MILITARY WAR ON TERRORISM VIDEO GAMES Cost for base Taliban in Moscow Sony, Square-Enix cleanups could after Trump declares booths dominate exceed $2B peace talks ‘dead’ Tokyo Game Show Page 2 Page 6 Page 16 Capitals star Ovechkin not slowing down » NHL, Back page stripes.com Volume 78, No. 108 ©SS 2019 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas Iran rejects US blame Look alive, for Saudi oil attack BY JON GAMBRELL soldier Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom’s oil production threat- ened Sunday to fuel a regional crisis as Iran denied U.S. allega- tions it launched the assault and tensions remained high over Teh- ran’s collapsing nuclear deal. Iran called the U.S. claims “maximum lies,” while a com- mander in its paramilitary Revo- lutionary Guard reiterated its forces could strike U.S. military bases across the Mideast with its arsenal of ballistic missiles. A prominent U.S. senator suggested striking Iranian oil refineries in response for the assault claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing facility. “Because of the tension and sensitive situation, our region is like a powder keg,” warned Guard Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh. “When these contacts come too close, when forces come into con- tact with one another, it is pos- sible a conflict happens because of a misunderstanding.” New Army museum’s ‘immersion’ exhibits bring battle scenes to life Actions on any side could break into the open a twilight war that’s BY MICHAEL E. RUANE he and a colleague lift the squint- He’ll get his helmet, his ma- been raging just below the surface The Washington Post Among the National ing doughboy and carry him feet chine gun and his hands back of the wider Persian Gulf over the Museum of the U.S. first to the western front. later. last months. Already, there have he make-believe bat- Army’s artifacts are a It is the fall of 1918 in the Inside this gleaming, new mu- been mysterious attacks on oil tlefield is small. And famous WWII Sherman new National Museum of the seum, scheduled to open next tankers that America blames on there’s a bullet-pocked tank from the Battle of U.S. Army. And experts are re- spring at Fort Belvoir, Va., time is Tehran, at least one suspected Is- French tank beside the T the Bulge, a Bradley creating a scene from the Meuse- growing short. rael i st r i ke on Sh i ite forc es i n I raq , pathway. So before the figure of Fighting Vehicle from the Technicians in hard hats crawl the American machine-gunner Argonne offensive in France, SEE ATTACK ON PAGE 14 wars in Iraq and the which helped end World War I in over battlefields littered with reaches the shell hole, B.J. Er- boxes, ladders and wiring. And vick detaches his hands, just to engine wreckage from defeat for Germany and victory the first helicopter shot for the U.S. and allied forces. the cast figures of soldiers such be safe. as No. 14 wait to go into action. down in the 1993 “Black The handless American — Sol- ‘ Fixed to metal shanks, and About 20 miles south of Wash- Wherever they are, Hawk Down” disaster in dier No. 14 — is gently placed in with screws in the knuckles, they ington, the $400 million steel Somalia, in which 18 the shell hole, near blasted tree it only takes one come off easily. Ervick, the pro- and glass facility will be the duction director, lays them on Americans were killed. trunks and an abandoned Ger- spark and we hit cushioned packing paper. Then man howitzer. SEE MUSEUM ON PAGE 5 their vessels, their air bases, their troops. B.J. Ervick installs a full-size figure of a World War I soldier last month at the National Museum of the U.S. Army at Fort Belvoir, Va. ’ Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh JAHI CHIKWENDIU/The Washington Post Iran Revolutionary Guard PAGE 2 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Monday, September 16, 2019 MILITARY Acquitted Navy SEAL sues 2 former lawyers Cleanup at bases may cost over $2B SAN DIEGO — A Navy SEAL acquitted in a war crimes trial has sued two of his former attor- neys and a military legal defense BY COREY DICKSTEIN problem the military faces, start- McMahon said, the Defense De- said the department has taken nonprofit. Stars and Stripes ing with studies of eight stateside partment now treats the area as action to limit the chemicals in The San Diego Union-Tribune Air Force installations or for- a toxic spill in an effort to keep drinking water via filtration and WASHINGTON — The costs to said the lawsuit filed Friday in mer installations and their sur- it from spreading too far. He be- other methods. None of the DOD- clean up chemical contaminates Texas by Petty Officer 1st Class rounding communities chosen lieves the discontinued use of the provided drinking water on its suspected at more than 400 cur- Edward Gallagher claims his by ATSDR. The Pentagon has foam in training should correlate installations exceeds the EPA’s rent and former military sites case was not defended properly. also begun to study the impacts to lower levels of PFAS in drink- lifetime health advisory limit of could eclipse the $2 billion esti- The filing says attorneys Colby of PFAS on Defense Department ing water near military posts. 70 parts per trillion for the PFAS mate that the Pentagon projected Vokey and Phillip Stackhouse, firefighters, who through using “It does not undo what we’ve chemicals in firefighting foam. in March, defense officials said along with United American Pa- the firefighting foam — officially done” in the past, said McMahon, “As of today, there are no mili- Thursday. triots, attempted to delay the case known as Aqueous Film Form- a retired Air Force major general. tary members that are drinking The increased cost assessment in an effort to maximize fundrais- ing Foam, or AFFF — are be- “But it does ensure we don’t con- water that’s above the lifetime for the Defense Department lieved to have received the most tribute anymore to the contami- ing for the nonprofit. health advisory where the Depart- came as an environmental watch- exposure to the chemicals in the nation that’s taken place.” Stackhouse said he has not yet ment of Defense is the purveyor department. What McMahon and the Pen- read the complaint. David Gur- dog organization that monitors of the water,” he said. “That’s im- tagon have yet to determine is fein, CEO of United American drinking water contamination at portant, because that is the most exactly how much of a problem Patriots, said he hasn’t read it ei- military sites increased the num- Sites of study important measure — are we tak- ber of installations where it said they have and what it will cost to ing care of our people?” ther. A lawyer for Vokey did not The ATSDR study will look perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoro- mitigate it. Maureen Sullivan, the deputy address the complaint in an email at Shepherd Field Air National alkyl substances, or PFAS, have The Environmental Working assistant secretary of defense for to the newspaper Saturday. Guard Base in West Virginia, Pe- been found in drinking water and Group, a Washington -based non- the environment, said Thursday A military jury in July cleared terson Air Force Base in Colorado, warned that number would con- profit organization that specializ- that the department had spent Gallagher of murder. He was con- Eilson Air Force Base in Alaska, tinue to increase. es in environmental research and some $200 million annually for victed of a single charge of posing Barnes Air National Guard Base The Pentagon recently estab- advocacy, announced last week for photos with the corpse of a 17- in Massachusetts, the former the last 10 years on PFAS-related lished a task force to determine that it has increased the number year-old militant . Reese Air Force Base in Texas, cleanup. She used that figure to the scope of contamination from of military installations where Stewart Air National Guard Base determine her “wild guess” in From The Associated Press PFAS at Defense Department it has identified PFAS in drink- in New York, New Castle Air Na- March that the Pentagon would sites and the impact those man- ing water. The group added 90 tional Guard Base in Delaware need $2 billion for PFAS cleanup made chemicals have on humans, Army posts to its list of Defense efforts. and Fairchild Air Force Base in Department sites where drinking Correction said Bob McMahon, who is the Washington, as well as the com- “There was no factoring in of assistant secretary of defense for water shows some level of PFAS clean up levels, no factoring in munities surrounding them. Of- contamination, bringing the total sustainment and the chairman of of technologies,” Sullivan told The Travel story on War- ficials hope to determine the level to 297 U.S. military installations the task force. reporters Thursday alongside saw published on Sept. 13 in of PFAS chemicals in humans with the issue. Europe and Pacific editions Since the 1950s, PFAS have in those communities and how McMahon. “It was just a general and Sept. 15 in the Contin- been used worldwide in a variety those levels correlate to health Limiting PFAS — it’s going to be somewhere in gency edition should have of products including nonstick problems.