The Predator Class (Part One)

There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing - Leonard Cohen

In the middle of his September, 2004 address to the UN General Assembly, making the case that America's purpose is to "build a better world beyond the war on terror," George Bush had this to say:

Because we believe in human dignity, America and many nations have joined together to confront the evil of trafficking in human beings. We're supporting organizations that rescue the victims, passing stronger anti-trafficking laws, and warning travelers that they will be held to account for supporting this modern form of slavery. Women and children should never be exploited for pleasure or greed, anywhere on Earth.

It was a rare where did that come from moment during one of Bush's more lucid performances. And while it's appropriate to place the exploitation of children in the context of the "war on terror," he was disingenuous about what that place should be.

Consider this BBC story from July 5, 2000:

Wanted Israeli diplomat flees Brazil

Police in Rio de Janeiro say an Israeli diplomat suspected of belonging to an international child pornography ring has fled Brazil and returned to Israel.

The Israeli diplomatic mission confirmed that its vice-consul, Arie Scher, had flown home at the request of the Israeli government, which it said had ordered an investigation into the allegations.

Police want to question him in connection with pornographic pictures and videotapes of young children found in the home of a Hebrew language teacher arrested on Tuesday.

The children were pictured and filmed at the diplomat's house.

Police said the pictures had been published on the internet with the apparent aim of attracting foreign paedophiles to Rio de Janeiro.

Scher was to resurface five years later, when he was appointed Israel's new consul to Australia replacing Amir Laty, a spy who was himself expelled for seducing diplomats, defense specialists and journalists "in the hope of cultivating young women with access to government secrets."

That sex is a tool of espionage should not be much of a story, though it should, still, at least be a story. Despite its glamorization and parody in film, whoring for intelligence remains largely invisible and unacknowledged. Remember August 2004, when New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey resigned on account of a relationship with former Israeli naval lieutenant Golan Cipel, the man he had named his state's homeland security czar? Speculation that Cipel may have cultivated the affair as an intel op was duct-taped over as both "anti-gay" and "anti-semitic," by American liberals on the usual forums who pretended to have never heard the name Pussy Galore.

But "international child pornography" is a sex crime of a different order. And Scher's Australian placement and support from his Foreign office, which rejected the accusations against him as "terribly exaggerated," suggest kiddie porn wasn't a Blame it on Rio personal indiscretion, but rather something that came with the job. Much like the human smuggling scandal out of the US embassy in Azerbaijan that saw Ambassador Reno Harnish shuffled sideways to an environmental posting engaged in the "fight against bird flu."

A question to consider is why someone like Scher, who in his previous posting was apparently engaged in the covert pursuit of luring foreign paedophiles to his host country, would be considered an appropriate appointee for the position of consul to Australia.