Anonagi

Well, here is my own post raid report from San Diego Comic-Con, the history of the Marcab Invasion, and the events leading up to it. Lots of TL;DR, but the history leading up to it is important since alot of stuff happened behind the scenes.

You guys have no idea how close the plug came to being pulled on the entire thing, many, MANY times.


When the whole Anonymous movement was taking place globally and it looked like a long campaign, several different factions announced long term plans for outreach events over what will become known as the Summer of Lulz, July specifically. Euroanons (London especially) made plans to fly Mark Bunker and Tory Christman out for the global protest on the 12th, and WashingtonDC anons were rallying the entire eastern seaboard of the United States into a march on the national mall. The western US had been enturbulating nonstop in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, but we didn't have any large outreach event planned so far.

A few people had made threads on Enturbulation on the subject of Anonymous doing something at Comic-Con, although nothing really materialized. Anonymous, in the spirit of doing, instead of coaching, made me think "Well, how would a raid work at Comic-Con?"

Comic-Con has over 125,000 people from all over the globe attend and is one of the largest gatherings of comics, pop media, and fandom in the Western Hemisphere. San Diego itself is packed with tourists during this weekend as well. In short, it's one of the most concentrated gatherings with the ability to reach people globally. San Diego anons are resourceful but there was no way we could pull it off without help from Anonymous members globally. A plan was hammered out that could reach the most amount of people with the least amount of funds. I met with Enturbulation Staff about the possibility of a donation drive in May, in order to raise funds to reach people here at the Convention in July. The plan was approved for there to be a link on the website to the Marcab Invasion and for me to post a thread. These were done.

As far as the site itself, I had already set up the site for the San Diego Anonymous cell, and decided instead of creating a new website, to put the Invasion on the San Diego website. Paypal was set up with an anonymous widget so anyone could donate. And people did. I was amazed seeing it happen. A few other Anon cells linked to it.

I had also not seen a store out there that sold proper Anony-gear, so a lot of work also went into creating the Cafepress store, with the funds from it going to fund the Marcab Invasion, for people that didn't want to flat out donate but wanted some cool gear. And it is all incredibly sexy.

Behind the scenes, I was working with several members of Comic-Con staff to get it off the ground. The original plan was to do a table drop of youfoundthecards on the freebie table, with a handout along the registration lines. Donations were pouring in, and we found a printer that was semi-local that would work with us.

We got the word back from Comic-Con staff that youfoundthecard was a no go. Activist causes cannot be promoted at Comic-Con, but there is a loophole. If you’re promoting an activist cause via a comic, film, or other form of pop media that Comic-Con celebrates, then that is okay.

Looks like the original assessment of creating a new website had to be revisited. A few people on Enturbulation had been making beautiful artwork for the cause, and there had been a few aborted comic book attempts.

Once again, why not?

After another week of hard work getting everything set up, San Diego launched You Found The Comic - Anonymous Comics, and promoted a Comic Jam for all the members of Anonymous with artistic abilities that wanted to pick up a pen through the cause. We hope to have issue #0 completed soon by the end of August.

We finally got approval on the card design, since it was promoting a comic.
Mark Bunker, aka Wise Beard Man, loved the idea, and made a video promoting it which pushed our donations even higher – a large part of what we received was because of this video. Everyone involved wishes to give him our sincere thanks.

The final plan had four operations to it – one main one, with the other three operations being diversions to keep the Scientologists at the convention busy.

Main plan – freebie table drop of tens of thousands of youfoundthecomic postcards
Diversion 1 – Youfoundthecard drop outside and inside the convention
Diversion 2 – Raid on the org Saturday night
Diversion 3 – Actual visible Anon protest outside the con by the trolley station. These last two were what was hopefully going to divert Scientologist attention the most.

The order went to the printer the week before, rushed. The last few days leading up to the Invasion were torture. Scientology knew we were doing something. We knew they would pull several things that weekend. But what? All of us, especially myself, were walking on eggshells.

Tuesday rolls around and we go drive about eight hours to pick up the cards. When they wheeled out the pallet stacked tall, to see all the hard effort of the last few months come to fruition…it was amazing. We dropped off the first batch of cards at the convention then went home for a much needed drink.

Then Wednesday rolls around. The first day of the convention, and the first indirect skirmish. I parked myself down by the grassy area on the south side of the convention center, where the line started to wrap around all the way to the back of the Convention. I met up with DCSF and handed out about 2000 youfoundthecards in less than an hour before security came up to me.

Overall, it wasn’t too bad. DCSF had wandered off handing out cards and I called her and told her to stop, and she got the hint to not come back while I was talking with security.

The “official” story that he told me was that “someone” had visited youfoundthecard in line using a blackberry or iPhone or something and was shocked at the “religious hatred and bigotry” involved, specifically, the cartoon parodying the mac VS pc commercials where linux gets beaten with a baseball bat. Now, I knew this was BS as you had to link through alot of places on YFTC to get there. I knew we would be found out, but I didn’t think it would be that fast. I unmasked to speak with him and we talked for quite a while about what it was, what we were doing, and the fact we had set up something on the freebie table that was approved by the convention.

Any guesses as to “who” was complaining?

I had to explain that while I was not the site administrator on youfoundthecard, I WAS the admin for youfoundthecomic, and I knew for a fact there was absolutely no objectionable content unless someone had hacked my site in the last three hours. He was on his radio for a bit, determining what to do with me, and overall, was very polite and neutral. I would have rather dealt with him than with the harbor police.



Apparently, I wasn’t allowed to hand anything out there in the grassy area. Comic-Con annexed that property for the first time this year, using it for line control. Previous demonstrations had gone on there in the past, so I thought we were fine to hand out items along anyone in that area. This was an honest point of confusion.


Long story short, we met with another anon who had gone down the line, simply to make sure he wasn’t handing out anything, and spent a few HOURS doing damage control. I finally explained to security that I wasn’t aware there was an issue with us handing out cards where we were, and that in order to make his job and everyone’s life easier, we would change our plans and only hand things out at the north end of the center and over by the trolley station, off of Convention Center property. The other reason I wanted to do this was because I didn’t want to run the risk of the freebie table postcards getting pulled since the design was identical.

He agreed that was the best solution and thanked me for being open and honest with him. I shook his hand, and myself and the other anon went inside to get our badges. Afterwards, I spent some time talking with Metro police to let them know what we were doing, that we were going to be in there, and finding out what we could and couldn’t do while at the trolley station.

The plans were updated that night on our forums and IRC. The security guard had made things very clear – if he found us on convention property handing out stuff, our badges would be confiscated and we would be removed from convention center grounds, and the postcards would be pulled from the table. No plan survives first contact with the enemy, so we went to plan B, which we had in place for a while in the event that things weren’t going to go as planned (they never do).

So we had our first battle against Scientologists trying to manipulate Comic-Con staff that weekend, and it was the first of several. I went home and got some sleep.

San Diego Anonymous Website | San Diego Anonymous Forums

Anonymous! Help us reach 150,000 people at Comic Con 2009 with the Marcab Invasion! We need your help!

Anonagi

On Thursday, I met with EpicFawkesGuy, and we handed out THOUSANDS of cards in an hour down by the trolley station. People recognized us instantly with cries of “We love you Anonymous!” We posed for pictures, people said they saw us in Maxim, and they were taking our cards faster than anyone else’s. We only found maybe a dozen of them on the ground – that was IT.

After we handed them out for a while, we decided to pack it in and go see the con. We wandered around for a bit and did indeed check out Galaxy Press’s booth – nobody there looked too happy, alas, but things were about to get undoubtedly worse for them that weekend.

Then we had round 2 with the Scientologists.

I made sure to drop by the freebie table every hour or so (the volunteers working there were perplexed because the cards were going faster than anything else on the table – they blew through OVER NINE THOUSAND on Thursday alone)

Finally, early afternoon, I went back up there, and no cards were to be found. There’s no way they ran out that quickly…was there foul play?

Talking with one of the people there confirmed my suspicions. The VP of Comic-Con had personally came up to the table, and told them to pull them all because they had received nonstop calls and complaints about the content of the cards. I immediately asked who I could appeal the decision to, and was directed all around the con. Frustrated, I called my contact on the CCI staff.

Long story short, things were resolved and the cards were put back on the table within about an hour. Apparently, nobody who was “complaining” bothered to check out the site – with absolutely no bigotry or hatred on it nor linked through it. Rumor had it Moxon was involved somehow in that little skirmish, trying to get them pulled.

Scientologists 0, Anon 2.

San Diego Anonymous Website | San Diego Anonymous Forums

Anonymous! Help us reach 150,000 people at Comic Con 2009 with the Marcab Invasion! We need your help!

Anonagi

Friday, shit hit the fan.

First of all, I had my wallet stolen on Thursday evening. Then on the way to the convention my cooling fan failed in my car, and it was overheating. Right as I was pulling into the parking spot, my radiator exploded.

Scientologists 0, Anon 2, Murphey’s Law 2

So, we were unable to hand out any YFTCs on Friday due to that unfortunate circumstance, a setback. I had tried to plan for every contingency but I didn’t think my wallet and my car would be out of commission. Another drop was made at the freebie table however, and apparently I heard a few Anons were handing out stuff by the Marriot and trolley although I was never able to confirm.

Then something interesting happened. I was by the freebie table, and two people dressed in black came up and said they were with Convention Center security – and to pull all the youfoundthecomic cards. It was pure coincidence that I was there when this happened. What followed was an intense argument between me, the freebie table volunteer, and the two “security guards.” They said they had orders to pull them, and I told the person at the freebie table that this had happened yesterday, and the VP of the con had personally approved them to be out. This went around for a while until he agreed, and I asked the Scientolog- I mean, “security” people, to show their Convention Center identification – since their shirts didn’t have the embroidered logo that all the con security did. I got some insanely dirty looks, and the both walked off.

I saw one of them at the Galaxy Press booth later that day.

Scientologists 0, Anon 3, Murphey’s Law 2

Then I was an idiot and stopped to pose in costume for a few people in a group. Our bags got mixed up and suddenly, no more cellphone.

Scientologists 0, Anon 3, Murphey’s Law 3

The rest of the day for me personally involved getting my car towed to a nearby mechanic, getting a ride home, and trying to figure out frantically how to get the other cards down.

San Diego Anonymous Website | San Diego Anonymous Forums

Anonymous! Help us reach 150,000 people at Comic Con 2009 with the Marcab Invasion! We need your help!

Anonagi

Saturday! DCSF to the rescue! She offered to pick me up and took the rest of the cards for the freebie table along with me, and we went down to the con. Apparently, there were a few Anons there waiting for me and DCSF made the card drop while myself and another Anon made another drop of >9000 cards for the freebie table. Barb was there handing out cards dressed as Xenu, there were other anons, the names of which I have no idea except for Anonilate and Obamanon, and they were going through them faster than they could hand them out.

They went like crazy the entire day and we had no more encounters with Scientology, Although I did notice one more thing that day.

There were a ton of people that were selling V masks at the con. And anyone who walked by the Galaxy Press booth with one on or on the back of their head was photographed by a woman in a green shirt and long hair with an iPhone trying to get their badge. I saw it happen with about ten people as I loitered at a booth across from theirs. I hope she had enough memory in that thing because there were hundreds of people wearing them. There were also a few people there from the CoS of San Diego manning the booth.

They were also giving “free” decks of playing cards, but you had to sign up with your name and address to get them. There weren’t many takers.

Sunday, I ended up violently sick so I wasn't able to go to the con, but with DSCF having the rest of the cards, and all the business cards in the hands of the other anons, I felt the invasion was in good hands.


Last night, we ended up with a few boxes of postcards left over. They’ll be going to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco to help with their efforts at conventions up there.

Tens of thousands of people were reached and I had to buy more bandwidth for the site. Now it’s time to focus on the comic.

Scientology – you tried every dirty tactic you could to try and stop this operation but you failed. We reached more people at the convention than you could possibly have hoped to with Galaxy Press. Nobody was buying LRH books and the only things you could have hoped to accomplish there was getting fresh WOG info for your mailing list. Enjoy the amount of money you spent, money that you won't be getting back, thanks to our efforts.

Anonymous – there is no way this would have happened without you. For two months, you guys donated, you helped at the convention, and kept us going here. I damn near killed myself trying to organize this. You guys helped us pull off the largest outreach drive so far in all of Chanology, and the results were amazing. So many people were educated about the dangers of the cult, and people responded to us very well.

Post your experiences at Comic-Con here. There’s far too many experiences from Anon that weekend to turn it into one post.

San Diego Anonymous Website | San Diego Anonymous Forums

Anonymous! Help us reach 150,000 people at Comic Con 2009 with the Marcab Invasion! We need your help!

Tequila makes life better

What a lot of behind the scenes stuff you had to do.
Great job!

Why so late? Hangover just cleared?

The cops outside where we were passing out cards couldn't have been nicer. And we didn't have to do anything on the convention center to cause the scilons to worry...the many people buying and wearing V masks all over the convention did that for us.

I <3 skulls!
Jugular

Anonagi

Been sick and wanted to make sure I took the proper time to get this done

One last thing I forgot to mention - we kept the designs on the card a total secret. By the time Scientology found out what they were, it was too late.

San Diego Anonymous Website | San Diego Anonymous Forums

Anonymous! Help us reach 150,000 people at Comic Con 2009 with the Marcab Invasion! We need your help!

MarcabEmpress

I think Co$ just created a whole bunch of new Chanology members by snapping pix of folks simply because they bought a mask.

Helping enturbulate Teegeeack to freedom, one thetan at a time
Save Rusty
akltdo

Top Grunge

Way to be San Diego! How many internets should we send to you now? I can't count that high.

Dangerous Cult
Scientology

LRonAnon

best read in a few days, good job!

Übermensch Homo novis -- Clearing the Planet -- Human Rites in the RPF -- Anonymous at Cause

AnonLover

wow - what a phenomenal effort! big time praise to all involved!!! congrats on an outstanding job well done!

so, did anybody report the scilon's act of impersonating security guards to the convention organizers? i would think that effort alone ought to prevent them from ever being welcome at a comic con again. not too mention how creepy their diligent effort to snap everybody's picture with a V mask must surely seem.

ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY SWORDS HIS WAY INTO THE CELEBRITY CENTRE
CofS Exit Survey ~ Timeline v2.0 ~ Wikileaks Research Portal ~ My Blog
Anon Info Packs - When a flyer isnt enough ammo to get the job done

DeliciousCakeSF

Nagi, it was the least I could do since SF Anonymous has car, GPS, trunk space, and a mission to provide /b/lackup.

As I said before, SF Anonymous works motherfucking hard to Keep Anonymous Working. You need /b/lackup, call us. We'll deliver.

TakeAnonMe is why we can't have nice things. / Decentralize SF / Operation Translation / Scientology / YouFoundTheCard.com

D...

Man, buy yourself a drink, you deserve it.

HAHAHAHA, OH WOW.

RandomFaceInSD

(Late)Night On The Town (07/26 - 27) - Post game
more info about "Diversion 2 – Raid on the org Saturday night"

LongDuckDong

murphy\\\'s law? or SUPER SEKRIT OT POWERZ AT WORK??!!

ObamAnon

Anonagi, you are awesome! Can we do it again next weekend? ;-)

http://www.redcross.org/

BTs can get Mis-Us from reading matter, foreign languages, and I have found BTs that don't speak English. There is also a basic consideration that the Dead would not understand anything anyway. (Hubbard, "BTs with Misunderstood Words," HCO Bulletin of 22 February 1979, NOTs Series 46)

Mitsu Too

Seriously. You guise are just awsome!

none given

excellent!

the missing wallet, broke down car, missing cell phones; am i being tin hatty if i just wonder if....

no matter, anon won anyway.
Hope you are feeling better.

AnonOrange_

That was a great well written report. Made us feel we were there.

I'm sure the YouFoundTheCard site much have gotten much more traffic.

About your stolen wallet, i hope it's not C0$.

Anon123456

that was fuckin epic. keep up the good work. we need to hit more conventions.

Asian-anon

What's the card design? I really want to see it. Or is it still a seekrit?

Advice to Scientology: Never piss off anything more dangerous than you are.

Got Chronic Troll Syndrome? - Naggers are the cure

Anonymous > the individual Anon, so Leave your self importance at the door!