American Army general again accused of obstructing probe of US-funded ‘Auschwitz-like’ Afghan hospital
19 Aug 2014 A two-star Army general, reprimanded once already for misconduct, is being accused of obstructing another investigation into patient abuse and fraud at a U.S.-funded hospital in Afghanistan made infamous for its grisly conditions, according to a new watchdog report. The Project on Government Oversight recently published a redacted version of the Pentagon inspector general report on Maj. Gen. Gary S. Patton. It’s the second time in less than a year Patton has been cited for his role in obstructing an official investigation into the conditions at Dawood National Military Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Dawood, which has gotten millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer support, has been plagued by graphic accounts of abuse. Congressional hearings in 2012 aired accounts of “Auschwitz-like” conditions at the facility. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, at the time pointed to evidence of Afghan soldiers enduring starvation and “botched operations,” and accounts that doctors conducted procedures “without anesthesia or painkillers.” Doctors and nurses, he said, demanded bribes for care, and left patients who didn’t pay to die “in their hospital beds.”
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/16/uk-ambassador-senators-hide-diego-garcia-rendition-cia" target="_blank">UK ambassador ‘lobbied senators to hide Diego Garcia role in rendition’
16 Aug 2014 Logs released under the Freedom of Information Act have reinforced claims that the UK lobbied to keep its role in the CIA’s torture and interrogation programme out of what is expected to be a damning Senate report. They show that the UK ambassador to the US met members of the Senate select committee on intelligence 11 times between 2012 and 2014 – as they were investigating the CIA’s rendition programme…The revelation has prompted fresh concern that the government lobbied for key parts of the report referring to Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean leased to the US as a military base, to be redacted.