Sexual assault in military 'jaw-dropping,' lawmaker says
Sexual assault in military 'jaw-dropping,' lawmaker says
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A congresswoman said Thursday that her "jaw dropped" when military doctors told her that four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military.
A government report indicates that the numbers could be even higher.
Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, spoke before a House panel investigating the way the military handles reports of sexual assault.
She said she recently visited a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Los Angeles area, where women told her horror stories of being raped in the military.
"My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military," said Harman, who has long sought better protection of women in the military.
"Twenty-nine percent say they were raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and downward spirals many of their lives have taken since.
"We have an epidemic here," she said. "Women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq."
As of July 24, 100 women had died in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.
In 2007, Harman said, only 181 out of 2,212 reports of military sexual assaults, or 8 percent, were referred to courts martial. By comparison, she said, 40 percent of those arrested in the civilian world on such charges are prosecuted.
Defense statistics show that military commanders took unspecified action, which can include anything from punishment to dismissal, in an additional 419 cases.
But when it came time for the military to defend itself, the panel was told that the Pentagon's top official on sexual abuse, Dr. Kaye Whitley, was ordered not to show up despite a subpoena.
"I don't know what you're trying to cover up here, but we're not going to allow it," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said to the Defense official who relayed the news of Whitley's no-show. "This is unacceptable."
Rep. John Tierney, the panel's chairman and a Democrat from Massachusetts, angrily responded, "these actions by the Defense Department are inexplicable."
"The Defense Department appears to be willfully and blatantly advising Dr. Whitley not to comply with a duly authorized congressional subpoena," Tierney said.
An Army official who did testify said the Army takes allegations of sexual abuse extremely seriously.
"Even one sexual assault violates the very essence of what it means to be a soldier, and it's a betrayal of the Army's core values," Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle said.
The committee also heard from Mary Lauterbach, the mother of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, a 20-year-old pregnant Marine who was killed in December, allegedly by a fellow Marine. Mary Lauterbach said her daughter filed a rape claim with the military against Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean seven months before he was accused of killing her. Video Watch dead Marine's mom demand change »
"I believe that Maria would be alive today if the Marines had provided a more effective system to protect the victims of sexual assault," she said.
In the months after her daughter filed the rape claim, she said, the military didn't seem to take her seriously, and the onus was on "Maria to connect the dots."
"The victim should not have the burden to generate evidence for the command," Lauterbach told the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs. "Maria is dead, but there will be many more victims in the future, I promise you. I'm here to ask you to do what you can to help change how the military treats victims of crime and to ensure the victims receive the support and protection they need and they deserve."
Another woman, Ingrid Torres, described being raped on a U.S. base in Korea when she worked with the American Red Cross.
"I was raped while I slept," she said.
The man who assaulted her, she said, was a flight director who was found guilty and dismissed from the Air Force.
Fighting back tears, Torres added, "he still comes after me in my dreams."
The Government Accountability Office released preliminary results from an investigation into sexual assaults in the military and the Coast Guard. The GAO found that the "occurrences of sexual assault may be exceeding the rates being reported."
"At the 14 installations where GAO administered its survey, 103 service members indicated that they had been sexually assaulted within the preceding 12 months. Of these, 52 service members indicated that they did not report the sexual assault," the GAO said.
The office found that the military and Coast Guard have established policies to address sexual assault but that the implementation of the programs is hampered by an array of factors, including that "most, but not all, commanders support the programs."
"Left unchecked, these challenges can discourage or prevent some service members from using the programs when needed," the GAO said.
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Tierney said, "what's at stake here goes to the very core of the values of the military and the nation itself.
"When our sons and daughters put their lives on the line to defend the rest of us, the last thing they should fear is being attacked by one of our own."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/31/military.sexabuse/index.html
url:http://myreader.co.uk/gp/1267-1.aspx
date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 00:41:19 +0800
author: Katrina
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Islam is not a horror movie. It is a horror reality.
Do not feed the Muslim troll. The troll (Faris Jawad) emigrated from
southern India to Canada, where he makes a living as a computer
programmer. One of his IP addresses points to the intersection of
Victoria Ave. and Pinnacle St. in Belleville, Canada, about 200 km
east of Toronto. His account has been banned because he violated the
Google Groups Terms Of Use. The troll uses many sockpuppet names
including: Brain-dead Republicunts, The Pretzel, Islam, Ramabriga,
ourfreedomandliberty@lycos.com, Cosmic programmer,
visualseeplus@yahoo.com, LeBlanc, Islamaphobia, Yaako Warrior,
globalcheckup@yahoo.ca, whileyouslept@live.ca, Matt, Anti-Muslim
Bigots, V-for-Vendicar, fruitella, Zionism equal Racism, The Chemical
Oil Nazi, LORD RAMA RANTER, Muslim With Mission, Wayne, Ian Balchin,
Qahir Al-Ashrar, Venkataraman the Biiiig Hindu, Liu Yan, ISLAMOPHOBIA,
Möbius Pretzel, Buddy III, Mujahid, V i v a P a l e s t i n e!,
Burhan, Farid Ahmed, Kope, Death to Israel..Israel has no Right to
Exist, Franko Pizza, rick murphy, rich murphy, ISLAM - THE SOLUTION OF
MODERN PROBLEMS, Faris Jawad, Sabastawi, The Founding Church, Ilan
Ramon: Kike Lost in Space. Proudly serving Islam and al Quds, Katrina,
Ahura Mazda, TROLLS HUNTER, Kayid Al-Kuffar, Firnando, R Geovani,
Blondes Gaulloises, Zimbawi, Muslims Always Victorious, Islam Will
Replace Collapsing Amerikan Empire, Muslims Are Good Folks, Katucha,
katucha is the zionists worst nightmare, We are Muslims, and we are
extremely proud of it, Born To Serve Islam, All praise is due to Allah
Lord of the Worlds, the Owner of all of the creation, Ardalan
Keykavoussi, Tommy Davis, LORD RAMA. (The 19 terrorists who attacked
our nation on September 11, 2001 used a total of 364 aliases.)
Islam is a supremacist political ideology. The Arabs, especially the
Quraish tribe, are, according to Islam, the master race of the
universe. Other Muslims are their helpers, and the rest of us are
called kuffars. According to the sharia law, Arab women cannot marry
non-Arab men because Allah has chosen the Arabs above others. The word
kuffar is as pejorative as the word nigger; it means a non-Muslim
beast in a human form. Muslims who treat the kuffars as human beings
are apostates, so they must be killed, preferably by their own
families. (According to the hadith, a special reward in paradise is
reserved for the killers of apostates.) Muslims broke world records of
genocide (270 million victims), slavery, religiously sanctioned rape,
abuse of human rights, and prohibition of scientific inquiry. Two
years after Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor, the Haavara Agreement
permitted emigration of German Jews to Palestine. Haj Amin El-
Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, persuaded Adolf Eichmann and Adolf
Hitler that Jews should be killed before they flee Germany. Islam
forbids Muslim emigration to the lands of the infidels because a
Muslim minority cannot enslave the infidel majority. Despite this
prohibition Muslims emigrate to the West, not as migrants, but as
conquerors. They live in sharia mini-states and expand these mini-
states by terrorizing infidel neighbors and driving them out. Any
society not willing to subjugate itself to Islamic authority is,
according to Islam, in a state of war, or Dar al-Harb, with Islam.
Arabic proverb says "first comes Saturday, then Sunday." It means that
Arabs are going to exterminate Jews before they exterminate
Christians. It also means that Israel is the first line of defense
against Islam. Another Arabic proverb (al-fikr kuffar) says that the
very act of thinking (fikr) makes one an infidel (kuffar). Islam, like
cancer, has the sole purpose of making more of itself. It will kill
our civilization unless it is cut, poisoned, and radiated into
remission.
Best ways to deal with Muslim invasion of the West:
1. Deportation to countries of their origin.
2. Deportation to Muslim-only towns guarded by the police.
3. MY FAVORITE IDEA: One child per family policy reinforced with
sterilization.
4. Mandatory lessons about Muslim atrocities.
5. Very strict control of Muslim clergy (mullahs).
6. Tax on Muslims to recompense us for all the harm they have done to
us.
7. Sermons (khutbah) and religious instructions must be conducted in
the local language, rather than Arabic, so that hate speech can be
easily identified.
8. Incarceration of all Salafi, Wahhabi, Deobandi, and Jamaat al
Tabligh mullahs.
I have been made victorious with terror. - Muhammad (according to
Bukhari: 4.52.220)
"Human blood is the life-line of Islam, violence its hallmark, and
hate its foundation. In the beginning, Islam lives on the blood of
infidels. When that is unavailable, or becomes difficult, Islam must
cannibalize itself." - Abul Kasem
In a poll taken for the Davos World Economic Forum, stunning numbers
of Europeans fear a "threat" from Muslims with whom they "interact":
79 percent of Danes, 67 percent of Italians, 68 percent of Spaniards,
65 percent of Swedes and 59 percent of Belgians. source:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0408/blankley042308.php3?printer_friendly
Islam is already the fastest-growing religion in Europe. Driven by
immigration and high birthrates, the number of Muslims on the
continent has tripled in the last 30 years. Most demographers forecast
a similar or even higher rate of growth in the coming decades. source:
http://pewforum.org/docs/index.php?DocID=60
Europes Muslim population is set to increase from around 13% today to
between 22% and 37% of the population by 2025. source:
http://news.scotsman.com/europeanunion/CIA-gives-grim-warning-on.2595505.jp
The average European couple now has fewer than 1.4 babies, compared to
3.6 babies born to the average Muslim immigrant couple in Europe.
Across Western Europe 16 to 20 percent of babies are being born into
Muslim families
By 2025, one-third of all European children will be
born to Muslims
In Italy, 95% of all rapists are Muslims. Eighty-five
percent of all murderers are Muslims
France will have a Muslim
majority in less than 25 years! Another telling statistic is that
although the Muslims are 12% of France's population, 70 percent of a
total of 60,775 prisoners in France are Muslims! All of France's urban
suburbs are being roamed by Muslim black African or Arabic gangs
A
very high proportion of French Muslims are in the underclass, that
segment of the population that relies not so much on education and
work as on welfare and predatory activities. In fact, over one
thousand Muslim neighborhoods are under monitoring throughout France.
Seven hundred of those Muslim neighborhoods are listed as "violent"
and nearly 400 hundred are listed as "very violent." Violence ranges
from rape (95% of rapists are Muslim), murder (85% of murderers are
Muslim), theft and looting of cars (58% committed by Muslims) and
street fighting to assault on teachers and civil servants
source:
http://www.masada2000.org/islam.html
Muslim per-capita arrest rate on terrorism-related charges in the
United States is 2.5 times higher than in Europe
If the United
States, despite the much better socio-economic standing of its
Muslims, suffers from 2.5 times more terrorism per capita than does
Europe, socio-economic improvements are unlikely to solve Europe's
problems. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=932DF90B-4644-49A7-A754-C263BF74DE9B
"Like children playing with dynamite, Western intellectuals,
journalists, and diplomats fantasize that they are achieving results
in the Middle East with their words, promises, apologies, money, and
concessions. Yet how can such innocents cope
with polities and
societies whose basic ruling ethos is that of the serial killer?
Can
anyone really expect a stable society capable of progress in Pakistan
when a large majority of the population expresses admiration for Usama
bin Ladin? And what about the Saudi system where, as one local writer
put it, the big Usama put into practice what the little Usama learned
in a Saudi school?
The radical forces in the region are not expecting
to retain or gain power by negotiating, compromising, or being better
understood. They believe they are going to shoot their way into power
or, just as good, accept the surrender of those they have intimidated.
That is why so much of the Western analysis and strategies for dealing
with the region are a bad joke." - Barry Rubin, source:
http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3952&cid=6&sid=20
"Europe is being targeted for deliberate colonization by Muslim
states, and with coordinated efforts aimed at our Islamization and the
elimination of our freedoms. We are being subject to a foreign
invasion, and aiding and abetting a foreign invasion in any way
constitutes treason. If non-Europeans have the right to resist
colonization and desire self-determination then Europeans have that
right, too. And we intend to exercise it." - "Fjordman" source:
http://www.islam-watch.org/Fjordman/European-Declaration-Independence.htm
It is Islamic violence which threatens Holland and all of Europe.
Exactly as in the 1930s, it is the weakness of European leaders which
allows the threat to grow. Just as the League of Nations refused to
stand up to fascism in pre-WW2 Europe, the United Nations grovels
before Islam today. source: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2414
"There does not exist an identifiable body of Muslims, substantive in
number or an outright majority, who could be described as "moderate"
by their repudiation of Muslim extremists. Violence has been an
integral part of Muslim history, irrespective of whether it is
sanctioned by Islam, and Muslims who unhesitatingly use violence to
advance their political ambitions have created a climate within their
faith culture that any Muslim who questions such practice is then
deemed apostate and subject to harm. Consequently, what might pass for
"moderate" Muslims, the large number of Muslims unaccounted for as to
what they think, in practical terms constitute a forest within which
extremists are incubated, nurtured, given ideological and material
support, and to which they return for sanctuary." - Salim Mansur
"A Muslim apostate once suggested to me a litmus test for Westerners
who believe that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance: try
making that point on a street corner in Ramallah, or Riyadh, or
Islamabad, or anywhere in the Muslim world. He assured me you wouldn't
live five minutes." source: http://citizenwarrior2.blogspot.com/2007/10/taqiyya-religious-deception.html
Muslims who share the same goals as Osama bin Laden but are pursuing
them through non-violent means are celebrated by gullible Westerners
as moderates. - Robert Spencer
65.2% Muslims favor Caliphate, 65.5% Muslims favor strict Sharia law
in every Islamic country: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28064
(Only the Caliph can wage offensive jihad and offensive jihad is his
main duty.)
"To say that moderate Islam is the solution to radical Islam implies
several things: that moderate Islam exists; that it represents the
true (though perhaps currently disregarded) norm of Islam; and that
radical Islam is a departure from that norm." - Lawrence Auster
At what point is it okay to fight dictators like Saddam or the al
Qaeda terrorists who want to take his place? It turns out that the
answer, according to Gandhi, is NEVER. During World War II, Gandhi
penned an open letter to the British people, urging them to surrender
to the Nazis. Later, when the extent of the holocaust was known, he
criticized Jews who had tried to escape or fight for their lives as
they did in Warsaw and Treblinka. The Jews should have offered
themselves to the butchers knife, he said. They should have thrown
themselves into the sea from cliffs. Collective suicide, he told
his biographer, would have been heroism. source:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTM1NTg1YjFhMGE5MzZjZDUzNzNhNzdkMjE2YmEyNTY
Tears of Jihad: http://www.politicalislam.com/tears/pages/tears-of-jihad
Muslim persecution of Christians: http://tinyurl.com/5rro8p
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/islams_global_war_against_chri.html
American Muslim leader Khalid Abdul Muhammad speaks about whites (2
minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJh_mNXPw-E
Muslims in America: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLK1Xpc7SMQ
Islam's war on freedom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIq7tsVvEoY
Islam is conquering England: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8aQtoE4nZM
Young Talib beheads Ghulam Nabi: http://tinyurl.com/2rb2e3
Suppressing Discussion of Islam (85 minutes, 120 MB):
http://www.newcriterion.com/cm/webcast/wc_GZq4MHNn.mp3
History of Jihad: http://www.wikiislam.com/wiki/History_of_Jihad
Islam = illiteracy, poverty and backwardness:
http://www.islam-watch.org/SujitDas/Holy-Islam-Illiteracy-Poverty-Backwardness.htm
Obsession - Radical Islam's War Against the West: http://europenews.dk/en/node/5811
Latest offerings from the religion of peace: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 04:02:27 -0700 (PDT)
author: unknown
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