Trump's Pick for Top Pentagon Healthcare Job Was Fired by CIA

Keith Bass headed CIA's troubled Office of Medical Services, faulted for such poor administration and handling of Havana Syndrome that Congress intervened

Keith Bass, President-elect Trump’s pick to run the Pentagon’s sprawling healthcare systems, was effectively fired by the CIA in 2021 for his poor management of the spy agency’s Office of Medical Services.

Keith Bass (West Texas Health Care System photo)

Bass was “pushed out,” two authoritative sources told SpyTalk, after fumbling the agency’s handling of Havana Syndrome, which the government calls Anomalous Health Incidents, or AHI.  One of the sources familiar with Bass’s removal, speaking on terms of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue, said the retired former naval officer “was removed” by CIA Director Bill Burns, “not for misconduct,” but because “OMS was being poorly run, and AHI just flushed it out." Numerous media reports in 2021 said the OMS chief was “pushed out” without identifying Bass by name.

Late last month, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan report that blasted the CIA’s handling of AHI, the mysterious set of illnesses that have stricken scores of CIA, State Department and other government employees and their dependents, mostly overseas. The first cases were reported by officers stationed in Havana in 2016. 

“Many individuals faced obstacles to timely and sufficient care," the report said, among many other missteps. Bass “offloaded" the handling of AHI to his deputies,  one of the sources told SpyTalk.