VA's Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran Disability Claims Reports

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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.

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.

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.]

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

Senator Hutchison Supports Gulf War Research at University of Texas Southwestern

Texas Senator Calls VA Decision ‘Vindication’ for Gulf War Veterans

February 28, 2010 - (Press Release) U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison released the following statement concerning the Department of Veterans Affairs decision to reconsider the rejected claims of Gulf War veterans:

VA's Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran Disability Claims Reports

Written by Administrator

Monday, 31 August 2009 13:01

Updated September 6, 2009 - The Global War on Terror (GWOT) disability claim activity reports are official Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) documents summarizing how many Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans filed disability compensation claims at VA regional offices. GWOT is the official Department of Defense name for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The claim activity reports also contain statistics about pension claims, education claims, vocational rehabilitation and employment claims, home loan guaranty program claims, and other programs administered by the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA).

The VA claim activity reports are prepared periodically, and they are shown in chronological order starting with the newest report. However, there appear to be gaps of missing GWOT claim activity reports during the past five years. The GWOT claim activity reports are organized by month and year. For example, “gwot_claims_02_09” is the date of the GWOT claim activity report for January 2009. GWOT claim activity reports contain details about the sources of data and definitions of terms used. Please note the date of the GWOT claim activity statistics is often several months before the publishing date printed on the cover of a GWOT report.