commentary

An Open Letter to The Burlington Free Press

The Burlington Free Press reported on June 15, 2002, that U.S. Congressional Representative Bernie Sanders would be appearing before the British Parliament to urge both the American and British governments to acknowledge the existence of and take responsibility for Gulf War Syndrome. The former mayor of Burlington, now Vermont’s lone Congressman, has long been active on this particular issue. One would expect that the Free Press would take a certain pride in their former mayor, and would perhaps go a little further than they might otherwise, in presenting the evidence that already exists regarding Gulf War Syndrome. This is not the case.
Instead the article reads like any other touching on scientific issues that suffer from political dispute: utterly unbiased, totally non-committal in its presentation of both sides of the issue - as if the vociferous sources of denial had any credibility what so ever. The article cites the major players and their positions, rather than the body of evidence. Players such as the Veterans Administration and the British defense department, neither of which has recognized the human suffering of service personnel exposed to what has finally been acknowledged as a ’chemical cesspool.’
In referring to chemical munitions destroyed by U.S. military personnel, the Free Press cites the Congressman, rather than the body of evidence that has been gathered since the Gulf War. This seems to suggest that the Congressman is simply stating an assertion, as if the matter were still in some doubt.
The Congressional Report of November 7, 1997 makes it quite clear that U.S. forces not only destroyed chemical weapons at a bunker storage site at Khamisiyah, [and page 80] but at other chemical weapon storage sites as well, including Ukhaydir and Mymona, and a production facility at Muthanna. [and page 72, 79]
Evidence presented to Congress supports the assertion that exposures of U.S. troops to chemical warfare agents was more than simply a consequence of this destruction, it was predicted.
Clearly, the Congressman is not simply stating an opinion. It is rather a fact, one which the Department of Defense ceased to deny on June 21, 1996.
Far worse than this passive/aggressive method of referring to events that are fully substantiated and by now common knowledge, is the failure of the Burlington Free Press to list what is perhaps the single most significant source of chemical exposure experienced by Gulf War vets. Rarely in its coverage of Gulf War Syndrome has the Free Press ever mentioned "Experimental Drugs and Vaccines", a subject that received attention by the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, and is given its own section in the report from that committee, [ House Report 105-388 - Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses: VA, DOD Continue To Resist Strong Evidence Linking Toxic Causes To Chronic Health Effects] beginning on page 33.
In fact, in every article I have read, the Free Press has consistently ignored this committee’s report in its entirety, and almost never mentions PB [pyridostigmine bromide] pills.
From page 33 of the report:

Experimental Drugs and Vaccines
In December 1990, a month before the war, the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] agreed to issue a waiver to the DOD allowing the military to issue experimental drugs and vaccines to U.S. personnel in the Gulf without first obtaining informed consent. A factor possibly contributing to the illnesses of Gulf veterans was the ingestion of anti-nerve gas pills, pyridostigmine bromide tablets [PB tabs]. Troops were required to take the experimental drug to counter the effects of potential exposure to chemical warfare agents.
PB expert Dr. Thomas Tiedt, a neuroscientist and former pharmaceutical industry researcher, testified before the Human Resources Subcommittee that "evidence shows that Gulf War Syndrome was easily predicted. The symptoms largely match those of cholinergic syndrome, which results from inhibition of the life-critical and development-critical enzyme acetylcholinesterase [AchE]. Pyridostigmine bromide, Sarin, and organophosphate pesticides are examples of AchE inhibitors . . . [which] cause stunning nerve and muscle degeneration moments after a single dose, which worsens with multiple doses"130
"My team's research at the University of Maryland during the mid-1970's about physiological and microscopic AchE toxicity was comprehensive," Dr. Tiedt stated. "Our work was followed by an explosion of research by DOD during the 1980's, the most relevant of which was produced by my co-authors and colleagues at Maryland and the [Army's] chemical-warfare R&D center in Aberdeen [MD]. DOD [research] established by the early 1980's that; 1) PB would be harmful in healthy individuals; 2) PB was worthless, even counterproductive, as a protectant against chemical warfare; and 3) PB was more toxic than sub-lethal doses of chemical warfare agents. I understand PB was taken by about 500,000 soldiers . . . [and] it has been reported that 50-60 percent of soldiers taking PB have acute side effects."131
Dr. Tiedt concluded: "More attention is needed on the long record by the military to conduct involuntary, meritless, and hazardous experiments on soldiers. The Nuremberg Code [signed following World War II] states, 'No experiments should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur.' The use of PB was an experiment. It was the first time we used PB for such a purpose. There were no data supporting its use or the way it was used. Sadly, no records remain or were kept."132

130 Statement of Thomas Tiedt, Human Resources Subcommittee hearing, No. 2, p. 301.
131 Ibid., p. 303.
132 Ibid., p. 306.

The report makes it quite clear. The use of PB was experimental, [page 33, 81]. As such its use required a waiver of informed consent by the DOD from the FDA, which was approved on December 21, 1990 [page 110]. This was done inspite of research during the mid 1980’s demonstrating, in the words of Dr. Tiedt, that PB is not only "worthless as a protectant against chemical warfare, . . . [it is] more toxic than sub-lethal doses of chemical warfare agents."
Dr. Tiedt’s concluding remarks bear repeating: "The use of PB was an experiment. It was the first time we used PB for such a purpose. There were no data supporting its use or the way it was used. Sadly, no records remain or were Kept."
If the federal government permits the circumvention of the Nuremberg Code, thus clearing the way for human experimentation without the consent of the test subjects, experimentation that is not only life threatening, but for which there exists no supporting data, then the potential consequences to the public health are dire, as is amply demonstrated by the thousands of veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome.
That the Burlington Free Press should fail to report these facts in its coverage of Gulf War Syndrome is not only inexplicable, it is utterly unacceptable.

Sincerely,


D. Winter
Burlington, Vermont

Page 12A The Burlington Free Press Saturday, June 15, 2002

Sanders to address British Parliament

Vt. congressman will discuss treatment for Gulf War veterans

WASHINGTON - Rep. Bernie Sanders will address the British Parliament next week to call on the British and American governments to work together to help veterans suffering from Gulf War related illnesses and to research the causes.
"My message is we have a moral responsiblity to understand the cause of Gulf War Illness on behalf of the 100,000-plus American soldiers and 5,000 British soldiers who suffer from it," Sanders, I-Vt., said Friday. "We've got to make sure that all of these soldiers receive the compensation to which they are entitled."
Sanders is a member of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations and has been pushing for the U.S. government to fund research and treatment of Gulf War Syndrome for more than a decade.
The Vermonter will speak before a joint session of the British House of Lords and House of Commons on Wednesday. He also will meet with British lawmakers, researchers and military officials to talk about increased cooperation between the two countries. Sanders and two other House members also will meet with English soldiers who are suffering from symptoms.
Sanders said research will benefit not only veterans but civilians who have been exposed to toxic chemicals and share many of the same symptoms. Those symptoms include headaches, chronic fatigue, rashes, joint and muscle pain, memory loss, depression and reproductive problems.
Gulf War veterans were exposed to a highly toxic environment, including pesticides, diesel fuel, depleted uranium, emissions from oil well fires, and chemical agents that were stored by the Iraqis. U.S. soldiers detonated the weapons to destroy them, Sanders said. **
The Veterans Administration has never officially acknowledged that Gulf War Syndrome exists, but it did recently acknowledge that Gulf War vets are nearly twice as likely as soldiers who did not fight there to develop Lou Gehrig's Disease, a fatal disease of the nervous system.
"That was a major break-through and, in my view, it will be the first of many acknowledgements on the part of the VA that Gulf War Illness is a real disease," Sanders said.
The British defense department has not recognized the existence of the disease, but a British pension appeals tribunal recently ruled that the illness is real.
Sanders will be accompanied by Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the veterans' affairs subcommittee; Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., and Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, who has funded research into Gulf War Syndrome. Researcher Dr. Robert Haley of the University of Texas also will be part of the U.S. contingent.

** Emphasis added for electronic publication.