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I have relayed your very understandable concerns in this matter to my contact in Florida.  My contact has spoken again with the law firm and now better firms up the meeting that will occur in Florida on 29 December. The latest information is at:

http://thestraights.com/legal/class-act ... cement.htm

My confidential contact is beyond reproach in this matter.  I hope as many of you as possible can make this meeting.

Wes Fager

As you know Richard Bradbury is being sued by Mel Sembler over a medical device. One of the causes is the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Melvin intends on suing Bradbury out of financial existence. I spent over a week looking into this case and documenting my findings which are posted on theStraights.com . I want to say a few words about what I uncovered. First let me say that as you know Straight intentionally subjected its clients to brainwashing in the classical Chinese Communist sense. This is a two part process. The breaking down of self and the rebuilding of the person in the Communist image. When breaking the person down there was intent on food and sleep deprivations, beatings, spitting, sexual confessions, confusion, terror. All of this and it was intentional. Straight's declared point is that addiction is a terminal disease and that desperate measures were needed to save the individual child. Straight clients were terrified, felt hopeless and many lost the will to live. Some carved on their bodies as calls for help; others cut themselves intent on killing themselves to escape the misery.

Straight caused the intentional inflection of emotional distress to tens of thousands of kids. How dare Mr. Sembler sue Richard Bradbury or any other former Straight client for intentional infliction of emotional damage and I don't care how outrageous he feels that person's activities have been. Furthermore Straight made $100 million dollars. How dare him squeeze another penny from another Straight client.

Here's what I found. One day around 1982 Richard Bradbury paid his sister a visit at Straight and got kidnapped like so many others into the program himself. I believe he was sexually molested at Straight. Like so many graduates he became a counselor at Straight. It dawned on him one day that Straight was abusing kids. He tried to affect change from within but Straight would not allow it so he left. For eight years he worked almost alone to close Straight finally catching the eye of the local TV stations and that did it.

In 1988 some escaped clients went to Bradbury and authorized him to get their records. Straight blew Bradbury off so he broke in to get those records. Prosecutors knew what he was doing but they tried to put him in jail for a year. One prosecutor was Richard Mensch. His brother Myron was on Straight's board. Another prosecutor was soon to be on Straight's board. The Straight concept had been brought to Pinellas County by the head prosecutor. The prosecutors said that one fault with Bradbury was that he was harassing Mel Sembler!

Now Sembler has filed a civil suit and yet Bernie McCabe the prosecutor and Everett Rice the Sheriff are both investigating Bradbury to see if he has done anything criminal. What I have done in my report is to show that Straight should have been investigated by the sheriff and by the prosecutor, but they did not. Instead they took campaign contributions from Sembler and his crowd. And I've listed the donations.

Sembler's attorney Lenny Englander had judge Walt Logan issue a temporary injunction against Bradbury. Logan's biggest campaign donator outside himself is Walter Lobenberg, Straight Fdn's former president. I have shown that Lenny Englander has used Judge Walt Logan on another occasion to silence a man who was exposing alleged fraud.

The press has reported that Bradbury took the medical device from a poor old man with prostrate cancer. But through Straight, a lot of misrepresentations have been made. Does Sembler actually have cancer or is it alleged cancer? The press said when Sembler asked for it back, Bradbury said give me $700,000. But is that all that was said? Did Bradbury say pay me money for the medical expenses you have caused me and also give part of it to charities working for Straight victims. Did Sembler say it was than a matter of getting the device back but also that Bradbury would have to sign a statement admitting he had performed a crime?

I have documented that the sheriff and the state attorney are investigating Bradbury because Bradbury has data tying them to Straight, and also they are tied to Sembler's pockets. This is scandal and should be investigated, but Mayor Baker can't, I point out, because he's on Straight's advisory board. The state police could investigate but the chief of the state police is on Straight's advisory board. And so it goes up the chain to the governor who is in Sembler's pockets himself.

I spent a lot of time uncovering and documenting this data as I feel it is crucial to keep the authorities from turning this into a criminal case.

Personally I had heard of the medical device and its advertisement on eBay but had not carried the story. But everything changed after the suit. Now I write about it. Hell, why not? ABC News does as does the St Pete Times! Bradbury did what he did to bring attention to the plight of the people posting on this board. And already he has achieved that. And I think the exposure will continue to grow.

But I have been very displeased from what I read on this forum. Namely nobody hardly mentions the Bradbury case. There's a man facing being sued our of existence and maybe even facing jail time on trumped-up charges.

Few of you have read my article which is extremely factual. I think Bradbury has an excellent chance of winning this matter. Some have pointed out that Bradbury may want Straight brought out in a trial, but Englander won't let that happen. But Bradbury has an excellent free speech attorney, so let's see. Read the fact sheet and I think you'll agree with me, that if teh word "Straight" get's in, we all will have a field day. My story is long, very long, but the factual basis of so many years of fraud, abuse and political payoffs is so compelling that it is a long story.

You all know the potential dangers of any program where a kid can't have free access to his parents at, as a minimum, reasonable, set-aside times. Straight's bull that a kid has to earn back that privilege is just that--bull. You have an obligation to any kid in any second generation Straight that is still doing that to see that he can speak, in private with his folks.

When you get a chance, please read "Criminal authorities investigating Ray Bradbury, 6th Circuit silences Kane's Furniture / Straight critics, and Lenny Englander becomes part of the story or why Bradbury can't get a fair trial in Florida." It's right at the top at

http://www.thestraights.com

Thank you,

Wes Fager

[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-09-22 17:17 ]

if it is beyond Sept 2, forget it.

at http://www.thestraights.com top left, click on article on Orthodox priests.  

Wes Fager

[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-08-13 04:25 ]

Dear friends,

I have just published my report on the St Petersburg conference. If anyone has any pictures they would like to share, please let me know.  

There is something about the conference that I want to share with you that is only hinted at in my report.  For 17 years Straight, Inc. was the biggest juvenile synanon in the world,  and one of the most destructive.  Many of you feel you were damaged by Straight or know others who were.  Some feel that Straight, its principals,  and the government officials who helped it along, and the state of Florida and the United States government should make some sort fo restitution to those who were harmed.  Others feel that those responsible should be punished by the American justice system for what they did.  Still others just want the story to be told.

Regardless, we must make every effort to get this story told by web reports, discussion forums, court cases, newspaper reports,  protests . .  . whatever.   One important way is hold a yearly conference.  Nothing should be done to hamper any of these efforts,  more especially the conference.  The conference is not about Wes Fager, ISAC, or SAFETY.  It is about Straight, Inc. and destructive programs like it.  There were 37 or 38 people at this year's conference.  There should have been 100 - 200.  An anonymous donor donated $1,000 to the conference but asked for it back due to the in-fighting amongst the Straight crowd. Fortunately I was able to persuade this donor to keep the money for the conference.  There were other donors too.  For those of you who were less than supportive of the conference to those of you who were down right overt in efforts to harm the conference,  I want to tell you that your biggest supporters in those endeavors were Mel and Betty Sembler.  

Next year there will be another conference.  I hope Mike and Rhonda will stay at it.  They did an outstanding job as usual. But under the circumstances I could not fault them for stepping away.  Next year I will again seek funds to support this worthy cause, and next year no potential donor will be distracted by infighting within our own crowd. I am very distraught and disappointed at what has happened here,  but I will get over it by next Tuesday.  I will continue to supply information, as I always  have, to any and all parties who are willing to help keep this important  story aloft.  

Thank you,

Wes Fager

[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-08-06 14:44 ]

[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-08-06 14:57 ]

[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-08-07 19:36 ]

[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-08-09 18:09 ]

As you know there will be a conference in St. Pete July 25 - 27.  I will be a speaker at that conference.  FACTNet, with 30 million web page hits, is the most read cult awareness web based organization in the world.  Foreign governments go there to get information on cults.  

Rick Ross is an internationally known cult expert and has done as much as anyone to expose  post Seed Straights for what many of them are or were--destructive, mind-control cults.[1] Some person or persons has tried to descredit Mr. Ross on this board by throwing around data presented by the so-called Church of Scientology (TM).  Mr. Ross reports on that Church and that Church reports on Mr. Ross. I, for one, am not interested in what that Church has to say about anything.  Quite frankly, L. Ron Hubbard himself was one of the biggest liars the world has ever known.  

I understand there has been some in-fighting amongst our own people.  This is bad for business.  There's no need for our enemies who lurk here to know that stuff.  

When reputable outsiders like FACTNet or Rick Ross are invited in or volunteer to help us tell the story, one must realize that because  they report on cults,  there are going to be published reports against these people.  Please consider the source.

As for FACTNet's endorsement of the conference,  I would be extremely disappointed if anyone from our growing community of cult survivors did anything to intentionally sabotage our relationship with FACTNet.

Footnotes:
[1] I do not claim that all second generation Straights are abusive programs or mind control cults.

Thank you,

Wes Fager
Oakton, VA

[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-07-13 21:34 ]

[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-07-14 11:34 ]

[ This Message was edited by: wesfager on 2003-07-14 11:42 ]

Does anyone recall hearing about the deaths of some friends of Miller Newton's son about the time the Newtons joined Straight?  If you do would you please let me know by email at [email protected]

Thank you,
Wes Fager