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The cost of war — on veterans’ health and taxpayer wallets — will loom a little larger in the new year. The Department of Veterans Affairs will issue a final rule to claim adjudicators to presume three more diseases of Vietnam veterans, including heart disease, were caused by exposure to Agent Orange. The rule, expected to be published soon, will make almost any veteran who set foot in Vietnam, and is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, B cell leukemia or ischemic heart disease (known also as coronary artery disease) eligible for disability compensation and VA medical care. The exception would be...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2009 – Based on an independent study by the Institute of Medicine last month, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki has directed broader health coverage from his department for Vietnam War veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange. Research found that three illnesses – B cell leukemias, Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease -- possibly are associated with Agent Orange exposure. Those conditions join a list of related diseases for which Vietnam War veterans already receive compensation, such as prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, soft-tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma. "Since my confirmation as secretary,...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2009 – A new Department of Veterans Affairs ruling will soon relieve Vietnam veterans suffering from three specific illnesses from the burden of proving their ailments are linked to Agent Orange exposure to receive VA health care and disability payments. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki's decision, announced today, establishes a service connection for Vietnam vets stricken with hairy-cell leukemia and other B-cell leukemias, Parkinson's disease and ischemic heart disease, VA chief of staff John Gingrich told American Forces Press Service. Shinseki made the decision based on a recent report by the National Academy of Science's Institute...

The frontrunner to become Israel’s next prime minister, Tzipi Livni, was a Paris agent for Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence agency, in the early 1980s when it ran a series of missions to kill Palestinian terrorists in European capitals, according to former colleagues. They say Livni, now foreign minister, was on active service when Mamoun Meraish, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, was shot dead by a Mossad hit squad in Athens on August 21, 1983. She was not directly involved in the killing, in which two young men on a motorcycle drew alongside Meraish’s car and opened fire,...

New Study Strengthens Association Of Prostate Cancer With Exposure To Agent Orange ScienceDaily (May 16, 2008) — As men age, their risk of developing prostate cancer increases. Aging Vietnam veterans are giving researchers new opportunities to solidify the connection between in-country exposure to Agent Orange and subsequent prostate cancer development. In a study presented during the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in Orlando, researchers presented data from a large study of veterans enrolled in the Northern California VA System, examining prostate cancer incidence and disease characteristics in those exposed to Agent Orange compared to those who...

AN ALLEGED attempt to kill a former Russian spy who defected to Britain was being investigated by police last night. Oleg Gordievsky was admitted to a hospital in Guildford after falling ill in November last year. And yesterday he claimed he had been poisoned with the highly toxic metal thallium in a botched assassination attempt. Gordievsky, a KGB double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence during the 1980s, claims he was targeted by a Russian assassin who visited him at his safe house in Surrey. The 69-year-old was unconscious for 34 hours after falling ill last year and...

The new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran appears to rely heavily on notes from a discussion between Iranian military officials involved in that country's nuclear weapons development program. What if, instead of such easily manipulated documentary evidence, the CIA's National Clandestine Service had been able to recruit a spy at the highest reaches of the Iranian government, someone who could just tell us what the country's nuclear capabilities and plans were? It wouldn't have made any difference. Ever since the inception of the CIA, the operational side of the agency has both believed in and spread the fantasy that foreign...

November 13, 2007 - Destin, Florida It seems as if an upcoming movie produced by a physician and former Air Force flyer is creating quite a stir. The movie “the PARALYZING AGENT” changed its title from “the Emerald coasT project…” after the director was questioned by certain officials about usage of the title and what he was disclosing in his movie. The screenwriter & director, Gene Greenlees, M.D., is a practicing anesthesiologist in Florida and is originally from Austin, Texas. At this time he would not comment about the title change, but said, “Sometimes things happen for reasons beyond your...

EL PASO, Texas - An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent convicted of taking a $20,000 bribe was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in federal prison. Santiago Efrain Valle, 44, was convicted in April of one count each of bribery and extortion under the color of law. Valle denied that he offered to have an immigration charge dropped and the risk classification changed for a Mexican national jailed at the ICE detention center in El Paso in exchange for the bribe. He plans to appeal. Valle, who could have received an 18-year sentence, received three years and eight months...

A former Border Patrol agent was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for smuggling illegal immigrants, sometimes in his own government vehicle. Eric Balderas, 28, pleaded guilty in December 2005 to conspiracy to bring in illegal aliens. His plea agreement indicated that he admitted smuggling at least 100 people, said prosecutor Alana Wong. Authorities allege that the crimes occurred in the spring of 2005. Balderas worked with fellow agent Oscar Antonio Ortiz, who was sentenced last year to five years in prison. Ortiz, himself an illegal immigrant from Mexico, admitted that he and Balderas took money to transport illegal...

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2007 – Afghan and U.S. forces killed a suspected al Qaeda agent and captured three other suspected insurgents during separate actions in Afghanistan’s Zabul and Nangarhar provinces today, military officials said. The suspected al Qaeda operative had fired on Afghan and U.S. troops as they approached a reputed militant safe house located in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar province. The house was allegedly used by al Qaeda to funnel weapons and explosives for terrorist operations. Coalition forces returned fire, killing the militant. A search of the house yielded numerous weapons, including timers and grenades used to make...

ESCONDIDO: Investigators have learned that a Riverside County man shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent last week was a legal resident, the Sheriff's Department said yesterday. AdvertisementBenito A. Gonzalez, 40, of Sun City, gave the agent a false name when contacted in a parking lot on Mountain Meadow Road off Interstate 15 last week, said sheriff's homicide Sgt. Roy Frank. The agent was not able to confirm the man's identity at the time and tried to arrest him on suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant. A struggle ensued, and the agent shot and killed Gonzalez in a nearby...

Fellow Freepers, I've recently written a 139,000 word fantasy novel (swords & sorcery type stuff). After an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from dozens of test readers, I've decided to seek an agent to help get the book published. I'm taking a stab in the dark here in case... 1) Anyone knows an actual agent who deals in the fantasy genre. 2) Anyone knows a published fantasy author who may be willing to "blurb" my manuscript, if it is worthy. (That means reading all or part of the book and, if they enjoy it, to offer a quote that I can include...

PHOENIX - A Border Patrol agent was charged Monday with first-degree murder in the shooting of an illegal immigrant at the border in January. An investigation found that Agent Nicholas Corbett's killing of Francisco Dominguez-Rivera, of Puebla, Mexico, was not legally justified, said Cochise County prosecutor Ed Rheinheimer. Corbett is also charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. Corbett's attorney, Daniel Santander, didn't immediately return a message left Monday afternoon by The Associated Press. The shooting, which drew condemnation from the Mexican government, occurred while Corbett was trying to apprehend Dominguez-Rivera and three others who were trying to enter...

A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a man who threatened him with a softball-sized rock at the border, the agency said Tuesday. The agent fired an M-4 assault rifle at the man, who had escaped from a scuffle with another agent as he tried to run back into Mexico, said Border Patrol spokesman David Kim. The victim, whose name, nationality and immigration status were not released by U.S. authorities, was pronounced dead from one bullet wound at El Centro Regional Medical Center after the incident Monday. Kim said he did not know where the man was struck. Pablo Arnaud...

Shortly after a segment on the popular show "America's Most Wanted" Saturday featured the story of two Border Patrol agents imprisoned for shooting a Mexican suspected drug dealer, one of the agents was badly assaulted by fellow inmates in his Mississippi prison. Ignacio Ramos had been preparing to go to bed at the Federal Correctional Complex in Yazoo City, Miss., when four inmates attacked him, kicked him in the head, the side and the shoulders with steel-toed boots, Ramos' attorney David Botsford told Cybercast News Service. The incident has fueled calls from members of Congress for President Bush to pardon...

advertisementOfficials still aren't saying if a suspected illegal entrant shot and killed Friday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent had a weapon. The details surrounding a fight between the man who was killed, Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera, 22, of Puebla, Mexico, and the Border Patrol agent remained hazy Saturday as officials were tight-lipped about the investigation. "The agent thought his life was in danger," said Jesús Rodriguez, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. The incident occurred just after 3 p.m. Friday 150 yards north of the border between Bisbee and Douglas, southeast of the Paul Spur Lime plant and Arizona 80,...

An off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent was held for more than a day by Mexican authorities after crossing the border at San Luis with ammunition in his car before his release late Friday, authorities said. The unidentified agent was arrested Thursday as he entered Mexico at the San Luis Port of Entry in southwest Arizona, said Raul Berumen, a spokesman for municipal authorities in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. Mexican Customs inspectors found a bag containing 650 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition in the agent's 2006 Nissan Altima, Berumen said. Possessing firearms or ammunition in Mexico is illegal and large warning...

A baseball players agent illegally smuggled Cuban players into the United States, eventually shipping them to California in hopes that they would be signed by major league teams, federal immigration officials said Tuesday. The agent, Gustavo ``Gus'' Dominguez, is charged with paying four aides to transport the athletes and other Cubans to the U.S. in two trips from the island nation. Dominguez, of California-based Total Sports International, has represented several Cuban baseball defectors, including Andy Morales, who was signed into the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox minor league systems after fleeing Cuba six years ago. Excerpt. Get the...

Congressmen who visit the U.S.-Mexico border unannounced are being monitored by the Department of Homeland Security, and at least one U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent has been suspended for speaking to a congressman without first getting supervisory clearance, according to documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Congressional representatives interviewed by the Daily Bulletin said they were unaware until recently that Border Patrol agents were required to file Significant Incident Reports -- normally used for shootings and other serious border incidents -- when congressional representatives made unannounced visits this summer along the U.S.-Mexico border. A second document obtained by the...