Report attacks probe of Gulf War illnesses
By Charles Aldinger

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A congressional report Monday criticized the Defense Department and a White House panel looking into the ills of Gulf War veterans, warning that Iraqi chemical and biological agents cannot yet be discounted as possible culprits.

The report by the General Accounting Office, the investigating arm of Congress, also said there was ``substantial evidence'' that fertilizer compounds used in the Gulf could be associated with problems similar to those of the veterans.

The report criticized the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans Illnesses for virtually discounting any link between biological agents and troop complaints.

The congressional investigators noted that there were still major unresolved questions over the extent to which veterans may have been exposed to fallout from the destruction of suspected chemical weapons sites in Iraq after the Gulf War cease-fire in 1991.

The GAO report also said that results of any exposure to the biological agent aflatoxin ``may not be known for months or even years after exposure'' although it did not offer any evidence that troops had been exposed to the agent.

``Six years after the war, little is conclusively known about the causes of Gulf War veterans' illnesses,'' the GAO said, attacking a recent report by the presidential committee.

That report, supported by the Pentagon, virtually discounted biological agents and said that stress among veterans could be responsible for many of the complaints ranging from muscle aches to loss of memory.

``The committee concluded that it was unlikely that the health effects reported by Gulf War veterans are the results of exposure to organophosphate or mustard chemical warfare agents, even though there is substantial evidence that organophosphate compounds might be associated with delayed or long-term health effects similar to those experienced by the Gulf War veterans,'' the GAO said.

The Pentagon said it welcomed Monday's GAO report, but noted that the report drew no concrete conclusions and said it was looking thoroughly into every aspect of complaints by more than 60,000 veterans of the 1991 conflict.

``There are a series of efforts under way today to investigate the full range of potential causes of Gulf War illnesses,'' said Defense Department spokesman Brian Whitman.

``The Defense Department is engaged in a comprehensive effort to better understand the possible long-term chronic effects of low-level chemical exposure,'' Whitman added.

The department has notified thousands of veterans who might have been exposed to fallout from a blast cloud in the destruction of a chemical weapons dump at Khamisiyah in southern Iraq shortly after the war.

Monday's GAO report urged Defense Secretary William Cohen and the Department of Veterans Affairs to put in place a centralized database to monitor clinical progress of veterans and direct research.

It also recommended more weight be given to research into treatment for veterans and on low-level chemical exposure, and less priority be put on further epidemiological studies.

Bernard Rostker, the Pentagon's special assistant for Gulf War illnesses, said last week that he was not prepared to draw conclusions linking various ailments suffered by Gulf War veterans with low-level exposure to chemical weapons.

He acknowledged, however, that the Pentagon had been slow to fully ``search down the potential, possible causes of some of the undiagnosed, unexplained illnesses of the Gulf.'' ^REUTER@

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Conspiracy Nuts???? or Were They ????

R.E. McMaster, Jr. The Power of Total Perspective "There are two views of history: (1) History happens by accident or (2) It is planned.The general public is taught that history happens by accident. However, the upper echelons...know that history is planned."

George Washington The Writings of George Washington 1798 letter "It was not my intention to doubt that the doctrine of the Illuminati and the principles of Jacobinism had not spread to the United States.On the contrary,no one is more satisfied of this fact than I am."

A.K. Chesterton The New Unhappy Lords: An Exposure of Power Politics "I claim... the existence of a conspiracy for the destruction of the Western World as the prelude for shepherding mankind into a sheep's pen run as a prelude to One World tyranny."

Benjamin Disraeli Bristish Prime Minister July 14, 1856 speech in the House of Commons "There is... a power which we seldom mention in this House... I mean the secret societies... a great part of Europe-- the whole of Italy and France and a great portion of Germany, to say nothing of other countries--is covered with a network of these secret societies... They do not want constitutional government; they do not want ameliorated institutions... they want to change the tenure of land, to drive out the present owners of the soil and put an end to ecclesiastical establishments...

Thomas Lawson Everybody's Magazine "Frenzied Finance" 1904 There is a small circle of men who control the world's finance. "Each member, before initiation, knows its religion to be reward for friends and extermination of enemies. Once a man is within the magic circle...punishment for disloyalty is sure and terrible, and in no corner of the Earth can he escape it, nor can any power on Earth protect him from it." The magic circle is "at the receiving end of the greatest information bureau in the world."

Woodrow Wilson The New Freedom 1913 "...Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."

Walter Bernays Propaganda 1928 "Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. Our minds are molded, our tastes are formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of."

Carrol J. Quigley Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University, Bill Clinton's mentor The Ango-American Establishment "There is... an inner core of intimate associates who unquestionably knew that they were members of a group devoted to a common purpose and an outer circle of a larger number on whom the inner circle acted by personal pursuasion, patronage distribution, and social pressure. It is probable that most members of the outer circle were not conscious that they were being used by a secret society." Tragedy and Hope 1966 "Their aim is nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole."

FROM: http://www.zianet.com/wblase/endtimes/conspira.htm

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