Lt. Gen. Kiley on the Hot Seat!

Members of Congress have asked for Kiley to step down, but so far, it hasn't happened.

Here's more from the Washington Post:

Walter Reed Hearing to Put Spotlight on Kiley's Leadership

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 5, 2007; Page A09

When the first congressional hearing about the care of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center opens this morning in a campus auditorium, many eyes will turn to Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who has served as the Army's top doctor since he gave up command of the hospital in 2004. The hearing will allow Kiley to explain why bureaucratic tangles and horrid conditions made life so difficult for outpatients at the Army's premier hospital, while also likely putting him in a position of defending his job.

Though members of Congress have called for Kiley to step down and take responsibility for the problems at Walter Reed, he has been spared so far. Other leaders have not been so fortunate: Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, the hospital's commander the past six months, was fired on Thursday, and Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey was forced to resign on Friday, in part because he appointed Kiley to temporarily take over Weightman's job.

Kiley, the commander of Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004, has been accused of being brash and indifferent to concerns raised about problems there. After a series of Washington Post articles described the outpatient conditions at Walter Reed, Kiley said the problems "weren't serious and there weren't a lot of them," and that they were not "emblematic of a process of Walter Reed that has abandoned soldiers and their families."

And Think Progress has more on Kiley:

FLASHBACK: In 2005, Kiley Covered Up Abuse At Military Detention Centers
Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley commanded Walter Reed from 2002-2004. Recent reports show that Kiley knew about the neglect and deplorable conditions there for years. In one stunning case, Kiley took no action when personally informed that a soldier was sleeping in his own urine. He continues to skirt responsibility for the neglect, calling the Washington Post’s Walter Reed investigation “yellow journalism at its worst.”

But this scandal isn’t the first time Kiley has tried to play down “allegations of concerns with the Army medical community.” In 2005, his office conducted a review of medical personnel overseas, after multiple reports alleging their roles in detainee abuse.

– A report in the New England Journal of Medicine found that “U.S. Army doctors violated the Geneva Conventions by helping intelligence officers carry out abusive interrogations at military detention centers, perhaps participating in torture.”

– A 2004 study in The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, found that medical personnel “collaborated with interrogators or abusive guards and failed to properly report injuries or deaths caused by beatings.”

In a July 7 press conference, Kiley denied these reports and gave the system a positive review:

We found no evidence of systemic problems in detainee medical care. … And so in summary, the assessment results demonstrate that the nation can be proud of our military medical professionals. We have a dedicated team of them working every day to provide quality health care for each patient they treat, whether a U.S. service member, coalition troop or detainee. The assessment clearly demonstrates that military medical professionals reported suspected abuse in the overwhelming majority of cases.

This man really needs to be gone! Permanent retirement.