Should "Anonymous" Hack the Westboro Baptist Church?

HOAX anonymous claims no such letter was sent this the WESTBORO church!!!!!!!! this poster most likely TROLL

tis is a hoax put on by the WEST BORO Baptist church for media attention this is total BULLSHIT-Anonymous denies letter

However, Anonymous claimed the Westboro Baptist Church sent the letter in its name in an attempt to gain publicity.

“You thought you could play with Anonymous. You observed our rising notoriety and thought you would exploit our paradigm for your own gain,” said the group in a press release.

“When Anonymous says we support free speech, we mean it. We count Beatrice Hall among our Anonymous forebears: ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ "

The hacktivist group said that, along with looking for more attention, the Westboro Baptist Church wanted to lure DDoS attackers into a “honeypot.”

“They've got their ports wide open to harvest IPs to sue. Don't DDoS, and boycott Operation Westboro,” warned Anonymous.

Anonymous also noted that, due to the nature of the loose group, just because something is posted on the site AnonNews doesn’t mean they are all in agreement. Of course, this puts a question mark on this press release, though it claims 20 members wrote the release.

The hacktivist group said it had "more pressing matters" to deal with and is focusing on operations in support of protests in Libya.
Westboro Baptist Church

The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent group, which has protested the Jewish community, homosexuality and US soldiers.

They’ve gained a notorious reputation thanks to their protests at funerals, including those of soldiers who died while fighting in Iraq and the funeral of a man who was beaten to death because he was gay.

They also attempted to picket at the funeral of nine-year-old Christina Green, who died during the 2011 Tucson shooting when US Representative Gabrielle Giffords was attacked. As a result, the state of Arizona introduced an emergency bill to ban protests within 300 feet of a funeral.

Laura O'Brien

You know, I think it's kinda ironic. Back in the day Fred Phelps was THE premier civil rights lawyer. He was known for being one of the few lawyers to never turn down a black man no matter how high the odds were stacked, and he rarely lost a case. If you were a black man being unfairly treated, Phelps was the man to go to. Such a shame that high standing no longer applies.

The WBC deserves any bad thing that happens to them. Whether this is a hoax or not doesn't matter to me. If a giant turd fell out of the sky and killed them all I would be very glad for it. I do not tolerate intolerance. That is far less hypocritical than it sounds, when you give it some thought.

Bill Maher said, (paraphrasing) "When you tolerate intolerance you're not really a liberal." I tend to agree.

Honestly, when I first read about this, I was immediately suspicious. "Anonymous would find this to be beneath them." I thought. I mean, they're defying whole coalitions of nations by publishing their secrets, and launching cyber attacks. Where on that list does it make sense that Anonymous is going after a tiny (albeit disproportionately loud and obnoxious) fringe faction of Christianity, which are already nearly universally hated?

This is the standard Fred Phelps 'Run out into a field during a lightning storm waving steel rod over your head' attention-grabbing tactic. And as usual, it's lame, about as subtle as a twenty pound sledge, and as optically opaque as vacuum.

Now with all that being said, if Anonymous IS going after them, and cripples them irreparably, I am not ashamed to admit that I would dance a little jig while giggling with delight...

God hates WBC!

I hope they hack the NOM, and the Catholic Corporation.

I suppose so, if they can't do anything more significant.

It's all a lie perpetrated by WBC and Phelps, go to the link and see for yourself.

http://current.com/news/93011071_message-to-the-westboro-baptist-church-the-medi....

WBC did it for attention. Now Anonymous will do it for real. And their little lawyers too. hehehehehehehe

I say they hit every major company at least to cause some kind of major chaos for those who think a hard days work is sitting in a chair and holding pointless business meetings.

How does it feel WBC to be stalked.....

Although it would be lulzy, it's fucking moronic to mess with the church. They bait people into attacking them, they sue (highly successful family of inbred lawyers. it's quite easy to trace IPs in the event of a DDOS attack), and get more funding for their horseshit.

They are irrelevant anyway, no one takes them seriously.

http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=494

Not to mention, I don't really fear vigilante censorship from a group that proclaims on their homepage:

"AnonNews uses an open-posting concept. Anyone can post to the site, and moderators will approve relevant posts. No censorship takes place!"

i personally dont advocate any kind of crime but i wouldn't lose any sleep if they did.

Sure they did some great stuff against Scientology, why not westboro?

you think some of the members havent already? they are probably just waiting for a reason to release something they got.

the fbi has tracked hackers down recently...

I say no...for one thing, as detestable as WBC is, its their right to be assholes.

But more importantly, I can't think of any other group that has done more to bring about the acceptance of homosexuals in American Society than these folks. Most people, when confronted by the WBC protests, have to face their own personal prejudices in regards to the pure insanity espoused by Phelps and family. Its unintentional, but the Phelps clan has put a pretty effective image of intolerance that most people want no part of.

I often wonder if it isn't the Phelps that are trolling us all. Bare in mind, this is the guy that on his own fought and defeated Jim Crow laws in Oklahoma. Hell, he had homes firebombed out from under him and was recognized for his work by the NAACP. Of course...that was before he went bat shit insane and started his own inbred cult.

I remember the days when being an 'armchair warrior' was an insult.
Boy the times they have a changed.....

better targets: pentagon, chinas gov, israels gov, eu, nellis afb, nasa hq, esa hq, lockheed, google hq, facebook....there are soo many more... =)

5/19/13

I Say HAZA! Keep it up Anonymous. and as for the authors concerns about what Anounymous may do with their power to electronicaly protest IMO they have demonstraited who and what they intend to go afer with their actions. It seems likely the author has sympathies for one of anonymous's recent victims which should give all readers pause to concider the authors true intentions, bias, and motivations in attacking Anonymous.

I'd rather see Anonymous go after big business (Like Koch Industries) with ruthless savagery. Phelps and his followers can be taken out any time.

Seems like a waste of time. Who listens to these fundamentalist fanatics? If Anonymous really wants to stop hate from spreading, target the for right of the gop. Some call them the Teaparty and some call them the Teatards but they are really the loudmouths of the Rebublicans extremist right.

While I generally support actions that involve the WBC and "for the lulz" I have to ask - really, what are they going to do ? All but the leadership of the WBC considers the Internet a pit of corruption to be avoided anyway - its not like their website going down for a few days or weeks is going to adversely affect their operations in any meaningful way. Redirecting their webpage links to sites featuring barnyard animals would only save them the trouble of having to open their bookmarks.... maybe put them on mass mailing lists for magazine subscriptions ? That might work... eh, who knows. time to make some popcorn and just watch the show =D

I think Americans have a robust and healthy need to identify with Robin Hood type super heroes, which Anonymous clearly is. I rather enjoy their escapades, and especially the fact that they have remained elusive, but in all honesty, I think Westboro is a waste of the very impressive skills of Anonymous and doesn't deserve their attention. I like the fact that communities where Westboro shows up are beginning to pull together and make sure the Westboro message of hate is cordoned off and their members are not given access to the people they are attempting to hurt, and you gotta luv the guy standing next to Westboro protestors with his "Fuck This Guy" sign. Hail Free Speech! Same thing has been happening in the South when the KKK comes to town, people show up to subtly suppress their message of hate, and I think, at a community level, this is a more powerful response than having Anonymous shut down websites that nobody really pays attention to anyway, but that's just my opinion.

Bring it! Sounds like a good show!

Go for it Anonymous I stand with you on this one.

What would they really even hack? I don't think their website is visited by anyone but them and people looking to be outraged.

They should really go after the Federal reserve. Maybe some electronic records on America's gold that the Fed refuses to disclose even when they are given a freedom of information request and a court order.

Approved

god hates hate.
Have at the bastards!

Sure why not??

Good article Billy-Tarter. Your question to us, "The government's hands are tied when it comes to restricting hate speech — is it time for us to take matters into our own hands?" is timely indeed.

I say Anonymous' actions are the equivalent to a technique used by tribes to ensure the same "Domestic Tranquility" our Constitution calls for. It is called "banishment" and was an action to marginalize the most destructively disruptive among those tribes.

Tribes had laws and punishments just like governments but sometimes there were smart people working the system of their lawful rights to be destructively disruptive while demanding the protections of those lawful rights. A tribes response to that kind of problem was simply to restrict the disruptor's ability to be a member of that tribe. In other words, tribes chased them away. A tribes position was, the destructively disruptive people could be as destructively disruptive as they wanted, just not in that tribe. It is also true it took a consensus of the members of a tribe to have a ruling of "banishment".

Anonymous' action against WBC is simply high tech banishment and I support someone banishing destructively disruptive, WBC type people from my American tribe. Those type people can be how they want to be, np, just not in my tribe, or at my funeral.

I would prefer Anonymous didn't have to make all the high tech banishment decisions but until we have a way to vote "banishment" on a person or organization, I'm cool with Anonymous doing it as long as they continue to avoid abusing the power to "banish".

A better solution to dealing with destructively disruptive people is to define "free speech" better than has been done by the SCOTUS. The "free speech" of the wealthy should not trump the "free speech" of average person because of that wealth.

If devising laws to make the "free speech" playing field level for all was easy, it would have already been done.

Rock on Anonymous!!!

What happens when they hack a group that you support.
Slippery slope.

I vote yes

How about we just cut to the chase and change the title of this to should someone burn down Westboro Baptist Church?

This one is a toughie. I feel that everyone is entitled to free speech but there are laws against hate speech and WBC is no doubt in violation of them. There are laws about public obscenity and if picketing the funeral of an innocent child that was gunned down is not obscene, I can not tell you what is. If the government can fine a network for the accidental exposure of a boob during the Superbowl then there is no reason why WBC should be able to to spout their "hate speech" (and make no mistake, that is what it is) at private functions such as funerals without making them suffer some legal punishment or fine. If they want to plan an anti-gay parade then follow the same rules that the Ku Klux Klan has to follow. The KKK are free to march but must registering in advance. Jesus, even the KKK has the decency to not direct their venom during a personal event honoring a family tragedy. At the very least the WBC should have to pay for any police required because of what constitutes a violation of privacy for whomever's funeral they are picketing.

This is more a matter of common decency than free speech. Every normal person tries to ease the sorrow of people suffering loss. Only a disturbed person would deliberately set out to make a bad situation worse. That is sadistic and wrong and should not be considered a free speech issue.

I say Anonymous, sic' em as hard as you can.

anons do not have morals, remember the lulz.

Good riddance, I say.