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First Regular Session

Sixty-first General Assembly

LLS NO. R97@0795.01 JBB

STATE OF COLORADO




BY SENATOR Coffman;

also REPRESENTATIVE Dyer.

ENGROSSED

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 97-25

URGING FEDERAL ACTION TO CONDUCT AN INDEPENDENT CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE EXPOSURE OF UNITED STATES MILITARY PERSONNEL TO CHEMICAL WEAPONS DURING THE PERSIAN GULF WAR AND WHETHER THERE WAS A THE SUBSEQUENT COVER­UP.


WHEREAS, More than 600,000 members of the United States Armed Forces, including activated units of the Ready Reserve and National Guard, were deployed to the Persian Gulf region in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait; and

WHEREAS, More than 50,000 individuals who served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm have reported wide­ranging medical problems that began during their stay in the Persian Gulf region or shortly after their return; and

WHEREAS, In many cases, the illnesses of the veterans have progressed to stages where the veterans have been discharged from the military and in some cases are no longer employable and, in others, even caused death; and

WHEREAS, Veterans of the Persian Gulf War have been slow to receive both medical treatment and just compensation for their illnesses because a cause for their medical conditions has not been established that is related to their military service during the Persian Gulf War; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency have allegedly misled the Congress of the United States, the Veterans Administration, and the veterans who fought in the War concerning exposure of military personnel to chemical weapons during Operation Desert Storm; and

WHEREAS, A large number of Department of Defense documents pertaining to the incidents relating to the chemical weapons exposure of United States military personnel are now missing in an effort to protect individuals who served in positions of leadership at the highest levels during Operation Desert Storm; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty­first General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein:

That we, the members of the Colorado General Assembly, urge the President and the Congress of the United States to investigate the destruction of Iraqi chemical weapons facilities by United States military

forces in the Persian Gulf theater and to investigate whether there was a subsequent cover-up.

Be It Further Resolved, That we, the members of the Colorado General Assembly, urge the President and the Congress of the United States to investigate the exact nature of these reported illnesses by Persian Gulf War veterans in relationship to the recent admissions by both the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency that our military forces were exposed to chemical weapons.

Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be sent to the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chair and members of the Senate and the House Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Committees, the Adjutant General of the Colorado National Guard, and to each member of the Colorado Congressional delegation.