The Edgewood Test vets again are waiting for a judge to decide if the case againts the CIA, the Army and the Department of Defense will be allowed to continue, or will the Judge grant the DOJ lawyers request to dismiss this case.
Why is this case important, as one of the veterans used in it, I feel it is about time the "truth" is told about the program, and that the government accept responsibility for the medical harm caused to the soldiers used in these experiments. In all 254 different substances ranging from Sarin Gas, Mustard Gas, BZ, LSD, peyote, ecstacy, scoplomine, and many unknown substances. The government claims the tests were harmless, yet the last health study compiled in FY 2000 as part of a Gulf War study shows that 75% of the Edgewood veterans are either dead or disabled. These men would have been aged 45-65 in the year 2000, the percentage of dead and disabled far exceed any "normal" averages.
These are the main basis for their Affirmative Defense:
First Affirmative Defense
The court lacks subject matter jurisdiction
Second Affirmative Defense
The second amended complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
Third Affirmative Defense
Plaintiffs are barred from asserting any causes of action by virtue of the applicable statute of limitations.
Fourth Affirmative Defense
Plaintiffs are barred from asserting any causes of action by virtue of their consent to the alleged acts or conditions.
The March 17, 2010 Court Filing PDF
On page 23 they assert the "state secrets privilege" to allegations about the CIA involvement with research organizations during the Cold War period of the human experimentation. Why after more than 45 years ago when MKULTRA was supposedly stopped in 1963, other drugs and chemical weapons under other code names continued, Project OFTEN dealt with BZ gas and was extensively tested.
They then ask the Judge to dismiss this lawsuit and asks the court to make the plaintiffs pay and all costs the court deems proper.
What the government wants to do is again bury the cold war experiments as a closed chapter of American history. Despite the fact they have thousands of disabled veterans still alive that are being denied veteran benefits because of the denial of harm.
What really shocked me in this filing was the lawyers bring up the death of Dr Frank Olson who was killed in Nov 1953, they again assert that he jumped out of his hotel room in New York.
Meeting with President Gerald Ford in the Oval Office of the White House.
July 21, 75: President Ford apologizes to the family and promises to support release of all relevant information from the CIA and an appropriate financial settlement.
The Frank Olson Project
Lunch with William Colby in his seventh floor office at the CIA.
August, 75: My sister Lisa, brother Nils, our two attorneys and I meet CIA Director William Colby for lunch in his seventh floor office at the CIA to receive a CIA apology and a file of documents which Colby claims represents the complete file on the death of Frank Olson. I spend much of the lunch arguing with Colby— who served as chief of the Project Phoenix which was allegedly responsible for the deaths of twenty thousand Vietnamese—about the Vietnam war. In the weeks and months to follow I find the documents given to us by Colby completely baffling. For a decade I continue to study these documents, finally concluding from the many sorts of discrepancies they contain that we have been given a false file. I conclude that the file we have been given is one that was prepared to conceal the true story of my father’s death within the CIA
In a new book A Terrible Mistake by Hank Albarelli Jr. he explores the life and death of Frank Olson and the experiments that continued after he died.
Given that the Olson Family had Frank Olson exhumed and the District Attorney of New York issued this memorandum about the case and he opened a murder investigation into the death, for the DOJ lawyers to assert suicide is ridiculous at this date. If they are willing to misrepresent Frank Olsons death in this court filing what else are they misrepresenting?
Robert M. Morgenthau
Fourth, there is reasonable cause for a criminal investigation: In the summer of 1994 Dr. Olson’s body was exhumed by James Starrs, Professor of Law and Forensic Science at the National Law Center at George Washington University, and a diverse team of scientists assembled by Professor Starrs. No cuts or abrasions were found on Dr. Olson’s face and neck, or the front of his legs, by Professor Starrs’ investigative team. Medical experts expect such injuries as a result of plunging through a closed glass window, and, in fact, the medical examiner’s report done in New York immediately after the death specifically mentions having found such injuries on the body.
On the basis of the combined results of his team’s scientific and non-scientific investigations, Professor Starrs concluded that the facts in this case are "rankly and starkly suggestive of homicide" and recommended that the case be re-opened.
Professor Starrs suspects homicide as the cause from another angle. The cumulative effect of the following makes suicide highly improbable: (i) the small dimensions of the room may prove it impossible for an individual to gain enough speed for a vault to clear the radiator, smash through a pulled shade and a closed window and still have enough momentum to exit from the window; (ii) the darkness when the alleged vault occurred; and (iii) Lashbrook’s not being awakened by the effort required to gain enough speed to vault through the window. In fact, the forensics investigator plans to conduct research on this theory by testing the glass and conducting experiments to see if such a vault is even possible.
There is, as this Memorandum and supporting documents make clear, reasonable cause to begin a criminal investigation into a possible murder. The fact that this (possible or alleged) murder was most likely committed by government agents who believed they were authorized to do so does not make it any less a crime. In fact, it makes it even more necessary to seek the truth and, if necessary, indictments.
These are all facts and documented, why doesn't the government want to help the veterans and the families of the deceased veterans used in these experiments, what happened to the "PROMISE" of taking care of those injured or killed while in military service.
One little point there is a major difference between "consent" and "informed consent" if you are not told of all of the aspects of what you are doing and who is doing it, then the "informed" part is neglected and in my opinion nullifies their claim that we consented to these experiments, we were told we were testing new uniforms and combat equipment for the battlefield of the future, there was no mention of drugs and chemical weapons when they recruited us for the tests. The bribes they offered or as others call them incentives were to good to be true.