War Crimes

News this winter that 112 women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan reported having been sexually assaulted by fellow U.S. soldiers in the last 18 months shocked the public and shamed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld into appointing a task force to investigate the matter. The task force, headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Ellen Embrey, is due to present its findings to Rumsfeld on April 30. The team is highly regarded, and victim advocates say they have faith in members' commitment to the job. The question is: Will anyone listen to what they have to say?

The answer is a disappointing "probably not." Sex scandals have rocked the military with dismaying regularity in the last 13 years; in 1991, when dozens of women in uniform were harassed and some sexually assaulted at the Navy's Tailhook Association convention; in 1993, when reports of rape first emerged at the Air Force Academy; in 1994, when the General Accounting Office found widespread harassment of female cadets at West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy; in 1997, when drill sergeants at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland were accused of raping and assaulting dozens of female recruits; in 2003, with fresh allegations of rape and coercion at the Air Force Academy.

Each of these eruptions has provoked an outraged response, a commission, a task force, a report. Christine Hansen, executive director of the Miles Foundation, which provides services to victims of violence associated with the armed services, counts 20 in the last 17 years.

"In all of these recommendations, we have seen very few of them implemented," Hansen says. "Our concern is, at what priority level is this?"

In the five months since the Denver Post published a damning article about incidents of rape in Central Command -- which includes the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia, and therefore Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait -- the military's official response has been swift, decisive and proactive, but its response at the ground level has been lackluster. The Army said in February it had already started doing quarterly reviews of sexual assault cases. The Marines said that starting March 1 it would incorporate sexual harassment training into its programs. Rumsfeld formed the task force. Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David Chu whipped out a survey showing that assaults in the military were down by half since 1995 (although news organizations pointed out that the margin of error nearly cancelled out that progress).

But as recently as this week, when asked to provide updated figures on attacks, spokespersons for the Army, the Marines and the Air Force were unable to do so. Nor were they able to give the status of investigations into sexual assault charges. The issue is probably not that the public affairs people aren't doing their jobs but rather that no one is tracking the numbers. No one is paying attention -- still.

Asked if the spotlight of the media had sped up the pace of investigations, Hansen answered, "Not to the best of our knowledge."

The exception is the Navy, which in 1990 formed the Sexual Assault Victim Intervention program, a two-pronged approach that combines training on sexual misconduct with a strong victim response component. SAVI has an office and a staff, so the Navy was able to report that from October 2002 until February 2004 there were 12 reported assault cases in Central Command, seven of which were closed, and 358 Navy-wide.

Meaningful numbers are difficult to pin down. Hansen's Miles Foundation has received 129 reports of rape or attempted rape of servicewomen in Central Command since October 2002, with only 27 of those having been reported to military authorities. But the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence estimates that only 16 percent of all rapes are ever reported. Extrapolating from that basis, then, the numbers get big, fast.