Heads roll at Veterans Administration

[Nordmadr]

Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier this month was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War.

Writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter No. 169, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, “The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.”

Bernklau continued, “This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.”

He added, “Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.

http://www.sfbayview.com/012605/headsroll012605.shtml

Think of what those numbers will look like from the Iraq war this time.

Olaf

[bigtree]

1. Remember these reports?

Army hunts cause of pneumonia in troops- Monday, August 4, 2003
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/08/04/military.illness/index.html

The U.S. Army said Monday it has activated two medical teams to help investigators determine what has caused about 100 cases of pneumonia -- two of them fatal -- among service members in the Persian Gulf since March 1.

Army Sends Teams to Probe Iraq Illness- August 1, 2003
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4317.htm

A six-person team of specialists was en route to Iraq Friday to investigate 14 cases of pneumonia serious enough that the soldiers had to be put on ventilators to breathe and evacuated.

The team on its way to Iraq includes infectious disease experts, laboratory officers and people who will take samples of soil, water and air.

A two-person team already has gone to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where most of the cases were treated after evacuation. The two teams also will review patient records and laboratory results and conduct interviews

The teams will be looking for similarities among the cases, which so far have hit troops in geographically dispersed areas and from different units, said the Thursday statement. They also were spread over time, with two in March, three in April, two in May, three in June and four in July.

Though only 14 cases were considered serious, there have been 100 cases altogether since March 1.


Iraq pneumonia deaths investigated- Saturday, 2 August, 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3118537.stm

The US army has sent a team of experts to Iraq to investigate a pneumonia outbreak among its troops, which has so far left two dead.
There have been more than 100 cases among US troops in the Iraq region since the beginning of March, including 15 serious enough to warrant medical evacuation to get the patients ventilators to assist their breathing

Of these 15, two soldiers died, 10 troops recovered and three remain hospitalised.

"We have no evidence to indicate that there are chemical or biological weapons or environmental toxins involved "

Lyn Kukral, army spokeswoman
____________________________________________________


The American death-count from that first Gulf war was 346 total from all causes, out of 511,000 troops deployed from August 1990 to February 1991.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, thirty-six percent of the 581,000 retired veterans serving at the height of the 1991 Gulf War have filed health claims.

Of that number, 22 percent of the claims remain pending, or have been denied. As you stated, ore than 11,000 Gulf War veterans, whose average age was 36 when the war began, have since died, many from illnesses their families believed were war-related from exposures to chemical weapons that troops found and destroyed, depleted uranium from U.S. armor-piercing munitions, pollution from oil well fires, experimental vaccines, and anti-nerve agent pretreatment pills, among other toxins.

According to: Steve Robinson, of the
National Gulf War Resource Center
http://www.ngwrc.org /

~697,000 served in the first Gulf War;

~320,000 veterans who deployed in the first Gulf War have sought medical treatment from the VA;

~214,000 veterans who deployed to the first Gulf War have filed for disability;

~167,000 veterans who deployed to the first Gulf War have had their claim approved;

~40,000 veterans who deployed have had their claim denied;

~22,000 veterans have a claim pending

GAO Report, Gulf War Illness
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-833T

British Syndrome Diaries
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-833T

Gulf War 'linked to nerve disease'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3129180.stm

Gulf War Illnesses~

Department of Veterans Affairs Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses
http://www.va.gov/rac-gwvi /

Department of Defense, Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil /

Walter Reed Medical Center Program for Gulf War Veterans
http://160.151.186.19/departments/dhcc /

Gulf War Illnesses: Fact & Fiction - A Guide for Veterans and Families Am. Leigon
http://www.legion.org/pdf_files/gwi1.pdf

Gulf War Benefits & Programs: A Guide for Veterans and Families Am. Leigon
http://www.legion.org/pdf_files/gwi2.pdf

Gulf War/Agent Orange Helpline: 1-800-749-8387

National Gulf War Resource Center
http://www.ngwrc.org /

Citizen Soldier depleted uranium report
http://www.citizen-soldier.org/CS09-uranium.html

GULFLINK FILES
http://www.citizen-soldier.org/CS09-uranium.html

Depleted Uranium National Public Radio broadcast (4/18/03)
http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1236241

Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs - Gulf War Veterans Project
http://www.kcva.org/gulfwar.html

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Division of Epidemiology - Gulf War Syndrome
http://www.swmed.edu/home_pages/epidemi/gws /

Epidemiologic Research and Information Center (ERIC)
http://hsrd.durham.med.va.gov/ERIC/ALS/ALSregistry.htm

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov /

Gulf War Veterans' Health
http://www.va.gov/gulfwar /

[jarab]

4. Thanks for the links, bigtree .... (kick!!)

...O...

[lonestarnot]

2. and think of generations to come, both our GI's and Iraqi people n/t

[indepat]

5. The good news is most Americans don't give a diddledy-f**k about

what has been done to the Iraqi people and nation.

[Nordmadr]

9. That is the even bigger tragedy.

If it has affected our soldiers this way, what about the long term exposure to Iraqi civilians as well, and it is only going to get worse.

The fact that most don't care because they aren't American disgusts me.

How many more hundreds of thousands of people have to suffer for the Bush war of choice?

I served a deployment to the Persian Gulf while in the Navy. I am fortunate not to have had to actually be on land in Iraq and also fortunate to not have any KNOWN health problems from my shipboard proximity...now 10 years later.

Olaf

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Naturally, we never look at...

the numbers of people suffering in Iraq where we are leaving all that DU dust.

We don't seem to care much about the kids we know have limbs blown off, so why even ask about what might be happening.

[DemoTex]

6. D-U(235) will be Iraq-nam's Agent Orange .. only much, much worse.

Uranium has at least sixteen isotopes, ranging from U-226 to U-242. Most of these are “man-made” and a naturally occurring sample of uranium will contain approximately 0.7 % U-235 and 99.3 % U-238. While both U-235 and U-238 are radioactive, only the U-235 isotope can undergo self-sustaining nuclear fission, a process in which the nucleus splits apart into two smaller nuclei, thus starting a chain reaction and resulting in the liberation of a vast amount of energy. In order to use uranium as a nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors, it is treated in such a manner as to separate the fissionable U-235 isotope from the remainder of the natural material. The byproduct of this process is depleted uranium; in other words uranium that has been depleted in the amount of the U-235 isotope. Even thought the name might suggest otherwise, depleted uranium is still radioactive, with a half life of 4,500,000,000 years. In addition, uranium and many of the compounds it forms are chemically toxic, and uranium is especially dangerous, as are many other metals, when it is inhaled in a finely divided form.

http://neon.otago.ac.nz/chemistry/magazine/chmat2.php

Again, consider the Nuremberg Indictments:

1. Conspiracy to Wage Aggressive War
2. Waging Aggressive War, or "Crimes Against Peace"
3. War Crimes
4. Crimes Against Humanity

Now consider the Nuremberg Indictments in light of the de facto nuclear war that we are waging on Iraq for no sustainable or justifiable reason whatever. If the nuclear toxins of the Bu$h war machine are killing, maiming, and sickening tens-of-thousands (or more) of our soldiers, what is the effect on the Iraqi civilian population? Much worse, I dare say. Some day it will be quantified and, if there is a shred of justice in the world, those responsible for this war of aggression will be held accountable.

[Junkdrawer]

7. Alpha emitters are VERY carcinogenic once inhaled or injested...

There's some thought that the polonium-210 and lead-210 may be part of the reason for cigarette lung cancer.

http://www.erowid.org/plants/tobacco/tobacco_health3.shtml

[JohnyCanuck]

8. Those weapons engineers and the high level military brass

responsible for unleashing this stuff on the world should burn in hell with red hot pokers jammed up their asses.

[lonestarnot]

10. Heads should roll! n/t

:kick:

[flyarm]

11. and the pig rethugs drive around ..

with yellow ribbons with "support the troops...they make me puke..am i the oly one who wants to ram my bumper up their asses?? sometimes i sit at a light behind them and i really have to use all my self control!! lol

i have one on my bumper that says.."bring them home"!!i wish i had a bumper sticker that said

* is killing our troops and their future babies
with depleted uranium
so what the hell are you supporting??
you right wing hypocrites!
bring them home now!


fly

[Bigmack]

12. BBC TV News reported tonite..

about the Vietnamese civil case being tried in US court about Agent Orange damage in the Vietnamese today.

How often do we see this on MSM outlets?

The DU information has been around for years and nobody is saying shit, even tho we have thousands suffering now and more thousands will suffer in the future.

This country has no soul.

[slay]

13. One more great accomplishment by BushCo

At the rate these BushCo assholes operate; soon enough they will kill us all.