Veterans for Common Sense

October 16, 2008 – U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, issued a statement today in response to reports of inappropriate disposal of documents at several Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Offices.  VA’s Office of Inspector General (IG) has found some evidence that more than one VA Regional Office has shredded documents which veterans submitted for pending disability claims.  In response, VA has announced a temporary freeze on shredding documents at all Regional Offices.

“I support VA’s temporary freeze, but this is not a long-term solution.  VA needs an enforced and understood policy which preserves documents relevant to pending claims, without leaving veterans’ personal information open to identity theft.  I trust that VA will act quickly, as they should,” said Akaka.  

“Some documents must be properly disposed of due to space constraints and privacy issues.  Veterans must be able to trust VA to safely keep their records.  If they cannot, VA will not be able to do its job, and veterans will not get the benefits they have earned through their service,” said Akaka.   

VA’s statement is here: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1602

VA Tightens Protections for Veterans Paperwork

October 16, 2008

Secretary Peake: Lapses “Unacceptable,” Procedures and Accountability Tightened

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake vowed swift action after a handful of documents related to veterans’ applications for financial benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were found among documents identified for shredding.  The documents, which were not duplicated in government files, could have affected veterans’ eligibility for benefits.

“I insist on the highest possible standards for processing and safeguarding information in VA’s custody,” Peake said. “It is unacceptable that documents important to a veteran’s claim for benefits should be misplaced or destroyed.”

Peake said VA’s Office of the Inspector General (IG) is investigating the misplaced documents, and anyone who violated Department policy on protecting documents will be held accountable. 

The documents were discovered by employees of VA’s IG office during an audit at three of VA’s 56 regional benefits offices, which process applications for disability pay, VA pensions, educational assistance, home loans and similar financial benefits. 

IG auditors found a handful of documents waiting to be shredded, which might have affected the fate of veterans’ applications.  The documents were returned to the proper offices for processing.

Retired Rear Adm. Patrick W. Dunne, VA’s Under Secretary for Benefits, immediately directed all of VA’s regional offices to suspend all document shredding while IG and VA officials determine whether the problem is more widespread.  Directors of the regional offices will have to certify in writing that no original copies of key documents or records from veterans’ cases under consideration are being destroyed.

VA has procedures for determining the disposition of paperwork.  Original copies of discharge papers, marriage certificates and death certificates are returned to veterans or families when no longer needed.  Duplicate copies of paperwork no longer needed are appropriately destroyed to protect the privacy of veterans and their families.

October 15, 2008 – Falling into a depression after her husband was killed last year, Iman immersed herself in religious studies and became fixated on a Shiite Muslim saint.

Soon, a secretive group of worshipers tried to recruit the young widow, telling her that she could help bring the holy figureback to Earth. All she had to do was sleep with the group’s male followers.

Horrified, Iman, now 20, refused.

Her experience shines a light on the rise in Iraq of fanatical cults devoted to Imam Mahdi, the Shiites’ 12th imam. A descendant of the prophet Muhammad, he disappeared more than 1,000 years ago.

The Shiite faithful believe that in the world’s darkest hour, Imam Mahdi will return and bring justice and calm. But where mainstream Shiite believers wait patiently for that day, groups such as the one that tried to enlist Iman are convinced that they can hasten his reappearance by spreading chaos.

Devout Sunnis also believe in the Mahdi’s coming, but do not think it involves the Shiite imam.

Already, two Shiite cults have tried to stage violent uprisings in Iraq. In January 2007, as many as 250 followers of a group called Heaven’s Army were killed when they massed to attack the Shiite shrine city of Najaf. A year later, as many as 80 people died in battles with the police and army during a revolt in Basra by another cult, Supporters of the Mahdi.

Some experts speak of the cults nervously, afraid of being tracked down by the groups for talking about their mysterious practices.

Dr. Hassan, a psychology professor at Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University who declined to give his full name because of worries about his safety, explained that some Iraqis had embraced conservative Shiite traditions with zeal after the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, who had oppressed the country’s Shiite majority.

“Before the war, the situation was different. To talk about religious things was forbidden and one could be arrested,” Hassan said. “All these feelings bottled up inside and started to appear after Saddam’s fall.”

Iman, who also declined to give her full name, discovered the world of cults as she sought solace in religion in the months after her husband’s death. A friend suggested she do something positive while waiting for Imam Mahdi’s return.

“Her talks charmed me and made me think about heaven,” Iman said. She opened up to her friend in a way she couldn’t with her family. She told her friend how she had been lonely since her husband’s death.

“I liked to talk about my needs as a woman, and we were joking about many things. Unfortunately, sometimes I went too far talking about things I should never have talked about, but I was just joking,” she said.

The woman suggested that Iman sleep with her husband if she wanted to help speed up the Mahdi’s return.

“I looked at her and laughed. I thought she was joking. I told her, ‘No, he is too old for me. I want someone younger,’ ” Iman said. “She said, ‘I’m serious — all you have to do is sleep with my husband.’ “

Others shared similar stories about the group, called Mumahidoon, or “those who prepare the way.”

Abu Jassem said the group preyed upon him when he was unemployed.

His recruiter was a good friend who knew of his religious fervor, and of his need for money. The friend sweetened the deal with the promise of a stipend for joining the cult. But then he told Abu Jassem of the one catch: He had to let his fellow believers sleep with his wife, daughter and sister.

“I was stunned but didn’t show my astonishment. Later I told them I refused the idea because these things were against my traditions and religion.”

Although Iraqi security officials dismiss the idea that such cults pose a genuine threat, Hassan is not convinced. “The cults in our society,” he warned, “could pose a danger.”

October 14, 2008 -A veteran of the Iraq War who brags on his Web site that he can “kill without mercy or reason” has been arrested and charged with the murder of a mentally disabled 19-year-old Colorado girl he befriended on MySpace.

Spc. Robert Hull Marko was arrested Monday, on his 21st birthday, and charged with first-degree murder and sexual assault in the death of Judilianna “Judi” Lawrence. He’s being held without bond at the El Paso Sheriff’s Office Criminal Justice Center.

El Paso Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Robert Jaworski said Marko, who returned from Iraq in February, led police Monday to what authorities are nearly certain was Lawrence’s body. The body was found in a wooded area nearly three miles off the paved portion of Old Stage Road, which later turns into a dirt road.

The sergeant was one of more than two dozen members of a search and rescue team that tacked rough terrain Monday in a rural area of the front range of the Rocky Mountains on horseback and ATVs.

Jaworski declined to comment on the condition or exact location of the body, but said an autopsy scheduled for later today would formally confirm its identity and a cause of death. Jaworski said the victim apparently died Friday, the day Lawrence disappeared from her Colorado Springs home.

A Secret Friendship

Lawrence’s family could not be immediately reached for comment today. On Monday, her mother and sister described her as a “sweetheart” who loved cartoons and hoped to be a veterinarian.

Her older sister, Evia Lawrence, said she had warned Lawrence, the middle of three sisters, not to meet people over the Internet, but said Monday that her sister could be “hot-headed.”

The missing teen, who was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in grade school, was supposed to board a bus for school where she attends special education classes. She and her classmates were heading on a bowling trip, but Lawrence didn’t show up.

Instead, her family and police said, she met up with Marko whom she had struck up a friendship with over MySpace, unbeknownst to her mother or sisters.

It was Marko’s MySpace page, full of rantings about death and pictures of him in Iraq, that led police to him.

His MySpace page, which prominently features a fire-spewing dragon and lists his mood as “creative,” shows Marko last signed on Oct. 9, the day before Lawrence went missing.

An entry on the site under the section “About me” boasts, “I’m pure blooded Black Raptor born as human and one day will join the ranks of my fellow people, until till them (sic) i will keep fighting against humans and will do so till the day i die.”

Marko’s page then goes on to say “i’m becoming (sic) a cold hearted killer and can kill without mercy or reason.”

And under a section marked “Who I’d like to meet,” Marko’s page says “One day i would like to meet death.”

A Decorated Soldier

Marko, a Michigan native, was a mortar man with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, stationed out of nearby Fort Carson. According to information released from the base, Marko was deployed to Baghdad in January 2007 and returned in February of this year. He enlisted in June 2006.

He had received several commendations, including a Combat Infantryman’s Badge, an Expert Infantryman’s Badge, an Army Commendation Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Iraq Campaign Medal.

His unit is not currently scheduled to re-deploy in the near future.

Pictures on his MySpace page show him on patrols around Iraq, showing off his AK-47 and holding a puppy, among others.

Fort Carson spokeswoman Karen Linne said the military does not have jurisdiction over this case, but is assisting the El Paso Sheriff’s Department.

“Of course we’ll support them in any capacity they need,” she said. “We maintain that he is innocent until proven guilty.”

Lawrence’s mother, Aekyong Lawrence, said Monday that her daughter’s ADHD caused her to have trouble focusing on several things at once, but that if someone took the time to explain things slowly she was fine.

“If you tell her 10 things all at once she doesn’t know it,” Aekyong Lawrence said. “But if you do it step by step she does it really good.”

The Day She Disappeared

Lawrence was just getting up Friday morning and still in her pajamas when her mother left for work, Aekyong Lawrence said.

Aekyong Lawrence said she said goodbye to the teenager and reminded her to take the family’s dog outside, to which Lawrence replied, “OK Mommy” in typically exasperated teenage fashion.

Aekyong Lawrence said the teenager tried to wake up her older sister, Evia, before she was supposed to leave for school, but Evia fell back asleep. When Evia tried calling Lawrence on her cell phone at around 11:30 a.m. Friday, there was no answer.

Subsequent calls to her school revealed that Lawrence had never made it there. Her school class had left without her, assuming she was not joining it on a bowling trip.

Desperate to figure out what had happened to her sister, Evia Lawrence broke into her sister’s MySpace account and discovered that her sister had been using the social networking site to communicate with Marko

Evia Lawrence said she’d warned her sister about using MySpace, telling her to be careful and “don’t go meeting people over the Internet.”

But judging by her sister’s online conversations with Marko, Evia Lawrence said, Friday was not the first time they had met in person.

“She’d been talking to him for a long time,” Evia Lawrence said, noting that neither she nor anyone else knew of their friendship and didn’t know who he is. “I think it started right after she first got her MySpace page — about February.”

October 9, 2008 – The U.S. government has agreed to pay a former Lindon family nearly $1 million to settle a medical malpractice case.

William Meyer was being treated for leukemia at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Salt Lake City in 2004 when he developed a severe infection and died. His wife and daughter sued, claiming the hospital failed to give him antibiotics in time. He died of sepsis from a low white-blood-cell count.

Last month, the U.S. agreed to settle the nearly 2-year-old case for $950,000 to cover general damages and future lost income.

“It was just egregiously bad treatment,” said Clark Newhall, attorney for the Meyer family. “They didn’t administer [antibiotics] when they could have once, twice, three times. They [initially] told him to take Gas-X instead of go to the emergency room.”

The U.S. government maintains the hospital is not at fault.

“Obviously this was a very unfortunate case,” said Jeffrey Nelson, assistant U.S. attorney. “That isn’t to say that because there’s an unfortunate result that something was done wrong or negligently.”

Meyer, 45, was diagnosed with leukemia in June 2004 and received chemotherapy at the VA in October. Three days after his last treatment, he had diarrhea and abdominal pain. After calling the hospital to see what to do, his wife, Pamela Meyer, was told by an oncology fellow that Meyer should take an over-the-counter medicine for gas.

In reality, he needed antibiotics immediately to fight off a severe infection, according to plaintiff witnesses. His white blood cell count was low, due to the chemotherapy, which led to a bacterial infection in his colon.

“This is not situation that you can dance around and wait and don’t do anything about,” Michael Tirgan, a New York oncology doctor hired by Meyer’s family, said in a deposition. “Hours matter, minutes matter in a situation like this.”

Meyer received antibiotics about 10 hours after he was admitted to the emergency room, according to court documents.

“I believe he would still be here with me if they had acted correctly,” said Pamela Meyers, who hopes the VA has changed its practices because of her case.

Nelson said VA doctors and his experts testified that it wasn’t clear that Meyer needed antibiotics immediately or that they would have saved him.

The suit alleges that two doctors ordered antibiotics in the ER but that nurses failed to follow orders. Meyer was taken for a CT scan and admitted to an inpatient room, with the medication hanging on his gurney, waiting to be plugged into his IV.

He then collapsed and was admitted to intensive care and placed on a ventilator. He had gone into shock and suffered cardiac arrest.

A couple hours later, Pamela Meyer was told he was brain dead and she authorized the hospital to end life support.

Meyer died Oct. 15, 2004, four days before his 46th birthday and his 18th wedding anniversary. His leukemia was in remission and he was expected to live for at least another five years. The avid hunter’s ashes were scattered in the mountains.

Pamela Meyer has since moved to Wisconsin. She said she plans to carry out the couple’s plans to hunt moose and bag a grizzly bear in Alaska.

“He was my soulmate. I miss him terribly.”