If They Make This Retroactive...

... there'll be a lot of Sailors in trouble. According to this article in Stars & Stripes, President Bush signed an Executive Order changing the Manual for Courts-Martial, making it a specific crime to patronize a prostitute.

"A Defense Department spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, said in an e-mailed response to questions that “prostitution” and “pandering” will now be among the offenses covered by Article 134 of the courts-martial manual.
"Paying for sex used to fall under the “Solicitation of Another to Commit an Offense” listed as part of Article 134, which executes the corresponding section in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Krenke said.
"But the October executive order makes prostitution and pandering specific offenses, she said. Krenke said that the DOD made the change as part of its effort to combat human trafficking by taking on the sex exploitation industry, as set forth in a December 2002 National Security Presidential Directive that says in part:
“Our policy is based on an abolitionist approach to trafficking in persons, and our efforts must involve a comprehensive attack on such trafficking, which is a modern day of slavery. In this regard, the U.S. Government opposes prostitution and any related activities, including pimping, pandering, or maintaining brothels as contributing to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons.”
"The military needs to change its general mind-set that tolerates prostitution, said Sara Mendelson, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington."

By adding "pandering" to the sections of crimes covered by Article 134 of the UCMJ (the "General Article"), it'll now be easier to "pile on" someone who's gotten in trouble for something else -- pandering (and also prostitution, so they're not being sexist) now joins such other General Article prohibitions as: abusing a public animal, adultery, bigamy, drinking liquor with a prisoner, jumping from a vessel into the water, and straggling.

Just for the record, I was never guilty of any of the crimes discussed above...

Article 134 also has sections for "wrongful cohabitation" and "gambling with subordinates".

Going deep...

Bell-ringer 2317 07 Jan: PigBoatSailor plays "UCMJ Bingo" with Article 134!