Jon Stewart pushes VA to cover troops sickened by uranium after 9/11. Again, they are told to wait

WASHINGTON — Comedian Jon Stewart and troops sickened by uranium ended a gathering Friday astatine the Department of Veterans Affairs aggravated that erstwhile again they person been told they volition person to hold to spot whether the VA volition link their illnesses to the toxic basal wherever they were deployed soon aft 9/11.

The denied claims were expected to person been fixed by the PACT Act, a large veterans assistance bundle measure that President Joe Biden signed successful 2022 and said is 1 of his proudest accomplishments successful office. For galore veterans it has made entree to attraction overmuch easier.

But the measure near retired the the uranium vulnerability that’s inactive hurting immoderate of the precise archetypal troops deployed successful effect to the attacks connected Sept. 11, 2001.

Just weeks aft the attacks, peculiar operations forces were sent to Karshi-Khanabad, Uzbekistan, oregon K2, a severely contaminated erstwhile Soviet basal that was a strategical determination for launching operations against the Taliban successful Afghanistan.

But K2 was a erstwhile chemic weapons tract and was littered with yellowish powdered uranium that was kicked up successful the particulate and moved passim the basal erstwhile the subject pushed up a protective world berm. The radiation levels were arsenic overmuch arsenic 40,000 times higher than what would person been recovered naturally, according to a atomic fusion adept who has reviewed the data.

Two decades later, troops who served determination are inactive warring to get radiation-exposure illnesses recognized by the VA. Many person died young.

That the VA continues to archer the K2 veterans it has not decided yet whether to screen their illnesses has infuriated Stewart, who is simply a vocal advocator for each of the 9/11 archetypal responders.

Stewart and the veterans were astatine the VA this outpouring to property their case, and were told the VA was moving with the Pentagon to place what radiation was astatine the base. Friday’s gathering was with VA Secretary Denis McDonough, which had raised hopes for a resolution. But they heard thing else.

“The caput contiguous said helium has the authorization statutorily to marque the change, to marque definite the K2 veterans are covered presumptively,” Stewart said. But McDonough alternatively told them they were inactive waiting for further information. “I judge punting is the close word for what happened.”

In a connection VA spokesperson Terrence Hayes said determination are much than 300 conditions covered already by the PACT Act and that the bureau is moving connected the circumstantial K2 illnesses and radiation exposure.

“We proceed to urgently see each enactment to further assistance these veterans and survivors, and we volition support them apprised each measurement of the way,” Hayes said.

“It felt similar groundhog day,” said Kim Brooks, whose precocious hubby was 1 of the archetypal troops who served astatine K2 to die.

Lt. Col. Tim Brooks was 1 of the archetypal soldiers to deploy to K2 successful 2001 and served with the 10th Mountain Division during Operation Anaconda against the Taliban successful aboriginal 2002.

When his portion returned to Fort Drum, New York, successful the outpouring of 2002, Brooks wasn’t himself. He was suffering debilitating headaches and became unexpectedly irritable, his woman said. Then his portion was called into a briefing, to motion paperwork astir the toxins they were exposed to, she said.

“He came location from that briefing and told maine astir it successful our kitchen,” said Kim Brooks, who joined Stewart astatine the VA meeting. “He was incredibly upset and disquieted and past became much and much exhausted and did not consciousness oregon look good starring up to his collapse.”

Kim Brooks has tried to obtain the form her hubby signed from his subject records, but has not been palmy and thinks it mightiness person been removed.

Other K2 veterans who were successful the peculiar operations forces person besides struggled to get documents from their aesculapian records due to the fact that their missions and roles were classified.

In 2003 Tim Brooks collapsed during a Fort Drum ceremonial arsenic his portion was preparing to spell to Iraq. Doctors diagnosed encephalon cancer, and helium died a twelvemonth aboriginal astatine property 36.

Having inactive to combat to get the Pentagon and VA to admit uranium vulnerability astatine the basal has near Kim Brooks “angry and dismayed and sad,” she said. “Denial successful 2003 and denial successful 2024. When volition they ain it and instrumentality attraction of these men and women?”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was serving arsenic the commanding wide of Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division successful 2004 erstwhile Brooks died there.

Sabrina Singh, lawman Pentagon property secretary, said successful a connection Friday that the Defense Department is “aware of the wellness issues and associated claims of veterans” who served astatine K2 and is “working with the Department of Veterans Affairs connected a mode forward.”

The beingness of uranium connected the basal has been known since November 2001 — conscionable a period aft troops arrived determination — and is documented connected aggregate Army maps, successful memos and VA briefings. But it was labeled successful antithetic ways — arsenic enriched, low-level processed oregon depleted uranium. The basal and the radiation and different contaminants determination was the taxable of legislature hearings successful 2020.

The disorder astir what benignant of uranium was determination has been 1 of the holdups to veterans getting care.

But radiation levels documented astatine K2 successful November 2001 were truthful elevated — arsenic overmuch arsenic 40,000 times what would person registered if the uranium was conscionable people occurring — that the circumstantial benignant does not substance due to the fact that vulnerability would person been harmful, said Arjun Makhijani, a atomic fusion specializer and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, who reviewed the K2 radiation data.

Radiation vulnerability from uranium tin harm kidneys, make a hazard for bony crab and besides impact pregnancies due to the fact that it crosses the placenta, among different harmful effects, said Makhijani, who antecedently worked with “atomic veterans” who were sickened by radiation aft moving astatine the Bikini Atoll during atomic weapons tests successful the 1940s.

More than 15,000 troops were deployed astatine K2 from 2001 to 2005. While the VA does not person statistic connected however galore are sick, the veterans’ grassroots enactment has contacted astir 5,000 of them and much than 1,500 are reporting superior aesculapian conditions, including cancers, kidney and bony problems, reproductive issues and commencement defects.

Getting the VA to admit their radiation-related illnesses is astir much than aesculapian coverage, said erstwhile Army Staff Sgt. Mark Jackson, a K2 seasoned who has sought attraction for terrible osteoporosis, had to person a testicle removed and had his full thyroid removed — nary of which has been covered by the VA.

“It’s the designation of the exposure,” Jackson said.

Austin was the Combined Joint Task Force commandant for Afghanistan erstwhile Jackson was deployed to K2. His portion would usage K2 to spell successful and retired of Afghanistan connected missions. It’s not mislaid connected either Jackson oregon Kim Brooks that Austin present leads the bureau they request yet to admit the radiation vulnerability astatine K2.

“He was determination erstwhile I was there,” Jackson said. “Hell, Austin signed my Bronze Star. I look astatine his signature astir everyday.”