Oct 17 KTVZ News: Iraq War victims’ families, one from C.O., sue big drug, medical-supply cos.
WASHINGTON – A group of American veterans and civilians, and their families — one from Central Oregon — filed a lawsuit against five major pharmaceutical and medical-supply corporations in federal court Tuesday, accusing them of knowingly or recklessly supporting an Iraqi terrorist group that attacked, killed, and wounded thousands of Americans in Iraq.
Financing for the group has come through a longstanding and continuing bribery scheme that many of the defendants have pursued for years and was designed to keep their profits high, the lawsuit alleges.
The defendants named in the lawsuit are the parent companies and/or subsidiaries of AstraZeneca plc (AZN), General Electric Company (GE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Pfizer Inc. (PFE), and Roche Holding AG (RHHBY).
The defendants are being sued under the Anti-Terrorism Act by more than 100 Americans who were attacked or who had a family member attacked by the terrorist group Jaysh al-Mahdi (also known as JAM or the Mahdi Army).
The plaintiffs include the brother and sister of Deborah Klecker, a Sunriver resident and retired police officer who went to Iraq to train Iraqi police. She was killed on June 27, 2005 by an improvised explosive device planned and detonated by Jaysh al-Mahdi in eastern Baghdad, the lawsuit alleges.