THE FRANKLIN
COVER-UP
Child Abuse,
Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska
by Senator John W. DeCamp
Dedicated to the
children who have been, or will be, abused because of the Franklin cover-up.
Second edition 1996 @ 1992 AWT, Inc. ISBN: 0-9632158-0-9
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 92-070074
First edition: First printing, May 1992 Second printing, August 1992 Third
printing, February 1994
Second Edition: First printing, December 1996 Second printing, January 2001
CHAPTER 21
DRUGS AND THE MONARCH PROJECT
On August 18-20, 1996, a California newspaper,
the San Jose Mercury, published a series of articles implicating
elements of the U.S. government in running tons of cocaine into U.S. cities
during the 1980s. Based upon recently declassified government documents,
eyewitness reports, and court records, Mercury reporter Gary Webb
provided a detailed account of how the Contras financed their war against the
Sandinista regime of Nicaragua by flying tons of cocaine into the West Coast,
where it would be turned into the deadly, instantly addictive "crack," and
sold to such street gangs as the Cryps and the Bloods.
All of this began
after the U.S. Congress in the early 1980s passed the Boland Amendment, which
stopped all official financing for U.S. intelligence's "covert war" in
Nicaragua. The whole project was taken "off-line," and financed by drug
sales-the subject of Webb's articles.
Indignation
exploded when Mercury series hit the streets. Maxine Waters,
Congresswoman for South-Central Los Angeles, one of the areas hardest hit by
crack and drug-related violence, sent a letter to Central Intelligence Agency
chief John Deutsch demanding an investigation of the Agency, in which she
said, "As someone who has seen how the crack cocaine trade has devastated the
South-Central Los Angeles community, I cannot exaggerate my feelings of dismay
that my own government may have played a part in the origins and history of
this problem. . . . The impact and the implications of the Meneses/Blandon/Roiss
Contra CIA crack cocaine connection cannot be understated. We all have an
obligation to get to the very bottom of the origin, development, and
implementation of this seedy enterprise."
While many were
shocked at the news of apparent U.S. government drug-pushing, to me it was one
more confirmation of a key aspect of the Franklin case. As I had discovered
early on (as had Gary Caradori), the sexual abuse of children was only one
part of the Franklin story. During the 1980s, many of the children, such as
Alisha Owen and Paul Bonacci, said that they had been used as drug couriers to
bring cocaine in from the West Coast for Alan Baer, Larry King, and others.
Then, on September
11, 1996, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Representative Harold James, chairman
of Pennsylvania's Legislative Black Caucus, and a former undercover narcotics
cop himself, also put out a call for an investigation. In the course of that
press conference another name popped up, that I knew well from the Franklin
investigation: George Bush.
Flanked by
political leaders of both the city and the state, James declared: "As a
retired undercover Philadelphia police officer who worked on narcotics cases,
I know we can better impact the flow of drugs if we stop drugs from coming
into this country, arrest those at the top levels of control, and punish the
white-collar dealers who try to keep their hands clean while they run the
entire operation. On this occasion, we must not allow anyone to use the
'pretext of national security to accomplish another cover-up. We need an
investigation that goes right to the top."
As to where the
"top" might be, James charged, in his release to the press, "previous
investigations of the Iran-Contra scandal, particularly the U.S. House and
Senate joint hearings in 1987, revealed the central role played by then
Vice-President George Bush in covert intelligence operations. . . . One of
Bush's key lieutenants was Oliver North. Bush was also appointed by Reagan to
run the National Narcotics Border Interdiction Sys- tem, which supposedly
coordinated efforts of all federal, state and local anti-drug agencies,
especially along the south Florida coast. Bush was responsible for the White
House anti-drug effort while, at the same time, according to the recent
newspaper reports, tons of cocaine were allegedly supplied to street gangs by
CIA-related networks."
Concluded James,
"There's something wrong with this picture." In response to a question from
one of the ten reporters in attendance about the role of Bush, Philadelphia
City Council President John Street replied, "If George Bush is involved in it,
someone should find it out. This kind of activity has been going on for well
over a decade."
Lt. Col. Oliver
North - whom at least one witness reported seeing at a party thrown by Larry
King-had overseen the Contra resupply effort, and had been fully aware of the
plane-loads of drugs coming into the United States. A U.S. Senate subcommittee
report under Massachusetts Senator John Kerry cited extensive evidence that
the Contras were involved in drugs, and North had noted the fact in his
publicly exposed note-books.
From what I know
from my own corner of the world, there is excellent reason to investigate Bush
for possible involvement in the dope business. Think back to what I reported
in Chapter 13, "The Washington Connection," about how George Bush and Larry
King were linked in multiple ways, including eyewitness reports placing Bush
at King's sex parties. Think about the constant rumors that King was financing
the Contras, who have now been proved to have been running dope by the ton.
The first
investigative reporter to ever look at Franklin, the World Herald's
James Flanery, told associates that King was "running guns and money into
Nicaragua," and that the CIA was heavily involved. (Flanery was soon taken off
the story and shipped out of state for a year.)
Records exist to
show that Larry King was a top contributor to a Contra "support committee,"
the Citizens for America (CFA). King's own public relations firm was also used
by the Contras.
I became convinced
early on that King was deeply involved with the Contras. I am reminded of the
phone call State Senator Loran Schmit received on the Senate floor as the
Franklin case was just beginning to break. The caller warned him off the case,
because "it would lead to the highest levels of the Republican party." I am
reminded of when Larry King was finally arrested-just as he was about to go to
a breakfast party in Omaha for his buddy, George Bush! I am reminded of the
reports I used to hear that certain people in Omaha were charging that Omaha
Police Chief Bob Wadman was protecting the expansion of the Cryps and Bloods
into Omaha-far from their home turf of Los Angeles.
So, was Larry
King's buddy George Bush the country's "drug kingpin" in the 1980s? I don't
know. But what I do know, is that if Bush were running the
Contra affair, and drugs were a big part of it, that would certainly jibe 100%
with everything known or rumored about Bush, Larry King, and the Franklin
Credit Union. Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Representative Harold James are
right - let's investigate!
. . .
As follow-up
investigation from the Franklin case shows, drugs are not the deepest level of
government -sponsored evil. I think the lowest level of Hell is reserved for
those who conjured up and carried out the "Monarch Project."
"Monarch" refers to young people in America who were victims of mind control
experiments run either by U.S. government agencies such 'as the Central
Intelligence Agency, or military intelligence agencies.
The story told by Monarch victims - one of whom is Paul Bonacci - is that they
were tortured for the purpose of creating "multiple personalities" within
them. These multiple personalities could then be programmed as desired -
as spies, "drug mules," prostitutes, or assassins.
Because of legal
cases still pending, I am severely limited in what I can say about the Monarch
Project. Suffice it to say at this point:
Major intelligence programs in this country did and do exist for the purpose
of protection of this country and to learn what other countries, particularly
our Cold War enemies, were doing in this area of mind control.
I asked Bill Colby to tell me what he could or would, about this. He said:
"Of course the CIA
in particular was involved in investigating, learning and, on occasion, using,
everything we could learn about mind control-and with extremely good reason.
Following the Korean War, this country's military and intelligence communities
went through a period of absolute paranoia about just how far our enemies were
ahead of us in mind control and related activities.
"There was no
particular program called' Monarch,' contrary to what you want to think.
'Monarch' was merely a name that some participants in the program-who knew
very little about it, other than from their own limited participation-were
given to identify themselves. But, as far as the CIA was concerned, there was
no such program named 'Monarch.'
"But, with respect
to mind control, I will tell you that this country spent millions upon
millions supposedly catching up to our Cold War adversaries, because we
believed they had developed mind control technology which exceeded anything we
had. In fact, we at the Company [CIA] truly believed for a substantial period
of time, that technology and techniques and drugs had been developed by Russia
which would enable them to have agents who in fact really were able to have
and use ESP-extra sensory perception.
"Can you imagine,"
Bill continued, "how dangerous for this country it would be if you could have
had someone meeting the President of the United States, who was actually able
to read what was in the President's mind?
"I know," Bill
continued, "it may sound silly today to get all carried away with this fear;
but I can tell you that we took it all very seriously and believed this ESP
thing for some significant time period.
"I will tell you
one other thing," Bill said, somewhat ominously, "we are not behind in
knowledge of mind control. In fact, we never were, but we only found that out
much later, after we had poured incredible resources into this area. And yes,
I am sure, there were some problems and abuses that occurred and we will talk
about them at another time."
We did have that
other talk. And, I intend, when I am freed from court restrictions, to tell
that entire story in an upcoming book. I have deposited extensive
documentation on the Monarch Project with people who have the means, the
motivation, and, most importantly, the guts, to print the entire story, should
I suffer an "accident" before I get around to it. Here, I will merely quote
from the work of one of America's finest investigative reporters, Anton
Chaitkin.
I had known of
Chaitkin, who writes for Executive Intelligence Review magazine, from
the book he co-authored with Webster Tarpley, George Bush: The Unauthorized
Biography. This 659-page-book is a devastating expose of Bush, and it
played a notable role in helping to shape the 1992 presidential campaign,
which Bush happily lost.
Perhaps
it was because the name "Bush" was all over the Franklin scandal, that
Chaitkin showed up one day in my Lincoln law office. I told him, "Look, I know
you have been in some tough spots before, but are you really sure you want to
poke around in this? This question of 'mind control' - the Monarch Project -
is the most scary and, dangerous thing I have ever encountered." As I came to
know Anton, probably all that little lecture did was to spur him on. Chaitkin
got his story on the Monarch Project, and printed it in the December 13, 1993,
New Federalist newspaper under the headline, "Franklin Case Witnesses
Implicate FBI and U.S. Elites in Child-Torture and Murder." Here follows an
abbreviated version of that article:
. . .
WHAT IS THE
FBI PROTECTING?
Since the 1992 publication of John DeCamp's book, The Franklin Cover-Up,
Paul Bonacci has filed new affidavits and has given extensive interviews
to investigators including reporters for Executive Intelligence Review
and New Federalist. Bonacci's disclosures have been cross-gridded with
evidence supplied by authorities in law enforcement, psychiatry, and the
intelligence community. The result goes a long way to explain the high stakes
involved, and the frantic nature of the Franklin cover-up. . . .
Paul
Bonacci has described in detail being dragged to Washington for use as a sex
toy for Larry King's clients. Bonacci told investigators he was in one of the
private White House tours for young male prostitutes conducted by lobbyist
Craig Spence, a close political associate of Larry King in the
cloak-and-dagger Contras enterprise. Spence turned up dead in a Boston hotel
room in 1989, soon after his and King's "compromising" business was exposed in
a Washington Times June 29, 1989 story, headlined: "Homosexual
Prostitution Inquiry Ensnares VIPs with Reagan, Bush."
'MONARCH':
OR, AUSCHWITZ - TAKE 2
From very early childhood, Paul Bonacci was subjected to tortures as profound
as any the Nazis inflicted on their captives. This is not merely a comparison;
rather it is an actual continuation, as we shall see. From sexual degradation,
from
witnessing and forced participation in Satanic cult murders, Bonacci suffered
the cracking of his mind into what is called "multiple personality disorder" (MPD).
Tens of thousands of American children have been diagnosed MPDs; virtually all
of them are thought to have resulted from sexual abuse, of which perhaps 85
percent were cases of Satanic ritual abuse.
Psychiatric professionals specified in Paul Bonacci's legal proceedings that
through it all, Paul's different "personalities" have emerged incapable of
lying, with an ultra-sharp memory. In one instance detailed in The Franklin
Cover- Up, Paul was taken by Larry King and others to a wooded area in
California - identified after publication as the Bohemian Grove. There Paul
and another boy were forced to do sex acts with and to consume parts of a
child whom they had watched being murdered by the cultists. The body was to be
disposed of by "the men with the hoods." A "snuff" pornography film was made
of these events; it was directed by a man the party had picked up in Las Vegas
whom Paul identified as "Hunter Thompson" -the same name as a well known
sleaze-culture figure.
Paul has
told investigators that the ring which plunged him into Satanism was centered
at Offutt U.S. Air Force Base near Omaha; that he was taken to Offutt to be
sexually victimized by a babysitter's boyfriend when he was about three years
old, around 1970. Offutt is the headquarters for the Strategic Air Command,
and has had a cadre of thousands of intelligence personnel.
At
Offutt, and later at other military installations, Paul says this ring
"trained" him by tortures, heavy drugging, and sexual degradation, while
instructing him in military arts including assassination. In fact, his
personal knowledge in these realms can scarcely be accounted for other than by
crediting the indictments he has made.
Larry
King, FBI agent Gerry Wahl/ Alan Baer, Harold Andersen, and former Omaha
Police Chief Robert Wadman have all been reported as collaborators with this
Satanic military-based ring. King reportedly told Paul's captors at Offutt,
"He's young-but you trained him good." A member of Nebraska's Concerned
Parents group reported hearing from two North Omaha witnesses that "King used
to send limousines down to Offutt Air Base to pick up CIA agents for parties."
Larry King reported his own adoring relationship to the late CIA Director
William Casey in a Sept. 7, 1988, interview in the Omaha publication
Metropolitan.
Psychiatrists who have treated a growing number of MPD cases, victims of
Satanic ritual abuse, report an alarming pattern of findings in many of their
child patients. There is a structure to the personalities, conforming
to what is evidently a deliberate breaking and reshaping of the mind. This
phenomenon was identified to Paul Bonacci by his tormenters, and to other
victims and witnesses, as the "Monarch" project. At Offutt Airbase, Paul was
told that what he and other children were being subjected to was in aid of
national security.
The use
of mind-altering drugs, sensory deprivation, and other brainwashing techniques
on U.S. citizens as subjects was the admitted practice of the CIA, certain
military arms and private institutions joined in the MK-ULTRA, Artichoke, and
Bluebird projects beginning in the early 1950s. A national security pretext
often cited was the need to keep up with the Soviets in the race to develop a
workable Manchurian Candidate human robot. With the "Monarch" (or whatever
official title may be attached to it) project, the idea is extended to the
production of a horde of children in whom the soul is crushed, who would spy,
whore, kill, and commit suicide.
The
material presented here, on this subject, must be under- stood to be only a
bare introduction to a complex story with immense political and strategic
ramifications. It is a beginning. Professionals probing the child victims of
"Monarch" say there are clearly two responsible elements at work: the
government/military, and cooperating Satanic (or more exactly pagan) cults.
These are multi-generation groups, where parents donate their own children-who
are proudly called "bloodline" or simply "blood" cultists - to be smashed with
drugs and electric shock, and shaped. Other children are kidnapped and sold
into this hell, or are brought in gradually through day-care situations.
Paul
Bonacci and other child victims have given evidence in great depth on the
central role of Lt. Co!. Michael Aquino in this depravity. Aquino, alleged to
have recently retired from an active military role, was long the leader of an
Army psycho- logical warfare section which drew on his "expertise" and
personal practices in brainwashing, Satanism, Nazism, homo- sexual pedophilia
and murder.
A former
director of the CIA was asked directly, "what about 'Monarch' "? He replied
angrily, and ambiguously, "We stopped that between the late 1960s and the
early 1970s." If a statement of fact, this would presumably relate to official
participation of the CIA.
SOME CODES AND
ASSIGNMENTS
The disclosures of Paul Bonacci,
which cohere with reports of MPD professionals in other cases, point to a
particular artificially induced mental structure as common to many victimized
children. Space permits only the briefest treatment of this here; this is
intended mainly to begin to "blow the circuits," so to speak, when followed up
by professional therapists and investigators.
These
are some of the widely occurring separate "persons" which have been formed
under torture, and the corresponding "triggers":
.
General personality-accessible under
the code name ALPHA, with possible Alpha-001, Alpha-009, etc. "persons" with
distinct task orientations.
.
Sex programs, accessible through
code name BETA; particular programs (and thus commands) are for pornography,
acting, oral sex, etc.
.
Assassination programs, utilizing
very specific modes, and espionage, accessible through code DELTA.
.
OMEGA, self-destruction programs,
ranging from self mutilation to suicide by many different specific possible
acts.
.
GAMMA, system deception, amnesia and
disinformation programs. Under this or 'other codes are track-covering false
origins for the structure, giving the child memories of tormenters dressed as
space aliens or Mickey Mouse or in Wizard of Oz costumes.
There
are said to be such other personality levels as Master Programmer, Black
Master, and different mental levels of backup programs. There are
reported to be personnel who have large numbers of child-victims' assignments
and triggers neatly filed in their little computers.
Paul
Bonacci reports the following "Monarch"-related activities, often involving
his "Commander" at Offutt AFB, Bill Plemmons, and Lt. Co!. Michael Aquino:
.
Picking up cash in exchange for
drugs at various Tennessee locations. Bonacci identifies several country music
personalities as contacts.
.
Trips on behalf of the North
American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), the pedophile group now given
semi- official status by the United Nations. Paul cites travel to the
Netherlands and Germany carrying child pornography for sub- sequent "import"
to the U.S.A. to avoid prosecution. In Amsterdam, he names "Charles Hester,"
and the British "Tommie Carter," who had on computer a global list of child
pornography users. NAMBLA is also cited for organizing auctions of children.
.
Travel to Hawaii, New York,
Washington (in connection with Craig Spence) to compromise public figures by
performing homosexual pedophile sex with them.
.
The trip to California where the boy
was ritually murdered, accompanied by "Monarch" contact, Mark Johnson of
Denver, Colorado,
.
Travel to .Mexico for the
transportation of drugs, guns, and children. Paul was accompanied by the
gangster-figure "Emilio," who otherwise directed the kidnapping of Johnny
Gosch of Des Moines, Iowa. Johnny Gosch's parents commend Paul Bonacci as an
accurate witness relative to that crime.
.
Training under "Captain Foster"
(survival skills) at Fort Riley, Kansas, under "Lt. Dave Bannister"
(intelligence) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, under "Col. Harris Livik" at
Fort Defiance, Virginia, who is said to run a military school and to have
housed "Monarch" boys. "Col. Bill Risher" of Bamberg, South Carolina, is said
to have supplied children for Michael Aquino.
.
Travel to Dresden in communist East
Germany, where weapons were inspected. There and in the Federal Republic of
Germany, the "Monarch" personnel were frequently neo-Nazis. This milieu is a
special project of Lt. Col. Aquino, who was a West European adviser to the
U.S. Chiefs of Staff. Paul Bonacci has extensive experience in the Aryan
Nation and other White Supremacist cults.
An
account of the origin of the "Monarch" project has been compiled by those who
have been debriefing MPD child-victims. Nazi experimentation in World War II
concentration camps were said to have gone beyond simply insane physical
tortures. They brainwashed people, for military and strategic purposes. After
the war, Allen Dulles and other Western intelligence people brought Nazi
doctors out for use in the United States. A teenaged concentration camp inmate
named Greenbaum, who had participated to save himself, also came to the United
States. Known later as "Dr. Green," he became a high- level brainwasher, and
is widely represented in brainwashing programs with a distinctive Cabalistic
magic theme.
The
precise details of these horrors lie deeply buried in national security
archives. But this history, as told to psychiatrists, dovetails with what is
definitively known about Anglo- American intelligence operations and the
German Nazis. And once again, the story goes right back to Nebraska.
The
killers in the Nazi camps were themselves trained and organized by
psychiatrists and eugenicists, operating from the "T4" bureau. These
psychiatrists had long been the pets of white supremacist British and American
financier networks.
At least
some of these Nazi doctors were spirited out of Germany under the supervision
of for Bank of England Governor Montagu Norman and Tavistock Institute
Director John R. Rees on behalf of the British government. Norman, personally
an insane Theosophist who had been chief of the prewar pro-Nazi faction within
England, and Rees organized postwar propaganda and continuing psychological
warfare activities, and created "Orwellian" groupings within U.S. psychiatry
and mental health fields.
EPILOGUE
I finally understood the true meaning of the Franklin case one night in early
1996. Watching television and skipping through the channels, I came upon the
movie Billy Budd. Instantly I zeroed in on this movie, and my heart,
rather than the channels, started skipping.
By the
time the movie ended, the Franklin cover-up made sense. Alisha Owen's
imprisonment for telling the truth made sense. The protection of the
perpetrators by our highest public officials, finally made sense. I
understood, also, why it was necessary to discredit me, John DeCamp, and to
kill Gary Caradori, with his eight-year-old son. Any nagging doubts I may have
had about any aspects of Paul Bonacci's charges were laid to rest. And it was
clear to me, at last, that public officials at all levels knew Paul was
telling the truth, as they set out to destroy him.
Where
did the blinding revelation come from? Let me go back a few months, to my last
attempt to get a new trial for Alisha Owen. At that hearing, Troy Boner, who
had originally told Gary Caradori the truth, and who had been forced to
recant, was preparing to testify - to tell the truth as you read it in his
affidavit in Chapter 21. Troy Boner was going to provide the information in
open court, under oath, that would blow the lid off the Franklin case and
force a new trial for Alisha Owen.
As Troy
came into the courthouse, he was immediately ushered into a private room by
county judicial authorities. He was advised that a "Special Attorney" had been
appointed to protect him. For approximately one hour, while the hearing was
delayed, Troy was cornered in a room with this "Special Attorney" and with
other officials from the prosecutor's office, the very same prosecutorial
team Troy was about to testify against.
When
Troy came out of the meeting, I knew he was broken, his morale smashed. His
head hung down. He could not, or would not look at anyone.
As I
approached Troy, his new court-appointed attorney tried to step between us.
With probably the last ounce of courage he could muster, Troy leaned over and
whispered to me, "Oh God, forgive me. They guaranteed if I talk here today,
they will put me away for twenty years. Guaranteed I would never see the light
of day again. Told me that I would be charged with perjury for my original
testimony, if I opened my mouth today in court. Don't ~all me up there. I
can't survive in prison. I know they can put me there. Look what they did to
Alisha. Look what they did to my brother. I've got no choice. They told me I
had to take the Fifth Amendment and refuse to testify. Otherwise, they
promised I would be taken directly from court to jail"
We all
proceeded into the court room, where I called Troy to the stand. I showed Troy
his affidavit. He hung his head, and when I asked my first question, "Would
you please state your name?" Troy responded, "I take the Fifth Amendment," an
answer he repeated, in a barely audible voice, to all my other questions.
It was hopeless. I ceased my questioning, and shortly thereafter the hearing
ended.
I walked
back to the judge's chambers to clear up any final details. Judge Enbody had
been specially appointed by the Nebraska State Supreme Court to this hearing,
which I had won from the Supreme Court based on Troy's new information. (The
next day I learned that he had been appointed to the Court of Appeals-a very
substantial advancement in his career.)
Sitting
in Judge Enbody's chambers, with my head hung so low it was hitting my
shoestrings, I was given the key to unlock the meaning of Franklin. "I do not
understand it, Your Honor," I kept repeating. "As God is my witness, I do not
think that there is a judge or other person involved in this case who does not
know that horrible injustice has been done. Everybody knows that Alisha
Owen is telling the truth and that she is being punished for it. And, Your
Honor, a person has to be deaf, dumb, blind, and totally dishonest, not to
know that some of this state's and nation's top businessmen and public
officials have engaged in the worst crimes possible, which are now being
covered up. And these kids, instead of being honored and protected for
exposing these things, are being sent to prison. Why? Why? Why?"
Judge
Enbody looked at me. Slowly, his voice shaking, he began to talk.
"I am
just a man. I am not a god. I wish I were. I have no choice in what I have
done. I am just a man, just a man, not a god. I am doing what I must do with
the evidence before me," Judge Enbody concluded. He appeared even more shaken
and upset than I was.
I shook
my head. "I don't understand. I just don't understand," I kept repeating.
"Everybody knows what is happening, but nobody is willing to do anything about
it. Why? Why?!!" Judge Enbody looked at me and said, very slowly, "If you want
to understand the entire Franklin case, I can help you. Go read 'Billy Budd.'
Read 'Billy Budd.' If you will do that, John, and if you understand the book,
then you will understand the what and why of Franklin, and why it can be no
other way. I do not say you will like it. I do not say you will agree with it.
But at least you will understand it. That, I promise you. Go read 'Billy
Budd'."
Those
were the last words I spoke with the Judge on the case. I left his chambers,
burnt out, but angry. And I forgot all about Billy Budd, until the night I
happened upon the movie. The story of Billy Budd is set in the British Navy
near the end of the eighteenth century. Billy was a young sailor, who,
although impressed into the British Navy, bore no ill will to the authorities
for having dragooned him; indeed, he was the very picture of innocence and
good-will, and was almost universally loved aboard his war-ship. One officer,
however, developed an insane jealousy of Billy, and set out to frame him up
for allegedly inciting mutiny. Since there had been several notorious mutinies
in the British fleet at the time, the mere whisper of "mutiny" was enough to
spread panic among the ship's officers.
To make
a long story short, because of certain incriminating appearances in the
case, the captain and his senior officers, although they knew Billy was
innocent of all charges, nonetheless sentenced him to hang, a necessity - as
they viewed it - to "save the system," not just on their own ship, but in the
British fleet as a whole.
Now I
think I do understand the Franklin case. I know, now, that all the public
officials involved in Franklin-whether they ever heard of Billy Budd or
not-fully understood what they were doing.
And what
they all have done, and will continue to do in this case, Franklin, and no
doubt many others like it, is this: Protect the "system" at all costs. The
"system" is the only ultimate sacred cow-not any particular law or
constitution, but only "the system." Because, ultimately, it is the system
which makes certain that the individuals functioning within it - from judges
to lawyers, to prosecutors, to politicians, to businessmen - have their places
and positions, and opportunities and pecking order, and future.
And,
though it is unfortunate, that on occasion the protection of the "system"
requires the deliberate sacrifice of perfectly innocent people, that is hoped
overall to be the exception rather than the rule. But without the "system"
. .
So,
Judge Enbody, now I understand. And, as you said, I may not agree, but I do
understand.
But then
I have one final, nagging question. How do I know when, or if, the "system"
itself has become so corrupted, that evil is the rule, rather than the
exception? And when that occurs, what do I do about it?
But I think I know the answer to that one - my oId commanding officer in
Vietnam told me what I had to do. I made some promises to Bill, and I intend
to keep them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Senator John DeCamp has the honor of being the Nebraska state senator most
praised and most attacked by the Omaha World Herald. He was hailed by
that paper as the most powerful and effective senator, between 1976 and 1986.
During the past two years, the World Herald has attacked him, sometimes
daily, for daring to fight against the drug runners and pedophiles they
protect.
Today,
Senator DeCamp is the lawyer for two victim-witnesses in the Franklin case,
Paul Bonacci and Alisha Owen.
DeCamp
is known for his tendency to "overturn the apple cart," and powerful people
shake in their boots when DeCamp files an aggressive civil rights suit. There
is a method behind this approach, in a state where cowardly cover-up and
pitiful inaction have become all too common.
DeCamp
served as an officer in Vietnam, and has often said that because of what he
has seen, he is determined that the United States must never become a "closed
society," where freedom would disappear as the citizens lost the opportunity
to know or affect what was happening around them.
DeCamp
was born in Nebraska, but his unusual experiences early in life helped make
him a man of uncommon independence and determination. On his own from the age
of thirteen, he traveled, lived, and worked in Europe and Iran.
John
DeCamp was a captain in the infantry in the Vietnam War and also served with
the CORDS program there. He was decorated, and honored at the White House, as
one of the outstanding veterans of the Vietnam War. He is proud that
he was also the initiator and
organizer of the internationally famous Operation Baby Lift, which evacuated
2,800 Vietnamese children who were orphaned in the war in 1975. All the
children were subsequently reunited with people from their families, or
adopted. On one flight alone, nearly 800 children were evacuated, probably the
most people ever flown on one plane. DeCamp and his wife were foster parents
for some of these children, until they could be placed for adoption. They have
four children of their own.
While
still in Vietnam, DeCamp became the first person ever to win election to the
Nebraska Legislature, while serving in combat abroad. Although known as a key
figure in Nebraska politics, he was not known to agree to any political deal
that would compromise his principles. Senator DeCamp was regarded as powerful,
but not politically "owned." He once bucked political powerbroker Eugene
Mahoney, by running against Mahoney's choice for U.S. Senator.
As a
Vietnam veteran with thirty percent disability, DeCamp has been the attorney
and state lobbyist for both the Disabled American Veterans and the Veterans of
Foreign Wars, and a national committeeman of the VFW and member of the
American Legion.
John
DeCamp has emphasized that in his mind, his experience in saving the
defenseless children who were victims of war, and his commitment to save
children victimized by the pedophile ring, are equivalent. At the beginning of
1991, DeCamp filed a twelve-count suit in federal court, charging sixteen
prominent individuals and institutions, including Larry King, Harold Andersen
and the Omaha Police Department, with conspiracy to deprive Paul Bonacci of
his civil rights. DeCamp's suit detailed slander, false imprisonment, child
abuse, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress suffered by
Bonacci.
DeCamp
has been the target of energetic and systematic efforts to bankrupt him, by
behind-the-scenes pressures to deprive him of law and lobbying clients, as a
result of his Franklin-related work.
Since
taking Bonacci's case in 1990, DeCamp has also been on the receiving end of
personal threats. He told a journalist that during the previous year, "enough
events, and mysterious deaths, and personal communications to me from
extremely credible and responsible people, have made me believe that there
is a very grave potential for getting killed. . . . " Bonacci's life, he
added, "I think. . . is on a lot, lot, lot thinner string than even mine."
On June
21, 1991, the day Alisha Owen was convicted, DeCamp received another message,
suggesting that he leave Nebraska for his and his family's safety. DeCamp
treats these signs of danger seriously, but says he can't turn back. John
DeCamp's actions speak loudly and clearly about his intentions. He is staying,
and he is fighting.
THE CIA TRAFFICS IN DRUGS,
CHILD RITUAL SEXUAL ABUSE, AND GLOBAL MURDER.
"They count on the fact that the
more bizarre and perverted they act the safer they are because the average joe
cannot even fathom the depths of evil that this agency perpetrates. "