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American Morning

Talk with Former Congresswoman Tillie Fowler

Aired September 23, 2003 - 08:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A decade of sexual abuse at the Air Force Academy was the result of a chasm in leadership and a failure of character and values. Those are conclusions of Congressional investigators who delivered their report to the Pentagon yesterday.
Former Congresswoman Tillie Fowler was the chairwoman of the panel that conducted the investigation. Ms. Fowler joins us from Washington this morning.

Good morning to you.

Nice to see you.

TILLIE FOWLER, INVESTIGATED AIR FORCE ACADEMY: Good morning, Soledad.

Good to be with you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

A hundred and forty-two alleged sexual assaults over 10 years. Did that number surprise you? Did it shock you?

FOWLER: Well, it did, and an even more shocking thing is that was just the tip of the iceberg. We found out that approximately 80 percent of the alleged assaults were not being reported. So there were many more than 142 incidents over those 10 years.

O'BRIEN: An internal Air Force group came back with their own finding back in June. Here's what they found. They said, "There is no systematic acceptance of sexual assault, no institutional avoidance of responsibility, no systematic maltreatment of cadets who report sexual assault."

It practically contradicts every single thing your investigation found.

How do you explain the difference?

FOWLER: Well, we were very disappointed when we got into this to find out that the working group report really omitted a lot of the failures of leadership from the top leadership in the Air Force and at the Air Force Academy. The working group that was led by the Air Force general counsel did a good job of documenting some of the things that had occurred over the last 10 years, but they really had greater missions as to leadership responsibilities. And that's what this is about. These incidents would not have been occurring and continue to occur if there had not been a true failure of leadership at the Air Force Academy and at Air Force headquarters.

O'BRIEN: So then who's to blame and what are you going to do about it?

FOWLER: Well, we have suggested that the DOD I.G. do a thorough review of the leadership at the Academy and at Air Force headquarters for the past 10 years, starting with 1993, which is when a lot of these just began to be documented. We particularly asked for a review of the immediate prior leadership, General Gilbert, Colonel Slavec and General Wagie, who is still the dean of faculty. We feel that they were responsible. They were in command and they failed to ensure the safety and security of the cadets that were under them.

O'BRIEN: So when you say a review, you mean you'd like to see the people aforementioned being reprimanded in some way?

FOWLER: Well, it's up to the DOD I.G. as to what they would recommend. What we've done from our investigation is pointed out what we see as failures in leadership. But there needs to be a much more thorough investigation than we could do in the 90 days that we were charged with using for this panel to do its investigation.

O'BRIEN: Was the Air Force cooperative in your investigation?

FOWLER: They were very cooperative. I mean any information we asked for was forthcoming. We went out to Colorado Springs and spent two days there. Some of our panel went back for a second visit. Everything was open to us. We could go anywhere, talk to anyone. So they were very cooperative.

O'BRIEN: Before we get to the recommendations, I want to ask you a question about the culture of the Air Force Academy. A year ago, I guess, there was a survey, and 25 percent of the male cadets said that they think women don't belong at the Academy. That's a huge percentage with that perspective.

How do you change something like that?

FOWLER: That's going to be difficult. And really every survey over the past five years has shown that roughly 20 to 25 percent of the males surveyed -- not all of them were surveyed -- but of those surveyed, feel that way. That's a difficult culture to change and it's going to take time. It isn't going to happen overnight. But women have been, you know, at the Air Force Academy since 1976. They've been a part of that Academy, part of our air force and doing a fabulous job. And these young men have got to understand that they are an integral part of today's Air Force and today's military, and what the Academy has got to do is a much better job of training and educating these young men.

Their Center for Character Development, we found, had strayed from its main course and it needs to get back to really teaching character and values and ethics to these young men and helping them to understand how important women are to the military today.

O'BRIEN: Ms. Fowler, we don't have a ton of time, so if you can shorten this answer for me, I'd be grateful.

FOWLER: Yes?

O'BRIEN: Twenty-one recommendations, which is the most important?

FOWLER: That's hard to say. I would say probably the most important to us and to the victims is the establishment of a psychotherapist patient privilege so that there would be confidential reporting at the Air Force Academy. Right now there is no avenue for confidential reporting. The other two academies do have that choice and every victim we talked to said it is crucial to have a choice to report confidentially if you have one of these incidents occur.

O'BRIEN: Former Congresswoman Fowler, thanks for joining us this morning.

FOWLER: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: I appreciate it.

FOWLER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 23, 2003 - 08:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A decade of sexual abuse at the Air Force Academy was the result of a chasm in leadership and a failure of character and values. Those are conclusions of Congressional investigators who delivered their report to the Pentagon yesterday.
Former Congresswoman Tillie Fowler was the chairwoman of the panel that conducted the investigation. Ms. Fowler joins us from Washington this morning.

Good morning to you.

Nice to see you.

TILLIE FOWLER, INVESTIGATED AIR FORCE ACADEMY: Good morning, Soledad.

Good to be with you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

A hundred and forty-two alleged sexual assaults over 10 years. Did that number surprise you? Did it shock you?

FOWLER: Well, it did, and an even more shocking thing is that was just the tip of the iceberg. We found out that approximately 80 percent of the alleged assaults were not being reported. So there were many more than 142 incidents over those 10 years.

O'BRIEN: An internal Air Force group came back with their own finding back in June. Here's what they found. They said, "There is no systematic acceptance of sexual assault, no institutional avoidance of responsibility, no systematic maltreatment of cadets who report sexual assault."

It practically contradicts every single thing your investigation found.

How do you explain the difference?

FOWLER: Well, we were very disappointed when we got into this to find out that the working group report really omitted a lot of the failures of leadership from the top leadership in the Air Force and at the Air Force Academy. The working group that was led by the Air Force general counsel did a good job of documenting some of the things that had occurred over the last 10 years, but they really had greater missions as to leadership responsibilities. And that's what this is about. These incidents would not have been occurring and continue to occur if there had not been a true failure of leadership at the Air Force Academy and at Air Force headquarters.

O'BRIEN: So then who's to blame and what are you going to do about it?

FOWLER: Well, we have suggested that the DOD I.G. do a thorough review of the leadership at the Academy and at Air Force headquarters for the past 10 years, starting with 1993, which is when a lot of these just began to be documented. We particularly asked for a review of the immediate prior leadership, General Gilbert, Colonel Slavec and General Wagie, who is still the dean of faculty. We feel that they were responsible. They were in command and they failed to ensure the safety and security of the cadets that were under them.

O'BRIEN: So when you say a review, you mean you'd like to see the people aforementioned being reprimanded in some way?

FOWLER: Well, it's up to the DOD I.G. as to what they would recommend. What we've done from our investigation is pointed out what we see as failures in leadership. But there needs to be a much more thorough investigation than we could do in the 90 days that we were charged with using for this panel to do its investigation.

O'BRIEN: Was the Air Force cooperative in your investigation?

FOWLER: They were very cooperative. I mean any information we asked for was forthcoming. We went out to Colorado Springs and spent two days there. Some of our panel went back for a second visit. Everything was open to us. We could go anywhere, talk to anyone. So they were very cooperative.

O'BRIEN: Before we get to the recommendations, I want to ask you a question about the culture of the Air Force Academy. A year ago, I guess, there was a survey, and 25 percent of the male cadets said that they think women don't belong at the Academy. That's a huge percentage with that perspective.

How do you change something like that?

FOWLER: That's going to be difficult. And really every survey over the past five years has shown that roughly 20 to 25 percent of the males surveyed -- not all of them were surveyed -- but of those surveyed, feel that way. That's a difficult culture to change and it's going to take time. It isn't going to happen overnight. But women have been, you know, at the Air Force Academy since 1976. They've been a part of that Academy, part of our air force and doing a fabulous job. And these young men have got to understand that they are an integral part of today's Air Force and today's military, and what the Academy has got to do is a much better job of training and educating these young men.

Their Center for Character Development, we found, had strayed from its main course and it needs to get back to really teaching character and values and ethics to these young men and helping them to understand how important women are to the military today.

O'BRIEN: Ms. Fowler, we don't have a ton of time, so if you can shorten this answer for me, I'd be grateful.

FOWLER: Yes?

O'BRIEN: Twenty-one recommendations, which is the most important?

FOWLER: That's hard to say. I would say probably the most important to us and to the victims is the establishment of a psychotherapist patient privilege so that there would be confidential reporting at the Air Force Academy. Right now there is no avenue for confidential reporting. The other two academies do have that choice and every victim we talked to said it is crucial to have a choice to report confidentially if you have one of these incidents occur.

O'BRIEN: Former Congresswoman Fowler, thanks for joining us this morning.

FOWLER: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: I appreciate it.

FOWLER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com