Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
The Military Your Rights Online

Soldiers Looking For Hookups On Craigslist Are Being Warned of a Military Sting 335

Daniel_Stuckey writes with this excerpt from Motherboard: "Word has it there's a military sting operation to bust soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who are using Craigslist to find casual hookups, and now troopers are being warned to keep their sexual exploits on the down-low. It all started when news article published last week in the Army Times suggested undercover military cops were trolling the Craigslist Baghdad personals to catch officers posting lewd photos looking for casual sex. (The Baghdad site is presumably a product of the war in Iraq, though most of the posters now are deployed in Afghanistan.) The story was picked up by the Daily Mail and a subsequent wave of media outlets, exposing the X-rated subculture."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Soldiers Looking For Hookups On Craigslist Are Being Warned of a Military Sting

Comments Filter:
  • In other news (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by Doug Otto ( 2821601 )
    There's a Craigslist Baghdad?
  • Hookers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @06:34PM (#44515139) Journal

    Hookers supposedly got their name from General Hooker in the Civil War, who maintained a brothel for his troops. This is the right way to do it. Men have needs, and they need to be taken care of when deployed. We should be paying women(and men) to deploy with our troops and take care of those needs. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. Make them official government employees, pay them well, give them excellent benefits, screen them constantly for STDs, and our troops will have better morale with fewer sexual assaults, fewer STDs, and fewer war babies. This is a win for everyone.

    • Re:Hookers (Score:4, Informative)

      by Eevee ( 535658 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @07:04PM (#44515433)
      The only flaw with this theory is the term predates the war. It's been recorded in use in 1845 in North Carolina.
    • Re:Hookers (Score:5, Informative)

      by Deadstick ( 535032 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @07:07PM (#44515461)

      Hookers supposedly got their name from General Hooker in the Civil War

      Accent on "supposedly". Here it is five years before that war:

      http://books.google.com/books?id=6EfnQ2HMU9QC&pg=PA201&dq=intitle:americanisms+hooker&output=html [google.com]

    • by wjcofkc ( 964165 )
      You are brave to post that from your regular account. Perhaps I am stupid to agree with you likewise... we shall see as this discussion unfolds. As far as maintaining a large standing military is concerned, you are right. However, I would just assume that we live in a world without a need for armies to begin with. War is evil and so is every reality that follows from it. Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced my rose colored glasses.
    • This is a win for everyone

      Except the government paid prostitutes.

      • by pla ( 258480 )
        Except the government paid prostitutes.

        Do you know how many whores get pensions?

        Sure, they make more than most of us do in their prime, but 25... 30... 35?... 40??? years old, and please pick up your complimentary shopping cart from the nearest grocery store.
        • Is this a joke about campaign contributions? Because it's not really a joke...
          • Re:Hookers (Score:4, Insightful)

            by pla ( 258480 ) on Friday August 09, 2013 @06:23AM (#44518417) Journal
            Is this a joke about campaign contributions? Because it's not really a joke...

            No, actually, not a joke.

            As long as humans have existed, and as long as they continue to exist, we will have some form of "sex workers". As the single best thing we can do to increase their quality of life (particularly post-career, which as my not-quite-a-joke pointed out, fades with their youth), we can legitimize them. Give them a medical, a 401k or pension, profit sharing, the works.

            Now, as for TFA - Sorry, but whether you accept them as "needs" or not, any military consists of a huge number of guys at the peak of their... "virility"... All sent far away from their wives/girlfriends/other for six months to a year at a time. And these asshole MPs want to bust them for finding consensual outlets? Wow. Just... Wow. Really makes you need to ask if "the good guys" deliberately use rape as a weapon of war.
      • This is a win for everyone

        Except the government paid prostitutes.

        If they don't like this job, it's up to them to quit it and seek another position. They are NOT sex slaves, they are just person doing one specific type of job. Don't like the job? Move to another job. Use that fact that by paying taxes and so one during this about-to-be-left job, you paid money to be granted access to services for unemployed/job-seeking (and be also happy that some money where also funnelled into your retirement plan).

        Hint: It's already the case in several European countries. Only not in A

    • Re:Hookers (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Charliemopps ( 1157495 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @08:08PM (#44515969)

      One minor flaw with your theory... in the country they are deployed in they stone women to death for this sort of behavior. Add to that the political ramifications and it's just not something that should be going on. I have a better idea, LEAVE IRAQ. I kinda thought this president promised us that?

      • by artor3 ( 1344997 )

        We left Iraq years ago. We still have a few embassies/consulates, and they have guards (as do all such locations), but we're not occupying the country any more.

        If you had bothered to even read the summary, you would have seen that this is about Afghanistan, and the name of the Craigslist section is just a holdover.

    • by hackus ( 159037 )

      Um, if I may point out something.

      We wouldn't have this problem if there was not a dying empire known as the Anglo Banking system, and men could have sex at home in loving and might I add healthy relationships.

      We would have to get rid of this war thing though.

      Besides, these wars to lock up the markets so to speak by western bankers and prevent the rest of the world from using anything but dollars is going to come to an end anyway.

      Why not stop now so men can have sex with women and still have their limbs inta

      • Why not stop now so men can have sex with women and still have their limbs intact.

        Because we have too many people. War has traditionally been a way for some members of a nation to profit from reduction of excess population. Send them out to help generate some revenues...

    • You seem to not accept that US culture is based on Puritanism. Killing good, loving basically wrong. Neck up, good, neck down, bad.

    • Hookers supposedly got their name from General Hooker in the Civil War, who maintained a brothel for his troops.

      They weren't called that because of his brothel. They acquired that name years earlier, as "Hooker's Ladies", because Hooker always had them around.

    • Unless you are implying that he serviced his men personally in that brothel, he sounds more like a pimp to me.

    • your idea is excellent.

      but it makes too much sense and the religious 'right' would have a fit if you tried to implement it.

      again, religion holds us all back. sigh ;(

    • by jrumney ( 197329 )

      Hookers supposedly got their name from General Hooker in the Civil War, who maintained a brothel for his troops. This is the right way to do it.

      The Japanese in Korea and China during WW2 thought so too.

    • Re:Hookers (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheSeatOfMyPants ( 2645007 ) on Friday August 09, 2013 @02:17AM (#44517757) Journal

      As long as the female soldiers get some choice male & female "partners" to get their rocks off with -- believe it or not, most women *do* have a sex drive that's comparable to what a guy has. (If anything, the women might need the "companionship" more, as we can't masturbate with just our hands remotely as easily as a guy, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to use a noisy vibrator where others could hear it.)

      However, having hookers available isn't going to prevent the female soldiers or locals from being raped by our troops (in the classic sense of knowingly forcing oneself onto someone), since rapists of both genders attack because they get off on the power of violent domination, not because they're unable to find a willing partner. Like police, most soldiers have a drive for physical power, try to use it constructively, but in some cases do start misusing it to dominate others; add in the need to turn their empathy off to do their jobs, and it's not a surprise that rape isn't uncommon.

      Problematically, I've heard that the presence of hookers can sometimes increase the rate of rapes, not decrease it. When someone's in a situation where 90% of the people in a particular category that they see are there to serve them, then it's very easy for them to fall into the habit of expecting it from the other 10% -- not because they're bad people, but just because human brains work that way -- and, if they've been under a ton of stress for long enough, are angry about various things, etc. a "no" at the wrong moment could make the soldier do something he/she wouldn't normally do.

      You guys are doing your gender a real disservice by promoting the "thwarted male=rapist" codswallop. Try to imagine yourself attacking and forcing yourself onto a decent person that trusted you enough to let their guard down a bit (as rapists are almost always people the victim knows well) and ask yourself if you'd totally do that if you could, or if you figure your male friends would do it. It doesn't make sense to spread the idea that you would if it's not true -- or at least, I sure wouldn't encourage negative stereotypes about my gender, let alone a horrific one like that.

      FWIW just because some folks below keep using the term wrong, those are the views of a feminist geek -- someone that sees guys as people to fight alongside, not fight against. (Mentioning that because I've seen too many people spreading the 70s-vintage "feminists all hate men and want to cut your balls off and keep you from having sex omg" FUD in this discussion.)

    • by voss ( 52565 )

      Fewer suicides

    • We should be paying women(and men) to deploy with our troops and take care of those needs. {...} Make them official government employees, pay them well, give them excellent benefits, screen them constantly for STDs, and our troops will have better morale with fewer sexual assaults, fewer STDs, and fewer war babies.

      Except that there's a minor problem:

      - YOU ARE NOT in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, etc. (Where being a prostitue is just another type of job. Where that includes prostitutes being entitled every single advantage and benefit that any other job has. You pay your taxes like everyone else. You get access to health care, social insurrance, etc. and other state-paid advantage like any other tax payer. You get professionnal-health checks and counselling (prostitutes get STD check just like a factory workers must

  • by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @06:35PM (#44515153)

    ok... so when you take young men, put them in a testosterone fueled environment and take away their access to sexual partners, is this really a surprising outcome?

    perhaps you should at the very least, keep them for shorter periods of time.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 08, 2013 @07:24PM (#44515599)

      It's basically feminists wanting to control men's sex lives.
      If it was primarily females undertaking this activity we'd be celebrating their sexual liberation.

      Feminists have a love/hate relationship with testicles & testosterone.

      On the one hand, testicles give society aggressive young men who are willing to be pawns in someone else's war. They give society a large pool of strong, manual labourers. And testosterone has also been shown to enhance risky behavior, giving us men who are willing to be firemen, skyscraper window cleaners, deep sea divers, etc.

      On the other hand, feminists resent testosterone's very same effects when it works to men's favor:
      aggression: even amongst young school children, boys will fight and snatch what they want or need
      strength: most men are physically bigger and stronger than women
      risky behavior: there are more male CEO's and entrepreneurs because males are more likely to take risks. So while many men will fall flat on their faces, others will succeed and become wealthy

      So which is it:
      1) Do we embrace these soldiers for what they are? Or,
      2) Do we replace them with more politically correct individuals?

      Of course feminists will select option 3:
      3) Let's use horny young men to fight our wars and die ... but let's also micro-manage their private sex lives. Try to do the same to young women in society (abortion, birth control, etc) and we'll band together, kick-up a storm and have laws introduced securing the rights of our sisters.

      • by TheSeatOfMyPants ( 2645007 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @11:53PM (#44517313) Journal

        No, the women you're thinking of are conservatives. The vast majority of modern feminists just want to wipe out the stupid old stereotype of women having weaker sex drives. Both sexes have roughly the same range of strong, average, weak, and zero sex drives -- the main difference is that our society hasn't quite gotten rid of the old double-standard where guys are praised for getting laid while girls/women are condemned.

  • Discrimination (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 08, 2013 @06:36PM (#44515165)
    Would have been nice if TFS pointed out it's targeting men seeking men, almost exclusively.
  • by alen ( 225700 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @06:39PM (#44515193)

    Must have 300 on pt test
    Shoot expert
    Combat infantryman's badge preferred

  • by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @06:41PM (#44515217)
    Fighting for their country. Let them hook up with whomever they want.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      A person putting their life on-the-line should be rewarded not punshed.
      When off duty, free and unlimited booze, sex, drugs, ad free tv and movies, free food, free detox, they have to unwind so they don't come home crazy.
      Support our troops, hire a hooker today !

    • Mod up, please.

    • Let them hook up with whomever they want

      Seriously? What business is it of the government who a soldier is fucking, when, how and why? "Let them"? To hell with anyone who tries to tell another person what their sexual antics should be.

    • Fighting for their country

      Please tell me more. Did Afghanistan invade US?

    • Fighting for their country.

      Nah - they are fighting for some commercial interests. Their country is paying their salary, though.

  • by Punto ( 100573 ) <puntobNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday August 08, 2013 @06:44PM (#44515247) Homepage

    I'm more surprised by the fact that having sex is illegal? And the military police has jurisdiction over this crime? wtf

    • And the military police has jurisdiction over this crime? wtf

      For military personnel of course the military police have jurisdiction.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 08, 2013 @07:11PM (#44515497)

      conduct unbecoming an officer.

      Ten years ago, I knew an MP in counterintel who was basically a trained as a professional hooker/seductress.

      Her sole job was to seduce married officers and slap them in handcuffs, supposedly directions often came down from above for people that were already undesirable...

      Real feisty woman... very fun. But I would not have wanted to be on her bad side.

      • SO as a married officer, you can go to jail for sleeping around? What if you have an open marriage?
        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          adultry under any circumstance is punishable under UCMJ. that, and many other regs are absolutely fucking ridiculous, but remember that all of these stupid rules are public record (www.apd.army.mil). no one is drafted, people sign up for it. if youre going to sign your life away to live in that insane asylum for 3+ years (or whatever the minimum is), you had better do a bit of research first. if you dont like the game, dont play.

          further OT: also mind that many soldiers "deployed" arent seeing any combat. a
    • by RabidReindeer ( 2625839 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @07:13PM (#44515505)

      I'm more surprised by the fact that having sex is illegal? And the military police has jurisdiction over this crime? wtf

      I hear it's considered "Unauthorized Use of US Government Property".

    • I'm more surprised by the fact that having sex is illegal? And the military police has jurisdiction over this crime? wtf

      The US military has never liked incidents that cause trouble with its foreign hosts.

      Conditions were harsh in Britain in the early 1940s and there was also an undercurrent of unease that was conveyed by the phrase, especially amongst British men, who resented the attraction of GIs, with their ready supply of nylons and cigarettes, amongst British women. The artist Beryl Cook, who was a young woman at the time confirmed this in an interview to the BBC in the late 1970s. I can't find the transcript of the interview, but from memory it was words to the effect of, ''food was scarce, but we supplemented our income by a little impromptu whoring with the GIs - we all did it''. Many of these liaisons were love matches rather than merely commercial transactions though, as the thousands of marriages between US servicemen and British women (the GI brides) is evidence of.

      Oversexed, overpaid and over here [phrases.org.uk]

      Fueling the fires while stationed in as volatile and deeply conservative a country as Afghanistan is of no help to anyone.

    • It's a breakdown in discipline, and runs contrary to the conservative christian foundation that our military is based on (unofficially, of course).

  • So what? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Weaselmancer ( 533834 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @06:52PM (#44515337)

    I mean really, these people didn't sign up to join the priesthood. They're soldiers.

    Why is having sex a problem?

    • by Threni ( 635302 )

      They're 1) Americans, in 2) a Muslim country. Double repression.

      Probably safer to ship their partners over for conjugal visits, than go native.

    • Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gubon13 ( 2695335 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @07:07PM (#44515457)

      The issue is that - fair or not - these people made a commitment to the U.S. government and its people. Part of that commitment entails keeping themselves in the best possible shape to act at a moment's notice to protect the constitution and yada yada yada. (The so-called "military owns your body" argument.) So it's not a problem with sex, it's a problem with soliciting prostitutes - not exactly nature's perfect specimens of health. That these are people in high positions of authority makes it worse.

      Look at it this way - Imagine you're playing chess. If one of your pawns suddenly gets AIDS, you can lose him, even though it affects the overall battle worthiness of your troops. Now imagine you lose a knight. Significantly greater impact. And it's not like they're bringing prostitutes back to the safety of the barracks; they're going into seedy areas and putting themselves at risk of kidnap or attack.

      I'm not condoning what the military is doing in this situation, nor am I saying it's wrong. After reading the linked articles, I don't have enough information to form even a knowledgeable opinion on the matter. I'm just addressing why it would be bad to let soldiers fuck any filthy thing they want in their downtime.

      • Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by turbidostato ( 878842 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @07:46PM (#44515793)

        "So it's not a problem with sex, it's a problem with soliciting prostitutes - not exactly nature's perfect specimens of health."

        The solution is obvious then: make the army pay for hookers and have their health controlled.

      • by tibman ( 623933 )

        The US Army tests every soldier for HIV every year. I'm also very sure that STD metrics are closely watched. There are more ways to become infected than sex. Like people bleeding all over each other and so on. I'm sure sex is a big part of it though.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Sex needs some/lots of cash and their gov wages might not cover their long term desires/addictions/kinks.
      Until they earn contractor/mercenary wages they are at risk of a foreign power discovering their needs and helping.
      You also have the extramarital affairs side too with discredit and risk of been caught.
      For every secured location their is a foreign power waiting to have a chat at a later time.
      As for other issues the US mil can think up?
      The soldier falls in love and wants to bring the back their new p
    • I mean really, these people didn't sign up to join the priesthood. They're soldiers.

      Why is having sex a problem?

      What, the army of a nation that thinks movies full of violence, gore, and flying body parts is OK, but not if the body parts are procreative?

      • What, the army of a nation that thinks movies full of violence, gore, and flying body parts is OK,

        I'm fascinated. When someone objects to the violence and gore in the popular media they are branded as nutcases and looneys and of course violence in media has no effect on anyone. And now you seem to be implying that violence and gore in movies is a bad thing and that nobody has ever objected to such.

        The issue is not movies of body parts that are "procreative", but the actual use of such parts. There's a couple of very good reasons for this to be against the regulations.

        • We've seen the effect on the coun
  • You mean US military Sting or Al-Qaeda sting?

  • Wait wait... are you telling me Americans are still in Baghdad?
    • by rossdee ( 243626 )

      Yeah, thats the part that surprised me - I thought we had got out of there.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You were supposed to. That was the entire point of telling you that we had.

    • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Yes but for training, as contractors/mercenary/NGO like roles i.e. counter-terrorism operations.
      See (Office of Security Cooperation—Iraq) OSC-I funding, institutional level staff helpers, past Foreign Military Sales staff numbers (some nice Abrams/F-16/Stryker sales numbers?).
      http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS21968.pdf [fas.org] hints at numbers on page 35 onwards.
      From 'At the time of the withdrawal, there were about 16,000 total U.S. personnel in Iraq, about half of which were contractors."
      "However,
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I guess it's cheaper (and less likely to give you a dangerous disease) than visiting a prostitute. Gender equal also. Um, why do we care this is happening?

    • by Obfuscant ( 592200 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @07:52PM (#44515847)

      Um, why do we care this is happening?

      Because the locals don't appreciate it when it happens with locals. And when it is "consenting" co-members of the military it can often be less than consenting and it creates unnecessary conflict in a unit. When that E2 the E7 is banging depends on the good evaluations from the E7 to be promoted and/or get good assignments, it is a good assumption that there is not a lot of consent. And the other members of the unit may just have a bit of jealousy or disrespect for that E7 for what he's doing.

      • Because the locals don't appreciate it when it happens with locals. And when it is "consenting" co-members of the military it can often be less than consenting and it creates unnecessary conflict in a unit.

        Too many of these posts have cut right to the edge of what has been said by the mayor of Osaka.

        ''When soldiers are risking their lives by running through storms of bullets, and you want to give these emotionally charged soldiers a rest somewhere, it's clear that you need a comfort-women system.'' he told reporters. ''Anyone can understand that.'' Japan's obligation, he said, is 'to politely offer kind words to the comfort women'' ---- as if they are to be pitied, prostitutes for whom politeness would be a prize; as if they had been lowered, rather than the Japanese military debased.

        Hashimoto compounded that built-in controversy by suggesting that other countries might not only understand but emulate the Japanese experience --- that the United States might do so immediately at its bases in Japan: ''We can't control the sexual energy of these brave Marines ... They must make more use of adult entertainers.''

        ....what needs to be challenged is a basic complacency about linking soldiers and sexual violence. This is an issue that afflicts many war zones and militaries, including ours, where there is an unresolved crisis of sexual assault. There is also something telling in Hashimoto's muddling of wartime sexual servitude, prostitution, peacetime assaults on the streets of Okinawa, and ''adult entertainment.''

        The Mayor and the Comfort Women [newyorker.com]

  • Rapes (Score:5, Insightful)

    by spike hay ( 534165 ) <{blu_ice} {at} {violate.me.uk}> on Thursday August 08, 2013 @09:57PM (#44516729) Homepage

    How about the military focus less on solicitations for consensual sex and more on actually taking rape seriously?

  • by Ukab the Great ( 87152 ) on Thursday August 08, 2013 @11:40PM (#44517251)

    where sleazy Internet hookups are tolerated, then join Congress. [wikipedia.org]

  • by bickerdyke ( 670000 ) on Friday August 09, 2013 @03:52AM (#44518007)

    Loose lips sink ships.

    All over again.

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion

Working...