Claim: Blackwater Billed US for ‘Morale Welfare Recreation’ Provided by Prostitute

Two former employees have accused Blackwater Worldwide of defrauding the government for years with phony billing, including charging for a prostitute, alcohol and spa trips.
February 11, 2010 |

The world’s oldest profession may have been subsidized by the US government during the war on terror.

“Two former employees of Blackwater Worldwide have accused the private security contractor of defrauding the government for years with phony billing, including charging for a prostitute, alcohol and spa trips,” Carol D. Leonnig reports for the Washington Post.

The article continues, “In newly unsealed court records, a husband and wife who once worked for Blackwater said they had personal knowledge of the company falsifying invoices, double-billing federal agencies and charging the government

US Navy officer Timothy Davis found not guilty of raping prostitute in Sydney brothel

AAP
November 23, 2009 4:26PM

A US sailor cleared today of raping a prostitute in a Sydney brothel is “looking forward” to returning to California.

While Petty Officer Timothy Davis had admitted using a “lockdown manoeuvre” to pin the woman to the bed, he denied forcing himself on her, saying he had only wanted his money back.

The 25-year-old had pleaded not guilty to having sexual intercourse without consent, aggravated by causing the woman actual bodily harm.

RIGHTS-SOUTH KOREA: Prostitution Thrives with U.S. Military Presence

By Zoltán Dujisin

SEOUL, Jul 7 (IPS) – With the presence of U.S. soldiers, flesh trade is flourishing near the Camp Stanley Camptown close to Seoul.

Since 1945, U.S. troops have been stationed in the Korean peninsula, with their current strength estimated to be 28,500. The country plunged into civil war between 1950 and 1953 and since then, U.S. troops have remained there, claiming to act as a deterrent against North Korea, the country’s communist neighbour. Prostitution in the region is a direct result of their presence, local observers say.

Russian and Chinese troops also had troops stationed on the Korean peninsula in the aftermath of the civil conflict, but “have since left the area while U.S. troops are still here, in almost 100 military bases,” Yu Young Nim, the head of a local non-governmental organisation which provides counseling, medical and legal care for sex workers, told IPS.

Secrets of Sexual Forced Labour in Nazi Concentration Camps

Tuesday, 30 June 2009
by Kathryn Hadley

I have vivid memories of a school trip to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, 35 kilometres north of Berlin: the crematories, the so-called ‘Station Z’ built for the extermination of prisoners in 1942, the infirmary… I have no recollection, however, of the camp brothel.

Robert Sommer’s latest book The Concentration Camp Bordello: Sexual Forced Labor in National Socialistic Concentration Camps (Das KZ-Bordell) provides, however, for the first time a comprehensive study of this dark, hushed-up and largely ignored chapter of the history of Nazi Germany. Sommer is a cultural studies

Trafficking in female misery

Wednesday, 01 October 2008 Crusader Hillis talks to anti-sex slavery campaigner and author Kathleen Maltzhan. Kathleen Maltzahn wants to see an end to the trafficking of women for prostitution. The busy City of Yarra Councillor has spent much of her working life over the past two decades, here and in the Philippines, supporting trafficked women, exposing their dealers, and lobbying for changes in government policy, law enforcement and immigration. Her work has informed a remarkable new book, Trafficked. Paced like a true crime thriller, it deftly tackles the issues of trafficked Asian women in Australia. It describes her two long stays in the Philippines, where she witnessed first hand the cruelty and inhumane conditions that women were forced to live with as prostitutes on the streets, in poor bars and for the American military. Stories of rape, brutality and enforced incarceration in filthy cells in brothels were commonplace. “Many of the women we worked with were approached by recruiters to go to other countries,” she says. “Then a young woman who we had worked with was trafficked while we knew her. That really brought it close to home; and proved that it was real, not just a story made up about the sex industry.” A particularly gruelling part of the book deals with sex slavery in a precinct near the US Clark Air Force base known as The Area. Local police worked with the brothel owners to ensure that women were not allowed to leave the area, and a major raid organised by the national police failed to find any women. Owners were tipped off and the women were quickly bussed out of The Area. “Between the two trips, and then later again, it was all those links between big concepts – globalisation, trafficking for marriage, prostitution and sex tourism – that helped to form my focus. The Filipino community was learning how to deal with bad situations, including domestic violence. “Back in Australia, it became clear that many Filipino women – often trafficked for marriage – were suffering domestic violence and control by their Australian husbands. I had to ask, what is the mindset for Australian men to do that?” Maltzahn’s book paints a tragic situation for many Asian women living in Australia. Subjected to stereotyping and often devalued, she says that the views of many Australian men can be simply expressed. “One man we spoke to put it like this ‘Asian women are made for this (sex work)’. Many men see Asian women as both subservient and nymphomaniacs – as both traditional and willing to do what other women won’t do. They are a blank slate that you can project all your fantasies on. Where does this dehumanisation come from?” The book suggests that this dehumanisation, both in marriage and prostitution, starts with idealising: Asian women are good wives, made to please you, but when disappointment sets in, the punishment begins. Maltzahn documents several local trafficking cases – as recently as 2003 there was widespread belief that trafficking didn’t exist here. A high profile case about a Brunswick Street brothel recently upheld a conviction in the High Court against its owner for human slavery. The case is important and offers hope that more convictions will succeed. Maltzahn also documents how many of the victims of trafficking are further punished by unfair immigration practices that have often forcibly repatriated women back to dangerous situations. Stories of women disappearing or being murdered dot the manuscript with alarming regularity. Across the world, Maltzahn tells me, “It is the bottom of the trafficking train – often women – that ends up being charged and sent to jail.” Maltzahn believes that men have a responsibility to seek consent from prostitutes in brothels before they engage in sex, and assistance by male customers remains one of the most common ways that women eventually escape sex slavery. Meanwhile, Maltzahn is honing her political ambitions, intending to run on the Greens ticket for the City of Melbourne elections in November against Councillors John So and Gary Singer. Like Singer, Melbourne’s current Deputy Mayor, Maltzahn is also gay. She describes her campaign ideas simply: “Melbourne could be a whole lot more than it is. It could be a smart, green city, an example for the country, and the rest of the world. Instead we have a lot of spin and circuses, and we can no longer afford that with the urgency around climate change.” While she says beating John So’s ticket will be hard, Maltzahn is excited by the prospect: “If the Greens win it would be really exciting. Partly it would mean that we have that mandate from the community to address climate change and community equity, in a capital city that has the resources to make a difference.” Kathleen Maltzahn’s Trafficked UNSW Press, Briefings; 2008; 125pp; $19.95

http://mcv.e-p.net.au/features/trafficking-in-female-misery-4161.html

Korea: Soldiers warned about prostitution crackdown near Yongsan Garrison

By Jimmy Norris and Hwang Hae-rym, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, September 11, 2008

SEOUL — South Korean police are planning a major prostitution crackdown in areas near the U.S. Army’s Yongsan Garrison.

Yongsan police confirmed Tuesday they had received instructions from the Central Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency to conduct crackdowns in the “glass house” area near Yongsan Station and on Itaewon’s infamous Hooker Hill.

A Yongsan police spokesman said Tuesday they should start raiding brothels shortly after the Chuseok holidays this weekend.

“We expect efforts to clear up the prostitution this time will be a lot tougher and stronger than ever before,” the spokesman said.

“The Central Police Agency is determined to root out the prostitution.”

The spokesman said U.S. troops should avoid the areas to keep from getting caught up in the upcoming raids.

U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Dave Palmer said the command has received no official warning of the planned crackdowns.

“We obviously support any initiatives [the police] come up with,” Palmer said. “We’re happy they’re taking action.”

Police said riot squads, normally used to put down illegal protests, will take up the work of closing down brothels and illegal gambling operations as the summer protest season winds down.

Brothel owners have already struck back after a series of raids in the Dongdaemun area put many out of business. On Monday, some owners released a list of police officers they claim have taken bribes, and threatened to release more names if the crackdowns continue.

Police said Tuesday that they welcome the list as an opportunity to weed out corruption.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64513&archive=true

Taliban slays women for “prostitution”

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Viewer discretion is advised.

http://womenagainstshariah.blogspot.com/2008/08/taliban-slays-women-for-prostitution.html

Afghanistan: Defending freedom to abuse

NATIONAL POST

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Police rape of Afghan boys ignored

DON MARTIN

National Post

In Ottawa

Canadian soldiers in the main guard tower at forward operating base Wilson last summer winced when I asked about the sudden lineup of teenage boys along the mud walls of the neighbouring Afghan market.

“Wait a few minutes. You’ll see,” said one, his lip curling. “It’s disgusting.”

Sure enough, a handful of uniformed Afghan police officers emerged from their rundown detachment, walked through the barricades and started chatting up the dozen or so teens, some looking decidedly pre-teen.

A few minutes after they returned, the selected kids were waved through the main gates and went straight inside the police station. An hour later, when I left the observation post, the boys were still inside.

This evening ritual is often derided by soldiers as manlove Thursdays.

Afghan officials insist the notion of men and boys getting together the night before the Muslim holy day for sex is a myth. And, sure, it’s theoretically possible the cops were merely good-deed-doers giving these teens reading lessons.

But Canadian soldiers insisted we had just witnessed the regular Thursday evening negotiation for sex between Afghan men and boys, apparently for gifts or money.

It raises the disquieting question of how much responsibility Canadian soldiers shoulder, being military guests and all, to stop Afghan activity that would result in rape or child prostitution charges back home.

It should be stressed that the activity at FOB Wilson does not mean Afghan police and army officers are engaged in an epidemic of juvenile sodomy.

But the issue was given fresh legs last week by a military chaplain named Jean Johns, who reported that soldiers under treatment for posttraumatic stress syndrome had been told to “ignore” any assaults or rapes on Afghan civilians they had seen.

The Toronto Star also reports a Canadian soldier overheard an Afghan soldier abusing a young boy in late 2006 and later saw the victim with signs of rape trauma, specifically protrusions of his bowels and lower intestine.

There’s not much doubt that while the Canadian military may jackboot the Taliban at will, soldiers have to tiptoe around Islamic justice that clashes with our version of the law and the consequences for breaking it.

If Canadian soldiers had intervened between Afghan police and boys clearly selling themselves for sex, for example, an important partnership would quickly sour.

Now that several years’ worth of Taliban prisoners have been freed during the Kandahar prison breakout, we arguably need what passes for an Afghan police force more than ever.

Still, Defence Minister Peter MacKay told the Commons he’d met with military leaders yesterday and insisted soldiers “report any allegation of unlawful activity they see.”

That’s easy for him to say, as Canadian soldiers rumble LAVs through marijuana crops or swaths of opium-producing poppies so vast, a single field would net Canadian law enforcement its annual seizure.

There’s not much even top military brass or diplomats can do to prevent marriages forced on pre-teen Afghan girls or women who have been raped from being charged with adultery for failing to convince male justice that the intercourse wasn’t consensual. Global pressure barely prevented an Afghan student from being executed for downloading a report on women’s rights from the Internet.

Yet Canadians have a right to question the sort of Afghan freedom our troops are being sacrificed to defend if police can molest young boys without fear of our intervention.

No wonder Canadian soldiers come home confiding that killing Taliban insurgents isn’t as stressful as knowing an innocent kid might be regularly raped by an Afghan cop inside a Canadian military base.

Man-boy homosexuality has flourished anew in the aftermath of Taliban zero-tolerance laws, albeit a selectively punished offence in that era. Warlords again parade cities with teenage boys known as an “ashna” by their side.

The strict social separation and severe consequences for premarital sex with women have given rise to the cultural wrinkle of men used for sexual recreation and women reserved for reproduction.

But that hardly makes it right when Afghan boys are police rape victims.

And it’s a wrong that Canadian soldiers should be encouraged to report so that Afghan officers being trained in law enforcement can be pressured to stop it themselves.

http://www.nationalpost.com/most_popular/story.html?id=592211

The D.C. Madam Case, All Sordid Out

By Dana Milbank
Friday, April 11, 2008; A03

 

The alleged D.C. Madam once threatened the likes of a United States senator, a deputy secretary of state, and the man who created the war doctrine of “shock and awe.” But the Madam’s criminal trial this week has turned out to be less shock and awe than shock and ewww.

Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana and other powerful men appear likely to get a pass. Less lucky: the 15 terrified women being hauled by prosecutors into court to recount in graphic detail their past work as prostitutes — and more than 100 other former prostitutes whose names prosecutors are trying to make public.

Wednesday, prosecutors forced a 63-year-old retired PhD — her name, like those of other witnesses, now a matter of public record — to testify about inducing orgasms in her client; the government’s lawyers had similar questions for a mother of three who worked briefly for the escort service nearly 15 years ago.

Yesterday, it was the turn of a young naval officer to take the stand; the case will almost certainly end her career. The prosecutor, Daniel Butler, had the woman spell her name slowly and clearly, then had her talk about when she was “aggressive” with a client, when she was “more submissive,” when she had a difficult client (“he tried to remove the condom”) and how often she got “intimate.”

“What do you mean by ‘intimate’? ”

The soon-to-be-former naval officer looked at him in disbelief. “Touching, caressing,” she explained.

“What happened” after that? he demanded.

“Sex.”

“What type of sex?”

“Sometimes it was oral sex; usually it was normal.”

“Normal?” Butler persisted.

“I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” the stricken witness pleaded.

“What’s normal sex?” Butler again demanded.

Judge James Robertson intervened. “He wants to know if you mean intercourse.”

Butler pressed on with more humiliating questions until the judge cut him off. “That’s enough,” Robertson said. Minutes later, the dazed woman was helped out of the room.

From the audience, it appears that prosecutors have presented a solid case that the alleged Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, did indeed run a prostitution ring. A better question, however, is why they bothered. Prosecutors say the prostitution ring generated all of $2 million over 13 years — small potatoes for a federal racketeering and money-laundering case that could ruin the lives of 132 women.

It’s a question that evidently has occurred to the judge. Yesterday, prosecutors unpacked eight binders full of money-order receipts that reveal the identity of most, if not all, of the Madam’s escorts. “You want to make public the names of all the employees?” Robertson asked prosecutor Catherine Connelly. “Is there no limit to the collateral damage?”

Evidently not. Connelly said the names had to be released. “Unfortunately.”

It’s particularly unfortunate when considering what the former escorts earned for this public disgrace: $130 for their 90-minute “calls.” Add in travel time, and these sex workers toiled for perhaps $40 an hour.

Yet prosecutors act as if they’ve caught a major organized crime figure. An IRS agent yesterday showed the jury photos of her home — a mop and cornflakes box in evidence — and recited Palfrey’s sewer bill, electricity payment, car maintenance and check to Office Depot. One juror’s eyes closed, and her head dropped. Others yawned. “I’m not sure why the jury needs to see any of this,” the judge pointed out. “Waste of time.”

The same might be said of the rest of the case.

Wednesday, Connelly was grilling the 63-year-old former escort. “Did you specifically discuss what happened when you went in the shower?” the prosecutor wanted to know.

The witness explained, “I was having sex.”

“What would happen if you were menstruating?” Connelly asked.

The prosecutors also asked the women how many calls they went on and how many resulted in sex. Kristen testified that she had sex on 80 percent of her calls. For Mary, it was 75 to 80 percent. “I’m referring to both intercourse and oral sex,” a prosecutor clarified. “Does that change your number?”

Understandably, the women were in a wretched state as they took the stand. A young former escort on Wednesday broke down in tears; the court clerk handed her a box of tissues. The defense lawyer, Preston Burton, noticed how miserable another witness looked. “You’re not particularly happy to be here,” he observed kindly.

“Who would be?” she answered.

Yesterday, the naval officer struggled to compose herself as she entered the room. The prosecutor suggested a glass of water. “Move a little closer to that microphone, please,” coaxed the judge. “Take two deep breaths and relax. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Soothing words, but not exactly true. The Navy has put the Madam’s former employee on leave.

Staff writer Paul Duggan contributed to this column.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041003486.html

How Many Child Prostitutes Is Bush Responsible For?

By Bob Fertik, Democrats.com
Posted on March 18, 2008, Printed on March 23, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/79770/

George Bush has been tied to a prostitution ring involving as many as 50,000 women and girls. The prostitutes, some as young as 13, are among the 1.2 million desperate Iraqis who fled to Syria after Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the U.K. Independent.

Bush’s invasion destroyed the Iraqi government and unleashed a wave of political and sectarian violence that has killed over 1 million Iraqis and forced 4 million to become refugees, according to the UN.

Facing starvation, as many as 50,000 women and girls have been forced into prostitution in Syria alone, according to Hana Ibrahim of the Women’s Will Association.

“70 percent to 80 percent of the girls working this business in Damascus today are Iraqis,” 23-year-old Abeer told the New York Times. “The rents here in Syria are too expensive for their families. If they go back to Iraq they’ll be slaughtered, and this is the only work available.”

According to the Times, “inexpensive Iraqi prostitutes have helped to make Syria a popular destination for sex tourists from wealthier countries in the Middle East. In the club’s parking lot, nearly half of the cars had Saudi license plates.”

Driving women and girls into prostitution violates numerous human rights agreements, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. George Bush himself denounced sex trafficking at the United Nations in 2003.

Bush’s invasion of a country that posed no threat to the U.S. was illegal under both U.S. and international law, according to legal experts. Bush has been convicted of war crimes by citizen tribunals around the world, including New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Istanbul. Just las week, the towns of Brattleboro and Marlboro Vermont voted to indict and arrest Bush and Cheney.

In 2002 and 2003, Bush led a propaganda campaign to defraud Congress, the American people, and key allies into believing Iraq was a threat. Bush claimed Iraq had stockpiles of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons to use against the U.S., and was sharing them with Al Qaeda.

Speaking near Rochester NY, Bush later admitted, “See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”

According to a recent study by the Center for Public Integrity, top Bush Administration officials told at least 935 lies about Iraq on 532 separate occasions. These included 259 lies by Bush, 254 lies by Secretary of State Colin Powell, 109 lies by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 109 lies by Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, 56 lies by National Security Advisor Condi Rice, and 48 lies by Vice President Cheney.

The lies about Iraqi WMD’s were manufactured by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), which included the most senior White House staff: White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, Jim Wilkinson, Nick Calio, Michael Gerson, and Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby.

After the invasion, 1,400 experts in the Iraq Survey Group scoured Iraq for WMD’s but found none. Charles Duelfer wrote the ISG’s final report in September 2004 and concluded Iraq ended its WMD program in 1991.

This publicly confirmed what the CIA had privately known since 1995, when Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law, Gen. Hussein Kamel, defected to Jordan and told the CIA he had personally overseen the complete destruction of Iraq’s WMD after 1991 Gulf War.

In May 2005, the Times of London published the “Downing Street Memo ” which revealed Bush’s pre-war intelligence was a deliberate fraud, according to Sir Richard Dearlove, head of Britain’s MI6 spy agency, who met with George Tenet in July 2002. “The intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy” of invading Iraq, Dearlove told a secret meeting of Tony Blair’s war cabinet on July 23, 2002, eight months before Bush invaded Iraq.

This publication of the “Downing Street Memo” led to widespread calls for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. John Conyers and other Democrats held preliminary impeachment hearings in the basement of the Capitol on June 16, 2005. In 2006, Conyers published his explosive findings in “George W. Bush Versus the U.S. Constitution: The Downing Street Memos and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, Coverups in the Iraq War and Illegal Domestic Spying.”

In 2007, Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced three Articles of Impeachment against Dick Cheney for his role in the Iraq War lies. Kucinich’s bill, H.Res. 333, has 26 co-sponsors.

The bill was debated on the House floor last November the House voted 251-162 to refer it to the Judiciary Committee for further action, rather than kill the bill. (The bill was renamed to H.Res. 799.)

Last December, Rep. Robert Wexler and two other members of the House Judiciary Committee urged Conyers to begin hearings on the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. Wexler posted an online petition and collected over 230,000 signatures.

Rep. Kucinich ran for President in 2007 and his calls for impeachment were enthusiastically received by voters. Last week, Kucinich fended off a primary challenge in his Congressional district and is expected to introduce the first Articles of Impeachment against George Bush.

The latest polls by Newsweek and AP-Ipsos put Bush’s approval rating at 30%, a record low. His disapproval rating is over 60%, a record high, and suggests more Americans now favor Bush’s impeachment than in earlier polls which showed strong support for impeachment.

Bob Fertik is the president of Democrats.com

© 2008 Democrats.com All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/79770/