Pentagon has yet to ban contractors from using forced labor
By Cam Simpson
Washington BureauDecember 27, 2005
WASHINGTON- Three years ago, President Bush declared that he had ‘zero tolerance’ for trafficking in humans by the government’s overseas contractors, and two years ago Congress mandated a similar policy.
But notwithstanding the president’s statement and the congressional edict, the Defense Department has yet to adopt a policy to bar human trafficking.
A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking, forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five defense lobbying groups oppose key provisions and a final policy still appears to be months away, according to those involved and Defense Department records.
The lobbying groups opposing the plan say they’re in favor of the idea in principle, but said they believe that implementing key portions of it overseas is unrealistic. They represent thousands of firms, including some of the industry’s biggest names,………
Names that I won’t even mention. Scary. Click the link and read the whole article, if you want.
Now, these ‘firms’ are actually corporations, and United States law recognizes corporations under a doctrine of ‘corporate personhood’, which gives said corporations many of the rights and obligations of individual citizens.
That said, what individual citizen who was caught buying little girls around the age of 14 while under the government’s employ would EVER get another government job - let alone ANY job, period?
Answer: NONE
Furthermore, what individual citizen could OPENLY DEFY the DIRECT WISHES of THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES and THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS and STILL stay in business?
Answer: NONE
So, what happens to a ‘corporate citizen’ when they break the laws of the land in the most egregious way possible, and top it off by paying lobbyists to defy both THE PRESIDENT himself and THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS?
Answer: As many no-bid, open-end contracts as you can handle, baby!!!
“In a joint memo of their own, Mendelson and another Washington-based expert, Martina Vandenberg, a lawyer who investigated sex trafficking for Human Rights Watch, told the Pentagon its draft policy ‘institutionalizes ineffective procedures currently used by the Department of Defense contractor community in handling allegations of human trafficking.’
Without tough provisions requiring referrals to prosecutors, they said, contractors could still get their employees on planes back to the U.S. before investigations commenced, as they allege happened in several documented cases in the Balkans. They said some local contract managers even had ’special arrangements’ with police in the Balkans that allowed them to quickly get employees returned to the U.S. if they were found to be engaged in illegal activities.
how does someone not get sold if that is what is expected of them. how does a person leave once they have been sold and are at their new place.
Jen | 10/07/2006, 20:21 [ Reply ]