Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 07.16.09
Posted by Michelle McCarthy on July 16

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.  Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking?  Follow us on Twitter @iavapressroom.

MUST READS

(1) Grave offenses at Arlington National Cemetery

Salon has a disturbing feature this morning revealing a criminal investigation of Arlington National Cemetery's Deputy Superintendent Thurman Higginbotham and allegations of misplaced bodies and shoddy care at the cemetery.  According to former employees interviewed by Salon, Arlington is struggling to replace paper-and-pen burial records with a satellite-aided system of tracking grave locations for more than 320,000 service members buried there.  "They told me they've got people buried there that they don't know who they are, and then they've got the wrong headstones over the graves," said Gina Gray, an Army veteran of eight years who served in Iraq and who was the cemetery's public affairs officer in early 2008, before she was fired over a clash with Higginbotham.  "I told several Army officials — in one instance, a two-star general — but nothing was ever followed up on."  A separate investigation is currently pending regarding accusations Higginbotham ordered ANC staff to hack into Gray's work computer without authorization. Arlington officials insist that there are no cases at Arlington where headstones do not match the remains beneath. "We are not aware of any situation like that," says cemetery spokeswoman Kaitlin Horst. However, in a relatively remote area of the cemetery, Section 60, where 600 service members from Iraq and Afghanistan are laid to rest, Gray and other employees claim personal mementos placed on graves are consistently left out to rot in the rain for days, ruined by workers with power washers, or thrown into a trash bin.  "They throw away things that are left at the gravesites — cards, letters," Gray said. "They don't save anything."  Currently, Arlington holds nearly 30 new funerals a day.

(2) Army: Accused Carson GIs faced intense combat

U.S. military officials said Wednesday that the psychological trauma of fierce combat in Iraq may have helped drive soldiers in a single battle-scarred Army unit based out of Ft. Carson in Colorado to kill as many as 11 people after their return home from war.  In a report billed as the most comprehensive examination to date of violent crimes and combat exposure, an Army task force of medical experts looked at members of Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, known as the Iron Eagles.  Soldiers in the unit were accused in five killings in separate attacks around Colorado Springs in 2007 and 2008, including the slaying of a couple gunned down while posting a garage-sale sign. They were also involved in six more slayings in Colorado and other states since 2005.  “This investigation suggests a possible association between increasing levels of combat exposure and risk for negative behavioral outcomes,” the study said adding that the soldiers faced “significant disruptions in family-social support.”  The report compared the unit of about 3,700 soldiers with a similarly sized unit and found it suffered more combat deaths in Iraq and was deployed there longer.  During its two long tours in Iraq, the unit suffered 113 combat deaths, according to Fort Carson spokeswoman Brandy Gill. The unit is now in Afghanistan, where it has suffered two combat deaths since arriving in May.  The task force is recommending the Army find a way to identify soldiers who have been exposed to fierce combat, and better train officers to manage soldiers with behavioral problems and ensure that GIs who seek help are not discouraged or humiliated.

(3) Congress turns up heat on burn pits, Requests GAO Review

Earlier this week, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) proposed an amendment to the 2010 defense authorization bill that would “prohibit the disposal of covered waste in an open-air burn pit during a contingency operation lasting longer than one year” and would direct the secretary of defense to submit a report about what is burned in the pits and a plan for alternative options. Now, in a letter sent by Feingold and House Veterans Affairs Chairman Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) are calling on the Government Accountability Office to review the extent of the burn-pit operations and what pollutants are emitted, as well as what measures are being taken to monitor those pollutants. In a letter date July 9th, they also asked the GAO to investigate other options to using burn pits to dispose of waste during contingency operations, as well as if those options have been pursued.  To learn more about IAVA's support for burn pit legislation, click here.

4) Fighter Jets, Hate Crime Amendments Stall Senate Defense Authorization

McClatchy reported early this morning that Democrats’ insistence on offering an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2010 that would expand the definition of hate crime has stalled action on a vote on whether to keep alive the F-22 fighter jet program as well as a provision championed by Senators Baucus and Kennedy to mandate post-deployment mental health screenings for troops and veterans. More broadly, deliberations on the hate crime proposal will all but ensure the Senate will not finish the defense bill (S 1390) until late next week at the earliest, according to senators and aides said.  Follow updates on movement of the mental health screening provision on Twitter @iavapressroom.

AFGHANISTAN

At his retirement ceremony Wednesday at Ft. Myers, former U.S. commander in Afghanistan General David McKiernan said he was "more than a little embarrassed" when he was ousted by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in June.  "If you had asked me 30 days ago if I would be here today at my retirement ceremony, I probably would have said no, maybe in a bit stronger terms. Make no mistake – I was dismayed, disappointed, and more than a little embarrassed," McKiernan told reporters.  However, he said he came to realize "it's about paying respect to your profession," telling his supporters to "save your condolences for those who really need them – the families, friends and comrades of men and women who either will not return home, or whose lives have been permanently scarred by war."

Meanwhile, Associated Press reports today that the July death rate in Afghanistan - about three a day - is approaching some of the highest levels of the Iraq war.  As of Wednesday, at least 46 international troops, including 24 Americans, had been killed in Afghanistan this month.  The rise in casualties comes as U.S. Commander General Stanley McChrystal said Wednesday that United States Marines had faced less resistance than expected in their operation to clear Taliban safe havens in the south, but that British troops just to the north were running into fiercer fighting than anticipated due to the resilience of pockets of Pashtun militants.  Pockets of Pashtun insurgents are reportedly stirring up trouble near Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, where German troops patrol, and in Farah Province, in the western part of the country, where Italian soldiers are assigned.  One senior American military officer told the New York Times that Kandahar, the country’s second largest city, is currently “under stress” from Taliban fighters. The shift in insurgency targets to the north coincided Wednesday with criticisms that British forces in particular are buckling under a shortage of helicopters:  outgoing British Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff, acknowledged Wednesday that Britain only has 30 helicopters for their 9,100 troops.

Amid the offensive in the South, hundreds of prisoners at the U.S. military's main detention center at Bagram Airfield are reportedly refusing privileges such as recreation time and family visits to protest their lack of legal rights, according to U.S. military and humanitarian officials.  Presently, the U.S. military holds about 600 prisoners at the detention center as "unlawful enemy combatants," a status that the U.S. says does not give them the right to legal representation.  Per the International Committee of the Red Cross, the prisoners have declined outside recreation time, family visits and video phone calls over the lack of access to lawyers or independent reviews.

IRAQ

As Iraq tries to rebuild its war-shattered infrastructure, Iraqi officials said Wednesday they are lining up at least$30 billion in housing and commercial developments over the next decade to accommodate a rising population.  Baghdad Mayor Saber al-Issawi said Wednesday the city government had received bids from seven foreign companies to build 150,000 flats, stores, parks and cinemas over 10 years in one rundown area of northeastern Baghdad.  The Iraqi government, looking to lure foreign investment and resurrect an economy overly reliant on a promising but underproducing oil sector, has agreed to put $10 billion into the project over that period.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

A week after it was revealed the Defense Department received a study recommending the military move toward becoming tobacco-free, Defense officials reassured troops Wednesday that it won't ban tobacco products in war zones.  Press secretary Geoff Morrell pointedly told a Pentagon news conference that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is not planning to prohibit the use of cigarettes, chewing tobacco or other tobacco products by troops in combat. "He knows that the situation they are confronting is stressful enough as it is," Morrell said, noting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I don't think he is interested in adding to the stress levels by taking away one of the few outlets they may have to relieve stress."  Morrell added, however, that Gates will review the new study to see if there are some things than can be done to work toward the goal of having a smoke-free force some day.  "Obviously, it's not our preference to have a force that is using tobacco products," he said, noting health concerns and the high cost of caring for health-related problems which includes an estimated $6 billion annual output by the Department of Veterans Affairs to manage smoking-related illnesses.

In other news, a California attorney declared victory Wednesday after orders were revoked for her client Maj. Stefan Cook, who has been fighting deployment to Afghanistan because he Barack Obama is not legally his commander-in-chief.  According to attorney Orly Taitz, the dismissal of deployment orders means any service member may now refuse any order by questioning Obama's legitimacy.  "Can you imagine what are the consequences? This is disastrous" for the administration, she said. "We'll have no military. Because anytime any Soldier, any Sailor, any Airman does not want to follow any orders, all he has to do is call an attorney and say 'I don't want to follow this order because I question the legitimacy of the commander in chief.' "  Taitz has been leading an effort to have Obama release a so-called "vault copy" of his birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born citizen - a requirement for the presidency.  Taitz claims she has 170 service members who have joined her legal battle against Obama.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

The House of Representatives has voted in favor of HR 1037 to expand a veterans work-study program for college students in hopes that it will help up to 3,500 more students find on-campus employment each year.  The bill would create a five-year pilot program in which veterans could be paid to work in academic departments as tutors, researchers, teachers and lab assistants, or in student services in administrative, records and registration offices.  Currently, such jobs not available because the work-study program is limited to jobs that are somehow related to the Department of Veterans Affairs, such as working in outreach services, at veterans medical facilities or in National Cemetery Administration offices.  It now goes to the Senate for consideration.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE 

The Senate will convene at 10:00 a.m.

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS  of  INTEREST

• July 29, 2009 - SVAC will hold a hearing entitled, "Review of Veterans' Disability Compensation: Forging a Path Forward."  9:30 a.m.; 418 Russell (Smith)

THE HOUSE of  REPRESENTATIVES       

The House will convene at 9:30 a.m.

FUTURE  HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST

• July 16, 2009  Joint Subcommittees on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs and Health Hearing:  Eliminating the Gaps: Examining Women Veterans’ Issues  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon HOB
• July 23, 2009  Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Hearing:   Examining Quality of Life and Ancillary Benefits Issues  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon HOB
• July 30, 2009  Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Hearing:  The Implications of VA’s Limited Scope of Gulf War Illness Research  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon HOB

WHAT THE BLOGS ARE SAYING

Blog: CNewmark Blog

Title: Paul Rieckhoff from Iraq & Afghanistan Vets of America on Colbert

Date: Wednesday July 15th

Representative: Paul Rieckhoff, IAVA

Blog: Scoopost

Title:Fans Vote for Colbert

Date: Wednesday July 15th

Representative: Paul Rieckhoff, IAVA

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles.  These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.

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