While the United States is at war in an Arabic speaking country and spending millions of dollars developing handheld translation devices, why is the Defense Department firing people who speak the language of its enemies?
That's what 40 members of the House of Representatives asked in a letter to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) asking for hearings on the firings of gay Arabic linguists.
The letter focuses specifically on the firing of Navy Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class Stephen Benjamin who says he was widely known to be gay among his colleagues and that his boss urged him to sign a statement saying he is not gay just so he could stay on the job.
Benjamin told the Associated Press that he was caught improperly using the military's secret level computer system to send messages to his roommate serving in Iraq -- messages that may have mentioned being gay or a recent date. Stephens was planning to re-enlist at the time.
"At a time when our military is stretched to the limit and our cultural knowledge of the Middle East is dangerously deficient, I just can't believe that kicking out able, competent Arabic linguists is making our country any safer," said Rep. Marty Meehan (D-MA). Meehan is asking Skelton to support legislation that would repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
The letter says the military has fired 58 Arabic linguists under the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which allows gay servicemembers to stay in the military as long as they deny who they are and don't engage in homosexual behavior.
Benjamin said investigators from the Defense Department's inspector general's office pulled the message logs for one day and reviewed them for violations. Some people, he said, received administrative punishments for writing dirty jokes, profanity and explicit sexual references.
According to researchers at the California-based Michael D. Palm Center, which tracks these issues, three Arabic linguists were fired as a result of the computer reviews. Their names were not released. Benjamin agreed to discuss the incident publicly.
The center's director, Aaron Belkin, said, "There is simply no common sense reason for the military to fire Arabic linguists in the midst of a dire shortage of translators. Translating al-Qaida cables is more important the making sure that the military is free of gays.''
--Catherine MacRae Hockmuth
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