http://www.antifascistencyclopedia.com/ ... nd-controlThe Lexington Comair Crash, Part 32 PRELUDE: ARNOLD ANDREWS, OPERATION PAR & CIA MIND CONTROL
16th December 2006
Arnold Andrews died on Comair. Like SAMHSA’s Steve McElravy, he was employed in the battle against drug abuse.
Contents of this section:
1.) Arnold Andrews, R.I.P., & OPERATION PAR
2.) Wes Fager, editor of
http://www.theStraights.com (an Internet newspaper about child abuse in therapeutic communities), documents the sickening history of OPERATION PAR, including ties to the Bush “faith-based” syndicate, CIA mind control, and figures relevant to the Comair crash story.
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/08/29/news_pf/Tampabay/Ky_crash_kills__serva.shtml
par3 The Lexington Comair Crash, Part 32 PRELUDE: ARNOLD ANDREWS, OPERATION PAR & CIA MIND CONTROL
Ky. crash kills ‘servant’ of poor
Arnold Andrews worked behind the scenes for decades for the bay area’s downtrodden.
LEONORA LAPETER
Published August 29, 2006Arnold Andrews, who was killed in a commuter plane crash in Kentucky on Sunday, rarely made news – but left his imprint all over the Tampa Bay area.
He helped everyone from migrant workers, Cubans and hurricane victims to children with cancer, and the drug and alcohol addicted. One of his latest projects was a training center for homeless families in St. Petersburg.
“He did so much behind-the-scenes work for people,” said Hillsborough Commissioner Ronda Storms, who met him eight years ago. “Just completely causing big and small things to be done on behalf of people who had no voice and no power.”
Andrews was among 49 people killed when a Comair regional jet crashed after taking off from Lexington’s Blue Grass Field airport.
Andrews, 64, was an executive with WestCare Foundation, a non-profit that runs mental health and substance abuse programs. He had attended a company board meeting in Lexington and was scheduled to return Saturday night.
But HIS PLANE HAD A MECHANICAL PROBLEM, he told longtime friend and colleague Bob Neri when the two spoke Saturday night. …
FOR 23 YEARS HE WORKED FOR OPERATION PAR (Parental Awareness and Responsibility), a drug treatment program serving Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Lee counties. He started as a volunteer and counselor and left as executive vice president.
“We’ve lost someone who behind the scenes has masterminded quite a few things,” said Watson Haynes, a friend of 35 years who worked with Andrews at Operation PAR.
Andrews became executive director of Catholic Charities in St. Petersburg for a decade, serving also as vice chair on Catholic Charities USA.
“He had a real fondness for the poor and the downtrodden,” said Sheila Lopez, chief operating officer of Catholic Charities, Diocese of St. Petersburg Inc., who also worked with him at Operation PAR. “He loved working in particular with migrant workers. His dream was to build the San Jose Mission.”
Andrews was key in getting grants to set up the residential community for low-income farm workers in Dover in Hillsborough County. …
http://drugfreeamericafoundation.
blogspot.com/2005_02_01_archive.html
Drug Free America Foundation, ?formerly known as Straight, Inc.From 1976-1985 it was known as Straight, Inc. and had a reputation for abusing kids as a drug rehabilitation program. In 1985 it changed its name to Straight Foundation, Inc. in order to protect its money and its principals from civil suits. In 1995 it was changed again to Drug Free America Foundation. DFAF is a national and international drug policy think tank and provider of services for drug free work places.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Florida’s Supreme Court strikes down statue of limitations, allows abuse law suit 20 years later
In 1995 a woman identified as S.A.P. filed a lawsuit accussing the state of Florida of concealing details of how she was “beaten, burned choked and denied food” in 1979 at the age of 3 and 4. The judge threw it out under Florida’s 4 year statue of limitations law (section 768.28(13)). S.A.P. appealed and the matter made its way to Florida’s Supreme Court. On November 27, 2002, in a 5-2 decision, Florida’s Supreme Court ruled that the “statute of limitations” could not stop a lawsuit against the state “when one of the allegations in the suit says the state concealed facts about the abuse and delayed the filing of the lawsuit.” [Source: Naples Daily News 11/28/02 by Jackie Hallifax, AP]??Related articles:
1. 1973: Pinellas County States Attorney James T. Russell and County Sheriff Don Genung invite The Seed, Straight’s progenator, to Pinellas County. Russell and 6th Circuit judges join The Seed’s advisory board.
2. 1978: The Dale Report confirms child abuse at Straight. State Attorney James T. Russell does absolutely nothing while state health officials bow to political pressure from the Sembler crowd, hide the abuse in its official report, and fires its chief investigator.
3. 1978: Sixteen year old Jerry Vancil exposes child abuse at Straight to St. Pete Times but state investigation is dropped when Vancil dissapears. He has never been seen or heard from since (dead or alive) and the state has never bothered to look for him (or his body).
4. Ray Waymire, acting chief of police for the city of St. Petersburg, Fl., was a founding Straight board member.
5. 1987: HRS (state health department) received a complaint from a kid who escaped from Straight only to be brought back in handcuffs by a sheriff’s deputy.
6. 1989: Clary Report–Florida state health officials (HRS) bow to political presure once again and allow abuse to continue. Straight Foundation secretary Donald Sullivan, MD resigns to run for state Senate and joins committee that would oversee any investigation of Straight while his wife Irene Sullivan joins Sixth Circuit and attends Betty Sembler’s birthday party.
7. States Attorney James T. Russell shows favortism to Sembler by failing to prosecute anyone in his clan over the Great Cooper’s Point Land Scam while his former assistant state attorney Louis Kwall (whose former partner is now a 6th Circuit judge), who may have investigated the torture of Leigh Bright, et. al., but took no action if he did, becomes attorney for one of those involved in the land scandal; joins Sembler’s powerful Republican Pary Machine; and his wife becomes the Sheriff’s attorney.
8. 1990s: A teenager who had escaped from Straight met with an HRS (Florida state health department) official to file a complaint against Straight. Instead the HRS official called the police who escorted the child back to Straight for further abuse.
9. The Governor, his wife, the Lieutenant Governor, the Mayor and
everybody else joins the Advisory Board of Straight (now called DFAF).
10. The Sixth Circuit and the cops collude with Straight.
11. Operation PAR is a rehabilitation tool used extensively by Pinellas County’s 6th Circuit. It appears that Operation PAR has become the new treatment arm of Straight (now DFAF).
12. Florida’s 6th Circuit gags Ray Bradbury to keep him from exposing its own involvement in Straight and The Seed.
13. 1978: US Congressman C.W. “Bill” Young receives three out-of-state complaints against Straight and forwards them to James T. Russell. Russell investigates but does absolutley nothing and Young lets the ball drop. (St. Pete Times, 4/30/78, p. 15B) [Also see Young and Straight; Young and pork for Sembler's Treasure Island; Sembler tells Young to give Itlalians $10M of our money.]
14. How Phil Elberg overcame the statue of limitations in the Lulu Corter case.
15. RICO and how attorney Wendall Turley overcame the statue of limitations to sue the Hare Krishna church for abusing its children 25 years ago. link
16. Suicide or Murder? (Straight and 40+ suicides)
17. Over 40 suicides: Florida jury convicts mother of child abuse resulting in suicide after judge allows a psychological autopsy to determine state of mind of deceased teenager (e.g. whether actions taken by mother drove girl to suicide).
Claims Bill. Beyond suing for recompensation, there is another possible avenue of relief. That’s a claims bill. Let’s say the U.S. government did wrong by knowingly exposing thousands of our soldiers to the plant defoliator Agent Orange. The US Congress can pass a special bill to give a monetary award to those who had been put in harms way. Could the Florida legislature be educated to the problem that Florida state officials colluded with Straight, looked the other way, failed to prosecute, backed down to political pressure from Mel Sembler? Could the legislature be humbled into doing the right thing and make amends for what Florida state officials allowed to happen to thousands of kids by authorizing a special claims bill to reimburse them for the harm state officials caused by their reckless failure to do their jobs. link
If David Miscaviage can go to his deposition as Admiral Farragut, then Keith Henson can go as Bozo the Clown.
Posted by Wes Fager at 3:05 PM 4 comments Links to this post
DFAF carries the logo OJJDP
OJJDP is the US government’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. If you go to Drug Free America Foundation’s (formerly Straight, Inc.) web page, at the bottom right appears the logo OJJDP. What does this mean? Could DFAF and OJJDP be one and the same? (new 2/26/05)
Posted by Wes Fager at 2:13 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Friday, February 25, 2005
Has Op PAR become the treatment arm of the Drug Free America Foundation?
Or: 3 strikes and the Sixth Circuit is OUT!??This article also appears on Tampa Bay Independent Media.??SUMMARY Operation PAR is the biggest drug rehabilitation program in the southeast. In recent years PAR has been infiltrated by officials formerly associated with the defunct Straight, Inc. program. In its heyday Straight was the biggest juvenile rehab chain in the world, but it had a reputation for the dastardly abuse of its young clients (over 40 former clients have commited suicide) as can be seen in these links:
• a newspaper montage on Straight
• professionals comment on Straight
•
the US Senate calls the methods of The Seed (the model upon which Straight is based) Communist-styled brainwashing• Straight civil suits
• Montel Williams Show on Straight (video trailer)
• George W. Bush praises Straight (video)
• Straight Kids (a video trailer)
• Miller Newton, Straight’s former national clinical director, and now with a DFAF subsidiary, settles for $11 million for abusing kids• Tough Love rejects Straight
Mel SemblerStraight was founded and operated by US Ambassador to Italy, Melvin Sembler and his wife Betty. Today Straight is called Drug Free America Foundation. Today it specialzes in helping small businesses set up Drug Free Workplaces, and in promoting national and international drug policy.
Many of Florida’s Sixth Circuit justices were publicly supportive of Straight, Inc. and its predecessor The Seed. Betty Sembler and many others tied to DFAF/Straight have joined Operation PAR. The Sixth Circuit works closely with Operation PAR. Operation PAR has had no reputation for abuse. This report looks at the question, has Operation PAR become the treatment arm of DFAF? And, if so, should the Sixth Circuit be aware of it??—In the early 1970s a remarkable woman from Pinellas County Florida named Shirley Coletti was so concerned that her teenage daughter was using drugs that she worked with James T. Russell, the county prosecutor, and Sheriff Don Gedung to found a juvenile drug rehabilitation program they called Parental Awareness and Responsibility or Operation PAR. Op PAR has become so successful that in 2001 PAR sent a representative to the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s National Conference on Drug Abuse Prevention. But Shirley Coletti did not represent PAR at the conference; a woman named Betty Sembler did. A few years after PAR was founded, Betty Sembler had been another Pinellas County mother concerned that one of her teenagers was into the drug scene. But she did not send him to PAR; she chose instead a controversial Fort Lauderdale-based therapeutic community called The Seed.
The Seed had been founded by a comedian and recovering alcoholic named Art Barker. The St. Petersburg Times reported that
Barker had a mail-order degree in psychology. Barker had ambitions to make The Seed a national program. James T. Russell and Sheriff Gedung visited the program and recommended opening a Seed expansion facility in Pinellas County. Sixth Circuit (Pinellas /Pasco County) Judge Jack Dadswell had two kids in The Seed in Fort Lauderdale. He had been on the Executive Committee which had brought The Seed to St. Petersburg in Pinellas County. Sixth Circuit Justices William L. Walker and James B. Sanderlin had served on The Seed’s Advisory Board along with Russell, Gedung and Dr. Charles J. Crist, vice chairman of the Pinellas County school board and father of Charlie Crist (Florida’s Attorney General). Thirty years ago Sixth Circuit Judge Jack Page boasted about sending kids to The Seed “on a daily basis.” Today it’s Judges Walt Logan and Dee Anna Farnell who brag about sending one kid a day to Operation PAR.
In 1974 the US Senate published a report that likened the methods of The Seed to those used by North Koreans on American servicemen (brainwashing). The Seed fell from grace after that but Betty Sembler and her husband Melvin were so enamored with The Seed that they opened their own version of The Seed which they called Straight, Inc. Mel Sembler was very wealthy and politically connected too and the two of them were able to accomplish what Art Barker had not. They made Straight a national-level program with treatment camps all over the country.
Besides peddling their program to politicians, the Sembler’s were very successful in marketing Straight to the 6th Circuit as this marketing minutes shows. In 1977 Judge Page (the judge who sent kids to The Seed “on a daily basis”) had called Straight “excellent”; but word of Straight’s abuses were quickly leaking out. Turns out, Straight was much more destructive than The Seed had been. By 1981 Judge Page and other 6th Circuit justices had stopped sending kids to Straight. Judge Page says he started sending kids to PAR instead. He noted that a court order to Straight could involve more time than a sentence to jail for the drug offense for which the juvenile had been brought to him in the first place. He noted that PAR is a shorter program and a little more “normal” than Straight.In 1985 the Semblers, fearing civil suits (and perhaps fearing possible criminal prosecution as well) changed the mission of Straight, Inc. from “treatment” to “education” and its name from “Straight, Inc.” to “Straight Foundation, Inc.” And then they created a brand new organization to treat kids for addiction which they called “Straight, Inc.”! [See Straight: Piercing the Corporate Veil]
In 1989 Florida health authorities tried to close Straight’s flagship treatment camp in Pinellas County, but it appears that Mel Sembler used his political connections to keep it open. The new Straight, Inc. finally closed in 1993 amidst law suits and allegations of child abuse all over the country. And for the first time in 17 years DFAF and Betty Sembler found themselves without ties to a drug treatment business. James T. Russell, the man who brought The Seed to Pinellas County, never indicted Mel and Betty Sembler for their role in Straight, Inc. In fact the only person Russell ever prosecuted from Straight was a male adult counselor who went ot prison for sexually molesting a teenage male client. James T. Russell never even indicted anyone connected with Mel Sembler in 1988 for conspiring to defraud the taxpayers of Clearwater, Florida in The Great Cooper’s Point Land Scam .
In 1995, two years after Straight had to be closed, Betty changed the name of her educational foundation again. This time to Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF). But Ms. Sembler will always feel she has something special to offer those suffering from addictions, her fiasco at Straight, Inc. notwithstanding. After Straight closed she joined the board of directors for Operation PAR. And so it came to pass that it was Betty Sembler, and not Shirley Coletti, who attended the 2001 NIDA conference representing Operation PAR. (That same year Mrs. Sembler spoke to the US Congress as a representive of DFAF. So this dual hatted grandam of the “War on Drugs” and self proclaimed “drug prevention and policy expert” represents DFAF when she wants to talk drug policy and represents PAR when she wants to talk drug treatment.)
Betty Sembler is not the only person with ties to Straight who has come over to PAR. Susan Latvala is chairman of the board of directors of Operation PAR. She is also on DFAF’s Advisory Board. Former St. Petersburg police chief Terry Hensley is the former executive director of DFAF. Before that he was a director at Op PAR. The former director of Straight – St. Petersburg is an Interim Executive Director at Operation PAR. The former director of Straight – Sarasota is director of marketing for Operation PAR. Judge Irene Sullivan is on one PAR committee; her husband Donald was formerly secretary of Straight Foundation.Betty’s treatment concept through the use of politics (with its influx of taxpayer money) seems to have reached Operation PAR. The Sembler’s were able to persuade George H. W. Bush and Nancy Reagan to visit Straight. Already Jeb Bush and his mother Barbara have made separate visits to Operation PAR. The web page for The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy caries a feature article on Operation PAR. Wes Fager, editor of
http://www.theStraights.com once editorialized on his concern of Mel Sembler’s plan to test all American teenagers as a rite of passage for getting a learner’s permit and that possibly Sembler and/or his associates would be paid to do the testing. If a teen shows positive on this invasion of his privacy and if he is just a user he would possibly go to a Sembler-inspired drug rehab program. But if he is a dealer, he would go to a private prison for punishment and treatment. (See Sembler’s plan to make all 16 year-olds pay drug testers for the right to drive .) Operation PAR is already working with law enforcement in America. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been granting PAR $64,000 a year since 1999. In 1995 the Florida Attorney General’s office granted Operation PAR $59,000. Operation PAR runs a pilot program to rehabilitate prostitutes which as been funded by the St. Petersburg Police Department. Also Operation PAR works with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. Internationally, PAR runs a prison program in Barbados. Today Operation PAR is an $18-million, 500-employee agency treating 8,000 to 10,000 people yearly making it the biggest, most comprehensive drug treatment agency in the southeastern United States!
Blacks and addiction in Pinellas County.
A study done by the St. Petersburg Times in the early 1980s found that Operation PAR clients were typically black, had demonstrated a drug dependency beyond casual use of marijuana, and paid on a true sliding scale based upon income. That same study found that Straight clients were typically white, the fees were steep, and casual use of marijuana was cause for admittance.After the street violence in the predominantly black Midtown section of St. Petersburg in 1996 the community opened Family and Substance Abuse Center to treat black addicts. But by 2003 no public money had ever been freed up for the operation of that program (unless the person in need had committed a crime and had been subsequently court ordered). Any available operational money went to Operation PAR and to other established treatment programs elsewhere in the region. So much for failed drug rehabilitation for Midtown. But the city did manage to free up $ 1.3 million to buy land to build a $ 5 million shopping center in Midtown. Urban Development Solutions, a nonprofit headed by Larry Newsome and the NAACP’s Daryl Rouson, got the contract. The city council leased land to UDS for $5 per year and loaned it $1.35 million for construction. The loan is interest free and UDS doesn’t have to make payments for 10 years. And who is UDS’ business partner in this project? The Sembler Company. [See Coalition Building: Sembler and the NAACP.]
Op PAR receives a lot of its income from government grants, and from government Medicaid and Medicare payments. Last year it received a $ 4 million federal grant to build a development center and therapeutic community. In 1999 PAR was accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Today PAR can also be reimbursed by managed health care providers in addition to receiving its government grants.
PAR even bought and operated a mental hospital which is ironic since Susan Latvala, chairman of the board at PAR, has been very chummy with the Church of Scientology™. Scientologists strongly oppose the profession of psychiatry, though many consider Scientology™’s Dianetic™ processing as a sort of poor man’s alternative to psychiatric counseling. PAR’s Dr. Betty Buchan even endorses Narconon™ the drug treatment regimen so closely aligned with Scientology™.Two Strikes against the Sixth Circuit.
Justices Page, Logan and Farnell are not the only 6th Circuit judges with a working relationship with Operation PAR. Sixth Circuit Judge Nancy Moate Ley is or was a member of the board of directors at Operation PAR. Judge Lauren Laughlin works with Operation PAR to do drug assessments for the court. Pinellas County prosecutor James T. Russell helped found PAR. PAR runs a program for the county sheriff’s department. Judges are always looking for an alternative to rehabilitate or punish young offenders in lieu of sending them to jail. That’s understandable, but the judges need also understand that these places of businesses are, after all, just that–places of business–even many of the non-profits. The more people they treat, the more money they make. The more people referred to them by the courts, the more money they make. And the longer a person stays in treatment, the more money they make. Twice before Florida’s 6th Circuit has placed its money on juvenile rehabilitation programs endorsed by or operated by Betty Sembler. And twice before that court has struck out. To our knowledge, there has been absolutely no history of abuse at Operation PAR and that’s great. But the court should be reminded, from time-to-time, of its own endorsements of The Seed, Straight and Operation PAR, and the links these programs have to one another. [See The skinny on Florida's Royal Court under Judge George Greer.)
Straight, Inc. used to be the treatment arm of DFAF but today DFAF has no drug abuse treatment arm. Or does it? Drug Free Workplaces of Tampa Bay is an arm of DFAF. According to SAMHSA, there are 147 substance abuse programs within 100 miles of Pinellas County, and yet DFWTB's web page links to one, and only one, of these 147 programs--Operation PAR![1] Why? What is the true relationship between Op PAR and DFAF? On Feb. 12, 1999 Betty Sembler and Shirley Coletti attended Governor Jeb Bush’s Drug Summit in Tallahassee but they had to be back in Tampa that evening to attend an Operation PAR fund raiser co-chaired by Karol Bullard, wife Sembler’s business partner Fred Bullard. No problem, the two just hopped aboard Mel Sembler’s private jet and flew to Tampa. Lennie Bennett, a gossip columnist for the St. Petersburg Times, covered the day’s events writing that Betty Sembler is “one of PAR’s founders.” Well that is not true, but we might was well start believing it. After all, who runs PAR today–Shirley Coletti or the Straight crowd?
