DENVER -- Changes made by a Colorado Springs congressman in a plan to hold Air Force Academy leaders accountable for a sex-assault scandal has drawn the wrath of victims and their advocates.

An amendment was written this month by a group of U.S. senators in response to public outcry over how the academy has ignored or punished at least 56 possible sexual assault victims. The measure, included in the $80 billion spending bill for the Iraq war, called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to appoint a seven-member panel to independently investigate the assault scandal.

But before Congress approved the bill over the weekend, U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley had the words "accountability and responsibility" removed, so the investigation now calls for a "study of the policies" that allowed a hostile environment to exist at the academy.

Hefley's move was a "despicable watering down" of an amendment that lets academy commanders off the hook, Beth Hills, an advocate for military rape victims, said on Tuesday.

"No one believed for a moment that the bill would be altered in any way," Hills said.

Hefley represents Colorado Springs, which has a very large military constituency, and which takes a lot of pride in being the home of the prestigious military academy.

Hefley told 7NEWS that the he changed the wording of the bill so that it would get to the heart of the problem and not just merely look for somebody to blame.

"My fear all the time has been what I call fire and forget. The government ordinarily ... when they get in a mess like this is they fire someone and then they say, everything is fine. Well, everything is not fine. If anyone is responsible for this, I'm not defending them. I want to nail them, but that's not nearly enough. The system is broken and we need to fix that system," Hefley said.

"I have three daughters and I would like to feel that the Air Force Academy is the safest place in the world where I can send my three daughters to school, but I don't feel that way right now. I am outraged by the way they've handled these cases out there, so I am on the victim's side. But what I was worried about, with the way the Senate amendment came out was that they were looking to witchhunt and that might be all that would be done," Hefley said.

"The problem is that we have many years of having a broken system. So who are you going to blame? Maybe they can find someone to place blame, and I'm not doing anything to stand in the way of doing that. I am not trying to protect anybody but I want them to look much deeper than just who is to blame. And that's an easy thing to do -- find someone to blame. It's a whole lot harder thing to correct the system that caused the problem."

Hefley said that he doesn't mind having individual commanders be held responsible for the sexual scandal if they are truly to blame.

"I don't think you just pick somebody. You don't pick, just, say Gen. (John) Dallager, who is the superintendent now, and say because this came to light under his watch that he's responsible for a 10- or 12- or 15- year problem. But I think you look and if you find someone who is actually to blame, fine. But don't tell me that's the end of the case," Hefly said.

The changes in the wording didn't come to light until Monday and now some people are trying to stop President George Bush from signing the measure, which could occur as early as Wednesday.

"This is outrageous," said Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., the ranking woman on the House Armed Services Committee.

Sanchez, a new appointee to the academy's governing Board of Visitors, said Hefley, also a member, mentioned nothing to her about changing the language when the board met in Washington last week.

"It doesn't matter how many stars somebody has on their shoulder," Sanchez said. "We owe it to our young people that everybody is held accountable for crimes that have happened and work to change that atmosphere."

Four top academy leaders, including Superintendent Lt. Gen. John D. Dallager and Commandant Gen. S. Taco Gilbert III, were ousted last month because of the sex scandal.

There are already three military investigations conducted by the Air Force and the Defense Department looking into the sex scandal, but the amendment would create an independent investigation that would name names -- that would determine those who were responsible for the atmosphere which are conducive to acts of sexual misconduct.

Sen. Wayne Allard and several other senators and congressional representatives called for an independent investigation because they believed the Air Force was not holding those responsible for the scandal accountable.

The committee, unlike the three other investigations, would have no active military personnel on it.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., after learning of Hefley's change, said he was troubled "that there is apparently still resistance to conducting a full, independent investigation of the Air Force Academy sexual assaults," spokesman Dan Gerstein said.

Former cadets and alleged rape victims say that Hefley "doesn't get it."

The scandal was first brought to light by 7NEWS Investigates which interviewed a number of former cadets who claimed they were the victims of sexual assault and that their cases were covered up.

Additional Info:

Congressman Joel Hefley's Web site