Overnight Defense: Pentagon denies troops told to ignore Afghan sexual abuse

by Rebecca Kheel - 09/21/15 5:57 PM ET

THE TOPLINE: The Pentagon is denying there is a policy telling U.S. service members in Afghanistan to look the other way when their Afghan allies sexually abuse young boys.

“I can just tell you that there is nothing that would preclude any military member from making reports about human rights violations to their chain of command,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters Monday.

On Sunday, the New York Times reported that some U.S. service members have been told by superiors to ignore when their Afghan counterparts engage in a practice called “bacha bazi,” or boy play.

{mosads}The Times report also said former Army Special Forces Capt. Dan Quinn faced disciplinary action after he beat up an Afghan commander who had chained a boy to his bed and that Sgt. First Class Charles Martland, who helped Quinn, is also under pressure to retire.

Also, according to the Times, Marine Maj. Jason Brezler is being discharged for alerting other Marine officers of an Afghan police commander who had a reputation for abusing boys.

The Pentagon, Davis said, has “never had a policy in place that directs any military or any government personnel overseas to ignore human rights abuses.” He did not outline whether there were any policies to handle reporting of human rights abuses.

The Pentagon condemned the practice, but said it was a local Afghan law enforcement matter.

The White House also said it was concerned about the welfare of the boys, but echoed the Pentagon’s sentiment that it was a local or international law enforcement matter.

Meanwhile, Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) wrote a letter to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urging an end to the alleged policy.

IRANIANS INSPECT SITES WITHOUT UN WATCHDOG: Iranian nuclear experts took samples at a military site without the presence of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, which could stoke fears about alleged side deals that allow Iran to take the lead in sampling at the site.

But IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano on Monday dismissed concerns that anything wrong happened.

Reuters reported that a spokesman for Iran’s atomic energy agency told the state-run IRNA news agency they took samples from the Parchin facilities this past week.

“They followed regulations and standards and the samples were given to IAEA’s experts,” Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said.

Iran is believed to have previously conducted tests related to nuclear detonations at the Parchin facility.

American critics of the nuclear deal have said that the Iranian inspections scheme makes it easy for Iran to cheat.

Reps. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) said Monday’s reports confirm that Iran is allowed to self-inspect. The three lawmakers led the charge for the House to rebuke Obama over the bilateral IAEA-Iran deals earlier this month.

They also called for sanctions against Iran to remain in place until the Obama administration provides the text of the alleged side deals to Congress.

IAEA Director General Amano said he visited the Parchin site on Sunday and that “the agency can confirm the integrity of the sampling process and the authenticity of the samples.”

Amano also told reporters that there has been “significant progress” in implementing the deal.

DEMS PRESS KERRY TO HELP RELIGIOUS MINORITIES TARGETED BY ISIS: Senate Democrats are pressing the Obama administration to increase support for religious minorities being targeted by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) sent a letter Monday to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to designate religious minorities, including Yazidis and Christians, as persecuted groups.

That would make them eligible for refugee assistance within Iraq, according to the letter. Kerry can do this, they said, under the Refugee Crisis Act of 2007.

The senators added that although the groups are in Iraq they should receive refugee assistance “because many of them are located within territory occupied by [ISIS], making it very difficult to escape to safety.”

They are also asking Kerry to speed up the department’s processing of refugee claims, including doubling the number of State Department personnel in the country to process Iraqi refugees, and finding a nongovernment group to work with U.S. staff to identify and screen religious minorities.

On Sunday, Kerry said the United States would increase the number of refugees it accepts to 100,000 — compared to the current annual cap of 70,000 — by 2017.

TENSIONS RISE OVER WOMEN IN COMBAT: As the deadline approaches for the military to open all combat jobs to women, a fight is heating up over the Marines’ stance on the issue.

The Marine Corps will reportedly ask that some positions remain available only to men, following a nine-month study that found units with all genders did not perform as well in combat.

The issue is stirring a passionate debate in the military community, pitting the Marine Corps against its own service secretary and creating a bitter divide on the House Armed Services Committee.

Following the release of a summary of the study, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who is the service secretary for the Marine Corps, blasted the study as biased and said he plans to open all jobs to women.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a former Marine and member of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter calling for Mabus’s resignation.

Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), another member of the House Armed Services Committee, backed up Hunter in a letter sent Friday that asked the Pentagon to release the full study on the Marine units.

Meanwhile, female lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee are calling for greater scrutiny of the Marine Corps’ study, questioning whether it was designed to “undermine” then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s 2013 directive integrating women into all combat positions.

“Secretary Mabus’s concern that the Marine Corps study was designed with a predisposed notion that women undermine combat effectiveness is of grave concern to all of us,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said in a written statement Friday.

Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the panel’s military personnel subcommittee, said she has requested and will soon receive a briefing from the Marine Corps on the findings.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) said she has had “a number of briefings” with the Marine Corps, and has expressed to the service the same concerns as Mabus.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

— Pentagon chief endorses ‘Lean In’ circles to promote women in the military

— Republican: Sell drones to Jordan

— 75 US-trained rebels enter Syria

— Obama nominates openly gay man to lead Army

— GOP senator: Accepting more refugees ‘not sound policy’

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