Our Awful Situation

Archive for the ‘Suicide’ Category

US congressional hearings expose stonewalling on veteran suicide data

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 9th, 2008

More on the veteran suicide epidemic:

The House Veterans Committee on Tuesday revisited the issue of military suicides in light of a pending lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs by veterans’ rights groups. Following the court-ordered release of internal emails regarding staggering veteran suicide rates, Department of Veterans Affairs officials were accused of “criminal negligence.”

At the same time, a new estimate indicates that veteran suicide deaths could exceed combat fatalities for Iraq and Afghanistan forces.

The hearing, called “The truth about veteran suicides,” centered on emails released last month by the federal District Court of Northern California. The emails showed that there were an average of 12,000 annual suicide attempts by veterans within the VA system. The emails also revealed that the VA was aware of an estimated suicide rate of 6,570 per year across the veteran population. With regard to both figures, the emails made clear that top officials did not want the information to be made public.

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