From: Truthdig
by Alexander Reed Kelly.
Isn’t it refreshing when legislators get
upset about things that matter? Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., this
Wednesday told a panel of judge advocate generals (or Jags) from the
Army, Navy and Air Force that she was “extremely disturbed” by the self-serving answers they gave during a Senate inquiry into military sexual assault.
According to those leaders, the power of
“convening authority”—which grants commanders the right to overturn
convictions by military juries—is necessary to maintain “good order and discipline”
in the armed services, and the military’s existing due diligence
requirements in matters of sexual assault are sufficient. Rather than
accept their answer, Gillibrand stated the obvious: an estimated 19,000
sexual assaults within the military each year, 86 percent of which the
Defense Department believes goes unreported, is a direct refutation of
“good order and discipline” and the adequacy of due diligence, not
evidence of them.
The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing
marked the first time in 10 years that Congress has examined the issue
of sexual assault in the military. That fact alone strongly suggests
that rape and sexual assault do not fall within the current military
leadership’s judicial concerns.
The hearing was prompted by a recent series
of incidents at Aviano Air Base in Italy. Earlier this month, Lt. Gen.
Craig Franklin reversed
a conviction of sexual assault given to a senior fighter pilot in
February. The 49-year-old victim of that case said she was “shocked and
scared” that the man who had been convicted of attacking her,
44-year-old “air force superstar” Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, would be
allowed to “remain in a position of military leadership.” She was
incredulous that one person, her commander, could “set justice aside,
with the swipe of a pen.”
Two issues were on trial at this week’s
hearing: the prevalence of sexual assault (against males and females) in
the military, and the judicial theory that enables and encourages it.
Experts and witnesses say that theory has prevented thousands of victims
from reporting the crimes committed against them, out of the assumption
that commanders will take “good order and discipline” to mean not
rocking the boat with time-consuming and embarrassing investigations
into sexual assault allegations.
Survivors expressed these fears while testifying at the Senate hearing.
One solution, said Rebekah Havrilla, a former Army sergeant who was
raped by a fellow soldier in Afghanistan, “is a military with a fair and
impartial criminal justice system, one that is run by professional and
legal experts, not unit commanders.”
Brian Lewis, a male who was raped by a
noncommissioned officer on board a Navy ship and the first such victim
to testify before Congress, confirmed the view that the priorities of
commanders deter the vast majority of victims from reporting abuse. He
and his fellow testifiers believe it is decisions like these that
undermine “good order and discipline” by shaking victims’ and concerned
observers’ faith in the military chain of command. MORE
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