Boy Scout director charged with (receiving and distributing) child porn

[truthpusher]

Boy Scout director charged with having child porn
Organization 'dismayed and shocked by allegations
-----------------------------
NBC News
Updated: 1:24 p.m. ET March 29, 2005
-----------------------------
DALLAS, Texas - The national director of programs for the Boy Scouts of America has been charged with receiving and distributing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's office here told NBC News on Tuesday.

Douglas S. Smith Jr. was charged with one felony count of having photos that show "minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct."

Sources in the U.S. Attorney's office told NBC that Smith was expected to plead guilty.

(snip)

"We are dismayed and shocked to learn of the charge," it said. "Smith was employed by the organization for 39 years, with no indication of prior criminal activity. He was not in a leadership position which involved working directly with youth."

complete story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7326932/

[WI_DEM]

1. and yet they get a feather up their asses about gay scoutmasters

[GoddessOfGuinness]

36. The trouble is, they associate kid porn with gays

That's why they freak about scoutmasters' sexuality. They'll use this as yet another opportunity to spout their ignorance about gay people.

[Merope215]

2. Well, at least they kept the gays out

Good to see the Boy Scouts are keeping up with their moral values and all. :puke:

[skypilot]

6. Unfortunately...

...the full article says that the pictures were of young boys so this doesn't help the whole Boy Scouts/gays controversy.

[Merope215]

8. Yikes

I don't even know what to say about that, except that people who use kids this way are Evil with a capital E.

[cascadiance]

10. They'll probably use this incident as a rationalization

on why they keep gays out of their organization. And that if they'd known earlier they would have got rid of him a long time ago, even if they only knew he was gay and didn't have the "pictures" evidence yet.

[skypilot]

12. Exactly.

This is only going to pour gasoline on that particular fire.

[nonconformist]

18. Men who enjoy looking at porn featuring young boys are not gay

They're pedophiles.

[cascadiance]

19. Will that distinction stop this rationalization?

NO!

[nonconformist]

20. Of course not. nt

[SemperEadem]

23. exactly

I don't think that this is in any way an indictment against gay scoutmasters at all. I'll bet even money that he's married with kids of his own and has been able to blend in and go undetected in his pedophile pursuits because he is not gay.

Homophobes always think a man possessing/viewing pics of young boys automatically = them being gay, when that's not always the truth... they are pedophiles.

[libnnc]

43. exactly...

and well put.

Focus, people. Focus. :banghead:

[pelagius]

31. The national BSA does not ban gays because they fear pedophilia...

...but because they think gay people are intrinsically immoral and bad role models. Without exception.

http://www.bsalegal.org/faqs-113.htm

[Kber]

32. Pedophilia and homosexuality are NOT the same thing.

[Toucano]

13. Correction: They keep OPENLY gay people out.

Closeted gays are okie fine.

Obviously, people who repress themselves and lie to themselves and others about their whole identity are responsible for problems like this.

The whole policy encourages deceit which isn't all that healthy I imagine.

[UpInArms]

3. seems like the BSs need to shift their filter a bit

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/special_packages/btk/11019025.htm

Scouters recall Rader as good father, knot expert

Dennis Rader taught Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts how to tie knots.

He was good at knots.

The old Scout leaders remember that.

They remember that Rader doted on his own son, that he helped the boy turn himself into an Eagle Scout. That he was tireless, that he showed up at hundreds of Scout gatherings.

<snip>

Bind, torture, kill.

...more...

[livinginphotographs]

17. He was good at knot tying....

But very bad at knot downloading kiddie porn.

I know, that was bad.

[BigBearJohn]

4. He resigned and was offered a new position

Could it be true? I understand that this boy scout official has since quit that organization and has accepted a "position" as activities director at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. This is tragic and an embarrassment to that man's family.

The guy had a screw loose, he ought to spend some time in jail.

[WMliberal]

7. I can't wait to hear fundies defend his behavior.

:popcorn:

[livinginphotographs]

16. See above.

"Bu-bu-but he was good at knots!"

[dhinojosa]

9. Damn you SOUTHPARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your episodes truly foretell the future!

[slackmaster]

15. Big Gay Al the Scoutmaster was the same episode as Cripple Fight!

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

(On edit - It should be noted that Big Gay Al's Nazi replacement, not Big Gay Al, was the pedophile.)

http://www.spscriptorium.com/Season5/E503script.htm

[Catherine Vincent]

11. Could this have been a setup?

And can this happen to anyone?

[deacon2]

14. Gives new meaning to the term "WEBELOS"

A site explaining this intriguing "scouting" term:

http://www.mninter.net/~blkeagle/webelos.htm

When I think back now to my childhood and all the time I spent alone with priests as an altar boy and scout leaders as both a cub and boy scout, I just have to shudder. As it turned out, these were actually wonderful times and none of them ever did anything vaguely out of line. But when I read these types of stories, which seem to be appearing more and more each day, I have to believe it's a miracle I wasn't sodomized into a god damn coma.

[onager]

21. Anyone want to bet...

...they're about to "discover" he was also a Closet Atheist?

:evilgrin:

[comsymp]

33. "sodomized into a god damn coma"

My coworkers are wondering what's so funny over here - thanks.

[Solly Mack]

22. Go figure...

[bluedeminredstate]

24. Quite a policy -

No queers, homos, fags, and other names that homophobes use about gay people (I just couldn't go any further - they can get so creative in their offensiveness) need apply to work or volunteer in the Boy Scouts. BUT your odd pedophile appears to be welcome to join the organization which then gives them a perfect place to act out their ABNORMAL and twisted and life-damaging crimes against children.

BTW, when's the last time you heard a fundie declare that sexual attraction to and sex acts with children are against the laws of nature and an abomination to will of God, which they seem to be experts on in the same way they "protect" them from gays? Over the years I've heard a distinct lack of railing against pedophiles that comes even close to the un-Christian declarations that the act of being born gay is a terrible sin that leaves the gay person unworthy of Christ's love and acceptance. I might have heard mild statements about the fact that pedophilia, in general, is wrong and immoral, but nothing compared to the vitriol and sanctimoneous bloviation when they talk about gays and their "lifestyle" that is ruining our country and targeting our children.

The fact that the Boy Scouts fought so hard to keep gays away from their innocent children and yet a figure that high in the organization was doing the very thing the that the Boy Scouts said gay leaders allowed in the organization would be tempted to do around all those boys (due to their nature), is something you couldn't write a novel about without being called a "conspiracy theorist." It's really the best way to show the hyprocrisy of this issue if not for the victims.

The sick belief that being gay is worse than deviant, evil behavior that affects a child forever is made clear to the faithful by some who also believe that homosexuality and pedophilia are basically one in the same. Some people believe that if you're gay then you obviously want to rape children. And some of these people are doing it themselves! Just think about that for a minute and imagine how spiritually bankrupt these people are.

This has nothing to do with God, Jesus, right, or wrong, and everything about the fact that those who scream the loudest about "sin" have a reason for doing so. And it usually isn't because they are so morally moved by the issue that they act as though they are fiercely protecting their kids . When you listen to the language they use, the intolerance they practice and the targeting of a group, it seems very clear that they are not acting in a selfless manner.

[Senior citizen]

42. Fundies seem to believe that same-sex acts are only

an abomination if both partners are above the age of consent.

[Megahurtz]

25. Ew!

Another perv!:freak:

[demo dutch]

26. Where else Texas! That's nice!

First the Priests now the Boyscouts!

[DS1]

27. As long as it's not GAY child PORN, everything should be okay

:sarcasm:

[demo dutch]

30. They were boys! What else did you expect!

First the priests now the boyscouts!

[NNN0LHI]

28. This happened weeks ago with no big announcements on the MSN

But Michael Jackson has been non-stop. I think Google has been scrubbing photos of this guy meeting with Republican politicians off their cache ever since. Can't find hardly anything there. You know this guy has been in news photos shaking hands with Bush. Where they at?

Don

[pelagius]

29. The BSA national organization is top-heavy with...

...Texas Republicans and Mormons. This could be interesting on number of levels. :evilgrin:

[Squatch]

34. The people who will suffer most in this case are the kids.

The BSA needs to have a little shakeup for the good of the organization, and this just might be the precipitate.

In the mean time, tho, the kids are going to bear the brunt of this scandal. It's a shame because the BSA could be a cultivar for compassionate, strong youth.

[Duncan Grant]

35. kick

:kick:

[xchrom]

37. while this is horrifying

i am feeling some sense of grim satisfaction at their current discomfort.

i'm guessing that with the number of conservatives running that organization -- this is the tip of the iceberg.

[RetroLounge]

38. Same Guy???

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=Smith%2C+Douglas&txtState=TX&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&Order=N

What's with Republicans and kiddie porn?

RL

[Zorra]

39. Don't know if any of them are the same guy, but check out this letter

he wrote.

Corporate Legal Times
September, 2004
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 10
Boy Scout Pride

Dear Editor:

Bruce Collins is mistaken when he calls Boy Scouts a "fundamentally different" organization from the one he joined 40 years ago. <"An Eagle Scout Takes Issue With Group's Politics" July, p. 7>.

Boy Scouts is the same organization with the same values and goals. What is fundamentally different, however, is our times. Some intolerant elements in our society want to force scouting to abandon its values and to become fundamentally different. They want scouting to forego its constitutional rights, affirmed in 2000 by the Supreme Court in BSA v. Dale, and adopt fundamentally different values from the ones that helped shape the character of Mr. Collins and 106 million other young men over the past 94 years. It bothers Mr. Collins that scouting is defending itself, even though he acknowledged that it has been "dragged into" the "culture war." He says the tone of our legal-issues web site, bsalegal.org, is defensive.

The site does seek to defend our values and to inform the public about the three-decade-long legal assault on scouting. That we need a legal-issues web site is testament to the fact that our constitutional rights are under
attack. Clearly, Mr. Collins longs for a time when the Boy Scout organization could give its undivided attention to the "good stuff" of Scouting: "camping and life skills ..." So do we. Mr. Collins would do well to communicate his displeasure to those directing their discriminatory assault against his beloved Boy Scouts -- the ACLU.

Douglas S. Smith Jr.
National Director of Program Boy Scouts of America

http://www.scoutingforall.org/articles/2004101612.shtml

[foreigncorrespondent]

40. Oh!

Yet another so called "moral" group who bans gays but allows pedophiles.

[Charon]

50. "Oh"

Do you really believe that the organization knew that this man was a pedophile, and then allowed him to continue in their employ?

[llmart]

41. NPR did a story not long ago......

on how scout leaders were "cooking the books" with regards to membership rolls so that they would receive more funding. One scoutmaster resigned and pulled his son out of scouting saying that he could no longer be a part of an organization that was so hypocritical. I applaud those types.

Why are conservatives the most hypocritical people I know?

[NVMojo]

44. take that, you sick twisted, judgemental fundies!! Your leaders

are falling!!!!!!

[democrat_patriot]

45. Remember-Bob Frist 'stands by the boy scouts'

How many hypocritical actions does it take?

This teflon coated repug party / administration is unbelievable.

Where's Jeff Gannon? Sitting on a journalist panel.

[varun]

46. This guy sided with BSA's anti-gay policy

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/national/30scout.html


...Mr. Smith also responded on behalf of the Boy Scouts in September 2004 when a lawyer and onetime Eagle Scout, Bruce D. Collins, wrote a letter taking issue with the Boy Scouts' dismissal of an assistant scoutmaster, James Dale, because he was gay. The case reached the Supreme Court and established the Boy Scouts' right to bar gays under the organization's own First Amendment right of expressive association.

Mr. Smith replied that "some intolerant elements in our society want to force scouting to abandon its values and become fundamentally different." He said that Mr. Collins "would do well to communicate his displeasure to those directing their discriminatory assault against his beloved Boy Scouts - the A.C.L.U."

Last year, Mr. Smith was honored by the Boy Scouts with a Distinguished Service Award. His nomination read in part, "His visionary support to the National OA Committee has allowed our Order to move to new levels."...

[varun]

47. more on this guy...

http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=15565&sd=03/30/05

...A former Boy Scouts of America program director who defended the organization's ban on gays has been charged with felony possession and distribution of child pornography and was expected to appear in federal court Wednesday, according to court records. Many expected him to plead guilty. Douglas Sovereign Smith Jr. is accused of receiving images over the Internet in February that contained children "engaging in sexually explicit conduct," including oral sex and intercourse. The charges were filed March 21 in the Fort Worth division of the northern district of Texas. "We're shocked and dismayed to learn of this," said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Irving, Texas-based Boy Scouts. "Smith was employed by the Boy Scouts for 39 years and we had no indication of prior criminal activity."...

[Heidi]

48. Fox In Henhouse: Smith was in charge of the "Youth Protection Program"

No wonder we've got kids being harmed when the foxes are watching the henhouse. You guys have GOT to read this letter he sent to Scout executives in November 2002:

http://www.bsawac.org/Training/Youth%20Protection%20On%20Line.htm

(Edit: Correction)

[Heidi]

49. Screen shot of the letter.

In another DU thread, I was told the link brings up a 404 error. Here's a screenshot of the letter Smith sent Scout execs in 2002: