I am interested in whether this group's activities will also cover women being raped and sexually harassed while IN the military. Women such as Suzanne Swift, who went AWOL rather than face being deployed to Iraq a second time with the Commanding Officer who had ordered her to have sex with him -- and who said he had the power to make her life a "living hell" if she told anyone! Now, for having gone AWOL, Suzanne Swift is incarcerated in Ft. Lewis, WA, near here, awaiting trial -- and her rapist is free and has not been charged with anything!

There really DOES seem to be a "culture of rape" in the military. Women soldiers in Iraq have DIED OF DEHYDRATION because they do not drink enough water -- they don't want to have to go to the latrine after dark -- and be assaulted by the male troops! SEVERAL women have died this way! THE YOUNG GIRLS BEING RECRUITED SHOULD KNOW WHAT AWAITS THEM IF THEY SHOULD JOIN.

I was vigiling with Women In Black in downtown Seattle, and we were handing out a leaflet about the case of Suzanne Swift and Sexual Harassment in the Military. A woman walked up to me {she appeared to be early middle-aged, possibly Native American or Hispanic}, and said, YES, we were EXACTLY RIGHT, SHE HAD BEEN IN THE MILITARY, SHE KNEW THAT THERE WAS SEXUAL HARASSMENT GOING ON and being covered up.

The thing is, I have VERY LITTLE CONTACT with teens and children and military recruiters; tho of COURSE I support  efforts to keep recruiters out of schools! There have been student demonstrations that have kept recruiters out of high schools and colleges here! There was even a demonstration by parents, an impromptu one, when recruiters tried to corrall kids at a BEACH last year!!!!!!!!!!!! They have recruiters at WAL-MART, pro-Army films at Chuckee-Cheese targetting PRE-SCHOOLERS!!!......!!!!!!!!

So, if this group will NARROWLY define itself, I am afraid I could be of little help! However, if it will expand to include sexual harassment of women while IN the military, I have more resources on that: material on Suzanne Swift's case, for example, is being distributed by local groups I am in contact with. I would LIKE to print it here!

There certainly seems to be a relationship there. Perhaps young women are being "groomed" for what they will find once they get in the military! Please let me know what you think, either in this thread, or by NM.

B Mutiny T

Mutiny until the Military becomes a true peace-maker, not a war-maker. We need a Peace Department, not a War {so-called "Defence"} Department, in the Cabinet.

Women In Black, an International organization of women against war and all violence, deals with women's issues: such as violence against homeless women, domestic violence situations among veterans of war and their families, etc. You may want to make contact with them about this issue.

Also Code Pink, is a women's organization that may want to work on this issue with you.

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Liz: from Port Townsend, Washington, near Canada border; helped start Teen Peace (see www.teenpeace.org) as a home schooling project for her kids, mother of two kids aged 18 and 21 who are of draftable age, was concerned about the possibility of a draft, what began as a home school project is now a large teen initiative in five cities, engaged in large battle with the school board over opt out policy; now active with United for Peace and Justice, and NNOMY


How does the military recruit?

--On Campus, in classrooms:
--Question about lack of success—how do you get the school board to allow you to be on campus when the recruiters are there?
-- allowed on campus before or after; stand outside school, emphasize that non-military alternative groups also have a right to be on campus just as recruiters do; coordinate with Americorps or other types of programs.

--ASVAB test: Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery is the military test for placement in the armed forces, but it is offered as a career assessment test;
www.asvab.org website does not brand as military; the recruiters promise that if you score high enough on the ASVAB, you’ll get a better job in the military
Students fill out all their personal contact information, including cell phone, etc., when taking this test. Then recruiters can constantly call students.
What to do? Talk to guidance counselors and inform them of the truth of the ASVAB test.
This test is thought to be sexist.
Option 8—no release of contact information to military recruiters; administrators can fill this out.

--Pentagon database—information about young people comes from the DMV, from advertising firms, privately contracted to Be Now, Inc., lawsuit pending by the organization called EPIC

--Student information gathered from school administrators. Option for parents to "Opt Out" by specifying on school registration forms that their child's information cannot be released to recruiters.

--Festivals and public places: hang out spots; counter-recruiters can be present at these events to present alternative viewpoints, do street theater, flyer, connect with youth (examples: Chicago Cinco de Mayo festival counter recruiting, counter-recruitment at hip-hop summer concert in SF Bay Area)

--Advertisements: print ads and television; suggestion to have MoveOn run a counter-recruitment ad

--ROTC programs: the military provides uniforms and personnel to run the p.e. program on high school campuses. Find out whether the military is planning to start an ROTC program in a high school in your area and work to keep ROTC out. School boards can set a cap on the number of schools that can have ROTC programs.

What does the military promise? What’s the reality?

--Myth of equal opportunity for Women: Most officers are white men and most rank and file women are subject to harassment and don’t have anyone in a higher rank to act as an advocate; sexual harassment and rape, show young women articles like the article about young women dying of dehydration because they’re afraid to go to the bathroom
=> Request for articles about women and the military (CODEPINK National will compile articles and get a website up soon) In the meantime, you can see the article about women dying of dehydration because they were afraid of being sexually assaulted while going to the bathroom outside the barracks at night at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_013006J.shtml.

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MUST READ this article!   BMT

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There was an 800 number women could use to report sexual assaults. But no one had a phone, she added. And no one answered that number, which was based in the United States. Any woman who successfully connected to it would get a recording. Even after more than 83 incidents were reported during a six-month period in Iraq and Kuwait, the 24-hour rape hot line was still answered by a machine that told callers to leave a message.

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    This problem has become so acute that the Army has set up its own sexual assault web site.

    In February 2004, Rumsfeld directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to undertake a 90-day review of sexual assault policies. "Sexual assault will not be tolerated in the Department of Defense," Rumsfeld declared.

    The 99-page report was issued in April 2004. It affirmed, "The chain of command is responsible for ensuring that policies and practices regarding crime prevention and security are in place for the safety of service members." The rates of reported alleged sexual assault were 69.1 and 70.0 per 100,000 uniformed service members in 2002 and 2003. Yet those rates were not directly comparable to rates reported by the Department of Justice, due to substantial differences in the definition of sexual assault.

    Notably, the report found that low sociocultural power (i.e., age, education, race/ethnicity, marital status) and low organizational power (i.e., pay grade and years of active duty service) were associated with an increased likelihood of both sexual assault and sexual harassment.

    The Department of Defense announced a new policy on sexual assault prevention and response on January 3, 2005. It was a reaction to media reports and public outrage about sexual assaults against women in the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ongoing sexual assaults and cover-ups at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, Gilberd said. As a result, Congress demanded that the military review the problem, and the Defense Authorization Act of 2005 required a new policy be put in place by January 1.

    The policy is a series of very brief "directive-type memoranda" for the Secretaries of the military services from the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. "Overall, the policy emphasizes that sexual assault harms military readiness, that education about sexual assault policy needs to be increased and repeated, and that improvements in response to sexual assaults are necessary to make victims more willing to report assaults," Gilberd notes. "Unfortunately," she added "analysis of the issues is shallow, and the plans for addressing them are limited."

    Commands can reject the complaints if they decide they aren't credible, and there is limited protection against retaliation against the women who come forward, according to Gilberd. "People who report assaults still face command disbelief, illegal efforts to protect the assaulters, informal harassment from assaulters, their friends or the command itself," she said.

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Jeff,

An idea for other activities, well we can maybe formate a letter in which members(Of this group and those who sign the petitions) in each portion of the US, can send to the "Investigation Military Officer" of that area and spec. mitlitary branch addressing concerns about "the active in school recruitment" of our teens, the concernes of well documented-just heeded sexual assault reports, and ask what if anything they have been doing about it. Then if we get a responce-'s, maybe we can  take it to Dateline or Cnn . Present the information to them, along with allegations-instances, show the big picture to them and whats "NOT" being done about it-stir some interest in the media. Get them to do an exposes "now" about it, and start sending the signed  petitions to our Government after the news has hit the Television, and people are stirred up.  Then maybe we could get some possible positive outcome from the "The Powers That Be".

Maybe if we can make them look like the "uncaring bureaocrats" they really  are, maybe embarrass them a bit by all the publically sited instances of sexual assault with no punishment, The Military personel responsible for these acts-not  removed from recruiting , etc. Make them show good faith in the public eye, and start punishing these "Rapist" for the crimes they have commited. A decent public outcry can stir attention to this subject that seems to be so often totally ignored as if it was nothing-or that the trauma these girls have had to go thru  wasn't worth wasting their time punishing the offender, let alone the fact that it shows that they seemingly condone this behavior as well.

I don't know, just a thought-maybe a bad one, but I am throwing it in there anyways, just in case.K.

                                    Blessings,

                                      Debbie L.

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Hi, since I don't live in the States but in a country where military recruitment at schools is unheard of, I decided to read around the net exactly what happens in America and I came across this:

"military recruiters have unprecedented access to public schools. The little-known Section 9528 of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 grants the Pentagon access to directories of all public high schools (supplying them with student names, addresses and phone numbers) to facilitate contact for military service recruitment."

My question is, exactly how does an act like this get approved in America and what can be done to stop it?

From my point of view, the first step should be to refrain personal information getting into military hands unless a person has authorised it.

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Vida,

I live in the states and had no idea  this was occuring and I am wondering how many parents know about this as well.   I think addresses and telephone numbers are going way too far!!!!!  Thanks for the info...

Tara

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What FEW people know, as it has received little publicity! is, that there is also an "Opt Out" provision in the law. The law is not at my fingertips just now: but, basically, in order to NOT have your address, etc., given out, either the parent or the child, has to fill out a form, WITHIN A CERTAIN TIME PERIOD. If you HAVEN'T filled out such a form -- that few people even know anything about!!! -- it is ASSUMED you have given your "consent". !!!!!

CODE PINK is a group that has lots of available information on recruitment and "no child left behind" and "opt out".

Also, on Care2, the Veterans for Peace group; and especially, the Peace Think Tank group {I am a member of both groups}; the Peace Think Tank group has info under its pinned "Recruitment" thread, including Code Pink info from last year; if there was interest, I could bring that info over to this group; or you could look it up.

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I do remember from your article that the recruiters did get addresses and phone numbers, but couldn't remember how they obtained them.  Thanks for pointing out the no child act......  remember, I am new and just learning...

Thanks BMutiny for your input too.

Tara

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Just read this and had to add it on:

"Recruiters are up-front about their plans to use school lists to aggressively pursue students through mailings, phone calls, and personal visits -- even if parents object. "The only thing that will get us to stop contacting the family is if they call their congressman," says Major Johannes Paraan, head U.S. Army recruiter for Vermont and northeastern New York. "Or maybe if the kid died, we'll take them off our list."

Unbelievable!

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In answer to your question: the "No Child Left Behind" Act was passed by our Congress, voted on by our elected representatives.

As with SO MANY bills of the dishonest Bush mis-Administration, the part about giving military recruiters addresses and phone numbers, was SNEAKED IN; the bill as a whole was supposed to benefit Education, set standards, etc. WE KNOW THAT MANY OF OUR CONGRESSPEOPLE DO NOT ACTUALLY READ THE BILLS THEY PASS ON. This came out in Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11"; with regard to the way Congress passed the Patriot Act.  The Bush mis-Administration has made a HABIT of DECEPTIVELY sneaking in Legislation favoring its cronies that it REALLY WANTS TO SEE PASSED; such as, sneaking in a provision for DRILLING FOR OIL IN PRISTINE ARCTIC LANDS, into a budget bill or something else. Or, recently, a tax cut for the wealthy bill, sneaked into a bill to raise the minimum wage! THEY ARE COUNTING ON THE LEGISLATORS BEING STUPID OR LAZY.

I hope in YOUR country you have COMPETENT, LITERATE Legislators. {We have a FEW such. However, in this present climate they must FEAR ASSASSINATION.}

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I personally have a high school age child, and after seeing all the recruiters at the school one day, I asked my son what was up. He said they show up daily now and are  actviely soliciting the teens to come in and  take a look at what they have to offer.

Hello!!!!! Some of the kids they were talking to were freshmen, and no where near the age of enlisting. Made me go HMMMMMMM, and then ARGGGHHHH. My son then came home the next day, and reported that several of his non enlist age gal friends had received phone calls from these recruiters, and that the young ladies were quit uneasy about it. I should say so. I went to the office and began asking questions about how these recruiters had gotten a hold of phone numbers and names of these Minors, and with out parental permission. I was told that they have full access due to the fact they are government. I was never informed about being able to opt out, that was never offered to any of the parents to my knowledge. That is not right, these are children and any access that anyone wants to them, need to come thru me and my husband and no one else.

Well we (my son)got a call a few days later from a recruiter, and handed me his cell. Lets just put it this way, that recruiter will not be calling again, and I am sure of that. However that doesn't stop the rest of the recruiters from know all about our children. This definitely puts the young females at a major risk in my opinion. Hopefully we can work toward protecting them all with the petition work here. Because if we have the responce and impact that I am hoping for, reform will soon follow. And with that tighter security, and hopefully less access to personal information for all of our young people. I can't help but feel  we are in the  Hansel and Gretel tale-and someone in our government is leaving a breadcrumb trail that ends right at the feet of my child and everyones elses child too. Scary stuff people.

                         Blessings to all,

                              Debbie L.

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Thank you all for so much valuable information!!! 

Tara

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