Merck vaccine fraud exposed by two Merck virologists; company faked mumps vaccine efficacy results for over a decade, says lawsuit

NaturalNews, by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor, June 28, 2012                  

               

(NaturalNews) According to two Merck scientists who filed a False Claims Act complaint in 2010 -- a complaint which has just now been unsealed -- vaccine manufacturer Merck knowingly falsified its mumps vaccine test data, spiked blood samples with animal antibodies, sold a vaccine that actually promoted mumps and measles outbreaks, and ripped off governments and consumers who bought the vaccine thinking it was "95% effective."

See that False Claims Act document at:

www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Merck-False-Claims-Act.pdf

According to Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, both former Merck virologists, the Merck company engaged in all the following behavior:

• Merck knowingly falsified its mumps vaccine test results to fabricate a "95% efficacy rate."

• In order to do this, Merck spiked the blood test with animal antibodies in order to artificially inflate the appearance of immune system antibodies. As reported in CourthouseNews.com:

Merck also added animal antibodies to blood samples to achieve more favorable test results, though it knew that the human immune system would never produce such antibodies, and that the antibodies created a laboratory testing scenario that "did not in any way correspond to, correlate with, or represent real life ... virus neutralization in vaccinated people," according to the complaint. (http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/27/47851.htm)

• Merck then used the falsified trial results to swindle the U.S. government out of "hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide adequate immunization."

• Merck's vaccine fraud has actually contributed to the continuation of mumps across America, causing more children to become infected with mumps. (Gee, really? This is what NaturalNews has been reporting for years... vaccines are actually formulated to keep the outbreaks going because it's great for repeat business!)

• Merck used its false claims of "95 percent effectiveness" to monopolize the vaccine market and eliminate possible competitors.

• The Merck vaccine fraud has been going on since the late 1990's, say the Merck virologists.

• Testing of Merck's vaccine was never done against "real-world" mumps viruses in the wild. Instead, test results were simply falsified to achieve the desired outcome.

• This entire fraud took place "with the knowledge, authority and approval of Merck's senior management."

• Merck scientists "witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine's efficacy findings," according to court documents (see below).

US government chose to ignore the 2010 False Claims Act!

Rather than taking action on this false claims act, the U.S. government simply ignored it, thereby protecting Merck's market monopoly instead of properly serving justice. This demonstrates the conspiracy of fraud between the U.S. government, FDA regulators and the vaccine industry.

Chatom Primary Care sues Merck for Sherman Act monopolization, breach of warranty, violation of consumer protection laws

Following the unsealing of this 2010 False Claims Act, Chatom Primary Care, based in Alabama, smelled something rotten. Three days ago, Chatom filed a lawsuit against Merck. That lawsuit record is available here:

www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Chatom-Lawsuit-Merck-Mumps.pdf

It alleges, among other shocking things:

[Merck engaged in] ...a decade-long scheme to falsify and misrepresent the true efficacy of its vaccine.

Merck fraudulently represented and continues to falsely represent in its labeling and elsewhere that its Mumps Vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95 percent of higher.

In reality, Merck knows and has taken affirmative steps to conceal -- by using improper testing techniques and falsifying test data -- that its Mumps Vaccine is, and has been since at least 1999, far less than 95 percent effective.

Merck designed a testing methodology that evaluated its vaccine against a less virulent strain of the mumps virus. After the results failed to yield Merck's desired efficacy, Merck abandoned the methodology and concealed the study's findings.

...incorporating the use of animal antibodies to artificially inflate the results...

...destroying evidence of the falsified data and then lying to an FDA investigator...

...threatened a virologist in Merck's vaccine division with jail if he reported the fraud to the FDA...

...the ultimate victims here are the millions of children who every year are being injected with a mumps vaccine that is not providing them with an adequate level of protection. And while this is a disease that, according to the Centers for Disease Control ('CDC'), was supposed to be eradicated by now, the failure in Merck's vaccine has allowed this disease to linger, with significant outbreaks continuing to occur.

Chatom Primary Care also alleges that the fraudulent Merck vaccine contributed to the 2006 mumps outbreak in the Midwest, and a 2009 outbreak elsewhere. It says, "there has remained a significant risk of a resurgence of mumps outbreaks..."

This investigation is only beginning

NaturalNews has only begun to investigate this incredible breaking news about Merck and the vaccine industry. We are pouring through the court documents to identify additional information that may be relevant to this case, and we plan to bring you that information soon.

For the record, Merck denies all allegations. Is anyone surprised?

Sources for this article:

NaturalNews wishes to thank CourthouseNews.com for its coverage of this story. Original article at: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/27/47851.htm

Chatom Lawsuit against Merck

www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Chatom-Lawsuit-Merck-Mumps.pdf

2010 False Claims Act against Merck, by two Merck virologists

www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Merck-False-Claims-Act.pdf

Announcement of the lawsuit in the media:

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/lawsuit-claims-merck-overstated-mumps-vaccine-effectiveness-20120622-00532

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"The Recalibration of Dark & Light" – Feb 25, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Big pharma [the drug companies of America] are going to have to change very soon or collapse. When you have an industry that keeps people sick for money, it cannot survive in the new consciousness., Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text version) 

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)(Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Based in Greece, Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.)


"The Recalibration of the Perception of the Future"– Jun 23, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - New

US media hooked on eurozone crisis

Deutsche Welle, 28 June 2012

Examining US media reports on Europe’s economic crisis for DW's Transatlantic Voices column, Julian Jaursch argues that today's coverage has to be viewed in the context of the previous global economic downturn.

Julian Jaursch is a freelance journalist based in Berlin. He holds an MA in Political Science/TransAtlantic Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Why for Zeus' sake does the American media even care so much? It is Greece, after all: A country with an economy roughly the size of Washington's and about as diverse and interesting as Idaho's. A country with an economic output 50 times smaller than that of the US. A country that prior to the global economic crisis was virtually non-existent in American economic news.

Since then, papers and TV shows have been full of Greece. The New York Times ran articles on the country's financial situation as early as 2008, the Wall Street Journal has been covering every bailout since then, NPR tried to explain what happens if Greece defaults and CBS recently aired a piece on how the European debt crisis sent the Dow Jones plummeting. Even Stephen Colbert, the outspokenly patriotic and US-centered TV character whose international coverage is called "Un-American News," took on the Greek debt crisis. Discussing the dismal situation of Greece's economy in May 2010, he joked that the Greeks had laid off the oracle of Delphi and that she had never seen it coming.

Cause and effect

The examples give some of the reasons for the strong media interest. Precisely because of the global economic downturn, the news media cares. The crisis has shown quite plainly that the economies around the world are interconnected. What happens in one country has repercussions for citizens in many others, for instance via fluctuations on the stock markets or effects on the banking sector. Moreover, it is not just Greece that is making headlines today: Because Spain, Portugal and the rest of the eurozone are struggling as well, the effects are even bigger.

According to news value theories, events gain a certain news value if they have some intrinsic characteristics. Europe's economic woes did just that for the US: While the continent is geographically not very close to the US, it is still intimately connected to the US for historic, political and economic reasons (news factor proximity) and its troubles are bad news (negativity) that in some way affect the US economy (relevance). Add to that the already heightened sensitivity to economic topics due to the global financial crisis (established topic) and it becomes clear why US media and its recipients paid so much attention to Europe. Egotistical, yet genuine, concern about the US economy might have led to the increased coverage.

Playing the blame game

But is it really just that? Or could the coverage also try to mask the US' own economic weaknesses? After all, US reporting, especially some opinion pieces in print and television media, has been quite harsh. There was talk of European "grandiosity" and the "fiction" of the European economic model. European pension systems were closely scrutinized along with the continent's demographic problems. The very values and work ethic of Greeks, Spaniards or Portuguese were questioned. A "Eurosocialist" system that instituted a single currency, but no fiscal union was lamented. Generally, Europe's debt problems and the inherent issues of the euro system were pointed out, repeatedly and vigorously, along with some well-meant pieces of advice from afar. 

Julian Jaursch

Such foreign reporting comes at a time when America's own economy is not exactly doing well, either. Memories of bank and auto bail-outs are still fresh in people's minds, the unemployment rate is at roughly eight percent (eurozone: 11 percent), the economy is only growing moderately and, most importantly, the country's debt-to-GDP ratio is much higher than the EU's, according to Eurostat and the IMF. Still, President Barack Obama has not grown tired of referring to Europe's struggles when talking about the reasons for the slow recovery in the US.

Focusing on the eurozone's failures certainly leaves less time to discuss the US' own debt problems, social security systems or demographic development. It also leaves less time to investigate whether downgrades by American rating agencies - or mere threats thereof - were always justified. Moreover, the fact that an American bank helped obscure Greece's sovereign debt issues in the first place is but a footnote today.

Europe on their mind

Yet, despite American media's intense coverage of Europe's economic misery, there is no distraction campaign to conceal domestic economic problems. Surely, on a political level, Obama will continue to subtly blame the eurozone's struggles for some of America's own hardships. It might even be a standard item of his reelection campaign strategy - anything to take the wind out of the Republicans' sails who say that Obama alone messed up the economy.

Two circumstances lead to the conclusion, however, that coverage is driven by concern rather than by efforts to mask US problems: One regarding the quantity of reporting, the other regarding the quality.

If the American media reported from Europe as a distraction, this would require very little coverage of the US economy and its problems. This is not the case - quite the contrary. Reports about the jobless numbers, poverty rates, the debt ceiling, gas prices or the stock market abound not only in financial news outlets. Therefore, the fact alone that there is a lot of coverage on Europe's problems does not mean that the US media ignores domestic issues. Still, a closer look at America's own pension system or demographic development could not hurt, either.

Concerning the quality of reporting, those stereotypical and hyperbolic, sometimes even flat-out wrong, articles on the European economy are offset by a much larger number of rather dry economic coverage. For the most part, reports try to make sense of what is happening, explain economic jargon or introduce the American audience to those affected across the pond. It is remarkable here that economic journalism might become much more widely consumed because of the crisis. Similarly noteworthy is the fact that US media cannot get around including EU actors in their reporting anymore. Before the crisis, the Union was mostly shunned in US media due to its complex and seemingly distant and dull nature.

It's the economy, stupid

The global financial crisis, which began and played out largely in the US, has arguably intensified the American public's awareness of economic topics. From bailouts to financial reforms, people around the nation were affected by that downturn. So if the collapse of a single investment bank can be the start of a downward spiral for the US economy, what will happen if an entire currency area collapses? Such economic concerns rank highest among Americans' worries and what worries the people, worries the papers.

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“…. The coffers of the United States, which is erroneously considered the most fiscally sound nation in the world, have been empty for some time. The national debt, in large part due to the skullduggery of the Illuminati-owned Federal Reserve System and its IRS collection agency, will become manageable when that System is dissolved.  The various currencies, especially dollars, have no foundation—daily transactions involving billions of dollars and other currencies are merely information passed from one computer to another and they far exceed the money to back them.  The “new” foundation for currencies will be a return to an old one, where precious metals was a set standard for exchange, and “old fashioned” bartering once again will be an excellent way for nations and communities to conduct some business. ….”


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“… Your nation of Iceland is being used as a testing ground for the rolling out of financial strategies for the betterment of your planet. It would be wise to follow their progress in this respect, as it will be the fate of all nations in a very brief period of time. We have always advised you that such an action would never come from the larger powers and nations of the world, but they will follow in lockstep once the actions begin their domino effect…..” 

UFOs Exist, Say 36 Percent in National Geographic Survey

ABC News, by Alon Harish, June 27, 2012

A survey from the National Geographic Channel found that 80 million
 Americans -- 36 per cent of those in a survey-- believe alien spaceships
exist. (Getty Images)

If you believe in UFOs, you may be in better company than you think.

Thirty-six percent of Americans -- about 80 million people if the survey applied to the whole country -- believe UFOs exist, and a tenth believe they have spotted one, a new National Geographic poll shows.

Seventeen percent said they did not believe in UFOs, or Unidentified Flying Objects, and nearly half of those surveyed said they were unsure. Perhaps reflective of today's political climate, there appears to be near-universal skepticism of government — nearly four-fifths of respondents said they believe the government has concealed information about UFOs from the public.

The study, commissioned in anticipation of National Geographic Channel's "Chasing UFOs" series premiering Friday night, was not all serious, said Brad Dancer, National Geographic's senior vice president for audience and business development. Respondents were asked whether President Barack Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney would handle an alien invasion better (Obama won 65 percent in that contest) and which superhero they would call in to fight off the attack (the Hulk beat out Batman and Spider-Man).

"We were trying to have a little fun and see if pop culture references have had an impact on people's beliefs," Dancer said. "It's intended as a fun survey of public opinion."

Hollywood, he added, may have contributed to the belief — held by 55 percent of Americans, according to the study — that Men in Black-style agents threaten people who report UFO sightings. As movies portraying aliens become increasingly convincing, they may subconsciously affect people's attitudes, he said.

A growing number of Americans have come to believe that Earth is not the only planet in the universe hosting life, he said. The study showed that 77 percent of Americans believe there are signs that aliens have visited Earth.

While the study may be used as ammunition by the vocal minority of UFO enthusiasts, Dancer said that it leaves open the precise definition of the term UFO.

"UFO doesn't necessarily mean alien spacecraft," he said. "There are things that are unexplained. They're interesting because they're unknown. People love a mystery."

The study, conducted by the polling firm Kelton Research, found that more Americans believe "The X-Files" best represented what would happen if aliens invaded Earth than any other movie.

The study, in which a random sample of 1,114 Americans 18 and over was surveyed, also asked what respondents would do if aliens visited Earth. Nearly a quarter said they would try to befriend the extraterrestrials, 13 percent said they would lock themselves indoors, and just one in 20 said they would "try to inflict bodily harm."

Those numbers did not surprise longtime UFO investigator David MacDonald, director of the non-profit Mutual UFO Network, who said the idea of contact with extraterrestrials has become commonplace in the last few decades.

"We have grown up with 'Star Trek,' 'Star Wars' and 'Battlestar Galactica,'" MacDonald said. "We're at the point where we'd say 'What planet are you from? Oh well, let's have a beer.'"

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Cooperation, not confrontation

Deutsche Welle, 26 June 2012

Education is the significant "raw material" for the future - more important than other assets in the race for global leadership, says German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle at DW's Global Media Forum.

"Education plays a central role in globalization," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told delegates at the Global Media Forum in Bonn.

"Access to good education determines whether an individual will rise in society, just as the quality of an education system decides on the rise and fall of a society," Westerwelle said Tuesday at the international three-day conference on education in a globalized world.

It is globalization which has led to the importance of education, and that has contributed to the increase of justice in the world, he said. A country's climate or valuable raw material assets are no longer what matters as much as creativity and knowledge, both a result of education and training. Westerwelle said the countries that stand to profit were those currently grappling with a host of problems due to the high percentage of young people in the population. Their vitality and creativity was what these countries must develop.

Education is the key

In his speech, Westerwelle summarized German cultural and education policies abroad, which the government defines as policies directed towards peace. Education, he said, is the key to a tolerant, pluralistic society; it promotes equality and respect and conveys values. From a German point of view, freedom, democracy and rule of law are values of strong appeal, he said - mirrored in Germany's value-oriented foreign policy. Globalization also contributes to communicating values, he said.

'Education is all a matter of building bridges' (Ralph Ellison)

Germanyis prepared to help consolidate democratic processes within civil society, Westerwelle said. "We actively support democratization processes," the Foreign Minister added. "In Tunisia and Egypt, we've launched an education, culture and media initiative called 'Site for the Future,'" he said. In cooperation with Deutsche Welle, the Berlin Foreign Ministry supports the creation of online media "because free media are a condition for developing opinion and thus the foundation of a civil society."

German history sets an example

Westerwelle pointed to German history as an example of how freedom, democracy, good governance and tolerance need to be learnt. Germany went through "the darkest chapter of its history" before it could develop what amounts to a liberal constitution, the Foreign Minister said, referring to Germany's Nazi period from 1933 to 1945. Today, he told the delegates in Bonn, Germany depends on openness and international networks - and this is a field in which non-governmental exchange is of particular importance. "In two world wars over the past century, France and Germany confronted each other, irreconcilable," he said and pointed out that was less than a lifetime ago.

Hoping to encourage people living in regions with political tensions, the German Foreign Minister said one must patiently focus on "communication and mediation." What was possible in Europe - despite the many difficulties - he said, is possible elsewhere, too.

Another issue close to Westerwelle's heart is the future composition of the UN Security Council. The way the body is set up today doesn't mirror the current international situation, he said; it is "an echo of the past." Westerwelle criticized the fact that neither Latin America nor Africa has a permanent seat on the council and Asia is represented merely by one state, China. He urged that these regions should be accepted as permanent members to allow the Security Council to react more credibly to international conflicts.

Author: Sabine Hartert / db

Editor: Michael Lawton

Former President Carter Warns US Abandoning Role as Rights Champion

Jakarta Globe, June 25, 2012

Former US president Jimmy Carter in a May 27 file photo. 
Carter warned on  Monday that the United States is losing its 
moral authority on human  rights by engaging in targeted assassinations
and other widespread rights abuses. Writing in The New York 
Times, Carter charged that US counterterrorism  policy was in
violation of 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. (AFP Photo/ASHRAF SHAZLY)

               

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Washington. Former president Jimmy Carter warned Monday that the United States is losing its moral authority on human rights by engaging in targeted assassinations and other widespread rights abuses.

Writing in The New York Times, Carter charged that US counterterrorism police was in violation of 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended,” he said.

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work in resolving conflicts since leaving office in 1980, is credited with having made human rights a central theme of US foreign policy.

But in his opinion piece, entitled “A Cruel and Unusual Record,” the former president warned that the United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights.

“At a time when popular revolutions are sweeping the globe, the United States should be strengthening, not weakening, basic rules of law and principles of justice enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he wrote. “But instead of making the world safer, America’s violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends.”

Among the abuses Carter cited were drone attacks that kill civilians, targeted assassinations of American citizens, powers to indefinitely detain terror suspects, the use of torture to obtain confessions and privacy violations through warrantless wiretapping and electronic data mining.

“This development began after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has been sanctioned and escalated by bipartisan executive and legislative actions, without dissent from the general public. As a result, our country can no longer speak with moral authority on these critical issues,” Carter said.

“While the country has made mistakes in the past, the widespread abuse of human rights over the last decade has been a dramatic change from the past,” he added.

Carter was particularly scathing about the campaign of drone attacks on suspected Al-Qaeda operatives, begun under the administration of George W. Bush and intensified since President Barack Obama took office.

“Despite an arbitrary rule that any man killed by drones is declared an enemy terrorist, the death of nearby innocent women and children is accepted as inevitable,” he wrote.

“After more than 30 airstrikes on civilian homes this year in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai has demanded that such attacks end, but the practice continues in areas of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen that are not in any war zone. We don’t know how many hundreds of innocent civilians have been killed in these attacks, each one approved by the highest authorities in Washington. This would have been unthinkable in previous times,” Carter wrote.

Citing top military and intelligence officials, Carter said the escalation of drone attacks has “turned aggrieved families toward terrorist organizations, aroused civilian populations against us and permitted repressive governments to cite such actions to justify their own despotic behavior.”

Agence France-Presse

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Islamist Morsi Wins Egypt Presidential Vote

ABC News, by Maggie Michael, Associated Press, CAIRO June 24, 2012

Egypt's election commission has declared Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood the winner of Egypt's first free elections by a narrow margin over Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.

The commission said Morsi won with 51.7 percent of the vote versus 48.3 for Shafiq.

A huge crowd of Morsi supporters in Cairo's Tahrir Square erupted in cheers and dancing when the result was read out on live television.

FILE - In this Sunday, May 20, 2012 file photo, the Muslim

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... What Military Energy means if we use an analogy: it would be like putting grinding paste into the oil of your motor car. Once you release these energies you will begin to feel lighter as you disconnect from this reality, and, you will find it easier and easier to release any other negative emotions. Military Energies are the core of all your problems...."


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U.S. monsignor found guilty on one count in church abuse case

Chicago Tribune,  Reuters,  Dave Warner, June 22, 2012

Monsignor Lynn returns to the courthouse after lunch recess on the opening
 day of his child sex abuse trial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(Tim Shaffer Reuters, REUTERS / March 26, 2012) 

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A monsignor who oversaw hundreds of priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese was found guilty on Friday of one count of endangering the welfare of a child, making him the first senior U.S. Roman Catholic Church official to be convicted for covering up child sex abuse.

The jury acquitted Monsignor William Lynn on two other counts - conspiracy and another charge of child endangerment.

Lynn was accused of what prosecutors said was an effort to cover up child sex abuse allegations, often by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.

Removing his black clerical jacket but leaving on his collar, a stoic Lynn, 61, was led out of the courtroom and into custody by deputy sheriffs as his family members wept.

"Every juror there wanted to do justice... we wanted to do what was right," jury foreman Isa Logan, 35, a customer service representative at a local bank told reporters outside the courtroom.

Sentencing for Lynn, who faces up to seven years in prison, was set for August 13 by Judge M. Teresa Sarmina.

While prosecutors argued that Lynn should immediately be jailed, the judge said she would consider house arrest if the defense asked for it.

The jury deliberated 13 days before reaching the mixed decision in the trial of Lynn, who for 12 years served as secretary of the clergy.

"This is a strong message, and we're grateful for that message that kids' safety has to come first," said Barbara Dorris, outreach director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

It puts the church on notice that it can no longer "shield and protect" abusive priests and expect to get away with it, Dorris said.

The case against Lynn was part of a broader indictment against clergy in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. One of the priests, Reverend William Brennan, was tried along with Lynn and faced charges of attempted rape and child endangerment. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the counts against Brennan.

A third priest who was scheduled to go on trial with Lynn and Brennan pleaded guilty at the last minute to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old altar boy at church in 1999.

The jury began deliberating earlier this month after hearing 10 weeks of testimony in a trial that re-focused attention on the broader sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church, costing billions in settlements, driving prominent U.S. dioceses into bankruptcy and testing the faith of Roman Catholics.

In this case, Lynn's job was supervising 800 priests, including investigating sex abuse claims from 1992 to 2004, in the nation's sixth largest archdiocese, with 1.5 million members.

At the trial, prosecutors argued that Lynn chose to protect the church at the expense of children, in an effort to avoid scandal and potential loss of financial support for the church.

The defense said Lynn tried to address cases of pedophile priests, compiling a list in 1994 of 35 accused predators and writing memos to suggest treatment and suspensions.

He was hampered because he could merely make recommendations to his boss, the head of the archdiocese, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the defense said. Bevilacqua died in January at age 88.

LYNN'S TESTIMONY KEY TO VERDICT

According to Lynn's testimony, which the jury foreman said was key to reaching a verdict, the cardinal said any mention of an accused priest's move from a parish should cite health reasons, never the accusations. Testimony also showed Bevilacqua ordered the list of accused priests be destroyed, although a lone copy was found in an Archdiocese safe.

Prosecutors used that list to show the church was well aware of predatory priests and covered up their existence, while the defense used the same list to argue it showed Lynn attempting to stop the problem.

The U.S. scandal erupted in 1992 with a series of sex abuse cases uncovered in the Archdiocese of Boston that helped encourage other victims of abuse to come forward.

Some 3,000 civil lawsuits alleging abuse were filed in the United States between 1984 and 2009. An unknown number of complaints - believed to be vastly more - were settled privately, often with confidentiality agreements, experts say.

The church has paid out some $2 billion in settlements to victims, bankrupting a handful of dioceses. Hefty multi-million sums were paid out by Catholic Archdiocese in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, declared bankruptcy in 2009, and the Diocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, did so in 2011.

Lynn's trial was noteworthy because of its focus on the role of a church official accused not of molestation but of covering it up. It raises questions of personal responsibility and how far someone such as Lynn could or should have stepped outside the rigors of the church hierarchy and whether strict obedience to church elders is defensible, experts said.

The decision comes as another jury in Pennsylvania is deciding an even higher-profile child sex abuse case, that one against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

In that case, Sandusky is charged with 48 counts of child sex abuse and jurors began deliberations on Thursday.

The scandal resulted in the firing of legendary football coach Joe Paterno and University President Graham Spanier for failing to do more when alerted to suspicions about Sandusky. Paterno, 85, died in January.

(Reporting by Dave Warner; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Vicki Allen)

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CIA Wanted 'Torture' Cage for Secret Prison: Official

ABC News, by Randy Kreider, June 22, 2012

A Polish official says that prosecutors have a construction order that proves the CIA wanted a cage for terror suspects built at a secret 'black site' prison inside Poland.

Senator Jozef Pinior claims Krakow prosecutors have a document that shows a local contractor was asked to build a cage at Stare Kiekuty, a Polish army based used as a CIA prison for al Qaeda terror suspects in 2002 and 2003.

"In a state with rights," Pinior told the Polish paper Gazeta Wyborcza, "people in prison are not kept in cages." He said a cage was "non-standard equipment" for a prison, but standard "if torture was used there."

In this Dec. 16, 2005 file photo a 
watch tower overlooks the area 
near the Polish intelligence school
just outside  of Stare Kiejkuty, Poland. 
(Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo)

Asked if he was sure the cage was for humans, he said, "What was it for? Exotic birds?" He said he has not seen the construction order, but that the Krakow prosecutor's office, which is investigating the prison, has a copy of it.

This week Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the prosecutor's office also allegedly has a signed order from Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, the then-head of Polish intelligence, authorizing the creation of the black site. A source told the paper that the agreement has a space intended for an American signature, but that the Americans did not sign the document "because they do not want to sign documents inconsistent with their own Constitution and international law."

Siemiatkowski did not confirm or deny the existence of the agreement, but said he could not discuss anything he might have signed because it would be classified.

Gazeta Wyborcza reported in March that Siemiatkowski had been charged with permitting the corporal punishment of prisoners of war. Siematkowski has acknowledged publicly that he is under investigation.

Alexander Kwasniewski and Leszek Miller, who were president and prime minister at the time it was allegedly used as a CIA prison, have denied the existence of the Stare Kiekuty black site.  Sen. Pinior said he presented his evidence "with regret, because I always valued [Kwasniewski's] presidency."

Several terror suspects, including Abu Zubaydah, have said they were tortured at the Polish site prior to their relocation to Guantanamo. One suspect claims a gun and a power drill were pointed at his head during his interrogation.

After Poland launched its official investigation of the Stare Kiekuty site, President Bronislaw Komorowski said the probe was needed because "the reputation of Poland is at stake."

ABC News previously revealed the location of another CIA prison at a former riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2006, President Bush acknowledged that the U.S. had used "black site" prisons in foreign countries, and said many of the suspects who had been detained there were then moved to Guantanamo Bay. While denying that the U.S. employed torture, he said that the U.S. had used an "alternative set of procedures" to interrogate prisoners.

The CIA declined to comment to ABC News on the reported black site in Poland or on Senator Pinior's allegations about a cage.

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