Operation Dinah

Operation Dinah is a classified program of the International Law Department of the Danaan Ministry for Justice. Its purpose is to put an end to trafficking in persons not only by tracking networks, assisting local governments, and requesting extraditions but also, when no other option is available, through kidnapping or assassination. Media allegations regarding the program began after a Danaan operative was arrested in Pantocratorian Ambara and two others in Adoki. The Pantocratorian Ambarans released the Danaan operative and arrested a man for human trafficking related offences. The man was later extradited to the Resurgent Dream. Adoki authorities sentenced the two Danaan operatives to death of charges of homicide. No official of the Danaan Government has yet acknowledged the program's existence.

History

Operation Dinah is believed to have begun with the Karamanlis Government and the appointment of then Emancipation Party Leader Beatrice Wake as Minister for Justice. Wake had spent most of her life crusading against, among other things, trafficking in persons, having said frequently that even in Western democracies women, especially poor and minority women, were being completely stripped of their most basic rights and freedoms in large numbers because of this criminal activity.

Operation Dinah likely owes its specific origins to Wake's discovery that the ordinary legal process is often insufficient to rescue Danaan citizens who fall victim to trafficking in persons. Some nations, such as Vegana, are unwilling to repatriate victims of certain racial groups. Other nations are unwilling to admit that a problem exists, unable to effectively locate and rescue victims located within their borders, or determined to punish victims rather than traffickers for alleged sexual crimes.

Operation Dinah is believed to be active in Adoki, Marlund, Pantocratorian Ambara, Midlonia, Infinite Loving, Vegana, Allanea, Finara, Knootoss, Lavenrunz, Iraqstan, and Bigtopia, although its activities in all of these nations are pure conjecture and no direct evidence exists for its alleged activities in any but Pantocratorian Ambara and Adoki.

Methods

According to investigative reporter Barent Galle, Operation Dinah makes use of the following methods:

• Infiltration: Agents infiltrate trafficking networks not only for purposes of intelligence gathering but for purposes of disruption. They seek to severe connections between and within different criminal groups, to create an atmosphere of distrust among criminals, to deceive criminals into believing other criminals are the actual agents or informers, and to generally make it more difficult for traffickers to obtain, transport, and maintain control of their victims.
• Psychological Warfare: By ensuring that arrests, violence, and threats of violence directed at traffickers are well-known within organized crime, operatives attempt to create a climate of fear and intimidation, where would-be traffickers refrain from such activities for fear of justice or retribution.
• Legal Actions: Where possible, agents request the extradition of traffickers or turn them in to local law enforcement agencies. This is the preferred method of dealing with traffickers in most circumstances.
• Force and Violence:Where legal means are ineffective or unavailable, operatives frequently use force or violence to exterminate trafficking networks, including the assassination of key members of trafficking networks.

Opponents of Operation Dinah argue that many of these actions are not in accordance with the rule of law. They argue that even with regard to such heinous crimes, the Resurgent Dream and the officers thereof must proceed in a manner consistent with ordinary legal proceedings in order to represent basic Danaan democratic values.

The Government has not officially acknowledged, much less defended, the program. However, many feminists have argued that victims of trafficking do not enjoy the benefits of the rule of law or the basic protections which even other crime victims enjoy in a civilized society. They also argue that some parts of the world refuse to make a good faith effort to give women the full protection of the law and, moreover, that the international character of trafficking makes it possible for Danaan citizens at home or legally on vacation in a friendly nation to be transported against their will to a location where they lack effective legal protection. These feminists claim that this constitutes a continuing threat to national security needing to be met with force like any terrorist or military threat.

Illegality

According to Barent Galle, the most prominent critic of Operation Dinah:

"The current overseas operations of the Ministry for Justice are, without question, illegal. They involve the use of force on the soil of friendly or neutral nations in a manner violating the domestic laws of such nations and not authorized by the duly appointed intelligent officials of the Resurgent Dream. What could be a more direct violation of national sovereignty or the law of nations?

"Moreover, it seems increasingly apparent that our own Government has used the most unsavory methods. They have made anonymous attempts to break up marriages and families, have sought to incite disputes between criminal organizations likely to result in deaths, and to undermine legitimate authority abroad. Moreover, all of this has been done in an uneven way, serving the personal political priorities of Government ministers.

All of this has been done by agents of our Government specifically called upon to uphold the law. When cases touching upon this matter have come before the judiciary, they have been reluctant to act upon it. Although it now stands largely revealed, the Opposition in Parliament refuses to even acknowledge it, as does the Government. Our basic interests have been betrayed at their core."

Accomplishments

Although the legality and methods of Operation Dinah are widely criticized, no one can doubt the real benefit to many people who were rescued or saved from trafficking by the program. It is estimated that, since October of 2005, Danaan operations, legal and otherwise, have directly saved 1,143 victims of trafficking in persons, 44% of whom were children under the age of 16. It is also estimated that Danaan programs have substantially disrupted a number of trafficking networks, saving an indeterminate number of people who might otherwise have fallen victim. Some analysts place this number as high as 11,000.