TommyTooter
Banned
"The people I work with go all the way back to WWII. The stories are almost exactly the same. It has always been covered up. Still the drill sergeants, chaplains, and doctors appear to be the worst perpetrators. So when these guys are convicted, rather than punishing to the fullest extent, they can give them a letter of reprimand which means Tommy was bad, signed The Commander. That letter comes out of his personnel file before he moves on to the next unit, so it’s like nothing happened."
Military 'aware' of the crisis
Pentagon spokesperson Cynthia Smith assured Al Jazeera, "We understand this is very important for everyone to get involved in preventing sexual assault, and are calling on everyone to get involved, step in, and watch each others’ backs. We understand that one sexual assault is too many in the Department of Defence (DOD). We have an office working on prevention and response"
The office she alludes to is the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), which is responsible for the oversight of the DOD’s sexual assault policy.
In 2008 Kaye Whitley, Director of SAPRO, was subpoenaed to testify at a hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs but was ordered by the military not to do so.
At a second oversight hearing she did appear and confessed to the members of Congress, "I was given a direct order by my supervisor to get back in the van and go back," she said.
At an MST Congressional hearing on February 3, 2010, highlighted was what many see as the problem – the military investigating itself for criminal acts of sexual assault and rape committed by its personnel, as well as the naming of Task Force members and the work of the Task Force being delayed for three years.
Due largely to Mountjoy-Pepka’s work in the wake of her experiencing MST and taking action, in October 2005 then-Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld authorised the DOD Task Force on Sexual Assault in the military.
However, the DOD took three years to name the Task Force, and the group's initial meeting did not occur until August 2008. During that period, 6,000 service women and men were sexually assaulted or raped.
This same Task Force told Congress’s Military Personnel Subcommittee that, "DOD’s procedures for collecting and documenting data about military sexual assault incidents are lacking in accuracy, reliability, and validity."
Task Force leaders also told Congress that "neither victims nor other military personnel were routinely informed of the results of disciplinary actions relating to sexual assault", and "Commanders generally did not communicate case results to members of their command, and that this lack of information often led to misperceptions, rumours, and assumptions that allegations were unfounded."
Fighting back
Anuradha Bhagwati, the executive director of Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), a group that helps military women who have been victims of sexual violence, contradicts claims by the DOD that their new programs will slow the number of MST victims. "We are seeing a disturbingly steady flow," Bhagwati said .
In addition, she told Al Jazeera, "Contrary to DOD claims that they are making it easier for MST survivors to get help, MST survivors have a much more difficult time than other vets because of the burden of proof being on them. There are concrete legal barriers in place that prevent MST survivors from getting help."
The DOD defends the policy, saying it ensures that soldiers get retained, promoted and their careers aren't destroyed.
SWAN has draft legislation in place to get rid of this policy.
Bhagwati concludes that nothing short of "radical systemic change" will solve the MST crisis in the military today.
Susan Burke is an experienced litigator in Washington, DC who served as lead counsel in five actions brought on behalf of the torture victims at Abu Ghraib prison, as well as a suit against Blackwater for killing 17 Iraqis in Baghdad.
She urges us to think of MST this way: "Think of the victims - it is a double blow - first they're physically assaulted, then the institution that is supposed to care for them does not care for them."
She claims that the DOD has done little more than give lip-service to tackle the problem. "They created different positions, SARC, SAPRO, but the problem is that there is no genuine political will to change things. It's a paper tiger…the will doesn’t exist. When you look at the career paths of perpetrators compared to the victims, the former are rising up the ranks, and the victims are leaving the military."
She is putting together a class action suit against the DOD for failure to protect service-members from MST, aims to file it in February, and hopes the case will bring significant and lasting reform in the DOD’s stance on MST.
They’ve been saying for years that they just need more time, that they’re getting their act together," Burke adds, "You can’t expect to have a properly functioning military without discipline problems being addressed, and if you can’t address rape, you have a real problem."
This is the second part of an Al Jazeera investigation into sexual abuse in the US military.
Military 'aware' of the crisis
Pentagon spokesperson Cynthia Smith assured Al Jazeera, "We understand this is very important for everyone to get involved in preventing sexual assault, and are calling on everyone to get involved, step in, and watch each others’ backs. We understand that one sexual assault is too many in the Department of Defence (DOD). We have an office working on prevention and response"
The office she alludes to is the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), which is responsible for the oversight of the DOD’s sexual assault policy.
In 2008 Kaye Whitley, Director of SAPRO, was subpoenaed to testify at a hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs but was ordered by the military not to do so.
At a second oversight hearing she did appear and confessed to the members of Congress, "I was given a direct order by my supervisor to get back in the van and go back," she said.
At an MST Congressional hearing on February 3, 2010, highlighted was what many see as the problem – the military investigating itself for criminal acts of sexual assault and rape committed by its personnel, as well as the naming of Task Force members and the work of the Task Force being delayed for three years.
Due largely to Mountjoy-Pepka’s work in the wake of her experiencing MST and taking action, in October 2005 then-Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld authorised the DOD Task Force on Sexual Assault in the military.
However, the DOD took three years to name the Task Force, and the group's initial meeting did not occur until August 2008. During that period, 6,000 service women and men were sexually assaulted or raped.
This same Task Force told Congress’s Military Personnel Subcommittee that, "DOD’s procedures for collecting and documenting data about military sexual assault incidents are lacking in accuracy, reliability, and validity."
Task Force leaders also told Congress that "neither victims nor other military personnel were routinely informed of the results of disciplinary actions relating to sexual assault", and "Commanders generally did not communicate case results to members of their command, and that this lack of information often led to misperceptions, rumours, and assumptions that allegations were unfounded."
Fighting back
Anuradha Bhagwati, the executive director of Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), a group that helps military women who have been victims of sexual violence, contradicts claims by the DOD that their new programs will slow the number of MST victims. "We are seeing a disturbingly steady flow," Bhagwati said .
In addition, she told Al Jazeera, "Contrary to DOD claims that they are making it easier for MST survivors to get help, MST survivors have a much more difficult time than other vets because of the burden of proof being on them. There are concrete legal barriers in place that prevent MST survivors from getting help."
The DOD defends the policy, saying it ensures that soldiers get retained, promoted and their careers aren't destroyed.
SWAN has draft legislation in place to get rid of this policy.
Bhagwati concludes that nothing short of "radical systemic change" will solve the MST crisis in the military today.
Susan Burke is an experienced litigator in Washington, DC who served as lead counsel in five actions brought on behalf of the torture victims at Abu Ghraib prison, as well as a suit against Blackwater for killing 17 Iraqis in Baghdad.
She urges us to think of MST this way: "Think of the victims - it is a double blow - first they're physically assaulted, then the institution that is supposed to care for them does not care for them."
She claims that the DOD has done little more than give lip-service to tackle the problem. "They created different positions, SARC, SAPRO, but the problem is that there is no genuine political will to change things. It's a paper tiger…the will doesn’t exist. When you look at the career paths of perpetrators compared to the victims, the former are rising up the ranks, and the victims are leaving the military."
She is putting together a class action suit against the DOD for failure to protect service-members from MST, aims to file it in February, and hopes the case will bring significant and lasting reform in the DOD’s stance on MST.
They’ve been saying for years that they just need more time, that they’re getting their act together," Burke adds, "You can’t expect to have a properly functioning military without discipline problems being addressed, and if you can’t address rape, you have a real problem."
This is the second part of an Al Jazeera investigation into sexual abuse in the US military.
