VA Scandal

Hey! coldjoint! These are the people you seem to be hanging with at least ideologically. Where's your G*d now? Hint: "Judge yea not.....?" Where's your "Christian" values? Bearing no false witness, remember that one? Where's your love of the Bill of Rights? You know: due process, jury of peers, having accusers meet face to face in a court, etc? It didn't stop at the second amendment, fool.

Oh yeah, and we don't punish people until after the trial

FBI: Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's parents have received threats
By Ed Lavandera, Devon Sayers and Azadeh Ansari, CNN
updated 9:37 AM EDT, Sun June 8, 2014
Source: HLN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The FBI is ''taking each threat seriously," an FBI agent says
Bowe Bergdahl's parents have received threats, the FBI says
Former member of Bergdahl's platoon says troops were killed in search
Bergdahl should be put on trial to "get the truth," mother of killed soldier says

Hailey, Idaho (CNN) -- The FBI is investigating threats against the parents of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the latest development in a case that has put the spotlight on the circumstances surrounding his capture in Afghanistan and release by the Taliban.

"We are working jointly with our state and local partners and taking each threat seriously," FBI Special Agent William Facer told CNN in an e-mail on Saturday.

Facer declined to detail the nature and severity of the threats, and a military spokesperson for the Bergdahls declined to comment.

Bergdahl's parents have not been seen publicly since the announcement last week that the soldier had been freed from five years in captivity at the hands of the Taliban in exchange for the release of five detainees at
Bergdahl's release raises questions

The news comes as a fallen soldier's mother and a former member of Bergdahl's unit continued to assert that troops were killed while searching for the soldier in eastern Afghanistan.

Pentagon and Army officials have looked at such claims, and "right now there is no evidence to back that up," a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has told CNN.

But former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, a member of Bergdahl's platoon, told CNN's Michael Smerconish that "men were injured and killed in the search for him."

"The mission was to find Bergdahl," Vierkant said.

In the week since Bergdahl was released by the Taliban, a controversy has grown over whether troops were killed, directly or indirectly, in the search.

Former soldiers involved in the operations asserted to CNN this week that at least six soldiers were killed in the search for Bergdahl.

The six soldiers at the center of the Bergdahl debate

Also making claims of troop deaths in the Bergdahl search is Sondra Andrews, the mother of 2nd Lt. Darryn Andrews, who was killed in September 2009.

She endorsed accusations by former unit members that Bergdahl deserted and caused U.S. troops to die in the search for him -- though Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said it's "unfair" to Bergdahl and his family to presume anything about his disappearance.

Andrews said she believes her son and other troops "were strictly on a mission looking for Bergdahl."

That information is "based on the men that served with Darryn," she told Smerconish.

Andrews said that military should give her family information "on what Darryn was doing and why they lied to us."

"I'd like to see Bergdahl given an opportunity to tell his story, be on trial, have the witnesses come forward and tell their story and get the truth through that, and then I would like to see the full measure of the law followed for his punishment," Andrews said.

Watch: Obama defends Bergdahl swap

Bergdahl went missing on June 30, 2009, in Afghanistan's Paktika province, where he was deployed with the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.

An Army fact-finding investigation conducted in the months after his disappearance concluded that Bergdahl left his outpost deliberately and of his own free will, according to the official, who was briefed on the report.

The Army has no definitive finding that Bergdahl deserted because that would require knowing his intent -- something Army officials couldn't learn without talking to the soldier, a U.S. military official told CNN.

See Jake Tapper's special on Bergdahl's time in captivity, life before the Army and what happened the night he disappeared

Ed Lavandera and Devon Sayers reported from Hailey, Idaho, and Azadeh Ansari reported and wrote from Atlanta; CNN's Chelsea J. Carter and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.

The Swiftboating of Bowe Bergdahl Turns Into a Republican Disaster With Torture Revelation
By: Jason Easley

The conservative media operation to swiftboat Bowe Bergdahl in order to create another Obama scandal turned into a disaster for the Republican Party after media reports that Sgt. Bergdahl is telling doctors he was tortured by the Taliban.

The AP reported, “U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has told people treating him at an American military medical facility in Germany that he was tortured, beaten and held in a cage by his Taliban captors in Afghanistan after he tried to escape, a senior U.S. official said Sunday.”

Republicans have been carrying out a swiftboating media operation that is being led by a former Bush administration official that is designed to smear Sgt. Bergdahl in order to create an Obama political scandal. The revelation that Bergdahl was tortured means that Republicans are not only attacking the credibility of a soldier, but they are attacking a soldier who was tortured by the enemy.

Even by the new Obama era standards for conservative hate, this is low. The possibility that Sgt. Bergdahl was tortured confirms the White House’s reasoning for making a deal to bring Bergdahl home. Republicans have painted themselves into a corner with their attacks on Bergdahl, and they are now showing signs of looking for a way out of their latest self-induced political disaster.

While the attack Bergdahl to make Obama look bad gambit plays well with Republicans, it is making the right look bad with the rest of the country. As usual, Republicans are playing their base as they ignore the rest of the country. They are the ones who decided to attack a POW without knowing the facts.

Republicans politicized something that should have never been political, and now they are going to pay a heavy price for shameful attacks.

The Swiftboating of Bowe Bergdahl Turns Into a Republican Disaster With Torture Revelation was written by Jason Easley for PoliticusUSA.
© PoliticusUSA, Sun, Jun 8th, 2014 — All Rights Reserved

I was abducted by outer space Aliens who ran medical experiments on me.




You will just have to take my word for it, I dont have any pictures, and they left.

The polling data confirming this assertion is missing.

Try thinking about it rationally for a moment. Consider who had him, the Taliban, many of which are/were in Gitmo which is known to have tortured it's detainees. Do you honestly think if the Taliban was able to get their hands on an American soldier they would not torture him as a matter of course but even more so because we tortured them first? We humiliated them and went contrary to their religious beliefs by having females do humiliated things to them.

A soldier who deserted, who kept talking about how much America sucks, who said that he came to Afghanistan because he thought that the army was helping the people but he got lied too..


No, I have no reason to assume that we would be tortured.

You are actually saying that you can think of NO reason to assume an American soldier...no matter what...would be tortured if captured or otherwise obtained by the Taliban????

Hawk...c'mon.

Putting aside the question of desertion, Bergdahl tried to escape, it was after this event in which he said he was tortured, it is absolutely believable. There is a difference in having sympathy for local Afghans and wanting to be a prisoner in enemy camp.

But I should take YOUR word and you have no first hand knowledge whatsofuckingever.

How about this traitor?


Republicans Allege McCain Covered Up His Collaboration with the North Vietnamese While a POW
Allegations resurface that McCain made propaganda statements and tried to keep Viet Cong records about him classified.


A 1992 video featuring a Republican senator, Republican congressman and top Capitol Hill staffers who worked on Vietnam prisoner of war and missing in action issues say John McCain collaborated with North Vietnamese while a POW, and then covered up that involvement to the detriment of POW/MIA families seeking access to classified Pentagon records about their own family members.

Watch the Video

The video raises probing questions about the 2008 Republican presidential nominee's war record, especially after McCain made his captivity a major part of his qualifications for the presidency at the Republican National Convention. In 2004, the GOP focused on Democratic nominee John Kerry's war record to criticize his candidacy.

To date, the video has been posted on a handful of blogs but has been ignored by the mainstream media. While it features Republican stalwarts on POW/MIA issues, it also suggests that McCain's war records at the Pentagon and in North Vietnam would reveal potentially very controversial details about the GOP's presidential candidate.

The nearly eight-minute video is posted on YouTube under "Vietnam Veterans Against McCain." It begins with the title, "1992 Senate Select Committee on POW/MIAs," and features ex-Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH), Rep. Robert Dornan (R-CA), senate staffers Tracy Usry, James Lucier, and military family members Lynn O'Shea, of the National Alliance of Families and retired Army Cpl. Bob Dumas, whose brother was a POW lost in the Korean War, and Joseph Douglass, Jr., author of Betrayed, about America's missing POWs. The video has no author credits.

The footage begins with Douglass, Usry, O'Shea and Smith all saying that McCain worked to kill legislation that would have opened the Pentagon's classified archive of POW/MIA files. "Many, many documents were held back for no reason," former Sen. Smith said. Dorman said legislation that passed the House with no opposing votes was single-handedly blocked in the Senate by McCain. "On the Senate side, we had one person standing in the way," Dornan said, referring to McCain.

Dumas then gave the reason why - the Pentagon's records would reveal McCain had collaborated with the Vietnamese. "He didn't want nobody to check his background because a lot of POWs who were with him in the camp said he was a collaborator with the enemy," Dumas said. "He gave the enemy information they wanted."

Lucier, identified as a former U.S. Senate Chief of Staff, said "we do know that when he was over there, he cooperated with Communist news services in giving interviews that were not flattering to the United States." Usry, identified as U.S. Senate Minority Staff former chief investigator, said "information shows that he made over 32 tapes of propaganda for the Vietnamese government."

Dornan said there were transcripts of other POWs reacting to McCain's false statements, saying, "Oh my God, is that Admiral McCain's son Is that the admiral's son? Is that Johnny, telling us that our principle targets are schools, orphanages, hospitals, temples, churches? That was Jane Fonda's line." Dornan said those transcripts are in war museums in North Vietnam, where McCain, as a senator, pressured the country not to release them or face opposition concerning normalization of relations with the United States.

"McCain could not have wanted those to turn up in the middle of a presidential race," the ex-congressman said. "He knows that. I know that. And a few other people know that. That's why he was against Bob Dole's legislation."

Dornan then offered another interesting explanation why McCain refused an offer by the North Vietnamese to be released. Dornan said those released first were collaborators, which would have ended McCain's military career and hurt the Navy, where his father commanded the Pacific fleet.

"Nobody takes that one step beyond that," Dornan said, speaking of McCain's refusal to be released. "If Admiral John McCain's son had accepted this princely status and come home in 1967, while others sat there for five years, what would the Navy have done with the son of an admiral who opted to get special treatment and come home? No Navy career. No House seat. No Senate seat. It would have been the end of his career."

Steven Rosenfeld is a Senior Fellow at AlterNet.org, where he reports on elections from a voting rights perspective. His books include Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting (AlterNet Books, 2008), What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election (The New Press, 2006), and Making History in Vermont: The Election of a Socialist to Congress (Hollowbrook Publishing, 1992). An award-winning journalist, he has been a staff reporter at National Public Radio, Monitor Radio, TomPaine.com, and at daily and weekly newspapers in Vermont.

Apparently bobsal has been as successful in diverting the focus of this thread from the VA scandal as has the White House in the national media.

Hey, I saw that and had to check the thread title.

You know, you really should posts these posts concerning Bergdahl on a different thread. I know he is a vet, but this is about the state of VA health care. I know I am guilty as well.

The whole conversation has evolved. Are you asking only me to move on? I've been in on this conversation on every page. I think I've contributed more than anyone else. I'm actually a vet who gets his health care through TriCare and the VA.

GOP trashes top military leaders' unanimous decision on Bergdahl. See Joint Chief Chair's Statement:
"In response to those of you interested in my personal judgments about the recovery of SGT Bowe Bergdahl, the questions about this particular soldier’s conduct are separate from our effort to recover ANY U.S. service member in enemy captivity. This was likely the last, best opportunity to free him. As for the circumstances of his capture, when he is able to provide them, we'll learn the facts. Like any American, he is innocent until proven guilty. Our Army's leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred. In the meantime, we will continue to care for him and his family. Finally, I want to thank those who for almost five years worked to find him, prepared to rescue him, and ultimately put themselves at risk to recover him."

- General Martin Dempsey, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff


What the sickening, disgusting, GOP PIGS are doing on this is just that: DISGUSTING.

They are rotten to the very core. In fact, Bergdahl's father is a REGISTERED REPUBLICAN. These rotten scum have sunk to an all time low, and they will pay at the polls for it, make no mistake. Dems need to unite in solidarity on this, stand by the President and his Joint Chiefs, and BASH the CRAP out of the scumbag GOP. They are rotten to the very core.

When they "evolve" to where you are trying to take the thread, there's really not much point to having titles, now is there.

In my opinion, you are being too kind to the GOP in your assessment.

Washington (and bobsal) would like nothing better than for the Veteran Affairs fuss to evaporate, but the department's fraud and access-to-care scandals continue to effloresce. A new audit reveals that 57,000 new VA patients, or 90% of incoming veterans, stood by for three months or more on their first appointment—and worse, 13% of administrative schedulers were instructed by their supervisors to falsify wait-time records.

The preliminary internal VA investigation disclosed on Monday surveyed 731 facilities, including all the major hospitals and outpatient clinics serving at least 10,000 veterans, and interviewed 3,772 staffers. Some 76% of facilities showed at least one instance when the date of the appointment was doctored, and 70% of facilities kept at least one set of dummy books. These departures from policy were not always intended to game the system but all too often were.

"Findings indicate that in some cases, pressures were placed on schedulers to utilize inappropriate practices in order to make waiting times (based on desired date, and the waiting lists) appear more favorable," the 54-page report observes. "Such practices are sufficiently pervasive to require VA re-examine its entire performance management system and, in particular, whether current measures and targets for access are realistic or sufficient" (their emphasis).

The VA tries to wish away these problems by claiming the hospitals lack doctors and that schedulers were poorly trained, but to the contrary many staffers seemed to have been trained all too well to deceive central VA command. In two clinics, higher-ups were even changing the records ex post facto "in order to improve performance measures," and at 24 others "respondents felt threatened or coerced to enter specific desired dates."

What is becoming ever more clear is that the VA's abuses were not merely a one-off or a rogue hospital in Phoenix. This conspiracy was perpetrated across the VA system and coordinated among hundreds of workers including everyone from clerks to senior management. The bureaucratic rot at the VA is endemic, and at this point criminal investigations seem richly deserved.

source

This is truly disgusting.

Records were falsified so bureaucrats could earn bonuses and promotions. And the civil service system is so anti-accountability that it is going to literally require an act of congress to allow the guilty to be fired now rather than months from now while the miscreants enjoy administrative leave with pay.

What you seem to fail to realize is that this practice of falsifying pre-dates the current administration. Apparently they do it because their bonuses depends on how low their wait list is which something some congressman are working to change.

Documents Show the VA Debacle Began Under George W. Bush

I love this. Obama doesn't have to take the blame for anything does he? Bush? Obama has been in office for almost 6 years, when are you guys going to stop blaming Bush? Obama has been in office and has had 6 years to fix this issue and it appears to have only gotten worse.

Come on guys when does Obama get to take credit for the bad things?