The rights of children have collided head-on with the First Amendment rights of others in a suit filed by Backpage.com over a landmark law in Washington State

2012-06-19
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is representing the Internet Archive in a fight against a Washington state law designed to prevent the sex trafficking of minors. EFF, which bills itself as “Defending Your Rights in the Digital World, is a Washington, DC special interest group and long-time supporter of near absolute Internet “freedom.”

This article in the august National Law Journal provides a good overview of the case. What the article doesn’t tell you is that the new plaintiff in the Washington litigation (which was brought by …Backpage.com and Village Voice Media Holdings), the Internet Archive, shares a board member with EFF, Brewster Kahle….

It’s also curious that the newly minted plaintiff, Internet Archive, is funded by the American people through “institutional support” from the National Science Foundation and the Library of Congress….

EFF, which is funded by ….craigslist, also deserves a closer look….http://www.childlaw.us/2012/06/eff-joins-the-child-exploitati.html

 

Backpage.com Sues Washington AG Over Child Prostitution Law
By Sue Reisinger  Corporate Counsel June 6, 2012
Update: U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez in Seattle on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order against enforcement of a new Washington State law targeting child prostitution.

Martinez said Backpage.com “has shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim . . . as well irreparable harm, the balance of equities tipping strongly in its favor, and injury to the public interest, justifying injunctive relief.”

The restraining order takes effect immediately and continues for at least 14 days. The court set Backpage’s motion for a preliminary injunction for a hearing on June 15.

—–

The rights of children have collided head-on with the First Amendment rights of others in a suit filed by Backpage.com over a landmark law in Washington State.

The online classified-ads site filed a complaint [PDF] against Washington State attorney general Rob McKenna and the state’s county prosecutors on Monday to try and stop them from enforcing a new law that would require providers like Backpage to verify the ages of people in ads offering “adult services,” which can include prostitution.

When the bipartisan bill passed the legislature in February, child protection advocates hailed it as the first of its kind in the nation. It is to take effect on Thursday, unless the U.S. District Court in Seattle grants Backpage’s motion for a temporary restraining order while the suit is heard…. http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202557433632

 

EFF challenges as overbroad Washington state law targeting child trafficking ads

By Sheri Qualters The National Law Journal June 18, 2012
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is helping an online library fight a Washington state law that could expose third parties to criminal charges for content related to sex trafficking of minors. EFF’s intervention comes on the heels of similar measures introduced in New York and New Jersey and poised to take effect in Tennessee. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202559922324&sl

An uneasy Backpage alliance – Anti-trafficking activists

An uneasy Backpage alliance
Anti-trafficking activists may turn to the site for tips, but some say we’re ultimately better without it
By Tracy Clark-Flory
Saturday, May 12, 2012

In the fight against child sex trafficking, Backpage.com is seen as both friend and foe. The online classified site screens ads, reports thousands of potential cases of exploitation, assists in police investigations and acts as a resource for those searching for trafficked kids. But even some activists who use the site for good see greater benefit in the site shutting down its adult section — a move called for recently in Senate and House resolutions. This uneasy alliance reveals the complexities of the problem at hand.

In the past 16 months — the length of time Backpage has been screening and reporting potential trafficking ads — the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received nearly 5,000 tips from the site. The center’s president, Ernie Allen, tells me, “There’s no question they have undertaken the screening and reporting process very aggressively.” Ultimately, though, the question is whether it’s enough.

After working with Craigslist in a similar fashion for almost two years, he says, “What we basically concluded was that it wasn’t working. The price you pay to allow this kind of activity to proliferate was too great.” Eventually, Craigslist shuttered its adult section and, Allen says, “the total volume of these ads dropped dramatically, and most of that has not come back.”

If Backpage were to do the same thing, “it would dramatically reduce the scale and scope of the problem,” he says. “Some of it would relocate, but I don’t think it would proliferate at the same level.” Allen says that NCMEC doesn’t make “public pronouncements about the policy stuff,” but his message is clear: Shuttering Backpage’s adult section would make things better — but, short of that, NCMEC is devoted to helping the site reduce harm…. http://www.salon.com/2012/05/13/an_uneasy_backpage_alliance/singleton/

Underage sex trade still flourishing online

Underage sex trade still flourishing online By Amber Lyon and Steve Turnham, CNN January 20, 2011

Editor’s note: Hundreds of thousands of girls under the age of 18 are sold as sex slaves in the U.S. In a yearlong investigation, CNN’s Amber Lyon reveals the devastating realities of the business of underage sex. Don’t miss CNN Presents “Selling the Girl Next Door” this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.

Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN)….STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Selena, 13, was sold for sex on backpage.com
* Advocacy groups have accused the website of facilitating the trafficking of underage girls
* Neither backpage.com nor its owner would comment on those accusations….

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there are at least 100,000 underage girls being sex trafficked in America today. That’s a conservative estimate based on what little hard data currently exists; NCMEC believes the real number could be as high as 300,000.

Most are runaways, suffering from psychological problems or drug dependence, picked up and sold by pimps for staggering profits. According to studies, pimps can make up to half a million dollars a year, and they frequently prey on the young and the vulnerable.

The pimps ply their trade on the web, the new marketplace for underage sex trafficking. Last year, victims’ advocates called the internet classified site Craigslist’s Adult Service Section the “Walmart of child sex trafficking.”

CNN investigated Craigslist, posting an ad and receiving numerous calls from men seeking sex. That investigation helped spark a national conversation and outrage, as well as a call from 17 attorneys general around the country for Craigslist to shut down its adult services section.

But when Craigslist shut down its section, the escort ads migrated to another site, backpage.com. We decided to investigate Backpage after advocacy groups accused the website, which is owned by the Village Voice Media Group, of facilitating the trafficking of underage girls.

According to the AIM Group, an internet consulting firm, Backpage’s escort site earned an estimated $20 million in 2010. Its profits soared after Craigslist decided to pull the plug on its adult services section….Last fall, Backpage hired internet security advisor Hemu Nigam to implement “a holistic plan centered around preventing criminal activity on our site.” We wanted to know what that “holistic plan” was, but Nigam wouldn’t talk to us either.

Full nudity appears to have disappeared from the site, but suspect ads with tag lines such as “Daddy’s Little Girl” are common.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/20/siu.selling.girl.next.door.backpage/index.html

Craigslist faces new wave of political attacks, Vatican as a rogue state

Craigslist faces new wave of political attacks by Declan McCullagh September 9, 2010 A year ago, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was busy touting e-government, promoting neighborhood social networks, and blogging about squirrel-proofing his bird feeder. But now the 57-year-old entrepreneur is spending his days in more nerve-wracking pursuits: responding to attacks from ambitious attorneys general, legal threats from antiprostitution advocacy groups that sometimes seem to be actually anti-Craigslist, and critical articles written by journalists employed by the same newspapers that his company is helping to slowly eviscerate.  And now, two sources have told CNET, a congressional committee has asked Newmark to testify at a hearing in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon on the topic of “domestic minor sex trafficking.”….

Liability and the law
Then there’s the option of persuading Congress to rewrite Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which says: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Translated, that means Craigslist isn’t generally liable for what its users do.
But the law that immunizes Craigslist from lawsuit also protects Facebook, Blogspot, Flickr, and innumerable other Web sites. It lets news organizations, including CNET publisher CBS Interactive, permit readers to post comments without prior approval by an editor. It’s probably no exaggeration to say that one sentence–inserted as part of negotiations over antiporn legislation–gave birth to Web 2.0 and modern social networks.

“Any attempt to reopen section 230 will inevitably invite a flurry of other proposals of how to deputize online intermediaries to handle any concern or pet grievance,” says Berin Szoka, a senior fellow at the free-market Progress and Freedom Foundation. “Just limiting it to adult services or prostitution is naive.” Andrea Powell, executive director of the FAIR Fund, is also weighing a class action lawsuit against Craigslist. “There are enough victims,” Powell said. “We were thinking about this one day and reached out and it turns out other groups were pondering it. I had a conversation with one woman who was victimized by Craigslist. By our records, our financial records, they owe her $60,000.” http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20015916-38.html

Call to treat Vatican as a rogue state September 9, 2010 THE Vatican should be treated as a kind of ”rogue state” by the rest of the world until it stops using statehood – and the ancient rules of the canon law – to protect paedophile priests.
So says Geoffrey Robertson, QC, the veteran human rights lawyer and United Nations judge, arguing that the Catholic Church is the only religion permitted under international law to claim the privileges of statehood and its leaders immunity from civil or criminal action.
In his new book, The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse published as a Penguin special in Britain – and in Australia at the weekend – Mr Robertson urges the world to press the Catholic Church into abandoning canon law, the ancient set of ecclesiastical rules that also define disciplinary provisions for offences ranging from sex crimes to ordaining women.

However, these punishments, sometimes meted out under mediaeval written procedures run by fellow priests, allow ”neither cross-examination and medical examination, nor DNA testing” and ”no punishment worthy of that name”, he says. ”The worst that can happen, other than an order to do penance, is ‘laicisation’; that is, defrocking, which permits the paedophile to leave the church and get a job in a state school or care home, without anyone knowing of this conviction. Canon law has no sex offenders registry. ”While there can be no objection to an organisation disciplining members for a breach of arcane rules, there is every objection when those breaches amount to serious crimes and the organisation claims the right to deal with them internally without reporting them to the police. ”And that is precisely what the Vatican has been doing: instead of reporting to law enforcement authorities those priests it knows to be guilty of raping children, and to be likely to rape more children in the future, it has been dealing with them under canon law, which demands utmost pontifical secrecy, moving them to other parishes and letting them off with admonitions and unenforceable penances … usually to say prayers for their victims.’ http://www.smh.com.au/world/call-to-treat-vatican-as-a-rogue-state-20100908-151cg.html

Belgian court bins church paedophile raids evidence Sep 9, 2010 BRUSSELS (AFP) – Belgian judges ruled invalid on Thursday truckloads of evidence seized by police in summer raids probing paedophile scandals within the country’s Roman Catholic Church.
An appeals court deemed the raids, on the church headquarters in Brussels and at the home of its former top cardinal, disproportionate, and ordered that the material — on hundreds of individual investigations conducted by an internal church commission — be returned with prosecutors unable to use it. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100909/wl_afp/belgiumreligionchildabuse

Adult services censored on Craigslist, Children among 100s raped in Congo, U.N. says

Adult services censored on Craigslist By the CNN Wire Staff
September 4, 2010 (CNN) — Embattled online classified service Craigslist apparently made a change to its website early Saturday, censoring its adult services section. The section that usually reads “adult services” was replaced by the word “censored.” It was not immediately clear whether Craigslist removed the adult services and replaced them with the “censored” section that had a link that was not active. But for users who accessed the account outside the U.S., the erotic services link was still active. Craigslist representatives were not immediately available for comment. The website has been under fire for allegations that it promotes prostitution. Last week, attorneys general in 17 states banded together to urge Craigslist to discontinue its adult services. “The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist’s Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution — including ads trafficking children — are rampant on it,” the attorneys general said in a Tuesday letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and Founder Craig Newmark.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/04/craigslist.censored/index.html?iref=NS1

Children among hundreds raped in Congo, U.N. says By the CNN Wire Staff September 4, 2010 (CNN) — More than two dozen children were among the hundreds raped by armed rebels in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said.
Twenty-seven minors, including one boy, were among the victims, the U.N. said Friday. One attempted rape was also reported.
The children were among 240 people raped by Rwandan and Congolese rebels who raided villages in North Kivu province between July 30 and August 3, aid groups said. Attackers blocked roads and prevented villagers from reaching outside communications. Many homes were also looted.

Many of the victims were raped by two to six men, according to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
MONUSCO, the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country, raised the number of victims after earlier reports put it at 156.
Since the rapes were first publicly reported on August 22, more victims have come forward, the force said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/09/04/congo.rape.children/index.html

Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles removed, Craigslist, clergy abuse

articles:
Mothers’ group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet
Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads
900 abuse cases in Dutch clergy

Mothers’ group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet

By Daily Mail Reporter 26th August 2010 Six mothers who set up a campaign group on Facebook to track down and expose online paedophiles have been given a warning and had their page removed from the internet. Leanne Moss, 33, set up the Mommies on a Mission group after claiming she stumbled across Facebook profile pages featuring images of child abuse. The mother-of-four said she created the campaign page to raise awareness and to ensure the offensive profiles were reported. ‘All we were doing was posting links of profiles which featured sick images.’
Group member Joanne Bell, 32, from Carlisle, claimed it didn’t make sense that Mommies on a Mission was removed when what they considered to be ‘sick’ profiles featuring child abuse were still on the site. ‘If they are monitoring us so closely, why can’t they monitor these people?’

The group aimed to prevent a repeat of the murder of Ashleigh Hall, 17, who was groomed online by killer Peter Chapman before she was lured to her death.
Chapman, a convicted sex offender, was jailed for a minimum of 35 years in  March.  Ashleigh’s mother Andrea said Facebook’s decision to shut down Mommies on a Mission was ‘shocking’.
‘They are very quick to shut down people who are trying to do some good for a change.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1306286/Mothers-Facebook-campaign-expose-paedophiles-removed-internet.html

Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads By the CNN Wire Staff August 26, 2010 (CNN) — Attorneys general in 17 states have banded together to call on Craigslist, the online classified ad website, to discontinue its adult services section. “The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist’s Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution — including ads trafficking children — are rampant on it,” the attorneys general said in a Tuesday letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark. The letter continued: “We recognize that Craigslist may lose the considerable revenue generated by the Adult Services ads. No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist.”

A Craigslist spokeswoman said Wednesday that the site agreed with at least some of the letter.
“We strongly support the attorneys general desire to end trafficking in children and women, through the Internet or by any other means,” Susan MacTavish Best, who handles media inquiries for Craigslist, told CNN Wednesday.  http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/25/craigslist.adult.content/index.html

900 abuse cases in Dutch clergy 2010-08-25  The Hague – A Dutch commission set up five months ago to look into suspected sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in the Netherlands said on Wednesday it has received about 900 reports from alleged victims.  “The 900 reports come mainly from victims but also from relatives of the victims who contacted us,” Gert Jan Verhoog, a spokesperson for the commission told AFP….Some members of the clergy accused of abuse gave themselves up to the commission, Verhoog said….At the same time, a Catholic Church committee called Hulp & Recht (Support and Right), tasked with collecting reports from alleged victims, has so far received about 1 600 statements, spokesperson Ben Spekman told AFP. http://www.news24.com/World/News/900-abuse-cases-in-Dutch-clergy-20100825

Craigslist prostitution ads and minors, Wikipedia – pedophilia allegations

Missouri AG asks Craigslist to remove adult ads AP August 24, 2010

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has joined 16 other states’ attorneys general in asking Craigslist to drop its adult services section. The attorneys general on Tuesday announced that they sent a letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and founder Craig Newmark that says Craigslist has not kept a pledge to crack down on illegal sexual activity on the Internet. Koster said in May 2009 that investigators in his office found several Craigslist ads offering sex-for-money or seeking that type of relationship for the Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, Columbia and Jefferson City areas.
Craigslist pledged in 2008 to better police its site for illegal sex ads. But the letter says prostitution is a booming business on Craigslist and the company doesn’t seem inclined to screen the ads.

Other states represented on the letter are Kansas, Connecticut, Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.
http://m.dailyjournalonline.com/news/state-and-regional/article_b2ec9e75-1948-5e98-b531-90d3ff58bd36.html

Pimp admits transporting minors for prostitution ring Saturday, August 21, 2010 By Jason Laday
VINELAND – Javon Gordon, an alleged Atlantic City pimp from Vineland, admitted today in federal court to transporting two girls across state lines to support his prostitution ring, according to officials. Gordon, 28, who used the alias “Teflon,” pleaded guilty in Camden, before U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler, to two counts of a superseding indictment charging him with transporting minors across state lines to work as prostitutes for him in Atlantic City. Each count of transportation of minors for the purpose of prostitution carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. The mandatory minimum penalty is 10 years….

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, Gordon admitted that from September 2007 until July 2008, he ran a prostitution ring in and around Atlantic City, acting as a pimp and employing both minor girls and adult women to work for him as prostitutes. He admitted to controlling the activities of the women and girls working for him, including requiring them to give him any money they made from preforming sexual acts on customers. Three minor girls recruited by Gordon solicited prostitution clients on the streets and in various casinos in Atlantic City, as well as on the Internet. Gordon used a digital camera to take naked, partially-naked and sexually-suggestive pictures of the minor girls, then posted the images on various websites, including Craigslist, in an effort to advertise prostitution services. Gordon also used Craigslist to assist in his efforts to recruit girls to work for him as prostitutes.
http://www.nj.com/bridgeton/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1282363819202000.xml&coll=10

Wikipedia – pedophilia allegations

http://www.childlaw.us/2010/06/investigation-confirms-wikiped.html

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/25/exclusive-pedophiles-find-home-on-wikipedia/

http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/problems-with-wikipedia/

http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/wikipedophilia-wikipedia-child-abuse-misinformation-clergy-abuse-suit/

http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/06/26/pedophiles-find-a-home-on-wikipedia/

http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/wikipedia-bomis-and-online-pornography-us-cardinal-ignored-pedophilic-priest/

Craigslist “Wal-Mart of child sex trade”, Pope acts against incest priest group

also: Japan’s Child Abuse Reaches Record High
How predatory gangs force middle-class girls into the sex trade
Susan Sarandon’s Child Sex Trafficking Crusade
WGBH Investigates: Sexual and Human Trafficking in Southern New England
US law enforcement ‘failing’ on child prostitution
A Guide To Catholic Sex Scandals – More than a dozen of the church’s worst sex abuse scandals of the past 30 years.

Craigslist: The ‘Wal-Mart of child sex trade’? What does CNN’s surprise interview with the founder of Craigslist reveal about his site’s role in sex trafficking and underage prostitution? August 5, 2010 Popular classified ad website Craigslist has come under fire for profiting off of illegal prostitution ads. While Craigslist executives insist that they screen ads posted to their “adult services” section, police and anti-human trafficking advocates say the site has become a hotbed for online prostitution, which often involves underage women forced into the sex trade. “Craigslist is like the Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking right now in this country,” Andrea Powell of the anti-human trafficking group The FAIR Fund tells CNN.
http://theweek.com/article/index/205788/craigslist-the-wal-mart-of-child-sex-trade

Japan’s Child Abuse Reaches Record High - Japanese child abuse cases reach record high; 187 victims, 18 deaths in 1st half of 2010 By YURI KAGEYAMA TOKYO August 5, 2010 (AP)  During the first six months of this year, there were reports of 187 children who were victims of abuse, mostly physical abuse but some sexual, the highest since such records began to be compiled in 2000, the National Police Agency said. The cases resulted in 18 deaths, and 199 people were arrested, it said. In another disturbing sign, the police report also found child pornography on the rise, with cases surging 63 percent from a year earlier to 599 cases in the first half of the year. About half the cases involved the Internet. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=11329689

Special investigation: How predatory gangs force middle-class girls into the sex trade By Sue Reid 7th August 2010 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1301003/Special-investigation-How-predatory-gangs-force-middle-class-girls-sex-trade.html

August 6, 2010 Susan Sarandon’s Child Sex Trafficking Crusade
by Ken Lombardi ….Sarandon said, “Sex trafficking happens everywhere. People profit from it who are also connected to governments. It’s definitely exists within the United States…Kids coming from other countries. The problem exists right here.” Statistics back up the actress’ claims. The U.S. Justice Department estimates that anywhere from 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States every single year. But the number of U.S. children faced with being potentially trafficked is much higher. As many as 200,000 American children are at risk of being forced into the sex trade industry. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20012861-10391698.html

WGBH Investigates: Sexual and Human Trafficking in Southern New England – My four part investigative series that was part of a WGBH Radio team effort:
Part One: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin begins his investigation of human trafficking in Boston and beyond.
Part Two: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin talks to state agencies and police in Massacusetts and Rhode Island about their ongoing investigations.
Part Three: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin looks at the most most heinous dimension of human trafficking:The kidnapping of children for commercial sexual exploitation
Part Four: Sexual and Human Trafficking
Phillip Martin looks worldwide and close to home for lessons that might help in better understanding the dimensions of the problem.  http://www.liftedveils.org/

US law enforcement ‘failing’ on child prostitution 9 August 2010 UK By Sima Kotecha American law enforcement agencies are being accused of not doing enough to combat the problem of child prostitution. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States estimates that between 100,000 and 300,000 American children are forced into prostitution every year – sometimes through being kidnapped near their homes….The FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are working together with NCMEC to combat the problem. The DOJ claims the average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 13.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10896771

Pope acts against incest priest’s group – Immensely wealthy Catholic organisation, set up by controversial Mexican cleric and favoured by John Paul II, likely to be closed down By Hugh O’Shaughnessy 8 August 2010 The late John Paul II gives his blessing to Father Marcial Maciel in 2004. Senior figures in the church benefited from the huge fortune amassed by Maciel’s Legionaries of Christ

The Legionaries of Christ, the Roman Catholic group that combines an estimated £21bn fortune with intense moral turpitude and extreme conservatism, is facing its nemesis this month. For years the organisation was protected by John Paul II, the Polish pope, and his former secretary Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow. Now the reputation of Father Marcial Maciel, a Mexican who founded the group in 1941 when he was studying for holy orders, is at last falling victim to the reforming drive of John Paul II’s German successor, Benedict XVI.

Incestuous father of three – or perhaps six – children, serial paedophile, morphine addict, lover of la dolce vita, and pretend CIA agent, Maciel, who died in 2008, aged 87, built up a huge religious empire. It commanded the allegiance of 750 priests and 2,500 seminarians from 39 countries in the Legion proper, with 70,000 members in a lay offshoot, Regnum Christi, the Kingdom of Christ, and 131,000 students in its schools and universities….

The Pope has now given Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, an expert on running religious orders and a financial specialist, full powers over the Legion. He is getting down to work, and the Legion is unlikely to survive in any recognisable form. Benedict is tacitly repudiating the attitudes of John Paul II and Archbishop Dziwisz. The late pope had called Maciel “an efficacious guide to youth”, and applauded his gift for attracting young men to the depleted ranks of the priesthood. Senior figures in the church, who were often the recipients of the Legion’s financial largesse, rejoiced in his genius for fundraising and fortune building.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pope-acts-against-incest-priests-group-2046517.html

A Guide To Catholic Sex Scandals – More than a dozen of the church’s worst sex abuse scandals of the past 30 years. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/slideshow/guide-catholic-sex-scandals-11289279

Craigslist’s shame: Child sex ads, “Wal-Mart of sex trafficking”

Craigslist’s shame: Child sex ads By Malika Saada Saar, Special to CNN August 4, 2010  CNN)  — Last month, two girls trafficked for sex through the website Craigslist wrote an open letter to its founder, Craig Newmark, pleading with him to get rid of the adult services section, where sex ads are placed.
“I was first forced into prostitution when I was 11 years old by a 28-year-old man,” “M.C.” wrote. “I am not an exception. The man who trafficked me sold many girls my age, his house was called ‘Daddy Day Care.’

“All day, me and other girls sat with our laptops, posting pictures and answering ads on Craigslist. He made $1,500 a night selling my body, dragging me to Los Angeles, Houston, Little Rock — and one trip to Las Vegas in the trunk of a car. I am 17 now, and my childhood memories aren’t of my family, going to middle school, or dancing at the prom. They are making my own arrangements on Craigslist to be sold for sex, and answering as many ads as possible for fear of beatings and ice water baths.”
No one from Craigslist responded to M.C….

According to the most recent Department of Justice statistics, an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 children are sold for sex every year in the United States. Most are from 11 and 14 years old. Try for a moment to imagine your fifth-grade child, niece or sister, sold for sex. Law enforcement officials and anti-trafficking organizations have repeatedly asked Craigslist to rein in its sex ads in an effort to stop the selling of children for sex.

Craig Newmark and Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster have made some efforts to screen the site for children sold for sex and cooperate with law enforcement investigations. But for the most part, they have ignored such pleas, maybe because they just made an estimated $36 million in profits from these sex ads in the last year alone.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/02/saar.craigslist.child.trafficking/index.html

Craigslist vigilant in barring child sex ads By Jim Buckmaster, Special to CNN August 4, 2010
Editor’s note: Jim Buckmaster is president and CEO of Craigslist, the most used classified advertising service in any medium, relied on by more than 50 million Americans each month for finding jobs, housing, secondhand items, friendship, romance, services, events and local community information.

San Francisco, California (CNN) — As all people of conscience will agree, human trafficking and child exploitation are utterly despicable and horrendous crimes.
In contrast with the epidemic numbers often cited for the nation as a whole, the incidence of such crimes is low and getting lower on Craigslist because of the comprehensive preventive measures we have taken. Some experts now liken the relative rarity on Craigslist to “looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Nevertheless, any misuse of our site whatsoever in facilitating such unspeakable crimes is unacceptable, and we will continue to work tirelessly, in tandem with law enforcement and key nonprofits, to ensure that any victims receive the assistance they desperately need and deserve, and that those responsible are imprisoned….Last year, we began manual screening of each adult services ad before its posting, and those unwilling to conform to Craigslist’s standards left in droves for the many venues that do not screen ads. This migration is a matter of public record.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/04/buckmaster.craigslist.rebuttal/index.html

Craigslist founder rendered speechless by CNN’s sex-trafficking questions Aug 4, 2010 by Liz Goodwin The popular online classified ad site Craigslist is set to make about a third of its total revenue from its “adult services” ads section this year. But police and groups working to prevent human trafficking tell CNN the company is lining its pockets with money paid by prostitutes and pimps selling sex. According to anti-trafficking advocates, some of the women featured on the site are underage and are being forced into prostitution against their will. When CNN reporter Amber Lyon confronted Craigslist founder Craig Newmark with these accusations in an unplanned interview, the Internet magnate said his company was doing “more than anyone” to combat prostitution ads, before falling silent and eventually walking away from her questions….

Lyon showed Newmark Craigslist ads that clearly involved women soliciting money for sex. Newmark asked, “Have you reported this to us?” “Why do I have the responsibility to report this to you when it’s your website? You’re the one posting this online,” she said. Lyon also told Newmark that anti-trafficking advocates say his site is the “Wal-Mart of sex trafficking.” Soon after, Newmark walked away.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100804/us_yblog_upshot/craigslist-founder-rendered-speechless-by-cnns-sex-trafficking-questions

Wikipedia’s Parent Company Starts Purging Porn From Its Websites

other articles in this issue:
Bailey, Harry Richard (1922 – 1985) “extended narcotic induced comas”  studied with Cameron

What’s Next in National Security – Chemical Concussions and Secret LSD: Pentagon Details Cold War Mind-Control Tests

Teen Sold as Sex Slave on Craigslist – Experts say 100,000 children in the U.S. are sold for sex every day.

Archbishop of Vienna accuses one of Pope’s closest aides of abuse cover-up
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EXCLUSIVE: Wikipedia’s Parent Company Starts Purging Porn From Its Websites By Jana Winter  – FOXNews.com May 07, 2010

The parent company of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia is rapidly purging thousands of explicit pornographic images from its websites as it prepares to announce a new policy regarding sexually explicit content in response to reporting by FoxNews.com.

The move came as FoxNews.com was in the process of asking dozens of companies that have donated to Wikimedia Foundation — the umbrella group behind Wikimedia Commons and its Wiki projects, including Wikipedia — if they were aware of the extent of graphic and sexually explicit content on the sites. Among the donors to Wikimedia Commons who were contacted by FoxNews.com were Google, Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo!, Open Society Institute, Ford Foundation, Best Buy, USA Networks and Craigslist Foundation.

These images were and in some cases still are easily accessible to anyone, including school children, many of whom receive unfiltered access to Wiki projects in schools across the country. A child doing homework research on the educational website could easily stumble upon pornographic photos – including close-ups of genitalia and people having sex and masturbating. There’s even a “nude children” category. On Friday, Jimmy Wales, the president of the Wikimedia Foundation, acknowledged in a posting in the now defunct “sexual content” category:

“We have had a problem with images being placed into inappropriate categories, so that viewers were exposed in unexpected ways to sexual content. Image categorization should be done in such a way that readers are not exposed unexpectedly to content that may be offensive.” Wales wrote elsewhere – in the newly defunct “sexual content” category – that he expected the foundation to announce a change in policy in the coming days. “I expect the board to issue a statement within a few days offering a general philosophical support for the serious enforcement of policy on this issue,” he wrote. “The Board normally does not get involved with detailed content decisions; I don’t expect that to change.”

Last week, FoxNews.com revealed that Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger had sent a letter to the FBI expressing his concerns that Wikimedia was distributing child pornography. The FBI has not commented on whether it will pursue an investigation. On Wednesday evening, Wales posted this note on Wikimedia Commons: “Wikimedia Commons admins [administrators allowed to edit the site, including Wales himself] who wish to remove from the project all images that are of little or no educational value but which appeal solely to prurient interests have my full support. This includes immediate deletion of all pornographic images. We should keep educational images about sexuality — mere nudity is not pornography — but as with all our projects, editorial quality judgments must be made and will be made — appropriately and in good taste….
Immediately after, Wikimedia administrators started rapidly marking files for deletion, and the purging is going strong. Images tagged for deletion – though some were still viewable Friday afternoon – include pictures of men, women and young girls involved in a range of sex acts with each other and, in some cases, with animals.

A collection by one user — “Images of Stan Spanker” included at least 50 close-up photographs, many of which were too graphic to discuss. Some involved the combined use of children’s toys and/or household products and female genitalia. The category was scrubbed from the site on May 6. The images had been online since January or earlier. Numerous other categories have been entirely removed without a trace. Categories of images taken from the sites of adult entertainment companies – and from their awards shows – have been marked for deletion. Wales himself marked hundreds of images for deletion, all of which involved graphic images of sex acts. Still, as of Friday afternoon, dozens of categories of explicit sexual images remained on Wikimedia with no indication that they had been marked for deletion…. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/05/07/wikipedia-purges-porn/

Wikipedia Purges Porn Following Reports of Child Porn by Ryan Fleming  May 10, 2010
Wikipedia has begun to remove any potentially pornographic images from the website after Fox News began to warn donors of explicit content. After discovering instances of pornographic material, Fox News has contacted donors of Wikipedia and warned them that there is explicit content on the website.  The FBI has been contacted as well.

Since Fox’s report, Wikipedia has begun to purge thousands of images from its website. The report from Fox cited several topics that included pornographic materials, including one search for “nude children”, which led them to pictures of child pornography.
“We have had a problem with images being placed into inappropriate categories, so that viewers were exposed in unexpected ways to sexual content,” Jimmy Wales, President of the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia acknowledged in an open letter posted to the “sexual content” category. “Image categorization should be done in such a way that readers are not exposed unexpectedly to content that may be offensive.”

The purge began after Fox News began to contact donors to Wikimedia- donors that include Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Best Buy, and many more- to ask if they were aware of graphic and sexually explicit material on Wikipedia. Last week Fox revealed that Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger had been in contact with the FBI over his concerns of child pornography on the website. The FBI has not yet responded to the charges….Several categories that were deemed offensive have also been removed from the website. http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/wikipedia-purges-porn-following-reports-of-child-porn/

Other articles on Wikipedia:

Wikipedia – Bomis and online pornography http://www.childlaw.us/2010/04/congress-reacts-to-wikipedia-f.html http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/wikipedia-bomis-and-online-pornography-us-cardinal-ignored-pedophilic-priest/

problems with wikipedia http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/problems-with-wikipedia/

Wikipedophilia, Wikipedia child abuse misinformation http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/wikipedophilia-wikipedia-child-abuse-misinformation-clergy-abuse-suit/

ritual abuse pages blacklisted by wikipedia http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/ritualabuse-us-blacklisted-by-wikipedia/
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Bailey, Harry Richard (1922 – 1985) “extended narcotic induced comas”  studied with Cameron

After twelve months at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Bailey became a medical officer at Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic, Leichhardt, in 1952. That year he was appointed assistant-director of psychiatric clinical services in the Department of Public Health….From December 1954 he spent fifteen months on a World Health Organisation fellowship in the United States of America and Europe, closely observing the sedation techniques, psychosurgery and electroconvulsive therapy methods of Ewan Cameron in Canada, William Sargant in London and Lars Leksell in Sweden. On his recommendation, the Cerebral Surgery and Research Unit at Callan Park Mental Hospital was established in 1957. Bailey was named director. There he experimented with new ECT and psychosurgical methods, announcing significant developments in the successful treatment of mental illness….

In 1963 Bailey, with John Herron, and later Ian Gardiner and John Gill, began to treat patients at Chelmsford Private Hospital, Pennant Hills. There Bailey experimented with the combination of extended narcotic induced comas (deep sleep therapy) and ECT. Complications such as pneumonia, infections, dehydration, vomiting and respiratory problems were common. Within two years five patients had died as a result of this treatment. More deaths followed, although it was not until 1967 that a coronial inquest resulted. Impressed by Bailey’s medical reputation and his justification for his therapeutic regime, the coroner did not consider him culpable. Apart from private mutterings in psychiatric circles and occasional published criticisms of Bailey’s research, there were few efforts by the profession to control his methods. He continued to publish research papers on psychosurgery with reputable psychiatrists such as Cedric Swanton and John Dowling. By 1979, when Bailey’s Chelmsford practice closed, at least twenty-four patients had died, others had committed suicide and many survivors suffered physical and mental complications arising from their treatment.

The veil of professional repute that protected Bailey began to unravel. From 1972 a Chelmsford nurse, Rosa Nicholson, documented treatment irregularities; she passed this evidence to the Citizens Committee on Human Rights, a branch of the controversial Church of Scientology. In 1978 the committee wrote to the attorney-general detailing the evidence of medical malpractice, and newspapers began to report their allegations. That year the suicide of the dancer Sharon Hamilton, a patient and lover of Bailey, and revelations that he was the beneficiary of her estate, further undermined his reputation.
In 1980 the influential current affairs program `60 Minutes’ aired an episode on Chelmsford, containing details of the death of Miriam Podio in 1977. Five years later a coronial inquest into her death was held and in 1983 Bailey was charged with manslaughter. Although the charge was dismissed in 1985, the media siege was intense. Sick, tired, dispirited and facing years of litigation, on 8 September 1985 he drove to Mount White and parked on an isolated track. Next day police found him dead, the cause of death being barbiturate poisoning. from Stephen Garton, ‘Bailey, Harry Richard (1922 – 1985)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition 2006, ISSN 1833-7538, published by Australian National University  http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A170047b.htm

Danger Room  What’s Next in National Security – Chemical Concussions and Secret LSD: Pentagon Details Cold War Mind-Control Tests By Katie Drummond   May 11, 2010 More than 30 years after it was written, the Pentagon has released a memorandum detailing its involvement in the CIA’s infamous Cold War mind-control experiments. The 17-page document (.pdf) http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/02-A-0846RELEASE.pdf , “Experimentation Programs conducted by the Department of Defense That Had CIA Sponsorship or Participation and That Involved the Administration to Human Subjects of Drugs Intended for Mind-Control or Behavior-Modification Purposes,” was prepared in 1977 by the General Counsel of the Department of Defense and released on May 6 after a Freedom of Information Act request….

Take the origins of MK-ULTRA, the notorious CIA program that dosed thousands of unwitting participants with hallucinogenic drugs. Initially funded by the Navy, the project set out to study the effects of brain concussion. Soon after, scientists noted that a blow to the head prompted amnesia, leading to the pursuit of a drug-based technique to “induce brain concussion . without physical trauma.” Shortly thereafter, the project was transferred entirely to the CIA, because it involved “human experiments . not easily justifiable on medical-therapeutic grounds.”

Other programs, described briefly focused on mind control. MK-NAOMI was after “severely incapacitating and lethal materials . [and] gadgetry for their dissemination,” and MK-CHICKWIT was designed to “identify new drug developments in Europe and Asia,” and then “obtain samples.”

Edgewood Laboratories, where many of the programs were carried out, is also identified as having tested an incapacitating chemical on prisoners and military personnel without the agency’s approval. The drug, EA#3167, was “appl[ied] to the skin” of subjects using an adhesive tape.

Another program, MK-OFTEN, started as a study on dopamine. But the scope was soon expanded to evaluate ibogaine, a hallucinogen, and then several more drugs, in hopes of creating “new pharmacologically active drugs affecting the central nervous system [to] modify men’s behavior.”

And the Navy is reported to have “obtain[ed] heroin and marijuana” in an effort to develop speech-inducing drugs for use on defectors and prisoners of war. The drugs were eventually tested on 14 people: six volunteer research assistants, and eight unwitting Soviet defectors.

The report pins most of the nefarious activities on CIA-funded scientists. But that’s hardly the verdict of subsequent government documents, like a 1994 report from the U.S General Accounting Office. In that report, Pentagon officials are said to have “work[ed] directly with the CIA” and dosed “thousands” of military subjects with LSD and other drugs. Eyewitness accounts, like that of psychiatrist James Ketchum, describe outlandish Army efforts at creating hallucinogenic weapons in conjunction with MK-ULTRA.

And the Pentagon’s had plenty of experience in out-there mind control, even without CIA involvement. Troops have been dosed with LSD and cannabis oil,  and Pentagon officials were reportedly toying with the idea of psychic spies as recently as 2007.
Not surprisingly, the released report also doesn’t address darker questions that persist about the specifics of the CIA projects. Last year, a group of vets sued the agency for illnesses and trauma caused by the “diabolical and secret [MK-ULTRA] testing program,” which they allege included experiments with nerve gas, psychochemicals, and brain implants.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/05/chemical-concussions-and-secret-lsd-military-releases-cold-war-mind-control-report/

Teen Sold as Sex Slave on Craigslist – Experts say 100,000 children in the U.S. are sold for sex every day. KTLA News May 11, 2010 LOS ANGELES — According to Congressional estimates, every day in our country 100,000 children are being sold for sex. Enterprising pimps prey on young girls, and turn them into sex slaves. http://www.ktla.com/news/extras/ktla-sex-slaves-sweeps,0,3561067.story

Archbishop of Vienna accuses one of Pope’s closest aides of abuse cover-up From The Times May 10, 2010 Richard Owen, Rome

Open warfare broke out in the Vatican over the clerical sex abuse scandal at the weekend as Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, accused one of Pope Benedict XVI’s closest aides of covering up past scandals. Cardinal Schönborn, 65, seen as a possible future Pope, accused Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 82, the former Vatican Secretary of State (Prime Minister), of having blocked investigations into sex abuse crimes committed by his predecessor in Vienna, the late Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer. Http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7121062.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093