Oh Look! The V.A. Is Offering Free Rides!

.... but it ain't on a bus, train, plane, or getting past a 45 minute wait in the telephone Holds of Hell with the local Social Security Administration.

Vast Data Cache About Veterans Has Been Stolen

By DAVID STOUT and TOM ZELLER Jr.

Published: May 23, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 22 — Personal electronic information on up to 26.5 million military veterans, including their Social Security numbers and birth dates, was stolen from the residence of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee who had taken the data home without authorization, the agency said Monday.

The case is under investigation by the department's inspector general and the F.B.I. Mr. Burns, noting that the inquiry was continuing, would not say when the theft was discovered.

But a Congressional aide briefed on the matter, granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about it, said the information was on disks. Secretary Nicholson, speaking at the same news conference as Attorney General Gonzales, said the worker had taken the data home to work on a department project. Mr. Nicholson described the worker, who has not been identified, as a longtime employee of the agency. He lives in suburban Maryland, a law enforcement official said.

"There is no telling what kind of path the data is going to take," Ms. Givens said. The combination of names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth "means that 26.5 million people could — could — become victims of identity theft," she said.

Ooookay. A guv shlunk walks out of the office with rank, name, serial number database of 26.5 MILLION veterans? On computer disks. Wouldn't that take up at least a box? And no one noticed? ooookay. Apparently security is limited to getting past the telephone queue.

And what about that 26.5 million figure? Dang. Annie hopes whoever that 1/2 a person is at least gets some help back onto the turnip truck! And what does that figure tell us about the machinations of our America? 26.5 million veterans. Of war.

So, we wondered if this story smells, well ... just a wee bit fishy? Dull scales, cloudy eyeballs. Pungent and rank, making us say "P. U.!" "Something stinks!" This may give us a wee clue as to the possibility of further Homeland Security Trix. And we don't mean the cereal. Nothing to judge on Annie's part toward Senator Schumer as his record is not known to this writer. However, a perusal of that 2005 "computer security bill" may be in order.

Another Democrat, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, said, "If the government is going to tell private companies that they have to secure Americans' personal and financial data, then it has to set a much better example itself."

Mr. Schumer introduced a far-reaching computer security bill in 2005, but it failed to gain enough support.

And Annie just *has* to ask this question: What could or would be served by the "sudden" expunging of the V.A./service and/or medical records of 26.5 million veterans of some very Unholy Wars? We'll have to get back to this issue with some data on the military personnel subjected to human experimentation and the ongoing pursuits of those individuals fighting for their rights, their health, their very lives.