PUBLIC 'ALERTS'

WELCOME to the Water Trough...that proverbial locale, where a horse can be led, but not forced to drink and/or think!

All of the situations, found at this site, depict the carnage that follows a 'game' (Russian Roulette, to the tune of The Military Twist) that victims didn't know they were playing. 

The tune: The Military Twist is fast becoming an updated rendition of that annoying little ditty, from a few years back that goes:

The people who control the most powerful military in the world are out of control! Operation Iraqi Freedom has our (yours and mine) sons and daughters, once again, in Iraq and the 'BIG Picture', including the 'price tag', isn't pretty!

From it's "Shock and Awe" start, the 'War' in Iraq has been a hot bed of contention and, as in every other 'War', TRUTH was the first casualty. Though the words; 'just' and 'unjust' have been getting quite a workout from both 'sides' of this dispute, it's great that there is ongoing 'Support' for the men and women who are willing to give their all, whether they, personally, believe in 'the call' or not!

President Bush asserts that it's imperative to 'stay the course' in order to spread 'Democracy' throughout the world and he boasts that "...America will be the 'enforcer'!" THINK about it!

Jerzy Bala Jr. has been thinking. On Nov. 27, 2004,  the Fargo Forum published his Letter to the Editor:

The Forum
Published Saturday, November 27, 2004
 
During June 1941, a German led "coalition of the willing" launched a massive assault on the Soviet Union. This pre-emptive attack was needed to dethrone a barbaric tyrant, destroy Bolshevism, control Soviet resources and rid the world of a menacing threat to Germany's security.
 
The partisans who banded together to fight the invasion were labeled "terrorists" by German propaganda and not as "nationalists" or "patriots" defending their homeland from a foreign invader.
 
The German government predicted victory in a few short months, but soon found itself bogged down as Soviet resistance increased.
 
By 1942-43, after Stalingrad and Kursk, the war was essentially over.
 
No historian (that's incredible) doubts that the invasion of the Soviet Union was unjustified. It was condemned by statesmen all over the world.
 
Now that the United States has launched its own illegal invasion of a defenseless country, after aiding and supporting the dictator through all his atrocities, it's seen by the elites in charge as totally justified.
 
The Iraqi nationalists, as they have done throughout their history, are fighting another foreign invader intent on establishing a puppet government to steal their resources and control their lives.
 
The United States propaganda machine labels these fighters "terrorists" or "insurgents" when they know they are fighting "nationalist forces."
 
As atrocities increase against Iraqis, the "moral" people in the media and government excuse it by saying "war is hell" or "we have to do such things in order to win," thus doing the Germans one better.
 
Suffice it to say that when it comes to war, the American people are just as ignorant as any other fully propagandized population. They back aggression when their leaders condone it. They excuse atrocities by their own forces while condemning the same kind of actions by official enemies.
 
Adolph Hitler once said, "How convenient for governments that their people don't think." As the current aggression in the Gulf proves, nothing has changed.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

But, CHANGE...it must and SOON!

On that note, as of Dec. 1, 2004, a sidetrack visit to ALERT #8 is being recommended...DETOUR>>>

This Public Alerts page was, and continues to be, established to demonstrate that military INJUSTICE, previously 'limited' to the men and women serving, has so permeated the Public Realm as to require a  PUBLIC INQUIRY!

As it remains...

...the following FOOD for thought is posted to illistrate what decades of Military ABUSE has already done and ...it just goes on and on, my friends! 

'ALERTS' MENU:

#5 In Iraqi...'serve the regime' is OUT, but now it is IN...in America!

    Part A...No Child Left Behind...GO TO >>>

    Part B...Uncle Sam wants YOU! (your children, your grandchildren, your.....)...GO TO >>>

#6 KID tested...(definitely) NOT mother approved!...GO TO >>>

    Part A...The Military's 'Basic Recipe for Disaster'...GO TO >>> 
 
    Part B...Taste Test 'SAMPLES' of the 'Basic Recipe'...GO TO >>>

#7 ADV: Human Rights for ALL...(some exclusions apply...not available in America!)...GO TO >>>

#8 EXPLODING time bombs, Military abUSe, destroyer of PEACE...prelude to WAR! GO TO>>>

ALERT! #1

According to Peter Glaser; Elmegade 11, Aarhus N 8200, Denmark...there is a:

A quick look at US Census 2000 statistics for Disabled Veterans would put the estimated number of US military men and women disabled from the first Persian Gulf war at circa 451,000 (40,000 new cases per year + 20% average increase over three year  period) by end of fiscal year 2003.
 
GWVIS figures for August 2003 (which have always excluded, and  continue to omit the 150,000 activated National Guard women and men who served in the Gulf) reveal that death rates hold steady at about 4 per day, or 114 per month.

For additional statistics, visit:  http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/01statab/defense.pdf

On page 9, of the graphs found on that site, #331 depicts the National Defense and Veterans Affairs figures for the years: 1980 through 1999. The numbers are nothing short of appalling!

- According to that graph...there were 32,912 active duty deaths tallied during those 19 years. Think about that! How many cities, in America, have a population that's even close to that number and what about the children who will never be born?
- According to that graph...563 servicemembers died from 'Hostile' actions (the first Gulf War) and 4,539 deaths were 'Self inflicted'. Think about that! Is it sensible that more service members die on Military Installations than are killed during a WAR!? Are the 'Battlefields', now, the 'SAFE' place to be?
    

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'Take it home Recipe'

ALERT! #2

Comes from the Sierra Times at: http://www.sierratimes.com/03/05/02/article_io.htm

On March 30, an AP photo featured an American pro-war activist holding a sign: "Nuke the evil scum, it worked in 1945!" That's exactly what George Bush has done. America's mega-billion dollar war in Iraq has been indeed a NUCLEAR WAR.

Bush-Cheney have delivered upon 17 million Iraqis tons of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, a "liberation" gift that will keep on giving. Depleted uranium is a component of toxic nuclear waste, usually stored at secure sites. Handlers need radiation protection gear.

Over a decade ago, war-makers decided to incorporate this lethal waste into much of the Pentagon's weaponry. Navy ships carrying Phalanx rapid fire guns are capable of firing thousands of DU rounds per minute.(1) Tomahawk missiles launched from U.S. ships and subs are DU-tipped.(2) The M1 Abrams tanks are armored with DU.(3) These and British Challenger II tanks are tightly packed with DU shells, which continually irradiate troops in or near them.(4) The A-10 "tank buster" aircraft fires DU shells at machines and people on the battlefield.(5)

DU munitions are classified by a United Nations resolution as illegal weapons of mass destruction. Their use breaches all international laws, treaties and conventions forbidding poisoned weapons calculated to cause unnecessary suffering.

Ironically, support for our troops will extend well beyond the war in Iraq. Americans will be supporting Gulf War II veterans for years as they slowly and painfully succumb to radiation poisoning. U.S and British troops deployed to the area are the walking dead. Humans and animals, friends and foes in the fallout zone are destined to a long downhill spiral of chronic illness and disability. Kidney dysfunction, lung damage, bloody stools, extreme fatigue, joint pain, unsteady gait, memory loss and rashes and, ultimately, cancer and premature death await those exposed to DU.

Award-winning journalist Will Thomas wrote: "As the last Gulf conflict so savagely demonstrated, GI immune systems reeling from multiple doses of experimental vaccines offer little defense against further exposure to chemical weapons, industrial toxins, stress, caffeine, insect repellent and radiation leftover from the last war. This is a war even the victors will lose."(6)

When a DU shell is fired, it ignites upon impact. Uranium, plus traces of plutonium and americium, vaporize into tiny, ceramic particles of radioactive dust. Once inhaled, uranium oxides lodge in the body and emit radiation indefinitely. A single particle of DU lodged in a lymph node can devastate the entire immune system according to British radiation expert Roger Coghill.(7)

The Royal Society of England published data showing that battlefield soldiers who inhale or swallow high levels of DU can suffer kidney failure within days.(8) Any soldier now in Iraq who has not inhaled lethal radioactive dust is not breathing. In the first two weeks of combat, 700 Tomahawks, at a cost of $1.3 million each, blasted Iraqi real estate into radioactive mushroom clouds.(9) Millions of DU tank rounds liter the terrain. Cleanup is impossible because there is no place on the planet to put so much contaminated debris.

Bush Sr.'s Gulf War I was also a nuclear war. 320 tons of depleted uranium were used against Iraq in 1991.(10) A 1998 report by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances confirms that inhaling DU causes symptoms identical to those claimed by many sick vets with Gulf War Syndrome.(11) The Gulf War Veterans Association reports that at least 300,000 Gulf War I vets have now developed incapacitating illnesses.(12) To date, 209,000 vets have filed claims for disability benefits based on service-connected injuries and illnesses from combat in that war.(13)

Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a professor of nuclear medicine at Georgetown University, is a former army medical expert. He told nuclear scientists in Paris last year that tens of thousands of sick British and American soldiers are now dying from radiation they encountered during Gulf War I. He found that 62 percent of sick vets tested have uranium isotopes in their organs, bones, brains and urine.(14) Laboratories in Switzerland and Finland corroborated his findings.

In other studies, some sick vets were found to be expressing uranium in even their semen. Their sexual partners often complained of a burning sensation during intercourse, followed by their own debilitating illnesses.(15)

Nothing compares to the astronomical cancer rates and birth defects suffered by the Iraqi people who have endured vicious nuclear chastisement for years.(16) U.S. air attacks against Iraq since 1993 have undoubtedly employed nuclear munitions. Pictures of grotesquely deformed Iraqi infants born since 1991 are overwhelming.(17) Like those born to Gulf War I vets, many babies born to troops now in Iraq will also be afflicted with hideous deformities, neurological damage and/or blood and respiratory disorders.(18)

As an Army health physicist, Dr. Doug Rokke was dispatched to the Middle East to salvage DU-contaminated tanks after Gulf War I. His Geiger counters revealed that the war zones of Iraq and Kuwait were contaminated with up to 300 millirems an hour in beta and gamma radiation plus thousands to millions of counts per minute in alpha radiation. Rokke recently told the media: "The whole area is still trashed. It is hotter than heck over there still. This stuff doesn't go away."(19)

DU remains "hot" for 4.5 billion years. Radiation expert Dr. Helen Caldicott confirms that the dust-laden winds of DU-contaminated war zones "will remain effectively radioactive for the rest of time."(20) The murderous dust storms which ensnared coalition troops during the first few days of the current invasion are sure to have significant health consequences.

Rokke and his cleanup team were issued only flimsy dust masks for their dangerous work. Of the 100 people on Rokke's decontamination team, 30 have already "dropped dead." Rokke himself is ill with radiation damage to lungs and kidneys. He has brain lesions, skin pustules, chronic fatigue, continual wheezing and painful fibromyalgia. Rokke warns that anyone exposed to DU should have adequate respiratory protection and special coveralls to protect their clothing because, he says, you can't get uranium particles off your clothing.

The U.S. military insists that DU on the battlefield is not a problem. Colonel James Naughton of the U.S. Army Material Command recently told the BBC that complaints about DU "had no medical basis."(21) The military's own documents belie this. A 1993 Pentagon document warned that "when soldiers inhale or ingest DU dust they incur a potential increase in cancer risk."(22) A U.S. Army training manual requires anyone who comes within 25 meters of DU-contaminated equipment to wear respiratory and skin protection.(23) The U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute admitted: "If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences."(24) The Institute also stated that, if the troops were to realize what they had been exposed to, "the financial implications of long-term disability
payments and healthcare costs would be excessive."(25) For pragmatic reasons, DOD chooses to lie and deny.

Dr. Rokke confirms that the Pentagon lies about DU dangers and is criminally negligent for neglecting medical attention needed by DU-contaminated vets. He predicts that the numbers of American troops to be sickened by DU from Gulf War II will be staggering.(26) As they gradually sicken and suffer a slow burn to their graves, the Pentagon will, as it did after Gulf War I, deny that their misery and death is a result of their tour in Iraq.

Dr. Rokke's candor has cost him his career. Likewise, Dr. Durakovic's radiation studies on Gulf War I vets were not popular with U.S. officials. Dr. Durakovic was reportedly told his life was in danger if he continued his research. He left the U.S. to continue his research abroad.(27)

Naive young coalition soldiers now in Iraq are likely unaware of how deadly their battlefield environment is. Gulf War I troops were kept in ignorance. Soldiers handled DU fragments and some wore these lethal nuggets around their necks. A DU projectile emits more radiation in five hours than allowed in an entire year under civilian radiation exposure standards. "We didn't know any better," Kris Kornkven told Nation magazine. "We didn't find out until long after we were home that there even was such a thing as DU."(28)

George Bush's ongoing war in Afghanistan is also a nuclear war. Shortly after 9-11, the U.S. announced it would stockpile tactical nuclear weapons including small neutron bombs, nuclear mines and shells suited to commando warfare in Afghanistan.(29) In late September, 2001, Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed that the U.S. would use tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan while Putin would employ nuclear weapons against the Chechnyans.(30)

Describing the Pentagon's B-61-11 burrowing nuke bomb, George Smith writes in the Village Voice: "Built ram tough with a heavy metal casing for smashing through the earth and concrete, the B-61 explodes with the force of an estimated 340,000 tons of TNT. It is lots of bang for the buck, literally two apocalypse bombs in one, a boosted plutonium firecracker called the primary and a heavy hydrogen secondary for that good old-fashioned H-bomb fireball."(31)

Drought-stricken Afghanistan's underground water supply is now contaminated by these nuclear weapons.(32) Experts with the Uranium Medical Research Center report that urine samples of Afghanis show the highest level of uranium ever recorded in a civilian population. Afghani soldiers and civilians are reported to have died after suffering intractable vomiting, severe respiratory problems, internal bleeding and other symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning. Dead birds still perched in trees are found partially melted with blood oozing from their mouths.(33)

Afghanistan's new president, Hamid Karzai, is a puppet installed by Washington. Under the protection of American soldiers, Karzai's regime is setting a new record for opium production. Both UN and U.S. reports confirm that the huge Afghani opium harvest of 2002 makes Afghanistan the world's leading opium producer.(34) Thanks to nuclear weapons, Afghanistan is now safe for the Bush-Cheney narcotics industry.(35) ABC News asserts that keeping the "peace" in Afghanistan will require decades of allied occupation.(36) For years to come, "peacekeepers" will be eating, drinking and breathing the "hot" carcinogenic pollution they have helped the Pentagon inflict upon that nation for organized crime.

As governor of Arkansas during the Iran-Contra era, Bill Clinton laundered $multi-millions in cocaine profits for then vice-president George Bush Sr.(37) As a partner in the Bush family's notorious crime machine, President Clinton committed U.S. troops to NATO's campaign in the Balkans, a prime heroin production and trans-shipment area. DOD's campaign to control and reorganize the drug trade there for the Bush mafia was yet another nuclear project.

For years, the U.S. and NATO fired DU missiles, bullets and shells across the Balkans, nuking the peoples of Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo. As DU munitions were slammed into chemical plants, the environment became hideously toxic, also endangering the peoples of Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Austria and Hungary. By 1999, UN investigators reported that an estimated 12 tons of DU had caused irreparable damage to the Yugoslavian environment, with agriculture, livestock and air water, and public health all profoundly damaged.(38)

Scientists confirm that citizens of the Balkans are excreting uranium in their urine.(39) In 2001, a Yugoslavian pathologist reported that hundreds of Bosnians have died of cancer from NATO's DU bombardment.(40) Many NATO peacekeepers in the Balkans now suffer ill health. Their leukemias, cancers and other maladies are dubbed the "Balkans Syndrome." Richard Coghill predicts that DU weapons used in Balkans campaign will result in at least 10,000 cases of fatal cancer.(41)

U.S. citizens at home are also paying a heavy price for criminal militarism gone mad. DOD is a pollution monster. The General Accounting Office (GAO) found 9,181 dangerous military sites in USA that will require $billions to rehabilitate. The GAO reports that DOD has been both slothful and deceitful in its clean-up obligations.(42) The Pentagon is now pressing Congress to exempt it from all environmental laws so that it may pollute and poison free from liability.(43)

The Navy uses prime fishing grounds off the coast of Washington state to test fire DU ammunition. In January, Washington State Rep. Jim McDermott chastised the Navy: "On one hand you have required soldiers to have DU safety training and to wear protective gear when handling DU...and submarines must stay clear of DU-contaminated waters. These policies indicate there is cause for concern....On the other hand the Department of Defense has repeatedly denied that DU poses any danger whatsoever. There has been no remorse about leaving tons of DU equipment in the soil in foreign countries, and there appears to be no remorse about leaving it in the waters of your own country."(44)

DU has been used in military practice maneuvers in Indiana, Florida, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Maryland and Puerto Rico. After the Navy tested DU weaponry on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, one third of the island's population developed serious illness. Many people show high levels of uranium in their bodies. Hundreds have filed a class action suit against the Navy for $100 million, claiming DU contamination has caused widespread cancers.(45)

The Navy's Fallon Naval Air Station near Fallon, Nevada, is a quagmire of 26 toxic waste sites. It is also a target practice zone for DU bombs and missiles. Area residents report bizarre illnesses, including 17 children who have contracted leukemia within five years. A survey of groundwater in the Fallon area showed nearly half of area wells are contaminated with radioactive materials.(46)

The materials for DU weaponry have been processed mainly at three nuclear plants in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, where workers handling uranium contaminated with plutonium have suffered for decades with cancers and debilitating maladies similar to Gulf War Syndrome.(47)

Emboldened by power-grabbing successes made possible by his administration's devious 9-11 project, President Bush asserts that the U.S. has the right to attack any nation it deems a potential threat. He told West Point in 2002, "If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long."(48) Thus, it is certain that Bush-Cheney future pre-emptive nuclear wars are lined up like idling jets on a runway. Both Cheney's Halliburton Corp. and the Bush family's Carlyle Group are profiteers in U.S. defense contracts, so endless war is just good business.(49)

The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon will create special nuclear weapons for use on North Korea's underground nuclear facilities.(50) Next August, U.S. war makers will meet to consolidate plans for a new generation of "mini," "micro" and "tiny" nuclear bombs and bunker busters. These will be added to the U.S. arsenal perhaps for use against non-nuclear third-world nations such as Iran, Syria, Lebanon.(51)

The solution? Americans must stop electing ruthless criminals to rule this nation. We must convince fellow citizens that villains like Saddam Hussein are made in the U.S. as rationale for endless corporate war profits. Saddam was placed in power by the CIA.(52) For years U.S. government agencies, under auspices of George Bush Sr., supplied him with chemical and biological weapons.(53) Our national nuclear laboratories, along with Unisys, Dupont and Hewlett-Packard, sold Saddam materials for his nuclear program.(54) Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton in the late 90s when its subsidiaries signed $73 million in new contracts to further supply Saddam.(55) The wicked villain of Iraq was nurtured for decades as a cash-cow by
U.S. military-industrial piranhas.

If America truly supports its troops, it must stop sending them into nuclear holocaust for the enrichment of thugs. Time is running out. If the DU-maniacs at the Pentagon and their coven of nuclear arms peddlers are not harnessed, America will have no able-bodied fighting forces left. All people of the earth will become grossly ill, hideously deformed and short- lived. We must succeed in the critical imperative to face reality and act decisively. Should we fail, there will be no place to hide from Bush-Cheney's merciless nuclear orgies yet to come or from the inevitable nuclear retaliation these orgies will surely breed.

Endnotes

1."DOD Launches Depleted Uranium Training," Linda Kozaryn, American Forces Press Service, 8-13-99.

2."Nukes of the Gulf War,"John Shirley, Zess@aol.com. See this article in archives at
www.gulfwarvets.com.

3. BBC News, "US To Use Depleted Uranium," March 18, 2003; U.S. General Accounting Office, Operation Desert Storm: "Early Performance Assessment of Bradley and Abrams," 1-2-92.

4."Nukes of the Gulf War," op. cit.

5. Ibid.

6. "Invading Hiroshima," William Thomas, 2-4-2003, www.willthomas.net

7. "US Shells Leave Lethal Legacy," Toronto Star, July 31, 1999; also "Radiation Tests for
Peacekeepers in the Balkans Exposed to Depleted Uranium," www.telegraph.co.uk, 12-31-02.

8. "Depleted Uranium May Stop Kidneys In Days," Rob Edwards, New Scientist.com, 3-12-02; also "Uranium Weapons Too Hot to Handle," Rob Edwards, New Scientist.co.uk, 6-9-99.

9. "Navy Seeks Cash for More Tomahawks," David Rennie in Washington, Telegraph Group
Limited, 1-4-03, news.telegraph.co.uk.

10. "Going Nuclear in Iraq--DU Cancers Mount Daily," Ramzi Kysia, CounterPunch.org,
12-31-01.

11."Depleted Uranium Symptoms Match US Report As Fears Spread," Peter Beaumont, The
Observer (UK) 1-14-01, www.guardianlimited.co.uk.

12. "Gulf War Illnesses Affect 300,000 Vets," Ellen Tomson, Pioneer Press,
www.pioneerplanet.com. See also American Gulf War Veterans Association at
www.gulfwarvets.com.

13. "2 of Every 5 Gulf War Vets Are On Disability: 209,000 Make VA Claims," World Net Daily, 1-28-03, WorldNetDaily.com.

14. "Research on Sick Gulf Vets Revisited, "New York Times, 1-29-01; "Tests Show Gulf War Victims Have Uranium Poisoning," Jonathon Carr-Brown and Martin Meissonnier, The Sunday Times (UK) 9-3-02.

15. "Catastrophe: Ill Gulf Vets Contaminated Partners With DU," The Halifax Herald Limited,
Clare Mellor, 2-09-01. This article is available in archives at www.rense.com.

16. "Iraqi Cancer, Birth Defects Blamed on US Depleted Uranium," Seattle Post- Intelligencer, 11-12-02; "US Depleted Uranium Yields Chamber of Horrors in Southern Iraq, Andy Kershaw, The Independent (London) 12-4-01.

17. "The Environmental and Human Health Impacts of the Gulf War Region with Special
References to Iraq," Ross Mirkarimi, The Arms Control Research Centre, May 1992. See also Gulf War Syndrome Birth Defects in Iraq at www.web-light.nl/VISIE/extremedeformities.html.

18. "The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm, Has Our Country Abandoned Them?," Life Magazine,
November 1995; "Birth Defects Killing Gulf War Babies," Los Angeles Times, 11-14-94;
"Depleted Uranium, The Lingering Poison," Alex Kirby, BBC News Online, 6-7-99.

19. "Depleted Uranium, A Killer Disaster," Travis Dunn, Disaster News.net, 12-29-02.

20. San Francisco Chronicle, 10-10-02.

21. "US To Use Depleted Uranium," BBC News, 3-18-03.

22. "Depleted Uranium Symptoms Match US Report As Fears Spread," Peter Beaumont, The
Observer (UK) 1-14-01.

23. "Iraqi Cancer, Birth Defects Blamed on US Depleted Uranium," Seattle Post- Intelligencer, 11-12-02.

24. "US To Use Depleted Uranium," BBC News, 3-18-03.

25. US Army Environmental Policy Institute: Health and Environmental Consequences of
Depleted Uranium in the U.S. Army, Technical Report, June 1995.

26. "Pentagon Depleted Uranium No Health Risk," Dr. Doug Rokke, 3-15-03; also "The
Terrible, Tragic Toll of Depleted Uranium," Address by Dr. Rokke before congressional leaders in Washington, D.C.,12-30-02; also "Gulf War Casualties," Dr. Doug Rokke,
www.traprockpeace.org. 9-30-02.

27."Tests Show Gulf War Victims Have Uranium Poisoning," Sunday Times (UK), Jonathon
Carr-Brown and Martin Meissonnier, 9-3-00.

28. "The Pentagon's Radioactive Bullet: An Investigative Report," Bill Mesler, The Nation,
5-28-99, see www.thenation.com/ issue/961021/1021mesl.htm.

29. "Tactical Nukes Deployed In Afghanistan," World Net Daily, 10-7-01. 30. Ibid.

31. "The B-61 Bomb,The Burrowing Nuke" George Smith,VillageVoice.com 12-29-02.; also
"Bunker-busting US Tactical Nuclear Bombs, Nowhere to Hide," Kennedy Grey, Wired.com,
10-9-01.

32."Perpetual Death From America," Mohammed Daud Miraki, Afghan-American Interviews,
2-24-03; also "Dying of Thirst," Fred Pearce, New Scientist, 11-17-2001.

33. Ibid.

34. "Afghanistan Displaces Myanmar as Top Heroin Producer," Agence France-Presse, 3-01-03. This article is at www.copvcia.com.;also "Opium Trade Flourishing In the `New Afghanistan,'" Reuters, 3-3-03.

35. "The Bush-Cheney Drug Empire," Michael C. Ruppert, Nexus Magazine, February-March 2000; The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Alfred W. McCoy, Lawrence Hill & Co., revised edition due May 2003; Drugging of America, Rodney Stich, Diablo Western Press, 1999; "Blood for Oil, Drugs for Arms," Bob Djurdjevic, Truth In Media, April 2000, www.truthinmedia.org. 36. ABC News, February 27, 2003.

37. Compromised, Clinton Bush and the CIA, Terry Reed and John Cummings, S.P.I. Books,
1994; The Clinton Chronicles and The Mena Cover-up, Citizens for Honest Government, 1996; "The Crimes of Mena, Grey Money," Ozark Gazette, 1995 (see www.copvcia.com.)

38. "Damage to Yugoslav Environment is Immense, Says a UN Report," Bob Djurdjevic,
7-4-99, truthinmedia.org. This report was submitted to the UN Security Council on June 9,
1999; also, "New Depleted Uranium Study Shows Clear Damage," BBC News,8-28-99; also
"NATO Issued Warning About Toxic Ammo," Associated Press, 01-08-01.

39. CounterPunch.org, 12-28-01.

40. "Hundreds Died of Cancer After DU Bombing--Doctor," Reuters, 1-13-01.

41."Depleted Uranium Threatens Balkan Cancer Epidemic," BBC News, 7-30-99.

42. "Many Defense Sites Still Hazardous," Associated Press, 9-24-02; also Old US Weapons
Called Hidden Danger, Los Angeles Times, 11-25-02.

43. "Pentagon Seeks Freedom to Pollute Land, Air and Sea," Andrew Gumbel in L.A., 3-13-03, Independent Digital (UK) Ltd.

44. "Radioactive DU Ammo Is Tested in Fish Areas," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1-11-03; Letter from Rep. McDermott to Department of the Navy: see "Navy Fired DU Rounds Into Waters Off Coast of Washington," 1-20-03, rense.com.

45."Cancer Rates Soar From US Military Use of DU On `Enchanted Island,'"
www.telegraph.co.uk, 2-5-01; also "Navy Shells With Depleted Uranium Fired in Puerto Rico," Fox News Online, 5-28-99.

46. "The Fallon, NV Cancer Cluster And a US Navy Bombing," Jeffrey St. Clair,
CounterPunch.org, 8-10-02.

47. "DU Shells Are Made of A Potentially Lethal Cocktail of Nuclear Waste," Jonathon
Carr-Brown, www.sunday-times.co.uk, 1-22-01.

48. "Preventative War Sets Perilous Precedent," Helen Thomas, Hearst Newspapers, 3-20-03.

49. PIGS at the Trough, Arriana Huffington, Random House, 2003 (New York Times best
seller.); also "The Best Enemies Money Can Buy, From Hitler to Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden Insider Connections and the Bush Family's Partnership With Killers of Americans;" Mike Ruppert, From the Wilderness,10-10-01; also "Bush Sr.'s Carlyle Group Gets Fat on War and Conflict," Jamie Doward, The Observer (UK), 3-25-03; also "Halliburton Wins Contract for Iraq Oil Firefighting, Reuters, 3-7-03; also "Cashing In-Fortunes in Profits Await Bush Circle After Iraq War, Andrew Gumbel, The Independent (London) 9-15-02; also "War Could Be Big Business for Halliburton," Reuters, 3-23-03.

50. "Pentagon Seeks a Nuclear Digger," Washington Post, March 10, 2003.

51. "Remember: Bush Planed Iraq War Before Taking Office," Neil Mackay, The Sunday Herald (UK) 3-27-03; also "US Mini-Nukes Alarm Scientists," The Guardian (UK) 4-18-01; also "US Nuclear First-Strike Plan--It Keeps Getting Scarier, Jeffrey Steinberg, Executive Intelligence Review, 2-24-03.

52. Wall Street Journal, 8-16-90: The CIA supported the Baath Party and installed Hussein as
Iraqi dictator in 1968.

53. "United States Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of Persian Gulf
War Veterans," Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, 1992, 1994; "U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup," Washington Post, 12-30-02.

54. "US Government, 24 US Corps Illegally Helped Iraq Build Its WMD," Hugh Williamson in Berlin, Financial Times, 12-19-02; "Full List of US Weapons Suppliers To Iraq," Anu de
Monterice, coachanu@earthlink.net, 12-19-02.

55. Huffington, op. cit.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

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'Take it home Recipe'

ALERT! #3

Sod this for a bunch of soldiers. There have been two recent announcements which have, once again, cast doubt on the Ministry of Defence’s ability to care and look after those in the armed forces.

Firstly, it was reported that British troops in the first Gulf War in 1991 were given anthrax vaccinations without official safety guidelines being followed. This coincided with the declaration by an independent investigator that most of the bullet wounds suffered by four soldiers who were killed at Deepcut Barracks in Surrey between 1995 and 2002 were “highly unlikely” to be self-inflicted, thus throwing doubt on the Army’s claim that they committed suicide.

Evidence suggests that if the Gulf War veterans or the relatives of those killed at Deepcut are to achieve any form of justice they will have to bring about a historical precedence as there is a long and dishonourable tradition of the MOD and Government’s showing a distinct lack of care and attention to the needs of those who serve or have served in the armed forces.

The announcement from the MOD confirmed that Gulf War soldiers were given multiple jabs with other vaccines despite the product licence stating “the vaccine should be used alone”. The use of multiple vaccinations has long been condemned by veterans from the conflict. Both Tory and Labour Government’s have refused to recognise the claims of many that they are suffering from ‘Gulf War syndrome’, caused by their involvement at the time.

The UK authorities continue to deny the reality of 'Gulf War Syndrome' amongst the 53,462 troops who served during the first war against Iraq. The UK authorities have not even been willing to collate evidence on the medical records of those involved, although they are aware that in United States figures released have shown that 12 years after the conflict ended 8,000 US soldiers have died, 125,000 are registered disabled and another 253,000 are on medical care. In other words 31% of those who served are dead, seriously ill and/or receiving medical attention.

The failure of the UK authorities to collate and analyse the medical records of British Troops who served in the 1991 Gulf War has been condemned by Professor Malcolm Hooper, chief scientific advisor to the Gulf War veterans association who called it “criminal negligence.” Yet the anecdotal evidence which is available reveals that British troops are just as ill as their American counterparts. Larry Cammock, chairman of the GWVA, who served as a reservist, said in March this year that in just three units, covering 1,680 troops who were in Iraq he knows that “245 now have heart conditions”.

Cammock, from South Shields says that of the “ten Gulf War veterans who met Bruce George [chair of the Defence Select Committee] since 1995 only 3 are still alive.” Paul Carr was 32 when died, of unusual brain tumours, and the eldest was only 52 years when he died. Cammock who earlier this year himself suffered a heart attack is determined to “see justice for those who are still alive.” These include children born to gulf war veterans with no eyes, arms and ears. Others have had to undergo heart transplants, have suffered from kidney damage and many suffer from autism.

Hooper and Cammock have been angered at Labour’s unwillingness to fulfil their promises to them before they were elected in 1997. Labour had promised they would aid the Gulf War veterans in their fight to have recognised that they had specific illnesses resulting from having fought in the Gulf.

Hooper’s anger at the authorities was such that just before the latest conflict he said British troops should “not go and fight in the Gulf war because they are not going to be looked after when they get home” whilst Cammock said “it is a bit stupid to send troops there again as they haven’t solved the cause of the original illnesses from 13 years ago”.

This latest announcement simply adds to the bitterness with Malcolm Hooper saying “the anthrax vaccine was not given appropriately, however none of the vaccines administered in the rush to the first Gulf War were administered with compliance to the established protocols so that this led to a massive, acute and chronic adverse health response in many Gulf War veterans.

The same has happened in Gulf War 2, where multiple vaccines have been given in defiance of established protocols. We know that some had 6 vaccines in one day. There are 11 people suing the MOD and 83 people have contacted the Vets associations about their health concerns.

There is also anger at the news that Frank Swann, an independent investigator, who was hired by the families to examine the forensic evidence in the deaths of Sean Benton, Cheryl James, Geoff Gray and James Collinson, has cast doubt on the official explanations of their deaths at the Deepcut barracks.

In Sean Benton’s case he agreed with the Surrey Police’s claim that it was possible that two bullet wounds were self-inflicted but “highly unlikely” that three on the torso were. In Collinson’s case Swann accepted that it was possible that bullet wounds to his chin and head were the result of an accident but he thought it “unlikely”. In the cases of James and Gray, aged 18 and 17 years respectively at the times of their deaths, he concluded it was “highly unlikely” that the bullet wounds to their heads were self-inflicted. Surrey Police have been forced to postpone the release of their findings whilst they study Swann’s submission.

It would appear that without a full public inquiry suspicion will remain that something much more sinister has taken place.

It would, however, still be sad indictment of the MOD if it transpires that the four young soldiers, and others at Catterick in North Yorkshire and Bulford in Wiltshire, did take their own lives as it would indicate that the armed forces are unable to recognise when young men and women in their care are unable to cope with the pressure and vulnerable to taking their own lives.

If the MOD acts carelessly towards those working for them, it is totally unconcerned about those who have left. A survey undertaken by the homeless charity Shelter in 1997 revealed that 25% of those sleeping rough used to be in the forces. Clearly, unable to cope after they leave, such individuals should be able to expect a much greater after care service.

Many who fought in the South Atlantic in 1982 have suffered a great deal more since the
event than during it. Those Falkland veterans injured during the war were denied full,
disability pensions because of a government decision to call it an “armed conflict” and
not a war. By the beginning of 2003 the number of UK ex-combatants who fought in
1982 who have subsequently killed themselves was roughly equal to the numbers (225)
who were killed in it.

There can, of course, be no greater pressure than being involved in military conflict and in the First World War the intensity could not have been greater. Some of those involved were simply unable to cope. However instead of sympathy and support for those suffering what we now know to be post-traumatic stress disorder there was only contempt and brutality from those in charge. Between 1914 and 1918 nearly 350 British and Empire Troops were executed for desertion, the vast majority being rank and file soldiers.

At dawn on January 18th 1917 Sergeant Joseph Stones from Crook, County Durham, Lance Corporal Peter Goggins from Stanley and Lance Corporal John McDonald from Sunderland were executed together.

Historian Julian Putkowski, who has written extensively on those who were executed, has claimed that the reason they were executed was “to cover up a cock-up by officers…
They [the officers] didn’t plan the raid on which some of the men were sent and didn’t keep an eye on what the enemy was up to…. It was a cover-up. Bureaucratic murder is what I am alleging by officers of the 35th Division” to which the three men had enlisted.

Putkowski has revealed a major contrast between the treatment of officers and soldiers showing that whilst 4,700 officers were court-martialled only 3 were shot.

He has concluded that there was a far harsher “application of military law to the men ….to the officers. It was class justice in the sense of the levels of punishment and the way in which they were treated. Officers were defended in court and given a completely different system of trial to the men. The men were rarely defended.”

Putkowski and relatives of those who were ‘shot at dawn’ are campaigning for a pardon for all those executed, some of whose names are only now being recorded on the many War Memorials around the country. The Government, however, is refusing to cede to their requests despite the fact that none of them would be executed today as the military death penalty was outlawed in the 1930s.

Meanwhile 21,000 British Troops were later used as ‘guinea pigs’ in tests on Christmas Island in the Pacific and at Maralinga in the Australian desert in the 1950s when they were put ‘as close as possible’ to nuclear explosions. Over forty years later the Ministry of Defence was forced to admit that tonnes of depleted uranium, [DU] the toxic radioactive metal blamed for causing cancers in the Gulf War, were blasted into the air by the tests.

Sheila Gray, the secretary of the British Nuclear Veterans Association, expressed astonishment at this “it beggars belief, they gave us the impression that depleted uranium had never been used before the Gulf War and it now turns out it was used in the 1950s.’ Many of those still alive suspect that DU may be responsible for the deaths of many of their comrades, as well as their own illnesses. The BNVA have called for the government to re-open its inquiry into the health of those who took parts in the tests.

So whilst members of the Armed Forces are often praised by politicians and members of the press and Television they should not anticipate this will be translated into a lasting legacy of concern and care for their well-being. Jim, an ex-soldier who served in the Falklands told me “they only care about soldiers when we are fighting and nothing else” and “once we stop doing that we are quickly forgotten.”

By calling a public inquiry into the deaths of those who have died at Deepcut barracks, the MOD would be going a long way to allaying fears that any mistakes made in the past are not going to be repeated in the future.

Hooper is fearful “that unless there is a lot of pressure to bear, and by this I mean by Members of Parliament, then little will happen” as the MOD “have developed some very clever blocking tactics to make it extremely difficult to get an inquiry. Those that have been launched such as with Chinook helicopter tragedy in 1994 had to be launched outside of the MOD.” Of course for anyone concerned about the fate of those in the armed forces it should be noted that calling on troops to do anything about their conditions by going on strike, deserting or disobeying orders is illegal under the Mutiny Act.
Mark Metcalf
03.09.2003

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'Take it home Recipe'

ALERT! #4

Part A...Personal 'Alert' from CDR Bill Manofsky USNR to the VERPA Board Members:

Two months ago, my brother Larry Manofsky contacted you regarding my case concerning my negative reaction to the anti-malarial drug Lariam. This is the same drug involved in the murder-suicides at Ft. Bragg. (This past year, there was a 'rash' of incidents at the Grand Forks Air Base as well.) 

I am writing to you to finally give the go ahead to no longer hold this matter confidential. I have now had 4 doctors finally diagnose my symptoms as Lariam related. Yet, I am looking at permanent disability. 

It is imperative that the word get out to military members of all services about the potential dangers of this drug. The military is not providing the proper FDA mandated warnings when administering this drug. Please see attachment "LARIAM LABEL UPDATE, ROCHE USA, JULY 2002". Pay particular attention to the sections labeled "WARNINGS" and "ADVERSE REACTIONS". I experienced many of the side effects listed in adverse reactions because the military docs failed to screen me for the anxiety and depression that is inherent in my family. I would have then been prescribed the safer alternative DOXYCYCLINE. That is what is sad about all this, there are two alternative meds that are available, Doxy and Malarone.

In Kuwait before the war, I had to be evacuated from a night live fire exercise when I was rapidly overcome with severe nausea and vomiting. It took two days to get over that episode. On my return to California, I ended up in the emergency room 5 times suffering from acute anxiety and depression. I had trouble walking and with speech and had recurring bouts of nausea, vomiting, confusion, and memory loss. I felt like someone had hit me in the head with a baseball bat. 

The navy docs refused to address the issue of possible Lariam toxicity. They said I was talking about it too much. 

On the first visit to the ER at the China Lake clinic, it appears they were keeping two sets of books on me. I have the documentation to prove this. The copy of the ER record from that night that my wife had them list all the medications I was taking(including the Lariam) conveniently disappeared, while and exact copy without the meds listed ended up in my medical record. Without the copy with the meds listed, there is no indication that I was issued the drug. It does not even show up in my pharmaceutical record in the clinic pharmacy. THIS IS FRAUD. The copy of the ER record WITHOUT the meds listed was transferred with me to the local regional hospital ER that night. This is CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE to not inform them of the meds I was taking. 

The side effects of Lariam are very similar to lead or Mercury poisoning. These include acute psychiatric side effects. But, instead of sending me to a toxicologist, the NAVY sent me to a psychiatrist. If I had admitted that I was suicidal, I would still be in psychiatric lockup under THEIR control.

Please have all your constituents pass the word that Sen Dianne Feinstein's San Diego office is initiating an investigation into my case. I have also sent two letters of complaint to the DOD inspector General's office. (Barb Cragnotti, Legislative Coordinator for VERPA, has submitted materials on VERPA Act 2003 to every Senator and most every Representative. Enactment of VERPA Act 2003, would abolish the 'Feres Doctrine', a vital 'first step in resolving problems with the military. If US accounting firms can't audit themselves, why should the military be allowed to 'Police' itself?)

Joe Angelis and Maeve Townsend at Sen Feinstein's office are the ones heading up the investigation. They can be reached at her email maeve_townsend@feinstein.senate.gov (there is an underscore between maeve and townsend). They will forward my case to the Senator only when they have received 10 Lariam related cases from MILITARY (only) members who are California residents. When they get these 10 complaints, they will ask the Senator to forward them to SECDEF Rumsfeld.

(With all do respect to Senator Feinstein, there is much more involved with this matter than what an investigation of Mr. Manofsky's case, or for that matter an additional 9 cases, would disclose. Consider:
- The military's efforts to distort and/or cover up the TRUTH about the deaths at Fort Bragg constitutes 'Obstruction of Justice'.
- The military's 'stand' (contending that a possible(?) outbreak of malaria warrants acceptance of Lariam's side effects, including suicidal/homicidal psychotic episodes) mandates scrutiny of their 'stand' on other drugs, including the Smallpox vaccine.
- The quarantine provisions of the Patriot Act (if an area of our country is perceived as a terrorist target, 'at risk' for smallpox, the military is authorized to inoculate every man, woman and child in that area...by force, if necessary) make this a 'Public Trust' issue that requires being put into the Public Arena, where it belongs!)

If you know of any other individuals in the military who have been affected by Laraim, it is imperative that they write their own senators at this time. (Isn't it strange that everyone, in the military, serves ALL 50 states, but if anything goes wrong they can only seek aid from ONE state? United WE stand...Devided we fall! Though subtle, there is a very major difference between the phrases: a) "ALL for one" and b) "ONE for all!" From the looks of things, the United Kingdom adheres to (a) and thanks to the Military Twist, that causes each 'issue' to stand on it's own, the US is left with (b)! As they say: "Without Justice...there's Just Us!)

If the military medical establishment continues to with hold this pertinent information regarding the potential side effects of this drug, they there needs to be a grass roots effort to get the word out to the troops by other means. Right now, UPI is publishing a story about my case and CBS news is contemplating the same. 

Please read the attached article from UPI. Mark Benjamin and Dan Olmstead are the two
investigative journalists with whom I am working. Note in the bottom of the article the comment from the FDA doctor - "Suicide in one in perhaps -- I don't know -- 1 million or however many cases you can actually calculate for Lariam may have to be acceptable on the basis for the risk for malaria,"

I think it is more likely 1 in 10,000 not 1 million. How many troops are in theater? a couple hundred thousand. That means that there are at least 10 soldiers who are sitting with their guns contemplating blowing the tops of their heads off as we speak. Because they have not been properly informed, they have no idea why they are feeling bad. 

Per Mark and Dan, I have been informed that there have been 7 suicides in Iraq already.
(One of these was a young man who had just celebrated his 21st birthday 2 days before the army claims he put his gun in his mouth and committed suicide.

Over the course of the two weeks that it took for the Army to send his body home, his mother was lied to and misled repeatedly, resulting in her desire to see his unclothed body when he arrived. Having already endured the most horrendous of losses the family trusted that the details the army provided them would be consistent. However, upon examining the young man's body family members found another wound that would forever change the way they look at officials and agencies of any kind.

The army claimed the young man shot himself with his left hand, interestingly, he was right handed. Upon examining his body, his family found a three inch gash on the back of his left hand which had obviously been surgically glued back together and noted that the skin on two of his fingers also appeared to have been nicked. This, in spite of the fact that for the two weeks that the family had waited for his body to arrive the army had claimed that there were no additional wounds on his body.

Could this have been a Lariam induced psychotic episode? If so...was it a suicide episode OR a homicidal episode? As there's a BIG difference, doesn't this warrant a full investigation of
the facts leading to and surrounding his death? Shouldn't there be 'concern' over PUBLIC Safety...considering the fact that these psychotic episodes can occur long after a person stops taking this drug?)
I have also talked to three other Lariam "victims" who are going through divorces since returning from the theater(this drug is wreaking families too). Another is breaking off an engagement. One told me he is still very suicidal. He is a special forces medic who was in Afghanistan. I also talked to two parents who's sons committed suicide after returning from Somolia.

It's about time for all this to stop. We need your help. (And that's the TRUTH!)

Take Home Recipe
Eazy One Step Method:

 Take the following Ingredents, Mix and Wait:

Take the Following Ingredents...

Contentions:

There is a growing Homicide problem that entails every Service Branch of the Military.

The hierarchy (AKA chain of command) of the military and the Department of Defense
(DoD) are actively involved in covering up murders.

The success of said ‘cover ups’ entails Collusion and Malfeasance under the auspices of: NCIS, DoD, AFIP, Secretary of the Navy etc., in direct violation and abuse of Human Rights Articles, including but not limited to: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948.

Lapses of enforcement of Sections (including, but not limited to) 111, 1111 and 1114 of Title 18 of the U.S.C. has resulted in the flagrant ABUSE and disregard of OSHA regulations prohibiting: Violence in the ‘work place’.

America’s ‘WAR on DRUGS’ is being (seriously) hampered and undermined by the loss of invaluable information.

Criminal activities that include, but are not limited to charges of...ASSAULT, RAPE, THEFT, (uninformed and unsolicited) DRUG EXPERIMENTATION (i.e.: Lariam) and MURDER are being (literally) ignored.

Military efforts to protect an ‘image’ and avoid ‘scandal’ include tactics that are tantamount to ABUSE!

Assertions:

The systemic cover up of murders, in the military, has created and fosters a situation of ‘Reckless Endangerment’ and vulnerability for every man and woman serving in the military.

The military’s practice of summarily discharging murderers, who have gotten away with murder, into an unsuspecting and vulnerable ‘Public’, has expanded a situation of ‘Reckless Endangerment’ that encompasses ‘Society at Large’.

The military's efforts to distort and/or cover up the TRUTH about the deaths at Fort Bragg constitutes an 'Obstruction of Justice' matter, the ramifications of which make this a 'Public Trust' issue that requires your assistance for remedy.

Instead of ‘ruling out’ homicide, a mandate for any unattended death, DoD manipulation of Policies and Procedures has shifted  ‘the burden of Proof’ to the family members of deceased military members, who may have been the ‘Victim’ of MURDER!

The ‘task’ of proving that a member of the military was murdered is neigh onto impossible because the ‘Autopsy Report’  ‘fraudulently’ serves as a ‘Conclusion’, labeling ‘manner’ as well as ‘cause’ of death, that solicits ‘Support’ in the event of any review.

Having a ‘doctor’ on the payroll (take), as was suspected and alleged in our ‘case’, is all that’s needed for a Drug Cartel, like the Yakusa, to flourish in and around military installations...’DEAD men (AKA witnesses) tell no tales’ and ‘Drug Taskforces’ make no headway!
 

Resolutions:

- Establish a full, independent inquiry into noncombatant deaths among members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

- Create an ‘Independent Board of Inquiry’, empowered with the ability to initiate individual ‘Coroner Inquests’ for questionable military death rulings, where ‘material deficiencies’, in the initial investigation, have been demonstrated.

- Initiate a GAO investigation...alleging:
...FRAUD...military ‘Doctors’, who lack proper credentials, are a DANGER to ‘sick’ and ‘wounded’ service members!
...ABUSE...assault, rape and ‘guinea pig’ witnesses abound, they and ‘grieving’ families of murder ‘victims’ deserve better!
empowered...to convene a ‘Coroner’s Inquest’ to support ALL the charges generated by Obstruction of Justice.  

- Hold Public Hearings...geared toward ending the military's ability to 'Police' itself.

Add in...(choose one or mix and match); any standard phone, pen and paper or click onto  www.congress.org

MIX...well by using the phone to call your Senators and Representatives (or send them a
letter)... present them with this material. Let them know that you are concerned about the
lack of military accountability, request support of VERPA Act 2003 and that they initiate  Public Hearings!

Baking (or waiting) time will depend on YOU!

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Part B...(abridged version)                     

07/10/03 - The Food and Drug Administration has taken the rare step of ordering that patients are warned directly of serious mental problems and reports of suicide linked to a common anti-malaria drug called Lariam.

The move which the FDA has ordered only 17 times previously follows a decade of increasingly dire warnings about the drug, and a trail of horror stories from people who said they have suffered from side effects from the drug.

Lariam hit the news last summer after three Fort Bragg, N.C., soldiers accused of killing their wives after returning from Afghanistan appeared to have taken the drug. Two of the three shot themselves after killing their wives; the third hanged himself in his jail cell in March. A U.S. Army report said the drug was an "unlikely" factor for the cluster of deaths but did not rule it out in any one case.

The FDA on Wednesday required by law that all doctors hand patients a "medication guide" with the new Lariam warnings. It is the 18th time the FDA has made the aggressive move.

The new warnings say the drug has been associated with "serious psychiatric adverse events" that "may persist even after stopping the medication." It also notes "rare reports have claimed that Lariam users think about killing themselves" and "rarer reports of suicides."

The FDA says the guides are used for drugs "that pose a serious and significant public health concern."

"The Lariam Medication Guide is an important new tool for managing the risks of Lariam, one of the most highly effective means of combating one of the deadliest diseases in the world," FDA Commissioner Mark B. McClellan said.

Lariam's manufacturer, Roche Pharmaceuticals of Nutley, N.J., is also sending letters to U.S. doctors and pharmacists about the new guide.

Critics said the FDA move is late. "This is probably long overdue," said Larry Sasich, of Public Citizen, a government and business watchdog group. "This information should have been in people's hands years ago."

The FDA also requires that doctors hand out a medication guide warning of possible suicide risk for another Roche drug, Accutane, which is used to treat serious cases of acne.

With Lariam, Roche in May 2002 settled a lawsuit brought by an Ohio woman who claimed her husband had committed suicide after taking the drug. The terms were not disclosed.

For more than a decade, Peace Corps volunteers and U.S. travelers given Lariam have complained of frightening episodes of hallucinations, delusions and suicidal thoughts. Starting in Somalia in the early 1990s, soldiers from a series of deployments have told similar stories about the drug, saying it has also caused sudden, uncontrollable rage and homicidal urges.

Roche has placed increasingly serious warnings on the Lariam's product label, read by doctors and pharmacists, since the FDA approved it in 1989. It added in 1999 that, "Suicidal ideation has also rarely been reported, but no relationship to drug administration has been established."

Last July, the FDA updated Lariam's official product label warning of "anxiety, paranoia and depression" and "hallucinations and psychotic behavior" that "have been reported to continue long after (Lariam) has been stopped." It also said that, "Rare cases of suicidal ideation (thinking