Medical Cover-Up in the Pentagon

​Medical Cover-Up in the Pentagon

By Cliff Kincaid

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin apologized for the cover-up over his secret hospitalization. He should be back in a hospital bed, with his “Commander-in-Chief” in the bed next to him. Together, they have put the United States on life support.

Austin deserves sympathy over his health problems but the country is to be pitied for having a Defense Secretary who engages in a systematic cover-up, an offense which would get lower-level Pentagon people dismissed from the Armed Services for jeopardizing military readiness and violating the law.

The public needs to watch or read what happened at his Thursday news conference. Here is one brave question from one of the reporters:

“You were hospitalized for days before you informed the White House or the commander in chief of your condition. In your absence, anyone else within the military chain of command would have faced reprimand or even dismissal. Why shouldn't that same standard apply to you, sir?”

Austin’s convoluted answer, as published in the official transcript, was:

“Well, let me just say that -- thanks for the question -- that -- that we didn't get this right. And as I said, I take full responsibility for -- for the department's actions.

“In terms of why, on the second notification was not made to the White House, that information was available. I’m not sure, at this point, what exactly happened. But I think details will -- will play out as a review is conducted.”

Austin’s gibberish sounds like he’s in the same class as Joe Biden. But the cover-up was masterful.

Interestingly, the question came from Peter Alexander of NBC News, normally a mouthpiece for the Biden Administration.

Another great question came from Jennifer Griffin of Fox, who said “there’s been a lot of telegraphing about targeting and responding to the [Sunday] drone strike, so much so that the Iranian proxy leaders have left the country. Some are back in -- in Tehran. Has there been too much telegraphing, or is the point not to kill any Iranian commanders?”

His bumbling response was, in part: “In terms of telegraphing about strikes and whether or not people leave or would have left, you know, I won’t speculate on -- on any of that. I will just tell you that, you know, we will have a -- a multi-tiered response, and -- and again, we have the ability to -- to respond a number -- in a -- a number of times depending on what the situation is.”

Griffin was correct: the point is to avoid killing Iranian military leaders and Austin’s promise of a “multi-tiered response” is unintelligible but will predictably fail to take out the top terrorists.

Biden refuses to wage war on Iran, even though a war is clearly underway. Biden refuses to ask for a congressional Declaration of War because he doesn’t want to win this war.

Here’s what Reuters news service said about the Austin matter:

• “His handling of the situation appeared to be a stark breach of protocol for high-ranking cabinet officials, who typically inform the public of planned medical absences ahead of time and identify who will be filling in for them.”
• “Legal experts said Austin may have violated a U.S. law that requires executive agencies to report top-level absences and the names of anyone serving in an acting capacity to both houses of Congress.”

That law is 5 U.S. Code § 3349 - Reporting of vacancies.

Despite his law-breaking, Biden has expressed his confidence in Austin.

In the news conference, a PBS reporter put this one to Austin: “…you had nearly a month between the time you learned of your cancer and time that this came out to inform the President. How could you possibly think that it was okay not to tell him, if I could be blunt?”

Austin responded that it was a mistake.

Biden has confidence in Austin because Austin fooled a lot of people, including Pentagon reporters. Of course, it doesn’t really matter in the overall scheme of things if Austin informed Biden one day or one month later. Biden would have forgotten anyway.

The significant aspect of this cover-up is that Pentagon reporters seem genuinely perturbed and resent being treated like fools.

To make matters worse, in the latest crisis, Austin was asked if he had seen “any sign that China has been successful in pressuring Iran to rein in the Houthis in the Red Sea?” This refers to reports that the U.S. is depending on China to stop these attacks.

Austin’s bumbling response was, “We -- we have not. Again, what – what’s happening in terms of close communications between -- between leaders, you know, we -- we don't know but -- but we've not seen any visible evidence that they are -- they are encouraging or pressuring Iran to cause the Houthis to -- to back off of what they've been doing.”

So Austin has subcontracted U.S. foreign policy to Communist China, giving new meaning to the term “China Joe.”

• Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. www.usasurvival.org  

 

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