Seven percent of the people who work for the CIA claim that they have been sexually assaulted or recipients of unwanted sexual contact while at work.
A CNN exclusive says that 7% number is just the tip of the iceberg.
Courts in northern Virginia and Washington, DC, have been quietly hearing cases of alleged sexual assault at the CIA for more than a year, offering fleeting glances of what multiple officials describe as a deep-rooted cultural problem at the spy agency.
Two cases have resulted in convictions of misdemeanor assault in Virginia. In September, a federal judge in Washington, DC, sentenced a former CIA officer to 30 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting dozens of women.
Behind the scenes, other allegations continue to plague the notoriously insular spy agency, including at least one claim that has resulted in an officer being fired, CNN has learned.
You mean the agency that likes to entrap Americans ...
... That thinks patriots with Bibles and guns are the same as Islamic terrorists ...
... and that diddles little kids ....
Might have higher-than-average cases of sexual assault??
Female employees of the CIA say the agency has been allowing sexual assaults to be swept under the rug, essentially, forever. They are testifying in closed-door congressional hearings and this has led to a 600-page report on the government agency's handling of sexual harassment and assault.
According to the results, which were described to CNN by multiple sources including CIA Chief Operating Officer Maura Burns, 28% of respondents said they experienced at least one instance of a sexually hostile work environment while employed at CIA, while 9% indicated at least one instance had occurred in the last 12 months.
A total of 7% of respondents reported experiencing at least one instance of unwanted sexual contact or assault during their career at the agency, with 1% reporting that the experience took place in the last year.
The CIA has the defense that these numbers, sadly, are pretty on par with corporate America. And when compared to the military, it's actually low.
(Remember how America thought it could transcend human nature and that it would be a good idea to put women in the trenches alongside men in war and espionage? How's that going?)
Some victims say that they are still being deterred from reporting their alleged assaults to law enforcement. A filing made by a self-identified victim of assault to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in June, which seeks class action status for victims at the agency, asserts that the agency inappropriately 'instructed victims to falsify elements of their stories if they were to contact law enforcement or face disciplinary action for revealing classified information.'
The office responsible for internal threat assessments 'told me I was more than welcome to make a report on my own to local law enforcement — which would not be cover consistent — with the clear caveat that under no circumstances was I to reveal my affiliation with CIA, my perpetrator's affiliation with CIA, or the locations where myself and the other victims were sexually assaulted, some of which are CIA property,' the victim, identified by the pseudonym Daniella Sparks in the complaint, wrote.
So weird that the CIA would be doing shady spy stuff.
I just can't imagine it!
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