Issue 178 – September 2024

S.M.A.R.T.
(Stop Mind control And Ritual abuse Today)
P O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 USA
E-mail: SMARTNEWS@aol.com
Home page: https://ritualabuse.us
Issue 177 – July 2024

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

Important:

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

Copyright 2024 – All rights reserved.  No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.

Information in this issue includes:  The 2024 Online Annual Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference August 2024, Demystifying Mind Control and Ritual Abuse, Alison Miller,  Karnac Books, dissociation, ritual abuse, mind control,  Susan Pease Banitt LCSW, Valerie Sinason PhD, Clinic for Dissociative Studies, Survivorship (survivorship.org), SMART (ritualabuse.us), 2024 Conference Video Presentations and PowerPoints,  Masonic Ritual Abuse, Carl Jung’s Red Book and Black Books, Attachment Relationship in DID,  Adah Sachs PhD,   Bowlby Centre, Patricia Quinn,  art therapist, Neuroscience of Art Therapy for Addiction and Trauma, Musical Performance, Michael Skinner,  Oprah Winfrey Show,  The Surviving Spirit, Grey Faction, Satanic Temple, Lucien Greaves,  Dissociative Identity Disorder,  Multiple Personality Disorder, Sybil, MPD caused by severe trauma, Adah Sachs, sexual assault charges, Harvey Weinstein, rape,  trauma, megachurch pastor, inappropriate sexual conduct,  pastor Robert Morris,  religious compound, Filipino preacher, child abuse,  Kingdom of Jesus Christ, Quiboloy, President Rodrigo Duterte,  sex trafficking of children

New Book: Demystifying Mind Control and Ritual Abuse: A Manual for Therapists – Alison Miller      Karnac Books July 2024 Paperback ISBN 13 : 9781800132658  ISBN 10 : 1800132654   Dr. Miller spoke at the 2024 Online Annual Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference – August 10 – 11, 2024.  Information is at https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

Karnac books https://www.karnacbooks.com/product/demystifying-mind-control-and-ritual-abuse-a-manual-for-therapists/97609/?MATCH=1

Google Books limited preview:   https://books.google.com/books/about/Demystifying_Mind_Control_and_Ritual_Abu.html?id=9MFx0AEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description

This book was written to meet the need of therapists: a succinct, thorough, practical, clear, down-to-earth handbook to which a therapist can refer as needed. Many, if not most, therapists have encountered a victim of complex mind control and ritual abuse, and most therapists feel deskilled in this work. Working with such clients is a challenge for therapists, given the extreme and prolonged nature of the clients’ trauma, the severity of their dissociative disorders, the complexity of the mind control they have experienced, and the reality of organised perpetrator groups who follow up on their victims. Every therapist needs to know the basics of this work.

Chapter 1 defines and explains dissociation, ritual abuse, and mind control. It lists indicators which suggest a client may be a victim, and recommends developing ‘reflective belief (or possibly) disbelief’ rather than maintaining ‘therapeutic neutrality’. Chapter 2, The therapeutic relationship, describes victims’ training to not form bonds, the parental nature of the therapeutic bond with such clients, and practical ways to relate to someone dealing with internal multiplicity. Chapter 3, The life of a mind control survivor, describes victims’ planned experiences from infancy all the way through adulthood. Chapter 4, Engineered personality systems, describes the most common forms of training or programming, and the ‘jobs’ of inner parts of the victim. Chapter 5, Stabilisation and internal safety, explains the way in which some parts punish the victim for disloyalty by creating destabilising symptoms. Chapter 6, Working with the personality system, describes internal hierarchies and how to work with them. Chapter 7, Present-day physical safety, looks at the ongoing torture and harassment of many victims by perpetrator groups, and describes the training of various parts to return to the perpetrators, report to them, and be available for further abuse. Chapter 8, Working through the traumatic memories, gives guidelines regarding how to help a client work through the numerous traumatic training memories. Chapter 9, Confronting the spiritual issues in ritual abuse, describes the perpetrators’ spiritual/moral abuse and simulation of spiritual entities. It discusses the question of demonic possession, and looks at the real spiritual issues which victims and therapists must deal with. Chapter 10, Healing for our clients and ourselves, discusses victims’ emotional healing, grieving, developing self-esteem and integration, and therapists’ intimidation and vicarious traumatisation.

‘Alison Miller’s latest book, Demystifying Mind Control and Ritual Abuse, is a tour de force in advanced psychotherapy for the most difficult of clients, those who have been subjected to torture since before birth and throughout their childhood in order to create compliant slaves without walls. She is a knowledgeable, tough, and compassionate guide who takes a clear-eyed look at what it really takes for therapists to do this work and gives us the tools to do so. She calmly addresses a topic that most find unbearable to acknowledge, that children can and are routinely used to serve the darkest desires of humanity. She lays out many practical tips; each chapter could almost be its own book. Any therapist who finds themselves confounded and feeling deskilled by a victim of organized abuse that is cult related, ritually abused and/or mind controlled will find helpful tips and resources in these pages. This book should be required reading for all therapists.’ Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW, psychotherapist and consultant specialising in trauma and extreme abuse, sought-after speaker, and award-winning author

 ‘Having worked in this difficult field for several decades, Alison Miller has found a further way of passing on her knowledge of mind control and ritual abuse. What’s more, she does so in the most honed, processed way. This is a handbook which is easy to read despite the fearfulness of its subject. It is filled with wise information culled from decades of experience. It will aid the newcomer and the experienced clinician alike.’ Valerie Sinason PhD, founder and patron, Clinic for Dissociative Studies, and author of The Orpheus Project

  ‘Demystifying Mind Control and Ritual Abuse: A Manual for Therapists delivers just what Dr. Miller promises – a book for therapists “who need a succinct, practical, down-to-earth guide for this challenging work.” She describes the strategies that mind control abusers apply to victims, beginning in infancy, to induce dissociated identities to form, to manipulate them, and to then set them up against each other for long-term, often lifetime control. These abusers hope to prevent victims from ever consciously accessing their memories, from being able to receive the help of a psychotherapist, and from ever defying and escaping their mental controls. Then Dr. Miller offers step-by-step therapeutic guidance in troubleshooting all of these obstacles so that survivors may discover their own minds and exercise agency over their own lives. This is a wonderful reference book to help psychotherapists navigate this toughest-of-all courses of psychotherapy.’  Ellen Lacter, PhD, psychologist, USA

‘Dr. Alison Miller’s new book, Demystifying Mind Control and Ritual Abuse: A Training Manual for Therapists, is the most comprehensive book written to date on this topic. Dr. Miller discusses all of the techniques needed to help survivors of these crimes. Her book is easy to read and understand. It explains ways to work with trauma survivors in a compassionate, respectful, and comprehensive manner. Her many years of experience and research provide a unique guide into helping mind control and ritual abuse survivors. I have been proud to work with Dr. Miller in both Survivorship (survivorship.org) and SMART (ritualabuse.us). Every time I attend one of her workshops or webinars or read one of her books, I learn more about our field, myself, and ways to help other survivors.’   Neil Brick, editor and conference coordinator for SMARTNews at https://ritualabuse.us

2024 Conference Video Presentations and PowerPoints https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2024-conference/2024-conference-video-presentations-and-powerpoints/ PowerPoint links are available at this page.

These presentations may be difficult for survivors to view and listen to.  Survivors may want to have a support person present while viewing. All accusations are alleged.

Conference Speakers

Stabilizing and Healing Techniques for Survivors – Dr. Alison Miller

Survivors have front people and insiders, parts hidden inside, who react to things in the present as if it was the past. Front people have been trained to be in denial about the history of abuse and about the existence of other inside people. Survivors’ overreactions to things in the present come from the insiders. I shall cover a number of stabilizing and healing techniques, the most important one being “Ask inside.”

Dr. Alison Miller is a retired clinical psychologist who practised for over forty years, specializing for the last twenty five years in survivors of ritual abuse and mind control. Her newest book, Demystifying Mind Control and Ritual Abuse: A Manual for Therapists, came out July 2024. Her past books have helped many therapists and survivors. They include: Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control, Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse, and (with Wendy Hoffman) From the Trenches: A Victim and Therapist talk about Mind Control and Ritual Abuse.

Traces of Masonic Ritual Abuse in Carl Jung’s Red Book and Black Books – Dr. Lynn Brunet https://youtu.be/PfT1iodgWWI

During his mid-life period the Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung (1875–1961) underwent a perplexing and terrifying ‘dark night of the soul’ lasting many years, in which he experienced a series of disturbing fantasies and dreams. Acting as his own therapist, he recorded these experiences in journals that he called the Black Books and, from there, he produced a stunning creative text which he called The Red Book. But he chose not to publish it and it was only released in 2009, with the journals following in 2020. However, while these texts have been long anticipated, they are both confoundingly difficult to understand and have become a mystery in themselves. In late 2018 My Answer to Jung: Making Sense of The Red Book was published. This study demonstrates that Jung’s fantasies are not entirely original but that their plots, characters, settings and symbolism are remarkably similar to some of the higher degree rituals of Continental Freemasonry. It argues that the fantasies appear to be memories of an excruciating series of initiatory ordeals, possibly undergone in childhood and/or youth, that suggests an abusive use of the Masonic rites. In Black Book 6 Jung presses his soul to provide a glimpse into what all of this is about. She answers with a series of questions: “Temples in deserts? Secret societies? Ceremonies? Rituals? Colorful robes? Golden images of Gods of terrible aspect?” (BB 6, p. 268). This answer, along with many other details, confirms the thesis of my previous study: that Jung’s active imaginations are entirely associated with the rituals of the secret societies. This presentation will discuss the key features of The Red Book and Black Books which demonstrate that, over a century ago, Jung was recording, in extensive detail, his own memories of a torturous initiatory process that we now identify as ritual abuse.

Lynn Brunet (PhD) is an Australian art historian, artist and survivor of Masonic ritual abuse. Her research examines the coupling of trauma and ritual in modern and contemporary Western art and literature. In particular, it traces the connection between Masonic and other fraternal initiation rites and complex trauma in the work of so-called ‘tortured’ artists and writers.

Attachment Relationship in DID: Survival, Destruction and Healing – Adah Sachs PhD 

 Attachment is a survival instinct. It makes any newborn, from elephant to human to robin reach out and attach to another, because the newborn’s life depends on protection and care. This presentation, however, will discuss in depth how the life preserving instinct of attachment may be corrupted by trauma and abuse, and become a vehicle for harm and destruction. In families where abuse is an inevitable part of life (such as RA families), the intense distress and terror experienced by the child (or adult) intensifies their attachment needs to such an extent that reaching towards the attachment figure, who is also the abuser(s), is unavoidable, creating a vicious cycle of seemingly unstoppable suffering. Clinical examples will illustrate the process of destruction as well as the process of healing, both enabled by attachment.

Adah Sachs PhD is an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist and a member of the Bowlby Centre. She has worked for decades with adults and adolescents in psychiatric care, as consultant psychotherapist at the Clinic for Dissociative Studies and as head of psychotherapy for one of the London boroughs, now retired. Adah lectures, assesses and supervises worldwide on trauma, dissociation and attachment. Among her publications on these topics are numerous book chapters, journal articles, a co-edited special issue of the JTD (The Abused and the Abuser: Victim-Perpetrator Dynamics, 2017), three co-edited books (2008, 2018, 2023) and one in print.

Exploring Our Many Facets Through SoulCollage (C) – Patricia Quinn https://youtu.be/KU5FaNRcXb8

SoulCollage (C) was developed by Seena Frost to explore the different aspects of ourselves and of our lives. It’s popularity has spread worldwide, with in-person and online groups and conferences, because of its appeal and elevation of our inner awareness of ourselves and our world. This simple, poetic exercise of our creativity touches our authentic self/selves and contributes to a sense of community and wellbeing. After selecting and composing images that honor these aspects of ourselves we are then invited to let the image “speak” for itself. This can be done in journaling in the chat, or aloud.

Participants can gather photographic images that attract them before the meeting. All that is needed then are your journal, 5×8 inch pieces of cardboard, glue stick, scissors, and a surface to cut and paste on. In SC any and all parts are welcomed and appreciated to be depicted and fathomed. The 90-minute workshop will include an introduction to SC, an example of card making and time to create and share your cards. To learn more you can research online about SoulCollage.

Patricia Quinn MS, ATR-BC, LCAT, NBCCH is an artist and art therapist in private practice in Orange, NY who worked as an addiction clinician and prevention director and supervisor for 23 years. She has taught courses in art therapy, both graduate and undergraduate, for 30 years, including courses based on her book Art Therapy in the Treatment of Addiction and Trauma (Jessica Kingsley 2021). She is currently writing a book on the Neuroscience of Art Therapy for Addiction and Trauma. She served for 3 years as president of the Mental Health Association of Orange County, NY., as chair of the Historical Archives and Affairs Committee of AATA, as a delegate and chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee of NYATA, and on the Community Services Board of the Department of Mental Health in Orange County, NY. She is a SoulCollage facilitator.

Musical Performance and Sharing About Why His Songs Were Written – Michael Skinner  https://youtu.be/W2ISg712xuQ

Please note: We apologize for the poor quality of the audio in this video.

Mike’s website is at https://www.mskinnermusic.com/

Michael Skinner will perform and share about why the songs being shared were written. He uses his music for healing and in speaking out as an advocate addressing the concerns of trauma, abuse and mental health. Music and the creative arts in all of their forms are helpful for everyone in their healing journey. Michael believes that everyone is creative in their own unique way and learning to recognize this is a crucial component for healing from the long term impacts of trauma. Michael Skinner is an award-winning advocate, educator, writer and critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, guitarist, addressing the issues of trauma, abuse and mental health concerns through public speaking, writing and his music. He has spoken at the National Press Club, was a keynote presenter for a conference held by the United Nations, The State Department and Georgetown University on the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and adults and he was part of the groundbreaking Oprah Winfrey Shows that addressed the issues of males sexually abused as children.

His role as a consultant and trainer for the Federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors has been crucial in helping to shape the policy initiatives and directives for the delivery and implementation of trauma informed care and services. And he has worked with organizations nationwide to address the stigma of mental health and ending the silence of child abuse and suicide. Michael is also the founder and director of The Surviving Spirit; a monthly newsletter and website sharing resources to help those impacted by trauma, abuse and mental health challenges.

SMART Reports a Successful 27th International Conference  PR Newswire  Mon, Aug 12, 2024  EASTHAMPTON, Mass., Aug. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — S.M.A.R.T. Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Newsletter and Conferences – Neil Brick, Editor https://ritualabuse.us

Conference included Neil Brick, Dr. Alison Miller, Dr. Lynn Brunet, Patricia Quinn and Michael Skinner. SMART reports on the 27th ritual abuse and mind control conference since 1998. The online conference was August 10 – 11, 2024. http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

Speakers:

Dr. Alison Miller presented on Stabilizing and Healing Techniques for Survivors.  Survivors have front people and insiders, parts hidden inside, who react to things in the present as if it was the past. Front people have been trained to be in denial about the history of abuse and about the existence of other inside people. Dr. Alison Miller is a retired clinical psychologist who practiced for over forty years, specializing for the last twenty-five years in survivors of ritual abuse and mind control. Her new book, Demystifying Mind Control and Ritual Abuse: A Manual for Therapists, is available at https://www.karnacbooks.com/product/demystifying-mind-control-and-ritual-abuse-a-manual-for-therapists/97609/

Dr. Lynn Brunet discussed Traces of Masonic Ritual Abuse in Carl Jung’s Red Book and Black Books. Jung recorded these experiences in journals that he called the Black Books and The Red Book. In late 2018 the Answer to Jung: Making Sense of The Red Book was published. This study demonstrates that Jung’s fantasies are not entirely original but that their plots, characters, settings and symbolism are remarkably similar to some of the higher degree rituals of Continental Freemasonry. Lynn Brunet (PhD) is an Australian art historian, artist and survivor of Masonic ritual abuse. Her book is available at  https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429458262/answer-jung-lynn-brunet

Patricia Quinn talked about Exploring Our Many Facets Through SoulCollage (C). Patricia Quinn MS, ATR-BC, LCAT, NBCCH is an artist and art therapist in private practice in Orange, NY.

Michael Skinner spoke about Musical Performance and Sharing About Why His Songs Were Written. He uses his music for healing and speaking out as an advocate addressing the concerns of trauma, abuse and mental health.  Michael Skinner is an award-winning advocate, educator, writer and critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, guitarist, addressing the issues of trauma, abuse and mental health concerns.

Proof That Ritual Abuse Exists https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/

Large List of Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse References

Satanic Ritual Abuse evidence with information on the McMartin Preschool Case

Grey Faction, Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves Fact Sheet

Grey Faction, Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves Fact Sheet

Research Information on Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) https://ritualabuse.us/research/did

Sybil – Proof Sybil had MPD caused by severe trauma

Sybil – Proof Sybil had MPD and it was caused by severe trauma

Sachs, Adah (2019) Attachment as a Second Language: Treating Active Dissociative Identity Disorder. Frontiers in the Psychotherapy of Trauma and Dissociation, 3(1):107–122. Available to ISSTD Members on the Member Resources page in ISSTDWorld.

Abstract

Evidence is accumulating (Brand, Classen, McNary, & Zaveri, 2009, Brand, Loewenstein, & Spiegel, 2014; Brand et al., 2013; Brand et al., 2012; Dorahy et al., 2014) to show that by and large, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is well amenable to psychotherapeutic intervention along the lines of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) Guidelines for treatment of DID in adults (ISSTD, 2011), based on the Three Phase Approach (Van der Hart, Nijenhuis, & Steele, 2006). In this paper, however, I would like to draw our attention to those cases where improvement is not reached, despite high-quality, dedicated therapeutic efforts. I refer particularly to patients with Active DID (Sachs, 2013c, 2017): patients who remain persistently victimized and apparently unable to establish even the most basic safety needed for the therapeutic process (“phase one” of the threephase approach). I suggest that the therapeutic problem in these cases may lie in mis-attunement (Stern, 1998) between the therapist’s and the patient’s attachment language; and that this mis-attunement is due to a uniquely disordered attachment-pattern which characterises people with Active DID. I thus propose that, in these cases, phase one needs to be substantially modified and focus on therapeutic attunement rather than on safety. “Attachment as a second language” is proposed for treating people with persistent (“Active”) DID, while considering the clinical, theoretical and practical aspects of this therapeutic approach.   https://news.isst-d.org/attachment-trauma-and-dissociation/

NYC prosecutors intend to bring new sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein ahead of retrial By  PHILIP MARCELO  July 9, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday that they intend to bring new sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein as they anticipate a November retrial for the disgraced media mogul. Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said in court that prosecutors are actively pursuing claims of rape that occurred in Manhattan within the statute of limitations.

She said some potential survivors that were not ready to step forward during Weinstein’s first New York trial have indicated they are now willing to testify. But when pressed by the judge, Blumberg said prosecutors have not yet brought their findings to a grand jury. She also said she could not provide the court a timeline for when their investigation will be complete. “The People are still investigating in a trauma-informed manner,” she said. “That is an ongoing process.”….

Among those in the packed courtroom Tuesday was Jessica Mann, the former actor Weinstein was convicted of raping his 2020 trial. Mann did not speak to reporters but prosecutors have said she is prepared to testify against Weinstein again.  Weinstein’s other accuser, Mimi Haley, did not attend Tuesday’s hearing and has expressed reluctance about going through the trauma of testifying again. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, said in an email Tuesday that her client has not yet made her decision about participating in the retrial. The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann have. Weinstein has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual….

In April, New York’s highest court threw out Weinstein’s rape conviction after determining the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case. The ruling reopened a painful chapter in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures. The #MeToo era began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein.

Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence in New York, was also convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to 16 years in prison in California. But in an appeal filed last month in California’s Second District Court of Appeal, Weinstein’s lawyers argued he did not get a fair trial in Los Angeles. https://apnews.com/article/harvey-weinstein-sexual-misconduct-retrial-metoo-3d7151343d25ee65c3cb7849100e4fa0

Lawyer for megachurch pastor blamed 12-year-old for initiating ‘inappropriate’ sexual conduct  Letters sent in 2007 by a lawyer for Robert Morris shed light on how the pastor explained his past sexual behavior with a child — and who else might have known about it. Pastor resigns from church after child sex abuse allegation  July 9, 2024 By Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton

In 1982, pastor Robert Morris was a 21-year-old husband and father who  traveled the country telling young people about Jesus. Cindy Clemishire was a 12-year-old girl who dressed in flowery pink pajamas and still liked to play with Barbie dolls.

On Christmas that year, Morris — who would go on to found Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, and become a leading figure in the American evangelical movement — began what he would later describe as “inappropriate sexual behavior” with Clemishire while he was staying at her parents’ home in Oklahoma. Clemishire said Morris told her to come see him in his room before bed, and she was the type of girl who listened to instructions from trusted adults.

But 25 years later, when Clemishire hired an attorney and threatened to sue Morris, accusing him of repeatedly molesting her as a child, a lawyer representing Morris responded by blaming Clemishire for what happened to her, according to 2007 correspondence obtained by NBC News. “It was your client,” wrote lawyer J. Shelby Sharpe, referring to Clemishire at age 12, “who initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client’s bedroom and getting in bed with him, which my client should not have allowed to happen.

The Feb. 6, 2007, letter was one in a series of exchanges that year between Sharpe and Gentner Drummond, a lawyer who represented Clemishire at the time. Clemishire said in an interview last week she had been seeking $50,000 in restitution from Morris to cover the cost of counseling. Morris, through his lawyer, instead offered to pay $25,000, but the talks fell apart, Clemishire said, because she was not willing to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Drummond, who is now Oklahoma’s attorney general, confirmed Clemishire’s description of the 2007 negotiations and declined to comment further. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/robert-morris-gateway-church-lawyer-letters-cindy-clemishire-rcna160661

Hundreds of police raid a religious compound in search of Filipino preacher wanted for child abuse   By  JIM GOMEZ August 24, 2024  MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Hundreds of police officers backed by riot squads raided a vast religious compound in a southern Philippine city Saturday in search of a local preacher accused of sexual abuse and human trafficking, police officials said.

A supporter of the group, called Kingdom of Jesus Christ, reportedly died due to a heart attack during the massive police raid that started at dawn in the group’s compound in Davao city, livestreamed online by a local TV network owned by the group, police said, adding that the death was not related to the police operations….

Quiboloy and his lawyer have denied the criminal allegations against him and his religious group, saying these were fabricated by critics and former members, who were removed from the religious group after committing irregularities….Quiboloy, who was a close supporter and spiritual adviser of former President Rodrigo Duterte. Quiboloy claims to be the appointed son of God. In 2019, he claimed he stopped a major earthquake from hitting the southern Philippines.

Police Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, who led the raid, said officers wanted to serve warrants for the arrest of Quiboloy for various criminal cases, including child abuse and human trafficking. He justified the large deployment, saying there were more than 40 buildings and structures to be searched in the religious compound, where large numbers of Quiboloy’s followers heckled and opposed the raid noisily.

“We won’t leave here until we get him,” Torre told reporters as sirens blared in the background. “We have no-bail warrants for Quiboloy and four others for very grave crimes, including human trafficking, child abuse and other cases.” In 2021, United States federal prosecutors announced the indictment of Quiboloy for allegedly having sex with women and underage girls who faced threats of abuse and “eternal damnation” unless they catered to the self-proclaimed “son of God.”

Quiboloy and two of his top administrators were among nine people named in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury and unsealed in November 2021.  The superseding indictment contained a raft of charges, including conspiracy, sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, marriage fraud, money laundering, cash smuggling and visa fraud. Quiboloy’s group said then that he was ready to face the charges in court, but he went into hiding after a Philippine court ordered his arrest and several others for child and sexual abuse. The Philippine Senate has separately ordered Quiboloy’s arrest for refusing to appear in committee hearings that was looking into criminal allegations against him.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has urged Quiboloy to surrender and assured him of fair treatment by authorities. When he was mayor of Davao city and later as president, Duterte appeared in Quiboloy’s news program to promote his police-enforced drug crackdowns, which left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead. Duterte and his police officials have denied authorizing extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, but he openly threatened drug dealers with death when he was in office. The International Criminal Court has been investigating the widespread killings under Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs as a possible crime against humanity.  https://apnews.com/article/philippines-raid-quiboloy-kingdom-jesus-christ-compound-26cdfd24582dcd516e0754dd266b2bf9

 

August 25, 2024 · Filed Under Newsletter 2024 - Issue 174 - 179, Uncategorized