Brig. Gen. Bryan Roberts is facing accusations of adultery and engaging in a physical altercation with a woman that is not his wife. The 29-year veteran was the top general at Fort Jackson, S.C., where he took command in April 2012. He previously served as head of a unit training Iraqi soldiers. Roberts has been suspended pending an investigation into the allegations against him.The Army made the announcement of Roberts’ suspension on Tuesday, but did not provide further details regarding the assault and adultery allegations.“It was not clear whom Brig. Gen Bryan Roberts struck,” USA TODAY reported, indicating that the general may have physically harmed the woman with whom he had an altercation. NBC News reports that the altercation involved Roberts and the woman he allegedly cheated on his wife with, and that the two were involved in a violent argument. After making up, Roberts allegedly bit the woman’s lip, which caused her to seek medical help, a US military official told the news agency.Brig. Gen. Peggy Combs, Commandant of the US Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, will take over as interim commander while the investigation is ongoing.The U.S. Army’s Command and Staff page on Tuesday showed a vacant spot under the position of “Commanding General”.The suspension is the latest sex scandal involving a senior military officer. In recent months, the Pentagon has come under enormous pressure to address the number of military sexual assault allegations.Earlier this month, Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, was arrested for drunkenly groping a woman. Krusinski was in charge of sexual abuse prevention, which made the case more disgraceful than most.Sgt. 1st Class Gregory McQueen, the US military soldier responsible for overseeing sexual assault prevention at Ford Hood is also under investigation for sexual assault. The man is facing allegations including the maltreatment of subordinates and running a prostitution ring.Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Darin Haas, the manager of Fort Campbell’s sexual harassment prevention office, was fired from his post and arrested on charges of violating an order of protection, and stalking his ex-wife.Although the details of Roberts’ allegations remain unclear and it is not known whether the ‘assault’ was a sexual assault, his misconduct serves as further embarrassment to the Pentagon during a month filled with news of sex scandals and shocking statistics.Pentagon officials recently announced that sexual assault incidents have increased by 35 percent from 2010 to 2012, bringing the annual total to 26,000 last year. The Department of Veteran Affairs also found that 85,000 US veterans received medical treatment for sex abuse trauma last year, which indicates that the effects of assault have far-reaching consequences, both financially and emotionally. … Read More
‘Counterproductive’: UN General Assembly votes to condemn Assad’s forces in Syria war
The 193-member world body voted on Wednesday to pass the Qatari-drafted resolution condemning Syrian government forces and the “gross violation” of human rights in the country.The final vote tally: 107 in favor, 12 against and 59 abstentions. Russia, China, Syria, Iran and North Korea were among 12 countries to oppose the resolution, while South Africa, India and Brazil were among the dozens who abstained.The draft resolution further welcomes the establishment of the Syrian National Coalition “as effective representative interlocutors needed for a political transition.”The document noted “the wide international acknowledgment” that the main opposition group is the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding and therefore cannot be enforced. The last Arab-sponsored General Assembly resolution regarding Syria was approved by an vote of 133-12 with 31 abstentions last August. UN diplomats said the decline in support for Wednesday’s resolution showed growing concern about the nature of Syria’s fractured opposition fighting against the president of Bashar Assad.Speaking before the vote, Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’Afari said it was contradictory for the resolution to be tabled under the Assembly’s agenda item on “prevention of armed conflict.” Ja’Afari argued that the resolution would in fact escalate violence by legitimizing the provision of weapons to “terrorists” in Syria and “by recognizing one faction of the opposition as the Syrian people’s legitimate representative.” He further said Al-Qaida-linked terrorists who had committed “unprecedented savage crimes and human rights violations” were operating in Syria thanks to the “involvement of intelligence agencies of well-known States.” He concluded that Syria was in favor of “Syrian-led national dialogue” which would adhere to the will of “the great majority of the Syrian people.”Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin had sent letters in the run-up to the vote urging all member states to vote “no” on the new resolution. He called it “one-sided and biased” as well as “counterproductive” in light of the agreement reached between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Moscow last week to convene a follow-up international peace conference on a political transition in Syria.The Arab group decided to seek approval of a wide-ranging resolution on Syria in the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, to express “international outrage” at the more than 2-year conflict which has claimed the lives of more than 70,000 people.The draft strongly condemns what it characterized as the continued escalation in the Syrian regime’s use of heavy weapons, including indiscriminate shelling from tanks and aircraft, as well as the use of ballistic missiles, cluster munitions and other weapons against populated areas.It further expressed “grave concern at the threat by the Syrian authorities to use chemical or biological weapons, as well as at allegations of reported use of such weapons,” demanding that Syria “strictly observe” international laws prohibiting the use of such weapons.While the draft resolution put the onus of chemical weapon’s use on Damascus, the United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria said earlier this month that no evidence had been uncovered implicating the Syrian government in a chemical weapon attack.In an interview to Swiss-Italian television, the lead commission member Carla Del Ponte revealed that the “investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated.”However, rather than government forces, Del Ponte concluded: “This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities.” … Read More
Midlife suicides on rise in baby boomer population: Chronic illness and depression plague America
They are supposed to be in the “Golden Years” of their lives, but sadly, for an increasing number of baby boomers, chronic illness capped with depression have led many to suicide. … Read More
Female senators grill military brass over arrest of sexual assault prevention officer
Female senators lashed out at top military brass on Tuesday following a damning Pentagon report on sexual assault and the arrest of U.S. Air Force sex abuse prevention officer. At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Claire McCaskill…
Pentagon releases terrifying statistics of sexual assaults in the military
The full results of the survey will not be unveiled until later this week, but the Pentagon has already disclosed one particularly startling statistic: within the ranks of the military, the number of service members who say they’ve been sexually assaulted during the last year amounts to roughly 26,000.By comparison, 19,300 service members answered similarly in a 2010 study, suggesting the number of attacks has increased by one- third in just two years’ time.”Sexual assault is a persistent problem and there is more work to be done,” the Pentagon acknowledged in a statement obtained by USA Today.Members of both Congress and the President Barack Obama White House responded already this week with outrage over the alarming trend. Lawmakers from the left and right have expressed their disappointment in the findings, and only hours after the results were published Pres. Obama spoke of the issue during a conversation with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.”I’ve directly spoken to Secretary Hagel already today and indicated to him that we not only have to step up our game but exponentially go after it,” Obama said during a Tuesday presser.One day earlier, Hagel called Air Force Secretary Michael Donley to voice his dismay over another report that has ravaged the Pentagon’s reputation as of late: over the weekend, Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski of the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office was arrested for allegedly groping a woman in a suburban Washington, DC parking lot. According to a spokesperson with the Pentagon, Hagel called Donley on Monday to “express outrage and disgust,” and insisted the matter be dealt with “swiftly and decisively.””The American people, including our service members, should expect a culture of absolutely no tolerance for this deplorable behavior that violates not only the law, but basic principles of respect, honor, and dignity in our society and its military,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said Tuesday. “Secretary Hagel is firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of behavior in America’s armed forces and will take action to see this through.”So far this week, though, Hagel has had to weigh in twice in regards to the Pentagon’s snowballing sexual abuse problem. Following the release of the shocking numbers determined in this week’s Defense Department study, Hagel issued a new statement to declare “Sexual assault is a crime that is incompatible with military service and has no place in this department.”“It is an affront to the American values we defend, and it is a stain on our honor,” added Hagel. “DoD needs to be a national leader in combating sexual assault and we will establish an environment of dignity and respect, where sexual assault is not tolerated, condoned or ignored.”Commenting on the accusations that Lt. Col. Krusinski drunkenly groped a woman in Northern Virginia over the weekend, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said, “This arrest speaks volumes about the status and effectiveness of the Department of Defense’s efforts to address the plague of sexual assaults in the military.”The Pentagon has determined that the rate of female victims victimized in sexual assaults went from roughly 1-in-26 to 1-in-16 between the 2010 study and the most recent report. The actual number of incidents could be far greater, though, as other studies have suggested that accurate data in terms of Defense Department rapes is hard to get a hold of. Although 26,000 service members say they were sexually assaulted in 2012, the Pentagon officially counted only 3,374 formal allegations. … Read More
Air Force brochure for rape victims: ‘It may be advisable to submit’
A sexual assault “prevention and response” brochure issued by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) advises victims to consider submitting to their attack, Wired magazine reported on Tuesday. “It may be advisable to submit than to resist,” the guide (PDF) said in a section labeled,…
‘Worse than AIDS’ – sex ‘superbug’ discovered in Japan called disaster in waiting
“This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly,” Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, told CNBC.The new strain of gonorrhea, H041, was first discovered in 2009 after a sex worker fell victim to the superbug in Japan. Medical officials reported that the medication-resilient ‘sex superbug’ was discovered in Hawaii in May 2011, and has since spread to California and Norway, the International Business Times reports.Nearly 30 million people die from AIDS-related causes each year, and the H041 superbug could have similar consequences, according to Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine.”Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days,” Christianson said. “This is very dangerous.”The gonorrhea strain has not yet claimed any lives, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have asked Congress for $54 million to find an antibiotic to treat the strain.In a Capitol Hill briefing last week, health officials said an education and public awareness campaign is crucial in minimizing the effective of HO41. William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition for STD Directors, said that if the ‘sex superbug’ spreads, it could quickly kill many people before a treatment is discovered. And that risk becomes increasingly more likely if Congress does not provide the funds to find a cure, he said.”It’s an emergency situation. As time moves on, it’s getting more hazardous,” he told members of Congress.”We have to keep beating the drum on this,” he added. “The potential for disaster is great.”In the United States, there are 20 million new STD infections each year, which results in about $16 billion in medical costs, the CDC reports. More than 800,000 of these cases gonorrhea infections, most of which occur in young people ages 15 to 24. Gonorrhea is sometimes difficult to detect, since it shows no symptoms in about half of all women. Those who fall ill to the deadly strain may not notice it until it’s too late.“That’s what’s kind of scary about this,” Smith said.Although health officials have widely reported that cases of H041 were discovered in California, Hawaii and Norway, the CDC has disputed those claims and told CNBC on Monday that the infection has not been confirmed anywhere outside of Japan. The CDC did, however, make an announcement in 2011 that it was noticing greater gonorrhea bacterial resistance to certain types of antibiotics in Hawaii and California. CDC officials said that the US and Norwegian cases were treated effectively with antibiotics not routinely recommended and that these cases were mistakenly identified as H041. But the agency continues to urge Congress for research funding, indicating that the risk of infection is high regardless of where the cases occurred.Christianson is urging people to practice safe sex and get STD tests if they are in a new relationship, since a superbug infection could be around the corner.”This is a disaster just waiting to happen,” he told CNBC. “It’s time to do something about it before it explodes. These superbugs, including the gonorrhea strain, are a health threat. We need to move now before it gets out of hand.” … Read More
