Many of you know that I am one of these veterans, there are many veterans that were used in "experimental programs" Operation SHAD/112 (the veterans used in this program were never told at all that they were being used as "test subjects", they used the entire ships and crew) Operation White Coat were biological experiments conducted at Fort Detrick from 1955 thru 1972 when the US signed the BTWC Treaty and ended human experiments in the eight ball the volunteers at Fort Detrick were commoningly Seventh Day Adventist who objected to combat duty as part of their faith, but most of them became medics, many of these men despite being allowed to pick any duty station anywhere after the completion of this volunteer duty, picked Vietnam as their duty stations and went as medics, they would not shoot anyone but they would save lives.
The men at Edgewood Arsenal signed "consent forms" the day we arrived there, it was a blanket consent that covered the entire 60 day TDY assignment. However we were never given "informed consent" and we were lied to from the very beginning. They say for every volunteer they accepted they had 200 volunteers, so they had the "pick of the litter" as they say.
The soldiers they accepted had high GT scores, were all in excellent health, and primarily in the ages of 18-22, at the time they were selected for the "med vol" program. We were told we would be testing new field equipment, gas masks, new uniforms, new boots, etc, the equipment of the battlefields of the future. We were told that the tests we would be participating in would help save the lives of tens of thousands of future soldiers.
They never told us of the dark side of anything, possible death, injury etc, they instead told us the tests were prefectly safe, so safe that they would not even do any type of follow up medical studies. They didn't tell us the real reason there would be no follow up medical studies, there was NO funding from either the CIA or DOD for the Army to follow us.
What they did not tell us, is the fact that no matter where we moved to or what type of jobs we took, that they would find us when ever they wanted to. I once got a letter, back in the 80s about Edgewood Arsenal and they wanted me to answer a bunch of questions. Since I did not know who sent it, and the Army promised me 25 years in leavenworth for a violation of the National Security Acts for even mentioning the experiments to anyone, I tossed the letter in the trash.
About 2 weeks later 2 men from the FBI showed up at my door and gave me 2 choices fill out the questionairre then and there or I could go to Los Angeles with them, where I would still fill it out. The results of this data was used to publish a report titled "Veterans at Risk" 1993 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
In 2000 they contacted the surviving veterans again for another medical study this one was for Gulf War veterans about exposure to Sarin, it was published in March 2003, again by the IOM.
Last year some of the "test vets" found a lawyer, Gordon Erspamer who filed this Vietnam Veterans of America, et al. v. Central Intelligence Agency, et al.
This press release came out yesterday" despite the best efforts of the lawyers for the CIA, DOD and the DOJ throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the lawyers, the Federal Judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit, it is proceeding to trial, and the veterans abused and then ignored for the past 40 years will finally get their day in court, we WILL be heard.
January 20, 2010
Morrison & Foerster Secures Victory for Troops Exposed to Chemical and Biological Weapons Testing in Case Against the U.S. Government
01/20/2010
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SAN FRANCISCO (January 20, 2010) – Morrison & Foerster yesterday won the right to proceed with a case against the CIA, the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Army, filed on behalf of veterans rights organizations Vietnam Veterans of America and Swords to Plowshares, along with six veterans with multiple diseases and ailments, tied to a secret testing program in which U.S. military personnel were deliberately exposed to chemical and biological weapons and other toxins without informed consent. Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief that would free them from their secrecy oaths and grant them healthcare that they were promised.
On January 19, 2010, Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, issued an order that overruled the government’s main arguments to dismiss the case, which were based upon lack of jurisdiction, failure to state a claim for relief, statute of limitations, sovereign immunity, and standing.
"The victory obtained for us by our attorneys at Morrison & Foerster finally gives us a chance to redress one of the unfortunate decisions that has made veterans second class citizens," said Paul Cox, Board of Directors Member at Swords to Plowshares.
The court also dismissed a direct challenge to the Feres doctrine, which is an exception to the waiver of sovereign immunity that was created by the Supreme Court during the Cold War. According to Rick Weidman, Executive Director for Policy and Government Affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America, "the government became immune to damages suits by military veterans after Feres so the use of soldiers became cheaper than using guinea pigs."
The human experimentation program launched in the early 1950s and continued through at least 1976 when it was suspended in response to hearings conducted by Congress. Thousands of experiments took place at the Edgewood Arsenal and Fort Detrick, as well as several universities and hospitals across America contracted by the Defendants. "Volunteers" were exposed to thousands of toxins under code names such as MKULTRA, including drugs such as LSD, mescaline, and cannabis; biological substances such as plague and anthrax; and noxious gases such as sarin, tabun, and nerve gases.
"The government has long reconciled its war prosecutions and reliance on international treaties with secret actions on its part. As the case moves forward, perhaps we will finally learn an answer to why our vets were made victims at Edgewood," said Michael Blecker, Executive Director at Swords to Plowshares.
Morrison & Foerster Senior Counsel Gordon Erspamer is the lead attorney representing the veterans, along with partner Timothy Blakely and associates Stacey Sprenkel, Adriano Hrvatin, Tim Reed, and Jonathan McFarland. The case came on the heels of an earlier case the firm filed on behalf of veterans afflicted with Post-Traumatic Distress Disorder, which is now pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The firm is handling both cases pro bono.
These are also the same lawyers that beat the government last year in the PTSD lawsuit and made them look silly on the stand.