The Timeline:

May 26, 2006

In his testimony before lawmakers yesterday, the Veterans Affairs Inspector General, George J. Opfer, laid out a timeline of events related to the theft of veterans data. (Read his written statement here.) The timeline is very much central to this incredible debacle. As Sen. Larry Craig said at the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing yesterday, the fact that “VA’s computer system permits one person to download the records of 26 million individuals and no one is alerted … is not even the most absurd part of this story. What is even more mind boggling is that after he revealed the facts of the theft to his supervisors, it took 13 more days for anyone else to discover the lost data was on 26 million people. … [And] Mr. Secretary [Nicholson] … you waited six more days to tell all of us.”

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