Inside the Ring

Press unit killed

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has shut down a rapid-response press operation run out of the Pentagon speechwriting shop because it is not suited to his style of press relations, according to current and former defense officials.

The press operation was set up by Defense SecretaryDonald H. Rumsfeld about two years ago. The former defense secretary was harshly critical of the press, as are other senior Bush administration officials, notably Vice President Dick Cheney.

Mr. Gates killed the unit several months ago and had its activities folded into other elements of the Pentagon”s public-affairs office, a senior defense official said.

“We continue to respond to false news stories and misleading stories about the Pentagon and the military in a variety of ways depending on the situation,” the senior official said. “Secretary Gates made it clear when he arrived last December that this could be done without a rapid-response operation.”

Said a former defense official: “The unit was an attempt to try and do a more aggressive job of getting the facts out when articles and stories appear. It was something Secretary Rumsfeld felt strongly about.”

The unit would monitor U.S. and foreign press reports and highlight stories that were “missing key elements.” It then would quickly send information to congressional and press contacts “so people could see the rest of the story,” the former official said.

Gays in the military

The Center for Military Readiness (CMR) is starting a new public education campaign aimed at countering proposals by activists to repeal the current law banning homosexuals from openly serving in the U.S. armed forces.

“We have decided to the give the law an unofficial name of its own, the ‘Military Personnel Eligibility Act of 1993,” in order to draw distinctions between the statute that Congress actually passed and the convoluted ‘don”t ask, don”t tell” policy that the legislators correctly rejected,” said Elaine Donnelly, president of the Michigan-based CMR.

“Problems began when Bill Clinton imposed that policy on the military anyway with inconsistent enforcement regulations that should have been administratively dropped years ago,” she said. “CMR will continue to counter the steady stream of inaccurate information, faux ‘studies,” skewed polls, celebrity ‘endorsements” and other media events orchestrated as part of the PR campaign to repeal the 1993 law, which is slandered every time it is referred to as ‘don”t ask, don”t tell.” ”

Currently, homosexuals in the armed services can enlist or stay in the military as long as their sexual orientation is not made public.

Congress rejected that policy as too difficult to understand, explain or defend in federal court. In its place, legislators codified Defense Department regulations that stated that “homosexuality is incompatible with military service.”

The law currently has no formal name and is simply known as Section 654, Title 10. CMR will campaign for it to have a name to better clarify the policy and law, Mrs. Donnelly said.

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