GLENN

Finding Virtue in Hell: Glenn Headed to Bangkok With Operation Underground Railroad

Glenn will be joining Tim Ballard and the team from Operation Underground Railroad for a bird's eye view of the sex trafficking industry in Bangkok, Thailand. It will be his first trip into what he calls "the gates of hell." Ballard did nothing to dispel Glenn's ideas about what he'll soon witness.

"I've been doing this for 15 years, and I want to go home and vomit every time I walk down the street that I'm going to take you down in a couple days," Ballard told Glenn.

While Glenn knows he's going to encounter evil like he's never seen before, he'll also be on the lookout for something entirely different.

"You know, vice already exists. I'm going to bring our cameras with us. I'm looking for virtue. In the worst possible scenarios, where can we find the virtue?" Glenn said.

Enjoy the complimentary clip above or read the transcript below for details.

GLENN: Hello, America. Welcome to the program.

It's funny, as we were talking about underage sex, sex with minors, and you heard Bill Maher from the past, maybe ten years, they're kind of joking about it. And as long as it's happening with a boy, it's okay. As long as it's an older woman and a boy, it's okay. If it's a boy and an older man, it's not okay. I mean, we're seeing this with Milo. He talked about sometimes it's okay if the man is giving him a loving experience. And, you know, basically grooming him. It's okay.

Or -- and everybody was against that. Bill Maher was talking about that -- that case up in Seattle, where it was a, what, 34-year-old woman who was grooming a 14-year-old boy. And everybody is laughing. How do you rape a boy?

Well, it happens a great deal. Tim Ballard is in. Tim runs Operation Underground Railroad. Ourrescue.org. And it's an organization that this audience helped found and start. Raised the first million dollars to help get it off the ground. Tim is an old friend of the show. Was with the CIA and Department of Homeland Security for a while doing -- you know, busting up sex crimes. And just couldn't take it anymore because there's a lot of things that the government just can't do because of the role of government.

Started with us going out and trying to save kids. We have an update for you on Haiti. There was a big bust -- this is the Super Bowl bust?

TIM: That's right, yeah.

GLENN: While everybody else was celebrating the Super Bowl, Tim and his team were out having another Super Bowl party, if you will, in Haiti, that turned out to be a big bust. Biggest bust yet?

TIM: One of our biggest.

GLENN: One of them -- okay. Tell us about it.

TIM: Well, we -- as you know, because you were with us a couple months ago -- we've been setting things up in Haiti for quite some time. Actually, one of our first operations was a bust in Haiti. They were selling kids out of this illicit orphanage.

But Haiti is such a broken land. There's 300,000 slave kids. And we -- again, you know, Glenn, because you were with us, and you saw this firsthand.

And we've been working for some time with the police. In Haiti, to do something about this -- I mean, these poor kids are taken. They're slave labor. Sex trafficked.

GLENN: This literally -- every -- I can't say every. But if you buy an avocado from the Dominican Republic, which most of us have, a lot of those have been picked by literal slaves. Not like kind of slaves. I'm working for slave labor. This is slave labor wages.

No, no, no. Actual chained slaves is what we're talking about.

TIM: Yeah, it is -- it's the most incredible thing we've ever seen.

About two, three months ago, the Haitian police told us they had information that children were being sold for sex, in the Port-au-Prince area, a couple of nightclubs where this was happening. And asked us if we could go in, using our top undercover team, to play the role of the Americans because that's who the trappers will then come to.

They sent us in, and then within a couple of days -- in fact, while you're there, and, you know, this, that's when that team was working parallel to what we were doing on the rehab side.

GLENN: Yeah.

TIM: And they found about three different -- three different networks that were selling children as young as ten years old. And they -- they brought these kids after a series of negotiations, always working with the police, right? We work with the police. And they believed that they were coming down, a bunch of Americans for a Super Bowl party at a little resort on the eastern part -- or the western part of the island.

And they ended upbringing 29 victims, 20 of which were actual children. And then traffickers brought these kids. And they walked on to this scene. And we have some photos of this, or some videos. But they walked onto this scene that looked like this beautiful, you know, American bachelor party, Super Bowl party. And they walked these poor -- these kids in. My operators reported that some of them were branded with -- you know, as property with tattoos. At least two of them we know for sure had been the subjects of child pornography that had been produced and distributed internationally.

GLENN: Yeah, one of them was really quite a star of child pornography.

TIM: Right. One of them -- yes, they had been making videos since she was nine, ten years old.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

So you saved the 29?

TIM: Yeah. Yes.

GLENN: The bad guys went to jail?

TIM: All of them.

GLENN: All of them went to jail.

TIM: Yep.

GLENN: And the kids -- and we don't want to get into the details of this because it's -- it's amazing when Pat and I went over before Christmas, and we saw these kids. I mean, I don't think people would -- I don't think people understand. We went into these places, these orphanages where these kids are being brought in.

And literally, they would not leave us alone. They would not -- I have never seen kids -- little kids just come to your feet and look and put their arms up, like please hold me. And then they would cuddle next to you. I mean, they would put your cheek next to your cheek. And they would not let you go.

PAT: Just starved for affection.

GLENN: Starved for affection.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Which is odd. Now, not all of these kids that we saw are in sex crimes. But they're all orphans. And some of them are the lucky ones that went to the orphanage that wasn't selling them for slaves because, as we also found out, in Haiti, our own churches are -- are doing some things that are causing damage to Haiti.

We all go over there. We all want to do the right thing. But between the corruption of the government and us being do-good Americans, sometimes we don't know. And some of these churches -- hopefully not very many, but some of these churches are actually -- some of them knowingly engaged in the slave trade.

TIM: Yeah, it's crazy. It's just culturally accepted -- it's really no different than the church's involvement in 19th century America, where it's culturally accepted. There's 300,000 children. They call them restaveks. And they're kids who are -- it's domestic servitude. But it's slavery. The kids get sent to rural areas. Or, you know, they say, we can't afford them here, so we send them to our family or to our communities outside of the city. But we go in, undercover, we know what's happening. These kids are being treated as slaves. Sex slaves. Slave labor.

And we even came -- a couple of pastors who had two or three of them. And they were -- I mean, they were slaves.

PAT: Oh, my gosh.

GLENN: Like sleep on the floor, can't eat with the family, Cinderella stories.

TIM: Yes.

GLENN: True Cinderella stories. And the churches don't -- and the churches there -- not all of them, by any stretch of the imagination, but some of the churches there, it is so normalized there, that they don't think that they're doing anything wrong. And the kid -- and the parents will bring their kids to the pastors. And the pastors will say, "Oh, I'll take care of it," and ship them off to be sold into slavery. It's crazy.

PAT: What percentage of the kids that are in sex slavery do you know, Tim, have been sold by their parents? As opposed to kidnapped.

TIM: Yeah. Anecdotally, I can say it's -- either sold by their parents or lured out where the parents didn't really -- they were duped, I'd say probably 90 percent.

PAT: 90 percent!

GLENN: Wow.

TIM: Very few are like a hard kidnapping like in the movie Taken.

PAT: Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

Wow.

STU: The documentary.

GLENN: Tell the story about the dad who was told his children were great for -- what was it? You know, the Star of Brazil Show. You know what I'm talking about. It was in the Dominican -- I can't remember where it was, where the talent scout came to town.

TIM: Yes, yes. Unbelievable.

GLENN: Yeah. Can you tell that story?

TIM: What happened was -- this was in Cartagena in Colombia. And there was just this woman who 25 years old, beautiful. She was Ms. Cartagena 2012, I believe. So she was known in the community --

GLENN: This is like Miss America. Okay. Think of this.

TIM: And the traffickers had recruited her, and she knew exactly what she was doing. To go in -- and she would walk into these homes of kids. And they targeted them about nine years old. And they would go and sit down with the families and say, "You know who I am. I can make your daughter famous and rich like me. And I'm going to give her a scholarship to my modeling school." And it was a real modeling school. They had pamphlets. They had commercials. They were showing them on their laptops. And the families thought, "Oh, my gosh. My ship came in. And go -- go to the school."

And they take these kids, and they put them in the school. After they go to school, they go to their three or four hours in this modeling school. And slowly, they're desensitized. They're shown pornography. They're shown child pornography. They're given drugs. And they're told eventually, part of this job is you're going to go into that room, and there's going to be a person in there. And likely a Westerner. And you're going to do whatever sexual acts he wants you to do. That's part of being a model. And, by the way, if you tell anybody about this, you will be dead, your family will be dead. And these kids -- some of them go home every night, and they don't say anything. And that's where we were able to sweep in, and we were able to infiltrate that group.

And on that operation, we rescued over 100 kids.

JEFFY: Wow.

GLENN: This is really, really important work. Tim is going to be with me tonight on television at 5 o'clock. We're going to show some of this video of this bust. So you'll see some of the kids. And the most important thing is that these kids are all taken and they're safe. They don't leave the arms of Operation Underground Railroad really until they're 18. And they're safe and on their feet. They get an education. They are fed. They are given spiritual education. Spiritual healing.

And it's an unbelievable service. Really unbelievable. And it is all thanks to you.

We have a goal in the next year that we want to raise an awful lot of money. And we'll tell you why coming. But we sure would like your help. If you would be willing to help us on these -- I mean, really, you want your name written in the Book of Life, you want to know why you're here, how can I make a difference, did I ever make a difference? This one makes a difference.

How much to save a child?

TIM: Right now, we're running about 2500 to 3,000 for a kid who is outside of the United States.

GLENN: Okay. And we'll get to the United States. We'll probably talk about that a little bit tomorrow and next week. But if you would like to help in any way you can, go to ourrescue.org. That's ourrescue.org. Tim, I'll see you this afternoon.

TIM: Thanks, Glenn. Thanks.

GLENN: Thank you very much.

[break]

GLENN: Just a couple more minutes from Operation Underground Railroad, ourrescue.org.

I'm actually getting on a plane as we leave tomorrow to go to Bangkok. And, you know, this is -- this is the -- this is the seat of Sodom and Gomorrah, if you will. Is this ground zero for sex trafficking?

TIM: Definitely one of them. Maybe -- yeah.

GLENN: And he's going to take me through the gates of hell. And, you know, Vice already exists. I'm going to bring our cameras with us. I'm looking for virtue. In the worst possible scenarios, where can we find the virtue?

And we already have an idea -- a couple of ideas of where we can find it. But as the operators go in and rescue some children, they're going to be doing some things. We're going to be finding the virtue. But I -- the gates of hell -- you know, I've watched a few documentaries on it, and I don't know if I'm ready to see it myself. Pretty --

TIM: I've been doing this for 15 years, and I want to go home and vomit every time I walk down the street that I'm going to take you down in a couple days.

STU: I'm sorry we are missing this trip. I'm telling you, wow, I am really sorry we're missing this one. Because that's really difficult, man.

GLENN: We're going to spend more time in the airplane than we are on the ground, which is unfortunate. But it's going to be a whirlwind trip and hope to be able to come home and show you some stories of how you are making an impact. And this one involves us, except a different -- this is not rescuing the children alone. Because I get a lot of people -- why are we spending money elsewhere? Well, because children are children. I don't think the Lord sees borders.

STU: It also goes a lot further too. Right?

GLENN: But if it's happening here in America, we have to take care of it as well. But this particular case, we are. Because the bad guys, a lot of them come from the United States. We're going to a shelter -- I don't want to say anything about it. But we're going to one place where, you know, Operation Underground Railroad has teamed up with this Buddhist monk who actually goes and rescues these 7-year-old boys from the clutches of American men who have come over for a sex holiday. And we have to police our own. Get them out of the picture as well.

We'll have more on this tonight. Some more good news on this tonight. And so much more, coming up on the program. Next, Tim Ballard. Ourrescue.org.

RADIO

Could passengers have SAVED Iryna Zarutska?

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?


STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.

RADIO

Here’s what we know about the suspected Charlie Kirk assassin

The FBI has arrested a suspect for allegedly assassinating civil rights leader Charlie Kirk. Just The News CEO and editor-in-chief John Solomon joins Glenn Beck to discuss what we know so far about the suspect, his weapon, and his possible motives.