US Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin hospitalized, was in ICU, Biden not told

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who sits second in the American military’s chain of command, has been hospitalized since last Monday and spent almost four days in the ICU, and the Pentagon did not inform Congress, the National Security Council, or even President Joe Biden until Thursday, it was revealed over the weekend. 

The president did not know Austin was hospitalized until his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, informed him on Thursday, CNN reported. 

Austin, 70, is required to be available at a moment’s notice to respond to any national security crisis. He apparently transferred his duties in part to Kathleen Hicks, his deputy, until resuming them in full on Friday. According to CNN, Hicks was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time of Austin’s hospitalization.

The Defense Secretary released a statement on Saturday, taking “full responsibility” for the secrecy surrounding his hospitalization. He ascribed his stay at Walter Reed to “complications following a recent elective medical procedure,” but neither Austin nor the Pentagon has provided any further details on Austin’s medical status, including whether he lost consciousness, or when he expects to be released. 

“I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public I was appropriately informed,” Austin said in a statement, adding, “I commit to do better.” 

The statement came after outcry from the Pentagon Press Association, representing journalists who cover the Defense Department in Washington, who were only informed of Austin’s hospitalization on Friday evening, about 15 minutes, according to Politico, after the Pentagon informed Members of Congress. 

The group published a statement on Friday decrying the secrecy around Austin’s status. Military Reporters and Editors (MRE), a non-profit organization for journalists covering the US military, said the decision to only release the information on a Friday evening, when online readership is typically lower, “is keeping in the worst traditions of obfuscation and opacity.”

Pentagon signaled normalcy amid developments in the Middle East

The Pentagon did not say whether the US made any major security decisions without Austin’s involvement, but the week during which he was hospitalized saw major activity around the world, particularly in the Middle East. Austin was hospitalized on January 1, and was not heard from publicly until his statement on Saturday. 

In the meantime, Hamas commander Saleh al-Arouri was assassinated in Lebanon, and ISIS killed more than a hundred people in a terrorist attack in Iran, at a memorial for the country’s slain general Qassem Soleimani, who was one of the group’s enemies until his death by an American airstrike in January 2020. 

On Saturday, Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at Israel’s north, calling it a response for the Hamas commander’s killing, and claimed to have struck an Israeli air force base in Meron. The IDF struck a series of Hezbollah targets later that day, including a compound used for the organization’s surface-to-air missile unit.