The Silent Truth - LaVena Johnson Documentary Released

Film was shown in special screening this month in St. Louis. No word on national distribution. Read more from the Huffington Post.

 

Trailer


More video about rape in the military. This is more common than the general public knows.

There have been numerous mysterious deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan (and elsewhere) over the past few years. Too many to list...but one of the latest cases is Spc. Morganne M. McBeth. It is unclear what the exact cause of death was in her case...or what the circumstances were. Her case appears, on its face, to be similar to the Johnson case. McBeth's death was originally called an "accident". However, it is now being investigated as a homicide. You aren't going to hear much about these cases on the national news. But the cases reached epidemic levels over the past few years. The media silence is frustrating because the Johnson case dwarfs the Pat Tillman case, which received tons of coverage from the national media.... perhaps because of the way that war loving Republicans pumped him up so that they could use him as a political prop. That was indeed shameful. The "friendly fire" death in of itself was not actually a scandal.... it was the cover-up that followed. To me, the Tillman case was more about politics. There was never evidence of a serious crime (other than the Bush Administration sending U.S. troops to fight without enough backup or the equipment they needed in Afghanistan...and the fact that the mission was probably one that could never be achieved). The Johnson case, on the other hand, is a different story. Here you have signs of a cover-up to gloss over serious crimes - murder and possibly rape. But the national media has given Kim Kardashian, Mel Gibson, (pick a celebrity).... and other idiotic stories hours of valuable news coverage (it's no wonder that so many people in this Country are stupid). Yet the Johnson case has garnered almost nothing besides a couple of 1 minute blurbs in the past 5 years.

Related

Hear a discussion from Amy Goodman's Democracy Now about assaults against women in the military.