US Air Force C 130 Hercules in Uzbekistan in 2005
The web portal Military.com reports that recently declassified Defense Department documents show the Pentagon knew troops were exposed to multiple toxins and hazards that have led to hundreds of cancer cases and dozens of deaths among veterans after deploying to Uzbekistan in the early days of the ‘War on Terror’. The Department of Veterans Affairs is denying most of them care and disability payments.
Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, known as K2, is a former Soviet air base in south-eastern Uzbekistan that shares a border with northern Afghanistan. After the 9/11 attacks, the US established a military base at K2, which was used to support combat missions from 2001 to 2005. Veterans described a toxic environment at the post, where pond water glowed green, black sludge oozed from the ground and the government posted massive white and yellow signs warning troops to keep out of certain areas due to chemical agents.
Last week, the House Subcommittee on National Security released previously classified documents provided by the military in 2001, 2002 and 2004 that reveal a mountain of evidence that service members were exposed to multiple health risks including cancer-risking toxins.
Most notably, the former Soviet base had contained chemical weapons, enriched uranium and soil saturated with fuels and other solvents.
The documents were declassified in February, but Defence officials waited until July to alert Congress, according to a release from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Former service members who spent time at K2 testified on Capitol Hill in February that they were aware of at least 400 individuals diagnosed with cancers who served at the base. They said at least 30 of them have died.
During a health assessment test in 2001, military analysts found the base had “elevated levels of volatile organic compounds and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) were detected at numerous locations throughout Stronghold Freedom [the military base], including tent city, eastern expansion area and adjacent to the aircraft maintenance facility.” It also found that ambient air is the “main concern for environmental contaminants.”
A 2002 assessment recommended not to dig “into soil contaminated with jet fuel,” but those areas were populated with tents soldiers slept in and aircraft hangars, according to the declassified document. In the same year, another DOD health risk assessment found “between 50% and 75% of personnel at Stronghold Freedom” would be exposed to elevated levels.”
“The Department of Veterans Affairs continues to deny these illnesses are related and continue to deny benefits,” Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., said in a call with reporters Thursday. VA did agree to a study on K2 veterans, according to Lynch. “It should not have been this hard to convince VA to make this commitment. … K2 veterans have time-sensitive needs that need to be addressed now.”
Five months after the United States invaded Afghanistan, air samples at the base found elevated levels of tetrachloroethylene. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Studies in humans suggest that exposure to tetrachloroethylene might lead to a higher risk of getting bladder cancer, multiple myeloma or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that originates in the lymphatic system”
An estimated 7,000 troops served at K2 during the first four years of the war in Afghanistan. However, the real number might be higher as the figure does not include troops who served there on short, temporary assignments or certain operators serving highly classified missions.
It can be difficult to definitively link diseases that some post-9/11 troops are suffering after exposure to military dump areas and contaminated bases.
It is unclear if the declassified documents and veterans’ testimony before the congressional committee will get the VA bureaucrats to expedite the processing of their claims for health carer and disability benefits. The Pentagon did not return a request for comment on whether they will urge the department to move on the issue.
The VA’s perceived slow movement and unclear communication on the issue after two decades of Middle East wars have had some compare it to the decades it took for veterans sickened by Agent Orange to finally get benefits.
“We were told by the VA they did not have scientific data to what conditions existed at K2 and how that was connected to conditions,” said Paul Widener, a veteran who served at K2.
“At this time, research does not show evidence of long-term health problems from exposure to burn pits. VA continues to study the health of deployed veterans,” according to the VA’s website.
A VA spokeswoman said on Friday last week that disability claims are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. She said the initial results of the department’s study on the health of K2 vets are expected in about 18 months. LINK
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Americunts are loudmouth ignorant dehumanized racist cunts who the Jew parasites have turned into evil savages with no respect for humanity or even basic decency. They use this brainwashed trailer trash as guinea pigs and throw them out on the streets like used condoms . It is a disgusting shithole and I am being diplomatic.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is denying most of them care and disability payments.
If that doesn’t piss veterans off then I don’t know what will. Those guys in VA better be careful with someone that have nothing left to lose.
Its not as if Americans don’t know what to expect,they don’t even care about their own soldiers,they carried out LSD experiments on them years ago.
Look up the Tuskegee experiments.
So these guys signed up for the military and expected a posh job without any risks – a soldier is canon fodder, if he makes it back he had a lucky straw. Whining about job hazards is really unpatriotic and somebody has to talk to them in straight language.
Soldiers in the US sign up for three meals a day and a roof over their heads and not for “patriotic” reasons. US is a failed state that exploits the most vulnerable.
They know what they’re getting into when signing up.
Sadly, no ,they don’t. They are brainwashed muppets.
The part you forgot all about in your nasty little Zionist rant is our beloved Government assured those entering military service whatever support needed should they be injured, disabled, and a bunch of other benefits. War, even bullshit wars in countries US Government has no best interests to serve, and are serving, exclusively The City of London. (a Zionist Khazar Atheists pretending to be God’s Chosen Ones criminal Banking Cabal) A criminal act in itself. To deliberately park their own Army in the Middle of a known toxic waste site is a war crime. But then so is bombing civilians, and civilian infrastructure. I’m dead certain military personnel did not sign on for this risk. Neither did they sign on to be denied the benefits, etc., promised by the Government that never intended to provide in the first place. This shit is SOP in Veterans Affairs, veterans protesting their Government fucking over them have been shot on orders from General Staff. MacArthur comes to mind. US military kills more of it’s own than the enemy does, intentionally. And, no they did not know that these risks existed, I’m sure that somewhere in the documents they signed, the military agreed it would not deliberately try to kill them, drop bio-weapons on them, expose them to high levels of Gamma radiation just for shots, and giggles, perform medical experiments on them, drown them in Dioxin, drop white Phos on them, and stuff, then deny the healthcare, and benefits as promised. Then there’s that DU munitions thing. Veteran, are ya’ ? I’m thinkin’ not. You’d be talking out of a side of your face you didn’t even know you had a side of you’d been treated like goyim. You didn’t explain how you came to conclude this crime against humanity. is somehow acceptable, desired, and justified. Your arrogance, disparaging, careless disregard is that of a sociopath. Openly, and publically putting your weakness of character on display. Fancy yourself as being Royalty, a “chosen one” do ya’ ? You’re not, you dishonor yourself, what you are is a bully. A coward, hiding behind a façade of bluff, bluster, and false bravado. Your presense above ground, is an embarrassment to all humanity, and you diminish the human race as a species. Certainly not worth dirtying one’s hands on. Have a nice day Mr. Pompous ass.
Humanity and US are mutually exclusive.
Erm are the C-130’s parked next to Su-27’s in the 2005 pic?
Ya the Russians left it behind.
I believe that if a former soviet state paid for the arms they got to keep some or most of them unless they were nuclear capable.
Early export models, not giving away any secrets with these. Just super size MiG-29. What Sukhoi calls his planes.
GI Privilege.