IG reports US Bomb Sniffing dogs were mistreated in Jordan

IG Report: US Sent Bomb-Sniffing Dogs to Jordan, Then They Died from Poor Care

Stars and Stripes
By Chad Garland
13 Sep 2019

For more than 20 years, the State Department has provided bomb-sniffing dogs to foreign countries. But the program came under scrutiny in May 2018, nearly a year after a complaint left on an IG hotline alleged a lack of oversight, insufficient health care for the animals and poor working conditions.

A malnourished Jordanian bomb-sniffing dog named Mencey is seen in an April 2018 photo taken when a team of veterinary workers traveled from the U.S. to prevent an outbreak of insect-borne illness among U.S.-trained working dogs the State Department provided to Jordan. (U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL)

The U.S. government continued to provide dozens of bomb-sniffing dogs to the Kingdom of Jordan, even as the animals were dying of serious health problems and others were so poorly treated that they had "lost the will to work," a government evaluation found.

Since 2008, at least 12 U.S.-trained explosive detection canines provided to the kingdom under an antiterrorism program died from medical problems. Others were overworked, unhealthy and forced to live in kennels with "barely existent" sanitation, including some where a deadly virus was rampant, officials said.
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Mom welcomes home son with 100 flags lining street

FLAGS WELCOME SPECIAL AGENT HOME FROM AFGHANISTAN
ABC News
By Kevin Quinn
Friday, August 15, 2014

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- More than 100 US flags line one Fort Bend County street.

They were put there overnight by the mother of a man who just returned from a year-long tour of duty for the State Department in Afghanistan.

Special Agent Mark Richardson says, "I certainly wasn't expecting this. I was really embarrassed, but she's a great mom and it was really sweet of her to do that."

His mother Kathryn calls him a hero. She says, "This boy is the best. He's the best son in the world."

She's been battling breast cancer and other ailments over the past few years and says despite being thousands of miles away, her son has always been supportive of her recovery. She wanted to show him what his devotion means to her.

So she knocked on her neighbors' doors in advance, asking for their permission to place a flag at the edge of each of their properties, so the red, white and blue would line the street as they drove Mark to her home early Friday morning.
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Did North Korea Detain the Wrong US Korean War Vet?

Did North Korea Detain the Wrong US Korean War Vet?
ABC News
By COLLEEN CURRY
Nov. 22, 2013

North Korean authorities pulled a visiting tourist U.S. citizen off a plane last month and have been detaining him in the country ever since, but may have mistaken the man for another American of the same name.

Merrill E. Newman, an 85-year-old grandfather from Palo Alto, Calif., traveled to North Korea last month with a tour group out of Beijing.

Authorities have kept Newman's situation quiet for weeks, but former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former ambassador to the U.N., confirmed to ABC News today he has been in touch with his North Korean contacts working on the situation. The State Department has declined to release details about Newman's status.

Newman was a Korean War veteran, one of many that has gone back to visit North Korea in the decades after their service.

But another North Korean veteran named Merrill H. Newman, age 84, was, until recently, the better-known Merrill Newman. He received a Silver Star for his time in the Korean War.

"The thought entered my head," said Merrill H. Newman, reached at his home in Beaverton, Ore. "The name is the same and there's always that possibility, but I have no way of knowing."

"The thing that has been kicked around by media people, not me, is that I received a Silver Star for 60 years ago in Korea and I have the same name, so the question has come up, could it be that in the process of maybe Googling, like anybody can, and finding that perhaps they thought there was a connection there? I don't know. I have no way of knowing," he said.
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Soldier Connects Terrorist in Kentucky to Slain Brothers in Arms

Soldier Connects Terrorist in Kentucky to Slain Brothers in Arms
ABC News
By JAMES GORDON MEEK, BRIAN ROSS, CINDY GALLI and LEE FERRAN
Nov. 21, 2013

Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Hedetniemi couldn't believe what he was hearing: Two al Qaeda terrorists had been arrested in a small town in Kentucky, right in America's heartland.

But it wasn't the 2011 arrests that caught the combat veteran's attention, but the offhand mention in a press report of a town in Iraq called Bayji, where the terrorists had operated before slipping into the States.

"It's an extremely small town and not very well-known," Hedetniemi told ABC News. But Hedetniemi knew it all too well.

He was just south of the town in 2005 when another group in his Pennsylvania National Guard platoon was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) and attacked by small arms fire. The Americans managed to fend off the attack, but four soldiers died.

"So once I actually read the bulletin [about the Kentucky arrests]… the more research I did on it, I realized that these guys were operating in the same area that we were at the time we were attacked," Hedetniemi said. "It was more than a coincidence, I think it was fate that the news broke."
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3 State Department resignations after Benghazi report

3 Resign at State Department After Libya Attack Report
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: December 19, 2012

WASHINGTON — Three State Department officials resigned on Wednesday after an independent panel severely criticized the “grossly inadequate” security arrangements at an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack.

The officials who resigned were Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security; Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security; and Raymond Maxwell, a deputy assistant secretary who had responsibility for the North Africa region, an administration official said.

The report left unscathed some more senior officials who oversaw those bureaus, including Ambassador Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary for management. Mr. Kennedy has vigorously defended the State Department’s decision-making on Benghazi before Congress.

Thomas R. Pickering, the former ambassador who led the independent review, told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that most of the blame for what happened in Benghazi should fall on officials in the bureaus of diplomatic security and Near East affairs.
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70 to 80 percent of deployed civilians to Iraq have trauma related wounds

Statement of Laurence G. Brown, M.D. Director, Office of Medical Services, U.S. Department Of State

Although many employees working in Iraq are direct hire Foreign Service employees others are permanent civil service employees, while still others are civil service working under limited, non career appointments, the so-called 3161s. I want you to know that all of these employees come under the department's medical program in Iraq. They are all eligible for preassignment training, for medical and mental health services while in Iraq and for post assignment out briefings.

Although the medical services for the 3161s end when their employment is terminated, they are covered by worker's compensation for injuries or occupational health conditions that developed in Iraq. Other contractor personnel in Iraq are covered by their individual companies who hve full responsibility for medical and mental health care and follow up.

The DOD cannot take care of the soldiers who have been wounded by trauma but they are treating non-combatants? The soldiers cannot simply collect workman's comp, have to wait for months just to file a claim and be evaluated, then wait over a year more to have a claim approved? Our tax dollars are funding the contractors and they cannot take care of their own employees? Our tax dollars are supposed to be taking care of our troops and all of their medical care. What is going on here? This also explains why the State Department employees were so upset about going to Iraq. The hearing happened June 19, 2007. They would have all known about this report and knew the dangers of being sent to Iraq.

Later in the testimony

Some contractor personnel in Iraq are personal services contractors (PSC) that have the same medical support a do direct hire employees. Other contact personnel are either non-personal services or professional services contacts. While all the large contact companies have full responsibility for medical and mental health care and follow-up for their employees, there are several smaller contact companies who are authorized to use Government furnished medical support in Baghdad.

In a question and answer session

Dr. Brown
I think it is fair to say based on anecdotal reports and from our survey that again is not totally complete but it appears that most people--let us say 70 or 80 percent of those who leave Iraq--have some sort of an emotional problem at least temporarily when they return to the United States. As I said, most of them

go here for the whole report
http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/110/36206.pdf

They are not participants in combat but they are in combat zones. So why do we doubt the soldiers, Marines and all other military personnel exposed to the traumatic events of combat on a daily basis would develop PTSD? Dr. Brown also said they did not anticipate these findings. Neither did the DOD or the VA and no one has taken this all seriously enough to being emergency response to it. Our soldiers are dying after they come home. They are dying a slow, painful death. Their families are falling apart and trying to deal with all of this. Financial problems caused by PTSD and the inability to work crush what little strength they have to deal with any of this. What is congress and the President doing about any of this? The Democrats have been trying but even they do not fully appreciate how serious all of this is.kc

State Department denies treatment for PTSD

Envoys Resist Forced Iraq Duty
Top State Dept. Officials Face Angry Questions

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 1, 2007; Page A01

Uneasy U.S. diplomats yesterday challenged senior State Department officials in unusually blunt terms over a decision to order some of them to serve at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or risk losing their jobs.

At a town hall meeting in the department's main auditorium attended by hundreds of Foreign Service officers, some of them criticized fundamental aspects of State's personnel policies in Iraq. They took issue with the size of the embassy -- the biggest in U.S. history -- and the inadequate training they received before being sent to serve in a war zone.

One woman said she returned from a tour in Basra with post-traumatic stress disorder only to find that the State Department would not authorize medical treatment.

Yesterday's internal dissension came amid rising public doubts about diplomatic progress in Iraq and congressional inquiries into the department's spending on the embassy and its management of private security contractors. Some participants asked how diplomacy could be practiced when the embassy itself, inside the fortified Green Zone, is under frequent fire and officials can travel outside only under heavy guard.

Service in Iraq is "a potential death sentence," said one man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran. "Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now," he said to sustained applause.
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How can the State Department deny a claim for PTSD when they send them into a war zone? Even the Green Zone gets bombed! She was in Basra.

PTSD hits US Diplomats

US studies stress for diplomats at dangerous posts

Source: Reuters (3 minutes ago)
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - One in six U.S. diplomats who have served in dangerous countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, the U.S. State Department ... Full article