By WILLIAM MARCH
Media General News Service
Published: April 23, 2008
More than two dozen times, women who work for U.S. military contractors have said they were raped by co-workers on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, with no charges being filed in any case.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said a “buddy-buddy” system operating among the contractors and the military has sought to discourage victims from reporting sex crimes and stalled investigation or prosecution.
After being drawn into the issue by a Tampa woman who was one of those victims, and who has seen no law enforcement action for 30 months since reporting that she was raped in Iraq, Nelson has introduced legislation he says should help solve the problem.
“The contractor buddy-buddy system is trying to sweep this under the rug,” he said of the Tampa woman’s case. He said government agencies, including the military, Department of Justice and State Department, have taken “a lackadaisical attitude, sweeping evidence under the rug, intimidation … and then even losing evidence.”
more:
http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/news/state_regional/article/reports_on_war_zone_rapes_quashed_senator_says/4174/