CNN has aired a shocking and earth
shattering report on the VA claims
system titled Waging War On The VA.
The report profiled 3 different
returning Iraq war veterans who were
severely injured in combat and then
had to face the VA disability claims
system originating out of the
Chicago area of Illinois.

The LINK for the transcript for this
report is located at:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0711/18/siu.02.html

This report was interesting in a
few different ways.

For once, it profiled 3 Veterans who
were NOT bum cases, but instead, very
much looking ahead to continue with
their lives as well as can be expected.

One problem with the report is it
failed to explain to the public at
the very beginning of the report,
that Veterans can receive VA
disability ratings and still hold
jobs. I am not sure but what this
may have royally confused the public
big time, since the public is conditioned
to think in terms of FRAUD as it
applies to Workman's Compensation
when people apply for disability
benefits and then turn around and
try to hold jobs.

The public should be told in an
emphasized way that Veterans receive
"percentages" of disability ratings,
or at least this is how it's supposed
to work, and even with those percentages
in place, a Veteran can honorably hold
a part time or full time job until
such time that those percentages are
increased.

2 of the profiled Veterans were looking
to hold jobs. Tammy Duckworth unsuccessfully
ran for Congress and now holds a job
as the Director of Illinois Veterans
Affairs Agency. The second Veteran,
Garrett Anderson was looking to become
a claims representative with American
Legion.

In the case of Ty Ziegel, the scenario
could not be more grim. Ty is a burn
victim from an IED explosion. From
the neck up, he has been forever changed.
Ty will not likely see a normal life
after this. He was burned beyond recognition
and is beyond lucky to be alive. Part of
his brain also had to be removed
which leaves his head changed.

Veterans can call up Before and
After photos of him at www.Google.com
and select IMAGES at the top then
type in his name Ty Ziegel. His
girlfriend tried to make good
in their relationship, they were
married for only a year, but now
Ty is on his own.

Aside from the head injuries, Ty
suffered shrapnel, several jaw breaks,
3 fingers amputated, and then 1 toe
amputated to replace his amputated
thumb. He is blind in one eye from
the burns.

What he received in the mail next
from the VA blew him out of his
chair. Facial disfigurement was
rated at 80%; head trauma at 10%;
and Zero percent 0 for brain injury,
blindness, and jaw fractures.
This put him at a much lower benefits
draw of $2,700/mo. instead of the
$4,000 he was supposed to be getting
at 100%.

As much suffering as he was under,
he was forced, pestered, denied,
and deprived his legal rights into
making a trip to Washington, like
so many of us out here have done.

He confronted then VA Secretary
Jim Nicholson with CNN camera's
rolling --- with Nicholson saying
it would be a year before Ty
would even see a VA check. But
with the help of CNN, the check
was in the mail in 48 hours. His
10% rating for brain injury was
changed to 100% for Traumatic
Brain Injury and he is now receiving
more compensation.

There was no help provided either
from Hillary Clinton nor Barack
Obama who was visited later on.
And it is said in the transcript
that VA Secretary Jim Nicholson
resigned on the heels of Ty visiting
the president in the White House
along with the Dole-Shalala Commission.

The transcript then resumes
interviewing Acting VA Secretary
Gordon Mansfield. The moron says
as follows (with 700,000 pending
backlogged cases according to
the House Veterans Affairs Committee):

CNN: Should Veterans have to call
the VA Secretary's Office?

Mansfield: No, of course not.

Mansfield: I think most of the cases
are moving through the process and
being taken care of.

Mansfield: The rating system is predicated
on a system from 60 years ago.
It's a creature of statute and
regulation and the bureacratic process.

Mansfield: You don't have an awful lot of
veterans complaining about the package
of benefits once they get it.

Of course Mansfield could not figure
out what a HUGE inconvenience this was
for Ty Ziegel to have to come to
a large inner city and present himself
inside the VA building, looking like
he does, just to get a moment of justice
on his disability case. Does this
sound like mental illness or WHAT ??

Ya drag a medical patient out of their
sick bed, deny them and deprive them
and then not respond to their phone
inquiries and force them the money,
travel, and endurance to go all the
way to Washington DC for some incredible
FOOL to say what was said in this
CNN interview. Stunning, irrational,
incoherent, and Stupid beyond all words,
I say.

In the case of Garrett Anderson, his
arm was literally blown off while
driving a supply truck and taken
out by an IED. Bad news for the VA,
his wife was in law school at the
time to become a lawyer.

His shrapnel wounds were found to
be NOT service connected (on the original
VA rating paper) and so embarrased
about the matter was the VA Rater
who mailed it to him that the signature
line of the VA Rater was cut out and
removed from the letter.

Again CNN goes back to Mansfield:

"I don't know how you would get
shrapnel without having it be service
connected. I haven't seen that document.
I'm sorry."

Garrett also filed for PTSD and
received a lesser rating for
a Panic Disorder. After going to
his Illinois Congressman, he later
on received a higher rating for
a new claim of Traumatic Brain
Injury, but the VA still denies
his claim for PTSD.

In the profile done on Tammy Duckworth,
there was little given out about
her claims. She is a leg amputee
but still flies aircraft and doesn't
really show signs of PTSD. And with
her job as the Illinois state director
of the Veterans agency, not a lot
is revealed about her impairments.

What the crux of this CNN report
does show and prove, is that
VA Ratings are deliberately falsified
by the adjudicators and this is done
contrary to the facts of the case
or the medical information submitted.
We have said this here at Vets For
Justice all along. It shows beyond
a shadow of a doubt that VA Raters
do fully comphrehend that what they
are doing is wrong, and even perhaps
illegal, and that they prey upon
the injury, illness, and poverty
circumstances of the Veteran and
their families to "assume" that what
they write will stand as is without
confrontation.

The truth is, there is NO AVAILABLE LEGAL
PROCESS for Veterans to invoke and
be heard on Falsified Document cases
by VA Raters. The system keeps handling
them one case at a time, such as in these
2 cases profiled by CNN, and in the final
outcomes of one at a time, the system
itself is allowed to continue to operate
in it's very same bungling fashion
that it always has.

Ty Ziegel could not have done
anything more braver and noble
than to make this CNN report
happen, which validated the 2 full
years of law arguments that I had
personally made before the Veterans
Disability Benefits Commission.

Ty Ziegel is a true American
military hero and holds many
salutes from just about everyone
who managed to see this CNN
report, including all of us
at Vets for Justice. Let's hope
that Ty can find some peace
in pursuing work at home projects
or perhaps an Internet business.

This report shows that even in
the face of TV cameras, even
in the face of articles appearing
in the Washington Times, and even
in the face of a severely damaged
Veteran desperately reaching out
to people in Congress, that the
VA Secretary's are Stupid beyond
words, are disconnected to the
point of mental retardation, and
are themselves a disgrace to the
very seat of office as VA Secretary.