IAVA Daily Brief 06.22.09

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 at @iavapressroom [1].

MUST READS

(1) At V.A. Hospital, a Rogue Cancer Unit [2]

The New York Times reported Sunday that a record investigation at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia has uncovered a rogue cancer unit where a medical team lead by Dr. Gary D. Kao operated with virtually no outside scrutiny and botched 92 of 116 prostrate cancer treatments over a span of more than six years. According to interviews with investigators, VA officials kept quiet about the botched treatments allowing Kao's medical team to continue implanting radioactive seeds in the wrong organs for a year even though the equipment that measured whether patients received the proper radiation doses remained broken. The Philadelphia prostate unit closed after problems began to surface in mid-2008, and it has yet to reopen. Meanwhile, the V.A. has also suspended the implants, known as brachytherapy, at hospitals in Jackson, Miss., and Cincinnati. Disclosure of the investigation comes a week after lawmakers grilled VA officials on Capitol Hill for equipment sanitation problems that might have transmitted HIV and hepatitis to veterans undergoing colonoscopies in Miami, FL, Murfreesboro, TN and Augusta, GA.

(2) Taliban Chief Extends Control Over Insurgency [3]

U.S. military officials tell the Wall Street Journal [4]today that Mullah Omar, supreme leader of the Taliban, is reasserting direct control over the militant group's loose-knit insurgency in Afghanistan, ordering attacks and shuffling field commanders in preparation for the arrival of thousands of additional U.S. troops this summer. Previously, the ground-level conduct of the Taliban's war against coalition forces has been left to local commanders acting on their own. Now, Omar, who head a Taliban leadership council called the Quetta "shura" has ordered direct lieutenants to plan a spate of suicide bombings and assassinations in southern and eastern Afghanistan ahead of the U.S. troop surge. Omar is believed to have sheltered Osama bin Laden, and fled to Pakistan after the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan where he carries a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head.

(3) With a Plan and a Rope, Captives Fled From Taliban [5]

David Rhode, a Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times journalist, managed to escape over the weekend from a Taliban compound in North Waziristan, Pakistan after nearly seven months of capitivity by Taliban militants. Rhode, Afghan journalist Tahir Ludin,Mr. Ludin and their driver, Asadullah Mangal, were abducted outside Kabul last Nov. 10 as Rohde traveled to interview a Taliban commander for a book he was writing about Afghanistan. Click here [5] to read more about their captivity and escape here.

AFGHANISTAN

Two U.S. service members were killed and six other Americans wounded early Sunday during a rare rocket attack [6] against Bagram Air Base, just 25 miles northeast of Kabul. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.

On Saturday, after weeks of delay and controversy, the U.S. military released an official report [7] concluding that troops killed an estimated 26 Afghan civilians last month when a warplane did not strictly adhere to rules for bombing in Farah Province. The report recommends even tighter controls to limit deaths that risk turning Afghans against the U.S war effort. “The inability to discern the presence of civilians and assess the potential collateral damage of those strikes is inconsistent with the U.S. government’s objective of providing security and safety for the Afghan people,” the report prepared by U.S. Central Command said. Afghan officials maintain as many as 140 people were killed, but the report concluded an exact accounting will be impossible.

IRAQ

In the deadliest attack in three years, a suicide bomber [8] detonated a truck packed with explosives outside a mosque in Kirkuk on Saturday killing at least 73 people and wounding 200 others. The U.S. military sent search dogs [9] Sunday to help find more than a dozen people still missing and feared dead in the rubble of roughly 70 clay brick homes that were flattened in the explosion.

Following Saturday's attack, militants detonated another bomb [9] Sunday evening in a cafe in a Shiite enclave south of Baghdad, killing at least two civilians and wounding 13 others. The renewed violence comes a week before a June 30th U.S.-Iraqi deadline for U.S. troops to start a formal pullback from Iraq's urban centers.

The bodies of two of five British nationals [10] who have been held captive since 2007 by a Shi'ite militant group were turned over to British embassy in Baghdad on Saturday. The victims were identified as Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst, both of who had worked for the Canadian security firm GardaWorld in Baghdad as guards for IT consultant Peter Moore, who remains captive. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday urged those holding the three remaining British hostages in Iraq to release them immediately. Brown said London and Baghdad are trying to bring the three year ordeal to an end as soon as possible.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Ahead of Congress's summer recess, Military.com reports today that the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" [11] policy is in limbo with neither the White House or Congress moving towards a repeal of the policy. Privately, White House officials are saying the same-sex benefits changes that President Obama announced next week are not designed to be a gradual step toward military acceptance of overturning “don’t ask, don’t tell” but are instead a move to recruit and retain top talent into government jobs. White House officials maintain Congress must pass new legislation to drop the ban on homosexuals. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nev.), said that lawmakers are waiting on a legislative proposal from the White House before moving on the issue, saying they need “presidential leadership and direction” on how to approach a repeal. The standstill, however, comes as sources continue to speculate Defense Secretary Robert Gates favors the nomination of William White -- an openly-gay man and the President of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum — to the department’s new deputy chief management post.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

To be announced.

IAVA IN THE NEWS

Outlet: Variety

Title: Cameron Diaz gives back to veteran community [12]

Date: Friday, June 19th

Representative: IAVA, Paul Rieckhoff, Todd Bowers

Outlet: Army Times

Title: Bill Would Let Troops Cancel More Contracts [13]

Date: Friday, June 19th

Representative: IAVA

Outlet: Politicker