Issue 57 – July 2004

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

The purpose of this newsletter is to help stop secretive organizations and groups from abusing others and to help those who allege they have been abused by such organizations and groups. This newsletter is not a substitute for other ways of recovering from ritual abuse. Readers should use caution while reading this newsletter. If necessary, make sure other support systems are available during and after reading this newsletter.

Important: The resources mentioned in this newsletter are for educational value only. Reading the books cited may or may not help your recovery process, so use caution when reading any book or contacting any resource mentioned in this newsletter. Some may have a religious or other agenda that may be separate from your own recovery process. Others may have valuable information on the Masons and other organizations, but have triggers or be somewhat sympathetic to those organizations. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the views expressed in this newsletter constitute expressions of opinion, and readers are cautioned to form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions by consulting a variety of sources, including this newsletter. Resources listed, quoted and individual articles, etc. and their writers do not necessarily support all or any of the views mentioned in this newsletter. Also, the views, facts and opinions mentioned in this newsletter are solely the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily the opinions of this newsletter or its editor.

The Sixth Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference was from August 8 – 10, 2003 at the DoubleTree near Bradley International Airport, Windsor Locks, CT. Conference tapes are now available at http://members.aol.com/smartnews/smart-2003-conference.htm or please send us a letter requesting information. Thanks.

This issue of the smart newsletter was co-edited by Steve F. SMART also wants to thank all those that have contributed resource information to the newsletter.

Next year’s conference information is available at http://members.aol.com/smartnews/smart-2004-conference.htm or by requesting it at the address above by regular mail.

Resources and Information

Please note: Listing of these resources does not necessarily constitute our endorsement of them. They are for educational value only and some may be heavy for survivors to read. Some of the conferences listed may not necessarily be safe for all survivors. S.M.A.R.T. recommends always bringing a support person to all conferences. If you are a survivor of mind control and/or ritual abuse, S.M.A.R.T. recommends that you try to bring a support person that is familiar with mind control techniques. LMS: article from ACHES-MC (Advocacy Committee for Human Experimentation Survivors – Mind Control) for unconsentually federally funded mind control as children or adults Canada contact Lynne Moss-Sharman, 230 Miles St. E. #3, Thunder Bay, Ont. P7C 1J6, lsharman@shaw.ca

Legal Information

Lawyer: Priest Tricked Men Into Ritual By Robert W. Black – Wheatland, Wyo. (AP) “A molestation charge against a priest has brought forth allegations of a bizarre bondage ritual performed on men two decades ago in the basement of a small-town church.” article describes abuse (Washington Times – Google cache)

Drunken Priest Shoots Mayor Dead 5/13/04 Mexico City (Reuters) “A Catholic priest shot to death the mayor of a town in western Mexico early on Wednesday after the pair got drunk and began punching each other during a religious festival, state officials said. After exchanging blows, the priest whipped out a 9mm pistol and fired four bullets into Lorenzo Ruiz, mayor of Chalpatlahuac.” http://www.reuters.com/

from LMS Regina priest arrested CP Regina 5/29/04 “A Regina priest appeared in court yesterday charged with making child pornography, soliciting children and obtaining the services of a prostitute. Pedro Surtida Aldea had been arrested at the airport Thursday night after returning home from a vacation….Aldea, 66, has been the priest at Sacred Heart Parish and the priest moderator at St. Cecilia since August 2002.” http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2004/05/29/477823.html

Accused priest heads to Michigan – Reinstated by Vatican, he can’t have Navy job 4/21/04 by David Crumm “The first Catholic priest in the United States to be reinstated because of a loophole in the church’s zero-tolerance policy on sexual behavior with minors is headed back to Michigan, the Archdiocese of Detroit said Tuesday. The U.S. Navy will not take back the Rev. Brian Bjorklund, 64, for reassignment as a chaplain in California, even though the Vatican has ruled in the priest’s favor, Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Walter Hurley said. In February, the Vatican reinstated the priest to active ministry, saying the charge against him – sex with a 16-year-old boy in the 1970s — wasn’t a crime under church law at the time. That ruling cast a national spotlight on Bjorklund because it opened a major loophole in the get-tough, zero-tolerance policy on abusers that Catholic bishops in the United States adopted in 2002.” http://www.freep.com/news/mich/cath21_20040421.htm

from LMS Two victims testify they were molested by former priest Porter By AP 4/12/04 Taunton, Mass. “A former altar boy said Monday that he was molested several times in the early 1960s by the Rev. James Porter, including once in a hospital bed while he was recovering from pneumonia….Porter, 69, was a priest in the Fall River Diocese who was convicted in 1993 of molesting 28 children. He completed his prison term in January, but prosecutors petitioned to have him committed indefinitely to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexual offenders in Bridgewater.” http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3408

from LMS Court backs trial to keep molester James Porter locked up indefinitely 4/26/04 AP Boston “A Superior Court judge ruled today that there is enough evidence to hold a trial on the state’s bid to keep former priest James Porter locked up indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person. Judge David McLaughlin’s ruling came after a two-week hearing on Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh’s petition to have Porter committed to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexual offenders.” http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4743455.html

Mass. court says Jesuits can’t claim religious freedom to keep accused priest’s files secret By Ken Maguire AP 5/13/04 Boston “The state’s highest court ruled Thursday that a Roman Catholic order cannot claim constitutional protection of religious freedom to withhold personnel files of a priest charged with sexual abuse. In a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Judicial Court rejected one of the arguments used by the Rev. James F. Talbot and the Society of Jesus of New England, known as Jesuits, who have refused to turn over documents demanded by Suffolk County prosecutors.” http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040513-1952-churchabuse.html

Sex charges against family pit law against Amish justice 4/10/04 Chaseburg, Wis. “When leaders in southwestern Wisconsin’s Amish community heard allegations that 25-year-old Johnny E. Byler had sexually assaulted a close female relative, they decided on a punishment that was severe by their standards — banishment from the church for six weeks. Their hope was to handle the case in their own way, without the intervention of outsiders. The Amish community has its “own way of punishing people,” said Byler’s mother, Sally Kempf, “We’ve settled this ourselves.” But the Amish are not exempt from the law, said Vernon County District Attorney Tim Gaskell. “Their take on it is, ‘We’ve dealt with it and now everything is behind us,’ ” Gaskell said. “It doesn’t work that way in Wisconsin. “These are felonies. In two of the cases, the maximum sentences are 100 years,” he said. “And in each case, they clearly violated the law.” http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4714906.html

article describes abuse – from LMS – Amish children describe abuse – Their aunt is on trial on 19 charges. Jane Sims, Free Press Justice Reporter 4/24/04 St. Thomas “Three more Amish children yesterday described acts of sexual abuse and violence they say were inflicted on them by their aunt.” http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/04/24/434303.html

from LMS article has graphic details of abuse – Amish case ends in mistrial – A woman charged with abusing children will be back for a new court date May 27. Jane Sims, Free Press Justice Reporter 4/27/04 St. Thomas “A judge declared a mistrial yesterday in the case of an Elgin County Amish woman charged with 19 counts of sexual abuse and violence involving five children. Superior Court Justice Edward Browne dismissed the jury of seven women and five men yesterday afternoon.” http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/04/27/437562.html

Priest Indicted For Child Pornography – Pictures Allegedly Stored On Priest’s Personal Computer At Seminary 5/27/04 Wynnewood, Pa. “A Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has been indicted for allegedly having child pornography. The Rev. Matthew Kornacki has been charged with one count of possession of child pornography. According to the indictment, Kornacki stored child pornography on his personal computer at St. Charles Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa. The archdiocese said Kornacki has been removed from active ministry.” http://www.nbc10.com/news/3354144/detail.html

Feds Arrest ‘Spanky’ the Clown for Child Porn 5/26/04 Fayetteville, N.C. “Thomas Riccio, 23, of Jacksonville, Fla., was arrested Friday by Fayetteville police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (search) agents to face 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor….Police and federal agents searched Riccio’s computer and found thousands of images, many involving young children participating in sexual acts, authorities said. About 100 people have been arrested in the United States based on the Belarus investigation and 100 others were arrested in Denmark earlier this year, he said.” http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120990,00.html

from LMS More details in pornography case – Responding to a motion by Stephen W. Thompson’s lawyers, a U.S. prosecutor defended the seizure of a “monstrous” cache from the ex-judge’s Shore home. By John Shiffman Inquirer Staff Writer 5/13/04 Camden “In a legal filing, the prosecutor said Stephen W. Thompson’s cache of child pornography included “thousands of images of naked or partially naked children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”….Thompson is charged with possession of child pornography and traveling to Russia to videotape himself having sex with a teenage boy.” http://www.philly.com/

Feds investigate child porn on P2P networks – 65 arrests, 1,000 cases announced 5/14/04 AP Washington “A nationwide probe into child pornography trafficking using Internet file-sharing networks has resulted in 1,000 investigations and at least 65 arrests, federal officials announced Friday. The broader investigation centers on the growing use of “peer-to-peer,” or P2P, networks that allow users to connect computers directly with one another to exchange files rather than using traditional Internet servers that are easier to track.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4980441/

from LMS Child Porn Hearing Opens – South County husband and wife are accused of 90 felony counts each, including videotaping and molesting a 5-year-old girl. By Mai Tran 4/9/04 “The videotape gave authorities a road map that led to a locked chest stored in a bedroom closet of the couple’s home containing 216 videotapes and CDs, many of them depicting the couple having sex with children, investigators said. Investigators said they did not know who sent them the tape or who had the access or time to record snippets from so many movies. Thursday’s testimony offered a first glimpse into the case against David Hwang, 31, and his wife, Sheila Sikat, 23….sheriff’s investigators contend the tapes and CDs reveal six children being molested.” http://www.latimes.com/

Murder case unveils town secret From The Times 5/19/04 “an extraordinary murder trial involving a nanny and an adulterous minister. The trial, in Uppsala, about 100km north of Stockholm, could break legal ground in Europe because the prosecutor will try to prove, for the first time, that a man brainwashed a young woman and effectively made her pull the trigger on a murder victim. In the dock is a Pentecostal minister, Helge Fossmo, 32, who is charged with murdering his first wife, inciting the murder of his second wife and masterminding the attempted murder of his neighbour. Alongside Mr Fossmo is Sara Svensson, 27, his former nanny, who is charged with the murder of his second wife and the attempted killing of his neighbour.” http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9602260%255E2703,00.html

from LMS Man accused of killing family members had mass suicide plan Brian Skoloff, 4/8/04 AP “Marcus Wesson devised a plan nearly a decade ago for his children to kill themselves if authorities came to retrieve the clan, according to a police detective testifying at a preliminary hearing on charges Wesson murdered nine of his kids. Wesson maintained strict control over his many children and would inflict “week long spankings” if they broke his rules, which included not talking to men outside of the family, Fresno homicide detective Carlos Leal testified that one of Wesson’s adult daughters told him….adding that she claimed Wesson began molesting her and her sisters when they were as young as 5.” http://www.sfgate.com/

McGuinty to apologize to victims of sex abuse Darcy Henton, CP 6/2/04 “McCann will not be alone. Since he came forward in 1990 to accuse the Ontario Christian Brothers of abuse, about 1,600 victims followed in what became one of the largest sexual abuse investigations in Canadian history. Many of them were expected to cram into a visitor’s gallery at the legislature today to hear the apology they expected to hear in 1996 as part of a $16-million deal they negotiated with the province, Catholic archdioceses and the Christian Brothers. For McCann, who was branded a liar and forced to go into hiding for his own protection at one point, it’s a very important day….Bringing forward the allegations of abuse, he said, was never about money and always about trying to protect children….After McCann spoke out in 1990, police were flooded with hundreds of calls from victims of abuse at St. Joseph’s in Alfred, Ont., east of Ottawa, and St. John’s in Uxbridge, north of Toronto. Between 1992 and 1993, the Ontario Provincial Police laid nearly 200 charges against 29 former employees of the two church-run, government-funded institutions. Sixteen persons were eventually convicted, and 12 were sentenced to prison terms as long as six years.” http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/06/02/482220.html

Roman Catholic priest barred following allegations he abused girls studying to be nuns 6/1/04 Boston “A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting girls who were studying to become nuns can no longer perform sacraments or other priestly duties, the Boston Archdiocese announced Tuesday. Robert V. Meffan allegedly described himself as “the second coming of Christ” and encouraged the girls to be “brides of Christ.” He was suspended in 1993 after the first allegations were made against him. The acts allegedly took place in the 1960s….Meffan was accused of recruiting girls to become nuns and then molesting them, according to documents made public in 2002.” http://www.sfgate.com/

Singapore priest pleads guilty to embezzling over $5m of church funds By Joanne Leow/Yvonne Cheong 4/14/04 “Singapore : Father Joachim Kang has admitted to stealing more than $5 million of church funds. The 55-year-old Catholic priest pleaded guilty to six charges…” http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/80067/1/.html

Priest ordered to trial in death Pitt player fell to death in Homestead church last June 3/17/04 By Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “A judge yesterday ordered the Rev. Henry Krawczyk to stand trial on a manslaughter charge in the alcohol-related death of a University of Pittsburgh athlete who fell more than 20 feet inside a church sanctuary.” http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04077/286875.stm

Family of Pitt player files suit for $75 million after fatal fall in church 9/23/03 by Marylynne Pitz, “The parents of University of Pittsburgh football player Billy Gaines, who fell through a ceiling in a Homestead church after a night of drinking, have filed a lawsuit seeking $75 million from church officials and the priest who served liquor to their son. Gaines, a 19-year-old wide receiver, died on June 18 after a cookout at St. Anne Catholic Church that police said was hosted by the Rev. Henry Krawczyk. Krawczyk, 50, faces criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and furnishing alcohol to minors.” http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030923gaines0923p2.asp

Vatican appoints former Boston archbishop head of a Rome basilica By AP 5/27/04 “Vatican City – Pope John Paul II on Thursday gave Cardinal Bernard F. Law an official position in Rome, naming the former Boston archbishop who resigned in the sex abuse scandal as head of a basilica. Law will have the title archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica, a largely ceremonial post often given to retired prelates.” http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=29578

Attorneys: Mahony ignored warnings 4/30/04 Los Angeles (AP) “A 1987 letter from a Mexican bishop telling Cardinal Roger Mahony about a visiting priest’s “…problems” went unheeded, allowing the priest to allegedly molest 26 boys in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, according to attorneys. The attorneys, who represent alleged victims of sexual abuse, charge that Mahony assigned Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera to work in Los Angeles parishes in 1987 despite at least one warning from Bishop Norberto Rivera of Tecuacan, Mexico. A letter from the bishop to Mahony written a year later — and obtained by plaintiffs’ attorney Raymond Boucher — mentions the contents of the 1987 letter. The Mexican bishop sent Mahony the letter two months after Rivera fled to Mexico to avoid arrest on charges of child molestation.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/30/state0502EDT0033.DTL

Judge punishes diocese of Catholic bishops’ leader – Contempt citation issued over records of priest accused of abuse Laurie Goodstein, New York Times 5/2/04 “The Roman Catholic diocese led by Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has been held in contempt of court for refusing to release the mental health records of a retired priest accused of child sexual abuse. The judge ordered the diocese, in Belleville, Ill., and the priest, the Rev. Raymond Kownacki, to release the files, pay a $2,000 fine and reimburse the plaintiff for legal fees. The diocese is appealing the ruling.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/02/MNGCB6EEP81.DTL

all accusations are alleged Clerical abuse in US compounded by crimes and cover-ups By Ryle Dwyer 2/28/04 “a Catholic reform organisation, Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF), acting as a kind of vigilante group, exposing wrongdoing within the Church. One of RCF’s main organisers and driving forces, Fr Alfred Kunz, a canon lawyer, was murdered on March 4, 1998. He was found in a school beside his church with his throat cut. Nobody has yet been apprehended for the crime….In the late 1980s the parents of a child abused by a priest in the Chicago diocese hired private investigators to help them, after Joseph Cardinal Bernadin threatened to counter-sue them following their original allegation. For years Church leaders used their financial muscle and influence to threaten financial ruin on anybody who dared to sue them. The investigators hired by the boy’s parents soon learned of a clerical paedophile group operating in Chicago under the name of The Boys Club. As they were making inquiries about that group, a woman came to them with a frightening story. She had been involved with Francis E Pellegrini, who had a gay affair with one of the priests in The Boys Club. Pellegrini an organist and choirmaster at a south side Chicago church, as well as a sociology professor at a city college had decided to marry her and end the affair with the priest. Before severing the relationship with the priest, however, he learned that some in The Boys Club were involved in more than consensual gay sex with other adults. They were also (allegedly) molesting underprivileged children. Pellegrini informed the Chicago Archdiocesan Chancery, and scheduled a meeting with one of the archdiocese’s top officials. But he was murdered on May 30, 1984, on the eve of that planned meeting. He was found in his home, with his hands tied with barbed wire and he had suffered multiple stab wounds….The Boys Club obviously enjoys influential protection. They are a dangerous group,” Fr Greeley added. “There is reason to believe that they are responsible for at least one murder, and may perhaps have been involved in the murder of the murderer….THE RCF also exposed the existence of a porn site in which a gay clerical sub-culture was operating openly, even posting photographs of themselves on the internet news group named St Sebastian’s Angels. Fifty-three priests were involved.” http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2004/02/28/story759782519.asp

Irish Nuns Apologize for Abusing Children Dublin 5/5/04 (AP) “The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, which has run homes for orphans and other disadvantaged youths since the 1830s, unveiled a statement that sought to quell criticism of its earlier efforts to say sorry.” “Former residents of the since-closed Goldenbridge orphanage recalled how they were beaten with chair legs and rosary beads, among other forms of corporal punishment.” http://www.beliefnet.com/story/145/story_14549_1.html

Linkup Statement on Vatican Lawsuit 6/4/04 “Today in Louisville, Kentucky, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the Vatican on behalf of all clergy abuse victims in the United States. One of the three plaintiffs represented in the complaint is Mike Turner, a national board member of The Linkup. The Linkup, a national clergy abuse survivor organization, endorses Mike’s participation in this effort.” http://www.thelinkup.org/

from LMS Disgraced choirmaster resurfaces at Ottawa church By Sarah Crosbie 5/15/04 Ottawa “Gallienne, acclaimed as a brilliant musician, teacher and organist, was exposed in 1990 as a predatory pedophile who exploited his position of trust and authority as choirmaster and organist at St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Kingston for at least 15 years. In that time he sexually abused more than a dozen young boys, some as young as eight. In the fall of 1990, he pleaded guilty to 20 sex crimes against 13 young boys.” “a document that forbade him to be involved in a music program or holding a leadership position again in any Anglican Church in the Kingston region.” http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=67379&catname=Local+News

article describes abuse – Sins of the fathers – Karen Liebreich invites us to draw comparisons across the centuries with her account of paedophile priests in 17th-century Italy, Fallen Order – Miranda France 5/22/04 “Fallen Order: A History” by Karen Liebreich, Atlantic….The Piarists began as a religious order….by 1646 the order was discredited, and banned by Pope Innocent X….Stefano Cherubini, headmaster of the Naples school, who threatened to destroy the order if allegations of his abuse of children were made public.” http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,6121,1221970,00.html

Sexual abuse by priests in the spotlight in Spain By John L. Allen Jr. Madrid 5/21/04 “Since the sexual abuse crisis in the United States broke in January 2002, some commentators have labeled the phenomenon an “American problem.” By way of contrast, the El País report indicates that overwhelmingly Catholic Spain is struggling with strikingly similar revelations.” “10-year-old study by Félix López Sánchez, a professor of sexual psychology at the University of Salamanca. Based on a survey of 2,000 people, the majority of whom had been to colleges and homes run by religious organizations, Sánchez’s survey found that 15 percent of Spanish males reported having experienced at least one act of sexual abuse prior to age 17. Nine percent of those cases, the report concluded, involved priests.” http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104p.htm

Lawsuit Claims Abuse by Nuns at School for Deaf 5/11/04 AP Boston “Nine former students at a Roman Catholic school for the deaf filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging they were raped, beaten and tormented decades ago by the nuns who ran the place. They accused at least 14 nuns in the lawsuit, along with a priest and a male athletic instructor at the now-defunct Boston School for the Deaf, and a former top official of the Boston Archdiocese, according to their lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian. The case is the first to allege widespread abuse by nuns in the Boston area since the sex scandal that engulfed the archdiocese began in 2002. The alleged victims – three women and six men – ranged in age from 7 to 16 when, they claim, they were sexually and physically abused between 1944 and 1977. The Boston School for the Deaf, in Randolph, was run by an independent, nonprofit corporation until it closed more than a decade ago.” http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119604,00.html
has details of abuse Deaf Pupils Accuse Nuns of Abuse at Boston School 5/11/04 By Greg Frost – Boston (Reuters) “Roman Catholic nuns subjected students at a Boston-area school for the deaf to sexual, physical and mental abuse — including rape — according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday. More than two years after a pedophile priest scandal erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston, attorney Mitchell Garabedian filed a lawsuit on behalf of nine former students of the Boston School for the Deaf, which closed in 1994. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, charges that nuns at the school, along with a priest and other unidentified staff members, abused students between 1944 and 1977. Garabedian said some of the abuse may have been punishment for students who tried to use sign language to communicate. He said the Boston School for the Deaf neither taught nor tolerated the use of sign language, and instead encouraged pupils to use oral language. “They were supposed to receive an education. Instead they were sexually molested, physically abused and mentally tormented,” Garabedian told a news conference where he was flanked by some two dozen former pupils. He said he represented 22 other students who may also file lawsuits. “If they were caught using American Sign Language, they would be punished. Some would have their hands tied behind their backs for a couple of hours,” he said. “This is ugly.” Some plaintiffs said nuns shoved their heads down toilet bowls. Others accused nuns of washing out their mouths with soap. Some said they were beaten, crammed into tiny lockers or forced to stand in dark closets.” “”Several plaintiffs said they tried to complain to other nuns or their parents but in many cases their pleas were ignored or even the cause for further punishment.” http://www.reuters.com/

from LMS St. Joseph nuns sued in abuse claim – School for Deaf case also names 4 others By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff 5/12/04 http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/05/12/st_joseph_nuns_sued_in_abuse_claim/

Review board head charges bishops ‘manipulated’ sex abuse panel and withheld information By Joe Feuerherd, National Catholic Reporter 5/11/04 “The high-profile lay committee investigating the clergy sex abuse scandals was “manipulated” by the bishops, who used the 13-member National Review Board for public relations cover while withholding key information from the panel. That charge was made in a March 30 letter from Anne Burke, the Illinois Court of Appeal Justice who serves as the Board’s interim chair, to bishops’ conference President Wilton Gregory. Copies of correspondence obtained by NCR indicate the board’s relationship with dozens of members of the hierarchy is severely strained.” http://www.ncrnews.org/

Diocese labeled one of worst for abuse coverup By Todd Ruger 5/21/04 “A national organization for victims of priest sexual abuse cited documents filed last week in ranking the Catholic Diocese of Davenport among the worst in the nation for documented cover-up of sex abuse by priests….”They actually engaged in a scheme to keep it silent,” Blaine said while pointing to a 1958 document signed by then-Bishop Ralph Hayes and a 1988 letter from the Rev. Michael Morrissey to James Wells, who reported abuse by the Rev. James Janssen to the church. The documents come from the court files of two men who allege sexual misconduct by priests in lawsuits against the diocese. The men responded to diocesan attempts to dismiss their cases with nearly 300 pages of legal arguments and church documents. Blaine said the 1988 letter from Morrissey to Wells shows a lack of pastoral care or interest in wanting to pursue an investigation into Wells’ allegations of sexual abuse by Janssen. “The silence and secrecy has gone on for what we now know is five decades,” she said, referring to the 1958 document where diocese Chancellor Maurice Dingman signed a statement that he will “maintain secrecy regarding all facts” of Janssen’s case….She said the documents show Morrissey knew about sex rings involving three priests and several boys but did nothing about it.”http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1028524&t=Local+News&c=2,1028524

Diocese hearing could include renowned priest By Todd Ruger 6/2/04 “The plaintiffs have responded to that motion with almost 300 pages of legal arguments and church documents they say shows a “chilling story” of a diocese coverup of sexual abuse more than 30 years ago by three diocese priests, including documents as recent as a February report from Bishop William Franklin. The plaintiffs claim the diocese prevented the men from filing timely lawsuits by fraudulently concealing other abuse allegations against the priests – the Rev. James Janssen, the Rev. Francis Bass and the Rev. Theodore Geerts. Janssen and other priests have denied all accusations of sexual abuse in court records. Earlier this month, a Lee County district judge denied a similar attempt by the diocese to dismiss a sex-abuse lawsuit filed in that county, saying that statute of limitations issues would be best decided by a jury.” http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1029068&t=Local+News&c=2,1029068

from LMS Lawsuits allege dioceses reinjured sex-abuse victims – Complaints about clergy in the Phila. and Allentown areas say concealment of crimes added trauma. By David O’Reilly Inquirer 5/12/04 “Using a legal strategy untested in Pennsylvania, a Berks County law firm yesterday said it had filed six more lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and two against the Diocese of Allentown for allegedly allowing and concealing clergy sexual abuse. The suits were brought by eight men who say they were sexually abused as minors, mostly in the 1980s. http://www.philly.com

has graphic descriptions of Satanic rituals

all accusations are alleged Analysis: Springtime for Satanists 4/30/04 (UPI) By Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI Religious Affairs Editor Washington “details surrounding the Rev. Robinson’s arrest suggest ghoulish practices by clergymen, at least in this case….”This pretty much corresponds to the type of abuse I have been told about when counseling survivors of Satanist rituals five or six years ago in Connecticut,” the Rev. Bernard Bush, a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who now runs a retreat house in Los Altos, Cal., told UPI Friday. “I have learned about such rituals conducted by priests,” he added. “However, they did not involve murders.” But Bush confirmed that patients he counseled reported to him black masses in which “children and freshly aborted fetuses were sacrificed.” “Not so long ago, a young man came to me asking for help. He had become part of a Satanist cult and participated in blood sacrifices (of animals), but was working himself up to participating in human sacrifices.” The Rev. Mather, who has investigated incidents involving possible Satanist activities throughout the United States and acts as a consultant to police departments around the country, said so far he has not seen any evidence that priests had murdered humans in Satanist rites. However, both Bush and Mather said that liturgical churches — Catholic, Episcopal and Lutheran — are the preferred target of the most lethal group of devil worshipers, the so-called Traditionals, whom Mather described as highly secretive and usually very well educated….Satanists attack denominations according to their respective beliefs. For example, Mather saw black wax on the altar of an Episcopal church in Plymouth, Mass., indicating that a black mass had been celebrated there. “Later police discovered the remains of animals sacrificed in this area.” And in a Roman Catholic church in West Yarmouth, Mass., feces were found on the altar. In a Lutheran congregation, also in New England, the woman Catholic researcher found that the pastor celebrated the Eucharist in the sanctuary every Sunday morning, sticking faithfully to his liturgical manual, the Lutheran Book of Worship. But at night he would conduct black masses in the basement, again using the same book yet turning all their essential Eucharistic texts on their head….And the Rev. Bush told UPI of a discovery that the day care operation of a non-liturgical, Presbyterian congregation had been taken over by a Satanist cult. And that, he said, was also in Ohio, where the Catholic Church is now reeling from the Robinson case.” linked to http://www.stevequayle.com/index1.html

from LMS Shame, Sin and Secrets 12/1/02 – How the Catholic Church in Toledo Covered Up the Sexual Abuse of Children by Priests (archives) http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SRSHAME

Shame, Sin and Secrets By Michael D. Sallah, David Yonke “In every decade since the 1950s, there have been at least two examples of priests or others entrusted with the care of minors accused of forcing the youngsters into sex acts, but the diocese failed to notify police. Instead, the abusers were moved to new churches or schools – sometimes after therapy – and in some cases, only to rape and abuse again.” http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20021201/SRSHAME/112010122

Priest indicted for murder; Robinson released after posting bond in 1980 nun slaying 5/4/04 By Mark Reiter and Ignazio Messina “A Roman Catholic priest was released on bond yesterday after being indicted for aggravated murder in the strangulation death 24 years ago of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in a chapel at Mercy Hospital. The Rev. Gerald Robinson, a semiretired priest who was a chaplain at the hospital when Sister Margaret Ann was killed, was released from the Lucas County jail yesterday amid a frenzy of media attention.” http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040504/NEWS03/405040355

article describes crimes – Holy Saturday Murder – Altar cloth in Mercy Hospital hallway may expose nun’s killer Letter opener, scissors could have been weapon By Robin Erb – Blade Staff Writer http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040429/NEWS03/404290391

Ohio Priest Charged in Nun’s 1980 Killing 4/24/04 Toledo, Ohio (AP) “A Roman Catholic priest was charged in the 1980 killing of a nun whose body was found in the chapel of the hospital where he served as chaplain, police said. The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 63, was arrested Friday, five months after police reopened the investigation into the death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, Chief Mike Navarre said.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4015736,00.html

describes crimes Church Slaying – Priest accused of murdering nun in 1980 – Holy Saturday slaying occurred in Mercy chapel 4/24/04 By Robin Erb, Christina Hall “Twenty-four years after an elderly nun was killed in the sacristy of a Mercy Hospital chapel, the priest who presided over her funeral service was arrested and charged last night in the slaying. The Rev. Gerald Robinson faces a charge of murder in the death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. The 71-year-old woman, who belonged to the Sisters of Mercy of the Union, was found dead April 5, 1980. It was Holy Saturday. Sources described her death as part of a ritual slaying in which Sister Margaret was strangled, then covered with an altar cloth, and stabbed several times along the neck and torso. Police yesterday said she was stabbed 27 to 32 times, with most of the wounds inflicted after she died. Her body had been posed and it initially appeared that she had been sexually assaulted, though authorities offered no details last night.” http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040424/NEWS03/404240373

from LMS Area authorities no strangers to cult, ritual probes by Robin Erb 4/27/04 “The recent investigation into the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl wasn’t the first time authorities have come across the possibility of satanic rituals in northwest Ohio.Five years after the Mercy Hospital nun was strangled and stabbed, tips, surveillance, and an infrared aerial sweep of Spencer Township prompted Lucas County Sheriff James Telb and investigators to spend two days excavating a woody area in western Lucas County. They were looking for the bodies of 50 to 60 babies and children who reportedly had been sacrificed over several years during cult rituals. “We hear these things for 4 1/2 months, we had to act on it,” the sheriff told The Blade yesterday. Investigators found nothing of substance, and the dig was abandoned. But nearly two decades later, the allegations then loosely echo those of a woman who told local authorities last year that, as a child, she was an unwilling participant in rituals in which other children and animals were sacrificed or mutilated. Priest accused of killing Later, in high school, she said she was used for sadomasochistic sex. Among the perpetrators, she alleged, was Father Gerald Robinson, who was arrested Friday for the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.” http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040427/NEWS03/404270346/-1/NEWS

Victims’ group faults reaction by local diocese – Priest accused of killing nun on radar for a year, SNAP says By Christina Hall 4/27/04 “A priest accused of killing a nun 24 years ago continued to serve until his arrest, and a local victims’ group wants to know why the Toledo Catholic Diocese didn’t place him on leave last year after a woman accused him of perpetrating sadomasochistic sex or when investigators reopened the murder investigation…..” The murder case was reopened last year after a woman testified before the Diocesan Review Board and wrote a detailed statement alleging years of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse by Toledo diocesan and religious-order priests during her childhood and continuing into high school. In addition to claiming she was an unwilling participant in satanic rituals, she also accused Father Robinson of sexually assaulting her when she was a teen.” http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040427/NEWS03/404270341/-1/NEWS

Articles describes rituals – from LMS Parishioners Back Priest in Nun Slay Case by John Seewer – Toledo, Ohio (AP) 4/26/04 “Robinson, 66, was charged Friday with killing 71-year-old Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Her strangled and stabbed body was found in a hospital chapel, surrounded by lit candles, her arms folded across her chest.” “Later, based on rarely used technology that allowed investigators to analyze blood patterns, they concluded the murder weapon was “in the control of the suspect,” said police detective Steve Forrester. Robinson’s arrest warrant described a weapon that was in his possession as an “instrument with unique characteristics” associated with the nun’s wounds. It said numerous cuts were made after she was dead. ” “Last June, a woman testifying before the Diocesan Review Board initially prompted a re-examination of the nun’s death. The woman had written a detailed statement alleging years of abuse by priests during her childhood – and mentioned Robinson. Robinson had years ago been questioned in the slaying. The woman, now in her 40s, described satanic ceremonies in which priests placed her in a coffin filled with cockroaches, forced her to ingest what she believed to be a human eyeball and penetrated her with a snake “to consecrate these orifices to Satan.” Authorities said they could not substantiate her allegations.” http://customwire.ap.org/

article describes rituals – Bizarre tale led to Toledo priest’s arrest 4/26/04 by John Seewer Toledo, Ohio “Investigators re-examined the 1980 slaying of a nun whose body was found in a chapel surrounded by candles after another woman alleged she was abused by Roman Catholic priests during satanic and sadomasochistic rituals, a newspaper reported Sunday….The woman alleged Robinson was involved in her ritualistic abuse, said Claudia Vercelloti of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.” http://www.suntimes.com/

Toledo Diocese – Priest charged with killing put on leave; review set for claims by David Yonke 4/28/04 “A Toledo Catholic priest charged in the 1980 ceremonial killing of a nun was placed on a leave of absence yesterday after Bishop Leonard Blair made a “pastoral visit” to the Rev. Gerald Robinson in the Lucas County jail. Bishop Blair’s action bars the 66-year-old priest from public ministry – including celebrating Holy Communion or any other sacrament. Father Robinson remained in jail last night in lieu of $200,000 bond. He was arrested Friday and arraigned Monday on a murder charge in the April 5, 1980, death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in the chapel of the then Mercy Hospital. The murder occurred on Holy Saturday, one day before Easter and the nun’s 72nd birthday. In a statement released yesterday, Bishop Blair announced the Diocesan Review Board will “revisit” allegations made by a woman who told the seven-member panel in June that she had been sexually and physically abused during her childhood by a number of Catholic priests, including Father Robinson. The Blade does not identify victims of sexual abuse. The Blade reported Sunday that the woman’s detailed statements last year about Satanic rituals and sadomasochistic orgies by Toledo-area Catholic priests led a member of the review board and a local victim’s advocate to take the case to the state attorney general’s office. The Diocesan board member, Dr. Robert Cooley, was removed from the panel for his actions…..Chet Warren of Sylvania, a defrocked priest, was mentioned prominently in statements to the Diocese Review Board. While investigators could not substantiate or dismiss the woman’s allegations, her mention of Father Robinson prompted them to reopen the case….But yesterday afternoon, the diocese issued a statement attributed to Bishop Blair that said two diocesan investigators will continue to check into the statements of the woman….Another Catholic priest, The Blade has learned, was mentioned prominently in the Toledo woman’s written and verbal statements to the review board. Chet J. Warren, a former member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales religious order, has since been defrocked. Mr. Warren of Sylvania has been accused of sexually abusing at least eight minor girls in the 1970s. He was sued in April, 2002, by Teresa Bombrys, now of Hilliard, Ohio. She claimed in her lawsuit that is pending in Lucas County Common Pleas Court that Mr. Warren sexually molested her for four years beginning when she was in the fourth grade. Ms. Blaine said Mr. Warren began molesting her when she was 13, and her suit was settled out of court by the Toledo diocese and the Oblates in 1994. She said at least two other victims have told her about ritual abuse by Mr. Warren and that she or other SNAP officials have been contacted by more than a dozen alleged victims of Mr. Warren. Catherine Hoolahan, an attorney representing a dozen clients with pending lawsuits against the Toledo diocese, said three claim they were abused during rituals and Satanic rites….Bishop Blair, who has said he is deeply saddened by Father Robinson’s arrest and the reports of ritual abuse, leaves today for Rome with Auxiliary Bishop Robert Donnelly for their semiannual meeting with Pope John Paul II.” http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040428/NEWS03/404280366

describes rituals – Rituals weird even by medieval standards By Tom Mast “Anthony Jablonowski, 67, served as a priest at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Guernsey from 1980-88. He had his own ideas about penance. Several people told investigators that during his tenure, Father Tony conducted strange rituals in the church basement. Young men in their teens and 20s would strip naked and be gagged, bound and blindfolded. Then their genitals would be tied in a particular fashion, they would be hoisted by a winch and hung upside down, the better to be flogged. All the while, prayers would be said. Father Tony, according to his attorney, claims he did nothing sexual, but he pleaded no contest to a charge of molesting a 17-year-old boy and was sentenced earlier this month to between 15 months and seven years in prison. The 17-year-old, according to the prosecution, stopped by the church rectory, whereupon Father Tony fondled and performed a sexual act on him. Father Tony did not deny performing “religious” rituals, but called them “prayers of penance.” http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/04/26/editorial/columns/334a7b9311524aba87256e80005ef95a.txt
graphic descriptions of abuse – Wyo. ex-priest’s case uncovers lurid tales By Ann Depperschmidt Special to The Denver Post 4/18/04 “During the investigation, authorities learned of Jablonowski’s involvement in sacred rituals and penance prayers. Alden said Jablonowski would take men to the basement of the church and ask them to strip naked, gag and blindfold each other before beginning the ritual. The men said they would be hung “upside down from the ceiling, have their genitals manipulated to induce extreme pain – all while praying,” Alden said.” “Anthony Jablonowski, 69, was sentenced Thursday to between 15 months and seven years in jail for molesting a 17-year-old about 20 years ago.” “The problem with trying to prosecute the rituals is that all people involved in the sessions were consenting male adults at the time, Alden said.” http://www.denverpost.com/

Church votes to forgive pastor serving molestation sentence 5/2/04 by Jenny Burns, Sharon, S.C. (AP) “At tiny St. John Baptist Church, the congregation was faced with a pastor who confessed to molestation, and it decided to let others cast the first stone. It voted to forgive the Rev. John T. Brown and allow him to return to the pulpit after he finishes serving a four-year sentence for sexually assaulting two teenage girls who attended his previous church.” http://www.beaufortgazette.com/state_news/regional/story/3560795p-3163622c.html

700 Priests and Deacons Removed Since January ’02 – 4% of Ranks Accused of Sexual Abuse in 52-Year Period Washington, D.C., 2/27/04 “About 700 priests and deacons have been removed from ministry in Catholic dioceses since January 2002 because of policies aimed at sexual abuse, says the president of the U.S. episcopate. Bishop Wilton Gregory” http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=49778

Church Fires Priest Known for Defending Victims 4/29/04 “The U.S. Roman Catholic priest who has provided the most visible help to victims of clergy sex abuse for the past 18 years has been fired by his archbishop and cannot celebrate public Masses. It’s the second career disruption for the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle (search). In 1986, the Vatican embassy in Washington ended his employment as staff canon lawyer after Doyle co-authored a detailed memo sent to the nation’s bishops that warned of the molestation crisis. Doyle became the most outspoken U.S. priest in criticizing the American hierarchy’s handling of the scandal. He has provided victims pastoral counsel and expert legal advise in numerous suits against the church. After Vatican service, Doyle enlisted as a U.S. Air Force chaplain. Last Sept. 17, Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of the Archdiocese for the Military Services (search) withdrew his endorsement as a chaplain, meaning he cannot function as a priest on military bases or celebrate sacraments. The stated reason was a disagreement over whether military chaplains must provide public Masses every day, but observers charged Thursday that Doyle’s advocacy for victims is the underlying reason.” http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118554,00.html

LA judge throws out libel suit against clergy sex abuse group – Robert Jablon, 5/12/04 “A judge Wednesday threw out a libel lawsuit filed by a priest who alleged a sex abuse victims group defamed him by publicizing claims that he molested a woman three decades ago. It was the first libel action ever filed against the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/05/12/state1638EDT0122.DTL

Protestant sex abuse: A $69 million cost – Why did the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s sex-abuse scandal get so little, if any, real media coverage? Carol Marin 4/28/04 “”It involved a Chicago-based denomination of 5 million members that, according to the Associated Press, “has drawn comparisons to the worst abuses committed during the Roman Catholic molestation crisis.”….Fourteen male victims. A bishop accused of looking the other way. And a whopping $37 million civil jury award plus a separate out of court settlement of $32 million for a total of $69 million….It involves the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America…and a former minister named Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., who was the pastor of one of the denomination’s churches in Marshall, Texas. Arrested in 2001, Thomas is now in federal prison on child pornography charges. When he is done serving a five-year sentence there, he’ll move on to a Texas state penitentiary where he has been sentenced to 397 years for molesting boys.” http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Lutherans Dealing with Sex Abuse Scandal – 4/26/04 by Matt Curry Grapevine, Texas (AP)”jurors in the East Texas town of Marshall sided with nine sex abuse victims who sued the Dallas-based Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The nine claimed a former bishop and his assistant ignored warnings about former pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. The jury agreed, awarding nearly $37 million.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4020776,00.html

Sex Assaults on Women in U.S. Military 2/26/04 “Washington – Pentagon officials testified Wednesday that the number of sexual assaults against women in the U.S. military have been cut in half in recent years. However, skeptical senators said the military must do more to protect female soldiers and prosecute sexual attackers….Three percent of the uniformed women on active duty were sexually assaulted in 2002, down from 6 percent in 1995, according to a Pentagon study released at a hearing Wednesday.” at http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?s_site=twincities&p_multi=PD|&p_product=PD&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_text_search-0=Sex%20AND%20assaults%20AND%20on%20AND%20women%20AND%20in%20AND%20U.S.%20AND%20military%20AND%20decline&s_dispstring=Sex%20assaults%20on%20women%20in%20U.S.%20military%20decline%20AND%20date(last%20180%20days)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=-180qzD&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no

Another sexual abuse lawsuit filed against American Boychoir 4/17/04 Princeton Township, N.J. “Another former student at the American Boychoir School has filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the school, less than a month after an appellate ruling allowed similar lawsuits to proceed despite protections offered by the state’s Charitable Immunity Act. The suit was filed last week by a 42-year-old New Jersey man whose name and hometown were not identified. The man claims he was sexually abused in the 1970s by Donald Hanson, the school’s music director from 1974 to 1976. The suit also claims that the school failed to monitor Hanson’s activities, and that other teachers should have known the sexual abuse was occurring and should have taken steps to stop it.” http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj–americanboychoir-0417apr17,0,4820003.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

Human Trafficking Fact Sheet – Recent Developments in U.S. Government Efforts to End Human Trafficking “Human trafficking denies hundreds of thousands of people their basic human rights, poses a serious public health risk, and fuels organized crime around the world….The United States has taken significant action to combat trafficking in persons, including trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. In April 2003, the PROTECT Act was signed into law by President Bush. This bill serves as a historic milestone for protecting children while severely punishing those who victimize young people. The PROTECT Act allows law enforcement officers to prosecute Americans who travel abroad to abuse minors, without having to prove prior intent to commit illicit crimes. This bill also makes clear there is no statute of limitations for crimes involving the abduction or physical or SEXUAL abuse of a child-in virtually all cases. The bill also strengthens laws punishing offenders who travel abroad to prey on children (“sex tourism”). These U.S. “tourists” are now subject to domestic child abuse/child exploitation laws even if their crimes are committed abroad, and they face up to 30 years imprisonment, from a previous maximum of 15 years.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040318-8.html

“Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. Victims of human trafficking are young children, teenagers, men and women. Approximately 800,000 to 900,000 victims annually are trafficked across international borders world wide, and between 18,000 and 20,000 of those victims are trafficked into the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of State. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. After drug dealing, trafficking of humans is tied with arms dealing as the second largest criminal industry in the world, and is the fastest growing.” http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/index.html

Ten Million Kids Trapped in Domestic Labour – Study – Geneva (Reuters) “At least 10 million children, most of them girls, are trapped in domestic labor jobs where they work long hours for little pay and often face abuse, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Friday. The U.N. agency called in a report for an end to the most exploitative forms of child domestic labor such as slavery and trafficking of youths, some as young as 10 years old. Some two million children under the age of 15 are household domestic servants in South Africa and 700,000 work in Jakarta, Indonesia, according to the report. “They work in isolation and are subject to verbal, physical, emotional and, in some cases, sexual abuse.” http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20040611/wl_nm/rights_child_dc

Calif. judge seals anonymous letter claiming to know who killed Laci Peterson Brian Skoloff 4/23/04 Redwood City, Calif. (AP) “Defense attorneys in Scott Peterson’s murder trial will investigate claims made in an anonymous letter saying that someone else may have killed Peterson’s pregnant wife….Prosecutors last week said they’d conduct DNA tests on blood found inside a van that witnesses reportedly saw in the neighborhood around the time Laci Peterson vanished. Prosecutors said they remain convinced the vehicle was not involved, but are conducting the tests in anticipation of the defense’s strategy. Geragos has hinted the van and its occupants may have been linked to Laci Peterson’s disappearance.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/23/national0611EDT0487.DTL

Victim and families steeling for Amirault release from prison By Associated Press 4/28/04 Boston “Her story of bizarre sexual abuse at a day care center helped convince a jury to send Gerald Amirault to prison. It also later ensnared her in controversy over whether she and other children were manipulated into lying by overzealous prosecutors. Eighteen years later, Jennifer Bennett stands by her testimony: that Amirault dressed up as a clown and raped her in a “magic room” at Malden’s Fells Acres day care center.” “Amirault, 50, was convicted in 1986 of molesting and raping eight 3- and 4-year-old children. He was granted parole in October and his release is scheduled for Friday. His sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, and his late mother, Violet Amirault, were convicted in a separate trial and released in 1995.” “But Bennett, now 25 and married with two children, said she has no doubt she was abused. She still has flashbacks, still wakes up in a cold sweat and is still terrified by clowns. Her father, Paul Bennett, said those who doubt his daughter’s story didn’t see her regress into bed-wetting for no apparent reason before the abuse was reported, or live with her as she continued struggle with the abuse into adulthood. Most also didn’t hear the graphic testimony firsthand, which he said was too descriptive to be implanted in the heads of small children.” http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=24&format=

Amirault will soon be a free man – Convicted molester heads home next week By John Ellement – 4/22/04 “Gerald Amirault, whose 1986 convictions for child rape helped spawn a national debate over the testimony of children in molestation cases, will be freed from prison next week after Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley decided yesterday she cannot prove the most notorious figure in the Fells Acre Day Care Center case is currently a threat to children. In October, the state Parole Board voted to grant parole to Amirault, who has served 17 of his 30 to 40-year sentence, and prosecutors had six months to decide if they would seek to have him civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person.” “The family and their supporters have long argued that the preschool age children who made the molestation accusations were steered into doing so by unskilled police and social workers who used interrogation techniques that have since been discredited by other professionals. “Jennifer Bennett, one of the children who testified against Amirault in Middlesex Superior Court, said yesterday that she was not wrong then and is not wrong now. “He did rape and molest me; that is still in my head,” said Bennett, who is now married and the mother of a son and daughter. “He is sick. He did it once. He will do it again. . . . He’s like a wild animal who needs his prey.” Bennett, her husband, and two children have spent the past two weeks living with her parents at their Malden home. Bennett said she remains fearful of Amirault and feels safer being in her parents’ home. Bennett and other Amirault victims were notified Tuesday by Coakley’s office that the last barrier to Amirault’s release is now gone. Bennett and her father, Paul A. Bennett, both said they did not find fault with Coakley, but they blamed the Parole Board for October’s decision to grant Amirault parole even though he has refused to acknowledge he committed the crimes. “She wouldn’t let us down; she wouldn’t let us victims down,” Jennifer Bennett said. “If anyone could have gotten anything done, Martha could have. She fought for us. This is an outcome you can’t do much about.” Bennett said Amirault’s impending release is forcing her to resume therapy after a two-year break.” http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/04/22/amirault_will_soon_be_a_free_man/
Amirault released from prison after 18 years By AP 4/30/04 “Larry Hardoon, the chief prosecutor in the case, said he continues to believe Amirault committed the crimes. He defended the interviewing techniques used by investigators, which were later criticized as leading and suggestive to the children. “Anybody that takes the time to understand and pay attention to what the actual facts were – not the mischaracterization of facts that gets spread by the defense – the convictions have always been upheld as sound and fully supportable,” he said. “I believe he had a fair trial and that the system worked the way it’s supposed to work. I’ve never seen or heard anything from the beginning of this case to today – that makes me think otherwise,” he said.” http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=12609

from LMS Freed Serial Molester Moves to Wash. State – The man released in Orange County after winning an appeal of his life-sentence conviction once told a therapist of more than 200 victims. By Christine Hanley 4/16/04 “A serial child molester freed in Orange County last week from a life sentence has resurfaced in Washington state, where authorities say he once cruised for victims — and where he will be required to register as a serious sex offender deemed likely to repeat his crimes. Edward Harvey Stokes, who once said to a therapist that he had molested more than 200 victims.” http://www.latimes.com/

Judge overturns molestation convictions for man imprisoned 20 years; victims recanted – Brian Skoloff 4/30/04 Bakersfield, Calif. (AP) “A judge on Friday threw out the child molestation conviction of a man who spent 20 years in prison, siding with the defense after most of the alleged victims claimed the assaults never happened. John Stoll, now 60, will remain in custody until a May 4 hearing to determine a release date. He was convicted in 1985 on 17 counts of child molestation.” “Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green said prosecutors would not seek a retrial, but added that she was disappointed with the ruling because authorities still believe Stoll is guilty.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/30/national1408EDT
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describes violent crimes Indonesian man admits sexually abusing over 100 children, killing one “An Indonesian has been arrested for killing a teenage boy who refused to have sex with him and has admitted sexually abusing more than 100 boys since the 1970s, according to police. Muhammad Buchoirudin, 62, was arrested on Thursday in Jakarta hours after he battered a 14-year-old to death with a hammer, said Commissioner Ahmad Alwi, the police chief at Kebon Jeruk district in West Jakarta. Buchoirudin, who taught children to read the Koran, later told police that he had sexually assaulted more than 100 boys aged between 12 and 16 since the 1970s, Commissioner Alwi said.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1103997.htm

article describes abuse Group Claims Rampant Abuse in Children’s Homes – Abuse in German church-run children’s homes was widespread, victims say. 5/29/04 “Nuns, priests and educators in German children’s homes systematically abused the young people there, according to a recently-formed lobbying group….Their association, which hopes to be a forum and interest group for people who spent parts of their childhood in institutions, is meeting in the city of Kassel….”We demand a public apology for the harm that was done to us in these institutions,” Jean-Pierre de Picco, chairman of the victims’ association, told reporters….According to him, there were around 3,600 children’s homes in Germany in the 1950s and 60s, and while abuse did not take place in all of them, the horrific stories of mistreatment are not isolated cases. Of the cases of abuse reported thus far, 90 percent happened in Catholic children’s homes.” http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_1220276_1_A,00.html

McLaughlin back in court 05/11/04 “Bruce McLaughlin, the lawyer accused in 1998 of abusing his children, now faces a new fight. McLaughlin was arrested and charged with domestic abuse April 30 after an altercation at his Leesburg home on April 29, according to Lt. Jeff Dube, spokesperson for Leesburg Police…..McLaughlin, now 51, faced a grueling court battle after testimony from his three children condemned him in a court of his peers in 1998. His 13-year prison sentence – of which he served four years – was overturned last year after the Virginia Supreme Court reviewed the case, citing evidence conflicts.” http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=11631568&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506039&rfi=6

Assault charge takes McLaughlin back to court By Emily Tjelmeland 06/01/04 “Bruce McLaughlin, a former Leesburg lawyer, was charged April 29 with domestic assault and battery on son Lucas, 17, according to a Leesburg Police report….The charge is the latest round in an eight-year battle between McLaughlin and his ex-wife, Robyn, over his contact with their four children since the couple’s separation and subsequent divorce. Since 1998 Bruce McLaughlin has been named in 22 allegations of child abuse. In 1998 he was convicted on seven charges of child abuse and sentenced to 13 years in prison. The convictions were thrown out in a 2002 acquittal. At the same time, his parental rights were restored, and he was granted access to his children through visitation….Lucas McLaughlin, three months shy of his 18th birthday, alleges in the complaint that his father pushed him up against his bedroom door, threatened him and began choking him. When Lucas tried to leave in his car, he said his father pushed him against the car and put him in a choke hold. Lucas said when he wrangled himself free, he fled to his mother’s nearby home and shortly after filed an emergency protective order against his father, and the June 2 trial date was set….On May 7, Bruce McLaughlin asked for the emergency protective order to be revoked and joint custody to be restored. The judge granted both of his requests….Robyn and Lucas McLaughlin said they were never notified of the hearing. Bruce McLaughlin, an attorney whose license was suspended after a failed prison escape attempt, attached the custody request to a motion to reconsider bond. Virginia law does not require both parties to be notified of such a hearing. “I hadn’t been told about the hearing. The next thing I knew, the amendment was passed,” said Robyn McLaughlin. “It’s not right. I don’t know why this keeps happening to our family. Once again, the system has failed them.”…McLaughlin said Lucas became angry after his father took away his car. “This incident,” McLaughlin wrote, “was a simple act on my part of proper discipline turned into an overblown assault allegation manufactured by Robyn McLaughlin, who encouraged Lucas to file it.” http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=11837011&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506035&rfi=6

Filed 2/16/99 Certified for Publication in the Court of Appeal of the State of California Fourth Appellate District Division Three – James Trear, Plaintiff and Appellant, V. Judith Sills, Defendant and Respondent.G016875 (Super. Ct. No. 728982) O P I N I O N Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Thomas N. Thrasher, Judge. Affirmed….”In this case a father claims he was wrongly accused of sexually abusing his daughter because his daughter’s therapist implanted the idea in her mind. He has now sued the daughter’s therapist for “professional negligence,” that is, malpractice, despite the fact that he was never the therapist’s patient. The case comes to us on a judgment after a demurrer without leave to amend. This court is thus faced with the question of whether the professional duty of the therapist extends beyond the patient to the patient’s parent. The answer must be no. As we explain, to extend the duty of a therapist to persons who have a relationship with the patient in the context of a perceived recovered memory of childhood sexual abuse is to saddle the therapist with a divided loyalty in an inherently adversarial situation.”

From LMS Nordic police stage coordinated raids against suspected pedophiles Tommy Grandell, 5/25/04 Sweden (AP) “Police in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland carried out coordinated raids Tuesday and charged more than 196 people suspected of obtaining and distributing child pornography.” http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/05/25/international1406EDT0592.DTL

Protective Parent Reform Act Is Major Victory For Children 5/11/04 “The Tennessee General Assembly took a major step in child protection this session in passing the Protective Parent Reform Act. The Act provides guidelines for any attorney who is appointed to represent a child in a hearing for custody. It also prohibits the custody courts from granting a change in custody of a child based on a parent filing a good faith allegation of child abuse if the Department of Children’s Services fails to fully substantiate or even investigate the allegation, which happens too frequently. The most far reaching part of the Act is in making certain that the best interest of the child is the center of a custody dispute by stating that child abuse is to be considered on a preponderance of the evidence instead of the more onerous clear and convincing evidence or beyond reasonable doubt. The Act also prohibits the courts from placing a child in the custody of or in an uncontrolled visitation arrangement with a parent who presents a substantial risk of harm to the child.” http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_50424.asp

History of Child Abuse and Neglect Laws http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/HistoryChildAbuse.html

The Center for Law and Social Responsibility at New England School of Law – Sexual Violence Legal News Online http://www.nesl.edu/csr/svnews/

Mind Control and Experimentation

Lawyer talks to U.N. on abuse – Brookfield attorney is victim advocate By Karen Ali “Brookfield lawyer Helen McGonigle was recently called upon to speak at the United Nations on the topic of ritual abuse and torture. Helen McGonigle presented a lecture at the United Nations 48th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. McGonigle was one of six panel members who spoke on the topic of ritual abuse and torture before about 60 audience members, including United Nations delegates and others. The topics she covered were the sexual exploitation of women and children, child sexual abuse, incest, child pornography and sex slavery….”The National Center for Victims of Crime reports that over 700,000 U.S. women and children are raped or sexually assaulted annually,” McGonigle added. McGonigle said the U.S. State Department estimates at least 700,000 people, especially women and children, are trafficked each year across borders throughout the world….”There is growing concern, the most severe form of child sexual abuse, sadistic and ritualized child sexual abuse remains largely unaddressed,” she said.”http://www.newstimes.com/cgi-bin/dbs.cgi?db=news&view_records=1&id=61057

Nato force ‘feeds Kosovo sex trade’ Ian Traynor in Zagreb 5/7/04 “Western troops, policemen, and civilians are largely to blame for the rapid growth of the sex slavery industry in Kosovo over the past five years, a mushrooming trade in which hundreds of women, many of them under-age girls, are tortured, raped, abused and then criminalised, Amnesty International said yesterday. In a report on the rapid growth of sex-trafficking and forced prostitution rackets since Nato troops and UN administrators took over the Balkan province in 1999, Amnesty said Nato soldiers, UN police, and western aid workers operated with near impunity in exploiting the victims of the sex traffickers. As a result of the influx of thousands of Nato-led peacekeepers, “Kosovo soon became a major destination country for women trafficked into forced prostitution. A small-scale local market for prostitution was transformed into a large-scale industry based on trafficking, predominantly run by criminal networks.” The international presence in Kosovo continues to generate 80% of the income for the pimps, brothel-owners, and mafiosi who abduct local girls or traffic women mainly from Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, and Russia to Kosovo via Serbia, the report said, although the international “client base” for the sex trade has fallen to 20% last year from 80% four years ago. Up to 2,000 women are estimated to have been coerced into sex slavery in Kosovo, which had seen “an unprecedented escalation in trafficking” in recent years. The number of premises in Kosovo listed by a special UN police unit as being involved in the rackets has swollen from 18 in 1999 to 200 this year.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,2763,1211248,00.html

Local Agency Aims to Bring Torture Practices to Light By Carol King 4/30/04 “”The Human Lactation Center has aligned itself with the work of Canadian activists Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald, to create public awareness of the existence of Ritual Abuse Torture (RAT). Sarson and MacDonald, who are registered nurses working in Nova Scotia, have been researching RAT for about 11 years. According to their studies, RAT occurs worldwide and is far more prevalent than people realize. “These crimes infiltrate all levels and sectors of society,” MacDonald said. The pair presently is working on a book, Torturers Walk Among Us, which will be published next year. The experts describe RAT as “bizarre acts of an unusual, horrific nature” that extend beyond that of child abuse. “Ritual abuse torture is intentionally planned and organized kin and non-kin brutal group ritualisms,” Sarson explained. “The heinous crimes are done almost exclusively to women and children, and it is physical, mental and emotional, sexual and/or spiritual torture, usually done by small, ‘family’ groups and often done in a ritual setting.” http://www.westport-news.com/Stories/0,1413,100~4437~2119479,00.html

“Satanic Ritual Abuse – A journey to hell and back. In this week’s Third Degree you will meet Star and Lisa. They have never met and yet their stories are eerily similar. Both claim to be victims of satanic ritual abuse. Both talk of being systematically tortured by Satanists from birth through childhood into adulthood. Sexual abuse, physical torture, electric shock treatment, rape – actions so terrible its hard to believe its true. The result is two adults who suffer from multiple personality disorder. Star alone has over 30 different personalities.” http://www.etv.co.za/PRESSLIST/0457.html

article describes graphic crimes – from LMS Fall River murder convict to go free on parole By AP 5/4/04 “Fall River, Mass. – A former teen prostitute who admitted killing her roommate in 1980 at the behest of her pimp, but has since recanted her gruesome story, has been granted parole and will be released later this month. Robin Marie Murphy, 41, who was convicted in the murder of fellow prostitute Karen Marsden, was to be transferred to a halfway house on May 15, The Herald News of Fall River reported. Murphy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder 22 years ago after telling police she stabbed Marsden to death in a ritualistic slaying. She was the prosecution’s star witness against former pimp Carl Drew, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the Marsden case.” http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=19069

Lawsuit claiming CIA put LSD in vet’s drink in 1957 can proceed 5/24/04 San Francisco (AP) “A former deputy U.S. marshal and Marine Corps veteran who claims the CIA slipped LSD into his drink in 1957 as part of a mind-control project offered enough evidence to send his $12 million lawsuit to trial, a federal judge ruled Monday. Chief U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled in favor of Wayne Ritchie, citing an apparent admission from a former CIA operative. “I drugged guys involved in about 10, 12 (instances),” former federal narcotics agent Ira Feldman, who worked for the CIA’s Project MKULTRA, told Ritchie’s lawyer in a sworn deposition in February 2003. “I didn’t do any follow-up. … You just back away and let them worry like this nitwit, Ritchie.” Ritchie, 75, believes he may have been a guinea pig for the CIA’s MKULTRA project, in which LSD and other drugs were given to hundreds of unsuspecting Americans during the Cold War. Ritchie believes his drinks at a 1957 office Christmas party attended by a federal agent involved in the project were spiked. The government denies drugging Ritchie…” http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/v-print/story/9414967p-10339278c.html

With Child Kidnappings on Rise, Afghans Seek Help From Public By Carlotta Gall 4/30/04 Kabul, Afghanistan, April 29 – The Afghan interior minister, Ali Ahmad Jalali, made an unusual appeal to the public on Thursday to watch out for child kidnappers and traffickers, after the police uncovered widespread cases of child kidnapping across the country. More than 187 children have been rescued from kidnappers, and 100 kidnappers have been caught in the past year, Mr. Jalali said. Women, girls and boys are being kidnapped in every province of the country, often by criminal networks that deal in human trafficking, using children for crime or even trading body parts, he said.” http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/30/international/asia/30afgh.html

article may be heavy for survivors – CIA’s human behavior program originated in 1950 and was motivated by Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean use of mind control techniques. It began under the code name BLUEBIRD (and was later known as ARTICHOKE) and was operated by the Office of Security and OSI with support from other offices. MKULTRA formally began in April 1953 as a special, clandestine funding mechanism for DOD human behavior research. The program was the subject of investigations by the Rockefeller Commission in 1975,the Senate Church Committee in 1976, and hearings by Senator Kennedy in 1975 and 1977; however, these committees did not focus on radiation experiments, and no such information was found by them. CIA has told the Committee that MKULTRA involved human experimentation using every research “avenue” listed in the MKULTRA document except for radiation. [3] The agency also noted that most of the MKULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in1973 by the order of then-Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms. [4] In early September 1994, the agency found a document that summarized work done for ARTICHOKE, which states that “[i]n addition to hypnosis, chemical and psychiatric research, the following fields have been explored: …7) other physical manifestations, including heat and cold, atmospheric pressure, radiation.” (emphasis added) Although there is no indication from this document that radiation was explored on humans directly, it makes clear that CIA did”explore” radiation as a possibility for the defensive and offensive use of brainwashing and other interrogating techniques.[5] In another MKULTRA project, CIA secretly provided funding for the construction of a wing of Georgetown University Hospital in the 1950s so that it would have a locale to carry out clinical testing of its biological and chemical programs. Dr. Charles F. Geschickter, a Georgetown doctor who conducted cancer research and experimented with radiation therapy, acted as cover for CIA financing. [6] CIA also tried unsuccessfully to enlist AEC to cofund the project by appealing to its interest in Geschickter’s radiation research. Geschickter testified before Congress in1977 that CIA money helped fund his radioisotope lab and equipment. Thus, CIA money seems to have helped fund radiation-related medical research as a cover for the agency’s real interest in chemical and biological research.” http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/radiation/dir/mstreet/interim/intret.txt

search engine http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/search.html

describes violent crime Creepy ‘Cult’ Clue By Murray Weiss, Larry Celona and Dan Mangan Sarah Fox 5/28/04 “Two dozen yellow flower petals were found around the nude corpse of Juilliard student Sarah Fox, forming an eerie semicircle on the left side of her body, investigators revealed yesterday. In addition to the bizarre, cult-like floral arrangement, the corpse was left on its back, making it appear that the third-year drama student was asleep. “She was left in a position of repose by the killer,” a source said. The petals, fresh and some still on the vine, were from a tulip tree. They were found in a 12-foot radius from Fox’s head to her feet in the woods of Inwood Hill Park in upper Manhattan. Investigators — consulting with Detective Marcos Quinones, an NYPD cult expert — are looking into whether the killer returned after the crime to place the flowers as a bizarre personal or cult ritual.” http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/21841.htm

Break-in at cathedral sparks off debate on the occult “The break-in at St Paul’s Cathedral last weekend in which Eucharist bread and wine disappeared has sparked off debate on whether the elements were meant for use in black magic. Announcing the burglary on Saturday May 22, Reverend Danny Elizabeth of the Anglican Church talked of the possibility that those who took away the items probably intended to use them for occult purposes….Anglican Church Bishop French Chang-Him nevertheless said it was too early to tell whether the break-in was connected with a possible demand for items intended for use in the occult or not.” http://www.seychelles-online.com.sc/archives/20250504.html

General Information about the Knights of Columbus (page has graphics – may be heavy for survivors) http://users.erols.com/kc2169/kcginfo.htm

Automotive RFID Gets Rolling – The Federal Highway Administration awards a contract to develop a 5.9 GHz RFID system to cut road fatalities in the U.S. by 50%. By Jonathan Collins Apr. 13, 2004-With government funding and access to a large swath of radio spectrum, four RFID developers are starting work on a new generation of RFID products aimed at bringing greater safety and new wireless applications to U.S. roads. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has called on Mark IV Industries, Raytheon, SIRIT and TransCore-companies that supply systems for the largest RFID toll deployments in the U.S.-to jointly develop dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) technology systems for a trial as part of the agency’s efforts to cut road fatalities in the U.S. by 50% within 10 years.” http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/866/1/1/

from LMS Simulated Prison in ’71 Showed a Fine Line Between `Normal’ and `Monster’ By John Schwartz 5/6/04 “In 1971 researchers at Stanford University created a simulated prison in the basement of the campus psychology building. They randomly assigned 24 students to be either prison guards or prisoners for two weeks. Within days the “guards” had become swaggering and sadistic, to the point of placing bags over the prisoners’ heads, forcing them to strip naked and encouraging them to perform sexual acts. The landmark Stanford experiment and studies like it give insight into how ordinary people can, under the right circumstances, do horrible things – including the mistreatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.” http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/international/middleeast/06PSYC.html

site has very graphic descriptions of abuse “more than 100 incidents of rape, sexual assault and other forms of sexual misconduct reported in the past 18 months by U.S. women soldiers currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who have been sexually assaulted by fellow U.S. soldiers. The military’s response to these victims has been grossly inadequate. Many victims did not receive even the most basic medical care.” http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/sfvo/mil_sa_iraq.html

Invisible beam tops list of nonlethal weapons By Greg Gordon 6/1/04 “Washington – Test subjects can’t see the invisible beam from the Pentagon’s new, Star Trek-like weapon, but no one has withstood the pain it produces for more than three seconds. People who volunteered to stand in front of the directed energy beam say they felt as if they were on fire. When they stepped aside, the pain disappeared instantly. The long-range column of millimeter-wave energy is known as the “Active Denial System” for its ability to prevent an aggressor from advancing. Senior military officials, who plan to deliver the device for troop evaluation this fall, say years of testing has produced no sign it will lead to health effects beyond perhaps causing skin to temporarily redden. It is among the most potent of a new generation of futuristic, “less-than-lethal” weapons being developed by the Defense Department – tools that could dramatically alter the way police control riots and soldiers fight wars.” http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/9499345p-10423294c.html

The Ultimate Remote Control – One day, our brains might be able to beam our very thoughts wirelessly to the machines around us By Carl Zimmer Newsweek “Researchers hope ultimately to eavesdrop on the brain’s digital crackle with electrodes, transmit those signals to a computer that can read the brain’s code and then use those signals to control a machine. Imagine a quadriplegic person able to operate a robotic arm mounted on a wheelchair with merely a thought. Imagine a digital stream flowing from a microphone into a deaf person’s auditory cortex, where it could become the perception of sound. These dreams have an official name: brain-machine interfaces. A decade ago they seemed little more than fantasy, but now their emergence seems like just a matter of time.” http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5093199/site/newsweek/

“Welcome to the Stanford Prison Experiment web site, which features an extensive slide show and information about this classic psychology experiment, including parallels with the recent abuse of Iraqi prisoners. ..Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended prematurely after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students who participated. In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress….Philip G. Zimbardo” http://www.prisonexp.org/

Stanley Milgram’s Experiment “a psychologist at Yale University, conducted a study focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience….In the experiment, so-called “teachers” (who were actually the unknowing subjects of the experiment) were recruited by Milgram. They were asked administer an electric shock of increasing intensity to a “learner” for each mistake he made during the experiment. The fictitious story given to these “teachers” was that the experiment was exploring effects of punishment (for incorrect responses) on learning behavior. The “teacher” was not aware that the “learner” in the study was actually an actor – – merely indicating discomfort as the “teacher” increased the electric shocks. When the “teacher” asked whether increased shocks should be given he/she was verbally encouraged to continue. Sixty percent of the “teachers” obeyed orders to punish the learner to the very end of the 450-volt scale! No subject stopped before reaching 300 volts!” http://www.cba.uri.edu/Faculty/dellabitta/mr415s98/EthicEtcLinks/Milgram.htm

Social Influence – Obedience to authority – Milgram – The classic study of obedience to authority was conducted by Milgram in 1974. http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/socinf/obed.html

has graphic descriptions of violence Satanic ritual blamed for death of Italian teens 6/8/04 Rome “An Italian magistrate warned against the growing lure of Antichrist cults in Catholic Italy on Monday after the discovery of the bodies of two teenagers killed in a satanic sacrifice. Police announced at the weekend they had uncovered the bodies of 19-year-old Chiara Marino and 16-year-old Fabio Tollis, last seen in January 1998 leaving a pizzeria with other members of their heavy metal rock band “Beasts of Satan”….Italian media said witness statements showed Marino and Tollis died during a cocaine-fuelled ritual where Marino, a petite brunette, was killed under a full moon by knife plunged into her heart….The deaths have horrified Catholic Italy, home of Vatican City, with pages of newspapers given over to descriptions of the black candles and goats’ skulls decorating Marino’s bedroom and witness statements of sexual violence. What has fuelled the fear are suggestions the double sacrifice near the town of Busto Arsisio may not be isolated. “Four people have been arrested for the murder of the two teenagers, but the investigations are ongoing. We are looking at other levels of involvement,” Pizzi said. One of those arrested in the double murder is already in prison for the murder of a former girlfriend. As many as 5000 people are thought to be members of satanic cults in Italy with 17- to 25-year-olds making up three quarters of them, officials say. “The phenomenon always existed in Catholic countries where the figure of Satan is prominent in teachings as the alter-ego of Christ,” La Sapienza University professor Maria Matioti said….She said satanic cults tended to be found in northern Italy, where traditional family communities had been split up due to migration to find work, leaving some people demoralised and isolated. “In the south, people are more open,” she said. Pizzi said investigators were looking into the possibility the “Beasts of Satan” band members were instructed by Satanists in their late 20s or early 30s. He said police were also reviewing two suspicious suicides in the area.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3571233&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

Fourth Milan death linked to Satanist rock band By Peter Popham in Rome 6/11/04 “New details have emerged this week of an alleged cabal of young Satanists connected to Milan’s heavy metal scene, who are accused of murdering at least two people while drunk and high….The other victim, Fabio Tollis, was a guitarist in the same group as three of the young men arrested in connection with the murders, the Circus of Satanis. Marino and Tollis were last heard of in January 1998, and their disappearance remained a mystery until Mario M, one of the four arrested and a former member of Circus of Satanis, began talking to the police. The group, he said, whose musical name had changed to The Beasts of Satan, were devil-worshippers whose so-called “spiritual leader” is Nicola Sapone, a 26-year-old plumber, who was also arrested but is not a musician in the group. The Italian media are now feverishly seeking other clues to explain the extent of the Satanic network, with most interest focused on Turin, where a Satanic church was founded in the 1960s. One reporter claimed to have discovered in Turin the true ringleader of the sect, nicknamed “the first born son of the devil” and related to one of the four arrested. Members of the extended group, it is claimed, celebrate black masses all over Italy.” http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=530272

from LMS Kids abused in Abu Ghraib, UNICEF fears – U.S. soldiers may have videotaped rape of boy prisoners, NBC reports Geneva (AP) “The United Nations children’s agency said today it was “profoundly disturbed” by reports that children may have been abused in prisons in Iraq. “Any mistreatment, sexual abuse, exploitation or torture of children in detention is a violation of international law,” UNICEF spokesman Damien Personnaz said. UNICEF is profoundly disturbed by news reports alleging that children may have been among those abused.” NBC reported last week that unreleased videotapes, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showed Iraqi guards at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison raping young boys. British newspapers have reported that children were tortured under interrogation. Personnaz said UNICEF so far has no independent confirmation of the reports but has decided to speak out nevertheless. “If the reports are wrong, then we will say so,” he said. But this is also a way for us to make sure that it doesn’t happen in the future.” UNICEF stressed that mistreating children breaches the U.N. treaties on children’s rights, torture and civil rights, as well as the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war.” http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1084269897599&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
Elite power brokers’ secret talks by Emma Jane Kirby BBC correspondent in Paris “The world’s financial and political elite are to hold a closed meeting in France on Thursday where delegates are expected to be focusing their attention on post war Iraq. The Bilderberg meeting will be held in Versailles just before the start of the Group of Seven meeting of finance ministers in nearby Paris. Henry Kissinger is believed to be attending this year. Bilderberg, which was founded in the 1950s by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, is said to steer international policy from behind closed doors. Its critics say that it is a capitalist organisation which operates entirely through self interest….There are no members as such – instead, an invitation list is comprised each year by an unknown steering committee, but participants are mainly leading and powerful figures in the fields of business and politics….The meetings are cloaked in secrecy and participants rarely reveal their attendance….What the group actually does is no clearer either, although it’s known to be an extremely influential lobbying group with a good deal of political clout on both sides of the Atlantic.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3031717.stm

New book delves into Fernald’s cruel past By Scott Allen, Globe Staff 5/1/04 “Fernald’s isolation made the children an easy mark for abuse, including nutrition experiments in which children were fed bowls of slightly radioactive oatmeal to make their digestion easier to track. After the research became public a decade ago, Boyce and other members of the so-called Fernald Science Club won a settlement of $3 million from MIT and Quaker Oats, which carried out and funded the experiments, as well as from the state and federal governments. But now, as the decaying Victorian campus in Waltham prepares to close permanently, it’s clear that the radiation experiments were part of a lifetime of hardships that cannot be compensated by settlement shares of $50,000 to $65,000 per person…Massachusetts officials acknowledged that in 1949, the year Boyce was admitted, about 8 percent of children in state schools were not mentally retarded or were normal. In fact, D’Antonio found an account of a 1940 meeting in which the superintendent said the school needed high-functioning residents for cheap labor.” http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/05/01/cruel_past?pg=full

America’s Deep, Dark Secret 5/2/04 “a new book, “The State Boys Rebellion,” by Michael D’Antonio, reveals even more: A large proportion of the kids who were locked up were not retarded at all. They were simply poor, uneducated kids with no place to go, who ended up in institutions like the Fernald School in Waltham, Mass….In 1994 Senate hearings, it came out that scientists from MIT had been giving radioactive oatmeal to the boys – men now – in a nutrition study for Quaker Oats. All they knew is that they’d been asked to join a science club….”But they forgot to mention the milk was radioactive,” says David White-Lief, an attorney who worked on the state task force investigating the science club. He says he was outraged that the children were exploited without their knowledge. “It’s my contention, and it was my contention on the task force, that these experiments, because of the lack of informed consent, violated the Nuremburg Code established just 10 years earlier,” says White-Lief. “The lesson of Nazi Germany was we don’t do experiments on people without informed consent. They didn’t use the word “informed consent” – without knowing consent.” Boyce, also in the science club, got a group of members together and they sued. Each received approximately $60,000 in compensation from MIT, Quaker Oats and the government.” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/29/60minutes/main614728.shtml

from LMS Six assigned to state school seek apology – Men were classified as ‘morons’ as result of flawed test in 1950s By Scott Allen, Globe Staff 5/19/04 “Six men who were inaccurately branded “morons” as children and confined for years at a state school for people with mental retardation are asking Governor Mitt Romney to apologize and possibly compensate them for their mistreatment. They also want him to correct the education records of thousands of others who they believe met a similar fate in Massachusetts before 1960.” http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/05/19/six_assigned_to_state_school_seek_apology/

Jury Buries Ghoulish Grave Thief by Leonard Greene 5/4/04 “A New Jersey woman accused of being a high priestess in a religious cult was convicted yesterday on charges she ran a ghoulish, grave-robbing gang of thieves. After only 90 minutes of deliberations, a Newark jury found Miriam Mirabal guilty of seven charges of conspiracy, theft and burglary. Prosecutors said Mirabal ran a network of tomb raiders who stole human remains and then sold them for use in religious cult ceremonies. Mirabal, 61, was tied to at least three of 10 grave robberies from Newark-area cemeteries in the past seven years. She was the last of seven worshippers of the Palo Mayobe cult to be arrested over the thefts of bones and skulls from above-ground crypts at the Mount Pleasant and Holy Sepulchre cemeteries. Mirabal faces five to 55 years in state prison for the crimes….Mirabal, who did time in federal prison 25 years ago for drug smuggling, is a member of a cult that is a derivative of a West African religion that slaves took to Cuba in the 19th century, officials said.” http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/23702.htm

CNN LARRY KING LIVE – Interview With Alison Arngrim Aired April 27, 2004 – 21:00 ET…(rush transcript) LARRY KING, HOST:….from the woman who played Nellie Oleson on the beloved TV show “Little House on the Prairie.” Now for the first in public, Alison Arngrim breaks a silence she’s kept for 27 years. She’s going to share a dark secret that could help others who’ve gone through the same ordeal. Alison Arngrim, an intense emotional hour next on LARRY KING LIVE….ARNGRIM: Well I was sexually molested as a child myself. KING: What age? ARNGRIM: It started around when I was six years old. KING: By a family member. ARNGRIM: Yes. KING: Not your parents. ARNGRIM: Not my parents.” http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0404/27/lkl.00.html

Mozambique govt ‘covering up’ organ trafficking – Lisbon, Portugal 5/13/04 “Local authorities in northern Mozambique are silencing family members of the alleged victims of a human organ trafficking ring that is operating in the southeast African country, a Brazilian missionary said on Thursday. Maria Elilda dos Santos, who says she was pressured to leave Mozambique because of her denouncement of the network, added although organ trafficking was first reported in the northern province of Nampula, it is, in fact, going on nationwide. “There is no cooperation on the part of government organisations. On the contrary there is a huge effort to cover up what is going on,” she told reporters on her arrival in Lisbon….She was one of four missionary nuns who in February alleged that a network of organ traffickers was operating near their convent and orphanage in Nampula. The four nuns said they had gathered testimony from would-be victims of the network who managed to escape, and had photographs of dead children with missing organs. The nuns said they received death threats, and narrowly escaped an ambush, after they made their accusations. In February a Protestant Brazilian missionary, Doraci Edinger, who also charged organ trafficking involving children was taking place, was found dead in front of her home in Nampula….The Mozambican attorney general’s office, which examined 14 cases of violent death or disappearances in Nampula allegedly linked with the sale of organs, has said it found no evidence that human organs had been removed from bodies and sold….Body parts, including sexual organs, are commonly used in many parts of Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, in rituals believed to bring good fortune and wealth.” http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66272

Gang rape trial underway in France 5/5/04 “Seventeen people have gone on trial in France for the gang rape of 18 children. Most of the victims are the defendants’ offspring. The paedophilia case is one of the largest to be tried in northern France and has shocked the country’s population. Prosecutors allege 18 children, aged between three and 12, were attacked over a five-year period at their run-down housing estate near Boulogne….The case is expected to last six weeks and will hear some of the victims testify against their parents. Three of the defendants have admitted rape.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1101445.htm

Child rape trial opens in France 5/4/04 “Seventeen people have gone on trial in northern France on charges of gang raping 18 children, aged three to 12, over a period of five years. The six women and 11 men have also been charged with “rape with torture” and “rape with barbaric acts”. Some of their own children were named as victims. The alleged incidents, which have shocked France, happened in Outreau, near the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Fourteen of the defendants, aged 24 to 67, deny any involvement….The children, once they had been placed in foster care, told investigators they had been fondled, raped, coerced into performing sex acts and forced to watch pornographic films….The children named other individuals involved, some of them neighbours. Police seized sex toys and pornographic videos from the family apartment, where the illicit sex sessions allegedly took place.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3683255.stm

Dutroux victim confronts abuser in Belgian court from AFP Sabine Dardenne “A victim of the child rapist Marc Dutroux confronted her abuser for the first time today in a Belgian courtroom. Sabine Dardenne, 20, gave her testimony…” The court last week heard the contents of letters Ms Dardenne wrote to her parents from captivity, but which never reached them. In the letters she describes the alleged maltreatment and drudgery she was subjected to, as well as brainwashing and “disgusting” food.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-1080152,00.html

On the spot: a Dutroux victim’s testimony – Sabine Dardenne 4/19/04 “”Dutroux has claimed that he was only a small part of a much wider paedophile network – although most Belgians now believe this is simply his attempt to muddy the water and deflect blame for his actions.”Ms Dardenne said today that the only people she saw during her captivity were Dutroux and Lelièvre, whom she saw only on the day she was abducted.”Laetitia Delhez, who was held captive with Ms Dardenne, is due to give her testimony tomorrow. Unlike Ms Dardenne, however, she believes that Dutroux was not acting alone. Her testimony could throw more light on this question.” Http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-1080884,00.html

from LMS A stain on the family uniform – Scandal tarnishes a golden police clan 4/21/04 Linda Diebel “Jocko Thomas, the Star’s legendary police reporter, met McCormack when he was in homicide and watched his fast rise. “He was the first Roman Catholic chief of police,” says Thomas, 90. “It used to be in Toronto that if you weren’t a Mason or a member of the Orange Lodge, you just got stuck in the force, never promoted. Well, they always had one token Roman Catholic inspector.” http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1082499013955&call_pageid=968332188492

from LMS Corrections officer jailed on child molestation charges – David James Gomez By Ashley Broughton The Salt Lake Tribune “A Utah Department of Corrections administrator was booked into jail on suspicion of 125 counts of sexual abuse for allegedly molesting boys while serving as a Mormon bishop a decade ago. David James Gomez, 57, was arrested Monday at Corrections headquarters, said department spokesman Jack Ford, and was placed on administrative leave without pay. Police said they interviewed more than one alleged victim, but would not specify how many. In one scenario, a 13-year-old boy who had approached Gomez for religious counseling was allegedly abused for three years, beginning in 1990. Investigators allege that abuse included hundreds of incidents….and took place in Gomez’s office at a neighborhood center for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at Gomez’s home and in the parking lot of Granger High School. http://www.sltribune.com/2004/Apr/04212004/utah/159211.asp

from LMS State asked to prosecute Kingston for bigamy By Brooke Adams – The Salt Lake Tribune “Days after John Daniel Kingston admitted in court he has children with multiple women, three activist groups called on the state of Utah to prosecute him for bigamy….Kingston is currently on trial in 3rd District Juvenile Court for physical abuse and neglect of 10 children he has with Heidi Mattingly Foster. The trial continues June 3. The Guardian ad Litem’s Office alleges that over the past decade the couple has systematically physically abused and neglected their children….He allegedly has 14 wives and around 120 children.” http://www.sltribune.com/2004/May/05272004/utah/170128.asp

Utah alleges child abuse, neglect by prominent polygamist By Travis Reed AP 5/20/04 Salt Lake City “The state of Utah began making its case Thursday for keeping custody of two children of a prominent polygamist and one of his at least 14 wives. In a juvenile court trial, the state accuses John Daniel Kingston, member of a secretive clan, and his wife Heidi Foster of a decade-long pattern of abusing and neglecting their 10 children….The Kingston clan, called the Latter-Day Church of Christ, includes an estimated 1,200 members. The secretive group has amassed a $150 million business empire, running companies that include pawn shops, restaurant supply stores, dairies and mines throughout northern Utah.” http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040520-2010-polygamist-custody.html

Utah Judge Rules Polygamist Abused Girls 6/4/04 By Debbie Hummel Salt Lake City (AP) – “A juvenile court judge ruled Thursday that a prominent polygamist abused two young daughters and their eight siblings. Judge Andrew Valdez decided that an uncle and aunt who are not part of John Daniel Kingston’s clan will have temporary custody of the 13-year-old girl, and the 15-year-old girl will go to a foster facility….The Kingston clan, also known as the Order, has an estimated 1,200 members. The secretive group has amassed a $150 million business empire, running companies that include pawn shops, restaurant supply stores, dairies and mines.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4166379,00.html

Former LDS bishop arrested By Pat Reavy – Deseret Morning News – West Valley City – 4/21/04 A former LDS bishop and administrator with the Utah Department of Corrections was accused Tuesday of molesting several teenage boys over an extended period of time. “David James Gomez, 57, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Monday for investigation of 50 counts of forcible sodomy, 15 counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, 10 counts of sodomy on a child, all first-degree felonies, and 50 counts of forcible sexual abuse, all second-degree felonies. He was being held Tuesday without bail…..Gomez is accused of raping, sodomizing and fondling several boys 10 to 13 years ago, according to police. He came in contact with the boys while serving as bishop of the Hunter 10th Ward.” http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595057745,00.html

Is anyone familiar w/the TALL HATS similar to stovepipe or pilgrim hats that may be worn by some Satanists during rituals? Is there a significant meaning to the hats? If you have info, please email me at JanieBGood@aol.com (As always, please use appropriate caution when contacting any resource mentioned in this newsletter.)

Journal Articles

Many of the journal abstract excerpts and quotes in this section of the newsletter came from the backlash_ology@yahoogroups.com listed as BO For info. write backlash_ology-owner@yahoogroups.com

from BO Childhood abuse and risk of smoking onset. Nichols HB, Harlow BL. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2004 May; 58(5):402-6. “Women who experienced either physical or sexual abuse as a child were 40% more likely to begin smoking compared with women with no history of abuse (95% CI 1.0 to 2.0). Virtually all of this association was confined to sexual abuse (OR = 2.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 4.3) as compared with physical abuse (OR = 0.7, 95% CI 0.7 to 1.6). However, the joint effect of experiencing both physical and sexual abuse as a child led to a 3.5-fold increase in the likelihood of becoming a smoker (95% CI 1.3 to 9.4) compared with women who did not experience any childhood abuse after adjustment for religion, social class, and poverty.” Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA. Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.

from BO Sexual Trajectories of Abused and Neglected Youths. Brown J, Cohen P, Chen H, Smailes E, Johnson JG. J Dev Behav Pediatr 2004 Apr; 25(2):77-82. “A history of two or more incidents of sexual abuse was significantly associated with early puberty and early pregnancy after gender, class, race, paternal absence, and mother’s age at the birth of the study child were controlled statistically.” Department of Pediatrics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York; Columbia University School of Medicine, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York.

Amnesia for traumatic events among recent survivors: A pilot study. Yovell Y, Bannett Y, Shalev AY. CNS Spectr 2003 Sep; 8(9):676-80, 683-5….Six traumas were followed prospectively. Survivors were interviewed 7, 30, and 120 days following the traumatic event. Each interview documented in detail their recollections of the day of their trauma….In four subjects who did not develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we found brief, stable, and persistent memory gaps, which coincided with the moment of greatest emotional intensity. In two subjects who developed PTSD, we found, in addition to the previous form of amnesia, longer, progressive, and unstable memory gaps….Neurobiological research offers two explanatory mechanisms for the observations: A failure of acquisition of episodic memories may account for the stable deficits seen in all subjects. This could coincide with stress-induced malfunction of the hippocampal declarative memory system. A failure of spontaneous recall may account for the more extended traumatic amnesia that was observed in PTSD patients. This resembles the psychoanalytic description of repression….These preliminary findings suggest that brief, irreversible memory gaps are common in trauma survivors, whereas longer, progressive, and potentially reversible amnesia occurs among survivors who develop PTSD.” Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, NY, USA. http://www.cnsspectrums.com/pdf/art_459.pdf

When Children Tell And No One Listens – October 1997 – By Sherry A. Quirk, Esq. “…some of the worst cases are those where authorities were notified of abuse and had determined that the child was at risk, but nevertheless left the child in the care of the abuser….Studies show that batterers have been able to convince authorities that the victim is unfit or undeserving of sole custody in approximately 70% of challenged cases.” http://www.yesican.org/articles/childrentell.html

Trauma Violence Abuse. 2003 Oct;4(4):283-308. Dissociative experiences of women child abuse survivors: a selective constructivist review. Hall JM. College of Nursing, U. of Tenn. TN “Current understandings of dissociative phenomena are diverse, as reflected in the research and treatment literature. Dissociation has been linked to physical and psychological problems, including major mental illnesses, pelvic pain, somatization disorders, and eating disorders. There has been a preoccupation with rare but fascinating extremes of dissociation, such as multiple personality disorder, with less emphasis on more frequently seen types of dissociation, such as depersonalization and derealization.

From BO Compulsive features in the eating disorders: a role for trauma? Lockwood R, Lawson R, Waller G. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2004 Mar; 192(3):247-9. “This study of 62 eating-disordered women examined potential links between different forms of reported childhood trauma (emotional, physical, sexual) and current compulsive behaviors (cleaning, checking). Each woman was interviewed to establish diagnosis, reported trauma history, and the presence of compulsive checking and cleaning behaviors….there was a significant association of reported childhood sexual abuse with the presence of cleaning behaviors.” Eating Disorders Service, South West London and St. George’s Mental Health NHS Trust and Department of Mental Health, St. George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London, London, United Kingdom.

From BO Childhood abuse and risk of eating disorders in women. Rayworth BB, Wise LA, Harlow BL. Epidemiology 2004 May; 15(3):271-278. “Compared with women who reported no abuse, women who reported childhood physical abuse had twice the odds of suffering from subclinical eating disorder symptoms (odds ratio [OR] = 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3-3.3) or meeting DSM-IV criteria for an eating disorder (2.1; 1.1-4.2). Women who reported both physical and sexual abuse during childhood had 3 times the odds of developing eating disorder symptoms (3.0; 1.3-6.8) and nearly 4 times the odds of meeting DSM-IV criteria for an eating disorder (3.9; 1.3-11.5). These associations persisted within the subgroup of women with no depression antecedent to first onset of an eating disorder.” Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center, Brigham & Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; and the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.

Emotional Trauma & Childhood Amnesia Reprinted from: the Journal of Consciousness & Emotion, 4 (2), 151-178, 2003 by R. Joseph, Ph.D. Brain Research Laboratory “The results indicate, therefore, that childhood amnesia has its offset at around age 3.5 for the general population and 6.1 for those with a history of early trauma, and that repetitive instances of traumatic episodes significantly disrupt memory and neurological functioning such that individuals who were repeatedly traumatized experience a period of childhood amnesia which is almost twice that of the general population….It has been reported (Joseph, 1999), that those claiming no memory for their childhood were victims of repetitive instances of severe emotional or sexual trauma. Disturbances of early memory have been frequently reported among adults who were traumatized or abused as children (Berliner, Hyman, Thomas, Fitzgerald, 2003; Briere & Conte, 1995; Courtois, 1995; Duggal & Sroufe, 1998; Elliot, 1997; Wessel, Merckelbach, & Dekkers, 2002). The more prolonged or repetitive the trauma, and the younger the victim, the greater is the degree of amnesia (Joseph, 1998, 1999). Severe disturbances of memory, and related post traumatic stress disorders have also been reported for victims of childhood sexual abuse (Briere & Conte, 1995; Briere & Elliott, 1994; Courtois, 1995; Duggal & Sroufe, 1998; Elliott, 1997; Polusny & Follette, 1995; Williams, 1994), rape (Burnam, Stein, Golding, Siegel, Sorenson, Forsythe, & Telles, 1988; Christianson & Nilsson, 1984; Donaldson & Gardner, 1985)…” http://brain-mind.com/TraumaAmnesia.html

“Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress” ed. by Melissa Farley, pub. by The Hawthorne Maltreatment & Trauma Press, 10 Alice St. Binghamton, NY 13904-1580 e-mail : getinfo@Haworthpress.com, http://www.haworthpress.com, 607-722-5857 “Our findings from 9 countries on 5 continents indicate that the physical and emotional violence in prostitution is overwhelming. To summarize the findings of this study and other research and clinical literature on different types of prostitution (see Farley & Kelly, 2000; Farley 2003): 1. 95% of those in prostitution experienced sexual harassment which in the United States would be legally actionable in a different job setting. 2. 65% to 95% of those in prostitution were sexually assaulted as children 3. 70% to 95% were physically assaulted in prostitution 4. 60% to 75% were raped in prostitution. ” p. 55 – 56.

from BO Perpetrator methodology as a predictor of traumatic symptomatology in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Leahy T, Pretty G, Tenenbaum G. J Interpers Violence 2004 May; 19(5):521-40. “A MANOVA revealed that current levels of posttraumatic and dissociative symptomatology were significantly higher in the group reporting sexual abuse by a perpetrator in a relationship of trust, guardianship, or authority….Thematic content analyses of perpetrator methodology suggest that perpetrator strategies involving emotional manipulation, rather than the perpetrator relationship per se, appear to differentiate between groups with clinical or nonclinical levels of post traumatic and dissociative symptomatology.” Chinese University of Hong Kong, Email: trisha@hksdb.org.hk

A case of psychogenic fugue: I understand, aber ich verstehe nichts. Glisky EL, Ryan L, Reminger S, Hardt O, Hayes SM, Hupbach A. Neuropsychologia 2004; 42(8):1132-47. “Psychogenic fugue is a disorder of memory that occurs following emotional or psychological trauma and results in a loss of one’s personal past including personal identity. This paper reports a case of psychogenic fugue in which the individual lost access not only to his autobiographical memories but also to his native German language….an episode of psychogenic fugue, during which he lost explicit knowledge of his personal past and his native language. At the same time, he appeared to retain implicit knowledge of autobiographical facts and of the semantic or associative structure of the German language.” From: Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210068, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.

Vasco and Giaretto: The Long Arm of Parents United “After 23 years, it appears possible that nearly 50,000 known child molesters”60 percent of those convicted under these laws–have avoided sentences to state prison (see here for table http://www.protect.org/california/caStats.html). How many victims this represents and how many have returned to power over their victims will never be known.” http://www.protect.org/california/caVascoGiaretto.html

from BO Child sexual abuse in sub-Saharan Africa: A literature review. Lalor K. Child Abuse Negl 2004 Apr; 28(4):439-460. “A number of studies report that approximately 5% of the sample reported penetrative sexual abuse during their childhood. No national survey of the general population has been conducted. The most frequent explanations for the sexual abuse of children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) include rapid social change, AIDS/HIV avoidance strategies, and the patriarchal nature of society. Child sexual abuse is most frequently perpetrated by family members, relatives, neighbors or others known to the child. CONCLUSIONS: There is nothing to support the widely held view that child sexual abuse is very rare in SSA-prevalence levels are comparable with studies reported from other regions. The high prevalence levels of AIDS/HIV in the region expose sexually abused children to high risks of infection. It is estimated that, approximately .6-1.8% of all children in high HIV-incidence countries in Southern Africa will experience penetrative sexual abuse by an AIDS/HIV infected perpetrator before 18 years of age.” Department of Social Sciences, Dublin Institute of Technology, Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1, Ireland.

Impact of child sexual abuse on mental health: Prospective study in males and females. Spataro J, Mullen PE, Burgess PM, Wells DL, Moss SA. Br J Psychiatry 2004 May; 184(5):416-421. “Both male and female victims of abuse had significantly higher rates of psychiatric treatment during the study period than general population controls (12.4% v. 3.6%). Rates were higher for childhood mental disorders, personality disorders, anxiety disorders and major affective disorders, but not for schizophrenia. Male victims were significantly more likely to have had treatment than females (22.8% v.10.2%).” Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University. Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria. Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. Department of Psychology, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.

Brain Data Reveal Why Psychotherapy Works Eve Bender “Data from some well-regarded studies of psychotherapy are proving its efficacy in certain illnesses, though rigid adherence to one type of psychotherapy may be unwise. Mounting evidence on psychotherapy shows that it is effective and can even alter the brain’s chemistry. This was the message delivered by researchers and educators at the daylong seminar “Scholarly Activity in Psychotherapy Training,” which was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT) in New Orleans in March.” “”Zaretsky presented evidence that different forms of psychotherapy can alter the brain’s processes for patients with different types of psychiatric disorders in much the same way that antidepressants do.” “”He cited research by Lewis Baxter Jr., M.D., and Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D., who took positron emission tomography (PET) scans of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) before and after they received two months of behavioral therapy and in another group of patients before and after treatment with fluoxetine. The scans show decreases in glucose metabolic activity in the orbitofrontal cortex and right caudate after both the therapy sessions and the medication treatment.” Psychiatric News May 7, 2004 Volume 39 Number 9 American Psychiatric Association p. 34 Education & Training http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/39/9/34?etoc

“A book about Jewish domestic violence and rabbi abuse, Sex, Lies, and Rabbis: Breaking a Sacred Trust by Dr. Charlotte Schwab is available from 1stBooksLibrary/Author House. (800) 839-8640. Reviews of the book http://www.drcharlotteschwab.com/book.html. Contact Dr. Charlotte Schwab at (561) 638-4757. Her e-mail: drschwab@drcharlotteschwab.com “

What about Recovered Memories? Jennifer J. Freyd, University of Oregon….Recommended Review Articles about Recovered Memories http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jjf/whatabout.html

Predicting Memory for Childhood Sexual Abuse: “Non-Significant “Findings with the Potential for Significant Harm by Eileen L. Zurbriggen, Kathryn Becker-Blease “Although Goodman et al.(2003)concluded that forgetting is relatively infrequent among abuse survivors whose perpetrators went through a criminal investigation, there is compelling evidence that some survivors do forget abuse (Cheit,1998;Freyd,1996;Widom &Morris,1997;Williams,1994).It would be regrettable if the Goodman et al. findings were used as a means of casting doubt on all delayed or recovered memories of childhood abuse, even those cases in which the child had no opportunity to discuss the abuse or was not believed and supported. Adult survivors who are struggling with emerging memories need to be believed. Significant harm could result from a repetition of the denial and discounting that occurred in childhood. Interpreting null results as evidence that the null hypothesis is true is not valid unless high statistical power has been demonstrated.” http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/Research/Trauma___Memory/Zurb.pdf

The “False Memory” Defense: Using Disinformation and Junk Science in and out of Court Charles L. Whitfield, M.D., F.A.S.A.M…..Haworth Press, Special Issue on Disinformation, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 9(3 & 4): (in press for 2001/2) (to order full issue:1-800-429-6784) “This article describes a seemingly sophisticated, but mostly contrived and often erroneous “false memory” defense, and compares it in a brief review to what the science says about the effect of trauma on memory. Child sexual abuse is widespread and dissociative/traumatic amnesia for it is common. Accused, convicted and self-confessed child molesters and their advocates have crafted a strategy that tries to negate their abusive, criminal behavior, which we can call a “false memory” defense. Each of 22 of the more commonly used components of this defense is described and discussed with respect to what the science says about them. Armed with this knowledge, survivors, their clinicians, and their attorneys will be better able to refute this defense of disinformation.” http://childabuse.gactr.uga.edu/both/whitfield/whitfield1.phtml

Moral Status and the Treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder – Timothy J. Bayne – Journal of Philosophy and Medicine – 2001, Vol 27, No. 1, 87 – 105 http://www.phil.mq.edu.au/staff/tbayne/did.pdf

from BO The effects of child sexual abuse in later family life: Mental health, parenting and adjustment of offspring. Roberts R, O1Connor T, Dunn J, Golding J; The ALSPAC Study Team. Child Abuse Negl 2004 May; 28(5):525-545.”…A sample of 8292 families met inclusion criteria for identifiable family type and completed self-report data on prior sexual assault….After adjustment for other childhood adversity, prior child sexual abuse was associated with a range of outcomes in adulthood, including current membership of a nontraditional family type (single mother and stepfather) poorer psychological well-being, teenage pregnancy, parenting behaviors, and adjustment problems in the victim’s later offspring. The relationship of child sexual abuse with aspects of the parent-child relationship in later life and with the offspring’s adjustment difficulties were mediated in part by mother’s mental health-chiefly anxiety.” Department of Psychology, Kingston University, Kingston, Surrey KT1 2EE, UK.

from BO The accumulative effect of trauma exposure on short-term and delayed verbal memory in a treatment-seeking sample of female rape victims. Nixon RD, Nishith P, Resick PA. J Trauma Stress. 2004 Feb; 17(1):31-5. “The accumulative effect of prior high-magnitude trauma exposure on memory was examined in 73 rape victims, 92% of whom had current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)….Prior exposure to high-magnitude stressors (e.g., child rape, being kidnapped) was significantly correlated with poorer performance on the memory tasks. Regression analyses controlling for estimated IQ and psychopathology severity demonstrated that magnitude of prior trauma exposure predicted performance on the memory task, suggesting that in the current sample, deficits in verbal memory may be related (in part) to the degree of accumulative stress experienced over the lifetime.” Center for Trauma Recovery and Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. reg.nixon@flinders.edu.au

Abused Girls at Risk of Later Eating Disorders 5/27/04 New York (Reuters Health) “Women who were physically abused as children are twice as likely as other women to suffer from an eating disorder, new study findings show. Researchers at Harvard Medical School found that among 732 women between the age of 36 and 44, those who said they were physically abused in childhood were at twice the risk of having either a full-blown eating disorder or at least some symptoms of one. The risk was even greater among women who were abused both physically and sexually as girls, according to findings published in the medical journal Epidemiology.” http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&ncid=751&e=5&u=/nm/20040527/hl_nm/eating_disorders_dc

The American Academy of Experts of Traumatic Stress pages on trauma http://www.crisisinfo.org/documents.htm

Split personalities probed – Two personas trigger different brain networks. 1/9/04 Helen Pearson “Severe trauma as a child can trigger alternative personalities. One human brain can have two different personalities dwelling in it, according to a new imaging study – and each personality seems to use its own network of nerves to help recall or suppress memories. Alternative personalities are typically developed by children who suffer severe trauma or abuse. The condition, called multiple personality disorder, or dissociative identity disorder, appears to help people cope by cutting off difficult memories, making them seem as if they happened to someone else. A team led by Simone Reinders of Groningen University Hospital in the Netherlands used positron emission tomography to scan the brains of 11 female multiple-personality patients while they listened to autobiographical stories in each of their two personality states. In one persona, patients recognized the traumatic history as their own, and it triggered emotional centres in their brain. In the other personality, they did not consciously recognize the tale as autobiographical, and it fired up a wider brain network including regions involved in self-awareness or consciousness. These regions would not be expected to be active in people with a single personality hearing stories that are not about themselves. “The brain has to actively suppress the traumatic information,” says Reinders. She thinks that these additional brain regions stifle the autobiographical memories and erase them from that personality’s perceived past. Showing that patients’ brains actively block out their trauma “is a new twist”, says psychiatrist James Chu of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Other studies have also shown that different personalities can activate different brain regions, he says….Reinders, A.A.T.S. et al. One brain, two selves. NeuroImage, 20, 2119 – 2125, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.08.021 (2003). http://www.nature.com/nsu/040105/040105-8.html

NeuroImage Volume 20, Issue 4 , December 2003, Pages 2119-2125 One brain, two selves A. A. T. S. Reinders, , E. R. S. Nijenhuis, A. M. J. Paans, J. Korf, A. T. M. Willemsen and J. A. den Boer, Abstract “Having a sense of self is an explicit and high-level functional specialization of the human brain. The anatomical localization of self-awareness and the brain mechanisms involved in consciousness were investigated by functional neuroimaging different emotional mental states of core consciousness in patients with Multiple Personality Disorder (i.e., Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)). We demonstrate specific changes in localized brain activity consistent with their ability to generate at least two distinct mental states of self-awareness, each with its own access to autobiographical trauma-related memory. Our findings reveal the existence of different regional cerebral blood flow patterns for different senses of self. We present evidence for the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the posterior associative cortices to have an integral role in conscious experience.” University Hospital of Groningen, P.O. Box 30001, 9700 RB , Groningen, , The Netherlands. Fax: +31-0-50-36-19132. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WNP-4B0WJW6-7&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2003&_alid=176001052&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=6968&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=539bb4ed0bdbc968949ded1cbbc36807

Survey Released on Jewish Women’s Sexuality By Forward Staff “The survey also found that 15.7% of Jewish women claimed to have experienced sex abuse before the age of 13, 9.9% after 13. These numbers were not much different than those of the larger American survey, which revealed 17.2% experienced sexual abuse before 13, 9.2% after the age of 13.” http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/statistics.html#Survey

Preschoolers’ memory for threatening information depends on trauma history and attentional context: Implications for the development of dissociation – Becker-Blease KA, Freyd JJ, Pears KC J Trauma Dissociation 5(1):113-131, 2004 “Previous cognitive studies of adults suggest that some dissociative adults use divided attention to keep threatening information out of awareness (DePrince & Freyd, 1999, 2001). This study utilized a divided attention memory task similar to those used by DePrince and Freyd (DePrince & Freyd, 1999), but modified for four and five-year-olds. Contrary to prediction, children with relatively high dissociation scores did not differ in their memory for charged and neutral pictures under divided attention when compared to children with low dissociation scores. Consistent with predictions, under divided attention, abused children remembered fewer charged pictures relative to non-abused children. The same pattern was found when comparing abused children with high dissociation scores to non-abused children with low dissociation scores. These results are consistent with the idea that some traumatized people use divided attention to keep threatening information out of awareness.”

Describes abuse – FDA Consumer magazine – May-June 2000 “Escaping the Prison of a Past Trauma: New Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by Tamar Nordenberg “”In a given year, more than 10 million Americans (about 4 percent) will experience the life-disrupting symptoms of PTSD, which was first widely recognized during World War I and known as “shell shock” or “battle fatigue.” Like combat horrors, other “manmade” tragedies such as criminal assaults or sexual attacks can provoke PTSD symptoms, as can a fire, earthquake, or other natural disaster. Accidents–car and airplane crashes, for example–are also common precipitators of PTSD.” http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2000/300_ptsd.html
The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U. S., Canada and Mexico “Child Sexual Exploitation (hereafter “CSE”) involves practices by which a person, usually an adult, achieves sexual gratification, financial gain or advancement through the abuse or exploitation of a child’s sexuality by abrogating that child’s human right to dignity, equality, autonomy, and physical and mental well-being, i.e. trafficking, prostitution, sex tourism, mail-order-bride trade, pornography, stripping, battering, incest, rape and sexual harassment (ala Hughes, 1999). CSE reflects a continuum of abuse that includes child sexual abuse, child sexual assault and the commercial sexual exploitation of children.” http://caster.ssw.upenn.edu/~restes/CSEC.htm

Archives of Disease in Childhood 2002;86:164-167 Somatic and psychological problems in a cohort of sexually abused boys: a six year follow up case-control study L Price, A Maddocks, S Davies and L Griffiths Dr A Maddocks, Department of Community Paediatrics, Swansea NHS Trust, Central Clinic, Orchard St, Swansea SA1 5AT, Wales, UK; alison.maddocks{at}swansea-tr.wales.nhs.uk “Methods: Case-control study of the health records of 93 male victims of a major episode of school based child sexual abuse and 93 matched controls. Interviews with a sample of their general practitioners….Conclusions: Boys who have previously suffered sexual abuse at school did not utilise primary health care services more than a group of age matched controls. They did not present with psychological or somatic problems different from those presented by non-abused boys. However, abused boys were more likely to complain of persistent somatic or psychological problems lasting more than a year. This pattern appeared to persist after the abuse had stopped and the perpetrator imprisoned.” http://adc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/86/3/164

The Relation Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Health: Turning Gold into Lead By Vincent J Felitti, MD “The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is a major research study that compares current adult health status to childhood experiences decades earlier. With the cooperation of 17,421 adult Health Plan members and with the ongoing collaboration of Dr Robert Anda at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the study is being carried out in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Kaiser Permanente (KP) San Diego–where for many years we conducted detailed biomedical, psychological, and social (biopsychosocial) evaluations of more than 50,000 adult Kaiser Foundation Health Plan members per year….The ACE Study compared current adult health status of these participants with eight categories of adverse childhood experience that we had frequently identified in the weight program. Three categories pertained to personal abuse: recurrent physical abuse, recurrent emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. Four categories pertained to growing up in a dysfunctional household–ie, with an alcoholic person or a drug user; where someone was in prison; where someone was chronically depressed, mentally ill, or suicidal; where the mother was treated violently; and where the parents were separated, divorced, or in some way lost to the patient during childhood….A striking finding was that adverse childhood experiences are vastly more common than recognized or acknowledged. Of equal importance was our observation that they had a powerful correlation to adult health a half-century later….One in four was exposed to two categories of abusive experience, one in 16 to four categories. Given an exposure to one category, there is 80% likelihood of exposure to another.” http://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/winter02/goldtolead.html

three from BO Somatoform dissociation and adverse childhood experiences in the general population. Maaranen P, Tanskanen A, Haatainen K, Koivumaa-Honkanen H, Hintikka J, Viinamaki H. J Nerv Ment Dis 2004 May; 192(5):337-42. “Childhood trauma has been associated with psychological dissociation, but there is evidence that trauma may also result in somatoform dissociation. We performed a general population study with 1739 subjects….Of the adverse childhood experiences, high somatoform dissociation was strongly linked to physical punishment but not associated with domestic violence, including sexual and physical abuse. The odds of high somatoform dissociation were also increased among men by a poor relationship between their parents, and among women by alcohol abuse in their childhood home. We found a strong, graded relationship between an increasing number of adverse childhood experiences and high somatoform dissociation.” Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland.

The role of sexual trauma as a cause of orofacial symptoms. Case report [Article in Hungarian] Kaan B, Toth Z, Fabian TK. Fogorv Sz. 2004 Feb; 97(1):37-40. “Authors describe a 58-sitting psychotherapy of a 46-year-old female patient with psychogenic atypical facial pain. Sexual trauma in the childhood was found as a cause of the psychogenic pain symptoms, leading to series of unnecessary extraction of teeth in this case. Psychotherapeutic treatment led to the recovery of the somatic symptoms, and a moderate improvement of the behaviour related to men of this patient.” Semmelweis Egyetem, Fogpotlastani Klinika, Budapest.

Trauma and autobiographical memory specificity in depressed inpatients. Hermans D, Van Den Broeck K, Belis G, Raes F, Pieters G, Eelen P. Behav Res Ther. 2004 Jul; 42(7):775-89. “Research on autobiographical memory has shown that clinical depression is associated with a difficulty in retrieving specific autobiographical memories in response to cue words. This study examined the relation between lack of autobiographical memory specificity and self-reported trauma in a group of depressed adults….The number of specific responses was not related to depression severity, but was significantly associated with the presence and severity of reported physical abuse. Participants who had been victim of physical abuse were less specific than participants who had not been confronted with such physical adversities.” Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

From American Journal of Public Health – The Economic Burden of Hospitalization Associated With Child Abuse and Neglect Posted 04/02/2004 Sue Rovi, PhD; Ping-Hsin Chen, PhD; Mark S. Johnson, MD, MPH Abstract and Introduction Abstract Objectives: This study assessed the economic burden of child abuse-related hospitalizations. Methods: We compared inpatient stays coded with a diagnosis of child abuse or neglect with stays of other hospitalized children using the 1999 National Inpatient Sample of the Healthcare Costs and Utilization Project. Results: Children whose hospital stays were coded with a diagnosis of abuse or neglect were significantly more likely to have died during hospitalization (4.0% vs 0.5%), have longer stays (8.2 vs 4.0 days), twice the number of diagnoses (6.3 vs 2.8), and double the total charges ($19266 vs $9513) than were other hospitalized children. Furthermore, the primary payer was typically Medicaid (66.5% vs 37.0%).” http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/472527

October 13, 2008 · Filed Under Newsletter 2004 - Issues 54 - 59

Issue 57 – July 2004

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