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from That Would be the Day Friday, March 11, 2005 - 13:28 (Agree/Disagree?) I read on Yahoo news the headline "Fugitive Cult Leader Arrested in Argentina" and I crossed my fingers. Well, not quite, but maybe nex time it will be? "Former Nazi captured in Argentina, faces child sex charges Fri Mar 11, 9:04 AM ET Entertainment - AFP BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - A former German Nazi soldier turned Chilean sect leader has been arrested in Argentina and will face child sex abuse charges. Paul Schaefer, 83, was detained Thursday in a joint operation between Argentine and Chilean police in the small town of Tortuguitas west of Buenos Aires. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer Friday hailed the arrest and said he hoped it would shed light on the alleged abuse at the secretive Colonia Dignidad community in the mountains of southern Chile. Schaefer had been in hiding since a warrant for his arrest on multiple counts of pedophilia was issued in August 1996. Former members of the cult have testified that Schaefer systematically abused young children in the colony, many of whom were taken from their parents at birth. Schaefer was convicted of the charges in absentia in November 2004 along with 22 other Dignidad members. Fischer said: "The arrest of Paul Schaefer is good news. "His arrest will allow a comprehensive investigation into all the criminal activities in the former Colonia Dignidad to be carried out and punishments to be handed down. "The Chilean and German authorities have charged Schaefer with serious crimes, including false imprisonment and sexual abuse of minors," he added in a statement. Chilean President Ricardo Lagos also expressed his satisfaction at the arrest. Argentine Police Commissioner Alejandro Dinisio told AFP that Schaefer carried no identification documents and refused to speak as he was arrested. Dinisio said police had been on Schaefer's trail for six months. Television reporters mobbed Schaefer as the elderly suspect, handcuffed but smiling, was pushed in his wheelchair into a provincial police station. Officials said he could be transferred to Buenos Aires Friday. To speed up Schaefer's departure, the Chilean interior minister asked his Argentine counterpart to kick him out of Argentina and avoid going to court to ask for an extradition, which could delay the case with appeals. A former corporal and medic in the Nazi army, Schaefer fled Germany to Chile in 1961 to avoid child sexual abuse charges. He and other German immigrants established the community in the mountains near the city of Parral, some 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of Santiago. Surrounded by barbed and electrified wire and protected by barricades, the community adhered to a strict regime devised by Schaefer and remained cut off from the rest of the world. The colony still exists, but has been renamed Villa Baviera in a bid to shake off its past. Around 300 people, mainly Germans, still live there. Chilean officials also want to question Schaefer in connection with torture during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites). Investigators say that political prisoners, including former leftist leader Alvaro Vallejos Villagran -- arrested by Pinochet's agents in May 1974 -- vanished after being sent to Colonia Dignidad. A former member of Pinochet's secret police has said he knew Vallejos Villagran was taken alive to Dignidad. Police also want to question Schaefer about the 1985 disappearance of Boris Weisfeiler, an American Jewish mathematics professor of Russian origin. Investigators believe Weisfeiler was picked up by a military border patrol while he was backpacking in the region. Suspected of being a spy, he was sent to Dignidad. Weisfeiler's sister Olga said Dignidad residents reported seeing him alive up to two years later. (reply to this comment)

from anovagrrl Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 10:47 (Agree/Disagree?) When I was in direct clinical practice and evaluated someone like Karen Zerby, I privately thought of it as "holes in the head" syndrome. Where "normals" have cognitive structures that link emotions with logical thought processes--as evidenced by relatively sound ethical reasoning and behavior--people like Zerby have gaps in the brain tissue where the synapses don't fire because they just aren't there to begin with. Sometimes the existing synapses fire, but the neural lagoons are so big that faulty connections in logic are made. This is just my private concept of the problem--it's the picture I get when I watch this sort of person's thought processes. Karen Zerby is very typical of people who show up in sex offender treatment programs. Three major goals of sex offender treatment are to keep the community safe, increase the offender's capacity for empathy, and correct their numerous thinking errors. Clinicians who treat sex offenders put their clients on strict behavioral contracts. Offenders in community treatment programs have court involvement, a P.O., and lots of rules to follow. If they screw up, they get locked up. Basically, Zerby needs to be put on a leash and have the choke collar snapped every time she gets it wrong. Whatever happened during Zerby's development that made her turn out this way is somewhat irrelevant. Even if we had more answers to the sources of Zerby's narcissism, corrective treatment would be the same. Sex offenders do not benefit from psychodynamic analysis. (reply to this comment)

from banal_commentator Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 09:01 (Agree/Disagree?) eeewww ewww ewwww, I just saw a pic of zerby for the first time. (reply to this comment)

From afflick Thursday, March 10, 2005, 10:46 (Agree/Disagree?) That is not Zerby. It is Sam and Cherish's Mom, Palestina (Amy).(reply to this comment)

From JohnnieWalker Thursday, March 10, 2005, 11:03 (Agree/Disagree?) What photo are you referencing? The ones found here: http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/Karen_Zerby are all of Karen Zerby. There was a thumbnail of Palestina up there, but that was soon replaced when the error was noticed.(reply to this comment)

From Shaka Thursday, March 10, 2005, 09:52 (Agree/Disagree?) Go thou, and wash thine eyes in the pool of Siloam!(reply to this comment)

from Wolf Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 06:21 (Agree/Disagree?) Maybe her mother held her too much ... or not enough (courtesy of Con Air) Who cares? She made a conscious decision to become a creep. She's right about one thing, though: perverts like her have been abusing kids since the dawn of time. (reply to this comment)