There was a familiar ring to the recent news about the Foley scandal. It was not the first time that Dennis Hastert and the Republican Leadership of Congress put protecting their political power above their duty to protect children from sexual predators.
On May 24, 1999 Brian Ross filed a report on ABC News for 20/20 about the human trafficking on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and the protection of the abuse by the Republican Leadership in Congress:
CHARLES GIBSON: Brian Ross has gone back to Saipan for a new investigation into charges that things have gotten even worse. This time, he has found evidence that some young women are being lured into Saipan's thriving sex trade and forced into onstage sex acts and prostitution. As you watch our investigation, you may ask yourself, "Could something like this really be happening on American soil?"
And it happened with Denny's help. And Hastert was paid over $20,000 for his part in killing legislation to end the abuse.
To the jump...
I've been
writing about the abuse on CNMI and the GOP's Chinese sweatshop owning patrons for quite a while.
Since 1995, Jack Abramoff and the Republican Party have been blocking any and all efforts to end the system of sweatshops, human trafficking, force prostitution and forced abortion on CNMI. Instead they have actively worked to protect and fund the abuse. (Tom and Jack are gone, but the effort to block legislation continues to this very day).
Tom DeLay was Jack's number one guy in Congress. He made sure that his GOP Cappos (Doolittle, Pombo, Sweeney, Cubin, etc.) looked out for the interests of the Party's Chinese patrons as "business" went through their Committees.
To manage the flow and keep the scam running, DeLay counted on the BIG man from Illinois: Denny Hastert.
When Jack Abramoff needed to brainstorm about how to block legislation Hastert was involved. Here is an example:
It was just one of number of meetings between Abramoff and GOP House Leadership to work out the details on how to block efforts to end the abuse on the Mariana Islands. (Here are more examples and there are hundreds more).
By 1994 the abuse on CNMI was so bad that there was bipartisan agreement to end it and agreement to extend US labor, immigration and custom laws to CNMI.
After the Gingrich revolution that bi-partisan effort to DO THE RIGHT THING was blocked. Now all Congressional action had to go through a power filter.
If an action put slush fund money in jeopardy, it had to be denied. That was the case with the Mariana Islands.
The Tan Family came to Saipan from China in the 1980s. They bribed a local CNMI government official to allow unlimited foreign investment on the Territory. Then they gave that official a job with their sweatshop empire. His name was Ben Fitial. In 1999 Jack Abramoff helped Fitial get elected Speaker of the CNMI House (all it took was a few million dollars of US taxpayer dollars paid out as bribes. And the Republican Congress appropriated these bribe payments for Jack between 2000 and 2002.)
In 1999 the entire scam was almost exposed.
The Clinton Administration, the media and human rights workers were pressing the issue of reform. It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate. If any of the Bills went to a vote in the House, the reform would become law. I remember thinking in 1999 that this was the year the abuse would end. I didn't know that Willie Tan and Jack Abramoff had Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert in their (very large) pockets.
The media glare was intense. In May Brian Ross filed his second report on the abusive conditions on Saipan. Part of that report focused on the human trafficking of young girls for the local sex trade:
KATRINA (through translator) Once there was a customer that bit my breast. But the boss told us the customer is always right.
BRIAN ROSS (VO) Many of the women who work here are only teenagers. Many under age, like Katrina, not her real name, who was 14 when she was recruited from the Philippines.
KATRINA (through translator) It was my first time to dance naked, and I was ashamed.
BRIAN ROSS (VO) Katrina told federal investigators that she signed this official Saipan government affidavit, thinking she was going to be a waitress and ended up forced into live sex acts on stage.
KATRINA (through translator) Then he started cursing me and threatened to take off my clothes. So I was afraid, and I took them off instead.
Of course, the 20/20 report wasn't the first time that Congress had been notified of the abuse. Charlie Brown's DoolittleFacts.org has links to many of the documents that Denny and the rest of the GOP gang chose to ignore in their pursuit of power by any means necessary.
And the 20/20 report makes clear how any and all Legislation was blocked:
GEORGE MILLER Congress could fix this that quickly. All we have to say is that the immigration laws and the labor laws of the United States of America apply to Saipan.
BRIAN ROSS (VO) And yet Congressman Miller says his efforts to do that have been blocked by one of the most powerful people in Congress.
EVENT HOST The Majority Whip of the House of Representatives, Tom DeLay.
BRIAN ROSS (VO) The number-three Republican in the House, Tom DeLay.
REP TOM DELAY, MAJORITY WHIP Thank you.
BRIAN ROSS (VO) DeLay and members of his staff took a Christmas holiday trip to Saipan in 1997, toured select garment factories and barracks and then praised the island.
REP TOM DELAY And you represent everything that is good about what we're trying to do in America.
BRIAN ROSS (VO) In fact, when Steve Galster of Global Survival Network went undercover posing as a garment executive, he heard all about Congressman DeLay from the Mr Big of Saipan garment manufacturers - this man, Willie Tan. Tan, who owns the factors where the workers became ill, claims he is close to DeLay and boasted of the assurances he said the congressman had given him that the proposed laws on Saipan would be killed.
WILLIE TAN Because Tom DeLay will never let it go.
STEVE GALSTER You're sure?
WILLIE TAN Sure. Do you know what Tom told me? He said, "Willie, if they elect me Majority Whip, I make the schedule of the Congress, and I'm not going to put it on the schedule." So Tom told me, "Forget it, Willie. No chance."
BRIAN ROSS (VO) A spokesperson for DeLay says it's no secret he opposes the legislation and a lawyer for Tan says Tan was just exaggerating to impress a man he thought was a potential customer. But Congressman Miller says the tape provides a rare insight into the behind-the-scenes fight against reform on Saipan.
GEORGE MILLER It makes me very angry, very angry. You know, that's not what the Congress of the United States is supposed to be about.
This is not what America is supposed to be about. In 1999 Denny Hastert actively worked to protect a sexual predator industry on a US Territory in the North Pacific. And he was paid.
Here is an interesting series of events.
In 1999 Hastert becomes Speaker and the push is on to end the abuse on CNMI. Denny is there to block justice and protect the abuse
On April 29, 1999, Rep Bob Franks (NJ) introduced HR1621 to prohibit CNMI from using "Made in USA". The bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Trade in the House Ways & Means Committee on May 11, 1999. The House Leadership killed the bill in that Committee.
Between May 26, 1999 and June 16, 1999, Denny Hastert would collect more than $20,000 from the sweatshop interest of CNMI for his Keep Our Majority Leadership PAC:
On May 26, 1999 Keep Our Majority received $12,500 from individuals tied to CNMI sweatshops: $2500 from E. Inos; $5000 from J. Pangelinan; and $5000 from B. Fitial (who, as I've mentioned, is very connected to Abramoff in press reports and various Guilty pleas).
On June 16, 1999 Keep Our Majority takes in an additional $7500 from more sweatshop interests on CNMI: $5000 from D. Sablan and $2500 from Frank Camacho.
And on May 6, 1999 Hastert's PAC received $5000 from J. Karen Butler (the NewStar PAC treasure with a number of connections to Abramoff and the GOP slush Fund)>
In addition to these donations, Hastert has received at least another $68,000 from Abramoff and his clients--more than anybody else in Congress.
So, instead of ending the abuse, the GOP Leadership went after turn their focus on the members of the Clinton Administration who were trying to end the abuse. Between 1999 and 2000 they held Hearings to condemn DOI officials who discovered the Abramoff slush fund and Jack's corruption of Congress. These officials where driven from office by Team Abramoff and the level of corruption grew faster than Denny's waistline.
With Hastert's help the Abramoff slush fund evaded disclosure in 1999 and the system of sweatshops, human trafficking, force prostitution and forced abortion on CNMI was protected. It did not bother Denny that their were many children among the victims.
Denny Hastert is living in a MORAL TWILIGHT ZONE. His closet is filled with compromised support for shady characters like Foley, Abramoff and the sweatshop owners on the Mariana Islands.
Whenever he is confronted with a choice between doing the right thing or ignoring a crime if it will enhance his power--he has also chosen power.
It is not a surprise that he would sell out the Pages working in Washington. After all he was more than willing to condemned tens of thousands of workers on the Mariana Islands to sweatshops and many other forms of abuse. These included forced prostitution, forced abortion and the denial of the right to worship in a Church.
Katrina, was one of those victims. Her story was featured in the Brian Ross 20/20 report. In 1998 she testified before the House of Representatives. She ended her statement by saying:
"Please change the laws to help the other girls and workers. Please change the laws to make bad bosses go to jail and have a lesson. That is the only way to change the CNMI. Otherwise human beings will still be treated like animals. Young girls like me will still dance naked in bars instead of go to school. They will still learn to be prostitutes. They will have no childhood.
Please give me and the others justice. Everybody is expecting justice from you because we have been waiting too long."
Denny Hastert looked the other way because Jack Abramoff and his Chinese clients were helping him become Speaker.
The Foley affair is just a recent example of his Moral Twilight.
Denny Hastert has been protecting sexual predators who hunt teenagers for sex since at least 1995 (when he signed on to the DeLay/Abramoff anything goes one-Party rule plan).
It is time for him to go.
Please support John Laesch with your time, money and energy. I think he could be a giant killer this November.
And when Hastert falls, he will take a lot of Republicans with him.
Unless we double our efforts and fight like hell, the GOP may win on November. We have to bring the fight to them everywhere.
Please do what you can. And then do some more. To win we need your time, money and energy. We need to fight hard and fight smart.
2006 is now. It is way past time to take our Country back.
Let's do this.
UPDATE
Susan Ralston resigns
A key aide to presidential political strategist Karl Rove resigned Friday in the wake of a congressional report that listed hundreds of contacts between disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House.
Susan Ralston, special assistant to President Bush, submitted a resignation letter to him less than five weeks before congressional elections in which corruption and scandal are emerging as key issues for voters.
Another shoe drops