Clinton To Keep Panel Probing Gulf War Ills Commission Wants Oversight Of Pentagon Health Efforts

President Clinton has decided to extend the life of a commission examining unexplained illness afflicting gulf war veterans, an administration official said Friday.

Clinton planned to announce the extension Tuesday, when the panel releases its final report, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Clinton has been reading the report of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses while on vacation in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.

In its report, the panel, which was created in May 1995, calls for independent oversight of the Pentagon’s investigation into the cause of the veterans’ ailments. The Defense Department has been criticized by veterans’ groups as not having pursued its probe as aggressively as the veterans wanted.

“There are questions about how aggressive earlier efforts have been. There’s some mistrust, so external accountability is going to be crucial,” said commission member Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Clinton’s decision to extend the panel’s life is likely in reaction to the report’s call for outside oversight, he said.

“It makes some sense to maintain continuity between what we’ve been doing and future oversight,” he said. “There’s no sense in starting from scratch.”

Caplan said he was told the commission would be extended, although it may exist in some altered form or with new members.

The commission was to dissolve after issuing its final report.

The report concludes that stress and other factors have not been adequately studied as the Pentagon tries to determine the cause of veteran illnesses.

Other factors include low-level chemical exposure as well as the interactive effects of pesticides, oil fires, stress and other things soldiers might have been exposed to, Caplan said.