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But it was two recent events that propelled the members of Anonymous to act. Sources told ABCNEWS.com that they were initially intrigued by the publication of Andrew Morton’s biography of Tom Cruise, which was highly critical of Scientology. That drew them to the Internet for more information where they came across the leak of several church videos on YouTube featuring Cruise’s wildly enthusiastic praise of Scientology.

After an embarrassing string of high-profile defection and leaked videos, Scientology is under attack from a faceless cabal of online activists. Has America’s most controversial religion finally met its match?
Clearwater is prepared for its enemies. It’s a warm, if overcast, Saturday in February, but all the storefronts lining the sidewalks of this sleepy town on […]

I was skimming through High Winds when I came across an article winningly headlined ‘Handling Suppression on the Fourth Dynamic’ (by then I had learnt that the ‘fourth dynamic’ meant the whole of mankind). In a tone of unforgiving militancy, it talked of ‘eradicating SPs’, and crowed about how they had ’shut down’ one particular defector who had criticised the movement. ‘Unemployed and abandoned by his family, this squirrel had schemed to make money by hawking his lies in a book. But the Office of Special Affairs had a court declare his book libellous. He has now been forced into bankruptcy…’

The pay-off line to a 2005 episode of South Park said it all. The show was a satire on Scientology in which a cartoon Cruise was exposed to near-continuous ridicule. In the final scene, he cries: ‘I’m going to sue you… in England!’

The real Cruise can’t sue the makers in the US, where freedom of speech is protected but, like his cartoon counterpart, he could be confident our judges would gladly shelter him under our authoritarian libel laws if he found an excuse to come here. The same thought struck TV executives and the Scientology episode of South Park has never been shown by a British station. Even though you can see it on the web, lawyers would turn pale if I suggested repeating South Park’s running gag at Cruise’s expense in a British paper.

Scientologists are at war with a member of their own family - the outspoken niece of the church’s powerful leader, David Miscavige.

Jenna Hill Miscavige, 24, the daughter of David’s older brother Ron, recently came out in support of Andrew Morton’s “Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography,” and slammed the star for “supporting a religion that tears apart families, both in the media and monetarily.” Since then, Jenna claims she’s been subjected to harassment.

Anonymous is also hoping to galvanise public opinion with a mass “real-world” protest outside every Scientology office worldwide on February 10th. But its best weapon may be ridicule. The group got going in reaction to efforts to ban an internal Scientology video of Mr Cruise that leaked onto the internet. The star appears to discuss his beliefs with a degree of incoherence and exaggeration that might lead some to question Scientology’s effects on its adherents’ sanity.

The famous eyes stare and his head lolls about at the wonder of it all while gibberish pours from his lips. Tom Cruise is extolling the glories of Scientology. “It’s rough and tumble. It’s wild and woolly and it’s a blast,” he declares, throwing his carefully dishevelled head back and roaring with laughter. “It’s really […]

The biographer of Princess Diana alleges Cruise is consulted by Scientology leader David Miscavige on “every aspect of planning and policy” and is tailoring his career to fit the aims of Scientology.

Miscavige is said in the book to have gone to extraordinary lengths to charm Cruise, even ordering his staff to plant a field full of wild flowers at a Scientology base in California after Cruise had told him of his fantasy to run through a wildflower meadow with his then newlywed wife Nicole Kidman.

The relationship between the two men is so close that, according to Morton’s book, Miscavige even joined him on honeymoon in the Maldives after his wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006.

A controversial book about Tom Cruise claims the star is second in command of the Church of Scientology.

The unauthorised biography, by Princess Di’s writer Andrew Morton, claims he is consulted by leader David Miscavige on “every aspect of policy”, and that he tailors his career to the cult’s aims.

Morton also suggests Scientologists, fearing Nicole Kidman’s influence, asked Cruise to take a course in 1999 pinpointing “those in his life who create difficulties” - leading to their divorce in 2001.