>> thank you. thanks again to both of you for your courage. unfortunately it's not as if there's any stop of this kind of conduct. we have appended to our complaint the hostility of any type of reporting. it's something that was posted by a marine officer on her facebook, and simply mocks those who come forward to report i would like to introduce a dear friend of mine and one of the strong proponents of reform in the united states. anu bhagwati, the executive director of swan. >> thank you, susan. good morning, my name is anu bhagwati and i'm the executive director of servicewomens action network, also known as swan. a nonprofit organization founded and led by women veterans to send sex discrimination and sexual violence is in the united states military. as a former marine company

commander, i am intimately familiar with the lengths they'll go to cover up sexual harassment in the units. in fact, i and many of the peers left the marine corps precisely because of command negligence on these issues. today i'll be sharing a bit about legislative efforts to bring more justice to survivors of military sexual assault and harassment. for several years swan has been advocating for reform within the department of defense and veterans affair, culminating in president obama signing the victims rights protections into law. the concerted bipartisan effort this law included basic protections as the guarantee of

privileged communication between a sexual assault victim and his or her victim's advocate and the requirement, the commanders must authorize expedited transfers of sexual assault victims who request them. these reforms were a long time coming and will assist countless survivors in the aftermath of an assault. in fact, swan's legal and peer support line has received phone calls from those whose unit transfers were possible only because of the new law. part of the military's intransigence on meaningful change lies in the insistence that it has the rules to administer justice to survivors and yet the sexual assault response office known as sapro has been the pentagon's primary answer to stopping sexual assault in the ranks. to be clear, sapro has no law enforcement authority or any authority to prosecute or punish. it's rife with rape methodology and victim blaming including the poster that says ask her when she's sober. in other words, it cannot administer justice to anyone. the database, a centralized database recording sexual

assaults required by law in 2009 has yet to appear. military and congressional leaders need to stop expecting solutions from sapro and ensuring victims get real access to justice. enormous challenges to justice for the military assault survives still remain, but sensible solutions are available. swan is working with military and congressional leadership to enact some of the following reforms. first, rule 306 from the manual for courts marshal requires that most the accused service members chain of command be the officer who determines case disposition. in other words, company commanders, junior officers with

no legal training are endowed with the legal authority to determine whether or not a sexual assault case in his or her own unit goes to trail. this archaic system often fails victims of sexual assault. sexual assault cases are far more complex than most cases. the commander can never be truly impartial as he or she often directly supervises the victim and the perpetrator and it's often higher than that of the victim. especially if the victim is of lesser rank. to remove this clear conflict of interest, to better serve the victim and to preserve the spegryty of the chain of command we have been pushing hard for the overhaul of 306, so that all sexual assault cases go straight to the court-martial convening authority, with more impartially and experience than a junior

commander. another key reform is further revision of the uniform code of military justice we defines the crime of sexual assault. currently, article 120 is a force-based law which includes sex plus some level of force. in order to effectively prosecute rape cases, the military must move to a consent based rape law which includes sex, plus a lack of consent. it has been shown that unlike forced base rape law, consent based statutes do not focus on the behavior of the victim but rather on the elements of the crime. 24 states have adopted some version of a consent based statute and the military should follow suit. the final frontier in military sexual assault reform lies in giving service members to the courts for civil redress. currently, military members cannot bring a tort claim and this is true for crimes and acts of negligence to include medical malpractice and workplace

discrimination. this is critical in the vent that service members do not receive justice in the military court. thank you. >> thank you, anu. just following up on anu's comment, one of -- there's an interesting research report that we have cited in our complaint that is a survey done by the navy itself. in which over 13% of newly enlisted naval recruits admit on these surveys that they have raped someone. of that, 71% admit to being serial rapists. interestingly, use of drugs and alcohol are the primary weapon in order to accomplish the rapes. so the problem is widespread and needs all of our efforts on reform. i'd like to welcome to the podium, long time reformer, ann wright, and ask her to give us her wisdom.

>> well, thank you, susan, and thank you so much for you and your team bringing forth yet one more lawsuit against the department of defense for criminal and egregious behavior by members of the forces and by senior leadership. i mean, when you have to sue the secretary of defense and not just one of them, but two, three, four, you can go back how long? i was in the military -- i started 45 years ago. i am a retired colonel. i was in the military for 29 years. i joined in 1967. if you count the number of secretaries of defense that ought to be on all the lawsuits, we ought to add two pages with their names on i. this is a culture within the military that has been long standing. we are finding out from the veterans administration how many

women of my age group -- i'm 65 now, i joined during the vietnam war, a lot of my women of my age are coming forward to the veterans administration for health services and it turns out that a lot of these women were raped back when they were in the military. but they never told anyone. never told anyone at all. so the courage that we have of elle and ariana today to come forward shortly after they were raped, to make sure that people are aware of it, to make sure that they -- that we know of the horrible things that our military is doing to our people, and, you know, just to re-emphasized, i was stunned when i read in this lawsuit that we have, you know, 13% of the guys that are coming into the navy are saying, yeah, i have already raped somebody and 71% of them said, yeah, i have raped a couple of people. and our military doesn't say, well, sorry, i don't think we need you in here right now. the marine corps, how many waivers are being given right

now for people who have committed serious felonies? waivers to get them into the marine corps. if you don't think that doesn't have some sort of impact on -- at the marine barracks for god's sakes, i mean, the premiere place of the marine corps and all of this is going on against women there, it's a part of the culture, and it's a part of the day to day culture and some women comes forward to say i have been raped and there is a rape kit and it gets lost. i have been raped. i want to tell someone about it and he or she because, you know, 10% of the people that were reported raped last year were men. men in our military are being raped. when they go forward to get counseling, they may go to the chaplain, somebody you can confide in and he says to a woman, you were drinking, that was it. 96% of the women who get raped the chaplain told one survivor, how he knew these made these statistics, 96% of the women who

are raped have been drinking, it's your fault. another survivor was told, that must have been what god intended for you. the military chaplains that we have are not being sensitized to what's going on or if they are, they're throwing it out the window. so much of what's happening to women should be precluded by the own code of military justice. i mean, there are strong regulations in there. but as anu pointed out so graphically, there are holes in this thing. and the actual application of parts of the code of military justice, the military lawyers don't know how to do this or they don't take the time to do it or are within the criminal investigative division of the military services that there's a culture that maybe we just don't have to investigate all parts of this.

when we have a woman who herself was trying to help other women who had been sexually assaulted and raped and then she was sexually assaulted and raped and then her own criminal investigative service threw her under the bus and said we don't believe you. it is a culture within our military a military that i was involved in for over 30 years that has to change. i mean, i am -- how many years do we have to keep having these panels? how many lawsuits do we have to bring? i'm ready to call for women to refuse to join the military until this stops. that will all -- that will kind of put a dent in the military. rather than the 1% of women that were a part of the military when i joined back in the '60s the

women are a critical part of the military. in the air force i believe it's 18% of the people in the air fo the army, 15%. the navy, i believe it's 12% and the marine corps, 8%. i mean, it will make a dent if women say i'm not going into that unless you can tell me that there is a culture that says if anything happens, there's going to be hell to pay for it. hell to pay for criminal acts. criminal acts committed on women and men. it is time that we really put a dent in this culture. calling for this institution to change. to change from the top leadership that says zero tolerance, but it's a lie. they tolerate everything. 8% of the -- only 8% of the cases that are ever brought to the military ever go to trial in

the military, in contrast to 40% in civilian life. of the 8% that go to trial, less than 2% of people are actually end up having sentences given against them. found guilty and the sentences are really slaps on the hand. it's kind of the culture of you can do it, even if they catch you which they pbl even if you go to court-martial, not much is going to happen to you. so it's an entire structure that needs to change. and we need to be holding accountable all of those people in the chain of command, and if we put the lieutenants, the captains, the major, the lieutenant colonels, the colonels and the generals say it's going on your efficiency report if any of this stuff start changing. but until we can get the senior leadership to do this, it will continue and next year we'll be back here at the same place, same time, talking about the same thing. so i call for a real rising up of tom say to our military we will not put up with this anymore.

i have a little t-shirt, it says we will not be silent. these ladies at this table have not been silent. we call on all the women of the world to say we will not be silent. stop rape, stop rape everywhere. stop rape in the military. thank you. >> thank you. thank you, ann. the problem spills out of the military. the sexual predators that are not caught and convicted leave the military and come into the communities around the nation. and we have seen this repeatedly where later in civilian life someone is caught and it turns out they have some form of record in the military, but were given adultery, indecent language, the type of substitutes for what the military has been peddling. i want to invite another

long-term advocate, eleanor smeal. >> thank you very much. i'm proud to be here to support these very strong and brave and courageous women who are standing up not only for their own rights, but to -- for the rights of others and to make sure that this horrible treatment of women stops. it's interesting to me that the fbi has just recognized and had changed the definition of rape for its uniform crime report. it has dropped the word forcible, and it has recognized that modern rape and the old definition of the fbi was a 1929 definition. they have modernized it to recognize the elements of current rape which is about two-thirds of it is accompanied with alcohol and drugs to seduce

into essentially render helpless the victim. and that we must go to a consent model. there's no question about that. if the fbi recognizes that the old definition with the use of the word force should be eliminated for the counting of rapes, the military should adjust to the modern reality. we're all standing here and i want to make clear we're not saying this about all men. in fact, most rape is committed by serial rapists. predators. and to cover up for these people who are essentially criminals is an outrage. and it's an insult to men and women. in this case, women are the victims, but we have stood here before when men were the victims and it is -- it is based on a mythology of what rape is.

we now know by studies that most rape, something like 95% is committed by serial rapists. the cover-up is a part of a problem that has to be stopped. and basically, it's the irony is right now the woman's movement is fighting a talk show host, rush limbaugh, who has called a woman -- a georgetown law student who stood up for her rights a prostitute and a slut. and here this language is being used by central officers of our -- of the command of the marines. and we just heard that the pentagon is keeping this person,

rush limbaugh, on its airways on the military network, while other advertisers and stations are canceling because they understand what respect for women is all about. we are not just a small percentage of the military. we have -- women are contributors to this society, and must be recognized as full citizens. we're not play things that are brought into the military for the use of a few predators. we are absolutely necessary, and it shows and i like to call attention in this brief to the number of moral waivers. in other words, allowing criminal predators into the military that are being issued because our numbers of women are being kept artificially low by quota systems. so while the very women are being turned down, people with criminal records, some of them

as predators are being admitted. then we wonder why we have this persistent problem. i'm here to tell you that the woman's movement is going to stay at this until there's serious reform and change for the good of our nation and for the good of women. and we are going to fight it on all levels. jackie spear, congresswoman from california has introduced stop legislation to change the command line for reporting rapes. right now we have the military checking on themselves and we know it is not working. it didn't work in our civilian government either where we have special units handling sexual assault. we need special units, the chain of the command to end this, once

and for all. the women in congress are determined to end this once and for all and our numbers are rising in congress and we already have 120 cosponsors for this serious legislation. and i can tell you young women, old women, all of us together are more determined that respect be shown for the good of everyone. this is not just going to be one press conference after another. this is going to stop and i really salute the courage of these brave women and i will tell you the numbers -- you give us all courage and strength. and we will not fail you. we are going to fight together until this is cleaned up. thank you very much. >> thank you, ellie. that concludes our press conference. i just simply want to applaud once again and ask all of you to

join me in applauding elle and ariana's courage in coming forward. thank you. oh, i'm sorry. we'll now take questions. this one up here. okay. excuse me, i neglected to say we're now open for questions. yes, sir? >> can you explain -- >> and we're going to hand you a microphone. >> could you explain the distinction between this lawsuit and the one that failed in the eastern district of virginia? >> the lawsuit that we filed in the eastern district of virginia has not failed. it is actually still pending and it's been the court of appeals

for the fourth circuit. in that lawsuit, we brought forward the claims of 28 enlisted service members in different services. the military filed the brief seeking dismissal on the argument that rape and sexual assault is an occupational hazard. it's an incident to military service. that argument persuaded the district judge. we are hopeful that it will not persuade the court of appeals for the fourth circuit. in this lawsuit, we are bringing it in a different jurisdiction. we are suing different defendants. we are suing the marine commandants in the navy and it's focused on navy and marines specifically. the legal theory that -- is the same. it's a constitutional theory that women and men should not have to tolerate harassment, sexual assault and rape in order to serve and we expect to prevail in the district of columbia.

>> i was just wondering if you can talk about why you decided to bring this lawsuit against the department of the navy specifically? is it believe that their harassment is more egregious than the air force and the army and do you plan to bring lawsuits against them as well? >> taking the latter question first, yes, we have more lawsuits in the works. sadly, the attitude, the sexual harassment and the toleration for rape and assault spans all the services. >> is there a reason you decided to start with the marine and the navy? >> the way we proceed is as people come to us. so ariana and elle and the other survivors came to us. we have brought their claims forward and we as ellie

mentioned, we are all committed to staying with this, to bringing forward as many lawsuits as needed until this situation changes. >> can you point to any successful precedent where civilians have sued the department of defense for a culture of disciplinary and legal issue? >> right now there are two supreme court decisions that have stood in the way of justice in most instances. they're quite dated. one is stanley and one is chappelle. in one, a soldier was given lsd without his consent and yet he nonetheless was held not to be permitted to sue. the reason these lawsuits should succeed and the reason they are different from those lawsuits is that as egregious as that lsd without consent was, it was done for a military purpose. there was an underlying military

mission. here, the rape and sexual assaults have no military purpose. they have no military goal. the subsequent retaliation, the displacement of these fine officers and the soldiers from their service does not serve a military purpose. it's actually the opposite. it causes harm to military readiness. for example, in ariana's case, the marine corps lost two talented young officers. we see that loss of human capital again and again. so for that reason, we believe that the outcome in the judicial system should and will be different. >> at the current time, vietnam veterans of america is suing the cia for the kind of thingsthat you're talking about, the application of lsd and other biologics. >> we wish them success. >> thank you. >> yes? >> can you speak to -- could you speak to your hopes to rewrite article 120? as i understand it, congress rewrote article 120 four or five years ago, botched the job. they rewrote it with little

debate as part of the latest defense authorization bill. what do you want to change now? >> i'm not a member of congress and i'm not doing any rewriting, so i'll turn that question over to anu to answer. >> i can't speak on behalf of congressional members. there is quite a lot of action over the year to push reform toward a consent-based statute. the article was revised, not nearly enough. not certainly to the fbi's definition as eleanor had pointed out. we're hitting hard again this year. i can talk about details off line if it would help. >> and ellie is also going to

respond. >> the fbi changing the definition jusdi from the women's movement. especially in the last year of the fight. there's going to be another campaign that this definition changes. i mean, congress does respond and in fact the woman congress has been leading on this subject. they understand that the -- that the forcible standard is -- puts the blame on the victim. rather than where it deserves to be. and that it does not comply with what we now know about rape and how it is executed in our country today. so basically, the women's movement and it is -- the numbers of groups, auw and feminist majority are here, but the numbers of women's groups that are dealing with violence is very significant.

and they work day in and day out. i can tell you that the coalition of women's groups will work tirelessly to adjust our laws and protect women in the military and women in civilian life from this -- what i would call still an epidemic really of violence against women. it must stop and we are determined to adjust to what is now not old standards for another day. >> and we just have a few more minutes. five more minutes. >> are there any cases where reported rape or abuse saw more desirable outcomes? >> i'm sorry. >> are there any cases where reported rapes or abuse saw more desirable outcome than the stories that we have -- like

where -- >> well, if you work through the statistics that are in the military's own number, what you find that -- of an approximate 2,000 identified suspects, almost half are just diverted away from the judicial process completely by the commanders unilaterally. that's one problem right at the get-go. then those that remain that are put through the process and the system, only a small fraction, less than 10% end up in formal court-martials. then of those, and this is a figure that is not -- is not released by the military, but the reality when you sort through the numbers and you sort through the chart you realize