By Lori Handrahan, Ph.D.
While the upcoming presidential elections are capturing America's attention, in Great Britain everyone is asking how BBC's late Jimmy Savile was allowed to sexually abuse so many children for so long. Adult silence is easy to buy when it is only children who suffer.
From England to America's New England, systematic corruption is the insurance policy that pedophiles use to indulge their crimes. In Maine a so-called prostitution scandal is now slowly leaking out in the prestigious town of Kennebunk. The possibility that children are involved has been mentioned. Folks in Maine are also asking how this could be possible: Structural corruption is the answer.
New England has a colonial history of burning women at the stake. Alexis Wright, prostitute to Maine's self-proclaimed big men, has been charged with 106 counts while, after much wrangling, only 39 of a total of 178 johns have been charged. Where are the other 139? Do these match the 180 names given by abused children in 1987 that included then-Sen. Bill Cohen?
Maine columnist Renee Ordway asks why Maine's elite men should be protected. Why indeed. The answer is Maine's "elite" men have established a statewide structural system of protection that has enriched and shielded them. The Kennebunk prostitution scandal is unfolding against the back-drop of Maine's Old Boys – men who have controlled the state for a very long time.
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Maine is recognized as one of America's most corrupt state. Old boys' networks are structural systems of corruption. Maine ranks as the worst state in the entire nation for judicial oversight. Judicial corruption and the protection of lawyers, state government and police friends is the norm in Maine. Maine's cottage industry of fake nonprofits took $235 million in state funds from 2003 to 2010. State Integrity, an oversight organization in Washington, D.C., reports Maine's state lawmakers serve on committees that fund these nonprofits, never disclosing the connections. More often than not Maine's nonprofits appear to be front organizations providing public relations cover and easy state funds for the Old Boys.
It has been reported that child porn may be involved in the Kennebunk scandal. All child porn investigations are controlled by Lt. Glenn Lang, head of the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit. The agency has refused to file a public annual report since 2006. Rep. David Burns, chairman of Maine's Government Oversight Committee, attempted to investigate. State Sen. Bill Diamond apparently blocked the investigation. Why?
Cause of Action, an organization focused on government oversight, did the math on Maine's Computer Crimes Unit and was concerned enough to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Justice. "One is left to wonder," said Cause of Action, "what Maine is doing with the federal money it receives." Lt. Lang is in charge of investigating evidence of child porn in the Kennebunk scandal. There is reason to believe that this investigation may be less than impartial. Old Boys might be protected.
Structural corruption is organized crime. Organized crime has a stranglehold on Maine. The No. 1 moneymaker of organized crime is child trafficking and child porn. Maine has just been recognized as the source, for the entire East Coast, of children to traffic into the sex trade. Men who buy sex tend to want woman to be as young as possible. Adult prostitution is rarely only "adult." Men who buy sex often want girls. Girls are children. Sex with children is child trafficking. Chances are slim that Alexis Wright was the only woman who serviced the 178 "elite" Maine men. Under-age girls, even children, are very likely involved.
This is the reason for the epic battle to seal the evidence and hide the johns list. The Old Boys are protecting their own just as BBC executives and other community leaders protected Jimmy Savile. Maine's political landscape is one of widespread male-dominated corruption. If she sinks, she was innocent; if she floats, she's a witch – burn her at the stake. Not much has changed in Maine from Colonial days when men protected each other's crimes and innocent women and children, who dared to speak truth to power, died at the stake.
Lori Handrahan, Ph.D. is an expert on America's national security and the child trafficking and child porn industry. She is professor at American University's School of International Service in Washington, D.C., and can be reached at [email protected].