Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s Hospitalization Deepens Mystery of His Absence
His No. 2 at the Pentagon didn’t learn of his hospital stay until days after he was admitted!
Please consider the comments attributed to Secretary Austin are probably BS. The poor man is probably experiencing a temporary psychosis (common after intensive care) and will not fully recover for a few weeks.
This whole escapade borders on one of the biggest f---ups in national security since 9/11.
Question: So who was in charge?
Answer: Nobody
WASHINGTON—The Pentagon’s No. 2 official didn’t learn that her boss was hospitalized Jan. 1 until four days after she had assumed some of his duties, U.S. military officials said Sunday, deepening the mystery of why Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized and why he hid his medical situation from senior defense officials and even President Biden until days after he was admitted.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathy Hicks, who was on scheduled leave in Puerto Rico, had already assumed some of Austin’s duties that week, which happens from time to time, Pentagon officials said. Hicks had secure communications at her location while on vacation, as is routine.
But she wasn’t informed of the gravity of Austin’s hospitalization, which included some time in the intensive care unit of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, until Thursday. That was about the same time when Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser, was informed, and when Sullivan in turn told Biden. The next day, on Friday, members of Congress who have oversight of the Pentagon, were told of Austin’s condition, and the Pentagon announced it publicly.
Austin, who resumed his responsibilities as defense secretary Friday night, remained hospitalized Sunday. He had had what officials described as an elective procedure during scheduled leave, on Dec. 22, returning home the next day, Pentagon officials said, without disclosing what the treatment was, citing privacy reasons.
On the evening of Jan. 1, Austin began experiencing “severe pain” and was taken to Walter Reed, where he was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit, officials said.
About the same time as when Austin was admitted to the hospital on Monday, Austin’s chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was out sick with the flu, which officials said contributed to the lack of notification to Hicks and the White House.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown was notified of Austin’s hospitalization the day after, on Tuesday. But as a subordinate adviser, he wouldn’t have been bound to notify the White House of Austin’s situation, officials said.
Austin released a statement Saturday evening saying he takes responsibility for the lack of disclosure of his hospitalization, but focused on the media’s scrutiny, not the broader implications for providing transparency to the White House or Congress.
“I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,” Austin said in the statement, “I commit to doing better.” Austin added: “But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.”
Biden, who spoke with Austin on Saturday, said he maintains “full confidence” in Austin, a White House spokesman said. But the longer the Pentagon declines to answer basic questions about his health and why it was all kept a secret, the longer the controversy promises to unfold, officials said privately.
On Sunday, the Pentagon said Austin remains hospitalized but has been receiving operational updates and providing guidance to his team. The new statement didn’t provide basic information about why he was in the hospital in the first place or why the disclosure was so bungled.
“He has full access to required secure communications capabilities and continues to monitor DoD’s day-to-day operations worldwide,” Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said in the statement. It remained unclear when Austin would be released from the military hospital.
Members of Congress are describing his lack of transparency as unacceptable, and other officials are privately expressing deep concern over Austin’s judgment at a time when the Pentagon is managing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and American troops are under relentless attacks by missiles and drones in Iraq and Syria.
There has been no indication that Austin’s hospitalization put national security at risk, and it didn’t hinder operations overseas, Pentagon officials have said. The Pentagon on Thursday conducted a strike against a militant in Baghdad, killing at least him and an aide, military officials said, but the authority for that strike was given in advance, officials said.
The U.S. is expected at any time to conduct strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, who have repeatedly used drones and missiles to attack vessels in the Red Sea, but those operations are still under consideration, U.S. officials said.
The controversy surrounding Austin, 70, is one of the biggest for the secretary, who was nominated to be defense chief following the tumultuous years at the Pentagon under former President Donald Trump, in which there were as many as six different secretaries of defense, some serving only a matter of days. Austin, a former military commander and retired Army general, is intensely private, shuns the press and keeps counsel with only a few trusted aides, including Magsamen. He has by design kept a low profile in the Biden administration.
Since the crisis erupted Friday evening, with the unexplained disclosure that Austin was hospitalized, the Pentagon has yet to explain why Austin was admitted, or why his hospitalization was kept a secret from the public or even the White House and congressional oversight committees. That has invited criticism from Republicans, but private frustration from the White House and inside the Pentagon. Officials said that Austin was already scheduled to be working from home that week, but the hospitalization came up afterward. 
“Even apparently the National Security Council didn’t know it, the White House didn’t know it, Congress didn’t know it,” said Sen. James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, Sunday on Fox. “We’re at a time of a lot of turmoil internationally and suddenly had a secretary of Defense, more than just a matter of wasn’t there, actually sent over false information saying ‘I’m working from home’ when he’s not actually available at all,” he said. “That’s a whole different issue.”
Top Democrats, including Sen. Jack Reed, (D., R.I.), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, have declined to comment on the matter.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Doha on Sunday, said he wasn’t aware of Austin’s medical condition. Asked about Austin’s policy for transparency of cabinet-level national security officials, Blinken said, “I won’t get into hypotheticals.”
“It has been, remains, one of the great privileges of my career, over 30 years now working in government, to serve alongside Lloyd Austin,” he said, adding he looks forward to his full recovery.
Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine two-star general who served earlier in his career as a senior Senate staffer, said he didn’t believe there was a law that had been broken necessarily, but a definitive break in precedent with the past for such situations.
Catch up on the headlines, understand the news and make better decisions, free in your inbox daily. Enjoy a free article in every edition.
Preview
“This is so out of character for precedent and the typical approaches when it comes to notifications of the defense committee leadership,” he said in an email. “I don’t think there is anything in Title X that would have required notification of a medical situation…but there is a very long history and precedent that something of this nature would be immediately notified and it isn’t even a close call,” he said, referring to the federal statute.
As a senate-confirmed and presidentially appointed defense secretary in the chain of command at all times, Austin loses his privacy rights, Punaro said. “That was a nonsense explanation by the [Pentagon] spokesman,” he said, referring to initial statements from the Defense Department regarding Austin’s privacy.
In 2008, the department disclosed on the same day that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had broken his arm after slipping on ice. When Donald Rumsfeldunderwent elective shoulder surgery for a torn rotator cuff in 2006, Pentagon officials disclosed the operation that day and noted that he had briefly transferred power to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.
Michael R. Gordon, Katy Stech Ferek and William Mauldin contributed to this article.
Russia claims he was killed in a missile strike in ukraine. That would be karma.
ReplyDeleteDarth Austin https://i.imgur.com/LbKB1a3.jpg
ReplyDeleteDemocracy runs smoother when the democrats are away, so everyone kept their mouth shut. We have herd of others that forgot to show up for years and still not get fired.
ReplyDeleteGerbil impaction???
ReplyDelete