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Jan 17, 2008

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Gender: Female
Status: Married
Age: 41
Sign: Capricorn

City: Baltimore
State: Maryland
Country: US

Signup Date: 11/19/06

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Anne Bissell Revealing the link between domestic prostitution and international sex trafficking
Category: Life

September 13-15, 2005, Department of Justice Office of Legal Education, Executive Office for United States Attorneys, Obscenity Investigation and Prosecution Seminar. Anne Bissell, executive Director Voices for Justice/Sex Industry Survivors spoke on the connections between porn, prostitution and sexual violence against women in the sex industry. Talked about her book, "Memoirs of a Sex Industy Survivor," regarding the connection between early childhood exploitation, child porn, and young people deciding to enter the sex industry, or commercialized childhood sexual exploitation (csec).

2005-2006 Anne Bissell/Executive Director Voices for Justice/Sex Industry Survivors. Revealed the link between domestic prostitution and international sex trafficking. Formed 25 partnerships with the Dept. of Health and Human Services Rescue and Restore Campaign to fight against Human Trafficking. The parternships represented coalitions between Sex Industry Survivors (www.sexindustrysurv ivors.com 888 702 7273) and Rescue and Restore in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Nashville, New York City, Long Island, Miami, all cities which were considered hubs for trafficking.

Marie Waldrep

National Online Outreach Coordinator
Silver Braid - Survivors of Sexual Exploitation
Metro Atlanta Area www.thesilverbraid. org
Email: thesilverbraidatl@ yahoo.com

Anne Bissell/Executive Director

Email: sisasurvive@ yahoo.com

http://www.vfjnw. org,

We will email you our meeting formats

12:52 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

USA-Florida: Brothel bus busted in Miami
Category: Life

Brothel bus busted in Miami

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The wheels on one bus stopped going round and round after an undercover Miami Beach detective charged the occupants with using it as a brothel-on-wheels, The Miami Herald reports.

The operators charged $40 admission and offered passengers a fully stocked bar, lap dances and sex acts for an additional fee.

Christine Morteh, 29, who police say was operating the business, has been charged with engaging in, directing others to and deriving support from prostitution, in addition to operating a business without a license.

The unidentified undercover officer tells the Herald the bus was carpeted in cash.

The arrests were part of a city-wide crack down on prostitution over the weekend.

(Screen grab from WFOR-TV.)

(This posting was written by USA TODAY's Gwen Purdom.)

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USA: 300 child prostitution suspects arrested, 433 victims recovered
Category: Life

300 Child Prostitution Suspects Arrested, 433 Victims Recovered

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

WASHINGTON The FBI said Wednesday that 300 people were arrested and 433 young victims recovered in a round-up of child prostitution suspects.

"The mission of the 'Innocence Lost' national initiative is to combat the growing problem of sexual exploitation of children through prostitution," said Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller in making the announcement at headquarters.

Among those arrested are pimps and prostitutes some of whom are in their 20s but are said to have admitted selling sex since their early teens, federal law enforcement sources told FOX News.

The raids took place in run-down neighborhoods and interstate truck stops in cities across the country, the sources said. The vast majority of those arrested will be charged under state and local statutes.

The FBI was touting the fifth year of its child protection program with the news of the multitude of arrests that stemmed from "Operation Cross Country" launched late last week in 16 large and medium-sized cities including Dallas, Boston and Rockville, Md., among others.

Mueller was joined by Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in speaking about the program and the round-up at Wednesday's press conference in Washington.

FOX News' Catherine Donaldson-Evans and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

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USA: Hundreds seized in sweep against child prostitution
Category: Life

Hundreds Seized in Sweep Against Child Prostitution

By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: June 26, 2008
New York Times

Twenty-one sexually exploited children have been saved from the streets, and 389 people arrested on charges of trafficking children for prostitution, in what the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls the largest such multistate sweep ever, officials said Wednesday.

The five-day operation, this week and last, spanned 16 cities and involved hundreds of local, state and federal agencies in the work of rescuing missing children, many of them runaways, and identifying networks behind domestic child trafficking for the sex trade.

The sweep was part of an annual roundup to draw attention to the issue. It marked the fifth anniversary of the Innocence Lost National Initiative, which was undertaken by the F.B.I. to address child prostitution and has led to the conviction of 308 people on a variety of federal and state charges. In all, 433 exploited children have been rescued as a result of the initiative, federal officials said. [Why the discrepancy between 21 victims in the first sentence and 433 in the 3rd paragraph? - Donna]

But the rising popularity of Internet-based communication has made it easier for predators both to reach potential victims and to advertise victims to clients.

"The sex trafficking of children remains one of the most violent and unforgivable crimes," Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, said at a news conference at the bureau's headquarters in Washington. "What is different as we stand here today is that we are faced with the increasing use of social network sites and other advances in technology to carry out these crimes and facilitate these criminal enterprises."

Ernie Allen, president and chief executive of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a partner in the sweep, said child prostitution was a kind of modern slavery.

"Child trafficking for the purpose of prostitution is organized criminal activity using kids as commodities for sale and trade," Mr. Allen said at the news conference. "These kids are victims. They lack the ability to walk away."

The sweep was coordinated by the Crimes Against Children Unit of the F.B.I. The operation focused on truck stops, motels, casinos and various Internet sites.

One of the 16 cities that were targets of the sweep was Detroit. Sandra Berchtold, the spokeswoman for the bureau's office there, said investigators in Michigan saw girls as young as 12 forced into the sex trade after being abducted or falsely recruited for what they thought were modeling, dancing or acting jobs.

"Generally we see the leaders of prostitution rings recruiting the individuals," Ms. Berchtold said. "A lot of times the individuals come from broken homes. At a certain point, they seem to accept their lives. They've been out there for years. The subculture brought them in, trained them and made them believe there's nothing else."

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USA: 345 arrested, kids rescued in prostitution busts
Category: Life

[Note the section of this news story where it says that a pimp went free because a 14 year old victim would not testify against him. This is one of the reasons we are trying to change the sex trafficking law. We were successful in getting it passed through the U.S. House 205 to 2, but now Senator Biden has stripped all the important provisions from it claiming that "women's groups" don't want the law changed. The fact is the Wilberforce Act as passed by the House will make it easier to convict pimps and sex traffickers. - Donna]

345 arrested, kids rescued in prostitution busts

AP OnlineWednesday, June 25, 2008 7:11:00 PM

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hundreds of people have been arrested and 21
children rescued in what the FBI is calling a five-day roundup of
networks of pimps who force children into prostitution.

   The Justice Department says it targeted 16 cities as part of its
"Operation Cross Country" that caps off five years of similar
stings nationwide.

   Many of the children forced into prostitution are either
runaways or what authorities call "thrown-aways" -- kids whose
families have shunned them. Officials say they are preyed upon by
organized networks of pimps who lure them in with shelter or drugs,
then often beat, starve or otherwise abuse them until the children
agree to work the streets.

   "We together have no higher calling than to protect our
children and to safeguard their innocence," FBI Director Robert
Mueller said Wednesday. "Yet the sex trafficking of children
remains one of the most violent and unforgivable crimes in this
country."

   In all, authorities arrested 345 people -- including 290 adult
prostitutes -- during the operation that ended this week. Since
2003, 308 pimps and hookers have been convicted in state and
federal courts of forcing youngsters into prostitution, and 433
child victims have been rescued, Mueller said.

   The cities targeted in this week's sting are: Atlanta; Boston;
Dallas; Detroit; Houston; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; Montgomery
County, Md.; Oakland, Calif.; Phoenix; Reno, Nev.; Sacramento,
Calif.; Tampa; Toledo, Ohio and Washington.

   The problem of child prostitution has taken on a new urgency in
recent years with the growth of online networks where pimps
advertise the youngsters to clients. The FBI generally investigates
child prostitution cases that cross state lines.

The cases aren't easy to convict.
   In April 2006, for example, charges against a Nevada man
resulted in a hung jury after his 14-year-old victim refused to
testify against him. Months later, however, a second jury found
Juan Rico Doss of Reno, Nev., guilty of forcing two girls -- ages 14
and 16 -- to sell sex in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and
Oakland.

   A University of Pennsylvania study estimates nearly 300,000
children in the United States are at risk of being sexually
exploited for commercial uses -- "most of them runaways or
thrown-aways," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children.

   "These kids are victims. This is 21st century slavery," Allen
said. "They lack the ability to walk away."
   ------
   On the Net:
   National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tipline:
http://www.cybertipline.com/