Agent Orange lawsuit thrown out

The New York Times reports the civil suit, filed last year, had sought what could have been billions of dollars in damages and the environmental clean-up of Vietnam. The suit claimed that the defoliant, which contained the highly toxic substance dioxin, left a legacy of poison in Vietnam that caused birth defects, cancer and other health problems and amounted to a violation of international law. However, Judge Jack Weinstein sided with the chemical companies and the Justice Department, which argued that supplying the defoliant did not amount to a war crime. Full report in The New York Times