Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.  Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking?  Follow us on Twitter @iavapressroom [1].

MUST READS

(1) For returning vets, a tragic toll on the roads [2]

According to the Boston Globe, a 2008 VA study- yet to be released to the public- reveals that in the first years after returning from deployment, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are 75 percent more likely to die in motor vehicle accidents than civilians of comparable age, race, and sex. Additionally, the rate for motorcycle deaths is an astounding 148 percent higher.  Per the Globe, the tragic result is that motor vehicle crashes - which already are the top killer of Americans ages 16 to 34, according to the latest federal safety data - are killing newly returned veterans at a devastating rate.  As a result of the 2008 study, which analyzed fatalities through 2006, the VA is reportedly launching a safe-driving initiative to counsel home-bound veterans about the risks of careless driving and to encourage them to be screened for risky behavior.

(2) Carson soldiers say Iraq horrors led to crimes [3]

In a two part series, the Gazette of Colorado Springs released interviews [4] over the weekend with soldiers from an Army unit at Fort. Carson who have been accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter after returning to civilian life.  Per the Gazette, the soldiers described a breakdown in discipline during their Iraq deployment in which troops murdered civilians, taxi drivers got shot for no reason, and others were dropped off bridges after interrogations.  The soldiers describing those experiences were part of the 3,500-soldier unit now called the 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, which deployed for a year to Iraq’s Sunni Triangle in September 2004. Sixty-four unit soldiers were killed and more than 400 wounded — about double the average for Army brigades in Iraq, according to Fort Carson. In 2007, the unit served a bloody 15-month mission in Baghdad, and is currently deployed to the Khyber Pass region in Afghanistan.  Since 2005, some of the brigade soldiers also have been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, DUIs, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides. The interviews follow the release of an Army report last week that found that the trauma of fierce combat and soldier refusals or obstacles to seeking mental health care may have helped drive some to violence at home.  Click here to read Part 1 [3] and Part 2 [5] of the interview series.

(3) VA Docs Face Dilemma Treating Soldiers [6]

The Seattle Times highlights today the ethical dilemmas that many VA doctors and mental health care professionals are facing as they treat Iraq and Afghanistan veterans headed back to war.  According to a statement released to the Times, VA officials say they must comply with privacy rules and are not required to share a veteran's health status with the Defense Department; however, doctors and National Guard leaders out in Washington argue the current protocol is failing local veterans – including Tim Juneman, a 25-year-old Washington State University student and an Iraq war veteran who survived a year of tough fighting that left him with a twin diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury.  A VA psychiatrist hospitalized Juneman in January 2008 but never notified the National Guard unit of his patient's distress over impending redeployment. Juneman was released that month, missed follow-up appointments and in early March 2008 committed suicide.  Click here to read more about Juneman’s case.

AFGHANISTAN

U.S. military officials confirmed over the weekend that a U.S. service member [7] was killed by insurgent gunfire in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, bringing to at least 39 the number of U.S. troops killed this month in the country

On Monday, a spokesman for the Afghan government said it has struck a ceasefire deal with Taliban [8] insurgents in the remote northwestern Badghis province, near the border with Turkmenistan, the first move of its kind amid an escalation of violence ahead of presidential elections next month.  The official said the Afghan government wants to make similar deals with the Taliban in other parts of the country in a bid to improve security for the Aug. 20^th election.  "As long as the ceasefire holds, the government does not have the intention to attack the Taliban (in Badghis). And the Taliban can also take part in the elections," spokesman Seyamak Herawi said.

Meanwhile, NATO officials reported over the weekend that U.S. Marines and Afghan forces have found and destroyed hundreds of tons of poppy seeds, opium and heroin [9] in southern Afghanistan this month in raids signifying that the new U.S. counter narcotics strategy in Afghanistan is working.  "This administration set out to reverse the counter narcotics program by de-emphasizing crop eradication and emphasizing interdiction," Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told The Associated Press on Saturday. "The forces in the south are actually making that a reality. It's a historic change if it's successful, and the first indications were very, very promising."  Marines in Helmand working alongside DEA-mentored Afghan police seized 297 tons of poppy seeds, 77 pounds of heroin and 300 pounds of opium in raids in mid-July. Some 1,200 pounds of hashish and 4,225 gallons of chemicals used to convert opium to heroin were also seized from Afghan warehouses along with bomb-making materials, rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s.

IRAQ

Military authorities [10] announced Monday that they are investigating the death of a soldier from Virginia in a non-combat related incident in Salman Pak, Iraq.  The Department of Defense said 21-year-old Army Spc. Herberth A. Berrios-Campos of Bealeton died July 24 in Salman Pak, Iraq from injuries suffered in the incident.  Details weren't provided pending an investigation.

Following Saturday’s election, Iraqi Kurdistan's two ruling parties [11] - Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - are likely to be confirmed in power despite an unprecedented opposition challenge from the upstart Gorran coalition.  Though Kurdish opposition groups complained over the weekend of violations in Saturday's parliamentary and presidential vote, the first time Kurds have directly elected a leader of their mostly autonomous region, voting officials say the poll was largely sound.  Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said the preliminary results will be announced on Monday evening.

Separately, Iraq's Ministry of Culture [12] has announced that Iraq will reviveregulations forbidding the import of some books, prompting critics to accuse it of restoring Saddam-era censorship.  Per Deputy Culture Minister Taher al-Humoud, the ministry has begun requiring publishers to submit lists of titles for approval as it seeks to ban books glorifying violent jihad and martyrdom, typically imported from neighboring countries.  The move has angered groups like the Society to Defend the Freedom of the Press, which issued a statement this week complaining of a "return to a totalitarian regime” and arguing that “such censorship is a termination of the freedom of expression and thought acquired after April 9, 2003," referring to the date Baghdad fell to invading U.S. forces.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

The Military Times reports this morning that the Marine Corps has added $10,000 to the re-enlistment “kickers” [13] offered to some noncommissioned officers in fiscal 2010 and eliminated the cap on the number of NCOs eligible to receive them.  Previously, Marine officials said in late June that sergeants and below could receive a $15,000 kicker for agreeing to remain in the operating forces for two years beyond the date they were scheduled to rotate to a new command — $10,000 less than the kicker offered in ’09. At the time, they said the cash would be restricted to 800 NCOs.  However, a July 10^th  Marine administrative message reinstituted the full $25,000 kicker and eliminated the 800-Marine limit. Officials announced the changes after more funding became available, refuting claims that the reversal had anything to do with falling retention numbers.

As the VA seeks to go paperless, Federal Computer Week reports that it is now in search of contractors to develop the technical data needed for the project called the Paperless Initiative [14].  Beginning in December 2010, the Contractors will be tasked with delivering, installing and testing the development environment.   Under the initiative, five types of benefits issued by the Veterans Benefits Administration will be transitioned to a paperless system. The types of claims include: compensation and pension; education; vocational rehabilitation and employment; insurance; and loan guarantees. 

More than three years after the federal government dedicated $75 million to research the causes of Gulf War illness at UT Southwestern Medical Center [15], the Dallas Morning News is investigating why the VA has spent only a fraction of the earmarked money and why contract disputes between the VA and UT Southwestern are threatening the entire project.  The investigation follow a GAO report issued July 15^th that shed light on years of infighting and conflict between the VA's contract managers and UT Southwestern, including noted epidemiologist Robert Haley who the VA claims failed to fulfill a contractual obligation to provide medical records of the veterans who participated in his Gulf War study.  Also at the heart of the debate, controversy lingers over differing views of the cause of the Gulf War veterans’ problems, including chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, headaches, dizziness, memory loss and joint pain.  Haley, a leading proponent of the theory that the multiple symptoms reported by thousands of Gulf War-era veterans should be labeled a "syndrome," believes the symptoms are caused by battlefield exposure to toxic agents such as pesticides, radioactive material used in armor-plated vehicles, sarin nerve gas and pills that veterans took as an antidote to nerve gas.  Others believe the sick veterans are suffering from psychological disturbances similar to post traumatic stress disorder.  In total, UT administrators estimate they have incurred $19.2 million in expenses for the studies.  They have sent an estimated $15.5 million worth of invoices to the VA and have only received $9.1 million in reimbursement payments.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Stateside, the Department of Defense is reportedly considering contracting a private firm [16] to manage security on the front lines of the war in Afghanistan, even as Defense Secretary Robert Gates maintains that the Pentagon intends to cut back on the use of private security contractors.  According to the Washington Post, on a Web site listing federal business opportunities, the Army published a notice in July soliciting information from prospective contractors who would develop a security plan for 50 or more forward operating bases and smaller command outposts across Afghanistan.  Although the U.S. military has contracted out security services to protect individuals, military bases and other facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, this contract would award a commercial company unusually broad "theater-wide" authority to protect forward operating bases in a war zone.  The Army has not issued a formal proposal for a contract, but the notice says that interested companies should reply by this Wednesday July 29^th and that a formal request for proposals should follow. The "anticipated award date" for a contract is Dec. 1^st.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE 

The Senate will convene at 3:00 p.m.

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS  of  INTEREST

• July 29, 2009 - SVAC will hold a hearing entitled, "Review of Veterans' Disability Compensation: Forging a Path Forward."  9:30 a.m.; 418 Russell (Smith)
• August 2, 2009 - SVAC will conduct a field hearing on VA’s outreach to returning Guardsmen.  10:00 a.m.; Oahu Veterans Center (Vasquez)
• August 28, 2009 - SVAC will conduct a field hearing on the state of VA’s services on Maui, to include an OIG report of the same.  10:00 a.m.; Maui Cultural Center (Vasquez)

THE HOUSE of  REPRESENTATIVES

The House will convene at 2:00 p.m.

Under suspension of the rules:

HR 3219 [17] — Veterans’ health insurance

HR 1293 [18] — Veterans’ home improvement

HR 2770 [19] — Veterans’ nonprofit research

HR 3155 [20] — Veterans’ caregivers

 

FUTURE  HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST

• July 29, 2009 - Full Committee Hearing:  Meeting the Needs of Injured Veterans in the Military Paralympic Program  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon HOB
• July 30, 2009  Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Hearing:  VRE Contracts for Veteran Counseling  1:30 p.m.; 340 Cannon HOB
• September 10, 2009 - Joint House and Senate Full Committee Hearing:  Legislative Presentation of the American Legion  9:30 a.m.; 345 Cannon 

IAVA In the NEWS

Outlet: Pentagon Channel

Title: Vets Turned Lobbyist [21]

Date: Saturday, July 25th

Representative: Tom Tarantino, Patrick Campbell

 

Outlet: Times Record News

Title: Our opinion: Punishment should fit crime, if soldier guilty [22]

Date: Friday, July 24^th
Representative: Paul Rieckhoff

 

Outlet: Christian Science Monitor

Title: Medal of Honor to be awarded, only the sixth since 9/11 [23]

Date: Friday, July 24^th
Representative: Paul Rieckhoff

 

Outlet: Ed Schultz Show (Radio)

Title: http://www.wegoted.com/todayShow/ [24]
Date: Friday, July 24^th

Representative: Paul Rieckhoff

 

BLOGS

Blog: Metal Martyr

Title: Ace Frehley, Corey Taylor Joining Fifth Annual Ride for Dime [25]

Date: Saturday, July 25^th

Representative: IAVA

 

Blog: Watson Adventures

Title: Watson Adventures [26]

Date: Monday, July 27^th

Representative: IAVA

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles.  These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.