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Ex-VA Head Admits Fraud

By VVAW

James S. Gleason, Jr. was convicted of bank fraud in Chicago on June 22. Gleason isn't just any crook. He's a former Commander of the American Legion, former director of the Veteran's Administration under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, former Chairman of the Mercantile National Bank of Chicago and a Major General in the US Army Reserve.

Gleason admitted to stealing almost $600,000 while he was Chairman at Mercantile, from November of 1974 to February of 1975.

Bank fraud and thievery among the ruling class is nothing new. Gleason joins a long list of crooks from Spiro Agnew to Al Capone--rats who prey on the lives of decent working people. But that Gleason has a long association with the military and service in the Legion and has head of the VA makes him get singled out. How deep his crimes really go is still under investigation, but it would come as no surprise that while he was head of the VA that he stole money meant for veterans by "arranging loans and payments to himself through unknown channels."

And the gall of the VA for always accusing veterans of stealing money from them when they are the real thieves, like this Gleason admits to.

The American Legion has spawned some of the most deceitful men around. Standing as a reactionary thorn in the sides of decent men and women in this country, the Legion leadership backs everything backward, while posing as the friend of millions of veterans in the US. That Gleason is their former commander comes as no surprise.

Gleason and his ilk should be locked up for a long time, where they'd probably compare notes on how they robbed the vast majority of the American people. Eventually they will get their just desserts, but not in the cushy prisons the ruling class reserves for itself.