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Red Cross General Counsel Resigns Over Handling of Sexual Assault Allegations

Red Cross General Counsel Resigns Over Handling of Sexual Assault Allegations

American Red Cross General Counsel David Meltzer has resigned after a ProPublica story detailed troubling aspects of how he handled a sexual misconduct case involving another senior official at the charity.

In his resignation letter, dated Jan. 31 and effective immediately, Meltzer wrote to American Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern that he deeply regretted his handling of the case. “I want to ensure that the reputation of the institution remains strong and that nothing interferes with the organization’s ability to effectively carry out its important mission,” his letter says.

In an organization-wide email this morning, McGovern announced the resignation. “Over the course of the last year, we have seen news accounts of other organizations and institutions contending with serious instances of sexual harassment and the harmful repercussions that such misconduct can create. Last week, it was our organization’s turn to again struggle with these issues,” McGovern wrote. “I am committed to moving forward in a way that strengthens us as an organization.”

ProPublica’s story last week reported that in 2012 the charity pushed out a senior executive in its international division, Gerald Anderson, after an internal investigation concluded he sexually harassed at least one subordinate. Another Red Cross employee accused him of rape. Through his lawyer, Anderson has denied any sexual misconduct. Save the Children, which hired Anderson after he left the Red Cross, said in a statement today that “Anderson is no longer employed by Save the Children.”

At the conclusion of the investigation in 2012, Meltzer sent out an email announcing Anderson’s departure in which Meltzer praised Anderson for his “dedication” and “leadership.” Meltzer then angered some employees at a staff meeting when he said he wished Anderson were staying at the charity, according to several people who attended.

Shortly after he left the Red Cross, Anderson got a job as senior director for humanitarian response at Save the Children, a global charity based in Connecticut. Anderson was given a positive reference by a senior Red Cross official, according to Save the Children. The Red Cross said last week it was taking disciplinary action because of the positive reference but declined to provide details.

In his resignation letter, Meltzer apologized for his statements around Anderson’s departure.

“I deeply regret the damage this language may have caused the organization and its wonderful staff — particularly the employees involved in this matter,” he wrote. “I also deeply regret that my words could have undermined confidence in the commitment of the Red Cross to properly address complaints of this nature. I would never want to be the cause of such a result. Rather, I feel strongly that every employee must feel comfortable and protected in reporting harassment and other misconduct to management.”

Meltzer couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Meltzer’s resignation follows what multiple staffers described as a tense week at the charity. At an emotional staff meeting last week of the International Services Department, where Anderson and his accusers had worked, multiple employees called for Meltzer’s resignation and a public apology to the two women who made the allegations in 2012.

Meltzer worked for the Red Cross for over 12 years, rising from senior vice president for international services to a dual role as general counsel and chief international officer. In those positions, he helped oversee some of the charity’s largest — and at times, most troubled — projects. He played a leading role in its half-billion-dollar relief program after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the subject of a previous investigation by ProPublica and NPR.

Meltzer has also tried to manage the charity’s relationship with overseers on Capitol Hill. A 2016 Senate report found that Meltzer had successfully maneuvered to limit the scope of an inquiry into the charity’s disaster relief operations by the Government Accountability Office.

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FDA Panel Considers Lifting Ban On Blood Donations By Gay Men

FDA Panel Considers Lifting Ban On Blood Donations By Gay Men

By Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times (MCT)

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel has begun to consider whether to overturn a long-standing ban against accepting blood donations from gay men.

On Thursday, the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety and Availability heard testimony from advocates who say that the lifetime ban is discriminatory and that technological advances have made it obsolete.

“The ban on gay and bisexual men … was enacted in 1985 and focuses on sexual orientation more than the risk and science itself,” said Caleb Laieski, a 19-year-old gay activist who has sued the FDA to overturn the ban.

“A recent study by the American Red Cross estimates that lifting the blood donation ban could be used to help save the lives of more than 1.8 million people,” Laieski told the group.

The ban in the United States applies to any prospective male blood donor who has had sex with another man since 1977, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., the FDA explains on its website.

The FDA said the ban was necessary because gay and bisexual men are at an increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and other infections that can be transmitted via blood transfusion.

“HIV tests currently in use are highly accurate, but still cannot detect HIV 100 percent of the time,” the FDA states on its site. “It is estimated that the HIV risk from a unit of blood has been reduced to about 1 per 2 million in the USA, almost exclusively from so-called ‘window’ period donations.”

The window period exists very early after infection, when viral levels are too low to be detected by current methods. “For this reason, a person could test negative, even when they are actually HIV positive and infectious,” the FDA says.

Other industrialized countries, including Australia, Britain, France, Italy and Japan, have overturned similar bans on blood donation. Instead of barring gay and bisexual men for life, some of the countries allow them to donate blood if they have not had sex with another man in the last 12 months.

Laieski is not alone in opposing the U.S. ban. Last year, the American Medical Association voted to oppose the FDA policy, calling it “discriminatory and not based on sound science.”

In addition, three groups that supply nearly all of the nation’s blood — the American Red Cross, AABB and America’s Blood Centers — have long advocated ending the prohibition.

AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad

Guantanamo War Court Opens In Secret Session

Guantanamo War Court Opens In Secret Session

By Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — The judge in the USS Cole death-penalty tribunal launched a three-day pretrial hearing Wednesday with a closed session.

There was no explanation of the unusual closed hearing. In the past, Army Col. James L. Pohl, the judge, first held an open session to explain in advance the nature of the proceedings with prosecutors and defense attorneys that would exclude the public and alleged al-Qaida bomber, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 49, of Saudi Arabia.

This time, the attorneys, staff and trial judiciary arrived on a flight from the Washington, D.C., area Tuesday afternoon and started the hearing at around 9 a.m. without explanation.

According to the judge’s docket, a major topic expected this week was a bid by the prosecution to get the judge to reverse himself on an April 14 ruling. In it, the judge ordered the U.S. government to give al-Nashiri’s attorneys, in classified fashion, details of the secret CIA prison network where he was waterboarded and held out of reach of the International Red Cross and legal counsel from his capture in Dubai in 2002 until his arrival at Guantanamo in September 2006.

It is not known that, even if the judge does not reverse himself, whether the CIA will comply.

The order instructs prosecutors to provide al-Nashiri’s lawyers — not the public — with some of the agency’s most closely guarded secrets — including a place-by-place chronology of al-Nashiri’s four-year odyssey through the so-called “black sites,” as well as the names of interrogators, health professionals and guards who worked there.

Al-Nashiri is accused of orchestrating al-Qaida’s Oct. 12, 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S. Navy warship at the port of Aden, Yemen. Seventeen American sailors died and dozens more were injured after two men motored an explosives-packed skiff alongside the Cole and blew themselves up.

The session began a day after the chief prosecutor, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, issued a statement that calculated the amount of closed sessions in the case at “5 percent of the proceedings.” In the past, the court has weeks after the closed session released a partial transcript of the closed hearings that blacks out secret information but gives the public a general sense of what was discussed.

AFP Photo/Chantal Valery

Red Cross Counselors Offer Help To Grieving Families

Red Cross Counselors Offer Help To Grieving Families

By Lornet Turnbull, The Seattle Times

ARLINGTON, Wash. — Slowly, gradually, the families who have suffered the loss of loved ones and homes are starting to talk to mental health counselors about what comes next.

“They haven’t talked about recovery yet, about where they’re going to live. But that’s starting to happen,” said Ron Matayoshi, an American Red Cross volunteer from Honolulu who is providing mental health counseling. “That’s where case work comes in. It’s been a week now. People need services, they need to see to their financial needs, manage their families, get back to housing. It’s very important for them to … take care of their emotional needs.”

Matayoshi, a professor of social work at the University of Hawaii, is one of nearly 300 Red Cross volunteers from across the country providing a range of services to victims of the Oso-area mudslide, their families and rescue workers and other volunteers.

He has the soft, soothing voice of someone trained to listen.

When he arrived last week, Matayoshi was assigned to the Red Cross shelter at Post Middle School, where families displaced by the disaster have been staying and where relatives of victims — many from out of state — have been showing up.

A few days ago, he was reassigned to the staging area for volunteer rescue workers at the Oso Fire Department, where he’s talking to workers faced with the gruesome task of searching for those missing.

What he found here, Matayoshi said, is not quite what he expected.

“I expected to find what they tell me is a normal disaster,” he said, describing a scene where small pockets of family members surround the victims and professionals search for the missing.

“I didn’t expect the kind of tight-knit community that exists here, where everyone has been impacted by this disaster,” he said.

Matayoshi said a lot of what he and the 34 mental health counselors do is observe, build trust and wait for the right time to approach grieving families or volunteer rescue workers and to get them to talk about what they are feeling.

“They don’t just come up to you and say, ‘Let me tell you my story.’ We are developing relationships. We are new here. We are outsiders. We want to provide a friendly ear.”

Once they approach, he said, the counselors “kindly probe.”

In their search for closure, the families talk about how to identify a loved one, he said. “They want to talk about DNA testing, the length of time it will take to make an ID, how it is done.”

“We hear them asking the questions of the incident commander.”

He said the families frequently are surrounded by relatives and friends. “We watch. You don’t want to be a pest.”

“There are quiet moments when we can approach, happy moments when we can approach. You sometimes see them looking at pictures and passing them along and talking about them. That’s a private time, and not the time for me to go in and ask, ‘Who is that?’”

Then there are those moments, he said, “When they hear news from the incident commander that is too overwhelming and you see some stand up and have to leave. These are moments you just watch and see.”

“The losses are pretty significant. The stories they are telling are unreal. I cannot imagine the pain they are going through.”

He said those who need long-term help are referred to a case worker.

Matayoshi said he’s met family members who have come from across the country and want to reach the slide site.

“They don’t understand that the zone is now a biohazard,” he said.

Rescue workers, he said, want to talk about the process, what they see. “This is a slow process and they don’t want to miss anything. Inside they are thinking of the families.”

David Ryder