Gay Blogger Accesses DADT Survey

Blogger John Aravosis of Americablog said he has compromised a secondary part of the Pentagon's DADT survey that's intended to solicit information from service members who are particularly concerned about being identified by their responses.

The "confidential dialog" that Aravosis said he infiltrated is a mechanism that can be accessed by service members two ways -- it is offered as an option to anyone who completes the survey that was sent to 400,000 troops, or people who do not participate in the survey can obtain a personal ID number by going to an online in box. The PINs are supposed to allow people to engage the chat on any computer without having their CAC (Common Access Card) associated with the chat.

Aravosis said he was provided two separate PINs by service members who contacted him, and he logged into the system twice using each PIN but didn't actually engage in the chat.

"Their point was that (a) military people can go to the chat repeatedly and (b) outside activists could also sign in repeatedly," he said.

Aravosis also said he had a third party sign in and actually engage the chat mechanism. That person took screen shots of portions of the dialog that didn't reveal the PIN they had been provided.

"This section of the survey will now get thrown out because of their incompetence. What's to stop Elaine Donnelly from having her minions do it a thousand times over?" he said, referencing one of the main detractors of repeal who heads the antigay Center for Military Readiness.