Blog: 2 A French take on Scientology - 2011-01-07

2 A French take on Scientology January 7, 2011, Jonny Jacobsen, Infinite Complacency

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In Scientologie: autopsie d'une secte d'Etat, Fansten has joined the dots on Scientology's lobbying activities not just in France, but worldwide.

Somewhere on my bookcase is a fat file containing news cuttings about Scientology in Europe over the past 15 years or so. Thanks to French journalist Emmanuel Fansten's new book, Scientologie: autopsie d'une secte d'Etat, I'll be able to trim it down considerably.[1]

But Fansten's work is not just a cuttings job: it does more than simply summarise press reports of the developments in France and elsewhere. He has interviewed deputies, magistrates and members of France's internal security service, Renseignements Généraux, and gained access to hitherto confidential ministerial notes.