IAVA Daily Brief 04.30.09

IAVA Daily Brief 04.30.09
Posted by Michelle McCarthy [1] on April 30 [2] 2009

9a2dcc7d-d329-4571-843a-15dd85f5738a.hmedium.jpg [3]

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.

MUST READS

(1) On 100th Day, Obama ‘Gravely Concerned’ About Pakistan [4]

In a primetime speech marking his 100th day in office, President Obama said Wednesday that he is “gravely concerned” about the stability of the civilian Pakistani government which he described as "very fragile."  However, he reiterated that he remains confident Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal will not fall into the hands of Islamic militants.  Obama's speech followed House testimony [5] by top Pentagon and State Department officials that Pakistan is unable to eliminate threats in Taliban and al-Qaeda safe havens near the Afghanistan border.  In an effort to provide assistance, the officials said Pakistan's army would get part of a proposed $400 million fund to use for training and equipment to fight insurgents.

(2) DoD issues new GI Bill family transfer rules [6]

The Department of Defense has settled on final rules that will allow career service members to share Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits with their immediate families beginning Aug. 1.  By rule, service members can transfer any or all of their unused benefits, up to the maximum of 36 months of benefits if they have at least six years of service and make a new commitment for another four to transfer benefits.  Once transferred, the benefits will cover full tuition and fees at any four-year public college or university at in-state tuition rates for undergraduate studies.  DoD expects it can begin accepting requests to transfer benefits this June; however, payments can not begin before Aug. 1, the start date of the new GI bill program.  Overall, officials predict that the ability to transfer GI Bill benefits to a spouse or children will have a “very positive impact” on military recruiting and retention.

(3) US Can't Back Cancer Assurances to Marines [7]

The Associated Press reports today the U.S. government has disavowed a 12-year-old federal report that found little or no cancer risk for adults who lived at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where drinking water was reportedly contaminated for three decades.  "We can no longer stand behind the accuracy of the information in that document," William Cibulas, director of health assessment for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said at a meeting in Atlanta. "We know too much now." Sick veterans, who became known as "poisoned patriots," never believed the report's conclusions and have filed claims for $33.8 billion in damages.  According to officials, up to a million people could have been exposed to toxins that seeped from a neighboring dry cleaner and industrial activity at Lejeune.

(4) An Affordable Fix for Modernizing Medical Records [8]

Wall Street Journal reports that in their push to digitize medical records at low-cost several U.S. hopsitals are borrowing the source code - free of charge- from software used to power the electronic medical-record system of the Veterans Health Administration.  Used at 1,4000 VA facilities nationwide, the source code is "public domain" giving software developers around the world freedom to build features onto it.  Per WSJ, one hospital in Midland, Texas paid $7 million for a full electronic medical-record system based on the code, millions less than what private vendors quoted.

(5) California Marine Diagnosed With Swine Flu [9]

The Pentagon confirmed Wednesday a Marine based at Twentynine Palms in Southern California has been diagnosed with swine flew and is now under quarantine, along with about 30 other Marines.  Pentagon spokesman Maj. David Nevers said the Marine is doing well: "He's doing fine. He's up and about, he says he feels pretty good. ... There appears to be no threat him in terms of loss of life."

AFGHANISTAN

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan “the crucible of global terrorism [10],” and pledged that Britain will send an additional 700 troops to Afghanistan this summer to fight alongside American and NATO forces battling the Taliban. However, Gordon emphasized that the deployment — which will raise Britain’s commitment to 9,000 troops — is intended to build security around the coming elections in Afghanistan and that the extra forces would be withdrawn by early 2010.

Britain's troop pledge comes just hours ahead of the U.S. State Department's release of its annual worldwide terrorism assessment [11], which is expected to show that terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan spiked sharply in the past year.  Speaking on condition of anonymity, State officials warned Thursday that terrorist attacks in Pakistan alone more than quadrupled between 2006 and 2008.  In 2007, terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan jumped 50% and 16% respectively.  In Pakistan alone, fatalities climbed 300%.

The report coincides with confirmation from the Pakistani army on Thursday that the Taliban are holding the population [12] of one town near the capital Islamabad hostage.  Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said troops are encountering stiff resistance from militants in Buner Valley as they fight their way toward insurgent strongholds roughly 60 miles outside the capital of Islamabad.  On Wednesday, at least 34 people were killed and another 50 wounded in shootouts in Karachi [12] amid rising ethnic tensions between the militant-backed Pashtun's and migrant Urdus.

In an editorial today, European diplomats Paddy Ashdown and Joseph Ingram [13] argue that the international community is falling woefully short in financing its own estimates of Afghanistan's needs.  Citing a new financial report, "The Donor Financial Review for 2008," Ashdown and Ingram report that for the period from 2008 to 2012, the financing gap is about $22 billion, or 48 percent of estimated needs. They conclude that if the gap is not filled soon, the suffering of a very poor population will deteriorate fueling support for the fundamentalist insurgency that threatens the entire region.

IRAQ

Twin car bombs [14] killed at least 41 people and injured another 68 on Wednesday in a busy market in Baghdad's Sadr City.  After the explosions, Iraqi troops fired shots to scatter bystanders crowded around charred wreckage.  In response, angry residents threw stones and empty bottles at army vehicles and accused the Iraqi soldiers of failing to protect them.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown [15] announced Thursday that British troops have formally ended six years of combat operations in Iraq.  After meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at Brown's Downing Street office in London, Brown said: ''Today marks the closing chapter of the combat mission in Iraq... The flag of 20 Armoured Brigade will be lowered as British combat patrols in Basra come to an end and our armed forces prepare to draw down.''  The bulk of Britain's 3,700 troops will leave Iraq by the end of May with an estimated 400 British military personnel expected to remain to train Iraqi naval forces.  Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, 179 British service personnel have been killed in Iraq.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

Some of the parents of deployed soldiers [16] are asking the Pentagon to extend financial assistance to grandparents who care for their grandchildren during a military deployment.  Currently, the Pentagon does not keep an official tally on the number of grandparents caring for military dependents during deployments. Still, there are roughly 140,000 single parents serving across the active and reserve forces with 23,468 of those deployed abroad.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder [17]arrived in Germany on Wednesday to privately ask European officials for help closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for supsected terrorists.  Currently, about 240 inmates are still held at Guantanamo, but European governments have been cool to appeals to take some of the detainees.

Meanwhile, the White House is still investigating the low-flying photo shoot [18] of Air Force One that panicked New Yorkers in lower Manhattan on Monday morning.  The Associated Press reported Wednesday the shoot cost taxpayers roughly $328,835. 

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS  of  INTEREST

• May 7, 2009 - Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, hearing on the VA Fiscal Year 2010 Budget.  Secretary Shinseki will be invited to testify.  2:30 p.m.; Location: TBD (Lukas)May 21, 2009  SVAC will mark-up pending legislation.  9:30 a.m.; 418 Russell (Ballenger)      
   

THE HOUSE of  REPRESENTATIVES

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST

• April 30, 2009 - House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health hearing:  Charting the VA’s Progress on Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Our Veterans:  Discussion of Funding, Mental Health Strategies Plan, and the Uniform Mental Health Services Handbook   10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon
  
• May 13, 2009 - House Appropriations, Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, will hold a hearing on the VA Fiscal Year 2010 Budget.  Secretary Shinseki will be invited to testify.  10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., Location TBD (Lukas) [date changed from April 28, 2009] 

IAVA IN THE NEWS 

Outlet: PR Newswire

Title: President Obama Appoints Phillip Carter as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs [19]

Date: Thursday, April 30th

Representative: IAVA

  Share:
 del.icio.us [20]  digg [21]  reddit [22]  facebook [23]  newsvine [24] myspace [25] twitter [26]