Saturday, November 22, 2008

Despite Assurances From Army, an Assault Case Founders

Despite Assurances From Army, an Assault Case Founders

On Christmas Day two years ago, Sgt. Carlos Renteria, recently back from his first tour in Iraq, got drunk and, during an argument, began to choke his wife, Adriana. He body-slammed her. He threw her onto the couch, grabbed a cushion and smothered her, again and again — until, finally, he stopped, she told the police in San Angelo, Tex.

Police photos showing injuries to Ms. Renteria’s face and arm.
He was arrested and charged with assault, and she went to the hospital for her injuries, which included bruises and a severely swollen knee. It was his second domestic violence arrest. Assured by an Army officer that the military would pursue the case, the Texas prosecutor bowed out.

Yet Sergeant Renteria has faced no consequences. Instead, since his arrest, he has been redeployed to Iraq and promoted to staff sergeant.

“I was told it would be taken care of, in more than one instance, by the Army,” said Ms. Renteria, 30, referring to the assault charges. “That they would help me. And I believed them.”

For nearly two years, she has prodded Sergeant Renteria’s chain of command, the inspector general at Fort Riley in Kansas (where he was transferred), the base’s military lawyers and its domestic violence office, e-mail messages and letters show. But Sergeant Renteria has not received any counseling, and the military justice system has said it will not prosecute him. The couple divorced last month.

Ms. Renteria’s story illustrates the serious gaps in the way the Army handles domestic violence cases and the way it treats victims, despite promises to take such crimes more seriously.

More than five years ago, after a series of wife-killings by soldiers, a Pentagon task force investigation concluded that the military was doing a better job of shielding service members from punishment than protecting their wives from harm. The Department of Defense began to make noticeable improvements, including expanding protections and services for victims. But problems clearly remain.

The prosecutor in the Renteria case, Allen Wright, was so concerned by the Army’s inaction that in May, he moved to take back the case, issuing an arrest warrant for Sergeant Renteria.

The warrant remains outstanding. The Army acknowledged that Ms. Renteria’s case had been mishandled.

“I’m angry,” said Maj. Nathan Bond, public affairs officer at Fort Riley, after The New York Times brought the case to the Army’s attention. “This is not my Army. This is not how we handle domestic violence cases.”

The Army’s handling of such cases is especially important in a time of war, when the number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder escalates. Studies show a link between the disorder and increased violence in the home.

The Army says that the measures it has taken have been effective in curbing domestic violence. But advocates of victims of domestic violence say that among combat troops the violence has spiked in the past two years and that women are often disinclined to report violence for fear of angering their partners and hurting their careers.

These advocates point to the gruesome murders of three female soldiers based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina within the last four months. One woman’s body was dismembered and dumped in the woods. Another woman, seven months pregnant, was found dead in a motel bathtub. The third was stabbed to death.

In each case, the victim’s boyfriend or husband, a soldier or marine, has been charged in the killing. All three suspects were deployed in Iraq at some point.

The recent killings, which echo a series of wife-killings by soldiers at the fort in 2002, have captured the attention of the Pentagon again. During a visit last month to Fort Bragg, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he was “very concerned” about the stress on combat troops. “We obviously want to stop all kinds of violence among our soldiers and families,” he said.

Yet an examination of Ms. Renteria’s case shows she had sought help from an array of people for behavior by her husband that the Army could trace to 2004.

“She has really tried to pursue this to make sure he gets the appropriate intervention,” said Jacquelyn Campbell, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and a member of the Pentagon’s task force on domestic violence, who was told about the case by The Times. “We had hoped with the military’s new awareness of the issues of domestic violence in the military, and with its new policies and procedures around addressing it, that this kind of thing wouldn’t be happening still.”

Carlos and Adriana Renteria fell in love listening to Cuban music in Miami Beach in May 2002. They were still newlyweds when the relationship began to sour, she said, marred by his sudden absences and verbal abuse.

Skip to next paragraph

On Dec. 12, 2004, drunk and angry, he grabbed a baseball bat and swung it at her as she held their infant son, according to the military police report. The bat stopped just short of her head, brushing her cheek.

Twenty minutes later, he threatened to kill her. She called the military police at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Tex., where the couple was stationed.

Sergeant Renteria was ordered to take anger management classes on base. He attended one class. “ ‘I can’t be touched, can’t you see?’ ” Ms. Renteria said her husband told her. “ ‘They aren’t going to do anything to me.’ ”

The couple separated and then reunited on a promise that Sergeant Renteria would change. But his behavior grew more erratic after his return from Iraq in October 2006. He cut himself one day to test his pain threshold. He asked to choke her, as an experiment. She said no.

Two months later, she said, he did not bother to ask.

When the police showed up at her door, they asked whether her husband had just returned from an “overseas assignment.”

She said yes.

“Ever since he has returned there have been problems with Carlos’s behavior and mood swings,” she told them, according to the police report. She said, “Carlos was also having nightmares while sleeping and has also been drinking to the point of intoxication on a regular basis.”

Mr. Wright, the prosecutor in Tom Green County, Tex., received a phone call from an officer at Fort Riley in January 2007 asking if he would be willing to hand over the case. (The military can request jurisdiction when a service member is arrested.) Sergeant Renteria was due to be transferred to the base, so Mr. Wright agreed. “The Army assured me they would take care of it — counseling, monitoring,” Mr. Wright said. “We all want to help our military.”

At a meeting in July 2007, First Sgt. Robert L. Simmons, the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer in her husband’s unit, also promised Ms. Renteria that the Army would go beyond sending her husband to classes for anger and alcohol, which had not worked the first time. He said the Army would prosecute, Ms. Renteria said.

Sergeant Simmons said he, too, had seen her husband lose his cool at work and was sufficiently concerned to request a three-week “no contact” order for Sergeant Renteria to keep away from his wife. Sergeant Simmons added that he would move to get her husband prosecuted on the assault charge to prevent him from redeploying to Iraq. Under federal law, offenders convicted of domestic violence are banned from using weapons. That would have prevented Sergeant Renteria from going to Iraq.

A few weeks later, Sergeant Simmons was deployed to Iraq, and Ms. Renteria said she never heard from him again.

Fort Riley quickly closed ranks around Sergeant Renteria. That became clear to Ms. Renteria after a brief conversation in August 2007 with an assistant at the inspector general’s office. “ ‘Honey, we are not going to bring a soldier back who beat on his wife a couple of times or because you feel things weren’t done correctly,’ ” Ms. Renteria said, recalling the conversation. “ ‘He is over there fighting for his life.’ ”

Seven months later, with no word from the Army, Ms. Renteria called Mr. Wright in Texas, in tears. He eventually reached a lawyer at Fort Riley, an Army captain, who, to Mr. Wright’s astonishment, said he was under the impression that Mr. Wright had closed the case because it was “deficient.” Mr. Wright corrected him. He gave Fort Riley 90 days to tell him exactly what the Army had done.

When the Army did not respond, “I issued a warrant before any more time lapsed,” Mr. Wright said.

Sergeant Renteria returned home from Iraq on leave in May, but went back before the warrant could be processed. After The Times provided the Army with details of the case last month, it looked into the matter.

“The accusation of domestic violence is taken very seriously,” Major Bond said, adding that such cases could be a “mess.” In this case, “there were some communication issues,” he said.

Major Bond said the case review committee at Fort Riley concluded in the summer of 2007 that Sergeant Renteria should attend an anger management and alcohol abuse program. Instead he was redeployed to Iraq.

He will attend classes upon his return, Major Bond said. Sergeant Renteria, who is in the process of transitioning home from Iraq, could not be reached for comment.

In the end, his command opted not to prosecute. Major Bond would not explain why, citing privacy reasons.

“Whether it has moved along at the speed we would have liked is questionable,” Major Bond said of the case. Nonetheless, he added, “The outcome is consistent with other cases.”

But not deploying Sergeant Renteria was never an option, Major Bond said. “We are in the business of fighting a war, and we let very little interfere with that,” he said.

Ms. Renteria’s divorce became official in October, but the couple has two young sons, and she worries that his behavior, left unchecked after his second tour, will worsen. She has secured a restraining order.

“I feel that nobody is in my corner,” Ms. Renteria said. “Because he wears a uniform, he is protected by everybody.”
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Wow, disbelief is a word that comes hard to me, I am a disabled Army Infantry Staff Sergeant, and I could not imagine having a soldier in my unit that has abused his spouse to this point and letting him get promoted, let alone not even sent for counseling for the domestic relation problems, if the local DA did not charge him, I would have referred him for an Article 15 non-judicial action for conduct unbecoming an NCO. Stripping him of his ability to earn a living is not in the best interest of his ex wife nor their children, but to allow him to get off scot free without any liability is wrong, a war or no war this is not the Army I was in 30 years ago.

Someone at Fort Riley should see this man in counseling and making sure his child support payments are being made at the very least. I really doubt that any reconciliation is possible for this couple, but this man needs counseling for his mood swings, PTSD or whatever else the Army chooses to call it. But accountability is required.

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President Elect Obama's 2nd weekly address



I hope this becomes a mainstay over his Presidency it is in a way refreshing to have a national leader that actually "leads"

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a thought from Mark Twain

“Let us consider that we are all insane, it will explain us to each other and un-riddle many riddles.”

Mark Twain


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Eric Massa accepts the win on Nov 4th defeating Congressman Kuhl

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New friendly fire coverup: Army shreds files on dead soldiers

New friendly fire coverup: Army shreds files on dead soldiers

Hours after Salon revealed evidence that two Americans were killed by a U.S. tank, not enemy fire, military officials destroyed papers on the men.

Editor's note: On Oct. 14, 2008, Salon published an article about the deaths of Army Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez. The Army attributed their deaths in Iraq in 2006 to enemy action; Salon's investigation, which included graphic battle video and eyewitness testimony, indicated that their deaths were likely due to friendly fire.

After Salon published Benjamin's Oct. 14 report, the Army ordered soldiers to shred documents about the men. As proof that they were ordered to destroy the paperwork, a soldier saved some examples and provided them to Salon.

By Mark Benjamin


Nov. 20, 2008 | FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Last month, Salon published a story reporting that U.S. Army Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez were killed by U.S. tank fire in Ramadi, Iraq, in late 2006, in an incident partially captured on video, but that an Army investigation instead blamed their deaths on enemy action. Now Salon has learned that documents relating to the two men were shredded hours after the story was published. Three soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo. — including two who were present in Ramadi during the friendly fire incident, one of them just feet from where Nelson and Suarez died — were ordered to shred two boxes full of documents about Nelson and Suarez. One of the soldiers preserved some of the documents as proof that the shredding occurred and provided them to Salon. All three soldiers, with the assistance of a U.S. senator's office, have since been relocated for their safety.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
Please go to Salon.com and read the entire article, it is an important story on the lengths the military is going to in order to conceal the entire truth from families and the upper levels of the Chain of Command, since the death of Pat Tillman they have shown no shame in cover ups of deaths of soldiers. It needs to stop, just tell the truth the families deserve nothing less.

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President Elect Obama Mulls Options for Veterans Affairs Secretary

More on Cleland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Cleland
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6qcnae
Obama Mulls Options for Veterans Affairs Secretary, Including Tammy Duckworth and Max Cleland
By Amanda Ruggeri
Posted November 19, 2008
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/11/19/obama-mulls-options-for-veterans-affairs-secretary-including-tammy-duckworth-and-max-cleland.html
It may not be one of the most headlined positions in the cabinet, but for 20 percent of the American population—veterans and their dependents—the question of whom President-elect Barack Obama will pick as the secretary of veterans affairs is a big one.


Obama has made ambitious promises to veterans, including reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs, launching programs against homelessness, and improving mental health treatments. Veterans' organizations say they also expect him to tackle the problem of some 800,000 backlogged disabilities claims and to focus on effective implementation of the new GI bill.
In order to accomplish any of these goals, he'll need someone who can shake up a notoriously slow-moving bureaucracy. Insiders say he's particularly looking for an up-and-comer on the youthful side who can bring change to the VA.

Several names are flying around Washington. One possibility—Chet Edwards, a congressman from Texas—took himself out of the running this week, telling Obama that he'll stay in the House. Here are some of the most talked-about names.

Tammy Duckworth, Illinois veterans affairs director. Many insiders say that Duckworth is the top contender for the spot, even though Duckworth herself has said she hasn't heard from Obama. But she has a number of advantages as Obama picks his team.

First, various veterans' advocates have lauded her for her leadership. In her two years as VA state director, she helped expand programs to offer low-interest home loans for veterans, free screenings for traumatic brain injury, and a 24-hour hotline for post-traumatic stress syndrome sufferers. And as a 40-year-old Army National Guard pilot who lost both legs in Iraq in 2004, she has experienced firsthand the frustrations of the VA disabilities system, a perspective veterans would welcome.

Then there's the fact that her background boosts Obama's message of inclusion and change. Born in Thailand and raised in Hawaii, Duckworth is Asian-American. And she'd be the first woman to serve as head of the VA at a time when women make up 14 percent of the armed forces.

Something else in her favor is that Duckworth is no stranger to Obama; she spoke at this year's Democratic National Convention in his support. She also accompanied Obama for a wreath-laying ceremony on Veterans Day in Chicago, kicking up cabinet conjectures.

Even if Duckworth doesn't wind up in Obama's cabinet, though, it's possible that she'll be following him to Washington. Duckworth, who ran a failed congressional bid in 2006, has been reportedly short-listed to replace Obama in the Senate. She has said that she'd be honored by being considered for either post. But there's no news yet on whether either one has been offered officially.

Max Cleland, former senator and former administrator of the VA. The other front-runner is a familiar one in veterans' circles. At the age of 34, Cleland, a triple amputee for his Vietnam War injuries, took over the VA under President Jimmy Carter. As director, he gained a reputation for reform, pursuing policies that ranged from expanding medical treatment for the disabled to computerizing VA record-keeping.

More recently, Cleland served as a senator from Georgia until he lost a tough re-election fight in 2002. And for Democrats, that loss could be part of the cherry on top for the choice of Cleland. His opponent released ads that asked if the decorated veteran had the courage to lead—damage that, supporters say, his pick as secretary could undo once and for all.

Cleland's experience and reputation for reform make him a top option, even though the Obama campaign abruptly disinvited him from a July fundraiser for being a lobbyist., Grass-roots support has been building for the selection of Cleland, seen by many as heroic for his Democratic activism. The 66-year-old's name is also being circulated as the new secretary of the Army.

James Peake, current secretary of the VA. One "dark horse" pick by Obama could be to keep Peake on. Appointed by Bush to the position in 2007, the decorated Vietnam veteran, 64, has overseen expanded mental-health care, an increase in how much free medical care veterans can receive, and the department's offerings of VA-guaranteed home loans to veterans slammed by subprime mortgages. But he has admitted that progress in other areas, like the backlog of disabilities claims, has been slower than he'd like. Difficulties aside, supporters see him as a competent, experienced option for the job.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder and director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Although Hill insiders say they haven't heard his name mentioned as a contender, some blogs are buzzing with the possibility. An Iraq war veteran, 33-year-old Rieckhoff created IAVA in 2004. It has become one of the most vocal veterans organizations, most recently leading the fight for a new GI bill. Rieckhoff himself is no less vigorous. One of the first soldiers returning from Iraq to criticize the war publicly and demand accountability and better care for veterans, he has appeared on hundreds of media programs and written a book on his Iraq service. In the wake of Obama's victory, he published a memo listing three critical policies he wants to see tackled in the first 100 days of the new presidency. He'd be an energetic addition to the Obama cabinet.

Arnold Fisher, partner in real estate firm Fisher Brothers and former chairman of the Fisher House Foundation. The 75-year-old Korean War veteran brings to the table a passion for philanthropy. For four years, he led a charity that donates homes so that more than 10,000 military families each year can stay close to a loved one during a hospitalization; his son now heads it. He is involved with the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which gives grants to families of military personnel killed during service, and was made an honorary knight of the British Empire in 2005 for helping British Armed Forces families. His age could be seen as a handicap, but his significant leadership experience and concern for veterans' issues might keep his name on the table.

Patrick Murphy, congressman from Pennsylvania. A decorated Iraq war veteran and former West Point professor, Murphy has gained a reputation for his advocacy of veterans, earning a rare perfect score from IAVA on its congressional report card. He has cosponsored legislation on several significant issues, including funding up to four years of education for service members, mandating a mental-health evaluation for new veterans, and requiring the VA to screen veterans for traumatic brain injury and for risk factors of suicide. Politically, his pick could make sense. The 35-year-old is seen as an up-and-comer in the Democratic Party, winning his second House term by 15 percentage points. And as the first nonblack lawmaker outside Illinois to pledge his support for Obama, as well as a volunteer who stumped for him before the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, he has positioned himself well for a job in the new administration.

Phillip Carter, Obama campaign's top veterans adviser. Before he joined the campaign in June, Carter was in Iraq, first as a military police officer with the Army, then as an embedded adviser with the Iraqi police. But his experience isn't just military. Along with his background as an Obama adviser and spokesperson, the 33-year-old has practiced law and been published in Slate and the Washington Post. With rumors swirling that Obama wants to pick a young figure from his campaign, Carter could be a possibility.

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My two cents, it is my blog and I get to add my own thoughts when I want to, you can add yours in the comments section, I let everyone comment, I may not agree with them but I post them anyway unless you are trying to sell something then I delete them.

As a disabled veteran and having survived the 2 Secretary of the VA's Principi and Peake who came to us thru the QTC, it is time for a Secretary of the VA hwere the veterans come first and not corporate America, we served it was our azzes on the line, and the nation made us a sacred PROMISE that it has not been very good at keeping, and it is the DUTY of the Secretary of the VA to make the nation keep that promise, therefore we need a veterans advocate in that position and I can find no better advocate than Tammy Duckworth, unless the Governor of Illinois chooses her to become Senator Obama's replacement I would like to see her named as the next Secretary of the VA, she has done an outstanding job as the Illinois Secretary of Veteran Affairs, and I am confidant in her abilities to lead the nations VA.

It is time for the veterans to have someone we can believe in, we have been down this road before and the veterans always come up on the short end of the stick. The VA Secretary has immense power to change the way the VA operates, they can put changes into effect by fiat, they insert into the CFR 38 changes theywant and 60 days later they become law, they can make medical issues service connected by the swipe of their pen. As Secretary Principi did for Loe Gehrigs disease for GW1 vets, the new VA Secretary can take this new report that shows that themedical problems Gulf War One vets have are service connected rather than leaving them as "mental issues" that DOD has been advocating for the past 17 years. Will it require more funds from Congress yes, but from the mandated side, service connected medical conditions (compensation) has to be paid, like Social Security Disability must be paid. That is part of the PROMISE.

Tammy Duckworth can take us down the path to help veterans, she has shown thru her work in Illinois she is a true veterans advocate.

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Kelley's thoughts on the recent fraud charges against VA employees and vets

VA Worker, 13 Others Charged in Fraud Scheme



(Comments at the end of articles)



"They're all veterans," U.S. Attorney David Huber said at a news conference Thursday. "That’s what's sad about all of this."



By Brett Barrouquere - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Nov 20, 2008 16:37:08 EST
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_vafraudscheme_112008/



LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A Veterans Administration employee and 13 other people have been charged with conspiring to steal nearly $2 million in disability claims.



Veterans Affairs service representative Jeffrey Allan McGill and Daniel Ryan Parker, a veteran and officer with the Disabled American Veterans, were among the 14 charged Wednesday by a federal grand jury with conspiring to defraud the U.S. of $1.9 million through the submission of false veterans disability claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs.



The indictment outlines an alleged scheme for veterans to falsely claim to have suffered from bipolar disorder, hearing loss, frostbite, back injuries and other ailments and disabilities.



The indictment says veterans received lump-sum payments for back pay and then kick backed as much as two-thirds of it to Parker and McGill.



"They're all veterans," U.S. Attorney David Huber said at a news conference Thursday. "That’s what's sad about all of this."



Parker, 37, of Crestwood, is free on $25,000 bond. He is also charged with stealing $47,000 from Disabled American Veterans. His attorney, Brian Butler of Louisville, said his client plans to plead not guilty.



"We've been aware of the investigation for months and have cooperated with investigators," Butler said.



A phone message left for McGill, 37, was not immediately returned Thursday morning.



Huber said the remaining defendants, who live in Kentucky, Illinois and West Virginia, would voluntarily surrender at arraignment on Dec. 16 in Louisville.



Huber said Parker and McGill received between $500,000 and $600,000 in kickbacks, with the rest of the stolen money being split among the participants.



According to the indictment, starting in 2003 and continuing until this month, Parker and McGill recruited friends, relatives and acquaintances who were military veterans to file fraudulent claims with the VA.



Parker and McGill then allegedly either altered the veterans' medical records, or created counterfeit medical records, to give the appearance that the veterans had service related disabilities.



That resulted in the veterans receiving 100 percent disability for problems such as depression or cancer due to Agent Orange exposure during combat in Vietnam, according to the indictment.



Huber said the case came to light after a tip from a confidential source. He declined to discuss how the source knew about the alleged plot.



"But for that confidential source, this case may not have been known for some time, if at all," Huber said.



Michael Keen, the resident agent in charge for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Louisville, said the scheme could hurt veterans who needed the funds allegedly purloined.



"Obviously, the Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't have a bottomless pit of money," Keen said.



Huber said prosecutors will try to recoup the money taken during the scheme.






VETERANS RESOURCES NETWORK



http://www.valaw.org
Dear Readers,



Above is an article about how some veterans in conspiracy with a VA official and a DAV (Disabled American Veterans) service officer defrauded the VA of over 1.9 million dollars.



Those who defraud the VA are crooks and deserve a long time in prison. They are endangering the VA benefits system for all honest veterans and others who depend on VA benefits.



The Congress and the American people even in good financial times look for ways to cut veterans benefits, and how much more in bad times will they use this type of story as evidence that veterans are untrustworthy bums on the National dole.



You and I as honest veterans need to report any person who is defrauding the VA system and any service representative, VA official or attorney who ask for money under the table.



Sincerely.
Ray B Davis, Jr
http://www.valaw.org



Comments



I have listed several instances of VA worker fraud over the years in the 10's of millions of dollars that did not involve anyone but the VA workers themselves including a Congressional liaison. With the exception the possibility of it being reported in the local paper on page 89 b section xxx no one even knew it. My own infamous band of VA workers here in Atlanta stole over 5 million from the widows and orphans fund. Yet, they were only prosecuted because of mail fraud. VA workers approving each other’s increases in disability outside of protocol is another one you will not hear about. Telling Vets and Widows their files are being worked then when investigated found many claims had been sitting for five years with no one even touching them.



This was not only at local shops but as high as the BVA. I wonder what that Admiral would say now. We just need more training maybe????? This has been the excuse over and over and over again for decades by VA to fix the system. It has been either that or we are working sooooo hard to get our fix all magical mystery tour computer system up and running. The first one did not work so we tried software patches and that did not work so we got billions more to do another system that is now outdated or we just cannot seemed to get it working correctly. We just need a little more time until all the Vietnam/Herbicide Veterans are dead then we will get it working. Lord knows we not want the world to really know the empirical data on all of these fellows and how we have lied and denied. I wonder if the GAO has any idea how much VA has spent over the last 25 years on nothing but VA boondoggles such as this computer system.



More and more training as an excuse for not only such poor performance that no other agency can came close to matching but an entire system inherently internally designed and committed to fraud, deceit, and reward for those actions as we have seen recently in shedder gate by using criminal actions at every VA RO and even within the Remand Center itself.



The whole VA system needs to thrown in the garbage and let someone in the civilian world that actually can be held legally accountable for performance and the actions as it applies to legal matters take over most of the functions of this federal agency. As long as VA remains omnipotent granted by congress and our supreme court they will do whatever is necessary for their real agenda not what is advertised.



Let us not forget the circle of deceit and fraud used against the Veterans/Widows. VA contracts with IOM for recommendations, IOM gets a majority of its yearly money from DoD. Lets see who is the real culprit the government is trying to protect besides the chemical companies, of course the DoD. Is the DoD now bartering for the scientific recommendations they want to protect their budget also and to minimize the now known death and destruction they committed? Would this even be allowed in the real world without a real legal challenge in court by the stakeholders with the real evidence and standards for associations? You bet it would not be allowed. That assumes integrity beyond reproach and that, as a legal definition without a challenge is nothing but legal hypocrisy and affront to any legal system and victims rights.



But as the article points out this will probably get more publicity because Veterans were involved. None of the others from the VA office workers such as Atlanta and St. Louis as an example with their schemes and successes at robbing millions does not even warrant a local newspaper back page notation.



Since we are on the subject of fraud.



If you find something scientifically that you do not publish, print, or disclose as your task was to do so and that you knowingly has an impact on someone receiving earned benefits from the US Government…IS THAT NOT FRAUD. The government paid you to do a task so that according to Congress decisions could be made on health care and compensations and on behalf of entities of that same government you did not disclose what you found; IS THAT NOT BEING GUILTY OF FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY IN ORDER TO DENY A CLAIM x thousands?



I see little difference here except the US Government using the VA is out to defraud thousands of Veterans and Widows of billions of dollars in health care and compensations, both disability and death.



See the charges of federal study violations from last post at: http://www.2ndbattalion94thartillery.com/Chas/VAWorkers.htm



PURPOSEFUL EXCLUSION:….



RESEARCH INTEGRITY ISSUES:….



Where is our legal system in charging criminal activity in attempt to defraud the United States Veteran/Widow? Where are the VAlaw.org lawyers? Where is U.S. Attorney David Huber in this known fraudulent activity of our own government violation of science integrity rules? MIA all of them including the Attorney General. How convenient that this hoax of a constitutional justice system (Guaranteed Justice for All) does not apply to citizens who served in the Military. Yet the marquee does not advertise the exceptions to that marquee. Veterans/Widows do not bother to apply for constitutional justice. Your set aside justice, such as it is, its dealt out by the hands of the Secretary of the VA and your lack of congressional actions and you have for all intentional purposes no legal rights in the matter.



Two wrongs do not make a right but if we are going to charge fraud as a crime then it should be charged equally and not one sided.



Also I would like to know how many of those Veterans involved actually had cancers that if not for “VA fraud” would have been automatically associated with “Service Connection”. If not for government fraud would never been in that position. Not defending because one always has a choice but it would be certainly objective to at least get the real facts of the possibilities of what these men faced.



But I will guarantee you this; if any of them did, you will not hear the real facts about fraud by the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the jury over at IOM that denied them their earned rights to be Service Connected based on pure fraud and known intentionally published erroneous study results and findings in order to deny Veterans compensations and health care.



Kelley

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Experts Say Army in Crisis

Read the full report at:
http://www.csbaonline.org/4Publications/PubLibrary/R.20081117.An_Army_At_The_Cro/R.20081117.An_Army_At_The_Cro.pdf

The author, Andrew Krepinevich, went to Harvard, so he must have all the answers? Well written report, not sure his conclusions are correct.
He needs to get out of his office and research facilities, and go in to the field and watch some of America's finest train
and fight. We need the additional 65,000 soldiers.

From: ALLVETSINC via EastMeetsWestInc@att.net
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 12:24 PM
To: colonel-dan@sbcglobal.net

http://www.military.com/news/article/experts-say-army-in-crisis.html?ESRC=eb.nl


Experts Say Army in Crisis
November 20, 2008
DoD Buzz|by Greg Grant
The influential Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank, recommends that the Army cut its planned force expansion of 65,000 new soldiers and comes mighty close to saying the service should axe its prized Future Combat Systems modernization program. The report (.pdf) was authored by renowned Army analyst Andrew Krepinevich and released at a conference this week in Washington, D.C.

Krepinevich's report is titled "An Army at the Crossroads." But a more appropriate title would have been an "Army in Crisis." In the report he writes: "[The Army] risks a catastrophic leadership failure of a kind not seen since the late stages of the Vietnam War, a failure that took the Army over a decade to repair."

Poll: Is the Army in crisis?

His central message is alarming: the quality of the Army's soldiers is in sharp decline, from enlisted personnel to NCOs to officers. It's a "particularly discouraging" trend for the Army as it is happening despite the service's "increasingly aggressive" use of financial incentives including bonuses and a salary increase of 33 percent between 1999 and 2005.

The Army has lowered standards to fill recruitment quotas, including weight and body fat restrictions, number of high school graduates and is allowing in more recruits with moral waivers. Krepinevich sees troubling signs of a repeat of the Vietnam era "shake-and-bake" sergeants, with the widespread promotion of inexperienced enlisted soldiers ill suited to the challenge of leading small units in combat.

The officer corps is also dropping in quality. Of the nearly 1,000 cadets from the West Point class of 2002, 58 percent are no longer on active duty. The Army is forced to pull soldiers from the ranks who have not graduated college and send them to OCS. Today, over 98 percent of eligible captains are promoted to major. The number of involuntary "stop loss" extensions has increased, by 43 percent between 2007 and 2008. Nearly half of those affected are NCOs.

This, at a time when the ongoing counterinsurgency wars demand much more intellectual horsepower in its soldiers. As the Army's new doctrine manual FM 3-0, states: current and future conflicts "will be waged in an environment that is complex, multidimensional, and rooted in the human dimension."

The Army says it can't afford to specialize, that it must be a "full spectrum force," capable of fighting high intensity conventional battles and counterinsurgency. By trying to make the Army equally effective in all conflict types, "it risks becoming marginally competent in many tasks, and highly effective at none," Krepinevich says. "This approach becomes all the more problematic when one considers the ongoing erosion of quality in the officer and NCO corps, and in the Service's recruiting standards."

There are not enough hours in the day to train soldiers to be competent, let alone excel, at the very different skill sets demanded of every mission. The difference in competence between line infantry and artillerymen turned motorized infantry doing "cordon-and-knock" operations in Baghdad is night and day. The Army can have either a culture and language expert who can operate effectively amongst tribal cultures or a top drawer tank company commander skilled in fire and maneuver.

Krepinevich says the Army has no choice but to produce specialized soldiers as warfare, particularly irregular warfare, has grown far too complex to do otherwise. The Army has specialized for decades, he notes, with Special Forces, airborne, air assault and high end warfare optimized units. That specialization should be weighted toward irregular warfare, since the national strategy and pretty much every other planning document says the U.S. is in an era of persistent irregular warfare.

Because the Army's "track record in reorienting conventional forces rapidly for irregular warfare is not encouraging," he advocates conversion of 15 Infantry BCTs to Security Cooperation BCTs, to conduct stability operations. The Army should also develop a robust training and advisory capacity that can be deployed on short notice. The Army must also change its attitude and incentives towards officers serving in those capacities which are currently seen as a career dead-end.

Because of skyrocketing personnel costs and the decline in quality across the ranks, the Army should cancel its plans to increase end strength by 65,000. As for modernization, Krepinevich says FCS faces too many technical and cost risks. There is also the operational risk: "as the FCS is optimized for conventional warfare, it is not clear it represents the best use of resources in this era of protracted irregular warfare." While the Army is "spinning-out" technologies into the current force, "to date, these capabilities are relatively modest compared to the program's stated goals and the level of resources being invested."

Krepinevich presents good recommendations for better balancing the Army between the demands of irregular war and conventional combat. As for arresting the decline in the quality of the Army, he has few answers. Clearly, the stress of repeat deployments to combat zones is driving problems recruiting and retaining quality people. Perhaps with the coming drawdown in Iraq, some of that stress may lessen. But if commitments in Afghanistan and other areas climb, the Army's personnel challenges will likely continue.

One bright spot for the Army: as the U.S. economy contracts and the private sector continues to shed jobs at alarming rates, young Americans may consider the military a more attractive option.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I watched a segment on MSNBC yesterday with General Barry McCaffrey, Army retired recently back from Iraq on a fact finding mission and he told the interviewer the Army needs an additional 200,000 troops to keep up with the missions required in Iraq and Afghanistan, the cutbacks from the end of the Cold War, cut to deep into the manning charts and leaves the Army with less troops than needed.

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Denise Nichols has been a real advocate for GWI for years... thanks Denise



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: James [mailto:starjm50@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 2:59 PM
To: Jim
Subject: For desperate vets, victory, anger over Gulf War Syndrome


Army veteran Randy Saubert takes grandsons Kalev, right, and Ethin to a Colorado Springs park Tuesday. Saubert logged 38,000 miles hauling supplies across the Iraq desert in 1991. Today, he isn't sure what he came into contact with that caused him to develop Lou Gehrig's disease. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11017787


They were told they were crazy. Statistical anomalies. Whiners. This week — after enduring 17 years of baffling and incurable ailments they blamed on exposure to nasty chemicals and untested anti-nerve-gas agents— veterans of the Persian Gulf War were told they were right.

Colorado's veterans of Operation Desert Storm feel justified after a congressionally mandated panel this week announced that the mysterious and often maligned "Gulf War syndrome" was in fact a legitimate medical condition. The panel concluded the syndrome was most likely associated with a combination of anti-nerve-gas pills and exposure to pesticides.

"I feel vindicated, but I'm angry. This is so long overdue," said Denise Nichols, a 57-year-old nurse who served for six months during Operation Desert Storm and has spent the past 17 years traveling between Denver and Washington, D.C., to advocate for soldiers suffering from Gulf War illnesses.


"Why did it take so long to listen to the vets and their families? . . . Why have they denied benefits and hurt people and let families fall apart and have soldiers go bankrupt seeking help?"

The 450-page report from the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses points to evidence that "strongly and consistently indicates" a combination of anti-nerve-gas medicine — pyridostigmine bromide pills — and pesticides used to ward off desert insects — permethrin and DEET — is linked to Gulf War illnesses.

The report supports the estimated 210,000 soldiers who endured a variety of unexplained ailments after their tours of duty: fatigue, headaches, joint pain, rashes, breathing difficulty, forgetfulness, circulation problems and cardiac troubles.

But that support comes as waves of thousands of injured Iraq war soldiers are flooding Veterans Affairs hospitals with traumatic brain injuries and missing limbs.

"I don't know where this will lead, because we have a whole other set of problems now," said Pueblo's Patricia Biernacki, a 38-year-old mother of two boys who spent years seeking help for neurological and digestive issues after her six-month tour as a Navy Reserve corpsman in Bahrain.

The Department of Veterans Affairs declined to discuss the report.

"The VA has accepted and implemented prior recommendations of the committee and values the work represented in the report," read a statement from VA Secretary James Peake.

The Research Advisory Committee recommended that "highest priority be given to research directed at identifying beneficial treatments for Gulf War illness." To date, no cure has been found, the symptoms persist, and treatment consists of relieving the symptoms.

Regardless of what happens next, soldiers who were derided or rebuffed after suggesting their maladies stemmed from their time in the Persian Gulf now have support for their arguments.

Randy Saubert, who had inexplicable numbness in his fingers when he returned from Iraq, heard from a few doctors that his medical troubles were not connected to the war.

"I always knew something over there caused this, and now they can't deny it anymore," Saubert said.

Saubert isn't sure what he came into contact with in Iraq in 1991 that caused his body to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS is a progressive neurological disorder that kills nerve cells and leads to a loss of muscle control.

According to the report released this week, Gulf War veterans suffer a much higher rate of ALS than other veterans. The committee also found that Gulf War soldiers who were downwind of munitions demolitions in 1991 have died from brain cancer at twice the rate of other former Gulf War soldiers.

Saubert drove 38,000 miles back and forth across the Iraq desert in 1991, delivering ammunition, water, gasoline and supplies. A decade after he returned from war, he could not grip anything and he was diagnosed with ALS. Today, Saubert, who turns 52 in December and lives in Colorado Springs, has lost almost all use of his arms and legs. The VA is handling his medical bills.

The VA also is helping Biernacki, who saw her troublesome headaches and stomach pains explode into tremors, seizures and emergency surgeries during her second pregnancy, five years after she returned from the Middle East.

Today, she takes daily medications and has gone a year without any trips to a hospital. "That's a good record for me," says the 38-year-old. "Last year, I went four times."

Like most veterans, she can't pinpoint what caused her maladies. She remembers taking anti-nerve-gas pills. She was told, she said, that if she refused, she would be sent to the military prison at Leavenworth, Kan.

"If I knew then what I know now, I would have gladly gone and sat in Leavenworth," she said.

Anthony Hardie, a Gulf War veteran who serves on the Research Advisory Committee, said he and others in his unit took PB pills for weeks and combined "continual use of DEET and permethrin" with pest strips, spray trucks and other pesticide exposures.

"Like many of the guys in my unit, I became sick," he said, with respiratory ailments and the "typical roundup of fatigue, bowel symptoms, chronic widespread pain."

The committee report is "a profound victory" in one sense, he said: "It's government and science finally saying what Gulf War veterans have been saying all along."

But the report "does not yet bring treatment of the illness, nothing getting at the underlying cause," Hardie said. And 17 years "is an awful long time for someone to wait to get health care."



"For all the GOP’s patriotic imagery and testosterone-infused rhetoric,Results, failed Military care, failed VA Care, failed National Security, Military Seeking Re-build!!"

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Denise Nichols has been at the forefront of the battle for Gulf War One veterans, she has spent more time and money (her own) traveling to DC and where ever else the RAC was having public hearings and where she could speak and get her comments on the record for veterans. She has literally spent 24/7 since the war ended fighting on behalf of medically challenged veterans that DOD was trying to write off as mentally ill raher than physically ill as a result of the war, she deserves the thanks of all Gulf War veterans, they have no better friend on this issue than Denise. I have spent many hours in IM and exchanging e mails with her, and I have done nothing compared to her. She has my admiration and gratitude.

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Friday, November 21, 2008

I was honored to host IAVA's Second Annual Heroes Gala

Dear Michael,

For Veterans Day last week, IAVA Member Veterans and Supporters gathered at events nationwide to honor our nation's brave veterans.

On Wednesday, I was honored to host IAVA's Second Annual Heroes Gala in New York City. It was an incredible event that recognized three outstanding Americans. Warrior Champions Scott Winkler and Carlos Leon, and the Chairman of the Fisher House Foundation, Arnold Fisher, all received awards that celebrated their achievements and leadership in the veterans' community.

See highlights from the evening by clicking here.

For me, the Gala was a great opportunity to meet and get to know dozens of men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was joined by hundreds of other IAVA supporters, including the star of NBC's "Heroes" Milo Ventimiglia, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army General Peter Chiarelli, ABC News' Bob Woodruff, Fox News' Bill Hemmer, Congressman and Iraq War Veteran Patrick Murphy, and the creator of "Doonesbury", Garry Trudeau. It was a memorable evening, and one that reminded me how important it is to honor veterans every day of the year.

Check out some pictures and videos from the Heroes Gala by clicking here.

Elsewhere across the country, IAVA Member Veterans and Supporters held over 200 events to celebrate Veterans Day, including:


-The 89th Annual Veterans Day Parade in Tucson, Arizona,

-A BMX Biking Race in Egg Harbor, New Jersey,

-A chess tournament in Rapid City, South Dakota

I was proud to be a part of IAVA's Veterans Day celebrations this year, and I appreciate your support of IAVA and of our nation's newest generation of heroes.

Sincerely,

Henry Rollins
Actor, Author and USO Performer
IAVA Supporter

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News report on Gulf War Illness

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Military mum on dirty air in Iraq

Military mum on dirty air in Iraq

Military mum on dirty air in Iraq
Health concerns » An environmental report on the burn pit at Balad Air Base now is classified for 'national security'
By Matthew D. Laplante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 11/21/2008 09:01:12 AM MST


Military officials insist there's no problem.

But veterans' advocates are calling for full transparency about the health risks faced by service members who have been stationed at the largest U.S. air base in Iraq, where one inspector called an open-air burn pit "the worst environmental site I have ever personally visited."

But for the moment, that quote -- found in a memo from a military environmental engineer from Utah -- is all that is publicly known from a 2006 Environmental Health Site Assessment on the situation at Balad Air Base. That's because the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine is refusing to make the document public, saying that the information it contains "would damage our national security."

How could a health assessment damage national security? For veteran Paul Rieckhoff, the situation smells as bad as Iraq's foul air.

"It's troubling," said Rieckhoff, an Iraq combat veteran and director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which lobbies on behalf of vets who have served in the nation's ongoing conflicts. "Just saying 'everything is fine' is not going to fly."

The Army insists that it is doing more. Michael Kilpatrick, a spokesman for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said the military has done extensive sampling of the air in Balad and other bases where burn pits are used to get rid of garbage -- including weapons, chemicals, plastics, and even amputated limbs.

"The bottom line on all of this sampling is that we have not identified anything, where there are troops, where it would have been hazardous to their health," Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick noted that the military is working to install incinerators, which burn waste more cleanly, at Balad and elsewhere in Iraq. However, the process has been slow. The Pentagon purchased 41 incinerators in 2006, but fewer than half are operational. Eighteen are still under construction and six have not yet received funding to be installed.

That runs contrary, however, to a memo penned by Hill Air Force Base officer Darrin Curtis, who served in Balad in 2006 and 2007 and called the burn pit -- and it's distinctive black smoke plume -- an "acute health hazard." In his memo, Curtis cited the 2006 site assessment, including the quote from the unidentified inspector.

According to the memo, that inspector claimed he had never seen anything worse than the situation in Balad, in a decade of reviewing toxic waste issues.

Now that report has been classified. And Col. Thomas Logan, who commands the center, refuses to say why. Logan declined to be interviewed by The Salt Lake Tribune. A spokeswoman only repeated that information in the report could damage national security if it were made public.

That's left some who have served at Balad feeling as though they might not be getting the full story. Air Force sergeant Julianne Hancock, who was stationed in Balad in 2005 and 2006, said she just wants to make sure she's getting all the facts about her exposure. According to the Curtis memo, that might include dozens of toxins, including arsenic, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.

"I think that people who make the sacrifice of serving their nation at war deserve to know everything about what we're breathing -- everything about what's happening out there," she said.

Troy Whittaker, president of the Utah Society for Respiratory Care, said the toxins listed in the Curtis memo might have a "broad range of effects," including respiratory hyperactivity, cancer, liver disease and pulmonary fibrosis. "At the very least, it would make sense to have a screening chest X-ray, a walking oximetry test," which measures the amount of oxygen in the blood, "and possibly pulmonary function tests if the person has acute respiratory symptoms," Whittaker said.

For now, however, the military is advising none of those things. Kilpatrick, the military health spokesman, said a comprehensive report defending the military's stance on the burn pit issue is forthcoming.

But Kilpatrick, himself a trained physician, said he would advise a patient he was treating to at least "make a mental note that you were there" and "if you do develop any kind of medical problem, make sure whoever is providing you care at that time knows this part of your history."

Rieckhoff said that's going to be tough for service members who haven't even been given access to all the records detailing what they were exposed to.

"They need to get ahead of the curve here," he said. "The best way to do that is to provide transparency."

But Rieckhoff won't be holding his breath. "The military, quite honestly, doesn't have a great record on these issues," he said.

Just this week, a federal report concluded that about a quarter of the 700,000 veterans who served during the first Iraq conflict in 1990 and 1991 suffer symptoms of so-called Gulf War illness, including memory and concentration problems, chronic headaches, widespread pain, gastrointestinal problems and other chronic abnormalities.

"Scientific evidence leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans," the report stated.

Military officials originally had insisted that there was no problem.

mlaplante@sltrib.com


/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Ask the Cold War "test veterans" how open the Department of Defense is on health issues regarding exposures intentional or unintentional they aren't, they classify documents, they classify reports, they threaten people with prosecution, and then they stonewall and keep doing it until everyone affected by it dies.

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VA worker, 13 others charged in fraud scheme

VA worker, 13 others charged in fraud scheme


By Brett Barrouquere - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Nov 20, 2008 16:37:08 EST

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_vafraudscheme_112008/

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Veterans Administration employee and 13 other people have been charged with conspiring to steal nearly $2 million in disability claims.

Veterans Affairs service representative Jeffrey Allan McGill and Daniel Ryan Parker, a veteran and officer with the Disabled American Veterans, were among the 14 charged Wednesday by a federal grand jury with conspiring to defraud the U.S. of $1.9 million through the submission of false veterans disability claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The indictment outlines an alleged scheme for veterans to falsely claim to have suffered from bipolar disorder, hearing loss, frostbite, back injuries and other ailments and disabilities.

The indictment says veterans received lump-sum payments for back pay and then kick backed as much as two-thirds of it to Parker and McGill.

“They’re all veterans,” U.S. Attorney David Huber said at a news conference Thursday. “That’s what’s sad about all of this.”

Parker, 37, of Crestwood, is free on $25,000 bond. He is also charged with stealing $47,000 from Disabled American Veterans. His attorney, Brian Butler of Louisville, said his client plans to plead not guilty.

“We’ve been aware of the investigation for months and have cooperated with investigators,” Butler said.

A phone message left for McGill, 37, was not immediately returned Thursday morning.

Huber said the remaining defendants, who live in Kentucky, Illinois and West Virginia, would voluntarily surrender at arraignment on Dec. 16 in Louisville.

Huber said Parker and McGill received between $500,000 and $600,000 in kickbacks, with the rest of the stolen money being split among the participants.

According to the indictment, starting in 2003 and continuing until this month, Parker and McGill recruited friends, relatives and acquaintances who were military veterans to file fraudulent claims with the VA.

Parker and McGill then allegedly either altered the veterans’ medical records, or created counterfeit medical records, to give the appearance that the veterans had service related disabilities.

That resulted in the veterans receiving 100 percent disability for problems such as depression or cancer due to Agent Orange exposure during combat in Vietnam, according to the indictment.

Huber said the case came to light after a tip from a confidential source. He declined to discuss how the source knew about the alleged plot.

“But for that confidential source, this case may not have been known for some time, if at all,” Huber said.

Michael Keen, the resident agent in charge for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Louisville, said the scheme could hurt veterans who needed the funds allegedly purloined.

“Obviously, the Department of Veterans Affairs doesn’t have a bottomless pit of money,” Keen said.

Huber said prosecutors will try to recoup the money taken during the scheme.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Michael Keen is another idiot mouthpiece, veterans compensation is similar to Social Security payments, it comes from a seperate pool of money and does not take away from "other veterans" as he claims here. This fraud did not prevent one other veterans claim from being approved or not one veteran was denied medical care because of this.

Bottom line is these men, comspired to steal money from the Veterans Administration thru their positions of trust they dummied up documents to help their "co-conspirators claims get approved" nothing more and nothing less, these men are crooks and the US Attorney should use his power to take their cars, theirs houses and other personal items and sell them at auction to retrieve the governments money. They are crooks nothing more and nothing less, the fact they are veterans does not give them any sort of pass or a more lenient sentence, if nothing else they should have additional time added on to their sentence for taking advantahe of a federal program that does HELP veterans harmed in the line of duty.

Bottom line fraud is involved in less than 1% of all veterans claims, it has a better record than most government agencies, for the most part veterans are honest and want nothing more than what they are entitled to.

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Kelley: After cooling off some here is my take on the shredder gate hearings.

VA/Congress Shredder Gate – No Amnesty!


After cooling off some here is my take on the shredder gate hearings.



Still pretty scathing and some will take offense but it is past time to just pretend these all are process problems while our Veterans die or become disabled with no benefits. No one wants to think this is intentional but this agency cannot be this bad without be directed to be so and to do so.



I was offended by Congressman Filner for all of our men and women in regards to certain Veterans who perhaps this or that and their paranoia or it is not as bad as that. Implying ignorance and stupidity I guess. No Sir, facts are facts and many of us out here are as educated as any member of congress but with more common sense.



The Admiral also made some disparaging remarks in my opinion. I would have blasted him with his own turn around in a damn minute had I had a chance to question him on many issues of process and how in the heck it can take this long for a simple claim. Him and his oh we are getting better. Horse Crap!



Treated as some all of sudden isolated incident this criminal act is going nowhere. Except to minimize the damage publicity and then back to VA criminal business as usual. Treated as an isolated short-term impact incident that offices in many different states; were coincidently were all doing the same thing. Does anyone really believe this is just an isolated incident and was found at the same time in many different areas and that it was not condoned or possibly directed.



I do not think this was close to a coincidence; the odds would be too great.



http://www.2ndbattalion94thartillery.com/Chas/VAWorkers.htm



Some interesting reply’s by those that listened to the hearing on Larry Scott’s page.

http://www.vawatchdog.org/



Kelley

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The beginning of the end of the Iraq Occupation

An Agreement between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America regarding the Withdrawal of the American Forces from Iraq and Regulating their Activities During their Temporary Presence in it
PREFACE

The United States of America and the Republic of Iraq - which will hereafter be referred to as the two parties - recognize the importance of strengthening their joint security and participating in global peace and stability, fighting terrorism in Iraq and cooperating in the fields of security and defense to deter aggression and threats directed towards the sovereignty and unity of Iraq and its constitutional, federal, democratic system;
They hereby confirm that this cooperation is built upon the basis of mutual respect for each other's full sovereignty and according to the objectives and principles of the UN mandate;
And according to the wish of both parties to reach a mutual understanding to enhance cooperation between them;
Without encroaching upon the sovereignty of Iraq, upon its soil, water or airspace, and upon the basis of being two independent, equal states of sovereignty, have agreed to the following:


Article One
Scope and Purpose

SNIP Read The Rest Here: The Iraq and US Agreement

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DoD tightens personality disorder finding

DoD tightens personality disorder finding

Under pressure from Congress and following the Army's lead, the Department of Defense has imposed a more rigorous screening process on the services for separating troubled members due to "personality disorder."

The intent is to ensure that, in the future, no members who suffer from wartime stress get tagged with having a pre-existing personality disorder, which would leave them ineligible for service disability compensation.

Since the 9/11 attacks, more than 22,600 service members have been discharged for personality disorder. Nearly 3,400 of them, or 15 percent, had served in combat or imminent danger zones.

Advocates for these veterans contend at least some of them were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury but it was easier and less costly to separate them for personality disorder. By definition, personality disorders existed before a member entered service so they do not merit a service-related disability rating. A disability rating of 30 percent or higher, which most PTSD sufferers receive, can mean lifelong access to military health care and on-base shopping.

Over the last 18 months lawmakers and advocates for veterans have criticized Defense and service officials for relying too often on personality disorder separations to release members who deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan or other another areas of tension in the global war on terrorism.

A revised DoD instruction (No. 1332.14), which took effect without public announcement Aug. 28, responds to that criticism. It allows separation for personality disorder only for members currently or formerly deployed to an imminent danger areas if: (1) the diagnosis by a psychiatrist or a Ph.D.-level psychologist is corroborated by a peer or higher-level mental health professional, (2) the diagnosis is endorsed by the surgeon general of the service, and (3) the diagnosis took into account a possible tie or "co-morbidity" with symptoms of PTSD or war-related mental injury or illness.

Sam Retherford, director of officer and enlisted personnel management in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, said adding "rigor and discipline" to the process when separating deployed members for personality disorder is "very important," considering what is at stake for the member.

Last year several congressional hearings focused on overuse of personality disorder separation after The Nation magazine exposed apparent abuses in a March 2007 article. It described the experience of Army Spc. Jon Town. In October 2004, while Town stood in the doorway of his battalion's headquarters in Ramadi, Iraq, an enemy rocket exploded into the wall above his head, knocking him unconscious.

To comment, e-mail milupdate@aol.com, write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120-1111 or visit: militaryupdate.com
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Yes the PDO discharge can be applied appropriately while the service member is in training, basic or advanced, it would manifest itself under the strict supersvision of drill sergeants and other trainers. The failure to obey orders and the ability to conform to military standards would be visible early in the training process, and yes not everyone is geared to be in the military, if as a juvenile the military member had problems with parents, school authorities, or police officials, the same type problems would show themselves in the strict military environment.

However soldiers that have deployed and spent a year or more in a combat environment, to label them with a pre-existing mental condition is morally wrong, ethically wrong and the veterans deserve the help of the military and Veterans Administration. However if the veteran is discharged before they attain 24 months of service, then the VA can deny them medical care and or compensation if they are otherwise entitled to it.

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner

Filner to VA: Confidence in VA Completely Shattered by Recent Document Shredding
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2008


http://veterans.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=317





House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) released this statement following today’s roundtable discussion on the shredding of veterans’ documents by the VA:
“Today’s roundtable revealed a number of shortcomings within the VA that are hardly new and most definitely failing our nation’s veterans.
“I am encouraged that the VA came forward and revealed that important documents were slated for the shredding bin.
“I remain angry that a culture of dishonesty has led to increased mistrust of the VA within the veteran community. A systemic lack of integrity seems pervasive and that is a shame.

“First, I am not convinced that only 500 documents were saved from the shredding bin. This is merely a snapshot in time. The VA was unable to convince me that more documents have not been shredded in the past and I honestly do not know how many records have been destroyed and how many files lost over the past decades.
“Second, we have heard promises from the VA before. We have heard that the claims process will go paperless. Training will be improved. VA’s latest promise is that veterans can submit statements containing information that will be used in the adjudication process in lieu of documents missing from their files. While this is an important step forward, I am skeptical that this new step will become part of the claims process.

“Additionally, the VA’s outreach has been limited to a reliance on media reports and a message on the VA website. The VA did not report a systematic way of reaching out to veterans to alert them of new policies that may have huge implications in their claims going forward.

“Finally, Congress has routinely asked VA what it needs to adequately care for veterans and the response has been that it is adequately poised. This is clearly not adequate care for our veterans.

“Listen, this is a long-term systemic problem that will require uncomfortable changes, long hours, unprecedented cooperation, extraordinary progress, and a new system of independent oversight. Clearly, the current system of self-reporting and internal regulation is ineffective. Congress must hold the VA accountable for a job NOT WELL DONE.

“A complete paradigm shift is necessary and I look forward to working with new leadership to correct the problems plaguing the benefits claims system. I am pleased that veterans have begun to work on transition issues in the impending Obama Administration. I plan to work with veterans service organizations, veterans, and the VA to fundamentally change the way that the Veterans Benefits Administration conducts business.”
###


Chairman Filner provided this opening statement to begin the roundtable discussion:
Good morning and welcome to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs’ roundtable discussion on the very serious issue of the shredding of veterans documents-- whether they are claims or other records.
On October 13th of this year, we…the Committee and our Veterans…were shocked by the disturbing headline:

“SHREDDING OUR TRUST IN THE VA -- VA investigators find entire claims and other critical documents in shredding bins at Detroit Regional Office”.
A nationwide review of the VA's 57 regional offices found 41 had records in their shredder bins that should not have been there. In all, nearly 500 benefit claims records had been erroneously slated for destruction, including claims for compensation, notices of disagreement with a claim decision, and death certificates.
These actions completely shatter confidence in the whole VA system. These documents are matters of life and death for some of these veterans. This episode has further strengthened my belief that VA desperately needs new leadership, and it needs new leadership today. These incidents and “mistakes,” all occurring to the detriment of our veterans and never to their benefit, remind me more of the Keystone Cops rather than a supportive organization dedicated to taking care of our veterans.
Shortly, we will hear from Admiral Patrick Dunne, the Under Secretary for Benefits for the VA, who will give an overview of the situation and an update on the VA’s actions regarding this intolerable situation. I suspect that his comments will generate some lively discussion on the issue about how we can best proceed from this point and never allow this to occur again.

I purposefully chose this “roundtable” format, and invited stakeholders in the veterans community, so that we can address this issue, have an interactive discussion, and get to practical solutions to solve these problems. Concerns have been raised that this meeting has not been called a hearing. These concerns are unfounded and I think our veterans care less about what we call it and more about what we do. It is vital that we quickly get to the bottom of this and take concrete steps to correct and fix this today -- not tomorrow or next week. We need to hear what the VA is doing and the internal controls and protections that seemingly were in place to prevent this, and what has been done since the incident. As I said earlier, “These documents are matters of life and death for some of these veterans”.
I believe this is a critical juncture for the VA. It is on the verge of completely losing the trust and confidence of the people that it is supposed to represent…the very same people it has been entrusted to care for.

I believe the following statement in the article I cited previously adequately sums up the current feelings of our veterans:
“This is not business as usual. The recent revelations of the willful and wanton destruction of vital veteran’s records are not just another "isolated incident." We have now moved to the next level of the game. What was maddening last year is now possibly criminal.”
So this morning we are going to attempt to get a better idea of the scope of this problem and what the VA is doing to respond to it. What specific steps has the VA taken and what has it done to begin to rectify the problem?

=

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Army report shows chemicals at burn pit site

Army report shows chemicals at burn pit site

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 20, 2008 5:51:35 EST

A soldier concerned about his tour at Forward Operating Base Hammer near Balad, Iraq, this year sent Military Times a report showing high levels of particulate matter and low levels of manganese, possibly due to materials destroyed in a burn pit.
“The high risk estimate is due to the average (particulate matter) level being at a concentration the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers ‘hazardous,’ and is likely to affect the health of all troops,” wrote Jeffrey Kirkpatrick, director of health risk assessment for the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. “Manganese was also detected above its one-year military exposure guidelines.”
It was sent to the command surgeon general’s office for U.S. Central Command.
Particulate matter can lead to coughing, difficulty breathing, decreased lung function, aggravated asthma, chronic bronchitis, irregular heartbeat, nonfatal heart attacks and premature death in people with heart or lung disease, according to the EPA.
Long-term levels of high exposure to manganese can lead to problems in the central nervous system, such as slow visual reaction time, inability to keep the hands steady, and poor eye-hand coordination. It can also lead to feelings of weakness, tremors, a mask-like face and psychological effects. It can also lead to impotence and loss of libido, according to the EPA.
“I just returned from a 15-month deployment from Iraq with 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division to FOB Hammer, and some of us found a document saying that the level of a certain type of metal in the air was above military standards and to expect soldiers to become ill,” wrote the soldier, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions. “There were burn pits there, and our base was located less than two miles from an Iraqi brick factory.”
The soldier is one of about 100 service members who have contacted Military Times because they are worried about their exposure to the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military officials say they’ve worked to get the situation under control by setting up incinerators at bases such as Joint Base Balad, also in Iraq, as of June 2008. FOB Hammer was built in March 2007.
The report, dated August 2007, comes from Kirkpatrick’s office, and, thus far, distribution has been “limited to U.S. Government Agencies only.”
It states that the risk for particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter and metals is high, and that the manganese levels are expected to not be “consistently above the (military exposure guidelines) for one year. Therefore, the (occupational and environmental health risk) estimate for manganese in the ambient air is considered low.”
“It was indicated that the winds are especially high at this location and that the dust in the air is so bad that it is said to be ‘overwhelming,’” the report states. “A conservative assumption is that personnel inhale the ambient air for 24 hours a day for 365 days. In addition, it is assumed that control measures and/or personal protective equipment are not used.”
The report states that, in generally healthy troops, there will be more medical visits and respiratory infections because of the particulate matter, and that heavy aerobic activity may increase those effects. The report called the hazard severity of the particulates “marginal.” However, one sample was six-and-a-half times higher than the recommended military standard, and the report states most people are equally exposed to the air at the base, and said the exposure to rates higher than those recommended would be considered “frequent.”
It called the possible effects of manganese “negligible,” stating that though the average concentration was higher than military standards, it was partially because one of two samples was “atypically high” making the average seem high. “The concentration range for which actual effects (such as dementia/neurological changes or liver disease) have been observed in workers after repeated chronic exposures is ... 100 times greater than the [military standard],” the report states. “Therefore, no health effects are anticipated and the hazard severity is considered negligible.”
Lead levels were also above recommended levels in one of the samples.
However, the report also states risk estimate and confidence in the samples is low because only two were taken.
The report recommends taking samples at least every six days for the rest of the deployment, and informing preventive medicine and medical personnel of potential health effects of the particulate matter and heavy metals. It also recommends limiting outdoor physical activities when there are visibly high levels of particulate matters.

Previous stories:
• Burn pit at Balad raises concerns
• Senator wants answers on dangers of burn pits
• Burn pit fallout


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Social Security Holds Third Disability Hearing on Compassionate Allowances

also see for info on how to speed up Social Security Disability claims for seriously ILL

list of conditions
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances/conditions.htm

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0423022000!opendocument

http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/compassionate-allowances-1108-pr.htm Below

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Mark Lassiter, Press Officer

For Immediate Release 410-965-8904, press.office@ssa.gov

News Release

SOCIAL SECURITY

SSA Press Office 440 Altmeyer Building 6401 Security Blvd. Baltimore, MD 21235 410-965-8904 FAX 410-966-9973

Social Security Holds Third Disability Hearing

on Compassionate Allowances

Experts Provide Testimony on Traumatic Brain Injuries and Stroke

The Social Security Administration, in conjunction with the United States Department of

Defense, held a public hearing on Compassionate Allowances today at Ft. Myer in Arlington,

VA. Senior executives from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health

joined Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, to hear testimony from some of the

nation’s leading experts on traumatic brain injury, the signature injury of the conflicts in Iraq and

Afghanistan, and stroke.

“Compassionate Allowances, which we launched last month with an initial list of 50 conditions,

allows us to make disability decisions on certain categories of cases in a matter of days, rather

than months or years,” said Commissioner Astrue. “Today’s hearing gives us additional insight

into how we might better recognize and fast-track the disability applications of veterans and

others dealing with the effects of traumatic brain injuries and strokes.”

Compassionate Allowances are a way of quickly identifying diseases and other medical

conditions that invariably qualify under Social Security’s disability standards based on minimal

objective medical information. Today’s hearing is the third of four public hearings Social

Security plans to hold. Previous hearings dealt with cancers and rare diseases and resulted in the

nationwide launch of the Compassionate Allowances initiative in October 2008. See the press

release at: www.socialsecurity.gov/pressoffice/pr/compassionate-allowances-1008-pr.htm

Please go to www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances for more information.

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A Letter to President Elect Obama from an old soldier

A Letter to President Elect Obama from an old soldier & poll
cross posted at Daily Kos under my aka Testvet6778

Sir, all I can say is thank you, and may God give you the strength you are going to need for the next eight years. Yes, I am that confident that you will be re-elected by even a larger margin than you were elected with.

You are the most calm and collected person I have ever seen, I have tried to explain to my conservative wife that you search for information the good and the bad, and you seek guidance from people that know what they are doing, like Warren Buffet, Sam Nunn, President William J. Clinton, Hillary, Ted Kennedy, Carolyn Kennedy, etc. You try to find out all you can before deciding on a course of action.

You are the President this nation needs at this time in our history, calm and firm leadership. I fully expect you will have a truly bi-partisian Cabinet and I expect you will irritate the progressives because you will be seen as embracing to many Republicans, the difference like you have been saying this is not a Blue America or a Red America this is the United States of America, and I truly hate the term "Homeland Security" can you please change it to National Security. We are a NATION of many blended citizens, Irish, English, German, Russians, Cubans, Chinese, Japanese, South Americans, Canadians, etc, but bottom line when they emigrate here they become Americans not hyphinated Americans, but true Americans, we are all equal under the American Flag.

I have been alive for quite a few years, and because the men in our family had children late in life, it does not take long to get back into American History for me, my father rode with D Troop 7th Calvary, based in Douglas, Arizona from 1914-1916, he rode with General Black Jack Pershing after Pancho Villa.

My grandfather Joshua Eaton Bailey started a town in Arizona named Safford in 1874 this was after his Civil War Service with the California 4th Volunteers had taken him to the territory to stop the Confederates operating there. they spent most of their time fighting the Apache.

Father of Safford: historical information as told by Joshua Bailey's grandson: Joshua E. Bailey was born Nov 4, 1833 in Orleans County New York, in Barre Township. He traveled west in 1851 to the the goldfields of California (the Eureka area). In 1861 Bailey joined the California 4th Volunteers who did service in the Arizona Territory. In 1865, he was discharged from the Army and went to work at Yuma Army Depot. He worked trade stations along the Colorado River until he led the party of Mormons to the Safford Area. Tuttle and Bailey opened the first store--Bailey ran the store, and Tuttle financed it. Joshua then opened the stage station at Bailey's Wells. Later, he was elected a Graham County Commissioner. He sold out of Safford in 1898, and purchased a dairy in Yuma. At the request of Bailey's wife, Ida Garber Bailey, they moved to Michigan in 1899. Joshua Bailey died April 2, 1900 at his farm in Eaton County Michigan and is buried in the Diamondale Cemetary in Eaton County Michigan.


As you can see my grandfather was born in 1833 to John Bailey and Polly Eaton Bailey in Barre NY, my great grand father was born in 1809 to Obijah Bailey from Barre Mass, after the Revolutionary War, the soldiers were given sections of land for serving in the war, the Baileys moved west to Orleans County New York in 1806. My great great grandfather served in the Revolutionary War, my family has served in the Army since this nation was created, no other branch, we are an Army family. I served during Vietnam and did my combat tour on the DMZ in Korea, it was still a combat zone when I joined the Army in 1973, just the DMZ, the JSA compound now known as Camp Bonifas and Camp Liberty Bell and Camp Greaves were all north of the Imjin River in the DMZ, the other troops south did not draw combat pay nor were they entitled to wear the 2nd Division patch as a combat patch on the right shoulder.

After leaving active duty in 1982 as a Staff sergeant (promotable) I had been selected for the E7 list, but my family life led me to make the choice to leave the active Army, I then joined the National Guard to finish my 20 years so I could obtain my retirement benefits, then came Operation Desert Storm and I was activated for my second war.

Medical problems from my military service led me to become totally disabled by June 2002 at the age of 47, PTSD, a failed triple bypass, 2 stents that failed, a heart ejection fraction of 25%, COPD, 3 herniated disks in my lower back L3-S1, the SSD was approved in 4 months, the VA claim was filed at the same time, I was awarded 50% in May 2005 after denials appeals and my contacting the White House, the VA thought they would buy me off with the 50%, I was told by an American Legion Service Officer I should be happy with the 50% and shut up. I fired him and appealed my own claim with my wife's help, Senator Larry Craig then Chairman of the Senate VA Committee caught Renee Szybala lying to myself and him, based on false information provided by the Columbia SC VARO, the ones who appear the worst offenders in "Shreddergate" the willful destruction of veterans claims and evidence they have submitted to have their compensation claims approved.

After contacting VP Cheney's office with a copy of this diary written by TxSharon (my hero) Sun Aug 06, 2006 at 09:35:33 AM CDT the VA decided to award my claim at the 100% level and made it permanent and total.

My point is that veterans should not have to jump thru such hoops and hurdles to have their compensation claims adjudicated. Many veterans end up losing vehicles, homes, their dignity and their families, the stress of fighting the VA has led to many divorces as the spouse does not comprehend the mess, and the lack of income leads to tremendous arguments, and the lack of "help" from the VA is the root cause of many of these problems.

There is a saying that if you didn't have PTSD before filing a VA Compnesation claim, you will have it before it is done, the VA leaves many veterans and their families totally disillusioned by their government.

When we enlisted we signed a blank check that said "our azz" on the pay line, in return for the PROMISE that is anything happened to us mentally or medically the VA would care for us and our families if we could not, the Veterans Admininstration is known among veterans as the Veterans Adversarial Agency, instead of being the veterans advocates that most Americans expect.

There is a rule that states "give the benefit of the doubt to the veteran" the VA has interpreted that to mean "doubt everything the veteran is telling you".

Mr President elect Obama, you are going to get a lot of advice from a lot of people about who you should keep like Def Sec Gates, yes he is a good one, on the other hand VA Secretary Peake is not good for veterans, he is a QTC manager, plain and simple, he is an ideological Republican and he is NOT good for veterans, if you really truly want to help veterans, give us a real advocate for veterans, Tammy Duckworth, Max Cleland, or even Wes Clark. You don't need a doctor type in charge of the VA, we need an advocate for veterans, someone who puts veterans and their families first. Show your love for the veterans and give us a VA Secretary we deserve.

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Filner to VA: Confidence in VA Completely Shattered by Recent Document Shredding

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 19, 2008




http://veterans.house.gov


Filner to VA: Confidence in VA Completely Shattered by Recent Document Shredding


Washington, D.C. – House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) released this statement following today’s roundtable discussion on the shredding of veterans’ documents by the VA:


“Today’s roundtable revealed a number of shortcomings within the VA that are hardly new and most definitely failing our nation’s veterans.

“I am encouraged that the VA came forward and revealed that important documents were slated for the shredding bin.

“I remain angry that a culture of dishonesty has led to increased mistrust of the VA within the veteran community. A systemic lack of integrity seems pervasive and that is a shame.

“First, I am not convinced that only 500 documents were saved from the shredding bin. This is merely a snapshot in time. The VA was unable to convince me that more documents have not been shredded in the past and I honestly do not know how many records have been destroyed and how many files lost over the past decades.

“Second, we have heard promises from the VA before. We have heard that the claims process will go paperless. Training will be improved. VA’s latest promise is that veterans can submit statements containing information that will be used in the adjudication process in lieu of documents missing from their files. While this is an important step forward, I am skeptical that this new step will become part of the claims process.

“Additionally, the VA’s outreach has been limited to a reliance on media reports and a message on the VA website. The VA did not report a systematic way of reaching out to veterans to alert them of new policies that may have huge implications in their claims going forward.

“Finally, Congress has routinely asked VA what it needs to adequately care for veterans and the response has been that it is adequately poised. This is clearly not adequate care for our veterans.

“Listen, this is a long-term systemic problem that will require uncomfortable changes, long hours, unprecedented cooperation, extraordinary progress, and a new system of independent oversight. Clearly, the current system of self-reporting and internal regulation is ineffective. Congress must hold the VA accountable for a job NOT WELL DONE.

“A complete paradigm shift is necessary and I look forward to working with new leadership to correct the problems plaguing the benefits claims system. I am pleased that veterans have begun to work on transition issues in the impending Obama Administration. I plan to work with veterans service organizations, veterans, and the VA to fundamentally change the way that the Veterans Benefits Administration conducts business.”

###


Chairman Filner provided this opening statement to begin the roundtable discussion:


Good morning and welcome to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs’ roundtable discussion on the very serious issue of the shredding of veterans documents-- whether they are claims or other records.


On October 13th of this year, we…the Committee and our Veterans…were shocked by the disturbing headline:

“SHREDDING OUR TRUST IN THE VA -- VA investigators find entire claims and other critical documents in shredding bins at Detroit Regional Office”.


A nationwide review of the VA's 57 regional offices found 41 had records in their shredder bins that should not have been there. In all, nearly 500 benefit claims records had been erroneously slated for destruction, including claims for compensation, notices of disagreement with a claim decision, and death certificates.


These actions completely shatter confidence in the whole VA system. These documents are matters of life and death for some of these veterans. This episode has further strengthened my belief that VA desperately needs new leadership, and it needs new leadership today. These incidents and “mistakes,” all occurring to the detriment of our veterans and never to their benefit, remind me more of the Keystone Cops rather than a supportive organization dedicated to taking care of our veterans.

Shortly, we will hear from Admiral Patrick Dunne, the Under Secretary for Benefits for the VA, who will give an overview of the situation and an update on the VA’s actions regarding this intolerable situation. I suspect that his comments will generate some lively discussion on the issue about how we can best proceed from this point and never allow this to occur again.

I purposefully chose this “roundtable” format, and invited stakeholders in the veterans community, so that we can address this issue, have an interactive discussion, and get to practical solutions to solve these problems. Concerns have been raised that this meeting has not been called a hearing. These concerns are unfounded and I think our veterans care less about what we call it and more about what we do. It is vital that we quickly get to the bottom of this and take concrete steps to correct and fix this today -- not tomorrow or next week. We need to hear what the VA is doing and the internal controls and protections that seemingly were in place to prevent this, and what has been done since the incident. As I said earlier, “These documents are matters of life and death for some of these veterans”.

I believe this is a critical juncture for the VA. It is on the verge of completely losing the trust and confidence of the people that it is supposed to represent…the very same people it has been entrusted to care for.

I believe the following statement in the article I cited previously adequately sums up the current feelings of our veterans:

“This is not business as usual. The recent revelations of the willful and wanton destruction of vital veteran’s records are not just another "isolated incident." We have now moved to the next level of the game. What was maddening last year is now possibly criminal.”


So this morning we are going to attempt to get a better idea of the scope of this problem and what the VA is doing to respond to it. What specific steps has the VA taken and what has it done to begin to rectify the problem?
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

My thoughts typed as the meeting was ongoing, you can tell where I got frustrated and went outside to smoke I figure I can watch therest of it on tape at a later time when my blood pressure drops to more normal levels:

Filner it looks to be criminal

Filner: confidence in the VA is gone veterans just plain do not trust the VA it has a long history of games with claims files

Adm Dunne
Aug 20 began mail processing audit, they found mail in shred bins that should not have been there. 41 offices out of 57 500 documents only 2 employees under investigation nationwide WTF

retrained personnel on how to handle documents a new mail handling process officer a 2 person review and sigs before documents can be shredded

8 point plan director will have to verify compliance

April 14 2007 if veteran has a copy of a document in between then and now claims a copy is missing the VA will accept it

BS they will review earlier cases from 2004 or whatever dates the veterans claim we all know how that works we looked at it and you still lose

Digital claims in process 2010 is anticipated date for use of digital claims

IG investigation ongoing IG refused to attend todays meeting

Watchdog wrote about this before VA notified Congress SALUTE Larry

Filner tells VA official he has no confidence in VA to be honest what is the VA doing to help veterans who think they may be affected by this

NOVA Cohen
can't hear member 15 years we have been telling the VA the courts and Congress about missing documents destroyed records 20,000 cases missing files 33000 cases Aug 2008 500 records is only a snapshot no one knows how many records have been destroyed over the past years any vet should be able to ask for a look back asks that veteran gets benefit of the doubt expidited treatment for veterans presumption against the VA and the veteran should give the veteran the benefit of the doubt and award the claim records were destroyed to prevent vets from getting benefits or to decrease their work load to meet dead lines

Filner we need to know what happened and we don't want it buried Dunne says we will share what we can

Rodriguez Congressman from Tx
unknown clean up and stop this from re-occuring transparency is needed, we all know their are problems here GAO reports Texas DR Boven is brought up whistle blower system needs to be cleaned up

VVA
defends VA Rick Weidman busy sucking up, the shredding is NOT the issue, the problem is the integrity of the claims system this is not new problem has been ongoing for decades best practices manual is being ignored dubious of 16 office that said they had no documents shredded digitilization must be done Bush admin is still responsible and the funds are needed accountability down to DRO level NY removed top 6 officials for lying respect for veterans (rofl) C&P exams that follow the protocol not being done now doctors are not even reviewing the C File as required

Mitchell - we asked the VA if they had resources they said they had plenty now we here they didn't have resources and they shredded documents to make time lines for bonuses are bonuses going to be paid out why VA has highest bonuses in govt these VAs where documents were destroyed the Directors should NO get any bonus this year

Filner - is anyone talking to Obama's transition team? we need to talk to new leadership

Nov 14 forms who would destroy marriage certificates, birth certificates etc, severe action needed for who was destroying documents copies not kept what about veterans that sent documents to VA and did not keep a copy and now the documents are gone how to help them?

Dunne replies if vet tells them they submitted it that is good enough for him BS

we will work with them on a case by case basis Dunne promises to get personally involved

Goal for digital access is 2010 hell Health E vet has not progressed that fast

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