Belter was a teenager at the time of all four incidents. He is described by the New York Times as “a student at an elite private boys school whose family’s western New York home was known as a party house where teens gathered to consume liquor, marijuana and Adderall.”
The court heard horrifying details of the first-degree rape, with one of the victim’s statements – read out by the judge – telling how “during the rape, he told her to stop being such a baby. She focused her attention on the leaves of the plant as she cried during the attack.”
News of the verdict devastated one of Belter’s victims, who was in the courtroom as Judge Murphy announced that her attacker would walk free.
Meanwhile, news of the verdict caused outrage online. “You know what would be better?,” one commenter wrote on Twitter. “Jail time for raping four girls.”
Child sex abusers at CIA avoiding prosecution: What we know
2 Dec, 2021 12:45
FILE PHOTO. ©SAUL LOEB / AFP
A scolding expose based on a trove of internal CIA documents indicates an apparent pattern of failure by the federal government to prosecute CIA employees and contractors suspected of child sex abuse crimes.
The article published by BuzzFeed is based on over 3,500 pages of declassified materials it obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
How many pedophiles are we talking about?
At least 10 cases of credibly suspected crimes were identified over the course of 14 years, according to BuzzFeed.
The trove of documents details investigations by the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The spy agency watchdog deals internally with all sorts of crimes, including those committed by third parties, like possession of a fake agent badge. The documents were heavily redacted and the release of some pages under FOIA was fully denied.
BuzzFeed focused its investigation on alleged sexual crimes involving minors. Of the 10 identified individuals, one admitted to sexually abusing two girls aged two and six. Most cases involve crimes related to child pornography, like possession, smuggling, and procurement of outlawed content.
Was the self-confessed child abuser prosecuted?
The documents state that the CIA employee in question admitted to the OIG that he had engaged in “inappropriate sexual activity” involving a two-year-old girl and had “inappropriate sexual contact” with a six-year-old girl on two occasions. The first victim was not identified. The second one apparently was. The employee was also “found to have extensively downloaded child pornography” and admitted to searching for abuse images featuring 12 to 14-year-old victims.
In August 2009, an assistant US attorney declined prosecution “based on taint issues” and “the lack of previously identified child pornography victims” in videos found in the man’s possession. In March of the same year, the CIA decided to terminate the employee and revoke his clearances.
Why no federal prosecution for CIA employees?
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which declined prosecution, would not comment on individual cases, but said that “the occupation or employer of the suspect does not factor” in its decision of whether to file charges. The reference to “taint issues” may indicate mishandling of evidence, BuzzFeed suggested.
A CIA insider told the outlet that the agency is concerned that in a criminal trial, classified information may be disclosed. “We can’t have these people testify, they may inadvertently be forced to disclose sources and methods,” the former official was cited as saying.
No prosecutions resulted from the sex scandals at all?
BuzzFeed identified two such cases, in which both of the prosecuted individuals were also accused of mishandling classified materials. One was an unidentified contractor, who was found to have on his private laptop personal data of “Agency-affiliated individuals” and technical files “related to Agency systems.” They were discovered during a child porn probe. The FBI took over as the primary investigator of the case.
Another one involves Joshua Schulte, the former CIA technical specialist accused of leaking the agency’s hacking tools dubbed ‘Vault 9’ to transparency organization WikiLeaks. Last year, he was convicted of contempt of court and making false statements to the FBI, but the jury got deadlocked on the more serious leaking allegations. He pleaded not guilty over the child pornography possession charges. A separate trial for those allegations is pending.
What about the other alleged sex offenders?
Five of the 10 people spotlighted by BuzzFeed were fired or resigned. Five others were referred to a personnel board or the Office of Security, which handles the security of CIA facilities. The outcome of one case could not be learned from the released documents.
In an eleventh case, the OIG found no direct evidence of any crimes, but said the subject had “consistent interest” in the topic of sexual abuse of minors, which the office believed to be concerning. The part explaining how the agency handled the situation was redacted.
BuzzFeed said the CIA’s record of dealing with suspected offenders as described in the documents “marks a striking deviation from how sex crimes involving children have been handled at other federal agencies.”
Whistleblowers claim widespread sexual harassment at SpaceX
15 Dec, 2021 14:10
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. © Reuters / Joe Skipper
Five ex-employees have alleged sexual harassment at the iconic SpaceX, claiming the work environment is hostile and unresponsive to women, according to two separate reports about the company’s culture.
The former employees insist that the problem received no solid responses from SpaceX’s HR department.
The initial claim was made in an essay by Ashley Kosak, a former mission integration engineer at the company, saying she couldn’t “stop getting sexually harassed.” Blasting the company’s workplace in a text published on the Lioness website , she declared it’s “in a state of disrepair and dysfunction” that left her with no choice but to leave.
“I reported each incident of sexual harassment I experienced to HR, and nothing was done,” Kosak wrote. Despite stating that, to her knowledge, new SpaceX interns “receive training on how to better report their harassment,” she argued harassers “have still not been held to account.”
The Verge later spoke to four more people who claimed to have been sexually harassed or witnessed cases of such behavior with respect to their colleagues. One whistleblower accused Space X of valuing “the mission over employee wellness,” resulting in the company failing to take “meaningful action taken against individuals who committed acts of sexual harassment.” The former employees also backed a previous comparison of Space X to a “boys’ club”.
SpaceX has not issued a public statement on the allegations. However, The Verge reported a company-wide email sent by Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, reminding employees that harassment will not be tolerated, and encouraging people to inform superiors if they experience any mistreatment in the workplace. The company also promised to conduct an audit into the matter.
The latest allegations come over a year after a former SpaceX intern, Julia Crowley-Farenga, filed a lawsuit claiming that the company retaliated against her following a report she made of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. The lawsuit has since “been resolved,” according to Crowley-Farenga.
Earlier this year, another former employee, a SpaceX engineer called Away Reddy, filed a lawsuit that accused the company of racial discrimination, national origin discrimination, retaliation, and breach of contract. His complaint alleges he suffered “economic loss, mental pain and suffering, extreme emotional stress and loss of ability to lead a normal life” after working at SpaceX.
