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Scientology
Ursula Caberta on Scientology: "You Have to Be Always Watching Them"
By Tony Ortega Sun., May 20 2012 at 8:00 AM
Comments (103)
Categories: Scientology, Sunday Funnies
UrsulaCaberta.jpg
Ursula Caberta
This week, a 90-minute documentary about Scientology's intelligence-gathering wing, the Office of Special Affairs, aired on the French and German cultural channel ARTE.
Titled "Office of Special Affairs: Der Scientology-Geheimdienst" (Scientology's Secret Service), it included interviews with several people very familiar to readers of this blog: Marc Headley, Mike Rinder, Gerry Armstrong, and Tiziano Lugli. It also featured Ursula Caberta, the Hamburg politician who for years led a state-sponsored attempt to curb Scientology. We spoke to her on the telephone yesterday about the documentary. After the jump, her thoughts, as well as the documentary itself, with English subtitles.
"I think it's a good thing to do 90 minutes only on OSA," Caberta said to me from her home in Hamburg. The documentary focuses on the spy wing of the church, which also handles PR and legal affairs. The filmmakers are especially eager to talk to Rinder, who ran OSA for many years.
I asked Caberta if the documentary, airing on ARTE, would get good exposure.
"A lot of people in France and Germany will see it," she says. "The most interesting thing for us is the US government's role, how Scientology influences the US government. And how easy it is to get Washington DC to work for them. I think this is very important for us here in Germany to know."
She's referring to the way the US State Department has repeatedly gone to bat for the church, admonishing the German and French governments, who treat Scientology as a controversial business, not a religion.
"It changed with Clinton. I remember when Madeleine Albright came to Germany," says Caberta. "One of the most important things she wanted to talk about was discrimination against Scientologists by the German government. This was in 1993. In Germany and in France, government people said, 'Are you stupid, Ms. Albright?' A lot of people were very surprised."
<more at link>
Scientology
Ursula Caberta on Scientology: "You Have to Be Always Watching Them"
By Tony Ortega Sun., May 20 2012 at 8:00 AM
Comments (103)
Categories: Scientology, Sunday Funnies
UrsulaCaberta.jpg
Ursula Caberta
This week, a 90-minute documentary about Scientology's intelligence-gathering wing, the Office of Special Affairs, aired on the French and German cultural channel ARTE.
Titled "Office of Special Affairs: Der Scientology-Geheimdienst" (Scientology's Secret Service), it included interviews with several people very familiar to readers of this blog: Marc Headley, Mike Rinder, Gerry Armstrong, and Tiziano Lugli. It also featured Ursula Caberta, the Hamburg politician who for years led a state-sponsored attempt to curb Scientology. We spoke to her on the telephone yesterday about the documentary. After the jump, her thoughts, as well as the documentary itself, with English subtitles.
"I think it's a good thing to do 90 minutes only on OSA," Caberta said to me from her home in Hamburg. The documentary focuses on the spy wing of the church, which also handles PR and legal affairs. The filmmakers are especially eager to talk to Rinder, who ran OSA for many years.
I asked Caberta if the documentary, airing on ARTE, would get good exposure.
"A lot of people in France and Germany will see it," she says. "The most interesting thing for us is the US government's role, how Scientology influences the US government. And how easy it is to get Washington DC to work for them. I think this is very important for us here in Germany to know."
She's referring to the way the US State Department has repeatedly gone to bat for the church, admonishing the German and French governments, who treat Scientology as a controversial business, not a religion.
"It changed with Clinton. I remember when Madeleine Albright came to Germany," says Caberta. "One of the most important things she wanted to talk about was discrimination against Scientologists by the German government. This was in 1993. In Germany and in France, government people said, 'Are you stupid, Ms. Albright?' A lot of people were very surprised."
<more at link>
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