@#4

They are indeed trying to get a reaction out of Scientology. They state this about as openly as possible. They love that they can't be sued if they're anonymous. It is, for many, a never-ending stream of hilarity.

However-
To say that's their only motivation is wrong. They're also doing this because they actually believe in their cause. Nobody stands around for 8 hours on a freezing February day to get a reaction. There's talk of 12 months of operations, with very specific goals, such as revoking tax-exempt status in the US.

I wouldn't put it past Anonymous to attack an epilepsy site. It is something that a few members would definitely do. I just don't think it was them this time.

Attacking an epilepsy board is completely not funny. At all. But the article mentions that the most likely suspect is the group "Anonymous". More likely it was the church of Scientology.

Remember the post about anonymous protesting the church of Scientology?(http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/10/anonymous-vs-sciento.html) One of the points they brought up was the "Fair Game" policy, which states that "Suppressive Persons" can be "lied to, tricked or destroyed" (actual policy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Game_%28Scientology%29)

I don't think there has there been a post on the usual anonymous sites about attacking epilepsy suffers. I can't say that with a 100% certainty, because anonymous has no central website/archive. But invading a website is usually a bigger deal than this. It usually shows up on the site at least once. When the same news article you posted finally did show up on the site, the users were split about weather it was hilarious or evil. But nobody claimed responsibility, and there were no post-raid victory threads that I saw. And 7chan denies any involvement.(http://theframeproblem.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/7chan-accuses-cult-of-scientology-of-attacking-epilepsy-forum/)

With anonymous, you can never really know, since there are so many different channels of communication. However, considering this makes for really bad PR in a time when anonymous is looking for support, combined with the fact that there seems to be no trace of "Haha, we did it!" or anything of that nature leads me to believe that this is, in fact, a sneaky move by Scientology to undermine public opinion of the group.

"Hey, did you know about the protesters in Boston? They were protesting Scientology!"
"Yeah, but the same guys attacked an epilepsy board with flashing images"

And yes, this IS something Scientology would do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_controversies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destructive_cult

http://theframeproblem.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/7chan-accuses-cult-of-scientology-of-attacking-epilepsy-forum/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_the_Internet