by Cassandra Anderson
February 7, 2012
from
NaturalSociety Website
American veterans and the entire country
of Viet Nam
affected by Agent Orange have been shafted beyond
imagination due to corruption within the U.S. government and U.S.
courts.
U.S. courts have protected Monsanto and
Dow Chemical from liability and criminal prosecution. The U.S.
government has shielded Monsanto and Dow from the massive cost of
medical treatment for victims and environmental remediation cleanup
costs that would drive these corporations into bankruptcy.
Before we delve further into the issue, it’s important to detail
what exactly dioxin is. Dioxin has a half life of 100 years or more
when it is below the surface, leached into soil or embedded in river
or stream sediment.
Dioxin was generated as a byproduct of
herbicide
2,4,5-T made by Monsanto and Dow, the top 2 producers of Agent
Orange.
It causes cancer, birth defects, liver damage and other
major health problems.
Monsanto & Dow’s 2,4,5-T dioxin laden-herbicide was used in the U.S.
for agricultural purposes in the 1940′s before it was used for
chemical warfare in Viet Nam from the early 1960′s through 1971. It
was phased out in the late 1970′s.
Now, let’s discuss the political
situation behind this carcinogen.
U.S.
Government and U.S. Court Dioxin Cover-Ups
President Reagans’s administration, in cahoots with the CDC,
thwarted a $43 million Congressional Study of Agent Orange in 1987
to protect itself and its corporate pals Monsanto & Dow from
accountability to U.S. veterans and the people of Viet Nam.
-
U.S. Courts dismissed veterans’
Agent Orange lawsuits based on a
Supreme Court precedent, known as the Feres Doctrine, freeing the
government of responsibility for deaths and injuries related to
military service.
-
The Supreme Court refused to hear American and Vietnamese victims’
lawsuits against Monsanto, Dow and other Agent Orange manufacturers
on
3 separate occasions.
Remember that the Supreme Court collects
their checks from the federal government.
Atrocious Criminal Acts By Monsanto & Dow
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Agent Orange makers hide behind government contractor immunity,
despite the fact that dioxin contaminated herbicide 2,4,5-T was
produced long before they were contractors for the government (50
million tons of the herbicide was
sprayed in the U.S. per year).
No modifications were used for Monsanto
& Dow’s herbicide - half the ingredients in Agent Orange - so the
immunity defense falls flat.
-
Boehringer, a German 2,4,5-T herbicide producer
notified Dow in 1957
about dioxin hazards and that dioxin could be eliminated by slow
cooking the herbicide for about 12 hours. It appears that Dow and
Monsanto continued cooking 2,4,5-T quickly in 45 minutes. Higher
output led to higher profits. Monsanto’s formula contained high
levels of dioxin and was dirtier than Dow’s product.
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Monsanto was not only aware in 1950 that dioxin was a health danger,
but they also created a fraudulent health study.
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In 1965 Dow met in secret with other Agent Orange manufacturers to
discuss the toxicity hazards of dioxin and their fear over a
government investigation and restrictive regulations.
U.S. Veterans
Shafted By the Kangaroo Court
Judge
Jack Weinstein of the U.S. Federal Court of the Eastern
District of New York committed the following offenses in several
class action suits filed by veterans against Monsanto & Dow:
-
Weinstein appointed attorneys to
represent the veterans and then intimidated the attorneys
into agreeing to a ‘nuisance’ settlement of $180 million -
nowhere near enough money to cover the medical treatment of
hundreds of thousands of injured vets.
-
Weinstein rejected the veterans’
expert studies, instead of allowing a jury to decide on the
credibility of the expert witnesses; Weinstein created a new
rule of law from the bench.
-
Weinstein based his ruling on
Monsanto’s expert study that was later proven to be
fraudulent.
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Weinstein dismissed all other
veterans’ lawsuits against Monsanto and Dow.
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Weinstein took over a case that
was unlawfully transferred to his federal court as it had
been filed in the state of Texas. He dismissed that case.
-
Astonishingly, Weistein created
a second new rule of law to protect Monsanto and Dow.
Weinstein invented immunity for government contractors!
Weinstein’s excuse for the government
contractor defense was that if contractors were made to pay, they
would pass the cost on to the government, so they were therefore
immune. Weinstein’s new law was created from the bench instead of
law passed through Congress!
Weinsteins’s law has now been extended
to all government supply contractors (even non-military contractors)
in the courts.
Viet Nam
Approximately 11 million gallons of Agent Orange was dumped on Viet
Nam between 1962 to 1970.
It is estimated that Agent Orange is
responsible for,
-
400,000 deaths
-
3 million victims of disease
-
500,000 children born with birth defects
-
over 14 million acres of Vietnamese
forests were sprayed
Agent Orange was also dumped in water
supplies.
In 2004, Vietnamese victims filed a lawsuit against Dow, Monsanto
and other manufacturers of Agent Orange. Judge Weinstein (yes, the
same Judge Weinstein) presided over this case and dismissed it.
Weinstein used the excuse that Monsanto and Dow had government
sovereign immunity that extended to them because they were
government contractors. He also ruled that Agent Orange was not
considered a poison during that period, under international law.
The Supreme Court refused to hear this case, too.
The stated purpose of using Agent Orange was to deny the enemy cover
in forested areas through defoliation. However, the U.S. Army did
contract studies in 1943 of the effects of 2,4,5-T and
2,4-D (the
other ingredient of Agent Orange) on cereal grains, including rice,
and developed the concept of using aerial herbicide spraying to
destroy enemy crops to disrupt the food supply.
Obviously, poisoning the enemy, farmland
and civilians was a chemical warfare strategy used by the U.S.
government.
Monsanto
Immunity
Currently, there is a court case pending against Monsanto’s dioxin
contaminated 2,4,5-T herbicide filed by parties who lived near the
plant where it was produced in West Virginia.
The judge in that case, Paul G.
Gardephe, denied Monsanto immunity!
Judge Gardephe asserted that because
Monsanto burned dioxin waste in open pits and the U.S. government
was not aware of this practice, nor did they evaluate it for hazard,
Monsanto’s contractor defense was denied.
Fate of
U.S. Veterans
In 2003, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision allowing
veterans to sue Monsanto, Dow and other Agent Orange manufacturers
directly.
The government has responded, under the Obama regime, by passing the
Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010, which
allows the automatic funding of veterans’ Agent Orange claims. While
Monsanto & Dow appear to have considerable liability, the cost of
healthcare and hospitalization of affected veterans is paid by
American taxpayers.
More than 2 million Americans served in Viet Nam. The Veterans
Administration claims they have no idea how many vets have been
treated for Agent Orange injuries, or how much taxpayer money has
been spent.
The EPA is also involved in the
cover-up
and has been delaying an assessment report on dioxin since 1985 to
protect plastic, chlorine, paper, herbicide and agricultural
industries.
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