IAVA Daily Brief 07.15.09

IAVA Daily Brief 07.15.09
Posted by Michelle McCarthy [1] on July 15 [2]

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 [4].

MUST READS

(1) Privacy deemed lacking at some VA hospitals [5]

As thousands of women veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan and enter the VA's health system, the Government Accountability Office reported that no VA hospital or outpatient clinic under review is complying fully with federal privacy requirements.  In particular, privacy is lacking for women veterans at bathing facilities and exam rooms.  During the review, GAO investigators found that many VA facilities had gynecological tables that faced the door — including one door that opened to a waiting room. It also found instances where women had to walk through a waiting area to use the restroom, instead of it being next to an exam room as required by VA policy.  At four hospitals investigators visited, women were also not guaranteed access to a private bathing facility and in two of those cases, there wasn't a lock on the door.  In testimony before the Senate Veterans Affairs committee on Tuesday, female veterans said VA workers need to be better educated about combat situations that women face in the two ongoing wars; beyond privacy, they said VA officials also need to address the lack of child care at VA hospitals including difficulty finding diaper-changing tables.  According to the GAO report, a majority of the women veterans who have turned up at VA facilities are between the ages of 20 and 29, and on average are much younger than the average male veteran. Nearly 20 percent have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and many experienced sexual trauma while serving; but a smaller percentage of eligible women than men are using VA care.  In 2008, the VA provided health care to more than 281,000 women veterans, a 12 percent increase from 2006. Over the next two decades, the number of female veterans is expected to increase by 17 percent.

(2) GAO: Progress Slows on Seamless Health Record Transition between VA and DOD [6]

In testimony before a subcommittee of the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Tuesday, GAO officials also reported that progress has slowed on establishing a joint interagency program office to act as a single point of accountability in the development of electronic health records systems or capabilities that allow for full interoperability between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense by September 30, 2009.  According to the report, VA and DOD officials have made progress in setting up the interagency program office; however, the office is not yet effectively positioned to be accountable for the departments' efforts to achieve fully interoperable electronic health record systems or capabilities. The departments have taken the important steps of completing personnel descriptions and hiring necessary staff to perform the office's functions, but key leadership positions – particularly, for the Director and Deputy Director- continue to be filled on an interim basis.  Click here [6] to read a summary of the report.

(3) Iraq Bars US Troops From Baghdad as DoD Orders New Brigades to Iraq [7]

McClatchy repots today that two weeks after U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraq's major cities, amid sporadic outbreaks of violence countrywide, Iraqi authorities aren’t asking American forces for help. Although U.S. troops are "just a radio call away," Iraqis also won't allow U.S. forces on the street, except for supply convoys.  The failure to trigger the "Onstar option" suggests that the government of Iraq and its military think they can deal with the car bombings, homemade bombs and attacks with silencer-equipped handguns that have plagued parts of the country in recent days.  "The Iraqis have been hell-bent on taking control of all security operations in the city and completely excluding the Americans, to the point of completely refusing to permit U.S. patrols of any kind into the city except logistics convoys," one U.S. officer in Baghdad said speaking on condition of anonymity.  The reports come as the Pentagon announced Tuesday that it has created, and ordered to Iraq, four custom-made Army brigades [8] designed to focus more on advising Iraqis and less on fighting as America prepares for its 2011 exit.  The new units are among 30,000 troops being sent to Iraq, starting this fall while another 7,500 are going to Afghanistan.  The 30,000 for Iraq include three brigade combat teams, three headquarters units, a security brigade to be stationed in nearby Kuwait and four of the newly created so-called Advisory and Assistance Brigades (AABs).  The advisory brigades include combat forces but are not technically combat units and will be allowed to stay in Iraqi cities when needed.  Defense officials defused concerns of a troop build-up in either country, emphasizing they are replacements for forces finishing their tours of duty and rotating home from the military missions.

AFGHANISTAN

New York Times has a featured this morning on military forensic units [9] that are trying to break Taliban-guided bombing networks and halt the alarming spike I.E.D. use in Afghanistan this year.  As reported last week by the Department of Defense, bomb attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan have spiked to an all-time high, with 465 in May alone, more than double the number in the same month two years before. At least 46 American troops have been killed by I.E.D.’s this year, putting 2009 on track to set a record in the eight-year war. 

Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri [10] warned the Pakistani people in a new audio message released Tuesday that the U.S. interference in their country's affairs poses a grave danger to Pakistan's future and very existence. In the message, the militant group's second-in-command called on Pakistanis to join the fight against the United States or support the battle financially, warning that without that help "we shall not only contribute to the destruction of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but we shall also deserve the painful punishment of Almighty Allah." The tape, whose authenticity could not immediately be verified, was released by the al-Qaida media wing As Sahab.

Meanwhile, as U.S. Marines continue an offensive in Helmand Province, President Obama [11] emphasized Tuesday at the White House that he is looking for an exit strategy where the Afghan security forces, courts and government take more responsibility for the country’s security after the August elections.  “All of us want to see an effective exit strategy where increasingly the Afghan army, Afghan police, Afghan courts, Afghan government are taking more responsibility for their own security,” he said.

IRAQ

A suicide car bomb [12] killed six people and wounded 16 others Wednesday in Iraq's western Anbar province. Two traffic police were among those killed in the attack near an Iraqi police checkpoint in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad.

Stateside, an American woman and an Iraqi-born associate have been charged with misusing some of the $350,000 the United Nations [13] gave them to start a radio station - "The Voice of Iraqi Women" - to promote women's rights in Iraq.  The U.S. Attorney's Office has accused Deborah Bowers and Steve Jabar, who ran a not-for-profit group near Buffalo, of using about $65,000 meant for Radio Almahaba in Baghdad to pay off personal loans, credit cards and property taxes. Bowers, 54, of Clarence Center, pleaded not guilty to a 14-count indictment Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

In opinions today, Thomas Friedman of The New York Times recounts his recent visit with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen to see provincial leaders in Kirkuk.  According to Friedman, Mullen reportedly told the Iraqi leaders "the U.S. is not going to solve” Iraq’s problems and that if they want to be “a sovereign nation” they better get to work, because “on the current withdrawal plan, coalition forces will not be [there] in 18 months.”  Friedman, however, questions why the United States has not turned efforts yet to organizing a Dayton peace accord for Iraq as it did for competing provincial factions in Bosnia in the 1990s.  Click here [14] to read the column.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

Chicago's Cook County has established a special Veterans Court [15] geared to military veterans charged with non-violent crimes, mostly drug offenses.  The court is part of a small but growing national trend to help veterans who sacrificed for their country; and it links them with representatives from state and federal veterans affairs departments and social and legal aid agencies who offer many services and help cut through red tape that stymies many veterans.  "There's no extra cost because what this really does is place people into services that are already out there," said Circuit Judge John Kirby, who started the court this spring. "What we're trying to do is say, 'OK, you served your country, now let us help you. Can we help you past this problem and back on the straight and narrow?'"  The court is modeled after other "treatment courts" for mentally ill or drug-addicted defendants and comes in response in part to concerns that many new veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be caught in the legal system if they don't receive treatment.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, came down Tuesday solidly in favor of eliminating the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" [16] policy for gays serving in the military.  “We’re having trouble getting people into the military,” Mr. Reid told reporters when questioned about whether he could support an 18-month moratorium on enforcing a prohibition on gays in the armed forces. “And I think that we shouldn’t turn down anybody that’s willing to fight for our country, certainly based on sexual orientation.”  Mr. Reid said he would go the proposal, being considered by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, one better and support a permanent repeal of the ban. Ms. Gillibrand, eager to court support from the large New York gay community and improve her standing with liberals prior to her election bid next year, is reportedly considering trying to add a moratorium to the Pentagon policy measure now being considered in the Senate.

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

IAVA IN THE NEWS

 

Outlet: No Fact Zone

Title: Episode 5092 (7/13/2009) [17]

Date: Tuesday, July 14th

Representative: Paul Rieckhoff, IAVA

 

Outlet: ColbertNation.com

Title: VA Backlog (VIDEO) [18]

Date: Tuesday, July 14th

Representative: Paul Rieckhoff, IAVA

 

WHAT THE BLOGS ARE SAYING

Blog: Snead 303

Title: Colbert Veteran? [19]

Date: Tuesday, July 14th

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.