Posts Tagged ‘human trafficking’

Powerful video: Atlanta-Georgia sex slaves shock onlookers

Scene from End It Movement video

by Stoyan Zaimov

Newscast Media ATLANTA—The End It Movement, a coalition of organizations fighting to end human slavery, led by Pastor Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta, has posted a powerful new video showcasing a group of sex slaves being driven around a transparent bus, prompting shocked reactions from onlookers.

“We are here to shine a light on slavery. No more bondage. No more sex trafficking. No more child laborers. No more, starting now,” the End It movement says. “Slavery still exists. We want every man, woman and child to know that there are 27 million men, women and children, just like them, living in the shadows, working as slaves, in 161 countries, including our own.”

END IT Movement Anti-Slavery/Human Trafficking Video

A man posing as one of the kidnappers shouts at the captives, as the people looking at the truck react with disbelief, shock and confusion.

“Every year, women are trafficked to major sporting events to be sold as sex slaves,” reads the side of the truck driving through the city.

While the truck with the sex slaves is a staged re-enactment, the responses from the onlookers are real – the movement says that the footage was filmed “at a national sporting event in Atlanta, Ga., on the weekend of April 6th.”

The End It Movement held its “Shine a Light on Slavery” day on April 9, where tens of thousands of people across America participated by marking or wearing the symbolic red X, the group’s logo, and encouraged others to find out more about human trafficking and what they can do to help.

“Then people have to ask – ‘what is this?’ At that point, we as a nation can raise our voice in honor of the 27,000,000 slaves. The hope of the movement [is] for everyone to know. Indifference is NOT an option,” Masi Willis, project manager of the End It Movement, previously shared with The Christian Post. The video ends with the question: “If you could see it, would you end it?”

http://newscastmedia.com/endit.htm

DOJ and White House intensify fight on human trafficking

Attorney General Eric Holder

Newscast Media WASHINGTON, D.C.—At the White House Forum to Combat Human Trafficking April 9, the Obama administration released its latest plan to combat a practice that has been called modern-day slavery and to provide help for its victims. In his remarks at the forum, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the new strategic plan will better coordinate the efforts of U.S. federal agencies in dealing with a crime that enslaves an estimated 27 million victims worldwide.

“Attorneys, analysts, researchers, investigators,and law enforcement officials are coming together as never before to study the latest trends in human trafficking,” Holder said. “Over the next five years, this plan will enable us to reinforce our relationships with nongovernmental allies — and build public-private partnerships. It will lead us to develop innovative new strategies for identifying, assisting and seeking
justice on behalf of those trapped in some form of slavery, bonded labor or forced prostitution.”

Read the White House release on Human Trafficking Issues.

U.S. officials said the Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking will take anti-trafficking efforts to a new level. Holder added that the plan will increase support for legal and victim service providers.

According to the attorney general, the plan sends “a strong message to anyone who would prey on their fellow human beings: that, in this country, human trafficking will not be tolerated. Our commitment to moving aggressively in identifying and prosecuting human traffickers — and supporting those who bring help and healing to victims — has quite simply never been stronger.”

The plan also calls for new public-private partnerships that will provide cutting-edge technology tools to aid law enforcement’s efforts to bring traffickers to justice, as well as new online applications to help link victims with much-needed services. According to the White House announcement, leading technology companies have partnered with advocates and survivors to develop new applications to reach trafficking victims online and on their phones and to link them with services in their community.

The plan also calls for a free legal services network for trafficking victims. The Department of State is establishing a public-private partnership with New Perimeter, LLC, a nonprofit organization established by the law firm DLA Piper designed to increase the availability of pro bono legal services to combat human trafficking. The partnership will use the “3P” framework of prosecuting traffickers, protecting survivors and preventing victimization.

http://www.newscastmedia.com/human-trafficking2.htm

April declared Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month

Newscast Media WASHINGTON—April was declared Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month by Barack Obama, as he reminded the nation that sexual violence was an affront to human dignity that cannot be tolerated and calls on Americans to offer their support to survivors of such crimes.

The proclamation reads:

In the last 20 years, our nation has made meaningful progress toward addressing sexual assault. Where victims were once left without recourse, laws have opened a path to safety and justice; where a culture of fear once kept violence hidden, survivors are more empowered to speak out and get help.

But even today, too many women, men, and children suffer alone or in silence, burdened by shame or unsure anyone will listen. This month, we recommit to changing that tragic reality by stopping sexual assault before it starts and ensuring victims get the support they need.

Sexual violence is an affront to human dignity and a crime no matter where it occurs. While rape and sexual assault affect all communities, those at the greatest risk are children, teens, and young women. Nearly one in five women will be a victim of sexual assault during college.

For some groups, the rates of violence are even higher — Native American women are more than twice as likely to experience sexual assault as the general population. Moreover, we know rape and sexual assault are consistently underreported, and that the physical and emotional trauma they leave behind can last for years.

With Vice President Joe Biden’s leadership, we have made preventing sexual violence and supporting survivors a top priority. Earlier this month, I was proud to sign the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, which renews and strengthens the law that first made it possible for our country to address sexual assault in a comprehensive way. The act preserves critical services like rape crisis centers, upholds protections for immigrant victims, gives state and tribal law enforcement better tools to investigate cases of rape, and breaks down barriers that keep lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims from getting help. It also expands funding for sexual assault nurse examiner programs and sexual assault response teams, helping states deliver justice for survivors and hold offenders accountable.

Just as we keep fighting sexual assault in our neighborhoods, we must also recommit to ending it in our military—because no one serving our country should be at risk of assault by a fellow service member.

Where this crime does take place, it cannot be tolerated; victims must have access to support, and offenders must face the consequences of their actions. Members of our armed forces and their families can learn more about the resources available to them at 1-877-995-5247 and www.SafeHelpline.org.

All Americans can play a role in changing the culture that enables sexual violence. Each of us can take action by lifting up survivors we know and breaking the silence surrounding rape and sexual assault. To get involved, visit www.WhiteHouse.gov/1is2many.

Together, our nation is moving forward in the fight against sexual assault. This month, let us keep working to prevent violence in every corner of America, and let us rededicate ourselves to giving survivors the bright future they deserve.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2013 as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. I urge all Americans to support survivors of sexual assault and work together to prevent these crimes in their communities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

http://www.newscastmedia.com/april-declaration.htm

New U.S. law aims at ending child marriage worldwide

Pre-teen girls are usually the target of child marriages

Newscast Media WASHINGTON—U.S. legislation signed into law March 7 renews and strengthens an almost 20-year-old law designed to prevent and respond to violence against women, but the 2013 version reaches beyond the U.S. population to the world at large in an attempt to prevent marriage of children under 18. Child marriages usually take place in the Middle East, India and in Africa.

The new provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) direct the secretary of state to develop and implement a plan to prevent child marriage, promote empowerment of girls at risk of early marriage, and target countries where a high prevalence of child marriage is known to occur.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that more than 140 million girls will become child brides in the years ahead. The rate of child marriage accounts for more than 14 million marriages annually, or 39,000 young girls who are forced into a premature marriage each day.

International studies of the practice show that early marriage affects a woman’s entire future, her health and her potential. Early marriage usually ends a girl’s education, blocks her opportunity to develop vocational skills, increases her risk of becoming a victim of violence, and exposes her to pregnancy before she has fully matured.

Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois was instrumental in the initiatives against child marriage in the VAWA.

Child marriage is “the root cause of many of the world’s most pressing development issues — HIV/AIDS, child mortality and abject poverty,” said Durbin in a statement released through his Washington office. Inclusion of child marriage provisions in VAWA put the issue squarely before the public and international partners, he said.

“It is the policy of the U.S. government to end child marriage around the globe. These important steps will change the lives of millions in some of the world’s forgotten places,” Durbin said.

The advancement of women and girls is a central element of U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration. The ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues within the State Department plays a leading role in advancing this issue in foreign policy forums.

The advocacy group Girl Up, sponsored by the U.S.-based U.N. Foundation, also celebrates the inclusion of the international provisions in the VAWA and claims some of the credit. Tens of thousands of U.S. girls communicated their opposition to child marriage to lawmakers through this organization — a testament to the power of youth voices — said Girl Up campaign head Melissa Hillebrenner.

“This is an amazing victory for girls, but only a start in the battle to end child marriage,” Hillebrenner said. “It is going to take a concerted voice of grass-roots advocates, [nongovernmental organizations], the [United Nations], and champions like Senator Durbin and Representatives McCollum and Schock to root out this practice and give girls a chance to reach their full potential.”

UNICEF reported in a recent news release that some parents agree to wed a young girl to another family simply to reduce household need, or because of an attractive dowry offered by the groom’s family.

http://newscastmedia.com/marriage.htm

Obama Proclaims January National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

Barack Obama

Newscast Media WASHINGTON, D.C.—Of all the stories that Newscast Media covers, we especially put an emphasis on stories that involve human trafficking, and have been leading the fight to expose this grotesques practice. On January 3, we also front-paged the article, “ICE busts sexual exploitation ring open with 120 victims involved.”

Our mission at Newscast Media is to speak out against oppressed innocence and we are glad the president has also thrown his weight behind this fight and promises to “combat this scourge”, by dismantling trafficking networks and strengthening sanctions on governments that allow human trafficking to occur.

The White House released Barack Obama’s proclamation of January 2013 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and as always, Newscast Media gives credit where credit is due. We therefore wish to commend the president for his bold and pragmatic approach in his condemnation of human trafficking, and for the January 2013 proclamation month.

“As Americans, we have long rejected such cruelty. We have recognized it as a debasement of our common humanity and an affront to the principles we cherish. And for more than a century, we have made it a national mission to bring slavery and human trafficking to an end,” Obama said.

“Our commitment to stopping human trafficking does not end at our borders. As a leader in the global movement to combat this scourge, the United States has renewed sanctions on governments that harbor the worst offenders. We have partnered with groups around the world to help men, women, and children escape their abusers…We have aided others in addressing modern slavery’s root causes, and encouraged
nations across the globe to pass comprehensive anti-trafficking laws, enforce them rigorously, and care for survivors,” Obama added.

*Click here to read Obama’s full proclamation from the White House.

Despite the mainstream media’s unwillingness to cover human trafficking stories because they cannot be sensationalized, we are pleased that the policy-makers are paying regular attention to this Web site, and are responding accordingly.

Below are some of the highlights of stories Newscast Media has covered, to expose human trafficking — from the earliest to most recent stories:

1. Exploited children in Mexico have ally in Christian Congresswoman. July 4, 2010

2. Mexican Women Forced By Pimps To Become Whores In The U.S. August 8, 2010

3. Trafficker of albinos in Tanzania sentenced to prison. August 19, 2010

4. Sex trade and human trafficking continue to thrive globally. May 10, 2012

5. Hillary Clinton: Trafficking Victims Should Be Made Whole. June 21, 2012

6. Students asked for ideas to help combat human trafficking. October 15, 2012

7. China’s main source of organ harvest- executed prisoners. December 21, 2012

8. ICE busts sexual exploitation ring open with over 120 victims. January 3, 2013

ICE busts sexual exploitation ring open with over 120 victims

Human trafficking

Newscast Media WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents during an international operation aimed at rescuing victims and targeting individuals who own, trade and produce images of child pornography, identified over 120 victims of child sexual exploitation.

Of that number, 44 children were directly rescued from their abusers and 79 were identified as either being exploited by others outside of their home or are now adults who were victimized as children.

HSI launched Operation Sunflower in November 2012 to commemorate the one-year anniversary in which the identification of a sunflower-shaped highway road sign led to the rescue of an 11-year-old girl in Kansas. Operation Sunflower was executed through the first week of December 2012, but victim identification and rescue efforts continue under HSI’s Operation Predator.

“The sexual abuse of young children, often at the hands of people they trust, is a particular wrong,” said ICE Director John Morton. “Whenever our investigations reveal the production and distribution of new child pornography online, we will do everything we can to rescue the victim and prosecute the abuser even if takes us years or around the world to do it. A relentless fight against child exploitation is the only answer.”

HSI and partner law enforcement agencies arrested 245 individuals during the operation, which took place Nov. 1 to Dec. 7. Of the 123 victims, 110 were identified in 19 U.S. states.

Of the 123 victims identified during Operation Sunflower: five were under the age of 3, nine were ages 4 to 6; 21 were ages 7 to 9; 11 were ages 10 to 12; 38 were ages 13 to 15; and 15 were ages 16 to 17. Twenty-four of the victims identified are now adults who were victimized as children. Seventy were female and 53 were male.

Now, the public’s help is being sought with any leads that can help provide clues in several cases and rescue more victims.

Click here to send tips to ICE about human/child exploitation, narcotics and weapons smuggling, terrorism related etc…

“We applaud our partners at ICE for their worldwide work in identifying these victims of child sexual exploitation and for helping to remove these children from extremely dangerous situations,” said NCMEC CEO John Ryan. “We know that there’s more work to be done. Anyone could know these victims, not knowing that they’re being harmed. They could be your neighbors’ children, your child’s classmate, or even your own child. We thank Director Morton and everyone at ICE for their strong commitment to rescuing the most vulnerable of victims.”

http://newscastmedia.com/sexploitation.htm

China’s main source of organ harvest- executed prisoners

Organ harvesting

Newscast Media BEIJING—Due to the cultural belief Chinese hold that people who lose their organs in this life will have them replaced in the next life, the main source of harvesting organs is executed prisoners, according to Radio Deutsche Welle.

“The actual number of executions is a closely guarded state secret,” says John Kamm, the head of the US-based non-profit Dui Hua Foundation.

“However, in recent years to some extent the curtain has been raised somewhat by officials or scholars who have access to the real numbers and earlier this year we did get some indication as to the number of people executed in 2011 – approximately 4000.”

Organ harvesting is a very lucrative business because the organs can be sold on the black market in Asia. It can also lead to human trafficking.

“It’s a bit of a cultural taboo,” explains Kamm. “The Chinese traditionally believe that when they leave this world and enter the next they have to be in possession of all their organs. So the number of people who have been willing to donate organs is very small.”

Five years ago, the government ruled that organs from executed prisoners could only be given to family members. And recently it said that it would phase out the practice of using executed prisoners’ organs by 2015 completely.

http://newscastmedia.com/organ-extraction.htm

Students asked for ideas to help combat human trafficking

Human trafficking

Newscast Media WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is asking students to come up with new and innovative ways to end modern slavery. USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced the Campus Challenge to Counter Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) on October 11 at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

Across three phases and through the USAID website ChallengeSlavery.org, the C-TIP Campus Challenge is designed to increase global awareness about trafficking, inspire activism among students and scholars at colleges and universities worldwide and generate new, creative ideas and solutions to stop human trafficking and help the 20.9 million people around the world are enslaved in sex or labor exploitation, USAID said.

During the first phase from October 11 to November 28 at ChallengeSlavery.org, students will have the opportunity to participate in discussion groups on various trafficking subtopics, host online conversations, and crowdsourcing issues that will frame the problems to be addressed in the next phase.

The contest phase, from November 28 to January 8, 2013, will be open for applications from U.S. and international students proposing innovative technological solutions to advance trafficking-in-persons prevention and protection.

From January 9, 2013, to January 30, 2013, the ChallengeSlavery.org community will be invited to rate the proposals and provide suggestions on how submissions can be improved. On February 1, 2013, USAID will announce the semifinalists and in the following three weeks, semifinalist proposals will be judged by an expert C-TIP and technologist panel. The winners will be announced at the end of February and will be invited to share their proposals with donors, C-TIP and technology professionals.

Included in the implementation of the USAID’s 2012 C-TIP Policy, and building on President Obama’s speech at the Clinton Global Initiative, USAID policy and programs place a heightened emphasis on innovation, technology and empirical research to help prevent trafficking and provide assistance to victims, USAID said.

USAID said it is partnering with Not for Sale, Slavery Footprint, Free the Slaves and MTV Exit on this project to maximize efforts and inspire millions of people already working on the issue and invite new activists to the cause, ultimately, strengthening the movement to return freedom to the millions of people robbed of their dignity every day.

The report represents an updated, global look at the nature and scope of trafficking in persons and the broad range of government actions to confront and eliminate it. The U.S. government uses the TIP report to engage foreign governments in dialogues to advance anti-trafficking reforms and to combat trafficking and to target resources on prevention, protection and prosecution programs.

In addition, USAID programmed $163.3 million in C-TIP activities in 68 countries and regional missions between 2001 and 2010 and continues to work around the world.

http://newscastmedia.com/modern-slavery.htm

Global campaign launched by the U.S. to stop child marriage

Hillary Clinton

Newscast Media WASHINGTON, D.C.—Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the United States will join a campaign to stop child marriage by the year 2030. Clinton made the announcement before an audience of Girl Scouts, invited to the State Department in recognition of the International Day of the Girl, a U.N. commemoration set for October 11.

The secretary began began her remarks by describing a “very brave” Pakistani girl, Malala Yousufzai. She has achieved wide recognition for her assertion of girls’ rights to education, but was shot October 9 in an attack by extremists opposed to the education of women. Clinton said, “Yesterday’s attack reminds us of the challenges that girls face, whether it’s poverty or marginalization or even violence, just for speaking out for their basic rights.”

Each year, 10 million girls under 18 are forced into marriage, Clinton said, “which robs them of the opportunity to continue education, and it threatens health and traps them in lives of poverty.”

The campaign “Girls Not Brides: the Global Partnership to End Child Marriage” is championed by The Elders, a group of internationally known leaders who work together for global peace and justice. South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu is chairman of the group, which includes former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former Irish President Mary Robinson.

Tutu joined Clinton at the State Department for the event, speaking to the audience of girls with a mix of tenderness, admiration and inspiration.

“Without women the world faces perdition, destruction. We need you, we need you to save us,” Tutu said.
“Dream of a different world, where every child has access to clean water, and every child has enough food to eat. We want to make poverty history; we want to make child marriage history,” he added.

http://newscastmedia.com/child-marriage.htm

Hillary Clinton: Trafficking Victims Should Be Made Whole

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Newscast Media WASHINGTON, D.C. — Survivors of human trafficking must be given the opportunity “to move past what they endured and make the most of their potential,” says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Speaking at the State Department June 19 at an event marking the release of the department’s 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report, Clinton said: “Traffickers prey on the hopes and dreams of those seeking a better life. And our goal should be to put those hopes and dreams back within reach, whether it’s getting a good job to send money home to support a family, trying to get an education for oneself or one’s children, or simply pursuing new opportunities that might lead to a better life.”

The annual report, which tracks how human trafficking is handled in 186 countries and territories — including the United States — emphasizes proven and innovative practices for protecting victims via psychological support for victims, immigration laws to protect migrant victims and training for labor inspectors to recognize trafficking, Clinton said.

According to the State Department, there are some 27 million people around the world who are enslaved for labor or for the sex industry. Statistics provided by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization estimate that 55 percent of forced labor victims are women or girls, as are 98 percent of sex trafficking victims.

Among the recommendations the report makes:

• Provide victims with shelters but do not detain them there. Victims should have freedom of movement.

• Victims should be informed of their rights as early as possible in a language they understand.

• Victims should be given the choice of how much of their information is shared.

• Governments should offer victims permanent residency and the right to work.

Benefits — rather than forced deportation — facilitate the law enforcement process, the report says. The report also cautions governments not to confuse trafficking, in which victims are coerced, with illegal immigration.

“Authorities often fail to look beneath the surface for possible indicators of forced labor, debt bondage or sex trafficking,” the report says. It is the traffickers, not the trafficking victims, who are the criminals, the report says. You may read or download the 2012 Trafficking in Person’s Report.

http://www.newscastmedia.com/trafficking-victims.htm

Sex trade and human trafficking continue to thrive globally

Newscast Media HOUSTON, Texas—A disturbing investigation shows that human trafficking trade continues to grow, with as many as 12 million men, women and children living in a state of modern slavery, and the number is expected to double to almost 27 million. People like Tara from Ethiopia, promised a good job as a maid in the Middle East, who finds her passport confiscated, and 20 hour days of humiliation and hard work.

Or Umma from Somalia who spends her last pennies for a boat ride to Italy only to find herself an unwilling victim of the sex trade. Or Noben, a fisherman from Bangladesh beaten by his boss when he fails to meet his quota of catch for the day.

A common misconception is that sex trafficking is a problem limited to developing nations. Every year, thousands of people are brought into the West and forced into prostitution. The high demand allows traffickers to make a great profit and continue to bring more victims into the trade. In most countries prostitution is illegal, yet countries like Thailand attract numerous wealthy men from the West who are sex
tourists looking for underage girls, boys and she-males.

In one of its worst forms, trafficking involves harvesting people’s organs and selling them on the black market.

Talitha Kum network headed by Sister Estrella Castalone is on the front line fighting the trafficking, and also providing programs to train consecrated religious and lay in methods of prevention and to provide assistance for victims of trafficking. Below is an interview of Sr. Castalone talking about this growing problem of human trafficking.

Tracey McClure interviews Sister Estrella – Audio Courtesy: Vatican Radio
(The interviewer keeps mispronouncing the nun’s name as Australia instead of Estrella)

http://www.newscastmedia.com/human-trafficking.htm

Groups wage war on multi-billion sex industry in the U.S. and abroad

Sex industry

by Brittany Smith

Newscast Media JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—The global sex industry generates over $30 billion a year, which is why Kristin Keen is often on the side of the highway in Jacksonville, Fla. She routinely walks a section called Philips Highway to meet and talk with prostitutes working on the street. These women wonder why she cares, especially in a place where most transactions are strictly business.

But Keen is not discouraged. Instead, her experiences have pushed her to start a business to give these women a different kind of job.

She is the founder of Rethreaded, a nonprofit organization in Jacksonville, with the goal of fighting “business with business.” Keen told her story at North Carolina’s Davidson College last week during a human trafficking awareness night in partnership with the campus chapter of the International Justice Mission.

According to The Polaris Project, an organization that fights trafficking, the legal definition of sex trafficking in the U.S. is any commercial sex act “induced by force, fraud, or coercion or commercial sex acts in which the individual induced to perform commercial sex has not attained 18 years of age.”

The average age of entry for women into the commercial sex industry in the U.S. is between 12 to 14 years old. The Polaris Project also estimates that there are 100,000 children in the sex trade in the United States each year.

Rethreaded works with women and children to pull them out of the sex industry. According to its website, most of the women involved in sex trafficking and prostitution come out of jail with felonies and need a safe place to find work and get training, since they have no job skills or education.

The goal of Rethreaded is to teach women how to make fashionable products like scarves, purses and blankets out of old t-shirts so they can sell them and earn a living.

while the numbers are daunting, human-trafficking awareness and businesses like Rethreaded are growing. Organizations are emerging across the U.S. to fight sex trafficking and prostitution in some of America’s largest cities.

Streetlight USA in Phoenix, Ariz., pioneered a safe house for girls who were victims of sex trafficking. They can come and receive a room, faith-based counseling, a mentor mother in a family setting, professional health care, food, clothing, educational and career bases counseling, and healing.

http://www.newscastmedia.com/sex-industry.htm

Schools are embracing sexual predators as teachers and employees

Pupils in class

Newscast Media –We’ve all heard the cliche, “Nice guys finish last,” at least in the education sector, that seems to be very true. Schools are now hiring sexual offenders as school teachers and employees, and when these predators abuse little children as young as kindergartners, they simply get a slap on their wrist. All this information has been published in a new government report.

Even in an environment that attracts sexual predators, one would think that schools would take background checks and police reports seriously, but that isn’t necessarily true. In 15 cases where schools hired people with a history of sexual misconduct, 11 abused children and in six instances, the sex offenders used their new jobs to abuse more children, the Government Accountability Office report stated.

The report shows that 232 child molesters claimed they abused 17,000 victims, sometimes never being caught. There are law abiding teachers with high standards and values who cannot get jobs because they have squeaky clean backgrounds, yet these schools won’t hesitate to hire people with questionable and tainted backgrounds.

The psychological explanation is that those who tend to uphold certain standards and pursue excellence in their endeavors, whether it is in the business sector, education or even law enforcement, create an atmosphere where the mediocre by-standers feel pressured to step up their game. This happens through impartation. When those in positions of authority are comfortable with the status quo, they don’t want to be challenged to evolve, so they tend to frown upon those who pursue excellence.

However, when an individual has blemishes and questionable character, for some strange reason such individuals tend to be favored over those who play by the rules. This is because it empowers those in authority to know that these individuals have known weaknesses, which makes them feel better about themselves, knowing that they are in the company of others who have much greater weaknesses than themselves, and are prone to being manipulated or exploited by those very same people in authority.

Two people can commit the same crime. One could be a career criminal, while the other has committed the crime for the first time, yet the habitual criminal gets winked at, and the first-timer is severely punished. All you have to do is take a look at Wesley Snipes and Charlie Rangel. Both didn’t pay taxes, yet one went to jail, and the other who committed a more serious crime got to keep his job in Washington and no jail time.

With examples like the ones below, one has to question the judgment and state of mind of those in authority who oversee the employees involved in the incidents that were uncovered and published in the report. The study found:

A Connecticut public school district compelled a teacher to resign after he accessed pornography on a school computer. Although the school district reported the abuse to child protective services, a district administrator told another Connecticut school seeking a reference that they would rehire the teacher “without reservation.” A second Connecticut school district also compelled him to resign, but his separation specifically directed all inquiries from future employers to the superintendent and agreed that he would provide a letter of recommendation. This school district also provided him with positive
references. He was eventually hired by a third Connecticut school district, where he was convicted of sexually assaulting two students.

An Ohio teacher forced to resign a previous job for “inappropriate” conduct with
female students was called an “outstanding teacher” by the school superintendent and was later hired in a nearby district where he was convicted of sexual battery of a sixth-grade girl.

A registered sex offender in Texas was hired by several schools in Louisiana. He is currently wanted by police for having “sexual conversations with a student.”

An Arizona school’s rush to fill an opening resulted in skipping a criminal check of a teacher convicted of sexually abusing a child. The teacher was later convicted for having sexual contact with a student and had videos of nude, underage girls in his possession.

A Florida public school allowed an individual who was convicted of having sex with an underage male to work as a volunteer coach without a criminal history check, even though school policy provided that volunteers would be subject to such checks. He was eventually arrested for having sexual contact with a student on one of the school’s sports teams. The list goes on in this 44 page government report.

The study found no federal laws regulating the employment of sex offenders in public or private schools and widely divergent laws at the state level, especially with regard to requirements and methods for conducting criminal history checks on employees. http://www.newscastmedia.com/child-abusers.html

South Africa Kidney Trafficking Cartel Charged With Illegal Activity

South Africa

Newscast Media –After an extensive investigation into the illegal kidney trafficking business, five Five doctors from South Africa’s health group Netcare have been charged for allegedly participating in an international kidney trading cartel.

Over 100 operations between 2001-2003 were conducted in Durban, in which poor Brazilians and Romanians were paid to donate kidneys to wealthy Israelites. In addition to the five doctors who were charged, two transplant unit staff, Netcare group, Netcare’s CEO and the Durban hospital where the operations are alleged to have taken place, South Africa’s Mercury and Times newspapers reported. In addition, an Israeli interpreter was also charged.

Despite the charges that include fraud, forgery, serious assault, Netcare has denied any wrongdoing. The trafficking cartel was initially uncovered in 2003. An Israeli organ broker who became a state witness and is expected to testify about his role in the alleged syndicate. More doctors are expected to be charged in the coming days. http://newscastmedia.com/southafricakidney.htm

Mexican Women Forced By Pimps To Become Whores In The U.S.

Street prostitution

Newscast Media Tenancingo, Mexico — In central Mexico, the oldest trade has taken root. Hundreds of innocent and unsuspecting young Mexican women are exploited by their families, as they are forced into prostitution.

Those familiar with the pimps of Tlaxcala state – victims, prosecutors, social workers and researchers say the men of Tenancingo have refined their methods over the last 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.

Montiel, a pimp who only identifies himself by his street name said his uncle initiated him into the business, and that he has passed on his skills to his brother and two sons. Federico Pohls, who runs a center that tries to help victims, says established pimps will sometimes bankroll young men who aspire to the profession but lack the clothes, money and cars to impress young women.

Dilcya Garcia, a Mexico City prosecutor who did anti-trafficking work in Tenancingo, confirms that many boys in the town aspire to be pimps. “If you ask some boys, and we have done this, ‘Hey what do you want to be when you grow up?’ They reply: ‘I want to have a lot of sisters and a lot of daughters to make lots of money.’”

The pimps use a combination of threats, mistreatment, unkept promises of marriage and jobs, that send their victims on a slippery slope that usually ends in the filthy alleys near Mexico City’s La Merced marketplace or at a cheap apartment in metro Atlanta. There, the women are isolated and sometimes forced to service dozens of male clients a day.

Judith Soriana, the state prosecutors’ spokeswoman says only about a half-dozen people have been prosecuted under laws against human trafficking in the past couple of years. She denies it’s a particular problem in the state, saying, “It has been blown out of proportion.”

“There is nothing that indicates it is particularly high in this area,” Soriana said. “Pimping isn’t a problem exclusive to this state, it happens everywhere in the world.” http://newscastmedia.com/pimps.htm

Exploited children in Mexico now have ally in christian Congresswoman

Child exploitation

Newscast Media — Over 3 million children between the ages of five and 17 in Mexico, are estimated to be vulnerable to poverty and human trafficking, according to a report issued by Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography.

Championing to bring change is Christian Congresswoman, Rosi Orozco, head of Mexico’s Special Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Rosa Maria Orozco was elected to Mexico’s 500-seat Chamber of Deputies in July 2009. She is a member of the PAN party (National Action Party), which is led by President Felipe Calderón. Her main reason for entering politics is to curb child exploitation.

Orozco said, “My aim is to end the commercial and sexual exploitation of children in Mexico.” She founded a shelter that takes care of girls and women involved in the sex trade before entering Congress.
http://www.newscastmedia.com/mexicankids.htm