Gates/Rumsfeld named in rape suit
A reader who just returned from a deployment sent us this link to a Daily Beast article about a lawsuit that’s been filed against the Department of Defense pertaining to their inattention to rape cases;
[Rebecca Havrilla, a former sergeant and explosive-ordnance-disposal technician] and 16 others are now plaintiffs in a class action suit filed Tuesday against Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, alleging that their failure to act amounted to a violation of the plaintiffs’ Constitutional rights. The suit, brought by Washington, D.C. attorney Susan Burke, and filed in the Eastern Virginia federal court, charges that despite ample evidence of the problem, both Gates and Rumsfeld “ran institutions in which perpetrators were promoted; … in which Plaintiffs and other victims were openly subject to retaliation… and ordered to keep quiet.” The plaintiffs, in turn, have been “directly and seriously injured by Defendants’ actions and omissions.”
The person who sent us the link pretty much agrees that, whether or not the incidents or victims have judicial merit, the problem is not as wide spread to be characterized as a culture that was fostered by any unwritten policy. I understand that despite a published policy, some commanders may bend those policies, and that’s their discretion – that’s why they’re commanders. But to blame the entire DoD is just ridiculous.
Susan Burke was also the lead attorney against Kellog, Brown and Root’s burn pits, so I’m guessing she only chases military ambulances.
Category: Military issues
This isn’t what it seems.
Why file a case against two men who are echelons above the make-it-happen levels?
Expect to see laws written and/or changed to make heterosexual assault a standing agenda item inside the E-Ring, along with diversion of VA care to the women; and lots of $$$ to go to the attorneys of the true victims.
Yeah, but it wasn’t rape-rape.
Chuck Z: do you work in bomb disposal, by any chance?
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Lucy Kafanov, A Proud Veteran. A Proud Veteran said: Gates/Rumsfeld named in rape suit http://bit.ly/dP128z Via This Ain't Hell […]
Constitutional Rights? News flash the constitution doesn’t prevent bad things from happening to you. Any number of rapes are never solved right here CONUS, we do not go suing the mayors and governors. I would absolutely love to know how said lawyers would propose that the SecDef could wave a wand and make it all better?
This is yet another sad and pathetic attempt to make a political statement.
PintoNag, Chuck’s usually setting the bombs off (literally & figuratively *G*)
PintoNag: Lol!
Why the difference in comments between our servicemembers being raped by other servicemembers and Lara Logan being raped by Egyptians?
1DaveO Says:
February 15th, 2011 at 9:13 pm
“We wish her the best. She sounds like the type of journalist we would admire if she worked for another network…one we actually watched.”
+1
2Frankly Opinionated Says:
February 15th, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Surely this heinous deed was committed by non-muslim, Christian pacifists. We have been told that Islam is nothing but peaceful and gives women total respect. sarcasm off.
Bastards need to be de-nutted!
Because of stuff like this.
Example one.
Example two.
Example three.
Example four.
Do I need to continue?
#8 J: what difference? I commented on two very different actions.
Ms. Logan is said to have been raped. That’s a medically and legally verifiable action. It’s a horror for her to boot.
Some lawyers decided to throw bombs at the past and present SecDefs. I’m raising the red flag and saying their suit isn’t about justice for those servicemembers who’ve been raped. Justice is handled at much lower levels. So this action a deception.
Compare and contrasting the two: will Ms. Logan be suing Les Moonves and the rest of the big cheeses at CBS for what happened to her? If she does sue, will that stop CBS from sending reporters into the heat of the action to get the story? No, and no. CBS’s insurance will pay out and she’ll receive the best care she feels she needs.
For Gates and Rummie, it’s all about many many Benjamins going into the hands of the attorneys; and the political games Congress will play since the issue of rape-while-serving makes anyone see red (by play I mean inserting amendments into bills that play social engineering, or undercut the ability of the military to easily conduct the defense of the Constitution and our great Nation). The victims, those women and men who were truly, medically-/legally-defined rape (as opposed to bad sex regret/got caught violating General Order 1A and threw their sex partner under the UCMJ bus) will see little if nothing tangible from the court(s), Congress, or their lawyers.
They, like veterans of Viet Nam, WWII, and WWI will have to pick themselves up by their own bootstraps, band together, and work together through their emotional and mental issues.
That’s the way it is. Neither Gates nor Rumsfeld raped those women. By naming them in the suit, that means this case isn’t about personal responsibility or liability.
This case, to me, seems to be about setting the legal underpinning to lowering the bars to women in combat arms regardless of received wisdom.
Sporkmaster,
Thanks for posting those links. I just don’t buy it. The military goes overboard, and every unit has an EO officer. If not, you have JAG or the IG..Women want to stop being victims, stop acting like victims. O
They are suing saying that Rummie and Gates violated their “constitutional” right to serve in the military. When the heck did that become a constitutional right?