Beyond The Horizon
ICYMI: Human Trafficking As A National Security Issue
In a report from the CFR dealing with human trafficking, we take a look at how the problem can be framed as a national security threat and what the report says about the problem overall.
In this episode, we dive in.
(Commercial at 10:12)
To contact me:
bobbycapucci@protonmail.com
Source:
https://thecrimereport.org/2021/06/16/human-trafficking-poses-strategic-threat-to-u-s-national-security-report/
- Duration:
- 23m
- Broadcast on:
- 15 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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And I don't think that's hyperbole, right? I really believe that human trafficking certainly does pose a national security risk. There are so many inherent risks that come with human trafficking. And I'm not even talking about the basic human rights. So yes, I think it should be looked at as a national security risk. And unfortunately, we all know in the United States of America, if you want something to be moved forward, if you want an issue to be taken up, all you have to do is position it as a national security issue. And then the war hawks will start circling. And if you really wanted to catch fire, make sure that there's a way for these people to profit from it. That's their favorite thing to do, right? The industrial war complex machine, all they want to do is profit. They don't care about murder. They don't care about human casualties. They don't care about any of that. So if you can position something as a national security threat, then chances are you'll get all the warmongers on board. So for once, just this once, maybe that'll work in our favor, right? Human trafficking poses a growing threat to US national security, says the council on foreign relations. In a special report released this week, the council called on President Joe Biden's administration to step up existing anti-trafficking efforts to curb a global practice that reaps an estimated 150 billion with a B for traffickers, making it one of the world's most profitable crimes. But yet, we have a war on drugs, right? A war on drugs. Where people are getting their houses seized, moms are getting their houses seized because their sons supposedly are drug dealers. But yet, there's no war on human trafficking. There's no war on modern day slavery. Well, how could there be a war on something? When the very people that are in charge of making sure people who do things like this are prosecuted and put away forever? Well, how can there be a war when those very people are protecting the scumbags? And I'm not saying directly, right? Oh, well, this person shouldn't go to jail. And if you... That's all I'm saying. I'm saying, by the way, they write the laws. All of the BS technicalities, all of the BS loopholes, all of the nonsense to navigate that you and your public defender most certainly have no chance of overcoming those laws. Not only is human trafficking a grave violation of human rights, but it also poses a strategic threat to U.S. interests and national security by bankrolling operations for transnational crime syndicates and extremist groups, said the report written by Jamil Bijio and Rachel B Vogelstein. Well, I, you know, I'm not an expert on extremist groups, but I certainly know for a fact that human trafficking is a huge deal for the cartels. The cartels are all over it. They're making money hand over fist. Well, you don't think they're pressing everybody who's involved? You have the coyote, you have the person who's being smuggled. Everybody involved is being pressed by the cartel. And everybody is paying the pistol. Everyone's paying the tax. Do you understand? Everybody. If you're moving somebody as far as a human being north of the border from Mexico, you are paying the cartel their piece, their wedding, their beak guaranteed. So yeah, human trafficking at the border is a problem. All right. And miss me with all the, oh, well, that's a trumper statement. No, it's fact, okay? Human trafficking's always been a problem at the border. And if there's no regulations and it's just a free for all, it's going to be even more of a problem. So this whole situation with the cartels, especially bringing people over the border and then launching them into indentured servitude to pay off a quote unquote debt is a big time problem and a big time earner for the cartels. If you ended prohibition today and crack down on human trafficking tomorrow, the cartels would be out of business by next month. And that's not hyperbole. Trafficking practices ranging from forced labor migration to sexual exploitation of women undermine economic growth and impede sustainable development by retarding human potential, the authors said. Now, obviously you have to take anything that the Council on Foreign Relations says with a grain of salt. We know that that institution is populated by scuss balls. No doubt about that. But a broken clock is right twice a day even. And in this instance, they're definitely right. Because the situation with human trafficking into America, and not just from Mexico, by the way, I don't want to seem like I'm just picking on Mexico, we see this a lot from Asia as well and some parts of Europe, Eastern Europe, especially. Where the girls come in, they're brought to America and promised these big promises, these dreams of success and, you know, hunting down all of their goals and aspirations. And then they come to America and they realize they have to work off this debt. And they're getting pennies on the dollar and they're forced into prostitution and all kinds of unseemly acts. And this goes on and on and on and on again. You have the triads, you have the yakuza, you have the cartels, you have various Eastern European gangs and the ban plays on folks and most of us stay ignorant to what occurs. All because the fourth estate, the fourth estate, the legacy media, well, you already know what I'm going to say. I don't have to talk about it much more, do I? We all know how corrupt they are and how they're integral in the fracturing of America. Whereas we should all be rallying around issues such as this, stopping human trafficking, bringing down people like Epstein, instead, they have us all at each other's throats over nonsense. According to the International Labor Organization, the ILO, there are 25 million victims of forced labor in sexual exploitation worldwide. But this is likely an underestimate, says the report, noting that only a small fraction of the victims are reported to authorities. Now think about that for a minute, folks. 25 million on the short end, and you know, it's probably double that 50 million people. 25 million people. One person living in servitude in the year 2021 is unacceptable. Never mind 25 million. Where's the outrage? Where's the war on that? The US and its allies have sponsored a series of measures over the past two decades to combat the trade, including the Palermo Protocol, a supplement to the United Nations Convention against transnational organized crime, and the Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act enacted in 2000. So it's fitting that they would call it the Palermo Protocol, considering the hotspot that it is down there, unfortunately, when it comes to human trafficking. It's a big transit point, right? You have a big transit point from Africa to Europe through Italy. You know, you have, you have Corsico, you have Sardinia, you have Sicily, and then, of course, to the bottom of the boot, and it is a big place where people are brought in and trafficked. You know, then they're dispersed throughout the European Union, unfortunately. And frankly, in my humble opinion, we're wasting so many resources to go after an unwinnable war, and that war is the war on drugs while we're ignoring this, basically. Look, I don't take lightly to anybody in slavery, all right? No human being ever should be in bondage. Now, in the past, in the future, ever. And the fact that it's going on at such a clip, these days modern right here before our eyes, and we're not all rallying together against it is, it's very frustrating to me, very, very frustrating to me. Because it's rather obvious that this is a huge problem, folks, and it needs to be addressed. When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers, where you'll find over 30,000 mouth-watering choices that excite your inner foodie. And no matter what tasty choice you make, you'll enjoy our everyday low prices, plus extra ways to save, like digital coupons worth over $600 each week. You can also save up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with fuel points. More savings and more inspiring flavors make shopping king supers worth it every time. King supers, fresh for everyone, fuel restrictions apply. This is the story of the one. 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And it's not just one state. It's not just one country. This is an international issue. And there needs to be international cooperation. Victims of trafficking are used in many capacities from combatants and spies to cooks and messengers, said the report. For example, in Mexico, several large trafficking syndicates have split into smaller groups to focus on particular types of crime, ranging from the illicit narcotics trade to the smuggling of would-be immigrants rendering them more resistant to enforcement efforts. So kind of what I touched on a second ago. That's what the cartels will do, right? And they have specialized groups that focus on bringing people across the border for sex work, bringing people across the border for slavery work as far as migrant work or whatever it may be. And then you have the narco-traffickers. Those are the people that are bringing in the weight. And a lot of that was really enabled when NAFTA was put into place. Now I'm not going to go too far into that here on the Jeffrey Epstein show because it's really not pertinent to what we talk about. But if you're interested in that, definitely head over to Life as a mosh pit where I go into more detail about the war on drugs. In the economics sphere, human trafficking undermines the stability of global financial systems by fueling illegal and unregulated markets, putting legally compliant private sector actors at a disadvantage, and eliminating tax revenue from the government, said the report. All of this stuff we have touched on. And it's a big fact. It's another way that they're able to move their dark money around. And the sad part is, this time when we're talking about them moving money around, when we're talking about assets, we're talking about actual human beings. And it's not some joke. It's not some conspiracy theory. It's not some wild, make pretend scenario. This is happening on a daily basis. There are actual, open air slave markets where human beings are being sold in Libya, folks. And most of them are sub-Saharan Africans. The White House has announced new anti-trafficking measures as part of its efforts to curb the flow of undocumented immigrants to the US. But the report argues it needs to do much more. Look, I get it, right? I'm not going to get into an immigration debate here on this podcast. But they definitely need to do more, okay? The anti-trafficking efforts. It can't just be on undocumented workers, right? It has to be wide ranging and far reaching. The United States has the money that Democrats have all of the power. The question is, do they have the will? The offer is authored a multi-pronged set of recommendations for what they described as the 21st century approach to fight against human trafficking. The recommendations included, expand the US National Action Plan announced by the previous administration in October of 2020 to create a coordinated approach to preventing forced labor involving all government agencies. I like that. Let's streamline it. Let's have one agency that oversees all of this. Let's get--you know, we create agencies for everything, right? Let's have a full-on, full-blown human trafficking agency federally funded and populated by people who give a damn. My suggestion would be try and get Brad Edwards once he retires to run the whole thing. The guy is the only one who seems like he has any integrity. An act immigration reform to combat the exploitation of migrant workers, including reform of the temporary work visa system. I do not know enough about that to offer up my five cents, but I will tell you this much. I don't think that the system that's on the books, it works. And I really think that it needs to be looked at and we need to figure something out because these are real lives on the line, right? We're not talking about fake people. I don't care if they're an immigrant legally or illegally, whatever it is. We're talking about real people at the end of the day. So we need real solutions and not bullshit political nonsense, water carrying garbage. And we haven't had many of those. And unfortunately, I'm not equipped to give you an answer to that question because I don't have it. Require corporations to take responsibility for the use of forced labor in their global supply chains, including prohibiting the trade of goods made with forced labor. That's a pretty good idea, huh? I guess China would be out of business though. I mean, what are they going to do if they can't use forced slave wages? Certainly not going to compete with the rest of the world on a fair level, right? We know that. Strengthened cyber crime fighting strategies to combat sex trafficking. Another good idea. And also, there has to be, I think, more education for parents, right? Parents need to be educated more about what's going on online, about the pitfalls of what can happen and what does happen on a regular basis online. But it's not just online. It's at Mar-a-Lago. It's at the malls. It's at Central Park. So it's integral that children are aware of stranger danger, no matter what. The lack of coordinated and consistent approach in the US against human trafficking mirrors the failure of other countries to address the problem the authors acknowledged. That's one reason stepped up US involvement is critical, they declared, calling on the federal government to lead on the global stage. Yeah, well, unfortunately, I have no confidence of that occurring with this administration, the previous administration, the administration previous to that, the administration previous to that, you guys get my drift yet. Enough with the let's lead on the global stage. The United States needs to clean up its own backyard before it's yelling at anybody else to clean up their front yard. Now don't get me wrong. We have a role to play in the United States. We can set the tone, but it's not up to us to control other people's countries. We are not the policeman of the world. We need to mind our business and work in coordination with other nations, not take the lead. I'm tired of that. Take the lead shit. The Joe Biden administration in Congress should enlist leaders in the private security and global development sectors to propose innovative and robust prevention and enforcement initiatives the authors wrote. Yeah, they definitely should do that. But I haven't seen much of that from the Biden administration. Granted, it's been six months. You know, I'm not, I'm not one of these people who is unreal in their expectations. But let's be honest, folks, we haven't seen the needle moved here. Have we seen investigations? We're all of the congressional hearings about Jeffrey Epstein. We're all the congressional hearings about his enablers. We've heard some tough talk, but we haven't seen any walk. The initiatives will add critical tools to the arsenal of human rights-based and prosecutorial approaches that have been under enforced globally and produced far too little progress to date. Well, I can't say I disagree. I mean, I am not a big fan of the council on foreign relations for the most part, but in this sense, in this regard, I'm on board with what they're talking about here because they're right. It is definitely a national security issue. You don't know what's going on. And you don't know how this this will be used by foreign actors to who know, do God knows what plant who knows who. And the most important thing from my vantage point more than a national security issue is the fact that perhaps it'll help some of these people, some of these girls, some of these boys, some of these men out of bondage and hopefully on the path to healing. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that at bobbykapucci@protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I@protonmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. All of the links that go with this episode can be found in the description. Looking for a financial institution that has fewer fees, better rates, and gives back to the local community? As one of Colorado's largest credit unions, BellGo offers great rates on products like our free boost interest checking and lower rates on loans, including our home equity choice line. 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