[Peace-discuss] Champaign to Washington to Baghdad, Freedom Denied

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

I just talked to a public affairs officer (PAO) at Central Command 
headquarters in Florida. He is sticking to story that all is well and U.S. troops are 
giving liberty to Iraqis.  I agree that letters are essential. 

But we have a major win in federal court- Pentagon was ordered to stop giving 
mandator anthrax vaccines. PAO was a bit un-nerved by this development. 

doug 
***


 Judge Halts Forced Military Anthrax Shots
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Filed at 1:24 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon must stop forcing servicemen and women to 
take the anthrax vaccination against their will, unless President Bush signs a 
special order, a judge ruled Monday.

Millions of shots have been given and hundreds of service members have been 
punished for refusing them since the mandatory vaccinations started in 1998.

The judge ruled that the anthrax vaccinations fell under a 1998 law 
prohibiting the use of certain experimental drugs unless people being given the drug 
consent or the president waives the consent requirement.

Congress passed the law following fears that the use of such drugs may have 
led to unexplained illnesses among veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War that 
have come to be known as Gulf War Syndrome.

``The women and men of our armed forces put their lives on the line every day 
to preserve and safeguard the freedoms that all Americans cherish and 
enjoy,'' said Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court in 
Washington.

``Absent an informed consent or presidential waiver, the United States cannot 
demand that members of the armed forces also serve as guinea pigs for 
experimental drugs,'' Sullivan said.

The Pentagon had no immediate comment.

Sullivan rejected the government concern that military discipline would be 
harmed if courts intervene between soldiers and their military superiors.

Believing Iraq and other nations had produced anthrax weapons, former 
Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 1997 ordered the armed forces immunized.

Shots started in 1998 for soldiers in areas believed to present the highest 
risk of infection -- the Persian Gulf, then Korea.