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   Thompson veterans bill prompts hearing
St. Helena (Calif.) Star - Thursday July 03, 2008
Legislation introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena to help veterans who were unknowingly tested with chemical and biological weapons in the 1960s and 70s, recently prompted a House of Representatives subcommittee meeting.

The House Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs held a hearing on a bill introduced by Thompson and Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., that would give these veterans health benefits and compensation for illnesses resulting from Project 112 weapons tests. In a statement, Thompson said he hopes the hearing will ultimately push his bill toward consideration by the House.

Project 112, which included ship-based Project SHAD, was conducted between 1963 and 1973 by the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. The DoD now admits that during these projects, unknowing military personnel were involved a number of chemical weapon tests, such as VX nerve gas and Sarin nerve gas and were exposed to biological weapons such as E. coli, tularemia (rabbit fever), and Q fever.
   Float trip benefits vets
by John O'Connell - Idaho Statesman Journal - Sunday October 28, 2007
Over eggs and pancakes inside the diner, the veterans traded stories about brown trout, chemical weapons and life after war. The six men ignored the freezing rain falling intermittently outside of The Angus restaurant on that bitter and gray Saturday morning. For the sake of catching fish in blue ribbon trout waters and visiting with people who could empathize, they were eager to brave the elements during a six-hour float trip on the South Fork of the Snake River. 'You know they say, 'No pain, no gain.' My motto is, 'No pain, no pain.'' 'I was supposed to get my clothing allowance in 10 days and it still hasn't come yet. Vance didn't even know he could get a clothing allowance.' 'You know where all the fish are Mike?' -- Advertisement -- 'Were you in an area of Vietnam that was sprayed? If you were, it's automatic. You're automatically 100 percent (disabled) for Agent Orange.' The day's fishing trip was organized by Vance Wasden, a local disabled veteran who's convinced landing the big one can be therapeutic. Wasden found a willing partner to help organize float trips for disabled veterans from throughout the West in river guide and outfitter Larry Larsen, of Pocatello. Sponsors to support the trips have proven to be as plentiful as native trout in the South Fork. Several more trips are already in the works. 'The whole point of this is there is life after disability, and there's still something to look forward to,' Wasden said. The cast of characters assembled at the diner included a father-son team from Utah, a veteran who drove 18 hours from California for the trip, a commander with Disabled American Veterans in Pocatello, a former Utah National Guard medic who returned from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder and Wasden. There were also several event organizers on hand, all of whom the veterans thanked frequently for providing them the opportunity to go fishing on a cold and snowy morning. The man who spearheaded the outing, Wasden, served three tours in the Persian Gulf and finished his most recent tour of duty in 1998. He wasn't injured in combat. Rather, the health problems that have rendered him 100 percent disabled are the result of a dose of outdated anthrax vaccine given to him by the U.S. military. His festering ailments have resulted in near amputations of his limbs. He's easily tired, has trouble walking, and has coped with internal bleeding, seizures and other health problems. The southpaw now casts a fly rod with his right hand because his left arm has a limited range of motion. Wasden spent two years restricted to a wheelchair due to the bad vaccine and made a promise to himself during that time that if he could ever walk again, he'd show other disabled veterans that no medicine works quite like the combination of dry flies and rising fish. With help from Larsen, a guide with Black Dog Outfitters and owner of the Guide Shack in Swan Valley, Wasden and a half dozen other disabled veterans made the inaugural float trip in April of an organization that now calls itself Accessible Anglers. Though fly fishing is the bait to lure veterans to Accessible Anglers events, it's the camaraderie that participants typically agree makes the trips memorable. For example, Wasden got to meet Charles Robey of Barstow, Calif. Robey is a man who understands all too well the ordeal that Wasden endures on a daily basis. Robey, too, had his health ruined by a bad dose of anthrax vaccine. He heard about Wasden and the trip through his involvement with Protecting Our Guardians, an organization that's been working to put an end to anthrax vaccinations. Robert Dawson is a member of the American Legion Post 4 based in Pocatello, which donated $300 for the trip. Dawson is also commander of both the local Veterans of Foreign War and the DAV. 'It helps to heal the mind,' said Dawson, a Vietnam veteran. 'I'm glad to get out and do things and enjoy nature right now.' The father-son team, Mike and Matt Johnson, engaged in some good-natured trash talking at the breakfast table. The elder Johnson, Mike, lost both legs below his knees when a booby trap detonated in Vietnam in January of 1968. 'I hope it's one of those memorable things - to heck with the father and son team,' Mike said, before proclaiming a mock news headline: 'The dad just whipped his son's ass on the fishing!' Mike teaches high school health class and coaches girls' basketball at Riverton High School in Riverton, Utah. Mike's father-in-law heard about the trip and thought it would be a perfect fit. 'They started talking about fishing and hunting, and he mentioned he had a son-in-law who was in a wheelchair from Vietnam who liked to hunt and fish and didn't get out much,' Mike said. 'I haven't done much this year at all.' His son Matt, a Salt Lake Community College student studying computer science, returned from Iraq in August 2006. Matt served as a machine gunner with the renowned Marine Corps 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, the most decorated Marine Corps infantry battalion. 'That's a different feeling, knowing sort of what they're going through, and yet it's different,' Mike said. 'My big deal was getting worried about him getting hurt real bad. We were glad to see him back pretty much whole.' Matt's first order of business upon returning from Iraq was to unwind in Alaska on a 10-day fishing trip financed by his deployment money. The Johnson family spent 10 years living in Alaska, and Mike is the first one to admit, 'In Alaska, if you want to catch a red salmon, you send Matt.' Mike had been anticipating the trip for weeks and figured snow and rain would surface when the date finally arrived. Then again, he'd already made up his mind to have fun despite the elements. 'It doesn't make any difference,' Mike said as he finished his breakfast. 'I don't think the fish care. We've seen some bad weather but caught some big fish.' At the hotel the previous night - the Shilo Inn in Idaho Falls offered the veterans free rooms - Matt was pleased to hear talk from organizers about the event growing in the future. 'This kind of stuff is therapeutic, even if it's just a short moment, it's a big deal,' Matt said. Laughing, Mike added to his son's comments while holding his hands about 3 feet apart: 'I hope to have a moment like that. I want it to be like that big.' Three guides with South Fork Outfitters in Swan Valley and one other guide with Black Dog also lent their services for the trip. Some of the boats for the outing were provided by Freestone Boat Works, which operates out of Larsen's fly shop, the Guide Shack. The partners who run Freestone, Bart and Shawn Stolworthy and Dave Page, are designing a prototype for a handicapped accessible drift boat. If it works as hoped, they'll build more. The float Standing on a muddy bank while the guides prepared their drift boats, Warren Price, of Saratoga Springs, Utah, was eager to launch and make his first casts with a fly rod. 'I've never fly fished in my life. I've lure fished and bait fished,' Price said. 'Everybody tells me about it and says, 'You'll never go back.'' Price, a financial planner by trade, spent a decade serving as a medic with the Army National Guard. He went to Iraq by choice, volunteering in 2003 to fill in for a pregnant medic with another unit. That unit, the 116th Engineering Company based in Spanish Fork, Utah, was charged with repairing roads. When Price returned from his deployment two years later, he had trouble holding a job for any length of time due to the mental toll of living in a war zone. He's since written a children's book explaining in simple terms why Daddy may seem somewhat changed when he comes home from Iraq. 'I went over there thinking of all the John Wayne movies and all of the Band of Brothers stuff. It was a little bit different,' Price said. 'I came back messed up. I'm disabled now from post traumatic stress - not that I regret going because I know what I did was right.' Price's wife, Marnee, a childhood friend of Wasden's, encouraged her husband to join the float trip, convinced he would benefit from the relaxing experience and the company of other veterans. He jumped at the chance for a wife-sanctioned fishing trip. 'It is therapeutic,' Price said about fishing. 'I've also started sculpting since I came back. You can really focus on getting some bad juju out when you're working with your hands.' Under the expert tutelage of guide Sue Talbot, of Idaho Falls, Price had favorable odds on his first attempt at a new sport. Talbot, of South Fork Outfitters, once led Vice President Dick Cheney on a Snake River float trip, back when he was still secretary of defense. In 2006, Talbot guided the boat of anglers that scored the highest point total in the history of the high-profile Jackson One Fly competition. Fishing ends for participants once they lose their first fly. By winter, Talbot and her husband, also a guide, head to Florida, where she's the sole female guide working the flats on the lower Florida Keys. In a drift boat with rods rigged with both wet and dry flies, Price and Talbot launched from a privately owned bank along a shallow inlet. A light snow fell as Talbot stroked the drift boat toward the South Fork's main channel. Many of the cottonwoods lining the banks on the gray afternoon were already bare. The remaining leaves were golden brown. The bundled-up veterans had the river to themselves. On a pleasant summer day, Talbot is accustomed to sharing any given stretch with as many as 15 boats of anglers - not that a crowd matters much on a river as productive as the South Fork to a guide who knows every bend and riffle. 'This river is such a good river to fish,' Talbot said as she paddled toward the far bank. 'It's good all year round. It's really a fun river to guide.' Upon reaching 'good' water, Talbot threw the anchor to give Price a quick lesson. She first showed him how to stand up and fish with his legs secured within a padded platform designed to offer anglers support. Next, she demonstrated the proper fly-fishing cast and instructed Price to 'mend' his line. Mending, Talbot explained, involves flipping the floating fly line upstream or downstream upon casting to give the fly a more natural looking float. Call it beginner's luck, but Price's line was bent with the weight of a good-sized mountain white fish after his very first cast. 'Oh! I've got one! Oh!' Price said triumphantly. 'Keep your rod tip up,' Talbot advised as he wrangled with the native fish. Before Price could real it in, the fish slipped off. But it took only a few more casts before his fly rod was bent again. This time, Price landed a 16-inch white fish. 'You can feel it,' Price said after releasing the white fish, amazed at the difference between catching a fish on a fly versus a spinner or bait. As the boat continued to drift, Talbot pointed out a riffle and a line of foam, which she explained was likely carrying food to eager trout. After casting as directed, Price landed a smaller white fish. During the few ensuing casts, he had something really big hooked. Though Price worked to force the lunker to the surface, it wouldn't budge. After a struggle that persisted for about a minute, the fish slipped off. By this time, the sky was dumping quarter-sized snowflakes. As the boat slowly drifted on, Talbot spotted a small mink perched atop a pile of rocks on the bank. A few minutes later, a large, brown object resembling a log motored across the river a few yards upstream. 'Look at that beaver! He's going to smack his tail,' Talbot predicted. On cue, the animal whacked the water in disgust and dove beneath the surface, a performance Talbot had witnessed countless times before. The setting resembled a scene from within a snowglobe when Talbot docked the drift boat on a small island overlooking the so-called 'bathtub.' It's a pool of deep water at the base of the trademark Falls Creek Falls, where several rivulets of water cascade down a sheer, rock terrace surrounded by golden cottonwoods. All around the island, the fish were attacking a hatch of blue-winged olive flies. Price made a few casts with the matching dry fly and pulled in a pan-sized trout, followed by a big white fish. When the fishing slowed down and the snow storm let up, Talbot's boat joined the rest of the group for a late lunch around a campfire, where the veterans and their guides watched a bald eagle circling in a thermal above them. Everyone at the campfire reported success. Even Robey, who'd fallen into the river while stepping out of his boat and was drying his wardrobe by the campfire, couldn't suppress a grin when he told the others about the large cutthroat he'd landed. Mike took home bragging rights over his son - the elder Johnson landed three good fish and hooked a few whoppers that got away. Wasden's list included the largest rainbow he'd ever caught on a dry fly, the largest white fish he'd ever caught in his life and a 20-inch cutthroat. Not to be outdone by his old man, Wasden's 12-year-old son, Cody, lost count of all the rainbows, browns and white fish he'd reeled in throughout the day. After lunch, the snow had subsided and the anglers floated for a final hour. Price hooked one last trout. It fought like a beast and eventually got away. It was twilight at the end of a cold and gray day, and Talbot was busy strapping her drift boat to a trailer. Price silently studied the water - medicine for a medic. There's no place for stress on the river, even on a dreary afternoon. 'I think I have a new favorite sport,' he said.
   *The Sunshine Project: Anthrax and Tularemia Bioweapons Bungling in Texas commentary follows
UN Observer - Saturday September 08, 2007
On April 13th of this year, workers at a Houston, Texas biodefense lab were exposed to aerosolized anthrax [spores]. Just down the road in San Antonio and only a day before (April 12th), workers entered a tularemia lab to inspect malfunctioning air filters without wearing gloves or any respiratory protection. The incidents come on the heels of major safety and security violations at Texas A&M University, a US Department of Homeland Security biodefense Center of Excellence. Are the recent lab accidents in Texas a streak of terribly bad luck, or is something else going on? [...A]ccidents are popping up everywhere. Reality is that lab workers and university professors screw up like the rest of us, says Sunshine Project Director Edward Hammond. The lack of public accident reports never indicated an absence of accidents, rather, it has reflected a pervasive cover-up culture, a problem that has been dangerously exacerbated by the mushrooming biodefense program. Hammond continues, What we are witnessing in Texas is not bad luck, it is the crumbling of the biodefense lobby's safety fa￧ade.

Commentary:
Emphasis added - editor.
   Mom of dead soldier seeks better screening
by Glenn Adams - Associated Press/Army TImes - Sunday May 20, 2007
AUGUSTA, Maine  Barbara Damon-Day, the mother of a Maine Army National Guard captain who died of unexplained causes while serving in Afghanistan, has been on a mission of her own.

Carrying a thick notebook filled with information about soldiers health issues  and pictures of her son, Capt. Patrick Damon  Damon-Day worked the halls of the state House to line up support for legislation inspired by her sons mysterious death last June.

The father of two collapsed after a recreational run in Bagram, his wife, Hildi Halley, said at the time. Damon-Day believes it was related to the extensive series of vaccinations soldiers undergo before deployment, and perhaps how the vaccinations interacted with each other.
   Day Honored for Commitment to Reduce Non-Combat Deaths commentary follows
by Judi Finn - Lincoln County (Maine) News - Wednesday May 09, 2007
Eleven months after her son Capt. Patrick Damon, 41, died in Afghanistan where he served in the Maine National Guard, Barbara Damon Day of Newcastle had a proud and bittersweet moment of triumph on Friday, when she stood side by side with the Governor to announce groundbreaking legislation meant to protect those who serve their country in the military.

At a press conference with veterans and state officials, LD1889, An Act to Protect the Lives and Health of Members of the Maine National Guard, was formally introduced as an emergency bill by Gov. John Baldacci at the State House in the Hall of Flags. Supporting LD1899 are 155 legislative sponsors, rarely seen on any bill.

Commentary:
Further quote: When he died in Afghanistan last June 15th, it was reported that he died of a heart attack, Day said. Addressing the media she said, I implore you to correct the record once and for all. One thing the autopsy did show is that Capt. Pat Damon did not die of a heart attack.

Wearing her sons dog tags and only losing her composure once, Day said the Vaccine Healthcare Center at Walter Reed is still looking at Damons death as possibly vaccine related. She said, While the military lists Pats death as sudden unexpected I call it prolonged and preventable and have photos to back it up.

On the day he was deployed to Afghanistan, Jan. 25, 2006, Damon said goodbye to his wife and two children with a swollen face. In a photo taken July 12, 1999, after receiving eight vaccinations against eight diseases and a TB test, his face also shows swelling. A photo of him with Colwell in 2003 as a healthy man is a remarkable cont Patrick Damon rast. Day believes her son died as a result of reactions to vaccines and medications.
   Navy vet at home after heart transplant
by Donna Wright - Bradenton Herald (Florida) - Friday April 27, 2007
Navy vet Andrew Spehr left Tampa General Hospital on Thursday with a new heart and two notebooks full of ideas of things he wants to do now that he has a new lease on life. Spehr arrived home at 2:30 p.m. after a stop at Applebee's restaurant to pick up a New York strip steak dinner with mashed potatoes and asparagus. &Spehr suffered from congestive heart failure he and his doctors believe may have been caused by an adverse reaction to a smallpox vaccine required by the Navy just shortly before his Sept. 5 discharged. Without a heart transplant, the Navy vet would have died, his doctors said. They discovered his heart was three times its normal size when they removed it to implant the new heart.
   Useful Links
Medical News Today - Friday April 20, 2007
Vical Incorporated (Nasdaq: VICL) announced today that the company has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC), a biomedical research organization within the U.S. Navy, to explore the use of Vical's novel Vaxfectin(TM) adjuvant with experimental DNA vaccines against malaria. Vaxfectin(TM) is a cationic lipid/co-lipid formulation designed to increase the immune response to vaccines.

The company holds patents in the United States and Europe covering a new class of adjuvants including Vaxfectin(TM) and their use with DNA vaccines, as well as patents in the United States covering the use of Vaxfectin(TM) with conventional vaccines based on proteins, polypeptides, and polysaccharides, including those containing all or part of a bacterial or viral pathogen. Vical has provided Vaxfectin(TM) to academic researchers for several years, and data have been published showing evidence of increased immunogenicity and/or protective efficacy of DNA vaccines against diseases including anthrax (Vical), tuberculosis (Pasteur Institute of Brussels), HIV (UC-San Francisco), Japanese Encephalitis Virus (Kobe U. School of Medicine), influenza (Vical), and malaria (NMRC) in animal models ranging from mice to non-human primates.

"We expect initial human testing of a Vaxfectin(TM)-formulated DNA vaccine to begin in the second half of 2007 in our pandemic influenza program," said Vijay B. Samant, Vical's President and Chief Executive Officer, "potentially paving the way for other applications to advance into clinical-stage development. We believe the potential of this new class of adjuvants is quite broad, including DNA vaccines and conventional vaccines against infectious diseases or cancer. We are especially pleased to expand our collaboration with the U.S. Navy on the malaria vaccine development program with the Vaxfectin(TM) adjuvant."
   Researchers tested pot, LSD on Army volunteers commentary follows
by Richard Willing - USA Today - Friday April 06, 2007
Army doctors gave soldier volunteers synthetic marijuana, LSD and two dozen other psychoactive drugs during experiments aimed at developing chemical weapons that could incapacitate enemy soldiers, a psychiatrist who performed the research says in a new memoir.

The program, which ran at the Army's Edgewood, Md., arsenal from 1955 until about 1972, concluded that counterculture staples such as acid and pot were either too unpredictable or too mellow to be useful as weapons, psychiatrist James Ketchum said in an interview.

Commentary:
It is important to note that in the many, many cases of deliberate medical experiments on members of the armed services, many of the volunteers were actually under orders, and were provided no rights of informed consent. Such is once again the case with the anthrax vaccine.
   Army bases among first to give new HPV vaccine
by Jennifer H. Svan, - Stars and Stripes - Friday March 23, 2007
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan  Dependents at U.S. Army bases in the Pacific are among the first in the region to have the option of getting a controversial vaccine touted for its effectiveness against cervical cancer.

The B.G. Crawford F. Sams U.S. Army Health Clinic at Camp Zama has administered about 23 doses of the human papillomavirus vaccine, or HPV, since receiving an initial shipment in February, according to Ed Roper, director of host nation relations and public affairs for U.S. Army Garrison Japan.
   Army surgeon general ousted amid Walter Reed scandal commentary follows
CNN.com - Monday March 12, 2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley has lost his job as Army surgeon general, another casualty of the care scandal at Walter Reed Medical Center.

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren asked for Kiley's resignation, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates approved the action, a senior Pentagon official said.

In its official announcement, the Army said Kiley had requested retirement.
Kiley had been made temporary head of Walter Reed, the Army's top hospital, after Army Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman was ousted in the wake of a series in The Washington Post that found soldiers living in deplorable conditions.

However, he was quickly replaced by Gen. Eric Schoomaker amid criticism that Kiley, who was head of Walter Reed from 2000 to 2004, had been aware of the problems at the facility.

Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey, who had placed Kiley in temporary command of Walter Reed, resigned March 2 in wake of the scandal.

Kiley, who was also commanding general of Army Medical Command, submitted his request to retire on Sunday, the Army said in a news release.

Commentary:
Editor's Note: I realize there's not much on this web site concerning the scandals at Walter Reed, but the only thing that is news to those in the anti-anthrax vaccine movement is that the public is finally aware of this. We've known for years that vets have enormous trouble getting the military to admit that there are illnesses and conditions direclty connected to the anthrax vaccine and other military vaccines; we've seen vets lose their jobs, their homes, their cars - and we've seen marriages break under the strain. It's a reality we've sadly come to expect. Regardless, the fact that heads are rolling may be the harbinger of good changes - we can only pray. But if you read the press section opposite, you'll see our troops have been considered disposable since the beginning. Support our troops? Not likely - not as long as people think magnets on their cars or yellow ribbons on tress will do it.
   'It Is Just Not Walter Reed'
by Anne Hull and Dana Priest - Washington Post - Monday March 05, 2007
Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville, Calif., to wrestle with his feelings. He didn't know a single soldier at Walter Reed, but he felt he knew them all. He worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well. His own VA hospital in Livermore was a mess. The gown he wore was torn. The wheelchairs were old and broken. "It is just not Walter Reed," Oliva slowly tapped out on his keyboard at 4:23 in the afternoon on Friday. "The VA hospitals are not good either except for the staff who work so hard. It brings tears to my eyes when I see my brothers and sisters having to deal with these conditions. I am 70 years old, some say older than dirt but when I am with my brothers and sisters we become one and are made whole again."

Oliva is but one quaking voice in a vast outpouring of accounts filled with emotion and anger about the mistreatment of wounded outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, their family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working inside the system. They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in New Jersey. They tell stories -- their own versions, not verified -- of callous responses to combat stress and a system ill equipped to handle another generation of psychologically scarred vets.
   General Is Fired Over Conditions at Walter Reed
by David S. Cloud - New York Times - Thursday March 01, 2007
WASHINGTON, March 1  The two-star general in charge of Walter Reed Army Medical Center was relieved of command on Thursday, following disclosures that wounded soldiers being treated as outpatients were living in dilapidated quarters and enduring long waits for treatment.

Back Story With The Times's David S. Cloud (mp3)Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, a physician and a graduate of West Point, was fired because Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey had lost trust and confidence in his ability to make improvements in outpatient care at Walter Reed, the Army said in a brief statement.

The revelations about conditions at the hospital, one of the Armys best known and busiest centers for treating soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, have embarrassed the Army and prompted two investigations, several Congressional inquiries and a rush to clean up the accommodations for outpatients, where residents lived with mold on the walls, stained carpets and other problems.
   Critics: Army holding down disability ratings
by Kelly Kennedy - Army Times - Monday February 26, 2007
The Army is deliberately shortchanging troops on their disability retirement ratings to hold down costs, according to veterans advocates, lawyers and services members, and the Inspector General has identified 87 problems in the system that need fixing.

These people are being systematically underrated, said Ron Smith, deputy general counsel for Disabled American Veterans. Its a bureaucratic game to preserve the budget, and its having an adverse affect on service members.

The numbers of people approved for permanent or temporary disability retirement in the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force have stayed relatively stable since 2001.

But in the Army  in the midst of a war  the number of soldiers approved for permanent disability retirement has plunged by more than two-thirds, from 642 in 2001 to 209 in 2005, according to a Government Accountability Office report last year. That decline has come even as the war in Iraq has intensified and the total number of soldiers wounded or injured there has soared above 15,000.
   New agency to lead hunt for bioterrorism defenses
by Amy Ellis Nutt - Star-Ledger (New Jersey) - Wednesday December 13, 2006
It was a long wait and a breath less finish, but the U.S. House of Representatives finally pushed through a new bioterror bill nearly two years in the making.

Last Saturday, only hours be fore the 109th Congress adjourned for the year, the House passed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act. The most significant part of the bill was the establishment of a new federal agency, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA.
   New agency would bolster biodefense
by Amy Ellis Nutt - The Star-Ledger - Sunday November 26, 2006
After two years of delays, Congress is poised to pass biodefense legislation next month that would create a new federal agency to speed development of drugs for an array of infectious diseases that are bioterror threats... The bill that would establish the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, was passed unanimously by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in September...

[P]rogress in designing drugs to counter potential biological weapons has been slow. Vaccines in particular are enormously complex to design, take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring to the market and have limited use. Currently, there are only four major vaccine manufacturers left in the world... If passed by the Senate and signed by President Bush, BARDA will become an office under the Department of Health and Human Services, which already spends $4.2 billion a year to address bioterror threats...

A key feature of strategy for HHS is to move from fixed defenses, what's called 'one bug, one drug,' to flexible defenses, said Smith. This is a reflection of what a lot of people have been saying about how to develop new drugs and vaccines. The only way out of (the bioterror threat) is to make a broad defense against a wide array of infectious diseases both here and outside the U.S. -- that's our vision of victory.
   Burr bill may be taken up in lame-duck session
by Mary M. Shaffrey - Winston-Salem Journal - Thursday November 16, 2006
Though Republicans still control the congressional agenda, they can't do much without widespread Democratic support.

And one of the big items expected to get consideration this week during the lame-duck session is a bill sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., that would establish a new federal agency to combat bioterrorism - the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who will be the majority leader come January, has said he would like to see bioterrorism and pandemic flu-related legislation taken up before Congress adjourns for the year.

Burr's bill, commonly referred to as BARDA, would create a new position within the Department of Health and Human Services that would be solely responsible for the oversight of vaccine production.
This individual, who would require Senate confirmation, would administer a billion-dollar fund for the next two years that would aid the development of vaccines.

Bob Kadlec, a bio-defense and public-health consultant, used to work for Burr. He said that Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the need to have one person in charge, and though the bill has many components, this is perhaps the most critical.
   Rumsfeld stepping down
CNN.com - Wednesday November 08, 2006
President Bush announced today that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, is stepping down. Bush said he is nominating former CIA chief Robert Gates, who headed that agency from 1991 until 1993, to become the next secretary of defense.
   Anthrax vaccine opponents gear up to renew fight commentary follows
by gputrich@airforcetimes.com - Marine Corps Times - Sunday October 29, 2006
As the Pentagon prepares to resume mandatory anthrax shots, vaccines opponents including lawyers, medical experts and veterans gathered Saturday in Washington to discuss current cases and potential legal avenues for helping those who say they were harmed by the vaccine.

But Byron Holcomb, the lawyer who organized the seminar, said the day-long event was not prompted by the Pentagon's policy change. Holcomb, a retired Navy judge advocate general who has been involved with various anthrax-related court cases since 2002, said every victim's story pains him, and has spurred him to seek ways in which legal, medical and defense officials could cooperate to ensure those harmed by the vaccine get the legal and medical help they need.

Holcomb said many were invited but none came. He said those who had previously indicated they would attend canceled at the last minute, without giving a specific reason.

Commentary:
**Excerpts from a briefing by Drs Mark and David Geier:
**" The anthrax vaccine is causing massive damage."
**Conclusions - Safety:
**"In evaluating anthrax vaccine it has a safety profile significant worse than almost any civilian vaccine."
**"Anthrax vaccine is associated with a series of serious adverse events that can significantly impact multiple organ systems within the body, and result in permanent disability."
**"Anthrax vaccine contains a significant toxin combined with an aluminum adjuvant that may work synergistically to produce temporally related adverse reactions in susceptible vaccine recipients"

**Conclusions - Efficacy: **"Efficacy of anthrax vaccine is based on several studies in animals, and has never been tested in a double-blind placebo controlled human vaccine trial."

**"The only study conducted in humans using anthrax vaccine was published in 1962 of an adjuvant controlled, single-blinded, clinical trial among mill workers using an alum-precipitated vaccine -- a vaccine with a formulation different from the present anthrax vaccine."

**"It must be noted that based upon this data the anthrax vaccine employed was not demonstrated to be statistically efficacious against inhalation anthrax."
   Senate to Consider Bioterror Countermeasure Bill
Global Security Newswire - Friday October 13, 2006
A bill intended to support the development of drugs and vaccines to combat bioterrorism has been passed by the U.S. House and could be considered by the Senate next month, Copley News reported today (see GSN, Mar. 31).

The measure would create the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to try to fill a funding gap in federal efforts to encourage private companies to develop bioterror countermeasures.

The biotechnology industry has been frustrated by the earlier government efforts, in particular the Project Bioshield initiative to purchase vaccines after they have been produced. However, that program does not support development efforts, industry officials said (see GSN, Sept. 29).
   Small victory for ailing G.I.s - Feres Doctrine ruling
New York Daily News - Wednesday October 04, 2006
A Manhattan federal judge has ruled that a group of New York Army veterans who fell ill after inhaling depleted uranium dust from exploded U.S. shells can sue the federal government - but only for medical malpractice after their discharge.

A 1950 Supreme Court decision - commonly known as the Feres Doctrine - has long prohibited suits against the federal government by soldiers, U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ruled last week.

"To the extent that the injuries asserted in the plaintiffs' complaint arise out of their military service ... the court is without jurisdiction to hear those claims," Koeltl stated in his 29-page opinion.

George Zelma, the plaintiffs' lead lawyer, had argued during a Sept. 6 hearing that despite the broad prohibition of the Feres Doctrine, Congress had never intended "our government to betray its own troops."
   Fort Detrick Poses a Threat to Frederick, Md.--and to Humanity commentary follows
by BARRY KISSIN and RICHARD OCHS - Baltimore Chronicle - Friday September 29, 2006
A huge expansion of bioweapons research at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, is being planned as part of President Bush's $8 billion annual budget for bioweapons research (www.usamriid.army.mil/eis). This expansion is ill advised for the following reasons:

1. NO LOCAL SECURITY: You could walk out with anything, researcher says, Scientist faults labs security; (Frederick Post, 1/21/02): Interviews with more than a dozen current and former Fort Detrick scientists provided a rare account of what they described as a lax security system, that could have done little to prevent an employee from smuggling the ingredients for biological terrorism out. Also, see Detrick lost pathogens: Army audit, (front page, Frederick Post, 1/21/02): Lab specimens of anthrax spores, Ebola virus and other pathogens disappeared during a turbulent period of labor complaints and recriminations among rival scientists... Also, see Beyond the breach, (front page, Frederick Post, 5/13/06): During a two-week period in April four years ago, officials at the Armys lead biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick discovered anthrax spores had escaped carefully guarded suites into the buildings unprotected areas. Also, see Risky Business, (Frederick Post, front page, 5/14/06): Employees at USAMRIID, the Armys leading biodefense laboratory, filed 161 biological defense mishap reports between April 1, 2002 and Dec. 1, 2005. Dangerous pathogens, some with no cure, could escape in the event of accident, terror attack or an inside job like the October 9, 2001 anthrax attack on Democratic Senators. The latter intimidation helped stampede the Patriot Act passage and terrorized Congress into authorizing war (www.freefromterror.net)....

and much more - click to read this whole piece, it's important.

Commentary:
One of the key arguments put forth in this piece is one that active-duty and retired service members and veterans have been putting forth for a long time, i.e.,
3. NO CREDIBLE BIOTERROR THREAT: Milton Leitenberg, a veteran arms control advocate and senior scholar at the University of Marylands Center for International and Security Studies, shows in his recently published Assessing the Biological Weapons and Bioterrorism Threat that billions of federal expenditures have been appropriated in the absence of virtually any threat analysis, and that the risk and imminence of the use of biological agents by nonstate actors/terrorist organizations has been systematically and deliberately exaggerated. It is critical to recognize that the only bioattack in American history, namely the anthrax letters of October 2001, almost certainly was generated by our own bioweapons establishment. Dr. David Franz, former director of the Army's bioweapons facility at Detrick (USAMRIID): People dont understand how difficult it is to pull off a biological attack. Dr. C.J. Peters, formerly a senior virologist at USAMRIID: For a chemical or biological attack with mass casualties, You have to have a state or the equivalent.
   Military clinics short on vaccine for shots required of DODDS-Europe students
by Seth Robson - Stars and Stripes, European Edition - Thursday September 07, 2006
Students who have not gotten a required meningicoccal inoculation will be allowed to attend school as military health clinics deal with a shortage of the vaccine, Department of Defense school officials say.

Earlier this year, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Europe added the vaccine to required inoculations for students. Also added were tetanus and diphtheria toxoids and acellular pertussis vaccine (TDAPadolescent preparation) and the Hepatitis A vaccine, according to a DODDS-E news release.

Military medical clinics in Europe have indicated they are in short supply of one of the three required vaccines, listed as MCV4 Meningococcal (Menactra), the release stated.
   Bioterrorism no match for natural selection
by Wendy Orent - Montana Standard / Los Angeles Times - Tuesday September 05, 2006
In this age of terrorist plots, the Department of Homeland Securitys decision to build a super-secret institute to study possible bioterrorist agents seems natural.
But the proposed institute at Fort Detrick, Md., which was the site of a U.S. biowarfare program that was shut down in 1969, is worrisome. Fort Detrick has been the home of the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, an open biodefense facility, for decades.

But according to news accounts, the new $128-million facility, to be known as the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, will be black: Nobody working outside the agency, including politicians, will have a clue about what goes on inside.
   Defense portal to add medical data-sharing commentary follows
by Roseanne Gerin, PostNewsweek Tech Media - GCN (Government Computer News) - Wednesday August 23, 2006
When a soldier injured on the battlefield receives emergency medical attention, that care is recorded in the soldiers health care file, which then stays with him during his treatment.

That might seem an ordinary bit of record-keeping, but the realities of war have made it difficult; during the first Gulf War in 1991, the management of military health care records was inconsistent.

When moving from deployment to deployment, soldiers carried two-inch-thick folders of paper medical records. Information on surgeries performed and vaccines or drugs given on the battlefield was often missing.

As a result, when soldiers were diagnosed with Gulf War syndrome, good-quality data wasnt available to link drugs with the symptoms, said Edward Clayson, an Army medical communications expert. Because of missing data, many soldiers underwent repetitive and unnecessary procedures, while others, with no documentation to back up their claims, were denied benefits for service-related injuries.

In response to these problems, a presidential advisory commission in 1997 called for the creation of lifelong electronic medical records for military-service members. Congress later passed legislation requiring the Defense Department to create and maintain electronic medical records.

The Army responded with the Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care program. Clayson is project manager of this information management system for Army tactical medical forces, which uses electronic records for all service members and provides medical data to operational commanders.

Were capturing all the health care thats being done on the battlefield, Clayson said. Nearly 250,000 medical encounters have been entered into the database and are available to physicians worldwide, he said.

Commentary:
While this is very hopeful news, it may help to remember that during Gulf War I, anthrax shots were deliberately not entered into medical records. So medical records were more than simply "inconsistent." They were mismanaged to the point of abuse, as detailed to members of Congress by the 1994 Rockerfeller Report - see the "History of Human Experimentation" portion of this web site.
   Support the troops with healthcare, jobs, Murray says
by MICHAELA MARX WHEATLEY - South Whidbey Record.com - Wednesday August 23, 2006
Note: Story original ran Aug. 19, 2006
Washingtons senior senator urged an audience of local business people and politicians in Oak Harbor to set aside their feelings about the politics of war and support the troops when they come home.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, encouraged business owners to hire veterans. And she vowed to continue the fight to preserve healthcare benefits for those in the military.
I went to Iraq 15 months ago, she recalled. I was always asked: Will my community be there for us when we come back? Murray said.
Many business owners are concerned that veterans may be redeployed or suffer from post traumatic-stress disorder.
Thats no excuse, she said. Weve got to be there for our men and women who serve our country, Murray said.
   Lawmakers Say FDA Better Clean Up Its Act
by Evelyn Pringle - Scoop Independent News - Tuesday August 22, 2006
For six years, the Bush administration has placed pharmaceutical industry interests ahead of public interest by appointing persons with strong ties to drug companies to high level positions at the FDA, and as a result, Congressional investigations and a recent survey indicate that the health and safety of all Americans is being compromised.

On July 20, 2006, the Union of Concerned Scientists published the results of a survey that showed an insidious political influence of science within the FDA. According to the UCS press release, the survey was co-sponsored by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), and was sent to 5,918 FDA scientists.

The survey found that 61% of the responding scientists knew of cases where the "Department of Health and Human Services or FDA political appointees have inappropriately injected themselves into FDA determinations or actions."
   Senate wants Army to keep paying for vaccine centers commentary follows
by Rick Maze - Air Force Times - Monday August 07, 2006
The Senate wants the Army to keep paying for vaccine health care centers, which provide care for people who have adverse reactions, even though the other services are benefiting.

The Army has been paying about $6 million for the congressionally mandated vaccine centers, which treated 708 people last year. To make certain this continues, the Senate has earmarked $2 million in the 2007 defense appropriations bill specifically so the Army keeps running the centers.

While not enough to fully cover the costs, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee chairman, said including the money is an important step because costs have been covered so far only through emergency supplemental funds. Stevens stressed that the $2 million is not meant to be a cap on what can and should be spent but simply to reflect continued congressional support.

There are four vaccine health centers that provide care for service members suffering adverse reactions to military-ordered vaccinations. Two are Army centers, one at Fort Bragg, N.C., and the other at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington. There is also one center at Lackland Air Force Base, Tex., and one at Portsmouth, Va.

Commentary:
These four vaccine health care centers - listed under the "If you are sick" portion of this web site - are a rather direct rebuttal to the Pentagon's long denials that the mandatory vaccines givens to the troops are causing problems. It can sometimes take months or years before a service member realizes his or her immune-system illnesses and symptoms dated back to the time of the inoculations. Three cheers for Congress for trying to do what is right for the troops.
   US begins building treaty-breaching germ war defence centre commentary follows
by Julian Borger in Washington - The Guardian (UK) - Monday July 31, 2006
Construction work has begun near Washington on a vast germ warfare laboratory intended to help protect the US against an attack with biological weapon, but critics say the laboratory's work will violate international law and its extreme secrecy will exacerbate a biological arms race.

The National Biodefence Analysis and Countermeasures Centre (NBACC), due to be completed in 2008, will house heavily guarded and hermetically sealed chambers in which scientists simulate potential terrorist attacks.

, the centre will have to produce and stockpile the world's most lethal bacteria and viruses, which is forbidden by the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention./b> Three years before that treaty was agreed, President Richard Nixon halted the production of US biological weapons at Fort Detrick in Maryland. The same military base is the site for the new $128m (ﾣ70m), 160,000 sq ft laboratory.

Commentary:
Emphasis added by web site manager.
   A spy among us?
by Douglas Birch - Baltimore Sun.com - Sunday July 30, 2006
It could be the plot of a Cold War thriller: A Soviet mole burrows into America's top biodefense lab and steals strains of the deadly viruses that cause Rift Valley and Lassa fevers.

He ships the killer microbes back to Moscow in the bags of Aeroflot pilots, who turn them over to a super-secret arm of the KGB that plots bioterror attacks.

A chilling tale of fictional intrigue? Some biowarfare experts think it actually happened at Fort Detrick in the 1980s, and they say there is evidence to support their suspicions.
   Keeping tabs on research labs commentary follows
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Thursday July 27, 2006
U.S. investment in bioterrorism research has exploded in the wake of 9/11 and the anthrax scare that shortly followed the attacks. But a new federal report shows that these efforts to make Americans safer could backfire because of lapses in lab security. Independent analyses have found that funding for civilian research on biodefense has increased by more than $14 billion since 2001 - growth that has led dozens of scientists to enter the field. The expansion has strained the oversight capacity of many universities, as evidenced in a recent compliance review. The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services found problems at 11 of 15 universities that use select agents - biological agents or toxins that pose a serious health risk. Eight institutions demonstrated poor inventory or access tracking; six had problems controlling access to the dangerous materials. The findings - collected from November 2003 to November 2004 - echo some of the results of an earlier analysis released two years ago.

Commentary:
Please click on "Vaccines in Development" at left for more information on vaccines in the pipeline.
   Post-Vaccine Treatment Funding Uncertain Again
by David Ruppe - Global Security Newswire - Wednesday July 26, 2006
WASHINGTON  Funding for U.S. military clinics that investigate and treat illnesses following vaccinations for anthrax, smallpox and other diseases is in doubt for next fiscal year, once again placing their continued operation in jeopardy (see GSN, Jan. 10).

The Bush administration for fiscal 2007 did not request any funding for the Vaccine Healthcare Centers, which are estimated to cost $6 million annually to operate.

The Senate Appropriations Committee last week approved $2 million for the centers, which would be provided in addition to anything the military services might contribute from their health budgets, according to the committees report for its fiscal 2007 defense appropriations bill. No such funding was included in the House version of the bill approved June 20.

The centers are headquartered at the Armys Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and also located at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va., the Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, N.C., and the Air Forces Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Congress created the first center at Walter Reed in 2000, as a site for specialized assessment, treatment and study of military and civilian personnel reportedly sickened by then-mandatory anthrax vaccinations. The other three sites opened in 2004.

Since their creation, the Army has reluctantly paid for the Navy and Air Force centers, with the Army Medical Command shifting money from its budget to keep all the sites going. Congress authorized $3 million for the centers for this fiscal year.
   Federal Rule Waives Informed Consent During Crisis commentary follows
Global Security Newswire - Tuesday June 13, 2006
Story originally ran June 6, 2006:
A U.S. federal rule published yesterday allows health workers to run experimental tests on victims of a WMD attack or other crisis without their permission, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 20).
The rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration allows for tests on blood and other samples from people sickened during a bioterrorist attack, radiological "dirty bomb" explosion or other potentially lethal public health emergencies.
The agency developed the rule to allow for quick detection of any chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear agent involved in a potential attack or disease outbreak, the agency said.
"To be candid, I hope it is a hypothetical problem. I hope we spent a lot of time creating a rule we never have to invoke," said Steve Gutman, director of the agency's in-vitro diagnostics office.
However, because the laboratories doing the testing would decide when to invoke the rule, conflicts of interest and other abuses could arise, critics said.
"This sounds like they're taking for themselves the right to test individuals every time they declare a public health emergency," said Deborah Peel, chairwoman of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation. "There is no way getting consent would delay testing."

Commentary:
They're just using the military's play-book, that's all. First, the testing is mandatory, without consent; next, bioterrorism vaccines will be mandatory, without consent; then, as people become ill and the first few deaths are announced, public health officials will say it's all in their minds, that people are just traumatized from whatever emergency has been declared, and no, of course there won't be funds to take care of the ill, it's not the fault of the government in the first place. And no, of course the shots won't be mandatory for officials running the program, for Congress, or for anyone else in a policy-making position. It's worked so far for the Pentagon.
   I ride to help vets in need
by Steve Arel - Norwich Bulletin.com - Monday June 12, 2006
Editor's note: Plainfield veteran and motorcyclist Steve Arel explains in his own words why he participates in the annual A Reason to Ride, which benefits needy veterans.

I'm a retired U.S. Navy veteran (1975--95) and have been involved with veterans' issues and causes since I joined the Navy.

It was since '92, when I joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, William L. Mercier VFW Post 5446 in Plainfield, that really got me involved with dealing with the issues that America's veterans face.

I was promised that after 20 years and an honorable retirement discharge, all family medical, dental and other items would be covered.

Well, politicians change things. I, and so many other veterans, have seen our promised benefits and privileges slowly dwindle over the years by politicians who have never worn a military uniform.
   Source: Theft of vets' data kept secret for 19 days
CNN.com - Tuesday May 23, 2006
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Authorities waited almost three weeks to alert the public that personal data on more than 26 million U.S. veterans had fallen into the hands of thieves, a government source said Tuesday.

The data were on a laptop and external drive stolen May 3 in an apparent random burglary from the Montgomery County, Maryland, home of a Department of Veterans Affairs computer analyst, said the government source, who has been briefed on the issue.
   Bioterrorism played down
by Emileigh Barnes - The Daily Iowan - Friday May 12, 2006
Terrorism is an unquestionable threat in the 21st century, but biological warfare is not the ultimate terrorist weapon, according to an official from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Mark Poli, of the integrated toxicology division, told the audience at a Thursday lecture to focus on the dangers of HIV, cigarette smoking, and influenza, rather than bioterrorism, as major threats. It takes an expert to weaponize the agents, and few are qualified to carry out such assaults, he said.
   Bioterrorism played down
The Daily Iowan - Monday May 01, 2006
Terrorism is an unquestionable threat in the 21st century, but biological warfare is not the ultimate terrorist weapon, according to an official from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Mark Poli, of the integrated toxicology division, told the audience at a Thursday lecture to focus on the dangers of HIV, cigarette smoking, and influenza, rather than bioterrorism, as major threats. It takes an expert to weaponize the agents, and few are qualified to carry out such assaults, he said.
   Ex-Head of F.D.A. Faces Criminal Inquiry
by Gardiner Harris - New York Times - Saturday April 29, 2006
Dr. Lester M. Crawford, the former commissioner of food and drugs, is under criminal investigation by a federal grand jury over accusations of financial improprieties and false statements to Congress, his lawyer said Friday. The lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, would not discuss the accusations further. In a court hearing held by telephone on Thursday, she told a federal magistrate that she would instruct Dr. Crawford to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination if ordered to answer questions this week about his actions as head of the Food and Drug Administration, according to a transcript of the hearing. Dr. Crawford did not reply to messages seeking comment, and Kathleen Quinn, an F.D.A. spokeswoman, declined to comment.
   Bucks boost BioShield: Feds focus on biodefense
by Stephen Pounds - Palm Beach Post - Sunday April 09, 2006
Uncle Sam has been biotechnology's biggest sugar daddy for the past 30 years.
These days, though, he's got other priorities.
Areas of research such as Alzheimer's disease, breast cancer, diabetes, obesity, the human genome, women's health and AIDS all have been squeezed by flat or diminishing budgets.

But there is one area that's built a fatter piggy bank over the past three fiscal years: biodefense.

As executives at this week's convention in Chicago of the Biotechnology Industry Organization court investors at the world's largest annual gathering of biotech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, they need look no further for money than the Bush administration's program to defend the country from biological attack.
   DARPA seeking fast drug manufacturers
UPI International - Wednesday April 05, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to radically accelerate the manufacturing of protein vaccines and protein-based therapeutics.
The program is not about developing specific drugs, but about a capability to produce many therapeutics.
DARPA envisions a manufacturing system capable of producing three million doses of vaccine or monoclonal antibodies within 12 weeks.
The manufacturing system would have to allow for the production of vaccines to protect against a range of viral, protozoan, fungal, bacterial and toxin antigens.
The rapid production of vaccines and other drugs is a particular concern to the military, given the threat engineered viruses pose as a biological weapon.
   DOD starts new vaccine development commentary follows
UPI International - Thursday March 30, 2006
WASHINGTON, March 30 (UPI) -- The Pentagon is working on a single vaccine to counter all kinds of hemorrhagic fever like Ebola or Barburg.
It is also working on a single vaccine for all "intracellular" pathogens like the plague, said Peter C. W. Flory, the assistant secretary of defense for international security policy at a Senate Armed Services Hearing Wednesday.
The vaccine research is part of a $1.5 billion investment over the next five years to develop broad spectrum countermeasures to advanced biological weapons threats.

Commentary:
So now the military doesn't have to worry about the consequences of giving multiple vaccines in one day? The type of procedure that killed Rachel Lacey? Stay tuned for results on this one.
   State Senate resolutions on Veterans Right to Know
Molokai Times (Hawaii) - Wednesday March 29, 2006
[Congressman] Abercrombie [of Hawaii] supports State Senate resolutions on Veterans Right to Know:
Congressman Abercrombie expressed his support today for two Hawaii State Senate resolutions expressing support for a Congressional bill authorizing investigations of Cold War-era chemical and biological warfare tests which often involved military personnel who were unaware of the nature of the tests they participated in. S.R. 114 and SCR 170 requests the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the Veterans' Right to Know Act (H.R. 4259).

The measure establishes the Veterans' Right to Know Commission to: (1) investigate chemical or biological warfare tests or projects, especially those carried out between 1954 and 1973, placing particular emphasis on actions or conditions that could have contributed to health risks to any civilian or military personnel who participated in such a test or project or were otherwise potentially exposed to a biological or chemical agent as a result; and (2) report to Congress on its findings and recommendations.
   Rep. Lane Evans, Democratic veterans advocate, to retire
by Rick Maze - Air Force Times - Sunday March 26, 2006
Democratic Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, a Vietnam-era veteran who pushed Congress to provide better health care and disability benefits to combat veterans, said Tuesday he will retire from Congress after 24 years.

Evans, 54, who announced eight years ago that he had Parkinsons disease, has had increasing problems speaking in public, although aides have said his mind is still sharp.

In a statement announcing he will not run for re-election to a 13th term, Evans said: I fully expected that I would continue my work for the foreseeable future & but I have come to recognize that the time needed to address my health makes it difficult to wage a campaign and carry out my work as representative.

The senior Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee since 1997, Evans made an early name for himself by demanding that Congress provide benefits to Vietnam veterans who had been exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange even if there was no clear proof that their health problems were caused by their service in Vietnam.
   Vaccines Show Sinister Side
by Pieta Woolley - Straight.com - Thursday March 23, 2006
If two dozen once-jittery mice at UBC are telling the truth postmortem, the worlds governments may soon be facing one hell of a lawsuit. New, so-far-unpublished research led by Vancouver neuroscientist Chris Shaw shows a link between the aluminum hydroxide used in vaccines, and symptoms associated with Parkinsons, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrigs disease), and Alzheimers.
Shaw is most surprised that the research for his paper hadnt been done before. For 80 years, doctors have injected patients with aluminum hydroxide, he said, an adjuvant that stimulates immune response.

. . . To test the link theory, Shaw and his four-scientist team from UBC and Louisiana State University injected mice with the anthrax vaccine developed for the first Gulf War. Because Gulf War Syndrome looks a lot like ALS, Shaw explained, the neuroscientists had a chance to isolate a possible cause. All deployed troops were vaccinated with an aluminum hydroxide compound. Vaccinated troops who were not deployed to the Gulf developed similar symptoms at a similar rate, according to Shaw.
After 20 weeks studying the mice, the team found statistically significant increases in anxiety (38 percent); memory deficits (41 times the errors as in the sample group); and an allergic skin reaction (20 percent). Tissue samples after the mice were sacrificed showed neurological cells were dying. Inside the mices brains, in a part that controls movement, 35 percent of the cells were destroying themselves.
No one in my lab wants to get vaccinated, he said. This totally creeped us out. We werent out there to poke holes in vaccines. But all of a sudden, oh my Godweve got neuron death!
Emphasis added
   DODDS may raise vaccination requirements for students
by Kevin Dougherty - Stars and Stripes European Edition - Tuesday March 21, 2006
Student vaccination requirements could change next school year to include meningococcal disease and a booster shot for whooping cough, according to military health officials and the Department of Defense Education Activity.

The adjustments would reflect updated guidelines by an immunization advisory committee from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Those recommendations were forged several months ago and are just now filtering down to military treatment facilities as word spreads of new vaccines for meningococcal disease and whooping cough, clinically known as Bordetella pertussis.
   Drug trials: Beyond the dark side
by Daniel Altman - International Herald Tribune (UK) - Wednesday March 08, 2006
For drug companies, globalization has brought a double boon: new markets and new testing grounds for clinical trials. Better information technology and transport infrastructure have made monitoring the ethics of those trials somewhat easier, but experts say problems are still proliferating...

. . .More recently, the American military's Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and GlaxoSmithKline of Britain came under fire for testing a hepatitis E drug on thousands of Nepalese soldiers. The researchers first tried to test the drug on civilians in Lalitpur, but rumors of bribes led to protests. Later, experts started asking whether the soldiers - many of whom may have been illiterate - could have understood the consent agreements they had signed and whether the effective but expensive drug would ever be available to Nepalese.
   Human medical experimentation in the United States: The shocking true history of modern medicine and psychiatry (1965-2005) commentary follows
Newstarget.com - Monday March 06, 2006
(1969)
President Nixon ends the United States' offensive biowarfare program, including human experimentation done at Fort Detrick. By this time, tens of thousands of civilians and members of the U.S. armed forces have wittingly and unwittingly acted as participants in experiments involving exposure to dangerous biological agents (Goliszek).

The U.S. military conducts DTC Test 69-12, which is an open-air test of VX and sarin nerve agents at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, likely exposing military personnel (Goliszek, Martin).

Experimental drugs are tested on mentally disabled children in Milledgeville, Ga., without any institutional approval whatsoever (Sharav).

Dr. Donald MacArthur, the U.S. Department of Defense's Deputy Director for Research and Technology, requests $10 million from Congress to develop a synthetic biological agent that would be resistant "to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease" (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

Judge Sam Steinfield's dissent in Strunk v. Strunk, 445 S.W.2d 145 marks the first time a judge has ever suggested that the Nuremberg Code be applied in American court cases (Sharav).

Commentary:
This is Part 2 of a 2-part series. We'll eventually move this story to the "Human Experiments" section of this web site, but thought it worth bringing to the attention of our audience on the front page first.
   FDA to speed new flu vaccines to market
CNN - Friday March 03, 2006
Friday, March 3, 2006; Posted: 11:20 a.m. EST (16:20 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators published draft guidelines Thursday on ways to speed new flu vaccines to market for common winter influenza as well as an even deadlier strain of the virus, such as bird flu that has health officials worldwide worried about a pandemic.

The guidelines, prepared by the Food and Drug Administration, spell out data the agency is requiring of manufacturers to demonstrate that new flu vaccines are safe and effective.

The public has 90 days to comment before they are finalized.
   Unfair to those in service
by James K. Kilpatrick - Yahoo News - Wednesday January 18, 2006
If I were a betting man, which I'm not, I would offer a nice proposition. This is it: I would bet you 1,000-1 -- make it 10,000-1 -- that the Supreme Court refuses to hear the pending appeals in Purcell v. U.S. and Kemp v. U.S. .

All right, sucker, send your check in care of this column. Thank you very much. You were betting that the Supreme Court would abandon 55 years of bad precedent in cases involving men and women in military service. Forget it! The unfairness imposed upon them by what is known as the Feres doctrine will not be relieved.

. . . in a companion case, Christine Lemp asks the high court to consider the death of her husband, Army Capt. James Lemp. He died three years ago at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., of what his widow regards as malpractice on the part of Army medical personnel. The story dates from March 2003, when he developed an acute headache, accompanied by vomiting, dizziness and numbness in his arms. At the Army hospital a CT scan appeared to be negative. As the hours passed, more symptoms of a seizure became evident. According to the Lemp petition, he fell into "hypoxia, aspiration of vomitus, respiratory arrest and profound bradycardia." He was placed on a ventilator and transferred to a hospital. There he died of brain edema