Wednesday, April 17, 2019

What a great idea -- a task force

The Defense Department has formed another body to study how to get a handle on sex offenses in the armed forces. Stars and StripesCorey Dickstein writes here:
The panel, the Sexual Assault Accountability and Investigation Task Force, or SAAITF, will focus largely on reforms and improvements that can be made to the military judicial process to ensure servicemembers’ confidence in the system, acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan wrote in a March 27 memorandum establishing the panel. The group is charged with providing Shanahan an interim report on its findings by April 30 and is to provide a full report later to the secretary and members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to the memo.

* * *

SAAITF is led by Elizabeth P. Van Winkle, the executive director of the Office of Force Resiliency, and the top military lawyers for each of the Pentagon’s military services, according to the memo. It will also include the director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, high level representatives from the military’s criminal investigative organizations, and an official from the Defense Department’s general counsel office.
Might this be a way to avert, yet again, legislation transferring commanders' disposition power over major offenses to lawyers outside the chain of command?

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