Evangelist Complex Raided For Child Porn
FBI, State Police Planned To Remove Several Children From Compound, Run By Previously Accused Child Abuser
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This undated photograph shows evangelist Tony Alamo, head of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in Arkansas, which was raided Sept. 20, 2008 by FBI agents and state police in connection with a child pornography investigation. (CBS/KTHV)
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The raid at the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries south of Texarkana started an hour before sunset. Armed guards regularly patrol the ministry headquarters, but there was apparently no resistance as agents moved in.
"I have not heard of any shots fired," state police spokesman Bill Sadler said.
U.S. Attorney Bob Balfe said before the raid that he expected an arrest warrant would be issued later for Alamo.
Alamo wasn't on site and is at an undisclosed location in Santa Clarita, California, reports CBS affiliate KTHV-TV in Little Rock.
In a phone interview with KTHV, Alamo refuted the allegations and claimed the government and media were attempting to bring an end to his ministry.
Shortly after the raid began, a sport-utility vehicle hauling a trailer backed up to the ministry building's front door. FBI vehicles blocked off a dead-end road.
A Fouke School District bus also arrived and pulled up near 12 unmarked vans, SUVs and sedans parked alongside the low-slung ministry headquarters along U.S. 71 just inside the city limits of tiny Fouke.
Sadler said a search would be conducted at the compound headquarters and also at Alamo's home nearby.
A helicopter circled overhead, and onlookers stopped along the two-lane highway to watch the raid.
Alamo's church is in a single-story building that looks like a strip mall. A white cross stands atop the structure, with a small steeple to the right side.
Alamo was once accused in California of directing the beating of a church member's 11-year-old son. In 1994, he was sentenced to six years in prison on tax evasion charges filed in Memphis, Tennessee.
The judge in the tax case ordered him held pending sentencing after prosecutors argued that the evangelist was a flight risk and a polygamist who preyed on married women and girls in his congregation. U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla said he was concerned over "the very great control Mr. Alamo has over a number of people."
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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Maybe a girl called on the phone and told authorities what was going on. I hope they find her.
Typical of the seed of evil.
Evangelical fundamentalists are the most gullible people on the entire planet.
They''re all "sheeple"; just mindless little grazers easily herded around and manipulated by unscrupulous shepherds.
One has to be completely insane to belong to any of these religious cults.
What the Fouke ?!
Posted by dewbug2
how do you figure?
a little rude, but he makes perfect sense to me.
...and that''s a problem?
Is That a problem for you....?
Your decision to become an atheist is based on mans ability to be evil, not on God''s ability to be good. There are fakes in the world, there are evil so called "Christians" in the world. But the true Christians are those who recognize the evil that is in their heart and respond to God''s goodness through Jesus. Your decision to become an atheist is all about you and not about truth. That does not change the truth that evil comes from people and not God. If you are going to reject God, you have to kick and scream at Jesus and at God really hard, and also get everything for yourself and do not withold any pleasure that you can gain in this world, because that is all you will have. You and I both know to say God is not real is self-refuting. You have to be smarter than the God you say does not exist, which means you do not exist either. Your are denying God''s love and focusing on mans evil. I am truly sorry a so called "believer" did this to you. I hardly believe you are happy, just mis-understood.
ocams_taser: the media isn''t Christian right wing, although there are pervs there too.
Ask 20 eye-witnesses to describe an event, & you will get 20 radically different accounts, with each person firmly convinced that THEIR version is the only "1 true" description. I believe that just as there are many unique individuals, there are many unique truths/deities/lifestyles. I do NOT attempt to tell everyone else that my truth is their truth-how could it be, when I am not them? To me, the belief structure that Tony Alamo & his followers espouse is a text-book example of a cult. I apologize to anyone I may have offended.
Posted by jolsonbear at 01:48 AM : Sep 21, 2008
As a Vet from another War I must agree with you on this.
"You can all go to HE11! I''m going to Texas." Davy Crockett
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