Pentagon Knowingly Exposed U.S. Soldiers To Toxic Waste: Leaked Memo

The Pentagon allegedly endangered U.S. soldiers by implementing and covering-up dangerously toxic waste-incineration practices at Balad Airbase in Iraq during years past, as revealed in a leaked Air Force memo [PDF]. Raw Story, which first reported the leak, writes this:

The document, written by an environmental engineering flight commander in December of 2006 and posted on Wikileaks on Tuesday, details the risks posed to US troops in Iraq by burning garbage at a US airbase. It enumerates myriad risks posed by the practice and identifies various carcinogens released by incinerating waste in open-air pits.

...

According to the document, a US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine investigator said Balad's burn pit was "the worst environmental site I have ever personally visited," including "10 years working... clean-up for the Army."

Last December, Army Times reported on the rise of symptoms among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who had suffered direct exposure to burn pits:

Though military officials say there are no known long-term effects from exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 100 service members have come forward to Military Times and Disabled American Veterans with strikingly similar symptoms: chronic bronchitis, asthma, sleep apnea, chronic coughs and allergy-like symptoms. Several also have cited heart problems, lymphoma and leukemia.

The story then goes on to discuss a Pentagon report titled "Just the Facts" which, given the now-leaked memo, reeks of obfuscation. According to Army Times, "Just the Facts" admits the "occasional presence" of possibly harmful toxins but then attempts to write-off the cancerous Balad Airbase miasma as harmless:

But "the potential short- and long-term risks were estimated to be low due to the infrequent detections of these chemicals," the paper states. "Based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidance, long-term health effects are not expected to occur from breathing the smoke" at Joint Base Balad.

The leaked memo [PDF] was written by Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis, a Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight Commander, with the subject line, "Burn Pit Health Hazards". According to Curtis:

In my professional opinion, there is an acute health hazard for individuals. There is also the possibility for chronic health hazards associated with the smoke; thus the information is being made a permanent part of each Airman's medical record. I base this assessment on the data that I have reviewed and on-site smoke plume assessments (boots on the ground).

Comments

[aeppolito]

09:04 AM on 03/13/2009

I am the Aunt of Sgt Steven Ochs, his mother's sister. You can read Steve's story posted on this site 2/3/09, Leukemia: A Soldiers Souvenir from the Burn Pits of Iraq. I am so proud of Steven yet so sad that he had to die. We need to be his voice, to keep his story in the forefront. To educate and enlighten the public on what is happening with our troops. We must honor them by keeping this going, by sharing all the stories of the men and women who not only have passed but our still here. We might not ever know who we are helping by keeping and sharing their stories.

[quinoa]

09:13 PM on 03/11/2009

"...military officials say there are no known long-term effects from exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan"

They may actually be right about this, perhaps there is only a short term effect... DEATH.

Whomever is controlling this research clearly has an agenda, and it's one that has nothing to do with science. It's no mystery, if you burn something toxic, the air you breath will be toxic. For the government to deny it is simply sanctioned murder.

My condolences to my aunt and uncle, Joanne and Klaus, my cousins Brian and Stacy, and to all their family and friends. I know Steven will be missed, and my heart goes out to you all.

Lovingly Yours,
Daniel Eppolito

[ReallyMe]

05:08 PM on 03/11/2009

I once knew a soldier- that read about our government's using blacks as lab rats- giving them syphillus. And about our military using American soldiers - soldiers desperate for a pass to visit their families before shipping off to war - as lab rats for the testing of blister agents (a chemical weapon) in return for a 4 day pass. Then ordering them to never tell anyone what they had been subjected to. Ruined lives for a 4 day pass.

That soldier got sent out to inspect stockpiles of MRE's. It turned out that there was not a single lot of MREs in the world that would pass inspection. NONE. That guaranteed that soldiers that ate them would become ill and some number would die from them. Even knowing this, the powers that be (generals) in Washington didn't want to spend the money to have the rations 100% inspected and have defective food items replaced with good safe food items.

That soldier learned just what the elite in Washington thought of our soldiers. Expendable. Not just for the fighting that must be done in a war- but they couldn't even be bothered to see that the very food they ate wouldn't kill them. They thought nothing of them then and they still don't. The last admin- just talked as if they did.

That soldier never saw the U.S. military nor the government the same again. And yes, that soldier was ordered to never tell what she knew.

[Marklar]

04:08 PM on 03/11/2009

At least they are no longer testing LSD and Mescaline on people trying to create truth seriums and super soldiers.

[Joethepauper]

05:08 PM on 03/11/2009

Oh, I assure you they are, but it's not LSD and Mescaline anymore. They are making pharmaceutical landmines which spray drugs at the person who steps on them. This is the NEXT generation of drugs. LSD and Mescaline are derivatives of natural plants, so they are about as harmful as the plants they were derived from (Opiates, coca derivatives, hallucinogens, etc. derive their properties from natural plant defenses against insects and other animals who want to eat them). They have moved-on to synthetics now and I'm sure they are testing them on someone. When you see the Big Pharma ads with the long list of side effects, those side effects are due to the fact that they are synthetic. Natural plant derivatives didn't have the vast array of bad side effects that the new generation of synthetics has. Overdose and addiction were the good ol' days, unfortunately. I don't know who they are testing them on, whether it's soldiers, inmates, mental patients, or GITMO/CIA black site detainees, but you can rest assured, if they have a drug to test, they will find a guinea pig.

[deke4]

01:30 PM on 03/11/2009

Doesn't it make you want to throw up when you hear the Bush administration talk about our brave troops. Actually our brave troops are in more danger from the people who wear flags in their lapels and call others unpatriotic who don't. Most of those flag wearing patriots ducked their generation's war, Cheney, Bush, Firth, Perle, Wolfnowitz, McConnell, Newt, Delay, Limbaugh to name a few. It was Bush who preemptively put these troops in harm's way unnecessarily. It is Bush who has used document classifications to keep Americans in the dark. And it is not surprising that they have done a myriad of things to further endanger our troops that eventually will be publicized.

[ReallyMe]

05:11 PM on 03/11/2009

Actually, I wanted to throw up every time I saw B__ sh admin officials using our military members as a backdrop for their speeches. They so abused our trroops as props and material for anti-democratic propaganda...

[middleoftheroad53]

12:09 PM on 03/11/2009

Many people do not realize that there is an elite class in America which goes contrary to our deeply held "democratic" beliefs in which we are all "equal". The "lower" classes are held in disdain doing the "dirty" work for the Bush's, Limbaugh's and Cheney's of this Country with the message "crafted" so cleverly that many buy into this propaganda foisted upon us.

Our education system fails so many young men and women they are unable to think critically for themselves. They are inculcated with slick advertisements in movie theaters and on television about the honor and pride and glory of being an American Serviceman and blind to the realities of being used and abused by the powers who really control this nation.

Those brave men and women who volunteer deserve better than that. And we Americans, should not let political front men (and women), conservative talking heads (read right-wing nut jobs) and MSM do our thinking as to what is true or not true.

From the syphilis experiments done to the Tuskegee Airmen 60 years ago by our own Government to the denial of Agent Orange sickness, to the denial of the (1st) Iraq War Syndrome complaints our Government has been consistent with putting the concern for the health of our servicemen LAST!

When are we going to smarten up?

[Joethepauper]

05:26 PM on 03/11/2009

That elite class consists of the people who sent our brave young men and women to war for no good reason AND the same group of people wrecked the entire world's economy. We enable them by buying the crap they sell. We also enable them by working for them. While an average Fortune 100 CEO makes over $8,000.00 PER HOUR, half of the world's population survives on less than $2 PER DAY. I was offered a good paying job for a subsidiary of Halliburton in the oilfield services industry, but I turned it down as a matter of principle. Those people have been making massive profits for 50 years or more, and have been hiding assets offshore and sending our jobs overseas. Oil related companies spend a lot of money lobbying against clean, renweable energy, and they get all kinds of government breaks, incentives, and no-bid contracts. They are inherently evil and are engaged in all sorts of market manipulation and tricks to defraud investors and the public, and they don't care about anyone but themselves. Why should I devote my time and energy to help them become more of what they already are? I'm used to being poor and I refuse to work for anyone who operates against the public's best interests. I think in the long term (and I don't even have kids or grandkids), it's too bad some of my fellow Americans are willing to sell-out so easily for short-term gain.

[wbateman]

11:21 AM on 03/11/2009

I've been to Balad twice (A.F.) and my wife once (Army) and we're both VERY concerned over the exposure we faced when the pit was most active (twice weekly). The reason the levels weren't tested very high daily was the pit only operated two times a week. But your eyes would burn all week long...

[SamKnause]

10:23 AM on 03/11/2009

Yes Obama has done a lot, but it should not take 16 months to bring our troops home from Iraq, when we know we should not have been there to start with. Bring them home now and don't send anymore to Afghanistan, bring them home to. It is simple. We can not save the world from itself. Everyone doesn't want democracy. We need to straighten out our corrupt country before we go preaching and trying to fix other countries. Because of the various religions around the world and in our own country, people are never going to agree on anything. When some people are pro war, but against abortion, when some kill other people by suicide bombers and then preach love and peace, when some people treat women like property with no rights by raping them and denying them education the world is never going to agree on anything. We need to get rid of religion and stop all wars. As long as there are people who think men should rule the world and tell women what they can and cannot do, as long as the greedy and powerful keep the masses poor, as long war is profitable but feeding the hungry isn't , none of these cruel and horrible things are ever going to change.

[Joethepauper]

05:37 PM on 03/11/2009

I couldn't agree more. I'm sure once upon a time, religion was a way to bring about peace, but that must have been about 10,000 years ago, and probably didn't last very long. Maybe there should have been an 11th commandment: Thou shalt not make war. I guess "Thou shalt not kill" wasn't explicit enough for the dumb@sses we share the planet with. The people who claim to be religious usually can't list more than three of the Ten Commandments anyway, so that shows you the kind of people we are dealing with. There was an unrelated poll last year that said a large majority of Americans couldn't point to the U.S. on a map of the U.S. I'm not even joking! I will try to find the link and post it. SAD!

[Joethepauper]

05:50 PM on 03/11/2009

Here's the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-shehori/poll-37-of-americans-unab_b_150933.html

Correction to my last post: Okay, 37% isn't a "large majority of Americans", but it's too large a percentage for me to wrap my (geographically superior) brain around. All that time I spend in traffic behind people who still have Bush/Cheney bumper stickers on their cars from 2000, and some of those people don't even know where they live! Actually, having a 2004 version is a much worse character flaw/lapse in judgement. I think the world is getting dumber by the day.

[EthanGregory1]

09:09 AM on 03/11/2009

Ochs, Bumpus, Sachs, Joshua, Andy....God be with you all. I am sorry our goverment treated you this way. I hope Americans read and can see what you did for them. My heart is with these families suffering.

[alted1663]

06:16 AM on 03/11/2009

And all this time I thought it was Gulf War Syndrome. You know like the government told us.

[waynesmyer]

11:49 AM on 03/11/2009

Which no-bid contract company did the burning! put our troops life at further risk? KBR? Halliburton? Bectel? OK ARMY! Fess up!

[belmontdevil]

02:58 AM on 03/11/2009

Yep...
My Dad passed away 7 yrs ago from a rare Cancer known to be caused by exposure to Agent Orange...he was part of a "Cancer Cluster" from his base in Vietnam. For almost 30 yrs I watched him fight for the DoD to admit to what they had done & pay for his Medical Bills.

In '06,after 14 yrs of hell while searching for answers, I found out that I had an "Acquired Brain Injury" caused by an "Auto Immune Response" which destroyed all of the cells within a specific area of my Brain...this response was triggered by exposures to Chemicals, Immunizations, Exotic bug-bites/Diseases and God knows what else during my service in the Gulf War. A disproportionally high number of us have died from ALS or show similar Brain Damage on fMRI's.

We are still fighting the DoD and VA to fully accept the mountain of new Scientific Research/Data which supports this Cause -n-Effect for Gulf War Illness((Syndrome).

..and already, another Generation of America's Warriors are being exposed to toxins that may destroy their lives....and the Government is once again waging a War of Denials against them.

I hope Pres. Obama breaks this cycle.

Keep fighting Brothers & Sisters.
USAF

[superjules]

02:04 AM on 03/11/2009

And people are surprised by this? If you think the government cares about it's troops you are sadly mistaken. We are simply disposable garbage. I have 2 more years left before we retire and I can say goodbye to this mess. The only time the government pretends to care about their Airmen/Soldiers is when they get caught doing something unspeakable to them. It always cracks me up when people talk about Russia and other countries being corrupt. America wrote the book on corruption. Bush and his friends just wrote the sequel.

[SamKnause]

09:55 AM on 03/11/2009

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[Maxbyte]

12:25 AM on 03/11/2009

There is someone well above the rank of colonel who authorized those pits to be in close proximity to our troops. A lot of conversations with top commanders never makes it onto paper or into files.

General Petraeus almost certainly knew because he makes it his business to know what's going on around him.

Whoever knew and did nothing is as culpable as those who authorized the pits. This is Agent Orange #2 and needs to be handled quickly.

[Rule Of Law]

11:46 PM on 03/10/2009

This is exactly why I cannot buy the line--End the War/Support our troops!

The best, perhaps the only, way to support our troops is to get them the he// out of Iraq and Afghanistan, halve the military budget, and reorganize all branches to conform to strict laws regarding how our young men and women are treated!

This is not the first time they've become lab rats for the MIC and the banksters. From mustard gas "tests" in WW1 to asbestos on ships both for the men who built them as well as those who sailed on them, to atomic test guinea pigs in the South Pacific and Nevada, to LSD experimentation, agent orange, anthrax vaccines, the list is endless.

This is how Bush and the neo-cons treat our "heroes?" And then they cut benefits, medical, psych. I can see wanting to serve your country, but it should be a country you are proud to serve, not one that treats its protectors like garbage.

[Klimb]

11:21 PM on 03/10/2009

To all on this post who have lost relatives and friends in combat, please accept my condolences and may their souls forever rest in eternal peace!

For those serving, the prayers continue for their safety and a speedy mission accomplishment!

FOR ALL WHO SERVE(D) THIS NATION AND GIVE(N) US OUR DAILY FREEDOM, I THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH AND ALSO, KNOW THAT NO WORDS CAN EXPRESS WHAT YOU DO FOR US!

[Ergon]

12:06 AM on 03/11/2009

Pray and shout all you want, but 'speedy mission accomplishment' is an oxymoron.