It is inhumane, a violation of human rights, to continue to allow U.S. slavery victims to be subjected to the conditions of their situation while we devote resources to other areas that we claim are for their benefit. Allocating resources to services for freed victims does not address the U.S. slavery problem and is a sham. Rescue is the pre-requisite of benefit of funds and resources currently being allocated to victim welfare. Efforts must focus on victim rescue while offsetting and addressing infrastructure gaps, demand for this industry that calls for exploitation and torture of men, women and children, and whatever else facilitates this horror and suffering for victims and their loved ones.
(PRWEB) July 12, 2004 -- In my getting quickly to one of the main reasons for publishing this, please understand that I am the only one working on many parts of this effort in which I've been involved, and am presently overwhelmed by the amount of work.
At the Senate hearings relating to human trafficking, a presentation was made by Sister Mary Ellen Dougherty, a School Sister of Notre Dame and a member of the Bishops' Office for Migration and Refugee Services, on July 7, 2004, the focus of which was:
"1. Funding for services should be increased and services should be made available to victims from the point they are rescued to the point they are self-sufficient and in good health.
"2. More avenues should be created for the referral of victims for certification and services.
"3. Federal agencies should better coordinate efforts, especially in the certification, protection, and care of victims."
I've learned a great deal through efforts in which I've been involved in trying to get victims of U.S. modern-day slavery rescued, many of whom I know personally, one being David, someone very, very dear to me, who was abducted into total custody before my eyes here in the U.S..
Before we can even address providing benefits to rescued victims, our efforts need to concentrate on rescuing them and promoting the changes that are needed to obliterate the conditions that have so well enabled this horror to breed in our midst. I summarize the focus we need to take to that of addressing the following areas:
· VICTIM RESCUE
· CORRUPTION
· ASSOCIATED ORGANIZED CRIME
· ASSOCIATED TERRORISM
· INTER JURISDICTION ACTIVITIES
· COMMUNITIES PARALYZED BY COMBINED DYNAMICS
· NARROW SCOPE OF SERVICE PROVIDERS
The following articles I've published expand on this:
· 04/30/2004 - "Government reform needed to fight U.S. modern-day slavery," www.prweb.com/releases/Apr%20/0/prweb122283.htm
· 05/14/2004 - "Iraq type atrocities are happening in U.S.," www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/5/emw125900.htm
· 06/24/2004 - "Major flaws in US 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report," www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/6/emw135884.htm
· 07/04/2004 - "FBI complaints of child sexual exploitation and modern-day slavery," www.prweb.com/releases/2004/7/prweb138824.htm
· 07/05/2004 - " 'Accusations' relating to FBI complaints of child sexual exploitation and modern-day slavery," www.prweb.com/releases/2004/7/prweb138920.htm
It is inhumane, a violation of human rights, to allow slavery victims to continue to be subjected to the conditions of their situation while we devote resources to other areas that we claim are for their benefit.
Merely allocating effective resources for services if a victim has the freedom to approach a service provider, and/or after a victim is freed, does not address the U.S. slavery problem and is a sham.
Slavery victims have to be rescued, need assistance in getting freed, in order to be able to benefit from the funds and resources that are currently being allocated for their welfare.
Efforts of government, non-government agencies and the community have to focus on victim rescue. At the same time, efforts must be made to offset, even while addressing, the gaps in our infrastructure, the culture that is feeding the demand for an industry that calls for the exploitation and torture of men, women and children, and the other conditions that facilitate so much horror and suffering for victims and their loved ones.
Only when we finally turn our eyes in this direction can we even begin to suspect that there is a sincere interest in providing benefits to victims, apprehending perpetrators, preventing further victimization through abduction and slavery, and obliterating slavery activities in the U.S..
I also want to find out more about something many may have personally witnessed at what may have been that Senate session relayed above:
The day after the session, I was distressed to learn, through an email, that
"(at) a Senate hearing yesterday on human trafficking … put on by the Judicial committee…there was a woman …who stood up and interrupted the hearing (and) said she wanted to go under oath (to say) that she was a victim of trafficking in New Hampshire. She said that the U.S. government covered up trafficking and torturing. …that is when the Senator decided to recess the hearing. The woman continued to speak, desperately, about how she had been a victim for 7 years and that the law enforcement had just taken her away one night. No one believed her and they thought she was crazy, but all that kept going through my mind were the 2 articles of yours that I've read. …The woman was then escorted out of the hearing by about 3 or 4 police officers. When I left the hearing …I could hear her speaking to the officers around a corner and she was saying something about needing a lawyer. "
The person who sent me this email was asking what help there may be for this woman and for my comments.
My response:
"Perhaps there were enough advocates there to make sure she was protected. If anyone would know if there was any way at all for her to get attention, they would.
"Did the woman who said she'd been a victim appear to be a U.S. national?
"I hope that someone is following up on what happened to her. Doing otherwise would just reinforce the bogus-ness of U.S. efforts. If nothing else, it would be an outright violation of the anti-slavery laws that have so recently been revamped.
"Given the number of advocates who should have been in the audience and should be familiar with the types of situations in which these victims are held, I'm surprised that there wouldn't be at least some people there who would not have just dismissed her as "crazy," who would have understood her desperation and have helped her. (The people holding Dave and the town that appears to be most protecting that operation have been trying very hard to get others to believe that I have "serious mental problems" - quite suddenly, after all the years so many people here have known me - and that people should just dismiss what I am saying. However, many of those they are trying to convince know even more about all of this than I do. I just wish they would talk more openly about it.)
"Based on the wording of some of the US code, it appears that it may not be unusual for law enforcement to return victims to traffickers. I know or have heard of two incidents in which something like that has happened to David, one being the time that I was first arrested, falsely, on 8/16/02, in an escape/rescue attempt of David that you will read about on the Home page of the web site."
That is the My Kindred Spirit web site I've set up at http://mykindredspirit2.home.att.net. Those who wish to visit that site should first be aware that it sometimes contains offensive language. Much of the site is geared to a community audience, with the purpose of motivating action and coordinating efforts in helping with investigation and attempting to get victims either released or freed while, at the same time, trying to make police and other officials aware of what is happening. It is in the process of being expanded and better organized.
"I hope that, at least, someone called attention to (this woman and her situation) in a news article, although I haven't heard of any."
I am finding this more distressing as time since learning about it is going by. It is becoming as distressing as when someone, in talking to me, realized that she had encountered David and that he'd been seeking recognition as a victim and help from her, but that she had just quickly walked away because she was on her way to somewhere else. It was only through her conversation with me, a few months later, that she realized what had happened. She told me of the expression on David's face, and how he seemed, as he watched her walk away.
She seemed equally distressed as she relayed this to me.
It was equally distressing to realize/learn that someone else, who had initially helped in efforts, just after Dave's abduction, but whom I thought had now turned to the other side and had been sent, by the people holding Dave, to further torment me, had really been appealing to me for rescue. The day after this person had been doing so, I learned that he'd been auctioned the night before, the night of the day of the morning when he'd last appealed to me and had been begging me to let him stay at my house.
But it's also been distressing to have to tell or otherwise let other victims and loved ones know that I could not help them and that, at the current time, I know of no way for victims to get help in rescue.
Many of those present at that Senate hearing may be mostly concerned with child victims of this crime, while my concern initiated in the fight for victims who are adults and most of whom are men. But understand that this is all the same crime. Efforts must unify and be accurately aimed if they are to be as effective as they must be, HAVE to be, for the sake of these precious victims.
Something that may export to other efforts, the text of a "community emails" from My Kindred Spirit web site at http://mykindredspirit2.home.att.net: "01/31/04 - Tell those who still don't 'see' it":
"It could be happening right under your nose and you wouldn't even know it. It could be that those 'overnights' that your son or daughter keeps going to are actually adult after hour sex parties at which your kids are being forced into prostitution and performances, possible even involving sexual and/or physical torture. It could be that, on that ski trip he just went on, he didn't get to do any skiing.
"It could be that those bruises you noticed a few times when you happened to have accidentally had a rare opportunity to see his or her lower back unclad were not really from just rough-housing with friends. It could be that those black eyes and other marks aren't 'just' because he keeps getting in fights.
"It could be that the reason he or she seems so moody and un-talkative, or why certain questions don't get answered is not just a 'teenager thing.'
"It could be that that new boyfriend your daughter has, with whom she is so wrapped up that you never get to speak with her alone, anymore, and don't get to see as much, isn't really a boyfriend.
"It could be that those weekly phone calls that you have with your son or daughter are being monitored to make sure that they don't say anything to reveal that they have been taken victim of a sex slavery operation.
"It could be that they have been told that, if they try to escape or do or say anything to reveal their actual situation, they or you or another member of your family, or possibly the whole family, will be killed. It could be that that building that was so totally demolished by fire also served as a crematory for the bodies of slave victims who had been murdered or otherwise died as a result of treatment of traffickers. It could be that that car accident wasn't really an accident.
"If you frequent bars, it could be that that person you always see being carried out by people who are always with him, so you assume are his friends, is not really drunk - he's been drugged.
"So do you really think that you would 'see' even a large operation?
May peace on the homefront come soon!
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