AF Charges Turn Woman From Rape Victim to Defendant

[Digit]

You won't believe this...this is from the local news in NC and from what I heard on TV, then men have been granted immunity to so they can testify against HER....read on:

Charges Turn Airman From Rape Victim to Defendant

Posted: Today at 6:11 p.m.
Updated: Today at 9:10 p.m.

Pope A F B — An Air Force enlisted woman who claimed to be the victim in a rape case at Pope Air Force Base but then opted not to testify at a court martial, has become a defendant accused of committed indecent acts with the men involved.
<snip>
Hernandez said she was gang-raped at a party on May 13, 2006. The Air Force charged Airmen Russell J. Basile in the incident.
Hernandez faces a special court martial and is due in court on Sept. 24.
<snip>
In written statements to her attorneys, the three accused airmen call the sex consensual. One said Hernandez wore "skin tight" clothes, danced in a "promiscuous way" and later stripped naked.
Hernandez said that is not how it happened.
<snip>
In her memo to Perry, Hernandez said, “Under enormous stress and after consultation with the legal office, I made the decision not to testify — the pressure of the judicial process was too much for me, and I felt like no one was looking out for my interests.”

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1674488/

[Catherine Vincent]

1. They reported about that here on the local news in Houston.

This is just sick. Her family is standing by her and she has hired a lawyer. This is just sick!

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

2. Oh no, not those skin tight clothes. You know, the guys around you can't be held responsible.

You should have known better than to have made them so, um, crazy, lustful, out of control? :shrug:

MKJ

[midnight]

3. I bet that her story is different from those boys. It is so sad that

the military cannot provide protection for their own female soldiers.

[wicket]

4. It's very sad

This http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military/index_np.html">article was pretty eye-opening (and revolting).

The private war of women soldiers

Many female soldiers say they are sexually assaulted by their male comrades and can't trust the military to protect them. "The knife wasn't for the Iraqis," says one woman. "It was for the guys on my own side."

As thousands of burned-out soldiers prepare to return to Iraq to fill President Bush's unwelcome call for at least 20,000 more troops, I can't help wondering what the women among those troops will have to face. And I don't mean only the hardships of war, the killing of civilians, the bombs and mortars, the heat and sleeplessness and fear.

I mean from their own comrades -- the men.

I have talked to more than 20 female veterans of the Iraq war in the past few months, interviewing them for up to 10 hours each for a book I am writing on the topic, and every one of them said the danger of rape by other soldiers is so widely recognized in Iraq that their officers routinely told them not to go to the latrines or showers without another woman for protection.

Much more at link.

[Digit]

5. This should not be happening, and it is disgusting

Kicking for the morning crowd.

[wicket]

8. And another

:kick:

[SoCalDem]

9. The military (as an institution) does NOT want female soldiers.

They NEVER have.. The LAW says they HAVE to have them, but it cannot make them like it.

As long as women in the military "knew their place" and kept their mouths shut, it was okay, but when women get all "uppity" and expect to have the same rights...well.. we all know how the good-ole-boy organizations like that... don't we?

[northernsoul]

6. This sounds like something the Taliban would do

I suppose they'll stone her to death as punishment for provoking those poor airmen into carnal sin. :sarcasm:

[JerseygirlCT]

7. Exactly. It's quite chilling.nt