Human Trafficking Is The Number Three Worldwide Phenomenon Behind Drugs And Weapons - The U.S. Defense Department Urges Troops, Civilians To Be On Watch For Victims

By Lisa Daniel, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON - From the nightclub waitress you meet on deployment to the young man who launders your uniform at the drycleaners back home, Defense Department officials are warning military members and civilians to be on the lookout for possible victims of human trafficking.

The request for vigilance is part of an effort throughout the federal government to stop human trafficking, a form of modern slavery that forces millions of men, women and children from every country of the world into forced labor, prostitution, involuntary servitude and debt bondage, according to DOD and State Department officials. Some 2 million children are believed to move through the global sex trade each year, according to the State Department's annual assessment on human trafficking.

The United Nations, the United States and other governments in the past decade have passed stricter laws and allocated more resources in the fight against human trafficking, and President Barack Obama declared January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

In the government's interagency approach toward prevention, prosecution and protection involving human trafficking, the Defense Department's role is one of prevention, according to John F. Awtrey, DOD's director of law enforcement policy and support, part of the department's personnel and readiness office.

Human trafficking is a worldwide phenomenon -- No. 3 behind drugs and weapons, Awtrey said in a Jan. 31 interview with the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service.

"While traffic victims generally come from the poor places in the world, their destination ... is all over the world," Awtrey said. "A lot of countries where our service members are deployed have evidence of a lot of trafficking, and it's here in the United States as well."

DOD's role primarily is of prevention and, specifically, education so that service members and civilian employees can report suspicious activity, Awtrey said.

"We don't want our service members to be inadvertent supporters of trafficking," he said. "It's a crime; it's a criminal business enterprise. And the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who say, 'Well, I just go there to get some drinks,' if it's a place where the women working in there have been trafficked and are being held against their will, then you're supporting that business."

The Defense Department began training all service members and civilians on indicators of human trafficking after some service members were found in 2004 to be patronizing businesses in Korea involved in trafficking women from Russia and the Philippines, Awtrey said.

Since then, the Uniform Code of Military Justice has made it illegal for service members to visit brothels -- the main business involved in human trafficking, Awtrey said. Other businesses common to human trafficking are nightclubs and bars, restaurants, spas, nail salons and dry cleaners, as well as domestic work in people's homes.

Evidence of human trafficking can be hard to spot, Awtrey acknowledged. "It takes people using their sixth sense to say 'Something isn't right here,'" he said.

A high turnover of young workers and an inordinate amount of private security are indications, he added.

"If you see something that's odd, ... if there seems to be too much security, ... if you're in the middle of America or you're downtown in Germany ... and there are people [in a restaurant] that look like guards, those guards are there to keep the workers from talking to you about something they shouldn't, or from escaping," Awtrey said.

It was that kind of vigilance from an employee at Fort Campbell, Ky., that allowed the FBI to break up a human trafficking ring in the surrounding community, Awtrey said. The worker frequented a Chinese restaurant off base in Tennessee about once a month and noticed every time he was there, the staff -- all young -- was new. His hunch was right.

"That's part of trafficking -- that they never keep people in the same place for long," Awtrey said. "In human trafficking, unlike with drugs and weapons, people can be sold over and over again. They are a reusable commodity, unfortunately."

Human trafficking usually occurs not on military installations, but in the surrounding communities. The exception has been overseas, where it was found among subcontractors in Iraq who brought in foreign workers, confiscated their passports, and paid them far below what they were promised, Awtrey said. "We came down hard in Iraq" to correct the problem, he said, but it requires constant vigilance.

"It sounds simple enough sitting around a room at the Pentagon, but making sure it happens on the ground [in theater] is another story," he said.

Suspected human trafficking should be reported up the military chain of command, to local authorities, or to the nonprofit National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-3737-888.

'Git 'Er Done,' Larry The Cable Guy Tells Troops

By Lisa Daniel, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2011 - In his signature baseball cap and wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut off, the comedian known as Larry the Cable Guy gave a shout-out to the troops today while on location at the Pentagon to shoot an upcoming segment of his History Channel show, "Only in America."

"This is Larry the Cable Guy, and you're gittin' 'er done watchin' the Pentagon Channel," the Nebraska pig farmer-turned-standup-comedian said. "And if you're not, you're a dag-gum communist!"

Larry, whose real name is Daniel Lawrence Whitney, brought his brand of rural, blue-collar humor to official Washington. Combing the Pentagon hallways in his "We Proudly Support the 2nd Amendment" sweatshirt and camouflage cap, he intertwined serious respect for the military and its members with the zany antics of his brand.

"I love ya!" he told service members in the Pentagon Channel taping. "Stay safe out there. We're behind ya 110 percent, and always do this: Git 'er done!"

And, he added, "Come see me when I got a show and, by golly, I'll buy ya a beer."

For military kids, Larry became Mater, his animated tow truck character from Disney-Pixar's "Cars" movie.

"Whew-hoo! Boy, I'm happier than a tornader in a trailer park!" he shouted. "One of these days, we're goin' back down there with McQueen to Radiator Springs, and we're gonna go backward drivin', then we're gonna do some tractor tippin.'"

The History Channel shoot was important to show viewers the inside workings of U.S. military headquarters, the comedian said. "It shows you how your tax dollars are being spent, and it makes you real proud," he added. "A lot of people don't know what they do here, and 24,000 people work here, and they're all regular Americans just like you and me."

That perspective is what he's trying to provide in bringing his show to the Pentagon, he said. "I consider myself about as regular as anybody else," he explained. "So, to actually get in and be able to ask questions -- and some of them are stupid questions -- but they're questions that I want to know, and hopefully other people will want to know."

The service members who work in the Pentagon are no different from other Americans, he noted.

"You know, when they're not in there with their uniforms on, they're just like you and me," he said. "They're just regular folks making a living and trying to live the American dream. It's cool seeing them in there at their best. It makes you proud as an American to know we have the greatest military in the. And to get in there and see behind it and see the guts of it, and watch 'em work, makes you even prouder."

Never out of character for long, the comedian gave his uncensored impressions of the Pentagon's most critical areas, including the National Military Command Center.

"I have learned that you don't pick stuff up in the war room and press buttons without the main man telling you to do it," he said, because when I hit some button and the windows fogged up, they made some announcement and I got shuffled out. I don't know what happened, but I think I might have declared war on Canada."

In the Pentagon press briefing room, Larry stepped up to the podium with cameras rolling . "And this is why we went into Canada," he said. "They don't clean up after themselves."

"That's probably not useful," a Pentagon official commented.

The comedian said he was impressed with the dedication displayed by the Pentagon's military and civilian workforce.

"I could see how focused they are," he said.

The "Only in America" segment was taped as part of the show's second season, which will begin in January, a History Channel crew member said.

The comic is seen in the above DoD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo.

Marine Lt General John R. Allen Vows To Emulate General David H. Petraeus' Leadership

By Lisa Daniel, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2011 - If he becomes the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John R. Allen (seen in the above DoD photo) said he'll seek to equal the strong leadership of his predecessor, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus.

"If confirmed, I will seek to emulate General Petraeus' resolute leadership," Allen said today during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Petraeus appeared before the committee last week for his confirmation hearing to become President Barack Obama's CIA director, replacing Leon Panetta, who becomes defense secretary on July 1.

"I assure you, I will do whatever I can to provide our forces with everything they need in Afghanistan and [for them] to arrive home safely," Allen said.

The general told the senators he did not participate in military recommendations that led to Obama's decision this month to bring home all 33,000 U.S. surge forces from Afghanistan by September 2012, but he agrees with it. The redeployment of 10,000 of those troops this year will begin next month.

"The troops that will be redeployed in July represent the fulfillment of the president's commitment to both resource the strategy he enunciated at West Point [in December 2009], but also to demonstrate to Afghan leadership the urgency of increased Afghan national security force strength and capability to assume its proper role in securing Afghanistan," he said.

Allen noted that 68,000 U.S. troops and tens of thousands of NATO forces will remain in Afghanistan after the surge forces redeploy. He added under questioning that it will be enough to continue counterinsurgency operations there, and that if confirmed, he will monitor the drawdown closely.

"It is my intention, as commander, to monitor that progress," he said. "Should I become concerned that our ability to accomplish our objectives is threatened, I will give forthright recommendations up the chain of command."

Allen recently became a special assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after serving as deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters. He was the deputy commanding general of Multinational Force Iraq – West and commanded the II Marine Expeditionary Force in Anbar province, Iraq, from 2006 to 2008.

If confirmed as commander in Afghanistan, Allen said he looks forward to serving again with Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and the new ambassador in Afghanistan, and will "fully synchronize" military and civilian efforts there.

Based on his recent time in Afghanistan, Allen said, he agrees with assessments that U.S. and NATO forces have made significant progress there, but that challenges remain.

Afghan and coalition forces control much of the battle space in Afghanistan, including the capital of Kabul, which consists of one-fifth of the population, as well as other population centers in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, the general said.

Military operations increasingly are being led by Afghan forces, which are on track in a surge of their own to meet a goal of 305,000 troops later this year, Allen said.

Asked about the importance of Afghan forces taking over security, Allen said, "It's essential to the strategy."

The Afghans also are making much progress in getting Afghan men to leave the insurgency and reintegrate into Afghan society, the general said. About 1,900 Afghan men have been reintegrated from the insurgency and about 3,000 more are waiting reintegration, he said.

Still, "there are significant challenges" in Afghanistan, Allen said, including the need for more operational training and literacy education, and the need to get rid of government corruption in Afghanistan and insurgent safe havens in Pakistan. NATO still needs about 480 more trainers for Afghan troops, he said.

"There are significant challenges, but I believe in the current campaign, ... the objectives are attainable," he said.

U.S., Kuwait Mark Gulf War 20th Anniversary

By Lisa Daniel, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2011 - This week marks 20 years since the United States, as part of a 34-nation coalition, drove Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army out of Kuwait, returning that nation to sovereignty and reshaping the U.S. military to the force it is today.

U.S. service members will join military members from dozens of other coalition countries tomorrow in a grand military parade through the streets of Kuwait City, in what the Kuwaiti government is calling its country's "Golden Jubilee." The event also marks the 50th anniversary of Kuwait's independence from Great Britain and, U.S. military officials say, will recognize the important strategic alliance between Kuwait and the United States.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will join 22 presidents, 64 heads of state and other senior officials attending the ceremonies.

"Twenty years ago, Kuwait and the United States formed an unbreakable alliance, which has grown into a comprehensive partnership that promotes freedom, prosperity and democracy in the Middle East region and the world," Army Lt. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., commander of U.S. Third Army, said in a statement to the Kuwaiti people.

The celebration comes as history is being made in the Middle East where citizen uprisings in recent weeks have prompted revolutions against repressive governments that have spread from Tunisia to Egypt, Iran, Libya and elsewhere.

The Kuwaiti government on its website says Iraq's invasion was "a critical point in modern Arab history." It goes on to say that "the Kuwaiti government and its people will never forget all those who stood with them and supported them during the period of brutal invasion."

The first Gulf War was sparked when then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered an invasion of Kuwait after that nation's government defied his demands to cut oil production to allow for increased prices.

On Aug. 2, 1990, three armored divisions of Hussein's Republican Guard crossed into Kuwait, sped toward the capital of Kuwait City and, within days, overran Kuwait, according to Army historian Richard Stewart's "War in the Persian Gulf: Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, August 1990-March 1991," published by the Center of Military History.

Many Kuwaitis fled to neighboring Saudi Arabia -- the largest foreign supplier of U.S. oil. Many Saudis feared Hussein would unleash his million-man army on their country next. At the urging of President George H. W. Bush, Saudi King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, on Aug. 6, 1990, approved moving U.S. military assets onto Saudi soil, opening the door to "the most concentrated and complex projection of American military power since World War II," Stewart wrote.

(In the above U.S. Army photo by Sgt. M Benjamin Gable, a formation of armored vechicles, manned by U.S. soldiers and Marines, stand ready to lead a convoy of coalition forces through the parade grounds established for the 50/20 celebration in Kuwait City on Feb. 21, 2011).

Under the direction of then-Defense Secretary Richard B. Cheney -- who would later serve as vice president to President George W. Bush when U.S. forces pushed into Iraq to topple Hussein in March 2003 -- and Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., then-Centcom commander, U.S. forces amassed a buildup of nearly 200,000 troops in Saudi Arabia by late September 1990 as part of Operation Desert Shield.

The U.S. commitment to drive Iraq's army out of Kuwait would grow to 697,000 soldiers, Marines and airmen, and include the deployment of 108 Navy ships to the region, Webster noted in his anniversary message to the Kuwaitis.

America wasn't alone during the first Gulf War. The Bush administration built a 33-member coalition that included longtime western allies such as Great Britain, France and Canada, as well as Iraq's neighbors in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Oman, and Qatar, as well as Pakistan.

"The United States assembled an unprecedented and broad coalition to redress the strategic balance in the Middle East upset by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait," according to a Joint Staff paper about the war. The first Gulf War "ushered in an era of coalition warfare in which the United States has generally sought the approval and support of other governments and international agencies before intervening in a regional crisis," the paper said.

Coalition troops assembled in the region as civilian leaders worked with the United Nations to pressure Hussein to withdraw his forces from Kuwait. When embargos and other measures were exhausted, the U.N. set a Jan. 15, 1991, deadline for the Iraqi military to depart Kuwait. Hussein ignored the deadline.

"The hammer fell on Iraqi forces early in the morning of Jan. 17," Lt. Col. Les' Melnyk, an Army National Guard historian, wrote in "Mobilizing for the Storm: The Army National Guard in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm." In the United States, where it was still Jan. 16, he noted, "the air and missile attacks coming in over Baghdad were broadcast live as the [television] networks broke in on their evening lineup," allowing Americans, for the first time, to watch a real-time, play-by-play of their military at war.

"It was the most stunning bombing campaign in the history of the world," Melnyk wrote.

For 38 days, the aerial bombardment put on full display weapons and equipment that could not have been imagined when U.S. troops fought their last major war two decades earlier in Vietnam.

"There were silent airplanes that could not be tracked from the ground, bombs that could be steered to hit a target the size of a chair, missiles that could destroy other missiles in midair, and satellites that could tell a person in the middle of the trackless desert where they were," the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission wrote of the Gulf War.

The Iraqis' counterattack of aging Scud missiles was no match for the coalition, which dropped at least 88,500 tons of bombs during more than 100,000 sorties, destroying all significant Iraqi targets, allowing for the U.S.-led ground war, Operation Desert Storm, to begin Feb. 24.

With the Vietnam War as their previous point of reference, American broadcasters and politicians speculated that the ground war would change the coalition's good fortunes, Melnyk noted. Hussein had used chemical weapons before and there was reason to believe he would again, he said.

That proved not to be the case. Just 100 hours after the ground war began, it was over. By Feb. 27, Iraq's ground forces were in full retreat, and Bush declared a cease-fire and the liberation of Kuwait.

The United States suffered 148 combat deaths and 145 non-combat deaths during the seven-month conflict. In addition, 467 U.S. service members were wounded in action.

The Gulf War was a significant turning point for the U.S. military in many ways, not the least of which was proving it could fight alongside its Arab allies.

"The coalition proved that Western and Arab forces can and will stand together, and can do so with speed and precision," Webster wrote in his letter to the Kuwaitis.

The first Gulf War also solidified confidence that National Guard and reserve members could effectively fight alongside active duty troops, Melnyk said. "We take it for granted today, but before the Gulf War, and in the 20 years since then, the [Guard and] reserves have been part of virtually every contingency operation, large or small, that the military has engaged in," he said.

The war also vindicated changes in military training, doctrine and structure, and the investment in high-tech equipment that took place throughout the 1980s, Joint Force historians said. It further validated laws that strengthened the role of joint forces and that of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and combatant commanders, they said.

"The Gulf War marked the emergence of the United States as the dominant and continuing force for stability in the Persian Gulf region," they wrote. "Perhaps most importantly, overwhelming victory in Operation Desert Storm reaffirmed America's faith in its armed forces and, to some extent, in itself, its products, performance, purpose and dedication."

Iraqis Reject Insurgency And Support Transition, U.S. Military And Civilian Leaders In Iraq Tell Senate Armed Forces Committee

By Lisa Daniel, American Forces Press Service

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2011 - Iraq's citizens want a U.S. civilian presence in their country and overwhelmingly reject the insurgency, the top U.S. military and civilian leaders in Iraq said here today.

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"The people do not want what al-Qaida brings to their country," Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of U.S. Forces Iraq, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "I don't see them returning to the prominence they had a while back. The [Iraqi] people have seen better days."

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Polls show Iraqis are supportive of plans laid out in the U.S.-Iraqi strategic framework agreement calling for all U.S. military to leave Iraq by the end of this year, turning future operations over to the U.S. State Department, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James F. Jeffrey said.

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"In all these [Middle Eastern] countries, there is a nervousness about having too close a relationship with any foreign country," he said. "They have a long history of being exploited by their neighbors, and colonization. But, we would say there is a general, positive feeling in Iraq toward the United States."

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Those positive attitudes from Iraqis will help the 17,000 or so civilians who stay in Iraq after the military leaves, Austin (seen in the above DoD photo) and Jeffrey (seen in the below State Department photo) said.

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It was the second time this week that the two testified before Senate committees about the transition from military to civilian-led operations in Iraq.

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Austin and Jeffrey said they are confident the State Department can complete the mission if Congress fully funds their budget requests.

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"We are dedicated to partnering with our embassy teammates," Austin said. "The key is to fully resource the embassy."

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Jeffrey said failure to fund the effort properly would be a mistake. "Given all the U.S. has sacrificed in Iraq," he said, "now is not the time to be penny-wise and pound-foolish and risk ceding the field to al-Qaida and Iran."

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The U.S. budget in Iraq will decrease from $78 billion for Defense Department operations there last year to a State Department request of about $6 billion for next year, Jeffrey said. That would make Iraq the State Department's largest program expenditure and would double its costs there now, he said.

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Jeffrey added that Iraq increasingly is paying more for its own governance, security and programs, and currently pays for half of civilian construction projects.

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As part of its role to advise and assist, Austin said, the military is working to turn over its training of Iraq's 650,000 security forces to embassy personnel in Baghdad as part of a new office of security cooperation. The office is slated to have 157 personnel to advise, assist and develop Iraqi forces and oversee $13 billion in U.S. military equipment sales to Iraq, he said.
State Department workers now have military escorts everywhere outside of Baghdad, but that has not always been the case, Jeffrey said.

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"We have operated with our own contract security in Iraq under far worse conditions than we're under now," he said. "We continue to operate in Baghdad with our security personnel, and we're prepared to do this throughout the country." He added that he expects the civilians to have more than 5,500 security personnel, doubling their current numbers.

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Iraqi security forces have had the lead in providing the country's internal security since last year and are prepared to continue after U.S forces leave, Austin said. U.S. forces will continue to train and equip Iraqi forces to better prepare them for external threats, which will remain a challenge through 2012, he said.

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Iraq's continued development of its new national government will be critical to sustaining progress, Jeffrey said. "We've pressed them, but more importantly, they've pressed themselves," he told the committee.

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The national government recently signed a 19-point plan with leaders of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq on issues such as revenue sharing and oil exports, Jeffrey said. And Iraqi leaders, cognizant of potential threats from neighboring Iran and are "nationalist in their orientation" to dealing with them, he added.

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"The Iraqi government is well aware of the potential for trouble," he said.