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.