US Marines face NT (Australia) sex assault claims

[DuctapeFatwa]

Northern Territory police are interviewing three United States marines after two alleged sexual assaults in Darwin overnight.
The servicemen are on leave from duties in the Persian Gulf.

The US servicemen are alleged to have sexually assaulted two sisters in an inner city apartment.Police say the women had earlier left a city nightclub in a taxi with the marines and gone back to their rooms.

However a friend became concerned for the sisters and alerted US shore patrol members who were at the nightclub. The women were later found in a semi-conscious state in the men's apartment.

The men are among 4,500 visiting US servicemen currently on shore leave in Darwin. The US Navy says it is disappointed by the allegations and hopes they do not have a negative impact on the Navy's relationship with Darwin residents.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1040119.htm

[kalian]

1. Just wait until these "nice little xtian soldiers" come back home....

:eyes:

[Laughing Mirror]

2. Three marines again, different decade

Remember this?

U.S. servicemen convicted in Okinawa rape
Sentences lighter than expected
March 7, 1996
Web posted at: 12:45 a.m. EST (0545 GMT)

NAHA, Okinawa (CNN) -- Three U.S. servicemen were convicted Thursday in the kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa girl and sentenced to up to seven years in a Japanese prison.

The verdict handed down by a panel of three judges -- Japan does not have a jury system -- followed months of protests against the U.S. military presence in Okinawa. In the aftermath of the crime, support for American troops in Japan has reached one of its lowest points since World War II.

The sentence was lighter than expected; prosecutors had urged the judges to return 10-year sentences against all three, arguing that the girl was kidnapped, beaten, brutally raped, and then abandoned.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9603/okinawa_rape/

[foreigncorrespondent]

5. It happened...

...during WWII as well.

I am too tired to go searching around for articles and stuff about it, but there were a lot of reported cases during the second world war.

[oscarmitre]

3. To be fair take out the reference to US military personnel

and this story would be just another footnote.

I am not trivialising the allegations. They are serious and any convicted offenders need to be dealt with. But if the headline read: "Tennant Creek (town in the Northern Territory) miners face sex assault claims " would it be here?

I worked as a cop in a town in Australia that had nearby a major US military facility during the Vietnam War years. We had a couple of cases of this sort of behaviour. They were swiftly dealt with by the civil Australian authorities with the utmost cooperation from the US military. No obstruction, no cover-ups, just professional cooperation.

[Flagg]

4. winning more hearts and minds all over the world...

[foreigncorrespondent]

6. Flagg...

...don't worry, so much. People out side of your borders know who is to blame for everything that has been happening. And us Aussies realize that these men are U.S. military personel and it doesn't affect our out look on Americans at all.

Sapphocrat was worrying as well, when she came down here last year. So much so that every time we would check into a motel she would apologise for everything her country has been doing. The reception she received was, basically not to worry, that Bush* is an arrogant prick and he and his band of thugs are entirely to blame. :)

[Sapphocrat]

8. So much so...

...that 99% of all Aussies I met (and as soon as they knew I was a Yank, it seemed everybody wanted to talk politics) didn't just "forgive" me for hailing from Shrub Country, but immediately opined what a prick John Howard is. LOL

[Sapphocrat]

7. Like, deja-World War II!

fc! What was it the Aussies used to say about American G.I.'s in Oz during WWII? "Over here, and over-" what?

[stanwyck]

9. My son is a Marine and was in Darwin

in December. This story sickens me. Sexual assault is an ugly crime which should be vigorously prosecuted. Please remember, though, that this is not indicative behavior of Marines. These men, if guilty, are criminals. That should be their label. Not Marine.