In watching the senate hearings on the Guantanamo Bay detainees, I found it disgusting and sickening for all the Veterans of this nation.

How can any senator talk about constitutional rights for these combatants that were, for the most part, captured on the battlefield in combat against us.

Then intentionally create gauntlets that deny the US Veteran the same constitutional rights, is beyond comprehension.

The congress has gone out its way to create a totally separate “Veteran’s legal system” outside the jurisdiction of the constitution and constitutional law. To create a separate legal system for a single segment of society is unconstitutional! This creation is tantamount to government tyranny.

The one thing the separation of the branches was created to do; yet, our congress has not protected the Veterans of the nation from our own government, government/DOD mistakes, and the biological chemical warfare testing guinea pig usage of Veterans. The very same biological chemical warfare testing that this nation hanged members of other nations for the very same criminal, intolerable, and inhuman acts against humanity itself.

Instead, they chose to protect the president, DOD, and our now “archenemy” the Veterans Administration, used as an agent of government mandated yearly annual budget control with no legal ramifications for their lies, cover-ups, and misstated facts. In other words, a total collaborative government effort to protect the government coffers; while creating medical information voids that allow Veterans to die or become disabled with no warning.

A legal system where the evidence is what some corrupt VA counselor or BVA judge says it is; not what it really is. Even if proven, the VA just relies on the CFR to override the evidence or puts a more weighted value of what some totally biased, with a conflict of interest, Secretary of the VA has stated based on government controlled and corrupted studies. Studies that do not bring medical issues forward even if a significant increase of 8,000 percent is found with a p-value of <0.001. Using some mandated protocol that seems to evolve and change as more damaging evidence is found, which covers up these issues. This becomes criminal with criminal intent.

Veterans have their own so-called special court, under no jurisdiction of a typical court. After decades of wading through the lower legal gauntlets provided by our congress for the use of stalling the Veteran, over 17,000 cases have been heard with 13 positive rulings for the Veteran.

Congress has clearly precluded any judicial review of any Veterans Administration determinations as set forth in 38 U. S. C. paragraph 211a:

…"the decision of the administrator on any question of law or fact under any law administered by the Veterans Administration providing benefits for Veterans…shall be final and conclusive and no other court of the United States shall have power or jurisdiction to review any decision by an action in the nature of mandamus or otherwise."

We now have a administrative federal agency that is totally outside the rule of law and the constitution with its own legal system that can be as biased as it wants to be at the direction of the president or White House philosophy. Biased in choosing not to support the Veterans in such issues as nuclear testing, LSD testing, Project 112 and SHAD testing, our toxic chemicals (plural) legacy, and our Gulf War Syndrome issues. Most of which are DOD arrogant errors that have created death and disablement in the 100’s of thousands for our nations finest citizens.

Does the congress of the United States consider this unconstitutional? The answer is NO! Only when it applies to foreign terrorist combatants do they seem to worry about what is constitutional, who gets provided a lawyer, and how long they should wait.

Our Veterans languish for more than 20 years trying to fight this unconstitutional system set up by congress for one specific segment of society because they chose to wear the uniform of the US Military.

How long would the people of this nation stand for special legal systems set up for the nurses, firemen, policemen, or even our federal civil service workers? An entire legal system established which is not answerable to the Supreme Court or even a higher district court for any one segment of society - would not be tolerated!

Yet, for the Veterans that chose to risk life and limb in mortal combat to defend the constitution are now not given access to the protection of the constitution against what has to be considered government tyranny.

Government tyranny because of an unconstitutional doctrine named Feres. If the results of the Feres Doctrine lead this nation down the path of government tyranny, then certainly it should be considered unconstitutional.

The ironic part of this so called legal system - is the Veteran is not even allowed a legal counsel until he or she gets to a certain point in this unconstitutional process, which could be 10 years or longer.

Therefore, Senators and the congress in total, go ahead, worry about these detainees and their constitutional rights, and do not worry about the Veterans of this nation. The word is getting out and soon you will have no volunteers.

The draft will have to be reinstated. Then Canadians can build a larger monument to the draft dodgers.

You cannot treat a segment of society this way and then expect them to give up life and limb for what is a sorry excuse for a congress and human beings.      

Charles Kelley

Vietnam Veteran

Duty, Honor, and Country

Snellville, GA

Kelley

About two months ago, I was watching one of the congressional committee’s, where Senator Lindsey Gramm from South Carolina was grilling the chiefs of the Armed Forces on recruitment issues. One of the issues was - parents were not recommending military enlistment for short term or a career path.

I thought then, just whom do you think is not recommending this military option.

Many children of Vietnam Veterans are not recommending this avenue to their children because of the way they saw how our own government treated their parents in disability and death from our Toxic Chemical “Weapons of Mass Destruction” War using the Veterans Administration and the NAS/IOM, among others.

Our Gulf War I fathers and mothers are not recommending this option because they found out, as Vietnam Veterans did, that White House after White House would lie through their teeth using the Veterans Administration and the NAS/IOM, among others.

Many friends of both generations of military campaigners who watched as their neighbor veterans died or become disabled with no government help and only government collaborations; are not recommending this military option to their children.

Those involved in the “Biological Chemical Warfare Testing” guinea pig usage of our Veterans in the Project 112 testing and subsets of SHAD testing are not recommending to their children this military option. The DOD and the government denied all facts for decades, until enough evidence leaked out that denial was no longer government plausible.

Some in the Veterans Administration are at present being charged in a law suit that alleges that these people orchestrated or contributed to a cover-up - characterized as "intentional, willful, wanton, and in bad faith" in the complaint - of SHAD and its possible adverse health effects by denying veterans access to information about the tests.

While our national media, incessantly focuses on alleged abuses of enemy combatants regarding a book and fails to report the “real abuses” against our own veterans by our own government, which pale in comparison to a book issue.

What does our congress do to protect this segment of society from constitutional and government tyranny abuse because they happened to wear the uniform of the United States Military at one time? NOTHING; but turn a blind eye and a deaf ear.

While serving your country is the most noble of all professions that any government can ask of its citizens. To then have to fight your own "collaborative government" for disabilities and death compensations that your own government caused; are not why you sign up.

Charles Kelley

Vietnam Veteran

Duty, Honor, and Country

Snellville, GA

Kelley