• Facebook shutters page that taunted lawmaker's push to curb military rape

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    A "direct threat" against a U.S. congresswoman — posted on a military-oriented Facebook page that graphically belittled her and her efforts to stem sexual misconduct within the branches — has been referred to U.S. Capitol Police for investigation. 

    The threat was made last week against Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and her husband shortly after Speier sent a letter May 8 to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel informing him of the Facebook page which, according to Speier, helped "contribute to a culture that permits and seems to encourage sexual assault and abuse." U.S. Capitol Police have asked Speier and her staff not to divulge the nature of the threat.


    Before that page was taken down Friday afternoon by Facebook, Speier's staff was able to confirm that several active-duty Marines had posted messages on the page, which disparaged the congresswoman and made numerous sexual jokes about women in the military. At least three people who had "liked" the page — and who had posted comments there supporting its content — list themselves as active-duty service members on their personal Facebook pages. As of Friday morning, the page — called "F*** You Jackie Speier — was active and had 182 "likes."

    Speier's staff has not been able to determine the identity of the person or people or who created the Facebook page — or several earlier versions of the same page (with other names) that contained the same content, commentary and photos. Those previous iterations were also dismantled by Facebook. 

    In her May 8 letter, also sent to Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, Speier said it was her "understanding that not only is the Marine Corps Inspector General aware of this page and monitoring it, but they have been doing so for over three years." 

    Speier has authored three bills aimed at transforming the military justice system’s treatment of sexual assault cases. Those include the STOP Act (HR 1593), which seeks to take all cases of sexual assault outside of the chain of command by creating an independent office within the military to handle the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of such crimes. The bipartisan bill has 122 co-sponsors but has not been placed into consideration for a House vote. 

    Before the anti-Speier Facebook page was removed, it displayed a banner photo of a topless woman holding up her middle fingers as well as multiple posts and pictures making fun of military rape, including an image posted Friday morning with a caption that joked about raping a pregnant woman.

    In addition, there were photos posted mocking Jewish concentration camp prisoners, African Americans, and President Barack Obama, shown with a rope around his neck. But the page's primary theme involved deriding women in the military, particularly those within the Marines. The administrator posted pictures titled "this is my rape face," and "I can 'bang' even when I'm not on my back!!" atop the image of a woman holding a gun in her camouflage uniform.

    Courtesy Facebook

    A screen grab shows one of the photos posted on a page about Jackie Speier.

    There also was a picture of Speier, photoshopped with a black eye. One poster — whose personal Facebook page lists his occupation as "Military infantry" — wrote of Speier: "I still firmly believe someone needs to struggle snuggle the s*** outta her."

    The Pentagon acknowledged that it is aware of the Facebook page.  

    "Secretary Hagel made clear that sexual assault is a despicable crime and one of the most serious challenges facing the Department of Defense," Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Friday in reaction to the page. "Leaders will be held accountable for preventing and responding to sexual assault in the ranks. The Secretary will respond directly back to Congresswoman as appropriate."

    "Unfortunately, we cannot offer comment," added Shennell Antrobus, spokesman for the U.S. Capitol Police. "As a matter of Department policy, we do not discuss information relating to the security of Senators, Members of the House, or the Capitol Complex."

    Facebook declines to comment on individual pages within its network but it does list a strict set of "community standards" that govern allowable content.

    "We maintain a robust reporting infrastructure that leverages over 1 billion people who use our site to keep an eye out for offensive or potentially dangerous content," said Alison Schumer, a Facebook spokeswoman. "This reporting infrastructure includes report links on pages across the Facebook site, systems to prioritize the most serious reports, and a trained team of reviewers who respond to reports."

    Facebook, which also lists its "law enforcement guidelines," has been known to cooperate with police agencies with active investigations that may delve into a suspect's Facebook accounts and activity. 

    Related:


  • Male rape survivors tackle military assault in tough-guy culture

    Former Navy Petty Officer Third Class Brian Lewis talks about a sexual assault "epidemic" within the U.S. military while speaking on Capitol Hill Thursday. Lewis emphasizes that his chain of command "failed" him during his time in the U.S. Navy.

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    Amid the legislation and indignation sparked by the military's sexual abuse crisis, male rape survivors are stepping forward to remind officials that men are targeted more often than women inside a tough-guy culture that, they say, routinely deems male victims as “liars and trouble makers.”

    The Pentagon estimates that last year 13,900 of the 1.2 million men on active duty endured sexual assault while 12,100 of the 203,000 women in uniform experienced the same crime — or 38 men per day versus 33 women per day. Yet the Defense Department also acknowledges “male survivors report at much lower rates than female survivors.”

    “As a culture, we’ve somewhat moved past the idea that a female wanted this trauma to occur, but we haven’t moved past that for male survivors,” said Brian Lewis, a rape survivor who served in the Navy. “In a lot of areas of the military, men are still viewed as having wanted it or of being homosexual. That’s not correct at all. It’s a crime of power and control.

    “But also, you’re instantly viewed as a liar and a troublemaker (when a man reports a sex crime), and there’s the notion that you have abandoned your shipmates, that you took a crap all over your shipmates, that you misconstrued their horseplay,” he added.


    Lewis, who was raped by a male superior officer aboard a Navy ship in 2000, spoke Thursday at a press conference introducing a bill that seeks to strip serious sex assaults from the military’s chain of command. At that event, he said: “Too often male survivors are ignored and marginalized.”

    “The biggest reasons men don’t come forward (with sex assault reports) are the fear of retaliation (from fellow troops), the fear of being viewed in a weaker light, and the fact there are very few, if any, services for male survivors,” Lewis told NBC News.

    Men in the spotlight
    All sexual assault response coordinators within the military are instructed to provide “gender-responsive, culturally competent and recovery-oriented” resources, said Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman. 

    “Based on that guidance, each of the services customizes its training and implementation specific to their service,” Smith said. DOD offers a 24/7 “safe helpline” providing anonymous victim support, and its staffers “have been trained to assist male victims.”

    Still, the Defense Department acknowledges it must do more to help male victims.

    “A focus of our prevention efforts over the next several months is specifically geared towards male survivors and will include (learning) why male survivors report at much lower rates than female survivors, and determining the unique support and assistance male survivors need,” Smith said.

    The Pentagon “has reached out to organizations supporting male survivors for assistance and information to help inform our way ahead,” she added.

    “I applaud that stand on behalf of male survivors,” Lewis said. “However, I would be interested in hearing what organizations they are partnering with considering there are none especially geared for male survivors of military sexual trauma.”

    Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is joined by a group of colleagues on Capitol Hill while introducing sexual assault legislation that would reform the military justice system.

    'Critical' part of process
    At Protect Our Defenders, a leading advocacy group for male and female service members who've survived sexual assaults, president Nancy Parrish said she would welcome the chance to offer guidance to the Pentagon as it develops better programs to support male sex assault victims.

    “As of yet, we have not been asked to participate in such an endeavor,” Parrish said. “For the success of the military efforts to end the ongoing epidemic of male and female military sexual assaults, it is critical that survivors are part of the process."

    An annual DOD report on sexual abuse, released May 7, described separate attacks on two male soldiers who were shoved down by fellow troops then sodomized with a plastic bottle or broom handle.

    Next month, a documentary called “Justice Denied” — which explores sexual assaults against men in the military — premiers at the Albuquerque Film and Media Experience.

    Assaults on men have been “carefully hidden from the public and covered up,” not only by the victims themselves but also by superiors within the chain of command, contends the film’s producer and co-director Geri Lynn Weinstein-Matthews. “It’s time for men to have their voices heard. It’s time for them to stand up against these vicious attacks and against the deception of some of their commanding officers.” 

    U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel addresses the growing concern over the number of sexual assaults occurring within the U.S. military.

    Related:

  • Senator seeks to reform military's 'unacceptable' sex abuse policies

    Military sources tell NBC News the man in charge of sexual assault prevention in Fort Hood, Texas, may have allegedly coerced a female soldier into prostitution. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    A New York senator introduced a bill Thursday that aims to remove sex crimes from the military’s chain of command — a bid to transform an insulated culture that tends to dampen sex-assault reporting, leaving many victims feeling helpless or hopeless.

    Under the Pentagon’s current justice system, less than 1 percent of accused sexual perpetrators in the military were convicted last year while during 2012 just 9.8 percent of sex-assault victims reported the incidents, according to a Department of Defense report. Many victims feel powerless because their superiors can control everything from whether a case proceeds to whether a guilty verdict is eventually overturned.

    The new proposal by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., rides a rising tide of public anger over separate allegations that two service members tasked with curbing sexual misconduct within the armed forces had themselves committed sexual misconduct:

    • A Fort Hood Army sergeant accused Tuesday of allegedly forcing at least one subordinate soldier into prostitution. There is suspicion that other senior non-commissioned officers were aware of these activities, but the extent of that remains unclear, a government official told NBC News;
    • An Air Force officer arrested May 6 for alleged sexual battery. 

    "When the officer in charge of preventing sexual assault in their ranks is himself arrested for sexual assault — clearly, the strategy we have in place is not working. Twice in just the last two weeks this has happened," Gillibrand said. 

    Some service members have confided to Gillibrand, she said, that following sexual offenses committed against them, the military's current system forced them to seek permission from their perpetrators in order to take their cases to trial. 

    Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York plans to introduce legislation to change the way the military handles allegations of sexual assault. In an exclusive interview on The Last Word, she explained why it should be "more parallel to the civilian system."

    "This is unacceptable — and is long overdue for change," Gillibrand said. 

    Her push to revamp the military's machinery for the investigation and discipline of reported sexual assaults has bipartisan backing. Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., said he will file a companion bill in the House. 

    “Right now, too many sexual assaults in our military go unreported," Benishek said. "Many soldiers are uncomfortable reporting the details of these traumatic events. My daughter is a military veteran so I know exactly the kind of hard-working women we have in our armed forces. This situation is a travesty and we need to fix it now.


    "We need to reform how the military handles sexual assault cases and make sure victims aren’t afraid to report a crime," he added. 

    Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was informed Tuesday about the allegations against the Fort Hood sergeant, leaving the Pentagon chief "frustrated, angered, and disappointed over these troubling allegations as well as the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply," said Cynthia Smith, a DoD spokeswoman. 

    Hagel immediately directed every branch to "re-train, re-credential, and re-screen" all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters — and he has "made it clear he has not ruled out any options for improving the military's response to sexual assault," Smith said.  

    Under Gilliland's proposed legislation, any reported offense committed by a service member that’s punishable by confinement of one year or more would be handled not by branch and unit commanders — like now — but instead be funneled to independent military prosecutors. Her proposal also seeks to ensure that military commanders may not set aside a guilty finding.  

    She began writing her bill — working with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. — just two days after her impassioned critique of the military's desire to retain "convening authority" in sex crimes went viral last March. She since has emerged as one of the Senate's loudest proponents for wholesale Pentagon reform on the issue, calling for a format that's more parallel to the civilian legal system. 

    Related:

  • U.S. military faces historic tipping point on rape epidemic

    The Army is investigating a sergeant first class whose job is to prevent sexual assault at Fort Hood for allegedly forcing a subordinate into prostitution and allegedly assaulting two others. Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., is co-chair of the Military Sexual Assault Prevention Caucus, and she joins Chris Jansing to discuss.

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    The U.S. military seems increasingly incapable of policing itself or ridding its ranks of sexual predators, watchdogs charge, but the latest litany of accusations — leveled Tuesday at Fort Hood — has thrust the Pentagon to the brink of wholesale reform long sought by victims of sexual assault. 

    With the second member of the military's campaign to stem sexual misconduct falling under investigation — for alleged sexual misconduct — critics were quick to lambast Pentagon brass for "gross negligence" and for maintaining an internal system of investigation and discipline that appears to be in desperate need of being ripped down and rebuilt with fresh independence and transparency. 

    "It is abundantly clear that the military cannot adequately handle its sexual violence crisis from within," said Anu Bhagwati, executive director of Service Women's Action Network and former Marine captain.

    "If military culture is to transform in any meaningful way, we need to break down the doors of silence and make sure our troops who are harmed have access to the same legal remedies as all civilians whom they protect and defend," she added. "We can start by ensuring that military crimes are no longer handled by commanding officers, but rather by impartial attorneys and judges."

    Investigators in Fort Hood, Texas, are looking into allegations that an Army sergeant sexually assaulted three female soldiers and forced one into prostitution. This is only the latest in a string of military sexual assault scandals that has lawmakers demanding answers. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    Nancy Parrish, president of the victims advocacy group Protect Our Defenders, agreed that "the Pentagon is responsible for failing to effectively govern its personnel," following news that a Fort Hood Army sergeant first class allegedly forced at least one subordinate soldier into prostitution and sexually assaulted two others. 

    "The problems are so long standing and pervasive that, at a minimum, it constitutes gross negligence on the part of the leadership," Parrish said. 

    Late Tuesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel directed all branches to "re-train, re-credential, and re-screen all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters," according to the Pentagon. 

    'Open to any and all options'
    The Fort Hood scandal, coming just nine days after the sexual battery arrest of an Air Force officer tasked with preventing rape, cranked the volumed on long-standing cries "to get to work reforming the military justice system that clearly isn’t working," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. "I believe strongly that to create the kind of real reform that will make a difference we must remove the chain of command from the decision making process for these types of serious offenses.”

    Ironically, hours before the Fort Hood allegations surfaced, Gillibrand was prepping a final draft of her bill — set to be introduced Thursday — that seeks to accomplish precisely that goal: transferring sex crimes from the watch and authority of military brass and instead funneling such cases to independent military prosecutors, said a spokesman for Gillibrand. 

    Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York plans to introduce legislation to change the way the military handles allegations of sexual assault. In an exclusive interview on The Last Word, she explained why it should be "more parallel to the civilian system."

    Her proposal was further hastened by the Pentagon's May 7 revelation that 26,000 troops last year claimed anonymously to be sex-assault victims (up from 19,000 in FY11), and a May 9 White House meeting with lawmakers pitching various ideas to stem the military’s rape crisis.

    “Sexual violence in the military is not new. And it has been allowed to go on in the shadows for far too long," Gillibrand said Tuesday. "Congress would be derelict in its duty of oversight if we just shrugged our shoulders at these 26,000 sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, and did nothing. We simply have to do better by them."

    The appetite for a dramatic military shift on the issue seems to have reached a tipping point, lawmakers and advocates agree, especially after the Department of Defense signaled Monday that Hagel is "open to any and all options." That marked a clear pivot from Hagel's position as recently as May 7 when he said decisions on sex cases must stay inside the command structure. 

    "Make no mistake," Pentagon press secretary George Little wrote Sunday in a letter to the New York Times, "Mr. Hagel believes sexual assault is one of the urgent matters facing the Defense Department today and will work very closely with the White House and members of Congress to confront this urgent challenge." 

    'Debilitating' crisis
    Gillibrand began writing her bill — working with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. — just two days after her impassioned critique of the military's desire to retain "convening authority" in sex crimes went viral last March. She chose to include in her bill all military crimes punishable by one year or longer in the brig because she felt sending only rape cases to the Judge Advocate General's Corps would further stigmatize sex-assault victims and create "a two-class system," her spokesman said.  


    Meanwhile, Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., plans to introduce a companion bill in the House, his office confirmed.

    The first embers of true Capitol Hill fury were stoked in February when Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin reversed the aggravated sexual assault conviction of Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, a fighter pilot. A jury of five military officers found Wilkerson guilty of assaulting a civilian contractor as she slept at his home on the Aviano Air Base In Italy. Franklin also dismissed Wilkerson's sentence: one year in the brig and dismissal from the Air Force.

    Gillibrand's bill seeks bar military commanders from setting aside guilty findings.

    "Hopefully, we have reached the tipping point," Parrish said. "It is ultimately up to the military leadership. If they decide that this epidemic and all of the recent scandals is a problem that should be solved, reform can happen and happen relatively quickly.

    "At least until now, the military has treated the issue of sexual assault and rape in the military as a public relations problem," she added. "There are some recent signs that some in the leadership realize that it is a real crisis: a crisis that, for the military, is debilitating."

    Related:

  • 'Every American should be outraged:' Military sees sharp increase in sex assault cases

    Jeremiah Arbogast

    Jeremiah Arbogast, 32, a retired Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps, lives in West Virginia with his wife and 11-year-old daughter. Arbogast was sexually assaulted while serving between 1998 and 2006, and said the idea that sexual assaults may have increased dramatically in the past year "totally disgusts me."

    By Rebecca Ruiz, NBC News contributor

    Despite efforts to create a "military culture free of sexual assault," the Department of Defense announced Tuesday that the number of cases increased sharply in the last year, a trend that critics pointed to as proof that more aggressive measures are needed to end the epidemic. 

    The annual report, released by the DoD's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, found that 3,374 incidents of "unwanted sexual contact" occurred within all branches of the Armed Forces in the 2012 fiscal year. That is a 6 percent increase from the previous year, when there were 3,192 reports.

    The results of an anonymous survey, however, present a much more alarming picture: 26,000 respondents said they had been sexually assaulted in the past year, compared to 19,000 respondents in last year's survey. 

    Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., was briefed by Pentagon officials on the report earlier today and told NBC News that the increase appears to represent an actual rise in the number of assaults rather than a growing willingness to report cases anonymously. 

    The figures were released a day after the announcement that Air Force Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski had been removed from his position as branch chief for the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office after being charged with sexual battery. A drunken Krusinski allegedly approached the woman in a parking lot in Arlington, Va., and grabbed her breasts and buttocks, according to a police report.

    Tsongas said she was "astonished and outraged" upon hearing of Krusinski's arrest. 

    The report released Tuesday, Tsongas said, indicated that though "we've put many more tools in the toolbox ... it's clear to me there's much more work to be done" in changing the military's culture with regard to sexual assault. 


    "Every American should be outraged by the disturbing numbers from this year's Defense Department sexual assault report," Anu Bhagwati, executive director of the Washington, D.C., advocacy organization Service Women's Action Network, said in a statement to NBC News.

    Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel condemned the trend in the report, calling sexual assault a "crime that is incompatible with military service." 

    'They're just not getting it'
    President Barack Obama, who spoke with Hagel on Tuesday, said he has "no tolerance" for sexual assault in the military.

    "I expect consequences," Obama added. "So I don’t just want more speeches or awareness programs or training, but ultimately folks look the other way. If we find out somebody’s engaging in this, they’ve got to be held accountable — prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period."

    Jeremiah Arbogast, 32, a retired Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps who was sexually assaulted while serving between 1998 and 2006, was ecstatic that the president spoke so forcefully. 

    The idea that sexual assaults may have increased dramatically in the past year "totally disgusts me," he said. “I think it’s very appalling that they’re just not getting it.” 

    Jeremiah Arbogast

    "I love the Marine Corps and military with all my heart, but I want to rid the military of these sick individuals," Jeremiah Arbogast told NBC News.

    Arbogast, who has advocated for legislation that would change the way the military handles sexual assaults, was drugged and attacked by a staff sergeant in 2000. He experienced post-traumatic stress after the assault, and in 2009, attempted suicide with a firearm. The gunshot wound left him a paraplegic. 

    “I was going to make a career out of the Marine Corps and I didn’t think this was going to happen to me,” said Arbogast. “I love the Marine Corps and military with all my heart, but I want to rid the military of these sick individuals.” 

    Arbogast believes that training materials like books, brochures and videos won’t fix a problem that is deeply rooted in both unjust policies and a dysfunctional culture. 

    For example, commanders must be stripped of their ability to reverse a guilty verdict in a sexual assault case, he said. The Air Force was again the subject of controversy recently when Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin overturned the conviction of an F-16 pilot, Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, after he’d been found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a civilian contractor. 

    “As a survivor, it makes you feel that regardless of what happens to you, that there is no justice, that your voice is never heard,” Arbogast said of overturned convictions. 

    'Chilling effect'
    Rep. Tsongas, who also supports a revision of the rule known as Article 60, said that Secretary Hagel has shown a willingness to modify it, and that she is looking at ways to put such changes into law. 

    There are a number of legislative proposals to address perceived problems with how the military investigates and prosecutes sexual assault cases. On Tuesday, Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) introduced the Combating Military Sexual Assault Act of 2013, which calls for providing victims with a military lawyer and improving the ability of the DoD’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Office to collect and track statistics on the number of cases and prosecutions, among other measures. 

    While 3,374 incidents were reported in the last fiscal year, some accused assailants were not under the military’s legal authority or allegations against them were found to be “false” or “baseless.” Some victims also requested that their cases not be investigated. Of the 1,714 offenders that could be investigated, according to the Pentagon report, commanders had enough evidence to punish 66 percent of them, an increase from 57 percent in the 2009 fiscal year. 

    Tsongas said that she was particularly concerned about the nearly two-thirds of victims who reported professional or administrative retaliation once they stepped forward with an accusation. “That’s an alarming number,” she said. “You can just guess the chilling effect it has on those thinking of coming forward.”

    Arbogast, who lives in Fort Ashby, W.V. with his wife and 11-year-old daughter, remains involved with the military as an athlete in wounded warrior sporting events. He is hopeful that the outrage about the new figures will spark change within the military. 

    “If I had the opportunity to travel to every base to speak weekly, I would do it just to flush these people out of the system,” he said. “It’s an important issue and I think people need to take it seriously, because if they don’t the numbers will keep rising.”

    Related:

  • White House: US believes Syrian regime used chemical weapons

    Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters in Abu Dhabi that the United States has "a reasonable amount of confidence that some amount of chemical weapons was used" by the Syrian government.

    By Kristen Welker, Jim Miklaszewski, Courtney Kube and Tracy Connor, NBC News

    The White House said Thursday that the U.S. believes "with some degree of varying confidence" the Syrian government has used chemical weapons — specifically the nerve agent sarin — against its own people.

    A letter from the White House to members of Congress said the assessment was based on "physiological samples" but called for a United Nations probe to corroborate it and nail down when and how they were used.

    "We are continuing to do further work to establish a definitive judgement as to whether or not the red line has been crossed and to inform our decision-making about what we'll do next," a White House official said. 

    "All options are on the table in terms of our response," the official added.

    Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters at the Capitol that the U.S. believes chemical weapons were used twice, but the letter doesn't specify that.

    "Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin," the letter said.

    "We do believe that any use of chemical weapons in Syria would very likely have originated with the Assad regime," it added.

    "Thus far, we believe that the Assad regime maintains custody of these weapons, and has demonstrated a willingness to escalate its horrific use of violence against the Syrian people."

    Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he had not seen the evidence supporting the assessment, but added that use of chemical agents "violates every convention of war."

    Sarin is a man-made nerve agent that has been used in terrorist attacks in Japan and possibly during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. In large doses, it can cause convulsions, paralysis and death.

    The U.S. has long believed that Syria was stockpiling chemical weapons. Intelligence reports indicate that it has sarin and the nerve agent tabun along with traditional chemicals like mustard gas and hydrogen cyanide. A 2011 CIA report said Syria was also developing the potent nerve agent VX, which could render a city uninhabitable for days.

    Syria's information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, said in an interview with Russian TV that the government has not and will not use chemical weapons and blamed potential evidence of their existence on "armed terrorist groups," the state news agency reported.

    A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, Fahd Almasri, claimed Syria has launched chemical attacks in nine places and was poised to do so again at the Lebanon border and in Damascus "when Assad knows he is finished."

    "Now is the moment to find a solution very quickly," Almasri told NBC News in a phone interview.

    President Obama has said the verified use of chemical weapons by the regime would be a "red line" and a "game-changer" for U.S. and international military intervention in the Syrian civil war.


    "Precisely because the President takes this issue so seriously, we have an obligation to fully investigate any and all evidence of chemical weapons use within Syria," said the letter, which was signed by Obama's legislative director, Miguel Rodriguez.

    The letter was a response to a request from a bipartisan group of senators who asked the White House for answers after the Israeli military’s top intelligence analyst cited photographs of people "foaming from the mouth” as evidence of chemical weapons use.

    Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the development “deeply troubling.”

    “While more work needs to be done to fully verify this assessment…it is becoming increasingly clear that we must step up our efforts,” Corker said.

    “I should make clear, however, that it if it comes to the use of military force, before the president takes any action to commit U.S. forces to any effort in Syria or elsewhere, I expect him to fully consult with the Senate and seek an authorization for the use of military force."

    Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the assessment could spark a dangerous reaction from Damascus.

    "I am very concerned that with this public acknowledgement, President Assad may calculate he has nothing more to lose and the likelihood he will further escalate this conflict therefore increases," Feinstein said.

    The White House official called for a high level of scrutiny — but also caution.

    "Given our own history with intelligence assessments, including intelligence assessments related to weapons of mass destruction, it's very important that we are able to establish this with certainty and that we are able to present information in a way that is airtight," the official said.

    NBC News' Kasie Hunt, Kelly O'Donnell, Robert Windrem and Charlene Gubash contributed to this story

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

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    Obama warns Syria's Assad not to use chemical weapons

     

    This story was originally published on Thu Apr 25, 2013 11:56 AM EDT

  • Hagel drops controversial medal for drone operators

    By Courtney Kube, Pentagon Producer, NBC News

    Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday eliminated the Distinguished Warfare Medal, overturning one of Leon Panetta’s last acts in the position.


    The award — which had come to be known as the Nintendo Medal — recognized drone pilots and cyber operators.

    Now, instead of a medal, individuals will receive a pin that will be placed on another existing medal — similar to a V that is pinned to a Bronze Star to indicate an award with valor.

    The medal was established to “recognize the achievements of a small number of service men and women who have an especially direct and immediate impact on combat operations through the use of remotely piloted aircraft and cyber operations,” Hagel wrote in a statement.

    Hagel ordered a review of the medal after hearing feedback from veterans groups, Congress members and others. The review “confirmed the need to ensure such recognition,” Hagel said, but “it found that misconceptions regarding the precedence of the award were distracting from its original purpose.

    “The service men and women, who operate and support our remotely piloted aircraft, operate in cyber, and others are critical to our military's mission of safeguarding the nation,” Hagel continued. “I again want to thank my predecessor, Leon Panetta, for raising the need to ensure that these men and women are recognized for their contributions.”

    Related:


  • Defense Secretary Hagel demands rape reform in military

    By Bill Briggs, Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube, NBC News

    Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday cracked down on generals who now possess the power to overturn sex assault sentences, ordering the first substantive shift of his tenure in how the military handles rape convictions in the ranks.


    But victims’ advocates quickly lashed the move as merely a meager tweak that fails to meet mounting calls to remove all sex-assault investigations from the chain of command and to inject civilian oversight into a controversial system of justice further exposed by the recent Aviano case. 

    Hagel directed the Pentagon's General Counsel to strip the authority of commanding generals to void military court convictions. The Pentagon must seek fresh Congressional legislation to rewrite a section of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to make the planned change legal.

    The decision follows a firestorm ignited last month when Air Force Lt. General Craig Franklin overturned the sex-assault conviction of Air Force Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, an F-16 combat pilot. Wilkerson was court martialed and convicted by a military jury in the assault of a civilian woman at the U.S. Air Base in Aviano, Italy. He was sentenced to one year in the brig and booted from the Air Force.

    But using current UCMJ laws, Franklin reversed that jury's ruling for apparent lack of evidence. Wilkerson was subsequently released from jail, reinstated and assigned to a staff job at an Arizona air base.

    The head of the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), which seeks to help women serve without discrimination, harassment or assault, said she is "encouraged" by Hagel's proposal to reform a portion of the UCMJ, particularly "in light of the perceived travesty of justice in the recent Aviano case." But she added that the modification is not enough.

    "The Department of Defense has effectively acknowledged that commanders currently have undue influence on post-trial decision-making," said Anu Bhagwati, executive director of SWAN and a former Marine Corps captain. "However, post-trial review is only one component of the command-driven system that currently governs how military crimes are handled.

    "Unless pre-trial decision-making around investigation and prosecution of offenses is also removed from the hands of commanders and given to impartial prosecutors, military criminal justice will remain a lesser form of justice, both for victims and defendants."

    Measures 'fall short'
    Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military sex-assault victims, called the generals’ current prerogative to toss out sex-assault convictions "only one part of much larger fundamental problems."

    "Today’s proposed changes from the Pentagon fall short of the necessary fixes to end the epidemic of sexual assault in the military," said Nancy Parrish, president of Protect Our Defenders. "The military has always contended that incidences like Aviano are extremely rare and we have never disputed that. But, we have always contended that the more insidious problem is that convening authorities can unilaterally lessen sentences, and today’s announcement does not change this.

    "Commanders now have the power to reduce any sentence for any reason or no reason," Parrish added. "Under the current proposal ... this will not change. In the Aviano case, rather than setting Lt. Col. Wilkerson’s sexual assault conviction aside, Lt. General Franklin could have simply reduced the sentence to no punishment.

    "For the system to be legitimate — the reporting, investigation and adjudication must be taken completely out of the chain of command if we are to avoid another case like Aviano," she added.

    Under UCMJ, Hagel and Congress are powerless to change Franklin's decision to overturn the conviction of Lt. Col. Wilkerson.

    In a written statement released Monday, Hagel said he is seeking to eliminate the ability of commanders who are the "convening authority" to override convictions for sexual assault or other serious crimes.

    Defendants still will retain the right to appeal convictions through the military judicial system, Hagel said. He also wants to require the convening authority to put into writing any changes they may make in sentencing for major offenses.

    "From the survivors we talk with," Parrish said, "a written explanation as to why their perp's sentence was lessened unilaterally will be of no comfort to them. This still constitutes an extraordinary power resting in the hands of one person with no equivalent in the civilian criminal justice system."

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  • US to deploy more ground-based missile interceptors as North Korea steps up threats

    Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said North Korea's long-range missiles prompted the U.S. military to bolster its missile defense system in Alaska. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

    The U.S. is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska to counter renewed nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday.


    The new interceptors will be based at Fort Greely, an Army launch site about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, and are projected to be fully deployed by 2017, Hagel said. The additions will bring the U.S.-based ground interceptor deployment from 30 to 44, including four that are based in California.

    That will boost U.S. missile defense capability by 50 percent and "make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression," he said in a briefing at the Pentagon.

    The announcement comes as North Korea has been making bellicose threats to void the armistice that ended the Korean War and launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. The U.S. and South Korea began annual military drills this week despite the North Korean threats.

    Hagel said the U.S. would also shift some "resources," which he didn't specify, from the delayed Aegis anti-missile program in Europe to U.S.-based defenses, saying the Aegis program was "lagging" because of reduced congressional funding. And he reiterated previously announced plans to add a second U.S. anti-ballistic missile radar installation in Japan.

    North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is trying to prove his strength, causing experts to worry that Pyongyang's threats could get out of control. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    Taking all of the moves together, "we will be able to add protection against missiles from Iran sooner while also proving protection against the threat from North Korea," he said.

    Even before the announcement, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., a member of the Armed Services Committee, criticized the news, saying it was too little and too late.

    "I applaud the Obama administration's decision, but it shouldn't have taken the predictable saber-rattling from North Korea to bring this about," Ayotte said in a statement Friday. 

    Pointing to Iran's nuclear program, Ayotte called on the Obama administration to "move expeditiously to construct an East Coast missile defense site."

    "Americans living in the Eastern United States should have the same level of missile defense protection as those in the West," she said.

    Courtney Kube and Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

    Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

    This story was originally published on Fri Mar 15, 2013 7:28 PM EDT

  • Are brain injuries from IED blasts causing the military suicide crisis?

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    Traumatic brain injuries sustained by more than 200,000 U.S. troops may be fueling the military’s suicide crisis, according to a letter co-signed by 53 congressional members who are seeking additional data to investigate the new theory.


    In the letter, sent Tuesday to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, the lawmakers urged both agencies to provide Congress with a raft of figures, including the number of Iraq and Afghanistan service members and veterans who committed suicide or tried to end their lives after being brain injured by the detonation of an improvised explosive device — “the weapon of choice” in both wars.

    “Evidence has suggested that blast injuries, including but not limited to those causing damage to vision or hearing, can have a severe psychological impact ... that can play a major contributing role in suicides,” read the bi-partisan letter.

    Between November 2011 and October 2012, there were more than 15,000 IED attacks against U.S. service members in Afghanistan, and 58 percent of all coalition casualties during that span were caused by the hidden bombs, the letter states.

    At least three veterans groups, including the Blinded Veterans Association, are backing the congressional push to — as the letter to DOD and VA states — “get a better understanding of the connection between blast injuries and suicide.”

    “I’ve talked to a lot of neurologists, military neurosurgeons and trauma surgeons who have all started to ponder if the IEDs that have caused the TBIs are the real cause of the suicides, versus the traditional approach that suicides are all caused by the psychological stresses of combat,” said Thomas Zampieri, head of government relations for the Blinded Veterans Association.

    “Let’s collect more information and maybe the epidemiologists will find a way to unlock some of this mystery: Are military suicides actually more related to the brain injuries? I think there may be a big connection,” added Zampieri, who served as a Vietnam-era Army medic. “As the numbers of TBIs go up, the numbers of suicides continue to go up.”

    The portion of U.S. service members who sustained TBIs increased each year from 2001 to 2011 — with a total of 266,810 brain injuries diagnosed in American troops between 2000 and 2012, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, part of the DOD. More than 80 percent of those injuries were not deployment-related cases, with many occurring amid crashes of privately owned cars and military vehicles. 

    Army soldiers account for the vast majority of diagnosed TBI cases, and those injuries range from “mild” (a concussion) to “severe.” Within the Army, the suicide rate among active-duty members has risen from 9 per 100,000 in 2001 to nearly 23 per 100,000 in 2011, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

    During that same span, according to the DOD’s brain injury center, the number of annual TBI diagnoses among American troops has ballooned from 11,580 in 2001 to 32,609 in 2011 — an increase of 182 percent.

    “What is significant is that we are looking at a potential paradigm shift of significant proportion if the link between low-level TBI from IEDs emerges,” said retired Army Col. Bob Morris, founder of the Global Campaign against IEDs.

    “The current automatic approach is to connect everything to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and look at it all as psychological when it may be a physiological,” Morris added. 

    The lawmakers additionally asked the DOD and VA to supply "specific autopsy findings (of service members or veterans) potentially indicative of prior TBI." The members said they want to know whether such post-mortems found "chronic traumatic encephalopathy", which has been detected in the brains of a number of NFL players who recently committed suicide. 

    Numerous Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been diagnosed with both TBIs and PTSD, as well as with hearing loss — the most common disability among the men and women who served in those wars. 

    "There is no higher priority for VA than the mental health and well-being of our courageous men and women who have served the nation," said a VA spokesman, responding to the congressional letter. "Under the leadership of Secretary Shinseki, VA has made significant progress in providing increased access to mental health care services and strengthening our suicide prevention efforts, but there is more work to do. VA is committed to providing all Veterans the care and benefits they have earned and deserve.”

    A Pentagon spokeswoman said Hagel "responds directly to correspondence received" and that it would inappropriate for her comment on the letter. 

    Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., a surgeon who worked at a VA medical center for 20 years, led the effort to collect congressional signatures for the letter to Hagel and Shinseki.

    “Far too many of our veterans and military personnel have taken their own life after bravely serving our nation. Frankly, it’s tragic and unacceptable,” Benishek said in a statement Tuesday. “I am hopeful that by working together we can make sure our guys and gals in the military and the VA have the support they need to recover from the damaging psychological effects of war.”

    "There is particular evidence linking suicide to those wounded by IEDs," added Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y. "It is my hope that through additional research we will be able to identify and reverse this painful trend. One suicide is too many and we should do all we can to address this as quickly as possible."

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  • Reporter says joking comment sparked rumors about Hagel and Hamas

    Kevin Lamarque / Reuters file

    Former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, shown here testifying, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination to be Defense Secretary. A reporter says a joke he made sparked a false rumor that Hagel accepted speech money from a group called Friends of Hamas.

    By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A Washington reporter revealed Wednesday that a joking comment he made to a congressional aide unwittingly sparked a false rumor that Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel accepted money from a group called Friends of Hamas for a speech.

    Dan Friedman, who works for the New York Daily News, said he could not have imagined that his attempt at humor would fuel a claim that would spread across the Internet and “could have doomed” Hagel’s chances.

    In a column on the paper’s op-ed pages, Friedman detailed how he was looking into allegations that Hagel was hostile to Israel when he called the anonymous Republican aide on Feb. 6  and posed a question: Had Hagel given paid speeches to any questionable groups like “Junior League of Hezbollah in France” or “Friends of Hamas?”

    He said he followed up with an email reminder of the type of detail he was looking for: “Did he get $25K speaking fee from Friends of Hamas?”


    “The names were so over-the-top, so linked to terrorism in the Middle East that it was clear I was talking hypothetically and hyperbolically,” the reporter wrote.

    The aide, however, apparently didn’t get the joke. By Friedman’s account, his source mentioned the query to colleagues and the information somehow ended up with Ben Shapiro, who authored a Feb. 7 post on the conservative site Breitbart.com with the headline: “Secret Hagel Donor? White House spox ducks question on ‘Friends of Hamas.’

    The item was picked up by other conservative media, but Friedman said he didn’t get wind of the growing rumor until Sunday when he saw a story questioning whether an organization called Friends of Hamas even exists.

    He said that when he called Shapiro, he said his story was accurate because he was told Hagel had not turned over documents on overseas money he received because a group purportedly called Friends of Hamas was on the list – regardless of whether that information was accurate.

    In a post Wednesday, Shapiro blasted Friedman and denied that it was Friedman’s inquiry that sparked his story.

    “Our Senate source denies that Friedman is the source of this information,” he wrote. He quoted the source as saying, “I have received this information from three separate sources, none of whom was Friedman.”

    He said Hagel could settle the question of whether Friends of Hamas is real by releasing his records.

    Democrats have scheduled a vote on Hagel’s nomination – which was delayed by a Republican filibuster last week – for Feb. 26.

     

  • Spouses club relents, says lesbian Army wife can be 'full member'

    Courtesy Ashley Broadway

    Ashley Broadway, left, is pictured with her wife, Lt. Col. Heather Mack and their 2-year-old son.

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    Hours after same-sex Army wife Ashley Broadway was named Fort Bragg's 2013 “spouse of the year,” the on-base spouses club — that has for two months rebuffed Broadway's bid to join — fully reversed course and invited her "to become a full member," according to emails sent to NBC News and Broadway.


    The decision comes one week after the Association of Bragg Officers' Spouses (ABOS) extended Broadway — who is married to Army Lt. Col. Heather Mack — a "special guest membership," an invitation she declined and called "extremely demeaning."

    "After further reviewing the (club's) constitution, by-laws and internal procedures, the ABOS Board felt that in order to immediately support all military Officer spouses who are eligible for ABOS membership a more inclusive definition of spouse was needed. Therefore, any Spouse of an active duty commissioned or warrant Officer with a valid marriage certificate from any state or district in the United States is eligible for ABOS membership," the club's board said in a statement.

    "ABOS does not discriminate based on race, gender, religion, national origin, age, disability, creed, or sexual orientation. ABOS would like to publicly invite Ms. Broadway to apply for full membership to ABOS. It is and always has been our mission to support all military families."

    In an email to Broadway — shared with NBC News — the club said, "We would like to offer you to become a full member of ABOS."

    "I will go ahead and submit my application," Broadway said in response to the invitation. "I need to educate some of the naysayers that are in that group and show them my family is just like their family."

    In the online election held Tuesday, Broadway captured the Fort Bragg vote “by a country mile,” said Babette Maxwell, founder of Military Spouse magazine and the Military Spouse of the Year award. Ballot totals were not revealed.

    As one of the 154 base-level winners, Broadway now is eligible to be nominated for Army “spouse of the year.”

    “A lot of people who voted never me met or talked to me or knew me from Adam. I know it was a statement to the Obama Administration, to Secretary (of Defense Leon) Panetta, to Senator (Chuck) Hagel — if he is confirmed (as defense secretary) — to the Pentagon and, really, to America that, yes, she is a military spouse and she needs to be recognized,” Broadway told NBC News.

    “There are things the government can do right now to make life a hell of a lot easier than what it is currently for those who are in same-sex marriages in the military,” she added. “It was a lot of people saying, ‘Enough’s enough.’ ”

    Broadway’s rejection from the Fort Bragg officers’ spouses club sparked the U.S. Marine Corps to issue on Jan. 9 a pro-gay, branch-wide directive. On Jan. 16, her bid drew the Pentagon’s attention. The next day, the on-base spouses club offered Broadway a "special guest membership" – an invitation she declined, calling it “extremely demeaning.” 

    Broadway married Mack, her 15-year companion, in November — their first chance to hold a formal ceremony after the 2011 repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” the policy that kept gays from openly serving in the military. The couple has a 2-year-old son and Mack gave birth to their second child, a daughter, on Tuesday. 

    “People got one vote per email address — one ballot for the person you wanted to represent you. I think people would be unwilling to, quote-unquote, throw their vote away on simply doing what was popular,” Maxwell said. “There was a significant amount of meaning in what they were doing when they voted for Ashley.

    “Removing her a bit from the press and recognition she’s received the last few months, Ashley — more importantly — has a platform to benefit a large number of spouses, and that’s what people want to see happen,” Maxwell added. “The winners are chosen based on their merits, their accomplishments and what they intend to do for the community in the year to come.”

    Broadway has volunteered to tutor soldiers’ children in reading, briefed inbound Army families on local school districts, and helped transferring soldiers with housing-location decisions.

    “When I was denied membership, I asked to speak to the club’s board. I was convinced that if they’d just sit down with me for half an hour, if I could talk to them about what I’ve been doing, what I’ll be doing in the future, they would see what an asset I would be to the group,” Broadway said.

    The meeting was not granted.

    “That was the most frustrating thing,” she said.

    Before its decision late Friday to relent and offer Broadway full membership, the ABOS board had maintained Broadway was never rejected because “a formal application was never filed,” and that she simply had inquired about the eligibility of a same-sex spouse and was told the club would need “time to look at the issue.” 

    Online voting for the next round of the 2013 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year — the branch level — will take place Feb. 5. The overall winner, elected from the branch finalists, will be revealed May 9.

    "I never thought in a million years I would be the one to advance the cause. If that’s what it’s going to take to get attention for all the military same-sex spouses, then so be it," Broadway said. "But I do take this (Bragg 'spouse of the year' award) very seriously. And we'll see where it goes from here." 

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