It seems like the premise for an awful B-movie thriller. A secretive religion organization calls itself "the Family;" it organizes members into cells and frequently expresses admiration for the management techniques of Hitler, Lenin, and the Cosa Nostra. The Family has massive real-estate and corporate holdings, its members include important business leaders, prominent members of the U.S. Congress and executive branch, and other government leaders from around the world-some of them not the nicest folks in the world. It regularly recruits up-and-comers to become members of the Family early in their careers. Former Attorney General Edwin Meese often leads prayer breakfasts in one of the Family's communal houses, in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

see: Jesus plus nothing by Jeffrey Sharlet

the Bushes are robber barons, not capitalists: They never risk any of their own money in the competition of the marketplace. Nor do they ever pay the price when their deals go belly-up. Just ask George W., whose first business was jump-started with secret cash from the bin Ladens, laundered through their U.S. frontman, James Bath -- who was also hired by W.'s dad, then-CIA director George Bush Sr., to set up offshore companies for shifting CIA money and aircraft between Texas and Saudi Arabia, the Texas Observer reported.

Neilsy's latest business ventures include a partnership with one of China's own influence-peddling oligarchs: Jiang Mianheng, son of former President Jiang Zemin. He's paying Bush $2 million for "advice" in a field – the semiconductor industry -- which Neilsy cheerfully confesses he knows nothing about. Bush also trousered $1 million for "introductions and advice" from the CP Group, a Bangkok conglomerate spreading bipartisan gravy around Washington. In return for supplying his paymasters with a golden conduit to the White House, Neilsy received a special perk: free prostitutes, served up fresh to his hotel room during business trips to Asia.

But between his sessions of bouncy-bouncy with trafficked women, Neilsy was also sitting down with hard-line cleric Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the former soldier for Nazi Germany now translated to glory as Pope Benedict XVI. The two men were board members of an obscure Swiss institute ostensibly devoted to "interfaith dialogue." Although the organization did have some prominent ecumenical figures on the board, none of them could say exactly why pimp-daddy Neilsy was invited to join, Newsday reported.

GNN: So how scared are you of this group? Are they a force for fascism or some sort of cult-like group with big connections that comes and goes?

SHARLET: I think they are definitely a force for fascism. I think a lot of the way the world looks is a result of their work. They were instrumental in getting U.S. government support for General Suharto, for the generals' juntas in Brazil. Just take those two countries alone, they are two of the biggest countries on Earth. Those countries might have been progressive democracies a long time ago had it not been for U.S. support for those regimes ...

GNN: But don't you think the CIA and the U.S. government's own agenda had a lot to do with those decisions?

SHARLET: Yeah, but they made those connections.

GNN: What are the connections between the CIA and the Fellowship?

SHARLET: A lot of their key men in a country would be the intelligence officers in the American embassy. Throughout their correspondence, that's the kind of guy they would like to have involved. They always had a lot of Army intelligence guys involved, Pentagon guys. Doug Coe in the early 70's was touring the frontlines in Vietnam with intelligence officers and South Vietnamese generals. That's the level of connections they are talking about, like the Salvadoran general Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova [convicted by a Florida jury for the torture of thousands] and Honduran general Gustavo Alvarez Martinez [a minister also linked to the CIA and death squads]. They are the people who brought those people in. They said you need to meet this person. That's how it works.

Their diplomacy can affect some good things, like the truce in Rwanda. They had a lot of connections with the South African [apartheid] regime, where they were generally a moderate, even a progressive force. But it's kinda hard to name a nasty regime around the world that doesn't have really well-documented connections to them. Franco was a hold-out. So they started winning over a bunch of ministers in the Franco regime and then they went to Franco and said this is a good group, we can do business with them. Meet 'The Family' By Anthony Lapp

Moreover, the French intelligence service, DGSE, reported that Americans had knowledge of the extermination of Hutu refugees by Tutsis in both Rwanda and eastern Zaire and were doing nothing about it. More ominously, there was reason to believe that some U.S. forces, either Special Forces or mercenaries, may have actually participated in the extermination of some Hutu refugees.

[snip]

Mr. MADSEN. I would just add that I think one of the major issues involved with the torment in Africa has to do with the war gods. By god, I do not mean God. I mean gold, oil and diamonds.

The whole reason actually when I was investigating the plane crash in Rwanda several years ago, which led to me writing a book, one of the reasons I really stuck with the story and expanded it was when I found out that American Mineral Fields, a company, AMF, was so involved in the first invasion of then Zaire. When I found out that its international headquarters was located in Hope, Arkansas, I have to say it got my curiosity somewhat.

Now, I have never been to Hope, Arkansas, but I was very curious why would an international mining company locate its headquarters there. I soon found out why. Without getting into all the involvement of people in the Clinton Administration with that type of business, I would just say that I think the Bush Administration may be as close to the oil part of that god as the Clinton Administration was with the diamond part.

I would hope that unlike the Clinton Administration, this Administration has a chance to not let our Africa policy be influenced by these major multinational companies who do not care one whit about human rights, the suffering of people. They concern themselves about profit margins. - SUFFERING AND DESPAIR: HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN THE CONGO HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

VI. Richard Halverson. Boxes 506-511. Besides material on various fellowship projects, Halverson's files also contain reports, minutes and other materials relating to activities at his church, Fourth Presbyterian; the work of Concern, Inc; correspondence about fellowship activities in the District of Columbia; fund raising letters, contacts with Honduras, Japan, Italy; contacts with men's groups; World Vision meetings (Halverson was on board); correspondence with John Trever about the Dead Sea Scrolls; and some copies of Halverson's Perspective newsletter. Source

What ??? you think a charity like World Vision or Save the children is beyond manipulation?

Joey Dauben | 23.04.2006 00:55 | Indymedia | London

A judge near Dallas, Texas last week granted prosecutors' request to give an alleged child rapist 10 years probation.

ELLIS COUNTY, TEXAS - Judge Gene Knize, who recently won re-nomination in the March 7 GOP primary over an attorney who sought to expose his past decisions in sexual assault cases, granted a request from Ellis County prosecutors last week to give attorney James Leonard a 10-year probation sentence for three counts of sexually assaulting two children under the ages of 14.

Leonard, who upon pleading guilty was forced to give up his law license, will serve a six-month sentence in county jail, authorities said of the decision handed down last week.

Originally reported in the Waxahachie Daily Light, victims of past abuse in other cases - as well as Republican activists - have openly and publicly plead for Knize to "do the right thing" in cases involving probation for child sex offenders.

That included Knize's March primary opponent, Dan Altman, an attorney from Midlothian, located 20 miles south of Dallas.

"We warned the people, we warned them and warned them, and surprise, surprise, Judge Knize turns his back on the very people who elected him," said Ellis County resident Joey Dauben, who last October launched The Ellis County Observer, an investigative news blog that covers political events and campaigns in the county.

Knize, having been the district judge for 19 years, has no Democrat in November, all but assuring his re-election for another four-year term.

Last May, Knize granted another prosecutor request for probation on Dr. Aniruddha Chitale, who was accused by 21 women of assault while they were in his Ennis Regional Medical Center office [link: nbc5i.com/news/4244400/detail.html].

The Leonard case caught many political observers off guard. Readers of Dauben's blog, he said, were waiting last week for the fate of Gilbert Garcia, who is alleged to have molested and assaulted his now-15-year-old stepdaughter since she was 7.

Prosecutors, however, fought an attempt by Garcia's defense attorney, Dallas lawyer Thomas Pappas, to have Garcia's bond reduced from $1 million. Garcia is currently awaiting a continuance hearing, but remains in custody in county jail.

"Garcia's case has been continued three times since The Ellis County Observer has been covering it. Aside from one columnist in The Ellis County Press [newspaper], this case hasn't been getting any media coverage."

Knize was to rule on Garcia's fate before the March 7 primary, but The Ellis County Observer sought public outcry over the decision, saying it amounted to keeping the re-election chances of the veteran judge intact.

When public pressure mounted, the case was continued to last week, when the downtown Waxahachie courthouse was shut down due to a gas leak.

Leonard, an attorney from Waxahachie, plead guilty to three felony charges relating to sexual contact, exposure and indecency with two children under the ages of 14, according to the Waxahachie Daily Light's Monday issue.

However, solutions to the probation plea bargains for sexual predators are few, Dauben said.

"We need to fire every single assistant prosecutor in our county attorney's office, that's all there is to it," he said. "But we've got to wait another three years for the 2008 election to fire the county attorney. Then we've got another four years of this judge. The safety and well-being of every Ellis County resident is at stake if we don't do anything. Had these cases been done in the 40s or 50s, this judge would have been hanged." - via Indymedia UK