CNA’s Deadly Paper Games and Outright Lies Condoned by the Department of Labor

How do AIG and CNA get away with telling so many lies and paying for so little ?  

They get help from those put in place to “ensure that workers’ compensation benefits are provided promptly and properly” 

The Department of Labor’s Jacksonville Florida District Office Director Charles D Lee, formerly of Liberty Mutual, gave his seal of approval to CNA’s lies by refusing to find them in default of an order that he signed himself.  It took seven years to get this order.

If Mr. Lee does not remember signing this order over two years ago he should.  While he signed the order for medical and indemnity probably without reading it, slapped a form cover letter to it,  he did not bother to determine the amount of back indemnity and interest owed which allowed CNA to not pay on time and escape the 20% per day penalty.   So few penalties apply and so little enforcement of those that do.

It took many telephone calls and finally assistance from Michael Niss, the Director, Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs at the time,  to encourage him to do his job.  He was not going to do it just because an injured contractor had not received his check  and was trying to find out why.

The failure on the District Director’s part to find CNA in 18 a Default occurred despite having in his possession legitimate proof, letters from Doctors stating that they had never been approved and had in fact been denied payment.

Proof of CNA lies to the new Claims Examiner, who comes to us from KBR with a KBR attitude, are ignored by everyone in the DoL from herself, Charles D Lee, Kristina Hall, to Eric Richardson, Miranda Chui, to the DOL IG.

CNA never produced a receipt for paying back  years of Medical Care that they were responsible for and refused to provide but Charles D Lee determined that they did so based on their attorney saying  that they did. 

CNA paid for a small fraction of the past medical care, finally, 16 months after the order was signed.  While this is clearly a 16 month default during which time the claimant has this debt hanging over his head despite having an Order in place, CNA is not held responsible.  A receipt has never been produced.  Charles D Lee takes them at their word while their lies are in his hands.

No dollar value is applied to the damages caused by a refusal to provide medical care for years on end and so there is no penalty or recovery.

We talk with contractors everyday who have orders in place for medical that  never receive it. 

The lengthy efforts your attorney must go through to try, not necessarily succeed, to secure the medical care is considered to be “Janitorial” work by CNA that they should not have to pay for.

Why not continue with the Deadly Paper Games when it saves you so much money and the very people that are supposed to be looking out for the claimant condone these criminal actions?

No dollar value is applied to the temporary injuries which become permanent at the hands of CNA.

The hands of CNA, their claims examiners, and their attorneys are so gently stroked by the Departments of Labor’s Jacksonville District Office. 

The Blood is on all of their hands.

When do CNA’s Deadly Paper Games become outright lies to Department of Labor?

How about now DOL ????

Documents showed that CNA reported the highest profits margins, taking in nearly 50 percent more in premiums than it paid out in benefits.

CNA’s Deadly Paper Games

After having defaulted on an Order to provide medical to an Injured War Zone Contractor for over 15 months, after denying for six years prior, CNA provides a computer printout to the Department of Labor Claims Examiner who was charged with  investigating this Default.

Not to give undue credit here, the Claims Examiner was trying to remedy the default per her job description, not confirm that they were in default.

Here is a copy and paste of the body of the correspondence, the full document has been forwarded to the DoL IG for investigation along with computer printout they attached.

Dear Mr Lee

Pursuant to Claims Examiners Kristina Hall’s request of January 3, 2012 and as a supplement to our response dated January 9, 2012, please find enclosed a payment printout showing payments issued by CNA International to medical providers regarding Mr. Clark.  The enclosed printout also shows the recent reimbursement payment of $1,270.34.

Defendents will continue to adjust medical invoices when and as received with accompanying medical reports.
Sounds just like they are paying for Injured War Zone Contractors  Medical over the years.  The reimbursement was for Out of Pocket presented in 2009 and clearly 15 months post order.

Problem here is that these payments were not for provided medical.

One is for a final report, not diagnoses or treatment, requested by CNA prior to hearing , that really made the Doctor mad over wasting his precious time, and the rest are for Defense Medical Examination’s.  Pages 3 and 4 were with held  but we suspect they include the parade of DME’s that were demanded.

The very abusive DME’s that were required repeatedly and outside of his geographic area.  The ones that ALJ Paul C Johnson assisted CNA with.

Not only did CNA represent these DME’s as having provided medical care for this Injured War Zone Contractor when in fact they did not, they reinforced the lie by stating that they will continue to do so.

CNA is currently under investigation for just this kind of unlawful and Overly Zealous Defense in denying Defense Base Act Claims

Unless that is, the DoL IG failed to investigate previous requests or are simply failing to provide documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

Nine Years Ago Today, Still getting screwed over by CNA !

July 7, 2003

Nine years ago you get that phone call you hoped you’d never get

But hey they say, not to worry, the insurance company will take care of everything

Heart is breaking but not to worry

Everything, they say, will be OK

Good thing we’ve been paying for good medical insurance

No way of knowing that the “insurance” was Defense Base Act through CNA, a policy we had never heard of,  looked at, or signed for

Or that  Administrative Law Judge Paul C Johnson would deem his injuries to be alleged when denying him his rights under the DBA

One day we’ll look back at this and be so grateful for our blessings, for what we’ve overcome………

But one day never comes

What’s that in the way?

CNA 

CNA with the assistance of the Department of Labor District Office in Jacksonville

From failing to provide a medical evacuation and abandoning him to the military medical system to defaulting on the order to provide his medical care for nearly two years now after denying for six years.

CNA, their Claims Adjusters, their overly zealous legal representation, and the biased Department of Labor District Office have caused much more physical, mental, and financial  damage than there ever had to be. 

What should have been temporary disabilities have become permanent.

CNA has denied the looking back one day, the moving forward, the healing

If CNA had simply lived up to their responsibilities rather than playing paper games this family would have long moved on

And the US Taxpayers would not be paying ever more to the War Profiteers CNA and their “representation”

Documents showed that CNA reported the highest profits margins, taking in nearly 50 percent more in premiums than it paid out in benefits.

Dan Hoagland’s Death Sentence at the hands of AIG’s Overly Zealous Defense

Injured War Zone Contractor Dan Hoagland shares his story of medical treatment denied  by KBR/AIG resulting in a death sentence by Cancer with Sean Calleb.

Scott Bloch, Defense Base Act Attorney tells the truth about the Defense Base Act Insurance Scandal and our Defense Base Act Class Action Lawsuit.

Join our Defense Base Act Class Action Lawsuit here

CNA’s Deadly Paper Games, Just another CNA DBA Suicide in the making

It is certainly going to have the desired result. 

They are going to kill him and it is going to be soon. 

Before the year is out I believe this man is going to commit suicide.

PTSD Claims to be Expedited

CNA’s Deadly Paper Games do not begin or end with this Injured War  Zone Contractor

Nearly 14 months to the day of a Department of Labor District Director signing an Order approved by an ALJ stating that CNA must provide medical for a  severely Injured War Zone Contractor’s injuries, the details of which were gagged…..

And 3 1/2 months after Injured War Zone Contractor asked the District Director to find them in Default for not doing so……..

CNA produces a stack of  FAXES supposedly sent to Injured War Zone Contractors Doctors stating that they have “re-approved” payment of diagnoses and treatment, most of which were never approved, ever, much less “re- approved”.  In fact for most of the Doctors CNA denied diagnoses and treatment for blast injuries for many years.

Several Doctors stated that yes they received a FAX but that it did not mean they accepted the approval and that it did not guarantee payment.  Payment would have to made in advance.  CNA’s reputation for non payment is no secret.

The rest of the doctors state that they never received “approval” at all.

Unemployed and otherwise uninsured Injured War Zone Contractor pays for some visits via credit card as they are so vital.  Doctor then sends a bill to CNA for payment despite not having received an approval,  which CNA refuses.  Injured War Zone Contractors scheduled visits are then cancelled due to non payment by CNA.

These are deadly games CNA plays in order to continue to deny medical even after a hard won order is produced.

And who do they claim is vague, ambiguous, and whose claims are not supported by Facts, or should we say FAX?

It must be the very well respected and credentialed doctors, or the Attorney, or the Injured War Zone Contractor

This negligent paper game continues despite a recent medical report from February stating:

“I do not understand the entire bureaucracy issue.  He tells me that CNA has written to us and that we are approved for Workers’ Compensation.  We have no record to that effect.  We are just not going to be paid and they are not going to authorize treatment.  Bureaucracies have their problems but this almost seems to be purposeful.

It is certainly going to have the desired result.  They are going to kill him and it is going to be soon.  Before the year is out I believe this man is going to commit suicide.

And he’ll be just another CNA DBA Suicide.

Note:   CNA’s response is to ask for an informal conference.  Several informal conferences, a settlement conference with a Judge, orders signed by a Judge and the District Director, and yet another informal conference after an 18 month default is even a consideration???  Let’s just run this out until the end of year and we won’t have to worry about this guy anyway!!!!

Civilians often don’t get PTSD help

Experts say if you’re having difficulty sleeping, experiencing nightmares, or having unexplained bursts of anger, you may be showing signs of PTSD and should probably seek professional help quickly – before you harm yourself or someone else.

Please see the video here

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) — Troops returning from war zones go through a rigorous reentry screening to check for signs of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

But, there are thousands of civilian contractors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan without any check for mental health problems

Alice Redding is a computer systems engineer. She has spent more than a year in Iraq and Afghanistan as a civilian contractor setting up servers and computer systems for soldiers.

Redding has flown with the troops into combat zones wearing a flack jack and helmet and has come under fire. Now that’s she’s back home in Fayetteville, it’s emotionally tough.

“I would wake up and realize I’m not there anymore. But it would take me a moment to realize that. And speaking to some of my friends that are retirees from the military, that do have PTSD, they recognize – they say hey you’ve got a touch of PTSD,” she explained.

Redding recalls coming under attack in Afghanistan.

“The last encounter was recently – about three months ago. While I was there, a rocket came. It was in the middle of the day. I was walking to one location and you know it’s close when you hear the whistle sound,” she said.

But while there is help available for soldiers returning from combat zones, civilians mostly don’t get that kind of support.

“We don’t have any statistics of who’s exactly got Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. We just don’t know. We don’t know if they’re committing violent crimes. We don’t know if they’re having problems with relationships,” said Redding.

Experts say if you’re having difficulty sleeping, experiencing nightmares, or having unexplained bursts of anger, you may be showing signs of PTSD and should probably seek professional help quickly – before you harm yourself or someone else.

While some military contractors provide mental health assessments, the majority of civilians who volunteer to head to combat zones are expected to seek their own civilian mental health care.

Injured Blackwater Xe war contractor approved for treatment by AIG

Bravo to Kevin Graman for exposing AIG’s  dangerous “risk management” practices.

We too hope it is not too late for Jennifer as it has been for so many who have come before her.

A Big Salute to you both !!

Kevin Graman The Spokesman Review  June 16, 2011

A Spokane-area woman who was injured by an enemy mortar explosion while working as a helicopter mechanic in Afghanistan has received approval from a government-contracted insurance company to receive the treatment her doctors say she needs.

Jennifer Barcklay, 40, of Chattaroy, was been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury after the September 2009 attack at a forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan, where she was employed by Blackwater, the private defense security contractor now known as Xe Services.

On Wednesday, she was told that Chartis WorldSource, the giant insurance company once known as American International Group, AIG, would cover the cognitive rehabilitation therapy recommended by eight medical providers in Spokane.

“This is bittersweet,” Barcklay said. “I’m hoping it’s not too late.”

It has been more than a year since Barcklay’s providers first began recommending comprehensive cognitive rehabilitation, which is more effective the sooner it is begun. It is not offered locally.

She continues to endure seizures, memory loss, headaches, tremors and problems with her balance that prevent her from returning to work.

“Frankly, I am appalled at how many obstacles have been placed in the way of her receiving the treatment she needs,” Spokane neuropsychologist Winifred Daisley wrote the insurer on Barcklay’s behalf.

A nurse contracted by Chartis to manage Barcklay’s case was unexpectedly terminated in October after notifying the insurer that her patient was approved for treatment at the Centre for Neuro Skills in Bakersfield, Calif.

Under the Defense Base Act of 1941, defense contractors must provide medical and disability insurance for their workers in war zones. The premiums are included in the companies’ contract with the Department of Defense.

There were nearly 56,000 such claims for injuries or deaths from the start of the Iraq war to 2009. That year, a congressional investigation found that insurance companies have been slow to approve claims for injuries despite receiving millions in premiums from the federal government.

Another World War II-era law, the War Hazards Compensation Act, reimburses the employer or insurer for injuries or death to a worker caused by an act of war. The insurer is reimbursed by the taxpayers for 100 percent of the claim, plus 15 percent for administrative costs.

Chartis’s approval of Barcklay’s treatment followed a letter from the U.S. Department of Labor, recommending that she be allowed to go to the Centre for Neuro Skills.

The letter also was critical of an independent review of Barcklay’s medical records by a Chartis-contracted neuropsychiatrist in Rhode Island who appeared to diagnose the patient’s condition as psychological rather than physiological without examining her.

Please see the original story at The Spokesman Review

Army vet battling private insurer for coverage she feels is due

“The American Psychiatric Association has a very specific and rigid stance against psychiatrists rendering diagnoses on patients they have not examined.”

Injured as contractor in Afghanistan but denied specialized therapy at home

Kevin Graman The Spokesman Review  June 13, 2011

A highly trained helicopter mechanic sits in her Chattaroy home and wonders what will come next: another debilitating brain seizure or the therapy she hopes will help her recover from injury as a result of a mortar explosion 20 months ago in Afghanistan.

Jennifer Barcklay says she is being denied the specialized inpatient medical treatment her doctors believe is her only hope for a normal life.

“These are war crimes, using taxpayer dollars to profit from injuries incurred by people fighting for our freedom,” Barcklay says.

Although she is a U.S. Army veteran, Barcklay, 40, was injured as a civilian working for Blackwater, the private security contractor now known as Xe Services. She and thousands of other civilian employees injured in the defense of their nation have had to navigate an often unresponsive private insurance system.

Xe’s insurance carrier has so far denied Barcklay expensive inpatient treatment known as cognitive rehabilitation therapy, which was recommend by eight Spokane area physicians and mental health care providers.

She suffers from traumatic brain injury, the signature wound of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, for which thousands of U.S. soldiers are receiving care in military or Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. Like many of them, she continues to endure seizures, memory loss, headaches, tremors and problems with her balance that prevent her from returning to work.

Under the Defense Base Act of 1941, defense contractors must provide medical and disability insurance for their workers in war zones. The premiums are included in the companies’ contract with the Department of Defense.

There have been nearly 56,000 such claims for injuries or deaths from the start of the Iraq war to 2009. That year, a congressional investigation found that insurance companies had collected $1.5 billion in premiums, while they paid out about $900 million in compensation and expenses.

Another World War II-era law, the War Hazards Compensation Act, reimburses the employer or insurer for injuries or death to a worker caused by an act of war. The insurer is reimbursed by the taxpayers for 100 percent of the claim, plus 15 percent for administrative costs. From 2003 to 2010, the federal government paid more to insurers for expenses, $19.7 million, than it paid in compensation, $12.1 million, to claimants under the act.

More than three-quarters of the Defense Base Act claims were handled by American International Group, which was rescued in 2008 by the U.S. government in the largest corporate bailout in history.

An AIG subsidiary, Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania-Chartis WorldSource, took months to authorize a neurological evaluation for Barcklay. Now Chartis is refusing to pay for her inpatient treatment.

“Frankly, I am appalled at how many obstacles have been placed in the way of her receiving the treatment she needs,” Spokane neuropsychologist Winifred Daisley wrote in a December letter to Chartis case manager Debra Ragan.

Marie Ali, a Chartis spokeswoman, said she could not comment on individual claims but that the company “is committed to handling every claim professionally, ethically and fairly.”

“We provide the highest level of service to our insureds, which includes the prompt adjudication and payment of claims.”

A spokesman for Xe Services said, “The company has worked diligently with the insurance provider to help ensure Ms. Barcklay receives the level of care and treatment she needs.”

Please read the entire story here

See Also

More Than 70 Members of Congress Demand Cognitive Treatment for Troops With Traumatic Brain Injuries

by T Christian Miller from his series at ProPublica Brain Wars

Defense Base Act Insurance Company CNA’s TPA Private Investigator/Interrogator in South Africa: From SpyKids to Double Agent

Since this was posted Injured Contractors “covered” by CNA in South Africa have been intimidated, had their lives threatened, and their family members have been threatened.

 

South African Injured Contractors want to know:

“Since when is it ok for honest injured contractors suffering from “TBI” AND “PTSD” plus others who lost legs and arms and even eyes to be investigated by criminals and people who served terrorist dictators????“

According to those SA Injured Contractors we’ve spoken with this double agent has promised them

“the world, the stars and the moon, even telling them that he will see that they get better and higher amounts for mileage traveled than what CNA are currently paying”

All an attempt to placate them while CNA continues to screw them over.

Well at least they hired a professional liar and thug this time.

Kevin Woods Convicted Murderer

Were you forced to deal with this man in an attempt to get your Defense Base Act Benefits?

All three were serving life prison sentences and several attempts have been made, to get them earlier released, a violent one by the apartheid South African government in 1988 and Nelson Mandela as well as Thabo Mbeki have pleaded with Robert Mugabe, to pardon them, Mandela on a state visit in 1997 and Thabo Mbeki on several occasions after he became President.

Frequently they have been described as political prisoners and Peter Stiff described them as the last POW’s (Prisoners of War) of the South African Conflict in his book Warfare by other Means.

But were they really political prisoners or POW’s?

Let’s have a look at their past.

All three had been recruited after Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 into Project Barnacle that was later renamed Civil Cooperation Bureau, an apartheid South African death squad, that can take credit for countless extra judicial killings inside and outside South Africa.

They were recruited by a former Rhodesian police officer by the name of Brian, his correct name was Gary Branfield.

Branfield was also responsible for the planning of the terror attack on Gaborone on 14th June 1985. He died two years ago as mercenary in Iraq

He formed a murder squad in Zimbabwe involving only Zimbabwean citizens.

The group, codename Juliet, consisted of

– Kit Bawden, ex Rhodesian Soldier, gang leader –

– Michael Smith, Ex Rhodesian soldier, born in Bulawayo, who after Zimbabwe’s independence served for a short while in apartheid South Africa’s terror and destruction gang, called Reconnaissance Commando. He then returned to Zimbabwe and served as farm manager in Chikari.

– Barry Bawden, cousin of Kit Bawden

– Guy Bawden, brother of Kit Bawden

– Kevin Woods, former officer in the Special Branch of the British South Africa Police

– Philipp Conjwayo, former British South Africa Police officer, not member of the inner circle of that group, apartheid also here.

All of them were united by their hatred for black majority rule and their admiration for apartheid South Africa.

Their first task was the murder of Oliver Tambo, ANC president with a car bomb, while Tambo was attending a ceremony at the Heroes acre in Harare.

The plan was later abandoned for unknown reasons.

Next came the attempted assassination of Jeremy Brickhill on 13th October 1987.

Brickhill was a journalist and apartheid enemy. Pretoria decided, that he has to be murdered.

Guy Bawden planted a bomb under Brickhill’s car, when it was parked at a shopping center and detonated it. Brickhill survived that assassination attempt, albeit with severe injuries, His abdomen was ripped open, his left leg and hip severely injured and he had to undergo several operations first in Harare and then London and remained permanently disfigured and disabled. Eighteen people nearby were also injured.

Next came apparently the kidnapping and smuggling of an ANC cadre by the name of Jabulani to South Africa.

This was followed by a bomb attack on an ANC safe house in Bulawayo on 11 January 1988.

This attack was specifically hideous, as the gang including Philipp Conjwayo recruited an unsuspecting Malawian jobseeker, Obert Mwanza, to drive the bomb loaded car to the ANC house and hoot at the gate.

This was the signal for Kevin Woods and Kit Bawden for the remote detonation of the car from a safe distance. Mwanza died, one ANC man was severely injured.

The Zimbabwean police arrested Woods, Smith, Conjwayo and Guy and Barry Bawden. Except for Guy Bawden they were all sentenced to death in November 1988, later on the Supreme Court converted it to life imprisonment.

Guy Bawden was charged for the attempted assassination of Jeremy Brickhill, however the Police could not prove it, he was released on medical grounds in 1990.

Kit Bawden managed to escape to South Africa.

That was, however, not the end to it.

The CCB decided, even before they were convicted, to free them.

Again this plan was cooked up by Major Brian, who never appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, assuming, that he could get away with all of it.

They recruited a white Zimbabwean army pilot by the name of Gary Kane. The plan was, to attack the prison van, that was ferrying the prisoners from the prison to the court, free the prisoners and pick the whole party up with a helicopter to be stolen by Gary Kane.

Part of the ground attack party was assembled in Namibia, later on reassembled and supposed to drive via Kazungula border post from Botswana into Zimbabwe.

Here everything went wrong, for them as their car was searched and they try to flee.

The Botswana police managed to arrest one guy by the name of Sammy Beahan, he was deported later on to Zimbabwe and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The other part of the attack party, who had entered Zimbabwe from South Africa ran into problems as well, the stolen Helicopter picked them up and they managed to escape to Redcliff, where a South African plane was waiting for them, however not before shooting and severely injuring a 11 year old girl, who was watching them out of curiosity.

Were they political prisoners? Certainly not.

They were simply mercenaries, Zimbabweans killing foreign freedom fighters or their supporters and on the payroll of a foreign country.

They were given later on South African citizenship, before the apartheid government went out of office.

Now the buck was passed on to the new South African government, to look after them as well.

Mugabe was right not to release them on the request of Nelson Mandela, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Thabo Mbeki.

Nobody could have blamed him, if he would not have pardoned them now.

A few quotes on Kevin Woods:

He is a cowardly killer, capable of shooting anyone in the back.

Woods is a snivelling coward. He should answer for the murder of Eric Roberts – he is no hero.

Afghan bomb victim, Chris Fleming, hunts down new life

by Wally Spiers at BND.com

After his legs were damaged in an explosion in Afghanistan, Chris Fleming couldn’t have imagined a normal life, much less a hunting adventure in the wilds of New Mexico.

But in December, the former Collinsville resident found himself hiking through mountains and hills on his new legs, shooting a trophy elk courtesy of the Illinois Wild Turkey Federation.

Fleming, 28, is a 2000 Collinsville High School graduate and spent eight years in the U.S. Marines. Then he signed on as a security specialist with a private contractor and went to work in Afghanistan.

On June 25, 2009, the truck he was riding in struck an improvised explosive device. The next thing he knew, he was laying in the back of a pickup, badly bleeding. Medical workers quickly stabilized him and had him flown back to the United States in hopes of saving his remaining foot.

But it had to be amputated, and he was left to learn to walk again using artificial legs.

Fleming said he stayed in the Collinsville home of his mom, Pat Fleming, while he was getting medical treatment and new legs. He also was getting a new lease on life with support from family and friends.

“After I was injured, I was really depressed,” Chris Fleming said. “I was down and out and venting to my buddies.”

But plenty of people offered support, and he made it his mission to get better.

He has a website on http://www.caringbridge.org, (type chrisfleming in the “visit a website” space). It is packed with pictures both of the incident and of his recovery, includes pictures of his new legs and a race between him in a wheelchair and his mom and son, Hunter, on a riding lawn mower.  Please see the entire story here

Dwight Pruitt Contractor Back in Wichita After Fall From Helicopter

By Deb Gruver at The Wichita Eagle

Dwight Pruitt doesn’t remember anything about the day he fell 15 feet off a Black Hawk helicopter in Iraq, crushing his skull and breaking his body.

But if he could, he’d realize what a long journey he took to Via Christi Rehabilitation Hospital in Wichita.

The sheet metal mechanic originally from Riverdale, north of Wellington, had been working as a military contractor for six years when he fell. He’d survived mortar attacks at Joint Base Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, and the landscape of war.

What nearly ended his life was a simple fall that could have happened anywhere.

Pruitt, 65, worked on Black Hawks repairing cracks. He fell off one Dec. 13 or 14 —he’s not sure exactly when.

He knows that he landed on his head on concrete.

“It didn’t flex much when I hit it,” he joked about the concrete.

He knows that he was flown to Afghanistan, where doctors relieved swelling on his brain. Then, he woke up in Germany. He couldn’t talk. His first communication was squeezing a doctor’s hand and wiggling his toes.

“They treated me like I was solid gold,” he said of the doctors at the military hospital.

Meanwhile, a medical team at Via Christi worked to get Pruitt home.

The logistics, wrote Via Christi dispatcher Becky Garwood in an e-mail, involved several communications between Via Christi doctors and Pruitt’s doctors in Germany, a transfer nurse coordinator in Canada and Via Christi’s nursing and bed placement staff, and a Canadian flight service dispatcher and flight service and customs workers at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. Pruitt’s flight stopped in Iceland and Ontario.

A transport team from Via Christi met him at Mid-Continent when he landed in Wichita.

“This was in every way an international effort, involving a hospital in Germany and a flight service from Canada,” Garwood said. “It was complicated by weather delays and a very long overnight flight originating in Saarbrucken, Germany.” Pruitt arrived at Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis on Dec. 23 and then was admitted to the rehabilitation hospital on North Rock Road on Dec. 28.  Please read the entire story here

S.C. veterans and contractors can proceed with lawsuit over Iraq, Afghanistan burn-pits

Alex Harley of Goose Creek was exposed to burn pits while serving as a defense contractor in Iraq and now is part of a class-action lawsuit.

More than a dozen South Carolina veterans and defense contractors who allege their exposure to noxious fumes from burning waste dumps in Iraq and Afghanistan led to grievous health issues may proceed with their class-action lawsuit, a U.S. District judge ruled recently.

The suit, filed in South Carolina in June 2009, is among 43 suits across the country that allege fumes from “burn pits” caused cancer, respiratory problems and other illnesses.

Alex Harley of Goose Creek is among the Palmetto State’s plaintiffs.

The 34-year-old father had a clean bill of health before leaving for work as a contractor in Iraq in 2006. Harley was exposed to what he called the “indescribably horrific” fumes during the course of his work and returned to the U.S. with myriad health problems.

“They check you out completely before they send you over there,” he said. “I was completely healthy before I went. Now, I can’t work. I can’t fish. I can’t play backyard football. I can’t do any of the things I used to do.”

Plaintiffs in the 43 cases say Texas-based defense contractors ignored the terms of their government contracts requiring them to safely dispose of waste, and instead burned everything from tires to human body parts in massive pits.

The Houston contractors, KBR Inc. and Halliburton Co., who received billions of dollars from the federal government, deny the allegations and involvement.  Please read the entire story here

Danny Fitzsimons from Death Row in Iraq: Left to rot

UPDATE: His murder trial was scheduled to begin at Baghdad’s Central Criminal Court on Wednesday (Aug 4) but was adjourned again while psychiatric tests are carried out on the defendant. A new trial date is expected in mid-September, a spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.

Danny Fitzsimons, once a member of the Parachute Regiment – a hero. Now he sits in a cell on Iraq’s Death Row facing death by hanging.

Editor’s note:  G4S and Armorgroup have accepted no responsibility, nor will they be prosecuted for so negligently arming a man as mentally ill as Mr. Fitzsimons.   Negligence that resulted in the deaths of two men, one seriously injured, children orphaned, women widowed, and families bereft.  Negligence that doomed Mr Fitzsimons to this hell as well as he did by his own hand.

Mirror.co.uk News

Soldier-turned-mercenary Danny Fitzsimons is awaiting trial in Baghdad for shooting dead two men and wounding a third.

But speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mirror, he insists he is the victim of a terrible injustice and begs the Government to secure his release and bring him home.

He says he killed his victims in self-defence as he battled terrible mental trauma from the nine years he spent serving in Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan.

Fitzsimons, 30, from Middleton, Manchester, says: “I know my actions that night have caused a lot of pain to the relatives of the dead men. To their families and children I am truly sorry. I believe I need to be in a mental hospital in Britain and not in an inhumane dungeon in Baghdad. Many ex-soldiers like me are left to fight our demons alone.

“I stand little chance of a fair trial in Iraq and the psychiatric assessment here was a joke. Bring me home and let me get the help I so desperately need. I chose my life and stand by it but I don’t believe I deserve to be left to rot. Please don’t let me hang in Iraq.”

Fitzsimons shares his cockroachand rat-infested cell at Karadat Maryam police station with 17 other prisoners.

He says: “I’m being fed by some of my jail mates. Without them I would not have proper food or be able to take water.

“They don’t let us in the yard for air or sun and it’s like living in an oven in the cell. It is overrun with cockroaches and rats and filth.”

Fitzsimons was in Iraq as a military contractor working for British private security firm ArmorGroup, who he says took him on without carrying out a full medical assessment. Had the truth emerged, they would have found out he was discharged from 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment after being diagnosed with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.

He also had alcohol problems and was facing criminal charges for brandishing a flare gun at children outside his flat in Middleton. On his third visit to Iraq, last August, he was drinking with two fellow mercenaries when a row started. Fitzsimons says he punched Scottish ex-Royal Marine Paul McGuigan, 37, before the two made up. But he says later that night Paul and the second man, Australian father-ofthree Darren Hoare, also 37, attacked him. He says: “The two men came into my room with clear intention of doing me harm and attacked me in my bed in a drunken rage.” He says they threatened to kill him with an M4 assault rifle and he shot them three times with a Glock pistol. As he fled he shot an Iraqi security guard in the leg. He says: “I did exactly what I’ve been trained to do since 1996. I acted in self-defence to save my life.”

Paul’s fiancée Nicola Prestage disagrees, saying it was “an unprovoked attack”. Fitzsimons, who has been locked up for a year, is due to go before a judge on Wednesday for a trial date to be set. Iraqi doctors are assessing his mental health.

Clive Stafford Smith, of Human rights charity Reprieve, said: “It is unfathomable ArmorGroup would dispatch him and arm him in a war zone without proper screening.”

A spokesman for ArmorGroup admitted Fitzsimons’ screening was not completed in line with their procedures but added: “We received two separate medical documents which certified that Mr Fitzsimons was fit to work in Iraq. It has subsequently come to light that the most recent of those documents was forged – we have reason to believe it was forged by Mr Fitzsimons.”

Overseas Press Club Awards for international journalism

ProPublica, with reporters T. Christian Miller, Doug Smith and Pratap Chatterjee, won the award for Web coverage of international affairs for “Disposable Army: Civilian Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.“

The Overseas Press Club Awards were founded in 1940 to recognize excellence in foreign coverage in the categories of print, broadcast and photography. Read more at the Washington Examiner:

Believe it or not

By T Lee Marshall  AIG WAR

The court orders AIG to settle my case. Part of the settlement is $275k.  I was told by my lawyer, Nalick, that if I allowed AIG to set-up an annuity with the money I would not be required to pay taxes on the proceeds.  I agreed to it.

So AIG paid the $275k to American General Life Insurance.  As it turns out, AIG paid themselves. AmGen is owned by AIG.

The court ordered the annuity to begin on 01 Jan 2010.  AmGen was two months late making the first annuity payment.  Further, my requests for a copy of the contract was ignored until I posted the story on Angieslist.com.  Within a couple of days, my caller ID showed two calls from AmGen Life Insurance and I was graced with a copy of my annuity contract with them.

Because  AmGen seemed to be playing from AIG’s playbook, I cancelled the contract, according to a stipulation allowing the “owner” to cancel within ten days of receipt of the contract. AmGen sent the contract I canceled back to me with a cover letter telling me I don’t have the right to cancel the contract because I am not the owner.

The court orders AIG to pay me two-hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars and I don’t own the money?  We gotta get a copy of that playbook, if anyone can stomach reading it. More fun than I deserve.