The Defense of Freedom Medal Held Hostage by The Defense Base Act

WHY HAVE I NOT RECEIVED THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM MEDAL?

The Defense of Freedom Medal is an award held to be the equivalent of the Purple Heart and is awarded to Civilian Contractors injured in the war zones. 

One question we get here repeatedly is why have I not received the Defense of Freedom Medal?   The question comes from severely disabled Civilian Contractors wounded in horrific explosions and insurgent attacks.

WHO IS HOLDING YOUR MEDAL HOSTAGE?

The company you work for is responsible for requesting  that you receive the medal and providing the documentation that you have indeed suffered a qualifying injury.

As all Injured War Zone Contractors know the minute you must file a Defense Base Act Claim you are automatically placed in an adversarial relationship with your employer.   Your Employer and the Defense Base Act Insurance Company are considered equal entities in the battle you have entered for your medical care and indemnity.

Your Employer is required to assist the insurance company in denying your claim.  Under the War Hazards Act the Employer/Carrier must prove to the WHA Tribunal that they have diligently tried to deny your claim.

It appears that your Defense of Freedom Medals could be held hostage by your Employers due to the adversarial relationship the Defense Base Act has created.

When KBR, DynCorp, Blackwater, Xe, et al, provide documentation of your injuries to the DoD they have just admitted that you are indeed injured and to what extent.

Specific information regarding injury/death: Description of the situation causing the injury/death in detail to include the date, time, place, and scene of the incident, and official medical documentation of the employee’s injuries and treatment. The description must be well documented, including the names of witnesses and point of contact (POC) for additional medical information, if needed.

These admissions sure would make it hard for Administrative Law Judges like Paul C Johnson to name them as alleged.   ALJ Paul C Johnson has yet to award benefits to a DBA Claimant in a decision based on a hearing.

KBR who can never seem to find their injured employees medical records holds the key to the Defense of Freedom Medal.

Certainly there are other lawsuits outside of the DBA that the withholding of this information is vital too.

For those of you who still give a damn after being abused by so badly simply because you were injured-

The Defense of Freedom Medal may find you many years down the road once an Administrative Law Judge says you were injured.

We recommend that you contact your Congressional Representative or Senator and have them request this Medal if you qualify for it and would like to have it.

If you are still litigating your claim it SHOULD serve to legitimize your alleged injuries.

Ronco Consulting Corporation named in Lawsuit for EEOC Violations

Ronco Consulting was named in the Defense Base Act Class Action Lawsuit against Defense Base Act Insurance Companies and some Overseas Civilian Contractor Companies.

The EEOC granted a former Ronco Consulting Employee and American Injured War Zone Contractor the Right to Sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act after investigating the complaint.

The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities.

Even those who were disabled due to the negligence of the company in question.

Defense Base Act: The Weaponization of the Defense Medical Examination

The Defense Base Act Insurance Company is entitled to have Defense Base Act Claimants see a physician that they choose to provide them with a second opinion regards the injuries that you have filed a claim for.  These examinations are in no way Independent Medical Examinations as the Insurance Company and their Attorneys deceptively refer to them as.

These Insurance Company Second Opinions, or Defense Medical Examinations, come at a heavy price to the US Taxpayer.  The Insurance Companies pay much higher amounts to hire doctors that will give them a report unfavorable to your claim and also be willingly to back up these statements in Depositions or straight to a Judges face at hearing.  You are entitled to reimbursement for the expenses you incur attending these.  The DME can be a very expensive undertaking.

Very few DBA Claimants exercise their rights to have these doctors researched by a professional, not travel outside of their geographic area, take an advocate with them (preferably your attorney or a nurse), have the scope and purpose of the Examination clearly defined, or most importantly to video the examination. 

It must be you who pursues these protections because your DBA Attorney is not likely to suggest or pay for them despite your entitlement to them.  Your attorneys failure to assert your rights only enables the insurance companies and their bloodthirsty attorneys and claims adjusters.

You are required to “cooperate” not play dead.

One very prudent restriction on these DME’s used to be that the Insurance Company could not make you attend one more than every three years.  At some point that we cannot ascertain this restriction was removed. 

So  began the Weaponization of the DBA Defense Medical Examination.

Currently the DME is being utilized as a weapon to intimidate DBA Claimants to accept negligent settlements.

Even though you have an order in place you are told if you do not immediately attend a DME your payments will cease immediately.

Even though your claim is currently under the jurisdiction of an ALJ awaiting a decision you are told to fly across country for several days of DME’s.   Just prepping you for the settlement offer.

Your attorney presents to you a ridiculous offer for settlement along with the threat that if you do not accept it the Insurance Companies Attorney promises you DME’s every year and surveillance by their private dicks $$$ for the rest of your life.

We cannot always be certain who is manning the weapon.  As of late there is a barrage of Friendly Fire.

No doubt that the casualties are always the DBA Claimant and the US Taxpayer.

It has never been more true that After Injury the Battle Begins

Or more clear that this program is lacking oversight of any kind

Where is the Department of Labor Watchdog?

The DoL’s OIG has been without a permanent Inspector General since July 13, 2009. 

Less than two weeks post IG  a video surfaced on this blog of Cabot Gosling, Vice President of Tangiers International, presenting an Injured War Zone Contractor that he was stalking a Photo ID when asked to identify himself.  The ID  clearly states that he is an agent of the US DoL.  

Under federal law, it is illegal to impersonate a government official, a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.

Wow, we finally caught these liars on video ! 

Michael Niss, former chief of the LHWCA, asked the DoL OIG to investigate after T Christian Miller published a story on the incident.

No report or decision was ever publicly issued.   Tangiers International continued doing business as usual, causing so many problems that even the ruthless AIG who funded them in the first place stopped using them.

We had to file a FOIA, Freedom of Information Act Request to find out what happened to this investigation.

What happened was not much. 

A few internal emails and phone calls within the DoL and one to Christopher Catrambone who owns Tangiers International.  Chez Catrambone stated that this was his US Department of Loss though he had previously stated in an email to the DoL that the US Embassy in Malta had authorized his use of the US Department of Labors’ logo and name.

The Injured War Zone Contractor who was stalked and took the video was never contacted.  Mark Munro shared his side of the story with one of our contributors:

Marc called me and told me that the AIG investigator called him at 5 am, asked his name, and then hung up and followed him and even went on the wrong side of the road in pursuit and almost wrecked.

Marc was in a bomb blast that killed 18, he has PTSD, and the AIG investigator placed Marc in great danger because PTSD patients are prone to outbursts when they are stressed, especially when it’s extremely negligent and intentional stress like the AIG investigator caused by calling Marc at 5 am and hanging up.

The investigation was limited to Tangiers side of the story despite how pitiful their cover was.  Even Miranda Chui stated that she thought they were probably lying.

Chris Catrambone and Tangiers International got a little slap on the wrist and a letter in their file.

Allowing AIG and Tangiers International to operate with such impunity and lack of oversight only emboldens them to cross the criminal/ethical lines as a matter of rule.  We are talking about seriously injured war zone contractors medical care here, peoples lives.  CNA and ACE are as guilty, if not more so.

Would the results of this “investigation” have been different with a permanent IG in place?  We doubt it.  The insurance companies carry more political weight than any IG could muster.  We saw this administration roll over for them within days of taking office.

Still, this lack of concern on the part of our Administration to the Oversight of the Department which holds Injured War Zone Contractors lives in their hands contributes to the criminal abuse by the insurance companies and their third party war profiteers Tangiers International, Tacticor, and Vetted International.

Project on Government Oversight:  Where are all the Watchdogs?

Office of the Inspector General Department of Labor

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) conducts audits to review the effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and integrity of all DOL programs and operations, including those performed by its contractors and grantees. This work is conducted in order to determine whether: the programs and operations are in compliance with the applicable laws and regulations; DOL resources are efficiently and economically being utilized; and DOL programs achieve their intended results.

The OIG also conducts criminal, civil and administrative investigations relating to violations of Federal laws, rules or regulations, including those performed by DOL contractors and grantees; as well as investigations of allegations of misconduct on the part of DOL employees.

In addition, the OIG is unique among Inspectors General because it has an “external” program function to conduct criminal investigations to combat the influence of labor racketeering and organized crime in the nation’s labor unions. We conduct labor racketeering investigations in three areas: employee benefit plans, labor-management relations, and internal union affairs.

Why Having a Permanent IG Is Important

OIGs are best positioned to be effective when led by a highly qualified permanent IG, rather than an acting official or no IG at all. Permanent IGs undergo significant vetting—especially the IGs that require Senate confirmation—before taking their position. That vetting process helps to instill confidence among OIG stakeholders—Congress, agency officials, whistleblowers, and the public—that the OIG is truly independent and that its investigations and audits are accurate and credible.

In addition, a permanent IG has the ability to set a long-term strategic plan for the office, including setting investigative and audit priorities. An acting official, on the other hand, is known by all OIG staff to be temporary, which one former IG has argued “can have a debilitating effect on [an] OIG, particularly over a lengthy period.” Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) has echoed that sentiment, saying “Even the best acting inspector general lacks the standing to make lasting changes needed to improve his or her office.”

Under fire: Wartime stress as a defense for murder

This is the price that innocent people pay when PTSD and TBI are IGNORED by the Military, the Veterans Administration  and the Defense Base Act Insurance Companies.  The Defense Base Act Insurance Companies should be found guilty of murder themselves in many instances.

“We haven’t begun to see the wave of all this.”

Should post-traumatic stress disorder be a defense for murder? Watch “War Rage on Trial” on CNN Presents, Sunday, May 6 at 8 p.m./11p.m. ET.

CNN

Less than a year after returning from combat in Iraq, Nick Horner was charged with two murders.

Altoona, Pennsylvania (CNN) — Raymond Williams had just retired and was looking forward to traveling out west with his wife and spending time with his three grandchildren. But all those plans were shattered on April 6, 2009. As Williams, 64, went to get the mail on that spring day, he was gunned down by a man he’d never met.

His wife found his body.

“She said, you know ‘Matt! Matt! Somebody shot Dad,’” recalled Williams’ son, Matt. “It didn’t register. I’m thinking, ‘OK where is he now? Did they take him to the hospital? What hospital is he in?’ And before I could even get another word out, she goes ‘And he’s dead.’”

A short time earlier, the same gunman had killed a teenager and wounded a woman at a store in the same working-class town of Altoona in central Pennsylvania.

The gunman, Nicholas Horner, was a husband, a father, and a veteran soldier who had been awarded multiple medals for his service in Iraq, including a combat action badge. Less than a year after returning from combat, Horner faced two first degree murder charges and the possibility of the death penalty.

“Not in a million years could I believe this was true because Nick would never, he could never hurt anyone,” said Horner’s mother, Karen. “I know Nick. Nick pulled the trigger, but that wasn’t Nick.”

Please read the entire story here

A cost of war: Soaring disability benefits for veterans, while the cost of civilian veterans disabilities is kept in the dark

CNN Money A cost of war: Soaring disability benefits for veterans

Daniel Brink of South Africa was severally wounded and disabled working in Iraq. His medical care and indemnity are the also the responsibility of the US Taxpayer under the Defense Base Act only no one has the integrity to be honest about it.

After more than a decade of continuous warfare, the cost of disability compensation for wounded veterans is surging to mammoth proportions.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs expects to spend $57 billion on disability benefits next year. That’s up 25% from $46 billion this year, and nearly quadruple the $15 billion spent in 2000, before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.

“This is the cost of going to war,” said Larry Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who served as assistant secretary of defense during the Ronald Reagan administration. “We’ve made so much progress in medicine [that] you’re going to have a lot of people survive their injuries who didn’t in the past.”

About 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq and about 1,800 have been killed in Afghanistan. Some 633,000 veterans — one out of every four of the 2.3 million who served in Iraq and Afghanistan — have a service-connected disability, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Please read the entire article here

Tim Eysselinck Casualty 8 Years Ago Today

Tim Eysselinck

You and your family in our thoughts today and everyday

Defense Base Act Claimant Alert, Bruce H Nicholson Clients

It has been brought to our attention that the following claimants at  some time thought that their DBA Claim was being handled by Bruce Nicholson and/or his assistant Ken Youngman, of Los Angeles California at Peyman Rahnama.  Ken Youngman now works for a lawfirm that represents AIG and ACE, though he most recently reported working at Law Office of Bruce Nicholson as a Federal Workers’ Comp GURU on LinkedIn

If your name is listed below you need to find out the status of your claim immediately if you have not already lost your claim or found another attorney.  If you recognize someone’s name please contact them. 

If your with the DoL, the BRB, or an ALJ, and recognize these names it would certainly be upstanding of you to let these people know they are not being represented.

Maybe even an Insco Defense Attorney out there that can resist an easy kill just because it is the right thing to do.

 Dill  (never responded to the appeal but was negotiating a deal, settlement, with the defense attorney Michael Thomas)

Kitterman
Humphrey
Stewart
Clausen
Reuben  (we believe this claim was lost due to failure to respond to a motion)
Ruffner

AIG/Chartis stops writing excess workers’ comp

It had previously been predicted elsewhere that the DBA Insurance Companies would begin to crash as they lost the huge premiums they were taking in for Contractors working in the War Zones.

Take the money and run

Best Week Press Release

Big changes lie ahead for the excess workers’ compensation line, as the third-largest writer leaves the stand-alone market in the wake of rising medical costs and the possible impact of the Affordable Care Act, according to the latest issue of BestWeek U.S./Canada. Chartis said in February it stopped writing the business on a stand-alone basis.

“Workers’ compensation is in a very different place today than where it was 10 years ago,” said Russ Johnston, who runs U.S. and Canada casualty operations for Chartis.

AIG said one reason it was leaving the stand-alone business was the Affordable Care Act. AIG “concluded that there is increased vulnerability to the risk of further cost-shifting to the excess workers’ compensation class of business in particular,” the company said in a regulatory filing.

Under the ACA, some 33 million people will gain health insurance coverage at a net cost of $1.1 trillion. That increase in the insured population will result in an increased demand for doctors, resulting in a shortage of primary care doctors and some cost shifting, said Don Hurter, senior vice president of Chartis’ medical management services

What is Excess Workers’ Comp Insurance

Workers’ Comp Executive  Analyst says AIG Workers Comp Reserves are short (2010)

Shares in American International Group (NYSE: AIG) were taking a hit on Wall Street after a prominent analyst warned that three of its long-tail lines of coverage were significantly under reserved. The warning was issued by analysts at Bernstein Research who said the bulk of the reserve deficit is with its general liability and professional liability lines of coverage, but workers’ comp accounted for $1.8 billion of the total, according to published accounts of the research report.

Overall, the three lines amounted to an estimated $10 billion shortfall, while another $1 billion is spread across other lines. AIG spokesman Mark Herr says AIG is “not commenting” on the report and contacts at Bernstein Research were not available to elaborate on their findings.

Those findings could spell trouble for taxpayers who are on the hook for approximately $180 billion in financial aid to the troubled carrier. Taxpayers own 80% of the company and the value of their investment tumbled in trading on Monday in the wake of the report. Shares were off over 14% in late-afternoon trading to $28.52 a share.

While the report is troubling, the company had been showing signs of improvement. AIG and its Chartis general insurance unit recently closed the third quarter with $455 million in net income — the second quarter in a row in which it posted a profit. AIG had adjusted net income of $1.9 billion in the quarter compared to a $9.2 billion adjusted net loss last year. For its Chartis unit, which covers its workers’ comp operations, the company reported net operating income of $722 million. This is up from $105 million in the same period last year and was helped by $612 million in net investment income.

Premiums, however, were down for the unit. AIG says Chartis’ net written premiums amounted to $8.1 billion in the quarter – a 13% decline from the prior year period. AIG said the drop-off was due in part to a decision to hold the line on prices for its workers’ comp business, which accounts for 14% of its gross written premiums.

In California, AIG had nearly $576 million in written premiums in 2008 or 7.5% of the market. AIG companies filed for rate increases of 10% and 7% during the January 1 and July 1 filing periods last year. It hasn’t filed its 2010 rates. Companies in the AIG group filed for an 8% increase for its 2010 rates.

War is Brain-Damaging

The Defense Base Act Insurance Companies and the Department of Labor are as negligent as the Department of Defense when it comes denying the dangers of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury, and most negligently when a contractor suffers from both.

“a potentially lethal combination of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. When the frontal lobe — which controls emotions — is damaged, it simply can’t put on the brakes if a PTSD flashback unleashes powerful feelings. Seeing his buddy’s leg blown off may have unleashed a PTSD episode his damaged brain couldn’t stop”

The New York Times Sunday Review

These vets suffer from a particular kind of brain damage that results from repeated exposure to the concussive force of improvised explosive devices — I.E.D.’s — a regular event for troops traveling the roads in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s Russian roulette,” one vet told me, “We had one guy in our company who got hit nine times before the 10th one waxed him.” An I.E.D. explosion can mean death or at least a lost arm or leg, but you don’t have to take a direct hit to feel its effects. A veteran who’d been in 26 blasts explained, “It feels like you’re whacked in the head with a shovel. When you come to, you don’t know whether you’re dead or alive.”

The news that Robert Bales, an Army staff sergeant accused of having killed 16 Afghan civilians last week, had suffered a traumatic brain injury unleashed a flurry of e-mails among those of us who have been trying to beat the drums about this widespread — and often undiagnosed — war injury. New facts about Staff Sgt. Bales are coming out daily. After we heard about the brain injury that resulted when his vehicle rolled over in an I.E.D. blast, we were told that he had lost part of his foot in a separate incident. Then we learned that the day before his rampage, he’d been standing by a buddy when that man’s leg was blown off. There are also reports of alcohol use.

People with more appropriate professional skills than mine will have to parse these facts, but from what I have learned in my work as a storyteller, this tragedy may be related to something I heard about in my interviews: a potentially lethal combination of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. When the frontal lobe — which controls emotions — is damaged, it simply can’t put on the brakes if a PTSD flashback unleashes powerful feelings. Seeing his buddy’s leg blown off may have unleashed a PTSD episode his damaged brain couldn’t stop. If alcohol was indeed part of the picture, it could have further undermined his compromised frontal lobe function

Please see the original and read more here