US Defence Secretary Austin takes ‘full responsibility’ over silence on his hospitalisation as criticism grows
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Mr Lloyd Austin was still in the hospital on Saturday, a defence official said.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
WASHINGTON – It took the Pentagon 3½ days to inform the White House that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalised on New Year’s Day
The extraordinary breach of protocol – he is in charge of the country’s 1.4 million active-duty military at a time when the wars in Gaza
Senior defence officials said Mr Austin did not inform them until Jan 4 that he had been admitted to the intensive care unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland. The Pentagon then informed the White House.
The Pentagon’s move, first reported by Politico, confounded White House officials, a Biden administration employee said.
Mr Austin sits just below US President Joe Biden at the top of the chain of command of the US military, and his duties require his being available at a moment’s notice to respond to any manner of national security crisis.
The Pentagon has yet to detail why he is being treated, whether he lost consciousness over the past week, or offer details on when he might be discharged from the hospital.
A spokesperson for the National Security Council declined to comment on Jan 6.
On the night of Jan 6, Mr Austin issued a mea culpa.
“I recognise I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,” he said in a statement. “I commit to doing better.”
He added: “This was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decision about disclosure.”
Mr Biden and Mr Austin spoke by telephone on the night of Jan 6, a US official said, adding that the President was glad to hear that Mr Austin is recovering.
Another official said the President has full confidence in his Defence Secretary.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive situation.
It was late evening on Jan 5 when his spokesman, Major General Patrick Ryder, put out a statement that Mr Austin, 70, had been hospitalised.
He said patient privacy prevented him from elaborating about Mr Austin’s medical issue.
In the statement, he added that Mr Austin was “recovering well and is expecting to resume his full duties today”.
Mr Austin was still in the hospital on Jan 6, a defence official said.
Pentagon officials had to call Deputy Defence Secretary Kathleen Hicks while she was on vacation in Puerto Rico to handle affairs while Mr Austin was hospitalised, a Defence Department official said on Jan 6, confirming a report by NBC News.
The department said on Jan 5 that Ms Hicks had assumed Mr Austin’s duties temporarily. He had delegated authority to her in the past, when he was on vacation and off the grid.
But on Jan 4, while Mr Austin was out of action, the US launched a retaliatory strike in Baghdad that killed a militia leader who Pentagon officials said was responsible for recent attacks on US troops in the region.
A Biden administration official said the head of US Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, already had authorisation for the strike.
Senator Tom Cotton, a member of the Armed Services Committee, demanded on Jan 6 that Mr Austin explain why he had not immediately informed the White House that he had been hospitalised.
“The secretary of defence is the key link in the chain of command between the president and the uniformed military, including the nuclear chain of command, when the weightiest of decisions must be made in minutes,” Mr Cotton said in a statement. “If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown.”
Criticism is growing in other quarters as well.
“At a time when there are growing threats to US military service members in the Middle East and the US is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defence leader,” the Pentagon Press Association said on Jan 5.
“The public has a right to know when US Cabinet members are hospitalised, under anaesthesia or when duties are delegated as the result of any medical procedure.
“As the nation’s top defence leader, Secretary Austin has no claim to privacy in this situation.”
Military Reporters and Editors (MRE), a non-profit organisation for journalists covering the US military, said the decision to release the information only on the evening of Jan 5, when online readership is typically lower, “is keeping in the worst traditions of obfuscation and opacity”.
“This is a violation of the intent and spirit of the Pentagon’s own Principles of Information, and it fails to meet the standards of public disclosure for senior government officials unable to exercise their duties,” MRE wrote in a statement.
Mr Austin is notoriously private and has kept a low profile during his time as defence secretary.
It has been more than a year since he appeared at the lectern in the Pentagon briefing room to address the news media.
He has been known to sometimes avoid reporters who travel with him overseas.
On those trips, he prefers to dine alone in his hotel room when he does not have an engagement with a foreign counterpart.
In his statement on Jan 6, Mr Austin said: “I am very glad to be on the mend and look forward to returning to the Pentagon soon.” NYTIMES, REUTERS
