Talk about a betrayed veteran. Veterans are going to federal court for one thing that has eluded them from the federal government: The truth.
Check out the press release on the case, and letter from a betrayed veteran below.
Morrison & Foerster Files Suit Against CIA, DoD, and U.S. Army on Behalf of Troops Exposed to Testing of Chemical and Biological Weapons at Edgewood Arsenal and Other Top Secret Sites
What: Complaint Filed—Vietnam Veterans of America, et al. v. CIA, et al.
Where: United States District Court, Northern District of California
SAN FRANCISCO (January 7, 2009) – Attorneys at Morrison & Foerster LLP have filed an unprecedented action against the Defense Department, the CIA, and other government institutions based upon failures to care for those veterans who “volunteered” in thousands of secret experiments to test toxic chemical and biological substances under code names such as MKULTRA. The new case comes on the heels of an earlier case the firm filed on behalf of veterans afflicted with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (“PTSD”), which is now pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The firm is handling both cases on a pro bono basis.
The current action was brought in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, on behalf of the Vietnam Veterans of America and six aging veterans with multiple diseases and ailments tied to a diabolical and secret testing program, whereby U.S. military personnel were deliberately exposed, by government and military agencies, to chemical and biological weapons and other toxins without informed consent. This multifaceted research program, which was launched in the early 1950s and continued through at least 1976, was conducted not only at the Edgewood Arsenal and Fort Detrick, Maryland, but also across America by universities and hospitals under contract to Defendants.
Defendants include the CIA, the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense (“DoD”), and various government officials responsible for these agencies. The CIA secretly provided financing, personnel, and direction for the experiments, which were mainly conducted or contracted by the Army.
Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief only – no monetary damages – and Plaintiffs seek redress for 25 years of diabolical experiments followed by over 30 years of neglect, including:
- the use of troops to test nerve gas, psychochemicals, and thousands of other toxic chemical or biological substances, and perhaps most gruesomely, the insertion of septal implants in the brains of subjects in a ghastly series of mind control experiments that went awry, leaving many civilian and military subjects with permanent disabilities;
- the failure to secure informed consent and other widespread failures to follow the precepts of U.S. and international law regarding the use of human subjects, including the 1953 Wilson Directive and the Nuremberg Code;
- an almost fanatical refusal by the DoD, the CIA, and the Army to satisfy their legal and moral obligations to locate the victims of their gruesome experiments or to provide health care or compensation to them;
- the deliberate destruction by the CIA of evidence and files documenting its illegal actions, actions which were punctuated by fraud, deception, and a callous disregard for the value of human life.
The Complaint asks the Court to determine that Defendants’ actions were illegal and that Defendants have a duty to notify all victims and to provide them with health care going forward.
According to Gordon P. Erspamer, a litigation partner in Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office, “Until this case is concluded, and all the victims are found and made whole, we cannot put behind us this sad chapter in American history when the government exploited the very citizens, both civilian and military, that it was supposed to protect.”
Vietnam Veterans of America’s President John Rowan commented, “Over 30 years ago, the government promised to locate the victims of the MKULTRA experiments and to take care of their needs. It now is painfully obvious that what it really wants is for the victims to just quietly die off while the government takes baby steps. VVA cannot leave these veterans behind.”
For further information, please contact lead counsel for Plaintiffs, Gordon P. Erspamer, 415-268-6411, GErspamer@mofo.com. Additionally, you may contact the following Plaintiffs: Vietnam Veterans of America, 800-882-1316 (John Rowan, jrowan@vva.org); Eric P. Muth, 203‑874‑4595, emuth@sbcglobal.net; Wray C. Forrest, 719‑635‑9086, FaronYoung2@netscape.com; David Dufrane, 518-546-7870, ddufrane@nycap.rr.com; and Franklin D. Rochelle, 910‑346‑5484. Bruce Price is available by special arrangement with counsel. The complaint can be viewed at http://www.edgewoodtestvets.org/.
Mike Bailey, human testing vehicle veteran seeks the truth.
Below is the text of his letter.
Ham, I entered the US Army by enlisting on October 31, 1973 I went to Basic at Fort Ord, Ca , in January 1974 I went to Fort Polk La, for Infantry AIT in Jan - March 74. In mid March I was assigned to the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington.
I was placed in Company C, 2/47th Infantry 3rd Brigade North Fort Lewis, old WW2 Barracks.
My platoon Sergeant was SFC Crosby and my Squad Leader was a Vietnam Vet named SSG Cierlik. I was assigned as an M79 gunner. In May 1974 we had a notice placed on the company bulletin board asking for volunteers for a 2 month Temporary Duty assignment testing new uniforms and equipment for the battlefield of the future at a base on the East Coast, if we were interested to tell the 1SG and he would make sure we were sent on Wednesday at 1300 to the Main Post Theater for the briefing.
Several men from the battalion volunteered for it, myself and SP4 Raymond Chase volunteered from our platoon, we were in the same squad. We went to the briefing, and we both stayed and filled out the paperwork to volunteer, after hearing that we would only work 4 day weeks, Monday - Thursday, 0800-1200 hours daily unless we were doing a test. We would have every Friday, Saturday and Sunday off and could travel anywhere on the East Coast and would not be restricted to within 50 miles of base, as was normal back then. We would never have KP, Guard duty or any other type duties like CQ or CQ runner, when we were off, we would be off. They would pay us TDY pay of 2 dollars a day and we would also be authorized travel by Privately Owned Automobiles which would give us nine days travel East and back West. 18 days travel plus 35 dollars a day per diem.
Over 200 men volunteered from Fort Lewis that day, they were only accepting ten of us. SP4 Chase and I were both surprised to receive orders on the first of June sending us TDY to Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland on 16 June 1974 with arrival on 25 June 1974. On 13 June 1974 while pulling CQ Runner duty someone slipped a 4 way hit of windowpane LSD in my coke, I awoke the next morning in a padded cell at Madigan Army Medical Center .I was released about 1100 hours to my platoon Sergeant SFC Crosby.
He informed me that they had conducted a health and welfare at 0100 hours on the 14th and found over 1000 hots of LSD in a SP4 's wall locker from our platoon, he admitted putting it in my drink without my knowledge. The Company Commander decided to send me TDY with SP4 Chase leaving on the 16th of June. We left Fort Lewis with a copy of my hospitalization report for the doctors at Edgewood to show the "bad trip".
We arrived at Edgewood Arsenal on the 25th of June, we processed in and there were approximately 30 of us enlisted men in the "med vol" group that would be there from June - August 1974. We were given thorough physicals and mental exams, the most strenous we had ever seen. MMPI exams for mental abilities and problems, all of us had GT scores over 110, on the ASVAB tests we took when we enlisted in the Army.
My inprocessing note had a special note to Dr Van Sim the Chief of the clinic to let him know I had just suffered a "bad trip" and was still having flashbacks, and the interviewer felt I would be a great candidate for all experiments. I was classified as a level A test subject for any and all experiments. I stayed at Edgewood Arsenal until 22 August 1974 when I left to return to Fort Lewis.
I stayed in the Army until September 1982 after serving in Korea on the DMZ, in Germany in the 3rd ID, Fort Gordon teaching basic trainees how to shoot on the BRM team. Sent again to the 9th ID at Fort Lewis in 198o and then was sent to Fort Irwin when they opened the National Training Center where I stayed until I ended my Army service as a Staff Sergeant in September 1982.
I joined the Army National Guard in Georgia in 1988, the 878th Engineer Battalion, until Desert Storm and I volunteered to join the 48the Infantry Brigade when they needed more men for the call to active duty for Desert Storm. I was activated on Nov 30, 1990. I served until May 1991.
Less than a year later I started suffering a series of TIA's and a full blown stroke in April 1992 less than 12 months after discharge. I later learned I should have filed for service connection due to the cardiovascular incident happening within the time line laid out in CFR 38, 3.307 and 3.309. But I had a job at the Post Office and none of the medical personnel told me, nor the people in the National Guard unit.
In Feb 1994 I suffered the first of 7 heart attacks. In Jan 1995 I was still having balance and memory problems and I went to another nuerologist for a second opinion, the one I had seen in April 1992 told me my problems were of a mental nature, which made me mad, I was 36, and had been infantry and a letter carrier my entire life, I weighed about 165 pounds, I did not fit the stroke profile to her. In January the new Doctor ordered an MRI and found a scar in the occipital and pareital lobes of my left brain, which explained the stroke symptoms the year and a half before.
In Feb 1997 I suffered another heart attack at work, the VA doctors admitted me and did an heart cath, I had three blockages, 100%, and 2 at 90% one team wanted to do a triple bypass and another team wanted to do stints. They told me if I did the bypass I would have 15 good years without anymore cardiac problems. I chose to have the bypass on the 17 the of Feb, I had a lot of complications and was not discharged from the VA until late March.
I started to file a VA claim for the cardiac problems then, but the process got so frustrating with the American legion, I gave up in frustration. In the next few years I would regret it. I went back to work at the Post Office where I had a good job and benefits, and I could not see fighting with the VA. I suffered another heart attack in May 1997, August 1997, November 1997, February 1998 (I am beginning to hate February's at this point) and on Father Day 1998 I suffered my final heart attack, I spent three days on a heart pump.
I finally walked away from the Postal Service in frustration in May 2002 and worked at America Online doing Tech support for the next two years. In June 2002 my legs swelled up and I had to buy new pants and shoes for my girlfriends fathers funeral the first week end in June. On Monday she took me to the VA hospital in Augusta. The doctor told me I had congestive heart failure and she scheduled me for a nuclear cat scan in August. The results of that bothered her she had me set up for a heart cath, which they set up in October which is fast for the VA.
They told me on October 22, 2002 that my heart was irrepareable and they could do no more surgery on me, and that I needed to retire from all work. I was on a medicate only regimen for care. They told me to file a Social Security claim and any VA claims I could. My SSD was approved in April, 2003, the VARO in Columbia SC denied my heart claim in July 2003.
In the meantime however I had been diagnosed with PTSD and the doctor said it was very severe, and just my PTSD symptoms alone made me unemployable., regardless of any other medical issues I had. I filed an amended claim in Dec 2003 asking for PTSD, IBS, GERD, psoriasis, 3 herniated disks, I filed a Notice of Disagreement on the cardiac denial. They denied me again. My shrink told me to write President Bush and explain my situation to him, about the chemical weapon and drug experiments at Edgwood Arsenal in 1974 and the stroke within a year of discharge from Desert Storm.
That made the DRO mad at Columbia VA Regional Office, and with the 4 court martials of some of the men who beat me unconscious in Fort wainwright Alaska on Feb 6, 1975 and they robbed me and left me to die in 20 below zero weather. They service connected me for PTSD at 50% and denied the rest of theproblems again. They refused to talk about anything that had to do with the human experiments at Edgewood.
In October 2005 they got caught lying to myself and then Senate VA Chairman Larry Craig that I had taken ill on 10 July 1974 and had been sent back to Fort Lewis, therefore I couldn't have been used in any experiments. I sent Senator Craig a copy of my out processing paperwork from Edgewood Arsenal dated 22 August 1974. On April 3, 2006 I got a letter notfying me that I was 100% P&T for PTSD and they denied my cardiac problems yet again, claiming I signed away my rights to the cardiac claim. I immediately filed another notice of disagreement. Now it is scheduled for a Board of Veteran Appeal Hearing. The VA is not supposed to "play let's make a deal" they are not Monty Python.
Mike Bailey 14 jan 2009
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