Committee chairman accuses VA of cover up

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner accused the Department of Veterans Affairs Tuesday of criminal negligence in the handling of data about the number of veterans who have committed suicide.

E-mails among VA officials were recently disclosed during a trial in San Francisco that suggested some might have been attempting to hide the number of attempted suicides by those under the agency's care. The judge has not yet ruled in the lawsuit filed by two veterans groups.

At the opening of a hearing by his panel on the issue, Filner said that officials involved with the e-mails should be fired by Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080506/ap_on_go_co/veterans_care;_ylt=Ao10dveQnZjD8Y6g5Y85__48KbIF

[babylonsister]

1. Accuses? These guys should be in jail for lying about dead Americans. nt

[defendandprotect]

2. If they have to try to hide information this basic -- what else are they hiding???

I mean we should be able to find out from parents of soldiers if they are still alive and/or
what the circumstances of their deaths truly were ---

INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE ---

Put these people in jail --- !!!

[Lugnut]

3. K&R n/t

[fed-up]

4. "the wording in an e-mail... that started out with "Shh!" was unfortunate"-k/r

[annabanana]

5. Congressman accuses VA of criminal negligence ("Shh-h" email)

Source: Army Times

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs’ top mental health official said Tuesday he made a poor choice of words when he sent his colleagues an e-mail about suicide data that started out with “Shh!”

-snip
Peake said the reason the data discussed in the e-mail about the number of suicide attempts was not released was because of concerns about its accuracy. After the hearing, he told reporters he did not plan to fire Katz or other officials over the e-mails. He said everyone has sent an embarrassing e-mail at some point.

“It truly was an unfortunate set of words,” Peake said.

During the hearing, Peake apologized to Reps. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., who complained the VA was not giving them information they requested. Mitchell, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said he was told he would need to file a freedom of information act request to get some data he wanted.



Read more: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_va_suicide_050608/

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"poor choice of words" - huh -