Democrats Impede Bill to Aid Rape Victims

[marshabar1]

The fact that many of the young American women who have selflessly dedicated years of their lives to helping people in the Third World have been the victims of sexual violence while working for the Peace Corps has been swept under the rug by the Agency for decades. Unfortunately, efforts to help the victims are being impeded by partisan considerations in which Democrats refuse to join any effort to pressure the Corps to act.Thanks to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, this disgraceful situation is about to become a matter of concern for Congress. Chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s committee will be holding a hearing today to highlight the plight of volunteers and the awful treatment that they have received from the Peace Corps, which in the minds of some, is comparable to the brutality they suffered while being assaulted.

The issue was highlighted on an ABC’s 20/20 program in January and in a New York Times article that appeared today. The problem is not just that Peace Corps workers are subjected to violence but that the Corps has had a consistent policy of covering up these incidents in order not to scare away potential volunteers and not to ruffle feathers in the countries where these crimes occur. A “blame the victim” mentality has prevailed in the Peace Corps that left these abused Americans with no one to turn to after attacks happen.



www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/05/11/democrats-impede-bill-to-aid-peace-corps-rape-victims/

[marshabar1]

THIS week, in the wake of accusations that the Peace Corps had mishandled the startling number of sexual assaults against its volunteers over the last decade, Congress invited former participants to tell their side of the story.

In many cases, their tales were horrifying — not only of rapes and attempted rapes, but also of the Corps’s efforts to play down or ignore them, as well as the risks involved in certain country assignments.

Many echoed comments by volunteers interviewed for an ABC News report in January. Karestan Koenen, who was raped in 1991 in Niger, said, “My own experience was that the treatment by the Peace Corps was worse than the rape.”

As a recent Peace Corps volunteer whose service in Kyrgyzstan ended early because of sexual harassment, I sympathize with Ms. Koenen. My ultimately positive experience points to ways the agency can reform, however, and in many ways already has.

From 2000 to 2009 more than 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers reported sexual assaults, including 221 rapes or attempted rapes — a number that is doubtless too low. Under the anonymous reporting process at our small post in Kyrgyzstan, two to three volunteers reported a rape or attempted rape each year.

www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/opinion/14tolentino.html

[Deleted]

Dems often see some weird bigger picture thing that allows bad things to happen. Like Obama voting against laws to stop partial birth abortions because of a possibility it could some day set precedence to mess with Roe v. Wade. Weird logic.
Lots of idealistic young men and women join the Peace Corps. Disgusting that this happens, and even more worrisome that there is even a conversation about doing something about it or not.

[marshabar1]

Liberals are the lords of deadly unintended consequences.

[ameiko]

May 14, 2011 16:21:22 GMT -5 @marshabar1 said:

Liberals are the lords of deadly unintended consequences.

+1

[ameiko]

Wow, the Peace Corp hiding rapes. Now that I think about it, I'm not shocked but saddened. What do naive young women THINK will happen though when they go into third world nations? They sees these Americans (often white and thus standing out among the populace) from their rich nation giving what the natives think is a relative pittance. Between that aggrieved sense of entitlement and general barbarism, you get rapes.

Terrible.

[Deleted]

It should be VERY open, so these good kids know what they are getting in to in their quest to help others. Just like missionaries know, these kids should know the risks going in.

[ameiko]

I you tubed the TV report on the rapes. I'm just two minutes in and already disgusted.

If you have any loved ones who are even thinking of something like the peace corp (and I include mission work and the like), show them those videos so they can make informed choices.

[Deleted]

Hey, I'm lazy. Could you post that you tube here?

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

May 14, 2011 15:49:46 GMT -5 @marshabar1 said:

The fact that many of the young American women who have selflessly dedicated years of their lives to helping people in the Third World have been the victims of sexual violence while working for the Peace Corps has been swept under the rug by the Agency for decades. Unfortunately, efforts to help the victims are being impeded by partisan considerations in which Democrats refuse to join any effort to pressure the Corps to act.Thanks to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, this disgraceful situation is about to become a matter of concern for Congress. Chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s committee will be holding a hearing today to highlight the plight of volunteers and the awful treatment that they have received from the Peace Corps, which in the minds of some, is comparable to the brutality they suffered while being assaulted.

The issue was highlighted on an ABC’s 20/20 program in January and in a New York Times article that appeared today. The problem is not just that Peace Corps workers are subjected to violence but that the Corps has had a consistent policy of covering up these incidents in order not to scare away potential volunteers and not to ruffle feathers in the countries where these crimes occur. A “blame the victim” mentality has prevailed in the Peace Corps that left these abused Americans with no one to turn to after attacks happen.



www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/05/11/democrats-impede-bill-to-aid-peace-corps-rape-victims/

POTD right here.

[lakhota]

Yes, Bush pretty much ignore this tradgedy during both of his terms, including the Halliburton rapes.

Peace Corps Gang Rape: Volunteer Says U.S. Agency Ignored Warnings

In the most brutal attack, Jess Smochek, 29, of Pennsylvania was gang raped in Bangladesh in 2004 by a group of young men after she says Peace Corps officials in the country ignored her pleas to re-locate her.

VIDEO: abcnews.go.com/Blotter/peace-corps-gang-rape-volunteer-jess-smochek-us/story?id=12599341

[Deleted]

Bush has WHAT to do with Dems holding this up??

[lakhota]

Bush Administration Silent On Halliburton Rape Accusations

www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/02/bush-administration-silen_n_79338.html

[lakhota]

Democrats Impede Bill to Aid Peace Corps Rape Victims

The bill is being co-sponsored by Massachusetts Democrat Niki Tsongas but, according to the Times, she is having trouble getting members of her own party to back it. As the Times reports:

They worry that the legislation, and Wednesday’s hearing, might be used to undermine the Peace Corps
— the legacy of a Democratic president —
and cut its funding.

www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/05/11/democrats-impede-bill-to-aid-peace-corps-rape-victims/


BTW, what is the current Republican definition of rape?

[Deleted]

Link said ignored for decades. That would put your buddy Bill Clinton ignoring, too. But, he WAS busy with his own sex issues. It's not Republicans holding this up, it's Dems. Maybe you should ask your Dem POTUS to put in a few words to his people.

[hello fromWarsaw]

All of a sudden , after the worst things happen under Pubs, OF COURSE!!, it's a huge problem and something huge, embarassing, and destructive MUST be done!!!!! Whattajoke. ..how many JOBS produced

[lakhota]

Just who is this Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen?

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (also known as Ileana Ros; born Ileana Ros y Adato July 15, 1952) is the U.S. Representative for Florida's 18th congressional district, serving since 1989. She is a member of the Republican Party. She is chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, effective 2011.

Ros-Lehtinen played a key role in preventing the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2010 from being passed into law. Even though the bill had unanimously passed the Senate with bipartisan support, she persuaded enough Republicans in the House to vote against the bill so that it did not receive the required two-thirds majority.

Ros-Lehtinen has been an ardent supporter of the Church of Scientology. She has been described as "[one] of the church's best friends currently serving in Congress," and was "honored at a 2004 Celebrity Centre gala" with famous Scientologists such as John Travolta and Kelly Preston.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ileana_Ros-Lehtinen

[Deleted]

BTW, what is the current Republican definition of rape?

To some of us it's what Democrats are doing to this country.
Sorry, let me change that because we're pubs.

To some of us it's what crats are doing to this country.
(notice how I just almost the same letters out of Democrats as pubs is out of Republicans.

My guess is that I like being called pubs about as much as Democrats will like being called crats. But I could be wrong.

[marshabar1]

Brilliant, oldtex. Karma in a while. Rats and Pubs. Yep.

[hello fromWarsaw]

Mother Jones:
Sadly, House Democrats don't seem too enthused about supporting the GOP's effort to demand greater support for Peace Corps rape victims. Only one House Democrat, Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.), has co-sponsored Poe's bill to strengthen the Peace Corps' capacity to respond to sexual assault. According to the Times, other Democrats are "skittish" to back the bill out of concern that Republicans could ultimately use the bill to undercut the Peace Corps and cut funding.

That's a poor excuse for failing to support victims of rape and sexual assault who've put their personal safety at risk in the name of public service. Even if the Republicans do try to use this issue as a weapon to undermine support for the Peace Corps, Democrats shouldn't simply assume a defensive crouch at the expense of these women. First Response Action insists that it's trying to reform the Peace Corps, not tear it down. And if House Dems are truly concerned about the political fallout from Poe's Peace Corps bill, they should offer up an alternative measure to support these victims—not run away from the problem.

*Update: Rep. Mike Honda (D-Ca.), one of the few former Peace Corps volunteers in Congress, met with the First Response Action coalition this week and assures Mother Jones that he'll personally work with Poe to protect the victims of rape and sexual assault:

As a returned Peace Corps volunteer, I am deeply committed to doing everything in my congressional powers to ensure the safety, health, and support of every Peace Corps Volunteer. I take the issue of rape and sexual assault very seriously and want to make sure the appropriate tools are in place to address it...I am also cognizant of the need for this legislation to include additional resources for the changes that are required, and I look forward to working with Rep Poe to ensure that happens.
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#18- nice sense of scale and balance

[ugonow]

Maybe when the Peace Corp leaders get thrown out for this,they can get jobs at the Vatican. And I thought the CONventional wisdom on rape is now if there is no rape conviction,there is no rape........