HEAVY Things Are Happening......finally.....

[J.B. Stone]

WILL THE TRUTH EVER BE KNOWN....???

FROM AN E-MAIL:

By: Tom Berger




As I begin my term as chair of VVA's SHAD/Project 112 Task Force, I want to express my appreciation for the honor given me of being asked to take this important post. I will work diligently to fill the position vacated by our Vice President, Jack Devine, and to keep us moving forward.

I was a member of the Project SHAD Technical Staff (PSTS) from September 1964 to July 1967. My position was Officer in Charge of the five U.S. Army light tugs. The Deseret Test Center fleet consisted of the tugs and two Liberty ships, the USS Granville S. Hall (YAG 40) and the USS George Eastman (YAG 39). While I was there the tugs took part in at least four tests, innumerable drills, and two bird cruises, designed to make sure birds of the central Pacific were not carriers of a test product. One of the tests, "Shady Grove," lasted from January to April 1965. It included many disseminations of bioweapons and simulants. Each tug had a naval officer as Officer in Charge and a crew of 11, mostly highly qualified senior U.S. Navy Petty Officers.

Many people seem to have heard of "Project SHAD," but few can recall "112." In fact, I was not familiar with 112 until I began working with VVA. Security around the tests was compartmentalized. "SHAD" is the acronym for Shipboard Hazards and Defense, although the "D" at times also stood for "Decontamination" and "Detection." The purpose of the 112/SHAD test operations was to evaluate chem/bio weapons, their simulants, decontamination procedures, and certain trace elements.

All SHAD tests were part of 112; however, not all 112 tests were part of SHAD. Therein lies a problem. I am not convinced that DoD has released all of the information, mainly in identifying the tests, where and when they occurred, military units involved (including the names of military personnel), strength of weapons, inoculations given participants, decontamination chemicals, protocols, and safety plans.

The names of some of the units are in the Fact Sheets on the DoD's Deployment Health Support Directorate website. We know there were land-based tests that were conducted as part of 112. In fact, some of the PSTS crew participated in a few. DoD has not identified the military units involved, at least they haven't named them publicly. If an Army veteran from a land-based test were to inquire if he was in this test called Project SHAD, DoD could truthfully say no.

Information is still woefully inadequate. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) has written legislation called the Veterans Right to Know Act. It's about getting at the truth about 112/SHAD and some tests that were done before 112/SHAD got its name. This bill, which has as an original co-sponsor, Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), will have been introduced by the time you read this. If passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, this legislation will empower a commission to look into all facets of Project 112/SHAD, with a goal of bringing to light information that might help veterans whose health may have been compromised during these tests.

I urge you to contact your elected officials to support the Veterans Right to Know Act. When it is introduced and given a number, that number will appear in this column and on the VVA website. The legislation will need plenty of vocal support if it is to be enacted into law.

[J.B. Stone]

A BLAST FROM THE PAST........



Clouds of Secrecy: The Army's Germ Warfare Tests Over Populated Areas

From Publishers Weekly
This disturbing study, based on government records, courtroom testimony and interviews, focuses on biological-warfare testing and the U.S. Army's expanding program to develop cheaper and more effective biological weapons. Cole traces the growth of the biological arsenal during World War II, reviews the scientific literature (which questions the Army's contention that bacteria used in tests are harmless) and assesses the spraying of several American locales, including San Francisco and the New York subway system. Cole charges that the Army failed to monitor the health of the targeted population, and quotes from a 1981 trial in a case brought by a San Francisco family, one of whose members is believed to have died as a result of the 1950 test in that city. Reflecting on "the human capacity to confuse good intentions with harmful actions," the author, who teaches at Rutgers University, concludes with a discussion of the ethics of spraying unsuspecting citizens with bacteria and the need for protection against such experiments.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
An in-depth analysis of the U.S. Army's biological warfare (BW) research/testing from World War II to the present. Cole (Rutgers Univ.) details unpublicized activities at the Army's BW headquarters, the secret "test" spraying of bacteria over major American cities, and a court case on one such test. He also examines the charges of Soviet "yellow rain" and genetic engineering. His research is solidon-site visits, interviews, congressional hearings, court testimony, government documents, and scientific and scholarly literature. While this careful work is not a polemic, it raises a specter of government secrecy and deception with chilling implications. One of the best efforts on a topic long concealed from the American public. Clifton E. Wilson, Political Science Dept., Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

SEE ALSO:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr= ... &q&f=false

[J.B. Stone]

NY TIMES:

Active-Duty Soldiers Take Their Own Lives at Record Rate
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: January 19, 2012

WASHINGTON — Suicides among active-duty soldiers hit another record high in 2011, Army officials said on Thursday, although there was a slight decrease if nonmobilized Reserve and National Guard troops were included in the calculation.

The Army also reported a sharp increase, nearly 30 percent, in violent sex crimes last year by active-duty troops. More than half of the victims were active-duty female soldiers ages 18 to 21.

“This is unacceptable,” Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the departing vice chief of staff of the Army, said at a news conference, referring to the jump in violent sex offenses. “We have zero tolerance for this.” General Chiarelli said factors driving the increase in sex crimes were alcohol use and new barracks that offered more privacy. He said it was also possible that reporting of the offenses had increased.

General Chiarelli said that 164 active-duty Army, National Guard, and Reserve troops took their own lives in 2011, compared with 159 in 2010 and 162 in 2009. The increase occurred even as the Army expanded suicide prevention efforts and drug and alcohol counseling, in large part in response to a steady rise in Army suicides that began in 2004.

Asked if he was frustrated by the jump last year in suicide by active-duty soldiers, General Chiarelli said no.

“The question you have to ask yourself, and this is the number that no one can prove, what would it have been if we had not focused the efforts that we focused on it?” he said. He said that “for all practical purposes, for the last two to three years, it has leveled off.”

General Chiarelli held the news conference to release a new report, “Generating Health and Discipline in the Force,” a review of the overall health of the Army after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the longest period of conflict in the nation’s history. The report, printed well before Thursday, did not include the final number of 164 suicides among active-duty soldiers for 2011. General Chiarelli disclosed that statistic at the news conference, as well as the number of suicides among active-duty troops from 2008 to 2010.

General Chiarelli said that if nonmobilized National Guard and Reserve units were included, Army suicides dropped to 278 in 2011, from 305 in 2010.

Active-duty Army suicide rates have been higher than civilian rates since 2008, when there were nearly 20 suicides per 100,000 in the Army, compared with close to 18 suicides per 100,000 in a civilian population that was adjusted to be comparable to Army demographics. The Army projects that final 2011 numbers will be more than 24 suicides among active-duty soldiers per 100,000, another record high.

The rise in Army suicides has long been attributed to the stress of repeated deployments during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Army officials say there are many other factors at work, including alcohol abuse and a lowering of recruiting standards several years ago that allowed a higher-risk population into the military. In 2010, General Chiarelli said that about 60 percent of Army suicides occurred during a soldier’s first enlistment, typically four years, and that the most dangerous year was the first — suggesting that repeated deployments to war zones were not necessarily a major factor in suicide.

Since then, Army officials said there had been a decrease in the number of soldiers who committed suicide after one deployment and an increase in those who killed themselves after two or more deployments.

Last year, for example, about 40 percent of suicides occurred after one deployment and another 40 percent were committed after two or more deployments. Army officials could not explain the change, although they said they were asking themselves three questions in trying to analyze the data: Was their attention to suicide risk among young soldiers paying off? Did repeated deployments in fact place soldiers at higher risk of suicide? Did a dismal civilian job market discourage soldiers, already stressed by repeat deployments, from leaving the force?

General Chiarelli sought to paint the report in a positive light by saying that the Army leadership was paying serious attention to troubles within the force.

“The fact I’m in front of you here today laying this out for you shows you that we see these problems, we see where we’ve had successes, and we’re attacking those areas where we’ve got problems,” he said. “But I also think it shows the fact that after 10 years of war, with an all-volunteer force, you’re going to have problems that no one could have forecasted before this began.”

[J.B. Stone]

THEY JUST KEEP FINDING WAYS OF FUCKING IT UP...........

Still Secret After 30 Years?
Published: February 11, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/opini ... c_ev=click

As the misguided war in Iraq made clear, intelligence analysis is an uncertain game, all too vulnerable to error and politically motivated distortion. That experience has done little to change the intelligence community’s passion for secrets, whether or not they need to be kept.

Three decades later, we still do not know for certain — but have good reason to believe — that flawed or distorted intelligence led the Reagan administration to accuse the Soviet Union and Vietnam of using chemical weapons, known as yellow rain.

A classified critique of the intelligence behind those charges, written several years ago for the Central Intelligence Agency, could shed light on what happened. Last year, Matthew Meselson, a Harvard expert on chemical and biological weapons, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get the report released. He was turned down. The report should be made public both for its historical value and its possible lessons on how to handle the challenge of divining an enemy’s capabilities and intentions.

In 1981 and 1982, the Reagan administration charged that the Soviet Union had supplied toxins made from a poisonous fungus to its Vietnamese and Laotian allies to use as a weapon against Hmong villagers who had sided with the United States during the Vietnam War and against anti-Vietnamese forces in Cambodia.

The charge was based on circumstantial evidence, including reports from Hmong refugees who claimed to have been sickened by the attacks, and by laboratory tests that purported to find traces of toxins in yellow spots scraped from foliage and in the blood or urine of supposed victims. Over the years, skeptics — led by Dr. Meselson — have persuasively disputed most of the claims but left some loose ends.

They argued that the yellowish drops found on foliage were most likely produced by honeybees, which often leave their nests en masse and produce showers of pollen-laced feces that can cover an acre or more with hundreds of thousands of yellow spots. They suspect but cannot prove that the traces of poison found in some samples were false positives caused by laboratory contamination. Defense laboratories in the United States, Britain, France and Sweden analyzed scores of samples and never found a trace of poison.

Meanwhile, the testimony by Hmong refugees usually fell apart in follow-up interviews. Their illnesses were repeatedly shown to be due to natural causes. No chemical munitions have ever been found, and none of the hundreds of Vietnamese soldiers who were debriefed provided a shred of information that suggested the use of a weapon remotely resembling yellow rain.

The internal report that Dr. Meselson is seeking was done by a former covert operative and contract historian, and examined how the intelligence community came up with its finding that “yellow rain” was a chemical weapon. The C.I.A. is claiming that releasing the report would reveal sensitive information about intelligence sources and methods, as well as the organization and function of the C.I.A. Thirty years later, that is preposterous.

A better guess is that the agency is worried about being embarrassed by what the report says about how the intelligence community did its work.

[J.B. Stone]

THE USS GRANVILLE HALL AND USS GEORGE EASTMAN WERE EXPOSED TO NUMEROUS DOSES OF RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT IN THE 50'S:

Operation WIGWAM

Note: For information related to claims, call the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) at 800-827-1000 or the Department of Justice (DOJ) at 800-729-7327. For all other information, call the Nuclear Test Personnel Review (NTPR) Program at 800-462-3683.

Operation WIGWAM was a deep underwater nuclear test conducted as part of the 1945-1962 United States series of atmospheric nuclear tests. It took place in May 1955 in the Pacific Ocean approximately 500 miles southwest of San Diego, California, under the joint administration of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense (DoD). The purpose of the operation was to determine the radiation and pressure phenomenology associated with nuclear detonations at great depths and to ascertain the effects such explosions would have on submerged and surface vessels. Approximately 6,800 personnel and 30 ships took part in this operation under the Commander, Joint Task Force Seven.
Historical Background

A single, 30-kiloton nuclear device was suspended by cable from a towed unmanned barge to a depth of 2,000 feet in water that was 16,000 feet deep. Located at varying distances along the approximately six-mile (30,000 feet) long towline between this barge and the fleet tug, USS TAWASA (ATF-92), were a variety of pressure-measuring instruments, unmanned and specially prepared submerged submarine-like hulls (called squaws) as well as instrumented and also unmanned surface boats.

The ships and personnel conducting the test were positioned five miles upwind from the surface detonation point with the exception of USS GEORGE EASTMAN (YAG-39) and USS GRANVILLE S. HALL (YAG-40). These two extensively reconfigured ships, equipped with special radiological shielding, were stationed five miles downwind of the surface detonation point. With all the ships at their assigned stations and all personnel accounted for, the device was detonated at 1 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on May 14, 1955.

WIGWAM resulted in three sources of radiological contamination: airborne activity, residual fallout and water contamination. During the first three seconds after the detonation, the radioactive debris was primarily contained within an initial bubble formed by the interaction of thermal energy with the water. Then, beginning at approximately H + 10 seconds (ten seconds after the detonation) these gaseous products began to reach the water surface, forming spikes and plumes reaching maximum heights of 900 to 1,450 feet and emerging from an area roughly 3,100 feet in diameter. As the plumes fell back into the water, a large cloud of mist was formed. This was the base surge, which at H + 90 seconds had a radius of 4,600 feet and a maximum height of 1,900 feet. The visible surge persisted to H + 4 minutes. At H + 13 minutes, a foam ring appeared with a 10,400 foot diameter. The area within this ring probably approximated the extent of the contaminated water.

While the surface water initially showed significant contamination levels, the water dispersed and radiation decayed rapidly, so that by May 18 the maximum radiation reading found over an 80 square mile area was on the order of one milliroentgen per hour (mR/hr) at 3 feet above the surface.

http://www.dtra.mil/documents/ntpr/fact ... Wigwam.pdf

Runit Island

Roughly halfway up the eastern side of Enewetak Atoll lies the island of Runit. Runit was used for a number of nuclear tests, including at least one that spread little bits of plutonium on the island. Since plutonium has a long half life and it was impossible to find and remove all the tiny pieces of it, the island has been placed off limits for the next 25,000 years. This is also one reason Runit was chosen to encrypt radioactive debris brought from the other islands in the atoll. It has two ready made pits--craters from the early Cactus and Lacross fission tests--next to each other on the northern end of the island. Contaminated debris and topsoil was mixed up in a big concrete slurry that filled Cactus crater. The crypt was capped by a 25-foot-high concrete dome seen in the photos below.



http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/enew/runit.htm

THE RADIOLOGICAL CLEANUP OF ENEWETAK ATOLL:

http://www.dtra.mil/documents/NTPR/rela ... 0Atoll.pdf

[ large file, very long download]

[J.B. Stone]

YOU JUST CAN'T CATCH A BREAK WITH THE VA...........

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION FURTHER INJURES PTSD VETERANS

By Investigative Journalist, Barry R. Clausen
February 14, 2012
NewsWithViews.com

For the second time in the last six years the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is attempting to cut Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Veterans mental health services. In July of 2006 there were many negative stories written about the treatment of Veterans in Redding, California through the Redding VA outpatient clinic. There was a demonstration held on July 10th where almost 200 Veterans protested on the street in front of the Redding clinic. At that time there were many Veterans who chose not to protest for fear of retaliation by the VA who were worried about pending cuts to their mental health services.

At the demonstration there were also numerous uniformed VA Police protecting the clinic from Veterans; some in wheelchairs, some using walkers and some with dangerous canes. The VA undercover police attempted to mix among the demonstrators while taking photos of the protestors until they were caught and forced to retreat to the clinic by the overwhelming pressure of disabled Veterans.

Henry Iasiello, Vietnam Veterans of America, CA State Counsel Northern CA District PTSD Committee Chair referenced VA Practitioner Dr. Greg Nelson in a June 30, 2006 letter to then Redding Clinic Director Linda Nelson. Iasiello states, “ … I would like to reiterate that in my conversation with Dr. Greg Nelson about the reviews and cutbacks at the Redding Clinic he assured me that money was not the issue. His concern was that extended fee-basis [out of clinic care], especially as regards PTSD, did not serve the Veteran. That in fact, he believes, many also are just ‘scamming’ the system. It was, I admit, a little disheartening to hear him characterize the Clinic as practicing ‘frontier medicine’ and PTSD as an ‘overused’ diagnosis…”

In 2006 when I interviewed Dr. Nelson he told me, “If veterans want to see an outside practitioner they can pay for it themselves.” And when the VA decided to cut Veteran’s services many Veterans wrote letters to the VA condemning Dr. Nelson for his statements to them when he told them, “there is no such thing as PTSD.”

On June 16, 2006 Congressman Wally Herger wrote a letter to Jim Nickelson, then the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in support of area Veterans in response to the VA’s attempt to cut mental health services at that time. In that letter Herger stated, “Several veterans in my district have informed me that the Department of Veterans’ Affairs clinic in Redding, California has recently added staff to provide psychological treatment and counseling for veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They have expressed several concerns….

“I understand that the VA policy is generally to provide services by VA staff when possible, and to pay private providers on a fee basis only when the VA does not have sufficient, or sufficient specialized, staff. While I understand the underlying rational for this policy generally – to prevent unnecessary duplication of services – I am not convinced that it makes sense to treat counseling and psychological services the same way as other medical service. The relationship between patient and counselor is a very personal and sensitive one, and it is very difficult for a veteran with PTSD who has been treated by one counselor for many years to switch suddenly to an entirely new counselor.

“Therefore, while I agree that in many cases it makes sense for the VA not to pay for services from an outside provider if the same services can be provided by the VA itself, I would urge you to consider the needs of veterans who have a long history of being treated by a single counselor or psychologist. In my view, it seems reasonable for the VA to consider “grandfathering” this small number of veterans so they can continue to get treatment from their established counselors on a fee basis, while any new patients would be automatically referred to the VA staff.


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“I would appreciate your review and consideration of the concerns that my constituents have raised, along with a response that outlines the Department’s views on the provision of counseling services and whether VA policy does or could be adjusted to provide for the implementation of a grandfather policy for veterans already being treated for PTSD.”

After all the negative press, the demonstration and the help from Congressman Herger the VA reconsidered. Now in 2012 there is a new frontal assault by the VA and the new offender in the exact same PTSD quandary is Dr. Brian O’Neil, of the VA in Mather California. O’Neil is Dr. Nelson’s superior and apparently this time Nelson is following O’Neil’s orders. When asking for an interview, O’Neil’s secretary Lynda Duncan denied contact with O’Neil indicating that O’Neil did not give interviews.

There are currently about 300 California Veterans once again facing the same challenges from the VA as they did in 2006. These military Veterans have been diagnosed by the VA as Service-Connected for PTSD for Combat, Non-Combat and Military Sexual Trauma (MST) incidents. Some are currently receiving denials of authorization for their ongoing and continued individual psychotherapeutic sessions. As one Veteran stated, “PTSD is not like a cold or the flu, it does not go away, it is with you for the rest of your life. I have had dreams about the carnage and blood for over 40 years.”

According to what I have been told, the local VA has now 15 mental health professionals within the clinic. It should be noted that apparently this is not a national program instituted by the VA, and there is no one willing to step up to explain why this is happening just in Northern California. One Veteran’s question is, “As this is just happening in Northern California could we be the testing grounds to see what the VA can get away with nationally in the future?”

Shasta County Veterans have dealt with the threats and rumors of cuts in services for several months and the not knowing is creating additional anger, frustration and mental anguish because as of this date, they have not been given any answers to any of their questions with regard to their continuity of care. In addition some Veterans are currently been denied access to their fee basis practitioners without any notification from what appears to be cowardly VA officials who would rather leave notification to practitioners, rather than face the Veterans who’s lives they are wantonly and unnecessarily altering by their actions.

Many of these service-connected military Veterans suffer from very specific conditions that do not lend themselves to sudden and/or dramatic changes in their mental health treatment. This includes changes to their mental health care provider with whom the Veteran has developed a sound and trusting relationship.

Nearly all mental health clinicians agree that providing psychotherapeutic services is unique, in that, a therapeutic alliance is established between the patient and their counselor, as briefly referenced above. In most cases the Veteran has made disclosures that he or she has not shared with another human being. This is particularly typical in the PTSD and MST afflicted military Veteran; and because this is the case, this is why all psychotherapists’ licensing and professional boards deem it an ethical violation to abandon a patient. To withdraw ongoing, stable and successful counseling from a patient would constitute ethics violations of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the California Psychiatric Association.

Most alarming however could be the sudden and potentially violent reactions from some Military Veterans suffering from both PTSD and MST or the potential for the Veteran to regress to former states of dysfunction. One female Veteran who has been rated as 100% service connected for both PTSD & MST confided, "I used to hide in the closet when my phone would ring. I have come so far and now I may loose the ground I have gained so a bean counter can congratulate himself. Dear God, I just can’t start over and go back to that dark place! I am just sick at the prospect."

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In an attempt to find the truth, on February 9th and 10th of 2012, fourteen calls were made to the VA Headquarters in Washington D.C. with no results. Numerous calls went to VA Client Services (866) 341 0743, VA Media (202) 461 7600, VA Fee Basis Services (202) 745 2473 and in addition calls went to VA facilities in Mather & Martinez, CA.. All calls were either a recorded message, or whoever answered did not know what I was talking about, or would not discuss the issue. It was the call to the VA Northern California Health Care System, Mare Island Outpatient Clinic, Site Manager's Office in Vallejo, CA (707) 562-8204 that a very polite lady Veteran’s Advocate listened to my questions. She did not know about any cuts in services, however she did respond by sending me a complaint form by Email. Finally, a call to Dr. O’Neil’s office (916) 843 9058 also resulted in a negative response.

http://www.newswithviews.com/Clausen/barry106.htm

[J.B. Stone]

Group effort reunites veteran and dog veteran

George Vincent greets his service dog, Vanilla, at Glacier Park International Airport Friday afternoon. Vincent had not seen his miniature American Eskimo dog in nearly a year after he became homeless.

Posted: Friday, February 24, 2012 7:27 pm

By Candace Chase/The Daily Inter Lake
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/loca ... 963f4.html

Nearly a year’s separation did not dim the love of a little fluffy white dog named Vanilla for George Vincent, the veteran she serves.

As Vincent approached her crate Friday afternoon at Glacier Park International Airport, Vanilla began to whine and wag her tail.

Vincent wiped tears from his eyes as his dream came true of a reunion with the miniature American Eskimo dog that he trained to help with his post traumatic stress disorder.

“Being without her has been pretty rough,” he said. “Simple things are hard, like going to the grocery store.”

A Navy veteran, Vincent had to leave Vanilla with his mother in Florida when he became homeless. He subsequently moved to Kalispell to pursue his dream of living among the mountains of Montana.

Karen Blackbird, who works with the Veterans Affairs housing voucher program, recalled Vincent’s first request when he applied for the HUD/BASH program last October and was accepted for housing.

“He said, ‘You have to help me get my dog,’” she said. “I said, ‘What?’ Then he explained.”

Vincent, 42, was in the Navy in the late 1980s but then deployed overseas as a civilian in classified work related to the military. He officially received his diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder five years ago.

Vanilla, now 6, came into his life when she was 6 months old. He rescued the dog when his apartment manager no longer wanted to put up with a puppy that wasn’t housebroken.

“Within a week, I had her housebroken,” he said.

Vincent then began working on training her to help him control his manifestations of PTSD. After receiving his diagnosis, he found resources for the basics through service dog organizations, although none specialized in dogs to help with this condition.

He came up with his own solutions.

“She wakes me up when I’m having flashbacks by licking my hands,” he said. “She picks up my keys if I drop them. She helps me out in large crowds of people and she reads my emotional state very well. If I get anxious, she crawls up into my lap.”

Vincent said she lets him know when people come up behind him. He worries about overreacting in public when someone suddenly appears in his peripheral vision.

“The worst thing you can do to someone with PTSD is come up suddenly behind them,” he said.

Although Vanilla wears a T-shirt that says “PTSD service dog, please do not pet,” Vincent said people can’t resist coming up and petting the adorable dog who also loves people. He said that has actually proved to be therapeutic.

“It makes me start opening up and communicating with people,” he said.

Vincent grew to depend on Vanilla’s services, so their separation was more than just the loss of a canine companion. She plays a key role in stabilizing his mental health and helping him heal.

For this reason, Blackbird began a personal crusade to find a way to fly Vanilla across the country once Vincent found a duplex that accepted service animals. It was discouraging when he got a quote of $750 from an air service that specializes in shipping animals.

Although he has a very low income, Vincent tried to find small jobs such as shoveling snow and chipping ice to raise the money. He currently is working with vocational rehabilitation to market his art carvings that can be seen at myspace.com/woodcarvingartist.

Blackbird wrote to animal and veterans organizations and posted requests for help on social media. A group called Pilots N Paws tried to link up flights, but it was just too far and didn’t work out.

Through local DJ Brew Michaels at B98.5, Blackbird linked up with Nancy Krause and Capt. Dan Handlin of Delta Air Lines who live at Bitterroot Lake, not far from Capt. Chris and Kathy Saucier, who also work for Delta. Those four jumped into the effort, providing employee discounts to reduce the dog shipping cost to $300.

When the Kalispell VFW post chipped in $200, the two couples donated $100 to pay Vanilla’s airline shipping cost. Because the Sauciers have a second home in Florida, Kathy picked up Vanilla on Thursday from Vincent’s mother in Ormond Beach.

Speaking by phone Friday from Florida, Kathy Saucier said Vanilla was the perfect overnight guest and even got along with their two cats.

“We wanted to keep her,” she said with a laugh. “She’s an amazing dog.”

Kathy left home at 4 a.m. Friday to make the hour and a half drive to the Orlando airport where Vanilla left at 6 a.m. for a connection in Minneapolis. Handlin came on board Delta Flight 5690 in Minneapolis and made the flight back from a business trip on the same plane with Vanilla.

Handlin, Krause and Blackbird were at the airport with Vincent for his reunion with Vanilla. Everyone beamed when an official finally brought the crate with the little white dog into the baggage area.

Handlin said that so many people at Delta, including a pilot in the Middle East, had made calls to try to make this happen.

“This became an international effort,” he said.

Vincent struggled to keep his emotions under control as he finally opened the door to the crate and Vanilla jumped into his arms and licked his face. He quickly got her on a leash and out the door for a break after the long flight.

Earlier that day, he said he initially was afraid to get his hopes up when he learned just Thursday that the flight was arranged. He called it a “shock and awe moment” when he learned it was really happening.

“All the people who have helped — I’m truly grateful for what they have done,” he said.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's a letter-to-the-editor I just submitted today:

Let's thank Candace Chase for the great job she did in capturing the substance and the flavor of the heartwarming story of PTSD sufferer George Vincent and his sweet little service dog named Vanilla.

Having endured PTSD and Clinical Depression myself for 40 years now, I can attest whole heartedly to the value of a caring and faithful canine companion. While Mr. Mellow, my 2 1/2 year-old Welsh Terrierist, is not "officially" a service dog, my ability to cope with said maladies has increased greatly since I got him as a lifelong friend. The medical field is learning daily about PTSD, it's causes and potential cures. In the mean time I highly recommend anyone experiencing the angst and anguish of PTSD to try this route to healthfulness.

My constant companion is never more than a few feet from me unless he's outside barking at squirrels. He's a great comfort when I'm feeling down or anxiety ridden. I have previously had PTSD so bad that it hampered my ability to do simple things such as grocery shopping.

If you haven't walked in these shoes please don't discount what George and I are telling you. I can't count the ways I benefit from having that happy-go-lucky furry pal at my side day and night. I have met other Veterans who also have service dogs and it's obvious what a calming effect they have just by their presence.

Should you want to pursue this avenue of therapeutic companionship, the VVK-9 Center has opened The first “Save a Pet- Save-a-Vet” OJT/Education Center on March 17, 2011 in Lauderhill, Florida. They can be reached at http://vvk-9.org/program/sober.housing.php They also have a branch in the Bronx and are working to open more centers across the country. If you are internet inept you can call them toll-free at: 877-498-7838.
Any Veteran interested in acquiring free PTSD care from local professionals should contact the Kalispell Vet Center, at 690 North Meridian Rd., Suite 101. They can be reached at (406) 257-7308. I've also provided more information on PTSD and other illnesses our Veterans deal with every day at: http://tinyurl.com/yl5a5n3

I strongly urge anyone interested in more information or getting involved to contact one of the organizations listed above. Mr. Mellow thanks you from the bottom of his scruffy heart!

J.B. Stone, Kalispell

[styky]

Great letter JB.

[J.B. Stone]

Great letter JB.

Thanks Sweetie..........

[J.B. Stone]

WILL IT NEVER END...........???

Thompson, Alderson testify in support of health benefits for those subjected to Project 112, Project SHAD
Sunday, 26 February 2012 02:44 Lake County News reports


On Friday, Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) demanded that service members who were subjected to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) chemical weapon testing be able to receive full medical care and disability compensation for their service-connected medical conditions.

Thompson provided testimony along with former senior Navy officer and Humboldt County resident Jack Alderson at a field hearing in Sacramento of the Institute of Medicine Study Committee, which is charged with investigating the potential health impacts of the chemical weapons.

In late 2002, the DOD revealed for the first time that between 1962 and 1974 it had tested harmful chemical and biological agents by spraying them on ships and sailors.

These tests – known as Project 112, which included Project Shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD) – exposed at least 6,000 service members without their knowledge to harmful chemical and biological weapons and included some of the most deadly chemicals on Earth: Vx Nerve Gas, Sarin Nerve Gas and E. coli.

Many veterans who were subjected to chemical tests as part of Project 112/SHAD have developed serious medical issues but do not currently receive priority care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or disability benefits because the VA does not officially recognize any long-term health consequences from exposure to the chemical agents from these specific tests.

In 2010, Congress passed a law requiring the VA to contract with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to consider the health impact on veterans that were part of Project 112/SHAD.

If the scientific study by the IOM finds a connection between the chemical testing and long-term health consequences, the VA will likely be compelled to provide all service members exposed to this testing priority medical care and full disability compensation. Thompson today submitted testimony to the committee.

“Our country must ensure that any service member who has become sick or developed a disability because of these tests is provided with the treatment they deserve and benefits they’ve earned,” said Thompson. “We cannot wait any longer. Many brave men who served our country are now sick or have passed away because of Project 112’s chemical and biological testing. It is our duty to right this wrong and get our service members the care they need.”

In 2002, Congress directed the IOM to conduct a study of the health effects associated with the chemicals used during Project 112/SHAD.

Numerous reports by other agencies and departments within the U.S. government, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, say exposure to these substances have long-term health consequences.

However, after five years of research the IOM study found no connection existed between the substances tested and the health problems now widely seen among known SHAD veterans.

As a result, the VA does not recognize any long-term health consequences from the Project 112/SHAD tests.

The IOM has since conceded that the first study did not adequately sample the full universe of Project 112/SHAD veterans, and that the study panel could not obtain sufficient information to assess levels of exposure to specific agents.

The initial study also failed to account for the job and duty assignments of various personnel on board all the ships and tugs involved in the chemical testing. Because of this, the first study failed to take into account the different levels of exposure.

For instance, some personnel were exposed during training and testing to multiple weapons, experimental vaccines, trace elements, stimulants, and decontamination agents, whereas other personnel would have had limited exposure because of where they were stationed. For these reasons, Congress passed a 2010 law requiring a second study.

Alderson was in charge of five different light tug operations from 1964 to 1967. As a senior officer, Alderson was notified of some military chemical tests performed on animals on his ship while he was in service.

Once he started getting sick, he asked Thompson to investigate whether or not there could be a link between his health problems and Project 112/SHAD.

It was found that the DOD performed experimental tests by spraying live chemical and biological agents on ships and sailors to test the Navy’s vulnerability to toxic warfare.

Alderson commanded some of the ships used in these experiments. He has since been diagnosed with malignant melanoma, several types of skin cancers, prostate cancer and doctors have found four occurrences of Asbestos in his lungs.

“Jack, and all the people who served with him, deserve to know the truth,” said Thompson. “If we don’t get these service members the care they need, then how can we ask our current service members to put their lives on the line knowing that harm from the enemy may not be the only danger they encounter? It is imperative for us to right our governments past wrongs and help these brave veterans who were unknowingly subjected to these tests.”

For more information about Project SHAD and Alderson's story, see this Lake County News story from May 2008: http://bit.ly/A55Q89.

For more information on the IOM study click here: http://iom.edu/Activities/Veterans/SHADII.aspx.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at http://www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Google+, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-Coun ... 604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

[J.B. Stone]

THE BIG PICTURE............

Operation Whitecoat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A Consent Statement (1955) for one of the Operation Whitecoat experiments at Fort Detrick

Operation Whitecoat was the name given to a medical research program carried out by the US Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland during the period 1954–1973. The program involved conducting medical research using volunteer enlisted personnel who eventually became nicknamed "White Coats". The volunteers, all conscientious objectors and many members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, were apprized of the purpose and goals of each project before providing consent to participate in any project. The stated purpose of the research was to defend troops and civilians against biological weapons, and it was believed that the Soviet Union was engaged in similar activities. Although the program no longer exists as it did from 1954–1973, similar medical research for this purpose is still conducted by the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infections Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick.


Experiments

Over 2,300 U.S. Army soldiers, most of whom were trained medics, contributed to the experiments by allowing themselves to be infected with viruses and bacteria that were considered likely choices for a biological attack. Whitecoat volunteers were exposed to Q fever, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, hepatitis A, Yersinia pestis (plague), tularemia (rabbit fever), and Venezuelan equine encephalitis and other diseases.[1] The volunteers were then treated for the illnesses to determine the effectiveness of antibiotics and vaccines. Some soldiers were given two weeks of leave in exchange for being used as a test subject. These experiments took place at Fort Detrick which is a US Army research center located outside Washington, D.C.[2]

The volunteers were allowed to consult with outside sources, such as family and clergy members, before deciding to participate. The participants were required to sign consent forms after discussing the risks and treatments with a medical officer. Of the soldiers who were approached about participating, 20% declined.[3] Much of the testing remains classified, and Fort Detrick allows no visitors, not even exsoldiers who were exposed as part of the tests can visit.[citation needed]
[edit] Results

Many of the vaccines that protect against biowarfare agents were first tested on humans in Operation Whitecoat.[4]

According to USAMRIID, the Whitecoat operation contributed to vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for yellow fever and hepatitis, and investigational drugs for Q fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Rift Valley fever, and tularemia. USAMRIID also states that Operation Whitecoat helped develop biological safety equipment, including hooded safety cabinets, decontamination procedures, fermentors, incubators, centrifuges, and particle sizers.[5]
[edit] US GAO report

The United States Government Accountability Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, the United States Department of Defense and other national security agencies studied hundreds of thousands of human subjects in tests and experiments involving hazardous substances.

A quotation from the study:

Many experiments that tested various biological agents on human subjects, referred to as Operation Whitecoat, were carried out at Fort Detrick, Maryland, in the 1950s. The human subjects originally consisted of volunteer enlisted men. However, after the enlisted men staged a sitdown strike to obtain more information about the dangers of the biological tests, Seventh-day Adventists who were conscientious objectors were recruited for the studies.[6]

[edit] Long-term health effects

No Whitecoats died during the test period.[1] The Army has addresses for only 1000 of the 2300 people known to have volunteered.[4] Only about 500 (23%) of the Whitecoats have been surveyed, and the military chose not to fund blood tests.[1] A handful of respondents claim to have lingering health effects,[4] and at least one subject claims to have serious health problems as a result of the experiments.[1]
[edit] Adventists and Operation Whitecoat
[edit] Adventist view of military service

The Seventh-day Adventist Church's relationship to government military activity has been supportive but noncombative. In 1936, the SDA Church established the Medical Cadet Corps Training Program. This allowed Adventists to remain noncombatant but positive toward the war effort. Sabbath observance remained a concern for the drafted members of the church. Adventist Conscientious Objector perspective differed from the National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors, (NISBCO). In 1967, Adventists withdrew from NISBCO because that organization opposed conscription. According to Bull and Lockhart, Operation Whitecoat, and the earlier established Medical Corps, enabled Adventists to participate in the armed services without violating their Sabbath principles. [7]
[edit] See also

Human experimentation in the United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_expe ... ted_States

US Senate Report on chemical weapons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_w ... ate_Report

Project SHAD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_SHAD

US Biological Weapon Testing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Biologi ... on_Testing


^ a b c d "Operation Whitecoat". PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. 2003-09-24. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
^ "Hidden history of US germ testing". BBC. 2006-02-13. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
^ Stephenson, Jeffery; Arthur Anderson (2007). "Ethical and Legal Dilemmas in Biodefense Research" (pdf). Retrieved 2009-04-16.
^ a b c Snyder, David; staff researcher Bobbye Pratt (2003-05-06). "The Front Lines of Biowarfare". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ Linden, Caree (2005-06). "USAMRIID Celebrates 50 Years of Science". U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Retrieved 2007-03-16.[dead link]
^ "Staff Report prepared for the committee on veterans' affairs December 8, 1994 John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia, Chairman.". Retrieved 2006-07-30.
^ Bull, Malcolm; Lockhart, Keith (2007). Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream (2nd ed.). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-253-34764-0.

[edit] External links

The Living Weapon, chapter 8 about Operation Whitecoat, from the American Experience documentary video
Adventist Volunteers Lauded on "Operation Whitecoat" Anniversary - Adventist News Network
O'Neal, Glenn (December 19, 2001). "The risks of Operation Whitecoat" (subscription required). USA Today.
Linden, Caree Vander United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases celebrates 50-year research tradition March 3, 2005 "Operation Whitecoat served as a model for the ethical use of human subjects in research"


United States biological weapons program
Weaponized agents
Anthrax · Botulism · Brucellosis · Q fever · Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B · Rice blast · Tularemia · VEE · Wheat stem rust
Researched agents
AHF · BHF · Bird flu · CHIKV · Dengue fever · EEE · Glanders · Hantavirus · Lassa fever · Melioidosis · Newcastle disease · Plague · Potato blight · Psittacosis · Ricin · RVF · Rinderpest · Smallpox · Typhus · WEE · Yellow fever
Weapons
E120 bomblet · E133 cluster bomb · E14 munition · E23 munition · E48 particulate bomb · E61 bomb · E77 balloon bomb · E86 cluster bomb · E96 cluster bomb · Flettner rotor bomblet · M114 bomb · M115 bomb · M143 bomblet · M33 cluster bomb
Operations and testing
Edgewood Arsenal experiments · Operation Big Buzz · Operation Big Itch · Operation Dark Winter · Operation Dew · Operation Drop Kick · Operation LAC · Operation Magic Sword · Operation May Day · Operation Polka Dot · Operation Whitecoat · Project 112 · Project Bacchus · Project Clear Vision · Project Jefferson
Facilities
U.S. Army Biological Warfare Labs · Blue Grass Army Depot · Building 101 · Building 257 · Building 470 · Deseret Test Center · Dugway Proving Ground · Edgewood Arsenal · Fort Detrick · Fort Douglas · Fort Terry · Granite Peak Installation · Horn Island Testing Station · One-Million-Liter Test Sphere · Pine Bluff Arsenal · Rocky Mountain Arsenal · Vigo Ordnance Plant
Related topics
Biological agent · Biological warfare (BW) · Entomological warfare · Korean War BW allegations · List of topics · Unit 731 · U.S. bio-weapons ban · War Bureau of Consultants · War Research Service

[J.B. Stone]

THE SILENT KILLER MOVES ON...........

A Veteran’s Death, the Nation’s Shame
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: April 14, 2012

HERE’S a window into a tragedy within the American military: For every soldier killed on the battlefield this year, about 25 veterans are dying by their own hands.


A filmmaker explores the fate of Ryan Yurchison, who returned from Iraq with P.T.S.D. and died after failing to find treatment.
Damon Winter/The New York Times

Nicholas D. Kristof

An American soldier dies every day and a half, on average, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every year — more than the total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since those wars began.

These unnoticed killing fields are places like New Middletown, Ohio, where Cheryl DeBow raised two sons, Michael and Ryan Yurchison, and saw them depart for Iraq. Michael, then 22, signed up soon after the 9/11 attacks.

“I can’t just sit back and do nothing,” he told his mom. Two years later, Ryan followed his beloved older brother to the Army.

When Michael was discharged, DeBow picked him up at the airport — and was staggered. “When he got off the plane and I picked him up, it was like he was an empty shell,” she told me. “His body was shaking.” Michael began drinking and abusing drugs, his mother says, and he terrified her by buying the same kind of gun he had carried in Iraq. “He said he slept with his gun over there, and he needed it here,” she recalls.

Then Ryan returned home in 2007, and he too began to show signs of severe strain. He couldn’t sleep, abused drugs and alcohol, and suffered extreme jitters.

“He was so anxious, he couldn’t stand to sit next to you and hear you breathe,” DeBow remembers. A talented filmmaker, Ryan turned the lens on himself to record heartbreaking video of his own sleeplessness, his own irrational behavior — even his own mock suicide.

One reason for veteran suicides (and crimes, which get far more attention) may be post-traumatic stress disorder, along with a related condition, traumatic brain injury. Ryan suffered a concussion in an explosion in Iraq, and Michael finally had traumatic brain injury diagnosed two months ago.

Estimates of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury vary widely, but a ballpark figure is that the problems afflict at least one in five veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq. One study found that by their third or fourth tours in Iraq or Afghanistan, more than one-quarter of soldiers had such mental health problems.

Preliminary figures suggest that being a veteran now roughly doubles one’s risk of suicide. For young men ages 17 to 24, being a veteran almost quadruples the risk of suicide, according to a study in The American Journal of Public Health.

Michael and Ryan, like so many other veterans, sought help from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Eric Shinseki, the secretary of veterans affairs, declined to speak to me, but the most common view among those I interviewed was that the V.A. has improved but still doesn’t do nearly enough about the suicide problem.

“It’s an epidemic that is not being addressed fully,” said Bob Filner, a Democratic congressman from San Diego and the senior Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “We could be doing so much more.”

To its credit, the V.A. has established a suicide hotline and appointed suicide-prevention coordinators. It is also chipping away at a warrior culture in which mental health concerns are considered sissy. Still, veterans routinely slip through the cracks. Last year, the United States Court of Appeals in San Francisco excoriated the V.A. for “unchecked incompetence” in dealing with veterans’ mental health.

Patrick Bellon, head of Veterans for Common Sense, which filed the suit in that case, says the V.A. has genuinely improved but is still struggling. “There are going to be one million new veterans in the next five years,” he said. “They’re already having trouble coping with the population they have now, so I don’t know what they’re going to do.”

Last month, the V.A.’s own inspector general reported on a 26-year-old veteran who was found wandering naked through traffic in California. The police tried to get care for him, but a V.A. hospital reportedly said it couldn’t accept him until morning. The young man didn’t go in, and after a series of other missed opportunities to get treatment, he stepped in front of a train and killed himself.

Likewise, neither Michael nor Ryan received much help from V.A. hospitals. In early 2010, Ryan began to talk more about suicide, and DeBow rushed him to emergency rooms and pleaded with the V.A. for help. She says she was told that an inpatient treatment program had a six-month waiting list. (The V.A. says it has no record of a request for hospitalization for Ryan.)

“Ryan was hurting, saying he was going to end it all, stuff like that,” recalls his best friend, Steve Schaeffer, who served with him in Iraq and says he has likewise struggled with the V.A. to get mental health services. “Getting an appointment is like pulling teeth,” he said. “You get an appointment in six weeks when you need it today.”

While Ryan was waiting for a spot in the addiction program, in May 2010, he died of a drug overdose. It was listed as an accidental death, but family and friends are convinced it was suicide.

The heartbreak of Ryan’s death added to his brother’s despair, but DeBow says Michael is now making slow progress. “He is able to get out of bed most mornings,” she told me. “That is a huge improvement.” Michael asked not to be interviewed: he wants to look forward, not back.

As for DeBow, every day is a struggle. She sent two strong, healthy men to serve her country, and now her family has been hollowed in ways that aren’t as tidy, as honored, or as easy to explain as when the battle wounds are physical. I wanted to make sure that her family would be comfortable with the spotlight this article would bring, so I asked her why she was speaking out.

“When Ryan joined the Army, he was willing to sacrifice his life for his country,” she said. “And he did, just in a different way, without the glory. He would want it this way.”

“My home has been a nightmare,” DeBow added through tears, recounting how three of Ryan’s friends in the military have killed themselves since their return. “You hear my story, but it’s happening everywhere.”

We refurbish tanks after time in combat, but don’t much help men and women exorcise the demons of war. Presidents commit troops to distant battlefields, but don’t commit enough dollars to veterans’ services afterward. We enlist soldiers to protect us, but when they come home we don’t protect them.

“Things need to change,” DeBow said, and her voice broke as she added: “These are guys who went through so much. If anybody deserves help, it’s them.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opini ... .html?_r=1

[J.B. Stone]

..........ANY DAY NOW.............right...........

http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress ... 0-20120419

VA's Disability Claims Backlog Pushes 900,000
By Bob Brewin, Nextgov.com
Updated: April 20, 2012 | 11:28 a.m.
April 19, 2012 | 7:24 p.m.

From National Journal:

The Veterans Affairs Department faces a "staggering" backlog of 897,566 disability claims with more than 65 percent pending for more than 125 days, a problem compounded by an error rate of 16 percent, representatives of veterans' services organizations told lawmakers on the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

The department has seen a 48 percent increase in claims since 2008. Officials expect the backlog will grow to 1.2 million claims this year and another 50,000 will accrue in 2013 as veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars flood the system, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in March. He vowed to process all claims in fewer than 125 days with a 98 percent accuracy standard by 2015.

Jeffrey Hall, assistant national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, an advocacy group, told House lawmakers on Wednesday that "while the elimination of the backlog will be a welcome milestone, we must remember that eliminating the backlog is not necessarily the same goal as reforming the claims processing system, nor does it guarantee that veterans are better served."

James Wear, assistant director for veterans benefits policy for the group Veterans of Foreign Wars, testified that the high error rate and the poor quality of VA's rating decisions, which determine the financial benefits veterans receive, are a serious problem.

"Quality of decision-making is problematic.... The national average [error rate] has remained nearly stationary at 16 percent for months," Wear said, adding that the Veterans Benefits Administration's Baltimore regional office has the worst claims error rate in the country -- 29 percent, which is a slight improvement over its error rate of 33 percent just a few months ago.

Randall Fisher, the American Legion's service officer for Kentucky, told lawmakers that in order to improve the claims process, VA must make training a priority and hire more veterans whose experience would prove beneficial. Hall said due to budget constraints, VA has cut back on training, conducting it locally rather than using its national training academy.

"We have concerns that this change was made strictly for short-term financial considerations rather than to achieve the long-term goal of reforming the claims processing system," he said.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the ranking member on the committee, said, "There's no shortcut of getting around the basics -- of having well-trained employees who are empowered with the right tools and the right systems to get the job done right the first time."

Shinseki promised earlier this month that VA will roll out its paperless Veterans Benefit Management System to 16 regional offices by September, with installation in all 56 regional offices in 2013. Hall said he was concerned that budget constraints could impede the national rollout of VBMS, and urged the committee to provide full funding for the system. VA requested $92.3 million for VBMS in 2013, and spent a total of $343.6 million on the system in 2011 and 2012.

Even as it moves to a paperless claims system, Hall said VA still will face older paper claims and it has yet to determine when or how those would be converted to digital files. A majority of claims processed each year are for reopened or appealed claims, which can remain active for decades. "Until all legacy claims are converted to digital data files, VBA could be forced to continue paper processing for decades," Hall said.

Paul Sullivan, managing director for public affairs and veteran outreach at Bergmann & Moore LLC, a law firm based in Bethesda, Md., said veterans service organizations or lawyers representing veterans cannot gain access to VBMS, something he urged the committee to change.

On Monday, VA announced plans to streamline and speed up disability claims processing by segmenting claims so those that can be more easily rated can be moved quickly through the system; more complex claims would be handled by more experienced and skilled employees.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said VA's track record of making changes to its claims processing system has been "substandard." He added that VA needs to ensure that the much-touted VBMS system is set up correctly and used efficiently.

Nextgov.com is part of the National Journal Group Inc. and the Atlantic Media Company. It is a spin off of GovernmentExecutive.com and provides coverage and commentary on the management of information technology in the federal government. From time to time, Nextgov and GovernmentExecutive.com will share content and collaborate on features and events.

[J.B. Stone]

HERE WE GO.........AGAIN....


Second bird flu study published after bioterrorism fears


The U.S. government was worried that bird flu studies could get into the wrong hands.
View Larger Image

the Associated Press

Date: Thursday Jun. 21, 2012 4:05 PM ET

NEW YORK — The second of two bird flu studies once considered too risky to publish was released Thursday, ending a saga that weighed concerns about terrorism against fears of a deadly global epidemic.

The papers describe how researchers created virus strains that could potentially be transmitted through the air from person to person. Scientists said the results could help them spot dangerous virus strains in nature.

But last December, acting on advice of a U.S. biosecurity panel, federal officials asked the researchers not to publish details of the work, which identified the genetic mutations used to make the strains. They warned the papers could show terrorists how to make a biological weapon.

That led to a debate among scientists and others, many of whom argued that sharing the results with other researchers was essential to deal with the flu risk.

Bird flu has spread among poultry in Asia for several years and can be deadly in people, but it rarely jumps to humans. People who get it usually had direct contact with infected chickens and ducks. Scientists have long worried that if the virus picked up mutations that let it spread easily from person to person, it could take off in the human population, with disastrous results.

The two teams that conducted the research eventually submitted revised versions of their papers to the U.S. biosecurity panel. They said the changes focused on things like the significance of the findings to public health, rather than the experimental details themselves.

The panel announced in March it supported publishing the revised manuscripts, saying it had heard new evidence that sharing information about the mutations would help in guarding against a pandemic. It also concluded that the data didn't appear to pose any immediate terrorism threat. The government agreed in April.

The benefit of scientists sharing data from the new paper "far outweighs the risk," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday.

One paper, from Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues, was published last month by the journal Nature. On Thursday, the journal Science published the second paper, from a team led by Ron Fouchier of the Netherland's Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam.

Both papers tested the ability of the altered bird flu viruses to spread through the air between ferrets, none of which died from those infections. The Fouchier paper reports that the virus could spread this way by acquiring as few as five specific mutations.

Two of those mutations are already found frequently in strains of the virus. The other three could arise during infection of people or other mammals, a new mathematical analysis in Science concluded. But the likelihood is unclear. An author of the analysis compared the situation to earthquake prediction.

"We now know we're living on a fault line," Derek Smith of Cambridge University and the Erasmus centre told reporters. "It's an active fault line. It really could do something."

Fouchier said the ferret results don't give a clear answer about how deadly an altered virus would be in people.

Eddy Holmes of Penn State University, who studies the evolution of flu viruses but did not participate in the studies, said those works present the first good experimental evidence about how the bird flu virus could mutate to become more easily spread between people.

The studies are "a useful frame of reference" for studying that question, but not the final answer, he said.


Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/201206 ... z1yTlmuTwx

The studies are "a useful frame of reference" for studying that question, but not the final answer, he said.

Hey.........no problem..........just use U.S. Servicemen as unwitting test rats..........

[J.B. Stone]

IT'S NOT JUST THE MILITARY..........

2000 – Health News Network
3-25-2003

from Rense Website

1931 Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, infects human subjects with cancer cells. He later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and is named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he begins a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.

1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.

1935 The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occurred within poverty-stricken black populations.

1940 Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with Malaria in order to study the effects of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at Nuremberg cite this American study to defend their own actions during the Holocaust.

1942 Chemical Warfare Services begins mustard gas experiments on approximately 4,000 servicemen. The experiments continue until 1945 and made use of Seventh Day Adventists who chose to become human guinea pigs rather than serve on active duty.

1943 In response to Japan’s full-scale germ warfare program, the U.S. begins research on biological weapons at Fort Detrick, MD.

1944 U.S. Navy uses human subjects to test gas masks and clothing. Individuals were locked in a gas chamber and exposed to mustard gas and lewisite.

1945 Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret government projects in the United States.

1945 “Program F” is implemented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This is the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoride, which was the key chemical component in atomic bomb production. One of the most toxic chemicals known to man, fluoride, it is found, causes marked adverse effects to the central nervous system but much of the information is squelched in the name of national security because of fear that lawsuits would undermine full-scale production of atomic bombs.

1946 Patients in VA hospitals are used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. In order to allay suspicions, the order is given to change the word “experiments” to “investigations” or “observations” whenever reporting a medical study performed in one of the nation’s veteran’s hospitals.

1947 Colonel E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issues a secret document (Document 07075001, January 8, 1947) stating that the agency will begin administering intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects.

1947 The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon for use by American intelligence. Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge.

1950 Department of Defense begins plans to detonate nuclear weapons in desert areas and monitor downwind residents for medical problems and mortality rates.

1950 I n an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Francisco. Monitoring devices are situated throughout the city in order to test the extent of infection. Many residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms.

1951 Department of Defense begins open air tests using disease-producing bacteria and viruses. Tests last through 1969 and there is concern that people in the surrounding areas have been exposed.

1953 U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia. Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents.

1953 Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii.

1953 CIA initiates Project MKULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior modification. Six of the subprojects involved testing the agents on unwitting human beings.

1955 The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents, releases a bacteria withdrawn from the Army’s biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl.

1955 Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continue until 1958.

1956 U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon Park, Fl. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.

1958 LSD is tested on 95 volunteers at the Army’s Chemical Warfare Laboratories for its effect on intelligence.

1960 The Army Assistant Chief-of-Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) authorizes field testing of LSD in Europe and the Far East. Testing of the European population is code named Project THIRD CHANCE; testing of the Asian population is code named Project DERBY HAT.

1965 CIA and Department of Defense begin Project MKSEARCH, a program to develop a capability to manipulate human behavior through the use of mind-altering drugs.

1965 Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the highly toxic chemical component of Agent Orange used in Viet Nam. The men are later studied for development of cancer, which indicates that Agent Orange had been a suspected carcinogen all along.

1966 CIA initiates Project MKOFTEN, a program to test the toxicological effects of certain drugs on humans and animals.

1966 U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.

1967 CIA and Department of Defense implement Project MKNAOMI, successor to MKULTRA and designed to maintain, stockpile and test biological and chemical weapons.

1968 CIA experiments with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting chemicals into the water supply of the FDA in Washington, D.C.

1969 Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requests from congress $10 million to develop, within 5 to 10 years, a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity exists.

1970 Funding for the synthetic biological agent is obtained under H.R. 15090. The project, under the supervision of the CIA, is carried out by the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the army’s top secret biological weapons facility. Speculation is raised that molecular biology techniques are used to produce AIDS-like retroviruses.

1970 United States intensifies its development of “ethnic weapons” (Military Review, Nov., 1970), designed to selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and variations in DNA.

1975 The virus section of Fort Detrick’s Center for Biological Warfare Research is renamed the Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities and placed under the supervision of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) . It is here that a special virus cancer program is initiated by the U.S. Navy, purportedly to develop cancer-causing viruses. It is also here that retro-virologists isolate a virus to which no immunity exists. It is later named HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus).

1977 Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirm that 239 populated areas had been contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969. Some of the areas included San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.

1978 Experimental Hepatitis B vaccine trials, conducted by the CDC, begin in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men.

1981 First cases of AIDS are confirmed in homosexual men in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, triggering speculation that AIDS may have been introduced via the Hepatitis B vaccine

1985 According to the journal Science (227:173-177), HTLV and VISNA, a fatal sheep virus, are very similar, indicating a close taxonomic and evolutionary relationship.

1986 According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (83:4007-4011), HIV and VISNA are highly similar and share all structural elements, except for a small segment which is nearly identical to HTLV. This leads to speculation that HTLV and VISNA may have been linked to produce a new retrovirus to which no natural immunity exists.

1986 A report to Congress reveals that the U.S. Government’s current generation of biological agents includes: modified viruses, naturally occurring toxins, and agents that are altered through genetic engineering to change immunological character and prevent treatment by all existing vaccines.

1987 Department of Defense admits that, despite a treaty banning research and development of biological agents, it continues to operate research facilities at 127 facilities and universities around the nation.

1990 More than 1500 six-month old black and Hispanic babies in Los Angeles are given an “experimental” measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected to their children was experimental.

1994 With a technique called “gene tracking,” Dr. Garth Nicolson at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX discovers that many returning Desert Storm veterans are infected with an altered strain of Mycoplasma incognitus, a microbe commonly used in the production of biological weapons. Incorporated into its molecular structure is 40 percent of the HIV protein coat, indicating that it had been man-made.

1994 Senator John D. Rockefeller issues a report revealing that for at least 50 years the Department of Defense has used hundreds of thousands of military personnel in human experiments and for intentional exposure to dangerous substances. Materials included mustard and nerve gas, ionizing radiation, psycho-chemicals, hallucinogens, and drugs used during the Gulf War .

1995 U.S. Government admits that it had offered Japanese war criminals and scientists who had performed human medical experiments salaries and immunity from prosecution in exchange for data on biological warfare research.

1995 Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.

1996 Department of Defense admits that Desert Storm soldiers were exposed to chemical agents.

1997 Eighty-eight members of Congress sign a letter demanding an investigation into bio-weapons use & Gulf War Syndrome.