Alas and Alack -- Nooky is offlimits for service personnel in So. Korea

[LdyGuique]

The DoD has officially made So. Korea a "nooky-free" zone for our service personnel stationed there, as well as DoD civilians, and civilian contractors. The RW is not content with imposing religion all over the place in terms of 10 Commandments and such -- they have now declared war on prostitution. Frankly, I'm having a tough time controlling my laughter, as most of these ppl voted for Bush.

Apparently, it's causing fights with MPs etc.

State Department representative John R. Miller is apparently the man with the answer to that toughie. Miller is director of the State Department's office that monitors and fights human trafficking, of which prostitution in South Korea is a symptom, he said. Last September Miller, along with LaPorte, Defense Department representative Charles Abell (DoD's principal deputy undersecretary for personnel and readiness), and DoD Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz testified before the House Armed Services Committee how the U.S. military is working to deter the patronization of prostitutes and human trafficking.

“Demand drives” sex trafficking, Miller told the august panel on Sept. 21, 2004. He did not mention how his team had uncovered that amazing revelation. It is the “demand side of the issue” that is coming under closer scrutiny, he added. Miller’s erudite team of experts also discovered that “national forces going from one country to another” drive up the demand for prostitution and increase the number of trafficking victims as well. Miller’s study also discovered that peacekeepers, contractors and aid workers are all equally guilty.

The Free Fed folks see it differently. They claim that because of “command encouragement” and “aggressive briefings,” the Military Police have been over-zealous in enforcing the curfew. Such badge-heavy behavior has led to “further violations of Constitutional rights, injuries and animosity between the Command, the Military Police, and the U.S. Forces in Korea at large,” the website says.

Abell, DoD’s principal civilian executive for personnel and readiness (for anyone who might have forgotten), characterized the new policy “as straightforward and easily understood.”

“It is a policy of zero tolerance,” Abell testified. “It is a policy of command responsibility to recognize, prevent and to assist local law enforcement when it comes to trafficking in persons in any way, shape or form.” This is a remarkable turnaround in a country where the local police often work extra jobs as security guards in the local whorehouses to supplement their meager incomes.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=808&rnd=752.4839311572597">Complete Article

[qazplm]

1. I dont get it

sounds to me like this is something we as liberals should be celebrating given the amount of foreign national girls who are coerced into slavery.

As a soldier, I know most soldiers arent involved in that, they are just guys looking for a little fun, but the young women in S Korea and other places arent always willing participants.

Sounds to me like a responsible thing to do. They are doing the same thing in Germany (well basically what they are doing is making soliticiting prostitution a crime for all soldiers, even if they are in a country/state where it is legal.

I dont think they should criminalize it but it's hard to argue with making demand a lot smaller for prostitution in foreign countries.

[LdyGuique]

2. The issue is one of legality and constitutionality

1) DoD has imposed a curfew on all of these personnel from midnight to 5 a.m.;

2) From a Defense Contractor -- a letter sent to the Armed Forces Committee:

I am writing to you as an American who served for 22.5 years in the Air Force and continued service as a contractor employee. I already wrote to many elected officials about this subject and have only received “Canned, party-line” answers that elected officials have passed from the Department of the Air Force and Department of Defense (DoD) to me. I and 5000 other civilians living in Korea are requesting a complete and thorough investigation by the US Senate and House of Representatives as to why General Laporte, US Forces Korea (USFK) Commander, with the backing of the DoD, has brazenly stripped civil rights from civilians residing in Korea without a declaration of martial law. He is scheduled for a meeting with the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 8th, 2005. Since last September, General Laporte has curtailed the freedom and civil rights of the DoD civilian employees, government contractors, and their family members.

He directed that a curfew be in effect to include these civilians during the hours of 12 AM to 5 AM. The reason given to the public was “force protection” due to an exaggerated threat used as a convenient justification for revoking civil liberties. The state department crime and terrorism notifications reveal that Korea is safer than the United States. It is ridiculous to propose that staying home during specific hours will protect personnel from a terrorist attack. American civilians in Korea live outside military installations, mostly grouped together in high-rise apartment complexes that are easily discernable to potential terrorists. If the commander wants to protect civilians as he professes, then why are there no competent security guards to keep potential terrorist threats away from clustered “American” residences. His ongoing curfew and restrictions from certain establishments is nothing more than a “power-grab” to curtail civil liberties and his desire to use “smoke-and-mirrors” to portray decreased crime statistics and improved performance data of his command tenure. This was a knee-jerk reaction to a blistering FOX news report that the military in Korea was turning a blind eye to human trafficking and prostitution. I am appalled, as are many other civilians, at being painted by his broad brush as a “whoremonger” only because I have the freedom to enter any establishment that is allowed by Korean law. These establishments have not been cited in violation of any law by Korean authorities and accordingly are deemed legitimate for me or any other civilian to enter by the Korean Government. Some of these off-limits places include medical establishments that I must go into because the military installations will not attend to some medical and absolutely no dental needs of civilians or our families. Some of these establishments are nightclubs that have been labeled by USFK as having engaged in prostitution without validation or proof of law, which is not required for him to restrict uniformed military. Gen Laporte continues to direct the military police to gain information about civilians who enter any of these places and then forward it to employers who are urged to take disciplinary measures including termination. Companies are being pressured to enforce sanctions on employees as a condition to maintaining their government contract status. This is COERCION beyond any legal scope.

When I was in uniform I voluntarily gave up certain rights as part of my oath to enlist. However, once I returned to civilian life, these rights were supposed to be restored to me and exercised as I see fit.

The military police, by virtue of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) have no authority to legally enforce his policy over civilians off post; General Laporte backed illegal enforcement actions by recruiting Korean National Police (KNP) to pair with military police and ask for ID cards from “offenders” of his policy. Then, KNP are to pass the names to the military police to log in a report. Once identified, commanders are to push civilian supervisors to punish the “offenders” and even threaten to revoke the SOFA status. His staff dismissed the outrage to his policy by civilians as a “vocal minority” in Stars & Stripes newspaper. Honest, hard-working patriotic people who did nothing illegal are targeted, libeled and abused as “curfew violators” or having entered “off-limit” establishments. But, civilians voiced improper police actions and banded together on a website (www.freefed.com). Elected officials were contacted and after four months of illegally enforcing these policies outside the jurisdiction of military installations, the office of the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) issued to military police a weakly written information paper that cautioned against many of these law enforcement practices, while offering work-around options to skirt illegal off-post enforcement against civilians. If this is not law enforcement, then I would propose that the military police were engaged in collecting intelligence on law-abiding US citizens overseas, a very serious violation of federal law. Some senior officers and enlisted personnel have appeared on public radio programs, made commercials or wrote newspaper spots to justify the clearly hostile command environment they created. Still, people were not convinced by this campaign of lies and deceit. The command responded with a PR campaign based on disinformation, after the fact justifications, and “talking points” information papers.

This command mistakenly believed that their threats and abusive enforcement operations would keep these civilians in check. Angry internet sites blossomed, and people exchanged ideas. A massive, targeted letter writing campaign is underway. Elected officials and newspapers are being pressed on this issue. The civil service union has begun a process to collect tens of millions of dollars in back pay for those employees forced to remain on standby by the curfew. Recently, due to an onslaught of letters to elected officials who have applied pressure on the DoD, Gen Laporte rolled back the curfew to say that civilians are “highly encouraged” to abide, but are still restricted from going into any (USFK designated) off-limits establishments. Gen Laporte stated in his talking points paper that the rollback was due to an on-going assessment of the threat in Korea. Most people know this is another distortion of the truth. In his printed orders, he left open his dogmatic option to tighten or remove the curfew on civilians at his pleasure, and directed continued information collection of anyone, including civilians, who go into USFK-designated off-limits establishments. Recently, I was informed that USFK legal personnel are beginning a re-write of the Status of Forces Agreement to have the Korean government pass jurisdiction of DoD civilians and contractors to USFK. This would still be an illegal policing of civilians by the military, prohibited by the constitution, regardless if the Korean government agreed to such a proposal. Please take action to stop all of these desperate attempts by this or future USFK regimes to gain illegal authority over civilians (without a declaration of martial law) and protect civilians’ rights worldwide. Also, consider urging President Bush to remove Gen Laporte from command due to his deliberate disregard for our civil liberties and his utter contempt to obey his sworn oath to “…support and defend the constitution of the United States.”

3) And, I do not believe that prostitution is in and of itself a major crime. Legislating sexual activity for service personnel in foreign countries is similar to the homophobia that permeates the military. Each person can many their own choices on how to deal with tours of duty that last for at least a year far from home. Treating adults as though they are children runs counterproductive to the job they do to provide frontline security for the U.S.