Whistleblowing Wednesday: Unclassified Memo Shows That The Army Knew Burn Pits Causes Illnesses

Since returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, an untold number of soldiers have come down with puzzling health problems. Chronic bronchitis. Neurological defects. Even cancer. Many of them are pointing the finger at a single culprit: The open-air “burn pits” that incinerated trash — from human waste to computer parts — on military bases overseas.

Pentagon officials have consistently reassured personnel that there was no “specific evidence” connecting the two. But now, only days after Danger Room uncovered a memo suggesting that Army officials knew how dangerous the pits were, an animal study is offering up new scientific evidence that links burn pits to depleted immune systems.

“The dust doesn’t only appear to cause lung inflammation,” says Dr. Anthony Szema, an assistant professor at Stony Brook School of Medicine who specializes in pulmonology and allergies, and the researcher who led this latest study. “It also destroys the body’s own T-cells.” Those cells are at the core of the body’s immune system, “like a bulletproof vest against illnesses,” Szema tells Danger Room. When they’re depleted, an individual is much more prone to myriad conditions.

The unclassified memo (.jpg), dated April 15, 2011, stated that high concentrations of dust and burned waste present at Bagram Airfield for most of the war are likely to impact veterans’ health for the rest of their lives.

“The long term health risk” from breathing in Bagram’s particulate-rich air include “reduced lung function or exacerbated chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, atherosclerosis, or other cardiopulmonary diseases.” Service members may not necessarily “acquire adverse long term pulmonary or heart conditions,” but “the risk for such is increased.”

Accordingly, the health risks were not limited to troops serving at Bagram in 2011, the memo states. The health hazards are an assessment of “air samples taken over approximately the last eight years” at the base.

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Two USA Today Journalist Hit By A Smear Campaign After Reporting On Pentagon Propaganda

Two USA Today journalists investigating private security companies engaging in foreign propaganda wars on behalf of the Pentagon appear to have been subjected themselves to a dirty tricks campaign, the newspaper has revealed.

Reporter Tom Vanden Brook and editor Ray Locker became the subject of a sustained internet campaign to discredit their work just days after they began publishing the results of their investigation into a multi-million dollar Pentagon-funded propaganda mission in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the course of the smear campaign, fake websites, Twitter feeds and Facebook accounts were set up under the journalists’ names in which they were accused of being backed by the Taliban.

The source of the smear campaign has not been identified, and the Pentagon itself told USA Today that it was unaware of any such activities, which it stressed it would find unacceptable. But the timing of the shady attempts to drag their names into the journalistic mud is certainly suggestive.

On February 29 USA Today published the results of the two journalists’ investigations which suggested that the Pentagon had handed millions of dollars to private contractors to carry out dark arts, for very little measurable return. Indeed, the paper reported that one of the main contractors had fallen $4m behind in paying their taxes.

Source

mohandasgandhi:

Journalist, author and publisher Charles Glass has a feature in this month’s edition of Harper’s magazine called “The Warrior Class,” a feature covering the rise of private security contractors after 9/11. The article describes a number videos shown to Glass by a source who had worked for Blackwater. Harpers published clips from the videos yesterday, which show Blackwater guards and other private security contractors operating as if living in the Wild West. One video shows a contractor randomly and “enthusiastically” firing an AK-47 from the turret of an armored vehicle and another shows a private guard yelling obscenities at passers-by and other armored cars smashing into civilian vehicles:

[Video]

Another video shows what appears to be an American-made SUV running over a civilian without stopping. The car videoing the incident also does not stop:

[Video]

Harpers reports that “the tape ended with the inscription ‘In support of security, peace, freedom and democracy everywhere.”

This is American exceptionalism at its finest.

Wow, this should be causing outrage. How can anyone defend this? Please watch the video and reblog.

Emos And Gays Are Being Slaughtered In Iraq

Young people who identify themselves as so-called Emos are being brutally killed at an alarming rate in Iraq, where militias have distributed hit lists of victims and security forces say they are unable to stop crimes against the subculture that is widely perceived in Iraq as being gay.

Officials and human rights groups estimated as many as 58 Iraqis who are either gay or believed to be gay have been killed in the last six weeks alone — forecasting what experts fear is a return to the rampant hate crimes against homosexuals in 2009. This year, eyewitnesses and human rights groups say some of the victims have been bludgeoned to death by militiamen smashing in their skulls with heavy cement blocks.

A recent list distributed by militants in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City neighborhood gives the names or nicknames of 33 people and their home addresses. At the top of the paper are a drawing of two handguns flanking a Quranic greeting that extolls God as merciful and compassionate.

Then follows a chilling warning.

“We warn in the strongest terms to every male and female debauchee,” the Shiite militia hit list says.

“If you do not stop this dirty act within four days, then the punishment of God will fall on you at the hands of Mujahideen.”

All but one of the targets are men.

Read More

elitistgamer:

Despite all the recent attention to a possible war with Iran,… http://bit.ly/xjNhDU

occupyallstreets:

Marine gets no jail time in killing of 24 Iraqi civilians

Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich will not serve a jail sentence following his guilty plea in the killing of 24 Iraqis in 2005, a military judge said Tuesday.

The announcement by Lt. Col. David Jones came after Wuterich took responsibility during his sentencing hearing at Camp Pendleton for the killings in the Euphrates River town of Haditha and expressed remorse to the victims’ families.

Jones said he had planned to recommend 90 days in the brig — the maximum as requested by the prosecution — but that the plea bargain approved by Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser had called for no jail time.

Wuterich, 31, was the last of eight Marines charged in the Haditha killings to have his case resolved. Six had the charges against them dropped, and one Marine was acquitted.

As the squad leader, Wuterich ordered his Marines “to shoot first, ask questions later” as they stormed two houses on Nov. 19, 2005, after a roadside bomb had killed one Marine and injured two others.

Source

On Friday, as part of Fuck FBI Friday, the Anti-Sec branch of Anonymous hacked the website and email of Frank Wuterich’s lawyers. 

> http://www.puckettfaraj.com/

The contents of these email messages include detailed records, transcripts, testimony, trial evidence, and legal defense donation records pertaining to not only Frank Wuterich but also many other marines they have represented.

And to add a few layers of icing to this delicious caek, Anti-Sec got the usual boatloads of embarrassing personal information. How do you think the world will react when they find out Neal Puckett and his marine buddies have been making crude jokes about the incident where marines have been caught on video pissing on dead bodies in Afghanistan? Or that he regularly corresponds with and receives funding from former marine Don Greenlaw who runs the racist blog  http://snooper.wordpress.com?

Lawyers Haytham and Neal were not smart enough to change their passwords. As a result, we now have emails sent after the website was attacked. Enjoy a sneak preview:

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 12:59:26 

To: Neal A. Puckett <neal@puckettfaraj.com>

 Haytham Faraj <haytham@puckettfaraj.com>

 Atwood Marcelyn <marcy@puckettfaraj.com>

Michael Epstein

917.674.4677

From: Whitcraft, Teri <Teri.Whitcraft@abc.com>

Date: February 3, 2012 12:50:22 PM EST

To: Michael Epstein <epstein@viewfindernyc.com>

 Subject: FW: anon hacks marine lawyers website

Oh my

Teri Whitcraft

From: Ferran, Lee H.

Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 12:47 PM

To: #ABCTV Domestic News

Subject: anon hacks marine lawyers website

The lawyers for Frank Wuterich (recently tried Marine in Haditha killings) had their website hacked by an Anonymous affiliate today. Puckett & Faraj website now features a manifesto from Antisec and is playing Sound of Da Police music video. Claims they stole personal emails about Wuterich trial as well as 9Cboatloads of embarrassing personal information. Said they did it because Wuterich got off while Manning is getting worse.

From: Neal A. Puckett <neal@puckettfaraj.com>

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 13:00:56

Cc: MARCY Atwood <marcy@puckettfaraj.com>,

 Mike Epstein <epstein@viewfindernyc.com>

To: Haytham Faraj <haytham@puckettfaraj.com>

Partner,

Just FYI.  I got a phone call from Epstein who says the PFC Bradley Manning supporters just jacked our website.  I sent an emergency message to Chief Ingredient to take it down.

N

Neal A. Puckett, Esq

LtCol, USMC (Ret)

Puckett & Faraj, PLLC

1800 Diagonal Rd, Suite 210

Alexandria, VA 22314

703.706.9566

www.puckettfaraj.com

www.twitter.com/puckettfaraj

From: “Neal A. Puckett” <neal@puckettfaraj.com>

Subject: EMERGENCY!!!!

Date: February 3, 2012 12:59:24 PM EST

To: Micah Johnson <info@chiefingredient.com>

Cc: MARCY Atwood <marcy@puckettfaraj.com>

Micah,

Our website just got hacked.  Can you take it offline and help us cure the problem immediately, please!

Thanks!

Neal A. Puckett, Esq

LtCol, USMC (Ret)

Puckett & Faraj, PLLC

1800 Diagonal Rd, Suite 210

Alexandria, VA 22314

703.706.9566

From: “Neal A. Puckett” <neal@puckettfaraj.com>

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 13:02:52

Subject: Re: EMERGENCY!!!!

Cc: MARCY Atwood <marcy@puckettfaraj.com>,

 Haytham Faraj <haytham@puckettfaraj.com>

To: Micah Johnson <info@chiefingredient.com>

More info.  To whom can we report this?  Why didn’t security prevent this?

Neal

Neal A. Puckett, Esq

LtCol, USMC (Ret)

Puckett & Faraj, PLLC

1800 Diagonal Rd, Suite 210

Alexandria, VA 22314

703.706.9566

From: “Neal A. Puckett” <neal@puckettfaraj.com>

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 13:40:09

Cc: MARCY Atwood <marcy@puckettfaraj.com>,

 Mike Epstein <epstein@viewfindernyc.com>

To: Haytham Faraj <haytham@puckettfaraj.com>

It’s down now.  Mike says it’s the organization supporting Bradley Manning.  But yes, of course it’s the result of Haditha.

Neal A. Puckett, Esq

LtCol, USMC (Ret)

Puckett & Faraj, PLLC

1800 Diagonal Rd, Suite 210

Alexandria, VA 22314

703.706.9566

On Feb 3, 2012, at 1:00 PM, “Neal A. Puckett” wrote:

Partner,

Just FYI.  I got a phone call from Epstein who says the PFC Bradley Manning supporters just jacked our website.  I sent an emergency message to Chief Ingredient to take it down.

Neal A. Puckett, Esq

LtCol, USMC (Ret)

Puckett & Faraj, PLLC

1800 Diagonal Rd, Suite 210

Alexandria, VA 22314

703.706.9566

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 13:54:57

Subject: Damage assessment

Cc: Haytham Faraj <haytham@puckettfaraj.com>,

 MARCY Atwood <marcy@puckettfaraj.com>

To: Micah Johnson <info@chiefingredient.com>

Micah,

News agencies are reporting that our website was hacked and that the hackers claim our emails and sensitive personal information was taken. 

Is that possible?

Neal

Neal A. Puckett, Esq

LtCol, USMC (Ret)

Puckett & Faraj, PLLC

1800 Diagonal Rd, Suite 210

Alexandria, VA 22314

703.706.9566

From: Micah Johnson <info@chiefingredient.com>

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 10:55:08

Cc: MARCY Atwood <marcy@puckettfaraj.com>,

Haytham Faraj <haytham@puckettfaraj.com>

To: “Neal A. Puckett” <neal@puckettfaraj.com>

Hi Neal,

This was done by someone who clearly knows what they are doing.  Anonymous is one of the largest, if not THE largest group of hackers in the world at this time. They’ve taken down Sony, DoD and many others in recent months.

I’ve replaced their hacked version with a blank screen for right now (it’s the quickest thing to get theirs off of there).  I’ve also updated the FTP password.

This isn’t like the previous hack where one file was replaced and it redirected.  In this case Anon was able to gain FTP access directly to the server and remove ALL files to your site.  We’re working on restoring the backups now, and looking to see how far this attack went. 

At this time, it only looks like the web files were removed, but the database was left intact and untouched.

We’re going to have to lock down not only the front end (as done previously), but we are going to have to limit the IP addresses that can access anything to do with the server.

Unfortunately, there are a couple things to consider with this one:

- This was clearly not a random attack.

- If this truly is anon, it may not be limited to just your site or just this one attack.  Currently, your domain is on a web server that hosts some of our other sites and clients as well.  It may be a good idea to host your site on a fully secured private web server.  This can run from $400 - $2,000 per month.  On a shared server, the other domains could be vectors for possible access to your site as well.

- Anonymous is a little out of my league.  Since you are being targeted, I would suggest hiring a specialist for this type of matter.  I’d be more than happy to help you select one, but it seems that someone dedicated to ensuring the security on an ongoing basis and can have 100% control over the server and site may be the direction needed at this point.  RackSpace and similar companies offer managed solutions that may cover what is required.

As far as reporting this, and to who, I must admit that I’m not exactly sure.  I believe it would be the FBI.  Here’s a government resource I was able to find on the matter:  http://www.cybercrime.gov/reporting.htm

Please feel free to give me a call on my cell phone to discuss further.  

619-618-9994.

With Best Regards,

Micah

From: Micah Johnson <info@chiefingredient.com>

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 10:59:24

Cc: Haytham Faraj <haytham@puckettfaraj.com>,

 MARCY Atwood <marcy@puckettfaraj.com>

To: “Neal A. Puckett” <neal@puckettfaraj.com>

Hi Neal,

There wasn’t any sensitive information attached to the website that I know of.  It was a database of publicly available blog posts.

However, there is one concern that I have:  Shortly before this attack, we got the notice of the email password at Google being changed or being updated.  With their “email” claim and the fact that they had access to the FTP site (which may have been obtained through email communications), it may also be possible that they were able to hack into Google’s Mail servers.

The first thing to do would be to change the admin and all the passwords on all the accounts at Google Mail.

- Micah

From: Haytham Faraj <haytham@puckettfaraj.com>

Subject: Re: EMERGENCY!!!!

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 13:37:38 -0500

To: “Neal A. Puckett” <neal@puckettfaraj.com>

Why the fuck does Chief Ingredient not know about this before we have to tell them.

Haytham Faraj

From: Neal Puckett <napuckett@comcast.net>

Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 18:08:16 -0500

Subject: hacked emails

To: Al West <abw.diver@gmail.com>

Al,

All of the firm’s emails were stolen today by “Anonymous” the international hackers.  All because we won the Wuterich case.  Beware.  

May want to change your passwords to your email accounts.  Any emails between you and me may have been captured and could be released onto a website.

Just FYI.

Neal

Neal A. Puckett, Esq

LtCol, USMC (Ret)

Puckett & Faraj, PLLC

1800 Diagonal Rd, Suite 210

Alexandria, VA 22314

703.706.9566

Anonymous also hacked BDNNews.com and leaked a 16 minute FBI phone call regarding Anons on Friday. Expect Moar.

shortformblog:

• $2 billion of DoD’s Iraq War spending unaccounted for (oops) source

» Audit time! With the Iraq War’s chapter effectively closed, now’s apparently a good time to look back at all the money we spent there. There’s a problem, however: Of the $3 billion the Iraqi government set aside for the Department of Defense to use for reconstruction between 2004 and 2007, approximately two-thirds of that is unaccounted for. Worse, auditors can’t even find most of the documents: ”From July 2004 through December 2007, DoD should have provided 42 monthly reports,” an audit says. “However, it can locate only the first four reports.” Ever lose track of like $2 billion bucks? It’s fun, right?

Read ShortFormBlog • Follow

Marine gets no jail time in killing of 24 Iraqi civilians

Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich will not serve a jail sentence following his guilty plea in the killing of 24 Iraqis in 2005, a military judge said Tuesday.

The announcement by Lt. Col. David Jones came after Wuterich took responsibility during his sentencing hearing at Camp Pendleton for the killings in the Euphrates River town of Haditha and expressed remorse to the victims’ families.

Jones said he had planned to recommend 90 days in the brig — the maximum as requested by the prosecution — but that the plea bargain approved by Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser had called for no jail time.

Wuterich, 31, was the last of eight Marines charged in the Haditha killings to have his case resolved. Six had the charges against them dropped, and one Marine was acquitted.

As the squad leader, Wuterich ordered his Marines “to shoot first, ask questions later” as they stormed two houses on Nov. 19, 2005, after a roadside bomb had killed one Marine and injured two others.

Source

1 million civilians killed

In Iraq and Afghanistan over a million civilians have been killed since 2001.  They were not killed by Iran, Libya or Syria.  They were not killed in a civil war.  They were massacred by the United States government.

The United Nations estimates that there are about 4.5 million displaced Iraqis — more than half of them refugees — or about one in every six citizens, 1-2 million widows and 5 million orphans. All a direct result of the U.S.-led invasion.

Source

WikiLeaks’ Collateral Murder: U.S. Soldier Ethan McCord

Trigger Warning: American soldiers murdering Reuters journalist and children. *Graphic Videos and pictures*

U.S. Soldier Ethan McCord speaking about the civilian massacre documented in WikiLeaks’s April 2010 video disclosure of Apache helicopter footage of a New Baghdad attack that took place in 2007, allegedly released by PFC Brad Manning. McCord’s story was delivered to attendees of the United National Peace Conference, which took place in Albany NY the weekend of July 23-25, 2010. Produced by the United National Peace Conference Media Project, powered by The Sanctuary for Independent Media and the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center.