[NukeNet] FW: NEWSWATCH | Uranium-coated artillery shells and illnesses among those who served in Iraq

[Kathy Burns]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Bennett [mailto:jbennett at nycosh.org]
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 10:48 AM
Subject: NEWSWATCH |


NYCOSH Newswatch

  a.. Justice for G.I.s? Say Iraq Uranium Caused Ills - Daily News,
September 8, 2006


  b.. Court Hearing on Suit Filed by Iraq Veterans Contaminated with
Depleted Uranium Against U.S. Military - Democracy Now! September 7, 2006
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Justice for G.I.s? Say Iraq Uranium Caused Ills

By Juan Gonzalez
Daily News
September 8, 2006

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/450535p-379084c.html

Three years after returning from Iraq with persistent ailments they believe
were caused by inhaling uranium dust from exploded U.S. shells, a group of
former New York National Guardsmen finally got their first day in court this
week against the federal government.

In a two-hour hearing late Wednesday before Manhattan Federal Judge John
Koeltl, lawyers for the eight veterans argued that the Army caused the
soldiers' illnesses when it violated its own safety protocols and exposed
them to radioactive depleted-uranium dust.

Army doctors also covered up information about any exposures and failed to
provide the soldiers proper medical treatment, the lawyers claimed.

The case is the first to reach a courtroom from Iraq war soldiers claiming
harm from depleted uranium - a low-level radioactive metal the Pentagon
began using during the first Persian Gulf War to harden artillery shells so
they could penetrate enemy tanks.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cronan, representing the Army, urged Koeltl to
dismiss the lawsuit immediately.

Cronan repeatedly referred to a 1950 Supreme Court decision, commonly known
as the Feres Doctrine, that prohibits soldiers from suing the government for
injuries "incident to [military] service."

"Any trial of this would be second-guessing sensitive military matters that
civilian courts should not be discussing," Cronan said.

As the government's lawyer spoke, Gerard Matthew, the lead plaintiff in the
lawsuit, who was sitting with his wife Janise in a courtroom packed with
supporters, quietly shook his head.

A former Army specialist who transported destroyed tanks from Iraq back to
Kuwait during the first months of the war, Matthew returned home in
September 2003 with a variety of ailments for which Army doctors could not
explain the cause. They included constant migraine headaches, blurred
vision, blackouts and a burning sensation whenever he urinated.

On June 29, 2004, his wife gave birth to a baby girl, Victoria, who was
missing three fingers on one hand. Tests of Matthew's urine sponsored by the
Daily News in early 2004 showed that he had been exposed to depleted
uranium, according to Axel Gerdes, the scientist at Goethe University in
Frankfurt, who performed the analysis.

Gerdes also found that four of nine other returned soldiers from a different
National Guard unit, the 442nd Military Police, had been exposed to the
radioactive dust.

Reports in The News created a firestorm that reached to Congress and
received coverage around the world - especially when the New York soldiers,
several of them cops and correction officers in civilian life - accused
military doctors of refusing to test them for depleted uranium, or losing or
delaying their test results.

Since then, the Pentagon has tightened its testing procedures and some two
dozen state legislatures have either passed or are considering bills to
require depleted uranium testing for their own National Guard troops
returning from Iraq.

Tuesday's hearing was a chilling review of how the courts have dealt over
more than half a century with massive injuries inflicted by our own military
weapons against American troops.

Both Cronan and the lawyers for the plaintiffs, George Zelma and Elise
Hagouel Langsam, referred repeatedly to prior cases of soldiers exposed to
atom bomb testing during World War II, to the massive illnesses that
afflicted Vietnam War soldiers from Agent Orange, even to secret LSD testing
among soldiers by the Army during the 1970s.

"It can't be that Congress intended our government to betray its own
troops," Zelma said at one point.

By his dogged questioning of lawyers from both sides, it appeared that
Koeltl was giving the claims from the soldiers serious attention. But he
gave no hint of how he might rule.

"We're here to speak for all our fellow soldiers who don't even know what
they've been exposed to in Iraq," Matthew said afterward. "The Army didn't
even follow its own procedures to protect us, and someone needs to answer
for that."

========================================================
Court Hearing on Suit Filed by Iraq Veterans Contaminated with Depleted
Uranium Against U.S. Military

Democracy Now!
September 7, 2006

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/07/1643226

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A U.S. District court in Manhattan held a hearing Wednesday on a lawsuit
brought by soldiers from the New York National Guard who have been sick
since being exposed to depleted uranium while serving in Iraq. Democracy
Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez first broke the story in the New York Daily News.
[includes rush transcript]

Previous Democracy Now! coverage:

- Broadcast Exclusive: U.S. Soldiers Contaminated With Depleted Uranium
Speak Out

- Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium in Iraq Born with
Deformities

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RUSH TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us
provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV
broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.

Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

AMY GOODMAN: Before we move to this top story around President Bush and
Guantanamo, Juan, yesterday you spent the day at a hearing that is related
to Iraq.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes. It was a hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on
a topic that Democracy Now! listeners know about: the soldiers from the New
York National Guard who served in Iraq and who ended up being exposed to
depleted uranium and who have been sick since coming back, they were
finally -- had a beginning of a day in court. It was a hearing over their
lawsuit, they and their relatives, their families, against the United States
military, over their exposure to depleted uranium. And there was a hearing
over the government's motion to dismiss the case completely. And it lasted
for several hours.

And amazingly, much of the discussion was around the Ferris Doctrine, which
is a 1950s Supreme Court decision that basically does not allow soldiers
while on active service, who have injuries as a result of active service in
the military, from being able to sue the government. And it was quite a
hearing, because you had the U.S. Attorney and the lawyers for the
plaintiffs, for the soldiers, raising all of the atrocities of the military
in the past: radiation exposure to soldiers during World War II, agent
orange exposure, LSD tests that the military conducted on soldiers. These
were all the legal precedents that were being debated as to whether these
soldiers had the right to sue the government, because the government,
according to their lawsuit, was negligent in exposing them, violating its
own protocols for protecting our troops from depleted uranium exposure.

And Federal Judge Koeltl asked some very tough questions on both sides. And
he seemed to be sympathetic, but you know, it's always hard to judge how a
judge is leaning when he's asking questions. But he also reserved judgment,
so we'll have to wait actually several weeks to hear whether the case can
move forward.

AMY GOODMAN: And this unit of men were stationed at a depot in Iraq?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, there was actually -- there were two groups. One was
the 442nd military police. They were stationed all over southern Iraq, but
mostly they believe their exposure came in the town of Samawa, when they
were there for several months, when they all started getting sick.

And then there's another separate soldier who we have interviewed here,
Gerard Matthew, who after he came back from Iraq, he has been sick with
illnesses that could not be diagnosed by the military. And then his wife
becomes pregnant, and they have a child born with missing several fingers on
one hand. And so, he was from a separate transportation company that was
transporting destroyed or damaged tanks back from Iraq into Kuwait. And so,
all the soldiers, eight of them in total, are involved in the lawsuit.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we will link the interviews that we did on Democracy Now!
with these soldiers at democracynow.org.

To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here for
our new online ordering or call 1 (888) 999-3877.

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Jonathan Bennett
Public Affairs Director, New York Committee for Occupational Safety and
Health
116 John Street, Suite 604 New York NY 10038
jbennett at nycosh.org
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Fax: 212-227-9854

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