The Defender Foundation

This is a copy of a letter sent to a Shield Team inquiry

Greetings,

I hope you will forgive the delay but for most Shield Team enquiries we let you sit on things for a little to let you sort out your commitment. Now, I would ask you to pray about it for a solid week before making any final decisions. The Defender Foundation is made up in two parts, our Public Chapter side and our Shield Teams.  We are about Active Activism and Doing more than donating. We so many people trying to fight trafficking with no real focus or intent. They just know they do not like trafficking and sometimes become awareness machines or social clubs to fight human trafficking. I am not saying awareness is not needed, because it obviously is as so many people remain clueless about the subject, but there has to be that next step, where when they ask what they can do about it, there has to be more than just telling them, “Well you can give me money, and we will tell more people.”

That being said, we do not detract from any organization involved in this fight and are willing to be a servant organization in many respects and have helped other organizations raise awareness. We want to help organizations become more effective, rather than tear anyone down.

Our Public Chapters are volunteer driven and are formed to put people to work fighting this true horror. They help with local shelters, form and promote legislation, yes-raise awareness, and prevention in their classes to both faculty and students in the school system. Hotel awareness programs, victim letter writing and support, shield team support, street ministries, and now; going to be forming a rehab shelter and then long term safe ranch, job training and safe house residence. We also have an aftercare team that has an amazing program to help with every step of the recovery process. So, in reality, with their training missionaries going to the ground zero culling grounds in Europe and Eastern Europe, legislation, etc., they are probably going to prevent and help more victims than the Shield Team side ever could.

But that brings us to the Shield Teams. Some people state that this problem will never go away rescuing victims one at a time. And they are absolutely right. But let’s think why we are here. We are here for the victims. Not just to raise a ton of money or build our organization into this gleaming monolith that stands against Human Trafficking. The fact is, there are up to 27 million people in captivity and we as much as we need to do everything we can to raise awareness and prevent future victims, there are captives out there right now. We don’t want to be just her voice, we want to be the hand that lifts her out of this. Our Shield Teams are dedicated to that. We will fight this war on all fronts. People want to know where our direct focus is. Easy question to answer. We are “fighting” Human Trafficking. In every sense of the word. It is not a lack of focus, it is a full campaign on a war front.

Our Shield Team agents and operators firmly believe that all of the time, expense and effort it took to get even one victim out of captivity is worth it, for that one victim. And yes, facts are that she has been broken to a point that she may return to the streets, believing she does not deserve freedom and is too damaged to be around her family, friends, etc. but we will do everything we can for her and go right back in to the next one and do our best to take her through every step of the recovery process until she is a confident full person again. Being on the Shield Teams is a calling. It would be easy to have a Shield Team if we secured major funding and hired world class operators to plan and implement retrievals. But it takes a special man and woman who will put everything on the line as a volunteer. And I find it interesting that part of the controversy about us is that we are a charity with tactical retrieval teams. If we were a kidnap rescue company and were paid and paid our operatives, it would not be thought as controversial at all. But put the word charity in front of it, and all of a sudden, controversy.

We are building new chapters and even Shield Teams across the country as we speak. Not to put a dot on the map so we can say we have a Defender Chapter here or there, but to put out more troops and then fight…effectively. Each Chapter and Shield Team will have an advantage where they can pull from experience, skills and volunteers from other chapters. So things such as media publications, programs, etc. can be shared by all chapters. And if one chapter has a serious need in their area, the other chapters can pool resources an make things happen. The same with the Shield Teams. If Shield Team San Diego has a team out of country and then the Border Patrol request assistance in surveillance or whatever, they can request some help for Shield Team Seattle to send some people down to help out for a bit. Each chapter and Shield Team gets to focus on the problems in their own backyard in an all for one and one for all type focus. And the all for one happens when we send teams overseas. Because we will fight this war on all fronts.

We are currently discussing how to work with law enforcement and the local Task Force in the HQ Chapter to be more effective for the victims and hopefully set precedent for how the other Shield Teams being formed will work.

Now, as far as your experience. I do have a few people with no military or law enforcement experience, but they are willing to train and they are always there when needed, and that says a lot truthfully. It is also my responsibility to try to scare you out of this. We are going up against major bad guys and this is no book or adventure movie. The realities of going up against such entities as the Russian and other mafias, 1%er biker clubs and other street level organizations can end very badly in reality. This is where our having law enforcement with us when we roll out now, is quite handy. But we also need to be highly trained and dedicated professionals and ready for any contingency. There is a reason why the Shield Team application waiver is quite lengthy and extensive.

All that being said, I congratulate you on your willingness to fight this tragedy and look forward to hearing from you in the future.

God’s blessings upon you.

P.S. I think I will make this my Shield Team Director Update as well.

Greetings,

July has been an interesting month in that we are at the halfway mark for this year and operations are picking up steam. We have purchased the advertising in FloridaRUS magazine and newspaper, hoping to expand our reach to potential victims and people that might be able to help. We also did more on the prevention front by having a class and presentation for about a hundred young people from 13-16 from Russian/Slavic families from all over the U.S. They are in the age range that really need to know what is going on. We also gained steam with a lot more volunteers and now we are planning our different committee meetings with them. Some of the committees will be aimed at awareness and prevention while others will be aimed at things that will help support the victims.

We had a couple victim pickup missions that were cancelled before the Teams rolled, kind of unusual. Both were domestic victims and both had their own reasons why we should not be involved. If you would like to know more you can see me at the monthly meeting. It is important that we get as much detail as possible when we go on these retrievals. These details can put the brakes on something fast if everything is not as it appears on the surface. We will never cancel a rollout from fear of the situation, but we will also not do anything that can be termed kidnapping.

Our overseas venture is upon us. We are going in with a brother organization called Breaking Chains into the Dominican Republic in the beginning of September. A lot of children are being smuggled from Haiti and for a few dollars, you can get them smuggled through various border checkpoints and many trails are unguarded. These children are often sold as slaves to be used in the brothels and are being sold out of country as well by organized crime. Russian Organized Crime has purchased many resort areas in the Dominican Republic. Some of these openly cater to sex tourist and there are suspected trafficking victims there from all over the world as well as these children victims available. We have been told that at some of these resorts, it is possible to have a tied up 5 year old sent to your room. This is not Thailand, this is on our back doorstep. We are going to do something about it. Along with our partner organization, we will be meeting with different organizations to aid in the rescue and restoration of these victims. We also have contacts to send supplies to the children homes via the U.S. Military so we can give them support, not just hungry mouths to feed. I invite you to be a part of this. One of the committees being formed at our next meeting will be raising food and clothing for these facilities and getting them to the military bases to be flown in. The Shield Teams will be helping set up a permanent base of operations where we will be rotating Teams in to work with Breaking Chains in the physical rescue of these children. The Defender Foundation is about Doing.

I hear many people talk to me about different methods of ending Human Trafficking. Most of these are opposed to our methods of awareness, prevention, lobbying and rescuing victims, even with our prosecution policy. Some will even venture thoughts such as saying we are just anti-prostitution and that prostitution should be legalized, etc. Here is the thing, the average age of these victims is 14-16 and legalizing prostitution would not even apply here and unless you believe in your position to actually go out there, lobby and make something happen, and this is not some sort of self justifying thought exercise, I don’t have time for your idiocy. I justified my past actions for many years, guess what, I was wrong.

There is a time coming soon, where much of what the Shield Teams do will catch the public eye. At that time, we will start to garner attention from many different types of people wanting to apply. Our screening process will become even tighter and I want some things understood from future applicants. We are facing dangerous people. This is a decision where you should think/pray about it for at least a week before deciding. If you have a spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend, they should be part of this process. A house divided is not good for this. But if you have their support and they are willing to up security at the home level, then you will be stronger for it than not including them in the first place. I also want you to understand that we are there for the victims. If you want to pack a gun and go fight crime as batman, I invite you to stay in your home city as there is plenty of crime there I am sure. But you will not be doing that as a Defender Foundation Shield Team member. Our focus is on and for these victims, you are their Shield and in many cases, their last hope, you will not let them down. There is a certain type out there that is reading this right now who just knows that they have finally found what they have been preparing to do their entire life. For you brother/sister, contact us about your future Knight Job.

Sincerely,

Director, Shield Teams

Greetings,

June has been a pivotal month for the Shield Teams. There are certain things behind the scenes that were developed and set in motion that will decide how, when and where we will operate in the immediate future. We have also firmed up some of our Law Enforcement relationships which I think will be crucial in our goal of every rescue resulting in a prosecution. Subsequent to one conversation with DHS/ICE, it was decided that we will modify our victim notification from when we physically get the victim, to when we are initially notified in the case of a Foreign Victim.

Our prior policy was based on several things. The main one being we have a far reaching Operations area. If we have to travel 6 hours for a Retrieval, there is a good chance an already hesitant Victim may have changed their mind by the time we get there. Our credibility may suffer after repeated “cry wolf” events. But as DHS/ICE is very familiar with Human Trafficking and is on the forefront of this fight ever since the launch of their Blue Campaign, we will make exception for them.

The Defender Foundation has also started to get more overseas interest. I am of the mind that we need to get our feet under us here for operations in our back yard. But, there is such a huge need around the world to rescue captives. We are trying to explore contingencies for “Field Trips” abroad. It is hard to say no when people are being held against their will and being raped continually. Hard to hear that? That is what is happening, right now. This knowledge tells me I cannot just sit here… and let it happen.

We had more Contact Team Applicants apply this month. I am grateful for such dedicated people and in such a needed area of the Teams. These are the women that will have Victim contact. The rest of the Shield Team does not, with the only exceptions being if the Victim needed immediate medical care from the Team Medic/Paramedic/RN, or there was just some crazy emergency situation where the Team was evacuating a building or something. The newer Contact Team got to do some of their first training this month and everyone is looking great so far and I couldn’t be more proud of them.

On a personal note, June had a lot of trials for me as well. June is the anniversary of both my Mother’s death and I have to deal with the stress and pangs of Father’s Day. I miss my children daily. One thing it does do though is help shape my focus and my talks for future speaking engagements. It makes me get busy so I don’t get dragged down. Many of you that know me personally know of my related crusade to make men hold themselves accountable for their actions. There would not be a Human Trafficking problem if there was not a demand for it. This demand is fueled primarily by men. We as men, have the responsibility, the mandate and honor of being Protectors. Protectors of our families, those weaker than us, and our countries if needed or sworn to. I betrayed this mandate and it destroyed everything dear to me. What men have to understand, is that we have to be Protectors again. We have to reign in our thought life and our personal habits that endanger others. Whatever your past, step up now and be that needed Protector again. The Porn Industry is not just this thing for “consenting legal age adults.” It breaks barriers and then more barriers, and study after study shows this. The porn industry is also starting to use Trafficking Victims. We have Strip Clubs using trafficking victims. Are you man enough to be a true Protector, to not take part in industries that ultimately support enslavement and rape of child victims? I would say I am sorry for making you uncomfortable, but I am not. Be a man.

In closing, I would ask for your prayers. The Shield Teams are about to enter a phase where we are basically announcing ourselves to many Organized Crime groups. We couldn’t see a way around it as we have to get word to the Victims. End of July and then August will be very busy times for us. Keep us and the Victims in your prayers and thanks so much to all of the Agencies, friends and supporters behind us.

Sincerely,

Director, Shield Teams

Greetings,

May has been another month of progress for the Shield Teams. Much of it has been behind the scenes as far as the Teams are concerned but we have been seeking to firm up some of our law enforcement connections and emplace the protocols for our future investigations. It is our goal to be able to give the applicable agency a thorough comprehensive report, combining all aspects of the investigation, to include electronic, human intelligence, surveillance and other intelligence without sanitization, in a comprehensive connect the dots format. Wow, that may sound complicated but having a comprehensive report will be critical in passing on needed information in a timely fashion.

Now, let’s move on to another area. Shield Team applicants. I guess there is a little confusion about what kind of applicants I want. If I had my choice, I would like invulnerable superheroes of course. Barring that, I want people who can dedicate themselves to this mission of getting these victims from their traffickers. Please don’t apply with any faked story lines or credentials of past Special Operations history, unless you have actually done it. These stories will be seen through. Let me lead by example, the only thing I admit to is serving in the 101st Airborne. That’s it, along with some other infantry units. That is all my DD-214 says and that is enough to be proud of for anyone. If you were truly a secret squirrel, never fear, that community though larger now, isn’t the biggest and there will be something verifiable. There was a man named William Hillar recently who made a name for himself in the Anti-Human Trafficking movement. He claimed to be a retired Special Forces Colonel. And it was found out he was not.  He did some serious damage to the movement though. It was his lie, not the truth of the tragedy that was remembered. I have things in my past and I have always been up front about them. Maybe too up front and very quickly. This is because I have found if I do not disclose them early, it appears I am hiding something and that damages the overall goals of what we are trying to do. I am just saying that honesty is the best policy.

Now, just because you have a verifiable Special Operations/Intelligence/Counter Intelligence/FBI SORT/SWAT background does not mean that I want you on the Teams. This kind of background tells me that you have vast mental control and can take headgames. You can also adapt to many different types of situations, have superior training and have a heightened situational awareness… most of the time, or at least you did at one time. And this does definitely get you a priority looksee. I also honor your service and thank you for it. I also acknowledge that you have done many things only a small percentage of people on this planet have done. But if your ego is the size of Mars, and if you are a pull down rather than a hand up type person, I have other things you can do, but not on the Shield Teams. I am looking for the right heart. This ensures a start. And you can be a non service/law enforcement person with a good heart. And it may be after a while on the Teams and training and operations, I may have to tell you no hard feelings, but I think it might be safer for you to do other aspects of the retrieval process. If our operations get an escalation from the traffickers that we deal with, then I may re-evaluate everything as a response. We know there are former KGB/FSB, Mossad and Spetsnaz in their ranks. This is not some modern day role playing fantasy. This is a hard reality to be dealt with. Planned for as best we can, but still dealt with as best we can and just because the task is hard, does not mean you give up. Especially not when children are involved.  There are several reasons we want to work closely with Law Enforcement and our enemies are one of them.

I have pieces of a puzzle when I put together a new Shield Team. I need to find out where I can fit you in, where you think you can fit in and if you support the whole puzzle. Yes, I will listen to how you did it with the boys back in the Fuzzy Green Hat Gang, DEVGRU captain awesomes or Triple Canopy, I will value your experience and may say “Hey, I think you should lead your own Team, let’s grill something that once moved and discuss strategy,” or I may say, that sounds like an awesome surveillance technique but if we don’t clear that with DHS and the Surveillance Team gets popped, things will go badly, and we have no magic phone numbers to call. Let’s see how feasible this might be after we contact them.

I believe God led me to do this and that is one of the main reasons I have not given up on this mission because believe me, it isn’t an easy path. Maybe one day God will send me the perfect person  to lead the Teams who has the strength of ten ordinary men for his heart is pure, can sit on the Siege Perilous, completed the Q course, RIP/ROP, BUDS in only ten days, can HALO from space, lead the Teams to victory every time and set the captives free. All while exhibiting humility and honor in word and dead and knows how to turn in his field reports in a timely manner to me. Until that time, you will deal with me as the Shield Team Director.

June will see us stepping up to half operations, Prayer is appreciated. There are many aspects of that that need funding. I am not the solicitor for The Defender Foundation though, if you want to help on that, check out the donations page on the website or contact katieb@thedefenderfoundation.org. There are a lot of things happening that I wish I could go into but operational security just does not allow it. I want to thank everyone for your support and your prayers. Many others are taking a wait and see approach to us to see if we go vigilante or some other bad case scenarios. Truthfully, we have no time to hold your hand or re-assure you. We have too much to do and are not waiting for a backslap from bystanders. If you wait and see too long, you will be running to catch up with us. Again, it is not about us, it is not about you, it is about the victims. Let’s go do something.

Sincerely,

Director, Shield Teams

Greetings,

I am the Director of the Shield Teams and this is an update letter to try to remove a little of the mystery surrounding the Shield Teams and to keep you up to date. However, some of what we do and how we operate will have to remain obscure as bad guys can read websites too. No personal names will be used for security purposes.

April has been a pretty amazing month. We have been able to meld some components rather well. We have teamed up with NeverQuit Investigations & Protection, Inc. This gives our Teams a greater flexibility by being able to be state certified in Security, specializing in Protection and Escort and being able roll out with less liability. In the modern age, even when you are doing the right thing, the bad guys will try to sue the pants off of you. I wanted to address a few concerns out there that I have received as well and want everyone to know that we have thought of many scenarios where the Traffickers (or Tangos, as we call them) will try to bring action against us.

Among these:

As one NGO had happen in Atlanta, an anonymous tip was placed to Law Enforcement that accused the NGO of being Human Traffickers themselves. Their office in a church was raided, computers seized, etc. Things were cleared up but we have included it in our threat response scenarios.

A fake victim. This would be where we would be set up to pick up a victim who’s real purpose is to obtain information about us, or possibly shelter locations.

A fake Shield Team applicant. This would be where they try to plant someone on our Teams with the hope to discredit us. They would come in and say the right things and do the right things and then bust into a strip club, yell “Defender!” and spray “Wolverines” on the wall, or something to that effect. All in an attempt to have us discredited as wild vigilantes and have us disbanded.

Allegations of impropriety. This would be where a plant would accuse a staff member of sexual misconduct. I am not going to reveal our exact response to this and the other possible threats, but I will say that The Defender Foundation was designed from day one to safeguard the victim and to make this type of accusation very apparently false. And anyone joining Defender hoping to gain access to victims will find they are safeguarded to the 9th degree. One of the worse things they could ever do, is try to do this in an organization that was formed for the protection and safety of the victims. My Shield Team Operators would go through walls after such a person attempting such a thing, me included. No joke.

Anonymous Tips: This was the first listed but it can be expanded upon to include reports of extreme behavior on our Teams behalf, to include extreme vigilantism (already happened) and other things. We basically know we have to endure many of these attacks and all it takes is a quick review of police records to disprove such things and is (hopefully in the future) only a minor inconvenience. You really have to question the motives of such people.

I would add, that we will prosecute false reports against us if we can locate the source, and some of my men are very good at such things.

To a degree, sadly there is infighting in any cause. Groups that can’t play nice with each other, or won’t. The Defender Foundation seeks to be basically a blessing to any group desiring our help. We do look poorly on any scams however.

April has also seen an addition of martial arts lessons for the Teams. Most already have extensive training in various martial arts but it is good to train as a team. At the moment, our Teams are all volunteers. This includes equipment, everything. We have footed the bill out of our pockets for everything from tactical equipment, Go-bags and commo equipment to gas money. I myself have purchased most of the radios out of pocket and have invested much of what I did not have left over in my funds to make sure the teams can roll with a minimum of what can get the mission done. It is expensive to put a Team in the field but it is needed. We will not turn down a victim because my electric bill or car insurance is due. Our radios, among other things (we are using our private vehicles) are the minimum to get the job done and we hope to upgrade our equipment in the future as funds become available.

We are in the middle of several investigations at the moment. One of these should be ready to be turned over to authorities by Friday. I have heard other groups speak very poorly about the tactic of rescuing victims. As a result, we are one of the only groups I know of which does this (if you do, please contact me) and we are the only one I know of that does victim rescues by trained Teams in the U.S. I understand the argument that this problem is so huge that it will never go away one victim at a time. But… our stated goal is that every rescue results in a prosecution and that this tactic will eventually be an enormous blow to the Traffickers. Besides, I actually believe all of the expense, time and risk…are worth it for that one victim, regardless.

However, we are not a one trick pony. The Defender Foundation has taught classes and provided materials to Slavic Missionary Bible Students that are headed to the former Soviet Union and will spread awareness overseas. This helps make them more aware and safeguard themselves and as we told them, they have the potential of preventing far more victims from falling prey to Traffickers, than we could ever hope to rescue. This has encouraged us to reach out to other organizations overseas to see if we can get materials out to them as well. We also do investigations and surveillance of both labor and sex trafficking rings. I am actually quite proud of the Investigation Team at the moment as even as I write this letter, they have uncovered some amazing things today. We are also coming up with a plan to expose those that use sex trafficking victims. We want the demand side stopped.

I hate to even use the word “rescue” truthfully. Many originations claim to rescue but when it comes to actually doing it, they have victims bought to them and will point the police in the right direction if they don’t know what to do with a victim. Or they “rescue” by donating to women’s shelters and orphanages, which is all great stuff, but not centered on trafficking victims and hardly any of these organizations have a plan or a strategic plan to go get the victims. If one fell out of the sky, they might grab their spouse possibly and try to pick them up, but no organization. This is why I tend to term our operations as a victim retrieval or pickup. There are less than a hundred dedicated beds for Human Trafficking victims in this country right now. I wish some of these “rescue” organizations would task some of their funds to build more. All I’m saying.

Tabitha’s House in Jacksonville, Florida, a dedicated Human Trafficking Shelter, is a breath of fresh air and a welcome resource. Now, I don’t want to be seen as a rabble rouser or detractor, I do want to see these questionable organizations actually fulfill their mandate. I want to help make them better. There are too many victims to worry about tearing someone down when you could be building them up to join the fight effectively. I don’t care about fishing in someone else’s pond or worried about someone stealing any funding coming my way. If someone opened up across the street named “The Other Defender Foundation,” I would support them wholeheartedly as long as they were doing the mission. This is about the victims people. Let’s get it together.

We are not here for glory, for honors or redemption, we are here for the victims, period. Our opposers include Russian Organized Crime and various crime syndicates and gangs. They say you can be judged by your enemies, we think we are off to a good start.

I am here to tell all Human Traffickers that no matter what, no matter what you have done in your past or where you have come from or how you were raised, look into your heart and you will know that selling or buying children or humans period, is simply wrong. My personal Faith tells me that none is above redemption, you can start by contacting us and help us end this tragedy. Even I have things in my past I am horribly ashamed of, but I am doing my best to make a difference, so even you can to. I however look to the future and what I can do. While I am sorry for some things in my past, I will not be looking back, unless I plan on heading in that direction. You can still make a difference. You can help us in this fight. This is not a garden club charity and it will take more than choir boys to end this.

And for those that would sneer at this offer, you make your living by hunting and preying on the innocent, and I have assembled Teams of some of the best hunters on earth.

Prepare to be hunted.

Sincerely,

Director, Shield Teams