A” tradition of hiding and cover- up” exists on lengthy- standing issues of sexual assault and harassment, which also persists in the , United States Coast Guard,  , U. S.  , Sen.  , Richard Blumenthal , charged on Tuesday.
During a news conference outside the State Capitol in advance of a half- day reading in , Washington , of the , U. S. Senate ‘s , Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Blumenthal said last year’s announced withdrawal of the person in charge of responding to sexual assaults at the , Coast Guard Academy , in , New London, casts another darkness over the military branch and its long association with , Connecticut.
He said that the problems spawned at the university move into the wider , Coast Guard , community, along with” favoritism” and officials who have been slow to make requested documents. Hundreds of pages requested by , Congress , were finally provided on Monday.
Communications officials at the , Coast Guard, which is led by Admiral , Linda Fagan, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday, but Blumenthal’s hearing had scheduled the admiral as the chief witness. He noted that the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations began its ongoing investigation in September of last year, focusing on harassment and assault cases involving Operation Fouled Anchor, which took place between 1990 and 2006. A report was prepared in , January 2020, then suppressed by the , Coast Guard , until last year, he said.
” The , Coast Guard , withheld that report for three years”, Blumenthal said. ” The , Coast Guard , assured us that the problem of sexual assault was a problem of the past, that there would no longer be any concealment and that there would be full cooperation. According to our investigation, sexual assault and harassment are a significant issue right now. That they are persistent and unacceptably prevalent, ongoing within the , Coast Guard, not just at the academy. Our investigation also, very sadly, has shown that the , Coast Guard , is continuing to suffer from a culture of concealment and cover- up”.
He quoted , Shannon Norenberg, the sexual assault coordinator who resigned on Sunday, as saying that higher ups in the service “lied to me, worst than that they used me to lie to victims, used me to silence victims and used me in a coordinated effort to discourage victims of sexual assault at the academy from speaking to , Congress , about their assaults and about the , Coast Guard ‘s , investigation of their cases”.
Blumenthal said that while , U. S. Coast Guard , leaders have said it’s a “new organization”, the facts show that little has changed. He said that “dozens” of , Coast Guard , veterans have come forward in recent months to complain about the branch’s disregard and dismissal of complaints, while allowing retaliation against those who complain.
He said that survivors of assault wanted to post a video on their claims, but it was suppressed by , Coast Guard , leaders.
” They need to stop refusing documents to our subcommittee because they are — quote — sensitive, when in fact by sensitive they simply mean they’re embarrassing”, Blumenthal said. ” I am hoping that the , Coast Guard , will, in fact, abandon this culture of cover- up, but it will require also abandoning the present policy that put cronyism over accountability and silence over the survivors”.
Blumenthal said he wanted to hear the admiral promise to actually establish new honest, transparent policies at the , Coast Guard , and its academy in , New London.
” I’m going to demand that the , Coast Guard , comes clean”, he said, stressing that personnel may have to get changed to advance the cause. ” Those leadership changes must place accountability before cronyism,” they say. They may be hard. They may be embarrassing, but the , Coast Guard , has to do the right thing and the commandant is the one that ultimately has to be responsible”.
A hearing involving several current and former Coast Guard Academy cadets who spoke about how their cases were handled was held by the subcommittee in December. He noted the longtime association between the state of , Connecticut , and the , Coast Guard, including plans for a new , Coast Guard Museum.
” If there is ongoing responsibility people have to be held accountable”, he said, adding that subcommittee requests for documents have been” slow- walked and stonewalled”, culminating in the released of hundreds of documents Monday afternoon, on the eve of the hearing. Initial examination of the new batch of records revealed that many were “duplicative, redundant, and frequently redacted with important information removed.”
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