Lawsuit accuses ex-Fox News reporter Ed Henry of rape, says Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson harassed other woman

Lawsuit accuses ex-Fox News reporter Ed Henry of rape, says Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson harassed other woman Mon, Jul 20 2020 Dan Mangan 

 

A bombshell lawsuit accuses former Fox News chief national correspondent Ed Henry of raping one woman, and says that the network’s star anchor Sean Hannity once offered $100 to staffers to “date” a second woman who also accuses Henry of sexual harassment.

The suit says that in addition to Henry, plaintiff Cathy Areu was sexually harrassed by multiple other men at Fox News, including Hannity, the host Tucker Carlson, journalist Howard Kurtz and network political analyst Gianno Caldwell.

The other plaintiff, Areu’s fellow former Fox News employee Jennifer Eckhart, claims that Henry raped her, in addition to committing other sexual misconduct against her.

A bombshell lawsuit filed by two women Monday accused former Fox News chief national correspondent Ed Henry of raping one of them and says that the network’s star anchor Sean Hannity once offered $100 to staffers to “date” another woman who also accuses Henry of sexual harassment.

The federal suit says that one of the plaintiffs, Cathy Areu, also was sexually harassed by other high-profile men at Fox News, including Hannity, host Tucker Carlson, journalist Howard Kurtz and contributor Gianno Caldwell.

The other plaintiff, former Fox Business associate producer Jennifer Eckhart, claims that Henry raped her, in addition to committing other sexual misconduct against her.

Areu had been a frequent guest on Fox News, but the network says she was neither an employee nor a contributor. However, the lawsuit identifies her as meeting the definition of an employee, albeit not a full-time one.

The Manhattan federal court lawsuit comes three weeks after Fox News fired Henry for what the network said was sexual misconduct.

The suit names as defendants Fox News, Hannity, Carlson and Kurtz and was filed on behalf of Eckhart and Areu by lawyers Douglas Wigdor and Michael Willemin.

 

Fox News in a statement said that an investigation had found that all of Areu’s claims against the men, other than Henry, were “false” and that it intended to fight her allegations.

 

The network added that Areu and Eckhart can pursue their legal claims “against Ed Henry directly with him, as FOX News already took swift action as soon as it learned of Ms. Eckhart’s claims on June 25 and Mr. Henry is no longer employed by the network.”....

 

“Ed Henry looks forward to presenting actual facts and evidence, which will contradict the fictional accounts contained in the complaint. That evidence includes graphic photos and other aggressively suggestive communications that Ms. Eckhart sent to Mr. Henry.”

 

The women’s lawsuit says that in late June, Eckhart’s lawyer put Fox News on notice of legal claims against the network and Henry, and informed Fox “in graphic and specific detail, how Mr. Henry groomed, psychologically manipulated and coerced Ms. Eckhart into having a sexual relationship with him.”....

 

Eckhart’s lawyers said that when Fox News terminated Henry, the network “purported to take credit for acting appropriately.”

 

“However, nothing could be further from the truth,” the suit says.

 

 

It says Fox knew that Henry “had engaged in sexual misconduct as far back as early 2017,” when “multiple women came forward to complain that Mr. Henry had engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct towards them.”

 

But Henry was not fired or even disciplined after those earlier accusations, the suit says....

The suit also says, “It is widely documented in the public record that Fox News has not only cultivated and fostered sexual harassment and misconduct, but has consistently accepted and rewarded it. Nevertheless, Fox News would have the public believe that it is a different place from the Fox News that was run by former disgraced Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes.”

 

“Unfortunately, it is actually worse,” the suit says.

 

Fox News said in its statement, “Based on the findings of a comprehensive independent investigation conducted by an outside law firm, including interviews with numerous eyewitnesses, we have determined that all of Cathy Areu’s claims against FOX News, including its management as well as its hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity & Howard Kurtz and its contributor Gianno Caldwell, are false, patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit.”....

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/20/lawsuit-accuses-former-fox-news-reporter-ed-henry-of-rape.html

17 Former Connecticut Boy Scouts Allege Sexual Abuse

17 Former Connecticut Boy Scouts Allege Sexual Abuse   

The plaintiffs' lawyer said that one child was molested more than 1,000 times by now-deceased scoutmaster Donald Dennis.   Dave Altimari  

Seventeen former Boy Scouts have filed a lawsuit charging that their scoutmaster in Ridgefield sexually abused them from 1963 to 1975.

The plaintiffs' lawyer said that it was the largest single lawsuit filed against the Boy Scouts of America and that one child was molested more than 1,000 times. In addition to listing the 17 former Scouts, the lawsuit lists two girls allegedly sexually assaulted by the scoutmaster, Donald Dennis, who died two years ago.

The 850-page lawsuit alleges that the two girls were forced to watch Dennis sexually abuse some of the scouts in his home. Most of the victims were 11 to 14 years old, although some were as old as 17, according to attorney Brooke Goff, who is representing all 19 plaintiffs.

"We were only made aware of these allegations last month and had never before received any reports or accusations against this individual by youth members, parents or adult volunteer leaders,'' the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. "This individual has not been registered in our programs for many years and is now deceased."....

Goff said that Dennis was an assistant scoutmaster from 1963 through 1968 and became scoutmaster until he moved out of Connecticut in 1975. Dennis was a local businessman in Ridgefield and also was an auxiliary state trooper during the same time period, Goff said....

The lawsuit claims that the national and local Boy Scout groups deliberately ignored signs that the organization was a haven for pedophiles.

In 2012, it was revealed during a lawsuit in Oregon that the national Boy Scout organization kept secret records of potential pedophiles who were called "ineligible volunteers." Dennis is not listed, but Goff said that is because he had not been sued.

The lawsuit alleges that the local Boy Scout organization allowed Dennis to be alone with groups of boys for hours at a time at Camp Mauwehu with no supervision, failed to put in safeguards to protect the children and failed to do background checks on Scout leaders.

The lawsuit also claims that many of the accusers had repressed memories of the attacks that resurfaced when the records of the pedophiles became public in 2012....

Last December, a Waterbury jury awarded an unidentified accuser $7 million in a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America. Court records show that the jury found the national organization negligent and reckless in its failure to take steps to protect the plaintiff from repeated abuse at the hands of his scoutmaster. That verdict has been appealed by the national group.

The jury found that the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America and the Connecticut Yankee Council were not liable.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-boy-scout-sexual-abuse-lawsuit-20151117-story.html 

Everything you missed from Matthew Sandusky’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, UConn to pay $1.3M in sex assault handling lawsuit, Online child abuse reports surge, says US watchdog

Everything you missed from Matthew Sandusky’s interview with Oprah Winfrey  By Soraya Nadia McDonald July 18, 2014

....In an interview aired Thursday night on “Oprah Prime” on Winfrey’s OWN network, Matthew told Winfrey he felt it would have been better for his children and wife if he’d kept everything to himself instead of coming forward. Matthew initially offered grand jury testimony that Sandusky was not a child molester, but recanted during trial. After he told police he had also been abused, Matthew said his family, not just him, became the target of vicious character attacks.

“I can handle it,” Matthew said, even though the abuse drove him to attempt suicide shortly after he moved in with the Sanduskys when he was 16. “I can handle people attacking me. I handled the abuse. I can take it. My wife is an innocent. My children — they’re innocent. For people to attack them — yes, absolutely, the simpler answer would have been for me to keep it, to deal with it on my own.”

Matthew said he came forward about the abuse because he didn’t want to be a “coward.” When he heard the testimony of victim No. 4 during Sandusky’s criminal trial, Matthew said he was astonished at how similar the details were.....

More than 30 boys eventually came forward to say Sandusky molested them. To avoid further litigation, Penn State agreed to a $60 million settlement with 26 victims, including Matthew, and the university disbursed payments of varying sizes. Matthew said he had no knowledge of the settlement when he came forward.

Matthew met Jerry and his wife, Dottie Sandusky, when he was seven years old through Sandusky’s Second Mile charity camp. According to The Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach:

Prosecutors say that the Second Mile became a tool for harvesting children for abuse. Sandusky, they said, was a classic predatory pedophile, a man who befriended the most vulnerable boys, the ones needing a father figure, who became appreciative that someone would bring them to football games and make them feel special.

Matthew told Winfrey how he resigned himself to being molested almost as a tradeoff for being around an otherwise stable and loving family. He came from a broken home, he said, where there was physical abuse and even running water wasn’t something that could be taken for granted. He often lived with his grandparents....

Matthew began to act out when he was a young teenager. He tried to cut Sandusky out of his life altogether, but Matthew told Winfrey the coach would come to his biological mother’s home unannounced. He would pull Matthew out of school. There was no escaping him, and Matthew became a truant. He started doing drugs and stealing, and was eventually arrested.

Matthew had a choice: Move in with the Sanduskys, or go to juvenile detention.

The Sanduskys moved him into their home with five other children, all adopted. Matthew so dreaded Sandusky’s nighttime visits he tried to kill himself. He said after that, the sexual abuse largely stopped. The family legally adopted him when he was 18 and pressured him to take the family name so he would be privy to a tuition break thanks to Sandusky’s employment at Penn State....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/18/everything-you-missed-from-matthew-sanduskys-interview-with-oprah-winfrey/  

UConn to pay $1.3M in sex assault handling lawsuit
Jul 18, 2014   By PAT EATON-ROBB  Associated Press

STORRS, Conn. (AP) - The University of Connecticut will pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit by five women who alleged the school did not take seriously their claims of sexual assaults on campus.

The bulk of the settlement, $900,000, will go to Silvana Moccia, a former UConn ice hockey player who alleged she was kicked off the team after reporting she had been raped by a male hockey player in August 2011.

The other four women will receive payments ranging from $25,000 to $125,000.

University officials adamantly denied that they have been indifferent to reports of assaults and did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement. They said the legal fight would be costly and bad for UConn's image.
http://www.knoe.com/story/26052588/apnewsbreak-uconn-settles-sex-assault-lawsuit


Online child abuse reports surge, says US watchdog
By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News 17 July 2014
There has been a dramatic rise in reports of child abuse images posted to commonly used parts of the internet, according to a US watchdog.

They include photos posted to publicly-accessible parts of social networks.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a record number of reports in the first week of July, four times the weekly average.

It comes in a week UK authorities arrested 660 people in connection with online child abuse.

That investigation was believed to have been targeted at those using the so-called "dark net" - parts of the internet that are hidden and can be hard to access without special software.

But the NCMEC stressed there was still a significant and growing challenge for law enforcement agencies to deal with material on the open internet as well as the harder-to-reach areas....
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28359143 

Lawsuit: Mormon church covered up sexual abuse at Hawaii camps

Lawsuit: Mormon church covered up sexual abuse at Hawaii camps
Courts  Two Utah men claim they were sexually molested decades ago as boys.

By Janelle Stecklein
The Salt Lake Tribune  Jan 23 2014

Two Utah men are suing the Mormon church claiming that decades ago they were sexually molested as boys after the church recruited them to pick pineapples in Hawaii.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday in the 2nd Circuit Court in Hawaii, alleges that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Maui Land and Pineapple Company Inc. and Youth Developmental Enterprises, recruited youths from Mormon communities in Utah and southern Idaho to go to camps in Maui to pick pineapples in the 1970s and 1980s, which led to them being sexually molested.

The camps were closed in the ‘90s, the lawsuit claims.

The men, now 41 and 42, now live in the Salt Lake City area.

The lawsuit claims that Mormon men in their 20s, who qualified for supervisory positions after completing their two-year missions, ran the camps, which recruited minors from church wards and scouting organizations.

The lawsuit claims that one man, who was appointed camp coordinator, branch president and stake high counselor for one of the camps, molested the two boys from 1986 until 1989.

The lawsuit also claims that the defendants knew of the camp coordinator’s "pedophilic sexual violence."

Cody Craynor, a spokesman for the LDS church, said, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has zero tolerance for abuse of any kind and works actively to prevent abuse. This case was filed yesterday, and many details in the legal complaint are unclear. The church will examine the allegations and respond appropriately."
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57438270-78/church-lawsuit-camps-claims.html.csp

Lawsuit: Mormon Boys Molested At Maui Pineapple Farms, Church Knew 01/23/2014
Two Utah men are suing the Mormon church, alleging that, decades ago, they were sexually molested by a church camp coordinator when they worked on a Maui pineapple farm.

The lawsuit was filed in the 2nd Circuit Court in Hawaii on Wednesday. It claims that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and Maui Land & Pineapple Company recruited boys in the 1970s and 80s from Mormon communities to work in the camps, where the plaintiffs, now in their 40s, were molested.

The Maui camps paid boys to pick and grow pineapples and were supervised by LDS men in their twenties who had completed their two-year missions and could help train the boys for missionary life. The defendant, an Idaho man, was a camp coordinator and, in addition to being the boys’ boss, served as their spiritual leader.

The lawsuit claims that the defendant molested the two boys from 1986 until 1988, and that the church knew of the camp coordinator’s "pedophilic sexual violence."....

A church spokesman said in a statement Thursday that "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has zero tolerance for abuse of any kind and works actively to prevent abuse. This case was filed yesterday, and many details in the legal complaint are unclear. The church will examine the allegations and respond appropriately."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/lawsuit-mormon-molested-maui_n_4656186.html

Castlewood eating disorder lawsuit to be dismissed, Woman killed in human sacrifice ritual in Nalasopara, 6 arrested

Castlewood eating disorder lawsuit to be dismissed
December 16, 2013  By Blythe Bernhard

Two years after Lisa Nasseff accused psychologist Mark Schwartz of implanting her with false memories of sexual abuse and satanic cult activity, her lawsuit against Castlewood Treatment Center and its former director will be dismissed Friday, according to filings in St. Louis County Circuit Court.

Attorneys say Nasseff’s case was resolved favorably for both sides. Few details were available. The case appeared headed for settlement, then last month the court file indicated the case would be dismissed.

Separate lawsuits from three other women with similar claims of brainwashing, hypnosis and concocted memories during their lengthy stays at the eating disorder treatment clinic on the outskirts of Castlewood State Park in Ballwin appear headed to the same conclusion.

But an additional 25 to 30 families across the country who have formed the group Castlewood Victims Unite say the dismissal of the cases and the expected confidentiality agreements are disappointing....

Castlewood staff deny the allegations of brainwashing and say no therapist has ever created false memories or hypnotized clients.

Since the fourth lawsuit was filed by Colette Travers in late 2012, Castlewood has made sweeping changes to its leadership team and public relations strategy....

The decision for Schwartz and Galperin to step down was made by the couple, the Castlewood board of directors and the owners, Trinity Hunt Partners of Dallas, which bought the sprawling treatment center in 2008. At the time of the agency’s $25 million move into behavioral health, Trinity Hunt referred to Schwartz and Galperin as “highly regarded clinicians with extensive experience in treating individuals suffering from eating disorders and psychological trauma.” Their departure is not related to the lawsuits, according to Nancy Albus, who has worked at Castlewood for 10 years and was promoted to CEO a year ago....

“It’s time to really address some of the misperceptions and misrepresentations and show the quality of care we provide,” Albus said in a recent interview inside the spacious home where 16 men and women can live while undergoing intensive therapy for eating disorders. Castlewood’s properties include space for 26 residential clients as well as outpatient services....

Eating disorders have the highest death rate of any mental illness. Some residents of Castlewood are so ill that they require feeding tubes, and others are so weak that they use wheelchairs. Almost all are also dealing with anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. About half of the people who come to Castlewood have been deemed treatment failures by other facilities, according to staff members.

Much of the debate surrounding Castlewood has been its use of a therapy called internal family systems, which involves encouraging patients to improve the parts of themselves that are destructive. Several experts in eating disorders have said internal family systems is not the standard of care because malnourished patients and those on psychotropic drugs are particularly vulnerable to having their memories and personalities twisted.

Jim Gerber, Castlewood’s clinical director, said internal family systems is just one of the options available to residents, and that accessing painful memories is a part of the healing process. People who have compartmentalized memories might need help to access them during therapy, but it’s not a “fishing expedition,” he said.

“We have to deal with a person’s past experience,” Gerber said. “The goal is for a person to come to an understanding of their life to deal with what they struggle with in the present. In no intervention does someone say ‘this happened to you.’”

Several alumni and current residents who agreed to recent interviews at the facility say they credit Castlewood with saving their lives and could not relate to the experiences detailed in the lawsuits.
http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/health/castlewood-eating-disorder-lawsuit-to-be-dismissed/article_28cf3275-a29e-5391-997e-243bdae361c3.html



Woman killed in human sacrifice ritual in Nalasopara, 6 arrested
Sandhya Nair, TNN Dec 15, 2013

MUMBAI: A day after the state assembly passed the anti-superstition bill, a tantrik and five others were arrested by Thane rural police for killing a 50-year-old woman in a human sacrifice ritual....
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-12-15/mumbai/45215790_1_tantrik-anti-superstition-bill-nalasopara 

Mormon church denies lawsuit's claims of sex abuse coverup

Mormon church denies lawsuit's claims of sex abuse coverup
Fri Nov 1, 2013 by Matthew Umstead

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a statement released Wednesday adamantly denied claims made in a lawsuit that it covered up sexual abuse of 12 children in Berkeley County by a member who has since been excommunicated and imprisoned.

The lawsuit filed Sept. 16 names Mormon church officials and excommunicated member Christopher Michael Jensen and his parents as defendants. It was filed in Berkeley County Circuit Court on behalf of five families and 12 children among them.

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has zero tolerance for abuse of any kind," the church said in its statement, which was released by Martinsburg attorney William J. Powell, who is representing the church in this case....

The lawsuit alleges the church was repeatedly put on notice and/or had knowledge of Jensen's "predatory acts," but actively covered up the abuse and assisted him "in committing further unspeakable acts, by enabling (Jensen) to babysit for and live with other church families with young children."....

"The church, in short, thwarted the protections that would have been triggered by reporting the abuses and provided (Jensen) the opportunity to abuse more and more children, which he did. This pattern continued for over five years, until (Jensen) was finally indicted in 2012," the lawsuit said.  
http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/tri_state/west_virginia/mormon-church-denies-lawsuit-s-claims-of-sex-abuse-coverup/article_609acc52-41c4-11e3-9c5a-001a4bcf6878.html
 

Frank Olson Family's Lawsuit Against Alleged CIA Murder Dismissed, Head of Family cult settles claim by accuser out of court, The Family Friday

Frank Olson Family's Lawsuit Against Alleged CIA Murder Dismissed
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER 07/17/13

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the sons of a Cold War scientist who plunged to his death in 1953, just days after unwittingly taking LSD in a CIA mind-control experiment.

Frank Olson's sons claimed that the CIA murdered their father by pushing him from a 13th-story window of a New York hotel – and that he didn't jump to his death, as the agency contends.

But Judge James Boasberg cited the statute of limitations and a prior settlement agreement, among other things, in dismissing the suit Wednesday.
Eric and Nils Olson had sought compensatory damages to be determined at trial.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/17/frank-olson-lawsuit-dismissed_n_3611911.html  

Head of Family cult settles claim by accuser out of court
Mark Dunn  Herald Sun  July 29, 2011

ANNE Hamilton-Byrne, the former head of the Family cult, has made a secret out-of-court settlement with one of her alleged victims, who claimed he was routinely injected with LSD at her behest.  Ms Hamilton-Bryne, who bleached the hair of children in the sect, and kept them hidden from the world, agreed to the settlement on Monday.

Supreme Court documents show at least five former cult members in the past four years have sued the self-appointed mystic for treatment they claimed to have suffered at her hands or under her direction.

It is believed Ms Hamilton-Byrne, who has dementia that her lawyers say renders her unable to remember the past, has settled at least two other actions and paid an undisclosed amount to shut down the legal actions....

In this week's settlement, Robert Rosanove, now aged 59, claimed he was regularly abused between 1961 and 1974, when he was raised as a member of the Family in a range of locations in Victoria, including Ferny Creek.

Mr Rosanove's statement of claim accuses Ms Hamilton-Byrne or her followers of subjecting him to abuse, including:

FORCIBLY administering psychoactive and hallucinogenic drugs, including LSD.
FALSELY "imprisoning" and "brainwashing" him.
FORCING him to take medications not legally prescribed and involuntary admissions to psychiatric institutions.
DEPRIVING him of "normal social interaction with other children and adults".

Mr Rosanove said he suffers bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress, severe depression, anxiety and sleep problems as a result of the alleged abuse....

Ms Hamilton-Byrne, through her litigation guardian, denied the abuse claims.
In her defence statement, Ms Hamilton-Byrne argued the courts should not allow Mr Rosanove's law suit to continue because it was too long ago.

The Family's Lake Eildon property was raided by the federal police and child welfare officers in 1987 when six children were removed and authorities identified 14 children who had been raised by the cult. In 1993, Anne and husband Bill Hamilton-Byrne were arrested by the FBI in the Catskill Mountains, New York, and extradited to Melbourne.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/cult-leader-pays-accuser/story-e6frf7jo-1226103806879


The Family Friday, October 2, 2009
Reporter: Karl Stefanovic
Producers: Stephen Rice, Hugh Nailon

....For years, Anne Hamilton-Byrne ran a bizarre cult known as The Family. But, this was no ordinary family. Children stolen at birth ... brainwashed ... beaten …even given mind-altering drugs like LSD.

The list of abuses at her isolated retreat outside Melbourne goes on. It was a true house of horrors.  Throughout it all, Hamilton-Byrne was helped by a group of unquestioning followers, including a sinister inner-circle of women known as the Aunties.
To these disciples she was the re-incarnation of Jesus Christ. Her word gospel....
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com/stories/870619/the-family

CIA Accused of Coverup in Military Scientist’s 1953 Fatal Fall, Bipartisan Legislation to Help Train Child Protection Professionals to Detect and Prevent Child Abuse

CIA Accused of Coverup in Military Scientist’s 1953 Fatal Fall
By Tom Schoenberg Bloomberg News
Thursday, November 29, 2012

CIA employees murdered military scientist Frank Olson in 1953 after he raised concerns about testing chemical and biological weapons on human subjects without their consent, according to a lawsuit brought by his two sons.

Eric and Nils Olson, in a complaint filed Wednesday against the United States in Washington, said the agency has covered up the cause of their father’s death for 59 years. Frank Olson, who the CIA admitted was given LSD a few days before his death, didn’t jump from a 13th-floor window of the Statler Hotel in New York City, but rather was pushed, they claim.

Assassination manual

“The circumstances surrounding the death mirrored those detailed in an assassination manual that, upon information and belief, the CIA had drafted that same year,” Scott Gilbert, a lawyer for the Olsons, wrote in the complaint.

Olson’s family has tried to piece together how Frank Olson died and the circumstances surrounding his death ever since a 1975 government report on CIA activities in the U.S. said that he committed suicide after being given LSD without his knowledge.

The family’s lawsuit includes one claim of negligent supervision by the agency and requests that damages be decided at trial.

CIA spokesman Preston Golson said in an emailed statement that the agency doesn’t comment on pending court cases. He said that the agency’s covert behavioral research program known as MK-ULTRA was investigated in 1975 by the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee, and in 1977 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research.

“Without commenting on this specific legal matter, CIA activities related to MK-ULTRA have been thoroughly investigated over the years, and the agency cooperated with each of those investigations,” Golson said. “In addition, tens of thousands of pages related to the program have been declassified and released to the public.”

Olson’s sons said in the suit they have asked repeatedly “to be told the truth” about their father’s death and “each time, the government has responded with falsehoods.”....
 http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/3066923-95/olson-cia-agency-according



Klobuchar, Franken, Walz, McCollum Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Help Train Child Protection Professionals to Detect and Prevent Child Abuse

An estimated 695,000 children were victims of child abuse in 2010, and yet studies indicate that many child protection professionals such as teachers, doctors, and prosecutors are not adequately trained to identify and respond to abuse
Tuesday, December 4, 2012

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Representatives Tim Walz and Betty McCollum today introduced bipartisan legislation to help train child protection professionals to detect and prevent child abuse. The bill would create regional training centers - including the National Child Protection Training Center in Winona, MN - that would create new curricula for undergraduates and graduates in fields where they will most likely be involved in identifying and reporting cases of abuse. The legislation also increases coordination between federal, state and local officials in creating best practices for the training of child protection professionals. Senator Klobuchar authored the legislation in the Senate and Representative Walz introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives....

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, an estimated 695,000 children were victims of child abuse in 2010. Yet studies indicate that those in the best position to identify and respond to child abuse - such as teachers, doctors, and prosecutors - are often not adequately trained to do so. For example, a 2001 survey of teachers found that 74% received minimal training on child abuse while earning their degrees and 58% had minimal training on the job....
 http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2240

Historic Lawsuit to be Filed in Federal Court Against Church and Crown

Historic Lawsuit to be Filed in Federal Court Against Church and Crown June 29, 2012 Toronto, Canada:

A joint media release by The Association of Citizen Prosecutors (ACP) and The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) is to be released on "Canada Day", July 1, 2012.

It announces the first class action lawsuit in Canadian history to name as co-defendants the Vatican, the Crown of England, Canada and its churches, and big pharmaceutical companies, all of which are accused of crimes against humanity and criminal conspiracy.

The lawsuit is brought by Jason Bowman of the ACP and Rev. Kevin Annett of the ITCCS, on behalf of a group of many others.

The lawsuit will be explained in detail at a press conference held on the date of filing at the Federal Court Building, on Wednesday, July 4 at 1 pm EST at 180 Queen Street West in Toronto....

Toronto, CANADA

ACP / ITCCS Joint Press Release Statement: Citizen victims’ group to commence proceedings at the Federal Court of Canada against the Vatican, the United Church of Canada, the Queen, the Harper Government & Big Pharma for their alleged involvement in wide-spread conspiracies pertaining to crimes against humanity, genocide & institutional corruption. The first ex-parte motion in the matter of Kevin Annett et al. v. The State of the Vatican Pope Benedict XVI et al., is set to be argued at the Federal Court in Toronto on Monday July 9th. A press conference has been scheduled for July 4th at the Federal Court Building on Queen St. in Toronto at 1:00 p.m.)
http://itccs.org/2012/06/29/1043/

http://federalclassactions.wordpress.com/

Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust
The Untold Story of the Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/

Boy Scouts sued in sexual abuse case, Scouts to turn over files in case

Boy Scouts sued in sexual abuse case

A Santa Barbara County boy was sexually abused by his Scout leader in 2007. A judge overseeing the lawsuit brought by the boy's family has ordered the Boy Scouts to hand over confidential files detailing allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders around the nation.

By Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times February 19, 2012

The mother of a Santa Barbara County teenager says he was wronged twice - once by the 450-pound Boy Scout leader who sexually abused him in 2007, and then by a local Scouts executive who she says told her not to call police.

"He said that wasn't necessary, because the Scouts do their own internal investigation," said the woman, whose name The Times is withholding to protect her son's identity. "I thought that was really weird.... I thought it was really important to call the sheriff right away."

So she did, triggering an investigation of volunteer Scout leader Al Steven Stein, then 29, who was charged with abusing her 92-pound son and two other boys. In 2009, he pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment. He was put on probation but later went to prison after authorities found pictures of nude children on his cellphone data card.

Stein's criminal case is closed....

Nor is it over for the Boy Scouts of America, which is being sued by the boy's family for negligence in a case whose ramifications could reach well beyond Santa Barbara.

The lawsuit contends the Scouts knew or should have known that Stein had put the boy at risk and cites the executive's reluctance to call police as evidence of an effort to conceal widespread sexual abuse....

In January, after reviewing some of the files, a Santa Barbara Superior Court judge rejected the Scouts' argument that the documents are irrelevant to the lawsuit and ordered the organization to turn over the most recent 20 years' worth of records to the boy's lawyers by Feb. 24, with victims' names removed. The judge ordered the lawyers not to disclose the files publicly.

Known as "ineligible volunteer files," the documents have been maintained since the 1920s and are intended to keep suspected molesters and others accused of misconduct out of Scouting. Scouts officials have steadfastly resisted releasing them and won't discuss their contents, citing the privacy rights of victims and the fact that many files are based on unproven allegations.

They strenuously dispute that the files have been used to conceal sexual abuse....

According to the lawsuit, Stein had a history of inappropriate behavior with children he'd met through Scouting, including "making sexual jokes and comments" in front of Scouts and in some cases pulling down their pants. In November 2007, he abused the Santa Barbara County boy, who was 13 at the time....

In early 2008, Stein was charged with a felony, committing a lewd act upon a child, and two misdemeanors including child pornography for photographs he took of a boy's genitals. Two of the victims were Scouts; the third was the son of a family friend.

Stein struck a deal to plead no contest to felony child endangerment and one misdemeanor. He was placed on five years' probation but violated it by having the photos of nude children on his cellphone card. He was sentenced to two years in prison but was paroled early and has been in no trouble since, said Steven Balash, his attorney in the criminal case and the lawsuit....

But the boy's mother said her son has been deeply affected, in part because other families from the troop accused him of lying or "hallucinating" about the abuse. He refuses to go out in public and is now tutored at home, she said....
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-scouts-20120219,0,5265678.story

Scouts to turn over files in Calif. sex abuse case
Associated Press 2/19/12

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A judge overseeing a lawsuit brought by the family of a California boy molested by his troop leader in 2007 has ordered the Boy Scouts of America to hand over confidential files detailing allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders around the nation....

The trial is scheduled for April, nearly five years after the boy, then 13, was molested by volunteer troop leader Al Stein at a Boy Scouts Christmas tree sale in Goleta. Stein pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment in 2009....

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, contends the Scouts knew or should have known that Stein had put the boy at risk and cites Tate's reluctance to call police as evidence of an effort to conceal widespread sexual abuse....

The boy's lawyers contend the files will expose the Scouts' "culture of hidden sexual abuse" and its failure to warn boys, their parents and others about pedophiles in the ranks of one of the nation's oldest youth organizations....

Some of the estimated 5,000 files have surfaced in recent years as a result of lawsuits by former Scouts accusing the organization of failing to exclude known pedophiles, detect abuses and report offenders to police, and allowing predators to remain at large.
http://news.yahoo.com/scouts-turn-over-files-calif-sex-abuse-case-201919674.html

Lawsuit claims Vatican withheld papers in abuse case

Lawsuit claims Vatican withheld papers in abuse case
Attorney asserts Church acted as priest’s employer
August 23, 2011 By Steve Karnowski, Associated Press
ST. PAUL -

An attorney for a man who claims he was sexually abused by an Oregon priest in the 1960s said yesterday that the Vatican failed to produce all court-ordered documents in the case, and that papers it did turn over show how the Vatican exercises firm control over the placement and removal of offending priests.

Both claims were quickly disputed by a church lawyer who said the Vatican gave Minnesota-based attorney Jeffrey Anderson all its documents pertaining to the late Rev. Andrew Ronan. Anderson has sued on behalf of a man who alleges Ronan abused him during the time the priest was assigned to Portland, Ore.

The Vatican gave Anderson more than 1,800 pages of documents last Friday, marking the first time the Vatican provided documents in response to a sex abuse lawsuit. But Anderson contends that relevant documents written by Vatican officials were left out because local dioceses have produced their own copies of such paperwork in this and other cases.

Anderson, who has filed numerous lawsuits nationwide on behalf of alleged victims of priest abuse, is trying to hold the Vatican responsible under US and Oregon law for the abuse alleged by a Washington state man identified only as John V. Doe. He argues that the Vatican was effectively Ronan’s employer when the alleged abuse occurred in the mid-1960s. Ronan died in 1992.

An employment relationship could trigger an exception to a federal law that usually bars lawsuits against foreign sovereign entities such as the Vatican.

http://articles.boston.com/2011-08-23/news/29919301_1_jeffrey-lena-vatican-abuse-lawsuit

Lawsuit Says Military Is Rife With Sexual Abuse, suggestibility research

Lawsuit Says Military Is Rife With Sexual Abuse
By ASHLEY PARKER February 15, 2011
WASHINGTON — A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the Department of Defense of allowing a military culture that fails to prevent rape and sexual assault, and of mishandling cases that were brought to its attention, thus violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.

The suit — brought by 2 men and 15 women, both veterans and active-duty service members — specifically claims that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, “ran institutions in which perpetrators were promoted and where military personnel openly mocked and flouted the modest Congressionally mandated institutional reforms.”

It also says the two defense secretaries failed “to take reasonable steps to prevent plaintiffs from being repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted and sexually harassed by federal military personnel.”

Myla Haider, a former Army sergeant and a plaintiff in the suit, said she was raped in 2002 while interning in Korea with the military’s Criminal Investigative Command. “It is an atmosphere of zero accountability in leadership, period,” she said an interview.

Ms. Haider, who appeared with other plaintiffs at a news conference earlier Tuesday at the National Press Club, said: “The policies that are put in place are extremely ineffectual. There was severe maltreatment in these cases, and there was no accountability whatsoever. And soldiers in general who make any type of complaint in the military are subject to retaliation and have no means of defending themselves.”....

Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that “sexual assault is a wider societal problem” and that Mr. Gates was working to ensure that the military was “doing all it can to prevent and respond to it.”....

Though the suit, which was filed in Federal District Court in Virginia, seeks monetary damages, those involved with the case said their goal was an overhaul of the military’s judicial system regarding rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/us/16military.html


APPLYING SUGGESTIBILITY RESEARCH TO THE REAL WORLD: THE CASE OF REPEATED QUESTIONS
THOMAS D. LYON Cited: 65 Law & Contemp. Probs. 97 (Winter 2002)

....With respect to the psychology of child witnesses, this article will consider the application of the research literature on repeated questions to sexual abuse cases. It will review the entire corpus of research on repeated questions and apply that research to State v. Larson.

The article will argue that the risks of question repetition have been exaggerated. The leading research on repeated questions does not support a claim that repetition increases error. Whether repetition leads to inconsistency depends on the types of questions asked, the age of the child, and the child's memory of the event. Most important, researchers ignore the potential effects of repetition on false denials, emphasizing instead the risk that repetition will lead to false allegations....

The distinction between repeating questions within interviews rather than across interviews is important.71 Repeated questions within interviews may lead to error because of the child's perception that a different response is expected. Repeating questions across interviews may also lead to increased error, but for different reasons: Children forget over time, so that later interviews are more error-filled, and children may confuse what actually occurred with their responses in earlier interviews.

On the other hand, repeating questions across interviews may decrease error. Repetition is a form of rehearsal, which strengthens memory, and children may recall new details during subsequent interviews (something memory researchers call "reminiscence").72 Therefore, errors across interviews do not tell us whether children will err within an interview....

The two Poole and White studies provide little evidence that non-abused children are likely to fabricate abuse allegations in response to repeated yes/no [*pg 111] questions. Although the youngest children in the first study were more likely than older subjects to change their answers when questions were repeated, the follow-up study found no distinction among age groups. Even in the first study, the youngest subjects were no more likely than adults to claim after repeated questions that something anti-social had occurred.

Rather, the studies suggest that children, like adults, are reluctant to accuse others of wrongdoing, at least when the interaction is ambiguous or difficult to recall. These findings do not argue against the reliability of an abuse allegation in response to a repeated question....

Children with stronger memories are less susceptible to repeated questions. Several of the studies discussed in the previous section found that children who recalled more were less likely to change their answers to repeated questions.141 Christine Ricci and Carol Beal repeated wh- questions (general, specific, and suppositional) and found that "none of the children who were initially accurate later answered inaccurately when the question was repeated a second time."142 The effects of certainty were anticipated by the Piagetian research on children's understanding of number: Gelman and her colleagues found that if children counted an array of objects three times rather than once (thus increasing their confidence in their answer), they were less swayed by a suggestive request to count again....

Evidence that repetition increases error is remarkably hard to find. As noted above, repeated open-ended questions do not decrease accuracy....Children are reluctant to disclose abuse....The evidence that repetition undermines accuracy is weaker than it first appears, and the ways that repetition may increase accuracy have been ignored.
http://www.law.duke.edu/shell/cite.pl?65+Law+&+Contemp.+Probs.+97+%28Winter+2002%29

Rebuttal to the Report from the SMART 2009 conference

copied with permission from
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/rebuttal-to-the-report-from-the-smart-2009-conference/

Rebuttal to an attack on our recent conference in August 2009.

Our ritual abuse conference went really well this year. Many excellent researchers from several countries presented data backing the existence of ritual abuse crimes in a variety of settings.

Unfortunately a journalist attended our conference without permission. This person on a website for radiofreesatan, where he is a DJ and is described as “an unscrupulous journalist.” This journalist paid to enter the conference with a check. He stopped payment on the check after the conference.

Our conference brochure, which all that register are required to read, states “Members of secret organizations, acting out perpetrators, and/or members of unsympathetic organizations are excluded from the conference. This is for the protection and safety of those in attendance.”

Also, it is clearly announced at the beginning of the conference, “Please note that media people are not allowed in the conference at any time without the written permission of SMART.”

Less than one week after the conference, he placed a vicious article on a major Internet newspaper personally attacking some of the conference attendees, the field of DID and memory. Attacks included disparaging remarks about one’s appearance and voice as well as claiming child abuse survivor accounts at the conference were fictional. Fortunately, with the hard work of many people, this article was removed from a major Internet newspaper after four days.

The author repeats the rebutted attacks on the field of DID and ritual abuse made over twenty years ago. The scientific research on DID shows it to be a solid and robust phenomenon that had been misdiagnosed as schizophrenia for over half a century. The research he cites “offer(s) no evidence that either stable alter personalities or the range of clinical features typically associated with MPD can be created in the laboratory.” Accurate information on DID and rebuttals to skeptics can be found at http://ritualabuse.us/research/did/

He also attacks the phenomenon of recovered memory. Yet recovered memory has been found to be a proven and verifiable phenomenon in many cases with fairly high accuracy rates. For more information on this, see http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Recovered_Memories

He repeats the same misstatements made about “panic” made twenty years ago. Yet, ritual abuse crimes and their incident rates have been shown to be very real. For more information on this, see http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse and http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/

This author’s first article concludes with several misstatements about what he claims was stated at the conference about the FMSF. However, this was not stated. This is another misstatement made by the author.
In essence, his article contained insults, personal attacks, misstatements, misrepresented and slanted data.


The following are some comments posted on the website below the article attacking our conference before the article was permanently removed from the Internet. Some of these comments were removed from the page by the author, yet comments calling the conference coordinator a “pedophile” more than once were allowed to stay up.

Click here http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/rebuttal-to-the-report-from-the-smart-2009-conference/ for the rest of the article.

Ex-child prostitute sues Village Voice over sex ads, Palmdale group update

Ex-child prostitute sues Village Voice over sex ads
By Jacqui Cheng 9/19/10
A teenage child trafficking victim has filed a lawsuit against Village Voice Media, for knowingly allowing her pimp to post ads for her "services" on the popular backpage.com. The pimp, Latasha Jewell McFarland, has already pleaded guilty to prostitution charges, but the victim (going by M.A. in the complaint, as she is still a minor) says that Village Voice knew that the photos being posted of her were illegal but "failed to investigate for fear of what it would learn."

M.A. says she was 14 when she was found as a runaway by McFarland, who began pimping out M.A. for $100 per sex act (McFarland took half the earnings). In order to advertise M.A.'s services, McFarland took pornographic photos of M.A. and posted them on backpage.com in the personals section for those seeking sex. McFarland pleaded guilty earlier this month to photographing M.A. in pornographic poses, posting child porn on backpage, paying the site for the postings, transporting M.A. for the purpose of pimping her out for sex, and collecting money for M.A.'s sexual services.
In the complaint, however, M.A. accuses Village Voice of having knowledge that the explicit photos were 1) of a minor, and 2) for prostitution services. No evidence is outlined in the complaint that explicitly points to Village Voice having this knowledge, but M.A. says the company aided and abetted her pimp in facilitating prostitution and child pornography. She also argues that Village Voice should not be granted immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—a law that has historically protected websites from being held liable for the content posted by users.

"Defendant had a strong suspicion that the aforementioned crimes were being committed," reads the complaint. "Defendant had a desire that these posters accomplished their nefarious illegal prostitution activities so that the posters would return to the website and pay for more posting."
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/ex-child-prostitute-sues-village-voice-over-sex-ads.ars


PDF copy of complaint
http://ia360705.us.archive.org/3/items/gov.uscourts.moed.108973/gov.uscourts.moed.108973.1.0.pdf

Leader of religious sect held for evaluation
Group found safe hours after going missing in Southern California Missing sect members found, but questions remain
By JACOB ADELMAN 9/19/2010 PALMDALE, Calif. — The leader of a breakaway religious sect was hospitalized Sunday for a mental evaluation, after members of her group went missing and left behind evidence that they were awaiting the rapture or some catastrophic event. Reyna Marisol Chicas was placed under a 72-hour mandatory hold after it was determined she was not able to care for herself or others, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Thomas Kim. Chicas gave investigators a false name and was rambling during questioning, Kim said. She told deputies she had no children, even though her two kids were with her.

Ending a frantic search, deputies found Chicas and 12 others just before noon at Jackie Robinson Park near Palmdale after getting a tip from a local resident, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. He said all members are safe.
....The men told investigators they believe group members had been "brainwashed" by Chicas, and one expressed worries that they might harm themselves, Parker said. One of the children is 3, and the others range from 12 to 17. When deputies arrived at the park they found the children playing on swings and the adults on a blanket praying out loud in Spanish.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39255711

The Hidden Tragedy of the CIA's Experiments on Children

also has:
Two held, racket in human trafficking busted
USA Swimming Hit With Another Sexual Abuse Lawsuit
Vatican pleased US plaintifs seek to dismiss case

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

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


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 Norm Havercroft at West Valley swim club in San Jose, CA 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



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

Lawsuit: Former Orlando priests gave boys alcohol

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

Father Maciel lawsuit (Legionnaires), Walter Mixa, German bishop allegations

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

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

Wikipedia founder tries to remove alleged kiddie porn, Vatican to court

Wikipedia founder tries to remove alleged kiddie porn, then gives up editorial privileges May 16, 2010 Paul Boutin [Update: Jimmy Wales tweeted me to say the change to his editorial status is " A purely technical matter. I am not stepping down or pulling back from anything."....Fox News reports that Jimmy Wales, cofounder of do-it-yourself encyclopedia Wikipedia and a member of its board, has given up his administrative privileges on the site in response to a Wikipedia community backlash against his removal of thousands of images deemed pornographic by Fox last month....

In April, Fox reported that Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger, who left the project in 2002, had sent a letter to the FBI specifying his concerns that at least two categories of the Wikimedia Commons archive — one for pedophilia and another for Japanese lolicon comics — contained dozens of images of child sexual abuse, in violation of Federal law.

Wikimedia Commons is used to host images and videos displayed on Wikipedia....Fox News claimed that Wikimedia officials did not respond to reporters' requests for comment. That may have been a bad move. The brazenly conservative news agency went after the Wikimedia Foundation's corporate sponsors, sending links to the controversial content to Microsoft, Google, Best Buy, the Ford Foundation, Yahoo, USA Networks and dozens of other companies and organizations.

Last week, a purge of thousands of Wikpedia images still left Fox with plenty of pictures to wave around. Now, Fox claims, it turns out that Wales had unilaterally begun deleting images and recruiting other editors to assist him, against the wishes of other editors who felt the content was acceptable. Wales, whose personal page on Wikipedia speaks of "Doing The Right Thing," allegedly began the purge himself despite opposition from many editors. http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/16/wikipedia-founder-gives-up-control-of-site-over-fox-news-kiddie-porn-scandal/

Vatican to court: Priests are not our employees
Attorney outlines defense ahead of filing Monday in sex abuse case
By NICOLE WINFIELD May 16, 2010 VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Monday will make its most detailed defense yet against claims that it is liable for U.S. bishops who allowed priests to molest children, saying bishops are not its employees and that a 1962 Vatican document did not require them to keep quiet, The Associated Press has learned.

The Vatican will make the arguments in a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds filed in Louisville, Kentucky, but it could affect other efforts to sue the Holy See.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37182162/ns/world_news-europe/


Other articles on Wikipedia:

Wikipedia – Bomis and online pornography
http://www.childlaw.us/2010/04/congress-reacts-to-wikipedia-f.html

problems with wikipedia
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/problems-with-wikipedia/


Wikipedophilia, Wikipedia child abuse misinformation
http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/wikipedophilia-wikipedia-child-abuse-misinformation-clergy-abuse-suit/

ritual abuse pages blacklisted by wikipedia
http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/ritualabuse-us-blacklisted-by-wikipedia/

Vatican details U.S. sex abuse defense, Justice for Child Abuse Victims

Editorial - Justice for Child Abuse Victims May 14, 2010 The Catholic Church is working against the interests of child abuse victims in state legislatures around the country. In recent weeks, lobbying by the church has blocked measures in Wisconsin, Arizona and Connecticut intended to widen the legal window for victims to file lawsuits against hidden predators.

We urge the New York State Legislature to rise above intense lobbying by the New York State Catholic Conference and Orthodox Jewish officials and pass the overdue Child Victims Act. Like a similar measure enacted in 2003 by California, it would create a one-time, one-year suspension of the statute of limitations for bringing civil lawsuits over the sexual abuse of children. Once that window closes, people alleging abuse would have until age 28 to bring a claim. Current law sets the limit at 23 in most circumstances.

The measure recognizes that it typically takes many years before victims are ready to come forward. The measure also recognizes the Catholic Church's history of intimidating victims and burying abuses in church files, creating a shroud of secrecy that extended in many cases until victims were in their 30s or older, well beyond existing time limits for prosecutions or civil lawsuits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/opinion/16sun2.html

Vatican details U.S. sex abuse defense By NICOLE WINFIELD, AP May 16, 2010 VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican on Monday will make its most detailed argument yet for why it is not liable for bishops who allowed priests to molest children in the U.S., in a motion that could affect other efforts to sue the Holy See in American courts, The Associated Press has learned.

In a motion to dismiss a lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds, the Holy See is expected to argue that a key Vatican document calling for secrecy in church trials for sex abuse cases was not, as victims' lawyers say, proof of a Vatican-orchestrated cover up. The Vatican's U.S. attorney, Jeffrey Lena, said Sunday there was no evidence the document was even known to the archdiocese in question - much less used. http://www.kboi2.com/news/national/93891519.html

Clergy abuse lawsuit against Pope, Cardinal praises cover up, clergy abuse Chile and Belgium

"I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration," the Colombian (Cardinal) wrote to Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux.

New Lawsuit Shows Letters to Vatican on Sexual Abuse Earlier Than Previously Thought By LAURIE GOODSTEIN April 22, 2010 Documents released in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Pope Benedict XVI show that the Vatican was informed more than a year earlier than previously thought about the case of a priest who molested deaf boys for two decades at a boarding school in Wisconsin.
One victim of the priest wrote two letters to the Vatican’s secretary of state in 1995 asking Pope John Paul II himself to read his anguished letters and “excommunicate” the priest, the Rev. Lawrence Murphy.

Father Murphy, who died in 1998, admitted to a psychologist hired by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee that he had molested 34 children when he worked at St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, Wis., from 1952 to 1974. Church officials concluded that there might have been as many as 200 victims.
The Vatican had previously said that the first notice it had about Father Murphy was when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict XVI — received a letter about the case in 1996 from Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee.

The letter writer, whose name was excised, is now the unnamed plaintiff in the latest lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Anderson, a lawyer who has brought hundreds of sexual abuse cases against the Roman Catholic Church. The victim said he never received a response.
What makes this lawsuit unusual is that it names as defendants Pope Benedict; the Vatican’s current secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone; a former secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano; and the Holy See. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/us/23priest.html


Pride and wickedness Embattled and arrogant to the last, a Colombian cardinal implicates Pope John Paul II in the cover-up Austen Ivereigh Wednesday 21 April 2010
Cardinal Castrillón was no ordinary official. From 1996 to 2006, he headed the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome, the department which safeguards the interests and rights of priests. In September 2001, he wrote to a French bishop to praise him for refusing to turn over an abusive priest to the police. The letter could not have been clearer or more damning.

"I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration," the Colombian wrote to Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux. "You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest."

The last was a reference to the fact that Bishop Pican had received a suspended three-month sentence for refusing to report the crimes of Fr René Bissey, claiming that to do so would have violated the confessional (in fact, he had learned of the abuse from one of the victim's mothers). Nor, when Cardinal Castrillón wrote the letter, could he have been in any doubt about the priest's guilt. He had been jailed the year before for 18 years for the sexual abuse of 11 boys.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/apr/21/religion-castrillon-coverup-johnpaul2



Chilean priest allegedly abused 5 young men AP Apr 22, 2010 SANTIAGO, Chile – A Chilean prosecutor on Thursday announced a criminal investigation of a popular retired priest accused of sexually abusing five young men in his parish residence.
The allegations were lodged late last year and confirmed by the archbishop of Santiago only this week, as Chile's Roman Catholic leadership appealed publicly for forgiveness for alleged abuses involving 20 clergy members. Five of them have been convicted and 15 others are under investigation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100423/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_church_abuse


Belgium's Catholic bishop of Bruges quits over abuse 4/23/10 The bishop of the Belgian city of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, has resigned after admitting sexual abuse of a boy earlier in his career. Bishop Vangheluwe, 73, said the abuse had happened when he was a simple priest and continued when he started as a bishop, a Vatican statement said. The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the resignation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8639253.stm