'The Sound Of Freedom' - Child Sex Trafficking

[Gondwanaland]

Not sure about Wayfair being accused (although it sounds vaguely familiar), but as for IKEA


Mom's warning about "human trafficking" at IKEA goes viral; what you need to know

The IKEA Child Sex Trafficking Story Is Fake News

This Mom Claims She Encountered Human Traffickers At IKEA And People Are Freaking Out

Are the IKEA Mom's Claims of Human Trafficking Legit?

Ah... It was Wayfair as well

Wayfair: The false conspiracy about a furniture firm and child trafficking

Yeah, IKEA had the woman with weirdos stalking her in the story (or so she said). Wayfair was the one with the 'codes' on their furniture that looked like human names, and then had prices in the tens of thousands for furniture, which was taken as evidence that they were selling kids and teens.

[Starlight]

Before it bizarrely became a Qanon conspiracy theory to them, it used to be an actual global problem reported by the left...

Indeed, it's been viewed as a problem by the left for decades, and the left has consistently increased the penalties for it in many countries and pushed for better investigations and reporting of it. That nasty leftist UN has been consistently investigating and reporting on the issue.

What's weird, is the US far right, who didn't seem to be all that interested in the topic for many decades, has become suddenly so hyper-focused on it that they are even hallucinating it when it's not present (e.g. that Hillary Clinton's election team ordering pizzas meant they were operating a child sex slavery ring out of a pizza shop). The US far right's sudden swing from a lack of interest in the topic to of over-the-top obsession with the topic and conspiracies about it, comes across as mentally unhinged. It seems to be some sort of fad on the part of the right to focus on this topic, and they combine that with obsessive behavior about it.

It's weird: If they actually thought it was immoral like the left does, why haven't they being against it for decades like the left has? And assuming the right has changed their morality on a dime and now agrees with the left that it's a bad thing, why have they gone so over the top about it, as if it's suddenly the One Single Great Bad Thing that happens in the world and other moral evils are barely worth mentioning? That's not a rational approach and the hyperfocus speaks to some sort of pathology. It has all the trappings of a "Moral Panic", being such a sudden over the top interest in the topic.

I've got to suspect it has a connection to so many right wing and Christian groups and people who have been repeatedly revealed in the last couple of decades to have been involved in sexual molestation of children. All the reports coming out year after year finding that so many hundreds or thousands of authority figures in the Catholic Church, and in other churches, to have sexually abused children. The revelations of so many prominent Republican politicians to have done so, etc. Possibly a push to clean house in all these right-wing and conservative groups, after their crimes were uncovered, has led to a swath of new people coming to power in right-wing and conservative groups who are anti-it and determined to root it out? Perhaps there's a strong bit of projection of "well if My group was doing it, then Everyone Else must be doing it, right? Right?"

Perhaps some of the conservatives and right-wingers here could share why their interest in this topic has gone up recently by so many orders of magnitude? I have been browsing TWeb, a mainly right-wing mainly-conservative forum for over a decade, and would have said we got about one new thread on the topic per year... now we seem to get about one per week. So what do you guys think is the reason for your sudden high degree of interest in the topic?

[Gondwanaland]

Indeed, it's been viewed as a problem by the left for decades,

Has it?

and the left has consistently increased the penalties for it in many countries and pushed for better investigations and reporting of it.

O RLY? https://abc7news.com/ca-loitering-la...kers/12910562/

That nasty leftist UN has been consistently investigating and reporting on the issue.

Ahem:
https://apnews.com/article/africa-ar...d4f57d77f535c1

AP Exclusive: UN child sex ring left victims but no arrests



In the ruins of a tropical hideaway where jetsetters once sipped rum under the Caribbean sun, the abandoned children tried to make a life for themselves. They begged and scavenged for food, but they never could scrape together enough to beat back the hunger, until the U.N. peacekeepers moved in a few blocks away.

The men who came from a far-away place and spoke a strange language offered the Haitian children cookies and other snacks. Sometimes they gave them a few dollars. But the price was high: The Sri Lankan peacekeepers wanted sex from girls and boys as young as 12.

“I did not even have breasts,” said a girl, known as V01 — Victim No. 1. She told U.N. investigators that over the next three years, from ages 12 to 15, she had sex with nearly 50 peacekeepers, including a “Commandant” who gave her 75 cents. Sometimes she slept in U.N. trucks on the base next to the decaying resort, whose once-glamorous buildings were being overtaken by jungle.

Justice for victims like V01 is rare. An Associated Press investigation of U.N. missions during the past 12 years found nearly 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and other personnel around the world — signaling the crisis is much larger than previously known. More than 300 of the allegations involved children, the AP found, but only a fraction of the alleged perpetrators served jail time.

Legally, the U.N. is in a bind. It has no jurisdiction over peacekeepers, leaving punishment to the countries that contribute the troops.

The AP interviewed alleged victims, current and former U.N. officials and investigators and sought answers from 23 countries on the number of peacekeepers who faced such allegations and, what if anything, was done to investigate. With rare exceptions, few nations responded to repeated requests, while the names of those found guilty are kept confidential, making accountability impossible to determine.

Without agreement for widespread reform and accountability from the U.N.'s member states, solutions remain elusive.

Here in Haiti, at least 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers exploited nine children in a sex ring from 2004 to 2007, according to an internal U.N. report obtained by the AP. In the wake of the report, 114 peacekeepers were sent home. None was ever imprisoned.

In March, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced new measures to tackle sexual abuse and exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers and other personnel. But the proclamation had a depressingly familiar ring: More than a decade ago, the United Nations commissioned a report that promised to do much the same thing, yet most of the reforms never materialized.


For a full two years after those promises were made, the children in Haiti were passed around from soldier to soldier. And in the years since, peacekeepers have been accused of sexual abuse the world over.

In response to the AP’s investigation, the U.N.'s head of field support said Wednesday the international body was aware of shortcomings in the system.

“We believe we are advancing in the right direction, especially with the secretary-general’s new approach,” said Atul Khare who heads the U.N. department in charge of peacekeeper discipline and conduct. “Improving the assistance provided to victims, who are at the heart of our response, is fundamental.”

Khare also said the organization was working with member states to hold perpetrators to account.

In one particularly grim case in Haiti, a teenage boy said he was gang-raped in 2011 by Uruguayan peacekeepers who filmed the alleged assault on a cellphone. Dozens of Haitian women also say they were raped, and dozens more had what is euphemistically called “survival sex” in a country where most people live on less than $2.50 a day, the AP found.

Haitian lawyer Mario Joseph has been trying to get compensation for victims of a deadly cholera strain linked to Nepalese peacekeepers that killed an estimated 10,000 people. Now, he is also trying to get child support for about a dozen Haitian women left pregnant by peacekeepers.
“Imagine if the U.N. was going to the United States and raping children and bringing cholera,” Joseph said in Port-au-Prince. “Human rights aren’t just for rich white people.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker agrees. The Tennessee Republican, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been calling for reforms in the United Nations. He may well get them under President Donald Trump, whose administration has proposed a 31 percent reduction to the U.S. foreign aid and diplomacy budget. Corker and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley want a review of all missions.

Corker recalled his disgust at hearing of the U.N. sexual abuse cases uncovered last year in Central African Republic.

“If I heard that a U.N. peacekeeping mission was coming near my home in Chattanooga,” he told AP, “I’d be on the first plane out of here to go back and protect my family.”

[Gondwanaland]

Has it?

O RLY? https://abc7news.com/ca-loitering-la...kers/12910562/

Ahem:
https://apnews.com/article/africa-ar...d4f57d77f535c1

Oops.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/world...ntl/index.html

UN finds ‘credible evidence’ of sexual abuses by peacekeepers in Central African Republic


The United Nations will send home a unit of 60 Tanzanian peacekeepers over allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in the Central African Republic, the UN announced on Friday.

A preliminary investigation found “credible evidence” that eleven members of the unit were involved in sexual exploitation and abuse of four victims, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Two of the alleged victims are children, according to UN figures.

Investigators also identified a breakdown in commanders’ authority and management of staff, according to a press release by the UN’s mission in the country.

The victims have received care from humanitarian groups working with the UN, according to their “medical, psychosocial and protection” needs, it said.

The UN has had a mission in the conflict-torn Central African Republic since 2014, where thousands of peacekeepers have been deployed.

The eleven suspects had been working at a temporary base in the west of the country. The Tanzanian unit has now been relocated to another base and its members confined to the barracks.

“The unit will be repatriated once their presence is no longer required by the investigation,” Dujarric said.

Tanzanian authorities have also dispatched investigation officers to the Central African Republic.

There have been allegations of sexual abuse or exploitation against Tanzanian peacekeepers – largely in the Democratic Republic of Congo – every year since at least 2015, UN figures show.

[rogue06]

Oops.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/world...ntl/index.html

For a long time sexual abuser and U.N. Peacekeeper were nearly synonymous in many regions of the world

[Starlight]

Let's use the example of 'murder' as the crime to illustrate how this obsession comes across to normal people...

You guys: "We've decided to be really against murder"
Normal people: "Ok. Everyone is."
You guys: "Yeah but we're actually really against it."
Normal people: ~roll eyes~ "Of course."
You guys: "We think it's the Worst Crime In the World, it's the taking of a life."
Normal people: "Yeah, it is harshly punished in the justice system."
You guys: "We're going to obsessively follow all reports of it worldwide and really dig into the details of case."
Normal people: "Everyone needs a hobby. Personally I like following sports. But you do you."
You guys: "We're going to form groups discussing the topic and really focusing on it."
Normal people: "Well sounds like it's social at least, that's kind of a good thing, though the topic sounds a bit morbid."
You guys: "This is our great Moral Crusade, our doing this is going to cleanse society."
Normal people: "Um... you realize that personally obsessing over it isn't going to achieve anything other than your personal enjoyment?"
You guys: "I'm going to post about it lots on the internet."
Normal people: "Ok, everyone needs a hobby."
You guys: "My internet posting is going to change the world. It's going to fix the problem."
Normal people: "Of course it isn't. But it's amusing you think that along with everyone else who writes passionate internet posts."
You guys: "Only we are against murder. Everyone else is complicit. The police aren't even investigating it."
Normal people: ??? "You realize you're reading police reports right? Of course they are investing it. You realize you can look up stats about the number of prosecutions of it right?"
You guys: "Nope, only we are the ones standing against this, nobody else is doing anything."
Normal people: ??? "The police have been prosecuting murderers for many decades."
You guys: "Nope, only we're doing anything."
Normal people: ??? "You know you're not actually doing anything, just getting yourselves worked up?"
You guys: "Nope, we're totally fixing the world on our great moral crusade."
Normal people: ??? "How exactly."
You guys: "By getting ourselves really worked up about it."
Normal people: "...sigh."

[Gondwanaland]

Let's use the example of 'murder' as the crime to illustrate how this obsession comes across to normal people...

You guys: "We've decided to be really against murder"
Normal people: "Ok. Everyone is."
You guys: "Yeah but we're actually really against it."
Normal people: ~roll eyes~ "Of course."
You guys: "We think it's the Worst Crime In the World, it's the taking of a life."
Normal people: "Yeah, it is harshly punished in the justice system."
You guys: "We're going to obsessively follow all reports of it worldwide and really dig into the details of case."
Normal people: "Everyone needs a hobby. Personally I like following sports. But you do you."
You guys: "We're going to form groups discussing the topic and really focusing on it."
Normal people: "Well sounds like it's social at least, that's kind of a good thing, though the topic sounds a bit morbid."
You guys: "This is our great Moral Crusade, our doing this is going to cleanse society."
Normal people: "Um... you realize that personally obsessing over it isn't going to achieve anything other than your personal enjoyment?"
You guys: "I'm going to post about it lots on the internet."
Normal people: "Ok, everyone needs a hobby."
You guys: "My internet posting is going to change the world. It's going to fix the problem."
Normal people: "Of course it isn't. But it's amusing you think that along with everyone else who writes passionate internet posts."
You guys: "Only we are against murder. Everyone else is complicit. The police aren't even investigating it."
Normal people: ??? "You realize you're reading police reports right? Of course they are investing it. You realize you can look up stats about the number of prosecutions of it right?"
You guys: "Nope, only we are the ones standing against this, nobody else is doing anything."
Normal people: ??? "The police have been prosecuting murderers for many decades."
You guys: "Nope, only we're doing anything."
Normal people: ??? "You know you're not actually doing anything, just getting yourselves worked up?"
You guys: "Nope, we're totally fixing the world on our great moral crusade."
Normal people: ??? "How exactly."
You guys: "By getting ourselves really worked up about it."
Normal people: "...sigh."

TLDR
Sounds like you're trying desperately to handwave away your fellow leftists defense and downplaying of child trafficking, especially after your UN nonsense got demolished.

[Starlight]

Legally, the U.N. is in a bind. It has no jurisdiction over peacekeepers, leaving punishment to the countries that contribute the troops.

As your quoted piece says, the inherent problem that the UN has a tendency to run into, time and again since its founding, is that it has no meaningful power as an organization. It has no military. Peacekeeping troops are contributed by member states at will. The UN can report their wrongdoings to those member states all it likes, but the worst it can do directly, is send them home. It is up to the member states to prosecute and discipline their own troops in response to the information the UN gives them about the wrongdoings, because the UN itself does not have courts nor prisons. Most member states probably would take action if their soldiers got send home with information about serious crimes they'd committed. But some nations don't. The US, for example, doesn't exactly have a great record of taking action when its troops commit crimes in foreign countries.

You seem to be generally confusing different parts of the UN that do different things too. UN peacekeeping operations are authorized by a vote by multiple countries in the UN assembly, and then troops from multiple countries are deployed to the location to keep the peace. Some of those troops, can individually commit crimes. If the UN finds out it sends them home and reports the issue to their home country for potential discipline. Note that such troops are not UN employees and the UN's control over them is extremely limited. Completely and entirely separate to that, are UN departments that contain UN employees that perform various tasks (e.g. similar to US federal government departments). One of those UN departments is the UNODC (UN Office on Drugs and Crime) which contains UN employees who would investigate and report on crimes. Your sources do no seem to be alleging any problem with UN employees or UN departments in general, all the articles say the problem is with Peacekeeping forces who are being temporarily contributed by various countries but remain under the authority of the military of their countries of origin, not the UN.

[Starlight]

For a long time sexual abuser and Roman Catholic Priest were nearly synonymous in many regions of the world

Fixed that for you.

[Starlight]

TLDR

"Mummy, I have my hands over my ears so I can't hear what the bad man is saying".
What a loser!

[Mountain Man]

"Mummy, I have my hands over my ears so I can't hear what the bad man is saying".
What a loser!

I don't think you're bad. I just think you're an idiot.

[Gondwanaland]

As your quoted piece says, the inherent problem that the UN has a tendency to run into, time and again since its founding, is that it has no meaningful power as an organization. It has no military. Peacekeeping troops are contributed by member states at will. The UN can report their wrongdoings to those member states all it likes, but the worst it can do directly, is send them home. It is up to the member states to prosecute and discipline their own troops in response to the information the UN gives them about the wrongdoings, because the UN itself does not have courts nor prisons. Most member states probably would take action if their soldiers got send home with information about serious crimes they'd committed. But some nations don't. The US, for example, doesn't exactly have a great record of taking action when its troops commit crimes in foreign countries.

You seem to be generally confusing different parts of the UN that do different things too. UN peacekeeping operations are authorized by a vote by multiple countries in the UN assembly, and then troops from multiple countries are deployed to the location to keep the peace. Some of those troops, can individually commit crimes. If the UN finds out it sends them home and reports the issue to their home country for potential discipline. Note that such troops are not UN employees and the UN's control over them is extremely limited. Completely and entirely separate to that, are UN departments that contain UN employees that perform various tasks (e.g. similar to US federal government departments). One of those UN departments is the UNODC (UN Office on Drugs and Crime) which contains UN employees who would investigate and report on crimes. Your sources do no seem to be alleging any problem with UN employees or UN departments in general, all the articles say the problem is with Peacekeeping forces who are being temporarily contributed by various countries but remain under the authority of the military of their countries of origin, not the UN.

It has 'no meaninful power' yet you just had gotten done proclaiming what wonderful things the UN has done about child trafficking. It has 'no meaningful power' but its very own peacekeepers are molesting children, selling them, etc., all around the world. You don't seem to grasp how absurd your arguments are.

[Gondwanaland]

"Mummy, I have my hands over my ears so I can't hear what the bad man is saying".
What a loser!

No, just not interested in your longwinded wall of text trying to justify your fellow libtards and their downplaying of child trafficking.

[Starlight]

It has 'no meaninful power' yet you just had gotten done proclaiming what wonderful things the UN has done about child trafficking. It has 'no meaningful power' but its very own peacekeepers are molesting children, selling them, etc., all around the world. You don't seem to grasp how absurd your arguments are.

You just seem to be really fundamentally ignorant with regard to the different parts of the UN.

If I say "The US government regularly prosecutes criminals", that is a true statement. The US government has entire departments focused on prosecuting criminals. You responding "But sometimes US military contractors commit crimes" isn't a relevant response. It would show you didn't really understand the difference between the FBI and Blackwater, or between the concept of having departments investigating crimes and unrelated individuals committing them.

The US government having an entire bureaucracy dedicated to crime fighting, isn't somehow negated because the military has a 3rd party contractor who does something bad. In the same way, the UN having a bureaucracy that investigates and reports on global child trafficking isn't somehow negated because UN military deployments use 3rd party contractors who sometimes commit crimes. Your level of ignorance seems pretty total.

[Gondwanaland]

You just seem to be really fundamentally ignorant with regard to the different parts of the UN.

If I say "The US government regularly prosecutes criminals", that is a true statement. The US government has entire departments focused on prosecuting criminals. You responding "But sometimes US military contractors commit crimes" isn't a relevant response. It would show you didn't really understand the difference between the FBI and Blackwater, or between the concept of having departments investigating crimes and unrelated individuals committing them.

The US government having an entire bureaucracy dedicated to crime fighting, isn't somehow negated because the military has a 3rd party contractor who does something bad. In the same way, the UN having a bureaucracy that investigates and reports on global child trafficking isn't somehow negated because UN military deployments use 3rd party contractors who sometimes commit crimes. Your level of ignorance seems pretty total.

I understand, you decided to say it with your whole chest and thought you had a gotcha with your UN dig, and didn't realized just how much the UN is involved in child sex abuse and trafficking, and now are trying to backpedal (and it's more than just their peacekeepers). And not a single person has been held accountable, as far as I can tell. Not one.