WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Jon Stewart is pushing the Biden administration to fix a gap in a massive veterans aid bill that left out some of the first U.S. soldiers who responded after the 9/11 attacks and fell ill after being sent to a contaminated base with dangerous levels of uranium.
Special operations forces deployed to Karshi-Khanabad, or “K2,” in Uzbekistan about three weeks after the 2001 attacks. K2 was a former Soviet air base that U.S. forces used to attack Taliban targets inside Afghanistan in the early days of war. The base was a former chemical weapons processing site and was littered with Soviet-era debris, including demolished bunkers, missile parts and highly radioactive uranium dust, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
It’s not clear why the uranium dust was in the ground or how it got there. But it worries those who served on K2. Thousands of K2 veterans in the years since have reported complex medical conditions, some of which are known to be linked to radiation exposure.
“Imagine you’re inside the meth lab in ‘Breaking Bad,’” Stewart said in an interview with the AP. “These guys were exposed to a toxic soup made up of basically a chemical explosion and nuclear weapons facilities.”
A massive veterans relief bill called the PACT Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, addressed many of the health issues facing K2 veterans. But it did not include coverage for radiation exposure on K2.
K2 veterans have been pressing the Department of Veterans Affairs for help for years, but so far the VA has failed to act. The agency said it is still studying the issue and seeking additional information from the Pentagon before determining whether to add radiation exposure as a condition for which K2 service members can obtain coverage.
“All presumptive conditions established by the VA, not legislation, require a factual basis,” said VA spokesman Terrence Hayes.
It has been more than 20 years since troops were first deployed to K2 and nearly two years since Biden celebrated the passage of the PACT Act. But K2 veterans still face claim denials that the PACT Act was supposed to fix.
Data obtained by AP shows that the soil on K2 recorded levels of uranium radiation up to 40,000 times higher than what would be expected if it were natural uranium, according to Arjun Makhijaninuclear fusion expert and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, which reviewed the data.
Even though it was in its least radioactive form, depleted uranium, the soil was up to 24,000 times higher than what would be found in nature. The air samples had levels 30 to 100 times higher than those found in normal air samples, Makhijani said.
The radiation levels recorded by the health team were significant enough that anyone not wearing protective equipment would have inhaled high levels of contamination when the dust was kicked up, especially during activities such as earthmoving, Makhijani said.
The radiation data was captured in November 2001 by former Army Sgt. Matthew Nicholls, who was part of an Army environmental health team, was quickly mobilized to collect air, water and soil samples from K2 after local Uzbek workers preparing the site for the arrival of US forces fell ill with headaches. headache, nausea and vomiting.
As the medical team walked around the base past the demolished bunkers and missile remains, the team found the ground dotted with pebble-sized chunks and yellow powder, and tuna can-shaped containers spilling yellow powder, Nicholls said.
A tool used to detect radiation “went from clicking, clicking, clicking, to sounding like a fishing reel going off,” Nicholls said.
“This stuff was all over the place,” he said. Photographs obtained by the AP show Nicholls and his team collecting yellow clumps and scattered dust.
After the health team reported its findings, the military created a classified base map obtained by the AP where the area was marked as a “site of enriched uranium contamination” to prevent tent construction at the site. But the soil had already been moved by excavators and trucks as they built a protective berm, and tents on the other side of the berm were built into the ground, directly adjacent to the prohibited fields.
Exposure to uranium radiation can damage kidneys, create a risk of bone cancer and also affect pregnancy because it crosses the placenta, among other harmful effects, said Makhijani, who previously worked with “atomic veterans” who became ill from radiation after work on Bikini Atoll during nuclear weapons testing in the 1940s.
“Uranium goes to the bone,” Makhijani said.
Despite detecting the uranium, the military continued to use the base for the next four years and built a sprawling tent city there. Strong wind and rain hit the base frequently, stirring up the contaminants there. More than 15,000 troops deployed between 2001 and 2005, when U.S. forces left.
Since the PACT Act was passed, K2 veteran and former Army Staff Sgt. Mark Jackson sought medical help for severe osteoporosis, had a testicle removed and had his entire thyroid removed.
None of the new medical problems he has faced since the passage of the PACT Act have been covered by the VA. This Friday, Jackson will join Stewart in Washington to pressure the Department of Veterans Affairs to act more quickly.
Hayes, the VA spokesman, said the agency is “currently doing extensive research to identify evidence that may demonstrate radiation exposure – including reviewing all claims filed by veterans who served at K2. We are working on this with the utmost urgency.”
In a statement to the AP, the Pentagon said Monday that its own monitoring of the site “does not indicate the presence of enriched uranium” and that it is reviewing materials from K2 veterans at the site.
The VA doesn’t have complete numbers on how many K2 veterans are sick, so veterans have had to take responsibility for organize and collect data. They kept in touch with about 5,000 K2 veterans. Of these, more than 1,500 have self-reported conditions, including cancers, neurological problems, reproductive system problems, a large number of birth defects and bone problems, among other problems, said Natalie White, a volunteer with the group. White’s husband, Tech. Sergeant Clayton White died aged 41 after a long list of illnesses including osteoarthritis, seizures and kidney failure. White was sent to K2 shortly after the September 11 attacks.
Stewart has long advocated for firefighters and emergency personnel who responded to the World Trade Center attacks and, in recent years, for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who returned home with cancer or other serious illnesses after exposure to toxins at the military camp. battle.
The PACT Act was “a huge improvement,” Stewart said. A small adjustment made by VA Secretary Denis McDonough to address radiation exposure at K2 could fulfill the intent of the PACT Act.
He worries that some of the K2 veterans are running out of time.
“The worst part of this is that those years when they are at their sickest are spent in anxiety and fighting a system that is somehow set up to be antagonistic,” Stewart said. “I don’t know why it’s an adversarial system in any way, shape, or form. But that seems to be the uphill climb everyone has to go through to try to get the benefits or health care they deserve.”
