Pentagon report finds little risk to ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
Top story: A Pentagon study group is prepared to find that the military can end its ban on openly gay service members without significant ill effects to the U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The panel, which was created by President Obama in February, will present its findings to the president on Dec. 1.
The report will cite the results of a survey sent to 400,000 active-duty and reserve soldiers on the effects of ending the military's current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Over 70 percent of respondents replied that lifting the ban would have a positive effect on the military or no effect at all. The authors concluded that the remaining opposition would fade away once soldiers had firsthand experience living with openly gay service members.
A draft of the report was sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs Adm. Michael Mullen, and other high-ranking military officials last week. It proposes a plan for lifting the ban, which could serve as the military's manual on the subject if military officials approve of it. The report also advises the military against creating a special category for gay soldiers, to monitor equal opportunity or discrimination issues; it said that gay troops, who participated in the survey and an anonymous online drop box for suggestions, did not want a special classification.
Iraq one step closer to a government: Iraqi leaders struck a tentative deal that would end the country's eight month political vacuum, and guarantee the participation of all the major political parties in the government.
| Asia - In a shift in tone, senior U.S. officials are emphasizing that U.S. soldiers will remain in Afghanistan well beyond July 2011, the scheduled date for beginning the withdrawal of troops.
-
President Obama said at the G-20 conference in Seoul that the United States and South Korea were willing to offer North Korea significant economic incentives to abandon its nuclear weapons program. -
The Afghan election commission opened an investigation into allegations that a top government official exerted pressure on an election official to manipulate the results of the country's parliamentary elections. Middle East -
Scotland Yard authorities found that the package bomb from Yemen intercepted in Britain on Oct. 29 could have exploded over the east coast of the United States if it had been allowed to proceed. -
The United Nations said that there has been "no material change" for Gazans after Israel eased its blockade of the Gaza Strip. -
Iranian President Mahhmoud Ahmadinejad accused the International Atomic Energy Agency of leaking information to the United States. Europe -
A protest outside London's Conservative Party headquarters over the government's plans to raise university tuition fees turned violent. -
A Russian newspaper named the Russian intelligence officer allegedly responsible for helping the United States break up a Russian spy ring last year. -
French authorities said that they prevented a terrorist plot with the arrest of five French Islamists. Africa -
Five Somali men on trial for piracy in a U.S. court denied the charges against them. -
Three French citizens held hostage after being kidnapped while working on an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria were released. -
Early results in Guinea's presidential election show a tight race, resulting in heightened tension in the country. Americas -
Negotiations between the United States and South Korea to reach a free trade agreement faltered. -
The death toll from the cholera epidemic in Haiti rose to 644. - The U.S. Interior Department's inspector general released a report accusing the White House of editing a report on drilling safety to make it appear that scientists supported its six-month ban on offshore drilling.
|  |
-David KennerMaria Belen Perez Gabilondo/AFP/Getty Images
_5.gif)
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder