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Desert Storm Blows Back With A Fury
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http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/page03.htm
DESERT STORM BLOWS BACK WITH A FURY
As another Middle East conflict dies down, veterans and doctors say the
previous round's biowarfare casualties remain mysteriously ignored
By Thomas G. Whittle & Linda Amato
More than a dozen years after Desert Storm, Gulf War Illness' biological
factor still plagues veterans and their loved ones - a bitter harvest for
our victorious forces and an ongoing tragedy for their loved ones.
Janyce longed to be a mother, to raise children and see them prosper. In
1994, she married Arvid Brown, and was elated when she learned a child was
on the way. When Asa was born the following year, Janyce raised him with a
loving heart, swallowing her feelings about his problems.
With only one in 28 babies in America born with some type of physical
defect, odds were that their next child would be healthy. But when daughter
Helen entered the world in 1997, she was multiply disabled. Asa, then 3,
remained unable to talk and had trouble using his hands.
Compounding the situation, Arvid also suffered from debilitating ailments.
His symptoms had first appeared during the Persian Gulf War, while serving
at the 301st Military Police Prisoner of War Camp near Hafir Al Batin in
Saudi Arabia. The day he arrived there in 1991, chemical weapon alarms
sounded as Scud missiles rained. By the end of his Gulf tour, Arvid's
ailments included rashes, diarrhea, headaches, nausea and vomiting. And as
bad as that was, his condition deteriorated further after returning to
Michigan.
"I experienced pains so incomprehensible that I would pass out," he told
Freedom. "I had photophobia [extreme sensitivity to light] and heat
intolerance that prevented me from going outside. I experienced loss of
orientation, blurred vision, tremors and other neurological signs and
symptoms," including loss of balance and memory.
Fever and bone pain extended to every part of his body. Night brought no
relief as sweats, chills and other symptoms combined to make sleeping
difficult, sometimes impossible.
Janyce, healthy prior to marrying Arvid, developed serious physical problems
similar to her husband's. "Chemicals are not contagious," she said, drawing
her own conclusion that biological toxins to which Arvid was exposed in the
Persian Gulf must have been transmitted to her.
Her belief was borne out by, among other indications, medical tests that
showed all four family members had leishmaniasis, a sometimes fatal disease
normally spread by sand flies in the Persian Gulf and other desert regions -
one of the contagious illnesses afflicting veterans who served in the Gulf
War.
Saddam Looks for "Novel Ways to Kill"
Biological weapons are living instruments of death - microorganisms in the
form of bacteria (anthrax, plague and botulinum) or viruses (smallpox and
Ebola). Some, such as plague, smallpox and Ebola, are contagious. A U.S.
Senate Committee investigation led by Senator Donald W. Riegle Jr.
documented that between 1985 and 1989, private American firms had shipped
anthrax, botulinum and other biological toxins to Iraq.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#1> 1
Chemical weapons are, of course, chemicals. They include nerve gas, mustard
gas, cyanide, tear gas and other substances. While toxic, they are not
contagious.
"The thing that I can say with a high degree of confidence about Saddam
Hussein and about his programs, his chemical-biological weapons programs
especially," Patrick Eddington, former CIA analyst and author of Gassed in
the Gulf, told Freedom, "is that they were always looking for novel ways to
kill people. And to kill them slowly, often-times, if at all possible, in
order to increase their suffering."
Eddington observed that Saddam's style is to make people suffer. The
chemical and biological toxins alleged to be in Saddam's inventory since the
days of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) constitute the most lethal substances
known to man, including mutated forms of virulent germs. In addition, Iraqi
forces have combined chemical and biological weapons, as in 1988, when they
mixed aflatoxin, a biological agent known to cause cancer, with riot gases
and used them against the Kurds with deadly effect.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#2> 2
The possibility of chemical warfare contamination of Gulf veterans was
repeatedly denied by Pentagon spokespersons from the onset of soldier
complaints in 1991. However, in the midst of an intensified investigation of
the problem by Freedom in 1996, with evidence of chemical weapons
contamination mounting to the point of being irrefutable, the Defense
Department admitted exposure of American forces to Iraqi chemical agents.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#3> 3
Since then, the numerous cases of illness passed from veterans to spouses,
children and even household pets, according to experts interviewed by
Freedom, continues to present the specter of Gulf War Illness' biological
factor - a bitter harvest for the victorious forces and an ongoing tragedy
for their loved ones.
Apparent Cause -Neglected Cure
Garth Nicolson, Ph.D., and his wife, Nancy Nicolson, Ph.D., initially
conducted research into Gulf War Illness at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
at the University of Texas in Houston. There, the Nicolsons isolated an
apparent cause of sick veterans' symptoms in a possible component of a
Saddam biological cocktail - the microorganism known as Mycoplasma
fermentans incognitus (MFI), which can cause protracted illness and a
lingering death.
The Nicolsons' studies have shown that approximately 40 percent of veterans
complaining of Gulf War Illness symptoms have mycoplasma in their bodies.
And roughly 80 percent of those have the rare MFI - a strain harbored by
only about 1 percent of the general population, according to Garth Nicolson.
Ironically, MFI was patented by Shyh-Ching Lo, M.D., then a researcher at
the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, now chief of the institute's
Division of Molecular Pathobiology.
The Nicolsons served as consultants to physicians treating veterans, with
many of their first clients from America's premier fighting organizations,
such as the Army's Special Forces and Delta Force and the Navy's SEALs. But
soon they found themselves helping to treat veterans' spouses and children.
In their ongoing research and efforts to assist veterans at the Institute
for Molecular Medicine in Huntington Beach, California, the Nicolsons have
been consulted in the treatment of thousands of Gulf veterans and their
family members.
According to Garth Nicolson, the institute's president, roughly 80 percent
responded favorably to a regimen that included vitamins and antibiotics,
particularly doxycycline.
Sick Gulf veterans learned, however, that some doctors serving the armed
forces and the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) refused to acknowledge the
effectiveness of doxycycline. As one retired Special Forces officer pointed
out, "I got my blood sent to Dr. [Garth] Nicolson for free testing and got
my prescription for doxycycline. I went to have it filled and not only did
they take away my military ID card, but they would not allow me to have the
doxycycline to save my life."
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#4> 4
Evidence of Physical Injury
In 1997, Arvid Brown lost his job, physically unable to meet his employer's
standards. And he could not find a doctor able to explain his condition-or
his children's. But as more and more Gulf veterans stepped forward with
similar reports, Brown realized that he had contracted something
communicable - a form of what has become known as Gulf War Illness - and
passed it on unwittingly to his family.
While bureaucrats waffled about the mounting evidence of illness and doctors
"studied" the matter, veterans' problems only intensified.
In 1998, when Arvid and Janyce Brown went outside the VA system to a private
clinic and all four family members tested positive for leishmaniasis, they
knew they had found at least part of the answer.
Forms of leishmania - the group of parasitic microorganisms that cause the
illness - were apparently suspected by UN inspectors to be in Saddam's
inventory. <http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#5> 5
Yet, to this day, more than a dozen years after Desert Storm, Arvid and many
other veterans have been unable to obtain adequate medical assistance for
symptoms caused by biological means, including possible biological warfare
agents, or by chemical agents and toxins, despite evidence of physical
damage.
Studies documenting physical injury include those conducted by researchers
at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Headed by
Robert Haley, M.D., this team showed conclusively that sick Gulf veterans
sustained brain damage. Corresponding with the regions injured, "UT
Southwestern researchers identified a syndrome characterized by thought,
memory and sleep difficulties; a second syndrome that involves more severe
thought problems as well as confusion and imbalance; and a third syndrome of
sore joints and muscles and tingling or numbness in the hands and feet."
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#6> 6
Researchers linked the damage to multiple chemical exposures: chemical
warfare agents, anti-nerve gas tablets, pesticides and insect repellents.
Continuing their research, they subsequently found that Gulf veterans
complaining of dizziness also experienced brain damage.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#7> 7
"A Bona Fide Crisis"
Today, the private agonies of ill veterans, long-suffering in hospitals or
at home, contrast with what had appeared in 1991 to be a rapid victory,
billed by Defense Department spokespersons as the least costly of all wars
in terms of American lives.
Of the 696,778 U.S. troops in the 1990-1991 Operation Desert Shield (the
build-up of Persian Gulf forces beginning in August 1990) and Desert Storm
(the air war against Iraq from January to February 1991, culminating in the
100-hour ground assault), 148 were killed in action and 235 died from other
causes, such as accidents.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#8> 8
In the years after, however, the price rose, with 206,861 - 29 percent of
those who served - filing for VA disability compensation as of May 2002. CNN
has since reported the figure climbing to 209,000, with 161,000 receiving
disability payments.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#9> 9 Meanwhile,
veterans' advocates have claimed that Gulf War deaths have steadily mounted.
Documents Freedom obtained from the VA showed that as of December 1997 - the
most recent data provided - 4,506 Gulf veterans had died. However, the Gulf
War Veterans Information System website, administered by the VA, revealed
that as of May 2002 - the most current data - that number had risen to
8,013. The latter figure constitutes 1.15 percent of the 696,778 deployed to
the Gulf - nearly double the 0.69 percent death rate among Gulf War-era
servicepersons who were not sent there.
"This is a bona fide crisis," said Garth Nicolson. We're not moving fast
enough to care for those already affected, he said, yet more Americans are
now in the region where they, too, are in harm's way.
More Deaths Predicted
As startling as the official tally may be, many think the actual toll is
even higher. Nicolson believes tens of thousands of Gulf veterans have died,
based on a confidential estimate of 28,000 deaths he said he received
several years ago from a senior Defense Department official.
Joyce Riley, an Air Force captain and flight nurse during the Gulf War who
has tracked veterans and their health problems ever since, told Freedom that
a source within the VA informed her that 40,000 Gulf War veterans had died -
a figure contested by the VA when asked by Freedom.
Riley also believes up to 400,000 Gulf veterans are now ill. And she stands
by her figures. The 40,000 deaths estimate, she said, came from a
national-level VA official. She predicts that unless successful treatments
are embraced, the toll will continue to rise. "Given the fact that there are
now 400,000 sick," she said, "in 10 years' time, I would say [there will be]
80,000 to 100,000 deaths." (See
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/page08.htm> "Desert Storm:
Deadlier than Vietnam?".)
In a January 2002 hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives'
Veterans' Affairs Committee, Representative Bob Filner (D-CA) warned that it
was "absolutely vital that we figure out what happened in the Persian Gulf
War, [and] treat those who are suffering from illness.... [A]s we all well
know, there is a high probability that our troops will be in the area
again."
In an investigation that stretches back to when reports of Gulf War Illness
first surfaced, Freedom interviewed scores of informed sources who echoed
his concern that something must be done.
"The Iraqi Curse"
In addition to the thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of
disability applications from among U.S. veterans, men and women of other
nations who served in the Gulf have also experienced severe health problems.
In Great Britain, for example, Gulf veterans suffer from lymphatic cancer at
nearly twice the normal rate of men of similar age.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#10> 10 In
Denmark, 40 percent of the troops that served in the Gulf War are said to
have Gulf War Illness.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#11> 11
And in southern Iraq, the focus of Desert Storm operations, both cancer and
birth defects reportedly rose sharply after the Gulf War - the former more
than doubled, the latter surged nearly three times. Dean Alim A.H. Yacoub of
Basra Medical College said, "You have in the United States what you call the
Gulf War Syndrome. Here we call it the Iraqi curse."
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#12> 12
Nonetheless, biological causes of symptoms have largely been discounted
since veterans first reported them in 1991. Critics charge that, rather than
seeing clear evidence of harm from chemical and biological warfare agents
and environmental toxins, VA doctors simply told veterans their problems
were "in their heads."
Those who served in the Gulf know the cause is not a mental quirk. In fact,
signs of a biological source or sources have increasingly emerged -
including evidence that Gulf War Illness has spread from veterans to their
families.
"Something Happened Out There"
During Desert Storm, Major Lisa Porter commanded the 419th Transportation
Company, a petroleum resupply unit whose vehicles ranged through Saudi
Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait. She told Freedom of uncommon experiences, such as a
flock of roughly 100 dead sheep observed by the side of an Iraqi road, with
no outward sign of harm to the animals and no flies around the bodies.
After returning to her home in Utah, Porter served as president of the Gulf
War Veterans Association of Utah, and heard stories of maladies she
described as "frightening." In 1997, she testified before the Presidential
Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, empowered by Bill
Clinton to investigate causes and possible treatment.
"I know by personally talking to many [veterans]," Porter told the
committee, "that the symptoms range from rashes that won't go away to loss
of memory and confusion, to headaches, dizziness, fatigue, weakness where
they cannot physically do the things they used to do, a couple of instances
of tumors that have grown within their bodies. With one individual, it was
massive blood vessels knotted and tangled. The doctors could not give an
explanation of how that could occur."
With another young veteran, she said, "three feet of his intestines died for
no reason and began rotting inside his body and [were] removed surgically."
"Soldiers across America who love this great country went in good faith and
good will to support and defend our family and our loved ones," she stated.
"We supported and defended a country that we love. That type of good will
and faith and support from your countrymen deserves and demands a return of
good faith and good will to find and search out what happened."
Major Porter told Freedom she has "a strong feeling that something happened
out there" - and that that "something" was biological.
"That Capacity Surely Did Exist"
"How in God's name have we come so far as an Army, to now be facing this
kind of threat and this kind of peril? I need a solution and I need it now."
Those words, attributed to a senior U.S. military commander on the eve of
Operation Desert Storm, reportedly came in response to learning that allied
forces poised to invade Iraq were vulnerable to cocktails of biological
agents possessed by Saddam Hussein's forces - lethal mixtures of toxins
dispersed by sophisticated, highly mobile sprayers.
If charges made to Freedom are true, knowledge of these little-publicized
sprayers may open the door to further answers regarding Gulf War Illness -
and to aid for America's veterans.
Pleas for help by Major Porter and others were echoed before the
Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses by Colonel
David Irvine, an attorney and former member of Utah's state legislature.
Today a brigadier general in the Army Reserve, Irvine urged the committee to
investigate links between Iraqi chemical-biological warfare systems and
subsequent illness of American veterans, and to interview an expert in this
regard, Colonel Gerry Schumacher.
"During the build-up for Desert Storm, Colonel Schumacher was part of a
classified Army team investigating the chemical and biological potential of
the Iraqi forces," Irvine informed the committee. "Colonel Schumacher has
personal, firsthand knowledge and documentation of the Iraqi chemical and
biological capability and the capability of their military forces to
dispense those agents."
Irvine said that Schumacher and his team investigated the capability and
number of Iraqi dispensers, noting, "he can absolutely and conclusively
demonstrate the existence of that capability, tie it to some extremely
bizarre symptoms that Gulf War vets experience and can provide a valuable
linkage for demonstrating that that capacity surely did exist and that in
all probability it was used."
"The Number-One Fear"
Schumacher, whose 32-year military career included more than 20 in the
Army's elite Special Forces, welcomed a chance to present his information to
the committee. His opportunity never came, as he was not called - an
omission Irvine termed "an unbelievable dereliction which, in my sense of
things, suggested that this was not really a committee that was interested
in ascertaining true facts."
In an interview with Joyce Lashof, a psychiatrist with a background in
public health who chaired the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War
Veterans' Illnesses, Freedom reminded her of Irvine's testimony before her
committee and asked why Schumacher had not been summoned to testify.
Schumacher's name, she said, "just doesn't ring a bell, but my memory isn't
the best."
Yet Schumacher had unique knowledge: for roughly six months before allied
forces swept into Iraq in early 1991, he headed the military portion of a
team at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) tasked with developing a device to
detect lethal biological agents released from aerosol sprayers possessed by
the Iraqis.
The sprayers, reportedly manufactured in Italy, were compact enough to be
mounted on a pickup truck or speedboat, efficient enough to pose the
greatest threat to allied forces. Under weather and climate conditions that
existed in the area of combat operations, Schumacher told Freedom, "we would
have had an exposure in excess of 180,000 troops if just one of these
sprayers was turned on."
"We weren't worried about artillery," he said. "We weren't worried about
aircraft." These could be neutralized by superior allied firepower. And if
Scud missiles were launched, most of their toxic payload would be destroyed
by heat when they exploded. Consequently, he said, the sprayers "were the
number-one fear that we had."
According to records Schumacher had access to while on the project, as many
as 52 sprayers had been shipped from Italy to Iraq while that nation was
locked in its eight-year war with Iran.
Secret Operation Obtains Sprayers
Using a U.S. agricultural firm as a front, Schumacher's SRI team endeavored
to obtain a truck-mountable aerosol sprayer from the manufacturer prior to
the launch of Desert Storm.
The manufacturer insisted that it didn't make sprayers to the specifications
requested. This was simply not true, Schumacher told Freedom, adding that
the SRI team had access to dates of shipments to Iraq as well as the
machines' specifications - precise descriptions that they sought in the
sprayer they ordered.
After the SRI team was unable to obtain a machine directly from the
manufacturer, a secret operation, reportedly under the aegis of the CIA,
extracted two sprayers from Iraq, with one brought to the Army's Dugway
Proving Ground in Utah, the other to SRI. There, according to Schumacher,
his team worked intensively, their mission known only to a component within
the CIA, developing 12 prototype detectors for biological agents and
shipping them to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, shortly before Desert Storm.
Designed to "sniff out" multiple agents and to sound an alarm instantly, the
devices were not deployed, however. They fell victim to what Schumacher
described as a combination of infighting and a lack of understanding of how
vital the equipment would be, given the potential of biological warfare
activity in the Gulf. Chemical detection systems, on the other hand, were
deployed during the Gulf War, sending out many thousands of alarms.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#13> 13
Contagion
In her 1997 testimony before the Presidential Advisory Committee, Major Lisa
Porter told of three people who never went to Desert Storm yet became ill
simply from unpacking, inventorying and redistributing crates of equipment
returned from the Gulf. The three, she noted, had been exposed to some type
of toxin. "The only tie that the three individuals could make was that they
all served and helped the 419th distribute their equipment," she said.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#14> 14
One member of that crew, Officer A*, interviewed by Freedom, described
serious health problems following the detail, including frequent headaches,
exhaustion, joint pain, rashes and memory loss - none of which he suffered
previously. Furthermore, both his wife and child developed severe ailments
around the same time that have troubled the family to the present.
There was also the cancer. Officer A had this disease in the 1980s, but it
had gone into remission, remaining so for several years before the Gulf War.
After handling the equipment returned from the Gulf, he developed another
form of cancer. After treatment, his prognosis regarding the cancer is good,
but other problems remain.
"Every Organ... Disintegrated"
The death of another young Army officer, Major Williams* - a member of the
1991 inventory detail - was pivotal in a series of events that caused
Schumacher to believe that fears of the biological warfare capabilities of
the Iraqis, aided by the sprayers on the Gulf War battlefield, were well
justified.
Schumacher knew the young officer, who died in 1996 in California.
"Every organ in his body disintegrated," Schumacher said. "Liver, pancreas,
stomach linings, kidneys - everything was just gone."
Like the others on the inventory detail, Williams had not served in the
Persian Gulf.
Colonel Grant White, who knew this young officer and others on the detail,
described health problems encountered by four individuals who had helped to
unload materials returning from the Persian Gulf: "[Officer A] had gone over
seven years without having any problems with cancer," White said. "But he
ended up having another relapse of cancer. [Major Williams] is dead. [Person
C]'s knees gave out so he couldn't run anymore. And I understand that
[Person D] had problems with her hips."
Officer A described how the detail unloaded shipping containers and cleaned
items returned from the Gulf. Although nothing of cloth was to have been
shipped to America, the detail found canvas-covered seats still in the
trucks. The containers also held sleeping bags and other items that could
have harbored germs.
No masks, gloves or other protective gear was issued. "We had no
anticipation of there being any problem at all," Officer A said.
"Stonewalled in Every Direction"
When reports of "Gulf War Syndrome" surfaced in the early 1990s, Schumacher
was skeptical. But by the mid-1990s, he, like many other military officers,
had come to believe veterans' claims warranted a thorough probe. One reason
was that those reporting symptoms were, in Schumacher's words, "not whiners.
They just don't fit into that category. These are guys that, if they broke
their leg on a parachute jump, they wouldn't tell you."
Something different had arisen in the annals of American warfare,
increasingly alarming as the numbers grew. For nearly two years, Schumacher
pursued avenues within the government, seeking to get information about the
biological sprayers into the hands of those responsible for helping veterans
that might have been exposed to pathogens.
Five of Iraq's biological sprayers, recovered by allied forces after Desert
Storm, turned up on battle damage assessment reports, according to
Schumacher. Even if Saddam had never ordered the sprayers used, he said,
aircraft strafing or other damage might have released their lethal contents
into the atmosphere to poison allied forces that passed by.
"I wanted to know what the status of those five were," he said. "Where were
they in relationship to sick people?"
His simple question found no easy answer. "I was stonewalled in every
direction," he said. "When I began asking questions about where the sprayers
were in relationship to the ill troops, that's when the sprayers didn't
exist. Nobody heard of the sprayers."
Then, in July 1996, Williams, a member of the 1991 inventory detail - and
who had later served on Schumacher's staff - entered a hospital, seriously
ill, and died there. He was 36. An analysis of the nine-page autopsy report
found his physical condition to be "not unlike others that had Gulf War
Illness that progressed."
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#15> 15
Not long after Williams' death, Colonel Irvine talked with Schumacher by
telephone, informing him that when Williams had served under his command, he
had been part of the detail that inventoried equipment brought back from the
Persian Gulf, and that a number of people had become sick.
As Schumacher watched evidence of illness mount, he wrestled over what to
do. In late 1996, following his conversation with Irvine and believing he
had no alternative if he wanted to help fellow soldiers now sick or dying,
Schumacher took his information to the public, granting interviews to
reporter Ethan Gutmann for use on the television program, "American
Investigator."
Gutmann, currently a visiting fellow at the Project for the New American
Century, a nonprofit educational organization based in Washington, D.C.,
broke the story of the sprayers in late 1996 while chief investigator for
NET, a conservative television network. In an interview with Freedom,
Gutmann said he only moved forward with the story after the sprayers'
existence had been confirmed by other sources, including another member of
the SRI project to develop real-time detectors.
Yet another source had informed Gutmann that approximately 15 sprayers,
hidden by the retreating Iraqis, had been found by allied forces.
"The fact that they were buried in the sand was interesting," Gutmann said,
"because it indicated that even though they [the Iraqis] left lots of
equipment just lying around, including tanks, this was something they did
attempt to hide."
* In respect for the wishes of personnel on the detail and their families,
real names are not used.
Deny and Delay
Evidence pointing to chemical and biological warfare - and to communicable
illness stemming from the Gulf War, whether generated by sprayers or not -
has long since warranted urgent attention.
"If you have a contagious disease that is brought back from a war and it's
slowly penetrating into the population, don't you think that's alarming?"
asked Garth Nicolson.
U.S. Representative Christopher Shays (R-CT), vice chair of the House
Committee on Government Reform, is among those who believe that government
officials responsible for helping Gulf veterans have pursued a strategy to
deny the existence of illness and to delay effective action - a course
similar to that followed for so many years with Vietnam veterans exposed to
Agent Orange.
"It's just amazing to think it would be true, but I think it is," he told
Freedom. Rep. Shays has encountered veterans who have been told by VA staff
that their problems are all in their heads, and that they should handle
those problems by taking drugs.
"They have wanted it to be a mental problem, and in some cases it is,
without recognizing that there's a physical cause for that mental
challenge," he said. Studies have shown physical changes in the brain common
to Gulf War veterans, he said. "That's not post-traumatic stress disorder.
This is literally a change in the chemical makeup of the brain unique to
Gulf War veterans who have serious physical symptoms...."
"What Were They Doing with These Insect Cages?"
Katherine Murray Leisure, M.D., worked at a VA medical facility in Lebanon,
Pennsylvania, and personally examined hundreds of Gulf War veterans. There
she observed an epidemic and listed symptoms that seemed common to all. Her
primary concern is the high rate of veterans who were burdened with
leishmaniasis. By her estimate, "one-third to one-half of seriously ailing
Gulf War veterans with 'unexplained illnesses' and the... Desert Syndrome we
saw in the 1990s had one of several forms of leishmaniasis."
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#16> 16
Leisure, a Harvard Medical School graduate and board-certified specialist in
internal medicine and infectious diseases, assembled a grant request to
study Gulf veterans from Pennsylvania and their spouses, as well as their
children born between 1990 and 1995. Expecting financing from Congress to
dig into leishmaniasis as she had proposed, she instead saw the VA redirect
the money to examine effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam veterans and their
children - a worthwhile purpose, but yet another case of Gulf veterans'
problems taking a back seat.
Others share Leisure's concern about leishmaniasis. "There are so many Gulf
War veterans that have this. It seems to be some aberrant form," said Joyce
Riley. According to sources, leishmaniasis is far more prevalent among Gulf
veterans than has been admitted by the Defense Department - something Riley
said she confirmed in a conversation with one of the department's own
doctors.
Although it cannot yet be proven that Saddam's forces spread disease-bearing
sand flies in the path of advancing allied forces, the possibility exists.
According to Kirt Love, director of the Desert Storm Battle Registry and a
Gulf War veteran, such a biowarfare action "is not out of the question at
all."
In the 1950s, the U.S. Army demonstrated that insects could be bred and
spread on a massive scale when it released 600,000 Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
- the type capable of carrying yellow fever and dengue fever - at one site
in Florida, and more in Savannah, Georgia. The Army estimated in 1960 that
it could produce 130 million mosquitoes a month.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#17> 17
In 1998, Dr. Diane Seaman, a microbiologist who headed a United Nations
Special Commission team that inspected possible Iraqi biowarfare sites, told
the BBC, "We saw insect cages. What were they doing with these insect cages?
Insects can be used as vectors of disease, a means of transmitting disease."
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#18> 18
"What's In All of Those Documents?"
Love, like other veterans, wants the truth. He points to an estimated 6
million pages of classified documents in just one portion of the Defense
Department - the Deployment Health Support Directorate - regarding the Gulf
War, many of them dealing with leishmaniasis. "The question is," said Love,
"what's in all of those documents?"
In her own quest for answers, Dr. Leisure encountered what she condemned as
a "stone wall or iron curtain erected by the VA Environmental Agents Office
(Frances Murphy, M.D.) and Research Program Directors (Timothy Gerrity,
Ph.D.) against Persian Gulf veterans."
In a five-page memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by Freedom, Leisure
wrote in 1997 that Gulf veterans had observed that VA officials thwarted
investigation into their health problems by avoiding studies of actual
physical problems involving ear-nose-throat, stomach and intestinal tract,
lungs, skin, nervous system, endocrine system and metabolism. Instead,
Leisure noted, psychiatric and psychological studies were primarily funded.
Another source, Garth Nicolson, estimated psychiatric studies to constitute
80 percent of the total number of studies of Gulf veterans' health problems
funded by the federal government.
Expenditures on the psychiatric studies, critics note, would be far better
allocated to saving veterans' lives.
"It Had to Have Been Some Kind of Bug"
Whether wasteful endeavors to dismiss Gulf War Illness as purely "mental"
are due to stupidity or strategy, other aspects of the problem, says
Leisure, include efforts to:
* "Keep veterans' claims lost in limbo for years until Gulf veterans
develop crippling fatigue, dementia, die of disease, or die from suicide or
accidents."
* "Alter medical diagnoses to reflect depression, stress and post-combat
fatigue."
* "Stop funds for projects when clinical abnormalities are discovered among
Persian Gulf veterans. Block medical publication of their research data.
Fire medical editors of federal publications as needed."
When contacted by Freedom, Gerrity, who is no longer with the VA, was
unwilling to comment. Murphy referred questions to Mark Brown, Ph.D.,
director of the VA's Environmental Agents Service, who said, "There is a
group of Gulf War veterans who do have very serious, debilitating illnesses
which we have difficulty diagnosing.... And, of course, if they're difficult
to diagnose, then, of course, they're difficult to treat."
Circumstances surrounding the 1991 inventory detail of gear returned from
the Persian Gulf were described to Brown, including how Officer A and his
family - all previously healthy - developed severe, persistent health
problems. He said, "[Garth] Nicolson says it's an infectious agent. And that
would make sense for the guy you're describing. Because it seems that his
family maybe contracted it from him. So it had to have been some kind of
bug."
"My Life Basically Flipped Upside Down"
As alleged by Leisure and others, veterans' conditions became "Gulf War
Syndrome" instead of "Gulf War Illness." Physically sick men and women were
saddled with psychiatric labels, such as "post-traumatic stress disorder"
and "post-combat fatigue." (See
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/page13.htm> "Drug
'Treatments' Exacerbate Problems".)
But America's surviving veterans carry on, despite the additional burdens
imposed by physical difficulties and less-than-responsive VA ears - in a
bureaucracy that appears to be dominated by psychiatric dollars and
interests. (See
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/page12.htm> "The
Psychiatric 'Funnel System'".)
Gulf veterans' advocates note that the physical problems afflict men and
women in their prime who had passed stiff physical and medical examinations
before entering battle. Today, even a cursory examination reveals how
individual lives are different.
Lisa Porter, for example, told Freedom that as a result of Operation Desert
Storm, "my life basically flipped upside down." Accustomed to working 60 to
70 hours per week, plus another 20 hours weekly for assorted military
duties, she said, "I'm lucky to put in 40 to 50 hours now." Today, even with
a limited work schedule, she said, "It's pretty much work and rest, work and
rest."
Porter retired from the Army in 2000, noting that staying in until then "was
really hard for me."
Considering the many thousands of square miles encompassed in Persian Gulf
operations, and the wide variety of exposures to a broad array of toxins -
ranging from contaminated, untested vaccines and infectious insect bites to
oil well fires and chemical/biological weapons - symptoms and intensity
vary.
But regardless of variations in symptoms, veterans' advocates such as Joyce
Riley believe that if responsible Defense Department officials at the time
had acted upon the first reports of possible exposure, the threat might have
been resolved, and it is possible that many who died would still be alive
today.
One family battling for survival is that of Staff Sergeant Bob Jones. Not
only does Jones suffer from Gulf War Illness, his three children do, as
well. His wife, Deborah, is reportedly dying from the disease. (See
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/page11.htm> "A Family
Battles for Survival".)
Controlling Public Perception
The grassroots efforts of the Nicolsons and others to aid such people as Bob
and Deborah Jones move forward in the teeth of resistance to the idea their
illness might include a biological weapons factor.
As evidence of Gulf War Illness mounted, for example, in May 1994 then Chief
of Staff John Shalikashvilli and then Defense Secretary William Perry issued
a statement to news media: "There have been reports in the press of the
possibility that some of you were exposed to biological weapons agents.
There is no information, classified or unclassified, that indicates that
chemical or biological weapons were used in the Persian Gulf."
The Defense Department has since admitted that 100,752 troops were possibly
exposed to chemical toxins when Iraqi bunkers and other facilities around
Khamisiyah were blown up.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#19> 19
Based on such information, and data to which he was privy while a CIA
analyst, Patrick Eddington stated, "While it was clear to me that the
majority of chemical warfare agent exposures among American troops were the
result of our own actions (i.e., 'chemical fratricide'), the eyewitness
accounts and thus-far declassified data also made it clear that Iraq did
indeed, on at least some occasions, use BCW [biological-chemical warfare]
agents against American forces."
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#20> 20
Yet it is evident that disinformation has continued. The Presidential
Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans Illnesses dashed veterans' hopes
when it "studied" Gulf War Illness for 28 months and whitewashed the matter,
concluding in 1997 that "stress" was an important factor.
In May 2002, committee chairperson Lashof continued to hide the truth behind
more smoke. "I think there is enough data that stress is a logical
explanation" for Gulf War Illness, she told the Associated Press.
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#21> 21
Compounding problems for affected veterans is the loss of vital medical and
other records by the VA and other entities. Notes Rep. Shays, "Most of the
medical records needed to prove toxic causation are missing or destroyed,
including three-quarters of the Gulf War Central Command's Nuclear,
Biological and Chemical (NBC) log entries."
<http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol35I1/print/words.htm#22> 22
Mind Games
Problems escalated as vets fell into the clutches of the psychiatric
industry. As is a routine failing in psychiatric diagnosis, proper and full
physical examinations were either not done or their results ignored. Tests
were performed that added confusion, their results failing to describe any
specific illness because the veterans had such a panoply of symptoms.
According to William Baumzweiger, M.D., Gulf veterans he examined while
working at the VA from 1993 to 1997 exhibited conflicting and mutually
exclusive symptoms. "Nobody asked how come they were showing so many
contrary manifestations all at once," he said. VA psychiatrists and other
doctors, he said, "threw every diagnosis in the book at them, rather than
get to the bottom of the problem," adding that he believes that practice
continues.
As a trained neurologist, he said, "I knew this didn't fit, and I said so
from 1994 on. I was told when at the VA center in West Los Angeles that it
was VA policy that there was no such thing as Gulf War Syndrome. It came
from the central VA in Washington. I was told [that] by Dr. Dean Norman, who
was the head of the hospital. I told him I didn't know that disease had
anything to do with administrative policies. He got mad at me.... These are
political positions. It isn't real medicine."
Baumzweiger was ousted from his job, acknowledging that some of his VA
superiors were incensed at his actions on behalf of veterans, which included
testifying in September 1996 before a House subcommittee chaired by Rep.
Shays.
"They were so mad at me," Baumzweiger said. "But I don't care. I mean, what
I was saying was true.... There were lives at stake. And these people really
were sick. They were horribly sick. They still are."
Norman failed to return calls made to his office.
According to Baumzweiger and others, the lives of many veterans fell apart
as they suffered brain damage and other physical effects and became
increasingly non-functional, undergoing divorce, losing jobs, turning to
street drugs and alcohol, having accidents, being arrested, ending up in
legal troubles and even prison or psychiatric institutions.
Leisure described one veteran who was bleeding internally, his spleen so
enlarged it had to be removed. "I found him in a psychiatric ward," she
said. "No wonder he was upset. He had so many medical problems that weren't
being dealt with. They ignored his blood count and his internal bleeding. It
was pathetic."
Arvid Brown was one of the many interviewed by Freedom who was told "it's
all in your head" when he turned to the VA for help. Cooperating at every
step with VA doctors, he accepted and took the psychotropic drugs prescribed
for him, including Depakote, Prozac and Elavil. After Brown became so
disoriented that he tried to step out of an upper-story window and a moving
car, Janyce took the pills away. He was put on Pamelor, which made him
hallucinate.
"When we complained that the drugs were making him hallucinate," said
Janyce, "they upped the dose." On another visit, a VA psychologist persisted
in demanding that Brown be treated for anxiety before anything could be done
for him.
Copies of medical records in Brown's possession confirm an effort by VA
doctors from the outset to label his symptoms "anxiety attacks" or
"post-traumatic stress syndrome" - in other words, psychological in nature -
and to pressure him into taking psychiatric drugs. Brown alleged that the VA
lost some of his records and falsified others. And he was told that neither
he, his wife nor his two children - born after his Gulf service with serious
birth defects - would receive any treatment until he and his wife submitted
to psychiatric examinations.
Arvid received chemotherapy treatments at a civilian hospital and continues
to take antibiotics. Both he and Janyce believe their family's multiple
health problems stem from Arvid's exposure to chemical and biological
weapons and other toxins.
In Whose Closet Lies the Skeleton?
"I have always felt that there was a real cover-up of what happened to a
whole lot of people in Saudi Arabia," General David Irvine said. "And
anything that anyone can do to bring light to that particular pile of dirt
that has been swept under a rug so very carefully, I will surely applaud.
Because I have seen some lives that have been tragically affected by
something."
To admit that veterans were injured by chemical or biological warfare toxins
in the Persian Gulf and that Gulf War Illness exists opens the door to treat
sick veterans, affected family members and even the general public. As Kirt
Love told Freedom, owning up to potential liabilities at this late date
could bear stiff costs - "as much as $100 billion, if not more, all said and
done, if everything was admitted to."
Failure to do so, however, according to Freedom sources, will be even more
costly - in terms of human life, continued suffering and spreading disease.
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