ONGOING PROBLEMS AT WALTER REED FOR WOUNDED VETERANS

The problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center persist even with all the news coverage given the atrocious conditions wounded veterans are living in at Walter Reed.


By Matt Renner t r u t h o u t Interview
Tuesday 15 January 2008

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011508J.shtml (with video)

"Nothing has changed [at Walter Reed]. Same facility. None of the recommendations that I made have been implemented and to my knowledge they really aren't working on it."
Former Army Lt. and military nurse Doug Connor sat down for an interview with Truthout reporter Geoffrey Millard to share his experience before and after the Walter Reed Medical Center scandal broke.

Encouraged by the firings of top military officials as a result of the problems at Walter Reed, Connor spoke out about the dilapidated conditions at Walter Reed. He sent a letter to Gen. Gregory A. Schumacher with recommendations for improving conditions in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where there were equipment shortages and outbreaks of infectious bacteria, including extremely dangerous drug-resistant forms of Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacterium that has been ravaging injured soldiers in Iraq and in domestic military hospitals.

The infection problems caused other units within the hospital to lose faith in the ICU's ability to care for surgical patients. Because of the infections, "the kidney transplant team will not recover their patients in the surgical ICU anymore," Connor said in the interview.

According to Connor, his recommendations were not acted upon. Instead, he claims that he was retaliated against. "I thought he would thank me for letting him know where there were areas that needed to be fixed ... I have been retaliated against because of the letters that I have sent out. It is pretty transparent ... Everyone that has seen what happened around me is just like 'yeah, they're going after you.'"

MEDIA KISSES OFF IRAQ WAR COVERAGE

The mainstream media in the United States has decided the Iraq War is not worth covering anymore.

Oh, they will try to tell you the "surge" is working so well there isn't any violence in Iraq anymore, but that is just not so.

I'm the only blogger in the United States who has devoted my entire blog to covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars because I see a need for people to know what is happening in both war theaters inasmuch as the mainstream press doesn't care anymore.

Iraq is NOT the safe haven Americans have been led to believe and Afghanistan is on the brink of total chaos again.

However, if you want to know the latest on OJ, Drew Peterson, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan or a high speed chase in "whatever" USA, all you have to do is turn to Fox News, CNN or MSNBC.

The three cable news outlets are in a race to see who can become the most tabloid news organization in the country.

We still have 160,000 troops in Iraq and another 30,000 in Afghanistan, but the mainstream press doesn't give a damn. We are fast approaching 4,000 deaths in Iraq and there are 28,000 Iraq veterans who have been seriously wounded including many with wounds that will leave them disabled for life.

But does the mainstream press in the U.S. care? Hell no. They have bigger fish to fry like the endless reports on the Democratic and Republican races for who will be their candidate in the next Presidential election, and the boring and tiresome reports on anything to do with Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Drew Peterson and more recently the Marine who apparently killed his pregnant Marine girlfriend and is now on the lam.

So to fill the gap and give the few people in the United States who give a damn about our troops stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan, I launched my own blog http://corksphere.blogspot.com/ which I have devoted entirely to the latest developments from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Oh, there are still wars going on over there. It is just not being reported anymore by the mainstream press.

Sad. So very sad. Break out those American flag lapel pins boys and girls of the mainstream media. Show them how much you really care and how patriotic you are.........NOT.

Bill Corcoran, host and owner of this site. Former Cpl. (E-4) U.S. Army Combat Engineers and Korean War veteran.

MEDIA CONTINUES TO IGNORE IRAQ

THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IN THE UNITED STATES HAS DECLARED WAR ON THE IRAQ WAR. MEDIA NO LONGER COVERS THE IRAQ WAR.

However while the mainstream press in the United States feels the Iraq war is not worth covering anymore, the following incidents took place in Iraq on Monday, January 14.
Posted by Bill Corcoran, owner of this site.

56 Iraqis Killed, 11 Wounded

http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=12210

Updated at 11:50 p.m EST, Jan. 14, 2008

At least 56 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 11 were wounded in the latest violence. Most of the deaths reported today were suspected gunmen in the Diyala province, but even the now-quiet Anbar province saw multiple attacks. No Coalition troops were reported killed. Also, the Iraqi defense minister suggested that U.S. troops may be needed in Iraq until 2018 or even later.

In Baghdad, five unidentified bodies were recovered. Gunmen killed a judge and his driver as they traveled through Mansour on their way to his work.

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in Zaafaraniya. Police commandos announced that on Jan. 2 they had liberated a wounded kidnap victim near Sadr City; the kidnappers were arrested. Also, Baghdad police added mobile phones, purses, and weapons to a motorcycle ban already in effect for the Ashuraa observances; they also advise not to take children to large gatherings.

Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S. troops, killed 15 suspects and arrested 58 more in Buhriz. Seven policemen were killed inside a booby-trapped home; at least three more were wounded.

Also, an Awakening Council member was gunned down outside of town.

A car bomb in Mosul wounded six people, including three civilians, in the Ghazlani neighborhood.

In al-Tahrir, Iraqi soldiers killed two men they found planting a bomb. Also, two dead bodies were recovered.

In Haditha, four dumped bodies were discovered.

A senior Sadrist leader was gunned down in Basra.

Near Amara, a hostage was freed.
Mortars in al-Rutba caused no casualties.
In Fallujah, a mortar shell fell in the al-Wehda neighborhood but caused no casualties.
Hundreds of weapons were confiscated in Karbala as the Ashuraa religious observance continues. Three people were arrested southwest of town.

Two Coalition troops were slightly wounded during a bombing at a girls’ school in Baquba.

In al-Bahraz, Iraqi forces killed seven suspects.

U.S. forces announced that security operations in northern Iraq resulted in at least eight more deaths than previously reported; at least 60 were killed over the last week, but some of those deaths may or may not be duplicates. The casualties reported in Buhriz and al-Bahraz today, and 30 deaths reported last week may or may not be part of these 60 deaths.

Four suspects were arrested near Kirkuk.

Police detained two suspects in Najaf. Also, U.S. helicopters flew over the city in security operations designed to protect Ashuraa pilgrims.

In Samarra, 73 innocent detainees were released. Most of them were arrested in June after an attack on the Askariya shrine.
Police in Hawija located a large weapons cache and confiscated it.
An IED targeting a vehicle carrying policemen blew up near Tarmiyah. No word on casualties.

A child was injured during a mortar attack in Balad.

Also, the Turkish prime minister refuses to estimate when Turkish attacks in northern Iraq may end.