Rapists In The Ranks

[Wings]

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With the DoD making mandatory the DNA repository of all service members, HOW can the crimes of rape continue to go unpunished due to "insufficient evidence"?! I would NEVER allow my daughter to join the military, I would go to jail before I would let her join!! ~Wings

Rapists in the ranks

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...0,5399612.story

By Jane Harman

March 31, 2008

The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.

These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.

The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, where I met with female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41% of female veterans seen at the clinic say they were victims of sexual assault while in the military, and 29% report being raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and the downward spirals many of their lives have since taken.

Numbers reported by the Department of Defense show a sickening pattern. In 2006, 2,947 sexual assaults were reported -- 73% more than in 2004. The DOD's newest report, released this month, indicates that 2,688 reports were made in 2007, but a recent shift from calendar-year reporting to fiscal-year reporting makes comparisons with data from previous years much more difficult.

The Defense Department has made some efforts to manage this epidemic -- most notably in 2005, after the media received anonymous e-mail messages about sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy. The media scrutiny and congressional attention that followed led the DOD to create the Sexual Assault and Response Office. Since its inception, the office has initiated education and training programs, which have improved the reporting of cases of rapes and other sexual assaults. But more must be done to prevent attacks and to increase accountability.

At the heart of this crisis is an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks.

According to DOD statistics:

only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007, including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial, the equivalent of a criminal prosecution in the military.

Another 218 were handled via nonpunitive administrative action or discharge,

and 201 subjects were disciplined through "nonjudicial punishment," which means they may have been confined to quarters, assigned extra duty or received a similar slap on the wrist. In nearly half of the cases investigated, the chain of command took no action; more than a third of the time, that was because of "insufficient evidence."

This is in stark contrast to the civilian trend of prosecuting sexual assault. In California, for example, 44% of reported rapes result in arrests, and 64% of those who are arrested are prosecuted, according to the California Department of Justice.

The DOD must close this gap and remove the obstacles to effective investigation and prosecution. Failure to do so produces two harmful consequences: It deters victims from reporting, and it fails to deter offenders. The absence of rigorous prosecution perpetuates a culture tolerant of sexual assault -- an attitude that says "boys will be boys."

I have raised the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Although I believe that he is concerned, thus far, the military's response has been underwhelming -- and the apparent lack of urgency is inexcusable.

Congress is not doing much better. Although these sexual assault statistics are readily available, our oversight has failed to come to grips with the magnitude of the crisis. The abhorrent and graphic nature of the reports may make people uncomfortable, but that is no excuse for inaction. Congressional hearings are urgently needed to highlight the failure of existing policies. Most of our servicewomen and men are patriotic, courageous and hardworking people who embody the best of what it means to be an American. The failure to address military sexual assault runs counter to those ideals and shames us all.

Jane Harman (D-Venice) chairs the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence.

Army Lawyer > July-August, 2003 > Article

Patricia A. Ham

The Department of Defense (DOD) began to use DNA samples to identify the remains of service members during the first Gulf War in 1991. (2) "Because of problems with obtaining reliable DNA samples during the Gulf War, the DOD began a program to collect and store reference specimens of DNA from members of the active duty and reserve forces." (3) What was then called the "DOD DNA Registry," (4)

a program within the Armed Forces Institute

of pathology, was established pursuant to a

December 16, 1991 memorandum of the

Deputy Secretary of Defense. Under this

program, DNA specimens are collected from

active duty and reserve military personnel

upon their enlistment, reenlistment, or preparation

for operational deployment.

As of December 2002, the Repository, now known as the "Armed Forces Repository of Specimen Samples for the Identification of Remains," contained the DNA of approximately 3.2 million service members. According to a recent DOD directive, the "provision of specimen samples by military members shall be mandatory." The direction to a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine to contribute a DNA sample is a lawful order which, if disobeyed, subjects the service member to prosecution under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). If convicted at court-martial for the offense of violating a lawful general order, the service member carries the lifelong stigma of a federal felony conviction, and faces a maximum punishment of a dishonorable discharge, confinement for two years, total forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade.

As its name suggests, the DNA Repository was initially conceived solely to identify the remains of service members. However, a small entry in the huge 2003 National Defense Authorization Act, "signed by President Bush on December 2, 2002, overrides Pentagon policy that the DNA samples be used almost solely to identity troops killed in combat," and allows access to the Repository for law enforcement purposes. (12) The provision reads:

[subsection] 1565a. DNA samples maintained for identification

of human remains: use for law

enforcement purposes

(a) Compliance with a court order.

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), if a valid

order of a Federal court (or military judge) so

requires, an element of the Department of

Defense that maintains a repository of DNA

samples for the purpose of identification of

human remains shall make available, for the

purpose specified in subsection (b), such

DNA samples on such terms and conditions

as such court (or military judge) directs.

[Wings]

Wings, I appreciate your input and feelings on this subject, based on many telephone conversations with you, You maybe a little older but I still found you a loving and caring person, if not for yourself and Momma Meg I would not be here today, so it is very hard for me to find you a bitter person, just hang in there and keep helping others and The Great Spirit will watch over you and yours.

John V., I remember your voice too! Good to hear from you brother! I just keep trying, you know, to get it right: to trust in goodness. It's easier for me to love his creation than humans! So, when the sun comes up, I have a new day to start again. It gets harder as I get older, to keep going, to keep living. . . My therapist told me my anger and mistrust was "toxic". I left her offiice and never went back. After 5 years of building trust with her, you'd have thought she understood: the fear of being betrayed, violated, it cuts deep. You keep on kicking too! ~Wings

"I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." (Matthew 10:16)

[tssnave]

Rental Guy - You don't take women out of the danger zone by taking them out of combat MOSs and keeping them in Support or Combat Support units. Havoc in the rear to disrupt supply lines is standard warfare tactics and where are the support troops? In the rear. So long as there are women on the battlefield they will be in danger whether they are on the front lines or not.

Manitou - I agree with you, rape is fundamentally a leadership issue just like racism is. There should be a zero tolerance for rape and sexual harrassment. The civlian world has finally figured out (due to the cost of law suits) to train employees that when a woman says "No" she really means no regardless of what a guy may THINK she means.

Wings - Do you think the proliferation of internet pornography and MTV and BET (what you see now on those channels is what we used to consider pornographic when I was in the Army and when I was a kid Lucy and Desi didn't even sleep in the same bed!) has impacted our society to the point where rape is so common, even in the military? As a grandparent I am very concerned for my two young granddaughters and like you, would not want them joining the service given the high rape stats. I also have a grandson and I am equally concerned for him - what message are we sending as a society that we send our young men off to war and they become war criminals against their fellow servicemembers? I think the rape situation in the military reflects a much deeper societal issue. I just read on VAwatchdog.org earlier tonight that a VA doctor (neurologist, I think) a young father himself, was arrested for setting up a liason with a thankfully imaginary 10 year old girl. I am so thankful they got him but how many others are out there?

Interesting thread, thanks for posting the DNA info. Nothing like accountability to throw some balance on the scales of justice.

Thanks,

TS Snave

[iraqx2]

I will agree that the DNA depository should be used to indentify fellow military suspects.

As a veteran of OIF and Desert Storm, and seeing how the integration of women in the military can effect the mission, its a recipe for distraction when 6 females are in a company of 100 males, in a dirty / dangerous combat zone, for upwards to 18 straight months.

Something is going to give. Relationship between soldiers are hush hush. But I agree that a crime is a crime and a NO means a NO.

No, I am not saying women should not be in the military. They have every right. With our depleted and exhausted military, the COMBAT MOS and NON COMBAT MOS idea is Bull*hit!