- We welcome everyone here to this afternoon's
Military Personnel Subcommittee Hearing.
The purpose of today's hearing is to receive an overview
of the military services existing social media policy
and to learn what changes are being considered
to strengthen, disseminate and enforce these policies
in the light of recent reports
of extremely disturbing online behavior.
The rapid emergence of social media
is one of the dominant means of communication
over the past few years has resulted in many positive
and negative consequences.
While social media has proven to be an effective
and efficient means of instantly disseminating
important information and views to millions of people,
it can also serve as an all too effective platform
for bullying and harassment.
Although social media has the power to connect,
service members and veterans seeking support,
these same tools can be used to demean
and psychologically harm fellow service members.
While these issues are not limited to the military,
and in fact are rampant throughout civilian society,
social media harassment, in a military setting,
can be particularly damaging because of its
on-service member morale in good order,
because of its effect on service member morale
in good order and discipline.
In short, these actions can erode our military readiness.
In recognition of these challenges, I am aware
that each of the military services has a social media policy
designed to govern service members' conduct
when using social media.
However, it is clear from recent cases
that these policies have not been effective
and must be strengthened in order to prevent
the abhorrent behavior recently reported
in conjunction with the United States,
with the Marines United case.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today
about the military services' current social media policy
and how these policies are communicated
and trained to the force.
I'm also interested to hear what improvements
each of the services are considering
in the light of the recent cases,
and how the services will ensure
that every service member receives effective training
on appropriate online behavior and by standard intervention.
Finally, I would like to know what resources are available
for victims of online harassment including legal
and behavioral health assistance.
Before I introduce our panel,
let me offer the Ranking Member, Ms. Speier
an opportunity to make her opening remarks.
- Mr. Chairman, thank you.
I have to say I'm disappointed in the topic of this hearing.
Framing the issue as military social media policies,
frankly, misses the point.
No one has ever gone on Facebook,
looked at non-consensually posted intimate photos,
typed a rape threat and then stopped and said,
"Oh, I better not make rape threats.
"That's against the military social media policy."
All of these services have had social media policies
that state it is against good order and discipline
to make disrespectful and derogatory posts.
But here we are, exactly where we were four years ago,
when I stood on the House floor and condemned
the online bullying of US Marine Corps servicewomen
on a public Facebook page.
At the time, General Amos, who was then
the commandant of the marines, responded by stating,
"We share your indignation."
Then proceeded, in his letter, to address the online abuse
of female marines as an IT issue.
Colleagues, it's time to get serious about this.
General Neller told us just last week that,
"This is not a social media problem,
"but we have a cultural problem."
So it's appalling that the committee is treating it as such
in this hearing.
And it's appalling that we are not hearing
from any service members or veterans
who have been victimized by non-consensual pornography.
If this was just about inappropriate social media use,
well, I don't wanna have to be the one
to have to tell Congress or military leadership about this
that it's not hard to find pornography on the internet.
There's no adherent need to seek out photos
of one's colleagues to make (mumbles) Facebook post
whether or not they are against
official social media policy.
Now this is about service members deliberately trying
to degrade, humiliate and threaten fellow service members.
They encourage stalking, distributed stolen intimate photos,
and have reduced their comrades
to a collection of body parts.
This cultural rot, which has clearly regressed
even before since 2013,
harms our troops and our readiness.
It is abundantly clear that this is not a few bad actors,
but rather a cancer that has continued to spread and thrive
in both the enlisted ranks and the officer core.
The collateral damage has been the countless women and men
who have answered the call to serve their country
and have been betrayed.
I had requested a hearing with the service chiefs
to discuss these issues, but here we are
talking about IT again, without a single survivor
of non-consensual pornography giving testimony.
So today, let's have a discussion about the culture
of the military and how to enforce these policies
and address inappropriate and illegal behavior
on social media.
The services bring in almost 200,000 new enlistees
every year that come from a wide variety of backgrounds.
Increasingly, those recruits are female.
For example, more than 25% of new Navy recruits are women.
Female service members are not going away.
They're here to stay.
They have every right to serve their country,
they have every right to have the opportunity,
to have an experience in the military
that gives them benefits and the opportunity
to extend their education.
As General Neller said last week, "The reality is that
"we can't go to war without women anymore."
So we need to deal with this.
What I would like to learn from each of our witnesses today
is how do you embed your policies
into every day training in military life?
If it's not engrained into daily life
in operations of the military,
then I believe it's not taken seriously.
And, how do you assess and adopt those policies
when it's clear they're not working?
More importantly, how do you reinforce
that the type of behavior we have seen recently is not okay?
Do you need to reevaluate how you are educating the force?
And what can Congress do to help?
We don't need to talk about social media policies,
we need to talk about how to end this hatred and misogyny.
Thank you and I look forward to your testimony.
- Thank you, Ms. Speier.
I ask a unanimous consent that non-subcommittee members
be allowed to abstain today's hearing
after all subcommittee members have had an opportunity
to ask questions.
Is there an objection?
Seeing none, so ordered.
Without objection, non-subcommittee members
will be recognized at the appropriate time for five minutes.
We are joined today by an outstanding panel.
We will give each witness the opportunity
to present his or her testimony,
and each member an opportunity
to question the witnesses for five minutes.
We would also respectfully remind the witnesses
to summarize, to the greatest extent possible,
the high points of your written testimony
in five minutes or less.
Your written comments and statements
will be made part of the hearing record.
Let me welcome our panel.
Mr. Anthony Kurta of Performing the Duties
of Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness;
Lieutenant General Mark Brilakis, Deputy Commandant
of Manpower and Reserve Affairs;
Lieutenant General Gina Grosso, Deputy Chief of Staff
for Manpower, Personnel and Services,
United States Air Force;
Vice Admiral William Burke, Chief of Naval Personnel;
and Major General Jason Evans, Director
of Military Personnel Management, United States Army.
Okay, with that, Mr. Kurta,
you may make your opening statement.
- Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Speier,
distinguished members of the Subcommittee,
thank you for inviting me to testify today
regarding DoD policies addressing sexual harassment,
hazing, and bullying by Service members
through the use of electronic communications,
to include, online social media sites.
The Department is committing to providing,
and promoting an environment where all Service members
are treated with dignity and respect.
We are focused on eradicating behaviors that undermine
military readiness, including unlawful discrimination,
and harassment.
Such misconduct is fundamentally at odds
with our core values in the expectations
of the American people.
These behaviors jeopardize our military mission,
weaken trust within our ranks, and erode unit cohesion.
The US military is an institution held in high regard
by the American people, mostly because we embody
high standards and values.
However, we are not a perfect institution.
Overwhelmingly, the vast majority of our brave men and women
serving in uniform do so honorably and bravely.
When these men and women volunteer to serve in our military,
they do so knowing the risks involved.
However, bullying and sexual harassment, cyber or otherwise,
by fellow service members
should never be one of those risks.
We do our best to uphold our standards and values
across the world, every minute of every day.
On occasion, Service members fail to meet these standards;
when that happens, we endeavor to the best of our ability,
to hold each and every one accountable for their actions.
I can tell you that the Secretary of Defense is investing
a significant amount of his personal time to this issue,
providing his vision and direction
directly to the Service Secretaries
and the Department's most senior uniformed leaders
and listening to those most involved in setting
and upholding our standards and our values.
The Secretary believes that our most successful
and ready warfighting units
are those with the best discipline.
On the battlefield, you must have full trust and confidence
in your teammates.
That is not possible when you do not treat them
with dignity and respect.
We have structures in place to address this issue
with a combination of leadership,
because we treat this as a leadership issue,
education and training, needed updates to our policies,
and the flexibilities that the UCMJ affords us.
As we continue to address social media activities
and review our policies, we will, of course, work
with the Congress on any issues or challenges
that we identify.
Mr. Chairman, members of the Subcommittee,
thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.
It's an honor to serve our military members
and I look forward to your questions.
- Chairman Coffman, Ranking Member Speier,
and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee,
I appreciate the opportunity to appear
before the subcommittee today to provide an overview
on Marine Corps social media policies.
As our Commandant testified to last week,
we're all disturbed and hugely disappointed
by recent online conduct by some of our marines
toward their fellow marines.
We take this online behavior as an attack
on our Marine Corp ethos.
You have my word that we will hold accountable
any behavior that has corrosive effect
on the good order and discipline within our core.
We are all committed to using all the means
within our authority to address this unacceptable conduct.
Our first priority is to take care of those harms
by this recent online conduct.
We conduct, we continue to encourage individuals
to come forward and we stand ready to provide
immediate support, information and referral services
to those needing assistance.
Every Marine who takes the oath to support
and defend our Constitution, who puts on the uniform,
and who puts their life on the line
to defend our way of life here at home
is provided and has earned the trust and respect
of the American people.
So, too, should they be given that same trust and respect
by those of us in uniform.
Any breach of that trust and respect within the ranks
cannot be tolerated and must dealt with
with affirmative steps to support those individuals
harmed by these actions with clarity
to ensure that all Marines act with honor
and with accountability for those who fail
to live up to our standards of conduct.
We will be immediate, decisive, unceasing
in fixing this problem and defeating this attack
on our core values.
Thank you for the opportunity to present at today's hearing.
- [Coffman] Thank you for your testimony.
Lieutenant General Gina Grosso,
you're now recognized for five minutes.
- Chairman Coffman, Ranking Member Speier,
and distinguished members of the Subcommittee,
thank you for this opportunity to discuss recent events
affecting our airmen and their families.
Let me be clear, cyber bullying, hazing
and sharing private images of our airmen
is inconsistent with the Air Force's core values,
in our culture of dignity and respect.
While the tools of modern warfare may change,
the important, of trust never will.
Trust is essential to victory on the battlefield,
and when we violate trust on social media
we break down the fabric of what it means to be an airman.
It also degrades the trust between the Air Force
and the American people we serve.
For a number of years, the Air Force has worked to improve
how we build culture and instill an understanding
of expected behaviors in our airmen.
We started in 2012 by publishing Air Force Instruction 1-1,
Air Force Standards that was further updated in 2014
to clarify, among other things, the social media section
of the instruction.
We went one step further in 2015,
in a time of diminishing resources when we stood
at the Profession of Arms Center of Excellence,
[affectionally] as PACE.
PACE is dedicated to providing tools and training materials
designed to help commanders, supervisors and airmen
understand and embrace our core values,
our standards and our expectations for all airmen.
In the specific area of social media,
we have training modules in the curriculum
of all our accession sources, officer enlisted
to include scenario-based training
at basic military training that covers social media use.
We also cover social media use
in all our professional military education courses
from Airman Leadership School through Air War College.
We have incorporated social media policies into a variety
of generic and functionally specific Air Force instructions
that discuss professional and unprofessional relationships,
as well as the proper use of social media
in Air Force communications.
In parallel, our performance evaluation system
includes a requirement to evaluate and comment
on an airman's adherence to treating other airman
with dignity and respect, as well as
an airman's responsibility to positively contribute
to a healthy organizational climate.
While these various efforts had been ongoing,
developing and improving our Air Force culture
is a continuous journey, whereby we monitor,
adjust and evolve.
Unfortunately, these recent social media events
provide us another lens to view areas
where we can improve and better scaffold
our training, education and policy efforts.
From an accountability perspective,
we condemn these inappropriate acts.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations
is investigating allegations regarding information
and inappropriate photographs of airmen
posted on websites without their prior consent.
Airmen whose images were posted without consent
have a number of resources available to them.
Regardless if an airman's deployed or home stationed,
they can seek help from their unit commanders.
First sergeants and supervisors,
they're also encouraged to seek help
directly from a variety of resources
to include Chaplains, Military and Family life consultants,
mental health professionals,
Airman and Family Readiness Centers,
master resiliency trainers,
the inspector general of security forces,
the local judge advocate equal opportunity,
our Office of Special Investigations,
our victim advocates, Special Victims' Counsel,
and Sexual Assault Response coordinators all who provide
care and server-bridge to other specialties.
There are also online resources available
through Military OneSource and the Department of Defense.
We are currently assessing all legal
and administrative tools at our disposal
to attack this problem and are considering
additional authorities we need as a service.
Once our review is complete, we will not hesitate
to ask your assistance in providing
additional tools as necessary.
If the past two decades have taught us anything,
it is that the demand for airspace
and cyber power is growing.
In the words of our chief of staff,
From our newest airman basic to the chief of staff,
"We are all accountable for meeting ethical
"and performance standards in our actions.
We should live our core values every day, on and off duty.
We must continuously conduct ourselves in a manner
that brings credit to our nation and each other.
Service in our air force is a higher calling
and we carry this legacy forward
for future generations of airman.
Thank you for your time today,
and I look forward to your questions.
- [Coffman] Lieutenant General Grosso,
thank you so much for your testimony.
Vice Admiral Burke, you're now recognized for five minutes.
- Thank you Chairman Coffman, Ranking Member Speier,
and distinguished Members of this committee,
for this opportunity to discuss recent events.
The military has felt the sting of disappointment
from multiple reports of unprofessional
and totally inappropriate behavior
by some of our service members.
Despite repeated efforts to end harassment
and cyber bullying in our ranks,
this intolerable behavior still exists.
There is no room in our Navy for this toxic behavior
and we are aggressively going after it.
It makes us weaker, it erodes trust within our team,
and it cedes advantage to the enemy.
We are committed to eradicating this behavior
and this mindset from our force.
The United States Navy is a professional force,
and the American people expect us
to maintain high standards.
This type of behavior is not who we are.
We expect better of ourselves.
The bad actors we've discovered
have found a new home, underground.
We will not tolerate their cowardice
in the dark shadows of the internet.
We will be relentless in exposing
these perceived sanctuaries
and reinforcing our expectations of Sailor's conduct
whether in uniform at home or online.
To get after this, the Navy immediately stood up
a Senior Leader Working Group
to attack this from the top down.
This is not a one and done review,
but rather a comprehensive strategy in plan
that underpins our efforts.
In addition to helping any sailor
who may be impacted by this sort of behavior,
we are going after this in several ways,
but the main points are first, to go after character.
This is not how we treat our team members.
This is an issue of both leadership and courage.
Our Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Richardson
directed force-wide discussions on expectations
for online conduct, emphasizing that there are
no bystanders, even in cyberspace.
As sailors, our conduct at work, at home or online
must exemplify the Navy's core values
of honor, courage and commitment at all times.
And when we see something wrong,
no team member should look the other way.
These discussions are being led by our small team leaders
who are best positioned to influence
both the workplace environment and off duty conduct.
We are emphasizing this element of character
and the idea of no bystander
into the Navy's leader development framework,
and into our broader sexual harassment
and sexual assault campaign plan.
Next, the online content.
The Navy Criminal Investigative Service
continues to investigate misbehavior online
and is working with social media companies
to curb this activity.
And then accountability.
We're reviewing the Uniform Code of Military Justice
and Navy policy governing mandatory
administrative separation to ensure that they are adequate.
Sailors who are involved in inappropriate online behavior
and lose the trusted confidence of the commanding officers
will be held accountable by a full range of criminal
and administrative actions.
We have provided commanding officers and their teams
a toolkit for this issue, which includes the UCMIJ guidance,
and updated online conduct guide,
and a social media handbook.
And we are encouraging anyone with direct knowledge
of explicit photos taken without consent or knowledge
to contact the Naval Criminal Investigative Service
via multiple avenues.
In closing, we cannot allow ourselves to be tainted
by those who do not share our values.
And while we have made progress,
there still much work to be done.
Navy leaders from the flag level down to the deck plates
own this problem; as a team, we will solve it.
Thank you and I look forward to your questions.
- [Coffman] Thank you, Vice Admiral Burke.
Major General Evans, you're now recognized for five minutes.
- Chairman Coffman, Ranking Member Speier,
distinguished members of the Committee,
thank you for the opportunity to appear before you
on behalf of America's Army.
The Army is a values-based organization
comprised of team of professionals,
soldiers and army civilians.
Harassment, bullying, hazing, stalking, discrimination,
retaliation, any other type of misconduct that undermines
the dignity and respect will not be tolerated.
And those found the violation will be held accountable.
The Army has worked diligently to develop
a holistic continuum for professional conduct
in all aspects of soldiers' and army civilian's lives.
The Army has implemented our online conduct policies
throughout every level of training and military education
so that every soldier understands how to treat others
with dignity and respect.
Army policy states that hazing, bullying and other behaviors
that undermine dignity and respect are punitive in nature.
These actions are fundamentally in opposition
to the Army Values and are prohibited behaviors.
Our Army-wide guidance published in 2015,
also makes clear that this prohibition applies at all time
and extends to all forms of virtual and electronic media.
Commanders and supervisors at all levels are responsible
for enforcing this prohibition.
They are required to conduct annual hazing
and bullying training, including online conduct,
publish and post written command policy statements
on the treatment of persons;
and take appropriate actions
in response to alleged violations.
In 2015, then Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. Odierno,
established a special initiatives team
to address online harassment via social media.
And to address the dilemma of prevention
in response to unprofessional behavior online,
the special initiatives team coordinated across the Army,
outlines three lines of efforts to achieve the goal
of curbing unprofessional online behavior by soldiers.
First, by updating the existing policies and regulations;
updating training materials and infusing training base
with the information and best practices;
and sharing information regarding
responsible online conduct.
The Army developed online conduct discussion points
and vignettes in October 2015.
These discussion points and vignettes have been incorporated
into institutional, command, and unit training packages
for Equal Opportunity, Equal Employment Opportunity,
Treatment of Persons, Sexual Harassment,
Assault Response and Prevention,
and Cyber Awareness, among others.
In addition to updated policy, Army public affairs developed
a strategic messaging campaign to raise awareness
of online conduct and the consequences of misconduct.
And published a Social Media Handbook that includes
an expanded discussion of online responsibilities
and "Best Practices" section on protecting oneself from
and reporting online misconduct.
The Army developed methods to track
and report online misconduct through Sexual Harassment,
Assault Response Prevention reporting
and law enforcement agencies.
Finally, "Not in My Squad" program
developed by the Center of Army Profession and Ethics
was designed to help soldiers assess
the state of mutual trust and cohesion within their squads.
The grass-roots nature of the interactive program
helps junior leaders to gain situational understanding
and inspire ethical and professional behavior.
The "Not in My Squad" campaign
facilitates leader involvement
and accountability and aids in the creation
of a professional and ethical culture
among members of the Army team.
As our Chief of Staff, General Milley,
recently remarked on this topic,
"We expect leaders and influencers from squad level up
"to talk about and demonstrate what respect looks like
"at work, at home and online."
In closing, the Army recognizes the potential dangers
concerning social media and is proactively working to ensure
our soldiers are aware of the standards of conduct,
and policies, training and programs.
We will continue to enforce standards and imbue soldiers
and army civilians with Army Values
and emphasize professional behavior in all that we do.
Again, thank you for the opportunity
and I look forward to your questions.
- Major General Evans, thank you so much for your testimony.
Mr. Kurta, each of the services has a social media policy,
but they differ in substance and form.
In addition, the proponent for the social media policy
differs from service to service.
Is there a benefit to standardizing across the services,
these policies, as well as the proponent for the policies?
- Sir, thank you for the question.
And I would say very briefly, no, I don't believe there is.
And I say that because the Secretary has been very clear
that the cultures of the individual services
are great warfighting readiness advantages.
And when we make a policy it has to be broad enough
that the services within their cultures
can do what is right.
And so what is right and best for an army,
an army soldier in a brigade combat team in Italy
is not the same for the sailor
that's out on an aircraft carrier
somewhere in the Middle East.
So our policies have to be, give,
the intent of the Secretary,
to the service secretaries and the service chiefs
and be broad enough, directive enough
so that they know the intent of what is expected.
And then within their cultures devise the best solution
that works best for their service.
- I'm gonna ask all of you the same question.
I'll start with Lieutenant General Brilakis,
United States Marine Corps.
How are you integrating social media policies
into training on other topics
such as sexual assault prevention or ethics training?
- Sir, thanks for the question.
With respect to our social media policy,
our first policy was written in 2010,
it was the first of its kind.
It was reinforced
in a Marine Administrative Message in 2013.
And last week, we reissued a new policy
to cover the issues with social media
to make marines mindful that they have
responsibilities in the social space;
to remind marines that they are our best messenger
of the Marine Corps, if they operate
within the guidelines of the social media policy;
and then to remind them that in this,
not adhering to that policy has consequences
through the various elements
of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Lastly, what it does is it talks to marines
who may be the victims of misbehavior in social media,
those remedies, those individuals they can reach out to
that support that's throughout the Marine Corps
whether it's our Sexual Assault Response coordinators,
our Unit Victims' Advocates, the victims' legal counsels,
the Equal Opportunity Representatives and Units,
the legal counsel, the NCIS, et cetera
all wrapped up into that particular policy.
What we're running right now,
what the commandant has done,
is directed us to form a taskforce,
very high level taskforce that's chaired
by the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.
It's been meeting for the last two weeks.
I sat through a two and a half hour meeting
of the Executive Council of this taskforce today.
There's been a lot of discussion, there's some progress,
there's some tangible actions that are going on.
You mentioned education and training
on the social media policy, and that's important,
it's critical.
Part of what is being looked at at this taskforce
are not only current actions that can be taken,
and you are well aware of Commandant Neller
immediately getting out and publishing
a video message to the entire force
telling them that this behavior is unacceptable.
This behavior is antithetical to the ethos of Marines.
Those actions that has updated this policy
are all products of that taskforce.
The taskforce is also looking in terms
of long-range future operations, if you will,
with respect to the social medial taskforce.
Training and education is fundamental to that.
A review of the programs of instructions
are formal courses will be part of that process
to ensure that the training that we do is consistent,
repetitive, and runs through the Marine--
- Okay, so my time is limited.
So I'll just leave it with the Marine Corps right now,
the problem seems to be centered on the Marine Corps.
And that is that right now, though, is,
I realize you're reviewing all this, but right now
is there a social media training requirement
in terms of this particular issue at boot camp
and then on an annual training requirement?
For every marine.
- I'll be honest with you, sir.
I can't tell you whether there is a training requirement
as it existed prior to two weeks ago.
But I will tell you, what I will say is the commandant
has already been on a trip down to Camp Lejeune
to pass the message that was put out in his video message
and also in the (mumbles) admin.
He's just sign off on a White Letter that's gone out
to all commanders, every marine, to include myself.
We'll sign a formal counseling on the tenets of that policy
and our expectations that they adhere to that policy.
- Thank you.
Ranking Member Speier, you're now recognized
for five minutes.
- Mr. Kurta, I was somewhat astonished
by your comment, frankly.
To think that we need separate social media policies
from one service to another makes no sense.
It would seem to me that if you take a picture
without the consent of someone,
and then post it on the internet
with their name, rank and serial number,
whether you're a marine, or a sailor, or,
anyone of the other services you are violating the law.
So why wouldn't we have a social media policy
that was clear throughout all the services?
- Well, ma'am, I hope I didn't leave the impression
that we think there should be no OSD policy on social media.
- You know what, you don't even need to answer it.
I think you're wrong.
I think that this goes to just fundamental values.
It goes to fundamental culture.
And I just wanna make that statement,
I just don't think it makes sense.
I just wanna share with you a couple
of what I received back in 2013.
Don't wrap it and tap it; taper and rap her.
This is marines now.
Here's another one.
Listen up, bitches.
I'm your worst nightmare.
If you piss us off, I won't give an f who you are.
And we will rape your world.
And I'm not talking about the come here
and smell this kind of rape.
I won't read the rest of this.
Are you getting the message?
I raped a pregnant woman once.
Best threesome forever.
I just don't wanna even look at any more of these.
It was bad in 2013, it's bad in 2017; nothing has changed.
Of the 30,000 persons that are on
that Marines United website, 730 of them are active duty,
and 150 of them are reserves.
So we have a problem here that just talking about the policy
is just not gonna cut it.
I guess I wanna ask the other services,
let's start with you General Grossa.
Have you gone now, and since the Marines United (mumbles),
have you gone and looked to see if there were sites
with Air Force members represented?
Can you turn it on, please?
- Oh, yes, ma'am.
Our Office of Air Force in Special Investigations has looked
and they've looked at over 30 different sites.
And we, to-date, have not found a site
specifically dedicated to denigrating airman, female airman.
- Okay, how about you, Admiral Burke?
- Yes, ma'am.
We work with Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
There are no similar websites that are directly affiliated
with the Navy that had been identified to-date.
There are literally millions of websites affiliated
that are dot-com for profit websites that have words
like topless sailor and things like that in their title
with all sorts of postings and things
of that nature on them.
Many of them not official photographs.
So those are the sorts of stuff
that we're pouring through right now.
- [Speier] General Evans?
- Ma'am, I'm aware of an effort,
a multiservice investigation level
to look at a site that was potentially linked
to the Marines United site.
- [Speier] That was an army site?
- No, ma'am.
That had multiple service members on the site,
a site called Tumblr, and I'm aware
of an ongoing multiservice investigation with that.
- But the rest of you weren't aware of that?
Okay, see, I think you should all be aware of it.
You should all be looking at it.
Let me ask you this.
UCMJ Article 120 only applies to
those who take pictures, intimate pictures,
of someone without their consent.
There's nothing that refers to it
being distributed without consent,
'cause many pictures are sometimes taken
and offered for in consent because your intimate partner
is deployed and you're sending them a picture,
you then break-up and then your
former intimate partner post it.
We've introduced a legislation last week
that would amend UCMJ to include the prohibition
of non-consensual sharing of explicit photographs.
I'd like to ask each of the services
if you support the legislation.
- Ma'am, if I could take that one.
We cannot comment on pending legislation.
However, I would say as we all look at this problem
and decide how best to respond to it,
both at a department level and the individual service level,
we are open to all good ideas and partnering
with the Congress for anything that gives us
better tools for both awareness and accountability.
But we cannot comment on pending legislation.
- [Speier] How about the services,
can they comment independent of you?
- No, ma'am.
I'm sorry, that's a department policy.
- [Speier] All right, I yield back.
- Thank you, Ranking Member Speier.
Mr. Jones, you're now recognized for five minutes.
- Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
And I associate with many of the comments
that Ms. Speier has made.
And been on this committee for 22 years
and serve with you and others for a long period of time
and I can't help but think of the pressure
that's on our society because of the new technology,
the threat to our world because of cyberspace issues
that we all deal with, and particularly in this committee,
classified briefings and everything.
And here we are dealing with the societal problems
of the internet and how it impacts our young people,
many who go into the military.
All branches, thank you all again for your service
and being here today.
And I represent the third district of North Carolina
which is the home of Camp Lejeune
and Marine Base (mumbles) air station,
and obviously this has been a huge issue for our nation
but also for the district I represent.
Not just those in uniform, the Marine Corps primarily,
but for the citizens who really know
that this problem is actually
an issue that has grown
and festered in our society.
And when you see children that are five, six and seven
getting iPhones for Christmas,
I think you all have
an impossible responsibility
to get to the genesis
of what has happened in the different services,
not just one, even though this is primarily
the Marine Corps.
But this I think, I'm afraid, I hope I'm wrong
but I'm afraid I might be right,
this is going to be a battle, if I can put it that way,
for the different services, and again we talked
primarily about Marine Corps today,
that we have not seen before.
And it's not gonna change, it's gonna be with us
when I'm dead and gone and many of you young people
sitting out there will be an old man like I am today,
But I wanna ask you with all you're trying to do,
and I know that General Mattis as Secretary of Defense
and also General Neller, the commandant,
who I have great respect for, this is a task
that is going to be a difficult one
because of the darkness of the world,
of the internet so to speak.
Do you feel, at this beginning stage of this investigation,
that you have all the resources that you need
to try to get to the genesis of this problem?
- Sir, first, thank you for the question.
And while we acknowledge that this is a problem
that is also in society, we don't hide behind that.
- [Jones] I understand.
- We hold ourselves to higher values and standards
that is in society.
But I'm also a little bit hopeful because the department
has taken on great cultural issues in the past
and been successful whether it's integration of the races,
whether it's the rampant drug abuse
we used to see in the '70s and '80s,
whether it's the alcohol problems
that we saw again in the '70s and '80s.
We have taken on some of those large issues
and had cultural issues and had great success over time
when we applied leadership and the element of time.
Now some of those things took many decades to solve
and to change the culture in an organization
of two million plus people
does take time and we realize it's limited in this case.
So I'm hopeful.
And I think as we, as all of us here
and the rest of the leadership of the department
get further into this, we'll find out further tools
that will helpful to us.
We don't have a list of those today,
but we certainly will be talking further
with you and the rest of the Congress
and whoever else we need for access to certain tools.
- Thank you, Tony.
Congressman Jones, thank you.
There's a lot of work to do.
This taskforce that the commandant has stood up
is working across what's happening today,
what we need to do for the future, current policies
to review all the policies that affect this,
and most importantly dealing with those individual
that had been harmed by this activity, abhorrent activity.
And so we're learning as we're going.
The commitment of the commandant has been clear,
it's been strong, he wants action soon
and we're working to give him a series
of executable recommendations upon which he can act.
- [Jones] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
- [Coffman] Thank you, Mr. Jones.
Mr. Brady, you're now recognized for five minutes
and then we're gonna have a recess for a vote.
- Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I don't really have any questions.
I probably have an observation.
Lieutenant General Brilakis, online humiliation,
generation, posting of images,
you have on your statement.
Lieutenant Grosso, vile,
I mean private images,
you have sharing posting in your statement;
inappropriate behavior, sexual harassment and bullying.
But, Mr. Kurta, you have sexual harassment,
hazing and bullying but I don't see any images.
And Vice Admiral Burke, you have inappropriate behavior,
harassment, bullying but no images.
And the same with General Evans,
harassment, bullying, hazing, stalking,
retaliation but no images.
I really was under the impression
and we're really kinda concerned about images
because that's the new thing now with the internet
and people posting images and God knows
how far it goes and where it goes.
I'm just wondering why the three don't have images.
- Well, Congressman Brady, I would just say this.
Whether it's the use of images,
whether it's use of social online media
those are tools by which people are denigrating
their fellow service members through hazing,
bullying, sexual harassment.
There's a number of different ways to characterize it.
So we were trying to represent the fundamental behavior
which is bullying, sexual harassment, hazing.
In this case, there's a variety of tools that people use
to perpetrate that type of behavior,
but we have to get to the fundamental behavior.
- [Brady] But I just wanted to hear you say images.
- Images, yes, sir, absolutely.
That is definitely one of the tools that's being used.
Yes, sir.
- [Brady] Vice Admiral Burke.
- Yes, sir.
The images in the social media and the internet
are just the new, the environment we had not
been thinking about as much as we should've been.
- [Brady] Major General.
- Yes, sir.
Images in terms of what we've defined
in the online additional guidance and online conduct
would include any harm to do to anybody
by via virtual electronic which would include images, sir.
- Yeah, I wanna hear that
because all these other things aren't really like online.
Inappropriate behavior, bullying and harassment
that's not necessarily online,
but the images are what we're talking about
which are online, which everybody kinda like looks at.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
- [Coffman] Would the gentleman yield?
- Thank you.
I would just, for clarification, and I think we're all
in very much agreement on this,
not just with the panel but also here on the committee
on these issues.
But I would like to point out that in Section 920,
Article 120c that imagines and privacy
and many of these things are addressed
in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A little bit of confusion about what is in the code.
Section 2, knowingly photographs, videotapes,
films or records by any means in the private area
of another person without that other person's consent,
and under circumstances in which that other person
has a reasonable expectation of privacy.
And then it defines this.
Reasonable expectation means under circumstances
in which a reasonable person would believe
that he or she could disrobe in privacy
without being concerned that an image
of a private area or a person was being captured.
Broadcast means to electronically transmit a visual image
with the intent that it'd be viewed by a person or persons.
So the Uniform Code very much does address these issues.
And what I would like to point out,
this is really something that demands accountability
rather than additional policy or code.
I would be interested in your thoughts on that, Mr. Kurta,
and whoever else would like to comment.
Do you see this as an accountability issue?
Or do you see that the Uniform Code
doesn't adequately address it when it appears
that in the language it already does?
Sir?
- [Speier] The problem is, sometimes pictures
are taken with consent and then subsequently--
- If I may, to the Ranking Member,
it does address on the privacy without being concerned
that an image, in terms of that.
So it specifically addresses that it was not with consent,
that they are actually assuming
that they were in complete privacy.
And so I point that out because in Section 920, Article 120c
the language seems to be pretty well defined to address
a lot of the electronic digital imagery aspects of privacy.
I would be curious to know, is this an accountability issue?
Or is this something that the Uniform Code
does not adequately cover?
- Well, sir, thank you for the question.
I would just say, the back and forth kind of,
it illustrates how complex this problem is.
Absolutely, it's accountability.
We have standards, we have values,
as I mentioned in my opening statement,
and sometimes we find the people don't live up
to those values and standards.
When they don't, we hold them accountable.
Again we can't talk about an ongoing investigation,
but as it precedes, I think we'll have a better idea
of our tools; we have policies.
I think they're actually, in many respects
very clear on hazing, bullying, sexual harassment,
the use of online media to perpetrate those.
So the policy is there and we'll see what our tools
available for accountability--
- And if I may point out, sir.
It's a uniform code.
This is something that can put people in prison,
that can give them a felony conviction,
this is something that would result in court-martial,
the loss of rank and privileges and honorable discharge,
any number of things.
So it's not just policy.
It is the legal standard by which everything,
good order and discipline, is governed.
And that's why before we got too confused on what's there
or what's not, I wanted to point out my understanding
under the UCMJ is that the language is in there.
Is it your understanding that it is not?
Because there's been some of that in the questioning today.
My understanding is that it is there
so now it's a matter of accountability.
Is that true or not?
- [Brilakis] No, sir.
This is all about accountability.
- Yes.
- This is all about having individuals who have
betrayed the trust of their fellow service members,
holding them accountable.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice
has a number of articles under which, in certain cases,
we can bring these things to a prosecution.
You've mentioned 120c.
120c is a relatively new article.
And there's not a lot of experience behind it.
Right now, the NCIS, this is their number one priority.
They formed a taskforce for the other services
investigative bodies and they're working
cooperatively to determine the facts
and uncover the investigatory material
that we can then turn over to commanders
to take out the Uniform Code of Military Justice--
- [Woman] Mr. Chairman, I'm not sure who I asked,
but if I could just interject one second,
because of what my colleague just said which is relevant.
- [Coffman] Can we do that when we,
right when we come back.
- I won't be able to return, unfortunately.
It's going to be very quick.
I am actually holding your enlistment document
and it says right here, "Subject to separation during
"at the end of my enlistment.
"If my behavior fails to meet acceptable military standards,
"I may be discharged and given a certificate
"for less than honorable service."
I don't know why we have to wait.
If you tell them at the very beginning and they sign off
saying that their behavior is not acceptable,
they understand what the primaries that are acceptable.
I hope that they do.
I don't understand why we have to then pursue
many various avenues.
Do you still have the power to throw them out
if it's very clear that they can't do this?
When they sign up and they signed on to this document.
- Yes, ma'am, absolutely.
We have the authority, but everybody deserves due process
and the Uniform Code of Military Justice
requires due process.
Whether it be through an administrative procedure
or military justice procedure there are processes.
- I understand, but-- - So the fact that--
- I'm sorry, because we're extending.
I just have to say, we need to do it at the very beginning.
They need to know they will be thrown out.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Thank you, Chairman.
- Let me, I had started a question about training
and so I started with the Marine Corps
and now I wanna go to the other services.
And the question is this, how are you integrating
social media policies into training on other topics
such as sexual assault prevention or ethics training.
Lieutenant General Grosso, I wanted you
to answer this question, please.
- Yes, sir.
As I indicated, we have training
across our continuum of learning.
We stood up taskforce as well
to do a complete review of our policies
and our training and our accountability
and that is one of the things
that we are taking a hard look at.
Is the training synchronized?
Is it properly scaffold?
Are there other places we should put it?
And some of the places we're looking at,
we do resiliency training and we thought
maybe putting some real scenarios
in our resiliency training.
We also do new spouse training and we start talking
to our spouses about it through that program
and through our Key Spouse Program,
and in some of our pre-deployment training as well.
We do social media training, but it's really around OPSEC,
and there's probably other opportunities
as we look at our training, our Cradle to Grave training
where we can put that in.
And we also have a commander's call of the week
and we've already put that module out
for the commander's call of the week.
But there are, I'm sure, other places
that we will be able to embed this training in.
- (mumbles), real quick.
Let's say you're gonna integrate this in
with your sexual assault training,
it would probably fit there, sexual harassment,
sexual assault training.
Tell me what you do in,
so I assume you have training requirements
in your basic training.
- [Grosso] Yes, sir.
We do.
- And then do you have them on an annual basis
that are in fact required that are noted
in the personnel file?
- They are there.
We don't necessarily put them in the personnel file
but we track them.
And there is annual training requirements
for sexual assault and sexual harassment.
- Okay.
Vice Admiral Burke.
- Yes, sir.
We have a full spectrum of training that's aimed
at sexual harassment and sexual assault prevention
that includes focus on social media.
So at recruit training command for enlisted folks,
we have a course that's called Life Skills,
and it's a full spectrum course
that teaches our sailors how to intervene
when they see other sailors heading down paths
of destructive behaviors.
By this point in recruit training command,
they should've had navy core values instilled in them.
So it focuses on how to help other people
that are headed down the wrong path.
But then it focuses on healthy relationships,
stress management, responsible alcohol use,
hazing and fraternization and then heavy emphasis
on sexual assault prevention.
And this is where we teach folks
that it's okay to stand up and say,
in fact, they have a responsibility to stand up and say,
"That's wrong.
"I don't accept that type of behavior."
And we also emphasize what right looks like.
We take that approach on it.
And in that core module, we talk a lot about social media
and acceptable behavior on social media
and we also cover OPSEC concerns there,
but a lot of social media behavior discussion there.
We have a similar approach at the Naval Academy,
there the course is called SHAPE
Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention Education,
similar type of coverage there.
And then when folks get out into the fleet
there's a refresher, recurring training,
that has morphed over the years.
Last year's version was called Chart the Course
and there were 16 different modules,
there were facilitated DVD course modules.
- Are there annual training requirement?
- There are.
There's an annual training requirement
that's on the requirements and then there's
an additional facilitated vignette.
And a vignette specifically was on a sailor
videotaping someone without their knowledge,
and then the decision point and the discussion point,
was should he email it off or not?
And it went from there.
So there are those types of requirements
throughout a curriculum.
- Thank you.
Major General Evans of United States Army.
- Yes, sir.
All training plans and programs of instructions
at all level of the army to include
the initial military entry of training,
to include pre-command courses
and all professional military education
incorporate online conduct training
as part of equal opportunity training,
sexual harassment/assault response prevention training.
Thereafter, that training is required on an annual basis
to conduct the equal opportunity training
to sexual harassment/assault and response training
and part of that is online conduct
is a component of both of those annual trainings.
In addition to that, commanders are required
to publish policy letters on both of those
and make sure that soldiers know
how they're supposed to conduct themselves
and where they can report this kind of training.
And the Army public affairs has published
a social media handbook that provides examples
of policy letters for social media conduct.
- Thank you.
Ms. Speier, you're now recognized for five minutes.
- Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
You know, I wanna go back to what our good colleague
from Oklahoma had talked about before.
We recessed.
Because you have to read this very carefully.
He is wrong.
And I wanna state it for the record.
First of all, Article 120c has been around since 2012.
So you've had five years to use it
and my first question is gonna be
have any of you used Article 120c
in actually enforcing
the social media misuse of photographs?
- Ranking Member, yes, ma'am.
We have used Article 120 in holding airman accountable
for this offense.
- For these specific, for use of social media
with consent or without consent?
- It was revenge porn.
And it was charged along with other things,
but it was part of the charge, under 120c.
- So revenge porn is normally where it is,
it's a photograph, an image that is taken of someone
with consent and then subsequently distributed
without consent?
- I can get you more details--
- Okay, so my only point here
is how about any of you others?
- Ma'am, I'll have to take it for the record.
- All right, would you and then come back to us?
- Ma'am, we had one case of videotaping on a submarine
and six individuals were court-martialed under 120c.
- [Speier] Without consent?
- The video is without consent
and it was distributed locally without--
- That's clearly under 120c.
General Evans?
- Ma'am, I would have to take it for the record but--
- [Speier] All right.
- The lawyers have advised me under,
for social media misconduct Article 92, 120c
for non-consensual sending of photos.
133 conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman,
134 clause one conduct
prejudicial to good order and discipline,
and clause two conduct of a nature
to bring discredit upon armed forces.
- I don't wanna beat this horse.
But it's very clear under 120c that it has to be taken
without legal justification or lawful authorization.
It is taken without consent or it is distributed
without the other person's consent
and other circumstances in which the other person
has a reasonable expectation of privacy.
So you have to, knowingly broadcasting it
or distributing such a recording of that person,
knew or reasonably should've known,
was made under the circumstances listed
in paragraphs one or two.
In both cases, you have to show that it was
originally without consent.
And many of these cases, with revenge porn,
the first image is taken with consent
or it's shared with consent.
It's just the subsequent distribution.
So I just wanted to make that clear, Mr. Chairman.
Let me ask you this, how many of you have Facebook pages?
Mr. Kurta?
- Ma'am, I do not.
- [Speier] General?
- No, ma'am, I do not.
- Ma'am, I do not.
- [Speier] Admiral Burke.
- No, I do not.
- [Speier] General Evans.
- Yes, ma'am, I do.
- All right, of all of you, just one of you
has a Facebook page.
I think it would be edifying to you
if you all had Facebook pages
'cause it might help you understand
how it's being used and misused.
Mr. Evans, General Evans, can you tell me a little bit
about your experience using Facebook?
- Yes, ma'am.
I exclusively use it for family and close friends.
And my experience with it is,
I've had my Facebook duplicated 12 times
with public photos, people established in Facebook account,
in my image, I've had that happen.
But I use mine primarily for family and close friends.
- Okay.
One of the people that testified at the briefing suggested
that of those who are identified as being active duty,
when they actually went and interviewed them,
the picture was not the same picture
but they did have their name.
So there's many ways that you can abuse the system
and that's why having a kind of social media hygiene,
I think, is a good way of looking at it
as really very important.
I know my time's expired, but I would like to ask
one more question of each of the services.
I'm very troubled that this has not been addressed.
I think you can understand my frustration.
This was first identified four years ago in the Marines
and nothing seems to have taken place.
If you have 750, if you have a 100 active duty
service members who are using social media
in a way that is degrading and dehumanizing
they shouldn't be in the military.
So what I would like for you to do for the committee
and, Mr. Chairman, with your approval,
I would like to have each of the services
report back to the committee in four months
with the specific actions that you have taken
in making sure that the
appropriate education
and training is provided to your service members
that is above and beyond what you have done so far,
because I think we know that that appears to be insufficient
at this point in time.
And then if you would, on a monthly basis,
in the Marines in particular, report to us
on the disciplinary actions being taken
against those who you identify on Marines United.
- We'll take that question for the record.
- Mr. Chairman, can I have clarification?
Is there any objection to having them report back to us?
- We may have to put it
in the National Defense Authorization Act.
- [Speier] Why would we have to do that?
They're here right now, if they're willing to do it.
- If you're willing to answer the question now,
if you have the information now, sure, certainly.
You want them to answer now?
- I want to have them answer whether or not
they will report back--
- No, if I can do this, since we're over,
if I can go to Representative McSally
and then I'll go back to you.
- Ms. McSally, you're recognized for five minutes.
- Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thanks everybody.
Sorry, I missed the first part of the hearing.
I apologize for that.
Mr. Kurta, good to see you again.
Gina, good to see you again.
Sorry, General Grosso.
Thanks for your time and thoughtfulness
in trying to grapple with this 21st century challenge
that we have in social media.
But some of the discussions we've already had
with General Neller, both in our discussions here
and in one-on-one conversations, is culture, right?
And I know you're here to talk about policies,
but there's also element of culture and addressing,
we gotta make sure we have the right policies
to address bad behavior and that we can take administrative
and or criminal action if we need to, and that's important.
But we also gotta make sure, we're not gonna be able
to police 24/7, from my view.
What's going on on somebody's heart
and what they're gonna try and choose to do anonymously
in trying to use all of our resources in the military
to chase them down, and their activity, off duty,
is not the best use of our resources from my view.
So we've got to inculcate in our troops the desire
to have integrity and excellence and character
and respect and honor 24/7, which I know we strive to do,
and many of us are infuriated and disturbed
that we're finding individuals are not doing that, right?
My concern, as it relates to scandals like this,
is that we don't have knee-jerk reactions
in addressing the culture.
With new policies and training and PowerPoint briefings
and everything that we've gotta do in order to make sure
that we're responding to Congress and the media and others
that actually in the end
inculcates more resentment towards women, right?
Now we're having to sit through another five-hour training,
another PowerPoint, I mean I've seen this
and those of you have been around, a while
you probably know what I'm talking about.
And my concern is we inculcate this culture
from the very beginning when we take civilians
and we turn them in the military and basic training.
And I still think there's things that we all need
to be addressing that we're not inculcating
any sort of subtle resentment towards the other gender.
And from my view, that includes things like integration,
basic training, and women should be cutting their hair,
and not having any obvious double standards
of a different experience.
So I just wanted to sort of share that as a statement
that as you all are dealing with this current situation
and you're reviewing training and policies,
please keep in mind when we're addressing
this deeper cultural issues and training
that we don't overdo it in a knee-jerk way
that actually has the exact opposite effect
of what we're trying to do.
If we're inculcating resentment towards our female troops
from the beginning, then that actually sows the seeds
for people then having the types of behavior
that could come out in a variety of different ways,
if that makes sense.
I did wanna ask, I know the Marines is setting up
a taskforce on this that's been reported.
General Brilakis, you're on that taskforce?
- Yes, ma'am.
- Okay.
Are the other personnel chiefs represented here,
are there similar effects going on in the other services,
whatever you wanna call them, taskforce reviews or whatever?
And are each of you represented on those?
- Yes, ma'am, there's on in the Air Force.
- Okay. - We are represented.
- Same for the Navy. - Same with all of you?
- Ma'am, not at this time.
- Not at this time, okay.
Are there any reports of Army, I think there are.
Army individuals--
- Yes, ma'am.
I mentioned earlier that it was made aware
of a Tumblr website where there's
a multiservice investigative taskforce looking into that.
But I'm not serving on that particular taskforce.
- Okay, great.
And it is a fair question of are there millennials
on your taskforce who actually are experts
at this type of behavior, in the use of social media?
You may have seen the New York Times article
talking about former marines that are actually
chasing some of these guys down
and doing it in a very swift way
that's able to do that at the speed of social media
versus sometimes we work at the speed of bureaucracy.
So are you reaching out to make sure
we have millennials on these teams
and people who can understand the social media environment?
- Ma'am, yes.
Men and women, young, old.
To your earlier point, one of the discussions we had,
we had a two and a half hour meeting
with the Executive Committee today.
One of the discussions in there was about
not pointing this back at our women,
at our marines who
could typically be blamed
for the reaction of the organization.
So we are very mindful of that
and we wanna ensure that we don't create that.
Because quite frankly, if you talk about respect and dignity
then we're talking about diversity
and we're talking about religion
and sexual preference, et cetera.
So this was brought to the forefront
based on the behavior of individuals in treating women.
But it goes, if you're talking about respect and dignity
it's gonna go broader than that.
- And as you know, even when we're talking about that
that's a warfighting feature, though, as you know that.
It's not diversity for the sake of it,
it's not social experimentation;
it is we become a stronger fighting force.
I know you all know this but I think it's important
'cause we sometimes, sometimes people think it's warfighting
or diversity and that gets characterized
as a negative thing.
It is about warfighting capability and having the best team
that comes with trust and respect and honor,
and all those things that you all know about.
Any other comments from the other witnesses?
- Ma'am, I'm not aware that we have millennials
because you can imagine it was an air staff effort.
But we do, as we do this review,
we will certainly include them
as we try to come up with solutions to gaps we find.
- Is there also, and I have to choose
my words wisely in this, if there's any training
that's being considered related to policies,
to make sure that your soldiers, sailors,
airmen and marine are also aware
of when they post things of themselves in environment,
again this is not blame the victims but this is
when you post something of yourself
that it can be used in ways that are harmful to you
and to the unit and to provide that sort of increased
situational awareness and just, that awareness
for some those younger generation
that maybe doesn't think about that at the time.
And they come to us with those habits.
- Ma'am, you have identified a gap that we have found
that we need to help people understand,
you give consent up when you post these,
meaning it not.
So it's really, what we're calling it literacy,
social media literacy.
Just how do you know what happens
with things that you put in the ethernet.
- Great, thanks.
Anybody else?
- Ma'am, for the Navy it's, this is just one new environment
for harassment, bullying, all those things
that had been going on in, frankly,
in the past in broad daylight,
now they're going on in more hidden places.
So we're attacking it as a individual's character.
So it's a leadership and courage issue for us
and we're attacking it from that angle.
Teammates don't treat teammates like that,
no bystanders, you have an obligation to take action
when you see shipmates in need
and we're going after those elements of it.
We do have a very diverse team working in this
and taking a multi-aspect approach going forward.
The products that we made really do emphasize the,
when you post something one don't assume that because
you posted it while you were in your civilian role
that people won't assume you're in your military role
and so on and so forth and it won't get forwarded.
- And one of the things we have woven
and integrated into the training, at every level,
to include a recent tri-signed letter
sent out by the acting secretary,
chief of staff of the Army,
and the sergeant major in the Army
and he also did a video last week of this
as to think, type, post.
Think about the communication you're about to send
and who's gonna review it; type a communication
that conforms with Army values; and post a communication
that demonstrates dignity and respect
for both self and others.
- Great, thanks.
I know I'm well over my time, but just to go back
to Admiral Burke on the bystander issue,
I think it's critical.
Just like with sexual assault, sexual harassment,
you do have the perpetrators but the vast majority
of people are bystanders.
They get that sheep mentality, nobody wants to speak out,
nobody wants to be looking different
and taking on the wrath of others;
that's where it's really gonna be, results are gonna be.
Sorry, thank you.
I appreciate it, Mr. Chairman.
- [Coffman] Ms. Speier.
- Just a couple of points of clarification.
There's a very different expectation
when you post something on your Facebook page.
That means that many people are going to see it.
But when you text an intimate photograph,
an image of yourself to your lover
as a private conversation, that subsequently
after you break-up is then used in a form of revenge porn,
that is different.
And there's an expectation when you post
and there's an expectation when you text,
and I think that's very important to distinguish.
General Brilakis, don't take offense of this,
but it's very important for you to hear this
and for some of your colleagues who came
and spoke to us at a briefing last week.
I didn't mention it last week, but they used the same term
and it's inappropriate.
The term you just used was sexual preference.
It's not a sexual preference; it's a sexual orientation.
And it would behoove all of us to use the term
that really is reflective of what is a sexual orientation,
it's not a preference that they are--
- Very well, ma'am.
I stand correct and you are correct.
- Thank you.
Ms. McSally, you're now recognized for five minutes.
- Sorry, I wouldn't have gone so far over
if I was given another round.
I'm actually good, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Following up on the bystander, which you guys all know,
I think that's really critical.
Thank you.
- And just to inform the committee
that we'll be asking for briefing
from all the services present to include
the Department of Defense in four months
to receive an update in terms of what actions you've taken
between this hearing and in four months.
I wish to thank the witnesses
for their testimony this afternoon.
And this has been very informative.
There being no further business,
this subcommittee stands adjourned.