Scientology head David Miscavige has declared victory over Anonymous in an internal church magazine.

Miscavige described Anonymous as a group of "mask-wearing subversive and anarchistic internet denizens".

He continues: "Having run into the Church of Scientology, they are no longer laughing out loud or otherwise. Nor are they any longer anonymous".

Referring to the arrest of Anonymous activists over January 2008 denial of service attacks on the Scientology website, Miscavige stated that these "ringleaders" were not the "trio of dastardly villains they had aspired to be, but more akin to cartoon characters".

The text was republished on an Anonymous activist board which at the time of writing is unavailable, possibly as a result of a denial of service attack by patriot hackers opposed to Anonymous' support of WikiLeaks.

Anonymous first came to prominence with website attacks on the Church of Scientology in January 2008, prompted by the controversial organisation's censorship of a Tom Cruise video. Project Chanology later expanded to include offline protests outside CoS centres over subsequent months protesting against the group's treatment of its members and other issues.

More recently, the activities of Anonymous have been focused on attacks on entertainment industry websites in support of file sharers and torrent tracker sites such as the Pirate Bay. The latest campaign has seen assaults on Mastercard, PayPal and other organisations seen as inimical to Wikileaks and/or its spokesman Julian Assange.

Despite all this Project Chanology still continues, so Miscavige is perhaps unwise to declare victory. The smarter move would have been to stay silent rather than mocking Anonymous, a move that risks reigniting its campaign against the Scientologists.

Miscavige's declaration brings to mind former President George Bush's early declaration that the War in Iraq was won days after the capture of Baghdad.

WhyWeProtest (WWP), run by the anti-Scientology part of Anonymous, maintains a portal explaining its aims and objectives here. ®