WASHINGTON – US Secretary of Defense
Lloyd Austin faced questioning in Congress due to his decision to keep his prostate
cancer surgery and subsequent hospitalization secret, even from
US President Joe Biden and the Deputy Secretary of Defense.
اضافة اعلان
Instead of disclosing his health situation, Austin chose to
maintain secrecy about his initial
prostate cancer surgery in December, as well
as his subsequent hospitalization in January due to post-surgery complications
that led him to the intensive care unit, Al-Mamlaka TV reported.
Austin apologized for how he handled the matter, including
not informing Biden himself. However, his appearance before the House Armed
Services Committee, which has a Republican majority, will be the first time he
is directly questioned by members of the House.
According to pre-prepared remarks, Committee Chairman
Mike Rogers will state during the session, “It is entirely unacceptable that it took
more than three days to inform the President that the Secretary of Defense was
in the hospital and not in control of the Pentagon.”
“Wars were raging in Ukraine and Israel, our ships were
under fire in the Red Sea, and our bases were preparing for attacks in Iraq and
Syria. Yet the Commander-in-Chief was unaware that his Defense Secretary was
out of commission,” Rogers added.
However, on Monday, the Department of Defense released the
results of a 30-day internal review, effectively clearing itself of any
wrongdoing. The review concluded that “nothing examined during this review
indicated any intent to deceive or attempt to conceal.”
It is expected that Rogers will criticize the report for
failing to provide genuine answers regarding who knew about the lapse in
fulfilling essential duties and how and when they knew.
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