WASHINGTON - U.S. Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey resigned Friday as the Bush administration struggled to cope with the fallout from a scandal over substandard conditions for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
The surprise move came one day after Harvey fired the two-star general in charge of the medical center in response to disclosures of problems at the hospital compound.
Harvey has been the Army secretary since November 2004. His resignation was announced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Gates named an independent review panel last week to investigate what he called an "unacceptable" situation in outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and he said that some soldiers "most directly involved" in the problems had been removed from their positions.
This is a big surprise here! I don't know if Harvey resigned on his own, assuming responsibility for the Walter Reed scandal, or if he was pushed out by Gates and the Bush White House in order to contain this scandal. There seems to be a lot of political damage control going on here, with the current commander of Walter Reed, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, being fired yesterday and now this story of Harvey resigning and Gates ordering and independent review panel set up to investigate Walter Reed. It seems to me that the Bush White House is scrambling to take the lead in investigating the Walter Reed scandal in order to politically nullify the congressional investigations into Walter Reed, and to possibly avoid any connections between the Bush White House and the problems with Walter Reed.
There are a lot of details coming in on this story. From Fox News:
A permanent commander for Walter Reed was expected to be named late Friday. Harvey has been the Army secretary since November 2004. Gates said Harvey will depart March 9. Gates said the Army under secretary, Pete Geren, will become acting secretary until Bush nominates a permanent replacement.
Congressional hearings on Walter Reed are scheduled for Monday. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and John Tierney, D-Mass., of the House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform, issued a subpoena on Friday to force Weightman to testify before lawmakers. Weightman was scheduled to come before the committee but the Army refused to authorize him after he was relieved of command.
So Congress issued a subpoena Friday to force Weightman to testify, but the Army refused to authorize Weightman to testify until after he was fired. I'm not sure where this detail will go, aside from a potential CYA on the Army's part.
And then there is this detail from latest MSNBC News story on Harvye:
The surprise move came one day after Harvey fired the two-star general in charge of the medical center in response to disclosures of problems at the hospital compound.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Harvey had resigned. But senior defense officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Gates had asked Harvey to leave. Gates was displeased that Harvey, after firing Maj. Gen. George Weightman as the head of Walter Reed, chose to name as Weightman’s temporary replacement another general whose role in the controversy was still in question.
So Gates was pissed off at Harvey for replacing Weightman with Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley as the commander of Walter Reed--even though Kiley is embroiled up to his eyeball sockets in this scandal. And yet, Gates has asked for Kiley's resignation on the scandal.
The Washington Post has even more details on this breaking story:
President Bush today ordered a "comprehensive review" of care for wounded service members by a new presidential commission, and the secretary of the Army submitted his resignation, as the administration sought to deal with reports of festering problems in outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
In a separate development, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said it is issuing a subpoena to compel Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who was fired as commander of Walter Reed yesterday, to appear at hearing on Monday to testify about a controversial privatization effort at the Washington, D.C., hospital complex.
The committee chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), said the effort to privatize support services "led to a precipitous drop" in the number of personnel providing facilities management and other services at Walter Reed and may have been responsible for some of the problems there.
[....]
The review by a presidential commission is the third to be announced since a Washington Post series last week exposed squalid living conditions for some outpatient soldiers at Walter Reed and documented a larger bureaucratic labyrinth that ensnares many wounded veterans, frustrates their families and impedes the soldiers' recovery.
The White House said the membership and other details of the new commission would be announced soon. It said the panel would have a "broader" mandate than an "independent review group" formed last week by the Pentagon. Separately, the Army announced yesterday that shortcomings in the care of soldiers at Walter Reed and throughout the Army also would be examined and addressed by a new "Army Action Plan."
In his Saturday radio address, a transcript of which the White House released in advance today, Bush will say he was "deeply troubled by recent reports of substandard conditions" at Walter Reed, and he will echo his defense chief's comment last week that the situation is "unacceptable."
A couple of items of interest here. First is that President Bush has ordered a presidential commission to look into the Walter Reed scandal--Bush wants to get ahead of the congressional investigations on the scandal here, and hopefully limit any political damage which may link Walter Reed with the White House. Second, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has issued a subpoena on Weightman "to testify about a controversial privatization effort at the Washington, D.C., hospital complex." I haven't yet researched into this "privatization effort" regarding Walter Reed. I'm certainly curious to learn more about what this "privatization effort" is, who ordered it, and whether this "privatization effort" is also linked to the Bush White House. More to come on that issue. And finally, we've got some more Bush spin here, with President Bush releasing a transcript of his Saturday radio address saying he was "deeply troubled by recent reports of substandard conditions" at Walter Reed. There is no doubt that the transcript was released ahead of time to stave off reporters questions as to when Bush knew of the problems on Walter Reed, or whether these recent firings of Army generals are scapegoats to politically protect the White House.
More to come on this scandal.
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