This is an old case that has been in the news recently.
copied with permission
These articles describe graphic crimes of abuse.
Death Penalty Recommended for Teen-Ager March 20, 1994 …Prosecutors presented evidence suggesting Mr. Echols was a devil worshipper and the younger teen-ager his loyal follower. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/20/us/death-penalty-recommended-for-teen-ager.html?scp=18&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st=nyt
Youth Is Convicted In Slaying of 3 Boys In an Arkansas City CORNING, Ark., Feb. 4 The teen-ager, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a boy whom he had admitted chasing down. He was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of the other two boys….Mr. Misskelley told the police in two tape-recorded interviews that he had watched as his two friends beat the boys, raped two of them and castrated one. The prosecution said the slayings might have been part of a Satanic ritual. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/05/us/youth-is-convicted-in-slaying-of-3-boys-in-an-arkansas-city.html?scp=11&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st=nyt
Jessie Lloyd MISSKELLEY, Jr. v. STATE of Arkansas CR 94-848 S.W.2d Supreme Court of Arkansas Opinion delivered February 19, 1996
On June 3, 1993, the crime having remained unsolved, Detective Sergeant Mike Allen sought the appellant out for questioning. The appellant was not considered a suspect, but it was thought he might have knowledge about Damien Echols, who was a suspect. Detective Allen located the appellant and brought him back to the station, arriving at approximately 10:00 a.m. Later in this opinion, we will address in detail the circumstances surrounding the appellant’s interrogation. For now, it is sufficient to say that the appellant was questioned off and on over a period from 10:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. At 2:44 p.m. and again at approximately 5:00 p.m., he gave statements to police in which he confessed his involvement in the murders. Both statements were tape-recorded….
In the early morning hours of May 5, 1993, the appellant received a phone call from Jason Baldwin. Baldwin asked the appellant to accompany him and Damien Echols to the Robin Hood area. The appellant agreed to go. They went to the area, which has a creek, and were in the creek when the victims rode up on their bicycles. Baldwin and Echols called to the boys, who came to the creek. The boys were severely beaten by Baldwin and Echols. At least two of the boys were raped and forced to perform oral sex on Baldwin and Echols. According to appellant, he was merely an observer.
While these events were taking place, Michael Moore tried to escape and began running. The appellant chased him down and returned him to Baldwin and Echols. The appellant also stated that Baldwin had used a knife to cut the boys in the facial area and that the Byers boy was cut on his penis. Echols used a large stick to hit one of the boys. All three boys had their clothes taken off and were tied up….
The appellant was asked about his involvement in a cult. He said he had been involved for about three months. The participants would typically meet in the woods. They engaged in orgies and, as an initiation rite, killing and eating dogs. He noted that at one cult meeting, he saw a picture that Echols had taken of the three boys. He stated that Echols had been watching the boys….
Damien Echols was observed near the crime scene at 9:30 p.m. on May 5. He was wearing black pants and a black shirt and his clothes were muddy. A witness testified that she had attended a satanic cult meeting with Echols and the appellant….a witness from the State Crime Lab testified that she found fibers on the victims’ clothing which were microscopically similar to items in the Baldwin and Echols residences. http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996/cr94-848.html
Damien Wayne ECHOLS and Charles Jason Baldwin v. STATE of Arkansas CR 94-928 S.W.2d Supreme Court of Arkansas Opinion delivered December 23, 1996
Where two witnesses testified that they overheard appellant Echols state that he killed the three boys, this was direct evidence; a confession is sufficient to sustain a conviction if it is accompanied by other proof that the offense was committed by someone….
There was substantial evidence of the guilt of appellant Echols where, among other things, the testimony of witnesses placed him in dirty clothes near the crime scene at a time close to the murders; where two independent witnesses reported Echols’s statement that he had killed the three boys and was direct evidence of the statement; where a criminalist from the State Crime Laboratory and a State Medical Examiner testified concerning the similarity of fibers found on the victim’s clothes with clothing found in Echols’s home and the serrated wound patterns on the three victims that were consistent with, and could have been caused by, a knife found in a lake behind appellant Baldwin’s parents’ residence….
Echols admitted on cross-examination that he had delved deeply into the occult and was familiar with its practices and where various items that had been found in his room supported the State’s theory of motive that the killings were done in a satanic ritual; where an expert in occult killings testified that there was significant evidence of satanic ritual killings; where a detective testified that Echols had made a statement regarding the mutilation of one of the victims that the jury could have reasonably concluded he would not have known about unless he had been involved in some manner; and where Echols’s testimony contained additional evidence of guilt….
Echols admitted on cross-examination in the penalty phase of the trial that he had an altercation with his father in which a knife was involved and the police were called; where he admitted that he was hospitalized that same day and that when his father came to the hospital, “I told him I would eat him alive”; where headmitted that he tried “to claw the eyes out” of a student; and where a psychologist who testified for Echols admitted that Echols had “an all-powerful God-like image of himself,” that his parents were concerned with his satanism or devil worship, and that Echols’s medical records included notations of statements by Echols pertaining, among other things, to his rage and the drinking of the blood of others….
Where one witness testified that appellant Baldwin had told him that he had dismembered one of the boys, sucked the blood from his penis and scrotum, and put the testicles in his mouth, and where an expert on ritual killings stated that one of the facts that led him to believe that the killings were cult-related was that one of the victims had been castrated and had had the blood sucked from his penis, there was sufficient evidence of appellant Baldwin’s participation in occult activities, and the trial court correctly allowed the evidence….
Twelve-year-old Christy VanVickle testified that she heard Echols say he “killed the three boys.” Fifteen-year-old Jackie Medford testified that she heard Echols say, “I killed the three little boys and before I turn myself in, I’m going to kill two more, and I already have one of them picked out.” The testimony of these two independent witnesses was direct evidence of the statement by Echols….
Dr. Dale Griffis, an expert in occult killings, testified in the State’s case-in-chief that the killings had the “trappings of occultism.” He testified that the date of the killings, near a pagan holiday, was significant, as well as the fact that there was a full moon. He stated that young children are often sought for sacrifice because “the younger, the more innocent, the better the life force.” He testified that there were three victims, and the number three had significance in occultism. Also, the victims were all eight years old, and eight is a witches’ number. He testified that sacrifices are often done near water for a baptism-type rite or just to wash the blood away. The fact that the victims were tied ankle to wrist was significant because this was done to display the genitalia, and the removal of Byers’s testicles was significant because testicles are removed for the semen. He stated that the absence of blood at the scene could be significant because cult members store blood for future services in which they would drink the blood or bathe in it. He testified that the “overkill” or multiple cuts could reflect occult overtones. Dr. Griffis testified that there was significance in injuries to the left side of the victims as distinguished from the right side: People who practice occultism will use the midline theory, drawing straight down through the body. The right side is related to those things synonymous with Christianity while the left side is that of the practitioners of the satanic occult. He testified that the clear place on the bank could be consistent with a ceremony. In sum, Dr. Griffis testified there was significant evidence of satanic ritual killings….
Echols took the witness stand, and his testimony contained additional evidence of guilt. When asked about his statement that one victim was mutilated more than the others, he said he learned the fact from newspaper accounts. His attorney showed him the newspaper articles about the murders. On cross-examination, Echols admitted that the articles did not mention one victim being mutilated more than the others, and he admitted that he did not read such a fact in a newspaper….
Jason Baldwin does not contend that there was insufficient evidence of his guilt. This is, perhaps, in part, because of the testimony of Michael Carson, who testified that he talked to Baldwin about the murders. Carson’s testimony, in pertinent part, was abstracted as follows:
I said, just between me and you, did you do it. I won’t say a word. He said yes and he went into detail about it. It was just me and Jason [Baldwin]. He told me he dismembered the kids, or I don’t know exactly how many kids. He just said he dismembered them. He sucked the blood from the penis and scrotum and put the balls in his mouth. http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996a/961223sc/cr94-928.html
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Belgian cardinal offered to hush up sex case, Belgian sex abuse tapes
Shanley clergy abuse recovered memory case
http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/shanley-recovered-memory-case/
Belgian cardinal offered to hush up sex case (AP) – 8/28/10
BRUSSELS — Roman Catholic Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium offered to keep a sexual molestation case against a bishop secret until the bishop retired, an official said Saturday. Toon Osaer, Danneels' spokesman, confirmed a report in Saturday's De Standaard newspaper about a secretly taped meeting that Danneels held on April 8 with Belgian Bishop Roger Vangheluwe and the bishop's sexual abuse victim.
Osaer told the VRT television and radio network that Danneels told the victim the case against Vangheluwe could be kept quiet until the bishop retired as scheduled a year later. In the end, Vangheluwe resigned two weeks after the meeting, expressing sorrow for having abused the victim as a youngster for years, both while serving as a priest and a bishop. Danneels retired as head of the Belgian Catholic church in January. But police later questioned him as a potential witness in the case and raided his home and office, confiscating documents and a personal computer. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jELcVrb_-jrRarOc1Ps2E7AmKY8wD9HSJ4FG0
Belgian sex abuse tapes amplify Catholic scandals Sun Aug 29, 2010
PARIS (Reuters) - Leaked tapes of Belgium's Cardinal Godfried Danneels urging a victim not to reveal he was sexually abused by a bishop are some of the most damaging documents to emerge in the scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church.
The tapes, made secretly by the victim and published in two Belgian newspapers on Saturday, show the former primate of Belgium exhorting him to accept a private apology or wait one year until the bishop retired before making his case public.
Their meeting took place on April 8, at a time when the Vatican was under fire for allegedly covering up similar abuse cases by priests in other countries and shocking abuse claims dominated the news in several European states.
A spokesman for Danneels denied the once popular archbishop of Brussels wanted to cover up the case, which led to the sudden resignation of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, 73, later that month, but the tapes show him arguing firmly for silence.
Belgian Church spokesman Jurgen Mettepenningen confirmed to Reuters that the transcripts in the Flemish dailies De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad were genuine.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67S11920100829
http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/shanley-recovered-memory-case/
Belgian cardinal offered to hush up sex case (AP) – 8/28/10
BRUSSELS — Roman Catholic Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium offered to keep a sexual molestation case against a bishop secret until the bishop retired, an official said Saturday. Toon Osaer, Danneels' spokesman, confirmed a report in Saturday's De Standaard newspaper about a secretly taped meeting that Danneels held on April 8 with Belgian Bishop Roger Vangheluwe and the bishop's sexual abuse victim.
Osaer told the VRT television and radio network that Danneels told the victim the case against Vangheluwe could be kept quiet until the bishop retired as scheduled a year later. In the end, Vangheluwe resigned two weeks after the meeting, expressing sorrow for having abused the victim as a youngster for years, both while serving as a priest and a bishop. Danneels retired as head of the Belgian Catholic church in January. But police later questioned him as a potential witness in the case and raided his home and office, confiscating documents and a personal computer. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jELcVrb_-jrRarOc1Ps2E7AmKY8wD9HSJ4FG0
Belgian sex abuse tapes amplify Catholic scandals Sun Aug 29, 2010
PARIS (Reuters) - Leaked tapes of Belgium's Cardinal Godfried Danneels urging a victim not to reveal he was sexually abused by a bishop are some of the most damaging documents to emerge in the scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church.
The tapes, made secretly by the victim and published in two Belgian newspapers on Saturday, show the former primate of Belgium exhorting him to accept a private apology or wait one year until the bishop retired before making his case public.
Their meeting took place on April 8, at a time when the Vatican was under fire for allegedly covering up similar abuse cases by priests in other countries and shocking abuse claims dominated the news in several European states.
A spokesman for Danneels denied the once popular archbishop of Brussels wanted to cover up the case, which led to the sudden resignation of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, 73, later that month, but the tapes show him arguing firmly for silence.
Belgian Church spokesman Jurgen Mettepenningen confirmed to Reuters that the transcripts in the Flemish dailies De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad were genuine.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67S11920100829
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Facebook gives way after child porn bust
Facebook gives way after child porn bust Dylan Welch and Paola Totaro August 28, 2010
FACEBOOK has agreed to pass information about criminal activity on its site to Australian police, after revelations it had ignored repeated warnings about an international child pornography ring operating among its pages.
The Herald yesterday revealed the web company's management had repeatedly failed to disclose to police the activity of an international child pornography syndicate operating on its site and had ignored continuing admissions by one of the ring's Australian members.
Facebook spent yesterday trying to contain the public damage caused by the revelations. It issued several statements, one from a Californian spokeswoman and another from its chief of security, Joe Sullivan. Mr Sullivan's statement acknowledged Facebook could have responded to police requests faster.
"Facebook and the AFP are … working on protocols that will ensure activity of this nature is more rapidly reported to Australian law enforcement," he said....
Ian Green, 45, was jailed for four years on Thursday after he admitted 24 charges of making, possessing and distributing images of abused children.
Chichester Crown Court was told that the ring had swapped more than 100,000 pictures and videos of children being abused, and Green used 11 different Facebook accounts to distribute the images, along with indecent videos of children.
He also shared the photographs, 724 of which were rated at the most extreme level of ''five'', using email and MSN.
He was arrested in May after investigators infiltrated the network and found that Green had enabled selected contacts to access the groups....
"The fact that we have to send an email to get a hold of them, instead of a liaison officer who we can have direct contact with to explain the urgency or particular nature of our requests, is frustrating," one senior NSW police officer said.
"Instead [of the liaison officer] we have to take a number and line up in a queue.''
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-gives-way-after-child-porn-bust-20100827-13vz4.html
B.C. child porn suspect linked to global ring
By QMI Agency August 28, 2010 A Vancouver high school teacher arrested in June for child pornography charges has been linked to an alleged international child porn ring that was operating on popular social networking site Facebook....The investigation, dubbed Project Ocean, was launched by Australian Federal Police (AFP) in March, when an officer created a Facebook account and was approached by "numerous" users to become friends, Australian Federal Police said in a release.
By engaging with these Facebook users, police identified the network whose members they allege were exchanging "child exploiting material."
Police say the network used Facebook to host the images and shared images and videos through the use of private groups.
AFP worked with the RCMP, the FBI and the U.K.'s Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre in the investigation.
AFP assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan, who heads the force's High Tech Crime Centre said in a release that Facebook took action immediately once it was alerted to the offensive activity.
"Facebook deactivated the online accounts of the initial suspects but there were indications that, within hours, the groups were re-forming again,'' he said in a release.
In a joint statement, Facebook and the AFP said they are working on "protocols that will ensure activity of this nature is more rapidly reported to Australian law enforcement."....
Convicted sex offender Ian Green, 45, the alleged head of the network, has been sentenced in British court to four years in prison.
The West Sussex man pleaded guilty to six counts of making, one count of possessing, seven counts of distributing and 10 counts view to distributing child porn.
Court heard that Green used 11 different Facebook accounts to distribute indecent images of children, the BBC reported.
Green was granting selected contacts access to private Facebook groups that contained the images.
Five more suspects were arrested in the U.K. and three men were arrested in Australia, police said.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/08/27/15159556.html
FACEBOOK has agreed to pass information about criminal activity on its site to Australian police, after revelations it had ignored repeated warnings about an international child pornography ring operating among its pages.
The Herald yesterday revealed the web company's management had repeatedly failed to disclose to police the activity of an international child pornography syndicate operating on its site and had ignored continuing admissions by one of the ring's Australian members.
Facebook spent yesterday trying to contain the public damage caused by the revelations. It issued several statements, one from a Californian spokeswoman and another from its chief of security, Joe Sullivan. Mr Sullivan's statement acknowledged Facebook could have responded to police requests faster.
"Facebook and the AFP are … working on protocols that will ensure activity of this nature is more rapidly reported to Australian law enforcement," he said....
Ian Green, 45, was jailed for four years on Thursday after he admitted 24 charges of making, possessing and distributing images of abused children.
Chichester Crown Court was told that the ring had swapped more than 100,000 pictures and videos of children being abused, and Green used 11 different Facebook accounts to distribute the images, along with indecent videos of children.
He also shared the photographs, 724 of which were rated at the most extreme level of ''five'', using email and MSN.
He was arrested in May after investigators infiltrated the network and found that Green had enabled selected contacts to access the groups....
"The fact that we have to send an email to get a hold of them, instead of a liaison officer who we can have direct contact with to explain the urgency or particular nature of our requests, is frustrating," one senior NSW police officer said.
"Instead [of the liaison officer] we have to take a number and line up in a queue.''
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-gives-way-after-child-porn-bust-20100827-13vz4.html
B.C. child porn suspect linked to global ring
By QMI Agency August 28, 2010 A Vancouver high school teacher arrested in June for child pornography charges has been linked to an alleged international child porn ring that was operating on popular social networking site Facebook....The investigation, dubbed Project Ocean, was launched by Australian Federal Police (AFP) in March, when an officer created a Facebook account and was approached by "numerous" users to become friends, Australian Federal Police said in a release.
By engaging with these Facebook users, police identified the network whose members they allege were exchanging "child exploiting material."
Police say the network used Facebook to host the images and shared images and videos through the use of private groups.
AFP worked with the RCMP, the FBI and the U.K.'s Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre in the investigation.
AFP assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan, who heads the force's High Tech Crime Centre said in a release that Facebook took action immediately once it was alerted to the offensive activity.
"Facebook deactivated the online accounts of the initial suspects but there were indications that, within hours, the groups were re-forming again,'' he said in a release.
In a joint statement, Facebook and the AFP said they are working on "protocols that will ensure activity of this nature is more rapidly reported to Australian law enforcement."....
Convicted sex offender Ian Green, 45, the alleged head of the network, has been sentenced in British court to four years in prison.
The West Sussex man pleaded guilty to six counts of making, one count of possessing, seven counts of distributing and 10 counts view to distributing child porn.
Court heard that Green used 11 different Facebook accounts to distribute indecent images of children, the BBC reported.
Green was granting selected contacts access to private Facebook groups that contained the images.
Five more suspects were arrested in the U.K. and three men were arrested in Australia, police said.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/08/27/15159556.html
Friday, August 27, 2010
Facebook fails to alert police on child porn
also:
Mothers' group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet
Facebook fails to alert police on child porn Dylan Welch August 27, 2010 THE management of Facebook repeatedly failed to reveal the activity of an international child pornography syndicate operating on the social networking site and ignored continuing admissions by one of the ring's Australian members. The failure was uncovered during an Australian Federal Police-led international investigation of the syndicate, which had operated via fake identities on the site.
''We are aware that Facebook knew of the existence of these pages and even went so far as to remove the profiles,'' said the director of the AFP High Tech Crime Centre, Neil Gaughan. But despite closing down the men's pages after finding illegal material, Facebook did not contact police, Mr Gaughan said. ''Facebook deactivated the online accounts of the initial suspects but there were indications that, within hours, the groups were re-forming again under new accounts,'' he said. The taskforce, codenamed Project Ocean, was created by the AFP in March but quickly expanded to overseas agencies. By June it included the FBI, the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre in Britain, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and police in Germany, South Africa and Switzerland.
Officers believe there may have been dozens of people involved in the ring....All 11 are accused of creating Facebook pages under false identities and using the pages to distribute and view graphic sexual images of children.
After federal police arrested one of the Australian men, he stunned them by describing how he had sent up to 10 messages to Facebook, but the company failed to pass on the information to police.....
Facebook has been criticised in the past for failing to address privacy and safety concerns held by its hundreds of millions of users....The latest scandal comes three months after the Facebook-associated murder of Sydney teenager Nona Belomesoff. Ms Belomesoff was allegedly murdered by a 20-year-old man who had befriended her on the site.
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-fails-to-alert-police-on-child-porn-20100826-13u5l.html
Charges against B.C. teacher linked to global child-porn network By Allison Cross, Postmedia News August 27, 2010 One of the men arrested in Canada in relation to an international online child-exploitation network that used Facebook is a former Vancouver private school teacher, police say. Christopher Charles Ingvaldson was arrested in June and has been charged with four counts related to child exploitation, said Sgt. Tony Cavezza of the Vancouver Police Department....
The Australian Federal Police announced Thursday a total of 11 people have been arrested as part of a co-ordinated operation across Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada...."(This kind of) activity is quite prolific. It also ties in with other websites, like Craigslist," Cavezza said. "The number of people engaged in this activity is quite substantial. Sometimes we have trouble keeping up because there's so much of it."....
The RCMP partnered with the Australian Federal Police and the FBI in March to begin the investigation, Australian Federal Police said in a news release. A member of the Australian police created an online identity on Facebook and was approached by a member of the network. Upon further investigation, the officer realized the network spanned several continents. "One of our most effective strategies against Internet-facilitated child sexual abuse is co-operation," said RCMP Supt. John Bilinski, who heads the Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. http://www.canada.com/news/arrests+Canada+international+child+porn+network/3449854/story.html
Mothers' group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet By Daily Mail Reporter 26th August 2010 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1306286/Mothers-Facebook-campaign-expose-paedophiles-removed-internet.html
Mothers' group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet
Facebook fails to alert police on child porn Dylan Welch August 27, 2010 THE management of Facebook repeatedly failed to reveal the activity of an international child pornography syndicate operating on the social networking site and ignored continuing admissions by one of the ring's Australian members. The failure was uncovered during an Australian Federal Police-led international investigation of the syndicate, which had operated via fake identities on the site.
''We are aware that Facebook knew of the existence of these pages and even went so far as to remove the profiles,'' said the director of the AFP High Tech Crime Centre, Neil Gaughan. But despite closing down the men's pages after finding illegal material, Facebook did not contact police, Mr Gaughan said. ''Facebook deactivated the online accounts of the initial suspects but there were indications that, within hours, the groups were re-forming again under new accounts,'' he said. The taskforce, codenamed Project Ocean, was created by the AFP in March but quickly expanded to overseas agencies. By June it included the FBI, the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre in Britain, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and police in Germany, South Africa and Switzerland.
Officers believe there may have been dozens of people involved in the ring....All 11 are accused of creating Facebook pages under false identities and using the pages to distribute and view graphic sexual images of children.
After federal police arrested one of the Australian men, he stunned them by describing how he had sent up to 10 messages to Facebook, but the company failed to pass on the information to police.....
Facebook has been criticised in the past for failing to address privacy and safety concerns held by its hundreds of millions of users....The latest scandal comes three months after the Facebook-associated murder of Sydney teenager Nona Belomesoff. Ms Belomesoff was allegedly murdered by a 20-year-old man who had befriended her on the site.
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-fails-to-alert-police-on-child-porn-20100826-13u5l.html
Charges against B.C. teacher linked to global child-porn network By Allison Cross, Postmedia News August 27, 2010 One of the men arrested in Canada in relation to an international online child-exploitation network that used Facebook is a former Vancouver private school teacher, police say. Christopher Charles Ingvaldson was arrested in June and has been charged with four counts related to child exploitation, said Sgt. Tony Cavezza of the Vancouver Police Department....
The Australian Federal Police announced Thursday a total of 11 people have been arrested as part of a co-ordinated operation across Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada...."(This kind of) activity is quite prolific. It also ties in with other websites, like Craigslist," Cavezza said. "The number of people engaged in this activity is quite substantial. Sometimes we have trouble keeping up because there's so much of it."....
The RCMP partnered with the Australian Federal Police and the FBI in March to begin the investigation, Australian Federal Police said in a news release. A member of the Australian police created an online identity on Facebook and was approached by a member of the network. Upon further investigation, the officer realized the network spanned several continents. "One of our most effective strategies against Internet-facilitated child sexual abuse is co-operation," said RCMP Supt. John Bilinski, who heads the Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. http://www.canada.com/news/arrests+Canada+international+child+porn+network/3449854/story.html
Mothers' group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet By Daily Mail Reporter 26th August 2010 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1306286/Mothers-Facebook-campaign-expose-paedophiles-removed-internet.html
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles removed, Craigslist, clergy abuse
articles:
Mothers' group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet
Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads
900 abuse cases in Dutch clergy
Mothers' group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet
By Daily Mail Reporter 26th August 2010 Six mothers who set up a campaign group on Facebook to track down and expose online paedophiles have been given a warning and had their page removed from the internet. Leanne Moss, 33, set up the Mommies on a Mission group after claiming she stumbled across Facebook profile pages featuring images of child abuse. The mother-of-four said she created the campaign page to raise awareness and to ensure the offensive profiles were reported. 'All we were doing was posting links of profiles which featured sick images.'
Group member Joanne Bell, 32, from Carlisle, claimed it didn't make sense that Mommies on a Mission was removed when what they considered to be 'sick' profiles featuring child abuse were still on the site. 'If they are monitoring us so closely, why can't they monitor these people?'
The group aimed to prevent a repeat of the murder of Ashleigh Hall, 17, who was groomed online by killer Peter Chapman before she was lured to her death.
Chapman, a convicted sex offender, was jailed for a minimum of 35 years in March. Ashleigh's mother Andrea said Facebook's decision to shut down Mommies on a Mission was 'shocking'.
'They are very quick to shut down people who are trying to do some good for a change.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1306286/Mothers-Facebook-campaign-expose-paedophiles-removed-internet.html
Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads By the CNN Wire Staff August 26, 2010 (CNN) -- Attorneys general in 17 states have banded together to call on Craigslist, the online classified ad website, to discontinue its adult services section. "The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist's Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution -- including ads trafficking children -- are rampant on it," the attorneys general said in a Tuesday letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark. The letter continued: "We recognize that Craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist."
A Craigslist spokeswoman said Wednesday that the site agreed with at least some of the letter.
"We strongly support the attorneys general desire to end trafficking in children and women, through the Internet or by any other means," Susan MacTavish Best, who handles media inquiries for Craigslist, told CNN Wednesday. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/25/craigslist.adult.content/index.html
900 abuse cases in Dutch clergy 2010-08-25 The Hague - A Dutch commission set up five months ago to look into suspected sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in the Netherlands said on Wednesday it has received about 900 reports from alleged victims. "The 900 reports come mainly from victims but also from relatives of the victims who contacted us," Gert Jan Verhoog, a spokesperson for the commission told AFP....Some members of the clergy accused of abuse gave themselves up to the commission, Verhoog said....At the same time, a Catholic Church committee called Hulp & Recht (Support and Right), tasked with collecting reports from alleged victims, has so far received about 1 600 statements, spokesperson Ben Spekman told AFP. http://www.news24.com/World/News/900-abuse-cases-in-Dutch-clergy-20100825
Mothers' group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet
Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads
900 abuse cases in Dutch clergy
Mothers' group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet
By Daily Mail Reporter 26th August 2010 Six mothers who set up a campaign group on Facebook to track down and expose online paedophiles have been given a warning and had their page removed from the internet. Leanne Moss, 33, set up the Mommies on a Mission group after claiming she stumbled across Facebook profile pages featuring images of child abuse. The mother-of-four said she created the campaign page to raise awareness and to ensure the offensive profiles were reported. 'All we were doing was posting links of profiles which featured sick images.'
Group member Joanne Bell, 32, from Carlisle, claimed it didn't make sense that Mommies on a Mission was removed when what they considered to be 'sick' profiles featuring child abuse were still on the site. 'If they are monitoring us so closely, why can't they monitor these people?'
The group aimed to prevent a repeat of the murder of Ashleigh Hall, 17, who was groomed online by killer Peter Chapman before she was lured to her death.
Chapman, a convicted sex offender, was jailed for a minimum of 35 years in March. Ashleigh's mother Andrea said Facebook's decision to shut down Mommies on a Mission was 'shocking'.
'They are very quick to shut down people who are trying to do some good for a change.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1306286/Mothers-Facebook-campaign-expose-paedophiles-removed-internet.html
Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads By the CNN Wire Staff August 26, 2010 (CNN) -- Attorneys general in 17 states have banded together to call on Craigslist, the online classified ad website, to discontinue its adult services section. "The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist's Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution -- including ads trafficking children -- are rampant on it," the attorneys general said in a Tuesday letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark. The letter continued: "We recognize that Craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist."
A Craigslist spokeswoman said Wednesday that the site agreed with at least some of the letter.
"We strongly support the attorneys general desire to end trafficking in children and women, through the Internet or by any other means," Susan MacTavish Best, who handles media inquiries for Craigslist, told CNN Wednesday. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/25/craigslist.adult.content/index.html
900 abuse cases in Dutch clergy 2010-08-25 The Hague - A Dutch commission set up five months ago to look into suspected sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in the Netherlands said on Wednesday it has received about 900 reports from alleged victims. "The 900 reports come mainly from victims but also from relatives of the victims who contacted us," Gert Jan Verhoog, a spokesperson for the commission told AFP....Some members of the clergy accused of abuse gave themselves up to the commission, Verhoog said....At the same time, a Catholic Church committee called Hulp & Recht (Support and Right), tasked with collecting reports from alleged victims, has so far received about 1 600 statements, spokesperson Ben Spekman told AFP. http://www.news24.com/World/News/900-abuse-cases-in-Dutch-clergy-20100825
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Craigslist prostitution ads and minors, Wikipedia - pedophilia allegations
Missouri AG asks Craigslist to remove adult ads AP August 24, 2010
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has joined 16 other states' attorneys general in asking Craigslist to drop its adult services section. The attorneys general on Tuesday announced that they sent a letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark that says Craigslist has not kept a pledge to crack down on illegal sexual activity on the Internet. Koster said in May 2009 that investigators in his office found several Craigslist ads offering sex-for-money or seeking that type of relationship for the Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, Columbia and Jefferson City areas.
Craigslist pledged in 2008 to better police its site for illegal sex ads. But the letter says prostitution is a booming business on Craigslist and the company doesn't seem inclined to screen the ads.
Other states represented on the letter are Kansas, Connecticut, Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.
http://m.dailyjournalonline.com/news/state-and-regional/article_b2ec9e75-1948-5e98-b531-90d3ff58bd36.html
Pimp admits transporting minors for prostitution ring Saturday, August 21, 2010 By Jason Laday
VINELAND - Javon Gordon, an alleged Atlantic City pimp from Vineland, admitted today in federal court to transporting two girls across state lines to support his prostitution ring, according to officials. Gordon, 28, who used the alias "Teflon," pleaded guilty in Camden, before U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler, to two counts of a superseding indictment charging him with transporting minors across state lines to work as prostitutes for him in Atlantic City. Each count of transportation of minors for the purpose of prostitution carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. The mandatory minimum penalty is 10 years....
According to the United States Attorney's Office, Gordon admitted that from September 2007 until July 2008, he ran a prostitution ring in and around Atlantic City, acting as a pimp and employing both minor girls and adult women to work for him as prostitutes. He admitted to controlling the activities of the women and girls working for him, including requiring them to give him any money they made from preforming sexual acts on customers. Three minor girls recruited by Gordon solicited prostitution clients on the streets and in various casinos in Atlantic City, as well as on the Internet. Gordon used a digital camera to take naked, partially-naked and sexually-suggestive pictures of the minor girls, then posted the images on various websites, including Craigslist, in an effort to advertise prostitution services. Gordon also used Craigslist to assist in his efforts to recruit girls to work for him as prostitutes.
http://www.nj.com/bridgeton/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1282363819202000.xml&coll=10
Wikipedia - pedophilia allegations
http://www.childlaw.us/2010/06/investigation-confirms-wikiped.html
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/25/exclusive-pedophiles-find-home-on-wikipedia/
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/problems-with-wikipedia/
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/wikipedophilia-wikipedia-child-abuse-misinformation-clergy-abuse-suit/
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/06/26/pedophiles-find-a-home-on-wikipedia/
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/wikipedia-bomis-and-online-pornography-us-cardinal-ignored-pedophilic-priest/
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has joined 16 other states' attorneys general in asking Craigslist to drop its adult services section. The attorneys general on Tuesday announced that they sent a letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark that says Craigslist has not kept a pledge to crack down on illegal sexual activity on the Internet. Koster said in May 2009 that investigators in his office found several Craigslist ads offering sex-for-money or seeking that type of relationship for the Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, Columbia and Jefferson City areas.
Craigslist pledged in 2008 to better police its site for illegal sex ads. But the letter says prostitution is a booming business on Craigslist and the company doesn't seem inclined to screen the ads.
Other states represented on the letter are Kansas, Connecticut, Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.
http://m.dailyjournalonline.com/news/state-and-regional/article_b2ec9e75-1948-5e98-b531-90d3ff58bd36.html
Pimp admits transporting minors for prostitution ring Saturday, August 21, 2010 By Jason Laday
VINELAND - Javon Gordon, an alleged Atlantic City pimp from Vineland, admitted today in federal court to transporting two girls across state lines to support his prostitution ring, according to officials. Gordon, 28, who used the alias "Teflon," pleaded guilty in Camden, before U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler, to two counts of a superseding indictment charging him with transporting minors across state lines to work as prostitutes for him in Atlantic City. Each count of transportation of minors for the purpose of prostitution carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. The mandatory minimum penalty is 10 years....
According to the United States Attorney's Office, Gordon admitted that from September 2007 until July 2008, he ran a prostitution ring in and around Atlantic City, acting as a pimp and employing both minor girls and adult women to work for him as prostitutes. He admitted to controlling the activities of the women and girls working for him, including requiring them to give him any money they made from preforming sexual acts on customers. Three minor girls recruited by Gordon solicited prostitution clients on the streets and in various casinos in Atlantic City, as well as on the Internet. Gordon used a digital camera to take naked, partially-naked and sexually-suggestive pictures of the minor girls, then posted the images on various websites, including Craigslist, in an effort to advertise prostitution services. Gordon also used Craigslist to assist in his efforts to recruit girls to work for him as prostitutes.
http://www.nj.com/bridgeton/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1282363819202000.xml&coll=10
Wikipedia - pedophilia allegations
http://www.childlaw.us/2010/06/investigation-confirms-wikiped.html
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/25/exclusive-pedophiles-find-home-on-wikipedia/
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/problems-with-wikipedia/
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/wikipedophilia-wikipedia-child-abuse-misinformation-clergy-abuse-suit/
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/06/26/pedophiles-find-a-home-on-wikipedia/
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/wikipedia-bomis-and-online-pornography-us-cardinal-ignored-pedophilic-priest/
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Human trafficking victims tell stories of modern-day slavery
Human trafficking victims tell stories of modern-day slavery
Human Rights 23.08.2010 - An estimated 700,000 to 4 million people around the world are being trafficked for labor and sexual exploitation each year. Human trafficking is the fastest-growing source of profit for organized crime.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5935051,00.html
Child Abuse Wiki
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
Human Rights 23.08.2010 - An estimated 700,000 to 4 million people around the world are being trafficked for labor and sexual exploitation each year. Human trafficking is the fastest-growing source of profit for organized crime.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5935051,00.html
Child Abuse Wiki
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
Monday, August 23, 2010
Friedmans case – Capturing the Friedmans - the victims perspective
many of the quotes in this section come from:
Capturing the Friedmans: Annotated Bibliography http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/bib.html
describes crimes
Many viewers leave the theater believing that they have seen an objective documentary presented by a director who entrusted audiences to draw their own conclusions on Arnold Friedman’s and Jesse Friedman’s guilt. A careful review of the original evidence, however, shows that the case against the Friedmans was much stronger than the film revealed.
Geraldo Rivera’s interview with Jesse Friedman “Busting the Kiddie Porn Underground” February 23, 1989 — Geraldo!
Jesse’s attorney, Peter Panera, is interviewed. He tells how he and Jesse made a special trip to Wisconsin to visit Arnold Friedman in prison to convince him to reveal where he had hidden the photos and videos of the children. Arnold refused to reveal what he had done with them, despite the fact that it would have helped gain lenacy for his son. Jesse’s mother Ms. Friedman also appears on the show.
Frances Galasso, the detective-sergeant who was in charge of the Friedman case, describes Jesse’s lack of remorse for his victims and describes how he and his brother harassed some of the victims’ parents at court proceedings. She says that Jesse told the grandfather of one victim: “Well maybe we are suffering now, but with what we’ve done to your children, they’ll suffer for the rest of their lives.”
Geraldo Rivera’s interview with Jesse Friedman http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/geraldo.html
Geraldo: “How many kids, Jesse, did you and your father actually physically abuse in your home?” Jesse: (long sigh, appears to be mentally counting) “I guess 17.”….
Geraldo: “What did you do to the children?” Jesse: “What did I do to the children? I fondled them. I was forced to pose in 100's of photos for my father in all sorts of sexual positions with the kids and the kids likewise with myself.
The Secret Life of Arnold Friedman By Alvin E. Bessent – Newsday — LI., NY May 28, 1989 http://web.archive.org/web/20060901203550/www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-friedman052889,0,1599081.story
Bessent reports on the victims’ fear of the Friedmans:
“As the abuse escalated so did the threats. Police said the children were extensively videotaped and photographed. No pictures of the children have been recovered. But police said Arnold Friedman told the children he would send pornographic pictures of them to magazines and tell the publishers to print their names if they told what was going on. He threatened to burn their houses down. He reportedly said he would kill their parents. . . . Some of the children who testified before the grand juries received threatening telephone calls warning them not to cooperate with police.” “Some of them still wet their beds, take baseball bats to bed with them or are unable to sleep.” http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/bib.html
State of New York v. Arnold Friedman.
Motion for order requiring return of property seized from 17 Picadilly Road, Great Neck, Nassau County, New York, seized pursuant to search warrant of November 25, 1987. Motion #C-427, Indictment #67104 & 67430.
September 14, 1990.
Judge Abbey L. Boklan approved Arnold Friedmans’ request for the return of all property seized at the Friedman home with the exception of pornographic materials listed in this document. Materials include such items as: 5 pornographic movies, assorted order forms for pornography, assorted pornographic magazine cutouts, 2 partially nude photos of children, 3 sheets advertising homosexuality with boys, 6 photos of naked people, 3 battery operated sex aids, 1 hypodermic needle, 9 pornographic computer games (with descriptions), list of names and phone numbers of 9 victims, 2 registration sheets with names of victims.
The People of the State of New York , Respondent, v. Ross G., Appellant 163 A.D.2d 529; 558 N.Y.S.2d 603; 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8786 June 28, 1990
The Supreme Court of New York responds affirmatively to an appeal by Ross Goldstein who asks the state to reduce his sentence to the terms recommended and agreed to by the prosecution. Although he was not mentioned in the film, Mr. Goldstein was a third defendant who was arrested along with Arnold and Jesse Friedman. According to this document, Goldstein, a former friend of Jesse’s who was between 15 and 16 years old when he committed the crimes. He later became repulsed by the abuse, and six months before the Friedmans were arrested, Goldstein disassociated himself from Jesse Friedman and his activities. Goldstein, now age 19, confessed to the crimes and agreed to testify against both Arnold and Jesse Friedman in exchange for leniency.
In Their Own Words: Jesse’s Victims Speak Out http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/vict.html
Victims break their silence Victor Manuel Ramos — Newsday — LI., NY February 29, 2004 Newsday staff reporter Victor Manuel Ramos interviews several of the victims who Arnold and Jesse Friedman plead guilty to abusing.
“For Gregory, the hullabaloo over Jarecki’s film — and whether the director will pick up an Oscar tonight — is a sideshow to the legacy of the abuse. Even now, Gregory said he sometimes wakes up at night shaking, especially after hearing of other child abuse cases on the news or elsewhere. What would be passing news to others, hits home for him.
Diagnosed in his preteen years, Gregory said he has persistent rectal bleeding from the abuse. Memories aside, the physical scar will never let him forget. `This is the constant reminder I live with every day,’ Gregory said, `that I was abused.’”
Case of Arnold Friedman and Jessie Friedman “Capturing The Friedmans” http://web.archive.org/web/20070918045108/www.theawarenesscenter.org/arnoldandjessefriedman.html
http://capturingthefriedmans.wordpress.com/
Our research into the case shows that the director of the film sacrificed truth in favor of creating artistic ambiguity. Clear evidence is omitted and facts are distorted. In addition, the film relies on popular but erroneous myths about child sexual abuse. As a result, uncertainty is created about the guilt of two confessed pedophiles — who are recast as victims — while the real victims — the boys and their families — are portrayed as untrustworthy.
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS” Documentary or Whitewash? http://capturingthefriedmans.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/capturing-the-friedmans-documentary-or-whitewash/
Man’s 1988 child molestation conviction to be revisited by Vivienne Foley, CNN August 17, 2010 “In August 2010, the 2nd Circuit Court decision stated that “… the police, prosecutors and the judge did everything they could to coerce a guilty plea and avoid a trial” and said there was a “reasonable likelihood” Friedman was “wrongfully convicted” of sexually abusing children.” Nassau County (Long Island) District Attorney’s office will re-open the case.
Capturing the Friedmans: Annotated Bibliography http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/bib.html
describes crimes
Many viewers leave the theater believing that they have seen an objective documentary presented by a director who entrusted audiences to draw their own conclusions on Arnold Friedman’s and Jesse Friedman’s guilt. A careful review of the original evidence, however, shows that the case against the Friedmans was much stronger than the film revealed.
Geraldo Rivera’s interview with Jesse Friedman “Busting the Kiddie Porn Underground” February 23, 1989 — Geraldo!
Jesse’s attorney, Peter Panera, is interviewed. He tells how he and Jesse made a special trip to Wisconsin to visit Arnold Friedman in prison to convince him to reveal where he had hidden the photos and videos of the children. Arnold refused to reveal what he had done with them, despite the fact that it would have helped gain lenacy for his son. Jesse’s mother Ms. Friedman also appears on the show.
Frances Galasso, the detective-sergeant who was in charge of the Friedman case, describes Jesse’s lack of remorse for his victims and describes how he and his brother harassed some of the victims’ parents at court proceedings. She says that Jesse told the grandfather of one victim: “Well maybe we are suffering now, but with what we’ve done to your children, they’ll suffer for the rest of their lives.”
Geraldo Rivera’s interview with Jesse Friedman http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/geraldo.html
Geraldo: “How many kids, Jesse, did you and your father actually physically abuse in your home?” Jesse: (long sigh, appears to be mentally counting) “I guess 17.”….
Geraldo: “What did you do to the children?” Jesse: “What did I do to the children? I fondled them. I was forced to pose in 100's of photos for my father in all sorts of sexual positions with the kids and the kids likewise with myself.
The Secret Life of Arnold Friedman By Alvin E. Bessent – Newsday — LI., NY May 28, 1989 http://web.archive.org/web/20060901203550/www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-friedman052889,0,1599081.story
Bessent reports on the victims’ fear of the Friedmans:
“As the abuse escalated so did the threats. Police said the children were extensively videotaped and photographed. No pictures of the children have been recovered. But police said Arnold Friedman told the children he would send pornographic pictures of them to magazines and tell the publishers to print their names if they told what was going on. He threatened to burn their houses down. He reportedly said he would kill their parents. . . . Some of the children who testified before the grand juries received threatening telephone calls warning them not to cooperate with police.” “Some of them still wet their beds, take baseball bats to bed with them or are unable to sleep.” http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/bib.html
State of New York v. Arnold Friedman.
Motion for order requiring return of property seized from 17 Picadilly Road, Great Neck, Nassau County, New York, seized pursuant to search warrant of November 25, 1987. Motion #C-427, Indictment #67104 & 67430.
September 14, 1990.
Judge Abbey L. Boklan approved Arnold Friedmans’ request for the return of all property seized at the Friedman home with the exception of pornographic materials listed in this document. Materials include such items as: 5 pornographic movies, assorted order forms for pornography, assorted pornographic magazine cutouts, 2 partially nude photos of children, 3 sheets advertising homosexuality with boys, 6 photos of naked people, 3 battery operated sex aids, 1 hypodermic needle, 9 pornographic computer games (with descriptions), list of names and phone numbers of 9 victims, 2 registration sheets with names of victims.
The People of the State of New York , Respondent, v. Ross G., Appellant 163 A.D.2d 529; 558 N.Y.S.2d 603; 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8786 June 28, 1990
The Supreme Court of New York responds affirmatively to an appeal by Ross Goldstein who asks the state to reduce his sentence to the terms recommended and agreed to by the prosecution. Although he was not mentioned in the film, Mr. Goldstein was a third defendant who was arrested along with Arnold and Jesse Friedman. According to this document, Goldstein, a former friend of Jesse’s who was between 15 and 16 years old when he committed the crimes. He later became repulsed by the abuse, and six months before the Friedmans were arrested, Goldstein disassociated himself from Jesse Friedman and his activities. Goldstein, now age 19, confessed to the crimes and agreed to testify against both Arnold and Jesse Friedman in exchange for leniency.
In Their Own Words: Jesse’s Victims Speak Out http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/vict.html
Victims break their silence Victor Manuel Ramos — Newsday — LI., NY February 29, 2004 Newsday staff reporter Victor Manuel Ramos interviews several of the victims who Arnold and Jesse Friedman plead guilty to abusing.
“For Gregory, the hullabaloo over Jarecki’s film — and whether the director will pick up an Oscar tonight — is a sideshow to the legacy of the abuse. Even now, Gregory said he sometimes wakes up at night shaking, especially after hearing of other child abuse cases on the news or elsewhere. What would be passing news to others, hits home for him.
Diagnosed in his preteen years, Gregory said he has persistent rectal bleeding from the abuse. Memories aside, the physical scar will never let him forget. `This is the constant reminder I live with every day,’ Gregory said, `that I was abused.’”
Case of Arnold Friedman and Jessie Friedman “Capturing The Friedmans” http://web.archive.org/web/20070918045108/www.theawarenesscenter.org/arnoldandjessefriedman.html
http://capturingthefriedmans.wordpress.com/
Our research into the case shows that the director of the film sacrificed truth in favor of creating artistic ambiguity. Clear evidence is omitted and facts are distorted. In addition, the film relies on popular but erroneous myths about child sexual abuse. As a result, uncertainty is created about the guilt of two confessed pedophiles — who are recast as victims — while the real victims — the boys and their families — are portrayed as untrustworthy.
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS” Documentary or Whitewash? http://capturingthefriedmans.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/capturing-the-friedmans-documentary-or-whitewash/
Man’s 1988 child molestation conviction to be revisited by Vivienne Foley, CNN August 17, 2010 “In August 2010, the 2nd Circuit Court decision stated that “… the police, prosecutors and the judge did everything they could to coerce a guilty plea and avoid a trial” and said there was a “reasonable likelihood” Friedman was “wrongfully convicted” of sexually abusing children.” Nassau County (Long Island) District Attorney’s office will re-open the case.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse Newsletter now online
Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse Newsletter now online
http://ritualabuse.us/2010/08/issue-94-september-2010/
This issue contains information on clergy abuse, the Legionaries Of Christ, the Pope and Vatican, Cornwall, the Statute of Limitations, tagged.com, the DOJ fight against child pornography, modern slavery, sex trafficking, Polanski, Wikipedia and pedophilia, Pentagon workers and child pornography, Craig's list and child sex ads, child prostitution, USA swimming, human experimentation, Conspiracy of Silence, the CIA's Experiments on Children, mk-ultra, polygamy, rape and denial, sexual abuse's detrimental effects, child abuse books
Information on the Friedman's case - Capturing the Friedmans Day Care and Child Abuse Cases
copied with permission
(Stop Mind control And Ritual abuse Today)
P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 USA E-mail: SMARTNEWS@aol.com
Home page: http://ritualabuse.us/
Issue 94 – September 2010
The purpose of this newsletter is to help stop secretive organizations and groups from abusing others and to help those who allege they have been abused by such organizations and groups. This newsletter is not a substitute for other ways of recovering from ritual abuse. Readers should use caution while reading this newsletter. If necessary, make sure other support systems are available during and after reading this newsletter.
Important: The resources mentioned in this newsletter are for educational value only. Reading the books cited may or may not help your recovery process, so use caution when reading any book or contacting any resource mentioned in this newsletter. Some may have a religious or other agenda that may be separate from your own recovery process. Others may have valuable information on the Masons and other organizations, but have triggers or be somewhat sympathetic to those organizations. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the views expressed in this newsletter constitute expressions of opinion, and readers are cautioned to form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions by consulting a variety of sources, including this newsletter. Resources listed, quoted and individual articles, etc. and their writers do not necessarily support all or any of the views mentioned in this newsletter. Also, the views, facts and opinions mentioned in this newsletter are solely the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily the opinions of this newsletter or its editor.
Copyright 2010 – All rights reserved. No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.
SMART wants to thank all those that have contributed resource information to the newsletter.
CD information on the recent 2010 ritual abuse conference information is at http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ Special Prices available until 9/15/10
This issue contains information on clergy abuse, the Legionaries Of Christ, the Pope and Vatican, Cornwall, the Statute of Limitations, tagged.com, the DOJ fight against child pornography, modern slavery, sex trafficking, Polanski, Wikipedia and pedophilia, Pentagon workers and child pornography, Craig’s list and child sex ads, child prostitution, USA swimming, human experimentation, Conspiracy of Silence, the CIA’s Experiments on Children, mk-ultra, polygamy, rape and denial, sexual abuse’s detrimental effects, child abuse books
Resources and Information
Please note: Listing of these resources does not necessarily constitute our endorsement of them. They are for educational value only and some may be heavy for survivors to read. Some of the conferences listed may not necessarily be safe for all survivors. S.M.A.R.T. recommends always bringing a support person to all conferences. If you are a survivor of mind control and/or ritual abuse, S.M.A.R.T. recommends that you try to bring a support person that is familiar with mind control techniques.
Ritual Abuse Conference Transcripts and Articles
Ritual Abuse Conference CDs http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
Neil Brick is a survivor of Masonic based Ritual Abuse and MK-ULTRA. He is the editor of S.M.A.R.T. – A Ritual Abuse Newsletter. Fighting the Spin The Truth about Child Abuse Cases http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2010-conference/fighting-the-spin-the-truth-about-child-abuse-cases/
Survivors of Extreme Abuse: The Awful Rowing Toward Social Emancipation Carmen Yana Holiday is a survivor of extreme domestic violence, human trafficking, child pornography, ritual abuse-torture and mind control. She has been an advocate for other survivors since 2001, developing and facilitating trauma recovery workshops and presenting as a survivor of RA-MC for several organizations.
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2010-conference/survivors-of-extreme-abuse-the-awful-rowing-toward-social-emancipation/
The Move from Blame the Victim to Blame the Helper by Neil Brick
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2010-conference/the-move-from-blame-the-victim-to-blame-the-helper/
Legal Information
Pope acts against incest priest’s group – Immensely wealthy Catholic organisation, set up by controversial Mexican cleric and favoured by John Paul II, likely to be closed down By Hugh O’Shaughnessy 8 August 2010 The late John Paul II gives his blessing to Father Marcial Maciel in 2004. Senior figures in the church benefited from the huge fortune amassed by Maciel’s Legionaries of Christ
The Legionaries of Christ, the Roman Catholic group that combines an estimated £21bn fortune with intense moral turpitude and extreme conservatism, is facing its nemesis this month. For years the organisation was protected by John Paul II, the Polish pope, and his former secretary Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow. Now the reputation of Father Marcial Maciel, a Mexican who founded the group in 1941 when he was studying for holy orders, is at last falling victim to the reforming drive of John Paul II’s German successor, Benedict XVI.
Incestuous father of three – or perhaps six – children, serial paedophile, morphine addict, lover of la dolce vita, and pretend CIA agent, Maciel, who died in 2008, aged 87, built up a huge religious empire. It commanded the allegiance of 750 priests and 2,500 seminarians from 39 countries in the Legion proper, with 70,000 members in a lay offshoot, Regnum Christi, the Kingdom of Christ, and 131,000 students in its schools and universities….The Pope has now given Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, an expert on running religious orders and a financial specialist, full powers over the Legion. He is getting down to work, and the Legion is unlikely to survive in any recognisable form. Benedict is tacitly repudiating the attitudes of John Paul II and Archbishop Dziwisz. The late pope had called Maciel “an efficacious guide to youth”, and applauded his gift for attracting young men to the depleted ranks of the priesthood. Senior figures in the church, who were often the recipients of the Legion’s financial largesse, rejoiced in his genius for fundraising and fortune building.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pope-acts-against-incest-priests-group-2046517.html
A Guide To Catholic Sex Scandals – More than a dozen of the church’s worst sex abuse scandals of the past 30 years. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/slideshow/guide-catholic-sex-scandals-11289279
Pope causes outrage for condemning church abuse raids in Belgium – Victims groups say Vatican criticism of police shameful, as pontiff calls raid deplorable and demands church role in investigations 27 June 2010 Groups representing the victims of clerical abuse tonight expressed outrage after the pope criticised raids on the Catholic church by Belgian police. Last week, police raided the home of a retired bishop, opened the grave of at least one archbishop and detained Belgium’s nine current serving bishops as they met, seizing their mobile phones and only releasing them after nine hours. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/27/pope-causes-outrage-over-condemnation
Belgium church abuse probe body quits en masse 6/28/10 (AFP) BRUSSELS — A Belgian Catholic Church-backed commission probing hundreds of reported cases of child abuse by priests announced its resignation en masse on Monday, after police raids that angered the pope….Thursday’s raids were prompted by new claims of child abuse by members of the Catholic Church in Belgium, one of the countries worst hit by recent revelations of paedophilia by priests in Europe and North America.
Police confiscated phones, computers and the archdiocese’s accounting system in a search for documents including any correspondence between alleged victims and the Catholic authorities….The Belgian Church was rocked in April when its longest-serving bishop, 73-year-old Roger Vangheluwe, resigned after admitting sexually abusing a boy for years.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j-z7W98WVMD9DcgBiGsXZjcY9nrQ
Church panel resigns to protest raid By the CNN Wire Staff June 28, 2010
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/28/belgium.church.raids/
Pope slams cardinal who exposed abuse cover-up Nicole Winfield, Associated Press June 29, 2010 Vatican City – The Vatican on Monday issued an unprecedented rebuke of a top cardinal who had accused the retired Vatican No. 2 of blocking clerical sex abuse investigations, publicly dressing down a man who had been praised for his criticism of church abuse cover-ups. The silencing of Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna and long considered a papal contender, drew heated criticism from clerical abuse victims. They said the Vatican should be honoring Schoenborn, not publicly humiliating him, for his calls for greater transparency and demands for a crackdown on priests who rape and sodomize children. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/06/29/MNRF1E68UI.DTL
Vatican promotes controversial Quebec priest Wed Jun 30, 2010 By The Canadian Press VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has promoted Canada’s highest-ranking Catholic priest despite recent controversy over his response to the church sex-abuse scandal. Marc Cardinal Ouellet has been named chief of the Vatican’s powerful Congregations for Bishops, which vets bishop appointments around the world. Sixty-six year old Ouellet is the Archbishop of Quebec and the Roman Catholic Primate of Canada, the church’s top official in the country. Earlier this month, a victims’ group said Ouellet had refused to apologize for crimes committed within the church. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100630/national/crime_priest_ouellet
Cavan religious order to be sued by American victims of paedophile priest Ali Bracken, Crime Correspondent 6/27/10 THE NORBertine order in Co Cavan that deceased paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth was attached to is facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit in the US as two of his victims are suing over the sexual abuse he inflicted….Jeff Thomas was just seven years old in 1968 when Smyth began to abuse him in Rhode Island. Helen McGonigle was six years old when she was first assaulted by the priest in 1967. The abuse continued for three years. McGonigle’s family, of Irish descent, were members of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic church in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and it was here that they came into contact with Smyth. A master manipulator, he infiltrated her family’s daily life. He also sexually abused her older sister Kathleen under the pretence of preparing her for the sacrament of penance. Kathleen and her brother Gerard both died from drug overdoses as a result of the abuse Smyth perpetrated against them. Her mother also spent time in a mental institution. In 1994, Smyth was convicted of 17 counts of sexual abuse in a Belfast court. Three years later in Dublin, he pleaded guilty to another 74 counts of abuse. In 1997, Smyth died in prison.
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/jun/27/cavan-religious-order-to-be-sued-by-american-victi/
Made in his own image: The Catholic Church faces another scandal – Joseph Ratzinger is having a terrible year. But as the Catholic Church faces yet another scandal, blame is falling on its most popular figure of modern times, Pope John Paul II, writes Peter Popham 28 June 2010
….Maciel was the founder of a highly conservative order called the Legion of Christ, but it has gradually emerged over the years – particularly since his death in 2008 – that he was much else besides: a morphine addict for decades who sexually abused his own seminarians, fathered several children by two mistresses, and then went on to abuse and rape those children. Yet Maciel was greatly favoured by John Paul II, remaining persona grata at the Vatican until nearly the end of his life, and Sodano, like other senior members of the Curia (though not Ratzinger) received large cash gifts from him. Sodano repaid Maciel generously by killing a Vatican investigation into his misdeeds in 1998.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/faith/made-in-his-own-image-the-catholic-church-faces-another-scandal-2012093.html
Vatican pleased US plaintifs seek to dismiss case By ALESSANDRA RIZZO (AP) 8/10/10 VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said Tuesday it was satisfied that three men who had sought to hold the Vatican liable in an American court for sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests have decided to abandon the case. The Kentucky case was being closely watched as the clerical abuse scandal swirls around the Holy See. Lawsuits naming top Vatican officials were also filed recently in U.S. courts in Wisconsin and Oregon….The three plaintiffs filed a motion on Monday asking a federal judge in Louisville, Kentucky, to dismiss their claims.
Their attorney, William McMurry, said he was seeking to end the case because of an earlier court ruling that recognized the Vatican’s immunity and the failure to turn up new plaintiffs to add to the lawsuit who haven’t yet been involved in a Catholic clergy abuse case. The judge must still rule on whether the case can be dismissed, but attorneys on both sides say it has virtually ended. The lawsuit had been filed in 2004 by the three men abused by priests in the Louisville diocese. It was considered the first in the U.S. to make it to the stage of determining whether victims had a negligence claim against the Vatican. The lawsuit argued in part that U.S. bishops should be considered employees or officials of the Holy See. The Vatican has argued that its U.S. bishops act independently, control their own budgets and are not employees of the Holy See.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iU4Z1ZmST-Gd9HS9lFisveCI7sIgD9HGLP5G0
Vatican child abuse cases falling apart in U.S.: Lawyers AFP August 10, 2010
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Vatican+child+abuse+cases+falling+apart+Lawyers/3382308/story.html
US Supreme Court deals pedophilia blow for Vatican (AFP) 6/28/10 WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal by the Vatican in a landmark case that opens the way for priests in the United States to stand trial for pedophilia. Allowing a federal appeals court ruling to stand, the decision means Vatican officials including theoretically Pope Benedict XVI could face questioning under oath related to a litany of child sex abuse cases. The Supreme Court effectively confirmed the decision of an appellate court to lift the Vatican’s immunity in the case of an alleged pedophile priest in the northwestern state of Oregon. The Oregon case, which was filed in 2002, does not directly address questions raised in a separate lawsuit in Kentucky alleging that US bishops are employees of the Holy See.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j_isWYyYa91PA0oeM_aaVurBHDZQ
Italian bishop accused of sex abuse cover-up Agence France-Presse May 31, 2010 ROME – The alleged victim of an Italian priest who is on trial for sex abuse has pressed charges against the bishop overseeing the accused’s diocese at a court in Rome, his lawyer said Monday. Bishop Gino Reali of Porto San Rufina outside Rome is charged with complicity in the abuse crimes of Ruggero Conti, who was arrested in June 2008 and is being tried on charges of sexually abusing children in his parish. Reali “should have told Italian judicial authorities” as well as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the Vatican body that deals with sex abuse allegations — about the case, lawyer Farbrizio Gallo told AFP. http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Italian+bishop+accused+abuse+cover/3093270/story.html
Church remained silent about child porn conviction 04 June 2010 BJS News The Catholic Church took no action against priest convicted of downloading child pornography – Despite being convicted of possessing child pornography in 2005, the Catholic Church in Denmark allowed a Catholic priest to continue carrying out his duties including teaching children and young people. In this latest scandal to rock the Danish Catholic Church, it was announced that the priest had recently been suspended, but the church did not mention the reason. The priest was convicted of paying for and downloading 38 movies involving minors. He was sentenced to pay 6,000 kroner and his computer was confiscated. Bishop Czeslaw Kozlon, who is head of the Catholic Church in Denmark, did not inform the chair of the parish council in question why the priest had been relieved of his duties. http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/49157-church-remained-silent-about-child-porn-conviction.html
Walter Mixa, German bishop and ally of the Pope, faces new child abuse allegations – A secret Vatican file on a disgraced Roman Catholic German bishop alleges he is a “severely alcoholic man” who sexually preyed on young priests. By Bruno Waterfield 21 Jun 2010….Documents, compiled after Vatican investigators questioned members of Bishop Mixa’s inner circle, have detailed a litany of alleged alcoholism and sexual abuse….In the dossier, witnesses described the bishop as an alcoholic who had to drink wine and spirits throughout the course of his day to feed his addiction to alcohol. Others accused him of carrying out sex attacks on young priests during his time as a parish priest. Following an sexual incident, Bishop Mixa would then “go to confession the next morning before he celebrated mass”. The bishop was also repeatedly referred to in the dossier as “out of touch with reality”. Bishop Mixa has denied all allegations of sexual abuse as “baseless”. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7843929/Walter-Mixa-German-bishop-and-ally-of-the-Pope-faces-new-child-abuse-allegations.html
In Rare Memo, Vatican Rebukes Cardinal By RACHEL DONADIO June 28, 2010 ROME — The Vatican drew aside, for a brief and puzzling moment, the thick veil that covers its internal business. It issued an extraordinary communiqué on Monday chastising a powerful cardinal who had criticized another powerful cardinal — proof of a battle inside the Vatican walls that mirrors the anger over sexual abuse raging outside them….On its face, the communiqué is a public rebuke to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna. In April, he had implicitly criticized Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 82, the current dean of the College of Cardinals and Pope John Paul II’s last secretary of state, for blocking an investigation into an Austrian archbishop accused in the mid-1990s of abusing minors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29pope.html
Top Catholic Priest Accused of Sexually Abusing His Own Sons – Lawsuit Claims Pope, Vatican Covered Up Sordid Life of Legion of Christ Founder By ANNA SCHECTER and BRIAN ROSS June 21, 2010 A prominent Catholic priest, praised by Pope John Paul II as “an efficacious guide to youth,” Father Marcial Maciel, sexually abused not only young seminarians under his control but also abused his own children, according to a lawsuit filed today in Connecticut by a man who claims to be Maciel’s son….The lawsuit filed by Maciel’s alleged son claims the Vatican and the presiding Pope from the 1950′s until 2002 “engaged in a conspiracy to conceal their knowledge of Maciel’s serial delicts, including the repeated sexual abuse of children.”….The lawsuit claims Maciel “gained influence and protection from the Vatican through giving substantial monies to Vatican officials” and providing other benefits and gifts. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/top-vatican-priest-accused-sexually-abusing-sons/story?id=10968647
Copy of Criminal Complaint http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/page?id=10973992
Man Who Claims To Be Son Of Priest Sues Legionaries Of Christ By DAVID OWENS June 22, 2010 The Legionaries of Christ and the estate of the priest who once led the Roman Catholic order, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, are being sued by a man who says he is one of several children whom Degollado fathered. The lawsuit, brought in state court by New Haven attorney Joel T. Faxon on behalf of Jose Raul Gonzalez Lara, 30, of Mexico, accuses Degollado of repeatedly sexually molesting Lara….The Vatican last month ordered an overhaul of the Legionaries after an investigation into decades of sexual abuse complaints against Degollado and alleged efforts to cover up the crimes. Degollado engaged in “very serious and objectively immoral behavior,” the Vatican said, and led “a life devoid of scruple and of genuine religious sentiment.” That conduct included fathering at least one child and sexually molesting boys and seminarians into the 1990s. Degollado died in 2008 at age 87.
Lara’s mother, Blanca Gutierrez Lara, gave birth to two children with Degollado, who used the alias Raul Rivas, according to the lawsuit. The biological sons — and another boy whom Degollado did not father — claim that Degollado sexually abused them, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter. Only Lara is bringing a suit, however….Although seminarians and others urged Pope John Paul II to investigate Degollado and the Legionaries of Christ for abuse, the pope instead praised Degollado in 1994 as “an efficacious guide to youth.”
Pope Benedict XVI appointed a special envoy and commission to oversee “purification” of the order and to deal “sincerely with all those who, within and outside the Legion, were victims of sexual abuse and of the power system devised by the founder.” Critics have described the order as secretive, controlling and cult-like, with seminarians largely cut off from contact with their families and the outside world….Jim Fair, a spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ, said the order would have no comment on the lawsuit. He did say that Lara’s claim that he is Degollado’s son seems credible.
http:/www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-legionaries-of-christ-sued-0622-20100621,0,5181731.story
Lawsuit: Former Orlando priests gave boys alcohol May 14, 2010 By Walter Pacheco, Orlando Sentinel – Accounts of plying boys with alcohol, showing them pornography and then molesting them are among the allegations detailed in the lawsuits against two former priests and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando….In the past five years, officials at the Diocese of Orlando have been served with 14 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of altar boys and other children at the hands of its clergymen. The Diocese settled several of those suits, paying victims more than $5 million. The victim in the suit against Vernon F. Uhran is asking for more than $25 million in damages. The suit against Richard A. Emerson seeks more than $15,000 from the Diocese. Both lawsuits were filed in Orange County during the past two weeks. Uhran, a former priest at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Altamonte Springs, is accused of giving the victim alcohol on a “spiritual retreat” to a beach in 1970 and then molesting him, according to the suit. The victim was 14 at the time. Diocese records show Uhran had preached in at least six Central Florida parishes and Catholic schools since 1969. Multiple allegations of sexual abuse of minors forced former Bishop Norbert Dorsey to remove him from the ministry in 1992. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-05-14/news/os-orlando-catholic-priest-lawsuit-20100514_1_lawsuits-alleging-sexual-abuse-survivors-network-diocese-spokeswoman-carol-brinati
Editorial: The Pope’s Duty 7/8/10 When rolling scandal forced the American Catholic bishops conference to take action against pedophile priests, the prelates issued a tough policy requiring accused child molesters be reported immediately to secular authorities. This mandate finally acknowledged that crimes against children should take priority over bureaucratic church policies that served to cloak rogue priests and bishops in a fog of ecclesiastical evasion.
Eight years after the American church’s overdue order, it is shocking that Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican have not yet applied it to the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The pedophilia scandal has erupted in other nations, leaving parents concerned about a repetition of the harrowing experience in America, where more than 700 priests had to be dismissed across a three-year period. Yet the Vatican is reportedly working on new “guidelines” — not mandates. They are likely to fall short of zero-tolerance and other requirements in the American church that parishes and communities be alerted to abusers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/opinion/09fri3.html
Children victims of half of all sex offences 7 June 2010 Almost half of all sex offences are committed against children, despite them making up just 21% of the population, the BBC has learned….A similar survey conducted by the NSPCC in January suggested more than 21,618 sex offences – or 60 a day – had been committed against children in 2008/9. The charity found that one in seven victims were younger than 10, while 1,000 cases involved children aged five or under, with some so young they did not understand what had happened to them. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/10254922.stm
Deposition paints an unflattering portrait of Mahony – Exchanges between attorney and cardinal about priest convicted of molestation reveal a failure to take responsibility. By Steve Lopez June 20, 2010…The deposition involved former priest Michael Baker, who is now serving a 10-year sentence for molestation. After he confessed to Mahony in 1986 that he had molested two boys, Mahony sent him to one of the drive-through “treatment” centers used by the church back then. After that, the archdiocese shuffled Baker around to different parishes — some with elementary schools. Despite reports that Baker continued to have contact with minors in violation of church orders, the archdiocese did nothing to stop the priest, who went on to molest other kids. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopezcolumn-20100620-column,0,4523336.column
Vatican’s New Rules Against Child Sex Abusers to Maintain Status Quo 7/7/10 The Vatican is expected to slightly enhance its rules for punishing clergy who sexually abuse children, but the new policies, likely to be announced within days, will still fall short of what victim advocates say is necessary to protect minors.
Moreover, the changes are seen as fairly minor concessions in a decades-long battle to push Rome to act forcefully against abusers.
In addition, the new policy, which has reportedly been signed by Pope Benedict XVI, still has no provision for dealing with bishops who cover up for molesting priests and it is unlikely to clarify whether or how bishops should report abusers to civil authorities.
The new rules, which Vatican observers say could go into effect within days, will gather norms that have been in place since 2001 to make it easier for the church to defrock or suspend priests accused of abuse. The policies were slightly modified in 2003, after another wave of sexual abuse revelations broke in the United States.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/07/vaticans-new-rules-against-child-sex-abusers-to-maintain-status/
The Vatican Adjusts Its Child-Sex-Abuse Policies Again: A Reminder of How Statutes of Limitations Play a Nefarious Role By MARCI A. HAMILTON July 7, 2010 People rightly shake their heads in disbelief at each halting step that the Holy See makes toward fixing its morally-reprehensible approach to child sex abuse by clergy. Even now, the enormity of the revelations regarding the coverup is still hard to absorb. As readers will remember, it all started with the Boston Globe’s groundbreaking investigative reporting in 2002. Today, abusing priests in countries around the globe — and those in the Church hierarchy who knew, but stayed silent — have been implicated. The crisis demands an emergency response of grand magnitude. Yet an institution of the size, scope, and political structure of the Catholic Church is inherently incapable of such movement. Each new announcement falls short of reaching the other side of this chasm of error. Sadly, the recent early reports on the Vatican’s “new” amendments to the canon law governing church trials of child abusers are no different. These amendments appear to be simply some re-packaging of internal practices, with some clarification. They offer little to reassure those inside and outside the Church who care about children that children will finally, actually be safe. The Church States that Priests are to Follow Civil-Law Reporting Statues — But Lobbies Hard for Priests to Be Exempt http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20100707.html
UK government acts to prevent arrest of Pope 7/23/10 Andrew John The UK government is said to have set in motion a law change that will prevent the Pope from being arrested when he visits the country in September. Officials in Whitehall – the UK government’s administrative offices – are said to be worried over plans by the atheist authors Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens to have Pope Benedict arrested for crimes against humanity, because of his alleged cover-up of priestly assaults on children. “Mr Dawkins, the atheist campaigner, and Mr Hitchens, an atheist author, asked human rights lawyers in April to put together a case for charging the Pope over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic church,” reports Pink News today. Its report adds: “Justice Secretary Ken Clarke proposed changes to the law today which would require the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions to any arrest warrant issued under universal jurisdiction.” http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/295022
The Belgians Make Washington Look Bad July 7, 2010 Marci Hamilton – Professor, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law ….The U.S. Solicitor General and the State Department, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urged the Supreme Court to vacate a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that permitted a single victim to sue the Holy See for abuse by Fr. Andrew Ronan. The priest admitted repeatedly to victimizing children in Ireland, Chicago, and then Portland. Nevertheless, the legal strategy employed by our government was to grossly distort Oregon law so as to favor the Vatican.
But last week, the Supreme Court, with six Catholics on the bench, took the high road and rejected the Solicitor General’s and the State Department’s politicization of the case and denied the Holy See’s petition. As a result, John V. Doe will be permitted to pursue his case, first through discovery and then at trial. That is a testimony to the rule of law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marci-hamilton/the-belgians-make-washing_b_637575.html
Church accepts liability for sex abuse LISA MARTIN AND ANGELA HARPER July 12, 2010 AAP The Catholic Church is being praised for its readiness to avoid a court battle over the rape and sexual abuse of young girls at a Queensland primary school. A former teacher, 61, has admitted to a series of sexual abuse charges involving 13 girls in classes he taught between January 2007 and September 2008. Lawyers for some of the victims say Toowoomba Bishop William Morris has formally accepted legal liability for the abuse and the church will enter into mediation with the victims.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/church-accepts-liability-for-sex-abuse-20100712-106zr.html
Abuse Took Years to Ignite Belgian Clergy Inquiry By DOREEN CARVAJAL and STEPHEN CASTLE July 12, 2010 WESTVLETEREN, Belgium — Behind an aggressive investigation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Belgium that drew condemnation from the pope himself lies a stark family tragedy: the molestation, for years, of a youth by his uncle, the bishop of Bruges; the prelate’s abrupt resignation when a friend of the nephew finally threatened to make the abuse public; and now the grass-roots fury of almost 500 people complaining of abuse by priests….A public pledge by Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard of Brussels that the Bruges resignation marked an end to cover-ups prompted more than 500 people — mostly men — to come forward in just two months. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/world/europe/13belgium.html
School board apologizes for Cornwall sex-abuse cases By Dave Rogers, The Ottawa Citizen June 29, 2010 OTTAWA — The Upper Canada District School Board issued an apology Tuesday for decades-old cases sexual abuse at a Cornwall high school, six months after a public inquiry by Justice Normand Glaude asked for it. David Thomas, the board’s director of education, said the board took some time to issue the apology because an unspecified number of victims and their families wanted to see what the board was doing to prevent future abuse….The $53-million inquiry said police, government, the Catholic Church and other institutions failed miserably to respond to decades of alleged and real child sexual abuse by Cornwall probation officers, clergy, teachers and others.
The apology named three teachers who worked at École Secondaire Catholique La Citadelle, which was operated by the former Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry County Board of Education during the 1960s for the Cornwall French-speaking community. It also named a school-bus driver who worked for the board. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/School+board+apologizes+Cornwall+abuse+cases/3217212/story.html
‘Scumbag pedophile priest’ jailed for 19 years – Catholic cleric abused children aged as young as five at Australian schools 7/2/2010 A Catholic cleric, who described himself as a “scumbag pedophile priest,” has been jailed for nearly 20 years for abusing 25 children in Australia. John Sidney Denham, 67, pleaded guilty to carrying out attacks on boys as young as five years old at schools in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986, The Australian newspaper reported. Judge Helen Syme spent at least three hours summing up the charges. “The indecent assaults involved multiple children, often significant planning, were frequently sadistic and overall persistent, objectively serious, criminal courses of conduct,” she said, according to the newspaper. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38053508/ns/world_news-asiapacific
Australian priest jailed for ‘sadistic’ child abuse 7/1/10 AFP – Judge Helen Syme told a Sydney court that many of Denham’s 25 victims were left terrified by the attacks they endured at schools in Sydney and elsewhere in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986. “The indecent assaults involved multiple children, often significant planning, were frequently sadistic and overall persistent, objectively serious, criminal courses of conduct,” Syme said, according to Australian news agency AAP. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5grySflNV4fpoNn65TZSFvvixW9FQ
Church Office Failed to Act on Abuse Scandal By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and DAVID M. HALBFINGER July 1, 2010 In its long struggle to grapple with sexual abuse, the Vatican often cites as a major turning point the decision in 2001 to give the office led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger the authority to cut through a morass of bureaucracy and handle abuse cases directly. The decision, in an apostolic letter from Pope John Paul II, earned Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, a reputation as the Vatican insider who most clearly recognized the threat the spreading sexual abuse scandals posed to the Roman Catholic Church. But church documents and interviews with canon lawyers and bishops cast that 2001 decision and the future pope’s track record in a new and less flattering light.
The Vatican took action only after bishops from English-speaking nations became so concerned about resistance from top church officials that the Vatican convened a secret meeting to hear their complaints — an extraordinary example of prelates from across the globe collectively pressing their superiors for reform, and one that had not previously been revealed. And the policy that resulted from that meeting, in contrast to the way it has been described by the Vatican, was not a sharp break with past practices. It was mainly a belated reaffirmation of longstanding church procedures that at least one bishop attending the meeting argued had been ignored for too long, according to church documents and interviews. The office led by Cardinal Ratzinger, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had actually been given authority over sexual abuse cases nearly 80 years earlier, in 1922, documents show and canon lawyers confirm. But for the two decades he was in charge of that office, the future pope never asserted that authority, failing to act even as the cases undermined the church’s credibility in the United States, Australia, Ireland and elsewhere. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/world/europe/02pope.html
Archbishop apologises to sex abuse victims Jul 3, 2010 Melbourne’s Catholic Archbishop has apologised to church sex abuse victims for what he describes as an unacceptable evil. In a letter to parishioners, Archbishop Denis Hart said continuing reports of abuse, including the latest investigations in Europe, are causing great distress and shame for the Church. He offered a sincere and unreserved apology for what he describes as a grave evil. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/03/2943947.htm
Dioceses oust abusers they had pledged to monitor 7/5/2010 NEW YORK (AP) At the peak of the Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis, the discipline plan American bishops adopted prompted dioceses to remove nearly all accused clergy from the priesthood. Some of the men, however, were considered too old or sick to be kicked out. Instead, bishops barred those clerics from functioning as priests and promised to keep watch over them in supervisory programs that would keep the men far from children. But interviews with canon lawyers, church child protection officials and experts who advise them found that, eight years after the plan was approved, few of those diocesan programs exist.
Church leaders are more likely to oust a cleric from the priesthood than monitor him. Church leaders viewed the tracking programs as critical to protecting children while still showing mercy for accused clergy who did not have the means to survive on their own. Most people who said they were abused as children did not come forward until decades after the priests’ alleged offenses. The men had never been prosecuted in a civil court, let alone a church tribunal. Vatican officials whose approval was needed to enact the 2002 American plan were especially concerned about clergy due process rights and pressed bishops on the issue. When the American policy was finalized, an exception had been carved out for the infirm men. They would be ordered to live a life of “prayer and penance” under diocesan watch. Dioceses quickly realized, though, that they had few resources for the complex task of monitoring abusive priests, and that by caring for the clergy, they might be opening themselves to additional liability. American dioceses have already paid more than $2.7 billion in settlements and other abuse-related costs since 1950, according to surveys by the bishops. Tossing accused clerics out of the priesthood altogether became the more common approach. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-07-05-monitor04_ST_N.htm
Belgian child sex abuse police probe death threats 4 July 2010 Police investigating claims of child abuse by Belgian clergy have told the BBC they are probing death threats against witnesses and magistrates. Last month police raided a meeting of Belgium’s Catholic bishops as part of their investigation, seizing computers and documents….The investigation into child abuse allegations in Belgium’s Catholic Church has already prompted extraordinary scenes, says the BBC’s Dominic Hughes in Brussels…..Officials say that police are also looking into threats to the lives of some witnesses and magistrates connected to the case. Jean Marc Meillure, a spokesman for the public prosecutors office, confirmed that an investigation was under way. “There are some threats against certain people around the case, and the prosecutors office is investigating that,” he told the BBC. He said the threats had been made against people who gave the authorities information or made a complaint, or against some magistrates. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10501668
Reforming the Statute of Limitations for Child Sex Abuse: New York’s Child Victims Act Shouldn’t Be Political, But It Is By MARCI A. HAMILTON June 10, 2010 Last week, the New York Child Victims Act (available at http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S5893A) was defeated in the Senate Codes Committee. For New York’s children, it was a choice that favors child predators, and therefore a bad day. However, it was an interesting session and the bill will be re-introduced next session — and every session until it is passed, according to sponsors Assemblywoman Marge Markey and Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson. The only impact is that child predators have one more year to operate under the anonymity afforded by New York’s extremely short statutes of limitations for child sex abuse….
Currently, New York has one of the stingiest statutes of limitations for child sex abuse in the entire country — 18 years-old for criminal charges and 23 for civil claims. In the future, it is inevitable that New York will radically expand these statutes of limitations for child sex abuse, because justice demands it, and because that is the trend in the entire country. Florida just eliminated all of its statutes of limitations for child sex abuse; Delaware did the same thing in 2007; Connecticut gives victims until age 48; Pennsylvania until age 53; New Jersey has a liberal discovery rule (which New York courts rejected, saying it was an issue for the legislature)….
Research establishes that one in four girls, and one in five boys, are sexually abused. Not only clergy child-sex-abuse victims, but incest victims too, are increasingly demanding their day in court, and the kind of statute-of-limitations reform that would make that possible.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20100610.html
Boy Scout Leader in Mich. Faces Child Porn Charges 7/22/10 Allan Lengel On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Grand Rapids indicted Scott Allan Herrick, 39, of Twin Lakes, Mich., on charges of sexually exploiting children and possessing and distributing child pornography. He was arrested in early July on a federal criminal complaint and jailed pending a court appearance on July 27. Scott Allen Herrick, 39, a Boy Scout camp director, has been charged with receiving, distributing and possessing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis. Herrick’s arrest sent shock waves through western Michigan. He had been director of the camp for the past seven years…. Authorities have alleged that Herrick on four occasions secretly videotaped boys around 9 years of age as they were dressing at the YMCA locker room. He was also charged with distributing child porn on the Internet. http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/boy-scout-leader-in-michigan-faces-child-porn-charges/19565227
NY: Networking site Tagged.com ignored abuse rules By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press Writer
June 10, 2010 NEW YORK — Child pornography was allowed to remain on social-networking site Tagged.com for nearly two months after undercover investigators posed as users and reported the content to the site’s administrators, the state attorney general’s office charged Thursday. The office notified Tagged.com that it would sue the site if the problems were not resolved within 5 days, said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who previously targeted the site last summer and accused it of stealing the identities of more than 60 million Internet users in a deceptive marketing campaign.
One slideshow that remained on the site as of Thursday morning depicted children, some who appeared as young as 5, engaged in sexual acts with other children, Cuomo’s office said. The slideshow was sent to Tagged.com on April 17 using the site’s own reporting procedures. Louis Willacy, a lawyer for Tagged Inc., issued a statement saying the site was cooperating with investigators and hoped “to resolve this quickly in the best interest of our members’ safety.”….After receiving a civilian tip, investigators from Cuomo’s office spent three months creating undercover user accounts and posing as both parents and abusers. They made more than 100 reports about 80 users, but as of Thursday morning, 51 of those users still had active accounts, the office said. Hours after the press conference, the slideshow featuring young children was still online, the office said. Investigators also said they found that adult users of the site were sending inappropriate sexual messages and photographs to members identifying themselves as underage. Some of the site’s user groups centered on underage sex, Cuomo’s office said. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/10/ny-networking-site-taggedcom-ignored-abuse-rules
describes abuse
Sect members charged with abusing children to ‘protect them’ Leader of the ‘Ithaca’ who allegedly ordered the children be hit to ‘save their souls’ committed suicide in his prison cell days after being arrested. By Ofra Edelman 6/13/10 Three members of the “Ithaca” cult were charged with the severe abuse of their children, according to an indictment submitted to the Peta Tikvah District court on Sunday. According to the indictment, sect leader, Shay Abramov instructed members to physically abuse their children, in what he called a “treatment” against accidents and illnesses, so to save their lives and prevent their souls from going to hell….The state prosecutor’s office wrote in the indictment that the allegations “uncover a horrifying tale of abuse during a period of six months, for the purpose of preventing them from becoming felons and to ‘take the evil out of them,” adding that the reported abuse was “severe and systematic.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/sect-members-charged-with-abusing-children-to-protect-them-1.295860
DOJ report says child porn on the rise (AP) – 8/2/10 WASHINGTON — The spread of child pornography, fueled by technology and the Internet, is outpacing efforts to combat it, the Justice Department said Monday in a report to Congress that promises more arrests, prosecutions and better coordination among federal, state and local authorities. Attorney General Eric Holder said the distribution of child pornography, the number of images being shared online and violence against child victims all have increased. “Tragically, the only place we’ve seen a decrease is in the age of victims,” Holder said in a speech at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va. The report, ordered by Congress in legislation approved two years ago, concedes that the market for child pornography continues to grow rapidly and determining its size is impossible. “The number of offenders accessing the images and videos and the quantity of images and videos being traded is unknown,” the report said….The increased attention to fighting child pornography already has led to record numbers of prosecutions and tips. More than 8,600 people have been prosecuted at the federal level since October 2006. State and local authorities focused on the use of the Internet in child sexual exploitation reported that documented complaints of online enticement of children more than tripled from 2004 to 2008 and complaints of child prostitution rose more than 10 times.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikJwimhJLziWOIbrB1d8IYltbW-gD9HBH0FG0
Officials issue national strategy to fight child sex crimes By Terry Frieden, CNN Justice Producer August 3, 2010 Washington (CNN) — With child sex crimes in the United States sharply increasing, federal officials Monday issued a “national strategy” to combat child exploitation in homes, on streets and over the internet. Top federal law enforcement officials led by Attorney General Eric Holder vowed to take new steps to stem rampant child pornography, online enticements, child prostitution and child sex tourism. In a detailed report submitted to Congress on Monday, the Justice Department says that since 2006, when the government launched Project Safe Childhood, federal prosecutions have increased by 40 percent, and more than 8,600 defendants have been indicted. More than 2,400 alleged sex offenders were indicted in 2009 alone. “Tragically, the only place we’ve seen a decrease is in the age of the victims,” Holder said. Officials said the average age of girls targeted for child pornography is 12 to 14, while the average age of boys targeted is 11 to 13. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/02/pol.strategy.child.exploitation/index.html
Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, August 2, 2010 Department of Justice Releases First National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction U.S. Marshals Service to Launch Nationwide Operation Targeting Top 500 Most Dangerous, Non-compliant Sex Offenders WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that the Department of Justice released its first-ever National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. The strategy also provides the first-ever comprehensive threat assessment of the dangers facing children from child pornography, online enticement, child sex tourism, commercial sexual exploitation and sexual exploitation in Indian Country, and outlines a blueprint to strengthen the fight against these crimes. The strategy builds upon the department’s accomplishments in combating child exploitation by establishing specific, aggressive goals and priorities and increasing cooperation and collaboration at all levels of government and the private sector. http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/August/10-opa-887.html
More than 12 million are modern slaves, U.S. says 6/14/10 A sobering new report from the State Department finds that more than 12 million people worldwide are victims of “trafficking in persons” – trapped in forced labor, bonded labor or forced prostitution. But just 4,166 people were convicted of trafficking last year, the report says. Even so, awareness of the reach of modern slavery has made such crimes easier to report and police, the study says. Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, who heads the State Department’s anti-slavery efforts, noted that 116 countries have adopted anti-trafficking laws since the United Nations enacted a law against modern slavery 10 years ago. Last year marked a high-water mark, both in identifying trafficking victims and in mounting successful prosecutions….But there’s still much work ahead, the report says. The State Department estimates that only 0.4 percent of all modern slavery victims were identified last year. Human trafficking is a multibillion-dollar business – and will probably grow so long as global governments fail to crack down on it more forcefully. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100614/wl_ynews/ynews_wl2569
Trafficking in Persons Report 2010 http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/index.htm
Revealed: The horrific trade in British children for sex – The terrible plight of foreign women trafficked into the UK and forced to work as prostitutes has overshadowed a home-grown scandal By Emily Dugan 15 August 2010….Sheila Taylor, chair of the National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People, said: “What we’re seeing is the tip of the iceberg. This is happening in all cities and many towns. There has been no prosecution of those who sexually exploit children with trafficking legislation.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/revealed-the-horrific-trade-in-british-children-for-sex-2053047.html
REDLIGHT, narrated by Lucy Liu, is a powerful and moving documentary about children emerging from lives in which they were trafficked into prostitution. http://www.lexisnexis.com/redlight/index.html
Human trafficking is modern-day slavery
27 – The number, in millions, of trafficked persons in the world.
32 – The estimated global annual profit, in billions US$, of human trafficking.
http://www.lexisnexis.com/redlight/human_trafficking.html
Polanski free after Swiss reject extradition By Hui Min Neo (AFP) 7/12/10 GENEVA — Swiss authorities said that Roman Polanski was a free man Monday after rejecting a request to extradite the film director to the United States to answer for a child sex case dating back to 1977. “The Franco-Polish film-maker will not be extradited to the United States and the measures of restriction on his liberty have been lifted,” Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told reporters at a press conference. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jCGJhS900g2cGdXBg_7ZYhZVP9qg
Roman Polanski’s freedom — and unmitigated gall By Eugene Robinson July 13, 2010 For Roman Polanski, the long, unspeakable nightmare of being confined to his three-story chalet in Gstaad, the luxury resort in the Swiss Alps, is finally over. The fugitive director is free once again to stroll into town, have a nice meal, maybe do a little shopping at the local Cartier, Hermes or Louis Vuitton boutiques….Anyone tempted to feel Polanski’s pain should take a closer look at the case. In 1977, when he was 43, Polanski lured a 13-year-old girl to a house in the Hollywood hills owned by Jack Nicholson — the actor was not home at the time — and plied her with drugs and champagne before having sex with her.
Polanski and his lawyers claimed that the sex was consensual. That’s absurd as a legal argument, since the girl was too young to give her consent. But the girl’s grand jury testimony makes clear that this was anything but a no-fault romp. She testified that Polanski, on the ruse of photographing her and wanting to make her a star, persuaded her to pose nude and then assaulted her.
She testified that Polanski raped and sodomized her, against her will, and that she was distraught before, during and after the act. The director was indicted on six felony charges, including rape by use of drugs and child molestation, but he was allowed to plead guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse. Polanski, who spent about a month and a half in jail, thought he had a deal that would get him off with nothing worse than 90 days in confinement under psychiatric observation. But when the judge had second thoughts about going through with such a lenient deal, Polanski fled. He has been on the lam ever since.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/12/AR2010071203021.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
describes crimes – Dominic Lawson: Let’s not forget what Polanski did – The film director has been treated with extraordinary indulgence Tuesday, 29 September 2009 A man who drugged and sodomised a 13-year old girl would not usually receive the uncritical support of the political and literary establishments. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-lets-not-forget-what-polanski-did-1794717.html
EXCLUSIVE: Pedophiles Find a Home on Wikipedia By Jana Winter June 25, 2010 FOXNews.com
Wikipedia has become home base for a loose worldwide network of pedophiles who are campaigning to spin the popular online encyclopedia in their favor and are trying to lure more people into their world, an investigation by FoxNews.com confirms.
Chat room posts show a clear effort by pedophiles to use Wikipedia, which can be accessed unfiltered in public schools across the country, to further their agenda. Message board posts often include links to specific Wikipedia articles that the participants say need to be edited to “normalize” pedophile behavior in the public eye and to recruit more pedophiles into their community.
“Pedophiles have campaigned to push their point of view that ‘pedophilia is OK and doesn’t hurt children’ on Wikipedia,” says Xavier Von Erck, director of the online pedophile watchdog organization Perverted Justice Foundation and Wikisposure.com, its offshoot project devoted to tracking pedophiles and pedophile activism on Wikipedia. “This has been a problem since Wikipedia started.”
In response to a request for comment on this story, Sue Gardner, executive director of Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s parent organization, said in a statement:
“Wikipedia has a long-held, zero-tolerance policy towards pedophilia or pedophilia advocacy and child pornography. The Wikimedia community is vigilant about identifying and deleting any such material. Any allegations to the contrary are outrageous and false.”
….The article on pedophilia, in its suggestions for further reading, suggests other Wikipedia pages edited by pedophiles, including “Child Sexuality,” and “NAMBLA,” a page about the North American Man/Boy Love Association. That page links directly to NAMBLA’s website, as do 25 other Wikipedia pages.
Wikipedia also has 32 external links to GirlChat, 14 to a Danish pro-pedophile website and 12 to BoyChat….But an investigation by FoxNews.com shows that pedophiles are gaming this system, using their message boards to rally opposition and to sabotage attempts by other Wikipedia community members to rid the online encyclopedia of pro-pedophilia content.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/25/exclusive-pedophiles-find-home-on-wikipedia/
Investigation Confirms Wikipedia-Pedophile Connection By James R. Marsh on June 25, 2010
According to a FOXNews.com exclusive investigation, inspired in part by this blog’s April 20th post Wikipedophilia….On May 7, FoxNews.com reported exclusively that Wales had personally deleted many of the images from Wikimedia’s servers, and that he’d ordered that thousands more be purged. Now many of those images have been restored to their original web pages.
http://www.childlaw.us/2010/06/investigation-confirms-wikiped.html
Pentagon workers tied to child porn – Security agencies were left at risk, investigators say By Bryan Bender Globe Staff / July 23, 2010 WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have identified several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances who allegedly purchased and downloaded child pornography, including an undisclosed number who used their government computers to obtain the illegal material, according to investigative reports. The investigations have included employees of the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — which deal with some of the most sensitive work in intelligence and defense — among other organizations within the Defense Department. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/07/23/pentagon_workers_tied_to_child_porn/?page=1
Despite states’ efforts, measures to protect students from predators sometimes fail By Michael Alison Chandler Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 25, 2010 For nearly three decades, Kevin Ricks exploited gaps in a system that is supposed to keep sexual predators out of the classroom. He landed teaching jobs at one school after another — public and private, urban and rural, domestic and foreign — despite mounting evidence of his troubling personal relationships with male students. The emerging portrait of Ricks as a serial sexual abuser raises questions about why schools continued to hire him and what could have been done to stop him….
Maryland, Virginia and other states have long sought to bolster safeguards for students. They have required criminal background checks for prospective school employees, created tougher penalties for sex crimes committed by educators or others in positions of authority, and given employers liability protections to encourage them to speak candidly during reference checks. Many states also have required school systems to file reports when teachers are convicted of sexual crimes or resign amid allegations of abuse, so that their licenses can be reviewed or revoked.
None of these measures stopped Ricks. He held at least 12 teaching positions from 1982 until his arrest in February at Osbourn High School in Manassas….In 2004, a congressionally mandated study estimated that one in 10 students from kindergarten through 12th grade were victims of some form of sexual misconduct by a school employee — from being told a dirty joke or shown pornography to being inappropriately touched or raped. In 2007, an Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 teachers nationwide had licenses revoked, suspended or denied from 2001 through 2005 because of sexual misconduct. Http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/24/AR2010072402589.html
Kevin Ricks’ career as teacher, tutor shows pattern of abuse that goes back decades By Josh White, Blaine Harden and Jennifer Buske Sunday, July 25, 2010 What teachers, parents, students and even his wife didn’t know was that his journals contained decades of dark secrets, a running handwritten commentary of Ricks’s world of obsession, infatuation, pursuit, sexual abuse and international child exploitation. They didn’t know about his library of homemade pornographic videos and explicit photographs capturing his tequila-soaked sex acts with teenage boys he had handpicked. They didn’t know about the makeshift shrine boxes containing mementos of the episodes, including sex toys, soiled tissues and hair trimmings.
Even some of the victims didn’t know they were victims. A four-month Washington Post investigation of Ricks’s career as a teacher, tutor, foreign exchange host and camp counselor has revealed a pattern of abuse that dates to at least 1978 and has left a trail of victims spanning the globe. But despite the abuse, Ricks moved from one teaching job to the next over nearly 30 years, navigating the nation’s public and private school systems undetected, evading traps designed to catch him. In some cases, school officials and foreign exchange companies knew of or suspected Ricks’s inappropriate behavior and simply let him go, leaving the next employer with no idea what was coming.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/24/AR2010072402605.html
describes crimes
Craigslist’s shame: Child sex ads By Malika Saada Saar, Special to CNN August 4, 2010 CNN) — Last month, two girls trafficked for sex through the website Craigslist wrote an open letter to its founder, Craig Newmark, pleading with him to get rid of the adult services section, where sex ads are placed. “I was first forced into prostitution when I was 11 years old by a 28-year-old man,” “M.C.” wrote. “I am not an exception. The man who trafficked me sold many girls my age, his house was called ‘Daddy Day Care.’
“All day, me and other girls sat with our laptops, posting pictures and answering ads on Craigslist. He made $1,500 a night selling my body, dragging me to Los Angeles, Houston, Little Rock — and one trip to Las Vegas in the trunk of a car. I am 17 now, and my childhood memories aren’t of my family, going to middle school, or dancing at the prom. They are making my own arrangements on Craigslist to be sold for sex, and answering as many ads as possible for fear of beatings and ice water baths.” No one from Craigslist responded to M.C….
According to the most recent Department of Justice statistics, an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 children are sold for sex every year in the United States. Most are from 11 and 14 years old. Try for a moment to imagine your fifth-grade child, niece or sister, sold for sex. Law enforcement officials and anti-trafficking organizations have repeatedly asked Craigslist to rein in its sex ads in an effort to stop the selling of children for sex. Craig Newmark and Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster have made some efforts to screen the site for children sold for sex and cooperate with law enforcement investigations. But for the most part, they have ignored such pleas, maybe because they just made an estimated $36 million in profits from these sex ads in the last year alone.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/02/saar.craigslist.child.trafficking/index.html
Craigslist vigilant in barring child sex ads By Jim Buckmaster, Special to CNN August 4, 2010 Editor’s note: Jim Buckmaster is president and CEO of Craigslist, the most used classified advertising service in any medium, relied on by more than 50 million Americans each month for finding jobs, housing, secondhand items, friendship, romance, services, events and local community information. San Francisco, California (CNN) — As all people of conscience will agree, human trafficking and child exploitation are utterly despicable and horrendous crimes. In contrast with the epidemic numbers often cited for the nation as a whole, the incidence of such crimes is low and getting lower on Craigslist because of the comprehensive preventive measures we have taken. Some experts now liken the relative rarity on Craigslist to “looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Nevertheless, any misuse of our site whatsoever in facilitating such unspeakable crimes is unacceptable, and we will continue to work tirelessly, in tandem with law enforcement and key nonprofits, to ensure that any victims receive the assistance they desperately need and deserve, and that those responsible are imprisoned….Last year, we began manual screening of each adult services ad before its posting, and those unwilling to conform to Craigslist’s standards left in droves for the many venues that do not screen ads. This migration is a matter of public record.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/04/buckmaster.craigslist.rebuttal/index.html
Craigslist founder rendered speechless by CNN’s sex-trafficking questions Aug 4, 2010 by Liz Goodwin The popular online classified ad site Craigslist is set to make about a third of its total revenue from its “adult services” ads section this year. But police and groups working to prevent human trafficking tell CNN the company is lining its pockets with money paid by prostitutes and pimps selling sex. According to anti-trafficking advocates, some of the women featured on the site are underage and are being forced into prostitution against their will. When CNN reporter Amber Lyon confronted Craigslist founder Craig Newmark with these accusations in an unplanned interview, the Internet magnate said his company was doing “more than anyone” to combat prostitution ads, before falling silent and eventually walking away from her questions….Lyon showed Newmark Craigslist ads that clearly involved women soliciting money for sex. Newmark asked, “Have you reported this to us?” “Why do I have the responsibility to report this to you when it’s your website? You’re the one posting this online,” she said. Lyon also told Newmark that anti-trafficking advocates say his site is the “Wal-Mart of sex trafficking.” Soon after, Newmark walked away.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100804/us_yblog_upshot/craigslist-founder-rendered-speechless-by-cnns-sex-trafficking-questions
Craigslist: The ‘Wal-Mart of child sex trade’? What does CNN’s surprise interview with the founder of Craigslist reveal about his site’s role in sex trafficking and underage prostitution? August 5, 2010 Popular classified ad website Craigslist has come under fire for profiting off of illegal prostitution ads. While Craigslist executives insist that they screen ads posted to their “adult services” section, police and anti-human trafficking advocates say the site has become a hotbed for online prostitution, which often involves underage women forced into the sex trade. “Craigslist is like the Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking right now in this country,” Andrea Powell of the anti-human trafficking group The FAIR Fund tells CNN.
http://theweek.com/article/index/205788/craigslist-the-wal-mart-of-child-sex-trade
Japan’s Child Abuse Reaches Record High – Japanese child abuse cases reach record high; 187 victims, 18 deaths in 1st half of 2010 By YURI KAGEYAMA TOKYO August 5, 2010 (AP) During the first six months of this year, there were reports of 187 children who were victims of abuse, mostly physical abuse but some sexual, the highest since such records began to be compiled in 2000, the National Police Agency said. The cases resulted in 18 deaths, and 199 people were arrested, it said. In another disturbing sign, the police report also found child pornography on the rise, with cases surging 63 percent from a year earlier to 599 cases in the first half of the year. About half the cases involved the Internet. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=11329689
Special investigation: How predatory gangs force middle-class girls into the sex trade By Sue Reid 7th August 2010 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1301003/Special-investigation-How-predatory-gangs-force-middle-class-girls-sex-trade.html
August 6, 2010 Susan Sarandon’s Child Sex Trafficking Crusade by Ken Lombardi ….Sarandon said, “Sex trafficking happens everywhere. People profit from it who are also connected to governments. It’s definitely exists within the United States…Kids coming from other countries. The problem exists right here.” Statistics back up the actress’ claims. The U.S. Justice Department estimates that anywhere from 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States every single year. But the number of U.S. children faced with being potentially trafficked is much higher. As many as 200,000 American children are at risk of being forced into the sex trade industry. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20012861-10391698.html
WGBH Investigates: Sexual and Human Trafficking in Southern New England – My four part investigative series that was part of a WGBH Radio team effort:
Part One: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin begins his investigation of human trafficking in Boston and beyond.
Part Two: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin talks to state agencies and police in Massacusetts and Rhode Island about their ongoing investigations.
Part Three: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin looks at the most most heinous dimension of human trafficking:The kidnapping of children for commercial sexual exploitation
Part Four: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin looks worldwide and close to home for lessons that might help in better understanding the dimensions of the problem. http://www.liftedveils.org/
Two held, racket in human trafficking busted TNN, Aug 11, 2010 LUCKNOW: The crime branch of the Lucknow police claimed to have busted a racket in human trafficking in the state capital on Monday night and arrested two of its kingpin. Operating through a wide network of agents spread across the country and neighbouring Nepal, the gang reportedly lured over 200 poor girls and boys and sold them in West Asian countries. These boys and girls have been sent to almost all the West Asian countries — Riyadh in Saudi Arabia being the favoured destination.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Two-held-racket-in-human-trafficking-busted/articleshow/6289962.cms
US law enforcement ‘failing’ on child prostitution 9 August 2010 UK By Sima Kotecha American law enforcement agencies are being accused of not doing enough to combat the problem of child prostitution. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States estimates that between 100,000 and 300,000 American children are forced into prostitution every year – sometimes through being kidnapped near their homes….The FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are working together with NCMEC to combat the problem. The DOJ claims the average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 13. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10896771
USA Swimming Hit With Another Sexual Abuse Lawsuit – Former Olympic Hopeful Swimmer Says California Coach Began Molesting Her at Age 15 By MEGAN CHUCHMACH August 11, 2010 In a sexual abuse scandal that continues to escalate, a new lawsuit against USA Swimming alleges the organization had knowledge of sexual misconduct by a California swim coach and continued to allow him to coach children.
The suit was filed by Jancy Thompson, a former Olympic hopeful who alleges that her former swim coach….began sexually molesting her when she was 15-years-old. Also named as defendants are Havercroft, West Valley, and Pacific Swimming, the regional swim organization under USA Swimming….Today’s lawsuit is the fifth facing USA Swimming in alleged sexual misconduct cases. Allard is also representing another plaintiff in a separate lawsuit against USA Swimming, a victim of former San Jose-area swim coach Andy King, who was sentenced in January to 40 years in prison for decades of abuse perpetrated against young swimmers.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Swimming/usa-swimming-sexual-abuse-olympic-hopeful-swimmer-files/story?id=11378627
Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Information
Conspiracy of Silence was a documentary about child trafficking in the U.S. that was to be shown in the United Kingdom, but it was suppressed by the Discovery Channel. However, a rough-cut of the documentary was leaked, and it has since become an Internet phenomenon. http://www.franklinscandal.com/cos/ The Franklin Scandal http://www.franklinscandal.com/
describes abuse
Day Breaks Over Dharamsala – A Memoir of Life Lost and Found by Janet Thomas – Day Breaks Over Dharamsala was a 20-year writing journey that started in 1990. A year later, I moved to an island to finish it. I had no idea that I had another twenty years to go. To begin with, it was a book full of anguish, fear and loathing–for both self and other. It had no redeeming humor, no redemption, and no India. It chronicled a different trip, to California, down a highway of recrimination, shame and rage. I had a lot of healing ahead of me.
book excerpt:
I’ve tried to heal from the electric shocks that could never happen but did; the sexual slavery as a child that only my body remembers; the experiments that happened to someone else In my body; the days and nights in the dark that made indistinguishable my self from all that did not exist; the places where I became an animal, where being debased for the enjoyment of others was my charm and my glory. I heal from it all, even as I know it could never have happened to me. It is what I don’t know that has both saved me and condemned me. And it seems, at times, as though there is no difference.
I do bear one visible scar. It’s four inches long and reaches down the inside of my left forearm. On my left hand are five-year old fingers and a thumb that does not bend. There is not much feeling in this hand. It is a hand that is always cold, always numb, always looked after by my other hand–the right one, the one that writes, that does everything. “The scar is real,” it writes. It is a huge scar. It is connected to medical experiments and electric shocks to see if the severed nerve would grow, and electric shocks to make sure I didn’t remember the electric shocks. And shocks to obliterate the memory of the sexual exploitation, the manipulation of my mind, and the banishment of my self to a place of hiding so profound it would take me fifty years to get her back….
Many children were experimented on in the 40s and 50s; they still are. Many children were used for child prostitution and pornography; they still are. Many children, and adults, too, had their minds experimented upon through electric shock and drugs and by the destruction of the bonds that make life possible. It is everywhere. Yet it is ultimately our healing that matters. Only in healing that which is invisible is there hope. Nutshell Books (November 2009) ISBN-13: 978-0615329215 http://www.daybreaksoverdharamsala.com/
Human Experimentation at the Heart of Bush Administration’s Torture Program 6 June 2010 Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t High-value detainees captured during the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” who were subjected to brutal torture techniques, were used as “guinea pigs” to gauge the effectiveness of various torture techniques, a practice that has raised troubling comparisons to Nazi-era human experimentation. according to a disturbing new report released by Physicians for Human Rights, an international doctors’ organization….”Health professionals working for and on behalf of the CIA monitored the interrogations of detainees, collected and analyzed the results of [the] interrogations, and sought to derive generalizable inferences to be applied to subsequent interrogations,” said the 27-page report, entitled “Experiments in Torture: Human Subject Research and Evidence of Experimentation in the ‘Enhanced’ Interrogation Program.” “Such acts may be seen as the conduct of research and experimentation by health professionals on prisoners, which could violate accepted standards of medical ethics, as well as domestic and international law. These practices could, in some cases, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.” http://www.truthout.org/human-experimentation-heart-bush-administrations-torture-program60199
Rights groups seek probe into CIA detainee medical research (AFP) 6/10/10 WASHINGTON — Human rights groups filed a complaint seeking an investigation into allegations that CIA-led medical personnel conducted research experiments on terror detainees after the September 11 attacks. Physicians for Human Rights, which released a report this week outlining allegations of illegal human subject research and experimentation on detainees, said it filed the complaint Wednesday with seven other organizations with the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections. The office “should initiate immediately an official investigation” into the evidence, which the group said was detailed in declassified government documents.
The division, which sets guidelines for government research on humans including by the CIA, “has a legal responsibility to investigate these disturbing new allegations about the CIA and possible illegal human experimentation on detainees,” said Nathaniel Raymond, lead author of the report. The CIA has rejected the report as erroneous.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hizRQMIxNHXkPHXVrOcV0cQkgGdw
describes crimes – Russian Satanists jailed for gruesome ritual murders From: NewsCore July 27, 2010 A GANG of six Russians Satanists have been handed jail sentences of up to 20 years for ritually killing and then dismembering four teenagers in a forest. The six – all teenagers at the time – reportedly also ate the body parts of their victims in a wooded area outside the city of Yaroslavl, about 320 kilometres northeast of Moscow.
The group was found guilty of “murdering four people with the aim of carrying out an initiation ritual into a sect and of desecrating the bodies of the dead,” the Yaroslavl regional court said in a statement. The group, four of whom were under 18 at the time, killed the four teenagers in June 2008, prosecutors said….The accused were found guilty of murder, while four were also found guilty of desecrating the victims’ bodies. The longest sentence of 20 years went to the man named as the group’s leader, Nikolai Ogolobnyak.
http://www.news.com.au/world/russian-satanists-jailed-for-gruesome-ritual-murders/story-e6frfkyi-1225897258373
The Hidden Tragedy of the CIA’s Experiments on Children Wednesday 11 August 2010 H.P. Albarelli Jr. and Dr. Jeffrey S. Kaye, t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report describes crimes
excerpts:
From early 1940 to 1953, Dr. Lauretta Bender, a highly respected child neuropsychiatrist practicing at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, experimented extensively with electroshock therapy on children who had been diagnosed with “autistic schizophrenia.” In all, it has been reported that Bender administered electroconvulsive therapy to at least 100 children ranging in age from three years old to 12 years, with some reports indicating the total may be twice that number. One source reports that, inclusive of Bender’s work, electroconvulsive treatment was used on more than 500 children at Bellevue Hospital from 1942 to 1956, and then at Creedmoor State Hospital Children’s Service from 1956 to 1969….Despite publicly claiming good results with electroshock treatment, privately Bender said she was seriously disappointed in the aftereffects and results shown by the subject children. Indeed, the condition of some of the children appeared to have only worsened. One six-year-old boy, after being shocked several times, went from being a shy, withdrawn child to acting increasingly aggressive and violent. Another child, a seven-year-old girl, following five electroshock sessions had become nearly catatonic.
Years later, another of Bender’s young patients who became overly aggressive after about 20 treatments, now grown, was convicted in court as a “multiple murderer.” Others, in adulthood, reportedly were in and of trouble and prison for a battery of petty and violent crimes. A 1954 scientific study of about 50 of Bender’s young electroshock patients, conducted by two psychologists, found that nearly all were worse off after the “therapy” and that some had become suicidal after treatment. One of the children studied in 1954 was the son of well-known writer Jacqueline Susann, author of the bestselling novel “Valley of the Dolls.” Susann’s son, Guy, was diagnosed with autism shortly after birth and, when he was three years old, Dr. Bender convinced Susann and her husband that Guy could be successfully treated with electroshock therapy. Guy returned home from Bender’s care a nearly lifeless child. Susann later told people that Bender had “destroyed” her son. Guy has been confined to institutions since his treatment.
To their credit, some of Dr. Bender’s colleagues considered her use of electroshock on children “scandalous,” but few colleagues spoke out against her, a situation still today common among those in the medical profession….
About the same time Dr. Bender was conducting her electroshock experiments, she was also widely experimenting on autistic and schizophrenic children with what she termed other “treatment endeavors.” These included use of a wide array of psycho-pharmaceutical agents, several provided to her by the Sandoz Chemical Co. in Basel, Switzerland, as well as Metrazol, sub-shock insulin therapy, amphetamines and anticonvulsants. Metrazol was a trade name for pentylenetetrazol, a drug used as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant. High doses cause convulsions, as discovered in 1934 by the Hungarian-American neurologist and psychiatrist Ladislas J. Meduna….
Here it should be noted that, during the cold war years, CIA and Army Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) interrogators, working as part of projects Bluebird and Artichoke, sometimes injected large amounts of Metrazol into selected enemy or Communist agents for the purposes of severely frightening other suspected agents, by forcing them to observe the procedure. The almost immediate effects of Metrazol are shocking for many to witness: subjects will shake violently, twisting and turning. They typically arch, jerk and contort their bodies and grimace in pain. With Metrazol, as with electroshock, bone fractures – including broken necks and backs – and joint dislocations are not uncommon, unless strong sedatives are administered beforehand….
CIC interrogators working in Germany would be assisted in their use of interrogation drugs by several “former” Nazi scientists recruited by the CIA and US State Department as part of Project Paperclip. By early 1952, the CIC’s Rough Boys would routinely use Metrazol during interrogations, as well as LSD, mescaline and conventional electroshock units….
Dr. Bender Discovers LSD
In 1955 and1956, Dr. Bender began hearing glowing accounts about the potential of LSD for producing remarkable results in children suffering mental disorders, including autism and schizophrenia. Bender’s earlier work with electroshock therapy had brought her into contact with several other prominent physicians who, at the time, were covert contractors with the CIA’s MK/ULTRA and Artichoke projects. Primary among these physicians were Drs. Harold A. Abramson, Paul Hoch, James B. Cattell, Joel Elkes, Max Fink, Harris Isbell and Alfred Hubbard. Some of these names may be familiar to readers. Dr. Abramson, a noted allergist who surreptitiously worked for both the US Army and CIA since the late 1940s, was the physician Frank Olson was taken to see, shortly before his murder in New York City in November 1953. About a year earlier, Drs. Hoch and Cattell were responsible for injecting unwitting New York State Psychiatric Institute patient Harold Blauer with a massive dose of mescaline that killed him. Dr. Elkes was one of the earliest physicians in Europe to experiment with LSD, having requested samples of the drug from Sandoz Chemical Co. in 1949. Elkes was a close associate of Dr. Abraham Wikler, who worked closely with Dr. Harris Isbell at the now-closed Lexington, Kentucky, prison farm, where hundreds of already drug-addicted inmates were given heroin in exchange for their participation in LSD and mescaline experiments underwritten by the CIA and Pentagon. Elkes worked closely with the CIA, Pentagon and Britain’s MI6 on drug experiments in England and the United States.
Dr. Fink, who was greatly admired by Bender, is considered the godfather of electroshock therapy in the United States. In the early 1950s and beyond, Fink was a fully cleared CIA Project Artichoke consultant. In 1951, CIA officials under the direction of Paul Gaynor and Morse Allen of the agency’s Security Research Service (SRS) that oversaw Artichoke, worked closely with Fink in New York City in efforts to thoroughly explore the merits of electroshock techniques for interrogations. The CIA was especially interested in the use of standard electroshock machines in producing amnesia, inducing subjects to talk and making subjects more prone to hypnotic control. According to one CIA document, Fink told officials “an individual could gradually be reduced through the use to electroshock treatment to the vegetable level.”….
Other physicians whom Dr. Bender consulted about the effects of LSD on children were Drs. Ronald A. Sandison, Thomas M. Ling and John Buckman. These three worked in England at both the Chelsea Clinic in London and Potwick Hospital in Worcestershire, outside of London. Sandison is credited with having been the first person to bring LSD into England, this in 1952 after he met Albert Hofmann in Basle, Switzerland, at the Sandoz Chemical laboratories. Hofmann handed Sandison a box of around 600 ampules, each containing 100 micrograms of LSD. Back in England, Sandison shared his psychedelic bounty with associates Drs. Ling and Buckman. Before the year was out, Sandison also turned Hubbard on to LSD, guiding Hubbard through his first trip. Sandison also began a new treatment program at the Gothic-looking Potwick facility that he dubbed Psycholytic Therapy. His program’s patients were mostly schizophrenics. In 1958, an LSD treatment unit was established at Potwick. Over the years, it has been reported that the CIA, MI6 and the Macy Foundation secretly helped finance the unit. Dr. Elkes helped by raising about $75,000 for the unit’s operation. For the next ten years the unit administered over 15,000 doses of LSD to about 900 patients….
Dr. Bender’s LSD Experiments on Children
Shortly after deciding to initiate her own LSD experiments on children, Bender attended a conference sponsored by a CIA front group, the Josiah Macy Foundation. The conference focused on LSD research and featured Dr. Harold A. Abramson as a presenter. In 1960, Abramson conducted his own LSD experiments on a group of six children ranging in age from five to 14 years of age. A few short months after the Macy Foundation conference, Dr. Bender was notified that her planned LSD experiments would be partially and surreptitiously funded by the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology (SIHE), another CIA front group then located in Forest Hills, New York. The Society, headed by James L. Monroe, a former US Air Force officer who had worked on top-secret psychological warfare and propaganda projects, oversaw about 55 top-secret experiments underwritten by the CIA. These projects involved LSD, ESP, black magic, astrology, psychological warfare, media manipulation, and other subjects. Apparently, Bender’s work with children and LSD raised some concerns at the CIA’s Technical Services Division (TSD). A 1961 TSD memo written to Monroe questioned the “operational benefits of Dr. Bender’s work as related to children and LSD,” and requested to be kept “closely appraised of the possible links between Dr. Bender’s project and those being conducted under separate MK/ULTRA funding at designated prisons in New York and elsewhere.”
In 1960, Dr. Bender launched her first experiments with LSD and children. They were conducted within the Children’s Unit, Creedmoor State Hospital in Queens, New York. The LSD she used was supplied by Dr. Rudolph P. Bircher of the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company. (Dr. Bircher also provided Bender with UML-491, also a Sandoz-produced product, very much like LSD but sometimes “dreamier” in effect and longer lasting.) Her initial group of young subjects consisted of 14 children diagnosed schizophrenic, all under the age of 11…..
http://www.truth-out.org/the-hidden-tragedy-cias-experiments-children62208
The Strange Story of Sally Hartman 10 June 2010 by: H.P. Albarelli Jr., t r u t h o u t | Interview On 26 October, [redacted], an employee of the [redacted], contacted the Office of the Inspector General here at the Agency and related the following information. His wife, whose maiden name is [redacted], was previously married from 1955 until 1960 to [redacted], who was employed by CIA at that time. In the summer of 1956, according to [redacted], she accompanied her husband to the farm of her husband’s supervisor for dinner, drinks and wine. She believes her husband worked for Dr. Gottlieb, who was chief of the Technical Services Staff Chemical Division and heavily involved in MKULTRA activities. Her next recollection is receiving electric shock treatment at George Washington University Hospital for some time … – Letter from CIA assistant general counsel to John Gavin Esq., Office of Legal Counsel, US Department of Justice, November 2, 1977….This story involved a woman who, in the mid-1950s, had been married to a CIA employee. In fact, the man had worked in the agency’s Technical Services Section, Chemical Branch and had answered directly to Gottlieb and Robert Lashbrook. I was able to verify his employment with the CIA. The woman had also worked for the federal government, holding a classified position with another intelligence organization. There were no doubts about any of this. Numerous sources, including former CIA, Justice Department and White House officials and others, verified these facts….
Fred talked to several physicians and was told by one, “Perhaps Sally is an unwitting victim of some sort of mind control effort.” The physician told Fred that, given the dimensions of the MKULTRA project as reported in the newspapers, anything could be possible if Sally had somehow become a test subject. Fred began to develop a theory about what had happened to his wife. Based on public revelations about Frank Olson, Fred thought Sally had been given LSD by Jim or Gottlieb. Once she was placed in a secure hospital, he speculated, Sally became an ideal, unwitting, test subject. Fred thought, What better cover can there be, or greater achievement, than to control the mind of a person who is a patient in a mental hospital without detection? Sally’s sudden “breakdown” and electric-shock treatments seem to be connected to her having been given some sort of drug that triggered her radical change in behavior. Fred called the Massachusetts hospital and requested his wife’s medical records. After a few days, he received a return call from the hospital, telling him there was no record of Sally having been a patient. He told the caller there had to be some sort of mistake. Please recheck your records, Fred asked. The hospital told Fred someone would call him back within a day or two.
Two days later, the hospital called and told Fred that Sally’s records had been located. Fred asked that they be copied and mailed to him. The same week, Fred consulted a noted psychologist about Sally. The psychologist told Fred the CIA had experimented extensively with “hypnosis and post-hypnotic suggestion used in combination with certain drugs.” The psychologist also told Fred the agency experimented with using a variety of surreptitious delivery methods for drugs to unwitting subjects. These methods included “techniques for penetrating clothing with drugs” and “treating paper in books and magazine with certain drugs.”….Meanwhile, additional articles appeared in newspapers in Boston about the Massachusetts hospital Sally was admitted to. Some articles revealed that doctors there conducted surreptitious testing with LSD, mescaline, and other powerful drugs. Many of these experiments took place during the same time that Sally was a patient in the same hospital. Fred’s concern mounted about what may have happened to Sally and significantly deepened after he read a July 1952 CIA document citing the “narco-hypnotic control” of subjects placed under what the agency dubbed “psychiatric-medical control” or hospitalization. “In each case,” the memo stated, “a psychiatric-medical cover was used to bring ARTICHOKE techniques into action.”
http://www.truth-out.org/the-strange-story-sally-hartman60306
Sexual Abuse in Day Care: A National Study – Executive Summary – March 1988 – Finklehor, Williams, Burns, Kalinowski “The study identified 270 “cases” of sexual abuse in day care meaning 270 facilities where substantiated abuse had occurred involving a total of 1639 victimized children….This yielded an estimate of 500 to 550 reported and substantiated cases and 2500 victims for the three-year period. Although this is a large number, it must be put in the context of 229,000 day care facilities nationwide service seven million children….allegations of ritual abuse (“the invocation of religious, magical or supernatural symbols of activities”) occurred in 13% of the cases.” The authors divided these cases into “true cult-based ritual,” pseudo-ritualism” with a primary goal of sexual gratification and ritual being used to intimidate the children from disclosing and “psychopathological ritualism” the activities being “primarily the expression of an individuals obsessional or delusional system.” http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED292552.pdf
note: These pages may be triggering and they contain religious content.
Nobody’s Angel – A Story of Occult Bondage, Abuse and Redemption – Gregory R. Reid – Nobody’s Angel is the true story of former occult practitioner Gregory Reid. Born in Southern California, his childhood was a schizophrenic double life of wonderful, loving parents at home and satanic and sexual abuse outside of their care. Obsessed with the occult, victimized by pedophiles, and on his way to being an adept occultist, at the age of fifteen Gregory was pursued by Jesus through persistent encounters with Christians. One July night he ended up at a prayer meeting and surrendered his life to Christ. http://www.xulonpress.com/bookstore/bookdetail.php?PB_ISBN=1597812080&HC_ISBN=1597812080
http://www.gregoryreid.com/id39.htm
Warren Jeffs: Utah court overturns polygamist’s rape conviction – The Utah Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the jury in the 2007 rape trial of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs received improper instructions from the trial judge. By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer / July 27, 2010 The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs’s rape conviction for conducting the marriage of a 14-year-old girl….The Utah justices held that instructions given to the jurors were erroneous and ordered a new trial. Jeffs was originally found guilty of being an accomplice to rape for using his religious influence to coerce a minor into marrying her 19-year-old cousin. The justices said that the jury’s deliberation should have been focused on whether Jeffs’ intent in performing the “spiritual marriage” was for rape to occur, not on whether the action itself led to nonconsensual sex. “In particular, the court held that Mr. Jeffs had to have the intent to aid the rape that was committed,” says Paul Cassell, professor of criminal law at S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. “That will be the issue on which the new trial will focus.”
Analysts say the court’s opinion was narrow in the sense that they did not hold that Jeffs is innocent but rather simply that the jury was improperly instructed on the charges. “We regret the effect our opinion might have on the victim of the underlying crime, to whom we do not wish to cause additional pain,” wrote Justice Jill Parrish for the court. “However, we must ensure that the laws are applied evenly and appropriately, in this case as in every case, in order to protect the constitutional principles on which our legal system is based. We must guarantee justice, not just for this defendant, but for all who may be accused of a crime and subjected to the State’s power to deprive them of life, liberty, or property hereafter.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0727/Warren-Jeffs-Utah-court-overturns-polygamist-s-rape-conviction
Utah court reverses polygamist leader convictions By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer Jennifer Dobner, Jul 27, 2010 SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the convictions of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and ordered a new trial, saying a jury received incorrect instructions before considering his role in the 2001 nuptials of a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. Jeffs, 54, was convicted in 2007 of two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He is serving two consecutive terms of five years to life in the Utah State Prison….Jeffs is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The sect, whose estimated 10,000 members live mostly on the Utah-Arizona state line, practices polygamy in marriages arranged by church leaders. Some marriages have involved underage girls to older men. Jeffs performed the religious marriage of Elissa Wall and Allen Steed in a Caliente, Nev., motel and later counseled Wall to be obedient and give her “mind, body and soul” to her husband in an effort to make an unhappy marriage work. During the trial and later in her book, “Stolen Innocence,” Wall said she objected to the marriage and was forced into sexual relations with her husband….In its ruling Tuesday, the court agreed with defense attorneys who argued that jurors should not have been told to decide whether Wall’s marital relations were consensual based on Jeffs’ actions and his role as her religious leader. That essentially equates Jeffs with Steed — the person who allegedly has had nonconsensual sex. Justices said prosecutors were wrong to make that leap.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100727/ap_on_re_us/us_polygamist_leader_appeal
Utah judge orders Aug. 18 hearing for FLDS sect leader Warren Jeffs July 28, 2010 SALT LAKE CITY – A Southern Utah judge has set an Aug. 18 date for a hearing on a request that polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs be granted a speedy trial. Jeffs was charged in 5th District Court in 2006 with two counts of felony rape as an accomplice. A jury convicted him of both counts the following year. But the Utah Supreme Court reversed the convictions Tuesday and sent the case back for a new trial. Within hours, Jeffs’ defense attorneys, Wally Bugden and Tara Isaacson, filed a motion seeking a “speedy trial before a jury of his peers.” Court papers also say Jeffs “has been incarcerated for many months.” At a news conference Tuesday, Bugden said he planned to seek bail for Jeffs, 54, the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Southern Utah-based church practices polygamy in marriages arranged by FLDS Church leaders. On Wednesday, Judge James Shumate, who presided over the 2007 trial, ordered a hearing on a retrial. Deputy Washington County Attorney Brian Filter has said officials haven’t decided how they’ll proceed in the case. Prosecutors first plan to meet with the victim and law enforcement and conduct a legal analysis of the high court’s ruling, Filter said. http://www.standard.net/topics/courts/2010/07/28/utah-judge-orders-aug-18-hearing-flds-sect-leader-warren-jeffs
Michael Lyons may have raped dozens more women – Police fear dozens more women around the world have been raped by cult leader Michael Lyons. 26 Jul 2010 Officers said many victims were too scared to come forward after falling into the clutches of his intimidating group. They said Lyons, known in spiritualist circles as Mohan Singh, was a calculating criminal masquerading as a healer. Lyons was jailed for 10 years yesterday after being convicted of raping one woman and assaulting another. However police say many more women around the world may also have been victims….Detective Sergeant Nicholas Giles, who pursued Lyons, said officers liaised with colleagues at the FBI as the net closed around their suspect. He said Lyons travelled widely between London, Paris, Miami and New York, spending only a few months in each place. Internet campaigners claim to have drawn up a list of 20 potential victims in New York alone. Mr Giles said the complex and unusual case created many difficulties, including persuading the jury how dangerous Lyons was. He said: ”This is all about control, brainwashing, a cult. It is not someone with a mask jumping out of a bush. It is very hard to prove. ”We had to bring family members, people who have lost people to the cult, from America.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7911698/Michael-Lyons-may-have-raped-dozens-more-women.html
Torture in Canada July 7th, 2010 While it still remains to be proven, one of the concerns is that Dustin was tortured during his ordeal. Did you know that a regular citizen cannot be charged with torture in Canada? Linda and Jeanne from http://www.ritualabusetorture.org/ have put together a slideshow to explain just how this is in our country.
http://dustinlafortune.com/2010/07/torture-in-canada/
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse_Torture
Journal articles and child abuse and trauma information
Books of The Times – Violence Expert Visits Her Dark Past By Dwight Garner June 24, 2010 Jessica Stern is among the world’s experts on violence and evil, a woman who spends her time thinking about bad men and bad deeds. She has lectured at Harvard about terrorism and is the author of a respected book, “Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill” (2003). During the Clinton administration she was on the staff of the National Security Council….
“Denial” is Ms. Stern’s plainspoken and very raw account of why, long before 9/11, she was driven to study terrorism and to put herself repeatedly into danger as she flew around the world, like some scholarly twin of the former CNN war correspondent Christiane Amanpour, interviewing committed terrorists. Central among the reasons, it turns out, was her own experience of terror. On Oct. 1, 1973, when Ms. Stern was 15 and her sister 14, the two of them, alone in a suburban house in leafy Concord, Mass., were raped by a man who cut the house’s telephone lines before walking inside and leading them upstairs. Ms. Stern describes that evening in brutal detail. It was a night that changed her and taught her a dire lesson: “Shame can be sexually transmitted.” The crime wasn’t properly investigated. The police didn’t believe her when she said the rapist was a stranger. Because her story and those of others were not publicized or taken seriously enough by the police, the same man was able to rape some 44 girls — an incredible, heart-collapsing number — from 1971 to 1973. “The entire community,” she writes, “was in denial.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/books/25book.html
Terrorism Expert No Longer in ‘Denial’ About Her Rape Andrea Stone Senior Washington Correspondent 6/25/10 WASHINGTON (June 22) — Jessica Stern, one of the world’s foremost authorities on terrorism, never made the connection between her chosen profession and the terror she suffered as a teenager. Stern was 15 and her sister Sara 14 when a blue-eyed stranger carrying a small handgun entered their home in Concord, Mass., on the evening of Oct. 1, 1973. The man threatened to kill them. Then he raped them. There was no one for the girls to turn to — their mother was dead, their father on a business trip in Europe, the baby sitter had left them alone. The police refused to believe the girls didn’t know the man. They were in denial. Worse, their father refused to cut short his trip to rush home. A few months later — his daughters’ rapist still at large — he told police they had gotten over it. He was in denial.
But it took more than 30 years for Stern to discover that she, too, was in denial….Stern knew from therapy that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosis she had denied for years….Stern was not content to confine herself to the personal. She talked to a fellow victim and met a veteran who was injured in Iraq and suffers from PTSD. While she doesn’t equate rape with being maimed by a roadside bomb — “I was not a victim of terrorism. That is much more serious and has a political element” — she was struck by how many symptoms she shared with the soldier….Connecting her trauma to a wider circle, she wrote: Denial helps the bystander. We don’t want to know what the boys we send to Iraq have done to others out of terror, or what others have done to them. We would rather not know about terror or be confronted with evil. This is as true about Abu Ghraib as it is about personal assaults and more private crimes, the crimes that occur inside families. But the victim, too, cannot bear to believe. She may bury or disassociate from or disown her pain.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/terrorism-expert-jessica-stern-no-longer-in-denial-about-her-rape/19524354
A Neuroscientist Uncovers A Dark Secret by Barbara Bradley Hagerty June 29, 2010 ….Fallon set out to see whether anyone in his family possesses the brain of a serial killer. Because he has studied the brains of dozens of psychopaths, he knew precisely what to look for. To demonstrate, he opened his laptop and called up an image of a brain on his computer screen. “Here is a brain that’s not normal,” he says. There are patches of yellow and red. Then he points to another section of the brain, in the front part of the brain, just behind the eyes. “Look at that — there’s almost nothing here,” Fallon says. This is the orbital cortex, the area that Fallon and other scientists believe is involved with ethical behavior, moral decision-making and impulse control. “People with low activity [in the orbital cortex] are either free-wheeling types or sociopaths,” he says.
Fallon’s Scans
He’s clearly oversimplifying, but Fallon says the orbital cortex puts a brake on another part of the brain called the amygdala, which is involved with aggression and appetites. But in some people, there’s an imbalance — the orbital cortex isn’t doing its job — perhaps because the person had a brain injury or was born that way. “What’s left? What takes over?” he asks. “The area of the brain that drives your id-type behaviors, which is rage, violence, eating, sex, drinking.”
….Along with brain scans, Fallon also tested each family member’s DNA for genes that are associated with violence. He looked at 12 genes related to aggression and violence and zeroed in on the MAO-A gene (monoamine oxidase A). This gene, which has been the target of considerable research, is also known as the “warrior gene” because it regulates serotonin in the brain. Serotonin affects your mood — think Prozac — and many scientists believe that if you have a certain version of the warrior gene, your brain won’t respond to the calming effects of serotonin.
….according to scientists who study this area. They believe that brain patterns and genetic makeup are not enough to make anyone a psychopath. You need a third ingredient: abuse or violence in one’s childhood. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127888976
The Sexual Revolution and Children – How the Left Took Things Too Far 07/02/2010 By Jan Fleischhauer and Wiebke Hollersen Germany’s left has its own tales of abuse. One of the goals of the German 1968 movement was the sexual liberation of children. For some, this meant overcoming all sexual inhibitions, creating a climate in which even pedophilia was considered progressive….One of the few leaders of the left who staunchly opposed the pedophile movement early on was social scientist Günter Amendt. “There is no equitable sexuality between children and adults,” Amendt said, expressing his outrage over the movement. Alice Schwarzer, the founder of the political women’s magazine Emma, also spoke out against the downplaying of sex with children and defined it as what it really was: outright abuse. http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,702679,00.html
Sexual Abuse Survivors Have Increased of Psychiatric Disorders ScienceDaily (July 12, 2010) — New research finds that a history of sexual abuse, regardless of the victim’s gender or age when the abuse occurred, correlates strongly with a lifetime diagnosis of multiple psychiatric disorders. In the July issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers report that a history of sexual abuse is associated with suicide attempts, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, and eating and sleep disorders. Additionally, associations between sexual abuse and depression, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder were strengthened by a history of rape….The study reports prevalence rates of sexual abuse in some populations are as high as 21 percent in adults and 33 percent in children. Furthermore, sexual abuse survivors can represent up to 25 percent of patient panels in primary care practices. Researchers also explored why some abuse survivors do not experience psychiatric symptoms and suggest that genetic variability may confer a level of protection. “The protective effect of certain genes against the development of psychiatric disorders in abuse survivors is an intriguing prospect. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100712133129.htm
Sexual Trauma May Spark Mental Health Problems – ScienceDaily (June 17, 2010) — Traumatic sexual incidents may cause serious mental health problems in the years after the events, research at the University of Ulster has shown. Using a unique investigative method, researchers at the University’s Psychology Research Institute examined the mental health of women who had visited rape crisis centres — and it showed that sexual trauma plays a role in the development of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia….The collaborative study saw the University of Ulster link up with the University of Southern Denmark to examine the data gathered from the Danish Civil Registration System (CRS), which is a database of official information held on Danish citizens since 1968…. A. Elklit, M. Shevlin. Female Sexual Victimization Predicts Psychosis: A Case-Control Study Based on the Danish Registry System. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2010; DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbq048
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100616122318.htm
Link Between Childhood Physical Abuse and Heart Disease ScienceDaily (July 23, 2010) — Childhood physical abuse is associated with significantly elevated rates of heart disease in adulthood, according to new findings by University of Toronto researchers, published in this month’s issue of the journal Child Abuse & Neglect. “Individuals who reported they had been physically abused as children had 45 per cent higher odds of heart disease than their peers who had not been abused, despite the fact we had adjusted for most of the known risk factors for heart disease,” says Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, who holds the Sandra Rotman Chair at U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Department of Family and Community Medicine. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100722102043.htm
Childhood stress leads to adult ill health, studies say – Stress in childhood has long-term effects say psychologists 14 August 2010 Adversity and stress early in life leads to long-term ill health and early death, a group of psychologists warn. A series of studies suggest that childhood stress caused by poverty or abuse can lead to heart disease, inflammation, and speed up cell ageing. The American Psychological Association meeting heard that early experiences “cast a long shadow” on health….Another study presented at the conference showed that childhood events such as the death of a parent or abuse can make people more vulnerable to the effects of stress in later life and even shorten lifespan. Researchers at Ohio State University looked at a group of older adults – some of whom were carers for people with dementia.
They measured several markers of inflammation in the blood which can be signs of stress, as well as the length of telomeres – protective caps on the ends of chromosomes which have been linked to age-related diseases. The 132 participants also answered a questionnaire on depression and past child abuse and neglect. A third study reported some sort of physical, emotional or sexual abuse during childhood. Those who did face adversity as children had shorter telomeres and increased levels of inflammation even after controlling for age, care-giving status, gender, body mass index, exercise and sleep. Study leader Professor Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, said: “Our latest research shows that childhood adversity casts a long shadow on one’s health and can lead to inflammation and cell ageing much earlier than for those who haven’t experienced these events.
“Those reporting multiple adversities could shorten their lifespan by seven to 15 years,” she added. Dr Andrea Danese, a clinical lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, said such studies had to be interpreted carefully because there is a chance that people do not recall their childhoods accurately and you can only show an association not prove causality. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe these results. “The evidence is quite consistent. “It’s already been established that childhood stress has an effect on mental health and it now seems like it has an enduring effect on physical health.” He said that stress causes an increase in inflammatory proteins which could underpin the physical consequences suggested by the research. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10965862
Bangladesh disabled children sexually abused – study 6 July 2010 Half of all the disabled children in Bangladesh are sexually abused, mostly by close relatives, according to a new study. Most of the offenders are male, the study says. Of the victims, 52% are girls and 48% boys, aged between seven and 18 years. Those with mental disabilities are at even greater risk, the study says. According to the 2001 census, Bangladesh has nearly 12m disabled people. The study was conducted jointly by the Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation (BPF) and Save the Children Sweden-Denmark.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/10522001.stm
Confessions of a Trauma Therapist A Memoir of Healing and Transformation Mary K. Armstrong – To her surprise, dismay, and eventually relief, Mary Armstrong, a therapist with over thirty years of experience helping people heal from childhood trauma, uncovered her own history of child sexual abuse at the hands of her grandfather and father. As she tells her harrowing but heroic tale, she casts light as never before on the issue of repressed memories and the invisible wounds left by childhood trauma. ISBN 978-1-926645-19-3 www.bpsbooks.com http://www.bpsbooks.com/confessions-of-a-trauma-therapist-mary-k-armstrong/ Author’s website http://www.marykarmstrong.com/
Innocence Revisited – a tale in parts by Cathy Kezelman ISBN: 978– 0–9806193-3-1 JoJo Publishing 2010 This book….is an intensely personal story…We journey with Cathy as she goes in search of ten lost years of her childhood, feeling her suffering acutely but also celebrating her triumphs. It is also a vivid portrayal both of the intricate psychological contortions of a child towards psychic survival and of the mental processes of the adult towards a full life. This book…is a landmark book – a roadmap to health for those who feel isolated, lost and terrified and a reflective guide for the health professionals who work with them. In telling her story Cathy displays how an analytical psychotherapeutic process can guide a trauma survivor from confusion through chaos to stability and understanding. The story ends with a quiet sense of hope as Cathy, having integrated those ten forgotten childhood years, enjoys enriched relationships with her family and friends, and an untapped enthusiasm for the next phase of her life. To order your copy of Innocence Revisited – a tale in parts go to www.jojopublishing.com http://cathykezelman.com/books/innocence-revisisted-a-tale-in-parts/
http://ritualabuse.us/2010/08/issue-94-september-2010/
This issue contains information on clergy abuse, the Legionaries Of Christ, the Pope and Vatican, Cornwall, the Statute of Limitations, tagged.com, the DOJ fight against child pornography, modern slavery, sex trafficking, Polanski, Wikipedia and pedophilia, Pentagon workers and child pornography, Craig's list and child sex ads, child prostitution, USA swimming, human experimentation, Conspiracy of Silence, the CIA's Experiments on Children, mk-ultra, polygamy, rape and denial, sexual abuse's detrimental effects, child abuse books
Information on the Friedman's case - Capturing the Friedmans Day Care and Child Abuse Cases
copied with permission
Issue 94 – September 2010
S M A R T(Stop Mind control And Ritual abuse Today)
P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 USA E-mail: SMARTNEWS@aol.com
Home page: http://ritualabuse.us/
Issue 94 – September 2010
The purpose of this newsletter is to help stop secretive organizations and groups from abusing others and to help those who allege they have been abused by such organizations and groups. This newsletter is not a substitute for other ways of recovering from ritual abuse. Readers should use caution while reading this newsletter. If necessary, make sure other support systems are available during and after reading this newsletter.
Important: The resources mentioned in this newsletter are for educational value only. Reading the books cited may or may not help your recovery process, so use caution when reading any book or contacting any resource mentioned in this newsletter. Some may have a religious or other agenda that may be separate from your own recovery process. Others may have valuable information on the Masons and other organizations, but have triggers or be somewhat sympathetic to those organizations. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the views expressed in this newsletter constitute expressions of opinion, and readers are cautioned to form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions by consulting a variety of sources, including this newsletter. Resources listed, quoted and individual articles, etc. and their writers do not necessarily support all or any of the views mentioned in this newsletter. Also, the views, facts and opinions mentioned in this newsletter are solely the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily the opinions of this newsletter or its editor.
Copyright 2010 – All rights reserved. No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.
SMART wants to thank all those that have contributed resource information to the newsletter.
CD information on the recent 2010 ritual abuse conference information is at http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ Special Prices available until 9/15/10
This issue contains information on clergy abuse, the Legionaries Of Christ, the Pope and Vatican, Cornwall, the Statute of Limitations, tagged.com, the DOJ fight against child pornography, modern slavery, sex trafficking, Polanski, Wikipedia and pedophilia, Pentagon workers and child pornography, Craig’s list and child sex ads, child prostitution, USA swimming, human experimentation, Conspiracy of Silence, the CIA’s Experiments on Children, mk-ultra, polygamy, rape and denial, sexual abuse’s detrimental effects, child abuse books
Resources and Information
Please note: Listing of these resources does not necessarily constitute our endorsement of them. They are for educational value only and some may be heavy for survivors to read. Some of the conferences listed may not necessarily be safe for all survivors. S.M.A.R.T. recommends always bringing a support person to all conferences. If you are a survivor of mind control and/or ritual abuse, S.M.A.R.T. recommends that you try to bring a support person that is familiar with mind control techniques.
Ritual Abuse Conference Transcripts and Articles
Ritual Abuse Conference CDs http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
Neil Brick is a survivor of Masonic based Ritual Abuse and MK-ULTRA. He is the editor of S.M.A.R.T. – A Ritual Abuse Newsletter. Fighting the Spin The Truth about Child Abuse Cases http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2010-conference/fighting-the-spin-the-truth-about-child-abuse-cases/
Survivors of Extreme Abuse: The Awful Rowing Toward Social Emancipation Carmen Yana Holiday is a survivor of extreme domestic violence, human trafficking, child pornography, ritual abuse-torture and mind control. She has been an advocate for other survivors since 2001, developing and facilitating trauma recovery workshops and presenting as a survivor of RA-MC for several organizations.
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2010-conference/survivors-of-extreme-abuse-the-awful-rowing-toward-social-emancipation/
The Move from Blame the Victim to Blame the Helper by Neil Brick
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2010-conference/the-move-from-blame-the-victim-to-blame-the-helper/
Legal Information
Pope acts against incest priest’s group – Immensely wealthy Catholic organisation, set up by controversial Mexican cleric and favoured by John Paul II, likely to be closed down By Hugh O’Shaughnessy 8 August 2010 The late John Paul II gives his blessing to Father Marcial Maciel in 2004. Senior figures in the church benefited from the huge fortune amassed by Maciel’s Legionaries of Christ
The Legionaries of Christ, the Roman Catholic group that combines an estimated £21bn fortune with intense moral turpitude and extreme conservatism, is facing its nemesis this month. For years the organisation was protected by John Paul II, the Polish pope, and his former secretary Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow. Now the reputation of Father Marcial Maciel, a Mexican who founded the group in 1941 when he was studying for holy orders, is at last falling victim to the reforming drive of John Paul II’s German successor, Benedict XVI.
Incestuous father of three – or perhaps six – children, serial paedophile, morphine addict, lover of la dolce vita, and pretend CIA agent, Maciel, who died in 2008, aged 87, built up a huge religious empire. It commanded the allegiance of 750 priests and 2,500 seminarians from 39 countries in the Legion proper, with 70,000 members in a lay offshoot, Regnum Christi, the Kingdom of Christ, and 131,000 students in its schools and universities….The Pope has now given Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, an expert on running religious orders and a financial specialist, full powers over the Legion. He is getting down to work, and the Legion is unlikely to survive in any recognisable form. Benedict is tacitly repudiating the attitudes of John Paul II and Archbishop Dziwisz. The late pope had called Maciel “an efficacious guide to youth”, and applauded his gift for attracting young men to the depleted ranks of the priesthood. Senior figures in the church, who were often the recipients of the Legion’s financial largesse, rejoiced in his genius for fundraising and fortune building.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pope-acts-against-incest-priests-group-2046517.html
A Guide To Catholic Sex Scandals – More than a dozen of the church’s worst sex abuse scandals of the past 30 years. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/slideshow/guide-catholic-sex-scandals-11289279
Pope causes outrage for condemning church abuse raids in Belgium – Victims groups say Vatican criticism of police shameful, as pontiff calls raid deplorable and demands church role in investigations 27 June 2010 Groups representing the victims of clerical abuse tonight expressed outrage after the pope criticised raids on the Catholic church by Belgian police. Last week, police raided the home of a retired bishop, opened the grave of at least one archbishop and detained Belgium’s nine current serving bishops as they met, seizing their mobile phones and only releasing them after nine hours. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/27/pope-causes-outrage-over-condemnation
Belgium church abuse probe body quits en masse 6/28/10 (AFP) BRUSSELS — A Belgian Catholic Church-backed commission probing hundreds of reported cases of child abuse by priests announced its resignation en masse on Monday, after police raids that angered the pope….Thursday’s raids were prompted by new claims of child abuse by members of the Catholic Church in Belgium, one of the countries worst hit by recent revelations of paedophilia by priests in Europe and North America.
Police confiscated phones, computers and the archdiocese’s accounting system in a search for documents including any correspondence between alleged victims and the Catholic authorities….The Belgian Church was rocked in April when its longest-serving bishop, 73-year-old Roger Vangheluwe, resigned after admitting sexually abusing a boy for years.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j-z7W98WVMD9DcgBiGsXZjcY9nrQ
Church panel resigns to protest raid By the CNN Wire Staff June 28, 2010
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/28/belgium.church.raids/
Pope slams cardinal who exposed abuse cover-up Nicole Winfield, Associated Press June 29, 2010 Vatican City – The Vatican on Monday issued an unprecedented rebuke of a top cardinal who had accused the retired Vatican No. 2 of blocking clerical sex abuse investigations, publicly dressing down a man who had been praised for his criticism of church abuse cover-ups. The silencing of Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna and long considered a papal contender, drew heated criticism from clerical abuse victims. They said the Vatican should be honoring Schoenborn, not publicly humiliating him, for his calls for greater transparency and demands for a crackdown on priests who rape and sodomize children. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/06/29/MNRF1E68UI.DTL
Vatican promotes controversial Quebec priest Wed Jun 30, 2010 By The Canadian Press VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has promoted Canada’s highest-ranking Catholic priest despite recent controversy over his response to the church sex-abuse scandal. Marc Cardinal Ouellet has been named chief of the Vatican’s powerful Congregations for Bishops, which vets bishop appointments around the world. Sixty-six year old Ouellet is the Archbishop of Quebec and the Roman Catholic Primate of Canada, the church’s top official in the country. Earlier this month, a victims’ group said Ouellet had refused to apologize for crimes committed within the church. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100630/national/crime_priest_ouellet
Cavan religious order to be sued by American victims of paedophile priest Ali Bracken, Crime Correspondent 6/27/10 THE NORBertine order in Co Cavan that deceased paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth was attached to is facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit in the US as two of his victims are suing over the sexual abuse he inflicted….Jeff Thomas was just seven years old in 1968 when Smyth began to abuse him in Rhode Island. Helen McGonigle was six years old when she was first assaulted by the priest in 1967. The abuse continued for three years. McGonigle’s family, of Irish descent, were members of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic church in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and it was here that they came into contact with Smyth. A master manipulator, he infiltrated her family’s daily life. He also sexually abused her older sister Kathleen under the pretence of preparing her for the sacrament of penance. Kathleen and her brother Gerard both died from drug overdoses as a result of the abuse Smyth perpetrated against them. Her mother also spent time in a mental institution. In 1994, Smyth was convicted of 17 counts of sexual abuse in a Belfast court. Three years later in Dublin, he pleaded guilty to another 74 counts of abuse. In 1997, Smyth died in prison.
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/jun/27/cavan-religious-order-to-be-sued-by-american-victi/
Made in his own image: The Catholic Church faces another scandal – Joseph Ratzinger is having a terrible year. But as the Catholic Church faces yet another scandal, blame is falling on its most popular figure of modern times, Pope John Paul II, writes Peter Popham 28 June 2010
….Maciel was the founder of a highly conservative order called the Legion of Christ, but it has gradually emerged over the years – particularly since his death in 2008 – that he was much else besides: a morphine addict for decades who sexually abused his own seminarians, fathered several children by two mistresses, and then went on to abuse and rape those children. Yet Maciel was greatly favoured by John Paul II, remaining persona grata at the Vatican until nearly the end of his life, and Sodano, like other senior members of the Curia (though not Ratzinger) received large cash gifts from him. Sodano repaid Maciel generously by killing a Vatican investigation into his misdeeds in 1998.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/faith/made-in-his-own-image-the-catholic-church-faces-another-scandal-2012093.html
Vatican pleased US plaintifs seek to dismiss case By ALESSANDRA RIZZO (AP) 8/10/10 VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said Tuesday it was satisfied that three men who had sought to hold the Vatican liable in an American court for sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests have decided to abandon the case. The Kentucky case was being closely watched as the clerical abuse scandal swirls around the Holy See. Lawsuits naming top Vatican officials were also filed recently in U.S. courts in Wisconsin and Oregon….The three plaintiffs filed a motion on Monday asking a federal judge in Louisville, Kentucky, to dismiss their claims.
Their attorney, William McMurry, said he was seeking to end the case because of an earlier court ruling that recognized the Vatican’s immunity and the failure to turn up new plaintiffs to add to the lawsuit who haven’t yet been involved in a Catholic clergy abuse case. The judge must still rule on whether the case can be dismissed, but attorneys on both sides say it has virtually ended. The lawsuit had been filed in 2004 by the three men abused by priests in the Louisville diocese. It was considered the first in the U.S. to make it to the stage of determining whether victims had a negligence claim against the Vatican. The lawsuit argued in part that U.S. bishops should be considered employees or officials of the Holy See. The Vatican has argued that its U.S. bishops act independently, control their own budgets and are not employees of the Holy See.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iU4Z1ZmST-Gd9HS9lFisveCI7sIgD9HGLP5G0
Vatican child abuse cases falling apart in U.S.: Lawyers AFP August 10, 2010
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Vatican+child+abuse+cases+falling+apart+Lawyers/3382308/story.html
US Supreme Court deals pedophilia blow for Vatican (AFP) 6/28/10 WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal by the Vatican in a landmark case that opens the way for priests in the United States to stand trial for pedophilia. Allowing a federal appeals court ruling to stand, the decision means Vatican officials including theoretically Pope Benedict XVI could face questioning under oath related to a litany of child sex abuse cases. The Supreme Court effectively confirmed the decision of an appellate court to lift the Vatican’s immunity in the case of an alleged pedophile priest in the northwestern state of Oregon. The Oregon case, which was filed in 2002, does not directly address questions raised in a separate lawsuit in Kentucky alleging that US bishops are employees of the Holy See.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j_isWYyYa91PA0oeM_aaVurBHDZQ
Italian bishop accused of sex abuse cover-up Agence France-Presse May 31, 2010 ROME – The alleged victim of an Italian priest who is on trial for sex abuse has pressed charges against the bishop overseeing the accused’s diocese at a court in Rome, his lawyer said Monday. Bishop Gino Reali of Porto San Rufina outside Rome is charged with complicity in the abuse crimes of Ruggero Conti, who was arrested in June 2008 and is being tried on charges of sexually abusing children in his parish. Reali “should have told Italian judicial authorities” as well as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — the Vatican body that deals with sex abuse allegations — about the case, lawyer Farbrizio Gallo told AFP. http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Italian+bishop+accused+abuse+cover/3093270/story.html
Church remained silent about child porn conviction 04 June 2010 BJS News The Catholic Church took no action against priest convicted of downloading child pornography – Despite being convicted of possessing child pornography in 2005, the Catholic Church in Denmark allowed a Catholic priest to continue carrying out his duties including teaching children and young people. In this latest scandal to rock the Danish Catholic Church, it was announced that the priest had recently been suspended, but the church did not mention the reason. The priest was convicted of paying for and downloading 38 movies involving minors. He was sentenced to pay 6,000 kroner and his computer was confiscated. Bishop Czeslaw Kozlon, who is head of the Catholic Church in Denmark, did not inform the chair of the parish council in question why the priest had been relieved of his duties. http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/49157-church-remained-silent-about-child-porn-conviction.html
Walter Mixa, German bishop and ally of the Pope, faces new child abuse allegations – A secret Vatican file on a disgraced Roman Catholic German bishop alleges he is a “severely alcoholic man” who sexually preyed on young priests. By Bruno Waterfield 21 Jun 2010….Documents, compiled after Vatican investigators questioned members of Bishop Mixa’s inner circle, have detailed a litany of alleged alcoholism and sexual abuse….In the dossier, witnesses described the bishop as an alcoholic who had to drink wine and spirits throughout the course of his day to feed his addiction to alcohol. Others accused him of carrying out sex attacks on young priests during his time as a parish priest. Following an sexual incident, Bishop Mixa would then “go to confession the next morning before he celebrated mass”. The bishop was also repeatedly referred to in the dossier as “out of touch with reality”. Bishop Mixa has denied all allegations of sexual abuse as “baseless”. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7843929/Walter-Mixa-German-bishop-and-ally-of-the-Pope-faces-new-child-abuse-allegations.html
In Rare Memo, Vatican Rebukes Cardinal By RACHEL DONADIO June 28, 2010 ROME — The Vatican drew aside, for a brief and puzzling moment, the thick veil that covers its internal business. It issued an extraordinary communiqué on Monday chastising a powerful cardinal who had criticized another powerful cardinal — proof of a battle inside the Vatican walls that mirrors the anger over sexual abuse raging outside them….On its face, the communiqué is a public rebuke to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna. In April, he had implicitly criticized Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 82, the current dean of the College of Cardinals and Pope John Paul II’s last secretary of state, for blocking an investigation into an Austrian archbishop accused in the mid-1990s of abusing minors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29pope.html
Top Catholic Priest Accused of Sexually Abusing His Own Sons – Lawsuit Claims Pope, Vatican Covered Up Sordid Life of Legion of Christ Founder By ANNA SCHECTER and BRIAN ROSS June 21, 2010 A prominent Catholic priest, praised by Pope John Paul II as “an efficacious guide to youth,” Father Marcial Maciel, sexually abused not only young seminarians under his control but also abused his own children, according to a lawsuit filed today in Connecticut by a man who claims to be Maciel’s son….The lawsuit filed by Maciel’s alleged son claims the Vatican and the presiding Pope from the 1950′s until 2002 “engaged in a conspiracy to conceal their knowledge of Maciel’s serial delicts, including the repeated sexual abuse of children.”….The lawsuit claims Maciel “gained influence and protection from the Vatican through giving substantial monies to Vatican officials” and providing other benefits and gifts. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/top-vatican-priest-accused-sexually-abusing-sons/story?id=10968647
Copy of Criminal Complaint http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/page?id=10973992
Man Who Claims To Be Son Of Priest Sues Legionaries Of Christ By DAVID OWENS June 22, 2010 The Legionaries of Christ and the estate of the priest who once led the Roman Catholic order, the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, are being sued by a man who says he is one of several children whom Degollado fathered. The lawsuit, brought in state court by New Haven attorney Joel T. Faxon on behalf of Jose Raul Gonzalez Lara, 30, of Mexico, accuses Degollado of repeatedly sexually molesting Lara….The Vatican last month ordered an overhaul of the Legionaries after an investigation into decades of sexual abuse complaints against Degollado and alleged efforts to cover up the crimes. Degollado engaged in “very serious and objectively immoral behavior,” the Vatican said, and led “a life devoid of scruple and of genuine religious sentiment.” That conduct included fathering at least one child and sexually molesting boys and seminarians into the 1990s. Degollado died in 2008 at age 87.
Lara’s mother, Blanca Gutierrez Lara, gave birth to two children with Degollado, who used the alias Raul Rivas, according to the lawsuit. The biological sons — and another boy whom Degollado did not father — claim that Degollado sexually abused them, according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter. Only Lara is bringing a suit, however….Although seminarians and others urged Pope John Paul II to investigate Degollado and the Legionaries of Christ for abuse, the pope instead praised Degollado in 1994 as “an efficacious guide to youth.”
Pope Benedict XVI appointed a special envoy and commission to oversee “purification” of the order and to deal “sincerely with all those who, within and outside the Legion, were victims of sexual abuse and of the power system devised by the founder.” Critics have described the order as secretive, controlling and cult-like, with seminarians largely cut off from contact with their families and the outside world….Jim Fair, a spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ, said the order would have no comment on the lawsuit. He did say that Lara’s claim that he is Degollado’s son seems credible.
http:/www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-legionaries-of-christ-sued-0622-20100621,0,5181731.story
Lawsuit: Former Orlando priests gave boys alcohol May 14, 2010 By Walter Pacheco, Orlando Sentinel – Accounts of plying boys with alcohol, showing them pornography and then molesting them are among the allegations detailed in the lawsuits against two former priests and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando….In the past five years, officials at the Diocese of Orlando have been served with 14 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of altar boys and other children at the hands of its clergymen. The Diocese settled several of those suits, paying victims more than $5 million. The victim in the suit against Vernon F. Uhran is asking for more than $25 million in damages. The suit against Richard A. Emerson seeks more than $15,000 from the Diocese. Both lawsuits were filed in Orange County during the past two weeks. Uhran, a former priest at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Altamonte Springs, is accused of giving the victim alcohol on a “spiritual retreat” to a beach in 1970 and then molesting him, according to the suit. The victim was 14 at the time. Diocese records show Uhran had preached in at least six Central Florida parishes and Catholic schools since 1969. Multiple allegations of sexual abuse of minors forced former Bishop Norbert Dorsey to remove him from the ministry in 1992. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-05-14/news/os-orlando-catholic-priest-lawsuit-20100514_1_lawsuits-alleging-sexual-abuse-survivors-network-diocese-spokeswoman-carol-brinati
Editorial: The Pope’s Duty 7/8/10 When rolling scandal forced the American Catholic bishops conference to take action against pedophile priests, the prelates issued a tough policy requiring accused child molesters be reported immediately to secular authorities. This mandate finally acknowledged that crimes against children should take priority over bureaucratic church policies that served to cloak rogue priests and bishops in a fog of ecclesiastical evasion.
Eight years after the American church’s overdue order, it is shocking that Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican have not yet applied it to the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The pedophilia scandal has erupted in other nations, leaving parents concerned about a repetition of the harrowing experience in America, where more than 700 priests had to be dismissed across a three-year period. Yet the Vatican is reportedly working on new “guidelines” — not mandates. They are likely to fall short of zero-tolerance and other requirements in the American church that parishes and communities be alerted to abusers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/opinion/09fri3.html
Children victims of half of all sex offences 7 June 2010 Almost half of all sex offences are committed against children, despite them making up just 21% of the population, the BBC has learned….A similar survey conducted by the NSPCC in January suggested more than 21,618 sex offences – or 60 a day – had been committed against children in 2008/9. The charity found that one in seven victims were younger than 10, while 1,000 cases involved children aged five or under, with some so young they did not understand what had happened to them. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/10254922.stm
Deposition paints an unflattering portrait of Mahony – Exchanges between attorney and cardinal about priest convicted of molestation reveal a failure to take responsibility. By Steve Lopez June 20, 2010…The deposition involved former priest Michael Baker, who is now serving a 10-year sentence for molestation. After he confessed to Mahony in 1986 that he had molested two boys, Mahony sent him to one of the drive-through “treatment” centers used by the church back then. After that, the archdiocese shuffled Baker around to different parishes — some with elementary schools. Despite reports that Baker continued to have contact with minors in violation of church orders, the archdiocese did nothing to stop the priest, who went on to molest other kids. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopezcolumn-20100620-column,0,4523336.column
Vatican’s New Rules Against Child Sex Abusers to Maintain Status Quo 7/7/10 The Vatican is expected to slightly enhance its rules for punishing clergy who sexually abuse children, but the new policies, likely to be announced within days, will still fall short of what victim advocates say is necessary to protect minors.
Moreover, the changes are seen as fairly minor concessions in a decades-long battle to push Rome to act forcefully against abusers.
In addition, the new policy, which has reportedly been signed by Pope Benedict XVI, still has no provision for dealing with bishops who cover up for molesting priests and it is unlikely to clarify whether or how bishops should report abusers to civil authorities.
The new rules, which Vatican observers say could go into effect within days, will gather norms that have been in place since 2001 to make it easier for the church to defrock or suspend priests accused of abuse. The policies were slightly modified in 2003, after another wave of sexual abuse revelations broke in the United States.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/07/vaticans-new-rules-against-child-sex-abusers-to-maintain-status/
The Vatican Adjusts Its Child-Sex-Abuse Policies Again: A Reminder of How Statutes of Limitations Play a Nefarious Role By MARCI A. HAMILTON July 7, 2010 People rightly shake their heads in disbelief at each halting step that the Holy See makes toward fixing its morally-reprehensible approach to child sex abuse by clergy. Even now, the enormity of the revelations regarding the coverup is still hard to absorb. As readers will remember, it all started with the Boston Globe’s groundbreaking investigative reporting in 2002. Today, abusing priests in countries around the globe — and those in the Church hierarchy who knew, but stayed silent — have been implicated. The crisis demands an emergency response of grand magnitude. Yet an institution of the size, scope, and political structure of the Catholic Church is inherently incapable of such movement. Each new announcement falls short of reaching the other side of this chasm of error. Sadly, the recent early reports on the Vatican’s “new” amendments to the canon law governing church trials of child abusers are no different. These amendments appear to be simply some re-packaging of internal practices, with some clarification. They offer little to reassure those inside and outside the Church who care about children that children will finally, actually be safe. The Church States that Priests are to Follow Civil-Law Reporting Statues — But Lobbies Hard for Priests to Be Exempt http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20100707.html
UK government acts to prevent arrest of Pope 7/23/10 Andrew John The UK government is said to have set in motion a law change that will prevent the Pope from being arrested when he visits the country in September. Officials in Whitehall – the UK government’s administrative offices – are said to be worried over plans by the atheist authors Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens to have Pope Benedict arrested for crimes against humanity, because of his alleged cover-up of priestly assaults on children. “Mr Dawkins, the atheist campaigner, and Mr Hitchens, an atheist author, asked human rights lawyers in April to put together a case for charging the Pope over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse of children in the Catholic church,” reports Pink News today. Its report adds: “Justice Secretary Ken Clarke proposed changes to the law today which would require the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions to any arrest warrant issued under universal jurisdiction.” http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/295022
The Belgians Make Washington Look Bad July 7, 2010 Marci Hamilton – Professor, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law ….The U.S. Solicitor General and the State Department, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urged the Supreme Court to vacate a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that permitted a single victim to sue the Holy See for abuse by Fr. Andrew Ronan. The priest admitted repeatedly to victimizing children in Ireland, Chicago, and then Portland. Nevertheless, the legal strategy employed by our government was to grossly distort Oregon law so as to favor the Vatican.
But last week, the Supreme Court, with six Catholics on the bench, took the high road and rejected the Solicitor General’s and the State Department’s politicization of the case and denied the Holy See’s petition. As a result, John V. Doe will be permitted to pursue his case, first through discovery and then at trial. That is a testimony to the rule of law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marci-hamilton/the-belgians-make-washing_b_637575.html
Church accepts liability for sex abuse LISA MARTIN AND ANGELA HARPER July 12, 2010 AAP The Catholic Church is being praised for its readiness to avoid a court battle over the rape and sexual abuse of young girls at a Queensland primary school. A former teacher, 61, has admitted to a series of sexual abuse charges involving 13 girls in classes he taught between January 2007 and September 2008. Lawyers for some of the victims say Toowoomba Bishop William Morris has formally accepted legal liability for the abuse and the church will enter into mediation with the victims.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/church-accepts-liability-for-sex-abuse-20100712-106zr.html
Abuse Took Years to Ignite Belgian Clergy Inquiry By DOREEN CARVAJAL and STEPHEN CASTLE July 12, 2010 WESTVLETEREN, Belgium — Behind an aggressive investigation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Belgium that drew condemnation from the pope himself lies a stark family tragedy: the molestation, for years, of a youth by his uncle, the bishop of Bruges; the prelate’s abrupt resignation when a friend of the nephew finally threatened to make the abuse public; and now the grass-roots fury of almost 500 people complaining of abuse by priests….A public pledge by Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard of Brussels that the Bruges resignation marked an end to cover-ups prompted more than 500 people — mostly men — to come forward in just two months. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/world/europe/13belgium.html
School board apologizes for Cornwall sex-abuse cases By Dave Rogers, The Ottawa Citizen June 29, 2010 OTTAWA — The Upper Canada District School Board issued an apology Tuesday for decades-old cases sexual abuse at a Cornwall high school, six months after a public inquiry by Justice Normand Glaude asked for it. David Thomas, the board’s director of education, said the board took some time to issue the apology because an unspecified number of victims and their families wanted to see what the board was doing to prevent future abuse….The $53-million inquiry said police, government, the Catholic Church and other institutions failed miserably to respond to decades of alleged and real child sexual abuse by Cornwall probation officers, clergy, teachers and others.
The apology named three teachers who worked at École Secondaire Catholique La Citadelle, which was operated by the former Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry County Board of Education during the 1960s for the Cornwall French-speaking community. It also named a school-bus driver who worked for the board. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/School+board+apologizes+Cornwall+abuse+cases/3217212/story.html
‘Scumbag pedophile priest’ jailed for 19 years – Catholic cleric abused children aged as young as five at Australian schools 7/2/2010 A Catholic cleric, who described himself as a “scumbag pedophile priest,” has been jailed for nearly 20 years for abusing 25 children in Australia. John Sidney Denham, 67, pleaded guilty to carrying out attacks on boys as young as five years old at schools in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986, The Australian newspaper reported. Judge Helen Syme spent at least three hours summing up the charges. “The indecent assaults involved multiple children, often significant planning, were frequently sadistic and overall persistent, objectively serious, criminal courses of conduct,” she said, according to the newspaper. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38053508/ns/world_news-asiapacific
Australian priest jailed for ‘sadistic’ child abuse 7/1/10 AFP – Judge Helen Syme told a Sydney court that many of Denham’s 25 victims were left terrified by the attacks they endured at schools in Sydney and elsewhere in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986. “The indecent assaults involved multiple children, often significant planning, were frequently sadistic and overall persistent, objectively serious, criminal courses of conduct,” Syme said, according to Australian news agency AAP. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5grySflNV4fpoNn65TZSFvvixW9FQ
Church Office Failed to Act on Abuse Scandal By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and DAVID M. HALBFINGER July 1, 2010 In its long struggle to grapple with sexual abuse, the Vatican often cites as a major turning point the decision in 2001 to give the office led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger the authority to cut through a morass of bureaucracy and handle abuse cases directly. The decision, in an apostolic letter from Pope John Paul II, earned Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, a reputation as the Vatican insider who most clearly recognized the threat the spreading sexual abuse scandals posed to the Roman Catholic Church. But church documents and interviews with canon lawyers and bishops cast that 2001 decision and the future pope’s track record in a new and less flattering light.
The Vatican took action only after bishops from English-speaking nations became so concerned about resistance from top church officials that the Vatican convened a secret meeting to hear their complaints — an extraordinary example of prelates from across the globe collectively pressing their superiors for reform, and one that had not previously been revealed. And the policy that resulted from that meeting, in contrast to the way it has been described by the Vatican, was not a sharp break with past practices. It was mainly a belated reaffirmation of longstanding church procedures that at least one bishop attending the meeting argued had been ignored for too long, according to church documents and interviews. The office led by Cardinal Ratzinger, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had actually been given authority over sexual abuse cases nearly 80 years earlier, in 1922, documents show and canon lawyers confirm. But for the two decades he was in charge of that office, the future pope never asserted that authority, failing to act even as the cases undermined the church’s credibility in the United States, Australia, Ireland and elsewhere. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/world/europe/02pope.html
Archbishop apologises to sex abuse victims Jul 3, 2010 Melbourne’s Catholic Archbishop has apologised to church sex abuse victims for what he describes as an unacceptable evil. In a letter to parishioners, Archbishop Denis Hart said continuing reports of abuse, including the latest investigations in Europe, are causing great distress and shame for the Church. He offered a sincere and unreserved apology for what he describes as a grave evil. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/03/2943947.htm
Dioceses oust abusers they had pledged to monitor 7/5/2010 NEW YORK (AP) At the peak of the Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis, the discipline plan American bishops adopted prompted dioceses to remove nearly all accused clergy from the priesthood. Some of the men, however, were considered too old or sick to be kicked out. Instead, bishops barred those clerics from functioning as priests and promised to keep watch over them in supervisory programs that would keep the men far from children. But interviews with canon lawyers, church child protection officials and experts who advise them found that, eight years after the plan was approved, few of those diocesan programs exist.
Church leaders are more likely to oust a cleric from the priesthood than monitor him. Church leaders viewed the tracking programs as critical to protecting children while still showing mercy for accused clergy who did not have the means to survive on their own. Most people who said they were abused as children did not come forward until decades after the priests’ alleged offenses. The men had never been prosecuted in a civil court, let alone a church tribunal. Vatican officials whose approval was needed to enact the 2002 American plan were especially concerned about clergy due process rights and pressed bishops on the issue. When the American policy was finalized, an exception had been carved out for the infirm men. They would be ordered to live a life of “prayer and penance” under diocesan watch. Dioceses quickly realized, though, that they had few resources for the complex task of monitoring abusive priests, and that by caring for the clergy, they might be opening themselves to additional liability. American dioceses have already paid more than $2.7 billion in settlements and other abuse-related costs since 1950, according to surveys by the bishops. Tossing accused clerics out of the priesthood altogether became the more common approach. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-07-05-monitor04_ST_N.htm
Belgian child sex abuse police probe death threats 4 July 2010 Police investigating claims of child abuse by Belgian clergy have told the BBC they are probing death threats against witnesses and magistrates. Last month police raided a meeting of Belgium’s Catholic bishops as part of their investigation, seizing computers and documents….The investigation into child abuse allegations in Belgium’s Catholic Church has already prompted extraordinary scenes, says the BBC’s Dominic Hughes in Brussels…..Officials say that police are also looking into threats to the lives of some witnesses and magistrates connected to the case. Jean Marc Meillure, a spokesman for the public prosecutors office, confirmed that an investigation was under way. “There are some threats against certain people around the case, and the prosecutors office is investigating that,” he told the BBC. He said the threats had been made against people who gave the authorities information or made a complaint, or against some magistrates. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10501668
Reforming the Statute of Limitations for Child Sex Abuse: New York’s Child Victims Act Shouldn’t Be Political, But It Is By MARCI A. HAMILTON June 10, 2010 Last week, the New York Child Victims Act (available at http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S5893A) was defeated in the Senate Codes Committee. For New York’s children, it was a choice that favors child predators, and therefore a bad day. However, it was an interesting session and the bill will be re-introduced next session — and every session until it is passed, according to sponsors Assemblywoman Marge Markey and Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson. The only impact is that child predators have one more year to operate under the anonymity afforded by New York’s extremely short statutes of limitations for child sex abuse….
Currently, New York has one of the stingiest statutes of limitations for child sex abuse in the entire country — 18 years-old for criminal charges and 23 for civil claims. In the future, it is inevitable that New York will radically expand these statutes of limitations for child sex abuse, because justice demands it, and because that is the trend in the entire country. Florida just eliminated all of its statutes of limitations for child sex abuse; Delaware did the same thing in 2007; Connecticut gives victims until age 48; Pennsylvania until age 53; New Jersey has a liberal discovery rule (which New York courts rejected, saying it was an issue for the legislature)….
Research establishes that one in four girls, and one in five boys, are sexually abused. Not only clergy child-sex-abuse victims, but incest victims too, are increasingly demanding their day in court, and the kind of statute-of-limitations reform that would make that possible.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20100610.html
Boy Scout Leader in Mich. Faces Child Porn Charges 7/22/10 Allan Lengel On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Grand Rapids indicted Scott Allan Herrick, 39, of Twin Lakes, Mich., on charges of sexually exploiting children and possessing and distributing child pornography. He was arrested in early July on a federal criminal complaint and jailed pending a court appearance on July 27. Scott Allen Herrick, 39, a Boy Scout camp director, has been charged with receiving, distributing and possessing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis. Herrick’s arrest sent shock waves through western Michigan. He had been director of the camp for the past seven years…. Authorities have alleged that Herrick on four occasions secretly videotaped boys around 9 years of age as they were dressing at the YMCA locker room. He was also charged with distributing child porn on the Internet. http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/boy-scout-leader-in-michigan-faces-child-porn-charges/19565227
NY: Networking site Tagged.com ignored abuse rules By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press Writer
June 10, 2010 NEW YORK — Child pornography was allowed to remain on social-networking site Tagged.com for nearly two months after undercover investigators posed as users and reported the content to the site’s administrators, the state attorney general’s office charged Thursday. The office notified Tagged.com that it would sue the site if the problems were not resolved within 5 days, said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who previously targeted the site last summer and accused it of stealing the identities of more than 60 million Internet users in a deceptive marketing campaign.
One slideshow that remained on the site as of Thursday morning depicted children, some who appeared as young as 5, engaged in sexual acts with other children, Cuomo’s office said. The slideshow was sent to Tagged.com on April 17 using the site’s own reporting procedures. Louis Willacy, a lawyer for Tagged Inc., issued a statement saying the site was cooperating with investigators and hoped “to resolve this quickly in the best interest of our members’ safety.”….After receiving a civilian tip, investigators from Cuomo’s office spent three months creating undercover user accounts and posing as both parents and abusers. They made more than 100 reports about 80 users, but as of Thursday morning, 51 of those users still had active accounts, the office said. Hours after the press conference, the slideshow featuring young children was still online, the office said. Investigators also said they found that adult users of the site were sending inappropriate sexual messages and photographs to members identifying themselves as underage. Some of the site’s user groups centered on underage sex, Cuomo’s office said. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/10/ny-networking-site-taggedcom-ignored-abuse-rules
describes abuse
Sect members charged with abusing children to ‘protect them’ Leader of the ‘Ithaca’ who allegedly ordered the children be hit to ‘save their souls’ committed suicide in his prison cell days after being arrested. By Ofra Edelman 6/13/10 Three members of the “Ithaca” cult were charged with the severe abuse of their children, according to an indictment submitted to the Peta Tikvah District court on Sunday. According to the indictment, sect leader, Shay Abramov instructed members to physically abuse their children, in what he called a “treatment” against accidents and illnesses, so to save their lives and prevent their souls from going to hell….The state prosecutor’s office wrote in the indictment that the allegations “uncover a horrifying tale of abuse during a period of six months, for the purpose of preventing them from becoming felons and to ‘take the evil out of them,” adding that the reported abuse was “severe and systematic.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/sect-members-charged-with-abusing-children-to-protect-them-1.295860
DOJ report says child porn on the rise (AP) – 8/2/10 WASHINGTON — The spread of child pornography, fueled by technology and the Internet, is outpacing efforts to combat it, the Justice Department said Monday in a report to Congress that promises more arrests, prosecutions and better coordination among federal, state and local authorities. Attorney General Eric Holder said the distribution of child pornography, the number of images being shared online and violence against child victims all have increased. “Tragically, the only place we’ve seen a decrease is in the age of victims,” Holder said in a speech at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va. The report, ordered by Congress in legislation approved two years ago, concedes that the market for child pornography continues to grow rapidly and determining its size is impossible. “The number of offenders accessing the images and videos and the quantity of images and videos being traded is unknown,” the report said….The increased attention to fighting child pornography already has led to record numbers of prosecutions and tips. More than 8,600 people have been prosecuted at the federal level since October 2006. State and local authorities focused on the use of the Internet in child sexual exploitation reported that documented complaints of online enticement of children more than tripled from 2004 to 2008 and complaints of child prostitution rose more than 10 times.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikJwimhJLziWOIbrB1d8IYltbW-gD9HBH0FG0
Officials issue national strategy to fight child sex crimes By Terry Frieden, CNN Justice Producer August 3, 2010 Washington (CNN) — With child sex crimes in the United States sharply increasing, federal officials Monday issued a “national strategy” to combat child exploitation in homes, on streets and over the internet. Top federal law enforcement officials led by Attorney General Eric Holder vowed to take new steps to stem rampant child pornography, online enticements, child prostitution and child sex tourism. In a detailed report submitted to Congress on Monday, the Justice Department says that since 2006, when the government launched Project Safe Childhood, federal prosecutions have increased by 40 percent, and more than 8,600 defendants have been indicted. More than 2,400 alleged sex offenders were indicted in 2009 alone. “Tragically, the only place we’ve seen a decrease is in the age of the victims,” Holder said. Officials said the average age of girls targeted for child pornography is 12 to 14, while the average age of boys targeted is 11 to 13. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/02/pol.strategy.child.exploitation/index.html
Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, August 2, 2010 Department of Justice Releases First National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction U.S. Marshals Service to Launch Nationwide Operation Targeting Top 500 Most Dangerous, Non-compliant Sex Offenders WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that the Department of Justice released its first-ever National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. The strategy also provides the first-ever comprehensive threat assessment of the dangers facing children from child pornography, online enticement, child sex tourism, commercial sexual exploitation and sexual exploitation in Indian Country, and outlines a blueprint to strengthen the fight against these crimes. The strategy builds upon the department’s accomplishments in combating child exploitation by establishing specific, aggressive goals and priorities and increasing cooperation and collaboration at all levels of government and the private sector. http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/August/10-opa-887.html
More than 12 million are modern slaves, U.S. says 6/14/10 A sobering new report from the State Department finds that more than 12 million people worldwide are victims of “trafficking in persons” – trapped in forced labor, bonded labor or forced prostitution. But just 4,166 people were convicted of trafficking last year, the report says. Even so, awareness of the reach of modern slavery has made such crimes easier to report and police, the study says. Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, who heads the State Department’s anti-slavery efforts, noted that 116 countries have adopted anti-trafficking laws since the United Nations enacted a law against modern slavery 10 years ago. Last year marked a high-water mark, both in identifying trafficking victims and in mounting successful prosecutions….But there’s still much work ahead, the report says. The State Department estimates that only 0.4 percent of all modern slavery victims were identified last year. Human trafficking is a multibillion-dollar business – and will probably grow so long as global governments fail to crack down on it more forcefully. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100614/wl_ynews/ynews_wl2569
Trafficking in Persons Report 2010 http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/index.htm
Revealed: The horrific trade in British children for sex – The terrible plight of foreign women trafficked into the UK and forced to work as prostitutes has overshadowed a home-grown scandal By Emily Dugan 15 August 2010….Sheila Taylor, chair of the National Working Group for Sexually Exploited Children and Young People, said: “What we’re seeing is the tip of the iceberg. This is happening in all cities and many towns. There has been no prosecution of those who sexually exploit children with trafficking legislation.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/revealed-the-horrific-trade-in-british-children-for-sex-2053047.html
REDLIGHT, narrated by Lucy Liu, is a powerful and moving documentary about children emerging from lives in which they were trafficked into prostitution. http://www.lexisnexis.com/redlight/index.html
Human trafficking is modern-day slavery
27 – The number, in millions, of trafficked persons in the world.
32 – The estimated global annual profit, in billions US$, of human trafficking.
http://www.lexisnexis.com/redlight/human_trafficking.html
Polanski free after Swiss reject extradition By Hui Min Neo (AFP) 7/12/10 GENEVA — Swiss authorities said that Roman Polanski was a free man Monday after rejecting a request to extradite the film director to the United States to answer for a child sex case dating back to 1977. “The Franco-Polish film-maker will not be extradited to the United States and the measures of restriction on his liberty have been lifted,” Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told reporters at a press conference. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jCGJhS900g2cGdXBg_7ZYhZVP9qg
Roman Polanski’s freedom — and unmitigated gall By Eugene Robinson July 13, 2010 For Roman Polanski, the long, unspeakable nightmare of being confined to his three-story chalet in Gstaad, the luxury resort in the Swiss Alps, is finally over. The fugitive director is free once again to stroll into town, have a nice meal, maybe do a little shopping at the local Cartier, Hermes or Louis Vuitton boutiques….Anyone tempted to feel Polanski’s pain should take a closer look at the case. In 1977, when he was 43, Polanski lured a 13-year-old girl to a house in the Hollywood hills owned by Jack Nicholson — the actor was not home at the time — and plied her with drugs and champagne before having sex with her.
Polanski and his lawyers claimed that the sex was consensual. That’s absurd as a legal argument, since the girl was too young to give her consent. But the girl’s grand jury testimony makes clear that this was anything but a no-fault romp. She testified that Polanski, on the ruse of photographing her and wanting to make her a star, persuaded her to pose nude and then assaulted her.
She testified that Polanski raped and sodomized her, against her will, and that she was distraught before, during and after the act. The director was indicted on six felony charges, including rape by use of drugs and child molestation, but he was allowed to plead guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse. Polanski, who spent about a month and a half in jail, thought he had a deal that would get him off with nothing worse than 90 days in confinement under psychiatric observation. But when the judge had second thoughts about going through with such a lenient deal, Polanski fled. He has been on the lam ever since.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/12/AR2010071203021.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
describes crimes – Dominic Lawson: Let’s not forget what Polanski did – The film director has been treated with extraordinary indulgence Tuesday, 29 September 2009 A man who drugged and sodomised a 13-year old girl would not usually receive the uncritical support of the political and literary establishments. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-lets-not-forget-what-polanski-did-1794717.html
EXCLUSIVE: Pedophiles Find a Home on Wikipedia By Jana Winter June 25, 2010 FOXNews.com
Wikipedia has become home base for a loose worldwide network of pedophiles who are campaigning to spin the popular online encyclopedia in their favor and are trying to lure more people into their world, an investigation by FoxNews.com confirms.
Chat room posts show a clear effort by pedophiles to use Wikipedia, which can be accessed unfiltered in public schools across the country, to further their agenda. Message board posts often include links to specific Wikipedia articles that the participants say need to be edited to “normalize” pedophile behavior in the public eye and to recruit more pedophiles into their community.
“Pedophiles have campaigned to push their point of view that ‘pedophilia is OK and doesn’t hurt children’ on Wikipedia,” says Xavier Von Erck, director of the online pedophile watchdog organization Perverted Justice Foundation and Wikisposure.com, its offshoot project devoted to tracking pedophiles and pedophile activism on Wikipedia. “This has been a problem since Wikipedia started.”
In response to a request for comment on this story, Sue Gardner, executive director of Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s parent organization, said in a statement:
“Wikipedia has a long-held, zero-tolerance policy towards pedophilia or pedophilia advocacy and child pornography. The Wikimedia community is vigilant about identifying and deleting any such material. Any allegations to the contrary are outrageous and false.”
….The article on pedophilia, in its suggestions for further reading, suggests other Wikipedia pages edited by pedophiles, including “Child Sexuality,” and “NAMBLA,” a page about the North American Man/Boy Love Association. That page links directly to NAMBLA’s website, as do 25 other Wikipedia pages.
Wikipedia also has 32 external links to GirlChat, 14 to a Danish pro-pedophile website and 12 to BoyChat….But an investigation by FoxNews.com shows that pedophiles are gaming this system, using their message boards to rally opposition and to sabotage attempts by other Wikipedia community members to rid the online encyclopedia of pro-pedophilia content.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/25/exclusive-pedophiles-find-home-on-wikipedia/
Investigation Confirms Wikipedia-Pedophile Connection By James R. Marsh on June 25, 2010
According to a FOXNews.com exclusive investigation, inspired in part by this blog’s April 20th post Wikipedophilia….On May 7, FoxNews.com reported exclusively that Wales had personally deleted many of the images from Wikimedia’s servers, and that he’d ordered that thousands more be purged. Now many of those images have been restored to their original web pages.
http://www.childlaw.us/2010/06/investigation-confirms-wikiped.html
Pentagon workers tied to child porn – Security agencies were left at risk, investigators say By Bryan Bender Globe Staff / July 23, 2010 WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have identified several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances who allegedly purchased and downloaded child pornography, including an undisclosed number who used their government computers to obtain the illegal material, according to investigative reports. The investigations have included employees of the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — which deal with some of the most sensitive work in intelligence and defense — among other organizations within the Defense Department. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/07/23/pentagon_workers_tied_to_child_porn/?page=1
Despite states’ efforts, measures to protect students from predators sometimes fail By Michael Alison Chandler Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 25, 2010 For nearly three decades, Kevin Ricks exploited gaps in a system that is supposed to keep sexual predators out of the classroom. He landed teaching jobs at one school after another — public and private, urban and rural, domestic and foreign — despite mounting evidence of his troubling personal relationships with male students. The emerging portrait of Ricks as a serial sexual abuser raises questions about why schools continued to hire him and what could have been done to stop him….
Maryland, Virginia and other states have long sought to bolster safeguards for students. They have required criminal background checks for prospective school employees, created tougher penalties for sex crimes committed by educators or others in positions of authority, and given employers liability protections to encourage them to speak candidly during reference checks. Many states also have required school systems to file reports when teachers are convicted of sexual crimes or resign amid allegations of abuse, so that their licenses can be reviewed or revoked.
None of these measures stopped Ricks. He held at least 12 teaching positions from 1982 until his arrest in February at Osbourn High School in Manassas….In 2004, a congressionally mandated study estimated that one in 10 students from kindergarten through 12th grade were victims of some form of sexual misconduct by a school employee — from being told a dirty joke or shown pornography to being inappropriately touched or raped. In 2007, an Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 teachers nationwide had licenses revoked, suspended or denied from 2001 through 2005 because of sexual misconduct. Http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/24/AR2010072402589.html
Kevin Ricks’ career as teacher, tutor shows pattern of abuse that goes back decades By Josh White, Blaine Harden and Jennifer Buske Sunday, July 25, 2010 What teachers, parents, students and even his wife didn’t know was that his journals contained decades of dark secrets, a running handwritten commentary of Ricks’s world of obsession, infatuation, pursuit, sexual abuse and international child exploitation. They didn’t know about his library of homemade pornographic videos and explicit photographs capturing his tequila-soaked sex acts with teenage boys he had handpicked. They didn’t know about the makeshift shrine boxes containing mementos of the episodes, including sex toys, soiled tissues and hair trimmings.
Even some of the victims didn’t know they were victims. A four-month Washington Post investigation of Ricks’s career as a teacher, tutor, foreign exchange host and camp counselor has revealed a pattern of abuse that dates to at least 1978 and has left a trail of victims spanning the globe. But despite the abuse, Ricks moved from one teaching job to the next over nearly 30 years, navigating the nation’s public and private school systems undetected, evading traps designed to catch him. In some cases, school officials and foreign exchange companies knew of or suspected Ricks’s inappropriate behavior and simply let him go, leaving the next employer with no idea what was coming.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/24/AR2010072402605.html
describes crimes
Craigslist’s shame: Child sex ads By Malika Saada Saar, Special to CNN August 4, 2010 CNN) — Last month, two girls trafficked for sex through the website Craigslist wrote an open letter to its founder, Craig Newmark, pleading with him to get rid of the adult services section, where sex ads are placed. “I was first forced into prostitution when I was 11 years old by a 28-year-old man,” “M.C.” wrote. “I am not an exception. The man who trafficked me sold many girls my age, his house was called ‘Daddy Day Care.’
“All day, me and other girls sat with our laptops, posting pictures and answering ads on Craigslist. He made $1,500 a night selling my body, dragging me to Los Angeles, Houston, Little Rock — and one trip to Las Vegas in the trunk of a car. I am 17 now, and my childhood memories aren’t of my family, going to middle school, or dancing at the prom. They are making my own arrangements on Craigslist to be sold for sex, and answering as many ads as possible for fear of beatings and ice water baths.” No one from Craigslist responded to M.C….
According to the most recent Department of Justice statistics, an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 children are sold for sex every year in the United States. Most are from 11 and 14 years old. Try for a moment to imagine your fifth-grade child, niece or sister, sold for sex. Law enforcement officials and anti-trafficking organizations have repeatedly asked Craigslist to rein in its sex ads in an effort to stop the selling of children for sex. Craig Newmark and Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster have made some efforts to screen the site for children sold for sex and cooperate with law enforcement investigations. But for the most part, they have ignored such pleas, maybe because they just made an estimated $36 million in profits from these sex ads in the last year alone.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/02/saar.craigslist.child.trafficking/index.html
Craigslist vigilant in barring child sex ads By Jim Buckmaster, Special to CNN August 4, 2010 Editor’s note: Jim Buckmaster is president and CEO of Craigslist, the most used classified advertising service in any medium, relied on by more than 50 million Americans each month for finding jobs, housing, secondhand items, friendship, romance, services, events and local community information. San Francisco, California (CNN) — As all people of conscience will agree, human trafficking and child exploitation are utterly despicable and horrendous crimes. In contrast with the epidemic numbers often cited for the nation as a whole, the incidence of such crimes is low and getting lower on Craigslist because of the comprehensive preventive measures we have taken. Some experts now liken the relative rarity on Craigslist to “looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Nevertheless, any misuse of our site whatsoever in facilitating such unspeakable crimes is unacceptable, and we will continue to work tirelessly, in tandem with law enforcement and key nonprofits, to ensure that any victims receive the assistance they desperately need and deserve, and that those responsible are imprisoned….Last year, we began manual screening of each adult services ad before its posting, and those unwilling to conform to Craigslist’s standards left in droves for the many venues that do not screen ads. This migration is a matter of public record.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/04/buckmaster.craigslist.rebuttal/index.html
Craigslist founder rendered speechless by CNN’s sex-trafficking questions Aug 4, 2010 by Liz Goodwin The popular online classified ad site Craigslist is set to make about a third of its total revenue from its “adult services” ads section this year. But police and groups working to prevent human trafficking tell CNN the company is lining its pockets with money paid by prostitutes and pimps selling sex. According to anti-trafficking advocates, some of the women featured on the site are underage and are being forced into prostitution against their will. When CNN reporter Amber Lyon confronted Craigslist founder Craig Newmark with these accusations in an unplanned interview, the Internet magnate said his company was doing “more than anyone” to combat prostitution ads, before falling silent and eventually walking away from her questions….Lyon showed Newmark Craigslist ads that clearly involved women soliciting money for sex. Newmark asked, “Have you reported this to us?” “Why do I have the responsibility to report this to you when it’s your website? You’re the one posting this online,” she said. Lyon also told Newmark that anti-trafficking advocates say his site is the “Wal-Mart of sex trafficking.” Soon after, Newmark walked away.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100804/us_yblog_upshot/craigslist-founder-rendered-speechless-by-cnns-sex-trafficking-questions
Craigslist: The ‘Wal-Mart of child sex trade’? What does CNN’s surprise interview with the founder of Craigslist reveal about his site’s role in sex trafficking and underage prostitution? August 5, 2010 Popular classified ad website Craigslist has come under fire for profiting off of illegal prostitution ads. While Craigslist executives insist that they screen ads posted to their “adult services” section, police and anti-human trafficking advocates say the site has become a hotbed for online prostitution, which often involves underage women forced into the sex trade. “Craigslist is like the Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking right now in this country,” Andrea Powell of the anti-human trafficking group The FAIR Fund tells CNN.
http://theweek.com/article/index/205788/craigslist-the-wal-mart-of-child-sex-trade
Japan’s Child Abuse Reaches Record High – Japanese child abuse cases reach record high; 187 victims, 18 deaths in 1st half of 2010 By YURI KAGEYAMA TOKYO August 5, 2010 (AP) During the first six months of this year, there were reports of 187 children who were victims of abuse, mostly physical abuse but some sexual, the highest since such records began to be compiled in 2000, the National Police Agency said. The cases resulted in 18 deaths, and 199 people were arrested, it said. In another disturbing sign, the police report also found child pornography on the rise, with cases surging 63 percent from a year earlier to 599 cases in the first half of the year. About half the cases involved the Internet. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=11329689
Special investigation: How predatory gangs force middle-class girls into the sex trade By Sue Reid 7th August 2010 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1301003/Special-investigation-How-predatory-gangs-force-middle-class-girls-sex-trade.html
August 6, 2010 Susan Sarandon’s Child Sex Trafficking Crusade by Ken Lombardi ….Sarandon said, “Sex trafficking happens everywhere. People profit from it who are also connected to governments. It’s definitely exists within the United States…Kids coming from other countries. The problem exists right here.” Statistics back up the actress’ claims. The U.S. Justice Department estimates that anywhere from 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States every single year. But the number of U.S. children faced with being potentially trafficked is much higher. As many as 200,000 American children are at risk of being forced into the sex trade industry. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20012861-10391698.html
WGBH Investigates: Sexual and Human Trafficking in Southern New England – My four part investigative series that was part of a WGBH Radio team effort:
Part One: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin begins his investigation of human trafficking in Boston and beyond.
Part Two: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin talks to state agencies and police in Massacusetts and Rhode Island about their ongoing investigations.
Part Three: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin looks at the most most heinous dimension of human trafficking:The kidnapping of children for commercial sexual exploitation
Part Four: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin looks worldwide and close to home for lessons that might help in better understanding the dimensions of the problem. http://www.liftedveils.org/
Two held, racket in human trafficking busted TNN, Aug 11, 2010 LUCKNOW: The crime branch of the Lucknow police claimed to have busted a racket in human trafficking in the state capital on Monday night and arrested two of its kingpin. Operating through a wide network of agents spread across the country and neighbouring Nepal, the gang reportedly lured over 200 poor girls and boys and sold them in West Asian countries. These boys and girls have been sent to almost all the West Asian countries — Riyadh in Saudi Arabia being the favoured destination.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Two-held-racket-in-human-trafficking-busted/articleshow/6289962.cms
US law enforcement ‘failing’ on child prostitution 9 August 2010 UK By Sima Kotecha American law enforcement agencies are being accused of not doing enough to combat the problem of child prostitution. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States estimates that between 100,000 and 300,000 American children are forced into prostitution every year – sometimes through being kidnapped near their homes….The FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are working together with NCMEC to combat the problem. The DOJ claims the average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 13. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10896771
USA Swimming Hit With Another Sexual Abuse Lawsuit – Former Olympic Hopeful Swimmer Says California Coach Began Molesting Her at Age 15 By MEGAN CHUCHMACH August 11, 2010 In a sexual abuse scandal that continues to escalate, a new lawsuit against USA Swimming alleges the organization had knowledge of sexual misconduct by a California swim coach and continued to allow him to coach children.
The suit was filed by Jancy Thompson, a former Olympic hopeful who alleges that her former swim coach….began sexually molesting her when she was 15-years-old. Also named as defendants are Havercroft, West Valley, and Pacific Swimming, the regional swim organization under USA Swimming….Today’s lawsuit is the fifth facing USA Swimming in alleged sexual misconduct cases. Allard is also representing another plaintiff in a separate lawsuit against USA Swimming, a victim of former San Jose-area swim coach Andy King, who was sentenced in January to 40 years in prison for decades of abuse perpetrated against young swimmers.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Swimming/usa-swimming-sexual-abuse-olympic-hopeful-swimmer-files/story?id=11378627
Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Information
Conspiracy of Silence was a documentary about child trafficking in the U.S. that was to be shown in the United Kingdom, but it was suppressed by the Discovery Channel. However, a rough-cut of the documentary was leaked, and it has since become an Internet phenomenon. http://www.franklinscandal.com/cos/ The Franklin Scandal http://www.franklinscandal.com/
describes abuse
Day Breaks Over Dharamsala – A Memoir of Life Lost and Found by Janet Thomas – Day Breaks Over Dharamsala was a 20-year writing journey that started in 1990. A year later, I moved to an island to finish it. I had no idea that I had another twenty years to go. To begin with, it was a book full of anguish, fear and loathing–for both self and other. It had no redeeming humor, no redemption, and no India. It chronicled a different trip, to California, down a highway of recrimination, shame and rage. I had a lot of healing ahead of me.
book excerpt:
I’ve tried to heal from the electric shocks that could never happen but did; the sexual slavery as a child that only my body remembers; the experiments that happened to someone else In my body; the days and nights in the dark that made indistinguishable my self from all that did not exist; the places where I became an animal, where being debased for the enjoyment of others was my charm and my glory. I heal from it all, even as I know it could never have happened to me. It is what I don’t know that has both saved me and condemned me. And it seems, at times, as though there is no difference.
I do bear one visible scar. It’s four inches long and reaches down the inside of my left forearm. On my left hand are five-year old fingers and a thumb that does not bend. There is not much feeling in this hand. It is a hand that is always cold, always numb, always looked after by my other hand–the right one, the one that writes, that does everything. “The scar is real,” it writes. It is a huge scar. It is connected to medical experiments and electric shocks to see if the severed nerve would grow, and electric shocks to make sure I didn’t remember the electric shocks. And shocks to obliterate the memory of the sexual exploitation, the manipulation of my mind, and the banishment of my self to a place of hiding so profound it would take me fifty years to get her back….
Many children were experimented on in the 40s and 50s; they still are. Many children were used for child prostitution and pornography; they still are. Many children, and adults, too, had their minds experimented upon through electric shock and drugs and by the destruction of the bonds that make life possible. It is everywhere. Yet it is ultimately our healing that matters. Only in healing that which is invisible is there hope. Nutshell Books (November 2009) ISBN-13: 978-0615329215 http://www.daybreaksoverdharamsala.com/
Human Experimentation at the Heart of Bush Administration’s Torture Program 6 June 2010 Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t High-value detainees captured during the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” who were subjected to brutal torture techniques, were used as “guinea pigs” to gauge the effectiveness of various torture techniques, a practice that has raised troubling comparisons to Nazi-era human experimentation. according to a disturbing new report released by Physicians for Human Rights, an international doctors’ organization….”Health professionals working for and on behalf of the CIA monitored the interrogations of detainees, collected and analyzed the results of [the] interrogations, and sought to derive generalizable inferences to be applied to subsequent interrogations,” said the 27-page report, entitled “Experiments in Torture: Human Subject Research and Evidence of Experimentation in the ‘Enhanced’ Interrogation Program.” “Such acts may be seen as the conduct of research and experimentation by health professionals on prisoners, which could violate accepted standards of medical ethics, as well as domestic and international law. These practices could, in some cases, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.” http://www.truthout.org/human-experimentation-heart-bush-administrations-torture-program60199
Rights groups seek probe into CIA detainee medical research (AFP) 6/10/10 WASHINGTON — Human rights groups filed a complaint seeking an investigation into allegations that CIA-led medical personnel conducted research experiments on terror detainees after the September 11 attacks. Physicians for Human Rights, which released a report this week outlining allegations of illegal human subject research and experimentation on detainees, said it filed the complaint Wednesday with seven other organizations with the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections. The office “should initiate immediately an official investigation” into the evidence, which the group said was detailed in declassified government documents.
The division, which sets guidelines for government research on humans including by the CIA, “has a legal responsibility to investigate these disturbing new allegations about the CIA and possible illegal human experimentation on detainees,” said Nathaniel Raymond, lead author of the report. The CIA has rejected the report as erroneous.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hizRQMIxNHXkPHXVrOcV0cQkgGdw
describes crimes – Russian Satanists jailed for gruesome ritual murders From: NewsCore July 27, 2010 A GANG of six Russians Satanists have been handed jail sentences of up to 20 years for ritually killing and then dismembering four teenagers in a forest. The six – all teenagers at the time – reportedly also ate the body parts of their victims in a wooded area outside the city of Yaroslavl, about 320 kilometres northeast of Moscow.
The group was found guilty of “murdering four people with the aim of carrying out an initiation ritual into a sect and of desecrating the bodies of the dead,” the Yaroslavl regional court said in a statement. The group, four of whom were under 18 at the time, killed the four teenagers in June 2008, prosecutors said….The accused were found guilty of murder, while four were also found guilty of desecrating the victims’ bodies. The longest sentence of 20 years went to the man named as the group’s leader, Nikolai Ogolobnyak.
http://www.news.com.au/world/russian-satanists-jailed-for-gruesome-ritual-murders/story-e6frfkyi-1225897258373
The Hidden Tragedy of the CIA’s Experiments on Children Wednesday 11 August 2010 H.P. Albarelli Jr. and Dr. Jeffrey S. Kaye, t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report describes crimes
excerpts:
From early 1940 to 1953, Dr. Lauretta Bender, a highly respected child neuropsychiatrist practicing at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, experimented extensively with electroshock therapy on children who had been diagnosed with “autistic schizophrenia.” In all, it has been reported that Bender administered electroconvulsive therapy to at least 100 children ranging in age from three years old to 12 years, with some reports indicating the total may be twice that number. One source reports that, inclusive of Bender’s work, electroconvulsive treatment was used on more than 500 children at Bellevue Hospital from 1942 to 1956, and then at Creedmoor State Hospital Children’s Service from 1956 to 1969….Despite publicly claiming good results with electroshock treatment, privately Bender said she was seriously disappointed in the aftereffects and results shown by the subject children. Indeed, the condition of some of the children appeared to have only worsened. One six-year-old boy, after being shocked several times, went from being a shy, withdrawn child to acting increasingly aggressive and violent. Another child, a seven-year-old girl, following five electroshock sessions had become nearly catatonic.
Years later, another of Bender’s young patients who became overly aggressive after about 20 treatments, now grown, was convicted in court as a “multiple murderer.” Others, in adulthood, reportedly were in and of trouble and prison for a battery of petty and violent crimes. A 1954 scientific study of about 50 of Bender’s young electroshock patients, conducted by two psychologists, found that nearly all were worse off after the “therapy” and that some had become suicidal after treatment. One of the children studied in 1954 was the son of well-known writer Jacqueline Susann, author of the bestselling novel “Valley of the Dolls.” Susann’s son, Guy, was diagnosed with autism shortly after birth and, when he was three years old, Dr. Bender convinced Susann and her husband that Guy could be successfully treated with electroshock therapy. Guy returned home from Bender’s care a nearly lifeless child. Susann later told people that Bender had “destroyed” her son. Guy has been confined to institutions since his treatment.
To their credit, some of Dr. Bender’s colleagues considered her use of electroshock on children “scandalous,” but few colleagues spoke out against her, a situation still today common among those in the medical profession….
About the same time Dr. Bender was conducting her electroshock experiments, she was also widely experimenting on autistic and schizophrenic children with what she termed other “treatment endeavors.” These included use of a wide array of psycho-pharmaceutical agents, several provided to her by the Sandoz Chemical Co. in Basel, Switzerland, as well as Metrazol, sub-shock insulin therapy, amphetamines and anticonvulsants. Metrazol was a trade name for pentylenetetrazol, a drug used as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant. High doses cause convulsions, as discovered in 1934 by the Hungarian-American neurologist and psychiatrist Ladislas J. Meduna….
Here it should be noted that, during the cold war years, CIA and Army Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) interrogators, working as part of projects Bluebird and Artichoke, sometimes injected large amounts of Metrazol into selected enemy or Communist agents for the purposes of severely frightening other suspected agents, by forcing them to observe the procedure. The almost immediate effects of Metrazol are shocking for many to witness: subjects will shake violently, twisting and turning. They typically arch, jerk and contort their bodies and grimace in pain. With Metrazol, as with electroshock, bone fractures – including broken necks and backs – and joint dislocations are not uncommon, unless strong sedatives are administered beforehand….
CIC interrogators working in Germany would be assisted in their use of interrogation drugs by several “former” Nazi scientists recruited by the CIA and US State Department as part of Project Paperclip. By early 1952, the CIC’s Rough Boys would routinely use Metrazol during interrogations, as well as LSD, mescaline and conventional electroshock units….
Dr. Bender Discovers LSD
In 1955 and1956, Dr. Bender began hearing glowing accounts about the potential of LSD for producing remarkable results in children suffering mental disorders, including autism and schizophrenia. Bender’s earlier work with electroshock therapy had brought her into contact with several other prominent physicians who, at the time, were covert contractors with the CIA’s MK/ULTRA and Artichoke projects. Primary among these physicians were Drs. Harold A. Abramson, Paul Hoch, James B. Cattell, Joel Elkes, Max Fink, Harris Isbell and Alfred Hubbard. Some of these names may be familiar to readers. Dr. Abramson, a noted allergist who surreptitiously worked for both the US Army and CIA since the late 1940s, was the physician Frank Olson was taken to see, shortly before his murder in New York City in November 1953. About a year earlier, Drs. Hoch and Cattell were responsible for injecting unwitting New York State Psychiatric Institute patient Harold Blauer with a massive dose of mescaline that killed him. Dr. Elkes was one of the earliest physicians in Europe to experiment with LSD, having requested samples of the drug from Sandoz Chemical Co. in 1949. Elkes was a close associate of Dr. Abraham Wikler, who worked closely with Dr. Harris Isbell at the now-closed Lexington, Kentucky, prison farm, where hundreds of already drug-addicted inmates were given heroin in exchange for their participation in LSD and mescaline experiments underwritten by the CIA and Pentagon. Elkes worked closely with the CIA, Pentagon and Britain’s MI6 on drug experiments in England and the United States.
Dr. Fink, who was greatly admired by Bender, is considered the godfather of electroshock therapy in the United States. In the early 1950s and beyond, Fink was a fully cleared CIA Project Artichoke consultant. In 1951, CIA officials under the direction of Paul Gaynor and Morse Allen of the agency’s Security Research Service (SRS) that oversaw Artichoke, worked closely with Fink in New York City in efforts to thoroughly explore the merits of electroshock techniques for interrogations. The CIA was especially interested in the use of standard electroshock machines in producing amnesia, inducing subjects to talk and making subjects more prone to hypnotic control. According to one CIA document, Fink told officials “an individual could gradually be reduced through the use to electroshock treatment to the vegetable level.”….
Other physicians whom Dr. Bender consulted about the effects of LSD on children were Drs. Ronald A. Sandison, Thomas M. Ling and John Buckman. These three worked in England at both the Chelsea Clinic in London and Potwick Hospital in Worcestershire, outside of London. Sandison is credited with having been the first person to bring LSD into England, this in 1952 after he met Albert Hofmann in Basle, Switzerland, at the Sandoz Chemical laboratories. Hofmann handed Sandison a box of around 600 ampules, each containing 100 micrograms of LSD. Back in England, Sandison shared his psychedelic bounty with associates Drs. Ling and Buckman. Before the year was out, Sandison also turned Hubbard on to LSD, guiding Hubbard through his first trip. Sandison also began a new treatment program at the Gothic-looking Potwick facility that he dubbed Psycholytic Therapy. His program’s patients were mostly schizophrenics. In 1958, an LSD treatment unit was established at Potwick. Over the years, it has been reported that the CIA, MI6 and the Macy Foundation secretly helped finance the unit. Dr. Elkes helped by raising about $75,000 for the unit’s operation. For the next ten years the unit administered over 15,000 doses of LSD to about 900 patients….
Dr. Bender’s LSD Experiments on Children
Shortly after deciding to initiate her own LSD experiments on children, Bender attended a conference sponsored by a CIA front group, the Josiah Macy Foundation. The conference focused on LSD research and featured Dr. Harold A. Abramson as a presenter. In 1960, Abramson conducted his own LSD experiments on a group of six children ranging in age from five to 14 years of age. A few short months after the Macy Foundation conference, Dr. Bender was notified that her planned LSD experiments would be partially and surreptitiously funded by the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology (SIHE), another CIA front group then located in Forest Hills, New York. The Society, headed by James L. Monroe, a former US Air Force officer who had worked on top-secret psychological warfare and propaganda projects, oversaw about 55 top-secret experiments underwritten by the CIA. These projects involved LSD, ESP, black magic, astrology, psychological warfare, media manipulation, and other subjects. Apparently, Bender’s work with children and LSD raised some concerns at the CIA’s Technical Services Division (TSD). A 1961 TSD memo written to Monroe questioned the “operational benefits of Dr. Bender’s work as related to children and LSD,” and requested to be kept “closely appraised of the possible links between Dr. Bender’s project and those being conducted under separate MK/ULTRA funding at designated prisons in New York and elsewhere.”
In 1960, Dr. Bender launched her first experiments with LSD and children. They were conducted within the Children’s Unit, Creedmoor State Hospital in Queens, New York. The LSD she used was supplied by Dr. Rudolph P. Bircher of the Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company. (Dr. Bircher also provided Bender with UML-491, also a Sandoz-produced product, very much like LSD but sometimes “dreamier” in effect and longer lasting.) Her initial group of young subjects consisted of 14 children diagnosed schizophrenic, all under the age of 11…..
http://www.truth-out.org/the-hidden-tragedy-cias-experiments-children62208
The Strange Story of Sally Hartman 10 June 2010 by: H.P. Albarelli Jr., t r u t h o u t | Interview On 26 October, [redacted], an employee of the [redacted], contacted the Office of the Inspector General here at the Agency and related the following information. His wife, whose maiden name is [redacted], was previously married from 1955 until 1960 to [redacted], who was employed by CIA at that time. In the summer of 1956, according to [redacted], she accompanied her husband to the farm of her husband’s supervisor for dinner, drinks and wine. She believes her husband worked for Dr. Gottlieb, who was chief of the Technical Services Staff Chemical Division and heavily involved in MKULTRA activities. Her next recollection is receiving electric shock treatment at George Washington University Hospital for some time … – Letter from CIA assistant general counsel to John Gavin Esq., Office of Legal Counsel, US Department of Justice, November 2, 1977….This story involved a woman who, in the mid-1950s, had been married to a CIA employee. In fact, the man had worked in the agency’s Technical Services Section, Chemical Branch and had answered directly to Gottlieb and Robert Lashbrook. I was able to verify his employment with the CIA. The woman had also worked for the federal government, holding a classified position with another intelligence organization. There were no doubts about any of this. Numerous sources, including former CIA, Justice Department and White House officials and others, verified these facts….
Fred talked to several physicians and was told by one, “Perhaps Sally is an unwitting victim of some sort of mind control effort.” The physician told Fred that, given the dimensions of the MKULTRA project as reported in the newspapers, anything could be possible if Sally had somehow become a test subject. Fred began to develop a theory about what had happened to his wife. Based on public revelations about Frank Olson, Fred thought Sally had been given LSD by Jim or Gottlieb. Once she was placed in a secure hospital, he speculated, Sally became an ideal, unwitting, test subject. Fred thought, What better cover can there be, or greater achievement, than to control the mind of a person who is a patient in a mental hospital without detection? Sally’s sudden “breakdown” and electric-shock treatments seem to be connected to her having been given some sort of drug that triggered her radical change in behavior. Fred called the Massachusetts hospital and requested his wife’s medical records. After a few days, he received a return call from the hospital, telling him there was no record of Sally having been a patient. He told the caller there had to be some sort of mistake. Please recheck your records, Fred asked. The hospital told Fred someone would call him back within a day or two.
Two days later, the hospital called and told Fred that Sally’s records had been located. Fred asked that they be copied and mailed to him. The same week, Fred consulted a noted psychologist about Sally. The psychologist told Fred the CIA had experimented extensively with “hypnosis and post-hypnotic suggestion used in combination with certain drugs.” The psychologist also told Fred the agency experimented with using a variety of surreptitious delivery methods for drugs to unwitting subjects. These methods included “techniques for penetrating clothing with drugs” and “treating paper in books and magazine with certain drugs.”….Meanwhile, additional articles appeared in newspapers in Boston about the Massachusetts hospital Sally was admitted to. Some articles revealed that doctors there conducted surreptitious testing with LSD, mescaline, and other powerful drugs. Many of these experiments took place during the same time that Sally was a patient in the same hospital. Fred’s concern mounted about what may have happened to Sally and significantly deepened after he read a July 1952 CIA document citing the “narco-hypnotic control” of subjects placed under what the agency dubbed “psychiatric-medical control” or hospitalization. “In each case,” the memo stated, “a psychiatric-medical cover was used to bring ARTICHOKE techniques into action.”
http://www.truth-out.org/the-strange-story-sally-hartman60306
Sexual Abuse in Day Care: A National Study – Executive Summary – March 1988 – Finklehor, Williams, Burns, Kalinowski “The study identified 270 “cases” of sexual abuse in day care meaning 270 facilities where substantiated abuse had occurred involving a total of 1639 victimized children….This yielded an estimate of 500 to 550 reported and substantiated cases and 2500 victims for the three-year period. Although this is a large number, it must be put in the context of 229,000 day care facilities nationwide service seven million children….allegations of ritual abuse (“the invocation of religious, magical or supernatural symbols of activities”) occurred in 13% of the cases.” The authors divided these cases into “true cult-based ritual,” pseudo-ritualism” with a primary goal of sexual gratification and ritual being used to intimidate the children from disclosing and “psychopathological ritualism” the activities being “primarily the expression of an individuals obsessional or delusional system.” http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED292552.pdf
note: These pages may be triggering and they contain religious content.
Nobody’s Angel – A Story of Occult Bondage, Abuse and Redemption – Gregory R. Reid – Nobody’s Angel is the true story of former occult practitioner Gregory Reid. Born in Southern California, his childhood was a schizophrenic double life of wonderful, loving parents at home and satanic and sexual abuse outside of their care. Obsessed with the occult, victimized by pedophiles, and on his way to being an adept occultist, at the age of fifteen Gregory was pursued by Jesus through persistent encounters with Christians. One July night he ended up at a prayer meeting and surrendered his life to Christ. http://www.xulonpress.com/bookstore/bookdetail.php?PB_ISBN=1597812080&HC_ISBN=1597812080
http://www.gregoryreid.com/id39.htm
Warren Jeffs: Utah court overturns polygamist’s rape conviction – The Utah Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the jury in the 2007 rape trial of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs received improper instructions from the trial judge. By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer / July 27, 2010 The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned polygamist leader Warren Jeffs’s rape conviction for conducting the marriage of a 14-year-old girl….The Utah justices held that instructions given to the jurors were erroneous and ordered a new trial. Jeffs was originally found guilty of being an accomplice to rape for using his religious influence to coerce a minor into marrying her 19-year-old cousin. The justices said that the jury’s deliberation should have been focused on whether Jeffs’ intent in performing the “spiritual marriage” was for rape to occur, not on whether the action itself led to nonconsensual sex. “In particular, the court held that Mr. Jeffs had to have the intent to aid the rape that was committed,” says Paul Cassell, professor of criminal law at S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. “That will be the issue on which the new trial will focus.”
Analysts say the court’s opinion was narrow in the sense that they did not hold that Jeffs is innocent but rather simply that the jury was improperly instructed on the charges. “We regret the effect our opinion might have on the victim of the underlying crime, to whom we do not wish to cause additional pain,” wrote Justice Jill Parrish for the court. “However, we must ensure that the laws are applied evenly and appropriately, in this case as in every case, in order to protect the constitutional principles on which our legal system is based. We must guarantee justice, not just for this defendant, but for all who may be accused of a crime and subjected to the State’s power to deprive them of life, liberty, or property hereafter.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0727/Warren-Jeffs-Utah-court-overturns-polygamist-s-rape-conviction
Utah court reverses polygamist leader convictions By JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press Writer Jennifer Dobner, Jul 27, 2010 SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the convictions of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and ordered a new trial, saying a jury received incorrect instructions before considering his role in the 2001 nuptials of a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. Jeffs, 54, was convicted in 2007 of two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. He is serving two consecutive terms of five years to life in the Utah State Prison….Jeffs is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The sect, whose estimated 10,000 members live mostly on the Utah-Arizona state line, practices polygamy in marriages arranged by church leaders. Some marriages have involved underage girls to older men. Jeffs performed the religious marriage of Elissa Wall and Allen Steed in a Caliente, Nev., motel and later counseled Wall to be obedient and give her “mind, body and soul” to her husband in an effort to make an unhappy marriage work. During the trial and later in her book, “Stolen Innocence,” Wall said she objected to the marriage and was forced into sexual relations with her husband….In its ruling Tuesday, the court agreed with defense attorneys who argued that jurors should not have been told to decide whether Wall’s marital relations were consensual based on Jeffs’ actions and his role as her religious leader. That essentially equates Jeffs with Steed — the person who allegedly has had nonconsensual sex. Justices said prosecutors were wrong to make that leap.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100727/ap_on_re_us/us_polygamist_leader_appeal
Utah judge orders Aug. 18 hearing for FLDS sect leader Warren Jeffs July 28, 2010 SALT LAKE CITY – A Southern Utah judge has set an Aug. 18 date for a hearing on a request that polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs be granted a speedy trial. Jeffs was charged in 5th District Court in 2006 with two counts of felony rape as an accomplice. A jury convicted him of both counts the following year. But the Utah Supreme Court reversed the convictions Tuesday and sent the case back for a new trial. Within hours, Jeffs’ defense attorneys, Wally Bugden and Tara Isaacson, filed a motion seeking a “speedy trial before a jury of his peers.” Court papers also say Jeffs “has been incarcerated for many months.” At a news conference Tuesday, Bugden said he planned to seek bail for Jeffs, 54, the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Southern Utah-based church practices polygamy in marriages arranged by FLDS Church leaders. On Wednesday, Judge James Shumate, who presided over the 2007 trial, ordered a hearing on a retrial. Deputy Washington County Attorney Brian Filter has said officials haven’t decided how they’ll proceed in the case. Prosecutors first plan to meet with the victim and law enforcement and conduct a legal analysis of the high court’s ruling, Filter said. http://www.standard.net/topics/courts/2010/07/28/utah-judge-orders-aug-18-hearing-flds-sect-leader-warren-jeffs
Michael Lyons may have raped dozens more women – Police fear dozens more women around the world have been raped by cult leader Michael Lyons. 26 Jul 2010 Officers said many victims were too scared to come forward after falling into the clutches of his intimidating group. They said Lyons, known in spiritualist circles as Mohan Singh, was a calculating criminal masquerading as a healer. Lyons was jailed for 10 years yesterday after being convicted of raping one woman and assaulting another. However police say many more women around the world may also have been victims….Detective Sergeant Nicholas Giles, who pursued Lyons, said officers liaised with colleagues at the FBI as the net closed around their suspect. He said Lyons travelled widely between London, Paris, Miami and New York, spending only a few months in each place. Internet campaigners claim to have drawn up a list of 20 potential victims in New York alone. Mr Giles said the complex and unusual case created many difficulties, including persuading the jury how dangerous Lyons was. He said: ”This is all about control, brainwashing, a cult. It is not someone with a mask jumping out of a bush. It is very hard to prove. ”We had to bring family members, people who have lost people to the cult, from America.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7911698/Michael-Lyons-may-have-raped-dozens-more-women.html
Torture in Canada July 7th, 2010 While it still remains to be proven, one of the concerns is that Dustin was tortured during his ordeal. Did you know that a regular citizen cannot be charged with torture in Canada? Linda and Jeanne from http://www.ritualabusetorture.org/ have put together a slideshow to explain just how this is in our country.
http://dustinlafortune.com/2010/07/torture-in-canada/
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse_Torture
Journal articles and child abuse and trauma information
Books of The Times – Violence Expert Visits Her Dark Past By Dwight Garner June 24, 2010 Jessica Stern is among the world’s experts on violence and evil, a woman who spends her time thinking about bad men and bad deeds. She has lectured at Harvard about terrorism and is the author of a respected book, “Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill” (2003). During the Clinton administration she was on the staff of the National Security Council….
“Denial” is Ms. Stern’s plainspoken and very raw account of why, long before 9/11, she was driven to study terrorism and to put herself repeatedly into danger as she flew around the world, like some scholarly twin of the former CNN war correspondent Christiane Amanpour, interviewing committed terrorists. Central among the reasons, it turns out, was her own experience of terror. On Oct. 1, 1973, when Ms. Stern was 15 and her sister 14, the two of them, alone in a suburban house in leafy Concord, Mass., were raped by a man who cut the house’s telephone lines before walking inside and leading them upstairs. Ms. Stern describes that evening in brutal detail. It was a night that changed her and taught her a dire lesson: “Shame can be sexually transmitted.” The crime wasn’t properly investigated. The police didn’t believe her when she said the rapist was a stranger. Because her story and those of others were not publicized or taken seriously enough by the police, the same man was able to rape some 44 girls — an incredible, heart-collapsing number — from 1971 to 1973. “The entire community,” she writes, “was in denial.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/books/25book.html
Terrorism Expert No Longer in ‘Denial’ About Her Rape Andrea Stone Senior Washington Correspondent 6/25/10 WASHINGTON (June 22) — Jessica Stern, one of the world’s foremost authorities on terrorism, never made the connection between her chosen profession and the terror she suffered as a teenager. Stern was 15 and her sister Sara 14 when a blue-eyed stranger carrying a small handgun entered their home in Concord, Mass., on the evening of Oct. 1, 1973. The man threatened to kill them. Then he raped them. There was no one for the girls to turn to — their mother was dead, their father on a business trip in Europe, the baby sitter had left them alone. The police refused to believe the girls didn’t know the man. They were in denial. Worse, their father refused to cut short his trip to rush home. A few months later — his daughters’ rapist still at large — he told police they had gotten over it. He was in denial.
But it took more than 30 years for Stern to discover that she, too, was in denial….Stern knew from therapy that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosis she had denied for years….Stern was not content to confine herself to the personal. She talked to a fellow victim and met a veteran who was injured in Iraq and suffers from PTSD. While she doesn’t equate rape with being maimed by a roadside bomb — “I was not a victim of terrorism. That is much more serious and has a political element” — she was struck by how many symptoms she shared with the soldier….Connecting her trauma to a wider circle, she wrote: Denial helps the bystander. We don’t want to know what the boys we send to Iraq have done to others out of terror, or what others have done to them. We would rather not know about terror or be confronted with evil. This is as true about Abu Ghraib as it is about personal assaults and more private crimes, the crimes that occur inside families. But the victim, too, cannot bear to believe. She may bury or disassociate from or disown her pain.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/terrorism-expert-jessica-stern-no-longer-in-denial-about-her-rape/19524354
A Neuroscientist Uncovers A Dark Secret by Barbara Bradley Hagerty June 29, 2010 ….Fallon set out to see whether anyone in his family possesses the brain of a serial killer. Because he has studied the brains of dozens of psychopaths, he knew precisely what to look for. To demonstrate, he opened his laptop and called up an image of a brain on his computer screen. “Here is a brain that’s not normal,” he says. There are patches of yellow and red. Then he points to another section of the brain, in the front part of the brain, just behind the eyes. “Look at that — there’s almost nothing here,” Fallon says. This is the orbital cortex, the area that Fallon and other scientists believe is involved with ethical behavior, moral decision-making and impulse control. “People with low activity [in the orbital cortex] are either free-wheeling types or sociopaths,” he says.
Fallon’s Scans
He’s clearly oversimplifying, but Fallon says the orbital cortex puts a brake on another part of the brain called the amygdala, which is involved with aggression and appetites. But in some people, there’s an imbalance — the orbital cortex isn’t doing its job — perhaps because the person had a brain injury or was born that way. “What’s left? What takes over?” he asks. “The area of the brain that drives your id-type behaviors, which is rage, violence, eating, sex, drinking.”
….Along with brain scans, Fallon also tested each family member’s DNA for genes that are associated with violence. He looked at 12 genes related to aggression and violence and zeroed in on the MAO-A gene (monoamine oxidase A). This gene, which has been the target of considerable research, is also known as the “warrior gene” because it regulates serotonin in the brain. Serotonin affects your mood — think Prozac — and many scientists believe that if you have a certain version of the warrior gene, your brain won’t respond to the calming effects of serotonin.
….according to scientists who study this area. They believe that brain patterns and genetic makeup are not enough to make anyone a psychopath. You need a third ingredient: abuse or violence in one’s childhood. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127888976
The Sexual Revolution and Children – How the Left Took Things Too Far 07/02/2010 By Jan Fleischhauer and Wiebke Hollersen Germany’s left has its own tales of abuse. One of the goals of the German 1968 movement was the sexual liberation of children. For some, this meant overcoming all sexual inhibitions, creating a climate in which even pedophilia was considered progressive….One of the few leaders of the left who staunchly opposed the pedophile movement early on was social scientist Günter Amendt. “There is no equitable sexuality between children and adults,” Amendt said, expressing his outrage over the movement. Alice Schwarzer, the founder of the political women’s magazine Emma, also spoke out against the downplaying of sex with children and defined it as what it really was: outright abuse. http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,702679,00.html
Sexual Abuse Survivors Have Increased of Psychiatric Disorders ScienceDaily (July 12, 2010) — New research finds that a history of sexual abuse, regardless of the victim’s gender or age when the abuse occurred, correlates strongly with a lifetime diagnosis of multiple psychiatric disorders. In the July issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers report that a history of sexual abuse is associated with suicide attempts, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, and eating and sleep disorders. Additionally, associations between sexual abuse and depression, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder were strengthened by a history of rape….The study reports prevalence rates of sexual abuse in some populations are as high as 21 percent in adults and 33 percent in children. Furthermore, sexual abuse survivors can represent up to 25 percent of patient panels in primary care practices. Researchers also explored why some abuse survivors do not experience psychiatric symptoms and suggest that genetic variability may confer a level of protection. “The protective effect of certain genes against the development of psychiatric disorders in abuse survivors is an intriguing prospect. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100712133129.htm
Sexual Trauma May Spark Mental Health Problems – ScienceDaily (June 17, 2010) — Traumatic sexual incidents may cause serious mental health problems in the years after the events, research at the University of Ulster has shown. Using a unique investigative method, researchers at the University’s Psychology Research Institute examined the mental health of women who had visited rape crisis centres — and it showed that sexual trauma plays a role in the development of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia….The collaborative study saw the University of Ulster link up with the University of Southern Denmark to examine the data gathered from the Danish Civil Registration System (CRS), which is a database of official information held on Danish citizens since 1968…. A. Elklit, M. Shevlin. Female Sexual Victimization Predicts Psychosis: A Case-Control Study Based on the Danish Registry System. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2010; DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbq048
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100616122318.htm
Link Between Childhood Physical Abuse and Heart Disease ScienceDaily (July 23, 2010) — Childhood physical abuse is associated with significantly elevated rates of heart disease in adulthood, according to new findings by University of Toronto researchers, published in this month’s issue of the journal Child Abuse & Neglect. “Individuals who reported they had been physically abused as children had 45 per cent higher odds of heart disease than their peers who had not been abused, despite the fact we had adjusted for most of the known risk factors for heart disease,” says Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, who holds the Sandra Rotman Chair at U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Department of Family and Community Medicine. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100722102043.htm
Childhood stress leads to adult ill health, studies say – Stress in childhood has long-term effects say psychologists 14 August 2010 Adversity and stress early in life leads to long-term ill health and early death, a group of psychologists warn. A series of studies suggest that childhood stress caused by poverty or abuse can lead to heart disease, inflammation, and speed up cell ageing. The American Psychological Association meeting heard that early experiences “cast a long shadow” on health….Another study presented at the conference showed that childhood events such as the death of a parent or abuse can make people more vulnerable to the effects of stress in later life and even shorten lifespan. Researchers at Ohio State University looked at a group of older adults – some of whom were carers for people with dementia.
They measured several markers of inflammation in the blood which can be signs of stress, as well as the length of telomeres – protective caps on the ends of chromosomes which have been linked to age-related diseases. The 132 participants also answered a questionnaire on depression and past child abuse and neglect. A third study reported some sort of physical, emotional or sexual abuse during childhood. Those who did face adversity as children had shorter telomeres and increased levels of inflammation even after controlling for age, care-giving status, gender, body mass index, exercise and sleep. Study leader Professor Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, said: “Our latest research shows that childhood adversity casts a long shadow on one’s health and can lead to inflammation and cell ageing much earlier than for those who haven’t experienced these events.
“Those reporting multiple adversities could shorten their lifespan by seven to 15 years,” she added. Dr Andrea Danese, a clinical lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, said such studies had to be interpreted carefully because there is a chance that people do not recall their childhoods accurately and you can only show an association not prove causality. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe these results. “The evidence is quite consistent. “It’s already been established that childhood stress has an effect on mental health and it now seems like it has an enduring effect on physical health.” He said that stress causes an increase in inflammatory proteins which could underpin the physical consequences suggested by the research. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10965862
Bangladesh disabled children sexually abused – study 6 July 2010 Half of all the disabled children in Bangladesh are sexually abused, mostly by close relatives, according to a new study. Most of the offenders are male, the study says. Of the victims, 52% are girls and 48% boys, aged between seven and 18 years. Those with mental disabilities are at even greater risk, the study says. According to the 2001 census, Bangladesh has nearly 12m disabled people. The study was conducted jointly by the Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation (BPF) and Save the Children Sweden-Denmark.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/10522001.stm
Confessions of a Trauma Therapist A Memoir of Healing and Transformation Mary K. Armstrong – To her surprise, dismay, and eventually relief, Mary Armstrong, a therapist with over thirty years of experience helping people heal from childhood trauma, uncovered her own history of child sexual abuse at the hands of her grandfather and father. As she tells her harrowing but heroic tale, she casts light as never before on the issue of repressed memories and the invisible wounds left by childhood trauma. ISBN 978-1-926645-19-3 www.bpsbooks.com http://www.bpsbooks.com/confessions-of-a-trauma-therapist-mary-k-armstrong/ Author’s website http://www.marykarmstrong.com/
Innocence Revisited – a tale in parts by Cathy Kezelman ISBN: 978– 0–9806193-3-1 JoJo Publishing 2010 This book….is an intensely personal story…We journey with Cathy as she goes in search of ten lost years of her childhood, feeling her suffering acutely but also celebrating her triumphs. It is also a vivid portrayal both of the intricate psychological contortions of a child towards psychic survival and of the mental processes of the adult towards a full life. This book…is a landmark book – a roadmap to health for those who feel isolated, lost and terrified and a reflective guide for the health professionals who work with them. In telling her story Cathy displays how an analytical psychotherapeutic process can guide a trauma survivor from confusion through chaos to stability and understanding. The story ends with a quiet sense of hope as Cathy, having integrated those ten forgotten childhood years, enjoys enriched relationships with her family and friends, and an untapped enthusiasm for the next phase of her life. To order your copy of Innocence Revisited – a tale in parts go to www.jojopublishing.com http://cathykezelman.com/books/innocence-revisisted-a-tale-in-parts/
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