By Richard Sisk
The War Report

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has tapped retired Army Gen. John Abizaid  to jump-start a blue-ribbon review of the scandals at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary where body parts went missing and partial remains ended up in a landfill.

The work of the independent panel stalled when Dr. Richard Carmona, the former surgeon general of the U.S.
who was initially picked  to head  the review, abruptly quit to run as a Democrat for the Senate from Arizona with President Barack Obama’s backing.

Abizaid, 60, the former head of the Central Command overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will have 60 days to “evaluate the efficacy of changes already made to mortuary procedures at Dover and make recommendations about any additional changes which may be required,” a Panetta spokesman said.

But it was unclear whether Abizaid’s mandate would extend to probing charges of coverup in the initial investigation by the Air Force of the mishandling of remains at the Dover, Del., mortuary, the main entry point for troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was also unclear whether the Abizaid panel would look at the dumping of partial remains from Dover at a Virginia landfill without permission of the families, a practice that was stopped in 2008.

The Air Force investigation resulted in reprimands for three mortuary officials – one military and two civilians – but nobody was fired. A separate investigation by the office of Special Counsel, the federal agency that hears whistleblower complaints, found “gross mismanagement” at Dover and charged that the Air Force took reprisals against whistleblowers.

In a speech last week to an Air Force Association forum in Los Angeles, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said “We deeply regret the pain this has caused to the families. “There is no question that the system was broken. It is our responsibility to fix, and I can attest that corrective action is well underway.”

“I have also been directed by Secretary Panetta to ensure that appropriate disciplinary action was taken in regard to the Dover mortuary — a charge I take very seriously,” Donley said. “Our review will be exceedingly thorough and rigorous, as our fallen and the families they leave behind deserve nothing less.”

The other members of the Abizaid panel are: Retired Army Gen. Fred Franks, a member of the Defense Department’s health board; Ruth Stonecifer, a representative of families supported by the Dover Port Mortuary; — Dr. Vic Snyder, a former Democratic Representative from Arkansas.

Also Garold Huey, a funeral director and embalmer who served in the Navy as an enlisted embalming technician; Jacquelyn Taylor, executive director of the New England Institute and an internationally recognized leader in funeral service education; and Dr. Bruce Parks, a forensic pathologist.

(Photo: Gen. John Abizaid testifies before Senate with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Defense  Department photo by Staff Sg.t D. Myles Cullen.)