Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
What Makes the United States Special
Last week the President released memos issued by the Office of Legal Counsel between 2002 and 2005 as part of an ongoing court case. The memos discussed techniques that were used in the interrogation of terrorism suspects during that period, techniques that President Obama has disavowed. Today the President visited CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia to speak to CIA employees directly. Telling them of his great faith in them, and the faith that the American people have in them, he went on to discuss precisely why he has decided to change interrogation policy for the United States:
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Now, I have put an end to the interrogation techniques described in those OLC memos, and I want to be very clear and very blunt. I've done so for a simple reason: because I believe that our nation is stronger and more secure when we deploy the full measure of both our power and the power of our values –- including the rule of law. I know I can count on you to do exactly that.
There have been some conversations that I've had with senior folks here at Langley in which I think people have expressed understandable anxiety and concern. So I want to make a point that I just made in the smaller group. I understand that it's hard when you are asked to protect the American people against people who have no scruples and would willingly and gladly kill innocents. Al Qaeda is not constrained by a constitution. Many of our adversaries are not constrained by a belief in freedom of speech, or representation in court, or rule of law. I'm sure that sometimes it seems as if that means we're operating with one hand tied behind our back, or that those who would argue for a higher standard are naïve. I understand that. You know, I watch the cable shows once in a while. (Laughter.)
What makes the United States special, and what makes you special, is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and our ideals even when it's hard, not just when it's easy; even when we are afraid and under threat, not just when it's expedient to do so. That's what makes us different.
So, yes, you've got a harder job. And so do I. And that's okay, because that's why we can take such extraordinary pride in being Americans. And over the long term, that is why I believe we will defeat our enemies, because we're on the better side of history.
So don't be discouraged by what's happened in the last few weeks. Don't be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we've made some mistakes. That's how we learn. But the fact that we are willing to acknowledge them and then move forward, that is precisely why I am proud to be President of the United States, and that's why you should be proud to be members of the CIA. (Applause.)
Showing posts with label CIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CIA. Show all posts
Apr 21, 2009
Apr 19, 2009
Sanity
Update: CIA WATERBOARDED KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED 183 TIMES IN ONE MONTH (via Huffington Post)
Two extraordinary pieces in the Sunday Times on rightwing depravity and rightwing stupidity:
From Frank Rich:
Two extraordinary pieces in the Sunday Times on rightwing depravity and rightwing stupidity:
April 19, 2009
Editorial
The Torturers’ Manifesto
To read the four newly released memos on prisoner interrogation written by George W. Bush’s Justice Department is to take a journey into depravity.
Their language is the precise bureaucratese favored by dungeon masters throughout history. They detail how to fashion a collar for slamming a prisoner against a wall, exactly how many days he can be kept without sleep (11), and what, specifically, he should be told before being locked in a box with an insect — all to stop just short of having a jury decide that these acts violate the laws against torture and abusive treatment of prisoners.
In one of the more nauseating passages, Jay Bybee, then an assistant attorney general and now a federal judge, wrote admiringly about a contraption for waterboarding that would lurch a prisoner upright if he stopped breathing while water was poured over his face. He praised the Central Intelligence Agency for having doctors ready to perform an emergency tracheotomy if necessary.
These memos are not an honest attempt to set the legal limits on interrogations, which was the authors’ statutory obligation.
They were written to provide legal immunity for acts that are clearly illegal, immoral and a violation of this country’s most basic values.
It sounds like the plot of a mob film, except the lawyers asking how much their clients can get away with are from the C.I.A. and the lawyers coaching them on how to commit the abuses are from the Justice Department. And it all played out with the blessing of the defense secretary, the attorney general, the intelligence director and,
most likely, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
The Americans Civil Liberties Union deserves credit for suing for the memos’ release. And President Obama deserves credit for overruling his own C.I.A. director and ordering that the memos be made public. It is hard to think of another case in which documents stamped “Top Secret” were released with hardly any deletions. ...
From Frank Rich:
WHAT would happen if you crossed that creepy 1960s horror classic 'The Village of the Damned' with the Broadway staple 'A Chorus Line'? You don’t need to use your imagination. It’s there waiting for you on YouTube under the title 'Gathering Storm': a 60-second ad presenting homosexuality as a national threat second only to terrorism. ...
Far from terrifying anyone, 'Gathering Storm' has become, unsurprisingly, an Internet camp classic. On YouTube the original video must compete with countless homemade parodies it has inspired since first turning up some 10 days ago. None may top Stephen Colbert’s on Thursday night, in which lightning from 'the homo storm' strikes an Arkansas teacher, turning him gay. A 'New Jersey pastor' whose church has been 'turned into an Abercrombie & Fitch' declares that he likes gay people, 'but only as hilarious best friends in TV and movies.' ...
What gives the ad its symbolic significance is not just that it’s idiotic but that its release was the only loud protest anywhere in America to the news that same-sex marriage had been legalized in Iowa and Vermont. If it advances any message, it’s mainly that homophobic activism is ever more depopulated and isolated as well as brain-dead. ...
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Colbert Coalition's Anti-Gay Marriage Ad | ||||
| ||||
Jan 21, 2009
Obama Sends Strong Signal to Veterans
Many, in fact, all Americans were betrayed by the last eight years.
Obama seems in touch with this sentiment. Certainly, his inaugural address did nothing to dissuade from this conclusion.
Yet, the sense of betrayal among veterans is striking under Bush, who actually criminalized in some cases veterans' seeking benefits.
See 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 for another example, though, of the bipartisan enterprise of screwing over our veterans.
But one Vietnam War vet in Milwaukee gained some satisfaction from Obama's inaugural address.
Check his piece out at: http://www.uppitywis.org/obama-vietnam-vets-welcome-home .
It's the best I've read on reactions yet.
- Contact author at: maleon64@yahoo.com
Obama seems in touch with this sentiment. Certainly, his inaugural address did nothing to dissuade from this conclusion.
Yet, the sense of betrayal among veterans is striking under Bush, who actually criminalized in some cases veterans' seeking benefits.
See 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 for another example, though, of the bipartisan enterprise of screwing over our veterans.
But one Vietnam War vet in Milwaukee gained some satisfaction from Obama's inaugural address.
Check his piece out at: http://www.uppitywis.org/obama-vietnam-vets-welcome-home .
It's the best I've read on reactions yet.
- Contact author at: maleon64@yahoo.com
Jan 15, 2009
Vets See Chance for a Victory as Chemical and Biological Weapons Testing Victims
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
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
Dec 30, 2007
NYT: Fear of Exposure to Public Drove Suppression of CIA Torture Tapes
The 2,060 piece in today's New York Times tells the American public the essential story of the truly immoral regime that is the Bush administration.
See SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI's piece that one hopes leads to denunciations across the globe.
Not only did the CIA under Bush torture human beings, but they concealed and destroyed the taped evidence of torture for fear that the American public and Muslims would object. All the time, Bush and his drones blared: "We do not torture."
This contempt for democratic accountability makes the political illegitimacy of the Bush regime plain for all to see. Its contempt for human rights makes the Bush regime war criminals who ought to face trial.
From the Times:
But interviews with two dozen current and former officials, most of whom would speak about the classified program only on the condition of anonymity, revealed new details about why the tapes were made and then eliminated. Their accounts show how political and legal considerations competed with intelligence concerns in the handling of the tapes. ...
The discussion about the tapes took place in Congressional briefings and secret deliberations among top White House lawyers, including a meeting in May 2004 just days after photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had reminded the administration of the power of such images. The debate stretched over the tenure of two C.I.A. chiefs and became entangled in a feud between the agency’s top lawyers and its inspector general. The tapes documented a program so closely guarded that President Bush himself had agreed with the advice of intelligence officials that he not be told the locations of the secret C.I.A. prisons. Had there been no political or security considerations, videotaping every interrogation and preserving the tapes would make sense, according to several intelligence officials. ...
The investigations over the tapes frustrate some C.I.A. veterans, who say they believe that the agency is being unfairly blamed for policies of coercive interrogation approved at the top of the Bush administration and by some Congressional leaders. Intelligence officers are divided over the use of such methods as waterboarding.
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See SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI's piece that one hopes leads to denunciations across the globe.
Not only did the CIA under Bush torture human beings, but they concealed and destroyed the taped evidence of torture for fear that the American public and Muslims would object. All the time, Bush and his drones blared: "We do not torture."
This contempt for democratic accountability makes the political illegitimacy of the Bush regime plain for all to see. Its contempt for human rights makes the Bush regime war criminals who ought to face trial.
From the Times:
But interviews with two dozen current and former officials, most of whom would speak about the classified program only on the condition of anonymity, revealed new details about why the tapes were made and then eliminated. Their accounts show how political and legal considerations competed with intelligence concerns in the handling of the tapes. ...
The discussion about the tapes took place in Congressional briefings and secret deliberations among top White House lawyers, including a meeting in May 2004 just days after photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had reminded the administration of the power of such images. The debate stretched over the tenure of two C.I.A. chiefs and became entangled in a feud between the agency’s top lawyers and its inspector general. The tapes documented a program so closely guarded that President Bush himself had agreed with the advice of intelligence officials that he not be told the locations of the secret C.I.A. prisons. Had there been no political or security considerations, videotaping every interrogation and preserving the tapes would make sense, according to several intelligence officials. ...
The investigations over the tapes frustrate some C.I.A. veterans, who say they believe that the agency is being unfairly blamed for policies of coercive interrogation approved at the top of the Bush administration and by some Congressional leaders. Intelligence officers are divided over the use of such methods as waterboarding.
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Dec 19, 2007
White House Reeling from Torture Tape NYT Story
Update: The Hill reports, "Catherine Mathis, senior vice president of corporate communications for the newspaper, stated that the sub-headline [reading “White House Role Was Wider Than It Said” ] has been changed, adding that a correction would be printed. However, Mathis also pointed out that the White House did not challenge the contents of the article."
The White House is fighting against the latest scandal involving the destruction of the CIA torture tapes and White House lying about its knowledge of the destruction.
The Statement by the Press Secretary says the NYT story is "pernicious and troubling..."
Reads the NYT story:
The White House is fighting against the latest scandal involving the destruction of the CIA torture tapes and White House lying about its knowledge of the destruction.
The Statement by the Press Secretary says the NYT story is "pernicious and troubling..."
Reads the NYT story:
WASHINGTON — At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials.
The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.
Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel.
It was previously reported that some administration officials had advised against destroying the tapes, but the emerging picture of White House involvement is more complex. In interviews, several administration and intelligence officials provided conflicting accounts as to whether anyone at the White House expressed support for the idea that the tapes should be destroyed.
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Dec 6, 2007
Obstruction of Justice at the CIA
Scott Horton at Harper's has a piece out reviewing the latest outrage from the Bush administration.
Outrageous contempt for the American public is the norm from this regime that has no legitimacy in any serious democratic ethos.
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Outrageous contempt for the American public is the norm from this regime that has no legitimacy in any serious democratic ethos.
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