Spitfire List Web site and blog of anti-fascist researcher and radio personality Dave Emory.

News & Supplemental  

← Ratzinger’s Vatican Benefactor   |   Rudi Dekkers Enters a Sealed Plea: May Never Go to Trial →

“It’s Easier to Develop a Child than to Rehabilitate an Adult,” Part 2

Posted by Dave Emory ⋅ March 5, 2013Post a comment Email This Post Email This Post Print This Post Print This Post
Tags  , , , , , , , ,

Dave Emory’s entire life­time of work is avail­able on a flash dri­ve that can be obtained here.

COMMENT: In a pre­vi­ous post, we not­ed indi­ca­tions that some of the emerg­ing child molesta­tion scan­dals might be linked and, in turn, that they might be con­nect­ed to the Vat­i­can.

One of the unfold­ing cas­es we high­light­ed was the Penn State case, where for­mer [foot­ball] defen­sive coor­di­na­tor Jer­ry San­dusky has been con­vict­ed of molest­ing young boys. 

In addi­tion to Opus Dei-con­nect­ed Rick San­to­rum, San­dusky’s Sec­ond Mile Foun­da­tion was endorsed by George H.W. Bush, for whom CIA head­quar­ters is named. (Bush’s name sur­faced fre­quent­ly in con­nec­tion with the alle­ga­tions con­tained in The Franklin Cov­er-Up, cov­ered in FTR #318.) 

In addi­tion, the late Penn State foot­ball head coach Joe Pater­no hired coun­sel who rep­re­sent­ed Bush dur­ing the Iran-Con­tra affair. (Not just “any­one” would have been select­ed to rep­re­sent the for­mer head of the CIA in con­nec­tion with the Iran-Con­tra affair–J. Sedg­wick Sollers can be assumed to be an “inside play­er.”

 Of note, as well, is the fact that Ray Gricar,  a DA inves­ti­gat­ing the molesta­tion alle­ga­tions against San­dusky, dis­ap­peared from the face of the earth–his car was fished out of a riv­er. His corpse was nev­er found.

“Fired Joe Pater­no Hires High-Pow­ered Wash­ing­ton Defense Lawyer J. Sedg­wick Sollers” By Teri Thomp­son and Jim Rich; The New York Dai­ly News;  11/10/2011.

EXCERPT: Fac­ing inves­ti­ga­tion by the Penn­syl­va­nia Attor­ney General’s Office and the like­li­hood of civ­il law­suits by the alleged sex­u­al abuse vic­tims of his for­mer defen­sive coor­di­na­tor, Joe Pater­no has hired a high-pow­ered Wash­ing­ton crim­i­nal defense lawyer to rep­re­sent him, accord­ing to an NBC News report, cit­ing a source close to Pater­no.

J. Sedg­wick Sollers, who once rep­re­sent­ed Pres­i­dent George H.W. Bush in the Iran-Con­tra affair, was hired by Pater­no on Thurs­day to rep­re­sent the embat­tled coach­ing leg­end in the case against Jer­ry San­dusky, who faces 40 counts of sex­u­al abuse of at least eight boys.

The Dai­ly News report­ed Thurs­day that Pater­no could be named as a defen­dant in the slew of vic­tim law­suits that are expect­ed to be filed in the com­ing months. . . .

The Sec­ond Mile; Wikipedia.

EXCERPT: . . . .U.S. Pres­i­dent George H. W. Bush praised the group as a “shin­ing exam­ple” of char­i­ty work in a 1990 letter,[5] one of that pres­i­den­t’s much-pro­mot­ed “Thou­sand points of light” encour­age­ments to vol­un­teer com­mu­ni­ty organizations.[6] . . .

 

“Ques­tions on San­dusky Are Wrapped in a 2005 Mys­tery” By Ken Bel­son; The New York Times; 11/8/2011.

EXCERPT: One of the ques­tions sur­round­ing the sex-abuse case against Jer­ry San­dusky is why a for­mer dis­trict attor­ney chose not to pros­e­cute the then-Penn State assis­tant coach in 1998 after reports sur­faced that he had inap­pro­pri­ate inter­ac­tions with a boy.

The answer is unknow­able because of an unsolved mys­tery: What hap­pened to Ray Gricar, the Cen­tre Coun­ty, Pa., dis­trict attor­ney?

Gricar went miss­ing in April 2005. The murky cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing his dis­ap­pear­ance — an aban­doned car, a lap­top recov­ered months lat­er in a riv­er with­out a hard dri­ve, his body was nev­er found. . . .

. . . “No one got a bye with Ray,” said Antho­ny De Boef, who worked as an assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney under Gricar for five years. “He didn’t care who you were; he had a job to do.”

De Boef said Gricar did not share any infor­ma­tion with him about the case in 1998, which involved San­dusky alleged­ly show­er­ing with an 11-year-old boy. Gricar, he said, reviewed the police reports in pri­vate includ­ing, pre­sum­ably, notes or record­ings of two con­ver­sa­tions that the police heard between San­dusky and the boy’s moth­er. But Gricar had a rep­u­ta­tion for thor­ough­ness, and if he thought he had enough to charge San­dusky, he would have, De Boef and oth­er lawyers said.

Still, the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Gricar’s dis­ap­pear­ance prompt many ques­tions. . . .

 

Discussion

One comment for ““It’s Easier to Develop a Child than to Rehabilitate an Adult,” Part 2”

  1. One of the poten­tial pol­i­cy pit­falls that the US is fac­ing with its response to the New­town, CT school shoot­ing is the pos­si­bil­i­ty that increased resources ded­i­cat­ed to men­tal health ser­vices for at-risk youths will end up putting more youths at the risk of state-financed insti­tu­tion­al child-abuse. It’s a scary pos­si­bil­i­ty giv­en the exten­sive polit­i­cal con­nec­tions these shady youth pro­grams some­times have:

    The Nation
    GOP Mogul Behind Drug Rehab ‘Tor­ture’ Cen­ters Is Bankrolling Oppo­si­tion to Pot Legal­iza­tion in Col­orado
    Lee Fang on Sep­tem­ber 18, 2012 — 1:30 PM ET

    Mar­i­jua­na legal­iza­tion would harm kids, says Smart Col­orado, a group adver­tis­ing stock images of chil­dren along with mes­sages ask­ing for vot­ers to reject Amend­ment 64, a bal­lot ini­tia­tive this year to legal­ize and tax pot.

    Smart Col­orado, led for­mer Repub­li­can sen­ate can­di­date Ken Buck and a team of Repub­li­can lob­by­ists and cam­paign oper­a­tives, hopes to dri­ve down the pop­u­lar­i­ty of Amend­ment 64 before Elec­tion Day. The sup­pos­ed­ly fam­i­ly-friend­ly group, how­ev­er, relies heav­i­ly on funds from a pair of con­tro­ver­sial Repub­li­can fundrais­ers who once led a drug rehab cen­ter shut down over wide-rang­ing child abuse scan­dals.

    Save Our Soci­ety from Drugs, a Flori­da-based non­prof­it found­ed by Mel and Bet­ty Sem­bler, has giv­en Smart Col­orado con­tri­bu­tions total­ing $151,497 through Sep­tem­ber, accord­ing to The Nation’s review of state finance dis­clo­sures. That’s 95 per­cent of the mon­ey raised by the group so far.

    The Sem­blers have been wag­ing a war on mar­i­jua­na for decades.

    Before they led Save Our Soci­ety from Drugs, and its sis­ter non­prof­it, the Drug Free Amer­i­ca Foun­da­tion, the Sem­blers were at the helm of STRAIGHT, Inc., which oper­at­ed drug abuse treat­ment cen­ters, most­ly for teenagers, from 1976 through 1993.

    For­mer clients of the rehab cen­ter recount episodes of bru­tal beat­ings, rape and sys­tem­at­ic psy­cho­log­i­cal abuse.

    At one facil­i­ty in Yor­ba Lin­da, Cal­i­for­nia, state inves­ti­ga­tors found that STRAIGHT Inc. sub­ject­ed chil­dren to “unusu­al pun­ish­ment, inflic­tion of pain, humil­i­a­tion, intim­i­da­tion, ridicule, coer­cion, threats, men­tal abuse…and inter­fer­ence with dai­ly liv­ing func­tions such as eat­ing, sleep­ing and toi­let­ing.” Saman­tha Mon­roe, who was placed into a STRAIGHT Inc clin­ic in Tam­pa at age 13, says she was locked in a room, and forced to wear a clothes stained with urine, feces and men­stru­al blood—a pun­ish­ment her coun­selors called “hum­ble pants.”

    Richard Brad­bury, a for­mer STRAIGHT patient and coun­selor-turned-whistle­blow­er, told the St. Peters­burg Times that Monroe’s expe­ri­ences weren’t unique. “It was pure child abuse,” Brad­bury told reporters. “Tor­ture.”

    In 1988, Fred Collins, an 18-year-old col­lege stu­dent, paid a vis­it to his broth­er, who was in treat­ment for drug abuse, at an Orlan­do STRAIGHT Inc. clin­ic. Coun­selors accused Collins of being high on mar­i­jua­na because his eyes were red, and held him against his will for months. The abduc­tion, strip-search­es and oth­er abus­es end­ed when Collins man­aged to escape. He was one of many to win judg­ments against the chain of drug rehab clin­ics before it was forced to close after inves­ti­ga­tions and law­suits began to mount in sev­er­al states.

    Though the STRAIGHT drug rehab clin­ic no longer exist, the Sem­bler net­work of anti-drug non­prof­its have pro­lif­er­at­ed, in part because of the family’s exten­sive polit­i­cal con­nec­tions. Mel, who served as a major fundrais­er for George H.W., Jeb and George W. Bush, was appoint­ed as the Ambas­sador to Italy in 2001. Bet­ty Sem­bler, award­ed “hon­orary agent sta­tus by the DEA,” has led var­i­ous anti-drug com­mis­sions and task forces on the state and fed­er­al lev­el.

    Three years after STRAIGHT shut down, the Sem­blers changed its name to the Drug Free Amer­i­ca Foun­da­tion, head­quar­tered in St. Peters­burg, Flori­da.

    The Drug Free Amer­i­ca Foun­da­tion, a non­prof­it that shares resources, an office and staff with the Save Our Soci­ety group financ­ing the Amend­ment 64 oppo­si­tion in Col­orado, has a con­tract with the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to help small busi­ness­es devel­op their own drug-test­ing pro­grams for employ­ees. In 2010, tax­pay­ers forked over $250,000 to a Sem­bler group to over­see a drug-free work­place pro­gram for the Small Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion. It also helps pro­duce anti-mar­i­jua­na lit­er­a­ture and pro­mo­tion­al cam­paigns.

    ...

    Posted by Pterrafractyl | March 7, 2013, 11:16 am

Post a comment

FROM THE LECTURE SERIES

Asimo - RobotThe Future: Technology, Theocracy and the Thousand Year Reich The shape of things to come. Read more »