Wednesday, June 11, 2003

Air Force Academy
seems to have eluded any possibility of an unfavorable outcome when the civilan review panel looks at how they handle alleged rapes. Don Rumsfield has appointed Anita K. Blair to head the civilian investigation of sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy. In case the name doesn't ring a bell she is a founder of the Independent Women's Forum whose directors emeritae include Lynne V. Cheney and Midge Decter. Getting the idea?

Ms. Blair is personally on the record as being opposed to women in the military and gender integrated training. On a related note, she also wrote the Independent Women's Forum's amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court case supporting the Virginia Military Academy (VMI) in their quest to exclude women from the publicly funded military academy.

Other members include Amy McCarthy a pilot who has already said that the ''veracity of these allegations may be suspect'' because some accusers ''were involved in drinking, partying, strip poker, what I call high-risk behaviors." Oh and there is Jusiah Bunting III who was part of the same effort to exclude women from VMI. And according to The Denver Post Dr. Sally Satel is a psychiatrist and a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. She also served on the national advisory board of Blair's Independent Women's Forum.

I'm feeling a just a tiny bit uncomfortable about the fair mindedness of the panel. How about you?

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