Gulf War Veteran version of GULFLINK

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Website debunking the Special Assistant
for Gulf War Illnesses

	CURRENT OSAGWI MISINFORMATION		FALSE CASE NARRATIVES		ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES		REAL HELP FOR VETERANS		E-MAIL

Updated: February 1st, 2009
Come join our Organization as we face down the agency that lies about
Gulf War issues. Deployment Health Support Directorate
1995 - 20,000,000 Gulf War military records declassified 1996 - 6,000,000 files given to OSAGWI to put on website
1996 - 1,700,000 files are medically relevant 1997 - 42,943 put up on gulflink.osd.mil website
At a cost of $150,000,000 less than .007% of the Gulf War Military
records have been declassified for public release. 16 years later
99.993% is classified , and the Pentagon has vowed to reclassify
these records. This include Confidential Records that should have
been released at the 15 year mark.

On February 14th 1999 I sent OSAGWI a FOIA asking for the bulk
of its records names be declassified, and sent to me. I received a
partial reply from General Vesser in a box with 2,877 pages, and
two CD's. On the CD was the Structured database file and other part
was a unstructured file. Again, only of the 42,943 files on the
public server. In the Nov 5th1999 response letter from OSAGWI to
me they explained they were processing the classified portion of the
log sheets for me. That was the last I ever heard from them on paper
concerning this FOIA. It remains mostly unanswered to this day
on the other 6,000,00 files. OSAGWI database file of 42,943 files
OSAGWI response to me concerning partial response to FOIA
The Pentagon hides behind Executive Order 13292 so that the bulk
of what happened in the Gulf remains hidden from the public. Except
this is criminal intent to withhold information of neglect, misconduct,
mishandling, and much worse during the Gulf War. The very same
people who say nothing happened are the ones with full knowledge
of those records, and vow to conceal them at all cost. The same people
who lead us back to Iraq again under false terms, and created yet another
disaster to live down.

There should be FULL public disclosure, and we have the right to know
what really happened in Iraq from 1990 to present.

How to complain to Veteran Affairs about your health care

Gulf War, and Operation Iraqi Freedom

February 1st, 2009: 2009 off to rocky start

First off I will say that I have seen some things going on
just out of view that are offensive to me. The impression
I am getting is that there are some people trying to pull
there last stunts with Gulf War under the radar of the
new administration. Because if President Obama
endorsed there conduct then things are status quo in our
circles rather than changing as they should be.

Rather than rely on VA EA to keep the Gulf War Registry
exam phone book posted I have transposed it to HTML for
the Gulflink website. If you need to reach a VA Environmental
Agents coordinator to set up a Gulf War Registry exam then
look them up by state and then location closest to you in this
directory. This one is current as of January 31st 2009.
Http://www.gulflink.org/directory.html
That being said I will for the moment leave this in the hands
of Congress to see if they will do what's right to investigate
this heading into 2009. If not then its time to take up the
torch and protest these disparages.

As for passing the the 2008 RAC report to the IOM for review,
this is government waste at its worst. There is no justified
reason to repeat these reports towards recommendations.
At no time did PL 105-368 stipulate that the RAC recommendations
had to go through IOM vetting. This is a farce in that its simply
meant to stall those recommendations for 2 more years and
then tank them stating "There isn't enough evidence to support
this conclusion". Come on, VA worked hard at creating a LACK
of data just for this very purpose through other thinly veiled
studies that ignored many technical aspects to include GAO
reports of data collection failures. Its time to simply service
connect and move on. Create specialized care programs for
Gulf War Illness, Agent Orange, Ionizing Radiation, Project
Shad, and unique deployment situations. That these programs
be available regardless of a rating status and repeatable rather
than one time visits. The failing of the WRIISC should be noted
as it also applies to PL 105-368, and that it didn't serve the vets
as we had intended in 1998 with this law.

Oh I could go on about this and in more detail. But, the focus
should shift. As there is a potential here to change this within
the ranks of VA itself without a massive startup cost. That shift
would be at VA Environmental Agents, of which already has
teams in place nation wide to deal with this. They just have there
hands tied by bad management that is unapproachable from the
Bush administration days. What is needed is to start from scratch at
the top of VA EA with new management, and realign those assets
with the help of the veteran community ( VSO'S, grass roots, and
such ). But, its a closed door program there that has gone stale.
So its doomed these issue by reverting back to old practices rather
than new ones. More of the same will fix things, that sounds like
the very tactics of corrupt corporate CEO's giving out bonuses for
failure. VA is just mimicking the private sector in hanging on to
career people who had been promoted to the highest level of there
incompetence. The question here is will the new administration listen
to the vets on this or parade on with blinders on.

Other than this one major obstacle to progress there is at least
something happening in the mean time on Gulf War issues. We have
2 committees in full swing this year. We have 6 known meetings
of which most takes place the first 5 months of this year. The down
side is VA has ignored GW advisory committee recommendations
for so long that its doubtful they will adhere to any of them this year.
So it looks like it maybe up to Congress to save the day here with
any recommendations by making them mandates.

For now here is the meeting schedules:

February 18 - 19, 2009 - ACGWV meeting - VA Medical Center, Decatur, GA

February 23-24, 2009 - RAC meeting - Dallas Texas,
March 18 - 19, 2009 - ACGWV meeting - Waco, TX (venue TBD)
April 7 - 9, 2009 - ACGWV meeting - Washington, DC (venue TBD)
June 29-30, 2009 - RAC meeting - Boston MA

November 2-3, 2009 - RAC meeting - Washington, D.C.

Progress could happen this year, but wont happen unless change
is really on the horizon. What I have seen this week tells me that
things are status quo with VA. That contempt for the veterans such
as myself borders right up there with civil rights violations of long
ago. That a modern form of racism still exist when dealing with Americas
veterans. That we do not have the same rights as other citizens in
this country. That if this administration cannot help change that then
things are worse than ever rather than improving. As long as the Feres
Doctrine exist there is inequality in America demeaning the value
of human life itself. The last frontier of discrimination in America are
the American soldiers, and they deserves far better than this.
December 26th, 2008: Looking to Obama and 2009
So far this has been a slow year filled with potential
but quite disappointing. On two separate occasions VA
has saw fit to use the IOM to deny benefits based on the
sporadic and under whelming reports on Gulf War Illness.
Having sat in on these meetings over these many years I
and others have argued the thin nature of these reports.
So to take such a hostile action based on the findings comes
across as nothing more than contempt for those veterans.
If they cannot prove absolutely without doubt there isnt a
problem then they should side as "Benefit of the Doubt" or
other wise known as "Reasonable doubt". Peer review isnt
worth much when your using biased reporting data and heavily
biased as well as over funded negative research that was
designed for the express purpose of being used in this
fashion. The IOM has little objectivity other than to its
contractor, and has been spoon fed its materials to its
recommendations which is reporting bias.
The RAC report in November was quite a disappointment
having waited so long to see it. Once more its vastly over
written considering its main selling points hover around one
study by Dr. Han Kang. The report lacks vision and continues
to be a status quo tool to a very small group of people bent
on pushing Neurology at the expense of all else. This narrow
tunnel vision report doesn't provide any real plan that
would benefit Gulf War veterans in the next 5 years. After 6
years of grabbing at straws it seems this report misses many
golden opportunities that slowly others are catching on to.
However, something is better than nothing - it just doesn't
deserve all of the GW attention and funding when the bulk
of our programs have faltered from lack of attention. It needs
a bigger scale and revitalization from within that needs to be
addressed on more than funding a ever dwindling supply of
researchers running out of ideas based on old information.
Which is no surprise that VA would hand over this report to
the IOM for review, the predictable result is 2 years from now
the IOM will denounce the recommendations based on a lack
of concrete data. Not enough information to go on. A stall
tactic on the part of VA to drag this out 2 more years. A
waste of tax payer money on another needless report.

Participation should be the key selling point now. Bring in the
vets to reassess where things are as of 2009. The programs
managed by Environmental Agent remained static for more
than a decade without true revision even in the face of scrutiny
and government chastisement ( i.e. GAO report and such ).
Walk into a VA medical center today and ask them for a Gulf
War Registry exam. Guess what, most facilities do not know
they even have a "Environmental Agents Coordinator" much
less displays or signs to find one. They are invisible even among
the folks that should know of them. The end result is the Gulf
War Registry failed to be a reporting tool on the current state of
the veterans because it wasn't comprehensive. Only 5% saw
a follow-up exam much less a Phase II exam they should have
gotten. To look into issues like "Leishmaniasis" which were
largely unreported because no one in the early days knew of it
or had a reliable test for it. These programs need to be dynamic
and fluid to change. Instead they are archaic dinosaurs designed
to die a slow death on purpose.
The WRIISC program was supposed to be the specialized
clinical answer to the Registry. Instead it was twisted to fail
through obscurity as well. Its primary failing point is veterans
simply cant get to it. That bottleneck being its location and
transportation to it. Its on the East Coast and unless your
walking in the DC area or New Jersey your not getting in.
Then add to the fact its a one time deal that last 3 days and
you cant get a effective baseline that requires time to find.

The Secretary of VA informed Congress in January 2008
that there needed to be 9 new presumptions added to Gulf War Illness. Brucellosis, Campylobacter Jejuni, Q Fever, Malaria, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, nontyphoid Salmonella, Shigella, Visceral Leishmaniasis, West Nile Virus. This is good news in that this is needed
but so far to date Gulf War Illness doesn't really have its
own category. Its not really recognized except under
undiagnosed Illnesses so in truth VA needs to concede there
are issues ( such as ALS, primary brain cancers, and so on )
that warrant a unique rating category. So our benefits
programs should be revised in 2009 in favor of the veteran
knowing that there are MANY unique issues to our plight.

Veterans need a centralized era specific facility that is easily
identifiable, easy to access, friendly, with specialist rather
than general medicine clinicians, that veterans can go back
to numerous times regardless of benefits. Well, that family
members such as spouses and children can also go to.
Not a one time throw away program designed to fail before
you walk in the door.

The VA Advisory Committee of Gulf War Veterans has met three
times now: June 17 – 19, 2008, September 24 – 25, 2008, November 19 - 20, 2008 in Washington DC. Most of this has
been data collection trying to get some bearing of where
things are in 2008. The committee visited the Washington DC
VAMC, and the Baltimore VAMC but was limited to a conference
room session rather than any walk through in depth viewing.
The WRIISC wasn't visited, but rather we heard a presentation
from them. So its felt fairly hands off. Its hard to get a feel for
a program if you dont see it working in person. The committee
will be traveling to the following locations in early 2009:
: http://www1.va.gov/gulfwaradvisorycommittee/

Its hard to say heading into 2009 if a broad enough view
assessment will be made of the overall problems to get
something either on the books or congressionally mandated
unless the veterans speak up. So far the impression I get is
there will be very little REAL outreach to look for them. The
part missing is a heavy media presence in advance to let
veterans know where to impart there energies. The ACGWV
will wrap up long before it finds enough of these folks in late
2009. The committee tenure is too short to do more than a
contact surface skimming of things before it concludes. Then
in December 2009 the RAC once again become the only
show in town. Except the RAC deals only with Research
and isn't designed to deal or recommend anything else.

There is a real problem here that is further compounded by a
total break down of communication with the Pentagon on our
issue. They are now totally non-responsive to any request
made for help. Total snow job stall tactics including a made
up problem so that they don't have to answer the phone at the
one time DOD Gulf War Hotline. So without substantive
government records ( all classified ) the burden of proof is
kept from us. Another deliberate stall tactic.

This legacy passes onto President Elect Barack Obama to
deal with the government sins of the past when it comes to
Gulf War vets. What will be his stance when asked in 2009?
More cover-up, conspiracy, and contempt, or maybe a time
to come clean about the past war as well as how it was
handled afterwards. A real time to heal.

2009 will be a very unique year unlike anything in 10 years no
matter which way this all plays out.

The only constant is change.
July 25th, 2008: Holding ones breath
The June ACGWV meeting was a disappointment in that
VA itself didn't provide us much of value to work from. We
spent a fair amount of time on the basics but no real meat
and potatoes materials to base any hard plans on. So this
meeting in September is supposed to be a little more
informative, and maybe enough to make a outline for the
18 months ( 15 months by Sept ) for us to draw some
conclusions for the final report.

ALS clusters in Gulf War.
Duke University did a fair study in which it found by using GIS
data of where soldiers where and the incidence of ALS in the
military, that there were hotspots for contracting this. Not long
after this announcement VA stated it would service connect
soldiers with ALS. Still what is the cause? We are getting closer
and closer to that particular cause.

No Service Connection for Sarin
It seems the Secretary of VA is not going to allow for the
"benefit of the doubt" when it comes to Sarin in the Gulf War.
This faulty conclusion drawn up by the IOM in its Volume 1
report lacks a variety of data to include specific GAO reports
that support the possibility of Sarin during the Gulf War. The
biggest glaring fact is that Khamisiyah is a real place filled with
chemical weapons that were inventoried on camera, then it was
blown up improperly upwind of American troops. Yet, for the
millions spent trying to dispute this more than 90,000 were
notified by the Department of Defense that they were exposed.
Its quite clear that PL 105-277 has failed the American soldiers
on this and this fact is being exploited unfairly. Technicalities.

Sarin may not have been the only factor, but to insult American
Soldiers based only on the IOM findings is little more than badly
based conclusions at the expense of the soldiers. I for one saw
a bunker demolition next to my unit during the war that later was
reported to me as the biggest of its kind since WWII. Yet, DOD
refused to investigate it after I reported it to them. Hundreds of
these demolitions took place besides Khamisiyah, and the "burden
of proof" is still classified and hidden at USCENTCOM. But, for some
reason these just magically didn't happen. Which is my current
argument with this committee over "Burden of Proof versus Benefit
of the Doubt". We are still to this day not getting the benefit of
the doubt on what we saw.

The ACGWV committee website is now at:
http://www1.va.gov/gulfwaradvisorycommittee/
But, its not going to do very much or be very informative from what
I understand. Maybe as time goes by that will change but there
is a lack on enthusiasm to do anything with it other than rudimentary
information. I wanted more and it seems that I am being ignored on
this.

The Gulf War Spouse and Children Registry
Its funding lapsed in 2003 and it was quietly disbanded with
little notice or fanfare. There is no curiosity to reinstate it or question
its its results though the GAO did years back. I have brought it up
repeatedly and yet its being ignored.

Gulf War Clinic
Simply put we need one. The WRIISC has totally failed in this
respect and PL 105-277 has not been revised to cope with this
problem. We need a specialty clinic for our plight and though its been
referred to there is no effort to construct or assemble one.

What is missing in all of this are the voice of veterans speaking
of what is going on around them, or the lack of. Not for me I mean,
I hear from several vets each week. What I mean is people addressing
this new committee, VA, DOD, and Congress with there concerns.

Well, September will be a ideal month for this the VA RAC and the
VA ACGWV meetings. One is research and one benefits. ALS will
be taking front stage. So I encourage you to speak up because it
matters right now.
June 14th, 2008: Committee meeting on Gulf War Veterans
The first meeting date was set for June 17th, 18th, and 19th at the
Hamilton Crown plaza hotel 2 blocks away from the DC VA
headquarters. The first 2 days will be committee legal Mumbo
Jumbo. The 3rd day we will get to outline the structure of how
we will function the next 18 months.

The committee web page will be up soon, for now this is the
temporary page with basic information:
http://www1.va.gov/advisory/page.cfm?pg=49

The only minor snag in all of this so far is that there is no final
agenda sheet for next week yet. So things will be last minute
on what will happen. Which this time around can be attributed
to this being a new committee. Otherwise it still has that new
committee smell heading into the show room.
The "Gulf War Review" is back in print after a 2 years lag between
publications. To say it was disappointing after a 6 month stall on
its content would be a gross understatement. Just shows the
people who manage it have long out lived any usefulness they
might have had. This is the problem with legacy government,
hanging onto people who don't produce beneficial results. Which
is one of the many reasons for this new committee.

Well, after almost 7 years later we have something in place besides
the RAC for dealing with our issues. Hopefully this will be a most
active committee with many things happening rather than a flash
in the pan group that fade away before anyone even knew we
existed. That hinges on June 19th and how everyone works together.

See you there.
May 1st, 2008: Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans
I was quite shocked to see that in the mail Monday morning a letter from
the Secretary of VA welcoming me to the new committee. I do not even
know how to respond to this as I truly didn't think I would make it on even
after a blitzkrieg of effort to get on. Including multiple nominations from
some prestigious people. To all of this I say "Thank You so much" and to
Secretary Peake "Thank You Sir". I hope I do this position honor in the coming
18 months.

The membership is as follows:

Chairman
Charles Cragin Members: Martha Douthit Henry Falk, M.D., M.P.H. Mark Garner Lynn Goldman, M.D., M.P.H. John Hart, M.D. William Jones ( Rusty ) Kirt Love Daniel Ortiz Daniel Pinedo
Thomas Plewes Valeria Randall Edward R. Reese ( Randy ) Steve Robertson

Here is the charter:
Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans Charter
http://www.gulflink.org/acgwv/newcover2.jpg http://www.gulflink.org/acgwv/page2a.jpg
There isn't much to report yet as this is all very early on other than trying
to get the biographies done. So I am just waiting for what is next and
hope that we get under way soon. Very much like Lelia Jackson and
Laura O'Shea at VA Policy and Procedure, they have been most
pleasant and professional. They are quite busy trying to get everything
organized.

March 20th, 2008: Gulf War Advisory Committee in Federal Register
On March 6th the Federal Register posted the new VA committee with
some explanation of its function. The bad news was VA put a 18 month
termination date on this committee. Which is hardly enough time to find
anything before it wraps up.
Federal Register Notice - New Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veteran

What is truly new is bringing back the spouses and children of Gulf War
vets back to the table. For many years DOD and others have tried to gloss
over the birth defects and other spousal issues. The Gulf War Spouse and
Child Registry at VA was terminated. These people never went away, they
were driven away from DOD / VA. So now they have a platform once again
to address there now 17 year old issues.

Media coverage so far has been limited to Texas, but here it has been
front page news:


In the news Beatrice Golumb published a report on AChEIs
problems and the enzymes that work to clear them. That
Pyridostigmine Bromide may have played a factor in this
disruption of bodily functions.

More and more the term "Metabolic syndrome" is being heard
in the news as several factors in metabolism, and weight gain
become a ever mounting issue. Hopefully in Gulf War circles
there will be more attention to this and not just put all our eggs
in one basket that neurology is the answer.

The new "Gulf War Review" was supposed to be out in December
2007. Its late March 2008 and for some reason the front office at
VA has still been holding this up. The good news in this is that
enough time passed that VA agreed to put in the new Gulf War
committee into the publication. Which gives something for veterans
to participate in.

The VA WRIISC program started a new clinic in Palo Alto, California.
They should be announcing it shortly for those vets on the west
coast who cant seem to get a a referral. I myself had problems
here in Texas getting a DC referral, and had to take special
measures. Then VA came up with a excuse trying to say the
WRIISC cannot do multiple visits. VHA handbook 1303.5 does
not stipulate the number of visits one can make to the WRIISC.
You think this would be for trying to find answers for vets, which
is what we originally fought for in 1998 with PL 105-368.

The "Gulf War Brain Bank" has been the best kept secret of our
issue for a while now. It appears VA wants to keep it that way just
like the tissue vault at the AFIP. They don't want to promote it or
discuss it publicly though for a year the doors have been open.
Sounds like they want it to fail by making sure vets don't know
about it.

The RAC meets in Boston MA on April 7th and 8th 2008. Absent
for almost a year, the attention will be around Dr. Haley and the
Southwestern University funding. There will be a change of guard
as Kimberly Sullivan, Ph.D. becomes the new Scientific Coordinator.
The RAC will be in a office in Boston and has a new email address:
rac@bu.edu . What is noticeably missing is a phone number again.
Something hopefully the new committee will have to answer veteran
questions.

I am not overly optimistic here on any of this as veteran involvement
hasn't been pushed for real. Its hinted at. But, its still like prying a
ring off the finger of a dead man to get answers even on little things.
This is a far cry from the way things were in 2000 as DOD and VA
have learned that keeping grass roots away keeps things silent.
So I still have to work twice as hard as usual to stay on top of things.
February 23rd, 2008: New Gulf War Advisory Committee
In September 2006 I had pushed the idea of the need for a coordinating
board on the RAC. Something that could operate between agencies and
function beyond the charter of the RAC for Gulf War vets. After a hour
of deliberation with Jim Binns I was talked down to a smaller entity,
an advisory committee. This wasn't exactly what I wanted but had a
greater chance of happening. So in November the idea was pitched
to VA with little fan fair. But, but February 2007 the RAC sent a letter
to Sec. Nicholson asking for a new advisory committee. It was of course
shot down by VA at that time.

In October 2007 I met with Rep. Chet Edwards talking about the
desperation of Gulf War veterans everywhere. Chet at one point had
said to me "But I had thought Gulf War vets where being taken
care of", of which I recanted that things couldn't be worse. So Chet's
staff asked me to draft a letter to send to the Sec. of VA for this new
advisory committee. 2 months would pass while this was being hammered
out. Having it modeled after the VA OIF advisory committee and that
veterans should have a say in the committee formation. By January
3rd 2008 it was signed and delivered to Sec. Peake.
http://www.gulflink.org/chet/gulfwar.pdf

January 15th 2008 the story of this project went out in Stars and Stripes
newspaper. Which was met with a instant negative reaction that
morning from VA. They claimed they had not even seen the letter
yet much less had a response to it.
Stars and Stripes-Congressman wants to make VA access easier for Gulf vets

By February 5th 2008 the Secretary of VA James Peake responded
back to Chet Edwards that he would create the committee.
http://www.gulflink.org/chet/VaPeake.pdf

Man getting clout for Gulf War veterans -
Temple Daily Telegram
http://www.gulflink.org/chet/veterans.html

Local Veteran Fights For Better Care For Veterans -
Channel 25 Waco
http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7868799

While this all was happening I was quite busy with other projects
that also needed attention. One of those more important items was
the fact that the incidence of Leishmaniasis in the military was
double what was being reported. This I brought up with the VA OIF /
OEF Advisory Committee. In 2007 AMSA was reporting 1,280 cases
when the following month the Boston Globe said it was 2,500.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/07/africa/07combat-disease.php
The committee responded back to me that they received this.

The there is the issue of the MDR Acinetobacter Baumannii that has
spread across America since 2003 thanks to the military. This super
bug no longer responds to antibiotics and there are no laws in place to
force the military or the medical community to report these infections
like they do diseases. Which by a technicality has killed people and
taken arms as well as legs by unnecessary amputations. This being
unnecessary if precautions had been taken early on to protect these
people from this infection rather than deny its existence until too late.
American Legion magazine interviewed me on this but narrowed down
my part in this since 2004 just like Forbes and Wired news magazines.
I was the first to bring this up in front of the IOM, to DHSD, and many
others like Government Reform from 2004 and following years. All the
time being told lie after lie about how many are infected. The advantage
DOD had in this was the fact that people didn't want to make a big deal
of the infection when they survived it. So Acinetobacter has no real
celebrity spokesperson or surviving victim that wants it dealt with. Which
gives DOD just what it wants to go on ignoring responsibility for releasing
this drug resistant pathogen on America.
The Iraqibacter

The "Gulf War Review" went out of publication back in July 2006 as
Mark Brown at VA conspired to get rid of it. First, he would stop printing
it then they would stop posting a pdf to the website as well. Anything
that would give the illusion that vets were not interested though the
subscription list was 220,000 vets. I bought this up to the RAC in
November 2006 and literally called DC from the meeting to show Jim Binns
that in fact the "Gulf War Review" was not being printed anymore. So the
RAC asked Sec. Nicholson to reinstate it early 2007. Word was a budget
was put back in place for it. But, once again Mark Brown would make sure
in his own way it wouldn't go out. The year passed by until in October 2007
I asked Chet Edwards office to look into this. After a Congressional request
Mark Brown recanted the "Review" was being held up by the IOM study:
"Gulf War and Health: Physiologic, Psychologic, and Psychosocial Effects
of Deployment Related Stress". They wanted to include its findings in the
review. But, this study doesn't even make recommendations for Gulf War
vets of the 1991 war. However, it was reported it would go out December
2007. Then the next hold up was Secretary James Peake had to approve
it but hasn't said a word on it. So here it is almost March 2008, and the
"Gulf War Review" hasn't made it to the publishers. Gulf War vets are always
on the back burner with this as it drags out 19 months from the last publication.
Which to me is a clear sign that VA just wants us to go away. This review
will no doubt be a rag on top of it since Deputy Director Steve Sloane isnt
interested in any input, I know because for a year I have tried with NO
response from him or Mark. The 2 black holes of information at VA when
it comes to our issue.

The best intel at this shows that Mark Brown, Craig Hyams, and Steve
Sloane have been asked to provide input on the new advisory committee.
Talking about putting the "Wolves in charge of the hen house". This
committee was created because of these people who cut off communication
with VA, and now the Secretary has put them in charge of this? No doubt
in a effort to tank the new committee or skew its committee membership
to reflect people loyal to VA - passive. Not what I had drafted in the letter
to Chet Edwards toward the bottom of that letter. So the deadline for the
charter has passed and VA is being secretive about the committee
processes rather than involve veterans in it like I had asked. This does
not bode well for something that was to help us if it doesn't involve those
of us that created it. I am now very suspicious of this whole process.