[...]

So this is but the latest instance of a much wider challenge. What should be the limits of free expression in the internet age? What should be the free speech norms of an interconnected world? And who should set them? These are among the questions being addressed in a project called Free Speech Debate (freespeechdebate.com) that we have just launched at Oxford University. Among the 10 draft principles we offer for debate, criticism and revision, one is especially relevant to the Armenian genocide controversy. It says: "We allow no taboos in the discussion and dissemination of knowledge."

The Church of Scientology uses its copyright in the immortal words of L Ron Hubbard to prevent people seeing the higher secrets of the Operating Thetan. (Tip: if you're interested, search for Operation Clambake.) Today, the English-language Wikipedia was blacked out for 24 hours to protest against the proposed US Stop Online Piracy Act, which, in the current version, will have a disastrous, chilling effect on the free, online dissemination of knowledge.

[...]

Laguna Beach resident Susan Elliott said she's among those whose efforts to combat alleged abuses in the Church of Scientology have been met with spy tactics and harassment at her doorstep.
"I've been followed a million times," said Elliott, 56, who is a computer programmer by trade but was wary to state where her business is located, out of fear that Scientologists would conduct operations there.


Elliott confirmed that she was spied on by Paulien Lombard, a former Scientologist featured in a recent OC Weekly cover story. In fact, she first confirmed the spying in a comment posted on in the online version of the story, where readers may recall how Lombard described sitting outside of Elliott's home for hours.


Lombard later apologized to Elliott.


"We invited her in and had tea, and sat in the living room and talked for an hour or so, and I was just amazed that she would do that -- that she would come to us," Elliott said.


Elliott said she has no ties to Scientology, but began research the church when Tom Cruise began to speak out publicly about the group.


"I've always been interested in these high-control groups and how it happens to people," she said.


Elliott eventually met some folks online through the Operation Clambake online message board, which is dedicated to discussing all things Scientology. She became sympathetic toward those whose families she said have been ripped apart by the church.

[...continues in article link...]

Yay Andreas! He provided a safe rewarding place to post, when I was too much of a newbie to master alt.religion.scientology with its spam, trolls, unknown dangers, and, yes, heros. He has kept our secret-identities safe for over a decade.

[...]

The Debbie Cook affair has become a real debacle for the Miscavige regime. I think it is a perfect illustration too of the way the Independent movement has learned how to out-manoeuvre corporate Scientology. The whole episode reminds me of that section at Andreas Heldal-Lund's Operation Clambake called Operation Foot-Bullet, which lists the various occasions on which the movement has managed to shoot itself in the foot.

First, they alienated one of their most dedicated members, then when she spoke out they tried to harass and silence her by dragging her into court - which achieved the exact opposite. They gave her a platform to detail the abuses she had suffered and witnessed, testimony so compelling it was even picked up by the normally timid British press.

[...]