Jon Stewart Pressures VA to Cover Troops Sickened by Uranium After 9/11. Once Again, They’re Told to Wait | News, Sports, Jobs

Jon Stewart speaks outside the Department of Veterans Affairs after meetings with officials Friday, July 26, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Jon Stewart and troops sickened by uranium left a meeting at the Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday angry after being told again that they must wait and see whether the VA linked their illnesses to the toxic base where they were deployed shortly after 9/11. The denied claims were supposed to have been resolved by the PACT Act, a major veterans aid bill that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022 and called one of his proudest achievements in office. For many veterans, it has made access to care much easier. But the bill omitted the uranium exposure that still harms some of the very first troops deployed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Just weeks after the attacks, special operations forces were deployed to Karshi-Khanabad, Uzbekistan, or K2, a heavily contaminated former Soviet base that has been a strategic location for launching operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. But K2 was a former chemical weapons site, and was littered with yellow, powdered uranium that was kicked up by the dust and spread throughout the base when the military built a protective earthen wall. Radiation levels were as much as 40,000 times higher than what would have been found naturally, according to a nuclear fusion expert who reviewed the data. Two decades later, troops who served there are still battling VA-recognized illnesses from radiation exposure. Many have died young. That the VA continues to tell K2 veterans that it has not yet decided whether to cover their illnesses has infuriated Stewart, an outspoken advocate for all 9/11 responders. Stewart and the veterans visited the VA this spring to plead their case and were told that the VA was working with the Pentagon to identify what radiation was on the base. Friday’s meeting was with VA Secretary Denis McDonough, raising hopes for a resolution. But they heard otherwise.
“The secretary said today that he has the legal authority to make the change to ensure that the K2 veterans are presumptively covered,” Stewart said. But McDonough instead told them they were still waiting for additional information. “I believe ‘punting’ is the correct term for what happened.”
In a statement, VA spokesman Terrence Hayes said there are already more than 300 conditions covered by the PACT Act and that the agency is working on the specific K2 illnesses and radiation exposure.
“We continue to urgently consider every option to further assist these veterans and survivors, and we will keep them informed every step of the way,” said Hayes.
“It felt like Groundhog Day,” said Kim Brooks, whose late husband was one of the first soldiers to serve and die at K2. Lt. Col. Tim Brooks was one of the first soldiers sent to K2 in 2001 and served with the 10th Mountain Division during Operation Anaconda against the Taliban in early 2002. When his unit returned to Fort Drum, N.Y., in the spring of 2002, Brooks was not himself. He suffered from debilitating headaches and became unexpectedly irritable, his wife said. Then his unit was called in for a briefing to sign paperwork about the toxins they had been exposed to, she said.
“He came home from that briefing and told me in our kitchen,” said Kim Brooks, who attended the VA meeting with Stewart. “He was incredibly upset and worried and became increasingly exhausted. He didn’t feel or look well, which led to his collapse.”
Kim Brooks tried to get the form her husband signed removed from his military records but was unsuccessful and believes it was expunged. Other K2 veterans who served in special operations units have also struggled to get documents removed from their medical records because their missions and roles were classified. In 2003, Tim Brooks collapsed during a ceremony at Fort Drum as his unit prepared to deploy to Iraq. Doctors diagnosed him with a brain tumor, and he died a year later at age 36. Still fighting to get the Pentagon and VA to acknowledge uranium exposure at the base, Kim Brooks “angry and upset and sad,” she said. “Denial in 2003 and denial in 2024. When will they admit it and take care of these men and women?”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was the commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum in 2004 when Brooks died there. Sabrina Singh, deputy Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday that the Defense Department “aware of the health problems and related claims of veterans” who served at K2 and is “working with the Department of Veterans Affairs on a way forward.”
The presence of uranium at the base has been known since November 2001 — just a month after troops arrived — and has been documented on multiple Army maps, in memos and in VA briefings. But it has been labeled differently — as enriched, low-level processed or depleted uranium. The base and the radiation and other contaminants there were the subject of congressional hearings in 2020. Confusion over what type of uranium was there has been one of the delays for veterans in getting care. But the radiation levels documented at K2 in November 2001 were so high — up to 40,000 times what would have been recorded if the uranium were naturally occurring — that the specific type doesn’t matter because exposure would have been harmful, said Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear fusion specialist and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, who reviewed the K2 radiation data. Exposure to radiation from uranium can damage the kidneys, pose a risk of bone cancer and also affect pregnancies because it crosses the placenta, among other harmful effects, said Makhijani, who has previously worked with “atomic ovens” who were sickened by radiation after working at Bikini Atoll during nuclear weapons testing in the 1940s. More than 15,000 troops were deployed to K2 from 2001 to 2005. While the VA doesn’t have statistics on how many people are sick, the veterans organization has contacted about 5,000 of them, and more than 1,500 are reporting serious medical conditions, including cancer, kidney and bone problems, reproductive health issues and birth defects. Getting the VA to recognize their radiation-related illnesses is about more than just medical coverage, said retired Army Staff Sgt. Mark Jackson, a K2 veteran who sought treatment for severe osteoporosis, had to have a testicle removed and his entire thyroid removed — none of which are covered by the VA.
“It’s the recognition of the exposure,” Jackson said. Austin was the Combined Joint Task Force commander for Afghanistan when Jackson was deployed to K2. His unit would use K2 to get in and out of Afghanistan for missions. It has not escaped Jackson and Kim Brooks’ attention that Austin is now leading the agency they need to finally acknowledge the radiation exposure at K2.
“He was there when I was there,” said Jackson. “Damn, Austin signed my Bronze Star. I look at his signature almost every day.”