Italian police arrest alleged Black Axe Nigerian mafia members over trafficking Four arrests of cult-like criminal gang members made in southern Italy after Nigerian woman forced into prostitution comes forward

Italian police arrest alleged Black Axe Nigerian mafia members over trafficking
Four arrests of cult-like criminal gang members made in southern Italy after Nigerian woman forced into prostitution comes forward

 

Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo

Wed 19 Jan 2022 01.30 EST

 

Four alleged members of the Nigerian mafia have been arrested in southern Italy after a

 young sex trafficking survivor spoke out against them.

 

The men, who were arrested in Palermo and Taranto in the early hours of Tuesday, allegedly belong to the feared Black Axe, a cult-like criminal gang that emerged in the 1970s at the University of Benin, according to police.

 

Investigators in Palermo who led the operation said the woman, who is also Nigerian, was forced into prostitution after taking part in an occult ritual bound up with traditional spiritual beliefs, known as juju, which bond victims to their traffickers and to any debts they will incur.

 

“The suspects were charged with slavery, human trafficking, kidnapping and pandering [recruiting prostitutes],” the police said.

 

The woman, whom investigators said was convinced by a Pentecostal cleric to report her captors to police, had been imprisoned, raped, blackmailed and forced into prostitution to pay a debt of about €15,000 (£12,500).

 

Before she left Nigeria, like many other victims of sex trafficking, the woman had been made to undergo a traditional oath-taking ceremony involving complicated and frightening rituals often using the women’s blood, hair and clothing. Those carrying out the ritual, which has been found to have a profound psychological impact on victims, make it clear that failure to pay off those debts will result in terrible things happening to the woman and her family.

 

The abuse of religious and cultural belief systems in Nigeria has proved a deadly and highly effective control mechanism for traffickers recruiting women destined for the sex trade in Europe. A hugely profitable and well-organised criminal industry has been operating between Italy and Nigeria for more than two decades but the UN’s International Organization for Migration says it has seen a rise in the number of potential sex-trafficking victims arriving in Italy by sea in the past few years, lured by the promise of work in the country.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/19/italian-police-arrest-alleged-black-axe-nigerian-mafia-members-over-trafficking

SMART Ritual Abuse Newsletter - Issue 162 - January 2022

 

Issue 162 – January 2022

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: https://ritualabuse.us/

Issue 162 – January 2022

(Posted with permission from https://ritualabuse.us/2022/01/issue-162-january-2022/

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 secretive 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 2022 – All rights reserved. No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.

Information in this issue includes: Name Index for Ritual Abuse Mind Control Trauma and Dissociation, Eileen Aveni, Bennett Braun, Neil Brick, Wendy Hoffman, Ellen Lacter, Elizabeth Loftus, Alison Miller, Douglas Misicko, Lucien Greaves, Douglas Mesner, Grey Faction, Satanic Temple, Randy Noblitt, Michael Salter, Valerie Sinason, Bessel van der Kolk, Crypto-Fascist Sect: The Unauthorized Guide to “The Satanic Temple”, Daniel K. Buntovnik, Elizabeth Loftus – Ethics Complaints, Survivorship Webinar 2022, Healing the Unimaginable, Alison Miller, Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Virginia Giuffre, the death of Jeffrey Epstein, Alan Dershowitz, Woody Allen, Dylan Farrow, Babi Christina Engelhardt, ‘False Memory’ Expert, Jerry Sandusky, Ted Bundy, Paul Shanley, Sarah Ransome, Little St James in US Virgin Islands, international sex trafficking ring, paedophile island, Bugs Bunny,  Bessel van der Kolk Md, The Body Keeps the Score, Working with Traumatic Memory

The New Name Index for Ritual Abuse, Mind Control, Trauma and Dissociation
https://ritualabuse.us/smart/name-index-for-ritual-abuse-mind-control-trauma-and-dissociation/ Eileen Aveni, Bennett Braun, Neil Brick, Wendy Hoffman, Ellen Lacter, Elizabeth Loftus, Alison Miller, Douglas Misicko, Lucien Greaves, Douglas Mesner, Grey Faction, Satanic Temple, Randy Noblitt, Michael Salter, Valerie Sinason, Bessel van der Kolk

Anatomy of a Crypto-Fascist Sect: The Unauthorized Guide to “The Satanic Temple” Daniel K. Buntovnik’s latest work is a major investigative exposé of crypto-fascism, white supremacism, anti-psychiatry fanaticism, historical revisionism, and sexism and misogyny within the “new religious movement” known as modern Satanism and its foremost proponents inside The Satanic Temple. https://danielkbuntovnik.wordpress.com/anatomy-of-a-crypto-fascist-sect/

Information on Elizabeth Loftus:  https://ritualabuse.us/smart/elizabeth-loftus/  – A Brief History of the False Memory Research of Elizabeth Loftus– Ethics Complaints Filed Against FMSF Board Member Elizabeth Loftus– “Lost in a Shopping Mall” A Breach of Professional Ethics– Quotes: Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D.– The Alleged Ethical Violations of Elizabeth Loftus in the Case of Jane Doe

Information on Paul Shanley https://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/shanley-recovered-memory-case/  “Shanley was accused of sexual abuse in the 1960’s, the 1970’s, the 1980’s and the 1990’s. His church personnel records indicated he was transferred from parish to parish despite allegations of abuse. The Boston Herald (4/9/02) printed that Shanley “spoke in favor of sex between men and boys at a formative 1978 meeting in Boston of the “Man Boy Lovers of North America” and that he “admitted openly to raping and sodomizing minors when confronted by church investigators under Boston’s two past archbishops, Humberto Cardinal Medeiros and Law.”)

Survivorship Webinar 2022:
Healing the Unimaginable: A Ten-Session Course in Treating Survivors of Organized and Extreme Abuse – Alison Miller, Ph.D., Retired Psychologist https://survivorship.org/survivorship-webinar-2022-healing-the-unimaginable-a-ten-session-course/

Alison Miller, Ph.D. is a retired clinical psychologist who practised in Victoria, B.C., Canada and worked with survivors of organized abuse, including ritual abuse and mind control from 1990 to 2017. She has twice chaired the RAMCOA (ritual abuse/mind control/organized abuse) special interest group of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. She is the author of Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control (for therapists), Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse (for survivors), and co-author with survivor Wendy Hoffman of From the Trenches: A Victim and Therapist Talk about Mind Control and Ritual Abuse. She has published several other book chapters and articles, as well as being the originator of the LIFE Seminars parent education programs.
Each online presentation will be 60 minutes. Following each presentation there will be a 30 minute confidential question and answer session.

The course will only be open to licensed professionals in the mental health field. Please write info@survivorship.org with your registration information prior to payment for approval.
This course is based on Dr. Miller’s 2012 book Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control. It incorporates other material from Dr. Miller’s more recent publications and those of others.

The ten sessions are:
1. Understanding dissociative disorders and organized abuse – Thursday February 17th 2022
2. The therapeutic relationship – Thursday March 10th 2022
3. Engineered personality systems resulting from organized abuse – Thursday April 7th 2022
4. Internal parts and their assigned functions – Thursday May 5th 2022
5. Stabilization (internal safety) – Thursday June 2rd 2022
6. Working with internal leaders – Thursday July 7th 2022
7. Present-day physical safety – Thursday August 4th 20228. Working through the traumatic memories – Thursday September 8th, 2022
9. Confronting the spiritual issues – Thursday October 13th, 2022
10. Healing the unimaginable – Thursday November 10, 2022
(The times for each session are: Thursday 10 am PT, 1 pm EST, 6 pm UK.)

After Amnesia and during – a memoir by Wendy Hoffman https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/books/after-amnesia-and-during-a-memoir-by-wendy-hoffman Copyright 2021, Wendy Hoffman

This memoir’s eight essays cover sex trafficking and political-party-rituals attended by famous figures, emotions suffered because of criminal mind control, childhood writings from the time of severe abuses; body memories; how to improve diminished self-esteem—the backbone of recovery; grief, mourning and life after amnesia ends. The essays depict how perpetrators’ oppression can turn into survivors’ resistance, and how living with truth is so very much preferable to living with imposed lies.  After Amnesia is written in Hoffman’s usual literary style and is aimed at helping survivors become who they really are.  Information about Wendy Hoffman and her publications  https://ritualabuse.us/smart/wendy-hoffman/

Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case Associated Press TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER December 29, 2021 NEW YORK (AP) — The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

The verdict capped a month long trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico. Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts….
During the trial, prosecutors called 24 witnesses to give jurors a picture of life inside Epstein’s homes — a subject of public fascination and speculation ever since his 2006 arrest in Florida in a child sex case. A housekeeper testified he was expected to be “blind, deaf and dumb” about the private lives of Epstein, a financier who cultivated friendships with influential politicians and business tycoons, and Maxwell, who had led a jet-setting lifestyle as the favorite child of a media mogul.

Pilots took the witness stand and dropped the names of luminaries — Britain’s Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump — who flew on Epstein’s private jets.
Jurors saw physical evidence like a folding massage table once used by Epstein and a “black book” that listed contact information for some of the victims under the heading “massages.”
There were bank records showing he had transferred $30.7 million to Maxwell, his longtime companion — one-time girlfriend, later employee. But the core of the prosecution was the testimony of four women who said they were victimized by Maxwell and Epstein at tender ages….

They said the script would darken when Maxwell coaxed them into giving massages to Epstein that turned sexual, encounters she played off as normal: After one sexual massage, Kate, then 17, said Maxwell asked her if she’d had fun and told her: “You are such a good girl.” Carolyn testified that she was one of several underprivileged teens who lived near Epstein’s Florida home in the early 2000s and took up an offer to give massages in exchange for $100 bills, which prosecutors described as “a pyramid of abuse.”….
During their two-day presentation, they called as a witness Elizabeth Loftus, a University of California Irvine professor who has testified as a memory expert for defense lawyers at about 300 trials, including the rape trial of movie mogul

Harvey Weinstein….
Maxwell still awaits trial on two counts of perjury. Lawsuits involving the abuse allegations also continue, including one in which a woman not involved in the trial, Virginia Giuffre, says she was coerced into sexual encounters with Prince Andrew when she was 17. Andrew has denied her account and that lawsuit is not expected to come to trial for many months.
https://www.aol.com/news/ghislaine-maxwell-jury-must-years-161625990-220054892.html

Ghislaine Maxwell Is Found Guilty of Aiding in Epstein’s Sex Abuse
Ghislaine Maxwell, the former companion to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, was convicted on Wednesday of conspiring with him for at least a decade to recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls. A federal jury in Manhattan found Ms. Maxwell, 60, the daughter of a British media mogul, guilty of sex trafficking and four of the five other charges against her. She was acquitted of one count of enticing a minor to travel across state lines to engage in an illegal sexual act. Ms. Maxwell’s trial was widely seen as the courtroom reckoning that Mr. Epstein never had….
Ms. Maxwell’s conviction closed another chapter in the saga of Mr. Epstein, whose lurid exploits, dealings with the criminal justice system and cast of famous friends made him — and, by extension, Ms. Maxwell — the subject of intense public scrutiny for years.
In her trial, the government called four accusers — two used pseudonyms and one only a partial name — who testified that they had been served up to Mr. Epstein to be sexually abused. Ms. Maxwell was present for some of the abuse, according to the testimony, and played a role in enticing and grooming some of the victims….
“Ms. Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” a prosecutor, Alison Moe, told the jury in closing arguments last week. “She manipulated her victims and groomed them for sexual abuse.”…
Mr. Epstein’s name surfaced repeatedly during Ms. Maxwell’s trial, and her lawyers spent much of their time trying to distance her from the man who was once also her boyfriend and is now seen as one of the most notorious sex offenders in modern American history….
Jane testified how Ms. Maxwell, “a tall, thin woman” with a “cute little Yorkie,” strolled up to her, followed by Mr. Epstein, as she sat with friends at the age of 14, eating ice cream at a summer arts camp in Michigan. That chance meeting led to an invitation to Mr. Epstein’s house in Palm Beach, Fla., and what prosecutors said was years of sexual abuse…..
“This case is about Ghislaine Maxwell, the crimes she committed,” another prosecutor, Maurene Comey, said in a government rebuttal. “It’s about the children that she targeted, the steps that she took to serve those children up to be abused. It’s about her own participation in that abuse.”
Ms. Farmer, one of the accusers who testified against Ms. Maxwell, said in a statement that she was “relieved and grateful that the jury recognized the pattern of predatory behavior that Maxwell engaged in for years and found her guilty of these crimes.”
“She has caused hurt to many more women than the few of us who had the chance to testify in the courtroom,” Ms. Farmer said….
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/29/nyregion/ghislaine-maxwell-verdict

60 Minutes investigates the death of Jeffrey Epstein January 5, 2020
In July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein, already a convicted sex offender, was arrested and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors. On August 10, Epstein was found dead in his federal jail cell at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Epstein’s death a suicide by hanging, but a forensic pathologist who observed the four-hour autopsy on behalf of Epstein’s brother, Mark, tells 60 Minutes the evidence released so far points more to murder than suicide in his view. Dr. Michael Baden’s key reason: the unusual fractures he saw in Epstein’s neck….
Federal prosecutors say surveillance video “makes clear” that the guards “search[ed] the internet” and “appear to have been asleep” on their overnight overtime shift. One thing the video may not show, according to sources, is Epstein’s cell door and the doors of the other inmates on his unit tier. Sources say the camera that should have captured those angles was corrupted the night of Epstein’s death. Epstein’s cell was about 15 feet away and up a set of stairs from the guards’ station, with a single locked gate between them.
As 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi told Lindsay in their interview, the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death seem almost unbelievable. “So Epstein’s taken off suicide watch, the day before he kills himself, his roommate is removed from the cell. The cameras on his tier are not working. The guards fell asleep. It seems almost impossible to think all of those things could happen in that way,” Alfonsi said…..
Dr. Michael Baden: The forensic evidence released so far, including autopsy, point much more to murder and strangulation than the suicide and suicidal hanging. I hesitate to make a final opinion, until all the evidence is in….
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-jeffrey-epstein-kill-himself-60-minutes-investigates-2020-01-05/

Jeffrey Epstein’s Rolodex: A Guide to His Famous Friends and Acquaintances
By Adam K. Raymond and Matt Stieb July 10, 2019 After Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest on sex-trafficking charges over the weekend, the Miami Herald reporter behind the paper’s dogged investigations into the wealthy money manager said he isn’t the only prominent person this scandal is likely to ensnare. “There are probably quite a few important people, powerful people, who are sweating it out right now,” Julie K. Brown said on MSNBC. “We’ll have to wait and see whether Epstein is going to name names.”
Over the years, Epstein has counted some of the country’s most powerful political and business leaders among his friends. They’ve visited his private island, flown on his private jet, and had him as a guest in their homes. Most of the well-known figures linked to Epstein have not been accused of any wrongdoing, but a few have been accused of participating in his sex-trafficking ring. Here are some of Epstein’s most prominent connections:
Bill Clinton
Clinton and Epstein grew close in the first few years after the former president left office. According to a statement from Clinton this week, he took “a total of four trips” on Epstein’s private jet in 2002 and 2003, traveling to Europe, Asia, and Africa. At the time, Clinton told New York that Epstein is a “highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist.”
A week-in-review newsletter from the people who make New York Magazine. In this week’s statement, Clinton said he knew nothing of Epstein’s “terrible crimes” and that the two hadn’t spoken in a decade. But the picture of their relationship painted by the former president doesn’t square with flight logs that put Clinton on Epstein’s jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express,” 26 times between 2001 and 2003. Or with Gawker’s 2015 report on Epstein’s little black book, which included “21 contact numbers and various email addresses for Clinton.” Alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre also claimed in a 2015 affidavit that Clinton visited the financier’s private island, though Clinton denies it. The claim has never been corroborated, and there are no Epstein-related allegations of sexual misconduct involving Clinton.
Donald Trump
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York in a 2002 profile of Epstein. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Trump’s comment about Epstein’s taste in women has gotten a lot of attention in the past few days for obvious reasons. But it’s not the only thing connecting the two men. Epstein and Trump lived near each other in Palm Beach, ran in the same social circles, and records show Trump flew on the “Lolita Express.” Four years ago, Giuffre alleged that while working as a towel girl at Mar-a-Lago, she was recruited by Epstein’s longtime friend Ghislaine Maxwell to become one of his sex slaves. The year was 1999, and Giuffre was 16 years old. In court documents, Bradley Edwards, an attorney who represented several of Epstein’s alleged victims, said Epstein was banned from Mar-a-Lago because he “sexually assaulted an underage girl at the club.” The claim has not been confirmed.
Trump has also been accused of assaulting a woman on Epstein’s property. During the 2016 election, an anonymous California woman filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump and Epstein raped her at the latter’s New York City mansion in 1994, when she was 13. Several journalists expressed confusion or skepticism after looking into the story. Trump denied the allegations and the woman dropped her suit weeks before the election.
When Gawker published Epstein’s “little black book” in 2015, a Trump spokesperson told the site, “Mr. Trump only knew Mr. Epstein as Mr. Trump owns the hottest and most luxurious club in Palm Beach, [redacted], and Mr. Epstein would go there on occasion.” But media reports from the early 2000s show multiple interactions between the two in social settings. Trump also called Epstein twice in November 2004, according to message pads seized from Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Trump and Epstein were the only two guests at a 1992 “calendar girl” competition at Mar-a-Lago. Businessman George Houraney said he arranged the party at Trump’s request….
Alan Dershowitz
Two different women have said they were trafficked by Epstein and “directed” to have sex with the prominent Harvard law professor. Giuffre says that after she was recruited to be a masseuse for Epstein and coerced into having sex with him, she was told that she had to have sex with other men, including Dershowitz. Separately, Sarah Ransome, who sued Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for alleged sex trafficking, says she was directed to have sex with Dershowitz. The attorney has denied the claims from both women….
Leslie Wexner
The 81-year-old CEO of L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, was once the “main client” of Epstein’s money-management firm, according to Bloomberg. The billionaire began working with Epstein in the early ’90s, and in 2003 Epstein said that people had suggested the two men shared one brain. “Each has a side,” he said….
Prince Andrew
The Duke of York, Prince Charles’s younger brother, is a longtime personal friend of Epstein’s and has been directly accused of having sex with at least one underage girl. In 2015 court documents, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, seen here in a photo with Prince Andrew, said she was coerced into having sex with the British royal. She also said she was forced to participate in an orgy with other underage girls and the Prince. Buckingham Palace has denied the claims.
Tom Barrack
In Fire and Fury, his first book on the Trump administration, Michael Wolff reported that Trump, Epstein, and private-equity manager and Trump campaign senior adviser Tom Barrack were a “set of nightlife musketeers” in the ’80s and ’90s, managing a phrase that is both ambiguous and terrifying.
Mort Zuckerman
Media mogul, billionaire, and former owner of the New York Daily News and the Atlantic Mort Zuckerman invested with Epstein in the gossip magazine Radar in 2004, spending around $10 million to get the first issue up and running. According to Gawker, Zuckerman promptly bailed on the project when he found out about allegations against Epstein, and the magazine shut down just 14 months after its inaugural issue in 2005.
Woody Allen The director, whose adopted daughter Dylan Farrow alleges he sexually assaulted her when she was 7, has made several appearances with Epstein over the years. Allen attended a dinner party for Prince Andrew at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2010, he was pictured walking around the Upper East Side with him in 2013, and his photo is displayed in Epstein’s study.
Babi Christina Engelhardt, a former personal assistant to Epstein, also alleged in a Hollywood Reporter profile that she and Allen had an eight-year relationship, beginning when she was 16 and he was 41.
Larry Summers
Former Harvard president and Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers connected with Epstein mostly for fundraising purposes for the university….
Stephen Hawking
Steven Pinker
According to flight logs of Epstein’s plane, Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker hitched a ride on the “Lolita Express” in 2002. Pinker was also pictured at a dinner in which Epstein was in attendance in 2014, along with Lawrence Krauss.
Roger Schank
Artificial intelligence expert Roger Schank visited Epstein in jail in July 2008 when he was a professor at Northwastern University….
In 2003, Primedia Inc. was looking to sell New York Magazine, and Mort Zuckerman and then-media columnist Michael Wolff rounded up some investors to purchase the property. The group included TV personality and businessman Donny Deutsch, billionaire Nelson Peltz, Jeffrey Epstein, and Harvey Weinstein. (The movie producer, who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, is set to be tried on five counts of sexual assault, including rape.) The group’s bid of $44 million was the second-lowest out of four, and investment banker Bruce Wasserstein scooped up the title. (The Wasserstein family still owns New York Media.)
Other Epstein Acquaintances
The breadth of Epstein’s social reach was staggering, but most of his famous contacts have never been linked to any of his crimes or alleged misdeeds. Epstein’s 92-page address book, which was published by Gawker, has entries for Alec Baldwin, Ralph Fiennes, Ted Kennedy, David Koch, Courtney Love, and former New Mexico governors Bill Richardson and Bruce King — though it’s unclear what, if any, connection he had to these celebrities and political figures.
Guest lists for dinners at his Manhattan townhouse also give a picture of his influence: In 2010, a dinner for Prince Andrew included Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, Chelsea Handler, and Woody Allen. Another dinner reported on by New York featured billionaire Mort Zuckerman, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, magician David Blaine, Donald Trump, Les Wexner, and a former British Cabinet member Peter Mandelson. Another cabinet member, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, also reportedly socialized with Epstein shortly after his release from prison in 2011….
Vicky Ward, the journalist who wrote the 2003 Vanity Fair profile of Epstein, told Slate that “You got the feeling that his friends weren’t real friends — he owned them — that he was the kind of man who collected information about people and then used it over them.” Ward has also offered a more scathing assessment, saying, “What is so amazing to me is how his entire social circle knew about this and just blithely overlooked it … all mentioned the girls, as an aside.”
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/jeffrey-epsteins-rolodex-famous-friends-and-acquaintances.html

Judge Lets Ghislaine Maxwell Call ‘False Memory’ Expert Involved in Robert Durst, O.J. Simpson, and Harvey Weinstein Cases Adam Klasfeld Nov 22nd, 2021
Elizabeth Loftus, an expert in false memories, testifies in Paul Shanley child abuse trial. Exactly a week before the anticipated start of her sex trafficking trial, Ghislaine Maxwell received permission to call a “false memory” expert relied upon by Harvey Weinstein, Robert Durst, O.J. Simpson and hundreds of other criminal defendants seeking to undermine the credibility of their accusers.
In the words of a New Yorker profile on the controversy surrounding her expertise, Elizabeth Loftus has “Changed the Meaning of Memory,” and her life’s work has collided with the #MeToo movement’s moment of cultural reckoning. In particular, Loftus has questioned the reliability of memory and how she believes suggestion can mold it. She also has testified about her research during the trials of Jerry Sandusky, Ted Bundy, and Paul Shanley, a now-deceased priest who served 12 years in prison following his conviction for raping a child.
In a two page order on Monday morning, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan granted Maxwell permission to call Loftus—subject to certain limitations that are currently under seal. The threadbare order states only that the government’s motion to block her testimony is denied in part and granted in part. A fuller explanation of the order may be released if the prosecutors and defense team propose redactions agreed upon by the judge….
https://lawandcrime.com/live-trials/ghislaine-maxwell/judge-lets-ghislaine-maxwell-call-false-memory-expert-who-testified-as-defense-psychologist-for-robert-durst-o-j-simpson-harvey-weinstein

Accuser testifies Jeffrey Epstein brought her to meet Donald Trump when she was 14; no wrongdoing alleged By Lauren del Valle and Eric Levenson, CNN December 1, 2021
A woman who said she was sexually abused by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein more than two decades ago testified in court Wednesday that she met Donald Trump when Epstein took her to Mar-a-Lago when she was 14 years old.
The woman, identified in court under the pseudonym “Jane,” also testified that she flew on Epstein’s private plane several times along with Prince Andrew, celebrity chef Adam Perry Lang and Epstein’s mother and brother.
She did not accuse the former President or any of the other plane passengers of wrongdoing. She also testified Epstein never asked her to recruit other girls or asked her to be involved in sex acts with anyone else. CNN has reached out to Trump for comment.
Her testimony came during Maxwell’s criminal trial on six federal charges, including sex trafficking of minors, in what prosecutors say was a scheme to lure and recruit underage girls for Epstein’s sexual purposes. The trial has already illuminated some of Epstein’s connections to high-profile figures like Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew…. In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” adding that Epstein had a reputation for young women….
In opening statements Monday, prosecutors said Maxwell and Epstein created a “pyramid scheme of abuse” to lure underage girls into sexual relationships with Epstein. Her defense, meanwhile, said she was a “scapegoat” for Epstein’s actions and attacked the memories and motivations of the women who say they were sexually abused.
Epstein’s private pilot was the prosecution’s first witness in the trial and testified that Maxwell was Epstein’s “go-to person” for non-business related issues. The pilot, Larry Visoski, name-dropped a series of powerful men who flew aboard the plane. Visoski also testified he never saw any sexual activity on board….
Woman testifies Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein started sexually abusing her when she was 14
Then the abuse began, she said. She described incidents of sexual abuse with Epstein that Maxwell would at times join in on, both in Palm Beach and Manhattan when she was 14, 15 and 16 years old. She testified that Epstein would masturbate on her and molest her, and Maxwell would sometimes be involved, touching her and Epstein. At least once, Maxwell “instructed” her how Epstein liked to be massaged while the three were in Epstein’s “massage room,” she testified.
In cross-examination on Wednesday, Jane named several women she recalled being involved in the group sexualized massages she categorized as “orgies.” She said she could likely recognize them if shown photos, but acknowledged that no law enforcement ever reviewed any photos with her to identify….
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/01/us/ghislaine-maxwell-trial/index.html

Jeffrey Epstein survivor Sarah Ransome details being groomed by Ghislaine Maxwell: ‘Once you’re there, you can’t get out’ Yahoo Life Pop Culture BRITTANY JONES-COOPER December 7, 2021
All eyes are glued to the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the accused co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly recruited the young and underage girls that he sexually abused. For Sarah Ransome, who counts herself as a survivor of Epstein’s abuse, Maxwell’s trial is long overdue. “I’m following the trial every single day,” she tells Yahoo Life. “I just pray every day that she’s found guilty because she needs to be taken off the streets so she can’t hurt anybody else.”
In her new book, Silenced No More, Ransome recounts how her tumultuous upbringing in South Africa led her straight into the dangerous web of Jeffrey Epstein. Ransome’s parents divorced when she was a child, leaving her to be raised primarily by her mother, who struggled with alcoholism. At the age of 11, Ransome was raped by one of her mother’s boyfriends and stayed silent about the attack. At 14, she experienced a second rape at the hands of a 17-year-old boy, whose wealthy parents paid local police to make the case disappear. Both attacks left Ransome feeling vulnerable, bullied and blamed. “I came from a broken home,” says Ransome. “I needed people to really understand my family upbringing, which effectively, almost groomed me to be a target for predators like Ghislaine and Jeffrey.”
In 2004, Ransome attended university but struggled to balance her classes, work and past traumas. With no family financial support, she scraped by with a waitressing job, but she soon discovered that she could make more money working as an escort. Today, she takes full accountability for her choices but remains resolute that her past life in no way warrants the abuse she would eventually suffer at the hands of Epstein.
“I was a survival sex worker because I couldn’t even afford a cup of hot soup. I couldn’t even afford a meal. I had to make a really hard choice. And the reason why it was important to be honest and open is because that does not excuse being raped and trafficked,” says Ransome. Two years later, Ransome packed her bags and moved to New York City in search of a fresh start and a new life. Low on money and staying with a friend, she started applying for modeling jobs and networked with other models who helped her to book gigs. A few weeks into her new life, she met a woman named Natalya at a nightclub, and the two bonded on the dance floor. Natalya plied Ransome with compliments and cocaine while asking her personal questions about her upbringing and career ambitions. A few days later, Natayla called Ransome and revealed that she knew a man who could help her pay the tuition she needed for fashion school. His name was Jeffrey Epstein.
“I was approached by a girl my age, who very quickly and deliberately found out where I was from my family, what I was doing in New York, my dreams, my aspirations, the fact that I just come from an abused relationship,” says Ransome. “I didn’t know a single soul. I didn’t know anybody. So I just wanted a female friend to go for coffee with, or go for lunch or go for a stroll through Central Park.”
Instead, Natalya invited Ransome to the movie theater, where she was met by 10 young women about her age and Epstein. “When I met Jeffrey, he was charming,” she recalls. A few weeks later she was invited on a girls’ trip to his private island, and her personal nightmare began. “As soon as I arrived on my very first trip on the island, my cellphone’s taken away, my camera’s taken away, my passport’s taken away, and lo and behold, that’s where it started. It was that very first trip on the island where I was told, ‘You will never escape me,'” says Ransome.
As Ransome recounts in the book, Epstein raped her on the second day of that trip. The attacks continued for the duration of her stay, sometimes up to two or three times in the same day.
“Jeffrey’s island was designed for rape and trafficking,” said Ransome. “And once you’re there, you can’t get out.” For Maxwell’s part, Ransome says that she was aware of the abuse. In one case, she says, Maxwell forced Ransome into a room where Epstein raped her. In another, Maxwell saw Ransome crying after a brutal attack and smirked but offered no support.
“Ghislaine would break you down to such a point, but as soon as she broke you — like a Jekyll and Hyde — she would almost be motherlike and maternal, and caring. And that was effectively done to build a trauma bond,” says Ransome.
Even with the abuse, it would take months for Ransome to free herself from Epstein’s world. With no money and no family, she agreed to stay in an apartment that Epstein offered her. The sexual attacks continued, as did the emotional and verbal abuse. Ransome says Epstein threatened to kill her family if she told authorities or tried to run. Financially, he kept her compliant by promising to help her pay for college and help her to attain a visa.
He never kept his promises, though, and in May 2007, after months of abuse and manipulation, Ransome fled to London to reconcile with her mother. She was free, but she would spend the following years looking over her shoulder, fearful that Epstein would track her down…. “Don’t be silenced, stand in your truth, be brave, and you’re not alone. I’m with you in spirit and you’re in my prayers, but never be silenced and never live in fear,” says Ransome. https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/jeffrey-epstein-survivor-sarah-ransome-180021811.html

Epstein’s island: What really happened there? Accusers say billionaire’s private paradise of Little St James in US Virgin Islands was centre of international sex trafficking ring Io Dodds San Francisco 12/7/2021 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/epstein-island-little-st-james-maxwell-b1970539.html
The guests came from across the world, and from the highest ranks of society: celebrities and scientists and members of royal families, touching down in a private jet and then boarding a helicopter to the island. Its owner liked to call it “Little St Jeff”; locals called it “paedophile island”.
But what is the truth about Little St James, the 75-acre private paradise in the US Virgin Islands that billionaire sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein once called home? The island is now at the centre of a web of lawsuits and criminal investigations seeking to untangle the life of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 at the age of 66 in what authorities claimed was a suicide.
A criminal complaint from the attorney general of the US Virgin Islands, which is attempting to seize Little St James as government property, described it “the perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault”. On this island, the compaint says, “Epstein and his associates could avoid detection of their illegal activity from Virgin Islands and federal law enforcement, and prevent these young women and underage girls from leaving freely and escaping the abuse.”….
It was in the Virgins that Epstein registered as a sex offender in 2010, following his first conviction for child prostitutin 1998, he bought Little St James from venture capitalist Arch Cummin via a shell company, reportedly paying just under $8 million (£6 million). The new owner quickly scoured away all the native vegetation and replaced it with 40-foot palm trees. Starting in 2007, Epstein began a massive programme of building and remodelling that drew suspicion from local officials. His main compound nearly doubled in size, sprouting into a plush mansion with an outside terrace connecting the master bedroom and the swimming pool, along with a desalination system.
Satellite photos show a sprawling network of terraces, cottages, beach houses, swimming pools, docks, utility buildings, a helipad, a tennis court, slipways, some kind of enclosed lake or lagoon, and various huts of unknown purpose, all connected by palm-lined roads where golf buggies ferried guests from place to place (a journey across the island reportedly took about five minutes)….
Who did Epstein host on his island?
Of course there were always guests. Among the famous names reportedly hosted by Epstein were theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel laureate Lawrence Krauss, comedian Chris Tucker, actor Kevin Spacey, Victoria’s Secret magnate Les Wexner, model Naomi campbell, former Tony Blair aide Lord Peter Mandelson, and Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom.
It has been claimed that Bill Clinton was also a guest, though he denies ever having been there. Donald Trump reportedly flew on one of Epstein’s private jets, but it is unclear if he visited the island. The magician David Copperfield is even said to have proposed to supermodel Claudia Schiffer there….
Didn’t anyone notice Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking? Certainly they did. From the start, locals on St Thomas whispered darkly about Epstein’s activities, calling his private jets “the Lolita Express”. When scuba divers swam near the island, security guards would reportedly appear to patrol the edge of the water.
At one point, Epstein was ferrying about 200 workers back and forth every day to build his projects. “When he was there, it was keep to yourself and do your thing,” one of them told the Associated Press, adding that the mogul would sometimes give away old material or surplus material.
Airport staff on St Thomas could see who Epstein was bringing with him on the Express. “On multiple occasions I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children – female children,” a former air traffic controller told Vanity Fair….
Another airstrip employee said: “There’d be girls that look like they could be in high school. They looked very young. They were always wearing college sweatshirts. It seemed like camouflage, that’s the best way to put it. “I could see him with my own eyes. I compared it to seeing a serial killer in broad daylight. I called it the face of evil…. it was like he was flaunting it.” Sometimes the girls would be carrying shopping bags from designer brands such as Gucci and Dior.
The Alexanders also grew suspicious. “They looked like they had stepped out of an underwear catalogue,” Cathy told the Mail. “They walked around with very few clothes on or lounged around by the pool with nothing on. It was like that most of the time. I was concerned about their ages. A few of them looked very young and I couldn’t help but wonder if their mothers knew where they were.”
Miles Alexander added that he had sometimes had to refuse Epstein’s requests to smuggle in female guests by boat without logging their names and passport numbers with the government of St Thomas….
What really happened on Epstein’s island?
That is the subject of multiple ongoing court cases, but the accusations are shocking. According to a lawsuit filed by Prince Andrew’s accuser, Virginia Giuffre, Little St James was the centre of a worldwide grooming scheme in which recruiters working for Epstein targeted young women who were open to abuse and manipulation, played on their hopes and fears, dazzled them with “displays of vast weath and power”, and then force them to have sex with clients while keeping them in line with threats and blackmail.
Ms Giuffre says that Prince Andrew sexually abused her on Little St James when she was 17, which the prince “unequivocally denies”. The Virgin Islands attorney general’s office makes similar claims, saying: “Between 2001 and 2019 the Epstein Enterprise transported underage girls and young women to the Virgin Islands, who were then taken via helicopter or private vessel to Little St James where they were deceptively subjected to sexual servitude, forced to engage in sexual acts and coerced into commercial sexual activity and forced labour…
“To accomplish his illegal ends, Epstein formed an association with multiple defendants and others (both companies and individuals, who were willing to participate in, facilitate, and conceal Epstein’s criminal activity in exchange for Epstein’s bestowal of financial and other benefits, including sexual services and forced labour from victims.”…
The complaint also alleges that Little St James served as a prison for the victims, with Epstein controlling all communication with the outside world. It says one 15-year-old tried to escape by swimming, but Epstein organised a search party, recaptured her and confiscated her passport.
“Remember, he owns a whole island,” said attorney general Denise George in 2020. “So it wasn’t a situation where a child or a young woman would be able to just break away and run down the street to the nearest police station.”
One alleged victim told CBS News that she had been raped in Epstein’s office in St Thomas, and that he had a gun strapped to the bedpost in his bedroom on Little St James. The complaint says Epstein kept a computerised list of underage girls in or near the Virgin Islands who could be brought to the island….

Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense calls ‘false memories’ expert to testify in sex abuse trial  Luc Cohen December 16, 2021
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense lawyers on Thursday called a psychologist who studies “false memories” to testify at the British socialite’s sex abuse trial, part of their effort to undermine the credibility of Maxwell’s accusers.   Elizabeth Loftus, a psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine, has previously testified in or consulted for hundreds of trials, including those of Harvey Weinstein and O.J. Simpson.   Maxwell, 59, is accused of recruiting and grooming teenagers for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. She has pleaded not guilty, and her attorneys have argued that the memories of the four accusers who testified as prosecution witnesses have become corrupted over the years….
Loftus was the third witness called to the stand by Maxwell’s defense. The prosecution rested its case last Friday, following two weeks of emotional testimony from four women who said Maxwell set them up for abuse by Epstein when the women were teenagers. https://www.aol.com/news/ghislaine-maxwells-defense-sex-abuse-110414283-182905132.html

Miss Sweden and Bugs Bunny add up to a bad day in court for Ghislaine Maxwell – John Sweeney – The former socialite had nothing to say after the prosecution in her New York trial dispensed quickly with defence witnesses Sat 18 Dec 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/18/miss-sweden-and-bugs-bunny-add-up-to-a-bad-day-in-court-for-ghislaine-maxwell
The third witness was Professor Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist and specialist in false memory. An expert witness in perhaps as many as 300 trials, she asserted that fake facts could be implanted in people: “False memories … can be very vivid, detailed. People can be confident about them, people can be emotional about them, even though they’re false.” She told the jury “emotion is no guarantee that the memory is authentic”.
Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz noted that Loftus was being paid $600 an hour by the defence and that she’d written a book, Witness for the Defense.“You haven’t written a book called ‘Impartial Witness’, right?” said Pomerantz, whose voice is so high-pitched she sounds like a very scary bat.“No,” said Loftus, glumly.
Pomerantz moved on to Loftus’s research. She got the professor to cite the catchphrase of a figure in one of her studies– “What’s up, Doc?”. Loftus had shown that 16% of people said they’d seen Bugs Bunny at Disneyland, a false memory because the fictional rabbit is a Warner Bros character, correct? Correct, the witness had to agree. Hanging in the air was the thought that 84% didn’t see Bugs Bunny at the wrong theme park.
Next, we were on a second study, where Loftus and co had tried to implant the false memory of people having had a rectal enema. No one did so, the point being that people remember trauma clearly. False memory did not have a good day in court. No wonder Maxwell seemed distraught. https://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2021/12/21/miss-sweden-and-bugs-bunny-add-up-to-a-bad-day-in-court-for-ghislaine-maxwell-elizabeth-loftus/

 Bessel van der Kolk Md  https://ritualabuse.us/smart/bessel-van-der-kolk/
Bessel van der Kolk MD has spent his professional life studying how children and adults adapt to traumatic experiences. He translates emerging findings from neuroscience and attachment research to develop and study a range of effective treatments for traumatic stress and developmental trauma in children and adults.Integrating Therapy with ScienceIn the past 3 decades, we have learned an enormous amount about brain functions and interpersonal attachment systems. This new knowledge has not always been systematically applied to help traumatized children and adults heal from trauma. Dr. van der Kolk’s work is focused on integrating therapy with science.Dr. van der Kolk has published over 150 peer reviewed articles, diversely ranging from neuroimaging, self-injury, memory, neurofeedback, developmental trauma, yoga, and theater to EMDR.
https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/

The Body Keeps the Score is the inspiring story of how a group of therapists and scientists— together with their courageous and memorable patients—has struggled to integrate recent advances in brain science, attachment research, and body awareness into treatments that can free trauma survivors from the tyranny of the past. These new paths to recovery activate the brain’s natural neuroplasticity to rewire disturbed functioning and rebuild step by step the ability to “know what you know and feel what you feel.” They also offer experiences that directly counteract the helplessness and invisibility associated with trauma, enabling both adults and children to reclaim ownership of their bodies and their lives.
Drawing on more than thirty years at the forefront of research and clinical practice, Bessel van der Kolk shows that the terror and isolation at the core of trauma literally reshape both brain and body. New insights into our survival instincts explain why traumatized people experience incomprehensible anxiety and numbing and intolerable rage, and how trauma affects their capacity to concentrate, to remember, to form trusting relationships, and even to feel at home in their own bodies. Having lost the sense of control of themselves and frustrated by failed therapies, they often fear that they are damaged beyond repair.

What distinguishes THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE is that the author is both a scientific researcher with a long history of measuring the effect of trauma on brain function, memory, and treatment outcomes, and an active therapist who keeps learning from his patients what benefits them most. This makes for deeply personal, analytic, and highly readable (not to mention incredibly moving) approach to the topic of trauma recovery. https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-score
Bessel van der Kolk scientific publications https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/scientific-publications

NICABM Experts Bessel van der Kolk, MD Bessel van der Kolk, MD, is arguably the world’s leading expert in the treatment of trauma – especially when it comes to how trauma affects the brain, body, and nervous system.Throughout his career, Bessel has been at the forefront of research on traumatic stress and the development of clinical therapies to treat it. He has pioneered approaches that focus on calming the nervous system, increasing self-regulation skills, and grounding patients in the present. In his research, Bessel has worked with a variety of clinical approaches, including neurofeedback, EMDR, psychodrama, and yoga.“A traumatic memory is fundamentally a breakdown of the ordinary memory system. An ordinary memory system can integrate things with everything else that you already know in the context of your existing reality. But trauma doesn’t fit in. Trauma cannot be integrated, and so it lives on as an isolated piece of the past that keeps coming back.”– Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Expert Strategies for Working with Traumatic Memory https://www.nicabm.com/faculty/bessel-van-der-kolk/

Trauma, trust and triumph: psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk on how to recover from our deepest pain Zoe WilliamsHis 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score, has become a huge pandemic hit, topping bestseller lists this summer and becoming a meme on social media. What does it tell us about the world we live in?….His thesis centres on trauma: the urgent work of the brain after a traumatic event is to suppress it, through forgetting or self-blame, to avoid being ostracised. But the body does not forget; physiological changes result, a “recalibration of the brain’s alarm system, an increase in stress hormones, an alteration in the system that filters relevant information from irrelevant”, as he says in his book. The stress is stored in the muscles and does not dissipate. This has profound ramifications for talking therapies and their limits: the rational mind cannot do the repair work on its own, since that part of you is pretending it has already been repaired.https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/20/trauma-trust-and-triumph-psychiatrist-bessel-van-der-kolk-on-how-to-recover-from-our-deepest-pain

Bessel van der Kolk on Trauma, Development and Healing  by David Bullard Internationally acclaimed clinician, educator and researcher Bessel van der Kolk, shares some observations from his 40-year passion for understanding and treating people who have experienced trauma.https://www.psychotherapy.net/interview/bessel-van-der-kolk-trauma/

After Amnesia and during – a memoir by Wendy Hoffman moir by Wendy Hoffman

 

After Amnesia and during – a memoir by Wendy Hoffman

After Amnesia and during – a memoir

by Wendy Hoffman

Copyright 2021, Wendy Hoffman

https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/books/after-amnesia-and-during-a-memoir-by-wendy-hoffman/

This memoir’s eight essays cover sex trafficking and political-party-rituals attended by famous figures, emotions suffered because of criminal mind control, childhood writings from the time of severe abuses; body memories; how to improve diminished self-esteem—the backbone of recovery; grief, mourning and life after amnesia ends. The essays depict how perpetrators’ oppression can turn into survivors’ resistance, and how living with truth is so very much preferable to living with imposed lies.  After Amnesia is written in Hoffman’s usual literary style and is aimed at helping survivors become who they really are.

 

Information about Wendy Hoffman and her publications
https://ritualabuse.us/smart/wendy-hoffman/