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Three bills were introduced in Congress last week, which would variously give victims of military sexual assault their own military lawyers, require an inspector general investigation of retaliation claims and strip commanders of the authority to dismiss court-martial convictions in major cases, among other changes. President Obama has also taken on the issue. Last Thursday, White House officials met with 16 Democrats and Republicans from both houses of Congress to discuss ways to prevent sexual assault and improve the militarys response to it. I dont want just more speeches or awareness programs or training but, ultimately, folks look the other way, Obama said May 7. We have to do everything we can to root this out.
The Department of Defense had earlier that day released its annual report on sexual assault in the military, showing that the reported number of sexual assaults increased from 3,192 in fiscal 2011 to 3,374 in fiscal 2012. However, based on anonymous surveys, the DOD estimated that there were about 19,000 sexual assaults involving servicemembers in fiscal 2011, and that number rose to 26,000 for fiscal 2012. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Barbara Boxer have said they will introduce a bill to address fears of retaliation by taking cases out of the chain of command and allowing servicemembers to report the crimes directly to military prosecutors.
Several bills related to military sexual assault were already in the works, including several aimed at changing the UCMJ to take from commanders the ability to overturn convictions and sentences. The issue was spotlighted by a case in Italy, in which an Air Force fighter pilot was convicted of sexually assaulting a sleeping house guest. A lieutenant general later threw out the conviction and reinstated Lt. Col. James Wilkerson in the Air Force. Greg Jacob, a former Marine and now policy director for the Service Womens Action Network, an advocacy group, said the way the system works now, commanders can influence the legal process in three places when determining which cases go to trial, when setting up the court, and afterward, when they can overturn the decision.
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Toru Hashimoto, who also co-leads the Japan Restoration Party in the Japanese national parliament, told reporters Monday that he visited with Marine Corps Air Station Futenmas commander last month and told him that servicemembers should make more use of Japans legalized sex industry. There are places where people can legally release their sexual energy in Japan, Hashimoto said during a video press conference Monday in Osaka. Unless they make use of these facilities, it will be difficult to control the sexual energies of the wild Marines.
Hashimoto said that the commander responded with a bitter smile and told him that brothels are off-limits to U.S. servicemembers. Hashimoto, who has a reputation in Japan for controversial statements, added that servicemembers have abundant energy because their missions put them in life-threatening situations. They need to think about a way to release that energy, he said.
Marine Corps officials in Okinawa were not immediately available for comment Tuesday afternoon. Hashimoto made the seemingly off-the-cuff remarks while discussing Japans use of comfort women during World War II. The Japanese militarys use of its own women for sex, along with Koreans, Chinese and others, continues to stymie international relations between Japan and much of Asia to this day.
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The comments made Monday are already raising ire in neighboring countries that bore the brunt of Japan's wartime aggression and have long complained that Japan has failed to fully atone for wartime atrocities. Toru Hashimoto, the young, brash mayor of Osaka who is co-leader of an emerging conservative political party, also said that U.S. troops currently based in southern Japan should patronize the local sex industry more to help reduce rapes and other assaults.
Hashimoto told reporters on Monday that there wasn't clear evidence that the Japanese military had coerced women to become what are euphemistically called "comfort women" before and during World War II. "To maintain discipline in the military, it must have been necessary at that time," Hashimoto said. "For soldiers who risked their lives in circumstances where bullets are flying around like rain and wind, if you want them to get some rest, a comfort women system was necessary. That's clear to anyone." Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean Peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels.
China's Foreign Ministry criticized the mayor's comments and saw them as further evidence of a rightward drift in Japanese politics under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "We are appalled and indignant about the Japanese politician's comments boldly challenging humanity and historical justice," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily media briefing. "The way they treat the past will determine the way Japan walks toward the future. On what choice Japan will make, the Asian neighbors and the international community will wait and see."
Asked about a photo of Abe posing in a fighter jet with the number 731 - the number of a notorious, secret Japanese unit that performed chemical and biological experiments on Chinese in World War II - Hong again urged Japan not to whitewash history so as to improve relations with countries that suffered under Japanese occupation. "There is a mountain of definitive iron-hard evidence for the crimes they committed in the Second World War. We hope Japan will face and contemplate their history of aggression and treat it correctly," Hong said. Abe posed, thumbs up, in the aircraft during a weekend visit to northeastern Japan.
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Former Defense Intelligence Agency adviser Morwari Zafar made the comments at a pre-trial hearing for Brig. Gen. Jeffery Sinclair. A court-martial for the former deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne is set to begin June 25 on charges that include forcible sodomy, indecent acts, violating orders and adultery. Among the orders Sinclair is accused of violating is a prohibition against U.S. troops in Afghanistan possessing pornography. Called as a witness by prosecutors, Zafar's eyes widened when a prosecutor showed her printed photos investigators pulled from Sinclair's hard drive. "They would be absolutely offensive to Afghans in general," said Zafar, who was born in the country and is now earning a doctorate in anthropology. "Pornography is illegal in Afghanistan."
The military pornography ban, and a similar order barring possessing alcohol, are in place in an attempt to keep soldiers and Marines from offending the socially conservative country where U.S. troops have been stationed since 2001. Lawyers for Sinclair asked a military judge this week to drop the charge against the general, arguing this week the military porn ban violates his First Amendment rights to free speech. On cross-examination, Zafar agreed with defense lawyer Richard Scheff that pornography is available for sale in some Afghan markets and on the Internet, despite its illegal status in the country.
The defense has not provided an explanation for how pornography got on Sinclair's personal computer. He has not yet entered a plea on any of the charges he faces. Earlier in the case, military lawyers for Sinclair suggested in court that someone else could have downloaded the images, possibly even the female aide he is charged with assaulting.
This week, new civilian lawyers added to the defense team made the constitutional argument without directly saying the pornography had been stored on the computer by their client. Additionally, there was no evidence any Afghan ever saw the images or had the opportunity to be offended, Scheff said. Sinclair's former commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. James Huggins, testified Tuesday that he issued the order to "maintain good order and discipline." "It is against the stated policy because of the cultural sensitivity of the Afghan people," Huggins said, adding that if anyone had found the images it would have hurt Sinclair's effectiveness.
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The judge, Col. James Pohl, granted a pre-trial motion from lawyers representing accused Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair. It compels testimony by Gen. Dan Allyn and Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Colt. Sinclair's legal team alleges that high-ranking Pentagon officials may have placed improper pressure on Allyn, then the commander of the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg and Sinclair's boss. A court martial for Sinclair is scheduled to begin June 25 on charges that include forcible sodomy, indecent acts, violating orders and adultery.
Allyn, who was recently promoted to head the Army's Forces Command, could testify as soon as Wednesday. It is not clear when Colt, the current commander at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, might take the stand. In court Tuesday, Sinclair's lawyers cited e-mails obtained over the weekend that they contend suggest top Army generals might have been consulted ahead of Allyn's referral of the charges last year. Under the military code of justice, a commanding officer weighing whether to charge a subordinate with a crime is supposed to be insulated from the influence of those farther up the chain of command.
Richard Scheff, Sinclair's lead civilian lawyer, told the judge that Allyn, Colt and other Army officials had declined requests to speak to the defense team voluntarily and asked that they be subpoenaed. "I've got e-mails that suggest the involvement of senior officials in this case," Scheff said. "This is not a fishing expedition."
Sinclair's case is heading to trial amid the sting of sexual assault allegations and embarrassing sex scandals involving the military. President Barack Obama publicly warned the Defense Department earlier this month that he expects its leaders to take tougher action against sexual predators and redouble efforts to prevent assaults within the ranks. A 27-year Army veteran, Sinclair faces life in prison if convicted on the sexual assault charge. It's rare for an Army general to face court-martial. There have been only two cases in recent years.
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The new guidance, which took effect July 3, requires commanders to initiate separation action for any officer or enlisted airman found to have committed or attempted to commit a range of sexual offenses. The measure is among several new Air Force policies dealing with cases of sexual assault and related misconduct. Airmen in a position of trust found to have engaged in an unprofessional relationship such as dating a potential recruit or military trainee are also now subject to mandatory administrative discharge. The service also has taken steps to protect airmen from retaliation for reporting sexual assault. Any orders of involuntary discharge issued to airmen who have filed a recent unrestricted report of sexual assault are to be reviewed by a senior commander.
But the biggest change, Air Force officials say, relates to mandatory discharge for committing a sexual offense. It means that an airman can be involuntarily discharged without a criminal conviction, as long as the misconduct is documented administratively, either by a letter of reprimand or an Article 15, a form of non-judicial punishment, according to Air Force officials. Its to reiterate a get tough policy as it relates to sexual assault, and to let everybody understand, especially the uniform wearers, that this kind of misconduct and inappropriate behavior has no place in our Air Force and if you engage in it, then were going to take steps to remove you from the Air Force, said Scott Martin, senior air staff counsel for the Air Forces office of the judge advocate general.
Since the policy is so new, its unknown if anyone has been affected by the policy yet. The stricter guidelines come as reports of sexual assault in the military are at an all-time high: The Pentagon says there were 3,374 reported cases of sexual assault in the military last year, a record. It estimates, based on anonymous surveys, that as many as 26,000 sexual assaults went unreported last year. In the Air Force, 792 sexual assault cases were reported last year. While all the services are under intense congressional pressure to reduce the problem, the Air Force has faced fiercer scrutiny for a series of embarrassing incidents. They include the sex scandal at the Air Forces basic training base at Lackland, Texas, involving drill instructors and recruits to, most recently, the arrest in May of Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, who once led the Air Forces sexual assault prevention program, for sexual battery, a charge that was later replaced with a generic assault charge.
This summer, the Air Force appointed Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward to replace Krusinski while significantly expanding her staff. Gen. Mark A. Welsh III has said combatting sexual assault, which he characterized as a crisis, is his No. 1 priority as the Air Force chief of staff. The new Air Force policy is an extension of a requirement from Congress in the fiscal 2013 National Defense Authorization Act requiring the services to discharge anyone convicted of rape, sexual assault, forcible sodomy (forced oral or anal sex) or attempts to commit those offenses, Martin said. Air Force leaders broadened the scope of the congressional mandate to include those who committed or attempted to commit other sex-related misconduct such as aggravated sexual contact, abusive sexual contact, and a range of sexual misconduct involving a child as outlined in Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
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A military judge convicted Masa last year of sexual abuse of a child and production of child pornography, according to court records and other documents detailing the case. Under the terms of a pretrial agreement, he pleaded guilty and received 30 years in prison. In total, incidents involving sexual assault in which the children of service members are victims occur hundreds of times each year, data the Defense Department provided exclusively to The Associated Press show. The abuse is committed most often by male enlisted troops, according to the data, followed by family members.
The figures offer greater insight into the sexual abuse of children committed by service members, a problem of uncertain scale due to a lack of transparency into the military's legal proceedings. With more than 1 million military dependents, the number of cases appears statistically small. But for a profession that prides itself on honor and discipline, any episodes of abuse cast a pall. Those numbers fall well-short of offering a full picture. The ages of the offenders and victims, the locations of the incidents and the branch of service that received the report of sexual abuse were omitted. The Defense Department said in a statement that "information that could unintentionally uniquely identify victims was withheld from release to eliminate possible 're-victimization' of the innocent."
Courtesy of Health.mil
It's also unclear how many of the incidents resulted in legal action. The cases represent substantiated occurrences of child sexual abuse reported to the Defense Department's Family Advocacy Program, which does not track judicial proceedings, the department said. An AP investigation published in November found more inmates are in military prisons for child sex crimes than for any other offense. But the military's opaque justice system keeps the public from knowing the full extent of their crimes or how much time they spend behind bars. Responding to AP's findings, three Democratic senators have urged Defense Secretary Ash Carter to lift what they called the military justice system's "cloak of secrecy" and make records from sex-crimes trials readily accessible.
The senators also raised another concern. Child sex-assault cases are not included in the Defense Department's annual report to Congress on sexual assaults, which focuses primarily on adult-on-adult incidents, they said. The senators -- Barbara Boxer of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii -- told Carter in a Dec. 8 letter they are concerned the department may be underestimating how many sexual assaults are occurring in the military. There were at least 1,584 substantiated cases of military dependents being sexually abused between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, according to the data. Enlisted service members sexually abused children in 840 cases. Family members of the victims accounted for the second largest category with 332 cases. Most of the enlisted offenders were males whose ranks ranged between E-4 and E-6. In the Marine Corps and Army, for example, those troops are corporals, sergeants and staff sergeants. Officers were involved in 49 of the cases. The victims were overwhelmingly female.
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In a letter sent to Obama on Tuesday, Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., cited an Associated Press investigation published Monday and a report by the advocacy group Protect Our Defenders that found inaccuracies and omissions in military records that summarized the outcomes of cases prosecuted in military courts. Grassley is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Gillibrand is a member of the Armed Services Committee. The military records buttressed the Pentagon's position against the bill — which is sponsored by Gillibrand and backed by Grassley — that would strip senior officers of their responsibilities to decide whether to prosecute sexual assault crimes. That authority would be given instead to seasoned military trial lawyers outside the chain of command.
Underscoring the essential role commanders play, Pentagon officials have said such a shift will mean fewer victims will get justice because there will be fewer prosecutions. They've also said major strides have been made in curbing sexual assaults in the ranks. Military representatives defended the accuracy of the information sent to Congress. The records portrayed civilian district attorneys and local police forces as less willing than senior military officers to punish sex offenders. But in a number of the cases, the steps taken by civilian authorities were described incorrectly or omitted, AP's investigation found. Other case descriptions were too imprecise to be verified.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
There also is nothing in the records that supports the primary reason the Pentagon told Congress about the cases in the first place: To show that top military leaders insisted on taking the cases to trial after civilian law enforcement said no. "In case after case, the AP revealed facts that challenge the Pentagon's assertion that civilian prosecuting attorneys are either electing not to pursue justice, or are incompetently pursuing justice, in cases of military sexual assault," Grassley and Gillibrand wrote.
Grassley and Gillibrand also said AP's investigation and the report by Protect Our Defenders raise questions about the Pentagon's commitment to ending sexual violence in the armed forces. Protect Our Defenders, a nonpartisan organization, supports the bill. "The allegations in the Protect Our Defenders report and the AP article include providing inaccurate information to a congressional committee, misleading the Congress, and undermining efforts to make critical reforms to a broken system," the senators wrote. "Due to the very serious nature of these allegations, we request that you direct an independent investigation into this matter."
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Navy officials said Tuesday they made the decision amid criticism that the wording was condescending and perpetuated stereotypes.
The mailer says the Navy offers women opportunities "most girls aren't even aware of" in career areas that "aren't just for the guys... all while staying in touch with your feminine side." The mailer went out to about 202,900 people across several states, including Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.
Lt. Commander Nate Christensen said the mailer doesn't reflect Navy values and was removed from a database of mailer templates after The Associated Press inquired about it. He says officials are now reviewing language in all templates.
Navy Scraps Recruitment Mailer over Sexism Accusations | Military.com
The decision, following a year of debate, is likely to face some criticism, particularly from sexual assault survivors who faced social snubs, harassment, job transfers or other actions in the emotional aftermath of an attack. But what victims may see as vengeful behavior is, in some cases, actions that are meant to help the survivor heal or get them away from their alleged attackers, military officials say. In other cases, social backlash, bullying or other negative social media behavior may be difficult to pinpoint or trace, and even harder to legally punish. "It's not because we don't think that the others didn't have a bad experience, but everybody needs to have an understanding of what is the current state of policy and law to get after some of these experiences," said Nate Galbreath, senior executive adviser for the Pentagon's sexual assault prevention office. "We hope that by helping everybody understand the services that are available, that we can help them sort through what they're experiencing and maybe create some solutions."
In December 2014, a RAND survey initially said that more than 60 percent of sexual assault victims believed they had faced some type of retaliation from commanders or peers. That estimate was reduced to about 57 percent last year after officials concluded that the survey questions may have inadvertently included actions by commanders seeking to protect the victim or other social practices that were not designed to persuade a victim not to press forward with criminal proceedings. This year, officials say, the retaliation estimate is closer to 38 percent — or nearly 4 in 10 sexual assault victims believe they face some kind of legally punishable retribution for filing their assault complaint. The number, while smaller, is still jarring to officials who say they need to do more education and training to prevent and resolve retaliation problems.
The new estimates come from a smaller survey sample of reservists and some victims who went through the military justice system. The results mirror the larger survey in that about two-thirds of victims believed they experienced retaliation. But slightly more than one-third of the smaller group faced actions that could be considered violations of law or policy. The lower number weeds out things like transfers designed to get victims out of bad situations. But such moves could be debatable if, for example, victims believe the transfer might stall their career or path to promotion. In an effort to aid assault victims who face retaliation, Galbreath said the department is beefing up efforts to encourage reporting, to provide better treatment, and to make sure victims understand their options to quickly request a transfer or other remedy. The new campaign also includes plans to better explain and enforce social media behavior, including details on what on-duty and off-duty activities can be punished and what is considered inappropriate even if it's not illegal.
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In an annual report released Thursday on the subject, the Defense Department revised downward an earlier estimate of the number of victims who faced retaliation for making claims of sexual assault, saying they may have misinterpreted attempts to help. Gillibrand accused the Pentagon of failing to hold officials accountable for the crimes and said Congress and the White House will have to take measures to do so. The senator said senior officials last month "intentionally misled" Congress by falsely claiming that civilian prosecutors declined to prosecute 93 sex assault cases. "Now they are undercutting their own findings from last year's report on the massive retaliation problem against service members who reported being sexually assaulted with a survey that their own report calls 'not representative'," she said in a statement Thursday.
In its report, the department estimated that some 20,000 personnel experienced a sexual assault, but little more than 6,000 reported the crime, suggesting that about 75 percent of sexual assault survivors "did not have the confidence in the military justice system to report [the] crime," according to Gillibrand. During a presentation on the report at the Pentagon, Dr. Nathan Galbreath, senior executive adviser to the Defense Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said authorities brought action against 1,437 offenders. The vast majority of those, or 926, were recommended for a court-martial, while 303 received nonjudicial punishments and 208 were discharged or received adverse administrative action.
Of the 543 subjects whose cases went to trial last year, 413 were convicted for various offenses, including 161 for penetrating offenses, 93 for sexual contact offenses, and 159 of some lesser nonsexual offenses such as fraternization, adultery, making a false official statement, and others. Gillibrand noted the numbers of assaults and reported assaults were essentially unchanged from 2014. She also said the report finds that alleged retaliators against reporters of sexual assault were in the victim's chain of command, and that the report "appears to not list any court martial proceedings in relation to retaliation against a sexual assault survivor. "The status quo is not working, and frankly, I am deeply disturbed by the tactics the DoD is undertaking to pull the wool over Congress's eyes," she said. "Congress and this Administration must step up and bring accountability where the Department of Defense has repeatedly failed."
Senator: DoD Sex Assault Report Downplays Retaliation Against Victims | Military.com
