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BUSH WATCH...HEATHER WOKUSCH hoot | 'toon | comment | features | today's news | news update | bushreport | archives | us | contact | Bush On Edge As Lawsuit Targets WMD Businesses A lawsuit on behalf of over 100,000 Gulf War veterans text has the Bush administration on edge and businesses running for cover. The class action suit names 11 companies and 33 banks alleged to have helped Iraq with its chemical weapons program in the 1980's, despite knowledge Saddam Hussein was actively using WMD against both Iranians and his own people. At the time, Reagan's Middle East envoy was one Donald Rumsfeld, hard at work opening doors for Hussein's regime to purchase millions in aircraft, hardware and other potential weaponry. But after the invasion of Kuwait bumped Hussein from Pentagon friend to the "Most Wanted" list, coalition forces got stuck with the nasty task of dealing with the same chemical weapons that businesses had profited by helping Iraq amass. Unfortunately, most Gulf War troops didn't realize that in destroying Hussein's WMD, they would also be endangering their own lives. In the 1991 air war against Iraq, coalition forces bombed weapons production facilities and ammunition dumps, subjecting themselves to widespread and unexpected fallout; in one disastrous case, over 100,000 service members were exposed to sarin nerve gas when the US military improperly blew up chemical weapons sites in Khamisiyah. Today, it is estimated that up to half of the 697,000 Gulf War veterans are sick, text many suffering from a variety of symptoms collectively known as Gulf War Illness. The US Department of Defense (DOD) has been repeatedly criticized for mishandling the veterans' health complaints, often citing lack of diagnosis as justification for withholding treatment and compensation. However, recent medical research has established causal links text between exposure to chemical warfare agents, Gulf War Illness and birth defects among veterans' children. It's those links attorneys Gary Pitts and Kenneth McCallion will address. Maintaining "companies and banks have not yet had any negative consequences for helping Saddam Hussein build his chemical weapons of mass destruction," Pitts and McCallion claim the lawsuit is not only "to seek just compensation for the poisoned veterans and their birth-defected children, it is to deter companies from engaging in this kind of behavior in the future." And in light of today's conflict in Iraq, the lawsuit's implications are both broad-reaching and ominous. At least 100 Gulf War II troops have already contracted a "mystery" pneumonia-like illness text Michael Neusche describes how his 20-year-old son Josh, a former track star from Missouri, wrote home from active duty in Iraq on June 26 saying would be doing a secretive "hauling" mission. By July 1 Josh had fallen into a coma; the military promptly reclassified Josh as "medically retired," text thus stripping him and his family of entitlements, and on July 12th Josh died from what the Pentagon called "other causes." In a similar case, Zeferino E. Colungo, a 20-year-old from Texas, died after battling an unexplained pneumonia-like illness. In a recent letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the Colungo family says, "We deserve to know text why a healthy young man who was supposedly screened and determined fit for deployment would suddenly die. It is our right to receive honest answers." It's clear the DOD has some explaining to do; GW II troops must not be forced to receive the same medical run-around suffered by their predecessors. The lawsuit on behalf of Gulf War veterans, however, ups the ante considerably - this time not only the DOD is under fire. By targeting companies and banks for compensation, veterans are sending the weapons industry a clear warning: it's getting dangerous to profit by helping dubious governments produce WMD. --08.25.03 To hear Geoff Staples interview Heather Wokusch on the Gulf War veterans' lawsuit and the upcoming Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty conference, catch a replay at www.heatherwokusch.com Trading on terror : Linking financial markets and war The Pentagon's online "terror" futures market may have gone down in flames, but questions surrounding 9/11 insider trading and market rigging before the Iraq invasion still linger. In a much-aligned plan the Pentagon described as "engaging and ... profitable," anonymous traders were invited to bet on the likelihood of Middle Eastern death and destruction; public outcry forced the "Policy Analysis Market" (PAM) plan to be yanked days before its scheduled launch. But allegations about the ultimate "terror" futures market, 9/11 insider trading, have yet to be adequately addressed. It's known that just weeks before the attacks, speculative trading surged on companies to be hardest hit, text such as those located in the World Trade Center. There was a rally in five-year US Treasury notes, the best investment in times of US crisis, and sales of airline-based put options (bets a stock's price will fall) increased sharply too; interestingly, many such put options were sold through a firm previously managed by top CIA director, text A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard. Estimates of 9/11 profit-taking are in the billions of dollars, and according to Dylan Ratigan of Bloomberg Business News, "This could very well be insider trading at the worst, most horrific, most evil use you've ever seen in your entire life. This would be one of the most extraordinary coincidences in the history of mankind if it was a coincidence." Bowing to public pressure, the FBI and other federal watchdogs promised swift and thorough investigations into potential 9/11 insider trading. Significant that today, almost two years after the attacks, no progress seems to have been made. It's also indicative that the US government didn't take market volatility preceding 9/11 more seriously, especially since the rationale behind its recent PAM terror-trading scheme was that the "extremely efficient" predictive quality of futures markets could enhance national security. But some analysts charge the Bush administration has actually been too active in the markets, effectively manipulating levels to build up public support before its invasion of Iraq text . Here's how analysts say it worked: a secretive US governmental committee orchestrated massive selling in the euro, crude and gold right before the invasion, effectively lowering prices and bumping up the dollar. The covert committee simultaneously purchased targeted Dow Jones equities to prop up the relatively unsophisticated index, thereby creating a rally big enough to calm investors. How else, analysts say, to explain the market rally when it seemed an invasion would be postponed, followed by a rally one week later at news war was imminent? The fact that a team of US governmental and Wall Street leaders periodically moves the markets in US interests is undisputed; the group was created by Executive Order 12631 textin the Reagan years and continues today under the nickname Plunge Protection Team. What is less clear, however, is if the Bush administration's desired invasion of Iraq was deemed a US interest vital enough to rig the markets. The Pentagon's dubious futures-market scheme may have been axed, but far too many questions surrounding the link between US stock markets, war and terrorism remain. 08.18.03 Heather Wokusch is a free-lance writer. She can be contacted via her web site: www.heatherwokusch.com The views expressed are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect those of Bush Watch. |