Under Plain Cover
In the UK, new rules exist that oblige doctors and social workers to give the police any information they have about teenagers’ sex lives. The London Child Protection Committee (LCPC) protocol allows child welfare staff an unjustifiable level of interference in the sex lives of teenagers, which could risk breaching the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the right to privacy enshrined in article eight of the convention. Senior lawyer Stephen Groz commented on the new protocol believing that: “It is particularly hard to see what justification there can be for routine assessment - if that is what is intended - in the case of those in the 16-18 year age group, where the prevention of crime will normally afford no justification at all.”1
Mandatory sentencing where no clear definition of the crime is known is already steaming ahead. According to one expert, 12 and 13-year-old defendants “are being convicted of relatively minor sexual indiscretions in the crown court, and, if the law operates as it is supposed to, being sentenced to custody when it should be a supervision order.” 2
With over 2,225 child offenders serving life without parole (LWOP) sentences in U.S prisons for crimes committed before they were age 18, it seems Europe is being set to emulate the decline of the US. 3 It is no surprise that America’s principles of fascism cloaked under the pretence of liberty are being welcomed by some governments of Europe. In a country with the largest prison population in the world and where corruption in the judiciary and police forces is a way of life, perhaps this is unsurprising.
David Blunkett MP (who resigned last year after yet another financial scandal) would call such concerns “airy-fairy” and those seeking a fair and just system as the enemy. Blunkett proceeded to remove the presumption of innocence from the Sexual Offences act of 2003, giving a straight and clear road for court cases to be prosecuted successfully without any evidence. This lay greater emphasis on the prosecution state where, as in the US, you are presumed guilty before being proven innocent. This US infection of the law paved the way for their fabrications in Operation Ore where an allegation alone was enough for a conviction.
That is not to say that all of the reforms have been dangerous. On the contrary, many are to be welcomed, yet those that are suspect tend to create difficulties that eclipse such progress.
Another stalwart defender of Blair’s Britain was the equally disturbing Charles Clarke MP the UK government’s Interior minister who was at pains to tell the European Union that in his view the: “The judges both in my country and in the European Court need to understand that the people of Europe ... will not for a long time accept that action cannot be taken against people who are offering a real threat to our way of life because of human rights considerations,…”4 This kind of para-moralism is reminiscent of the same kind of Neo-Con “they hate us for our freedoms” nonsense so often repeated as a blanket rebuttal for genuine concerns for civil liberties. Once a train is set in motion without an ounce of objectivity to regulate the speed, the train is prone to smash through any barrier of common sense that is erected in its path, especially when financial dividends are involved and actively encouraged.
The National Criminal Intelligence Service said in its annual report in 2003 that “more than half of the child porn sites are hosted in the United States” and that “…the number of sites coming from Russia has doubled in the past year.” Evangelistic crusades are being encouraged, whipping up a great deal of emotion covering up little factual data. Child pornography figures in some quarters have been massively overblown or in some cases plucked out of thin air. According to reports from within the US last year a 300 percent rise in internet paedophilia may indicate both a new phenomena in terms of utilizing a new technology for predation but which also reinforces the mythology and lies designed to keep such dynamics firmly in place.
There is a moral paranoia continuing in the States where truth is continually marginalised in favour of both a misplaced Puritanism sourced from the population at large as well as a more insidious process. Invention is the name of the game and if a new crisis is needed then child porn can be used as a “double-bind.” Reverse psychology becomes the method to distance the real culprits from such activities. As one journalist recently remarked: “What an irony if the only readily available child porn on the Internet is being maintained by the police and the self-appointed monitors!” 5
On the evening of January 17 2005, Sky News in the UK reported on the false evidence used by the UK police in Operation Ore. The evidence of corruption was overwhelming. It remains to be seen if any action will be taken against the police. The sanctity of the police as protector and social confidante is about as far away from reality as it is possible to be. Some men and women in law enforcement know this very well yet few speak out.
It is likely that much of the child pornography within societies today are produced and distributed underground through an informal but loose-knit networks of paedophiles operating in most European countries. Sporadic outbreaks of paedophilia rings and other forms of sexual abuse within neighbourhoods and families do and will occur. However, with the astonishing rise in child trafficking and clear indications of institutionalized paedophilia, child pornography as a multi-billion dollar industry may be, purposely exaggerated. Nevertheless, as a strand in the overall industry of exploitation where billions are indeed accrued, it remains a connected reality, the dividends logically set to increase.
Michael Heimbach, head of the FBI’s Crimes Against Children Unit believes sexual deviants “have a real innate need to communicate with others…and sharing experiences, it’s a psychological support base, It makes them say, ‘I’m not so weird. There are a lot of other people out there that like the same thing I do’’” The current case Heimbach was describing involved “An underground ring of adults who created and trafficked in pornographic videos of naked children being beaten with paddles, hairbrushes and canes.” The “loose-knit” group called the “Spanking Club” were said to have brutally beaten children as young as 4 years old. The club was seen as being influenced and encouraged by the availability of porn and internet chat-rooms where an exchange of fantasies and photos took place. 6
The more disturbing link with organised pornography, trafficking and/or child abuse which leads to the front door of the Establishment, remains inscrutable and unsurprisingly - cast iron. We see innocent men and women placed in prison or caused to take their own lives. The unfortunate reality is that high level paedophiles remain above the law. It is also likely that most of the real child porn that does exist is so far underground that it is alongside the impassable domain of the snuff movie where information is almost impossible to come by.
The discovery of crimes that may have been continuing undetected for decades are now frequently being seen via the relative “safety” of a closed system known as Internet Relay Chat - IRC - which requires participants to log in using passwords. And many of the paedophiles in question are no amateurs. They can be extremely competent with encryption usage and various other technical ways to utilize avoiding entrapment.
The vast majority of stings are carried out by the enormous stores of child nudity and erotica that under the laws of the US and increasingly Europe are deemed obscene. This material may also serve as a means to entrap people for private extortion. It is always the case that witch hunts generally begin from a reaction by those in power to protect their own ivory towers as was the case with the Waterhouse and Cullen enquiries. One can all too easily reel in righteous and understandable shock at the notion of predators preying on children with a glut of horrific downloadable photos threatening to submerge the search engines. But is this the reality? Or has the reflex of paedophilia and child pornography come to represent anything but a fight against injustice? And what of the recent ruling from US Pathocrats that effectively all porn is child porn? 7
The Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act also known as “2257” now requires adult porn or erotica companies to keep detailed records proving that all the models they use are over the age of 18. These records will also contain the real names of performers, and their addresses too which have to be published somewhere online. It does not take a huge leap of logic to realize that this could leave some persons - such as women operating webcam shows from their homes - open to stalking and harassment. Moreover, all sites coming under the new law are required to have their address clearly accessible to all in order to indicate their “place of business.” To avoid fines and jail terms persons must keep “proper records” under the new version of 2257 where all files that contain every single pornographic or erotic image and film published, must be cross-indexed with age-verification papers for every single performer that features in the stills or movies. This is a huge undertaking meaning massive overhauls for businesses hard drives, the records of which must be kept for seven years. The porn business is up in arms over the law claiming that it curtails significant freedoms. As the same report states: “…they have vast numbers of addresses to punch into their super computer for listing undesirables…. the Patriot Act was used to prosecute people for offences that were not terrorist offences shortly after it became law.”8, 9
Of course, we needn’t shed tears over porn brokers rights being breached. But it doesn’t stop there. We can easily forget how sneaky these new acts and waiting executive laws really are and how they primed and ready to dispense with all constitutional rights. As former director of UK civil rights organization and now a much needed voice as Deputy Chair of the new Independent Police Complaints Commission, John Wadham mentioned recently: “I recall an occasion attempting to argue that even alleged sex offenders have human rights, when confronted by the devastated mother of a child murdered by a sex offender.” 10 Not an easy prospect, which is why child porn and public pornography in general could be another vehicle used to initiate a comprehensive lock-down on freedoms.
But the genuine Russian-led examples of their burgeoning networks are a reality as are some of the isolated European instances of exploitation including the recent arrest of five suspects in the Spanish cities of Madrid, Murcia, Lerida and Valencia. One man was charged with abducting, raping and abusing babies as young as 11 months while the others were charged with filming and distributing images of the abuse on the Internet. 11 Or the British man and father jailed for raping a baby with a sentence that was clearly far too lenient. 12 Both cases were proven examples that child molestation is a reality. This is the nature of the perfect double bind. Yet there are further “politically correct” rulings that funnel more chaos into an already charged domain.
Take the 2004 ruling in the Italian high court that paedophiles can take pornographic photos of children as long as they are not sold for profit. In other words, child porn you can share and perpetrate acts of child porn as long as you do not charge for viewing the material - it is legal. The report goes on to say “…that the Court of Cassation in Rome upheld the acquittal by a court in Turin of Antonio B., 45, over photographs that he took when he forced a youth of 13 to carry out sexual acts.”13 There are small clues in the above that included “forced” “sexual acts” and “profit.” One wonders what thoughts processes are running through those whose directives one would hope, are first and foremost protect the interests of children.
Similarly, Canada’s BC provincial court also came to the conclusion that possession of child porn represented a clear self-imposed boundary that would not be transgressed by those who chose to view such pornography. A court in Oregon believed a law that prohibited adults from giving minors sexually explicit materials violated the Oregon Constitution’s free speech protections.
There is, as we shall see, a huge difference between an individual who has murdered a child with evidence that is clear and present and an individual who has been surfing for adult porn. This is the reality surrounding much of the prosecutions focused around child pornography. But in such an emotive arena, all manner of forces that are vying for control have very little to do with liberty, least of all for the rights of the child. In effect, child pornography - while certainly encompassing very real predatory beings intent on using the internet to search for prey - is now a term that is used by law enforcement agencies to cover a multitude of sins extending to arts and basic pornography – regardless of its morality.
After this brief snapshot of child pornography rings mostly operated via the internet what we are unfortunately seeing here is the lower tier end of a problem and little action taken against those whose who partake in such crimes the reason being they are part of the judiciary, politics, police and even welfare services. Psychopaths, paedophiles and child molesters are drawn into these professions and the higher the person’s status is, the more he is likely to be protected. Let us keep in mind that in 2004 and 2005, three young children were killed by sex offenders. Congress immediately reacted and passed the most unconstitutional Child Abuse laws in the history of the USA. Yet while the figures for the prevalence for sexual abuse remains contentious and unresolved, you can bet that the horrendous figures for physical abuse, drug abuse, gang related crime and drunk-driving deaths of children on the roads barely gets a mention. This isn’t “sexy” or salacious though, is it? This doesn’t get the voyeuristic and self-righteous juices flowing. Meanwhile, the financial, business and political “Elite” can play the “knight in shining armour” while indulging in the very practices they apparently eschew.
Inflating or even taking advantage of a rise in child pornography online could lead to a comprehensive ban on extreme examples of porn and finally pornography itself. For the masses that is. The tool of child pornography will serve as a prelude to more extreme forms of “crimes against the state.” We may look for a gradual fusion between dissidents, al-Qaeda and the “War on Terror” so that internet surveillance can be comprehensively tightened. The dawn raids of Landslide/Ore and other trawling and entrapment operations that ruined so many lives may well be the first stage in quelling any kind of dissidence of the near future. Criticism of the US government and Homeland Security is perceived as Bush’s line: “if you’re not with us you’re with the terrorists.” In many American minds the sex offender and terrorist is more or less one and the same as in this Georgian State legislator’s opinion: “Sex offenders are the most reviled people in society… They're one step above terrorists; there's no political downside to cracking down on these folks.” It is then that we realise the true extent of Neo-fascism and the depth of ponerization that is now occurring. In Britain, the “surveillance society” is well and truly here.
One of the idea’s floated by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre When children are so bombarded by images and thoughts that are effectively splitting their minds in two, what better way to turn them into “spy kids” for the emerging Pathocracy in Europe and the US? This is the crux of the matter: to make people so dependent and reliant on the police states and their largely phantom fears so that children feel compelled to turn their own parent’s in. “There are 9.5 million school-kids in the UK. Imagine if we could get them all to save the Ceop centre’s website to their favourites box so that whenever they are online they can fill in a form telling us who they are talking to, what (those people) are saying and why they think it is a threat.” 13
The UK is the most spied-on country in the world according to a recent official report. We are being scrutinized and data-mined with minute details of our lives recorded without ever being aware of it. A typical Briton will be caught on camera more than 300 times a day. The report highlighted concern over records kept of every internet site we visit and the long-term retention of logs detailing those visits to the growing use of automatic number plate recognition to track people’s journeys. A typical Briton will be caught on camera over 300 times a day. One example sited in the study showed how easily the climate of paedophilia panic was eroding normal life. A schoolgirl’s playground banter:
“…resulted in her father being refused work because he had been classed as a suspected paedophile. ‘The little girl was overheard saying, ‘My dad bonked me last night’. A dinner lady heard this and reported it to the school authorities,’… Social services discovered that the girl was referring to her father tapping her playfully on the head with an inflatable hammer. The file was closed, but five years later the father discovered he was still a suspected sex offender.”14
A suspected sex offender, subversive, dissident, terrorist – there are no limits to the labels ready to be given to the public to protect us from all manner of bogeymen. After all, this is all for our own protection right? The near future will give us the answer.
Notes
1 'Google erases Operation Ore campaign site’ by Lucy Sheriff, The Register, September 21, 2006.
2 Teen sex monitoring 'may breach human rights' David Batty, The Guardian, Wednesday December 14, 2005
3 Dr David Thomas Retired Cambridge University don, sentencing expert and author of leading textbook on sentencing. Quoted in ‘Judges speak out against erosion of independence by government’ The Guardian, Tuesday April 26, 2005.
4 ‘United States: Thousands of Children Sentenced to Life without Parole’ National Study by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Finds Majority Face Life for First Offense ,New York, October 12, 2005 Human Rights Watch, hrw.org/
5 ‘EU must accept some erosion of civil rights-Britain,’ By Aine Gallagher, Reuters, September 7 2005.
6 Ibid.
7 ‘Child Pornography Case Highlights Use of Internet in Crime’ By Michelle Mittelstadt The Dallas Morning News, March 11, 2002.
8 ‘On File’ By Annalee Newitz, AlterNet, June 22, 2005.
9 The Patriot Act: HR 3162 RDS 107th Congress, 1st Session H. R. 3162 October 24, 2001, revised and updated to PATRIOT Act II in 2003. “Diminishes personal privacy by removing checks on government power, diminishes public accountability by increasing government secrecy; diminishes corporate accountability under the pretext of fighting terrorism; Undermines fundamental constitutional rights of Americans under overbroad definitions of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist organization’ or under a terrorism pretext; Unfairly targets immigrants under the pretext of fighting terrorism. – b y Timothy H. Edgar, Legislative Counsel February 14, 2003 Section-by-Section Analysis of Justice Department draft ‘Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003,’ also known as "Patriot Act II" American Civil Liberties Union.
10 Ibid.
11 ‘I am ashamed to be leaving Liberty whilst people are interned without trial’ John Wadham LIBERTY editorial 2005 liberty.com.
12 ‘Spanish police break up pedophile ring suspected of abusing babies’ Reuters, May 26 2005
13 Baby rape sentence 'unduly lenient' BBC News, Wednesday, 3 September, 2003.
14 ‘Italy and Oregon Courts Rule for Paedophilia’ June 2 2004 lifesite.net
