What's New
| Dr. Haley at UTSW Presents Compelling Brain Images Showing Gulf War Illness |
VCS Asks VA: Since UTSW Research Remains Vital to Understanding Gulf War Illness, Then Why Did a Handful of VA Staff in Washington Impede UTSW Contract and Then End Funding for UTSW? March 9, 2010, Salt Lake City, Utah (Science News) - Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images – various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements – that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome. |
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| March 9 VCS Weekly Update |
This week’s VCS update keeps you in the loop with news on issues you care about. One good change – our weekly news updates won’t ask you for money. Instead, our news updates point you to news articles at our web site. We hope you will read them and share the important facts with your friends. This week's update includes news about VA and suicides, VCS on CNN, our VCS FOIA campaign, VA automating Agent Orange claims, a waterboarding torture video, and Gulf War veterans' benefits. |
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| Federal Court Keeps Torture Lawsuit Against Rumsfeld Alive |
What's Waterboarding? Watch Video of Torture March 5, 2010, Chicago, Illinois (Associated Press) - A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm. [Rumsfeld served at the Pentagon under former President George W. Bush.] |
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| Reducing Suicides: VA Adopts Policy on Emergency Care for Mental Health Patients |
This Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive provides policy to ensure the provision of safe and secure mental health services during all hours of operation for Emergency Departments (EDs) and Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) in VHA |
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| Senator Hutchison Supports Gulf War Research at University of Texas Southwestern |
Texas Senator Calls VA Decision ‘Vindication’ for Gulf War Veterans February 28, 2010 - (Press Release) U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison released the following statement concerning the Department of Veterans Affairs decision to reconsider the rejected claims of Gulf War veterans: |
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Germany’s Foreign Minister Wants German Troops Out of Deteriorating Afghanistan War Fiasco
Written by Dave Graham
Monday, 24 August 2009 08:58
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August 22, 2009, Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is bidding to oust Angela Merkel as chancellor of Germany in an election next month, said he wanted a timetable for a military pull-out from Afghanistan.
Steinmeier, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) who share power with Merkel's conservatives, said once it became clear who would lead Afghanistan after last Thursday's election there, talks should begin over how long foreign troops should stay. "We need to agree with the new Afghan president...how long international troops should remain in Afghanistan," he said at the sidelines of an election event in Dortmund on Saturday. Merkel this week tried to quash a public debate about pulling troops out of Afghanistan that has grown louder as violence surged. Although the issue has so far not played a big part in the run-up to Germany's September 27 federal election, polls show most voters want the 4,200 German troops in Afghanistan as part of a six-year-old NATO mission to return home. The ruling coalition agreed last October to extend a parliamentary mandate for participation in the NATO mission by 14 months instead of the usual 12 in the hope of preventing debate over the deployment from coloring the election race. Recent violence has prompted prominent political voices in Germany, including a former defense minister from Merkel's party, to press the government for a pull-out plan. Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, a party ally of Merkel's, said on Thursday that he expected German troops to stay in Afghanistan for another five to 10 years and dismissed calls for troop cuts once the Afghan election was over. (Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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