Pentagon Review doesn’t blame anyone for not disclosing Austin’s illness
Few expected the Pentagon’s internal review of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III’s failure to tell President Biden and other senior leaders that he was in the hospital would amount to much.
And indeed, that didn’t happen.
The unrated version of the review was released on Monday. It has little or no criticism of the slew of Defense Department officials, including Mr. Austin, who did not immediately notify the White House that he was admitted to the intensive care unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last month. Center in Bethesda, Maryland. with complications from prostate cancer surgery.
Instead, the review retreats behind paragraphs of heavy legalese that do little to disguise the lack of accountability. It is a strange document, with recommendations signed by Mr Austin himself.
“The Director of Administration and Management will develop and codify internal guidelines for making decisions regarding the assumption of functions and duties of the Secretary of Defense, minimizing subjectivity in any guidelines, and will provide me with a proposed communications and training plan to all relevant organizations. and civil servants,” the recommendations say.
The closest the review comes to self-criticism is contained in a section on the devolution of powers, referred to in the document as “TOA”.
“The Secretary’s staff focused on ensuring mission continuity following existing processes,” the document said. “Their efforts, while respecting the Secretary’s privacy, combined with the uncertainty of a medical situation and its influence on the best way to perform a TOA in the absence of an established methodology for taking such an unplanned decision, may have contributed to the lack of comprehensive information sharing about the situation.”
The internal review will almost certainly fail to satisfy Republican critics who have called for Mr. Austin’s resignation over the issue. But it will likely make for a testy hearing in Congress later this week, when Mr. Austin will appear before the House Armed Services Committee to explain himself.
Shortly after the document was released, the committee’s chairman, Representative Mike D. Rogers, Republican of Alabama, said on social media that it was not surprising that “the review of Sec Austin’s actions, conducted by his own subordinates and under subject to his approval, NO HOLDS. ONE RESPONSIBLE. That is why we conduct our own research.”
Pentagon Inspector General Robert P. Storch is also investigating. In a memo to the Secretary of Defense last month, Mr. Storch wrote that his office would investigate “the roles, processes, procedures, responsibilities and actions” related to Mr. Austin’s hospitalization.
Mr. Austin made his first attempt to explain himself earlier this month when he appeared at the lectern in the Pentagon briefing room and told reporters that “I didn’t handle this properly.”
“I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis,” he said. “I should have told my team and the American public, and I take full responsibility.”
Mr. Austin also said he never told his staff not to inform the White House about his hospitalization.
Pentagon officials have yet to publicly explain why Austin’s chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, delayed reporting his hospitalization to White House officials.
But the defense secretary has long been known for being extremely private and media-shy. And a Defense Department official said last week that since Mr. Austin had made it clear during his three years in office that staffers should respect his privacy, it would be difficult for him to subsequently issue a review criticizing his staff for they did exactly the same thing. That.
Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said the classified version of the review had been shared with Congress.