Colorado Springs, Colo ? High-level officials knew years ago that an Air Force Academy confidentiality policy was a critical weakness in the school’s sexual assault reporting system, but they didn’t correct it.

Some Pentagon officials predicted in 1996 that confidential reporting could put academy leaders in an indefensible position — or leave them “hanging out to dry.”

Academy leaders didn’t know how many assaults had occurred and couldn’t prosecute them because they allowed victims to remain nameless and not report the attacks to investigators.

As a result, the academy’s worst sexual assault scandal in its 49-year history led to the March removal of four top officers and the superintendent’s demotion.

Many Air Force officers said Lt. Gen. John Dallager’s loss of a star was unfair, given the high-level officials’ previous awareness of obstacles posed by confidentiality.

They say Dallager merely inherited a system higher-ups knew was flawed years ago.

“I haven’t heard anyone say, ‘He got what he deserved,'” one Air Force official said. “The prevailing sentiment is he was the political sacrifice.”

Some say victim anonymity is largely to blame for the scandal in which dozens of women said the academy dismissed their reports and punished them for rule violations such as drinking in the dormitories.

The allegations sparked four investigations, including one authorized by Congress.

Air Force officials admit two previous investigations identifying the pitfalls of anonymous assault reporting — in 1996 and in 2000 — involved top Air Force lawyers, law enforcement officials and the service’s surgeon general.

They say those investigations led to a policy decision to keep confidentiality by academy superintendents.

There’s no evidence any former chiefs or secretaries — to whom superintendents report — were consulted as the investigations unfolded. The investigations predate Secretary James Roche and Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper.

Who knew about the warnings and when might become a central theme as senators and others begin investigating — and looking to lay blame — in the academy’s scandal.