As the German general said, "Why don't you make like Tom and Cruise out of here?"

Wow. I might expect this kind of religious persecution in a country like China, where the government is still under Communist rule, but never would I have imagined that this would still happen in western Europe.

Tom Cruise is set to star in Valkyrie, a film set in World War II about a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. However, because of Cruise's affiliation with the Church of Scientology, the German government is not allowing him to set foot on any German military sites to film:

Germany has barred the makers of a movie about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler from filming at German military sites because its star Tom Cruise is a Scientologist, the Defense Ministry said on Monday.

Cruise, also one of the film's producers, is a member of the Church of Scientology which the German government does not recognize as a church. Berlin says it masquerades as a religion to make money, a charge Scientology leaders reject.

The U.S. actor has been cast as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, leader of the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Nazi dictator in July 1944 with a bomb hidden in a briefcase.

Say what you will about Tom Cruise and his practice of Scientology. He still makes a damn good action movie. I seem to remember Germany not letting him film Mission:Impossible 3 in Berlin, either. I wonder if this had anything to do with it. Instead, they filmed in Shanghai--go figure.

I guess this could be some sort of safeguard against development of other "cults," such as Neo-Nazism. You certainly don't want another Hitler running around your army bases. Not sure how harmful Scientology really is, though, unless the Thetans are setting us up for an eventual invasion by aliens. I'm half-expecting Tom Cruise to be revealed as a mouse-eating lizard man ala the 80's TV show V. You know, he does like to wear sunglasses a lot. Hmmm.