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	Leaked Video of Alamo Ministry Child on Internet By Jon Gambrell Pine Bluff Commercial December 31, 2008 http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2008/12/31/ap-state-ar/d95e00102.txt LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A teenage follower of jailed evangelist Tony Alamo described a life devoted to mission work, passing out tracts on mass suicides and seeing signs of the end times in natural disasters during a videotaped state interview leaked to the Internet. Over nearly two hours, she told a child welfare official that Alamo never touched her or had sex with underage girls _ acts only a "backslider" outside of the church would commit. Instead, she said his hands and words toward Heaven worked miracles. "Someone with AIDS in the church, he prayed over them, they were healed," the teen said. "For him to get an answer like that from God, you know he's not going to be sinning. I trust him. I believe everything he says." A video of her interview, conducted a day after FBI agents and Arkansas State Police raided Alamo's ministry in Fouke, found its way to the Internet late last month. Now, the state Department of Human Services wants the video removed as officials still look for children associated with the ministries. Julie Munsell, a DHS spokeswoman, said it appeared a family member passed the video along to a Web site called Inquisition Update with Tom Friess. Munsell said department lawyers sent a request to a Miller County judge Wednesday about the video. "We're asking that the parties in the case make efforts to remove it from the site and any other videos like it," Munsell said. A message left at a telephone number registered in Friess' name in Perry, Iowa, was not returned. A man claiming to be Friess in a chat room on his Web site said he was "not going to participate in another mainstream media hatchet job to smear Tony Alamo and the members of his Bible-believing community." So far, state officials have seized 36 children associated with Alamo ministries in Fort Smith and Fouke. A court order lists the names and possible addresses of 126 children who could be at risk of abuse from the church, though officials acknowledge more could be out there. Alamo, 74, faces charges he violated the Mann Act, a federal law that bans carrying women or girls across state lines for "prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." At a custody hearing over some of his followers' children, Alamo said he "spiritually" married and divorced multiple women who continued to live with him. He also has said children will have sex after puberty and should be quickly married off to avoid living in sin. The teenage girl told the welfare official that she believes anyone can marry after reaching puberty. However, she said she hadn't been married and had no desire to be. "The law says you can't get married until you're 18. So, that's what we do," the girl said, then sighed. "People who want to get married have to wait." Instead, older teens and adults can go on dates to restaurants as long as they're chaperoned by a church member. Boys and girls sit across the room from each other during communal meals held at the Fouke compound, "so nothing will happen _ what people are afraid of," she said. "I've heard people say sexual things go on and stuff, but it can't go on because we're totally separate," the teen said. In an affidavit filed in federal court, an FBI agent has said Alamo "married" two young girls and sexually molested them and others. The agent said Alamo took pictures of the girls naked and kept Barbie dolls in his bedroom. The teen girl in the video said she knew of no one who had been molested. "He would never do such thing. That's a sin. He wouldn't be a pastor. He would be dirt," she said. "He would be nothing if he did that. He would go to Hell." Instead, the girl described a life of service, working in the church offices and heading out to multiple states as part of "tracting crews" to spread the ministry's literature. The church's messages include claims of "evil one-world government agents claiming to be U.S. agents" and federal agents describing the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas, as a "turkey shoot," she said. On Friday nights, girls in the ministry get a respite and gather together for a movie night, watching old Alfred Hitchcock movies, episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show" or films about the Bible, she said. Otherwise, she and her family attend church every day and twice on Sundays. For much of the interview, the girl sat with her legs crossed, one foot swaying underneath. Though quiet until spoken to, the girl raised her voice once in the interview as she talked about why three of her brothers left the church. One brother recently turned 18 and left in the middle of the night without telling her parents, she said. "They left because they wanted to," she said. "Some people think that we're held, but no. They left. We didn't want them to, my family didn't want them to, but they left." Alamo pays for bus tickets for those wanting to leave the ministries, she said. However, those who leave after hearing the word of God often can't be saved again, she said. "I wish (her brother) didn't leave, but he chose to leave, he chose to backslide," the girl said. "We could (reach out to them), but why should we? They believe totally differently now." Alamo remains held without bond, awaiting a February trial on the federal charges. In her interview, the girl repeatedly said she wanted to return home to her parents and a ministry targeted by police. "Sometimes, I think if only everybody lived the way we lived the way we live in our ministry, the world would be perfect," she said. "They wouldn't have any crimes, any crime scenes. Nobody would ever be hurt."
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