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In
May 2002 FOX News with Radley Balko hit
Straight and its founders prominent Republicans
Mel and Betty Sembler really hard. That
story is here.
But
instead of fixing the problem, did the Republicans
resort to damage control to setup the messenger?
That story is here. |
|
I
have visited Straight, Inc. and have seen firsthand the
impressive results that come from a blend of compassion
and professionalism. It is a program that works where
it counts; young drug abusers are getting straight
again. |
Republican
Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Jr., Maryland
(from a Straight brochure]
|
|
Growing
Together, Inc. [an
active Straight descendent program] is committed to helping
young people overcome drug and alcohol addiction problems
so that they may lead productive and substance free lives. |
Republican
Senator Connie Mack, Florida (from a Growing
Together brochure). Senator Mack introduced
Straight co-founders Mel Sembler and Joseph Zappala
to the US Senate for their ambassadorial hearings
for ambassadorships.
|
|
.
. . a highly effective treatment program . . . an excellent
example of people, not government, helping other people.
Republican Congressman
Frank R. Wolf, Virginia from a Straight pamphlet
|
|
To
learn more about the Straight story click on Wes Fager's
web site at
|
Growing
Together's [an
active Straight descendent program] various programs
for educational information about abuse, residential treatment
for its clients, family support system and community outreach
to targeted potential abusers have been very effective in
helping to combat and deal with drug abuse. |
Republican
Congressman Mark Foley, Florida. From a Growing
Together brochure.
|
|
I
like it [Straight]
because if you start going wrong they "four-point" you to
the ground until you're ready to do it the right way. |
Republican
gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams who pledged
if elected to to build $100 million worth
of Straights all over Texas.
|
|
I've
seen many organizations in the rehabilitation and prevention
field. STRAIGHT is one of the best. . . You
couldn't go straighter than to go with STRAIGHT if you want
your dear ones off drugs. STRAIGHT is straight with
me. |
Art
Linkletter, TV personality, whose book Kids
Say the Darndest Things was one of the
top 14 bestsellers in American publishing history,
from a Straight brochure. Mr. Linkletter was
on Ronald Reagan's Drug Abuse Commission and in
2000, as spokesperson for United Seniors Association,
Mr. Linkletter addressed the Republican Convention
Platform Committee. |
|
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|
Vice
President, George Bush, sheds a tear at a Straight Open
Meeting in Saint Petersburg, Florida in March 1988. On his
left is Florida Republican Congressman Michael Bilirakis.
Dr. Donald Ian Macdonald was in charge of medical research
at Straight before becoming the White House Drug Czar. His
daughter worked for Congressman Bilirakis [Photo by Saint
Petersburg Times] |
.
.Paul
Bonacci was just one of the child victims who came
forward as an adult to tell what they had done to him,
and they put him in prison for his efforts until a federal
judge awarded him $1 million dollars for unspeakable acts
committed on him. Frankly, there were a couple of passages
that I just couldn't read. The Franklin Coverup is about
child abuse, Satanism, drugs, Nebraskan blue bloods, CIA
mind control, and the Republican Party. This alarming,
thoroughly footnoted book is written by attorney and former
Nebraska state senator John DeCamp. A must read. Click
on the book to order it.
|
.
"Mr.
Chairman, members of the Committee, I believe that I have
the qualifications necessary, if confirmed, to lead our diplomatic
mission in Italy, to modernize it, and to strengthen it as
an instrument to promote American interests in Italy.
During my career in business, public service, politics,
and diplomacy, I have worked hard and accomplished much. .
. For the last quarter century, along with my wife, I have
fought vigorously against the plague of drug abuse. In 1976
Betty and I helped found STRAIGHT, a non-profit, adolescent
drug treatment and rehabilitation program with branches across
the U.S., which successfully treated and graduated more than
12,000 young people nationwide. For 17 years, I served as
chairman of the board of STRAIGHT. Other than our children,
nothing was more rewarding than this effort. Betty and I initially
agreed that if we helped one child it would be worth all the
effort. With 12,000 successful graduates . . . It was a gratifying
accomplishment. |
Ambassador2
Melvin Floyd Sembler, AO addressing the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Oct 31, 2001, on the occasion
of his hearing as George W. Bush�s nominee to be ambassador
to Italy
|
|
|
In
1987 Ohio prosecutors ran Straight of Cincinnati out of town
for criminal child abuse. Today a second-generation Straight
called Kids Helping Kids of Cincinnati operates out of the
old Straight facility.[23]
The Honorary Board of Directors for KHK includes five politicians,
four are Republicans:
Congressman
John Boehner Republican, OH
Senator Jim Bunning Republican KY
Congressman Steve J. Chabot Republican OH
Congressman Ken Lucas Democrat KY
Congressman Rob Portman Republican, OH
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GOP
fliers endorse two judges
Critics
say the endorsements blur the line between party
politics and non-partisan judicial campaigns.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
|
�
St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 1998
lorida
judicial campaigns always have been non-partisan
affairs . . .
In two
fliers, the Republican Party of Pinellas County
urges residents to vote the party ticket, . .
. Included in the list are Irene Sullivan,
a candidate for circuit court judge, and George
Brown . . .
|
|
|
George
W. Bush,
The Drug
Free America Foundation, Inc.,
(formerly
Straight Foundation, Inc.)
and the
Republican Party (c)
2000
by
Wesley M. Fager of the Oakton Institute for Cultic Studies
and
Ginger Warbis
[Permission
is hereby granted to publish and distribute this work in its entirety]
Now you might find it difficult to accept that a US president could
become involved with a cult. First, you'd think a former head of
CIA would have to be far too intelligent to be taken in this way.
Secondly, the implications of the leader of the free world carrying
out the responsibilities of that office under the influence of a
destructive mind control cult are just too frightening to consider.
But here are some documented facts on the matter. See if you can
come to any other conclusion.
Nancy Reagan took Princess
Di to Straight-Springfield to show her how we handle our druggie kids
in this country while Ronald Reagan wrote an endorsement for Straight
pamphlets. Robert DuPont, Richard Nixon's Drug Czar, had overseen
funding for an experimental juvenile program to try to turn American
kids into the straight laced citizens that he thought they should
be. That program was called The Seed and its methods were likened
by the US Senate to Communist brainwashing techniques.
Straight, Inc. grew out of The Seed and Robert
DuPont became Straight's consultant. Republican businessmen Joseph
Zappala and Melvin Sembler who were Straight's co-founders gave
George Bush, Sr. so much money that he made them US ambassadors
and even made a TV commercial for Straight. Today Melvin Sembler
is the finance chairman for George W. Bush's national GOP and his
wife Betty was Jeb Bush's co-finance chairman. Barbara Bush is hawking
a film for the Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF), the new name
for Straight Foundation, Inc., while the DFAF says that George W.
Bush is considering its recommendations for his own drug policy
platform.
Hmm... Robert DuPont, the Seed and a US government-backed
mind-control experiment. George Bush, Sr., the CIA, and mind control
experiments. Is there a Straight-CIA connection? This brief essay
tells the story of the Republican Party connection to the destructive-mind
cult known as Straight, Inc.
They
[the Straights] run very close to really performing psychic
murder. |
Marge
Robertson, executive director of the Cincinnati
Chapter of the ACLU, from Cincinnati Post.
|
|
According
to sworn testimony, Straight often left restrained group members
sitting in their own urine, feces or vomit until suitable
concessions were extracted. |
Dr. Barry
Beyerstein, a leading Canadian researcher on opiates and brain
functioning who operates a laboratory at Simon Fraser University
in British Columbia, Canada
|
As one
parent to another, I know there's no hurt a parent can
be given that can equal that that your child can give you...But
I'm proud of you because you have supported your children
and given them the love they need. |
Nancy
Reagan, a frequent visitor to Straights all over the
country, from a Straight brochure
|
|
To be
blunt, I have spent 15 years working in the drug-abuse field,
traveling to more than 20 countries and visiting hundreds of
prevention programs. Straight, Inc. is the best drug-abuse
treatment program I have seen. Lest there be any doubt
that this is an accolade I have bestowed easily or casually,
I can tell you that I have not said that about any other program. |
Former
White House Drug Czar, founding director of the National
Institute on Drug Abuse and paid Straight consultant
Robert L. DuPont, Jr., M.D. from a Straight
brochure. As director of NIDA Dr. DuPont had
administered a whopping $1.4 million dollar grant
to Straight's predecessor The Seed whose methods
had been likened by the US Senate to those of North
Korean brainwashing.
|
|
As
governor of Texas George W. Bush has collaborated with
Straight Foundation, Inc. (now calling itself Drug Free America
Foundation, Inc.) on one drug awareness initiative. Now
listen to his dad, former President George H. W. Bush,
making a TV commercial for Straight from the Oval Office.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STRAIGHTS: You can learn more
about Straight's dreadful treatment methods and violations of
human rights here.
|
In
1972 the US government funded an experimental juvenile drug rehabilitation
program in Fort Lauderdale, Florida known as The
Seed. Three years later the US Senate under the leadership
of Senator Sam Ervin published a
study which likened The Seed's methods to the brainwashing
tactics employed by Communist North Koreans on American servicemen
during the Korean War. The Senate also compelled the National Institute
on Drug Abuse (NIDA) which administered the million dollar government
grant to the Seed to follow its own regulations and require The
Seed to issue consent forms to its clients informing them that they
were participating in a medical experiment. At that time NIDA, under
the directorship of the Republican White House Drug Czar Robert
DuPont, was considering an additional grant of $995,000 for Seed
expansion programs in Florida.
The Senate also forbade
the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Agency (LEAA) from granting
any additional funds for research programs like The Seed (LEAA had
also made a grant to The Seed.) During the course of the Senate
investigation Florida Congressman C. W. "Bill" Young,
Republican St. Petersburg, meet with Robert DuPont in an effort
to make sure the funds that had been requested for the Seed expansion
program in Pinellas County Florida would not be cut.(1)
Funding for Seed expansions was, in fact, stopped in 1975 but the
next year Republicans Melvin and Betty Sembler and some other Pinellas
County Seed parents opened up the second-generation Seed known as
Straight, Inc. with $100,000 in grants from LEAA----a Congressional
order to LEAA to cease such funding notwithstanding.
Besides Melvin and Betty Sembler other local Republican's
prominent on Straight's founding board were the acting Police Chief
for Saint Petersburg, Florida Ray Waymire who ran unsuccessfully
for Sheriff of Pinellas County as a Republican the year Straight
was founded and Straight's founding Secretary/Treasurer Raymond
Bourgholtzer who had been president of the St. Petersburg Republican
Club in 1971 and had run for the office of Pinellas
Supervisor of Elections in 1972. 04-07-02
In 1992 Straight president Wesley Pennington ran unsuccessfully
for the Florida state assembly as a Republican while Donald C. Sullivan,
MD, secretary of Straight Foundation, Inc., ran successfully
as a Republican for the state Senate. James T. Russell, states attorney
for Pinellas County, Florida, helped introduce Straight's
predecessor The Seed to Pinellas County. He never prosecuted
Straight while it operated in Pinellas County. He ran for
states attorney as a Republican in 1988.
In early 1982 a former Straight
client had complained of child abuse at Straight-Atlanta and referred
to it as a "hell hole" according to the Atlanta Journal
and Constitution. The youth named five clients who were still being
held against their will at Straight and on February 1, 1982 Kathleen
Wilde of the ACLU filed suit against Straight Atlanta in Cobb County
Superior Court for holding the five youths against their will and
for operating without a license. Writs of habeas corpus were written
for the five. The suit charged that the five teenagers were suffering
"inhumane treatment" that creates an "immediate danger
to physical and mental health." Nancy Reagan was scheduled
to visit Straight-Saint Petersburg on February 15 and so on February
4 a reporter from the Saint Petersburg Times called Sheila Tate,
Mrs. Reagan's spokesperson, to ask if the first lady was still planning
to visit Straight in light of the ACLU suit in Georgia. Mrs. Tate
responded that Mrs. Reagan has no plans to cancel her visit and
declined comment on "something that is in litigation."
Nancy Reagan went on to visit Straight's special treatment camp
in Saint Petersburg Florida carrying Drug Czar Carlton Turner with
her. [Someone is posting on the Internet now that they were there
when Nancy Reagan made her visit and that one Straight dissenter
was bound and gagged in a timeout room during the First lady's visit.]
After that visit Czar Turner told reporters that "we had more
than 17,000 requests for information after Mrs. Reagan appeared
on television discussing drug programs." Ms. Reagan later
visited the Straight treatment camp in Cincinnati, Ohio. In his
book HOW TO KEEP THE CHILDREN YOU LOVE OFF DRUGS Ken Barun, the
coordinator of Nancy's Just Say No program
writes that he himself visited almost all of the Straight treatment
facilities and he discusses the Straight method at some length as
a model program. Melvin Sembler even founded the Kids
Say No anti-drug abuse program for the International
Council of Shopping Centers.(2)
"We must make
every effort to end drug and alcohol use among our young people
and Straight has an excellent record of success in meeting this
goal... That's what organizations like yours are about--our
children, our families, and our future." -- President Ronald
Reagan [from a Straight pamphlet] |
A judgment of $721,000 was
made against Straight in 1990 for abuses sustained by Karen Norton
at the hands of Straight's national clinical director Father Doctor
V. Miller Newton, III. Through the years many of Father Newton's counselors
have been convicted for assaulting clients in a Newton operated treatment
program. In 1996 Father Newton agreed to give the federal government
$50,000 in return for not being prosecuted for insurance fraud. In
2000 Father Newton and his doctors settled with Rebecca Erlich in
New Jersey for $4.5 million for abuses she had sustained in his own
second-generation Straight known as Kids of North Jersey. Meanwhile
Straight's consultant Dr. Robert DuPont went around the country being
paid by Straight as an expert witness in its many civil trials for
claims of child abuse. Here is Nancy Reagan hawking
books for Straight's paid consultant Dr. Robert DuPont and for Father
Newton. Father Newton left Straight in Florida in 1983 after
a barrage of criminal investigations and civil suits had been levied
against Straight to set up his own second-generation Straight
known as Kids of Bergen County in New Jersey. For years he operated
under Democratic Governor James Florio but then in the late 1980s
allegations of abuse started surfacing at KIDS. In 1989 West
57th Street, a CBS news magazine, did an expose of KIDS and
later Bergen County prosecutors went in there and escorted clients
out. Finally a New Jersey administrative judge was tasked to
do a study on KIDS.
She recommended against licensing KIDS without a Certificate of Approval
as a Drug Abuse Center and until it could be demonstrated that KIDS
was willing to comply with state health regulations. So Father
Newton just renamed his program to Kids of North Jersey, hopped the
Hackensack River into Hudson County, and continued to operate
for another 10 years under Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman.
When I called New Jersey state health authorities circa 1997 I was
told that KIDS had been given a special certificate to operate by
the New Jersey Commissioner of Health and Human Services.
The row between the ACLU
and the Straight had not begun at Straight Atlanta either. Earlier
the ACLU had been involved in the alleged false imprisonments of
Roger Young and Jeff Bourgholtzer at the Pinellas Seed. Raymond
Bourgholtzer, Jeff's dad, who had been president of the St. Petersburg
Republican Club went on to become the founding Secretary/Treasurer
for Straight, Inc. (The ACLU did not get involved in the alleged
abduction of a 16 year-old girl from St. Petersburg Catholic High
School into The Seed.) Straight was on probation on February 2,
1978 when a young girl named Gail Stepheson escaped from her host
home clad in jeans, a robe and slippers and asked neighbors Fisher
and Thelma Thomas to use the phone to call for help. It was then
that a pack of Straight old-comers forced their way into the Thomas'
home and dragged Gail Stepheson away screaming for help.(3)
The incident sparked off a US Congressional inquiry by Maryland
Republican Representative Robert E. Bauman to Florida Republican
Congressman C. W. "Bill" Young who had fought previously
to get funding for The Seed.(4) [Gail
Stepheson's grandparents lived in Maryland.] But all was ultimately
smoothed over when: (a) Senator Charles Mathias, Jr., Republican
from Maryland, was the guest speaker at Straight's annual banquet
in 1980, and (b) and when Florida state Republican Senator Robert
Melby, who works in Saint Petersburg down the street from Mel Sembler
on Central Ave., introduced the Melby Bill to Florida's legislature
to give parents the right to force a kid into a drug rehab program
with the force of a court order. In the future when a Florida kid
was be forcefully returned to a drug rehab it wouldn't really be
kidnaping if the parents consented. [Straight founding board members
Fred Kenfield and Raymond Bourgholtzer have been campaign contributors
to Melby.] Today the Melby Bill is the precedence for Florida's
infamous Marchman Act which has been used to get kids into still
operating Straight-like programs.
Virginia
Republican Congressman Frank Wolf introduced Straight to Congress
and worked with 70 families to get Straight opened in Virginia.
When Wolf learned in mid 1982 of Straight's history of criminal
investigations his spokesperson, Stephanie Bolick, stated "we
feel the problems have been cleared up and the program deserves
a chance to work in the Washington area." Bill Burns, who was
on Ronald Reagan's White House staff, had two sons in the Straight
that Congressman Wolf helped bring to northern Virginia. Mr. Burns
hosted a radio talk show in the 1980s called STRAIGHT TALK which
was funded by the White House and by NIDA.(5)
In 1983 a federal jury found Straight criminally guilty of holding
a college student named Fred Collin's against his will for 5 months
and awarded him $220,000. Today, despite Straight's efforts to rehabilitate
this honor roll college student, Fred Collin's is now Dr. Fred Collins,
Phd. in mathematics from Virginia Tech. The false imprisonment of
Fred Collins didn't dissuade Nancy Reagan form Straight. Subsequently
she took Princess Di to Straight's camp in northern Virginia to
show the princess how we deal with our teenage drug problem in America.
In 1985 when the White House sponsored PRIDE's International Conference
on Drugs attended by 17 first ladies from around the world there
was only one young person there--16 year old Robin Page, a girl
who had been saved by Straight. And Ronald Reagan's aid
Bill Burns? Immediately after the announced judgement against Straight
he presented Straight with a check of endorsement for $25,000 in
the name of some concerned group from Washington, DC.
Reagan's Drug Czar Carlton
Turner who accompanied Nancy Reagan on her first visit to Straight
endorses the front page of Father Newton's book Not My Kid
with these words: "Not My Kid should be required reading
for any parent concerned about their children's future." Turner
spoke at a Straight fund raising dinner in May 1982.(6)
When Clearwater, Florida pediatrician Donald Ian McDonald placed
his boy Andy in Straight in 1979 he became a natural target for
Straight. He was recruited as Straight's National Research Director.
When McDonald later spoke at a PRIDE conference he gave credit to
Father Newton. In 1982 McDonald served with Robert DuPont on NIDA's
Workgroup on Marijuana Abuse in Adolescence. After Carlton
Turner Ronald Reagan selected Straight's Donald Ian McDonald for
Drug Czar. Later Donald Ian McDonald admitted that most of what
he learned about drug addiction he learned from Straight's Dr. George
Ross with whom he had breakfast at George Bush's White House on
March 2, 1988.
"They kept screaming
in my face every day. One day I couldn't take it any more and
I tried to get up out of my chair and they four-pointed
me on the floor. They took my knees and elbows and twisted them
and pulled my hair." -- Dena Lathan, Athens Texas, recalling
her stay at Straight Dallas camp. |
In Florida former Senator Republican
Paula Hawkins, chairwoman of the Senate's Subcommittee on Alcoholism
and Drug Abuse once accused The Washington Post of being a traitor
in The War on Drugs for, among other reasons, giving Straight Inc.
bad press.(7) In Texas Local Republicans
Kent Crusendorf, Chris Harris, Bob Melton and Clayton Williams all
had kids in Straight-Dallas. Clayton Williams ran for governor of
Texas and promised, if elected, to build $100 million worth of Straight-like
programs all over the state. "I like it [Straight]," he
once said, "because if you start going wrong they four-point
you to the ground until you're ready to do it the right way."
Twin
zealots for George W. Bush.
When Ronald Reagan
campaigned in Florida, Nancy had been accompanied around by the
wife of Straight's Donald McDonald, when George Bush campaigned
in Florida he slept at the home of Straight co-founder Mel Sembler.
After his 1987 election George Bush placed millionaire and Straight
board member Alec Courtelis (who had been the national finance co-chairman
for the Bush campaign) in charge of a nationwide search for talent
for the new administration.(8) On
December 6, 1988 Florida's Republican governor Bob Martinez called
on George Bush and later had lunch with Straight's co-founders Sembler
and Zappala.(9) Bush made Sembler
and Zappala ambassadors to Australia and Spain, respectively. He
made Martinez his second Drug Czar. In 1992, Tampa's Channel 13
Eye Witness News handed Martinez the minutes from a Straight board
of director's meeting which recorded that "John Martinez,
former governor of Florida, will work with Straight on our licensing
issues." When asked by Channel 13 News whether this was
he, Martinez would make no comment. Bill Bennett was George Bush's
first Drug Czar. In 1989 Bennett assembled together prominent Americans
from all over to help him develop the President's drug budget. These
esteemed individuals proposed to the President to increase the drug
war purse by 94% to a whopping $7,900,000,000, including nearly
a half billion increase in treatment, prevention, and research to
$1,727,000,000. This collection of America's best recommending $500
million dollars more to drug treatment programs included Mel Sembler,
Robert DuPont, Carlton Turner, Joyce Tobias, Mac Vines and a host
of others who had positive relationships with Straight. During his
term as president, Americans would spend more on the Drug War than
on private health insurance: $120 billion. [In 1994 Drug Czar Martinez
was investigated by the FBI because after losing the governorship
to Lawton Chiles he took $63,000 he had left over in campaign contributions
and gave $2,000 to Operation Par on whose board sits Betty Sembler.
He gave the rest to the Republican Party of Florida to get George
Bush re-elected in 1992.(10)]
When George Bush, Sr. ran
for president in 1988 prominent Republicans formed what they called
Team 100, a team of 100 businessmen who pledged to collect $20 million
for Bush's war chest. Federal law limited maximum contributions
by political donors to $1,000 and $25,000 for individual candidates
and for campaign activities, respectively. These ceiling caps were
imposed to keep individuals, corporations and foreign governments
from buying political favors. But the soft-money loop-hole
in the law allowed donors to donate larger sums of money. Many people
gave soft-money to the Bush war chest. Straight board member Alec
Courtelis, who donated $100,000 to the Republicans, was Republican
Party Finance Chief. Mel Sembler and Joe Zappala were on Team 100.
Sembler was Bush's finance co-chairman for Florida. Including their
soft-money contributions Mel Sembler reportedly contributed $127,000
to the Republican Party in 1988 and Joseph Zappala donated $126,000
in almost identically matching funds.(11)
Later Mel Sembler was a big contributor to the George Bush presidential
library. Straight board member Roy Speer of Home Shopping Network
fame gave another $100,000. Wayne Huizenga gave another $100,000.(12)
Today Straight consultant Robert DuPont sits on the board of Psychemedics--a
Huizenga's drug hair testing company.
In all George Bush, Sr. nominated
at least six members of his Team 100 for U.S. ambassadorships including
Park Avenue socialite Joy Silverman who had no college degree and
virtually no work experience; she listed her work experience as
assisted husband in connection with growth by planning and hosting
corporate functions-... that is she threw dinner parties! And
there was former Nevada Republican Senator Chic Hecht nominated
for Ambassador to the Bahamas. He once promised not to make Nevada
a "nuclear-waste depository." Asked why he would feel
at home in the Bahamas he had replied, "I've been involved
in gambling in Nevada, and I've been involved in banking for 25
years . . . Also, I understand it is a nice lifestyle. I love golf
and they have a lot of nice golf courses and good fishing."
That comment led Senator John Breaux, Democrat from Louisiana, to
comment, "we need an ambassador willing to serve on the front
lines of the drug war, not the back nine of Paradise Island's golf
course."(13) There was lumber
magnate Peter Secchia nominated for ambassador to Italy who once
reportedly told a reporter that his reason for being at the 1987
Republican state conference in Michigan was that he was looking
for "a big-titted woman". And there was real estate broker
Della Newman from Seattle who once admitted in an interview that
"she has no particular interest in foreign affairs." Bush
nominated her for Ambassador to New Zealand but when asked by a
reporter she did not even know the name of New Zealand's prime minister.(14)
And of course there were the two millionaire businessmen from Saint
Petersburg Florida, Straight co-founders Mel Sembler and Joe Zappala.
Like Joy Silverman, Zappala was only a high school graduate. Bush
nominated him for Ambassador to Spain even though he had no foreign
service experience and could not speak Spanish. On his application
when asked for published writings he stated, "No published
writings." Zappala won his nomination despite a strong move
led by Maryland Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes to stop him. He
was in Spain for the planning of the Summer Olympics in Barcelona
in 1992. Straight board member Roy Spear got the concession agreements
for the 1992 Summer Olympics and George Bush taped a TV
commercial promoting Straight for a Straight Telethon hosted
on Speer's HSN on Christmas Eve 1988. Bush nominated Mel Sembler
for Ambassador to Australia and again despite strong protests by
Democrats led by Paul Sarbanes, Sembler was approved by the Senate.
Sembler and Zappala have
offices near one another and often partner together, they
have the same view on drug rehabilitation and they made almost identical
matching amounts to Republican causes in 1988. Zappala is
normally camera shy and doesn't say much publicly. But when he does
he often mimics his big brother Mel. In 1988 speaking of George
Bush, Sr. Sembler, who has a BS degree in communications, had this
to say: "The support I've given him is very zealous.
We like this man. We like the way his head works, we like his loyalty,
we like his great intelligence. The man has a winner syndrome."(15)
[Tell me this communications giant doesn't belong in the announcer's
booth on Monday Night Football!] During his Senate hearing for his
ambassadorship, Joe Zappala told the assembled Senators, "I
did contribute substantial monies to the campaign. I was a zealot
for George Bush, and I'm proud of my involvement."(16)
No wonder some call Mel Sembler and Joseph Zappala the "Saint
Petersburg Twins".
Joseph
Zappala was introduced at his Senate hearing by Republican Senator
Connie Mack who called him a "friend of Florida" and a
"great negotiator" who has worked to solve problems in
his community, such as drug abuse. But it was drug abuse that Senator
Pell, knowing of the Fred Collins judgment, hit Mr. Zappala with
when he asked him in writing: "How do you respond to those
critics who charge that the methods employed by Straight are unsound?"
Zappala did not answer that question but was to get back with him
in writing.(17) Later Kentucky Republican
Senator Mitch McConnell would speak on Zappala's behalf on the Senate
floor saying "No one will deny that Joe Zappala made campaign
contributions, but it was his contributions to the business world
and his community that made the difference to the president."
And then Senator McConnell went on to cite Joe Zappala's leadership
in Straight, Inc.(18) [This is the
same Senator McConnell who fought so hard in 2001 to stop the McCain-Feingold
soft money reform bill. In 1997 Senator McConnell, as chair of the
National Republican Senatorial Committee, led the NRSC in raising
nearly $11
million in soft money, more money than any congressional
committee has ever raised in an off-election year. In 1999 - 2000
Mel Sembler only gave the senator $1,000.]
Senator Paul Sarbanes
challenges the Sembler/ Zappala nominations.
On his Senate application form, under the block for any foreign
languages spoken Mel Sembler had written "English (fluent)."
If you know anything about twins and how one feels the pain of the
other or one knows what the other is thinking, it should not
surprise you to learn that at one place on their Senate application
forms Sembler and Zappala used almost identical language!
Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Paul Sarbanes was not
amused and had this to say about the two using almost identical
wording.(18a)
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"This
is an absolute insult to the process. It's incredible.
It's the sort of thing where a teacher in school would hand
the exam back, or better yet flunk the student." |
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Syndicated
cartoonist Gary Trudeau had a field day lampooning President Bush's
1989 ambassadorial appointments and ran several satires like the
one below:
|
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On August
23, 1989, cartoonist Gary Trudeau and Universal
Press Syndicate published the above lampoon presumably
on Mel Sembler insinuating he was the highest bidder
for the Australian ambassadorship job. When
asked why is was buying Australia, according to
the comic strip, he had said, "NO, NO.
I just promised the kids a country where they could
surf." Today Mel keeps a framed
copy of the cartoon above the toilet
in his office. [Florida Trend Magazine, May 1997] |
|
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Check out Democrat Senator
Paul Sarbanes blasting Joseph Zappala's
Senate hearings. Of course he had a few choice
words for Mel Sembler too.
On June 12, 1989 four days
after Joseph Zappala went before the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations for his hearing on State and Ambassadorial Nominations,
it was his big brother's turn. Like Zappala, Mel Sembler and his
wife Betty were introduced by Republican Connie Mack. (Growing
Together is a second generation Straight which operates in Lake
Worth, Florida. In 1990 Florida state health officials
claimed that it turned its patients into "virtual prisoners"
while Florida Judge Michael Gersten said a girl's treatment in it
"smacks of abuse." [Sun Sentinel, March 9, 1990]
Here Republican Senator Connie Mack and Republican Congressman Mark
Foley are endorsing a Growing
Together pamphlet.) But Melvin's interrogators
were not so hostile. He faced three Republicans and only one Democrat
and was not asked about allegations of abuses at Straight. Republican
Senator Jesse Helms had seen the video on Straight that Sembler
had brought [Richard Bradbury claims the film was staged.] Afterwards
Senator Helms said, "You'll get emotional as you watch it."
He "commended" Mel Sembler for his work at Straight.(19)
The hearing was chaired by the only Democrat there, Senator Alan
Cranston from California. Looking through the transcripts
at (a) you see that Melvin Sembler was introduced by Republican
Senator Connie Mack. At (c) Senator Mack praises Melvin and Betty
for founding Straight, Inc. At (d) chairman Cranston begins speaking
and at (e) and (f) he starts stressing the importance of Melvin
Sembler's nominated position because the country was leaving the
Reagan Era which had predicted a "bright future" for the
Pacific region, but that future had just been darkened because of
the massacre at Tiananmen Square of Chinese citizens by their own
repressive government. At (g) he says there is something "Orwellian
about it" all. Ironically Senator Cranston reminded Melvin
and Betty that President Bush had just announced that any normalization
of relations between the United States and Red China would require
"a recognition of the rights of individuals and respect for
the rights of those who disagree." In fact his last words to
Melvin and Betty at (i) was to "encourage respect for human
rights". How could this coincidence have occurred? A man and
his wife who had capitalized on communism perhaps more
than anyone in the free world, who were then and there running their
own Orwellian program called Straight, Inc. which is no respecter
of human rights. Talk about the pot [pardon the pun] calling
the kettle black!
Here is Republican
Senator from Delaware William V. Roth, Jr. inviting Straight-Springfield's
executive director over to his Subcommittee on Investigations to
give a talk on youth and drugs. And here is Republican
Senator Orrin Hatch dispatching one of his aides to check
Straight out. Republican Congressman Frank Wolf was
surely unaware when he sent this "put
the heat on" letter to Virginia state health authorities
wanting to know why they had denied Straight a license in 1991.
He was surely unaware of the mounting allegations included the sexual
abuse of a minor male child, the assault of a female
client who says her old comers raped her with a curling iron for
not writing her morale inventory, the breaking of a girl's
finger because she refused to admit to a drug problem she did not
have, and a bizarre treatment therapy conducted at Straight-Springfield
where the kids spat into the face of a newcomer to keep him off
of drugs.
Today Mel Sembler is finance
chairman for the national GOP and his wife Betty, who is called
Ambassadorable
by Florida's Governor Jeb Bush, was Jeb's finance
co-chairman when he ran for governor. After his unsuccessful
bid for governor of Florida in 1994 Jeb Bush formed the non-profit
Foundation for Florida's Future which employed two of his
campaign aides. But a 1998
expose by Florida TV station WJXT on that charity reported
that only 27% of the raised money actually went to programs
with most going to administrative salaries for foundation employees.
The one shining example of the foundation's work that Jeb likes
to boast about is the foundation's effort to form the Charter
School in Miami for underprivileged kids which he had established
along with black political activist T. Willard Fair, President of
the Greater Miami Urban League. After winning the 1998 gubernatorial
election, Jeb appointed T. Williard Fair as a co-chairman
of his inaugural committee. The WJXT report found that
only $33,000 or just 2% of the foundation's raised money went
to the Charter School (although the foundation did loan it
$40,000). The foundation's
annual report shows that the Sembler Company and
the Huizenga Family Foundation both gave $5,000 or more to Jeb's
foundation [former drug czar and paid Straight consultant Robert
DuPont sits on the board of Psychemedics, Huizenga's follicle
drug testing company.] In her continuing efforts to affect the nation's
drug policy Mrs. Ambassadorable has formed a new tax exempt, anti-drug
foundation called Save Our Society from Drugs or S.O.S.
Prominent on its board of directors is none other than T. Williard
Fair. Used to be in Pinellas County Florida that if you were a young
black person with a real drug problem you went to Operation PAR,
but if you were a white teenager who had drunk some beers or experimented
with marijuana, or if you had a drug problem, you went to Straight.
But today Betty Sembler is on the board of directors of Operation
PAR! [Saint Petersburg Times, 7-14-95, p. 3b]
Now you might find it difficult
to believe that a US president could become so involved with a cult,
but is it so strange? According to The Great Drug War by
Dr. Arnold Trebach, Fred Collins, then an engineering
student at Virginia Tech, now a doctor of Mathematics,
was shanghaied into Straight when he paid his brother a visit
there and was eventually awarded $220,000 by a federal jury for
being falsely imprisoned by Straight. According to Dr. Trebach
the first time Dr. Collins had seen Straight was on a segment
on NBC's News Magazine back in 1982 and Dr. Collins had
remarked, "It reminded me of a Moonie cult." Well now
George and Barbara Bush travel the world giving speeches for Reverend
Moon and his Unification Church. According to this Business
Wire release of October 13, 2000 The Drug Free America
Foundation (formerly Straight Foundation, Inc.) convened a panel
of experts to make drug policy recommendations to presidential hopeful
George W. Bush and the impression I get from this wire release is
that Governor Bush is adopting their proposals. Read it and see
what you think. And go to the Drug
Free America Foundation's web page to see that Barbara
Bush is hawking films for the DFAF and her son Texas George W. Bush
has teamed-up with the DFAF to develop anti-drug use educational
material. The whole family is involved with the Straight cult.
Straight, Inc. &
Drug Czar2001
If Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley had met Betty Sembler when
he was a youngster, one wonders whether he would be where he is
today. Mr. Romley has admitted to using marijuana twice in the 1960s.
Under Straight guidelines Mr. Romley would have been an incurable
drug addict for life, most certainly on his way to harder drugs.
He would have been placed in Straight and he would have been denied
an education for an extensive period of time. And yet Betty Sembler's
Drug Free America Foundation has teamed up with the Maricopa County
Attorney's office to produce and market the 12 minute film
"Medical" Marijuana: A Smokescreen." The DFAF joined with
prosecutor Romley to work to defeat the medicalization of marijuana
initiative in Arizona. According to the Arizona Republic, Betty
Sembler is a backer of Rick Romley. In February 2001, President
Bush's White House team interviewed Rick Romley for the position
of Drug Czar. (It was around that time that President Bush nominated
Mel Sembler for the office of
president of the Import/Export Bank.)(20)
Former U.S. Representative
from Florida Bill McCollum, who did the Clinton impeachment thing,
is another in the running in 2001 for Drug Czar. When he ran for
U.S. Senate in 2000 Betty Sembler was on McCollum's finance
committee.(21) In
fact the entire Sembler family has been very good to Mr. McCullum
as you can see by clicking here.
In the period 1999 - 2000, Huizenga Holdings was McCullum's
biggest contributor at $39,000 [you recall from above that Sembler
and Huizenga helped Jeb Bush stay afloat after his first gubernatorial
defeat in Florida and that Straight's former paid consultant
Robert DuPont is a director on Psychemedics-- Huizenga's hair
testing company.] Publix Supermarkets kicked in
$11,750 to the would-be Drug Czar [Sembler
Company is a major leasing company for Publix Supermarkets.]
Joseph E. Seagram & Sons were in for $12,000. [Source: OpenSecrets]
Public Campaign awarded Bill McCullum its
Golden Leash Award for using his position on the Banking
and Financial Services Committee U.S. House of Representatives to
promote special favors for his "cash constituents."
In May 1998 Representative McCollum helped kick off the Orlando
Conference--an anti-medicalization of marijuana conference. The
key-note speaker was former Drug Czar Bill Bennett. The event was
sponsored by Betty's DFAF and S.O.S., and by Florida's Department
of Law Enforcement.
During the Vietnam War
the U.S. Army developed a defoliating chemical called Agent Orange.
It wasn't until 20 years later that the long-term effects on humans
of this terrible drug was determined. In 1999 Bill McColloum and
Betty Sembler were staunch allies of a measure in Florida to unleash
a herbicide on Florida's farmers called
fusarium oxysporum which Bill McCullum calls the
Silver Bullet in the War on Drugs. The claim is that the
fungus will only affect cocaine, heroin and marijuana plants!
That harebrained idea was dreamed-up by Florida's own Drug Czar,
James McDonough, who is another Floridian under consideration in
2001 for the nation's Drug Czar. Besides his nutty proposal
to spread a potentially harmful fungus on Florida's crops, would-be
drug czar Jim McDonough tried to spread a state-wide panic in May
of 2000 by blaming club drugs for causing 254 deaths in the
Sunshine state. Included in McDonough's party-goers, fatalities
list was 15 year old Mitchell Waters who died of a heart ailment
but was taking a prescription that contained a drug on McDonough's
list; Pearl Mastros, a real swinger around the nursing home, when
he died there at age 80; and "druggie" Tavani Smith, age 4, who
died in a hospital! And there were other errors in McDonough's report.(22)
Now Betty was not on McDonough's finance committee but she was the
finance co-chairman for McDonough's boss, Florida Governor Jeb Bush--the
President's brother. Betty Sembler and Jim McDonough sit on the
advisory board of the Multijurisdictional
Counterdrug Task Force Training (MCTFT)--a program funded
by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Florida National Guard
and hosted near Betty's house at Saint Petersburg Junior College.
MCTFT is the federal government's program to train law enforcement
officers, nationwide, in counter drug task force efforts.
In the late 1990s Melvin
developed the Republican Party concept of Regents
. One of his most famous Regents is Enron's Ken Lay.
Mel's friend Alex Spasos, owner of the San Diego Chargers,
is another. Mel and Alex, who are both contributors to the
Shoah Foundation (survivors of Auswitch) toured the foundation together.
And both made sizable contributions to stop Proposition 36 in California--an
initiative to modernize our drug laws. Alex donated $100,000 and
Straight Foundation (now calling itself Drug Free America Foundation)
pitched in another $125,000. Betty will never forget the day
when Jeb Bush turned to her in an adjoining box during George W.
Bush's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention to
tell her he had just declared August 8, 2000 Betty
Sembler Day in all of Florida, in large part for her
work with Straight. Nor will she likely forget her 70th birthday
the next year when everybody gathered at Gratzzi's Italian restaurant
to wish her well. Judge Irene Sullivan, a Republican who
had been aided in her judgeship election because the Republican
Party endorsed her on a pamphlet it distributed, could only
stay for salad and Saint Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, who was at
another nearby luncheon, did manage to stop in to say hello. (Judge
Irene Sullivan is the wife of former Florida state
Republican Senator Donald Sullivan, MD who was formerly
the secretary for Straight Foundation, Inc. Attorney Rick
Baker had been the local campaign chairman for both Gov. Jeb
Bush and President George W. Bush. Jeb Bush appeared at a
political fund raiser for him.) In stead of gifts Betty had
asked everyone to contribute to the Straight Foundation, Inc. which
now calls itself DFAF. When Mel Sembler opened his latest
masterpiece, the Bay Walk shopping center, and held a VIP
party on November 16, 2000 Judge Irene Sullivan was on-hand along
with Judge Bob Beach. [St Pete Times, 11-19-2000]. Which brings
us back to Alex Spasos' donation of $100,000 to stop Proposition
36 and DFAF's donation of $125,000. While Mr. Spasos gave real green
money records show that Straight contributed $125,000 in "non-money".
What the hell is $125,000 of non-money? Does that mean that Betty
and Calvina Fay charged their salaries into stopping Prop 36, or
what?
Updated04-12-02
In 2001
George W. Bush nominated Melvin Sembler to head the Import/Export
Bank, but Sembler declined this plum citing conflict of interest.
So George, Jr. gave him the embassy to Italy. Here's
the sales
receipt. In fact, here are known political contributions
by the Sembler family from 1980
- 2002. And here is Mel on his
new assignment. We feel that Mel Sembler has
paid more than his fair share to get respect from his fellow
Republicans. And so it is only fitting he should be required
to pay no more than $24,000 during the 2004 election cycle (which
was the total contributions to
them Republicans made by Clark Randt, Jr. in 1999 for the Red
Chinese post.) In fact, we strongly urge Mr. Sembler to buy
the Red China post next.
Does he realize that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made
structure that can been seen with the naked eye from outer space,
and unlike that tower in Italy, it does not lean even
after all these years. But best of all the People's Republic
of China has 11,178 miles of coastline! Yes, Mr. Sembler,
you should go for Red China
next. Perhaps you can save the world by turning Red
China into a nice capitalistic society like our own. You could
show them how to market "thought reform" for profit
so they could Capitalize on Communism.
Not since George H. W. Bush was our
ambassador to China when Forrest Gump tore their Commie
asses up in ping pong has there been a better opportunity
to normalize relations with Red
China.
|
You
are the
visitor since Dec 8, 2000
Questions? Comments?
Ginger Warbis ,
Wesley Fager, Survivors
of Straight Discussion
Footnotes:
1. St.
Petersburg Times, 3/15/74.
2. [SPT
, 4-22-1989, Section Religion, Ed: City, p. 5E]
3.
[SPT 2-23-78]
4. [SPT
4-30-78, Sect B]
5. [The
Fairfax Journal, 12-17-80, p. A12.].
6. Saint
Petersburg Times, 5-13-82, p.12b
7. Baum,
Dan, Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Fairure,
p. 232; Trebach, Arnold, op. cit., p. 31.
8. Wall
Street Journal, February 23, 1988, p. 57, col. 3.
9. spt
12-6-88 1B
10. [spt
8-7-94, p. 9A, National]
11. [Baltimore
Sun, 7-18-1989]
12. [SPT,
1-25-89, p. 3B; SPT 1-25-1989, p. 3B, City Ed, Sect Tampa Bay and
State]
13. [SPT,
7-12-1989, p. 1A, Sect: National, Ed: City]
14. [[Harper's
Magazine, September 1989, pp. 66- 67]
15. [SPT
10-17-88, p. 1B, City]
16. [SPT,
6-9-1989, p. 1A, Section: National, Ed. City]
17. SPT,
6-9-1989, p. 1A, Section: National, Ed. City 6-9-89
18. [SPT,
1-04-1989, p. 1A, Sect: National, Ed: City]
18a. [SPT, October
4, 1989]
19. [SPT,
6-13-1989, p. 4A, Section: National. Ed: City]
20. The
Arizona Republic, Feb. 23, 2001 by Mike McCloy
21 SPT-online,
State, 9-3-99.
22. Orlando
Sentinel, 5-21-2000.
23.
A second-generation Straight is one based on the therapeutic model
perfected at Straight, Inc. These programs are often organized,
at least in part, by a former Straight official. Second-generation
Straight does not express or imply that the group is destructive,
though many second-generation Straights have been accused of child
abuse.
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