Exposing the Underbelly: The Harsh Reality of Child Sex Trafficking in ‘Sound of Freedom’ and ‘Conspiracy of Silence’ — a Dual Examination!
Sound of Freedom (2023) Review
Sound of Freedom opens with a little Spanish girl from Honduras playing drums with some slippers. A black Hispanic woman named Giselle comes to her door in high heels and says she remembers her singing in the market. “Is your Daddy home?” she asks. “Yes.” the girl replies.
Posing as a talent agent she sells the girl’s dad on her going into this “talent agency.”
The next day she buses into town to perform an audition for the agency. But Giselle informs the girl’s father that Stage Fathers aren’t allowed and to come back at 7pm sharp. (Damn, that’s so stupid!) Inside there are many other children of various ethnicities.
Giselle teaches the kids briefly how to model themselves for the cameraman. Child after child models themselves. The little girl has red lipstick put on her.
Later, 7pm rolls around and Father returns to the apartment where the “auditioning” occurred. He knocks on the door. The door falls open. Facade! Empty room. Everyone is gone! The Father bangs on every apartment door in the building. Emptiness and darkness. He runs down the street to no avail. The nightmare has begun.
We cycle to a compilation of various live cam footage of real looking abductions. Just snatching kids off the street on motorcycles. It looks like Asians and Hispanics in the grainy videos.
Smoking smoky cigarettes, a man watches dark web underage model videos in Calexico, California. Here a team of cops monitor the surveillance of IP address searches as a nearby pervert downloads underage porn. The cops bust in his house and tackle the pervert to the ground. In the man’s attic are binders full of children in ever escalating conditions of abuse assumed by the music, as seen from the policeman’s expressions of horror.
Tim Ballard who is played fanatically by Jim Caviezel (Angel Eyes and The Passion of the Christ). Tim Ballard is a real hero, and his story is from most reports basically true. He really did work for Homeland Security, and he really did save a lot of children South of the Border from sexual slavery which is a very real and pointed issue in that area of the world. Jim Caviezel on the other hand, took it a few propaganda steps further by tastelessly stating in one interview I saw, “If you cared about those who suffered in Schindler’s List after it was too late, you should care even more for this as it is a tragedy happening now and these kids need our help to be saved!” I’m pretty sure there was a few references to it being a sin to hide the weight of one sin behind another as being duplicitous in Dante’s Inferno. And that it is rich that Catholics are suddenly very concerned about Child Molestation around the world when it was happening right under their noses for the last 1500 years of uninterrupted child molestation. A little late to the party to be getting righteous about this topic I would say. But I’ll digress and not let it affect my review or the performance nor the truly righteous good actions that Tim Ballard did take as a real man of moral action! Now back to the review.
A rookie confesses to Tim that he can’t stand the memory of the abused kids. Tim, senior officer, proudly declares he’s busted 288 pedophiles. Rookie asks, “How many children have you freed?” Tim depressingly replies, “They’re mainly outside the U.S.” Tim is rightly dismayed at the inability to rescue children around the world. And no, I don’t think this should be cynically regarded as ‘white knight syndrome’ or any other reductionist disingenuous argument at this time. I feel Tim is an earnest individual with good motivations. Jim’s a bit of a schmuck in real life, but he’s a fine enough actor here, and Tim Ballard is the real deal!
Tim is analyzing child porn and his eye swells with tears. He furiously marches down the hallway with purpose. He goes into the cell of the pederast he arrested and to avoid the camera he asks him to get some fresh air out in the hallway of “Homeland Security.”
He tells his captive pervert “I feel connected to you. I need to know. Can I trust you?” Pedo doesn’t reply. “Part of my job is to look… at everything.” He then confesses that “I’m drawn to it.”
Pervert retorts “You want me to believe you’re one of us? You think I’m that stupid?” “The system is made by cowardly men who cannot admit their true desires.” Ploy is in full gear by Tim here.
“You read my book?” (Apparently this pedo wrote a pedo book?) Tim replies “I studied your book.” Then he double lights two cigarettes and offers one to the pedo. He talks with him to gain… understanding, trust, knowledge, contacts. Tim splashes water on his face aggressively. He’s in deep.
Now he comes home to his family of five kids and his wife, Mira Sorvino! “You’ll be okay.” she tells him. The beam in his eye fades into the American flag.
Tim convinces his boss to let the pedo go to track his web of allies. This leads him to Cartagena, Columbia. Pictures are taken of a fat man who arranges the connection to a little boy victim.
His pedo friend, who Tim has gained the trust of, gives him a copy of a book with a picture of a little boy in it. “You can have him for the whole weekend.” Tim replies, “He’s so little.”
“May a stone be cast around your neck and may you be cast into the sea.” Tim says to the baffled Pedo. That is a Biblical line related to what happens to those who harm children. “What does that mean?” the Pedo jokes. “It means you’re arrested for crimes against children.” Tim laughs as the police arrive to take him away.
“I trusted you“. Pedo says. “Never trust a pedophile.” Tim replies. Nice scene but acted a little too tightly wound by Jim. He needed to be a little looser. I understand he’s going for gravity here, but he’s still playing Jesus or something (or is that just how he always acts?). In any event, a little stilted.
The picture of the boy victim was in fact the brother of the girl that was snatched earlier in the opening scene. They were both kidnapped as part of the fake talent show.
At the U.S./Mexican border the Fatman pedo facilitator in the photos from earlier is spotted by Tim’s team. The same boy in the book scheduled to be a victim is identified by Tim. The Fatman is busted at the border with the little boy in the back of his van! The boy is so young and innocent.
“What’s your name?” Tim asks the boy. “Teddy Bear” the boy replies. (Oh, how ghastly that’s he’s internalized his sex worker name).
“Not that name. Your real name?” Tim asks. “Miguel Aguilar.” The teary boy says. Travesty.
Doctor confirms the boy has been abused very recently.
Tim takes the boy for an “American Burger.” He confesses he is only 8 years old.
Tim says his name is Tim Ballard. Timeteo in Spanish. The boy pulls out an emblem with Timteo on it. I don’t understand Hoodoo so I have no idea who or what Timeteo is?! He says he wants him to help find his sister too. His sister being the innocent little girl abducted in the beginning.
FLASHBACK: the model, Giselle, from earlier, tells a truck full of captive kids that the beach is the best place for a photoshoot. Amongst them is the little girl from the opening scene. Now we see how they were tricked. They were transported down the same street that poor father ran down looking for his daughter in a large minibus without windows.
They are then sealed in a rusty ship hull for transport to God knows where. They cry and scream in the dark ship hull. And yes, it was to Cartagena, Columbia.
A man points to the little girl amongst all the kids. A handler punches her out and delivers her to the Fatman.
Some woman with the Fatman names him Teddy Bear before he is sold for favors in Tijuana, Mexico. We later find out this lasted three months approximately. Despicable.
Tim promises not to tell this little boy’s secrets to anyone. He then returns him at an airport to his father in a touching moment. They embrace.
Tim talks to the father. The father says, “Could you sleep knowing one of your children are missing?”
Tim’s Wife then tells him he must find the little girl (the little boy’s sister).
Little Miguel gives the Timeteo medallion to Tim as a promise to save his sister and hugs Tim.
Tim confronts the Fatman to find out about the little girl. He threatens him with rape in jail every day in Columbia or help locate the female pimp that has the little girl (the one that named her brother Teddy Bear).
Meanwhile we see the little girl getting a tattoo on her back as she cries in desperation.
A drunken pervert customer appears in the room with the little girl. He closes the shades, menacingly. Later, the girl takes a bath and cries. Pathetic.
Tim intimates to his boss at Homeland Security: “This job tears you to pieces and this is the one chance I have to put those pieces back together.” He wipes a tear from his eye.
“Keep it under 10 grand.” the boss replies. Gee, with the trillions that go missing for the Iraq War and trillions that go missing every single time the government does anything these days… ten grand? Thanks for nothing! It practically aiding and abetting to pay so little for such a noble enterprise. But I digress.
Tim meets a contact in Cartagena, Colombia. He’s an underground guy who used to work for pedo operations but now wants to see them go free. “Why do you do it amigo?” the Contact asks of Tim. “Because God’s children are not for sale.” Damn! What a great line, all the greater because it’s a real man’s real sentiment about why he does what he really does! And he really does it!
The Contact confesses the girl might be anywhere in the world by now. Moscow, Arabia etcetera. But a woman who matches Giselle’s is in town. And she only deals with people she knows to stay clean.
Tim starts jogging in Cartagena. Shouldn’t stick out too bad as a 220 lbs white guy in cocaine town!
Tim’s plan is to build a high-end sex trafficking hotel compound like one he read about in Thailand as a honey pot trap. They sucker in a former pimp of Pablo Escobar’s. Tim wants 50-60 kids to start. “That’s a lot of chicken amigo.” “I’m not asking if you can do it alone, I’m asking if you can do it?“
Photos are taken of conspiracy with Giselle and other pedos but his boss back at Homeland Security tells him it’s over. Pack it in. Then his Contact says, “Too bad, later.” That’s a quick set-back.
Tim asks his contact why he wants to rescue children. He goes into a story about sleeping with a hooker he thought was 20 but was 14 after he stopped to really look in her eyes. He realized he was the sadness in her eyes. He is the darkness in her life. She had been raped since she was 6 years old. “When God tells you what to do, you cannot hesitate.“
His wife tells him, “Okay so you’re going to quit your job and you’re going to rescue those kids.” Now that’s a Trad Wife!
Stats are given by Tim as a sales pitch to investors into the criminal honey pot. “It’s up 5000%. It’s surpassing arms trades in terms of dollar value. Why? Because you can sell a bag of cocaine once. A child you can sell 5-10 times a day for 10 years.” Damn that’s so fucking evil, man. But strongly he says with the correct amount of emotional weight, “But people don’t want to hear about it. It’s too ugly for polite conversation. Two million children a year are sucked away into the recesses of hell and if we do nothing about it… that’ll be a nightmare you never wake up from.” A wealthy man who Tim is dismayed won’t help his ruse to save fifty kids in one honeypot, so he gives him one photograph of the lead girl. Written on it is “If you can’t picture 50 children just think about one.“
Later that night the wealthy man returns, conscience stricken. He’s in to help Tim’s project to catch these pedophiles! Tim rightly smiles.
They lay out the plan for a private island, like some kind of reverse Epstein Island. Nice! This plan finally filters up to Giselle and her crew. Giselle senses the wealthy guy isn’t serious in their business meeting. Tim promises to pay Giselle $100,000 for delivering fifty kids. (Damn, that’s $2000 a kid).
His boss says “Hey Tim. Don’t be a martyr.” (Too late. He already played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. Joking.).
Tim and his CTI crew are wiring the place and running over procedures for their sting operation on the island.
Giselle’s connections bring thirty kids by boat to start. More are to come. Giselle brings a creepy dude who confesses he likes to be a bull in the ring with the kids.
Tim (Jim) plays it greasy and cool; believable. Tim slides the money over for the thirty kids. They all appreciate the island and how cool it is. All the adults crack champaign. The kids are in a designated spot, sadly waiting for their terrible part in this hideous party.
The big creepy bully guy dances with a little black girl. Tim and his Contact, former pedo, creepy ex-cartel guy with a newfound conscience, encourages more champagne, less kid creeping.
Tim tries to lead the creepy bully guy away and takes his chosen kid away and gets a gun drawn on him for his trouble. His ex-cartel Contact friend smooths it out, telling him to let the bully have this one kid. Tim smiles perversely as he can’t do anything else.
Now the other 20 girls appear on a fresh boat.
The CTI agents flood the island, arresting everyone before the party really got started.
When Giselle is arrested, she says “I’m victim. I’m victim.” What a greasy ho.
They set it up intelligently. They take the bully guy away separately like he was the informant just as Tim accuses Giselle of turning them all in. Causing Giselle to suspect the Bully not Tim. That’s actually clever!
A CTI agent walks up to Tim still “under arrest” and gives him the good new, he says “fifty-four kids.” Very nice job Tim! But the little girl… from the opening, “Rocio” is her name we are reminded, was NOT amongst the rescued kids. Damn again!
But for now the kids are so happy they are free they spontaneously sing and clap together. The ex-Cartel says to Tim “you hear that? That’s the sound of freedom.” Beautiful. Tim’s victory is bittersweet as he dangles the emblem still not having fulfilled his promise to rescue that first little girl, Rocio.
Meanwhile, the father of Rocio is still broken at not having his daughter back. He holds his son. Only half complete.
We get the story from one of the pedo goons who is threatened with murder in jail who tells what really happened with Rocio. She was sold to some militiamen on a boat.
Basically, she was sold to an army of rebels in some terrible little river into the middle of jungle and is probably dead. The CTI Agent tells him it’s too risky. Tim isn’t having any of this tiny balls’ discussion. He wants to go down the river like fucking Captain Willard looking for Colonel Kurtz. Balls of absolute steel!
CTI Spanish Agent just levels with him. “Sorry man. She’s gone.“
The ex-cartel Contact takes a new tact. Pose as doctors searching for a virus like malaria or dengue fever in that area with government ids and search without fear. Tim’s with it. Without borders! Smoove! They are given GPS to locate their bodies. Probability of success is remote. Let’s face it! Saint of Lost Causes Time.
Into the thick jungle of Narino Province. Looks like some badass bush! Tim and his two-man crew pose as doctors giving vaccines going into hell’s asshole to rescue little Rocio.
His wife texts him “I feel like she’s my child too.” As they are texting to each other all night.
Ex-cartel contact tells him if they don’t find her tomorrow that’s it. They can’t go on. Tim just smiles and nods.
CTI agent offers him a gun. Tim refuses and goes upriver in a boat with his ex-cartel Contact. They’re going up a serious river! Beautiful country wherever this was filmed in Sound of Freedom.
They meet a hostile other boat of militia on the river. They get warning shots aimed at them. They say they’re just doctors. The militiamen search the boat and only find… vaccines. These militia will only take one of them to administer the vaccines. It’s Tim. Ex-Cartel guy is alone in the boat as they take Tim away. Tim’s taken deep into the bush by donkey along with his vaccines. Across a river, through a jalapeno fields, past a cocaine facility. This location is ass deep in true Columbia shit!
The same bastard with a scorpion tat on his neck who was sold Rocio earlier is here. The girl is here somewhere!
Tim saunters into town on a donkey, and the peasant Town bell is rung, and everyone comes to town… except Rocio.
Searching, Tim sees some girls stomping food with their feet. He sees the tat on the back of her neck that we saw earlier. Tim says her first name. Then her full name. It’s her. She turns to listen to him. Tim accidentally lets out a “holy shit!” (I’m sure God will forgive this blasphemy).
Tim enters a huge longhouse full of kids and adults all sleeping together. searching for Rocio to rescue her. She’s not there.
By a campfire the militia sings. Good distraction while Tim sneaks in to rescue a girl. She wakes up and screams alerting scorpion neck. Neck comes in but Rocio says it’s just a nightmare. He says he can make the nightmares go away (with more rape of course). Meanwhile Tim’s under the bed.
Tim strikes like a ninja and fights scorpion to the death from the innocent girl’s POV.
Tim runs away with her in the night, into the jungle, sneaking past men with guns to enter his boat, undetected. He narrowly avoids gun shots, but he’s rescued the girl. He hands her the emblem her brother gave to Timeteo. She understands.
Rocio wakes up after much rest and when she opens her weary eyes it’s her father. She cries as her father hugs her. Her brother Miguel hugs her too now. On the plane home Miguel sleeps on his big sister’s arm sweetly.
Rocio returns home and sings just as she did in the opening.
Sound of Freedom then bleeds into the real Tim Ballard, and we get the post scroll that Tim saved 120 children and arrested a dozen child sex traffickers! Terrific work!
It cites the statistic that there are more slaves today than when it was legal. And that it’s a 150-billion-dollar industry. Millions of these slaves are children.
The End. So…
Sound of Freedom Uppers:
Tim Ballard’s story is as close to an uplifting story as I have seen and heard in a motion picture all decade. I feel his existence legitimates the project of the Western World. If his story is true, and it doesn’t all turn out to be like a Frank Dux/Bloodsport type thing in 20-years, then I will be the first to wish him into the pantheon of truly great men. Men who are aerodynamically going straight into whatever Heaven may exist, whether secularly; technically eternally at rest with the weight of his goodness allowing that rest to be that of a man who has done real and true good, knowing he wrought more good than ill, or literal Heaven (wherever that is?), Tim is a good egg. And this is a good story.
I am glad there was little dramatic music, or extras that would have ‘cinematized’ Sound of Freedom beyond good taste. It was kept realistic, with realism, but still without becoming too biographical or documentarian. Well balanced, minimalism.
I liked the use of real foreign locations adding to the realism. Also, the acting from the child actors was excellent as well. Realistic, but tasteful. And the subject matter was handled without exploitation or gratuity. I think the horror was limited to the kidnapping and confinement of the kids. The horror elements were implied with the smiling gleeful giddiness of the evil pedos about to have their maniac ways with the children. The horrible structure of their organization just existing to traffic them was bad enough.
Sound of Freedom Downers:
Making the evilest reality into a hopeful and inspirational story always leaves one feeling… manipulated. I think Steven Spielberg received similar criticism from Stanley Kubrick and Terry Gilliam for Schindler’s List for ‘missing the point’ of the evil reality by slapping a hopeful message of overcoming adversity, while glossing over the real depths of the tragedy.
Sound of Freedom Downers:
But on second thought, that is a kind of ‘false fallacy’ you might rationalize. I think whenever one selects one thing to focus on, that one thing, by definition, is to the exclusion of 99.99% of the rest of the tragic reality. But since we are human and can’t physically download millions of children’s tragedy into our brains we have to start somewhere. A million deaths or abuses are a statistic, one is a tragedy, same way Tim wisely focuses on the one girl.
Final Thoughts:
The story of Tim Ballard is a worthy etch in the human story of morality. That said, Jim Caviezel’s icy, inhuman, detached approach did not present gravity or innocence or the earnest goodness that Tim Ballard himself emits. Jim is still playing Jesus here and I understand that may have been the selling point for the massive Christian audience who bought tickets, with their unique pay-it-forward campaign, where people bought tickets as a protest vote and maybe didn’t even see it in theatres… shrewd and profitable thought the strategy was, Sound of Freedom itself would have been worth seeing as well. Jim’s performance is serviceable, but after seeing the real Tim, he just doesn’t measure up and the direction was a bit sparse, and straight forward. I also think the performance of Tim’s wife was flat and pedestrian. And the ex-cartel Contact was a bit flat and less cathartic than a great actor could have made it.
Sound of Freedom is recommended, but it is 100% not a horror movie. It’s not torture-porn and no it’s not Serbian Film or the like. All I can say to Severed Cinema fans is it might make a good ‘palette cleanser’ in between your ceaseless intake of raw evil cinema.
That is why in fact to muddy this uplifting story I will as Sideshow Bob said “I will take you to Heaven! Before I take you to Hell!” And by hell, I mean the further implications of child sex trafficking by recommending a double bill of Sound of Freedom with the original (unabridged) version of Conspiracy of Silence (1993) which was banned on the History Network. Sound of Freedom is 2.5 hours. But don’t worrying the documentary, Conspiracy of Silence, is only 1.15 minutes or so, so it’s two, 2-hour movies on average.
Conspiracy of Silence (1993) Review
I will start this analysis of Conspiracy of Silence with a quote, “It is easier to lead men by their vices than their virtues.” – Napoleon Bonaparte. There is no greater contrast regarding this quote in mankind than Tim Ballard from Lawrence King. Tim Ballard is the rare earth exception of a man self-possessed to be led by his inner virtues. Lawrence (Larry) King is that other guy.
Opening title crawl for Conspiracy of Silence includes the following “Influential members of congress applied pressure to the cable industry to stop the airing of the program and destroy ALL COPIES (their caps, not mine). THIS IS THE PROGRAM THEY DIDN’T WANT YOU TO SEE.”
Here’s a leading question: P. Diddy, Jeffrey Epstein, and Larry King: what do these three guys have in common? Answer: they were all accused of human sex trafficking across state lines using airplanes. Connection? “Intelligence connections.”
Who was Larry King you ask? He is not to be confused with Don King, although there are physical similarities, nor the nighttime talk show host on CNN. No, his name was Lawrence King. He was a former Republican National Convention anthem singer in 1984 and 1988 and a famous black conservative who was personally acquainted with former President George Bush Sr. On top of that he was an owner of the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union in Omaha, Nebraska that he ran for 18-years before it ran into troubles. Then yadda, yadda, yadda… he was sent to a sanitarium for a long while and years later he was spotted working as a very unsuccessful BMW Dealer.
So, what did I leave out in all that yadda? “Allegedly?” Child sex trafficking, child mutilation, devil worshipping practices (to make the victims’ allegations sound crazy), decapitations, genital mutilation, gay pedophilia climaxing with a gun shot to the victim’s head then forcing another boy to have sex with the dead victim and bite off his penis. All this happening in private, after, after parties in the RNC off-off-Broadway ‘exclusive’ afterparties.
Please note the documentary I saw of this was many years ago which had the sex/cum/gunshot to head climax description from victim Paul Bonnacci, which was not in the most recent version I rewatched which was very conspicuous by its absence. Nor the story from Alisha Owens regarding being forced to watch a little girl’s head being cut off and stuck on the wall and having her eyes cut out in front of her as a ‘loyalty test’ to Lawrence King and his political followers. (My gawd what evil did Vietnam sharpen across American in it’s wake within the CIA anyways?!). But I had to recover my memory of these missing gruesome details from the current YouTube version of Conspiracy of Silence (to make sure I wasn’t having a psychotic split or invented these facts) and I did so by watching Episodes 118-120 of The Last Podcast on the Left about these incidents and for further research.
Please understand this documentary was banned from release to the Discovery Channel before it even reached television but was a seminal underground conspiracy film directly during the time of the ‘Satanic Panic,’ which after you watch a documentary like this you start to believe maybe their really was a Satanic group within the Government covering this kind of operation up and hyping the false cases to discredit the real shit. I am sure this documentary was also background for True Detective as well in some fashion.
It’s becoming more and more plausible by the day with the number of operations linked to honeypots and the CIA that are uncovered and, in this case, when evidence is given to the FBI and essentially discredited and buried for political convenience. I mean the investigators who looked into Lawrence King’s embezzlement and the subsequent focus on that crime to the exclusion of his child raping and murdering.
In this documentary we find out the Franklin Child Prostitution Ring Allegations as investigated by John DeCamp who wrote the book on this subject “The Franklin Cover-Up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska.” John was a Tim Ballard type of guy, himself part of a child rescuing operation called “Operation Babylift” which rescued 2800 orphaned Vietnamese children. (Damn, Tim’s number are looking a little paltry now!). He accuses Lawrence King of many evil things and connects his ability to get away with it to the CIA and FBI connections.
Private Investigator Gary Caradori began investigating the allegations and allegedly found proof but was mysteriously “suicided” in a ‘private plane explosion’ (one farmer said it was in mid-air, denoting assassination) while national news says it exploded upon crashing, and also killed his eight-year-old son who he brought with him for the investigation (oddly). After he was killed in such spectacularly suspicious means — CIA style — all his data was subpoenaed to the darkest recesses of hell in the FBI (probably beside the Epstein files now in that Indian Jones styled endless warehouse of sexual blackmail files they keep on EVERYONE in politics these days – but I relent!). And suspiciously the government voluntarily came to remove the evidence (I mean the wreckage) directly after the explosion of the private plane crash. Poof! Gone!
This is a familiar story of FBI covering up for CIA operations which are headed by Vietnam cocaine cowboys and pedophiles. The only two victims/witnesses were Alisha Owens who was raped by dozens of high-ranking politicians, media members, etcetera, as a child and saw the beheading and dismembering of another young girl and had to stay in a room with the dead body to prove her ‘loyalty.’ And Paul Bonacci who was anally probed with a cattle prod, beaten, burned, stabbed, and rapped by the 10-inch dick of Lawrence King. He witnessed the savaging of many other boys and on one occasion in a super power trip saw Lawrence cum into a boy, then shot him in the head, and forced Paul to kiss, have sex with, and bite the balls off the dead boy as ‘loyalty’ (The CIA sure know how to recruit, don’t they?!)
So John DeCamp is also a lawyer and defending these kids, but in the end the government only gave Lawrence King nine years for embezzlement (totally ignoring the murder and rape of children in the private, private parties for political sex devils), the explosion of the investigator, and hiding and refusing to testify by all the other victims, too scared to come forward now, they finally gave Alisha Owens 21 years for Perjury! Yes, perjury! And worst of all she spent most of that time in solitary confinement which is mental torture and abuse on top of everything else. American justice, my gawd!
When John DeCamp confronted the Judge with his unconscionable decision in sentencing with the fact that we all know prominent businessman partake in these terrible abuses why is no one ever held accountable? Alisha is being punished for her honesty, your “Honour. The Judge replied feebly “I am just a man. A man. A man. Not a God.”
What the Hell kind of statement is that after a judge makes a sentence? What an abject moral failure these judges can become upon the slightest political or personal threat.
The Extended Version of Conspiracy of Silence has background interviews with John DeCamp who had a connection within the CIA at the time, former head of the agency, William Colby, who took John’s accusations very seriously, likely knowing his dedication to this same issue during the Vietnam war, saving over a thousand children. Although, on second thought, since we’re getting conspiratorial, I hope he wasn’t himself just trafficking kids out of the country to the U.S., as what does ‘saving the children in Vietnam’ mean by ‘rescuing them out of the country?’ I should look further into John DeCamp’s Vietnam mission “Operation Babylift” itself. Can you imagine if he was acting as their lawyer specifically BECAUSE he wouldn’t get a clear result and intentionally bungle the case the way the agency wanted, as he does have a larcenist look in his eyes? But, I digress.
John adds one nice line in the extended interviews “If you own the media, if you own the Justice System, if you own the police, you are in charge of everything.” Sound familiar?
Conspiracy of Silence Uppers:
The clarity of the witnesses seemed legitimate and honest. I didn’t see any larcenist smiles of vengeance like I did with the Michael Jackson accusers. They seemed like broken people who were last in the musical chairs of witness intimidation and were royally abused by the political powers that be in the FBI and CIA who colluded to cover this scandal up. Do some victims concoct stories for attention, seeking bribery, to fill their drug habits that were based on real abuse? Yes. But the murdering and intimidation of witnesses here and extraneous punishments for their testimony is punitive and the way Lawrence King wasn’t even questioned for these horrible deeds is also glaringly noticeable. The way the Epstein cover-ups happened, I think these sorts of trafficking by the CIA has been going on since Vietnam and honey pots of this type are real and covered up all the time.
On top of supporting warlords abroad it seems like they also allow them at home as well. For every Saddam Hussein they set-up abroad, there is a Diddy or Epstein or Bulger, working at home as a local warlord to ‘manage’ crime domestically. This is informative and connected a lot of dots for me as to how the CIA operates. For further information I’d recommend reading Whitney Webb’s books on the webs of power in America. I haven’t read them, but I will eventually. Sounds intense! What a deadly web we weave, indeed!
Conspiracy of Silence Downers:
Conspiracy of Silence being a rough, unfinished edit of a documentary, it feels at times more like random interviews that barely connect at times. The lack of cohesion of narrative makes the thing feel more scattershot. It’s not been polished, or the rough edges smoothed out.
And at times DeCamp looks a bit incredulous in his supercilious facial expressions which I really hope are just him not being able to believe how deep the cover-up has gone versus just being a “confabulist” for attention. I will assume that his good deeds in Vietnam were real, and his expressions were eccentric and not indicative of being deluded.
Also, there is an excessive use of Angelo Baldamenti’s downer synth score from Twin Peaks, which works about half the time but gets to be a little one note on occasion.
Conspiracy of Silence Silver Lining:
The unpolished nature of the documentary and fragmented nature of it almost forces you to do more heavy lifting in putting the narrative together yourself. It’s almost MORE objective by not being overly produced.
Final Thoughts:
I am convinced something else happened in this story besides embezzlement. It sounds like another P. Diddy or Epstein with pedophiles in private planes again.
I do not rate documentaries, but I do recommend this to balance out your viewing on the subject of Government Vs. Pedophilia to get the contrast of the virtuous and the vice driven and the heroic to the complicit nature that governments can play in such events.
From Sound to Silence. From Freedom to Conspiracy.
Both films are recommended for a more well-rounded education on this real subject matter.
Sound of Freedom
Directed by: Alejandro Monteverde
Written by: Alejandro Monteverde, Rod Barr
Produced by: Eduardo Verástegui
Cinematography by: Gorka Gómez Andreu
Editing by: Brian Scofield
Music by: Javier Navarrete
Special Effects by: Felipe De La Roche
Cast: Jim Caviezel, Bill Camp, Cristal Aparicio, Javier Godino, Lucás Ávila, Yessica Borroto Perryman
Year: 2023
Country: USA, Mexico
Language: English, Spanish
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 2h 11min
Studio: Metanoia, Santa Fe Films
Distributor: Angel Studios
Conspiracy of Silence
Directed by: Nick Gray
Produced by: Tim Tate
Cast: Lawrence E. King Jr. , John DeCamp, Robert Hupp, Val Peter, Noel Seltzer, Paul Bonacci, Carol Stitt
Year: 1993
Country: USA
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h
Studio: Yorkshire TV
Distributor: Yorkshire TV
