"As you know, Philadelphia had a persistent and stubborn high crime rate, and we're not where we want to be, but...we looked at various subsets of the population, veterans, mentally ill, probation violators, areas where we thought people didn't need to be confined, or not for as long".
Congress has scheduled hearings this week to urge government aid to any veteran suffering ill effects from exposure in the tests.
Correction: October 10 , 2002 Thursday An article yesterday about the testing of chemical and biological agents by the Pentagon during the cold war referred incorrectly in some copies to the panel headed by Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, who called on the government to assist any veteran made ill by the tests.
Representative Christopher H. Smith, the New Jersey Republican who is chairman of the House committee, demanded today that the government make assistance available to any veteran made ill by the tests, especially as the Bush administration argues that military action may be required to disarm Iraq's arsenal of unconventional weapons.
Robert Foster, 61, who served in Vietnam and is the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Westchester, said he planned to visit wounded and ill veterans in hospitals today, to "thank the guys who aren't as lucky as us".
Alarm bells rang first in Belgium, where nine Balkan veterans have fallen ill with cancer, five having since died.
On Wednesday, advocates for the homeless sued the Department of Veterans Affairs, seeking to compel federal officials to use the campus to care for and house mentally ill veterans.
They also contend that the department is required — under a federal statute barring discrimination against the mentally disabled — to provide housing to help mentally ill veterans.
Congress has scheduled hearings this week to examine the documents and the government's responsibility to any veterans suffering from ill effects.
Other proposed amendments would lift the ban on gun ownership by mentally ill veterans; supersede some existing state bans on assault weapons; and declare that all weapons restrictions violate the Second Amendment.
