Asking And Telling

July 23, 2008

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers

CIVIL RIGHTS

Asking And Telling

Fifteen years ago yesterday, President Clinton announced the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, which was meant to relax the long-standing ban on gay men and women serving in the military. The government would no longer ask recruits whether they were gay, and in turn, servicemembers would be able to remain in the military as long as they didn't reveal their sexual orientations. This policy is outdated, discriminatory, and impeding the military's progress. Since 1993, the military has booted 12,300 servicemembers under DADT, including at least 58 valuable Arabic language specialists. Today, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel will be holding the first congressional hearings on DADT in 15 years. They come at a time that support for repealing the ban is increasing. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 75 percent of Americans believe "gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military" -- a dramatic rise from the 61 percent who supported the notion in 2001. Human Rights Campaign has organized a campaign telling Congress to repeal DADT here.

PENTAGON NO-SHOW: No Pentagon officials will be testifying at today's hearings. Subcommittee chairwoman Susan Davis (D-CA) said that she put in a request to the Defense Department, "but at this particular time...they're really not quite willing to come forward." Gay rights activists are disappointed at this no-show. "At a time when the military is relaxing every possible standard to attract new recruits...one would hope and expect that Defense Department leaders would be first in line to call on Congress to repeal the law," said Steve Ralls of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. One of the people testifying today is Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, who is gay and was the first U.S. soldier wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom. "We're allowing our prejudice to be put into action by allowing this discriminatory policy of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' to still exist, even in this day and age," he told the Washington Blade. In 2006, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) introduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would overturn DADT. The legislation now has 133 co-sponsors, including five Republicans, although President Bush is expected to veto it if it ever passes.

OUTDATED AND IMPRACTICAL: DADT makes no sense, especially at at time when the military is struggling to recruit and retain soldiers. A 2005 study by the Williams Project at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, found that as many as 41,000 new recruits could be found if the ban were repealed, "enough people to entirely staff half a dozen aircraft carriers." Additionally, gay servicemembers pose no risk to the unity or effectiveness of the armed forces; there is increasing evidence that many soldiers are already aware of their colleagues' sexual orientation. CBS's "60 Minutes" recently did a segment on whether commanders were becoming less strict in enforcing the ban on openly gay servicemembers. During the segment, correspondent Lesley Stahl spoke with Army Sgt. Darren Manzella, who said he was very open about his homosexuality and even introduced his fellow soldiers to his boyfriend. The Army was forced to open an investigation, but Manzella was eventually cleared to go back to work. He said he was basically told by his commanders, "I don't care if you're gay or not." Only after the CBS story was Manzella discharged. "My sexual orientation certainly didn't make a difference when I treated injuries and saved lives in the streets of Baghdad," said Manzella. "It shouldn't be a factor in allowing me to continue to serve." Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is aware of more than 500 U.S. soldiers who are "out" to their colleagues and continue to serve.

TIME FOR A CHANGE: Calls to repeal DADT continue to grow, even coming from the law's original architects and supporters. As chairman of the powerful Armed Forces Committee in the 1990s, then-senator Sam Nunn led a series of hearings that helped undermine Clinton's attempt to lift the ban on gays in the military. But last month, Nunn said it is time to re-examine DADT. "I think [when] 15 years go by on any personnel policy, it's appropriate to take another look at it," he said. Last month, Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen also said that the military was ready to accept gay servicemembers if Congress repeals DADT. A December 2006 survey of servicemembers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan found 73 percent of those polled were "comfortable with lesbians and gays." A new report by four retired senior military officers and sponsored by the Palm Center in California also calls for a repeal of DADT, marking "the first time a Marine Corps general has ever called publicly for an end to the gay ban." The officers concluded that allowing gays to serve openly "is unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline, or cohesion." In a significant shift, last year, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John M. Shalikashvili said that he no longer supported DADT and said that "if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces."

JUSTICE -- FBI AGENT: GUANTANAMO DETAINEES WERE NOT ADVISED OF RIGHTS: In testimony before the first Guantanamo military tribunal yesterday, FBI Agent Ali Soufan said that interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility were instructed not to advise detainees of their rights against self-incrimination. Soufan said that "the Guantanamo Bay Navy base is the only place in the world where he has not informed suspects of a right against self-incrimination." "The way it was explained to us is GuantanamoBay is an intelligence collection point," he said. Other FBI agents have also explained that "they were instructed not to advise Guantanamo detainees of rights," but Soufan is the first to provide a reason, according to the Associated Press. Defense lawyers in the trial of Salim Hamdan have asked that all statements made by Hamdan while at Guantanamo be prohibited, but "Judge Keith Allred, a Navy captain, ruled Monday that constitutional protections against self-incrimination do not apply to the man declared an 'enemy combatant.'" Allred has already thrown out some evidence that was obtained from Hamdan in "highly coercive environments and conditions."

ENVIRONMENT -- BUSH CRONIES TRIED TO REDEFINE 'CARBON DIOXCIDE' TO SAVE POWER PLANTS FROM EMISSIONS REGULATIONS: Earlier this month, former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official Jason Burnett wrote to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) with explosive revelations on how the White House has censored and distorted climate change science to protect corporate interests. In a Senate hearing yesterday, Burnett provided further details, revealing that Office of Management and Budget officials sought ways to define carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants as different from CO2 from automobiles, in order to shield industrial power plants from required by the landmark Supreme Court decision Massacuhussets v. EPA. "I must say that it was sometimes somewhat embarrassing," Burnett admitted, "for me to return to EPA and ask for my colleagues to explain yet again that CO2 is a molecule and there is no scientific way of differentiating between CO2 from car and a power plant." Burnett's revelations are particularly surprising as he is remembered by fellow EPA officials as "an administration loyalist who repeatedly sided with the White House while at the agency and gave no hint he was dissatisfied with Bush's approach to global warming." One anonymous EPA official explained to the Washington Post, "Jason, all of a sudden, has found his voice. ... When he was at EPA he did not have the conscience he's expressing now, this green conscience."

IRAQ -- CONSERVATIVE WRITER MAX BOOT CLAIMS MALIKI DOESN'T REALLY WANT WITHDRAWAL: On Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told German newspaper Der Spiegel that he favored a 16-month troop withdrawal timetable. In a Washington Post op-ed today, conservative writer Max Boot dismissed the statement, declaring on Monday that Maliki "is not really trying to push U.S. troops out by mid-2010" but was simply "playing politics." Boot insisted that Maliki's statement was "ambiguous"; as far as favoring withdrawal, Boot claimed "the Iraqi government is saying no such thing." In fact, the government has been clear. Not only did Maliki approve the statement before Der Spiegel published it, on Monday an Iraqi government spokesman declared -- in English and on camera -- that the government favored a withdrawal of forces by 2010. Poll after poll has shown that the Iraqi people want a U.S. withdrawal. A poll from March revealed that only 4 percent of Iraqis had "a great deal of confidence" in U.S. occupation forces, and that 72 percent strongly or somewhat opposed the presence of Coalition forces in Iraq.

Street got drunk," President Bush said at a private fundraiser last week in Houston. Unaware that he was being recorded, Bush joked about the country's housing crisis and said Wall Street now has "a hangover." (Watch the video here.)

According to IRS data, "the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades" and "possibly the highest since 1929.” Meanwhile, "the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years."

President George H.W. Bush's former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft warned the current president to stop threatening Iran. He said yesterday "that by mentioning that threat, 'we legitimize the use of force...and may tempt the Israelis' to carry out such a mission. He said he thinks that negotiations must continue."

One day before he is to meet with Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), British Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlined a tentative plan "for withdrawing most of Britain's remaining troops from Iraq early in 2009," telling Parliament that Britain planned a "fundamental change of mission." Brown gave no fixed timetable for withdrawal, however.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey "has defended or let stand some of the most controversial policies that he inherited" from his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said Mukasey "hasn't provided the balance that I had hoped for," and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reportedly called Mukasey's recent performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee "terrible."

Kurdish lawmakers in Iraq "walked out of parliament Tuesday in protest over a vote on conditions for Iraq’s provincial elections that called for ethnic groups to share power" in oil-rich Kirkuk. The walkout "appeared to reduce the chances that the elections would be held this year."

Political appointees at the Department of Labor are rushing to "push through" a rule before President Bush leaves office that would make it "tougher to regulate workers’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins." Workplace-safety advocates, unions and Democrats say that the Bush administration is "working secretly to give industry a parting gift that will help it delay or block safety regulations."

And finally: The Force is with Mike Pence. Following remarks by Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), American Values President Gary Bauer and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol at the third annual Washington Israel Summit last night, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) said that he felt like a sidekick. "That's kind of like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker -- and your final speaker will be R2-D2," Pence joked.

President Bush dropped his opposition today to legislation aiming to "calm the chaotic housing market" and help struggling homeowners get new, cheaper loans. The House is expected to vote on the bill today, "and it could become law as early as this week."

WEST VIRGINIA: "West Virginia is among the states doing the least to protect its residents from high gas prices, according to a national environmental group report issued Tuesday."

NEW JERSEY: "Attempts to publicly fund certain legislative campaigns next year were dealt a blow Tuesday by a legal opinion that says components of the program are likely unconstitutional."

MASSACHUSETTS: State "now has the fastest-growing food-stamp program in the country."

THINK PROGRESS: President Bush's cronies tried to redefine "carbon dioxide" to save power plants from emissions regulations.

WONK ROOM: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) denies responsibility: "A hold on a bill is not blocking a bill."

ARI'S FREEDOM SWITCH: Rev. Pat Robertson advocates Israel striking Iran before the 2008 election.

THE PLANK: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office explicitly approved the translation of his timeline comments to Der Spiegel.

"The responsibility for making the decision for California [tailpipe emissions standards] rests with me and solely with me. ... I made the decision. It was my decision."
-- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, 1/24/08

VERSUS

"[F]ormer EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K. Burnett...testified before the committee that Johnson had concluded that California's request was legally justified -- until White House officials ordered him to reverse the decision."
-- Washington Post, 7/23/08

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Asking And Telling

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