The Powerfully Stunning, Shocking, yet Redemptive Human Trafficking Conference

San Diego, Ca. September 29th, 2009 Tony Nassif, founder and President of the Cedars Cultural and Education Foundation hosted the recent 7th Annual Preventing Abuse Conference in Irvine California. We are deeply in debt to him for his vision and desire to expose, educate and activate a truly godly response to one of the worst crimes against humanity.

It is estimated that there are currently over 27 million who are trapped in the bondage of modern day slavery. An estimated 800,000 annually are trafficked across borders, who are mostly women and children.

As President of Biblical Family Advocates I attended this conference; along with my wife Diane, with the hope of upgrading our ongoing education in another area that greatly concerns the family both nationally and internationally. We had no idea what they were going to experience at that conference.

For starters, we were shown short movie presentations about human trafficking. These were not theoretical exercises in the visual arts, this was the real deal. We witnessed law enforcement footage of Mexican women who were promised work in the United States only to be greeted with forced prostitution under the threat of death or torture, in the U.S.

There was another story of a Mexican man who came to the US to earn enough money pay for his son’s cancer medicine only to be forced into labor with people who paid him very little money with threats of violence. Thankfully he was rescued by a local human rights group along with many others and prosecutors put that slave trade group into prison.

We saw the very real horrific story of a young 16 year old Mexican girl who was kidnapped in the US to be made a sex slave and tortured for years. Tragically when she had finally escaped because her captor rapist was killed, she was falsely accused of murder and found guilty, spending over 22 years in an American prison. The shear injustice and atrocity against this woman was beyond words. Eventually, she was finally released to her family and is working to become a productive member of American society. We thank God that U.S. trafficking laws have special provisions and benefits that can be afforded victims of trafficking.

We also saw how young girls in Cambodia were stolen and sold like cattle to buyers for use in prostitution. These are people who are used sexually at least 30 times a day. As you might imagine these girls are suicidal and terribly traumatized for years to come both physically and mentally.

We were deeply moved by all of these stories and this would have been enough. But it was just the beginning. What was amazing to us is that we were able to speak to people who were directly affected by human trafficking. For many years I have thought that human trafficking was in some other country, only to be faced with the reality that it has been rampant in the U.S. for many years.

On the average, nearly 60,000 people a year are abducted in the U.S. by those who are not relatives. Take for instance the story of Noreen Gosch, whose 12 year old son, Johnny was abducted in 1982 while doing his paper route. Witnesses say he was stunned with some kind of gun and put into a car. To the shock of his mother, local police were grossly unconcerned about eye witness accounts and did very little to follow up, even in the light of other children who were missing. She even received anonymous death threats if she continued to pursue finding her son.

Some evidence suggested that he was a victim of a pedophile ring led by a number of local doctors and a judge. One of these people had access to a private jet. It would be at least 20 years later that his mother would come across shocking pictures of her son, hogtied and obviously abused.

According to the Johnny Gosch Foundation website, Johnny actually returned to his mother in 1997 and gave her information about his experience and the network of pedophiles that are operating. But tragically, he had to go back into hiding as he could not resume a normal life with his mother because of the extraordinary threat of being killed by the pedophile network that is apparently still operating in the U.S.

We can only begin to feel her immense sense of loss and anger over these events. We had the privilege of personally hearing Noreen’s incredible story of loss at the conference. She is responsible for helping to pass many legislative bills to protect children. Please pray for her and find out from her organization, the Johnny Gosch Foundation, how you can work to strengthen trafficking laws in the U.S.

Theresa Flores of Detroit Michigan was present at this conference to tell us the horrific tale of being used in human trafficking by people in her own high school. She was interested in a high school boy who offered to take her on a drive to her house, only to be taken to another house, drugged and then raped. But the sickening tale didn’t end there. This guy had friends take pictures of her as she was raped and threatened to release these shameful pictures to her parents, her priest and even the entire high school. They told her she could work for them to pay to get these pictures back, but that was just a lie. They forced her into having sex with what could only be described as an organized forced prostitution ring. One night she was taken to a motel and put into a room full of men and told that they could do anything they wanted to do to her. They even auctioned her to the highest bidder. After nearly 2 years of this abuse, under threats of her family being killed she was able to escape this group. (REMEMBER THIS IS IN THE U.S.)

Sadly, fear caused her to not report these events for many years and because of the Statutes of limitations, this prostitution ring was never prosecuted!

We also listened to Alicia Kozakiewicz who had been lured on the internet by a person who eventually kidnapped her. She was chained, raped and tortured for 4 days. Thankfully with the help of law enforcement, she was freed. She now warns people about the fact that internet predators portray themselves as young people and know how to say all the right things to get impressionable teens to give up their contact information to abduct them at home or even meet them in another State.

We were also privileged to hear Dr. Judith Reisman who is a world expert on Alfred Kinsey, the “father of the sexual revolution” whose studies in sex profoundly changed the moral landscape of America, even though his research was built on lies. It was gravely unsettling to see that part of his research included the sexual abuse of children including infants to obtain data on sexuality.

Dr. Reisman has served three Presidential administrations and clearly showed the profound destructive nature of sex outside of marriage, pornography and the pedophilia movements in America.

I believe you would be blessed to know that there is an organization that is dedicated to recovery children who have been abducted, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Former CIA intelligence officer Bazzel Baz, who is the CEO of ARC, (Association for the Recovery of Children) enlists the help of former Marines, SWAT and other people involved in “special ops.” His organization has a 100% recovery rate. They never charge the family for the recovery and I could tell that Baz is a committed Christian. Donations to his organization are tax deductible.

I have to say that I have never met a Porn star, but I did meet a former Porn Star at our conference whose own organization, the Pink Cross Foundation is helping to expose the Porn Industry for it abuse and putting its workers at risk of death. It was truly sad to see a presentation of pictures of Porn Stars who had died over the past few years. At least a hundred or more who have died of drug overdoses, violent suicide or STD’s. Shelly Lubben worked in that trade for many years, but her passion is now to serve Christ by getting these wayward souls out of an industry that can only offer them death, spiritually, physically and emotionally. She even goes to Porn trade shows and witnesses to those trapped in that immoral lifestyle. I salute her courage and her zeal to win the lost. She has helped many out of it and intends to shut the industry down using the current laws of the land. She needs our support and prayer on those front lines!

Aaron Cohen is an amazing man whose travels around the world have won him the title, ’Slave Hunter” and founder of AbolishSlavery.org

It was very encouraging to hear of his stories of freeing a Cambodian girl and freeing many Sudanese slaves. He is definitely taking some real risks as he does undercover work to assess the slavery problem around the world in such places as Egypt, Thailand and Iraq. His work is one that must be viewed as a challenge to all of us to be part of the solution in whatever capacity we can. He is truly a modern day Schindler who needs our financial support and prayers.

We saw an uplifting presentation from the Christian organization, Freedom for Girls. Their website at Freedomforgirls.org states that “…of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors.”

Their organization is working to provide safe haven and housing for young women who are rescued from human trafficking slavery. I was blessed to see that this organization is based in one of the worst countries for human trafficking, Cambodia. Their work is one of compassion and care for those who have been deeply and directly brutalized in the sex slave trade.

I had the privilege of meeting and shaking the hand of Kenneth B. Morris Jr. who is a descendant abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. He was convinced that human trafficking of his ancestors had stopped after the Emancipation Proclamation, but began to realize that a new movement against this horrific trade should be once again be led by someone in his family lineage. He has started an organization called, The Frederick Douglass Family Foundation (FDFF) which exists to honor and preserve the legacy of his famed ancestor and create awareness about modern day slavery.

Another powerful resource was Ric Lumbard who spoke about his organization, Center to Restore Trafficked and Exploited Children, which models restoration and re-humanization of trafficked children from a faith based perspective. It is a very special work to deal with victims after they have been rescued from so many years of such cruelty and degradation. They also help people to identify possible victims of trafficking as they could reside in our own neighborhoods.

Please prayerfully consider being a part of the solution in supporting one of the many organizations represented in this article. I am also pleased to announce that the Cedars Cultural and Education Foundation is planning many more conferences around the country in an effort to educate, activate and motivate a national movement against the atrocity of human trafficking. May God grant us great success in this effort! When we have done it to the least of these we have done it unto our Lord Jesus.

Let us join together in this most noble fight to uphold justice for those who cry out for it right now in the United States and around the world!

There was another story of a Mexican man who came to the US to earn enough money pay for his son’s cancer medicine only to be forced into labor with people who paid him very little money with threats of violence.

Did he come legally? Did he have a skill? Hmmm.

Thankfully he was rescued by a local human rights group

Like a stray cat or dog? Rescued? From the consequences of his own actions?

I'm not seeing slavery so much as illegal immigration.

If you step into a fire do not blame me if you are burned.

Evil is alive and growing in the US. So many have turned their back on God, how long before he returns the favor.

Can he quit? Sounds like slavery to me.

You discard the hundreds of thousands of women forced into prostitution because they were brought into the country illegally.

On the average, nearly 60,000 people a year are abducted in the U.S. by those who are not relatives.

I always find their numbers to be unbelievably high. So in a state like Massachusetts, there would be at least 2000 abductions by strangers a year -- 40 per week. Given that such circumstances are extremely likely to be published -- for example, Amber Alerts -- I would expect 8 articles a day about people abducted by strangers. This just doesn't wash, in my opinion, and all of the numbers I have seen from such organizations have always seemed unbelievably high.

To summarize: good cause, lousy facts.

The statistics are from the US Justice Dept. Using a little math, 60,000 would translate to 1200 a State per year.
If you figure in the size of Mass. as opposed to California that has a population of at least 6 times greater. So I believe the figure is even lower unless the State of Mass. is a conduit for child sex trafficking. From what I have read, parts of Ohio are huge on trafficking because of its proximity to trucking routes. Even if this 60,000 figure were half, losing 600 kids from each state is horrible.

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