LOS ANGELES – More than 2500 years ago, Aesop prophetically forewarned: “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”

Putting this into today’s perspective, if a homeless and hungry Veteran pilfers some food for personal survival he or she will go to jail. If dishonest public officials embezzle billions-of-dollars of Veterans’ property for personal advantage, they will be shielded from prosecution. This discriminatory injustice must cease, posthaste!

The Los Angeles Department of Justice (DOJ) has continued its war of injustice against war-injured and impoverished Veterans who are forced to live homeless and hungry in back-alley squalor because the deeded land to their National Veterans Home has been pillaged and plundered for non-Veteran use.

Shamefully, the DOJ has ignored the biggest land-fraud scandal in American history that has become an international disgrace of Biblical proportion because of the inhumane treatment of disabled and disadvantaged homeless Veterans in Los Angeles.

On June 12, 2010, the Los Angeles Times featured an article titled “U.S. Attorney to Target Corruption.”

It was about Andrew Birotte, Jr., the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney who had just announced that he was creating a specialized unit to prosecute public corruption, such as those involving politicians or police officers accused of crimes.Its mission, he proclaimed, will be “to bring to justice those public officials and public employees who violate the public trust.”

As we know, President Barack Obama and General Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), have made bold claims that they will end Veteran homeless by next year.







On June 8, 2011, one year after U.S. Attorney Birotte claimed that he would bring justice against public employees who violate the public trust, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against public employees Donna Beiter, executive director of the Los Angeles VA, and her boss, General Eric K. Shinseki, for the unlawful use of federal VA property that benefited non-Veteran entities instead of providing supportive healthcare and housing for disabled and homeless Veterans.

Instead of investigating Ms. Beiter and General Shinseki on behalf of homeless Veterans, Mr. Birotte and his large staff of deputy U.S. Attorneys aggressively fought the lawsuit.

However, on August 29, 2013, Mr. Birotte and his team of Deputy Attorneys lost as U.S. District Judge S. James Otero entered a Federal Judgment against Defendants Beiter and Shinseki for engaging in nine separate real estate deals that were adjudicated as “unauthorized by law and therefore void.” Now, instead of bringing justice to these public employees who violated their public trust , U.S. Attorney Birotte continues to violate his own public trust and personal promise as he and his fellow U.S. Attorneys have Appealed the Federal Judgment at the costly expense of the American taxpayer and the prolonged misery and suffering of disabled and destitute Veterans who need immediate housing and care.

On the other hand, Mr. Birotte and FBI Agents have spent that past couple years investigating and recently indicting a California State Senator for allegedly taking $100,000 in bribes and kick-backs.

U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte (L) and FBI Assistant Director Bill Lewis (R) speak at a news conference February 21, 2014, in Los Angeles. These Federal law enforcement authorities announced multiple charges of bribery and cover-up against California State Senator Ron Calderon.

What State Senator Calderon is alleged to have done is small-time compared to the billions-of-dollars of Federal VA property that was unlawfully transacted with sweetheart land deals, including a “rent free” agreement with a wealthy homeowner group to build a public park on Veterans property, which is endorsed by U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

U.S. Senator Feinstein used the power of her own public trust to write a letter to former VA Secretary Nicholson on behalf of the homeowner group directing him that a long-term “sharing agreement” between the VA and the homeowner group must be approved. Three months later the VA entered into a 30-year “rent free” agreement with the homeowner group to build a public park on Veterans VA property, in complete violation of Federal law.

While State Senator Calderon violated his own public trust with bribery and kick-back scams, he never gave away any Federal VA land or forced one disabled Veteran to become homeless like what transpired at the largest VA in the nation and eventually led Los Angeles to be our nation’s capital for homeless Veterans.

Since the U.S. Attorneys will not investigate the biggest land-fraud scandal in American history compounded by heinous Human Rights Violations, we again request Congressional, FBI and Federal Grand Jury Investigations into this unconscionable land swindle of incomparable measure and devastation.

We request immediate investigations by The Human Rights Council of the United Nations, The Hague’s International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, The Vatican, et al., against the United States Government for heinous crimes against humanity that have been perpetrated against our war-injured Veterans who have defended freedom around the world and are now impoverished and forced to live homeless and hungry in despicable and inhumane conditions. The Los Angeles Department of Justice has shamefully failed to defend our disabled and needy Veterans, but instead aggressively fights the lawsuit that produced a Federal Judgment against the VA Secretary and his Los Angeles director for unlawful use of Veterans property.

Vietnam Veterans of America is a major Plaintiff in the lawsuit and by the VA’s own admission, nearly half (47%) of today’s homeless Veterans are from the Vietnam War era, which ended nearly 40 years ago.

By vigorously fighting this lawsuit, U.S. Attorney Birotte prolongs this national disgrace and nullifies President Obama’s own promise;

“One of the most painful chapters in our history was Vietnam — most particularly, how we treated our troops who served there. You were often blamed for a war you didn’t start, when you should have been commended for serving your country with valor. You were sometimes blamed for misdeeds of a few, when the honorable service of the many should have been praised. You came home and sometimes were denigrated, when you should have been celebrated. It was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened. And that’s why here today we resolve that it will not happen again.” President Obama – Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. on May 28, 2012

Correspondingly, if President Obama is serious about his promise to Vietnam War Veterans and to end Veteran homeless by next year, then he needs to make major changes in his Department of Justice and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and that means immediately replacing Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki and his Los Angeles VA director Donna Beiter.

It’s important to point out that Henry Waxman was a Vietnam War protestor. In 1974, shortly before the fall of Saigon that ended the War, he was elected to the public trust as a U.S. Representative that included our nation’s largest VA within his Congressional District.

Thus, it’s no surprise that during nearly four decades of public trust, Henry Waxman never appropriated a single dollar for a single blanket for a single homeless Veteran while Los Angeles became our nation’s capital for homeless Veterans.

Did I mention that Congressman Waxman and Senator Feinstein support a rent-free public park on a billion-dollar parcel of Veterans property that was adjudicated in Federal Court to be “unauthorized by law and therefore void?”

Congressman Darrell Issa, Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, needs to begin immediate investigations into all this crime, corruption and cover up under Henry Waxman’s 40-year entrusted “watch” at the painful expense of tens of thousands of war-injured and impoverished Veterans.

Hopefully, these neglected Veterans will finally get some poetic justice since Henry Waxman was a former Chairman of the powerful Oversight Committee even though he never once investigated all this crime and corruption in his own Congressional District that was being conveniently covered up.

Hopefully true American justice will finally replace our U.S. Government’s injustice against our deprived Veterans.

God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!

Author Details Author Details Robert Rosebrock U.S. Army, 1965-67, Schofield Barracks, Hqs., U.S Army, Hawaii. Director, The Veterans Revolution, Captain, the Old Veterans Guard, and Director, We the Veterans.