Wisconsin Public Radio runs a piece today on Wisconsin Navy veteran, Keith Roberts (1968-71), who ran afoul of the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Attorney’s office by filing a claim for disability benefits.

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.

Madison, Wisconsin—A Vietnam-era veteran filed his reply brief Monday in his benefits-turned-criminal case before the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Keith Roberts, an honorably discharged Navy veteran (1969-71) from Gillett, Wisconsin, filed his brief arguing that “his constitutional rights were violated in this case, and that he was unjustly convicted and sentenced.”

Since March of this year, Roberts, a veteran with no criminal record, has been serving a 48-month sentence (and his family financially hit with associated costs of some $300,000) for federal wire fraud purportedly committed in his benefits application process with the VA, in a criminal-charges/VA benefits case now simultaneously before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims (CAVC), where Roberts is pursing his benefits claim.

Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims (CAVC)

- via MAL Contends
Madison, Wisconsin—An official Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) document contradicts the U.S. prosecutor’s narrative of alleged events that led to the conviction of a Wisconsin Vietnam-era veteran on federal wire fraud charges in 2006.

Jim Henning

Click To See Full Size
The document, a VA “Statement in Support of Claim,” written by the late Jim Henning, a Shawano County (Wisconsin) Veteran’s Service Officer, argues for an earlier retroactive date for disability benefits for Airman Keith Roberts (1968-74), who was diagnosed by several medical professionals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after witnessing a fellow airman being crushed to death in the wheel well of a C-54 airplane at a U.S. base in Naples, Italy in 1969.

Henning was known as a passionate and highly ethical advocate for veterans.

- via MAL Contends
The US House Committee on the Judiciary last week held an oversight hearing featuring Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Wisconsin citizens got a chance to see the newest member of the committee in action, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison).

Baldwin was aggressive in her questioning of Gonzales, while Gonzales was typically evasive, inane and insincere.

What stood out was the focus of Baldwin’s questions—US Atty Stephen Biskupic, and Gonzales’ spirited defense of Biskupic.

Baldwin opened by citing an April 16, 2007 editorial in the New York Times by Adam Cohen , and quoting passages about Biskupic’s specious and discredited prosecution of Georgia Thompson.

- Listen to this story now using RealPlayer from Wisconsin Public Radio -
Via MAL Contends
As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary today, veterans mobilized on behalf of jailed Air Force vet Keith Roberts, indicted and convicted by the controversial US Atty Stephen Biskupic.

In several e-mail trees, the veterans urged veterans and supporters to phone members of the Judiciary Committee questioning Gonzales on the recent firings of US Attys, and what US Attys who had kept their jobs may have done to remain in their positions.

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)

by MAL Contends

Madison, Wisconsin—As Airman Keith Roberts (1968-74) sits behind bars, serving a four-year sentence for federal wire fraud for seeking disability benefits; the fight to free him has been launched.

The Gillett, Wisconsin native Roberts filed for disability benefits in 1999 after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to an assault by the Navy Shore Patrol in 1969, and the death of a fellow airman killed in a gruesome aircraft accident, also in 1969, at Naples, Italy where Roberts was stationed.

As Roberts was adjudicating his claim in 2005 with the US Veterans Administration (VA), Stephen Biskupic, US Atty for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, in an extraordinary development, stepped in and secured federal indictments and a conviction of Roberts on charges of wire fraud in fraudulently obtaining over $350,000 for the period of 1992 to 2004.

Critics see Roberts as an innocent victim of an unfeeling VA bureaucracy, rightwing forces allied with VA Secretary Nicholson, and an overzealous prosecutor.

by Michael Leon

- Via MAL Contends

Madison, Wisconsin—Since March 2007, Airman Keith Roberts has been imprisoned, serving the first few months of a four-year sentence for five counts of federal wire fraud.

Keith Roberts filed for disability benefits in 1999 after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by private and public medical health professionals.

Though not nearly as horrific as many, Roberts’ Vietnam-era service (1968-74) affected him badly, and includes an incident in which he was assaulted by the Navy Shore Patrol in 1969, and he witnessed a fellow airman killed in a gruesome aircraft accident, also in 1969, at Naples, Italy where he was stationed.

Roberts jumped through all of the hoops that the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) makes claimants jump through, and was granted service-connected benefits for his diagnosed PTSD in 1999 retroactive to 1993 (later revised to 1992), and received over $300,000 in benefits.

Roberts and his wife believed that after a paperwork-endurance ordeal in finding all supporting documents that the VA had finally come through and honored his service, and affirmed his medical condition after the long benefits application process.