Summary of Investigative Journal Radio Program with Greg Anthony on First Amendment Radio
September 12, 2014
Today I want to talk about the particulars of the Tony Alamo case, and in the past months I’ve been whittling away at the flimsy evidence that the government has provided. The whole case is a shocking example of how Christian ministries have been attacked for not falling in line lockstep with the Vatican ecumenical movement. I’ve seen it happen in the past to other ministries, and as we go into history we see that this is a pattern that hasn’t ended. I’ve been using the Tony Alamo Ministry as an example because it is an egregious affair when you look at how this was orchestrated when it occurred in 2008. It was a complete SWAT team rampage on a Christian Ministry who descended on some kids who were playing on the swings in the yard. They were there to arrest Tony, but he wasn’t even there. The 50 news media outlets were alerted to this, and the whole thing was spread quickly at the snap of a finger all over the news broadcasts that this man who is accused of all these egregious crimes against children has to be put in jail. But when you look at what he’s been charged with, it’s flimsy at best, and to put a man in jail for 175 years as well as attacking his ministry, it’s a complete demolishing of this ministry.
There’s been a civil case where hundreds of millions of dollars have been awarded to these 5 women. But if we look back on what happened here, a guy named Frank Lockwood wrote about it on a blog. He said, “When state and federal law enforcement officials swooped down on the Tony Alamo Ministries, many if not most of the major news organizations in Arkansas were watching it unfold. This isn’t how it was supposed to be. The raid was originally scheduled for sometime in October, but on Friday [September 19, 2008] somebody inadvertently sent an email about the raid several weeks early. [Why are they alerting 50 media outlets across the state about this?] With the cat out of the bag law enforcement officials moved up their time schedule. Newspapers had to decide whether to go with the story in Saturday’s editions or wait a day or so. With children reportedly on the [premises] and with allegations of child abuse, every news organization in the state refrained from writing about the raid until it had already begun.” They were already going to write about it prior to it even happening. Then we saw how this thing unfolded, and I remember back when it happened, actually because Tony had talked against the Vatican, and I wanted to see if I could find anybody in this country that still did that; it’s an endangered species. I’ve gone to so many of these Protestant churches and talked to the pastors; oh, they may say a word privately, but they’re never going to say a word to you in public because they know. Some of them know, and some don’t know, but if they don’t know, they shouldn’t be a pastor, and if they do know, then they’re hiding something, and they shouldn’t be one either. We’ve just wiped out 500 years of history just to suit a new Protestantism. It isn’t a new Protestantism; it’s Catholicism wrapped up with a Protestant bow.
During the time this occurred, I was contacted, and they took these children into custody. These SWAT team members came down with their rifles, bullet-proof vests, helmets, and black suits, and scared the hell out of the kids. Six girls were taken that day, and not only that, but a judge ordered that all the children in all the Tony Alamo Ministries across the country be run down and taken into custody. They ended up with 36 more children besides the original 6 who were taken. Parents were taking their kids out of the Ministry so they wouldn’t be kidnapped. The government was dismantling it from stem to stern. The reason they were doing that is that it wasn’t just Tony they were after; they wanted to stop anybody that would be involved in telling the truth about the pope and his relationships with our government, and how Georgetown University and the
Vatican really run our foreign policy. Tell the truth, and that’s what happens. So I documented and talked about this in many, many stories. I’m using this as an example because when something like this comes out, it sends a chilling effect throughout the country, and it says to other people and ministries who may believe certain things regarding what we talk about on this show, or certain Bible beliefs which call the Vatican the Antichrist, that they have to either do it quietly or not at all because they will be arrested.
John Paul II was a cyanide salesman before he became pope. Did anybody ever check this out before he became pope? In his own words he said that the real problem is these “splinter groups,” these ministries like Tony Alamo’s, who are preaching this kind of message (which is basically, don’t criticize us); they need to be stopped. In the 1990s, he (John Paul II) wrote an article called “The Challenge of the Sects”, Article 73. In this article, Lucifer’s main spokesman down here on earth declares war on Bible-believing splinter Christian groups who break away from the mainstream Protestantism and dare to teach the real Gospel of Christ, while at the same time outing the Vatican as the Antichrist.
Because Tony Alamo’s ministry was very successful, he helped a lot of people, and he had been sending out pamphlets and literature for 40 years regarding what’s behind the scenes in our government, as well as preaching salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He had a large audience and spent a lot of money on short wave radio broadcasts to preach the Gospel and on Gospel literature. He had land holdings, and he had different churches across the United States. So he’s a perfect target, you know, let’s stop this before it grows. We have to set an example, send a chilling effect through the country, plus put him out of business, not only put him in prison for 175 years, but dismantle his ministry, which they’re doing as we speak. After the criminal case where Tony sits in prison now, there’s been a civil case where they’ve been awarded $525 million, the largest settlement in the history of the state. They are trying to sell off all the ministry’s holdings, and then the ministry no longer exists. That was their goal to begin with, a total federal effort to wipe him off the map. In the beginning of the case, Tony was saying that he was being framed because of his views, because of the same reason that Chiniquy was being framed, and he had an FBI agent that would testify that he was set up to bring him and his ministry down. Now the judge in this case felt it was irrelevant, the FBI agent could not testify, and Tony could appeal this.
Look what’s going on in the Vatican. I’ve got cases where priests were burying dead bodies of babies under altars and it was witnessed by children, and they were trying to get somebody to investigate this, and it was never investigated. The priest was never taken into custody; there were no SWAT team raids, and then you look at all the cases that the Vatican’s been involved with all over the world. Since when did they close down a Catholic Church? When did the SWAT team come in? Were any of the Catholic schools closed down and their children taken into Department of Human Services custody never to be returned to their parents as happened in the Alamo Ministries? Many times these priests were hidden away or sent to other countries so they could do this again in complicity with the Vatican. I’ve done so many stories regarding cloistered convents where abuse was going on, and nuns couldn’t get any justice. It’s an incredible story of how we have a double standard in this country regarding that organization and what happened to Tony Alamo.
Here’s some background on the ones who testified against Tony. There were five girls, who are now labeled victims in the 2008 raid on Alamo and the case against him by the government, and they were around lots of people every day while living at Alamo Christian Ministries facilities. They were around their teachers, adults who lived there, friends, and many other adults coming and going to and from the premises. The office there was like Grand Central Station, people always coming and going. They were there for years, and their parents gave permission for them to live at the school and mission and kept in close contact with them after they moved there. The parents visited whenever they wanted to, and they could come visit freely; the girls weren’t locked away or being brainwashed. These girls could have gone back home at any time. In fact, they did go back home with their parents at various times, only to return to the school and mission after asking over and over until they finally got permission to do so. The point I’m trying to make is when you run a ministry like this, you are going to run into a lot of different people on a daily basis, some with good intentions, some bad. And some of these girls were troublesome to their parents. You’re dealing with a lot of different personalities.
All these girls left between 2003 and 2006, but there was not one complaint from any of them at the time they left. Each of these girls were told to move out of the school and mission to another location at various times for being disruptive in school or, as in one of the girl’s cases, for lying. Each one repeatedly asked to return. That’s an interesting fact. They all asked to come back. In fact, some of them directly wrote Tony and told him that they were sorry for the trouble they had caused, and could they please come back. Many of these hand-written letters are still in the ministry’s possession. Why did they do this if they were victims? Why didn’t a lot of this stuff get into testimony? Did Tony get a good defense? I don’t think so. They may have had minor squabbles among their friends like you’d normally have, but there was no mention of discontent towards Tony from these people who the government finally used to put Tony in prison. Why didn’t they go to the authorities back when they first left? Then all at once, the ministry told me, they were starting to get phone calls that the FBI was scouring the U.S. for anyone who would testify against Tony. I was told that they were hounded by many government people, but they refused the FBI offers of money to come into the FBI office to talk. They called their homes and workplaces day and night. We know of one family that actually went into hiding to get away from the constant harassment because they would not agree to go along with the FBI. You know, when this starts happening, let’s say the FBI starts crawling around your house, the neighbors are going to think, “He’s got to be guilty if the FBI is here.”
One of the girls in particular was a trouble maker. She came from a big family, and she was uncontrollable, a liar, and a schemer. Her mother just could not handle her. She asked if she could stay at the school and mission with her aunt whom she loved, who was her mother’s sister. It seemed to get her straightened out to a degree. Her mother frequently visited her, and she went home on weekends and school vacations. She also went home and lived with her mother for almost half a year before returning to the school and mission. They were coming and going. It wasn’t like a cult where they were kidnapped and weren’t allowed to leave. But the lying and conniving from this one person never stopped. Later on, her mother and father knew how easily the FBI used her. She was sent to Wellspring in Albany, Ohio, for two weeks of intensive counseling. (Wellspring is used by the government as a deprogramming center.) She loved the constant attention, I was told, that they were giving her. They made her feel like she was the center of their world; she ate it up and they gave her gifts and presents up until the trial. The government paid for a phone they gave her on which they kept tabs on her and kept her under their control, basically keeping this girl locked away. It seems like the shoe’s on the other foot here. They acted like they were so concerned for her, and they helped her move and get a job. In court, she admitted she was paid, but that she never even spent one day on the job, and that the special FBI agent called her at least 80 times before trial. All the while she was on the stand, the FBI agent was sitting at the head of the prosecution’s table, coaching her by shaking his head “no” when she was questioned about her constant communication with the FBI during the year before the trial. Several people watched this coaching from the gallery although the FBI agent denied it, of course.
When her mother tried to witness for Tony against her daughter, the prosecutor knowing just how to shut her down, asked her where she lived and where her other children were. She knew Child Protective Services would take them instantly as there was still a standing pick-up order which she was promptly served as she arrived at the court house to testify that day. She had no choice but to plead the fifth. So she couldn’t testify on Tony’s behalf because she would have had her children taken away, and that shut her down. The judge told her to step down, and he told the jury to strike anything they heard her say, and he repeated it again the next morning.
Another girl that testified against Tony moved into the ministry in 1996 with her mother and siblings. They had left their dad because he had been cheating on their mother. This particular girl didn’t get along with her mother, and asked to move to the school and mission months before Tony got out of prison in 1998 on his bogus IRS conviction. In 2006 she was causing havoc at the church with her out-of-control temper, and she was very angry with Pebbles, a young woman who lived there as well. She was told to move back with her mother, but she didn’t get along with her and didn’t want to do that. She was given an alternative of moving to a house nearby with other people, but she didn’t want to do that either. Instead she chose to move to Oklahoma and live with her dad. At the time of the raid and Tony’s arrest, her dad sent emails of support to Tony. After leaving the ministry, this same girl who later would testify against Tony also sent an email giving regards to all. No hostilities, nothing like that. Eventually she was contacted by the FBI and sent to Wellspring with her child for two weeks. They’re bringing them there for what? To counsel them? No. They have to coerce; they have to find some information to put this guy away. In court on the stand, the same thing that happened to the other girl’s mother happened to this girl’s mother. They questioned her on her children’s whereabouts, and she was forced to plead the fifth figuring she’s going to lose her other kids. Her testimony was incomplete and completely stricken from the record. So we have parents afraid to testify on Tony’s behalf because they’re afraid their children will be taken away and their whole life will be turned upside down if they do by the government whose big hand is stepping in here and manipulating the trial.
One girl who lived in New Jersey with her parents, until her mother left her dad and drove off one day in 2001, also testified against Tony. The girl, her sister, and her dad moved to Arkansas and the girls lived next door to the school and mission. Eventually her sister went back to live with her mother, and the other girl moved into the school and mission in 2003, but left later on. We were informed that the girl and her mother were being harassed by the FBI. They kept trying to hold them off, but they finally agreed to meet them. The FBI offered to send the girl (the one who eventually testified against Tony) to Art College. So what I gather here is that the FBI says, “Listen, we’ll send you to Art College, but you have to testify against Tony because we have to convict this guy.” Now give me a break, is that a frame job or what? She agreed to be a witness as well as her mother.
Two sisters lived next door to the school and mission and came over every day to visit their friends who were there. One of the girls asked to move in there, which she did, and her sister soon asked to move in also. It was fine with their parents who lived right next door, and their mom stopped in often and visited with them outside while they played after school. After awhile, the two sisters both moved back home. Then in 2003, this girl who would in a few years testify against Tony, moved back to the school and mission. After 2 to 3 years she again went back to live with her parents. So they’re coming and going freely as they wish. In 2004 or 2005 when she went back with her parents the ministry was told that her grandfather was contacted by the FBI, and was really trying to get her to become a witness. She eventually went to live with her grandfather’s family, and she too became a hostile witness.
The parents of several children and their daughter who would later testify against Tony, were living in a house in Fort Smith, AR. They were always helping out the ministry by doing office work and answering phone calls and so on. Just a few months before Tony left for Memphis for the IRS trial in 1993, their daughter moved into the house in Memphis. Her parents and her family moved to Memphis as well. When Tony was assigned to the prison in Florence, Colorado, her family moved to Colorado also, so she was always around her family. However, in the early 2000s she actually accused her own father of having sexual relations with her. Due to this, her family moved away from the ministry. Years later she admitted that it was not true, that her father really didn’t do this to her, but the damage had been done to the entire family. So we have somebody that admitted to lying about a sexual crime committed against her who was later used by the government to testify against Tony.
In 2005, she decided to go to live with her family, but within a few months, she called the church and spoke to a friend crying and very depressed. When she was told she could come back to the ministry, she immediately did so. Now here we have somebody testifying against Tony that wants to come back to the ministry who has lied about her own father. But in 2006, due to her terrible lies from the past and her very bad attitude, she was asked to leave the ministry again. A troublemaker, perhaps, and this goes on. She didn’t want to go, but couldn’t stay any longer. The ministry told me that the FBI was trying to get to this girl, and she insisted that she wanted nothing to do with them. Then, for some reason, she started to cooperate. People from the ministry said there was a possibility that she could have been threatened with her parents being prosecuted if she didn’t comply. So to protect them, or other reasons, she had to turn on Tony. She too went to Wellspring for two weeks, and all was paid for going there.
So we have these witnesses, and this is just some general information that I get for going just a little bit deeper into the case. It seems very flimsy to me to put a guy in prison for 175 years, and if you compare it to some of the atrocities that go on in the Catholic Church and all the priests around the world, it’s just amazing to me. And then when you put into the mix that he’s being framed because of his views, and there’s a big issue of money to get. The money’s out here and they’re paying for these people and harassing them, and coercing them. And they looked all over the place for others too, and they could only come up with this. So to me, there has to be something more going on here than what we’re told in the mainstream media and how this trial went and the number of years in prison this man is spending for this. He’s asking for a motion for retrial. The whole trial was a sham, and there’s a strong case for that; then just what’s going to be appealable on the record that was allowed in, and there’s much that wasn’t allowed in, and I imagine you can appeal some of that information as well.
This has been an orchestrated effort for awhile. And if you look at the history of this ministry, this isn’t the first time they tried to convict Tony. They tried on charges prior to this, and they didn’t stick, and they had him in prison for a bogus IRS charge.
Now, listen, I did a lot of research on 9/11 and talked to a victim who lost his son in the World Trade Center who actually went to the top of the FBI to get information that, “Listen, it didn’t happen this way,” and the FBI director at the time lied to him. This is what the man told me. So if they’re going to lie in chorus, and do all the things they did, and I saw so many discrepancies during 9/11 as far as the black boxes, and as far as planting evidence, and all this kind of stuff. So why, if they’re going to lie about 9/11, why do you believe them in cases like this when you’ve got people talking from the ministry saying, “Listen, these people [the FBI] are harassing me, trying to get me to testify [against Tony], and offering me money.” But you know, Americans, you’re not going to even look past your nose to find out what really happened here, because it’s pretty convenient for you, isn’t it? Right! Just to say this man’s guilty, and these churches were a cult, but the biggest cult, I say, if you read the definition of a cult, is the Catholic Church. And I have no bones to pick against them; I was born a Catholic; I had a good Catholic education, but it’s the responsibility of every person to look into the hierarchy of the organizations you’re involved in. I was born a Catholic and a citizen of the United States, and I wanted to know what the hell both of them were about. What I found out is just appalling.
Why are they combing the country trying to coerce people, and trying to get as much evidence as they can when, in the end, they got very little? But it amounted to 175 years when you add on all the media hype, when you add on all the speculation from the media calling this a compound, a cult, but then the poor guy, Tony, he couldn’t even get into testimony, the possibilities of the reasons why they were targeting him, because he was saying he was framed for his views, just like Chiniquy was, and he couldn’t even get that into court. Many people have told me that the Arkansas district court is probably one of the most corrupt in the country, and I wouldn’t doubt it.
This is a complete federal effort to destroy everything Tony started, and to destroy a Christian ministry. There had recently been a $525 million civil judgment against him. This is the largest judgment in Arkansas history according to one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, and they’re going after all of his holdings and everything in all the different places where his churches exist.
There have been a couple people who I’ve been following through the years who have come forward and told me some things, and I just wanted to mention that I thought it was important that anyone who wanted to look at the stories we talk about, the collusion between the Vatican and our government in all aspects; of 9/11; and what’s going on as far as the whittling away of our rights and the direction of this country. Actually, the Vatican is very much involved in the direction of this country from the beginning. I thought it would be very interesting to show how a person in a ministry was taken down for their views just as they were during the time of the Reformation, and this story really exemplifies that. Now I know there’s going to be many people in this country and the government and the Vatican will also rely on this: that they believe everything that they hear from the government, and everything that they hear on the news, and he must be guilty. I’m not trying to sway you one way or the other, I’m just saying that as a journalist, I thought this story needed to be looked at in depth, and the man needed to get out the information that was not allowed in court, at least in the court of public opinion, so people could look at what’s really going on behind the scenes. All you people that understand that 9/11 was an inside job, that should give you credence and enough sense to realize that if they would lie about something like that and hide it, what else would they do? And how many other people have experienced what this ministry is going through because of their views in a supposed country where we have freedom of religion and freedom of the press. That’s the importance of this story.