The Pentagon — surprise! — has been unable to find who leaked word to the Washington Post last November that an early Defense Department assessment concluded there would be “little risk” if the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on openly gay men and women serving in uniform were scrapped. While Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered that the “eyes-only” report be delivered to only 41 officials, another 60 — including five White House staffers — got access to the draft report or were briefed on its contents.
The Pentagon inspector general — ordered by Gates to find the source of the leak — noted:
We interviewed 96 of the 101 individuals with access to the draft Report or knowledge of its content. Each denied under oath that he or she disclosed information to the Washington Post or other media sources. We did not interview the White House staff members.
That was sufficient for those opposed to ending the 1993 ban. “The so-called Pentagon ‘study’ of gays in the military in 2010 was a publicly-funded, pre-scripted production put on just for show,” says Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, who released a copy of the IG probe Tuesday morning. “The administration misused military personnel, resources, and facilities to help President Obama deliver on political promises to gay activists at the expense of unknowing troops who became props in the pro-repeal campaign.”
