Friday, June 29, 2007

Cruise and the "PR purposes of a dangerous and totalitarian brainwashing organization"

There are many articles out this week about the German military's stance against Scientology and it's PR pusher, Tom Cruise.

Here is an exerpt from Reuters via one of the more respected German media outlets:

"MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: Berlin Politicians Attack Cruise, Scientology -
International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News" June 26, 2007

Berlin Politicians Attack Cruise, Scientology
The German Defense Ministry has said it will not permit Tom Cruise to film scenes in a movie about a plot to kill Hitler at historical World War II sites in Berlin. The reason: Politicians don't want Germany to be seen as promoting the Scientology cult.

Germany's Defense Ministry has said it will ban the Hollywood makers of a film about a plot to kill Hitler from shooting scenes at military sites in Berlin because its heartthrob star, Tom Cruise, is a Scientologist. Filming is expected to start in July on "Valkyrie," a drama about a failed plot hatched by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg to kill Hitler using a briefcase bomb. [..]

During a session on Friday in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, the cult expert for the governing conservative Christian Democrats, Antje Blumenthal, said that Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung told her "there was no question" about whether filming could take place at German facilities. [..]

[..] A Nazi-Like Organization?

But Blumenthal has remained undeterred in her campaign against the actor and the cult, whose beliefs are based on the science fiction writings of L. Ron Hubbard. "We have to present a united front against Scientology," she said. Blumenthal accused the organization of spreading views in the tradition of National Socialism - "and I find it, to say the least, odd that someone who represents this organization would be able to film at the site of a memorial to resistance against National Socialism of all places."

Any filming at Bendlerblock, she told Der Tagesspiegel, "would be public relations work done for this organization, and that's not the sort of thing we need to support, especially since Mr. Cruise misses no opportunity to promote Scientology."

A party spokesman for the Christian Democrats in the city of Berlin took the statement even further, telling the paper: "Resistance against the National Socialist dictatorship must not be abused for the PR purposes of a dangerous and totalitarian brainwashing organization like Scientology."

dsl/Reuters
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,490765,00.html
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The cult just cannot fool these people..... Thank God!