Email Rumours Forced Gay Sergeant Out of Us Army

A gay sergeant with vital Arabic language skills was expelled from the US army after an investigation based on anonymous email rumours, it has been claimed.

Bleu Copas, 30, says his dismissal was unjust even within the terms of the military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy, a compromise introduced by Bill Clinton in 1993 after he failed to lift the ban on gay people in the armed forces.

The affair has heightened criticism of the US military which, despite a serious shortage of Middle Eastern language specialists, dismissed at least 20 Arabic speakers for being gay in the years immediately before and after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. In total 11,000 gay servicemen and women have been forced to leave the military since the policy was introduced.

Mr Copas, who was given an honourable discharge in January, insists he told nobody about his sexuality - even when the director of the military band with whom he performed "brought everyone out into the hallway and told us about this email they had just received, and blatantly asked 'which one of you are gay?'"

Nevertheless, his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, launched an eight-month investigation. While they never determined the source of the emails, they concluded that Mr Copas had "engaged in at least three homosexual relationships, and is dealing with at least two jealous lovers".

An army source said the "don't ask, don't tell" policy had not been violated. "He doesn't have to tell," the source said. "If we receive credible information it would be negligent not to investigate."

But Sharra Greer, of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said the system was failing: "It's difficult to see how an anonymous email is a reliable source."