If you have been following my contributions at all, you will remember that I wrote an article on the tragedy of child rape and abuse perpetuated by member countries of the United Nations. In yet another stunning example of the fox guarding the henhouse—and selling the eggs for murderous profits—state-governed Child Protective Services (CPS) has now been linked to extensive pedophilia-serving child trafficking activities.
In a stunning and chilling report from the State Policy Advocacy and Reform Center (SPARC), it is estimated that over 100,000 children and youth are sexually exploited in the United States each year. It is clear that many of these minors who are trafficked interact with the child welfare system at some point in their lives.
The 2014 report goes on to say that “children and youth in the foster care system” are at grave risk from the very organization created to protect them. In particular, the SPARC report identifies “a high correlation” between children placed into foster care and “victims of sex trafficking.”
The numbers are staggering:
“A study by the Department of Children and Families in Connecticut found that out of the 88 children identified as sex trafficking victims, 86 had been involved with child welfare services prior to being trafficked.” That is a 98 percent victimization rate. And it started with Child Protective Services.
Northern California’s Alameda County found that a whopping 41 percent of 267 sex trafficking victims “were at one-time part of the foster care system.”
The list goes on and on, state by state—to the point where former Director of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services Molly McGrath Tierney claimed in a “TED Talk” that the “Foster Care Industry” has turned children into a product that profits “doctors, lawyers, judges, social workers, advocates, and other organizations, an industry that can only exist by taking other people’s children, an industry that damages the very children it purports to be helping.”
Tierney defines child welfare as “the government business of protecting children.” But despite the “prevailing belief that this is the responsible thing to do for children who are abused and neglected,” the primary intervention of Child Protective Services is to take kids from their parents and put them in foster care.” Imagine that…the primary intervention is to strip kids away from their parents and place them in foster care.
We literally pay billions of tax dollars to fund the 50 different child welfare organizations of the United States. But what exactly are we getting for our money? Well, according to Tierney, absolutely nothing. And I quote: “There’s not a one among them that is reputed to be working well. Awful things happen to children in foster care.”
The reality is that the child welfare system is a bureaucracy that supports a cottage industry. Like any bureaucracy, it goes to extraordinary lengths to protect itself. As Tierney said herself (remember, she is a former director of a metropolis CPS unit):
“Second, child welfare is an industry, and industries are self-protecting ecosystems. Think about it. The only time the federal government pays me is when I take somebody’s kid. And as soon as that kid’s in foster care, they instantly become a commodity, and the industry starts to wrap around – doctors, lawyers, judges, social workers, advocates, whole organizations. The industry is committed to this intervention, this taking other people’s children, ‘cause that’s what it needs to survive. And it’s on auto pilot, and it’s going to do whatever it has to do to stay alive.”
So how does this relate to National Security? It’s pretty clear, actually.
First of all, we are spending billions of tax payer money on a system that is broken. But worse yet, according to Molly Tierney as well as Tammi Stefano, host of the National Safe Child Show, the child and human trafficking business in the United States generates more money than the illegal drugs trade and the illegal arms trade combined.
In fact, according to Stefano, the situation is completely broken and out of control. She cited an article in the Los Angeles Times that revealed that Los Angeles County’s CPS had approved 1000 convicted sex offenders as eligible to become foster parents.
Think about that for a minute. First, we are spending billions on a program that simply does not work and places children in immediate harm. Second, we are spending billions on a program that supports and protects a human trafficking enterprise that generates more money than illegal drugs and guns combined!
Colonel Sandra L. Keefer of the United States Army wrote an incredible paper for the U.S. Army War College dealing specifically with “Human Trafficking And The Impact On National Security For The United States.”
Excerpted from her paper, Colonel Keefer made some very salient points:
- There is no doubt that profits made from human trafficking are enormous. Slave traffickers around the world have rediscovered how profitable it is to buy and sell people. The United Nations believes that the trafficking of human beings is now the third largest source of money for organized crime, after arms and drugs. It has become the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise, an estimated $9.5 billion per year. The commodities involved in this illicit trade are men, women, and children and the trafficker’s goal is to maximize profits. The sale and distribution of trafficked humans in the U.S. is a global, regional, and national problem.
- Attracted by huge profits made at minimal risks to the trafficker, criminal organizations at all levels are now involved with this heinous crime. The fall of communism, coupled with deteriorating third world economies, has fueled the dramatic rise of this form of commerce. An ounce of cocaine wholesale is $1,200 but you can only sell it once, a woman or child is $50-$1000, but you can sell them each day, over and over again (30 to 40 customers a day), and the markup is unbelievable.
- Trafficking humans—especially children—enables these international mobsters to play in the wider field of trafficking drugs, weapons, arms, chemicals, toxic waste, and even piracy on the high seas. Research substantiates indisputable links between human trafficking and organized criminal syndicates the world over.
- Is there a link between terrorism and human trafficking? According to Christine Dolan, panelist at the recent “Terrorism Nexus” seminar hosted by The World Affairs Council of Washington, DC, the answer is a definitive, yes. Trafficking and terrorism are linked. Terrorists use the transportation networks of smugglers and traffickers to move operatives.
Even the FBI has now acknowledged that human trafficking represents significant risks to homeland security.
It is clear that the CPS program is broken, presenting a clear and present danger to our National Security. But what can we do?
Look, once CPS is involved in a child welfare case, it’s going to end badly. That is the assertion of Stefano, Keefer and Tierney. In fact, Stefano herself said, “The minute you call child protection services, you can rest assured that the investigation will not be done properly. Chances are the child will not be protected.”
Remember, child abuse is a “criminal activity” and that warrants the expertise of trained law enforcement personnel. Not some CPS worker who is overworked and underpaid and is under pressure to confiscate kids. Don’t believe me? Pursuant to public documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act published by Victuruslibertas.com, “There is a law in place that actually pays the states cash bonuses to put children in the foster care system. They are paid even more bonuses for special needs children.”
Also, Change.org has started a petition to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights CRC—Committee for the Rights of the Child. You can start your own petition as well.
The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has a project called “End Trafficking” which seeks to raise awareness about this vitally important issue. Their website confirms that child trafficking has spread throughout the nation.
There is some good news though.
Child Protective Services are coming under increasing scrutiny as the extent of their evil deeds is surfacing. Before the 2010 election, San Diego, California Supervisor candidate John Van Doorn told a local newspaper: “The single greatest threat to the people of San Diego County is our county’s (as well as the state’s) abuse of Title IV-D programs (Child Protective Services, Child Support Services, foster care and adoptions, VAWA, etc.).”
Van Doorn also said in a different interview that, if elected, he would, “expose how local governments were amassing billions of dollars in annual reimbursements, in exchange for what amounted to legal abduction of children.”
Our nation’s children deserve so much better than this, and we must act.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
