Sex Tourism: Addressing the Demand for Trafficking

House Committee on Financial Services ^ | 2000-2005 | EQUALITY

[Calpernia]

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EQUALITY NOW

New York: 250 West 57 Street, #1527, New York, NY 10107, USA ▪ Tel:+1 212-586-0906 • Fax:+1 212-586-1611 • Email: info@equalitynow.org

London: 6 Buckingham Street, London WC2N 6BU, UK • Phone:+44 (0) 20-7839-5456 • Fax:+44 (0) 20-7839-4012 • Email: ukinfo@equalitynow.org

Nairobi: PO Box 2018 KNH 00202, Nairobi, Kenya • Tel: +254 20-2719-832 • Fax: +254 20-2719-868 • Email: equalitynow@kenyaweb.com

Sex Tourism: Addressing the Demand for Trafficking

Testimony by Jessica Neuwirth, President of Equality Now

Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you, and thank you for your interest

in and support for efforts to combat trafficking in persons. My name is Jessica Neuwirth and

I am the founder and President of Equality Now, an international human rights organization

based in New York working for the protection and promotion of the rights of women and

girls worldwide. Equality Now’s membership network is comprised of more than 25,000

individuals and organizations in 160 countries. Issues of concern to Equality Now include

trafficking of women and girls, rape, domestic violence, reproductive rights, female genital

mutilation, denial of equal access to economic opportunity and political participation, and all

other forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 recognized that sex tourism is one of

the means through which the commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls has

contributed to the growth of the international sex industry and feeds the demand for sex

trafficking. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 went a step

further in requiring the dissemination of materials alerting U.S. citizen travelers that, “sex

tourism is illegal, will be prosecuted, and presents dangers to those involved”. In evaluating

how other countries are addressing human trafficking, HR 972, the Trafficking Victims

Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, would require adding as a minimum standard for

eliminating trafficking in the State Department’s annual report, “measures to reduce the

demand for commercial sex acts and for participation in international sex tourism”. We

should hold ourselves to the same minimum standard and play a leadership role for other

countries in this regard.

My comments today will focus on Big Apple Oriental Tours of Bellerose and

Poughkeepsie, New York and G&F Tours of New Orleans, Louisiana. I will speak about

these sex tour companies because in their methods of operation they demonstrate the typical

activities of sex tour companies. I will also speak about them because the lack of action

against them by both federal and state prosecutors is also typical of our country’s inadequate

response to the demand side of the trafficking of women and children.

From its locations in New York, Big Apple Oriental Tours was advertising its

services, communicating with potential sex tourists to persuade them to travel with Big

Apple Oriental Tours, making airline and hotel reservations, and arranging for local tour

guides in the destination countries to introduce men to women from whom they could buy

sex. The local Big Apple representative who escorted the men to the clubs was also available

to negotiate the sex acts to be purchased and their price with the “mamasan” who controlled

the women in these bars and clubs. G&F Tours in New Orleans conducts its activities in

precisely the same way, even using the same tour guide as Big Apple in Thailand.

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It should be simple to prosecute a company that so blatantly accepts money to

facilitate and arrange commercial sex acts. New York Penal Law Section 230.20 makes it a

Class A misdemeanor when a person “knowingly advances or profits from prostitution”.

Penal Law Section 230.25 makes it a Class D felony when a person “knowingly advances or

profits from prostitution by managing, supervising, controlling or owning either alone or in

association with others, a house of prostitution or a prostitution business or enterprise

involving prostitution activity by two or more prostitutes”.

Despite the clear language of the New York Penal Law and the uncontroverted

activities of Big Apple Oriental Tours, Equality Now campaigned unsuccessfully for seven

years with the Queens County District Attorney to prosecute Big Apple Oriental Tours for

promoting prostitution. Only when the case was brought to the attention of New York

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2003 was a civil proceeding to shut down the company

undertaken and a criminal prosecution subsequently commenced. The criminal case was

dismissed and then the dismissal was reversed on appeal. We are now waiting for another

grand jury proceeding and hoping the case will go to trial. No other State level prosecution

against sex tour operators for promoting prostitution has even been attempted despite most

states having similar prohibitions of such activities as those of New York that I just

described. I would like to note that from the beginning of our campaign seven years ago,

Congresswoman Maloney has been tremendously supportive of our efforts to close down Big

Apple Oriental Tours and prosecute its owner/operators. I would like to thank her for this

support, which has been instrumental in leading finally to the case currently underway.

Federal prosecutors have been equally unwilling to address the demand for trafficked

women and girls created by sex tour operators and their customers. Unless it can be proven

that children are involved, they are not interested. Very often minors are involved, but it is

usually impossible to prove. Moreover, as a matter of principle as well as practicality, law

enforcement interest in sex tourism should not be confined to cases involving minors.

Section 2421 of Title 18 of the United States Code, known as the Mann Act, provides a ten

year sentence for anyone who “knowingly transports any individual in interstate or foreign

commerce . . . with the intent that such individual engage in prostitution or in any sexual

activity for which any person can be charged with a crime, or attempts to do so.” Section

2422(a) makes it a crime for anyone who “knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces

any individual to travel in interstate or foreign commerce . . . to engage in prostitution, or in

any sexual activity for which any person can charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to

do so.” These provisions of the Mann Act could be effectively used against United States

sex tour operators but the Department of Justice has so far failed to apply this statute against

them. Neither of these sections requires that prostituted person or victim be a minor and

neither of these sections requires that the individual being transported or induced or

persuaded to travel in foreign commerce be the prostituted person or victim. In other words,

transporting “johns” in foreign commerce, which is exactly what sex tour companies do, falls

within the scope of the Mann Act.

In virtually every popular sex tour destination country, such as Thailand, patronizing

a prostitute is illegal and “johns” can be charged with a crime for purchasing sex acts.

Although both of the Mann Act sections just described could be applied to sex tour operators

who every day induce, persuade and ultimately transport individuals in foreign commerce to

engage in criminal sexual activity, Equality Now has not been successful in its efforts over

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the past six years to get the Department of Justice and the United States Attorneys Offices in

the Eastern District of Louisiana and Southern District New York to apply the Mann Act

against G&F Tours. By its failure to use the Mann Act against sex tour operators like G&F

Tours, the Department of Justice has created a de facto narrowing of that law’s application.

Equality Now welcomes the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005, HR 2012,

and we thank Congresswoman Pryce and Congresswoman Maloney for their sponsorship of

this bill. The bill includes a needed clarification that the Mann Act does apply to sex tour

operators who transport purchasers as well as sellers of commercial sexual acts. We hope

this clarification will facilitate law enforcement efforts to end sex tourism. More generally,

we welcome the focus in HR 2012 on the demand for prostitution, which is the engine

driving the commercial sex industry. For too long, efforts to combat trafficking and the

commercial sex industry have focused exclusively on the supply side of the industry, which

cannot be effective in isolation. As a committee with a particular interest in the financial

workings of this industry, we hope you will work with us and support our efforts to ensure

that trafficking is addressed comprehensively, as an industry in which consumer demand for

sex tourism and prostitution play a central role in generating the demand for trafficking.

Thank you.

[Calpernia]

Oh, I see.

No excuse though. They had news showing this development for days. They could have rented a vehicle or made arrangements of some sort. Not like this was sprung on them.

[Just mythoughts]

Exactly!

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping

[Velveeta]

bump and thanks

[Frank_Lee_Speaking]

It's much sadder in Thailand where young girls as young as 4 month's old are sold into sex slavery in whorehouses in Bangkock.

[cyborg]

Yes the pedophiles are like parasites looking for any infant not being protected by strong anti-trafficking laws.

[Frank_Lee_Speaking]

Most of them are sold by their parents to pay for their opium addictions, spurred by the "free opium" given them by sex traffikers.

It is a truly horrendously wicked situation.

[cyborg]

Also, poverty and not having any money.

[Calpernia]

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/July/04_ag_489.htm

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 16, 2004 WWW.USDOJ.GOV

AG 202-514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888

BUSH ADMINISTRATION HOSTS FIRST NATIONAL TRAINING CONFERENCE TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING

President George W. Bush And Attorney General John Ashcroft Address Conference

TAMPA - Today, President Bush joined Attorney General Ashcroft and other senior Bush Administration officials at the first-ever national training conference on human trafficking: Human Trafficking into the United States: Rescuing Women and Children from Slavery. Hosted by the Justice Department, the conference brought together over 500 attendees, comprised of the hundreds of state, local and federal officials who work together to combat human trafficking in communities across America. Trafficking in persons, a modern day form of slavery, is a serious problem in the United States and throughout the world. Each year, an estimated 600,000-800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked against their will across international borders. Of those, 14,500-17,500 are trafficked into America. Victims are forced into prostitution, or to work in sweatshops, quarries, as domestic labor, or child soldiers, and in many forms of involuntary servitude.

Throughout the past three years, the Bush Administration has taken strong steps to combat trafficking at home and abroad. Today at the conference, the Bush Administration announced new steps and resources to combat human trafficking. These initiatives include $14 million to law enforcement to help human trafficking victims, $4.5 million for organizations to assist victims, new interagency cooperation to ensure the timely delivery of benefits and services to victims, a model state law criminalizing human trafficking, new training resources, new task forces, as well as greatly increased investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking.

“From the very beginning of his Administration, President Bush has spoken forcefully and eloquently about the brutal crime of human trafficking,” said Attorney General John Ashcroft. “We will protect the victims, prosecute the perpetrators, and build partnerships to address, attack and prevent human trafficking. These steps send a clear message that America will repel aggressively assaults on our core values of freedom and respect for human dignity. We have had success in the past three years, but we understand that these efforts are only the beginning. It is critical that we work together to track down those who hide their barbaric businesses in the shadows, and to help their victims.”

• $14 Million for Law Enforcement Agencies and Service Providers To Help Trafficking Victims: The Bush Administration today announced Department of Justice funding to support and implement local efforts to identify, rescue, and restore victims of trafficking. The Justice Department will make available $14 million to law enforcement agencies and service providers, and as many as 25 communities across the country will be eligible to receive this funding. This money will support anti-trafficking efforts to identify, rescue and restore victims of trafficking in communities across the country. The Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) will administer the new grant program.
• $4.5 Million for Organizations To Help Trafficking Victims: Today, the Justice Department awarded $4.5 million to nine local organizations that provide shelter where victims of trafficking can find refuge in the interval between rescue and the determination of eligibility for public assistance and other benefits. The grant program provides comprehensive services for victims of trafficking by building on existing community resources, to strengthen the collaboration and cooperation among existing agencies and organizations that serve trafficking victims; to provide training to criminal justice personnel, social service providers and the public of the rights and needs of trafficking victims; and to support the ability of trafficking victims to cooperate with law enforcement and prosecutors in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases. The Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is administering this grant program. Grant recipients include:

  Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, CA: $500,696

  Safe Horizon: $500,000
  (For work in the five boroughs of NYC)

  New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance: $500,000
  (For work in the state of NY, minus NYC’s five boroughs)

  International Institute of Boston, MA: $500, 000

  International Rescue Committee, NY: $499,999
  (For work in the state of WA)

  World Relief Corporation, Baltimore, MD $499,998
  (For work in Al, FL, KY, MD, MS, NC, LA, TN, TX, SC, OK)

  U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC: $413,298
  (For work in MD, DE, PA and NJ)

  U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC: $372,237
  (For work in OR)

  Refugee Women’s Network, Inc.: $311,708
  (For work in GA)

• Cooperation to Combat Trafficking: To ensure the smooth and timely delivery of benefits and services to trafficking victims as well as comprehensive investigations and prosecutions, the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security are working together to share information and provide benefits to victims most in need. In addition, the charter for the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center went into effect July 2004 and brings together representatives from law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomacy to combat alien smuggling, trafficking in persons, and terrorist travel networks.
• Comprehensive Anti-Trafficking State Laws: While many states have laws that address various aspects of the crime of trafficking in persons, comprehensive anti-trafficking statutes are needed to deter and punish the wide range of coercive tactics used by traffickers. To meet this need, the Justice Department has drafted a model anti-trafficking statute for states. Texas, Washington, Minnesota, Missouri, and Florida already have comprehensive state trafficking laws.
• Increased Investigations and Prosecutions of Human Traffickers: The Bush Administration has greatly increased human trafficking prosecutions. From FY 2001-2003, the Justice Department initiated prosecutions of 110 persons, nearly a three-fold increase compared to the previous three years. Of those, 78 involved allegations of sex trafficking. From FY 2001 to now, the Department obtained convictions and guilty pleas from 107 individuals. From FY 2001-2003, the Department opened 210 new investigations, more than double the number opened in the previous three years. At present, the Department has 168 open investigations into possible human trafficking crimes, more than twice as many as were open in January 2001.
• Anti-Trafficking Training for Law Enforcement and Organizations that Help Victims: The Department of Justice provides anti-trafficking training to federal, state and local prosecutors, as well as law enforcement agents and officers, to non-governmental organizations and to officials of foreign governments. The training program will be made available to trafficking response teams attending the conference to enhance their efforts. The Justice Department is also developing a model curriculum for the victim-centered approach to identifying and rescuing trafficking victims and investigating and prosecuting their traffickers and abusers.
• Anti-Trafficking Task Forces: To combat trafficking, the Bush Administration has convened anti-trafficking task force coalitions in Philadelphia, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Tampa and will create a dozen additional task forces this year. These task forces bring together federal, state, local, and non-governmental sectors to combat trafficking and provide comprehensive assistance to victims. Additionally, public service announcements have been issued in Spanish, Russian, Polish, Chinese, and Korean to inform victims of their rights.

  These new efforts will support the Bush Administration’s ongoing initiatives to combat human trafficking and provide assistance to trafficking victims. Since 2001, President Bush has provided more than $35 million to 36 faith-based and community organizations across the country to aid victims of trafficking with services such as emergency shelter, legal, mental, and health services, as well as English-proficiency instruction. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services has launched a referral hotline to help victims. The Administration has also worked to provide immigration relief for trafficking victims through a new class of visa (T-visas) that allows trafficking victims to remain in the U.S. for three years with work authorization and access to benefits and services. Additionally, on an international level, President Bush’s budget has provided more than $295 million to support anti -trafficking programs in more than 120 countries since 2001.

  The conference was attended by trafficking response teams made up of federal, state and local law enforcement, prosecutors and victim service providers from at least twenty-one cities with known concentration of trafficking victims. Teams came from communities including Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; El Paso, TX; Houston, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Long Island, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Newark, NJ; New Orleans, LA; New York, NY; Metropolitan Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Richmond, VA; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; St. Louis, MO, Seattle, WA and Tampa, FL. These teams learned how to uncover and investigate cases, as well as how to provide services to trafficking victims. The conference emphasized the importance of combating trafficking using a victim-centered approach. Rescuing victims requires proactive law enforcement strategies and an understanding of the collaborative approach to human trafficking that includes community members, first responders, restorative care service providers, victim advocates, as well as state, local, and federal law enforcement.

  The latest U.S. government interagency report on human trafficking, Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons can be found at www.usdoj.gov/trafficking.htm <http://www.usdoj.gov/trafficking.htm>.

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  04-489

[Calpernia]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/7/16/221009.shtml

Bush Says Castro Welcomes Sex Tourism

NewsMax Wires
Saturday, July 17, 2004

TAMPA, Fla. -- President Bush on Friday accused Fidel Castro of exploiting Cuba's children by encouraging a sex-tourism industry designed to draw cash to the impoverished nation, comments certain to resonate with Cuban-American voters in the swing state of Florida

"The regime in Havana, already one of the worst violators of human rights in the world, is adding to its crimes. The dictator welcomes sex tourism," Bush said at a conference on "human trafficking" - forced labor, sex and military service.

Bush's rival, John Kerry, agreed with the president and the Democratic campaign said human trafficking demands a coordinated international response. The Kerry campaign did take issue with the pace of Bush's response, arguing that the president had waited too long - until February of this year - to submit an international pact against trafficking to the Senate.

By combining the human-trafficking issue with his hard-line rhetoric against Castro, Bush hopes to bolster his standing with Cuban-Americans in the state that decided the 2000 election. Friday's trip was Bush's 23rd as president to Florida, and recent polls show the race tied.

Last year, the Bush administration imposed sanctions on Cuba, Burma and North Korea for failing to take steps to stop such practices. In a report last month, the State Department listed Cuba among 10 nations that engage in human trafficking.

The president said Castro had "bragged about" Cuba's sex industry and he quoted Castro as saying: "Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world."

That apparently was a quote from a 1992 speech in which Castro said prostitution in his country was illegal, but nevertheless present. White House officials said Castro had made the statement in the early 1990s, but could not be more precise.

"There is no cleaner, purer tourism than Cuba's tourism, because there is really no drug trafficking, no gambling houses," Castro told a session of the National Assembly of the People's Government 12 years ago.

"There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist," Castro said. "Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily and without any need for it. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy, because we are the country with the lowest number of AIDS cases."

But Bush said Castro has turned Cuba into a major destination for sex tourism, which is "a vital source of hard currency to keep his corrupt government afloat."

"My administration is working toward a comprehensive solution to this problem: the rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba," Bush said.

The president said an "influx of American and Canadian tourists contributed to a sharp increase in child prostitution in Cuba," a claim he attributed to a report from the Protection Project, a legal human-rights research institute based at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Bush said the institute had found this was the case. In fact, the institute had cited "general news reports" suggesting that but had not independently concluded it.

Human traffickers bring as many as 17,500 people into the United States every year, trapping them in slavery-like conditions for forced sex, sweatshop labor and domestic servitude, the administration says. As many as 800,000 people were forcibly moved across borders worldwide in the last year, 80 percent of them women.

Bush did not announce any new initiatives Friday, but said his administration is combatting the problem at home and abroad by:

-Spending more than $295 million since the start of his term to support anti-trafficking programs in more than 120 countries.

-Bringing charges against 110 ringleaders.

-Helping foreign victims in America by treating them as refugees instead of illegal immigrants.

-Arresting more than 3,200 people who pay for sex slaves and other forced laborers.

Bush's campaign rally in Beckley, West Virginia, another battleground, was his 10th visit to the state as president. Kerry visited a day earlier.

[Calpernia]

http://www.365gay.com/newscontent/111703louisianaGov.htm

Louisiana Elects Gay-Positive Governor
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: November 17, 2003 12:02 a.m. ET


(New Orleans, Louisiana) Louisiana voters elected Kathleen Blanco as the state's first woman gay-positive governor Sunday.

Blanco, a Democrat, was endorsed by state LGBT groups following a meeting with the Louisiana League for Equality. Her opponent in Sunday's runoff, Republican Bobby Jindal, refused to meet with the group claiming he did not have time.

When Jindal received an endorsement from New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, the mayor's advisory committee on gay issues resigned. (story) In a statement the Advisory Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues called the endorsement "unconscionable and incomprehensible."

During a debate last week between the two contenders, Jindal said ''I'm not in favor of special classes or special laws.'' He also said he would support making Louisiana only the third state in America to outlaw gay adoptions.

Blanco said ''the real problem is, we don't have enough loving parents.''

She said she had taken heat from conservative groups for meeting with Louisiana League for Equality.

''I had the decency to meet with a group that represents gay and lesbians,'' Blanco said.

During the meeting Blanco said she would work with the group to pass legislation that would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Blanco also told the group she supports legislation that would ban discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students on school campuses, an effort that failed to pass the Legislature this year.

Jindal's defeat halts a Republican roll that saw the party win three governor seats in the last 40 days.

The Republican wave began with the recall last month of Democratic Governor Gray Davis in California and the election of the GOP's Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Earlier this month, Ernie Fletcher broke a 32-year-old Democratic stranglehold on the Kentucky governor's seat and Haley Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman, defeated Democratic incumbent Ronnie Musgrove in Mississippi.

©365Gay.com® 2003

[Calpernia]

"Itch Bin Ein Cabana.":
Bush Told To Tell Jeb And The Miami Mafia That CIA Plans To Step Up Attacks On Cuba:
Iraq and Afghanistan Fucked Up? Iran and North Korea Nuked Up? Let's Beat Up On Cuba!:
The Evil Pimpyre Of Dick Darth

By JEFFEY LUBE
The Assassinated Press
October 11, 2003

Washington - Faux President George W. Bush vowed Friday to abet the Miami Cuban drug, prostitution and gambling cartels' return to Cuba and to return the island nation to its former glory as the Best Little Whorehouse in the Americas. Bush was told to read that the United States will beef up its travel restrictions to Cuba and has out sourced $40,000,000 to organize a special public relations task force to hustle more Cubans into fleeing the island. "America hasn't been able to piss off the porch, if you know what I mean, since the White Devil lost Cuba," Bush roared as the crowd surged to its feet for a standing ovation.

He also bitterly denounced Haitian boat people as deceitful and selfish for trying to disguise themselves as Cubans to gain entry into the U.S. When this reporter queried Bush as to why so few Cuban boat people were black like the Haitians, the diminutive Texan replied, "Some Cuban darkies got in!? Damn, I specifically promised my brother, Jeb, no darkies." He denied the light years between U.S. approaches to Cuban and Haitian immigration policy had anything to do with race. "I'm not a raceman," Bush declared, "Itch bin ein Cabana."

He ventured on, "Clearly, the Castro regime will not surrender and be killed by its own choice. We've tried the CIA's way and got the, aptly named Bay of Pigs. Sounds like barbecue at the beach. Don't it? Somebody at Langley had quite a self-deprecating sense of humor. Probably, Frank Wisner. Ed Lansdale's operation Mongoose was like Halloween for mass murderers, everybody dressin' up like priests and nuns and all, even my daddy. And Dr. Sidney Gottlieb was like half Lucrezia Borgia and half Nutty Professor.

"But Cuba must change back to the U.S.'s $2.00 whore it once was," he told an invited audience of Cuban exiles, organized crime figures, casino operators, the National Association of Flesh Peddlers, the anti-Castro terrorist group, Alpha 66, the Fort Detrick Bridge Club, the Semtex Corporation, the Committee For the Preservation of the Economic Interpretation of Social Darwinism and Phrenology, the Illuminati(Palm Springs chapter), The Sons of Pantagruel, the International Brotherhood of Baseball Scouts and Meat Packers Union, the Sons of Sicily, lobbyists for Hit Man International Ltd., Cosmetic Surgeons Without Borders, the Meyer Lansky fan club, the Friends of Carlos Marcello, the Hernan Cortez Olympic Crossbow Team and others during a Rose Garden British style tea and flogging ceremony as he gears up for the 2004 presidential scam. "If any group of people would sell out their own countrymen, its, you my friends, gathered here in this room," Bush warmly added with a hopeful wink of recognition.

Some of Castro's most ardent Cuban-American opponents in the arms, drugs and white slavery industries - who say Bush should have done more to foster democratic change in Cuba - also represent a vital source of back door money in Florida, a bribe-rich swing state that Bush has visited frequently since taking office in 2001.

A quick reprise of the history of the Caribbean as well as Central and South America will clarify what anti-Castro Cubans as well as the Cheney/Bush administration mean by "foster[ing] democratic change."

For instance:

The United States itself. The U. S. "fostered democracy" in the U.S. by stealing the land from its indigenous peoples and then stealing the Iroquois Five Nations governing system and turning into a concession stand for greed and exploitation.

Mexico. Steal half of it, annex it, and leave hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens stranded in a foreign country.

Guatemala. Organize a CIA coup to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz and install a series of military regimes that murder tens of thousands of Guatemalans mostly Indians.

El Salvador. The U.S. supports a tiny, decidedly undemocratic elite comprised of the 13 families that have enslaved much of the population. When a coalition of rebel groups, the FMLN, form, the democracy loving Carter and Reagan administrations spend billions to thwart it in a country of six and a half million.

Honduras. Prop up regimes that bump off any opposition to U.S. economic authority in that country and the region. Use Honduran territory for Contra terrorist camps.

Nicaragua. After the Sandinistas' successful revolution that overthrew the U.S. supported, brutal dictatorships of the Somoza family; after the Sandinistas win a democratic presidential election in 1984, the Reagan administration steps up its financing of a terrorist organization which comes to be known as the Contras. In 1934, Augusto Sandino, who led a revolt against U.S. hegemony in Nicaragua in the 1920's & '30s was treacherously assassinated with U.S. encouragement. Among the U.S. Military figures who were sent to 'pacify' Nicaragua was Marine Major-General Smedley Butler, the only man ever to receive the Medal of Honor---twice. In 1933 speech, he would have this to say about U.S. foreign policy in the region and elsewhere.

"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

"I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

"There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

"It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

"I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

"During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

And so goes the astonishing record of U.S. 'support for democracy.' We could have reprised the torching of fair elections in the Dominican Republic in 1965 because the U.S. stooge wasn't gonna win.

We could have mentioned the economic desertification of Haiti since the early nineteenth century slave revolt against the French (reprise Viet Nam after World War II when the U.S. armed the just defeated Japanese to protect French interests there against the Viet Minh) and the overthrow of Father Aristide by U.S. bought forces.

We could have mentioned U.S. designed coups to overthrow democratically elected governments training, arming and using the military in Brazil, Uruguay and Chile.

We could have told stories of treachery like the U.S. sponsored murder of 5000 members of the political arm of the Colombian FARC, the Patriotic Union, AFTER an amnesty had been declared and as the Patriotic Union prepared to win municipal and district elections throughout the country.

We could go on about the CIA's lavish program to overthrow the current elected government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. We could systematically reprise a history of U.S. intervention and slaughter the length and breadth of Latin America and the Caribbean. Then we could do the same for the rest of the globe, Europe included. But for now...

Bush said the United States would step up enforcement of existing subversive and terrorist activity against Cuba's Communist government, such as the renewed use of WMD against the island population a la Ed Lansdale's Operation Mongoose and the Phoenix Program. Bush said CIA and FBI personnel disguised as U.S. Customs agents will step up illegal detention and interrogations of people going to and from Cuba. He alluded to one hopeful sign that Cuba was on the road to U.S. style democracy, the "illicit sex trade" surrounding Cuba's tourism industry, but offered no specific evidence of such a problem to the great disappointment of his audience.

He promised to increase Cuban immigration via a public outreach campaign to identify "the many 'white asses' still on the island." He pledged to funnel even more C-4 explosive to the Miami Cubans through Radio and TV Marti's Hugs For Drugs program.

"The Cheney administration is determined to bring death and deprivation to the people of Cuba," Bush said. He said he was directed to say that Secretary of State Colon Pile and Housing Secretary Mel 'Blank' Martinez will chair a commission that will develop a plan to help Cuba move back into the sphere of other American sponsored Caribbean and Latin American democratic enterprises such as Montesino/Fujimori Peru, Pinochet's Chile, Salinas's Mexico, Rios Montt's Guatemala, or the late D'Aubisson's El Salvador whenever Castro, who has ruled Cuba since 1959, is assassinated.

"The Cuban population will have to accept the standard of living of their neighbors, White America excluded. Cubans will have to trade their universal healthcare for Gloebbleization's low paying or non-existent factory jobs. Cubans must return to the near universal illiteracy rate of their neighbors in order to again be docile. Cuba needs a greater disparity of wealth in order to develop a more colorful culture of poverty to be exploited by the entertainment industry and to have any concern for the disparity declared class warfare.

Bush diddled on, "We must end this gap between Cuban children with first rate baseball equipment and the impoverished, yet 'democratic' Dominicans. How else can Real Sports resume doing sentimental, condescending stories about youthful pre-Castro Cuban ball players converting empty milk cartons into baseball gloves like their destitute yet 'free' Dominican peers who have had the benefit of U.S. democratic tutelage O Lo these many, many decades. As Brian Gumpy says,'Nothing is out of bounds?'" But something sure is foul.

"The transition back to enslavement will present many privations to the Cuban people and to America, and we will be prepared to stick it to 'em," the president said. Amnesty International, in its usual sold out, compromised way, expressed some concerns about Bush's proposals, saying they were "far from forward-looking" and would only hurt the people they are meant to help as though their was anything other than murder and theft on the minds of the Administration and the economic forces that wind them up every morning.

"At a time when the U.S. should put effective human rights strategies at the core of its Cuba policy, it may well have succeeded in doing the opposite," said executive director William Schulz. As though that weren't the U.S. intention and worse. What? Amnesty International and these other rights groups think they can trick or cajole the Cheneys and the Rumsfelds of the world into not murdering for money? If you take a liar at his word, your response is a lie. So much for the AI creeps.

Bush concluded, "We know that the enemy of every tyrant is the truth. That's why I'm shocked they haven't hanged Dick and Don by now. And little Kindasleezie too.

Fortunately for us, Americans wouldn't want to know the truth if it shat in their collective pie hole. And, by now, it would be so foreign to them it would indeed taste like shit. I mean, what can they do now? Can the American people claim that they didn't know about the millions of murders we, "their betters," to quote Woodrow Wilson, commit and have committed in their name? Who's going to believe them? Certainly not the aggrieved. And anybody who cops to the Nuremberg defense, "We did not know", would receive severe retribution.

So we can go to sleep at night assured that Americans will never want to know the truth. We can awake confident that Americans will continue to support our plans for military and economic conquest and slaughter. For the American people to do otherwise at this late date would be tantamount to suicide. To admit to the mass murders done in their name might be the last thing they uttered if they were in the wrong company. They must kill on for us in order to preserve themselves. They are us---killers but without the yachts, the servants, the gated communities, and the billions of looted dollars much of it from their own Treasury.

We, the elite, have nothing to fear from the U.S. citizenry. The American psyche cannot go anywhere. Americans have no choice but to continue to die for their lifestyle and for the kleptocracy that most benefits from that lifestyle's enormous excesses and intense addictions. Americans are not free to change their murderous destiny. Top that Fidel!"

10/11/2003

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/backroom/1472612/posts?page=32#32

I would have sworn the Big Apple and G&F Tours were Castros.

Now I'm wondering if Carlos Marcello is competing with Castro.

Huh.

Yes, post 32 is a propaganda piece but has tidbits that are very telling.

[Fedora]

Marcello himself is dead now, but when he was alive he alternately opposed Castro or allied with him as it suited his own purposes, and I'd assume his contemporary successors follow the same MO.

Yes, the article quoted in #32 is a propaganda piece.

[RipSawyer]

>>>>>>Male genital mutilation is rampant in this country, at a much higher rate than FGM.>>>>>>>>

Amen, only we pretend that it is a medical necessity to prevent some problem that might happen later in life, kind of like cutting off toes because they might get toenail fungus later on. Or else we have those who pretend that God commands it.

[catholic]

How is the sex trafficing in Aruba? It appears to be a place of possibilities for this. I wonder if anyone has tried to find the missing teen fromAlabama fromthis angle.

[Calpernia]

freep mail.

[Calpernia]

Impact from illegal alien labor:

- Costing health care, retirement funding, education and law enforcement, accruing at $30 billion per year.

- USA is foregoing $35 billion a year in income tax collections because of the number of jobs that are now off the books.

- Census Bureau estimates that 8.7 million people are illegally residing in the USA

- Urban Institute estimates a total of 9.3 million are illegally residing in the USA

- Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a total of 9.2 million are illegally residing in the USA

- The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) stated that the Bureau of Labor could have missed as many as 10% of illegal aliens, since illegal aliens avoid census questionnaires. The CIS suggests the total illegal population is at 10 million or higher (March 2004).

- Employers have incentive to hire undocumented workers off the books.

- Overseas labor markets have forced US employers to find innovative ways to capitalize on sources of cheaper labor to stay competitive.

- Employers place pressure on the government to ignore the flood of cheap labor.

- Services, ie but not limited to: public school enrollment, language proficiency programs, and building permits, that cater to illegal aliens have increased in areas that are considered gateways for immigration.

- The top nine states that account for 50% of illegal aliens are: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.

- Sole authority to govern immigration flow is placed on the federal government.

- Responsibility for providing support to legal and illegal immigrants rests with the state and local governments.

- Immigrants send home on average $1,400 to $1,500 per year through money transfers (also called Remittances).

- As per the World Bank in 2002, people sent $133 billion worldwide. Developing countries accounted for $88 billion of that.

- Remittances from the United States to Mexico have tripled to $13 billion between 1995 and 2003.

- As per the Pew Hispanic Center, 39% of surveyed Latino immigrants listed themselves as having legal status to opening bank accounts. This enables cash transfers through private money centers such as Western Union and Money Gram.

- HOWEVER, banks including Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo Bank began accepting matriculas, which are photographed identity cards for Mexicans living in the US.

- Matriculas are obtainable by any legal or illegal Mexican. Matriculas are widely obtainable through Mexican consulates across the USA.

- To date, around 2.5 million matriculas have been issued, and the number is growing.

- In major illegal alien gateway cities, the influx of immigrants has led to a housing boom unexplained by official population growth.

- In New Jersey, the three gateway towns are New Brunswick, Elizabeth, and Newark.

- Housing permits in these three towns shot up over six-fold, while the rest of the three counties only saw a three-fold increase.

- 80% of these permits were designated for multiple tenent dwellings.

- Official statistics state that illegal aliens in New Jersey have jumped 110% – an estimate that is inconsistent with the housing statistics. Local realtors' stats for multiple tenent housing and school enrollments suggest the number is higher.

- The major illegal alien gateway cities have experienced school enrollments much higher than projections.

- The decrease in the number of births in the past decade had led education administrators to expect decreasing school enrollments as a post echo boom trend.

- A higher immigration rate, however, has offset the impact of declining births.

- Enrollment stats for major illegal alien gateway city school districts that included: Queens, New York; Elizabeth, Newark and New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Wake County in North Carolina revealed explosive growth in immigrant students, far beyond numbers consistent with *legal* migration limits.

- NYC public school system is the largest in the nation, enrollment of 1.1 million students.

- Immigrant student enrollment for 1998-2001 was 103,000, with Queens accounting for the largest share, 37,000.

- Between 1990 and 2001, more than half of New York City’s school districts increased their enrollments 10% or more, driven by a high number of immigrant students.

- New York City Public Schools, 1999 to 2001: 102,867 immigrant students: Dominican Republic, China, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Ecuador, Colombia and Haiti.

[HiJinx]

Great collection of facts, C. I'm copying this off and placing it at the bottom of the Border Ping List, so that I have it handy when the threads get heated...

Thanks!

[HiJinx]

Lionel Waxman is a local(AZ)/national radio commentator (www.lionelwaxman.com) who made this point nearly 2 months ago.

I wonder if it is anywhere near possible to track down individuals in the sex-slave trade?