From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 1 hour ago, updated now
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin attends a welcoming ceremony at the Department of Defense in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 13, 2023. POOL/Portal
The strange disappearance of Lloyd Austin caused controversy on the other side of the Atlantic.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, under fire for a late-publicity hospitalization, is being treated for prostate cancer, doctors said Tuesday, Jan. 9, citing the U.S. Department of Defense. “His prostate cancer was detected early and his prognosis is excellent,” they assured in a Pentagon press release.
On Dec. 22, he was admitted to Walter Reed Military Hospital and underwent a prostatectomy under general anesthesia, a surgical procedure that removes the prostate, according to doctors. Mr. Austin “recovered uneventfully from his surgery and returned home the next morning,” they added.
Complications
But he was hospitalized again on Jan. 1 with complications from the Dec. 22 operation, “including nausea with severe pain in the abdomen, hip and leg,” it said. On January 2, he was transferred to the intensive care unit “for close monitoring,” it said. “During this stay, Secretary Austin never lost consciousness and was not placed under general anesthesia,” the same source said.
The hospitalization on Monday, January 1st was not made public by the Ministry of Defense until Friday evening, contrary to protocol. The White House was only informed this Tuesday after Mr. Austin was hospitalized, a spokesman said. A “non-ideal” situation. “It's not ideal for a situation like this to go on for so long without the commander in chief knowing about it,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, as controversy grows over the absence notice related to two hospitalizations of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “This is not how things should happen,” he added during a press conference.
According to John Kirby, US President Joe Biden was only informed of the cancer diagnosis on Tuesday. He was also not informed about the first operation under general anesthesia on December 22nd. Despite this affair, President Joe Biden has “complete confidence” in his defense secretary, his spokesman assured on Monday.
But several Republican opponents of Joe Biden, most notably his likely rival in November's presidential election, Donald Trump, have called for Lloyd Austin to be fired or resigned. Several conservatives also believed that the affair showed a lack of authority or competence on the part of the American president.
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