Army Secretary Resigns In Wake Of Scandal

Comes After Disclosures Of Substandard Conditions For Wounded Soldiers At Walter Reed

(CBS/AP)  Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey abruptly stepped down Friday as the Bush administration struggled to cope with the fallout from a scandal over substandard conditions for wounded Iraq soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

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 Gen. George W. Weightman as the head of Walter Reed, chose to name as his temporary replacement another general whose role in the controversy was still in question.

"I am disappointed that some in the Army have not adequately appreciated the seriousness of the situation pertaining to outpatient care at Walter Reed," Gates said in the Pentagon briefing room. He took no questions from reporters.

Army Surgeon General Kevin Kiley continued to downplay the severity of the problems at Walter Reed, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

"While we have some issues here, this is not a horrific catastrophic failure at Walter Reed," Kiley told CBS News.

Gates said a permanent replacement for Weightman would be announced by the Army later Friday.

Harvey has been the Army secretary since November 2004. Gates said Harvey will depart March 9. Gates said the Army undersecretary, Pete Geren, will become acting secretary until President Bush nominates a permanent replacement.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush on Friday ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at U.S. military and veteran hospitals. The White House said the president will name a bipartisan commission to assess whether the problems at Walter Reed exist at other facilities.

CBS News White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that a former Pentagon official close to President Bush described him as so angry that "his hair was on fire." But the decision to fire Harvey was made by Gates, not the president, Axelrod adds.

The action came after The Washington Post documented squalid living conditions for some outpatient soldiers at Walter Reed and bureaucratic problems that prevented many troops from getting adequate care.

Mr. Bush devoted his weekly radio address — to be broadcast on Saturday — to the problems of veterans' care, and the White House took the unusual step of releasing excerpts in advance. A full text also was to be released later Friday. The administration's response came amid growing outrage about the poor treatment of some veterans — and the prospect that it could backfire on the White House.

"One of my most solemn experiences as president is visiting men and women recovering from wounds they suffered in defense of country," Mr. Bush said in his prepared address. "Spending time with these wounded warriors is also inspiring because so many of them bring the same courage they showed on the battlefield to their battle for recovery."

On Thursday, the Pentagon announced the firing of Weightman, the commander of Walter Reed. Gates had virtually ordered Harvey to fire Weightman, Martin reports.

In a brief announcement, the Army said service leaders had "lost trust and confidence" in Weightman's leadership abilities "to address needed solutions for soldier outpatient care." It said the decision to fire him was made by Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey.

Martin reports the investigation could well go both up and down the Army chain of command – up to the Army Surgeon General (who earlier in the war was the commander at Walter Reed) and down to the officer in charge of outpatient care.

Weightman's was the first head to roll but probably not the last, Martin says.

Mr. Bush, in his radio address, said he had asked Gates to make a firsthand assessment of conditions at Walter Reed. "He confirmed to me there are real problems at Walter Reed and he has taken action to hold people accountable, including relieving the general in charge of the facility.

"As we work to improve conditions at Walter Reed, we are also taking steps to find out whether similar problems have occurred at other military and veteran hospitals," the president said.

"We will use the commission's recommendations as part of our ongoing effort to improve our service to our nation's veterans," Mr. Bush said.

The commission to be named by Mr. Bush is separate from a review panel appointed by Gates to investigate outpatient care at Walter Reed and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The presidential panel will look at all U.S. military and veteran facilities, according to White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino.

[energyecon]

The man who led the charge of the "Champaigne Brigade" for the Texas Guard cast as Henry V?!

LMAO! Get back on your meds liars008!

[lars008-2009]

i knew you had nothing skippy.......

[forthepeaple]

wake up everyone go to www.scoop.co.nz read pentagon whistle-plower tell all. and remember to vote for david a belanger for president he will clean house asap all of them must go stay with the old get the same old s.h.i.t. just a differant face..he for americans for america.. thank god we have him...

[forthepeaple]

lars still playing with youself i see.

[lars008-2009]

ok skippy.... tell me when the va hospitals have not been ***..... they always have been...... but then what do you expect from socialized medicine...... and that is what you will get when the demonic-rats try to force socialized medicine on the usa..... all the hospitals will be *** like the va hospitals....

[forthepeaple]

if everone reads that story you will see that lars008 is working the webs for the bush adminastation to put into your thoughts that us as americans are the ones to blame. so lars 008 this 007 come and suck on the end of my massive weapon.

[forthepeaple]

hey 008 this is 007 how much money is the bush adminastration paying you for treason on are nation and are troops. i will find the fox hole you live in and drag you in front of the real troops you are disgracing and let them have there way with you. you chicken s,h,i,t,.

[meritocrat]

Lars, quit pasting the same dribble. If you are incapable of original thought and or unable to comprehend and respond to issues drawn from these articles in context, then withdraw to your myopia. Your ignoramus fodder is nothing more than irrelevant annoyances. What does any of your spew have to do with the Secretary of the Army being fired?

[meritocrat]

Let%u2019s review the record. In Jan 05, Tom Delay removed Rep Chris Smith from his chairmanship of the Veterans%u2019 Affairs Committee for arguing that VA Medical programs could not function on the amounts contained in the President%u2019s budget request. Subsequently, Robert Novak noted that Rep Smith was %u201C%u2026a tireless promoter of spending for veterans, to save money.%u201D He also wrote, %u201CThe extraordinary purge buttressed the growing impression of arrogance as Republicans enter their second decade of power in the House.%u201D Later that summer, the Department of Veterans Affairs revealed an embarrassing budget shortfall that administration officials said was unforeseen. The missing money was nearly the exact amount requested by Smith before his ouster. Bush and his gluttonous Republican groupthinkers, with the exception of Mr Smith, only hollowly support veterans and do so purely out of political expediency, not out of a sense of duty or gratitude. Lockheed, Halliburton and Raytheon make no money on disabled vets, and thus there is no K-street support for that budget. Behind closed doors, Republican leadership views veterans as just another entitlement-sucking welfare group. It%u2019s about time the public learns this awful truth. Let%u2019s pray Secretary Gates finds more support than Mr Smith did, he certainly has earned mine. I only wish he could fire his boss too.

[lars008-2009]

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

[sclaires]

Weightman was only a patsy for Kiley, Harvey, and Rumsfeld. He had been there only 6 months and hadn't had time to get things done. If they are contracting out work to civilian companies the way they are doing at army bases, then it is understandable why things were allowed to developed the way they did. Now a man has had his army career ruined so he might as well go ahead and put in his retirement papers. As far as I am concerned, they can court martial Kiley for incompentence which showed when he was in charge of WR. As for the VA hospitals, they are not as modern as civilian hospitals. Oh, they do some procedures when connected to a medical school but they don't have the privacy for the patients that a civilian hospital has. I have heard complaints about one VA hospital where they are not making appointments the way they should for procedures. Then this same VA hospital gave erroneous out about a friend of mine where he could not get disability even though he was suffering from PTSD, agent orange, and dementia. This occurred after he had retired from the army and was working a civilian job. Both WR and the VA need people who will show compansion for the people who need it.

[pattipace7]

Sorry to repeat myself as President Bush has done twice in the past nineteen months when he mentioned the menace of these roadside bombs in Iraq, and as I recall, were some of them where also made. Also please expect the number of new young Veterans that we will have in the year 2027, that%u2019s only Ten years from now, and most likely, after the war with Iran. ;
Walter Reed Hospital is actually a step higher than most of the Veterans Affairs medical centers which are all grossly under funded and under staffed. You do not have to look any further back than February 9, 2007 to find someone to be held accountable for these problems. Just read the press release from former house Vets Chair Steve Buyer, as he praises VA Secretary Jim Nicholson for a great VA budget and goes on to say; "this budget will allow them (veterans) to receive the care they need and lead full lives." Mr. Gates what you said March 1st is very commendable about the care and welfare of our veterans demands the highest standard of excellence and commitment that we can muster as a government. What we always needed as veterans is quality health care, respect from a knowledgeable health care provider, and the chance to resume a comfortable life as a productive member of the society for which we offered to give up our own life to serve and protect. The only solution to this problem is for at least four billion in EMERGENCY funding be immediately allocated to the Veterans Affairs medical centers.

[dirtydog55]

"Dirtydog,,, Are you going to be affected by Boing's loss of the C17 contract ???" Posted by j-whitman

No J, fortunately. I'm working on an unclassified aerospace project. Look up 'X-37' on Wikipedia.

[lars008-2009]

DEFEND AMERICA
US Department of Defense (DoD) news about the Global War on Terrorism
http://defendamerica.mil/

[forthepeaple]

EVERYONE BETTER READ PENTAGON WHISTLE-BLOWER ON WAR IRAQ AND THE WAR WITH IRAN. AT WWW.SCOOP.CO.NZ. AND VOTE FOR DAVID A BELANGER FOR PRESIDENT. UNDER AMERICANS FOR AMERICA..... TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE ALL THREE HOUSES IN WASHINGTON........

[starleo146]

hey doer of deeds lars 008 quit reading theodore roosevelt encyclopedia and be a doer as you say . Youy are a pitiful waste of humanity.

[energyecon]

Harvey was a Rumsfeld toady from the ranks of defense contractors sucking up to him for the orignal form of pork barrel spending, war contracts (look it up, US Civil War food mainstay was salted pork in barrels). He fired the wrong general, Gen. Weightman had been in place for less than six months and had been trying to work within the system to fix it. Harvey replaced him with the incompetent SOB who let the vets languish during his tenure as the head of Walter Reed prior to Weightman getting there. I pray Gates continues to kick @ss and take names and clean up the ranks of the top brass from the suck ups and yes men that Rumsfeld uniformly selected.

The larger crime that will come to light is the Bushco budget treatment of veteran health spending, which has seen double digit increases recently with more to come, and for some time after we disengage in Iraq in whatever form that takes. The 'balanced budget' fantasy submitted on the Hill envisions flat and then falling veteran health spending - more neoCON support for the troops.

[lars008-2009]

peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life. Theodore Roosevelt

[starleo146]

Pres Bush is going to check the V.A. hospitals good luck they have been ignored since world war 2 and after vietnam those poor guys coulndn't get in a door what about agent orange and what about the gulf war forget it the veterans have totally been ignored and the the hospitals have as well who is the guy in wash.d.c. in charge of veterans and there hospitals Bye Bye who ever you are.

[lars008-2009]

%u201CIt is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.%u201D Theodore Roosevelt

"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger." (1894) Theodore Roosevelt

To sit home, read one's favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing. - The Outlook December 21, 1895 Theodore Roosevelt %u2026..