Showing posts with label US law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US law. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
US Internet Piracy Bills Find Little Support in Cambodia
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC
"The bills could impact global use of the Internet, and so “is a problem for Cambodia.”
An online campaign this week to stop two Congressional bills aimed at regulating the Internet found broad support in Cambodia, where Web users are a small but growing group.
Internet juggernauts Facebook, Google and Wikipedia campaigned in one form or another on Wednesday, urging their users to oppose the Senate’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the House of Representative’s Protect IP Act.
Both bills are ostensibly to prevent online piracy, but opponents fear they could have far-reaching implications for basic freedoms and stymie the progress of the Internet.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.
Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.
The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.
The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
SOPA protests to shut down Web sites
By David A. Fahrenthold
The Washington Post
This is what happens when you make the Internet mad.
On Wednesday, a group of technology companies will stage an unusual form of protest: They will shut down their own popular Web sites for a day to show their unhappiness with two Internet-regulation bills grinding through Congress. They argue that the bills would impose huge regulatory costs and stifle innovation on the Web.
Around the country, Americans will wake up without some of the oddball essentials of online life. No Wikipedia. No Reddit, a compendium of links to stories and funny pictures that draws millions a day. And no icanhazcheeseburger.com, which is the world’s best-known collection of funny cat pictures.
In Washington, however, the day will have another significance.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Los Angeles jury convicts ex-Marine in sex tourism case
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - A retired Marine captain was convicted Thursday of having sex with pre-teen girls while working as a teacher in Cambodia.
A federal jury found Michael Joseph Pepe guilty of seven counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. The federal law targets people who go overseas for so-called child sex tourism.
During trial, six girls who were between 9 and 12 at the time of the abuse testified that Pepe drugged, bound, beat and raped them. Pepe was arrested in Phnom Penh in 2006 by Cambodian police investigating the sexual abuse allegations.
Prosecutors said Pepe forced the girls to give him massages and oral sex when they came home from school. Pepe would also give the girls a date rape drug before having sex with them, Assistant U.S. District Attorney Patricia Donahue said during trial.
Pepe, 54, of Oxnard, faces up to 210 years in prison when he is sentenced in September.
Deputy Federal Public Defender Carl Gunn said he might file an appeal after sentencing.
During trial, Gunn argued the assaults were committed by a prostitute and her boyfriend who had access to Pepe's house.
A federal jury found Michael Joseph Pepe guilty of seven counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. The federal law targets people who go overseas for so-called child sex tourism.
During trial, six girls who were between 9 and 12 at the time of the abuse testified that Pepe drugged, bound, beat and raped them. Pepe was arrested in Phnom Penh in 2006 by Cambodian police investigating the sexual abuse allegations.
Prosecutors said Pepe forced the girls to give him massages and oral sex when they came home from school. Pepe would also give the girls a date rape drug before having sex with them, Assistant U.S. District Attorney Patricia Donahue said during trial.
Pepe, 54, of Oxnard, faces up to 210 years in prison when he is sentenced in September.
Deputy Federal Public Defender Carl Gunn said he might file an appeal after sentencing.
During trial, Gunn argued the assaults were committed by a prostitute and her boyfriend who had access to Pepe's house.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
US Child sex tourists to Cambodia and other countries, be warned: the US law is watching you!
2/18/2004
'Sex tourists' warned: Law is watching
By Donna Leinwand,
USA TODAY
'Sex tourists' warned: Law is watching
By Donna Leinwand,
USA TODAY
U.S. travelers who book trips to countries that are hot spots for child prostitution will begin this month to see ads, brochures and billboards warning that sexual adventures abroad could land them in prison here.
The warnings, written and distributed by religious organizations, child-welfare groups and the federal government, are a sign of a new assault by the Bush administration on the international child sex trade. They also reflect a new law intended to catch U.S. residents who engage in or promote sex with children overseas.
"People assume they can go out of the country and get away with exploiting children in this horrific way," says Mike Garcia, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "We're sending a message. We have the power to (arrest them), and we have the will."
In the past six months, U.S. authorities have arrested two men from Washington state who are accused of having sex in Cambodia with underage boys, and an 85-year-old Los Angeles man is accused of trying to fly to the Philippines for sex with two preteen girls.
Another man, Richard Schmidt, 61, of Baltimore, arrives in the USA today to face charges that he traveled to Cambodia and the Philippines for sex with children. An indictment unsealed Wednesday charges him with molesting eight boys. Schmidt, a former teacher, has been convicted three times of molesting children in the USA. He was released from prison in July 2000. Schmidt fled to the Philippines in June 2002 after Maryland authorities issued an arrest warrant for parole violations, U.S. Department of Justice officials said Wednesday.
Investigators from Immigration and Customs Enforcement have more than 20 other cases underway, including 11 American men who were arrested by Mexican authorities and are awaiting extradition.
Effects of new law
The arrests were made under a child-protection law President Bush signed April 30. It includes a provision that U.S. law enforcement officials say gives them a new tool to prosecute hard-core pedophiles and "sex tourists" who want to engage in sex with children.
Although it had been illegal since 1986 to go abroad with the intent to have sex with someone under 18, prosecutors say the crime was difficult to prove in court. To get a conviction under the new law, prosecutors do not have to prove that U.S. residents left the country specifically to have illegal sex — only that they had illegal sex or tried to do so.
The law doubles the penalties to a mandatory 30 years in prison for each offense. Authorities can use it to arrest owners of travel websites and travel agencies that promote sex tours or arrange for clients to have sex with children.
The law was a result of pressure on Bush and Congress from conservative religious groups to be more aggressive in fighting the sexual exploitation of children worldwide.
The administration has joined with religious groups to promote the crackdown. And it is getting help from groups with missions in countries where the sex trade is rampant.
Child-advocacy groups estimate that 2 million children worldwide are working in the sex trade. The Internet is rife with tour companies that pitch travel for legal prostitution and make veiled references to sex with children. There are chat rooms in which participants discuss the best locations to find the prettiest girls, the cleanest rooms and the cheapest prices. And the Web allows people to make arrangements to travel to countries, such as Cambodia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Mexico and the Philippines, where child sex is plentiful and law enforcement has been lax.
One destination is Svay Pak, a small town about 7 miles outside the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. There, about 30 ramshackle brothels line the streets.
Joe Mettimano, director of the child sex tourism prevention project for World Vision, an international Christian relief organization, visited Svay Pak last year.
"I got 5 feet down the dirt road and I was approached by a young boy asking if I want young girls. He said, 'I can get you 9, 10 years old,' " Mettimano says. For an hour, he observed men going in and out of the brothels. "You hear very distinct Australian, American and European accents."
World Vision is one of several organizations working with the U.S. government to devise pop-up ads on travel websites, posters and pamphlets in airports, and billboards in destination countries that warn of the new penalties. World Vision has received a $500,000 State Department grant for its part of the project.
Because hard-core pedophiles may not be deterred by the ads, they serve more as a warning to "sex tourists." These are the "businessmen and holiday travelers who see the sex trade happening all around them and decide to experiment," Mettimano says.
"Some of these men actually believe that when they go abroad it is acceptable and that they are helping poor people support their families," says Carol Smolenski, executive director of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes USA. "If you are really concerned about them, then just give them money and don't ask for sex."
Joint enforcement efforts
Travelers who fail to heed the warnings could get nabbed overseas in a joint enforcement effort involving missionaries, social workers, local police and the federal government. Employees and members of charity and religious groups overseas watch for Americans who engage in sex with children. They will turn over names, photos and other evidence to local police, who can arrest offenders and turn them over for prosecution in the USA.
When Cambodian authorities arrested Gary Jackson, 56, of Bainbridge Island, Wash., in September and accused him of having sex with three boys under 16, the charges were based on evidence collected by a social-service organization in Cambodia.
The Cambodian government turned Jackson over to U.S. authorities on Nov. 20 after a federal grand jury in Seattle charged him.
Jackson's defense attorney did not return phone calls. Jackson, who was convicted of a sex offense in Washington in 1981 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, is being held in jail until trial in March.
The warnings, written and distributed by religious organizations, child-welfare groups and the federal government, are a sign of a new assault by the Bush administration on the international child sex trade. They also reflect a new law intended to catch U.S. residents who engage in or promote sex with children overseas.
"People assume they can go out of the country and get away with exploiting children in this horrific way," says Mike Garcia, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "We're sending a message. We have the power to (arrest them), and we have the will."
In the past six months, U.S. authorities have arrested two men from Washington state who are accused of having sex in Cambodia with underage boys, and an 85-year-old Los Angeles man is accused of trying to fly to the Philippines for sex with two preteen girls.
Another man, Richard Schmidt, 61, of Baltimore, arrives in the USA today to face charges that he traveled to Cambodia and the Philippines for sex with children. An indictment unsealed Wednesday charges him with molesting eight boys. Schmidt, a former teacher, has been convicted three times of molesting children in the USA. He was released from prison in July 2000. Schmidt fled to the Philippines in June 2002 after Maryland authorities issued an arrest warrant for parole violations, U.S. Department of Justice officials said Wednesday.
Investigators from Immigration and Customs Enforcement have more than 20 other cases underway, including 11 American men who were arrested by Mexican authorities and are awaiting extradition.
Effects of new law
The arrests were made under a child-protection law President Bush signed April 30. It includes a provision that U.S. law enforcement officials say gives them a new tool to prosecute hard-core pedophiles and "sex tourists" who want to engage in sex with children.
Although it had been illegal since 1986 to go abroad with the intent to have sex with someone under 18, prosecutors say the crime was difficult to prove in court. To get a conviction under the new law, prosecutors do not have to prove that U.S. residents left the country specifically to have illegal sex — only that they had illegal sex or tried to do so.
The law doubles the penalties to a mandatory 30 years in prison for each offense. Authorities can use it to arrest owners of travel websites and travel agencies that promote sex tours or arrange for clients to have sex with children.
The law was a result of pressure on Bush and Congress from conservative religious groups to be more aggressive in fighting the sexual exploitation of children worldwide.
The administration has joined with religious groups to promote the crackdown. And it is getting help from groups with missions in countries where the sex trade is rampant.
Child-advocacy groups estimate that 2 million children worldwide are working in the sex trade. The Internet is rife with tour companies that pitch travel for legal prostitution and make veiled references to sex with children. There are chat rooms in which participants discuss the best locations to find the prettiest girls, the cleanest rooms and the cheapest prices. And the Web allows people to make arrangements to travel to countries, such as Cambodia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Mexico and the Philippines, where child sex is plentiful and law enforcement has been lax.
One destination is Svay Pak, a small town about 7 miles outside the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. There, about 30 ramshackle brothels line the streets.
Joe Mettimano, director of the child sex tourism prevention project for World Vision, an international Christian relief organization, visited Svay Pak last year.
"I got 5 feet down the dirt road and I was approached by a young boy asking if I want young girls. He said, 'I can get you 9, 10 years old,' " Mettimano says. For an hour, he observed men going in and out of the brothels. "You hear very distinct Australian, American and European accents."
World Vision is one of several organizations working with the U.S. government to devise pop-up ads on travel websites, posters and pamphlets in airports, and billboards in destination countries that warn of the new penalties. World Vision has received a $500,000 State Department grant for its part of the project.
Because hard-core pedophiles may not be deterred by the ads, they serve more as a warning to "sex tourists." These are the "businessmen and holiday travelers who see the sex trade happening all around them and decide to experiment," Mettimano says.
"Some of these men actually believe that when they go abroad it is acceptable and that they are helping poor people support their families," says Carol Smolenski, executive director of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes USA. "If you are really concerned about them, then just give them money and don't ask for sex."
Joint enforcement efforts
Travelers who fail to heed the warnings could get nabbed overseas in a joint enforcement effort involving missionaries, social workers, local police and the federal government. Employees and members of charity and religious groups overseas watch for Americans who engage in sex with children. They will turn over names, photos and other evidence to local police, who can arrest offenders and turn them over for prosecution in the USA.
When Cambodian authorities arrested Gary Jackson, 56, of Bainbridge Island, Wash., in September and accused him of having sex with three boys under 16, the charges were based on evidence collected by a social-service organization in Cambodia.
The Cambodian government turned Jackson over to U.S. authorities on Nov. 20 after a federal grand jury in Seattle charged him.
Jackson's defense attorney did not return phone calls. Jackson, who was convicted of a sex offense in Washington in 1981 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, is being held in jail until trial in March.
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