U.S. Army General Blocked Investigation Into Abuses at Afghan Hospital

By Michael Isikoff, National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News

The Army general in charge of preventing sexual abuse throughout the U.S. armed forces is facing new accusations that he personally interfered with an internal Pentagon investigation into allegations of horrific conditions at a U.S.-funded hospital in Afghanistan. 

Three whistleblowers tell NBC News that Army Maj. Gen. Gary Patton blocked a subordinate from briefing the Pentagon inspector general about claims of mistreatment of patients and rampant corruption at the U.S.-funded Dawood National Military Hospital in Afghanistan.  

The allegations, along with charges that pharmaceuticals were being diverted by corrupt Afghan officers, triggered two hearings by a House investigations subcommittee last year that focused on whistleblower claims that senior U.S. military officers -- including Patton -- sought to cover up the abuses to avoid undercutting President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan strategy.  

Speaking publicly for the first time, Navy Lt. Commander Jeremy Young told NBC News that Patton cut off him off and upbraided him when he tried to brief investigators from the Defense Department’s inspector general’s office about the maltreatment of patients -- including one whose bones had been misaligned through a botched surgery.