A previously-undisclosed investigation conducted by the Department of Defense Inspector General strongly suggests that the so-called Pentagon “study” of gays in the military in 2010 was a publicly-funded, pre-scripted production put on just for show. This a link to the 30-page DoD IG report, which a concerned source sent to CMR:

Investigation of Improper Disclosure of For Official Use Only Information from the Comprehensive Review Working Group Draft Report

The report provides even more reasons why the administration cannot in good faith “certify” final repeal of the 1993 law.

The “For Official Use Only” report, completed on April 8, 2011, reveals improper activities and deception that misled members of Congress in order “to gain momentum in support of a legislative change during the ‘lame duck’ session of Congress following the November 2, 1010, elections.” (p. 20)   

The Center for Military Readiness has reviewed the DoD IG Report in a Policy Analysis, available here:

DoD Inspector General Exposes Improper Activities to Repeal Gays in Military Law (“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”)

A two-page summary of the CMR Policy Analysis, including excerpts from the DoD Inspector General Report, is available here.

Executive Summary:

In 2010 the Defense Department’s Comprehensive Review Working Group (CRWG) commissioned an official survey of over 400,000 troops and families, and conducted scores of focus groups worldwide to seek opinions on the law usually called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”    Uniformed personnel who participated in good faith were led to believe that their opinions would be heard and respected.  But as early as the July 4, 2010, weekend, even before the official survey of troops began, CRWG Co-Chair and DoD General Counsel Jeh Johnson was seeking advice from a “former news anchor” on how to write the report’s Executive Summary more “persuasively.”

The DoD IG report concluded that someone who “had a strongly emotional attachment to the issue” and “likely a pro-repeal agenda” violated security rules and leaked misleading information to the Washington Post.  On November 11, 2010, the Post published a highly-misleading story suggesting that “70%” of active-duty and reserve troops surveyed by the Defense Department thought that the results of repealing the current law would be "positive, mixed, or nonexistent."

Pentagon officials allowed that well-spun "money quote" to dominate the news for weeks, without correction, even though substantial survey findings to the contrary were in the actual report that the CRWG officially released on November 30, 2010.  The  ultimate result of this travesty was a rushed vote to repeal the law regarding homosexuals in the military with delayed implementation, during the December lame-duck session of the 111^th Congress.

Investigators interviewed 96 of 101 people with access, but stopped short of questioning five named White House officials who met to discuss the draft report on November 9—just before the carefully-spun leaked story appeared in the Washington Post.  One of these was James Messina, Deputy Chief of Staff for President Obama and the president’s “liaison” to LGBT activists.  Messina, hailed by gay activists as an “unsung hero” in the drive to repeal the 1993 law, is now the campaign manager for President Obama’s Chicago-based re-election effort.

The purpose of the contrived CRWG process was to neutralize military opposition to repeal of the law by manufacturing an illusion of support.  The administration misused military personnel, resources, and facilities to help President Obama to deliver on political promises to gay activists at the expense of unknowing troops who became props in the pro-repeal campaign.

The 112^th Congress should question White House officials who were not interviewed by the DoD IG, and do everything possible to repair the damage done to our military.

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