BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape

Subject: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 11:56 AM

http://suzanneswift.org/actions.html

Stop "Command Rape"

"Spc. Suzanne Swift, facing a redeployment to Iraq while serving under the command of the same individuals that allowed her to be raped and sexual harassed during her first deployment in Iraq, suffered a breakdown due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and went absent without leave rather than subject herself to the horrors she experienced at the hands of her fellow soldiers during her first tour of duty. We need your help. Suzanne is a VETERAN she served Honorably under the horrible conditions. Please help us and DEMAND a full honorable discharge from theUnited States Army. And make sure she gets ALL the Benefits she is entitled to, Including mental health care. Please take this time to send a note to yourelected Reps. and your local newspaper and help us free Suzanne.

The one click form below (in the link) will send your personal message to all your government representatives selected below, with the subject "Free SPC. Suzanne Swift" At the same time you can send your personal comments only as a letter to the editor of your nearest local daily newspaper if you like."

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 12:28 PM

This case is currently under investigation, and perhaps everyone involved should be given the benefit of the doubt until the investigation has been completed. It should be noted that an individual is not a veteran (as is stated in the link) until separated from military service, with the exception of those who transition from active duty to the reserve components.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 12:34 PM

Suzanne isn't being given the benefit of the doubt. She's in prison.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 01:38 PM

"currently under investigation" The authorities always say stuff like that to take the heat off...

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 02:06 PM

In prison? Not according to any of the many articles on the web. She was initially restricted to the Army base she is assigned to, but that restriction has been lifted.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 02:12 PM

The timeline in this thing is really confusing. It seems she was tried and sentenced to 30 days and remain in the army? Is that right? That seemed to have happened last year about this time. She did the 30 days and now what's happening?

What exactly does the petition ask to free her from?   Not trying to be a jerk here, but I don't get it.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Emma B
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 02:24 PM

A thoughtful article from the Times on line in April this year with other alleged victims of sexual assaults and harrassment.

an extract.....

"You're one of three things in the military – a bitch, a whore or a dyke," says Abbie Pickett, who is 24 and a combat-support specialist with the Wisconsin Army National Guard. "As a female, you get classified pretty quickly."

There are women who feel at ease among the men in their platoons: this seems most common among reserve and medical units, where the gender ratios tend to be more even. Several women credited their commanders for establishing a more egalitarian climate, where sexual remarks were not tolerated.

This was not the case for Pickett, who arrived in Iraq in early 2003, having been sexually assaulted, she says, during a humanitarian deployment to Nicaragua less than two years earlier, when she was just 19. When I spoke to her by phone in December, she recalled being too afraid to report the incident, particularly given the fact that the supposed perpetrator was an officer. During her 11-month stint in Iraq, stationed mostly outside Tikrit in a company of 19 women and 140 men, Pickett claimed her male peers thought nothing of commenting on her breast size or making sexual jokes about her. Yet in a war zone the effect seemed more corrosive. "The real difference is that over there, there's never a break from it," Pickett told me. "At home you can go out with your girlfriends and get a beer and talk about the idiots who were cracking jokes. Over there, you're a minority 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You never get that 10 minutes to relax or even cry. Sometimes you just need to let it all out."

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Emma B
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 02:29 PM

from the article above

"And finally there is Suzanne Swift, who in early December was given a summary court martial at Fort Lewis, a hearing normally used for small offences. She pleaded guilty to "missing movement" and being absent without leave. Her rank was reduced to private, and she spent the next 21 days, including Christmas, in a military prison in Washington state. The army ruled that in order to receive an honourable discharge, Swift was duty-bound to complete her five-year enlistment, which ends in early 2009. After finishing her time in prison in January, Swift says, she checked herself into an inpatient psychiatric ward for a few days, but ultimately was released back to duty"

I think the protests are as CarolC stated initially - to obtain a full honorable discharge from theUnited States Army and make sure she gets ALL the benefits she is entitled to, Including mental health care.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 02:34 PM

True, Spaw, and I correct my earlier statements. She served her 30 days for "missing movement" and has apparently returned to duty. I can find nothing on the web more recent than last January, and that includes entries on www.suzannesmith.org. The investigation was apparently completed and one of the individuals she accused was reprimanded and given a punitive transfer; they were apparently unable to substantiate the accusations against the other two sergeants.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 04:59 PM

According to an update from her mother, she's in prison. She'll be there until after Christmas. I'm not going to post the update here in this thread, but if you want it, artbrooks, I'll send you a link in a PM.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 05:00 PM

And according to the update, she's had her rank stripped from her.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 05:05 PM

Oops. I just got back from the dentist, and I'm still full of all kinds of mind-altering substances. I didn't read the posts preceding my last two prior to posting them. It's possible that the update from her mother was from last year.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 07:37 PM

That's how I read it Carol. Enjoy the good stuff while it lasts and we'll see you later.

AS far as thiscase goes though, I have some real questions. Is she or was she after justice for her? Assuming she is telling the truth then why isn't she fighting the Army? Or was she trying to also make a point of the way the Army works? Both are forms of civil disobedience when you refuse to accept a given situation and stand up for what you believe is right. Or does she just want the whole thing to be over and done?

If the Army was wrong in her point of view in finding her guilty, why not fight that? She's still in and its hard to fight seriously if you're a part of the group you're fighting. Or is the reason she is still in the Army is because she wants an Honorable Discharge or what? I just can't figure what the hell the object of the exercise is.

But if this is a civil disobedience matter than she needs lessons in form. I can easily believe the Army is wrong, covering up, unfair.....any number of things. But how is she making her case against them or does she even want to? Like I say, I don't get it.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 01:54 AM

I have been unable to find anything current about this situation. I stumbled onto the site that I linked to in my opening post while looking around in another site that isn't connected to her case in any significant way, and when I saw it, I looked for dates on the update and action pages. I didn't see any, so I figured they were current. I don't really have any idea what she and her family are trying to do at this time. The petition that I posted appears to be from a year ago.

However, I think this page ought to give a pretty good idea what they were trying accomplish back then...

http://suzanneswift.org/suzanne_arrest.html

I don't think her going AWOL was civil disobedience, Spaw. From what her mother has said, she already had PTSD from her experiences in Iraq, both as someone who experienced combat, as well as someone who was sexually abused; not by the 'enemy', but by the very people who were responsible for her life. The people who gave her her orders.

I don't imagine, as a man, you can fully appreciate what that would be like, but I think you can imagine what you would be feeling if you had a daughter or a wife who was in such a situation.

She was unable to force herself to put herself back in that kind of life and death situation at the mercy of the kinds of people who would do such horrendous things to her with impunity, and she experienced a break down. I consider this a perfectly understandable and even reasonable response to such a situation.

Those who were responsible for her failed her, in some cases, criminally. They are the ones who were really AWOL - from their responsibilities. They are the ones who should be facing consequences, not Suzanne. Some people have argued (not in this thread) that allowing people like Suzanne to get away with what she did would result in a breakdown of discipline. That isn't true. The breakdown of discipline happens when there are commanding officers who are sexually abusing the soldiers in their charge, especially if they are allowed to get away with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Teribus
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 02:29 AM

I don't know exactly how the USMCJ deals with it but in the UK there are three categories in ascending order of seriousness:
- Absent from place of duty
- Absent without leave (AWOL)
- Desertion
- Desertion in the face of the enemy

For the lesser charges, those charged are automatically "Guilty", i.e. it was an incontravertable fact thay you were not where you should have been, that is the charge, the reasons why only serve as mitigation when it comes to sentencing.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 02:40 AM

There should be a separate category for women who say they are experiencing sexual harassment and/or sexual abuse. At the very least, they should not be required to go into a war zone unless the sexual harassment/abuse situation has been corrected and they feel safe to do so (safe from sexual predation from their superiors or their fellow soldiers).

And they should be allowed to get an immediate and automatic honorable discharge with full benefits if they want it. I also think they should get a medal, but I'm guessing they wouldn't want one.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 06:54 AM

Carol, have her accusations of sexual harrassment and rape been upheld by a court? Unless that happens, I'd guess she's just regarded by the army as a woman who couldn't hack active service and ran away.

I'm not trying to make light of her situation in any way, but she wouldn't be the first woman to cry 'rape' when it didn't actually happen. Seems to me she needs to get it affirmed that the offences did actually take place, then the army don't have a leg to stand on.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Emma B
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 07:08 AM

"As is often the case with matters involving sex and power, the lines are blurred. Swift does not say she was raped, exactly, but manipulated, repeatedly, by a man above her in rank – and therefore responsible for her health and safety."

"In a written statement, she asserted that her station, Camp Lima, outside Karbala, was hit by mortar attacks almost nightly for the first two months of her deployment. She reported working 16-hour shifts, experiencing the death of a fellow company member in an incident of friendly fire, and having a close friend injured in a car bombing. What, Swift said, distressed her most, however, was a situation that involved her squad leader. She claimed that he propositioned her for sex the first day the two of them arrived in Iraq, and that she felt coerced into having a sexual relationship with him that lasted four months – the relationship consisting, she said, of his knocking on her door late at night and demanding intercourse. When she finally ended this arrangement, the sergeant retaliated by ordering her to do solitary forced marches from one side of the camp to another, at night, in full battle gear, and by humiliating her in front of her fellow soldiers."

"Swift says she initially reported what she characterised as an unwanted relationship with her squad leader in Iraq to her equal-opportunity representative there, who listened, she claims, but did nothing about it."

"The army's investigation had determined that Swift's charges against her superiors could not be substantiated because of a lack of evidence. (Both men denied Swift's allegations.)"

"there is a pervasive sense among victims that reporting a sexual crime is seldom worthwhile. Department of Defense statistics seem to bear this out: of the 3,038 investigations of military sexual-assault charges completed in 2004 and 2005, only 329 of them resulted in a court martial of the perpetrator. More than half were dismissed for lack of evidence."

However ......."A 2003 report financed by the Department of Defense revealed that nearly one-third of female veterans seeking health care through the VA said they experienced rape or attempted rape during their service. Of that group, 37% said they were raped multiple times, and 14% that they were gang-raped. Perhaps even more tellingly, a study after the Gulf war suggests rates of both sexual harassment and assault rise during wartime."

From The Times on-line april 2007

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: artbrooks
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 07:39 AM

Terebus, in the US military, "missing movement", which is generally defined as failing to make a required move (generally to a combat zone) is considered to be much worse than simple AWOL.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 08:33 AM

Whatever happend to 'good old fragging' - ah the days of Vietnam are long gone....

:-P

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Bee
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 08:50 AM

I wonder why, in these kinds of situations, there isn't more reporting of the other men responding to their female comrades distress. In civilian life, if women are routinely being harassed by a group of male co-workers (I'm thinking twenty years ago when women began to more fully penetrate construction jobs, and there was considerable reluctance on the part of some men to accept them), there is generally a large enough component of decent, sane men who will become proactive in seeing their buddies don't commit crimes over their resentment of women.

So where are the other male soldiers when these crimes (referring to Emma B's posted statistics) are being committed, and why aren't male soldiers speaking out in support of their female comrades? I don't mean at the point where charges have been laid, but before that, in the field, and as a routine response to 'having your buddy's back'.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 10:16 AM

For those not familiar with the issues of rape in ther armed services - it is one of those situations where the victim is in a lose-lose scenario. News reports that contain interviews with victims are horrifying. It seems that many women servivng in Iraq cannot even go to the latrines at night without another woman soldier to escort them because that is the most likely place to get jumped and assaulted, usually by a solider from your own unit.

The Army claims they take all allegations seriously but the women who come forward are ostracized and face having to go against higher ranking males or fellow soldiers who had the sense to ctach them alone so their claims cannot be substantiated. It is a very serious problem. A number of women who have since left the Amry say that after reporting their rapes, they were re-assigned to riskier jobs or or worse - they were then targetted for more harrassment by soldiers who now knew she was a "marked" woman.

Just like sexual harassment in the civiliian world, in the servies, men in positions of power over women have the opportunity to be alone with them on "business" and if so inclined can behave however they wish without any real chance of witnesses confirming the woan's account of the incident. In ther Armed services, it's worse because of the male to female ratio, the stress of combat and the general attitude towards female soldiers.

I'm not speaking about this one woman's case - I'm simply saying that it is virtually impossible for a female soldier to press a charge against her assailant. If a solider you know jumps you on the way to the latrine in the middle of the night, how are you going to prove that? it's not as if the MP's are going to run a rape kit, do fingernail scrapings and demand DNA samples from the guy who did it. That might happen if the rape took place on base in the USA but it's higghly unlikely in a combat zone. Women report being told to "suck it up" (no ppun intended) and "get back to work."

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 10:54 AM

Backwoodsman, one of the people she is accusing has been given a token slap on the wrist, so I guess that means it was proven in a court of some kind.

However, until the military cleans up this endemic problem, the woman should be given the benefit of the doubt under all circumstances, because it's the military's fault that women are being put in the position of having the veracity of their word questioned in the first place. If women were not experiencing sexual abuse from their commanders and fellow soldiers, there wouldn't be a situation where it was her word against his.

It hurts the military far more for there to be women who are being put through this kind of thing than it would if some women were to end their service prematurely because they were lying.

Alternatively, recruiters could warn women up front that they are likely to experience sexual abuse if they join up, and that if they do experience it, they will be entirely on their own. If the military can't or won't clean up this mess, they should be actively discouraging women from joining up.

I think the military services have shamed themselves in a very big way with this situation.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 11:17 AM

This page has links to a lot of articles about the problem...

http://suzanneswift.org/news.html

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Teribus
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 11:54 AM

Thanks for that Art. I know that in the RN the equivalent of "missing movement" is dealt with by a charge of being AWOL to which is tagged on the phrase "This being an aggrevated offence as the ship was under sailing orders". This is used if it cannot be proven beyond doubt that the guilty party was attempting to desert. It punishes the offender but does not affect pay or pension.

From EmmaB's post and the information it gives I can see how it would be very hard to successfully prosecute a rape charge, because it does not look as though it was rape. Who investigates these things in the US military? Our side it would be the SIB (Special Investigation Branch) who obviously are all outsiders to the unit being investigated.

I would have thought that senior NCO's and all Officers should be given the "heads up" on this sort of situation and have the training and confidence to come down hard on any offender very early on in the prceedings.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 05:33 PM

In a related case, I received this, this morning:

Jamie Leigh Jones was a 20-year-old woman working in Iraq for a subsidiary of Halliburton when she was drugged and brutally gang-raped by several co-workers.

The next day, Halliburton told her that if she left Iraq to get medical treatment, she could lose her job.1

Jamie's story gets even more horrific: For the last two years, she's been asking the US government to hold the perpetrators accountable. But the men who raped her may never be brought to justice because Halliburton and other contractors in Iraq aren't subject to US or Iraqi laws. They can't be tried for a crime in any court.2

This is one of the most disturbing stories we have come across in a while. We're calling on Congress to investigate Jamie's case, hold those involved accountable, and bring US contractors under the jurisdiction of US law so this can't happen again. If hundreds of thousands of us speak out against this outrageous story, we can force Congress to take action.

Here's how Jamie described what happened after the attack:

I awoke the next morning in the barracks to find my naked body battered and bruised. I was still groggy from whatever had been put in my drink. I was bleeding... After getting to the clinic and having a rape kit performed...I was locked in a container with no food, no way to call my parents, and was placed under armed guard by Halliburton.3

Jamie's attackers aren't the only ones exploiting a legal loophole to get away with their violent crimes. Another female employee of Halliburton says she was raped by her co-workers in Iraq.4 Employees of Blackwater, another private contracting firm in Iraq, were accused of killing innocent Iraqi civilians, and that incident turned into an international scandal. Worst of all, they may never be punished.5

Private contractors in Iraq are making massive amounts of money, operating above the law and are accountable to no one. This has to stop.

Congress needs to act now to bring these contractors under the rule of law. If they don't, nothing will prevent a case like Jamie's from happening again. No man or woman working in Iraq should have to fear that they can be attacked without consequences.

Please sign on to the petition: "Congress must investigate the rape of Jamie Leigh Jones and others, hold those involved accountable, and bring US contractors under the jurisdiction of US law." Clicking below adds your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/contractors_accountable/o.pl?id=11800-8293565-kw23s4&t=4

Sources:

1. "Halliburton hit in rape lawsuit," New York Daily News, December 11, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3274&id=11800-8293565-kw23s4&t=6

2. "Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR," ABC News, December 10, 2007
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=3977702

3. Jamie's Journal, The Jamie Leigh Foundation
http://www.jamiesfoundation.org/Jamie.htm

4. "Female ex-employees sue KBR, Halliburton—report," Reuters, June 29, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3275&id=11800-8293565-kw23s4&t=7

5."Blackwater Probe Narrows Focus to Guards," Associated Press, December 8, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3276&id=11800-8293565-kw23s4&t=9

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 06:00 PM

A separate, though vaguely related problem. The lack of accountability of mercenaries employed by the US Government is clearly a problem that doesn't depend upon who's to be believed in any particular case.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: PoppaGator
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 06:19 PM

I received the same communication about the Jamie Leigh Jones case this morning (entitled "Rape and Halliburtion" and distributed by MoveOn.org).

I immediately signed the online petition, of course, and if you'd like to do the same, here's a link:

http://pol.moveon.org/contractors_accountable/o.pl?id=11800-6555553-ae19B_&t=3

The Suzanne Swift case involves a bit of ambiguity, but this one is pretty clear-cut. Mercenaries acting at the behest of the executive branch should not be immune to US law. (Probably deserves its own thread, eventually, but I'm "not going there" just now...)

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Amergin
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 06:46 PM

Rape in the US military is a very common problem. The victims are encouraged not to pursue any legal action. In fact, many times they are even threatened with prosecution themselves....for instance if it was a date rape and the offending bastard was married, the victim could be informed that if they pursue the matter, they could be prosecuted for having an affair with a married man.

This bullshit of boys being boys needs to stop...and until the military actively prohibits such vile actions, then it will....the problem is getting them to do anything.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 07:34 PM

for instance if it was a date rape and the offending bastard was married, the victim could be informed that if they pursue the matter, they could be prosecuted for having an affair with a married man

Just like under Sharia Law. Bottom line is our culture really is no less misogynist than any Muslim culture. Our culture is just more in the closet about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: artbrooks
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 08:16 PM

Rape is absolutely forbidden in the US military. So is sexual harassment, in all its forms, and sex discrimination (with some institutional exceptions). The problem, much like other work environments in which women have relatively recently become common, is that mid-level supervisors - senior sergeants in the Army, somewhat equivalent to factory foremen - have (1) careers that predate the arrival of women to the combat environment and (2) a "keep everything within the team" mindset that combine to make this issue very hard for them to deal with. The result is that they tend to actually believe junior sergeants when they say "oh, she consented and then changed her mind afterwards", blow the whole thing off, and never elevate it to officer (management) level.

Training, retraining, and disciplinary actions for those who cannot accept that times have changed is vital. Another problem, of course, is that the military is so stretched and stressed by the stupidity in Iraq that they can barely get mission-essential training (training that is directly related to their military mission) done before they are sent back to the sandbox.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 14 Dec 07 - 08:33 PM

Rape is forbidden in Muslim cultures, too. What good is forbidding something if the only people who are going to get punished are the victims?

And the fact that there are so many men who have the desire to rape women, and who have the expectation that they are entitled to rape women, speaks volumes about the attitudes toward women in our culture.

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Teribus
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 04:19 AM

http://www.rainn.org/statistics/

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: Emma B
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 06:44 AM

The credibility of rape statistics remains open to question.

Confidence in reporting, attitudes towards the victim etc can make a significant difference
BBC report 2003 'Is rape really rocketing?'

based on these statistics

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 11:38 AM

The number of women being raped in the military increased by 65 percent during 2004 and 2005.

http://www.alternet.org/story/38942/?page=2

Subject: RE: BS: Free Suzanne Swift: Stop Command Rape
From: CarolC
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 11:56 AM

In response to Teribus' link, I think this quote from that article is important...

"One in six American women are victims of sexual assault"

Whether or not the numbers have gone down, that's still a hell of a lot of women.