What's New
| Congressman Mitchell: Pausing to Consider People Who REALLY Matter |
Chairman Harry Mitchell is a Hero to Veterans Nationwide August 20, 2010 (Arizona Republic) - It's been a month since I spoke to Rep. Harry Mitchell about suicides among military veterans and I'm just getting around to writing something. |
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| What Obama Won't Say Tonight About US Withdrawal from Iraq |
| August 31, 2010 (ConsortiumNews) - President Barack Obama’s aides say his speech this evening marking the end of "combat operations" in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush’s infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech in 2003. We’ll see. |
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| Lawsuit Update: Prudential's Half-Billion in Dirty Secret Profits |
Families of Dead Soldiers Sue Insurer Over Its Handling of Survivors’ Benefits August 29, 2010 (New York Times) - Vickie Castro’s only child was killed six years ago just before Christmas, when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Army mess tent in Mosul, Iraq, killing more than 20 people. |
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| Op-Ed: Cost of War Must Also Include Caring for Our Veterans |
Overlooked Cost of Iraq / Afghanistan Wars: Our Veterans' Healthcare and Benefits August 15, 2010 (San Francisco Chronicle) - Two years after an Army specialist saw half his platoon torn apart in Iraq, he hanged himself in a California backyard. |
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| VA Secretary Shinseki's Open Message to Gulf War Veterans |
| August 11, 2010, Washington, DC (VA Press Release) - August 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Gulf War, launched with Operation Desert Shield and followed by Operation Desert Storm. VA honors this milestone with a renewed commitment to improving our responsiveness to the challenges facing Gulf War Veterans. |
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DU Expert to VA: Time to Investigate the DU Program
Written by Dan Fahey
Friday, 10 January 2003 00:00
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January 10, 2003 - Honorable Anthony Principi (00) Secretary Department of Veterans Affairs 810 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20420 Dear Secretary Principi: As a veteran and veterans's advocate, I strongly encourage you to investigate the conduct and utility of the VA study of Gulf War veterans exposed to depleted uranium, known as the Depleted Uranium Follow-Up Program (DU Program). In the last few years, Pentagon officials have made false statements about the health status of the veterans in the DU Program in apparent attempts to reduce domestic and international concerns about the use of DU munitions. The DU Program has facilitated this deceit first through its silence, and further through its ostensibly subjective and selective presentation of facts concerning the development of cancers, bone tumors and other health effects among the few veterans in the study. I strongly believe there is sufficient publicly available evidence to justify a thorough audit of the DU Program. This evidence also supports the creation of a new DU study that will more effectively serve the interests of Gulf War veterans and meet the needs of policymakers who make decisions about veterans? service connected benefits. I have outlined my findings and proposals in the attached documents. After serving in the Navy, I worked as a service organization representative for six years with Swords to Plowshares (San Francisco) and Vietnam Veterans of America (Washington, DC). I know there were myriad problems with federal research on Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange, and I am deeply concerned that history is repeating itself with respect to research on Gulf War veterans exposed to DU. I respectfully request a response from your office to the concerns I have raised. Thank you for your consideration of the materials I have provided. Sincerely, Dan Fahey cc: Senator Russell Feingold Senator Jay Rockefeller Representative Christopher Shays Representative Lane Evans Representative Bob Filner Representative Chris Smith Representative David Bonior Representative Nancy Pelosi Representative Barbara Lee James Binns, VA Gulf War Illness Research Advisory Committee |