The activist group Anonymous has threatened to extract names of sex offenders from a rumored Watch Tower Society database

Astonishing news is spreading that the activist group Anonymous is now targeting the Watch Tower Society with an attack aimed at uncovering a database of sex offenders that is said to be held electronically at central offices of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States. The database, which is rumoured to contain the names of thousands of individuals who have been accused but not convicted of sex crimes, has been alluded to in Watchtower organizational correspondence but has yet to be publicly acknowledged.

Anonymous made their threats against the Society via videos posted on the popular website YouTube. The group is known to have already attacked the Church of Scientology during “Project Chanology” in 2008, resulting for a brief period in some of the church’s websites crashing and certain documents allegedly being leaked. In the wake of the publicity surrounding the Candace Conti verdict, the group has now targeted the Watch Tower Society as part of “Operation Pedo Chat”, which is a broader operation aimed at bringing child molesters to justice.

Here is a transcript of the Anonymous video:

Hello Citizens of the world. We are Anonymous.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Now is the time to open your eyes and expose the truth!

Operation Pedo Chat has commenced with a great deal of success and enthusiasm to protect the innocent from these disgusting pedophiles that roam the internet. While this war on internet Pedophilia has only just begun, more cries for help has gained the attention of Anonymous. A cult under the umbrella of Jehovah’s Witnesses has 23,000 plus pedophiles names and their offenses on this list within Watchtower Head quarters which is not available to the public. The Watchtower headquarters is located at 100 Watchtower Drive, Patterson, New York, 12563. Jehovah’s Witnesses official website is www.watchtower.org When a Jehovah’s Witness is faced with being victim to a pedophile, the accusing parents and the child are told to go to the elders first, not the police, and then let the elders make the decision.

When they bring their child to the elders to explain, the elders hear the story and then bring in the pedophile. If the pedophile denies the charges, they leave it up to “Jehovah” to bring it out and go no further, unless there are witnesses.

Anonymous calls on the 99% to infiltrate this group and uncover any data pertaining to these cultish pedophilia crimes and expose this cult for who and what it is. Anonymous must get this pedophile list and submit it to the following:

The Pirate Bay, Wikileaks, and www.silentlambs.org

Anonymous will expose the vile pedophiles and free the silent lambs.

We are anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us.

So far, there has been no official reaction to the threats of Anonymous on the Society’s official media website. However, given the group’s track record, there must surely be some concern behind closed doors as to the potential ramifications if any confidential information were to be leaked.

Does the Society hold a secret list of pedophiles?

As has been previously mentioned, the Watch Tower Society does not acknowledge in its publications that it keeps any records on those accused of pedophilia or related crimes. However, there IS documented evidence to suggest that records are kept of those found guilty of child molestation by a body of elders. This came to light recently during the Candace Conti verdict, when certain private correspondence was published.

Consider the following Watchtower letter to Fremont North congregation, dated June 19, 1998, in which the Fremont elders were reminded to send in specific details on Jonathan Kendrick in compliance with a previous letter to all bodies of elders.

You will note that another letter is alluded to in the above letter – namely a Society letter dated March 14, 1997, to all bodies of elders. A copy of one of the pages of this letter, which requests the information, is reproduced below:

If you would like to download the March 14, 1997 letter in its entirety, you can do so below:

This March 14, 1997 letter served the purpose of requesting all congregations to send in details of any brothers either currently or previously serving in appointed positions within a congregation who had been found guilty by a body of elders of child molestation. The Fremont elders had evidently overlooked the request to do this in the case of Kendrick, and so sent the following belated response, dated August 31, 1998. Note the numbered responses to the questions posed in the March 14, 1997 letter.

As evidenced by the above letters, there were 12 questions that ALL bodies of elders were required to answer in relation to those found guilty of child abuse. The Fremont elders, in this case, answered the majority of those questions regarding Jonathan Kendrick – but it was incumbent on elders in ALL congregations to answer the same questions regarding similar offenders known locally. These questions were as follows:

  1. How long ago did he commit the sin?
  2. What was his age at the time?*
  3. What was the age of his victim(s)?
  4. Was it a one-time occurrence or a practice?
  5. If it was a practice, to what extent?*
  6. How is he viewed in the community and by the authorities?
  7. Has he lived down any notoriety in the community?
  8. Are members of the congregation aware of what took place?
  9. How do they and/or his victim(s) view him?*
  10. Has he ever been disfellowshipped, reproved, counselled, or otherwise dealt with?
  11. If he has moved to another congregation, please identify the congregation to which he has moved.
  12. Was that congregation advised of his past conduct of child molestation, and, if so, when?

* It appears that, inexplicably, certain questions were not answered by the Fremont elders in relation to Kendrick.

As mentioned, the above questions were asked of elders concerning child molesters in all congregations (specifically, molesters who had served in some appointed capacity). It would be reasonable to assume that, once received by the Society, the answers would then be compiled on a central database, either in writing or electronically. In that respect, the questions themselves may be thought of as corresponding with fields on a database.

Given the number of congregations responding to these questions, and the number of offenders whose details would need to be processed, it would take only the wildest of imaginations to assume that this database was anything other than computer-based and networked (leaving it susceptible to attack by Anonymous), rather than kept in a handwritten book or ledger.

Many will no doubt raise questions as to why a database of child offenders should be held by the Society if it is not automatically shared with the authorities so that these can investigate all reported cases and bring those found guilty to justice. As explained in my recent article on the Candace Conti verdict, the primary motivating influence behind the Society’s policy of confidentiality in respect of child molesters is to rigidly enforce the “two witness rule”.

The “two witness rule”, so rigidly enforced by the Society, puts untold numbers of children at risk

Put simply, the Society firmly believes that, unless a third person is on hand to witness a child being molested, the incident should be “brushed under the rug” if the perpetrator denies it. This is why the Society insists that THEY should be consulted first by elders rather than the authorities, so that they can manage any incidents and ensure that the “two witness rule” is applied and any legal entanglements kept to a minimum. It is this blatantly negligent approach that opposers of the Watch Tower Society commonly refer to when they say that the Society protects pedophiles – because this “loophole” favors the offender rather than the victim, and bypasses the authority of local law enforcement in determining whether someone is guilty or not.

What can we expect?

Anonymous would themselves acknowledge that they have courted controversy since their inception in 2003. Their methods are questionable and, many would argue, downright illegal. I would in no way wish to use the pages of this website to encourage anyone to break the law or support those who do so. However, in their stated aim to expose pedophiles and bring such monsters to justice, it is difficult not to admire the group’s motives in this particular campaign.

Whether they are fulfilling these objectives by exposing those monsters who find sanctuary on the Society’s database and in its policy of secrecy is for each one of us to decide. In turn, whether the “ends justify the means” is a matter for the authorities to determine. It is, after all, the authorities who carry the responsibility of prosecuting any child molesters who are uncovered as a result of this or any subsequent attempts to extract the database.

Regardless of our personal feelings or observations, it would appear the attack has already begun. It seems intelligence is already being gathered, and protests are being planned that will doubtless draw media attention. Many inside the organization will likely conclude that this is an attack by Satan, and the existing “persecution complex” and paranoia of such ones will be heightened. Others who are well-informed about the Society’s history and policies will see it as justice for those who have suffered at the hands of an organization that refuses to protect its most vulnerable members.

In any case, perhaps now would be a good time to remind ourselves of two pertinent scriptures:

“What, then, shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who will be against us?” – Romans 8:31 (New World Translation)

“And so, under the present circumstances, I say to YOU, Do not meddle with these men, but let them alone; (because, if this scheme or this work is from men, it will be overthrown; but if it is from God, YOU will not be able to overthrow them;) otherwise, YOU may perhaps be found fighters actually against God.” – Acts 5:38, 39 (New World Translation)

Indeed, whatever happens in this matter will happen regardless of any intervention by any of us. My personal view is that it is best to wait and see what transpires. In doing so, we do well to remind ourselves that, if God is truly backing the Watch Tower Society, then we should be seeing an organization that is growing and flourishing in spite of any attacks by Anonymous, or similarly damaging developments.

If, on the other hand, God is NOT backing the Watch Tower Society, then this should become apparent – either through a successful Anonymous campaign, or through closer inspection of the organization on an individual basis. We do well to remain observant and inquisitive as events unfold.

Many would argue that the continued spate of branch closures and operational downsizing by the Society already sends a worrying omen that all is not well within the organization, and it is not enjoying the success it once did – either financially or otherwise. I’m sure this latest attack by a committed group of activists could not have been more poorly timed for the Governing Body, who will already be preoccupied with “putting out fires” in the wake of the Candace Conti verdict.

It goes without saying that a successful attack by Anonymous would have a crippling effect on the Society’s reputation and credibility, possibly beyond anything we can contemplate. Indeed, the very fact that Watchtower is now being targeted by a non-Witness activist group would seem to indicate that the wider public’s patience towards the organization regarding its terrible track record on handling child abuse is wearing thin.

 

 

 

 

 

[Update: since this article was written, Anonymous seems to have relented in their pursuit of Watchtower. I am led to believe that a database file WAS extracted, but it was too heavily encrypted to be deciphered without assistance from the authorities. Anonymous did produce other incriminating information related to Watchtower (in particular its shady financial practices), but this is mostly already available on Ex-JW websites. Since Anonymous has slipped back into the shadows, a new organization has come to the fore in helping to expose Watchtower. JWsurvey.org is proudly affiliated with Advocates for Awareness of Watchtower Abuses (AAWA.co) – a legally incorporated organization which aims to raise awareness of Watchtower’s harmful practices through respectful and well-informed activism.]

73 thoughts on “JW.org on alert! Anonymous attacks the Watchtower

  • April 26, 2013 at 11:04 am
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    Well say what you want. I don’t care. The fucking ChoMo who molested me took anti psychotic pills and spent time in hospitals being evaluated so imo he is “mentally ill”. Does that mean I forgive him or believe he didn’t know right from wrong? Hell no! He is a sick sack of shit who is completely useless imo.
    Btw, the smiley was after my sentence about gossip and I think all Dubs have heard the gossip talk on “local needs” so it was an inside joke about gossip. Thus the smiley. Typing fast so I didn’t realise how it’d look. My bad! Now that’s out of the way maybe you can quit calling me a liar about my abuse?
    I can’t even have sex with my fiancee because I have psychological issues from my abuse. I am an addict because of my abuse. I tried killing myself years ago but failed because the serpentine belt broke before I got up the speed I wanted to in my Pontiac Grand Am GT HO. I was going 120 mph but thought I could go faster. The kh I was going to take out with me was still a few hundred yarrds awway. I wanted to know I would die!!! I wanted the org to know I blamed them. But the belt broke and I couldn’t turn so I couldn’t hit the kingdom hall. I lost all control of my car and hit a colvert instead. By then I was going too slow to kill myself. I prayed before I tried to die but I couldn’t even kill myself properly!!! Those were in the good old coke n roll days. “Oh well. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to die”, I though. I had about a teener of coke left, and it made my teeth numb, good shit! So I figured id just try and od on it. But I was soo high my hands wouldn’t quit shaking so I couldn’t keep the scale still enough to do another line off of. Basically, I couldn’t even kill myself right! I didn’t have a needle or id have shot it up. Don’t know if id be able to hold still long enough though.
    Anyways, I suggest you get your facts strait KtotheRAD “Konrad” before you call people a liar. Maybe if those elders did that girl would have gotten help sooner? I think if her dad is a pervert he is a pervert regardless of his religion. I see all kinds of people saying stupid reasons for being mad at the witnesses. At least mine is for something major! People say “they d/f me for fucking my boyfriend” boo hoo! Why did you get baptized then? I knew I would be d/f for my lifestyle. I agreed by baptism not to do certain things, however ridiculous, or to accept the “shunning”. I mean ain’t thre more to life than talking shit on a group you want no more part of? I think so. I fucked up my own life. I got to liver with it now cuz I figured out I suck at killing myself!!!

  • April 26, 2013 at 11:17 am
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    And if I ever meet you face to face I will let everyone know that you call me a liar about my abuse! You are a loser and should try to acomplish what I could not if you are sinking so low to call me a liar then block me as” spam” so I can’t defend myself! If im a liar, why block me? I got you though. I may just be a brainwashed ignorant dub in your opinion but I do have a gifted level IQ. So I know a little bit about these kind of things. Later loser!

  • April 26, 2013 at 11:45 am
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    To anyone who was baptized at like 12 or 13, I do feel bad for you. No child is mature enough at that age to even commit to a pair of sneakers, much less something like baptism. Jesus was 30 and he was PERFECT and the SON OF GOD!!! So I understand your anger. So does God, whoever you believe that is. The witnesses should not let kids be baptized when they have no clue about the world.

  • April 26, 2013 at 3:06 pm
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    I can’t even fake clap for that performance…I’ve held conversations with virtually hundreds of traumatized people, dissociatives and borderline personalities in person and via every means of communication and you are about 500 exclamation points (figurative) and capital letters short! Certainly in all the wrong places.

    I am not the moderator of this forum and Cedars doesn’t generally ban people without warning. That sounds like more underhanded Watchtower propaganda. Anyone who reads those posts does not need my level of experience to see who you are. Who sent you and what your motives are. I just was highly sensitized immediately like a bird dog!

    The one thing you said which sounds like crowd pleasing DISinformation and I do concur with, along with Disfellowshipping which is traumatic at that age is:

    “To anyone who was baptized at like 12 or 13, I do feel bad for you. No child is mature enough at that age to even commit to a pair of sneakers, much less something like baptism. Jesus was 30 and he was PERFECT and the SON OF GOD!!! So I understand your anger. So does God, whoever you believe that is. The witnesses should not let kids be baptized when they have no clue about the world.”

    It is peculiar if not telling however that you would raise these concerns (among others):

    I see all kinds of people saying stupid reasons for being mad at the witnesses. At least mine is for something major!”

    “I mean ain’t thre more to life than talking shit on a group you want no more part of?”

    If I were you all? I would just give it up while you can because you are not helping your case or the Society’s in the slightest. In fact you are helping everybody else’s and my own personal cases as well. You certainly won’t “convince” anybody of anything and especially anybody with any knowlege or experience in this particular realm of life.
    The matter that I recently wrote Mario Moreno and the Legal Department regarding is still outstanding and is falling ever farther in my interest and needs now more than ever to be resolved. In some measure thanks to this particular event but not exclusively.

    Kurt J. Hennig “Konrad”

  • April 28, 2013 at 6:52 pm
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    Sassy Lassy April 27, 2013 at 9:52 pm

    “Jessica, you are a good person and I believe you have a good and loving heart. I think Jehovah was waiting for you to be ready to come back to him, as He forgives those who WANT to do what is good and right, and that is exactly how you sound to me….ready to come back.”

    Likely somebody else from the Watchtower Society looking to pick up and perpetuate the image and farce, attempt to carry on a battle on behalf of this person. If not it would be typically disgusting for a Jehovah’s Witness to say that such a person (if they actually existed) is “ready to come back” but the foul speech and immoral behavior is classic as is the bigotry and hatred towards the Mentally Ill.

  • April 30, 2013 at 10:57 am
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    Question 5 need not be answered if the answer to Question 4 is one-time. Question 9 appears optional if question 8 is unanswered. Question 2 is quite unimportant, although the failure to ask the gender of the elder under accusation appears strange. Nevertheless, we can see clear proof Cedars is out to usurp the Governing Body as he is the evil slave prophesised.

  • June 24, 2013 at 3:30 pm
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    Hope it will not happen to you.

  • June 24, 2013 at 4:04 pm
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    First of all ALL JW”S are disobeying God and Jesus on a daily basis. They DO NOT follow God’s commands! Ps146:3 DO NOT PUT YOUR FAITH IN THAT OF EARTHLING MAN TO WHOM NO SALVATION BELONGS. Jer17:5 Cursed is he who follows earthling man. Ac5:29 NIV Peter and the apostles replied, We must obey God as ruler rather than human beings. Lu21:8 Do not be misled, for many will come on the basis of my name saying I am he, AND the end has drawn near, DO NOT FOLLOW AFTER THEM! So there you have it right from God’s Holy Word. There are NO scriptures saying in the last days one church would be the true God’s voice on earth. No. It says to stay away from man, the only one you should be following is Jesus. He is the only way to the Father. Is the gb going to stand with you on Judgement Day? No, but Jesus will…don’t you think you better obey him, since all authority was given him? When God says DO NOT! It means DO NOT in every language on the earth. So who is lying? The gb or God and Jesus?

  • June 25, 2013 at 1:25 pm
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    Camoko June 24, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    “Hope it will not happen to you”

    You accidently put a “not” in there…typo?

    And silly ol’ me? What do I know anyway?
    (That any one else can’t see at least)

  • June 25, 2013 at 6:01 pm
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    Divine intervention is at close.Nobody could stop it.We all need a new world.

  • October 15, 2013 at 11:58 am
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    Ok , This letter was sent to (Look Above)

    Brroklyn NY .. Where is that? haha.. Nice try.

  • October 15, 2013 at 11:59 am
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    Ok lets keep it simple and just laugh..

    Look above <–

    Letter was sent to BRROKLYN NY .. Where is that? Keep it simple.

  • June 12, 2014 at 11:33 am
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    Dear John

    My father was one of those ‘monsters’, though perhaps from a legalese term might best be called ‘dangerous’, in that they are not in control, or being controlled, by either The Organisation or their conscience (if they genuinely have an effective set of morals). They fit into the definition of ‘psychopath’: A person without a functioning conscience.

    My father was an example of a cruel, psychopathic social-misfit. A religious fanatic and an ex-Protestant, who became a Jehovah’s Witness in 1954 under the auspices of one of The Remnant, the legendary, humble Billy Holliday. Dad was a typical hypocritical and socially dysfunctional, predatory Ulster religious bigot, who had invited my 18 year old youngest sister to stay with him from London, in Belfast N Ireland over the course of 9 months in 1978-79. He got rid of me within a year in 1972, and was probably ‘feeling lonely’, not having seen any of his children for more than 5 years.

    He had sexually assaulted her to such an extent that shortly after she returned to London and back to her mother in a state of inexplicable shock, she would frequently be brought home from the Kingdom Hall meeting supported on each arm by two Witnesses, in a state of narcolepsy. At that time she spent a whole week in immobilised self-induced ‘sleep’, fully dressed.

    My deceased mother to her shame failed to repost him (she hated scandal and didn’t have the psychological tools to fight back against him – never did).

    It was only years later that I learned about the personal hell she had endured at my father’s hand, which explained her later psychotic breaks and paranoia.

    Since then she has had an appalling personal life, a violence-induced miscarriage by her then JW boyfriend (first, failed, would-be father), and finally the abandonment in 2007 of her two daughters, who surrendered themselves into care and have been under social services mentoring ever since. Both their fathers were prematurely deceased.

    The girls were aged 14 and 16 when they left their mother, after enduring a childhood of tyranny (extremist JW based), violence, and emotional neglect. Neither girl had a living father by then, so I was the only one they could turn to, ‘Uncle Paul’. Both their father’s relatives have ignored them from birth (one was an exploitative visiting social worker to my sister). Hard to imagine a much worse start in life? It broke my heart to be then blocked from seeing them for two years, due to obstinate, paranoid objections by their disturbed mother.

    The upshot of all that was the irony of ringing up Lisburn N Ireland Congregation of JWs in September 2010 to ask about dad, only to discover that he had died 3 months earlier (aged 85; and my sister Julie had looked after him in his declining weeks – complications from prostate cancer I believe – without informing me).

    The Lisburn congregation servant said that he was not aware of my existence or that of my youngest sister (abused) or my youngest brother. Father had never mentioned his other 3 children, only a younger ‘faithful’ brother in London, Ontario, Canada (where he was born in 1958 and returned to, in 2000) and a sister living in England.

    We three of five had ‘ceased to exist’.

    Despite being on the sex offenders register for molesting my two cousins (his brother’s – a JW elder’s daughters) and being restricted (in his 80’s) from certain privileges, no mention or confession was ever offered regarding my severely damaged and scarred-for-life youngest sister.

    He had abandoned us all in 1960 after a reign of terror and was disfellowshipped for 20 years..! We got to see him odd Sundays as kids for about 7 years when he took us to meetings in his fancy car. We lived in abject poverty in a sink-pond council estate of about 1 thousand pre-fabricated bungalows made of metal, called Tin Town.

    The senior elder said, “Jehovah will take care of it”.

    Case closed, then.

  • December 9, 2014 at 12:50 pm
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    With this I completely agree

  • March 2, 2015 at 10:55 am
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    Im a jehovah witness for life. I got babtized at age of 11. I am now 48. And i can tell you that making that desition at a young age was the best desition i could have made. I can say that being babtized helped me NOT commit any sins. I agree that some children are not mature enough but then again they feel that love for jehovah they want to get babtized as soon as posible and serve theyr god. We should encourage our young brothers and help them accoplish their goals.

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