Arlington Cemetery’s mishandling of remains prompts FBI criminal probe

By Jerry Markon and Christian Davenport

The Justice Department is investigating the mishandling of remains at Arlington National Cemetery in a broad criminal inquiry that is also seeking evidence of possible contracting fraud and falsification of records, people familiar with the investigation said Tuesday.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria has been subpoenaing witnesses and records relating to the scandal at the nation’s most venerated military burial ground, sources said. The investigation, conducted by the FBI and the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, has been underway for at least six months, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Read the entire story here.

Supreme Court deals devastating blow to Feres Doctrine opponents

ByLeo Shane III

Stars and Stripes

Published: June 27, 2011

 

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the latest military medical malpractice case involving the controversial Feres Doctrine, a defeat that strengthens the 61-year-old legal precedent and could effectively stop future legal challenges.
The decision follows the trend in recent years by the court not to hear cases involving the doctrine, which places strict limits on the ability of active-duty personnel to sue military doctors for medical malpractice.

Critics of the doctrine had hoped the court would be swayed by the emotional case of Staff Sgt. Dean Witt, who was left in a persistent vegetative state after an Air Force hospital botched what should have been a routine appendectomy.

But the court declined to hear the case without comment. Family members called that decision devastating.

Read the rest of the story here.

KGL in the News

Hi,

I could use your support today

ABC just broke today part of the KGL Iran story. Can you comment on it?  Pass it along to your friends to do the same.

If you are passing it along to people who don't know us, let them know this:

This company killed my brother (LTC Rocky Baragona) in Iraq 2003 and through our investigation we have uncovered KGL a foreign defense contractor is working as a shell company for Iran's Shipping Line's blacklisted entities transporting cargo to and from Iran and other countires and entities. The Cargo has contained weapon arsenals for Hezbollah as well as cargo supporting Iran's nuclear program .

Recently KGL (the shell company of Iran) received over 1 billion is US defense contracts .

Why we should care ?

This means we just gave 1 billion US Taxpayer dollars to KGL which is actually Iran and now is now inside US Bases pretending to be our ally and working as our defense contractor learning how we operate.

It is in my opinion a matter of National Security to stop KGL before we face another USS Cole tragedy which killed hundreds of our soldiers

We want their contracts stopped and the company to be debarred from government contracting.

Please read the story, comment on it and pass this along.

Without your interest News channels will not continue to tell the story.

Maybe then the company can be investigated and hopefully debarred from defense contracting.

Here are two sites which have the story up.

www.mssparky.com

and

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-gave-military-contracts-firm-alleged-iran-ties/story?id=13887038

 

Pam Baragona

Is the Feres Doctrine fair?

The legal precedent that protects the U.S. military from medical malpractice suits is challenged

ByTravis J. Tritten

Stars and Stripes

Published: June 19, 2011

Staff Sgt. Dean Witt would likely still be alive and raising his two children if an Air Force hospital had not botched a routine appendectomy.

Medical staff at Travis Air Force Base in California committed mistake after mistake following Witt’s 2003 surgery — including pushing a breathing tube into his stomach and using resuscitation equipment designed for children — that left the blond-haired, blue-eyed airman in a persistent vegetative state until he was finally removed from life support three months later by his family.

Read the entire story here.

Airman Found Dead: Andersen Releases Few Details

Pacific Daily News (Guam)
June 10, 2011

By Brett Kelman, Pacific Daily News

A 19-year-old female airman was found dead yesterday in an Andersen Air
Force Base maintenance hanger, prompting a military investigation that has
released very few details.

The woman's body was found about 6:40 a.m., according to an Air Force press
release, and her name is being withheld while authorities notify her family.

Despite questions sent to Andersen's public affairs office, no information
about the suspected cause of death, the condition of the body or the
circumstances of the discovery were released.

It is unclear if an autopsy has been scheduled.

A press release did confirm that the death is being investigated by the Air
Force Office of Special Investigations, a federal law enforcement agency
that works within the military.

According to the Air Force website, this office is primarily staffed with
criminal investigators, however, Andersen spokeswoman Staff Sgt. Beth Del
Vecchio said she didn't know if this investigation was criminal in nature.

The involvement of the Office of Special Investigations doesn't necessarily
mean the death investigation is criminal in nature, Del Vecchio said.

No other information was provided by the Air Force. The Pacific Daily News
wasn't permitted on base to photograph the investigation scene and Andersen
didn't provide photos.
submitted by Tracy Shue

Army Released May Suicide Data

The Army released suicide data today for the month of May. Among active-duty soldiers, there were 21 potential suicides: one has been confirmed as suicide, and 20 remain under investigation. For April 2011, the Army reported 16 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, two cases have been confirmed as suicide, and 14 cases remain under investigation. During May 2011, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were six potential suicides: none have been confirmed as suicides, and six remain under investigation. For April 2011, among that same group, there were 11 total suicides (two additional suicides for April were reported after the initial report). Of those, four were confirmed as suicide and seven are pending determination of the manner of death. The Army continues to focus on ensuring its leaders have the training and knowledge to address high-risk behavior and prevent suicide. Company command teams are provided training on the requisite skills to identify and mitigate high-risk behavior. "When it comes to suicide and other high-risk behavior, we cannot afford to relearn past lessons. Incumbent commanders must continue to familiarize new leaders with the principles of leadership in garrison," said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff. Soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Trained consultants are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and can be contacted by dialing 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or by visiting their website at http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org . Army leaders can access current health promotion guidance in newly revised Army Regulation 600-63 (Health Promotion) at: http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r600_63.pdf and Army Pamphlet 600-24 (Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention) at http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p600_24.pdf . The Army's comprehensive list of Suicide Prevention Program information is located at http://www.preventsuicide.army.mil . Suicide prevention training resources for Army families can be accessed at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/training_sub.asp?sub_cat=20 (requires Army Knowledge Online access to download materials). Information about Military OneSource is located at http://www.militaryonesource.com or by dialing the toll-free number 1-800-342-9647 for those residing in the continental United States. Overseas personnel should refer to the Military OneSource website for dialing instructions for their specific location. Information about the Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program is located at http://www.army.mil/csf . The Defense Center for Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) Outreach Center can be contacted at 1-866-966-1020, via electronic mail at Resources@DCoEOutreach.org and at http://www.dcoe.health.mil . The website for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is http://www.afsp.org, and the Suicide Prevention Resource Council site is found at http://www.sprc.org/index.asp . The website for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors is http://www.TAPS.org, and they can be reached at 1-800-959-TAPS (8277).

Source:  U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

Army suicides in May are most in nearly a year       

Drugmaker pays $25 million to settle military claim

Novo Nordisk accused of unlawfully marketing a drug used to treat casualties in Iraq, which later proved potentially dangerous

by Robert Little, The Baltimore Sun

The medical questions about the Army's use of Factor VII, its one-time wonder drug, have largely been resolved by the scientific evidence: Yes, it is potentially dangerous. No, it doesn't seem to work.

But to critics of the drug's use, some practical questions remained. Such as: Why was an obscure and extremely expensive hemophilia drug embraced by Army leaders as a treatment for combat injuries? And why was it injected into thousands of wounded troops and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan despite a near-complete lack of evidence that it was safe or saved lives?
A federal whistle-blower lawsuit unsealed in Baltimore on Friday offers the first hints of an answer.
Read the rest of the story here.

Overlooked and cut loose by the Army, veteran’s life spirals to an end

By Bill Murphy Jr.

Stars and Stripes

Published: June 7, 2011

Former Army Spc. Jacob Andrews Andrews in a photo taken during his deployment to Afghanistan during 2009.

Photo courtesy of Lauri Turner

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — By last September, the Army had had just about enough of infantryman Jacob Andrews, so it gave him a general discharge and a one-way bus ticket home to Kansas City.
He had plenty to think about on the 30-hour trip from Fort Drum, N.Y.

There were the alcohol-fueled mistakes that had led to the end of his military career, and the memories of good friends who had been killed the year before in Afghanistan. There was, in particular, his horrific discovery of the body of one friend who had been crushed to death in a Humvee accident.
There was the night back at Fort Drum when he’d tried to commit suicide.

Friends and family members say the Army was more than happy to take Andrews when it needed new soldiers for an unpopular war, but that it punished and abandoned him when he returned from Afghanistan, despite clear signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and possible traumatic brain injury.

Those actions, they charge, put Andrews on the path to his tragic demise. In April, as the government hounded him for repayment of his re-enlistment bonus, and after he was incorrectly denied the educational benefits he’d counted on to help make a new start, Andrews, 22, hanged himself in a wooded area near his parents’ home in Kansas City.

Read the rest of the story here.

ONE ARMY, TWO FAILURES

Maltreated and hazed, one soldier is driven to take his own life

By
Megan McCloskey

Stars and Stripes

Published: June 7, 2011

For Army Spc. Brushaun Anderson, there was no escaping his torment.

The senior noncommissioned officers who ruled his life at a remote patrol base in Iraq ordered him to wear a plastic trash bag because they said he was “dirty.”

They forced him to perform excessive physical exercises in his body armor over and over again.
They made him build a sandbag wall that served no military purpose.

Anderson seemed to take it all in stride. Until New Year’s Day 2010, when the once-eager 20-year-old soldier locked himself inside a portable toilet, picked up his M4 rifle, aimed the barrel at his forehead and pulled the trigger.

Anderson left behind a note lamenting his failures in the military, and some soldiers in his unit immediately said that Anderson had been driven to kill himself by leaders bent on humiliating him.

Read the rest of the story here.

Report reveals sexual assaults at veterans facilities

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

There were 284 cases of alleged, attempted or confirmed sex assaults at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities from January 2007 to last July, according to a government investigation report released Tuesday.

Men and women were victims. Patients and employees were among those assaulted or who committed abuse. The crimes ranged from inappropriate touching to rape, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found.

Investigators blamed the assaults on a host of problems, including haphazard security measures, too few VA police and no program for assessing potentially dangerous patients. There was also a failure to report crimes to higher leadership for corrective systemwide action and to the VA inspector general.

Read the rest of the story here.

Marine charged with killing fellow corporal

by Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 6, 2011 16:28:48 EDT

A Marine corporal accused of stabbing another corporal to death in Afghanistan last summer has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, Marine officials said.

Cpl. William C. Dalton will face general a court-martial at Camp Lejeune, N.C., beginning June 16, said 2nd Lt. D. Oliver David, a spokesman with 2nd Marine Division. Dalton, a field wireman, is accused of killing Cpl. Dave Santos, 21, a fellow member of 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, on July 16 at Forward Operating Base Marjah, the unit’s headquarters in Afghanistan last year.

Read the rest of the story here.

Russian social networking site speaks for dead soldiers

By Katia Moskvitch Science and technology reporter, BBC News

"Hello, my name is Nikolay, I am 24 years old and I died serving in the Russian army."

Twenty-seven young men, many in military uniform, gaze out from a page on the social networking site Odnoklassniki.ru - a Russian equivalent of Facebook.

Many smile, looking happy and proud.

All of them have died while in the army - but only a few perished in actual combat operations in Chechnya or Dagestan.

A non-governmental charity, The Mother's Right Foundation, has set up the unusual page. It says that the majority died from extreme bullying, crime, bad living conditions or the abnormal psychological climate in the army.

Some were killed by fellow servicemen, shot at point-blank range or beaten to death.

Others were forced to commit suicide by constant violence and abuse, the charity claims.
Read the rest of the story here.

Janeczko Interview, Part One

To listen to the 5/25/11 Interview, click here and then on the latest interview on the right hand side of The Truth Has Changed page.