Category Archives: Terror

How Emwazi, the ISIS Be-header Met his Demise

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Score one for the intelligence community and the drone strike…

How the US and UK tracked down and killed Jihadi John

The killing of Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, was the culmination of 15 months of intensive intelligence work by MI6, GCHQ and the CIA

By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter

5:46PM GMT 13 Nov 2015

For Jihadi John, death could not have been more different than that of his victims. While his hostages suffered unimaginable horror as he beheaded them, for him the end came instantaneously and without warning.

For more than a year British and US intelligence agencies had been trying to gain live information on the whereabouts of the masked man whose first victim, the American journalist James Foley, was murdered in a video posted on YouTube in August 2014.

Their efforts finally paid off shortly before midnight on Thursday, when intelligence pinpointed him to a car in the centre of Raqqa, Syria, within a short walk of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s headquarters in the old governorate building.

Mohammed Emwazi – his real name was finally confirmed by David Cameron for the first time today – is understood to have been located by either MI6 or GCHQ, either through a human source on the ground or by monitoring his communications.

Emwazi beheaded (clockwise, from top left) David Haines, James Foley, Alan Henning, Peter Kassig and Steven Sotloff

The intelligence was passed on to the Pentagon, enabling the operators of an armed Predator drone already in the sky above Raqqa to spot the car in which he was travelling.

At 11.40pm Syrian time (8.40pm GMT) the order to kill was passed to the drone operators at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

Controlling their drone via a satellite link, and using a second Reaper as a “spotter” plane, they selected their target and released a Hellfire missile from 10,000ft.

Experts say the Predator may have been several miles away at the time, invisible in the night sky. Its missile, travelling at Mach 1.3 (995mph) arrived at such speed that Emwazi would have known nothing before it struck. At 11.51pm the car, and its four occupants, were blown to pieces.

The result was described by one US official as a “flawless” strike, a “clean hit” that would have “evaporated” Emwazi, with no collateral damage. “We are 99 per cent sure we got him,” the official said.

Unconfirmed reports suggested another of those killed was another of the four British jihadis nicknamed “The Beatles” by their captives because of their English accents. Emwazi, 27, was given the nickname John after John Lennon.

Emwazi’s death, if confimed, was doubly symbolic for the allied forces that hunted him down. Not only was Isil’s main propaganda tool neutralised, but the location of the strike was within sight of two of the locations most strongly identified with the terrorist group.

The missile strike happened in or next to Clocktower Square, the roundabout chosen by Isil to carry out public executions.

In 2012, the roundabout was the location of the city’s first protests against Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, as a popular uprising spread across the country. By the summer of 2013, Isil had seized control of the city, and video footage from May of that year shows three rebel soldiers, blindfolded with a green rag reminiscent of the colours of the revolution, before being shot dead.

Emwazi is understood to have been travelling from the Isil headquarters, inside what was once the office of Raqqa’s city governor. He may also have been living in the building.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said its own sources had confirmed that a British jihadi had been killed in the strike. Rami Abdulrahman, director of the British-based group, said: “All the sources there are saying that the body of an important British Jihadi is lying in the hospital of Raqqa. All the sources are saying it is of Jihadi John but I cannot confirm it personally.”

A senior U.S. official said the drone strike was the result of “persistent surveillance” and that the Pentagon knew it was Emwazi when the shot was taken.

Drones routinely fly for 16 hours or more, and the drone that killed Emwazi could have been circling overhead for several hours, waiting for an opportunity, and is likely to have stayed overhead afterwards to see if anyone got out of the car alive.

Britain and America had always maintained they were working around the clock to find Emwazi, but the apparent extent of its surveillance capabilities over Raqqa had not been clear until now.

The strike suggests he was under tight surveillance, combining human informants with sophisticated technology.

 

The hunt for Mohammed Emwazi began at the end of 2012, when the security services first suspected he was in Syria. He had been reported missing by his family in August of that year, having left the family home in Queen’s Park, north London and lied about where he was going.

Jihadi John, the then unidentified Isil executioner, became a top priority for MI6 after his video of Foley’s beheading, titled A Message to America, was posted last year.

The first step was to identify the masked, black-clad figure in the footage. With only his eyes visible, intelligence officers on both sides of the Atlantic examined other clues, primarily his voice and accent, but also his skin colour, height, physique and vein patterns on his hands. By September 14 last year his name was known to the UK and US governments.

British and American special forces operating in Syria for the past year have been gathering human intelligence on senior jihadists, paying informers and carrying out snatch raids on low-level commanders who can then be interrogated.

Raqqa, however, has proved impossible for them to infiltrate, so instead an RAF Rivet Joint spy plane, based at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, has been crisscrossing Syria for more than a year, “hoovering up” calls and messages for analysis by spies.

Much of the communications chatter was analysed at Ayios Nikolaos, a top secret listening station in Cyprus and the largest UK overseas spy base.

Manned by UK military intelligence officers working for GCHQ, its highly sensitive dome shaped radars have the capability to “look out” over the horizon for up to 400 miles and pull in information from UK warships and submarines deployed in the region.

Despite reports that he had fled to Libya or had been expelled from Isil, the intelligence agencies remained confident he was still in Raqqa, even though he went quiet after his last beheadings, of two Japanese hostages in January.

An air strike targeting a German colleague of Emwazi last month may have been the first sign that Britain and America were hot on his trail, according to security expert Neil Doyle.

An air strike last month targeting a Denis Cuspert, a German associate of Emwazi who mixed in the same circles as him, may have been the first sign that Britain and America were hot on his trail.

David Cameron said Britain and the US had been working “literally around the clock to track him down”. He added: “This was a combined effort. And the contribution of both our countries was essential.”

Col Steve Warren, a spokesman for the US-led military coalition fighting Isil, said: “This is significant. He was somewhat of an Isil celebrity, somewhat the face of the organisation…he was a prime recruitment tool for the organisation. This guy was a human animal and killing him does probably make the world a little bit of a better place.”

He said coalition forces had been following Emwazi “for some time” and commanders had “great confidence” it was him before they gave the order to kill. The strike had been captured on video and there was no reason to believe any civilian casualties had been caught in the blast, Col Warren said.

Drills on Homeland Have a Reason

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We are always suspicious and question what law enforcement is doing and why. We ask the same when it comes to the Department of Homeland Security and we do the same regarding the military. There were huge questions and theories when Operation Jade Helm was held in 5 Southern states this past summer.

Okay, it is good we question government, it is a duty yet there are reasons why events and activities do occur. Here are two reasons why which may help us come to understand motivations for exercises and training even in either rural or urban areas.

The fuel for a nuclear bomb is in the hands of an unknown black marketeer from Russia, U.S. officials say

The presence of identical fissile materials in three smuggling incidents indicates someone has a larger cache and is hunting for a buyer

With so many nuclear explosives held by governments around the world, US officials have long worried about the possibility of a terrorist-engineered nuclear or radiological blast within the United States. Multiple federal agencies have held almost 1,400 drills in cities around the country over the last decade to train local police and emergency personnel in how to behave after such a nightmare unfolds, according to a spokeswoman for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

CHISINAU, Moldova – The sample of highly-enriched uranium, of a type that could be used in a nuclear bomb, arrived here on a rainy summer day four years ago, in a blue shopping bag carried by a former policeman.

According to court documents, the bag quickly passed through the hands of three others on its way to a prospective buyer. It was not the first time such material had passed through this city, raising international alarms: It had happened twice before. And mysteriously, in all three cases, spanning more than a decade, the nuclear material appeared to have the same origin – a restricted military installation in Russia.

This news would quickly reach Washington. But that day, the first to pick up the blue bag was the wife of a former Russian military officer, who handed it off to a friend while she went shopping in this former Soviet city’s ragged downtown.

Not long afterward, a 57-year old lawyer named Teodor Chetrus, from a provincial town near the Ukrainian border, retrieved it and brought it to a meeting with a man named Ruslan Andropov. According to an account by Moldovan police, the two men had, earlier in the day, visited a local bank, where Chetrus confirmed that Andropov had deposited more than $330,000 as an initial payment.

Andropov next examined the contents of the bag: a lead-lined cylinder, shaped like a thermos. It was meant to be the first of several shipments of highly-enriched uranium totaling 10 kilograms (22 lbs), a senior investigator here said. That’s about a fifth of what might be needed to fuel a Hiroshima-sized nuclear explosion — but almost enough to power a more technically-advanced “implosion-style” nuclear bomb. The full story is a MUST read in its entirety and exceptional work from Public Integrity.

*** Then last week, there was yet another event off the coast of California that forced air traffic to be halted and re-routed as well as some automobile traffic. A peculiar set of beams of light were noted in the sky. Bigger questions were asked. Some thought the U.S. military was training to bomb the homeland. Ah….not so much.

There Is a Secret U.S. Spy Plane Flying Over the Pacific

Here’s what we know … and what we don’t

In 2013, the U.S. Air Force sent a secret spy plane out over the Pacific region. The unknown aircraft – possibly a drone – flew “national collection missions” – a euphemism for strategic intelligence against states like North Korea or China.

It was one of five different types of aircraft flying these missions. The Pentagon’s top headquarters asked the flying branch to use its U-2 Dragon Ladies and RC-135V/W Rivet Joints to take high resolution pictures and scoop up radio chatter, according to an official history of the Air Force’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency – a.k.a. AFISRA – for that year.

“Other USAF aircraft flying national collection missions included the RC-135U Combat Sent, the RC-135S Cobra Ball and the aforementioned [redacted],” the history stated.

So what is the mystery aircraft? The blacked-out portion of the document suggests the missing portion is five to seven characters long. With that in mind, the super secret RQ-170 Sentinel – a six character designation that would fit in the redacted segment – is one possibility.

Lockheed built an estimated 20 to 30 RQ-170s – also known as Wraiths– for the Air Force sometime in the early 2000s. The 30th Reconnaissance Squadron at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada owns all of these bat-winged pilotless spies.

In 2007, journalists first spotted the Wraith at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan, earning the nickname “the Beast of Kandahar.” On Dec. 4, 2009, the Air Force formally announced the Sentinel to the world … and little else.

That same year, the drones were flying missions in the Pacific from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and Kunsan Air Base in South Korea, according to previous Air Force histories we obtained through FOIA. During the latter deployment, the Wraiths likely gathered information about North Korea’s nuclear, ballistic missile and space programs.

In December 2011, one RQ-170 crashed in Iran.

And as of April 2014, at least one of these stealthy flying wings was still on duty, according to an accident report in Combat Edge, Air Combat Command’s official safety magazine. ACC owns the bulk of the Air Force’s combat aircraft, including its spy planes and the RQ-170s.

If the RQ-170s are still in service, the flying branch would have every incentive to keep using them. And the Sentinels and their crews already had experience in the Asia-Pacific theater.

Of course, the censored plane could be something entirely new. For decades, the Pentagon and the CIA have repeatedly acknowledged advanced aircraft projects — after the fact — only to decline to release any significant information about them. Hat tip to War is Boring for doing the investigative work, the rest of the work is found here.

FBI: Hillary and Gross Negligence

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We cant officially know at the point who on Hillary’s team has met with the FBI and made statements or answered questions, Conversations with the FBI are not under oath, but still making false statements or responses is a felony. It must also be noted that even Barack Obama said he was NOT aware of a private server but did know and in fact the White House did communicate with Hillary and her team via private, non-governmental email addresses.

It is noteworthy that this snippet of news of the FBI widening their investigation is even in the public domain. The FBI is reviewing all emails to determine themselves which should be classified and those that are not deemed so. If Hillary never revealed to Obama himself that she was using a private server and providing him notice is itself a standard to prosecute her.

Documents and information includes: any material in written form, books, sketches, photographs, blueprints, maps, notes documents, plans or comments.

FBI expands probe of Clinton emails, launches independent classification review

FNC: The FBI has expanded its probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails, with agents exploring whether multiple statements violate a federal false statements statute, according to intelligence sources familiar with the ongoing case.

Fox News is told agents are looking at U.S. Code 18, Section 1001, which pertains to “materially false” statements given either in writing, orally or through a third party. Violations also include pressuring a third party to conspire in a cover-up. Each felony violation is subject to five years in prison.

This phase represents an expansion of the FBI probe, which is also exploring potential violations of an Espionage Act provision relating to “gross negligence” in the handling of national defense information.

“The agents involved are under a lot of pressure and are busting a–,” an intelligence source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told Fox News.

The section of the criminal code being explored is known as “statements or entries generally,” and can be applied when an individual makes misleading or false statements causing federal agents to expend additional resources and time. In this case, legal experts as well as a former FBI agent said, Section 1001 could apply if Clinton, her aides or attorney were not forthcoming with FBI agents about her emails, classification and whether only non-government records were destroyed. It is not publicly known who may have been interviewed.

Fox News judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said the same section got Martha Stewart in trouble with the FBI. To be a violation, the statements do not need to be given under oath.

“This is a broad, brush statute that punishes individuals who are not direct and fulsome in their answers,” former FBI intelligence officer Timothy Gill told Fox News. Gill is not connected to the email investigation, but spent 16 years as part of the bureau’s national security branch, and worked the post 9/11 anthrax case where considerable time was spent resolving discrepancies in Bruce Ivins’ statements and his unusual work activities at Fort Detrick, Md.

“It is a cover-all. The problem for a defendant is when their statements cause the bureau to expend more time, energy, resources to de-conflict their statements with the evidence,” he said.

Separately, two U.S. government officials told Fox News that the FBI is doing its own classification review of the Clinton emails, effectively cutting out what has become a grinding process at the State Department. Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy has argued to both Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Congress that the “Top Secret” emails on Clinton’s server could have been pulled from unclassified sources including news reports.

“You want to go right to the source,” Gill said. “Go to the originating, not the collateral, authority. Investigative protocol would demand that.”

On Friday, Clapper spokesman Brian Hale confirmed that no change has been made to the two “Top Secrets” emails after a Politico report said the intelligence community was retreating from the finding.

“ODNI has made no such determination and the review is ongoing,” Hale said. Andrea G. Williams, spokeswoman for the intelligence community inspector general, said she had the same information. Kennedy is seeking an appeal, but no one can explain what statute or executive order would give Clapper that authority.

A U.S. government official who was not authorized to speak on the record said the FBI is identifying suspect emails, and then going directly to the agencies who originated them and therefore own the intelligence — and who, under the regulations, have final say on the classification.

As Fox News previously reported, at least four classified Clinton emails had their markings changed to a category that shields the content from Congress and the public, in what State Department whistleblowers believed to be an effort to hide the true extent of classified information on the former secretary of state’s server.

One State Department lawyer involved in the alleged re-categorization was Kate Duval. Duval once worked in the same law firm as Clinton’s current and long-time lawyer David Kendall and at the IRS during the Lois Lerner email controversy. Duval left government service for private practice in mid-September.

 

Iran Deal (JPOA) is Over, U.S. Relations, Broken

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Iran Reneges On Nuclear Deal  

“Adoption Day”–the day participants would start the process of implementing their JCPOA commitments – was set for October 18. On that day, therefore, the US and the EU began preparatory measures for lifting the multiple sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy since they were first imposed in 2005. Only three days later, on October 21, Ayatollah Khamenei published a letter of guidelines to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani about the JCPOA.

This letter, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported, was posted on Khamenei’s website in Persian, tweeted from his Twitter account, posted on his Facebook page in English, and published in English by the Iran Broadcasting Authority. In this document, clearly the definitive statement of the conditions under which Iran would be willing to execute the JCPOA, Iran’s Supreme Leader sets nine new and unilateral conditions that fundamentally change what was agreed on July 14. In short, he has virtually declared the JCPOA a dead letter.

What are these nine new conditions?

First Khamenei demands that sanctions are lifted fully, not suspended, before Iran takes steps to meet its obligations under the agreement. In addition he asserts that any endorsement by the West of the “snapback” option (the reintroduction of sanctions should Iran fail to meet the terms of the agreement) will be considered “non-compliance with the JCPOA”.

Secondly: Any future sanctions against Iran for whatever reason, including terrorism or human rights violations, will “constitute a violation of the JCPOA,” and a reason for Iran to stop executing the agreement.

Thirdly: Under the JCPOA Iran is obligated to start changing the function of its nuclear reactor at Arak and shipping out most of its stockpile of enriched uranium. In his letter Khamenei declares that Iran will not carry out these actions until after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) closes its dossier on Iran, targeted for December 15. But the IAEA will not be able to report about Iran meeting its obligations regarding the Arak reactor and shipping out its enriched uranium by the target date, because Iran is not going to do so by then. In short, the JCPOA has been thwarted from the very start.

Fourth: Iran will change the purpose of the Arak reactor only after there is a signed agreement on an “alternative plan” and “sufficient guarantee” that it will be implemented. In other words, Iran intends to postpone fulfilling its obligations under the JCPOA regarding the Arak reactor to some unknown future date.

Fifth: Iran intends to postpone indefinitely the date set by the JCPOA for shipping out its enriched uranium to another country in exchange for yellowcake. Moreover Khamenei is demanding that Iran receive in exchange for the enriched uranium not raw uranium as per the JCPOA, but instead uranium that has been enriched, albeit to a lower level than the uranium it ships out.

Sixth: Khamenei instructs President Rouhani, while reducing Iran’s ability to enrich uranium under the JCPOA, immediately to expand Iran’s ability to enrich uranium on a 15-year long-term plan for 190,000 centrifuges. In short, he is nullifying the declared goal of the JCPOA, which is to reduce Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities.

Seventh: The Iranian Atomic Energy Organization must ensure continued nuclear research and development, in its various dimensions, so that in eight years’ time, Iran will not be lacking in enrichment technology.

Eighth: Khamenei declares that Iran must be involved in resolving queries about the JCPOA – a recipe for unending dispute and the ability to paralyze the execution of the agreement.

Ninth: A new committee tasked with monitoring the execution of the agreement is to be established – nominally to obviate any attempt by the US or the West to cheat, but in effect, a mechanism for creating perpetual obstacles to carrying out the agreement.

So far world opinion has turned a blind eye to Khamenei’s virtual rejection of the nuclear agreement. The US and the EU are proceeding enthusiastically with the first stages of dismantling their multiple sanctions regimes. Government officials and businessmen from around the globe are making a beeline for Tehran, eager to share in the vast commercial opportunities they see awaiting.

The nuclear agreement is the basis for Iran’s re-entry into the comity of nations, and Khamenei seems to be setting the stage for a battle of wills between Iran and the West. Will the West’s desire to come to terms with Iran outweigh Iran’s determination to give away less than their president has actually signed up to? Will the West delay the lifting of sanctions? Who will blink first?

Rouhani says U.S.-Iran ties could be restored but U.S. must apologize

ROME (Reuters) – The nuclear deal reached between world powers and Iran could lead to better relations between Tehran and Washington if the United States apologized for past behavior, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying on Thursday.

The pragmatist president, who championed the July 14 deal, has pushed for closer engagement with the West since his 2013 landslide election win.

But Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has continued to rule out normalizing ties with the “Great Satan”, as he routinely calls the United States.

In an interview with Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, Rouhani suggested that the United States and Iran could open embassies in each other’s capitals after decades of mutual hostility, but said Washington should apologize, without going into further detail.

“One day these embassies will re-open but what counts is behavior and the Americans hold the key to this,” Rouhani told the newspaper ahead of a trip to Italy this weekend, his first to a European capital.

“If they modify their policies, correct errors committed in these 37 years and apologize to the Iranian people, the situation will change and good things can happen.”

Iran and Washington severed ties shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution when radical students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for over a year.

Relations came under further pressure in the last decade over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Under the nuclear deal reached in July, Iran will curb its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of sanctions on its economy. Tehran denied Western suspicions it wanted to develop an atomic bomb.

Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, gave his conditional approval to the deal with six world powers including the United States, but has warned against allowing any U.S. political or economic influence on Iran.

Rouhani said Washington would have to fulfill its part in the nuclear accord for relations to improve. The United States approved conditional sanctions waivers for Iran, though these will not take effect until Tehran has complied with the nuclear accord.

“The way this agreement is applied can have an impact on the future,” Rouhani said in the interview.

“If it is well applied it can lay the foundation for fewer tensions with the United States, creating the conditions to open a new era. But if the Americans don’t respect their part of the nuclear accord, then surely our relationship will remain as it has been in the past,” he said.

Rouhani is due to see the Italian prime minister and business leaders during his Nov. 14-15 visit to Rome and will also hold talks with Pope Francis.

He will then fly to Paris for talks on Nov. 16-17.

VA Scheduler Whistleblower/Confessions

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FNC report and video here. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald has made a point of giving out his personal contact information, to show how accessible he is as he works to overhaul the embattled agency.

But the bid backfired Thursday, after he urged one famous veteran dealing with poor treatment to contact him. When “Fox & Friends” tried his number, they reached his voicemail — and got a message to call back later as his voicemail was “full.”

TAMPA (FOX 13) – Bay Area veterans say they’re still facing excessive wait times for benefits and health care. The VA Inspector General found 307,000 veterans may have died waiting for access to the VA health care system.

Veterans who do get enrolled say significant delays for medical service persist.

“They gave me an appointment six months down the road, and then called to say they had to cancel,” said Winter Haven veteran Keith Brown. “It can be a year before you get the actual appointment.”

That conflicts with information provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which showing wait times have improved following the VA scandal of 2014.

Nick McSwain says there may be a reason for that. He said when he worked as a VA scheduler through the beginning of 2015, he was told to disregard patients’ desired dates for appointment, then note the actual scheduled date as the ‘desired’ date — thereby showing no delay based on what veterans requested.

“It says ‘What is the desired date’ (in the system) and instead of using that date, we use the appointment we actually give them so it shows no gap,” said McSwain.

He also claims veterans who complained had to wait even longer for future appointments.

“Vets who should have been seen top priority were passed over because of the way providers feel about this guy. They’d say ‘I hate this guy’ or ‘he’s annoying,” said McSwain, w

ho also noted that consults for specialty health care piled up when he worked in a scheduling center. “There have been times when stacks of consults disappeared.”

A spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis said his district offices have opened 314 VA-related cases since January 2, 2015, pertaining to both benefits and health care.

FOX 13 asked the Department of Veterans Affairs to respond to a range of questions and issues raised by Thompson, Brown, and other veterans. The department answered our questions and provided data to show the VA is making progress and notable improvements since the national VA scandal broke in 2014.

The VA provided the following snapshot of data through November 1, 2015:

  1. Between June 1, 2014, and November 1, 2015, the electronic wait list (EWL) went from 56,271 appointments to 46,146, a 17.99 percent reduction.
  2. VHA created 2.5 million authorizations for Veterans to receive care in the private sector from October 29, 2014 through October 28, 2015. This represents a 3 percent increase in authorizations when compared to the same period in 2013/2014.

A spokeswoman at the James Haley Veterans Hospital and clinics also sent us an email including the following statement and response to our questions.

“James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Clinics is a continuous improvement organization. We are always looking to improve processes and quality of care for our patients and their caregivers. As a matter of fact, we will be participating in the national VA Access Stand Down this Saturday. The Department of Veterans Affairs is committed to providing timely access to Veterans as determined by their clinical needs.  On Saturday, November 14, VA medical centers across the country will participate in a first ever National Access Stand Down.  A team of clinical leaders, administrators and volunteers will be on site at every VA medical center to reach out to all Veterans identified as having the most important and acute needs to make sure they can be seen either in VA or in the community – including here at JAHVH…”

The James A. Haley Veterans Hospital answered our questions as follows:

What are the current average wait times for primary care, specialty care and mental health care?

Our wait-times are published every two weeks, the same as other VA facilities and current and historical wait time and access data can be reviewed at: http://www.va.gov/health/access-audit.asp

Currently James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Clinics average wait times are 1.33 days for Primary Care, 6.33 days for Specialty Care (just as in the public sector, length can vary significantly by Specialty Clinics) and 3.66 days for Mental Health.

JAHVH has more than 90,000 unique patients and we schedule between 4,000-5,000 appointments daily in all areas of our medical facilities and at our outpatient clinics and receive more than 46,000 consults per month in FY 15.

Every new consult is reviewed by a clinical provider as part of the triage process to determine the clinical urgency of the request. Patients are seen as soon as possible based on clinical review – the more acute the need – the faster the patient is scheduled for an appointment on average.
Do lengthy hold times by phone to schedule a doctor or specialist persist? 

Our average wait time to answer the phone is 49 seconds in FY 15 (the national goal is less than 30 seconds) and our abandonment rate is 3.9% (the national goal is less than 5%), but depending on the location within the medical center a person is calling, hold times and speed to answer the phones can vary. We recognize this can be one of the biggest areas of dissatisfaction with patients and the medical center has established a workgroup that is working to improve telephone access to all areas. Additionally, patients are encouraged to use secure messaging if possible to consult with their health care providers.

Are there safeguards to prevent veterans seeking medical appointments from being left on hold indefinitely?  If so, can they be worked around?

The phone system has different features throughout the medical center based on the volume of calls and staffing level of clinic areas.  One tool we use in high volume areas is the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) lines. These lines will automatically roll over to the next available operator after a certain length of time. Also some clinics are piloting the use a call back feature for patients who choose not to wait on hold.  Secure messaging is always another option that patients can use to communicate with their providers, and if a patient has difficulty reaching a provider, we encourage patients to reach out to the Service Liaisons or Patient Advocates Office.

Do veterans in the Tampa Bay area continue to encounter lengthy delays to see a doctor or specialist once appointments are booked?

Again, wait times vary based on the type of care, but our average wait times range from 1.33 to 6.33 days. If a patient is unable to be seen at our facilities within 30 days of the clinically indicated/preferred date, that patient is offered care through the Choice program and is then eligible to receive care in the community. Wait times in the community can also be lengthy based on the availability of certain specialty care required and can be a longer wait than VA care in some cases.

We are continuously and proactively reviewing our high demand specialty areas to help further increase capacity and efficiencies. For example, we do “Super Saturday Clinics” in both Ortho and GI to reduce some of the current patient wait times and are actively working to fill vacant provider positions. JAHVH hiring emphasis has been on Patient Aligned Care Teams (Primary Care) and high demand Specialty Care Services to increase access, including Orthopedics, GI, Ophthalmology and Radiology and we’ve filled over 100 new FTE positions under VACAA funding including providers, nurses and support positions.

During FY 14, JAHVH activated more than 300,000 square feet of new space, which opened up space for specialty care to expand. JAHVH increased specialty care spaces from 34 to 84 exam rooms for a net increase of about 150%, including an additional:

  • 18 in Ortho
  • 14 in GI
  • 17 in Neurology to open in first quarter of FY16

Additionally, extended hours and weekend appointments are offered at Tampa, New Port Richey Outpatient Clinic, and Lakeland Community Based Outpatient Clinic.

How are consults (enabling veterans to seek specialty care) organized and accounted for to prevent them from getting lost?

Consults are managed and organized in compliance with the National Consult Management Business Rules. All notes are kept in individual patient records.

JAHVH also has a Consult Management Committee (CMC) and designated consult managers within each service who are responsible for ensuring the consults do not get lost. The CMC is a standing medical center-level committee designated to receive, monitor, analyze and address all aspects of consult management to meet the facility’s mission and commitment to timeliness of care, provide support to enhance communication of Veterans’ needs, and outcome of treatment.  As part of these activities, the CMC functions to coordinate the assessment, implementation, and management of consults and related VISTA structures with all other appropriate entities and reports these activities as appropriate. The CMC identifies opportunities for improvement, and recommends corrective action plans.

Have schedulers within the VA health care system ever been told by VA management to disregard regulations in any way?

Schedulers are trained to follow all scheduling guidelines. Refresher training is provided to schedulers when scheduling errors are identified through observation, periodic and scheduled audits, etc. There was refresher scheduling training completed for all staff who have scheduling options conducted between July – September 2015. Any staff that did not complete this training had their scheduling access removed.

Specifically, have schedulers been told to disregard ‘desired’ appointment dates, to avoid gaps between ‘desired’ dates and scheduled dates?  

Employees are fully and regularly trained and should never disregard regulations when making an appointment for patients. JAHVH is audited by both internal and external organizations to review and ensure data and appointment policies and procedures are followed correctly.  JAHVH executive leadership does not advocate or condone any data manipulation or scheduling irregularities. Should an instance of irregularity be identified, it would be reviewed and corrective action would be taken as necessary.

Have veterans who complain about poor service or delays been adversely affected (with longer waits) as a result of their complaints?

We encourage anyone with a specific concern to contact the hospital’s team of Patient Advocacy Specialists that work as liaisons for the Director’s Office and are on staff specifically to assist Veterans with any issues or concerns they may have. Additionally, we have Service Liaisons, who field incoming calls from Veterans and either answer their questions or route the individuals to the appropriate office to handle their concerns. JAHVH follows national scheduling guidelines and reviews all appointment and consult requests to ensure they are scheduled timely according to the patients’ clinical needs and condition.

For veterans who complain they are unable to utilize their choice cards as they would like, how does VA respond?

JAHVH follows the CHOICE Program rules based on the VACAA law that state a Veteran is eligible for non-VA care in the community if he/she lives more than 40 miles from a VA Facility (to include CBOCs even if they don’t offer the specialty) or if based on long wait times (patients that have an appointment scheduled greater than 30 days from when the clinically indicated/preferred date). Veterans may file an “excessive burden” appeal. Additionally, on July 31, 2015, the President signed Public Law 114-41, the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015. Title IV, the VA Budget and Choice Improvement Act, makes several changes to the Veterans Choice Program. We are currently awaiting implementation guidance of these changes. More information about the choice program can be found: http://www.va.gov/opa/choiceact/