The Ferret

Fears Marshall Island atomic waste leaking

2008-08-19T14:28:00.003+01:00

ABC PM - Monday, 18 August , 2008 18:42:00
Reporter: Mark Colvin
MARK COLVIN: Time and distance have allowed the world to forget, for the most part, what happened in the Bikini and Eniwetok atolls in the Marshall Islands far to Australia's north-east in the 1940s and 50s.

Everyone knows the name "bikini" as a swimsuit, but there's little memory of the 23 atomic bomb tests the United States carried out at Bikini, which sent the islanders into permanent exile. At the Eniwetok atoll, despite 43 bomb tests, people started returning in the 70s.

In an attempt to protect them, the Americans gathered up the irradiated waste from the different islands, mixed it with concrete and buried it in one of the bomb craters. Now there are claims that that storage area may be leaking.

They come in an article by Hong Kong freelancer Ivan Broadhead, who went to Eniwetok for the South China Morning Post and wrote an article about the nuclear fears for the Fairfax papers.

IVAN BROADHEAD: The dome is an enormous structure. If you can imagine a headland on a beautiful atoll in the Pacific Ocean with what essential looks like a UFO or a spaceship just planted on the end of it. It's made of concrete and it's at least 30 feet high and inside lie about around about three million cubic feet of radioactive waste.

MARK COLVIN: And you say it's enormous. I mean, is it a couple of football fields across?

IVAN BROADHEAD: It's, you're standing on the top of it, and put it like this, you can see the Pacific Ocean, a lot of it, and you can see a beautiful lagoon that the atolls encircled. The dome is built in a nuclear crater, one of the eight bomb blasts that took place on Runit Island, was, well the cactus, the cactus bomb, now that blew an enormous hole in the reef and the Americans decided that what they would do in the 1970s was collect up all the radioactive waste that was scattered around Eniwetok atoll and since we'd buried it in this bomb crater that was left from the 1950s.

MARK COLVIN: So they'd created a hole, they filled in with the nuclear waste, and then they plugged it over with this big concrete ceiling?

IVAN BROADHEAD: The crater itself wasn't sufficient, wasn't adequate to take all the waste, and so they kept towering it, building it up, and eventually towered 30 feet high and they sealed with a concrete cap, which is the dome that remains visible to this day.

MARK COLVIN: But you say that there is a problem with the concrete cap.

IVAN BROADHEAD: There's a rather grave problem. Now you have to bear in mind that inside the dome lies, in millions of cubic feet of radioactive waste. Now, in the context that is was only built in 1979, there is absolutely no way that the dome is going to survive if indeed, as rumour suggested, there were cracks in the structure. And part of my investigation involves going up to the island and to checking essentially on whether or not these cracks actually existed.

MARK COLVIN: And did they

IVAN BROADHEAD: The cracks do exist, Mark. The United States Department of Energy, which was involved in building the dome, said that there were only hair-like cracks. Now, that comment is based on the report that they did 18 years ago, which was the last time the sent an engineer to visit the dome. And then after our visit, it turns out that the DOE was actually sending out another engineer for the first visit in 18 years, as I said, who's to go and have an inspection. I've been in touch with the DOE since then, and they insist that the cracks remain hair-line.

MARK COLVIN: But what did you see with your eyes? How big are these cracks?

IVAN BROADHEAD: I would, if I could give you an illustration for instance, I can put my, I can clearly put my index finger within some of the cracks. There are spores or chips, I think engineers use the word "spores", there are chips in the structure itself which are deep enough for the bird population of the island to lay eggs in.

MARK COLVIN: That leads us to the question of what affect it's having on the wildlife, on the water, on the air, what are the radiation tests showing?

More info at link

Quad a handful! - two sets of twins give lesbian IVF couple quadruplets

2008-07-30T00:26:00.002+01:00

By Daily Mail Reporter

Sitting on their mothers' knees, they could be any ordinary babies.

But these two sets of twins, born to Karen Wesolowski and Martha Padgett, are actually quadruplets.

The babies are related because they were created from Miss Padgett's eggs and donor sperm using IVF treatment. Two embryos were then implanted in each woman.
IVF lesbians and quads.

United States and Israel against Iran

2008-06-27T00:38:00.000+01:00

Gareth Porter's ZSpace Page

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Dennis Bernstein: We focus on potential war by the United States and Israel against Iran. We're watching that closely. The drums of war are beating again in the Middle East, as we say. And the war that may be brewing between Israel and the U.S. and Iran has the potential to dwarf the consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, as deadly and horrific as that's been. The latest warning sign came in the New York Times reported last Friday that in early June, Israel had carried out a major military exercise. U.S. officials called it "a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities." The exercise involved more than a hundred Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters. The same week, Germany's Der Spiegel reported that Israel's leadership has concluded that diplomacy has failed to stop Iran's nuclear program and that military action is unavoidable, a warning that was earlier sounded by the German foreign minister. These ominous developments come after months of escalating threats and charges by the U.S. and Israel against Iran for its actions in Iraq and Lebanon and Gaza and for supposedly pursuing nuclear weapons despite repeated international atomic agency findings to the contrary. Top Bush officials have taken trips to the region, perhaps for military consultations. Andrew Cockburn reports that earlier this year, the Bush administration secretly authorized a sweeping covert action program against Iran, including assassinating officials. And there have been reports in The Asian Times, the Times of London, and by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi that a U.S. strike on Revolutionary Guard camps inside Iran has already been authorized. So is this all for show simply to pressure Iran or is a war really possible?

With us to examine these developments is Gareth Porter. He is the author of Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. He is a contributor to InterPress News Service, The American Prospect, The Nation, and Salon.com...

Gareth Porter, it is good to have you in the studio... You've done some interesting investigations in terms of what has been leading up to this, and the role that the U.S. is playing with Israel in a potential attack on Iran. In particular, you found out and wrote about how Cheney and his allies actually tried to win approval for strikes against Iran's Revolutionary Guard camps last August. Can you talk about this incident and why there was a little bit of restraint?

Gareth Porter: Right. This is, I think, very important for the simple reason that it does provide a kind of smoking gun evidence, if you will, that this whole unfolding threat to Iran has not been simply a psyops, simply an intimidation operation. We know now for a fact that Dick Cheney did, in fact, propose within the Administration that they attack Revolutionary Guard bases in Iran that were supposedly connected with supplying or training the Iraqi Shiite militiamen coming back to Iraq to fight U.S. occupation forces. And this would be done if and when they could get some kind of concrete evidence that would basically convict the Iranians of some direct involvement in the fight in Iraq.

What we now know is that the Pentagon responded to that proposal very quickly and very strongly by arguing that it's not going to be on to simply go out and launch a so-called limited strike without considering what is going to be the consequence of that in terms of escalation on the Iranian side and then what are we going to do, assuming as they did assume, that the Iranians would in fact respond by targeting probably American bases, American personnel in the Middle East and probably in Iraq. And assuming that, then what would the United States do in response and how far are we going to go up the escalatory ladder?

That was the issue that they raised, according to a former State Department official who went on the record with me: Jay Scott Carpenter. This is the first time that a former Bush administration official had actually gone on the record and said yes, there was in fact not only a Cheney proposal officially within the Administration, but a very important and very high-level debate over that. And the result of it was, in effect, that the Pentagon -- and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were supporting them on this, according to Jay Scott Carpenter. They supported the Pentagon officials who said, "No, we can't do this without figuring out how far we're going to go", and the implication being that we're not going to support an all-out war with Iran, which would -- certainly, the obvious implication that was being drawn from the Cheney proposal, that that's what he really wanted.

Dennis Bernstein: Any sense how close Cheney got to having his way?

Gareth Porter: No, you can't really find out from a single source who was obviously getting this somewhat indirectly, because he was not personally involved in the meetings themselves, just how close we might have come to that. But the impression that I got was that the response was so negative and so strong, and that it was so unanimous within the Pentagon, including the military leadership, that Cheney was really put on the defensive, that he did not have the kind of arguments that he could come back with to basically counter this very strong argument by the Pentagon against his proposal. But what I did point out in my article is that this was the second time that Cheney had been, in a way, checkmated or stopped by the National Security bureaucracy in Washington - if you will, the permanent government - from making moves toward sort of setting up a war with Iran.

The first time was in early 2007. It was in February 2007 - or January/February 2007 - when Cheney essentially ordered the military in Baghdad to put out a briefing that would essentially take the position that Iran had been manufacturing these explosively formed projectiles which were armor-penetrating explosives, which were killing American troops in Iraq. And he was arguing that Iran is really fighting a proxy war by supplying these to the Iraqi Shiite militia. Well, the Defense Department, the State Department, and the NSC all said, "We can't say that. There's no evidence for it. And we've already been through this once with Iraq. And we'll all have egg all over our faces and our credibility will be shot." And so they said no to that. And so it looked like Cheney was checkmated because it went into the interagency process and essentially they sent the briefing back to the authors and said, "Do it again and do it right so that it's consistent with the evidence." Well, this time, in February 2007, Cheney did an end-run around the bureaucracy by getting Petraeus, who was going out to become the top commander in Baghdad of the U.S. forces, to agree that as soon as he arrived, they would, in fact, give that same military briefing that gave the Cheney line that the bureaucrats said no to. And that's exactly what happened. Within 24 hours of Petraeus's arrival in Baghdad and his taking over the command of U.S. forces, that briefing was given. The State Department, I guarantee you, did not know it was coming until two days beforehand.

Dennis Bernstein: Now you're saying then, you are suggesting - or more - that General Petraeus was an active player, that he was a willing partner in what appears to be a Cheney operation or deception.

Gareth Porter: Absolutely. There is no doubt in my mind.

Dennis Bernstein: Say a little more about that.

Gareth Porter: Clearly, what happened was that Petraeus, when he got his job, it was on the condition that he would support the Bush-Cheney policy, both in Iraq and with regard to Iran. And that's exactly what happened. When he went out there, from the White House, from the Cheney wing of the White House, to have the military briefers give that briefing, which had been vetoed in Washington.

Now, that was just the first step in this. We later see Petraeus in September of 2007, after he's been out there several months, give an interview with Brit Hume of Fox News Television in which he said - I won't try to put forward the same words that he used - but he said, in effect, that we have been saying to the White House and to CENTCOM that we need to do something about the allegation or reality of Iranian interference in Iraq, implying very clearly that he was supporting the Cheney proposal to attach the Iranian bases, which are connected, supposedly, with that issue.

Dennis Bernstein: And, of course, given the short tenure that he had in Iraq, it gives one the impression that he was really an agent in this process. So he gets in, he does a few things, and then he's kicked upstairs. That was very interesting. Everybody wondered if he was so successful, so effective, The Man, then why did they take him out so fast? But maybe he had a mission.

Gareth Porter: He is not an independent actor. Petraeus is a man who has been sent to Iraq to carry out the policy of the Bush White House, and he will do the same thing on Iran. And that is why his being named to replace, in effect, Admiral Fallon as commander of CENTCOM is so important and why it sets up a situation in which Cheney and Bush can do an end-run around the opponents of war with Iran in Washington.

Dennis Bernstein: And, of course, you take out the unwilling general and you put in the willing general.

Gareth Porter: Exactly. And he's arriving - and this is very important - the timing of his arrival is late summer, early fall. It's going to be August or September. So I think that we can say that the period of maximum danger about U.S. intentions -- which I think that there is a serious possibility that they do intend to attach Iran - it will be after the arrival at CENTCOM in Tampa of General Petraeus in later summer or early fall.

Dennis Bernstein: ...We did hear - and Reese Ehrlich did some significant reporting on what was happening at the border, and the fact that the United States, with Israeli intelligence such as Mossad, were already busy going back and forth over the border. There was a great deal of counterinsurgencies. There are connections between what was going on there and this.

Gareth Porter: If you mean the connection between the Israeli role in Iraq and Iran, of course they're connected in the sense that Israel is very deeply involved in all of the Cheney -Bush policies in the Middle East. There's a very, very close working collaboration across the board, whether it's Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, or other parts of the Middle East. They are very, very closely working together on a common strategy. At least they discuss common strategies. That is not to say that everything Israel does has been planned ahead of time by the White House with the Israelis. In fact, the White House neocons, including Cheney, wanted Israel to go much farther in 2006 than they actually did. They wanted them to take down the Syrian regime instead of stopping in Lebanon. So there's not a perfect correlation, by any means.

Dennis Bernstein: Now following up right on that, that brings us to these recent exercises. The United States reported them as if they were surprises. It's like, oh, they'd better tell the New York Times that Israel did an exercise because they didn't know it was happening. Let's talk about what this exercise has to do with the relationship between the U.S. and their push toward war in Iran. What about this

Gareth Porter: First of all, I think we have to see that the purpose of this story -- from both Israeli and Bush Administration point of view - was to implicate the United States more deeply in the Israeli policy, to give the appearance to the world and to the American people that the Bush Administration is speaking, not on behalf of Israel, but speaking with Israel, announcing that this is taking place and giving it their interpretation, in a way that was useful to Israel.

But there's a second point here that I think you also need to keep in mind. That is that Israel is not likely to strike Iran without the direct involvement, militarily, of the United States. The United States will be involved in some way if Israel strikes Iran, whether it's sending American bombers or simply providing the intelligence and other support for an Israel strike. They have to do it with the Americans; they can't do it successfully without the Americans.

Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq and Afghanistan

2008-05-30T00:17:00.002+01:00

Depleted Uranium Shells Used by U.S. Military Worse Than Nuclear Weapons

hat tip ~ http://www.sott.net/
http://www.naturalnews.com/…

by David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) The use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by the U.S. military may lead to a death toll far higher than that from the nuclear bombs dropped at the end of World War II.

DU is a waste product of uranium enrichment, containing approximately one-third the radioactive isotopes of naturally occurring uranium. Because of its high density, it is used in armor- or tank-piercing ammunition. It has been fired by the U.S. and British militaries in the two Iraq wars and in Afghanistan, as well as by NATO forces in Kosovo and the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine.

Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has estimated that 50 tons of DU dust from the first Gulf War could lead to 500,000 cancer deaths by the year 2000. To date, a total of 2,000 tons have been generated in the Middle East.

In contrast, approximately 250,000 lives were claimed by the explosions and radiation released by the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“More than ten times the amount of radiation released during atmospheric testing [of nuclear bombs] has been released from DU weaponry since 1991,” said Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. “The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive.”

Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever.

The two U.S. wars in Iraq “have been nuclear wars because they have scattered nuclear material across the land, and people, particularly children, are condemned to die of malignancy and congenital disease essentially for eternity,” said anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott.

Since the first Gulf War, the rate of birth defects and childhood cancer in Iraq has increased by seven times. More than 35 percent (251,000) of U.S. Gulf War veterans are dead or on permanent medical disability, compared with only 400 who were killed during the conflict.

British coroner investigating deadly 2006 military crash in Afghanistan says Nimrod spyplanes were never airworthy

2008-05-24T05:50:00.000+01:00

May 23, 2008

LONDON – A British coroner investigating the deaths of 14 military personnel in a 2006 plane crash in Afghanistan said Friday that the Nimrod spy planes were never airworthy.

Fourteen servicemen died when a Nimrod MR2 on an intelligence-gathering mission exploded following air-to-air refueling near Kandahar, Afghanistan, in September 2006.

The crash killed 12 crew members, a Royal Marine and an army soldier – the British military's biggest loss of life in a single incident since the 1982 Falklands War.

The plane was part of a fleet of 15 aging Nimrod MR2 aircraft originally due to go out of service a decade ago. The planes had suffered a series of fuel leaks and other mechanical problems but has served as surveillance aircraft operating over land, particularly in Afghanistan.

“The aircraft was never airworthy from the first release to service in 1969,” said Coroner Andrew Walker, who is holding an inquest into the military deaths.

Imported toys from China with dangerous levels of lead end up in stores

2008-04-16T00:34:00.010+01:00

KIDS AT RISK "CHINESE MANIFACTURES"
Poisoning Young Children of the World"

See Toxic Toys:A Poisonous Affair

Recall News From U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Duration January 4th to January 30th 2008. This is a list of children's toys "only" there are many more items being recalled due violation of lead Paint Standards. One must wonder if this is only a sample check of imports how many items are getting through unchecked.

ALL MADE IN CHINA
1. Toy Wagons Recalled Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard.
2. Coin Banks Recalled Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard.
3. Toy Wrestler Figures Recalled Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard.
4. Cranium Cadoo Board Games Recalled Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard.
5. Toy Racing Cars Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard.
6. Toy Wooden Block and Train Sets Recalled Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard.
7. Dora the Explorer Recalled Due to Violation of Lead Paint Standard.

Fisher Price is recalling almost one million toys because of high lead levels.

The Great Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine Hoax Exposed

2008-04-16T00:06:00.004+01:00

FDA Link to HPV Info

More raids on Texas polygamy sect

2008-04-06T12:16:00.001+01:00

Church built at the FLDS's compound in Texas (2005)
Sect members believe men must have at least three wives to get to heaven.

Texas authorities have continued raids on a ranch belonging to a breakaway Mormon sect, removing a total of almost 200 women and children since Thursday.

Police officers first raided the ranch after reports that a 16-year-old girl was physically and sexually abused.

Detectives are looking for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man. She is thought to have had a child when she was 15.

The sect is led by polygamist Warren Jeffs, jailed as an accomplice to rape.

Under Texan law, girls younger than 16 cannot marry, even with parental approval.

Search continues

Texas Child Protective Services have now removed 137 children and 46 women, who are being questioned.

Spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said they were doing fine and that officials remained at the ranch looking for more children.

It was not clear whether the girl who sparked the search was still at the compound or was among those removed and had not been identified.

Officials have also been authorised to remove computer hard drives, CDs, DVDs and photos.

Ms Meisner was unable to say whether the women and children had left voluntarily.

Local news reports said shelters had been set up for them.

The authorities said that none of the 52 women and girls picked up in initial raids would be returning to the ranch.

Eighteen of them were at risk of further abuse and would remain in state custody, they said.

Mormon split

Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was convicted after he forced a 14-year-old girl to marry her cousin.

Picture of Warren Jeffs taken after his arrest by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Warren Jeffs led the breakaway Mormon sect from 2002
The self-proclaimed prophet is currently awaiting trial in Arizona on charges of being an accomplice to four counts of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages.

The sprawling ranch is located in Eldorado county, about 260km (160 miles) north-west of the Texan town of San Antonio.

It is not known how many people live there.

The 10,000-strong sect, which dominates the towns of Colorado City in Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, split from the mainstream Mormon church more than a century ago.

Members believe a man must marry at least three wives in order to ascend to heaven. Women are meanwhile taught that their path to heaven depends on being subservient to their husband.

Polygamy is illegal in the US, but the authorities have reportedly been reluctant to confront the FLDS for fear of sparking a tragedy similar to the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas, which led to the deaths of about 80 members.

Israel threatens to unleash 'holocaust' in Gaza

2008-03-03T21:40:00.005Z

An Israeli minister gave warning yesterday that the Gaza faces a “holocaust”

The use of the term "holocaust" is usually restricted to descriptions of the Nazi genocide of the Jews in Europe in the Second World War, and many Israelis resent its use in any other context. Mr Vilnai’s deployment of the word appeared to show Israel’s growing frustration that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza refuse to curb their attacks, despite heavy tolls inflicted in Israeli air strikes and tank raids.

As Israeli media relayed his controversial comments, Mr Vilnai’s spokesman was forced to issue a clarification. “The minister used the Hebrew term 'shoah' which means 'catastrophe' and in this context does not refer to the 'the Shoah' - the Holocaust,” he said.

Debating the meaning of "Shoah" and "Ausrottung" Amnesty International: Israelis Killed Hundreds of Children in Lebanon in 2006

Allegations of sex and corruption take centre stage

2008-03-02T22:39:00.001Z

INSIGHT: DOWN UNDER WITH JEFFREY FRANCIS

SENSATIONAL evidence of bribery and sex, including the confession of a former town planner to having sexual affairs with three property developers at the time when she was dealing with their multi-million-dollar development applications emerged at an anti-corruption watchdog inquiry in Sydney last week.

Shockingly, it was alleged that the 32-year-old town planner was on a “mission for sex” with successful businessmen.

There were also allegations of cronyism, the inappropriate appointment of a Labour heavyweight for a A$200,000-a-year job and city councillors allegedly receiving bribes from developers, some of whom have made political donations totalling A$7mil to the New South Wales Labour Party election campaign fund.

The scandal, with more disclosures expected, is threatening to engulf some senior Cabinet ministers of the state government, which is now in a state of siege from its serious political crisis and bureaucratic stuff-up.

These include the resignation of a minister because of stress a month after being cleared of allegations of domestic violence; another is on trial of 34 charges, including sex with underage boys, indecent assault and supplying heroin and cannabis; and four others are allegedly linked in some ways to the current scandal.

It is the second state in three weeks to be shaken by the fallout of widespread corruption in Australia.

The first was Victoria, where a “web of lies, petty jealousies and office politics” and allegations linking police to the murder of a prostitute and self-described vampire were part of the evidence in a report from the Office of Police Integrity last month.

Interestingly, these and the current revelations are the outcome of what seems to be all-out efforts by state governments to curb, if not stamp out, corruption and unacceptable behaviour in the public service nationwide.

Tough action

Angered by the damning evidence and with his political career at stake, NSW Premier Morris Iemma promised that “heads will roll” if any of his ministers, their staff members or officials of the state government was adversely involved in the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigations.

However, he sounded somewhat soft when he added: “The only thing that will be destroyed in this (inquiry) will be the careers of those, no matter who they are, who are found to have done the wrong thing.”

The inquiry was told that approvals for buildings worth A$130mil had been given despite the fact that some of the developments did not comply with rules and regulations of the Labour-controlled Wollongong Council.

These buildings, which had gone well beyond the limits of height and floor space ratio, were constructed about four years ago when Wollongong became the developers’ paradise after it had lost its status of “steel city” following the controversial closure of BHP steel mills.

During the inquiry, the council’s former town planner Beth Morgan, who had handled the applications, confessed that she had sex with three local developers, admitting that she met them regularly at a local kebab shop known as the “Table of Knowledge”.

In return for obtaining the approvals, the developers showered her with substantial gifts and cash, she claimed.

But one of the developers denied he and Morgan had intimate relationship even though she e-mailed a letter in which she wrote: “You’re a gorgeous, sexy, delectable, lovable Greek.”

The key figure in the scandal, however, is Joe Scimone, a former senior executive of the council and a Labour heavyweight. He was alleged to have played a critical role in raising donations from developers for Housing Minister Matt Brown and campaigned for Police Minister David Campbell.

The ICAC heard that Scimone, who also allegedly took part in obtaining approval for a developer’s project and later bought an apartment from him, was forced to resign amid allegations of sexually harassing several female staffers.

He then got a A$200,000 job in NSW Maritime, which was part of the portfolio of his long-time friend, Ports Minister Joe Tripodi. This appointment is now under scrutiny.

The ICAC is also investigating allegations that Scimone paid A$30,000 to a man impersonating as an ICAC officer to destroy incriminating documents that he had sexually assaulted a council staffer.

The premier, who defended Tripodi under the notion of presumption of innocence until proven guilty, gave an assurance that the minister would be sacked if the ICAC had any evidence against him.

And a secretly recorded telephone conversation, played at the inquiry, quoted the council’s former general manager Rod Oxley as telling property developer Frank Vellar he would assign one of the “more laterally thinking planners” to consider his application for “significant” development.

They then laughed about the “laterally” minded planner, but no name was mentioned.

But former planning director David Broyd claimed that the application was handed to Morgan whose records he described as “inadequate”.

He also said that council staff had often complained to him about Oxley’s allegedly improper involvement in planning decisions in favour of developers.

He and several planning staff resigned because of the untenable working relationship with Oxley.

Oxley, who has been with the council for 19 years before he resigned last year, admitted to knowingly breaching the council’s code of conduct by dining with Vellar alone, away from the council building, and not declaring a A$263 gift of wine he had received from the developer.

Although the inquiry is continuing, the fact of the matter is that it is basically about political donations from property developers.

Jeffrey Francis is editorial consultant, Australasia-Pacific Media

One Thousand Lives A Month

2008-02-28T05:23:00.002Z

Researcher Estimates 22,000 Lives Could Have Been Saved Had Trasylol Been Pulled Earlier

(CBS) This is the story of a drug that was on the market for 14 years and may have contributed to the deaths of thousands of patients. Trasylol, made by Bayer, is given in the operating room to control bleeding. It was a big money maker.

As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, Bayer marketed Trasylol aggressively until it was used in about one third of all cardiac bypass operations in America.

But then, in 2006, a study showed widespread death associated with Trasylol, and as it turns out there was concern long before that.

How much did Bayer know? And why did it take Bayer and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration nearly two years to take the drug off the market after major studies revealed the danger? Two years - during which it's estimated Trasylol was contributing to the loss of one thousand lives a month.

Healing Hands

2008-01-22T21:06:00.001Z

By DOMENIC D. NICASSIO
The Catholic Register (Toronto)

Fr. Fernando Suarez has an unusual vocation. His full-time ministry involves praying over sick people in Toronto and any diocese of the world that invites him.

Suarez's ministry developed because of an unusual gift. When Suarez prays with people, they are sometimes healed instantly.

"It's not me, I don't know anything about how it happens. Up till now I don't know how people get healed, but I know it's God," he told The Catholic Register.

The 38-year-old priest is a member of the Companions of the Cross. Suarez grew up in the Philippines, where he worked as a chemical engineer. He joined a contemplative order of monks, but when his superior noticed his unusual gift, Suarez was encouraged to join an active order. In 1985 he immigrated to Canada, and he was ordained a priest in 2002.

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Suarez traces his gift to an incident that took place at age 16. Inspired to pray over a lady who couldn't walk, he asked if she wanted prayer, and made the sign of the cross on her knees. To his astonishment, she then walked.

It's a phenomenon that has repeated itself during his time of formation and during his ministry as a priest.

Suarez kept this confidential for 19 years but four years ago his community allowed him to make this gift public.

"My spiritual director told me this gift is not for me, that I must share it with others," he said. "I never take ownership, if they get healed, they need to praise the Lord."

When asked how he responds to people who don't believe in supernatural healing, Suarez said, "I'm not compelling people to believe in miracles, it just happens."

Suarez said he is not looking for publicity and that he is booked for a year-and-a-half. "I will only go if I have an invitation and approval of the bishop," he said. The summer of 2005 saw visits to cities in Slovakia, Hungary and Austria, along with missions in Milan, Dominica, Hong Kong and Macao.

Fr. Peter Coughlin is a priest in the Hamilton diocese who wrote a doctoral thesis on the theology of healing, and was a delegate at the 2001 Vatican symposium on healing promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Laity. He told The Catholic Register that healing ministries like that of Suarez should be seen as a continuation of the healing ministry of Christ.

"If we look at Scripture, at least two-thirds of the Gospels deal with healings that take place, and at the end of Matthew, it says these signs will accompany believers," he said.

This type of ministry is not about usurping the role of medicine.

"Only God heals, doctors treat, and they usually only treat symptoms," Coughlin said. "We certainly would never say to people to stop taking medication."

He said there is no way to understand how healing occurs because it's a mystery. "How it happens? If He created the universe and all eternity, then certainly He can handle things like that. It's no different from believing in the incarnation, or in the virgin birth," he said. At the same time Coughlin said it is common for those who experience physical healing to seek verification from a doctor.

During his recent travels, Suarez was accompanied by Fr. Jeff Shannon, director of vocations with the Companions of the Cross. Shannon said people need to know that by stepping forward for healing they are spiritually healed.

"That is a theological truth. A lot of times healing is not seen, but with his (Suarez's) ministry it tends to be seen more frequently," he said.

Shannon said there is a strong biblical basis for the gift. He said the gift of healing is for the good of the church in the same way that some have a teaching or prophetic role.

In regard to Suarez, "the effectiveness of his gift is that healing happens so quickly, sometimes instantly, sometimes a short time after."

When asked how this might be viewed by skeptics, Shannon said "we have to look at the fruit, and the fruit is there because healings are happening. Then you look at the fact he (Suarez) doesn't promote himself. For the skeptics its just a matter of the facts, the quantity and the number who have been healed," he said.

Healing Hands

2008-01-22T21:06:00.000Z

By DOMENIC D. NICASSIO
The Catholic Register (Toronto)

This page requires a higher version browser
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

Fr. Fernando Suarez has an unusual vocation. His full-time ministry involves praying over sick people in Toronto and any diocese of the world that invites him.

Suarez's ministry developed because of an unusual gift. When Suarez prays with people, they are sometimes healed instantly.

"It's not me, I don't know anything about how it happens. Up till now I don't know how people get healed, but I know it's God," he told The Catholic Register.

The 38-year-old priest is a member of the Companions of the Cross. Suarez grew up in the Philippines, where he worked as a chemical engineer. He joined a contemplative order of monks, but when his superior noticed his unusual gift, Suarez was encouraged to join an active order. In 1985 he immigrated to Canada, and he was ordained a priest in 2002.

Suarez traces his gift to an incident that took place at age 16. Inspired to pray over a lady who couldn't walk, he asked if she wanted prayer, and made the sign of the cross on her knees. To his astonishment, she then walked.

It's a phenomenon that has repeated itself during his time of formation and during his ministry as a priest.

Suarez kept this confidential for 19 years but four years ago his community allowed him to make this gift public.

"My spiritual director told me this gift is not for me, that I must share it with others," he said. "I never take ownership, if they get healed, they need to praise the Lord."

When asked how he responds to people who don't believe in supernatural healing, Suarez said, "I'm not compelling people to believe in miracles, it just happens."

Suarez said he is not looking for publicity and that he is booked for a year-and-a-half. "I will only go if I have an invitation and approval of the bishop," he said. The summer of 2005 saw visits to cities in Slovakia, Hungary and Austria, along with missions in Milan, Dominica, Hong Kong and Macao.

Fr. Peter Coughlin is a priest in the Hamilton diocese who wrote a doctoral thesis on the theology of healing, and was a delegate at the 2001 Vatican symposium on healing promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Laity. He told The Catholic Register that healing ministries like that of Suarez should be seen as a continuation of the healing ministry of Christ.

"If we look at Scripture, at least two-thirds of the Gospels deal with healings that take place, and at the end of Matthew, it says these signs will accompany believers," he said.

This type of ministry is not about usurping the role of medicine.

"Only God heals, doctors treat, and they usually only treat symptoms," Coughlin said. "We certainly would never say to people to stop taking medication."

He said there is no way to understand how healing occurs because it's a mystery. "How it happens? If He created the universe and all eternity, then certainly He can handle things like that. It's no different from believing in the incarnation, or in the virgin birth," he said. At the same time Coughlin said it is common for those who experience physical healing to seek verification from a doctor.

During his recent travels, Suarez was accompanied by Fr. Jeff Shannon, director of vocations with the Companions of the Cross. Shannon said people need to know that by stepping forward for healing they are spiritually healed.

"That is a theological truth. A lot of times healing is not seen, but with his (Suarez's) ministry it tends to be seen more frequently," he said.

Shannon said there is a strong biblical basis for the gift. He said the gift of healing is for the good of the church in the same way that some have a teaching or prophetic role.

In regard to Suarez, "the effectiveness of his gift is that healing happens so quickly, sometimes instantly, sometimes a short time after."

When asked how this might be viewed by skeptics, Shannon said "we have to look at the fruit, and the fruit is there because healings are happening. Then you look at the fact he (Suarez) doesn't promote himself. For the skeptics its just a matter of the facts, the quantity and the number who have been healed," he said.

What A Whopper

2008-01-21T21:47:00.000Z

THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT?

2008-01-16T00:42:00.000Z

A genius video about how to start a cult.
Lie and place blame on others.

Hospitals tagging babies with electronic chips

2008-01-15T23:37:00.000Z

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

Over half the birthing facilities in Ohio are being equipped with an RFID infant protection system placed on infants at birth to prevent them from being abducted from the hospital or from being given to the wrong mother.

"Standard protocol in the hospitals using the VeriChip system is that the baby receives an RFID anklet at birth and the mother receives a matching wristband," VeriChip spokeswoman Allison Tomek told WND. "The mothers are not asked."

VeriChip Corp., a publicly listed company headquartered in Delray Beach, Fla., is marketing though its wholly-owned subsidiary, Xmark, a HUGS brand tag-and-bracelet infant security system. The RFID tag is attached to an infant at birth by an ankle bracelet that is detected by monitors positioned throughout the hospital.

Critics charge the VeriChip system is an intrusive technology solution to a problem that is rare.

"The VeriChip infant security system is a technology looking for a solution," said Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN, Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.

"Baby snatching from hospital facilities is a diaper full of nonsense," Albrecht told WND.

She cited a January 2003 report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children concluding that of approximately 4.2 million births per year at 3,500 birthing centers in the U.S., abductions by non-family members are estimated at between zero and 12 per year. Of those, the mother is re-united with the child 95 percent of the time.

"Ironically, relying on RFID technology could end up making a rare occurrence more likely," Albrecht said. "Once hospital staffers rely on computer systems to track the human inventory in their care, they become less vigilant."

Albrecht is co-author along with Liz McIntyre of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move."

The HUGS system can detect if the RFID tag is lifted from the baby's skin, if the ankle strap broken or if the baby's RFID tag and the mother's don't match.

If a newborn is removed from the ward without authorization or a baby is placed with the wrong mother, the system triggers an alarm that can cause hospital entrances and exits to lock shut.

"The infant abductions that do occur tend to happen in larger, more impersonal hospitals," Albrecht emphasized.

"We actually investigated an abduction that involved a baby who was wearing an RFID ankle bracelet at the time of the abduction," Albrecht said. "What happened was a woman dressed up in hospital scrubs. Even though the other staffers in the maternity ward did not recognize this woman, nobody reported her, because they thought the RFID system would take care of any problem."

The woman figured out how to turn the RFID system off, Albrecht said, 'and she just walked right out of the hospital carrying the baby, without anybody stopping her."

VeriChip objects, claiming its RFID anklet-and-bracelet infant security system has prevented baby abductions. Spokeswoman Tomek, however, declined to cite specific proof, claiming privacy issues and the need to keep hospital security procedures confidential.

The VeriChip RFID anklets and bracelets are removed by the birthing facility when the mothers and babies are released.

HUGS system RFID anklets and bracelets are not equipped with GPS technology.

VeriChip also produces a human implantable RFID chip that is marketed in the health care area for chronic diseases, including diabetes or stroke, or memory impairment illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease.

"The only viable part of the VeriChip market right now is this infant security system," Albrecht told WND. "People in the United States don't want the human implantable RFID chips VeriChip thought was going to be the core of their business."

Albrecht said VeriChip hopes eventually there will be a mandatory program such as the UK has for implanting RFID chips in prisoners."

The VeriChip human implantable RFID chip was cleared for medical use in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration in October 2004.

VeriChip currently has a market capitalization of about $20 million and 2006 sales of more than $27 million.

(VeriChip Corporation and Austco Communication Systems Introduce the Hugs(R) Infant Protection System in the United Kingdom With an Australian connection

Perth based Austco Communication SystemsPty, Ltd. has been a world leader since 1985 in the highly specializedfield of electronic communications for healthcare and secureaccommodation environments.)

[VeriChip will install Hugs systems at St. John of God Hospital, in Berwick, Victoria and Gympie Hospital, in Gympie, Queensland; and MyCall systems at Alice Springs Hospital, in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, and for the Uniting Care group in Sydney, New South Wales.]

VeriChip stock closed yesterday at $2.02 a share.

TOP UFO GOSSIP FOR २००७ SMOKE & MIRRORS

2007-12-05T23:53:00.000Z

SMOKE & MIRRORS

More than 400 people from around the world found the above blog post Smoke & Mirrors an interesting read!

Its amazing isn't it how some people place blame on others to cover up their own misgivings "SHAME"!!!

{I was asked via email to post this comment "The Ferret")

Hi UFO Ferret can you please post this on your blog as I doubt the ufologist blog will allow it because it sets the record straight and points out all the errors in Paul De Blog's post on www.ufologist.blogspot.com

It has been brought to my attention that the www.ufologist.blogspot.com has posted an image of on its site for some strange twisted reason, under the heading of "Glennys Mackay Robbed By XFriend?" which appears to me to be a weird and twisted way of misleading the reader into thinking the person in the image is guilty of some kind of wrong doing, which she is not. However the post does confirm Ted's post re the missing $10.0000 a comment posted on this site as being true, a post that has nothing to do with me.

As I know who the person is in the image it being me then other's who know me will recognize it as being me also. So I feel PDB has now placed me in the position of setting the record straight.

So there are no more misunderstandings the story on the Australasian blog just above my image is very twisted filled with untruths hate and most very nonfactual.

FACTS are and for the record:
1. I did not known Glennys Mackay in 1996 and I did not help her in 1996.
2. I attended the 1996 conference as a paying delegate I attended with four other people 3 girls & 1 guy Nancy - Danna - Carol - Barry Taylor email Barry at stingray@ceinternet.com.au for conformation.
3. Yes I helped Glennys in 1997 but NO money went missing.

The story appears to me to read this way, Glennys Mackay either contacted or was in contact with the ufologist blog site owner to tell her side of the story re Ted's comment so if what I have read on the ufologist.blogspot site is correct then
information posted on that site came direct from Glennys Mackay. This being the case then I assume Glennys Mackay is in fact in contact with PDB and is supporting PDB site by way of supply of material for wrongful use. This being the case then Glennys Mackay is in part responsible for all the libelous material PDB is posting on his site and should be held accountable.

The subject of stolen money was brought up by Ted at this link

If what Paul has posted is the truth then Glennys Mackay's "Xlady friend volunteer from the 1996 conference still stands accused of an unsubstantiated crime according to the the Australasian ufologist blogger with Mrs X accused of being the only other person who knew the whereabouts of the hidden cash bag other than Glennys.

Ted was telling the truth.

I would like to thank Bill Chalker for bringing this to my attention.

cheers - The person in the image.

Thank you UFO ferret for a fair go.

HOW DID THIS GO UNNOTICED FOR SO LONG *****

I received "many" emails re the above topic, all amazed at how it went unnoticed?

An apparent correction is needed, "UFOR NSW froze their own bank account not the police"

Funds frozen?
Interesting? UFOR NSW injected thousand's of dollors into the New Zealand "FUTURE PERSPECTIVES'CONFERENCE 2007" sometime in June 2007 along with their former president Bryan Dickeson, please read below.

UFOCUS NZ would like to sincerely thank our major sponsor, Bryan Dickeson. Bryan is a veteran NZ UFO researcher himself, as were his parents, Phyllis and the late Fred Dickeson, who ran two of New Zealand’s earliest UFO magazines, Satcu and Xenolog.

Thanks also to UFO Research New South Wales, our ‘sister’ research group in Sydney Australia, for their support and attendance.

"THE SMOKING GUN"*****

PRA BUSTED?
I read on the Australasian blog site Paul De blog admits he stole PRA homepage web link. It is possible Paul De Blog stole PRA web-link but not possible he stole PRA registered web-page counter, which is security password secured to the owner of the web-page PRA.......

PRA could have given Paul De Blog permission to use it.?

PRA ........ YOU ARE still BUSTED!!!

Date: October 19th 2007
Email: chris_g@netspace.net.au

Thanks Mr/Ms Ferret,
At first glance of you email I thought you were accusing the Australian Skeptics of being behind that blog and I was thinking 'oh, no another paranoid loonie', but having read your expose, I appreciate the effort you've spent tracking down this troubled individual.

It's seems this person's vanity in seeing who was reading his ad hominem bile proved to be his downfall.

Cheers,
Chris Guest

US military strike on Pakistan advocated

2007-11-19T22:00:00.000Z

* Analysts say likely dangers include collapse of Pakistan govt
* Propose Special Forces operation to prevent nukes from falling into wrong hands
* Suggest supporting army

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Two experts have proposed that the US should take pre-emptive action to secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons before they fall into the wrong hands.

Frederick Kagan of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute and Michael O’Hanlon of the more liberal Brookings Institution argue in an article published in the New York Times on Sunday that the US simply cannot stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the abyss. Nor would it be strategically prudent to withdraw US forces from an improving situation in Iraq to cope with a deteriorating one in Pakistan. While Pakistan’s officer corps and ruling elites remain largely moderate and more interested in building a strong, modern state, the same was true of Iran on the eve of the Islamic revolution. Pakistan’s intelligence services, the two writers maintain, contain enough sympathisers and supporters of the Afghan Taliban, and enough nationalists bent on seizing Kashmir from India, that there are grounds for real worries.

Complete collapse: The likely dangers include the complete collapse of Pakistani government rule that allows an extreme Islamist movement to fill the vacuum, a total loss of federal control over outlying provinces, or a struggle within the Pakistani military in which the minority sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda tries to establish Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism.

While admitting that all possible military initiatives to avoid those possibilities are daunting, given Pakistan’s size and complexity and the scanty US knowledge about the location of its nuclear weapons, the US would have to act before a complete government collapse, and for that it would need the cooperation of “moderate Pakistani forces”.

Possible plan: One possible plan would be a Special Forces operation with the limited goal of preventing Pakistan’s nuclear materials and warheads from getting into the wrong hands. Given the degree to which Pakistani nationalists cherish these assets, it is unlikely the United States would get permission to destroy them. Somehow, American forces would have to team with Pakistanis to secure critical sites and possibly to move the material to a safer place. For the United States, the safest bet would be shipping the material to someplace like New Mexico, but even pro-American Pakistanis would be unlikely to cooperate. It would be better for the US to settle for establishing a remote redoubt within Pakistan, with the nuclear technology guarded by elite Pakistani forces backed up and watched over by crack international troops. It is realistic to think that such a mission might be undertaken within days of a decision to act. The price for rapid action and secrecy, however, would probably be a very small international coalition.

Support army: Kagan and O’Hanlon suggest that a broader option would involve supporting the core of the Pakistani armed forces as they sought to hold the country together in the face of an ineffective government, seceding border regions and Al Qaeda and Taliban assassination attempts against the leadership. This would require a sizeable combat force from the US, other Western powers and moderate Muslim nations. Since the decline of the Pakistani state is likely to be gradual, it will give the US time to act, they argue. “The most likely directive would be to help Pakistan’s military and security forces hold the country’s center - primarily the region around the capital, Islamabad, and the populous areas like Punjab to its south ... If a holding operation in the nation’s centre was successful, the foreign forces would then seek to establish order in the parts of Pakistan where extremists operate. Beyond propping up the state, this would benefit American efforts in Afghanistan by depriving terrorists of the sanctuaries they have long enjoyed in Pakistan’s tribal and frontier regions ... There was a time when volatility in places like Pakistan was mostly a humanitarian worry — today it is as much a threat to our basic security as Soviet tanks once were.”

Depleted Uranium US weapons the price of Freedom??

2007-11-05T12:14:00.000Z

In the Face Of Death a Nuclear Future

2007-10-26T05:48:00.000+01:00

Be worried
Face Of Death - Nuclear Explosions - Click here for funny video clips

Nuclear test veterans to push for legal action
Maralinga veterans say nuclear test study flawed
Medal in mail' disappoints nuclear test subjects

Australian Aboriginals suffer from the on-going effects of British nuclear testing which was conducted in the Maralinga Lands of the Victoria Desert. Archie Barton, the administrator of the Maralinga Tjarutja (Land Rights Council) describes the experience of his people.

"In 1952, the Aboriginals who had inhabited the Maralinga Lands were placed in a mission at Yalata, several hundred miles South of their tribal land…. Elders tried to return to their land in 1955, but were sent back to Yalta by nuclear test personnel. As an alternative home for the Maralinga people the Yalata Mission failed, [it] thus caused [the] dislocating [of] traditions which resulted in the highest rate of alcohol-related illnesses and deaths in any Australian community" (see Poison Fire Sacred Earth: testimonies, lectures and conclusions, p. 175).

The Maralinga people finally returned to their land in 1990, but like the natives of the South Pacific Islands, they returned to a contaminated home, with their traditional ways of life having been forever corrupted by the age of nuclear technology.

Maralinga - Australia's nuclear waste cover-up

Alan Parkinson is a mechanical and nuclear engineer who lives in Canberra. He has just written a book about the clean up of the British atomic bomb test site at Maralinga in South Australia. In April 2000 a $108 million clean up of the site was declared a success. However, leaked documents and some experts do not agree and suggest that the legacy of that failed clean up will affect the Australian population for many years to come.

In addition to the radioactive contamination of previous nuclear tests conducted by the UK, British Nuclear Fuels is currently involved in formal negotiations to construct the Pangea waste dump on sacred Aboriginal land. Both federal and state legislature in Australia have rejected this proposal, nevertheless, the marketing initiative of Pangea continues.

FACEBOOK: Federal Human Data Mining Program

2007-10-26T05:19:00.000+01:00

"PRAY TELL WHAT DO YAY HIDE?"

2007-10-24T09:59:00.000+01:00

Coming very soon!!!!
A scandal and a scorn to all who look on thee.

A clue??
South Australia has some great coffee bars and mobile phones work well.

"THE SMOKING GUN"

2007-10-18T02:33:00.000+01:00

For years you have tormented members of the Australian UFO community and now you have been "BUSTED"!!!!

An interesting blog the Australasian Ufologist a UFO blog set up to cause harm to certain members of the UFO community in Australia and overseas, yes?

I the Ferret went in search of the little anonymous bunny who set this page up. The guy running it uses the anonymous name Paul De Blog!! but thats not his real name as I found while ferreting around.

Things bloggers need to know when setting up an anonymous blog.

1. Never let anyone know you're tracking them.
2. Never ever leave a calling card.

Please explain?
Some Archived pages on the Australasian Ufologist blog site have site trackers embedded in the blog script. By using [ eXReMe Tracking]it wasn't hard to find the real owner of the Australsian Ufologist blog.... thats if you're smarter than a Fifth Grader.

Follow the link and see for yourself. http://extremetracking.com/free-2/scripts/reports/display/edit?server=u&login=papua55

Paul De Blog kept a record of all who have visited his blog and NOW I HAVE copy of these records.

Paul De Blog I bet you thought you could hide down your rabbit hole forever?......not while this little Black Ferret is around.

Fellow Bloggers just follow the links on this site and you will come to see who the real Paul De blog is.

And when signing up for a web tracker NEVER EVER cut and past the same Java script into another webpage if you want to remain anonymous.

[Oh! in case all pages mysteriously go missing they have been screen grabbed for safe keeping]

Connecting the dots?
I Ferret ferreted around the internet to see if anyone might in some way be connected to the Australasian Ufologist blogger, via a link, htm/Java script or a tracker. When I came across an article written by Mr. John.W. Archettl of Phenomena Research Australia [PRA] at this link http://praufo.bravehost.com/PRA_-_UFO_Triangle_Melbourne_23_Aug_2004.html

UFO Triangle Melbourne 23rd Aug 2004

While browsing the article I noticed at the bottom of the page it too had the same eXReMe Tracker as the Australasian ufologist blog page but with one difference. The tracker on the UFO PRA article page I was able to click and track back to the owner PRA. While the tracker on Australasian Ufologist blog is static. The only way to see if Australasian Ufologist blog tracker has the same owner was to download the web page read the eXReMe Tracker java script to see if they matched......which I did.

A coincidence I think not.
I checked both web page scripts one against the other and found both scripts for both trackers matched 100% with both trackers sharing the same eXReMe Trackers ID login link"http://u.extreme-dm.com/?login=papua55"
and share the same Login ID name papua55

The significance of this login name papua55

Papua is a place - Papua New Guinea 55 is a year 1955 what significant UFO event happened in Papua New Guinea in 1955.

I have been reliably informed PRA Mr. John.W. Archettl was born in Papua New Guinea in 1955.

One evening in May 1955 a Doctor E. Nespor was returning from a swim in the sea when he saw a large disc. It was about half the size of the moon and glowing with a green light that moved slowly along for about a minute before disappearing.

With both eXReMe Trackers links pointing to this link homepage of PRA http://hometown.aol.com/praufo/PRA1/prahome.htm which no longer works other than to take you the stats report. It can be verified as belonging to PRA at this web page UFO RESOURCE CENTER this proves the owner of the Australasian ufologist blog site are one and the same Phenomena Research Australia [PRA]

THE WANDJINA PETROGLYPHS

FROM CAPT GEORGE GREY 1838 JOURNAL
PRA John. W. Auchettl
_____________________________

SOURCE:http://hometown.aol.com/praufo/PRA1/wandjinahome.htm
[PRE] Home: http://hometown.aol.com:80/praufo/PRA1/prahome.htm
Links: http://hometown.aol.com/praufo/pra4/pralinks.htm
Phenomena Research Australia [PRA]
1961-2000
39 YEARS OF RESEARCH SERVICE
Australian & Asia
Contact PRA at praufo@aol.com
Copyright x 2000 UFO Resource Center and Phenomena Research Australia ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, All other rights apply.
_____________________________

REFERENCES:

[1]. THIS IS THE PRA HOME PAGE:
http://hometown.aol.com/praufo/PRA1/Pra1.htm

How to go check The Ferrets findings

Australasian Ufologist Blog eXReM Tracker
Tracker ID: http://u.extreme-dm.com/?login=papua55
Link: http://www.ufologist.blogspot.com/

The eXReMe Tracker is not accessible by clicking on blue image on this blog site you will need to download the archive page http://www.ufologist.blogspot.com/2004_04_01archive.html read the script, its easy any fifth grader can do this.

PRAUFO home page todate with eXReM Tracker
Tracker ID: http://u.extreme-dm.com/?login=papu55
Page: http://praufo.bravehost.com

The eXReMe Tracker is accessible by clicking on blue image at the bottom of this page - if you want to check the Java script download this page http://praufo.bravehost.com/PRA_-_UFO_Triangle_Melbourne_23_Aug_2004.html

If you try to browse praufo webpage you will get this message - Sorry! You are not authorized to view this page or You might not have permission to view this directory or page. If you are attempting to browse a directory, it is possible that directory browsing has been disabled by the site owner.

Conclusion
Australasian Ufologist blog was and still is being used as a cowardly weapon by its not so anonymous attacker to attack many in the UFO field in a disgusting manner to cause them harm.

The slanderous harmful comments within the Australasian Ufologist blog pages is surely punishable by law.

If you feel you been wronged by this blogger and wish to start a class action against them, email theferret9@gmail.com I will pass your details on to interested parties.

I have just been informed via email, an interested party have well over 300 pages of documented evidence copied from the Australasian Ufologist blog when it was at its peak of slanderous comments.

They have advise they are happy to pass a copy over to anyone who wishes to take action. "interesting"

PRA you've BEEN BUSTED!!!!
YOU Great Pretender - Only for you papua55

Howard is seeking a fifth term after eleven years in office as he trails the centre-left opposition in opinion polls.

2007-10-16T14:26:00.000+01:00

Rudy Giuliani Censoring on Youtube

2007-10-16T14:21:00.000+01:00

Maha Devi Ascension Group Heading Downunder

2007-10-13T05:36:00.000+01:00

Is it Just Another Breatharian Movement?

Members of a cult which ran up substantial debts in Niue have been flown to Sydney, after the government ordered them to leave.

Two families from the Mahi Devi Ascension movement ran up debts of $US300,000 at the Matavai resort.

Mahi Devi Ascension movement

The story began late in 2002, when the resort was approached by an organization in northern California that purportedly specialized in organizing painting vacations. It wanted to rent the whole resort for an entire year. An advance party arrived, and Samoan television cameras turned up to film the artists at work, but it soon became clear that painting was not their primary activity.

The true nature of the group began to emerge only when one member, Duane Reed, broke away and spilled the beans to a local newspaper. He identified the leader of the group as an apparently wealthy German woman named Gabrielle, who claims she is divine, and, according to Reed, is "the highest source of God on the planet...an immortal being from Atlantis and Lemuria who has the capabilities of building pyramids and turning people into God."

The discovery of a verbose Web site dedicated to the theology of the Maha Devi Ascension Movement made it abundantly clear that the innocent little resort of Sinalei had, in effect, been hijacked by a religious cult of the most outrageous pretension.

Sadly for the owners of the resort, it was not until January that the cult's last stragglers left, by which time most of the resort's regular clientele had disappeared.

60 Minutes Australia on the trail of a Sub branch of the Cult

Smoke & Mirrors

2007-10-09T04:44:00.002+01:00

Dear Ferret please keep my identity anonymous for reasons I'm sure you will come to understand after reading this.

It appears to me many in the UFO field automatically assume a person who organizes a UFO symposium must be doing so for all the right reasons, but I have found this to be the contrary and have discovered people are not always what they appear to be on the outside.

Persons mentioned in this email will recognize I talk about things only a volunteer in the know could have knowledge of and with most of the information resonating with the reader as being the truth.

In 1996 and again 1997 I attended and was a voluntary helper for the second UFO symposium held October 1997 in Queensland.

After reading the post of Elizabeth Budek I was shocked and like many who have meet her would never have picked Elizabeth doing such a thing, obviously not everyone is what they appear to be on the outside.

I read the comment posted by Ted about the alleged stolen $10,000 from the 1996 symposium and blame being laid at Ms.K

Keeping up with all things ufo'e from around the world I read Anne Strieber attack on Mr Warren Aston on her web-page Anne Diary dated 2006

A little about Warren Aston, he was one of Glennys Mackay closest confidants a travel agent working hand in hand with Glennys and George Mackay back in 1996.

As a volunteer we were privy to a great deal of things like, what Glennys really thought of her speakers, especially when they would not conform or do as she asked.

One comment I remember so very clearly was after Glennys received an email from Whitley and Anne Strieber.

Whitley and Anne Strieber informed Glennys, which read from memory.

Thank you Glennys for your kind offer to put us up at your home but we will have to decline, we are very private people who need our own space and would prefer to stay in hotel, we hope you understand.

Glennys annoyed with Strieber's email ranted "What, isn't my home good enough for them Stuck-up Snobs, Who do they think they are, they need their own space.

Now I see Anne Strieber and Glennys Mackay have banded together for a common assault on Warren Aston which I see is totally unjust and unfair.

Warren Aston is a man of integrity who would never reference or publish information if it was not told to him.

Anne Strieber is attacking a very nice man on the hearsay of a women who is known to put out misinformation of others if they upset her or do not conform to her requests.

Back in 1997 Anne and Whitley Strieber did in fact upset Glennys Mackay and Anne need only check her email re- accommodation arrangements for here in Australia to see what I am saying is correct.

Anne Strieber quote:
We have heard from Glennys, who copied us on a letter she wrote directly to Warren Aston. She says, "I am totally horrified that you used my name and had this article printed in the Mufon magazine.

I did not hear the conversation…I had first hand experience of this at Laughlin, as to people's behavior towards Whitley, in the way things get out of context…people only hear what they want to hear and NOT what is said…I am deeply hurt by these allegatiions and feel that it is totally unfair to both Whitley and Anne that all this should be dragged up after all these years [since] it was October, 1996 when they were our guests here in Brisbane.

In my personal association with both Anne and Whitley, I have found them to be very caring, kind and genuine people, and I feel that what has been written is totally unjust.

Glennys insistently diverts blame away from herself always, when in fact she madeup and started the rumors about Whitley and Anne Strieber over 11 years ago in 1996 NOT Warren Aston, he was only repeating what Glennys had told him and I know this for a fact.

I trust Warren Aston to be telling the truth as it is not uncommon of Glennys Mackay to cast doubt on others especially when trying to cover her own wrong doings.

Anne Strieber quote:
Glennys certainly wouldn't have gotten in touch with me again if I had ever told her that Whitleys experiences was all fiction.

Anne Strieber, don't be to sure of that, Glennys is known to keep her friends close and to keep her enemies closer. You have a lot to offer her just look at what you have done already.

Keep your chin up Warren in the end Karma comes around

Glennys MacKay said to have afterlife contact with John Mack

*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*<>*

Psychic Hot Lines are Hot Indeed

Psychic Scam Blown Apart

Bush denies CIA torture claims - 2007

2007-10-06T04:16:00.000+01:00

Posted Sat Oct 6, 2007 10:21pm AEST

US President George W Bush has denied that his administration has tortured terrorists and suspects.

He has also defended the work of CIA interrogators.

Insisting that Washington has broken no laws, Mr Bush says questioning is conducted by highly trained professionals who have obtained viable intelligence.

"When we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we're going to detain them, you bet we're going to question them," he said.

"Because the American people expect us to find out information by actionable intelligence so we can help them, help protect them, that's our job."

Bush denies torture claims at CIA-run facilities
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
Broadcast: 07/09/2006

Believers Turn Into Sceptics After Conference

2007-10-04T23:06:00.000+01:00

Daily Post NZ

03.10.2007
By MATTHEW MARTIN
EVEN the true believers at a UFO conference in Rotorua were sceptical after a keynote speaker's presentation.

Delegates at the UFOCUS New Zealand conference were less than impressed with American podiatrist Dr Roger Leir, who claims to have surgically removed alien implants from humans.

Conference organisers are defending him, saying he is "highly credible", but delegates told the Daily Post they were not convinced by his presentation.

It included video footage showing the supposed removal of an implant from a subject's toe.

When the video reached the point where the implant was being removed, the camera zoomed in and out and the video faded to black.

One delegate said Dr Leir's information was overly technical and his video finished before any details could be seen, leaving him questioning the doctor's motives.

Dr Leir, who claims to have removed 13 extra-terrestrial implants from human subjects, also dodged media requests for interviews.

He initially agreed to be interviewed and photographed but later, through his agent, declined all interviews.

Conference organiser and UFOCUS New Zealand co-ordinator Suzanne Hansen, from Tauranga, said Dr Leir was highly credible and had tailored his speech for a sceptical New Zealand audience.

Mrs Hansen said she could be partly blamed for Dr Leir's highly analytical presentation.

"I told him that New Zealand audiences were highly sceptical and he dropped a lot of his video footage in favour of a more scientific presentation.

"It's a shame people did not get to see a lot of the excellent footage that I have seen."

Dr Leir's travel expenses were covered by UFOCUS New Zealand but she said he had not asked for a speaker's fee "or perks of any kind".

Mrs Hansen declined to comment about media disruptions at the conference although the Daily Post witnessed a film crew being removed from the Rotorua Convention Centre on Saturday. A Daily Post photographer was also told to leave.

Mrs Hansen said overall feedback from the conference was extremely positive.

Dr Leir is the author of four books on alien implants and abductions and is raising funds for a feature-length movie entitled Earth's Original Sin, based on his alien abduction research.

He said his last implant surgery took place in September last year.

In his presentation Dr Leir likened sceptics to psychics.

"They [sceptics] must be psychics because they come to conclusions before looking at any of the evidence."

Cult of Death

2007-10-03T06:30:00.000+01:00

Spirit of Things: Cult of Death

As presented by Rachel Kohn, ABC Australia.

What makes an educated person from a good family join extremist groups and volunteer to become a suicide bomber? Al-Qa’ida expert, Abdel Bari Atwan, explains it as desperation and indoctrination into a culture of death, while cult expert Steve Hassan, describes the mind-control techniques methods used to turn vulnerable people into new recruits.

Cults are rapidly spreading around the globe like viruses - changing constantly, adapting easily to new cultures, destroying hundreds of thousands of lives each year, by radically altering people's identities through mind control, brainwashing, hypnosis, and less subtle mind control techniques. What compels bright, energetic and idealistic people of all ages to give up their individuality, their freedom of mind, and oftentimes their jobs, wealth, and families to become a slave to a self-proclaimed master? Why do well-educated, highly intelligent people even offer their lives in mass suicides for what appear to be "nutty" beliefs? Once enslaved, how can victims of cults regain their freedom and begin to think for themselves again?

Listen

Dirt List of Companies Supporting Atrocities in Burma

2007-09-29T12:12:00.000+01:00

Australia 's trade and investment relationship with Burma. In 2005, Australian imports from Burma totalled $15 million and Australian exports to Burma amounted to $40 million.
AUSTRALIAN federal police have been training security forces for Burma's military leadership for years, according to Greens Senator Kerry Nettle.

Senator Nettle made the claim at a rally in Sydney today to protest against the crackdown by Burma's military junta against protesters in Rangoon.

Senator Kerry Nettle, a member of the Australian Coalition for Democracy in Burma, said the Government should immediately suspend trade and security ties with Burma.

The Annual AFP Report 2002-03 indicates the AFP has and still is working with Burman Police to introduce its AFP "The Law Enforcement Cooperation Program (LECP)"

In 2002-03 $47 million was appropriated to the AFP over four years for the expansion of "The Law Enforcement Cooperation Program (LECP)"

The delivery of AFP training programs in overseas locations is designed to increase the capacity of partner law enforcement agencies to assist the AFP in the offshore disruption of transnational crime groups. In the past 12 months, LECP has sponsored law enforcement training programs in Burma, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Timor Leste using Australian taxpayer funds to do so.

In the 2003-04 Annual AFP Report the AFP states its indication to expand its number of AFP offices due to extra members joining in the London, Washington and Kuala Lumpur offices which are focussed on counter-terrorism. Offices in Bangkok, Rangoon and Beirut increased the number of AFP officers deployed in the International Network to 65, located in 32 offices across 26 countries.

BURMA

Burma is a country ruled by one of the longest running and most brutal military dictatorships in the world; a dictatorship charged by the United Nations with a “crime against humanity” for its systematic abuses of human rights, and condemned internationally for refusing to transfer power to the legally elected Government of the country – the party led by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

In response to calls from Burma’s democracy movement, the Burma Campaign UK and other campaign groups around the world have been pressuring companies to sever business ties with Burma.

Dirt List: with a number of Australian Companies through business are claimed to be supporting the continual atrocities in Burma

Andaman Teak Supplies Pty Ltd
Andaman is an Australian teak supplier to the marine sector, which only uses Burmese teak. The Burmese regime owns all teak plantations in Burma and teak sales earn the regime millions of pounds every year.

Danford Equities Corporation – NEW
Danford Equities Corporation is an Australian oil company. It signed a production sharing and exploration contract with state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise in November 2006. It covers the Yetagun East Block.

Greens make Liberal-Burma oil link

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle says the Federal Government must 'ask its Liberal Party friends' not to invest in Burma. The Greens have called on the Federal Government to suspend corporate investment and security training in Burma until freedom and democracy is restored.

A day after Prime Minister John Howard said Australia did not have trade links with Burma, Greens Senator Kerry Nettle says a Liberal Party-linked business, Twinza Oil, has signed a joint oil and gas venture with Burma.

Senator Nettle says Mr Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer must follow the lead of France and suspend corporate investment in Burma until freedom and democracy is restored.

"We are one of few countries in that we do not have trade sanctions with Burma," she said. "We have a trade relationship with Burma that is closely linked to the Liberal Party. "It is incumbent on the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to ask their Liberal Party friends not to continue to invest in financial dealings with the military dictatorship in Burma."

Peregrine Adventures
Peregrine Adventures is an Australian travel company with an office in London. Peregrine offers 12 day tours of Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi has asked tourists not to visit Burma because it helps fund the regime and gives it legitimacy. Forced and child labour was used to develop many tourist facilities.

WeWillNotBeSilenced

2007-09-29T12:10:00.000+01:00

Is there? an element of the European Union infiltrating Australian Politics - Who? are the Upper Spencer Gulf "Common Purpose Group"

2007-09-29T12:08:00.001+01:00

Mayor of City of Port Augusta

Full Presentation: Brian Gerrish
discovered the hidden machinations of Common Purpose in Plymouth England some time ago. CP influence is ... all » seen in force throughout the BBC, Local Councils, Police, Schools, National Health Service, and many government agencies that run towns in the UK. Leading toward ever closer union, it is a subversive way to set up new leaders of the coming Totalitarian Socialist State (The European Union). Bringing people in through 'Self Improvement' courses, the talented are picked and indoctrinated in CP ideology. Destined to break up traditional viewpoints it is a very effective and hidden tool of manipulators behind the scenes. Many CP trained 'leaders' are well aware of the true purpose of the organization, most are not but are serving the goal as a result of their retraining in the CP mode of thinking. Brainwashing, a cult, a subversive organization, are terms readily applied to the methods and organization of the group.

What is Common Purpose and why should you care?

Australian "Common Purpose Group" leaders

Jerry Johnson,
Chief Executive Officer, Northern Regional Development Board

Steve Arndt'
Chief Executive Officer Whyalla Economic Development Board.

(No Picture, yet)
Mark Malcolm, Executive Manager, Southern Flinders Ranges Development Board

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE EU

Upper Spencer Gulf "Common Purpose Group" Australia - - June 2003 - $100,000 to Upper Spencer Gulf "Common Purpose Group"

BHP & the "Common Purpose Group"

Vodafone Groups Foundation signs up 6 new countries to "Common Purpose International" Australia being one of them
New South Wales Legislative Council (Hansard) mentions the "Common Purpose Group"

2007 Sydney Leadership program launched - "Common Purpose Group" is offering a range of programs depending on leadership roles. The most common program for Sydney Leadership is the Matrix program.

Rense.com Traitorous UK 'Common Purpose' Shills For NWO

USA: 6 Die From Brain-Eating Amoeba in Lakes

2007-09-28T12:15:00.000+01:00

By CHRIS KAHN – 1 day ago

PHOENIX (AP) — It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die.

Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future.

"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better," Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."

According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases — three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.

In Arizona, David Evans said nobody knew his son, Aaron, was infected with the amoeba until after the 14-year-old died on Sept. 17. At first, the teen seemed to be suffering from nothing more than a headache.

Department of Immunology, Adelaide Children's Hospital, Australia.

Brain-Eating Bugs The Vaccine Connection

Naegleria Amoeba detected in Australian in the 1960s

Australia: HOW DID THIS GO UNNOTICED FOR SO LONG?

2007-09-27T00:26:00.000+01:00

UFO Research (NSW) Inc. President Wendy Burnham left presenting flowers to their former Treasurer Elizabeth Budek at their clubs Christmas party 2003

Former UFO Research New South Wales Club Treasurer Ms Elizabeth Budek has been charged with defrauding The Royal Australian Navy of $85.000 over a period of years.

Australia

UFO Research New South Wales Inc residing President Ms Wendy Burnham is said to have announced at its Annual General meeting held mid 2007 that UFO Research New South Wales Inc. was under investigation by Police and Navy officials for the alleged misappropriation of Navy funds said to have been deposited into its bank account by their former club treasurer Ms Elizabeth Budek.

As a consequent UFO Research (NSW) Inc had its bank account frozen while police investigated past and present UFO Research NSW Inc. business activities prier to Ms E Budek being charged with fraud this year.

Source Story Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH 21st September 2007
Edition 4 City Edition 11:30pm FRI 21 SEP 2007, Page.15
Sailor Stolen Office Money

A CHIEF petty officer has been convicted of stealing $85,000 from the Royal Australian Navy.

Elizabeth Budek was a 25-year RAN veteran based at HMAS Penguin at Balmoral, where the fraud took place.

She quit in April 2006 and in June a bank employee notified the navy about discrepancies in some accounts.

The matter was referred to the Inspector General of Defence, who called in police.

It is understood Ms Budek was a secretary at HMAS Penguin, which is part of the navy's systems command and houses its main medical facility.
Section: LOCAL

Australia: The Jesus Christians

2007-09-26T23:48:00.000+01:00

Converts believe that Aids, UFO sightings, earthquakes and the persecution of Jesus Christians by the media are all signs of an impending apocalypse.

The Australian Story
Interview with Malcolm Wrest
Monday 4 June 2007

Members of a bizarre internet cult have breached strict Australian health laws by donating their kidneys to hospitals as “living sacrifices” for God.

Former Jesus Christians member Malcolm Wrest talks to Australian Story about his time with the group and the difficulties he faced when he decided to leave the group.

Related stories
Australian cult member arrested in Kenya

Australian Cult: Twelve Tribes Community arrives in Katoomba, Blue Mountains (NSW)

2007-09-26T23:30:00.000+01:00

Brisbane - Sydney, Australia -- A bizarre bible cult, which advocates beating children before they are old enough to walk, is recruiting in Queensland and New South Wales.

Sources say its set up camp in Maleny on the Sunshine Coast (Qld) also Picton Galston and Katoomba in (NSW).

Twelve Tribes mission, also called Messianic Communities the group is attractive to teenagers and young adults with its carefree life style.

But the parent cult has a lengthy court history of child abuse and abduction in the United States. In one high profile case, Darlyn Church, 13 claimed she was stripped to her underwear and given a seven hour "scourging" with a cane. Defecting senior members Michael Painter and James Howell have claimed some have been beaten almost to the point of death. US authorities have discovered infants who died at childbirth, buried on cult property. Child deaths, often through negligence, go unreported.

Their treatment of children makes Twelve Tribes a favorite subject for US documentary makers.

Cult children are not allowed toys, pets, or bicycles and are schooled on site. They can be beaten for showing emotion, imagination, for playing make-believe, for not responding on the first command and even crying. Children are taught to love their beatings and neglecting to discipline a child is regarded as an act of hatred.

US Jury finds Warren Jeffs guilty of rape

2007-09-25T23:35:00.000+01:00

The leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group has been convicted of rape-as-an-accomplice for performing a wedding between a 19-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl.

Warren Jeffs, 51, could get life in prison after a trial that threw a spotlight on a renegade community along the Arizona-Utah line where as many as 10,000 of Jeffs' followers practice plural marriage and revere him as a mighty prophet with dominion over their salvation.

Prosecutors said Jeffs forced the girl into marriage and sex against her will.

The jury deliberated about 16 hours over three days. On Tuesday morning, the judge replaced a juror with an alternate for undisclosed reasons.

While polygamy itself was not on trial -- the couple were monogamous -- the case focused attention on the practice of polygamy in Utah, where it has generally been tolerated in the half-century since a government raid in 1953 proved a public relations disaster, with children photographed being torn from their mothers' arms.

Jeffs succeeded his father in 2002 as president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Former members say he rules with an iron fist, demanding perfect obedience from followers and exercising the right to arrange marriages as well as break them up and assign new spouses.

At the trial, widely different versions of the relationship -- and Jeffs' influence -- were presented by the woman, now 21, and her former husband, Allen Steed, 26.

At their wedding in 2001 at a Nevada motel, the woman said, she cried in despair when pressed by Jeffs to say "I do" and had to be coaxed to kiss her new husband. The woman testified that FLDS girls receive no information about their bodies or reproduction. She said she didn't even know sex was the means by which women had babies.

The woman said the couple were married for at least a month before they had intercourse, her husband telling her it was "time for you to be a wife and do your duty."

"My entire body was shaking. I was so scared," she testified. "He just laid me on the bed and had sex."

Afterward, she slipped into the bathroom, where she downed two bottles of over-the-counter pain reliever and curled up on the floor, she said. "The only thing I wanted to do was die," she said.

But Steed testified that his teenage bride initiated their first sexual encounter, approaching him after he fell asleep in his clothes after a 12-hour day at work.

Under Utah law, a 14-year-old can consent to sex in some circumstances. But sex is not considered consensual if a person under 18 is enticed by someone at least three years older.

For reasons prosecutors have never explained, Steed has not been charged with a crime.

The mainstream Mormon Church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, renounced polygamy more than a century ago, excommunicates members who engage in the practice, and disavows any connection to the FLDS church.

Jeffs is also charged in Arizona with being an accomplice to both incest and sexual misconduct with a minor for arranging marriages between two underage girls and relatives of theirs. In addition, Jeffs is under federal indictment in Utah on charges of fleeing to avoid prosecution.

The charismatic Jeffs was captured in a traffic stop last year just outside Las Vegas after about 18 months on the run. At the time, he was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, alongside such figures as Osama bin Laden.

Jeffs was in a red Cadillac Escalade in which investigators found more than $57,000, cell phones, prepaid credit cards, wigs and sunglasses.

Since at least the 1920s, members of the FLDS have lived in the twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, where the women wear long prairie dresses and have long braided hair, and the men dress modestly too, often in buttoned-up shirts.

All homes and other property were kept in a trust controlled by Jeffs and other church leaders until a judge in 2005 put an accountant in charge because of allegations of mismanagement.

Australia - Rapist cult leader jailed - Little Pebble CULT NSW

2007-09-21T03:45:00.000+01:00

CULT leader and self-proclaimed prophet William Kamm has been sentenced to an extra four years in jail for raping one of his former followers.

Kamm, 56, ordered the girl, then 14, to have sex with him, saying it was God's will because she was chosen by the Virgin Mary to help him repopulate the earth with his mystical seed.

The purported seer known to his followers as the "Little Pebble" is already serving a minimum three-and-a-half year term for an almost identical offence.

Sentencing him to an additional four-year non-parole term today, District Court Judge Peter Berman said Kamm took advantage of his position as leader of his cult near Nowra, on the NSW South Coast, to satisfy his own desires.

Little Pebble CULT NSW

"Many people think that William Kamm is a prophet able to communicate directly with God and the Virgin Mary," Judge Berman said.

"This gives him enormous power over those who hold these deluded beliefs.

"He has taken advantage of these people by satisfying his desire to have sex with young girls."

Judge Berman said Kamm had used his religion in a deliberate plot to manipulate the girl's family into consenting to her chosen role.

Kamm, in a black suit and green shirt and tie, sat impassively as he was sentenced, with more than a dozen of his followers packing the small courtroom.

When his previous sentence is taken into account, Kamm will serve at least seven and a half years in jail.

He will first become eligible for release in April 2013.

Related Story: A doomsday cult led by a self-proclaimed prophet who has been banned by the Vatican has secured $332,000 from the John Howard Government to run a private school [Saint Joseph's School in Cambewarra, near Nowra, on the NSW south coast.] since 1996.

Australia “The Family” is a cult everyone should know about

2007-09-17T23:28:00.000+01:00

September 17th, 2007 by Chris Jones

This is a very disturbing and uncomfortable subject matter, but I think it’s a story that needs to be told. Cults are certainly nothing new in American culture.

Almost everyone is familiar with Jim Jones and his “People’s Temple” that ended in mass suicide. Most have heard of the crazy “Heaven’s Gate” cult that committed suicide to catch an alien spacecraft trailing the “HaleBop” comet some years back.

However, one cult you probably haven’t heard about is called “The Family” or “Children of God” or as it’s known today “The Family International.”

This particular group is without a doubt the most disturbing and I dangerous cult I have ever heard of. I became interested in this story after accidentally coming upon a site created by some of the survivors of “The Family.” I decided to find out more about this group, but what I found was more horrifying than anything I could have ever imagined.

Coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago an excellent documentary aired on television made by a handful of young men who were raised in the “The Family” but escaped in there late teens and early twenties.

It was a very unpleasant but very revealing look at the devastating psychological effects there upbringing has had on them. You can read a review of ‘Children of God‘ from the Los Angeles Times and find out a little more about the film.

Sex is the driving force behind the group and children are thought of as “sexual beings” and the sexual abuse of children begins at infancy and continues to adulthood. Sexual intercourse with siblings and other children and adults is encouraged by the group’s leaders David Berg and Karen Zerby.

David Berg and Karen Zerby gave birth to a boy in 1976, and were determined to make Ricky a “poster boy” for their followers. They named the boy Ricky, but called him “Davidito.” He was, according to them, a divine prince, destined to lead the Children of God through the biblical end time. As such, they felt that Ricky must be molded into an ideal follower, an incarnation of their beliefs and practices. His upbringing was exhaustively documented and highly publicized as a model for all parents in The Family to follow. As a result, Ricky’s childhood and youth was spent in a highly controlled environment characterized by intense indoctrination, stringent discipline, and sexual initiation by adults.

In early 2001 Ricky made his escape, but the psychological damage he suffered made it impossible for him to live a normal life. He spent several years plotting revenge and in 2005 Ricky Rodriguez hunted down a member of “The Family” who was his “nanny” and routinely sexually abused him. He kidnapped, tortured, and murdered her then committed suicide shortly after that.

Rodriguez left behind a videotape confession nearly an hour in length discussing why he did what he did and what the cult did to him and his siblings. It’s important to remember that this group still operates in large numbers both in the U.S. and around the world.

I think most people will be very surprised that such a sick and disturbing group has been allowed to operate with impunity inside the United States.

David Berg died in 1995 leaving his wife Karen solely in charge of the group. Her exact whereabouts are a closely guarded secret within the organization, because of death threats made by some of her former victims.

Write your Congressman and tell him/her that you want an investigation by the Justice Department into this group.

Written By Chris Jones
Editor-In-Chief
The Hot Joints

See related Video from “A Current Affair”

Australia - CULT leader and alleged child sex offender Kenneth Emmanuel Dyers has been found shot dead

2007-07-26T18:38:00.000+01:00

by Eoin Blackwell ("Daily Telegraph," July 26, 2007)

Sydney, Australia - CULT leader and alleged child sex offender Kenneth Emmanuel Dyers has been found shot dead.

Police were called to a house in Crammond Ave, Bundenna, yesterday after reports of gun shots. Officers discovered the 85-year-old's body, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Police last night said they were not treating the death as suspicious and were preparing a report for the coroner.

The WW2 veteran - and founder of controversial cult movement Kenja - was facing trial on 22 charges of child sexual assault and indecent assault. Members of the cult have told of his grubby "nude healing sessions" and of the cult's links "refugee" Cornelia Rau, who was a member shortly before developing mental illness.

Dyers' was due to face trail in the Downing Centre District Court on May 3, but was deemed unfit for trial and a mental assessment was ordered.

Dyers was arrested in August 2005 and charged with the aggravated sexual assault and aggravated incident assault of two 12-year-old girls. The charges followed an investigation by Strike Force Caroola, set up in May 2005, by detectives from the Child Protection and Sex Crimes Unit.

Kenja - set up by Dyers and his partner Jan Hamilton - is a non-religious organisation that preaches the power of one-to-one mediation called "energy conversions".

Dyers faced a committal hearing before Downing Centre Local Court last May, which heard the offences against the two girls were alleged to have occurred while the girls attended "energy conversion sessions" with Dyers at Kenja's offices in Surry Hills, between December 2001 and July 2002.

Dyers maintained his innocence throughout, accusing former Kenja members of making up the allegations.

In a fawning statement, Kenja Communications last night described Dyers' death as a "tragic day for Australia and for the human spirit".

"There has been a relentless attack on Ken and Kenja for over 20 years," the statement said.

"This attack was launched by spurious, so-called anti-cult groups, some politicians and individuals with criminal intentions, who have fabricated false allegations of child sexual abuse against him.

"The police were continuing to hound and harass Mr Dyers, working with disaffected and hostile people, who wanted to destroy Ken to hide their own misdeeds.

"It is clear that Ken decided he could not, in his state of health, continue to fight any longer."

Related Story Australian Parliment

Australia: The Ultimate Betrayal: Three Sisters Speak About Their Abusive Father

2007-07-06T08:11:00.000+01:00

A FATHER who sexually abused his daughters for two decades, offered them to others for sex and had them perform bestiality will serve 15 years in jail.

P.R.I.S.M International Director for Australia Mr. Lawrence Pearce was found guilty by District Court Judge Mr. Dean Clayton for his participation in what is being called South Australia's worst case ever of Incest.

How did Mr Pearce get caught?

Pearce had an keen interest in the Paranormal & UFOs. He was the Director of an Australian based International Paranormal Research organization called P.R.I.S.M that has sub branches around Australia.

It was only through a spat of UFO sightings reported to a local South Australian Television station in 2005 did Pearce come to anyone's attention. Pearce was invited to the station to do an onair interview about the recent spat of UFO sightings and talk about a number of other UFO sightings seen in and around Adelaide at that time.

Unfortunately for Pearce one of his victims unwittingly turned the television on to watch the UFO segment. While watching TV one of his victims recognized the man being interviewed, it was the man who had sexually abused her as a child.

The victim was so disgusted at seeing her abuser appear on TV and seeing him being portrayed as person of trust she felt sick and decided to do something. The victim called the Police.

Stateline South Australia

South Australia's worst case ever of Incest - Pearce was sentenced to 3 years jail - the victims father was sentenced to 15 years jail.

Australia: Enslaved by the cult of sex...for 25 years

2007-06-13T23:22:00.000+01:00

The Daily Mail/July 13, 2007
By Celeste Jones

Born into an evil cult, called the Children of God, sisters Celeste, Kristina and Juliana Jones were abused from the age of three. Torn from their parents, their childhood was dominated by the warped cult leader David Berg.

The cult - first exposed by the Daily Mail in 1994 - still exists. While their father, the son of a British Army officer, is still in the cult, the three sisters have escaped its clutches. Here the eldest, CELESTE JONES, 32, a clinical psychologist, who lives in Somerset with her eight-year-old daughter, gives a chilling account of life in the grip of a sinister madness.

There is an old, grainy home video from my childhood which I sometimes sit down to watch and which never fails to make me shudder. It starts innocently enough - I am six years old, a small, slim, dark-haired child dancing to pipe music for the camera. But this is no ordinary family movie.

As the camera focuses, you can see that I am naked, dancing behind a white veil.

I remember filming the video as if it was yesterday - and how the man "directing" it asked me to rub my bottom and to wriggle for the camera-The tragedy is that already at that age I had been forced to become sexualised. Quite simply, sexual grooming was an everyday part of my life.

I was born to ordinary, middle-class English parents, and by rights I should have enjoyed a perfectly normal childhood. But my parents - a former public schoolboy and rather naive young teenage girl - were members of the sinister Children of God cult, in which adult orgies and sex between adults and children were considered the highest expression of love.

Sickeningly, the cult leader David Berg, or 'Mo' as he called himself, claimed that God intended everyone to become part of a sexual experience. The result was a childhood of abuse and pain.

It should have been so different. My father, Christopher Jones, was born in December 1951, the son of a British Army officer. Educated at public school in Cheltenham, he studied drama at Rose Bruford College and joined the Children of God in 1973.

My mother Rebecca was born in 1957 and had a secure upbringing in the south of England. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother a devoted housewife. Rebecca was recruited during a visit to her school by the Children of God when she was just 16, and married our father a year later in 1974.

I was born on January 29, 1975, and we were sent to join a commune in Bombay which was part of the cult, and where my sister Kristina was born 18 months later.

Months later, Berg decreed that sex was the highest expression of love, and giving it was called "sharing".

Both my parents started sharing their bodies with others - but after the birth of my brother David in April 1978, Mum became increasingly depressed.

When she met another family member, Joshua, she decided to return to England with Kristina and David. "But I insisted on keeping you," Dad would tell me, "you're my girl."

I was just three years old when my mum left. When I was five, my father announced that he had fallen for our young German nanny Serena, who became my stepmother.

We lived in a commune known as Loveville, led by Paul Peloquin and his wife Marianne.

Discipline was strict. Reveille was at 7.30am, and after breakfast, I'd go to our communal school. We were shown illustrated stories which were often filled with scenes of explicit sex, nudity or gruesome demons.

When I was six, Berg requested the women to dance naked for him on the video which I still have today. I watched the women, then the other girls, strip and dance. Then a white veil was tied around my neck, which I was supposed to take off during the dance, and Paul gave directions from behind the camera: "Wiggle nicely and rub your bottom, honey."

I simply copied the motions I had seen the adult women perform earlier. "Good, very good! Now blow kisses," he said. Watching it now makes me feel physically sick. Nude pictures were taken of us girls on a regular basis and sent to Berg.

Sex was completely open and transparent in our world. The adults had no inhibitions about making love in front of us and actively encouraged us to explore our bodies.

My father never did anything to me in a sexual way but his friend Soloman, a Londoner, would ask me to dance for him naked in his bedroom. "You're so sexy!" he would say.

One man, Manuel, helped teach us our dance routines. As I slept in a caravan one night with my friends, he woke me, pulled down my pants and started kissing me.

"This is how the adult women do it," he explained. I was about seven years old and was terrified. I just wanted to scream, but nothing came out. When I watched the adults having sex, they seemed to enjoy it, so why didn't I?

Once a week, our commune would gather for a dance night, and the adults - all those over the age of 12 - paired off for sex.

Meanwhile, during the day, everything would stop for so-called "Cuddle Time" - a euphemism for group sex.

I remember lying horrified in the clutches of my teacher, Johnny Appleseed (some of the cult members took stupid, folksy names), while other adults were having sex around us. When he finished assaulting me, he said a prayer as I lay in terror.

In June 1981, my half-sister Juliana was born to my father and Serena. We moved to a commune and during one sermon, the leader stripped off his clothes. Everyone, including the children, obediently followed.

Everyone sat together naked, arms around each other, then the men were instructed to take a sip from the communal cup and pass it on to the mouth of their female partner. When the wine came round, my adult partner took a gulp and then fixed his mouth on mine. It was disgusting.

In the commune, I was forever scared of being singled out for punishment. Once, when I angered the leader, Paul, he singled me out for public humiliation - telling me to hold out my hand and raining down blow after blow on it. The pain was so excruciating, I could barely move my wrist for a week.

Around that time, we moved to a communal house rented by the sect and were ordered to change our names - possibly because the leaders wanted us to be untraceable by our families in England. I chose Rebecca - Dad renamed himself Happy, which I thought was very odd.

Families were separated all the time. When I was eight, the leaders decided to keep me apart from Dad, and only let me see him once a week, while other couples helped to raise me.

Can you begin to imagine how distressing that was for a little girl who had already been ripped away from her mother?

All the while, bizarre missives continued to spew forth from the cult leader.

Berg decided we were all to use spoons, instead of forks. We could not use black pepper, women could not wear jeans, and men replaced their briefs with boxer shorts just because he expressed his dislike for them. Fruit and vegetables had to be soaked in salt water for 20 minutes - which made them taste awful.

Other orders were far more sinister. Paul Peloquin announced during one meeting that all adults had to write down in order of preference who they would like to be on the "date schedule" - in other words, who they wished to have sex with.

When I was 11 years old, Paul decided that my best friend Armi and I had to have sex with two boys, Patrick and Nicki, aged 12 and nine. This was to happen once a week.

Armi and I were also "scheduled" with the adult men - sex with men old enough to be my father.

It was an horrific assault on my prepubescent body, but I had to bear it; I was powerless to stop it. Now, when I look back at the terrible things that were done to me, I see that my father should have done something to stop it, but he didn't.

How could a man stand by while his 11-year-old daughter was effectively raped by another man?

The former Fleetwood Mac band member Jeremy Spencer was a member of the cult. On the regular dates we had, he would play a tape of saxophone music. The routine was, by now, familiar - undress, pray, kiss and then perform lewd acts for him.

One night, a short, fat, bald man called Eman came into my room. I simply couldn't bear the thought of having sex with him, and I ran to the one adult I hoped might save me - my school teacher Sally.

"He's horrible and disgusting," I told her.

"Sweetie, sometimes it can be difficult to share," she replied, "but God gives us the strength to do it. Why don't we pray together?"

I listened in disgust to her prayer, feeling betrayed and helpless - and was led back to this pervert's room. I don't know how long his assault lasted, but it gave me nightmares for years.

I never thought of telling Dad how I felt, especially after one evening when I walked in on him lying on the bed half-dressed with my 11-year-old friend Armi. Years later, he claimed that this young child had made a move on him. He always insisted that nothing sexual had happened.

The thought of that encounter deeply disturbed me. We never talked about any of my sexual experiences, nor did he ask me.

I spent most of my time with my foster parents, Patience and Michael. But when Michael demanded sex from me and I complained to the leaders, I was forced to write endless letters of repentance.

In 1987, I was taken to a Teen Training Camp, where we were given questionnaires and told to answer honestly.

I detailed the traumatic sexual experiences I had suffered, and as a result was "sentenced" to a month in isolation, not allowed to talk to anyone else and given only soup and water for three days. The hunger pains were my only company as I was confined in a small room set apart from everyone else.

At 14, I learned that my mother and 12-year-old sister Kristina - whom I had not seen for many years - had left the cult. Kristina had been sexually abused from the age of three by my mother's second partner Joshua, and then other men from the cult.

When my mother finally realised just how badly her daughter had been abused, she found the courage to flee to England, along with her youngest five children.

Then, on my 18th birthday, some of the cult leaders told me that Mum and Kristina were causing a media storm in England, appearing on television and speaking out against the cult. They told me I was to be 'media trained' and then sent to England to meet them and defuse the situation.

My heart began beating faster at the thought of meeting Mum - and the night before I flew home, I could hardly sleep.

We were brought together at a house in North London. Mum walked into the room and the childhood image I had carried in my head starkly contrasted with the woman that stood in front of me.

She had put on weight - and she was a stranger. I had no idea what to say to her except for "Hi, Mum." It was only when I uttered that word that she kissed me.

"You've grown," she smiled. "What shoe size are you?" I had no idea.

I didn't even know how to react to a mother overcome with emotion at seeing the young daughter she had been apart from for almost 15 years.

"I want you to know that I never wanted to leave you," Mum said, and burst into tears. I was unsure how to respond. I should have gone to hug her, but instead I sat awkwardly in front of her.

After lunch, Mum introduced me to my sister Kristina, brother David and my grandparents - I was greeted with hugs, kisses and questions and I so wanted to get to know them better.

The leaders of the cult who had accompanied me made me draft an affidavit stating that I hadn't been abused as a child. Lying on a desk, I found another affidavit which Kristina had written, saying she had been abused from the age of three by grown men including her stepfather.

I felt physically sick and I knew instantly that she wasn't lying because I had suffered the same abuse. But I was too scared to leave The Family - it was the only world I knew.

Over the next year and a half, I appeared on a number of television programmes, including Sky News and the BBC, to deny the stories my mother and Kristina were openly talking about.

After a few days, I flew back to the cult. I know people will find it hard to believe that I wanted to go back to that, but I was so indoctrinated that I knew no other way.

It was to be several years before a life-changing event made me realise I had to escape. I fell pregnant by a man named Vince who was in the cult - I'd never used any contraception - and my daughter Cherie was born on August 9, 1998.

When she was just a few weeks old I began to be horrified at the debauchery that was still raging around me. I constantly suffered flashbacks to the abuse I'd suffered and I knew I could never allow my own daughter to suffer the same fate.

I flew back to England having saved the money for my fare from the secretarial job the cult had allowed me to do. Back in Britain, I joyfully joined my mother and Kristina.

Since then, I have slowly rebuilt my life. I worked as a volunteer for the charity Parentline Plus, and graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2006 with a degree in Psychology and Education.

I live with my daughter in Somerset, where I am pursuing a career as a clinical psychologist.

Together, we have founded an organisation called RISE International which works to protect children from all forms of abuse in isolated and/or extremist cults.

The leaders of the Children of God continue to live in hiding, and have never accepted responsibility or shown remorse for those hurt by their wicked doctrines.

They call us liars, and they may well claim they no longer practise the brutal physical punishment or adultchild sex, but how does this rectify the crimes that were committed against us and so many other innocent children?

Australia: Cult leader cashes in

2007-05-10T12:00:00.000+01:00

Courier Mail, Australia/May 10, 2007
By Amanda Gearing

Helidon cult leader Debra Geileskey is selling up her million-dollar Lockyer Valley rural retreat and has moved to the US.

The self-proclaimed visionary who told followers she was receiving messages from the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, attracted up to 400 followers after she moved to Toowoomba in 1992 from Melbourne.

Soon after, Geileskey's husband Gordon denounced his wife as a fake and left the group.

Many families gave generous donations to her Magnificat Meal Movement and several signed over part-ownership of their houses to her, including a former convent at Helidon that became the cult headquarters.

Geileskey encouraged her followers to live in Helidon, claiming Jesus Christ would return to the town once they built a $45 million basilica. It has never been built.

Geileskey reverted to her maiden name of Burslem and bought up to 20 rural properties in the Lockyer Valley, including the 150ha Sandy Creek Rd property at Grantham that will be auctioned on May 31 in Toowoomba.

Elders real estate agent Denis McGrath said the farm, which last changed hands for $950,000 in 2002, was attracting a high level of interest from prospective buyers.

Interest in the property from Queensland and NSW had been strong since it was listed for sale last week and Mr McGrath said he had shown it to four potential buyers yesterday.

He said it was difficult to value the Sandy Creek Rd property because of its features, which included three houses, a church, olive and apricot orchards and irrigation equipment.

Mr McGrath said Burslem spoke to him by phone from the US giving him selling instructions, told him she would not be attending the auction and asked him to sign the contract on her behalf.

A title search by The Courier-Mail yesterday shows Geileskey, under her maiden name Debra Marie Burslem, is the sole owner of the property.

Ms Burslem is also listed with the titles office as the sole owner of a 16ha farm at Grantham and 14,000sq m of land in Dip Rd, Helidon.

Burslem's company, Our Lady's Mount, owns 4000sq m of land in Railway St, Helidon, and is part owner of five blocks of land also in Railway St, Helidon.

Australia: The Jesus Christians

2007-05-04T23:48:00.000+01:00

Converts believe that Aids, UFO sightings, earthquakes and the persecution of Jesus Christians by the media are all signs of an impending apocalypse.

The Australian Story
Interview with Malcolm Wrest
Monday 4 June 2007

Former Jesus Christians member Malcolm Wrest talks to Australian Story about his time with the group and the difficulties he faced when he decided to leave the group.

US: Heaven's Gate revisited

2007-03-18T13:21:00.000Z

Ten years ago, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed mass suicide inside a Rancho Santa Fe mansion. First responders are still haunted by the gruesome discovery.

By J. Harry Jones
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 18, 2007

NADIA BOROWSKI SCOTT / Union-Tribune

"We didn't know what to expect going in there," said sheriff's Deputy Robert Brunk, who returned to the site of the now-razed Rancho Santa Fe house last week. He was the first to arrive in 1997.

Ten years ago next week, one of the strangest events in county history exploded into the public's consciousness. For several days, it was the biggest news story in the world.

It began unfolding the afternoon of Wednesday, March 26, 1997, during a period when the Hale-Bopp comet could be seen in the night sky.

Inside a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult lay dead. Convinced that a spaceship was traveling behind the comet and that they would be transported to the vessel to begin a new life “beyond human,” they had poisoned themselves. Twenty-one women and 18 men died by eating pudding and applesauce laced with phenobarbital and other drugs – the largest mass suicide on U.S. soil.

All went willingly under the guidance of their leader, Marshall Applewhite, also known as “Do.”

Their bodies were discovered by a former cult member who had received videotapes in the mail telling him that by the time he watched them, the group would have moved on.

“I don't think anybody really believed what the person was saying,” said Robert Brunk, a sheriff's deputy who had just started his shift at the Encinitas station. “It was an anonymous call to the communications center stating that 40 people had committed suicide and they were cult members. It came out as a 'welfare check,' and they had held the call for a while because it was busy.”

Brunk went to the address, 18241 Colina Norte, which turned out to be a 9,000-square-foot, two-story home up a 200-foot driveway.

“As I'm driving, I'm thinking to myself, 'How am I going to explain to the people that live there the purpose for my visit?' ”

But when he arrived, things seemed odd. All the windows were closed and the curtains drawn. Two vans parked in the driveway were rented, a dispatcher confirmed.

Brunk found an unlocked door on the side of the house. When he opened it, the stench nearly knocked him over.

He shouted that he was with the Sheriff's Department, then backed out and waited for Deputy Laura Gacek, who arrived in a separate patrol car.

“We didn't know what to expect going in there,” Brunk said. “You start thinking of cults and all sorts of things start playing in your mind – animal and human sacrifice, that kind of thing. LINK

Beam them up, Heidi - Remembering the Las Canadas suicide sect scare

2007-01-05T16:30:00.000Z

It is nine years to the week since Tenerife suddenly leapt to international prominence, swept the prime slots on all the 24 hour news services and hogged the front pages of a host of newspapers around the world.

Bad news is good news in the media and Tenerife was hot news for all the wrong reasons as far as the tourism authorities were concerned that week in which the island became the focus for an unprecedented feeding frenzy.

The BBC report filed on January 8 1998 put it like this:

“Spanish police say they have prevented a possible suicide attempt by members of a cult based in Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands. The authorities in Tenerife say the 31 members of the cult, who are mainly British and German, were The BBC report filed on January 8 1998 put it like this:

“Spanish police say they have prevented a possible suicide attempt by members of a cult based in Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands. The authorities in Tenerife say the 31 members of the cult, who are mainly British and German, were planning to commit suicide later today. Police have detained a German psychologist said to be the leader of the sect …”

The garbled accounts of that strange night relied heavily on police reports with a good deal of imaginative hearsay and unconfirmed rumours thrown in for good measure.

Spirits in the sky

2006-04-18T07:45:00.000+01:00

Could aliens be our ancestors?
A growing number of UFO cults think so,

reports TORI SHEPHERD
April 17, 2006 11:30pm

ACROSS Australia, people are looking to the skies for a saviour. Many people have seen objects in the sky that they could not identify, and many believe that we are not alone in the universe.

But there are also people who have built spiritual belief systems around the idea that aliens once came to Earth, and will return one day to take them away to a better place.

The Raelians, who had their "annual awakening seminar" earlier this month in Queensland, are a prominent group in Australia that believe aliens created them and will return.

These are most commonly referred to as UFO cults, the most infamous of which is Heaven's Gate, whose 39 members committed suicide in 1997 in the hope that their souls would catch a ride to the Kingdom of Heaven on a passing spaceship. But Monash University sociology professor Gary Bouma said religions based on UFOs are an "exceedingly tiny fraction" of religious groups.

Professor Bouma, an expert on religion and society, said they were "one of the absolute fringes of spirituality".

"It's simply a tiny little group pursuing an esoteric idea. Life has been full of them, they've come and gone," he said.

"They never stand up against the mainstream, for a whole variety of reasons."

But since space travel began in the 1950s, the idea of extraterrestrials has taken hold of people's imaginations.

Films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and television series like The X-Files have made aliens and UFOs a part of popular culture.

There is even a predominant image of an alien - a small, grey creature with big, dark eyes.

And with new technology such as the internet, small groups can have a large and enduring presence.

The Raelians are one group that has used the internet to become a worldwide phenomenon. They have an international headquarters in Switzerland, and offices all over the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

They claim there are up to 70,000 Raelians worldwide, with about 500 in Australia. A registered non-profit organisation, their main aim is "to create peace on Earth".

The group was founded in 1973 by Rael, a French journalist formerly known as Claude Vorilhon.

He said he had met extraterrestrials who told him to build an embassy to await their return to Earth.

He claimed they had created humanity, and would return to elevate them to a higher evolutionary plane sometime before 2035. But members of many groups deny that the word "cult" applies to them, and would prefer to be called religions, if anything.

This is a complicated idea. The High Court of Australia defines religion as "a complex of beliefs and practices which point to a set of values and an understanding of the meaning of existence". By this definition, most groups with any organised spirituality should be referred to as religions.

The proliferation of magazines, books, and internet sites on the subjects suggests most groups referred to as "cults" are not just brainwashed followers of charismatic leaders, but diverse groups of people looking for spiritual guidance. The Raelians gained media exposure through their claims to have cloned humans, and they have also weighed into the Intelligent Design debate with their version of the origin of life. Roy Tyrrell is a "guide" with the Raelians - a position which he likens to being a priest.

He said the Raelians believe "that life . . . was a scientific creation".

"We believe that beings, whom we call the Elohim (which translates as 'those who come from the sky') came to the planet, and with the synthesis of DNA they were able to create life."

"They created man after their likeness, so we look like the Elohim," he said.

This theory of the origins of humanity is common in UFO cults and is often referred to as the Ancient Astronaut theory. Its most famous proponent was Erich Von Daniken, whose 1969 book Chariots of the Gods? Was God an Astronaut? was a bestseller.

Von Daniken argued that aliens were a hidden force behind the history of humankind, responsible for ancient civilisations. He suggests that, once upon a time, there was a war between two worlds, and the defeated race concealed themselves on Earth.

These astronaut refugees then contacted the "feeble hominids" (our ancestors) and decided to help them.

So they mated with the hunter-gatherers and produced a superior race of human beings.

VON Daniken offered proof of his theory in the form of cave drawings that he claimed looked like astronauts, complete with helmets and spacesuits.

Mr Tyrrell said Von Daniken has "provided evidence of the existence of extraterrestrials doing things on the planet in the past".

He said this supported the Raelians claim that the Elohim had been here.

Professor Bauma said that these extraterrestrial theories of the origins of life are "an interesting but trivial phenomenon", although for some people they are "a way of making sense of the world around them".

"Von Daniken said if you look at certain things a certain way they look a bit like astronauts," he said. "I can't imagine that he has any current credibility."

He said that some people "seem to be vulnerable to some kinds of charismatic leaders", and that people should be wary of people trying to convert them to unconventional religions.