Wounded In Wars, Civilians Face Care Battle At Home
T. Christian Miller was an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times and has won numerous awards for his environmental and international reporting. Lars Klove/ProPublica hide caption
T. Christian Miller was an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times and has won numerous awards for his environmental and international reporting.
Lars Klove/ProPublicaT. Christian Miller doesn't shy away from trouble. He has reported on conflicts in Kosovo, Israel and Iraq, among others, and the Web site he founded, ProPublica, is dedicated to covering stories with "moral force" — providing in-depth coverage of environmental, defense, and human rights issues.
One story Miller has been following closely, in a series of articles titled "Disposable Army," is the fate of employees who worked for private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of them went abroad without insurance, were wounded — some seriously — and are now fighting to get medical treatment.
Miller, who wrote the book Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives and Corporate Greed in Iraq, joins Fresh Air for a conversation about the battles these civilians face to get surgery, psychological counseling and even prosthetics — and explains the ins and outs of the laws and policies governing who's responsible for their predicament.