Pentagon: No 'don't ask, don't tell' discharges in several weeks (at least 40 days)

[Tx4obama]

Washington (CNN) -- The controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning gay men and lesbians from openly serving in the military remains the law of the land, except perhaps at the Department of Defense.

No service members have been discharged under the 1993 policy for at least 40 days. Last year, the Defense Department discharged an average of eight troops a week due to "don't ask, don't tell."

In spite of numerous requests, the Pentagon has been unable to say exactly when the last "don't ask, don't tell" discharge occurred. Defense Department spokesperson Cynthia Smith said Tuesday none had occurred since at least October 21.

On that day, Defense Secretary Robert Gates changed the rules to limit "don't ask, don't tell" discharge decisions to senior civilian leaders instead of the uniformed chiefs of the four branches of the service, all of whom have expressed opposition to repealing the policy.

Full article here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/30/dadt.discharges/index.html?hpt=Sbin

[TheWraith]

1. And those senior civilian leaders have no doubt been sitting on any new requests filed...

With DADT on a death watch, the odds of them catching legal trouble for failure to enforce have gone down by an order of magnitude.

[Tx4obama]

2. Bump. n/t