The British government are deploying missile launchers across London and have posted the Royal Navy’s largest ship in the Thames as part of the security for the Olympic Games to respond to a terrorist attack although there is no evidence that such an attack will take place.
For the record, I would like to say that if there is a terrorist attack in the U.K. during the Olympics it will be far from the sporting event where there is no security buildup. Terrorists act in this way to remind us that the government cannot protect us. But I have seen no evidence of such an attack.
Some years ago I wrote a risk assessment warning of the high potential for a terrorist attack on one Asian resort island. I sent my report to a number of government departments and embassies but never received a response; probably because I had no evidence. Some months later hundreds of tourists were murdered in the way I had outlined.
Another risk assessment I wrote was on the infiltration of the Korean education system by foreign pedophiles. I had a long-running argument with the British Embassy in Seoul as I wanted them to work with the Korean authorities to combat this trend. A rather rude member of the embassy staff ridiculed my assessment and said that if I had evidence of sex offenders here then I should contact the police. But I didn’t have any evidence!
About 6 months later Interpol released an image of their most wanted offender who had raped young boys in Thailand and Cambodia. He was found to be teaching English to children in Seoul.
As a result of that incident the Immigration Bureau brought in a rash of visa changes. They took some of the proposals I had made, copied some of the failed policies of Japan, sent everything to the Ministry of Complications to be finalized and arrived at the tragedy that now exists. Today if a plane full of determined pedophiles arrived at Incheon airport to work here with children there is not one existing policy which can stop them, and I challenge any official to say otherwise.
The reasons for the above failings and such gaping holes in policies are because decisions are made by very senior officers who have surrounded themselves by swarms of “experts.” These experts are very well-educated, to the Ph.D. level. But they have minimal real work experience and have often come straight out of university and are thus completely removed from how the world works.
Imagine if such expertise were required for the Olympic team, perhaps archery. Would you place your money on the individual who has had his head in a book for most of his life but can give an excellent presentation on the “Life and Times of Robin Hood,” or the one who has been out in the field daily challenging all types of weather and cross-winds?
My concern is the disappearance of children. Where do they go? Often they are sold into the international sex trade to meet an ever growing demand.
This trade can be more beneficial than drug trafficking due to the low risk of capture and the relatively lenient sentences. If a child is sold for sex for $300, six times a day over a six day week then that’s $10,800 a week. Multiply that by 10 children and you start to see a very lucrative business model.
There are multiple methods of trafficking but if you care to examine a mother and child exiting through airport controls together you will find that the immigration officer pays very little attention to the child. In Korea the mother’s surname is different to the child’s so no suspicions arise there. When the said “mother” returns to the country she is alone.
Much is done to rescue children from slave houses, but more could be done at the early kidnapping/trafficking stage. What passport controllers need to do is to link adults with children as they pass through border controls. If the adult returns without the said child then they should be detained until the safe whereabouts of the child has been verified.
I could of course elaborate on this trafficking method with the police and immigration commissioners, but I would be met by their experts; far better educated than I, who would tell me that I have no evidence of this trend; and as per usual they would be absolutely right!
By Anthony Hegarty
Anthony Hegarty is a risk and security analyst in Daegu, Korea. ― Ed.
