PITTS & ASSOCIATES
Attorneys at Law

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8866 Gulf Freeway, Suite 117
Houston, TX 77017-6528
(713) 910-0555
(713) 910-0594 (Fax)

March 10, 2005

Re: Annual Status Report

Dear Gulf War veteran client:

The U.S. government appears to be on our side concerning the issue of your Gulf War Illness being caused by your chemical warfare agent exposures during the war. In September 2004, the U.S. Veterans Administration Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veteran's Illnesses published: Scientific Progress in Understanding Gulf War Veteran's Illnesses: Report and Recommendations. The full text of the report can be found at: http://www1.va.gov/rac-gwvi.

Findings 1, 3 & 4 of the V.A. Research Committee are the most relevant ones for your litigation. They state the following:

"Finding 1 - A substantial proportion of Gulf War veterans are ill with multisymptom conditions not explained by wartime stress or psychiatric illness.

"Finding 3 - A growing body of research indicates that an important component of Gulf War veterans illnesses is neurological in character.

"Finding 4 - Evidence supports a probable link between exposure to neurotoxins and the development of Gulf War veteran's illnesses. (Emphasis added) [Note: The neurotoxin exposures consisted of: nerve gas, the p.b. pills, and pesticides.]

Pages 47-53 and 59-66 of the report discuss your exposure to chemical weapons during the Gulf War, the correlation between low-level exposure to chemical agents and chronic illness, research showing the synergistic effects of combinations of exposures, and the enhanced genetic vulnerability of some individuals to chemical agent exposure.

In the litigation, we are awaiting decisions of the courts in both New York and Texas. In the New York Federal Court litigation, 26 of the bank defendants jointly moved for summary judgment to dismiss your case, as a matter of law, without the benefit of a trial. The issues were briefed (a copy of our brief is posted on the website), and oral argument occurred last May. There has been no ruling on the motion yet. Also awaiting decision there, are motions to dismiss on personal jurisdiction grounds by most of the supplier defendants that we have sued in New York. They are each saying that they do not do enough obvious continuous and systematic business in New York to allow us even the opportunity to do formal discovery on the issue. Those decisions have also been pending for several months.

In the Texas litigation, Defendant Schott Glasswerke is a German company who allegedly supplied the specialized glass needed for Saddam’s poison gas factories to make the chemical warfare agents that you were exposed to. They have been held by the District Court to be properly subject to Texas jurisdiction because of the extent of the business they do and have done in Texas. They have appealed this decision; and the matter is before the Texas Court of Appeals. Regardless of their decision, the matter will then probably be appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, just as it has been for two other companies in the Texas litigation. These two companies, American Type Culture Collection, and Preussag, escaped Texas jurisdiction.

Until all of the issues and available appeals on the personal jurisdiction question are won, we will not be able to get to trial against those defendants. This highlights the biggest problem we have had to face in this litigation, other then getting the evidence - - the vast majority of the supplier defendants to Saddam are outside of the United States and are not subject the jurisdiction of our courts. We will persist to obtain jurisdiction over those viable defendants that it appears that we can get jurisdiction over.

One defendant that we do clearly have jurisdiction over is the American supplier, Alcolac, that sold hundreds of tons of the precursor of mustard gas to Saddam. The other significant American supplier, Al Haddad Trading, was an Iraqi national operating out of Nashville. That company disappeared soon after the Gulf War began.

Mustard gas, which Alcolac provided the precursor for, causes cancer and birth defects. If any of you have had cancer since the Gulf War and have not reported it to us yet, please do so, since we are looking for the best test cases to try against Alcolac. We assume that everyone that has had a child after the Gulf War with medically documented birth defects has reported it to us. If you have not, please do so.

There has been recent Federal law that transfers most cases filed as class actions to Federal Court. Of course in New York we are already in Federal Court. It is as yet unknown whether this new law will apply to the litigation filed in State court in Texas, since that litigation was filed many years ago. It is unclear whether this new law will apply retroactively to cases filed before its passage.

In other research news:

1 May 04Research published in The Lancet suggests that bone marrow - derived stem cells can become brain cells. The study of 3 women that showed this result is now expanding to 64 more patients.

1 June 04 The General Accounting Office (the U.S. Congress research arm) strongly criticized the Pentagon’s previous plume models of chemical fallout that occurred during and in the weeks after the Gulf War. The DoD underestimated the exposure of chemical warfare agents, such as nerve gas and mustard gas. DoD models of the effects of toxic plumes of chemical agents did not “realistically simulate actual bombings or demolitions,” the GAO report said. The DoD’s models underestimated the plume heights and the extent of the hazard areas. A copy of the GAO report can be seen at: http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-04-821T

20 July 04 A research study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that concluded that year-long doxycycline antibiotic therapy was not a useful treatment for Gulf War Illnesses. There was no significant difference shown between those that took the antibiotic and those that took a placebo. This result debunks the theory that Gulf War Illness is caused by a bacterial infection. The results narrowed the search for the culprit, and put the focus back on the research results which show exposure to neurotoxic chemicals as the probable cause.

The V.A. announced up to $15 million in additional research funding in 2005 for Gulf War Illness. The research will focus on developing treatments. There will be no more funding of research for stress-related theories of Gulf War Illness. The V.A. Research Committee recommended that $15 million each year, for the next four years - - $60 million in all - - be spent on this treatment - focused research.

Lastly, it is again apparent this year, that there is no Gulf War Illness II. The important difference between the First Gulf War and the Second Gulf War is that you were exposed to chemical warfare agents in the First Gulf War and our troops in the Second Gulf War were, thankfully, not exposed to chemical warfare agents. This circumstantial evidence corroborates the probable causal link between Gulf War Illness and your exposure to chemical warfare agents.

This year’s annual conference of the National Gulf War Resource Center will be on May 6-7, 2005, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 5555 Hazeltine National Drive, Orlando, FL 32812, (407) 856-0100. If you want to attend, you may obtain more information at http://www.ngwrc.org.

I will post interim updates on the website during the year, when any favorable or unfavorable court ruling from either the Texas or New York litigations occur. I will also immediately post news of any research that demonstrates an effective treatment for Gulf War Illness.

Thank you again for your service and for the sacrifice that you have made for our country.

Very truly yours

PITTS & ASSOCIATES

Gary B. Pitts