Two years and three budgets later, it’s clear Eric Holder will not take action on these atrocities until he is forced to do so politically, and it’s long past time for Congress to do just that. There should be no excuses for a government that has the means to protect children from predation and exploitation, yet refuses to do so.
Grier Weeks
The Daily Caller
1/18/2011
A 2006 law that requires the U.S. Justice Department to deploy a high-tech system for catching child pornographers has identified hundreds of thousands of criminal suspects — and collected extensive evidence pointing to the locations of their child victims.
Yet, despite knowledge of this evidence, Attorney General Eric Holder has refused calls to take serious action.
Now, a Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee, and a government oversight panel on the warpath, could finally force Holder to explain two years of inaction that left thousands of children in danger.
Congress mandates action
To understand Holder’s outrageous failure to protect, some history is necessary.
Congressional interest in an online system for fighting child exploitation dates back to 2006, when Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) sponsored the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.
Though Sensenbrenner’s legislation is best known for its focus on sex offender registries, a lesser-known provision mandated that the Attorney General deploy “technology modeled after” a Canadian law enforcement system designed by Microsoft.
In the wake of the Justice Department’s rejection of Microsoft’s offer to donate its Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) system (citing its prosecution of the company for antitrust violations), Congress ordered Justice to provide a substitute.
That technology was deployed, and nearly overnight U.S. law enforcement began seeing and sharing information on an estimated 300,000-500,000 suspects trafficking in horrific video and photographs of children being raped, abused and even tortured.
A shocking picture emerges..,
Read the rest at The Daily Caller.
