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Links to South Africa have emerged in an expansive matter involving a global medical services provider alleged to have falsely represented contract requirements for work it did at US State Department and US Air Force facilities in Iraq.

The company at the centre of the allegations is Comprehensive Health Services LLC, which is based in Florida. Its website describes it as one of the nations largest and most experienced providers of medical management solutions and humanitarian program support.

Daily Maverick has established that Comprehensive Health Services, established in 1975, now falls under the umbrella of Acuity International, which was established in 2021.

Last Tuesday, 8 March 2022, the US Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that the company agreed to pay a $930,000 (about R14-million) settlement in the matter.

This was to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by falsely representing to the State Department and the Air Force that it complied with contract requirements relating to services it provided to those departments facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The settlement involved two actions brought under whistle-blower provisions of the US False Claims Act.

In last weeks statement, the US Attorneys Office explained that Comprehensive Health Services was contracted to provide support services at its government-run facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This required the company to provide medical supplies, which included controlled substances, approved by either the US Food and Drug Administration or European Medicines Agency and manufactured in accordance with federal quality standards.

Bypassing US controls via SA

Links to South Africa emerged in this arena.

According to the US, between 2012 and 2019 Comprehensive Health Services falsely represented to the State Department and Air Force that certain substances provided under those contracts were approved by the Food and Drug Administration or European Medicines Agency.

The company allegedly did not have a Drug Enforcement Agency licence to export controlled substances from the US to Iraq.

It was alleged the company got hold of controlled substances by having [company] physicians based in Florida send letters requesting that a South African physician prescribe the controlled substances.

A South African shipping company then received controlled substances that were not approved and sent them to [the company] in Iraq, where [it] supplied the unapproved controlled substances to patients under the State Department and Air Force contracts.

It was therefore alleged that Comprehensive Health Services sidestepped US-imposed controls by operating via South Africa.

But it was accused of doing so from the US and, without that governments approval, for the US.

Neither the name of the South African physician nor that of the shipping company was divulged.

Questions from Daily Maverick to South Africas Health Department had not been responded to by the time of publication.

Daily Maverick sent queries to email addresses listed for Comprehensive Health Services, but these were not responded to.

Acuity International also failed to respond to questions.

How armed gangs steal fuel worth millions from buried Transnet pipelines

Data breach

In another set of allegations, the company submitted claims to the US State Department relating to the cost of a secure electronic medical record system.

This was meant to store all patients medical reports including the confidential identifying information of United States service members, diplomats, officials, and contractors working and receiving medical care in Iraq.

However, between 2012 and 2019 Comprehensive Health Services allegedly failed to disclose to the State Department that it had not consistently stored patients medical records on a secure electronic medical record system.

When [company] staff scanned medical records for the system, [they] saved and left scanned copies of some records on an internal network drive, which was accessible to non-clinical staff, the US alleged.

Even after staff raised concerns about the privacy of protected medical information, [the company] did not take adequate steps to store the information exclusively on the [electronic medical record] system.

A statement on the Comprehensive Health Services website from last month said it learned of a data security incident relating to a limited number of people.

In September 2020 it had detected unusual activity within its digital environment following discovery of fraudulent wire transfers.

Comprehensive Health Services launched an investigation.

On November 3, 2021, [the company] learned that certain personal information may have been impacted in connection with the incident, the notice on its website said.

[We] then worked diligently to identify address information required toeffectuatenotification.

On 20 January and 11 February 2022, the company sent notifications to individuals who may have been affected, it said.

In last weeks statement about the Comprehensive Health Services settlement, the US made it clear that the claims resolved via the $930,000 settlement were only allegations and there has been no determination of liability.

Elisabeth Kaminsky, a special agent in charge of the US State Departments Office of Investigations, said the settlement demonstrated its commitment to protecting personnel.

Our hope is that this outcome will send a clear message that cutting corners on State Department contracts has significant consequences, she said. DM

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CONTRACT FIDDLE: SA link to US medical firm accused of sneaking unapproved drugs to military patients in Iraq - Daily Maverick

We alsosupported the response to the outbreak in Mosul, in Ninewa governorate, temporarily transforming our 64-bed post-operative care facility in the east of the city into a COVID-19 treatment center for suspected and confirmed cases. In mid-November, we opened an additional 15-bed intensive care unit at Al-Salam hospital to offer advanced care for patients with critical and severe forms of the virus.

At other facilities in Ninewa, as well as in Erbil, Diyala, Kirkuk, and Dohuk governorates, we provided training sessions, with a focus on infection control. In addition, we set up a 20-bed isolation unit and treatment facility at Laylan displacement camp in Kirkuk, in preparation for a potential spike in COVID-19 cases.

In the rest of the country, we continued to run general and specialist health services at our ongoing projects for displaced people, returnees, and vulnerable communities. In all locations, including our COVID-19 centers, we maintained our emergency room andmental healthservices.

As a result of the pandemic and the closure of private clinics, our maternity and pediatric teams in west Mosul and Sinuni saw a sharp increase in demand for care and admissions.

In Ninewa, we provided emergency and intensive care, burns treatment, physiotherapy, and mental health care at our hospital in Qayyarah, until October, when we handed over all our activities to local government hospitals. As part of the process, we trained staff and donated medical supplies and other equipment. Until October, at the Qayyarah displacement camp, MSF also offered general health care,maternity services, and treatment and follow-up for non-communicable diseases, until we handed over our activities to another organization.

We also had teams working in general health care centers in the towns of Hawija and Al-Abasi in Kirkuk governorate, and in Sinsil Al-Muqdadiya in Diyala governorate, where we supported maternity services, sexual and reproductive health care, treatment for non-communicable diseases, health promotion, and mental health care. Ourgeneral health care services were also available in Laylan camp(Kirkuk),until its closure in November, and in Alwand and Sinsil camps (Diyala), until August,when MSF handed over these activitiesto the Department of Health and other organizations.

In Baghdad, MSF continued to collaborate with the nationaltuberculosis(TB) program, with the introduction of a new, more effective oral treatment for drug-resistant TB.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we were forced to temporarily suspend our activities at the Baghdad medical rehabilitation center, where people injured in violent incidents or accidents receive comprehensive care, including mental health support. However, we were able to maintain our support to patients through online physiotherapy and mental health consultations, for example using Skype, and restarted activities later in the year.

Visit link:
Iraq | Our Work & How to Help - Doctors Without Borders (MSF-USA)

Le Roy Torres of Robstown suffered illnesses from exposure to burn pits while serving in Iraq. Now, the Supreme Court will decide he if has the right to sue Texas DPS to regain his civilian job.

Rosie Torres advocates for GIs suffering from burn pit exposure

Advocacy is therapy for Rosie Torres. The executive director of the non-profit Burn Pits 360, she and her husband, Le Roy Torres, are fighting for legislation in Texas that would allow for a registry for soldiers suffering from burn pit illnesses.

Rachel Denny Clow

AUSTIN When Le Roy Torres returned home from his yearlong deployment to Iraq as a captain in the Army Reserve, the South Texas nativewanted to return to the job he had set aside to fulfill his military commitment.

It wasn't an unusual desire given that federal law since World War II has givenreturning GIs the right to resume their civilian jobs. The law also has been modified over the years to accommodate veterans who've comeback from the front with the scars of battle, allowing them to return to work in a capacity suitable to their post-service condition.

But for Torres, it was more complicated. Before his deployment, he had been a trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety. And the injuries he suffered were not from bombs or bullets. More likely, he would argue, they were from around-the-clock exposure to what have become known as "toxic burn pits."

Burn pits arewhere spent munitions, discarded vehicle parts, everyday trash, medical waste and even amputated body parts were bathed in jet fuel, set ablaze and seldom if ever extinguished.

Torres returned home with chronic headaches and debilitating breathing disorders that would later be diagnosed asconstrictive bronchiolitis andtoxic encephalopathy, which in laymen's terms isa toxicbrain injury. In short, he wanted a desk job since he was no longer up to the physical demands of uniformed police work. Since the effects of burn pit exposure was not recognized as a service-related disability, reinstatement would have meant sending a weakened Torres back intothe field as a trooper.

That decision would become part of a protracted multifront civilian-world battle that Torres and his wifeRosiebegan waging from their kitchen table in the Coastal Bend community of Robstown. The fight has since been instrumental in forcingaction in the Legislature, in Congress and evenan indirect mention in Tuesday's State of the Union Address by President Joe Biden.

This month, the clash between Torres and the Texas Department of Public Safety will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the decisionthe justices render will have far-reaching effects forveteransnationwide who had worked in state government before their military service and seek to regain their former jobs.

Torres' court battle weaves a thread between labor rights, the federal War Powers Act and Texas' right under the doctrine of sovereign immunity not to be sued by one of its citizens. In their brief filed with the high court, which is scheduled to hear the case March 29, Torres' lawyers argue that the law protecting veterans' re-employment rights is derived from theWar Powers Act. Therefore, if a state entity, such as DPS, rejects a veteran's efforts to gain re-employment, the federal law should trump the state's sovereign immunity from lawsuits.

The Texas Attorney General's Office, which defends state agencies in court actions, said in a brief of its own that Torres' lawyers are misinterpreting federal law. The brief cites several examples where courts have denied individuals' rights to take their state governments to court and it citesa 1778 speech by James Madison, the president sometimes called "the father of the Constitution."

"It is not in the power of individuals to call any state into court," the brief states, quoting Madison's speech.

More: Veteran: Afghanistan's toxic burn pits left me staring down the barrel of a death sentence

Brian Lawler, a former Marine Corps officer who is part of Torres' legal team, disagreed. The ability of the federal government to build a military is dependent on the willingness of citizens to serve. Protecting their rights after such service has ended is an essential component, he said.

If the Supreme Court "ultimately rules in favor of the state of Texas," Lawler said, "thousands of service members will find themselves in danger of discrimination by their state employers without recourse. And the nation will have failed in its duty to protect the heroes who protect us."

Torres was assigned to Joint Base Balad, one of the largest U.S. installations in Iraq,for a one-year deployment beginning in 2007 and ending in 2008. During that time, the base generated nearly 250 tons of waste each day that was incinerated in a black smoke-belching 10-acre fire pit.

Torres said his headaches and breathing problems began during his deployment. In a conference call Monday with U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, he recalled going on sick call and explaining his symptoms.

"They said, 'You have the Iraqi crud. It's going to take a couple of months to adjust,'" Torres recalled. adding that the medical personnel had seen other cases like his in Iraq.

The symptoms continued throughout his deployment and did not go away once he returned home. Doctors with the Department of Veterans Affairs misdiagnosed his condition, he said. Finally he found civilian doctors, who traced the symptoms to the burn pits.

Meanwhile, he and Rosie sought answers and found few. They petitioned Congress to develop a national registry that would track service members with symptoms similar to those of Torres. Congress took a pass.

After Torres was denied benefits by the VA, he and Rose started their own informal registry, called Burn Pits 360. By 2017, the organization had more than 7,000 sign-ups. The Legislatures, after extensive lobbying by the couple, established a Texas-only registry in 2019.

Last year, they told their story to Jon Stewart, the former host of Comedy Central's"The Daily Show," who now does a streaming show on Apple TV called "The Problem." Stewart, who championed the fight for Sept. 11 first responders to receive adequate benefits, has become a vocal advocate for veterans made illby burn pit exposure.

More: Jon Stewart pushes bill to aid vets ill from burn pits

Over the years, the couple has met and become friends with numerous other veteranswho were exposed to burn pits and have have developed breathing disorders, cancer and other illnesses. Many have died, Torres said.

"It's astruggle that I deal with every day," Torres said on the call with Castro, where plastic tubes in his nostrils delivered supplemental oxygen. "But I remember those that have gone before me and the commitments that I've made to them that we're going to keep pushingthis issue."

Even before he was elected president, Biden has been an advocate for veterans who have been exposed to burn pits. In his address to the nation, Biden invoked the memory of his son,Beau, a National Guard officer who served in Iraq around the same time as Torres. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015.

"We dont know for sure if a burn pit was the cause of his braincancer,orthe diseases of so many of our troops," Biden said in his speech.

"Ive always believed that we have a sacred obligation to equip all those we send to war and care for them and their families when they come home," Biden said as he urged Congress to "pass a law to make sure veterans devastated by toxic exposures in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and comprehensive health care they deserve."

The U.S. House passed the measure Thursday. Castro was among the cosponsors. It now goes to the Senate.

More: State of the Union recap: Biden aims to reset presidency, addresses Russian invasion of Ukraine

The justices will hear arguments on whether Torres has the right to sue DPS to regain his job and to seek any damages as a result of being denied reinstatement.

The issue before them does not include the merits of his assertion that he has the legal right to be put back to work. Also, high court rulings are typically issued weeks, or even months after arguments are heard.

"If we lose, it's a finish line because then we're done," said Lawler. "It's a hurdle if we win because we still have to go to (the lower court to argue the merits of the case)."

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.comand follow him on Twitter@JohnnieMo.

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How a Texas war veteran carried the fight over burn pit exposure to the U.S. Supreme Court - Caller Times

The biggest news of the past week has been Russia's invasion ofUkraine amid strong condemnation from the rest of the world. As news channels scrambled to provide round-the-clock coverage of the crisis, many people have pointed out "racism" in the way reports are presented.

Some Twitter users have alleged that media coverage for the Middle East, Asian and African conflict zones does not receive as much footage as the European conflict.

A Twitter thread by journalist Alan MacLeod detailed some of the instances of "racist" media coverage of the Ukraine crisis.The thread points out shocking terms used byleading news organizations including BBC, CBS News, Al Jazeera, BFM TV, The Daily Telegraph, and the ITS (UK).

On BBC News, Ukraines deputy chief prosecutor David Sakvarelidze said he wasvery emotional seeing European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed every day.

On CBS News,foreign correspondent Charlie DAgata while reporting from Kyiv said, This is a relatively civilized and European city where you wouldnt expect or hope that it is going to happen.He also said this wasn't "Iraq or Afghanistan" countries that have been suffering endless conflict. D'Agata later apologized in a broadcast.

On NBC, a correspondentwas asked what has changed in Poland since the last refugee crisis in Europe in 2015, at which time the country had been hesitant to acceptrefugees.

She shockingly replied, "Just to put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria, these are refugees from neighboring Ukraine. That, quite frankly, is part of it. These are Christians, theyre white, theyre very similar people."

On Al Jazeera,Peter Dobbie, while talking about Ukrainians fleeing the countrysaid, "Whats compelling is just looking at them, the way they are dressed. These are prosperous middle-class people. These are not obviously refugees trying to get away from areas in the middle east that are still in a big state of war. These are not people trying to get away from areas in North Africa. They look like any European family that you would live next door to..."

The Telegraph in the UK, in a column by Daniel Hannan, described the invasion as: They seem so like us. Thats what makes it so shocking. Ukraine is a European country. It's people who watch Netflix and have Instagram accounts, vote in free elections and read uncensored newspapers. It's not in a poor, remote country anymore."

On ITV (UK),another correspondent reporting from Ukraine said,"The unthinkable has happened...This is not a developing, third-world nation; this is Europe!"

The racist reporting was also flaggedby the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Associationwhichcautioned media housesto be "mindful of implicit and explicit bias" in their coverage.

The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Associationcondemns the"orientalist and racist implications that any population or country is 'uncivilized' or bears economic factors that make it worthy of conflict... This type of commentary reflects the pervasive mentality in Western journalism of normalizing tragedy in parts of the world such as the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Latin America," the statement said. "It dehumanizes and renders their experience with war as somehow normal and expected."

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'This isn't Syria or Iraq': Western media coverage of ...

In his first State of the Union address, President Joe Biden focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflation and the coronavirus pandemic.

At one point he turned to the U.S. military, and started to speak about toxic burn pits at bases in Iraq and Afghanistan that may have caused serious illnesses among troops possibly including his late son Beau Biden, who served in the military and died from brain cancer in 2015.

But as he spoke, he made a questionable claim about the number of times he had visited the two countries.

"Our troops in Iraq have faced and Afghanistan have faced many dangers. One being stationed at bases, breathing in toxic smoke from burn pits," Biden said during the March 1 joint session of Congress. "Many of you have been there. Ive been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 40 times. These burn pits that incinerate waste the wastes of war, medical and hazardous material, jet fuel, and so much more."

PolitiFact readers reached out and inquired whether the statement was accurate. Its not, and it was not included in his prepared remarks.

Biden has traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq many times, including to visit his son who was serving in Iraq. But his statement nearly doubled the number of trips. And its not the first time Biden has embellished the number of times hes traveled to the two countries.

In 2019, while on the campaign trail, Biden told a dramatic but false story about a general asking him to travel to Afghanistan to recognize the heroism of a Navy captain. At one point while relaying the tale, Biden said he had been to Iraq and Afghanistan "over 30 times."

But his campaign later clarified, and told the Washington Post that the correct number was actually 21. Some of these trips occurred when Biden was serving as a U.S. senator from 1973 to 2009.

There have been no news reports or press releases about Biden visiting either country for the remainder of 2019 or any time in 2020.

PolitiFact reached out to the White House for comment but did not hear back. Just after Biden made this statement, he was interrupted by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who yelled out a reference to 13 service members who died while the U.S. was evacuating Afghanistan. Boebert was shushed by her colleagues.

As president, Biden visited Europe in a trip that included meetings with NATO leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He traveled to Italy and the United Kingdom in the fall of 2021 for the G20 Leaders Summit and the U.N.s convention on climate change.

According to searches of Nexis news archives, the last time Biden visited Iraq was in 2016 to try to quell a political rebellion that threatened to undercut the Obama administration's counterterrorism efforts. It was his first visit to the country in five years.

The last time we found that he traveled to Afghanistan was in 2011 for meetings meant to gauge the progress toward a drawdown of U.S. forces.

Our ruling

Biden said he has visited Iraq and Afghanistan "over 40 times."

This isnt accurate. There is no evidence that Biden has been to either country since being president. The last time he was in Iraq appears to be in 2016. For Afghanistan, it was in 2011.

The latest estimate of his travels to the two countries come from his presidential campaign,which said in 2019 that he had visited both a combined 21 times.

Bidens statement is off by about half. We rate it False.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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Biden exaggerates trips to Iraq, Afghanistan in State of the Union address - PolitiFact