CIA Accused of Coverup in Military Scientist’s 1953 Fatal Fall, Bipartisan Legislation to Help Train Child Protection Professionals to Detect and Prevent Child Abuse

CIA Accused of Coverup in Military Scientist’s 1953 Fatal Fall
By Tom Schoenberg Bloomberg News
Thursday, November 29, 2012

CIA employees murdered military scientist Frank Olson in 1953 after he raised concerns about testing chemical and biological weapons on human subjects without their consent, according to a lawsuit brought by his two sons.

Eric and Nils Olson, in a complaint filed Wednesday against the United States in Washington, said the agency has covered up the cause of their father’s death for 59 years. Frank Olson, who the CIA admitted was given LSD a few days before his death, didn’t jump from a 13th-floor window of the Statler Hotel in New York City, but rather was pushed, they claim.

Assassination manual

“The circumstances surrounding the death mirrored those detailed in an assassination manual that, upon information and belief, the CIA had drafted that same year,” Scott Gilbert, a lawyer for the Olsons, wrote in the complaint.

Olson’s family has tried to piece together how Frank Olson died and the circumstances surrounding his death ever since a 1975 government report on CIA activities in the U.S. said that he committed suicide after being given LSD without his knowledge.

The family’s lawsuit includes one claim of negligent supervision by the agency and requests that damages be decided at trial.

CIA spokesman Preston Golson said in an emailed statement that the agency doesn’t comment on pending court cases. He said that the agency’s covert behavioral research program known as MK-ULTRA was investigated in 1975 by the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee, and in 1977 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research.

“Without commenting on this specific legal matter, CIA activities related to MK-ULTRA have been thoroughly investigated over the years, and the agency cooperated with each of those investigations,” Golson said. “In addition, tens of thousands of pages related to the program have been declassified and released to the public.”

Olson’s sons said in the suit they have asked repeatedly “to be told the truth” about their father’s death and “each time, the government has responded with falsehoods.”….

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/3066923-95/olson-cia-agency-according

Klobuchar, Franken, Walz, McCollum Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Help Train Child Protection Professionals to Detect and Prevent Child Abuse

An estimated 695,000 children were victims of child abuse in 2010, and yet studies indicate that many child protection professionals such as teachers, doctors, and prosecutors are not adequately trained to identify and respond to abuse
Tuesday, December 4, 2012

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Representatives Tim Walz and Betty McCollum today introduced bipartisan legislation to help train child protection professionals to detect and prevent child abuse. The bill would create regional training centers – including the National Child Protection Training Center in Winona, MN – that would create new curricula for undergraduates and graduates in fields where they will most likely be involved in identifying and reporting cases of abuse. The legislation also increases coordination between federal, state and local officials in creating best practices for the training of child protection professionals. Senator Klobuchar authored the legislation in the Senate and Representative Walz introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives….

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, an estimated 695,000 children were victims of child abuse in 2010. Yet studies indicate that those in the best position to identify and respond to child abuse – such as teachers, doctors, and prosecutors – are often not adequately trained to do so. For example, a 2001 survey of teachers found that 74% received minimal training on child abuse while earning their degrees and 58% had minimal training on the job….

http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2240

Democracy Now – Atty Uncovers Docs Implicating Vatican in Sexual Abuse Coverup

Democracy Now – Attorney Uncovers Docs Implicating Vatican in Sexual Abuse Coverup We speak with St. Paul-based attorney, Jeff Anderson, who has filed hundreds of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests and bishops since 1983. He filed a lawsuit last week against the Vatican in a Milwaukee court and wants the Church to release any files it has on sexual abuse cases involving priests. It was his discovery of previously undisclosed documents that fueled the latest wave of accusations leading all the way up to the Vatican….

JEFF ANDERSON: Well, this case is one of many we have been working on for twenty-five years. The case involving Lawrence Murphy, in particular, the documents came to us in forced discovery as a result of suits we brought some years ago. And these are documents that were just revealed to us. In the case brought in Milwaukee, which is one of many that have been brought across the country, what we’re learning, and what we have known to be the case for twenty-five years, is that all roads are leading to Rome.

The decisions are made at the top of the pyramid by the Vatican. What we know is that the documentary trails that are being revealed showing that just like Lawrence Murphy and archbishop Weakland covering-up locally, they’re doing so under directions from Rome, from the Pontiff, from the Pope and his predecessor. And their directions and their laws and their protocols, which is what’s so alarming, require every cleric, every bishop, every cardinal all the way to Rome, to keep these matters secret to avoid scandal of the Universal Church. And in so doing, their concern is more about the reputation than the well-being of the children….

JEFF ANDERSON: Well, I think the latest wave of allegations coming to the fore that are right now on the stream of public consciousness in the U.S. and worldwide is really an accumulation of information. That has come to us and the survivors working with us and others through the lawsuits brought that have revealed documents and patterns and practices that have shown that time and time again, not tens or dozens of times, but hundreds and thousands of times, when a priest offends, they are required to by their superiors, from the bishop to the Vatican, to keep that secret.

And that’s under protocols and laws developed by the Pontiff, by the Vatican that says “We are required to avoid scandal, to protect the reputation of the church and in so doing, are embedded with an ethos, a norm that says, we move the priest, avoid scandal, do not report it to anybody outside the clerical culture, and continue to move and protect the priest without regard to the well-being of the children.” And that’s why we see so many priests being recycled by so many bishops worldwide because the Vatican requires them to make a vow of silence, to make a promise of secrecy, and to be absolutely obedient to the protocols of Vatican

https://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/29/attorney_uncovers_docs_implicating_vatican_in

Vicar arrested over sex abuse From correspondents in Riga from: AFP April 30, 2010
A FORMER Catholic priest who converted to Protestantism and two other men have been arrested in Latvia for allegedly sexually abusing children. The three suspects were friends and exchanged information to help each other find victims throughout the Baltic country, police spokesman Toms Sadovskis says. They preyed on orphans or boys from dysfunctional families in a string of abuse cases going back at least five years, Mr Sadovskis alleged today. “Some of the victims were mentally challenged.”
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/vicar-arrested-over-sex-abuse/story-e6freuyi-1225860429388

Wikipedia Distributing Child Porn, Co-Founder Tells FBI

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/27/wikipedia-child-porn-larry-sanger-fbi/

bishops fight sex abuse bill, implicated in coverup, complaints ‘unpunished’

Connecticut bishops fight sex abuse bill Jamie Guzzardo, CNN April 11, 2010 Hartford, Connecticut (CNN) — A bill in Connecticut’s legislature that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases has sparked a fervent response from the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, who released a letter to parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the measure.

Under current Connecticut law, sexual abuse victims have 30 years past their 18th birthday to file a lawsuit. The proposed change to the law would rescind that statute of limitations.

The proposed change to the law would put “all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk,” says the letter, which was signed by Connecticut’s three Roman Catholic bishops.

The letter is posted on the Web site of the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference, the public policy and advocacy office of Connecticut’s Catholic bishops. It asks parishioners to contact their legislators in opposition of the bill.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/11/connecticut.abuse.bill/index.html

Ex-St. Catharines bishop implicated in coverup By GRANT LAFLECHE, QMI AGENCY 4/12/10 As local Catholics puzzle Friday over the sudden resignation of their bishop, his predecessor was implicated in the coverup of sexual abuse by a priest in Pembroke. Former St. Catharines bishop John O’Mara was named by former Pembroke bishop Joseph Windle in a 1993 letter to the Vatican’s ambassador in Ottawa. O’Mara was named as part of a group of Ontario bishops who backed Windle’s recommendation that the abuse of minors by a Pembroke priest be kept silent. The priest in question, Father Bernard Prince, had been shipped off to Rome and became a friend of then Pope John Paul II.

In his letter, Windle was deeply concerned that if the Vatican graced the priest with any attention or honours, it would expose the abuse and create a scandal….Prince was convicted in 2008 of sexually molesting 13 boys between 1964 and 1984, and was formally defrocked by Pope Benedict XVI last year. He was sent to Rome and became a Vatican official in 1991 after church officials in Canada first heard from a victim of his crimes. In his letter, which became public Friday as part of a civil case against the Pembroke Diocese and Prince, Windle supported the move even in light of the seriousness of the allegations. “I would not object to him being given another chance since it would remove him from the Canadian scene,” Windle wrote. By 1993, further allegations against Prince surfaced. Windle explained in his letter there were four or five known victims and at least one of them was asking pointed questions about how the church was handling the situation. Still, Windle believed the Church could keep the situation secret because the victims were unlikely to go to the police or the press. 
http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2529871

Paedophilia complaints ‘unpunished’ April 13, 2010 BELGIAN bishops have failed to punish any clergy over 300 complaints of paedophilia brought to their attention in the 1990s, claims a priest who helped many victims. ”We brought forward between 1992 and 1998 more than 300 complaints from victims of abuse committed by priests, but only 15 ended up with admissions” of guilt, Father Rick Deville told the Flemish dailies De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad yesterday.

”A priest accused would most often be moved, but was never punished,” he complained. Founder of the group Human Rights in the Church, which defends victims of abuse, the 65-year-old Father Deville deplored the lack of support from the Belgian Catholic hierarchy. ”Very few bishops helped us,” he said. In most cases the victims were told that their actions were ”unfortunately banned”. In some cases the victims themselves were accused of defamation, he said. AFP

http://www.theage.com.au/world/paedophilia-complaints-unpunished-20100412-s4e9.html

Vatican Clarifies Its Policy on Reporting Abuse VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican on Monday responded to allegations it long concealed clerical sex abuse by making it clear for the first time that bishops and clerics worldwide should report such crimes to police if they are required to by law.
The policy, spelled out in a guide for laymen and posted on the Vatican’s Web site, matches the policy worked out by U.S. bishops after an explosion of sex abuse cases in 2002.

Unlike the American norms, however, the Vatican guide contains no call for ”zero tolerance” for priests who rape and molest children, and victims immediately criticized it as insufficient.
The Vatican insists it has long been the Catholic Church’s policy for bishops, like all Christians, to obey civil reporting laws. But such an explicit policy had never been spelled out — until Monday. ”Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed,” said the newly posted guideline.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/12/world/AP-EU-Church-Abuse.html

Ore. lawsuit claims Boy Scouts sex abuse coverup

Mar 19, 2010 By WILLIAM McCALL
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The Boy Scouts of America has long kept an extensive archive of secret documents that chronicle the sexual abuse of young boys by Scout leaders over the years.

The “perversion files,” a nickname the Boy Scouts are said to have used for the documents, have rarely been seen by the public, but that could all change in the coming weeks in an Oregon courtroom.

The lawyer for a man who was molested in the 1980s by a Scout leader has obtained about 1,000 Boy Scouts sex files and is expected to release some of them at a trial that began Wednesday. The lawyer says the files show how the Boy Scouts have covered up abuse for decades.

The trial is significant because the files could offer a rare window into how the Boy Scouts have responded to sex abuse by Scout leaders. The only other time the documents are believed to have been presented at a trial was in the 1980s in Virginia.

At the start of the Oregon trial, attorney Kelly Clark recited the Boy Scout oath and the promise to obey Scout law to be “trustworthy.” Then he presented six boxes of documents that he said will show “how the Boy Scouts of America broke that oath.” He held up file folder after file folder he said contained reports of abuse from around the country, telling the jury the efforts to keep them secret may have actually set back efforts to prevent child abuse nationally…..

Clark is seeking $14 million in damages on behalf of a 37-year-old man who was sexually molested in the early 1980s in Portland by an assistant Scoutmaster, Timur Dykes. Clark said the victim suffered mental health problems, bad grades in school, drug use, anxiety, difficulty maintaining relationships and lost several jobs over the years because of the abuse. Dykes was convicted three times between 1983 and 1994
of sexually abusing boys, most of them Scouts….

The lawsuit also named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because the Mormons acted as a charter organization, or sponsor, for the local Boy Scouts troop that included the victim. But the church has settled its portion of the case.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100319/D9EHLRE00.html