"Your Future is What You Will Choose Today."

Written by: Sam Feldman on Nov 28, 2006 7:45 AM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Blog Network

War Protester's Suicide Prompts Questions

By ASHLEY M. HEHER, AP

CHICAGO (Nov. 26) -- Malachi Ritscher envisioned his death as one full of purpose.

He carefully planned the details, mailed a copy of his apartment key to a friend, created a to-do list for his family. On his web site, the 52 year-old experimental musician who fought with depression even penned his obituary.

At 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 3 - four days before the U.S. congressional election caused a seismic shift in Washington politics - Ritscher, a frequent anti-war protester, stood by an off-ramp in downtown Chicago near a statue of a giant flame, set up a video camera, doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire.

Aglow for the crush of morning commuters, his flaming body was supposed to be a call to the nation, a symbol of his rage and discontent with the U.S. war in Iraq.

"Here is the statement I want to make: if I am required to pay for your barbaric war, I choose not to live in your world. I refuse to finance the mass murder of innocent civilians, who did nothing to threaten our country," he wrote in his suicide note. "... If one death can atone for anything, in any small way, to say to the world: I apologize for what we have done to you, I am ashamed for the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country.

There was only one problem: No one was listening.

It took five days for the Cook County medical examiner to identify the charred-beyond-recognition corpse. Meanwhile, Ritscher's suicide went largely unnoticed. It wasn't until a reporter for an alternative weekly, the Chicago Reader, pieced the facts together that word began to spread.

Soon, tributes - and questions - poured in to the paper's blogs.

Was this a man consumed by mental illness? Or was Ritscher a martyr driven by rage over what he saw as an unjust war? Was he a convenient symbol for an anti-war movement or was there more to his message?

"This man killed himself in such a painful way, specifically to get our attention on these things," said Jennifer Diaz, a 28-year-old graduate student who never met him but has been researching his life. Now, she is organizing protests and vigils in his name. "I'm not going to sit by and I can't sit by and let this go unheard."

Mental health experts say virtually no suicides occur without some kind of a diagnosable mental illness. But Ritscher's family disagrees about whether he had severe mental problems.

In a statement, Ritscher's parents and siblings called him an intellectually gifted man who suffered from bouts of depression. They stopped short of saying he had ever received a clinical diagnosis of mental illness.

"He believed in his actions, however extreme they were," his younger brother, Paul Ritscher, wrote online. "He believed they could help to open eyes, ears and hearts and to show everyone that a single man's actions, by taking such extreme personal responsibility, can perhaps affect change in the world."

His son, who shares the same name as his father, said his father was trying to cope with mental illness. Suicide seemed to be the next step, and the war was a way to give his death meaning.

"He was different people at different instances and so, so erratic. I loved him no doubt, but he was a very lonely and tragic man," said Ritscher, 35, who is estranged from the rest of the family. "The idea of being a martyr I'm sure was attractive. He could literally go out in a blaze of glory."

Born in Dickinson, North Dakota, with the name Mark David, Ritscher dropped out of high school, married at 17 and divorced 10 years later. Eventually, he would change his name to match his son's and, coincidentally, a prophet. At the end, he worked in building maintenance and was a fixture in Chicago's experimental music scene.

He described himself as a renaissance man who had amassed a collection of more than 2,000 musical recordings from clubs in Chicago. He was a writer, philosopher and photographer. He was an alcoholic who collected fossils, glass eyes, light bulbs and snare drums. He paid $25 to become an ordained minister with the Missionaries of the New Truth and operated a handful of Web sites protesting the Iraq war.

A member of the Mensa high IQ group who claimed to be able to recite the infinite number Pi to more than 1,000 decimal places, he titled his obituary "Out of Time." Friends, who seemed surprised about his death, found themselves searching for answers. Ritscher's death became even more enigmatic than his life.

Perhaps the most famous self-immolation occurred in 1963, when Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burned himself at a Saigon intersection in protest against the south Vietnamese regime. Another activist, Kathy Change, lit fire to herself in 1996 at the University of Pennsylvania to protest the government and the country's economic system.

Ritscher's death brought back memories for Anita King, a 48-year-old artist from West Philadelphia who was Change's best friend.

"I think both of them, they just felt like their death could be the last drop of blood shed," King said. "It was too hard for them. They had too much of a conscious connection to the struggle to go on in their lives."

In the end, only Ritscher knew the motivations for his suicide. There is little doubt, though, that he was satisfied with his choice.

"Without fear I go now to God," Ritscher wrote in the last sentence of his suicide note. "Your future is what you will choose today."

Arlington Miami, Oct 14-16

Written by: Sam Feldman on Oct 24, 2006 8:25 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Latinos for America

Hi Everyone,

Please view a short video clip of the Arlington Miami event of Oct 14-16, 2006. This event is staged jointly by DFA Miami and Miami Veterans for Peace. The video is a short clip that was prepared for our appearance in a conservative Cuban TV Program in Miami.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4EUsK2p...

Kudos to Simon Rose, the Communications Director for DFA Miami, the most responsible individual who drove this event into reality.

We done good!

Sam

Arlington Miami Oct 14-16

Written by: Sam Feldman on Oct 24, 2006 8:20 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Veterans for Democracy

Dear Member,

Please take a few short minutes and view a video clip of Arlington Miami.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4EUsK2p...

Thanks,

Sam

Dave Patlak on AM 940 this morning!

Written by: Sam Feldman on Sep 26, 2006 7:07 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for America Miami-Dade (DFAM)

Dear Member,

Big Dave Patlak, our Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, will be on the Jim DeFede show on AM 940 Tuesday morning between 8 and 9 a.m., and calling in from Los Angeles will be Dave's longtime friend Sally Kellerman.

Can be heard on the internet, www.am940SouthFlorida.com

This will be some fine radio.

Legacy of having served

Written by: Sam Feldman on Sep 25, 2006 12:47 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Florida DFA

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/286...

Mayor proposes millions to help homeless veterans
Friday, September 22, 2006

By CLAUDIA ROWE
P-I REPORTER

On any given night, 1,500 veterans sleep in city shelters. Those from the Vietnam era often have been homeless for decades, watching now as newcomers from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan gradually join their ranks.

Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or injuries that prevent their return to previous jobs.

Thursday, Mayor Greg Nickels proposed setting aside $3 million to provide housing and services for about 30 of these men and women, on top of $38 million that Seattle last year earmarked to alleviate homelessness generally.

"We're tying to identify some of the hardest-to-serve folks," said Adrienne Quinn, director of the city's Office of Housing. "People who cycle in and out of the sobering center."

If the City Council approves the plan, $1 million would go toward providing rent subsidies to these veterans and getting them immediately off the streets. The remaining $2 million would be spent to build new housing units paired with mental health, job training and other services, Quinn said.

Sheila Sebron, 47, who spent 18 months homeless in Seattle after an eight-year career in the Air Force, was gratified by the news.

"Had this been in place when I was going through it, things would have been different," she said, adding that timing is critical.

Those who work directly with the homeless agree.

The longer a person lives on the streets, the higher the likelihood that he will remain there, so linking the chronically transient to government services must be a priority, they said.

M.J. Kiser, a manager at the Compass Center, which runs several housing programs, described one client, a Vietnam War veteran in his late 50s. She said he had drifted in and out of shelters for decades, steadfastly refusing help from the Department of Veterans Affairs, even after suffering a stroke on First Avenue.

"He was mentally ill, a combat vet," she said. "And he was just not willing to go to the VA hospital or deal with any VA people in any way. He's the kind of guy we're hoping the mayor's program will help."

Iraq war veterans may have different issues, problems that are only now beginning to manifest, said Joel Estey, manager of the King County Veterans Program.

"But the legacy of Vietnam," he said, "is that we as a country realized we have to take care of the soldiers that are doing the fighting."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P-I reporter Claudia Rowe can be reached at 206-448-8320 or claudiarowe@seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Legacy of Service

Written by: Sam Feldman on Sep 25, 2006 12:42 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for America Miami-Dade (DFAM)

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/286...

Mayor proposes millions to help homeless veterans
Friday, September 22, 2006

By CLAUDIA ROWE
P-I REPORTER

On any given night, 1,500 veterans sleep in city shelters. Those from the Vietnam era often have been homeless for decades, watching now as newcomers from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan gradually join their ranks.

Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or injuries that prevent their return to previous jobs.

Thursday, Mayor Greg Nickels proposed setting aside $3 million to provide housing and services for about 30 of these men and women, on top of $38 million that Seattle last year earmarked to alleviate homelessness generally.

"We're tying to identify some of the hardest-to-serve folks," said Adrienne Quinn, director of the city's Office of Housing. "People who cycle in and out of the sobering center."

If the City Council approves the plan, $1 million would go toward providing rent subsidies to these veterans and getting them immediately off the streets. The remaining $2 million would be spent to build new housing units paired with mental health, job training and other services, Quinn said.

Sheila Sebron, 47, who spent 18 months homeless in Seattle after an eight-year career in the Air Force, was gratified by the news.

"Had this been in place when I was going through it, things would have been different," she said, adding that timing is critical.

Those who work directly with the homeless agree.

The longer a person lives on the streets, the higher the likelihood that he will remain there, so linking the chronically transient to government services must be a priority, they said.

M.J. Kiser, a manager at the Compass Center, which runs several housing programs, described one client, a Vietnam War veteran in his late 50s. She said he had drifted in and out of shelters for decades, steadfastly refusing help from the Department of Veterans Affairs, even after suffering a stroke on First Avenue.

"He was mentally ill, a combat vet," she said. "And he was just not willing to go to the VA hospital or deal with any VA people in any way. He's the kind of guy we're hoping the mayor's program will help."

Iraq war veterans may have different issues, problems that are only now beginning to manifest, said Joel Estey, manager of the King County Veterans Program.

"But the legacy of Vietnam," he said, "is that we as a country realized we have to take care of the soldiers that are doing the fighting."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P-I reporter Claudia Rowe can be reached at 206-448-8320 or claudiarowe@seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Legacy of Service

Written by: Sam Feldman on Sep 25, 2006 12:41 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Veterans for Democracy

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/286...

Mayor proposes millions to help homeless veterans
Friday, September 22, 2006

By CLAUDIA ROWE
P-I REPORTER

On any given night, 1,500 veterans sleep in city shelters. Those from the Vietnam era often have been homeless for decades, watching now as newcomers from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan gradually join their ranks.

Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or injuries that prevent their return to previous jobs.

Thursday, Mayor Greg Nickels proposed setting aside $3 million to provide housing and services for about 30 of these men and women, on top of $38 million that Seattle last year earmarked to alleviate homelessness generally.

"We're tying to identify some of the hardest-to-serve folks," said Adrienne Quinn, director of the city's Office of Housing. "People who cycle in and out of the sobering center."

If the City Council approves the plan, $1 million would go toward providing rent subsidies to these veterans and getting them immediately off the streets. The remaining $2 million would be spent to build new housing units paired with mental health, job training and other services, Quinn said.

Sheila Sebron, 47, who spent 18 months homeless in Seattle after an eight-year career in the Air Force, was gratified by the news.

"Had this been in place when I was going through it, things would have been different," she said, adding that timing is critical.

Those who work directly with the homeless agree.

The longer a person lives on the streets, the higher the likelihood that he will remain there, so linking the chronically transient to government services must be a priority, they said.

M.J. Kiser, a manager at the Compass Center, which runs several housing programs, described one client, a Vietnam War veteran in his late 50s. She said he had drifted in and out of shelters for decades, steadfastly refusing help from the Department of Veterans Affairs, even after suffering a stroke on First Avenue.

"He was mentally ill, a combat vet," she said. "And he was just not willing to go to the VA hospital or deal with any VA people in any way. He's the kind of guy we're hoping the mayor's program will help."

Iraq war veterans may have different issues, problems that are only now beginning to manifest, said Joel Estey, manager of the King County Veterans Program.

"But the legacy of Vietnam," he said, "is that we as a country realized we have to take care of the soldiers that are doing the fighting."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P-I reporter Claudia Rowe can be reached at 206-448-8320 or claudiarowe@seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Toxic Tours of Duty? Historic legislation would ensure uranium testing for local soldiers

Written by: Sam Feldman on Sep 24, 2006 10:43 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for America Miami-Dade (DFAM)

By Jan Clifford, Contributing Writer
May 9, 2005

According to some military and science experts, the U.S. military has been using the equivalent of dirty bombs in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom; and the resulting contamination is biogenetically affecting U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and civilians and will continue to do so for generations to come.

The Louisiana House of Representatives became the first legislative body in the nation to acknowledge the toxic effects of depleted uranium (DU) when it passed a bill on Tuesday that guarantees DU testing for war veterans as a medical benefit. The bill passed by a vote of 101-0. No state expenses will be incurred since the federal government subsidizes the $170 test. The bill will become law if passed by the state Senate and signed by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

"The Army calls it the silver bullet. But the team that was assigned to go in and clean up after the first Gulf War was one hundred men," said Ret. Marine Corps Command Sgt. Maj. Bob Smith, who served three tours of duty in the elite Green Berets during the Vietnam War. "A third of them are already dead," he said. Smith is responsible for bringing the issue to the attention of House Rep. Jalila Jefferson. Jefferson enlisted House Rep. Juan LaFonta, who agreed to sponsor the bill. "Louisiana is very service friendly," LaFonta said. "We're concerned about our troops."

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Army officials assembled a team to clean up the DU contaminated tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. Most team members became sick within 48 hours, with the first cancers developing within nine months and first deaths from lung cancer within two years. Today, 14 years later, some veterans are still attempting to obtain medical testing and care, but say that military and Veterans Administration (VA) officials simply refuse to provide mandated services.

Permanent contamination, impossible containment

Many U.S. weapons, such as missiles, bombs, bullets, and tank shells contain DU, and act as "kinetic energy penetrators" that ignite during flight, and break into burning fragments upon impact. DU weapons are effective because they can penetrate and destroy all targets, including boring through 20 feet of super-reinforced concrete bunkers. DU is virtually cost-free, since it is a by-product of nuclear weapons production. The U.S. ADAM and PDM sub-munitions are called "the perfect dirty bombs" as each has a uranium casing filled with high explosives.

But these weapons are the proverbial double-edged swords. On detonation, uranium particles vaporize into a radioactive dust (uranium oxide) that coats everything within proximity. The dust can be swept high into the atmosphere, where upper level winds redistribute toxins across national boundaries.

When inhaled, these nano-particles, 100 times smaller than a cell, follow the respiratory system to attack the master code of DNA, and disable the immune system. Uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, so contamination is permanent, and containment is impossible.

According to Leuren Moret, a geoscientist who has worked around the world on radiation issues, depleted uranium is coming back into the U.S. "in veterans' uniforms and trophies and bags." It's also coming back in their bodies, transferred through semen.

Moret cited a U.S. government study, conducted by the VA on post-Gulf War babies in a group of 251 soldiers in Mississippi who all had normal babies before the Gulf War. The study found 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. Some were born without eyes (anophthalmos), ears, with missing organs, missing legs and arms, fused fingers, thyroid or other organ malformations. Moret said that in some families, the only healthy members are those born before the Gulf Wars.

A WMD used against our own?

The health repercussions in Iraq are unprecedented. In babies born in 2002, the incidence of anophthalmos was 250,000 times greater (20 cases in 4,000 births) than the natural occurrence, one in 50 million births.

The Army and Air Force fired at least 127 tons of DU shells in Iraq last year, according to Pentagon spokesman Michael Kilpatrick, in an interview with the New York Daily News. "Because of its density, it is the superior heavy metal for armor to protect tanks and to penetrate armor," Kilpatrick said.

In fact, the effects of DU meet U.S. government standards of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Publication 1-02, WMDs are "Weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Weapons of mass destruction can be high explosives or nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons."

"DU is illegal in any sense of the imagination," said Dr. Doug Rokke, a retired U.S. Army Major, nuclear health physicist, and the Pentagon's expert on the health effects of DU ammunition on the battlefield. Rokke was director of the Army's DU project, and wrote the Army regulations for handling and clean up for DU -- regulations he says the U.S. government is blatantly refusing to enforce. Today, although US Army Regulation 700-48 (www.traprockpeace.org/rokke_du_3...) requires DOD officials to provide medical care to all DU casualties and clean up DU contamination, Rokke said they simply refuse to do so.

Rokke said that by continuing to use DU, and by refusing to admit the acknowledged adverse environmental and health effects, DOD officials violate their own orders and regulations. "When we can no longer clean up the environment and we can no longer provide medical care for anybody that's exposed, then that weapon must never be used in conflict," Rokke said.

Long-term casualties

The official number of wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991 was just 467. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in the first Gulf War, 11,000 are now dead, and more than 325,000 are on permanent medical disability. That means 56 percent of those soldiers who served now have medical problems.

According to a Department of VA Fact Sheet, "Several scientific studies have shown that as a group, Gulf War veterans are reporting symptoms or diseases more frequently than non-Gulf comparison groups." Additionally, the Fact Sheet reports that a Center for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiological study found "multiple symptoms more prevalent in Air Force Gulf veterans compared with controls who served in other areas of the world. Although 39 percent of Air Force Gulf War veterans who were still on duty and were studied by CDC suffered from chronic problems with fatigue, mood, thinking and muscle aches and pains, this was also reported by 15 percent of the non-Gulf group."

And pediatricians for the VA are gathering data to enable "a comparison of child health not only among the Gulf War theater veterans and control cohorts, but also between children in the same family born before the Gulf deployment compared to those born after the conflict."

Marilyn Brown is the customer service coordinator for the Veterans Health Program in New Orleans. Brown said that her office is taking a proactive stance, and making visits to local units to inform veterans of available services. Returning veterans are entitled to two years free medical care, including psychological services; but they must apply within 90 days of returning from active duty. Brown said that she had no record of recently returning veterans suffering from symptoms related to contact with DU. Veterans can apply for services or simply discuss options by calling (504) 568-0811, extension 5913, or 1.800.985.8387. The office is at 1601 Perdido Street.


Contact Us - Privacy Policy - Copyright 2005, Louisiana Weekly Publishing Company

Toxic Tours of Duty? Historic legislation would ensure uranium testing for local soldiers

Written by: Sam Feldman on Sep 24, 2006 10:41 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Florida DFA

By Jan Clifford, Contributing Writer
May 9, 2005

According to some military and science experts, the U.S. military has been using the equivalent of dirty bombs in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom; and the resulting contamination is biogenetically affecting U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and civilians and will continue to do so for generations to come.

The Louisiana House of Representatives became the first legislative body in the nation to acknowledge the toxic effects of depleted uranium (DU) when it passed a bill on Tuesday that guarantees DU testing for war veterans as a medical benefit. The bill passed by a vote of 101-0. No state expenses will be incurred since the federal government subsidizes the $170 test. The bill will become law if passed by the state Senate and signed by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

"The Army calls it the silver bullet. But the team that was assigned to go in and clean up after the first Gulf War was one hundred men," said Ret. Marine Corps Command Sgt. Maj. Bob Smith, who served three tours of duty in the elite Green Berets during the Vietnam War. "A third of them are already dead," he said. Smith is responsible for bringing the issue to the attention of House Rep. Jalila Jefferson. Jefferson enlisted House Rep. Juan LaFonta, who agreed to sponsor the bill. "Louisiana is very service friendly," LaFonta said. "We're concerned about our troops."

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Army officials assembled a team to clean up the DU contaminated tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. Most team members became sick within 48 hours, with the first cancers developing within nine months and first deaths from lung cancer within two years. Today, 14 years later, some veterans are still attempting to obtain medical testing and care, but say that military and Veterans Administration (VA) officials simply refuse to provide mandated services.

Permanent contamination, impossible containment

Many U.S. weapons, such as missiles, bombs, bullets, and tank shells contain DU, and act as "kinetic energy penetrators" that ignite during flight, and break into burning fragments upon impact. DU weapons are effective because they can penetrate and destroy all targets, including boring through 20 feet of super-reinforced concrete bunkers. DU is virtually cost-free, since it is a by-product of nuclear weapons production. The U.S. ADAM and PDM sub-munitions are called "the perfect dirty bombs" as each has a uranium casing filled with high explosives.

But these weapons are the proverbial double-edged swords. On detonation, uranium particles vaporize into a radioactive dust (uranium oxide) that coats everything within proximity. The dust can be swept high into the atmosphere, where upper level winds redistribute toxins across national boundaries.

When inhaled, these nano-particles, 100 times smaller than a cell, follow the respiratory system to attack the master code of DNA, and disable the immune system. Uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, so contamination is permanent, and containment is impossible.

According to Leuren Moret, a geoscientist who has worked around the world on radiation issues, depleted uranium is coming back into the U.S. "in veterans' uniforms and trophies and bags." It's also coming back in their bodies, transferred through semen.

Moret cited a U.S. government study, conducted by the VA on post-Gulf War babies in a group of 251 soldiers in Mississippi who all had normal babies before the Gulf War. The study found 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. Some were born without eyes (anophthalmos), ears, with missing organs, missing legs and arms, fused fingers, thyroid or other organ malformations. Moret said that in some families, the only healthy members are those born before the Gulf Wars.

A WMD used against our own?

The health repercussions in Iraq are unprecedented. In babies born in 2002, the incidence of anophthalmos was 250,000 times greater (20 cases in 4,000 births) than the natural occurrence, one in 50 million births.

The Army and Air Force fired at least 127 tons of DU shells in Iraq last year, according to Pentagon spokesman Michael Kilpatrick, in an interview with the New York Daily News. "Because of its density, it is the superior heavy metal for armor to protect tanks and to penetrate armor," Kilpatrick said.

In fact, the effects of DU meet U.S. government standards of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Publication 1-02, WMDs are "Weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Weapons of mass destruction can be high explosives or nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons."

"DU is illegal in any sense of the imagination," said Dr. Doug Rokke, a retired U.S. Army Major, nuclear health physicist, and the Pentagon's expert on the health effects of DU ammunition on the battlefield. Rokke was director of the Army's DU project, and wrote the Army regulations for handling and clean up for DU -- regulations he says the U.S. government is blatantly refusing to enforce. Today, although US Army Regulation 700-48 (www.traprockpeace.org/rokke_du_3...) requires DOD officials to provide medical care to all DU casualties and clean up DU contamination, Rokke said they simply refuse to do so.

Rokke said that by continuing to use DU, and by refusing to admit the acknowledged adverse environmental and health effects, DOD officials violate their own orders and regulations. "When we can no longer clean up the environment and we can no longer provide medical care for anybody that's exposed, then that weapon must never be used in conflict," Rokke said.

Long-term casualties

The official number of wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991 was just 467. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in the first Gulf War, 11,000 are now dead, and more than 325,000 are on permanent medical disability. That means 56 percent of those soldiers who served now have medical problems.

According to a Department of VA Fact Sheet, "Several scientific studies have shown that as a group, Gulf War veterans are reporting symptoms or diseases more frequently than non-Gulf comparison groups." Additionally, the Fact Sheet reports that a Center for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiological study found "multiple symptoms more prevalent in Air Force Gulf veterans compared with controls who served in other areas of the world. Although 39 percent of Air Force Gulf War veterans who were still on duty and were studied by CDC suffered from chronic problems with fatigue, mood, thinking and muscle aches and pains, this was also reported by 15 percent of the non-Gulf group."

And pediatricians for the VA are gathering data to enable "a comparison of child health not only among the Gulf War theater veterans and control cohorts, but also between children in the same family born before the Gulf deployment compared to those born after the conflict."

Marilyn Brown is the customer service coordinator for the Veterans Health Program in New Orleans. Brown said that her office is taking a proactive stance, and making visits to local units to inform veterans of available services. Returning veterans are entitled to two years free medical care, including psychological services; but they must apply within 90 days of returning from active duty. Brown said that she had no record of recently returning veterans suffering from symptoms related to contact with DU. Veterans can apply for services or simply discuss options by calling (504) 568-0811, extension 5913, or 1.800.985.8387. The office is at 1601 Perdido Street.


Contact Us - Privacy Policy - Copyright 2005, Louisiana Weekly Publishing Company

Toxic Tours of Duty? Historic legislation would ensure uranium testing for local soldiers

Written by: Sam Feldman on Sep 24, 2006 10:36 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Veterans for Democracy

By Jan Clifford, Contributing Writer
May 9, 2005

According to some military and science experts, the U.S. military has been using the equivalent of dirty bombs in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom; and the resulting contamination is biogenetically affecting U.S. and Iraqi soldiers and civilians and will continue to do so for generations to come.

The Louisiana House of Representatives became the first legislative body in the nation to acknowledge the toxic effects of depleted uranium (DU) when it passed a bill on Tuesday that guarantees DU testing for war veterans as a medical benefit. The bill passed by a vote of 101-0. No state expenses will be incurred since the federal government subsidizes the $170 test. The bill will become law if passed by the state Senate and signed by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

"The Army calls it the silver bullet. But the team that was assigned to go in and clean up after the first Gulf War was one hundred men," said Ret. Marine Corps Command Sgt. Maj. Bob Smith, who served three tours of duty in the elite Green Berets during the Vietnam War. "A third of them are already dead," he said. Smith is responsible for bringing the issue to the attention of House Rep. Jalila Jefferson. Jefferson enlisted House Rep. Juan LaFonta, who agreed to sponsor the bill. "Louisiana is very service friendly," LaFonta said. "We're concerned about our troops."

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Army officials assembled a team to clean up the DU contaminated tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. Most team members became sick within 48 hours, with the first cancers developing within nine months and first deaths from lung cancer within two years. Today, 14 years later, some veterans are still attempting to obtain medical testing and care, but say that military and Veterans Administration (VA) officials simply refuse to provide mandated services.

Permanent contamination, impossible containment

Many U.S. weapons, such as missiles, bombs, bullets, and tank shells contain DU, and act as "kinetic energy penetrators" that ignite during flight, and break into burning fragments upon impact. DU weapons are effective because they can penetrate and destroy all targets, including boring through 20 feet of super-reinforced concrete bunkers. DU is virtually cost-free, since it is a by-product of nuclear weapons production. The U.S. ADAM and PDM sub-munitions are called "the perfect dirty bombs" as each has a uranium casing filled with high explosives.

But these weapons are the proverbial double-edged swords. On detonation, uranium particles vaporize into a radioactive dust (uranium oxide) that coats everything within proximity. The dust can be swept high into the atmosphere, where upper level winds redistribute toxins across national boundaries.

When inhaled, these nano-particles, 100 times smaller than a cell, follow the respiratory system to attack the master code of DNA, and disable the immune system. Uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, so contamination is permanent, and containment is impossible.

According to Leuren Moret, a geoscientist who has worked around the world on radiation issues, depleted uranium is coming back into the U.S. "in veterans' uniforms and trophies and bags." It's also coming back in their bodies, transferred through semen.

Moret cited a U.S. government study, conducted by the VA on post-Gulf War babies in a group of 251 soldiers in Mississippi who all had normal babies before the Gulf War. The study found 67 percent of their post-war babies were born with severe birth defects. Some were born without eyes (anophthalmos), ears, with missing organs, missing legs and arms, fused fingers, thyroid or other organ malformations. Moret said that in some families, the only healthy members are those born before the Gulf Wars.

A WMD used against our own?

The health repercussions in Iraq are unprecedented. In babies born in 2002, the incidence of anophthalmos was 250,000 times greater (20 cases in 4,000 births) than the natural occurrence, one in 50 million births.

The Army and Air Force fired at least 127 tons of DU shells in Iraq last year, according to Pentagon spokesman Michael Kilpatrick, in an interview with the New York Daily News. "Because of its density, it is the superior heavy metal for armor to protect tanks and to penetrate armor," Kilpatrick said.

In fact, the effects of DU meet U.S. government standards of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Publication 1-02, WMDs are "Weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Weapons of mass destruction can be high explosives or nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons."

"DU is illegal in any sense of the imagination," said Dr. Doug Rokke, a retired U.S. Army Major, nuclear health physicist, and the Pentagon's expert on the health effects of DU ammunition on the battlefield. Rokke was director of the Army's DU project, and wrote the Army regulations for handling and clean up for DU -- regulations he says the U.S. government is blatantly refusing to enforce. Today, although US Army Regulation 700-48 (www.traprockpeace.org/rokke_du_3...) requires DOD officials to provide medical care to all DU casualties and clean up DU contamination, Rokke said they simply refuse to do so.

Rokke said that by continuing to use DU, and by refusing to admit the acknowledged adverse environmental and health effects, DOD officials violate their own orders and regulations. "When we can no longer clean up the environment and we can no longer provide medical care for anybody that's exposed, then that weapon must never be used in conflict," Rokke said.

Long-term casualties

The official number of wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991 was just 467. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in the first Gulf War, 11,000 are now dead, and more than 325,000 are on permanent medical disability. That means 56 percent of those soldiers who served now have medical problems.

According to a Department of VA Fact Sheet, "Several scientific studies have shown that as a group, Gulf War veterans are reporting symptoms or diseases more frequently than non-Gulf comparison groups." Additionally, the Fact Sheet reports that a Center for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiological study found "multiple symptoms more prevalent in Air Force Gulf veterans compared with controls who served in other areas of the world. Although 39 percent of Air Force Gulf War veterans who were still on duty and were studied by CDC suffered from chronic problems with fatigue, mood, thinking and muscle aches and pains, this was also reported by 15 percent of the non-Gulf group."

And pediatricians for the VA are gathering data to enable "a comparison of child health not only among the Gulf War theater veterans and control cohorts, but also between children in the same family born before the Gulf deployment compared to those born after the conflict."

Marilyn Brown is the customer service coordinator for the Veterans Health Program in New Orleans. Brown said that her office is taking a proactive stance, and making visits to local units to inform veterans of available services. Returning veterans are entitled to two years free medical care, including psychological services; but they must apply within 90 days of returning from active duty. Brown said that she had no record of recently returning veterans suffering from symptoms related to contact with DU. Veterans can apply for services or simply discuss options by calling (504) 568-0811, extension 5913, or 1.800.985.8387. The office is at 1601 Perdido Street.


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