http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w ... R2eqCMatWA Mel Sembler: Behind Liz Cheney’s Group, a Weird Legacy of Torture
« on: March 02, 2010, 07:00:19 AM »
http://www.theworldismycountry.org/allp ... of-tortureMel Sembler: Behind Liz Cheney’s Group, a Weird Legacy of Torture
11th February 2010
Financing Cheney’s pro-torture front is Melvin Sembler, who once enabled “enhanced interrogation” of American teens
By Joe Conason
Slate | Feb 9, 2010
The arrest of an Army sergeant (and Iraq veteran) who allegedly waterboarded his 4-year-old daughter for failing to recite the alphabet is sickening. Yet it may be the kind of news we must come to expect if, as a society, the United States determines that torture is an acceptable method of securing information and inducing obedience. Physical abuse of children is nothing new, of course, in certain right-wing quarters, as Max Blumenthal reminded us by exposing the pedagogical sadism of Focus on the Family in Republican Gomorrah.
For a sergeant who tortures his child, however, the relevant model probably comes from somewhere high in the chain of command. At the center of today’s propaganda promoting the torture state are former Vice President Dick Cheney, his family and many of his friends, working through an organization called Keeping America Safe that is run by his daughter Liz Cheney. The financier behind that outfit is one Melvin Sembler, a curious character whose résumé indicates that he is all too familiar with the “enhanced interrogation” of children.
Sembler is best known as a Florida shopping center magnate and Republican fundraiser whose success in amassing funds for the Bush family won him two ambassadorial appointments. Such patronage is a sordid aspect of national politics, but seems trivial when compared with the truly dark side of Sembler’s biography. Long before he achieved prominence in national politics, he was the driving force in the “boot camp” movement that popularized the use of psychological and physical abuse of “troubled” children and teenagers.
His own creation was a federally funded outfit known as Straight, Inc., which eventually fell apart amid multiple lawsuits and accusations of torture by teenagers abused in its secretive facilities.
The best reporting on Straight’s frightening history in recent years has appeared in Reason, the libertarian magazine, under the byline of Maia Szalavitz. Some of the techniques that eventually brought Sembler’s organization to the attention of law enforcement authorities will be eerily familiar to anyone who remembers what happened at Abu Ghraib: humiliating punishments, broken bones, starvation, sleep deprivation, stress positions, verbal assaults, eight-hour sessions of questioning, and so on.
According to Szalavitz, “Straight’s national clinical director … admitted to authorities in 1982 that he had kept teenagers awake for 72-hour periods, put them on peanut butter-only diets, and forced them to crawl through each other’s legs to be hit in a ’spanking machine’ … Straight ultimately paid out millions of dollars in dozens of lawsuits related to abuse and even kidnapping and false imprisonment of adults.”
Eventually Straight crumbled amid those multimillion-dollar settlements, newspaper exposés and government probes, thanks to the activism of Richard Bradbury, a young man whose experience resembles the stories of innocent Iraqis who were caught up in the torture machine over there.
Again according to Szalavitz, Bradbury “was forcibly enrolled in the program in 1983, when he was 17. His sister had had a drug problem, and Straight demanded that he be screened for one as well. After an eight-hour interrogation in a tiny room, Bradbury, who was not an addict, was nonetheless held. He later described beatings and continuous verbal assaults, which for him centered on sexual abuse he’d suffered as a young boy. Staffers and other participants called him a ‘faggot,’ told him he’d led his abusers on, and forced him to admit ‘his part’ in the abuse.”
Of course Sembler, like his pal Cheney, will never admit that anything went wrong with his grisly enterprise. When last heard from, as ambassador to Italy, he still listed his affiliation with Straight on his official State Department profile as a matter of personal pride. Just another exemplar of Cheney family values.
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chris jones
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Re: Mel Sembler: Behind Liz Cheney’s Group, a Weird Legacy of Torture
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2010, 07:10:11 AM »
I would love to go one on one with cheney, fisticups that is, ya I'm an old fart myself, so that would even up the odds.
He is a sadistical pervert, sociaopthic freak, a chicenkshiiite bullying cowardly pysco. Reminds me of a first sargent I knew, we went one on one, I lost, but it was worth it.
I'm not promoting violence- moderators, but I am saying the truth.
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Re: Mel Sembler: Behind Liz Cheney’s Group, a Weird Legacy of Torture
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2010, 07:23:59 AM »
Straight Inc. My (Brother's) Story
http://www.webdiva.org/straight/Thanks to the wonderful folks who started and worked at Straight Inc., and the Seed, such as Mel Sembler, Mark Foley, Mel Riddile, Paul Bishop and more, my brother is dead today. Yes I blame them completely. Even if my brother was messed up when he went in, they only made him worse, they did NOTHING to help him, he was abused along with thousands of other children. Many who are just coming to terms with it now, some 20+ years later.
Straight no longer exists but it's offspring does. They are named: Pathway Family Center, The Seed, SAFE Inc., Kids Helping Kids, Growing Together. Many of these "Wilderness" programs are extremely abusive as well. Betty and Mel Sembler (ambassador of Australia and Italy appointed by both Bush's) stared the Drug Free American Foundation, after Straight Inc. was finally shut down. It's a bad organization run by bad people. Now they are trying to push their agenda on the world through the The Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice.
New 1/3/09: Public Acknowledgement & Apology of the abuse that went on at Straight Inc.
Click here for more developments.
R.I.P. DJ A.M. aka Adam Goldstein, a veteran of Straight Inc.
My (Brother's) Story
continued below...
He's the one on the left w/ his best friend Cory.
Read what others have had to say over the years.
Please leave your own comments, questions etc. Let us know you stopped by!
I'm always interested in hearing from anyone who knew Steve, I get quite a few emails. Email me anytime at .
Before I get into the specifics let me say a few things, the story below, was written in 2001, it is now 2009 and the madness continues. These programs still exist. After doing research over the years it's become very obvious Straight Inc. was just a profit machine, as are most of the programs that exist today. The phrase Troubled Teen Industry was coined and it is real. It is a business, an industry. People getting rich claiming they can fix what probably isn't broken. I have documents from Straight Inc. that use words like "sales" and "quota" in regards to children's lives. Something is wrong with that picture.
There are 2 simple rules parents should follow if they feel they must send their child away.
1. Do NOT put your child in any facility that will not let you speak to your child anytime you want to, period!
2. Do NOT put your child in any facility that does not allow your child the human right, that even prisoners have, to contact outside council if there is any abuse that takes place.
The kids in Straight were not prisoners, had committed no crimes, yet they had less rights than prisoners of war.
If you don't follow these two rules then you really don't have your child's best interest at heart. Ultimately you should consider finding an outside source, an abitrator, if you will, to sit down with you and your child to help decide the best course of action if you don't feel you can handle your child on your own. But please, consider every and any alternative before sending them away. Why have a child just to shove the responsibility on someone else. If you truly feel you have no choice, it is your responsibility as a parent to make sure the treatment is compassionate and founded on love, not TOUGH love. Tough love is a crock of shit, especially for a child that doesn't volunteer to be treated that way. And it is your responsibility to keep your child safe and out of harms way.
Believe me, abuse in a facility like Straight will do far more damage than recreational drug use, FAR more! These aren't compassionate rehabs, they are behavior modification facilities. The same "program model" that was used in Straight Inc. to reform "druggies", is still used today to reform gay kids and turn them straight. No joke, read all about it. Again they use the SAME program model as Straight Inc. Behavior Modification has one goal, to change your child into someone else via intensive brainwashing. Since when does anyone have the right to steal someone's identity and replace it with what they think is best. A parent does not own their child, they are a guardian not a master. Do the right thing!
Now on with my brother's story. Please understand I wrote this from the heart, so the grammar and what not may not be perfect, I just wrote it as it came to me, I did it for my brother and all those who are not here to testify about their experience in Straight Inc.
My brother, Steve (click here and here to view some pictures) had such a beautiful spirit. He was extremely talented, he could sing, draw, he was very artistic and introspective. He started messing with drugs as a young kid with his friends. My parents tried putting him in military school and that didn't work. They got wind of Straight Inc. through a Tough Love group. Only $4,000 a year, my brother was there for 2 1/2 years. Mind you Straight didn't advertise it's evil ways. They let you know there was a WAR going on, a Drug war. They let you know your child was a victim of this war and they were your last resort.
My parents decided to put him in Straight Inc. Straight Inc. was a very intensive, family program. Meaning the family is involved as well. At age 13, I had to go to what they call "Open Meetings" every Monday and Friday and then sibling meetings on Saturday. Can't say I enjoyed it. The open meetings on Monday weren't too bad but on Fridays they lasted up to 3 hours, then we had to break out into a sibling meeting which COULD last another 2 - 3 hours. We were usually there from about 6pm until midnight or 1am.
When kids get put into straight they are put on phase 1. On phase 1 you stay at someone else's house. You are stripped of all your rights, you can wear no shoes, or belt and are led around by the back of your pants (belt loop) where ever you go. Can't even SHIT or SHOWER alone. You had ZERO privacy, you were NEVER alone. You could not read (except for the Bible, those hypocrites) anything, could not watch tv, could not listen to music. While staying at your host home (a home of a family who had a child on a higher phase) you were basically locked in. All the doors were locked, the windows were barred, in the bedroom the locks were reversed so you couldn't leave and the "oldcomer's" bed was usually pushed up against the door. My brother spend 2 1/2 of his 3 years on phase 1. You would think these kids had committed murder or something, most of them smoked a few joints and drank a few beers, if that. We aren't talking junkies were talking 12-15 year old kids who liked to experiment and party, for the most part.
While on first phase you could earn Talk with your family that occur after the open meetings. When someone got a talk they would get to come meet with their family and talk to them for 5 minutes, being lead by the seat of their pants, of course, unless they were lucky enough to earn Talk & Responsibility which meant no one had to grab your ass while you were talking to your family. I think it took my brother over 3 months to earn his first one. When he did it was extremely emotional for all of us. Considering my brother was on first phase for 2 1/2 years you can imagine how little we got to communicate with him, the TALKS after open meetings are the ONLY communication you get while they are on first phase.
Straight had this philosophy that 90% of all teenagers were druggies or potential, eventual, druggies. All druggies who started with beer, pot or mild drugs would eventually turn to more extreme drugs. All druggies would be unsuccessful and probably wind up dead. I did drugs, mostly pot, and I consider myself VERY successful today, no thanks to Straight. My brother is dead and it wasn't drugs that killed him. They convinced parents their kid would die without help and they were good at it. Dead, insane or in jail, they would say.
On 2nd phase you got the privilege to come home at night. EVERY DAY (unless in school) from about 7am until about 9pm (sometimes much later) you were at the Straight Inc. building. During that time you could NOT talk to anyone else, nor make eye contact with anyone, other than who was talking. You had to sit up straight for over 12 hours or be kicked in the back frequently if you didn't comply. If you were caught day dreaming or even thinking about something else and not paying attention you could easily be set back a phase or even body slammed to the ground. Imagine a kid with A.D.D. in this program. In the building (a revamped warehouse) there were basically no windows, florescent lights, peanut butter sandwiches for lunch every day. You had to get permission to go to the bathroom, no real medical care, absolutely NO real therapy or counceling by licensed therapists.
On first phase, you were taken out of school and/or any job you held. Once you got to 3rd phase you got to go back to school and 4th phase you could hold a job. On 5th phase you actually could go out on an outing with friends like a movie, WOW. Finally comes graduation, something my brother never saw. There were kids in Straight Inc. who had never done drugs (they signed a confession eventually after hours and hours of intimidation), kids with mental problems and eating disorders, as if an abusive experience like this is going to help someone with a mental disorder. That is criminal. They used mental intimidation to get some kids to admit to problems they never had so they could fill their f**king pockets!!
My brother was in the program for 3 years (from age 15 to 18) and ran away SEVEN TIMES! (that should be a hint). Now before I go further let me say I don't lay full blame on my mom she was ignorant as to what was happening. They sold a great package! Only recently have I told her what Steve went through, and I know it is and was hard for her to hear. She ultimately feels responsible. For 15 years I was pissed off at my brother for taking his life and leaving his family. Then I learned the truth, and to be honest I can't say I wouldn't have done the same. I don't know if I could have handled 3 years in that place. Let me give you some examples of the abuse he had to suffer.
Nightly they had to write "Moral Inventories", better known as MI's. My mom saved these and recently I asked her if I could have them. I put them all in order and started reading. On his 60th day in straight he stated that he was very proud because he finally had a day where he wasn't physically restrained. One got physically restrained for not raising their hand. It's not like he was trying to beat people up or run away on a daily basis, he just wasn't complying. That's my brother, he was a fighter. And when I say restrained, imagine four big guys or girls, throwing you to the ground and sitting on you so you could hardly breath for 30 - 60 minutes. People got broken fingers, hands, arms, ribs, etc, often.
They were told to make a list of all the bad "sexual" things they did when they were young. Many kids hadn't really done anything yet but they were hounded so severely kids actually made things up. And then of course it was used against them as ammunition to remind them what sluts and whores they all were. Druggies were losers, and people who went back to using drugs were useless losers who would never succeed. Yeah that's the way to cure someone, make them feel like total shit about themselves for a problem they may or may not have.
They were not allowed to talk about anything much beyond themselves. Meaning if there were severe family problems going on, that might even have attributed to the drug use, so what. The problem was drugs, not that "you were molested as a child". These kids were severely brainwashed into thinking they were complete losers and everything was their fault. A very popular phrase "SPIT THERAPY" comes from this program too... think about it. Many of these kids had problems such as depression, or were bi-polar yet got ZERO therapy for any problems, NO psychiatric counceling. The counceling for the most part came from KIDS (brainwashed kids) who had already graduated the program, that way these greedy f**kers didn't have to PAY for real help.
Before my brother could come home on phase 2, Straight Inc. told my dad he had to get rid of the alcohol in the house, because it would be tempting. My mom and some friends thought it might be a good idea to have an intervention for my alcoholic father (he is a true blue alkie). They had the intervention at the Straight building (Straight loved to be in control), they didn't plan on putting my dad in there, the intervention just took place there. Of course if you have ever experienced an intervention you feel cornered and will usually back down and comply because of all the "friends and family" that are there. So, my dad agreed to go into a 3 week program at Fairfax Hospital to stop drinking.
As we all know you won't stop abusing (drugs, alcohol, whatever) until YOU are ready, my dad wasn't ready. He left the program and came up with the GREAT idea that he would move out so my brother could come home. NICE DAD! So now my brother saw my dad as choosing his BOTTLE over him. Again my dad had to be ready to quit but DAMN what a slap in the face that was for me and my brother. My dad cared more about getting his buzz on then his own god damned family. I still harbor resentment today about it.
Then, while in Straight we found out my dad had cheated on my mom with MANY different women and had another child about 7 years before. My brother got wind of this in Straight, of course a senior staff member at Straight told him, they just wouldn't let him talk about it. EVERY TIME he tried to talk about it they would tell him to focus on HIS problem. As if DRUGS are EVER the problem. Something is always behind it. So basically they told him just to f**k with him, not to help him. It breaks my heart that my brother was put through this. He was made to think he was worthless and useless and had nothing going for him. Every time he ran away he was brought back FORCEFULLY to Straight. Even punched a window out in hopes of severing his hand so he could go to the hospital instead of Straight, no such luck.
I was around a few times when they got him at our house, it was always VERY physical (my brother was 6'3"), with friends and neighbors helping to restrain him. Granted none of them knew of the horrors of straight, but the one problem I do have is that if a kid runs away 7 times then the PROGRAM ISN'T WORKING, move on! Get him OUT! But that didn't happen. Looking at it from the perspective I now have, it really breaks my heart. Because every time my brother ran it was as if he was escaping a concentration camp, and they brought him back to that hell hole 7 times. He actually jumped from a moving car on one occasion risking his life in order not to go back. I can't imagine what he had to endure each time he came back, I would not have survived that.
The sibling side of straight was odd as well (siblings of course being the brothers and sisters of those in the program). We would go to sibling meetings (Monday nights, Friday nights and practically all day Saturday for THREE YEARS) and have to talk and share (yuck) but I got into it at the time, as if I had a choice. If you don't go then they warn your parents you are probably on drugs too. I actually had an interview 2 years into straight because a straightling saw me try snuff in school and reported me. They thought I was on drugs, thank GOD I wasn't put in there. The folks in Straight were pretty much brainwashed into narking on anyone seen doing anything suspicious. Many kids who never TOUCHED drugs went into that program and the parents were of course told they were druggies since the counselors grilled them enough to admit it in writing.
In siblings we had to write MI's too, we had to sing these stupid mother f**king songs, although I preferred that to sharing. When we wanted to talk we have to MOTIVATE. Meaning raising both your hands in the air and shaking them like a god damned gorilla or something. The kids in the program would get restrained for not doing this. Straight was very "God" oriented *how f**king hypocritical*, they were against ROCK music and premarital sex. I still remember friends of mine in siblings that were just BLASTED for going to a rock concert or having sex at the age of 17. I mean BLASTED. Oh it makes me sick to think about. And that was NOTHING compared to what went on to the kids INSIDE Straight.
My brother turned 18 in September of 1985 and withdrew himself from Straight. He asked my mom if he could come live at home and she said only if he goes to AA. At the time I didn't understand why he said no. But now I do. He had been a prisoner with NO rights for 3 years (keep in mind he was on FIRST PHASE for 2 1/2 of those 3 years) and wasn't about to be told what to do. He left Straight homeless and alone and somewhat brainwashed. He was still in contact with his highschool buddy Corey, who I recently contacted. Corey was probably his only TRUE friend, him and Craig and Bubba *grin*. I saw my brother once before he died working at the Mobil gas station. He looked good but sad, I wanted to cry, wanted to go give him a big hug, but even our relationship had been affected, we had hardly seen each other in 3 1/2 years. I could tell he was happy to see me but didn't know how to react. Finally on June 30th 1986 my brother checked himself into the Econo Lodge in Springfield Virginia. Wrote a note to Corey, took some cocaine for courage, and jumped from the 4th story window. He hit his head on the concrete. He was without oxygen to the brain for over 10 minutes, which of course caused his brain to die. He was put in the hospital and kept on life support until July 3rd when we decided to pull the plug.
I recently got to read my brother's suicide note for the first time. It confirmed everything for me. My brother never really had a self defeated attitude yet the entire note talked about what a f**k up he was and how he would never amount to shit. Straight did a WONDERFUL job of drilling this into his head for 3 years. Imagine hearing for 3 years straight that if you ever smoke another joint or drink another beer you are a loser who WILL wind up dead. That is exactly how he viewed himself.
I didn't deal with his death for the first 15 years, hardly cried and rarely spoke of it. One day, back around 2001, I decided to do some research on the net about Straight. Oh my god the shit I found blew my mind. It goes so much deeper then what I express in this letter. Being that I was not with my brother in straight I could only share things that he went through that others shared with me. But if you visit some of the links below you will gain a better understanding of what really occurred. It was absolutely horrific and it's STLIL GOING ON TODAY!
I will never forget in 1986 Nancy Reagan and Princess Diana came to Straight in Northern Virginia, I was in the open meeting that they came to. And then afterward publicly gave their support to the program, completely CLUELESS as to it's horrors and treatment of these kids. I was told there were certain "trouble makers" who were taken to back rooms and gagged so they wouldn't make a peep while the first lady and the Princess were there. That breaks my heart. Many people I have since talked with are just NOW (15-20 years later) coming to terms with this abuse. Many completely lost themselves and their personality and have had to rebuild. Brainwashing is REAL and no joke. It's a tried and true practice and they used techniques in Straight that have been used globally. Definitely a Clockwork Orange meets Full Metal Jacket type situation, and very very sickening to me.
I have talked to so many people over the last few years who knew Steve in Straight, who tell me what a fighter he was, that he didn't cave and give into the bullshit they were dishing out. How in his own way (Since you weren't allowed to talk in there) he actually was able to inspire others to keep their head up and make through. This is a bitter sweet reality for me. Straight stole my brother from me. At 13 he was taken and I never spent a moment of quality time with him again. They destroyed my family and countless others. They should be held accountable and I will keep talking about it and informing people of the truth until the day I die, if things don't change.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information. If you were unaware of these atrocities before, my hope is it's angered you enough to at the minimum, spread the word, tell one person. Knowledge of the truth is powerful, and we have the power to end these crimes!
In the meantime, I feel it's extremely important to get this information out. Parents have NO EXCUSES anymore when it comes to sending their kids to these programs. The information is out there for them to gain FREELY, if they only do the research. I think the most important thing is to realize that drug treatment needs to be REAL therapeudic treatment and it needs to be voluntary. I don't care if a kid is 15 years old no child should be FORCED to do something like that. If you do your research, you will see,that children have less rights in this country then ANIMALS or prisoners of war, and when it comes to private rehabs they have no rights. At the very least if you were ever faced with putting your child in a facility that was not voluntary, make sure their rights are covered by the law, meaning as much as I hate to say it, a government run institution is bound to the law and it's much harder for them to get away with these crimes then in a private rehab. If a parent doesn't love their kid enough to do the research before sticking them somewhere like that, they need to rethink the whole parenting thing. And believe it or not there are parents out there who would much rather throw their kid in a rehab then be a parent. I know that isn't the case in most situations, but it does happen and therefore the child needs the right to speak out if they are put in an abusive facility.
Straight Suicides: This is a partial list of people who committed suicide while in straight or after they got out. Many others TRIED to take their lives. I left last names out purposely for those who wish to maintain privacy. There are several others that have died reasons not disclosed. No doubt this list will continue to grow over time. These people did not die in vain and we are not going away until all these abusive facilities are shut down and the people responsible are held accountable! *Denotes death but suicide unconfirmed.
Springfield, VA Straight
Jon Guyton 1985
Greg Hughes 1985
Steve Matthews 1986
Kristin Stottlemeyer 1986
Chris Weiss 1986
Chris Kelly 1987
Duane Rolfs 1987
Matthew Hunter 1988
Charlie Griffith 1989/90
Greg T. 1989
Dan Brown late 80s
Ira Kauffman late 90s
Glen Steepleton 2000
Kevin Yriondo 2000
Kent H. 2009
Travis Stone
Paul Riffle
Terry L.
Teddy B.
Lisa D.
Stoughton, MA Straight
Chris Ahlman 1988
Glenn Jenkins
Brandon E.
Dale N.
Atlanta, GA Straight
Brandon K.
Tara M.
Theresa S.
Tracey G.
Ron H.
Michelle E.
Ben L.
Dallas, TX Straight
William F. 2001
Vance H.
Shiela C.
Michelle K.
Cincinatti, OH Straight
Jeff Leugers 1990
Paul Price
Rob H.
Dane W.
St Pete, FL Straight
Jerry V.
Geoffery R.
Kent C.
Sarasota, FL Straight
Reagan F.
Orlando, FL Straight
Chris C.
Aaron Rockey
Dave Gilman
James Mixon (died Oct 1989 -15 yrs old- possible suicide by cop)
Matt Willingham
Chris Cybulski
The Seed
Ken S.
Others
Charlie P.
Jamie C.
David H.
Ryan K.
Ron F.
Phil W.
Albert P.
Andy M.
Tracy B.
Shirley C.
Brian N.
Bennett B.
Bill F.
Dan H.
Note: According to statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics, in 1987 the Tampa Bay area (Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas Counties) had the highest suicide rate in the country. It's not just because of the large number of retirees there. The juvenile suicide rate in Pinellas County rose 130% between 1980 and 1986. A 1992 study found that 1 out of 4 girls in neighboring Pasco County attempted suicide in 1991 (national average was 10%). And in neighboring Hillsborough County the juvenile suicide rate rose from 3 in 1980 to 9 by 1987. 19 youths committed suicide in Pinellas/ Hillsborough Counties in 1989 [up to nine of these were gay.] Straight operated its founding center, Straight-St Pete, in Saint Petersburg, Florida in Pinellas County from 1976 to 1993.
Alledged abuses at Straight, Springfield, VA
Virginia Letter to Deny License
Republicans and Straight
Straight Court Cases
Mel Sembler, Straight's Founder, buying his ambassadorships?
Flowchart of Straight's History
Links:
Straight Inc. Alumni - The largest online group of ex-straightlings. Great for locating people as well as discussing your experiences and trauma related to attending straight and/or programs like it. All are welcome!
Fornits - A huge online discussion forum bringing together people who were in straight, Pathways, WWASP (World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools), Kids Helping Kids, Aspen Group, The Seed, Elan School, wilderness programs, Brat Camp, CEDU/Brown Schools, Hidden Lake Academy, Hyde Schools, Daytop Village, Growing Together/L.I.F.E., Mission Mountain School, Synanon, Kids of North Jersey and more. You may rema
in completely anonymous on this discussion forum if you wish.
The Rick Ross Institute on Straight Inc. - This page contains information The Rick A. Ross Institute has gathered about Straight Inc.
Quackwatch - Quackwatch, Inc., which was a member of Consumer Federation of America from 1973 through 2003, is a nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, and fallacies. Its primary focus is on > quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere. Founded by Dr. Stephen Barrett in 1969 as the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud, it was incorporated in 1970. In 1997, it assumed its current name and began developing a worldwide network of volunteers and expert advisors.
Teen Advocates USA - Founded in 1999 by Barbe Stamps, Teen Advocates USA is a non-profit children's rights and advocacy organization focused on monitoring the care and treatment of youth by the privatized behavior modification industry.
Teen Liberty - Protecting the Civil and Human Rights of Teens.
A Clockwork Straight -The most extensive website about straight, documenting it's past, present and future.
The Trebach Report
OVer the GW- New movie about a straight offspring (Kids Helping Kids) .
Surviving Straight, Inc. In their Own Words!
Kimberly's Story- Kimberly's Personal Story
Ginger's Story - Ginger's personal story.
The Agitator - The daily writings of Radley Balko, the author of the Fox News article.
SelfGrowth.com - SelfGrowth.com is the most complete guide to information about Self -Improvement, Personal Growth and Self Help on the Internet. It is designed to be an organized directory, with articles and references to thousands of other Web Sites on the World Wide Web.
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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately
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Re: Mel Sembler: Behind Liz Cheney’s Group, a Weird Legacy of Torture
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2010, 07:33:17 AM »
A Clockwork Straight
Rehabilitation,Thought Reform and the Destruction of Young Minds
Introduction
by Wesley M. Fager
(c) 2000
"I been around, you know. There was a time when I could see, and I have seen boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there is nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit, there is no prosthetic for that." Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade (Al Pacino) in the 1992 movie Scent of a Woman
But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.
The fool is Jesus Christ, from Fool on the Hill by the Beatles.
"Life is a very wonderful thing," said Dr. Branom . . . ‘"the processes of life, the make-up of the human organism, who can fully understand these miracles?. . . What is happening to you now is what should happen to any normal healthy human organism . . . You are being made sane, you are being made healthy."
"That I will not have," I said, "nor can I understand at all. What you’ve been doing is to make me feel very ill." Alex talking to his psychiatrist in A Clockwork Orange
"If I would have realized back then that I would have been out of jail a lot sooner than I got out of Straight, I definitely would have picked jail. It was kinda' like from the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest with Jack Nicholson. Jack thought it would be easier serving his time out in a psyc ward instead of prison and the next thing ya know the poor guy gets a lobotomy. Well that kinda' happened to me. Except my lobotomy was a brainwashing. Start out thinking "I'll just go along to get out of here," then the next thing ya know BAM! I am gone and some jackass flapping his arms around like an idiot and singing songs like "Zippity Do Da" is sitting in my chair. I still get can't believe it. Seems like it happened to another person or something."
LESTAT49203, Straight-Cincinnati and Straight-Detroit
"They [the Straights] run very close to really performing psychic murder."
-Marge Robertson, executive director of the Cincinnati Chapter of the ACLU, from Cincinnati Post.
"I have seen people sit in Group and physically carve into their arms to, in my opinion, try to escape the hell they were in. I know that they put to much on us for young people. I wonder if they didn’t set some of us crazy themselves. I know of one young child that didn’t speak to anyone for probably 2 months. This kid didn’t crack a smile; it was like he was in his own world. I never understood why some kids with obvious mental disorders were allowed to continue treatment when it was obvious that they needed mental help from someone more than a teenager or young adult who had no formal training. Will any of us ever know how much damage straight really did to our minds, and our bodies?" Mark Fuller, Straight-Springfield
"Staff members directed me to physically batter and verbally assault other clients. They gave me this directions when I was a client and when I was a Staff Trainee. I carried them out. So did hundreds if not tens of thousands of other kids. . . As hard as it has been to live with the reality of being clinically abused for nearly two years, it cannot compare with the complete nightmare of living with the fact that I abused other people repeatedly in the name of a thought control cult. It cannot compare with the nightmare of knowing that some of the people I abused have ended up in jail, or dead, and that I contributed to the destruction of their lives." James, Straight-Atlanta
"Several children attempted suicide while staying with host families, but the attempts were not reported and the children were not treated. . . Some teen-age clients were forced to reveal their sexual fantasies during group sessions. Others were subjected to "spit therapy," where children would spit on each other to reduce their egos." Jacqueline M. Ennis, formerly head of licensing for Virginia's Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, speaking about Straight. [Saint Petersburg Times, 7-31-91]
"Children are a very marketable commodity for hospital admissions." Pete Kreis (1985), former Chief of Children, Youth and Families Division, Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS). [Saint Petersburg Times, Jul 6, 1987]
"Getting money is easy . . . Myself. [I would invest in] drug and alcohol rehab centers. I’m serious. It’s the number one op of the 90s. Priscilla, people are chic. You tell them they can’t quit on their own and suddenly everybody needs help. I mean the human mind. What can you say.”
Con artist Eddy Otis (Kevin Spacey) from the 1993 suspense thriller Consenting Adults
". . . research has shown that over the last 3 years there has been a decline in Straight’s market, to-wit: middle and upper income children involved in drugs. Instead, more lower income families are affected." Jay Snyder, Straight Foundation board member, January 17, 1991
"It is too easy for tyranny to eclipse therapy when teenagers have authority over other teenagers." David Rosenker, Program Director, Louis House North, Blaine, Minn. The [Bergen] Record, 7-26-87, p. A17.
"It just shows that we must have been doing things right." a "grinning" Mel Sembler "proudly" commenting on the ACLU's lawsuit against Straight - Atlanta. Florida Trend Magazine, May 1997
"Business!!!! Mankind was my business." The ghost of Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
"I often wonder what it is that brings one man success in life and . . . failure to his brother. . . some men succeed because they cheerfully pay the price . . .and others are unwilling . . . That’s why so many . . . remain on the beaten paths that are for broken men." A quote carried around by Straight founder Ambassador2 Mel Sembler, AO
They tell you they love you,
but it is a lie;
Satisfaction is theirs once you have cried
From the moment your foot steps into the door,
If you give in a little they push you for more
It's so vicious, so desperate,
It seems never-ending
Your soul is at stake
with the outcome still pending
You awake in the midst of a strangers bed,
And more often than not,
You will wish you were dead.
It is hushed to the world
Yet so full of hate-
A place all too many
Now know as Straight.
-Thea, written after her release from Straight - Atlanta, 1990
I have been researching and writing a book about Straight for five years now. When I started I just had no idea how big they were or just where the story would take me. I haven't finished my book, but I have been inspired by three former Straight students to publish some sort of interim, web-based book on Straight. These students are Scott Wagner from Philadelphia who made the first-ever, substantial page on Straight; Kathy Martin of Manassas, Virginia who formed a discussion forum for Straight Survivors; and Ginger Warbis of Lighthouse, Florida who has put together the pointers to the various resource pages on Straight.
DEDICATION. This condensed version of my book is dedicated to all the men and women who have been students in Straight-based re-education centers, to those those boys and girls currently in abusive, Straight-like therapeutic communities, and to those former students, too numerous to mention here, who took their own life following their Straight experience. That said, I will mention three names in dedication:
to Professor Arnold Trebach of American University and of the Drug Policy Foundation who worked so hard to tell the story
to my friend Richard Bradbury of Tampa, Florida who spent seven long years of his youthful life closing them down under the name Straight, Inc.
and to Bill Fager who has given his all.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I would like to thank all who have shared their stories with me through eMail, snail mail, telephone and personal visits. Internet discussion forums like Kathy Martin's and Don Smith's on Straights, and Kimberely Fee's forum KIDS continue to be a wealth of information about the Straights and I appreciate everyone for sharing. I would like to thank everyone who has helped me out on special research projects. I would like to thank Kathy Martin, Scott Wagner and Ginger Warbis for inspiring me to do an internet presence and to all those others like Marti Heath who have subsequently developed fine web pages about the Straights and its descendents. I am also indebted to Ginger Warbis for her technical and editorial assistance, and for her political insights. This story could never have been told without Richard Bradbury of Tampa, Florida who turned over his enormous archives to me. Special thanks go to Dr. Arnold Trebach of the Drug Policy Foundation in Washington, DC for access to that foundations voluminous files on the Straights and for use of his court documents from the Fred Collins trial. I would like to thank an anonymous friend who has generously helped the cause financially. I am indebted to true detectives--the librarians all over the country, and especially to the library staffs at the Saint Petersburg Public Library, the Fairfax County Public Library, and the Library of Congress. I will always be indebted to the reporters and editors of America's newspaper--The Saint Petersburg Times--for their excellent coverage of the Straight story and for their coverage of their local citizen Melvin Sembler. Channel 13 Eye Witness News of Tampa and WAMI TV in Miami have also done excellent jobs in reporting the story. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Kay for an ever listening ear and for putting up with five years of research and writing so this story could be told.
FOREWORD by attorney and world renowned author and addiction expert Dr. Stanton Peele. In many cases, kids in trouble (read "distress") are seen to require no care or affirmation; quite the contrary, they are often seen to benefit from highly aggressive and degrading communications and environments -- one thinks of prison programs such as "Scared Straight," boot camps, drug treatment interventions, and ":tough love" treatments. The thought seems to be that kids are misbehaving since they are disobedient and willful -- they may be bad seeds -- and need to be brought to heel. Straight, Inc. was and is a treatment regimen for children built on such assumptions. As in other such cases, it produces often strongly negative outcomes (such negative outcomes are not restricted to children in abusive programs, but occur with adults as well, as in the high suicide rates reported by the Atlanta Constitution for doctors and other health care workers treated by G. Douglas Talbott, founder and board member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine). Thanks to Wesley Fager for commemorating the victims of this abuse, who died for reasons unknown, but whose deaths should not go unacknowledged.
Stanton Peele, J.D., Ph.D.
ENDORSEMENT. As a person who was incarcerated at Straight, Inc., for twenty months, I can personally attest to the veracity of many of the accounts of abuse and wrongful imprisonment contained in this book. As a physician, I am horrified by the absolute disregard for the psychological, emotional, and physical health, safety, and constitutional rights of Straight clients during the period I was there in the early to middle 1980's. I graduated from the program after having been forced, by repeated verbal and physical assaults, to accept the notion that I had a drug problem even though I did not. I was an honors high school graduate already accepted into a competitive college, but because of my parents' poor parenting skills and their vulnerability to the slick marketing tactics of Straight, Inc., I found myself, at the age of eighteen years, a prisoner with absolutely "no rights" according to Miller Newton, the executive director of Straight at the time. Submission to every rule and Straight custom was demanded and enforced by brutality. I existed in a constant state of terror for my safety and even my life if I did not conform. Although I lost my innocence, precious years of my adolescence, and was forced to delay my educational goals, I realize how fortunate I am that I was able to succeed professionally and personally despite the repeated assaults on my psyche and body. Sadly, many former clients whom I knew have suffered terribly, some turning to drugs and others having committed suicide. To this day, some twenty years later, I suffer from nightmares and periods of intense anxiety brought on by such seemingly simple triggers as certain songs I heard while in the program. Mel Sembler boasts about the over 12,000 successful graduates from Straight1, although it begs the question "what does he mean by 'successful'?" Although I appear to be such, I succeeded despite the program and would give anything to remove from my closet that ghastly skeleton that is Straight, Inc., and the inescapable images of horror and violence I was forced to endure and witness there. Victoria H., M.D., Sept. 2002
INTRODUCTION. This is a story about organized child abuse in the western world on a massive scale, maybe in excess of 50,000 kids involved. It's about convincing affluent white parents that their child will die without the services of a juvenile drug rehab program called Straight (and in some cases one of its abusive follow-on programs). This is a story about human excrement, urine, vomit and spit. It's about little white girls on their periods sitting in pools of blood and about kids carving on their bodies. A tongue partially bitten off or the inside of a cheek chewed up, starvation and sleep deprivation. It's a story about coerced or coaxed sexual confessions. It's about teaching a child to become ultraviolent and about ripping families apart. And it's about money--90 million dollars. As I write this introduction I am reminded of an old Twilight Zone segment I saw years ago–probably before many of you readers were born. According to that episode: A flying saucer had landed on the mall in Washington, D.C. The aliens told the Washingtonians that they had come in peace and gave the authorities a little red book to prove it. Problem is the document was written in alien language. So the generals turned the little book over to the code breakers at the National Security Agency. After a month-long effort, the best the code breakers could do, even with the aid of modern computers, was to decipher just the title of the strange little red book. It read: HOW TO SERVE MANKIND. Now that was a nice gesture. The aliens could not stay on earth for long, but they invited a delegation from earth to journey back with them to their native planet in a distant galaxy. A Russian botanist, a Catholic priest, a senator, an educator. People of various disciplines from the far reaches of earth were selected for this momentous trip–even Roger Johnson, one of the cryptologists at the National Security Agency who had helped break part of the alien hieroglyphics, had signed on for the space flight. Finally the big day arrived and the earthlings filed onto the saucer’s gang-plank one-by-one. But just as the last foot vanished as the underside metallic-crab door slammed shut, the chief code breaker from the NSA ran up screaming with all his might, "Roger, don’t go! DON’T GO!! HOW TO SERVE MANKIND!!!"
Now you don’t have to look far to find the documented evidences of Straight abuses. A boy restrained in his own urine in Detroit, a teenage girl with a sock crammed down her throat in California, a boy with a broken leg in Virginia, a girl forced to wipe up the blood from her roommate’s recent suicide attempt in Maryland. You can find abuses documented by Trebach, by Miller, by Baum. But what you can’t find is Straight’s big secret. What is the big secret? Through the years Straight, Inc. has operated 12 treatment facilities. There has never been one Straight, Inc. treatment facility that has not been accused of abuse. Several programs have imitated many parts of the Straight, Inc. program. The title of this book makes claim that Straight, Inc. destroys young egos. It make no claims that any of the follow-on Straight programs are destructive or that they destroy young egos--unless specifically noted.
I have been researching and writing a book about Straight for some time now. I never knew when I started this project just how big it would turn out to be, and, for a variety of reasons, I have not yet finished. Encouraged by recent web pages and discussion groups on Straight and Straight follow-on programs, I have decided to develop my own page to share some of the insights I have learned about Straight during my extensive research. Rather than spending several more months composing a finished web-page document, I have decided to let this page just grow as I develop upon one topic or another while I build this site over the next few months.
After all these years I suspect that tens of thousands of former Straight clients still suffer from the confessional sessions which they were forced to endure. A purpose of this web page is help them understand what happened to them and why it happened. A few parents caught on sooner or later to what Straight is, but even they don't know the whole story. Most parents have never caught on at all. To this day they firmly believe their child had a life-threatening disease that only Straight could cure, and many will continue to be eternally grateful to Straight, Inc. for saving (or for gallantly "attempting" to save) the life of their teenage son or daughter. And so another purpose of this web page is to educate these parents, as well as law enforcement officials, health officials, judges and probationary officers, high school officials, the media and politicians including the President of the United states as to what actually happens when the doors are shut so that we can all work to provide safeguards so that such excesses and abuses can never occur again behind Straight's closed doors. Check out "What you can do" from time-to-time in the left margin of my web page on the Straights to see how you can help. A big message we want to spread is that no child can be denied access to the outside world when held captive in rehabilitation programs of any sort.
Everyone I talk to seems to run into the same two problems when they try to tell the story of Straight. One, if you try to tell the story, you just can't seem to do it. You just can't get people to understand the sheer human misery that Straight kids are forced to endure. Or if you're a victim trying to tell the story to your own parents, they refuse to believe what you. Two, like the Nazi Holocaust, the scale of suffering is so enormous that it's almost impossible to document and describe it all. Years ago I read Simon Wiesenthal's book on the Holocaust. I was a bit disappointed then because of 7 million stories of human misery, Mr. Wiesenthal just told the tragic tales of about 20 people. I remember one tragic tale he tells of a little boy who lit a candle each time the Nazi's came by and took one of his family members. Finally, one day, they came and took the little boy too. As his armed captors were hauling him away in an ox cart he asked his guard to wait a minute. With that he jumped off the cart and ran into his house and lit a final candle--one for himself! In this web-based, abridged version of my up-coming book, I, at first, thought that I faced a similar problem to Mr. Wiesenthal's. How do you tell the story of thousands of cases of abuse in just one volume. Ultimately, I think, I have a different task than Mr. Wiesenthal's. For the Nazi Holocaust is well established; Straight's is not. Therefore, to some extent, I did have to, I feel, document many more of the cases of abuse so that you can see that Straight, is in fact, an American Holocaust. Speaking of Holocausts, I want to say one final thing. My professional background is in mathematics and information sciences. Years ago when I studied about the Nazi Holocaust I was so enraged with what I heard that I was seriously considering contacting Simon Wiesenthal to offer my services as a volunteer to help track down Colonel Doctor Josef Mengleles--The Angel of Death. But Doctor Mengeles drowned before I could take any action. (BTW. Anybody know what kind of medical doctor he was? Colonel Doctor Joseph Mengeles, who performed all sorts of medical experiments on children and adults, and especially on twins, without their consent, was not a medical doctor at all. He was a medical anthropologist.) One man who will tell you that he escaped the Nazi Holocaust as a teenager is Walter Loebenberg, the visionary behind the Tampa Bay Holocaust Museum on whose board sits Straight's founder--Melvin Sembler. And why not. Walter Loebenberg is formerly the President of Straight. Melvin Sembler is also the finance chairman of the National Republican Party, and one of the reasons for Straight's longevity and success is its endorsements by prominent Republicans including Nancy and Ronald Reagan and George Bush. (Don't ask me which one either. The whole Bush family is tied to Melvin Sembler's pocketbook.)
is the condensed, electronic version of a hardback book which is still under development. Though condensed, it is nevertheless quite long for a web page. The tragic heart of the story can be learned by reading the first three chapters. Chapter 1 on deprivations and child abuse enumerates many of the instances of child abuse at Straight. Chapter 2 on body carvings and suicide attempts suggests that Straight caused many of its young students to attempt to kill themselves due to the deprivations the kids sustained; but watchful eyes by Straight personnel, including fellow students, prevented any suicides from occurring on the premises. But what was Straight's after care plan to prevent suicides once a student left Straight. Chapter 3 looks at the deaths by suicide of many former Straight students and questions whether Straight and its officers should be liable for any of these deaths. So if you can't read the whole work, you should try to read the first three chapters in order.
Most people think that Straight closed in the early 1990s, but the chapter on "where are they" tells the story of how some former Straight officials opened their own treatment programs as the Straights closed. Many of these programs are still in operation. Next I introduce you to some of the men behind the Straights. In 2000 Reverend Doctor Virgil Miller Newton and his medical team settled with a client in his KIDS program in New Jersey for $4.5 million for abuses she claims she sustained at KIDS. Miller Newton was Straight's former national clinical director and I devote an entire chapter to him. Chuck Dederick is the man who actually popularized the Straight concept of addicts aiding in their own recovery. Dederick's story is in the chapter on his church--Synanon Church. This chapter shows that there was never any real medical basis for the Straights in the first place and that there were warnings from competent people that the process could be dangerous to human subjects--especially to children. And then I discuss why Straight was so successful. One of the major reasons for its great success was its founder Melvin Sembler and his connections to the national Republican Party. Another chapter shows that Straight took in almost $100 million dollars in treating predominantly white children. Next the Straight therapeutic process is discussed followed by an essay which shows that Straight officials do not have the requisite credentials to run a drug rehabilitation program.
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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately
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Re: Mel Sembler: Behind Liz Cheney’s Group, a Weird Legacy of Torture
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2010, 07:39:38 AM »
Ricky Ross (friend of AJ and the late Gary Webb who was instrumental in putting the pieces together to help with "Dark Alliance" concerning the CIA drug operations) has an entire page dedicated to his institute's research on Straight, Inc.
http://www.rickross.com/groups/straightinc.html Logged
All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately
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Re: Mel Sembler: Behind Liz Cheney’s Group, a Weird Legacy of Torture
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2010, 07:42:51 AM »
Over the GW
(Movie about some Straight, Inc. Kids)
http://www.overthegw.com/about_the_film.htmlBased on actual events in the life of the filmmaker, writer/director Nick Gaglia's Over the GW tells the tale of two Bronx siblings whose desperate mother takes them across the GW Bridge to New Jersey in hopes that a revolutionary rehabilitation program will be the key to their recovery. Tony (George Gallagher) and Sofia (Kether Donahue) are druggies. Having exhausted all other options for getting her kids sober, Tony and Sofia's mother opts to taken them to New Jersey and place them in a rigorous thirty-day rehabilitation program run by the tyrannical Dr. Hiller (Albert Insinnia). When Tony and Sofia's one month stretches into a grueling two-and-a-half year ordeal, the psychological torment and false imprisonment they are forced to endure at the behest of the corrupt doctor threatens to do far more damage than even the most addictive narcotics. Eventually led to believe that the only thing keeping them alive is the program, the frightened siblings fall victim to a detestable form of brainwashing while navigating a cult-like maze of confusion and struggling to maintain their true identities.
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All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately
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Re: Mel Sembler: Behind Liz Cheney’s Group, a Weird Legacy of Torture
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2010, 07:53:44 AM »
Just an FYI... The offspring of these psychotic institutionalized rape and torture chambers for America's children is now heavily owned by Mitt Romney. It is no wonder that Cheney backed him in the last election and is poised to do the same in 2012 (the whole BS about Huckabee and the Seattle False Flag was to start chipping away at the Huckster in prep for a fully evangelical supported Mitt Romney 2012 bid. The Huckster split the evangelical vote last time and Mitt cannot have it this time. Mitt is heavily involved with Blackwater/CIA/False Flag Terrorism to justify martial law/zionism/NWO End Times and Forced Rapture insanity).
Cheney backs Romney
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=24236.0Romney, Torture, And Teens: The Former Governor's Connections To Abusive "Tough Love" Camps
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=231.0Quote from: ED on January 24, 2008, 10:36:25 PM
Refer to last week's thread here for more info:
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=23317.0Watch the documentary for more information on the "camps" and Robert Litchfield
http://www.stage6.com/user/DJJonD0e/vid ... tion-CampsAnd AI...this one is for you...
The main "Torture the Child" prison camp investor Mitt Romney was also involved with this deal (first exposed by Pat Buchanan):
Quote from: industria on January 25, 2008, 01:01:10 AM
Bain Capital is partnering with China's Huawei Technologies in a buyout of 3Com, the U.S. company that provides the technology that protects Pentagon computers from Chinese hackers.
Subprime Nation
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php ... 35.new#newPat Buchanan, 14, 2008
January 14, 2008
9:29 p.m. Eastern
Since it began to give credit ratings to nations in 1917, Moody's has rated the United States triple-A. U.S. Treasury bonds have been seen as the most secure investment on earth. When crises erupt, nervous money seeks out the world's great safe harbor, the United States. That reputation is now in peril.
Last week, Moody's warned that if the United States fails to rein in the soaring cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the nation's credit rating will be down-graded within a decade.
Our political parties seem oblivious. Republicans, save Ron Paul, are all promising to expand the U.S. military and maintain all of our worldwide commitments to defend and subsidize scores of nations.
Democrats, with entitlement costs drowning the federal budget in red ink, are proposing a new entitlement – universal health coverage for the near 50 million who do not have it – another magnet for illegal aliens. Moody's is telling America it needs a time of austerity, while the U.S. government is behaving like the governments we used to bail out.
California has already hit the wall. With an economy as large as a G-8 nation, the Golden State is looking at a $14 billion deficit in 2009 and a $3 billion shortfall in 2008. Gov. Schwarzenegger has called for slashing prison staff by 6,000, including 2,000 guards, early release of 22,000 inmates, closing four dozen state parks and a 10 percent across-the-board cut in all state agencies. The Democratic legislature is demanding tax hikes, which would drive more taxpayers back over the mountains whence their fathers came.
Meanwhile, Washington drifts mindlessly toward the maelstrom. With the dollar sinking, oil surging to $100 a barrel, the Dow having its worst January in memory, foreclosures mounting, credit card debt going rotten, and consumers and businesses unable or unwilling to borrow, we appear headed into recession.
If so, tax revenue will fall and spending on unemployment will surge. The price of the stimulus packages both parties are preparing will further add to the deficit and further imperil the U.S. credit rating. This all comes in the year that the first of the baby boomers, born in 1946, reach early retirement and eligibility for Social Security.
To stave off recession, the Fed appears anxious to slash interest rates another half-point, if not more. That will further weaken the dollar and raise the costs of the imports to whi
