Barack Obama calls meeting on military sex assault

Washington: The top US defence leaders were summoned to the White House on Thursday to talk about the military's escalating sexual assault crisis as the Pentagon's top general said women in uniform were losing confidence the problem will be solved.

President Barack Obama planned to meet on Thursday afternoon with Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the civilian and military leaders of each service, and the military's senior enlisted advisers to discuss the issue, the Pentagon announced.

Allegations of sexual assault in the military have triggered outrage from local commanders to Capitol Hill and the Oval Office. Yet there seem to be few clear solutions beyond improved training and possible adjustments in how the military prosecutes such crimes. Changing the culture of a male-dominated, change-resistant military that for years has tolerated sexism and sexist behaviour is proving to be a challenging task.

"We're losing the confidence of the women who serve that we can solve this problem," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, said Wednesday.

"That's a crisis," Dempsey said in remarks during a flight from Europe to Washington that were reported by the American Forces Press Service, which is the Pentagon's internal news agency. Dempsey suggested that a deepening of the sexual assault problem may be linked to the strains of war.

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"I tasked those around me to help me understand what a decade-plus of conflict may have done to the force," he said. "Instinctively, I knew it had to have some effect."

Dempsey added: "This is not to make excuses. We should be better than this. In fact, we have to be better than this."

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The Pentagon had scheduled a briefing for journalists Thursday with Hagel and Dempsey, but after the White House meeting was announced, they said the Pentagon news conference was being postponed until Friday.

As new sexual assault allegations emerged this week involving an Army soldier who was assigned to prevent such crimes - the second military member facing similar accusations - the Pentagon said Hagel is working on a written directive to spell out steps aimed at resolving the escalating problem.

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But Obama, fuming at a news conference last week, warned that he wanted swift and sure action, not "just more speeches or awareness programs or training." Sexual offenders need to be "prosecuted, stripped of their position, court-martialled, fired, and dishonourably discharged. Period," he said.

"The president has made very clear his expectations on this issue," said Pentagon press secretary George Little, adding that Hagel told Obama on Tuesday about an Army sergeant first class at Fort Hood, Texas, who faces allegations of sexual misconduct. The case involves the soldier's activities with three women, including an allegation that he may have arranged for one of them to have sex for money, according to a defence official.

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Those allegations come on the heels of a Pentagon report last week that estimated that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, based on survey results, out of 1.4 million in the services.

That report, and a recent series of arrests and other sexual assault problems across the military, have triggered a rush of initiatives from the Pentagon and proposed legislation in Congress.

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