Press Release - Protest Friday at South Korean Consulate: U.S Vets Refused Entry into South Korea!

March 15, 2012

Contact: Elliott Adams 518 441-2697

Tarak Kauff 845 706-0187

U.S VETS REFUSED ENTRY INTO SOUTH KOREA

Protest Friday at South Korean Consulate

WHERE: 335 East 45th Street, New York, NY

(between First and Second Avenues)

WHEN:Friday, March 16, 12:30 PM.

<Full press release>

VFP Veterans Peace Team Members go to Gangjeong Village

March 08, 2012

Veterans especially are very aware of the tragic and dangerous situation now
happening on Jeju Island in South Korea. The Navy has begun blasting the
rocks in Gangjeong village. People have flocked there from all over
and more than 100 people occupied the highways, chaining themselves to
cars and trucks, in order to obstruct the Navy and Samsung (lead
contractor).

It is urgent that more international people go to Jeju ASAP. This is a
critical request to help raise funds to send four members from Veterans For Peace in the United States to the village immediately.

Three of the four VFP members who will travel to Jeju are:

• Tarak Kauff (New York), former paratrooper, lifetime member and organizer with Veterans For Peace, who initiated with others the Veterans Peace Team, designed to stand in opposition to state violence alongside nonviolent people exercising their right to address grievances.

"When I read Bruce's Gagnon's account of Gangjelong Village my heart went out to these brave villagers and I
felt immediately that this was a place the Veterans Peace Team needed to
be. Our statement of purpose says, 'We also stand in solidarity with . .
. all peoples worldwide, who are standing up courageously, leading and
often dying in the struggle for equality and justice as they are exposed
to massive state run police and military violence.' It was important to
live up to these words."-Tarak Kauff

• Elliott Adams (New York), past president of Veterans For Peace and a member of
  Veterans Peace Team. He served in the infantry as a paratrooper in
  Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and Alaska. He has spent 15 years in local
  elected public office. Now he is dedicating his life to stopping war.

"The United States has been an occupying force in Korea since WWII and as a
U.S. military veteran who served there I feel a special obligation to
stand with these brave people resisting a U.S.-imposed doctrine of
militarization."-Elliott Adams

• Mike Hastie, army medic during the Vietnam War and respected poet and photographer, also a member of the Veterans Peace Team.

In a letter to the South Korean Embassy, S. Brian Willson, who has been to Korea 8 times, wrote,

"As a former US military officer who participated in our illegal war
against the Vietnamese people, I am outraged over the decision of the
South Korean government, under relentless pressure from the United
States government, to contract with Daelim and Samsung Engineering
Construction companies to build a Navy base at Gangjeong Village on Jeju
Island (Island of Peace). This decision goes against the expressed wishes of the citizens of Gangjeong. Korea represents itself
as a democratic republic that upholds human rights of its citizens. How
can this be? The stated purpose is to create a deep water port for
additional Korean Aegis Destroyers ($1 billion each), and porting new
U.S. Aegis Destroyers. This mentality toward ever more war and
militarization creates insecurity, not security! And that you consent to
such tyrannical U.S. pressure is shameful!

"I am aware of the horrendous massacre in 1948 of at least 30,000 Jeju
villagers by Syngman Rhee's ruthless death squads, under the direction
and oversight of U.S. ground advisers and U.S. air support. The
continued influence of the U.S. in South Korean affairs, including the
obstruction of a permanent peace treaty with North Korea, perpetuates a
mentality of hatred, motivated by immense profits for the military
industrial complex while threatening peace for both Korean people, and
the rest of us."

Sending international peace workers to Jeju Island at this time signals that
the global peace movement clearly understands the strategic nature of
this local struggle. Obama's announced "pivot" toward the Asia-Pacific
means a virtual doubling of U.S. military operations in that region-thus
the Navy needs more ports-of-call near China's coast. In this case
Gangjeong village is only 300 miles away.

Jeju Island is an early spark in the coming dangerous and expensive
super-power confrontation between the ever-expanding U.S.-NATO military
empire and China. The intent is to "contain and control" China and fully
submerge that nation under corporate globalization. Our coordinated
international peace response to these moves on the grand chessboard is
timely and crucial. You can make a real-time secure credit card donation online by going to the Global Network's website and using the Green Donate Now button at www.space4peace.org

Or you can send us a check in the mail at our post office box (see address
below). If you send via snail mail please send us an email today
letting us know how much you are pledging so we can better make
preparations.

We are truly grateful for your support from Veterans For Peace and the
Veterans Peace Team. They will represent all of us who so badly wish we
could be there as well at this time. Please help make it possible.

In Solidarity,

Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in SpacePO Box 652Brunswick, ME 04011

Bruce Gagnon (Maine): serves as Secretary/Coordinator of the GN. He has been working on space issues
for the past 25 years and helped create the GN in 1992. His book, Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire,
was republished in 2008. For 15 years he coordinated the Florida
Coalition for Peace & Justice. He was trained as an organizer by the
United Farmworkers Union and is also a member of Veterans for Peace

Pentagon Report: Dramatic Increase in Sexual Assaults at Service Academies

December 27, 2011

58.5 % increase in reported sexual assaults at service academies.

West Point found "not in compliance" with DOD sexual assault prevention policy.

For Immediate Release

December 28, 2011

Contact:

Cookab Hashemi 202-225-3531

Cookab.Hashemi@mail.house.gov

www.speier.house.gov

San Francisco/San Mateo, CA- Today, Congresswoman Jackie Speier issued a statement on the Department of Defense (DOD) annual "Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies" released yesterday. The report reveals a 58.5% increase from the last academic year, and further shows that the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point was found to be "not in compliance" with the DOD's sexual assault prevention policy.

"Despite statements coming out of the Pentagon, the reality and their own reports show that this problem is getting worse, not better," said Speier. "An increase of nearly 60% in reported sexual assaults at the academies is shocking, and the fact that West Point isn't even complying with the modest DOD policies to prevent sexual assault and rape is deeply troubling. If DOD is serious about their ‘zero tolerance' policy, leadership at West Point should be relieved of their posts and the underperforming academies should be put on notice immediately. That is what I am calling for."

"The stacks of reports issued by DOD all point to the fact that there are fundamental flaws in the procedures and policies that dictate how sexual assaults are handled," said Speier.

In 2010, the DOD conducted a survey of active duty members which revealed that only a small percentage of the more than 19,000 incidents of rapes and sexual assaults involving service members were actually reported. Only 13.5% of sexual assaults and rapes are ever reported.

Last month, Speier introduced the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act-the STOP Act, H.R. 3435, which would take the reporting, oversight, investigation, and victim care of sexual assaults out of the hands of the military's normal chain of command and place jurisdiction in the newly created, autonomous Sexual Assault Oversight and Response Office comprised of civilian and military experts. She is also honorary chair of Protect Our Defenders www.ProtectOurDefenders.com.

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Judge Dismisses ‘Epidemic’ of Rape in Military Case

December 13, 2011

The landmark case holding former defense secretaries Gates and Rumsfeld accountable for an 'epidemic' of rape within the military ranks has been dismissed. (Courtesy of thedailybeast.com)

Ann Wright Invited to Unveiling of Landmark Military Sexual Assault Legislation in D.C.

November 16, 2011

Statement by Ann Wright

According to the Department of Defense, 19,000 incidents of sexual assault occurred in the military in 2010, yet only 13.5% of those were reported.

As a 29 year veteran of the US Army and Army Reserves, I am deeply moved that Congresswoman Jackie Speier has initiated legislation to mandate specific actions that leadership of the military must do to address the crimes of sexual assault and rape in the military. Leaders in our military must ensure an environment where criminal actions in the unit do not happen and if they do, the victim is given treatment, counseling and legal assistance. The goal of the legislation is to stop these criminal acts.

Congresswoman Speier has drawn attention to this crisis in our military by telling the story of a military rape victim every week on the floor of the House of Representatives in the US Congress. The 11 speeches have told the stories of women and men who are trying to overcome the tragic consequences of the criminal acts which have been perpetrated on them by members of their own military.

I am also very appreciative of a new national organization, website and campaign dedicated to giving voice to the survivors of rape and sexual assault that Nancy Parrish, President of Protect Our Defenders, will announce.

For Immediate Release

November 16, 2011

Contact:

DC - Cookab Hashemi (202) 225-3531/ (202) 465-5745

Cookab.Hashemi@mail.house.gov

CA - Katrina Rill (650) 342-0300 / (650) 208-7441

Katrina.Rill@mail.house.gov

Congresswoman Jackie Speier Proposes New Justice Process To Combat Sexual Assault Crisis in the Military

Washington, DC - Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco, San Mateo) today introduced legislation to dramatically reform how sexual assaults and rape in the military are treated (bill summary attached.) She will hold a press conference on Thursday, November 7, 2011 at 9:45 am ET at the National Press Club (see details below.)

Speier stated, “For too long the military’s response to rape victims has been: ‘take an aspirin and go to bed.’ We owe our brave women and men in the military a justice system that protects them, not punishes them when they become victims of sexual assaults and rape committed by other service members.”

Speier added, “Despite 25 years of Pentagon studies, task force recommendations and congressional hearings, sexual assaults and rape in the military continue unabated. In 2010 the Department of Defense (DoD) conducted a survey of active duty members which revealed that only a small percentage of the more than 19,000 incidents of rapes and sexual assaults involving service members was actually reported. For the record, an estimated 13.5 percent of sexual assaults and rapes saw the light day—and only 8 percent of those reports resulted in prosecution—in the end 465 service members were either administratively discharged or punished through the court-martial process —that’s about 2.5 percent of the total suspected acts of sexual assaults and rape—a good percentage for a direct mail response, but unacceptable for a justice system.

“The vast majority of men and women who have been sexually abused have come to realize that there is no justice in the in the military’s chain of command and so they are forced to live with their trauma in secret and that, in turn, subjects them to a second act of victimization—they suffer while their attacker goes unpunished. Instead of justice, we end up with increased diagnoses of PTSD among victims of sexual assault who know what is like to be told to shut up and take an aspirin…it will only hurt….for a lifetime.

“The failure to respond in a judicial manner to sexual violence, is more than an injustice, it is, according to some of our highest ranked military leaders, a threat to our military readiness. Members of military units live on, survive on the code of watching out for each other. When sexual assaults and rape are hushed, or ignored, trust in a unit is compromised along with its collective readiness to engage the enemy.

“To end this needless injustice, I am proposing a legislative remedy and fully endorsing the website, Protect Our Defenders, which will provide the grass roots mechanics required to make our military leaders and Congress understand that what has been going on before their very eyes for decades is unconscionable and must be stopped. We owe our brave women and men in the military a justice process that protects them, not punishes them when they become victims of sexual assaults and rape.

“The Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act—the STOP Act—takes the reporting, oversight, investigation, and victim care of sexual assaults out of the hands of the military’s normal chain of command and places jurisdiction in the newly created, autonomous Sexual Assault Oversight and Response Office comprised of civilian and military experts.”

Speier noted the following:

· The military adjudication system lacks independence as military judges depend on base commanders and the like to provide the salient facts of a case while these commanders have significant discretion in dealing with accusations of sexual assault. Service members have only limited access to civilian courts to address their grievances.

· The U.S. military’s default position regarding any servicemembers’ complaints is that they be resolved through the chain of command. According to the Manual for Courts-Martial, “each commander has discretion to dispose of offenses by members of that command. Ordinarily the immediate commander of a person accused or suspected of committing an offense triable by court-martial initially determines how to dispose of that offense.”

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