Populum Test Server » Is the VA Really Supporting Our Troops?

Dr. Suzy Melkonian, who is paid $48 an hour as a blood cancer specialist at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Los Angeles, was convicted 21 years ago in Switzerland of extorting money for a group that staged terrorist bombings and assassinations.

That certainly seems to support the claim of the VA hoping or even helping veterans “fade away”.

But the VA’s record on disability benefits must be better right?

VAOIG semi-annual report to Congress Oct. 1, 1999 to March 2000

VAIG finds VA attorney concealing veteran’s records

Investigation disclosed the individual knowingly allowed …(1300 veterans claims)… to accumulate in and around his office and he falsified weekly reports in order to conceal the existence of these unprocessed materials including 500 items containing evidence related to veterans' appeals including some of the aforementioned urgent, time sensitive items, as well as Congressional materials.

ABC - 20/20 (7/2/2000)
Fighting For Justice

VA attorneys destroyed records to deny veterans claims and earn cash bonus.

The attorneys …worked for the Board of Veterans Appeals, and each drew prison time for separately committing outright fraud in 1994 and ’95. Destroying records that were sent to them for review then rejecting the veterans’ cases on the grounds that the records were missing.

The attorneys said they believed the quick denials would make them appear more productive and eligible for bigger bonuses. A belief some say has encouraged denials in the past. Whatever the cause, the VA insists that in most cases the records aren’t technically missing, because they exist somewhere in the system.

Knight Ridder Newspapers (3/6/2005)
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/special_packages/veterans
Discharged and dishonored: Shortchanging America's veterans

After 47-year wait, veteran faces new delays in getting compensation

A Board of Veterans Appeals judge ruled Sept. 20 that Fong was entitled to disability payments for his blindness for the period July 1950 to August 1997 - the 47 years the VA had wrongly denied his claim.

Veterans face lengthy delays if they appeal the VA's decisions. The average wait is nearly three years, and many veterans wait 10 years for a final ruling. In the past decade, several thousand veterans died before their cases were resolved, according to an analysis of VA data.

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
Joel Waldman, President AFGE VA Regional Office, Cleveland, 2005

AFGE President tells Congress - VA Denies Veterans Due Process

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Sherwood Ross has worked as a publicist for Chicago; as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News and workplace columnist for Reuters. He has also been a media consultant to colleges, law schools, labor unions, and to the editors of more than 100 national magazines. A civil rights activist, he was News Director for the National Urban League, a talk show host at WOL Radio, Washington, D.C., and holds an award for "best spot news coverage" for Chicago radio stations for civil rights reporting. He is t...

to see more of bio, click on member name
Sherwood RossSherwood Ross has worked as a publicist for Chicago; as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News and workplace columnist for Reuters. He has also been a media consultant to colleges, law schools, labor unions, and to the editors of more than 100 national magazines. A civil rights activist, he was News Director for the National Urban League, a talk show host at WOL Radio, Washington, D.C., and holds an award for "best spot news coverage" for Chicago radio stations for civil rights reporting. He is t...

to see more of bio, click on member name

VA Treatment of Vets

This is ugly stuff indeed. The old saw, "justice delayed is justice denied" was never more applicable. Maybe activists should distribute handbills containing this information outside recruiting offices. Maybe the VA should create some activists of its own who will act to ensure justice is no longer delayed or denied.

Sherwood Ross

by Sherwood Ross (192 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 131 comments) on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 6:23:32 AM

Say it ain't so!
TheoSay it ain't so!

VA waiting for veterans to die? YES!!!

My dad died from yellow fever contacted during an Army building project, some 60 years ago. I was only 2 years old when he died. The action of the VA then is just as it is now. They just turned their backs on me. It is only the will to live that I survived a harsh childhood, sleeping in a house without heat, and going to bed hungry. Against my Mom's wishes, I joined the military. I have several service connected disabilities. The miner ones were granted. The heart condition and stroke (I am still confering with them about this, since 1998) were denied. At the moment, my claim (appeal) is still pending after more than two years. I know for sure I am not the only one with treatment like this from VA. A friend of mine died three months ago, waiting for VA to approve his claim for a service connected, low rated heart condition. What we have to be careful about is the loss of VA because it has been said that there would no longer be a VA when this admin. is finished. Say it ain't so!

by Theo (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 27 comments) on Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 6:43:04 AM

The author lives in Eugene, OR. Interests include 'Group Psychotherapy' and 'Psychodrama'. She is also an RN. One 'Favorite Quote': 'Insanity is the exception in individuals. In groups, parties, peoples and times it is the rule.' ......Friedrich Nietzsche
Katrin R.The author lives in Eugene, OR. Interests include 'Group Psychotherapy' and 'Psychodrama'. She is also an RN. One 'Favorite Quote': 'Insanity is the exception in individuals. In groups, parties, peoples and times it is the rule.' ......Friedrich Nietzsche

What do I think?

Do I believe them? vs. who else? Of course I do, and if this is not evident, I don't know what is. They are sending severely injured vets back to Iraq, for God's sake. It's not only a matter of not caring about them, but an active wish and pursuit to get rid of them, or at least make sure they are too crazy to testify as witnesses, now that investigations are underway?

Sometimes, the more obvious things are, the less likely they are believed. And that is partially why it is done that way. I think people feel/think themselves too superior and/or intelligent to see the obvious. Like, they did not go to college to recognize the banal. Unless the cover-up is intelligently maneuvered, they believe it cannot be real. Same with when things when they are too serious to meet their idea of 'reality'.

'Delay, Deny, Hope that I die.'

by Katrin R. (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 514 comments) on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 12:55:53 AM