Veterans Day Poster 2012

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VA Cost of Living Increase Blocked in the Senate by “unknown” Senator

Unknown Senator blocks bill; costing disabled veterans up to $500 next year

Our guess, and it’s only a guess is Johnny Isakson

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr4114eh/pdf/BILLS-112hr4114eh.pdf

 Bergmann and Moore  September 27, 2012

After passing the House of Representatives, the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) increase for VA benefits was blocked in the Senate by an unknown Senator, according to Senate staffers who alerted Bergmann & Moore.

The Veterans COLA affects a number of key benefits for veterans: disability compensation, pension as well as survivor benefits. The uncontroversial bill adjusts VA benefits to keep up with inflation and easily passes Congress each year.

Until now.

Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and Director of Veterans Outreach for Bergmann & Moore, LLC, a law firm concentrating on VA disability law, said, “This secret hold is unconscionable: it will take up to $500 next year out of the wallets of disabled veterans and their families: money they need to pay their rent and put food on the table for their children.”

According to a statement this afternoon from Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, blocking the bill will reduce benefits starting in January for 3.9 million veterans and their survivors.

Please read the entire post at Bergmann and Moore

Burn Pit Lung Condition Added to Social Security List of Compassionate Allowances

Jon Gelmans Workers Compensation Blog  August 11, 2012

The Social Security Administration has added to its list of compassionate allowances a pulmonary condition that has been identified as arising out of exposures to burn pits fumes and dusts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The pulmonary disease, constrictive bronchiolitis, is also called obliterative bronchiolitis or bronchiolitis obliterates. Medical research has been identified the medical condition as being causally related to exposures to dust and fumes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Compassionate Allowances (CAL) are a way of quickly identifying diseases and other medical conditions that invariably qualify under the Listing of Impairments based on minimal objective medical information. Compassionate Allowances allow Social Security to target the most obviously disabled individuals for allowances based on objective medical information that we can obtain quickly. Compassionate Allowances is not a separate program from the Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income programs.”

Click here to read more about burn pit claims for benefits and lawsuits.
Click here to request further information

Defense Base Act Class Action

Statement concerning filing of class action for fraud and bad faith against KBR, DynCorp, Blackwater, G4S/Wackenhut/Ronco Consulting, CNA Insurance, AIG Insurance and others who conspired to deny benefits to severely injured contractors and to harm them further

Scott Bloch  files complaint for $2 billion against major government contractors like

KBR, Blackwater.XE,  DynCorp, G4S/Wackenhut/Ronco Consulting and the global insurance carriers AIG, CNA, ACE and Zurich, on behalf of thousands of former employees, for unlawful, fraudulent and bad-faith mistreatment of injured employees and their families   

WASHINGTON, DC (September 26, 2011) –

Since 2003, top government contractors like Blackwater, KBR, DynCorp, CSA/AECOM and ITT have been perpetrating a fraud on their employees and on the American public. 

The silent warriors who work for these companies, many of them decorated former military service members, have been injured, mistreated and abandoned by the contracting companies and their insurance carriers who have been paid hundreds of millions of dollars in premiums.

“It is a grave injustice,” Bloch said, “to those who rode alongside American soldiers, including Iraqi and Afghani Nationals, to be case aside without the benefits of the law.  We are supposedly trying to bring them the rule of law.  We are supposedly trying to encourage them in democratic institutions. 

We are the ones asking them to believe in justice and individual rights. 

This is a travesty to all Americans and those around the world who look to America for an example of humanitarian aid and proper treatment of workers.”

This is a lawsuit for damages in the amount of $2 billion to remedy the injuries and destruction caused to the lives, finances and mental and physical well being of thousands of American families and others whose loved ones were injured while serving America under contracts with the United States. 

It seeks an additional unspecified amount to punish the companies who made massive profits while causing this harm to people unlawfully and maliciously and working a fraud on the American public who paid them.  
“This abusive and illegal scheme by the defendants has been allowed to go on for too long. 

We are talking about loss of life, suicide, loss of homes, marriages, families split up, “ Bloch said, “and the culprits are the large government contractors who should have treated their employees better, and the mega-insurance companies who were paid a hefty sum to make sure the employees were taken care of with uninterrupted benefits in the event of injuries in these war zones.”
This complaint is filed due to actions and omissions of defendants, in conspiracy with others, and individually, to defeat the right of American citizens and foreign nationals to receive their lawful benefits and compensation under the Defense Base Act (“DBA”),  as it adopts the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (“LHWCA”).  
The lawsuit explains that those sued engaged under the RICO statute in an enterprise of fraudulent and or criminal acts to further their scheme to defeat the rights of individuals who have been injured or suffered occupational diseases, and death, while on foreign soil in support of defense activities under the DBA.  

These acts were perpetrated repeatedly through bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, using telephones, faxes, and United States mail .
 “These are heroes, decorated by America’s Armed Services,” said Bloch. 

“Some of the foreign contractors were decorated special forces soldiers from their countries who assisted the United States in combating threats.  The sheer disregard for human dignity and law is reprehensible and deserves punishment. 

These families and many others who have been harmed need treatment, need compensation, need redress of the wrongs that have been perpetrated by these huge companies and insurance carriers for the last 10 years. 

They have earned $100 billion per year on the backs of these people, with the blood of these plaintiffs and those whom they represent.”
The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and covers individuals from all over the United States, South Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and other counties.  

Contact Scott J. Bloch, PA:
Scott Bloch, 202-496-1290
scott@scottblochlaw.com

Troops have 10 more days to get stop loss benefits

By Ed O’Keefe  Federal Eye Washington Post

Veterans and service members who had tours of duty extended between Sept. 2001 and Sept. 2009 have 10 more days to apply for one-time hardship pay.

Veterans and their beneficiaries may apply for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay until March 18, the Pentagon announced last week. Congress extended the program as part of the two-week continuing resolution.

Eligible service members may submit a claim to their military service and receive $500 for each full or partial month served in Stop Loss status, or the involuntary extension of a tour of duty.

Pentagon officials estimate about 145,000 service members, veterans and beneficiaries are eligible to receive the payments, but only about 78,000 have done so thus far.  See the original here

Interested, eligible individuals should visit http://www.defense.gov/stoploss for more information.

Themis Applies JSOC Techniques to Citizens “Extorting” from Corporate Clients

This is a bunch of veterans proposing to go to war against citizen activism on behalf the Chamber of Commerce and other corporations.

by Empty Wheel at Firedoglake

I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of these posts, showing how Hunton & Williams asked “Themis” (the three firm team of HBGary, Palantir, and Berico Technologies) to apply counterterrorism approaches to combat First Amendment activities.

This particular installment comes from an early presentation and accompanying proposal Themis prepared for Hunton & Williams. These documents were attached to an email dated November 2, 2010 sent out by Berico Technologies’ Deputy Director. He explains that the presentation and proposal would be briefed to H&W the following day.

The Powerpoint includes a slide describing the purpose of Themis’ pitch to H&W.

Purpose: Develop a corporate information reconnaissance service to aid legal investigations through the open source collection of information on target groups and individuals that appear organized to extort specific concessions through online slander campaigns.

Now, this is in the period when H&W was only beginning to discuss the Chamber of Commerce project with Themis, long before the BoA pitch. That is, this is the period when they were discussing generalized opposition to Chamber of Commerce.

And of that they got “extortion”? “slander”?

Please read the entire post and comments here

17 Veterans Sue Pentagon for Indifference to Military Rapes

Courthouse News February 17, 2011

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) – Seventeen veterans, male and female, claim they were raped, sexually assaulted or harassed on active duty while officials turned a blind eye to the crimes and even promoted the assailants. “After plaintiffs and other victims reported the crimes against them, they were retaliated against, drummed out of the services, or, in some tragic cases, killed,” the veterans say.

The veteran-plaintiffs say Defense Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates “failed to investigate rapes and sexual assaults, prosecute perpetrators, provide an adequate judicial system as required by the Uniform Military Justice Act, and abide by congressional deadlines to implement congressionally ordered institutional reforms to stop rapes and other sexual assaults.”
The veterans say that military leaders “ran institutions in which perpetrators were promoted and where military personnel openly mocked and flouted the modest congressionally mandated institutional reforms.

Defendants ran institutions in which plaintiffs and other victims were openly subjected to retaliation, were encouraged to refrain from reporting rapes and sexual assaults in a manner that would have permitted prosecution, and were ordered to keep quiet and refrain from telling anyone about the criminal acts of their work colleagues.”
The 42-page complaint relates grisly tales of sexual assault.

Please read the entire article here

Study finds cost of the wars up to $900B

A diminished quality of life, said Bilmes, is common among those who were deployed to war zones. Contractor casualties are another factor that isn’t usually taken into account in official estimates of the cost of wars.

UPI Special Reports   By GIULIA LASAGNI, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE, Written for UPI

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (UPI) — A new study estimates that the cost for the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will reach about $900 billion over the next 40 years and there’s no plan to pay for it.

The study, conducted by Nobel Prize economics laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, was presented Thursday during a hearing at the U.S. House of Representatives Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

“The evidence from previous wars shows that the cost of caring for war veterans continues typically to rise for several years and peaks in 30-40 years after a conflict,” Bilmes said. “The costs rise over time as veterans get older and their medical needs grow.”

In 2008, Stiglitz and Bilmes wrote “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.” In that study, they assessed the cost of the wars the United States is currently fighting at about $700 billion.

Two years later, however, reality proved quite different.

Gallery: 2010: The War in Afghanistan

“As of this month, 5,700 servicemen and women have died and over 90,000 have been wounded in action or injured seriously enough to require medical evacuation,” Bilmes said. “A much larger number — nearly 600,000 — have already been treated in military facilities.”

In 2008, Bilmes and Stiglitz said that between 366,000 and 398,000 veterans would have filed disability benefit claims by 2010. The number is already 513,000.

Bilmes and Stiglitz projected the number of veterans who were going to be diagnosed with mental health problems in the next two years would be 20 percent. In fact, this percentage is 30-40 percent of returning servicemen and women, nearly double the original projection.

The costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan aren’t only budgetary, the authors said.

A diminished quality of life, said Bilmes, is common among those who were deployed to war zones. Contractor casualties are another factor that isn’t usually taken into account in official estimates of the cost of wars.

“These substantial social costs are not captured in the federal government budget but nevertheless represent a real burden on society,” Bilmes said.

Bilmes and Stiglitz projected these extra costs at $295 billion-$400 billion.

“We have no financial plan to meet those obligations,” Bilmes said.

The study’s authors had suggestions for how to look ahead.

To provide for veterans’ needs, Bilmes and Stiglitz recommend creating a Veteran Trust Fund that “would be funded as obligation occurs.”

They also encouraged the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve its forecasting system to assess more efficiently which and how many resources veterans will need in 30 years.

The authors said, “The cost of any conflict that persists beyond one year should funded by current taxpayers, through war surtaxes, war bonds and other means.”

‘Stop-Loss’ Pay Unclaimed By Thousands Of Troops

Only 30,000 Claims Have Been Paid Out So Far

PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is reminding an estimated 100,000 retired military men and women that they are owed back pay and should claim it. Congress last year approved a $500 retroactive bonus to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines for every month they were forced to stay in the military beyond their enlistment term – a controversial practice known as “stop-loss.” Troops kept involuntarily in the services from the September 2001 terrorist attacks until 2009 were given until this fall to apply for the money. But the October 21 deadline is approaching and only 30,000 claims have been paid out so far. Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez says officials have posted reminders on blogs, social networks and at veterans hospitals and that more information on the program is at www.defense.gov/stoploss.

Honoring Veterans of the Disposable Army

by T. Christian Miller  ProPublica

Today we honor the veterans who have served in the country’s armed forces. Nobody seriously questions whether they deserve such recognition. The men and women who defended this country and fought its wars made immeasurable sacrifices.

I have spent much of the last year writing [1] about another group of people who suffered losses on behalf of U.S. interests abroad: the civilian contractors injured or killed [1] while doing their jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They are not, of course, soldiers. They could quit their jobs and go home any time they wanted. Many were paid far higher wages than their military counterparts. They knew they were signing up to take a specific job in a dangerous part of the world.

And yet, neither are the contractors working in Afghanistan and Iraq ordinary laborers. Civilians compose half the manpower [2] in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have seen and experienced the full horror of war. More than a thousand have been killed. Thousands more have suffered debilitating physical and mental injuries [3]. And yet, the Pentagon does not even know how many have died, nor how many are actually working [4] (PDF).

I have come to see the civilian contractors as a new kind of class in the demography of war. They are quasi-veterans: civilians who have experienced war much as soldiers do. There are tens of thousands of them. And while it’s hard to argue that they deserve ticker tape parades and Medals of Honor, it’s also hard to believe that they should be sent home with little more than a pay stub and a patchy health care system that doesn’t even address basic medical needs [5].

I received a letter from a former KBR contractor which crystallized the strange position of those who work in a war zone. D.A. Corson, who worked at a variety of companies in Iraq until 2008, wrote the following, which I thought worth sharing:

Civilian contactors in combat zones will likely continue to be a staple of military engagements. They cook, clean, make ice, purify water, install housing, do laundry, install and maintain generators for lighting, air conditioning, truck the beans, bullets and bandages, install latrines, wastewater treatment facilities, and as many of the other logistical functions as the military can give them to do so the troops can do their job, i.e., go out and, God willing, win the peace.

They too left their families, homes, and friends. They too labor 84-hour weeks, endure shellings, mortars, and RPG attacks, IEDS, and heat strokes. They too live on three meals a day of four different flavors of noodles or MREs when the convoys cannot get through and rations are running low. Some of them see to it that the bodies of your fallen sons, daughters, husbands, and wives are seen off from combat airfields with proper honors when no military personnel are available to do the honors themselves. They watch helplessly on Armed Forces media as our homes thousands of miles away are blown and washed away in hurricanes, floods and other disasters and wonder if their families are safe. Many die, are injured, captured and held as POWs; some have been beheaded. They too suffer high divorce rates and come home with their own cases of Combat Stress. Many serve for over a year and then came back 2 and 3 times for another year. Many are still there going on 5 and 6 years now. When they come home they have no Veteran’s benefits, indeed, no benefits at all in many instances, save perhaps a very pricey COBRA.

Yes, all go for the money. They too are doing what they think necessary for their families to get a little piece of the American Dream, but they are not all a bunch of money-grubbing, carpetbagging, war profiteers. We are your neighbors, friends, relatives, and fellow Americans. So many are there because they have to be. One young lady had just had a baby. Her husband had cancer, and she had to leave her newborn infant and other children, as well as her terribly ill husband to pay the bills and keep a roof over their head. But more than that, each wanted to serve our troops. They wanted to do their part. So many are Viet Nam veterans. They do their jobs; they serve our troops, proudly. They do it for them. They do it for freedom; they do it for our country. The American contractors all still take off their hats and get tears in their eyes when hearing the national anthem. When they go home their benefits end. Many are having to fight to get their medical insurance benefits for the injuries received and many families are fighting to get their life insurance benefits for their fallen loved ones.

They knew going in that returning to bands playing, flags waving, and such were not part of their bargain. That’s not why they went. However, in your churches and other ceremonies, when you ask your veterans to stand, after you have given them their well-deserved honors, you might want to give a thought to then asking any civilian contractors who served the troops in combat zones to stand up beside the vets too. I’ll bet they’d be proud to do so, again. Maybe there won’t be many in your particular gathering, but they are there: one for every soldier according to the Congressional Budget Reports and one dying for each 3 soldiers killed.

And by the way, you’re welcome. Maligned, appreciated, even counted or not, I am sure most would do it all again. It was an honor.

D. A. Corson
Camp Anaconda, Balad, Iraq –June 2004 through October 2006 B.I.A., Basrah, Iraq –July 2006 through May 2007 Ali Al-Saleem Air Base, Kuwait — September-October 2007

God Bless America !