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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A report released Monday concluded that "Gulf War Syndrome" is a legitimate condition suffered by more than 175,000 U.S. war veterans who were exposed to chemical toxins in the 1991 Gulf War.

Last week my husband and I were fortunate enough to spend some time with former President George H. W. Bush and Mrs. Bush in Kennebunkport, ME. The first evening, a group of us gathered at Walker's Point, the Bush family compound that sits on a rocky outcrop on the Maine coast. As former President Bush showed us around, I was struck by how many times this man had contributed to the nation, in position after position, crisis after crisis. Yet many, even those in his own party, have tended to overlook his extraordinary accomplishments. After drinks at the Bush home,...

PHOENIX - Republican John McCain was forced to clarify his comments Friday suggesting the Iraq war involved U.S. reliance on foreign oil. He said he was talking about the first Gulf War and not the current conflict. At issue was a comment he made at a town hall-style meeting Friday morning in Denver. "My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East," McCain...

THIS WEBSITE has photos from Gulf War I in which Saddam Hussein set Kuwait oil wells on fire as his military was removed. DFU NOTE: As we watch the battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, we have been given some hints at what Hillary has planned. Behind the scenes, the Clintons and their surrogates are attempting to negotiate with, bribe, and threaten Super Delegates. Hillary has been working on this presidential race for a couple decades. She is not going away quietly. As did Saddam Hussein, she is prepared to "burn the oil wells." She is not going...

Israel planned 1991 strike on NKorea-Syria ship: report Wed Jan 9, 2:47 AM ET Israeli agents prepared to strike a ship suspected of smuggling missiles from North Korea to Syria in 1991 but cancelled it at the 11th hour under US pressure, a Japanese newspaper reported Wednesday. Undercover agents of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency secretly attached a guidance system for an airstrike on a cargo vessel believed to be carrying 23 short-range Scud missiles to Syria, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The Yomiuri, reporting from Jerusalem, said it spoke to one of the agents involved in the operation, whose name was...

KUWAIT CITY, Aug. 2, 2007 – Kuwaiti air force Col. Sulaiman M. al-Otaibi remembers all too well the “dark day” his country faced 17 years ago today, when 100,000 Iraqi troops stormed across the border here, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Memories of Aug. 2, 1990, are still fresh for him and his fellow Kuwaitis as they recall four of Saddam Hussein’s elite Republican Guard divisions and Iraqi army special forces units pushing into Kuwait City. They quickly overran Kuwait’s outnumbered forces, attacked the royal residence, Dasman Palace, and began a brutal six-month occupation. Six days later, Saddam...

This year, as every year on January 17, I remember this was the date that LCDR Michael Scott Speicher disappeared in Iraq. That was in 1991, so it has been 16 years now since his F-16 Hornet went down. Let us never forget an American hero. He, nor any other POW/MIA, should be left behind.

He drew pictures of himself with angel wings. He left a set of his dog tags on a nightstand in my Manhattan apartment. He bought a tiny blue sweat suit for our baby to wear home from the hospital. “Follow your heart,” Charles M. King wrote in a 200-page journal for his son, Jordan, whom he first held this fall just weeks before he died in Iraq. The United States has reached another grim milestone in the war in Iraq: 3,000 military deaths. The Times’s Dana Canedy, whose fiancé was killed in Iraq, is taking questions from readers. Her responses...

The ability of U.S. ground troops to safely navigate the gauntlet of the urban battlefield has been greatly enhanced through the development of the VeraTech Aero "Phantom Sentinel" line of Virtually Invisible VTOL UAV Surveillance platforms. The Phantom Series single blade rotorcraft has the ability to deliver close up, real time video intelligence within 75 feet of nearly any event and remain virtually undetectable to the human eye. Based on the concept of persistence of vision, the Phantom's single rotor blade has a center of rotation outside of the UAVs' physical fuselage. As the aircraft spins, it disappears from...

To read entire article click text: In a court hearing in San Diego, Kenneth Breen, an assistant United States attorney, said the adviser, Amr Ibrahim Elgindy, tried to sell $300,000 in stock on the afternoon of Sept. 10 and told his broker that the stock market would soon plunge. "Perhaps Mr. Elgindy had preknowledge of Sept. 11, and rather than report it he attempted to profit from it," Mr. Breen said. So, what did Mr. Elgindy, who was trying to sell $300k in stock, tell the financial world the day after 9-11?  Read it for yourself! Immediate release InsideTruth.com...

An al-Qaida-linked extremist group warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that he and the West were "doomed," as protesters raged across the Muslim world to demand more of an apology from the pontiff for his remarks about Islam and violence. The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, issued a statement on a Web forum vowing to continue its holy war against the West. The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified. The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross"...

VA-funded report unable to find evidence of complex of symptomsAssociated Press WASHINGTON - There is no such thing as Gulf War syndrome, even though U.S. and foreign veterans of the war report more symptoms of illness than do soldiers who didn't serve there, a federally funded study concludes. U.S. and foreign veterans of the Gulf War do suffer from an array of very real problems, according to the Veterans Administration-sponsored report released Tuesday. Yet there is no one complex of symptoms to suggest those veterans — nearly 30 percent of all those who served — suffered or still suffer from...

Just in. I am looking at a picture of the WTC with smoke pouring out of the western tower. Looks like a huge amount of damage. Debris raining down on people in the street.

Here are some links from the FR archives in observance of the fifth anniversary of 9/11/2001 - Threads list of several breaking news items - Latest Articles The first post reporting the attacks by OldEconomyBuyer - World Trade Center Posted on the first anniversary - Associated Press newswire - September 11, 2001 - Chronology of news alerts, bulletins and flashes

Heated denials from news agencies accused of staging images with doctored photographs of dead children in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, cannot rest on staged images from the war arena never having happened before. "The world was shocked to find out that a PR firm, Hill and Knowlton had manufactured the `incubator babies’ incident in Kuwait, which precipitated the Gulf War; Iraqi soldiers ripping Kuwait babies out of incubators in a genocidal fashion.

WASHINGTON, August 2, 2006 – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld used today, the 16th anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, as an opportunity to assess progress that’s taken place in Iraq and the threat extremists continue to impose on free people. Rumsfeld cited the string of events Saddam provoked in 1990. “Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded Kuwait, provoking a crisis that led to Iraqi attacks on Israel and threats to Saudi Arabia and to other nations in the region,” he told Pentagon reporters. In contrast, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki -- a man Rumsfeld noted spent some 25 years opposing...

It was a warm day, August 2nd in 1990 when I turned on the news and heard the stomach clutching news that Iraq was invading Kuwait. My heart beat accelerated as I realized that my son's Bravo Co. of the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg was "on mission" for the month of August. This meant that his company would be the first to go if the US offered military assistance for the crisis. All day and evening my husband, a Korean combat veteran, and I seesawed between listening to the news and trying to reach our son's barracks phone. (Remember,...

Liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas ("Daily Kos") appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources this morning (Sunday, June 18, 2006). Host Howard Kurtz asked Kos about a comment he made on his blog a couple of years back. In April 2004, in a thread about the coverage of the brutal murders of four Americans in Fallujah, Kos posted a comment in which he wrote (bold mine), "I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for...

Perhaps you’ve heard of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young efforts to allocate $315 million in federal funds to connect one tiny island in his state with an even tinier island of only 50 people. Well, he’s now been joined by Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. She has allotted a massive $75 million from taxpayers into the Veteran’s Administration (VA) budget, with the dictate that every cent go to a Texas advocacy scientist and his institution to study a non-existent illness. The alleged illness is Gulf War Syndrome (GWS), and the beneficiary of Hutchinson’s taxpayer-funded...

Translated Text of an Iraqi Document Concerning Kuwait POWs As the opening date of Operation Freedom neared, Qusai Saddam Hussein-one of Saddam’s bloodthirsty sons, made arrangements to move captured Kuwaiti prisoners into critical locations, to serve as “human shields”. There were 448 Kuwaitis, captured during the First Gulf War ,when Saddam made his infamous incursion into Kuwait. By the terms of the UN Cease Fire agreements –signed by Iraq on 3/03/91- all Kuwaitis were supposed to have been freed and repatriated without delay. Clearly,this never happened ; and sadly,the ultimate fate of these 448 helpless captives is unknown. CMPC-2003-012666 Republican...

BOARD OF CHOSEN FREEHOLDERS MORRIS COUNTY, NEW JERSEY RESOLUTION NO. 49 ADOPTED: March 8, 2006 WHEREAS, an advanced placement government class at Parsippany High School conducted a mock trial (the “Mock Trial”) and named George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, as a defendant; and, WHEREAS, during this Mock Trial, President Bush was falsely accused of “crimes against civilian populations,” and the “inhumane treatment of prisoners,” and WHEREAS, these charges amounted to accusing the President of the United States of being a war criminal, and WHEREAS, this Mock Trial was conducted while the United States was in...

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 26, 2006 – In a biting cold wind, families and dignitaries gathered at Arlington National Cemetery here today to remember American servicemembers who gave their lives in operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Provide Comfort. Officials conducted the ceremony at section 60 of the cemetery, where most of those killed in the Persian Gulf War are buried. The Persian Gulf War ended with the liberation of Kuwait on Feb. 28, 1991. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, remembered the hundreds of U.S. servicemembers killed in the conflict. He said American servicemembers remember...

Overview The Center For Disease Control 1999 Gulf War Syndrome Research Summary Report (click here to view and scroll to pdf page 10, or click here to for more details), states that animals fed the same drugs that were given to their 1992 Gulf War Personnel developed health problems that were significantly worse statistically than the sum of the incidence of symptoms when each pill was taken individually. The military personnel were given many pesticides, anti-viral, anti-chemical warfare, anti-biological warfare, and anti-parasite agents. These drugs were originally approved in studies that showed them to be safe when taken individually. In...

<p>BASRA, Iraq (AP) - Ali Hassan al-Majid, dubbed ``Chemical Ali'' by opponents of the Iraqi regime for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds, has been found dead, a British officer said Monday.</p> <p>Maj. Andrew Jackson of the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment told The Associated Press that his superiors had confirmed the death of the man who is also President Saddam Hussein's first cousin.</p> <p>Jackson said the body was found along with that of his bodyguard and the head of Iraqi intelligence services in Basra.</p>

This is a very matter-of-fact true story about the supernatural. Moscow in the year 1991 was a city in which great changes were maturing, and resistance to those changes was assuming malevolent forms. It was a time and place of potentially deadly contradictions. I was there three times that year as an independent journalist, once using a journalist’s exchange visa under the auspices of Izvestia, the government newspaper (which was also undergoing great changes) and twice by the request of a new ecological organization called the Socio-Ecological Union. I lived in an apartment near the Taganskaya metro station with a...

Dec 25, 10:13 PM EST 'Mother of All Bombs' Designer Dies at 67 By DENISE KALETTE Associated Press Writer MIAMI (AP) -- Albert L. Weimorts Jr., a civilian engineer for the Air Force whose designs included a satellite-guided weapon known as the "mother of all bombs," has died, his son said. He was 67. Weimorts died Wednesday of brain cancer at home in Fort Walton Beach, his son Todd said Sunday. The Air Force Research Laboratory honored Weimorts after he retired in 2003 for his role in developing two powerful bombs as chief engineer for the lab's Munitions Directorate at...

A recent funding increase has resulted in the establishment of research treatment centers and a pilot program that partners VA with a prominent Texas medical center in studying such illnesses. The funding increase for Gulf War illness research, the new research treatment centers and the creation of the pilot program at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas were measures incorporated into the 2006 VA budget by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas). The budget was recently approved by Congress and signed by President Bush. "VA is committed to further investigating the unique health care needs of Gulf War veterans,...

Saddam Surat # 2 - Saddam Was Within Three Months of A-Bomb in 1991. "The defection of Saddam's two sons-in-law in August 1995 was potentially the most damaging blow he had suffered since seizing power in 1979. For the first time two members of the Tikriti ruling circle had escaped Saddam's authority and were threatening to betray the regime's innermost secrets. Hussein Kamel, as head of Iraq's weapons procurement program, was particularly well equipped to provide Western intelligence with a treasure trove of detail about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction program. Hussen Kamel was full debriefed by both CIA and...

Ten more American soldiers, all Marines, were killed today (Friday) near Fallujah while on foot patrol. Anticipating the coverage by the New York Times on these deaths, I ask, “What side is the Times on?” The Times was created before the Civil War. So, it covered that war, the bloodiest that America has ever fought in percentage of the population who were killed. That was also the most costly, in percentage of the national wealth spent in it. But did the Times make any attempt to cover that war death by death, profiling and decrying every single soldier who fell,...

It's Easy to Forget Just How Close Saddam Came to Having a Nuclear Weapon in 1991, Despite Regular Inspections by the IAEA & the Eyes of US Intelligence It's easy to forget that Senator Ted Kennedy & Company tried their best to defeat the resolution authorizing force to kick Saddam out of Kuwait. It's easy to forget that Iraq had passed frequent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections designed to ensure its compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or that its Manhattan Project-sized nuclear program went undetected by US intelligence. It's also easy to forget just how skilled Saddam...

"Jarhead," based on Anthony Swofford's best-selling Gulf War memoir, is not so much about war as about waiting for war, and about the impact that waiting has on a not-yet-formed young man. Jake Gyllenhaal, head shaved and eyes frightened, is Swoff, who "got lost on the way to college" and became a Marine in 1990. After training, he's quickly on a plane to Saudi Arabia, wondering how long he'll be there. Two weeks, says somebody confidently. Not exactly. Once in the desert, weeks stretch into months, and Swoff and his cohorts play football (in 112-degree heat), mourn the women left...

SAM MENDES has the unenviable distinction of having directed one of the three most undeserving Best Picture winners in the last 30 years. In 1999, his directorial debut, American Beauty, won the Oscar and then, immediately, began sliding to oblivion. A paint-by-numbers critique of American middle-class mores, American Beauty was so heavy-handed and obvious as to be insulting even to the elite sophisticates it attempted to flatter. Of course experimentation with marijuana brings happiness. Of course the homophobic, wife-beating Marine father next door is really a closet case. Of course the only well-adjusted adults in the neighborhood are the...

Actor Bruce Willis wanted to serve his country as far back as the Gulf War. His friends laughed at him, telling him he was too old. Undaunted, Willis looked into himself – only to find out they were right. He was too old. So the star of "Die Hard," "The Sixth Sense," "Hostage" and dozens of other movies, did the next best thing. He traveled to Iraq with his band, the Accelerators, to entertain troops with the USO. He is also planning to join returning troops at Fort Lewis in Washington state Nov. 5. "The idea of serving my country...

In my Social Psychology class this morning, my professor made the claim that during the 1st Gulf War, to circumvent the Irqi Soldiers stationed on the border, the U.S. bombed the sand and buried 10,000 Irqi Soldiers alive. I had never heard this before (I was only 9 when the war started), and could find nothing on a quick google search that wasn't heavily biased to the left. So, any freeper have some insight they'd like to share? Thanks!

Terry Nichols, Philippines, bombs, etc. See Mark Tapscott here: “Before Able Danger and Mohamed Atta, There Was Murrah Building Bombing and Hussain Al-Hussaini; Journalist Uncovers OKC Links to 9/11, which links to this L.A. Weekly article: “The Rohrabacher Test: Congressman questions Terry Nichols about Oklahoma City bombing”. The Mark Tapscott link also has a comprehensive statement from Jayna Davis, who has pursued this story for ten long years and has now written a book entitled “The Third Terrorist”. One interesting quote — among many — in the L.A. Weekly piece is from Richard Clarke: Clarke wrote that the theory of...

<...snip...>Stewartstown, Pa.: It seems to be that a central point has been left out of discussions about Iraq. The U.S. doesn't have a right to attack other nations and remove their leaders just because it thinks that doing so will make the world "better off." Other nations have a right to their governments — even if those governments are nondemocratic. The U.S. — and any other country — only has a right to attack a nation that poses a clear and direct threat. Iraq was not endangering the United States. Even if Saddam had WMDs, why would he use them...

By Robert Burns ASSOCIATED PRESS 7:42 a.m. September 8, 2005 Associated Press U.S. Navy pilot Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher, above, was shot down over Iraq in January 1991. A Navy report concludes members of the former Iraqi government "know the whereabouts" of the officer. WASHINGTON – A Navy pilot shot down over Iraq in January 1991 may have been captured by Iraqi forces, and members of the former Iraqi government "know the whereabouts" of the officer, the Navy has concluded. A Navy board of inquiry concluded that there is no credible evidence that Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher is dead, and...

Kuwait Pledges $500M for Hurricane Relief Updated: Sunday, Sep. 4, 2005 - 11:26 AM KUWAIT CITY (AP) - The oil-rich Persian Gulf state of Kuwait said Sunday it will donate $500 million in aid to U.S. relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. The offer is the largest known put forward since the hurricane ravaged Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and follows a $100 million aid donation from the emir of a Mideast neighbor, Qatar. Kuwait's energy minister said his country would provide "oil products that the disaster-stricken states need in addition to other humanitarian aid." "It's our duty as Kuwaitis to stand...

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2005 – The Defense Department is again sending letters to thousands of Gulf War veterans exposed to low levels of chemical agents contained in munitions destroyed at a weapons depot in Khamisiyah, Iraq, in March 1991. A study released this week by the Institute of Medicine here concluded that veterans possibly exposed in that area appear to have a higher risk for brain cancer death than veterans who were not exposed. However, the study's authors said more research is needed to confirm their findings. This letter is the third DoD is sending to update Gulf War veterans...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Gulf War veterans exposed to chemical munitions at Khamisiyah, Iraq are nearly twice as likely as their unexposed peers from the same war to die from brain cancer, according to a report in the American Journal of Public Health. "We found an approximately twofold excess of brain cancer deaths, 12 to 13 excess deaths in a population of 100,000 veterans, associated with possible exposure to chemical warfare agents," Tim A. Bullman, from the Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington, DC, and colleagues report. In the new study, rates of death from specific causes for 100,487...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Sandia National Laboratories has completed a two-year study of the potential health effects associated with accidental exposure to depleted uranium (DU) during the 1991 Gulf War. ..... Marshall's study concluded that the reports of serious health risks from DU exposure are not supported by veteran medical statistics nor supported by his analysis. Only a few U.S. veterans in vehicles accidentally struck by DU munitions are predicted to have inhaled sufficient quantities of DU particulate to incur any significant health risk. For these individuals, DU-related risks include the possibility of temporary kidney damage and about a 1 percent...

THE LAST WORDThere is a certain strain of expert who believes that Osama bin Laden is a political genius who is using terrorism to accomplish political aims. If true, it follows that, while the West should pursue Islamist terrorists militarily, we should also seek politically to alleviate the conditions which so inflame them. Okay, let's just name names--I'm talking about Michael Scheuer who suggests in his books that bin Laden is a genius on par with America's Founding Fathers and that in order to win the war on terrorism, America needs to stop agitating Islamists by stationing troops in Saudi...

Paul and Patrick. Two young guys growing up in Boone County. Paul from a small town in northern Boone. Connor, here in Columbia. Two Missouri guys, one joined the Army, the other the Navy.

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

Photographer Ken Jarecke talks about his 1991 shot of an incinerated Iraqi soldier, which was at first regarded by many editors as too disturbing to print, but later became one of the most famous images of the first Gulf War. The image shows a burned-beyond-recognition Iraqi soldier in the front window of a destroyed truck. The sun is coming in through the back of the truck and most of the surfaces in the image are burned and just torn up, so it's almost a black and white image although it was made on colour film. It was early in the...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider whether U.S. prisoners of war who say they were tortured during the 1991 Gulf War should collect a $959 million judgment from Iraq. The justices let stand a lower court ruling that threw out the lawsuit by the 17 former POWs and 37 family members. That ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last year, said Congress never authorized such lawsuits against foreign governments. The dispute pitted the Bush administration, which argued the money was needed to rebuild Iraq, against former service members. The decision by...

Pfc. Sam Huff decided at age 16 she would enlist in the Army. On Monday she was killed when a roadside bomb detonated next to her Humvee in Baghdad. Eighteen-year-old Pfc. Sam Huff was born with a man's name. But she was a consummate "girlie-girl," said her father, Robert Huff. She liked to wear false eyelashes and played flute in her high-school band. Last July, she joined the Army, the first step in a career she hoped would take her to the FBI. On April 18, Huff, an only child, became the 37th U.S. female to die in combat since...

On the surface there would seem to be little to unite the Aryan racialists of the neo-Nazi movement with the terrorists of radical Islam. To the neo-Nazis, Muslims are almost all members of ``inferior`` races; and to the Islamic terrorists, the neo-Nazis are almost without exception either atheists or members of fringe quasi-Christian sects. But the reality is that there has been close cooperation between Muslim extremists and Fascists ever since the founding of the Nazi movement in the 1920`s. For all of their differences, Muslim extremists and Nazis have always been united by a common group of beliefs and...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bodies of 41 Kuwaitis believed killed during the first Gulf War have been unearthed in southern Iraq, one of 295 mass graves containing thousands of Saddam Hussein's victims uncovered in the two years since U.S.-led forces invaded and ousted the dictator, an Iraqi official said Saturday. The discovery in the city of Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, was another step in documenting what happened to 605 Kuwaitis who have been missing since the 1991 Gulf War. The bodies of only 190 other Kuwaitis have been identified. Around the country, Iraq's human rights minister, Bakhtiar Amin,...

I've done some searching here on FR (no, I did not look under "the swimmer") for Ted Kennedy's 1990/1991 comment that the Gulf War would result in 80,000 body bags. Can anyone help? Also, maybe I'm mistaken, but didn't some big lib make a similar prediction about body bags in Operation Iraqi Freedom? If so, who?