I'm reading "Prophet's Prey," by Sam Brower, the P.I. who investigated Warren Jeffs and the FLDS church for 10 years. Brower was largely instrumental in bringing Warren Jeffs to justice.

On pp. 111-112, it says that, in addition to brick and mortar type businesses:

"FLDS businessmen have also made extensive contacts in the legislative branches of government and the Pentagon. Perhaps the most well-known example is the history of Utah Tool & Die, a business founded by Rulon Jeffs [Warren Jeffs polygamist father]in 1968, which grew into HydraPak, Inc., established in 1976, in West Jordan, Utah, while Rulon Jeffs was on the Board of Directors.

"The company found a niche in the lucrative aerospace industry and became the sole subcontractor producing O-rings for the aerospace giant Morton Thiokol.

"After the space shuttle Challenger blew up, killing all seven crew members, in January 1986, a formal government investigation blamed faulty O-rings for the fiery disaster.

"Rulon's name was soon removed from the board of HydraPak, but the company maintained its strong FLDS links, and his son Wallace Jeffs took over. HydraPak changed its name to Western Precision and moved to a huge building that was hastily constructed as a United Effort Plan work project in Short Creek in only 30 days.

"In August 2006, when the FLDS came under pressure from the courts seeking UEP assets that had been used to finance the company, Western Precision vanished overnight, moving to Las Vegas, it is now called New Era Manufacturing, Inc."

The author goes on to say that FLDS has high tech companies that do business in Washington, D.C., "developing top-secret night-vision components and experimental 'smart clothing' for soldiers."

--

I'm not much for conspiracy theories but I find this information astounding. I had no idea their coffers were that full or their grip on the outside world was so far reaching or sophisticated. I guess I truly underestimated their power.

Here is more info about the FLDS trust:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogspolygblog/56099881-185/wisan-uep-report-fees.html.csp



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2013 02:03PM by Senoritalamanita.

I mentioned this last year, but a polyg group snagged a government contract to help work on the Navajo Pipeline. My BF, who works for Reclamation, told me he was positive the concrete company was run by polygs. When he told me the last name, Jessop, I about spit out my cocktail.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2013 02:30PM by Itzpapalotl.

Itzpapalotl,

I haven't heard of the Navajo Pipeline. Is it for water or gas, oil?

I read in Prophet's Prey that plyg company's often win contracts over other companies because they supply their own workers, young boys or men, who are paid little to nothing and the costs are kept low.

Does your BF see plyg workers on the site, or are the plygs just the owners/managers?

The Navajo Pipeline is bringing water to parts of the Rez that don't have running water. If you didn't know, there are several villages that have to have water trucked in daily; If a person misses the water truck, he or she is without water for the day. The pipeline is honoring a decades old treaty that promised water from the Animas to the Dine. BF worked on the dam up in Durango 5 years ago.

It's a company called Native Sun that was sub-contracted out by a Native run company, which they have the legal right to do. BF has met both the owner and some young men from their town in AZ. He described them as polite, quiet, conservatively dressed and kept to themselves. When one of them let something slip about wives, BF asked, "Are you a polygamist?" The man laughed and replied, "Well, we prefer to call ourselves Mormons."

Senoritalamanita Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Itzpapalotl,

> I read in Prophet's Prey that plyg company's often
> win contracts over other companies because they
> supply their own workers, young boys or men, who
> are paid little to nothing and the costs are kept
> low.



This is, as the story goes, what happened with BY & the Union Pacific RR. BY contracted for labor, 'called' young men to do the work...
Then, the RR failed to pay, but instead 'paid' with UPRR stock.

as late as my mission (67-69) + yrs later, there seemed to be a relationship between UPRR, Murdoch (spelling?) Travel, & LDS; Missionaries left for 'the field' via the UPRR when other options were available.


It seems to be beyond doubt/controversy that BY's 'personal' funds were hopelessly co-mingled with Church $.

Yup, that's the way 'the Lords true church' operates!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2015 10:09PM by GNPE.

I can relate to living without water. It's a pain in the neck and it is especially difficult with young children. I am glad that the treaty is being honored and the rez will have access to fresh clean water.

I used to live in New Mexico in a town called Tijeras -- at the top of an 8,000 foot mountain. If you lived off grid, you had to have water trucked in.

In Hawaii, we lived in a tiny village that had no city water. We had a 10,000 gal cistern in our backyard that collected rainwater. We only used it to wash our clothes because rats and other vermin can contaminate it. We had to drive with our plastic jugs to collect drinking water at the local city water spigots. Believe it or not, sometimes Hawaii has droughts.

Your boyfriend's story about them calling themselves "Mormons" is funny, btw.

Under their long sleeves and buttoned-to-the neck shirts are plyg garments. I cannot imagine working under the desert sun under those conditions.

This is a shocker to me.

Since FLDS believe in "bleeding the Beast" by collecting Welfare, I can only imagine their reactions as taking credit for destroying the Challenger, America's pride and joy.

Makes you realize how Taliban-like they really are. These are the "real" Mormons, the heirs of the self-serving and murderous values of Joseph Smith. This is his true legacy.

The main Mormon church can't really compare. THey are more like a corporation pretending to be a church and limping away to simulate a non-profit which made bad investment decisions (City Creek), a faux-injured bird trying to draw away the attention of the IRS from their shady financial practices.

Anagrammy

Anagrammy,

I agree.

He's made numerous trips to Carthage jail, to Nauvoo and the Hill Cumorah and truly believes that he will build "the new Jerusalem and the temple in Jackson County, Missouri" -- and that in the last days he will be released from prison by the lost tribes of Israel and will be revealed as the true prophet.

Our modern mainstream LDS "prophets" are tempered somewhat by age, and by those authorities and citizens who surround them. Most LDS folks expect our prophets to give watered-down revelations and to wither and die within 5-10 years after they come to power.

But Warren Jeffs is an unstable egomaniac who rules by fear. He has no one to temper his delusions.

His favorite wife Naomi is a player. She is cunning. As his scribe she keeps watch over him as he sleeps and writes about him as her all powerful Lord and husband. She writes spectacular tales of his levitating in bed, while circles of flame and pillars of light surround him. She bares witness that he is the prophet.

When he disappeared for up to a year at a time from Shortcreek she would be by his side on his road trips across the country. They were both dressed in "gentile" clothing so that they would not attract police attention. Jeffs was convinced that someone was trying to assassinate him. Such paranoia!

Here is a photo of them in "gentile" clothing:

http://mormonhair.tumblr.com/post/14031600558/warren-jeffs-and-his-wife-naomi-jessop-via-scribd

Naomi Jessop Jeffs was an FLDS "princess" -- daughter of Merril Jessop. When she was 11 she kidnapped a girl of 8 years old, tormented her and held her captive for an entire day by a weed-choked waterway. The whole town searched for this girl.

When her sin of "kidnapping" was found out, Naomi was not punished or counseled. The obedient polygs in Short Creek hushed it up.

At 17 she became the wife of Rulon Jeffs. Then the wife of his son, Warren Jeffs.

She and Warren Jeffs made their way to Mardi Gras on their cross country trip. Warren Jeffs cursed the evil party goers in the crowd for their nudity and drunken ways.

Warren Jeffs asked to God "to destroy this wicked generation."

Of course, when Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans six months later, Warren Jeffs was convinced that he had summoned the "whirlwind judgment of God."

The beauty of the "God brought Katrina to punish the Mardi Gras
sinners" is that the Latin Quarter--site of the Mardi Gras
revelry was spared the destruction of the rest of New Orleans.
In fact one of the bars there was open 24 hours a day DURING
Katrina.

Shouldn't she have been arrested as his accomplice? It's pretty infuriating that they actually had her and just let her go. I heard she was also present in the temple with him as he recorded and raped his new 12 year old bride!

if my memory serves me I remember the o-rings were manufactured in new orleans east. any connection?

Siobhan, the external fuel tanks were "manufactured", that is, assembled, at the Michoud installation in New Orleans East. The o-rings themselves weren't made there. I worked for NASA at the time, although not at Michoud but at the Bay St. Louis, MS test site.
Baura, gentle correction- it's the French Quarter in New Orleans. It's the part of town originally settled in 1718 by Bienville. You're correct it never flooded when the Ponchartrain levees broke after Katrina. Wondering if the bar you mentioned is the grocery/bar in the Quarter owned by the friend of a friend? I think his name is Pat. The Quarter is Mardi Gras central, so if Jeffs cursed the city, he got the wrong parts.

the bar in question is Johnny Whites

I remember reading that the O rings were used in a manner not recommended by the mfg. Don't have time to look this up, but if true it is not reasonable to blame the loss of the shuttle on the O ring mfg. regardless of their religious oddity.

I never thought I would publicly defend a mormon sect, but I guess I have just done so. Hope this does not get me branded as a troll.

Lostmypassword Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember reading that the O rings were used in a
> manner not recommended by the mfg. Don't have
> time to look this up, but if true it is not
> reasonable to blame the loss of the shuttle on the
> O ring mfg. regardless of their religious oddity.

Well, yes and no.
It was below freezing the morning of the launch. There was 'concern' that the o-rings would be too brittle to properly seal in such temperatures. The manufacturer (of the solid rocket boosters as a whole) was asked, and essentially said, "We don't know if they'll work or not." Presumably they contacted the o-ring subcontractor...or not. NASA decided to "go" despite the waffling of the booster manufacturer, largely for PR reasons. Bad call.

There was lots of blame to go around for the disaster.

Hmmm very interesting. I read in Carolyn Jessop's book that Warren Jeffs said that the moon landing was faked. Why would he have said that?
As a foot note I got thrown in jail for a night in Stanley North Dakota for arguing with a cop about being sited for driving 2 blocks off of a truck route in the middle of the night--long story short--I ended up being locked up with a big supporter of Warren Jeffs and he was one of Carolyn Jessop's relatives. He was doing 60 days for his 3rd DUI. I thought good FLDSers abstained from drinking alcohol.

The FLDS schismated BEFORE the ban on alcohol.

My idiot father bought a cheap plyg house from the Jessops in Hurricane, Utah. He gave it to my youngest brother's girlfriend for housing the fifty-three-year-old boy and two out-of-wedlock kids. My youngest brother has warrants and child support defaults all over the west, which necessitates his hiding in a room. He says the church is true, and he receives free room and board for it.

I used to work at Hydrapak! I am not a polygamist but for some reason they let me in. I was amazed at how low-tech the making of the O ring for the space shuttle was. They had a huge round table that all the polygamist ladies sat around hand sanding this HUGE O-ring to specs using a micrometer.

I was shocked years later to find out that the Warren Jeffs I worked with was the prophet of the FLDS Church.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIBhPsyYCiM

Ladies SEWING the magnetic core memory for the Apollo data computer and wiring circuits by hand...

https://youtu.be/YIBhPsyYCiM?t=14m46s



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2015 02:54AM by anybody.

In fact, I can't recommend his autobiographical books highly enough - for sheer entertainment and enlightenment, and even romance.

Richard Feynman "What Do You Care What Other People Think" about the O ring hearings.

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" is great too. Both would make excellent Christmas presents.


About Richard Feynman:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman

Some of the engineers were having doubts about the O rings, yet none spoke up. Studies have shown that if one person speaks their doubts in a group setting, more will follow, but it just takes 1 person to take that first step. Why is it so hard to go against the group? Because conformity, especially in groups, is more powerful than we prefer to believe. Groupthink is part of this tragedy.

So the next time you're in a group, discussing a project at work or wherever and something seems off, speak up! Chances are, there's someone else who shares your doubts. Also read Sunstein's "Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2015 10:00AM by Itzpapalotl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Boisjoly

Following the announcement that the Challenger mission was confirmed for January 28, 1986, Boisjoly and his colleagues tried to stop the flight. Temperatures were due to be down to −1 °C (30 °F) overnight. Boisjoly felt that this would severely compromise the safety of the O-ring, and potentially lose the flight.

The matter was discussed with Morton Thiokol managers, who agreed that the issue was serious enough to recommend delaying the flight. They arranged a telephone conference with NASA management and gave their findings. However, after a while, the Morton Thiokol managers asked for a few minutes off the phone to discuss their final position again. Despite the efforts of Boisjoly and others in this off-line briefing, the Morton Thiokol managers decided to advise NASA that their data was inconclusive. NASA asked if there were objections. Hearing none, the decision to fly the ill-fated STS-51L Challenger mission was made.

Boisjoly's concerns proved correct. In the first moments after ignition, the O-rings failed completely and were burned away, resulting in the black puff of smoke visible on films of the launch. An aluminum oxide seal plugged the hole at the last second, preventing the loss of the orbiter at liftoff[citation needed]. At 58 seconds after launch, buffeted by high-altitude winds, the oxide seal gave way. Hot gases streamed out of the joint in a visible blowtorch-like plume that burned into the external hydrogen tank. At about 73 seconds, the adjacent SRB strut gave way and the vehicle quickly disintegrated.

Boisjoly was relieved when the flight lifted off, as his investigations had predicted that the SRB would explode during the initial take-off. However, seventy-three seconds later, he witnessed the shuttle disaster on television.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2015 10:45AM by anybody.

That it was the managers who decided to go ahead despite the misgivings.

I wonder how they could live with themselves after this?

I worked on the recovery of the Columbia shuttle. There were several NASA employees around and they had some of the astronauts come into camp and give presentations on space, the shuttle, etc.

Anyway some of the idle conversations were heard about the Challenger. The word was that the managers and engineers wanted to delay the launch because of the freezing weather. There was tremendous pressure from the White House to launch because of the publicity of having the first teacher, Christa McAuliffe, in space.

How much is fact or fiction, I don't know.

Well before this antique thread closes I gotta say that Jeffs was no rocket scientist.

I GOT FIRED FROM MTI WORKING AS A ROCKET TEST TECH. I FOUND PLACES ON THE O RING WE WERE INSTALLING FOR DEVELOPMENTAL TEST ROCKET 9. LOOKED LIKE SOMEONE TOOK A GRINDER TO THE O RING. I STOPPED WORK/SAFETY AND WAS REPREMANDED AND ASKED "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" LATER MY LIFE WAS THREATENED FOR SPEAKING TO THE MEDIA ABOUT JOHN DOCSTADER AND HYROPAC'S THREAT FOR ME COMING FOWARD. NOT LONG AFTER THIS CBS NEWS ANKORMANS JOHN HARRINGTON AND I MADE A NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST OF THE O RING DAMAGE. HIS LIFE, CATHERAN KOLLARD THE ATTORNEY REPRESENTING ME AND MY LIFE WERE THREATENED BY THIS POLIGAMIST ORGANISATION.