Page 2 - aruba-today-20240911

A2 UP FRONT
Wednesday 11 september 2024

Jon Stewart presses for a breakthrough to get the first 9/11 troops full care

clear fusion specialist and who spoke on the condi-
Continued from Front president of the Institute for tion of anonymity to discuss
Energy and Environmental the private meeting.
Troops found clumps of Research. The veterans don't under-
yellow powder scattered Radiation exposure from stand why U.S. agencies will
near bunkers where Soviet uranium can damage not officially acknowledge
troops had stored missiles. kidneys, create a risk for the radiation exposure,
Testing showed it was radio- bone cancer and affect particularly because it's
active uranium, according pregnancies, among other been reported in agency
to a declassified November harmful effects, said Makhi- documents.
2001 Defense Department jani, who previously worked "They're clearly weirdly
assessment. with veterans sickened by sensitive about this place,"
In the years since, thou- radiation at the Bikini Atoll Stewart said.
sands of K2 veterans have during nuclear weapons Congress obtained de-
reported cancers, kidney tests in the 1940s. tailed environmental as-
problems and other medi- The VA does not have sessments of the base and
cal conditions, some of statistics on how many of reams of data from the
which are known to be Jon Stewart takes part in an interview outside the Department of the 15,000-plus troops de- Pentagon and made it
connected to radiation Veterans Affairs, July 26, 2024 in Washington. Associated Press ployed at K2 got sick. The public four years ago in a
exposure. But exposure veterans grassroots or- bipartisan effort to get the
from K2 is not covered un- uranium but rather an en- priority." ganization has contacted K2 veterans' toxic exposure
der a major veterans aid riched product," the now- VA spokesman Terrence about 5,000 of them, and recognized. Rep. Stephen
bill known as the PACT Act declassified report found. Hayes said in a statement more than 1,500 reported Lynch, D-Mass., and Rep.
that President Joe Biden Despite those records, the that since the passage of serious medical conditions, Mark Green, R-Tenn., re-
signed in 2022. Defense Department has the PACT Act almost 12,000 including cancers, kidney cently announced new
"K2 veterans were the tip not officially identified the K2 veterans have been and bone problems, repro- legislation to that end.
of the spear. They were the base as a location where approved for at least one ductive issues and birth de- In response to multiple que-
first group deployed in the radiation exposure took service-related condition fects. ries by the AP, officials at
war on terror, and they are place. And the Depart- and have received an av- U.S. forces left the base in the White House, VA and
still on a lazy Susan of bu- ment of Veterans Affairs erage yearly payment of 2005. Since then, Uzbekistan Defense Department have
reaucratic nonsense, keep- has not added it to the $30,871 to compensate has taken on a greater role pointed to other aspects
ing them from getting the presumptive conditions them for the disabilities in regional counterterror- of expanded care for K2
benefits and health care troops experienced there. they now have. ism efforts, particularly after veterans — both from the
that they earned," Stew- The White House has said it But K2 veterans have also the U.S. lost its foothold in PACT Act and supplemen-
art said in an interview this remains a priority for Biden, died waiting for the Penta- Afghanistan after the 2021 tal care that the VA an-
week with The Associated but has deferred to the gon and the VA to recog- withdrawal. nounced last month add-
Press. agencies, which say more nize their radiation-related Just over a dozen U.S. ing more conditions that
Stewart is pressing the Biden information is needed. illness claims, and further troops have been regularly they face.
administration for changes "President Biden believes studies and reviews just pro- deployed to Uzbekistan When it comes to the ra-
to get the K2 veterans ful- veterans harmed by toxic long the process, said Matt over the last few years, ac- diation exposure, the gov-
ly covered and he called exposures while they were Erpelding, who leads the K2 cording to Pentagon data. ernment refers to a Johns
into a meeting Monday stationed at K2 should veterans group Stronghold Uzbek Gen. Maj. Shukhrat Hopkins study on depleted
between veterans and the have access to the benefits Freedom Foundation. Khalmukhamedov met uranium impact on vet-
Defense Department's as- they earned and deserve," "It needs to get done now," with Gen. CQ Brown, chair- erans that won't be com-
sistant secretary for health White House spokesperson said Erpelding, who de- man of the Joint Chiefs of plete until 2031, the 30th
affairs. Kelly Scully said in a state- ployed to K2 as a C-130 pi- Staff, at the Pentagon on anniversary of the attacks.
A 2001 Army health team ment to the AP. lot in December 2001. Monday to discuss shared "Because DOD, and by ex-
site assessment found ura- The Pentagon also said Based on a review of the efforts to defeat the Is- tension the VA, do not ac-
nium littered around K2 in in a statement it "remains declassified K2 data, radia- lamic State group and "Uz- knowledge it was there, it is
"pellets, discrete pockets of committed to thoroughly tion levels documented at bekistan's desire to develop a sticking point for every K2
yellow residue, and finely reviewing all information K2 in 2001 were as much a strategic partnership with bill or rule and was left out
distributed throughout the related to K2" and that "en- as 40,000 times what would the U.S.," a readout from of the PACT Act because
soil." suring the health and safe- have registered if the urani- Brown's office said. it was nonnegotiable,"
"Testing to date implies that ty of our service members um was naturally occurring, K2 did not come up, ac- K2 veteran Mark Jackson
the uranium is not depleted and veterans remains a top said Arjun Makhijani, a nu- cording to a U.S. official said.q