Update: E-mails one veterans’ advocate, "The repercussions are pretty simple: VA managers can override any benefits decision that they don't want to pay. … Hey, why not confiscate all retroactive benefits from those older than 75 (65?) - they will die soon anyways."

An unofficial and apparently illegal U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) policy on granting veterans monetary benefits is drawing intense criticism in veteran advocates' and veteran attorneys' circles.

First reported in VA Watchdog by Larry Scott last year, the alleged policy puts a cap, in violation of U.S. Code, on large retroactive monetary sums granted to veterans.

Look here in the near future for updates and reporting on new developments.

Writes Larry Scott:

by Michael Leon (via mal contends)

Madison, Wisconsin —Vietnam-era Navy veteran Keith Roberts (1968-71) is an honorably discharged Navy airman who feels betrayed by his government, specifically the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Dept of Justice, for its self-conscious and successful efforts to financially ruin and imprison him.

Update: On a related note, see the NYT's Herbert's column on the new proposed GI Bill: "Politicians tend to talk very, very big about supporting our men and women in uniform. But time and again — whether it’s about providing armor for their safety or an education for their future — we find that talk to be very, very cheap."

via mal contends

The U.S. Dept of Veterans of Affairs (VA) has gone down the toilet.

This is what happens when the VA adopts the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) Dr. Sally Satel ethos that veterans need to just get over it, and not be enabled in a 'culture of trauma'.

From South Carolina, Paul Alongi reports:

Around the United States, including here in the shadow of Fort McCoy, we see that the military is overwhelmed as it tries to assist servicemembers.

Here at Veterans For America, where I am proud to be Director of Policy, we are determined to do something to help the men and women who have served us. Part of our efforts include our easy-to-use registry that will help us get you the help you need (or help for someone you know).

Please click here to register with Veterans for America's Wounded Warrior Registry.

If you or someone you know needs help, we will work to make sure that you get it -- it's as simple as that. We will answer every single request we get. Sometimes it can be just knowing how to fight through the bureaucracy and get the mental health appointment you need or it might be how to get your family counseling.

Please let us help you or someone you know get the help you need and deserve.

An innocent Gillett, Wisconsin veteran, Navy Airman Keith Roberts (1968-71), sits in federal prison serving a four-year sentence for wire fraud since March, on appeal.

Roberts' criminal appeal will be heard on Oct. 25 before a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Roberts simultaneously awaits the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims’ (CAVC) decision on his VA disability case, litigating the same set of facts before two judicial forums.

If Roberts’ criminal conviction and denial and reduction of benefits stand, every veteran who has a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)  disability case pending in the VA is theoretically in legal jeopardy, as PTSD claims skyrocket.

Roberts’ VA claim for his diagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is related to his trying to save his buddy, Florida native Airman Gary Holland, from being crushed to death by a C-54 airplane while stationed at a Naval air base in Naples, Italy in 1969.

Top VA Officials Plotted to Indict Vet in Violation of Federal VA Rules
[Please credit Michael Leon at MAL Contends]

Madison, Wisconsin—The Bush administration has refused to prosecute even one case of contractor fraud despite the multi-billion-dollar swindling and war-profiteering scandals in Iraq, but pursues a vigorous enterprise to marginalize, investigate, and prosecute veterans receiving disability benefits in an attempt to fabricate a fraud crisis among veterans who were injured and traumatized during their service to their country.

- via MAL Contends  
On Monday, June 25, Vietnam-era veteran Keith Roberts who is serving 48 months on trumped-up charges of federal wire fraud received some good news.

In Roberts’ case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) (Roberts v. Secretary of the VA (05-2425)), Roberts had just been granted a motion to add to the record an important supplemental brief.

But Roberts is fighting his legal battle not just against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), but also the U.S. Department of Justice in two different courts and two different cases simultaneously on the same factual and legal dispute.

On Friday, June 29, Roberts is filing his criminal brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (U.S. v. Roberts, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Docket 05-CR-118).

-

by Michael Leon, via MAL Contends

Madison, Wisconsin—In this Karl Rove/Dick Cheney age of politics when the governmental machinery is so politicized that Richard Nixon seems a progressive reformist by comparison, it’s not surprising to find the United States Department of Justice ravaging a Vietnam-era veteran diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

But many veterans charge the peculiar case of US v. Roberts is a disgraceful miscarriage of justice even by the contemporary swift-boating standards of the Bush administration.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

In June of 1999, Airman Keith Roberts (1968-71) was granted a disability rating by the US Veterans Administration (VA) after a 12-year, excruciating benefits claim process to which the honorably discharged American veteran from the northern town of Gillett, Wisconsin was subjected.

Roberts had been diagnosed with (PTSD) years after he witnessed a fellow airman killed in a gruesome C-54 aircraft crushing death of fellow Airman Gary Holland in 1969 while on “line duty” at a Naval Air Facility in Naples, Italy, and later in the same year was assaulted by the Navy Shore Patrol and forcefully hospitalized.

Roberts believed that negligence caused Holland’s death and that the Navy then covered it up, blaming the dead rookie Holland who could not defend himself.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is returning to Capitol Hill on Thursday to testify before the House Judiciary Committee.

Many Uppity Wisconsin readers know that Airman Keith Roberts (1968-74) is battling political forces allied with VA Sec. Jim Nicholson whose department worked with US Atty Stephen Biskupic to imprison this Vietnam-ear vet for 48 months on a ludicrous charge of wire fraud, now under appeal. (Tammy's #, (202) 225-2906)

via MAL Contends

The Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council released an anticipated report entitled PTSD Compensation and Military Service on May 8.

The report came as criticism has mounted over Veteran Administration (VA) Sec. Jim Nicholson’s tenure at the VA that saw budget shortfalls, a backlog of 600,000 disability cases, staffing shortages at Vet Centers, security breaches, alleged neglect of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) cases, and even the criminalization of the VA benefit process.

After a storm of veterans’ and Democrats’ denunciations, on Nov. 10, 2005, the (VA) announced that there would “no across-the-board review of (PTSD) cases,” reversing its controversial plan to review 72,000 PTSD cases.

“The process of gathering evidence to prove PTSD disability is extremely time-consuming. It requires the compilation of medical records, military service records, and testimonies from other veterans who can attest to a person’s combat exposure. I cannot fathom why the VA would require veterans to go through this emotionally painful process a second time,” said Sen. Barrack Obama (D-IL) on August 10, 2005.