Introducing The Pedophocracy, by David McGowan.
The Pedophocracy illustrates the points that I make in this piece of longform journalism, and you could consider these articles an update of The Pedophocracy, which is in any case available in its entirety on the web.
The Pedophocracy opens with a review of the Dutroux affair, which I will cover in greater detail in a forthcoming installment. Then it transitions to a survey of pedophile cases that shook several countries, beginning with Latvia.
Mr. McGowan writes, “As 1999 drew to a close, the nation of Latvia was rocked by a child prostitution / child pornography scandal that reached to the very top of the political power structure.”
“The case first broke in August (1999), when police uncovered a massive operation involving as many as 2,000 severely abused children. When media reports began linking top Latvian officials to the case, a special parliamentary commission was formed to investigate.”
The Pedophocracy continues:
“In February 2000, the chairman of the commission delivered a report to Parliament linking the country’s Prime Minister, Justice Minister, director of the State Revenue Service, and a number of army and law enforcement officers to the case.”
In other words, complicity at the apex of political power in the country. As we will shortly see, this is not singular. It happens repeatedly, and it is often squelched by politically powerful elements.
Then The Pedophocracy explains:
“The BBC reported in June of 1999 that two unnamed German men had “gone on trial, accused of running a child pornography ring in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.”
The pair, along with at least eleven identified by unindicted accomplices, “made video recordings of the gang sexually abusing children between the ages of three and 14 since 1993.”
“A large but unspecified quantity of “videos, photography, magazines and CD-ROMs containing child pornography were confiscated.”
A potential, but apparently unmistakable connection to the Belgian Dutroux case was noted: “There have been cases of Slovak children being taken to Vienna to make pornographic films. The Belgian pedophile Marc Dutroux …. was a regular visitor to one Slovak town.”
Then The Pedophocracy shifts gears.
“The BBC also filed a brief report on a 1996 case that went almost completely unreported in the English language press:
“Mexican police broke up an international child pornography ring based in the resort of Acapulco which they said had at least four thousand clients in the United States….A UN envoy investigating the case said that the “child pornography sometimes involved babies of less than one month old.”
The Pedophocracy continues, “In September….of 2000, The Irish Times reported that: “Eight people were arrested in Italy and three in Russia, and police said 1,700 people were being investigated in Italy….The images traded by this ring were “divided into several categories … The most gruesome, police said, was coded “Necros Pedo,” in which children were raped and tortured to death.”
The Pedophocracy then explains a possible genesis of “snuff films,” before recording: “An account of the Italian case by The Guardian affirmed the existence of snuff films:”
“…police have discovered a massive international pedophile network selling violent child-pornography videos to clients in Italy, the US and Germany … (authorities are) trying to identify 5,000 people who are suspected of attempting to purchase the videos, some of which appear to contain images of children being tortured and murdered.”
The Independent, whose reporting will be frequently cited below, published a follow up in November, 2000, which “confirmed that the seized materials did in fact include child snuff films: “Horrified investigators gathered images of more than 2,000 children who were filmed while being abused, raped, and … killed.”
“By that time, close to 1,500 people had been charged in the case, but not—as The Guardian noted—“those in high places who are believed to form a “pedophile lobby.”
This “pedophile lobby” was supported by leading politicians and “institutional figures.”
The Independent explains:
A “special police squad near Naples set up a fake paedophile website which attracted more than 1,000 subscribers, despite clear warnings about the content.” Some 1,500 subscribers, including 831 Italians, were charged with selling or downloading internet child pornography.
“There is a paedophile lobby that acts in broad daylight and probably with the support, which I could consider unwitting, of certain political parties,” said Mr. Alfredo Ormanni, an Italian magistrate who led the enquiry.
The Pedophocracy explains that clear indications of involvement at the apex of the political establishment in Italy provoked the Italian people to suspect a coverup.
In this case, yet again the magistrate heading the inquiry denounced a “pedophile lobby” that was supported by politicians, and openly obstructed investigators and strove to minimize sanctions for consumers of child porn.
Then The New York Times reported in 1997 that there is “growing public indignation in France and elsewhere about the recurrent reports of kidnapping, rape or incest involving the very young.”
Continuing, The Times stated that “police across France have detained more than 250 people and confiscated some 5,000 videocassettes,” in conjunction with an investigation into a massive child porn ring.
Most of those arrested were described as “mainly married professionals,” and alarmingly, “a dozen of them would soon turn up dead, allegedly suicide victims.”
Drilling in, in June 1997 The News Telegraph reported that more than 800 French homes were raided and 204 suspects were taken into custody.
Among the detained: “More than 30 teachers … and a number of priests.” And the deputy mayor of the town of Saint Mihiel. Within mere days, four were dead from alleged “suicide,” including a school headmaster.
As their trial wound down, the BBC noted that a verdict was pending for more than 60 people accused of possession of child porn. “One of the judges hearing the case said examining the video evidence made him feel physically sick.”
And again, there were allegations that producers, distributors, and most of all, “senior public figures,” were given a pass, in some examples cases “were dropped before coming to court.”
Then in 1998, The Pedophocracy tells us, “another large-scale international ring was discovered operating out of the Netherlands and Berlin.” The New York Times reported that “nauseating … images of abuse of even babies and infants were peddled via the internet and other media.”
Police discovered, it was said, “voluminous records of what appear to be clients and suppliers from countries including Israel, Ukraine, Britain, Russia and the United States.”
The Pedophocracy explains, “The ring was first uncovered when a key member was found dead in Italy. According to The Irish Times, he was murdered by another member of the ring.”
Then the whopper is unveiled.
“His apartment in the Dutch town of Zandvoort was found to contain “thousands of digital images stored on computer disks,” as well as “hundreds of addresses of suspected suppliers and clients,” this according to The New York Times.
“The images shocked even veteran sex-crimes investigators, one of whom stated that the seized evidence “left [him] speechless …. It looks like the perpetrators are not dealing with human beings but with objects.”
Then we get to another infamous case. In 1998 the BBC described an even larger “and more sinister pedophile network called Wonderland.”
Explaining that the network was named Wonderland in homage to Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Pedophocracy explains that Carroll was known for his predilection for prepubescent boys and girls, and is now considered a sort of “patron saint for pedophiles around the globe.”
The Pedophocracy explains that Carroll wrote “thousands of letters” to underage girls, and took innumerable photos of them, including “nude studies,” though he “generally lost interest in his child “friends” when they reached the age of 12.”
Continuing, The Pedophocracy tells us that Wonderland is also the name of the quarterly publication of the Lewis Carroll Collector’s Guild, which is a “voluntary association of persons who believe nudist materials are a constitutionally protected expression and whose collective interests include pre-teen nudes.”
Returning to the Wonderland child sex network, The San Jose Mercury News is cited: “Police in … 22 states and 13 foreign countries conducted coordinated raids … aimed at breaking up an internet child-pornography ring…”
“The ring involves as many as 200 people around the world, who exchanged over the internet thousands of sexually explicit images of children as young as 18 months.”
The Independent later reported that the ring “shared pictures of children being abused—in some cases live via web-cam broadcasts over the internet.” Some 107 suspects were ultimately arrested, while The San Jose Mercury News warned that “The ring actually extends into 47 countries.”
Described as “stomach churning,” The Times reported that “Wonderland Club members are believed to have posed their own children for pictures … In other cases … parents may have taken money to let their children be used.”
The Guardian clarified that more than 1,250 children were depicted in both videos and photos, “many of whom suffered appalling injuries and were seen sobbing uncontrollably as they were being sexually violated.” Most of the victims were younger than age 10, according to The Independent.
Interestingly, the Wonderland case “originated in the United States,” though it was ignored by the American establishment media. The San Jose Mercury News reported that 4 of 34 American suspects committed suicide, including among them “a retired Air Force pilot, a microbiologist at the University of Connecticut, and a computer consultant in Colorado.”
Called Operation CATHEDRAL in the UK, the Wonderland raids yielded 8 indictments, one of whom again allegedly committed suicide.
“The other seven were given ridiculously light sentences in February of 2001 for their complicity in inflicting unfathomable abuse on countless children. Sentences ranged from 12 to 30 months.”
The Independent explained in February 2001 that “Detectives working on the [Wonderland] case discovered that many of the pedophiles were also members of other child pornography groups.”
The Orchid Club, exposed in 1996, in San Jose, CA, was another ring linked to the Wonderland case.
Like the Wonderland ring, the Orchid Club also featured “real-time exploitation of children” across the internet. Club members sent in requests, which were then acted-out on live feeds.
The Independent again reported in March 2001 that yet another ring called “Blue Orchid” was unmasked, based in Moscow, using the internet to sell videotapes of “children engaged in sexual acts.” The tapes retailed for $200-$300.
Video duplication equipment and sales and shipping records led to “criminal inquiries in 24 nations,” according to the Associated Press: “… Many of the tapes were bought by people in the United States; others went to Germany, Britain, France, Denmark, China, Kuwait, Mexico and scores of other countries.”
Yet again, 2 of 4 suspects arrested in Russia committed suicide.
The Pedophocracy then tells us that The Guardian reported on Mr. Eric Franklin Rosser, an accused pedophile, one of the FBI's Top 10 Wanted criminals, and a former keyboardist for the band of singer John Cougar Mellencamp.
“Investigators believe Rosser’s material is among pornography circulated by a British pedophile ring…More than 1,800 members are thought to belong to a club called Teenboys. Its website features boys aged around 12 …Teenboys is considered bigger than the notorious Wonderland Club.”
I will return to the trail that The Pedophocracy blazed in future installments.
This is the sixth installment in a long series. Stay tuned for more, and stay buckled up.
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Links in order of precedence.