From fortfan@aol.comSat Apr  1 09:54:20 1995
Date: 12 Mar 1995 17:34:04 -0500
From: FORTFAN 
Reply to: prj@mail.msen.com
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: FINDERS ARTICLE
Resent-Date: Sat, 18 Mar 1995 10:57:52 -0500 (EST)
Resent-From: James Daugherty 
Resent-To: prj@mail.msen.com


-=BEGIN PART II=-

  Source: U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, DEC. 27 1993/JAN. 3 1994

               THROUGH A GLASS, VERY DARKLY.

          Cops, Spies and a Very Odd Investigation.

      By Gordon Witkin and Peter Cary with Ancel Martinez.


    The case is almost seven years old now, but matters
  surrounding a mysterious group known as the Finders keeps
  growing curiouser and curiouser.

    In early February 1987, an anonymous tipster in Tallahassee,
  Fla., made a phone call to police. Two "well-dressed men"
  seemed to be "supervising" six disheveled and hungry children
  in a local park, the caller said. The cops went after the case
  like bloodhounds - at least at first. The two men were
  identified as members of the Finders. They were charged with
  child abuse in Florida. In Washington, D.C., police and U.S.
  Customs Service agents raided a duplex apartment building and a
  warehouse connected to the group. Among the evidence seized:
  detailed instructions on how to obtain children for unknown
  purposes and several photographs of nude children. According to
  a Customs Service memorandum obtained by U.S. News, one photo
  appeared "to accent the child's genitals."

    The more police learned about the Finders, the more bizarre
  they seemed: There were suggestions of child abuse, Satanism,
  dealing in pornography and ritualistic animal slaughter.

    None of the allegations was ever proved, however. The child
  abuse charges against the two men in Tallahassee were dropped;
  all six of the children were eventually returned to their
  mothers, though in the case of two, conditions were attached by
  a court. In Washington, D.C., police began backing away from
  the Finders investigation. The group's practices, the police
  said, were eccentric - not illegal.

  Questions.

   Today, things appear to have changed yet again. The Justice
  Department has begun a new investigation into the Finders and
  into the group's activities. It is also reviewing the 1987
  investigation into the group to determine whether the probe was
  closed improperly.  Justice officials will not elaborate,
  except to say that the investigation is "ongoing" and that it
  involves "unresolved matters" in relation to the Finders.

    One of the unresolved questions involves allegations that the
  Finders are somehow linked to the Central Intelligence Agency.
  Customs Service documents reveal that in 1987, when Customs
  agents sought to examine the evidence gathered by Washington,
  D.C. police, they were told that the Finders investigation "had
  become a CIA internal matter." The police report on the case
  had been classified secret. Even now, Tallahassee police
  complain about the handling of the investigation by D.C.
  police. "They dropped this case," one Tallahassee investigator
  says, "like a hot rock." D.C. police will not comment on the
  matter. As for the CIA, ranking officials describe allegations
  about links between the intelligence agency and the Finders as
  "hogwash" - perhaps the result of a simple mix-up with D.C.
  police. The only connection, according to the CIA: A firm that
  provided computer training to CIA officers also employed
  several members of the Finders.

    The many unanswered questions about the Finders case now have
  Democratic Rep. Charlie Rose of North Carolina, chairman of the
  House Administration Committee, and Florida's Rep. Tom Lewis, a
  Republican, more than a little exercised. "Could our own
  government have something to do with this Finders organization
  and turned their backs on these children? That's what all the
  evidence points to," says Lewis. "And there is a lot of
  evidence. I can tell you this: We've got a lot of people
  scrambling, and that wouldn't be happening if there was nothing
  here."

    Perhaps. But the Finders say there is nothing there - at
  least nothing illegal. The Finders have never been involved in
  child abuse, pornography, Satanism, animal slaughter or
  anything of the kind, says the group's leader, Marion David
  Pettie. Pettie, too, says the group has never been connected to
  the CIA. In an interview with U.S. News, Pettie described the
  Finders as a communal, holistic-living and learning
  arrangement. The group numbers some 20 members, Pettie says;
  they do freelance journalism, research and "competitor
  intelligence" for a variety of mostly foreign clients. The
  Finders work for no foreign governments, Pettie says. Their
  duplex, in a residential Northwest Washington neighborhood, is
  decorated with global maps and bulletin boards. Residents in
  Culpepper, Va., 90 minutes from Washington, say the Finders
  operated an office there, too, from time to time. That office
  contained computer terminals and clocks reflecting different
  time zones from around the world.

    CIA officials say they refer all matters concerning the
  Finders and the police investigation to the FBI's Foreign
  Counterintelligence Division. FBI officials will not comment.
  Law enforcement sources say some of the Finders are listed in
  the FBI's classified counterintelligence files.

    None of this fazes Pettie. He says the CIA's interest in the
  Finders may stem from the fact that his late wife once worked
  for the agency and that his son worked for a CIA proprietary
  firm, Air America. Overall, says Pettie, "we're a zero security
  threat. When you don't do much of anything, and you don't
  explain, people start rumors about you." To judge from the
  latest case, some of the rumors can last an awfully long time.

-=END PART II=-


                       The _Other_ Bob
                            From
        The Fortean Research Center BBS (402) 488-2587
                  (Speaking only for myself)