The entire text of the VA Murder Doc
story which has most recently appeared
in an Albany newspaper is posted
elswhere on this FORUM page under
VA Officials Betraying Veterans.

But to offshoot a little from that,
this story is a study in several
different levels of failures and
not just the crimes itself that
took place at the VA Hospital here
in Albany, NY back in the year
2000 or so.

After all these years of this
case being out there, you will
never find a single newspaper
coverage which shows the appearance
of any VSO whatsoever with the
families. The VSO's, even though
most of them were merely just
down the elevators from where
the Murder Doc Paul Kornak did
his dirty deeds at the VA Cancer
Care Unit, they were nowhere to
be found during the days, weeks,
and months that this killer was
allowed to operate inside the
patient wards while a lunatic
Administration looked the other
way, and even at times, provided
cover up for him. Even more troubling,
the VSO's were nowhere with the
families as they endured one
hearing after another, and eventually
the trial that convicted him
that put him in the jail term
he is serving out right now.

A stunned community looked on
with this story, while an entire
city full of VSO's went into
proverbial hiding, never to show
their faces throughout the drama
of this murder ordeal. If that
doesn't send a wakeup call to
everyone to just how dysfunctional,
and self-absorbed VSO's really
are out here then I have nothing
else more to show you to convince
you. You can look anywhere up and
down the 6 full pages of text
on that story and not see a VSO
even talked about and this is
the way it has always been.

Then there was the Administration
itself, who was then approached
by 2 panicked VA Pharmacists who
saw something wrong and tried to
stop it, were themselves then
promptly FIRED from
the jobs to provide cover for the
Murder Doc, forcing them to incur
thousands of dollars of lawyer
bills to get their jobs back after
it was learned that their fears
were totally true as the FBI began
making arrests.

One of those same fired Pharmacists
formed a VA Whistleblower group who
then posted letters to Senator
Hillary Clinton on the Internet
only to have her too, go into
proverbial hiding and never show
herself in the crisis. To this
very minute, Clinton has yet to
speak on or make any legislation
upon, the failures that led to
the multiple murders which took
place that fateful year at the
hands of VA technician Paul Kornak.

So the Pharmacist does not stand
alone in a crowd of ignored outreach
to Senator Hillary Clinton, who
lives and breathes for her next
reelection campaign so that she
can then avoid actually doing the
difficult duties of representing
the Senate district that she
has forced herself upon residents
to endure.

It would actually be a couple
of years into this story of the
VA Murder Doc before the Administration
itself started to take on Firings,
and even then, the U.S. Attorney's
Office for Albany NY had the audacity
to grandstand in a "press conference"
made for TV this after the rest
of the city had been screaming
for months to get the federal Dept.
Of Justice to wake up from it's
proverbial COMA and do something
about the prosecutions.

Then there was the failures with
the federal judge who was himself
an Army Veteran, giving the VA
Murder Doc a slap on the hand sentence
of a lousy 6 years of jail time.
If you are looking to acquire PTSD
as a disease, then just come and
live in Albany NY because that
is what most residents got after
enduring the brunt of the chain
of drama's coming out of the VA
Murder Doc case.

And then there is the newspaper
industry itself --- the 6 page
blowout with an imposing large
photograph of the VA Hospital
sprawled all over the front cover
page of today's Times Union newspaper
is about 7 years overdue. Up to this
moment, all we got was snippit
articles, usually buried in the
back pages of the weekday newspaper,
and the whole time they were simultaneously
putting out other VA Hospital articles
actually singing the praises of the
facility and all the care that came
from it.

I suppose 7 years into a story,
long after the criminal is prosecuted
and serving jail time, is as good
a time as any to FINALLY make big
news in the local newspaper about
such a hate-crime as this. But
then, where is the Associated Press
and TV news ?? It just so happens
that other Veterans on my national
Email lists managed to pick up
those Associated Press BLURBS and
send them back to me only to be
the size of 2 inches by 3 inches
and not a whole lot of anything
else. About 10 sentences tops.

This shows how the political machinery
is intertwined to hide, conceal,
downplay and facilitated hate crimes
inside the VA Hospital system and
to keep the whole thing under wraps
so an unsuspecting nation can continue
to go on believing their Parrot Head
notions about both the VSO's and
the VA system itself, largely operating
with NO legal oversight whatsoever.

This is everybody's wakeup call
to put down your Suck UP ways,
and kick this VA system in the pants
at every opportunity that you can
find. Don't let a bunch of lazy
rumorists and slackers who want
to KISS the butt of complacency
and make you feel bad for bucking
the trends to push forward for
our rights as a national patient
group as far as we can push it.

Don't let PTSD and Homeless Bums
overshadow the REAL issues and
drown out the voices and examples
that we hold showing that this VA system
is in complete and utter COLLAPSE,
and a bunch of Know-Nothing Veterans
dressed up in foolish "get ups"
and costumes marching around
buildings with their flagpoles
in the air are NOT going to change
things for the better.

Activists have to depart from
their comfort zones and do riskier
presentations to bring a more
forceful voice to this movement.
If it means outting the VSO's
as a bunch of self interested
lazy slackers then so be it. It's
the Get-Up-And-Do-It crowd
who dares to take risks and
finds ingenious ways to make
shocking demonstrations that will
bring home the victories for all.

Don't let what happened in Albany
New York happen in YOUR area, and
even better, PREVENT it from happening
anywhere at all.

This system operates with next
to nothing at all for quick and
easy access to law enforcement
from the Veterans side of the fence.
So it makes for a fitting segue
of sorts, to get your brains wrapped
around the idea that the 2008
advocacy efforts coming from
Vets for Justice will be heavily
rooted in Misconduct processes,
reporting processes, and Prosecution
processes for VA Raters. It will
also be driving in the direction
of fully REMOVING the all-sleeping
and comatose VSO's from the claims
arena once and for all.

Please DO take the time to study
over the VA Murder Doc story on
this Forum page because this
may be one of the last times
that it ever makes a large mark
in local newspaper news. I
predict you will STILL not see
this story featured on 48 HOURS
or some of the other prominent
crime reality shows, because
silence is golden here in New
York ==== Just ask Senator Hillary
Clinton.

But it can serve as a Case Study
for all up and coming Veterans
Activists to get their MoJo started
and ready for the 2008 advocacy
season with fire fuming out
of your ears and nostrils of your
noses. Hold that spirit, as we
boldly go forward into a new
congressional season with a new
VA Secretary that WE helped to
get nominated.

UPDATE NOTE: Here is the
entire text of the unanswered letter
to Senator Hillary Clinton from one
of the formerly fired VA Pharmacists
in the VA Murder Doc story. This
letter is openly posted on the Internet.
So for the purpose of validating this
Blog, and for everyone who is NOT
currently located in Clinton's Senate
district, Get A Load Of THIS !!

Veterans Affairs Whistleblower Coalition
PO Box #175
Delmar, New York 12054


The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton February 18, 2006
United States Senate
476 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3203



Dear Ms. Clinton,

This letter is a final attempt to garner meaningful support from you to correct misdeeds that have occurred at the Stratton VA Hospital for over a decade. Over the years we have disclosed several serious matters to your offices in Albany N.Y., New York City N.Y., and Washington D.C. Mr. Albert of your D.C. office assured us in April 2005 that you had personal knowledge of our concerns.


All previous documentation is available to you upon request, as is documentation of wrongdoing at Stratton. We have a number of concerns. As you know, Mr. Paul Kornak was recently sentenced to 6 years in prison as a result of a 48- count manslaughter charge for violations conducting research on veterans at the Stratton center. We made it clear to your offices that although we believe Mr. Kornak should have received maximum punishment for killing patients, falsifying documents and practicing medicine without a license, he was simply being used as a scapegoat for a much larger problem. Among our concerns are previous research violations, which surely predated Dr. James Holland and Mr. Kornak. Until an investigation is performed we have no way of knowing the extent of criminal activity in unauthorized experimentation on veterans, illegal diversion of money, and administrative abuse of personnel.

Additionally, administrators and licensed professionals that spent a decade retaliating against employees attempting to bring the abuses of Kornak and others to light, should be held to account for their actions. These people are far more dangerous than a dozen Kornaks, since they have taken up various posts across the country and threaten to undermine accountability at a number of VA institutions. To put it bluntly, the actions of these people caused the deaths of veterans, and there seems to be few people interested in discovering the truth and preventing a repeat of the Stratton catastrophe. We will be happy to provide you with the names of all suspected persons involved in wrongdoing, their current locations, and their professional licenses and current positions within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

We provided your office with various documents, many of which included correspondence to Leonard Sistek (Democratic Staff Director, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the Department of Veterans Affairs), Arthur Wu (Republican Staff Director, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the Department of Veterans Affairs), and Congressman Michael McNulty. We also provided Ms. Tracey Brooks of your Albany office with a printed slide summary of research violations and a chronological list of retaliatory activities against several VA employees who had enough respect for veterans and the ethical standards of their professions to speak out on patient abuse issues unrelated to cancer research. We have supportive documentation in the form of patient records, many of which have been filed with several VA-OIG offices, the Albany FBI field office, US Attorney, OSC, and MSPB. The nature of these matters are such that they require intervention by Congress to further efforts at a comprehensive, and much needed, investigation of systemic misbehavior in the VA.

The following is a summary list of immediate concerns. Each day that tics by without action is another day that puts veterans needlessly in danger.

• The lapses and malfeasance of the Stratton facility at Albany are surely only the tip of the iceberg. While Stratton was especially egregious in violating veterans’ rights and compromising the safety of patients, these practices exist throughout the VA system. The extent of this abuse calls for immediate investigation and remediation.

• Investigations of unauthorized experimentation, malfeasance in health care provision, and medical corruption are difficult and expensive to investigate. The FBI and other agencies tasked with investigative responsibilities seem unprepared for investigations in the settings presented by VA and are reluctant to start investigations; perhaps out of fear of what may be found, perhaps because of reticence to attack another government agency, or perhaps because the victims of these crimes are poor and sick and have few resources at their disposal. The FBI needs to be prompted to develop an investigative protocol for the VA and to remember that the people being harmed are those who risked their lives to keep this country free.

• The Stratton VA should be investigated throughly for past and current abuses. There are two reasons to do this. First, obviously, to find out the truth and determine the extent of criminal activity. Second, the events at Stratton constitute a sort of “national laboratory” for VA misbehavior and provide a model that investigative techniques and protocols may be built around.

• Public congressional hearings should be convened to determine the prevalence nationwide of activities similar to those discovered at Stratton.

• Congressional referral to the Federal Court of Claims to determine the facts of the retaliation against Anthony Mariano and Jeff Fudin and what rememdies, if any, should be available for their disclosure of wrongdoing.

Because of the breadth of this problem, we have engaged other Veterans Affairs whistleblowers by forming a national Veterans Affairs Whistleblower Coalition. The coalition consists of Veterans Affairs employees (past or present) who agree to actively lobby Congress to end government retaliation against those who expose veteran patient harm and abuse and major ethical breaches. We have partnered with our colleagues of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, all of whom share our position and concerns for veterans and the system which was put in place to care for them.



It is time for a meaningful and effective response to come from your office.



Respectfully submitted,





Jeffrey Fudin, R.Ph., B.S., Pharm.D., DAAPM

Director, VA Whistleblowers Coalition

Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Pain Management / Stratton VAMC-Albany, NY

Adjunct Associate Professor, Albany College of Pharmacy / Union University

CEO, American Pharmaceutical Care Pain Consultants



O-O-O-O-O-R-R-R-R-A-A-A-A-A-H-H-H !!!!

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