498 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
498 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
![]() |
SYSOP'S NOTE: The following file is the complete text of a letter sent
|
|||
|
by Dr. Michael Aquino to CBS after they aired a made-for-TV movie
|
|||
|
entitled "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" This movie was a fictional
|
|||
|
account of a "typical" ritualized child abuse case in a "typical"
|
|||
|
day-care center, modelled closely after the allegations in the McMartin,
|
|||
|
Bakersfield, and Akron scandals. Dr. Aquino's letter thoroughly rebuts
|
|||
|
these charges.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
No response from CBS had been received as of 12/18/89.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
This letter is reprinted with permission of the author, who asked me to
|
|||
|
point out that documentation for everything he says in here is available
|
|||
|
on request to the address shown. -- J. Brad Hicks, Sysop WeirdBase
|
|||
|
______________________________________________________________________________
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
TEMPLE OF SET
|
|||
|
Post Office Box 4507, St. Louis, MO 63108 * MCI-Mail: 278-4041 * Telex: 6502784041
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Michael A. Aquino, Ph.D.
|
|||
|
High Priest of Set October 25, 1989 CE
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Programming Department
|
|||
|
CBS Television
|
|||
|
51 West 52nd Street
|
|||
|
New York, New York 10019
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Dear Sirs:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Your broadcasting of the television-movie DO YOU KNOW THE MUFFIN MAN? on
|
|||
|
October 22 displayed extremely shocking bias and disregard for the truth. To
|
|||
|
the extent that this film is interpreted by audiences to represent the general
|
|||
|
truth behind the epidemic of day-care "Satanic child abuse" witch-hunts which
|
|||
|
have convulsed this country for the last several years, you will be
|
|||
|
responsible for the encouragement of further injustices of the most traumatic
|
|||
|
kind on innocent people falsely accused of such horrors.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
You may shrug this off by citing the fine-print disclaimer at the end of
|
|||
|
the film that this was a "fictional" drama. Yet the references to real-life
|
|||
|
incidents ("the Presidio, El Paso, and West Point") in the film as though they
|
|||
|
were proven examples of the kind of crime depicted, coupled with the TV GUIDE
|
|||
|
and on-screen announcement that "according to government statistics some
|
|||
|
39,000 children were sexually abused last year", made it clear that the film
|
|||
|
was to be understood as thinly-fictionalized "docu-drama".
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
From McMartin onward, the epidemic of day-care "child abuse" scares has
|
|||
|
been characterized by spontaneous and violent attack upon chosen targets the
|
|||
|
moment they are selected. Presumably child sexual abuse is so heinous a crime,
|
|||
|
as witchcraft during the middle ages, that it is unthinkable for anyone to be
|
|||
|
accused of it unless he or she is indeed guilty. Everyone wants to go on
|
|||
|
record as denouncing such individuals vigorously, lest one become suspect
|
|||
|
oneself for not showing sufficient enthusiasm for the hunt. On the other hand,
|
|||
|
no individual or official wants to take responsibility for stating that the
|
|||
|
alleged abuse did not occur.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Permit me to itemize the more conspicuous fallacies of Muffin Man:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(1) YOUR TV GUIDE/ON-SCREEN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT "FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
|
|||
|
ESTIMATES THAT APPROXIMATELY 39,000 CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF SIX ARE SEXUALLY
|
|||
|
ABUSED IN THE UNITED STATES EACH YEAR" IS MISLEADING, IMPLYING AS IT DOES THAT
|
|||
|
"DAY-CARE SATANIC" EVENTS SUCH AS THAT DEPICTED IN THE FILM ARE THE PROBLEM.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
What your announcement failed to state is that THE VAST MAJORITY OF SUCH
|
|||
|
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE OCCURS IN THE HOME, NOT IN DAY-CARE CENTERS. According to
|
|||
|
David Finkelhor, Associate Director of the Family Violence Research Program,
|
|||
|
University of New Hampshire, the primary threat of sexual molestation comes
|
|||
|
from MEMBERS OF THE CHILD'S FAMILY, NOT FROM PORNOGRAPHERS OR PEDOPHILES WHO
|
|||
|
ARE STRANGERS. Projection of such crimes upon day-care personnel may be a
|
|||
|
device to cover up incest, or to destroy women's options for child-care
|
|||
|
outside the home, thus forcing them away from personal/professional lives of
|
|||
|
their own and back to the fundamentalist model of "a woman's place". In CHILD
|
|||
|
SEXUAL ABUSE: NEW THEORY & RESEARCH, Finkelhor writes:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
In many respects the moralists were mistaken about the problem, since
|
|||
|
they portrayed the greatest danger to children as coming from strangers
|
|||
|
and depraved individuals outside the family, not from within the family,
|
|||
|
where, as recently documented, the more serious threat is.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(2) USE OF ROLAND SUMMIT AS THE SOLE CONSULTANT TO THE FILM.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Dr. Roland Summit testifies so consistently for any accusation of "child
|
|||
|
abuse" that he has become nationally known as the "prosecution doctor". (Cf.
|
|||
|
Paul & Shirley Eberle, THE POLITICS OF CHILD ABUSE, Lyle Stuart 1986.) He now
|
|||
|
has a distinguished record of participating in several celebrated "child abuse
|
|||
|
industry" scandals in which scores of innocent people were randomly accused,
|
|||
|
put through nightmarish ordeals, and professionally ruined.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Why did you not also consult some of the many distinguished physicians who
|
|||
|
expose and deplore the "child abuse industry", such as Dr. Lee Coleman,
|
|||
|
Director of the Center for the Study of Psychiatric Testimony in Berkeley,
|
|||
|
California? Were you afraid that you might discover "inconvenient" facts which
|
|||
|
invalidate the pre-determined theme of the film?
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(3) SCARRING IN RECTUM AS EVIDENCE OF CHILD-RAPE.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
This was presented in the film as "conclusive proof" that one of the
|
|||
|
children had been raped. In the case of at least one real-life witch-hunt -
|
|||
|
that at the Presidio of San Francisco - it was also used in the case of the
|
|||
|
child whose parents originally instigated the scare. Later on the physician
|
|||
|
who originally diagnosed the child's rectum as injured retracted that
|
|||
|
diagnosis on a television news documentary. By that time, of course, the
|
|||
|
witch-hunt was in full swing and no one paid attention to this inconvenient
|
|||
|
development.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Dr. John McCann, Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the
|
|||
|
University of California, San Francisco, has produced a study that reveals far
|
|||
|
more normal variations in the vaginal and rectal areas of children than most
|
|||
|
physicians are aware of. He and his assistants examined the vaginal and rectal
|
|||
|
areas of some 250 prepubertal children with no history of sexual molestation
|
|||
|
and found that "private parts - particularly girls' genitals - can be as
|
|||
|
variable from person to person as noses or breasts". Responsible physicians
|
|||
|
are accordingly becoming more cautious about diagnosing "rape" from such
|
|||
|
variations. See the article in MS magazine, March 1989.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(4) PARENTS' AND INTERROGATORS' REFUSAL TO ACCEPT DENIALS OF ATTACK BY
|
|||
|
CHILDREN.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
As your film showed, this is a staple of "day-care child abuse"
|
|||
|
witch-hunts. Once their minds are made up, zealots simply keep working the
|
|||
|
children over, again and again, for months or years if necessary, until the
|
|||
|
children are ready to say anything expected of them. Moreover any statement at
|
|||
|
all from such children which can be "interpreted" by parents or "therapists"
|
|||
|
into sexual context is construed as "evidence". MUFFIN MAN presented this as a
|
|||
|
perfectly normal and acceptable practice.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
As the MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL noted on January 20, 1988 as part of its
|
|||
|
6-part series on the "child-abuse" epidemic:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Investigators in El Paso sometimes refused to accept denials,
|
|||
|
retractions, or silence from children. They attributed those actions to
|
|||
|
stress-related "avoidance" behavior or to the "child sexual abuse
|
|||
|
accommodation syndrome", a controversial doctrine that says abuse
|
|||
|
victims inevitably recant allegations.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The COMMERCIAL APPEAL further observed that:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Luiz Natalicio, an El Paso psychologist who evaluated tapes of
|
|||
|
interviews in the abuse case there, compares the questioning techniques
|
|||
|
to those used by Communist Chinese forces on American soldiers captured
|
|||
|
during the Korean War. Like the POWs, children in the El Paso case were
|
|||
|
isolated in unfamiliar and usually barren surroundings. They believed
|
|||
|
their release from questioning, and satisfying such needs as drinking
|
|||
|
water and going to the bathroom, depended upon whether they provided
|
|||
|
information, Natalicio said. "If we can do it with adults, you can
|
|||
|
imagine how effective it can be with children, who are dependent on us
|
|||
|
totally for their conception of reality," said Natalicio, a former
|
|||
|
University of Texas professor who taught courses on the psychological
|
|||
|
aspects of interrogation.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(5) TRANSPORT OF CHILDREN FROM DAY-CARE CENTERS TO REMOTE SITES FOR MOLESTING.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
This invention was created by accusers to explain away the inconvenient
|
|||
|
fact that day-care centers are generally open places with lots of observation
|
|||
|
and access, parents and children coming and going, and no opportunities for
|
|||
|
molesting, much less elaborate "Satanic rituals".
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Merely proposing such an idiotic "explanation" does not validate it, no
|
|||
|
matter how often it is tried. Not one "witch-hunt" has validated this absurd
|
|||
|
allegation. So why did your movie present it as an "accepted" practice?
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(6) INTEREST OF SATANISTS IN CHILD-MOLESTING, PARTICULARLY AT DAY-CARE
|
|||
|
CENTERS.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
This must rank with the survival of Elvis Presley as one of the most
|
|||
|
asinine myths of the 1980s. It is in COMPLETE CONTRADICTION to the official,
|
|||
|
published doctrines of the Satanic religion, as contained in Anton LaVey's
|
|||
|
SATANIC BIBLE of the old Church of Satan (1966-1975) and in the CRYSTAL TABLET
|
|||
|
of the contemporary Temple of Set (1975-present):
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Under no circumstances would a Satanist sacrifice any animal or baby.
|
|||
|
There are sound and logical reasons why Satanists would not perform such
|
|||
|
sacrifices. Mankind is the godhead to the Satanist. The purest form of
|
|||
|
existence reposes in the bodies of animals and human children who have
|
|||
|
not grown old enough to deny themselves their natural desires. They can
|
|||
|
perceive things that the average human being can never hope to.
|
|||
|
Therefore the Satanist holds these beings in a sacred regard, knowing
|
|||
|
that he can learn much from these natural magicians of the world.
|
|||
|
The Satanist is aware of conventional religions' universal custom of
|
|||
|
killing their gods. The Satanist, however, does not hate himself nor his
|
|||
|
gods, and has no desire to destroy himself or anything for which he
|
|||
|
stands. It is for this reason that he would never willfully harm an
|
|||
|
animal or child.
|
|||
|
The Satanist would not intentionally hurt others by violating their
|
|||
|
sexual rights. If you attempt to impose your sexual desires upon others
|
|||
|
who do not welcome your advances, you are infringing upon their sexual
|
|||
|
freedom. Therefore Satanism does not advocate rape, child molesting,
|
|||
|
sexual defilement of animals, or any other form of sexual activity which
|
|||
|
entails the participation of those who are unwilling or whose innocence
|
|||
|
or na<6E>vet<65> would allow them to be intimidated or misguided into doing
|
|||
|
something against their wishes. - SATANIC BIBLE
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Children should not be allowed to attend any Black Magical ritual.
|
|||
|
They will not understand it, may be frightened by it, and may wrongly
|
|||
|
represent it to others. Pets may be present only if they may be depended
|
|||
|
upon to enhance, not to disrupt the atmosphere. Under no circumstances
|
|||
|
is any life-form ever sacrificed or injured in a Black Magical ritual of
|
|||
|
the Temple of Set. Violation of this rule will result in the offender's
|
|||
|
immediate expulsion and referral to law-enforcement or animal protection
|
|||
|
authorities. - CRYSTAL TABLET OF SET
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The senior Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI in charge of "Satanic
|
|||
|
abuse" investigations is Kenneth Lanning, FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia. As
|
|||
|
the MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL reported on January 18, 1988:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Lanning said he was perplexed by the growth of such stories with no
|
|||
|
evidence to support them. "Some people believe there is large-scale
|
|||
|
abduction of children," Lanning said, "that individuals are going around
|
|||
|
snatching little children, keeping them captive, transporting them to
|
|||
|
other locations where they're being murdered in Satanic rituals. Is that
|
|||
|
possible? I guess it's possible. Is it probable? I don't see any
|
|||
|
evidence of it."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
While Lanning has patiently repeated this authoritative statement any
|
|||
|
number of times since then, it seems that anti-Satanism fanatics are
|
|||
|
determined not to hear it. I understand that some of them, furious over this
|
|||
|
"inconvenience", have simply labeled Lanning a Satanist himself (which he is
|
|||
|
not) and continued their campaigns. This is in keeping with medieval practice,
|
|||
|
in which anyone daring to defend an accused witch was simply accused in turn.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The theme of "sexual abuse of children" has been loosely used as
|
|||
|
hate-propaganda by Christianity for centuries against any other religion it
|
|||
|
wished to slander. Along with "child sacrifice", it was a theme used
|
|||
|
aggressively against the Jews up to World War II, after which time Nazi
|
|||
|
violence against that religion made it unfashionable for Christians to openly
|
|||
|
attack it. The Satanic religion, on the other hand, appears still to be
|
|||
|
considered an appropriate target for such slander.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The effect of such hate-propaganda, of course, is to create a social
|
|||
|
atmosphere in which Satanists must fear any association with children
|
|||
|
whatever, whether their own or someone else's. While Christians may
|
|||
|
indoctrinate their children with Christian ideology - including at the many
|
|||
|
day-care centers run by Christian churches - any hint that Satanists might
|
|||
|
even be DISCUSSING their religion with their children, much less teaching it
|
|||
|
to them, is guaranteed to provoke social and, to the extent it can be
|
|||
|
effected, official persecution.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
As it happens, neither the old Church of Satan nor the current Temple of
|
|||
|
Set ever operated any programs for minors, nor accepted them as members.
|
|||
|
Nevertheless it is outrageous that Christians should expect us to accept a
|
|||
|
social climate in which ONLY they, not anyone else, can discuss religion with
|
|||
|
children.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Also as it happens, the religion with a PROVEN RECORD of child sexual abuse
|
|||
|
by its officials is CHRISTIANITY, not Satanism. I am talking not about mere
|
|||
|
allegations, but about PROSECUTIONS and CONVICTIONS - and also about official
|
|||
|
policies to cover up such crimes when they have occurred. To take just the
|
|||
|
Catholic Church as an example: In the December 30/31, 1988 SAN JOSE MERCURY
|
|||
|
NEWS, court records and sworn testimony in civil and criminal cases involving
|
|||
|
35 priests in dioceses across the U.S. over the past five years - most since
|
|||
|
1985 - show that in one or more cases Catholic Church officials have:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
* Ignored parental complaints that a child has been molested.
|
|||
|
* Failed to inform authorities, even though most states have laws
|
|||
|
requiring that such complaints be passed along to police or child
|
|||
|
welfare agencies.
|
|||
|
* Transferred the offending priest to another parish or other
|
|||
|
church-owned facility, such as a hospital or school, without warning
|
|||
|
parents in the new location of the trouble in the old parish, and
|
|||
|
often without even requiring the priest to stay away from children.
|
|||
|
* Refused to help priests who have asked for psychological help.
|
|||
|
* Attempted to discredit parents who complained, even when parish
|
|||
|
officials knew of earlier complaints against the priest in question.
|
|||
|
* Fought, usually with success, to make sure that the files in civil
|
|||
|
lawsuits against the church are sealed and that settlements remain
|
|||
|
secret even after the payment of millions of dollars in claims
|
|||
|
* Failed to seek out probable victims and declined to turn over files
|
|||
|
containing information about accusations of other molestations to
|
|||
|
attorneys suing the church.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Catholic Father Thomas Doyle, a Washington, D.C. priest and canon lawyer
|
|||
|
who has looked into the issue of pedophiliac priests, told the MERCURY NEWS he
|
|||
|
knows of about 200 Catholic priests who have molested children in the past 4-5
|
|||
|
years. He said that as many as 3,000 priests could be pedophiles.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
F. Ray Mouton, a lawyer working with Doyle, added:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
I have consulted with dioceses and Catholic religious orders from
|
|||
|
every part of this country, and it is my impression that there is not
|
|||
|
one single, solitary bishop or vicar in this country who has not dealt
|
|||
|
with the problem of a pedophiliac priest under his supervision.
|
|||
|
Conservatively I would estimate that in the last several years, hundreds
|
|||
|
of priests and other clerics have been discovered as pedophiles, leaving
|
|||
|
a trail of thousands of Catholic child victims.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS provided the following examples [among others]:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
* In 1987 priest Roger Trott, Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania
|
|||
|
pleaded guilty to one count of corrupting a minor, a 13-year-old altar
|
|||
|
boy, in a plea arrangement providing for no jail time. Afterward the
|
|||
|
district attorney discovered that Trott may have molested as many as
|
|||
|
15 boys. A year before, the diocese reportedly paid $375,000 to two
|
|||
|
families on behalf of children alleged to have been molested by
|
|||
|
another priest, Father Dennis Dellamalva, who was never charged.
|
|||
|
Neither the families who sued nor the diocese would discuss the
|
|||
|
settlement.
|
|||
|
* In 1987 priest Richard Galdon, Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, was
|
|||
|
sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of
|
|||
|
first-degree aggravated assault and two counts of second degree
|
|||
|
aggravated assault against three boys. Galdon, 57, admitted engaging
|
|||
|
in oral and anal sex with boys for 17 years. DA investigator George
|
|||
|
McGrath said that he talked to 18 boys at a school who said they were
|
|||
|
molested by Galdon.
|
|||
|
* In 1985 priest Carmelo Baltazar, Diocese of Boise, Idaho was sentenced
|
|||
|
to 7 years in prison for luring two teenage boys to his house,
|
|||
|
fondling them, and giving them liquor, drugs, and pornography. He had
|
|||
|
been kicked out of the U.S. Navy (where he had been a chaplain) as
|
|||
|
well as transferred from three previous dioceses for similar conduct.
|
|||
|
An attorney who sued the diocese said that Baltazar's previous job was
|
|||
|
at a hospital in Napa, where he fondled a boy on a dialysis machine.
|
|||
|
Despite being told about this, a Catholic hospital in Boise hired him
|
|||
|
and then took no action after an Episcopalian minister reported to the
|
|||
|
bishop that Baltazar had fondled a boy in double leg traction.
|
|||
|
* In 1987 priest John Salazar, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was sentenced
|
|||
|
to 6 years in prison for engaging in oral copulation with two altar
|
|||
|
boys. He had been left in his position despite one mother's report
|
|||
|
that her son had been molested in 1985.
|
|||
|
* In 1985 priest Alvin Campbell, Diocese of Springfield, Illinois was
|
|||
|
sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually
|
|||
|
abusing 7 boys. Campbell later admitted that he had molested boys for
|
|||
|
more than 20 years.
|
|||
|
* In 1987 priest Walter Weerts, Diocese of Springfield, Illinois was
|
|||
|
sentenced to 6 years in prison for performing oral sex on three
|
|||
|
teenage boys. The diocese paid $2.5 million, one source told the
|
|||
|
MERCURY NEWS, to three families who sued when a pattern of
|
|||
|
transferring him from parish to parish was uncovered. The diocese
|
|||
|
refused to discuss the case.
|
|||
|
* In 1986 priest Ronald Fontenot, Diocese of Spokane, Washington was
|
|||
|
sentenced to 1 year in jail and 2 years in a treatment program after
|
|||
|
teen-age boys complained that he had engaged in oral copulation with
|
|||
|
one and fondled four others.
|
|||
|
* In 1986 priest Andrew Christian, Diocese of Orange, California
|
|||
|
received 5 years' probation on condition he go to a treatment facility
|
|||
|
after being found guilty of 26 counts of child molestation. The church
|
|||
|
never told authorities of abuse reported 3 years earlier, when it sent
|
|||
|
Christian to counseling and did not remove him from supervising boys.
|
|||
|
When the counseling stopped, molestings began.
|
|||
|
* In 1986 priest William O'Connell, Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island
|
|||
|
was sentenced to 1 year in prison and 2 years in a treatment center
|
|||
|
after pleading no contest to 26 counts of sexually abusing 12 boys.
|
|||
|
* In 1985 priest Paul Leech, Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island was
|
|||
|
sentenced to 3 years in prison for molesting 3 boys.
|
|||
|
* In 1986 priest Timothy Slevin, Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. was
|
|||
|
sentenced to 3-12 years after pleading guilty to four counts of
|
|||
|
sodomizing a boy at Sacred Heart Catholic School. Slevin told police
|
|||
|
he sexually abused 6 other boys aged 10-16.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
In contrast to this shameful record, there has never been a SINGLE charge
|
|||
|
against or conviction of ANY Satanist for child sexual abuse, anywhere, any
|
|||
|
time. The reason is quite simple: WE DON'T DO IT. Ours is a religion in which
|
|||
|
sex is NOT treated as a religious fetish, nor restricted between consenting
|
|||
|
adults. It is regarded simply as one more bodily function with pleasurable and
|
|||
|
romantic aspects.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(7) PORTRAYAL OF SATANISTS KILLING RABBITS AND FAMILY PETS.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Animal sacrifice is strictly forbidden by this nation's Satanic churches,
|
|||
|
per the above quotes from the Satanic Bible and the Crystal Tablet.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(8) THE FILM'S DISMISSAL OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PRESCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN
|
|||
|
SUDDENLY USING COMPLEX SEXUAL WORDS LIKE "VAGINA".
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
In fact this is one of the MOST conspicuous indices that the child in
|
|||
|
question has been coached by zealots. As such it is an important indicator
|
|||
|
impeaching the testimony of such children and should not be minimized.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(9) AN OLDER CHILD INSISTING ON THE WITNESS STAND THAT HE HAD "PASSED A
|
|||
|
POLYGRAPH" CONCERNING HIS ALLEGATIONS.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
While the film showed the defense lawyer objecting and the objection
|
|||
|
sustained, this scene was clearly added to "substantiate" the older child's
|
|||
|
statements. The reason that polygraph results are not allowed in court, of
|
|||
|
course, is that they are NOT reliable. There are many reasons why they may
|
|||
|
give false readings. The history of their use in child-abuse witch-hunts is
|
|||
|
that they are ignored by prosecutors if they support the accused person's
|
|||
|
innocence and are treated as "proof overwhelming all other evidence" if the
|
|||
|
accused is judged to have flunked.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
As Washington columnist James Kilpatrick recently reported in his column:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
A witness for the American Medical Association testified that the
|
|||
|
results of such examinations are "only somewhat better than chance".
|
|||
|
Another estimated that polygraph machines wrongfully hang a label of
|
|||
|
"liar" on at least 400,000 honest persons every year.
|
|||
|
A Senate report described the problems. A standard polygraph records
|
|||
|
changes in blood pressure, respiration patterns, and sweat. By analyzing
|
|||
|
a chart of these changes, the operator reaches conclusions on the
|
|||
|
honesty of the person being examined. The physiological data may be
|
|||
|
quite accurate, "but there is no evidence that these recorded changes
|
|||
|
are unique to deception". Such factors as "anger, fear, anxiety,
|
|||
|
surprise, shame, embarrassment, and resentment can cause identical
|
|||
|
changes".
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(10) PORTRAYAL OF A "SATANIC CEREMONY" IN A DAY-CARE CENTER, WITH VIOLENCE
|
|||
|
ATTEMPTED TO PREVENT POLICE FROM SEEING IT.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
No Satanic religious ceremony has EVER been held in a day-care facility,
|
|||
|
nor have implements or persons involved in such a ceremony EVER been found in
|
|||
|
the way your film implied. No law-enforcement official curious about any
|
|||
|
activity of the Church of Satan or Temple of Set has EVER been resisted with
|
|||
|
violence.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
To further highlight the film's ignorance of authentic Satanism, a ritual
|
|||
|
knife was referred to as an "athame", and the "Satanists" were shown in red
|
|||
|
robes. An athame is a device used by the Wicca pagan religion, not by
|
|||
|
Satanists. And Satanists do not wear red robes for rituals. [Perhaps you
|
|||
|
confused us with Catholic cardinals?]
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Even more preposterous was the film's use of "Satanic names" such as Isis,
|
|||
|
Medea, Triton, and Pegasus. Obviously you - or Roland Summit, or whoever else
|
|||
|
your "expert" on Satanism happened to be - knows as little about mythology as
|
|||
|
about athames. In Egyptian mythology Isis is the wife of Osiris, OPPONENT of
|
|||
|
the "Satanic" god Set. Medea is a figure from Greek mythology having nothing
|
|||
|
to do with Satanic symbolism. Triton is a fish, and Pegasus is a horse.
|
|||
|
Genuine magical names are chosen carefully, with precise attention to the
|
|||
|
mythology in question. Or perhaps you intended your "conspiracy of Satanists"
|
|||
|
to include a frogman and a jockey?
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(11) ACTOR JOHN SHEA'S CITING OF "THE PRESIDIO, WEST POINT, AND EL PASO" AS
|
|||
|
PROVEN INCIDENTS OF SUCH ABUSE AS PORTRAYED IN THE FILM.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO: This 1986-87 scandal was simply one more scam in
|
|||
|
the "McMartin copycat" series. Neither prosecutions nor convictions of anyone
|
|||
|
resulted. A Baptist minister by the name of Gary Hambright was initially
|
|||
|
targeted in that witch-hunt; later on an Army chaplain decided to attack my
|
|||
|
wife and myself as well.
|
|||
|
All charges against Hambright were ultimately thrown out by the court or
|
|||
|
withdrawn by the prosecution, and thus he is entitled to the presumption of
|
|||
|
his innocence. More than that, the U.S. Federal Public Defenders in his case
|
|||
|
state that the evidence quite clearly exonerates him of any such crimes. Ask
|
|||
|
them yourself: Ms. Nanci Clarence & Mr. Jeff Hansen, Federal Building, San
|
|||
|
Francisco - (415) 556-7712.
|
|||
|
No charges were ever brought against me or Mrs. Aquino, because the
|
|||
|
evidence conclusively proves not only that we could not have committed crimes
|
|||
|
as alleged, but also that they never occurred at all. On the other hand, I
|
|||
|
preferred court-martial charges against that Army chaplain, Lawrence
|
|||
|
Adams-Thompson, for making knowingly false and malicious accusations against
|
|||
|
us. I am still at this time insisting that the U.S. Army Criminal
|
|||
|
Investigation Division follow through with investigation of these charges
|
|||
|
which I preferred, and of Adams-Thompson's attempt to defraud the U.S.
|
|||
|
Government of several million dollars in fraudulent monetary claims based on
|
|||
|
his fake allegations. [Following the West Point pattern as noted below,
|
|||
|
parents in the Presidio witch-hunt filed over $66 million in claims against
|
|||
|
the government in an attempt to make a little money from what they had put
|
|||
|
their children through.]
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
WEST POINT: This July 1984 scandal began after a girl came home bleeding in
|
|||
|
the vaginal area. In the usual pattern allegations then mushroomed to include
|
|||
|
several children, animal sacrifice, pornography, and "rituals involving people
|
|||
|
wearing bloody, Dracula-type masks". Ultimately 950 people were interviewed
|
|||
|
including hundreds of children aged 2-6. No charges were ever brought against
|
|||
|
anyone because of lack of evidence. Nevertheless a Captain Grote refused a
|
|||
|
promotion to Major and proceeded to accuse Army officials of covering up "the
|
|||
|
presence of ritualized/Satanic child abuse at West Point". [There were no
|
|||
|
Satanists at West Point at the time.] Perhaps as disappointing to the accusers
|
|||
|
under the circumstances was the fact that 8 families had filed claims against
|
|||
|
the government totalling $110 million, easy wealth which was unlikely to be
|
|||
|
realized if the scam would not be officially endorsed.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
EL PASO: In June 1985 this McMartin-copycat got under way after parents
|
|||
|
questioned their 3-1/2-year-old daughter about a word she had used. Two YMCA
|
|||
|
female teachers were eventually accused as the feeding-frenzy grew. Nine
|
|||
|
children talked about monsters, being kissed and fondled, and "having pennies
|
|||
|
put in their pee-pees". This case was prosecuted, and both women were found
|
|||
|
guilty. One conviction was later overturned, and [as of the most recent
|
|||
|
account I read] the other is on appeal.
|
|||
|
Again it is interesting to consider the role that monetary claims played in
|
|||
|
this affair. Insurers for the YMCA reached a $600,000-plus settlement with
|
|||
|
parents after an appellate court overturned the conviction of one of the two
|
|||
|
female workers accused. Parents had originally sued for more than $24 million.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
If there is any "pattern" to be demonstrated by these cases, it would seem to
|
|||
|
be one of parental greed rather than of "Satanic child molesting".
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The United States has now been through several years of such disgraceful
|
|||
|
witch-hunts, which films such as MUFFIN MAN purport to excuse and justify. To
|
|||
|
the extent that audiences accept its theme, you have acted to stimulate and
|
|||
|
encourage further outrages of this sort. This is genuine child abuse, as it is
|
|||
|
always the children, along with the targeted adults, who are the sufferers
|
|||
|
from these orgies of greed and hatred.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
It is ironic that, at the same time these ferocious witch-hunts are being
|
|||
|
promoted, the country is bewailing its lack of adequate child day-care
|
|||
|
services. Under these circumstances only a lunatic would have anything to do
|
|||
|
with operating or working in a day-care service, no matter WHAT salaries are
|
|||
|
offered. Nor does one have to be male to be targeted; such witch-hunts have
|
|||
|
victimized young and old, male and female alike.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
If this is the situation you sought to endorse by your broadcast of MUFFIN
|
|||
|
MAN, then I expect you are quite pleased with yourselves. If after considering
|
|||
|
the facts cited in this letter you have second thoughts about what you did,
|
|||
|
then perhaps CBS should make a statement to that effect and remove this
|
|||
|
disgraceful film from further circulation. It belongs in a trash-bin along
|
|||
|
with Nazi Germany's THE ETERNAL JEW and similar hate-propaganda filth.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Sincerely,
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(signed)
|
|||
|
Michael A. Aquino
|