Saturday, February 09, 2013

Scary dictator




BULLY BOY PRESS CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE


KILLER BARRY O CONTINUES HIS ASSAULT ON THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND THE WORLD WITH HIS DRONE WAR TARGETING PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD FOR EXECUTION BASED ON SHODDY EVIDENCE OR THE FACT THAT HE COULDN'T EVACUATE THE TURD FULLY IN THAT MORNING'S BOWEL MOVEMENT.

BACKLASH IS BUILDING TO KILLER BARRY'S ILLEGAL ACTIONS.  BUT KILLER BARRY DOESN'T CARE, HE TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "I'VE SHAT ON THE CONSTITUTION FOR NEARLY 5 YEARS NOW.  YOU THINK I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT TAKING A LEAK ON THE MAGNA CARTER?"



FROM THE TCI WIRE:



Ken Hanly (Digital Journal) quotes Omar al-Faruq stating, "I have been here for 45 days waiting for my dream to become a reality.  I dream that Maliki will be tried, the same way as Saddam."  He was protesting in Ramadi and he is only one of the many protesters taking to the streets of late.   Iraqi Spring shares photos of the Ramadi protest.

  1. Khalisi School in Ramadi المدرسة الخالصية في الانبار
  2. Khalisi School in Ramadi المدرسة الخالصية في الانبار
  3. Khalisi School in Ramadi المدرسة الخالصية في الانبار




 Alsumaria notes that Anbar Province demonstrators have condemned the bombing and are calling for the government to implement their demands or resign.  Al-Shorfa adds that the spokesperson for the Mosul protesters, Ghanem al-Abd, also condemned the attacks.  World Bulletin explains,  "Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is facing mass protests by disenchanted Sunni Muslims and is at loggerheads with ethnic Kurds who run their northern region autonomously from Baghdad."  For the seventh week, protests continue in Iraq with today being dubbed "NO to the Tyrannical Ruler."  Morning Star quotes Samarra's Sheik Mohammed Jumaa declaring, "Stop tyranny and oppression.  We want our rights.  You will witness what other tyrants have witnessed before you."    Kitabat reports protests today in Anbar, Mosul, Salahuddin, Kirkuk, Diyala and Baghdad and that protesters are calling Nouri the Pharaoh of Iraq (it's not a compliment) and noting that his State of Law didn't win the 2010 parliamentary elections but he used the Erbil Agreement to grab the post of prime minister then disregarded the partnership agreement.  Najaf demonstrators called this morning for Article IV of the Constitution to be gutted ('terrorists' arrests -- if you can't find your suspect, arrest a relative).  Alsumaria notes "hundreds" demonstrating in Kirkuk and demanding that Nouri's government resign if they are unable to meet the demands of the protesters.  Sinan Salaheddin (AP) notes protesters in Falluja and Ramadi again "blocked the main highway to Jordan."   On the Ramadi protests, Omar al-Shaher (Al-Monitor) reports:


Amid the clamor caused by the ongoing protests in Anbar province in western Iraq, which are nearing their 50th day, demonstrators have pitched huge tents and blocked traffic on the highway linking Iraq to Jordan and Syria. The protest organizers said that the main square was attracting a million people each Friday, including many participants from thousands of miles away, who require food and a place to sleep.
On one such Friday, 200 sheep were slaughtered to provide demonstrators with food. On another Friday, ​​the city of Hit, located 50 miles west of Ramadi, served demonstrators 2,000 dishes of meat and rice for lunch. The demonstration’s organizers said that Friday lunch meals can cost upwards of $60,000.
Qusay Zain, a spokesman for the protest, said that tribal leaders in Ramadi compete to serve lunch to protesters, despite the exorbitant costs. "This time, many tribal leaders in Anbar have taken honorable stances,” he said.


Liz Sly (Washington Post) observes, "With their huge turnouts, these largely peaceful demonstrations have the potential to present a far bigger challenge to Maliki’s hold on power than the violent and still stubbornly persistent insurgency, which continues to claim scores of lives every month without any discernible impact on the political process."   Neoconservatives Kimberly and Frederick W. Kagan have written an opinion piece on the protests for the Washington Post:




Eighteen days of protests in Egypt in 2011 electrified the world. But more than twice that many days of protest in Iraq have gone almost unnoticed in the United States. Iraqi army troops killed five Sunni protesters in Fallujah on Jan. 25, after a month of anti-government protests in Anbar, Nineveh and Salahuddin provinces and elsewhere for which thousands turned out. Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Iranian-backed Shiite militias are re-mobilizing. Iraq teeters on the brink of renewed insurgency and, potentially, civil war.
This crisis matters for America. U.S. vital interests that have been undermined over the past year include preventing Iraq from becoming a haven for al-Qaeda and destabilizing the region by becoming a security vacuum or a dictatorship that inflames sectarian civil war; containing Iranian influence in the region; and ensuring the free flow of oil to the global market.
While tensions have risen over the past two years, the triggers for recent eruptions are clear. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, had the bodyguards of Finance Minister Rafie al-Issawi, who is Sunni, arrested for alleged terrorist activities on Dec. 20 — almost exactly one year after he ordered the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi’ssecurity detail. Hashimi fled to Turkey and is unlikely to return soon to Iraq, where he was sentenced to death after Maliki demanded his trial in absentia for murder and financing terrorism.
The threat to Issawi, a moderate technocrat from Anbar, galvanized Iraqi Sunnis, who rightly saw Maliki’s move as sectarian and an assault on government participation by Sunnis not under the prime minister’s thumb. Three days after the arrests, demonstrations broke out in Ramadi, Fallujah and Samarra. Three days after that, a large protest closed the highwayfrom Baghdad to Syria and Jordan. The popular resistance spread to Mosul on Dec. 27.




Meanwhile Iraqi President Jalal Talabani remains out of the country.  Late on December 17th (see the December 18th snapshot), Jalal Talabani had a stroke and was admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital.    Thursday, December 20th, he was moved to Germany.  He remains in Germany currently. [Saad Abedine (CNN) reported talk that it was a stroke the day the news broke (December 18th) and January 9th, the Office of President Talabani confirmed it had been a stroke.]  The January 30th snapshot noted that Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani visited Talabani in the Germany -- Barzani was enroute to Davos -- with Barzani stating that Jalal's health was improving.  Talabani's website explains the the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Iraq, Martin Kobler, conveyed congratulations on Tuesday, noting Jalal's progress and that his health had stabilized.


Turning to the United States, yesterday saw John Brennnen appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee in his pursuit of the post to be Director of the CIA.  It was covered in "Iraq snapshot," "Thoughts on today's Senate Intell hearing (C.I.),"  Ava's  "The disgraceful Dianne Feinstein (Ava)," Wally's "Brennan likes torture (Wally)" AND Kat's "Brennan tries to weasel."  On that hearing, Jon Schwarz Tweets:



As you listen to the Brennan hearing, remember 6 years ago Jay Rockefeller explained senators have no power vs the CIA:

Expand


 In addition, Ruth reported on a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in "If Leon Panetta told the truth . . .."




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"Disgusting Congress, Disgusting Witness"

Friday, February 08, 2013

Disgusting Congress, Disgusting Witness


BULLY BOY PRESS CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

KILLER BARRY O'S RIGHT HAND TERRORIST JOHN BRENNAN DECLARED YESTERDAY TO THE SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE ["Iraq snapshot," "Thoughts on today's Senate Intell hearing (C.I.)," "The disgraceful Dianne Feinstein (Ava)," "Brennan likes torture (Wally)" AND "Brennan tries to weasel"] THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE MISUNDERSTOOD THE LARGELY SECRET PROGRAM THAT ALLOWS KILLER BARRY TO KILL PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD -- EVEN AMERICAN CITIZENS.

BRENNAN'S NONSENSE WAS LAPPED UP BY A GROUP OF SENATORS WHO HAVE MOLESTED AND BEATEN THE CONSTITUTION FOR YEARS.

WITH NO RESPECT FOR DEMOCRACY -- THE COMMITTEE CHAIR IS ALWAYS TOO BUSY WONDERING WHAT DEFENSE CONTRACTS SHE CAN STEER HER HUSBAND'S WAY -- AND EVEN LESS FOR HUMAN LIFE, THEIR CONFIRMING BRENNAN SEEMS A GO.

REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS THIS MORNING, DIANNE FEINSTEIN EXPLAINED SHE HAD JUST FINISHED PUTTING HER UGLY WIG ON AND WAS NOW HEADED OUT TO THROW "ACID IN THE FACES OF THE MASSES.  WHAT I WOULDN'T GIVE FOR A DRONE, YOU KNOW?  IT WOULD SAVE ME SO MUCH TIME AND EFFORT."


FROM THE TCI WIRE:


Attending the Senate Intelligence Committee today was an odyssey into the absurd.  Senator Dianne Feinstein, you may remember, condemned the classic film Zero Dark Thirty.  While some idiots rushed to echo her, we pointed out that of course the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee would condemn it -- Zero Dark Thirty is an indictment against Feinstein who has served on the Intelligence Committee and looked the other way on torture over and over.  Feinstein was having a hissy fit as a man shouted something to the effect of, "You are betraying democracy when you assassinate justice!"  She also whined about how, she did not feel, there were enough capitol police.  She actually had it cleared twice.  Medea Benjamin (of CODEPINK) yelled, "Why, Dianne, why?" as the room was being cleared.


The shouters were CODEPINKers -- not all CODEPINKers were shouting, however.  Not shouting but in that section was Ann Wright.  Some of the people around her had painted their hands pink, some held up signs -- and I would say they wree the size of construction paper, not big signs, 8 1/2 by 11 inches.  There was one large sign calling Brennan a national security risk.  DiFi had a fit about those as well insisting there would be no signs allowed in the hearing either.  After wasting everyone's time clearing the room twice -- and scowling (sadly, her face has frozen like that), DiFi wanted to then lecture everyone present. 

She wanted those present to know what good citizens didn't do.  "They don't show signs."  What a bully in a bad wig.  And as she lost it repeatedly, it was hard not to think how lucky she is that so many of the Committee's hearings are closed to the public.  Feinstein is the public servant who  loathes the public. 

Why were people upset?  Because President Barack Obama nominated John Brennan to be the CIA Director. 


And probably because they knew Feinstein was going to rubber stamp him. What else was she going to do?  She served on the "Intelligence Committee" when torture took place.  She was briefed on it and she looked the other way.  She buried it and she mitigated it and she's part of the refusal to hold people accountable for torture.  In a functioning government, she would have been forced to resign from the Committee.  Instead, she tries to pretend she has the ethics to criticize a film that exposes the widespread use of torture.

In her ridiculous opening remarks, she pushed the lie that civilian deaths from drone strikes were minimal ("typically been in the single digits") and claimed that she and the Committee had provided strong oversight ("significant oversight") of The Drone War.  She was lying again.  When Feinstein lies, her voice goes flat and in the roof of the mouth.  It's a weird sound but that's her tell.  And she was lying in her opening statements.  Those that don't know her tell had only to listen to Senator Ron Wyden's first exchange to grasp that there has been no oversight and DiFi was lying.

If you're new to The Drone War, The World (PRI) has created this folder of audio reports on the topic.  Drones are robot planes.  The operator isn't in the plane, they're elsewhere.  The drones capture video.  That's generally a live feed.  When we speak of the drones involved in The Drone War, we're speaking of drones with more than video capability.  These drones are weaponized.  John Brennan is usually referred to by the press as the "architect."

DiFI and others would claim that they wanted to focus on CIA issues.  But no one asked the obvious: Can you keep it in your pants or will you also sleep around making yourself a security risk?  That is why the hearing was held in the first place.  CIA Director David Petraeus had to step down because he couldn't keep it in his pants.  When that happens, maybe the first question to the next nominee should be about the topic that forced a resignation?

Brennan noted he joined the CIA in 1980.  That was about all the facts he could muster in his opening remarks but that was probably one more factual truth than Chair Dianne Feinstein managed in her long, long opening remarks.  Brennan was yammering away about his family -- no, that really didn't belong in the opening remarks, when a man began shouting about a teenager (I believe he was referring to 16-year-old Abdulrahman al-Awlaki who was an American and who was killed by a drone) when DiFi felt the need to pause the hearing.  As the man was led away, he urged the Committe,  "Stand up against torture, stand up against drones to not confirm this man."

Brennan then wanted to go on about his own three children.  A woman stood, held a baby doll over her head and shouted, "Speaking of children, I speak for the mothers of children who are killed in the drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and anywhere else. And the Obama administration refuses to tell Congress.  They won't even tell Congress what countries we are killing children in.  Senator Feinstein, are your children more important than the children of Pakistan and Yemen?  Are they more important?  Do your job!  World peace depends on it.  We're making more enemies -- "

DiFi's not really good with children, never has been.  And she only has one child, for the record.  That's probably confusing because she's on husband number three, but she only has one child.  (And that's obvious by her inability to handle anything that strays from a schedule.) 

"The next time," Feinstein informed Brennan, "we're going to clear the chamber and bring people in one by one."

What a petty little tyrant.  I've been at hearings at the height of the Iraq War.  I've seen real outbursts, prolonged ones.  No one had to call a recess, no one had to pout.  (In fairness, DiFi's unhappy life has made the corners of her mouth sag so she forever appears to be pouting.)   A woman then stood up with a list of the names of children killed in The Drone War.

It was too much for Dianne Feinstein.  She insisted that the room be cleared and "that the CODEPINK associates not be permitted to come back in."



After a recess, the hearing started again and it wasn't good for Brennan.  Without CODEPINK interrupting, it became obvious how like Arvin Sloane he was.  He sounds like him, he looks like him.  Arvin Sloane was the maniac and CIA baddie on Jennifer Garner's Alias.  Ron Rifkin played him.

Despite yammering away forever, neither Feinstein nor Breenan noted the reality that Alice K. Ross, Chris Woods and Sarah Leo did in December with "The Reaper Presidency: Obama's 300th drone strike in Pakistan" (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism).  None wanted to note that, in Pakistan alone, The Drone War has resulted in about 3,468 deaths -- with as many as 893 of those being civilians.  176 of those were children.  So, no, DiFi's lie about each year's civilian killed are not in the single digit.  Well they may be, the 'report' the Senate Intelligence Community gets may say that.  But it's a lie if it does.  DiFi also 'forgot' to mention that the United Nations


Vice Chair Saxby Chambliss:  As Deputy Executive Director, you received the daily updates from the time of Abu Zubaydah's capture throughout his interrogation including the analysis of the lawfulness of the techniques putting you in the position to express any concerns you had about the program before any of the most controversial techniques -- including water boarding -- were ever used.  Now we found a minimum of 50 memos in the documents within the 6,000 pages that -- on which you were copied.  What steps did you take to stop CIA from moving to these techniques you now say you found objectionable at the time?

John Brennan:  I did not take steps to stop the CIA's use of those techniques.  I was not in the chain of command of that program.  I served as Deputy Executive Director at the time.  I had responsibility for overseeing the management of the Agency and all of its various functions and, uh, I was aware of the program.  Uhm, I was uh-uh cc-ed on some of those documents but I had no oversight of it.  I wasn't involved in its creation.  I had expressed my personal objections and views to some Agency colleagues about certain of those EITs such as water boarding, nudity and others where I professed my personal objections to it.  Uh, but I did not try to stop it because it was -- uh -- you know, something that was being done in a different part of the agency under the authority of others.  Uh, and it was, uh, something that, uh, was directed by the, uh, the administration at the time.


So Brennan gave his silent approval.  And he never took it to "the ones directly above you," as Chambliss pointed out by listing all those higher at the time than Brennan in the CIA.  Confronted by Chambliss with AB Krongard's remarks that Brennan was more involved in the torture than he's letting on, Brennan fell back on "I don't recall."  Buzzy Krongard was Executive Director of the CIA.  Asked by Chambliss about the e-mails describing various torture techniques being sent to him, Brennan insisted he got ton of e-mails but he wasn't in the loop on torture.


Senator Ron Wyden started his first round of questioning by noting the meeting he and other senators had with Brennan last week.

Senator Ron Wyden:  As we discussed then, I believe the issues before us have nothing to do with political party and have everything to do with checks and balances that make our system of government so special.  Taking the fight to al Qaeda is something every member of this Committee feels strongly about.  It's the idea of giving any president unfettered power to kill an American without checks and balances that is so troubling.   Every American has the right to know when their government believes it's allowed to kill them.  And ensuring that the Congress has the documents and information it needs to conduct robust oversight is central to our democracy.  In fact, the Committee was actually created in response to lax oversight of programs that involved targeted killings.   So it was encouraging last night when the President called and indicated that effective immediately, he would release the documents necessary for senators to understand the full legal analysis of the president's authority to conduct the targeted killing of an American.  What the president said is a good first step towards ensuring the openess and accountability that's important and you heard that reaffirmed in the Chair's strong words right now.  Since last night, however, I have become concerned that the Department of Justice is not following through with the president's commitment just yet.   11 United States Senators asked to see any and all legal opinions, but when I went to read the opinions this morning, it is not clear that that was what was provided.  And moreover on this point, with respect to lawyers, I think what the concern is, is there's a double standard.  As the National Security Advisor and you volunteered to your credit,  you are not a lawyer, you asked your lawyers and your experts to help you and we're trying to wade through all of these documents and the reason I'm concerned is that it's not yet clear that what the president committed to has actually been provided.  And finally on this point, the Committee has been just stonewalled on several other requests -- particularly with regards to secret law.  And I'm going to leave this point simply by saying, I hope you'll go back to the White House and convey to them the message is not yet following through on the president's commitment.  Will you convey that message?

John Brennan:  Yes, I will, Senator.

Senator Ron Wyden:  Very good.  Let me now move to the public side of oversight, making sure that the public's right to know is respected.   One part oversight is Congressional oversight and our doing our work here.  The other is making sure that the American people are brought into these debate.  Just like James Madison said, this is what you need to preserve a republic.  And I want to start with the drone issue.   In a speech last year, the President instructed you to be more open with the public about the use of drones to conduct targeted killings of al Qaeda members.  So my question is: What should be done next to ensure that public conversation about drones so that the American people are brought in to this debate and have a full understanding of what rules the government's going to observe when it conducts targeted killings?

John Brennan:  Well I think this hearing is one way because I think this kind of discourse between the legislative and the executive branch is critically important.  I believe that there needs to be continued speeches that are going to be given by, uh, given by the executive branch to explain our counter-terrorism programs.  I think there's a misimpression on the part of some American people who believe that we take strikes to punish terrorist for past transgressions.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We only take such actions as a last resort to save lives when there's no other alternative to taking an action that's going to mitigate that threat.  So we need to make sure that there's an understanding.  And the people that were standing up here today, I think they really have a misunderstanding of what we do as a government and the care that we take and the agony that we go through to make sure that we do not have any collateral injuries or deaths.  And as the Chairman said earlier, the need to be able to go out and say that publicly and openly, I think, is critically important because people are reacting to a lot of falsehoods that are out there and I do see it as part of my obligation and I think it's the obligation of this Committee to make sure the truth is known to the American people and to the world.


It's a damn shame idiots like Glenn-Glenn Greenwald were allowed and encouraged to hijack Zero Dark Thirty because Kathryn Bigelow's film demonstrates what a liar Brennan is.  There is no mistaken impression (the real term, not "misimpression") on the part of the American people.  What's really going on, and this is in Kathryn's film, is that "last resort" is not a last resort.  These people making these decisions are declaring everything a "last resort."  That's what the interrogation in the first act of the film is about.  The prisoner has no knowledge of a bombing that will take place in 24 hours.  He is tortured.  Over and over.  "Last resort" and "threat"?  No, not in the 'ticking time bomb' sense that has taken up the bulk of the discussion of terrorism.

Should people torture?

No.  It cheapens and deadens you, it destroys any real sense of a legal system.  But proponents use the ticking time bomb argument.  This argues that if you could stop Miami from being bombed in 24 hours if you were allowed to torture a suspect, you should do it.  This ticking time bomb argument allowed for a lot of hiding.  The torture was never about something in 24 hours.  It was about getting information -- something interrogation has long done.  Sometimes well, sometimes poorly.  And as the film makes clear, torture was allowed because an attack today or an attack two years from now were all treated as an "immediate threat" and torture was the first choice while being presented as a "last resort."

Brennan grasps what idiots like Glenn-Glenn didn't.  And Brennan is playing word games with a Committee that's either too stupid to grasp that or honestly doesn't care.  And that's very important because if you're going to infer that Americans can't be targeted on US soil and Brennan's playing word games then we're being denied the reality that, as with torture, the never-ending supposed threat (labled "immediate threat" always by the government) will mean US citizens can be targeted with government killings while on US soil.  Anything else is lie and Brennan told a lot of lies in the hearing. 

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Thursday, February 07, 2013

Some people can justify anything


BULLY BOY PRESS CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE

MICHAEL W. LEWIS LIKES DRONE STRIKES.

THEY ARE THE VIAGRA THAT HELPS HIM GET IT UP. 

MICHAEL W. LEWIS HATES HUMAN BEINGS.

THEY ARE THE ONES WHO POINT AND LAUGH AT HIM.

MICHAEL W. LEWIS DEFENDS DRONE STRIKES.

THAT MAKES HIM THE MODERN DAY GOEBELS.


OR AT THE VERY LEAST, MRS. JOHN BRENNAN

THESE REPORTERS ATTEMPTED TO CONTACT LEWIS BUT WERE INFORMED BY THE HEAD OF THE WARD FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE THAT HE WAS NOT ALLOWED ANY VISITORS OR PHONE CALLS.


FROM THE TCI WIRE:


Dropping back to yesterday afternoon, the US House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs held a hearing on the use of temporary disability ratings.

Subcommittee Chair Jon Runyan:  Our hearing topic today will focus on temporary total disability ratings.  Temporary total disability ratings serve a very important function in the benefits scheme.  This type of rating is assigned when it is established by medical evidence that surgery or certain treatment was performed, necessitating a period of recovery during which the veteran cannot work. However, according to a January 2011 report by the VA Office of the Inspector General, VBA has not been correctly processing and monitoring such claims.  As a result, the OIG stated that since January 1993, VBA has overpaid veterans a net amount of $943 million.  The OIG also stated that without timely action, VBA would overpay veterans a projected $1.1 billion over the next five years.  These numbers are troubling, to say the least.  As all of us here today are aware, our nation’s fiscal health is one of this Congress’s top priorities.  Part of this process includes trimming government spending and eliminating government waste.  It is my hope that by bringing attention to this topic, we can ensure that every dollar appropriated to VA is being spent properly on care and benefits for our veterans.  We heard from VA in June of last year during sworn testimony, that these errors were due to a computer glitch.  VA advised that the glitch would be fixed by July 2012.  Nonetheless, two new Regional Office audits issued by the OIG last month found that 50 percent of the temporary 100 percent disability evaluations reviewed were incorrect. The explanations given in the OIG audits stated that the 50 percent accuracy rate occurred because staff did not establish controls to monitor the proposed reductions initially, nor did they schedule future medical examinations as required. So -- something doesn’t add up here.  If the computer glitch was fixed in July 2012 but over 50 percent of temporary total rating claims are still being processed incorrectly as of January 2013, then that leads me to believe that these are human errors, not computer errors.


100% Temporary Disability Rating?  "A total 100% temporary disability rating will be assigned, without regard to the rating schedule, when a service connected disability has required hospitalization treatment by the Department of Veterans Affairs, for a period in excess of 21 days."   Paralyzed Veterans of America's Carl Blake submitted a written statement for the record.  He noted that temporary disability ratings rarely affected members of his organization:

That being said, temporary total disability ratings serve an important and practical purpose for many veterans.  The determination for temporary total disability ratings are governed by the provisions of 38 C.F.R. § 4.29, Ratings for service-connected disabilities requiring hospital treatment or observation, and 38 C.F.R. § 4.30, Convalescent ratings.  Temporary increases to VA disability ratings in accordance with the provisions of Paragraphs 29 and 30 are simple adjustments to running compensation awards that can be accomplished by employees with a minimum of training.  Temporary increases to compensation Paragraph 29 are determined by the verified dates of hospitalization.  Meanwhile, adjustments under the provisions of Paragraph 30 are established by rating action based on available medical information.  In each case, the dates of entitlement are clearly indicated, and with only a small amount of attention to detail, there should be no significant errors.


Runyan continues as Subcommittee Chair.  The new Ranking Member of the Subcommittee is Dina Titus.  There were two panels.  The first panel was Vietnam Veterans of America's Rick Weidman and VA's Assistant Inspector General for Audits and Evaluations Linda Halliday (accompanied by Larry Reinkemeyer and Brent Arronte).  The second panel was the VA's Diane Rubens.  While the issue of overpayment causes alarm in the current fiscal climate, overpayment isn't the only problem.


Ranking Member Dina Titus:  As the Chair mentioned, and it bears repeating, a billion dollars is something to be worried about.  But this doesn't just go one way in terms of overpayments.  At the Reno VA Regional Office, which serves my Congressional district in southern Nevada, the Inspector General found that over half of the 100% disability evaluations were incorrectly processed.  And while a number of these involved overpayments, there were also some underpayments.  And we certainly don't want our veterans to be underpaid.  For example, we found one veteran with service connected bone cancer and prostate cancer who was underpaid nearly $10,000 over a period of three years. 



We'll note one one exchange from the hearing.

Subcommittee Chair Jon Runyan:  Ms. Halliday, in your opinion, why is it the VBA failed to take adequate and timely measures to address the -- the systematic problems?

Linda Halliday:  Reliance that they needed an IT fix.  And that took some coordination between the VBA office and out office of OINT.  We kept telling them it is not just the IT fix.  What we were finding were people -- the VARO [Veterans Affairs Regional Office] staff were not making proper input to put these diaries in place.  Regardless of whether you had an IT fix in place, that action had to occur.  So it's been awhile that I don't believe VBA has been aggressive enough in addressing that -- that piece of it.  I know recently, Ms. Rubens had laid out some corrective action that included training which is consistently recommend in the benefits inspection reviews to try and reduce the human error associated with processing some of these claims.

Subcommittee Chair Jon Runyan:  And -- and going back -- and you mentioned it in your testimony there about the targeted completion date which was moved several times -- to September 30, [20]11, to December 30, [20]11, to June 30, [20]12 and then to December 31st, [20]12.  Do you know if the December 31st, '12 deadline was ever met?  Or has it been pushed back even further?

Linda Halliday: We haven't tested for it, but the evidence would be right now the benefits inspection are still identifying substantial errors.

Subcommittee Chair Jon Runyan:  And then finally, uhm, an alarming statistic in your written testimony says that only 53 regional offices have been inspected since your national audit -- have been fully followed by VBA policy and processing temporary disability claims evaluations.  Can you further elaborate on the extent that these problems are due to human error as opposed to the computer glitch?  And do you agree that -- with VBA's insistence that -- system glitches are the reason for these errors?

Linda Halliday:  Yeah, I'd like to ask Brent Arronte -- since he has spent so much time in our VA regional offices doing the inspections -- to filed that.

Brent Arronte:  What our inspections have-have shown is about 46% of the errors that we've seen with suspense date is what VBA is saying was the result of a systems glitch.  We never found a system's glitch.  To us a glitch means the system was not working as intended.  We spoke with some of the architecture behind this, I think in 2010, and they told us that the system was never developed to put these -- to ensure that these diary dates were populated into the system.  With that, we-we -- Two of the fixes that VBA has indicated that they have implemented, one in 2011 and one in 2012, we have not tested that yet.  We haven't obtained the data to see if those fixes are working systematically.  But what we have seen is about 25% of the errors are related purely to human error -- where staff is not putting in the -- or cancelling reminder notifications inadvertently, not understanding how to process reminder notifications and that results in the same effect of the benefit being paid when there's no evidence showing entitlement.

The Veterans Administration should be embarrassed that a hearing took place where the Inspector General explained that they refused to listen and that they repeatedly moved the date back.  The Secretary of the VA, Eric Shinseki, should be asked to explain how that happened?  He is supposed to be the head of the department, he is supposed to provide leadership.  This is just like, after the scandal of veterans not receiving their education checks, he mentions to Congress that he was informed of this impending problem right after he took over as Secretary of the VA.  He should have been called to the carpet for that but instead everyone apparently agreed to look the other way.  From the October 14, 2009 snapshot covering the House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing that day:


Erick Shinseki: A plan was written, very quickly put together, uh, very short timelines, I'm looking at the certificates of eligibility uh being processed on 1 May and  enrollments 6 July, checks having to flow through August.  A very compressed timeframe. And in order to do that, we essentially began as I arrived in January, uh, putting together the  plan -- reviewing the plan that was there and trying to validate it. I'll be frank, when I arrived, uh, there were a number of people telling me this was simply not executable. It wasn't going to happen. Three August was going to be here before we could have everything in place.



But he didn't bother to let Congress know.  He didn't bother to warn the veterans who might be counting on those checks.  And this all got ignored.  Now we learn that the issue of 100% temporary disability pay has not been fixed and part of the reason for that failure is that they don't want to listen to the Inspector General's office.  Where is the accountability?

Halliday said at yesterday's hearing, "We had expected VBA to keep their commitment to work this national requirement and we just watched slippage upon slippage.  I think you have to ask the Department, VBA, why it took so long."  She might as well have been talking about the electronic record that VA and DoD were tasked with developing.  Mary Mosquera (Federal Computer Week) reported April 9, 2009:
Obama said it was time “to give our veterans a 21st-century VA," adding that there is no comprehensive system that enables a smooth transition of health care records between DOD and VA.
“That results in extraordinary hardship for an awful lot of veterans, who end up finding their records lost, unable to get their benefits processed in a timely fashion,” Obama said. Access to electronic records is essential to modern health care delivery and the paperless administration of benefits, he added.
“That’s why I’m asking both departments to work together to define and build a seamless system of integration with a simple goal: When a member of the armed forces separates from the military, he or she will no longer have to walk paperwork from a DOD duty station to a local VA health center; their electronic records will transition along with them and remain with them forever,” he said.

A seamless system of integration.  It would, Barack said, "give our veterans a 21st-century VA."  He wasn't pulling notions out of thin air.  In 2007, Commissioners Bob Dole and Donna Shalala were named to head The President's Commission On Care For America's Returning Wounded Warriors.  The commission came up with this idea and, in their final report, warned, "Meanwhile, congressional or departmental reform efforts should resist imposing new requirements that may result in duplicative or uncoordinated electronic systems and, instead, encourage the streamlining of today's systems and facilitate communication across them."

Does Shinseki think he can just blow off the tasks he's assigned?  Does he not get how this impacts veterans?  November 11, 2009, the VA's Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergrovernmental Affairs Tammy Duckworth appeared on The Diane Rehm Show (NPR).

Tammy Duckworth: Well what didn't work so well -- this is one of the first things I brought up to [VA] Secretary [Eric] Shinseki when he interviewed me -- was the fact that we did not have a seamless transition of our military records from DoD to VA. When I left Walter Reed with my full medical records and I went to my VA hospital for the first time, I had to strip down to prove that I was an amputee. Even though he could see that I was an amputee and he had the medical records from the surgeon who amputated my legs. And we're immediately fixing that.  Back in May of this year, [Defense] Secretary [Robert] Gates and Secretary Shinseki agreed to a program where we're going to develop virtual, lifetime, electronic records. So that from the day you raise your hand to enlist in the army to the day that you're laid to rest in one of our national shrines, your records follow you. And this will be a monumental change in how VA and DoD hand off and care for our veterans.


So in 2009, Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth told him in very concrete terms how this could effect a person transitioning from service member to veteran.  Did he not listen?  Duckworth is now a member of the US Congress, House Rep Tammy Duckworth.  I called out Shinseki this morning and Shirley and Martha advise e-mails felt I was giving Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta a pass because I know him.  I know Leon, I like Leon.  I've held him accountable when needed and haven't worried about 'tone.'  This isn't Leon's issue.  He's out the door, for one thing.  For another, he won't even have 18 months as Secretary of Defense (unless Chuck Hagel's nomination gets tanked).  If Hagel had been confirmed last week and had made the announcement Tuesday with Shinseki, I wouldn't have called out Hagel.  It's not Hagel's issue. 

Shinseki has been the consistent under Barack.  Dropping back to the July 25th snapshot to note that day's House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing:




This morning, US House Rep Jeff Miller noted that "in 1961 John F. Kennedy said we'd put a man on the moon, eight years later, we were there.  We're talking about an integrated electronic health records by 2017.  Why could we put a man on the moon in eight years and we're not starting from ground zero on the electronic health record -- why is it taking so long?" He was asking that of the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki who were appearing before a joint-hearing of the House Armed Services and House Veterans Affairs Committee.  


Of course no real answer was given.  A grinning -- apparently amused -- Shinseki began his non-answer by declaring that "I can't account for the previous ten years."  Though he didn't say it, he also apparently couldn't account for the three years that he's been Secretary of the VA.  Three years and seven months.  You'd think Shinseki would be able to speak to the issue.  He couldn't.  He could offer that he met with Panetta four times this year with plans for a fifth meeting.  This was the same amount he met with former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates but, apparently, in a few months less time.   I have no idea what that or his ridiculous grin was about. 

But I do think Shinseki may have inadvertently provided an answer for the delay when he went on to declare,  "It's taken us seventeen months to get to an agreement that both Secretary Panetta and I signed that describes the way forward."  There's the problem right there. 


Back in March 2011 what was Shinseki bragging about?  As Bob Brewin (Nextgov.com) reported, "Veteran Affairs Sectretary Eric Shinseki said Thursday he and Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed on March 17 that their departments would develop a common electronic health record system."  So that was agreed to in March 2011.  But it took Shinseki and and Gates 17 months to figure out how?  There's your time waster right there.  And it was not needed.  Shinseki and Panette did not need to 'invent' a damn thing.  This is not a new issue.  VA has long ago addressed what they need with regards to records and DoD has identified the same.  And after this had been done (and redone), Robert Dole and Donna Shalala served on the Dole -Shalala Commission coming up with many of the same things.  The Dole -Shalala Commission was established in 2007 and formally known as the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors.   Appearing before the House Veterans Affairs Committee February 7, 2008, VA's Dr. James Peake testified that this electronic record was "a critical recommendation in the Dole-Shalala Commission report."


So he and Gates agreed what their departments needed to do in March 2011.  Then, in June 2011, Panetta becomes Secretary of Defense and Shinseki decides to start all over and spend 17 months coming to an agreement with Leon?  This falls on Shinseki.  He has not delivered on the task.  Yet again.

At what point is there accountability?  At yesterday's joint-press conference, Shinseki bragged that he and Panetta had just held the ninth meeting ("in 18 months") and they stressed the "commitment of both of our departments to a single, common, joint integrated electronic health record, the IEHR."  The ninth meeting, Shinskei explained "was about how to get there."  Really?  Panetta's got one foot out the door and you're meeting with him "about how to get there"?  Barack Obama tasked you with this duty back in April of 2009 and, in February of 2013, you're having a meeting "about how to get there"?

There's a lot of confusion as to what's going on.  Patricia Kime (Army Times) does a great job covering where things stand.  The same can't be said for others.  What's taking place is that the actual task is being tossed aside.  Instead, some low rent version of what was asked for is going to be assembled.   Let's quote Senator Patty Murray from yesterday's press release.

“I’m disappointed that the VA and the Pentagon are now backing away from a truly seamless medical records system. While this is a very complex problem, we must provide the best care for our servicemembers and veterans. That means the departments must meet this challenge by working together. What they are now proposing is not the fully integrated, end-to-end IT solution that this problem demands. VA and DOD have been at this for years and have sunk over $1 billion into making this the cornerstone of a nationwide electronic medical records initiative. I intend to follow-up with both Secretaries to find out why this decision was made.”


Senator Murray is the outgoing Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.  She's right that, after wasting $1 billion in taxpayer dollars, they're now refusing to live up to what was promised.  

It's not going to be the full medical records -- as people were promised.  Instead, as the Defense Dept revealed through various flunkies on a press call yesterday, "information on prescriptions or information on lab results that will be exchanged on all patients, and most critically, in a standard data format at the point in 2014, so the data looks exactly the same between the two systems."  That is a huge come down from an electronic record that would carry all the patient information and follow the service member on over to the VA.  This was an expensive proposal.  But it was thought that veterans' health was worth it and it was thought that this would also help lower some health costs (both by being paperless and by being a complete record which would mean tests wouldn't be accidentally duplicated since you had a complete record). 
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Wednesday, February 06, 2013

No integrity in the Center for Public Integrity


BULLY BOY PRESS CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
 
 
 
TODAY THE SO-CALLED CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY DEMONSTRATES YET AGAIN THAT IS HAS NONE AS THEY RUSH TO MINIMIZE KILLER BARRY O'S ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA TAKING CORPORATE FUNDS BY POINTING OUT THAT A RIGHT-WING ORGANIZATION AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY DOESN'T DISCLOSE THEIR FUNDERS.

THESE REPORTERS DIDN'T REALIZE (A) THAT AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY OCCUPIED THE WHITE HOUSE OR (B) THAT AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY HAD RUN ON A PLATFORM OF OFFERING THE MOST TRANSPARENCY EVER.

THAT'S BECAUSE (C) THEY DIDN'T.

BUT THE SO-CALLED CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY WON'T GET HUNG UP BY LITTLE THINGS LIKE FACTS, NOT WHEN THERE'S WHORING TO BE DONE.  HOW THE ONE SELF-IMPRESSED HAVE FALLEN.


FROM THE TCI WIRE:


Discussing recent violence with Renee Montagne (NPR's Morning Edition -- link is audio and transcript), Al Jazeera and Christian Scientist Monitor correspondent Jane Arraf explained, "In Kirkuk this week also there was another suicide bombing, a very dramatic one, that was actually a group which involved suicide car bombs, gunmen, trying to free prisoners from one of the prisons."  In addition, All Iraq News reported this morning that Monday's Taji attack was an attempt to free prisoners (that's what the Ministry of Justice has announced today).  Jane Arraf files this report (text and video) for Al Jazeera today and notes, "The deadly attack on Tuesday was part of an attempt to break into the jail and free the prisoners."

Arraf notes people are blaming al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

I'm sure they are.  Stupid people.

Let's pretend for a moment it's al Qaeda.  The US war created al Qaeda in Mesopotamia (al Qaeda had no Iraq presence prior to the start of the Iraq War).  So it will be ten years old shortly.  So for ten years, Iraqi and US forces have been fighting it.  US troops remain in Iraq for counter-terrorism operations.  They never left.  And last fall they were beefed up.   Tim Arango (New York Times) reported at the end of September, "At the request of the Iraqi government, according to [US] General [Robert] Caslen [Chief of the Office of Security Cooperation - Iraq], a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence."  So nearly ten years and what do they have to show for it?  Not a damn thing.

So maybe the question isn't "Who?" but "Why?"

Why are they attacking prisons?

There's Iraq's death penalty.  Dropping back to the November 12th snapshot:
 
Staying with violence, as noted in the October 15th snapshot, Iraq had already executed 119 people in 2012.  Time to add more to that total.  Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) reported last night that 10 more people were executed on Sunday ("nine Iraqis and one Egyptian").  Tawfeeq notes the Ministry of Justice's statement on the executions includes, "The Iraqi Justice Ministry carried out the executions by hanging 10 inmates after it was approved by the presidential council."  And, not noted in the report, that number's only going to climb.  A number of Saudi prisoners have been moved into Baghdad over the last weeks in anticipation of the prisoners being executed.  Hou Qiang (Xinhua) observes, "Increasing executions in Iraq sparked calls by the UN mission in the country, the European Union and human rights groups on Baghdad to abolish the capital punishment, criticizing the lack of transparency in the proceedings of the country's courts."

Does 129 seem like a lot of people?  It is a lot of people.  And it appears that 2013 may top that figure.  Already, in the second month of the year, the 100 mark looms.  Dropping back to the February 1st snapshot:



AFP reported yesterday that already this year Iraq has executed 91 people -- yes, we're still at the start of 2013 -- 88 men and 3 women.  The United Nations Secretary-General has personally called on Iraq to put in place a moratorium on executions but Nouri al-Maliki has rejected that.  Iraq's recent prison breaks have often been tied to executions.  Most press outlets (non-Iraqi) simply report that some death row prisoners escaped. But often, the escape follows the news that prisoners will be moved to Baghdad (to be executed). 

91 executions and the year is just starting.  Sunnis feel they are the ones being executed.  Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to honor United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's call for a moratorium on executions is seen as an attempt by Nouri to kill off as many Sunnis as possible.

How are so many people in Iraqi prisons to begin with?  Mass arrests which take place every day.  'Terrorists' are arrested under Article IV.  Article IV, you may remember, has been at the heart of the current and ongoing protests in Iraq.  They want Article IV tossed.  Article IV allows the Iraqi government to do what the US military did in the early years of the war, arrest innocent people -- known to be innocent but known to be related to someone they want to arrest.  So a mother, a daughter, a son, a grandfather, a spouse, anyone related to a suspect is arrested as a 'terrorist.'  These people then disappear into the 'justice' system.    From the January 14th snapshot:


First for the wave of Happy Talk.   Adam Schreck Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) report that some 'prisoners' were 'freed' today with some ("dozens') at a ceremony presided over by "one of the prime minister's most trusted political allies" Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani who distributed candy and Korans.  Having a hard time seeing Nouri okaying candy for Sunnis?  You're not alone.  Though they're trying to spin this as prisoners being released to meet the protesters demands, they won't give details about the prisoners (including whether they are Sunni or not).  Schreck notes that some of those 'freed' had already completed their sentences.  That's really not 'freed,' that's sentence was completed and they were released.  Suadad al-Salhy, Patrick Markey and Angus MacSwan (Reuters) also note the 'release' aspect, "Officials said a ministerial committee had freed 335 detainees whose jail terms had ended or whose cases had been dismissed for lack of evidence."  In other words, people who should have never been held got released.   And how many are women?
The western outlets -- except for AFP -- have ignored that aspect.  Women are said to have been raped and tortured in the prisons.  The protesters have demanded the women prisoners be released, it's not a minor point.  The Arabic press grasps that.  Alsumaria leads with the claim that 335 prisoners have been released over the last days and only four of these were women.  Four.  Alsumaria notes the mass demonstrations that have been taking place and that the demands have included demands about women prisoners.

Eventually, the laughable Hussain al-Shahristani would claim 3,000 had been freed.  Cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr would point to the releases as proof that innocent people are being held in Iraqi prisons and jails and needed to be released immediately.  The four women?  They would disappear.  And when the Iraqi press noted that the four women had not gone home to their families (so who paid the 'bail' Nouri demanded?)  and that there were questions about the women's release, there would be no more talk of women prisoners being released.


Last week, Human Rights Watch released "Iraq: A Broken Justice System:"



Most recently, in November, federal police invaded 11 homes in the town of al-Tajji, north of Baghdad, and detained 41 people, including 29 children, overnight in their homes. Sources close to the detainees, who requested anonymity, said police took 12 women and girls ages 11 to 60 to 6th Brigade headquarters and held them there for four days without charge. The sources said the police beat the women and tortured them with electric shocks and plastic bags placed over their heads until they began to suffocate.
Despite widespread outcry over abuse and rape of women in pre-trial detention, the government has not investigated or held the abusers accountable. In response to mass protests over the treatment of female detainees, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a pardon for 11 detainees. However, hundreds more women remain in detention, many of whom allege they have been tortured and have not had access to a proper defense.


Getting why prisons are an issue?  Getting why prison breaks might happen?  And note the mass arrest took place where?  That's right Taji.  Same place, for the last two days, there have been two attempts at breaking into a prison.



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