On August 29, 2001, this journalist received an e-mail correspondence from a certain Lt. Col. Michael Aquino,informing me that he was none too pleased with the Pedophocracy series of articles. Go figure. The following is the complete text of the message that I received, interspersed with my responses (in red) to the points that Aquino attempts to make. This posting will serve as an open response, so to speak, to Aquino's correspondence. None of Aquino's comments have been edited and are presented here exactly as received, including the typos and misspellings.
Subject: "Pedophocracy Part 3"
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 19:20:03 EDT
From: Xeper@aol.com [Aquino's e-mail address, for anyone wishing to send him their own response]
Dear Mr. McGowan,
I have just been alerted to your "Pedophocracy" series by Mr. Robert Sterling of The Konformist.
If the purpose of your writings and website is, as you suggest, to expose the truth and not to perpetuate lies, then your continuing to promote "Satanic Ritual Abuse" falsehoods concerning my wife and myself is irresponsible and hypocritical.
To the contrary, what is irresponsible is for the media - largely owned and controlled by the intelligence apparatus to which you have dedicated your life - to consistently ignore and deny the evidence of widespread and absolutely loathsome abuse of children. As Part I of my series abundantly documents, there is in fact a massive body of photographic evidence verifying that children all across this country, and around the world, are being sexually abused, tortured, and even killed for the depraved enjoyment and financial gain of persons probably not unlike yourself.
We have never harmed any children, anywhere, anytime, and have abundantly and aggressively exploded scam-artists' fabrications to the contrary for years.
If you are insinuating that I am a "scam artist" (as you appear to be), I invite you to present any evidence to support that charge. I would point out that that term generally refers to someone who is peddling knowingly false information for personal gain. These articles have been posted and distributed as a public service. I have been paid nothing to make this information available. Indeed, unlike yourself, I have nothing to gain by becoming involved in this issue and a considerable amount to lose.
Certainly the least you could have done was to *contact and ask* me about any questions in your mind on the subject, which I regret you didn't have the integrity to do.
You have absolutely no moral ground to stand on whatsoever to be passing judgment on my integrity.
Appended below is the *truth* concerning the Presidio scam
I find it very telling that you would choose to insert asterisks on either side of the word "truth." A Freudian slip, perhaps?
- which as an avowed opponent of government illegalities and coverups you should find as disgraceful as I did. Everything I say here is a matter of public record, and I have sworn to it under oath as necessary.
Every day, in courtrooms all across America, thousands of people swear under oath to tell the truth and then proceed to lie when it serves their self-interest to do so.
Please consider whether it is accordingly not indeed thr decent thing for you to do to remove mention of my wife's and my name from your "Pedophocracy" piece, both on your site, Sterling's, and wherever else you have circulated it.
I find it rather amazing that you feel yourself qualified to offer an opinion on what the "decent thing to do" is? Your shamelessness apparently knows no bounds.
Sincerely,
Michael A. Aquino
You will forgive me if I doubt your sincerity.
THE 1986-7 PRESIDIO "SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE" EVENTS
Following the publication of the "recovered memories of Satanic ritual abuse" book Michelle Remembers in 1980, the United States and other Anglo-American countries went through a decade of "SRA" scares and witch-hunts. After the 1984 McMartin Preschool became internationally publicized in one such scare, day-care facilities generally became targets of "SRA" witch- hunt instigators.
You haven't even gotten through the first paragraph of your rebuttal and already you are peddling deliberate disinformation. Here you have identified the McMartin Preschool case as a "witch hunt." How then do you explain the existence of the tunnels beneath the school that were uncovered and documented by a highly reputable archaeological team? How do you explain the untimely deaths of three individuals connected to the case just before they were to have their day in court? How do you explain the fact that nearly 500 kids, of all different ages, all reported being abused at the school? How do you account for the fact that the jury hearing the case overwhelmingly believed that the kiwere in fact severely abused, but were unable to affix the blame for that abuse? How do you account for the fact that Virginia McMartin's own granddaughter believed that her kids were abused at the school? You do not account for these things because, quite simply, you cannot. You merely label it a witch hunt without offering a shred of evidence to support that point of view. I happened to grow up i