Does anyone know what a person who is not a constituent of any of the members of the house or senate armed services committee can do to increase pressure for a new investigation into this case?  I will certainly forward to folks I know who have senators and representatives on the committee, but the LJ website does not (as far as I can tell) give other suggestions.

Thanks.

--- On Sun, 6/29/08, Hilde Lindemann <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Hilde Lindemann <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: LaVena Johnson
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Sunday, June 29, 2008, 9:25 AM
> In case you haven't been following this:
> 
> The tragic story of LaVena Johnson
> 
> Salon has published 
> <http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military/>quite
> 
> a 
> <http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/05/27/female_ptsd/index.html>bit
> 
> about how American women in the military sometimes face
> more danger 
> from their fellow soldiers than from their enemies, but the
> stories 
> never seem to stop. And all too often, they go largely
> ignored by the 
> media, as with the case of
> <http://www.lavenajohnson.com/>Pfc. LaVena Johnson.
> 
> In July 2005, 19-year-old Johnson became the first female
> soldier 
> from Missouri to die in Iraq. She was found with a broken
> nose, black 
> eye and loose teeth, acid burns on her genitals, presumably
> to 
> eliminate DNA evidence of rape, a trail of blood leading
> away from 
> her tent and a bullet hole in her head. Unbelievably,
> that's not the 
> most horrifying part of the story. Here's what is: Army
> investigators 
> ruled her death a suicide.
> 
> Beyond the obvious evidence of abuse, there was no sign of
> depression 
> or suicidal ideation in Johnson's psychological
> profile. The bullet 
> wound was in the wrong place for her to have shot herself
> with her 
> dominant hand, and the exit wound was the wrong size to
> have come 
> from her own M-16, as the Army suggested it did. The
> blatant lie the 
> military has tried to sell Johnson's family is on a par
> with the 
> cover-up surrounding football star 
> <http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2005/06/15/tillman2/index.html>Pat
> 
> Tillman's 2004 death in a friendly fire incident.
> Unlike Tillman's 
> widely reported story, however, outside the blogosphere --
> where 
> writers like
> <http://www.waveflux.net/lavena-johnson/>Philip
> Barron 
> have worked tirelessly to keep Johnson's name in the
> spotlight -- the 
> LaVena Johnson case has rarely been noted. And sadly, it is
> far from 
> unique. In a story in the 
> <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10518131>New
> 
> Zealand Herald on Wednesday, Tracey Barnett writes,
> "[LaVena's 
> father] John Johnson has discovered far more stories that
> have 
> matched his daughter's than he ever wanted to know. Ten
> other 
> families of 'suicide' female soldiers have
> contacted him. The common 
> thread among them -- rape."
> 
> Regarding the runaround her family got from the military,
> Pat 
> Tillman's mother 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/politics/21tillman.html?pagewanted=print>said
> 
> to the New York Times in 2006, ""This is how they
> treat a family of a 
> high-profile individual. How are they treating
> others?" LaVena 
> Johnson's story is just one tragic answer to that
> question.
> 
> -- Kate Harding
> Salon.com
> 
> 
> 
> Hilde Lindemann
> Philosophy Department
> 503 South Kedzie Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824
> tel: (517) 353-3981
> fax: (517) 432-1320
> [log in to unmask]