Exporting Debauchery: International Sex Trade
Robert Riggs
Reporting
CBS 11 News (Dallas, Texas, USA)
(CBS 11 News) DALLAS Peace Corps volunteers, foreign aid workers and missionaries have been the most visible ambassadors from the United States to the world for the last 50 years. But the U.S.A. is quickly adding a fourth to the list: pedophiles. According to figures from the non-profit humanitarian relief organization World Vision International, Americans account for a quarter of sex tourists worldwide and 80 percent of sex tourists in Latin America.
It is an issue that has been getting a lot of attention of late. John Mark Karr appeared in Sonoma County Superior Court Sept. 14, charged with five misdemeanor counts of possessing sexually explicit photographs of children. The court appearance came after his high-profile plane trip from Thailand where he worked as a school teacher. And the arrest and imprisonment of Dallas dentist Phillip Todd Calvin last year demonstrated that the problem of international sex tourism is very much a local concern.
Calvin’s arrest was part of an FBI sting operation using a website for a fake travel company to lure pedophiles. Federal agents intercepted Calvin and two other members of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), waiting on a dock, expecting to be taken by boat to a safe haven in Mexico to meet boys for sex. Calvin was charged with conspiring to travel in interstate and foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and traveling for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. Calvin pled guilty to the first charge and was sentenced to 24 months at Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution. He is scheduled to be released in November.
Arnold Bell, who heads the FBI’s child pornography task force, describes the online marketing of sex tours. “We see these things veiled as ultimate tours and things like that. They don’t explicitly say what it is, what you are going to do, but the predators know.”
According to the indictment in Calvin’s case, the requests were specific – underage boys between 12 and 13 years old. Bell explains that stiff penalties for pedophilia in the West are sending Americans and western Europeans abroad in search of sex with children. “They feel that the legal infrastructure is not in place in some of these other countries and there’s easier access to kids.”
Thailand, Indonesia, the Phillipines, Mexico and Costa Rica are all popular destinations for pedophiles. The combination of high poverty rates and lax enforcement of child sex laws make them a perfect haven for sexual predators. Cambodia has become another hotspot for sex tourists in recent years as a result of a confluence of events. Neighboring countries Thailand and Vietnam have taken tougher stances against sex crimes at the same time Cambodia’s tourism industry has exploded. It is made even more attractive to pedophiles because child prostitutes are cheaper in Cambodia than Thailand.
Action Pour Les Enfants is one organization making a small dent in the scourge of sex tourism in Phnom Penh -- the capital of Cambodia and ground zero in the Cambodian sex trade. The group’s president, Thierry Darnaudet, says he began investigating suspected foreign pedophiles after a trip to a public pool in 1994. The water was filthy, but it was the interaction between the adults, six or seven westerners, and children swimming in the pool that disgusted Darnaudet. “They were talking about playing with the penis of the guys and having sex with them,” Darnaudet recalls. “I went to two NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations dedicated to child advocacy) and said, ‘Do you know what is going on?’ And everybody knew, but nobody was really doing anything about it.”
But things are changing. Since that day at the pool, Darnaudet has committed himself to fighting the problem. He began following suspected pedophiles around Phnom Penh, documenting their movements, and reporting his findings to police. Since he started his child advocacy organization in 2003, he has opened 125 files on suspected pedophiles, resulting in 30 arrests. He notes that while it is true that offenders often pay bribes to get out of jail, the Cambodian government has shown an increasing commitment to eliminating the problem.
Third-world nations like Cambodia on the front line of the sex trade are finally getting much-needed help from the United States government as well. The same year Darnaudet launched Action Por Les Enfants, President George W. Bush signed the PROTECT Act into law, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched Operation Predator. Both include provisions designed to safeguard children from pedophiles, human traffickers, international sex tourists and other predatory criminals and allow investigators to prosecute Americans citizens who travel to foreign countries to engage in acts that are illegal in the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have arrested more than 8,600 sexual predators since 2003, including dozens of arrests made under the sex tourism provisions of the PROTECT Act.
The statistics give Darnaudet hope. “Others [are] slow to react, because of the money [needed] to send agents,” he said. “I’m just quite impressed with the U.S.”
It is an issue that has been getting a lot of attention of late. John Mark Karr appeared in Sonoma County Superior Court Sept. 14, charged with five misdemeanor counts of possessing sexually explicit photographs of children. The court appearance came after his high-profile plane trip from Thailand where he worked as a school teacher. And the arrest and imprisonment of Dallas dentist Phillip Todd Calvin last year demonstrated that the problem of international sex tourism is very much a local concern.
Calvin’s arrest was part of an FBI sting operation using a website for a fake travel company to lure pedophiles. Federal agents intercepted Calvin and two other members of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), waiting on a dock, expecting to be taken by boat to a safe haven in Mexico to meet boys for sex. Calvin was charged with conspiring to travel in interstate and foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and traveling for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. Calvin pled guilty to the first charge and was sentenced to 24 months at Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution. He is scheduled to be released in November.
Arnold Bell, who heads the FBI’s child pornography task force, describes the online marketing of sex tours. “We see these things veiled as ultimate tours and things like that. They don’t explicitly say what it is, what you are going to do, but the predators know.”
According to the indictment in Calvin’s case, the requests were specific – underage boys between 12 and 13 years old. Bell explains that stiff penalties for pedophilia in the West are sending Americans and western Europeans abroad in search of sex with children. “They feel that the legal infrastructure is not in place in some of these other countries and there’s easier access to kids.”
Thailand, Indonesia, the Phillipines, Mexico and Costa Rica are all popular destinations for pedophiles. The combination of high poverty rates and lax enforcement of child sex laws make them a perfect haven for sexual predators. Cambodia has become another hotspot for sex tourists in recent years as a result of a confluence of events. Neighboring countries Thailand and Vietnam have taken tougher stances against sex crimes at the same time Cambodia’s tourism industry has exploded. It is made even more attractive to pedophiles because child prostitutes are cheaper in Cambodia than Thailand.
Action Pour Les Enfants is one organization making a small dent in the scourge of sex tourism in Phnom Penh -- the capital of Cambodia and ground zero in the Cambodian sex trade. The group’s president, Thierry Darnaudet, says he began investigating suspected foreign pedophiles after a trip to a public pool in 1994. The water was filthy, but it was the interaction between the adults, six or seven westerners, and children swimming in the pool that disgusted Darnaudet. “They were talking about playing with the penis of the guys and having sex with them,” Darnaudet recalls. “I went to two NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations dedicated to child advocacy) and said, ‘Do you know what is going on?’ And everybody knew, but nobody was really doing anything about it.”
But things are changing. Since that day at the pool, Darnaudet has committed himself to fighting the problem. He began following suspected pedophiles around Phnom Penh, documenting their movements, and reporting his findings to police. Since he started his child advocacy organization in 2003, he has opened 125 files on suspected pedophiles, resulting in 30 arrests. He notes that while it is true that offenders often pay bribes to get out of jail, the Cambodian government has shown an increasing commitment to eliminating the problem.
Third-world nations like Cambodia on the front line of the sex trade are finally getting much-needed help from the United States government as well. The same year Darnaudet launched Action Por Les Enfants, President George W. Bush signed the PROTECT Act into law, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched Operation Predator. Both include provisions designed to safeguard children from pedophiles, human traffickers, international sex tourists and other predatory criminals and allow investigators to prosecute Americans citizens who travel to foreign countries to engage in acts that are illegal in the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have arrested more than 8,600 sexual predators since 2003, including dozens of arrests made under the sex tourism provisions of the PROTECT Act.
The statistics give Darnaudet hope. “Others [are] slow to react, because of the money [needed] to send agents,” he said. “I’m just quite impressed with the U.S.”
2 comments:
Mr SAM RAINSY MEETS HUON XEN IN PARIS?
According the newspaper SRALANH KHMER published on Saturday 16 September 2006, one member of CCP said that HUON XEN would try to meet Mr Sam Rainsy and Mrs Tioulong Saumura in Paris and ask THEM to intervene with sister-in-law’s Sam Rainsy, Mrs ANTONIA TIOULONG NOSEDA who is in charge of the publication of the weekly magazine EXPRESS, to stop publishing DOCUMENTS or ALLEGATIONS of HENG POV anymore.
Apparently Mr Sam Rainsy left Phnom-Penh to PARIS on Thursday 14th at 8 pm (instead of Saturday 16th as planned) while HUONG XEN was in PARIS AT THIS TIME as well (IS THAT JUST A COINCIDENCE?), after he had left the ASEM SUMMIT in FINLAND LAST WEEK, and would return to Phnom-Penh on Saturday 16 September.
One another source said that, on last July, HUONG XEN had also tried to make contact by phone with Mr Sam Rainsy while the latter was in visit in America. HUONG XEN would have requested Mr Sam Rainsy not to get involved in an internal CCP problem , especially HENG POV's, that what Mr Sam Rainsy could have agreed.
When Mr SamRainsy came back to Phnom-Penh, he called his members to abstain from getting involved in HENG POV affair that, (in his own opinion, but not in the public opinion), is just an INTERNAL CCP PROBLEM .
As a strong and loyal supporter of Samrainsyparty, I would request him to take account for the rumour above that could undermine your reputation as a GREAT PATRIOT.
APLE is a criminal NGO, they hide evidences on the court.
This is a mail between darnaudet (the president) et samleang (the country director)
Contact me because my daughter still in danger !!!!
David Makhout
karmapolis@free.fr
00855 979 67 56 45
5/ How can we ask for a counter expertise when we did not know the results of the first medical report?
Not possible.
But World Hope did the exam again before seeing the first exam without getting the judge’s permission.
6/-is it true that when the young girl has been interviewed by the investigating judge at the biginning of june there was no medical report to be presented to him yet?
The girl was interviewed by the judge on 19 June.
The exam report was not released yet until 16 Jul so it’s true the judge did not have the report at hand to interview the girl.
7/ is it true that the second medical exam has been asked by the investigating judge at the biginning of june after he spoke to the girl and that the report was taken out from the hospital one or two weeks later?
-Is it true that at that time it was not a question of counter expertise, but a question of a medical check up only?(opposed to counter expertise).
The second exam was just done on 30 June and released on 2 Jul.
So it was not true that the judge asked for it at the beginning of June.
As the 1 st exam taken from the hospital on 17 Jul does not show the abuse, Maneth never presented that evidence to the court.
On 18 August, Maneth included the report of the second exam as valuable evidence and pretended that it was the outcome of the first exam.
The court normally does not know what is the first or second or third.
But as the 2 nd exam was positive but not acknowledged by judge when it was done, Maneth requested the judge to do the exam again with consent.
The requested was made on 19 Aug but denied on 20 Aug.
10/ Is it true that there was no mention of the first medical report at the trial?
There was only one report at trial the second ones that Maneth used as the first ones.
The judge did not know that there were two exams as he did not permit it.
11/ when exactly the charge of penetration were included in the case file? any date?
No date. Maneth did not have this document in the file.
I think that s all for now.
I am confused myself and got a very big headache.
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