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One month after her case was referred to a Special Court Martial, 22-year-old Army Spec. Suzanne Swift was prepared to strike a plea bargain with military authorities.
According to Swift's mother, Sara Rich, in early November the Army offered Swift an honorable discharge in exchange for an additional 19 months of active-duty service.
Rich says her daughter was on the verge of agreeing to the deal in order to avoid a trial, but balked when the Army asked her to sign a statement claiming she was never sexually harassed. The military now has set a tentative date of Jan. 8 for a special type of court martial that, among other things, restricts punishment to 12 months.
Swift is in trouble with the military for refusing a second deployment to Iraq six months ago. The reason, she claims, is that she was sexually harassed by her superiors while in Iraq and she couldn't stand the thought of going through it again. She is charged with being absent without leave and missing movement.
Swift was arrested last June at her mother's home in Eugene, Ore., after being AWOL from her unit for six months. Swift alleges that she experienced ongoing sexual harassment--such as solicitations for sex and constant sexual banter from her superiors--and was coerced into a sexual relationship with her squad leader. A therapist later diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the experience after she went AWOL.
16 hours ago (11:40 PM)
Excellent timing for a scandal, at least I give him that. So much cr@p going around nobody seems to care about this.
14 hours ago (1:20 AM)
Maybe if your in the sixth grade that is funny.
Were your parents by chance cousins?
Now that’s funny!
2 hours ago (1:18 PM)
Had to put in "clumsily"? Had he done it with aplomb, that would have been ok?
16 hours ago (11:50 PM)
We Oregonians have watched this man’s self-destruction for some time now, and action should have been taken long before this. This isn’t the first time he’s engaged in such behavior, and it’s been evident for awhile that he’s completely lost it.
Sending pictures of himself in a tiger suit to a staffer may be amusing, but a 56 yr old man clumsily forcing himself on a friend’s teenage daughter is disturbing, disgusting, and inexcusable. Get him out now.
16 hours ago (11:51 PM)
‘Another one bits the dust…"
12 hours ago (3:06 AM)
And since he is over 50 and has served for 12 years, you will get to pay him for the rest of his life under the world’s most generous unfunded pension plan that Congress voted for themselves.
3 hours ago (12:52 PM)
If you can say that, you are either a pathological liar or have your head in the sand. Sex scandals and conservatives? A dime a dozen.
12 hours ago (3:04 AM)
Yeah, because conservatives *never *cough, cough have scandals do they?
15 hours ago (1:00 AM)
If he was smart he’d be a conservative. He’s a dem, this sort of stuff is inevitable.
14 hours ago (1:02 AM)
I think he has had multiple mental problems for the past year or so…and I think he will resign or be resigned! But I think judgement should be withhold on his "stuff" until all of that is discovered. He really was bizarre last winter.
15 hours ago (12:31 AM)
If he was smart, at 56 years old he wouldn’t be clumsily forcing himself on the teenage daughter of a friend.
16 hours ago (11:54 PM)
If he’s smart, he’ll simply resign.
16 hours ago (11:55 PM)
Party Poopers.
14 hours ago (1:20 AM)
Yo momma special on the little yellow bus.
14 hours ago (1:16 AM)
Yes, Rangel did nothing wrong either.
14 hours ago (1:01 AM)
They don’t want to hear that…they would rather feel like permanent "victims" because they don’t see themselves as ‘special’ too. tut tut
15 hours ago (12:59 AM)
A lefty telling somebody not to bring up the race thing. Now I’ve heard it all…..
15 hours ago (12:33 AM)
Accusations against Rep Maxine Waters were found to be untrue, and she was exonerated. .So please don’t try the race chit in here.
14 hours ago (1:39 AM)
Weiner destroyed his own career by attempting to shift blame and lying about his actions.He continued the story and provided incentive for news agencies to determine what actually happened. Doing that made him look like a fool. As did later claims around him that he would remain in politics mostly for the money.
14 hours ago (1:22 AM)
Crime leads to rehab? Should the court so decide.
15 hours ago (1:00 AM)
There will probably be a legal home town investigation too.
14 hours ago (1:47 AM)
What damage to the Democratic party? If we could just get the hell out of people’s bedrooms, we might find that there are more important issues for us to face as a nation. But, here we are again with the same childish BS. I’m not passing judgement on anyone. All of this is just plain ridiculous. Private or public, people are doing things they don’t want people to know about. BTW, how’s your sex life?
Pretty personal question, isn’t it? Is it any of my business? HELL NO.
15 hours ago (12:57 AM)
You’ve got it all wrong.
Weiner is a progressive, liberal Democrat whose private behavior managed to do very considerable damage to his own progressive, liberal Democratic political agenda. And to the party he belongs to. And, inevitably, to the interests of the folks back home who elected him.
Weiner needed to resign NOT because he did something criminal. He needed to resign because his private behavior did such damage to himself, and clearly threatened to do ongoing damage to the Democratic party.
The need to resign is not always predicated on something so simple as whether an act was criminal or not.
15 hours ago (12:03 AM)
If the allegations are true that Wu had unwanted sexual encounters with the woman in question, then he committed a criminal offense and should be put in rehab. What Weiner did, however, was not criminal, and he should not have resigned.
15 hours ago (12:07 AM)
Oh, how horrible. A disobedient Democrat. Heads will roll…
15 hours ago (12:11 AM)
Such Wu-ful behavior from a representative.
*insert rimshot*
15 hours ago (12:12 AM)
"Just turn your pretty head and walk away…", The James Gang http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_GZIaghqV0
Strange how this political solution is allowed for our privileged class, when the majority of citizens would at this moment find themselves behind bars awaiting arraignment.
14 hours ago (1:26 AM)
Why wait? Recall him.
15 hours ago (12:14 AM)
This dude is my representative. I wish he would resign. He’s a joke and a lame duck from his previous scandal. I sincerely hope he isn’t planning on running again cause I will not be voting for him in the primary. There’s a couple contenders already lining up for the Democratic nomination.