to provide assistance of one kind or another. but the arab league itself doesn't, you know, it doesn't have the capability that nato has to be able to engage militarily if necessary. >> i was in turkey recently, and obviously turkey historically had good relationships with syria but the prime minister has been very strong in calling for assad to step aside and, indeed, has provided sanctuary for the free syrian army within its borders. what advice are we getting from the turks on what approach we should be taking towards syria? are there conversations ongoing with turkey? >> yes, there are. and turkey is actually

exercised, you know, very responsible leadership with response to the issue. obviously they have a direct concern because it is a border country but they have called for assad to step down. we have engaged with them on consultations with regards to the concern over the chemical and biological sites that are located there. and we're continuing to consult with them with regards to refugees as well. but answer to your question is that turkey is playing a very responsible role in dealing with this issue. >> thank you. mr. chairman, would you allow me one very quick final question? >> please. >> thank you. general dempsey, is iraq playing a positive role in actual lly interdicting the supplies and weapons? it's really straddling the communications and transportation lines between the

two countries. >> iraq has done two things that i view as quite positive. one as the secretary mentioned, the statement that they too, now advocate assad stepping down. that's on the political sect. on the issue of iranian shipments crossing through their airspace, they have, in fact, demarshed their e eed iran from. remember now, they don't have the ability to control their airspace. they can't interdict anyone crassing it. they have on more than one occasion say they would land to be inspected and at their insistence once that occurred the flights were delayed and in some cases we believe to allow the offloading of the shipments. so that it wasn't identified when it landed in iraq. so they are. they're trying but again, they don't have much capability to do anything beyond diplomatic

engagement. >> thank you both. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator collins. we're now going to move directly to room 217 for our closed session. thank you both. we stand adjourned.

president obama is continuing a scheduled weekly

visit to politically important states with a trip to north carolina today. he will be talking about the economy and jobs at a daimler truck manufacturing plant in mt. holly near charlotte. we will have live coverage at 12:45 eastern here on c-span3. google's executive chair eric schmidt outlines his vision tonight at the 29th annual press foundation awards dinner. among the journalists receiving awards, chris wallace of the fox news and iwatchnews.org. you can see live coverage tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span2. this weekend there are two ways to watch the tucson festival of books on book tv, live on c-span2 and live on booktv.org. jeffrey rosen on the history of the supreme court and at 3:00, panels on forensic science, politics at 4:30, and mexico's drug wars at 6:00. sunday panels continue starting at 1:00 eastern with the

environment, the great depression at 2:30, the american west at 4:00, and at 5:30 studying the brain, and diana on bernie madoff at 7:00. and on the weekend, look for coverage streaming live at booktv.org, sunday starting at 2:30. exclusively online. tucson festival of books, live this weekend on c-span2 and booktv.org. this is c-span3 with politics and public affairs programming throughout the week and every weekend 48 hours of people and events telling the american story on american history tv. get our schedules and see past programs on our websites. and you can join in the conversation on social media sites. a sexual assault lawsuit was filed against the military yesterday in u.s. district court here in washington. case involves eight current and former members of the u.s. military.

they say they were raped, assaulted or harassed during their service. the lawsuit says the military discourages victims from coming forward and protect sexual predators. from the national press club, this is about 55 minutes. >> good morning, everyone. my name is susan burke. i very much appreciate your interest and i appreciate you being here. today, we have filed a lawsuit in federal district court in the district of washington, d.c. it's civil action number 12-0350. the lawsuit is on behalf of eight survivors of rape, sexual

assault, and severe sexual harassment. retaliation is common place in the military. despite giving lip service to having zero tolerance for sexual predators, the facts show that the military has zero tolerance for those brave enough to report being victimized by sexual predators. this lawsuit as well as a lawsuit we filed a year ago in the eastern district of virginia are aimed at reform. there is no circumstances under which women who are brave enough to stand up and defend this nation should have to be subjected to being called slut, whore, walking mattress. this is the year 2012. this kind of conduct is not acceptable. as many of you have been following the cases know, there was a dismissal of the case on the grounds that rape is an occupational hazard. well, the plaintiffs in this

case disagree and we are going to continue to fight this issue relentlessly and without stop until we eradicate that notion. we'll have a short program for you and i want to thank some people at the very outset. there's some talented filmmakers that have done a remarkable film called "the invisible war." it broke the story of the marine barracks and gives just a wonderful explanation of all the wrongdoing. so we call on secretary panetta and his colleagues to watch that film. it's going to be again to be able in theaters. i encourage you to see that. very moving and powerful and lets you understand that they're joined by a lot of survivors. this is far too common place. i wanted to thank two lawyers, kathlyn hail and who have been helping me through all this. and in addition, i wanted to alert you that we have josh conley from congresswoman spears

office. congresswoman spear has done a remarkable job of stepping up and leading the reforms in congress. and josh is available to answer question on the legislation afterwards. and i'm going to introduce everyone quite briefly. i'm going to start by thanking two organizations that have given us grants, without which, we would not have been able to given all coffee and soda in the back there, as well as the press conference. nancy parrish from protect our defenders and linda hallman from the university of association women. i'm going to call on nancy and then i'll turn it over to the plaintiffs. >> good morning.

protect our defenders was founded to support and give voice to service members who have been harassed, raped or sexually assaulted while serving our country. we aim to fix the broken military justice system, a system which often blames the victim and fails to punish the perpetrator. created by survivors and advocates, we provide the network and forum. we document and share survivor's stories. through these voices, we are building a grass roots movement to change the system. currently, we are over 25,000 voices strong. and building to 100,000 this year. to all the plaintiffs, we hear you and we commend your bravery. the step you are taking today is important and courageous. and it will help make a difference. sexual violence won't disappear,

but we demand a military justice system that works. a functioning system with proper enforcement will greatly reduce the occurrence. it's difficult to come forward in public to talk about rape. blaming the victim and retaliation are all too common. recently, a commentator with fox news said women who join the military should expect to be raped, and the military's own sexual assault prevention program is so antiquated it implies if you go out alone and you're raped, it's your fault. this thinking is dangerous. this adversely affects the unit cohesion and it harms national security and it must not be tolerated. it's time for the country to hear the unvarnished truth. young women who sign up to serve in the armed forces are more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than killed by enemy

fire. 40% of homeless female veterans were raped or sexually assaulted. predators in the military are unafraid because they know an unwritten code shields them. our military fails to protect its most important resource -- our sons and daughters who serve. i urge all americans to hear these plaintiffs' voices. and go to our site, protect our defenders, and listen to others like sailor terry explain that her rapist told her she wasn't the first and she wouldn't be the last. and went she report -- when she reported her rape to a superior, she was threatened with arrest and discharged. hear an aviation commander, despite strong dna evidence, her rapist was found not guilty and she was not permitted to re-enlist.

hear these voices and know there are over 500,000 others out there that deserve our support. as americans, our voices matter. there is strength in numbers. and when the country fully understands the extent of the abuse of power and the cover-up that protects the guilty, they will join this effort and demand change. thank you. >> thank you, nancy. we're pleased to have with us linda hallman who will be speaking next. she is the executive director of the american association of university women. that organization has been a phenomenal support to us and to the plaintiffs and we are very appreciative that linda is able to be here today. >> good morning, everyone. my nine years of service in the united states army were positive and enriching for me and

provided me with many wonderful experiences, memories and friendships. unfortunately, that isn't always the case for service members. service members can find themselves in a position where it's almost impossible to stand up against injustice and to do so comes with great personal cost. it's a case of a double victimization. catch 22. if you leave, you are punished. if you stay, you suffer in silence and all of this is piled on top of the original violence. so aauw makes it our mission to advance equality for women and girls and one of the ways we do this is supporting courageous women and men who seek fair treatment through the justice system. we believe women deserve legal protection, no matter what industry they work in. we believe it so strongly that in 1981 we provided legal support to potentially precedent

setting cases involving workplace discrimination and sex and gender based mistreatment. the case you're hearing about today has our proud support. we know it takes courage to speak out and aauw will continue to be a platform for those voices. the department of defense's statistics of sexual assault aren't able to tell the entire story. since there's so much at stake when someone speaks out. especially in the military. the number of reported cases in the military is kept low by a culture of shame and retaliation. if someone speaks up, she's labelled as disloyal or unpatriotic. and often isolated, ostracized and harassed. the military culture victimizes

people by demanding silence. this is hard for civilians to understand, because the military has a different set of rules. the uniformed code of military justice. the legal protections given to civilians are different. service members don't have the rights to independent counsel like civilian victims do. so we recognize that when someone goes public about her victimization, it's extraordinary. and to continue speaking out in the face of retaliation reflects the courage of these plaintiffs. what's so tragic is that the blowback isn't always just professional. it can be personal as well. often, people's families and friends don't support the choice to speak out which can make service members feel like traitors. and pressure may be brought to bear on family members to dissuade a victim from going public. the bottom line is that these people are not lacking patriotism. that's not what this is about. it's about people who have been sexually assaulted and

victimized for their cries for help. thank you. >> thank you, linda. and on that note of family members, i want to recognize the man here in the audience, ben klay. ben is ariana's husband. tall lbt talented young man. he went to harvard and yale and decided to join the marine corps as an officer. patriotically served this nation defending in iraq. as a result of being close with his wife and seeing the egregious harassment she endured, seeing the rape and the aftermath of retaliation, ben decided that he would better serve this nation by leaving military service in order to join with his wife and all of us here to fight for reform in the military. so i just want to applaud ben and thank him for all his support. i would now like to introduce elle helmer.

>> good morning. my name is elle helmer. i'm speaking to you as a rape survivor and an advocate for reform and justice. before i begin, i'd like to thank susan for giving us the ability to change. for giving reform a chance as well. amy and kirby who were the producers behind "the invisible war" for giving us a voice and for raising awareness. jonathan, my fiance. i'd like to thank the service members who are in active duty and protecting us right now. in no way do i bear any

bitterness towards the military as a whole. what we do is very noble, but there are some very disturbing things happening within the ranks that need to be addressed there are some very disturbing thing happening within the ranks that need to be addressed and need to be changed and it needs to happen now. as i mentioned i was the official marine corps spokesperson for marine barracks washington from the years 2005 to 2006. during that time, i was also the uniform victim advocate for that command which just to show you the unpreparedness and lackadaisical approach, i received a letter appointing me as the uniform victim advocate, meaning for the command i would be the person responsible to handle and delegate resources for anyone else who had been a victim 06 -- of sexual assault or rape. the training i received was zero. anything passed the letter

appointing me as the officer, as the uva, was nothing. that was the last it was heard of. put in a filing cabinet and gone. so that's how seriously that command handles sexual assault and rape. i'd also like to speak on behalf of everyone else who's been violated, raped, brushed under the carpet, fed to the wolves, because we're still strong. we still have the opportunity to change, and have the inner courage to move past this. but we can't do it without support. particularly this being an election year, and the marines for marine barracks washington guard the president this might be noteworthy for any sort of political candidate to notice that reform needs to take place from the top and the commander in chief should also be responsible for the leaders he

appoints. before i joined the marine corps, i went to the university of colorado and grew up in a normal patriotic life. i chose the marine corps because some member of my family dating all the way back to the revolutionary war had for every generation has served our country. my father was a lieutenant colonel in the air force. and he did warn me of becoming a statistic. i am a statistic, but i'm not powerless. my choice to join the marine corps was simple. marines in theory do the right thing, even when no one is watching. they follow honor, courage and commitment and they never leave a man behind. so i thought. unfortunately, i found that not to be the case. after i reported, immediately after my rape by my commanding officer, i immediately found that i no longer was in the good

old boys gun club. as long as you walked the walk, you talked the talk, you're protected. the minute you go outside the barrack's wall, the minute you question the commander or how they do thing, you're no longer one of them. they leave you behind. that needs to stop. so i'm not saying they as a general term because there are good marines and there are good officers out there. i want to thank them for doing the right thing, but for those who are not doing the right thing is doing the wrong thing and you need to stop. again, i'd like to say i still support the marine corps. my choice to participate in this lawsuit is so that no one else, hopefully, will have go through six years of suffering and silence. this is the first time that i have had a voice in six years. so pardon if it's a little wobbly.

however, since 2006, march 16th specifically, it's been a dead end after dead end road. i went to 18 different members of general officers to senators to congressmen and each time i was met with just an overall lackadaisical manner as well as i'm so sorry that type of attitude. nothing ever happened. so unfortunately, i'd like to say it got better, but considering that ariana was at the same command i was two years later it got worse. i would like to really continue to support the military. but also support reform and change. if there's any possibility to move forward, we need to start now. i'd like to thank everyone for their time. as well as their support and their attention to this matter. it's very serious. it's not going away. we need to focus on what really

makes america strong and this is right now weakening us. so i hope that the marine corps motto and this is my closing semper fidelis, always faithful, rings true. we will be always faithful to those who serve and to us. and to other survivors out there i'd like to wish you the courage and the strength to move forward. your physical wounds may heal. your emotional wounds may heal in a little longer, but you're still strong. you're still valued and you did the right thing. and you're a good person, so just always know that. so with that said, i'd like to thank you again. >> thank you, elle. thank you. now i'd like to have the other survivor come forward, ariana clay, and i just have to take a moment to applaud the courage of both of thes thank them so much. without them more and more women and men in the future would be

acts hopefully we'll be able to reduce that. ariana. >> my name is ariana clay. i'm a former marine officer. i was a first generation college student, graduated first in my high school class. a highly recruited soccer athlete. i chose to attend the naval academy because i wanted to dedicate my life to service. as a marine officer i deployed to iraq in 2008 and 2009. in the unit where i felt respected and for a commander that chose to value human dignity even when harmful to himself. many of the marines followed his example. as a reward for my performance, i was recommended to go to the show case for the marine corps. the hope of the top generals and oldest posts in the corps, founded in the 19th century. that's where the attitudes on woman have remained. leadership was successful at enforcing ceremonial standards. yet, failed to miss egregious moral failures. after six months of routinely

being called a slut and whore, i sought to deploy to afghanistan. denied this opportunity, because i was considered quote too critical to the command, i repeatedly reported the humiliating environment and the toll it was tank on me. the command gave me the offered solution, to deal with it. in august of 2010, the harassment culminated in a horrific act in an effort as he said to humiliate me. once i had reported this, the commands' disinterest in the previous sexual harassment complaints changed. during the investigation, he featured the lead rapist in the marine corps calendar and put one of the most aggressive harassments in the commercial. it described how i was

repeatedly called a slut and the commander decided this wasn't sexual harassment. he also decided my running shorts, makeup and regulation skirt were the problem. my commanders' conclusions served the purpose. as the officer used it to attack my credibility in his defense. i got out of the marine corps, started a wonderful job. my life improving immeasurably. by then i had talked to others whose stories was eerily similar to mine and a cover-up has played itself out in the united states military thousands of times. the rape trial came and went, a farce. the marine corps gave one immunity so he would testify. escorted my husband into the same waiting room with him. i endured another 12 hours of degrading interrogation that culminated with the rapists' two lawyers acting it out in front of me.

after that it was indecent language with 45 days in the brig. 2 1/2 years of assault and my dignity pushed me into constant questioning and endlessly reliving the assaults. i tried to make sense of everything. often spin into despondency and understanding how i had exhausted every check only to see that each check not only failed but attacked me that's why i'm part of the lawsuit. i faced a military justice system unchecked. and unaccountable hierarchy seeking not just outcomes but the desired outcomes of commanders in charge of it, who have no legal training and a conflict of interest against a process that discovers that the leadership failed. so i'm here to help this lawsuit, that it so badly needs, to help raise awareness that the congress needs so it can fix this broken system and help prevent this thing from ever happening toon