85,000 US vets traumatized by sexual abuse in 2013

Question: I’d like to get your thoughts on the implications of this probe announced by the Washington Post?
 
Webre: I think that this is a very disturbing trend. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2014, which was passed by the US Congress this month and signed by President Barack Obama this past Thursday, however, introduced new protocols including stripping military commanders of their ability to overturn jury convictions.
 
The new rules also demand a civilian review if a commander declines to prosecute a case; and finally the reforms require that any individual convicted of sexual assault face a dishonorable discharge or immediate dismissal.
 
This comes in a year where we have just learned that reported sexual assaults in the US military increased by over 50 percent in 2013. And also the Department of Veterans Affairs found that 85,000 US veterans received treatment for sexual abuse trauma last year in 2013.
 
The US military particularly since, in effect the military coup d’état of the false flag of September 11, 2001 where it started it was formed as a pretext for 9/11. The Joint Chiefs of Staff participated in that modified coup d’état.
 
And we have all sorts of sexual deviations, for example, what occurred to prisoners of war at Abu Ghraib (Afghanistan) which sexual degradations were performed upon the prisoners - that there’s a culture there.
 
    But we have also learned for example that within the US marines there is the practice...whereby new marine officers are actually sexually assaulted by other marines and this is how they form discipline is by engaging in forced...rape of the marines by other marines. 
 
Q: Another issue is that US military says that up to 90 percent of these cases go unreported. Why is that? Do the victims of the sexual misbehavior feel somewhat scared or intimidated to want to report to their superiors or what’s taking place during their tenure in the army?
 
Webre: Most certainly and I think that that was the reason for some of the reforms, which the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014 brought in - notably that stripping the military commanders of their ability to overturn jury convictions - which actually occurred recently with a US air force officer sexual assault sentence was thrown out by the commander despite the jury’s decision.
 
And also, not even the Congress passed Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s proposal that would stripped the usual chain of command of the ability to legislate assault reports.