Mother of Sexually Harassed Soldier Recounts Ordeal as Daughter Remains Confined to Base

We move now from a case of U.S soldiers raping and killing an Iraqi teenager and her family to a case of U.S officers preying on their own. Last month, Army Specialist Suzanne Swift was arrested in Eugene, Oregon for refusing to return to fight in Iraq. Swift served in Iraq for a year but decided she could not return and went AWOL. Swift said her superiors repeatedly sexually harassed her while serving in Iraq.

Suzanne Swift remained AWOL until early June. Then on June 11th, the Eugene police knocked on her mother's front door and Suzanne was arrested and taken to the county jail. She has since been transferred to Fort Lewis Washington where she is confined to her base. So far, no charges have been filed against Suzanne for deserting and Fort Lewis officials have said they will assign an independent investigator to look into her charges of sexual harassment. Suzanne Swift turns twenty-two this weekend.

Last weekend I was at the Oregon Country Fair in Veneta and I sat down with Suzanne Swift's mother, Sara Rich. I asked her to go back to the beginning and tell us the story about how her daughter Suzanne was recruited, how she went to Iraq and what happened. This is her story.

* Sara Rich, mother of Army Specialist Suzanne Swift. More information at http://SuzanneSwift.org. Email Sara Rich at formydaughtersuzanne [at] yahoo.com

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