d a w that was chosen yeah, americans, graham, when you wrote you got to it is just such, not critical. can certainly provide you a list of such short image names. you author of the different student info which help wishing that you get thrown the width of the protein. you're still there with you as we are both in the study. so the cleaning points of choice was coming to, to one of our parents to put it which you, which in the longer it will show us in the solution up to push to, to stream, to become a mon, because or lose no universal do school of course i don't know which tv i know for the doesn't or is that just to begin with these 1st opinion, finances come up with . hi. i'm rick sanchez and i'm here to plead with you. whatever you do,

you do not watch my your shelf seriously. watch something that's so different. my little opinion that you won't get anywhere else. welcome it pleases you to have the state department, the cia weapons makers, multi $1000000000.00 corporations, to your fax for you. go ahead, change and whatever you do. don't watch my show stay main street, because i'm probably gonna make you uncomfortable. my show is called direct impact, but again, you probably don't want to watch it because it might just changing the wayne thing . ah, imagine you're in the u. s. military and your job is to take care of waste, disposal. that sounds easy enough and your orders are to bulldoze everything into a giant pile, spray it with jet fuel and set it on fire. that sounds like a terrible idea. it'll pollute everything,

and it will cause untold health problems. i'm john kerry aku and you're watching the whistleblowers burn pitts have become a serious issue in u. s. military policy. the concept of burned pits is relatively simple. the military needs a way to dispose of its waste, but that waste includes every thing, food scraps, plastics, rubber, medical, waste, chemicals, even broken military equipment. the policy for decades was to bulldoze everything into a giant pile, using acres of land hose it all down with jet fuel and then set it on fire. just imagine all of that burning waste. it would have to be one of the most toxic environments on earth. and what happened is that soldiers and proximity to the burn pits began returning to the united states and showing signs of rare cancers,

especially glee, oh bless, domus brain cancers claiming the lives of people. busy like bo biden, the son of president joe biden, and claiming the life of my best friend, david mccracken, the connection between the burned pits and these rare cancers was clear, but the pentagon refused to acknowledge it. and for years after the burned pits were wound down and the u. s. withdrew from places like iraq and kosovo, the victims continued to suffer and to die. our guest today is joseph hickman. joe hickman spent most of his life in the military 1st as him screen. and then as a soldier in both the army and the national guard. he is deployed on several military operations throughout the world, sometimes attached to foreign militaries, the recipient of more than 20 commendations and awards. jo hickman was awarded the army chief met metal and the army commendation metal. while he was stationed at guantanamo bay, he's also the author of the book, the burn pits, joe,

welcome back to the show. thanks john. joe, the problem of burn pit seems to be patently obvious. everybody knows that you can't burn plastic. everybody knows that you can't burn rubber or medical waste out in an open field. everybody knows you can't mix chemicals and equipment and food and just set it all on fire. how did this stupid policy begin in the 1st place? i began in the beginning, you're remembering trash and military years, decades during the war we birch. but we really started to realize something's wrong . even though we changed that realization we gave the job to dispose of waste from soldiers. and from the basis we're building to government contractors and the government contractor that did we gave the

contract to j d r, which was james. he was former ceo of the company or vice president united states. and they were cutting cost figure out way, way. instead of high temperature incinerators decided to take acreages of fields and burn hours. joe, how long was it before people began to see a correlation between the burn pits and illnesses. even if those illnesses weren't these rare cancers, what happened then? did the complaints go back to the pentagon in a timely fashion? it did not the one cause it moves so slowly on. we started seeing proud, almost within months after we did. and once we got into iraq,

they call it the iraqi. pretty much so you're coming down really sick with a lot of bonuses and mostly sort of like symptoms. understood. and they call it into the regular people begin to realize that you're living. this is causing this so called the syllabus. you've done a major investigation of this policy that led to your 3rd book, the burn pits. why did the pentagon deny for so long that there was a problem? why did they deny that these clusters of rare cancers affecting a wide variety of people who had one thing in common that they worked in or near the burn pits? was this financial issue that the pentagon just didn't want to have to deal with? it was definitely a financial issue. it was also after, wow, the pentagon stopped at 9. it was in the ship. so it was

a legal li loophole. they use j. b r was held responsible for the birth. so that's actually also from there were $400.00 soldiers illnesses of the burg this well gave york laid on the military time saying the military saying that the military came up with the idea of where to build and then give your schools the military stake on the issue because of the various doctrine, cancer, the military. so j b, r a military no to stay solid. and it was just the case for liberal under my excuse of this problem because it just who do you, why? why sides denying it? and the other side this denying it and you get to that side. well, let me ask you

a follow up on that issue because i think i think you're hitting on a very important point here. you've got these military contractors who are more or less indemnified for what they're doing in war zones during war time. you've got k, b r which is a multi $1000000000.00 company with very, very close ties to the military industrial complex. but then they get away with something like this. this is the same company that got away with multiple accusations of sexual harassment, of female employees. for example. why is it that these 2 big to fail military contractors who are clearly in the wrong on some of these issues of life and death? just get away with it. how does this happen? well, i get all of your biggest things there. like i said, didn't change the timers before or become why he had resign

ceo. he was he had very close hires. the key of your money. what us you leverage $1000000.00 in stock. gosh. that was our stuffing down. was part of what he sees after the iraqi and started his thoughts on who stock options for trips. so i really, i mean, i figured there was a lot of evidence. so yeah, it's a lot of things. why have you gotten contract, which is a no big contract to waste management and the money that you're you know, government official date on this? absolutely, sir. yeah. yeah. it's astounding for these members of the u. s. military who were

exposed to the burn pits. joe, tell us a little bit about what they had to endure. in the case of my friend david mccracken, he worked on burden pitts, both in kosovo and iraq. he came home and developed a glee, oh blessed alma and was dead. less than a year later, at the age of 46, his family was denied defense department medical benefits. and he was even denied permission to be buried at arlington national cemetery. because they said that his illness was not service related. was that kind of treatment common for soldiers coming back, who had been exposed to the burn pits? is that what ho biden's family and others endured? yes, and i did have the practice. and this was for client was a terrible story sterile french story. unfortunately. you know, the story is very common is to show the back or yet i don't understand why this should be right on the front page of all the people

actually being denied at 1st, everyone was denied now denied benefits need. a lot of them died just completely drunk and not giving heroes. you don't do it all under the radar. and these are all your questions. tell us about some of the diseases that we're talking about here. i mentioned in a moment ago glee, oh, blessed oma, which is this rare brain cancer? it's something that my friend had. it's something that bo biden had. it turned out that in my friend, david's case, he had to tumors in his brain. one, the size of a walnut and one the size of a p, but they were so deep in his brain that they were in operable. there was just nothing that could be done. it turned out that bo biden had pretty much the same

thing. but what else are we talking about here? are we talking about respiratory illnesses like c o, p d? are we talking exclusively about cancer's? what are these people coming home with the current home? well, so different diagnosis, you have to share, there was, you're burning anything and everything. so you're happy with with thousands of cars that are affected by so many different ways. i've talked to people that had this soldier who had a tumor on the side of his side on the side the side and i think to really understand all the look at the rock here and what the purpose asked. the cdc don't even have names for dollars. so i think i think the sex where does you know

so many different things. the soldiers are having an error in her having this i'm believe you may go, you make a very good point there. and a very important point, i read a new york times account of bern, pits in iraq. that said that when the, when the wind would shift, the smoke would settle on a u. s. military base. and literally everybody on the base was, was forced to breathe in this. iraqi gunk as you call it. everybody got sick, whether it was from asthma or a cold or an upper respiratory infection, all the way down to these these rare cancers. but then just imagine what people, the neighboring villages had to go through. if you're a soldier, you're eventually going to cycle out of that base. you're going to come home or you're going to be transferred somewhere else. if you're an iraqi national or

a coast of our or an afghan, and you live near these, these burn pits, you breathe this in for years and, and nothing good is going to come to this. no, it was um you're talking about over a 180 different builds law for us, iraq or outside or military basis. and like i said, the earth is best there. see now the 1st tried to say it was uranium. austin walked several gawkers. she can see that there is from the old and her history country on it is a developing story. it is very sad to know the story has these, these children are being born with some of the worst birth defects you ever see. we are speaking with jose have heckman about the toxic burned pits created and used by the u. s. military around the world and how they lead to untold human misery among american soldiers and others, including the locals. we're going to take

a short break and come right back, stay tuned. 2 2 2 2 2 ah, are in need to come to the russians state little never. i've stayed as i'm phoning those lensky investment and again, i'll sons and up with 55 when. okay, so 9 is good model speaking with we will van in the european union, the kremlin jeff machine estate on crush per day and split our t spoke neck. even our video agency, roughly all band on youtube and pinterest and with

ah, every year, almost the sixty's, hundreds of people gather in the center. agree go to commemorate the land fans who fought with nazi germany in buffalo. essence detachments during world war 2. this day is known as legion in a day to complete them and then you get the money from the leasing that was off. so i just saw the politics that started with advocates. if the veterans claim the lengthy and soldiers had nothing to do with the trustees committed against jews, despite historical evidence, proves that country with

ah, welcome back to the whistle blowers, i'm john kerry aka were speaking with joseph hickman, a u. s. military veteran and author of the book, the burn pitts. good to have you back joe. the u. s. defense department is now estimating that 3 and a half 1000000 troops. that's u. s. troops in kosovo, iraq and afghanistan eventually returned to the u. s. with respiratory or other health problems because of, of exposure to the burn pits. that is a gigantic number. but the problem that we've seen since 2010 is that the pentagon didn't bother to keep records of what was actually burned, where it was burned, how it was burned, and who was exposed to the smoke. as a result, the u. s. department of veterans affairs has been reluctant to admit that these

diseases were service related. has that finally been fixed, or veterans finally receiving the care and the benefits that they deserve. a lot more better and you get to hear this packet. that recently happened was a huge, but again, it moves so slow. we're still seeing a lot of people being denied that we shouldn't be there. but it is turning around. it's getting better. it should've been better a lot faster. what happens with agent orange, which is very similar to as far as how we handle it took 27 years for this veterans from the army and were just seeing the same thing with them or what you were trying to do tribute that to, to just bureaucratic. 2 normalcy or,

or is there some other reason why the, the pentagon and the department of veterans affairs just can't seem to get it's, it's act together on this issue. i, i think it's, it's deeply cool. cool. i could tell you that before the team now i had a company global research solutions, and i, i submitted a detailed report on what was happening with the furnace and veterans going through the bottles. i told me directly to senator ron johnson, directly to senator ron johnson. thompson and i asked him to explain to this you got behind it 100 percent when i was in his office and he said he would do what he can. and then just a couple weeks later, bill was introduced to jackson recognized the issue and to do

some sort of, you know, testing evaluations on soldiers or the verbiage. and he, he already against the bill. oh, i couldn't understand why you met with his office staff and his veterans. people don't status any. yeah, we started that bill on a missile system. i think the guy he has to go for $35000000.00 to help them and the parent got to lead of worth that this whole system because it hasn't worked invested 2 years of trial prosper. he passed it anyway. i id at ease of the little was she we're, we're something we're just really paid by the military industrial. yes. are. those

are just her conference is so much improved or dish slows these issues. now, one of the things that has me perplexed is, it's now clear to everybody, including at the pentagon and the pentagon's leadership. that burned pits are toxic, that they kill people and that they should not be in use. but at the same time, the defense department still has not officially banned their use. why is that, and is there any role for congress here? why are the oversight committees? not banning the burn pits in legislation. your job, you're just as good as mine. actually. my wife has serious respiratory issues. i don't know why she's on the shoes in my racket into this issue is just not going away and they're, they're bad days. but they're not all in late summer,

jo president biden signed a bill into law that is supposed to improve medical benefits for service members who were exposed to the bern. pitts, do you think that's enough? it took a long time and it doesn't look like there's any more legislation pending. is there more that you think should be done? or do i think there's more on morality issues that should be done military deal with their veterans? i don't, i did. i didn't like the abilities time, but there's so much to hardly see the bill itself. i think i think we should just start by leaving our veterans services to be a has worked for years and years years under the concept. ok. you're sick, you're injured. military label, and that's how they operate. instead of operating that way they have to just change

. change that and say okay, you are sitting and you're showing you tell me what you have to prove. it's not military should be changed. i don't see major, we started off here talking about k, b r and and defense contractors have defense contractors taken a position on these legislative issues. k b r a side obviously, because k b r has a vested interest in bern, pitts, not being recognized as a health concern. what about some of the other big defense contractors or are the victims of the burn pits standing alone? there's these, these covered, these, these companies did draft, they, drake, them. so flag is our picture in the end.

they don't, they don't, they, it's all about them. and why do you think we're not seeing more support on capitol hill? you just now told this awful story about senator ron johnson, which i completely believe. i worked on capitol hill for many years and, and this kind of thing happens all the time. but why isn't there a movement among other members of congress? whether it's the house, the senate, to do something to protect our service members, it just seems like there's, this is a no lose situation. if you're a politician, the all talk the games and you have a couple that are really good. the north carolina marriage, impassioned the guy in the driveway. one helping for helping others. all these what there's just to see there's, there's some that are just independence. some to seem like the talk again. but when

it comes there, they're not as a really good ones. and i think there's over the country we have to start paying attention to how you go. yes or no. and all these things are supposed to help. not just jo, back in august, there was a protest about the burn pits right here in washington, d. c. with big names like john stuart, standing with veterans and trying to bring this to light. what more do you think needs to be done to bring about change? ah, well, like i said, i think it has to start in into the system itself. has to be turn around and start actually better actually give stacks because when you go to the ice i go on there is a lack of respect to the better. so they don't really believe with

a better saying maybe the doctors are are just overwhelmed because it's short staffed every time i go staff and they have a lot to do, it just has to. they have to change this. no, good luck. we haven't seen that yet. i'm sorry, that's okay. you have to follow the fax joe. one last question for you. you have blown the whistle on 2 major issues affecting the u. s. military, that's torture at guantanamo. and we're going to discuss that separately and on these burn pits. what has the reaction been to you personally by the u. s. military? i'm sure the rank and file are grateful for what you've done. i know that my friend, david's widow, is grateful for what you've done. but what's the reaction been from the pentagon, pentagon, they, i had

a hard time when i came with this group lunch, i'm 1st rate are still active duty and it was probably a really bad time. but i had to because literally a life or death situation. so they, they gave me a hard time sometimes or too much because there is payroll issues, some issues with where i was station to be moved to a different job. it was a lot of problems in a lot of people hired to them spoke pretty roughly for the people in my life years got longer

and i miss kathy. oh, actually joe heckman. thank you so much for joining us today. that's all we have for you today. remember, in this case, the words of the dalai lama. a compassionate concern for others well being is the source of happiness. a self centered attitude is the source of the problem. we have to take care of ourselves without selfishly taking care of ourselves. if we don't take care of others, we cannot take care of ourselves. i'm john curiosity. and this has been the whistleblowers. we'll see you next time. ah. 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 ah, i'm willing, i saw beauty studio no carrying him teeth doin soon enough idea she ship of duck

lean ship for a control input your board. so you should shield video to g at the mo, the priority system will only be any other than that. it's not the same device such a messy lean. yeah. we can do to pocono insurance. actually it's kim, south. dr. room. there's a oh crazy. that's all there is to model date my subway, but just dory. yes or no, it's i live ship elise, get us whichever we ship them. so just take a look, take him over to them. i need a new transcript for that. for a one. they switched over the course and you can actually reach with global the machine years about how she took on a job is to pull out the enough room for you real quick to take a picture and well go double play. you have to go. so good. i'm up with

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