Sharing the city of Denver with the Democratic National Convention this week is a gathering of activists, delegates and elected leaders from across the country, sponsored by The Progressive Democrats of America and The Nation. Progressive Central – the Central Presbyterian Church at 1660 Sherman Street – has already been the site of great conversation about progressive issues, with more scheduled over the coming days. Monday saw PDA panel discussions on “Healthcare NOT Warfare”; that afternoon, the “NOT Warfare” discussion featured Ann Wright – retired United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department; and a representative from Iraq Veterans Against the War – talking about the sexual abuse of women soldiers. As regular readers of this site know, Col. Wright has been an invaluable ally of the parents of PFC LaVena Johnson in their fight to have the case of their daughter’s death in Iraq reopened. A video of Col. Wright’s portion of the discussion is available:

Also on the “NOT Warfare” panel were Rep. Lynn Woolsey, Co-chair CPC and PDA Advisory Board member; Norman Solomon, author of Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State; and Kathleen Snyder, Gold Star Mom.

The full schedule of Progressive Central events is available online, and the Progressive Central flyer can be downloaded.

In a July 31 story by Z. Byron Wolf, ABC News notes the murder of pregnant Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach and the wider story of sexual assault against women in the U.S. military. The news report, drawing on testimony given before he Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs – a panel of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee – is titled “Sex Assaults Against Women in Military ‘Epidemic’”:

Mary Lauterbach, the mother of murdered pregnant Marine Maria Lauterbach, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the military must change the way it deals with sexual assault to avoid more tragedies like her own.

“I believe Maria would be alive today if the Marine system had been different,” her mother told a panel of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which held a hearing Thursday on sexual assault and rape in the military.

There were no representatives from the Marines at the hearing, and the head of the Pentagon office tasked with responding to the problem of sexual assault in the military was ordered by her superiors not to testify despite a subpoena from the committee.

The refusal of the Department of Defense to allow subpoenaed witness Dr. Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, has been noted by activist and retired Army Col. Ann Wright writing for Truthdig, by Christy Hardin Smith of Firedoglake, and elsewhere. More from ABC:

Lawmakers could not ask [Whitley] to address the issue of sexual assault and what steps have been taken because Deputy Defense Undersecretary Michael Dominguez had barred Whitley from testifying, despite a Congressional subpoena.

Dominguez told the lawmakers he knew everything about the program and didn’t need Whitley’s input to answer their questions.

Dominguez was given a bipartisan dressing down on this point by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the Oversight Committee. “I don’t know who you think elected you to defy the congress of the United States,” he said.

Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., the ranking member, said he will support Waxman’s pledge to hold Whitley and Dominguez in contempt. They dismissed Dominguez without taking his testimony.

As the family of PFC LaVena Johnson continues to press Congress and the Army to investigate the possibility that LaVena died in connection with a sexual assault, the refusal of the military to address these crimes against women will come in for even greater criticism.

As stated before, it should be noted that the chairman of the subcommittee

In the years since the death of Pfc. LaVena Johnson in Iraq and the beginning of the effort of her family to determine whether, as suspected, LaVena died as a result of sexual assault and murder, the most appalling revelation has been the emerging record of such crimes against women in the armed forces. Helen Benedict’s award-winning article in Salon – “The Private War of Women Soldiers,” the basis of her forthcoming book, The Lonely Soldier – was for many a startling introduction to the story of rising sexual assault in the US military. “Appalling” is indeed the word for the services’ lack of response – or willful disregard – toward the issue. Christy Hardin Smith, a principal blogger at Firedoglake and herself a survivor of rape, excoriates the military in her recent post, “The Pentagon’s Shameful Record on Rape.” Moved to address the issue here by LaVena’s story, she quotes statistics from Rep. Jane Harman:

…Women serving in the US military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.

The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Center, where I met with female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41% of female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while in the military and 29% report being raped during their military service….

Referencing the recent Truthdig article by retired Army Colonel Ann Wright, Smith remarks on the shameful and uncooperative response of the Department of Defense to the hearings on military sexual assault held by the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs (a branch of the House Committee on Government Oversight And Reform) and notes the refusal of the DoD to allow a critical witness to testify:

The Pentagon, openly sneering at Congress, refuses to allow the person in charge of rape programs and investigations to testify before the Oversight Committee. And note that the DOD declined to testify about Ms. Jones case as well when there were hearings. Taking that job seriously, aren’t they? Someone should ask Defense Secretary Robert Gates why the Pentagon is AWOL on this issue.

Smith continues:

In the case of military personnel, a number of these go unreported because there is a perception that reporting a rape can hurt your career path — especially if the rape perpetrator is a superior officer. And only 8 percent of all military rapes that are even reported go to courts martial. 8 percent.

That is quite simply unacceptable. Especially given that rape isn’t inevitable — it is a violent crime. Men and women in the military who have been sexually assaulted — or anyone who has survived it — can put details on the table that would break your heart. But they should not have to do so.

Lavena Johnson — along with any other potential rape or assault victim — deserves to have the crimes committed against her taken seriously. Because you can be certain that while a rape or assault victim is struggling to get away from the rapist, and then struggling to lift their head above the aftermath to survive it — they are taking it very seriously. We should expect no less concern from the Pentagon on these issues. Shame on them.

“The Pentagon’s Shameful Record on Rape” is crucial reading. We are grateful to Smith for her personal courage in telling her story, and relating it to the need to push for a full and open investigation of the circumstances behind LaVena Johnson’s death.