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Leaked Memos: U.S. Troops Exposed to Radioactive Harm? [WATCH]

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Newly leaked military memos reveal that U.S. soldiers were exposed to toxic agents, including radioactive materials, following Iran’s January 2020 ballistic missile strike on Al Asad Airbase in Iraq, according to a report [1] by journalist Catherine Herridge.

The attack, a retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, involved 11 warheads, each weighing approximately 1,600 pounds, hitting the base.

Although the strike was intended to inflict significant casualties, all U.S. personnel survived, though many suffered traumatic brain injuries.

Herridge’s report, published by the U.K.’s Daily Mail, includes claims from a retired Army flight surgeon, Alan Johnson, who was stationed at Al Asad during the attack.

Johnson described the immense physical force of the missile impacts, saying, “None of us really should have survived and we weren’t expected to survive.”

He detailed how one missile detonated just 60 feet from a bunker where he had taken shelter, leaving him unconscious twice from the blasts. “If you fell off [a] fourth-story roof onto your back and survived, that’s probably what it felt like,” he said.

In her 2021 CBS News investigation, Herridge uncovered that many of the service members injured in the attack were initially not recognized with the Purple Heart, a decoration awarded to those wounded or killed in service.

After the report, the Army retroactively approved the awards.

However, three years later, some of those same soldiers, now in their 20s and 30s, are reporting illnesses they believe are linked to toxic exposure from the Iranian strike.

According to the leaked memos, the U.S. Army was aware of potential exposure to hazardous materials at the base.

An official Army memorandum from April 2021, distributed to soldiers who were at Al Asad during the attack, referenced their exposure to “hazardous and toxic materials.”

The memo instructed service members to retain the document for future reference in case of illness.

The memo included soil sample results collected a week after the attack, which detected 19 hazardous materials, including radioactive elements such as Actinium-228, Bismuth-214, and Cesium-137.

Image Credit: X Screenshot - Catherine Herridge [6]
X Screenshot – Catherine Herridge
Image Credit: X Screenshot - Catherine Herridge [7]
X Screenshot – Catherine Herridge

Herridge’s investigation included a review of the records by four independent environmental specialists, two of whom raised concerns about the radioactive elements found at the site.

They noted that some of the materials, such as Cesium-137, appeared “out of place” in a conventional missile explosion.

Despite these concerns, an Army spokesperson stated that the levels of hazardous materials did not exceed Military Exposure Guidelines and posed no elevated risk to soldiers’ health. “No hazards or chemicals were found to exceed Military Exposure Guidelines… [and] no elevated risk was identified. Therefore, no active personnel monitoring was deemed necessary,” the spokesperson said.

However, for many military personnel, the government’s assurances fall short.

Retired Army Judge Advocate General Lieutenant Colonel Robert Broadbent, who is representing 183 plaintiffs, including former soldiers and their families, compared the situation to the Agent Orange crisis from the Vietnam War.

He expressed concern that affected soldiers may face serious health issues down the line without adequate support. “Ten years down the road, these service members are going to be out [of the military] and they’re going to be dying and they’re not going to be cared for,” Broadbent warned.

Broadbent is pushing for accountability, seeking to revive a lawsuit against Iran for the attack. Earlier this year, a federal court dismissed the case Hansen v. Islamic Republic of Iran, breaking with long-standing precedent.

Broadbent is calling on Congress to amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to allow the lawsuit to proceed, arguing that Iran’s intent was to kill U.S. service members, even though they survived the assault.