Damnation, these coverups are so stupid and sad.

Digg here:

http://digg.com/politics/Rape_.....e_s_Waxman

Just e-mailed Waxman.

If Congress and those who remain undepraved in the executive branch keep ignoring the many atrocities that are piling up, they will become accessories, right? Both Democrats and Repbulicans.

Stuff is getting out there. Bugliosi laid out one approach. We are all disappointed that the new congress has not done enough. But we are still trapped in the world of poltical measures.

If Obama wins, and we can keep the Supreme Court from being gutted by addition of another right wing high toned wardheeler, then some things will start happening judicially sooner or later. Just takes a couple of DAs with guts, and justice will start its slow inexorable grind, for the death, suffering, and theft.

Is anyone going to an Obama event soon? Someone should point this out to Obama as to why we need investigations of Bush and his criminal cabal(including Blackwater).

Yeah I’m not being overly moved with the “let’s forgive and move on” attitude toward the Bush years.

Neither the Bushies nor the Dems who stood by and did nothing should get a pass.

It may take decades, but I don’t see many of us letting stuff like this go any time soon.

And by government atrocity, I do not mean the ghastly crime itself. the individuals who did it are responsible for this heinous crime. But I think it is has become clear that the high-brass military and DOJ have obstructed justice on horrific rapes committed against US citizens and servicewomen, and killings of Iraqi citizens, and horrific theft and corruption and contractor violence and intimidation that has endangered US troops.

A couple of decent congresscritters have tried to get some action out of the Cheney/Bush gang on these horrible rape cases, and one of them is a GOPer (Poe?). But they are a sadly small group of Congresspeople with guts and their efforts don’t seem to have produced much of anything yet.

It seems obvious to me that if you are in the military or are a military contractor, you are immunized from punishment no matter what crime you commit. I guess the exception would be a lower ranking individual commiting some transgression against a higher ranking individual, and there are probably exceptions to that.

Me too - sent it to the list in my email account also.

dear god.

reminds me of the military initially telling the family of a KBR Electrocution victim that he had taken an electronic device in to the shower

calling both of Waxman’s offices NOW

How many other cases like this have not come to light because the parents lacked the expertise this poor woman’s father had? This soldier was terrorized and her family was told it was suicide — how convenient for the Army.

Something is wrong: from Pat Tillman to Lavena Johnson, something is very wrong.

But of course, the relaxation of the standards for joining the Army have no bearing on any of the problems.

Nor is it a problem that so many of the contractor types have been recruited from authoritarian regimes around the world.

Nothing to see here; move along.

Shamefull. A lovely young patriot abused by the very country she purported to defend. I wonder if she was one of the hundreds of thousands of young people that thought they were going to fight against OSB and the Taliban, only to be sold the pig-in-a-poke that is Iraq.
How must her family feel for the sacrafice of their treasure.

The CommonDreams article says that the Defense Department reports that one in three women in the military will be raped or sexually assaulted by men in the military.

http://www.commondreams.org/ar.....4/28/8564/

I tried to find something to substantiate this, but couldn’t. I found a 1995 Reuters article that the DoD disputed

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....N63836.DTL

And an AlterNet article

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/85099/

The figure, if true, is horrific.

Something is wrong: from Pat Tillman to Lavena Johnson, something is very wrong.

And, if they do this to Americans, imagine what they do to Iraqis.

And news today the Monica Goodling nixed hiring a top terrorism prosecutor because his *wife* was a Democrat.

So, that is also serious, the kind of thing that would get any government official who was not a member of the Cheney/Bush gang in very hot water. There would be cries of treason, and talk about how millions of Americans were endangered and loud demands for justice. But we get smoe stiking report.

There must be official action on the things that this administration has done. Some ad hoc truth and whetever commission will not be enough.

And I haven’t even mentioned the war crimes…

Certainly Mukasey is at least an accessory at this point. Both for the crime described in this post, and many others, including Goodling’s crimes.

Not that I’m trying to drop Pat Tillman’s case, but I think there is also some real misogyny associated with this and the Jamie Leigh Jones (and other rape) cases. A real “If the women want to go into the Army, then we’ll show them some real action” sort of thing? Am I overplaying this? Murder IS murder - but I’m thinking this poor kid did not have a chance - unless she was a black belt in martial arts and had been extensively armed at the time. I’m not saying women should not be in the military, but I’m also saying that they should not have to watch out for compatriots as well as the enemy.

That was what I was thinking too.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Nazi Germany. Crimes of the SS were covered up until the German people were liberated by the Allies. Who is going to liberate the people of the U.S. from these fascist thugs in the boardrooms, Executive offices, Congress and the Pentagon?

Never mind Henry Waxman, where are the Armed Service Committees?

OT,

Novak has a brain tumor.

If Pharmaceuticals are supposed to provide risk data should the DOD be required to provide the same

CAUTION: The enlistment you are contemplating may result in your being raped and killed

It took years for the Israeli’s to track down Eichman. Germany is still tracking down Nazi war criminals. Now matter how long it takes the criminals of this adminstration and the Republican Party need to be brought to justice. Preferably in court but if necessary the street.

This is horrific, to say the least.

And the people who do these heinous acts, many of them unreported, rather than under-reported as this one is - are coming back stateside, where they are becoming our next generation of police officers, detectives, etc….

OT:

“McCain stepped down from the boards of Silver State Bancorp and Silver State Bank of southern Nevada for “personal reasons,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Silver State would not comment further.

McCain had served on the board of Silver State Bank, originally Choice Bank, and Silver State Bancorp since February 2008, having been a director with Choice Bank starting in 2006.

McCain’s current posts include Vice President and CFO of Hensley & Company, the beer distributorship which his stepmother Cindy chairs, and chairman-elect of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.

Shares of Silver State Bancorp, of which Andrew McCain owns 1,226, closed at $1.28 a share on Friday. The stock’s 52-week high on Nasdaq (symbol SSBX) is $24.10.”"

http://rawstory.com//news/2008....._0727.html

This is all over the MSM….Not. Just like the Bush family.

This may have been covered elsewhere on FDL, but I’ve been away for a couple of days and may have missed it…sorry, if I’m late to the party.

We need to have accountability even if it takes years. This applies to the executive, legislative and even the judicial branch AND the military. Criminal behavior can not go unpunished.

We cannot reward lawbreakers of any type.

Give them their day in court. ALL OF THEM.

tried to do ’spotlight’, but won’t work, among many other things on fdl since the upgrades last year. only website that does it, wapo a few little things.

if anyone can do it, will you spotlight this for me? thanks. will write individual letters and make calls. as usual.

=========

think it would have been covered up if it was a guy? oh, tillman…….

my family still doesn’t know completely why my brother died in the army in germany.

and that was over 25 years ago. back then you didn’t question things, you just got through it. i had many questions, but nothing i could form into a question, and who would i have asked? i can’t imagine her family having to ’just get through it’ and realizing when they saw her body that they weren’t being told the truth……and then have someone withold it and you only finding it from an overlooked item…….wow. what i would want to do……can’t imagine what they are going through, so, i will make a point to pass this one around…A LOT…….

thanks jane.

Only the very best from this administration…. COVERUPS! They will never admit that any wrong doing took place on their watch… even when the administration obviously had nothing to do with the crime committed!! SOP for the Rethuglians no wonder they are so discredited by the electorate… This kind of conduct needs to be used against them every day until the general public finally understands just what kind of people these Rethuglians really are… Support our troops?? Only when it is their political interest… Other wise it is the old use, abuse and dispose system they have always used. Just look at what they have done to the VA, Veterans and the wounded soldiers coming home, just how many are now living on the street and how many have committed suicide??

They must be defeated this fall and regulated to the dustbin of history as a failed party who only cared about themselves and their rich friends!

Interesting that the young woman’s father and mother met with Ike Skelton…and nothing happened…

These rape cases are truly chilling. Not perhaps, unfortunately, that they happened. As some of the commenters noted, something like this can always happen, especially when recruiting standards are lowered, and troops well-being is recklessly neglected by high officials, and contractors are allowed to use murderous force without any rule of law, or any kind of accountability.

What is chilling is the governments non-response and obstruction. It has become clear over the last couple of years that the depraved violence of this crime is not an isolated incident. If you read the callous and indifference of the government, and what I think are clear signs of obstruction, you will be outraged.

Someting monstrous is going on, and Congress sits there, fiddling.

There is an element of depravity in our current political system. I am confident that history will note that very well and very clearly, assuming civilization as we know it continues for the next 20 years.

I sent an email with the information from Colorofchange to Hillary Clinton - I think she’s on Armed Services. My headline was: And when is the Armed Services Committee Going To Do Something About THIS???

i’ve been posting this song the last few days-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

mary gauthier (go-shay) from louisiana with marty stuart on mandolin
mercy now
it exposes it heals.

there is another version on youtube with a katrina montage, but i didn’t want to take away from lavena’s family’s struggle.

hope everyone listens to it. i am, crying and thinking of her family, and they really need some ’mercy now’…and mary gets it across perfectly. soft and tender and to the point.

bbl

I’d heard of this case and hoped by now the pentagon would do something about her murder. It’s disgusting that anyone who signed up to serve their country can be murdered by either another service member or a contractor, and the government doesn’t seem to care.

Where’s the support for the troops from the administration? Oh, wait…

Jane, thanks for helping to turn up the volume on this

Digg here:

Digg

upvote on reddit, too

I agree with nearly everything you say. However I don’t think the lowering of recruitment standards had anything to do with it. (to be fair) This crime occurred in 2005 when the standards were just beginning to be lowered. Given training time I don’t think there is any possible causality in this case

Jane Harman has been vocal on this issue:

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.”

Senate Armed Services Committee: Check out some of these names. Joe Lieberman, John McCain, I’m looking at YOU>
Democrats:
Carl Levin (Michigan)
Chairman

Edward M. Kennedy (Massachusetts)
Robert C. Byrd (West Virginia)
Joseph I. Lieberman (Connecticut)
Jack Reed (Rhode Island)
Daniel K. Akaka (Hawaii)
Bill Nelson (Florida)
E. Benjamin Nelson (Nebraska)
Evan Bayh (Indiana)
Hillary Rodham Clinton (New York)
Mark L. Pryor (Arkansas)
Jim Webb (Virginia)
Claire McCaskill (Missouri)
GOP:
John McCain (Arizona)
Ranking Member

John W. Warner (Virginia)
James M. Inhofe (Oklahoma)
Jeff Sessions (Alabama)
Susan M. Collins (Maine)
Saxby Chambliss (Georgia)
Lindsey O. Graham (South Carolina)
Elizabeth Dole (North Carolina)
John Cornyn (Texas)
John Thune (South Dakota)
Mel Martinez (Florida)
Roger F. Wicker (Mississippi)

Lieberman is also in charge of the…oh, why do I bother any more.

Fuck it, yes, he’s the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. You know, the Senate version of Waxman’s committee. The one the Democrats gave him.

He could/should be investigating this too.

Not a lot of bright lights on that committee, are there?

And, if they do this to Americans, imagine what they do to Iraqis

Oh my god. This is beyond horrific. That poor girl.

Thanks Jane.

If a place emerges to send money, as a way to hold the criminals responsible for this, please let us know.

Jane
Keep up the fight kiddo. Sometimes things are the darkest before dawn

Jane - Joe Lieberman’s world is filled with ‘other people’ - Other people who suffered with Katrina; other people and their children who serve in our military and do our dirty jobs for us - they are always ‘other people’. He infuriates the c**p out of me. People like Joe always view ‘other people’ as somehow being stupid or undeserving because..well, they are ‘those other people’.

Jane, I get some stuff from the Color of Change. FYI, your post is the first I have heard of this crime.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for anything substantive to be done. Congress is effectively neutered by self interest.

I meant the bitching about Lieberman part.

It seemed exploitive to include in a piece about Laverna’s death, like I was using it to flog my hatred of Lieberman.

But the complaint is, in this context, quite legitimate. He is responsible for oversight of an isue like this. That nobody is asking has to do with the fact that he’s such a pig and the bar for expectations is so damn low.

I just emailed his Committee on Oversight and Government Reform too.

Everyone needs to push their senatorial candidates to strip him of any chairs.

Yeah I’m not being overly moved with the “let’s forgive and move on” attitude toward the Bush years.

And this is yet one more reason that I will not be voting for either candidate that we have been told to vote for. How obama can be so pansyassed when he has been empowered to DO something is bloody well beyond me.

This case is so damned sad but as for anyone doing any meaningful investigation… forget it

What is wrong is entirely and 100% the military leadership, from the Pentagon on down. That is on the military side. On the civilian side, it is clear that there is a problem that extends from Bush on down to all the agencies of government that he and his cabal have contaminated with their neocon “government is the problem” fingers.

This is what comes from “I got mine, you get yours” government.

It is like the entire upper echelon of the US government, civilian and military side alike, is engaged in one big Tailhook party. They are raiding the place, taking whatever they can and racing for the door.

A government of looters. That’s all it is.

Oh, I’m sure someone, like Waxman, will investigate it. However, we’ve had investigation after investigation after investigation by Waxman and others, yet no one seems to be willing to follow up. Why hasn’t Harriet Miers been arrested? Karl Rove? Until our so-called “leaders” walk the walk, I don’t care how loudly they talk the talk, or how much they investigate…

New Christy upstairs on Politicization of thee DoJ

Thanks for an incredibly important post, Jane. I will call Bill Nelson’s office about this. He actually is one of the few who has been working hard on the rape cases; I hope he will take this case on as well.

dmac: Thanks so much for the Mary Gauthier. I have Filth and Fire and Between Daylight and Dark, but had not heard this song. Her music is very touching.

One other observation I meant to offer is that I think that the depletion of the higher ranks in our military of the officers of the highest moral caliber is also contributing to this situation. I think many of the best officers have chosen to retire (or even been forced into retirement) rather than take part in the atrocities of Iraq. I would like to see a President Obama offer all of these fine officers an opportunity to return to service with their seniority intact to help rebuild a military that abides by the highest standards.

They still can’t get the truth out about a WHITE football star…… do you really think that this unfortunate family will get any “real” answers from the pentagon?

This is brutally wrong. My heart goes out to her family.

Now matter how long it takes the criminals of this adminstration and the Republican Party need to be brought to justice. Preferably in court but if necessary the street.

I disapprove of vigilante justice. However:
— Many of these crimes have universal jurisdiction.
— People can be tried in absentia.
— Bounties/rewards can be offered for the apprehension of those convicted in absentia.

IIRC, the U.S. offered a dead-or-alive reward/bounty on bin Laden, which is tantamount to a “fatwah,” and not so all that different than a contract assassination. I strongly disapproved of all governmentally commissioned vengeful killings, the death penalty as well as the aforementioned measures.

Please excuse this self-comment. Here is an interesting quote from the Audacity of Hope by Barak Obama, to which I take exception:

“While the evidence tells me that the death penalty does little to deter crime, I believe there are some crimes–mass murder, the rape and murder of a child–so heinous, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meeting out the ultimate punishment.”

color of change, has a petition that you can sign,urging congressman waxman to look into this.