CAN WE CATCH A BREAK....???
20,000 servicemembers, vets lost homes in 2010
Foreclosure rate in zip codes near military bases increased 32%
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Feb 3, 2011 22:24:48 EST
More than 20,000 veterans, active-duty troops and reservists who took out special government-backed mortgages lost their homes last year — the highest number since 2003.
The rate of foreclosure filings in 2010 among 163 zip codes located near military bases rose 32 percent over 2008, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure research firm. This compares with a 2010 increase in foreclosures filings nationally of 23 percent over 2008.
The housing crisis has hit military families particularly hard in part because of transfers and the loss of civilian jobs left behind by reservists.
About 12,000 military families applied to the Pentagon’s expanded Homeowners Assistance Program. It makes up most of the difference in price for servicemembers who must transfer and sell their homes for less than they owe, or buys their houses outright.
“Our demand, in terms of (military) families coming to us for assistance went up 19 percent in 2010 over the previous year,” says Bill Nelson, executive director of USA Cares, a charity that provides financial assistance to Iraq and Afghanistan war-era troops.
Loans from private banks that are guaranteed by the Veterans Administration have historically outperformed other categories of mortgages, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Through programs that include mortgage counselors, the VA helped 66,000 families avoid foreclosure last year, said Mike Frueh, VA assistant director for loan and property management.
“The 20,000 could have been much higher without that help,” Frueh said.
About 9,000 of some 12,000 military families who sought assistance under the Pentagon’s Homeowners Assistance Program were found eligible, said Don Chapman, an assistant program manager with the Army Corps of Engineers, which administers the plan.
“I hear so many sad stories every day of people calling me and telling me why they should be eligible and why we should be helping everyone and why we should be changing these dates,” Chapman said.
Former Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. William “Tim” Wymore nearly lost his home last year in St. Charles, Mo., after his health declined following six months in Iraq.
Weak, confined to a wheelchair and suffering chronic headaches, Wymore, 44, was forced to quit his job as a machinist. His wife, Shanna, left her job to care for him.
More than $1,800 in grants from USA Cares helped pay utilities and their mortgage. They managed to keep their home.
“There were points where we thought everything we had worked for was going to be gone,” Wymore said.
HEAVY Things Are Happening......finally.....
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 07/ 11 2:49 pm
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 08/ 11 1:14 pm
AND YOU THOUGHT IT COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE....
Documents show Army's disservice to broken soldiers
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... z1DOUyM6Lr
* 'Soldier as a person' approach yields fruit
* Support staff for wounded given impossible mission
* Military wives take charge to ensure quality care
* Army's mental health programs swamped, understaffed
* 20-year servicewoman, disabled by war, faces ruin
* Medical units pay price of lowered recruiting standards, reports say
* Program for departing warriors plagued by inconsistencies
By Carl Prine
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 6, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Army's special medical units should be healing more than 9,300 soldiers entrusted to their care.
But a nine-month probe by the Tribune-Review found America's sick and injured soldiers must struggle to mend inside 38 Warrior Transition units the Army has turned into dumping grounds for criminals, malingerers and dope addicts.
Originally designed to treat the wounded from twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, after nearly a decade of battle these barracks snag soldiers in red tape. Despite an epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, brain injuries and substance abuse linked to repeated combat deployments, soldiers sometimes spend years desperately seeking psychological care.
Overlooked, over-medicated and overseen by a stressed staff, the hardest hit often are in the Army National Guard and Reserves.
Picked by President Obama's administration in early 2009 to alleviate suffering in the units, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Noel Koch said his tenure ended abruptly in April when he and his investigators at the Pentagon's Office of Wounded Warrior Care and Transition Policy were in the midst of a nationwide investigation similar to the Trib probe.
After compiling reams of audits, reports and interviews with commanders, hospital personnel and patients nationwide and in Europe documenting these problems, Koch said he was given the choice of resigning or being fired by his boss, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford L. Stanley.
Koch says he quit.
"They're trying to fight two wars at the same time, and everything is breaking down," said Koch, a Vietnam veteran and high-ranking official in President Ronald Reagan's administration. "The Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, is a good man. He has a Pentagon to run and two wars to fight, so he pushed this down to the services to handle. But they need help."
In his 11 months on the job, Koch said he tried to meet with Gates but was rebuffed. He said Stanley, a former Marine Corps. general, also declined weekly briefings until that fateful staff meeting in early 2010.
After delivering his report, Koch said Stanley uttered a single word, "Wow," and then gave him a cryptic warning: "He did not address me by name, but he did look directly at me and said the following: 'It is important to be careful what is put in written reports. These can affect people's careers.' "
Gates, Stanley and other Pentagon leaders declined to comment.
When the Trib filed a request to view these reports under the Freedom of Information Act, Stanley's department heavily redacted the released versions, citing secrecy and security needs typically reserved for classified military plans.
Concerned that the Pentagon was covering up shoddy treatment of soldiers, insiders then passed unredacted files to the Trib. They soon were joined by Army employees nationwide who exposed problems at their bases.
In a written response, the Army's former commander of the Warrior Transition program said he couldn't "understand Mr. Koch's perseverating" on the program.
"Unfortunately, I'm not sure Mr. Koch has ever fully understood the consequences of 10 years of warfare and the challenges of deploying brigades with a year or less at home station between deployments," wrote Maj. Gen. Gary Cheek in October.
Most of the Army's top medical commanders refused to speak to the Trib for months. On the eve of publishing these articles, the Army's Inspector General released a report echoing the findings both of Koch's investigators and the Trib.
More Walter Reeds
The Office of Wounded Warrior Care and Transition Policy doesn't direct day-to-day operations of the Army's special medical units. Instead, the Pentagon agency identifies problems plaguing them and tries to find policy solutions.
Although ongoing challenges bedevil the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, inspectors found the most chronic problems dog the Army, America's largest service and the one that's doing the most fighting overseas.
The top concern: The Army seems unable to trim the ranks of patients filling the Warrior Transition units a never-ending flood of broken soldiers that too often buried the special medical units, demoralizing patients and military staffers, according to the files.
These problems aren't new. In early 2007, stories by The Washington Post and other news outlets alleged shoddy treatment of the wounded at the Army's Walter Reed hospital in Washington. Reeling from the scandal, the Army invoked a new mantra "No more Walter Reeds." The "medical holds" housing most of the sick and injured were scrapped and merged with special segregated units for the wounded that had been carved out of the system in 2004, according to Koch and Army studies.
An Army order to send all ailing soldiers to the new Warrior Transition units un-leashed a flood of 10,000 patients who previously hadn't been identified as "nondeployable," a wave that overwhelmed the medical barracks and from which they're still recovering, according to the Pentagon reports and unit commanders.
At Kentucky's Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division, the 67 soldiers in the "medhold" in 2007 soon were joined by nearly 400 patients, according to Army Col. Mike Heimall, a commander who has drawn praise for compassionate care there and at Fort Riley in Kansas.
The Army brass issued "Frago 3" in 2008 to dam the flood of broken soldiers by erecting barriers to entering the new Warrior Transition units. Individualized medical diagnoses called "profiles" limiting their military duties for more than six months are now required. The underlying conditions must be "complex" and require extensive clinical case management by trained nurses, who are supposed to oversee the care of about 25 soldiers each, according to the Pentagon reports and Army files.
The Army credits Frago 3 with finally halving the number of Warrior Transition patients since the unexpected deluge. But it never fully blocked the tide of ailing personnel, according to internal reports. Despite dwindling combat in Iraq, the nationwide Warrior Transition population stays at more than 9,000 soldiers. An equal number who might qualify for the special program are in their original units, according to Army leaders.
"There are a lot of things wrong with the (units). We have our concerns with the growth of them and how we manage them because they're kind of taking on a life of themselves. I think it's going to require a more direct supervisory approach," said Thomas R. Lamont, a retired Illinois National Guard colonel who serves as the Army's assistant secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
Weeding out
By mid-2010, the reports estimated 10,000 soldiers had sought Temporary Disability Retirement for catastrophic ailments a rising trend that was going to make the population "the most ever." The reason the Army is reeling instead of healing is because of the Army's own policies, according to Koch's fact-finders. The Pentagon files indicate that commanders circumvent Frago 3's regulations and hurt the health of all Warrior Transition patients by dumping on the medical units soldiers they don't want to take overseas everyone from cancer cases and GIs hurt in accidents to trouble makers, dope addicts, potential suicides and malingerers.
While often presented to America as special wards for the wounded, only 11 percent of the soldiers in the medical units have Purple Hearts or fell ill in a war zone, according to the Pentagon files. They're outnumbered by the estimated 16 percent of the patient population that never deployed to combat and never will, but this tally varies by base.
A February 2010 report estimated that one-third of the 450 soldiers assigned to the Warrior Transition barracks at Washington state's Joint Base Lewis-McChord had never seen combat. They were "high risk soldiers who are not ready to deploy and may display high risk tendencies" such as drug addiction, suicide and criminal conduct, the report said.
Georgia's Fort Benning medical barracks also were "burdened with soldiers placed in there by commanders as an expedient means by which to rid their units of their 'undesirables' " an ongoing problem investigators concluded was occurring nationwide and that "deflected or defeated" other patients trying to heal.
The reports allege commanders nationwide knowingly turn the special units into convenient pre-deployment "dumping grounds." And the Pentagon team wasn't the only one uncovering the problem: The Department of Veterans Affairs in 2009 discovered brigades doing the same thing at Georgia's Fort Stewart, home of the Army's Third Infantry Division.
'Triad of Care'
Koch's investigators feared that packing too many soldiers into the Warrior Transition units would destroy what the Army calls its "Triad of Care" a "cadre" of staffers who oversee patients in the barracks; nurse case managers who coordinate treatment; and primary care providers, who usually are nurse practitioners and physicians assistants.
The post-Walter Reed reforms in 2007 raised the cadre by quickly drawing often involuntarily hundreds of staffers from all the Army's branches, even combat units. These soldiers often lacked experience in medicine, especially caring for soldiers showing signs of substance abuse, brain injury, suicidal thoughts and other problems increasingly prevalent in the service, according to the Pentagon reports and medical commanders interviewed by the Trib.
Koch and his investigators say they are worried that high caseloads from the 2007 flood, along with ongoing "surges" of soldiers shed as units near deployment dates, continue to overwhelm nurses, primary caregivers and an overworked and undertrained cadre nationwide.
Fort Benning returns about half of its Warrior Transition soldiers to active duty. Nationwide, however, less than one in three patients remains in uniform. The rest re-enter civilian life too often unhealed after about a year, according to the Pentagon files.
The reports starkly lay out the crux of the problem: The Pentagon is letting the Army turn the Warrior Transition barracks into "dumping grounds" that are "set up to handle everybody," a policy that creates an "exponential misbalance" between veterans who should be there and personnel that commanders don't want on combat deployments. Army policies make it too "difficult to determine a reasonable line of demarcation when it comes to providing care, and what level of care," the reports contend.
To Koch, the growth of the Army's Warrior Transition system and the shape it continues to take "actually made 29 Walter Reeds" plus nine off-site units designed for National Guard and Army Reserve troops.
"What bothered me is that they just wanted to keep the profile as low as possible. They didn't want to focus on it at all," Koch said. "There were a lot of bureaucrats at the Pentagon who were just trying to make the services deal with it, to make the services, especially the Army, take the fall on this. That's the bottom line. They weren't interested in fixing it, but in handling it as a PR issue." Medical commanders told the Trib, however, that the distinction between a combat injury and a garrison malady is becoming increasingly blurred after nearly 10 years of war, especially because of rising mental illness diagnoses. More than one out of five patients in the special units suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by combat or sexual trauma, according to the reports. At Fort Riley, home to the First Infantry Division, two out of every three soldiers in the Warrior Transition barracks have been diagnosed with mental issues such as PTSD or substance abuse ailments often after the soldiers underwent repeated combat deployments.
"OK, let's say I have a soldier who has done three tours. He comes home and his wife leaves him. He begins to have financial difficulties. The stress retriggers PTSD symptoms. Now, you tell me: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" said Lt. Col. Andrew Price, the commander of the Fort Riley unit.
'A huge step ahead'
When a Trib reporter directly asked Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker about the problems the Pentagon team uncovered, the three-star general tasked with overseeing the Warrior Transition units walked away. Neither he nor his staff has answered written questions they requested from the Trib in October.
Schoomaker's four-star boss outgoing Chief of Staff of the Army George Casey told the Trib he's glad the Pentagon went out "inspecting and finding things that we can do better" so his commanders could start "moving it to another level." He nevertheless disputes the charge that Warrior Transition units are "dumping grounds" worse than the wards they replaced.
"Believe me, the WTUs are a huge step ahead of the medical hold detachments," said Casey, who believes that the end of war in Iraq and Afghanistan eventually will allow the Army a chance to "reset" and heal.
Troops nationwide interviewed by the Trib, however, said patients who need more time to mend or who want second diagnoses to ensure adequate retirement benefits often are tagged in Casey's Army as "malingerers" or ungrateful "garrison wreckage."
Koch heard their complaints, too.
"I think the time has come for Congress to look harder into what has been going on with our wounded warriors. We've deserted them before," Koch said. "We did this during Vietnam. We don't need to repeat that history."
Read more: Documents show Army's disservice to broken soldiers - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... z1DOUyM6Lr
Documents show Army's disservice to broken soldiers
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... z1DOUyM6Lr
* 'Soldier as a person' approach yields fruit
* Support staff for wounded given impossible mission
* Military wives take charge to ensure quality care
* Army's mental health programs swamped, understaffed
* 20-year servicewoman, disabled by war, faces ruin
* Medical units pay price of lowered recruiting standards, reports say
* Program for departing warriors plagued by inconsistencies
By Carl Prine
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 6, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Army's special medical units should be healing more than 9,300 soldiers entrusted to their care.
But a nine-month probe by the Tribune-Review found America's sick and injured soldiers must struggle to mend inside 38 Warrior Transition units the Army has turned into dumping grounds for criminals, malingerers and dope addicts.
Originally designed to treat the wounded from twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, after nearly a decade of battle these barracks snag soldiers in red tape. Despite an epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, brain injuries and substance abuse linked to repeated combat deployments, soldiers sometimes spend years desperately seeking psychological care.
Overlooked, over-medicated and overseen by a stressed staff, the hardest hit often are in the Army National Guard and Reserves.
Picked by President Obama's administration in early 2009 to alleviate suffering in the units, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Noel Koch said his tenure ended abruptly in April when he and his investigators at the Pentagon's Office of Wounded Warrior Care and Transition Policy were in the midst of a nationwide investigation similar to the Trib probe.
After compiling reams of audits, reports and interviews with commanders, hospital personnel and patients nationwide and in Europe documenting these problems, Koch said he was given the choice of resigning or being fired by his boss, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford L. Stanley.
Koch says he quit.
"They're trying to fight two wars at the same time, and everything is breaking down," said Koch, a Vietnam veteran and high-ranking official in President Ronald Reagan's administration. "The Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, is a good man. He has a Pentagon to run and two wars to fight, so he pushed this down to the services to handle. But they need help."
In his 11 months on the job, Koch said he tried to meet with Gates but was rebuffed. He said Stanley, a former Marine Corps. general, also declined weekly briefings until that fateful staff meeting in early 2010.
After delivering his report, Koch said Stanley uttered a single word, "Wow," and then gave him a cryptic warning: "He did not address me by name, but he did look directly at me and said the following: 'It is important to be careful what is put in written reports. These can affect people's careers.' "
Gates, Stanley and other Pentagon leaders declined to comment.
When the Trib filed a request to view these reports under the Freedom of Information Act, Stanley's department heavily redacted the released versions, citing secrecy and security needs typically reserved for classified military plans.
Concerned that the Pentagon was covering up shoddy treatment of soldiers, insiders then passed unredacted files to the Trib. They soon were joined by Army employees nationwide who exposed problems at their bases.
In a written response, the Army's former commander of the Warrior Transition program said he couldn't "understand Mr. Koch's perseverating" on the program.
"Unfortunately, I'm not sure Mr. Koch has ever fully understood the consequences of 10 years of warfare and the challenges of deploying brigades with a year or less at home station between deployments," wrote Maj. Gen. Gary Cheek in October.
Most of the Army's top medical commanders refused to speak to the Trib for months. On the eve of publishing these articles, the Army's Inspector General released a report echoing the findings both of Koch's investigators and the Trib.
More Walter Reeds
The Office of Wounded Warrior Care and Transition Policy doesn't direct day-to-day operations of the Army's special medical units. Instead, the Pentagon agency identifies problems plaguing them and tries to find policy solutions.
Although ongoing challenges bedevil the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, inspectors found the most chronic problems dog the Army, America's largest service and the one that's doing the most fighting overseas.
The top concern: The Army seems unable to trim the ranks of patients filling the Warrior Transition units a never-ending flood of broken soldiers that too often buried the special medical units, demoralizing patients and military staffers, according to the files.
These problems aren't new. In early 2007, stories by The Washington Post and other news outlets alleged shoddy treatment of the wounded at the Army's Walter Reed hospital in Washington. Reeling from the scandal, the Army invoked a new mantra "No more Walter Reeds." The "medical holds" housing most of the sick and injured were scrapped and merged with special segregated units for the wounded that had been carved out of the system in 2004, according to Koch and Army studies.
An Army order to send all ailing soldiers to the new Warrior Transition units un-leashed a flood of 10,000 patients who previously hadn't been identified as "nondeployable," a wave that overwhelmed the medical barracks and from which they're still recovering, according to the Pentagon reports and unit commanders.
At Kentucky's Fort Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division, the 67 soldiers in the "medhold" in 2007 soon were joined by nearly 400 patients, according to Army Col. Mike Heimall, a commander who has drawn praise for compassionate care there and at Fort Riley in Kansas.
The Army brass issued "Frago 3" in 2008 to dam the flood of broken soldiers by erecting barriers to entering the new Warrior Transition units. Individualized medical diagnoses called "profiles" limiting their military duties for more than six months are now required. The underlying conditions must be "complex" and require extensive clinical case management by trained nurses, who are supposed to oversee the care of about 25 soldiers each, according to the Pentagon reports and Army files.
The Army credits Frago 3 with finally halving the number of Warrior Transition patients since the unexpected deluge. But it never fully blocked the tide of ailing personnel, according to internal reports. Despite dwindling combat in Iraq, the nationwide Warrior Transition population stays at more than 9,000 soldiers. An equal number who might qualify for the special program are in their original units, according to Army leaders.
"There are a lot of things wrong with the (units). We have our concerns with the growth of them and how we manage them because they're kind of taking on a life of themselves. I think it's going to require a more direct supervisory approach," said Thomas R. Lamont, a retired Illinois National Guard colonel who serves as the Army's assistant secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
Weeding out
By mid-2010, the reports estimated 10,000 soldiers had sought Temporary Disability Retirement for catastrophic ailments a rising trend that was going to make the population "the most ever." The reason the Army is reeling instead of healing is because of the Army's own policies, according to Koch's fact-finders. The Pentagon files indicate that commanders circumvent Frago 3's regulations and hurt the health of all Warrior Transition patients by dumping on the medical units soldiers they don't want to take overseas everyone from cancer cases and GIs hurt in accidents to trouble makers, dope addicts, potential suicides and malingerers.
While often presented to America as special wards for the wounded, only 11 percent of the soldiers in the medical units have Purple Hearts or fell ill in a war zone, according to the Pentagon files. They're outnumbered by the estimated 16 percent of the patient population that never deployed to combat and never will, but this tally varies by base.
A February 2010 report estimated that one-third of the 450 soldiers assigned to the Warrior Transition barracks at Washington state's Joint Base Lewis-McChord had never seen combat. They were "high risk soldiers who are not ready to deploy and may display high risk tendencies" such as drug addiction, suicide and criminal conduct, the report said.
Georgia's Fort Benning medical barracks also were "burdened with soldiers placed in there by commanders as an expedient means by which to rid their units of their 'undesirables' " an ongoing problem investigators concluded was occurring nationwide and that "deflected or defeated" other patients trying to heal.
The reports allege commanders nationwide knowingly turn the special units into convenient pre-deployment "dumping grounds." And the Pentagon team wasn't the only one uncovering the problem: The Department of Veterans Affairs in 2009 discovered brigades doing the same thing at Georgia's Fort Stewart, home of the Army's Third Infantry Division.
'Triad of Care'
Koch's investigators feared that packing too many soldiers into the Warrior Transition units would destroy what the Army calls its "Triad of Care" a "cadre" of staffers who oversee patients in the barracks; nurse case managers who coordinate treatment; and primary care providers, who usually are nurse practitioners and physicians assistants.
The post-Walter Reed reforms in 2007 raised the cadre by quickly drawing often involuntarily hundreds of staffers from all the Army's branches, even combat units. These soldiers often lacked experience in medicine, especially caring for soldiers showing signs of substance abuse, brain injury, suicidal thoughts and other problems increasingly prevalent in the service, according to the Pentagon reports and medical commanders interviewed by the Trib.
Koch and his investigators say they are worried that high caseloads from the 2007 flood, along with ongoing "surges" of soldiers shed as units near deployment dates, continue to overwhelm nurses, primary caregivers and an overworked and undertrained cadre nationwide.
Fort Benning returns about half of its Warrior Transition soldiers to active duty. Nationwide, however, less than one in three patients remains in uniform. The rest re-enter civilian life too often unhealed after about a year, according to the Pentagon files.
The reports starkly lay out the crux of the problem: The Pentagon is letting the Army turn the Warrior Transition barracks into "dumping grounds" that are "set up to handle everybody," a policy that creates an "exponential misbalance" between veterans who should be there and personnel that commanders don't want on combat deployments. Army policies make it too "difficult to determine a reasonable line of demarcation when it comes to providing care, and what level of care," the reports contend.
To Koch, the growth of the Army's Warrior Transition system and the shape it continues to take "actually made 29 Walter Reeds" plus nine off-site units designed for National Guard and Army Reserve troops.
"What bothered me is that they just wanted to keep the profile as low as possible. They didn't want to focus on it at all," Koch said. "There were a lot of bureaucrats at the Pentagon who were just trying to make the services deal with it, to make the services, especially the Army, take the fall on this. That's the bottom line. They weren't interested in fixing it, but in handling it as a PR issue." Medical commanders told the Trib, however, that the distinction between a combat injury and a garrison malady is becoming increasingly blurred after nearly 10 years of war, especially because of rising mental illness diagnoses. More than one out of five patients in the special units suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by combat or sexual trauma, according to the reports. At Fort Riley, home to the First Infantry Division, two out of every three soldiers in the Warrior Transition barracks have been diagnosed with mental issues such as PTSD or substance abuse ailments often after the soldiers underwent repeated combat deployments.
"OK, let's say I have a soldier who has done three tours. He comes home and his wife leaves him. He begins to have financial difficulties. The stress retriggers PTSD symptoms. Now, you tell me: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" said Lt. Col. Andrew Price, the commander of the Fort Riley unit.
'A huge step ahead'
When a Trib reporter directly asked Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker about the problems the Pentagon team uncovered, the three-star general tasked with overseeing the Warrior Transition units walked away. Neither he nor his staff has answered written questions they requested from the Trib in October.
Schoomaker's four-star boss outgoing Chief of Staff of the Army George Casey told the Trib he's glad the Pentagon went out "inspecting and finding things that we can do better" so his commanders could start "moving it to another level." He nevertheless disputes the charge that Warrior Transition units are "dumping grounds" worse than the wards they replaced.
"Believe me, the WTUs are a huge step ahead of the medical hold detachments," said Casey, who believes that the end of war in Iraq and Afghanistan eventually will allow the Army a chance to "reset" and heal.
Troops nationwide interviewed by the Trib, however, said patients who need more time to mend or who want second diagnoses to ensure adequate retirement benefits often are tagged in Casey's Army as "malingerers" or ungrateful "garrison wreckage."
Koch heard their complaints, too.
"I think the time has come for Congress to look harder into what has been going on with our wounded warriors. We've deserted them before," Koch said. "We did this during Vietnam. We don't need to repeat that history."
Read more: Documents show Army's disservice to broken soldiers - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... z1DOUyM6Lr
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 10/ 11 1:49 pm
Feds Investigate Illegals Living in Walls of Hospital Construction Site
Published February 09, 2011
Federal and state agents are investigating the possibility that illegal immigrant workers have been living in the walls of a new medical center in Florida, MyFoxOrlando reported Wednesday.
Authorities combed the construction site of the new multimillion dollar VA Medical center in Lake Nona’s Medical City with thermal imaging devices in the second raid within a 24-hour period.
"We didn't see anything," worker Anthony Willis told MyFoxOrlando, "just told us to come out of our work areas and have our IDs ready."
After the warning, law enforcement officers descended on the site.
"All of a sudden cops come around with the four-wheelers," Shon Trusdale, a steelworker, said. "Next thing you know, a helicopter is up here and guards at the gates."
A source involved with the investigation confirmed that authorities were looking for illegal workers who are using fake Social Security cards. There were few details offered by investigators by mid-afternoon and it was not entirely clear which law enforcement agencies or how many agencies were involved in the raid.
"There is an ongoing investigation into the employment practices of some of the subcontractors who are the site here doing construction," Major Geoffrey Branch with the Florida Department of Financial Services Division of Insurance Fraud said.
The head of the project said that he knew the raid was coming and cooperated with authorities, handing over payroll records and other documents. The VA says it checks a worker's status using Florida's E-verify system.
"The contractors are required to submit Social Security numbers of their employees. It's something our contract requires. That's the primary check that we use," Bart Bruchok, a senior engineer, said.
"You've got to have papers just to get on the site," subcontractor Jake Drost said, "OHSA licenses and everything to be able to work on it, so I don't know how someone gets through the cracks like that."
However, other subcontractors told MyFoxOrlando that it's not difficult for illegals to buy bogus paperwork and get on the job, something echoed by site workers.
"I know of a guy who got deported," Trusdale said. "A week later, he was back with a different name."
An Orange County Corrections pulled out of the construction site, but it was unclear how many workers, if any, may have been taken into custody.
Work is expected to resume Thursday.
Almost 1,000 people work on the construction site daily and that number is expected to double in the next couple of months. The 1.2-million square foot facility, opening in fall of 2012, will cost $665 million to construct. The medical center will have a large multispecialty outpatient clinic, 134-inpatient beds, 120-community living center beds, a 60-bed domiciliary and administrative and support services.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/09/fe ... z1DaMRJG8D
Published February 09, 2011
Federal and state agents are investigating the possibility that illegal immigrant workers have been living in the walls of a new medical center in Florida, MyFoxOrlando reported Wednesday.
Authorities combed the construction site of the new multimillion dollar VA Medical center in Lake Nona’s Medical City with thermal imaging devices in the second raid within a 24-hour period.
"We didn't see anything," worker Anthony Willis told MyFoxOrlando, "just told us to come out of our work areas and have our IDs ready."
After the warning, law enforcement officers descended on the site.
"All of a sudden cops come around with the four-wheelers," Shon Trusdale, a steelworker, said. "Next thing you know, a helicopter is up here and guards at the gates."
A source involved with the investigation confirmed that authorities were looking for illegal workers who are using fake Social Security cards. There were few details offered by investigators by mid-afternoon and it was not entirely clear which law enforcement agencies or how many agencies were involved in the raid.
"There is an ongoing investigation into the employment practices of some of the subcontractors who are the site here doing construction," Major Geoffrey Branch with the Florida Department of Financial Services Division of Insurance Fraud said.
The head of the project said that he knew the raid was coming and cooperated with authorities, handing over payroll records and other documents. The VA says it checks a worker's status using Florida's E-verify system.
"The contractors are required to submit Social Security numbers of their employees. It's something our contract requires. That's the primary check that we use," Bart Bruchok, a senior engineer, said.
"You've got to have papers just to get on the site," subcontractor Jake Drost said, "OHSA licenses and everything to be able to work on it, so I don't know how someone gets through the cracks like that."
However, other subcontractors told MyFoxOrlando that it's not difficult for illegals to buy bogus paperwork and get on the job, something echoed by site workers.
"I know of a guy who got deported," Trusdale said. "A week later, he was back with a different name."
An Orange County Corrections pulled out of the construction site, but it was unclear how many workers, if any, may have been taken into custody.
Work is expected to resume Thursday.
Almost 1,000 people work on the construction site daily and that number is expected to double in the next couple of months. The 1.2-million square foot facility, opening in fall of 2012, will cost $665 million to construct. The medical center will have a large multispecialty outpatient clinic, 134-inpatient beds, 120-community living center beds, a 60-bed domiciliary and administrative and support services.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/09/fe ... z1DaMRJG8D
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 15/ 11 11:12 am
BioChemical Forum tops ONE MILLION PAGE HITS....!!!
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... m.php?f=55
And, I certainly couldn't have done it without the generosity of Connie & Mark and the assistance of Styky who combined have made a TON of information available to Veterans across Canada and the U.S.
There is also the MOST comprehensive gathering of Project 112/SHAD information together in one spot on the internet.
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14556
THANK YOU , ALL....!!!
You will ALSO find:
Agent Orange Information: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14749
PTSD and Brain Trauma: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=81888
Coerced Experimental Vaccinations: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=17419
Gulf War Syndrome: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=17431
Depleted Uranium Munitions: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14617
The History of Bio-Chemical Warfare: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14563
.....and other related topics.
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... m.php?f=55
And, I certainly couldn't have done it without the generosity of Connie & Mark and the assistance of Styky who combined have made a TON of information available to Veterans across Canada and the U.S.
There is also the MOST comprehensive gathering of Project 112/SHAD information together in one spot on the internet.
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14556
THANK YOU , ALL....!!!
You will ALSO find:
Agent Orange Information: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14749
PTSD and Brain Trauma: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=81888
Coerced Experimental Vaccinations: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=17419
Gulf War Syndrome: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=17431
Depleted Uranium Munitions: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14617
The History of Bio-Chemical Warfare: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14563
.....and other related topics.
The Shadowy Group, bringing
you the.... BEST... In
BEAVER PRODUCTS
For over 200 Years...!!!
~~~~~
Our Motto: We DO give a dam!!!
Opinions posted on Free Dominion are those of the individual posters and are not necessarily the opinion of Free Dominion or its operators. Free Dominion does not advocate violence, hate speech or an overthrow of the government.
you the.... BEST... In
BEAVER PRODUCTS
For over 200 Years...!!!
~~~~~
Our Motto: We DO give a dam!!!
Opinions posted on Free Dominion are those of the individual posters and are not necessarily the opinion of Free Dominion or its operators. Free Dominion does not advocate violence, hate speech or an overthrow of the government.
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 16/ 11 6:38 am
Just in case you were feeling somewhat secure....
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/zawahi ... /id/386055
FBI: 100 Percent Chance of WMD Attack
Monday, 14 Feb 2011 06:47 PM
Article Font Size
By Ronald Kessler
The probability that the U.S. will be hit with a weapons of mass destruction attack at some point is 100 percent, Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, tells Newsmax.
Such an attack could be launched by foreign terrorists, lone wolves who are terrorists, or even by criminal elements, Majidi says. It would most likely employ chemical, biological, or radiological weapons rather than a nuclear device.
zawahiri,weapons,mass,destruction,fbi,kessler,wmd,chemical,biological,dirty,bomb,nuclearAs it is, Majidi says, American intelligence picks up hundreds of reports each year of foreign terrorists obtaining WMD. When American forces invaded Afghanistan, they found that al-Qaida was working on what Majidi calls a “nascent” weapons of mass destruction effort involving chemical and biological weapons.
In every other case so far, the reports of foreign terrorists obtaining WMD have turned out to be unfounded. However, Majidi’s directorate within the FBI investigates more than a dozen cases in the U.S. each year where there was intent to use WMD.
For example, in 2008, the FBI arrested Roger Bergendorff, who was found to have ricin and anarchist literature. Ricin kills cells by inhibiting protein synthesis. Within several days, the liver, spleen, and kidneys of a person who inhales or ingests ricin stop working, resulting in death.
“The notion of probability of a WMD attack being low or high is a moot point because we know the probability is 100 percent,” Majidi says. “We’ve seen this in the past, and we will see it in the future. There is going to be an attack using chemical, biological or radiological material.”
Even a WMD attack that does not kill a great number of people would have a crushing psychological impact.
“A singular lone wolf individual can do things in the dark of the night with access to a laboratory with low quantities of material and could hurt a few people but create a devastating effect on the American psyche,” Majidi says.
As described by Majidi, who was previously the chemistry division leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the WMD Directorate was established in 2006 to coordinate all elements of the FBI that deal with WMD cases.
Regarding a subject that is full of hype and misinformation, it is rare for an official who is an expert in the field and has full access to current classified information to talk about it for publication.
Majidi says the kind of threat that keeps him awake at night is one from a lone wolf. That’s because the FBI, along with the CIA and foreign partners, has developed a number of ways to detect plots by al-Qaida and other foreign terrorists. Besides intercepting their communications and infiltrating their organizations, the FBI gets reports when people purchase materials that could be used in a WMD attack. These techniques are known as trip wires.
For my book “The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack,” Arthur M. “Art” Cummings II, who headed FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations, gave an example of the FBI’s use of trip wires.
When the FBI got a report of a man buying chemicals that could be used for explosives, it investigated. In this case, it would have been easy to dismiss the purchases as innocent, since the man was buying the supplies from a swimming pool company, and his business shipped pool supplies.
“That explanation wasn’t good enough,” Cummings says. “It’s not OK to say, It looks like pool supplies, we’re done. You don’t finish there. Who at the pool company, specifically, did he buy them from? What specifically was the transaction, and what happened from there? Is it a friend; is it an associate; is it somebody who wants to do us harm? There was a day we would have said, It’s a commercial transaction, don’t worry about it. Each and every lead is followed all the way down to the most minute detail.”
Majidi says three agents from his directorate have been assigned to FBI offices overseas — known as legal attaché offices or legats — in countries like Georgia to work with foreign intelligence authorities on possible attacks.
Currently, Majidi is working to develop ways to detect development of new organisms that could be used in a biological attack. By definition, there would be no way to detect a new organism or to develop an antidote before it is unleashed.
“We are not sitting on our hands waiting to predict what will happen based on what happened yesterday,” Majidi says. As an example, he says, “You can design an organism de novo that never existed before. While there is no known articulated threat, this is something that we feel is a technology or science that potentially can be misused, either accidentally or on purpose.”
The FBI is working with the synthetic biology community to develop ways to zero in on any hint that someone could be developing such an organism that could become a threat.
“We’re not there to stop the science but to integrate our activities within their portfolio so that when the threat does develop or may develop over a long arc of time, we are ahead of those issues,” Majidi explains.
Majidi says the most remote threat is an attack with a nuclear device. A terrorist bent on detonating a nuclear weapon would have to successfully negotiate a series of steps, Majidi says. He would have to find an expert with the right knowledge. He would have to find the right material. He would have to bring the device into the country, and he would have to evade detection programs.
“While the net probability is incredibly low, a 10 kiloton device would be of enormous consequence,” Majidi says. “So even with those enormously low probabilities, we still have to have a very effective and integrated approach trying to fight the possibility.”
Experts are constantly being quoted with estimates of the amount of enriched uranium that could be unaccounted for from Soviet Union stockpiles and could be used to make nuclear weapons. Majidi says no one knows the actual amount.
“I know there is a hobby of guessing, and different folks give you a different number,” he says. “All I can tell you is that from the interdictions that we have had in the past decade, the quantities have been sufficient of highly enriched uranium that I clearly worry about this material on a global scale. How much is there? Any amount is too much.”
A terrorist who stole a nuclear weapon from a country that has one would have an easier time than if he tried to make one. “One of the things you have to understand is that nuclear markets are very ambiguous markets,” Majidi says. “There are as many bad guys trying to sell material as there are good guys trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen.”
While terrorists talk about using WMD, the preferred method for attack so far has been explosives. Majidi cites two examples: the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen who boarded a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit on Dec. 25, 2009, and tried to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear; and the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani immigrant who attempted to set off a car bomb in Times Square.
“While all of these guys are still interested in potentially using chemical, biological, or radiological weapons wherever it is possible, the pragmatic approach that they have taken is to use what has worked for them best, which is various forms of explosives and improvised explosives,” Majidi says.
“The latest round is concealing explosives coming through the commercial shipping environment,” Majidi notes. “That brings to the fore the fact that explosives are something that we’re not going to get away from any time soon. It’s the modality that is most often preferred by a pragmatic adversary.”
Given the sensitivity and complexity of the subject, Majidi says he tries to present all the issues in context: “One of my jobs is to make sure I put all of these things in an appropriate light, because if you were in my job you would see that everyone always tries to elevate things to a tremendous level.”
Of one thing Majidi is sure: “There’s a probability of 100 percent that a WMD event will happen.”
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. View his previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via e-mail. Go here now.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/zawahi ... /id/386055
FBI: 100 Percent Chance of WMD Attack
Monday, 14 Feb 2011 06:47 PM
Article Font Size
By Ronald Kessler
The probability that the U.S. will be hit with a weapons of mass destruction attack at some point is 100 percent, Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, tells Newsmax.
Such an attack could be launched by foreign terrorists, lone wolves who are terrorists, or even by criminal elements, Majidi says. It would most likely employ chemical, biological, or radiological weapons rather than a nuclear device.
zawahiri,weapons,mass,destruction,fbi,kessler,wmd,chemical,biological,dirty,bomb,nuclearAs it is, Majidi says, American intelligence picks up hundreds of reports each year of foreign terrorists obtaining WMD. When American forces invaded Afghanistan, they found that al-Qaida was working on what Majidi calls a “nascent” weapons of mass destruction effort involving chemical and biological weapons.
In every other case so far, the reports of foreign terrorists obtaining WMD have turned out to be unfounded. However, Majidi’s directorate within the FBI investigates more than a dozen cases in the U.S. each year where there was intent to use WMD.
For example, in 2008, the FBI arrested Roger Bergendorff, who was found to have ricin and anarchist literature. Ricin kills cells by inhibiting protein synthesis. Within several days, the liver, spleen, and kidneys of a person who inhales or ingests ricin stop working, resulting in death.
“The notion of probability of a WMD attack being low or high is a moot point because we know the probability is 100 percent,” Majidi says. “We’ve seen this in the past, and we will see it in the future. There is going to be an attack using chemical, biological or radiological material.”
Even a WMD attack that does not kill a great number of people would have a crushing psychological impact.
“A singular lone wolf individual can do things in the dark of the night with access to a laboratory with low quantities of material and could hurt a few people but create a devastating effect on the American psyche,” Majidi says.
As described by Majidi, who was previously the chemistry division leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the WMD Directorate was established in 2006 to coordinate all elements of the FBI that deal with WMD cases.
Regarding a subject that is full of hype and misinformation, it is rare for an official who is an expert in the field and has full access to current classified information to talk about it for publication.
Majidi says the kind of threat that keeps him awake at night is one from a lone wolf. That’s because the FBI, along with the CIA and foreign partners, has developed a number of ways to detect plots by al-Qaida and other foreign terrorists. Besides intercepting their communications and infiltrating their organizations, the FBI gets reports when people purchase materials that could be used in a WMD attack. These techniques are known as trip wires.
For my book “The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack,” Arthur M. “Art” Cummings II, who headed FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations, gave an example of the FBI’s use of trip wires.
When the FBI got a report of a man buying chemicals that could be used for explosives, it investigated. In this case, it would have been easy to dismiss the purchases as innocent, since the man was buying the supplies from a swimming pool company, and his business shipped pool supplies.
“That explanation wasn’t good enough,” Cummings says. “It’s not OK to say, It looks like pool supplies, we’re done. You don’t finish there. Who at the pool company, specifically, did he buy them from? What specifically was the transaction, and what happened from there? Is it a friend; is it an associate; is it somebody who wants to do us harm? There was a day we would have said, It’s a commercial transaction, don’t worry about it. Each and every lead is followed all the way down to the most minute detail.”
Majidi says three agents from his directorate have been assigned to FBI offices overseas — known as legal attaché offices or legats — in countries like Georgia to work with foreign intelligence authorities on possible attacks.
Currently, Majidi is working to develop ways to detect development of new organisms that could be used in a biological attack. By definition, there would be no way to detect a new organism or to develop an antidote before it is unleashed.
“We are not sitting on our hands waiting to predict what will happen based on what happened yesterday,” Majidi says. As an example, he says, “You can design an organism de novo that never existed before. While there is no known articulated threat, this is something that we feel is a technology or science that potentially can be misused, either accidentally or on purpose.”
The FBI is working with the synthetic biology community to develop ways to zero in on any hint that someone could be developing such an organism that could become a threat.
“We’re not there to stop the science but to integrate our activities within their portfolio so that when the threat does develop or may develop over a long arc of time, we are ahead of those issues,” Majidi explains.
Majidi says the most remote threat is an attack with a nuclear device. A terrorist bent on detonating a nuclear weapon would have to successfully negotiate a series of steps, Majidi says. He would have to find an expert with the right knowledge. He would have to find the right material. He would have to bring the device into the country, and he would have to evade detection programs.
“While the net probability is incredibly low, a 10 kiloton device would be of enormous consequence,” Majidi says. “So even with those enormously low probabilities, we still have to have a very effective and integrated approach trying to fight the possibility.”
Experts are constantly being quoted with estimates of the amount of enriched uranium that could be unaccounted for from Soviet Union stockpiles and could be used to make nuclear weapons. Majidi says no one knows the actual amount.
“I know there is a hobby of guessing, and different folks give you a different number,” he says. “All I can tell you is that from the interdictions that we have had in the past decade, the quantities have been sufficient of highly enriched uranium that I clearly worry about this material on a global scale. How much is there? Any amount is too much.”
A terrorist who stole a nuclear weapon from a country that has one would have an easier time than if he tried to make one. “One of the things you have to understand is that nuclear markets are very ambiguous markets,” Majidi says. “There are as many bad guys trying to sell material as there are good guys trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen.”
While terrorists talk about using WMD, the preferred method for attack so far has been explosives. Majidi cites two examples: the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen who boarded a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit on Dec. 25, 2009, and tried to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear; and the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani immigrant who attempted to set off a car bomb in Times Square.
“While all of these guys are still interested in potentially using chemical, biological, or radiological weapons wherever it is possible, the pragmatic approach that they have taken is to use what has worked for them best, which is various forms of explosives and improvised explosives,” Majidi says.
“The latest round is concealing explosives coming through the commercial shipping environment,” Majidi notes. “That brings to the fore the fact that explosives are something that we’re not going to get away from any time soon. It’s the modality that is most often preferred by a pragmatic adversary.”
Given the sensitivity and complexity of the subject, Majidi says he tries to present all the issues in context: “One of my jobs is to make sure I put all of these things in an appropriate light, because if you were in my job you would see that everyone always tries to elevate things to a tremendous level.”
Of one thing Majidi is sure: “There’s a probability of 100 percent that a WMD event will happen.”
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. View his previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via e-mail. Go here now.
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 17/ 11 7:07 pm
CANADIAN AO NEWS: http://news.google.ca/news/more?pz=1&cf ... VzgI-lD_JM
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by styky » 02/ 17/ 11 7:23 pm
J.B. Stone wrote:BioChemical Forum tops ONE MILLION PAGE HITS....!!!
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... m.php?f=55
And, I certainly couldn't have done it without the generosity of Connie & Mark and the assistance of Styky who combined have made a TON of information available to Veterans across Canada and the U.S.
There is also the MOST comprehensive gathering of Project 112/SHAD information together in one spot on the internet.
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14556
THANK YOU , ALL....!!!
You will ALSO find:
Agent Orange Information: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14749
PTSD and Brain Trauma: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=81888
Coerced Experimental Vaccinations: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=17419
Gulf War Syndrome: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=17431
Depleted Uranium Munitions: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14617
The History of Bio-Chemical Warfare: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14563
.....and other related topics.
Great Job JB.
Click here for FREEDOMINION FORUM RULES
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope ~ Sir Winston Churchill
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money." Margaret Thatcher They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope ~ Sir Winston Churchill
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money." Margaret Thatcher They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
-
styky - Member
- Posts: 120244
- Joined: 03/ 10/ 03 9:21 pm
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 17/ 11 7:36 pm
styky wrote:J.B. Stone wrote:BioChemical Forum tops ONE MILLION PAGE HITS....!!!
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... m.php?f=55
And, I certainly couldn't have done it without the generosity of Connie & Mark and the assistance of Styky who combined have made a TON of information available to Veterans across Canada and the U.S.
There is also the MOST comprehensive gathering of Project 112/SHAD information together in one spot on the internet.
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14556
THANK YOU , ALL....!!!
You will ALSO find:
Agent Orange Information: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14749
PTSD and Brain Trauma: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=81888
Coerced Experimental Vaccinations: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=17419
Gulf War Syndrome: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=17431
Depleted Uranium Munitions: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14617
The History of Bio-Chemical Warfare: http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/v ... hp?t=14563
.....and other related topics.
Great Job JB.
It took a while, but finally achieved a significant number.....the single thread champ is still hands down Backhoe with his Obamarama stuff.
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 17/ 11 7:39 pm
J.B. Stone wrote:It took a while, but finally achieved a significant number.....the single thread champ is still hands down Backhoe with his Obamarama stuff.
I should also mention Peter O'Donnel should get the "most dedicated poster" award for his Egypt and Beyond thread....
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by styky » 02/ 17/ 11 7:42 pm
J.B. Stone wrote:J.B. Stone wrote:It took a while, but finally achieved a significant number.....the single thread champ is still hands down Backhoe with his Obamarama stuff.
I should also mention Peter O'Donnel should get the "most dedicated poster" award for his Egypt and Beyond thread....
Don't you mean fourhorses?
Click here for FREEDOMINION FORUM RULES
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope ~ Sir Winston Churchill
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money." Margaret Thatcher They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope ~ Sir Winston Churchill
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money." Margaret Thatcher They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
-
styky - Member
- Posts: 120244
- Joined: 03/ 10/ 03 9:21 pm
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 17/ 11 11:42 pm
styky wrote:J.B. Stone wrote:J.B. Stone wrote:It took a while, but finally achieved a significant number.....the single thread champ is still hands down Backhoe with his Obamarama stuff.
I should also mention Peter O'Donnel should get the "most dedicated poster" award for his Egypt and Beyond thread....
Don't you mean fourhorses?
Of COURSE......jeez, I can't even get compliments right.....
I think I had just read one of his posts and had a "transference" issue.
My apologies...!!!
damn.
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 02/ 24/ 11 5:33 pm
U.S. concerned about security for mustard gas, chemicals
By Eli Lake
The Washington Times
U.S. military and intelligence officials are closely watching Libya‘s stockpiles of mustard gas and their precursor chemicals as the North African country descends further into civil war.
Proliferation analysts generally assess that Libya has close to 14 tons of mustard gas that it has not destroyed despite the announcement in 2003 that it would dismantle its weapons of mass destruction program.
“Obviously, the security of the Libyan stockpile of chemical weapons is a concern,” a U.S. intelligence official told The Washington Times.
“You could see a scenario where [Libyan dictator Moammar] Gadhafi takes troops away from these [stockpiles],” a Senate aide monitoring the situation in Libya said. “He could be pulling his security forces off of his missions, and bring them to Tripoli and Benghazi and other towns he needs to secure to hold on to his regime and, as a result, these facilities will be unguarded.”
On Wednesday, Libyans in the eastern part of the country celebrated their liberation from Col. Gadhafi and vowed to free the capital, Tripoli, where Gadhafi forces attacked protesters with heavy arms. In a rambling, nationally televised speech Tuesday, Col. Gadhafi vowed to die a “martyr.”
This photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency shows general view of the eastern Libyan town of Derna Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Nasser Nouri) This photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency shows general view of the eastern Libyan town of Derna Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Nasser Nouri)
President Obama denounced the violence Wednesday and said he was dispatching Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Geneva on Monday to attend international talks on how to stop the carnage.
Mustard gas is a highly toxic sulfuric compound that can blister and burn exposed skin. First used in World War I, it can cause internal and external bleeding, and disrupt breathing and digestion. Its use in warfare is banned under the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Col. Gadhafi agreed to dismantle his country’s weapons of mass destruction program and its Scud missiles, after years of quiet diplomacy. In return, the U.S. was obligated to restore diplomatic relations with Tripoli and remove Libya from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The deal was hailed as a key foreign policy accomplishment of the George W. Bush administration.
Paula DeSutter, the U.S. coordinator under President Bush for the elimination of Libyan weapons of mass destruction, told The Times that Libya eliminated all of its bombs in which mustard gas could be delivered but still had some of the chemical agent.
“They definitely have some mustard gas and some of the chemical precursors,” said Ms. DeSutter, a former assistant secretary of state for verification and compliance. “But as far we know, they do not have the means to deliver them. They eliminated all of the unfilled munitions they declared in 2004.”
Ms. DeSutter added, however, that the mustard agent could be used as a weapon against unarmed demonstrators. “If you want to kill your people, you could pour it out on the street,” she said.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international agency charged with monitoring the compliance of states with the Chemical Weapons Convention, said Wednesday that Libya has made progress in destroying its chemical weapons stocks.
“So far as we know, Libya gave up the capacity to deliver chemical agents seven years ago … and in the last year we’ve also seen, after some delays, substantial progress toward destroying their existing stockpile of chemical agent, which is all mustard,” an OPCW spokesman told the Associated Press.
Jamie Fly, executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, said that even though the OPCW notes that Libya‘s chemical weapons cannot be delivered in bombs, “this is still a major concern because there are terrorists who may want to get their hands on these weapons and, given the current state of chaos in the country, we need to be worried these chemical agents could fall into the wrong hands.”
Mr. Fly served as a director for counterproliferation policy at the National Security Council during the Bush administration.
Ms. DeSutter said she recommended during the Bush administration using Libya‘s mustard gas as part of a counterterrorism sting operation to entice terrorists to come to Libya.
“I suggested at the time that we go on jihadi network websites and announce, not as the U.S. government, but surreptitiously as a phony jihadist, that Libya had all of this mustard gas, then give the location,” she said.
“The hope was the terrorists would try to infiltrate the facility and thereby eliminate a number of terrorists. But nobody picked it up and ran with it. The point is we did not view this as a proliferation risk as much as a health and safety risk.”
By Eli Lake
The Washington Times
U.S. military and intelligence officials are closely watching Libya‘s stockpiles of mustard gas and their precursor chemicals as the North African country descends further into civil war.
Proliferation analysts generally assess that Libya has close to 14 tons of mustard gas that it has not destroyed despite the announcement in 2003 that it would dismantle its weapons of mass destruction program.
“Obviously, the security of the Libyan stockpile of chemical weapons is a concern,” a U.S. intelligence official told The Washington Times.
“You could see a scenario where [Libyan dictator Moammar] Gadhafi takes troops away from these [stockpiles],” a Senate aide monitoring the situation in Libya said. “He could be pulling his security forces off of his missions, and bring them to Tripoli and Benghazi and other towns he needs to secure to hold on to his regime and, as a result, these facilities will be unguarded.”
On Wednesday, Libyans in the eastern part of the country celebrated their liberation from Col. Gadhafi and vowed to free the capital, Tripoli, where Gadhafi forces attacked protesters with heavy arms. In a rambling, nationally televised speech Tuesday, Col. Gadhafi vowed to die a “martyr.”
This photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency shows general view of the eastern Libyan town of Derna Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Nasser Nouri) This photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency shows general view of the eastern Libyan town of Derna Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Nasser Nouri)
President Obama denounced the violence Wednesday and said he was dispatching Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Geneva on Monday to attend international talks on how to stop the carnage.
Mustard gas is a highly toxic sulfuric compound that can blister and burn exposed skin. First used in World War I, it can cause internal and external bleeding, and disrupt breathing and digestion. Its use in warfare is banned under the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Col. Gadhafi agreed to dismantle his country’s weapons of mass destruction program and its Scud missiles, after years of quiet diplomacy. In return, the U.S. was obligated to restore diplomatic relations with Tripoli and remove Libya from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The deal was hailed as a key foreign policy accomplishment of the George W. Bush administration.
Paula DeSutter, the U.S. coordinator under President Bush for the elimination of Libyan weapons of mass destruction, told The Times that Libya eliminated all of its bombs in which mustard gas could be delivered but still had some of the chemical agent.
“They definitely have some mustard gas and some of the chemical precursors,” said Ms. DeSutter, a former assistant secretary of state for verification and compliance. “But as far we know, they do not have the means to deliver them. They eliminated all of the unfilled munitions they declared in 2004.”
Ms. DeSutter added, however, that the mustard agent could be used as a weapon against unarmed demonstrators. “If you want to kill your people, you could pour it out on the street,” she said.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international agency charged with monitoring the compliance of states with the Chemical Weapons Convention, said Wednesday that Libya has made progress in destroying its chemical weapons stocks.
“So far as we know, Libya gave up the capacity to deliver chemical agents seven years ago … and in the last year we’ve also seen, after some delays, substantial progress toward destroying their existing stockpile of chemical agent, which is all mustard,” an OPCW spokesman told the Associated Press.
Jamie Fly, executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, said that even though the OPCW notes that Libya‘s chemical weapons cannot be delivered in bombs, “this is still a major concern because there are terrorists who may want to get their hands on these weapons and, given the current state of chaos in the country, we need to be worried these chemical agents could fall into the wrong hands.”
Mr. Fly served as a director for counterproliferation policy at the National Security Council during the Bush administration.
Ms. DeSutter said she recommended during the Bush administration using Libya‘s mustard gas as part of a counterterrorism sting operation to entice terrorists to come to Libya.
“I suggested at the time that we go on jihadi network websites and announce, not as the U.S. government, but surreptitiously as a phony jihadist, that Libya had all of this mustard gas, then give the location,” she said.
“The hope was the terrorists would try to infiltrate the facility and thereby eliminate a number of terrorists. But nobody picked it up and ran with it. The point is we did not view this as a proliferation risk as much as a health and safety risk.”
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 03/ 26/ 11 10:38 am
THE STRANGE, STRANGE WORLD OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION....
Top Bush-era GITMO and Abu Ghraib psychologist is WH's newest appointment
By Glenn Greenwald
http://tinyurl.com/4vzyztn
One of the most intense scandals the field of psychology has faced over the last decade is the involvement of several of its members in enabling Bush's worldwide torture regime. Numerous health professionals worked for the U.S. government to help understand how best to mentally degrade and break down detainees. At the center of that controversy was -- and is -- Dr. Larry James. James, a retired Army colonel, was the Chief Psychologist at Guantanamo in 2003, at the height of the abuses at that camp, and then served in the same position at Abu Ghraib during 2004.
Today, Dr. James circulated an excited email announcing, "with great pride," that he has now been selected to serve on the "White House Task Force entitled Enhancing the Psychological Well-Being of The Military Family." In his new position, he will be meeting at the White House with Michelle Obama and other White House officials on Tuesday.
For his work at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, Dr. James was the subject of two formal ethics complaints in the two states where he is licensed to practice: Louisiana and Ohio. Those complaints -- 50 pages long and full of detailed and well-documented allegations -- were filed by the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program, on behalf of veterans, mental health professionals and others. The complaints detailed how James "was the senior psychologist of the Guantánamo BSCT, a small but influential group of mental health professionals whose job it was to advise on and participate in the interrogations, and to help create an environment designed to break down prisoners." Specifically:
Writing in 2009, Law Professor Bill Quigley and Deborah Popowski, a Fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, described James' role in this particularly notorious incident:
Although he claims to eventually find "good reason" to intervene, the Army colonel never reported the incident or even so much as reprimanded men who had engaged in activities that constituted war crimes.
James treated numerous detainees who were abused, degraded, and tortured, yet never took any steps to stop or even report these incidents. Last year, Steven Reisner -- senior faculty member and supervisor at the International Trauma Studies Program, who also teaches at New York University Medical School and Columbia University -- told Democracy Now: "there is a lot of evidence that has been made public showing that the torture programs in the CIA and at Guantánamo, the Department of Defense, were created and overseen by health professionals, particularly psychologists" and that psychologists were at these facilities "to use their professional expertise to break down the detainees." James, argued Dr. Reisner, was directly implicated because:
For his part, Dr. James claims he attempted to protect the detainees under his care from abuse and psychological injury. Meanwhile, the Louisiana psychology board refused to review the merits of the complaint against James on the grounds that the alleged acts were too old (outside the statute of limitations), while the Ohio board issued a three-sentence, cursory letter which decreed, without any explanation whatsoever, that "it has been determined that we are unable to proceed to formal action in this matter." So while the charges against him have not been formally sustained by either board, neither have they been evaluated or rejected by any apparent consideration of the merits. Judicial review of the Ohio board's decision is still possible (a Louisiana federal court ruled it lacked jurisdiction to review the board's Statute of Limitations findings).
Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, James should not be deemed guilty in the absence of a formal adjudication. But the White House's conduct in selecting him is nonetheless baffling, at best. Of all the psychologists to choose from, why would they possibly choose to honor and elevate the former chief psychologist of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib at the height of the Bush abuses? More disturbing still, among those most damaged by detainee abuse are the service members forced to participate in it; why would the White House possibly want to put on a task force about the health of military families someone, such as Dr. James, who at the very least is directly associated with policies that so profoundly harmed numerous members of the military and their families?
This isn't exactly a powerful Task Force, but what this appointment does is have the White House -- yet again -- signal that it does not really take very seriously the Bush torture regime. On appearance grounds alone, the Obama administration should not be embracing and legitimizing the Bush-era Chief Psychologist of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Is there really nobody in the White House who was able to come to that realization on their own, or is this part of some twisted "reaching out" effort to show that they view bygones as bygones when it comes to the war crimes our leaders committed and whom the Obama administration continues to protect? Whatever the explanation, the symbolism here is as ugly as the mindset underlying it.
Top Bush-era GITMO and Abu Ghraib psychologist is WH's newest appointment
By Glenn Greenwald
http://tinyurl.com/4vzyztn
One of the most intense scandals the field of psychology has faced over the last decade is the involvement of several of its members in enabling Bush's worldwide torture regime. Numerous health professionals worked for the U.S. government to help understand how best to mentally degrade and break down detainees. At the center of that controversy was -- and is -- Dr. Larry James. James, a retired Army colonel, was the Chief Psychologist at Guantanamo in 2003, at the height of the abuses at that camp, and then served in the same position at Abu Ghraib during 2004.
Today, Dr. James circulated an excited email announcing, "with great pride," that he has now been selected to serve on the "White House Task Force entitled Enhancing the Psychological Well-Being of The Military Family." In his new position, he will be meeting at the White House with Michelle Obama and other White House officials on Tuesday.
For his work at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, Dr. James was the subject of two formal ethics complaints in the two states where he is licensed to practice: Louisiana and Ohio. Those complaints -- 50 pages long and full of detailed and well-documented allegations -- were filed by the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program, on behalf of veterans, mental health professionals and others. The complaints detailed how James "was the senior psychologist of the Guantánamo BSCT, a small but influential group of mental health professionals whose job it was to advise on and participate in the interrogations, and to help create an environment designed to break down prisoners." Specifically:
.During his tenure at the prison, boys and men were threatened with rape and death for themselves and their family members; sexually, culturally, and religiously humiliated; forced naked; deprived of sleep; subjected to sensory deprivation, over-stimulation, and extreme isolation; short-shackled into stress positions for hours; and physically assaulted. The evidence indicates that abuse of this kind was systemic, that BSCT health professionals played an integral role in its planning and practice. . .
Writing in 2009, Law Professor Bill Quigley and Deborah Popowski, a Fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, described James' role in this particularly notorious incident:
In 2003, Louisiana psychologist and retired Col. Larry James watched behind a one-way mirror in a US prison camp while an interrogator and three prison guards wrestled a screaming, near-naked man on the floor.
The prisoner had been forced into pink women's panties, lipstick and a wig; the men then pinned the prisoner to the floor in an effort "to outfit him with the matching pink nightgown." As he recounts in his memoir, "Fixing Hell," Dr. James initially chose not to respond. He "opened [his] thermos, poured a cup of coffee, and watched the episode play out, hoping it would take a better turn and not wanting to interfere without good reason ..."
Although he claims to eventually find "good reason" to intervene, the Army colonel never reported the incident or even so much as reprimanded men who had engaged in activities that constituted war crimes.
James treated numerous detainees who were abused, degraded, and tortured, yet never took any steps to stop or even report these incidents. Last year, Steven Reisner -- senior faculty member and supervisor at the International Trauma Studies Program, who also teaches at New York University Medical School and Columbia University -- told Democracy Now: "there is a lot of evidence that has been made public showing that the torture programs in the CIA and at Guantánamo, the Department of Defense, were created and overseen by health professionals, particularly psychologists" and that psychologists were at these facilities "to use their professional expertise to break down the detainees." James, argued Dr. Reisner, was directly implicated because:
Larry James was the chief BSCT starting in January 2003. And when you read the standard operating procedures for mental health, for how to -- behavior protocols for detainees during the time that Larry James was the chief psychologist, you find institutionalized abuse and torture -- isolation for thirty days at a time with absolutely no contact, prohibition of the International Committee of the Red Cross to see these detainees, no access even to religious articles, to the Qur’an, unless they cooperate with interrogations, not to mention frequent interrogation.
For his part, Dr. James claims he attempted to protect the detainees under his care from abuse and psychological injury. Meanwhile, the Louisiana psychology board refused to review the merits of the complaint against James on the grounds that the alleged acts were too old (outside the statute of limitations), while the Ohio board issued a three-sentence, cursory letter which decreed, without any explanation whatsoever, that "it has been determined that we are unable to proceed to formal action in this matter." So while the charges against him have not been formally sustained by either board, neither have they been evaluated or rejected by any apparent consideration of the merits. Judicial review of the Ohio board's decision is still possible (a Louisiana federal court ruled it lacked jurisdiction to review the board's Statute of Limitations findings).
Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, James should not be deemed guilty in the absence of a formal adjudication. But the White House's conduct in selecting him is nonetheless baffling, at best. Of all the psychologists to choose from, why would they possibly choose to honor and elevate the former chief psychologist of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib at the height of the Bush abuses? More disturbing still, among those most damaged by detainee abuse are the service members forced to participate in it; why would the White House possibly want to put on a task force about the health of military families someone, such as Dr. James, who at the very least is directly associated with policies that so profoundly harmed numerous members of the military and their families?
This isn't exactly a powerful Task Force, but what this appointment does is have the White House -- yet again -- signal that it does not really take very seriously the Bush torture regime. On appearance grounds alone, the Obama administration should not be embracing and legitimizing the Bush-era Chief Psychologist of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Is there really nobody in the White House who was able to come to that realization on their own, or is this part of some twisted "reaching out" effort to show that they view bygones as bygones when it comes to the war crimes our leaders committed and whom the Obama administration continues to protect? Whatever the explanation, the symbolism here is as ugly as the mindset underlying it.
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 04/ 01/ 11 5:06 pm
A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION IN CANADA.....
Complete probe of Agent Orange promised
By BRETT CLARKSON, QMI Agency
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011 ... 30076.html
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont - Despite some confusion, the provincial Agent Orange probe will include both of its chemical ingredients and not just the one, a ministry of natural resources spokesman said Thursday.
The panel headed up by University of Guelph, Ont., toxicologist Dr. Leonard Ritter will examine the usage of the chemical 2,4,5-T and any other chemical that may have been mixed with it, said ministry spokesman Brett Thalmann.
“The panel will look at 2,4,5-T and anything it may have been mixed with,” Thalmann said. “If there were cases where 2,4-D was mixed with 2,4,5-T, that will be looked at.”
Meanwhile, the University of Guelph confirmed that two of the former manufacturers of Agent Orange, Dow Chemical and Monsanto Corp., fund ongoing projects at the university that do not involve Ritter.
The confirmation comes after questions were raised by critics about the independence of the panel, given that Ritter has been a professor since 1993 at the University of Guelph.
“He’s not the faculty person connected with this research,” said university spokesman Lori Bona Hunt.
Mayor Jim Diodati, who spearheaded a city council investigation into the usage of Agent Orange in Niagara Falls, Ont.,was encouraged by that news.
“I think that’s good because we want to eliminate any appearance of partiality and I think it’s good,” Diodati said.
Diodati said he so far believes in the integrity of the panel.
“I’m not too concerned because the science will be the science,” Diodati said. “As long as they’re willing to have their results peer-reviewed by a credible third party, I’m OK with it. It’s a certainly a start that takes us in the right direction.”
Debate has swirled since the Ontario government admitted that several ministries and the former Ontario Hydro used a mix of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T as a brush-clearing herbicide from about 1950 to the late 1970s.
The Agent Orange used in Vietnam was a 1:1 mix of the two chemicals.
NDP MPP Gilles Bisson was still skeptical despite the ministry’s vow to investigate any chemical mixes involving 2,4,5-T.
“I’m not convinced we’re there yet,” Bisson said. “I understood that originally that whole investigation was to be about the entire cocktail of Agent Orange. Then we get Ritter saying, ‘I’m only looking at 2,4,5-T,’ then you get the minister supporting that. Time will tell. I will get back to the minister and find out in fact if that’s what they’re doing.”
Thalmann disputed Bisson’s “unsubstantiated claims” about the government trying to limit the probe as well as his efforts to “discredit” Ritter.
“This independent panel was set up so that we could arrive at the facts and those will be made public,” Thalmann said. “It’s not being limited in scope at all.”
Although 2,4,5-T is generally considered the most dangerous component of Agent Orange because of the presence of a highly toxic dioxin known as TCDD, 2,4-D is also toxic, according to some advocates like Dr. Meg Sears, an Ottawa-based environmental researcher.
Carol Brown Parker, president of the Agent Orange Association of Canada, believes the University of Guelph’s ties to Dow and Monsanto could potentially affect the impartiality of the panel.
“In my opinion, yes it does,” Parker said.
Dow is funding three research projects valued at $110,768 in total at the university, Hunt said. Monsanto is funding three projects valued at $243,568.
The projects involve two professors in a separate department from Ritter, Hunt said.
Richard Moccia, the university’s associate vice-president of research, pointed to Ritter’s reputation as a world-leading toxicologist.
“Although the University of Guelph and many of its research scientists have done work over the decades with a variety of different private corporations, I guess it’s up to your readers to try to decide if that itself represents undue influence on the nature of Dr. Ritter’s findings,” Moccia said. “I would say there’s absolutely no support for that philosophy and no evidence that that would be the case with Dr. Ritter.”
Ritter didn’t respond to e-mails and phone calls requesting comment.
Complete probe of Agent Orange promised
By BRETT CLARKSON, QMI Agency
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011 ... 30076.html
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont - Despite some confusion, the provincial Agent Orange probe will include both of its chemical ingredients and not just the one, a ministry of natural resources spokesman said Thursday.
The panel headed up by University of Guelph, Ont., toxicologist Dr. Leonard Ritter will examine the usage of the chemical 2,4,5-T and any other chemical that may have been mixed with it, said ministry spokesman Brett Thalmann.
“The panel will look at 2,4,5-T and anything it may have been mixed with,” Thalmann said. “If there were cases where 2,4-D was mixed with 2,4,5-T, that will be looked at.”
Meanwhile, the University of Guelph confirmed that two of the former manufacturers of Agent Orange, Dow Chemical and Monsanto Corp., fund ongoing projects at the university that do not involve Ritter.
The confirmation comes after questions were raised by critics about the independence of the panel, given that Ritter has been a professor since 1993 at the University of Guelph.
“He’s not the faculty person connected with this research,” said university spokesman Lori Bona Hunt.
Mayor Jim Diodati, who spearheaded a city council investigation into the usage of Agent Orange in Niagara Falls, Ont.,was encouraged by that news.
“I think that’s good because we want to eliminate any appearance of partiality and I think it’s good,” Diodati said.
Diodati said he so far believes in the integrity of the panel.
“I’m not too concerned because the science will be the science,” Diodati said. “As long as they’re willing to have their results peer-reviewed by a credible third party, I’m OK with it. It’s a certainly a start that takes us in the right direction.”
Debate has swirled since the Ontario government admitted that several ministries and the former Ontario Hydro used a mix of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T as a brush-clearing herbicide from about 1950 to the late 1970s.
The Agent Orange used in Vietnam was a 1:1 mix of the two chemicals.
NDP MPP Gilles Bisson was still skeptical despite the ministry’s vow to investigate any chemical mixes involving 2,4,5-T.
“I’m not convinced we’re there yet,” Bisson said. “I understood that originally that whole investigation was to be about the entire cocktail of Agent Orange. Then we get Ritter saying, ‘I’m only looking at 2,4,5-T,’ then you get the minister supporting that. Time will tell. I will get back to the minister and find out in fact if that’s what they’re doing.”
Thalmann disputed Bisson’s “unsubstantiated claims” about the government trying to limit the probe as well as his efforts to “discredit” Ritter.
“This independent panel was set up so that we could arrive at the facts and those will be made public,” Thalmann said. “It’s not being limited in scope at all.”
Although 2,4,5-T is generally considered the most dangerous component of Agent Orange because of the presence of a highly toxic dioxin known as TCDD, 2,4-D is also toxic, according to some advocates like Dr. Meg Sears, an Ottawa-based environmental researcher.
Carol Brown Parker, president of the Agent Orange Association of Canada, believes the University of Guelph’s ties to Dow and Monsanto could potentially affect the impartiality of the panel.
“In my opinion, yes it does,” Parker said.
Dow is funding three research projects valued at $110,768 in total at the university, Hunt said. Monsanto is funding three projects valued at $243,568.
The projects involve two professors in a separate department from Ritter, Hunt said.
Richard Moccia, the university’s associate vice-president of research, pointed to Ritter’s reputation as a world-leading toxicologist.
“Although the University of Guelph and many of its research scientists have done work over the decades with a variety of different private corporations, I guess it’s up to your readers to try to decide if that itself represents undue influence on the nature of Dr. Ritter’s findings,” Moccia said. “I would say there’s absolutely no support for that philosophy and no evidence that that would be the case with Dr. Ritter.”
Ritter didn’t respond to e-mails and phone calls requesting comment.
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 04/ 20/ 11 8:20 am
YOU KNOW....IT JUST LOOKS LIKE IT WILL NEVER END....!!!
http://www.posttraumaticstressdisorders ... -veterans/
How To Get Mental Health Care Right For Today’s Veterans
Observations of combat-related stress disorders appear as early as the writings of Homer in descriptions of returning Trojan war veterans. During the Civil War, PTSD was characterized as soldier’s heart, in World War I it was shell shock, in World War II it was battle fatigue and during the Vietnam War it was Vietnam Syndrome. With the 1980 inclusion of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the “American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,” PTSD has been officially designated as one of the anxiety disorders. Key features of PTSD include re-experiencing painful memories, numbing of positive feelings, avoiding reminders and being alert and on guard, even in safe situations.
The lifetime risk for PTSD in the general American population has been estimated to be 7.8 percent (1). The best estimate of the rates of PTSD in combat has been derived from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS) (2,3). The NVVRS found that 20 percent of those who served in the Vietnam War developed deployment-related PTSD, with those suffering from PTSD having increased rates of depression, alcohol and drug abuse, family adjustment problems and interpersonal violence. Children of Vietnam veterans with PTSD had higher levels of behavioral and emotional problems. Greater combat exposure, including multiple tours of duty and greater exposure to personal life threat and killing predicted greater risk of combat related PTSD.
The U.S. invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 and Iraq on March 20, 2003. To date, more than 1.6 million men and women have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Milliken and colleagues (4) conducted a longitudinal study of 88,235 soldiers returning from Iraq. Screening was conducted immediately following return from the warzone and again three to six months later. Based on combined screening, 20.3 percent of active-duty and 42.4 percent of reservists screened positive for mental health disorders. Seal and colleagues (5,6) reported on the growing burden of mental disorders, including trends and risk factors for mental health diagnosis in new users of Veteran Affairs health care. Between April 2002 and March 2008, data was reported on 289,328 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans using VA healthcare for the first time; 36.9 percent received one or more mental health diagnoses; 21.8 percent received a diagnosis of PTSD; 17.4 percent a diagnosis of depression, 7 percent for alcohol use disorder and 3 percent for substance abuse disorder. Those with PTSD and depression had elevated cardiac risk, including higher blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and adult-onset diabetes.
Despite the lessons learned from Vietnam, engaging OEF and OIF veterans in mental health care remains a challenge. Young men and women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq service with warzone-related PTSD and other related mental health problems struggle to confront these problems and reach out for mental health services. They have busy lives, concerns about childcare, financial pressures, concerns about an adverse impact on their military or civilian careers from being labeled with PTSD, and perceptions of being weak in a culture critical of vulnerability and prone to shaming mental illness. Practical concerns regarding access to care, transportation, and childcare also constitute obstacles to receiving much needed mental health services.
DOD and VA have adopted a number of innovative strategies to overcome the obstacles to care. Integrated, co-located care where mental health services are provided inside primary care is one approach, with a well-established evidence base for the successful treatment of depression in civilians in co-located mental health primary care clinics (7). Efforts are being made to de-stigmatize mental health services by reframing them as stress management training for combat operational stress, rather than psychiatric treatment for mental disorders. In an effort to address geographic barriers to care and stigma, innovations are being made to bring care to veterans utilizing internet and telephone care as an alternative to traditional clinic visits. Motivational interviewing techniques are used to directly address the stigma concerns. By employing these novel strategies, the hope is to reduce the risk of delayed treatment seeking, which will inevitably result in higher rates of depression, alcohol and drug use, interpersonal violence, physical health problems and occupational disability.
The past two decades have seen rapid advances in evidence-based treatment for both combat and civilian PTSD. Among the psychotherapies, those with greatest empirical support are cognitive behavioral therapy that emphasizes vividly re-imagining the traumatic events in the safety of the relationship with the therapist, confronting reminders of the events in everyday life and correcting irrational beliefs related to traumatic exposure. There is preliminary support for the use of marital and family therapy. A recent review of medication studies for PTSD (8) reported 35 randomized control trials, with clinical improvement occurring in 59.1 percent of those in the active pharmacological treatment conditions, versus 38.5 percent receiving placebo. Antidepressant medications, including drugs such as Zoloft and Paxil, are effective for both PTSD and associated depression, and may be helpful for pain. Other helpful medications for combatting PTSD include trazodone for insomnia, prazosin for nightmares, mood stabilizing drugs for anger outbursts and naltrexone and topiramate for alcohol abuse (9).
References:
1. Kessler RC, Sonnega A, Bromet E, Hughes M, Nelson CB. 1995. Posttraumatic stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry 52:1048-1060.
2. Schlenger WE, Kulka RA, Fairbank JA, Hough RL, Jordan BK, Marmar CR, Weiss DS. 1992. The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in the Vietnam generation: A multimethod, multisource assessment of psychiatric disorder. J Trauma Stress 5:333-363.
3. Jordan BK, Schlenger WE, Hough R, Kulka RA, Weiss D, Fairbank JA, Marmar CR. 1991. Lifetime and current prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders among Vietnam veterans and controls. Arch Gen Psychiatry 48:207-215.
4. Milliken CS, Auchterlonie JL, Hoge CW. 2007. Longitudinal assessment of mental health problems among active and reserve component soldiers returning from the Iraq war. JAMA 298:2141-2148.
5. Seal KH, Bertenthal D, Miner CR, Sen S, Marmar C. 2007. Bringing the war back home: mental health disorders among 103,788 US veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan seen at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. Arch Intern Med 167:476-482.
6. Seal KH, Metzler TJ, Gima KS, Bertenthal D, Maguen S, Marmar CR. In press. Increasing prevalence of mental disorders among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans: trends and risk factors for mental health diagnoses in new users of VA healthcare, 2002-2008. Am J Public Health..
7. Gilbody S, Bower P, Fletcher J, Richards D, Sutton AJ. 2006. Collaborative care for depression: a cumulative meta-analysis and review of longer-term outcomes. Arch Intern Med 166:2314-2321.
8. Stein DJ, Ipser JC, Seedat S. 2006. Pharmacotherapy for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cochrane Database Syst Rev 1:CD002795.
9. Berger W, Mendlowicz MV, Margues-Portella C, Kinrys G, Fontenelle LF, Marmar CR, Figueira I. 2009. Pharmacologic alternatives to antidepressants in posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 33:169-180.
http://www.posttraumaticstressdisorders ... -veterans/
How To Get Mental Health Care Right For Today’s Veterans
Observations of combat-related stress disorders appear as early as the writings of Homer in descriptions of returning Trojan war veterans. During the Civil War, PTSD was characterized as soldier’s heart, in World War I it was shell shock, in World War II it was battle fatigue and during the Vietnam War it was Vietnam Syndrome. With the 1980 inclusion of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the “American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,” PTSD has been officially designated as one of the anxiety disorders. Key features of PTSD include re-experiencing painful memories, numbing of positive feelings, avoiding reminders and being alert and on guard, even in safe situations.
The lifetime risk for PTSD in the general American population has been estimated to be 7.8 percent (1). The best estimate of the rates of PTSD in combat has been derived from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS) (2,3). The NVVRS found that 20 percent of those who served in the Vietnam War developed deployment-related PTSD, with those suffering from PTSD having increased rates of depression, alcohol and drug abuse, family adjustment problems and interpersonal violence. Children of Vietnam veterans with PTSD had higher levels of behavioral and emotional problems. Greater combat exposure, including multiple tours of duty and greater exposure to personal life threat and killing predicted greater risk of combat related PTSD.
The U.S. invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 and Iraq on March 20, 2003. To date, more than 1.6 million men and women have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Milliken and colleagues (4) conducted a longitudinal study of 88,235 soldiers returning from Iraq. Screening was conducted immediately following return from the warzone and again three to six months later. Based on combined screening, 20.3 percent of active-duty and 42.4 percent of reservists screened positive for mental health disorders. Seal and colleagues (5,6) reported on the growing burden of mental disorders, including trends and risk factors for mental health diagnosis in new users of Veteran Affairs health care. Between April 2002 and March 2008, data was reported on 289,328 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans using VA healthcare for the first time; 36.9 percent received one or more mental health diagnoses; 21.8 percent received a diagnosis of PTSD; 17.4 percent a diagnosis of depression, 7 percent for alcohol use disorder and 3 percent for substance abuse disorder. Those with PTSD and depression had elevated cardiac risk, including higher blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and adult-onset diabetes.
Despite the lessons learned from Vietnam, engaging OEF and OIF veterans in mental health care remains a challenge. Young men and women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq service with warzone-related PTSD and other related mental health problems struggle to confront these problems and reach out for mental health services. They have busy lives, concerns about childcare, financial pressures, concerns about an adverse impact on their military or civilian careers from being labeled with PTSD, and perceptions of being weak in a culture critical of vulnerability and prone to shaming mental illness. Practical concerns regarding access to care, transportation, and childcare also constitute obstacles to receiving much needed mental health services.
DOD and VA have adopted a number of innovative strategies to overcome the obstacles to care. Integrated, co-located care where mental health services are provided inside primary care is one approach, with a well-established evidence base for the successful treatment of depression in civilians in co-located mental health primary care clinics (7). Efforts are being made to de-stigmatize mental health services by reframing them as stress management training for combat operational stress, rather than psychiatric treatment for mental disorders. In an effort to address geographic barriers to care and stigma, innovations are being made to bring care to veterans utilizing internet and telephone care as an alternative to traditional clinic visits. Motivational interviewing techniques are used to directly address the stigma concerns. By employing these novel strategies, the hope is to reduce the risk of delayed treatment seeking, which will inevitably result in higher rates of depression, alcohol and drug use, interpersonal violence, physical health problems and occupational disability.
The past two decades have seen rapid advances in evidence-based treatment for both combat and civilian PTSD. Among the psychotherapies, those with greatest empirical support are cognitive behavioral therapy that emphasizes vividly re-imagining the traumatic events in the safety of the relationship with the therapist, confronting reminders of the events in everyday life and correcting irrational beliefs related to traumatic exposure. There is preliminary support for the use of marital and family therapy. A recent review of medication studies for PTSD (8) reported 35 randomized control trials, with clinical improvement occurring in 59.1 percent of those in the active pharmacological treatment conditions, versus 38.5 percent receiving placebo. Antidepressant medications, including drugs such as Zoloft and Paxil, are effective for both PTSD and associated depression, and may be helpful for pain. Other helpful medications for combatting PTSD include trazodone for insomnia, prazosin for nightmares, mood stabilizing drugs for anger outbursts and naltrexone and topiramate for alcohol abuse (9).
References:
1. Kessler RC, Sonnega A, Bromet E, Hughes M, Nelson CB. 1995. Posttraumatic stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry 52:1048-1060.
2. Schlenger WE, Kulka RA, Fairbank JA, Hough RL, Jordan BK, Marmar CR, Weiss DS. 1992. The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in the Vietnam generation: A multimethod, multisource assessment of psychiatric disorder. J Trauma Stress 5:333-363.
3. Jordan BK, Schlenger WE, Hough R, Kulka RA, Weiss D, Fairbank JA, Marmar CR. 1991. Lifetime and current prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders among Vietnam veterans and controls. Arch Gen Psychiatry 48:207-215.
4. Milliken CS, Auchterlonie JL, Hoge CW. 2007. Longitudinal assessment of mental health problems among active and reserve component soldiers returning from the Iraq war. JAMA 298:2141-2148.
5. Seal KH, Bertenthal D, Miner CR, Sen S, Marmar C. 2007. Bringing the war back home: mental health disorders among 103,788 US veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan seen at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. Arch Intern Med 167:476-482.
6. Seal KH, Metzler TJ, Gima KS, Bertenthal D, Maguen S, Marmar CR. In press. Increasing prevalence of mental disorders among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans: trends and risk factors for mental health diagnoses in new users of VA healthcare, 2002-2008. Am J Public Health..
7. Gilbody S, Bower P, Fletcher J, Richards D, Sutton AJ. 2006. Collaborative care for depression: a cumulative meta-analysis and review of longer-term outcomes. Arch Intern Med 166:2314-2321.
8. Stein DJ, Ipser JC, Seedat S. 2006. Pharmacotherapy for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cochrane Database Syst Rev 1:CD002795.
9. Berger W, Mendlowicz MV, Margues-Portella C, Kinrys G, Fontenelle LF, Marmar CR, Figueira I. 2009. Pharmacologic alternatives to antidepressants in posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 33:169-180.
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47726
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
- Board index
- Delete all board cookies • All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]
Free Dominion - Principled Conservative - Party and Canadian Politics - Canada Blogs -
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
Playstation3 © Sony Corporation
PS3 Style designed by Jester
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
Playstation3 © Sony Corporation
PS3 Style designed by Jester
