Mississippi attorney John Arthur Eaves filed a lawsuit in 2007 against the US Government on behalf of more than 7,000 residents of the heavily polluted, Puerto Rican island of Vieques. From 1941 until 2003 the U.S. Navy operated a base here, conducting bombing runs and testing chemical weapons for use in foreign wars, from Vietnam [...]

Defense agreed to pay the megacontractor KBR $5 million a year to repair tactical vehicles, from Humvees to big rigs, at Joint Base Balad a large airfield and supply center north of Baghdad. Yet according to a new Pentagon report, what the military got was as many as 144 civilian mechanics, each doing as little as 43 minutes of work a month, [...]

Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in cities subjected to heavy American and British bombardment. The cancer rate in the province of Babil, south of Baghdad has risen from 500 diagnosed cases in [...]

In 2007, journalists Pacale Bourgaux and Mercedes Gallego investigated stories on rape in the US military.  They made a documentary called “Rape in the Ranks: The Enemy Within” which focuses on four military women who had been raped.  On October 26, they showed the film at the New York Independence Film Festival.  One military woman [...]

James Neal Blue, who helped devise the Predator unmanned aircraft that are in use in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, is the director of a company that bought the Four Mile uranium mine in Australia.  Blue is the chairman of Quasar Resources, which is affiliated with General Atomics, a major United States weapons and nuclear [...]

By Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff New research in the journal American Behavioral Scientist (Sage publications, February 2010) addresses the concept of “State Crimes Against Democracy” (SCAD). Professor Lance deHaven-Smith from Florida State University writes that SCADs involve highlevel government officials, often in combination with private interests, that engage in covert activities for political advantages [...]

The U.K Observer reported that an overwhelming rise in the number of children from Punjabi, India, who were born with birth defects, mental abnormalities, and cancer has increased within the past few years. The rise in the number of birth defects has brought a team of visiting scientists to test children to determine the root [...]

From January 2009 until September 2009 the number of U.S. active troop suicides has already met last years total count with 140 confirmed suicide cases reported by the Army’s Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli. In addition, 71 U.S. troops not on active duty have committed suicide this year, one-third have committed suicide before [...]

In 2008 it was estimated that the U.S. Government paid more than one hundred billion dollars to private contractors, half of these contractors were private mercenaries for combat and “security”.  In a June 2009 interview with Bill Moyers, journalist Jermey Scahill reported that private war companies or “contractors” have risen 29% in the past three [...]

Attention has shifted from media coverage of the war in Iraq to the war in Afghanistan in recent weeks. Alissa Rubin, former Baghdad bureau chief for the New York Times, recently expressed her views in a New York Times’ editorial on the media’s role throughout the war in Iraq and how lessons must be learned [...]