Issue 98 – May 2011
S.M.A.R.T
(Stop Mind control And Ritual abuse Today)
P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 USA
E-mail: SMARTNEWS@aol.com
Home page: http://ritualabuse.us/
Issue 98 – May 2011
http://ritualabuse.us/2011/04/issue-98-may-2011/
The purpose of this newsletter is to help stop secretive organizations and groups from abusing others and to help those who allege they have been abused by such organizations and groups. This newsletter is not a substitute for other ways of recovering from ritual abuse. Readers should use caution while reading this newsletter. If necessary, make sure other support systems are available during and after reading this newsletter.
Important: The resources mentioned in this newsletter are for educational value only. Reading the books cited may or may not help your recovery process, so use caution when reading any book or contacting any resource mentioned in this newsletter. Some may have a religious or other agenda that may be separate from your own recovery process. Others may have valuable information on the Masons and other organizations, but have triggers or be somewhat sympathetic to those organizations. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the views expressed in this newsletter constitute expressions of opinion, and readers are cautioned to form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions by consulting a variety of sources, including this newsletter. Resources listed, quoted and individual articles, etc. and their writers do not necessarily support all or any of the views mentioned in this newsletter. Also, the views, facts and opinions mentioned in this newsletter are solely the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily the opinions of this newsletter or its editor.
Copyright 2011 – All rights reserved. No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.
Please renew your subscription if it is due. This should be listed on your address label. Please send $12 US subs or $27 foreign subs in US currency to the address above or for US subs note if unable to pay. Thanks.
SMART wants to thank all those that have contributed resource information to the newsletter.
A conference to help survivors of severe child abuse (ritual abuse) and torture will be held on August 5 – 7, 2011, between 8 – 5 PM Saturday and Sunday at the DoubleTree Hotel near Bradley International Airport, 16 Ella Grasso Turnpike, Windsor Locks, CT 06096 (between Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA). This conference will help educate survivors of this abuse and their helpers. Pre-registration is preferred. For information write S.M.A.R.T., P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 E-mail: smartnewsaol.com, conference information is at: http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
Ritual Abuse And Extreme Abuse Clinician’s Conference 2011 – A one day conference preceding our regular conference will be open to licensed practitioners in related fields to discuss issues in working with clients suffering from ritual abuse and extreme abuse symptoms. Students studying in related fields and retired licensed practitioners may write smartnews@aol.com by e-mail for more information. Internet conference information is available at: http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ritual-abuse-and-extreme-abuse-clinicians-conference-2011/
This issue contains information on the Pennsylvania clergy abuse case, the Pope, Northwest Jesuits, Kevin Annett, military abuse allegations, online abuse, UK child abuse convictions (Satanic Ritual Abuse), CIA/Bush Torture Program Sirhan Sirhan mind control allegations, SMART conference podcasts, Army psyops, US Medical Experiments on disabled people and prison inmates, Solitary Confinement in the United States, Johnson v. Rogers Memorial Hospital, dissociative amnesia in Holocaust survivors, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, Senator Scott Brown child abuse story, twin study – PTSD trauma link, parental alienation syndrome, Mackenzie Phillips
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.
Legal Information
Abusive priests live unmonitored By Gillian Flaccus and John Mone – Associated Press March 7, 2011 VENTURA — Carl Sutphin was a problem priest who left ministry in the Roman Catholic church just before being charged nearly a decade ago with 14 counts of molestation for sexually abusing six children. He was never convicted of the charges, and he now lives in a doublewide mobile home in a quiet neighborhood within two miles of a youth sports complex, a library, two day care centers and at least two elementary schools. Sutphin admits he molested children as a priest, but his name doesn’t show up in a sex offender database because the charges were dismissed because too much time had elapsed….Plaintiffs’ attorneys have worked with private investigators since October to compile a list of the priests’ addresses, the most comprehensive accounting of the whereabouts of the 233 clergy accused of abuse in civil lawsuits in the Los Angeles archdiocese. They hope to use it Thursday to persuade a judge to recommend the release of all church files for every priest or religious brother ever accused of sexual abuse in the sweeping litigation.
Those confidential files are at the center of a heated dispute between the church and plaintiffs’ lawyers since the nation’s largest archdiocese reached a record-breaking $660 million settlement nearly four years ago. Plaintiffs want the files — which could include internal correspondence, previous complaints and therapy records — released, saying it’s a matter of public safety. The church is pushing for a more limited release of information.
The list of addresses, obtained by The Associated Press, contains nearly 50 former priests who live unmonitored in California, and another 15 in cities and towns from Maryland to Texas to Montana. More than 80 more cannot be located despite an exhaustive search by plaintiffs’ attorneys. Four are believed to have fled to Mexico or South America. About 80 are dead.
Lead plaintiff lawyer Raymond Boucher says it’s the only time anyone has put together a list of priest addresses in any other diocese or archdiocese nationwide. Lawyers hope to eventually make the names and locations of abusive priests available to the public, similar to Megan’s Law databases that exist nationwide….
The church is willing to release a significant number of documents from priest files and has already made public the names of priests who were credibly accused or whose names were listed in civil lawsuits, Hennigan said. The archdiocese believes, however, that many of the priests whose addresses appear on the list were wrongfully accused. The archdiocese included those clergy in the $660 million payout without admitting wrongdoing, simply to settle the claims, Hennigan said. http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110307/wire/110309624
Human rights law can be used in clergy sex abuse suit, judge rules – St. Paul lawyer’s attacks on church show increasingly international reach By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Feb. 28, 2011 A federal law that allows U.S. courts to hear lawsuits involving human rights violations in other nations can be used in a case involving Catholic clergy sex abuse, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled on Monday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Josephine S. Tucker appears to be the first time the 200-year-old Alien Tort Statute has been used to pursue a sex abuse claim against the Catholic Church. And it illustrates the increasing international reach of victims attorney Jeffrey Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., who is suing the Vatican and has opened a practice in London to pursue cases in the United Kingdom. Anderson represents a number of victims in civil fraud cases against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. “This is huge, very significant,” said Anderson, who filed the case on behalf of a Mexican boy after seeing the law used to bring cases involving Japanese women conscripted as sex slaves in World War II. http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/117108133.html
Clergy abuse in Delaware: Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, survivors settle suits – Framework would set aside $77.4M to pay abuse claims By SEAN O’SULLIVAN The News Journal February 3, 2011 WILMINGTON — Attorneys representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and survivors of priest abuse reached a $77.4 million lawsuit settlement Wednesday night following a marathon negotiating session. Some details are yet to be worked out, but both sides announced around 9 p.m. that a general framework that sets aside $77,425,000 in a trust to pay survivor claims was hammered out along with a number of non-monetary conditions, including the release of files related to abusive priests. Wilmington Bishop W. Francis Malooly and some survivors of priest sexual abuse were part of the lengthy negotiations. “After a seven-year fight, we are on our way to a fair compensation for survivors. This is an average payment of $530,000 for each survivor,” said attorney Thomas Neuberger, who represents the majority of the approximately 150 plaintiffs with claims against either the diocese or one of its parishes….”Due to our long court battle, there has now been more public exposure of church child abuse, misdeeds and evil practices here in Delaware than in any other state,” Neuberger said. “Due to the public release of secret church archives, which the Official Committee [of survivors] demanded, these records now will permanently see the light of day.”
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110203/NEWS01/102030346/Diocese–survivors-settle-suit
In the Court of Common Pleas – First Judicial District of Pennsylvania – Criminal Trial Division – in Re: Misc. No. 0009901-2008 County Investigating : Grand Jury XXIII : C-14 Report of the Grand Jury – R. Seth Williams District Attorney of Philadelphia….Report to the Honorable Renée Caldwell Hughes, Supervising Judge:
We, the Twenty-Third County Investigating Jury, were impaneled pursuant to the Investigating Grand Jury Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 4541, et seq., and were charged to investigate the sexual abuse of minors by Archdiocesan clergy and employees. Having obtained knowledge of such matters from physical evidence presented and witnesses sworn by the Court and testifying before us, upon our respective oaths, not fewer than twelve of us concurring, we hereby submit this report to the Court….
Overview
In September 2003, a grand jury of local citizens released a report detailing a sad history of sexual abuse by priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. That abuse was known, tolerated, and hidden by high church officials, up to and including the Cardinal himself. The previous grand jury was frustrated that it could not charge either the abusers or their protectors in the church, because the successful cover-up of the abuse resulted in the expiration of the statute of limitations. Now, measures taken in response to the previous report have led to new information about more recent abuse, which this grand jury was empaneled to investigate. The fact that we received that information, and from the church itself, is some sign of progress; and this time there will be charges. The present grand jury, however, is frustrated to report that much has not changed. The rapist priests we accuse were well known to the Secretary of Clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again. The procedures implemented by the Archdiocese to help victims are in fact designed to help the abusers, and the Archdiocese itself. Worst of all, apparent abusers – dozens of them, we believe – remain on duty in the Archdiocese, today, with open access to new young prey….We implore Cardinal Rigali and his staff to review all of the old allegations against currently active priests, and to remove from ministry all of the priests with credible allegations against them. By the Archdiocese’s own account, at least 37 priests remain in ministry despite reports that they have engaged in improper behavior with minors. That should not be acceptable to anyone.
(this page describes abuse in detail)
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/reports/2011_01_21_Philadelphia_Grand_Jury_Final_Report_Clergy_Abuse_2.pdf
Philadelphia Priests Accused by Grand Jury of Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up By JON HURDLE February 10, 2011 PHILADELPHIA — A grand jury on Thursday accused the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of failing to stop the sexual abuse of children more than five years after a grand jury report documented abuse by more than 50 priests. The new report said a senior church official charged with investigating allegations of sexual abuse by priests had in fact allowed some of those accused to remain in posts that gave them continued access to children. It charged him with endangering the welfare of minors and accused three priests and a teacher of raping two boys between 1996 and 1999. “By no means do we believe that these were the only two parishioners who were abused during this period,” the report said.
At least 37 priests who are subject to “substantial evidence of abuse” are still in roles that bring them into contact with children, the new report said, and 10 of those have been in place since before 2005, when the last grand jury made its allegations….
The report also charged Msgr. William Lynn, secretary of clergy in the archdiocese under former Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, with endangering the welfare of children by allowing “dangerous” priests to remain in place. Monsignor Lynn was responsible for investigating abuse allegations from 1992 to 2004. “The rapist priests we accuse were well known to the Secretary of Clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again,” the grand jury said….In a statement issued late on Thursday, Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, rejected the report’s assertion that there were active priests who had been credibly accused of abuse….
The report accused the archdiocese of lacking urgency in its efforts to eradicate sexual abuse by its priests….“These are simply not the actions of an institution that is serious about ending sexual abuse of children,” the report said. The 124-page report, which contains graphic descriptions of abuse of the 9- and 10-year-old boys, said the grand jury decided “reluctantly” not to press charges against Cardinal Bevilacqua, who stepped down in 2003 after 15 years as archbishop, even though he worked closely with Monsignor Lynn, because it did not have enough evidence. In 2005, a grand jury report accused the church of an “immoral cover-up” that had exposed hundreds of children to sexual assault. That report recommended no criminal charges. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/us/11priest.html
In Philadelphia, New Cases Loom in Priest Scandal by Katharine Q. Seelye March 4, 2011 Philadelphia — Three weeks after a scathing grand jury report said the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had provided safe haven to as many as 37 priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse or inappropriate behavior toward minors, most of those priests remain active in the ministry. The possibility that even one predatory priest, not to mention three dozen, might still be serving in parishes — “on duty in the archdiocese today, with open access to new young prey,” as the grand jury put it — has unnerved many Roman Catholics here and sent the church reeling in the latest and one of the most damning episodes in the American church since it became engulfed in the sexual abuse scandal nearly a decade ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/us/05church.html
REPORT OF THE GRAND JURY – R. SETH WILLIAMS – District Attorney of Philadelphia http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/PDFs/clergyAbuse2-finalReport.pdf
21 Priests Named in Sex Report are Suspended KTLA News March 8, 2011 PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Philadelphia archdiocese has suspended 21 priests who were named in a long-awaited grand jury report into sex abuse by the clergy. The Archdiocese, the sixth largest in the United States with 1.5 million Catholics, is under fire over accusations it concealed the sexual abuse of children by priests in an effort to avoid a costly scandal. The grand jury report said as many as 37 priests remain in active ministry despite credible allegations of sexual abuse, and Bevilacqua was named in an earlier suit that accused him and Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, of concealing the identity of predatory priests. http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-pa-sex-priests-suspended,0,5123798.story
Archdiocese removes Monsignor Lynn By JULIE SHAW Philadelphia Daily News Feb. 20, 2011 – The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that Monsignor William Lynn – who was recently charged with child-endangerment offenses on allegations he covered up sexual abuse by other priests – was placed on administrative leave effective Friday. Temporarily taking his place at St. Joseph Parish in Downingtown, Chester County, will be Monsignor Joseph McLoone, the pastor of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Chester, Delaware County….
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office on Feb. 10 released a scathing grand-jury report accusing Lynn of endangering children by shielding pedophile priests from detection and shuffling them into unsuspecting parishes. Prosecutors charged Lynn, 60, with two counts of child endangerment. The grand jury, in its blistering report, also accused two priests, one former priest and a lay teacher of rape and related charges in connection with sexual offenses on two boys between 1996 and 2000. Charles Engelhardt, 64, and Edward Avery, 68, both priests; former priest James Brennan, 47; teacher Bernard Shero, 48; and Lynn were arrested the day the grand-jury report was released. The arrests are believed to be the first time nationally that a high-ranking church official – Lynn – has been charged on allegations that he concealed priest sex-abuse. The five accused men, who have posted bail, are scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 3 in Family Court.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/116568633.html
Charges initiated against Pope for crimes against humanity PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent The Irish Times – February 23, 2011 TWO GERMAN lawyers have initiated charges against Pope Benedict XVI at the International Criminal Court, alleging crimes against humanity. Christian Sailer and Gert-Joachim Hetzel, based at Marktheidenfeld in the Pope’s home state of Bavaria, last week submitted a 16,500-word document to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague, Dr Luis Moreno Ocampo.
Their charges concern “three worldwide crimes which until now have not been denounced . . . (as) the traditional reverence toward ‘ecclesiastical authority’ has clouded the sense of right and wrong”.
They claim the Pope “is responsible for the preservation and leadership of a worldwide totalitarian regime of coercion which subjugates its members with terrifying and health-endangering threats”. They allege he is also responsible for “the adherence to a fatal forbiddance of the use of condoms, even when the danger of HIV-Aids infection exists” and for “the establishment and maintenance of a worldwide system of cover-up of the sexual crimes committed by Catholic priests and their preferential treatment, which aids and abets ever new crimes”. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0223/1224290630240.html
Criminal Charges against Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church on grounds of Crimes against Humanity According to Art. 7 ICC Statute http://www.kanzlei-sailer.de/pope-lawsuit-2011.pdf
Missing Link, Newsletter of The Linkup (The Newsletter of the Survivors of Clergy Abuse) The collection of 22 newsletters is at http://cityofangels8.blogspot.com
Northwest Jesuits will pay $166 million to sex abuse victims in bankruptcy settlement March 25, 2011 Bryan Denson, The Oregonian The Northwest’s Jesuits and their insurers have agreed to pay $166.1 million in a bankruptcy settlement aimed at compensating nearly 500 people with active claims of sexual abuse by priests. The payout is one of the largest ever made by a religious organization in the United States to abuse victims. The settlement, part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, is designed to restore financial stability to the Portland-based province….
Creditors include about 460 people with sexual-abuse claims against priests and another 15 or 20 with physical-abuse claims, Tamaki said. They are expected to vote in favor of the settlement some time in the next 45 days, with payments likely reaching them by early fall, he said.
Tamaki’s firm, headquartered in Yakima, represents nearly 100 people who he says were sexually abused in Washington and Montana. “For them, it’s a record-breaking settlement and a day of justice for Native Americans who were sexually molested,” he said…. Under terms of the global settlement, the Northwest’s Jesuits, formally known as the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, will pay $48.1 million and their insurer will pay $118 million. About $6 million from the settlement will go into a pool for future claims, he said.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/03/northwest_jesuits_will_pay_166.html
Washington woman says Jesuit priest abuse ‘every single day … was a nightmare’ March 25, 2011, The Oregonian By Kimberly A.C. Wilson ….This morning, three years after she came forward as the initial plaintiff in a 21-plaintiff federal lawsuit in Spokane against priests from St. Mary’s — a suit filed three months before the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus declared bankruptcy — Mendez, now 55, is poised for a measure of justice. The Northwest’s Jesuits and their insurers agreed to pay $166.1 million in a bankruptcy settlement aimed at compensating nearly 500 people with active claims of sexual abuse by priests in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, including Mendez.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/03/washington_woman_says_jesuit_p.html
21-plaintiff federal lawsuit in Spokane against priests from St. Mary’s
http://media.oregonlive.com/portland_impact/other/10%20-%20Amended%20Complaint%20for%20Damages.pdf
US Jesuits agree $166 million abuse payout by Laura Onstot Mar 25 2011 SEATTLE (AFP) – A US Jesuit order has agreed to pay $166 million to compensate some 500 mostly native American child victims of “horrific” sexual abuse at religious mission schools, lawyers said. The US Northwest chapter of the Rome-based Society of Jesus agreed to the payout — which lawyers said is the biggest by a religious organization in the United States — as part of bankruptcy proceedings. Most of those abused by members of the Oregon Province — the Jesuit order covering the states of Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho and Montana — were at mission schools on Indian reservations, from the 1940s through to the 1990s.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110326/ts_alt_afp/usreligioncatholicabuse_20110326025049
Germany extends statute of limitations on abuse Mar 23, 2011 BERLIN – Germans who were sexually abused as children will now have up to 30 years after their 21st birthday to bring their alleged attackers before the courts. The change was triggered by last year’s sex abuse scandal that rocked the nation’s Roman Catholic Church. The previous statute of limitations on civil abuse cases was only three years. Criminal cases have a statute of limitations ranging from three to 30 years, depending on the charges. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110323/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_church_abuse_1
Settlement reached in priest abuse case By Theresa Gutierrez November 17, 2005 (WLS) — A settlement has been reached in connection with a Roman Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse. At least six adults claimed father John Powell abused them in the late 60’s and 70’s. No criminal charges were filed against Powell but the priest has admitted to the abuse. Two of the former Chicago Jesuit priest John Powell’s victims spoke out Thursday. Patrice Regnier says Father Powell — a former Loyola University professor — started abusing her when she was 12 years old. She just received a settlement.
“The idea people found from me speaking the truth that they could come out themselves and speak the truth is a good thing,” said Patrice Regnier, victim of sexual abuse. Diane Ruhl says she was abused at 17 years old by Father Powell on the Loyola campus when she was a student. She confronted him 30 years later by writing him. He responded and admitted to the abuse in his letters. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=3643364
describes abuse
Unrepentant – Disrobing the Emperor – Kevin Annett – January 2011 In 1992, Kevin Annett was an ordained minister with the United Church of Canada in Port Alberni on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, a logging town half populated with native Indians. He discovered a history of abuse….among the native children in the church’s residential school….He later discovered that such was the case in more than 140 schools run by the major churches with the complicity of the Canadian government. Refusing to remain silent, Kevin Annett was defrocked by his church and lost his family and livelihood. For 15 years, he has conducted a one man campaign for justice for the survivors of this crime, and for the bringing to trial of those responsible.
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/RecentUpdatesampArticles/Oct272010BookReleaseDisrobingtheEmperor/tabid/142/Default.aspx
Feature length documentary film: “UNREPENTANT: Kevin Annett and Canada’s Genocide” (January 2007). View the Promotional Trailer (2:36, 7 MB) http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx
Book: Unrepentant – Disrobing the Emperor – For 15 years (Kevin Annett) has conducted a one man campaign for justice and the revision of colonial laws for a race of subjugated people. ISBN: 978-1-84694-405-5 28 Jan 2011 http://www.o-books.com/book/detail/1122/Unrepentant
Lawsuit Says Military Is Rife With Sexual Abuse By ASHLEY PARKER February 15, 2011 WASHINGTON — A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the Department of Defense of allowing a military culture that fails to prevent rape and sexual assault, and of mishandling cases that were brought to its attention, thus violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.
The suit — brought by 2 men and 15 women, both veterans and active-duty service members — specifically claims that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, “ran institutions in which perpetrators were promoted and where military personnel openly mocked and flouted the modest Congressionally mandated institutional reforms.”
It also says the two defense secretaries failed “to take reasonable steps to prevent plaintiffs from being repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted and sexually harassed by federal military personnel.”
Myla Haider, a former Army sergeant and a plaintiff in the suit, said she was raped in 2002 while interning in Korea with the military’s Criminal Investigative Command. “It is an atmosphere of zero accountability in leadership, period,” she said an interview.
Ms. Haider, who appeared with other plaintiffs at a news conference earlier Tuesday at the National Press Club, said: “The policies that are put in place are extremely ineffectual. There was severe maltreatment in these cases, and there was no accountability whatsoever. And soldiers in general who make any type of complaint in the military are subject to retaliation and have no means of defending themselves.”….Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that “sexual assault is a wider societal problem” and that Mr. Gates was working to ensure that the military was “doing all it can to prevent and respond to it.”….Though the suit, which was filed in Federal District Court in Virginia, seeks monetary damages, those involved with the case said their goal was an overhaul of the military’s judicial system regarding rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/us/16military.html
‘World’s largest paedophile ring’ uncovered 16 March 2011 By Dominic Casciani BBC News home affairs correspondent – International police led by a UK team say they shut down the largest internet paedophile ring yet discovered. The global forum had 70,000 followers at its height, leading to 4,000 intelligence reports being sent to police across 30 countries. The operation has so far identified 670 suspects and 230 abused children. Detectives say 184 people have been arrested – 121 of them were in the UK. Some 60 children have been protected in the UK. The three-year investigation, Operation Rescue, was led by investigators from the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop). Speaking at a news conference at The Hague in the Netherlands, investigators said the network hid behind a legal online forum which operated out of the country – but its members came from around the world. Along with the Netherlands and the UK, suspects have been identified in Australia, Italy, Canada, New Zealand and Thailand. The members of the network went into a private channel, boylover.net, and then used its secret systems to share films and images of abused children, said Rob Wainwright, director of European police agency Europol. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12762333
Child abuse ‘big business online’ 12 May 2010 There are around 450 criminal gangs around the world making money from images of child sex abuse, the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation has said. The watchdog’s annual report says that the 10 most prolific of these account for more than 650 web pages. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10108720
Wisconsin Church Members Charged With Abusing Infants Mar 26, 2011 by Lisa Holewa The pastor and seven members of a small church in central Wisconsin have been charged with using wooden rods to spank infants as young as 2 months old for “being emotional, grumpy or crying,” the Dane County Sheriff’s office said….The investigation into the Aleitheia Bible Church began last November, when former members contacted authorities with concerns about how children were being treated, according to the sheriff’s office. Six church members pleaded innocent to charges of child abuse during an appearance Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court. They were booked and released….The victims included 12 children ranging in age from infancy to 6 years old, according to the sheriff’s office.
“During interviews with detectives, Phil expressed his belief that the Bible dictates the use of a rod over a hand to punish children. He stated that children only a few months old are ‘worthy’ of the rod and that by ‘one and a half months,’ a child is old enough to be spanked,” according to the sheriff’s office release….The children often were punished when they cried or failed to sit still during church services, a former church member told authorities. “Phil was very strict about children being quiet during church,” the complaint states. John Caminiti told investigators in November that he does not allow his family to communicate with people outside his religious beliefs and has punished his wife and son by confining them to their rooms until they corrected their disobedience, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/26/members-of-aleitheia-bible-church-in-wisconsin-charged-with-abus/
Black Earth pastor, brother charged with child abuse for spanking kids with dowels, rods By DEVIN ROSE March 18, 2011 The head pastor of a Black Earth church and his brother have been charged with a total of 12 counts of child abuse, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday in Dane County Circuit Court. http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_dcf65a46-51d5-11e0-8db1-001cc4c03286.html
Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Information
describes crimes – Paedophile cult leader convicted for ‘satanic’ rape campaign – Colin Batley was self-styled high priest of group that handed children around for sex in Kidwelly, west Wales 9 March 2011 A man has been found guilty of leading a “satanic” sex cult from his home in a small Welsh town. Colin Batley, 48, of Kidwelly, west Wales, presided over a group that preyed on young children and held occult rites. He was found guilty at Swansea crown court of rape and carrying out perverted sexual acts on children and adults. Batley was the self-styled high priest of the group, which operated from a series of homes in a cul-de-sac in the seaside town. He and five other alleged members insisted throughout the five-week trial that no cult had ever existed.
But the jury dismissed that, finding him guilty of more than two dozen acts of sexual perversion linked to his activities in the cult. They included 11 separate rapes, three indecent assaults, causing prostitution for personal gain, causing a child to have sex and inciting a child to have sex. The jury also found him guilty of six counts of buggery and four counts of possessing indecent images of a child. His wife, Elaine Batley, 47, was convicted of sex-related charges after the trial, as were Jacqueline Marling, 42, and Shelly Millar, 35. All lived in Kidwelly. …Colin Batley is said to have forced a number of his victims into prostitution and claimed 25% of their earnings. In one instance, the trial heard, Batley tried to force a pregnant schoolgirl to give birth. The girl, who had been raped by a cult member, was told all children conceived within the cult belonged to it. New cult members, often deeply troubled children, were forced to go through an elaborate initiation ceremony. At its heart would be sex with an adult, with anyone unwilling to take part warned they risked being killed by a cult assassin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/09/paedophile-satanic-cult-batley-kidwelly
Kidwelly sex cult: Town unaware of ‘evil paedophile’ 9 March 2011 ….As residents went about their daily life, they could not have imagined that Colin Batley, described as an “evil paedophile”, was running a satanic sex cult from his home. The self-styled high priest of the group, headed a paedophile ring run like a “quasi-religion”.
One victim, who was repeatedly abused by Batley, told how he treated women like slaves. Batley would wear a hood to abuse his victims. Once in their grasp, he would call the children to his service by clicking his fingers….”It boils down to two words, shock and dismay,” says Geraint Thomas, Kidwelly Town Council town clerk.
“We didn’t realise anything untoward was happening in Kidwelly at the time. “It wasn’t until we read it in the paper that this unfortunate incident was occurring and the publicity we’re getting isn’t helping Kidwelly at the moment.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-12677043
Five found guilty in sex cult trial By Robin Turner, WalesOnline Mar 9 2011 The jury in the trial of five people accused of using a black magic influenced cult to sexually abuse children and young adults in Carmarthenshire has found five defendents guilty of 39 serious sex offences. At Swansea Crown Court, alleged cult leader Colin Batley, 48, was found guilty of 27 offences – including rape, buggery, indecency wih children and causing prostitution. His wife, Elaine Batley, 47, was convicted of 5 offences, including indecency with a child and indecent assault. Shelly Millar, 35, was convicted of two counts of indecency with children. Jackie Marling, Batley’s lover, was convicted of five offences – including aiding and abeiting rape and indecency with a child. Peter Murphy QC, prosecuting, has alleged the four established their own religion – which preached free sex and was influenced by notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley. The prosecution case is that the sex was established in members’ homes in the tranquil Cararthenshire town of Kidwelly and children and young adults brought there were abused. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/03/09/five-found-guilty-in-sex-cult-trial-91466-28307889/
My ‘cult sex’ at 15 By JOHN COLES 09 Feb 2011 A WOMAN yesterday told a court she was forced to have sex with the leader of a cult when she was just 15. The alleged victim said “evil” Colin Batley told her she would be killed if she didn’t take part in the sickening initiation ceremony. She claimed she was then ordered to perform sex acts on Batley’s wife Elaine – and was taken to meetings where she had to have sex with men and women. The alleged victim, now an adult, said: “I was told I’d be killed if I didn’t become part of the cult. Colin Batley had a gun and took it to meetings. I was so scared I just did what I was told. I was in the living room at his home and he told me there would be an initiation….” http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3400359/My-cult-sex-at-15.html
Guilty: Paedo cult’s demon ‘Lord’ By JOHN COLES 10 Mar 2011 THE self-styled “Lord” of a black magic sex cult was facing jail last night – after being convicted of sexually abusing young children. Colin Batley, 48, ran a group whose members wore hooded robes for group sex and paedophile crimes over 15 years. The scruffy Svengali surrounded himself with four “disciples” – wife Elaine, 47, and three other women – who helped him abuse youngsters. All four women were tattooed on Batley’s orders with an Egyptian symbol, the Eye of Horus. At meetings, Batley read from an occult “bible” and told youngsters they would go to Hell if they did not agree to his sexual demands. Their “temple” was the Batleys’ semi-detached home on a sleepy cul-de-sac in Kidwelly, west Wales. Jobless Batley, who charged members a quarter of their income, was exposed when a woman groomed for sex from age six went to cops.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3457120/Guilty-Paedophile-black-magic-cults-demon-Lord.html
‘Tattooed child sex cult in cul-de-sac’ By JOHN COLES 03 Feb 2011 THREE couples and a woman pal moved from London to a cul-de-sac in rural Wales to set up a sick sex cult, a jury heard yesterday. They relocated over four years and were led by “evil and manipulative” Colin Batley, it was said. He allegedly persuaded the women to get identical tattoos and find youngsters for three-in-a-bed sex. He raped boys and girls, forced children to have sex with each other and ordered the women to join in, it was claimed. Batley, 48, preached from a text known as The Book of The Law – while living off the earnings of women he forced into prostitution in Bristol, Swansea Crown Court was told. Prosecutor Peter Murphy described Batley as a sexual predator who corrupted others to do his bidding through coercion and control. He added: “He is the principal. “The four families became closely intertwined. It became much more than that – a cult. The usual restraints went out of the window.” http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3387753/Court-hears-of-child-sex-cult-in-cul-de-sac-led-by-Colin-Batley.html
Satanic sex cult leader guilty of child rape By Hannah Thomas on Wednesday 9 March 2011 The quaint cul-de-sac of Kidwelly in west Wales has been stirred by news that a satanic cult has been carrying out sexual assaults and a string of child rapes over the past several decades within the small community. Self-styled high priest, Colin Batley, was yesterday found guilty of conducting quasi-religious sex sessions involving children with his wife Elaine and fellow cult members Jacqueline Marling and Shelly Millar. Batley began the sordid rituals by reading from The Book Of The Law, written more than 100 years ago by occultist Aleister Crowley, to brainwash his victims before ordering hooded cult members to have sex. One victim was told she would be killed if she did not take part in an initiation ceremony, which concluded with sex. ‘I did it because I was told to by Colin,’ she sobbed as she gave evidence by videolink. The cult leader was yesterday found guilty of 27 offences and warned by the judge at Swansea crown court that he faced a vast prison sentence. His wife and the two other women were also found guilty of a range of sexual offences and will be sentenced tomorrow. Batley’s obsession with Satanism and Egyptian icons was well documented by police before his arrest last summer. http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/world/518740/satanic-sex-cult-leader-guilty-of-child-rape.html
Articles on Batley – Wales child abuse case http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/topics/person/colinbatley
Carmarthenshire victims speak out as ‘sick’ paedophile sex cult leader is jailed March 16, 2011 ….Detectives uncovered evidence of a bizarre, quasi- religious cult which involved the commission of sex acts, the wearing of robes, and the reading of passages from a text called The Book Of The Law. Colin Batley was the “manipulative sexual predator” who led the group. The guilty verdicts reflected offences against two boys and four girls, all of whom are now adults and whose identities are protected by press restrictions….
Judge Thomas, who condemned The Book Of The Law – by mystic and magician Aleister Crowley – as a “ludicrous document”, said Batley had used the text as a way of authorising his sexual crimes.
….Marling had been besotted with Batley and The Book Of The Law. Batley had controlled the group both sexually and financially, said the judge, and it was significant that in prostitute Millar’s address book he was listed as “My Lord”….
Colin Batley was sentenced for 11 offences of rape; six of buggery; three of indecent assault; and for other offences of causing prostitution for gain, indecency with a child, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and possessing indecent photographs of a child. Elaine Batley was dealt with for indecency and sexual activity with a child; and indecent assault.
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/news/Victims-speak-sick-paedo-cult-leader-jailed/article-3331781-detail/article.html
My electric shock nightmare at the hands of the CIA’s evil doctor By Celia Imrie 4th April 2011 …. Trembling, I slid the already opened letter from its envelope and read the fatal words: ‘Celia is very good and advanced for her age, but sadly she is going to be too big ever to become a dancer.’ ….Over 18 months I lost an astonishing amount of weight. It was noticed first at six months by our nanny, known as Pop, when we had to try on summer clothes for our annual family holiday near Bognor Regis, West Sussex. After that I realised I was being watched at mealtimes. I would look at myself in the mirror and, even though I was something near a skeleton, I didn’t think I had gone far enough. In despair and I am sure with some embarrassment – my father being an eminent doctor – my parents brought in a child psychologist. I was 5ft 2in and weighed 4st. What was the problem? Why couldn’t they make me eat?….I was sent for a brief spell in the local hospital, where, bewildered by a condition they had not seen before, staff simply offered me three meals a day, which I politely refused. After a few weeks, I was released to spend Christmas with my family. I was happy to come home, but, far from being cured, I now knew that in future I must find even better ways of avoiding eating. I became sly. I worked out every way to dispose of food. I was so successful at it that soon I was little more than a carcass with skin.
Desperate now, my parents decided to send me away to St Thomas’ Hospital in London, to enter one of the special wards belonging to the Department of Psychological Medicine. And once there I was placed under the care of world-famous psychiatrist William Sargant. I was 14. Now, more than 20 years after his death, Sargant is notorious for his work for MI5 and the CIA, particularly its covert MK-ULTRA mind control programme. Even then, Sargant was a world expert on brainwashing. Today his books are said to be studied by Al Qaeda. His work has links to the mysterious death of CIA biochemist Frank Olson after being given LSD; the Jonestown massacre in Guyana, where 900 people killed themselves; and to the mind-bending and occasionally lethal drug experiments performed on unwitting human guinea pigs at the Porton Down research centre in Wiltshire. Sargant’s methods were simple: electric-shock treatment and insulin-induced comas leading to continuous narcosis, or deep-sleep therapy, complete with taperecorded ‘brainwashing’ orders being played at the patients from beneath their pillows. And to think that all this came free on the NHS!….After Sargant left the ward, the nurses would start preparing the horrors he had prescribed for the day – the electro-convulsive therapy….I remember also the famous Narcosis Room, a ward where patients were forced into a drug-induced sleep for days while tapes played instructions to them from under the pillow….
I do recall being given massive doses, three tumblers a day, of Largactil, an anti-psychotic drug. The effect of this drug was startling. My hands shook uncontrollably for most of the day and I’d wake up to find clumps of my hair on the pillow. But the worst consequence was that everything I saw was multiplied by four. When Sargant came into the room, I saw four of him. It was horrific and terrifying. Even simple tasks such as picking up a glass of water became impossible. The drugs had turned me into a victim….The Happy Hoofer, by Celia Imrie, is published by Hodder & Stoughton http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1372700/My-electric-shock-nightmare-hands-CIAs-evil-doctor.html
REPORT OF THE RITUAL ABUSE TASK FORCE – LOS ANGELES COUNTY COMMISSION FOR WOMEN MARCH 15, 1991 ….Ritual abuse is a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults, consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving the use of rituals. Ritual does not necessarily mean satanic. However, most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs and practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time.
The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. The sexual abuse is usually painful, sadistic, and humiliating, intended as a means of gaining dominance over the victim. The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of ritual/indoctrination, which includes mind control techniques and mind altering drugs, and ritual/intimidation which conveys to the victim a profound terror of the cult members and of the evil spirits they believe cult members can command. Both during and after the abuse, most victims are in a state of terror, mind control, and dissociation in which disclosure is exceedingly difficult.
http://sites.google.com/site/mcrais/ritualab
A CONSOLIDATION OF SRA AND FALSE MEMORY DATA – JAMES QUAN Portland, Oregon November 1996 The purpose of this paper is to consolidate and present some of the major data for those skeptical of the existence of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) and to suggest more mutual affirmation in pursuit of the truth in this area. This paper, nonetheless, attempts to critically examine both sides of the debate, namely: critical thinking and belief, “no official” evidence, the context of evidence, actual corroborative evidence (including a map of the McMartin Preschool tunnels), false memory, the sharp rise in MPD/DID diagnoses, and alternate explanations for the profound similarities in child and adult accounts. In light of the semantic difficulties inherent in “memories” it is important to avoid overgeneralizing on either side, and yet to fully accept that for which both memory and corroboration exists….
in a 1991 informal survey, 93% of APA therapists who have personal experience with adult SRA survivors stated they believe the memories of SRA are accurate. Contrary to accusations, many have been skeptical at first (Young, et al, 1990; Friesen, 1990; Calof, 1994), but: 1) The quality of therapists’ experiences with their clients was sufficient to broaden their criteria for the existence of this crime; 2) There are extensive similarities in the accounts from both young children and adults throughout the country, many with minimal therapist suggestion and minimal cultural exposure; and 3) There is corroboration in some cases, yet for therapists to file reports with law enforcement would endanger the vital trust-based relationship and would not be in the client’s best interest for safety or privacy….
as therapists know well, the denial process is an extremely strong mechanism, and it is therefore quite possible that some who recant, claiming their memories were falsely acquired, are actually lapsing into a denial about their painful pasts and/or deciding on some level that the break in family relationship is much more painful than anticipated. Recanting is the clearest, if not the only, way to consciously or subconsciously deny one’s own accusations if the goal of the confrontation (confession and healing) was not met.
Finally, a recanter suffering from a dissociative disorder often has the ability to separate many ordinary things from consciousness. Thus, especially when motivated, all prior knowledge and conviction of one’s own abuse can likewise be split off from consciousness, providing a means for deep denial and a full retraction. This is the same mechanism under which a DID patient may “lose time” and the memory of immediate, but normal everyday experiences.
….Judy Johnson personally consulted Dr. Summit who maintains that she was quite sane and emotionally contained at the beginning of the case, her psychotic break and alcoholic toxicity beginning only afterward, due to inconceivable multiple stressors: she was alienated from her husband, living only with her two children, one a victim of sexual abuse, the other dying of a brain malignancy, and she became increasingly alienated by the other McMartin parents. http://sites.google.com/site/mcrais/consldra
describes torture situations
EXCLUSIVE: CIA Psychologist’s Notes Reveal True Purpose Behind Bush’s Torture Program 22 March 2011 Jason Leopold and Jeffrey Kaye, t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report
Dr. Bruce Jessen’s handwritten notes describe some of the torture techniques that were used to “exploit” ”war on terror” detainees in custody of the CIA and Department of Defense.
Bush administration officials have long asserted that the torture techniques used on “war on terror” detainees were utilized as a last resort in an effort to gain actionable intelligence to thwart pending terrorist attacks against the United States and its interests abroad. But the handwritten notes obtained exclusively by Truthout drafted two decades ago by Dr. John Bruce Jessen, the psychologist who was under contract to the CIA and credited as being one of the architects of the government’s top-secret torture program, tell a dramatically different story about the reasons detainees were brutalized and it was not just about obtaining intelligence.
Rather, as Jessen’s notes explain, torture was used to “exploit” detainees, that is, to break them down physically and mentally, in order to get them to “collaborate” with government authorities. Jessen’s notes emphasize how a “detainer” uses the stresses of detention to produce the appearance of compliance in a prisoner….However, according to the Senate Armed Services Committee report “SERE resistance training … was used to inform” Yoo and Bybee’s torture memo, specifically, nearly a dozen of the brutal techniques detainees were subjected to, which included waterboarding, sleep deprivation, painful stress positions, wall slamming and placing detainees in a confined space, such as a container, where his movement is restricted. The CIA’s Office of Technical Services told Yoo and Bybee the SERE techniques used to inform the torture memo were not harmful, according to declassified government documents. http://www.truth-out.org/cia-psychologists-notes-reveal-bushs-torture-program68542
Statement of Senator Carl Levin on Senate Armed Services Committee Report of its Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 11, 2008 Contact: Senator Levin’s Office…. “On February 7, 2002, President George W. Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees. Following the President’s determination, techniques such as waterboarding, nudity, and stress positions, used in SERE training to simulate tactics used by enemies that refuse to follow the Geneva Conventions, were authorized for use in interrogations of detainees in U.S. custody.” http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=305734
SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO THE TREATMENT OF DETAINEES IN U.S. CUSTODY ….The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of “a few bad apples” acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees…..On February 7, 2002, President Bush signed a memorandum stating that the Third Geneva Convention did not apply to the conflict with al Qaeda and concluding that Taliban detainees were not entitled to prisoner of war status or the legal protections afforded by the Third Geneva Convention. The President’s order closed off application of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees. While the President’s order stated that, as “a matter of policy, the United States Armed Forces shall continue to treat detainees humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of the Geneva Conventions,” the decision to replace well established military doctrine, i.e., legal compliance with the Geneva Conventions, with a policy subject to interpretation, impacted the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2008/Detainees.121108.pdf
‘He does not remember it’: RFK killer seeks parole – Sirhan Sirhan’s attorney suggests assassin was ‘hypno-programmed’ 2/28/2011 LOS ANGELES AP — More than four decades after Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, his convicted murderer wants to go free for a crime he says he can’t remember.
It is not old age or some memory-snatching disease that has erased an act Sirhan Bishara Sirhan once said he committed “with 20 years of malice aforethought.” It’s been this way almost from the beginning. Hypnotists and psychologists, lawyers and investigators have tried to jog his memory with no useful result.
Now a new lawyer is on the case and he says his efforts have also failed. “There is no doubt he does not remember the critical events,” said William F. Pepper, the attorney who will argue for Sirhan’s parole Wednesday. “He is not feigning it. It’s not an act. He does not remember it.”….
Pepper also suggests Sirhan was “hypno-programmed,” turning him into a virtual “Manchurian Candidate,” acting robot-like at the behest of evil forces who then wiped his memory clean. It’s the stuff of science fiction and Hollywood movies, but some believe it is the key….Pepper said in an interview with The Associated Press that he has had Sirhan examined several times by psychologist Daniel Brown of Harvard University, an expert in hypnosis of trauma victims. He will not disclose exactly what was accomplished in the sessions but said, “There have been substantial breakthroughs.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41822218/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
also http://nhjournal.com/2011/02/28/assassin-maintains-he-can%E2%80%99t-remember-shooting-rfk/
Smart-Talks – Stop Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Podcasts http://smart-talks.podomatic.com
Wanda Karriker Ph.D. 2010: The Ritual Abuse Controversy: A Personal Perspective
Wanda Karriker, Ph.D. is a retired psychologist who spent a career working with survivors of extreme abuse. She is author of the novel, “Morning, Come Quickly,” co-developer of the Extreme Abuse Survey Project and former editor of Survivorship. Her topic is: The Ritual Abuse Controversy: A Personal Perspective.
Carmen Yana Holiday 2010: Survivors of Extreme Abuse: The Awful Rowing Toward Social Emancipation
Carmen Yana Holiday is a survivor of extreme domestic violence, human trafficking, child pornography, ritual abuse-torture and mind control. She has been an advocate for other survivors since 2001, developing and facilitating trauma recovery workshops and presenting as a survivor of RA-MC for several organizations.
A transcript of this talk can be seen here:
Survivors of Extreme Abuse The Awful Rowing Toward Social Emancipation
Neil Brick 2010: Fighting the Spin: The Truth About Child Abuse Cases
Neil Brick is a survivor of Masonic based Ritual Abuse and MK-ULTRA. He is the editor of S.M.A.R.T. – A Ritual Abuse Newsletter. His topic is: Fighting the Spin : The Truth about Child Abuse Cases.
In the last 20 years, many child abuse and ritual abuse cases have been made public. Almost all of these have been subjected to media campaigns and spin by organizations and researchers skeptical of the existence of ritual abuse. These groups have done whatever they can to make sure that only their view on the topic is heard and that ours is not allowed to be made public. We discuss this at our website on a page called “False memory syndrome proponents tactics”: http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/false-memory-syndrome-proponents-tactics/
This presentation will briefly review some of the more famous child abuse cases and present the perspective of the victims of these crimes, not the perspectives of the alleged or convicted perpetrators or those defending them. http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2010-conference/fighting-the-spin-the-truth-about-child-abuse-cases/
Neil Brick 2010: The Move From Blame the Victim to Blame the Helper
Neil Brick is a survivor of Masonic based Ritual Abuse and MK-ULTRA. He is the editor of S.M.A.R.T. – A Ritual Abuse Newsletter. His topics today is “The Move from Blame the Victim to Blame the Helper.”
Historically speaking, the credibility of the accounts of child abuse and trauma victims stories have been attacked in various ways. Untrue statements were made that rape victims asked for the abuse or that children somehow deserved to be abused or were attracting abusers. Children and women were seen as property or lower in status. Now most people know these ideas are false and that child abuse and rape do exist. This presentation will highlight some of the major attacks on those defending child abuse survivors. I myself have been attacked, but I have decided to fight those attacking me for the sake of making sure that child abuse in all its forms is stopped. I will detail four of the most famous attacks on clinicians in the last 20 years, those of Bennett Braun, Judith Peterson, David Calof and Anna Salter.
Ritual Abuse and Other Acts of Love by Elspeth Liberty. Ritual Abuse and Other Acts of Love is my autobiography. It is the story of the power of the human spirit. It is my journey to the depths of hell and back, returning triumphant. I tell of my journey through drug and alcohol addiction, psychiatric hospital and jail. Then, how in my thirties, the life-changing memories of having been ritually abused as a child broke into my life turning my world upside down but also making sense of so much that had gone before.
Ritual Abuse and Other Acts of Love is also the story of my quest for a spirituality that makes sense to me, has integrity and brings new life. Ritual Abuse breeds in darkness and secrecy, it seeks to destroy hope, love, joy and faith. People trapped in it believe there is no way out. My life proves this is not true. ISBN: 978-0-646-55065-7 http://elspethliberty.com/index.php
Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators By Michael Hastings February 23, 2011 The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in “psychological operations” to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators….
The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as “information operations” at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation. “My job in psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave,” says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the leader of the IO unit, who received an official reprimand after bucking orders. “I’m prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you’re crossing a line.”
The list of targeted visitors was long, according to interviews with members of the IO team and internal documents obtained by Rolling Stone. Those singled out in the campaign included senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin; Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and a host of influential think-tank analysts….In a statement to Rolling Stone, a spokesman for Caldwell “categorically denies the assertion that the command used an Information Operations Cell to influence Distinguished Visitors.”….As for the operation targeting U.S. senators, there is no way to tell what, if any, influence it had on American policy. What is clear is that in January 2011, Caldwell’s command asked the Obama administration for another $2 billion to train an additional 70,000 Afghan troops – an initiative that will already cost U.S. taxpayers more than $11 billion this year. Among the biggest boosters in Washington to give Caldwell the additional money? Sen. Carl Levin, one of the senators whom Holmes had been ordered to target. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/another-runaway-general-army-deploys-psy-ops-on-u-s-senators-20110223
‘Illegal Psyop’ Neither Illegal Nor Psyop, General’s Lawyer Ruled By Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman February 27, 2011 The accusation was explosive and unambiguous: A top general in Afghanistan used illegal “information operations” to influence visiting U.S. Senators. But military documents obtained by Danger Room show that at least one Army lawyer deemed the work legal. What’s more, the alleged information operator’s bosses repeatedly told him that he was just another communications staffer, not some bender of minds. At the very least, this new information complicates the charges, first leveled by Lt. Col. Michael Holmes in Rolling Stone magazine. At most, it could neuter Holmes’ allegations, just as an investigation by the office of Afghan war commander Gen. David Petraeus gets underway….According to Holmes, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell — the general in charge of training Afghanistan security forces — had him “playing with people’s heads.” And not just any people; Holmes was allegedly ordered to use his information operations, or IO, skills on senators and congressmen visiting Afghanistan. So in March, Holmes contacted a military lawyer in the United States who told him “IO doesn’t do that.” American law forbids the government from targeting propaganda at American citizens.
A second legal review came to the opposite conclusion, however. On March 30, 2010, a lawyer within Caldwell’s chain of command, Maj. Tami Miller, wrote that Holmes had been given “a lawful order,” according to a copy of her assessment acquired by Danger Room. After all, Holmes was simply told “to collect, analyze and share ‘publicly available’ information” about the VIPs. No brainwashing was requested….Over the last decade, the once-bright lines between the military disciplines of strategic communications and information operations have dimmed. Calling out an enemy’s atrocities could be considered IO — if the audience is foreign. But the same information could be used to inform Americans, too. And that’s strategic communications. But Sylvia says the training command had strict prohibitions against IO, which they viewed as “an offensive operation” — not kosher for a training unit.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/lawyer-told-general-his-spin-wasnt-illegal-psyop/
Horrific US Medical Experiments Come to Light Feb 27, 2011 Mike Stobbe AP ATLANTA — Shocking as it may seem, U.S. government doctors once thought it was fine to experiment on disabled people and prison inmates. Such experiments included giving hepatitis to mental patients in Connecticut, squirting a pandemic flu virus up the noses of prisoners in Maryland, and injecting cancer cells into chronically ill people at a New York hospital. Much of this horrific history is 40 to 80 years old, but it is the backdrop for a meeting in Washington this week by a presidential bioethics commission.
The meeting was triggered by the government’s apology last fall for federal doctors infecting prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala with syphilis 65 years ago. U.S. officials also acknowledged there had been dozens of similar experiments in the United States – studies that often involved making healthy people sick. An exhaustive review by The Associated Press of medical journal reports and decades-old press clippings found more than 40 such studies. At best, these were a search for lifesaving treatments; at worst, some amounted to curiosity-satisfying experiments that hurt people but provided no useful results….Many prominent researchers felt it was legitimate to experiment on people who did not have full rights in society – people like prisoners, mental patients, poor blacks. It was an attitude in some ways similar to that of Nazi doctors experimenting on Jews.
….The AP review of past research found:
-A federally funded study begun in 1942 injected experimental flu vaccine in male patients at a state insane asylum in Ypsilanti, Mich., then exposed them to flu several months later. It was co-authored by Dr. Jonas Salk, who a decade later would become famous as inventor of the polio vaccine….
-In federally funded studies in the 1940s, noted researcher Dr. W. Paul Havens Jr. exposed men to hepatitis in a series of experiments, including one using patients from mental institutions in Middletown and Norwich, Conn. Havens, a World Health Organization expert on viral diseases, was one of the first scientists to differentiate types of hepatitis and their causes….
-Researchers in the mid-1940s studied the transmission of a deadly stomach bug by having young men swallow unfiltered stool suspension. The study was conducted at the New York State Vocational Institution, a reformatory prison in West Coxsackie….
-A University of Minnesota study in the late 1940s injected 11 public service employee volunteers with malaria, then starved them for five days. Some were also subjected to hard labor, and those men lost an average of 14 pounds. They were treated for malarial fevers with quinine sulfate….
-For a study in 1957, when the Asian flu pandemic was spreading, federal researchers sprayed the virus in the noses of 23 inmates at Patuxent prison in Jessup, Md., to compare their reactions to those of 32 virus-exposed inmates who had been given a new vaccine.
-Government researchers in the 1950s tried to infect about two dozen volunteering prison inmates with gonorrhea using two different methods in an experiment at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta. The bacteria was pumped directly into the urinary tract through the penis, according to their paper.
The men quickly developed the disease, but the researchers noted this method wasn’t comparable to how men normally got infected – by having sex with an infected partner. The men were later treated with antibiotics….
in 1963. Researchers injected cancer cells into 19 old and debilitated patients at a Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in the New York borough of Brooklyn to see if their bodies would reject them.
The hospital director said the patients were not told they were being injected with cancer cells because there was no need – the cells were deemed harmless….
At nearby Staten Island, from 1963 to 1966, a controversial medical study was conducted at the Willowbrook State School for children with mental retardation. The children were intentionally given hepatitis orally and by injection to see if they could then be cured with gamma globulin….
In widely covered congressional hearings in 1973, pharmaceutical industry officials acknowledged they were using prisoners for testing because they were cheaper than chimpanzees.
Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia made extensive use of inmates for medical experiments….As the supply of prisoners and mental patients dried up, researchers looked to other countries.
It made sense. Clinical trials could be done more cheaply and with fewer rules. And it was easy to find patients who were taking no medication, a factor that can complicate tests of other drugs….
U.S.-funded doctors failed to give the AIDS drug AZT to all the HIV-infected pregnant women in a study in Uganda even though it would have protected their newborns. U.S. health officials argued the study would answer questions about AZT’s use in the developing world. The other study, by Pfizer Inc., gave an antibiotic named Trovan to children with meningitis in Nigeria, although there were doubts about its effectiveness for that disease. Critics blamed the experiment for the deaths of 11 children and the disabling of scores of others. Pfizer settled a lawsuit with Nigerian officials for $75 million but admitted no wrongdoing. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/27/horrific-us-medical-experiments-come-to-light/
America’s shocking secret: Pictures that show how U.S. experimented on its own disabled citizens and prison inmates by Daily Mail Reporter 28th February 2011 Pictures have emerged providing the shocking proof that U.S. government doctors once experimented on disabled American citizens and prison inmates. Such experiments included giving hepatitis to mental patients in Connecticut, squirting a pandemic flu virus up the noses of prisoners in Maryland, and injecting cancer cells into chronically ill people at a New York hospital. Much of this horrific history is 40 to 80 years old, but it is the backdrop for a meeting in Washington this week by a presidential bioethics commission. The meeting was triggered by the government’s apology last year for federal doctors infecting prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala with syphilis 65 years ago. U.S. officials also acknowledged there had been dozens of similar experiments in America – studies that often involved making healthy people sick. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361275/Americas-shocking-secret-US-experimented-disabled-citizens-prison-inmates.html
APPLYING SUGGESTIBILITY RESEARCH TO THE REAL WORLD: THE CASE OF REPEATED QUESTIONS – THOMAS D. LYON Cited: 65 Law & Contemp. Probs. 97 (Winter 2002)….With respect to the psychology of child witnesses, this article will consider the application of the research literature on repeated questions to sexual abuse cases. It will review the entire corpus of research on repeated questions and apply that research to State v. Larson. The article will argue that the risks of question repetition have been exaggerated. The leading research on repeated questions does not support a claim that repetition increases error. Whether repetition leads to inconsistency depends on the types of questions asked, the age of the child, and the child’s memory of the event.
Most important, researchers ignore the potential effects of repetition on false denials, emphasizing instead the risk that repetition will lead to false allegations….The distinction between repeating questions within interviews rather than across interviews is important.71 Repeated questions within interviews may lead to error because of the child’s perception that a different response is expected. Repeating questions across interviews may also lead to increased error, but for different reasons: Children forget over time, so that later interviews are more error-filled, and children may confuse what actually occurred with their responses in earlier interviews.
On the other hand, repeating questions across interviews may decrease error. Repetition is a form of rehearsal, which strengthens memory, and children may recall new details during subsequent interviews (something memory researchers call “reminiscence”).72 Therefore, errors across interviews do not tell us whether children will err within an interview….
The two Poole and White studies provide little evidence that non-abused children are likely to fabricate abuse allegations in response to repeated yes/no [*pg 111] questions. Although the youngest children in the first study were more likely than older subjects to change their answers when questions were repeated, the follow-up study found no distinction among age groups. Even in the first study, the youngest subjects were no more likely than adults to claim after repeated questions that something anti-social had occurred. Rather, the studies suggest that children, like adults, are reluctant to accuse others of wrongdoing, at least when the interaction is ambiguous or difficult to recall. These findings do not argue against the reliability of an abuse allegation in response to a repeated question….Children with stronger memories are less susceptible to repeated questions. Several of the studies discussed in the previous section found that children who recalled more were less likely to change their answers to repeated questions.141
Christine Ricci and Carol Beal repeated wh- questions (general, specific, and suppositional) and found that “none of the children who were initially accurate later answered inaccurately when the question was repeated a second time.”142 The effects of certainty were anticipated by the Piagetian research on children’s understanding of number: Gelman and her colleagues found that if children counted an array of objects three times rather than once (thus increasing their confidence in their answer), they were less swayed by a suggestive request to count again….Evidence that repetition increases error is remarkably hard to find. As noted above, repeated open-ended questions do not decrease accuracy….Children are reluctant to disclose abuse….The evidence that repetition undermines accuracy is weaker than it first appears, and the ways that repetition may increase accuracy have been ignored. http://www.law.duke.edu/shell/cite.pl?65+Law+&+Contemp.+Probs.+97+%28Winter+2002%29
ACLU Urges UN to Take Action on Solitary Confinement in the United States February 21, 2011 by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway – The American Civil Liberties Union last week filed a statement with the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, urging it to to “address the widespread violations of the human rights of prisoners in the United States associated with solitary confinement and call for the adoption of appropriate measures to protect their human rights. The ACLU calls on the Council to urge the United States to take concrete and appropriate measures to end the egregious violations stemming from solitary confinement of prisoners.” After providing background on the widespread use of solitary confinement in the United States today, the statement includes a concise and well-documented section titled “Harmful Effects of Solitary Confinement.”…: There is a broad consensus among mental health experts that long-term solitary confinement is psychologically harmful. Indeed, the damaging effects of solitary confinement, even on persons with no prior history of mental illness, have long been well known. http://solitarywatch.com/2011/02/21/aclu-urges-un-to-take-action-on-solitary-confinement-in-the-united-states/
Journal articles and child abuse and trauma information
reprinted with permission
Featured Post: The Incredible Distortion of Johnson v. Rogers Memorial Hospital February 4, 2011
In an unusual and highly controversial lawsuit by Charles and Karen Johnson against the therapists who treated their adult daughter, a jury in Wisconsin recently awarded the parents $1 million. Their daughter Charlotte was not party to the suit, and her lawyer successfully moved to quash a subpoena that would have forced her to testify at trial.[1] Three therapists were named in the suit; the jury found one non-negligent, and they apportioned liability between the other two on a 70-30 percent basis. The False Memory Syndrome Foundation has cast the case as a victory against therapists who, according (http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_753791e0-2822-11e0-9cd7-001cc4c002e0.html) to Executive Director, Pamela Freyd, “use a variety of dubious techniques, including hypnosis, to try to excavate supposedly repressed memories.”
But that is an incredible distortion of the case. The case did not involve hypnosis-even though the parents used the spectre of hypnosis as an argument to obtain access to their daughter’s confidential medical records. Indeed, the case did not involve any of the other “techniques” mentioned by Pamela Freyd. Hollida Wakefield, the primary expert for the Johnsons, admitted that the therapists “didn’t actively try to get her to recover memories,” that they did not use hypnosis, that there was no “digging for memories,” and that there was no evidence that the therapists planted any memories of abuse.[2] In short, there was no evidence that the memories in this case were caused or created by therapy.
Wakefield also blamed the book The Courage to Heal (http://www.amazon.com/Courage-Heal-Revised-Expanded-Survivors/dp/0060950668), listing it first on her list of “Sources of Suggestion that came into play with Charlotte.”[3] But, as Wakefield admitted under oath, there was no evidence that The Courage to Heal was actually part of Charlotte’s therapy or that anyone at Rogers Memorial ever suggested that she read it.[4] How did the book “come into play”? Charlotte owned it and recommended it, on her own, to her mother.
So, what was this case actually about? The plaintiffs claimed that the therapists should have “disabused” Charlotte of her of memories, even her most plausible memories of abuse. The plaintiffs also claimed that the therapists should have investigated Charlotte’s claims, even though she explicitly prohibited them from talking to her parents. That is leaving aside the fact that therapists cannot possibly be private investigators.
If this verdict stands, it is unclear how therapists can provide treatment to someone with memories of childhood sexual abuse without fear of an intrusive and inappropriate third-party lawsuit. That is why Mertz and Bowman argued, in an important 1996 Harvard Law Review article, that such lawsuits should not be allowed. It is also why Justice Ann Walsh Bradely, in a dissenting opinion at the Wisconsin Supreme Court, concluded that the Johnson case represents an unwarranted expansion to modalities of therapeutic treatment far beyond issues of recovered-memory therapy, and that it “undermines the confidentiality that is essential to the patient-therapist relationship.”[5] The jury verdict in this case bears out those concerns in full.
The question that remains is, why is the False Memory Syndrome Foundation misrepresenting this case as being about “recovered-memory therapy,” when the facts of the case clearly demonstrate that it was not?
Footnotes
[1]. The Johnsons have tried to portray this lawsuit as an effort to, as their lawyer said in this article (http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_c5bd497c-2735-11e0-a35e-001cc4c002e0.html), let their daughter know that they love her and “want her to come home.” That explanation is inconsistent with their dogged effort to force her to testify against her will. Faced with medical assessments that forcing her to tesify at trial could cause their daughter to become suicidal, the Johnsons continued to press the issue. It took an order from the trial judge, who agreed that Charlotte’s health was at risk, to quash their subpoena. The jury was not informed of these facts.
[2]. Wakefield deposition (January 20-21, 2010), pp. 172-174, 217, and 233.
[3]. Exhibit 6, Wakefield deposition (January 20, 2010).
[4]. Asked what proof she had that The Courage to Heal was part of the therapy at Rogers Hospital, Wakefield testified: “I don’t know whether it was discussed or not.” In other words, even though she reviewed all of the therapy records, she had no actual evidence for this claim. (Wakefield deposition, p. 239.)
[5]. Johnson v. Rogers Memorial Hospital, 283 Wis. 2d 384 (2005) at 448.
http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/2011/02/04/featured-post-the-incredible-distortion-of-johnson-v-rogers-memorial-hospital/
Memory disturbances and dissociative amnesia in Holocaust survivors – The following articles provide compelling scientific evidence in support of the phenomena of dissociation and recovered memory in Holocaust survivors. In addition to supporting the phenomenon in general, these articles also counter the argument that recovered memory is (a) no more than a recent cultural “fad” and (b) specific to false accusers of sexual abuse.
DeWind, E. (1968). The confrontation with death. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 49, 302-305. Excerpt: “Most former inmates of Nazi concentration camps could not remember anything of the first days of imprisonment because perception of reality was so overwhelming that it would lead to a mental chaos which implies a certain death.”….
Jaffe, R. (1968). Dissociative phenomena in former concentration camp inmates. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 49(2), 310-312. Case descriptions include amnesia for traumatic events and subsequent twilight states in which events would be relived without conscious awareness. Excerpt: “The dissociative phenomena described here turn out not to be rare, once one is on the look out for them.”….
Yehuda, R., Schmeidler, J., Siever, L. J., Binder-Brynes, K., & Elkin, A. (1997). Individual differences in posttraumatic stress disorder symptom profiles in Holocaust survivors in concentration camps or in hiding. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 10, 453-465.
46% of 100 survivors report amnesia on PTSD measures.
http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/scholarly-resources/holocaust/
Abuse Rates Higher Among Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children Compared With Hearing Youths, Study Finds – ScienceDaily (Feb. 7, 2011) — A new study at Rochester Institute of Technology indicates that the incidence of maltreatment, including neglect and physical and sexual abuse, is more than 25 percent higher among deaf and hard-of-hearing children than among hearing youths. The research also shows a direct correlation between childhood maltreatment and higher rates of negative cognition, depression and post-traumatic stress in adulthood.
The study, which was presented at the 2010 annual meeting of
the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, is one of the first to compare childhood maltreatment between deaf and hearing children….The group, which also included undergraduate psychology student Danielle Burnash and Gail Rothman-Marshall, associate professor of liberal studies at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, conducted a survey of 425 college students, 317 hearing and 108 deaf, asking them to describe any maltreatment they had experienced prior to the age of 16.
Seventy-seven percent of deaf and hard-of-hearing respondents indicated experiencing some form of child maltreatment, compared with 49 percent among hearing respondents. In addition, respondents with more severe hearing loss indicated an increased rate and severity of maltreatment.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110118154733.htm
Video Series on: The ACE Study – Vincent Felitti, MD “We saw that things like intractable smoking, things like promiscuity, use of street drugs, heavy alcohol consumption, etc., these were fairly common in the backgrounds of many of the patients…These were merely techniques they were using, these were merely coping mechanisms that had gone into place.”– Vincent Felitti, MD
When Dr. Vincent Felitti, head of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, began to delve into the reasons for the high dropout rate of patients who’d been successfully losing weight in Kaiser’s obesity program, he found to his surprise that a high proportion of those dropping out had histories of childhood abuse or neglect. Dr. Robert Anda, who had been doing research with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the psychosocial origins of health-risk behaviors in patients at VA hospitals, heard Felitti speak about his findings, and in 1992 the two began to collaborate on the largest-scale study to date of the incidence and effects of childhood trauma, known as the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.
According to data collected from the over 17,000 Kaiser patients in this ongoing retrospective and prospective study, adverse childhood experiences, though well concealed, are unexpectedly common, have a profound negative effect on adult health and well-being a half century later, and are a prime determinant of adult health status in the United States.
http://www.cavalcadeproductions.com/ace-study.html
The Origins of Addiction: Evidence from the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study Vincent J. Felitti, MD – Department of Preventive Medicine – Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program
ABSTRACT: A population-based analysis of over 17,000 middle-class American adults undergoing comprehensive, biopsychosocial medical evaluation indicates that three common categories of addiction are strongly related in a proportionate manner to several specific categories of adverse experiences during childhood. This, coupled with related information, suggests that the basic cause of addiction is predominantly experience-dependent during childhood and not substance-dependent. This challenge to the usual concept of the cause of addictions has significant implications for medical practice and for treatment programs….
Our overall findings, presented extensively in the American literature, demonstrate that:
• Adverse childhood experiences are surprisingly common, although typically concealed and unrecognized.
• ACEs still have a profound effect 50 years later, although now transformed from psychosocial experience into organic disease, social malfunction, and mental illness.
• Adverse childhood experiences are the main determinant of the health and social well-being of the nation….
Conclusion: The current concept of addiction is ill founded. Our study of the relationship of adverse childhood experiences to adult health status in over 17,000 persons shows addiction to be a readily understandable although largely unconscious attempt to gain relief from well-concealed prior life traumas by using psychoactive materials. http://www.acestudy.org/files/OriginsofAddiction.pdf
The Relation Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Health: Turning Gold into Lead By Vincent J Felitti, MD The ACE Study reveals a powerful relation between our emotional experiences as children and our adult emotional health, physical health, and major causes of mortality in the United States. Moreover, the time factors in the study make it clear that time does not heal some of the adverse experiences we found so common in the childhoods of a large population of middle-aged, middle-class Americans. One doesn’t “just get over” some things.
http://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/winter02/goldtolead.html
Strong Link Found Between Victimization, Substance Abuse ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2011) — A strong link between victimization experiences and substance abuse has been discovered by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago….Researchers compared victimization experiences of unwanted sexual activity, neglect, physical violence, and assault with a weapon, across four sexual-identity subgroups — heterosexual, gay or lesbian, bisexual, or “not sure.” The study used data collected nationally from 34,635 adults from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Hughes and her research team wondered if sexual-minority women and men are at a heightened risk for victimization. The results, Hughes said, showed that they are. Lesbian and bisexual women were more than twice as likely as heterosexual women to report any victimization over their lifetime. Lesbians, gay men and bisexual women also reported a greater number of victimization experiences than did heterosexuals. Three times as many lesbians as heterosexual women reported childhood sexual abuse….
Gay men also had high rates of victimization, with about half of them reporting any lifetime victimization. They reported significantly higher rates of childhood sexual abuse, childhood neglect, partner violence and assault with a weapon than heterosexual men. Not only are there higher rates of violence and victimization among sexual minorities, but there is also a higher rate of substance abuse, Hughes said. Regardless of sexual identity, women who reported two or more victimization experiences had two to four times the prevalence of alcohol dependence, drug abuse or drug dependence as women who reported no victimization, she said. The research also concluded that gay, lesbian and bisexual youth may use substances to cope with adverse psychological and interpersonal effects of victimization, increasing the risk for further victimization from others, she said. The study was funded through grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, two of the National Institutes of Health. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110224161516.htm
Scott Brown Tells ’60 Minutes’ He Was Molested as Child Feb 16, 2011 Steven Hoffer Contributor – Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has decided the time is right to publicly reveal a secret he has kept inside for many years. In an interview scheduled to air on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday, the Republican congressman reflects openly for the first time on his childhood hardships, including episodes of abuse from his stepfather and being sexually assaulted by a camp counselor when he was 10 years old….Brown also mentioned that he has never discussed the incident. “When people find people like me at that young vulnerable age, who are basically lost, the thing that they have over you is, they make you believe that no one will believe you,” he said. “My mom will read about it for the first time. I haven’t told anybody.” http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/16/scott-brown-tells-60-minutes-he-was-molested-as-child-video
Scott Brown Recalls Childhood Sexual Abuse In 60 Minutes Interview (VIDEO) 02/16/11 Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) reveals that he was sexually abused as a child multiple times in an interview scheduled to air on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday evening….Looking back, he explains, “It was certainly, back then, very traumatic.” “As predators do… He said ‘If you tell anybody…I’ll kill you. I will make sure that nobody believes you,” recalls Brown of being threatened by the counselor. The interview with Brown comes just before the release of memoir Against All Odds. The Senator details the traumatic experiences he endured in the book. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/16/scott-brown-sexual-abuse_n_824159.html
Sen. Scott Brown Recalls Childhood Abuse February 16, 2011 Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown tells Lesley Stahl he was the victim of physical, psychological and sexual abuse when he was a child. Stahl profiles the senator Sunday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m. ET/PT. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7355810n
Scott Brown: ‘That Life Made Me the Man I Am Today’ Feb 21, 2011 – Sen. Scott Brown gave the first copy of his memoir, “Against All Odds,” to his mother, Judith, weeks before news broke that he was sexually abused as a child by a camp counselor, the Massachusetts Republican told AOL News. It was also the first time his mother would learn about the physical attacks allegedly inflicted on him by her husbands — childhood traumas he had never shared with anyone. “I told her, ‘I think you need to read this, Mom.’ I gave a copy to my sister [Leeann], and she tried to get her to read it too,” Brown said. “She didn’t. She was dealing with some health issues, and I’m not sure she wanted to really know what was in it. It’s a difficult process now, but I don’t regret writing the book.”
U.S. Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts says he has no regrets about revealing that he was sexually abused by a camp counselor as a child. Brown said his mother still hasn’t read the book, but they’ve spoken and she told him she’s proud of him….
The sexual abuse Brown describes allegedly happened the summer after he finished the fourth grade, when the 10-year-old was sent to a Christian camp on Cape Cod. While he will not name his alleged abuser and said he will not seek prosecution against the man, Brown can recall everything about the assault. “I can remember how he looked, every inch of him: his long, sandy, light brown hair; his long, full mustache; the beads he wore; the tie-dyed T-shirts and the cutoff jeans, which gave him the look of a hippie,” Brown wrote. “I was standing there with my pants down, and he came right up next to me and asked me if I needed help, and then he reached out his hand.” What happened next was an account of a brutal fondling that ended only when Brown screamed. He didn’t tell a soul because his abuser said, “If you tell anybody, I will kill you.” It was a threat Brown took seriously, citing the incident as one of the reasons he was such a strong proponent of victims’ rights in the Massachusetts State House. http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/21/sen-scott-brown-no-regrets-about-revealing-sexual-abuse/
Sen. Scott Brown: Abuse shaped his life By Susan Page, USA TODAY 2/21/11 WASHINGTON — When Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown agreed to write a book about last year’s upset victory to claim the Senate seat of liberal icon Edward Kennedy, he didn’t plan to reveal the story of a childhood of abuse that he had long kept secret from nearly everyone. In the end, he found he couldn’t keep it hidden. Struggling with poverty and hunger, shoplifting to feed his younger sister and himself, enduring beatings by two stepfathers and fighting back against two separate sexual predators are all part of what he calls the “spider web” of his life, each thread building on the last….
But neither his wife, Gail, nor his parents knew that a counselor at a summer camp had accosted and fondled him at age 10. When Brown was 71/2, a teenage boy had taken him into a woods, pulled a knife and ordered him to perform a sex act. Brown managed to grab a rock, smash it into his tormentor’s face and run free. At age 6, he was beaten by one stepfather. Much worse were the beatings that came later from another stepfather, who repeatedly threatened to break his hands, an injury that would imperil the basketball career that offered him a way to attend college and, in his word, to “escape.” He credits teachers, coaches and a juvenile court judge who took an interest in him for giving him encouragement and resilience. Brown expresses no regrets and shows no bitterness toward his mother, who drank too much, and his father, who in many ways was absent from the family by the time he was a toddler. He now has built positive relationships with both, calling their family ties “a work in progress.” http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-02-21-RW_scottbrown21_ST_N.htm
Twin study may quiet doubts over PTSD-trauma link By Lynne Peeples NEW YORK Sep 30, 2010 NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Trauma really is the trigger of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, suggests a new study that could help settle an ongoing debate. “It’s been argued by some that PTSD is not a bona fide disorder, that these people are just maladjusted and the trauma doesn’t have anything to with it,” senior researcher Dr. Roger Pitman of Boston’s Harvard University told Reuters Health….Pitman and colleagues from Harvard and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs looked to 103 pairs of identical male twins from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry to test whether trauma truly causes PTSD, or if its sufferers would have developed symptoms of the disorder regardless. One brother from each pair had been exposed to combat in the Vietnam War; the other had not. Fifty of the combat-exposed men had PTSD.
The researchers found a substantial difference in mental disorders between the twins: Men exposed to combat and diagnosed with PTSD had three-fold more symptoms than their brothers, as well as compared to the combat veterans without PTSD and their co-twins. Similar patterns appeared when considering only PTSD-related psychiatric symptoms, report the researchers in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. According to Pitman, “If you assume that the identical twin is a representation of what the veteran would have been like had he not been exposed to combat, with the same genes and same family upbringing, then the conclusion is that psychiatric trauma causes substantial psychiatric symptoms in a portion of the population.” Given the similarities in symptoms between co-twins of combat-exposed brothers that did and did not develop PTSD, the findings also refute the presence of any predisposing genetic or environmental traits that increase vulnerability to trauma-induced PTSD, the authors say.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/09/30/us-twin-ptsd-idUSTRE68T47B20100930
Is Trauma a Causal Agent of Psychopathologic Symptoms in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder? Findings From Identical Twins Discordant for Combat Exposure – Mark W. Gilbertson, PhD; Alexander C. McFarlane, MD; Frank W. Weathers, PhD; Terence M. Keane, PhD; Rachel Yehuda, PhD; Arieh Y. Shalev, MD; Natasha B. Lasko, PhD; Jared M. Goetz, BA; and Roger K. Pitman, MD, for the Harvard/VA PTSD Twin Study Investigators J Clin Psychiatry 2010;71(10):1324–1330 10.4088/JCP.10m06121blu ….Method: A case-control twin study conducted between 1996–2001 examined psychopathologic symptoms in a national convenience sample of 104 identical twin pairs discordant for combat exposure in Vietnam, with (n = 50) or without (n = 54) combat-related PTSD (DSM-IV–diagnosed) in the exposed twin….
Results: Combat veterans with PTSD demonstrated significantly higher scores (P < .0001) on the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised and other psychometric measures of psychopathology than their own combat-unexposed cotwins (and than combat veterans without PTSD and their cotwins).
Conclusions: These results support the conclusion that the majority of psychiatric symptoms reported by combat veterans with PTSD would not have been present were it not for their exposure to traumatic events.
http://article.psychiatrist.com/dao_1-login.asp?ID=10007050&RSID=75635130271135
Six Million Children Maltreated in 2009? By James R. Marsh on February 3, 2011 In 2009, an estimated 3.3 million referrals involving the alleged maltreatment of approximately 6.0 million children were received by CPS agencies nationwide. Of these, CPS determined that at least one child was a unique victim of abuse and neglect in 702,000 cases. The rest were unsubstantiated or closed with no finding. These and other data appear in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Child Maltreatment 2009, the 20th in a series of reports designed to provide national statistics on child abuse and neglect. Most states recognize four major types of maltreatment: neglect, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, and sexual abuse. Although any of the forms of child maltreatment may be found separately, they also can occur in combination….
More than 75 percent (78.3%) suffered neglect; More than 15 percent (17.8%) suffered physical abuse; Less than 10 percent (9.5%) suffered sexual abuse; and Less than 10 percent (7.6%) suffered from psychological maltreatment….
For the analyses included in this report, a perpetrator is the person who is responsible for the abuse or neglect of a child. Forty-nine States reported case-level data about perpetrators using unique identifiers. In these States, the total duplicate count of perpetrators was 894,951 and the total unique count of perpetrators was 512,790.
For 2009: Four-fifths (80.9%) of duplicate perpetrators of child maltreatment were parents, and another 6.3 percent were other relatives of the victim;
Of the duplicate perpetrators who were parents, four-fifths (84.7%) were the biological parents of the victim;
Women comprised a larger percentage of all unique perpetrators than men, 53.8 percent compared to 44.4 percent; and
Four-fifths (83.2%) of all unique perpetrators were between the ages of 20 and 49 years.
http://www.childlaw.us/2011/02/six-million-children-maltreate.html
The full report is available on the Children’s Bureau website: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm09/cm09.pdf
California Family Courts Helping Pedophiles, Batterers Get Child Custody By Peter Jamison Mar 2 2011 ….advocates of reform say a few widespread problems lead to poor court decisions, such as inadequate procedures for investigating abuse; the use of controversial and potentially dangerous psychological theories about child welfare; and a prejudice toward joint parental custody, even when one parent is clearly violent. Compounding these issues, critics say, is a lack of accountability for judges, attorneys, custody evaluators, and other court personnel, who enjoy immunity from lawsuits even in cases where they make decisions that do obvious harm to children and parents. “The family court system is supposed to work in the best interests of the child, but very infrequently does that happen,” says Susan Wilde, a Berkeley psychologist and expert on child abuse intervention. “Families find themselves in the grip of a system that has no responsibility to them or to the children, that just kind of runs amok.”….
PAS (parental alienation syndrome) was coined by Richard Gardner, a child psychiatrist affiliated with Columbia University, to describe what he believed was a form of brainwashing that took place in the context of divorce proceedings. According to Gardner, the condition arises when a parent — usually, but not always, the mother — “programs” a child to hold delusions of sexual abuse by the father. Armed with this theory, Gardner hired himself out as an expert witness in family courts across the country, appearing on behalf of men seeking to discredit sex-abuse allegations. Yet many questioned the scientific basis of his work. Gardner’s research consisted for the most part on his personal observations as a clinician, rather than systematic, peer-reviewed studies. PAS has never been accepted into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the psychiatrist’s bible of known conditions. The syndrome has also been denounced by professional groups including the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family, which view it as a ploy for obscuring a court’s inquiries into allegations of child abuse.
“Alienation is being used in almost every case where a child is taken from a safe parent and placed with a dangerous parent,” says Kathleen Russell, executive director of the Mill Valley–based Center for Judicial Excellence, a family-court reform group. “It’s a legal tactic.” Gardner’s ideas are also controversial in light of provocative statements he made criticizing society’s condemnation of pedophiles, and seeking to portray adult-child sexual contact as normal. “Pedophilia has been considered the norm by the vast majority of individuals in the history of the world,” he wrote in the 1992 book True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse. In the same book, he suggested wives of pedophiles masturbate in order to increase their own sex appeal, reasoning that “increased sexuality may lessen the need for her husband to return to their daughter for sexual gratification.” http://www.sfweekly.com/2011-03-02/news/family-court-parental-alienation-syndrome-richard-gardner-pedophilia-domestic-violence-child-abuse-judges-divorce/
Phillips slams family for ignoring incest Feb. 22: Actress Mackenzie Phillips tells TODAY’s Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb that …knew of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, but chose to ignore it to protect the image of the band.
http://video.app.msn.com/watch/video/phillips-slams-family-for-ignoring-incest/6vcbk4f
from Sundown Healing Arts – Each article at our website explores a different aspect of healing from trauma, including try-it-now tools to help you connect with your self and your feelings with gentleness and acceptance. http://traumahealed.com/articles/index.html
http://SURVIVORSSPEAKOUT.com is a global network connecting dedicated survivors of child abuse, advocates, activist, lobbyist, artists, authors & supporters. Survivors of child abuse share their story. Survivors channeled their adversities into positive productive projects. Some survivors have tirelessly worked to lobby for legislative legal reform. Some survivors have written books or poetry & others have foundations. Many survivors want to save children from becoming victims of child abuse. Survivors Speak Out.com has united survivors worldwide to fight for children’s rights and protect innocent children. Together we will make a difference. At Survivors Speak Out members can post videos, photos, blogs, forums and chat. Find world wide events for Child Abuse awareness & prevention.
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Please use caution while reading all of these papers. Some of the information may be very heavy for survivors. If in doubt, download the page and wait to read it until you are with your therapist or a trusted support person.
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Related Sites
- Articles on “Capturing The Friedmans”
- Child Abuse Data - Child Abuse Data with Ritual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse Information
- Child Abuse Wiki - The Child Abuse Wiki has been created to make public accurate and scientific information on child abuse issues.
- Extreme Abuse Survey News - Extreme Abuse Data with Ritual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse Information
- McMartin Preschool Child Abuse Case - McMartin Case Information with Ritual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse Information
- Ritual Abuse Articles with Satanic Ritual Abuse Information - Ritual Abuse Data with Ritual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse Information