Why did Bush go "off the reservation" with this issue? I suspect a Religious connection. He must have heard an earful recently from one of the Missionary groups he listens to.
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washingtonpost.com
Bush Warns U.N. Assembly About Dangers of Trade in Sex Slaves
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 24, 2003; Page A23
Delegates to the U.N. General Assembly had heard President Bush condemn terrorism and nuclear proliferation in previous speeches, but at the end of yesterday's address, he added a new warning, about the dangers of the international trade in sex slaves.
The State Department estimates that at least 800,000 women, children and men are sold across borders each year, many for captivity in squalid brothels that foster the spread of AIDS. Bush condemned the "special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable." He said the young victims "see little of life before they see the very worst of life."
"We must show new energy in fighting back an old evil," Bush said. "Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended in its last strongholds, the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time."
Bush's aides said that the passage on slavery in yesterday's speech allowed him to close on a note on which he could find wider agreement than on his call to action on Iraq, and that he took care to note that the United States had contributed to the crisis by providing a market. A State Department report said that nearly 20,000 victims enter the United States each year.
"This problem has appeared in my own country, and we are working to stop it," Bush said. "The victims of this industry also need help from members of the United Nations. And this begins with clear standards and the certainty of punishment under laws of every country."
With little public attention, the White House, the State Department and the Justice Department have begun acting to deter human trafficking, which has become a focus of Christian conservative groups as they increasingly turn to international issues.
Scott Reed, a Republican consultant, said the international sex trade is the rare issue that "covers the Christian conservatives and the soccer moms at the same time."
"It's an issue that moderate, independent women can warm to because it shows the softer side of Bush," Reed said. "These are the women in the suburbs of the Midwest who will help decide the 2004 election."
Administration officials said the slave trade helps underwrite international organized crime and, by providing money for weapons, fosters terrorism. But Republican officials said Bush is equally interested in the moral dimension of the issue.
Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), who wrote legislation against human trafficking that President Bill Clinton signed into law, said that he has discussed the issue with Bush and that the president's attention to it springs from his Christian faith. "You can see it in his eyes when he talks about it," Smith said. "He has compassion for the victims, and outrage about the international pimps and exploiters."
During an interview Sunday with Fox News, Bush talked frankly about his faith. "I pray daily, and I pray in all kinds of places," he told interviewer Brit Hume. "I pray in bed, I pray in the Oval Office. I pray a lot . . . as the spirit moves me. And faith is an integral part of my life."
Asked about his faith and Iraq, Bush said: "I would never use God to promote foreign policy decisions. I recognize that in the eyes of an Almighty, I am a lowly sinner, and I ask for strength and wisdom, and I pray for calmness when the seas are storming."
Clinton signed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, which established sanctions for countries that the State Department determines are making too little progress toward the goals of reducing human slavery, including those involving education and prosecution.
On Sept. 10, Bush imposed the first sanctions under the act, on Burma, Cuba and North Korea. The United States already has sanctions on those countries, but an administration official said the designation could curtail educational and cultural exchanges.
Bush also named war-ravaged Liberia and Sudan as chronic offenders in the State Department's third annual "Trafficking in Persons" report. He said 10 other countries had avoided penalties by taking steps to fight human trafficking.
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