How dangerous is the Church of Scientology? How influential is it and how much about it do we really know? According to this review of a recent documentary from Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Scientology – a cult with a ‘Nazi-like’ Office of Special Affairs with an annual budget of $1 billion, has infiltrated and undermined nations around the world – particularly the U.S. State Department.
For the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, reporter Michael Hanfeld starts off this way:
The Office of Special Affairs is to Scientology “what the Stasi was to the German Democratic Republic,” says CSU politician and former Bavarian Prime Minister Günther Beckstein. Anyone who sees the documentary by Frank Nordhausen and Markus Thöss, which airs today on Channel One, will realize how this is not an exaggeration. For the Office of Special Affairs – OSA for short – operates worldwide, has an annual budget of perhaps $1 billion – according to one former Scientologist – and employs all possible means for combating critics, bringing about global domination, and convincing followers of L. Ron Hubbard’s crude doctrine. Attacks on life and limb are becoming more commonplace, says one former cult member, who spoke with the two Southwest Broadcasting (Südwest-Rundfunk) documentarians on camera.
Frank Nordhausen and Markus Thöss have thoroughly researched their topic. Their journey takes them from Germany to France, Greece, Russia, and of course the United States – to Hollywood and to the once-tranquil town of Clearwater, Florida, where Scientologists are now calling the shots. It is amazing to see how far-reaching the sect’s power is. In France, the OSA was able to place a bodyguard and elite agent (code name “F-10”) in the immediate vicinity of former President Mitterrand. In Greece, Scientology’s influence must be interpreted as an attack on the state. It is no different in Russia, considering that the “Church,” with it “Centers for Dianetics,” has placed particular emphasis on defense contractors and secret nuclear installations. In the United States, on the other hand, as is shown by Nordhausen and Thöss, Scientology has broken through any resistance and (this is known) has long-since secured the support of leading figures in the entertainment industry (Tom Cruise, John Travolta) and – above all – in the highest political circles, including the State Department.
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