[Crossposted from my Real History Blog]
From ABC News:
Florida Rep. Mark Foley’s resignation came just hours after ABC News questioned the congressman about a series of sexually explicit instant messages involving congressional pages, high school students who are under 18 years of age.
In Congress, Rep. Foley (R-FL) was part of the Republican leadership and the chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children.
Talk about the fox guarding the chickens. I chose that term deliberately, as “chickens” is a slang term for a young, gay boy.
Is Foley the exception? Not at all. Check out the long list at ArmchairSubversive.com. Nor is this a new problem in the Republican party. Check out the link from the Washington Times front page of 6/29/89 pictured below to see how this story reached into the Reagan White House:
You would be shocked and horrified if you read about the right-wing pedophilia circles in this country.
I have the burden of having read, i.e., borne witness too, some of the darkest acts of man through a book written by Nebraska State Senator and Attorney John DeCamp. He detailed a broad Republican child sex ring run by Larry King – not the guy from CNN, but the guy who sang the National Anthem at two Republican Conventions, who was released from jail on April 11, 2001, after serving 10 years of his 15-year sentence for embezzling $39 million from Franklin Community Federal Credit Union (now defunct) in Omaha. The book is called the “Franklin Coverup.” Here is a quick summary, from FranklinCase.org:
On November 4, 1988 the Omaha Franklin Credit-Union Bank was raided and closed by the IRS and the FBI. The raid and closing were conducted resulting from an audit on Lawrence King’s, the Franklin Credit Union’s manager, (see key players page) personal tax returns.
Initially public investigators estimated King had stolen about $4 million from the Franklin Credit Union assets. By the end of their investigation, Officials totaled the missing assets in the tune of $39 million.
Along with the charges of embezzlement, reports came in that the FBI had confiscated child pornography, videotapes and photographs at Franklin Credit Union offices.
Investigators began looking into allegations involving drugs, sexual misconduct, child abuse, pornography, and satanic activity. Along with the allegations came names of prominent individuals in the Omaha Community. Including, then Chief of Police in Omaha, Robert Wadman (see key players page), Alan Baer, Harold W. Anderson, then publisher of the Omaha World Herald, and Lawrence E. King.
In January of 1989 the Nebraska State Legislature constituted a committee to look into the child abuse and drug allegations. Twenty days later Nebraska State Attorney General Robert Spire called a Grand Jury to investigate allegations of what came to be known as the Franklin Case.
Beyond his book, detailing the allegations of sexual abuse and the using of young children as couriers, a British investigative team worked with The Discovery Channel to produce a show called “Conspiracy of Silence,” detailing the Franklin case. But check any list of proverbs to find out what happened next. Tell the truth and run, they say, because the truth is rarely welcomed with open arms:
Finally, the big day came. Their documentary was to air nation-wide on the Discovery Channel on May 3, 1994. It was advertised in the TV Guide and in newspapers for that day. But no one ever saw that program. At the last minute, and without explanation, it was pulled from the air. It was not shown then, and has never been broadcast anywhere since.
Until now, of course. You can see this online here.
This is the kind of history historians rarely write about. It is sordid. It is unbelievable, until you read the data; then it becomes undeniable. And horrific. I nearly threw up after reading the account of acts performed to one young boy.
And worse, those who perpetrate this are so hellbent on keeping the truth from coming out that they make secondary victims of those who come forward. In the Franklin case, the two victims who testified were made out to be perpetrators of the fraud. This secondary rape was equally as horrific as the primary acts that led them to testify in the first place.
Children are our future. We should guard them and protect them, not sell them into sex slavery to slate the sordid tastes of politicians.
I’m glad Foley stepped down. But we should follow him out the door. Pull on that thread, and who knows what will unravel?
