WASHINGTON ? Claire McCaskill said she was ?stunned? by a prominent advertisement in Tuesday?s Post-Dispatch in which a victim of sexual assault portrayed her as a roadblock in the drive by Congress to curb an epidemic of sexual attacks in the military.
But McCaskill said she remains convinced that reforms she helped to engineer would be more effective than a rival plan that seeks to remove sexual assault prosecutions from chains of command in the service branches.
?I would never be advocating for this if I didn?t believe with every fiber of my being that this would be more protective of victims and result in more and better prosecutions,? McCaskill, D-Mo., said in an interview.
McCaskill was responding to a half-page ad in the newspaper displaying an open letter from a St. Louis woman who campaigned for McCaskill last year and appeared in an online ad on her behalf.
The ad was sponsored by Protect our Defenders, a Washington-based advocacy group that works with victims of sexual assault in the military and their families.
In the ad, Terri Odom, a Navy veteran who was raped in 1986 while serving in Italy, calls herself a ?loyal and active? McCaskill supporter.
But in the letter Odom contends McCaskill has taken a misguided approach by stopping short of calling for independent prosecutors to dispense justice.
?Without your support, perpetrators may continue to go free, victims will be too afraid to come forward and our military readiness will suffer,? Odom wrote.
In an interview, Odom, 48, recalled that McCaskill?s office had helped her obtain disability benefits in 2007. She said she suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and other problems stemming from an attack by a knife-wielding man she described as a high-ranking noncommissioned officer.
She said she was threatened with arrest for pressing her case after the 1980s attack.
?I am a loyal supporter of McCaskill. But I can?t understand for the life of me why she is not standing with us on this,? she said.
In recent months, McCaskill has called on her expertise as a former prosecutor in becoming the most vocal senator pressing for changes in the military?s handling of sexual assaults.
A Pentagon report last spring estimated some 26,000 service men and women experienced ?unwanted sexual contact? in 2012, a dramatic increase over 2011.
McCaskill and allies on the Senate Armed Services Committee championed provisions in a pending defense bill that would remove commanders? powers to dismiss court martial convictions for rape and sexual assault and make retaliation against a victim a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
In addition, those convicted of serious sexual misconduct would receive at minimum a dismissal from the service or dishonorable discharge.
Nonetheless, advocacy groups continue to press for prosecutions outside the chain of command, a proposal championed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., that was defeated in committee.
Gillibrand now claims support from 41 other senators for her plan, which is unlikely to surface until Senate floor action this fall. Her legislation recently gained the backing of two Republican senators popular with Tea Party groups, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas.
Gillibrand argues switching to a system of independent military prosecutors would encourage more reporting of assaults and reduce retaliation against victims.
?What we have heard from many victims that Kirsten has spoken with is that people don?t come forward because the chain of command has the sole decision-making authority as to whether the case will move forward,? said Gillibrand spokesman Glen Caplin.
McCaskill points to estimates that three-in-five victims suffer retaliation after reporting assaults.
?I am completely convinced there will be fewer prosecutions and more retaliations if we go the route she (Gillibrand) is advocating,? McCaskill said. ?It?s been frustrating because every argument they?ve made, when we meet it factually they kind of shift to another one.?
McCaskill added that everybody has a right to his or her own opinion, including Terri Odom, the victim who is speaking out against the home-state senator she calls her hero.
?If she would have called, I would have loved to visit with her about it because I think if I would have talked to her, she?d get it,? McCaskill said.
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