Congress criticizes military for sexual assault cases

Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had harsh words for Department of Defense officials at a committee hearing on sexual assault in the military. Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) said “there is a clear problem within DoD.” John Tierney (D-Mass.) said the Defense Department had not done their job as far responding to accusations of sexual assault. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said that sexual assault and rape must be prosecuted equally in civilian life and in the military. Currently, she said, the two contexts are different.

Director of the Defense Capabilities and Management for the U.S. Government Accountability Office Brenda Farrell said that according to survey data, 6.8 percent of women and 1.8 percent of men in the military had experienced “unwanted sexual contact,” during the last 12 months. She said that the majority chose not to report it. In a survey to 14 bases, 103 service members said they were sexually assaulted. Farrel said that the GAO concluded that the Defense Department had made progress, but they had ” not adequately addressed some important issues,” such as encouraging a system that supports reporting of sexual assault. Farrell said that in the GAO survey, 91 to 98 percent of those polled felt that their direct supervisor would address sexual assault.

Director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office for the Department of Defense Kaye Whitley said that Feb. 13, 2004, the Defense Department created a sexual assault task force. She said that the Pentagon knew of the problem of sexual assault, but that the commanders must report it, and deal with it harshly. Whitley had been subpoenaed for an earlier hearing date in July but the Defense Department advised her not to testify. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) criticized Whitley, “We don’t want someone weak in this office, we want someone who shakes it up and gets in trouble…It feels like your being abused in a different way.”