Westboro to Hackers: 'Bring It, Cowards'

Web war erupting as Anonymous targets the group
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 21, 2011 3:30 AM CST
Hate Church to Hacker Attackers: 'Bring It, Cowards'
Protesters from Rev. Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church demonstrate during 2009 funeral services for abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kan.   (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, FIle)

The hacktivist group Anonymous is now targeting the Westboro Baptist Church—but the Kansas church isn't going to play dead. "Bring it, cowards," its founder's 24-year-old granddaughter has responded. Anonymous threw down the gauntlet with an open letter to the church warning that the group is sick and tired of Westboro's "graceless sociopaths" and their "venemous statements of hatred and inimitable bigotry and intolerant fanaticism," reports Salon.

"Cease & desist your protest campaign, return to your homes in Kansas, & close your public web sites. Should you ignore this warning, you will meet with the vicious retaliatory arm of Anonymous." Big deal, says the granddaughter of Fred Phelps. "Thanks, Anonymous!" tweeted Megan Phelps-Roper. "Your efforts to shut up God's word only serve to publish it further. God did that! Our response to you? Bring it, cowards." Westboro issued its own official statement calling Anonymous "a puddle of pimple-faced nerds," Gawker notes. Ouch. (More anonymous stories.)

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