Monday, March 16, 2015

Operation Underground Railroad (OUR)

I'm taking a break from my usual posts to talk about a serious subject.

One of the many things I do in my day job is serve as a US passport acceptance agent. We're like the front line in observing the people who want to get a passport and reviewing their documents. Before giving them the oath, we have them review a section called "Acts and Conditions." Part of it includes this:
Furthermore, I have not been convicted of a federal or state drug offense or convicted of a "sex tourism" crimes statute, 
The first time I read that, I was like, "What the heck is that?" We hear that same response from a lot from people who've also never heard of it. I finally looked it up.
the act of travelling to another country for the purpose of paying to have sex, especially with children.
 Are you sick yet?

That term bothers me. Sex Tourism. It's too mild a term for what it really is: child sexual slavery.

I'd never heard the term sex tourism on the news either, until a few months ago when this story broke:



It's bad enough that children are being bought and sold and raped.

But there's a freaking market for it!! It's one of the fastest growing criminal industries around today. And one of the most lucrative. Billions of dollars.

Those poor babies. *takes a deep breath*

Children are frequently sold into slavery by family members. Once the kids are rescued, they can't be returned home.

Timothy Ballard, founder of Operation Underground Railroad, decided to leave his undercover CIA work because he was distressed about the children being left behind. As government agents, they could only take action where there was an American interest. By going private, they have a broader reach.

He also decided not to do the undercover work himself anymore, so he could talk about. I'm glad it's getting press coverage. I'm grateful there are organizations like OUR to help lead the way. After the sting done in the video above, the Colombian government had the confidence to conduct similar raids on their own.



Had you ever heard of this?



32 comments:

  1. I've never heard the term either. Just sick though. And sad families sell their own kids into sex slavery.

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    1. I personally think there will be a special play in hell for people who betray the trust of a child, especially ones who should be able to look to them for protection.

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  2. I hadn't heard of this either. But it's so sad that kids or anyone is forced to do something like this. Whenever we start to complain, we should just think about things like this and what kids and people have to suffer with around the world.

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    1. Yes. We need to be grateful for our own better circumstances, but I would hope we would also try to spread awareness. We need to help organization like OUR to rescue these kids, even in our small ways.

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  3. it's a well known term, so many people go to Thailand and that part of Asia in order to have sex with teens and with transgenders... so much that tones of young men there undergo operations in order to be prostitutes and earn big money

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  4. Never heard the term but knew about the slavery and sex with kids. Sick indeed. Any scum bucket having sex with kids should have their nether regions chopped off.

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    1. Yes, and they can be bottled and held on display in that special place in hell.

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  5. Yes, I've heard of it. Thailand has long been infamous for that sort of thing, true, but I think it probably happens everywhere. Very, very sad and sick.

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    1. I'm really hoping that Tim's organization and their push to bring it to the front is successful. And here we thought the movie Taken was just a movie.

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  6. Yes. I know. It's sick. These children sold into this shit are on my prayer list. God is not happy.

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  7. I'm really surprised you haven't heard of this. I wish the US news was more global in its reporting to educate people that this goes on. It's been a real problem in the Far East for many years. The UK and Australia have dedicated police teams to deal with the scum that do this.

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    1. Evidently the US has police teams to deal with it, but they've been very low key about it. I think this is one of those situations where the "Johns" should be outed. If there are American tourists seeking these children, their faces should be plastered all over the news.

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  8. I knew the term 'sex tourism', but then I've lived outside the US in a country where just about anything goes. Unfortunately in many places, the government looks the other way. After all this type of thing brings big tourist dollars into their nation. It isn't until a larger nation like the US gets involved that they act horrified and begin to do something about the problem. It's a sad fact that in many nations the people (adults and children alike) are treated as just another commodity. Man is truly losing his humanity.

    Kudos to you for highlighting an organization such as this and bringing it to the blog worlds attention. Many good people who would never be subject to this type of thing even though it might be going on right under their noses in their lovely paradisaical vacation spots, should be outraged. If the governments of those countries thought they might lose the tourism dollars of the good people in the world, they might be more willing to be cooperative in shutting this type of trafficking down. This is a problem that exists on all levels of society.

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    1. Sadly, people have always been treated as a commodity. Even US women were until a century ago, and it's still a hard fight for a lot of us even in the US.

      People have know about something to be outraged about it. It makes me tear up thinking about the poor little 11-year-old boy that Tim mentions in one article. The boy was asking for Cocaine. He said they usually give him Cocaine at those events because he's so scared.

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  9. I've read about this recently...so sad.

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    1. I know, right? I felt kind of stupid having to look it up, but there are lots of people who've never heard the term before.

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  10. I've heard of sex trafficking and sex tourism. It's so sad and sickening. :(

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    1. I'd heard of sex trafficking. It actually has a small role in my first book, A Change of Plans. But I hadn't considered children when I wrote that.

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  11. I had not heard of Operation Underground Railroad. Thank you for sharing the important work that this man is doing.

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  12. I have heard of that term. My line of work sometimes has to deal with victims of this terrible thing. I'm glad aggressive steps are being taken to combat this.

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    1. I'll bet you do see it, David. I'm glad too. I think it was a wise decision for Tim to become the front man, just so they can bring notice to it.

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  13. Who has time for such evil stuff? Imagine if these folks dedicated that same amount of effort to anything else? Just imagine what good things they could accomplish...well, I can only hope.

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    1. Money. And the sick sex obsession that's making children desirable objects. *gag*

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  14. I believe there is a special place in Hell for those who abuse children this way. And when one is captured, I think we should help them get there as soon as possible. No other punishment comes close to being sufficient.

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  15. Wow! I have heard of this, but I didn't know it was such an issue. And I agree -- the name is nowhere horrific enough to fit the crime. Actually, "crime" isn't anywhere awful enough to fit it, either. Sickening! Thank you for getting the word out!

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    1. We have to do what we can to take this back and help these kids!

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  16. I've worked a lot with victims of child abuse and domestic violence so I've know about it for a while. The child porn industry is run off of these kids. I had reason to talk to an FBI agent about a potential child porn victim and the discussion we had was horrifying. The sheer volume of the trade in children for sex is mind blowing.

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    1. It IS mind blowing, Heidi. And we can't sit idly by while it happens.

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