Army Surgeon Gen. BLAMES TROOPS for Walter Reed mess
Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 07:27:54 AM PDT
On last night's NewsHour, US Army Surgeon General Kevin Kiley served-up a banquet of BS to explain the media-exposed mess at Walter Reed that occurred under his command:
But, remember, more than half the rooms were actually perfectly OK. And those that are problems like mold, there were only about seven of them that had that. The mice and cockroach issue was something that, in fact, the command did address last year, and that was due to soldiers leaving food in their rooms. We policed that up, and the rodent problem and cockroach problem has been corrected.
That's accountability from the man in charge of all the Army's hospitals.
It gets worse --much worse-- below the fold.
Judy Woodruff interviewed Lt. Gen. Kiley along with Steve Robinson of Veterans for America. As Army Surgeon General, Kiley is responsible for all of the Army's medical facilities; he was even commander of Walter Reed Hospital from 2002-2004.
On NewsHour, Lt. Gen. Kiley dissembled and evaded responsibility at every turn, minimizing the horrible conditions at Walter Reed and, as testvet6778 diaried yesterday, pushing the spin that the lowest-ranking NCO's were to blame.
But Kiley spun from even lower-down in the Bush Administration gutter, blaming the recovering combat troops who were entrusted to his care, and then lying about the rodent problem:
JUDY WOODRUFF: Were you aware, Steve Robinson, that the conditions were what have been laid out by the Post?
STEPHEN ROBINSON: Yes, I have been in that facility before.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, General Kiley, if someone like Mr. Robinson, who is not in the military, but in a veterans organization, was aware, how is it that the military itself was not aware?
LT. GEN. KEVIN KILEY: Well, I think it's not that we weren't aware that that building needs and requires continued maintenance and upkeep. And since 2001, we've had two overhauls and one major renovation.
In the last year, we've done over 200 what we call "work orders" to fix things that were, again, reported in the paper. It's an old building. You can walk into it today, and if you walk into it six months from now, you're going to find issues.
Senior leaders, platoon sergeants, company commanders, brigade commanders should be walking through those facilities at least on some kind of a periodic basis. But, remember, more than half the rooms were actually perfectly OK.
And those that are problems like mold, there were only about seven of them that had that. The mice and cockroach issue was something that, in fact, the command did address last year, and that was due to soldiers leaving food in their rooms. We policed that up, and the rodent problem and cockroach problem has been corrected.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But the problem still existed as of this week.
LT. GEN. KEVIN KILEY: Well, I'm not sure about mice. I'm not sure about rodents. I think mold recurs. The HVAC system and the plumbing system in that building are old. They probably need to be replaced, and that's our intent to do those things.
It's hard to decide which is more appalling: that Kiley would lie about the rodent infestation or he would do so in such transparent, pathetic fashion...
But to fully appreciate Kiley's rank duplicity, you must listen to the audio of his remark earlier in the above quote: "Senior leaders...should be walking through those facilities at least on some kind of a periodic basis".
The transcript doesn't capture Gen. Kiley balking as he considers stating an actual time frame for those "periodic" walk-throughs. He either doesn't know what they are, or knows that they have been so outrageously rare that he won't tell us. Kiley has some serious 'splainin to do --ideally under oath in a Congressional investigation.
To ensure that every American is insulted, Gen. Kiley closes with this zinger:
JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you feel about all this?
LT. GEN. KEVIN KILEY: Well, I will tell you that I continue to be extremely proud of Walter Reed, the staff. As I said this morning at a town hall meeting, I jog around the compound in the morning, and the staff are there at 5:00 and 5:30 in the morning ready to take care of patients.
I think, as the vice has said, we're going to get on this right away, get it fixed.
Heckuva job, Kiley. Too bad you weren't as dedicated to walking through the wounded and rodent-filled corridors of Walter Reed as you were jogging around it.
UPDATE: I'm told that this morning Don Imus played clips of the Kiley interview and then went-off on an particularly long and harsh tirade of insults and criticism. If anyone can locate an audio link or transcript, please share it.
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