Pentagon Gives In, Sexual Assault Expert To Testify Before House Panel

[flashl]

August 14, 2008 12:38 p.m. EST

Kris Alingod - AHN News Writer

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to let his agency's top official on sexual assault comply with a subpoena to testify to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The office of Committee Chair Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) said in a news release on Wednesday that Gates made the decision after the panel sent a letter to the Pentagon.

The decision comes two weeks after a federal judge said top White House aides are not protected by executive immunity from a subpoena to testify before Congress.

Dr. Kaye Whitley, director of the department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, was issued a subpoena to appear at a July 31 hearing before the committee. But Pentagon officials refused to let Whitley testify and sent Principal Deputy Undersecretary for Defense Michael Dominguez to the hearing instead.

The panel is investigating reports that of sexual assaults against women in the military. Four in 10 women in the military are sexually assaulted, according to testimony before the committee from Rep. Jane Hartman (R-CA).

In a letter Tuesday, Waxman and Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) said the department had provided no legal basis to keep a witness from complying with a congressional subpoena.

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. That sounds like one small step towards regaining at least half-civilised standards.