2007 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>
Date: 27 Jul 2007 22:44:23 -0000
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] Court rules for Agent Orange veterans
 
VA rebuked for balking on Agent Orange care
A court says the agency must provide benefits to Vietnam veterans with a type of leukemia.

By Henry Weinstein
Los Angeles Times
July 20, 2007

In a stinging ruling, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ripped into the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday for its continued resistance to paying benefits to veterans suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia because of their exposure to Agent Orange.

Thursday's 3-0 decision marked the sixth major ruling against the government by the appeals court or a federal trial judge in a case that started in 1986. It stemmed from a clash between Vietnam veterans and the government over a chemical defoliant used by U.S. armed forces to clear dense jungle in Southeast Asia.

"What is difficult for us to comprehend is why the Department of Veterans Affairs, having entered into a settlement agreement and agreed to a consent order some 16 years ago, continues to resist its implementation so vigorously, as well as to resist equally vigorously the payment of desperately needed benefits to Vietnam War veterans who fought for their country and suffered grievous injury as a result of our government's own conduct," Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the opinion.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-orange20jul20,1,3647366.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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