Airforce Lieutenant Colonel Violates Protective Order
BERMAN: Welcome back to STARTING POINT, everyone. A sharp rise in the number reported of sexual assaults in the military points to a growing crisis. President Obama bluntly calls it "shameful, disgraceful and a danger to national security." He met yesterday with Pentagon officials and he ordered them to take action. This comes amid a series of high-profile cases of alleged sexual abuse involving service members assigned to prevent those very crimes. Here is our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN REPORTER: Another embarrassment for the U.S. military, this time at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne Division. Lieutenant Colonel Darin Haas, the officer in charge of sexual assault prevention, was removed from his job after being arrested for violating a protective order to stay away from his estranged wife.</s>LT. COL. DARIN HAAS: HI this is Major Darin Haas from Bagram, Afghanistan.</s>STARR (voice-over): He had sent greetings to his wife while serving in Afghanistan in 2010. The incident came to light just hours after President Obama met with top brass about sexual assaults in the military.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's no silver bullet to solving this problem. This is going to require a sustained effort over a long period of time.</s>STARR (voice-over): The Ft. Campbell firing was the third in two weeks of personnel assigned to military sexual assault prevention jobs. At Ft. Hood, Texas, a sergeant 1st class is under criminal investigation by the Army for pandering. A Pentagon official says he may have forced someone into prostitution. Other allegations, abusive sexual contact and maltreatment of subordinates. And last week Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski was arrested on sexual battery charges for allegedly groping a woman near the Pentagon where he worked in sexual assault prevention. On Capitol Hill, pressure is mounting for historic changes in military law. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is introducing legislation so in sex assault cases where there may be jail time the decision to prosecute is taken away from commanders and given to military attorneys. Many feel prosecutors from outside a unit will be more vigorous.</s>SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: We believe enough is enough. It's time to change the system that has been held over since George Washington. That is simply not working today for the men and women who are serving.</s>STARR: And Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is warning if this problem of sex crimes in the military isn't solved, it could get to the point where parents and young people simply will not want to join the military, John, Christine.</s>BERMAN: Yes, a big problem, reaching this crisis level in Washington right now. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you so much.</s>ROMANS: OK.</s>ROMANS (voice-over): Ahead on STARTING POINT this Friday morning, a hatchet-wielding hitchhiker, who found Internet fame, now accused of murder. We've got the details behind this bizarre story just ahead.</s>BERMAN (voice-over): And then Abercrombie & Fitch CEO responds to the man who is rebranding the company by giving the company's clothes out to the poor. What he's now saying, coming up.</s>ROMANS (voice-over): Plus, what are the odds that you will win the more than half a billion dollar jackpot? We're going to tell you. You're watching STARTING POINT.