Accusers: Head of Pentagon's anti-sex abuse effort interfered with investigation
The Army general in charge of preventing sexual abuse throughout the U.S. armed forces is facing new accusations that he personally interfered with an internal Pentagon investigation into allegations of horrific conditions at a U.S.-funded hospital in Afghanistan.
Three whistleblowers tell NBC News that Army Maj. Gen. Gary Patton blocked a subordinate from briefing the Pentagon inspector general about claims of mistreatment of patients and rampant corruption at the U.S.-funded Dawood National Military Hospital in Afghanistan.
The Dawood hospital, where wounded Afghan soldiers were treated, received national attention in 2011 after the Wall Street Journal reported on abuses at the facility and gruesome photos surfaced showing patients starving and suffering from maggot infested open wounds. One U.S. legal adviser in Afghanistan later told Congress that conditions at the hospital – funded with more than $200 million from U.S. taxpayers -- were “Auschwitz-like.”
The allegations, along with charges that pharmaceuticals were being diverted by corrupt Afghan officers, triggered two hearings by a House investigations subcommittee last year that focused on whistleblower claims that senior U.S. military officers -- including Patton -- sought to cover up the abuses to avoid undercutting President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan strategy.
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/15/21462193-accusers-head-of-pentagons-anti-sex-abuse-effort-interfered-with-investigation?lite