[ RadSafe ] Washington Post and Associated Press Carry Latest DU Story

[Roger Helbig]

Another probably bogus claim, but it is getting big time coverage ..

McKibben feels doubly wronged because he believes
the tumor itself was caused by exposure to depleted uranium in Iraq.
Depleted uranium is a heavy  metal that is slightly radioactive and is used in
some armor-piercing munitions.

 http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0306/312532.html
> 
> Army Corporal Says Military Won't Help Him at
> Upcoming Trial
>  Wednesday March 22, 2006 7:05am
> 
> 
> SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) - An Army corporal says he
> feels "completely 
> abandoned" by the military, which is refusing a
> routine subpoena that he 
> believes could help him avoid prison time.
> 
> Corporal Kendall McKibben goes on trial Wednesday in
> Howard County District 
> Court on charges of assaulting a police officer.
> 
> McKibben and his doctors believe he attacked the
> officer during an epileptic 
> seizure related to a brain tumor that has been
> removed.
> 
> But military officials won't allow his doctors to
> testify. They say 
> regulations prohibit military personnel from
> providing expert testimony 
> except under extraordinary circumstances.
> 
> McKibben, who lives in Silver Spring, also claims
> that the brain tumor 
> itself was caused by exposure to depleted uranium in
> Iraq. Military 
> officials declined to comment about McKibben's case.
> 
> Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.
> 
>  - - - - - and - - - - - -
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032101903.html
> 
> MILITARY
> Soldier Feels Abandoned In His Courtroom Battle
> Army Has Refused to Allow Testimony to Aid Case
> By Amit R. Paley
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> 
> Wednesday, March 22, 2006; Page B06
> Cpl. Kendall D. McKibben was prepared to sacrifice
> his life for the Army. He 
> says he almost did repeatedly over a year of patrols
> dodging bullets in 
> Baghdad and dealing with a grape-size brain tumor.
> 
> So the 33-year-old says he can't understand why the
> military is refusing a 
> routine subpoena that he believes could help him
> avoid a 13-year prison 
> sentence.
> 
> Cpl. Kendall D. McKibben is charged with assaulting
> a police officer during 
> what he and military doctors believe was an
> epileptic seizure.
> 
> McKibben goes on trial today in Howard County
> District Court on charges of 
> assaulting a police officer during what he and his
> doctors believe was an 
> epileptic seizure related to his now-removed brain
> tumor. But military 
> officials will not allow his doctors to testify.
> 
> "I feel completely abandoned," said McKibben, who
> lives in Silver Spring. 
> "Here I am raising my hand saying I need a little
> help, and I get the door 
> slammed on my nose."
> 
> Army officials said regulations prohibit military
> personnel from "providing 
> expert testimony in private litigation . . . except
> under the most 
> extraordinary circumstances." The military decided
> McKibben's case did not 
> qualify.
> 
> The military did provide him last night with an
> affidavit from a 
> neurologist, but his attorney said it will be of
> limited use because he 
> can't introduce the document at trial.
> 
> McKibben feels doubly wronged because he believes
> the tumor itself was 
> caused by exposure to depleted uranium in Iraq.
> Depleted uranium is a heavy 
> metal that is slightly radioactive and is used in
> some armor-piercing 
> munitions.
> 
> In Baghdad, McKibben said, his main job was fixing
> Bradley Fighting 
> Vehicles, although he frequently went on patrols.
> All the mechanics in his 
> unit lived in a junkyard filled with damaged
> vehicles from the Iraqi army.
> 
> McKibben said he didn't think much of the U.S.
> ammunition -- filled with 
> depleted uranium -- that had pierced most of those
> vehicles in the first 
> Gulf War.
> 
> But when he was transferred to a base in Germany, he
> began to have severe 
> headaches and strange memory lapses. Once, he got
> into his car in the 
> morning to drive to work and forgot where he was
> going.
> 
> Doctors soon diagnosed him with a tumor on the right
> lobe of his brain and 
> nodules in his right lung. He said he was sent to
> Walter Reed Army Medical 
> Center to have the tumor removed on March 8, 2005,
> the day before his 32nd 
> birthday.
> 
> "I know it was the uranium that caused the tumor.
> That stuff is a weapon of 
> mass destruction," McKibben said. "A lot of other
> guys in my units started 
> developing cysts all over their bodies. One guy
> died."
> 
> 
> CONTINUED
> 
> 
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032101903_2.html
> Page 2 of 2   < BackBack
> 
> Soldier Feels Abandoned In His Courtroom Battle
> Military officials declined to comment about
> McKibben's case but said there 
> is no scientific evidence that depleted uranium
> causes cancer or other 
> medical problems. Some veterans groups disagree and
> are pushing for more 
> testing of Iraqi veterans.
> 
> When doctors told McKibben that his uranium levels
> were normal, he began 
> focusing on recovery. He said he took a trip with a
> group of veterans to a 
> Neil Diamond concert at MCI Center in August. In the
> middle of the concert, 
> though, he began feeling claustrophobic and went to
> the bathroom, he said.
> 
> Cpl. Kendall D. McKibben is charged with assaulting
> a police officer during 
> what he and military doctors believe was an
> epileptic seizure.
> 
> "The next thing I know, I wake up in the emergency
> room," McKibben said. 
> "They found me under one of the blow-dryers in the
> bathroom. When I woke up, 
> I was shackled down because they said I had fought
> them. But I don't 
> remember any of that."
> 
> McKibben said doctors conducted a battery of tests
> but didn't give him a 
> firm diagnosis. He didn't worry about it much until
> he went with a veterans 
> group to a concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion in
> Columbia on Sept. 9, 
> when he began feeling strange.
> 
> "I feel like I'm starting to freak out again," he
> remembered. "I'm just 
> like, 'Okay, I've got to leave, I've got to get back
> to the bus.' "
> 
> McKibben said the next thing he remembers is being
> under some bushes, 
> feeling as if he had to burrow deep into the ground.
> Then he blacked out 
> again, he said, and woke up handcuffed to a bench
> with a police officer 
> sitting next to him.
> 
> "He wasn't looking very happy," McKibben said. "I
> asked him what happened, 
> and he told me. He said I attacked him."
> 
> The officer, Cpl. Donald J. Becraft, wrote in a
> police report that he was 
> directing traffic about 11:15 p.m. when he heard
> fast footsteps approaching 
> from behind. As he began to turn, the report said,
> McKibben struck him hard 
> in the head and then ran away laughing. Becraft said
> he eventually caught up 
> and, after a struggle, handcuffed him.
> 
> Becraft -- who said he suffered cuts and bruises and
> damage to his pants, 
> pepper-spray container and personal cellphone --
> also noted that McKibben's 
> breath reeked of alcohol, though McKibben said he
> only had one beer.
> 
> After the incidents at the two concerts, McKibben
> said Walter Reed doctors 
> realized that he had developed epilepsy because of
> his brain surgery and 
> placed him on anti-seizure medication. Esteban
> Gergely, McKibben's attorney, 
> issued a standard subpoena to ask the doctors to
> testify at the trial.
> 
> Gergely said the doctors could help win an acquittal
> for McKibben by showing 
> that he had suffered a seizure during the assault
> and therefore should not 
> be held responsible for his actions.
> 
> Ann Johnson, a spokeswoman for Walter Reed, said the
> policy restricting 
> testimony of military staff is designed to limit
> "the loss of duty time by 
> Army personnel" and "to include strict impartiality
> where the Army does not 
> have an interest in the litigation."
> 
> Or, as an attorney-adviser at Walter Reed Army
> Medical Center wrote in a 
> Dec. 19 letter to Gergely: "Our sole concern in this
> matter is to protect 
> the interests of the United States Army."
> 
> "What an outrageous thing for the Army to say,"
> Gergely said. "Shouldn't 
> they also be concerned about protecting a soldier
> who risked his life for 
> them? Shouldn't they also be concerned about the
> interests of justice?"
> 
> T. Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the Howard County
> state's attorney, 
> declined to comment on the case but said it is
> office policy to seek jail 
> time for anyone who assaults a police officer.
> 
> McKibben said he is petrified of what will happen if
> he is convicted. He 
> said a guilty verdict could endanger his efforts to
> find a nonmilitary job. 
> It's hard enough, he said, with his memory problems,
> nerve damage, hearing 
> loss and other medical issues.
> 
> "I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box anymore," he
> said. "But does that 
> mean the Army should just abandon me like an old car
> on the side of the 
> road?"
> 
> © 2006 The Washington Post Company