US Army Cover-Up of Rape and Murder?

Is There an Army Cover-Up of Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers?

The Department of Defense statistics are alarming - one in three women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military. The warnings to women should begin above the doors of the military recruiting stations, as that is where assaults on women in the military begin - before they are even recruited.

US Army Cover-up of Rape and Murder

This article written by US Army Reserve Colonel, Retired, Ann Wright. She is a 29-year veteran of the Army and Army Reserves. She was also a US diplomat in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the US Department of State in March 19, 2003, in
opposition to the Iraq War. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience."

This article blows the lid off of a attempt by the US Army to list suicide as the cause of death for many women soldiers who were raped and murdered.

"Nineteen-year-old US Army Pvt. Lavena Johnson was found dead on the military base in Balad, Iraq, in July, 2005, and her death characterized by the US Army to be suicide from a self-inflicted M-16 shot. On April 9, 2008."

He parents demanded an investigation and more evidence from the crime scene... what they found was evidence of rape and murder...

"The photographs revealed that Lavena, a small woman, barely five feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned, apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault."

Why would the Army say this is a suicide?

The article also sheds light on many other cases of female soldiers who have died under suspicious circumstances...

" Ninety-four US military women have died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Twelve US civilian women have been killed in OIF. Thirteen US military women have been killed in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Twelve US Civilian women have been killed in Afghanistan.

Of the 94 US military women who died in Iraq or in OIF, the military says 36 died from noncombat related injuries, which included vehicle accidents, illness, death by "natural causes" and self-inflicted gunshot wounds, or suicide. The military has declared the deaths of the Navy women in Bahrain, which were killed by a third sailor, as homicides. Five deaths have been labeled as suicides, but 15 more deaths occurred under extremely suspicious circumstances."

I am a female veteran. I am outraged by the revelations of this article! If this is true... then the very Service which many women vow to serve and protect is complicit in their rape and murders. What would be the reason for this? Why is the military allowing this happen? Why would they dishonor a female soldiers name, and scar her family with the filth of their lies? Why are the men who are known to be rapists and murders simply allowed to go on to their next victim?

"The September 4, 2006, the death at Camp Taji of Pfc. Hannah Gunterman McKinney, 20, of the 44th Corps Support Battalion, Ft. Lewis, Washington, was investigated. Rather than having been run over by a military vehicle as she crossed a road from a guard tower to the latrine, as initially claimed by the Army, she fell, or was pushed from, and run over by a vehicle driven by a drunk sergeant from her unit, who had first sexually assaulted her. The sergeant pleaded guilty to drinking in a war zone, drunken driving and consensual sodomy with an underage, incapacitated junior soldier to whom he had supplied alcohol. A military judge ruled McKinney's death was an accident and the sergeant was sentenced to 13 months imprisonment, demotion to private, but he would not be discharged from the Army."

Sickening, totally without honor, and beyond all moral standards!



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[edit on 10-5-2008 by 12m8keall2c]

I have a hard time believing its 1/3rd of all women who join the military will be sexually assaulted, if thats a true figure that would shock me to the core. I do believe however that this a more rampant problem within our military, I have some insight to why it is happening, none good excuses but still explanations.

I've noticed that in the short time I have been in the military that the quality of recruits in these modern times has declined rapidly. Whereas in times before with the draft and lesser requirements on recruitment there was less of a female presence in our military; now there is a large female presence in our military, and I think combined with the low expectations of our recruit these days it certainly could spell trouble.

As to what happened to PVT Johnson, I certainly find it dispicable, and I hope whomever commited such an atrocity is found and put in Leavenworth for the rest of their lives, with that said Soldiers are people and human, just because they hold that title makes them no different, and such horrors like this appear wherever humans walk, to make matters worse they are in a stressful area, and not a well supervised one either in my opinion which just makes occassions like this that much easier to go by without notice.

I can't explain why the Army would list it as a suicide that is a sad thing indeed, but from what I've seen the Army usually calls it as it sees it, but thats only from what I've seen and I'm nowhere near Iraq...yet. The only thing I could think of is the Army is of course trying to keep its name from being tarnished because right now the majority of its concerns is getting recruits, and releasing that information wouldn't be good at all for retention or recruitment; which I agree is shady and not a thing to be proud of if true.

Originally posted by Mcloud313
I have a hard time believing its 1/3rd of all women who join the military will be sexually assaulted, if thats a true figure that would shock me to the core...

Agreed. Even in cities with the worst crime rates, rapes statistics do not rise to that anything near that level. I would like to see the actual statistics; I wonder if it is like the unsubtantiated claim that 1/4 women on college campuses are raped.

That isn't to say that rapes do not occur. Rather, I doubt the statistics are that high.

reply to post by yankeerose

This world is corrupted. By who? By people in secret societies & the world's militaries.

Originally posted by ChadAndrewATS
This world is corrupted. By who? By people in secret societies & the world's militaries.

Thanks for painting the entire US military with that broad brush.

Now, back on track with this thread. I know that there are a lot of investigations into these actions, and they are constently briefing the troops that it's not tolerated and for the women to report if it happens.

I know the women in my section are told if they are attacked, the males in the section have promised to beat the daylights out of the attacker.

Where I am stationed I've heard nothing of it, and I don't think its a problem at all up here. I think the label of Sexual Assaults is a broad label though and probably a very small percentage of that is rape. I'm by no means rationalizing sexaul assaults however; I'm just trying to bring down the seriousness of this report.

The stats are actually out there....Look for the MHAT reports.