Frustrated by the gridlock in Congress, John Walsh is headed back to Capitol Hill. And this time, the former longtime “America’s Most Wanted” host says he’s ready to name names in order to get lawmakers to reauthorize a bill named after his son.
“The Adam Walsh Act is stuck in that morass of Capitol Hill that’s only focused in on who’s going to be the next president,” Walsh says. “So I’m now going back to what I did since 1981, since my son was murdered: To walk the halls, and get senators and congressmen to get it out of committee and get it reauthorized. It was passed unanimously.”
Former President George W. Bush signed the federal statute, which created a national sex offender registry, in 2006. The bipartisan legislation was named for Walsh’s 6-year-old son, who was murdered after being abducted from a Florida shopping mall.
Walsh plans to lobby lawmakers in the coming weeks to reauthorize the act.
“So I go back to saddle up, because everybody’s so obsessed with this vitriolic gridlock. Republicans hating and dissing Democrats. Vice versa. Government’s ground down to a halt. I think Americans don’t realize how bad it is. It’s the worst I’ve seen it since 1981,” exclaims Walsh.
ITK recently caught up with the television personality and host of CNN’s “The Hunt” at an intimate dinner at the newly opened Cities Restaurant & Lounge in downtown Washington. Publicist Janet Donovan, Hollywood on the Potomac and Cities owner Michael Kosmides hosted the event. Walsh was in town spreading the word about the Justice Network, where he serves as spokesman.
The face of the digital multicast network touts the fact that the outlet airs photos and information about missing children every hour.
“Now that ‘America’s Most Wanted’ is off the air, parents of long-term missing children have no resources. They have nowhere to go,” Walsh recalls of what he told Justice Network execs at their initial meeting. “’I want you to run pictures of missing children every hour. I know it’ll cost advertising time,’” Walsh, the co-founder of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, told them.
“And they went, ‘That’s a good idea.’”
So far, Walsh says, there have been 27 recoveries of missing kids, whose photos have been shown on the Justice Network since January, including one direct recovery.
Beyond his role with the new network, Walsh says he intends to go on a media blitz, making the cable and network news rounds to get the word out about lawmakers who aren’t on board with the reauthorization of the act.
“I’m going to name your name. I’m going to say, ‘You are Senator so-and-so, or you’re a member of the House, and you’re holding it up.’ That’s the only way to do it, to really call them out.”
Lawmakers, says Walsh, all too often play the blame game when he meets with them at the Capitol. “You’ll go and see them and they say, ‘She’s holding it up. He’s not getting the hearing for it. And he hasn’t called. Thanks for coming, Mr. Walsh. You’re a great guy, an American institution.’”
“And I go, ‘Bullshit. It’s in your committee. You’re up for reelection,’” Walsh exclaims.
When asked by ITK what the solution to the gridlock on the Hill is, Walsh, 69, replies bluntly, “Get them the hell out of there.”
Term limits, he says, could ease the impasse in Congress.
Some lawmakers, he says, “They got people making decisions for them, they’re in a coma. There are guys that have been there too long. It should be based on how much good legislation you can get passed, you know, what you’re really doing up there, not that ‘I want to be senator or congressman for life.’”
As Reprinted by Prison Legal News:
John Walsh is known to millions of television viewers as the host of America’s Most Wanted on FOX TV. The program features lurid reenactments of crimes and ask for viewer assistance in locating people that police claim have committed the crime in question. Over the years political fugitives such as Betty Dukes (a leftist radical accused of bombing the Senate to protest the US invasion of Grenada), former Black Panthers and others have been targeted by the program. Walsh bristles with righteous indignation against the suspects fingered by police as he seeks to turn America into a nation of police stool pigeons.
Often featured on his program are prisoners who have escaped from prison or jail. On several occasions these prisoners have been recaptured even though they had led law abiding lives, built families and otherwise redeemed themselves. But Walsh is quick to point out that none of this matters, the important thing is what the person did in the past, even if it was decades ago and that punishment is paramount.
Walsh became a national figure in 1981 when his six year old son Adam was abducted from a Sears department store in a Hollywood, Florida shopping mall. The nation was horrified when Adam’s head was found floating in a canal, his body has never been recovered. Shortly after the disappearance Walsh and his wife Reve were on television pleading for his return. After their son’s death was confirmed Walsh went on to host America’s Most Wanted and founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as part of legislation the Walshes helped push through congress. In this new role Walsh excelled as a shill for law enforcement exploiting his personal tragedy as a road to riches and fame.
Adam’s killer has never been found. On February 15, 1996, Florida judge Leroy Moe ordered the opening of the police file in Adam’s slaying after four newspapers filed suit seeking access to the files. Both police and the Walshes bitterly opposed opening the files, claiming that the police’s fruitless 15 year search for the killer would be jeopardized. The newspapers’ attorney noted that it was laughable to claim that after fifteen years police would suddenly arrest a suspect if only they were given another week or two.
Once the more than 10,000 pages of police files were examined by the Palm Beach Post and Mobile Press Register, of Florida and Alabama respectively, Walsh’s vehement opposition to opening the files became readily apparent. Jim Campbell, Adam’s godfather, said in a sworn deposition in a civil suit that he had had a long-standing affair with Reve Walsh, unknown to her husband John during the two years he lived in the Walsh’s home. He also stated that John and Reve were heavy users of cocaine and marijuana.
The Walshes sued Sears seeking money damages because Adam was abducted from the store. Sears attorneys produced evidence that Adam had been left in the store by himself by his mother for at least 90 minutes before he was abducted. Sears also deposed Campbell and obtained extensive evidence about the Walshes’ drug use. The Walshes were unsuccessful in sealing Campbell’s deposition in the Sears suit. Eventually the Walshes dismissed their suit against Sears rather than have the embarrassing details of their extensive drug use presented in open court. Walsh, who was a hotel executive with ties to Bahamas casinos, clearly did not want news of his pot smoking and coke snorting to become public.
Given the fact that Walsh makes a living excoriating drug offenders on his program, his reticence to have his own drug use discussed is obvious. That Walsh was or still is a drug user is immaterial to me personally, what makes it relevant is that Walsh makes a living propagandizing against people accused of crimes when he himself has been breaking those same laws. What is interesting is that Walsh is clearly a prominent national media personality and this story has been totally ignored by the national media. It was only reported locally by the four newspapers who filed suit to open the police files, the court file in the Sears suit does not appear to have been examined. A Lexis search shows it has not been repeated elsewhere. If Walsh were to acknowledge his illegal drug use and say that he has been able to reform himself (assuming of course that he no longer uses pot or cocaine) and turn his life around that would imply that the people he excoriates on his program can do the same. Instead he hypocritically insists that people are incapable of change and need to be punished. But who knows, maybe he’s speaking from personal experience on this. If hypocrisy were a crime then Walsh would be America’s Most Wanted Hypocrite.
Source: Palm Beach Post, February 12, 15, 16 and 17, 1996
The Morphism of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
http://www.oocities.com/eoped/awa-morphism.html
The Morphism of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
“As we meet today, I believe our nation is on the verge of a full- blown constitutional crisis. Time and time again, when confronted with matters involving balancing the rights and liberties, the Bush administration has opted not only to intrude on those liberties, but to do so in secret and outside the purview of the courts and the Congress. Those of us who raise these issues and voice these concerns don’t do so because we want to coddle terrorists or criminals.” Rep. Conyers in his speech on 4-6-2006, House Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Department of Justice. Washington Post, 4-6-2006.
How HR 4472 Passed the U.S. House and Reasons Why it is a BAD Law?
Perhaps the most important fact to know about “Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006” (HR 4472) is that, the full U.S. House has never seen portions of this bill, nor have they voted on portions of it, before the rules were suspended. Congressional procedure was thwarted. How could this happen, well here is how. Be ready to see how ONE Congressman -using tricks in the rules- controlled the entire U.S. House to pass this very bad law! Then again, when the bill came back from the Senate This Congressman followed the same procedures to deny the full house access to the morphed bill.
The second important fact is what happened in the Senate -behind closed doors- where HR-4472 was again morphed into a new creature. Like in the House, Senators were also denied access to the -behind closed doors sessions- on a new creature which was ultimately dedicated to a murdered child victim, Adam Walsh, by someone who is not known, and not known to be a sex offender.
The following outlines the birth, or morphism, of the bill HR-4472 into enactment! A law created by a handful of Congressmen, not representative of the nation, and using a congressional rule known as “suspension of the rules” and to obtain the signatures and votes of the remainder of lawmakers without their knowledge.
Could the remainder of the lawmakers stop this runaway train, yes, but likely it would have been at the expense of their career. They would have been accused of coddling former sex offenders, certainly political suicide.
The story:
Historical Background:
In May of 2005 Sen. Hatch introduced “Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act” (S-1086) and was working on this bill. Then the Senate passed the bill in May of 2006 and sent it to the US House.
In June of 2005 Rep. Sensenbrenner introduced “the Children’s Safety Act of 2005” (HR 3132), then in September 2005, the US House passed it sending it to the Senate, there the bill died. It died for good reasons; it violated principles of constitutional law. It was overbearing on past offenders and failed to prevent future sexual offenses.
A stalemate ensued, neither side liking what the other presented. Rep. Sensenbrenner knew that the Senate did not like his bill, there must have been some back-door discussions which let him know that. Clearly lawmakers were being pressured to come up with something although at that time no one knew where the pressure was coming from.
March 8, 2006 U.S. House:
Then in December of 2005 Rep. Sensenbrenner, wanting a do-over, introduced the “Children’s Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act of 2005” (HR-4472 Version-1). Remember, when the bill was introduced it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, guess who was Chairman, Rep. Sensenbrenner. Key point to remember.
Construction of HR 4472 Version-1 (CLICK > Text of Legislation > Version #1): The bill began with the guts of the former HR-3132 (which died in the Senate), with many provisions made harsher. Additionally, there were many sections dealing with gangs not a subject of this Op-Ed. This made up HR 4472 as introduced (Version-1) and it was referred to the Judiciary Committee.
NOTE: While in the Judiciary Committee, another group of bills get morphed into HR-4472, for discussion sake I’ll refer to them as “The Morphed Bills.” Watch carefully the dates bills are introduced in the House and when the House ultimately votes on HR-4472 (packaged w/morphed bills) on March 8, 2006.
The Morphed Bills: and HR 4732 (Intro: 2-8-06) and HR 4815 (Intro: 2-28-06) and HR 4883 (Intro: 3-7-06) and HR 4905 (Intro: 3-8-06). This is now HR 4472 (Version-2) (CLICK > Text of Legislation > Version #2).
Note: Each of the morphed bills, when Introduced in the House were referred to the Judiciary Committee and never came out of committee, instead they were morphed into HR 4472.
Specifically, HR 4815 Paul Gillmor’s National RSO Classification System and HR 4905 Mark Foley’s National RSO Registration Requirements, directly pertain to RSOs nationally. HR 4905 was a complete harsher rewrite of his bill (HR 3133) that was originally within the failed HR 3132.
Mark Foley’s HR 4905 was introduced by him, on 3-8-06, only minutes before it was morphed into HR 4472, and then walked into the full House for a floor vote on Hr 4472. There is no way possible hundreds of House members had any opportunity to review that bill or what effects it may have on the laws of their respective states. This was a runaway train with no engineer excepting HR 4472’s author.
Version-2 was sent to the House floor on 3-8-06 where the title was changed to the “Children’s Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act of2006” (Year changed) (HR 4472 Version-3) (CLICK > Text of Legislation > Version #3).
In the House on March 8, 2006 Rep. Sensenbrenner motioned the House (only 20 or so Members were present) to “Suspend the Rules” in order to get HR 4472 (Version-3) passed and sent to the Senate; fast tracking the bill.
Rep. Sensenbrenner tells the Speaker:
“H.R. 3132, the Children’s Safety Act of 2005, passed the House on September 14 of last year by a vote of 371-52. H.R. 1751, the Secure Access to Justice and Courthouse Protection Act, was approved by the House on November 9, 2005, by a vote of 375-45, and H.R. 1279, the Gang Prevention and Deterrence Act, passed the House on May 11, 2005, by a vote of 279-144. H.R. 4472 incorporates core provisions of each bill with some modifications and additions.” (See March 8 transcript below)
Unbelievable comment “H.R. 4472 incorporates core provisions of each bill with some modifications and additions,” without fully explaining what they were, virtually a rewrite, and the Speaker of the House permitted him to -suspend the rules- on that information. Rep. Sensenbrenner fails to tell the Speaker about the remainder of the Hidden Bills which were morphed into HR 4472 during its stay in the Judiciary Committee (Bills: 4732, 4815, 4883, 4905).
(Suspend the Rules: … Because the rules may be suspended and the bill passed only by affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Members voting, a quorum being present, this procedure is usually used only for expedited consideration of relatively noncontroversial public measures.)
Further, a quorum of the House must be present to vote, and they were not, there were about 20 present. Accordingly the vote should not have been permitted, but did take place. (See March 8, 2006 Transcript below).
The Speaker was not made aware of the Morphed Bills, which is required, and that the full House had never debated them, nor did they come out of the Judiciary Committee. Rep. Sensenbrenner infers, the Full House reviewed and voted on HR 3132 in September, but ignores that it was virtually rewritten and made harsher (Morphed bills printed is 38 pgs. HR-4472 printed is 77pgs. Means 49% of bill was new, minutes, before it went to the House floor for a vote under suspension of the rules.). Finally, a voice vote was taken, the bill passed, and there is no written record of that voice vote.
The March 8th Transcript (color coded to point out certain things) along with the above, will help folks verify and understand what took place and who did object and on what basis. The result was HR 4472 passed -under suspension of the rules- and sent to the Senate. Remember, this was March 8, 2006!
May 4, 2006 Larry King LIVE:
Larry King LIVE, Larry was questioning John Walsh and Ed Smart (father of Elizabeth Smart who was abducted and held some 9 months by a self-proclaim prophet, quote:
“KING: This new law, Ed, though [it sic] wouldn’t have covered her alleged abductor who had no prior record right?
ED SMART: No prior record.
KING: So, you’re still for it even though it wouldn’t?
ED SMART: Absolutely. I think that in most cases they are — they do have prior records.
KING: Ninety-five percent (INAUDIBLE).
ED SMART: And because of that [95%] — absolutely and I mean, you know, I think that the majority of the people out there are people that the family knows and people that you’re trusting in and unfortunately you’ve got to be aware of your surroundings and be aware that this risk is there.”
(Transcript Larry King Live 5-4-06)
The abducters of Elizabeth Smart (a panhandler hired by Elizabeth’s mother to work on the Smart home in 2001) had no prior record which means, nothing in either S 1086 or HR 4472 would have prevented that horendous crime. Here we have Bill supporters using misinformation to make a point, a broad sound bite. In fact, the DOJ also proved that nonsex offenders released from prison commit six new sex offenses to every one committed by a released sex offfender.
July 16, 2006 Nancy Grace Show:
ELIZABETH SMART: Thank you.
GRACE: What are you doing in Washington today?
ELIZABETH SMART: We have been on Capitol Hill, helping to get this bill through, pushing to get it through.
GRACE: Is Senator Orrin Hatch helping you?
ELIZABETH SMART: Yes.
GRACE: Let`s go to the senator right now before we go back to Elizabeth. Senator Hatch, thank you for being with us. Explain to us what the bill is all about.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: Well, the bill really puts the screws to those who are sexual predators, and you know, sexual offenders. You know, we have around 500,000 of them in this country that we know of, and about 150,000 of them we don`t know even where they are, even though they`re supposed to report in. This bill stop that. This bill will require them to report in regularly. If they don`t, they`re going back to jail. If they break the rules after that, they`ll have to wear a leg brace or leg monitor that we can talk to them any time we want. If they try to take that off, they`re going to get hit really hard.
So the bill also makes inroads with regard to using the Internet and using, you know, the on-line approach to try and lure young girls away.
GRACE: Senator Hatch, do you expect a lot of political wrangling? Elizabeth is there with her father, trying to make a difference on Capitol Hill. Do you believe a lot of addendums will be added and this will actually meet opposition?
HATCH: No, I don`t. As a matter of fact, I signed off on the bill this evening. We`ve got the bill worked out between the House and the Senate. I really don`t believe that anybody is going to fight it. It should come up tomorrow. And I believe we`ll get it through.
And I think we all owe, you know, Ed Smart and his beautiful daughter, Elizabeth, a great deal of thanks and a lot of others, as well, but they have particularly worked very hard. And so has John Walsh. We want to get this bill through this week so that the president can sign it on the 27th of April [sic July], which was — would be the 25th anniversary of Adam Walsh`s death. And it`s named the Adam Walsh Bill.
I am a little confused – didn’t the President just extend the AWA a short time ago? And what does this sentence mean? “27 recoveries of missing kids, whose photos have been shown on the Justice Network since January, including one direct recovery.” Does anyone know the difference between a recovery and a direct recovery?
no clue
I wounder if Mr. Walsh is going to discuss his deeds during his tell all (trying to shame) media blitz
See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJSrFgwGeOs
and:
http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2012/07/john-walsh-documentary-admits-dating.html
Yes, it is certainly a travesty with what happened to his son, but what John Walsh has done to ruin lives in name of Adam has virtually destroyed his memory. John will live in sadness and his conscience forever numbed.
It’s a shame John Walsh’s good intentions are so buried under the residual devastation his actions have caused.
What happened to his family is terrible. What his clouded judgement has done has destroyed mine (and many others).