The US spy agency is having a #MeToo moment, according to the outlet
Almost a third of CIA employees have experienced inappropriate sexual conduct in the workplace at least once during their career, according to the first-ever internal survey by the US spy agency, shared exclusively with CNN.
According to the outlet, the agency is undergoing “its own #MeToo moment,” referring to a public campaign against sexual harassment in the entertainment industry that erupted in 2017 leading to the conviction and incarceration of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
”We are not where we need to be, and I don’t need a survey to tell me that,” CIA Chief Operating Officer Maura Burns, not related to Director William Burns, told CNN.
Only a quarter of the agency’s employees participated in the voluntary survey. Of those that did, 28% said they’d experienced “at least one instance of a sexually hostile work environment” during their time at the CIA, while 9% encountered at least one such instance in just the past year.
CNN has noted that this is “just slightly higher than the national average” and lower than the US military’s figures. The outlet pointed to two major cases suggesting a “deep-rooted cultural problem” at the Langley, Virginia-based agency.
One officer, stationed in Europe until recently, is alleged to have knowingly infected at least five women with a sexually transmitted disease. He is still employed at the agency, working at headquarters pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
A female contractor has also accused a senior CIA officer of pressuring her into sexual relations, allegedly visiting her home with a firearm and handing her a knife while on CIA premises as a “threat,” according to a federal lawsuit. Two sources told CNN that the officer in question has been fired.
Last month, a federal court in Virginia sentenced a former CIA officer to 30 years in prison for sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact, coercion and enticement, and transportation of obscene material. Brian Jeffrey Raymond pleaded guilty to raping four women, sexually abusing six, and taking obscene photographs of 28 female victims, while posted in various Latin American countries for over a decade.
To deal with the problem at the agency, Maura Burns has reportedly set up a Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Office (SHARP). In a September 25 town hall, Burns and SHARP head Dr Taleta Jackson advised officers on how to report sexual harassment without compromising their cover or classified information.
”Go call the police. The cover issue, we will fix, don’t worry about that,” Burns told the town hall, CNN reported.
According to a complaint filed by one alleged victim in June, however, one CIA employee claimed she was told by management to lie to the police about the affiliation of both herself and her attacker with the agency, or the fact that she was allegedly assaulted on agency premises. If she did so, claimed ‘Danielle Sparks,’ she would be guilty of mishandling classified information.
