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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hearings On Gulf War Syndrome Sought Sen. Patty Murray Cites Government Response To Complaints Of Veterans

Citing a “crisis in confidence” over the government’s response to Gulf War syndrome, Sen. Patty Murray is asking the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to hold hearings in Washington state.

In a recent letter to the committee’s chairman, the Seattle Democrat asked for as many as two hearings in the state this July as the panel conducts a yearlong investigation into the wideranging physical problems many veterans report.

“Washington’s Persian Gulf veterans are suffering illnesses undeniably related to their service in the gulf,” Murray said in a letter to chairman Arlen Specter, the Republican chairman.

In previous committee hearings, Murray has expressed concern that veterans are not getting complete and accurate information from the government on Gulf War syndrome.

This has prompted some to turn to fringe groups, she warned after America’s Promise Ministries, a white supremacist church, attracted hundreds to a pair of seminars on the medical condition last December in Sandpoint.

Those meetings, which featured a former military flight nurse who alleged the medical problems were being covered up by the government, came in the middle of revelations by the Defense Department that documents regarding troops’ exposure to chemical weapons can’t be found.

“Many within the larger veterans population and the general public are suffering from a crisis in confidence in our government,” Murray warned in her letter to Specter.

Gulf War syndrome has been used to describe a range of physical problems, including nausea, insomnia, rashes, joint and muscle pains, headaches and blurry vision. The cause has been attributed to everything from exposure to chemical and biological weapons to insecticides to drugs administered to troops.

Washington state is a logical place for hearings because it is home to several military installations that sent people to the Gulf War, including Fairchild Air Force Base, she said. It also has more than 700,000 veterans, about 35,000 of whom served in the Persian Gulf.

She is pushing for two hearings in the state - in Spokane and Seattle - to save veterans on either side the expense of traveling hundreds of miles to testify, spokesman Rex Carney said Monday.

Murray, who is preparing to leave this week on a trade mission to China, expects to discuss the prospects for hearings in Washington when the Senate returns from recess early next month, Carney said.

, DataTimes