Classified For National Security
If it’s controversial…..classify it!
Military mum on dirty air in Iraq
Health concerns » An environmental report on the burn pit at Balad Air Base now is classified for ‘national security’
Matthew D. Laplante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 11/21/2008 09:01:12 AM MST
Military officials insist there’s no problem.
But veterans’ advocates are calling for full transparency about the health risks faced by service members who have been stationed at the largest U.S. air base in Iraq, where one inspector called an open-air burn pit “the worst environmental site I have ever personally visited.”
But for the moment, that quote — found in a memo from a military environmental engineer from Utah — is all that is publicly known from a 2006 Environmental Health Site Assessment on the situation at Balad Air Base. That’s because the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine is refusing to make the document public, saying that the information it contains “would damage our national security.”
How could a health assessment damage national security? For veteran Paul Rieckhoff, the situation smells as bad as Iraq’s foul air.
“It’s troubling,” said Rieckhoff, an Iraq combat veteran and director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which lobbies on behalf of vets who have served in the nation’s ongoing conflicts. “Just saying ‘everything is fine’ is not going to fly.”
The Army insists that it is doing more. Michael Kilpatrick, a spokesman for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said the military has done extensive sampling of the air in Balad and other bases where burn pits are used to get rid of garbage — including weapons, chemicals, plastics, and even amputated limbs. (Read more HERE)
Unbelievable!! This is the DoD’s answer to the problem? Just classify it and it goes away? Alrighty then…how stupid do they think we are?
Time to call your Senators and Congresspersons. Maybe the new administration can fix this.
Ms Sparky
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- Oregon National Guardsman say KBR safety managers knew about poison
Saturday, November 22nd 2008 at 8:39 am |
This has been going on forever – when I was in the service (late 70′s early 80′s) we were still fighting over Agent Orange and it’s impacts on the soldiers – it was classified as a way to “make it go away” – nothing new here for the government or the military.
Thanks for posting this!
Ms Sparky’s Response:
The more people that “Scream” about it the less they can keep it a secret!
Sunday, November 23rd 2008 at 11:38 am |
“a threat to our national security…”
That’s crazy. I’ve also read that the service-connected disability retirement system is a threat to national security because of its expense… so maybe the threat of the exposure is a similar national security threat because soldiers like me will not have to jump through hoops for three years to receive medical retirement for being more than 30% service connected. I am currently waiting for a response to a congressional inquiry about why I haven’t yet received a medical discharge per the regulations that exist, and surprise! I’ve received two interim responses stating that the Army needs more time to respond. These chemicals I don’t think were just in the air. In 2006 on at least Camp Ramadi and LSA Anaconda, soldiers were having their bottled water recalled and in Ramadi some soldiers on OPs were totally out of bottled water for days at a time. “Don’t drink the bottles with the blue cap,” one soldier on each base told me they were informed. So they didn’t… then it was “Don’t drink the bottles with the white cap.” So they didn’t and began wondering what the cause was. Finally they were told, “Drink this water,” which was bottled water with white caps which weren’t sealed and no label on them. The soldier who was at Anaconda said he overheard the officers say that the recall was because of arsenic in the water. Arsenic is also something I read was present in these burn pits (along with water bottles / dioxin of course). I wonder if there is a connection and if these problems aren’t widespread like all the others turned out to be.
Still another soldier said that in 2003-04, almost half of their platoon got kidney stones from the water… something I’ve only heard mentioned as having happened to “enemy combatants” in prison camps. The list just goes on. I have another soldier in my unit recovering from leukemia… he was also interested in reading about all this since he’s been told there is no service-connection despite his belief that it was. And now it’s classified… total bs!
Ms Sparky’s Response:
I couldn’t agree more. There is not threat to national security. It’s embarrassing that’s all. Thanks for this awesome accounting.
Monday, November 24th 2008 at 7:31 pm |
Pawns are pawns until they organize and resist. Glad the mums are speaking out.
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!
Tuesday, March 3rd 2009 at 12:12 pm |
I’d like to know the size of the open burn pit in Balad, acreage or sq meters! Thanks
Ms Sparky’s Response:
It can be seen from Google Earth you might be able to figure it that way. I will ask my readers.