Veterans for Common Sense

April 17, 2008 – As news broke of the rape of yet another US military contractor employee in Iraq [see “Another KBR Rape Case” at thenation.com], the Senate Foreign Relations Committee convened a hearing April 9 to demand that the Justice Department explain why it has failed to prosecute a single sexual assault case in the theater since the Iraq War began.

“American women working in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to be sexually assaulted while their assailants go free,” said Senator Bill Nelson, who called the hearing. Because squabbles about who has jurisdiction in these cases have proliferated, Nelson arranged to have representatives from the Defense, State and Justice departments sit down together in front of him. They were forced to listen while the latest victims testified.

Dawn Leamon, who worked for a subsidiary of KBR and had told her story to The Nation a week before, described–with her back to the packed room and her voice (mostly) steady–being sodomized and forced to have oral sex with a KBR colleague and a Special Forces soldier two months earlier. When she reported the incident to KBR supervisors, she met a series of obstacles, she said. “They would tell me to stay quiet about it or try to make it seem as if I brought it on myself or lied about it.”

Another woman, Mary Beth Kineston, who worked as a commercial trucker for KBR in Iraq, testified that she had been raped in the cab of her truck by a KBR subcontractor employee at night while waiting in line to fill her water tanker truck. She immediately reported the incident to her supervisors; no one did a rape kit test, referred her for medical treatment or even offered to escort her back through the dark to her quarters that night.

Also at the hearing was Jamie Leigh Jones, whose story made the news in December, when she alleged that her 2005 gang rape by Halliburton/KBR co-workers in Iraq was being covered up by the company and the government. Jones, who has formed a nonprofit to support the many other women with similar experiences, says forty employees of US contractors have contacted her with stories of sexual assault or sexual harassment–and accounts of how Halliburton, KBR and the Cayman Island-based Service Employees International Inc. (SEII), a KBR shell company, either failed to help them or outright obstructed them.

As the number of women coming forward rises, Congress has begun to question why these crimes are not being prosecuted. In fact, there are several laws on the books that would allow these cases to proceed: the problem is not a lack of legal tools but a lack of will. “There is no rational explanation for this,” says Scott Horton, a lecturer at Columbia Law School who specializes in the law of armed conflict. Prosecutorial jurisdiction for crimes like the alleged rapes of Jones and Leamon is easily established under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act and the Patriot Act’s special maritime and territorial jurisdiction provisions. But somebody has to want to prosecute the cases.

Senator Nelson noted that the Defense Department, which has reported 742 sexual assaults against soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, has claimed that it was unable to prosecute cases involving civilians–like defense contractor employees–until recently. (Even among those cases where it clearly had jurisdiction, a close look at the DoD’s own stats reveals a far from stellar record: among the 684 sexual assault complaints lodged by US soldiers in the Middle East, only eighty-three cases have led to courts-martial. Meanwhile, last year alone, 2,688 sexual assaults were reported globally against women serving in the US Armed Forces; disposition of these cases is pending.)

Worse, those figures represent only the official count. Given that so many women are now coming forward complaining that they have been hushed by their private-military-contractor supervisors, it’s clear that the real tally is likely far higher. Even in cases where the victims do report the incidents, most complaints never see the light of day, thanks to the fine print in employee contracts, which compels employees into private arbitration instead of allowing their charges to be heard in a public courtroom. Todd Kelly, a lawyer in Houston who is trying to fight the legality of private arbitration, says his firm alone has fifteen clients with sexual assault, sexual harassment or retaliation complaints (for reporting assault and/or harassment) against Halliburton and its former subsidiary KBR, as well as SEII.

Obviously, US military contractors have an interest in avoiding the bad publicity that would follow if these complaints were not kept secret. With huge sums hanging in the balance–KBR has an estimated $16 billion in contracts–the stakes are high.

But such a financial incentive cannot explain why the Justice Department has failed to act. Although it has the authority to pursue criminal cases involving US military contractor employees, it has hemmed and hawed over even the tiny fraction of cases that have made their way through the maze of obstacles to land in the Justice Department’s offices. Grilling Justice about these twenty-four civilian sexual assault cases, Senator Nelson demanded to know exactly how many cases Justice was pursuing–and whether there had been a single conviction. “I don’t know of any convictions for sexual assault,” admitted Sigal Mandelker, deputy assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division. But, she stammered, “we do have active investigations…somewhere about…somewhere upwards of…somewhere between four and six, I believe is the number.” (Leamon’s attorney just learned that the department is initiating an investigation into her case.)

At the hearing, Nelson dryly observed that there was a very quick way to make sure US contractors did not force employees into private arbitration, and an easy way to force contractors to follow established protocols for sexual assault and harassment: “This might be something you want to require and include in your contracts–before you award them,” he said. To which, in quick succession, the Defense, State and Justice department representatives responded that, well, they couldn’t respond because this was, er, beyond their area of expertise.

April 17, 2008 – Washington, DC — Military interrogators assaulted Afghan detainees in 2003, using investigation methods they learned during self-defense training, Pentagon documents released Wednesday show.  [Note: VCS is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit to obtain documents from the Administration related to torture.]

Detainees at the Gardez Detention Facility in southeastern Afghanistan reported being made to kneel outside in wet clothing and being kicked and punched in the kidneys, nose and knees if they moved, according to the documents.

A 2006 Army review concluded that the detainees were not abused but that the incident revealed “misconduct that warrants further action.”

The documents, which were turned over Wednesday evening to the American Civil Liberties Union, focus on the 2003 death of Afghan detainee Jamal Nasser, who died in U.S. custody at the Gardez facility.

The documents detail interrogation techniques used on eight detainees, including Nasser, who were suspected of weapons trafficking.

The Army review found that abuse did not cause Nasser’s death. But the documents include interviews with some interrogators who acknowledged slapping the detainees – a technique they learned during survival training at the Army’s SERE school. SERE stands for Survive, Evade, Resist and Escape.

“You say you gave permission for (redacted) to hit detainees during interrogations; did you have a memorandum or order from your higher headquarters authorizing that?” a military criminal investigator asked one of the interrogators, according to a November 2004 transcript among the more than 300 pages of documents.

“No, I did not have a memorandum and had not seen one,” the interrogator answered, according to the transcript. “I used tactics that were used in SERE.”

The investigator continued: “Did you see (redacted) hit detainees during the interviews?”

“Yes, open or closed slaps, not punches,” the interrogator answered.

In another interview that day, according to the documents, the Army investigator asks whether “you ever heard of a tactic of pouring cold water or a water and snow mix on persons captured?”

“They do spray cold water on prisoners,” the interrogator answered, referring to SERE lessons. That interrogator was unaware, however, of men in his unit pouring cold water over the detainees, as the Afghans later complained.

ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said such interrogation techniques are taught at SERE schools only to show soldiers how to withstand them from enemy captors. She called the methods, when used together, a form of torture.

“They were intended to be defensive methods, not offensive methods,” Singh said. “This raises serious questions about the interrogation methods that were being applied in Afghanistan.”

SERE methods were also used on detainees by military interrogators in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Singh said.

The Pentagon and the Army did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening.

The 2004 criminal inquiry of Nasser’s death was among a string of probes into alleged abuse of prisoners in U.S. jails in Afghanistan.

Trying to deflect the kind of scandal that followed the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan ordered a review of their secretive network of about 20 jails at bases across Afghanistan.

Nasser was among eight detainees who were held at Gardez for between 18 and 20 days. The Army concluded he died of a stomach ailment.

A study finds a high rate of depression and stress disorders, and many are not getting proper treatment. Taken together, the study shows that 31{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of those who have served in combat have suffered from brain injury, stress disorder, or both. “The VA is completely unprepared for the tidal wave,” Sullivan said. “Unless the VA gets a massive amount of money [and] a set of new strong pro-veteran leaders, the situation will collapse.” 

April 19, 2008, Washington, DC – The latest and most comprehensive study of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has concluded that nearly 1 in every 5 veterans is suffering from depression or stress disorders and that many are not getting adequate care.

The study shows that mental disorders are more prevalent and lasting than previously known, surfacing belatedly and lingering after troops have been discharged.

An estimated 300,000 veterans among the nearly 1.7 million who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan are battling depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. More than half of these people, according to the study conducted by the Rand Corp., are slipping through the cracks in the bureaucratic system, going without necessary treatment.

The Rand study underscores one of the lessons of modern counterinsurgency conflicts: Such wars may kill fewer troops than traditional fighting but can leave deeper psychological scars.

Screening techniques for stress disorders are vastly improved from previous wars, making comparisons with Vietnam, Korea or World War II difficult. But a chief difference is that in Iraq and Afghanistan all service members, not just combat infantry, are exposed to roadside bombs and civilian deaths. That distinction subjects a much wider swath of military personnel to the stresses of war.

“We call it ‘360-365’ combat,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. “What that means is veterans are completely surrounded by combat for one year. Nearly all of our soldiers are under fire, or being subjected to mortar rounds or roadside bombs, or witnessing the deaths of civilians or fellow soldiers.”

Military officials praised the Rand study, saying that its findings were consistent with their own studies, and said it would reinforce efforts to try to improve mental health care. Veterans Affairs officials, while questioning the study’s methodology, said their department had intensified efforts to find discharged service members suffering from mental disorders.

The Rand Study was undertaken for the California Community Foundation, which also has funded other programs for returning veterans. Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, said the study would help draw the nation’s attention.

“They are making this a national debate,” Schoomaker said.

The Army previously has said that an estimated 1 in 6 service members suffered from a form of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a slightly lower rate than the Rand study found. In addition to current PTSD rates, the Rand study found that 19.5{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of people who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan suffered a concussion or other traumatic brain injury during their combat tour, a number similar to Army estimates.

Taken together, the study shows that 31{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of those who have served in combat have suffered from brain injury, stress disorder, or both.

Combat-related mental ailments and stress can lead to suicide, homelessness and physical health problems. But more mundane disorders can have long-term social consequences.

“These conditions can impair relationships, disrupt marriages, aggravate the difficulties of parenting, and cause problems in children that may extend the consequences of combat trauma across generations,” the study said.

Failure to adequately treat disorders can cost the government billions of dollars, said Lisa H. Jaycox, one of the study’s authors.

“We make the case that investing in treatment early would prevent some of the negative consequences from unfolding and save money,” Jaycox said.

Some service members avoid a diagnosis of a mental health problem, fearing negative consequences, the study said. These troops worry about damage to their military careers and relationships with co-workers. “When we asked folks what was limiting them from getting the help that they need, among the top barriers that were reported were really negative career repercussions,” said Terri Tanielian, another of the study’s authors.

The study proposes two key changes. It recommends ways to allow service members to get mental health care “off the record,” to avoid any possible stigma. And since some soldiers and Marines fear that seeking treatment will prevent their redeployment, the study recommends that fitness-for-duty reports not rely on decisions to seek mental health care.

Col. Loree Sutton, director of the Defense Department’s PTSD center, expressed concern about the Rand finding that only half of service members with stress disorders seek help. Changing military culture to encourage troops to get help is difficult, she said at a news conference.

Service members who seek treatment face a dearth of healthcare providers with expertise in war-related mental disorders, the study found. The shortage leads to long waits that discourage some people from obtaining help.

Thousands of additional mental health professionals — both in government hospitals and in civilian healthcare systems — are needed, and current practitioners must be given extra training, the report said.

“Since the dramatic increase in the need for services exists now, the required expansion in trained providers is already several years overdue,” the report said.

Gerald M. Cross, the Veterans Affairs’ principal deputy undersecretary for health, said his agency was stepping up outreach, expanding a program designed to contact all veterans, whether or not they had reported problems.

“We contact them by mail, we contact them in person, we call them on the phone,” Cross said. “We are even putting a segment on MTV.”

Veterans Affairs officials questioned the Rand survey’s methodology, but Tanielian said the firm was “confident of our estimates.”

Ira R. Katz, the Veterans Affairs’ mental health chief, said the agency’s budget for mental disorders had surged from $2 billion in 2001 to $4 billion next year. “The VA has done an enormous mobilization, not only to meet the needs of returning veterans but all veterans,” Katz said.

But critics of the Bush administration contend the Rand study highlights that Veterans Affairs did not pay close enough attention to the issue of stress disorders, said Sullivan, the veterans advocate.

“The VA is completely unprepared for the tidal wave,” Sullivan said. “Unless the VA gets a massive amount of money [and] a set of new strong pro-veteran leaders, the situation will collapse.”

Bryan Catherman, a former staff sergeant in the Army Reserve, said he was screened for mental health ailments when he was demobilized in 2004. He said he was focused on saying and doing what was necessary to get home to his family. Besides, the euphoria of being home masked his problems.

“I felt like Superman for the first six months,” Catherman said. “Then I felt like I ate Kryptonite corn flakes. So everything went downhill after the military was done with me.”

Catherman said he sank into a depression and abused alcohol. At first resisting his family’s pleas to get help, he later encountered frustration in dealing with Veterans Affairs. Today, he credits the VA for the help he needed, but thinks the government misread the problem.

“The system is overburdened,” Catherman said. “We should have learned from Vietnam. I feel, as a veteran, that once I got home from Iraq, I wasn’t much of a concern anymore.”

April 16, 2008 – Killeen, TX – Killeen police are investigating what they said appears to be a murder-suicide involving two Fort Hood soldiers who returned late last year from Iraq.

Fort Hood officials Tuesday identified the married couple as Staff Sgt. Gilberto Mota, 35, of California and Spc. Diana Mota, 30, of Killeen. Police said they were found dead Saturday at a house in the 3100 block of Southhill Drive.

Investigators said they think Gilberto Mota shot Diana Mota before turning the gun on himself. The couple had been separated, officials said.

According to a written statement from police in Killeen, Diana Mota went to the house Saturday to talk to Gilberto Mota. The couple’s daughter and her uncle, Gilberto Mota’s brother, went to the house about 11 p.m. after Diana Mota failed to return.

When they arrived, they found the couple dead in a bedroom, police said. Bell County Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin has ordered autopsies for the couple at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas.

Fort Hood officials said Gilberto Mota was an artillery mechanic and served in Iraq from October 2006 to November. He received several awards and commendations, including the Army Achievement Medal and the Army Good Conduct Medal.

Diana Mota served in Iraq from October 2006 to December and worked as an automated logistical specialist. She received the Army Commendation Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, officials said.

Nearby neighbors said the couple typically kept to themselves. Cynthia Colon said she was shocked at the deaths.

“I can never have imagined that something like this would have happened on my street,” said Colon, who has lived in the neighborhood for about five years. “It’s a pretty good neighborhood around here.”

Fort Hood officials said they did not immediately know of other such incidents involving area veterans. But last April, Killeen police investigated an apparent murder-suicide in which they found an 18-year-old woman and her 22-year-old husband dead from gunshot wounds. The woman was a Fort Hood soldier; her husband was a member of the National Guard.

In 2004, officials found Sgt. Erin Edward’s body on the front porch of her house after she had been shot. The body of her estranged husband, Sgt. William Edwards, was found in a parking lot across the street; officials called it a murder-suicide. Both had served in Iraq.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Two Fort Hood Soldiers Found Dead
By Nancy A. Bourget, III Corps and Fort Hood Public Affairs Office
 

Blackanthem Military News

Fort Hood, TX — Fort Hood officials have released the name of two Soldiers after next-of-kin had been notified, who were found dead on Saturday, April 12, in a residence in Killeen.

On the evening of April 12, officers from the Killeen Police Department responded to a call advising that a husband and wife were found deceased in a residence in Killeen.

The Soldiers involved were Staff Sgt. Gilberto Mota and Spc. Diana Mota.

Staff Sgt. Mota, 35, of California, was assigned to 215th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division since January 2006 as an Artillery Mechanic.

Spc. Mota, Horton, 30, of Killeen, was assigned to Division Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division since November 2007 as an Automated Logistical Specialist.

Staff Sergeant Mota’s awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, NCO Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Driver-Mechanic Badge, and Basic Marksmanship Qualification Badge.

Specialist Mota’s awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon.

Staff Sgt. Mota deployed to Iraq Oct. 06 – Nov. 07. Spc. Diana Mota deployed Oct. 06 – Dec. 07.

There is an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Killeen Police Department.

April 16, 2008 – Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., raised a novel idea Wednesday for helping families of veterans suffering from severe traumatic brain injuries or life-changing combat wounds: build homes for for them on the campuses of VA hospitals.

She brought up the idea during a Senate defense appropriations subcommittee hearing at which the service surgeons general were peppered with questions about whether the government is truly prepared for the long-term obligation of helping the families of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

The surgeons general said they shared her concern about meeting those long-term needs but did not endorse her idea because she is talking about a change that would have to be made by the Department of Veterans Affairs, not the military.

Vice Adm. Adam Robinson, the Navy surgeon general, said the services recognize the long-term obligation to help injured combat veterans and their families.

“The question is how,” he said.

Feinstein said she’s discussed her idea with VA Secretary James Peake, who also was noncommittal, and will not give up on it easily.

The VA hospital in West Los Angeles has 300 acres of undeveloped land that has been under some dispute because it is in a prime location. Feinstein said building housing for veterans and their families on the land would address the concerns of neighbors who do not want a large development of commercial high-rise buildings on the site, and would also give veterans and their families easy access to VA facilities for treatment.

“There is enough property to do it,” she said.

Feinstein said she offered VA’s West LA campus as an example because she often visits the site, but she believes such housing also could be built at other VA facilities around the country.

Feinstein and other California lawmakers have been trying to block VA from leasing out the unused land for commercial purposes, but they have not agreed on what to do with the property. Some want the land to be public park land, some have proposed building housing for homeless veterans and others have talked about leaving it completely undeveloped so it can be used by future generations.

Until now, Feinstein had not proposed a specific purpose for the land.

Family housing, other than temporary housing for a family during a medical emergency, is not typically provided by VA. Feinstein did not say whether the housing would be provided free, similar to family quarters on military bases, or if tenants would have to pay rent.

Living so close to VA care would be especially important for families whose homes are far from military and veterans’ hospitals or clinics, she said.

April 16, 2008 – The Bloomberg administration says it will invest $9.4 million of federal funding on its way to the city in fighting homelessness among veterans.

The money will be used to house more than 1,000 homeless veterans.

The city also says it plans to open a center in Brooklyn where veterans will be able to access a variety of services from medical benefits to short term housing.

“Providing a place to sleep is the least we can do for those who have served our country. But our hope is that once homeless veterans start using the safe haven, they will become more willing to accept help in other areas,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “This approach has already worked for many formerly homeless New Yorkers who have come into our general safe havens.”

“I just cannot express how much it has meant to me to have the security of having my own apartment, my own home, my base, which allows me to extend, to expand my horizons,” said veteran Charles Witherspoon. “It’s been a true renaissance. My renaissance.”

The U.S. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development teamed up with the City for the housing initiative.

A total of $75 million will go to provide permanent supportive housing for an estimated 10,000 homeless veterans across the country.

April 15, 2008 – After closing without notice last December, Hayward’s VA clinic re-opened just two months ago. Vanessa Feltes reports on how things look since the re-open.

“Words going out to the veterans, hey get signed up for the VA health care, look into it, it’s a great program, use it!” Sawyer County Veterans Service Officer Ray Boeckman says “if you build it, they will come”… more like.. if you re-open…more will come. The only problem is the clinic was reduced from four to two days a week causing an even fuller schedule than before. “We’ve been signing people up, several a week. We still get calls when’s that clinic going to open. Well, it is open.” Boeckman says they are hoping the rising numbers will allow for more hours.

Right now the clinic is open 8am to 4:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are booked all the way through. “There are 1148 veterans using the VA medical system through the Minneapolis region here. That would be Hayward, Rice Lake, Chippewa Falls, Minneapolis, as well as the Twin Ports clinic up in Superior.”

Boeckman says Rice Lake’s clinic opened when Hayward closed, and now they are trying to get veterans to come back home. “That’s what we are encouraging the veterans to do. It is open. The VA is determined and committed to keeping it open. It’s in the veteran’s best interest to stay in their backyard and use the VA.”

Veterans Demand Independent Prosecutor to Investigate U.S. Government Approval and Use of Torture

For Immediate Release: April 18, 2008
Contact: Paul Sullivan paul@veteransforcommonsense.org

Washington, DC – Veterans for Common Sense, a non-profit advocacy organization, today called upon the Justice Department to name an independent prosecutor to investigate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s public admission she personally approved the use of torture, a blatant violation of our Constitution, the War Crimes Act, the Anti-Torture Act, and other laws against harming prisoners of war. 

According to a recent ABC News broadcast, starting in 2002, top aides to President George W. Bush met repeatedly in secret at the White House and approved the brutal and violent torture of enemy prisoners of war, including waterboarding, a form of torture simulating drowning.

“Torture is wrong.  The Administration’s use of torture against anyone anywhere is a slap in the face of millions of our Nation’s veterans who fought and died for our Constitution,” said Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and Executive Director of VCS.

Those involved in the approval of waterboarding and other torture methods included Rice, Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet – all have left the Administration except Cheney and Rice.  The President knew about the secret meetings among his aides and the on-going torture of enemy prisoners.  On Friday, April 11, 2008, President Bush told ABC News, “Yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue and I approved.”  http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/Story?id=4635175&page=1

After dozens of shocking pictures depicting illegal torture at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were revealed in 2004, the Administration claimed the brutality was carried out by a few “bad apples” – almost always low-ranking soldiers.  “New facts revealed that high-level government officials approved and ordered torture.  They must be investigated held accountable for their public admissions of egregious war crimes.  Torture is wrong.  The use of torture does not produce reliable information. The use of torture increases the risk our soldiers will be tortured if they are captured.  And the use of torture betrays the Constitution we swore to protect and defend,” Sullivan said.

VCS, a non-partisan non-profit organization with more than 12,000 members, was formed in 2002 by Gulf War veterans.  VCS provides information and advocacy on policies related to veterans’ healthcare, veterans’ disability benefits, national security, and civil liberties.  VCS is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Veterans for Peace, and the Center for Constitutional Rights demanding the release of torture-related documents from the Administration. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/torturefoia.html

Newly Released Government Documents Show Special Forces Used Illegal Interrogation Techniques in Afghanistan.  Veterans for Common Sense is a co-plaintiff in this landmark litigation to protect our freedoms. 

April 16, 2008, New York – The American Civil Liberties Union obtained documents today from the Department of Defense confirming the military’s use of unlawful interrogation methods on detainees held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. The documents from the military’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID), obtained as a result of the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, include the first on-the-ground reports of torture in Gardez, Afghanistan to be publicly released.

“These documents make it clear that the military was using unlawful interrogation techniques in Afghanistan,” said Amrit Singh, an attorney with the ACLU. “Rather than putting a stop to these systemic abuses, senior officials appear to have turned a blind eye to them.”

Special Operations officers in Gardez admitted to using what are known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) techniques, which for decades American service members experienced as training to prepare for the brutal treatment they might face if captured.

Today’s documents reveal charges that Special Forces beat, burned, and doused eight prisoners with cold water before sending them into freezing weather conditions. One of the eight prisoners, Jamal Naseer, died in U.S. custody in March 2003. In late 2004, the military opened a criminal investigation into charges of torture at Gardez. Despite numerous witness statements describing the evidence of torture, the military’s investigation concluded that the charges of torture were unsupported. It also concluded that Naseer’s death was the result of a “stomach ailment,” even though no autopsy had been conducted in his case. Documents uncovered today also refer to sodomy committed by prison guards; the victims’ identities are redacted.

“These documents raise serious questions about the adequacy of the military’s investigations into prisoner abuse,” added Singh.

The ACLU also obtained today a file today related to the death of Muhammad Al Kanan, a prisoner held at Camp Bucca in Iraq. The file reveals that British doctors refused to issue a death certificate for fear of being sued for malpractice: www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/20080416/CID_ROI_Bucca.pdf

In October 2003, the ACLU – along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense, and Veterans for Peace – filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for records concerning the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad. To date, more than 100,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU’s FOIA lawsuit.

Attorneys in the FOIA case are Lawrence S. Lustberg and Melanca D. Clark of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, P.C.; Jameel Jaffer, Singh and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU; Arthur Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the New York Civil Liberties Union; and Shayana Kadidal and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

In addition, many of the FOIA documents are also located and summarized in a recently published book by Jaffer and Singh, Administration of Torture.

More information is available online at: www.aclu.org/administrationoftorture 

The documents received in the ACLU’s FOIA litigation are online at: www.aclu.org/torturefoia

All of today’s documents are available at: www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/34922res20080416.html

April 14, 2008 – Cleveland, OH: Families who have been adversely affected by Veterans medical malpractice and the often deplorable conditions at some VA hospitals, are hoping that new congressional funding for VA hospitals—the largest single infusion of cash in the 77-year-history of Veteran’s Affairs—will finally eradicate the crisis, and give veterans of all ages and stripes their due.

It has been a long time coming, as conditions at many VA hospitals worsen, and dubious medical practices resulted in the deaths, and injury of too many former soldiers.

The issue has been long running, and oft times disturbing. Stories abound, such as reports of ‘soiled’ medical devices and instruments used for rectal exams and biopsies of the prostate. In other words, instruments requiring thorough cleansing and disinfection between patients have not been duly cleaned. The mind shudders at such a mixing of blood, fecal matter and other bodily fluids suffered by veterans deserving of much, much better.

An ABC News Prime Time Thursday hidden camera report back in 2004 documented similar conditions. But it is the stories of patient care, or lack thereof that are the most heart wrenching, and ellicit much more anger than dirty bathrooms.

For example, the late Terry Soles is a story that has been likely repeated time and time again during the sorry track record of veteran’s hospitals, and the potential for malpractice.

A Vietnam vet, the strapping Soles checked into a VA hospital in Cleveland in 1998 complaining of diarrhea and pain. Doctors there removed small, cancerous growths from his stomach and esophagus.

However, as documented by ABC News April 8th of 2004, things only got worse for Soles. In attempting to get at the root of the problem, the VA hospital administered painful tests, only to lose the results. Soles’ wife Denise told a reporter that a parade of medical residents saw her late husband, but there was little consistency in his care.

VA hospitals have been criticized in the past for putting too great an emphasis on medical students. That point was driven home for Soles when, on the operating table and prepared for surgery; the operation was scrubbed when the doctors couldn’t decide what to do.

In the meantime, apparently unbeknownst to the VA doctors, cancer was continuing to ravage Soles’ body, which had dwindled from 200 pounds to 80. When he was so ill that he could no longer recognize even his own son, Soles was rushed to a private hospital, where qualified doctors made the quick, and correct diagnosis of widespread cancer. But by then, it was too late. Soles died three days later.

Defenders of VA hospitals have always pointed to a lack of funding—something that the Bush budget provision for 2008 will hopefully rectify. However, why has there been insufficient funds to hire more doctors, provide better conditions and better care for vets?

Some might suggests it is because the existing funding is going elsewhere. In the ABC news report of 2004, viewers were reminded about allegations of millions of dollars spent on office renovations, a nursing home unit that remained empty for two years, and tens of thousands of dollars for a fish tank in the lobby of a VA building in South Carolina.

Meanwhile, according to figures posted on the vamalpractice.info website, VA medical malpractice settlements appear to be steadily increasing. For the first half of 2006, the site identified 145 malpractice lawsuits totaling just a hair under $29 million dollars.

There are so many stories. Last year Walter Reed Army Medical Center was cited for various deficiencies that, it has been reported, have since been straightened out. At the time, however, life was grim for Jeremy Duncan. What he saw in Room # 205 at Walter Reed Building 18, was subsequently described in a February, 2007 edition of the Washington Post:

“Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole.”

George Washington once said, “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceived veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.”

Americans can only hope that new funding will help dispel the frustration that reportedly has become all too common at the nation’s VA hospitals, for far too long. One can assume, however, that such funds will only have the desired effect if the funding is properly managed, and wisely spent.

Meantime, as long as veterans of all ages and eras are sometimes improperly diagnosed and poorly cared for, veteran malpractice lawsuits will continue to be a fact of life.