Thursday, November 4, 2010

Charlie Sheen's life provides WRAP Week object lesson . . . .

Dear Friends:

Here is an important message from our friends at Morality in Media relating WRAP week to tragic current events.

Abolition,

Lisa


NEWS RELEASE from MORALITY IN MEDIA, INC.475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1264, New York, NY 10115
Contact: Robert Peters 1-212-870-3210


Charlie Sheen’s life provides WRAP Week object lesson in how addiction to pornography can harm marriages, children and some careers

NEW YORK (11/3/10): According to press reports, on Monday the 45-year old actor Charlie Sheen filed for divorce from his third wife, just days after an alleged alcohol and drug-fueled rampage at New York City’s Plaza Hotel. The rampage began after his 22-year-old “porn star date” for the evening allegedly refused to have sex with him until he paid her $12,000. Coincidentally, this year White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) Week runs Sunday, Oct. 31, through Sunday, Nov. 7. The goal of the annual WRAP Week is to heighten public awareness of the harms associated with pornography and the need to enforce obscenity laws to curb the proliferation of hardcore adult pornography online and elsewhere.

Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, had these comments:

Following Mr. Sheen’s alleged rampage at the Plaza Hotel, I did a “Google search” for information about his use of pornography. What I found at
http://www.thesmokinggun.com">www.thesmokinggun.com was a “Declaration” (dated 4/19/06) that his second wife, Denise Richards, filed in her divorce case. It stated in part:

“Although Respondent told me that he only used prostitutes during the time he and I were separated, I didn’t believe him...Respondent promised that he would not be with prostitutes; however, he told me that he was not going to give up his...pornography habit and that I had to accept it[at p.10]...Respondent came into the house...I told him that I discovered some pornography websites that he belonged to which I found very disturbing (websites which promoted very young children, which looked underage to me with pigtails, braces and no pubic hair performing oral sex on each other). I also told him about other websites I discovered that he accessed involving gay pornography and also involving very young men who also did not look like adults. I also discovered that the Respondent belonged to several sex search type sites, which he looked for women to have sex with...When I confronted Respondent with this information, he did not deny it. I told him that as a mother, I found this information very disturbing because we had two young daughters and that I believed he had a serious problem...I later had an AIDS test which he was upset about[at pp.11-12]...Respondent and I spoke...on April 9, 2006...I told the Respondent that I was very concerned about the children spending the night at his house because of the activities he was involved in with prostitutes...and pornography...I confronted him with information...that he was still having prostitutes at his house. He did not deny this[at p.15]...”

If true, Ms. Richards’ account of her marriage to Charlie Sheen may illustrate several harms commonly associated with addiction to pornography, namely:
  • Acting out pornography fueled sexual fantasies with prostitutes
  • Progression from viewing hardcore adult pornography to viewing pornography that depicts actual children or performers who look like children
  • Children being exposed to a parent’s pornography
  • A wrecked marriage

Under normal circumstances, such behavior could also result in loss of a job, but Sheen is a Hollywood celebrity; and these days outrageous behavior often serves to increase an actor’s popularity and promote a career. According to a story in Sunday’s NY Post, a CBS “network insider” told the Post that Sheen’s bosses were “quietly thrilled,” thinking that his behavior will boost ratings for “Two and a Half Men.” And sure enough, according to a report in Tuesday’s LA Times, ratings for Monday’s program “soar[ed].”

In Hollywood’s Golden Age, there were standards for entertainment content and for actors’ off stage behavior. Today, content is often a moral stench, and actors’ off stage behavior often smells worse.

Read more!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

White Ribbon Against Pornography Week

Dear Friends:

This is a friendly reminder that this coming weekend begins White Ribbon Against Pornography Week. I hope many of you will take advantage of this opportunity to share about pornography's harms with your family, friends, and congregations.

For inspiration, here is what Captain Mark Czanderna of Gaffney, SC, plans to share about with his corps:

"This Sunday, I plan to talk about how Christians are not only to abstain from works of darkness, we are to EXPOSE them (Ephesians 5:11). Psalm 97:10 says that those who love the Lord are to hate evil. My primary objective is to thwart people from going down the porn road and to rescue those who are on that road (a road to destruction). My secondary goal is to expose how monstrous and enslaving the porn and trafficking business is... just as William, Catherine and Bramwell did so many years ago. While many media outlets normalize the pornification of people, our media outlets seek to protect them and uphold their dignity. We need to keep hitting this giant head on and trust like David did that one small person with God can take off a giant's head."

Additionally, Captain Mark has developed a terrific sermon outline that may be of help to those of you who want to attack this issue but feel ill equipped to do so. You can find his sermon notes (developed with resources from http://www.porn-free.org/) and the 2010 WRAP flyer attached below. For additional resources please visit:
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/anti-pornography.

2010 WRAP Flyer

Sermon Notes

Abolition!

Lisa
Read more!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Highway killers are target of FBI

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Highway serial killers may be responsible for 459 killings in the last four decades on U.S. roads from Alaska to Key West, FBI statistics show.

The victims are often prostitutes, abducted in one state and killed and dumped in another, authorities say, and the suspects are almost always long-haul truck drivers.

READ MORE: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/10/05/Highway-killers-are-target-of-FBI/UPI-62641286299749/ Read more!

Monday, October 11, 2010

U.S. infected Guatemalans for STD tests

Dear Friends:

The story is disturbing on multiple levels: unethical medical experimentation on human beings is utterly appalling. However, I'm sadly not surprised that the study involved such experimentation on women in prostitution. As this article makes clear minorities, the mentally impaired, the imprisoned, and prostituting women are tragically often viewed as expendable.

As for the women in prostitution, not only is it outrageous that men in prison were supplied women for sex, some of these same women were purposefully infected with syphilis by putting "infectious material on the cervixes of uninfected prostitutes before they had sex with prisoners.

"This is a shame to our nation, and a tragedy for all those who these ruthless doctors exploited for their own ends.

Abolition!

Lisa


By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 2, 2010

The United States revealed on Friday that the government conducted medical experiments in the 1940s in which doctors infected soldiers, prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The experiments, led by a federal doctor who helped conduct the famous Tuskegee syphilis study in Alabama, involved about 1,500 men and women who were unwittingly drafted into studies aimed at determining the effectiveness of penicillin.

The tests, which were carried out between 1946 and 1948, infected subjects by bringing them prostitutes who were either already infected or purposefully infected by the researchers and by using needles to open wounds that could be contaminated."

Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a joint statement apologizing for the experiments. "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices.

"President Obama had been briefed about the revelations and called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom to "personally express that apology," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said."Obviously, this is shocking. It's tragic. It's reprehensible," Gibbs said.

The Guatemalan government planned to investigate, saying it "deeply deplores that these experiments affected innocent people," according to a statement issued late in the day.

In addition to exposing another episode of unethical medical experimentation, officials said the revelations were concerning because they could further discourage already often-suspicious minorities and others from participating in medical research. They also come as U.S. drug companies are increasingly going to poor, less-educated countries to test new drugs and other therapies."

At a time when so much medical research is global, it behooves us to take account of what has been done in the past by American researchers in other countries," said Susan M. Reverby, a professor in the history of ideas and professor of women's and gender studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts who discovered the experiments while investigating Tuskegee for a book.

In Tuskegee, perhaps the most notorious medical experiment in U.S. history, hundreds of African American men with late-stage syphilis were left untreated to study the disease between 1932 and 1972. In the Guatemala case, the subjects were treated, but it remains unclear whether they were treated adequately or what became of them.

Reverby discovered the experiments while reading papers in the University of Pittsburgh's archives from John C. Cutler, a doctor with the federal government's Public Health Service who later participated in Tuskegee. He died in 2003.

"I almost fell out of my chair when I started reading this," Reverby said in a telephone interview. "Can you imagine? I couldn't believe it."

The studies were sponsored by the Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health and the Pan American Health Sanitary Bureau (now the World Health Organization's Pan American Health Organization) and the Guatemalan government. The goal was to assess whether taking penicillin right after sex would prevent sexually transmitted infections.

Cutler, Guatemalan health official Juan Funes and colleagues decided to study men in Guatemala City's Central Penitentiary because its prisoners were allowed to have sex with prostitutes. Some of the prostitutes tested positive for syphilis; in other cases, doctors put infectious material on the cervixes of uninfected prostitutes before they had sex with prisoners.

But because so few men were getting infected, the researchers then attempted "direct inoculations made from syphilis bacteria poured into the men's penises and on forearms and faces that were slightly abraded . . . or in a few cases through spinal punctures,"
Reverby wrote in a synopsis of the experiments.

They conducted similar experiments involving gonorrhea and chancroid and on soldiers in an army barracks and on men and women in the National Mental Health Hospital. In some cases, the subjects drank "syphilitic tissue mixed with distilled water," Reverby wrote in a synopsis of the testing. Doctors used needles to scrape the arms, faces or mouths of the women to try to infect them.

A number of high-ranking U.S. government officials knew about the research, including Thomas Parran Jr., who was then U.S. surgeon general, the documents show. "You know, we couldn't do such an experiment in this country," Parran said, according to Cutler. Parran died in 1968.

The gonorrhea studies involved 772 subjects, 234 of whom became infected and 233 of whom received treatment, according to an investigation by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The chancroid studies involve 142 subjects, including 138 who became infected and 129 who received treatment. The syphilis experiments involved 497 subjects who were exposed to the bacteria that causes the disease, 427 of whom became infected and 332 of whom received treatment. A total of 443 of the subjects actually developed syphilis; 331 received treatment, although only 85 could be documented to have received full treatment, the CDC found.

Gonorrhea can cause a variety of complications, including infertility. Chancroid can cause painful ulcers. Syphilis can cause blindness, major organ damage, paralysis, dementia and death.

Seventy-one of the syphilis subjects died during the study, including one from a fatal epileptic seizure, but it was unclear whether any were caused by the studies. The fates of the other subjects will be investigated, officials said.

The researchers also took blood samples from 438 children at the National Orphanage, but in that case, they did not purposefully infect anyone, Reverby said.

Cutler discontinued the experiments "when it proved difficult to transfer the disease and other priorities at home seemed more important," she wrote. The results were never published. Cutler died in 2003.

Reverby shared her discovery last spring with David Sencer, a retired director of the CDC, who notified current CDC officials, leading to Friday's public disclosure. Reverby describes the tests in a 29-page paper that will be published in January in the Journal of Policy History.

NIH Director Francis S. Collins condemned the experiment and said strict prohibitions are in place to prevent such abuses from happening today.

"This case of unethical human subject research represents an appalling example from a dark chapter in the history of medicine," Collins told reporters during a telephone briefing Friday.

Although Collins said it was important that the experiments had been made public, he acknowledged that the revelation could deepen entrenched suspicions about scientists and doctors. The Tuskegee experiment continues to be blamed for making many minorities reluctant to participate in medical studies or even seek medical care."

We are concerned about the way in which this horrendous experiment, even though it was 60 years ago, may appear to people hearing about it today as indicative of research studies that are not conducted in an ethical fashion," Collins said. "Today, the regulations that govern research funded by the United States government, whether conducted domestically or internationally, would absolutely prohibit this type of study."

The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine will also investigate the experiment and the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will form a panel of international experts to "ensure that all human medical research conducted around the globe today meets rigorous ethical standards," officials said.
Read more!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

One Phone Call from Truck Driver Rescues Nine

One truck driver who noticed two young girls being worked at a truck stop, made the 911 call to police and an amazing set of events took place. The two girls, 15 and 14, were seen going in and out of the trucks and appeared to be distraught and at times, just simply afraid. Feeling something was not right, the alert trucker called police, informing them that the two girls "appeared pretty young."

Not only were the two Ohio girls minors, but they also turned out to be kidnap victims of human trafficking. The two minors were saved and returned to their families, but the story did not end there. Because of this one phone call from this one truck driver, seven other minor children were saved leading to the conviction of thirty one human trafficking offenders and led to the shutting down of a thirteen-state prostitution ring.

One phone call from one trucker . . . 9 lives saved . . . 31 offenders convicted . . . 13 state ring shut down . . . from one phone call.

READ MORE & WATCH A VIDEO AT:
http://www.askthetrucker.com/one-phone-call-from-truck-driver-rescues-nine/ Read more!

ICAP Global Conference

May 22-27, 2011

You will go out in joy and be lead forth in peace.
Isaiah 55:12



The conference will focus on caring for and resourcing the practitioner. The conference will also benefit anyone interested in issues regarding sexual exploitation of adults:


Those involved with ministries to women and men in prostitution.
Those who want to start a ministry
Churches and individuals seeking to learn, support , become involved
Missionaries, charities, foundations and other organizations who are involved and/or want further resources in this area.


Objectives of Conference:

Unite
Equip
Empower
Journey Together

Workshop Emphases:

Self-Care: Grief & Trauma, Secondary Trauma, Contemplation,
Meditation/Prayer
Working with Men/Women: Prevention; Rehab, Reintegration,
Restoration
Relationships: Collaboration with Governments, Churches and
other organizations

Co-Sponsored by Green Lake Conference Center
www.glcc.org and International Christian Alliance on Prostitution www.icapglobal.org

Facilitating the conference is Lauran Bethell, coordinator for the leadership team of ICAP. Lauran is also a Global Consultant with International Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA, and is internationally recognized for her work among victims of human trafficking and prostitution.

SPONSORSHIPS NEEDED

Help is needed with the cost ($1000) to bring practitioners and others from developing countries to the conference. To participate in sponsoring someone who could not otherwise afford this opportunity, contact Marion Kobow.

This conference serves as a catalyst for creating and cementing regional and global networks, while offering emotional, spiritual and physical renewal.

READ MORE:
http://www.icapglobal.org/pdf/ICAP%202011%20Flyer.pdf

Read more!

Spain Breaks Up a Trafficking Ring for Male Prostitution

By RAPHAEL MINDER
Published: August 31, 2010

MADRID — The Spanish police said Tuesday that it had dismantled for the first time a human trafficking network bringing men rather than women into the country to work as prostitutes.

The police said 14 people, almost all of them Brazilian, were arrested over recent weeks as part of an inquiry into the network’s activities begun in February.

The sex workers were recruited in Brazil, with their travel costs to Spain initially covered by the trafficking network’ organizers in return for a pledge to work subsequently for them, according to a police statement. Most of the recruits, however, expected to work as models or nightclub dancers, although some allegedly knew that they were coming to Spain to offer sex.

The police estimated that between 60 and 80 men were brought to Spain by the network, most of them in their 20s and originating from Brazil’s northern state of Maranhão. They reached Spain by passing through third countries.

The network covered the whole of Spain, with the sex workers placed in, and then switched regularly between, apartments whose landlords received half of the money earned by them, as well as €200, or about $255, to cover food and lodging, officials said.

The police released a video of one of the apartments in which some of the arrests were made, with bunk beds and mattresses cramped into neon-lit rooms. The gang, meanwhile, advertised pictures of the men on Web sites as well as in classified newspaper ads. The sex workers were allegedly provided with Viagra, cocaine and other stimulants to help keep them available for sex 24 hours a day. Most of their customers are suspected to have been men.

The bulk of the arrests occurred on the island of Majorca, including that of the Brazilian accused of being the ringleader, whose identity was not disclosed by the police. The prostitutes ended up owing the network as much as €4,000 each and were sometimes threatened with death if they refused to pay the debt, according to the Spanish police.

READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/world/europe/01iht-spain.html
Read more!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Zurich planning drive-in sex-boxes

Dear Friends:

More proof that truth is stranger than fiction, and that men will stop at no lengths to protect prostitution. I mean really -- prostitution would diminish if we actually demanded that men started controlling themselves!

Abolition!

Lisa

One of the German Sex-Boxen that Zurich police are planning to implement

Police chiefs in Switzerland are planning to build a series of drive-in sex-boxes to enable prostitutes to conduct their business with punters without disturbing the neighbourhood.
The idea - imported from German cities like Essen and Cologne - is being proposed by Zurich police chief Daniel Leupi as a way to let prostitutes work in a more discreet way.

The idea comes after thousands of complaints by householders whose homes overlook the thriving red light district in Zurich.

'They get up to all sorts in broad daylight - and we're sick to death of looking at it,' said one.
Police spokesman Reto Casanova (his actual name) said: 'We can't get rid of prostitution, so we have to learn how to control it.'
Read more!

Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads

By the CNN Wire Staff
August 25, 2010 7:57 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Attorneys general in 17 states have banded together to call on Craigslist, the online classified ad website, to discontinue its adult services section.

"The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist's Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution -- including ads trafficking children -- are rampant on it," the attorneys general said in a Tuesday letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark.

The letter continued: "We recognize that Craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist."

A Craigslist spokeswoman said Wednesday that the site agreed with at least some of the letter.

"We strongly support the attorneys general desire to end trafficking in children and women, through the Internet or by any other means," Susan MacTavish Best, who handles media inquiries for Craigslist, told CNN Wednesday.

"We hope to work closely with them, as we are with experts at nonprofits and in law enforcement, to prevent misuse of our site in facilitation of trafficking, and to combat such crimes wherever they appear, online or offline."

In their letter, the attorneys general highlighted an open letter, which appeared as a Washington Post ad, in which two girls said they were sold for sex on Craigslist.

When the ad came out, Buckmaster wrote a blog post in response that said, "Craigslist is anxious to know that the perpetrators in these girls' cases are behind bars."

The letter also highlighted a report in May by CNN's Amber Lyon, who posted a fake ad in the adult section. She received 15 calls soliciting sex in three hours.

Earlier this month, Lyon interviewed a woman named "Jessica" who sells sex on Craigslist. She told Lyon a Craigslist ad was "the fastest, quickest way you're for sure going to see somebody that day."
In a later blog, Buckmaster said Craigslist implemented manual screening of adult services ads in May 2009. "Since that time, before being posted each individual ad is reviewed by an attorney." He said the attorneys are trained to enforce Craigslist's posting guidelines, "which are stricter than those typically used by yellow pages, newspapers, or any other company that we are aware of."

Attorneys general from Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia made the request a week after accused "Craigslist killer" Philip Markoff committed suicide in jail.
Markoff was charged with the April 2009 killing of Julissa Brisman. Boston Police said that Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, and Markoff might have met her through the website.
In 2008, under pressure from state prosecutors, the website raised the fees for posting adult services ads. In 2009, it started donating portions of the money generated by adult ads to charity.

A CNN investigation of Craigslist's "adult services" section, which replaced "erotic services ads" two years ago, counted more than 7,000 ads in a single day. Many offered thinly veiled "services" for anything from $50 for a half hour to $400 an hour.

Newmark has defended his site, saying it is doing more than any other site that hosts adult ads to help filter out underage prostitutes and report them to police. Best, the Craigslist spokeswoman, said that fewer than one ad in 10,000 meets the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's guidelines for anti-trafficking action.

"Only Craigslist has the power to stop these ads before they are even published, and sadly they are completely unwilling to do so," Kansas Attorney General Steve Six said in a statement.
Read more!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Egypt: Trafficking continues, young girls at risk

CAIRO: An Egyptian report published earlier this month by the Unit for the Prevention of Trafficking Children of the ministry of state for family and population, revealed the many challenges facing this growing phenomenon. The report said there is a new subculture of brokers existing in Egypt that are promoting the benefits of marrying off underage girls, but the statistics remain the government’s biggest shortcoming.

There is little "accurate information about the size of the actual and the various dimensions of the issue of child trafficking at the domestic and international levels in Egypt because it is a secret trade that takes place."

The ministry’s report noted that it is difficult even to call it a phenomenon due to the overall lack of quantified statistics.

However, the report said Egypt is attempting to prevent trafficking "due to the success of brokers and this is one of the top priorities" of the ministry.

The report, which was conducted from June 2009 to June 2010, said "there were no controls to regulate the employment of children and domestic workers, despite the adoption of the Children Act and that there were no accurate statistics available on them in addition to child labor, which is one of the issues intertwined with the issue of trafficking in children, marriage and require coordination with various parties."

Yussra Abdel-Ghany, a ministry spokeswoman in Alexandria, told Bikya Masr that in order to fully gauge the situation, "we must start to correlate all the available information into hard facts so we and other institutions know how to tackle the issue."

She added that the use of hotlines has "increased dramatically and this is a sign that the problem is not going away and that there are many young girls out there that need our help."

Read more: http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=15991
Read more!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban

Dear Friends:

As many of you know, I sometimes circulate articles pertaining to women's human rights on this list. Accordingly, below are brief excerpts from a Time Magazine article discussing women's perilous situation in Afghanistan. I strongly encourage you to read the full article, and view the photographs. Be forewarned: some of the images are brutal and haunting.

For those of us reading this article in the West, let's not take our right's for granted. Let's also not forget that the raw misogyny that produces disfigured faces like that of Aisha's is the expressed throughout the world -- in ways like sex trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, domestic violence, and rape as a weapon of war.

Please keep Aisha and the women of Afghanistan in your prayers.

Abolition!

Lisa


video link:
http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,308943282001_2007270,00.html

Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban

The Taliban pounded on the door just before midnight, demanding that Aisha, 18, be punished for running away from her husband's house. They dragged her to a mountain clearing near her village in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, ignoring her protests that her in-laws had been abusive, that she had no choice but to escape. Shivering in the cold air and blinded by the flashlights trained on her by her husband's family, she faced her spouse and accuser. Her in-laws treated her like a slave, Aisha pleaded. They beat her. If she hadn't run away, she would have died. Her judge, a local Taliban commander, was unmoved. Later, he would tell Aisha's uncle that she had to be made an example of lest other girls in the village try to do the same thing. The commander gave his verdict, and men moved in to deliver the punishment. Aisha's brother-in-law held her down while her husband pulled out a knife. First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose. Aisha passed out from the pain but awoke soon after, choking on her own blood. The men had left her on the mountainside to die. . . .

Traditional ways, however, do little for women. Aisha's family did nothing to protect her from the Taliban. That might have been out of fear, but more likely it was out of shame. A girl who runs away is automatically considered a prostitute in deeply traditional societies, and families that allow them back home would be subject to widespread ridicule. A few months after Aisha arrived at the shelter, her father tried to bring her home with promises that he would find her a new husband. Aisha refused to leave. In rural areas, a family that finds itself shamed by a daughter sometimes sells her into slavery, or worse, subjects her to a so-called honor killing — murder under the guise of saving the family's name.

Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007238-1,00.html
Read more!

Human Trafficking Webinars set for September

Dear Friends:

Here is some exciting news from Truckers Against Trafficking. They will be hosting a series of webinars to engage truckers in anti-trafficking efforts. This is a great idea that can be replicated in countries around the world.

Please forward this information to any truckers you know.

Abolition!

Lisa


Human Trafficking Webinars set for September

via AskTheTrucker by Allen Smith on 8/19/10

Truckers Against Trafficking

Truck drivers across the country have been called on by Chapter 61 ministries to be the eyes and ears for the human trafficking crisis in America. The partnership between the Transport for Christ and Chapter 61 organizations, the Truckers Against Trafficking, along with many others, have led to a much greater awareness of this problem, not only in the United States but abroad. Recent headline news is focusing on this $32 billion a year business, which destroys countless lives and enslaves its victims . . . the majority of whom are women and children:

Global human trafficking roundup (August 18, 2010)
US-Philippines project to combat human trafficking
Ohio in "Dirty Dozen" because of lax anti-trafficking effort
6 arrested in human trafficking case involving teen girl in Jacksonville, FL
Human traffickers supply nail-salon workers

These are just a few of the most recent cases involving human trafficking. Most Americans are aware of the problem in Asia and Africa, but are oblivious to that fact that it is big business here in the United States. Chapter 61 ministries will be presenting another set of online informational webinars in September, 2010. The webinars are set for the following dates :

09/01/10
09/02/10
09/07/10
09/15/10
09/16/10 and
09/23/10

All webinars will begin at 9 p.m. EDT. Because members of the trucking and travel plaza industry represent the eyes and ears of America on those highways, they can play a critical part in fighting this crime and those who perpetrate it. They simply need to know what to look for, what questions to ask and what steps to take.

If you would like to attend one of these webinars, please send your name and the exact email address to : tfcio@transportforchrist.org – (this will be the address you use for the webinar). For more information, please contact Scott Weidner, President and CEO of Transport for Christ at (717) 426-9977. Please title request "Trafficking webinar."
Read more!

'2,600 Sex Workers Trafficked' Study Says

Dear Friends:

The news item below merits a couple of comments: 1) If you are trafficked for prostitution you are a victim of serial paid rape, not a "sex worker." Thus the title of this article is yet another offense against the victims. 2) I'm surprised at the lack of recognition of domestic sex trafficking (trafficking of a country's citizen's within its own borders) that is implied by this report. Perhaps the focus was only about international sex trafficking; should that be the case please be aware that in many countries -- including the U.S. -- there is a very serious problem of domestic sex trafficking.

Abolition!

Lisa


'2,600 Sex Workers Trafficked' Study Says
Thursday, 19 August 2010

The number of migrant women trafficked into Britain to work as prostitutes is lower than previously thought, a report has claimed.

Around 2,600 migrant women have been trafficked into England and Wales and forced to work as prostitutes, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). A further 9,600 sex workers were judged to be "vulnerable migrants", many of whom were abused and exploited, but researchers could not be sure they had been trafficked.

This is far lower than previous estimates, which have ranged from 4,000, according to a 2003 Home Office study, to the 18,000 announced by the then Chief Constable of Gloucestershire, Tim Brain, in 2008.

The latest Acpo study found that 17,000 of the 30,000 women involved in the off-street sex trade are migrants, mostly from China, Thailand and eastern Europe. They said at least 2,600 of these were trafficked into the country and made to work as prostitutes, often with threats of violence.
Read more!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

15 Men Arrested in Undercover Sting

Dear Friends:

The story below reports on the arrest of 15 men in central Florida on charges related to their attempts to have sex with a 14-year-old child. I strongly encourage you to follow the link and view the arrest photos of the men. They are haunting images to say the least. As much as we may harbor feelings or rage or even hatred toward such men, please remember that they were once innocent little boys themselves. Somewhere along the line someone or something corrupted their hearts and minds.

I have a strong feeling that a major component of that "something" was pornography. Pornography grooms young boys and men to become offenders. Exposure to pornography is linked to such things as: believing a rape victim enjoys rape, more using physical coercion to have sex, more sexual attraction to children, etc.

Look at the eyes of these offenders; look at their faces. . . imagine instead of these faces you saw one belonging to your husband, son, brother, father, boyfriend. It's high time we started fighting back against the tide of pornography.
See: http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july072010/porn-politics.php
and http://www.pornharms.com/ to join the battle.

Abolition!

Lisa

P.S. Don't miss the craigslist connection.


15 Men Arrested in Undercover Child Sex Sting in Florida

Fifteen men allegedly looking to have sex with underage girls were arrested in an undercover sting in Florida over the weekend, law enforcement authorities said.

The suspects were arrested between Thursday and Sunday and charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex or related crimes, during an extensive undercover operation conducted by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, along with state and federal officials.

Police said 12 of the 15 suspects responded to ads authorities posted on Craigslist that shared the common theme "mom or dad seeking guidance for my daughter" for girls between 10 and 14 years old. The other three used chat rooms.

After the suspects answered the ads, they engaged undercover detectives in e-mails, instant messages and telephone calls, during which time the detectives told the suspects to come to an undercover location in Polk County, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.

"These men expressed specific desires to prey upon who they believed were innocent children," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Monday at a news conference.

One of the suspects, Brandon Cashen, 31, asked a detective if she had a daughter younger than the one advertised, and when she said she had an 8-year-old, expressed a desire to have sex with the younger daughter, the sheriff's office said.

"Some of the men even sent pornographic images of themselves to the detectives and made very specific requests about what they wanted these children to do to them," Judd said.

When the suspects arrived at the undercover location, they were met not by children wearing lingerie, but by undercover agents in vests, who placed the men under arrest.

"It's still a shock to me …when we have a predator show up with condoms in one hand and candy bars in the other hand," Judd said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

Judd said one of the agents was shocked to discover that a suspect, 33-year-old Tommy Dupre, had been his son's former baseball coach. . . .

For the full story see: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/08/16/arrested-undercover-child-sex-sting-florida/?test=latestnews.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Pimps force Mexican women into prostitution in US

By KATE BRUMBACK and MARK STEVENSON
The Associated Press
Monday, August 9, 2010; 12:01 AM

TENANCINGO, Mexico -- In this impoverished town in central Mexico, a sinister trade has taken root: entire extended families exploit desperation and lure hundreds of unsuspecting young Mexican women to the United States to force them into prostitution.

Those who know the pimps of Tlaxcala state - victims, prosecutors, social workers and researchers - say the men from Tenancingo have honed their methods over at least three generations.

They play on all that is good in their victims - love of family, love of husband, love of children - to force young women into near-bondage in the United States.

The town provided the perfect petri dish for forced prostitution. A heavily Indian area, it combines long-standing traditions of forced marriage or "bride kidnapping," with machismo, grinding poverty and an early wave of industrialization in the 1890s that later went bust, leaving a displaced population that would roam, looking for elusive work.

For full article go to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/08/AR2010080801654.html
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Monday, August 9, 2010

Brazil's sex tourism boom

Young children are supplying an increasing demand from foreign tourists who travel to Brazil for sex holidays, according to a BBC investigation. Chris Rogers reports on how the country is overtaking Thailand as a destination for sex tourism and on attempts to curb the problem.

Her small bikini exposes her tiny frame. She looks no older than 13 - one of dozens of girls parading the street looking for clients in the blazing mid-afternoon sun. Most come from the surrounding favelas - or slums.

As I park my car, the young girl dances provocatively to catch my attention.

"Hello my name is Clemie - you want a programme?" she asks, programme being the code word they use for an hour of sex. Clemie asks for less than $5 (£3) for her services. An older woman standing nearby steps in and introduces herself as Clemie's mother.

"You have the choice of another two girls, they are the same age as my daughter, the same price," she explains. "I can take you to a local motel where a room can be rented by the hour. . . .
For the full report:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-10764371
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China police rescue 22 abducted women, children

BEIJING

Police rescued 22 women and children abducted by a human-trafficking ring that operated in southern China for two decades, state media reported Thursday.

Eighteen victims were reunited with family members during an emotional ceremony Wednesday in Nanning city in southern Guangxi province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. . . .

For the full report: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9HD9LN80.htm
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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Fifth Annual International Weekend of Prayer and Fasting for Victims of Sexual Trafficking

Dear Friends:

Here's a reminder that the Fifth Annual International Weekend of Prayer and Fasting for Victims of Sexual Trafficking is fast approaching -- the dates are Sept 24-26. To register and for resources please go to:
www.traffickingprayerandfasting.org.

Resources include items such as Bible studies, a code of conduct for men, 2010 flyers, an intercessory prayer station guide, community prayer guides, a fasting fact sheet, etc. There are also prayer guides in English, Dutch, French, Korean, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish. Please check out the website for these and other materials, and don't forget to register!

Abolition!

Lisa

Read more!

Former Swedish police chief is jailed for rape

By Allan Hall in Stockholm
Saturday, 31 July 2010


A former chief constable in Sweden, who was known for lecturing on gender equality and sexual harassment, has been jailed for six and-a-half years for rape and other sex crimes.

Goran Lindberg, former head of the country's police academy, was found guilty on 17 out of 23 charges including one of aggravated rape, three charges of rape, 10 charges of pimping and eight counts of paying prostitutes for sex. He was cleared of "preparing to rape a child". What made Lindberg's crimes so shocking to Swedes was that he was the police force's top expert on morality and ethics and had been described as "the face and future of policing".

The court in Stockholm heard how Lindberg had been under police surveillance in January this year when he was stopped as he drove to meet a 14-year-old girl he had groomed for sex online. The court was told that Lindberg had a bag full of sex toys he had taken along for the encounter.
He was then arrested. . . .

For the full article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/former-swedish-police-chief-is-jailed-for-rape-2040046.html

Read more!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Portland's dark world of child sex trafficking

By Michal Elseth - The Washington Times

Portland, Ore., is widely featured as a young, green, hip city; it also has gained a reputation as a national hub for child sex trafficking.

State police report encountering three to five trafficking victims a week. Although the Sexual Assault Resource Center, an advocacy group that offers services to Portland-area victims, estimates that it handled 75 cases in 2009, it also says that for every girl in its system 10 more are still being exploited.

"I just believe with my whole heart that people across the community would be appalled if they knew what was going on," said Sgt. Mike Geiger, who heads Portland's sexual assault detail.

Portland's legal commercial sex industry is the biggest per capita in the country, according to a report by researchers at Willamette Law School's International Human Rights Clinic. Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather once called the city "Pornland." The city has more strip clubs per capita than glittery Las Vegas, and a tolerant attitude toward sex, both legal and illegal.

Combining those facts, a demand for sex workers, the city's geography that provides easy access for traffickers, and its reputation as a progressive youth-oriented community attracting runaways creates a toxic brew rivaling the notorious red-light district of Amsterdam.

"It's nonstop. It's every day," said Sgt. Doug Justus of the Portland Police Department's vice squad.

Victims of domestic minor sex trafficking have been picked up in every major city in the country and in many rural areas as well. Those "walking the track" on Portland's 82nd Avenue are often children exploited in their hometown.


For the rest of this article see:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/28/portlands-dark-world-of-child-sex-trafficking/print/
Read more!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Linda Malcolm offers a different kind of policing

Pamela Post

Vancouver — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday,
Jul. 26, 2010 11:00PM EDT
Last updated on Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2010 5:00AM EDT


It’s a Tuesday afternoon and Constable Linda Malcolm is patrolling the streets of the Downtown Eastside in street clothes. Today it’s a Beatles T-shirt and beige pants.

A police uniform, says the sex industry liaison officer for the Vancouver Police Department, is a huge barrier to building relationships with people down here. Her badge and gun are discreetly concealed. On the streets, Constable Malcolm is regularly approached by women who know her simply as Linda, who hug her before launching into a litany of woes and grievances.

One, whose face is badly disfigured, speaks urgently in the breathless staccato of the drug-addicted, telling the officer about being hauled in by police. Constable Malcolm listens carefully, offering assistance – before the woman runs off, propelled by the force of what seems like the unrelenting daily drama of life here.

"She was savagely gang-raped," the officer says afterwards. "Caught up in a dispute between two sets of drug dealers. They cut her with a knife, they disfigured her."

Constable Malcolm, 51, has become something of a legend on the streets of the Downtown Eastside – the cop more likely to bake cookies for women than bust them. She often works on her days off, takes bad-date calls in the middle of the night from the WISH Mobile Access Van that patrols the streets, buys countless lunches and dinners for sex workers out of her own pocket. She makes crafts for them, drives them to a detoxification clinic, takes them on ferries to rehab, accompanies women going to court against predators, and finds ones who have dropped out of sight.


For the rest of the article go to:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/linda-malcolm-offers-a-different-kind-of-policing/article1652671/
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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Teenage Girls Undergo 'Breast Ironing' In Cameroon

Dear Friends:

Unfortunately we bring you another report on the tragic consequences of the practice of "breast ironing" in the west Africa country of Cameroon. If you follow the link to watch the video, be forewarned that there is brief nudity and, too, that it will bring you to tears.

Abolition!

Lisa



Teenage Girls Undergo 'Breast Ironing' In Cameroon
First Posted: 07-23-10 11:56 AM Updated: 07-23-10 04:50 PM


Affecting one out of every four girls, the brutal practice of "breast ironing" is on the rise in the African country of Cameroon. The procedure -- which involves the flattening of a young girl's growing breasts with hot stones, coconut shells and other objects -- is considered a way to curb the country's staggering number of teenage pregnancies, particularly high in rural areas, as well as limit the risk of sexual assault.

According to a new report by CurrentTV, Cameroonian mothers believe breast ironing will protect their daughters from becoming pregnant and being assaulted in that it will postpone their development and men will not be enticed by their breasts. With dietary habits in the country improving, girls are beginning to hit puberty as young as 9, and are subject to the practice around at the same age. . . . .

For the rest of the story and to view a moving video follow this link to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/teenage-girls-undergo-bre_n_656965.html
Read more!

Monday, July 26, 2010

News from The Salvation Army's World Youth Conference

Dear Friends:

Here are two items that I believe you'll find of special interest. First, below you'll find a brief report on Commissioner Helen Clifton's calling on women within The Salvation to join the fight again human trafficking. It's wonderful to have such support for anti-trafficking from the highest levels of Salvation Army leadership.

Additionally, I'm providing a link to The Salvation Army's World Youth Conference where you'll find an exciting message from General Shaw Clifton about God's call to The Salvation Army. To view the video:
http://www1.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_wyc.nsf

Select - Day 4 (red tabs)
-Final Meeting (you have to scroll down)
-Chapter: General Shaw Clifton (select from the arrow part)
Advance to 1:44:00 to hear about The Army's commissioning
2:04:00 be Cross conscience people
2:05:00 be dedicated to the unexpected
2:05:45 to hear about TSA being raised up by God
2:07:00 He will find somebody else
2:10:18 be Advocates for Justice/Sanctified Risks/War Against Sin & Hell!!!

Abolition!

Lisa

*************************************

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/religiontoday/11635254/

Young Salvationists Hear Call to Tackle Human Trafficking

Christian Today reports that The Salvation Army is calling on women within its ranks to join the fight against human trafficking. Commissioner Helen Clifton delivered a "wake up call" to the youths at The Salvation Army's World Youth Convention in Stockholm, Sweden, on Saturday. "We need to be wiser and better trained, but without losing the deep passion for those who have lost their innocence and succumbed to what is a sad and lonely life," said Clifton. "The work involves prevention, prosecution, protection and prayer." Clifton spoke to about 1,000 young women at the event. Commissioner Christine MacMillan, the director of The Salvation Army's International Social Justice Commission (ISJC), addressed the convention via DVD. "Our journey of faith needs to be disturbed by all these injustices in the world. If it isn't then our hearts are either numb or hardened and we need God to renew our sensitivity," she said.
Read more!

Friday, July 23, 2010

UK/India: Unilever's hypocrisy over skin-lightening

Dear Friends:

First, a thank you to author Melinda Tankard Reist (Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualization of Girls) for alerting me to the article below. In follow up to yesterday's posting about Dove's "Real Beauty Campaign" this important article provides a larger, and sadly more honest perspective of what Dove's parent brand, Unilever, is up to. That agenda is apparently the "whitening" of humanity -- for profit of course.

Also please follow the important discussion about Unilever's Lynx/Axe brand. It would appear Unilever is of two minds on the matter of women/girls/beauty. Be advised: talk to your daughter before Unilever does!

Abolition!

Lisa

By: Layla Sayeed
guardian.co.uk, Friday 16 July 2010 10.00 BST
Stand up to Unilever's hypocrisy over skin-lightening


Unilever's backing of whiter beauty in India while its Dove brand urges self-esteem makes me ashamed to work in advertising.
Vaseline's homepage asks: "Do you see your skin the way we do? Your skin is amazing."

Well, it's clearly not so amazing if you're brown. Vaseline, a sub-brand of Unilever, has just launched a Facebook app in India that allows users to whiten their profile pictures. The app, which is designed to promote Vaseline's range of skin-lightening creams for men, promises to "transform your face on Facebook with Vaseline Men" in a campaign fronted by Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur. According to Pankaj Parihar of Omnicom, the global communications group behind the campaign, "the response has been pretty phenomenal".

The fact that the response has been "phenomenal" is sad but not surprising. While it might be hard for the tanorexics among us to understand, skin lightening is a huge, and extremely lucrative, industry. According to a report by Global Industry Analysts, it is predicted to reach $10bn by 2015.

And while skin-lightening products have traditionally been targeted at women, the beauty industry is growing increasingly excited about the financial rewards to be had by drumming up a bit of self-loathing in men. It's expected that sales of male skin-lightening products could reach similar levels of value sales as their female-targeted counterparts within five to 10 years. But men aren't the only demographic on the marketeers' strategic horizons: children are also fair game. An Indian Readership Survey in 2008 found that 12 to 14-year-olds accounted for 13% of the market.

It makes for pretty sickening reading. But what makes it even more nauseating is the fact that Vaseline is a sub-brand of Unilever, which also own brands like Dove. Dove, if you remember, set about saving our little girls from the beauty industry with their Campaign for Real Beauty. The much lauded campaign included inspirational films like Onslaught, which suggested "you talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does".

Hypocrisy is nothing new with Unilever. While Dove's multimillion-pound campaigns shunned stereotypes of women, Lynx (another Unilever brand) turned stereotyping women into something of an art form. In 2007, film-maker Rye Clifton created a mashup [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDEF-w4rJk (note this starts out like the Onslaught ad circulated yesterday- Lisa)] of Unilever's Axe (Lynx) and Dove communications, which juxtaposed the different messages the two Unilever brands were putting into the market with disturbing effect. Apologists made the excuse that Dove and Axe are very different entities with different targets, different voices and, so, different values. . . .

For the rest of the article go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/16/unilever-hypocritical-promoting-skin-lightening
Read more!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Texas Supreme Court Rules: Children in Prostitution are Victims, Not Criminals.

Dear Friends:

Here is some terrific news out of Texas from our friends at ECPAT. No more treating child victims of commercial sexual exploitation like criminals.

Lisa


Posted By: Carol Smolenski
To: Members in End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes

Texas Supreme Court Rules: Children in Prostitution are Victims, Not Criminals.

"Because a 13 year old child cannot consent to sex as a matter of law…B.W. cannot be prosecuted as a prostitute
--SupremeCourt of Texas decision "In the Matter of B.W.", June 18, 2010


Thirteen-year-old B.W. was arrested for prostitution when she flagged down the car of an undercover officer and offered to engage in oral sex for twenty dollars. She was tried in Family Court, where she admitted that she had "knowingly agreed to engage in sex…for a fee," and received a sentence of 18-months’ probation. The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment and the Texas Supreme Court agreed to review her case.

Although the federal government, under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, classifies sexually exploited children as victims, many states, including Texas, have contradictory laws that permit the prosecution of children for prostitution: One law establishes the age of sexual consent as 16; a different law sets no minimum age for the crime of prostitution, leaving the state prosecutor to determine which law to follow.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of Texas addressed this issue head on and reversed the Court of Appeals by a 6-3 decision.
http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/historical/2010/jun/081044.pdf It said that "…transforming a child victim of adult sexual exploitation into a juvenile offender was not the legislature’s intent when it enacted the laws on prostitution" and "delinquent conduct of a child." … "As a 13- year-old, B.W. cannot consent to sex as a matter of law, and therefore cannot be prosecuted as a prostitute."

The Texas decision supported several arguments that advocates of sexually exploited children have been pressing.

1. Children cannot consent to sex because they lack the maturity to understand the consequences.
Responding to the prosecutor’s argument that B.W. "pleaded true" to "knowingly engaging in sex for a fee," the Supreme Court cited longstanding common law, Texas statutes, and numerous cases affirming that children below age14 cannot understand the significance of agreeing to sex. This makes it difficult, the court said, to see how a child’s agreement could reach the ‘knowingly’ standard required by the statute. Referring to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that juveniles "are more vulnerable or susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures," the majority opinion held that even expert psychologists find it difficult to differentiate "between the juvenile offender whose crime reflects unfortunate yet transient immaturity and the rare juvenile offender whose crime reflects irreparable corruption." The Court further ruled that legislative intent was clear enough and did not need bolstering. Although it did not rule on children above the age of 14, the court did cite legislation saying that "compelling a child under 18 to commit prostitution was a second-degree felony."

2. Prohibiting the adjudication of children for prostitution will not encourage more exploitation.
While the State argued that judging a child innocent of a crime would also make a pimp immune from criminal liability and free him to seek out even more children, the Court held that the exploitation or prostitution of a child below the age of 14 is already a crime. "It is unclear how the prosecution of a child for prostitution would serve as any further deterrent, especially in the case of children on the streets." Removing children from arrest and prosecution will also remove the opportunity for pimps to play on their fear of police.

3. The inability to prosecute children for prostitution does not let adult offenders off the hook.
The Court rejected the State’s assumption that prohibiting the charging of juveniles for prostitution prevents prosecutors from bringing cases against adult offenders. In doing so,it identified several statutes under which pimps and traffickers can be held criminally liable for exploiting children without their being present to testify. Addressing the intent of the legislature, the Supreme Court said that children cannot be considered guilty of an act that involves their own sexual exploitation. "It is far more likely that the legislature intended to punish those who sexually exploit children rather than subject child victims below 14 years to prosecution."

The case also demonstrates how traffickers and pimps are usually the last to be arrested, while children bear the brunt of the scrutiny and punishment. As the State’s litany of B.W.’s criminal offenses (prostitution, assault, drug possession, failure to attend school, sexually transmitted diseases, and two abortions) read like a clear indictment, the prosecutors acknowledged but made no effort to even investigate her "32 year old boyfriend with whom she lived with and had sex." The Supreme Court did not address this issue.

4. Placing a child in detention does nothing to keep her safe, force her recovery, or prevent her running away.
Dismissing the argument that prohibiting the criminal prosecution of an exploited child would leave the State with no option but to put her back on the street, the Court cited many State alternatives to protect a child’s health and safety by a police officer or child protective services.

At the same time, the prosecution argument has some merit. Service providers are in desperately short supply and many children do wind up back on the street in the arms of their pimps. But the solution is to ensure services that help children to heal, not detention that may further traumatize them or mark their future.

Texas Decision Complements Safe Harbor Laws

Citing Texas state law and interpreting its intent, the Supreme Court decision shows that efforts to protect the child from prosecution are firmly grounded in legal precedent. Safe harbor laws passed in four states so far – New York, Connecticut, Washington, and Illinois – complement the court’s intent to shift the focus from criminalizing to protecting a child, and to punishing the pimps and buyers, even without a child’s cooperation. Aiming to protect and prevent any person below age 18 from being charged, prosecuted, or incarcerated for prostitution, safe harbor laws refer exploited children to special services and shelters to support their recovery, and require special training of law enforcement, judges, and first responders.

A giant step forward, the Texas decision and passage of safe harbor laws by four states is just the beginning. Much more is needed to combat the increasing demand for and exploitation of children. Across the country, media increasingly report on U.S. children being sexually exploited on the streets, over the internet, in strip clubs and brothels. All states need to follow this new precedent through the courts and legislatures to protect children from prosecution for prostitution and to ensure adequate and appropriate services for their recovery.
Read more!

Dove's Real Beauty Campaign -- The Onslaught Ad

Dear Friends:

In case you are unfamiliar with Dove's "Real Beauty Campaign" below are two links to short ads related to the campaign you should watch. I especially like the one that points out what an onslaught little girls face from the so-called "beauty industry," which works every day to teach them how "imperfect" they are. It's a big fat lie, but when it comes at you from the cradle girls find it hard not to believe.

Abolition!

Lisa







See also: http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx Read more!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

U.S. policy a paper tiger against sex trade in war zones

By Nick Schwellenbach and Carol Leonnig
Sunday, July 18, 2010; A04

An eight-year-old policy that forbids government contractors and employees to engage in sex trafficking in war zones has proved almost impossible to enforce amid indications that such activities are occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The policy, instituted eight years ago by President George W. Bush and still in effect today, calls for the prosecution of government employees and contractors who engage in trafficking and the suspension or disqualification of companies whose workers do. Bush's get-tough language also threatened criminal prosecutions for solicitation of prostitutes because many of the women are forced into the work.

Agencies say the cases are difficult to pursue because of limited investigative resources and jurisdictional questions. But some experts and lawmakers believe that authorities are turning a blind eye to evidence of such crimes.

"Zero prosecutions," said Martina Vandenberg, a lawyer and former Human Rights Watch investigator, "suggests zero effort to enforce the law."

The State Department reported recently that allegations of contractors' employees procuring commercial sex acts were "well publicized" but that no contractors have been prosecuted and no contracts terminated.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), author of a 2000 U.S. anti-trafficking law, questions whether agencies vigorously pursue allegations. He suggested that if authorities really cared about the women being exploited, they would not look away "when those we are paying to do jobs for us are exploiting them."

Justice Department spokesman Alejandro Miyar said the agency "investigates all credible allegations of human trafficking."

An Army report

Nearly a decade after Dyncorp International employees were accused of buying and selling women from throughout Eastern Europe -- and were not prosecuted -- the State Department alerted the U.S. Army to allegations made by a freelance journalist. The journalist said she had interviewed women held in Iraq as involuntary servants in debt slavery.

The February report, posted online as part of an Army PowerPoint presentation, alleged that supervisors of an Army subcontractor in Iraq had sexually assaulted some of the women.

"The women were recruited from their home nations with promises of well-paying beautician jobs in Dubai," said an Army summary, "but were instead forced to surrender their passports, transported against their will to Iraq, and told they could only leave by paying a termination fee of $1,100."

The subcontractors work for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which runs restaurants and other commercial operations on military bases.

An Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman, who declined to discuss specifics, said the allegations "were investigated and not substantiated."

In another allegation, a former guard with the Blackwater security firm said he saw colleagues and U.S. soldiers paying Iraqi girls for sex acts. The allegations surfaced in a federal lawsuit filed last summer in the Eastern District of Virginia that alleged wrongful death and abuse on behalf of families of Iraqi victims. But the anonymous statement detailing the allegations was withdrawn by the Iraqi families, who agreed to a settlement in January.

The former guard, who asked that his name not be used out of concern for his safety, said that in 2005, he watched older boys collect dollar bills while Iraqi girls, some as young as 12 or 13, performed sex acts. The former guard said that he reported what he saw to his Blackwater superiors but that no action was taken. "It sickens me to talk about it even now," he said.

The former Blackwater guard also said he provided the information to a grand jury, but the Justice Department would not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

Stacy DeLuke, a spokeswoman for Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, said the firm "vehemently denies these anonymous and baseless allegations." She said Xe policies forbid human trafficking.

Brothels in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, evidence of trafficking came to light when 90 Chinese women were freed after brothel raids in 2006 and 2007. The women told the International Organization on Migration that they had been taken to Afghanistan for sexual exploitation, according to a 2008 report.

Nigina Mamadjonova, head of IOM's counter-human trafficking unit in Afghanistan, said the women alleged in interviews that their clients were mostly Western men.

In late 2007, officials at ArmorGroup, which provides U.S. Embassy security in Kabul, learned that some employees frequented brothels that were disguised as Chinese restaurants and that the employees might be engaged in sex trafficking. A company whistleblower has alleged in an ongoing lawsuit that the firm withheld the information from the U.S. government.

James Gordon, then an ArmorGroup supervisor, alleged that a manager "boasted openly about owning prostitutes in Kabul" and that a company trainee boasted that he hoped to make some "real money" in brothels and planned to buy a woman for $20,000.

Gordon said he warned his bosses and also alerted Heidi McMichael, a State Department contracting officer.

Months later, Gordon said, he asked McMichael why no action had been taken, and she told him that the matter had been referred to the FBI. She declined to comment, as did the bureau. Gordon said that the trainee was fired but that no other action was taken.

Susan Pitcher, a spokesman for ArmorGroup's parent company, Wackenhut Services, said in an e-mail that the company would not respond to Gordon's allegations. She stressed that ArmorGroup policies prohibit trafficking.

An internal corporate investigation in November 2007 found that a Kabul program manager knew that some workers had violated company policies by "seeking out prostitutes."

The report disputed allegations that the manager frequented brothels but concluded that he knew about activities "that could bring discredit upon both the company and the client." A letter of reprimand was placed in his file.

A difficult mandate

Justice Department prosecutors privately complain that the zero-tolerance policy is nearly unenforceable -- partly because it makes little distinction between organized sexual slavery and voluntary prostitution. [Once again the government shifts responsibility from sex buyers, pimps and traffickers to instead attempting to ascertain what degree of culpability the women may have. The fact that any personnel/contractor representing or acting on behalf of the U.S. government in overseas missions are engaging in commercial sex acts is a disgrace, and is certainly a vital national security interest. Such behavior foments resentment, anger and hostility from the very citizens we are trying to help. Why? Because the local residents know that by such actions these contractors take advantage of and exploit the very women/girls they are there to help. Further the actions of these contractors fuels the impression (or is it the reality?) that the U.S. is debauched. -- Lisa]

"Are we interested in chasing every contractor that gets a hooker or using our resources to go after the guys who force people into modern-day slavery?" asks one former trafficking investigator, who requested anonymity. [This attitude lets the sex buyer (e.g. the demand generator) off the hook and focuses only on the supplier (e.g. trafficker/pimp). It also seems to me, that the attitude presumes the women are so-called voluntary prostitutes. Any trafficking investigator worth their salt knows that the vast majority of women in the sex industry have been coerced at some point, but overtime be come conditioned to their exploitation. It takes a nuanced understanding of the dynamics of power and control to discover trafficking victims. -- Lisa]

Laura Dickinson, an Arizona State University law professor, said law enforcement authorities face two main challenges in pursuing such crimes: gathering evidence and legal jurisdiction.

The FBI has 35 to 40 agents in war zones, but they are focused on investigating fraud and corruption. The military's law enforcement agencies have about 150 agents in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait handling all types of felony-level crimes.

Some experts say investigators and prosecutors will probably decline a trafficking case if it proves time-consuming and manpower-intensive.

Gordon, the former ArmorGroup manager, questioned whether agencies take the allegations seriously.

"If it's so serious," he said, "if you have a zero-tolerance policy, why aren't you doing anything?"

This report is a collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity and The Washington Post.
Read more!

Johann Hari: So that's OK then. It's fine to abuse young girls, as long as you're a great film director

The Swiss government has admitted "national interests" may be a factor
Tuesday, 13 July 2010

So now we know. If you are a 44-year-old man, you can drug and anally rape a terrified 13-year-old girl as she sobs, says "No, no, no," and pleads for her asthma medication – all according to the victim's sworn testimony – and face no punishment at all. You just have to meet two criteria – (a) you have to run away and stay away for a few decades; and (b) you need to direct some good films. If you do, not only will you walk free, there will be a huge campaign to protect you from the "witch-hunt" and you will be lauded as a hero.

Roman Polanski admitted his crime before he ran away and, for years afterwards, he boasted from exile that every man wanted to do what he did. He chuckled to one interviewer in 1979: "If I had killed somebody, it wouldn't have had so much appeal to the press, you see?

"But... f**king, you see... and the young girls. Judges want to f**k young girls. Juries want to f**k young girls. Everyone wants to f**k young girls!"

But this is not enough, it seems, for the Swiss government to return him to the US to face trial. They have found a legalistic loophole that enables them to let him go – while admitting "national interests" may be a factor. This may be a reference to pressure from neighbouring France to free their citizen. As a Swiss citizen, I think I can say without being offensive, we all remember the bargains Swiss governments have made in the past to preserve their "national interests". This is in a long tradition of helping criminals and calling it Swiss hard-headedness.

The campaign to release Polanski has leeched into the open a slew of attitudes I thought were defeated a generation ago. Whoopi Goldberg said it wasn't "rape rape".

Others hinted darkly that she wasn't a virgin. So if a 13-year-old has been abused before, she's fair game for all future rapists? The French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levi, who led the campaign, said a little bit of child molestation isn't his problem when Great Art is at stake. He wrote: "Am I repulsed by what he got up to? His behaviour is not my business. I'm concerned about his movies. I like The Pianist and Rosemary's Baby."

That's worth saying again – this campaign was led by a man who thinks the drugging and raping of a child is "not my business", when compared to a film about Satan inseminating Mia Farrow.

The novelist Robert Harris, who is a friend of Polanski's, said: "It strikes me as disgusting treatment." He wasn't talking about the child-rape. He was talking about the attempt to punish the child-rape. He said Polanski was being subjected to a "lynch mob"? Where is this lynch mob? All I can see are people patiently suggesting the law should be enforced and he should be given a fair and open trial. This is the opposite of a lynching: it is sober justice.

Do these defenders of Polanski understand what they are saying? Harris has four children. If a great film director drugs and rapes them tomorrow, will he call the police, or will he say it would be "disgusting" to do so? Would he say the police and prosecutors trying to protect his children were a "lynch mob"? If the rapist ran off, would he say that after three decades on the run (boasting about his crime) he should walk free?

Now the campaign has succeeded. So congratulations to Whoopi and Bernard and Robert: an unrepentant, bragging child-rapist won't face his day in court, thanks in part to you. Have fun at the victory party. But you may want to leave your daughters at home.
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Love146 Employment Opportunities

Dear Friends:

Love146 is a fabulous anti-trafficking organization. Here are some opportunities to join their team. Please spread the word to anyone you think may be interested.

Abolition!

Lisa


Join the Love146 team! We currently have 2 full-time job openings. Go to
www.love146.org/employment for full details and application.

Vice President of Programs
Posting Date: July 5, 2010
Closing Date: August 31, 2010
Job Available Date: January 1, 2011 (or earlier depending on the successful applicant).

Overview: The Love146 Vice President of Programs, a full-time position based out of the New Haven, CT office, works with Program Directors to plan, design, develop then initiate approved new projects. The VP of Programs oversees key US office programs staff, manages the programs budget and serves as key liaison between Global Programs Directors/field/local program operations and the Love146 New Haven office. Good benefits provided. Salary based on experience. Please note: Interviews will be held in Singapore and New Haven, CT depending on successful applicant's location.

The Collective Shout Officer
Posting Date: July 6th, 2010
Closing Date: July 31st, 2010
Job Available Date: August 2010

Overview: The Collective Shout Officer, a full-time position based out of the New Haven, CT office, creates advocacy communications to mobilize Love146 Task Forces and other Love146 supporters. Based on rigorous, ongoing monitoring and evaluation of existing anti-trafficking efforts, the Collective Shout Officer selects specific action opportunities to be highlighted on the new Love146 Task Force Community Site. They provide daily forum updates on the Task Force site and implement online community building and social media strategies. This position organizes the yearly Love146 Collective Shout Conference and the summer internship program.

Good benefits provided.
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A life lost is found again: The Felicia Delgado story

Dear Friends:

This lovely and hope filled. Please read and lift your spirits.

Abolition!

Lisa

Edward Achorn: A life lost is found again: The Felicia Delgado story

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Providence Journal
By EDWARD ACHORN

One of the most beautiful aspects of the Christian faith is its strong message of redemption. Jesus of Nazareth recognized that all human beings are prone to fail, but he taught that we can admit to our wrongs, make amends and move on, making the best of the gifts we have been given.

Some critics huffily brand it hypocrisy when those who express their support for high moral values fail to live up to them. Jesus, more attuned to the reality of human frailty, recognized that we will all stumble many times, but that does not make it wrong to believe in doing good. We pick ourselves up and try again. And we forgive others who have failed.

The idea permeates the Gospels, repeated many times, in story after story: rising from death to a new life. As the father says in the tale of the Prodigal Son: "This brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and now he is found."

I read a very moving story in the paper the other day that could have come straight out of the New Testament, right down to the headline ("In court, her life, once lost, restored," July 2, by The Journal’s estimable Katherine Gregg).

It told of Felicia Delgado, 45, a former prostitute who whooped with joy in court when the record of part of her life on the streets was erased from the state’s criminal-record books under a year-old Rhode Island law that makes indoor prostitution illegal, while shifting the emphasis from punishing prostitutes to stopping prostitution.

Under the law, "loitering-for-prostitution" charges may be expunged from the record, at a judge’s discretion, one year after completion of that person’s sentence. Though I remain strongly opposed to sending adult crime records down the memory hole, if there ever was a case for expungement, this was it.

Ms. Delgado’s record still includes evidence of her miserable life as a streetwalker: Shoplifting, check fraud and heroin possession. But it mattered to her that the prostitution charges were removed.

Why? "Because I am a mother, a woman, a daughter . . . a sister and, hopefully, I will one day be a wife and I do not want ‘prostitute’ ­ the word ­ because it exiles me."

Yet she has not forgotten or tried to hide her past ­ which is why a Pawtucket police major, a Miriam Hospital nurse, a probation officer and others were on hand to advance her cause and applaud when the judge ruled in her favor.

As her lawyer, Andrew Horowitz, noted in a court memorandum, Ms. Delgado has turned her life into a "remarkable success story."

"From her teenage years until her mid-30s, she lived a life that was dominated by drug abuse, prostitution and other criminal behavior. Then, through faith, perseverance and dogged determination, she turned her life around . . . [then] devoted her life to the project of rescuing others who were suffering her same fate."

As the outreach worker for the Pawtucket-based Project RENEW (Revitalizing & Engaging Neighborhoods by Empowering Women), she has steered prostitutes to classes on prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, substance-abuse treatment, housing, employment and other services. Her own experience obviously makes her much more effective.

Ms. Delgado’s group did not support the new prostitution law, ironically. But some of those who argued, in trying to keep indoor prostitution legal in Rhode Island, that prostitution is a "victimless crime" seemed unacquainted with the hellish and dangerous lives prostitutes endure. Many are driven into it by addiction, and by violent pimps who exploit their problems. This kind of abuse of our fellow human beings is not something society should condone and assist.

Rhode Island can be proud that it finally made it illegal last year. Rep. Joanne Giannini (D.-Providence), a compassionate woman who fought this scourge for years and found herself smeared and targeted for defeat as a consequence, is retiring after 16 years in the legislature. Her law, which will help combat much cruel exploitation, particularly of addicted women and runaway children, is a wonderful legacy.

It was vitally important that the state work to stop prostitution, because of the severe human cost in lives destroyed and associated crimes. Rehabilitation is also very costly ­ women on the street need extensive social services to break free ­ but tax dollars would be better spent helping the least fortunate among us than going into early retirements and fat pensions for those with political clout.

And we can be deeply grateful for people like Ms. Delgado, who refuse to give up, who take the suffering and wrongdoing of their past and turn them into service to others, especially those who are among the most scorned in our society. She is saving lives and helping her neighbors through her caring.

As I say, a very moving story, just as powerful today as it would have been 2,000 years ago.

Edward Achorn (
eachorn@projo.com) is The Journal’s deputy editorial-pages editor.
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