OpEdNews - Page 7 of Article: National VA Director Pushed US Atty Biskupic to Indict Critical Veteran

The VA’s position made in their response brief is that this administrative law is obsolete (though it was never repealed) and that the VA does not need to follow the law.

In an August VA response to Roberts’ CAVC brief, the VA argues that the Office of Inspector General’s personnel like Vasil, with no legal training or law enforcement experience, and the VA police are “responsible for notifying the DOJ or the USA (US Atty) of possible criminal matters. … The authority and duty to refer criminal cases is vested in the VA police and the OIG. … it could be argued that, as it relates to criminal prosecutions, section 14.561 is obsolete.”

The VA’s convoluted argument on not abiding by section 14.561 (Counsel assurance of necessary administrative or adjudicatory procedure) authored by Carolyn F. Washington, VA deputy asst general counsel, amounts to the VA equivalent of a Bush signing statement—we’ll obey federal law as we see fit.

The VA police’s authority and role has been to tend to often-disturbed and violent veterans seeking medical and psychological assistance after coming home from service. The VA police has never been charged with investigating benefit claims, much less referring claims cases in the middle of VA adjudication to the US Atty’s office.

One can only hope that the CAVC and Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit ridicule this argument, and it should be noted that the US Atty’s office never put forth this argument that would undoubtedly be shredded by the Seventh Circuit’s panel to hear oral arguments in the coming months.

Politicalization

There are plenty of candidates for condemnation in this affair in today’s environment when whole agencies of the U.S. government have been usurped by an administration lacking in conscience and public accountability, politicizing virtually every agency in sight, including U.S. Atty Biskupic’s office.

· Special Agent Raymond Vasil of the regional VA Inspector General’s office [“A cop Vasil is not, just an idiot with a badge,” said one veteran assisting Roberts] who lied to and vocally mocked Roberts while flying around the country fabricating a case against Roberts.

· The VA benefits process that systemically wears down veterans with the apparent intention of inducing them to give up their fight for benefits [this process is being adjudicated in the unprecedented class action suit by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.] In fact, the VA claims process can be so frustrating that many vets (especially those suffering from PTSD) are thrown into fits of rage directed at the VA itself.

· The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) that demeans veterans for seeking help with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in this “culture of trauma.”

· The Pentagon that blames veterans “personality disorders” and lack of faith in God for veterans suffering after service.

· Former VA national Director of Compensation and Pension Services, Renee L. Szybala, and Jon Baker, director of the Milwaukee Regional VA officen actively participated in efforts to have Roberts prosecuted, while they intentionally took steps to ensure the VA Regional Counsel did not have an opportunity to perform the mandatory legal review before the matter went to the U.S. Attorney, as required by federal regulations. Again, Szybala knew that Roberts had an appeal pending at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and that under VA regulations until that appeal was completed the case should not have been released for criminal or collection action.

· Barbra Nehls, formerly of the Milwaukee VA Regional office, who wrongly claimed at trial that Roberts’ benefits were reduced based upon the VA’s determination that Roberts’ statements of facts from 1969 formed the basis of the VA decision to grant or deny benefits. This is a material misrepresentation of VA procedure.

· And of course, Carolyn F. Washington, VA deputy asst general counsel, a woman without conscience and quintessential social climber.

Cases to be Adjudicated

· U.S. v. Roberts, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Docket 05-CR-118 ; U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, docket number 07-1546. Briefs are filed and oral argument will likely be scheduled in the fall-winter of 2007-2008.

· U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims docket 05-2425
Seventh Circuit Appeal

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