In late 1984, the Reagan regime began approving the sale and transfer of bacteria, viruses, retroviruses, and fungi to Iraq. High officials in both the Reagan and Bush administrations raked in huge profits selling military materiel to Saddam Hussein. (Brent Scowcroft alone held stock in 40 companies that dealt with the Iraqi dictator.) The death merchants supplied Saddam Hussein with an array of lethal biological agents, including anthrax, botulinum toxins, bubonic plague, histoplasma capsulatum, dengue fever and West Nile fever. (See
this article: What's Behind Bush's War With Iraq )
"Both during and after the Gulf War, many military personnel experienced systemic medical problems, which are often collectively termed Gulf War Syndrome. Seven years after the Gulf War, the [American] military finally admitted that it had used experimental drugs on its personnel without their consent, and that these drugs could be factors in the medical problems." (The Nation, July 1, 2002)
Stronger control of our borders is our best protection against bioterrorists.
"Thomas Lavy. In 1993, Canadian officials caught the Alaskan White supremacist red-handed with guns, nearly $100,000 in cash, and a container of toxin ricin. He was released, and was not prosecuted.
"Larry Wayne Harris. In 1995, the Ohio White supremacist was caught with a mail-order shipment of a bacterium that causes bubonic plague. Harris was not prosecuted for possessing the lethal toxin, but for wire fraud. He was placed on 18-month probation. Three years later he was caught in Las Vegas with equipment that could be used to manufacture anthrax. Though Harris didn't have the substance (it was a vaccine), and despite his violent, hate-filled history, and the danger he posed in possessing lethal toxins, the charges were dropped.
"Thomas Leahy. In 1996, FBI agents found a pile of ricin in the Hitler devotee's Wisconsin home. It was enough to kill more than 100 persons. Leahy got 12 years. The extra years were piled on to his sentence not for possessing deadly toxins, but for shooting his stepson. He may not be in jail much longer. An appeals court branded the sentence 'excessive,' and sliced it in half."
Just like the attack on the Twin Towers, the anthrax letters came out of the blue.
Rigid protocols governing the transfer of plague agents could prevent rogue nations from acquiring them.
Unlike Saddam Hussein, the U.S. has never deployed bioweapons against its own people.
"WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 — Acknowledging a much wider testing of toxic weapons on its forces, the Defense Department says it used chemical warfare and live biological agents during cold-war-era military exercises on American soil, as well as in Canada and Britain, according to previously secret documents cleared for release to Congress on Wednesday.
"Sixteen of the newly declassified reports, prepared by the Pentagon, describe how chemical and biological exercises, until now undisclosed, used deadly substances like VX and sarin to test the vulnerability of American forces to unconventional attack. An additional dozen reports describe how more benign substances were used to mimic the spread of the poisons in other tests.
"The reports, which detail tests conducted from 1962 to 1971, reveal for the first time that the chemical warfare agents were used during exercises on American soil, in Alaska, Hawaii and Maryland, and that a mild biological agent was used in Florida.
"Pentagon officials said late today that their investigations indicated that none of the lethal chemical agents had dispersed into the general population. Some milder substances did escape into the atmosphere, with a plant fungus dispersing in an area of Florida, a naturally occurring bacteria in Hawaii and a mild chemical irritant in a remote part of Alaska."
Preventive vaccinations protected our troops during the Gulf War.
Worldwide vaccination programs eliminated smallpox and could do so again.
Then an altered smallpox virus ought to be the weapon of choice for Osama bin Laden.
The 9/11 hijackers were looking at crop dusters. Crop dusters would be an efficient way to spread bioweapons.
"In a combat environment, conventional dispersal with bombs, artillery, or even a spraying device on an aircraft (like a crop duster) would not be nearly as effective as a more surreptitious attack that would infect people before they donned protective clothing.An infiltration by special operations forces or undercover operatives to place aerosol canisters similar to insect bombs or deodorizers might cripple a force before it knew it was attacked. Like the Indians at Fort Ticonderoga, the force would fall ill and many would die. The force's ability to conduct effective combat operations would certainly be negated. By the time doctors diagnosed the disease and determined the right antidote, if there were one, the war could have been lost.
Only highly industrialized countries possess bioweapons.
"Statements by various countries denying that they have developed, produced or stockpiled biological or chemical weapons have been shown to be of little value. The former Soviet Union did not admit to processing chemical munitions until 1987. Indian officials denied for decades that the country possessed chemical munitions, before declaring its weapons stocks in 2001.Since 1989, US government officials have identified Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran, Egypt, China, North Korea, Taiwan and the former Soviet Union as having failed to comply with the BTWC. Israel was not listed on the grounds that it has neither signed nor ratified the BTWC. South Africa was also omitted from the list, although it is now clear that it did maintain a biological weapons program between 1981 and 1995."
We'd better get ready with mass vaccinations.
"Anthrax and smallpox vaccines are only the start down the vaccine slippery slope. What will our immune systems be like after receiving another twenty or thirty biowarfare vaccines, as envisioned in the Pentagon's Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program?
"Vaccines will never provide the robust defense needed against potential biological warfare threats. Instead, post-exposure therapies that are generic, rather than specific for each microorganism, are what is needed. Even then, there are no guarantees. And when genetic engineering gets even more sophisticated, all bets are off as to whether any technology can save us.
"Taking prevention seriously is the best way to combat bioterrorism. A meaningful, verifiable biowarfare treaty, with full inspections and universal membership, is our best shot at putting the biological genie back in the bottle. Though it's not 100% effective, it can prevent the creation of weapons on a mass scale."
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Links and Updates:
- A History Of US Secret Human Experimentation
Feds Whitewash US Bio-Chemical Tests in Alaska
By Greg Szymanski
American Free Press.com
1-2-5
President Bush extended holiday greetings to military troops this Christmas, but one gift he'll never open is the executive order he signed, which keeps sensitive documents secret about biological and chemical testing at Fort Greely near Fairbanks, Alaska.
The president, by sealing important documents, obviously feels military health concerns were of secondary importance to protecting the Department of Defense (DOD) against potential exposure for injuries resulting from chemical testing and dumping.
What little is known about chemical and biological testing at Fort Greely has surfaced from leaked documents, eyewitness accounts and other general information provided reluctantly by the DOD after health problems began to surface by those living near the base.
Other information, scratching the surface of what really happened, has also appeared in Seymour Hersh's book Chemical and Biological Testing: America's Hidden Arsenal, a historical account of the base by Norman Chase and a March 2003 article entitled "Northern Exposure" in The Nation magazine by Korey Capozza.
"The real story of what went on is in the classified documents kept secret by the DOD and President Bush," said Capozza, a critic of the recent executive order signed by Bush. "They have yet to give veterans a clear definition of possible causes of their health problems. The DOD also refuses to grant any of the veterans health care based on exposure to agents used in the secret site's experiments."
Records show that Fort Greely, as far back as 1952 and continuing to at least 1970, was used for the explicit purpose of testing chemical and biological weapons. The base, located 100 miles southwest of Fairbanks on 640,000 acres, originally began operating in 1942 as a staging area for planes ferried to the Soviet Union during World War II.
However, seven years later a nuclear reactor was built to serve as the military's power plant. Then in 1966, the Army began testing biological, chemical and various other weapons. The reactor was dismantled in 1973, and in 1995 the base was scheduled for closure.
But recently, under the Bush administration, the DOD proposed Fort Greely be used as a storage site for interceptor missiles in support of the space-based missile defense program.
However, what transpired on the base during the 1960s and 1970s is still heavily debated as veterans are now surfacing with what amounts to "chemical horror" stories.
According to several veterans who spoke to VA officials, between 1962 and 1967, the Army blasted hundreds of rockets and bombs containing sarin and VX nerve gas into the region which is densely populated by forests and wildlife.
Veterans recall canisters of VX nerve agents being indiscriminately buried approximately a mile from the Alaskan highway or tossed in a nearby frozen lake in the winter of 1966, where the canisters later sank to the bottom when the ice melted in the spring. Regular dumping expeditions were reportedly carried out until 1970, when the testing discontinued.
Now, 30 years later, veterans and civilians are coming forward with serious health concerns, but since no records are available due to Fort Greely's top-secret status, VA officials at first had a hard time believing the veterans' credibility.
After heavy pressure was applied by watchdog groups, the DOD has released some documents revealing the test site may have been operated with blatant disregard for human and environmental safety.
The documents also suggest that some of the deadly materials used may still be unaccounted for and buried somewhere beneath the pristine Alaskan wilderness.
Critics suggest the executive order signed by Bush was designed to protect the DOD against conclusive evidence, hiding a massive cover-up of illegal chemical and biological testing.
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