I wasn't worried about anything to do with the ddos because I hadn't had anything to do with it, but I was shit scared that they'd find the DVD Pooks had sent me 3 years earlier that had caused so much trouble! I'm glad you are finally telling this story Pooks. I'm a bit sad that we will no longer me able to laugh about this privately. It was fun to have this "little secret" just between a few of us, but it's better that it be known.
Ha ha, brilliant. I'm definitely someone who has always hated the creepy cult and their hide-behind-lawyers tech, and I've always considered LRH to be a lying freak with Munchausen's Syndrome. But the Tom Cruise video and the fallout was very funny, and then I looked further and saw Tory Christmans videos and Mark Bunker getting harassed by retarded bug eyed scilons, and I had to help. So I am proud to be an SP, and proud to be in such awesome company. And I love attacking scientology because of the reactions from brainwashed moonbats. I enjoy it.
Thanks to all of you for putting yourselves out there while realizing the brutal retaliation tactics of The "Church" of Scientology towards legitimate critics. The vast majority of ex-scientologists don't simply move on for themselves but choose to help current captives through the Amazing Anonymous protesting and internet exposure of the brutal abuses. This has opened the doors to so many Scientologists having a chance to wake up to the mind-controlling scam of LRH, get out and renew real contact with their families and former friends, move on and start anew. A lot of good people enter Scientology with the best intentions to improve themselves and help others only to become a cog in the greedy upper management's machine after years of Hubbard's mind-numbing processes. I'm starting to see a glimmer of hope for my own family members still trapped. I love you all and hope you will one day realize that LRH was a total fraud who took advantage of so many good and decent people and isolated them from those they love for his own personal benefit. Hubbard came up with the notions of Entheta and Suppressive Persons to control you. It worked for a long time. It's time for ALL Scientologists to simply: Google: L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology Read it all, if you only had a chance to do this before you got in, you never would have joined, it wasn't available to you when you joined, it is now..... You don't realize it yet but those crazy "Anonymous" bastards from the internet sites WWP, OCMB, Ex-Scientology Kids, XENU-TV etc. are there to help you find the truth and stop the abuses you KNOW go on in Scientology. Anonymous is the best thing that ever happened for everyday Scientologists who have been duped and taken advantage of for far too long. I'm quite proud to be one of them.
Ms Modest - me likey I would nike to concur that you are not retarded. Every current Scientologist is a potential leaker; just another reason to be nice to them and treat them with respect and compassion. (don't mean to sound like a fag when I say that) -- It's also people like you who got the We Stand Tall (original, full edit) leaked. in b4: Leaking works and it helps people
Oh yes! I'm here until the end. This is way too much fun! And quite therapeutic! Destroying this evil cult is fun and it helps people.
until the bitter enduntil government agencies enforce existing laws until the orgs close through lack of interest until Scientology is a single room of lawyers signing cheques and i get to go round the offices of the fairgaming w.i.s.e. fucktards who gave me my grudge and say "look what i did - you brought this in" reaction-cam on YT
I guess I have to confess my role in the Tom Cruise video too. I had none at all. All I did was to tell anyone who asked that it was a bad idea and would just expose everyone to legal liability. I suggested as an alternative that the video should be chopped into small bits with each one delivered with commentary explaining what it all meant. That would have been the prudent route and the results probably would have been as exciting as dishwater. I believe that it was only because of the extremely strange way the video got released, including Bunker putting the video up and then taking it down almost immediately, Barb's oldskool motorcycle hellride to Ebner's, Gawker picking it up, etc., largely due to OG incompetence at doing a leak right, that the release completely accidentally set a spark that burst into chaos and set off Chanology. I think it probably would have happened eventually anyway, just because Scientology is such an ocean of stupid and would eventually have pissed off the hivemind again. Those of us who saw this video in 2007 thought it made Tom Cruise's couch-jumping shit look like the model of sanity. I don't think any of us had the slightest clue that it would ultimately set off such utter chaos. All I have to say is that if anyone listened to me, none of this shit would have ever happened. I thought it was a terrible idea and shouldn't have been done. This should give you a good idea of the value of any advice I have to offer about pretty much anything.
Many many years ago (in the 70's) I had a run in with the cult and never forgot about it. They did horrible damage to a life long friend of mine. I did what little I could at the time to get the word out about the cult, but without the internet it was hard to do any research and meet like minded people. Time went on and so did life, marriage and having a kid and so on. Then in 2006 I found the web. Yay! One day a Cruise movie came on and knowing that Cruise was a Clam I went to IMDB. I found that there were a few critics of the CoS posting and a myriad of clam socks. We had so much fun making fun of Cruise and the cult. I also continued to research the cult and guess what? It was worse than I thought. Everything was going along just fine and then the video hit the web and all hell broke loose. It was proof that the cult was a total mind fuck. I joined Enturb almost immediately (after some lurking moar) and the rest is history. Thanks Pooks and the rest of you that got that vid on the web.
Don't be so hard on yourself, none of the people involved could have foreseen the consequences either. What got Anonymous' feathers ruffled was the heavy-handed attempt by a bunch of lolyers representing a church to squelch the lulz.
Pooks, thanks for posting this history as it is important to have accurate information on how things happened. It's fascinating to learn the backstory on all of this. Don't take my comment about OG drama/credit in the other thread to mean I didn't want to know this information; just didn't want it to be the derail in another thread. Janitorial services provided free of charge. So, a big "like" to all involved. Well done and well played.
Pooks, that video was what got me here. Cruise's behavior was just so strange and puzzling. I wanted to know what could have made him like that. So I started googling... Thanks
This is a backup video put out by Dr. Dave, as we did not know Gawker would stand tall and be resolutely defiant in the face of cult baww.
Indeed! Had the cult let it slide, the video would likely have hit Tom Cruises career a bit, but have little effect on them. But being the vindictive and legally trigger-happy group they are, they just couldn't help themselves. It's like a knee jerk reaction. The cult brought Anonymous on themselves. A very big thank you to Pooks and the others for setting the stage for what happened, even if unwittingly!
Indeed. While the obvious reversing of word meanings such as "ethics" etc., is a fundamental aspect of scientology's overall mindfuck, somehow less obviously to the indoctrinated, it seems that the further along one goes towards "clearing their reactive mind" the more batshit reactive they become.
The best part is when he states "I am the only one that can help at a car accident" or "You just know, you just know and if you don't know, well just know" or "Travolta and I got ungayed from Scientology" all my favs!
