On the recordNovember 29, 2012
This year I pushed for and received a congressional investigation into the Dawood National Military Hospital in Afghanistan based on allegations that senior Afghan medical personnel sold U.S. military medical supplies and that Afghan soldiers and police were dying in the facility from untreated wounds and malnutrition because their families couldn't come up with the necessary bribes to pay the hospital staff for their care. The Afghan surgeon general, General Ahmad Zia Yaftali, was complicit in the corruption. U.S. Army Lieutenant General William Caldwell was instrumental in covering it up by not only delaying an investigation but by limiting the scope of it when it did occur. Neither General Caldwell nor General Yaftali have been disciplined for their conduct. Last week I was in Afghanistan and I visited the hospital. I left Afghanistan confirming my belief that the greatest threat to the future of Afghanistan is not the Taliban but the pervasive corruption that permeates every level of Afghan governance and the lack of leadership by the United States in confronting it. ____________________
