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Rape Victim’s Death Ruled “Suicide” By Army-Where's Waxman?

firedoglake.com — The Jamie Leigh Jones-Halliburton rape case was horrific, but what happened to PFC Lavena Johnson in Iraq in 2005 was many orders of magnitudes worse. The parents of the young Missouri woman were told that she dies of self-inflicted gunshot wounds, and her death was ruled a suicide. But her physician father became suspicious after looking at ...

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  • katiedogg, on 07/28/2008, -4/+26Defense Department says one in three women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military.

    http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/28/856 ...
  • GhostyBoy, on 07/28/2008, -3/+24I'm really starting to become disillusioned with the "few bad apples" mentality.

    I play at a bar in a tourist town and a U.S. aircraft carrier stopped at our harbor. The club was flooded with U.S. soldiers who harassed the female patrons and groped them on the dance floor and were incredibly rude to the staff.

    A Canadian soldier told me about his Afghanistan tour and he described the American soldiers he was stationed with as "complete psychos".

    Seriously, man. I hear a lot of people saying "support the troops", but I see those troops engaging in actions that I cannot possibly support. How much rape, torture, civilian murders and throwing puppies of cliffs does there have to be before you assume that the good soldiers are the exception and not the rule?
  • thadudesbro, on 07/29/2008, -2/+16Disgusting. At what point are the crimes of the US worse then the crimes that we supposedly went in there to stop?
  • MiaCulpa, on 07/28/2008, -4/+17When you do your recruiting at jails...

    The cover-ups have to be stopped. I shudder to think of the young women who may be considering military for a career assuming they will be 'safe.'
  • nickspm, on 07/29/2008, -3/+16It's pretty depressing to realize one lives in the Fourth Reich.
  • Hortnon, on 07/28/2008, -3/+12What you don't hear about is that as soon as these soldiers' superiors find out about their behavior, it's immediately corrected or they're kicked out.

    Besides that, I know of no soldier that would act like that, and I work with hundreds in any given week. The problem is that we're each naming from personal experience, rather than hard facts. And of course, the ***** will always stick in the mind much more prominently than the soldiers that don't do anything bad.

    And of course, you're commenting incorrectly. They're blaming the contractors in this story, not the soldiers.
  • smellytim, on 07/29/2008, -0/+8this is awful. this needs to make the front page to get some more attention.
  • Shellius, on 07/29/2008, -6/+14Men are taught to kill and disrespect life when they join the military -- this is tragic, but how is this surprising?
  • Vinceres, on 07/30/2008, -0/+6Goddamn.

    Get this to the ***** front page, please!
  • taureandevi, on 07/29/2008, -0/+6There is a hearing scheduled for Thursday see here: http://whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com/2008/07/ ...
    Read. Call. and Get some Justice.

    My Care2 Petition is fast approaching it's goal of 3000 signatures and ColorofChange.org has picked up the torch.

    Do something with your outrage!

    http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/63020692 ...

    http://www.colorofchange.org/lavena
  • Eezyville, on 07/29/2008, -0/+6I feel bad for the father to have to go through pictures of his dead daughter's body to find this type of evidence. But it must also be soothing somewhat to know that she didn't kill herself.
  • mjrosenberg, on 07/30/2008, -0/+6pouring hot liquid substances on her genitals to remove DNA evidence....

    there is no excuse.
  • Art4Peace, on 08/03/2008, -0/+4WHY have I not seen ANYTHING about this outrageous murder ANYWHERE in the news???? This happened over THREE YEARS AGO for God's sake!!!!!! We know more about Brittney Spear's child custody hearings than we do about our own military personnel being raped, murdered, and set on fire!!!!!!!
  • inactive, on 07/29/2008, -3/+7both of you need to learn some more history
  • tammanycall, on 07/29/2008, -2/+6Last night's news reported that the U.S. military is again lowering its recruiting standards and accepting more ex-convicts in an effort to get more "boots on the ground". The suits don't realize that recruiting these criminals forces our soldiers to protect themselves from two enemies: the one on the battlefield and the one in the barracks. PFC Johnson's story is horrifying, and the military brass' instinct to cover up the murder is not only disgusting, it dishonors her service to her country. I cannot imagine any young woman hearing of this would be inspired to serve, or even assured, were she already enlisted, that her life meant anything beyond its usefulness in this country's neverending greed for oil.
  • WiseWeasel, on 07/29/2008, -0/+3They were known for raping and murdering *Jewish* German women, yes, along with gypsies and homosexuals (though I'm not sure how many of those arrested for homosexuality were women). Once you can divide people by exaggerating some arbitrary difference, perhaps race in this case given that the victim was a black woman, history is littered with the gruesome results as civility flies out the window. The Nazis were one of the most glaring examples of this, and have left a permanent stain on their national reputation, especially throughout the European countries that bore the brunt of their barbarism, and where significant portions of the populations were shamefully complicit in systematic Nazi brutality.
  • jodimcmullen, on 07/29/2008, -0/+3I just signed it, number 2367. This has to stop, if they hold those responsible for the behavior of their troops accountable it will stop.
  • gmuslera, on 07/30/2008, -0/+3They need to read http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCoro ... for more "suicide" excuses. They wont get more credibility, but at least one will have the doubt of if most are retard or just a lot covering each other backs.
  • kazz67, on 07/30/2008, -1/+3"The suits don't realize that recruiting these criminals forces our soldiers to protect themselves from two enemies: the one on the battlefield and the one in the barracks."

    I beg to differ. I think they realise EXACTLY what they're doing! Other than that small point, I agree entirely with the sentiment of your post.
  • inactive, on 07/29/2008, -3/+5"Skip the thought-process, just perform that tiniest of actions: pulling a trigger."

    ***** if that were the case, the Iraq war would have been over years ago. We would have just carpet bombed them and not bothered to send in a single ground unit.

    Thanks for your over-dramatization.
  • Hetman, on 07/29/2008, -1/+3I do not know how accurate of an account the book generation kill is. But if it is half as bad as Evan Wright's book generation kills say it is, I am defiantly worried about our soldiers. It is frightening. I really want to watch the miniseries but I do not have HBO unfortunately. I have not finished the book yet so I want to wait until after that also. But if the mentality of the characters in the book are the same as real life soldiers, it is a wonder that there are not more rapes than that.
  • Shellius, on 09/20/2008, -0/+1Spread this story... this woman was murdered by a CONTRACTOR in Iraq. then the military lied to her family and told them it was suicide. This is a crime from start to finish. What the hell is going on in our military???
  • Hangly, on 07/29/2008, -5/+6Were Nazis known for raping German women?

    Bury me if you like. The Nazis were murdering racist ***** but there were some things even they wouldn't stoop to.
  • Hangly, on 07/30/2008, -2/+3I'm aware of the Nazi atrocities against minorities. This is a case of our soldiers raping people in their own military, which I'm fairly certain the Nazis never did.

    This woman was black, but there are plenty of accounts of white women from the midwest who were also raped by members of their own units in Iraq.

    Perhaps this is hair-splitting, but my perception of the Nazis is as a group that was ruthless, but orderly.
  • Hangly, on 07/29/2008, -2/+2I know plenty of history. Be specific please.
  • inactive, on 07/29/2008, -3/+3Did I say that? Nope, just demonstrating what would have taken place if the military was as simplistic in its approach as you seem to feel it is.

    Jesus, you even fail at trolling.
  • Rotzooi, on 07/29/2008, -3/+1Indeed, we should have just annihilated those camel ***** eh? Time for your FoxNews medicine to keep you scared, PolishLogic. You sad little man.
  • Rotzooi, on 07/29/2008, -5/+3Don't know why you're getting dugg down. Military training is in large part nothing more than desensitizing and conditioning. When you see someone that's not American, shoot *IT*. Skip the thought-process, just perform that tiniest of actions: pulling a trigger.

    While disturbing when it spills over to civilian life, it's not tragic per se, because it's the only way to have a functioning soldier. What is tragic, is how bad the military is at re-conditioning their 'spent' soldiers, when they are returned to society. They use our men and women until they want to kill themselves from PTSD and then let them mingle...

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