Brian Ross Investigates: The Peace Corps Sex Assault Scandal and Osama's Diary

 

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A Harvard Professor's Secret Revealed

Another victim who testified Wednesday was Karestan Koenen, who was raped in Niger in 1991. Koenen, who also appears on this week's episode of "Brian Ross Investigates," said she felt that the way the Peace Corps treated her after the assault was worse than the actual rape.

Koenen contacted ABC News to talk about the 1991 assault, and the Peace Corps' response, which "felt like someone had just kicked me in the stomach," after watching the "20/20" report in January. She had never told her story publicly before.

"What horrified me was that nothing has changed in 20 years," Koenen told ABC News. "I felt like I really had no choice but to come forward."

The ABC News interview with Koenen aired on "Good Morning America" hours before she took the stand in Washington, D.C.

Handout

Jess Smochek, left, of Pennsylvania was gang... View Full Caption

Jess Smochek, left, of Pennsylvania was gang raped in Bangladesh in 2004 by a group of young men after she says Peace Corps officials in the country ignored her pleas to re-locate her. She's pictured here with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer during training. Close

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WATCH Karestan Koenen on "Good Morning America"

WATCH an interview with Karestan Koenen

Koenen told Congress that the way the Peace Corps treated her after she was attacked made her feel like it was her fault and was "incredibly damaging."

"Peace Corps failed time and time again to protect us. We need the help of Congress," she told Congress on Wednesday.

Peace Corps Director Williams, who testified after Smochek, Koenen and other victims, acknowledged his organization's failure to respond appropriately to the victims. Williams said he would immediately replace a training tape currently in use at Peace Corps and obtained by ABC News in which some other victims of sexual assault appear on camera to describe what they had supposedly done wrong to bring on attacks.

WATCH the controversial training video.