US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Has Prostate Cancer But ‘Prognosis Is Excellent,’ Doctors Say
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has prostate cancer, and his recent secretive hospitalization was for surgery and later to treat a urinary tract infection linked to that operation, but his “prognosis is excellent,” doctors said Tuesday.
The 70-year-old Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on December 22.
He underwent surgery to treat the cancer, but the White House and even defense officials were not told for days about his hospitalization or his illness, several sources said.
The Pentagon Press Association publicly questioned the perceived lack of transparency as Austin sits just below the president in the chain of command for the U.S. military, and his tasks include being ready for a nuclear attack.
In a statement, doctors emphasized that cancer was caught early and Austin’s “prognosis is excellent.”
Yet for Austin, that news was overshadowed by criticism about the secrecy surrounding his medical issues. Under pressure, he has apologized for not “ensuring the public was appropriately informed.”
His hospital stay came as the United States faces significant security challenges, including in the Middle East, where the war between Israel and Hamas seems to escalate into a broader armed conflict.
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Other crises range from a standoff with Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s military buildup around Taiwan, the democratically run island that Beijing regards as Chinese territory.
With global tensions mounting, he transferred some of his authorities to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks after experiencing severe pain and being taken back to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center by ambulance and put into intensive care on January 1, Defense officials said.
But Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time, was not informed about his hospitalization until January 4, several sources confirmed.
Austin transferred “certain operational responsibilities that require constant secure communications capabilities” to Hicks on Tuesday afternoon, explained the Pentagon press secretary, Major General Pat Ryder.
Pentagon sources said, however, that Hicks keeps a complete suite of communications and capable staff with her at all times, regardless of geographic location.
However, in its own internal review and in a memo, the Pentagon broadened the circle of leaders who would be informed of any delegation of authorities by the defense secretary to ensure that, in the future, “proper and timely notification has been made to the President and White House and, as appropriate, the United States Congress and the American public.”
The Pentagon said officials to be notified would include the Pentagon’s general counsel, the chair and vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Combatant Commanders, service secretaries, the service chiefs of staff, the White House Situation Room, and the senior staff of the secretary and deputy secretary of defense.
QUESTIONS RAISED
Legislators were, however, expected to raise questions about the secrecy surrounding Austin’s health.
Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Roger Wicker both issued statements condemning the Defense Department for not initially disclosing Austin’s condition.
“We are learning more every hour about the Department’s shocking defiance of the law,” Wicker said in published remarks, adding that “members must be briefed on a full accounting of the facts immediately.”
Cotton, too, said that Austin must “promptly” provide the U.S. Congress with answers. “If this report is true, there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown,” he stressed.
Critics point out that during his hospitalization, the U.S. conducted a controversial airstrike that killed the leader of an Iranian-backed militia in Baghdad, and bases with Americans have been the target of attacks at least six times.
The Biden administration was also weighing options to strike Iran-backed Houthi militants based in Yemen due to their continued attacks against ships in the Red Sea in retaliation for Israel’s attacks on Palestinian communities.
It was unclear what the role of the prostate-cancer-suffering defense secretary has been in these decisions.
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