Pentagon Faulted for Sex Attacks on Female GIs

Alarmed by reports of sexual assaults on female service members in the Persian Gulf region, senators admonished the Pentagon on Wednesday to do more to halt the attacks and to improve treatment for the victims.

Appearing before a panel of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a group of senior Pentagon officials acknowledged that significant shortcomings remained in the handling of sexual assault cases but insisted progress had been made.

“No war comes without costs, but the costs should be borne out of conflict with the enemy, not by egregious violations by some of our own troops,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel, said new figures show the rate of sexual assaults against women in the military fell from 6% to 3% between 1995 and 2002.

The Pentagon officials said there have been 106 reports of sexual assault of troops deployed in the region -- including Iraq and Afghanistan -- over the past 14 months.

But the senators made it clear they were not satisfied either with the level of misconduct that persists or existing measures for treating victims of assault.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), chairman of the personnel subcommittee, called the percentage of sexual assaults suffered by women in uniform “shocking” and labeled some of the recent allegations “very frightening.”

“I’m concerned because I don’t feel a sense of outrage by military leadership, not at this point at least,” added Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

“This committee is prepared to back the U.S. military to achieve zero tolerance” of sexual abuse incidents, said Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), who chairs the full committee. But, he warned, “if you don’t carry it out, we’re going to take over.”

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has ordered a high-level review of the handling of reports of sexual assaults and the care provided victims, particularly in cases arising from overseas deployments to combat zones. The review’s findings are is due in May.