- In San Diego today there was a very impressive lecture
on war crimes and the commitment of the penatgon to continuing abuse within
the military. Today Veterans for Peace hosted a panel lecture. The two
stars of the lecture series were former Army journalist Dennis Stout and
Dorothy Mackey, Executive Director: Survivors Take Action Against Abuse
by Military Personnel. Ms. Mackey served as a captain commander in the
USAF between 83-92.
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- In my estimable opinion the star of the show was Dorothy
Mackey though Dennis Stout was no less impressive receiving several
standing
ovations for his observations. Ms Mackey spoke about her career with the
USAF between 1983-1992. During the five years that got her promoted to
captain commander she was raped no less than three times and twice by
doctors
in the military.
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- Though she reported the abuse she was denied help three
times by the justice department. It was escalated all the way up to the
Cincinnati court of appeals who did refuse to hear the case. Because to
hear it would cause security problems. Through her experiences of
intimidation,
death threats, assault, and harassment Dorothy Mackey decided to do
something
she didn't have when she was in the military, she decided to become an
ear to voices in the military calling out for help. Founding an
organization
called stamp which currently has over 4,600 cases documented of sexual
assault, battering, and abuse of military soldiers by their own military
she has many chilling stories indeed.
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- Stories like this one taken from the www.STAAAMP.ORG
website:
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- Meg C U.S. Army, 1995 - 1996 Raped in basic training
in 1995, then again at her duty station, and then again by a doctor at
the Veterans Administration.
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- Meg's torment, like that of so many STAMP members, began
when she was raped in basic training. "My drill sergeant made me say
it didn't happen," she says. "If I tried to do anything about
it, I wouldn't get to my next duty station - which was the Pentagon."
A telecommunications technician with a top-secret clearance, Meg started
seeing a therapist to help with her trauma, and was relegated to a drug
and alcohol program - only to become the victim of another assault.
"This
guy in the dayroom flipped out and grabbed me; he grabbed me by the throat
and threatened to kill me. I ended up with a concussion, and had to go
to the hospital." Although Meg was told action would be taken, her
assailant was not transferred from her barracks, and "they wouldn't
let me move off post."
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- Instead of a true investigation, Megan was called into
"what was supposed to be a hearing," where she was ridiculed
by her assailant's command and then told it was "rescheduled."
In despair, Megan tried to kill herself, and her mother flew in from
Kansas;
when she was released from hospital she was told she would have to return
to the barracks, where her assailant lived. The latter, subject only to
administrative action, had been sentenced to extra duty and a reduction
in rank. Upon her discharge, the young veteran received 20% disability
for PTSD. Finally, in a VA hospital in Wilkes-Barre, PA, a physician
assaulted
her, "put his hand on my chest, tried to kiss me." While many
survivors have felt victimized by the VA, rarely has the system's
insensitivity
taken such a concrete and horrendous form.
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- Most chilling of all, were not the stories that she told
but the shirts of the women and men in the military who had been assaulted.
On them were the written pleas of the survivors themselves. The most
troubling
of all these clothes was the dress of a two year old girl. A cute blue
flower dress with pretty lace on the neckline it speaks of the tremendous
innocence that childhood is, or should be. But according to the pentagon
her innocence or shattering of it is worth investigating so that they can
cover it up completely. Her military father raped her, and then when
finished
he handed her over to his two cronies. Though ample documentation was
provided
the military did investigate it only to declare the case classified. Case
after case, of pedophilia, rape and molestation have been covered up or
worse the victim of the assaults was forced to return to the perpetrator,
while the victim is punished for speaking up.
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- That is how the case of Dennis Scott comes into play.
Dennis Scott is a retired army journalist who worked with the Tiger Platoon
in Vietnam in 1967. The tiger platoon was what is known as a vagabond unit.
Vagabond means that if the unit went more than 5 days without killing aka
"seeing action" they were moved to a new spot in order to
continue
the killing spree. A unit set up to promote the West Point captains and
graduates they were a group driven mad, with death, rape, assault, and
eventually war crimes. Every 30 days they had a new captain.
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- On May 19,1967 they moved into an agricultural area in
order to kill and cut off food for the populace of Vietnam. This area was
mainly composed of rice farmers. We were the most merciless towards the
farmers in Vietnam. Categorized by their commander as a "fire free
zone" they were told you can not leave anybody behind you, we can
not bring them with us, and we have to confront them ahead of us. Ending
the talk with "When you leave their will be nothing left alive in
this valley", the soldiers new implicitly without ever directly
stating
it what he meant. Poison in the wells, burnt crops, everything killed
brutally
and without humanity. Mr. Scott clearly remembered and documented 8 war
crimes.
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- These atrocities included the skinning of an old man,
injecting people with swamp water and air to see what would happen, the
two day long rape of a 16 year old girl that ended in murder, shooting
an unarmed old man in cold blood, tying a man to a tree and the captain
starting at the bottom with an ax and axing him apart while he was still
alive. The list goes on.
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- Taking his list of 8 well documented war crimes he
approached
the Sergeant Major in a nearby camp, brushed off he approached the captain,
then a chaplain with his list of horrendous atrocities. This, mind you,
was well before the infamously documented Mai Lai incident. The Chaplain
reported Mr. Scott to the Sergeant Major as a trouble maker.
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- After getting out and the Mai Lai incident broke in 1969
he again attempted to get this platoon investigated. But since it was a
training platoon for commanders and such to get their war medals it was
already investigated. The army issued a report showing over 23 war crimes
committed by the Tiger Platoon. Calling Mr. Scott in, the army at this
time conducted what they would call an interview but civilians would know
as an interrogation for 5 hours. At that time Mr. Scott made sure that
they had all the papers with his investigation as well as the reference
numbers for each individual atrocity and he provided the army with his
well documented case.
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- It seemed the investigation was going somewhere and that
justice was about to be served. But Donald Rumsfeld had just been appointed
by Gerald Ford. Donald Rumsfeld, himself squashed the case. Once it was
closed it seemed impossible to reopen it.
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- Years later the Tiger Platoon would become the item of
a series of Pulitzer Prize articles by the Toledo Blade newspaper in 2003.
Though the case is well documented and you can yourself listen to first
hand reports of war crimes, this case has never been fully processed in
judicial law holding the perpetrators accountable for war crimes.
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- Meanwhile in Abu Gharib a non civilian group headed in
part by Rumsfeld investigating Rumsfeld these same atrocities are being
carried out.
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- Said Dorothy Mackey at the presentation, "I had
a friend tell me that in another jail before Gharib that the CIA and
military
were coming out of the prison bragging about raping the prisoners."
But the rapes in Iraq are not only of the prisoners but of American soldier
to American soldier. This would include men and women being assaulted.
The military has secretly found at least 167 rapes but is impossible to
know the true numbers given to a lack of reporting them.
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- Ms Mackey also concluded that 90% of male to male rape
was not homosexual rape but heterosexual rape. Meaning that they were not
gay to gay rape but straight men raping straight men.
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- Dorothy Mackey experience in the military during and
after has made her an advocate of investigating abuse. Counting case after
case where Pentagon has covered it up and then when congress has denied
investigating it speaking of fears of the Pentagon she now deems this the
"congressional military complex."
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- Dorothy Mackey asks that we have independent
investigation
outside of the DOD.
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- After speaking for about an hour a paneled group of
listeners
asked questions of the speakers. One of the paneled listeners was a lawyer
from the ACLU. The woman expressed dismay " after hearing this I am
very concerned about the military. Do you mean that doctors and chaplains
are carrying these atrocities out as well? What can we do?"
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- To find out more about STAAMP go to this website:
- http://www.staaamp.org/
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- To find out more about the Tiger Platoon go to this
website:
- http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section...
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- And to find out more events going on in San Diego go
to this website:
- http://www.activistsandiego.org/home.shtml
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- Thanks,
- Migratory Bird
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