Despite Allegations, No Prosecutions for War Zone Sex Trafficking

[demoleft]

Eight years ago, President George W. Bush issued a stern policy on sex trafficking in war zones — a policy that remains on the books to this day. With government contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan sometimes exceeding the number of U.S. troops, Bush vowed to prosecute employees and suspend or disqualify companies engaging in the trafficking of women.

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But officials say these cases have proven difficult to pursue. The State Department reported recently that allegations of contractor employees procuring commercial sex acts were “well publicized,” but no contractors have been prosecuted and no contracts terminated.

In another allegation, a former Blackwater guard said that he saw colleagues and American soldiers paying Iraqi girls for sex acts. The allegations were contained in an anonymous sworn statement submitted as evidence in a lawsuit filed last summer in the Eastern District of Virginia, alleging wrongful death and other abuses on behalf of families of Iraqi victims. The sworn statement was withdrawn by the Iraqi families, and the suit was subsequently settled in January.

The former guard, who asked that the Center and The Post not publish his name out of concern for his safety, said a cluster of children would occasionally gather around Americans near a hospital inside the Green Zone in 2005. The guard said he saw older boys collect the dollar bills while Iraqi girls, some as young as 12 and 13, stood behind pillars or storefront corners and performed oral sex for each customer.

source: http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2231/

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R