Sep 19 2008
Confronting Rape in the Military
The Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military wrapped up its two day visit yesterday to Camp Lejeune. Members of the task force were on hand at the site where Corporal Caesar Laurean was alleged to have raped and killed fellow Corporal Maria Lauterbach in December 2007. For the next ten months, the congressionally mandated task force will be visiting Army, Navy and Air Force installations and combat zones across the globe. When they’re done, they are expected to report their findings and assessments on rape and sexual assault in the military to Congress. The visit to Camp Lejeune follows Congressional Subcommittee hearings held last week on sexual assault in the military. Unlike a previous hearing on the subject this summer, D. Kaye Whitley, director of the Department of Defense’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, testified and claimed that the military was taking steps towards improvements in the area. Also present at the hearings was Congresswoman Jane Harman. She introduced a bill this summer to remedy the inadequacies in investigating and prosecution of rape and sexual assault cases in the military. Harman has said that women serving in the U.S. military in Iraq are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.
GUEST: Congresswoman Jane Harman, representing California 36th district
One Response to “Confronting Rape in the Military”
Thank you for this segment. Those of us in the counter-recruitment movement have been trying to spread the word that rape in the military is an epidemic for years. Recruiters routinely lie and deceive to cover-up this fact. It’s good to hear top officials acknowledge the problem and start to work on solutions.
That said, I was a disappointed that Sonali didn’t take the chance in her interview with Harman to ask the Congresswoman about her role in approving the illegal NSA wiretapping program as a member of the Intelligence Committee, in pushing for retroactive immuinty for telecoms, her initial support for invading Iraq, and her (successful) backing earlier this year of the Orwellian ‘Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act,” among other things. Harman is a top Dem hawk, not a progressive by any measure, who should be called on this stuff.
Anyway, from a longtime listener via the web in Austin TX, keep up the good work! Just trying to contribute a constructive critique.