Lawsuit Demands Misdiagnosed Veterans Receive Benefits, Melissa Ader, Dahr Jamail
Melissa Ader, Yale Law Student, Dahr Jamail
In their lawsuit, veterans represented by the ACLU say the U.S. Military wrongfully discharged them as having personality disorders. They lost their benefits and are now trying to cope with their real medical problems, PTSD or TBI. (See our interviews here and here with Chuck Luther, founder of the web site, Disposable Warriors. In their lawsuit the ACLU has asked the Military to provide records on some 26,000 Veterans. (Connecticut news reports in The New Haven Advocate here and The New Haven Independent here.(See part one here
TRT:29:04
Produced by Dori Smith
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here Or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
We’re joined by Yale Law school student Melissa Ader who is working on a lawsuit involving veterans of the Iraq and Afghan Wars, and journalist Dahr Jamail, author of the book, Will to Resist, Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He discusses his latest reports to Al Jazeera about Military Sexual Trauma. In the first part of our discussion we talked about this problem as a symptom of a dangerous moral decline within the U.S. Military, likely due to protracted wars and intense often brutal training methods. We asked him about the difficulties veterans are having trying to obtain records that could help them obtain benefits. Taylor Asen is another Yale Law Student working on a case involving veterans. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit over claims of MST, Military Sexual Abuse.
Officially, the number of American and coalition forces killed in action is 6,000. The military lists 32,000 US soldiers as wounded. But 2001 through 2011 have been years of constant stress, and statistics on war trauma are soaring.
According to Yale’s Melissa Ader, the military should include many more soldiers in their list of wounded to include veterans who say they were wrongly discharged by the military. They were quickly diagnosed with having personality disorders and promptly discharged without benefits. Later their real medical problems were diagnosed as PTSD or TBI, traumatic brain injury. These wounds are serious enough to be major obstacles for veterans trying to keep their families together, find work, or even just live their lives safely.
As of the 29th the ACLU told us that the Military has yet to provide anything useful in terms of the records they requested in their FOIA request.
In another case where a FOIA was filed by the same group plus S.W.A.N, the Service Women’s Action Network. There too Yale Law Students like Taylor Asen are working to help victims of Military Sexual Trauma obtain information that might help them to gain benefits.
SEE:
Blumenthal backs veterans' personality disorder discharge lawsuit
December 28, 2010|By MARK SPENCER, mspencer@courant.com, The Hartford Courant,
Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, has endorsed the efforts of veterans diagnosed with personality disorder, to get information from the Defense Department about wrongful discharges. Blumenthal was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, replacing Chris Dodd.
See the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, 2007 Press Release: “Personality Disorder”: A Deliberate Misdiagnosis To Avoid Veterans’ Health Care Costs!, here.
GI Rights Hotline Coverage on MST case here.
The Department of Defense (DoD) has violated the law by failing to release records showing that it has wrongfully discharged nearly 26,000 service members on the basis of so-called "Personality Disorder." This Personality Disorder designation has prevented disabled veterans from receiving the disability compensation and other benefits they have earned. Vietnam Veterans of America and its counsel, the Veterans Legal Services Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, hope that the records they obtain through this lawsuit will convince Congress to mandate a systemic review of these discharges and compel DoD to repair the harm it has caused.
Talk Nation Radio for December 31, 2010
Lawsuit Demands Misdiagnosed Veterans Receive Benefits, Melissa Ader, Dahr Jamail
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
Yale Law school student Melissa Ader talks about the lawsuit she and others at Yale are working on. Veterans of the Iraq and Afghan Wars seeking to regain benefits lost after they were diagnosed with personality disorders. Later even the VA diagnosed them with PTSD and or TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury. These are the hallmark injuries of these wars.
Then journalist Dahr Jamail comments on the problems veterans are having obtaining their records. His December 2010 articles in Al Jazeera focus on cases of MST, Military Sexual Trauma. The problem has reached crisis proportions, and here too the Military has been letting veterans down. Perpetrators of sexual abuse in the military have been getting away without devastating legal consequences. Often they outrank their victims.
Dahr Jamail is author of the books, Will to Resist, Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Beyond the Green Zone, Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.
Intro: Officially, the number of American and coalition forces killed in action is 6,000. The military lists 32,000 US soldiers as wounded. But 2001 through 2011 have been years of constant stress, and statistics on war trauma are soaring. According to Yale’s Melissa Ader, the military should include more soldiers in their list of wounded, to include the 26,000 veterans who say they were wrongly diagnosed by the military. They were quickly diagnosed with having personality disorders and promptly discharged without benefits. Later their real medical problems were diagnosed as PTSD or TBI, traumatic brain injury. These wounds are serious enough to be major obstacles for veterans trying to keep their families together, find work, or even just live their lives safely.
We spoke with Mellisa Ader on December 17th, and as of the 29th the ACLU has told us that the Military has yet to provide anything useful in terms of the records they requested in their FOIA request. In another case where a FOIA was filed by the same group plus S.W.A.N, the Service Women’s Action Network. There too Yale Law Students like Taylor Asen are working to help victims of Military Sexual Trauma obtain information that might help them to gain benefits.
Headline News, Update, CT AG Supports Veterans Trying to use the Courts in an Effort to Obtain Records.
See Hartford Courant story here. Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, has endorsed the efforts of veterans diagnosed with personality disorder, to get information from the Defense Department about wrongful discharges. Blumenthal was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, replacing Chris Dodd.
Headline News Update: CT AG Supports Veterans Trying to use the Courts in an Effort to Obtain Records.
See Hartford Courant story here. Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, has endorsed the efforts of veterans diagnosed with personality disorder, to get information from the Defense Department about wrongful discharges. Blumenthal was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, replacing Chris Dodd.
Stephen Soldz, article, Military using personality disorder diagnoses to cheat soldiers out of lifetime benefits, here.
Historical: May 2008, "Norma J. Perez, PTSD program coordinator at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center in Temple, Texas, tells staff “given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I’d like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out.” -- Instead, she advises “consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder.” --- Veteran Affairs staff “really don’t ... have the time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD,” Perez wrote."
