Gates makes it official: 'I will not certify' DADT repeal

[Newsjock]

Source: Agence France-Presse

A formal end to the ban on gays serving openly in the US military will likely come by late July or early August, outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates told AFP on Thursday.

Gates, revising his earlier forecasts, said in an interview that final approval to end the prohibition would be left for his successor at the Pentagon, Leon Panetta, who is due to take over from Gates on July 1.

... "I will not certify," said Gates, but added he had launched preparations to pave the way for the move.

"What I have done is earlier this week met with the service chiefs and the service secretaries and we began what I would call the pre-certification phase of this," he said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110623/pl_afp/usmilitarygaysgates_20110623194642

[DevonRex]

1. I read the article. He's starting the process now

so that it'll be quicker and easier for Panetta to certify in July or August. this is instead of waiting to have Panetta do all this leg work when he takes over - which would delay certification significantly.

That's what the article says.

[housewolf]

2. Well, he does o nly have a week or two left in his position

I can't be too critical of his statement about this, he's a short-timer, kinda can't blame him for leaving it to his successor.

Who knows, maybe Leon Panetta even asked him to?????

[EFerrari]

7. I love you, housewolf, but this man is not a short timer.

He's been in government so long, he helpe shut down the IranContra investigation.

Buck passer is a more apt description.

[pnwmom]

3. Your inflammatory title, taking his statement out of context, distorts the meaning of what he said.

Why didn't you use the Yahoo title? "Next Pentagon chief will formally end gay ban: Gates"

What Gates said is that he's beginning the pre-certification so that Panetta will be able to go forward on the certification without a long delay.

"Gates said he sought to start preparations in his final weeks in office to ensure the issue could be taken up by his successor next month without any delays.
'I wanted to get this started because when Mr Panetta comes in he's obviously going to have a lot of things on his plate.
'And I was concerned that if I didn't get this started it might be delayed several weeks until he was able to get to it and inform himself about it.'
"He added: 'I think our hope would be that we would be in a position, and I underscore the word hope, to provide the certification sometime in the last half of July, early August.'"

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[backscatter712]

5. Unrecced for inflammatory and deceptive title.

You forgot to mention in the title that Gates isn't certifying because he's passing the baton to Panetta, who will.

[JI7]

6. this is very misleading

[SidDithers]

8. "Next Pentagon chief will formally end gay ban: Gates"...

Unrec.

Sid

[dsc]

9. gee so I guess some comment on words is OK

I got a stalking message for daring to comment on a poster's headline. Guess it matters whose words you criticise. I will say the headline should have been left as is, but a different article on this suggest it may not actually happen till October.

[DevonRex]

10. You're right. The original title should have been used.

I don't know what the issue was with another title/poster. But your opinion on this one shows intellectual honesty and it's appreciated.

[MrScorpio]

11. What's the problem here?

Gates is paving the way for Panetta to finalize repeal process after he takes over.

Are you upset about this, NJ?