What's New
| Presdent Obama Donated $250,000 of Nobel Prize Money to Fisher House |
March 11, 2010, Washington, DC (New York Times) - President Obama made good on his promise to give his $1.4 million Nobel Prize money to charity, releasing the names on Thursday of the organizations that will benefit. |
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| Dr. Haley at UTSW Presents Compelling Brain Images Showing Gulf War Illness |
VCS Asks VA: Since UTSW Research Remains Vital to Understanding Gulf War Illness, Then Why Did a Handful of VA Staff in Washington Impede UTSW Contract and Then End Funding for UTSW? March 9, 2010, Salt Lake City, Utah (Science News) - Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images – various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements – that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome. |
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| March 9 VCS Weekly Update |
This week’s VCS update keeps you in the loop with news on issues you care about. One good change – our weekly news updates won’t ask you for money. Instead, our news updates point you to news articles at our web site. We hope you will read them and share the important facts with your friends. This week's update includes news about VA and suicides, VCS on CNN, our VCS FOIA campaign, VA automating Agent Orange claims, a waterboarding torture video, and Gulf War veterans' benefits. |
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| Federal Court Keeps Torture Lawsuit Against Rumsfeld Alive |
What's Waterboarding? Watch Video of Torture March 5, 2010, Chicago, Illinois (Associated Press) - A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm. [Rumsfeld served at the Pentagon under former President George W. Bush.] |
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| Reducing Suicides: VA Adopts Policy on Emergency Care for Mental Health Patients |
This Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive provides policy to ensure the provision of safe and secure mental health services during all hours of operation for Emergency Departments (EDs) and Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) in VHA |
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Attorney General Holder Should Order Comprehensive Torture Investigation, Says ACLU
Written by Will Matthews
Thursday, 23 July 2009 09:33
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July 22, 2009 - According to recent news reports, Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing a prosecutor to investigate torture crimes under the Bush administration. However, many of these reports indicate that Holder is contemplating a narrow investigation that would focus only on CIA interrogators and contract employees who violated the Bush administration's guidelines.
CIA Spokesperson Paul Gimigliano was quoted in today's New York Times as saying, "This has all been reviewed and dealt with before." The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union: "The evidence is abundantly clear that the crime of torture was authorized at the highest levels of the Bush administration. Making low-level officials take the fall while the big fish get away is not how we do justice in America. In America, no one is above the law, regardless of rank or position. A narrow investigation that fails from the outset to follow the facts where they lead would only perpetuate the Bush administration's false claim that torture was the result of a 'few bad apples,' rather than confront the reality that it was a widespread, systemic and orchestrated policy set at the highest levels of government. "For the CIA to claim that this has all been 'dealt with before' is both disingenuous and disturbing when, to date - despite the mountains of evidence of high-level involvement - the highest ranking official to be prosecuted for abuse was a Lieutenant Colonel. Turning away from the facts does not make them go away. "Attorney General Holder should enforce the law even-handedly and objectively, and not let political calculations stand in the way. Those who authorized, legally justified and carried out this dark spot on our nation's history must be held accountable."
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