Date:  July 11, 2008

Subject:  Comments on the House Committee Meeting on Suicide-Inducing Drug (July 9, 2008)

To:    Honorable Bob Filner, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans Affairs

          Honorable Steve Buyer, Ranking Member, House Committee on Veterans Affairs

          Committee Members, House Committee on Veterans Affairs

C/O   Ms. Schultze

From:  Concerned Veterans of America

Gentlepersons, yesterday we watched the House Committee Hearing on the VA continuing to give Veterans with PTSD the suicide-inducing drug Chantix in Cooperative Study #519 - “Smoking Cessation Treatment for Veterans with PTSD” with great interest and even greater concern.  It should be apparent from the many hearings of the Committee that the appointees and managers of the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) are not only incompetent in every branch, but also criminally negligent and should be held personally liable for their decisions, actions, or lack thereof.

We greatly appreciate the efforts of the Chairman to bring to light every instance of the fiasco that is the DVA.  While there are times the Ranking Member is at complete odds with the Chairman, in this case he generally expressed the same concerns and his questions were extremely erudite and direct.  We appreciate his points concerning the study’s protocol violations (use of stabilized, grounded veterans), inability of the study to produce any conclusions after almost 6 years (direct questions to Drs. Kupersmith or McFall), and his agreement with the Chairman that without consent and addendums signed by the participants, the study was invalid and should have been halted to which Dr. Seligman of HHS agreed.  We also take special note of Lt. Colonel Charles’ reference to the Nuremburg Code and the Hippocratic Oath, both of which the DVA physicians violated.

We make these observations concerning his points.  The Office of Research and Development violated the stated protocols, a fact we have noted is prevalent not only by the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also by the Institute of Medicine and the Department of the Air Force.  Veterans believe that too often a stated protocol (goal) is changed, violated, or manipulated (hidden, destroyed, obviated, or not published) so that only findings which meet the desired outcome of the protocol are released for publishing, without challenge of the scientific proofs. 

To state it bluntly, the facts suggest the following criminal offenses took place:           

-     The Chief, ORD permitted the use of unstable veterans with PTSD,

-     Eleven VA review committees failed to consider adequately that Veterans were at risk yet made the continuation of the study their primary concern,

-     Researchers, employees of the U.S. Government or Pfizer, used Veterans, not properly informed of the risks, without signed consents, and subjected to what can be considered experimentation without fear of culpability even when violating every principle of research,

-     A study, funded in perpetuity despite having no discernable conclusion, is fraud, waste, and abuse. 

I take this opportunity to recommend specific legislation revoking the Feres Doctrine.  This would eliminate the protection given these individuals/corporations and afford accountability for the myriad of decisions responsible for the deaths of Veterans.

While more often correct, Congressman Buyer made a critical mistake.  In speaking about the patient/physician relationship, the Honorable Congressman sought to use what is considered the standard of concern for the patient’s well-being by a primary care provider at a medical center or outpatient clinic with the relationship of study subject with a researcher.  There is no such relationship, and it is more likely than not the researcher’s concern and loyalty is to the study, its continuation, and its success, not to the subject.  This exacerbates what Secretary Peake did and allowed to continue due to “the process”.  As the Secretary, he is accountable, and is guilty of criminal offenses, as are his subordinates.

Additionally noted is that based on the Committee’s concerns, Veterans ask why every single research study being undertaken by ORD should not be investigated by an independent entity for violation of scientific, legal, and ethical standards, the members of the organization criminally prosecuted up to and including Secretary Peake, and the organization terminated.

Unfortunately Congress cannot be commended for allowing the continual funding of any and every project from fiscal year to fiscal year without expecting compliance with the standards of ethical science and expecting interim, meaningful results of studies.

Other questions should be directed from the Committee and its members to its oversight and legal functions concerning the obvious appearances of conflict of interest, use of influence, and violation of laws as they apply to the reported prodding and influence of ex-Secretary Principi, the ex-boss of General Peake; and his current position with Pfizer, the possibility of bribery and criminal conspiracy, and the relationship of any other employee of ORD or its IRB’s or oversight committees and Pfizer. 

Veterans have long suspected these relationships and now call for Congressional action to put it at an end.  It is specifically this lack of action, coupled with the continued fiascos, attempted cover-ups, mealy-mouthed excuses from DVA management that has heightened calls for an end to the Feres Doctrine and the Chevron defense.  It is entirely evident and conclusive that the unprofessionalism of DVA management, their lack of ethics, and their actions, which scream much more deafeningly than their promises of putting Veterans first, give no credence to the Department of Veterans legal claims that it knows best how to run its mission or to the claim that it is “world renowned, Gold Standard health care”.  That is so patently false as to be ridiculous and can be proven.

Every politician, including the President, and public official who publicly applaud Veterans, while watching Administration after Administration “sic” their lawyers, administrators, and politically appointed judges on Veterans to defend the most despicable policies and practices in the history of this country and the world should be made to serve as Veterans have.

In conclusion, there is no single action in the last forty years that the Department can point to that can change the opinions of this country’s Veterans.   While complaints towards the primary care providers and their treatment of Veterans are often related to Administrative micromanagement of health care, the Department’s administrator’s only concessions have been paid for with hundreds of thousands of Veterans lives, the disgrace and humiliation of Veterans, their families and widows, continued legal actions in Courts, and continual denial by non-veterans (or veteran appointees) who have put their own self-interests ahead of those of Veterans.

Veterans:

Expect to be defended in return, 

Expect the Congress to pass laws to assist Veterans in continuing meaningful honorable lives,

Expect the Congress to uphold those laws and to hold accountable those that violate or dismiss them,

Expect the Congress to question appointees to the Executive and Judicial branches concerning their opinions on the rights of Veterans as applied to the same Constitutional rights of every citizen,

Expect the Congress to deny appointment of those who believe the Government has a right to lie, to deny due process, to withhold property rights, benefits and pensions, and

Expect the Congress to take demonstrative action against those who indiscriminately use Veterans as ‘guinea pigs’, ‘second-class citizens’, or ‘things to be discarded after serving their use’.

The lists of those who should resign or be fired is growing ever larger, and include General Peake, Gordon Mansfield, Michael Kussman, Ira Katz, Joel Kupersmith, Miles McFall, all Regional Directors and Deputy Directors, as well as all Directors of Divisions and Branches and their Deputies.  

With the utmost respect for that which we defended, Veterans demand changes to the anti-Veteran actions of these individuals and to the Department.

Kurt Priessman, MSgt, USAF (Ret)                      Charles Kelley

Vietnam Veteran ’71-74                                         Vietnam DMZ 67-68